Episode 641 - Black Magic? Whoa, Man! (Nick Carter, Blackstone, Michael Shayne, Bold Venture, & Richard Diamond)

Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives)

Jack Mooney

Arts, Performing Arts, Mystery, Detectives, Old, Radio, Time, Tv & Film, Oldtimeradio

4.6 • 982 Ratings

🗓️ 26 October 2025

⏱️ 134 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

With Halloween right around the corner, we delve into the spooky side of sleuthing with mysteries involving voodoo, curses, and other hexes. Nick Carter's new client believes her physician practices black magic instead of medicine in "The Drums of Death, or Nick Carter and the White Witch Doctor" (originally aired on Mutual on March 25, 1944), and real-life master magician Blackstone explains how he faced down the living dead in "The Riddle of the Seven Zombies" (originally aired on Mutual on July 17, 1949). Michael Shayne falls into a case of supernatural revenge and a man who supposedly cannot be killed in the syndicated mystery "The Man Who Lived Forever," and Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall battle a voodoo murderess who kills with poisoned darts in a syndicated episode of Bold Venture. Finally, Dick Powell heads to Haiti to investigate an eerie death threat in "Little Chiva" from Richard Diamond, Private Detective (originally aired on ABC on March 23, 1951).

Transcript

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0:00.0	Get this and get it straight.
0:02.1	Crime is a sucker's road.
0:03.9	And those who travel
0:04.6	it wind up in the gut of the prison of the grave.
0:12.3	The story you were about to hear is true.
0:15.2	Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.
0:18.6	The Adventures of Sam Spade, Detective.
0:21.7	The Adventures of the Saints,
0:23.5	starring Vincent Price.
0:25.5	Bob Bailey, in the exciting adventures
0:27.7	of the man with the action-packed expense account.
0:30.6	America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator...
0:33.4	Yours truly, Johnny Dollar.
1:01.8	... Yours truly, Johnny Dollar. Hello and welcome to Down These Mean Streets and more old-time radio detectives and crime solvers.
1:08.1	It's the spookiest time of the year with Halloween only a few days away.
1:12.7	And to celebrate, I've lined up a collection of old-time radio mysteries where our heroes do battle against black magic, curses, and voodoo.
1:18.8	Not exactly the typical fare for streetwise private eyes, but they'll use their smarts to thwart
1:25.5	some supernatural suspects.
1:32.0	First up, we've got Lon Clark as Nick Carter,
1:34.6	the pulp novel Private Eye,
1:37.8	who started one of radio's longest-running detective shows.
1:41.0	We'll hear him in The Drums of Death,
	...

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