Tough Guy: Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator (July 6, 1954)

“Tough Guy” is an episode of Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator, the old-time radio show, first broadcast July 6, 1954. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Barry Craig, a confidential investigator, encounters a young woman named Angie Palmer on the subway who is being coerced by her ex-convict boyfriend Tex. Years ago, Angie held a sealed envelope for Tex containing directions to $30,000 he stole and hid before going to prison. When Tex is released and retrieves the envelope, he discovers the money is gone. Barry must help Tex track down who took the hidden loot while navigating the suspicions between Tex, his twin brother Willie, and a street thug named Nick.

New York City, including the subway, Angie's furnished room, a yard house behind the Corning Iron Works, Dunstan's chicken farm in Yonkers, and a Park Avenue duplex.

Characters: Barry Craig, confidential investigator, Angie Palmer, a waitress, Tex, ex-convict and Angie's ex-boyfriend, Willie, Tex's twin brother, Nick, a street thug with a knife, Joey Stutzal, hospital orderly and thief

Listen for: Barry Craig's detective methods as he pieces together clues from Tex's fever-induced delirium to identify the real thief; a pivotal fight between Tex and Nick that builds Tex's confidence; the revelation of how Joey systematically spent all thirty thousand dollars in a single year.

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.