William Logan And The Ivory Statue: Richard Diamond, Private Detective (April 5, 1950)

“William Logan And The Ivory Statue” is an episode of Richard Diamond, Private Detective, the old-time radio show, first broadcast April 5, 1950. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Private detective Richard Diamond receives a package from a dying merchant seaman named William Logan, who tells him it contains an ivory statue and that he's being followed. After Logan is murdered in Diamond's office, a mysterious man breaks in seeking the statue. Two dangerous men—the tall, skeletal Leopold Titus and a turbaned figure named Ahmed Beneath—pursue Diamond, each wanting the statue for different reasons, forcing him to uncover what the small carved figure truly represents.

New York City, primarily Diamond's office and apartment on East 51st Street, with a climactic scene at Titus's house on Long Island

Characters: Richard Diamond, Helen, Walt, Lieutenant Lotus, William Logan, Charles Fraley, Leopold Titus, Ahmed Beneath

Listen for: The revelation of the statue's significance as a symbol of leadership in a secret cult, the competing motivations of the various characters who pursue it, and Diamond's moral dilemma about destroying the statue at the end

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.