Hot Hundred Grand Caper: The Adventures of Sam Spade (September 19, 1948)

“Hot Hundred Grand Caper” is an episode of The Adventures of Sam Spade, the old-time radio show, first broadcast September 19, 1948. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

When a well-dressed woman claiming to be Leonard Killcors' wife hires Sam Spade to investigate her husband's mysterious withdrawals of large sums of money, Sam discovers Killcors is losing $100,000 at a crooked gambling joint run by Ernie Nogales across the Golden Gate Bridge. Sam learns the payments are actually blackmail to protect the woman's brother Tommy, who took the fall for Killcors years ago. As Sam tries to expose the rigged wheel and recover the money, he finds himself caught between competing interests and double-crosses.

San Francisco and Marin County, including the Killcors mansion, Sam Spade's office, and Ernie Nogales's racket club across the Golden Gate Bridge.

Characters: Sam Spade, Effie Haren, Lorraine Killcors (actually Lorraine Lane), Leonard Killcors, Tommy Lane, Ernie Nogales, Joe (wheel operator)

Listen for: The revelation that Lorraine is not actually Killcors' wife but Tommy's sister, the exposition of the crooked roulette wheel scheme, and Sam's clever play to win back the money at the gambling table.

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.