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

Mystery is My Hobby: Ghost Didn’t Walk

·30 min·1 clip

Barton Drake ties the ghost, the money, and the locked door to Joe Stewart and the murder of Russ Gordon.

1. Mystery Is My Hobby: Ghost Didn't Walk follows Barton Drake, Inspector Denton, and Finn McNutt in Menden as they investigate Russ Gordon's murder and a reported ghost. 2. Barton Drake speaks as the show's detective narrator, Inspector Denton serves as his combative sidekick, and constable Finn McNutt supplies the case details that drive the plot. 3. The episode asks whether the “ghost” at the Harlan house is real or a cover for theft and murder. 4. Lucy Lambert and Ruth Lambert say they saw a white, shiny figure on the Harlan porch and watched it climb through a window. 5. Finn McNutt tells Drake that Russ Gordon was found with a knife in his chest and that $5,000 was missing from the scene. 6. McNutt explains that he had lent Russ Gordon the money to pay taxes on the property, which makes the missing cash central to the investigation. 7. Joe Stewart enters the case as Russ Gordon's former blueberry-business partner and as a man who suddenly has $5,000 in his jeans. 8. Drake learns that Peggy Thatcher, described as a city woman and commercial artist, has moved into the old Harlan house alone. 9. Peggy says she sold one of her pictures for $5,000 in cash and that she had started locking the door because items in the house kept changing position. 10. The investigation at the house turns up a spring lock, a broken milk bottle, and no footprints around the body. 11. Drake notices that Peggy's house had been repeatedly opened and closed in a way that could create the ghost story. 12. The white figure turns out to be tied to Peggy's nighttime trips to put out milk bottles and climb back in through the window when the lock shut behind her. 13. Drake also presses Joe Stewart on why he wanted Russ Gordon's property, calling the blueberry land the best in the area. 14. Joe Stewart admits he wanted the land cheaply through taxes and had a reason to keep other buyers away. 15. The episode uses Inspector Denton's bickering with McNutt for comic relief, especially around insults, fines, and broken rules. 16. Denton is made to pay five dollars for firing a gun inside the city limits and then runs into another fine for illegal entry. 17. The tone mixes detective deduction with rural superstition, with milk bottles, haunted-house rumors, and local talk about seances. 18. The format stays fast and theatrical, with Barton Drake narrating, side characters interrupting, and act breaks separating the clues. 19. Listeners who enjoy old-time radio mysteries with comic police friction will likely like this episode. 20. Listeners wanting modern crime realism or low-comedy noir may skip it.

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