Hail Farewell Caper: The Adventures of Sam Spade (April 27, 1951)

“Hail Farewell Caper” is an episode of The Adventures of Sam Spade, the old-time radio show, first broadcast April 27, 1951. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Sam Spade is drawn into a desperate case when a nervous stranger, Charlie Forrest, repeatedly tries to contact him with an urgent message about a life-and-death matter. Forrest attempts suicide and is hospitalized, clutching evidence that Willie Johnson, scheduled to die in the gas chamber that very night, is actually innocent. Spade must race against time to uncover the truth behind a murder frame-up and stop an execution.

San Francisco, including Spade's office, hospitals, the Star Times newspaper building, Sherry Dugan's bar on the waterfront, and George Farewell's penthouse apartment overlooking the city.

Characters: Sam Spade, Effie, Charlie Forrest, Willie Johnson, Jeremy Grayson, Justice Edward Benjamin, Mr. Hale, Marilyn Hale

Listen for: The ticking clock as Spade works to save Willie Johnson from execution at midnight, the revelation of a newspaper editor's dark secret, and a climactic confrontation on a rooftop that determines an innocent man's fate.

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.