The Hapless Ham Matter: Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar (January 3, 1960)

“The Hapless Ham Matter” is an episode of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, the old-time radio show, first broadcast January 3, 1960. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Johnny Dollar, an insurance investigator, is called to Manchester by Walter Lynch, a man who says his life has been threatened and refuses to name the threat or his insurance company. Dollar arrives to find Lynch dead, stabbed in his home, and the police quickly suspect Lynch's nephew, Freddie, who had a bitter dispute with his uncle over money. A neighbor's testimony about the timing of Freddie's visit seems to confirm the case against him. Dollar, however, has a conversation with Lynch that raises doubts about when the killing actually happened. The series, a CBS Radio program, aired on January 3, 1960, starring Bob Bailey.

Manchester, Connecticut, and New York City

Characters: Johnny Dollar, Walter Lynch, Pat McCracken, Sergeant Conroy, Mr. Halsey, Freddie Lynch, Dr. Beakley

Listen for: The timing of Walter Lynch's phone call and the neighbor's account of when Freddie left the house.

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.