Butchers and Protection Racket: Richard Diamond, Private Detective (January 7, 1950)

“Butchers and Protection Racket” is an episode of Richard Diamond, Private Detective, the old-time radio show, first broadcast January 7, 1950. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Private detective Richard Diamond is hired by butcher shop owner Angelino to investigate a protection racket targeting independent butchers. Two muscle men, Red and Carl, have been collecting weekly payments from shop owners and beating those who refuse to pay. Diamond goes undercover as a butcher's assistant to identify the racketeers and trace their operation back to its source.

New York City, primarily around butcher shops on 10th Avenue, police precinct, Tiny Easter's office on East 48th Street, and a warehouse by the 14th Street docks.

Characters: Richard Diamond, private detective, Angelino, butcher shop owner, Red Dylan, muscle man and collector, Carl Tate, muscle man and collector, Tiny Easter, crime boss, Lieutenant Walt Levinson, police officer, Helen, woman in Diamond's life

Listen for: Diamond's comedic banter as he works undercover in the butcher shop, his confrontations with the racketeers, and his escalating conflict with Tiny Easter that leads to a climactic shootout at the warehouse.

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.