The Ernie Cauldwell Murder Case: Broadway Is My Beat (April 7, 1950)

“The Ernie Cauldwell Murder Case” is an episode of Broadway Is My Beat, the old-time radio show, first broadcast April 7, 1950. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Detective Danny Clover investigates the murder of Deputy Sheriff Ernie Caldwell when a young man named Jimmy Webster confesses to the killing. However, Clover grows suspicious of the confession and begins to uncover connections between the victim, an anonymous woman named Sophie Driscoll who is later found dead, and the deputy sheriff who came to New York to apprehend Webster.

New York City, primarily Times Square and Broadway, with references to North Cross County and various Manhattan locations including the Penny Arcade, Etna Hotel, a vacuum cleaner factory, and the Cozy Club in Harlem.

Characters: Detective Danny Clover, Jimmy Webster, Peggy Webster, Travis Faulkner, Ernie Caldwell, Sophie Driscoll, Sergeant Tatagilia, Doc Rundell

Listen for: The atmospheric opening describing Broadway as a violent, neon-lit mile of the world; Clover's hard-boiled narration as he pieces together the puzzle of who really killed Caldwell; the tense confrontation at the Cozy Club nightclub in Harlem; and the tragic shooting that concludes the case.

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.