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 mean streets and more old-time radio

detectives and crime fighters. This week we're stepping into the ring with three mysteries

set in and around the boxing world with fixed bouts, punch-drunk pugilists, and big gambling money on the line,

the fight game provided no shortage of stories for radio mysteries

as well as classic noir dramas of the era.

Up first on the card is Frank Lovejoy as Chicago reporter Randy Stone in Nightbeat.

We'll hear him in an episode that originally aired on NBC on August 14th,

1950, a show known as Gunners' Last Fight. In this one, Randy comes to the aid of a boxer taking a beating in a back alley

after he refuses to take a dive in an upcoming fight. Don Diamond is the boxer, a one-time champ who now has to put his life on the line to make ends meet.

This show is a great example of the Nightbeat formula, as Randy stumbles into a story and another wayward soul in the

windy city who needs a helping hand. Then we'll hear Jackson Beck as

Philo Vance in the syndicated episode the heavyweight murder case.

The murder in this story takes place in the ring when one fighter goes down for the count permanently.

But Vance determines it was more than a punch that led to the big knockout.

And finally Dick Powell stars as Richard Diamond Private Detective in an episode that originally aired on NBC on August 2nd, 1950, a show known as the Fixed Fight Case or Max Farmer, Boxer.

Diamond gets free tickets to a fight from his buddy whose client is in the main event,

...