The Unwilling Accomplice: Nick Carter, Master Detective (January 29, 1944)

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

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What happens

A master criminal who has been robbing high society homes and banks taunts Lieutenant Riley by throwing a stone through his window, challenging him to bring in Nick Carter. When Wayne Belden, president of the National Loan and Trust Company, vanishes from his locked office on a Saturday afternoon, Carter and Riley discover him murdered. A robbery of fifty thousand dollars from the bank vault complicates the case, and Carter becomes convinced that Belden's daughter's fiancé, the wealthy Butler Pierce, is both the murderer and the elusive society burglar.

New York City, including police headquarters, the Belden house, and the National Loan and Trust Company bank

Characters: Nick Carter, Lieutenant Riley, Butler Pierce, Olive Belden, Wayne Belden, Mr. Cook

Listen for: Nick Carter's deductive reasoning as he pieces together clues from a broken cufflink with blood on it, Pierce's unexplained glove-wearing, and his suspicious presence at the crime scene

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.