Mystery, Crime & Detective · Syndicated
In the Name of the Law
May 31, 1936 – August 16, 1936 · 12 broadcasts
One of the obscurer survivors of radio's 1930s true-crime wave, In the Name of the Law (1936) dramatized real police cases "taken from actual police case files" -- a robbery, a poisoning, a prison break, a smuggling ring -- and followed each from the crime through the investigation to the arrest. Twelve near-weekly half-hours survive, running from May 31 to August 16, 1936, sampling cases from Texas to Arkansas to Chicago rather than tying itself to one city's force.
It works the same true-crime-docudrama vein as Gang Busters, but on a far smaller and more anonymous scale: no producer, syndicator, cast, or announcer survives in the record. What remains is the shape of the genre in miniature -- the case-file framing, the coast-to-coast crimes, and the moral bookend of justice done "in the name of the law."
Collection status:
12 of 12 held (100% complete)
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Episode Spine
1936
May 31, 1936
The Robbery
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The series opens on a double murder in the town auditor's office, and the police work to run down who did it.
June 7, 1936
Who Killed Francis?
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The death of Frances Baumhold draws detectives into a knot of family relationships to find her killer.
June 14, 1936
I Dreamed Mother Was Poisoned
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(MP3)
A Texas woman's dream that her mother has been poisoned turns out to foreshadow the real thing.
June 21, 1936
Red Ryan's Prison Break
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(MP3)
A convict named Red Ryan leads a group of prisoners in a break for the outside.
June 28, 1936
July Fourth Picnic
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(MP3)
A Fourth of July celebration in Fort Smith, Arkansas takes a tragic turn that puts the police on a case.
July 5, 1936
Phantom Gang
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(MP3)
A lumber-supply dealer, George Richards, reports a theft -- and the trail leads to an elusive "phantom gang."
July 12, 1936
We Bumped Off Hubby
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(MP3)
A man weakened by polio dies under circumstances suspicious enough to bring the law in.
July 19, 1936
Narcotics in the Trunk
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(MP3)
A woman is caught moving heroin, and the case opens onto the smuggling behind it.
July 26, 1936
Nothing Ever Happens in Chinatown
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(MP3)
A crime touching a Chicago merchant proves that the quiet of Chinatown is only on the surface.
August 2, 1936
I Didn't Do Nothing
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(MP3)
Two robbers make off with an elderly couple's life savings, and the police set out to recover it.
August 8, 1936
She Was Murdered
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(MP3)
A dramatization drawn from an actual murder that August traces the case to its close.
August 16, 1936
He Did It, Or Did He?
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(MP3)
The surviving run closes on the case of Ruth Taylor, reaching back to a crime from the previous November.
The Story
One of the obscurer survivors of radio's 1930s true-crime wave, In the Name of the Law (1936) dramatized real police cases "taken from actual police case files" -- a robbery, a poisoning, a prison break, a smuggling ring -- and followed each from the crime through the investigation to the arrest. Twelve near-weekly half-hours survive, running from May 31 to August 16, 1936, sampling cases from Texas to Arkansas to Chicago rather than tying itself to one city's force.
It works the same true-crime-docudrama vein as Gang Busters, but on a far smaller and more anonymous scale: no producer, syndicator, cast, or announcer survives in the record. What remains is the shape of the genre in miniature -- the case-file framing, the coast-to-coast crimes, and the moral bookend of justice done "in the name of the law."
Full story — coming soon while it's being curated.
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