A Perfect Crime: Box 13 (1948)

“A Perfect Crime” is an episode of Box 13, the old-time radio show, first broadcast in 1948. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

Listen to Box 13 free, live around the clock: every episode, in the order it first aired. No sign-up.

What happens

Mystery writer Dan Holiday receives a letter from Dr. John Dobbs, a criminology professor, claiming he will commit the perfect crime and inviting Holiday to be his audience. After discussing the theory of an unsolvable murder, Dobbs calls Holiday three days later and asks him to fly to Chicago, where he confesses to police that he has killed a woman named Caroline Standish. The police release them both without charges.

A city with an airport and connections to Chicago; Dr. Dobbs' rooms at the university; an airplane; Chicago police headquarters; Dan Holiday's apartment

Characters: Dan Holiday, Dr. John Dobbs, Susie, Lieutenant (police officer)

Listen for: The clever setup of Dr. Dobbs' theory about the perfect crime and his mysterious confession to a murder he may or may not have actually committed.

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.