Blackjack to Kill: Suspense (December 10, 1951)

“Blackjack to Kill” is an episode of Suspense, the old-time radio show, first broadcast December 10, 1951. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Johnny Damon, a hired killer working out of Miami, accepts a contract to kill Penny Cullen, a gangster deported from the United States who has settled in Havana. Damon receives the assignment from a wealthy man named Diante, who wants Cullen dead because Cullen has tried to share in his business enterprises. Damon studies Cullen's daily routine, watching him sit on a waterfront bench and feed pigeons, and arranges a boat for his escape. The broadcast is the Suspense episode Blackjack to Kill, first aired December 10, 1951, starring Victor Mature.

Miami and Havana, Cuba, in the early 1950s

Characters: Johnny Damon, Penny Cullen, Diante, Mario, Moyer, Chico, Cleo, Radick

Listen for: Damon's careful planning of the killing, and the reversal when Cullen turns out to know he is there.

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.