Murders in Wax, July 24, 1938

The show opens with the usual narration. It's slightly shorter than earlier episodes.

The episode opens with a barker trying to get people to come into a waxworks exhibit. Then the show has people in a tableaux which shows the capture of a gangster. This was the arrest of George Keegan (?). The woman featured in the exhibit was Keegan's moll. The figure falls off the chair, and the guy finds out it's a real person, the actual moll.

A newspaper boy hawks his papers with headlines of the murder.

Lamont and Margot are rowing in a boat in a park. Margot had been at the waxworks with her cousin, Jane. Margot describes the tableaux to Lamont. He wonders why her body was used at the waxworks, and it may have been on the part of the murderer who may have other vengeful murders in plan.

Weston is bawling out his men for not solving the murder. The murderer had entered the museum through the back. The face of the dummy had been slashed across the left cheek, which is “the mark of the squealer.” The cops think the guy who did the murder was a lunatic, but the commissioner thinks she was murdered for vengeance against Keegan, who had squealed on other guys.

The voice of the Shadow is heard. The Shadow tells them he expects other deaths, including the commissioner himself, the mayor and the district attorney. The dead woman's body was a warning of the other people in the wax tableaux would also be murdered.

The commissioner gets a call from the district attorney's wife. He is missing and she's worried. It's after two in the morning. The Shadow suggests that the police get to the waxworks museum right away.

Sounds of police sirens are heard as the police get to the wax museum. They force the lock to get inside. They go to the Keegan tableaux. They check the wax dummy and find it's night in the right position; it turns out to be the attorney, dead. The Shadow is also there, and says he's not sure who did the murder.

The Shadow says that either the commissioner or the mayor is the next target.

Lamont and Margot are talking in a car. Lamont also thinks that a political rival of the mayor's might be responsible. They arrive at the prison; Lamont will not go in with Margot since the warden doesn't like him since he exposed graft at the prison a few years previously.

Margot is to pretend she's a reporter and to talk to Keegan.

Keegan doesn't want to talk much about his former girlfriend who was murdered. He denies being her being his girl; he says she was a double-crosser, then says to forget what he just said.

Then the episode goes back to Lamont and Margot talking in their car having left the prison. Lamont says the Shadow will return to talk to the warden that night.

Some guy comes to talk to the warden who had ordered Keegan put into solitary, and Keegan has not eaten the last three meals. The warden gets a call about something and it seems he's tied to the murders. Then he hears the voice of the Shadow. The Shadow says George Keegan is the murderer, and that the warden was responsible for letting him leave the prison to do the killings, then return.

The Shadow says Keegan's cell is empty, and the warden claims he's in solitary confinement. The Shadow says that Keegan is on his way to the city to do another murder, and it would be a political advantage for the warden to have certain others out of the way.

The Shadow calls Margot on the radio and tells Margot to warn the commissioner. He had left instructions for him and the mayor to follow.

Keegan has a gun drawn on the mayor. He keeps talking to the mayor, but the mayor doesn't reply. Keegan shoots the mayor, but it's not the actual mayor. It's the waxwork model of him. Then Keegan hears the voice of the Shadow. The commissioner and other police are there and they capture Keegan.

The Shadow says that Keegan got out of prison with the help of the warden who is now there. The Shadow talks again, and wants Keegan to explain what is really going on. Keegan just says the warden is not telling the truth. The Shadow explains why the warden is behind the murders. He got Keegan to do the killings by lying about his ex-girlfriend. She had not double-crossed Keegan at all. Keegan had another gun and he shoots the warden.

The commissioner thanks the Shadow.

(This particular recording had no commercials in it.)

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