October 28, 2025 • 26 mins
Inner Sanctum was a hugely popular Old Time Radio series created by producer Himan Brown. It was based on the popular Inner Sanctum mystery series of books. It aired from January 7, 1941, to October 5, 1952. Inner Sanctum featured tales of mystery, horror and suspense, with a mix of humor. That humor was what made Inner Sanctum different from similar horror and mystery series like Suspense, or The Whistler aired during the golden age of radio. Each episode started with the sound of a creaking door, some creepy organ music, followed by the opening narration. It's been said that listening to the show was like celebrating Halloween every week. Many established stars played roles or were guest stars in the series, including Peter Lorre, Helen Hayes, Mary Astor, Frank Sinatra, Bela Lugosi, Orson Welles, and many more. Of the several hundred episodes of Inner Sanctum that aired, only about 150 survived.
Hope you enjoy this episode of Inner Sanctum! Find all our OTR radio stations and podcasts at theaterofthemind-otr.com - Audio Credit: The Old Time Radio Researchers Group - All Podcasts @ Spreaker | Apple | YouTube | Spotify | iHeart | Amazon
Hope you enjoy this episode of Inner Sanctum! Find all our OTR radio stations and podcasts at theaterofthemind-otr.com - Audio Credit: The Old Time Radio Researchers Group - All Podcasts @ Spreaker | Apple | YouTube | Spotify | iHeart | Amazon
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
But he means friends, it is your hope to welcome
your food.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
A creaking door.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Into the innos things come in, come in and pull
up a tombs tom the chair. Situation is very grave. Oh,
I don't worry if the team's a little dark in
here too. I've made arrangements for the few ghostly fms
(00:37):
who come and blow by the way.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Don't mind that guy in the box over there.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
We scared him to death last week. He's been horror
xample of tonight's inner sanctum mystery. Death Watch in Boston
(01:08):
was written by Fred Mathel and stars Mason Adams in
the role of Carl, where ted Osburn has Charon. In Boston,
Beacon Hill looks down its narrow, brick lined streets with
seeming scorn. At the harbor below Tonight, the winds from
(01:29):
the sea, and there is a myst that's heavy with
the odor of fresh fish, salt and spices the night too.
There is a man who has a horrifying.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Secret to tell.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
This man is Karl Dicker, intent from the nearby hospital,
who walks wildly, coat flapping hair to shevel young.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
His body is his eyes alone.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
His face haggard. He carries a heavy wooden box about
twelve inches square. He's murmuring through bloodless lips.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Take my beak from out my heart, and take thy
form from off my door.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
Close the rail never more, never more.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
A neon signed proclaims the daughter to be that of
Captain Zeb's Tattoo Saloon, established nineteen five. How they can
stops looks quickly behind him and then.
Speaker 5 (02:28):
Reging it to no more dead tune to night and
the door.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
M hmm, I don't learn now this door? You know me?
Speaker 6 (02:37):
I'm Car Dickens hey Sunday. Who you are?
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Be?
Speaker 4 (02:42):
What is you? The wack the door? Quickly? Put out
your lights? Please sure sure?
Speaker 6 (02:47):
Used to me that you want that's the needs of
doctor Car.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
I don't need a doctor. I need someone like you
to listen to me.
Speaker 6 (02:55):
Ah hey, Dannison, that you got in the box, it's.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Part of a man's body.
Speaker 6 (03:01):
His head m and he showed especially in night. Were
you medically with that?
Speaker 4 (03:07):
It?
Speaker 5 (03:08):
No, Captain, it's the head of a man who is
calling for me at my room at eleven o'clock tonight.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
Don't look at me like that.
Speaker 6 (03:16):
I'm not crazy, Captain working the night too. Alright over
them books, maybe Huh.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
I have been working hard, yes, but this is no hallucination.
Speaker 6 (03:23):
I don't go around with But even a man can
live with about a head shint.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
You don't understand. The man this had belongs to is Death,
and it is Death who is coming for me tonight, and.
Speaker 6 (03:37):
They're telling me the whole things. Maybe I can help that.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (03:42):
Will you come with me to my place after I
tell you the story? Will you wait up with me
till he comes?
Speaker 4 (03:48):
Captain? Will you?
Speaker 6 (03:50):
They can?
Speaker 4 (03:51):
They? You know?
Speaker 5 (03:58):
My place on Pinking Street on the hill. It's narrow
and cramped with century old houses. I've got rooms on
the second floor of one place twenty nine painting. I've
been there two years since I first.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
Went to the hospital.
Speaker 5 (04:10):
In my living room, there's a bay window that juts
out over the sidewalk below.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
That's where my desky's. Two weeks ago.
Speaker 5 (04:18):
Tonight, it was i'd fallen asleep over my books. Something
at the window woke me with a start, a tapping noise.
I went to the window and stared perched. There was
a bird, a bird as black as the night itself.
I opened the window, and instead of flying away, the
(04:39):
bird hopped upon my desk and stood with head cocked
to one side of my open book.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
By now I knew I wasn't dreaming. I spoke to
the creature as you might have. Hey, isn't it late
for a bird to be around?
Speaker 1 (04:55):
It's sleep, it's sweet, it's when you sleep. It's much flating.
Speaker 5 (05:07):
I stared open mouthed at the open window through which
the creature disappeared.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
Then I smiled, realizing that it must be a pet,
a minor bird. Perhaps.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
I went to bed then, thinking of an amusing coincidence
that the bird had been taught to say it's late,
and that I had referred to the hour myself. That's
what I thought then until two nights later. That's when
I met the stranger for the first time. You see, Captain,
(05:38):
I have a bad heart myself, and i'd worked very
hard to save a patient who had a heart ailment,
the same.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
Rather rare heart condition I have.
Speaker 5 (05:45):
By ten Wednesday night, I felt certain she pulled through
just as I was going off due to my night mares.
Speaker 7 (05:50):
Hurried to me, doctor, Doctor Dick, Yes, doctor, the girl
in fourteen?
Speaker 4 (05:56):
Well, no, are you trying to say she died? I'm sorry, doctor,
but I can't believe it. I did everything that could
be done, and it looked certainly. Are you poverty?
Speaker 5 (06:07):
Yes I am.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
Doctor Smith just confirmed it.
Speaker 6 (06:10):
Oh doctor, you worked so hard on that case.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
You're you're worn out.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
Why don't you go home and rest? I? I said, doctor,
what's wrong with you? What are you staring? You were
looking towards the window just now as I was weren't well. Yes, yes,
I think so wise. Didn't you see something black fly
past the bird? No?
Speaker 6 (06:31):
Doctor, you look off repale.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
Can I get you something? Oh? No, I I guess
I'm tired. I I'll go for a little walk and
then straight to bed. He was waiting for me when
I left the hospital, and I would have walked straight
past him, but he spoke to me. Doctor Yas, may
(06:58):
I speak with you? How do you know my name?
Gabriel told me. Gabriel, Yes, this is Gabriel. I think
you've met.
Speaker 5 (07:07):
Oh that skip, say, isn't that the bird that knocked
on my window a couple of nights ago?
Speaker 7 (07:12):
Yes, we were out walking and Gabriel flew to your window.
I see that you are very depressed, and.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
I helped in any way. Doctor dibree, No, no thanks,
patient died always gets me done. Ah, and so needlessly too.
What do you mean needlessly?
Speaker 7 (07:31):
You will understand soon after life and death are matters
arranged elsewhere.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
Had it been so desired, your patient would have lived.
Who are you? What's your name? I don't think you
said it is Charon? C h A R O N Charum.
Speaker 5 (07:48):
Well, mister Charon, if I believe what you say, I
would have to give up medicine.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
Not at all. Everyone has a mission to perform and
should And what is your mission in life? Mister Channon?
That what is our mission in life? Gabriel, m speak up.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
It's way, it's late, it's later then, you see.
Speaker 5 (08:18):
That was the first time I met the man who
calls himself Charon. I asked for a couple of weeks
off at the hospital. I thought, well, I thought it
might be nerves. I stayed home and read detective stories.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
I was beginning to.
Speaker 5 (08:33):
Feel like my own self again, and on Sunday night,
sometime around nine, I decided to turn in when there
came more tapping on my window.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
This time I grinned, well, well, Gabriel, come right in.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
It's way.
Speaker 4 (08:52):
Sure, I know it's later than I think.
Speaker 6 (08:54):
Awk.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
Is that all you can say? Gabriel, take wifey, well.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
My heart, I'll take my heart.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Off my door.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
Ramon. Yes, I had heard correctly.
Speaker 5 (09:15):
The bird had quoted a full passage from Postpont the Raven.
At the same time, I felt a sudden chill in
the room, since someone in the room yet I had
heard nothing, But I knew.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
I knew he also knows a bit of Keats and Shelley.
How the devil did you get in here, charm?
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Your door was not locked?
Speaker 5 (09:36):
Tell me, doctor Dickens. Are you afraid of death? No
more than most people. But I'd rather not die if
it's all I was saying to.
Speaker 7 (09:45):
You, I'd hope you might think differently than others. At
any rate, I have nothing to do with it. As
I said to you before, Doctor, these matters are arranged
elsewhere where elsewhere.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
You are trying to tell me that you can predict death?
Is that a chart? Of course? I like proof.
Speaker 7 (10:04):
Will you accept full responsibility for the knowledge or give
me a moment?
Speaker 5 (10:13):
As I stood watching him, tall and black against the
white door of my room, it seemed to me he
had turned himself inward, and that the living part of
him had stepped away, leaving only a gaunt shell. There
was no life in him, only the eyes staring.
Speaker 7 (10:29):
You will remember the name of Emily Cartier. Her passage
had been arranged for her. Good night, doctor Dickens. After
he left, Captain, I.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
Walked straight to the phone to call the police.
Speaker 5 (10:46):
I tried to think of how my story would sound
with him not stop me for the moment. But I
did look up the name Charon had quoted. It was
in the phone book. Miss Emily Cartier, for home was
close by, and Lloidburg square. I called her at once,
Hello is this Ms Cottier, Miss Emily Cottier?
Speaker 4 (11:03):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Yes, who is this?
Speaker 4 (11:05):
You don't know me, miss Cartier. My name is Dickon.
I'm not someone who claims to know you. Well.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Isn't that nice?
Speaker 4 (11:14):
A man named Charon? Oh?
Speaker 6 (11:17):
And I'm I'm sorry, mister Dickens. There must be some mistake.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
I don't know anyone by that day. Are you sure?
Speaker 8 (11:24):
Well?
Speaker 4 (11:24):
I'm just as sure as missus Cortier, Miss Cartier? What
is it, missus Cordyer? But I knew what had happened.
I knew all too well. Emily Cartier's passage had been arranged.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
For Hey, anybody been giving you the bird lately?
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Very distinctive character, this Charon, don't you think pick him
out in a shroud anywhere? Yeah, signs all his mail eternally. Well,
shall we get back behind the locked doors of Captain
Zeb's tattoos along?
Speaker 2 (12:23):
I'll put yourself in Zeb's place.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
If a young wild eyed fella came to you with
a wooden box told you it contained the head of
a man who was calling for him at eleven o'clock
that night.
Speaker 5 (12:34):
What would you do?
Speaker 2 (12:36):
You'd listen, wouldn't you well? Listen?
Speaker 9 (12:42):
Hold up now, Land, let me get the straight line
of this This man you think of a sort of
death in mortal shape.
Speaker 6 (12:50):
Him and his bird he told you they could tell
when the body was going to.
Speaker 5 (12:55):
Die before Yes, and to prove it, Charon gave me
the name of the woman in Louisburg Square, Emily Cottier.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
She was murdered while I talked with her on the phone.
Speaker 6 (13:07):
The man was mad murder he killed her?
Speaker 4 (13:11):
Did he? I thought that.
Speaker 5 (13:13):
I went to Louisburg Square after the core I was
determined to tell the first policeman I met the whole story.
When I arrived at Emily Cottier's address, the place was
teeming with excited people.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
Also on the fringe of the crowd. Beneath a single
street line, the tall, gone shape of Charon stood. I
went straight to him, mister Charon, mister Charon, I'm turning
you over to the police, mister Dick. Why why? Because
I know you'll kill this woman.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
So come with me.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
I will speak to the police for you. You don't dare?
Come all right?
Speaker 1 (13:47):
All right, all right, come on onon, go to bed
your face off.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
What do you want, officer.
Speaker 7 (13:53):
My friend and I are a little alarmed about this tragedy.
Why when we live nearby.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
You see, don't give it a thought.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Now, well you got the guy who did it.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
You caught the murder.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Sure, one of the neighbors shut him through the head
while I was climbing out of the winter.
Speaker 4 (14:07):
I'll go on home and forget it if you can. Well, Carl, I.
Speaker 7 (14:16):
Wish you would leave me alone. Oh that is not possible.
One way or another. You must come away with me
when I leave. I refuse to believe it. Suppose I
prove my point again. Suppose I tell you the name
of someone else who will die. If I am right,
you will raise no more objections to leaving with me.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
And if your prediction doesn't work out, you will never
see me again. Agreed.
Speaker 8 (14:45):
Agreed very well, April. Our friend would like to know
who do you know is next to go?
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Oh, Sire Black East didn't get knocked, Sire Black, A
small one.
Speaker 7 (15:10):
Simeon Black is that is yes, Carl, Simeon Black between
eight and eight thirty on the night of November fifteenth.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
That is a week from tonight. All right, fine?
Speaker 5 (15:21):
If Simeon Black doesn't die, then I will never hear
from you again.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
That is correct.
Speaker 7 (15:27):
If Simeon Black dies, as I know it is arranged
that he will, you will come away with me on
the same night at eleven.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
Good night, Karl, Good night.
Speaker 6 (15:41):
Right, November fifteenth. It's tonight, isn't it.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Yes, Captain Zebl that's tonight.
Speaker 6 (15:55):
And what about Simeon Black Man, it's bad thing you made?
Speaker 4 (15:59):
Now?
Speaker 5 (15:59):
I find sim In Black found in this evening. It
was a seam in the docks. Gave me his address,
a cheap rooming house near the Charles River. The ship
was due in at seven. Simeon Black had to live.
I stood outside his rooming house waiting. About five minutes
after right, a big burly rough man came along heading
for the door where I stood.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
He was carrying this box.
Speaker 5 (16:20):
Sime in black with twenty five minutes to live? Are
you Simi in black? Yeah, it's very important that I
talk with you. Oh why, my name is Dickens.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
This is urgent.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Please listen, I'm listening. Go ahead.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
Do you know anyone who might want to do you harm?
Speaker 2 (16:39):
You crazy mister?
Speaker 4 (16:42):
Sure?
Speaker 6 (16:42):
I do couple one hundred guys all around the world.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
But you ain't want him.
Speaker 4 (16:50):
No, no, no, I'm not. But I talked with the
man who said you were going to die between now
in eight thirty. That's why I'm here.
Speaker 5 (16:56):
Oh, man named Sharon, a man who has a pet
MINU heard the talks here.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
I think we better go up to my room and
talk to him.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
Come on in his room.
Speaker 5 (17:15):
I told him all about Sharon and the bird. There
was a large clock in the steeple of a nearby dockhouse.
I saw that the minute hands stood at twenty.
Speaker 4 (17:24):
Five after eight.
Speaker 5 (17:25):
When I finished, Black stood up, his heavy face and
our pasty pale.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
The veins of his neck throbbed.
Speaker 6 (17:31):
So you're the guy I've been waiting for, all right, Dickens.
I met the man with the white mottin ache. He
told me that some dad be killed.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
He sent you.
Speaker 6 (17:43):
But I'm not playing.
Speaker 5 (17:45):
I don't die easy see, Nestink says, I don't fool
put that gun down.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
Killing me won't help. All we have to do is
wait till the time has passed. Three more minutes at.
Speaker 6 (17:56):
Down than telling y'all gonna give me god stupid.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
Punk. Hey, he was all right, Hey, got it?
Speaker 5 (18:15):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (18:18):
I couldn't believe my own eyes. I stood there, gaping
at the floor.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
The hook that had been Simeon Black was crumpled grotesquely
on the bare boards of the room, his denim shirt
staining darker and darker as I watched it through my
fog mind.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
I heard the clock strike the half hour outside. Simeon
Black had died, as Charon had predicted, but I had
killed him.
Speaker 5 (18:46):
The gun was still in my hand as the door opened,
and Charon tall gaune lips, smiling eyes, smoldering Black stood there.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
You see, Carl, I've kept my bug see in Black
he's dead.
Speaker 5 (19:01):
You made me do this, You played me against Black.
You knew something like this had happened.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
How when are you going to understand?
Speaker 5 (19:09):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (19:10):
I knew, but these things are arranged by you. Of
course I made a bargain with you.
Speaker 6 (19:17):
Yes, you did go.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
I will call for you at eleven. We will leave together. No, no,
you are leaving, no cher No.
Speaker 5 (19:34):
For a moment I thought I hadn't hit him, he
stood there without a tremor done from his thin colored slips.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
A trickle of blood coursed down his chin. I can't
tell you the triumph.
Speaker 5 (19:45):
For the moment, the days of supernatural fantastic horra seemed to.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
Run out of me.
Speaker 5 (19:50):
The sight of his blood told me this man wasn't death.
This was a clever man who had somehow used me.
Everything seemed right again in the world, no matter what
happened to me, no matter what.
Speaker 6 (20:07):
An't your daring lead out of it?
Speaker 4 (20:13):
Not quite Captain's ebb.
Speaker 5 (20:16):
As I regained my senses and saw him there, still
smiling mirthlessly, on the floor beside me in Black, I
had an impulse to be certain that he wouldn't come
back to me. I found a knife in Black's kitchen.
Hat I suppose I still wasn't thinking clearly. Stupidly, I
thought perhaps even a supernatural being divested of its head
might be powerless.
Speaker 9 (20:37):
Now I know better, so you tettered the dep of
in here from the water front in Simeon's deuffer box.
Speaker 5 (20:42):
Yes, And as I walked here, I began to realize
Sharon will keep his end of the bargain.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
That's the story Captain's ebb.
Speaker 6 (20:57):
And it puts me on the spot.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
Lead.
Speaker 5 (21:00):
I know you wanna call the police, should you know?
But you did promise to come to my place and
wait till after eleven.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
Anyhow I did.
Speaker 6 (21:10):
It's fifteen. I would ever, now, Dad, I'll go down
with you.
Speaker 4 (21:15):
Come in What time?
Speaker 6 (21:26):
Is it at most eleven?
Speaker 4 (21:30):
That that again?
Speaker 6 (21:31):
That ain't nothing gonna happen now.
Speaker 4 (21:35):
But I I feel it.
Speaker 5 (21:39):
Sort of a chill, a tight, scared feeling about my eye.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
I know China is coming for me. I feel it.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Gosh, this is that bliss.
Speaker 4 (21:51):
It's just coming. I feel it in my heart.
Speaker 6 (21:57):
Ayah sure, but all right, cheer, all right, I'm ready
her hutch up hot the devil.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
Dead.
Speaker 6 (22:21):
He's dead, I mean, hang it, come in, Dickens. Dickens
hits him there?
Speaker 4 (22:33):
What's wrong with him?
Speaker 6 (22:35):
Well, you can't believe it or not.
Speaker 9 (22:39):
I was just talking to the bed when he pops up,
turned blew in her face and just.
Speaker 4 (22:46):
Stop talking. He's dead.
Speaker 6 (22:51):
Hu Hotel. From the look of him, I'd say, heart case,
I have to wait for the car.
Speaker 9 (22:58):
Now.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
Of the queer things you come across in this business.
Speaker 6 (23:03):
Queer, how come here to be here?
Speaker 4 (23:08):
Just at eleven?
Speaker 6 (23:10):
That's the queer one to me.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
Well, we got a stiff without a head down at
the water front a.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Couple of hours back. Found a diary on him and
we've been checking up.
Speaker 6 (23:21):
Who was it?
Speaker 9 (23:22):
Guy named Charon was let out of Double's Island when
they closed it up a couple of years back.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
According to the diary, he's.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Been not to get everybody ever had anything to do
with his being sent up, and that must have been
a smart one.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
He names three people he wanted to get rid of,
played one against the other.
Speaker 6 (23:41):
I guess the two who killed him.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
I don't know. Sergeant's working on it.
Speaker 9 (23:47):
All I know is in this character's book, there's the
notes is see Carl Dickens Pinckney.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Street, eleven o'clock, November fifteen.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
What what gooay? One of them was that it's.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Just the bird here.
Speaker 6 (24:08):
Minor bird talks these tee. I think it's a.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Bird my mind. You'd better see the headman's.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
You know.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
One thing to learn about all this is you should
never lose your head in a crisis.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Oh, you shouldn't lose your head anywhere for that matter.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Mmm.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
Oh yes, just a bit of advice, folks.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
If some bird comes up to you and says it's late,
you agree with him and call the zoo right away.
It's probably a minor bird and mina's it's being bad
when it's late.
Speaker 9 (25:07):
Inner Sanctum came to you through the United States Armed
Forces Radio Service, the voice of Information and Education.
Speaker 4 (26:00):
But
But he means friends, it is your hope to welcome
your food.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
A creaking door.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Into the innos things come in, come in and pull
up a tombs tom the chair. Situation is very grave. Oh,
I don't worry if the team's a little dark in
here too. I've made arrangements for the few ghostly fms
(00:37):
who come and blow by the way.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Don't mind that guy in the box over there.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
We scared him to death last week. He's been horror
xample of tonight's inner sanctum mystery. Death Watch in Boston
(01:08):
was written by Fred Mathel and stars Mason Adams in
the role of Carl, where ted Osburn has Charon. In Boston,
Beacon Hill looks down its narrow, brick lined streets with
seeming scorn. At the harbor below Tonight, the winds from
(01:29):
the sea, and there is a myst that's heavy with
the odor of fresh fish, salt and spices the night too.
There is a man who has a horrifying.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Secret to tell.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
This man is Karl Dicker, intent from the nearby hospital,
who walks wildly, coat flapping hair to shevel young.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
His body is his eyes alone.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
His face haggard. He carries a heavy wooden box about
twelve inches square. He's murmuring through bloodless lips.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Take my beak from out my heart, and take thy
form from off my door.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
Close the rail never more, never more.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
A neon signed proclaims the daughter to be that of
Captain Zeb's Tattoo Saloon, established nineteen five. How they can
stops looks quickly behind him and then.
Speaker 5 (02:28):
Reging it to no more dead tune to night and
the door.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
M hmm, I don't learn now this door? You know me?
Speaker 6 (02:37):
I'm Car Dickens hey Sunday. Who you are?
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Be?
Speaker 4 (02:42):
What is you? The wack the door? Quickly? Put out
your lights? Please sure sure?
Speaker 6 (02:47):
Used to me that you want that's the needs of
doctor Car.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
I don't need a doctor. I need someone like you
to listen to me.
Speaker 6 (02:55):
Ah hey, Dannison, that you got in the box, it's.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Part of a man's body.
Speaker 6 (03:01):
His head m and he showed especially in night. Were
you medically with that?
Speaker 4 (03:07):
It?
Speaker 5 (03:08):
No, Captain, it's the head of a man who is
calling for me at my room at eleven o'clock tonight.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
Don't look at me like that.
Speaker 6 (03:16):
I'm not crazy, Captain working the night too. Alright over
them books, maybe Huh.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
I have been working hard, yes, but this is no hallucination.
Speaker 6 (03:23):
I don't go around with But even a man can
live with about a head shint.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
You don't understand. The man this had belongs to is Death,
and it is Death who is coming for me tonight, and.
Speaker 6 (03:37):
They're telling me the whole things. Maybe I can help that.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (03:42):
Will you come with me to my place after I
tell you the story? Will you wait up with me
till he comes?
Speaker 4 (03:48):
Captain? Will you?
Speaker 6 (03:50):
They can?
Speaker 4 (03:51):
They? You know?
Speaker 5 (03:58):
My place on Pinking Street on the hill. It's narrow
and cramped with century old houses. I've got rooms on
the second floor of one place twenty nine painting. I've
been there two years since I first.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
Went to the hospital.
Speaker 5 (04:10):
In my living room, there's a bay window that juts
out over the sidewalk below.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
That's where my desky's. Two weeks ago.
Speaker 5 (04:18):
Tonight, it was i'd fallen asleep over my books. Something
at the window woke me with a start, a tapping noise.
I went to the window and stared perched. There was
a bird, a bird as black as the night itself.
I opened the window, and instead of flying away, the
(04:39):
bird hopped upon my desk and stood with head cocked
to one side of my open book.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
By now I knew I wasn't dreaming. I spoke to
the creature as you might have. Hey, isn't it late
for a bird to be around?
Speaker 1 (04:55):
It's sleep, it's sweet, it's when you sleep. It's much flating.
Speaker 5 (05:07):
I stared open mouthed at the open window through which
the creature disappeared.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
Then I smiled, realizing that it must be a pet,
a minor bird. Perhaps.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
I went to bed then, thinking of an amusing coincidence
that the bird had been taught to say it's late,
and that I had referred to the hour myself. That's
what I thought then until two nights later. That's when
I met the stranger for the first time. You see, Captain,
(05:38):
I have a bad heart myself, and i'd worked very
hard to save a patient who had a heart ailment,
the same.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
Rather rare heart condition I have.
Speaker 5 (05:45):
By ten Wednesday night, I felt certain she pulled through
just as I was going off due to my night mares.
Speaker 7 (05:50):
Hurried to me, doctor, Doctor Dick, Yes, doctor, the girl
in fourteen?
Speaker 4 (05:56):
Well, no, are you trying to say she died? I'm sorry, doctor,
but I can't believe it. I did everything that could
be done, and it looked certainly. Are you poverty?
Speaker 5 (06:07):
Yes I am.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
Doctor Smith just confirmed it.
Speaker 6 (06:10):
Oh doctor, you worked so hard on that case.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
You're you're worn out.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
Why don't you go home and rest? I? I said, doctor,
what's wrong with you? What are you staring? You were
looking towards the window just now as I was weren't well. Yes, yes,
I think so wise. Didn't you see something black fly
past the bird? No?
Speaker 6 (06:31):
Doctor, you look off repale.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
Can I get you something? Oh? No, I I guess
I'm tired. I I'll go for a little walk and
then straight to bed. He was waiting for me when
I left the hospital, and I would have walked straight
past him, but he spoke to me. Doctor Yas, may
(06:58):
I speak with you? How do you know my name?
Gabriel told me. Gabriel, Yes, this is Gabriel. I think
you've met.
Speaker 5 (07:07):
Oh that skip, say, isn't that the bird that knocked
on my window a couple of nights ago?
Speaker 7 (07:12):
Yes, we were out walking and Gabriel flew to your window.
I see that you are very depressed, and.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
I helped in any way. Doctor dibree, No, no thanks,
patient died always gets me done. Ah, and so needlessly too.
What do you mean needlessly?
Speaker 7 (07:31):
You will understand soon after life and death are matters
arranged elsewhere.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
Had it been so desired, your patient would have lived.
Who are you? What's your name? I don't think you
said it is Charon? C h A R O N Charum.
Speaker 5 (07:48):
Well, mister Charon, if I believe what you say, I
would have to give up medicine.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
Not at all. Everyone has a mission to perform and
should And what is your mission in life? Mister Channon?
That what is our mission in life? Gabriel, m speak up.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
It's way, it's late, it's later then, you see.
Speaker 5 (08:18):
That was the first time I met the man who
calls himself Charon. I asked for a couple of weeks
off at the hospital. I thought, well, I thought it
might be nerves. I stayed home and read detective stories.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
I was beginning to.
Speaker 5 (08:33):
Feel like my own self again, and on Sunday night,
sometime around nine, I decided to turn in when there
came more tapping on my window.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
This time I grinned, well, well, Gabriel, come right in.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
It's way.
Speaker 4 (08:52):
Sure, I know it's later than I think.
Speaker 6 (08:54):
Awk.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
Is that all you can say? Gabriel, take wifey, well.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
My heart, I'll take my heart.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Off my door.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
Ramon. Yes, I had heard correctly.
Speaker 5 (09:15):
The bird had quoted a full passage from Postpont the Raven.
At the same time, I felt a sudden chill in
the room, since someone in the room yet I had
heard nothing, But I knew.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
I knew he also knows a bit of Keats and Shelley.
How the devil did you get in here, charm?
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Your door was not locked?
Speaker 5 (09:36):
Tell me, doctor Dickens. Are you afraid of death? No
more than most people. But I'd rather not die if
it's all I was saying to.
Speaker 7 (09:45):
You, I'd hope you might think differently than others. At
any rate, I have nothing to do with it. As
I said to you before, Doctor, these matters are arranged
elsewhere where elsewhere.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
You are trying to tell me that you can predict death?
Is that a chart? Of course? I like proof.
Speaker 7 (10:04):
Will you accept full responsibility for the knowledge or give
me a moment?
Speaker 5 (10:13):
As I stood watching him, tall and black against the
white door of my room, it seemed to me he
had turned himself inward, and that the living part of
him had stepped away, leaving only a gaunt shell. There
was no life in him, only the eyes staring.
Speaker 7 (10:29):
You will remember the name of Emily Cartier. Her passage
had been arranged for her. Good night, doctor Dickens. After
he left, Captain, I.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
Walked straight to the phone to call the police.
Speaker 5 (10:46):
I tried to think of how my story would sound
with him not stop me for the moment. But I
did look up the name Charon had quoted. It was
in the phone book. Miss Emily Cartier, for home was
close by, and Lloidburg square. I called her at once,
Hello is this Ms Cottier, Miss Emily Cottier?
Speaker 4 (11:03):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Yes, who is this?
Speaker 4 (11:05):
You don't know me, miss Cartier. My name is Dickon.
I'm not someone who claims to know you. Well.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Isn't that nice?
Speaker 4 (11:14):
A man named Charon? Oh?
Speaker 6 (11:17):
And I'm I'm sorry, mister Dickens. There must be some mistake.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
I don't know anyone by that day. Are you sure?
Speaker 8 (11:24):
Well?
Speaker 4 (11:24):
I'm just as sure as missus Cortier, Miss Cartier? What
is it, missus Cordyer? But I knew what had happened.
I knew all too well. Emily Cartier's passage had been arranged.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
For Hey, anybody been giving you the bird lately?
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Very distinctive character, this Charon, don't you think pick him
out in a shroud anywhere? Yeah, signs all his mail eternally. Well,
shall we get back behind the locked doors of Captain
Zeb's tattoos along?
Speaker 2 (12:23):
I'll put yourself in Zeb's place.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
If a young wild eyed fella came to you with
a wooden box told you it contained the head of
a man who was calling for him at eleven o'clock
that night.
Speaker 5 (12:34):
What would you do?
Speaker 2 (12:36):
You'd listen, wouldn't you well? Listen?
Speaker 9 (12:42):
Hold up now, Land, let me get the straight line
of this This man you think of a sort of
death in mortal shape.
Speaker 6 (12:50):
Him and his bird he told you they could tell
when the body was going to.
Speaker 5 (12:55):
Die before Yes, and to prove it, Charon gave me
the name of the woman in Louisburg Square, Emily Cottier.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
She was murdered while I talked with her on the phone.
Speaker 6 (13:07):
The man was mad murder he killed her?
Speaker 4 (13:11):
Did he? I thought that.
Speaker 5 (13:13):
I went to Louisburg Square after the core I was
determined to tell the first policeman I met the whole story.
When I arrived at Emily Cottier's address, the place was
teeming with excited people.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
Also on the fringe of the crowd. Beneath a single
street line, the tall, gone shape of Charon stood. I
went straight to him, mister Charon, mister Charon, I'm turning
you over to the police, mister Dick. Why why? Because
I know you'll kill this woman.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
So come with me.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
I will speak to the police for you. You don't dare?
Come all right?
Speaker 1 (13:47):
All right, all right, come on onon, go to bed
your face off.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
What do you want, officer.
Speaker 7 (13:53):
My friend and I are a little alarmed about this tragedy.
Why when we live nearby.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
You see, don't give it a thought.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Now, well you got the guy who did it.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
You caught the murder.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Sure, one of the neighbors shut him through the head
while I was climbing out of the winter.
Speaker 4 (14:07):
I'll go on home and forget it if you can. Well, Carl, I.
Speaker 7 (14:16):
Wish you would leave me alone. Oh that is not possible.
One way or another. You must come away with me
when I leave. I refuse to believe it. Suppose I
prove my point again. Suppose I tell you the name
of someone else who will die. If I am right,
you will raise no more objections to leaving with me.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
And if your prediction doesn't work out, you will never
see me again. Agreed.
Speaker 8 (14:45):
Agreed very well, April. Our friend would like to know
who do you know is next to go?
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Oh, Sire Black East didn't get knocked, Sire Black, A
small one.
Speaker 7 (15:10):
Simeon Black is that is yes, Carl, Simeon Black between
eight and eight thirty on the night of November fifteenth.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
That is a week from tonight. All right, fine?
Speaker 5 (15:21):
If Simeon Black doesn't die, then I will never hear
from you again.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
That is correct.
Speaker 7 (15:27):
If Simeon Black dies, as I know it is arranged
that he will, you will come away with me on
the same night at eleven.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
Good night, Karl, Good night.
Speaker 6 (15:41):
Right, November fifteenth. It's tonight, isn't it.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Yes, Captain Zebl that's tonight.
Speaker 6 (15:55):
And what about Simeon Black Man, it's bad thing you made?
Speaker 4 (15:59):
Now?
Speaker 5 (15:59):
I find sim In Black found in this evening. It
was a seam in the docks. Gave me his address,
a cheap rooming house near the Charles River. The ship
was due in at seven. Simeon Black had to live.
I stood outside his rooming house waiting. About five minutes
after right, a big burly rough man came along heading
for the door where I stood.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
He was carrying this box.
Speaker 5 (16:20):
Sime in black with twenty five minutes to live? Are
you Simi in black? Yeah, it's very important that I
talk with you. Oh why, my name is Dickens.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
This is urgent.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Please listen, I'm listening. Go ahead.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
Do you know anyone who might want to do you harm?
Speaker 2 (16:39):
You crazy mister?
Speaker 4 (16:42):
Sure?
Speaker 6 (16:42):
I do couple one hundred guys all around the world.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
But you ain't want him.
Speaker 4 (16:50):
No, no, no, I'm not. But I talked with the
man who said you were going to die between now
in eight thirty. That's why I'm here.
Speaker 5 (16:56):
Oh, man named Sharon, a man who has a pet
MINU heard the talks here.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
I think we better go up to my room and
talk to him.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
Come on in his room.
Speaker 5 (17:15):
I told him all about Sharon and the bird. There
was a large clock in the steeple of a nearby dockhouse.
I saw that the minute hands stood at twenty.
Speaker 4 (17:24):
Five after eight.
Speaker 5 (17:25):
When I finished, Black stood up, his heavy face and
our pasty pale.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
The veins of his neck throbbed.
Speaker 6 (17:31):
So you're the guy I've been waiting for, all right, Dickens.
I met the man with the white mottin ache. He
told me that some dad be killed.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
He sent you.
Speaker 6 (17:43):
But I'm not playing.
Speaker 5 (17:45):
I don't die easy see, Nestink says, I don't fool
put that gun down.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
Killing me won't help. All we have to do is
wait till the time has passed. Three more minutes at.
Speaker 6 (17:56):
Down than telling y'all gonna give me god stupid.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
Punk. Hey, he was all right, Hey, got it?
Speaker 5 (18:15):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (18:18):
I couldn't believe my own eyes. I stood there, gaping
at the floor.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
The hook that had been Simeon Black was crumpled grotesquely
on the bare boards of the room, his denim shirt
staining darker and darker as I watched it through my
fog mind.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
I heard the clock strike the half hour outside. Simeon
Black had died, as Charon had predicted, but I had
killed him.
Speaker 5 (18:46):
The gun was still in my hand as the door opened,
and Charon tall gaune lips, smiling eyes, smoldering Black stood there.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
You see, Carl, I've kept my bug see in Black
he's dead.
Speaker 5 (19:01):
You made me do this, You played me against Black.
You knew something like this had happened.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
How when are you going to understand?
Speaker 5 (19:09):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (19:10):
I knew, but these things are arranged by you. Of
course I made a bargain with you.
Speaker 6 (19:17):
Yes, you did go.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
I will call for you at eleven. We will leave together. No, no,
you are leaving, no cher No.
Speaker 5 (19:34):
For a moment I thought I hadn't hit him, he
stood there without a tremor done from his thin colored slips.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
A trickle of blood coursed down his chin. I can't
tell you the triumph.
Speaker 5 (19:45):
For the moment, the days of supernatural fantastic horra seemed to.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
Run out of me.
Speaker 5 (19:50):
The sight of his blood told me this man wasn't death.
This was a clever man who had somehow used me.
Everything seemed right again in the world, no matter what
happened to me, no matter what.
Speaker 6 (20:07):
An't your daring lead out of it?
Speaker 4 (20:13):
Not quite Captain's ebb.
Speaker 5 (20:16):
As I regained my senses and saw him there, still
smiling mirthlessly, on the floor beside me in Black, I
had an impulse to be certain that he wouldn't come
back to me. I found a knife in Black's kitchen.
Hat I suppose I still wasn't thinking clearly. Stupidly, I
thought perhaps even a supernatural being divested of its head
might be powerless.
Speaker 9 (20:37):
Now I know better, so you tettered the dep of
in here from the water front in Simeon's deuffer box.
Speaker 5 (20:42):
Yes, And as I walked here, I began to realize
Sharon will keep his end of the bargain.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
That's the story Captain's ebb.
Speaker 6 (20:57):
And it puts me on the spot.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
Lead.
Speaker 5 (21:00):
I know you wanna call the police, should you know?
But you did promise to come to my place and
wait till after eleven.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
Anyhow I did.
Speaker 6 (21:10):
It's fifteen. I would ever, now, Dad, I'll go down
with you.
Speaker 4 (21:15):
Come in What time?
Speaker 6 (21:26):
Is it at most eleven?
Speaker 4 (21:30):
That that again?
Speaker 6 (21:31):
That ain't nothing gonna happen now.
Speaker 4 (21:35):
But I I feel it.
Speaker 5 (21:39):
Sort of a chill, a tight, scared feeling about my eye.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
I know China is coming for me. I feel it.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Gosh, this is that bliss.
Speaker 4 (21:51):
It's just coming. I feel it in my heart.
Speaker 6 (21:57):
Ayah sure, but all right, cheer, all right, I'm ready
her hutch up hot the devil.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
Dead.
Speaker 6 (22:21):
He's dead, I mean, hang it, come in, Dickens. Dickens
hits him there?
Speaker 4 (22:33):
What's wrong with him?
Speaker 6 (22:35):
Well, you can't believe it or not.
Speaker 9 (22:39):
I was just talking to the bed when he pops up,
turned blew in her face and just.
Speaker 4 (22:46):
Stop talking. He's dead.
Speaker 6 (22:51):
Hu Hotel. From the look of him, I'd say, heart case,
I have to wait for the car.
Speaker 9 (22:58):
Now.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
Of the queer things you come across in this business.
Speaker 6 (23:03):
Queer, how come here to be here?
Speaker 4 (23:08):
Just at eleven?
Speaker 6 (23:10):
That's the queer one to me.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
Well, we got a stiff without a head down at
the water front a.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Couple of hours back. Found a diary on him and
we've been checking up.
Speaker 6 (23:21):
Who was it?
Speaker 9 (23:22):
Guy named Charon was let out of Double's Island when
they closed it up a couple of years back.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
According to the diary, he's.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Been not to get everybody ever had anything to do
with his being sent up, and that must have been
a smart one.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
He names three people he wanted to get rid of,
played one against the other.
Speaker 6 (23:41):
I guess the two who killed him.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
I don't know. Sergeant's working on it.
Speaker 9 (23:47):
All I know is in this character's book, there's the
notes is see Carl Dickens Pinckney.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Street, eleven o'clock, November fifteen.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
What what gooay? One of them was that it's.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Just the bird here.
Speaker 6 (24:08):
Minor bird talks these tee. I think it's a.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Bird my mind. You'd better see the headman's.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
You know.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
One thing to learn about all this is you should
never lose your head in a crisis.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Oh, you shouldn't lose your head anywhere for that matter.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Mmm.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
Oh yes, just a bit of advice, folks.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
If some bird comes up to you and says it's late,
you agree with him and call the zoo right away.
It's probably a minor bird and mina's it's being bad
when it's late.
Speaker 9 (25:07):
Inner Sanctum came to you through the United States Armed
Forces Radio Service, the voice of Information and Education.
Speaker 4 (26:00):
But
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