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. the Hello and welcome to down these means streets and more detectives from the

Golden Age of Radio.

This week we're going west to ride along with the crime-solving cowboys of the radio era.

Up first is William Conrad as Matt Dillon, U.S. Marshal of Dodge City, the first man they look for and the last they want to meet in Gunsmoke.

One of radio's first and best adult Westerns and later one of TV's longest-running

dramas, Gunsmoke was inspired by one of Radio's best private eyes.

CBS President William Paley, a big fan of the Adventures of Philip Marlow starring Gerald

Moore, asked Norman McDonnell, the producer and director of

Marlow, to create a new series that would be a Marlow in the Old West.

For the protagonist of this new show, McDonnell and writer John Meston created Matt Dylan,

a character who wasn't the traditional hero in the white hat that had been heard on Radio Westerns before.

Dylan was hardened and cynical.

He made mistakes and he didn't always get his man.

And with William Conrad, one of radio's all-time best actors in the role,

Matt Dylan set the standard for a new generation of complex Western heroes on radio, TV, and the big screen.

Today we'll hear an episode from January 15, 1955,

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