Vendetta Caper: The Adventures of Sam Spade (March 30, 1951)

“Vendetta Caper” is an episode of The Adventures of Sam Spade, the old-time radio show, first broadcast March 30, 1951. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Detective Sam Spade is hired by wealthy Chandler Gosden to investigate a mysterious newcomer named Monty Christoff who has moved into the peninsula and begun a vendetta against him, sabotaging his business and turning his social circle against him. As Spade digs deeper, he discovers that Christoff is actually Barney Moffett, a Chicago racketeer seeking revenge for an old wrong. The vendetta comes to a head at a stockholders meeting where Moffett plans to take control of Gosden's company, having manipulated Gosden's wife Virginia into selling him her stock.

San Francisco and the surrounding peninsula in 1951, including Monty Christoff's mansion estate, the Gosden home, the detective agency office, and police headquarters.

Characters: Sam Spade, Chandler Gosden, Monty Christoff (Barney Moffett), Virginia Gosden, Lieutenant J.F. Randall, Ralph Edson, Joseph Kowalski, Batochios

Listen for: The revelation of Christoff's true identity as Barney Moffett and his decades-old revenge plot stemming from a stolen invention; the discovery that Virginia Gosden has sold her company stock to Christoff; and the attempted murder of Virginia just before the fateful stockholders meeting.

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.