September 22, 2025 • 25 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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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Good evening, friends of the Ana Sanctum. This is your
host to welcome you through the squeaking door into my
dread dumbicile of desair.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Come in, come.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Into my parlor of penny. Or would you rather sit
out here on the terrots of terrors? Hm? Hm oh,
A bit cool out here, all right, let's go indoors.
By all means, the house itself is always warm. You see,
I had the painter give it two coats, all of
(00:44):
it built solely for your poignant pleasure and dolorous diversion.
The price, oh so reason, only a pint down and
a pint a month for as long as you live.
Pint of wine, you who know, ha ha ha. The
(01:07):
Night's Inner Sanctum mystery The Eyes of My Murderer was
written by Amiel Tepperman and stars Donald Bucker in the
role of Barry, with Charlotte Holland as Carron.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Now let's go down to business.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
To night.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
We hear the story of Carolyn Medford and the strange
things that happened to her when she came to visit
her aunt, Loretta Medford on that grim evening of the
tenth of June.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
But before we hear.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Carolyn's story, it will be necessary to consult the police
report for the facts covering the three hours preceding Carolyn's arrival.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
I Otto Frayne, Lieutenantive Detectives in charge of the long
View County Homicide Department, make this report of my own
free wills. It is well known that I have been
collaborating with Loretta Medford, the writer on a new radio
series of half hours shows based on my experiences as
a homicide detective, which was The Star, Barry Adams and
(02:06):
the Featured Row. Each evening at nine, after finishing my
regular tour of police duty, it has been my custom
to drive out to Loretta Medford's summer place on the
north Shore, about five miles from town. There we three, Loretta,
Barry and I would work on the series.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Till well after midnight.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Last night, the tenth of June, I left my office
as usual promptly at nine. It was exactly nine sixteen
and one half by my dashboard clock when I turned
in from the highway to the private road leading along
the shore front to Loretta's cottage. I was a bit
puzzled when I got out of the car, because neither
(02:47):
Loretta nor Barry Adams were on the porch, but they
usually waited for me.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
At that instant, it was exactly nine seventeen.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
I recalled checking the time on my wristwatch to make
sure I wasn't too early nine seventeen.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
It was at that precise moment that I heard the screams.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
It was coming from the direction of the private boat
dock at the rear of the house. I ran across
the lawn toward the dock with my gun in my hand,
but when I reached the dock, there was nothing to
be seen or heard. The darkness was thick, thick and black.
And then, not ten feet away from me, I heard
Loretta's voice.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
I couldn't see anything, and.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
Yet I knew someone was here, someone who had just
stabbed Loretta to death and cast her body off the dock, someone.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Who probably still had a bloody knife in his hand.
And I saw him.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
He was only a couple of feet away from me,
just a blur in the night, too dark to see
his face, but when he spoke, I knew him.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Had you want a Barry Barry Adam, what happened on him?
Speaker 4 (04:00):
For Heaven's sake, tell me what happened suppose you tell
me what happened.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
That was Loretta? Yes, I know it was Loretta. Why
are we standing here? What do we look for? Try
to help her?
Speaker 4 (04:10):
You know, there's no use looking for a A body
went over the side, and you know the current here
is strong enough to carry her right out the sea.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
She was murdered right here in the dark, and I
wasn't ten feet away? Were you that far away? What?
What did you say? Why did you kill her?
Speaker 5 (04:28):
Barry?
Speaker 6 (04:29):
Don't fool I was walking around on the other side
of the house when I heard the scream.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Why I must have got here about the same time
you did. Sorry, Barry, I can't buy that. Look here, otto.
You know I'm going to marry Carolyn, don't you? Yes,
I know you're gonna marry Carolyn. But then how can
you imagine I kill herround?
Speaker 4 (04:46):
It's no use, Barry. You can't talk yourself out of it.
You got to be the killer.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
There's no one else here on the dock. What about you? Well,
you're on the dog all right. I just got here.
So you say, the house is so quiet, hadn't we
(05:11):
better wake up missus? Bench Later we take a look
in Loretto's library, just to make. We'll have to keep
that gun stuck in my back. Go on, open the door.
I I can't. What's the matter with you? I I
have a feeling we'll see Loretti in there. There's always
with the dictating machine, with a cigarette between her lips.
(05:34):
Not don't your conscience. I've seen lots of murderers.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
Their conscience usually gets them shortly after the crime.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
I didn't kill her. If Loretta we're here, she does.
But she isn't.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
She's out in the sea, wet and cold, no seaweed,
cleaning door, and your knife still in her throat?
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Stop and stop it. Well, well you open that door.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
Alright, Well what what is it? Why did you close
that door again?
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Floretta? She's in there, you know?
Speaker 7 (06:08):
Crazy?
Speaker 2 (06:09):
She's in there, right are you?
Speaker 6 (06:10):
Her hair all matted from the sea, a bloody, wounded
approat out But wait, don't don't open it.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
Trying to tell me you saw a ghost. Well, if
you didn't kill her, her ghost won't hurt you. Ah,
where is she?
Speaker 2 (06:25):
She? She isn't here. So you saw Loretta?
Speaker 4 (06:31):
Hm?
Speaker 2 (06:31):
You I saw her with a wounded her throat. Say,
how did you know she'd been stabbed in the throat.
Speaker 6 (06:38):
What do you mean just before you said she was
floating in the sea with a knife in her throat?
Speaker 2 (06:44):
How did you know where she's been stabbed? Ah?
Speaker 4 (06:46):
I I didn't know, but you said it, well, that
was just third degree stuff. I was trying to paint
a picture for you to break you down. We do
it every day with murderers.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
That's the way I saw her. Just now.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
Sure my picture made it so vivid in your mind
you thought you saw proves you killed her.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
This is no illusion. She was right there, I tell you,
before the mirrors. What was she doing? Standing or sitting?
She or just floating? I I don't know. While I
saw was her face, her tangled hair, her throat in
one hand. She she was pointing at something. You got
(07:24):
a bad Barry wanted to sign a confession.
Speaker 6 (07:27):
She was looking right at me and pointing over there
to the dictating machine.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Oh the machine? Huh?
Speaker 6 (07:37):
How do you make this thing work? With the needle
back to the start of the cylinder. I'll press the
playback switch right there.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
I don't hear anything. Press the button on the speaking
to me.
Speaker 7 (07:48):
Oh, well, sh tonight, I am going to die. I
am going to be murdered. I know, because I've seen
it in the eyes to my murderer. I even know
the plan, the current that runs past the boat dock,
the freak current that catches up any object thrown to
(08:11):
it and carries it out to the sea. My body
is to disappear. There will be no corpus DELECTI. Anyone
else might be frightened, but I'm not. I know that
I shall come back. I know that I shall be
(08:32):
able to point to my murderer. And what's more important,
protect Caroline. Yes, Carolyn, isn't it.
Speaker 8 (08:46):
That's the end of the end of the record.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Good Heavens are them. She knew she was going to
be murdered, and she knew the killer. She she said
she'd come back. Well she's dead, but.
Speaker 6 (08:59):
She did come back. M she pointed at the dictating machine.
And Carolyn's in danger too. Good, Kevin, she's coming in
on the midnight train. I've got to meet her. I'll
have to leave now.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
You're not going anywhere, Barry. I'm arresting you for the
murder of Lorretta Medford. You can't do that, Otto, woll
me Carolyn.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
Don't worry about that. After I get you safely in
a cell. I'll meet you Carolyn for you.
Speaker 6 (09:19):
You wanna get me out of the way in a
cell so you can meet Carolyn and kill her too.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
You're the chiller a luck. That kind of talk won't
get you anywhere. I won't let you do it. I'm
getting out of your seat now.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
I won't stop her shoe what florretda? I must have
been mistaken, imagine it. I let Barry get away. I'll
never find him in the dark. A voice could have.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Sworn, Lieutenant Sane And what is.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
It that you could have sworn, Missus Finch?
Speaker 9 (09:55):
Please excuse the night clothes. I was rudely awakened in
the midst of it troubled sleep.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Missus Finch? Did you.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
Did you just call out to me just now? Did
you say don't shoot otto?
Speaker 9 (10:10):
I'd not be likely to say such a thing to you,
Lieutenant Frame. And was it, mister Barry, you were going
to shoot whom I just saw scooting out of here
like a streak of lightning.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
H I don't understand a thing like this, a thing
like what I just heard or or thought I heard,
lorretta met but say something to.
Speaker 9 (10:29):
Me, not being scotch like me, You don't understand how
it was that a dead woman.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Spoke to you? How did you know she was dead?
Speaker 3 (10:39):
He didn't even become so excited. It was in my sleep.
Speaker 5 (10:44):
I saw m.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Saw in your sleep.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Yeah, and it troubled me.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
So the dye of woke.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
He came before me.
Speaker 10 (10:54):
With her hair all dank, entangled, and.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
The sult water glistening on her face in the dark,
and her boat bleeding, and draw.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
You you saw her like that?
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Oh yeah, And she spoke to me.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
I don't believe you. I I don't believe in such things.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
You don't day.
Speaker 9 (11:16):
Then who was it that spoke to you a moment
ago and told you not to shoot? I?
Speaker 2 (11:23):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Remember I told you this was really Caroline Medford's story.
You've heard Lieutenant out of Frame's report of what happened
before midnight. That was just the introduction. Now we come
to the crux of the story. What happened after midnight,
when that gad about ghost really started a war? And
(11:57):
here's Caroline herself, the tenant.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
It's not difficult to imagine a sense of shock with
which I read Otto's report of the murder of Antleretta
duz Otto, who met me at the train instead of
Barrow e Barry. He didn't explain where Barry was in. Instead,
he had.
Speaker 11 (12:17):
Me the report, which he had typed at the headquarters
before coming to meet me. I read it in his
car with the aid of a flashlight while he drove
to Ant Loretta's. When I finished reading.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
I just sat there with the papers in my lap.
I felt something tight catching in my throat. I couldn't cry.
If I had been able to cry, it might have
been better.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
I'm sorry, Carolyn about Barry.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
I don't believe it.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
How well do you know him? When did you first meet?
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Last time? I visited here in April when school closed
for Easter.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Well, you were only here for a week.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
We've written regularly ever since. He proposed to me that
mayor So you don't really know him very well, well
enough to marry him. Autho.
Speaker 4 (13:07):
A man could be that kind of killer, and you'd
never guess it to look at him, or talk to him,
or even from the way he made love to you.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Please, Otter, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
You know how I feel about you, don't you.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Yes, I know if it weren't for Barry.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
If it weren't for Barry, I might have a.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Chance h oh, I do please be kind to him.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
You love him so much. Alright, Carolyn, I'll tear up
that report.
Speaker 5 (13:39):
Oh no, no, I I don't.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
I don't mean that.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
I don't.
Speaker 10 (13:41):
I mean prove that he's innocent.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Find the real killer. Oh don't.
Speaker 5 (13:45):
Don't you see it might have been somebody else and mad.
Then maybe an escape lunatic.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
There's only one trouble with that theory, Carolyn. What. I
was the only other person on the dock.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
The college was brilliant, with light in every room when
we arrived, as if to drive away evil spirits and ghosts.
Speaker 11 (14:09):
I was so tired and numb from the long train
ride and from the shepherd news I had heard.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
But I stood with my eyes half closed.
Speaker 11 (14:15):
While Otto rang the bell and.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Missus Finch opened the door.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Come in, miss Carolyn, Oh, come in, Lieutenant I.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
My men all gone.
Speaker 9 (14:25):
Yes, they left a little while ago. Oh, miss Carolyn,
you look exhausted.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Come. I have your room ready.
Speaker 9 (14:32):
You'll be wanting to sleep, Yes, if only you'll not
be bothered by any apparition.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Ah, just a minute, Yes, I don't.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
Missus Finch, what makes you think she'll be bothered by
an apparition?
Speaker 3 (14:45):
Didn't it come to me? Didn't mister Barry?
Speaker 9 (14:48):
See it didn't it even make itself heard to you
a scopper? Then it will surely come to miss Carolyn.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
You believe that, Carolyn?
Speaker 3 (14:58):
I don't know otto Loretta was so interested in the supernatural,
the possibility of communicating.
Speaker 5 (15:04):
With the dead.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
If you'll look in her library, you'll find she has
almost every book ever written.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
On the subject. That may be so, but do you
believe in it?
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Loretta often told me, if she died before I did,
she'd managed to get in touch with me. Missus pinch
who could have hated Loretta enough to kill her?
Speaker 9 (15:28):
Don't bother your pretty head with that now. There'll be
time for talk in the morning.
Speaker 12 (15:32):
I want to know now, be better to sleep now, No, please,
missus Pincher.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
You knew her, You knew her so well, you've you've
been with her for fourteen.
Speaker 9 (15:40):
Year years, fourteen years long enough to learn to hate her.
Speaker 5 (15:46):
What what did you say?
Speaker 9 (15:48):
Don't look so startled. You two have cause to hater,
and so has mister Barry. What are you talking about her?
With her thirty eight years weighing heavy on her and
all those peroxides and creams and shampoos that she used.
You know why, because she wanted mister Barry for herself.
Oh no, I can't believe that burned her inside to
(16:09):
think of mister Barry marrying you.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
She would gladly have died to stop it. And hasn't
she done it?
Speaker 9 (16:16):
She rooted mister Barry into killing her, and now he'll
be hunted and caught and executed. And wherever she is
at this moment, if she can laugh, she's laughing.
Speaker 5 (16:26):
Oh no, no, no, Missus Pince.
Speaker 11 (16:33):
How long I lay there after Missus Finch had left,
I don't know. I was cold, cold and shivering. My
eyes were wide and sleepless as I lay taught in
the bed, and my nerves were raw.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
So raw that the slightest song grated had sound at
the window.
Speaker 5 (16:54):
My eyes flew toward it, and I glimpsed.
Speaker 11 (16:56):
At the shapeless form out there in the night, and
I saw the window slowly, and she knocked.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
I must have leaked up by an take a terrors,
and I was at the door and it snatched it up.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
The corridor was still, there, wasn't sound. I dare not
look back into my room at the window.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
I ran across the hall and pulled up in the
door of missus Finch's room. Missus Finch, Missus Finch.
Speaker 11 (17:20):
There was no answer. The room was empty. Missus Finch
wasn't there. Finally I turned and ran to the stairs.
How I got down and without falling, I'll never know.
But at the foot of the stairs I stopped, and
everything within me seemed to congeal. For there my feet
lay the body of Missus Finch, and her eyes were
(17:40):
wide and staring, and her mouth was set in the
terror of grim, and her head rested at a crazy
angle on her shoulder, for her throat was cut almost.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
From ear to ear.
Speaker 6 (17:56):
Stop it's all right, Carol's all right, it's hip.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
Barry there then, now take it easy, honey.
Speaker 5 (18:08):
Dad topically sleep in my eyes and the rush of
blood subsiding from my temples, And.
Speaker 10 (18:14):
Then I thought there he was standing there, right in
his hands with a.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Knife, and blood was dripping from the blade.
Speaker 6 (18:24):
Take it easy, Carroll, Barry the knife you killed. I
didn't kill Missus Finch. I just picked the knife up
in the kitchen to killer must have thrown it away.
Speaker 5 (18:34):
He must have heard me scream. He was watching for
you outside in.
Speaker 6 (18:37):
His car I'm not get away. Carry Why are you
looking at me like that? You don't think I killed
missus Finch? Order and still Barry or I shoot to kill.
I don't move while I climb in through this window.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
All right, Barry, drop the knife. Oh, then you talk
your way out of this one.
Speaker 8 (19:00):
Mm.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
I look here They stood there, arguing, and I didn't
know what they were saying.
Speaker 11 (19:05):
I only felt a great and terrible warning, as if
I had had enough of.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Living and would welcome dance if it only had mensely
could rest.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
And I awoke, everything was still. I must have fainted.
I realized with a shock where I was.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
I was in Loretta's bedroom, her bedroom which adjoined the library.
I'd pushed myself off the bed and went over to
the library door.
Speaker 5 (19:46):
Out on her Berry and Atto talking in the library.
Their voices were heated numbly. My fingers calmed the catch
and locked the door.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
Then I went to the other door leading to the carter,
and I turned the catch on that one too.
Speaker 13 (19:59):
Oh.
Speaker 11 (19:59):
I wanted was to be alone, forever, alone with the
terrible throbbing in my temples and the emptiness.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
I had to believe I now, in spite of myself.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
I had to believe him.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
I had seen Barry with that knife in his hand.
Speaker 5 (20:20):
Shots from the library, got up in the bed. Two
men in the library. One of them had killed the other.
Which otherwood had the gun? But Barry might have tricked
him somehow. Which which was dead? Which was alive?
Speaker 2 (20:40):
The one was trying the library door.
Speaker 5 (20:42):
Oh, which one?
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Tell I must talk to you. I won't answer. You'll
think I'm sleeve. You were shot from the window. Let
me and I tell you, I've got to protect you.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
I ought to let him in the let him kill me.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
What's the use of living.
Speaker 5 (21:04):
Theretta said she would come to me. Maybe if Loretta comes,
she'll take me back with her to the land.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
Of the day.
Speaker 13 (21:11):
And ecellent idea, Carolyn, Loretta, you did come back as
you promised, as you see, Carolyn.
Speaker 5 (21:21):
But but why isn't your hair all mader than dank?
And the way the others saw.
Speaker 12 (21:25):
You, and and the wound in your throat that the
other saw the others saw what I wanted them to see.
Speaker 10 (21:32):
Carolyn, I I I don't understand, Loretta. Do you mean
that you're really not dead?
Speaker 5 (21:41):
Exactly, my dear? But you were murdered out on the dock.
Barry and Otto heard it.
Speaker 10 (21:47):
They heard it, but they didn't see it. Was it
a trick, Yes, dear, it was a trick.
Speaker 5 (21:57):
I was never on the dock.
Speaker 7 (21:58):
I was beneath it, and.
Speaker 10 (22:01):
Eh and I screamed from the rowboat.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
And made Barry an Otto each think that the other
had murdered me.
Speaker 13 (22:11):
That gun you're holding you you just shot Otto with her? Yes,
of course, So Berry is really innocent. Yes, dear, oh Loredda,
You've done all of.
Speaker 10 (22:23):
This because you really hate me.
Speaker 12 (22:26):
Yes, dear, I hate you so terribly that I'd be
happy to die if I could destroy you with myself
on account of Berry.
Speaker 10 (22:38):
Isn't it. Yes?
Speaker 7 (22:40):
I could have forgiven you everything, your youth, your looks, everything,
but Barry. I could have had him if you hadn't
come along.
Speaker 5 (22:49):
But now you shan't have him because I'm gonna kill you. Then,
when Barry's caught, he'll pay for you for all the others.
Harry who killed her?
Speaker 8 (23:02):
If I had to carol him, she'd have killed you, darling, don't.
There'll be no more ghosts between us ever.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
There Now all's well, that ends in a clint. I
really don't know what to say.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
About this.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
It's so seldom anything.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
On in her tanks and ends in a clinch.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
That's because it takes two to make a clinch, and
we rarely have two characters left alive at the end
of our story. Anyway, I suppose I could call to
Night's Taylor's Excess story. You know, it's usually a story
about a self made man.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Well, Loretta was a self made ghost.
Speaker 14 (23:56):
Well, you see, we invite you to join us again
next week at this time for Inner sanctum. This is
the United States Armed Forces Radio Service, the Voice of
(24:16):
Information and education.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
Supper
Good evening, friends of the Ana Sanctum. This is your
host to welcome you through the squeaking door into my
dread dumbicile of desair.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Come in, come.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Into my parlor of penny. Or would you rather sit
out here on the terrots of terrors? Hm? Hm oh,
A bit cool out here, all right, let's go indoors.
By all means, the house itself is always warm. You see,
I had the painter give it two coats, all of
(00:44):
it built solely for your poignant pleasure and dolorous diversion.
The price, oh so reason, only a pint down and
a pint a month for as long as you live.
Pint of wine, you who know, ha ha ha. The
(01:07):
Night's Inner Sanctum mystery The Eyes of My Murderer was
written by Amiel Tepperman and stars Donald Bucker in the
role of Barry, with Charlotte Holland as Carron.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Now let's go down to business.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
To night.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
We hear the story of Carolyn Medford and the strange
things that happened to her when she came to visit
her aunt, Loretta Medford on that grim evening of the
tenth of June.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
But before we hear.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Carolyn's story, it will be necessary to consult the police
report for the facts covering the three hours preceding Carolyn's arrival.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
I Otto Frayne, Lieutenantive Detectives in charge of the long
View County Homicide Department, make this report of my own
free wills. It is well known that I have been
collaborating with Loretta Medford, the writer on a new radio
series of half hours shows based on my experiences as
a homicide detective, which was The Star, Barry Adams and
(02:06):
the Featured Row. Each evening at nine, after finishing my
regular tour of police duty, it has been my custom
to drive out to Loretta Medford's summer place on the
north Shore, about five miles from town. There we three, Loretta,
Barry and I would work on the series.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Till well after midnight.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Last night, the tenth of June, I left my office
as usual promptly at nine. It was exactly nine sixteen
and one half by my dashboard clock when I turned
in from the highway to the private road leading along
the shore front to Loretta's cottage. I was a bit
puzzled when I got out of the car, because neither
(02:47):
Loretta nor Barry Adams were on the porch, but they
usually waited for me.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
At that instant, it was exactly nine seventeen.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
I recalled checking the time on my wristwatch to make
sure I wasn't too early nine seventeen.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
It was at that precise moment that I heard the screams.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
It was coming from the direction of the private boat
dock at the rear of the house. I ran across
the lawn toward the dock with my gun in my hand,
but when I reached the dock, there was nothing to
be seen or heard. The darkness was thick, thick and black.
And then, not ten feet away from me, I heard
Loretta's voice.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
I couldn't see anything, and.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
Yet I knew someone was here, someone who had just
stabbed Loretta to death and cast her body off the dock, someone.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Who probably still had a bloody knife in his hand.
And I saw him.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
He was only a couple of feet away from me,
just a blur in the night, too dark to see
his face, but when he spoke, I knew him.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Had you want a Barry Barry Adam, what happened on him?
Speaker 4 (04:00):
For Heaven's sake, tell me what happened suppose you tell
me what happened.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
That was Loretta? Yes, I know it was Loretta. Why
are we standing here? What do we look for? Try
to help her?
Speaker 4 (04:10):
You know, there's no use looking for a A body
went over the side, and you know the current here
is strong enough to carry her right out the sea.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
She was murdered right here in the dark, and I
wasn't ten feet away? Were you that far away? What?
What did you say? Why did you kill her?
Speaker 5 (04:28):
Barry?
Speaker 6 (04:29):
Don't fool I was walking around on the other side
of the house when I heard the scream.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Why I must have got here about the same time
you did. Sorry, Barry, I can't buy that. Look here, otto.
You know I'm going to marry Carolyn, don't you? Yes,
I know you're gonna marry Carolyn. But then how can
you imagine I kill herround?
Speaker 4 (04:46):
It's no use, Barry. You can't talk yourself out of it.
You got to be the killer.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
There's no one else here on the dock. What about you? Well,
you're on the dog all right. I just got here.
So you say, the house is so quiet, hadn't we
(05:11):
better wake up missus? Bench Later we take a look
in Loretto's library, just to make. We'll have to keep
that gun stuck in my back. Go on, open the door.
I I can't. What's the matter with you? I I
have a feeling we'll see Loretti in there. There's always
with the dictating machine, with a cigarette between her lips.
(05:34):
Not don't your conscience. I've seen lots of murderers.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
Their conscience usually gets them shortly after the crime.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
I didn't kill her. If Loretta we're here, she does.
But she isn't.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
She's out in the sea, wet and cold, no seaweed,
cleaning door, and your knife still in her throat?
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Stop and stop it. Well, well you open that door.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
Alright, Well what what is it? Why did you close
that door again?
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Floretta? She's in there, you know?
Speaker 7 (06:08):
Crazy?
Speaker 2 (06:09):
She's in there, right are you?
Speaker 6 (06:10):
Her hair all matted from the sea, a bloody, wounded
approat out But wait, don't don't open it.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
Trying to tell me you saw a ghost. Well, if
you didn't kill her, her ghost won't hurt you. Ah,
where is she?
Speaker 2 (06:25):
She? She isn't here. So you saw Loretta?
Speaker 4 (06:31):
Hm?
Speaker 2 (06:31):
You I saw her with a wounded her throat. Say,
how did you know she'd been stabbed in the throat.
Speaker 6 (06:38):
What do you mean just before you said she was
floating in the sea with a knife in her throat?
Speaker 2 (06:44):
How did you know where she's been stabbed? Ah?
Speaker 4 (06:46):
I I didn't know, but you said it, well, that
was just third degree stuff. I was trying to paint
a picture for you to break you down. We do
it every day with murderers.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
That's the way I saw her. Just now.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
Sure my picture made it so vivid in your mind
you thought you saw proves you killed her.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
This is no illusion. She was right there, I tell you,
before the mirrors. What was she doing? Standing or sitting?
She or just floating? I I don't know. While I
saw was her face, her tangled hair, her throat in
one hand. She she was pointing at something. You got
(07:24):
a bad Barry wanted to sign a confession.
Speaker 6 (07:27):
She was looking right at me and pointing over there
to the dictating machine.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Oh the machine? Huh?
Speaker 6 (07:37):
How do you make this thing work? With the needle
back to the start of the cylinder. I'll press the
playback switch right there.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
I don't hear anything. Press the button on the speaking
to me.
Speaker 7 (07:48):
Oh, well, sh tonight, I am going to die. I
am going to be murdered. I know, because I've seen
it in the eyes to my murderer. I even know
the plan, the current that runs past the boat dock,
the freak current that catches up any object thrown to
(08:11):
it and carries it out to the sea. My body
is to disappear. There will be no corpus DELECTI. Anyone
else might be frightened, but I'm not. I know that
I shall come back. I know that I shall be
(08:32):
able to point to my murderer. And what's more important,
protect Caroline. Yes, Carolyn, isn't it.
Speaker 8 (08:46):
That's the end of the end of the record.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Good Heavens are them. She knew she was going to
be murdered, and she knew the killer. She she said
she'd come back. Well she's dead, but.
Speaker 6 (08:59):
She did come back. M she pointed at the dictating machine.
And Carolyn's in danger too. Good, Kevin, she's coming in
on the midnight train. I've got to meet her. I'll
have to leave now.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
You're not going anywhere, Barry. I'm arresting you for the
murder of Lorretta Medford. You can't do that, Otto, woll
me Carolyn.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
Don't worry about that. After I get you safely in
a cell. I'll meet you Carolyn for you.
Speaker 6 (09:19):
You wanna get me out of the way in a
cell so you can meet Carolyn and kill her too.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
You're the chiller a luck. That kind of talk won't
get you anywhere. I won't let you do it. I'm
getting out of your seat now.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
I won't stop her shoe what florretda? I must have
been mistaken, imagine it. I let Barry get away. I'll
never find him in the dark. A voice could have.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Sworn, Lieutenant Sane And what is.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
It that you could have sworn, Missus Finch?
Speaker 9 (09:55):
Please excuse the night clothes. I was rudely awakened in
the midst of it troubled sleep.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Missus Finch? Did you.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
Did you just call out to me just now? Did
you say don't shoot otto?
Speaker 9 (10:10):
I'd not be likely to say such a thing to you,
Lieutenant Frame. And was it, mister Barry, you were going
to shoot whom I just saw scooting out of here
like a streak of lightning.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
H I don't understand a thing like this, a thing
like what I just heard or or thought I heard,
lorretta met but say something to.
Speaker 9 (10:29):
Me, not being scotch like me, You don't understand how
it was that a dead woman.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Spoke to you? How did you know she was dead?
Speaker 3 (10:39):
He didn't even become so excited. It was in my sleep.
Speaker 5 (10:44):
I saw m.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Saw in your sleep.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Yeah, and it troubled me.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
So the dye of woke.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
He came before me.
Speaker 10 (10:54):
With her hair all dank, entangled, and.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
The sult water glistening on her face in the dark,
and her boat bleeding, and draw.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
You you saw her like that?
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Oh yeah, And she spoke to me.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
I don't believe you. I I don't believe in such things.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
You don't day.
Speaker 9 (11:16):
Then who was it that spoke to you a moment
ago and told you not to shoot? I?
Speaker 2 (11:23):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Remember I told you this was really Caroline Medford's story.
You've heard Lieutenant out of Frame's report of what happened
before midnight. That was just the introduction. Now we come
to the crux of the story. What happened after midnight,
when that gad about ghost really started a war? And
(11:57):
here's Caroline herself, the tenant.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
It's not difficult to imagine a sense of shock with
which I read Otto's report of the murder of Antleretta
duz Otto, who met me at the train instead of
Barrow e Barry. He didn't explain where Barry was in. Instead,
he had.
Speaker 11 (12:17):
Me the report, which he had typed at the headquarters
before coming to meet me. I read it in his
car with the aid of a flashlight while he drove
to Ant Loretta's. When I finished reading.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
I just sat there with the papers in my lap.
I felt something tight catching in my throat. I couldn't cry.
If I had been able to cry, it might have
been better.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
I'm sorry, Carolyn about Barry.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
I don't believe it.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
How well do you know him? When did you first meet?
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Last time? I visited here in April when school closed
for Easter.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Well, you were only here for a week.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
We've written regularly ever since. He proposed to me that
mayor So you don't really know him very well, well
enough to marry him. Autho.
Speaker 4 (13:07):
A man could be that kind of killer, and you'd
never guess it to look at him, or talk to him,
or even from the way he made love to you.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Please, Otter, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
You know how I feel about you, don't you.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Yes, I know if it weren't for Barry.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
If it weren't for Barry, I might have a.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Chance h oh, I do please be kind to him.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
You love him so much. Alright, Carolyn, I'll tear up
that report.
Speaker 5 (13:39):
Oh no, no, I I don't.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
I don't mean that.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
I don't.
Speaker 10 (13:41):
I mean prove that he's innocent.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Find the real killer. Oh don't.
Speaker 5 (13:45):
Don't you see it might have been somebody else and mad.
Then maybe an escape lunatic.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
There's only one trouble with that theory, Carolyn. What. I
was the only other person on the dock.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
The college was brilliant, with light in every room when
we arrived, as if to drive away evil spirits and ghosts.
Speaker 11 (14:09):
I was so tired and numb from the long train
ride and from the shepherd news I had heard.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
But I stood with my eyes half closed.
Speaker 11 (14:15):
While Otto rang the bell and.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Missus Finch opened the door.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Come in, miss Carolyn, Oh, come in, Lieutenant I.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
My men all gone.
Speaker 9 (14:25):
Yes, they left a little while ago. Oh, miss Carolyn,
you look exhausted.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Come. I have your room ready.
Speaker 9 (14:32):
You'll be wanting to sleep, Yes, if only you'll not
be bothered by any apparition.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Ah, just a minute, Yes, I don't.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
Missus Finch, what makes you think she'll be bothered by
an apparition?
Speaker 3 (14:45):
Didn't it come to me? Didn't mister Barry?
Speaker 9 (14:48):
See it didn't it even make itself heard to you
a scopper? Then it will surely come to miss Carolyn.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
You believe that, Carolyn?
Speaker 3 (14:58):
I don't know otto Loretta was so interested in the supernatural,
the possibility of communicating.
Speaker 5 (15:04):
With the dead.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
If you'll look in her library, you'll find she has
almost every book ever written.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
On the subject. That may be so, but do you
believe in it?
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Loretta often told me, if she died before I did,
she'd managed to get in touch with me. Missus pinch
who could have hated Loretta enough to kill her?
Speaker 9 (15:28):
Don't bother your pretty head with that now. There'll be
time for talk in the morning.
Speaker 12 (15:32):
I want to know now, be better to sleep now, No, please,
missus Pincher.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
You knew her, You knew her so well, you've you've
been with her for fourteen.
Speaker 9 (15:40):
Year years, fourteen years long enough to learn to hate her.
Speaker 5 (15:46):
What what did you say?
Speaker 9 (15:48):
Don't look so startled. You two have cause to hater,
and so has mister Barry. What are you talking about her?
With her thirty eight years weighing heavy on her and
all those peroxides and creams and shampoos that she used.
You know why, because she wanted mister Barry for herself.
Oh no, I can't believe that burned her inside to
(16:09):
think of mister Barry marrying you.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
She would gladly have died to stop it. And hasn't
she done it?
Speaker 9 (16:16):
She rooted mister Barry into killing her, and now he'll
be hunted and caught and executed. And wherever she is
at this moment, if she can laugh, she's laughing.
Speaker 5 (16:26):
Oh no, no, no, Missus Pince.
Speaker 11 (16:33):
How long I lay there after Missus Finch had left,
I don't know. I was cold, cold and shivering. My
eyes were wide and sleepless as I lay taught in
the bed, and my nerves were raw.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
So raw that the slightest song grated had sound at
the window.
Speaker 5 (16:54):
My eyes flew toward it, and I glimpsed.
Speaker 11 (16:56):
At the shapeless form out there in the night, and
I saw the window slowly, and she knocked.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
I must have leaked up by an take a terrors,
and I was at the door and it snatched it up.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
The corridor was still, there, wasn't sound. I dare not
look back into my room at the window.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
I ran across the hall and pulled up in the
door of missus Finch's room. Missus Finch, Missus Finch.
Speaker 11 (17:20):
There was no answer. The room was empty. Missus Finch
wasn't there. Finally I turned and ran to the stairs.
How I got down and without falling, I'll never know.
But at the foot of the stairs I stopped, and
everything within me seemed to congeal. For there my feet
lay the body of Missus Finch, and her eyes were
(17:40):
wide and staring, and her mouth was set in the
terror of grim, and her head rested at a crazy
angle on her shoulder, for her throat was cut almost.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
From ear to ear.
Speaker 6 (17:56):
Stop it's all right, Carol's all right, it's hip.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
Barry there then, now take it easy, honey.
Speaker 5 (18:08):
Dad topically sleep in my eyes and the rush of
blood subsiding from my temples, And.
Speaker 10 (18:14):
Then I thought there he was standing there, right in
his hands with a.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Knife, and blood was dripping from the blade.
Speaker 6 (18:24):
Take it easy, Carroll, Barry the knife you killed. I
didn't kill Missus Finch. I just picked the knife up
in the kitchen to killer must have thrown it away.
Speaker 5 (18:34):
He must have heard me scream. He was watching for
you outside in.
Speaker 6 (18:37):
His car I'm not get away. Carry Why are you
looking at me like that? You don't think I killed
missus Finch? Order and still Barry or I shoot to kill.
I don't move while I climb in through this window.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
All right, Barry, drop the knife. Oh, then you talk
your way out of this one.
Speaker 8 (19:00):
Mm.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
I look here They stood there, arguing, and I didn't
know what they were saying.
Speaker 11 (19:05):
I only felt a great and terrible warning, as if
I had had enough of.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Living and would welcome dance if it only had mensely
could rest.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
And I awoke, everything was still. I must have fainted.
I realized with a shock where I was.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
I was in Loretta's bedroom, her bedroom which adjoined the library.
I'd pushed myself off the bed and went over to
the library door.
Speaker 5 (19:46):
Out on her Berry and Atto talking in the library.
Their voices were heated numbly. My fingers calmed the catch
and locked the door.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
Then I went to the other door leading to the carter,
and I turned the catch on that one too.
Speaker 13 (19:59):
Oh.
Speaker 11 (19:59):
I wanted was to be alone, forever, alone with the
terrible throbbing in my temples and the emptiness.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
I had to believe I now, in spite of myself.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
I had to believe him.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
I had seen Barry with that knife in his hand.
Speaker 5 (20:20):
Shots from the library, got up in the bed. Two
men in the library. One of them had killed the other.
Which otherwood had the gun? But Barry might have tricked
him somehow. Which which was dead? Which was alive?
Speaker 2 (20:40):
The one was trying the library door.
Speaker 5 (20:42):
Oh, which one?
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Tell I must talk to you. I won't answer. You'll
think I'm sleeve. You were shot from the window. Let
me and I tell you, I've got to protect you.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
I ought to let him in the let him kill me.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
What's the use of living.
Speaker 5 (21:04):
Theretta said she would come to me. Maybe if Loretta comes,
she'll take me back with her to the land.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
Of the day.
Speaker 13 (21:11):
And ecellent idea, Carolyn, Loretta, you did come back as
you promised, as you see, Carolyn.
Speaker 5 (21:21):
But but why isn't your hair all mader than dank?
And the way the others saw.
Speaker 12 (21:25):
You, and and the wound in your throat that the
other saw the others saw what I wanted them to see.
Speaker 10 (21:32):
Carolyn, I I I don't understand, Loretta. Do you mean
that you're really not dead?
Speaker 5 (21:41):
Exactly, my dear? But you were murdered out on the dock.
Barry and Otto heard it.
Speaker 10 (21:47):
They heard it, but they didn't see it. Was it
a trick, Yes, dear, it was a trick.
Speaker 5 (21:57):
I was never on the dock.
Speaker 7 (21:58):
I was beneath it, and.
Speaker 10 (22:01):
Eh and I screamed from the rowboat.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
And made Barry an Otto each think that the other
had murdered me.
Speaker 13 (22:11):
That gun you're holding you you just shot Otto with her? Yes,
of course, So Berry is really innocent. Yes, dear, oh Loredda,
You've done all of.
Speaker 10 (22:23):
This because you really hate me.
Speaker 12 (22:26):
Yes, dear, I hate you so terribly that I'd be
happy to die if I could destroy you with myself
on account of Berry.
Speaker 10 (22:38):
Isn't it. Yes?
Speaker 7 (22:40):
I could have forgiven you everything, your youth, your looks, everything,
but Barry. I could have had him if you hadn't
come along.
Speaker 5 (22:49):
But now you shan't have him because I'm gonna kill you. Then,
when Barry's caught, he'll pay for you for all the others.
Harry who killed her?
Speaker 8 (23:02):
If I had to carol him, she'd have killed you, darling, don't.
There'll be no more ghosts between us ever.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
There Now all's well, that ends in a clint. I
really don't know what to say.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
About this.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
It's so seldom anything.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
On in her tanks and ends in a clinch.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
That's because it takes two to make a clinch, and
we rarely have two characters left alive at the end
of our story. Anyway, I suppose I could call to
Night's Taylor's Excess story. You know, it's usually a story
about a self made man.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Well, Loretta was a self made ghost.
Speaker 14 (23:56):
Well, you see, we invite you to join us again
next week at this time for Inner sanctum. This is
the United States Armed Forces Radio Service, the Voice of
(24:16):
Information and education.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
Supper
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