The Two Steps to Murder Matter: Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar (May 20, 1962)

“The Two Steps to Murder Matter” is an episode of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, the old-time radio show, first broadcast May 20, 1962. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Insurance investigator Johnny Dollar arrives in Las Vegas to investigate the death of Harvey Skilman, an insurance salesman. Skilman is found dead from penorcin alkalate poison in his coffee cup and sugar bowl, with the local doctor concluding it was suicide. However, Skilman's boss Pete Brenneman insists it must be murder and asks Johnny to prove Skilman didn't kill himself, revealing that Skilman had been working hard to pay for his sister Mary's medical treatment at top clinics.

Las Vegas, Nevada, including the Silver Dollar Cafe and surrounding casinos and streets

Characters: Johnny Dollar, Pete Brenneman, Harvey Skilman, Doc Porter, Mary Skilman, Lippy Lorenzo, Sergeant Call

Listen for: The mystery of how the poison entered Skilman's coffee and why Pete is so certain it wasn't suicide despite the evidence pointing that way; the connection between Lippy Lorenzo's blackmail threat and Skilman's death

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.