1945-3-04 The Mother Goose Bandit

Broadcast March 4th 1945 on Mutual at 5:30 p.m. EST sponsored by D.L. & W. Coal Company "Blue Coal" and syndicated for the summer by Goodrich Tires

This is a lost episode and no recreation of it has yet been made. If you have a copy of the script please let me know.

This episode was adapted and recorded for broadcast in Australia by Grace Gibson Productions and is included in The Shadow Volume 2

Written by: Alfred Bester

Announcer: Don Hancock

Cast: John Archer (Lamont Cranston/The Shadow) Judith Allen (Margot Lane)

Music: Elsie Thompson

Synopsis:

A series of jewel robberies across town stump the police when the man responsible leaves a book of Mother Goose nursery rhymes at the scene. After each robbery, Mother Goose herself phones the victim and offers to return the valuables — for a price. Even Commissioner Weston receives teases by phone from Mother Goose. Because the books are an exclusive of the Tinker Toy Shop, and each order is phoned in for delivery, Lamont goes undercover as a salesman to help the police trace the call. After Margot is kidnapped, Lamont learns that Guy Stark, a highly paid book illustrator, is Mother Goose. Forcing Margot to read the rhymes aloud, Stark, dressed like Mother Goose, begins plotting his next robbery. The Shadow arrives and pretends to be the voice of the real Mother Goose, forcing the unstable mind of the illustrator to snap. When the police arrive, Stark jumps out the window before he can finish reciting Humpty Dumpty.

Listen to the Australian broadcast

Note:

The script for this episode was published in Sanctum Reprint #147 Trail of Vengeance & The Mother Goose Murders

This episode would be rewritten as "The Nursery Rhyme Murders" broadcast February 22nd 1948