the old fashioned murder matter: Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar (July 16, 1961)

“the old fashioned murder matter” is an episode of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, the old-time radio show, first broadcast July 16, 1961. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Insurance investigator Johnny Dollar arrives in Denver after receiving an urgent call from Herbert Lynn, a state unity official who fears that his elderly client Howard Hartsell, a 73-year-old wealthy man with a quarter-million-dollar insurance policy, will be murdered. Lynn believes one of Hartsell's three beneficiaries—his nieces Clara and Bonnie, or his nephew Tony—is planning to kill him, pointing to recent mysterious incidents including a car that tried to run Hartsell down and a puzzling illness that Lynn suspects is poisoning. Dollar begins investigating the relatives to uncover who poses the real threat.

Denver and Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 1961. The story centers around Howard Hartsell's home in Green Mountain Falls, a small settlement west of Colorado Springs.

Characters: Johnny Dollar, Herbert Lynn, Howard Hartsell, Clara Johnson, Bonnie Briggs, Harry Briggs, Tony, Dr. East today

Listen for: Johnny Dollar's direct confrontation tactics as he interviews Clara Johnson, the high school chemistry teacher and niece who openly expresses her resentment about not being the sole beneficiary and her desperate longing for the inheritance. Pay attention to the mysterious circumstances surrounding Hartsell's health and the mysterious car incidents, as well as the suspicious role of the elderly family doctor now living in 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.