Death After Dark: Nick Carter, Master Detective (February 19, 1944)

“Death After Dark” is an episode of Nick Carter, Master Detective, the old-time radio show, first broadcast February 19, 1944. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

When two young women disappear from a city park during an evening tennis outing, Nick Carter is called in to investigate. What he discovers is far more sinister than a simple kidnapping—the victims are found dead with mysterious puncture wounds in their necks, and witnesses describe being attacked by strange, silent creatures that seemed to drop from the trees in the darkness.

A city park and surrounding areas, at night; the investigation spans from the tennis courts through the woods to the homes of the victims and witnesses.

Characters: Nick Carter, Phil, Betty Graham, Gertrude Chase, Dora Mason, Ed

Listen for: The description of the mysterious attackers—silent, barefooted creatures that hiss like snakes and attack from above; the peculiar wounds on the victims' necks; and the strange-smelling cloth used to render victims unconscious.

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.