Get this and get it straight. Crime is a suckers road and those who travel it wind up in the gut of the prison of the grave.

The story you are about to hear is true, only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

The Adventures of Sam Spade Detective.

The Adventures of the Saints starring Vincent Prize.

Bob Bailey in the exciting adventures of the man with the action-packed expense account.

America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator.

Yours truly, Johnny Deller. And the Hello and welcome to Down These Mean Streets, a weekly roundup of old-time radio

detectives and crime fighters. Today our gumshoo is radio's singing sluth, Richard Diamond, private detective.

Dick Powell starred as the Tough Grib investigator who in a nod to Powell's early career is as a Richard Diamond is one of my favorite shows and today we'll hear three old-time

radio mysteries from the series. First up is the Private Eye Test, originally aired on NBC on March 19, 1950.

Diamond has to ace an exam to keep his license, but the fake murder he has to solve turns real after someone bumps off one of his rival detectives.

Ed Begley plays Lieutenant Walt Levinson, Diamond's friend on the police force.

Wilms Herbert is Sergeant Otis, the dimwitted

butt of Diamond's jokes, and Francis Robinson plays Helen Asher, Diamond's girlfriend with a million

smile to match a bank account.

Then Diamond leaves the big city behind in the Hatpin Murder Case, originally aired on

NBC on September 27th 1950.

Also known as the Oklahoma cowboy murder case,

it finds Diamond enlisted to investigate a suspicious death,

a horse riding accident that may be a murder.

The cast includes Arthur Q. Bryan, the voice of Elmer Fudd, and Barton Yarborough.

At the time this show aired he was co-starring as Joe Friday's

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