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. Today as we head back to the Golden

Age of Radio we'll go under cover with Dana Andrews and I was a communist

for the FBI. A direct result of red scare paranoia of the 40s and 50s, this syndicated show sprang from the accounts of

Matt Sevetic, who infiltrated the American Communist Party and reported on his observations to the government.

Though he was an erratic and unreliable operative at best, and he never rose above the lower levels

of party leadership, Svetic parlaid his work into a well-received story

in the Saturday evening post.

That story led to a 1951 film adaptation of Svetics Life starring Frank Lovejoy.

The success of that film, also titled I Was a Communist for the FBI, led to the show we'll hear today.

Dana Andrews, the big screen star of Laura and the best years of our lives,

starred as Svetik.

He was depicted in the show as a hard-boiled hero who struggled with the toll posing as a communist took on him.

His relationships with his family and friends, including his brother and his ailing mother, were strained,

and he had no close FBI support other than phone calls and clandestine meetings. Unlike the real Svetic, the character on the show was plunged into dangerous situations every week.

He was the only man standing between America and the nefarious designs of domestic communists.

It made for exciting radio, especially with Andrews handling the heroics, even if any resemblance between it and reality was purely coincidental.

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