The25-12345679Caper: The Adventures of Sam Spade (December 15, 1950)

“The25-12345679Caper” is an episode of The Adventures of Sam Spade, the old-time radio show, first broadcast December 15, 1950. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Sam Spade is hired by the FBI to help locate Boris Kargaminski, a top Soviet agent who has been missing for seven years. When a minor Soviet operative named Lubaoff arrives in San Francisco to contact Kargaminski, he turns up dead on a ferry where he had attacked a musician named Tony. A cryptic greeting card postcard provides a coded message that reveals an unexpected suspect's identity.

San Francisco in December, including Mama Peezza's restaurant, the Embarcadero, the Oakland ferry, and an international postcard shop on Gary Street.

Characters: Sam Spade, Effie, Dr. Oscar Ames, Tony Lucci, Mama Peezza, Connolly, Lubaoff, Boris Kargaminski

Listen for: A complex coded message hidden in a postcard's numbering system, references to Russian espionage and the FBI's hunt for a top Soviet agent, and surprising revelations about who might be working for the enemy.

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.