The Perfect Crime: Box 13

“The Perfect Crime” is an episode of Box 13, the old-time radio show. 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

Professor John Dobbs, a criminology expert, writes to mystery writer Dan Holiday claiming he will commit the perfect crime and inviting Holiday to be his audience. Dobbs argues that a perfect murder requires three conditions: an unconnected victim, a body that disappears entirely, and successful escape from detection. Over weeks, Dobbs makes false confessions to murders across multiple cities before claiming he will actually kill a stranger named Alexander Ferris. When Ferris goes missing from a hotel under suspicious circumstances, Holiday must unravel how Dobbs pulled off his elaborate scheme.

A city with a hotel, university, and police headquarters; also Chicago and Ferris's hometown

Characters: Dan Holiday, Dr. John Dobbs, Susie, Lieutenant (Police), Alexander Ferris, House Detective

Listen for: The clever explanation of how Dobbs used misdirection like a magician to create the illusion of a perfect crime, and Holiday's final realization about the switch and the body's true location

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.