The Mysterious Traveler
1943-1952
Known Episodes: 63 Circulating
A dark stranger on the train tells tales of crime, mystery, and the supernatural in this quality war-time radio show.
The Mysterious Traveler was the output of the writing team of Robert Arthur, Jr. and David P. Kogan, a very successful pairing for both The Mutual Broadcasting System and Radio station WOR. Between 1944 and 1952, The Mysterious Traveler eventually became one of the sixteen highest rated Radio programs of their era. It was so popular that it carried over into both a pulp magazine and a comic book!
Sources:
Digital Deli
Wikipedia
Accusing Corpse, The
A brother and sister trick the woman’s husband into believing he killed her in a fit of rage. Then the blackmail begins. When the sucker pieces together he’s been had, he demands to be shown the corpse… So the greedy brother shows him the body buried in the woods!
Behind the Locked Door
Archaeologists discover a cave and become trapped with the devolved descendants of a wagon train!
Beware of Tomorrow
A brain is stolen, and the townsfolk are about to drive the professor out of town! Is his laboratory, he’s created Alpha, a robot whose brain is a bio-computer fabricated with material derived from a damaged criminal brain. The new lab assistant is horrified when Alpha kills the profess, but the other assistant wants to carry on with his work, creating a new, better, “Beta” robot that makes Alpha look primitive. Maybe even an entire… army of them.
Big Brain, The
A professor programs a computer to predict winners at the horse track. When a mobster blackmails him, he uses the Big Brain to predict plane crashes… and makes sure the criminal will be on it! Too bad he’s such a good guy. The racketeer insists the professor and his wife fly out and help celebrate their new wealth!
Case of Charles Foster, The
A henpecked man realizes that he truly loved a woman who had broken their engagement, but has since had the same realization. When the old battleaxe threatens to kill his smelly dog, he recognizes an opportunity. Once free, he marries his true love. Then it is revealed that the man is recounting his story while on trial… for a murder he is innocent of!
Change of Address
A man cursed with a headstrong wife tricks her into allowing him a vacation. When she insists upon coming along, he rents a house suitable for murder. He buries her behind the furnace, planning to buy the house, but the battleaxe has already called the cops on the previous owner, who also recognized the house’s potential!
Christmas Story
A passenger in a car learns of the driver’s inheritance from an estranged relative. There is a crash and the passenger decides to pass himself off as the wealthy-to-be driver. There is suspicion, but he is successful. In this version tension builds until the imposter must decide to risk it all on the chance the lawyer might check his prints or give up the two million. For a spoiler, refer back to the title. [Sound familiar? same premise as The Creaking Door’s “The Imposter”.]
Dark Destiny
Joe needs $1500 for his wife to have an operation that only a specialist can perform, but no bank will loan him the money. When a criminal-type tries unsuccessfully to mug him and learns of Joe’s skill as a locksmith, he offers Joe a proposition he can’t refuse. They break into a rich guy’s home and hit the jackpot… but they are caught! The homeowner is shot and killed! When Joe feels remorse and tries to separate himself from Mike the burglar, they struggle and the murderer is killed. Joe, no longer in jeopardy of being fingered as the killer, returns to his wife… but he is in for a shock when brings the dirty money to the hospital !
Death at Fifty Fathoms
Hitler, or Herr Schmidt incognito, is on a submarine to South America so that the Reich may be reborn when they encounter a boat, and he is recognized. The Nazis have no choice but to kill everyone on board. But those souls want revenge. The submarine is pulled slowly to the bottom of the ocean, towards a bottomless chasm. It sounds like hands clawing the side of the hull to get in! They don’t come back.
Death Comes To Adolph Hitler
Hitler, or Herr Schmidt incognito, is on a submarine to South America so that the Reich may be reborn when they encounter a boat, and he is recognized. The Nazis have no choice but to kill everyone on board. But those souls want revenge. The submarine is pulled slowly to the bottom of the ocean, towards a bottomless chasm. It sounds like hands clawing the side of the hull to get in! They don’t come back. (Aka: “Death at Fifty Fathoms”)
Death Has A Thousand Faces
Millie is twenty years younger than her husband, who has a very large life-insurance policy. The police, and her husband, discover she has a boyfriend on the side when attempts are made on her husband’s life. On vacation, the married couple decide to visit some remote, un-mapped caverns… and it all plays out. But not the way you think!
Death Has Cold Breath
A gambler sets up a has-been actor who offers all he has for some unforgettable publicity. The soon wealthy actor’s well-publicized suicide leaves another guy’s warm body to contend with until the heat is off.
Death Is My Caller
a man framed for murder has planned a dawn out, psychological revenge on the guy who put him away for years, not that he didn’t have it coming. He sends over a coffin, for starters. But when Charlie announces the day and time he will kill Henry Norton, a cop is present at that time to protect him. Charlie doesn’t shoot the stoolie, but does get his revenge. The cop is a witness. He was just “playing a joke on a friend”
Death Is The Judge
Twenty years after purchasing a pendant from an Asian antique dealer, a couple returns to the same shop to buy a matching rose quartz bell… that is cursed! When they ring the two together, a life is spared from death, but another is taken before its time. At the end it starts to take a “Monkey’s Paw” turn when their son is found dead. But the cabbie did warn the dad about taking those stairs in the dark!
Death Is The Visitor
A man kills his deserving, oppressive mother-in-law, hides her corpse in a trunk, and sends it away. But it keeps coming back! A predictable twist at the end; the tension is too much and the wimp crumbles before revealing… an empty box!
Death Laughs Last
(See Dark Destiny)
Death Rings Down The Curtain
Aunt Martha wants to get to know her ne’er-do-well nephew Gerald and actress niece Millie before she writes her will. When she hires a private investigator to reveal the truth behind their false kindness, they smother her with a pillow! Millicent gives the performance of her life when the lawyer comes to have the document signed. But there’s something they never knew about Aunt Martha!
Death Writes A Letter
Martin’s brother John Drake believes in spiritualism and all that tommyrot. When he dies, it appears he was able to possess his brother’s body and write a letter of what he has learned of the future in the afterlife. Predicts his niece Susan’s being found frozen to death in the summer, then Martin’s own death on the night of September 3 of 1947. Susan does die, and Martin is more interested in preventing the rest of the prophecy from coming true than in mourning for Susan, but he fails. Because you cannot escape the time when you were ordained to pass.
Devil and The Deep Blue Sea, The
A treasure-hunter makes a deal with the ghost of pirate Captain Murdoch: if the marine researcher kills the rest of his crew and team-mates, he can have the pirate treasure… but can the ghost be trusted?
Fire in The Sky
Reminiscent of 17 Cloverfield Lane. A professor kidnaps a couple to “save them” when he believes a radioactive comet will collide with the Earth. The nut job also snatches two babies. Then the radio seems to confirm the doomsday scenario… Will they be trapped in a mine for twenty years only to wake to mutants and anarchy? Yes!
Good Die Young, The
A little girl is jealous of her new step-mother and deviously contrives a way to gaslight her out of the house! When Dad convinces his new wife to stay, little Sandra ups the ante and attempts to kill her mom. In the end… there will be blood!
Green Death, The
A scientist discovers a formula that can produce crops overnight and dreams of ending famine. But his limited “control” experiment just won’t quit!
Haunted Trailer, The
Horror-comedy. While driving cross-country, a man’s RV becomes inhabited by the ghost of a train-hopping bum. After it invites in a rude house-guest, the man’s had enough! By lucky coincidence, his fiancee’s dad is the bum’s nemesis!
Hide Out
Crime noir. A mobster gives a loser a job as his driver. The kid remains loyal for years. When the boss gets sent to jail swearing to get even with the special prosecutor, he asks his friend to secure him a hideout for release day (after the revenge hit). A horrific twist ending not to be missed.
House of Death, The
Two old ladies grow suspicious of their nephew when he secretly plans to sell their family mansion and their cat dies after eating food his wife prepared for them. Are they after the money father left? The ladies can’t leave the house. But if they set it on fire, maybe someone in town will see it and come to their aid!
I Died Last Night
A man who has been convinced that his swami friend can make contact with the dead approaches his brother, conveniently the head of a charity foundation, who rebukes him. The man throws his brother off a cliff to inherit the leadership of the foundation. Then, tussling with his suspicious nephew, he falls and cracks his own head! He wakes up dead! Can he now contact the living? Or is it his eternal punishment to remain on earth alone, unable to communicate?
I Won’t Die Alone
Crime. One of the guys from a bank heist goes chicken, the other goes to jail. But he hid the money first. On his release day, guess who’s there waiting to tail him… right into a labyrinth of caves where he gets the gold-backs. But no one comes out again!
If You Believe
A scientist hounded by reporters discovers the secret to creating life from protoplasm (stem cells?) A gelatinous entity grows in his lab– and the more people who read about it, the more the homunculus grows! Clap for Tink’ if you believe! Breaks the fourth wall.
It’s Only Money
A con man secretly buys a whole fleet of race horses to set up one big payoff when he gets a race filled with only his horses. But his bookie Odds-On Harry is wise to them. Charlie and his pal Figures Freddie flee to Paris where they meet a timid inventor who can photocopy money perfectly. When the crooks return stateside to start their new counterfeiting racket, Harry and his goons show up.
Key Witness
Crime. Oliver Smith, accountant for syndicate boss Mike Bruno has a photographic memory so the books can appear clean on paper. But when the T-men finally arrive to make Bruno a fall guy, the mobster has to ensure that Smith won’t sing. His murder attempt fails, but Frenchie tracks the dazed numbers man to a small jail… where he was picked up for vagrancy! A setup! Will Bruno off Smith, is it all a setup, or will al deal be made?
Killer Come Home
Two men, Harry and Missouri, escape the state penitentiary in Stone Mountain and head for Harry’s childhood home in Deep Valley. Harry’s mother and his brother Tom will hide them. On the way, they steal a jalopy, accidentally killing its owner. Because of this, things go south and Harry ends up taking the sheriff hostage. Tom and Harry’s mother is weak, and might not survive a shock. She calls from the back room! “Is that my Harry?” To what lengths will Tom go to protect his mother?
Killer At Large
Judith and her husband Jeff’s doctor, Alex, are planning to have wealthy Jeff committed to an insane asylum, but he overhears their scheming. It’s no misunderstanding. Jeff devises a plot to get revenge before then can complete their sinister plan. He’ll go along with them, get the team of psychiatrists to certify him insane. Then he can’t be held responsible…for murder! Jeff relays his story from the Psych Ward.
Knives of Death, The
Crime/Mystery. Two old biddies who read mystery dime-novels are given a chance to solve a real mystery when a friend claims her husband is trying to murder her! He does! He tries to say it was a suicide, but the ladies study the steel African dagger and discover his unique method for delivering death!
Lady in Red, The
A newspaper man witnesses mob hits and a mysterious woman in a red dress who seems to be behind each one. She murders an eye-witness in his hospital bed! When the reporter finally corners Theda, she claims to be innocent.
Last Survivor, The
A rocket designer teams with one of the developers of the atomic bomb to create a ship for interstellar travel. There’s a lot of “Cut in atomic jet number one!” dialogue, which was enjoyably very 1950s. Will they succeed in using atomic power for the betterment of humanity rather than killing? 47 days to Mars!
Locomotive Ghost
“When you murder a train, just like when you murder a man, you got to pay for it.” When two thugs derail a mine train for the $200,000 payroll it’s carrying, a rail-rider named Boomer tells them the tale of The Heavenly Express, a “Judgement Special” that runs anywhere there are tracks. It follows until it gets fellas who wreck trains on purpose. Then they take care of Boomer, too. Joe gets killed by a train. Tom flees his sleepwalking dreams to the wilderness of Canada, miles away from any railway. Well, any tracks still in service. Should have been titled “Ghost Train,” as, thank god, it’s NOT a remake of Hello Down There!
Man From Singapore, The
Horace Riker is $100 Grand short because of his when his business partner returns from Singapore. He wants to avoid prison, and his girl Blanche is keeping everything she bought. Their solution is to intercept John Bates in Hawaii and bury him on a hillside before he ever reaches San Francisco. Enter Frank Garrett. He was on the plane with John. He knows. He wants to bleed the business dry by pretending he’s the unseen head of the John Bates Importing Company. Blanche uses her wiles on Garrett, then with Horace’s help, sends him off a cliff drunk. Soon the police want to interview her.
Man In The Black Derby, The
A woman keeps running into a man in a black hat at scenes of death. When she has a narrow escape, she believes Death is stalking her. Maybe he is, we don’t know and never will… because he lost his hat!
Man The Insects Hated, The
Formula 397 is the perfect bug-killing concoction for all insects. But somehow, they seem to know its creator is their enemy. The distracted scientist’s hired help tries to run off with his wife, but they don’t get far. In the end, the bugs let him live… but take away everything the poison-maker loves.
Man Who Died Twice, The
Luke’s wife Millie wants more out of life, but Luke is a jealous man. She wants to run away with Steve Hopkins, but Luke won’t give her up, he just can’t live without her. After a few fights and a few threats, Steve’s body is found pulverized next to Luke’s sledge hammer. He gets 25 years, but is paroled early… and finds Millie living with Steve. Now, you can’t be tried for the same crime twice, so Luke delivers Steve’s body to the judge who sentenced him!
Man Who Knew Everything, The
A mobster learns the secrets of psychic Randor The Mystic: A secret formula that allows him to read minds! With visions of becoming the governor, Jerry becomes a crime kingpinbased on blackmail. He’s got the goods on everyone! But “the boys” aren’t patient enough for rival crimelords Knobby and Fatboy to get the chair. They need to be paid.
Man Who Tried To Save Lincoln, The
A scientist discovers a way to travel in time. Not physically, but by sending a person’s consciousness back to possess the awareness of a person with a weaker will. A historian who has just written a book about how the world would have changed if only Abraham Lincoln had not been assassinated volunteers to travel back and attempt to change history by preventing Boothe from shooting the president. He targets the mind of Lincoln’s personal bodyguard. He misses.
Man Who Vanished, The
Two scientists, brothers, search for a cure for albinism. Strange they didn’t study genetics. One brother discovers a formula for invisibility! What does he do? Gets revenge on childhood bullies who taunted him for being albino. He kills one jerk who became a jeweler and steals his diamonds. The cops track him down… He is shot by chance! The formula is deadly if not reversed in 24 hours. But in order to escape the police, he has his brother lock him in the basement while in shock from the bullet wound. Will he be revived in time?
Mind Over Murder
Like Svengali, a mentalist exerts power over his wife. When Helen falls for Tom, the guy Ricardo has placed in front of her, almost toying with her, he demonstrates his control. Ricardo even threatens to have Helen kill herself if she tries to leave him. Finally there is a showdown between Tom and Ricardo, leaving the psychic paralyzed… but his mind stronger than ever! [No connection to Inner Sanctum‘s: “Mind Over Murder”]
Most Famous Man In The World, The
Two visitors from the future rent a room from a man they say will become famous. They want to film a political parade… for a man who will become the dictator of the world! Guess what– that thing the blue ray is coming out of isn’t a camera! One of the visitors breaks their own timeline! Does the landlord still become famous? Yep. But you won’t believe why.
Murder Goes Free
A man is so worried that his son will destroy his life by falling for a “gold digger” who is only interested in Martin for his inheritance, that he kills Diana Winters. But he has a cover plan. He is tried, and found innocent! But murder must be paid for. Turns out there are witnesses to a quarrel between Diana and another man that night. That innocent man is to be convicted for the murder. But who would have argued with Diana over her having so many boyfriends?
Murder In Jazz Time
Alex Drake marries a night club singer, Vicki, who becomes obsessed with Jeff Becker’s Waterfront Cafe in New Orleans. She forces Alex to go there every night of their honeymoon and longer. She starts singing with the band after hours. Feeling like Becker has stolen his wife, Alex chokes him and dumps the body in the river! He gets Vicki Back… but the guilt drives him to the mad house!
Murder Is My Business
A radio mystery writer is hired by a hard driving bully of a producer who always says the murder just isn’t plausible. So the writer conceives the idea of killing his boss with one of those very same gimmicks… and business is good!
New Year’s Nightmare, A
On New Year’s Eve 1947, a drunk stumbles out in front of a car after his fiancee dumps him. Then, suffering from amnesia, falls in love with and marries his nurse. When he regains his memory, he goes back to his lover. Since he is now sober, she agrees to see him again… when he’s “free.” So, being denied a divorce, he kills his wife! When his first love discovers what he’s done, she rebukes him. So he kills her, too! Then, oddly, we go back in time…
No Grave Can Hold Me
A stage magician found guilty of murder swears revenge on his jury from beyond the grave, and returns to carry out his plan… but what role does his assistant play in the nefarious scheme?
No One on The Line
A man notices his wife is distracted and keeps receiving wrong number phone calls. When he answers the calls, it is always a hang-up. No one there. He grows suspicious. No one takes what belongs to him. He hires a private eye, then devises a plan to kill the man his wife’s been having lunch with. A car with a sticky door and brake problems starts rolling the poor architect toward a hundred foot drop… I hope there are no Boy Scouts watching.
Operation Tomorrow
A man travels into the future to bring back knowledge and discovers a post-apocalyptic world where America is still at war. Almost imprisoned as a spy, he gains the trust of people who give him books and intel about the incident that started the war… but can he return with it in time? A cautionary tale.
Out of The Past
About blackmail, like many Mysterious Traveler episodes, a wealthy woman married to a Broadway actor receives a telegram demanding money. She pays the man off, incredibly frightened that her husband will find out she once murdered her lover and spent years in an asylum! When the blackmailer comes back for more cash, again and again, the stress drives her to a breakdown! Worth a listen; well acted and a nice twist.
Planet Zevious, The
Space explorers set down on a planet they observed explosions on years ago but has since gone silent. Most of this episode is the navigator calling out speed and altitude coordinates and “Engaging the nuclear jets!” Can you guess? It’s a cautionary tale.
Queen of the Cats
I’m gonna steal your boyfriend! Chris Arnold is seduced away from his girlfriend by a gorgeous, feline woman from egypt named Rana Farouq. They are married, but she becomes too possessive, even utilizing spies to follow his whereabouts. Chris asks for a divorce but Rana says never! If she can’t have him, no one will. He goes nuts and crashes the car purposely, but survives! When he returns to become engaged to his true love, a cat terrorizes him, will not let him sleep. If they marry, what will the spirit of the cat do to them? Warning– the end scene is a bloodbath of dead cats… and one shredded, dead man.
S.O.S.
Good crime story. Three criminals hold up a ship for a fortune in uncut diamonds– or else they’ll blow the uranium under pressure and kill all the passengers! They are foiled, but the Captain chooses an archaic punishment for piracy!
Strange New World
Two shipwrecked sailors wash up on an uninhabited pacific island, and encounter a giant crab! There is something else under the water, too… Godzilla? They realize it is Bikini Island, a nuclear test site.Can they warn the world in time, or will they be trampled by giant crabs?
Stranger in the House, A
A couple by a house cheap– turns out it has had a high turnover because it’s haunted. The husband falls in love with the female ghost, but his wife knows it really wants him to share eternity with it… because he is it’s eternal lover reincarnated!
Survival of The Fittest
Skylar Dewitt is visited by his dead brother George, who, it turns out, was able to escape his extreme debt by faking his death in an overseas bombing. He moves into the family estate and the two brothers begin a game of who will kill the other first for their inheritance. One has the better strategy, but of course, it backfires. I only wish it had been a purposeful act on the part of the other rather than a mistake.
Symphony of Death
Edward Farrington buys cheap tombstones for his three sisters, who he then kills, one by one when they keep distracting him from composing his symphony. When a police investigator arrives, he suggests evidence of Edward’s lies. The key point: no gravestone was purchased for himself. What will Edward do?
They Struck it Rich
Two guys score a map of the New York underground and plan to tunnel into a bank vault to relieve them of a hundred thousand cold cash. The tunnel collapses… and they find themselves trying to dig their way towards the East River. The mudlarks discover a buried treasure ship! (Oddly enough, this is based on fact. As Manhattan was filled in, many ships were buried below the harbor.)
They Who Sleep
A hypnotist switches the body of a woman and her sister, because the sister is in love with her husband. But it lasts only ten days. While the scheming Helen plans on making it a one-way trip for Rose, locking her in a tomb, she doesn’t realize the magic’s suspended animation has kept her alive in the grave… Time’s up!
Vacation From Life
Matthew and Louise both plan to stay married “until death do they part.” A sea mine washes ashore near their summer cottage, so Matthew buys a life insurance policy for both he and his wife. He’s really in love with Ruth, and Louise with Count Balto, (the insurance salseman!) It’s a race to the fortune: who will get killed first?
Visiting Corpse, The
(See Death is the Visitor)
Woman in Black, The
A crime reporter repeatedly encounters a woman at news scenes where people have died. Is she a black widow for hire?
Zero Hour
Professor Dana Freidberg and a journalist who has written his biography go to explore a meteor crash site, suspecting that the metal may really have been from a spacecraft. They find evidence, but before they can report to Washington they are waylaid at a farm compound where they learn of a Martian invasion already in progress! The odds are stacked against humanity, but there is a chance the young biographer may escape to warn the military about the June 22nd invasion! [This is NOT an adaptation of the Ray Bradbury story of the same name.]
