Blood Money: Gunsmoke (March 27, 1954)

“Blood Money” is an episode of Gunsmoke, the old-time radio show, first broadcast March 27, 1954. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Marshal Dillon finds an injured man named Harry Spinner on the prairie and helps him reach Dodge City with the assistance of a drifter named Joe Hart. Six weeks later, wanted circulars arrive revealing that Joe Hart is wanted for bank robbery and murder in Denver. When Dillon learns Hart has fled town, he discovers that Spinner warned him of the danger, choosing loyalty to his rescuer over the law.

Dodge City and the surrounding prairie, 1954

Characters: Matt Dillon, Chester Proudfoot, Joe Hart, Harry Spinner, Doc, Kitty

Listen for: The irony of Spinner's gratitude toward Joe Hart despite Hart's criminal past, and Chester's accidental warning that allows the wanted man to escape.

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.