Murder by Error: Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator (July 13, 1954)

“Murder by Error” is an episode of Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator, the old-time radio show, first broadcast July 13, 1954. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Confidential investigator Barry Craig is hired by Vera Baxter to find out why her wealthy husband JC is being blackmailed and forced to pay money. Craig tails Baxter and discovers a $10,000 payoff being made from a bridge, then stakes out the location to catch the blackmailer—only to find a small, odd man named Lou who claims he was merely hunting frogs for a laboratory and stumbled upon the money by accident.

A city during a sultry summer evening, including a cocktail lounge, city streets, a bridge over a creek, and the surrounding fringe areas of town.

Characters: Barry Craig, Vera Baxter, JC Baxter, Lou (the small man with the large head)

Listen for: The clever trap Craig sets by replacing the blackmail money with himself as bait, and the surprising revelation that the man collecting the payoff may not be the blackmailer at all.

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.