What happens
Pancho Lopez, a bandit on the Texas border, enters the ranch of Gilbert Fipps and his uncle, Henry Fipps, while Lucia and Morgan Pell are visiting as guests. Morgan Pell, who hopes to buy the ranch before its mortgage expires that evening, has his own quarrel with Lucia's past and with Gilbert. Lopez takes the household prisoner and begins to question them, one by one. This episode of The Mercury Theatre on the Air, broadcast on Campbell Playhouse, is presented by Orson Welles, who also stars. Ida Lupino plays Lucia. The original air date was May 19, 1939.
A ranch on the Texas border, near the Mexican frontier.
Characters: Pancho Lopez, Lucia Pell, Morgan Pell, Gilbert Fipps, Henry Fipps
Listen for: Lopez's questioning of the prisoners, with his threat that anyone who lies will be shot.
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.