The Margaret Royce Murder Case: Broadway Is My Beat (May 2, 1953)

“The Margaret Royce Murder Case” is an episode of Broadway Is My Beat, the old-time radio show, first broadcast May 2, 1953. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Detective Danny Clover investigates the disappearance of Margaret Royce, a 55-year-old woman whose apartment has been ransacked and her jewelry stolen. Her sister Leela reports her missing, convinced Margaret is dead. When Margaret's body is discovered strangled in a vacant lot behind a billboard, Clover traces the stolen jewels to a pawn shop and works to identify who sold them.

New York City, particularly Broadway and the surrounding neighborhoods including police headquarters, Leela's apartment building, and a vacant lot where Margaret's body is found.

Characters: Detective Danny Clover, Leela Royce, Margaret Royce, Donald Benton, John Randall, Monty Allen, Mrs. Rumpford, Sergeant Gino Tartaglia

Listen for: The contrast between fragile, lonely Leela and the harsh world of Broadway; the revelation that Margaret's murder was staged as a robbery; the connection between Donnie Benton and the actual thief; Leela's guilt over her parents' deaths and her dependence on Donnie.

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.