Shot In The Dark Caper: The Adventures of Sam Spade (February 23, 1951)

“Shot In The Dark Caper” is an episode of The Adventures of Sam Spade, the old-time radio show, first broadcast February 23, 1951. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Sam Spade takes on a mysterious assignment from a newspaper editor who spots a gun being fired in an apartment building window in a photograph from a traffic accident. Posing as a tenant to investigate, Spade uncovers a blackmail scheme targeting a wealthy man named Sigman Pocus who arrived in San Francisco with $175,000. As Spade digs deeper, he discovers a complex plot involving a phony murder staged with blank bullets, and must untangle who actually killed boxer Max Barstow.

San Francisco, primarily the Greystone apartment hotel and surrounding locations

Characters: Sam Spade, Effie, Woody Wilson, Ed Barry, Honey Kane, Sandra Lynn, Max Barstow, Sigman Pocus

Listen for: Sam's banter with his secretary Effie about his excuses for missing dates; the investigation of the mysterious gunshot in the apartment photograph; the revelation of the badger game racket targeting the elderly businessman; the final confrontation between Sam and the apartment manager.

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.