What happens
Mr. and Mrs. Reed, a folk-music collector and his young wife, are driving through remote hills when a suspicious officer warns them off. Two local men, Paul and Jesse, lure them to a farmhouse where their dying grandfather, the old man of the house, has been holding on to life. The family insists that a sin-eater must take on the old man's sins before he can die, and they have chosen one of the strangers for the task. Mr. Reed refuses, and his wife tries to win over the young Jesse. The episode is part of the Suspense series, first broadcast on July 8, 1962.
Remote hill country, the farmhouse of an old family, and a nearby road.
Characters: Mr. Reed, Lucille Reed, Paul, Jesse, Mo, Officer
Listen for: The explanation of the sin-eating custom and the family's demand that a stranger take on the old man's sins.
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.