Sqp Caper Afrs: The Adventures of Sam Spade (November 7, 1948)

“Sqp Caper Afrs” is an episode of The Adventures of Sam Spade, the old-time radio show, first broadcast November 7, 1948. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Sam Spade is hired by a young woman named Patricia Paine who claims she needs him to witness her husband's infidelity at a local hotel. When Spade declines, Patricia instead works with hotel detective Tiny Silver on the case. At the Belvedere Hotel, a man named Pierce is found dead in a room with Patricia handcuffed and gagged. The circumstances of Pierce's death grow increasingly mysterious as evidence disappears and Spade discovers the case involves dental x-rays, a escaped convict, and a man using the alias Calvin Christopher.

San Francisco, primarily at the Belvedere Hotel and various locations around the city including the Fidelity Building and a funeral home

Characters: Sam Spade, Patricia Paine, Tiny Silver, Donald Pierce, Calvin Christopher, Victor Graziani, Effie, Lieutenant Dundee

Listen for: The clever wordplay around the x-ray initials SQP standing for San Quentin Prison, and how Spade deduces that an escaped convict murdered Pierce to silence him about the dental records that could identify him.

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.