The Bloody Hat Case: Richard Diamond, Private Detective (July 2, 1949)

“The Bloody Hat Case” is an episode of Richard Diamond, Private Detective, the old-time radio show, first broadcast July 2, 1949. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

A taxi driver brings private detective Richard Diamond a bloody hat and fired pistol found in a Flatbush gutter. Diamond traces the hat to Bertram Kalmus, a vice president, and discovers the gun belonged to a girl's apartment where a man has been killed. George Watkins, Kalmus's boss, confesses to the shooting, but Diamond suspects the case is not what it appears.

New York City, including a bistro on 48th Street, a hat shop on Fifth Avenue, apartment buildings, and police headquarters.

Characters: Richard Diamond, Lieutenant Walt Levinson, Hennessy the cab driver, Bertram Kalmus, George Watkins, Mrs. Kalmus, Nan Phillips, Sergeant Otis

Listen for: Diamond's clever deduction as he uncovers a frame-up involving a staged fight, blank cartridges, and a silencer. Pay attention to how he catches Kalmus in a crucial mistake about knowing the dead girl's name.

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.