Private-detective drama · NBC
Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator
October 3, 1951 – June 30, 1955 · 192 broadcasts
Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator ran on NBC from October 1951 to June 1955, and it made a quiet virtue of not being hard-boiled. William Gargan -- who had actually worked as a private detective before he ever acted, and who was already radio's Martin Kane -- played Craig as a big, easygoing New Yorker who worked alone from a Madison Avenue office, taking the discreet cases people couldn't bring to the police. For its first two broadcasts the character was even called Barrie Crane; the name settled into Craig on October 17, 1951. Producer-director Himan Brown, one of radio's most prolific showmen, ran the New York years (with Edward King on the earliest episodes), and the scripts came from mystery hands like John Roeburt, Louis Vittes and Frank Kane. Don Pardo -- yes, the future Saturday Night Live voice -- was among the announcers. In mid-1954 the show moved to Hollywood under director Arthur Jacobson, trading the New York radio stock company for the West Coast one. Of 191 broadcasts, roughly a third survive as recordings; Gargan's warm, unhurried detective is the reason they are still worth hearing.
Collection status:
62 of 192 held (32% complete)
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Episode Spine
Grouped by year. Jump to the full list below, or open a season on its own page.
1951
October 3, 1951
The Simultaneous Man
October 10, 1951
Murder in Duplicate
A crusading newspaperman who keeps printing that a boxer threw his fight hires Craig as a bodyguard -- and to help pin down who fixed it.
Craig's own tailor is being squeezed for weekly protection money, and a desperate phone call drags the investigator into the racket.
A bail bondsman staring down a $50,000 loss hires Craig to run down the small-time hood who jumped bail.
A diary hidden inside an old clock points Craig toward a lunatic -- and a murder.
A case leads Craig to an amusement-park wax exhibit, where the newest figure looks a little too lifelike.
Hired to recover a stolen string of pearls, Craig finds the necklace nearly becomes the noose meant to hang him.
A publisher's $50,000 first-novel prize vanishes when the only copy of the winning manuscript is stolen, and Craig is paid to get it back.
A man back from the dead haunts a wife who has been 'dead' nearly as long, in an insurance scheme Craig has to unravel.
Craig pulls a young woman out of the water and tangles with an unhinged songwriter whose latest lyric is all about murder.
1952
A night watchman pays Craig to come along on a mysterious after-hours 'visit' -- and the man they were going to see turns up dead.
A burlesque dancer with a knack for stumbling over corpses, a crooked lawyer and a gun-waving client all pull Craig into one tangle.
A woman quietly hires Craig to shadow her husband, and soon a beautiful girl is found dead in a hotel room.
Craig is paid to win a boxing champion's diamond belt at auction -- a sentimental errand that turns very strange.
Craig is offered $200 simply to hand a puppet to a nightclub dancer, who takes one look at it and faints.
A small-town official asks Craig to solve the local doctor's murder, where the only thing stolen is an iron eagle paperweight.
Craig returns to his parked car to find a ticket and an unexpected passenger -- a woman fleeing a guardian scheming to marry her for her fortune.
An heir comes home from Portugal to collect a $40 million estate, and Craig is drawn into the maneuvering around the fortune.
February 27, 1952
Murder in Mink
A woman's mink coat has vanished, and Craig's hunt for it turns up others chasing the very same fur.
March 5, 1952
Key Witness
With her gangster husband marked for death, a frightened woman turns to Craig for protection.
March 12, 1952
Unknown Corpse
A woman is certain her informant stepbrother didn't jump to his death -- she says he was poisoned first, then thrown from the window.
March 18, 1952
The Masked Mermaid
March 25, 1952
Love That Kills
April 1, 1952
Cry for Help
April 8, 1952
Top Secret
April 15, 1952
The Drowned Ghost
April 22, 1952
The Hired Killer
April 29, 1952
Talent for Murder
May 6, 1952
A Night in Istanbul
May 13, 1952
The Fingerman
May 20, 1952
The Client Was a Corpse
May 27, 1952
Prize Captive
June 3, 1952
Husband for Hire
June 10, 1952
Corpse on a Carousel
June 17, 1952
Murder in Motion
A case reaching back into 1920s Hollywood gathers around a faded silent-screen star.
June 24, 1952
The Big Kill
July 1, 1952
Shroud for a Fugitive
A woman who walked out on her bank-robber husband hires Craig to watch her house when the killer follows her to New York.
July 15, 1952
Dead Reckoning
July 22, 1952
No Memory for Murder
July 29, 1952
Murder in Paradise
August 5, 1952
The Doublecross
August 12, 1952
Heat Wave
August 19, 1952
Happy Alibi
August 26, 1952
Murder Off-Stage
September 2, 1952
Blood on the Flowers
September 9, 1952
Perfect Suspect
September 24, 1952
Night Arlarm
October 1, 1952
Millionaires Widow
A weeping man who calls himself Julius Caesar begs Craig to save 'Cleo' -- a fortune-teller has read murder in the tea leaves.
A man whose wife has been quietly pricing tombstones pays Craig $500 to keep him alive until his divorce comes through.
October 19, 1952
The Big Grab
October 26, 1952
Hollow Homecoming
November 2, 1952
Three for the Kill
November 9, 1952
The Merry Corpse
November 16, 1952
The Unnecessary Blonde
November 23, 1952
Death Sweet Song
November 30, 1952
Cause for Murder
December 7, 1952
Marbles for a Murderer
December 14, 1952
Holiday for Murder
December 21, 1952
Polka-Dotted Noose
December 28, 1952
A Coffin to Spare
1953
A dying man hires Craig for one last case -- to find his own killer -- and expires clutching a crimson chess piece.
January 11, 1953
The Vanished Lady
January 18, 1953
Money to Burn
January 25, 1953
The Lady Is a Liar
February 1, 1953
The Corpse Wouldn't Talk
February 8, 1953
Night Incident
A late-night flirtation ends with a man slipping on the ice to his death, and Craig refuses to call it an accident.
February 22, 1953
Plotters Beware
A husband gone five years suddenly reappears, but the wife who nearly forgot him can't be sure the man at her door is really him.
March 15, 1953
Death's Small Brother
March 22, 1953
Jeweled Corpse
March 29, 1953
Confession of Murder
April 5, 1953
Loving Landlady
April 12, 1953
Case of the Corpse Out of the Past
April 19, 1953
Love's Sweet Murder
April 26, 1953
Killing Pace
A woman offers Craig $500 to walk her dog after the last two walks drew gunfire -- though Craig suspects the bullets are meant for her.
May 10, 1953
The Sniper's Bullet
May 17, 1953
Love's Sweet Murder
May 24, 1953
Dead Beyond Recall
May 31, 1953
The Hollow Man
June 7, 1953
(untitled)
A man hires Craig for a trivial errand on his wife's behalf, unaware of the danger it is about to uncover.
June 21, 1953
The Jade Bracelet
June 28, 1953
(untitled)
July 5, 1953
Death Has a Number
July 12, 1953
The Case of the Divided Man
A bride loved to death by her bridegroom sends Craig onto the trail of an ex-fugitive known as Killer Betts.
July 26, 1953
Murder in Three Acts
August 2, 1953
Beautiful Woman's Eagerness to Confess to Murder Puzzles Barrie
August 16, 1953
The Thirteenth Guest
A host famous for parties that end in brawls hires Craig to keep the peace at his masquerade -- where trouble is already stirring.
August 23, 1953
Dig Another Grave
August 30, 1953
Murder to Music
September 6, 1953
Final Payment
September 15, 1953
Murder Ring
Hired to find who is leaking a firm's secrets to a rival, Craig -- who always believes his client -- begins to have his doubts.
September 29, 1953
Corpse with a Pedigree
October 6, 1953
The Double Man
A doctor asks Craig to help identify his own patient -- an amnesiac going by the name Clark Smith.
October 20, 1953
The Hunted Husband
A wife murders her husband, and one overlooked detail -- a crew cut -- is what finally gives her away.
October 27, 1953
Loot for a Lady
A mother feigns paralysis to hide the fact that she killed a crime boss.
November 10, 1953
The Killing Pace
November 17, 1953
Death at the Race Track
November 24, 1953
(untitled)
December 1, 1953
Ghost of a Chance
December 8, 1953
Table for Three Murders
December 15, 1953
Old Secret Reunites Family
December 22, 1953
Two in a Mausoleum
December 29, 1953
(untitled)
1954
January 5, 1954
Out of the Past
January 12, 1954
The Wife Who Wasn't There
A chemical-plant owner hit by four suspicious fires and left underinsured suspects sabotage and calls in Craig.
January 26, 1954
Death Wins the Bet
February 9, 1954
The Love of Murder
February 16, 1954
Smokescreen for Murder
February 23, 1954
No Flowers for the Corpse
March 2, 1954
The Million Dollar Nickle
March 9, 1954
The Tearless Widow
March 16, 1954
Act of Mercy
March 23, 1954
The Laughing Corpse
April 13, 1954
The Man Who Wanted to Be Guilty
April 20, 1954
Man Trap
April 27, 1954
Exposes Poet's Plot to Win Fame
May 4, 1954
Hour of Decision
May 18, 1954
(untitled)
An attorney hires Craig to find the much-younger missing wife of his wealthy, elderly client -- though Craig would rather size up the client.
June 1, 1954
The Corpse Who Stayed for Breakfast
June 8, 1954
A Fortune in Diamonds
June 15, 1954
Murder Is a Private Affair
June 22, 1954
The Lunatic Heir
June 29, 1954
Kiss and Tell
Two childhood sweethearts reunite when the man is freed after five years for a payroll robbery -- and the stolen $28,000 is still unaccounted for.
A worried wife brings Craig in when she fears her husband is being blackmailed, and Craig watches him drop a parcel of cash off a bridge.
July 20, 1954
Death's Little Helper
Bound for a fishing vacation by train, Craig agrees to hold a stranger's envelope -- and it nearly gets him killed.
Craig bails a heartbroken, possibly murderous inmate out of jail and into the orbit of a shady talent promoter.
Death goes shopping in a department-store bargain basement, and Craig follows it downstairs.
A blonde hires Craig to vet her supposedly wealthy fiance, and the background check turns up the opposite of everything she was told.
A fellow investigator asks Craig's help finding a vanished rug dealer -- whom Craig finds murdered.
Vacationing in the country, Craig and an old friend hear a scream and stumble onto a body atop a haystack.
Summoned by midnight train to a brooding old tower house, Craig confronts a murder eighty years cold.
October 3, 1954
The Corpse That Couldn't Swim
Betty Lou Gerson plays a woman who has killed her husband -- a man mixed up with stolen jewels.
October 10, 1954
The Murder Man
A murder case told throughout in period hipster slang.
October 17, 1954
The Devil's Jest
International thieves chase a flawed but legendary diamond.
October 24, 1954
Murder in Grease Paint
An actor is killed on a television set in Craig's Halloween broadcast.
October 31, 1954
The Tearless Widow
A son who accidentally kills his father during the older man's suicide attempt then frames an ex-convict clerk.
A young man's girlfriend hires Craig to stop him from building an alibi for an armed robbery.
November 14, 1954
Complaint from a Corpse
A man frets over his newly remarried business partner -- flush with $30,000 from selling a motel and running with a strange crowd.
November 28, 1954
Sweet Goddess of Murder
Craig turns down a missing-husband case to chase a stolen prize manuscript lifted from a publisher's office.
December 12, 1954
The Fatal Punch
A boxer with a weak heart dies in a staged hit-and-run so his manager can collect on an insurance policy.
A nightclub musician's stolen bull fiddle sends Craig puzzling over who would want the thing -- and why.
December 26, 1954
Death Hires a Hurricane
A hurricane, a blonde named Nora, a pile of money and a murder.
1955
Craig lands a client the hard way -- by fishing him out of a river -- only for the ungrateful man to fret more over his car than his life.
January 12, 1955
The Man Who Died by Himself
January 19, 1955
Diamonds Can Be Beautiful
January 26, 1955
The Money Man
February 2, 1955
Fools Choice
A woman returns to her hotel to find her husband gone and the staff insisting no such man ever checked in.
A tempestuous blonde wants a carefree charmer to settle down -- and backs her demands with a gun.
February 23, 1955
Hour of Reckoning
Craig is hired to guard the transfer of priceless Barbary tomb relics -- cargo that brings out the worst in everyone near it.
A backer who sank $20,000 into a doomsday stage musical hires Craig to learn whether the whole production is a swindle.
March 16, 1955
The Golden Touch
March 23, 1955
Patsy for a Pinball
A mummy is delivered to Craig's office, followed by a woman who claims to be Princess Nefertiti.
April 6, 1955
Butlers Can Be Innocent
April 13, 1955
Wizard of Death
April 20, 1955
Corpse in a Cage
A killer who dumped his victim in a bear's cage confesses once he is tricked into believing the tame bear is dangerous.
April 27, 1955
The Mark of Judas
A young man confesses to a murder he didn't commit, driven by guilt over his father's fatal heart attack.
A novelist pulls a gun on Craig for research -- he wants to know whether the perfect murder in his book is truly unsolvable.
May 19, 1955
Terror in the Ball Park
Craig investigates the sabotage of a baseball team.
May 26, 1955
Crime Against the People
June 2, 1955
Trial Murder
June 16, 1955
Brainwashed
Craig hunts a criminal who is a one-man composite of brainwasher, stock-swindler, rifleman and arsonist.
At a championship tennis final hosted by an eccentric former screen star, Craig watches the match turn deadly.
June 30, 1955
The Man Who Didn't Get Them Wholesale
The Story
Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator ran on NBC from October 1951 to June 1955, and it made a quiet virtue of not being hard-boiled. William Gargan -- who had actually worked as a private detective before he ever acted, and who was already radio's Martin Kane -- played Craig as a big, easygoing New Yorker who worked alone from a Madison Avenue office, taking the discreet cases people couldn't bring to the police. For its first two broadcasts the character was even called Barrie Crane; the name settled into Craig on October 17, 1951. Producer-director Himan Brown, one of radio's most prolific showmen, ran the New York years (with Edward King on the earliest episodes), and the scripts came from mystery hands like John Roeburt, Louis Vittes and Frank Kane. Don Pardo -- yes, the future Saturday Night Live voice -- was among the announcers. In mid-1954 the show moved to Hollywood under director Arthur Jacobson, trading the New York radio stock company for the West Coast one. Of 191 broadcasts, roughly a third survive as recordings; Gargan's warm, unhurried detective is the reason they are still worth hearing.
Full story — coming soon while it's being curated.
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