The Jean Cooper Murder Case: Richard Diamond, Private Detective (August 20, 1949)

“The Jean Cooper Murder Case” is an episode of Richard Diamond, Private Detective, the old-time radio show, first broadcast August 20, 1949. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Richard Diamond investigates the death of Jean Cooper, a young woman run over by a car in Central Park. Tom Cook, the driver, claims she was pushed in front of his vehicle, but police suspect him of manslaughter. Diamond discovers the case connects to a blackmail scheme and a recent gangster killing, unraveling a complex web of revenge and deception.

New York City, primarily Central Park, police precincts, apartments, and the freight yards near the North River

Characters: Richard Diamond, private detective, Tom Cook, the driver, Earl Cook, Tom's father and a politician, Jean Cooper, the victim, John Cooper, Jean's ex-husband, Lieutenant Walt Lemonson, Sergeant Otis, Lou Spiegel, a gangster

Listen for: The clever deduction connecting a magazine found in the victim's apartment to the blackmail letters, revealing the killer's identity through cut-out type matching the magazine's pages

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.