November 22, 2025 • 29 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, Humphrey Bogart and many more. The plots were mostly engaging crime dramas, science fiction and some horror - usually with a twist at the conclusion.
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 | YouTube | Spotify | Amazon | iHeart
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 | YouTube | Spotify | Amazon | iHeart
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
And now Tonight's presentation of radio's outstanding.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Theater of thrills, suspense.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Tonight the story of a supermarket and a young man
who finds that after closing time, once the daily bustle
is still, this very ordinary store becomes a place of
danger and terror.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Absolute. So now, with High amberback as Harry.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Here is Tonight's suspense play Never Steal a Butcher's Wife.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
It started the first day of the job. I was
clerking the liquor department of the supermarket. I haven't been
in Los Angeles a week. My brother, when I left
New York, had given me this letter a friend of
a guy who owned a string of these supermarkets. The
latter was about could he use me? I was a
good fella, he could count it a faver, you know.
And a guy had this opening liquor clerk and comes
the following Monday, I'm at work. I spent the morning
(01:14):
loading the refrigerators with beer, soda, water, all that stuff,
and sizing up the place. You know, back East, we
don't have many of these supermarkets. There was the vegetable
department run by a nice, little dark guy, and there
was a delicatessen that was run by an old geezer
in his frow. There was a bakery department, and meet
the department, and of course the groceries. No clerks. You
(01:35):
pushed a little cart around and helped yourself to get out.
You passed the cash register, and the girl loaded your stuff,
rang up the price. My surveillance of the place had
reached the girl who checked the groceries when the trebles started.
She was looking at herself in a little mirror and
putting on some lipstick. Her backward was to me, I
see you stop putting on the lipstick, but still looking
(01:57):
at the mirror. I see your eyes in the mirror.
And then she turns around, very slowly. He looks at me,
just looks at me. She must have been fifty feet
away at the least, and with customers between us, but
it was like we were all alone, the two of us,
on a beach somewhere, an empty beach. I should have
(02:21):
looked away. I should have winked and forgotten it. I
should have gone on stacking beer and thinking about how
to be a success. That's what I should have done.
What I did do was I stood right there and
locked eyes with her for I don't know how long
and all the time I was looking at her, I
was sending him mental telegrams. You and me, baby, you
(02:42):
and me, you and me.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Hey, what's the matter of sleep on your feet?
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Huh huh?
Speaker 3 (02:48):
What'd you say you had a new guy?
Speaker 4 (02:49):
Huh?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Oh yeah, I just got it this morning.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
I'm Nick Arno, who worked the vegetables.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Harry Carr pleased, ton't know that?
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Yeah, get two bottles of Colbert sure.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Cold is a witch's hot, only don't open them here
by the Connor. You know, the lost I have him
out back of my lunch Nick, what heck? Yeah, Gal
over there by the cash register. Mary is that her name? Mary? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (03:17):
What about it?
Speaker 2 (03:18):
That's what I'm wondering. What about her?
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (03:23):
No itself?
Speaker 3 (03:24):
She's married?
Speaker 2 (03:25):
You kidding?
Speaker 3 (03:26):
You see that big guy over there with the knife,
the butcher? Yeah, you know, I asked Kim if I'm kidding?
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Who was he her husband? Oh? See it? I looked
over at him. He was a funny looking guy, a
real prief. He stood there sharpening a tremendous big cleaver,
whistling to himself. He had on a hot straw half
in a white apron. He had those rimless glasses with
(03:55):
thick lenses. Solf that his eyes looked like baseballs when
he saw her he was looking at them. He nodded
and went on whistling and stopping a real creeps. Later on,
I watched him softening up some sort of steaks. He
had a big steel mallet with points on it, and
he was whanging away at this meat like a pile driver.
And I watched him grinding and slicing and quartering, sawing
(04:20):
the bones off some of the cuts, and always those
eyes like face balls, and that teeny little mouth lost
in the big red face whistling. And I looked over
at her and she was giving me the eye again.
(04:44):
We closed at seven. The vegetable guys carted out the
old stuff. The delicatessen man put away his pickles. I
checked the register, counted my slips, and made my entries.
Krauss the butcher was still there, packing and cleaning, putting
stuff in that big refrigerator room back of the counter.
But she left. I got into my street coat and
walked out.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
Hello.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
She was standing looking at the shoe display a couple
of doors down to the market.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
I said, hello, don't you say hello? Wherever it is
you come from?
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Well, sure, Hello, you're.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
Taking the bus?
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (05:24):
Which way do you go?
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Down? The Western?
Speaker 4 (05:27):
Oh? I'm going that way. I'll drive you.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
No, no, I don't think you'd better.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
What's the matter.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
I wouldn't want to trouble you.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
No trouble. Come on, I'm parked right here.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
What about mister Cross.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
Oh he'll be there an hour. Yes, he takes the bus.
Speaker 5 (05:49):
Oh come on, well come on, don't be afraid.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Afraid of me.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
No, I'm not afraid of you.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
Then get in.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
So all day, go along. I'm pushing liquor at them
now they're pushing it at me.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
You're cute, Harry, No, I mean it's your cue.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Ill show you, baby?
Speaker 4 (06:33):
You really think so?
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Sure?
Speaker 4 (06:36):
Hey, Harry, let's get out of here, go someplace now.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Hey, I gotta work in the morning.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Silly, this is the morning.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
It is am I what's the time?
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Quarter or two?
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Like?
Speaker 3 (06:53):
All?
Speaker 4 (06:54):
You really think? I'm cute? Caring?
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Sure? Baby, let's it's really do worries, sugar, Come on,
I'll take you home.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
I'll take you home.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Of course, I felt lousy the next morning. I'm not
much of a drinker, but she looked fresh as a daisy,
smiling and joking with the customers. I didn't look over there.
I didn't want to. I didn't want to think about
what must have gone on between her and Kraus. When
she got in, he didn't look happy. I knew why.
I kept waiting for him to turn those base ball
(07:45):
eyes on me, but he never did, just went on smashing, slicing, grinding,
sawing all that. When I came out that night, she
was there. I tried to disregard her, Harry, but she
(08:05):
said she had something very serious to talk over, and
at least she said it. Well, I got my car again.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
He's awful.
Speaker 6 (08:26):
Really, you don't know?
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Yeah, I guess it's tough.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
You just wouldn't believe some of the things.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Yeah, look, baby, I think.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
He's crazy jealous of you? An't that silly?
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Well?
Speaker 2 (08:39):
I guess maybe of me?
Speaker 4 (08:42):
Why should I say of you?
Speaker 7 (08:45):
Me?
Speaker 2 (08:46):
What does he know about me? What did you say?
Speaker 4 (08:48):
Well?
Speaker 6 (08:48):
I got in this morning and there he was sitting
up like Graham in his bathroom.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
He said, where have you been? And I said, what's
it to you? Annie? I call him andie it drives
him crazy. He said, don't you think you can fool me?
Speaker 6 (09:08):
And then he started to cry and say a lot
of things about Babylon and sitting on the waters.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
No crazy talk.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Well I better go.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
Oh, don't be silly. He doesn't know who you are or.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Who it is, but he could find out.
Speaker 5 (09:29):
Oh no, not unless I told him. You wouldn't do that,
of course, not, baby, as long as you're good to me.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
The next night I stayed in the market. I was scared.
Didn't want any more of that. I did inventory the
kind of bottles. I cleaned the refrigerator, I changed the
water and the soft rings cooler. Eye kept busy across
the market. Cross was moving around, cleaning up, and after
a while he took off his apron and his straw
hat and me came over. Uh hello, mister Cross.
Speaker 8 (10:16):
Yeah, give me a battle of beer.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Sure thing, it's all right to drink it here. Well
sure we're clothes, an't we? But here here's an opening.
Speaker 8 (10:34):
Oh you you're working late?
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Well you know how it is nothing to do evenings. No, No,
I'm no out here. It takes time to make friends.
Speaker 8 (10:56):
For me, maybe it would take time, not for you,
good looking young fellow like you.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Oh I don't know. You're a big, broad shouldered guy.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Yeah, sure, big that's.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
How's a beer? All right? Listen to you? You know
my wife? Your wife? Yeah? You know? Well, yes, isn't
she the one who checks the grocery? A very nice
looking lady? You think so? Of course? I mean, don't
get me wrong, I mean it very sincerely, A very nice,
(11:32):
respectable looking.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Sure you notice something funny goes on there?
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Funny somebody is playing.
Speaker 8 (11:40):
Around with her.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
I want to find out who with her. He wouldn't
believe that, would you? No? No, no, I should say
no and.
Speaker 8 (11:49):
Do me a favor.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Sure what you keep your eyes open? I will, mister.
I promise I find that guy. I find out who
he is. If it takes a year, well I do
I kill him? Good Night, good night.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
You're listening to Never Steal a Butcher's Wife, Tonight's presentation
in Radio's outstanding Theater of Frills Suspense. There are all
kinds of tales of suspense, and you'll find an exciting
(12:44):
one when you listen to the latest Ferry Mason story
on CBS Radio tomorrow. He's the debonair lawyer detective whose
exciting cases come your way Monday through Friday day times
on most of these stations this week listen to Perry
Mason try to help a damsel in distress. And now
we bring back to our Hollywood soundstage. Hi Everbach in
(13:07):
tonight's production, I've never steal a butcher's wife, I'll tell.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
You, well calculated to keep you in suspense. You see
how it happens. They go along, minding your own business,
trying to be a sweet guy, and whammy up pops
(13:34):
the devil. A roof caves in, and there you are.
The execution is honing the action, whistling to himself. I
tell you I was nervous. My hands were sweating and
my teeth were aching. If it hadn't been for needing
the job bad, if it hadn't been for that, I'd
have put on my coat and high tailed it out
of their book passed. It was a situation. And Mary's
looking over at me every now and then, giving me
(13:54):
the big eyes. Yeah, the heck with your baby, get
yourself another board. And Kraus is looking over and raising
his eyebrows. Do I know who it is? Yet? Then
I'm making a long face and shaking my head. And
then Nick the vegetable man comes over.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
I see you didn't understand what I told you the
other day.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
What's that Nick about Mary?
Speaker 3 (14:13):
I told you she was a married woman.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
What are you talking about?
Speaker 3 (14:16):
I seeing you the boat. You're coming out of a
bar the other morning?
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Your nuts gone?
Speaker 9 (14:19):
Pull a hard face with me, Harry, I had a
tipcross off to what's going on?
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Nick? Mack? Nick? Nickpepod guy? Will you be a good guy.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
I'm telling you you better be a good guy and
leave the butcher's wife alone. If you know what's good
for you.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
I will, Nick, Nick, I will. I swear it was
a mistake, that's all, So be a good guy. Nick.
Forget about it.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Huh, this one's okay. But you do it again, you'd
get what's coming to you.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Sho Nick, Sure, sure thing.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
I'm not just talking. Harry.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Blow? Will you blow?
Speaker 4 (14:52):
Harry? I wish you wouldn't treat me to blow?
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Get away? Don't you know your husband is watching you?
Speaker 6 (14:57):
Oh he's got his glasses off. He couldn't see Hollywood Bowl.
You'd better be nice to me, Harry.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Please, Mary, please go back to your cash register.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
I want to see you to night.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Oh yes, look understand me, baby, you're poison. I'll get away.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
You'll see me, Harry. I don't you'll see Kraus.
Speaker 6 (15:17):
All right where I'll be passed around the corner, around
the corner.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
And don't see late.
Speaker 6 (15:31):
Oh look now, stop being silly and get in.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Well.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Can't you understand I don't want any trouble? What are
you so.
Speaker 5 (15:37):
Afraid of trouble? Come on, baby, let's go have some fun.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Look, please, I've asked you.
Speaker 9 (15:46):
What is it?
Speaker 5 (15:48):
Hello?
Speaker 2 (15:49):
I warned you you got it wrong? Nick?
Speaker 4 (15:51):
No, say what is all?
Speaker 9 (15:53):
You?
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Shut up?
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Don't you talk to me like that. I'll talk to
you like I please. Cheez, Harry hit him?
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Harry, I didn't hit him. He was looking down his
nose at me, and he was a nice, wide open target.
But I didn't hit him because all of a sudden
I knew what I had to do, and I knew
I had to do it fast?
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Harry?
Speaker 5 (16:13):
Where are you going?
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Baby?
Speaker 2 (16:15):
I didn't turn. Nick was still back there beside the car.
I went into the market.
Speaker 9 (16:26):
Mister Kraus, Yeah, I r I found out.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
I can't hear you, I said, I fouled out.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
I found out who it is.
Speaker 7 (16:38):
Ooh ooh, Nick, vegetable man, yeah, so vegetable man.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
I look, mister Cross, I knew yesterday but I didn't
want to get him in trouble. I told him to
lay off, but he said nuts. He said, if I
opened my mouth, tell you it was me that I
was the one player. Vegetable man. I'm sorry, mister Kraus.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
I never didlike kid.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
I never well. Good night, vegetable man. I took a
fifth of Old Smuggler home with me, no dinner. I
just lay there on the bed about three hours, talking
to myself, and finally the heck with a job. I
(17:32):
got up and I started to pack. I was broke,
but I didn't care. I'd have to skip out of
my rent, but it didn't matter. I didn't care. I
wanted out from Kraus, from Mary, from Nick. And suddenly
I figured that even if Nick was a snooping little
rat with his holier than now, I got a clearing it.
So I want to note to Krause. I said, I
(17:53):
did it, Kraus, don't blame anybody else. I took the
note in my bag in the key of the market,
and I tipped out of the rooming house. I caught
a bus and went to the market. The boulevard was deserted.
I looked in through the glass door in the back
of the place, up high, there was a red Neon
beer sign that blinked on and off, on and off.
(18:14):
I unlocked the door, went in, locked the door behind me.
The place was eerie in the dark, what with that
red light blinking on and off. One minute the place
was pitch black, the next it was a thousand little
red lights bouncing off the can stuff in the grocery part.
I went to the butcher counter first, and I laid
the note on the scale where he'd be sure to
(18:35):
see it. Then I crossed over past the vegetables and
the bakery, passed the delicatessen to the liquid apartment. It
was dark, and I kept bumping into things, and I thought,
why am I acting like a criminal? I turned on
the light. The whole place was suddenly dazzling, hurt my eyes.
I looked at the cash register. I was just thinking
(18:55):
about maybe taking a couple of bucks when it happened.
I hadn't touched it. Somebody had turned the lights off again.
There were other switches in the place I didn't know where,
And after the brightness, the place seemed twice as dark.
The red sign blinked on and off, but none and
all and then I saw Kraus. He was standing behind
(19:22):
the meat copper at the scale, and he picked up
the note, my note, I did it, Kraus, and he
read it. I couldn't see his eyes, just the glasses,
and every time the light blinked and shone red bright red,
like some sort of terrible toy. And then he began
to move, and it was like a movie that you
(19:42):
see one frame at a time. Each time the light
blinked on. He wasn't where he'd been before, but closer, closer, Kraus.
Mister Cross, Oh no, no, no, mister Cross. Those red
(20:11):
glasses kept coming at me. I edged toward the vegetables
and he moved too. I moved the other way, taught
the groceries. There was a railing. I climbed over it,
and I wasn't one of the long, narrow aisles of
cans and bottles. The stuff was piled head high. I waited,
hoping maybe he didn't see me, but he did. I
(20:34):
hid behind a tower of dog food boxes. He sounded
thirty or forty feet away. I waited. I looked around
the corner. He was looking down another aisle. I ducked
my head back. I couldn't understand that sound. I looked again.
(21:07):
The aisle was empty. In the sunner center where Kraus
had stood were his shoes. He taken them off, oh,
very quietly. I bent and took mine off, too, and
I began to tiptoe away from where I'd seen him.
And then I rounded a corner and there he was,
not two feet away, with his back to me.
Speaker 9 (21:24):
And I lost my balance and I put my hand
out to study myself.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
I hold this fray went over.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
I ran, I ran, and then I was at the
end of an aisle and there was the wall, the
back wall, and I turned and he was coming coming
straight at me. My hand touched something cold, a bottle.
I grabbed it. It was ammonia.
Speaker 9 (21:45):
Kraus Kross gets back, get back cross or I'll blinders cross.
I warn you, I swear, I will cross. I've got
ammonia here, I'll blind you. You're comingy crosser cross.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
He stood there like a crazy blind giant, tearing at
his eyes, the ammonia running down his face. I didn't wait.
I ran past him, bumby him aside. Ran and ran
and cut around the cash register and passed the delicatestena
and the bakery to the door.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
It was locked.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
The key I'd left it, and the locker I was gone.
I tried to break the glass with my fist, but
it was like steel. I tried to kick it, but
I left my shoes behind, and Kroos kept coming, feeling
his way along, moaning, silhouetted in the blinking light, the
red light that gleamed like a tongue of fire on
the knife he held in his hand. I slid behind
(22:38):
the counter of the meat department. Under my feet the
sawdust I bent, scooped up a handful. His face was awful,
twisted and gleaming in the blinking red light. His glasses
were gone, and his eyes were screwed tight shut in pain.
He stopped ten feet away and swaying. Then he opened
his eyes, opened them as wide as he could, and
moved his head from side to side, trying near sightedly
(22:59):
to see me.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
Ah.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
And then his head stopped moving and holding its sideways,
using one eye to see me. He came on the knife,
held way back and I waited, now, let why were
the Sodus? And jumped on one side, my back against
the wall, and he pursed it and get it in
the sawdust, and he fell and then he was very
(23:21):
still for a moment. I waited, backing. He rose to
his knees. In the blinking light, I saw the knife
he'd fallen on it. It was sticking out of the
middle of his chest crows. Then very slowly he got
(23:42):
to his feet, one hand over the place where the
knife was, and then he started towards me again. There
was a rack over the chopping block. He reached up
and got a cleaver right backed behind me. I felt
a large, cold handle the door to the meat storage room.
I heaped it opened inside it was cold, bitter cold,
(24:07):
and dark. In the center of the door was one
small thick pane of glass was clouded. I went to
clear with my hand and looked out. Krause stood there,
his face an inch from mine, looking in, and then
his eyes rolled back and his face went slack, and
he fell outsight. He was dead. I was sure of
(24:34):
it now. I felt around on the dark for the
knobot that I couldn't find it. I felt the door
from the top to the bottom. There were bars and
bolts and something that felt like a handle, but it
wouldn't move. I mean, I heaved and tugged, but it
wouldn't move. There was a knife on a slab there,
I'll butcher knife. I felt around the door for a crack,
(24:55):
slipped the knife and it twisted boke off another door.
I thought, maybe maybe there's please another door out of
this place, and I began to search for it in
the dark. Feeling along the icy, damp walltz I walked
into something cold, moved when I touched it, side of beef,
(25:18):
but no door. I moved father another icy cold thing,
and I moved on. Came up against another cold as
the rest. But I'm crazy, I know it. I'm crazy
this one. This one feels as though it's wearing silk stockings.
(25:56):
So here I am. It's awfully cold, cold as a
witch's heart, cold as a tomb. This thing I have
in my hand is this knife handle. I wish it
had a blade. I know what I'd do, I know,
but it hasn't anyway. I'm innocent of anything. They'll believe me.
They will. There's a letter outside on the scale that
(26:19):
says I did at Kraus, don't blame anybody else. And
there's my suitcase that'll prove I'm meant to go away
enough to cause anybody at hard time, And there's oh
the time goes slow. While I'm waiting and waiting and waiting,
I'll tell myself the whole story again and again and again.
(26:43):
It'll give me something to do, you know, something to
think about. You see. It started the first day of
the job. I was clerking the liquor the bottom of
the supermarket. I haven't been in Los Angeles a week now.
My brother, when I left New York, had given this lyric.
We'll friend he is a guy who owns a string
of these supermarkets. The letter was a fox, Could you
(27:05):
use me? I was a good mud.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
Suspense in which High Averbach starred as Harry and James
Poe's story Never Steal a Butcher's Wife and enjoy Tonight's
tale of suspense. Well, there's a different kind of suspense
on CBS radios Monday through Friday daytime serial The Brighter
Day This Week. Reverend Dennis and his family are the
targets of a vindictive plot. Find out what happens. Listen
(27:51):
to The Brighter Day Tomorrow and every weekday on most
of these stations. Suspense is produced and directed by Norman McDonald,
with music composed by Lucian Morrowick and conducted by lud Bluskin.
Never Steal a Butcher's Wife was written for suspense by
(28:12):
James Poe and starred high ever Back as Harry featured
in the cast for Paula Winslow, Jack Krusian, and Lawrence Dobkin.
Day tuned now for Yours Truly Johnny Dollar, which follows
immediately over most of these same stations.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Listen while you work.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Enjoy Hilltop House every Monday through Friday in the daytime
on the CBS Radio Network.
And now Tonight's presentation of radio's outstanding.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Theater of thrills, suspense.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Tonight the story of a supermarket and a young man
who finds that after closing time, once the daily bustle
is still, this very ordinary store becomes a place of
danger and terror.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Absolute. So now, with High amberback as Harry.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Here is Tonight's suspense play Never Steal a Butcher's Wife.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
It started the first day of the job. I was
clerking the liquor department of the supermarket. I haven't been
in Los Angeles a week. My brother, when I left
New York, had given me this letter a friend of
a guy who owned a string of these supermarkets. The
latter was about could he use me? I was a
good fella, he could count it a faver, you know.
And a guy had this opening liquor clerk and comes
the following Monday, I'm at work. I spent the morning
(01:14):
loading the refrigerators with beer, soda, water, all that stuff,
and sizing up the place. You know, back East, we
don't have many of these supermarkets. There was the vegetable
department run by a nice, little dark guy, and there
was a delicatessen that was run by an old geezer
in his frow. There was a bakery department, and meet
the department, and of course the groceries. No clerks. You
(01:35):
pushed a little cart around and helped yourself to get out.
You passed the cash register, and the girl loaded your stuff,
rang up the price. My surveillance of the place had
reached the girl who checked the groceries when the trebles started.
She was looking at herself in a little mirror and
putting on some lipstick. Her backward was to me, I
see you stop putting on the lipstick, but still looking
(01:57):
at the mirror. I see your eyes in the mirror.
And then she turns around, very slowly. He looks at me,
just looks at me. She must have been fifty feet
away at the least, and with customers between us, but
it was like we were all alone, the two of us,
on a beach somewhere, an empty beach. I should have
(02:21):
looked away. I should have winked and forgotten it. I
should have gone on stacking beer and thinking about how
to be a success. That's what I should have done.
What I did do was I stood right there and
locked eyes with her for I don't know how long
and all the time I was looking at her, I
was sending him mental telegrams. You and me, baby, you
(02:42):
and me, you and me.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Hey, what's the matter of sleep on your feet?
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Huh huh?
Speaker 3 (02:48):
What'd you say you had a new guy?
Speaker 4 (02:49):
Huh?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Oh yeah, I just got it this morning.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
I'm Nick Arno, who worked the vegetables.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Harry Carr pleased, ton't know that?
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Yeah, get two bottles of Colbert sure.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Cold is a witch's hot, only don't open them here
by the Connor. You know, the lost I have him
out back of my lunch Nick, what heck? Yeah, Gal
over there by the cash register. Mary is that her name? Mary? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (03:17):
What about it?
Speaker 2 (03:18):
That's what I'm wondering. What about her?
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (03:23):
No itself?
Speaker 3 (03:24):
She's married?
Speaker 2 (03:25):
You kidding?
Speaker 3 (03:26):
You see that big guy over there with the knife,
the butcher? Yeah, you know, I asked Kim if I'm kidding?
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Who was he her husband? Oh? See it? I looked
over at him. He was a funny looking guy, a
real prief. He stood there sharpening a tremendous big cleaver,
whistling to himself. He had on a hot straw half
in a white apron. He had those rimless glasses with
(03:55):
thick lenses. Solf that his eyes looked like baseballs when
he saw her he was looking at them. He nodded
and went on whistling and stopping a real creeps. Later on,
I watched him softening up some sort of steaks. He
had a big steel mallet with points on it, and
he was whanging away at this meat like a pile driver.
And I watched him grinding and slicing and quartering, sawing
(04:20):
the bones off some of the cuts, and always those
eyes like face balls, and that teeny little mouth lost
in the big red face whistling. And I looked over
at her and she was giving me the eye again.
(04:44):
We closed at seven. The vegetable guys carted out the
old stuff. The delicatessen man put away his pickles. I
checked the register, counted my slips, and made my entries.
Krauss the butcher was still there, packing and cleaning, putting
stuff in that big refrigerator room back of the counter.
But she left. I got into my street coat and
walked out.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
Hello.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
She was standing looking at the shoe display a couple
of doors down to the market.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
I said, hello, don't you say hello? Wherever it is
you come from?
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Well, sure, Hello, you're.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
Taking the bus?
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (05:24):
Which way do you go?
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Down? The Western?
Speaker 4 (05:27):
Oh? I'm going that way. I'll drive you.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
No, no, I don't think you'd better.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
What's the matter.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
I wouldn't want to trouble you.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
No trouble. Come on, I'm parked right here.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
What about mister Cross.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
Oh he'll be there an hour. Yes, he takes the bus.
Speaker 5 (05:49):
Oh come on, well come on, don't be afraid.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Afraid of me.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
No, I'm not afraid of you.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
Then get in.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
So all day, go along. I'm pushing liquor at them
now they're pushing it at me.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
You're cute, Harry, No, I mean it's your cue.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Ill show you, baby?
Speaker 4 (06:33):
You really think so?
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Sure?
Speaker 4 (06:36):
Hey, Harry, let's get out of here, go someplace now.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Hey, I gotta work in the morning.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Silly, this is the morning.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
It is am I what's the time?
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Quarter or two?
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Like?
Speaker 3 (06:53):
All?
Speaker 4 (06:54):
You really think? I'm cute? Caring?
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Sure? Baby, let's it's really do worries, sugar, Come on,
I'll take you home.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
I'll take you home.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Of course, I felt lousy the next morning. I'm not
much of a drinker, but she looked fresh as a daisy,
smiling and joking with the customers. I didn't look over there.
I didn't want to. I didn't want to think about
what must have gone on between her and Kraus. When
she got in, he didn't look happy. I knew why.
I kept waiting for him to turn those base ball
(07:45):
eyes on me, but he never did, just went on smashing, slicing, grinding,
sawing all that. When I came out that night, she
was there. I tried to disregard her, Harry, but she
(08:05):
said she had something very serious to talk over, and
at least she said it. Well, I got my car again.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
He's awful.
Speaker 6 (08:26):
Really, you don't know?
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Yeah, I guess it's tough.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
You just wouldn't believe some of the things.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Yeah, look, baby, I think.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
He's crazy jealous of you? An't that silly?
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Well?
Speaker 2 (08:39):
I guess maybe of me?
Speaker 4 (08:42):
Why should I say of you?
Speaker 7 (08:45):
Me?
Speaker 2 (08:46):
What does he know about me? What did you say?
Speaker 4 (08:48):
Well?
Speaker 6 (08:48):
I got in this morning and there he was sitting
up like Graham in his bathroom.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
He said, where have you been? And I said, what's
it to you? Annie? I call him andie it drives
him crazy. He said, don't you think you can fool me?
Speaker 6 (09:08):
And then he started to cry and say a lot
of things about Babylon and sitting on the waters.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
No crazy talk.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Well I better go.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
Oh, don't be silly. He doesn't know who you are or.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Who it is, but he could find out.
Speaker 5 (09:29):
Oh no, not unless I told him. You wouldn't do that,
of course, not, baby, as long as you're good to me.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
The next night I stayed in the market. I was scared.
Didn't want any more of that. I did inventory the
kind of bottles. I cleaned the refrigerator, I changed the
water and the soft rings cooler. Eye kept busy across
the market. Cross was moving around, cleaning up, and after
a while he took off his apron and his straw
hat and me came over. Uh hello, mister Cross.
Speaker 8 (10:16):
Yeah, give me a battle of beer.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Sure thing, it's all right to drink it here. Well
sure we're clothes, an't we? But here here's an opening.
Speaker 8 (10:34):
Oh you you're working late?
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Well you know how it is nothing to do evenings. No, No,
I'm no out here. It takes time to make friends.
Speaker 8 (10:56):
For me, maybe it would take time, not for you,
good looking young fellow like you.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Oh I don't know. You're a big, broad shouldered guy.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Yeah, sure, big that's.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
How's a beer? All right? Listen to you? You know
my wife? Your wife? Yeah? You know? Well, yes, isn't
she the one who checks the grocery? A very nice
looking lady? You think so? Of course? I mean, don't
get me wrong, I mean it very sincerely, A very nice,
(11:32):
respectable looking.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Sure you notice something funny goes on there?
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Funny somebody is playing.
Speaker 8 (11:40):
Around with her.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
I want to find out who with her. He wouldn't
believe that, would you? No? No, no, I should say
no and.
Speaker 8 (11:49):
Do me a favor.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Sure what you keep your eyes open? I will, mister.
I promise I find that guy. I find out who
he is. If it takes a year, well I do
I kill him? Good Night, good night.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
You're listening to Never Steal a Butcher's Wife, Tonight's presentation
in Radio's outstanding Theater of Frills Suspense. There are all
kinds of tales of suspense, and you'll find an exciting
(12:44):
one when you listen to the latest Ferry Mason story
on CBS Radio tomorrow. He's the debonair lawyer detective whose
exciting cases come your way Monday through Friday day times
on most of these stations this week listen to Perry
Mason try to help a damsel in distress. And now
we bring back to our Hollywood soundstage. Hi Everbach in
(13:07):
tonight's production, I've never steal a butcher's wife, I'll tell.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
You, well calculated to keep you in suspense. You see
how it happens. They go along, minding your own business,
trying to be a sweet guy, and whammy up pops
(13:34):
the devil. A roof caves in, and there you are.
The execution is honing the action, whistling to himself. I
tell you I was nervous. My hands were sweating and
my teeth were aching. If it hadn't been for needing
the job bad, if it hadn't been for that, I'd
have put on my coat and high tailed it out
of their book passed. It was a situation. And Mary's
looking over at me every now and then, giving me
(13:54):
the big eyes. Yeah, the heck with your baby, get
yourself another board. And Kraus is looking over and raising
his eyebrows. Do I know who it is? Yet? Then
I'm making a long face and shaking my head. And
then Nick the vegetable man comes over.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
I see you didn't understand what I told you the
other day.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
What's that Nick about Mary?
Speaker 3 (14:13):
I told you she was a married woman.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
What are you talking about?
Speaker 3 (14:16):
I seeing you the boat. You're coming out of a
bar the other morning?
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Your nuts gone?
Speaker 9 (14:19):
Pull a hard face with me, Harry, I had a
tipcross off to what's going on?
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Nick? Mack? Nick? Nickpepod guy? Will you be a good guy.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
I'm telling you you better be a good guy and
leave the butcher's wife alone. If you know what's good
for you.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
I will, Nick, Nick, I will. I swear it was
a mistake, that's all, So be a good guy. Nick.
Forget about it.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Huh, this one's okay. But you do it again, you'd
get what's coming to you.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Sho Nick, Sure, sure thing.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
I'm not just talking. Harry.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Blow? Will you blow?
Speaker 4 (14:52):
Harry? I wish you wouldn't treat me to blow?
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Get away? Don't you know your husband is watching you?
Speaker 6 (14:57):
Oh he's got his glasses off. He couldn't see Hollywood Bowl.
You'd better be nice to me, Harry.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Please, Mary, please go back to your cash register.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
I want to see you to night.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Oh yes, look understand me, baby, you're poison. I'll get away.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
You'll see me, Harry. I don't you'll see Kraus.
Speaker 6 (15:17):
All right where I'll be passed around the corner, around
the corner.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
And don't see late.
Speaker 6 (15:31):
Oh look now, stop being silly and get in.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Well.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Can't you understand I don't want any trouble? What are
you so.
Speaker 5 (15:37):
Afraid of trouble? Come on, baby, let's go have some fun.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Look, please, I've asked you.
Speaker 9 (15:46):
What is it?
Speaker 5 (15:48):
Hello?
Speaker 2 (15:49):
I warned you you got it wrong? Nick?
Speaker 4 (15:51):
No, say what is all?
Speaker 9 (15:53):
You?
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Shut up?
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Don't you talk to me like that. I'll talk to
you like I please. Cheez, Harry hit him?
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Harry, I didn't hit him. He was looking down his
nose at me, and he was a nice, wide open target.
But I didn't hit him because all of a sudden
I knew what I had to do, and I knew
I had to do it fast?
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Harry?
Speaker 5 (16:13):
Where are you going?
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Baby?
Speaker 2 (16:15):
I didn't turn. Nick was still back there beside the car.
I went into the market.
Speaker 9 (16:26):
Mister Kraus, Yeah, I r I found out.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
I can't hear you, I said, I fouled out.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
I found out who it is.
Speaker 7 (16:38):
Ooh ooh, Nick, vegetable man, yeah, so vegetable man.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
I look, mister Cross, I knew yesterday but I didn't
want to get him in trouble. I told him to
lay off, but he said nuts. He said, if I
opened my mouth, tell you it was me that I
was the one player. Vegetable man. I'm sorry, mister Kraus.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
I never didlike kid.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
I never well. Good night, vegetable man. I took a
fifth of Old Smuggler home with me, no dinner. I
just lay there on the bed about three hours, talking
to myself, and finally the heck with a job. I
(17:32):
got up and I started to pack. I was broke,
but I didn't care. I'd have to skip out of
my rent, but it didn't matter. I didn't care. I
wanted out from Kraus, from Mary, from Nick. And suddenly
I figured that even if Nick was a snooping little
rat with his holier than now, I got a clearing it.
So I want to note to Krause. I said, I
(17:53):
did it, Kraus, don't blame anybody else. I took the
note in my bag in the key of the market,
and I tipped out of the rooming house. I caught
a bus and went to the market. The boulevard was deserted.
I looked in through the glass door in the back
of the place, up high, there was a red Neon
beer sign that blinked on and off, on and off.
(18:14):
I unlocked the door, went in, locked the door behind me.
The place was eerie in the dark, what with that
red light blinking on and off. One minute the place
was pitch black, the next it was a thousand little
red lights bouncing off the can stuff in the grocery part.
I went to the butcher counter first, and I laid
the note on the scale where he'd be sure to
(18:35):
see it. Then I crossed over past the vegetables and
the bakery, passed the delicatessen to the liquid apartment. It
was dark, and I kept bumping into things, and I thought,
why am I acting like a criminal? I turned on
the light. The whole place was suddenly dazzling, hurt my eyes.
I looked at the cash register. I was just thinking
(18:55):
about maybe taking a couple of bucks when it happened.
I hadn't touched it. Somebody had turned the lights off again.
There were other switches in the place I didn't know where,
And after the brightness, the place seemed twice as dark.
The red sign blinked on and off, but none and
all and then I saw Kraus. He was standing behind
(19:22):
the meat copper at the scale, and he picked up
the note, my note, I did it, Kraus, and he
read it. I couldn't see his eyes, just the glasses,
and every time the light blinked and shone red bright red,
like some sort of terrible toy. And then he began
to move, and it was like a movie that you
(19:42):
see one frame at a time. Each time the light
blinked on. He wasn't where he'd been before, but closer, closer, Kraus.
Mister Cross, Oh no, no, no, mister Cross. Those red
(20:11):
glasses kept coming at me. I edged toward the vegetables
and he moved too. I moved the other way, taught
the groceries. There was a railing. I climbed over it,
and I wasn't one of the long, narrow aisles of
cans and bottles. The stuff was piled head high. I waited,
hoping maybe he didn't see me, but he did. I
(20:34):
hid behind a tower of dog food boxes. He sounded
thirty or forty feet away. I waited. I looked around
the corner. He was looking down another aisle. I ducked
my head back. I couldn't understand that sound. I looked again.
(21:07):
The aisle was empty. In the sunner center where Kraus
had stood were his shoes. He taken them off, oh,
very quietly. I bent and took mine off, too, and
I began to tiptoe away from where I'd seen him.
And then I rounded a corner and there he was,
not two feet away, with his back to me.
Speaker 9 (21:24):
And I lost my balance and I put my hand
out to study myself.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
I hold this fray went over.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
I ran, I ran, and then I was at the
end of an aisle and there was the wall, the
back wall, and I turned and he was coming coming
straight at me. My hand touched something cold, a bottle.
I grabbed it. It was ammonia.
Speaker 9 (21:45):
Kraus Kross gets back, get back cross or I'll blinders cross.
I warn you, I swear, I will cross. I've got
ammonia here, I'll blind you. You're comingy crosser cross.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
He stood there like a crazy blind giant, tearing at
his eyes, the ammonia running down his face. I didn't wait.
I ran past him, bumby him aside. Ran and ran
and cut around the cash register and passed the delicatestena
and the bakery to the door.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
It was locked.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
The key I'd left it, and the locker I was gone.
I tried to break the glass with my fist, but
it was like steel. I tried to kick it, but
I left my shoes behind, and Kroos kept coming, feeling
his way along, moaning, silhouetted in the blinking light, the
red light that gleamed like a tongue of fire on
the knife he held in his hand. I slid behind
(22:38):
the counter of the meat department. Under my feet the
sawdust I bent, scooped up a handful. His face was awful,
twisted and gleaming in the blinking red light. His glasses
were gone, and his eyes were screwed tight shut in pain.
He stopped ten feet away and swaying. Then he opened
his eyes, opened them as wide as he could, and
moved his head from side to side, trying near sightedly
(22:59):
to see me.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
Ah.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
And then his head stopped moving and holding its sideways,
using one eye to see me. He came on the knife,
held way back and I waited, now, let why were
the Sodus? And jumped on one side, my back against
the wall, and he pursed it and get it in
the sawdust, and he fell and then he was very
(23:21):
still for a moment. I waited, backing. He rose to
his knees. In the blinking light, I saw the knife
he'd fallen on it. It was sticking out of the
middle of his chest crows. Then very slowly he got
(23:42):
to his feet, one hand over the place where the
knife was, and then he started towards me again. There
was a rack over the chopping block. He reached up
and got a cleaver right backed behind me. I felt
a large, cold handle the door to the meat storage room.
I heaped it opened inside it was cold, bitter cold,
(24:07):
and dark. In the center of the door was one
small thick pane of glass was clouded. I went to
clear with my hand and looked out. Krause stood there,
his face an inch from mine, looking in, and then
his eyes rolled back and his face went slack, and
he fell outsight. He was dead. I was sure of
(24:34):
it now. I felt around on the dark for the
knobot that I couldn't find it. I felt the door
from the top to the bottom. There were bars and
bolts and something that felt like a handle, but it
wouldn't move. I mean, I heaved and tugged, but it
wouldn't move. There was a knife on a slab there,
I'll butcher knife. I felt around the door for a crack,
(24:55):
slipped the knife and it twisted boke off another door.
I thought, maybe maybe there's please another door out of
this place, and I began to search for it in
the dark. Feeling along the icy, damp walltz I walked
into something cold, moved when I touched it, side of beef,
(25:18):
but no door. I moved father another icy cold thing,
and I moved on. Came up against another cold as
the rest. But I'm crazy, I know it. I'm crazy
this one. This one feels as though it's wearing silk stockings.
(25:56):
So here I am. It's awfully cold, cold as a
witch's heart, cold as a tomb. This thing I have
in my hand is this knife handle. I wish it
had a blade. I know what I'd do, I know,
but it hasn't anyway. I'm innocent of anything. They'll believe me.
They will. There's a letter outside on the scale that
(26:19):
says I did at Kraus, don't blame anybody else. And
there's my suitcase that'll prove I'm meant to go away
enough to cause anybody at hard time, And there's oh
the time goes slow. While I'm waiting and waiting and waiting,
I'll tell myself the whole story again and again and again.
(26:43):
It'll give me something to do, you know, something to
think about. You see. It started the first day of
the job. I was clerking the liquor the bottom of
the supermarket. I haven't been in Los Angeles a week now.
My brother, when I left New York, had given this lyric.
We'll friend he is a guy who owns a string
of these supermarkets. The letter was a fox, Could you
(27:05):
use me? I was a good mud.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
Suspense in which High Averbach starred as Harry and James
Poe's story Never Steal a Butcher's Wife and enjoy Tonight's
tale of suspense. Well, there's a different kind of suspense
on CBS radios Monday through Friday daytime serial The Brighter
Day This Week. Reverend Dennis and his family are the
targets of a vindictive plot. Find out what happens. Listen
(27:51):
to The Brighter Day Tomorrow and every weekday on most
of these stations. Suspense is produced and directed by Norman McDonald,
with music composed by Lucian Morrowick and conducted by lud Bluskin.
Never Steal a Butcher's Wife was written for suspense by
(28:12):
James Poe and starred high ever Back as Harry featured
in the cast for Paula Winslow, Jack Krusian, and Lawrence Dobkin.
Day tuned now for Yours Truly Johnny Dollar, which follows
immediately over most of these same stations.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Listen while you work.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Enjoy Hilltop House every Monday through Friday in the daytime
on the CBS Radio Network.
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