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 director of Citizen Kane, was at the height of his fame.

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 in 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 police officer.

No one even knew the town where it happened.

Wells pledged to solve the mystery on the air.

Today, we're bringing you a special episode from the Radio Diaries podcast and their new series,

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. One of the

...