The Whistler: Classic Radio Drama

Episode 64: Partners In Crime

In “Partners in Crime,” literary agents Chris Matthews and Freddy Stacey are living under a shadow of paranoia after stealing a priceless, jewel-encrusted Louis XIV dagger during a trip abroad—a theft that left Captain Frisco dead. Now someone is trying to kill them, and each is convinced the other is plotting a double-cross. When Captain Frisco’s look-alike brother appears, the pressure tightens, and Chris decides the safest path is eliminating Freddy and fleeing to Mexico with the dagger. But when Freddy confronts him at gunpoint, the plan explodes into violence, leaving Freddy dead. Chris then lures the smuggler Higgins to a beach house to finish the job and escape with the treasure, only to learn Freddy already took the dagger off the ship. Chris thinks he can still salvage the scheme—until the sheriff arrives with Freddy’s body, the dagger, and the address Chris himself had forced Higgins to write down. In that instant, Chris’s perfect getaway collapses, undone by his own instructions.

Episode 80: Legacy of Death

In “Legacy of Death,” Doreen Holliston grows up believing her late mother’s warning: that she may have inherited a murderous impulse that strikes young adults in her father’s bloodline. Her stepfather, Henry Mitchell, enforces strict control over her life to “protect” her until she turns thirty. But after Doreen falls in love—first with the earnest overseer Irving, then with Henry’s charismatic brother Clyde—Henry panics, insisting that emotional stress could trigger her supposed hereditary urge to kill. When Clyde suddenly announces he’s leaving to marry another woman, Doreen is devastated, and by morning Clyde is found murdered with a sickle. Suspicion turns first to Doreen, then to Irving, until Doreen’s midnight memories and a few telling inconsistencies expose the truth: Henry himself killed Clyde, just as he had secretly poisoned Doreen’s mother, all to keep control of the estate. His invented “family curse” was nothing but a cover for murder.

Episode 81: The Twin

In “The Twin,” identical sisters Mona and Martha Spencer share the same face, the same voice, and the same life—until jealousy pushes Martha into a murderous obsession. Convinced that Mona has stolen every advantage, including the love of Bill Edwards, Martha kills her sister and flawlessly takes her place, staging the death as suicide. At first her plan works; neither Bill nor the police suspect a thing. But as she settles into Mona’s life, cracks form—Bill’s coldness, his insistence on using another name, and a growing sense that Mona’s memory is haunting her steps. When Bill finally reveals his own secret motive on a dark mountain road, Martha learns too late that she never understood the man she killed for. Bill tries to murder the woman he believes is Mona, only to be undone by the very clues he left behind. In the end, both killer and imposter fall to their own deceptions, proving that even perfect twins can’t escape the consequences of their darkest impulses.

Episode 91: Murder in the Mind

In “Murder in the Mind,” Gil Hollister and his calculating wife Vicki are desperate for Gil’s inheritance, blocked by the continued good health of his wealthy stepmother, Belle. After a string of “accidents” fails to kill her, Belle unexpectedly hires a chauffeur-bodyguard named Foster, whose presence threatens their plans but soon inspires a new one. When Belle later dies in a fall from a dilapidated bridge, Foster reveals he’s been watching them—and blackmails Gil with a letter Belle supposedly wrote detailing their earlier murder attempts. Week after week the payments drain their finances, until Gil and Vicki decide to poison Foster and retrieve the incriminating letter from his apartment. But just as Foster collapses, the police arrive to warn the Hollisters about him: the letter is a forgery, Foster is a wanted criminal, and Belle’s death was believed to be accidental. With Foster dead from the poison Gil administered, the blackmail flips on its head—leaving Gil exposed as a murderer and trapped by his own paranoia.

Episode 93: Mind Over Matter

In “Mind Over Matter,” parapsychology student Herbert Randall becomes convinced he has received a telepathic plea from reclusive author Thomas Banning, who begs him to retrieve an unfinished manuscript. When Herbert and his wife Andrea visit Banning’s estate, they stumble into a sinister web of lies involving Banning’s vanished brother, strange nighttime screams, and a household that feels more like a prison than a home. As Herbert digs deeper, he uncovers evidence of torture, hidden money, and an elaborate deception engineered by Banning’s opportunistic relatives. Guided by recurring psychic messages, he races to rescue the real Thomas and recover the manuscript—only to discover a twist that ties the mystery directly to his own identity. The truth behind the mental link, the missing fortune, and the twin brothers erupts in a final revelation that redefines everything Herbert believed about fate and the power of the mind.

Episode 205: My Love Comes Home

In “My Love Comes Home,” bush pilot Sam Hardesty returns from months in the Canadian wilderness dreaming of surprising his wife, only to find her studying art on Cape Cod under the attentive eye of Jeff Christie. Suspicion gnaws at Sam until a night of cocktails ends with him drugged, tossed from a bridge, and left for dead. He survives, hides in a vacant cabin, and decides to punish Helen and Jeff by framing them for his murder. Through anonymous tips, planted evidence, and a forged letter, Sam turns the entire town – and the police – against them. But when a truck driver reveals Sam had been drunk and wandering near the bridge on an earlier night, Sam realizes too late that Helen and Jeff never tried to kill him at all. He steals a plane to race back and clear them, only for the engine to fail over open water. The wreck is finally found six weeks later, and Helen and Jeff plead guilty in despair, unaware Sam’s misguided vengeance ended in his own death.

Episode 222: A Brief Pause For Murder

In “A Brief Pause for Murder,” radio announcer Roger Wicksen has grown to despise his glamorous, cruel wife Tisha, and the moment she announces she’s leaving him for novelist Trent Crandall, he finally makes up his mind: she’s going to die. When a series of “whip-cord strangler” murders grips the city, Roger sees his perfect cover. With the help of a nervous new engineer who’s hiding a prison record, Roger secretly records a station break that will air while he slips home to kill Tisha—giving him an airtight alibi. But the night of the murder, the radio announces something Roger never expected: the real strangler has been caught hours earlier. His plan collapses as his only cover vanishes, and the prerecorded alibi he confidently counted on ends up exposing the impossible—Roger Wicksen was in two places at once. By the time the final notes fade, the trap he built for Tisha has snapped shut around him instead.

Episode 226: The Victim Smiled

In “The Victim Smiled,” Helen Van Norton has spent six agonizing years waiting for news of her brother Ted, missing since the early days of the war. When a cable finally announces his return, her relief turns to horror: the man who steps off the ship is a total stranger—yet he carries flawless identification, letters, fingerprints, and even the memories of Ted’s school days. Every attempt Helen makes to expose him backfires, from calling Ted’s old headmaster to checking his State Department file; every piece of evidence confirms he is who he claims to be. As doubt and paranoia close in, Helen makes one last desperate move, calling a man in Honolulu she once paid to “take care of” Ted. The call gives her the confirmation she wants—but it also reveals the truth she never expected. The supposed imposter is actually Ted’s closest friend, an undercover FBI agent who has spent years unraveling her murder-for-hire scheme. In the end, it isn’t the stranger who’s unmasked—it’s Helen herself.

Episode 236: Blind Impulse

In “Blind Impulse,” smooth-talking Steve Consello thinks he’s hit the jackpot when wealthy socialite Carol Crandall proposes marriage, fully aware he wants her money. His plan is simple: stay married just long enough for her ailing father to die, collect half the estate under community-property laws, then return to Millie—the woman he actually loves—after a quiet divorce. But everything unravels when Carol’s father miraculously recovers, Millie sends a desperate cable, and Carol discovers Steve’s secret the same day he learns the inheritance he counted on won’t be coming anytime soon. Cornered and terrified his scheme is falling apart, Steve snaps on a mule trail in the Grand Canyon and murders Carol’s father by driving his horse over a cliff. What he doesn’t know is that Carol watched the whole thing from a public telescope. Because the law won’t allow a wife to testify against her husband, she coldly lets him walk free—until Millie arrives and unknowingly delivers the final blow. Her telegram proves Steve was never legally divorced, which means Carol was never his wife at all... and she can testify to the murder. The trap slams shut exactly where Steve never expected it.

Episode 277: Death and the Emperor

In “Death and the Emperor,” Edith Ellsmer has spent years tending Meadow Hill Estate and grooming its prized Persian cat, Splendid Emperor, while her employer, the vain and overbearing Mrs. Cole, claims all the glory. When a lucrative contract offer arrives—five thousand dollars a year for the rights to the emperor’s name and another two thousand for a booklet—Edith assumes she’ll finally share the spotlight. Instead, Mrs. Cole belittles her, plans to take full credit, and then secretly calls an agency to replace her. Cornered and furious, Edith devises a plan to make Mrs. Cole’s frequent warnings come true: that the playful emperor might someday turn on the gas jets while jumping on the stove. Edith turns the handles herself in the dead of night, stages the scene, and even uses Martin the caretaker as a witness to the cat’s dangerous habit. The sheriff nearly uncovers the truth—until the emperor conveniently leaps onto the stove again, sealing the “accident” as fact. Edith inherits everything and prepares to sign the lucrative contracts, believing she’s won. But the next morning Mr. Murdoch arrives to find both Edith and the emperor dead—the cat had once again jumped onto the stove for the hidden catnip bag, and this time the fumes took them both. The very method Edith used for murder circles back and claims her as its final victim.