The Case of the Unwanted Wife: Nick Carter, Master Detective (October 10, 1948)

“The Case of the Unwanted Wife” is an episode of Nick Carter, Master Detective, the old-time radio show, first broadcast October 10, 1948. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Nick Carter and his secretary Patsy witness a dramatic scene outside an exclusive hotel when a woman in a blue coat flees from a man claiming to be her husband and a nurse, crying out that they're trying to have her committed to an asylum. After Mack McGowan, the hotel's house detective, persuades them to release her, Nick decides to investigate by contacting the woman's lawyer in San Francisco. The lawyer, John Ramsey, reveals that Mrs. Barton was planning to divorce her financially motivated husband and asks Nick to look into whether she's truly mentally ill or being framed.

New York City, primarily the Van Onom Hotel and Nick Carter's office, with contact to San Francisco

Characters: Nick Carter, Patsy, Mack McGowan, Mr. Barton, Mrs. Lola Barton, Mary the nurse, John Ramsey, Dr. Leonard Jarvis

Listen for: The puzzling detail that Dr. Jarvis noted a lack of coordination in Mrs. Barton's movements that doesn't match her diagnosed condition, and Nick's discovery that the nurse's hair color differs from the description of the Travis girl he was tracking.

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.