What happens
Henry Guilford, a shy gas station attendant and hunting guide, is convicted of murder after he strikes a man who was beating a young woman he had been seeing. He claims self-defense and says the woman witnessed everything, but she cannot be found and he has no name to give. His lawyer struggles to delay the case as appeals fail and his execution date approaches. The story follows Guilford through his final hours on death row, the tension of waiting, and the events that unfold at the prison. The Suspense series presents this episode as a radio play starring Jackie Cooper, first broadcast on December 5, 1947.
A small town with a gas station and a trolley line, a dance spot on Trapskite Avenue, a courtroom, and a state prison's death row in the late 1940s.
Characters: Henry Guilford, Hank, Judy, Bailey Hall, McGill, Steve Hoffman, Warden
Listen for: The ticking of the clock during Guilford's final hours and the sounds of the execution preparations.
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.