The Only Way to Make Friends Is to Die: Pat Novak, for Hire (June 18, 1949)

“The Only Way to Make Friends Is to Die” is an episode of Pat Novak, for Hire, the old-time radio show, first broadcast June 18, 1949. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Pat Novak, a waterfront operative in San Francisco, is forcibly taken to the docks by two armed men searching for someone named Joe Deneen. When Novak's boat is found covered in blood and Deneen turns up dead in Novak's apartment, Inspector Hellman arrives on the scene convinced of Novak's guilt. Novak must unravel the tangled connections between the dead man, a mysterious woman at the Ambrose Hotel, and a convict in Alcatraz to clear himself.

San Francisco waterfront and city streets, 1949

Characters: Pat Novak, Inspector Hellman, Joe Deneen, Jaco Madigan, Freddy Sims, Mike Trevor, Jake Fidello

Listen for: The distinctive hardboiled narration and cynical wit of Pat Novak as he navigates a murder mystery involving betrayal and conflicting loyalties among criminals and their associates.

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.