The Ice Pick Murder Case: Richard Diamond, Private Detective (August 9, 1953)

“The Ice Pick Murder Case” is an episode of Richard Diamond, Private Detective, the old-time radio show, first broadcast August 9, 1953. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

When a small dark man with an ice pick in his back collapses at Richard Diamond's office door, the detective begins investigating. Diamond discovers the victim, Rudy Lubin, carried a card from the Apollo Health Club and learns that the club's owner, Dr. Emerson Van Arthur, is running an illegal operation connected to narcotics. Meanwhile, Red O'Brien, a gymnast friend of Diamond's who was supposed to meet him for dinner, is found dead at the club with a broken neck after supposedly falling from the rings.

New York City, primarily Richard Diamond's office, the Apollo Health Club, and Leon's restaurant

Characters: Richard Diamond, Helen, Seymour, Lieutenant Levinson, Dr. Emerson Van Arthur, Red O'Brien, Rudy Lubin

Listen for: Richard Diamond's witty banter with his friend Seymour about judo and self-defense; the discovery of opium-laced wheat germ at the health club juice bar; the revelation that Dr. Van Arthur murdered both Rudy Lubin and Red O'Brien to protect his drug operation.

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.