The Case of the Unexpected Corpse: Nick Carter, Master Detective (June 13, 1948)

“The Case of the Unexpected Corpse” is an episode of Nick Carter, Master Detective, the old-time radio show, first broadcast June 13, 1948. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

In the small Texas town of Plain City, oil man Leonard Atwell is found shot dead in his car. Sheriff Tabor suspects a hitchhiker, especially after a drifter named Morgan is caught trying to sell Atwell's watch and ring. Nick Carter arrives on a social visit and begins examining the evidence at the sheriff's office, uncovering puzzling details that suggest the case may not be as straightforward as it appears.

Plain City, Texas, and surrounding areas including a filling station on the highway to Dallas.

Characters: Nick Carter, Patsy Boyne, Sheriff Tabor, Buck Henderson, Colonel Gardner, Morgan, Leonard Atwell

Listen for: Nick's observation about the adhesive tape on Atwell's hand—it was too clean to have been there long—and the deputy's discovery that someone with white hair accompanied Atwell at a filling station 30 miles away.

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.