December 21, 2025 • 23 mins
Suspense was one of the most popular and successful radio series during it's run of over 900 episodes, spanning 1940-1962. Guest stars included Orson Welles, Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball, Agnes Moorehead, Marlene Dietrich and Humphrey Bogart. The plots were mostly engaging crime dramas, science fiction and some horror - usually with a surprise ending.
Hope you enjoy this episode of Suspense! Find all our OTR radio stations and podcasts at theaterofthemind-otr.com - Audio Credit: The Old Time Radio Researchers Group. - All Podcasts @ Spreaker | Apple | 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
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
And now tonight's presentation of radio's outstanding theater of thrills suspense.
Tonight the story of a mountain road in the pursuit
of a runaway car.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
We call it speed Trap.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
So now starring Eddie Firestone, here is Tonight's suspense play
speed Track.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Sometimes it takes you years to get to know a guy.
Sometimes on the highway patrol you learn all about a
man in ten minutes, like the night Craig Hollister check
me out.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
On my new beat soft shoulder here.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
I didn't answer. I was too busy sweating a grade.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
The wheel was easy in my hands, too easy, like
it always is on a slick highway. My headlights caught
the rain and sleets slanting down from the pass was steamy.
Inside the patrol car, Hollister wiped the mist off the windshield.
I thought of loosening my collar, but I didn't want
to make a bad impression on Hollister. He didn't look
(01:22):
like a police academy officer, but he didn't talk much,
so I couldn't tell. I knew he was a good patrolman.
They told me at headquarters, good patrolman go by the book.
I decided i'd leave my collar button. I wiped my
hands one at a time and changed my grip on
the wheel.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Curve coming up.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
I don't see why they need us on this road.
Driver would be nuts to.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Go over thirty people's speed anywhere. This turns pearled Millie's hairpin.
It's slicking the rain bomb. Poor kids, you're in a
station wagon after the last storm over left of.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Milly.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
She went over the cliff and a Model T five
years ago. She was sixty years old. Kill her, not
a scratch. Devil's curve coming up. We've had three fatalities
here this winter.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
I don't know if I'm gonna like to speak.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
That is bad. Once you get used to the front.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
You actually catch speeders on this highway.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
So I met my wife. She was speeding here. Pardon me, spetcher.
This is three one two two, Joel. When you call
Debbie and tell her to pick me up at headquarters.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
Okay, you gotta get down here before she does.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Now.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Like her as a safe around.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Me, you old relic. She could break your arm at Joel. Yeah,
it's awful. Slick up here.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Tell her to.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Take it easy on the gray Roger out.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Well, this was pretty good you wanted your wife to
meet you. You gave the dispatcher a call on the radio.
That was something they hadn't taught me at the academy.
I had a hunch that wasn't exactly standard either. Maybe
working out here in the sticks that have its points.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
If you didn't end up at the bottom of a canyon.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Some night chewing on a piston ring, or if your
wife didn't go nuts feeding the chipmunks, well, I sure hope.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
She doesn't try to break the record getting the headquarters,
not the night did.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
You say you caught her speeding here?
Speaker 1 (03:31):
That's how I met her. See that stretch at the
bottom of the grade, and I remember it.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
If you park off.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
The road on the ridge, you can spot the speeders
coming down. I try to get him before they hit
the real grade and clopper themselves.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
That's where you met your wife.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Yeah, she was roaring down the hill with a car
full of phonies, coming back from a party Schweizer was
giving on his estate.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
All of them tried to the.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
Eyeballs, including you a wife.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
I thought, so I wrote it up that way.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Well, then what happened, Well, County judge thought otherwise. Debbie cried,
and her old man said he wanted to treat it
just like anybody else, even if he had just given
the county a new library. So the judge decided she
never had a drink in her life. Wasn't a dry
eye in the courthouse.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
You married her?
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Best thing I ever did? I think you think you're married?
Don't you? Your wife going like the mountains wherever I am.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
She likes it.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Why it's kind of lonely for a woman. Debbie says, well, here,
here's the place I was telling you about.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Pull over. Pull over.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Yeah, we'll wait here and follow her down. Why will
she still drives this great too fast? With me back
of her, She'll take it easy.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
So I pulled over. Of course, even if it was
quitting time. He was the boss, and if he wanted
to baby his wife down the gray, it was okay
with me. I was tired, and I could have used
a couple of coffee back at headquarters, and I was
trying to get my wife moved into her cabin.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
But the man said pull over and wait. So I
pulled over and waited.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
I even offered him a cigarette to show there were
no hard feelings. He shook his head and the flare
of my match I could see was squinting up the rug.
His face was tired, some of the roughness was gone,
and his choker was worried. He caught me looking and
seemed kind of ashamed.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
She'll be along in the middle.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
Sure, sure, No.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Hurry, she can't follow her everywhere, you know, in a
hurry or something.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
No, no, it just seems.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
I'm getting a transfer Debbie, and I will be out
of these mountains next week.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
She's a good driver, but it slicked tonight. So if
it's okay with you, well.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
Just sure, I'm sorry, that's the matter.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Those headlights are there.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
I twisted around in my seat. Half a mile up
the grade, a pair of.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Headlights stabbed over the cliff, seemed to hang there, and
they whipped back to the road jerky, like when somebody's
really floorboarding the accelerator. Then there was a straight stretch
where the light swayed like the guy was kidding. Hollister
gripped my shoulder, and the lights straightened out, got brighter
and brighter and further apart. The guy was practically flying.
Holy smoke, that's not your wife, is it.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
No?
Speaker 1 (06:26):
No, she's still a little wild but you not crazy.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
Hollister was big and a little.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Older than me.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
He didn't look like he could move very fast, but
he was nothing but a blur jumping out of that car.
It was around the hood and swinging a flashlight in
circles before.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
I could even turn on my red light.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
The crazy headlight seemed to reach out at him.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
You okay, Hollistair, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
Let's take Holy God, thought you'd have course, But no cigar.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
He must be plastered over the years to get his tag.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
But I just said it was a convertible. That's all convertible. Yeah,
but you gotta call a dispatch him, no pot, you.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Gotta be part near halfway house. Two four two nine.
This is three one two two two floors a convertible,
all right. And I caught a flash of.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
The driver and my heart had flipped.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
It was a woman driver, young lawn, with a crazy
grin on her face.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
I felt sick.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
I'd pitch up the pieces after a few wrecks down
in the valley. It's bad enough when it's a man,
but a young girl.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Two four two nine. This is three one two to two.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Pappy, we're in pursuit of a possible five oh two,
three miles north of halfway house. Just about ran me down.
He's weaving all over the road. Be careful, archer, I'll
try to take him her.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Not here this curve tight, buddy, What did you say
a driver?
Speaker 4 (07:49):
It's a woman, A woman, I think, so.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Okay, after this curve you can cut loose for about
one hundred yards. Try to get me close enough to
your spot later license.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
Hang on, I know you get the number.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
No, maybe on the next we all need the number.
What do you mean I know the number?
Speaker 4 (08:10):
You know it?
Speaker 1 (08:11):
How come it's it's Debbie's car for your wife. You
must be Why would you try to run you down?
She doesn't know what she's doing.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
What do you mean?
Speaker 1 (08:18):
He's fried plastered. She's gonna roll that thing and that'll
be all.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
That'll be all.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
The guy was shook sliding through a turn. I caught
a glimpse of his face and the light from the dish.
She was staring ahead, and he had that thousand yard
stare I had seen in Korea before an attack.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
I shoven, well, where do we go from here?
Speaker 1 (08:44):
I couldn't see it coming. I could see it alone
in that house all day. It's why we were going
to move to the city, but now it'll be too late.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Step it up, right, step it up.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
If we had tiny change, I.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Can't do any better than you. Stick with it and
try try to get.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Her before kill her Curve's it's a heavy car.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
She's gone crake. It's like it was.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Glued to it isn't glued to the road.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
It'll roll just like the rest of the middle roll
happy a flagger down. How is he going to do it?
She didn't stop for us, Maybe she didn't even see us.
You want me to try.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
To take her out here? Art, not here? She speeds
up anymore. She hasn't got a prayer on kill her curve.
Hang back, don't press her.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Then he did something that wasn't in the books. He
reached over and cut our growler, and he flicked off
the red light. I started to turn it back on
and fell his hand on my wrist.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Leave it off. Maybe we're Penny ginger Art. If she
doesn't slope down now, she'll never make it.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
Then she started her turn on Killer's Curve. It was
easy to see she wouldn't make it. It's the roughest
turn on the grade washboard. No bank to it at.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
All one hundred foot dropped to the river bed below,
hard enough to make on a dry day, but on
a wet night murder. The tay lights hesitated for a second,
like they would make up their minds whether to run
into the hill or over the side. The car slid
sideways rear toward the river. She was going over back home.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
No, no, no no.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
I took my foot off the gas. Out of the
tail of my eye, I saw Hollister cover his face,
and then I was fighting to stay on the road myself.
Suddenly the miracle happened.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
She'd made it.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Now we had to do it. Four two nine. This
is three one two two.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
We're a mile north, still unable to catch the five
or two she's doing seventy five.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
So yes, just start up. We'll try to box her,
but be careful of it.
Speaker 5 (10:33):
This is two four two nine saying r yes, Roger, Okay,
I see her like starting up round.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
It's down her tail.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
We can just stay just the easier between us, just
the easier between us.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
Watch it, it's like glass out there. I'll try to take
her again.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
What's your speed?
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Dog?
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Right?
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Seventy three? Were for a mile behind you. She's weaving
I'm up to sixty bars throwing down.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
No, No, she's swinging left. That's a heavy car. Pappy,
be careful, Roger, she's swinging right. Pappy, let her by,
Let her.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
By, let her buy.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
How are you going to make an old time patrolman
let her drunk pass him on the road. No, Pappy
tried to fight it. He tried to ease her onto
the shoulder. A block long convertible against the patrol car was.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
Like a good pro.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Featherweight against an amateur heavy all skill and no punch.
For a second, I thought he had to run off
the road, but the convertible lurch back. The two sets
of tail lights got closer, and then Pappy was off
the road, over the shoulder, bouncing and rolling down the embankment.
I eased my foot off the accelerator, training that it
wasn't as bad as it looked. I wanted to use
(12:04):
the brake. But on that highway of whim and suicide?
Speaker 2 (12:07):
What are you doing going.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
Back for Pappy? Call a dispatcher there, stopperrs. She just
go off the road first, We gotta get back.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Stay on our tail, You off your rocket?
Speaker 4 (12:16):
Their stoppers. My wife and I don't want her killed.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Stay on her tail?
Speaker 4 (12:22):
What about?
Speaker 2 (12:23):
I said, stay with her? I'm still running this beat like.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Pappy sneats Joe. This is three one two two a
mile south of halfway house. That five o two just
ran Pappy off the road. Send an ambulance. We're staying
on her tail. This isn't Joe.
Speaker 5 (12:41):
It's Sigean cap High her setting up her roadblock outside headquarters.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
She won't get through it. Go back and help Pappy.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
What kind of roadblock it works? You're right shooting at
a woman.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
If she tries to run this block? Where shoot at her?
I get back to Pappy, Sergeant that girl. Don't worry
about the girl. I'll take care or you get back
to Poppy.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
It's Debbie.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Yeah, I'm sorry, honest he she's just run my best
man off there said she almost hit you.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Trucks my cars coming up to Lord Brade have one
of them if we don't stop her. So we'll stop
her if we have to blast her.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Off the road.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
You are listening to speed Trap Tonight's presentation in Radio's
Outstanding Theater of Thrills Suspense Hardly a driver is now
alive who passed on a curve at sixty five, slew
(14:00):
down driver, if you're pushing even a little bit too
hard for the road conditions ahead, Tonight, play it safe
behind the wheel. Your life depends on it. The lives
of others on or near the highways depend on it too.
Safety first, behind the wheel. Don't make a death trap
of your automobile. And now we bring back to our
(14:20):
Hollywood So on stage Eddie Firestone with Larry Thor, starring
in Tonight's production speed Trap. A tail well calculated to
keep you in suspense.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
I felt sorry for the man beside me. I knew
what was happening outside headquarters. A couple of patrol cars
rolling into position. Spotlights pointed up the grade. Guys drawing
automatic rifles, maybe shotguns. Flares set out further down the hill,
A reception committee for Craig Hollister's wife, not what he'd
(15:02):
planned when he'd asked her to meet him at headquarters.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
But there was nothing I could do.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
I slowed carefully, keep going, I look, get going.
Speaker 4 (15:10):
You heard the sergeant Pappy might be bleeding.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
He's a there a quarter mile from half way house.
They can do as much firm as weekend. You stay
on her tail.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
I can't starts on this, and I said, stay with her.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
You understand, Craig, I can't suspend me.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Oh my god, on you watch this next curve.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
What can we do? We can't.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
She tries to run a barricade, they'll blow her apart
if she hang on. If she doesn't slow down, she
won't even get to the barrica of your lights.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Turn off my lights, right, turn off your lights when
she doesn't see if she slows down.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
A little, how am I gonna see? Use her lights?
Her lights? Fine? Great? But what if there was something
coming up? The great?
Speaker 3 (15:55):
I wondered if Hollister had gone nuts. I shot a
look at him. He was peering, and he seemed to
have got a hold of himself. I didn't really think
he'd put a gun on me, but suddenly I knew
I'd go along with whatever he was trying to do,
even if it cost me my badge.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
I flicked off the lights. It seemed to help the car.
I had lost some of its crazy fear.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
You're gaining slow, slow, uneasy? What okay? Usually stretch here.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
Gaining all right? But what good is it? She makes
this turn? She still only got a mile to the barricade.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Is that a car coming, looks like a truck. Get over,
Get over me. Wants to get your lights on?
Speaker 3 (16:56):
Now catch every time I put on another mile an hour,
we are to slide.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
To get closer. I'll never do it from here.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
Closer, the man said.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
I was already pushing eighty, my arms and eyes ached
from the strain. The range was still too far unless
he was aiming for a lucky hit or an unlucky You.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Gotta catch her by that stretch in front of headquarters.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Well that made sense. It was the only level shoulder
in the grade. If he was going to shoot out,
a tire would have to be there. But that was
where the barricade was. We just have to get at
the side of it. Hollister rolled down the window and
I felt a spray of rain on my face. Suddenly
I spotted the barricade spotlights. She's slowing on me, putting
on speed. I can't wait any longer.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
The range was just too great. It had to be
her left rear tire.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
If she went off the other way, she'd be killed,
and if the ricochet got her should be killed anyway.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
But she was just too far away.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
Suddenly, not really wanting to I jammed down the accelerator.
At least I could give him a last chances. Rear
in swayed and lurched. My hands were sweaty with.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
Fear, and that did it.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
The heavy car began to turn, hesitated and headed with
his shoulder. It leaped when it hit the dirt, half
turned and went over. I skid it all the way
through the roadblock. It took me so long to get
(18:31):
stopped and turn around at The guys from the barricade
beat us back to the crash. But it was just
as well, because without help I'd never been able to
keep Hollister from the ruin convertible.
Speaker 4 (18:43):
Hollistir.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
When do we get around?
Speaker 4 (18:45):
We'll Back'll be here in a minute. I killed her.
I killed her. We don't know yet. Yeah, you down there, Doc,
any house, Pappy.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
The broken leg? Let the car off the road?
Speaker 4 (19:00):
Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
It seemed like an hour, but it was only a
couple of minutes before the docks scrambled out of the ditch.
A patrolman and an ambulance driver set a little by
the ambulance. Two other guys had Craig in their patrol car,
trying to calm him down. I walked over to the ambulance.
The girl was hurt, hurt.
Speaker 4 (19:24):
Bad, but she was alive. Sergeant walked up.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
She alive.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
Yeah, I'm gonna tell Hollister, okay to let him see her. Sergeant, Yeah, yeah,
I guess, sir. And I started back to the patrol
car and stepped back to let a convertible onto the shoulder.
A girl got out, a pretty girl. And I thought
(19:50):
of the kid by the ambulance, who would never be
pretty again. And then I felt the sergeant's hand on
my arm. He was staring at her.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Oh this is Hollister. What happened?
Speaker 4 (20:01):
Where's Craig?
Speaker 2 (20:02):
What's familiar with you?
Speaker 4 (20:05):
We thought, he thought, Oh, no, poor thing, She's just
a kid. Hey, Pete, creg hollis throw over here.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
I guess she figured she was old enough to get
fried to the gills and try to make that grade
on a rainy night.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Now your husband saved her life.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Oh he and Art here almost broke their next catching
him and a blasted of a piece.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Where is Craig? Is he all right?
Speaker 4 (20:31):
The Craig darling?
Speaker 3 (20:32):
What is it?
Speaker 2 (20:32):
It wasn't you. I'd better skip it. Craig, No, no, no,
you gotta know, Debbie, I want you to know. I
thought the girl was you me?
Speaker 4 (20:44):
Why me?
Speaker 3 (20:47):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (20:49):
I see?
Speaker 2 (20:52):
And it could have been, couldn't it long time ago?
Maybe long time ago?
Speaker 3 (21:07):
Well his arm was around her when they walked away.
But Debbie Hollister had a kind of thoughtful look in
her eye. You kind of wonder at a time like that,
what two people are thinking. I turned back to the sergeant.
You okay, Oh sure, yeah, I would say, uh, sergeant,
(21:30):
uh about us not going back for Pappy. I was driving,
you know, yeah, I know, Well, forget it. Learn anything tonight, Yeah,
I learned something.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Suspense, in which Eddie Firestone with Larry Thorp starred in
Tonight's presentation of speed Trap. Next Week Suspense will bring
you the story of a man who knows that he
will be caught for a crime that he has not
yet committed. We call it sight Unseene. That's next Week
on Suspense. Suspense is produced and directed by Anthony Ellis.
(22:46):
Tonight's script was written by mister Hank Searles. The music
was composed by Lucia Morrowick and conducted by Wilbur Hatch.
Featured in the cast were Lillian Bayeth, Tom McKee, Ted Bliss,
and Jack Rushan.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Listen while you work.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Enjoy Perry Mason every Monday through Friday in the daytime
on the CBS Radio Network.
And now tonight's presentation of radio's outstanding theater of thrills suspense.
Tonight the story of a mountain road in the pursuit
of a runaway car.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
We call it speed Trap.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
So now starring Eddie Firestone, here is Tonight's suspense play
speed Track.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Sometimes it takes you years to get to know a guy.
Sometimes on the highway patrol you learn all about a
man in ten minutes, like the night Craig Hollister check
me out.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
On my new beat soft shoulder here.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
I didn't answer. I was too busy sweating a grade.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
The wheel was easy in my hands, too easy, like
it always is on a slick highway. My headlights caught
the rain and sleets slanting down from the pass was steamy.
Inside the patrol car, Hollister wiped the mist off the windshield.
I thought of loosening my collar, but I didn't want
to make a bad impression on Hollister. He didn't look
(01:22):
like a police academy officer, but he didn't talk much,
so I couldn't tell. I knew he was a good patrolman.
They told me at headquarters, good patrolman go by the book.
I decided i'd leave my collar button. I wiped my
hands one at a time and changed my grip on
the wheel.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Curve coming up.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
I don't see why they need us on this road.
Driver would be nuts to.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Go over thirty people's speed anywhere. This turns pearled Millie's hairpin.
It's slicking the rain bomb. Poor kids, you're in a
station wagon after the last storm over left of.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Milly.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
She went over the cliff and a Model T five
years ago. She was sixty years old. Kill her, not
a scratch. Devil's curve coming up. We've had three fatalities
here this winter.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
I don't know if I'm gonna like to speak.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
That is bad. Once you get used to the front.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
You actually catch speeders on this highway.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
So I met my wife. She was speeding here. Pardon me, spetcher.
This is three one two two, Joel. When you call
Debbie and tell her to pick me up at headquarters.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
Okay, you gotta get down here before she does.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Now.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Like her as a safe around.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Me, you old relic. She could break your arm at Joel. Yeah,
it's awful. Slick up here.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Tell her to.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Take it easy on the gray Roger out.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Well, this was pretty good you wanted your wife to
meet you. You gave the dispatcher a call on the radio.
That was something they hadn't taught me at the academy.
I had a hunch that wasn't exactly standard either. Maybe
working out here in the sticks that have its points.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
If you didn't end up at the bottom of a canyon.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Some night chewing on a piston ring, or if your
wife didn't go nuts feeding the chipmunks, well, I sure hope.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
She doesn't try to break the record getting the headquarters,
not the night did.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
You say you caught her speeding here?
Speaker 1 (03:31):
That's how I met her. See that stretch at the
bottom of the grade, and I remember it.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
If you park off.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
The road on the ridge, you can spot the speeders
coming down. I try to get him before they hit
the real grade and clopper themselves.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
That's where you met your wife.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Yeah, she was roaring down the hill with a car
full of phonies, coming back from a party Schweizer was
giving on his estate.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
All of them tried to the.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
Eyeballs, including you a wife.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
I thought, so I wrote it up that way.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Well, then what happened, Well, County judge thought otherwise. Debbie cried,
and her old man said he wanted to treat it
just like anybody else, even if he had just given
the county a new library. So the judge decided she
never had a drink in her life. Wasn't a dry
eye in the courthouse.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
You married her?
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Best thing I ever did? I think you think you're married?
Don't you? Your wife going like the mountains wherever I am.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
She likes it.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Why it's kind of lonely for a woman. Debbie says, well, here,
here's the place I was telling you about.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Pull over. Pull over.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Yeah, we'll wait here and follow her down. Why will
she still drives this great too fast? With me back
of her, She'll take it easy.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
So I pulled over. Of course, even if it was
quitting time. He was the boss, and if he wanted
to baby his wife down the gray, it was okay
with me. I was tired, and I could have used
a couple of coffee back at headquarters, and I was
trying to get my wife moved into her cabin.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
But the man said pull over and wait. So I
pulled over and waited.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
I even offered him a cigarette to show there were
no hard feelings. He shook his head and the flare
of my match I could see was squinting up the rug.
His face was tired, some of the roughness was gone,
and his choker was worried. He caught me looking and
seemed kind of ashamed.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
She'll be along in the middle.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
Sure, sure, No.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Hurry, she can't follow her everywhere, you know, in a
hurry or something.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
No, no, it just seems.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
I'm getting a transfer Debbie, and I will be out
of these mountains next week.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
She's a good driver, but it slicked tonight. So if
it's okay with you, well.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
Just sure, I'm sorry, that's the matter.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Those headlights are there.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
I twisted around in my seat. Half a mile up
the grade, a pair of.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Headlights stabbed over the cliff, seemed to hang there, and
they whipped back to the road jerky, like when somebody's
really floorboarding the accelerator. Then there was a straight stretch
where the light swayed like the guy was kidding. Hollister
gripped my shoulder, and the lights straightened out, got brighter
and brighter and further apart. The guy was practically flying.
Holy smoke, that's not your wife, is it.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
No?
Speaker 1 (06:26):
No, she's still a little wild but you not crazy.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
Hollister was big and a little.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Older than me.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
He didn't look like he could move very fast, but
he was nothing but a blur jumping out of that car.
It was around the hood and swinging a flashlight in
circles before.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
I could even turn on my red light.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
The crazy headlight seemed to reach out at him.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
You okay, Hollistair, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
Let's take Holy God, thought you'd have course, But no cigar.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
He must be plastered over the years to get his tag.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
But I just said it was a convertible. That's all convertible. Yeah,
but you gotta call a dispatch him, no pot, you.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Gotta be part near halfway house. Two four two nine.
This is three one two two two floors a convertible,
all right. And I caught a flash of.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
The driver and my heart had flipped.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
It was a woman driver, young lawn, with a crazy
grin on her face.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
I felt sick.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
I'd pitch up the pieces after a few wrecks down
in the valley. It's bad enough when it's a man,
but a young girl.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Two four two nine. This is three one two to two.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Pappy, we're in pursuit of a possible five oh two,
three miles north of halfway house. Just about ran me down.
He's weaving all over the road. Be careful, archer, I'll
try to take him her.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Not here this curve tight, buddy, What did you say
a driver?
Speaker 4 (07:49):
It's a woman, A woman, I think, so.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Okay, after this curve you can cut loose for about
one hundred yards. Try to get me close enough to
your spot later license.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
Hang on, I know you get the number.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
No, maybe on the next we all need the number.
What do you mean I know the number?
Speaker 4 (08:10):
You know it?
Speaker 1 (08:11):
How come it's it's Debbie's car for your wife. You
must be Why would you try to run you down?
She doesn't know what she's doing.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
What do you mean?
Speaker 1 (08:18):
He's fried plastered. She's gonna roll that thing and that'll
be all.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
That'll be all.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
The guy was shook sliding through a turn. I caught
a glimpse of his face and the light from the dish.
She was staring ahead, and he had that thousand yard
stare I had seen in Korea before an attack.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
I shoven, well, where do we go from here?
Speaker 1 (08:44):
I couldn't see it coming. I could see it alone
in that house all day. It's why we were going
to move to the city, but now it'll be too late.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Step it up, right, step it up.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
If we had tiny change, I.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Can't do any better than you. Stick with it and
try try to get.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Her before kill her Curve's it's a heavy car.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
She's gone crake. It's like it was.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Glued to it isn't glued to the road.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
It'll roll just like the rest of the middle roll
happy a flagger down. How is he going to do it?
She didn't stop for us, Maybe she didn't even see us.
You want me to try.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
To take her out here? Art, not here? She speeds
up anymore. She hasn't got a prayer on kill her curve.
Hang back, don't press her.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Then he did something that wasn't in the books. He
reached over and cut our growler, and he flicked off
the red light. I started to turn it back on
and fell his hand on my wrist.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Leave it off. Maybe we're Penny ginger Art. If she
doesn't slope down now, she'll never make it.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
Then she started her turn on Killer's Curve. It was
easy to see she wouldn't make it. It's the roughest
turn on the grade washboard. No bank to it at.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
All one hundred foot dropped to the river bed below,
hard enough to make on a dry day, but on
a wet night murder. The tay lights hesitated for a second,
like they would make up their minds whether to run
into the hill or over the side. The car slid
sideways rear toward the river. She was going over back home.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
No, no, no no.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
I took my foot off the gas. Out of the
tail of my eye, I saw Hollister cover his face,
and then I was fighting to stay on the road myself.
Suddenly the miracle happened.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
She'd made it.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Now we had to do it. Four two nine. This
is three one two two.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
We're a mile north, still unable to catch the five
or two she's doing seventy five.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
So yes, just start up. We'll try to box her,
but be careful of it.
Speaker 5 (10:33):
This is two four two nine saying r yes, Roger, Okay,
I see her like starting up round.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
It's down her tail.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
We can just stay just the easier between us, just
the easier between us.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
Watch it, it's like glass out there. I'll try to take
her again.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
What's your speed?
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Dog?
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Right?
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Seventy three? Were for a mile behind you. She's weaving
I'm up to sixty bars throwing down.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
No, No, she's swinging left. That's a heavy car. Pappy,
be careful, Roger, she's swinging right. Pappy, let her by,
Let her.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
By, let her buy.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
How are you going to make an old time patrolman
let her drunk pass him on the road. No, Pappy
tried to fight it. He tried to ease her onto
the shoulder. A block long convertible against the patrol car was.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
Like a good pro.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Featherweight against an amateur heavy all skill and no punch.
For a second, I thought he had to run off
the road, but the convertible lurch back. The two sets
of tail lights got closer, and then Pappy was off
the road, over the shoulder, bouncing and rolling down the embankment.
I eased my foot off the accelerator, training that it
wasn't as bad as it looked. I wanted to use
(12:04):
the brake. But on that highway of whim and suicide?
Speaker 2 (12:07):
What are you doing going.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
Back for Pappy? Call a dispatcher there, stopperrs. She just
go off the road first, We gotta get back.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Stay on our tail, You off your rocket?
Speaker 4 (12:16):
Their stoppers. My wife and I don't want her killed.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Stay on her tail?
Speaker 4 (12:22):
What about?
Speaker 2 (12:23):
I said, stay with her? I'm still running this beat like.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Pappy sneats Joe. This is three one two two a
mile south of halfway house. That five o two just
ran Pappy off the road. Send an ambulance. We're staying
on her tail. This isn't Joe.
Speaker 5 (12:41):
It's Sigean cap High her setting up her roadblock outside headquarters.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
She won't get through it. Go back and help Pappy.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
What kind of roadblock it works? You're right shooting at
a woman.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
If she tries to run this block? Where shoot at her?
I get back to Pappy, Sergeant that girl. Don't worry
about the girl. I'll take care or you get back
to Poppy.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
It's Debbie.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Yeah, I'm sorry, honest he she's just run my best
man off there said she almost hit you.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Trucks my cars coming up to Lord Brade have one
of them if we don't stop her. So we'll stop
her if we have to blast her.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Off the road.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
You are listening to speed Trap Tonight's presentation in Radio's
Outstanding Theater of Thrills Suspense Hardly a driver is now
alive who passed on a curve at sixty five, slew
(14:00):
down driver, if you're pushing even a little bit too
hard for the road conditions ahead, Tonight, play it safe
behind the wheel. Your life depends on it. The lives
of others on or near the highways depend on it too.
Safety first, behind the wheel. Don't make a death trap
of your automobile. And now we bring back to our
(14:20):
Hollywood So on stage Eddie Firestone with Larry Thor, starring
in Tonight's production speed Trap. A tail well calculated to
keep you in suspense.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
I felt sorry for the man beside me. I knew
what was happening outside headquarters. A couple of patrol cars
rolling into position. Spotlights pointed up the grade. Guys drawing
automatic rifles, maybe shotguns. Flares set out further down the hill,
A reception committee for Craig Hollister's wife, not what he'd
(15:02):
planned when he'd asked her to meet him at headquarters.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
But there was nothing I could do.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
I slowed carefully, keep going, I look, get going.
Speaker 4 (15:10):
You heard the sergeant Pappy might be bleeding.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
He's a there a quarter mile from half way house.
They can do as much firm as weekend. You stay
on her tail.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
I can't starts on this, and I said, stay with her.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
You understand, Craig, I can't suspend me.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Oh my god, on you watch this next curve.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
What can we do? We can't.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
She tries to run a barricade, they'll blow her apart
if she hang on. If she doesn't slow down, she
won't even get to the barrica of your lights.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Turn off my lights, right, turn off your lights when
she doesn't see if she slows down.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
A little, how am I gonna see? Use her lights?
Her lights? Fine? Great? But what if there was something
coming up? The great?
Speaker 3 (15:55):
I wondered if Hollister had gone nuts. I shot a
look at him. He was peering, and he seemed to
have got a hold of himself. I didn't really think
he'd put a gun on me, but suddenly I knew
I'd go along with whatever he was trying to do,
even if it cost me my badge.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
I flicked off the lights. It seemed to help the car.
I had lost some of its crazy fear.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
You're gaining slow, slow, uneasy? What okay? Usually stretch here.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
Gaining all right? But what good is it? She makes
this turn? She still only got a mile to the barricade.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Is that a car coming, looks like a truck. Get over,
Get over me. Wants to get your lights on?
Speaker 3 (16:56):
Now catch every time I put on another mile an hour,
we are to slide.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
To get closer. I'll never do it from here.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
Closer, the man said.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
I was already pushing eighty, my arms and eyes ached
from the strain. The range was still too far unless
he was aiming for a lucky hit or an unlucky You.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Gotta catch her by that stretch in front of headquarters.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Well that made sense. It was the only level shoulder
in the grade. If he was going to shoot out,
a tire would have to be there. But that was
where the barricade was. We just have to get at
the side of it. Hollister rolled down the window and
I felt a spray of rain on my face. Suddenly
I spotted the barricade spotlights. She's slowing on me, putting
on speed. I can't wait any longer.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
The range was just too great. It had to be
her left rear tire.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
If she went off the other way, she'd be killed,
and if the ricochet got her should be killed anyway.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
But she was just too far away.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
Suddenly, not really wanting to I jammed down the accelerator.
At least I could give him a last chances. Rear
in swayed and lurched. My hands were sweaty with.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
Fear, and that did it.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
The heavy car began to turn, hesitated and headed with
his shoulder. It leaped when it hit the dirt, half
turned and went over. I skid it all the way
through the roadblock. It took me so long to get
(18:31):
stopped and turn around at The guys from the barricade
beat us back to the crash. But it was just
as well, because without help I'd never been able to
keep Hollister from the ruin convertible.
Speaker 4 (18:43):
Hollistir.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
When do we get around?
Speaker 4 (18:45):
We'll Back'll be here in a minute. I killed her.
I killed her. We don't know yet. Yeah, you down there, Doc,
any house, Pappy.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
The broken leg? Let the car off the road?
Speaker 4 (19:00):
Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
It seemed like an hour, but it was only a
couple of minutes before the docks scrambled out of the ditch.
A patrolman and an ambulance driver set a little by
the ambulance. Two other guys had Craig in their patrol car,
trying to calm him down. I walked over to the ambulance.
The girl was hurt, hurt.
Speaker 4 (19:24):
Bad, but she was alive. Sergeant walked up.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
She alive.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
Yeah, I'm gonna tell Hollister, okay to let him see her. Sergeant, Yeah, yeah,
I guess, sir. And I started back to the patrol
car and stepped back to let a convertible onto the shoulder.
A girl got out, a pretty girl. And I thought
(19:50):
of the kid by the ambulance, who would never be
pretty again. And then I felt the sergeant's hand on
my arm. He was staring at her.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Oh this is Hollister. What happened?
Speaker 4 (20:01):
Where's Craig?
Speaker 2 (20:02):
What's familiar with you?
Speaker 4 (20:05):
We thought, he thought, Oh, no, poor thing, She's just
a kid. Hey, Pete, creg hollis throw over here.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
I guess she figured she was old enough to get
fried to the gills and try to make that grade
on a rainy night.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Now your husband saved her life.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Oh he and Art here almost broke their next catching
him and a blasted of a piece.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Where is Craig? Is he all right?
Speaker 4 (20:31):
The Craig darling?
Speaker 3 (20:32):
What is it?
Speaker 2 (20:32):
It wasn't you. I'd better skip it. Craig, No, no, no,
you gotta know, Debbie, I want you to know. I
thought the girl was you me?
Speaker 4 (20:44):
Why me?
Speaker 3 (20:47):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (20:49):
I see?
Speaker 2 (20:52):
And it could have been, couldn't it long time ago?
Maybe long time ago?
Speaker 3 (21:07):
Well his arm was around her when they walked away.
But Debbie Hollister had a kind of thoughtful look in
her eye. You kind of wonder at a time like that,
what two people are thinking. I turned back to the sergeant.
You okay, Oh sure, yeah, I would say, uh, sergeant,
(21:30):
uh about us not going back for Pappy. I was driving,
you know, yeah, I know, Well, forget it. Learn anything tonight, Yeah,
I learned something.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Suspense, in which Eddie Firestone with Larry Thorp starred in
Tonight's presentation of speed Trap. Next Week Suspense will bring
you the story of a man who knows that he
will be caught for a crime that he has not
yet committed. We call it sight Unseene. That's next Week
on Suspense. Suspense is produced and directed by Anthony Ellis.
(22:46):
Tonight's script was written by mister Hank Searles. The music
was composed by Lucia Morrowick and conducted by Wilbur Hatch.
Featured in the cast were Lillian Bayeth, Tom McKee, Ted Bliss,
and Jack Rushan.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Listen while you work.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Enjoy Perry Mason every Monday through Friday in the daytime
on the CBS Radio Network.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.