What happens
Captain Peoples, a prison officer, tells the story of David Marshall Williams, a Carolina man who turns to illegal whiskey making to support his wife Maggie and gets caught in a deadly confrontation with federal agents. This Lux Radio Theatre production, broadcast on 1954-03-22 and starring Ronald Reagan, Wendell Corey and Gene Hagen, follows Williams from his early years in Godwin, North Carolina through his trial and sentencing. The story is a study of Williams's stubborn pride and the strain it places on his marriage. Captain Peoples later becomes an important figure in the prison where Williams is sent.
Godwin, North Carolina, and later Central Prison and the Caledonia prison farm, in the 1920s and early 1930s
Characters: David Marshall Williams, Maggie Williams, Captain Peoples, Marsh's father, Stockton, Frank Gregory, Sue Gregory, Jesse Rimmer
Listen for: The raid at the still and the night in the woods, when Williams has to decide whether to face the law or run.
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.