The Barton Russell Murder Case: Broadway Is My Beat (April 4, 1953)

“The Barton Russell Murder Case” is an episode of Broadway Is My Beat, the old-time radio show, first broadcast April 4, 1953. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

Listen to Broadway Is My Beat free, live around the clock: every episode, in the order it first aired. No sign-up.

What happens

Detective Danny Clover is summoned to the East River where a cabin cruiser named Pitcairn is found adrift with blood aboard but no one on deck. The boat belongs to Barton Russell, a wealthy man prone to minor legal troubles. With Russell missing and his boat discovered empty and bloodstained, Clover begins investigating his disappearance by questioning Russell's current wife Ethel, her Uncle Stanley Taggart, and gathering background on Russell's past.

New York City, primarily the East River waterfront and the homes of the wealthy, in the early morning hours of a spring day

Characters: Danny Clover, Detective, Ethel Russell, Barton Russell, Uncle Stanley Taggart, Anderson, Sergeant Gorkin

Listen for: The moody opening narration about Broadway and the discovery of the abandoned, blood-stained cabin cruiser; the interviews with Mrs. Russell and her uncle about Barton's whereabouts; the revelation of Russell's previous marriage and divorce settlement

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.