August 3, 2025 • 24 mins
Suspense was one of the most popular and successful old time radio series during it's run of over 900 episodes, spanning 1940-1962. Guest stars included Orson Welles, Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball, Agnes Moorehead, Marlene Dietrich and Humphrey Bogart. The plots were mostly engaging crime dramas, science fiction and some horror genres - usually with a surprise ending.
Hope you enjoy this episode of Suspense! Find all our OTR radio stations and podcasts at theaterofthemind-otr.com - Audio Credit: The Old Time Radio Researchers Group - All Podcasts @ Spreaker | Apple Channel | You Tube
Hope you enjoy this episode of Suspense! Find all our OTR radio stations and podcasts at theaterofthemind-otr.com - Audio Credit: The Old Time Radio Researchers Group - All Podcasts @ Spreaker | Apple Channel | You Tube
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
And now a tale well calculated to keep you in.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Suspense. Listen now to and So to.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Sleep My Love, starring William Redfield and Elaine Ross, had
written especially for suspense by Dave Gilbert.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Oh, George, that.
Speaker 4 (00:23):
Is the way it happened at all.
Speaker 5 (00:25):
Can't you get anything right?
Speaker 6 (00:27):
He was sitting behind the wheel of the car.
Speaker 5 (00:29):
And this big, handsome policeman walked over.
Speaker 6 (00:32):
I sat there with my drink in my hand, a
fixed smile on my face, looking pleasantly. But each man
has his breaking point, and I had reached mind. As
I sat there, staring past the empty faces of our
friends and neighbors, a plan started ticking away in the
back of my head, A plan to rid me forever
of this foot on my neck, this mocking woman my
(00:56):
wife met.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Oh it was a shame.
Speaker 6 (01:04):
Really, I'm sure I really loved may and one time.
Oh she had her faults, but who Hasn't I know?
She felt I had my share of faults because her
life had been dedicated to correcting them one by one.
First I smoked cigars, Then I smoked too many cigarettes.
Finally I didn't smoke at all. So in the end
(01:25):
there wasn't enough of me left to love me. Had
I wanted to accept one thing. Our rich uncle had
died the year before we were married and left her
an inheritance of seventy five thousand dollars. We used almost
fifteen thousand to buy a house and get started in life,
but the remaining sixty thousand was in negotiable bonds for
our declining years. She always said, I'll just think of
(01:49):
how well a man could live on sixty thousand dollars
in Mexico. But would my plan work for a man who,
for eight years has amounted to nothing but failure In
his wife's eyes, success was inevitable. I decided to put
(02:10):
my plan into effect. Immediately, I saw Thelma Stephens go
into the kitchen to fix herself a drink.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Thelma is one of May's best friends.
Speaker 6 (02:19):
Personally I detest the woman, but this was hardly the
time to be snottish.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
I followed her.
Speaker 6 (02:26):
Hello, Thelma, Oh, Georgie.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
No, that was the funniest thing. The way you apologized
that policeman, The way they told that I could almost see.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Yeah, I thought it was rather amusing myself. Afterwards.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Oh, by the way, did May tell you that octob
is going to start a benevolence program for straight cat cat.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Oh, May just.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
Loves the poor unloved things. As a matter of fact,
it was mostly her idea that we undertake it.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Well, my wife has always been kind to dumb animals.
Speaker 6 (02:53):
Now, Thelma, I wanted to get you alone in the
kitchen because there's something I wanted to ask you.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Of course, what is it?
Speaker 6 (03:00):
Well, I was wondering if you knew of a good
home remedy for insomnia. Have you been having trouble sleeping?
Speaker 4 (03:08):
May told me you've been eating like.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
A bird late.
Speaker 6 (03:10):
No, no, no, no, no, Thelma, it isn't for me,
you see, it's May.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
I'm worried about May.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yes.
Speaker 6 (03:16):
See, I think she must have bad dreams. I mean,
she goes to sleep at night, all right, but then
she wakes up because she thinks she hears things and
she just can't fall back to sleep.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Oh, that's funny.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
They never said anything to me.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Oh isn't that just like her? Would you get some
sleeping cats?
Speaker 6 (03:35):
Oh no, Thelma, I wouldn't want anything as dangerous as that.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
Oh, there's nothing dangerous about sleeping capsules, as long as
you don't take too many of them. You know, when
Charlie and I were having a difference of opinion.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
I just couldn't sleep nights. I told our.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
Doctor, that's a good man, and he wrote me out
a prescription and.
Speaker 5 (03:52):
He said, here you are well.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
I just couldn't have.
Speaker 5 (03:55):
Made it without them.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
Oh, I'll give May his name.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
No, no, no, no, see I would do that. I mean,
she'd be offended if she knew. I told you. You know,
she tries so hard to keep trouble to herself.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
How of course, well, let me write you his name
on this slip of paper, not to Walter bront fantastic.
Speaker 6 (04:14):
It was all going to be so fantastically simple.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
The real work started the next day.
Speaker 6 (04:26):
May was planning to be gone for the whole day
on a field trip with her idiotic club, and I
announced at breakfast that I wasn't going to work because
I felt I had the beginnings of a cold and
I didn't want it to develop into anything more serious.
I began the day by driving to the other side
of town, where I purchased a certain sound effects record
in a small record shop. Then I returned home certain
(04:48):
in the knowledge that I saw or encountered no one
I knew the furnace in our house is situated in
the basement, with hot air ducks running to every room.
Of course, in the summertime it's empty and cold. The
grate was just large enough to hold a small record player.
Stringing the wire from my bedroom down through the hot
(05:09):
air register and into the furnace took longer than I anticipated,
but removing the switch from the record player and installing
it in the heat regulator of my electric blanket took
even longer. I worked feverishly as the big hand on
the dresser clock swept to six, and in my haste
I made more fumbles than I could afford. Just as
(05:30):
I was fitting the plastic halves of the regulator over
the new switch, I heard the front door open. Yeah, George,
just one screw to go to get fits together before
she seized it.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Dropped the screw.
Speaker 6 (05:48):
There, good, good, finished, finished, done. Me seas a room clean? Yeah,
shut the bed against the walls.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
What are you doing the job? Boyko Oh?
Speaker 6 (06:01):
I just didn't feel like going to bed. Did you
have good time on your field trip?
Speaker 3 (06:05):
And we went to the Humane Society?
Speaker 4 (06:08):
You know, George, people really just haven't done the proper
thing for stray cats.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Poor DearS.
Speaker 6 (06:18):
I thought the evening would never end, But at last
we went to bed. Usually May falls asleep as soon
as her head hits the pillow, but tonight I wanted
no chance of error. As I lay there, listening to
her breathing become more regular and shallow, little fears began
to tear at my confidence because there's always a chance
of miscalculation. And I remember to turn on the volume
(06:41):
of the record player, perhaps too loud. I broke out
in a cold sweat. If only I'd had time to
test it. My fingers itched to grab the blanket regulator,
but I forced myself to wait. A half hour passed,
my fingers still along the electric cord to the switch,
(07:03):
and I clicked it off. And I waited. Nothing happened.
What had I forgotten? Connections?
Speaker 3 (07:16):
No, the needle? No? What? Then? Why no sound? And
then far down in the basement I heard.
Speaker 7 (07:26):
It May was beginning to stir. I slipped my fingers
over the switch, ready at a moment's notice.
Speaker 5 (07:40):
George, George, George, Wake up, George, wake up?
Speaker 6 (07:45):
Do you hear me?
Speaker 3 (07:46):
What did you hear anything? Hear anything? I thought I
heard a woman I don't know crying.
Speaker 6 (07:54):
You thought you heard what I was afraid you may
please now you're not going to start him imagining things again.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Now, come on, go to sleep.
Speaker 5 (08:03):
Are you sure you heard Nettle? Of course, not go
back to sleep. She lay back down, but she didn't sleep.
I could hear her lying in the dark, just listening.
Speaker 6 (08:18):
The next night I woke her again to the record,
and the following night twice. I increased the number until
she woke up screaming four times in one night, and
I decided that the following night would be the acid test.
That night, it took may longer to fall asleep than
(08:38):
ever before. It was almost one thirty before she started
to drift off. My fingers found the switch.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
George, George, wake up?
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Oh man? What is it?
Speaker 3 (08:52):
Are you having another bad dream?
Speaker 7 (08:54):
George?
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Isn't a dream?
Speaker 5 (08:56):
I can hear it. Now, you can hear it too.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Hear what.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Listen?
Speaker 2 (09:04):
It sounds like a woman crying.
Speaker 5 (09:06):
You're a crazy woman or a woman that isn't alone
anymore of George Neston.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
You must hear it too. There's something down there. Please
put ooun see what it is?
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Now?
Speaker 6 (09:18):
May I have given into these whims of yours too long?
I absolutely refuse now darling, you've had these bad dreams
afore a bad dream.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
I'm awake and I can't hear it.
Speaker 5 (09:29):
Now, Well I hear nothing, all right, I'll go myself.
Speaker 6 (09:36):
She got out about them and clicked on the lap
I listened to her go downstairs.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
As soon as she hit the.
Speaker 6 (09:41):
Living room, I turned off the machine.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
I got out of bed leisurely and went down to her.
Speaker 6 (09:56):
She'd fallen in a heap on the living room floor
and was sobb uncontrollable. For a moment, I almost felt sorry,
Oh May, May, what's come over you? My darling?
Speaker 3 (10:11):
You haven't been yourself lately, and now he's.
Speaker 5 (10:17):
George afraid I'm losing my mind.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Well, what do you mean?
Speaker 5 (10:21):
I keep thinking I hear.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
A ghost in the house, the hi crazy boy.
Speaker 6 (10:29):
Well, personally, mate, I think there's nothing wrong with you
that a good night's sleep wouldn't fix.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
Oh, I'd love to fall asleep.
Speaker 6 (10:38):
You only knew.
Speaker 5 (10:40):
I haven't slept the whole night through in a week.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
You know.
Speaker 6 (10:42):
Thelma was telling me that she had in SOLEMNA once. Now,
why don't you just pop over to her doctor. You'll
be glad to fix you up with a prescription for
sleeping pills.
Speaker 5 (10:51):
Yes, yes, that's what I'll do.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
All I really need is a good night's sleep. Is
impossible that anything could be easy.
Speaker 6 (11:00):
I had May begging to take out the pills in
her own name. Once she got a prescription for death,
I had only to see that it was filled.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
She came home with a bottle of pills.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
That next night.
Speaker 6 (11:16):
She took one before going to bed, and I let
her sleep undisturbed the whole night. Through that way, she'd
believed that she'd found an escape at last. After she
was asleep, I also removed one pill from the bottle.
On her third night of sleep, I started the treatment again.
May couldn't wake up, but from her constant passing and turning,
(11:39):
I could tell that her nights were going to be
oh exhausting, haunted things, and during the day she.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Was haggard and depressed.
Speaker 6 (11:48):
Toward the end of the week, she increased the dosage
to two pills, but I continued to remove only one.
I mean the bottle would be empty soon enough. Besides,
there was still some groundwork that needed doing before my
wife's untimely death. The next night, after May fell asleep, Hello, Hello, Thelma,
(12:21):
this is George. Look I hate to disturb you at
this hour. But me isn't over there is she isn't
she with you?
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Well?
Speaker 6 (12:29):
No, she left the house right after dinner, and I
thought she might have gone to visit you.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
Well, I haven't seen her evening.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Frankly, Thelma, I'm worried. She's been so depressed lately. Oh.
Speaker 6 (12:42):
I mean, I don't know what's gotten into her, Thelma.
She's been saying the strangest things, like.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
I wonder why we try so hard to live? Yes, yes,
and I wonder what it would be like to end
it all?
Speaker 6 (12:55):
Not May graid so, Thelma, I look, I'd try to
kid her out of it, you know.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
But her uncle, the one that died just before we
were married, committed suicide, you know.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Oh yes, yes.
Speaker 6 (13:08):
And I'm afraid when there's a history of it in
the family.
Speaker 5 (13:11):
Oh yes, I had no idea.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
Oh yes, yeah.
Speaker 6 (13:16):
Don't say anything to May though, Felmy, You see, she
pretends it never happened.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
I mean, it's family pride, you know.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
Of course, I wouldn't think of telling a soul.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
After all, I made's best friend.
Speaker 6 (13:29):
I knew before the week was out that everyone in
town that mattered would know that May had been very
depressed of late, and that she had an uncle who
committed suicide. Thelma had so terribly many best friends. The
(13:50):
day I'd selected for May to join her dear departed
uncle would be the day she replenished her supply of
sleeping tablets. On that day, she told me she was
going to have it filled right after seeing her lawyer.
Or the state had passed some new tax law and
she wanted to see if it affected her.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Rather my inheritance.
Speaker 6 (14:12):
When they came home that night, everything was ready you
George in the kitchen May oh a little, a little,
but I'm getting used to it.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Why George, you fixed dinner for me? Thoughtful? I just
couldn't have faced fixing dinner tonight. Yes, I know you've
been so tired lately. Come on, sit down, sit down.
I wonder if those sleeping pills keep me tired. Maybe
I should stop taking him. You got some more, didn't you?
(14:46):
Of course? What makes you add?
Speaker 6 (14:48):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Nothing, nothing. I just don't enjoy getting up in the
middle of the night either. I'm sorry too.
Speaker 6 (14:55):
Oh it's all right, But you seem more cheerful than
you've been for a couple of days. Any particular reason, No, well,
I'm glad. Are the new taxes going to affect your
inheritance at all?
Speaker 3 (15:08):
No?
Speaker 5 (15:08):
The lawyer and I made sure the money will be safe.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Good, good, Eat your soup, dear. It was all I
could do to sit there and eat calmly.
Speaker 6 (15:20):
What if tonight, of all nights, she didn't want mushroom soup.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
It's possible one of her favorite dishes. Control, Georgie, boy, Control,
that's one thing you've got to have. Control. Huh, how's
they mushroom soup?
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Dear?
Speaker 4 (15:37):
Since I married you, you've developed into a remarkable cook.
Speaker 6 (15:42):
Well, it's easy when you have someone to cook for.
Remarkable cook. I looked at my plate and I couldn't
even see it. I was too busy seeing her spoon
down her soup to the last drop, and with it
the contents of more than seventeen sleeping. The dosage was
(16:06):
more potent than I thought. Halfway through the meal, she
grew sleepy. This meant I would have to act more
quickly than I planned.
Speaker 5 (16:13):
Oh, I heard, what's the matter with me?
Speaker 3 (16:17):
You're so very tired tonight.
Speaker 5 (16:20):
You know it's silly, but I I think I'll.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Go up and go sleep.
Speaker 6 (16:24):
Well, why don't sit dear, I'll clean up the dishes.
I stood in the kitchen and listened until I heard
her get into bed. I went to the living room
and got her pen and purse in a piece of stationary,
and I raced upstairs and stood outside our door.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
The blood just thundering in my head.
Speaker 6 (16:39):
The timing, The timing had to be perfect. Too early
and she would resist me. Too late and she would
be incapable. I spent a moment putting on a pair
of cloth gloves. Nothing must go on.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
I entered the room.
Speaker 6 (16:56):
May may wake up? Had I waited too long? May
may wake up? May I want you to write something?
Speaker 3 (17:12):
I'm wake up? May I want you to write something.
Speaker 5 (17:17):
I want to go to sleep.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
Wonderful, that's what I want you to write.
Speaker 6 (17:22):
Dear, here, take this pen, pen, yes, now, write right, yes,
right right. I want to go to sleep, and then
you can go to sleep. Now, don't look so confused,
(17:42):
my darling. It's all right. You can trust me. You're
very tired. Hurry up and write, and then you can
go to sleep. Right, dear, I want to go It
is sleek good, that's right.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
Now sign your name, yes, your name.
Speaker 6 (18:09):
And tie sign your name, and then I'll let you
go to sleep good, that's right, and so do sleep,
my love. For the second and last time in her life,
(18:31):
my wife may did something I wanted her to. I
folded the note in half and placed it, along with
a pen, on the dressing table next to the bed.
I fished in her purse found the new bottle of
sleeping pills, the one with her name and.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
Today's date on it.
Speaker 6 (18:43):
Emptied seventeen of them into my gloved hand, and left
the rest in the bottle and put it on the
night table. And I locked the bedroom door with an
aluminum key I had made. The only other key was
in her purse. And then I went down to the
kitchen to tidy up.
Speaker 5 (18:57):
Whooo.
Speaker 6 (18:57):
It's best to work while you're waiting for someone to die.
Doesn't allow you to think, you know. I washed the
supper dishes and put them away. The soup things I
did most carefully. The cloth gloves were burned in the
fireplace with some old papers, and the ashes stirred.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
I was most methodical.
Speaker 6 (19:13):
The aluminum key and the seventeen sleeping pills were chewed
up and flushed away in the disposal.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
I sat down in the living room to enjoy.
Speaker 6 (19:23):
A cigar I bought for the occasion, the first one
I'd smoked.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
In my own living room for years. I can't say
that I was entirely light hearted.
Speaker 6 (19:31):
It's a strange feeling to sit alone in a house
where someone's dying.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
But I sat there and watched the long summer day
dark and outside my window.
Speaker 6 (19:43):
I tried to pass the time thinking of Mexico and
the house I would buy, and I.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Well, let's not what's we'll listen to them. No, it's nothing,
it's my imagination.
Speaker 6 (19:55):
I had too much self control to let my imagination
ruin everything. Now I picked up a book I'd never
had time to finish before.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
Who there were so many things I'd.
Speaker 6 (20:06):
Intended to do with my life. Now I could do
them when and how I chose. So I sat down
and opened the book. Oh, I could have sworn that
infernal record could have gotten.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Turned on somehow.
Speaker 6 (20:21):
I got up and walked casually to the basement and
opened the furnace door.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Well, just as I thought, the phonograph was as I'd
left it. But to satisfy a.
Speaker 6 (20:33):
Whim, I removed the record and broke it into several
pieces and threw it into.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
The trash can.
Speaker 6 (20:41):
So now, who would be calling at this time on
a Saturday night. Well, at any rate, I knew what
i'd say. When I answered it, I ran upstairs.
Speaker 8 (20:52):
Hello, hello, missus Rogers.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
Oh, I'm very sorry. My wife is sleeping.
Speaker 6 (20:57):
She went to bed early, about seven o'clock and left
order not to be disturbed.
Speaker 8 (21:01):
Oh oh, well, this is mister Phillips calling her attorney.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Oh yes, mister Phillips.
Speaker 8 (21:06):
Mister Rogers. I'm taking the family on their summer vacation
tomorrow morning, and I wanted to talk to missus Rogers
before I left. Would you tell her that I checked
into the legality of establishing a hospital for stray cats
and it can be done.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
Cats.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Why?
Speaker 8 (21:24):
Yes, the Rogers Memorial Hospital for stray cats. As she
came into my office and changed her will this morning,
she said it was your idea, signed over her entire
inheritance to homeless cats cats. Yes, I think it was
a marvelous gesture on your part. Not many people are
concerned about the welfare of unfortunate stray animals.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
I went numb. I didn't know what to say or
do on that record.
Speaker 8 (21:50):
Miss Rogers, Are you there? Mister Rogers?
Speaker 3 (21:54):
Control. I must get control. He mustn't suspect mister Rogers.
Speaker 8 (22:00):
What's the matter.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
No, nothing, nothing, I suppose you mean that noise. I
didn't tell you it's nothing. See I've I've been experimentating
some sound effects. The gun sounds like a crazy woman,
doesn't it? Or a clean or a ghost? I mean,
just don't just a sound effect that woman? You hear
it's just a record?
Speaker 2 (22:17):
What woman?
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Oh you're clever an' huh. You made this phone call
to try and trip me up? Not cats. Don't pretend
you can't hear it. You can't fool me.
Speaker 6 (22:27):
Robbie a ghost?
Speaker 3 (22:27):
You see what I mean?
Speaker 8 (22:28):
It's just a record.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
I'm gonna go wake up, Man, tell your calls. May
May don't go up to me. May May, it's me
George the Lord. Cats may may wake up drying. It's
me George May. A lawyer called and he said you
gave on your money to a bunch of cats. Cats
(22:52):
may wake up up with a door. It's just a record.
Speaker 6 (22:54):
Let me turn it off.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
May please, it's just a record.
Speaker 6 (22:57):
Oh please wake up, May please wake up?
Speaker 5 (23:00):
It up?
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Please please, Sauce Fence.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
You've been listening to and sold to sleep My Love,
starring William Redfield and The Lane Rost and written especially
for suspense.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
By Dave Gilbert.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Suspense is produced and directed by Bruno Serrato, Junior music.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Supervision by Ethel Huber.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Featured in Tonight's Story, where Brina Rayburn is Delmas Stevens
and Bernard Lenroe.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Is mister Phillips.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
The wailing and laughing voice was created by Abby Lewis.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Listen again next week when we.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Returned with Ule Tied Miracle, written by John Robert. Another
tale well calculated to keep you in.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Sauce fence.
Speaker 5 (24:00):
Yeah,
And now a tale well calculated to keep you in.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Suspense. Listen now to and So to.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Sleep My Love, starring William Redfield and Elaine Ross, had
written especially for suspense by Dave Gilbert.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Oh, George, that.
Speaker 4 (00:23):
Is the way it happened at all.
Speaker 5 (00:25):
Can't you get anything right?
Speaker 6 (00:27):
He was sitting behind the wheel of the car.
Speaker 5 (00:29):
And this big, handsome policeman walked over.
Speaker 6 (00:32):
I sat there with my drink in my hand, a
fixed smile on my face, looking pleasantly. But each man
has his breaking point, and I had reached mind. As
I sat there, staring past the empty faces of our
friends and neighbors, a plan started ticking away in the
back of my head, A plan to rid me forever
of this foot on my neck, this mocking woman my
(00:56):
wife met.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Oh it was a shame.
Speaker 6 (01:04):
Really, I'm sure I really loved may and one time.
Oh she had her faults, but who Hasn't I know?
She felt I had my share of faults because her
life had been dedicated to correcting them one by one.
First I smoked cigars, Then I smoked too many cigarettes.
Finally I didn't smoke at all. So in the end
(01:25):
there wasn't enough of me left to love me. Had
I wanted to accept one thing. Our rich uncle had
died the year before we were married and left her
an inheritance of seventy five thousand dollars. We used almost
fifteen thousand to buy a house and get started in life,
but the remaining sixty thousand was in negotiable bonds for
our declining years. She always said, I'll just think of
(01:49):
how well a man could live on sixty thousand dollars
in Mexico. But would my plan work for a man who,
for eight years has amounted to nothing but failure In
his wife's eyes, success was inevitable. I decided to put
(02:10):
my plan into effect. Immediately, I saw Thelma Stephens go
into the kitchen to fix herself a drink.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Thelma is one of May's best friends.
Speaker 6 (02:19):
Personally I detest the woman, but this was hardly the
time to be snottish.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
I followed her.
Speaker 6 (02:26):
Hello, Thelma, Oh, Georgie.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
No, that was the funniest thing. The way you apologized
that policeman, The way they told that I could almost see.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Yeah, I thought it was rather amusing myself. Afterwards.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Oh, by the way, did May tell you that octob
is going to start a benevolence program for straight cat cat.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Oh, May just.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
Loves the poor unloved things. As a matter of fact,
it was mostly her idea that we undertake it.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Well, my wife has always been kind to dumb animals.
Speaker 6 (02:53):
Now, Thelma, I wanted to get you alone in the
kitchen because there's something I wanted to ask you.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Of course, what is it?
Speaker 6 (03:00):
Well, I was wondering if you knew of a good
home remedy for insomnia. Have you been having trouble sleeping?
Speaker 4 (03:08):
May told me you've been eating like.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
A bird late.
Speaker 6 (03:10):
No, no, no, no, no, Thelma, it isn't for me,
you see, it's May.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
I'm worried about May.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yes.
Speaker 6 (03:16):
See, I think she must have bad dreams. I mean,
she goes to sleep at night, all right, but then
she wakes up because she thinks she hears things and
she just can't fall back to sleep.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Oh, that's funny.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
They never said anything to me.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Oh isn't that just like her? Would you get some
sleeping cats?
Speaker 6 (03:35):
Oh no, Thelma, I wouldn't want anything as dangerous as that.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
Oh, there's nothing dangerous about sleeping capsules, as long as
you don't take too many of them. You know, when
Charlie and I were having a difference of opinion.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
I just couldn't sleep nights. I told our.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
Doctor, that's a good man, and he wrote me out
a prescription and.
Speaker 5 (03:52):
He said, here you are well.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
I just couldn't have.
Speaker 5 (03:55):
Made it without them.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
Oh, I'll give May his name.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
No, no, no, no, see I would do that. I mean,
she'd be offended if she knew. I told you. You know,
she tries so hard to keep trouble to herself.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
How of course, well, let me write you his name
on this slip of paper, not to Walter bront fantastic.
Speaker 6 (04:14):
It was all going to be so fantastically simple.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
The real work started the next day.
Speaker 6 (04:26):
May was planning to be gone for the whole day
on a field trip with her idiotic club, and I
announced at breakfast that I wasn't going to work because
I felt I had the beginnings of a cold and
I didn't want it to develop into anything more serious.
I began the day by driving to the other side
of town, where I purchased a certain sound effects record
in a small record shop. Then I returned home certain
(04:48):
in the knowledge that I saw or encountered no one
I knew the furnace in our house is situated in
the basement, with hot air ducks running to every room.
Of course, in the summertime it's empty and cold. The
grate was just large enough to hold a small record player.
Stringing the wire from my bedroom down through the hot
(05:09):
air register and into the furnace took longer than I anticipated,
but removing the switch from the record player and installing
it in the heat regulator of my electric blanket took
even longer. I worked feverishly as the big hand on
the dresser clock swept to six, and in my haste
I made more fumbles than I could afford. Just as
(05:30):
I was fitting the plastic halves of the regulator over
the new switch, I heard the front door open. Yeah, George,
just one screw to go to get fits together before
she seized it.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Dropped the screw.
Speaker 6 (05:48):
There, good, good, finished, finished, done. Me seas a room clean? Yeah,
shut the bed against the walls.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
What are you doing the job? Boyko Oh?
Speaker 6 (06:01):
I just didn't feel like going to bed. Did you
have good time on your field trip?
Speaker 3 (06:05):
And we went to the Humane Society?
Speaker 4 (06:08):
You know, George, people really just haven't done the proper
thing for stray cats.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Poor DearS.
Speaker 6 (06:18):
I thought the evening would never end, But at last
we went to bed. Usually May falls asleep as soon
as her head hits the pillow, but tonight I wanted
no chance of error. As I lay there, listening to
her breathing become more regular and shallow, little fears began
to tear at my confidence because there's always a chance
of miscalculation. And I remember to turn on the volume
(06:41):
of the record player, perhaps too loud. I broke out
in a cold sweat. If only I'd had time to
test it. My fingers itched to grab the blanket regulator,
but I forced myself to wait. A half hour passed,
my fingers still along the electric cord to the switch,
(07:03):
and I clicked it off. And I waited. Nothing happened.
What had I forgotten? Connections?
Speaker 3 (07:16):
No, the needle? No? What? Then? Why no sound? And
then far down in the basement I heard.
Speaker 7 (07:26):
It May was beginning to stir. I slipped my fingers
over the switch, ready at a moment's notice.
Speaker 5 (07:40):
George, George, George, Wake up, George, wake up?
Speaker 6 (07:45):
Do you hear me?
Speaker 3 (07:46):
What did you hear anything? Hear anything? I thought I
heard a woman I don't know crying.
Speaker 6 (07:54):
You thought you heard what I was afraid you may
please now you're not going to start him imagining things again.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Now, come on, go to sleep.
Speaker 5 (08:03):
Are you sure you heard Nettle? Of course, not go
back to sleep. She lay back down, but she didn't sleep.
I could hear her lying in the dark, just listening.
Speaker 6 (08:18):
The next night I woke her again to the record,
and the following night twice. I increased the number until
she woke up screaming four times in one night, and
I decided that the following night would be the acid test.
That night, it took may longer to fall asleep than
(08:38):
ever before. It was almost one thirty before she started
to drift off. My fingers found the switch.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
George, George, wake up?
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Oh man? What is it?
Speaker 3 (08:52):
Are you having another bad dream?
Speaker 7 (08:54):
George?
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Isn't a dream?
Speaker 5 (08:56):
I can hear it. Now, you can hear it too.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Hear what.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Listen?
Speaker 2 (09:04):
It sounds like a woman crying.
Speaker 5 (09:06):
You're a crazy woman or a woman that isn't alone
anymore of George Neston.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
You must hear it too. There's something down there. Please
put ooun see what it is?
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Now?
Speaker 6 (09:18):
May I have given into these whims of yours too long?
I absolutely refuse now darling, you've had these bad dreams
afore a bad dream.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
I'm awake and I can't hear it.
Speaker 5 (09:29):
Now, Well I hear nothing, all right, I'll go myself.
Speaker 6 (09:36):
She got out about them and clicked on the lap
I listened to her go downstairs.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
As soon as she hit the.
Speaker 6 (09:41):
Living room, I turned off the machine.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
I got out of bed leisurely and went down to her.
Speaker 6 (09:56):
She'd fallen in a heap on the living room floor
and was sobb uncontrollable. For a moment, I almost felt sorry,
Oh May, May, what's come over you? My darling?
Speaker 3 (10:11):
You haven't been yourself lately, and now he's.
Speaker 5 (10:17):
George afraid I'm losing my mind.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Well, what do you mean?
Speaker 5 (10:21):
I keep thinking I hear.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
A ghost in the house, the hi crazy boy.
Speaker 6 (10:29):
Well, personally, mate, I think there's nothing wrong with you
that a good night's sleep wouldn't fix.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
Oh, I'd love to fall asleep.
Speaker 6 (10:38):
You only knew.
Speaker 5 (10:40):
I haven't slept the whole night through in a week.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
You know.
Speaker 6 (10:42):
Thelma was telling me that she had in SOLEMNA once. Now,
why don't you just pop over to her doctor. You'll
be glad to fix you up with a prescription for
sleeping pills.
Speaker 5 (10:51):
Yes, yes, that's what I'll do.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
All I really need is a good night's sleep. Is
impossible that anything could be easy.
Speaker 6 (11:00):
I had May begging to take out the pills in
her own name. Once she got a prescription for death,
I had only to see that it was filled.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
She came home with a bottle of pills.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
That next night.
Speaker 6 (11:16):
She took one before going to bed, and I let
her sleep undisturbed the whole night. Through that way, she'd
believed that she'd found an escape at last. After she
was asleep, I also removed one pill from the bottle.
On her third night of sleep, I started the treatment again.
May couldn't wake up, but from her constant passing and turning,
(11:39):
I could tell that her nights were going to be
oh exhausting, haunted things, and during the day she.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Was haggard and depressed.
Speaker 6 (11:48):
Toward the end of the week, she increased the dosage
to two pills, but I continued to remove only one.
I mean the bottle would be empty soon enough. Besides,
there was still some groundwork that needed doing before my
wife's untimely death. The next night, after May fell asleep, Hello, Hello, Thelma,
(12:21):
this is George. Look I hate to disturb you at
this hour. But me isn't over there is she isn't
she with you?
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Well?
Speaker 6 (12:29):
No, she left the house right after dinner, and I
thought she might have gone to visit you.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
Well, I haven't seen her evening.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Frankly, Thelma, I'm worried. She's been so depressed lately. Oh.
Speaker 6 (12:42):
I mean, I don't know what's gotten into her, Thelma.
She's been saying the strangest things, like.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
I wonder why we try so hard to live? Yes, yes,
and I wonder what it would be like to end
it all?
Speaker 6 (12:55):
Not May graid so, Thelma, I look, I'd try to
kid her out of it, you know.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
But her uncle, the one that died just before we
were married, committed suicide, you know.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Oh yes, yes.
Speaker 6 (13:08):
And I'm afraid when there's a history of it in
the family.
Speaker 5 (13:11):
Oh yes, I had no idea.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
Oh yes, yeah.
Speaker 6 (13:16):
Don't say anything to May though, Felmy, You see, she
pretends it never happened.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
I mean, it's family pride, you know.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
Of course, I wouldn't think of telling a soul.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
After all, I made's best friend.
Speaker 6 (13:29):
I knew before the week was out that everyone in
town that mattered would know that May had been very
depressed of late, and that she had an uncle who
committed suicide. Thelma had so terribly many best friends. The
(13:50):
day I'd selected for May to join her dear departed
uncle would be the day she replenished her supply of
sleeping tablets. On that day, she told me she was
going to have it filled right after seeing her lawyer.
Or the state had passed some new tax law and
she wanted to see if it affected her.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Rather my inheritance.
Speaker 6 (14:12):
When they came home that night, everything was ready you
George in the kitchen May oh a little, a little,
but I'm getting used to it.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Why George, you fixed dinner for me? Thoughtful? I just
couldn't have faced fixing dinner tonight. Yes, I know you've
been so tired lately. Come on, sit down, sit down.
I wonder if those sleeping pills keep me tired. Maybe
I should stop taking him. You got some more, didn't you?
(14:46):
Of course? What makes you add?
Speaker 6 (14:48):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Nothing, nothing. I just don't enjoy getting up in the
middle of the night either. I'm sorry too.
Speaker 6 (14:55):
Oh it's all right, But you seem more cheerful than
you've been for a couple of days. Any particular reason, No, well,
I'm glad. Are the new taxes going to affect your
inheritance at all?
Speaker 3 (15:08):
No?
Speaker 5 (15:08):
The lawyer and I made sure the money will be safe.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Good, good, Eat your soup, dear. It was all I
could do to sit there and eat calmly.
Speaker 6 (15:20):
What if tonight, of all nights, she didn't want mushroom soup.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
It's possible one of her favorite dishes. Control, Georgie, boy, Control,
that's one thing you've got to have. Control. Huh, how's
they mushroom soup?
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Dear?
Speaker 4 (15:37):
Since I married you, you've developed into a remarkable cook.
Speaker 6 (15:42):
Well, it's easy when you have someone to cook for.
Remarkable cook. I looked at my plate and I couldn't
even see it. I was too busy seeing her spoon
down her soup to the last drop, and with it
the contents of more than seventeen sleeping. The dosage was
(16:06):
more potent than I thought. Halfway through the meal, she
grew sleepy. This meant I would have to act more
quickly than I planned.
Speaker 5 (16:13):
Oh, I heard, what's the matter with me?
Speaker 3 (16:17):
You're so very tired tonight.
Speaker 5 (16:20):
You know it's silly, but I I think I'll.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Go up and go sleep.
Speaker 6 (16:24):
Well, why don't sit dear, I'll clean up the dishes.
I stood in the kitchen and listened until I heard
her get into bed. I went to the living room
and got her pen and purse in a piece of stationary,
and I raced upstairs and stood outside our door.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
The blood just thundering in my head.
Speaker 6 (16:39):
The timing, The timing had to be perfect. Too early
and she would resist me. Too late and she would
be incapable. I spent a moment putting on a pair
of cloth gloves. Nothing must go on.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
I entered the room.
Speaker 6 (16:56):
May may wake up? Had I waited too long? May
may wake up? May I want you to write something?
Speaker 3 (17:12):
I'm wake up? May I want you to write something.
Speaker 5 (17:17):
I want to go to sleep.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
Wonderful, that's what I want you to write.
Speaker 6 (17:22):
Dear, here, take this pen, pen, yes, now, write right, yes,
right right. I want to go to sleep, and then
you can go to sleep. Now, don't look so confused,
(17:42):
my darling. It's all right. You can trust me. You're
very tired. Hurry up and write, and then you can
go to sleep. Right, dear, I want to go It
is sleek good, that's right.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
Now sign your name, yes, your name.
Speaker 6 (18:09):
And tie sign your name, and then I'll let you
go to sleep good, that's right, and so do sleep,
my love. For the second and last time in her life,
(18:31):
my wife may did something I wanted her to. I
folded the note in half and placed it, along with
a pen, on the dressing table next to the bed.
I fished in her purse found the new bottle of
sleeping pills, the one with her name and.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
Today's date on it.
Speaker 6 (18:43):
Emptied seventeen of them into my gloved hand, and left
the rest in the bottle and put it on the
night table. And I locked the bedroom door with an
aluminum key I had made. The only other key was
in her purse. And then I went down to the
kitchen to tidy up.
Speaker 5 (18:57):
Whooo.
Speaker 6 (18:57):
It's best to work while you're waiting for someone to die.
Doesn't allow you to think, you know. I washed the
supper dishes and put them away. The soup things I
did most carefully. The cloth gloves were burned in the
fireplace with some old papers, and the ashes stirred.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
I was most methodical.
Speaker 6 (19:13):
The aluminum key and the seventeen sleeping pills were chewed
up and flushed away in the disposal.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
I sat down in the living room to enjoy.
Speaker 6 (19:23):
A cigar I bought for the occasion, the first one
I'd smoked.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
In my own living room for years. I can't say
that I was entirely light hearted.
Speaker 6 (19:31):
It's a strange feeling to sit alone in a house
where someone's dying.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
But I sat there and watched the long summer day
dark and outside my window.
Speaker 6 (19:43):
I tried to pass the time thinking of Mexico and
the house I would buy, and I.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Well, let's not what's we'll listen to them. No, it's nothing,
it's my imagination.
Speaker 6 (19:55):
I had too much self control to let my imagination
ruin everything. Now I picked up a book I'd never
had time to finish before.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
Who there were so many things I'd.
Speaker 6 (20:06):
Intended to do with my life. Now I could do
them when and how I chose. So I sat down
and opened the book. Oh, I could have sworn that
infernal record could have gotten.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Turned on somehow.
Speaker 6 (20:21):
I got up and walked casually to the basement and
opened the furnace door.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Well, just as I thought, the phonograph was as I'd
left it. But to satisfy a.
Speaker 6 (20:33):
Whim, I removed the record and broke it into several
pieces and threw it into.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
The trash can.
Speaker 6 (20:41):
So now, who would be calling at this time on
a Saturday night. Well, at any rate, I knew what
i'd say. When I answered it, I ran upstairs.
Speaker 8 (20:52):
Hello, hello, missus Rogers.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
Oh, I'm very sorry. My wife is sleeping.
Speaker 6 (20:57):
She went to bed early, about seven o'clock and left
order not to be disturbed.
Speaker 8 (21:01):
Oh oh, well, this is mister Phillips calling her attorney.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Oh yes, mister Phillips.
Speaker 8 (21:06):
Mister Rogers. I'm taking the family on their summer vacation
tomorrow morning, and I wanted to talk to missus Rogers
before I left. Would you tell her that I checked
into the legality of establishing a hospital for stray cats
and it can be done.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
Cats.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Why?
Speaker 8 (21:24):
Yes, the Rogers Memorial Hospital for stray cats. As she
came into my office and changed her will this morning,
she said it was your idea, signed over her entire
inheritance to homeless cats cats. Yes, I think it was
a marvelous gesture on your part. Not many people are
concerned about the welfare of unfortunate stray animals.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
I went numb. I didn't know what to say or
do on that record.
Speaker 8 (21:50):
Miss Rogers, Are you there? Mister Rogers?
Speaker 3 (21:54):
Control. I must get control. He mustn't suspect mister Rogers.
Speaker 8 (22:00):
What's the matter.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
No, nothing, nothing, I suppose you mean that noise. I
didn't tell you it's nothing. See I've I've been experimentating
some sound effects. The gun sounds like a crazy woman,
doesn't it? Or a clean or a ghost? I mean,
just don't just a sound effect that woman? You hear
it's just a record?
Speaker 2 (22:17):
What woman?
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Oh you're clever an' huh. You made this phone call
to try and trip me up? Not cats. Don't pretend
you can't hear it. You can't fool me.
Speaker 6 (22:27):
Robbie a ghost?
Speaker 3 (22:27):
You see what I mean?
Speaker 8 (22:28):
It's just a record.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
I'm gonna go wake up, Man, tell your calls. May
May don't go up to me. May May, it's me
George the Lord. Cats may may wake up drying. It's
me George May. A lawyer called and he said you
gave on your money to a bunch of cats. Cats
(22:52):
may wake up up with a door. It's just a record.
Speaker 6 (22:54):
Let me turn it off.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
May please, it's just a record.
Speaker 6 (22:57):
Oh please wake up, May please wake up?
Speaker 5 (23:00):
It up?
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Please please, Sauce Fence.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
You've been listening to and sold to sleep My Love,
starring William Redfield and The Lane Rost and written especially
for suspense.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
By Dave Gilbert.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Suspense is produced and directed by Bruno Serrato, Junior music.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Supervision by Ethel Huber.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Featured in Tonight's Story, where Brina Rayburn is Delmas Stevens
and Bernard Lenroe.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Is mister Phillips.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
The wailing and laughing voice was created by Abby Lewis.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Listen again next week when we.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Returned with Ule Tied Miracle, written by John Robert. Another
tale well calculated to keep you in.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Sauce fence.
Speaker 5 (24:00):
Yeah,
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