The Butcher Shop: Richard Diamond, Private Detective (March 9, 1951)

“The Butcher Shop” is an episode of Richard Diamond, Private Detective, the old-time radio show, first broadcast March 9, 1951. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Private detective Richard Diamond is approached by Angelino Giuseppe, a butcher shop owner who represents a group of independent butchers being extorted by a protection racket. Two violent collectors, Carl and Red, visit shops demanding weekly payments and beat those who refuse. Diamond goes undercover as a butcher's assistant to identify the racketeers and trace their operation back to its source.

New York City, primarily in and around Angelino's butcher shop, a police precinct, Tiny Easter's office on East 48th Street, and a warehouse at the 14th Street docks near the river.

Characters: Richard Diamond, Angelino Giuseppe, Carl Tate, Red Dillon, Tiny Easter, Walt (Lieutenant), Sergeant Otis, Lefty

Listen for: Diamond's comedic banter while working as a butcher, his descriptions of the two racketeers, the violent confrontation in the warehouse, and his predicament stuck on a catwalk above a criminal.

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.