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

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: In England, traveling salesman Alexander Buonaparte. Cust is plagued by headaches,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: missing time, and a troubling coincidence his initials are ABC.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: As police receive typed warnings and a series of murders
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: follows his railway route, Cust begins to fear he may
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: be connected to crimes he cannot remember. From CBS on
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: May eighteenth, nineteen forty three, This is Suspense episode forty two,
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: The ABC Murders, adapted from Agatha Christie's nineteen thirty six novel.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Charles Lawton stars as Cust, with Elsa Lanchester, Bramwell Fletcher
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: and Joseph Kerns. William Spear produced and Ted Bliss directed.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Here is the original broadcast.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: Suspend. This is the Man in Black. Here again to
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: introduce Columbia's program Suspense. Our distinguished stars tonight are two
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: of the world's acknowledged masters of the art of suspense.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: They are mister Charles Lawton and miss Elsi Lanchester. Mister Lawton,
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: who will soon be seen in the Metro Goldwen Mayor
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: picture The Man from down Under, is here to play
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: a remarkable character created by England's noted thriller author Agatha
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Christie a mild mannered character whose initials were ABC and
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: about whom revolved a series of savage murders, all neatly
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: and alphabetically arranged. ABC was stamped upon all his belongings,
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: those being his rightful initials, and ABC was stamped too,
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: U from the large railway timetable he always carried. There
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: was nothing so odd about that detail, since no traveler
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: in the British Isles would dream of planning a journey
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: without consulting this famous railway schedule, the ABC.
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: And so with the ABC.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: Murders by Agatha Christie, written for radio by Robert Tollman
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: and William Spear, and with the performance of Charles Lawton,
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: we again hope to keep you in a fence. When
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: the time for closing bell rang in the public library,
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: Alexander bona popcast started picked up his battered breakcase when
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: the almost stated initials ABC closed the book he had
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: been reading and shuffled over to the librarian's desk.
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: It's the most interesting book, librarian, and I started to
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: come back sometime and read it on the chapter of it.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: If I may quite, yes, mister Clark, can I help you.
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: Sir, No, hurry, Well, I'll be going along now. Thank you.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: A rum little chat thataid.
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: What do you think he was reading studies in epideptics, commembulism.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: Medical stuff. Eh oh, I say, the little fellow left
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: his briefcase. I'll catch him at the dark, I say,
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: so just a moment you left something.
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: Oh dear, it's my briefcase. I'm terribly sorry. I seem
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: to be getting more and more forgetful lately. By only
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: the other day I left it on the camps in
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: the tobacco shop.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: Lucky you have those initials. Not many people with the
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: initials ABC sticks in your mind.
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: What do you mean by that, sir?
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: Well, after all, they're the first three letters of the alphabet,
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: practically the first thing we learn, you know, isn't it
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: our ABC?
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: Don't mention those letters to me. They brought bad luck
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: to me in more ways than one have that.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: Well.
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: I used to be a traveling salesman, and I used
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: to carry one of those railway town tables in my pocket,
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: the threatenic kind, in which they list the towns and
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: all the railroads alphabetically.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: Oh, of course, printed right on the cover, isn't it ABC?
• 3:46
  Speaker 4: Yes, that's right. So what stockings was my allianswer? I
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: did door to door selling. Whenever I finished one town,
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: out would come that timetable I look up the next
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: stop on my route. I got sick of the sight
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: of that ABC railway guard, I can tell you, sir.
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: It was like a symbol of failure to me, one
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: dingy little town after another at all listed in that
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: railway guard with ABC printed on the cupboard, my own
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: initials staring out at me from every new standing, every
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: dirty little railroad station in the Midlands.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: Oh come on, it couldn't have been as bad as
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: all that.
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: Matter of fact, I never noticed it till I began
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: to get the head aches.
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: Oh you suffer from a headaches? Yes? Have you seen
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: a doctor bard?
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: Oh no, no, I wouldn't want to see a doctor
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: about it already know what brings them on?
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: Well, if you'd rather not talk about it, no.
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: No, no, its just never toll. So it was just
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: such a long time ago, during the last war. In fact,
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: shadown theory chatterw theory. I say, what a coincidence. I
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: was in the thick of that myself.
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: Yes, we must get together for a drink one day
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: to talk over old times. Franklin Clark is my name.
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: I'm pleased to meet Sorr, mister Clark.
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: My name's cust Alexander Bonaparte Cash.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: They must have expected great things of you, giving you
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: a name like that. I'm afraid they did, mister Clark. Yes,
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: I'm very much afraid they did. Mister Oh.
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: Is it it's me, mister Cast.
• 5:13
  Speaker 5: I brought you up a spot of tea.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: Oh it's you, miss Marlbory. That was very thoughtful of you.
• 5:19
  Speaker 5: You know, Mother D's on you. You're her favorite lodger.
• 5:22
  Speaker 5: In fact, why mister cast, you're packing your things. You're
• 5:27
  Speaker 5: not leaving us, are you?
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: Oh no, I'm just taking a little trip over the
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: Bank holiday.
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 5:31
  Speaker 5: No, Now, don't try to deceive me, mister Cast. You're
• 5:35
  Speaker 5: embarrassed owing us, aren't you. You needn't be, mister really
• 5:40
  Speaker 5: you need you are a.
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: Nice girl, Miss Marlbury, you really are in high school.
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: As a matter of fact, I'm not going just for
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: the Bank holiday. I've something rather important. It's very important
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: me to take care of. You know, it's very possible
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: that my mother didn't have me christened Alexander Bonaparte Cast
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: for nothing.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: Have you got a.
• 5:56
  Speaker 5: Position, mister cast what is it coming to cut? You
• 6:00
  Speaker 5: can tell me, can't you?
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: Well, Miss Silia, I can tell you this much. I
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: shall be traveling quite a lot. In fact, where did
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: I leave that ABC railroad guard?
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: Oh?
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah, here it is first stop and over and over.
• 6:13
  Speaker 5: That's not very fast.
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: No, no, no, but I must be getting on if
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: I don't want to miss that train. Now let me
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: see have I got everything as the spectacles and me overcoat,
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: me typewriter, me walking stick? Did I ever tell you
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: the history of this walking stick?
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: Miss Marbury?
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: It's a Scottish piece, very old as tels. It's an
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: antique you know. They used to kill people with these
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: back in the days of the old can wars in Scotland.
• 6:34
  Speaker 4: I wonder how many edds this one is best?
• 6:37
  Speaker 6: Please?
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: What a terrible way to.
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: Say yes, I'm sorry, Miss Marbury. I am a little
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: bit surprised at myself talking like that. It must be
• 6:44
  Speaker 4: my new job. It's gone to my head a bit,
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: that's it. It's gone to my head.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: If you've got an.
• 6:49
  Speaker 6: Aspirin by chance, yes, gentlemen, what'll it be packet of
• 7:02
  Speaker 6: cold fogs for me?
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: Yes, sir? And the other gentlemen, three of banners, the
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: shilling cigules as vanners. You gentlemen, must be up from London.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: That's right? Is that your name on the window of
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: the shop.
• 7:12
  Speaker 7: That's right, Sir Olivia Asher been in business right here
• 7:16
  Speaker 7: in andover and right here in Saint Andrew's Price for
• 7:19
  Speaker 7: twenty years.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: Nor lays andover Saint Andrew's Place and Usher.
• 7:24
  Speaker 7: Funny, ain't it never so much as crossed the nine before?
• 7:27
  Speaker 8: Well, missus Asher, we're from Scotland Yard. We have reason
• 7:29
  Speaker 8: to believe that maybe a homicidal maniac as larger andover good.
• 7:33
  Speaker 8: We don't want to frighten you, missus Asher, for all
• 7:35
  Speaker 8: we know, this may be just a practical joke. You see,
• 7:37
  Speaker 8: we received an anonymous letter, typewritten and signed ABC IBC.
• 7:42
  Speaker 8: This murder, if there's anything in his story, is planning
• 7:44
  Speaker 8: a series of murders. His mania seems to be centered
• 7:46
  Speaker 8: on the alphabet. He follows his plan through. His first
• 7:49
  Speaker 8: murder will be committed in andover, and the victim will
• 7:51
  Speaker 8: be a person whose name begins.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: With an ame.
• 7:53
  Speaker 5: The Lord help me, sir, you don't think.
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: We don't think anything. Scotland Yard has taken its precaution. Oh,
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: a woman takes a terrible chance.
• 8:00
  Speaker 8: There's probably nothing to be alarmed about, but it won't
• 8:02
  Speaker 8: hurt to keep a sharp look out. Who's next on
• 8:04
  Speaker 8: your list, McKenzie? Next is allthor Atwood. All right, let's
• 8:08
  Speaker 8: be on our way then, good day, madam, don't worry, thank.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: You, sir, and good day to you, sir.
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: A murderer lunatic in endover of all prices?
• 8:25
  Speaker 5: Yes, sir, what.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: Will be for you? Sir? Please? That'll be one and six, sir?
• 8:36
  Speaker 7: I said that would be Oh no, no, no, man.
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: On me final mind.
• 8:49
  Speaker 9: And woman murdering a right man perspector.
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: Oh boy, let me have one of both here you are,
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: Thank you sir.
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: Thanks fight.
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: Norsi business mister, Oh yes, very very You never know
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: with lunatics, they don't always look bomber, you know, sometimes
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: look the same as you and me.
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: Eh, yes, I suppose they do. Oh it's effect.
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: Sometimes it's the war and instant never been right since Yeah, yes,
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: I expect your rights, you know are down old with walls.
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: I hope this will be the last. You don't old
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: with war?
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: Was I well?
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: Young men are down't old with plague and sweeping sickness
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: and feminine cancer. But they apple all the same, and
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: murder appens all the same. They can't prevent them.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry. So I expect you had a rocket time
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: of it in the last one. Eh.
• 9:37
  Speaker 4: Yes, yes, My My poor head's never been the same
• 9:40
  Speaker 4: since I get terrible headache. I'm sorry about that. Sometimes
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: I udly know what I'm doing. You don't say I
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: forget things, you know. For instance, I could have sworn
• 9:50
  Speaker 4: I had an ABC Railway guide in my pocket an
• 9:52
  Speaker 4: hour ago. Do you know they found one of them
• 9:54
  Speaker 4: ABC Railway guides on the port tobagonist lady that he murdered.
• 9:58
  Speaker 10: Oh ABC, wherever he is? Maybe he don't know himself,
• 10:04
  Speaker 10: never stop to think of it. Maybe he's so Bobby
• 10:07
  Speaker 10: don't remember. I wonder.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: Bexhill beel Did he say Bexhill? That's my train?
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: Well, goodbye, young man.
• 10:24
  Speaker 9: Saction on his side A big strike again when he's
• 10:28
  Speaker 9: trasing sidewriter on which Mourner notes were written the strike
• 10:32
  Speaker 9: at bex latest on ABC murderer.
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: May I have your order, sir?
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: Well, I don't think i'll have them.
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: I am for breakfast, so I think I'll have a
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: mutton pie.
• 10:53
  Speaker 5: Mutton pie.
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: Yes, sir, what's the matter with you? You're trembling, young woman.
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: There's something wrong, Oh, sir, if.
• 10:58
  Speaker 5: You only knew, I to walk home tonight after they
• 11:01
  Speaker 5: closed abias and there ain't hardly a lied in Benson
• 11:04
  Speaker 5: Terrace where I.
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: Live, Benson Terrace in Bexhill. Yes, sir, you're afraid of
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: the ABC murderer, aren't you?
• 11:11
  Speaker 5: He follows the alphabet tony, that was the way he's
• 11:14
  Speaker 5: done at.
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: End of us. Hey, and does your name begin with
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: a B.
• 11:19
  Speaker 5: Barnard's my name Mary Barnard.
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: Oh, dear me, miss Barnard. Well, I don't like to
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: appear forward. Well, anyway, I'm old enough to be your father.
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: Would it make you feel easier if I saw you
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: own tonight?
• 11:30
  Speaker 5: Oh you don't know, sir, You just don't know what
• 11:33
  Speaker 5: it would mean.
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: Well?
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: What time do they close up here? At nine o'clock?
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: Or right? I wait outside for you at nine o'clock?
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: Oh, lady wait? Murder in Bechel, ABC strikes against your sir.
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: Stropp With the receives a third murder, No alphabet murderer
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: and a strike again in Chester.
• 11:59
  Speaker 4: Sir, third class single to Cheston, Give me a pint
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: of half and half please, yes, sir, there you are?
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: You are from Yes, I come directly from London. So
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: my stockings is my line?
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: Rough go in these days? What preparation isn't he? Well,
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: this is my old friend, Alexander Bonaparteca.
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: I'm sorry, I'm afraid I don't remember.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: We met in a library, remember, in London? Yes, quite
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: at top Franklin Clark remember, yes, of course you'll forgive me,
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: mister Clark, my memory. It seems to be getting worse
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: and worse. You must have come under better times, mister
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: Cuss new briefcase. I see nice bright new initials.
• 12:47
  Speaker 4: Well, I got a job shortly shortly after I saw you,
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: mister Clark, from a Ballenger Limited stocking. It's my old line,
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: you know. But to tell you the truth, I haven't
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: been doing very well. Those headaches again, yes, the headaches
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: and the murder.
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: The murders have upset me something terrible.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: Oh well, you're shaking like a leaf man. Hey, Jonathan
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: a brandy for mister Cust. You need trouble with you,
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: Cuss is you're inclined to be morbid. I remember that
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: book you were reading the day we met.
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: Stuff about epilepsy, well it might be epilepsy, wasn't it.
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: But well they discharged me from the army before the
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: war ended. See I had a kind of a picture.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: Now and never had anything like it again, have you No?
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: I didn't ever fit again, just the headaches. I forget
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: what happens hours at a time.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: Do you know?
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: Once I was sitting in a station waiting room when
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: a newsboy came by and I bought a paper from
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: and it was all about that first murder in Andover.
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: It said the police had got another note, another typewritten note,
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: mister Clark, and the murderer was going to strike next
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: in beck Sill. And suddenly I realized I was in
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: beck Sill, and I've been in Andover the day before
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: when the first murder happened.
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: How did you happen to go from Andover to Bexhill?
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: Well that's the way I'm supposed to go on my
• 13:57
  Speaker 4: route selling the stockings.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: I'm supposed to take the town alphabetically. Oh well that
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: is not so surprising. You should have been in Bexhill
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: after all? Is it? Just to go into the wow?
• 14:06
  Speaker 4: The waitress in Bexhill there I I walked home with
• 14:10
  Speaker 4: her that night mister Clark the night she was murdered.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: A good Heaven's cust. You don't think you killed Mary Barner,
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: do you?
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: Mister Clark had said in that book that people who
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: have had epileptic fits off and do things and don't
• 14:24
  Speaker 4: remember them. They even commit crimes. I said good night
• 14:27
  Speaker 4: to her, and after that, I know.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: The notes, those typewritten notes. Wouldn't you have remembered if
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: you'd written them?
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: Well, no, I know a little something about psychology. My
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: self cussed, and I'd take everything I own on the
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: fact that the man who wrote those notes was conscious
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: of what he was doing. Do you really think, sir,
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: mister Clark, positive of it? Now? Pull yourself together. Man. Incidentally,
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: my sister in law lives here in Cheston. My brother
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: is Lord Cameron Clark, and I have to know she
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: needs some new stockings. Pop over there in the morning,
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: will you and show the old girl you're lyne? H? Yeah,
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: here's the address. Might cheer you up to make a
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: a good saying.
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: I'm sure it would, mister Clarke, I'm sure it would.
• 15:02
  Speaker 4: Well, good night, mister Clark, and thank you again for
• 15:04
  Speaker 4: all your cun this on the process.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: Oh wait a minute, you've forgotten something again.
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: Oh dear me, that's my type price R. I shall certain
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: I need that.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: Oh.
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: I was to type up my report to the Home
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: Office in case I should make that sale tomorrow.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: Oh of course, yes, yes, by the way, cause better
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: watch out. Somebody in Cheston is going to be murdered tomorrow. Oh,
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: ABC is up to the letter. See you know, and
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: your name is Cuss, Oh I see good, heavens mine
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: is Clark.
• 15:42
  Speaker 4: Well, thank you again for your generous order, Lady Clarke.
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: I hope you'll be pleased. This line of Woolen Line
• 15:48
  Speaker 4: stockings is one of Ballenger's best buys.
• 15:50
  Speaker 5: Right now, Lady Clark, my brother in law told me
• 15:53
  Speaker 5: that you'd had some unfortunate times lately, mister Cus.
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: But I really did need the stockings, and I shall
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: stuffing myself bag in than eggs make your saying, old boy.
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: Oh yes, good.
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: Louise is filthy with money and her ladyship's legs are
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: in constant need of recovering. She wanted the sugging.
• 16:11
  Speaker 4: Well, thank you very much me, Lady hope I shall
• 16:14
  Speaker 4: have the privilege of serving you again next year.
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: Goodbye, mister cust and good luck cheerio. Cus.
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: Such a nice little man, Franklin.
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: He's a bit of his nut. I'm afraid last night
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: he tried to convince me that he was the ABC murderer.
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: His initials. You know, he has minor lapses of memory,
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: That little man a murderer. Good lord, what was that age?
• 16:38
  Speaker 5: Where's that girl?
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: What's going on in the Master's bedroom? Lady, you better
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: go with her, mister Franklin, Cras, whatever are you doing here? Lady?
• 16:49
  Speaker 5: The master thought Clark murdered stand with a knife.
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: Good look, look there on the floor a railway guide
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: an ABC. Take me out of here slightly. Oh, I'm
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: sorry you had to see this. Cameron, My poor Cameron.
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: He never made an enemy in his life. A man
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: who did this was a maniac, and I'm afraid I
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: know who he is. He always carried a walking stick
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: with a heavy carved handle. That's how the other murders
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: were committed with a heavy stick. But he wasn't carrying
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: his stick to day. Must have grabbed a knife up
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: there somewhere to kill Cameron with. But when were you
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: with him? Every minute?
• 17:27
  Speaker 5: Well, I went upstairs to get my check book.
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: He took me a little while to find it.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: That gave cust his opening.
• 17:32
  Speaker 5: Oh to think that all that time? Oh no no,
• 17:35
  Speaker 5: I'll never forgive myself.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: Thank none of that now, Louise. The important thing now
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: is to stop him before he can commit another murder.
• 17:40
  Speaker 5: But what are you going to do, Franklin.
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: I'm going to the police and see if they'll let
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: me help. Let's have a look at this, a b
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: C railway guide he left beside poor Cameron. Look here,
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: all checked see there and over Bexhill Churston, each with
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: a check mark after it. Where's the next one? Ah?
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: See see London. He's through with ABC. He's gone home
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: and I'm going after him.
• 18:15
  Speaker 5: Yes, well, mister cast coming. Who ever kept you away
• 18:20
  Speaker 5: so long?
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: Silly?
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: I've got to talk to you alone?
• 18:22
  Speaker 5: Oh well, I'll go up with you. I want to
• 18:23
  Speaker 5: show you the new curtains are put up.
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: In your room.
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: Anyway you want a nice girl, Mastilla?
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: Really I want to.
• 18:27
  Speaker 5: Carry one of these, miss.
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: Thinks you're trembling?
• 18:33
  Speaker 5: Dare you do? Look a price? I'm going to get
• 18:35
  Speaker 5: you a hot No.
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: No, not now, please, not now, Massilly, there's no time
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: for it.
• 18:39
  Speaker 4: What is it, mister, close the door and lock it.
• 18:43
  Speaker 5: Are you in some trouble, mister cat.
• 18:45
  Speaker 4: I'm in terrible trouble, Miss Silly. I want you to
• 18:47
  Speaker 4: hear the story first from me. You're the only one
• 18:49
  Speaker 4: who has ever been my friend, had a lonely life,
• 18:52
  Speaker 4: Miss Lily. Poor mister, poor mister cast That's what they
• 18:55
  Speaker 4: always say about me, Poor mister cass.
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: I thought you were different.
• 18:58
  Speaker 5: Then they can't tell, mister CAUs it was a memory.
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: You don't need to worry. I'm all right now. I
• 19:04
  Speaker 4: never get two spells in one day.
• 19:08
  Speaker 5: I don't understand.
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: What were you You.
• 19:10
  Speaker 4: Heard of the ABC murders Shocking Affairs was that police
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: will be here at any minute. Please let me finish.
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: I don't want you to think Ashley of me, Miss Lily.
• 19:20
  Speaker 4: I didn't planet head. My instructions told me where to go.
• 19:24
  Speaker 4: Some people can't help what they do. There are diseases epilepsy,
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: for instance. You do things you don't remember, you commit crimes.
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: I'm like that.
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: I can't believe when I was a child us to
• 19:34
  Speaker 4: badger me about my name. My mother wush it strength.
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: She named me after the strongest people she knew about
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: in history. Alexander and Bonaparte. But nobody ever called me
• 19:45
  Speaker 4: by those names. They called me a b.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: C, A b C.
• 19:49
  Speaker 4: I used to dream I was boling in a kettle
• 19:51
  Speaker 4: of alphabet soup. I was a terrible disappointment to my mother.
• 19:55
  Speaker 5: Mister cast you're unsettlment.
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: Li I listened to. I couldn't.
• 20:02
  Speaker 4: I could have been a hero once in the army
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: in the last war. I was happy I could have
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: made something of myself. Then I started getting the headache.
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: You must hear me out, miss Deli.
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: I started forgetting things after they discharged me from the army.
• 20:14
  Speaker 4: Shut they called it. I used to have dreams I
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: was a great ruler. The destiny of men was in
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: my hands. I had the power over them, of life
• 20:23
  Speaker 4: and death. First I was andover that tobacconist. I can't
• 20:28
  Speaker 4: even remember what she looked like. And there was bex Hill.
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: I walked over the waitressrom the station restaurant. She was
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: murdered too. In Cheston, I sold a dozen pair of
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: talkings to a lady, and while she was upstairs getting
• 20:39
  Speaker 4: her checkbook, her husband was murdered on the.
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: Floor where I was waiting.
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: And now I'd come back here maybe the alphabet charm
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: is over?
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: Or is it?
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: This is London? Hell, your name is Lily.
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: Are you trying to frighten me? Mister?
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: I am trying to convince.
• 21:00
  Speaker 5: You you murder?
• 21:03
  Speaker 6: I believe it?
• 21:06
  Speaker 4: What about this located I found it in my briefcase.
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: When I came on the train with Lily.
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: This knife murdered a man in Churston just three hours ago.
• 21:30
  Speaker 8: Oh there there, miss Marlbury, don't take on so all
• 21:33
  Speaker 8: and got pretty as you please in the next room.
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: He was such a nice man.
• 21:39
  Speaker 5: You can't believe it.
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: Is this the knight he threatened? You win, miss Marbray.
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: We just got here in the nick of time. That's
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: a wicked looking knife. It's the Churston murder knife. Right enough,
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: mister Clark, no doubt of it. Well, let's take inventory.
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: Writer checks with a murder note walking stick, same markings
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: is on the air to the first victim, and the
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: psychiatrist report says the murders were premi editated and could
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: not possibly have been written except by a person who
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: was conscious and in his right mind. Well that breaks
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: down any idea cust may have had of entering an insanity.
• 22:07
  Speaker 8: Please right, I think you'll sign the confession without in
• 22:09
  Speaker 8: the difficulty. Bring him in, bring the prisoner well, cussed,
• 22:16
  Speaker 8: are you ready to sign your confession?
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: I don't now inspect you. A moment ago, I was
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: setting our mass have done it. But why That's what
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: worries me. Why, mister Clark, why do you think.
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: I did it? You're wasting valuable time, cust. I don't
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: care why you did it. You killed my brother, and
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: I want to see you hang for it. I don't
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: care how bomer you are.
• 22:35
  Speaker 5: You ought to be ashamed of yourself talking to our
• 22:38
  Speaker 5: mister cast at lad thirsty manner. I don't know what's
• 22:41
  Speaker 5: getting into the gentry.
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: I'm shore he tried to murder you, didn't He well,
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: he couldn't help himself.
• 22:46
  Speaker 5: He's been terribly upset offly.
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: You are a nice girl, miss Lily. You are a
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: nice girl.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: The murders were wilful and premeditated. They couldn't have been premeditated,
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: mister Clark, Why do you say that?
• 22:59
  Speaker 5: Cuss?
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: Well, because I didn't go to any of those places
• 23:02
  Speaker 4: of my own choice. I had my instructions from Vallengers Limited,
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: and those instructions were sent to me after the police
• 23:09
  Speaker 4: got the warnings of the murders that.
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: Were printed in the pipe, and never were any such instructions.
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: We ransacked all your things, cussed. There wasn't any letter
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: of instructions, was there?
• 23:17
  Speaker 8: Inspectors? No, oh yes there was. All right, we'll bring
• 23:20
  Speaker 8: up ballengers. May I use your telephone, Miss Marbray.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: The number is Regent three three one three inspect two vallengers?
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: Are you there? Put me under personnel or max start
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: packing those exhibits? Will you? Uh, chrome speaking Scotland yard?
• 23:41
  Speaker 8: But what day did you employ a commercial traveler named
• 23:43
  Speaker 8: Alexander buonaparte cast no cast ab cust initials ABC, yes, yes,
• 23:50
  Speaker 8: never employed by you? You're ups are a certain? Did
• 23:53
  Speaker 8: you tell a man to end over or bex Hill
• 23:55
  Speaker 8: last week?
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: Not on your route? Thank you? That's all I wanted
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: to know, too bad. I guess this nuts out. Your
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: last goes to the chance, doesn't.
• 24:02
  Speaker 4: It now, mister Clark, Because you see the instructions were
• 24:06
  Speaker 4: in a letter, and that letter is right in this room.
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: Well let's have a look. Come on, McKenzie, give me
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: a hand. Let's go through these things again.
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: It won't do you any good to look there, mister Clark.
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: I have the letter? Would you like to see it?
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: Mister Cromb. Let's see here. Well, i'll be where did
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: you get that? It wasn't on of Inspector, I swear
• 24:23
  Speaker 4: to that. Where did you have be sitting? Well, Inspector?
• 24:27
  Speaker 4: It isn't generally known, but I do wear a small
• 24:30
  Speaker 4: hair piece. Don't have a penety mind you, I'll find it
• 24:33
  Speaker 4: necessary for the business.
• 24:33
  Speaker 8: Let's see that letter, dear mister cust In close find
• 24:37
  Speaker 8: advance typewriter is being posted today.
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: You will what a lot of nonsense, Inspectors. Look at
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: the typeface of the letter. It's obviously written on Cuss typewriter.
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: Yes, that's right, mister Clark.
• 24:48
  Speaker 4: And the man who wrote that letter was the murderer
• 24:51
  Speaker 4: too lose you like he said the typewritter to me
• 24:53
  Speaker 4: and instructions on one of Balaner's letter heads.
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: And the money and everything else.
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: What kind of stunty are you trying to pull here,
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: cust stunt.
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: It's just that when you made that telephone call Inspector
• 25:03
  Speaker 4: and Bell and just said I'd never worked for them,
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: I knew that the typewriter must have been sent to
• 25:06
  Speaker 4: me by the murderer. And the more I thought about it,
• 25:09
  Speaker 4: the more it seemed to me that the murderer must
• 25:11
  Speaker 4: be mister Clark. What this is too utterly fantastic, Inspector. Really, well,
• 25:17
  Speaker 4: the murderer would have to add to know something about me,
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: something I'd never confided to anyone but to mister Clark,
• 25:23
  Speaker 4: about my headaches. I've been reading a book in the
• 25:26
  Speaker 4: public library, inspect a book on epilepsy, and it seemed
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: to me that what I suffered during the last war
• 25:29
  Speaker 4: might have been epilepsy, and it was on my mind. See,
• 25:32
  Speaker 4: it said that epileptics might commit crimes and not remember
• 25:35
  Speaker 4: them under certain conditions. Without that to go on, the
• 25:38
  Speaker 4: murgerer couldn't possibly offended the crime on me.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: That works two ways, cussed, you might have told me
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: that story deliberately, just so you could cook up this story.
• 25:45
  Speaker 4: Now, well, I couldn't cook up your fingerprints, mister Clark,
• 25:48
  Speaker 4: and I'll wait for anything.
• 25:49
  Speaker 8: Your fingerprints are on that letter. Come now, really well,
• 25:52
  Speaker 8: that's easily settled. We can do it right here. Won't
• 25:54
  Speaker 8: take a moment take us out of mister Clark's finger.
• 25:56
  Speaker 8: Prince McKenzie, you examined the prince in the letter. Meantime,
• 25:59
  Speaker 8: Rite inspector. Just press your fingers down firmly on this syncad,
• 26:02
  Speaker 8: mister Clark.
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: What is it, mister Clark. It's quite simple, right, yes, yes,
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: it's so simple it isn't even necessary. I'm afraid this isn't, sir,
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: mister Clark. Only I'm at a routine, you know. I
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: tell you it isn't necessary, because cust is right. I
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: am the murderer.
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: You.
• 26:17
  Speaker 8: But wait, then you killed your brother, Cameron Clark so
• 26:20
  Speaker 8: that you would inherit the estate.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: Yes, exactly. But the others, the A and B murders,
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: in andover and excell and I committed them, all of them. Yes,
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: But come now, gentlemen, surely you'll give me credit for
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: thinking this thing through. If only my brother, Lord Clark
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: had been murdered, I, being the only heir, would have
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: had a lot of explaining to do. So I invented
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: my own little crime wave to make it appear as
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: though he were just one of the victims of a
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: homicidal maniac. And I must say it almost came out
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: thanks to the unknowing cooperation of mister cust here. Thank you.
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: Just the same, mister Cuss, not very welcome.
• 26:53
  Speaker 5: I knew you couldn't be a murderer.
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: Not really. Oh you are in high school, miss Lily?
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: Really you are? OK?
• 26:59
  Speaker 5: Why don't you to an oculist?
• 27:00
  Speaker 4: Don't?
• 27:01
  Speaker 5: Maybe you just need a new pair of glasses.
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: I think I'll do that, Miss Lily. Do you really think?
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: Of course? I'll wait. That's what's been the trouble with me.
• 27:08
  Speaker 5: All of you know you need someone to take care
• 27:10
  Speaker 5: of you.
• 27:10
  Speaker 4: Oh I do, miss Lily, I do, really, if only you.
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: Oh but no, you couldn't ever think, miss well, I mean,
• 27:20
  Speaker 4: miss Lily. I was just thinking it would be really
• 27:23
  Speaker 4: too much to ask anyone, missus Alexander Bonaparte.
• 27:30
  Speaker 5: But when we're married, please don't wear that tupe. It's
• 27:35
  Speaker 5: very conspicuous.
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: You are a nice girl, mistress, Who really you are?
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: I do? People won't call your missus ABC, and so
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: closes The ABC Murders starring Charles Lawton with Alsa Lanchester
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: and Bramwell Fletcher. The Night's Tale of Suspense. This is
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: your narrator, the man in Black, who conveys to you
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: Columbia's invitation to spend this half hour in suspense with
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: us again next Tuesday, when Agnes Moorehead will return to
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: our stage a star of the suspense play called She
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: Overheard Murders. Speaking producer of these broadcasts is William Spear,
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: with Ted Bliss, the director, lud Gluskin, and Lucian Mahowick.
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: Conductor and composer Robert Tolman, the radio author, collaborated on
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: tonight's suspense. This is the Columbia Broadcasting system.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: That was Suspense with the ABC Murders. Thank you for
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: joining us for this nineteen forty three CBS broadcast. Follow
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: Old Time Mystery Radio for more classic mystery and detective
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: broadcasts