Suspense and Horror – Retro Radio Podcast: Recent Episodes
Keith Heltsley
A group of soldiers are around a table talking about Christmas. Being away from home for the holiday, they compare notes on how their holiday would be spent bac home,…
As a desperate man on the witness stand, Ernest Chapel describes the dingy little cottage, and the elderly man he knew who occupied it. In flashback, we learn about the…
A pilot of a mail plane has a problem and finds his path has crossed with Margot Lane and Lamont Cranston. What weird things are going on in the hills?…
Forced to take on a job smuggling contraband, an ace pilot must take a short-cut through a dangerous wormhole to get to his destination on schedule. –Find more at, CBS…
At a circus side show, wax figures are on display. The figures are posed in a scene of a recent famous mobster coming to justice, but imagine the shock of…
A police detective puts his career on the line in order to prove the innocence of the rival of a murdered theatrical producer when he is accused of the crime.…
Munitions for a band of revolutionaries are being smuggled on a luxury steamer. When orders are received that the munitions are no longer needed and are to be destroyed, one…
Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows. Lamont Cranston, lawyer by day, but known to the underworld as the Shadow, fights crime with the…
The White Legion is a vigilante group who dishes out judgement based on its own set of rules and standards. William Devons is their latest victim, and his case has…
Superstitious omens foretell the tragedy of death. A mysterious explosion has killed the reverend Colby, and ten others. Lamonte Cranston is on the scene with Margot Lane to investigate a…
Title: The Bridge of Tragedy. After six months off work, Bill comes home to tell his wife Myra that he has a new job. When she learns it’s the only…
On the waterfront a cop spots a suspicious man. He is identified as previously trying to commit suicide, but tonight the melancholy man seems to be on a different mission.…
Ernest Chapel plays a very lonely man who has a son who died. His narration goes on to talk about his son John, and how he went off to serve…
A gangster on death row who is known for wearing his lucky carnation, asks for the favor of wearing one as he’s marched to the death house. He claims the…
A citizens committee is organized to clean up crime, and corruption. Margot Lane is enthusiastic at being part of it, and drags her boss, Lamonte Cranston along to the meeting.…
Lamont Cranston needs a vacation after his recent exhausting adventures. He picks a resort that is said to be haunted. To combat the alleged supernatural killer ghosts, the Shadow uses…
A man sent to death row is falsely accused, and it’s up to the Shadow to set things right.
A young man seems to have fallen in with a bad crowd. When he wakes up, he realizes his strange dream, was no dream at all. Feeling guilty, and being…
Clyde is an aging dancer who learns that his younger dance partner and wife is looking to dump him. Who is Ricky? What can Clyde do to hang on to…
A boy is in the woods near an old house that is said to be haunted. Dogs howl, and old Sadie give the house the reputation it deserves. Is the…
A rash of poisoning has broken out, and the mayor gets a letter claiming that the Shadow is fed up with crimefighting. The Shadow is now bent on holding the…
After a few morbid bits of humor about freezing to death, the feature gets started. A recently arrested man sits in a gloomy jail cell. In flashback and narrative, we…
A courtroom decision puts a man behind bars, but Lamonte Cranston and Margot Lane think it’s a case for the Shadow to be involved with. The sentenced man leaves a…
Ernest Chapel presents a story of a troubled man. He has had a lifelong recurring dream. What do the elements of the dream mean? Tall oaks, a big house with…
To discover the truth about her father’s death, a young woman becomes a staff member in the rest home in which he resided. There she uncovers a horrifying and gruesome…
Two men are on foot in the desert, struggling with a battle of thirst. Is their vision of a woman a mirage, or has she directed them to a source…
The scene is set in the carnival atmosphere of the circus. Mr Bundy is a wealthy older man who has taken a shine to Georgia, or Babe, as she is…
Cathy waits with the house keeper for her mommy and daddy to return from their trip. As Cathy’s anticipation builds, it’s up to Greer Garson to be the stabilizing force.…
The glamor of being on the radio is sucked dry by a marriage to Tisha and her money. Roger learns that she plans to leave him, and now nothing matters…
Michael Cobb fell into a bad crowd at a young age, and before he knew any better. After serving time, he is out, and wants to put it all behind him, like a forgotten chapter in a book. With supportive relatives, this looks to be a real Merry Christmas for Mike. However, cash has been found missing, and employees are called to the carpet. Will it keep them from getting their Christmas bonuses? Though Mr Humbolt is pleased with Mike's work over the past months, he is forced to let him go. Suspicion has fallen firmly on Mike.
Christine McKay has been ordered to a health resort by her doctor, but can’t afford the hotel any longer. Looking for a new place to stay, she finds a friend…
Ernest Chapel narrates a story where he is a man named, Tom. It’s the end of life as we know it when he and a lady fly a small aircraft…
Title: The Love God Plot: A spirited and opinionated woman alienates her intended with her brash and outspoken ways so she prays to the Indian god of love to remedy…
A movie crew has set out on the Pacific to film a movie about a sea monster that rises from the sea. When nothing has been heard from the crew,…
Audio resolution is a little less than desirable. You may want to pass on this one. Disaster has been striking a diving company. Is it just a rash of bad…
An adaptation of a story by Robert Louis Stevenson. Markheim was a gambler with an addiction that he couldn’t control. Does the love he has for Angela stand a chance…
Two soldiers in the heat of a battlefield talk about their girlfriends back home. Dave is certain that the spirit of his girlfriend is somehow protecting him. Is it possible…
A trilogy of stories takes a look at war. In a time gone by, a grandfather tries to tell his grandson about war. Men recruited, and pressed into service to…
Cynthia is the harried wife of a high powered and demanding man, Randy. He’s the kind of man to plan things to the minute, and worry over details of his…
The story of a successful bank robbery, and the man who pulled it off. Jack Benny plays Tom Jones, a man who never forgets a face. He goes into flashback…
The nasty situation of a love triangl is portrayed on a farm. Jody has driven to the farm where he meets up with Myra. She was supposed to meet him…
A UFO is sighted, but is it aliens, or a military project? What are the fast moving, firey looking objects in the sky Townsfolk talk about the possibilities. Can it…
The show opens with a few creepy puns about a beheaded delegate. It’s Yuletide in Chicago. A cop finds a notebook that appears to be a confession. As he reads…
Also aired as episode 51 on 430921. At a beach party, a couple step outside for a breath of fresh air. As they stroll the beach, and argue, they spot…
Children live in a world all their own. Sandra is daddy’s little pet, but causes grief for all her housekeepers. When daddy is to be married, Sandra hates the intrusion…
Audio is poor, even after some noise canceling. It degrades in the middle, Ernest is a man in despair, and talks about hearing things. Witches, warlocks, and things that go…
Lamonte and Margot are travelling, but there seems to be alack of wrongs that need to be put right. A rock slide scares margot, but it’s not just one, but…
Features Vincent Price. A tale of spies and intrigue that takes place in Berlin Germany. vincent Price plays a man who is trapped, but how? Who could have blown his…
It’s the special kind of quiet Sunday that Henry liked to look forward to. His wife Ruth would be away at their country cottage, and he would be free to…
As William Wilson and his fiancee, Dolly Mayfield, plan to announce their wedding arrangements, the sound of gunshots break the festive atmosphere. Events unfold in flashback to relate the drama…
Title: All the Time in the World Plot: A professional swindler experiencing a losing streak believes he has unraveled the mystery of immortality, he later comes to realize that it…
Title:The Fall of Gentryville. Plot:When an entire mountain town vanishes from a map, a reporter is dispatched to uncover the mystery. There he discovers the village’s sole survivor and she…
Alan is sure that Carl is lieing about what happened to his sister, Julia. In a darkened room, Alan confronts Julia, but he refuses to leave her until he learns…
Features Gene Kelley. A small gang of thieves is led by Arthur, played by Gene Kelley. Arttie owes money, and he hasn’t been having much luck on his takes lately.…
The three Randal girls were as different as could be. Pamela and Cathy were of two extremes, and Sally was in the middle. Pamela is overbearing, while Cathy is timid…
A ship loads up in preparation for it’s ocean voyage. A married couple set out on a honeymoon cruise. The bride is prone to having nightmares, and dark fantasies. She…
Laura Cabot, in the current time in 1942, tells of an event that began for her just a few days ago on New Years Eve. As we join her in…
Lamonte Cranston and Margot Lane help Joey and his poor family every year. Joey aspires to be a detective, and observes Lamonte in action on a case. When things don’t…
Looking in on the Grover family, we find they are a family in need. Margot, and Lamont learn from the newsboy about the business loss, and the single father who…
What’s the commotion on the street that caused the cops to respond? Is there anything to be scared of? As the fine mysterious friend in black goes into flashback to…
A tale of horror by Braham Stoker. Strange packages are being delivered to the judges house, 50 years after his death. The devoted maid to the household has everything cleaned,…
Cora is weeping in her bedroom. What was that creaking door, and was there an intruder in her room? Evidence shows there was someone there, and soon the police are…
Open the squeaking door and enter the Inner Sanctum. A man, covered in blood crawls like an animal, trying to evade his pursuers. A disembodied voice taunts him as he…
A woman complains to her man that he has been dropping the ball on social obligations lately. He spends too much time at work. To keep from arguing, they keep…
A pair of old ladies have to move out of their home, and under the care of their nephew and his wife. Though they are being treated well, its just…
Audio is a bit soft, with record noise, scratches, etc. Ernest Chapel describes two warring civilizations. Neither fully understand the other, or for that matter, themselves. Do giants roam the…
A car crash draws the attention of lawyer, Lamonte Cranston, and his secretary, Margot Lane. The petty burglar who died in the wreck is found with a valuable ruby that…
Kent Buckley is preoccupied by the thoughts of Leeora, a woman who is out of his reach. She’s the wife of another, and when her husband, Charles discovers the affair…
A small group of pickpockets and petty thieves build up their crime spree to a house robbery. The robbery will be easy pickings, but one of the crooks develops a…
Title:Shadows from the Grave (‘Wilkie Collins classic’) Plot:A photographer and his wife move into his uncle’s house upon his death. When the local priest denies his blessing, the estate grounds…
Robert Bolton was an egotist who felt the world owed him a living. He lived a charmed life, taking anything he could to gain from it, and dodging the pitfalls.…
The setting is the old pueblo mission of San fernando. A modern visitor takes in the sights. The grafiti on the wall, the signs of years of wine making in…
A story of a typical family. A loving dad and mom, and a family with two sons. Well, as normal as it gets in a program like Quiet Please. As…
Title:The Shock of His Life. Plot:A gambling addict receives the power to predict the outcome of sporting events when he is electrocuted while fixing his television. He uses his new…
A detective investigates the appearances of a great white wolf. Is it just one of the local superstitions? To be married, a man is forced to recite a strange marriage…
Title:The Sinister Shadow. Plot:An unusual tale of how a timid woman chanced upon her doppelganger in a seedy bar, and how her double turned against her. Episode:0953. Air Dates: First…
A house seems to be haunted. As we ride along with our lead character we learn of strange and unexplained happenings. Can it be that a previous owner, a man…
When a young woman is witness to a murder, the only detail she can recall is that the killer possessed a unique ring. Strangely, she soon sees the same ring…
Lamonte Cranston celebrates the New Year, and a new hope for everyone. Things aren’t so happy though when a death threat from a man claiming to have a time machine…
Title:Love After Death. Plot:For the past thirty years, a gifted but terminally ill concert pianist has searched for her lost husband, refusing to believe the reports that he had perished…
An embezzler who is absconded with over two million dollars has apparently died over the ocean, but the Shadow believes he can be found on the desolate island Black Rock.
A ship sends out a frantic SOS after an explosion onboard. Someone is sabotaging Navy ships, and Lamonte Cranston decides it’s time for the Shadow to come to the aid…
A gangster has a professor killed to obtain an explosive he has developed. The explosive is then planted in light bulbs all over the city, leaving chaos and terror in their wake.
Lamont looks into what he believes is a connection between a passport forgery ring and the supposed suicide of a broker linked to a recent stock swindle.
A man who was accidentally hit by Shrevie's cab appears to be a bit out of joint with time, as he seems to think it is a day later than it actually is and tells of crimes he says he read about which end up happening later. Lamont is more inclined to believe that he knows of them because he is in on them rather than possession of any psychic abilities.
A friend of Lamont's is alarmed when a strange man breaks in and attempts to strangle a servant, leaving behind a note that possibly refers to his shady past.
A skeptic broker is told by a mystic that he willl die shortly and the prediction comes true. During a seance, he starts to reveal to the Shadow who the killer was but he is shot by one of the participants before he can do so.
A scientist is killed by a poison that induces laughter before death. But it is a mystery to the Shadow on how it was administered.
An anarchist with genuine psychic powers who has been using them as a stage magician learns the identity of the Shadow during a performance Lamont and Margot are attending.
There is trouble and death on the new bridge as men hear voices and die immediately after. Lamont gets a job on the bridge and is apparently the next to die.
When Lamont decides to look into the disappearance of a gangster associated with a political boss, the boss dies rather suddenly of allegedly pneumonia.
A gorilla is stolen from a zoo. As they take a cab ride, Lamonte and Margot learn all the details of the theft from the cabbie. Later Lamonte hears of…
A philanthropist Senator is on trial for the seeming absurd charge of accepting a bribe from a deceased gangster. But the case becomes unexpectedly solid when the prosecution presents some motion picture evidence of the alleged incident.
A spy has been torturing a scientist to tell him the formula of a new explosive, but instead causes his mind to snap. So he kidnaps a fellow countryman psychiatrist Lamont just met and demands that he repair the mental damage done.
When a nosy neighbor becomes curious about the strange incidents that go on at the house next door, she sends her son over to investigate. He soon discovers a parallel…
A man is released from prison, but claims to the warden that he’ll get the man who put him behind bars. Back with his gang, the gangsters plan is to…
Title:Everybody Does It. Plot:In order to augment his income, a hard-up drama critic turns to a life of crime. When he is found dead, his actress ex-wife becomes the center…
Take a ride on a foggy night as a young woman runs out on her ailing husband to get a divorce. Mildred and her lover, Hillary speed through the night…
Alternate Title: Neanderthal. A banker and a diplomat disagree on their politics, but the trouble at hand seems to be in getting their broken down car to start. As they…
Mark is a man who has found love, but no matter how he looks at it, it’s a decision he made too late. He doubts his wife’s asthema is for…
Most likely the wrong date, probably from 1949 instead. Lamonte Cranston and Margot Lane are on a scavenger hunt on a foggy, creepy night. A scream from a warehouse has…
It’s an all female cast of stars that present tonights drama. The Nash Institution is a finishing school where the rumor mill has it that a young lady has killed…
Features Peter Lorre. Peter plays Herman, a professer of biology who is digging in the basement to prepare his devils garden, a type of orchid garden. His wife is upset…
A secretary at a financial investment firm isn’t content with earning money the honest way. With the help of a shady friend, they plan on making their own enhancements to…
Refusing to leave his house, the doctor can’t help his aging patient, played by Ernest Chapel, the way he would like. The wound received from the old, black powder gun…
If you frighten easily, turn off your radio now… or podcatcher, as the case may be. What’s wrong with the world today… money. Nobody ever has enough, and all they…
In Boston, a man has a horrifying tale to tel. The man, a medical doctor, has a box that contains the head of another man. He goes to a tatoo…
Retracing the steps of their honeymoon, John and his bride revisit a quaint old curio shop in Chinatown. A after 20 years it looks virtually unchanged. What should they pick…
Arnold is a man who is contemplating leaving his wife. He helps around the house, and responds to his talkative wife’s every request. Evelyn is more heartbroken over her broken…
A story with no terror, but of a strange and wonderful day. At the time this show was produced, World War 2 was raging. It was probably becoming hard to…
Our gruesomely punny host presents a newspaper story. A story of a man, the doll of a dead girl, and the devil. How did such a scene come to be?…
Sam is a gangster who lays it on the line for a gal who is dating his brother. He wants her to leave him alone and break it off. Will…
a pirate with a submarine is terrorizing the shipping lanes. The Shadow has a plan and investigates. The submarine inventor has been having regrets about his role in the pirate’s…
The story begins two weeks ago. Robert Young is an investigater for an insurance company. His wife had stepped out to an all night drugstore, but she’s missing. When she…
Ernest Chapel is a man who has just moved into a house. It used to be Eddie's house. Is there a problem with that? Eddie's stuff, Eddie's piano, but it all belongs to Ernest now. Murder is involved, and spooky things begin to happen. Has Eddie come back to haunt his killers?
A tale about a Christmas from the last war. That means World War 1. A train comes to a halt at a railroad station in France. Both Austrailian and French…
In an old cemetary outside a New England town, a man finds himself trapped in a mausoleum. Flashback: The man is in need of cash to bail him out of…
Two elderly spinsters live alone, near a cemetary. Amanda is the pushy one who takes care of most of the household business, while herer sister is weak, frail, and usually…
Features Carrey Grant. A man has an accident, when he falls on a sidewalk. Suddenly it’s three years later, and he can’t remember a thing that has happened in that…
Lamont looks into the possibility of insurance fraud mixed with murder by an elderly couple whose maids have a curious tendency to die of pneumonia shortly after being employed.
A story about an Air base that has been built on an old dry lake bed. Lake Muroc now hosts all sorts of test planes, fighters, bombers, and even ground…
Stories of the supernatual, and supernatural fantasy. If you are the type to scare easily, we urge you to turn off your radio now. In other words, don’t even think…
A young couple walk along the beach when a stone is tossed their way. A stone with a note tied around it. Who threw the stone? What is the message?…
Orson Wells is back in this radio presentation of a short story by Agatha Christy. A married couple spend their honeymoon in a jungle paradise. Memories of the last week…
Phil Putnam and Henry Drake had built their factory, and with war demands production has tripled. Henry has been absent minded, forgetting where important papers are, and where he has…
Ernest Chapel relates a story from a cemeteary. He’s handcuffed, held at gun point, and visiting the grave of the person he’s convicted of killing. The odd situation is explained…