Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives‪)‬ Mean Streets Podcasts

In this bonus episode, I'm sharing my five favorite installments of The Whistler - the anthology of mystery and murder where we follow the criminal as the commit the "perfect crime," only to be undone at the final curtain. Bill Forman is our sinister storyteller, who "knows the nameless terrors" of these killers' minds. First, a long-suffering wife plans to get rid of her husband and frame him for a series of murders in "Boomerang" (originally aired on CBS on March 11, 1946), and a carnival dancer marries - and murders - for money in "The Brass Ring" (originally aired on CBS on September 16, 1946). Radio Philip Marlowe Gerald Mohr is a mob boss with a deadly secret in "Caesar's Wife" (originally aired on CBS on June 2, 1947), and a small town's frontier festival is the backdrop for murder in "The Tell-Tale Brand" (originally aired on CBS on January 9, 1949). Finally, a newfangled gadget called a car phone may provide an airtight alibi in "A Law of Physics" (originally aired on CBS on June 10, 1951).

Cast your line for mystery with these old time radio shows involving fishing. Casey, Crime Photographer finds murder on a fishing trip in "Treasure Cave" (originally aired on CBS on September 25, 1947), and a stolen fishing boat leads to a pair of corpses in "Rita Malloy" from Pat Novak For Hire (AFRS rebroadcast from April 23, 1949). Charles Russell stars as Johnny Dollar in "I Caught a Fishing Boat, But You Should Have Seen the One That Got Away" (originally aired on CBS on October 1, 1949), and Dan Dailey tries to survive a fishing trip from hell in "Over the Bounding Main" (originally aired on CBS on September 14, 1950).

Pack your bags and take a trip to Mexico in these radio mysteries. First, Burt Lancaster plots a double cross in "The Big Shot" from Suspense (originally aired on CBS on September 9, 1948). Philip Marlowe is hired to find out what a woman is up to in "The Mexican Boat Ride" (originally aired on CBS on July 30, 1949), and the cops of Dragnet chase a pair of fugitives in "The Big Border" (originally aired on NBC on March 20, 1952). Finally, Dana Andrews tries to thwart the plans of Soviet saboteurs trying to sneak into the US in "The Red Gate" from I Was a Communist for the FBI.

Tee off with four (not fore!) old time radio detective stories set on the golf course. Actor Paul Barnes plays every role in the syndicated mini-mystery Calling All Detectives, and a golf teacher gets too close to a gangster's wife in Boston Blackie (a syndicated episode known as "Carl Grady, Golf Instructor"). As Philo Vance, Jackson Beck spots a clue on the course in "The Red Duck Murder Case," and Frank Race meets an old friend - a golf pro with a jealous husband who's got a violent temper - in "The Adventure of the Fairway Beauties."

Black magic is in the air with four radio mysteries where our heroes are menaced by voodoo. Dan Holiday heads to the bayou to save a man's life in "Death is a Doll" from Box 13, and Ken Thurston investigates when government officials fall victim to zombies in Haiti in The Man Called X (known as "Enough Intrigue to Fill a Book," originally aired on NBC on May 18, 1951). Orson Welles runs a dangerous con in "Voodoo" from The Lives of Harry Lime, and as Johnny Dollar, John Lund tries to protect a family from a curse in "The Voodoo Matter" (originally aired on CBS on August 4, 1953).

Mysteries are hard enough to solve without throwing amnesia into the mix, but that's what our radio detectives have to handle this week. A woman doesn't know who she is, and then drops dead in Jack Webb's office in "The Lady with No Name" from Jeff Regan, Investigator (originally aired on CBS on September 25, 1948). The Saint comes to the aid of a woman without her memory in "The Case of the Blonde Who Lost Her Head" (originally aired on Mutual on November 13, 1949). Dick Powell sings and solves the case of a young man who may have committed a murder and forgotten about it in Richard Diamond, Private Detective (originally aired on NBC on November 26, 1949). And Chicago reporter Randy Stone tries to help a soldier find his memory and his missing wife in Night Beat (originally aired on NBC on July 6, 1951).