Crimson Queen: Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator (January 4, 1953)

“Crimson Queen” is an episode of Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator, the old-time radio show, first broadcast January 4, 1953. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Confidential investigator Barry Craig is having lunch at Willie's wagon when a desperate man named Peter Hanson arrives with a fatal knife wound to his chest. Before dying, Hanson clutches a crimson queen chess piece and tells Craig he wants him to find his murderer. Craig follows the only clue he has—an address—to Hanson's house, where he discovers Peter's brother Walter playing chess with a woman named Mona Bailey, and learns that Peter was the wealthy one in the family.

A diner called Willie's wagon and the study of the Hanson house

Characters: Barry Craig, Peter Hanson, Walter Hanson, Mona Bailey, Groves, Willie

Listen for: The mysterious chess piece Peter clutches as he dies, and the revelation that Peter was wealthy while his brother Walter appears to be playing games on the night of the murder

Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.