What happens
Charles Finch, president of a construction company, is swindled out of his share of the business by his partner Malcolm Guthrie, who vows revenge. Finch spots a shabby tramp in the park who resembles him closely and recruits the man with a promise of money and new clothes. Finch then plans to use the tramp in a scheme against Guthrie. The series is The Whistler, first broadcast on February 19, 1945, and the episode is titled The Dead Man Laughed.
A city in the 1940s, including a park, a hash house, Finch's home, and a cheap hotel.
Characters: Charles Finch, Malcolm Guthrie, Henry Baker
Listen for: The line where Finch first meets the tramp in the park and the detail that the tramp has a dead ringer look-alike connection to Guthrie's remark.
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.