The Funeral Wreath: Nick Carter, Master Detective (October 29, 1944)

“The Funeral Wreath” is an episode of Nick Carter, Master Detective, the old-time radio show, first broadcast October 29, 1944. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Lieutenant Riley arrives at Nick Carter's office with a troubling case: while staking out Pine Street where robberies have occurred, Riley left his post for a few minutes to phone about his wife's baby. During his absence, he spotted a man in undertaker's garb leaving old man Bramwell's house and depositing a funeral wreath on the door—and moments later learned that Bramwell had been murdered. The man knocked Riley down and escaped, leaving behind only an engraved business card for Jay Atherton Osgood, an undertaker. Nick takes the case and begins investigating the mysterious murderer who announces his victim's death with a funeral wreath.

Nick Carter's office in the city; Pine Street neighborhood; the Bramwell house

Characters: Nick Carter, Patsy, Lieutenant Riley, George Bramwell, Officer Green, Jay Atherton Osgood, Johnny

Listen for: The peculiar detail of the funeral wreath left at the murder scene; Nick's deduction that the business card, though engraved and genuine, was likely picked up rather than belonging to the killer; Nick's request to search the Mortician's Annual for information on Jay Atherton Osgood.

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.