Woman Called Mary: Gunsmoke (January 27, 1957)

“Woman Called Mary” is an episode of Gunsmoke, the old-time radio show, first broadcast January 27, 1957. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Marshal Matt Dillon arrests Reb Sutter for beating up a woman named Mary and stealing her two years of savings—forty-eight dollars. Rather than send Sutter to prison, Dillon proposes an alternative: Sutter will work off his debt by hauling water and cutting firewood for Mary while remaining under the Marshal's custody.

Dodge City and the surrounding Kansas territory in the 1870s

Characters: Matt Dillon, Chester, Mary, Reb Sutter, Judge Bent

Listen for: The Marshal's unconventional approach to justice, focusing on restitution and redemption rather than punishment alone, and Sutter's gradual transformation as he works to repay his debt.

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.