Hey, you're listening to the On the Media Midweek podcast. I'm Michael Lohinger.

Hello, this is Orson Wells. I've come to visit with you for a few minutes, and with your

permission, every week at this time, we'll have a little conversation about people and the

things they're doing all over the world. In 1946, Orson Wells, the actor and director

behind Citizen Kane, was at the pinnacle of his career.

At the time, he had a national radio show called Orson Welles Commentaries on ABC.

I'll try to have a story for each time, and I'm going to speak my mind about the news.

You know, we don't have to agree on everything to be friends.

After a year on the radio discussing politics and Hollywood, Wells heard of a shocking crime.

It was the end of World War II.

A black soldier heading home was brutally beaten by a white police officer in South Carolina.

No one knew the identity of the officer.

No one even knew the town where it happened.

And so, Wells pledged to solve the mystery on the air.

Today on the Midweek podcast, we're bringing you episode one of a new series from our friends at Radio Diaries called Orson Wells and the Blind Soldier.

It's the story of a crime in a small southern town that became a spark for the budding

civil rights movement. We begin at the scene of the crime.

I'm right here at the spot where the theater was right across the street here.

Well, all these trees wasn't there then.

My name is Corrine Johnson.

I'm 98 years old.

When I was 18 years old, I had just got out of high school. I was working at the theater.

...