Speaker 1: Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho.
Speaker 1: This is your host, Adam Graham. If you have a comment,
Speaker 1: email it to me Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net.
Speaker 1: Follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives, and check us
Speaker 1: out on Instagram, Instagram, dot com, slash Great Detectives. If
Speaker 1: you're enjoying the podcast, please follow us using your favorite
Speaker 1: podcast software. And this is our four thousand, four hundred
Speaker 1: and fiftieth episode special. And I hadn't had anything specifically planned,
Speaker 1: and we had done quite a few episodes of suspense recently,
Speaker 1: as well as screen Yield Theater and related programs as
Speaker 1: well of course the Locks Radio Theater. And then I
Speaker 1: realized it's been a pretty long time since we brought
Speaker 1: to an episode of The Mullay Mystery Theater. And I checked,
Speaker 1: and it has been nearly five years and more than
Speaker 1: fifteen hundred episodes since we last visited this series. Now,
Speaker 1: of course, the entirety of the Mullay Mystery Theater run
Speaker 1: is not in circulation, which obviously presents a challenge, and
Speaker 1: further not every episode of that series is really a
Speaker 1: detective program that we can use for this podcast. But regardless,
Speaker 1: we are massively overdue for another trip to the Molay
Speaker 1: Mystery Theater.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: For those of you who are not listening in August
Speaker 1: of twenty nineteen who have never heard of the series,
Speaker 1: The Moulay Mystery Theater was an anthology series broadcast over
Speaker 1: NBC and originating from New York. It ran from nineteen
Speaker 1: forty three to nineteen forty eight and featured various mystery stories,
Speaker 1: some based on short stories and others original to radio.
Speaker 1: Today's episode is from January seventeenth, nineteen forty seven, and
Speaker 1: the title is Corpus Delacti.
Speaker 3: Hello, greeps.
Speaker 4: Mystery Playoffs invite you to visit the Mystery Theater. Plase
Speaker 4: Corpus delecti.
Speaker 5: H you can do it now.
Speaker 6: You're can have half an hour. I have powers, alright,
Speaker 6: The warden says, that's the best he can do, even
Speaker 6: for you, Lieutenant Hunners.
Speaker 3: All right, I'll be back.
Speaker 6: You can call me if you want to leave before the.
Speaker 2: Jim, Jim, Jim, for.
Speaker 7: The love of God, all right, Jim, Jim boy, you've
Speaker 7: got to tell me.
Speaker 6: You can tell me. There's nothing to tell. You can
Speaker 6: tell your own brother, don't you see? This is my business. Jim.
Speaker 6: I'm not a police detective for nothing.
Speaker 8: I could help, but.
Speaker 2: It's too late, Mike.
Speaker 9: In two days it'll be all over.
Speaker 6: They say, they give you a shot of something before
Speaker 6: they take you to the chair. They say you hardly
Speaker 6: even though it's going on.
Speaker 5: But you didn't do it.
Speaker 6: I know you didn't. You're taking a wrap for that
Speaker 6: cheap line. I'm all right, sorry. You can't talk about
Speaker 6: it like that, Mike.
Speaker 9: If you if you knew her.
Speaker 2: How sweet she is?
Speaker 6: Jim, I know you didn't kill her husband. I don't
Speaker 6: know what happened, but I know you didn't do it.
Speaker 8: Why don't you tell me?
Speaker 2: Jim?
Speaker 6: What can I say to mother? I've got to tell
Speaker 6: her something. She's waiting at home now. If I tell you,
Speaker 6: we have promised me something, anything. Jim, promise me you
Speaker 6: won't tell anybody but mother, and not even her until
Speaker 6: I'm until after the day after tomorrow. I promise Jim,
Speaker 6: what happened that night? I love nearly more than anything
Speaker 6: in this world.
Speaker 8: She loves me.
Speaker 6: You you knew her husband, Martin Stephen's a wealthy Wall
Speaker 6: Street broker.
Speaker 10: Will she told me she asked.
Speaker 6: Him for a divorce, but he wouldn't give it to her.
Speaker 6: She was terribly unhappy. Then this night she called and well,
Speaker 6: I'd never heard her sound that way before.
Speaker 8: The matter.
Speaker 6: I rushed out and cat could imagine what had happened.
Speaker 10: When I got there, Mary met me at the door.
Speaker 2: She was trembling.
Speaker 6: She led me to the living room.
Speaker 10: M Martin, he said, Jim, look Martin.
Speaker 6: Her husband was lying on the floor. His head was
Speaker 6: all bloody.
Speaker 8: There was a heavy cand.
Speaker 6: Of library nearby with blood on it. He was dead.
Speaker 10: I didn't need to kill je. We quarreled again, and
Speaker 10: he said such terrible things about you and me. He
Speaker 10: chipped screaming names at me. Then he started to beat me.
Speaker 6: Marry Mary, your faith, said's all bruised.
Speaker 10: He keeps hitting me. Then I grabbed the candlelabre. I
Speaker 10: told him to stay away, but he kept coming towards me.
Speaker 9: Jim, I didn't want to do it.
Speaker 6: Mary, Honey, you've only done what everyone has a right
Speaker 6: to do. It was self defense.
Speaker 10: But everyone will say I did it because of us.
Speaker 10: They'll put me in prison.
Speaker 3: I won't let him.
Speaker 11: Well, we'll run away.
Speaker 10: This would only make it worse.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, yes, so, but we'll have to do something Jim.
Speaker 9: Yeah, Jim, if there weren't anybody, what do you mean,
Speaker 9: if there's no corpus DELICTI, they can't find anybody guilty himy.
Speaker 6: That's it. They won't even be sure there's been a murder.
Speaker 6: Oh that said, we've got to get rid of Martin's body.
Speaker 6: To get Martin's body out of the house, so we
Speaker 6: went up to the attic, got to see the chest,
Speaker 6: and carried it downstairs together, and we forced Martin's body.
Speaker 2: Into it and mocked the chest.
Speaker 6: I was in an awful days, but luckily Mary seemed
Speaker 6: able to.
Speaker 2: Keep her head.
Speaker 12: I'll help you get the trunk in the car gym,
Speaker 12: and you drive right out of our summer place of
Speaker 12: Long Island. It isn't so there, I know, all right,
Speaker 12: don't turn on any lights there, but put the trunk
Speaker 12: in the boat.
Speaker 2: And what do we do?
Speaker 10: I don't know. I can't demandine who.
Speaker 2: Maybe they'll go away, Jim.
Speaker 10: It must be my dressmaker. She was supposed to stop
Speaker 10: by this evening for a fitting. If she not, I'm here,
Speaker 10: I'll get rid of her. Shut the doors to the
Speaker 10: living room before you open the front door, gym, right, yes,
Speaker 10: is missus Stephens home please. She expects me for a city.
Speaker 6: I'm sorry she isn't home.
Speaker 10: Missus Stephens told me particularly to come just now if
Speaker 10: this out.
Speaker 6: Well, she went out earlier unexpectedly. She'll call you when
Speaker 6: to come again.
Speaker 9: Well, thank you, good night, good night.
Speaker 6: I got rid of her all right, man, I said
Speaker 6: you'd call her good You.
Speaker 10: Better get movie now.
Speaker 6: No, Mary, I'll go along. You'd better establish an alibi.
Speaker 6: What do you mean, darling, Well, why don't you go
Speaker 6: to a movie and ask the usher or the ticket
Speaker 6: seller something, anything but talk with somebody a minute so
Speaker 6: they'll remember you do just in case, Mary, I want
Speaker 6: you to all right, darling, if you say so. Everything
Speaker 6: worked like clockwork. Mary went to the movies, and I
Speaker 6: drove out to the Long Island place. The place was deserted.
Speaker 6: I drove to the boat house, got the cedar chest
Speaker 6: into the boat, and then when I was off shore
Speaker 6: about half a mile, I pushed the ceedar chest overboard,
Speaker 6: and I returned to the boat house started to drive
Speaker 6: back to town. About halfway home, I was stopped by
Speaker 6: a motorcycle policeman. It's your car. I, oh no, it
Speaker 6: belongs to a friend.
Speaker 3: How come we got to call or pick up this car.
Speaker 3: It's been reported stolen. It's my duty to warn you
Speaker 3: that anything you say may be used against you, mister Connors.
Speaker 6: But I tell you I am a friend of the
Speaker 6: family inspector. There's nothing extraordinary in my using their car.
Speaker 6: I've done so many times.
Speaker 3: All I know is that the chauffeur returned here, found
Speaker 3: the car gone, and reported it stolen.
Speaker 6: The shelfer, but I'm sure when missus Stevens were times
Speaker 6: she can explain very well.
Speaker 3: Perhaps you can explain those bloodstains on the rug in
Speaker 3: that next room. I don't know, Tom fingerprints on the
Speaker 3: candelabra columns resting you want suspicion, Yeah, every reason to
Speaker 3: believe Martin Stevens has been murdered.
Speaker 6: You know the rest, Mike. They were my fingerprints on
Speaker 6: the candelabra. I picked it up when I first got there.
Speaker 6: So you confess to shield that double dealing. No good woman.
Speaker 6: Didn't even defend yourself in court. Now she's letting you
Speaker 6: take the rap for her. But it wouldn't do any
Speaker 6: good to drag her into it. Mike. I'd go to
Speaker 6: the chair in any case. And remember, Mike, I'll deny
Speaker 6: everything I told you, remember that.
Speaker 8: I know, Jim, how could you fall for that?
Speaker 6: Corpus delect my stuff? Jim, don't you know what corpus
Speaker 6: DELECTI means. Don't you know? It has nothing to do
Speaker 6: with the body of the victim. It means body of
Speaker 6: the evidence. You can't be convicted unless the body of
Speaker 6: the evidence is against you. And it was all right,
Speaker 6: even to the dressmaker saying I was the only person.
Speaker 2: There that night.
Speaker 6: Oh, nobody would believe the truth. Now perhaps they wouldn't
Speaker 6: if we had the truth. What but I told you
Speaker 6: the truth, all of it.
Speaker 8: I'm going to get to the root of all of this, Jim.
Speaker 6: But why didn't you tell me sooner? Don't you see?
Speaker 6: You've only left me forty eight hours? Forty eight hours?
Speaker 7: So that's the story, Missus Stevens.
Speaker 8: Jim has told me everything. Now what are you going
Speaker 8: to do about it?
Speaker 10: I don't know what Jim told you. All I know
Speaker 10: is that I spent the evening at the movie. When
Speaker 10: I came home, the police.
Speaker 8: Who there with Jim.
Speaker 6: Look, there's only one person who stands to proper from
Speaker 6: your husband's death, and that's you. I happen to know
Speaker 6: a little bit about your husband's financial affairs. I know
Speaker 6: he was positively bankrupt, and I know his one asset
Speaker 6: with one hundred thousand dollars insurance policy.
Speaker 10: My husband left me well provided for you. And just
Speaker 10: what does that prove?
Speaker 6: Prove nothing, I guess. By the way, where's that chauffeur
Speaker 6: of yours, one who reported the car stolen?
Speaker 10: He's no longer with me? Give notice and left?
Speaker 8: Where did he go?
Speaker 4: Didn't he leave a forwarding address? No he didn't, just disappeared?
Speaker 6: Huh? I see, well, I'll be going.
Speaker 10: Oh just a minute, I've got some letters of Gym's upstairs.
Speaker 10: I found them when I was going through my things
Speaker 10: in packing.
Speaker 6: I'll return them packing.
Speaker 8: You're a leaving town, Yes.
Speaker 10: I'm going to my father's in Chicago. Shall I get
Speaker 10: the letters?
Speaker 8: Go ahead?
Speaker 6: Thirty eight hours, Jim, Jim, thirty eight hours.
Speaker 8: Hello, this is International Airway. Just missus Stevens there just
Speaker 8: the moment. Could I take the message?
Speaker 2: Please?
Speaker 8: Certainly on her reservation to mont in Mexico.
Speaker 6: We have a seat for her on the six thirty
Speaker 6: flight tomorrow morning, Monteray, Monterrey.
Speaker 8: You must be mistaken.
Speaker 6: You mean Chicago. Oh no, sir, there's no mistake. Monterey, Mexico.
Speaker 13: Okay, I'll have her confirm it. Thank you, Monterrey, m
Speaker 13: Where did she lie the phone?
Speaker 6: I thought I heard something, uh something about a reservation.
Speaker 8: I said you'd call back.
Speaker 10: Oh, I guess it was my reservation to Chicago. Well, Mike,
Speaker 10: he has the letters. You see, I didn't like to
Speaker 10: return them to Jim under the circumstances.
Speaker 6: That shows a great sense of delicacy. Mary, goodbye, Mike.
Speaker 9: I dare say we won't be meeting again.
Speaker 6: I dare say, there, you can't tell.
Speaker 8: That's a small world. Hello, mother, this is Mike. Mother.
Speaker 6: Listen, I'm playing to Mondy this evening. I haven't time
Speaker 6: to see you. I must take the early flight. I
Speaker 6: want to get there ahead of someone else. Yes, it's
Speaker 6: about Jim.
Speaker 8: I don't know why I'm going or what I'll find.
Speaker 6: I'm just playing a hunch because there's nothing else to do.
Speaker 3: Okay, Mother and mother, say a little prayer?
Speaker 8: Will you.
Speaker 13: Like?
Speaker 11: Thirty one hours more?
Speaker 9: Chi?
Speaker 6: Thirty one hours more?
Speaker 8: Maybe this is the wild Goosey Chase.
Speaker 14: Anyway, it's only a full sleep, maybe.
Speaker 6: Hours more. Now look here, are you sure that this?
Speaker 14: Senor?
Speaker 10: Yes, it is so.
Speaker 6: I have explained to this in your before The second
Speaker 6: side from New York is Jose arriving. I tell you what,
Speaker 6: all right?
Speaker 8: Thanks?
Speaker 14: Ah, now I have guessed.
Speaker 6: Listen, you're just waiting for the lady. No, a lady
Speaker 6: who is a right for the next plain? Oh no, listen,
Speaker 6: you're is impatient? I see I was you want myself?
Speaker 12: You know.
Speaker 10: Look there comes a lady.
Speaker 14: Now she appears to be going to the taxi cabs.
Speaker 3: Is that the lady?
Speaker 6: Yes, yes, that's the lady. Thank you, my friend, cab,
Speaker 6: Hey that cabby. Follow that cab. Ahead, follow that cab
Speaker 6: and don't lose it. I'm not gonna watch your wives
Speaker 6: driver twenty heay, so's twenty.
Speaker 8: Four hours more.
Speaker 2: I'm too late.
Speaker 6: Even if she leads me where I want to go,
Speaker 6: it'll be too late.
Speaker 8: There's a chance, still, just a slim chance.
Speaker 2: So Jim, Jim, you didn't know it?
Speaker 14: If only she leads me to the guy who dipped him. Right,
Speaker 14: But what's the matter?
Speaker 2: Five?
Speaker 6: What can we get through this crowd? Oh?
Speaker 14: This then you're report so ninety oh to night?
Speaker 3: Then good?
Speaker 6: Please looking for us. But I told you what your driver,
Speaker 6: I'll get out. You got to find that on a.
Speaker 14: Calful message, and you are.
Speaker 12: I know where the under cap go.
Speaker 14: You know where the driver for days?
Speaker 2: He got the hotel.
Speaker 6: That's the aches. Good. How's long can you get me there?
Speaker 8: Oh?
Speaker 6: Baby or baby to wait? Yes, that's over, yes, an
Speaker 6: hour or two? I can't wait, I'll walk.
Speaker 14: What's then yours?
Speaker 13: Yes?
Speaker 14: It comes once a year.
Speaker 11: Guy is all alone said yes, oh no, thanks, you
Speaker 11: excuse me, excuse me, please let me prove please, I'm
Speaker 11: sorry you look which way is the Hotel Ciance?
Speaker 6: I mean, don't the Star Elf Hotel Delphia?
Speaker 2: It's just me?
Speaker 6: Is this the hotel Ciance signor? What time is it?
Speaker 13: Oh?
Speaker 3: Some ds in Majia I moves ten thory Signor the.
Speaker 6: American lady who came in less than an hour ago?
Speaker 8: What room did you go to her?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 3: No, American ladies were just talking you sire.
Speaker 6: You came in here.
Speaker 8: She must have.
Speaker 2: Here.
Speaker 3: This is for you, oh grassy senor.
Speaker 2: Look she is my wife.
Speaker 3: I think she deceives me.
Speaker 6: Do you understand?
Speaker 8: Oh?
Speaker 14: What of course?
Speaker 3: In your.
Speaker 8: Four hundred and two he's a man.
Speaker 6: There, a man.
Speaker 7: Now we're getting somewhere.
Speaker 6: I'm coming in Mary.
Speaker 8: No, don't try that. This gun is loaded, and I
Speaker 8: don't mind using it.
Speaker 6: There's someone I expect to meet here, the man who
Speaker 6: really murders. The meaning of this, Sir, Holy Mother, the
Speaker 6: corpus DELICTI, mister Martin, Stephens.
Speaker 14: Up and sit down, both of you.
Speaker 6: Almost eleven o'clock and exactly one hour. My brother Jim
Speaker 6: is going to die for the murder of a guy
Speaker 6: I'm looking at this minute. You have no right going
Speaker 6: up talking. Stephens.
Speaker 8: You can thank you lucky stars.
Speaker 10: I found you in time because.
Speaker 14: I helped me.
Speaker 8: I the phone.
Speaker 3: What's bone?
Speaker 6: Operator? Operator, get me Albany, New York, the Governor's mansion. Quick.
Speaker 6: It's a matter of life and death. Please operator.
Speaker 8: But it isn't in an hour New York.
Speaker 6: It's exactly one hour later. It's eight minutes to eleven
Speaker 6: Monterey time, but in York time it's eight minutes to twelve.
Speaker 2: It's going to die in eight minutes.
Speaker 6: Operator, Please hurry. He's going to die. Don't you understand
Speaker 6: he's going to die?
Speaker 1: Davis, Please put this call through to Albany, New York.
Speaker 6: Albany, New York.
Speaker 8: They will.
Speaker 2: Hello.
Speaker 6: Operator, please hurry, Please sit quiet, you too, if you
Speaker 6: know how to pray? You'd better begin.
Speaker 14: You better pray this call gets through.
Speaker 6: If it doesn't, you're not going to leave this room alive,
Speaker 6: either of you.
Speaker 12: Chicuggle, this is down to Texas, New York.
Speaker 6: Pease hurry, operator, please hurry.
Speaker 10: Sorry, all the circuits to New York are busy.
Speaker 6: That will be a delay of about twenty minutes. Twenty minutes,
Speaker 6: but there isn't twenty minutes.
Speaker 2: Operator.
Speaker 6: It's going to die.
Speaker 10: Check Chicago. See if you can get me Buffalo. Give
Speaker 10: me Buffalo, New York.
Speaker 14: You thought you could get away with this, but you'll
Speaker 14: walk in.
Speaker 8: That's pony murder.
Speaker 1: Buffo, New York.
Speaker 12: Buff Give me Albany please, sorry, I have no free
Speaker 12: circle to Albany or Rochester.
Speaker 6: Please here, he operated, hurry, please hurry, Rochester, New York.
Speaker 4: Give me Albany Creek, Albany, New.
Speaker 6: York, Albany, the Governor's mansion, and please hurry.
Speaker 5: I'll ring it, Sarah, just a moment as your answer.
Speaker 6: Don't you realize I'm going to die?
Speaker 3: Answer, Executive mansion.
Speaker 6: Let me speak to the governor.
Speaker 1: The governor is retired. This is the Governor's secretary speaking.
Speaker 6: Well, listen very carefully. A man's life depends on it.
Speaker 6: This is Lieutenant Mike Connors at the New York Police Force,
Speaker 6: calling from Monterey, Mexico. In less than five minutes, my
Speaker 6: brother Jim Connors is going to die in the chair.
Speaker 6: It sing sing for the murder of a man who
Speaker 6: is sitting here in this room alive. I tell the
Speaker 6: governor to call a warden at once with a reprieve.
Speaker 6: But Heaven's sake, man, investigate later. You can check on
Speaker 6: me at headquarters in New York. Only stop the execution,
Speaker 6: if only for an hour while you're do investigating. Don't
Speaker 6: you understand there isn't time for anything. Now, wait, the governor,
Speaker 6: don't you understand an innocent man it's going to die.
Speaker 6: Believe me, believe me.
Speaker 5: I'll do what I.
Speaker 6: I'll call you back.
Speaker 10: I'll stand by to the colt and ring you at once.
Speaker 6: Thank you.
Speaker 13: I don't think he believed me.
Speaker 6: He didn't believe me. You'll find out, only it'll be
Speaker 6: too late. So another execution is going to take place
Speaker 6: tonight right here, for murder.
Speaker 3: You don did what anything like that?
Speaker 8: I know now just what you did?
Speaker 6: You Stevens, lie down, you smear yourself in the candle
Speaker 6: opera with some of your own blood, so it looks
Speaker 6: all right even in the chemical analysis. You marry send
Speaker 6: for Jim and dump Stephen's living body in the cedar chest.
Speaker 6: Then when Jim answers the door, Stephen steps out and
Speaker 6: tosses in some weight.
Speaker 2: So oh, it's simple.
Speaker 6: I tell you, almost midnight, almost time, almost time, Mike, please,
Speaker 6: and Stephens beats it for Mexico. You'll collect the insurance
Speaker 6: and come here to meet him. You'll remember never you
Speaker 6: had the dressmaker come to find Jim there and told
Speaker 6: the chauffeur to take the car so he'd find it gone.
Speaker 6: You'll mm hmmm pull the switch suit. Wait a few
Speaker 6: seconds more now.
Speaker 8: R eight seven six five four three two. Well it's midnight.
Speaker 6: Jim's dead. You'll kill them, you two.
Speaker 8: I promised you you'd never look.
Speaker 14: You'll kill Now that your turn to die.
Speaker 6: God brother the style, And now it's for you, missus Martin.
Speaker 6: Don't please don't kill me. Mike. I'm executing you for murder.
Speaker 14: No no, no, Hello Hello, hello, Hello, Mike, it's me.
Speaker 14: I'm in the warden's office. Hello Mike, Jim, Jim, Jim, Jem.
Speaker 4: I alight, Jim, it's past closing time on the mystery play.
Speaker 14: Also good Night.
Speaker 2: Sleep Time, Welcome Back.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure our hero in this episode was played
Speaker 1: by Ken Lynch aka Sergeant Corbett from the Adventures of
Speaker 1: the Falcon I went and re listened to another Mullay
Speaker 1: program where he was featured and they did credit him,
Speaker 1: and it's the same voice as we heard in this episode.
Speaker 1: It's not quite as thick or pronounced as the Sergeant
Speaker 1: Corbett voice, but it's definitely is the same guy. The
Speaker 1: whole idea of the meaning of corpus delecti is something
Speaker 1: that gets used in Golden Age entertainment quite a bit,
Speaker 1: and actually our hero gets it a bit wrong. Corpus
Speaker 1: delecti doesn't mean body of the evidence, but as I
Speaker 1: was reminded in another old time radio drama with the
Speaker 1: same episode title, which we will probably end up playing
Speaker 1: for you someday, it means body of the crime, and
Speaker 1: that means that you shouldn't be prosecuted for a crime
Speaker 1: without sufficient evidence that the crime occurred.
Speaker 2: So in this case, you could have.
Speaker 1: The body of the crime without the body of the victim,
Speaker 1: because there was enough evidence to indicate that the crime occurred. Now,
Speaker 1: of course it's cute to refer to the body as
Speaker 1: a corpus DELECTI accurate, but because it's a cute idea,
Speaker 1: it definitely persisted. This is far from the only old
Speaker 1: time radio drama where the telephone system becomes a central
Speaker 1: component of the story. The telephone had changed American life
Speaker 1: in the early twentieth century, and Americans really enjoyed the
Speaker 1: new convenience that it brought to their lives, and as
Speaker 1: the telephone was adopted, more and more people became dependent
Speaker 1: on them. But America's phone service was a complicated series
Speaker 1: of exchanges and connections, often requiring operator assistance, and I
Speaker 1: think in some eras even usually requiring operator assistance. What
Speaker 1: happened if that complicated system had to perform at a
Speaker 1: time where it was a matter of life and death
Speaker 1: for folks in the late nineteen forties or early nineteen fifties,
Speaker 1: That was the basis for some real drama in a
Speaker 1: way that may be harder for those of us who
Speaker 1: rarely have ever used a rotary phone can imagine, let alone,
Speaker 1: the current generation the telephone system, even though it's a
Speaker 1: local system, in that case, is central to one of
Speaker 1: the greatest radio dramas of the era Sorry Wrong Number.
Speaker 1: There was also the Radio City playhouse play Long Distance,
Speaker 1: where a woman spent the entire half hour trying to
Speaker 1: get a hold of the governor with evidence that should
Speaker 1: lead to a commutation of a death sentence. There was,
Speaker 1: in fact, an entire episode of Not Beat where Randy
Speaker 1: Stone spent the whole episode on the phone.
Speaker 2: And he was not scrolling TikTok.
Speaker 1: The idea of the governor going to bed early on
Speaker 1: the night of an execution is a bit odd. I've
Speaker 1: read the autobiographies of some governors from states where the
Speaker 1: death penalty was in effect, and they write of staying
Speaker 1: up until the hour of execution just in case. It
Speaker 1: does make me wonder if this practice varies, or if
Speaker 1: this is the sort of thing that grew up culturally,
Speaker 1: because before the telephone there would have been little point
Speaker 1: in staying up light. Maybe the tradition grew up in
Speaker 1: part as a result of dramas and fiction where something
Speaker 1: happened at the last minute and the governor needed to
Speaker 1: be reached. And of course the governor staying up does
Speaker 1: serve purposes because typically they'll inform the governor once the
Speaker 1: execution has been carried out, and also if something goes
Speaker 1: wrong in the execution, where the governor may decide to
Speaker 1: go ahead and issue us stay so that they can
Speaker 1: be able to carry it out properly. Well, now it's
Speaker 1: time to thank our Patreon supporter of the day, and
Speaker 1: I want to go ahead and think Jim. Jim has
Speaker 1: been one of our Patreon supporters since April twenty twenty one,
Speaker 1: currently supporting the podcast at the shameless level of four
Speaker 1: dollars or more per month. Thank you so much for
Speaker 1: your support, Jim, and that will actually do it for today.
Speaker 1: If you're enjoying the podcast, please follow us using your
Speaker 1: favorite podcast software. We will be back tomorrow with the
Speaker 1: adventures of the Falcon Wear.
Speaker 8: Rather not if you don't mind, I suit yourself. Okay, okay,
Speaker 8: let's get down to cases. I wanted to boy, what
Speaker 8: do you expect.
Speaker 2: Me to do about it?
Speaker 11: Well, I'll need evidence, so you.
Speaker 8: Want me to do a little keyhole peeking?
Speaker 2: Yeah, his name is Read Stephens.
Speaker 8: Me, his name was Reid Stephens. What that's a funny thing, sogeant,
Speaker 8: But I don't remember you knocking time to think of it,
Speaker 8: I don't remember that either. What do you mean My
Speaker 8: husband's name was read Stephen, don't you always use a
Speaker 8: past tense in connection with it to Seas? What are
Speaker 8: you trying to say? He's been murdered, missus Seppis, Yes,
Speaker 8: nobody knows that better than you. Whith he, I've got
Speaker 8: to see him well? Care to join us, Mike?
Speaker 2: Is it a pinch? It is?
Speaker 8: Indeed, I'm so glad your apartment is only eight minutes
Speaker 8: from headquarters. Whenever we have a homicide, I can always
Speaker 8: stop here first.
Speaker 1: I hope you'll be with us then in the meantime.
Speaker 1: Send your comments to Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net,
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Speaker 1: Boise Ataho. This is your host, Adam Grahamson and Off.