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 and more crime solvers from the

Golden Age of radio. This week will hear William Gargan as Barry Craig

confidential investigator. And like Philovans from last week's episode, Barry Craig is a great example of a B-level detective

show, and that's by no means an insult.

There were dozens of detective shows on the air at any given time during the golden age of radio,

but there wasn't an equal number of gifted radio writers.

As a result, a lot of the second tier shows had boilerplate stories that could easily be swapped between characters.

A Boston Blackie mystery could be tackled by Philovans or Nero Wolf.

Most of the time the success or failure of a show rested on the shoulders of its lead

actor.

And fortunately for Barry Craig, it had a great star in William

Gargan. Gargan had a long film career. He was nominated for an Oscar for his

supporting performance and they knew what they wanted, a romantic drama, co-starring Carol Lombard and Charles Lawton.

But he was often cast on screen as cops, including a very funny turn as a homicide detective after Bud and

Lou in the Abbot and Costello vehicle, Who-Done it?

Interestingly enough, long before he played detectives on screen, Gargan had worked as a real-life private investigator, and he was no great shakes as a sleuth by his own admission. On radio-gargan starred as Ross Dolan, an ex-saylor-turned-detective

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