The Black Museum was a "Towers of London" production broadcast over Radio Luxembourg in 1951. It was syndicated for broadcast in the States in 1952. Hosted by Orson Welles, we are given a tour of Scotland Yard's "Museum of Murder".
There were 2 primary openings for the show, with minor differences the wording:
Show Opening
This is Orson Welles, speaking from London [Big Ben sounds].
The Black Museum. A Repository of Death. Here in the grim stone structure on the
Thames which houses Scotland
Yard is a warehouse of homicide, where every day objects - [list of objects] -
all are touched by murder.
[signature trumpet fanfare]
Story Introduction
Announcer: From the annals of the criminal investigation department of
the London Police, we bring you the dramatic stories of the crimes recorded
by the objects in Scotland Yard's Gallery of Death -- The Black
Museum
[music up full]
Orson Welles: Well,here we are, in The Black Museum. Scotland Yard's
museum of murder...
Welles is heard in the echoy museum, describing the layout, and pointing out
various objects until arriving at the object of tonight's story
The show was a reenactment of a homicide in which each item was a key piece of evidence, as enacted mainly from the inspector in the case. The episodes describe how they arrived at clues, the step by step gathering of evidence, the unglamorous waiting and watching, until the police finally zero in on the culprit.
There is some question whether the Black Museum actually exists. One of
my sources (a London policeman via a friend of his) mentioned it does, but
I did not have a chance to actually discuss it with him.
Verified: Thanks to Paul Urbahns, check out this link to the
Crime Museum.
Many shows have had their openings edited based on someone's whim. Sometimes, the opening is missing, sometimes the intro has been shortened or removed. It's very annoying.
Also, there don't seem to be official titles, so I've chosen titles based on the opening and intro description of the show itself. I've also listed at the end of this log the other names I've run across with the titles as I've decided upon.
The information contained here is grouped into three lists:
| Title | List of items | Introduction | |
|---|---|---|---|
| .22 Calibre Pistol | skillet screwdriver photograph | Here's a .22 calibre pistol. It's a familiar object. You've seen one, or its picture. Never touched one. An elegant little weapon -- blue steel, mother of pearl inlay grip -- beautiful in it's dainty snubnosed wickedness... | |
| odd looking ashtray | Ah, here we are, the little blue .22. It's silent now... | ||
| .32 Calibre Bullet | kitchen knife roller skate violin string | Here's a 32 calibre bullet. It's a familiar object. Brass cartridge case. Snub leaden nose. Not very pretty to look at... | |
| jeweled ring bathtub | The 32 calibre bullet. Even here lying so quietly, so somberly, it's ugly. This object was made for killing. Which as a matter of fact it never did kill... | ||
| Bathtub | piece of wire chemist flask silver shilling | Here's a bathtub, a familiar object. It's an old fashioned one. A ball and claw footed bathtub without plumbing connections... [low volume] | |
| wine glass | Here we are, here's the bathtub. So innocent, even comical. Basis for a thousand jokes, foundation for laughter, circa 1910. | ||
| Bedsheet | tallow candle mounted cat andiron | A bedsheet. That's a familiar object. You see them every night except on rare occasions when you're roughing it. Linen is the usual material. Sometimes they're made of silk. This one's linen. It bears the imprint of the steamship Bengal Tower | |
| chemist's flask bicycle | The sheet. A common everyday bedsheet stammped in one corner SS Bengal Tower. That's a luxury liner on the route between Cape Town and South Hampton. | ||
| Brass Button | candle stick china doll broom | Now take this button, this brass button. The symbol of a barracks parade ground... | |
| medicine bottle kitchen knife | The brass button. It's an innocuous, ordinary brass button. This was found near the dead body of a woman... | ||
| Brickbat | cigarette boxes appointment books hat rack | Here's a brickbat. Coarse grained. Rough edged. Familiar. Perhaps your home is built of bricks exactly like this one. In this case, however, no home was built by such a brick. Rather a home was destroyed by it. Destroyed forever... | |
| hatrack | Here's our brickbat. Of such bricks are garden walls built. Later the ivy or some such creaping vine grows over them... | ||
| Canvas Bag | hammer suitcase shirt button | You take this canvas bag... | |
| gold trophy knitting needle | Here's the canvas bag. It was once a bag used to hold provisions in a North Hampton grocery store | ||
| Car Tire | pin garden hose handbag | Here's a car tire. There were three others. All attached to a sedan. They were removed... | |
| electric wiring card | Here's the tire. It's an ordinary car tire, once it belonged to a sedan that stood in a garage on the South End... | ||
| Chain | glass ashtray porcelain vase electric fan | Here's a piece of an iron chain. It's a familiar object. Might be a bar on a gravel driveway. It might rest in an emergency truck for use in towing an automobile. | |
| (none mentioned) | The chain. Chain. Now what do you associate with the word, with the sound -- chain. | ||
| Champagne Glass | man's necktie woman's glove boy's schoolcap | Here's a champagne glass. That's a familiar object. Long stemmed, delicate curve, shining crystal. This fragile object belongs to New Year's Eve, to weddings, anniversaries... | |
| iron skillet | Here's the champagne glass. It's well designed, graceful. You could place it with a companion on a silver tray... | ||
| Claw Hammer | sugar bowl ashtray portable radio | Here's a hammer. A hammer, that's a familiar object. Everyone's used one at some time... | |
| length of wire cigarette lighter | It's a claw hammer with curved blades designed for pulling nails. It's heavy, well balanced, a perfect tool. One Saturday morning it rested in a canvas bag. The owner rang a doorbell in Oxford... | ||
| Dictionary | parchment lampshade automobile tire canvas tarpaulin | Here's a dictionary. It's a familiar object. French into English, English into French. Every high school student knows what these books are like... | |
| feathered darts | Ah, here we are, the dictionary. You want the Engish for a French Word? Here it is. Or the French for a word in English? | ||
| Four Small Bottles | earthen pot silver shilling typewriter ribbon | Four small bottles. They're familiar objects. Medicine bottles, shining glass, cork stoppers. The labels in neat, clear handwriting. Such bottles are in the medicine cabinet of almost every home. But these were found... | |
| kitchen mop | Here are the four small bottles. Three of one ounce capacity, one holds two ounces. | ||
| Frosted Glass | paperweight woolen muffler old fashioned hatpin drinking glass | Here's a bit of frosted glass. It's a familiar object. You've seen such glass before in the upper panels of the doors of older houses. Perhaps the one in which you live... | |
| pacifier pair of andirons | Here we are, the glass shards. They're sharp, pointed. Dangerous to life and limb even in themselves | ||
| Gas Receipt | brass lamp nail file lady's hatpin | I have here a receipt of payment for 10 gallons of gasoline. A familiar object. You've had them many times yourself if you drive a car. But this particular receipt... | |
| (none mentioned> | Here's the reciept I told you about. Settled it says, paid in full | ||
| Gladstone Bag | package of cigarettes length of string linen napkin | Here's a gladstone bag. It's a familiar object. Every railroad train carries several. Inevitably useful, compact, and expandable. They always hole more than they seem. Perfect for vacations. Perfect also for... | |
| camera briar pipe | Here we are. The gladstone bag. A piece of luggage for a man. It looks so commonplace, so much as if it belonged to a travelling salesman. Not to Jim Hudson... | ||
| Hammerhead | picture frame coat hanger file folder baby buggy | Here's a hammerhead. Made of cast steel. Well shaped. Extremely familiar. The front end blunt, solid, designed for driving nails. The clawed prongs at the rear for pulling nails. They're practical. Very, very, very familiar. And so very, very, very lethal... | |
| calendar | Here's the hammerhead I told you about. It's an efficient tool, this hammerhead... | ||
| Jack Handle | simple glass piece of rope woman's handkerchief | You take this iron bar. It's a familiar object. The handle of a jack. If you own a car you know the jack handle. And you've used it, but never, never I trust, like this... | |
| small white box tiny pistol | A jack handle. It's intriguing. Once, according to the casebook, yes, that's the story. A tale which begins innocently enough when London lived in the blackout | ||
| Jacket | paperweight broken wine bottle shaded lamp | You take this jacket. Woolen, hand knitted, a baby's garment, dusty with age and only half completed... | |
| nail file length of cord | The jacket. Mottled, dusty. somewhat inconspucuous in it's place on the shelf. A tragic relic of passion and violence | ||
| Jar of Acid | silk scarf length of twine child's toy | Now this jar, ... cheap stained glass container, the type you'd find in a laboratory. What's in it? A colorless fluid. Water, perhaps? A cleaning spirit? No... | |
| hypodermic syringe umbrella | Here's the acid jar, sealed and somber looking in it's place on the shelf. | ||
| Key | skipping rope glass iron stepladder | You take this key... | |
| spoon oar | Here's the key. An ordinary key. The kind used to open most of the front doors in London... | ||
| Khaki Handkerchief | teapot sewing needle folding camera | Now here's a handkerchief. A khaki handkerchief. A soldier's handkerchief. A common enough sort of thing, during the war... | |
| garden hose German mauser | Here it is, the khaki handkerchief. Originally it was intended for camoflage, fairly shouted for recognition at the right time in the wrong place. | ||
| Lady's Shoe | teacup and it's saucer lady's parasol surveyor's chain | Now you take this lady's shoe. It's a familiar object, high of heel, neat cross straps, dainty desigh on the toe. An execellent example of the art of the modern bootmaker | |
| gardener's clippers revolver | A shoe. Oh, a pair of them, of course. Charming, delightful, it's the type of fragile footware a lady of some means would be expected to own. | ||
| This episode has the same opening as The Mallet | |||
| Leather Bag | phonograph record desk pad flashlight | Here's a leather bag. It's a familiar object. A doctor carries a bag like this. Or a bank messenger. Or a payroll clerk. Neat, compact, light. Not the kind of thing to carry the weight of death... | |
| cymbal revolver | A leather bag. Part of a puzzle, a jigsaw puzzle involving life and death and greed which was never quite completed. | ||
| Letter | magazine cigarette lighter student's lamp paper weight | Here's a letter. A familiar object, hand written, on good bond paper. No imprint on the top, merely a date and a single, simple initial for the signature... | |
| baby's pacifier | Here's the letter, the letter I told you about. The letter of today's story. This one begins innocently enough, in a bank. | ||
| Mallet | teacup and it's saucer lady's parasol surveyor's chain | You take this mallet. It's a familiar object. Wooden mallet, worn, with a wooden head, marked. Nicked with all it's uses... | |
| woman's handkerchief heavy chain | The mallet. The little white card says in part Guy Falkes day -- bonfire night. Guy Falkes day, that's November 5th. It's an old English tradition. | ||
| This episode has the same opening as Lady's Shoe | |||
| Mandolin String | crumpled newspaper lighter fluid small radio | A mandolin string, a familiar object [pluck strings og a mandolin] | |
| spoon oar | Here, this mandolin string. Just a coil of rust spotted wire now. The string from a mandolin. A relic of another era. An era of polished carriages, well groomed horses, simple and sedate living. | ||
| Meat Juice | packet of matches coffee pot paring knife | Now here is a pint bottle, labeled Meat Juice . Perhaps you've seen one of these... | |
| small mirror | Here it is, the bottle labeled Meat Juice. Obsolete, archaic type of writing on this label replete with flourishes and shading. | ||
| Notes | phonograph record post card color photograph simple statuette | In two scribbled notes, bits of paper with three words scrawled across them, a slogan known around the world, a slogan you recognize... | |
| typewriter | Here are the notes. Notes scrawled on lined paper such as children use, children who are just learning to write. | ||
| Open End Wrench | ink bottle child's raincoat silver pillow | Here's an open end wrench. It's a familiar object. If you own an automobile, you own one of these. Or at least you've seen a mechanic use one. | |
| cardboard matchcover | Here's the open end wrench. It's a common tool among mechanics. Even among non-mechanical types -- bookkeepers, clerks, teachers. No sign of violence or death upon it, merely a bit of shaped patterned steel... | ||
| Post Card | dictionary stenographer's notebook clothes hanger | Here's a post card. It's a familiar object. Slightly soiled in its passage through the mail. The usual cancellation of the stamp. An ordinary address -- 29 St. Paul Road, London. The message, oh yes... | |
| typewriter child's toy | Now here we are, the postcard. The postcard with the drawing of a rising sun. It's clear at once that a skilled hand drew this tiny picture. | ||
| Powder Puff | carbon paper tin ashtray broken teacup | Now here's a woman's powder puff. Faded pink. We'll open the glass case and take it out. There you are, sir. Perhaps madam would like to take it. Ah, you draw back. The lace, it's pitiful and torn. Across the puff itself is an ugly stain... | |
| matchbox nail file | But our objective now is the powder puff. As it lies on the palm of my hand, let's turn back the clock and mee the man who used it for a grim purpose. | ||
| Prescripton | milk bottle woman's hair net bit of flypaper | Here's a doctor's prescription. It's a familiar object. You don't think twice about it. You have a cold, a sore throat, the doctor comes, gives you a prescription, a piece of paper with symbols scrawled on it... | |
| stiletto | Here's the prescription. Scrawled, almost uninteligable. In the traditional corkscrew of a doctor's penmanship, and marked in the chemist's writing filled | ||
| Raincoat | woman's shoe tiny white box quilted robe | You take this raincoat. It's a familiar object. Waterproof cloth, rayon lining. Collar you can turn up against stormy weather. Here in London it's called a macintosh | |
| mallet | Ah, the raincoat. Here we are. Stained. Charred, too, around the edges. | ||
| Sash Cord | briarroot pipe dingy white glove lump of twisted ceiling wax | This length of sash cord, quite commonplace. Might see something like this in any window frame... | |
| (none mentioned) | This sash cord. A short piece of rope. Grimy, frayed at one end. Not remarkable in itself, yet it came from the stage of a famous theater in the city of Brighton. | ||
| Service Card | lightbulb broken mirror stained blotting pad | Here's an auto service card, issued by a garage to show that a certain mototcar was oiled and greased when the speedometer reading was 15001... | |
| glass funnel spectacles powder puff | The buff colored service card. As I open the showcase and take it between my fingers, I ask you to come with me back to 1947. | ||
| Sheathed Knife | carpenter's saw manicurist's orange stick ten-penny nail | A sheathed knife. It's a familiar object. Maybe your son, if he's an outdoors sort of kid, has one. | |
| boot hypodermic needle | Here's the sheathed knife I was telling you about. Leather sheath, Sheffield steel, bone handle. It's a pretty instrument in it's way. | ||
| Shilling | flower pot coffee cup curtain rod | Here's a shilling. This is a familiar object, a shilling. A coin of the realm. | |
| small radio | Here's the shilling. The subject of our story. Some tarnish, still it's gleaming silver. Without a doubt it passed through many hands, reposed in pockets and purses, and then one day... | ||
| Shopping Bag | cotton reel tobacco pouch boot lace | Here's a shopping bag. Faded green canvas. Square in shape. Large enough to envelope a human head... | |
| death masks | We've arrived at the shopping bag. One killer. Stanley Haines. Five victims, including his wife who was his second on the list. | ||
| This episode has a similar intro as Two Bullets | |||
| Silencer | woman's purse man's glove child's shoe | Now this silencer. Made to fit an army rifle. Made for a killer. For striking unseen and unheard. In the dark, perhaps. | |
| elephant gun | The silencer. Metal tubes within tubes. Small and stubby. Designed to swallow sound | ||
| Small White Boxes | woman's necklace pair of spectacles iron ladle | These small white boxes. They're familiar objects. They might have contained sleeping pills, or a mild sedative, or aspirin. But no, they contained arsenic... | |
| filing spike | The white boxes, a little bit yellowed with age. The neat, spidery penmanship on the tiny labels fading now. But still legible. | ||
| Spectacles | portable typewriter jack for an automobile ice pick | Here's a pair of spectacles. It's a familiar object. Neat, not too large, tortoise shell frames with gold top... | |
| mandolin string French novel | The spectacles. Rather pathetic spectacles, the lenses are cracked, the frame twisted and bent, the gilt tarnished. | ||
| Straight Razor | picture frame wicker chair telephone directory | A straight razor. It's a familiar object, straight razor. Perhaps your father used one like this. Mine did. Straight, keen edged bit of steel, beautifully sharpened and stropped to remove a man's whiskers or... | |
| steel filing cabinet book of jokes | The razor. One of a set of seven. They used to come in wooden cases. You remember, the seven straight keen blades marked one for each day of the week? | ||
| Tan Shoe | broom vase lamp shade | Now this tan shoe, it's a brough, good leather, expensive make. But the dark stain on the heel wasn't put there by the manufacturer... | |
| birthday card glass | Here's the tan shoe. A left foot shoe. The darkish stain near the heel inside and out couldn't be disguised with polish. | ||
| Tartan Scarf | fountain pen cufflink highheel shoe | Here's a scarf. Torn, ragged, a faded tartan. A cheap reproduction of the honorable colors of the Stewarts. Red with green & blue crossings and a double over-check of white & yellow. This scarf belonged to Walter Hoffman... | |
| scent spray brass candlestick | Here's what we're looking for, the faded tartan scarf. s I take it out of the showcase... | ||
| Telegram | piece of washline medicine bottle electric lightbulb | Here's a telegram. It's a familiar object. Usually says "Happy Birthday", or "congratulations on your wedding", or "will arrive 10 o'clock train". This telegram was an urgent request to die... | |
| oil lamp ribbon | The telegram. Here we are. It's a slip of yellow paper with familiar type pasted in stripes across its face. Urgent. A summons. | ||
| Trunk | briefcase medicine bottle carpenter's rule | This old fashioned trunk. It's a familiar object -- brass bound, well made in a previous generation sort of way. Perhaps you've one like it in the attic or storeroom... | |
| gasoline can | The trunk. It's easily handled. Empty, now. But once upon a time, oh yes, this is the tale, for our intents and purposes it begins in Charring Cross Station in London... | ||
| Two Bullets | pocketbook rag doll paperweight | Look, here in the glass case. We'll open it up and with the permission of the curator we'll take out two small objects that speak directly of violence and sudden death. | |
| death masks | Here are the two bullets. One fired in 1944 when London shook under Hitler's onslaught of V-1s. The other fired during the uneasy peace of '47 when anxious eyes were turning eastward. | ||
| This episode has a similar intro as Shopping Bag | |||
| Walking Stick | salt shaker pair of scisors umbrella | A walking stick. Black wood. Silver mounted. Maybe it's real ebony. A stick which might have belonged to your grandfather. | |
| plaster cast of heel print steel file | The walking stick. It came from Glascow more than eighty years ago. 1865. It's owner was a Dr. Richard Martinson, an interesting fellow... | ||
| Weed Killer | goldfish bowl automatic gas range child's perambulator | Here's a can of weed killer. It's a familiar object. Every suburbanite with a patch of garden has used this. Or something very much like it... | |
| arrow chalice | Here's the tin of weed killer. Dried up now, it's contents are forever uselessfor any purpose... | ||
| Woman's Glove | cigarette lighter young girl's diary broken perambulator | A woman's glove. That's a familiar object. Hand stitched, soft leather, the gauntlet type. But this glove -- this glove touched death... | |
| pen | The glove. Dainty, isn't it, this little glove. It was made for a tender hand, made to grace the costume of a lovely woman who's come to tea. | ||
| Title | List of items | Introduction |
|---|---|---|
| Gas Receipt | brass lamp nail file lady's hatpin | I have here a receipt of payment for 10 gallons of gasoline. A familiar object. You've had them many times yourself if you drive a car. But this particular receipt... |
| Sash Cord | briarroot pipe dingy white glove lump of twisted ceiling wax | This length of sash cord, quite commonplace. Might see something like this in any window frame... |
| Trunk | briefcase medicine bottle carpenter's rule | This old fashioned trunk. It's a familiar object -- brass bound, well made in a previous generation sort of way. Perhaps you've one like it in the attic or storeroom... |
| Tan Shoe | broom vase lamp shade | Now this tan shoe, brough, good leather, expensive make. But the dark stain on the heel wasn't put there by the manufacturer... |
| Brass Button | candle stick china doll broom | Now take this button, this brass button. The symbol of a barracks parade ground... |
| Powder Puff | carbon paper tin ashtray broken teacup | Now here's a woman's powder puff. Faded pink. We'll open the glass case and take it out. There you are, sir. Perhaps madam would like to take it. Ah, you draw back. The lace, it's pitiful and torn. Across the puff itself is an ugly stain... |
| Sheathed Knife | carpenter's saw manicurist's orange stick ten-penny nail | A sheathed knife. It's a familiar object. Maybe your son, if he's an outdoors sort of kid, has one. |
| Brickbat | cigarette boxes appointment books hat rack | Here's a brickbat. Coarse grained. Rough edged. Familiar. Perhaps your home is built of bricks exactly like this one. In this case, however, no home was built by such a brick. Rather a home was destroyed by it. Destroyed forever... |
| Woman's Glove | cigarette lighter young girl's diary broken perambulator | A woman's glove. That's a familiar object. Hand stitched, soft leather, the gauntlet type. But this glove -- this glove touched death... |
| Shopping Bag | cotton reel tobacco pouch boot lace | Here's a shopping bag. Faded green canvas. Square in shape. Large enough to envelope a human head... |
| Mandolin String | crumpled newspaper lighter fluid small radio | A mandolin string, a familiar object [pluck strings og a mandolin] |
| Post Card | dictionary stenographer's notebook clothes hanger | Here's a post card. It's a familiar object. Slightly soiled in its passage through the mail. The usual cancellation of the stamp. An ordinary address -- 29 St. Paul Road, London. The message, oh yes... |
| Four Small Bottles | earthen pot silver shilling typewriter ribbon | Four small bottles. They're familiar objects. Medicine bottles, shining glass, cork stoppers. The labels in neat, clear handwriting. Such bottles are in the medicine cabinet of almost every home. But these were found... |
| Shilling | flower pot coffee cup curtain rod | Here's a shilling. This is a familiar object, a shilling. A coin of the realm. |
| Tartan Scarf | fountain pen cufflink highheel shoe | Here's a scarf. Torn, ragged, a faded tartan. A cheap reproduction of the honorable colors of the Stewarts. Red with green & blue crossings and a double over-check of white & yellow. This scarf belonged to Walter Hoffman... |
| Chain | glass ashtray porcelain vase electric fan | Here's a piece of an iron chain. It's a familiar object. Might be a bar on a gravel driveway. It might rest in an emergency truck for use in towing an automobile. |
| Weed Killer | goldfish bowl automatic gas range child's perambulator | Here's a can of weed killer. It's a familiar object. Every suburbanite with a patch of garden has used this. Or something very much like it... |
| Canvas Bag | hammer suitcase shirt button | You take this canvas bag... |
| Open End Wrench | ink bottle child's raincoat silver pillow | Here's an open end wrench. It's a familiar object. If you own an automobile, you own one of these. Or at least you've seen a mechanic use one. |
| .32 Calibre Bullet | kitchen knife roller skate violin string | Here's a 32 calibre bullet. It's a familiar object. Brass cartridge case. Snub leaden nose. Not very pretty to look at... |
| Service Card | lightbulb broken mirror stained blotting pad | Here's an auto service card, issued by a garage to show that a certain mototcar was oiled and greased when the speedometer reading was 15001... |
| Letter | magazine cigarette lighter student's lamp paper weight | Here's a letter. A familiar object, hand written, on good bond paper. No imprint on the top, merely a date and a single, simple initial for the signature... |
| Champagne Glass | man's necktie woman's glove boy's schoolcap | Here's a champagne glass. That's a familiar object. Long stemmed, delicate curve, shining crystal. This fragile object belongs to New Year's Eve, to weddings, anniversaries... |
| Prescripton | milk bottle woman's hair net bit of flypaper | Here's a doctor's prescription. It's a familiar object. You don't think twice about it. You have a cold, a sore throat, the doctor comes, gives you a prescription, a piece of paper with symbols scrawled on it... |
| Gladstone Bag | package of cigarettes length of string linen napkin | Here's a gladstone bag. It's a familiar object. Every railroad train carries several. Inevitably useful, compact, and expandable. They always hole more than they seem. Perfect for vacations. Perfect also for... |
| Meat Juice | packet of matches coffee pot paring knife | Now here is a pint bottle, labeled Meat Juice . Perhaps you've seen one of these... |
| Jacket | paperweight broken wine bottle shaded lamp | You take this jacket. Woolen, hand knitted, a baby's garment, dusty with age and only half completed... |
| Frosted Glass | paperweight woolen muffler old fashioned hatpin drinking glass | Here's a bit of frosted glass. It's a familiar object. You've seen such glass before in the upper panels of the doors of older houses. Perhaps the one in which you live... |
| Dictionary | parchment lampshade automobile tire canvas tarpaulin | Here's a dictionary. It's a familiar object. French into English, English into French. Every high school student knows what these books are like... |
| Leather Bag | phonograph record desk pad flashlight | Here's a leather bag. It's a familiar object. A doctor carries a bag like this. Or a bank messenger. Or a payroll clerk. Neat, compact, light. Not the kind of thing to carry the weight of death... |
| Notes | phonograph record post card color photograph simple statuette | In two scribbled notes, bits of paper with three words scrawled across them, a slogan known around the world, a slogan you recognize... |
| Hammerhead | picture frame coat hanger file folder baby buggy | Here's a hammerhead. Made of cast steel. Well shaped. Extremely familiar. The front end blunt, solid, designed for driving nails. The clawed prongs at the rear for pulling nails. They're practical. Very, very, very familiar. And so very, very, very lethal... |
| Straight Razor | picture frame wicker chair telephone directory | A straight razor. It's a familiar object, straight razor. Perhaps your father used one like this. Mine did. Straight, keen edged bit of steel, beautifully sharpened and stropped to remove a man's whiskers or... |
| Telegram | piece of washline medicine bottle electric lightbulb | Here's a telegram. It's a familiar object. Usually says "Happy Birthday", or "congratulations on your wedding", or "will arrive 10 o'clock train". This telegram was an urgent request to die... |
| Bathtub | piece of wire chemist flask silver shilling | Here's a bathtub, a familiar object. It's an old fashioned one. A ball and claw footed bathtub without plumbing connections... |
| Car Tire | pin garden hose handbag | Here's a car tire. There were three others. All attached to a sedan. They were removed... |
| Two Bullets | pocketbook rag doll paperweight | Look, here in the glass case. We'll open it up and with the permission of the curator we'll take out two small objects that speak directly of violence and sudden death. |
| Spectacles | portable typewriter jack for an automobile ice pick | Here's a pair of spectacles. It's a familiar object. Neat, not too large, tortoise shell frames with gold top... |
| Walking Stick | salt shaker pair of scisors umbrella | A walking stick. Black wood. Silver mounted. Maybe it's real ebony. A stick which might have belonged to your grandfather. |
| Jar of Acid | silk scarf length of twine child's toy | Now this jar, ... cheap stained glass container, the type you'd find in a laboratory. What's in it? A colorless fluid. Water, perhaps? A cleaning spirit? No... |
| Jack Handle | simple glass piece of rope woman's handkerchief | You take this iron bar. It's a familiar object. The handle of a jack. If you own a car you know the jack handle. And you've used it, but never, never I trust, like this... |
| .22 Calibre Pistol | skillet screwdriver photograph | Here's a .22 calibre pistol. It's a familiar object. You've seen one, or its picture. Never touched one. An elegant little weapon -- blue steel, mother of pearl inlay grip -- beautiful in it's dainty snubnosed wickedness... |
| Key | skipping rope glass iron stepladder | You take this key... |
| Claw Hammer | sugar bowl ashtray portable radio | Here's a hammer. A hammer, that's a familiar object. Everyone's used one at some time... |
| Bedsheet | tallow candle mounted cat andiron | A bedsheet. That's a familiar object. You see them every night except on rare occasions when you're roughing it. Linen is the usual material. Sometimes they're made of silk. This one's linen. It bears the imprint of the steamship Bengal Tower |
| Lady's Shoe | teacup and it's saucer lady's parasol surveyor's chain | Now you take this lady's shoe. It's a familiar object, high of heel, neat cross straps, dainty desigh on the toe. An execellent example of the art of the modern bootmaker |
| Mallet | teacup and it's saucer lady's parasol surveyor's chain | You take this mallet. It's a familiar object. Wooden mallet, worn, with a wooden head, marked. Nicked with all it's uses... |
| Khaki Handkerchief | teapot sewing needle folding camera | Now here's a handkerchief. A khaki handkerchief. A soldier's handkerchief. A common enough sort of thing, during the war... |
| Small White Boxes | woman's necklace pair of spectacles iron ladle | These small white boxes. They're familiar objects. They might have contained sleeping pills, or a mild sedative, or aspirin. But no, they contained arsenic... |
| Silencer | woman's purse man's glove child's shoe | Now this silencer. Made to fit an army rifle. Made for a killer. For striking unseen and unheard. In the dark, perhaps. |
| Raincoat | woman's shoe tiny white box quilted robe | You take this raincoat. It's a familiar object. Waterproof cloth, rayon lining. Collar you can turn up against stormy weather. Here in London it's called a macintosh |
| Title | List of items | Introduction |
|---|---|---|
| Chain | (none mentioned) | The chain. Chain. Now what do you associate with the word, with the sound -- chain. |
| Sash Cord | (none mentioned) | This sash cord. A short piece of rope. Grimy, frayed at one end. Not remarkable in itself, yet it came from the stage of a famous theater in the city of Brighton. |
| Gas Receipt | (none mentioned> | Here's the reciept I told you about. Settled it says, paid in full |
| Weed Killer | arrow chalice | Here's the tin of weed killer. Dried up now, it's contents are forever uselessfor any purpose... |
| Letter | baby's pacifier | Here's the letter, the letter I told you about. The letter of today's story. This one begins innocently enough, in a bank. |
| Tan Shoe | birthday card glass | Here's the tan shoe. A left foot shoe. The darkish stain near the heel inside and out couldn't be disguised with polish. |
| Sheathed Knife | boot hypodermic needle | Here's the sheathed knife I was telling you about. Leather sheath, Sheffield steel, bone handle. It's a pretty instrument in it's way. |
| Hammerhead | calendar | Here's the hammerhead I told you about. It's an efficient tool, this hammerhead... |
| Gladstone Bag | camera briar pipe | Here we are. The gladstone bag. A piece of luggage for a man. It looks so commonplace, so much as if it belonged to a travelling salesman. Not to Jim Hudson... |
| Open End Wrench | cardboard matchcover | Here's the open end wrench. It's a common tool among mechanics. Even among non-mechanical types -- bookkeepers, clerks, teachers. No sign of violence or death upon it, merely a bit of shaped patterned steel... |
| Bedsheet | chemist's flask bicycle | The sheet. A common everyday bedsheet stammped in one corner SS Bengal Tower. That's a luxury liner on the route between Cape Town and South Hampton. |
| Leather Bag | cymbal revolver | A leather bag. Part of a puzzle, a jigsaw puzzle involving life and death and greed which was never quite completed. |
| Two Bullets | death masks | Here are the two bullets. One fired in 1944 when London shook under Hitler's onslaught of V-1s. The other fired during the uneasy peace of '47 when anxious eyes were turning eastward. |
| Shopping Bag | death masks | We've arrived at the shopping bag. One killer. Stanley Haines. Five victims, including his wife who was his second on the list. |
| Car Tire | electric wiring card | Here's the tire. It's an ordinary car tire, once it belonged to a sedan that stood in a garage on the South End... |
| Silencer | elephant gun | The silencer. Metal tubes within tubes. Small and stubby. Designed to swallow sound |
| Dictionary | feathered darts | Ah, here we are, the dictionary. You want the Engish for a French Word? Here it is. Or the French for a word in English? |
| Small White Boxes | filing spike | The white boxes, a little bit yellowed with age. The neat, spidery penmanship on the tiny labels fading now. But still legible. |
| Khaki Handkerchief | garden hose German mauser | Here it is, the khaki handkerchief. Originally it was intended for camoflage, fairly shouted for recognition at the right time in the wrong place. |
| Lady's Shoe | gardener's clippers revolver | A shoe. Oh, a pair of them, of course. Charming, delightful, it's the type of fragile footware a lady of some means would be expected to own. |
| Trunk | gasoline can | The trunk. It's easily handled. Empty, now. But once upon a time, oh yes, this is the tale, for our intents and purposes it begins in Charring Cross Station in London... |
| Service Card | glass funnel spectacles powder puff | The buff colored service card. As I open the showcase and take it between my fingers, I ask you to come with me back to 1947. |
| Canvas Bag | gold trophy knitting needle | Here's the canvas bag. It was once a bag used to hold provisions in a North Hampton grocery store |
| Brickbat | hatrack | Here's our brickbat. Of such bricks are garden walls built. Later the ivy or some such creaping vine grows over them... |
| Jar of Acid | hypodermic syringe umbrella | Here's the acid jar, sealed and somber looking in it's place on the shelf. |
| Champagne Glass | iron skillet | Here's the champagne glass. It's well designed, graceful. You could place it with a companion on a silver tray... |
| .32 Calibre Bullet | jeweled ring bathtub | The 32 calibre bullet. Even here lying so quietly, so somberly, it's ugly. This object was made for killing. Which as a matter of fact it never did kill... |
| Four Small Bottles | kitchen mop | Here are the four small bottles. Three of one ounce capacity, one holds two ounces. |
| Claw Hammer | length of wire cigarette lighter | It's a claw hammer with curved blades designed for pulling nails. It's heavy, well balanced, a perfect tool. One Saturday morning it rested in a canvas bag. The owner rang a doorbell in Oxford... |
| Raincoat | mallet | Ah, the raincoat. Here we are. Stained. Charred, too, around the edges. |
| Spectacles | mandolin string French novel | The spectacles. Rather pathetic spectacles, the lenses are cracked, the frame twisted and bent, the gilt tarnished. |
| Powder Puff | matchbox nail file | But our objective now is the powder puff. As it lies on the palm of my hand, let's turn back the clock and mee the man who used it for a grim purpose. |
| Brass Button | medicine bottle kitchen knife | The brass button. It's an innocuous, ordinary brass button. This was found near the dead body of a woman... |
| Jacket | nail file length of cord | The jacket. Mottled, dusty. somewhat inconspucuous in it's place on the shelf. A tragic relic of passion and violence |
| .22 Calibre Pistol | odd looking ashtray | Ah, here we are, the little blue .22. It's silent now... |
| Telegram | oil lamp ribbon | The telegram. Here we are. It's a slip of yellow paper with familiar type pasted in stripes across its face. Urgent. A summons. |
| Frosted Glass | pacifier pair of andirons | Here we are, the glass shards. They're sharp, pointed. Dangerous to life and limb even in themselves |
| Woman's Glove | pen | The glove. Dainty, isn't it, this little glove. It was made for a tender hand, made to grace the costume of a lovely woman who's come to tea. |
| Walking Stick | plaster cast of heel print steel file | The walking stick. It came from Glascow more than eighty years ago. 1865. It's owner was a Dr. Richard Martinson, an interesting fellow... |
| Tartan Scarf | scent spray brass candlestick | Here's what we're looking for, the faded tartan scarf. s I take it out of the showcase... |
| Meat Juice | small mirror | Here it is, the bottle labeled Meat Juice. Obsolete, archaic type of writing on this label replete with flourishes and shading. |
| Shilling | small radio | Here's the shilling. The subject of our story. Some tarnish, still it's gleaming silver. Without a doubt it passed through many hands, reposed in pockets and purses, and then one day... |
| Jack Handle | small white box tiny pistol | A jack-handle. It's intriguing. Once, according to the casebook, yes, that's the story. A tale which begins innocently enough when London lived in the blackout |
| Key | spoon oar | Here's the key. An ordinary key. The kind used to open most of the front doors in London... |
| Mandolin String | spoon oar | Here, this mandolin string. Just a coil of rust spotted wire now. The string from a mandolin. A relic of another era. An era of polished carriages, well groomed horses, simple and sedate living. |
| Straight Razor | steel filing cabinet book of jokes | The razor. One of a set of seven. They used to come in wooden cases. You remember, the seven straight keen blades marked one for each day of the week? |
| Prescripton | stiletto | Here's the prescription. Scrawled, almost uninteligable. In the traditional corkscrew of a doctor's penmanship, and marked in the chemist's writing filled |
| Post Card | typewriter child's toy | Now here we are, the postcard. The postcard with the drawing of a rising sun. It's clear at once that a skilled hand drew this tiny picture. |
| Bathtub | wine glass | Here we are, here's the bathtub. So innocent, even comical. Basis for a thousand jokes, foundation for laughter, circa 1910. |
| Mallet | woman's handkerchief heavy chain | The mallet. The little white card says in part Guy Falkes day -- bonfire night. Guy Falkes day, that's November 5th. It's an old English tradition. |
| Shows with alternate titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| .22 Calibre Pistol | ||
| .32 Calibre Bullet | ||
| Bath Tub | ||
| Bedsheet | ||
| Bengal Tower Bedsheet | -- | Bedsheet |
| Black Gladstone Bag | -- | Gladstone Bag |
| Blood Stained Brick | -- | Brickbat |
| Blood Stained Brickbat | -- | Brickbat |
| Blood Stained Shoe | -- | Tan Shoe |
| Bottle of Meat Juice | -- | Meat Juice |
| Brass Button | ||
| Brickbat | ||
| Can of Weed Killer | -- | Weed Killer |
| Canvas Bag | ||
| Car Tire | ||
| Center Fire Bullet | -- | .32 Calibre Bullet |
| Chain | ||
| Champagne Glass | ||
| Claw Hammer | -- | Hammer |
| Dictionary | ||
| Doctor's Prescription | -- | Prescription |
| Door Key | -- | Key |
| Faded Tartan Scarf | -- | Tartan Scarf |
| Four Small Bottles | ||
| Frosted Glass | ||
| Gas Receipt | ||
| Gladstone Bag | ||
| Glass Shards | -- | Frosted Glass |
| Glove | -- | Woman's Glove |
| Hammer | ||
| Hammerhead | ||
| Iron Bar | -- | Jack Handle |
| Iron Chain | -- | Chain |
| Jack Handle | ||
| Jacket | ||
| Jar | -- | Jar of Acid |
| Jar of Acid | ||
| Key | ||
| Kilroy Was Here | -- | Notes |
| Lady's Shoe | ||
| Leather Bag | ||
| Length of Sash Cord | -- | Sash Cord |
| Letter | ||
| Little Blue 22 | -- | .22 Calibre Pistol |
| Mallet | ||
| Mandolin String | ||
| Meat Juice | ||
| Notes | ||
| Old Fashioned Trunk | -- | Trunk |
| Old Mallet | -- | Mallet |
| Open End Wrench | ||
| Pair of Spectacles | -- | Spectacles |
| Piece of Chain | -- | Chain |
| Piece of Iron Chain | -- | Chain |
| Pigskin Glove | -- | Woman's Glove |
| Pink Powder Puff | -- | Powder Puff |
| Post Card | ||
| Powder Puff | ||
| Prescription | ||
| Raincoat | ||
| Razor | -- | Straight Razor |
| Receipt | -- | Gas Receipt |
| Sash Cord | ||
| Scarf | -- | Tartan Scarf |
| Service Card | ||
| Shilling | ||
| Shopping Bag | ||
| Small White Boxes | ||
| Spectacles | ||
| Spotted Bedsheet | -- | Bedsheet |
| Straight Razor | ||
| Tan Shoe | ||
| Tartan Scarf | ||
| Telegram | ||
| Tin of Weed Killer | -- | Weed Killer |
| Tire | -- | Car Tire |
| Trunk | ||
| Two Bullets | ||
| Weed Killer | ||
| White Boxes | -- | Small White Boxes |
| Woman's Glove | ||
| Woman's Powder Puff | -- | Powder Puff |
| Wooden Mallet | -- | Mallet |
| Woolen Jacket | -- | Jacket |
[an error occurred while processing this directive] unsolved cases to go!