Mystery is My Hobby Presented by the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio · Adam Graham Radio Detective Podcasts

Mystery is My Hobby: Death Paints with Purple

·32 min·2 clips

Bart explains how Henley’s quick-acting poison let him identify the person who killed him.

The broadcast opens with Adam Graham introducing Mystery is My Hobby, Death Paints with Purple. An arrest looks ready to land on Andy McAndrews, because Henley dies after smearing Andy's new picture with purple paint, and suspicion moves in fast. Andy says he never left the house, but Verna breaks that line by saying that about two o'clock he went out for a walk because things were getting stifling in there. The alibi starts to wobble. The inspector comes in with the kind of certainty that leaves little room for anyone else to speak. Bart is not satisfied. He brings the inspector up to McAndrews's office and says he'd rather hang the murderer than the wrong man, which is not the sort of thing that puts a room at ease. A file cabinet becomes the next witness. Bart asks the inspector to find John Henley's file, and when the paper turns up, the case shifts from accusation to history. A letter from the Southwest changes the feel of it. Henley thanks Andy for giving him the chance to paint the desert, says he is enjoying every minute of it, and admits that sobriety has left him lonely enough to start prospecting. The letter sounds hopeful. It also hints that if Henley found something, he could repay Andy very substantially, which is the kind of line that makes everybody lean closer. Bart keeps digging. He produces a second letter dated six weeks later and wonders aloud whether Henley found a gold mine. The episode stays just short of the reveal, with the case now circling letters, money, and whatever Henley actually found out West. The obvious answer is gone. What remains is a tidy old mystery built from suspicion, paperwork, and one ugly smear of purple.

As heard by us

A murder case that turns on purple paint and a letter trail.

Death Paints with Purple keeps the murder case moving at a brisk clip, with a smear of purple paint doing more work than it first seems to. A suspect clings to a stay-at-home alibi, Verna knocks it loose, and Bart follows the trail into John Henley's file, where the letters…

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

When a purple smear turns a murder arrest into a clue hunt.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Mystery is My Hobby Presented by the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio