The Willard South Matter: Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar (April 21, 1951)

“The Willard South Matter” is an episode of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, the old-time radio show, first broadcast April 21, 1951. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Insurance investigator Johnny Dollar arrives in the Virgin Islands to investigate the disappearance of policyholder Willard South and his wife Georgina. Their boat is found empty with evidence of gunfire and struggle, but no bodies—and a tied-up dinghy has been cut loose and vanished. Dollar must piece together what happened during a mysterious evening boat trip that went terribly wrong.

The Virgin Islands, primarily Charlotte Amalie on the island of St. Thomas, and the waters surrounding the island group

Characters: Johnny Dollar, Luke Crager, Officer Shaw, Willard South's brother, Mrs. South, Celeste Robertson

Listen for: The discovery of the empty boat with bullet holes and bloodstains; Officer Shaw's explanation of the evidence; the revelation that the dinghy was cut loose; Willard South's troubled reputation and the multiple people who disliked him; Celeste Robertson's evasive testimony about her recent time with Willard.

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.