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Suspense - "The Abc Murders" (Old Time Radio, 1943) · Suspense | Old Time Radio

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: On May first, nineteen forty three, CBS presented the eighth
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: episode of Suspense, The ABC Murders, adapted from Agatha Christie's
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: nineteen thirty six novel, The half hour drama centers on
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Alexander Buonaparte Cust, a mild forgetful commercial traveler whose initials
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: ABC and ever present railway guide draw unwelcome attention. Charles
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Lawton plays Cust, with Elsa Lanchester as Lily Marbury and
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Bramwell Fletcher as Franklin Clark, while alphabetically arranged killings bring
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: the police into the case. The action begins in an
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: English public library and moves through the investigation to London.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Robert Tallman adapted the story for radio. Ted Bliss directed,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: and William Spear produced for the Roma Wine Company and
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: now the original broadcast.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: Suspense.
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: This is the Man in Black Here again to introduce
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: Columbia's program Suspense. Our distinguished stars tonight are two of
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: the world's acknowledged.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: Masters of the art of suspense.
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: They are mister Charles Lawton and miss Elsa Lanchester. Mister
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: Lawton who will soon be seen in the Metro Goldwen
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: Mayor picture The Man from Down Under is here to
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: play a remarkable character created by England's noted thriller author
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: Agatha Christie, a mild mannered character whose initials were ABC
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: and about whom revolved a series of savage murders, all neatly.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: And alphabetically arranged.
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: ABC was stamped upon all his below longing, those being
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: his rightful initials, and ABC was stamped too, up from
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: the large railway timetable he always carried. There was nothing
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: so odd about that detail, since no traveler in the
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: British Isles would dream of planning a journey without consulting
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: this famous railway.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: Schedule, the ABC.
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: And so with the ABC Murders by Agatha Christie, written
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: for radio by Robert Tallman and William Spear, and with
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: the performance of Charles Lawton, we again hope to keep
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: you in.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: Ends.
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: When the time for closing bell rang in the public library,
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: Alexander Bona popcust started picked up his battered briefcase when
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: the almost stated initials ABC closed the book he had
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: been reading, and shuffled over to the librarian's desk.
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: It's the most interesting book library, and I started to
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: come back sometime and read it on the chapterp it
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: if I may quite, Yes, mister cook, can I help you?
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: Sir well, I'll be going along now, Thank you, rum
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: little chat that. What do you think he was reading
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: studies in epidleptic somnembulism medical stuff.
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: Eh oh, I say, the little fellow left his briefcase.
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: I'll catch him at the door, I say, so just
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: a moment.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: You left something.
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: Oh dear, it's my briefcase. I'm terribly sorry. I seem
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: to be getting more and more forgetful lightly by. Only
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: the other day I left it on the capture in
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: the tobacco shop.
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: Lucky you have those initials. Not many people with the
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: initials ABC sticks in your mind.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: What do you mean by that, sir well?
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: After all, they're the first three letters of the alphabet.
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: Practically the first thing we learn, you know, isn't it
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: our ABC?
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: Don't mention those letters to me. They brought bad luck
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: to me in more ways than one.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: That well.
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: I used to be a traveling salesman, and I used
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: to carry one of those railway town tables in my pocket,
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: the threatening kind in which they list the towns and
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: all the railroads alphabetically. Oh, of course, printed right on
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: the cover. Isn't it ABC? Yes, that's right. So what
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: stockings was my Allian tower? I did door to door
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: selling whenever I finished one town, could come that timetable
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: when I look up the next stop on my route.
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: I got sick of the sight of that ABC railway guard,
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: I can tell you. So it was like a symbol
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: of failure to me, one dingy little time after another
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: at all listed in that railway guide with ABC printed
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: on the cover, my own initials staring out at me,
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: for every new standing, every dirty little railroad station in
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: the Midlands.
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: Oh, come on, it couldn't have been as bad as
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: all that.
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: Matter of fact, I never noticed it till I began
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: to get the headaches.
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: Oh you suffer from a headaches?
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: Yes?
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: Have you seen a doctor bar? Oh no, no, I
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: wouldn't want to see a doctor. Bat already know what
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: brings them on? Well, if you'd rather not talk about it, no, no, no,
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: it isn't, not at all. So it was just such
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: a long time ago, during the last war. In fact,
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: shadown theory.
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: Chatow theory. I say, what a coincidence. I was in
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: the thick of that myself. Yes, we must get together
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: for a drink one day, talk over old times. Franklin
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: Clark is my name.
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: I'm pleased to meet you, mister Clark. My name's cast
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: Alexander Bonaparte cast O. They must have expected great things.
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: You're giving you a name like that.
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: I'm afraid they did, mister Clark. Yes, I'm very much
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: afraid they did.
• 5:17
  Speaker 5: Oh is it it's me, mister cast I brought you
• 5:22
  Speaker 5: up a spot of tea.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: Oh it's you, miss Marlboro. That was very thoughtful of you, you.
• 5:28
  Speaker 6: Know, mather d Son, you're a favorite lodger. In fact,
• 5:32
  Speaker 6: mister cat, you're packing your things. You're not leaving us,
• 5:36
  Speaker 6: are you?
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: Oh no, I'm just taking a little trip over the
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: Bank holiday.
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 5:40
  Speaker 6: Now, don't try to deceive me, mister cast You're embarrassed
• 5:45
  Speaker 6: owing us, aren't you. You needn't be, really, you need
• 5:49
  Speaker 6: you are a nice.
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: Girl, Miss Marlbury, you really are in high school. As
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: a matter of fact, I'm not going just for the
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: Bank holiday. Something rather important, some very important me to
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: take care of. You know, it's very possible that my
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: mother didn't have me christened Alexander Bonaparte cast for nothing.
• 6:05
  Speaker 5: Have you got a.
• 6:05
  Speaker 6: Position, mister Castle what is it, come, mister Castle. You
• 6:09
  Speaker 6: can tell me, can't you?
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: Well, Massilia, I can tell you this much. I shall
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: be traveling quite a lot. In fact, where did I
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: leave that ABC railroad guard?
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, here it is first stop and over and over.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: That's not very fast.
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: Now, no, no, but I must be getting on if
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: I don't want to miss that train. Now let me
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: see have I got everything as the spectacles and me overcoat,
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: me typewriter, me walking stick?
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: Did I ever tell you the history of this walking stick?
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: Missus Marbury?
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: It's a Scottish pe'ce, very old as Alsi's are antique.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: They used to kill people with these back in the
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: days of the old can Wars in Scotland. I wonder
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: how many edds this one is best?
• 6:46
  Speaker 7: Please?
• 6:47
  Speaker 5: What a terrible way to say yes.
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: I'm sorry, miss Marbury. I am a little bit surprised
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: at myself talking like that. It must be my new job.
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: It's gone to my head a bit, that's it. It's
• 6:56
  Speaker 4: gone to my head.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: If you got an.
• 6:58
  Speaker 5: Ask for in chance, yes, gentlemen, what'll it be?
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: Pack of a cold fakes for me?
• 7:12
  Speaker 5: Yes, sir, and the other gentlemen.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: Three of banners, the shilling sagulls asanners.
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: You gentlemen, must be up from London. That's right?
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: Is that your name on the window of the shop.
• 7:21
  Speaker 6: That's right, Sir Olivia Asher been in business right here
• 7:24
  Speaker 6: in andover and right here in Saint Andrew's Price for twenty.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: Years, nor laves andover Saint Andrew's Place and Usher.
• 7:32
  Speaker 5: Funny, ain't it never so much as crossed them on before?
• 7:36
  Speaker 8: Well, missus Asher, we're from Scotland Yard. We have reason
• 7:38
  Speaker 8: to believe there maybe a homicidal maniac at larger andover good.
• 7:42
  Speaker 8: We don't want to frighten you, missus Asher, For all
• 7:44
  Speaker 8: we know this may be just a practical joke to see.
• 7:46
  Speaker 8: We received an anonymous letter, typewritten and signed ABC IBC.
• 7:51
  Speaker 8: This murderer, there's anything in his story, is planning a
• 7:53
  Speaker 8: series of murders. His mania seems to be centered on
• 7:55
  Speaker 8: the alphabet. If he follows his plan through, his first
• 7:57
  Speaker 8: murder will be committed in andover and the victim will
• 7:59
  Speaker 8: be a person whose name begins.
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: With a name the Lord help me, sir, you don't think, we.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: Don't think anything.
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: Scotland Yard has taken its precaution O A woman takes
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: a terrible chance.
• 8:09
  Speaker 8: There's probably nothing to be alarmed about, but it won't
• 8:11
  Speaker 8: hurt to keep a sharp look out. Who's next on
• 8:13
  Speaker 8: your list, McKenzie? Next is Arthur Atwood. All right, let's
• 8:17
  Speaker 8: be on our way then, good day, madam, don't worry, Thank.
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: You sir, and good day to you, sir. A murderer,
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: lunatic in endover of all prices.
• 8:34
  Speaker 5: Yes, sir, what will be for you?
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: Sir?
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: Please?
• 8:41
  Speaker 5: That'll be woman's six sir. I said that would be
• 8:46
  Speaker 5: no no, no next night, I mean final.
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: Murdering and rhy oh boy, let me have one of
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: those both here you are, thank you, sir.
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: Saper nasty business, hey mister, oh yes, very very You
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: never know with lunatics, they don't always look bomber, you know,
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: sometimes look the same.
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: As you on me. Eh, yes, I suppose they do
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: now which effect.
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: Sometimes it's the war on Indian never been right since? Yeah, yes,
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: I expect your rights, you know are down old with walls.
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: I hope this will be the last. You don't old
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: with war?
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: Was I well?
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: Young men are down't old with plague and sweeping sickness
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: and feminine cancer. But they apple all the same, and
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: murder appens all the same. They can't prevent them.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry, so I'll expect you had a rocket time
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: of it in the last one eighth.
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: Yes, yes, my my poor head's never been the same
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: since I get terrible headache.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry about that.
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: Sometimes I ugly know what I'm doing. You don't say
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: I forget things, you know. For instance, I could have
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: sworn I had an ABC Railway guide in my pocket.
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: An hour ago.
• 10:02
  Speaker 4: Do you know they found one of them ABC railway
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: guides on the porterbacanist lady that he murdered. Oh ABC,
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: Whether he is Maybe he don't know himself, never stop
• 10:13
  Speaker 4: to think of it.
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: Maybe he's so Bobby don't remember. I wonder Bexell Beel
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: Did he say Bexhill? That's my train? Well, goodbye, young
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: mansation on his.
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: Side business strike again.
• 10:36
  Speaker 5: When he's strikeing typewriker on which Mourther.
• 10:39
  Speaker 9: Notes were written to strike at Bexell latest on ABC.
• 10:44
  Speaker 7: May I have your orders?
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: Well, I don't think I have the ilam for breakfast.
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: I think I'll have a mutton pie.
• 11:01
  Speaker 7: Ma'taon pie?
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: Yes, sir, what's the matter with you? You're a trembling
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: young woman. There's something wrong.
• 11:06
  Speaker 6: Oh, sir, if you only knew, I have to walk
• 11:09
  Speaker 6: home tonight after they close Abbias.
• 11:11
  Speaker 7: And there ain't hardly alive in Benson Terrace where I.
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: Live, Benson Terrace in Bexhill. Yes, sir, you're afraid of
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: the ABC murderer, aren't you?
• 11:20
  Speaker 5: He follows the alphabet tony. That was the way he's
• 11:23
  Speaker 5: done at end of us.
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: Hey, and does your name begin with a B. Barnard's
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: my name Mary Barnard.
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: Oh, dear me, miss Barnard. Well, I don't like to
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: appear forward. Well anyway, I'm old enough to be your father.
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: Would it make you feel easier if I saw.
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: You own tonight?
• 11:39
  Speaker 5: Oh?
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: Who don't know, sir, You just don't know what it
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: would mean?
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: Well?
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: What time do they close up here? At nine o'clock?
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: Al right, I wait outside for you at nine o'clock?
• 11:48
  Speaker 10: Oh lady, wait brutally murd in chill, ABC strikes against
• 12:00
  Speaker 10: your sir, stopping you received third murder.
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: Not help a bit murderer to strike again in Chester?
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: Yes, sir, third class single to Cheston. Give me a
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: pint of half and half please.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: Yes, sir, there you are.
• 12:25
  Speaker 4: You are from London too, Yes, I come directly from London.
• 12:29
  Speaker 4: So Stockings is my line.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: Rough going these days? What preparation is he?
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: Well, this is my old friend, Alexander Bonaparteca.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry, I'm afraid I don't remember.
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: We met in the library, remember in London, Yes, quite
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: at top Franklin Clark remember.
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: Yes, of course you'll forgive me, mister Clark, my memory.
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: It seems to be getting worse and worse.
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: You must have come under better times, mister Cuss new briefcase.
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: I see nice bright new initials.
• 12:56
  Speaker 4: Well I got a job sharply shortly after I saw you,
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: mister Clark from a bell Jerlim.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: It's stocking. It's my old line, you know. But to
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: tell you the truth, I haven't been doing very well.
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: Those headaches again, yes, the headaches and the murders. The
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: murders have upset me something terrible. Oh well, you're shaking
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: like a leaf man. Hey, Jonathan Brandy for mister Cust
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: he needed trouble with you, Cuss is you're inclined to
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: be morbid. I remember that book you were reading the
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: day we met, stuff about epilepsy. Well it might be epilepsy,
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: wasn't it but well, they discharged me from the army
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: before the war ended.
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: You see, I had a kind of a picture now
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: and never had anything like it again, have you No?
• 13:36
  Speaker 4: I didn't ever fit again, just the headaches. I forget
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: what happens hours at a time.
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: Do you know?
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: Once I was sitting in a station waiting room and
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: a newsboy came by and I bought a paper from
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: and it was all about that first murder in Andover.
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: It said the police had got another note, another typewritten note,
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: mister Clark, and the murderer was going to start next
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: in beck Sill. And suddenly I realized I was in
• 13:57
  Speaker 4: beck Sill, and I've been in Andover the day before.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: When the first murder happened.
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: How did you happen to go from Andover to Bexhill?
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: Well that's so why I'm supposed to go on my
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: route selling the stockings.
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: I'm supposed to take the town alphabetically. Oh well, that
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: is not so surprising. You should have been in Bexhill
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: after all?
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: Is it? Just to go into the well the waitress
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: in Bexhill?
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: There I.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: Walked home with her that night, mister Clark. Not she
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: was murdered a.
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: Good Heaven's cust. You don't think you killed Mary Barner do?
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 14:27
  Speaker 4: Mister Clark had set in that book that people who
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: have had epileptic fits often do things and don't remember them.
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: They even commit crimes. I said good night to her,
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: and after that I know the notes, those typewritten notes.
• 14:40
  Speaker 4: Wouldn't you have remembered if you'd written them?
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: Well, no, I know a little something about psychology. My
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: self cussed, and I'd take everything I own on the
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: fact that the man who wrote those notes was conscious
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: of what he was doing.
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: Do you really think, sir, mister.
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: Clark, positive of it?
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: Now?
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: Pull yourself together. Man. Incidentally, my sister in law lives
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: here in Cheston. My brother is Lord Cameron Clark, and
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: I have to know she needs some new stockings. Hop
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: over there in the morning, will you and show the
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: old girl you're lying? Yeah, here's the address. Might cheer
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: you up to make a good saying.
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: I'm sure it would, mister Clark. I'm sure it would. Well,
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: good night, mister Clark, and thank you again for all
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: your cuns.
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: Oh wait a minute, you've forgotten something again.
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: Oh dear me, that's my type price rashall certain, I
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: need that.
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: As to type up my report to the Home Office
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: in case I should make that sale tomorrow.
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: Oh of course, yes, by the way, cause better watch out.
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: Somebody in Cheston is going to be murdered tomorrow. Oh,
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: ABC is up to the letter. See you know, and
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: your name is Cuss. Oh I see good, hidvens mine
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: is club.
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: Well, thank you again for your generous order, Lady Clarke.
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: I hope you'll be pleased. This line of wooll Of
• 15:56
  Speaker 4: line stockings is one of Ballenger's best buys.
• 15:59
  Speaker 6: Right now, Lady Clark, my brother in law told me
• 16:01
  Speaker 6: that you'd had some unfortunate times lately, mister Cust, But
• 16:04
  Speaker 6: I really did need the stockings, and.
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: I shall stuffing myself as big and and eggs make
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: a saying old boy.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: Oh yes, mister good good.
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: Louise is filthy with buddy, and her ladyship's legs are
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: in constant need of recovering. She wanted the suggings.
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: Well, thank you very much, malady. Hope I shall have
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: the privilege of serving you again next year.
• 16:24
  Speaker 6: Goodbye, mister Cust, and good luck cheerio cuz such a
• 16:29
  Speaker 6: nice little man.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: Franklin he's a.
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: Bit of his nut. I'm afraid last night he tried
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: to convince me that he was the ABC murderer. His initials.
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: You know, he has minor lapses of memory.
• 16:40
  Speaker 5: Man the murderer?
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: Good lord? What was that.
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: Mad?
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: Where's that girl? What's going on in the Master's bedroom? Lady,
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: you better go with mister Franklin.
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: Whatever are you doing here?
• 16:57
  Speaker 5: Lady? The master thought murdered stare with a knife?
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: Blood mud? Oh why look?
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: Look there on the floor a railway guide, an a
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: B C.
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: Take me out of here slightly.
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: Oh, I'm sorry you had to see this.
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: Cameron, My poor Cameron. He never made an enemy.
• 17:16
  Speaker 7: In his life.
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: The man who did this was a maniac, and I'm
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: afraid I know who he is. He always carried a
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: walking stick with a heavy carved handle. That's how the
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: other murders were committed with a heavy stick. But he
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: wasn't carrying his stick to day. Must have grabbed a
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: knife up there somewhere to kill Cameron with. But when
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: were you with him? Every minute?
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: But I went upstairs to get my check book. He
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: took me a little while to find it.
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: That gave cust his opening.
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: Oh to think that all that time.
• 17:42
  Speaker 5: Oh no no, I'll never forgive myself.
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: Frank None of that now, Louise. The important thing now
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: is to stop him before he can commit another murder.
• 17:49
  Speaker 5: But what are you going to do, Franklin.
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: I'm going to the police and see if they'll let
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: me help. Lets have a look at this a b
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: C railway guide he left beside poor Cameron.
• 17:57
  Speaker 10: Hmm.
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: Look here all checked see there and over Bexhill Churston,
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: each with a check mark after it. Where's the next one?
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: See see London. He's through with ABC, he's gone home
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: and I'm going after him.
• 18:23
  Speaker 6: Yes, well, mister cast coming, who ever kept you away
• 18:28
  Speaker 6: so long?
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: Stilly? I've got to talk to you alone.
• 18:30
  Speaker 6: Oh well, I'll go up with you.
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: I want to show you the new curtains are put
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: up in your room. Anyway you want a nice girl, Mastilla?
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: Really I'll want to.
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: Carry one of these, miss.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: Mister trembling.
• 18:41
  Speaker 7: There you do look a price.
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: I'm going to get you a hot No, no, not now, please,
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: not now, Masilla. There's no time for it.
• 18:47
  Speaker 7: What do you think, mister?
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: Close the door and lock it.
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: Are you in some trouble, mister cat?
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: I'm in terrible trouble, Missilly. I want you to hear
• 18:56
  Speaker 4: the story first from me. You're the only one who
• 18:58
  Speaker 4: has ever been my friend only life, Miss Lily. Oh, poor,
• 19:02
  Speaker 4: poor mister Cust. That's what they always say about me,
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: Poor mister Cuss.
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: I thought you were different.
• 19:08
  Speaker 6: It was only a mineral.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: Oh, you don't need to worry. I'm all right now.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: I never get two spells in one day.
• 19:17
  Speaker 7: I don't understand.
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: Were you you heard of the ABC murders, shocking affairs
• 19:24
  Speaker 4: That police will be here at any minute. Please let
• 19:26
  Speaker 4: me finish. I don't want you to think Ashley of me,
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: Miss Lily. I didn't calnet a head. My instructions told
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: me where to go. Some people can't help what they do.
• 19:34
  Speaker 4: There are diseases epilepsy, for instance. You do things you
• 19:37
  Speaker 4: don't remember, you'll commit crimes.
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: I'm like that.
• 19:40
  Speaker 7: Oh, I can't believe it.
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: When I was a child, Miss they used to badgle
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: me about my name. My mother wush it strength. She
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: named me after the strongest people she knew about in history,
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: Alexander and Bonaparte.
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: But nobody ever called me by those names. They called
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: me a b C. A b C.
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: I used to dream I was boiling in a kettle
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: of alphabet soup. I was a terrible disappointment.
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: To my mother.
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: Netter cast your unsettledment got to me.
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: I listened to me, Missy, I couldn't. I could have
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: been a hero once in the army and the last war.
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: I was happy.
• 20:14
  Speaker 4: I could have made something of myself. Then I started
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: getting the headache. You must hear me out, miss Deeli.
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: I started forgetting things after they discharged me from the army.
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: Shut they called it. I used to have dreams. I
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: was a great ruler. The destiny of men was in
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: my hands. I had the power over him, of life
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: and Deathsto was andover the tobacconist.
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: I can't even remember what she looked like. And there
• 20:39
  Speaker 4: was bex Hill. I walked over the waitressrom the station restaurant.
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: She was murdered too in Chester, and I sold a
• 20:45
  Speaker 4: dozen pair of stockings to a lady. And while she
• 20:47
  Speaker 4: was upstairs getting her check book, her husband was murdered
• 20:50
  Speaker 4: on the floor where I was waiting. And now I'd
• 20:53
  Speaker 4: come back here. Maybe the alphabet charm is over? Or
• 20:59
  Speaker 4: is it is London?
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: Hell? Your name is Lily? Are you trying to frighten me. Mister,
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: I am trying to convince you you murder.
• 21:12
  Speaker 7: I believe it.
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: What about this located.
• 21:19
  Speaker 4: I found it in my briefcase when I came on
• 21:21
  Speaker 4: the train, Miss Lily, this knife murdered a man in
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: Churston just three hours ago. There, Miss Marlbury, don't take
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: on so all men, God pretty as you please in
• 21:43
  Speaker 4: the next room.
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: He was such a nice man.
• 21:47
  Speaker 6: You can't believe it.
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: Is this the knight you threatened your win, Miss Marbray.
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: We just got here in the nick of time. That's
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: a wicked looking knife. It's the Churston murder knife. Right enough,
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: mister Clark, no doubt of it. Well, let's taken. Tye
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: writer checks with a murder note walking stick, same markings
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: is on the heir to the first victims, and the
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: psychiatrists report says the murders were premi editated and the
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: notes cannot possibly have been written except by a person
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: who was conscious and in his right mind. Well that
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: breaks down any idea cust may have head of entering
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: an insanity.
• 22:15
  Speaker 8: Please right, I think you'll sign the confession without in
• 22:18
  Speaker 8: the difficulty. Bring him in, bring the prison well cast,
• 22:24
  Speaker 8: are you ready? To sign your confession. I don't now
• 22:27
  Speaker 8: inspect you. A moment ago I was setting our mass
• 22:29
  Speaker 8: have done it. But why That's what worries me. Why,
• 22:35
  Speaker 8: mister Clark, why do you think I did it? You're
• 22:38
  Speaker 8: wasting valuable time. Cast I don't care why you did it.
• 22:41
  Speaker 8: You killed my brother and I want to see you
• 22:42
  Speaker 8: hang for it. I don't care how barmy you are.
• 22:44
  Speaker 6: You ought to be ashamed of yourself talking to our
• 22:46
  Speaker 6: mister Castinet's lad thirsty manner. I don't know what's getting
• 22:50
  Speaker 6: into the gentry.
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: I'm shore tried to murder you'dn't he well.
• 22:53
  Speaker 6: He couldn't help himself pasting. He's been terribly upset of plate.
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: You are a nice gal, Miss Lily, you are a
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: nice girl. Were the murders were wilful and premeditated.
• 23:03
  Speaker 4: They couldn't have been premeditated, mister Clark, why do you
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: say that? Cust Well, because I didn't go to any
• 23:10
  Speaker 4: of those places of my own choice. I had my
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: instructions from Vallengers Limited, and those instructions were sent to
• 23:17
  Speaker 4: me after the police got the warnings of the murders.
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: That were printed in the paper. And never were any
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: such instructions. We ransacked all your things, cussed. There wasn't
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: any letter of instructions, was there?
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: Inspector? No, oh yes there was.
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: All right, we'll bring up vallengers. May I use your
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: telephone as Marbray. The number is Regent three three one
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: three inspect two vallengers are you there?
• 23:43
  Speaker 8: Put me under personnel or Max start packing those exhibits
• 23:46
  Speaker 8: with your uh prome speaking Scotland yard. But what day
• 23:50
  Speaker 8: did you employ a commercial traveler named Alexander buonaparte cast
• 23:54
  Speaker 8: no cust ab cust initials ABC, yes, yes, never implied
• 24:00
  Speaker 8: by you. You're absoue a certain? Did you sell a
• 24:02
  Speaker 8: man to end Over or bex Hill last week?
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: Not on your route? Thank you? That's all I wanted to.
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: Know, too bad, cust. I guess this nuts out your
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: last goes of a chance, doesn't it now.
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: Mister Clark, Because you see the instructions were in a letter,
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: and that letter is right in this room.
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: Well let's have a look. Come on, McKenzie, give me
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: a hand. Let's go through these things again.
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: It won't do you any good to look there, mister Clark.
• 24:23
  Speaker 4: I have the letter, would you like to see it?
• 24:26
  Speaker 4: Mister Cromb. Let's see her.
• 24:28
  Speaker 9: Well, I'll be where did you get that? It wasn't
• 24:30
  Speaker 9: on an inspector, I swear to that. Where did you
• 24:33
  Speaker 9: have VI sitting well, Inspector. It isn't generally known, but
• 24:37
  Speaker 9: I do wear a small hair piece. Don't have a
• 24:40
  Speaker 9: penety mind you, I'll find it necessary for the business.
• 24:42
  Speaker 8: Let's see that letter, dear mister cust In close find
• 24:46
  Speaker 8: advance typewriter is being posted today.
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: You will what a lot of nonsense, Inspector. Look at
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: the typeface of that letter. It's obviously written on cust typewriter.
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: Yes, that's right, mister Clark. And the man who that
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: letter was the murderer.
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: As you like, he said, the typewriter to me, and
• 25:01
  Speaker 4: instructions on one of Ballenger's letter heads, and the money
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: and everything else.
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: What kind of stundy you're trying to pull here, cussed,
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: No stunt.
• 25:09
  Speaker 4: It's just that when you made that telephone call, Inspector
• 25:11
  Speaker 4: and Ballenger said I'd never worked for them, I knew
• 25:13
  Speaker 4: that the typewriter must have been sent.
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: To me by the murderer.
• 25:16
  Speaker 4: And the more I thought about it, the more it
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: seemed to me that the murderer must be mister Clark,
• 25:22
  Speaker 4: what this is too utterly fantastic, Inspector. Really, well, the
• 25:26
  Speaker 4: Murger would have to add to know something about me,
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: something I'd never confided to anyone but to mister Clark,
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: about my well, my headaches. I've been reading a book
• 25:34
  Speaker 4: in the public library, inspect a book on epilepsy, and
• 25:36
  Speaker 4: it seemed to me that what I suffered during the
• 25:38
  Speaker 4: last war might have been epilepsy, and it was on
• 25:40
  Speaker 4: my mind. See, it said that epileptics might commit crimes
• 25:43
  Speaker 4: and not remember them under certain conditions. Without that to
• 25:46
  Speaker 4: go on, the Murger couldn't possibly offended the crime on me.
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: That works two ways. Cuss, you might have told me
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: that story deliberately, just so you could cook up this story.
• 25:53
  Speaker 4: Now, well, I couldn't cook up your fingerprints, mister Clark,
• 25:57
  Speaker 4: and I'll wait for anything.
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: Your fingerprints are.
• 25:59
  Speaker 10: On that letter.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: Come now, really, well, that's easily settled.
• 26:02
  Speaker 8: We can do it right here. Won't take a moment.
• 26:03
  Speaker 8: Take us out of mister Clark's finger. Prince Mackenzie, you
• 26:06
  Speaker 8: examine the prince in the letter. Meantime, Rite, Inspector, just
• 26:09
  Speaker 8: press your fingers down firmly on the sync pad.
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: Mister Clark. What is it, mister Clark. It's quite simple, right.
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: Yes, yes, it's so simple it isn't even necessary. I'm
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: afraid this isn't, sir, mister Clark, only a matter of routine,
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: you know. I tell you it isn't necessary because cust
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: is right. I am the murderer.
• 26:24
  Speaker 8: You But wait, then you killed your brother, Cameron Clark
• 26:28
  Speaker 8: so that you would inherit the estate, Yes, exactly.
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: But the others, the A and B murders in andover
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: and Exhill, and.
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: I committed them, all of them. Yes, But come now, gentlemen,
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: surely you'll give me credit for thinking this thing through.
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: If only my brother, Lord Clark had been murdered, I,
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: being the only heir, would have had a lot of
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: explaining to do. So I invented my own little crime
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: wave to make it appear as though he were just
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: one of the victims of a homicidal maniac. And I
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: must say it almost came out thanks to the unknowing
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: cooperation of mister Custier.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: Just the same, mister Cuss.
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: It's not very welcome.
• 27:02
  Speaker 6: I knew you couldn't be a murderer, not really.
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: Oh you are in high school, Miss Lily, really you are? OK?
• 27:08
  Speaker 5: Why don't you go to an oculist?
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: Don't?
• 27:10
  Speaker 5: Maybe you just need a new pair of glasses.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: I think I'll do that, Miss Lily. Do you really think?
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: Of course? I'll wait you. That's what's been the trouble
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: with me all.
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: You know?
• 27:17
  Speaker 5: You need someone to take care of you.
• 27:19
  Speaker 4: Oh I do, Miss Lily, I do, really, if only you?
• 27:23
  Speaker 4: Oh but no, you couldn't ever think mister well, I mean,
• 27:29
  Speaker 4: miss Lily. I was just thinking it would be really
• 27:31
  Speaker 4: too much to ask anyone, missus Alexander Bonaparte.
• 27:38
  Speaker 6: But when we're married, please don't wear that tupe. It's
• 27:43
  Speaker 6: very conspicuous.
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: You are a nice school mistress? Who really you are?
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: I do? People won't call your missus ABC, and so.
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: Closes the ABC Murders starring Charles Lawton, with Alsea Lanchester
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: and Bramwell Fletcher.
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: The Night's Tale of Suspense.
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: This is your narrator, a man in black who conveys
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: to you Columbia's invitation.
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: To spend this half hour in suspense.
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: With it again next Tuesday, when Agnes Moorehead will return
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: to our stage, a star of the suspense play called She.
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: Overheard Murders speaking.
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: Producer of these broadcast is William Spear, with Ted Bliss,
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: the director, lud Pluskin and Lucian Mahowick. Conductor and composer
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: Robert Tolman, the radio author, collaborated on tonight's Suspense.
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: This is the Columbia Broadcasting System.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: For this evening, we close with suspense and the ABC
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: Murders follow Suspense for more classic broadcasts.