The Misplaced Laundry Case: Richard Diamond, Private Detective (September 6, 1950)

“The Misplaced Laundry Case” is an episode of Richard Diamond, Private Detective, the old-time radio show, first broadcast September 6, 1950. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

Listen to Richard Diamond, Private Detective free, live around the clock: every episode, in the order it first aired. No sign-up.

What happens

Richard Diamond's evening takes a strange turn when he picks up the wrong laundry bundle late at night from a man with a gun. The next morning, the laundry owner who made the mistake is found murdered, and Diamond discovers coded numbers on a shirt in the wrong bundle that lead to a dangerous criminal operation.

New York City, including Diamond's apartment, Helen's mother's home on Long Island, the Blue Bell Laundry, Superior Cleaning and Dyeing Works, and various street corners

Characters: Richard Diamond, Helen, Helen's mother, Walt (Lieutenant), Mr. Green, John Jones, Charlie Asher, Arthur Levin

Listen for: The coded message hidden in the shirt collar (A4 5L meaning 6 a.m. at 46th and Lexington), which becomes the key to unraveling a major narcotics operation run through laundry services

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.