The Horace Lockhart Matter: Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar (August 1, 1951)

“The Horace Lockhart Matter” is an episode of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, the old-time radio show, first broadcast August 1, 1951. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Insurance investigator Johnny Dollar arrives in Santa Barbara to investigate the deaths of Horace and Mrs. Lockhart, who were killed when their car went over a cliff on the coastal highway. The crucial question is which of them died first, since it determines which of their two children—a son from Mrs. Lockhart's previous marriage or a daughter from her marriage to Horace—will inherit a substantial amount of life insurance money. Dollar must locate the mysterious young woman who witnessed the accident and reported it to a garage operator, as her account of who was still alive at the scene holds the key to solving the matter.

Santa Barbara area, California, including a coastal highway, an all-night garage, and the Lockhart mansion in an elite subdivision

Characters: Johnny Dollar, insurance investigator, Bruce Ewell, attorney for the Lockhart estate, Patrick Gallagher, all-night garage operator, Michael Adams, Mrs. Lockhart's adult son from a previous marriage, Gail Oka, the Lockharts' adult daughter

Listen for: The description of the mysterious blonde woman witness with heavy makeup and white shoes; the details about which Lockhart was still alive when the witness found the wrecked car; the two different life insurance beneficiaries and how the order of death determines who collects.

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.