The Punctilious Firebug Matter: Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar (May 25, 1954)

“The Punctilious Firebug Matter” is an episode of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, the old-time radio show, first broadcast May 25, 1954. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

Listen to Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar free, live around the clock: every episode, in the order it first aired. No sign-up.

What happens

Insurance investigator Johnny Dollar arrives in Dallas to investigate a series of fires plaguing the company. Five properties with recently issued policies have burned on Tuesday nights around 11 o'clock, totaling $95,000 in claims. When a sixth fire breaks out at an apartment building on East Westchester, killing a witness, Johnny begins to suspect someone within the insurance organization is involved.

Dallas, Texas; offices of Eastern Indemnity and Fire Company; various fire scenes around the city

Characters: Johnny Dollar, Jeff Connors, Lieutenant Len Borchard, Miss Martin, Bellabundema Henderson

Listen for: Johnny's questioning of Miss Martin about her convenient presence at the office just after the latest fire; the details about the slow fuses made with candle drippings found at each fire site; the mounting pressure on Jeff Connors as fires continue to strike newly issued policies.

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.