The Mistake: Gunsmoke (March 19, 1955)

“The Mistake” is an episode of Gunsmoke, the old-time radio show, first broadcast March 19, 1955. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Earl Haney, who works the card table at the Long Branch, is found beaten and robbed in an alley behind the saloon. Marshal Dillon questions the victim, who describes his attacker as a tall man with red hair. Suspicion falls on Jim Bostick, a red-haired gambler who frequents the saloon, though Bostick claims Haney is lying to frame him out of spite.

Dodge City, Kansas - the Long Branch Saloon, its back alley, and a nearby gambling hall

Characters: Matt Dillon, Kitty, Chester, Earl Haney, Sam Noonan, Jim Bostick

Listen for: A marshal's investigation into a brutal assault, with conflicting accounts and the question of whether an innocent man is being falsely accused.

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.