The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Part Two

Originally Aired: January 12, 1953 Suspense #495, "The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Part Two," continues Charles Dickens' unfinished masterpiece with Herbert Marshall starring as John Jasper, the tormented choirmaster of Cloisterham. On a gray Christmas morning, Jasper discovers that his nephew Edwin Drood has vanished after going to the river the previous night with Neville Landless to watch the storm. When Landless is found on the heath, behaving suspiciously and bearing bloodstains on his clothing and walking stick, the circumstantial evidence mounts against him. Dean Crisparkle and the pompous Mayor Sapsea begin piecing together the damning facts: the documented quarrels between the two young men over Edwin's fiancée Rosa, their late-night departure together, and only Neville's return. As the authorities interrogate Landless, he insists the blood came from struggling with those who apprehended him and that Edwin simply left him at the river to return to Jasper's lodgings. But with Edwin nowhere to be found and Neville apparently fleeing town, suspicion deepens. The episode captures the gothic atmosphere and psychological tension of Dickens' mystery while leaving listeners to wonder what dark secret John Jasper himself might be harboring.