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Inner Sanctum Mystery, also known as Inner Sanctum, is a popular old-time radio program that aired from January 7, 1941, to October 5, 1952. It was created by producer Himan Brown and was based on the imprint given to the mystery novels of Simon & Schuster.
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00:08Good evening, friends. This is your host to welcome you through the creaking door into
00:14the inner sanctum. Come on in. Say, get any worry wrinkles over inflation, anybody? Hmm?
00:22A pale face here at my elbow just asked me to point out that where he comes from, nothing
00:27inflates, everything deflates. As a matter of fact, living down under is one way of trimming
00:37your clothing budget down to bare essentials. All you need for the longest while is one wooden
00:45suit. Tonight's inner sanctum mystery, Mark My Grave, was written by John Robert and stars
01:00Lawson Zerbe in the role of Colby with Santos Ortega as Gabby. Tonight we intend to prove
01:11that when a live wire meets a dead head, not a spark of sanity remains. We're in Christenberry,
01:20an ancient American village founded during the reign of Queen Anne. We're witnessing a
01:25climax in the dark and bloody story of the Brenda clan. A story that has long terrified
01:32the timid and baffled men of logical mind. The story of the Brenda ghost. In a close, airless
01:41room of the Brenda home, a man is strapped down on an iron bed. His face is youthful, but
01:48his hair is white, as if bleached by shock. He stares blindly at an older man hovering anxiously
01:55open. Gabby. Yeah? It's me. I've got everything under control. Untie me, Gabby. I can't breathe on. I can't
02:08untie your kid. Not the way you are. You just hurt yourself. I've sent for a doctor. Able to talk
02:17about it a little. Talk about it? Sure. Only if you're able to. Ghosts. Ghosts were a big joke
02:29to us. The assignment was going to be a gag. Picture stunt to give the newspaper comic relief.
02:36That day, he'll call me. Hey, Colby. Yeah? Where's the wire coming in? Hmm. Eight states search for missing
02:45hitchhiker couple. And what about it? Just two more missing Americans. There's a million of them.
02:51Pamela and Alfred Parker have been missing for 14 days. They were last seen entering the village of
02:56Christenberry. They were seen entering, but nobody saw them leave. Christenberry is the village famous for
03:04the Brenda Ghosts. You want to buy a bedsheet, boss? No. I do want to buy a circulation booster.
03:11You're not assigning me to interview the Brenda Ghosts. And all the other Brenners with pictures.
03:16Brought yourself over to Christenberry with the flash gun and photograph everything that moves.
03:20What if the ghost is, uh, camera shy? Christenberry was a village a man starts talking to himself in.
03:32A handful of bearded old-timers that stared at newcomers, then scurried away like frightened
03:37jackrabbits. The population on the ground was less than a hundred. The population underground
03:42was an easy 20,000. Now, before tackling the Brenda's, I did some reconnoitering.
03:49If you're a man of caution, Mr. Colby, you'll not go poking your nose. Uh, how did Luther Brenda
03:54die? He was found killed over in his study one black night, murdered. Somebody took an axe to
04:02him. Just somebody, huh? The, uh, hatchet man was never caught? No. Uh-huh. Did the police
04:08ever figure out a motive for the murder? Robbery, they said. But it was hate that killed
04:14old Luther, if you ask me. Well, uh, driving into town, I saw posters tacked onto telephone
04:18poles, advertising a public auction of the Brenda house and grounds tomorrow at, uh, 10 a.m.
04:23Uh, what's it mean? County supervisor's orders. Ain't a penny in taxes been paid since old
04:30Luther Brenda died. Good riddance to Luther's brood, I say. If you're set to go into the
04:38devil's roost, you'll be wanting a powerful charm on your person. Wear this around your neck and
04:44you'll come to no harm. The old lady was peddling a bag containing a few strands of human hair,
04:50a strip of dried snake skin, and a cube of live lodestone. Heh. A luck charm to ward off
04:57demons. Are you really sold yourself on the Brenda ghost story, huh? I've seen old Luther
05:03Brenda. Seen him with my own eyes. Where? Right where you're standing. Look. It called the
05:14devil and he's come. Come? What do you mean come? Look to the window. I followed her pointing
05:20finger. There staring at us through her window was a face. It's old Luther Brenda. It glowed like a
05:28mask coated with phosphorous. In a moment, the face was gone. Vanished.
05:44I left and drove on to the Brenda place trying to throw off the spell.
05:51It was a perfect setting for a ghost. Inky black. You couldn't see your hand in front of you. A
05:57dimly lit
05:57gabled house high up on a hill. Barking dogs somewhere. I was picking my way slowly with my
06:03camera slung over my shoulder working my flashlight when I got the first proof that I really needed a
06:10charm bag around my head. Oh, the rifle shot. Somebody had shot the flashlight out of my
06:16hand. Are you shot? Nah, you just ruined a new flashlight. Who are you? David Brenda. You?
06:26Colby, a reporter. You always welcome guests with a blast of rifle fire. I mistook you for old
06:33Luther. Old Luther's on the prowl tonight. Ah, shooting at your father's ghost, huh?
06:40Uh, what makes you think the old fellow's on the prowl tonight? He ain't in his casket.
06:46Ah, you checked to see, huh? I did? You dug him up and pried open his coffin and checked?
06:55Nope. Weren't no need to do that. We ain't never buried old Luther. We put him in the family
07:02crypt like he wanted to be put. And you say he's not there now? Yep. Well, any objections
07:09to showing me? Nope. Come along. I followed David Brenda into a small fieldstone house
07:19set on the edge of the weed-choked meadow, less than 50 feet from the big gabled house, sort
07:24of a primitively built mausoleum. In the center of it was a heavy oak coffin tool with steel
07:30fittings. Raising the lid was a job for Hercules. I watched David Brenda's face purple in the
07:36effort. I'm showing you. Now, look for yourself. I looked. The casket was empty. I said old
07:52Luther was on the prowl. A man who's been dead ten years just got up to take the walk. Got
07:58up to keep his promise. What promise? To take the Brenners back to his keeping. First
08:05Walter, then Polly, then me, he said. Walter's first because he's the oldest. And you last
08:13because you're the youngest? Yep. And you believe it. Listen. Hear that? Organ music. Some cheerful
08:24Joe's playing an organ over at your house. The piece old Luther always played. Only Luther
08:30can play the organ. I still say, show me. Come on. I started for the main house to the
08:39accompaniment of a ghostly funeral march. It seemed to hang in the night air like a weight.
08:45Halfway across the lawn, the organ stopped. A dead man was ready to take his eldest son back
08:52to his keeping. It's Walter. Upstairs in the little room, Walter was on the floor beside
09:02the organ, sitting rigidly with his hands clasped on his knees like a child at his father's
09:07feet. First Walter because he was the oldest. And then me. I'm next. You're Polly Brenda?
09:18I'm Polly Brenda. Didn't father play beautifully, David? Polly fit her name to a T, a face like
09:28a parrot. Standing behind Polly, writing furiously into a palm-sized notebook, was another quail of
09:34conduct. The kind of guy you imagine running through the fields with a butterfly net. Who's
09:39the note-taker, David? Mr. Lortrick. He's a lord. Sir Oliver Lortrick. And your name is
09:48what? Are we rival reporters? Indeed not. Well, then what's all that note-taking about? My on-the-spot
09:55investigation into supernatural phenomena. The Brenda's were kind enough to extend an invitation
10:00to me. For five hundred dollars for his keep. And a silk dress for me. What research society
10:08do you represent, Sir Oliver? My own. My independent research will become a book. A really revolutionary
10:14book, I would say. You've seen the Brenda ghost? I have. My findings here have been truly remarkable.
10:21You gotta show me. Bodies disappear, sure. But not under their own steam. Old Luther was
10:27missing from his casket. Sure, but where is he? Do you know where he is, Polly? By back in
10:37the coffin. He always goes back to rest. After he's played the organ. We hiked back to
10:47the mausoleum, all of us. I watched David Brenda make like Hercules again, raising the heavy
10:52oak lid. I'm showing you. I looked. Old Luther Brenda was back in his casket.
11:08And it was the same face I'd seen pressed against the window of old lady Hawkins' house.
11:27The mind's a funny thing, Gabby. You're a hard-headed cynic who says, show me, but suddenly
11:35you can't trust your eyes. Suddenly your mind's developed a small crack and yet your sanity
11:42begins to push out like sawdust coming out of a rag doll. A dead man who gets up out of
11:48his casket, plays an organ solo, commits a murder, then gets back into the casket. You don't
11:55dare believe it because if you do, he'll never stop screaming. I didn't try to figure it out
12:02too much. I photographed everything in sight, talked a while with the overstuffed researcher,
12:09Sir Oliver, then holed up in the ground floor bedroom David Brenda assigned me to. It won't
12:15be comfortable, but it's a bed. I hadn't even closed one eye when the dogs outside sent up
12:22a holler that raised goose pimples all over me. It was the kind of holler you hear from the
12:27bloodhounds when they reached the end of the chase. I went to the window. Something,
12:35something was pulling me. Something, like a ammunition. There were the dogs on the lawn,
12:46under the moon. Root mastics, four of them, and snapping something in their jaws, then tossing
12:53it into the air. I concentrated on whatever the gadgets were, peering through the window
12:59glass until my eyes almost dropped out of the sockets. After a while, I made the gadgets
13:05out. They were articles of clothing, a shoe, a man's hat, a lady's handbag. I found the place
13:17the dogs had come from. It wasn't hard. I just followed the dog tracks to a ravine behind
13:22the meadow. I found them, side by side, deader than just dead. Pamela and Alfred Parker, your
13:34missing hitchhiker couple.
13:37Oh, Luther, kill them.
13:40Great. Having a ghost around that walks. And David, you can make him the explanation for
13:47everything.
13:47Old Luther killed them. Listen.
13:52The organ's going again. It's old Luther's favorite piece. He's fixing to kill Polly.
14:00Walter was the first, and now it's Polly's turn.
14:03Busy night for a dead man. The idea is that Luther Brenda's up there at the organ, huh?
14:10Yep.
14:11Up there playing a prelude to murder. Out of his casket and up there in the watchtower.
14:17Yep.
14:19I'm going back for a double take of that casket.
14:26I played Hercules with the lid myself this time.
14:31I did a double take 20 times over. The casket was empty. I sprinted for the main house with
14:39David Brenda, puffing at my heels and a funeral march pacing me. Sprinting got me within a
14:44foot of the front door when the music stopped.
14:53Polly was next. After Walter. Old Luther's keeping his promise.
15:02Shut up. Shut up.
15:06It was Polly. Same place. On the floor in the watchtower at the foot of the organ. Same kind of
15:13death.
15:14Like Walter, sitting rigidly with her hands clasped on her knees, like a child at her father's feet.
15:21First Walter, then Polly, he said. I'm the youngest. I'm last.
15:32When my feet fell steady enough, I went to see if Luther Brenda had settled back in his casket.
15:37I went to see, just as a matter of routine. I'd find him there. I was sure of it.
15:42I'd find him there because there wasn't an organ going. That's how I'd begun to think.
15:49I wasn't your boy anymore, Gabby. I was practically a Brenda.
15:55I never reached the mausoleum. Because out there in the dark, I saw Luther Brenda. I stood knee-deep in
16:07the weeds and watched Luther Brenda walk past me and head straight as an arrow for the mausoleum.
16:16A dead man who was returning to his casket. I took his picture, a rear profile view. My hands worked
16:24the camera automatically from habit.
16:27I didn't start screaming until the mausoleum door closed behind him. And then I couldn't stop me!
16:42Feel better for the sleep, kid?
16:45Yeah.
16:47I feel okay.
16:50What time is it?
16:5310 a.m.
16:54The doc gave you something to quiet you down.
16:58Able to get up?
17:00Sure.
17:02Did I make any sense to you early this morning?
17:06Sure.
17:08But we're not talking about it, Corby.
17:12Sergeant Conley's around the premises now figuring things out.
17:16That public auction's starting in a minute.
17:19They're going ahead with the sale of this place.
17:22If you want to climb into your duds, we can watch it.
17:29Gentlemen, your attention, please.
17:31The sale is about to commence.
17:34By authority vested in me by the Board of Supervisors of the Incorporated Township of Christenberry,
17:42I now offer you tax warrants, file number 126015 at public sale.
17:48Great public sale.
17:51Not a soul game.
17:53Nobody wants the place.
17:55Luther Brenda goes with it.
17:58That boy over there.
18:00See, Sir Oliver?
18:01Uh-huh.
18:02And that's David Brenda.
18:05What keeps him out of a padded sale?
18:08The tax warrants amount to $3,000, gentlemen.
18:13The minimum bid I am empowered to accept is $3,000.
18:19Bid lively, gentlemen.
18:23That's like no takers, Colby.
18:25Mr. Auctioneer.
18:26Yes?
18:27In the absence of bids, I bid exactly $3,000.
18:34Sold.
18:34Sold to...
18:35Your name, please.
18:37Lotrick.
18:38Sir Oliver Lotrick.
18:40Come on, Colby.
18:42That's all I wanted to hear.
18:44Sir Oliver.
18:46Yes?
18:47What's here that's worth $3,000 to you?
18:51Must I answer that question?
18:53You'd better in pronto.
18:55And don't tell me you've gotten attached to a walking dead man.
18:58My work prompted me to make that bid.
19:01The $3,000 enables me to pursue my research.
19:04I'd been advised that the county planned to raise the house to the ground if no bid was forthcoming.
19:10That would be a pity.
19:11An irreparable loss to the study of supernatural phenomena.
19:15But more of a loss to you, eh?
19:18A loss of, say, $100,000?
19:22Yeah.
19:23You're making no sense at all to me.
19:26I'm not, eh?
19:27There's a cop here who'll tell it to you in basic English.
19:31You tell him, Sergeant.
19:33$100,000 in jewels stolen by an escaped convict who came through here and murdered old Luther Brenda ten years
19:39ago.
19:40The killer left the jewels behind him for safekeeping.
19:44Because he was wanted in 12 states, he was hotter than a firecracker.
19:47He knew he'd never crash through roadblocks set up to trap him.
19:51My theory is that the jewels are bricked in somewhere as a part of the Brenda dwelling.
19:57Isn't that why you bought the house, Sir Oliver?
19:59To be free to take a wall down at your leisure and pocket a bank full of jewels?
20:04It's a preposterous theory.
20:05In my opinion, gentlemen, your surroundings here have affected your minds.
20:09You're all stark mad.
20:11Ah, that gimmick.
20:14Give him the rest of it, Sergeant.
20:16The corpse that gets up and plays the organ?
20:19That's you, Lautrec.
20:20Now don't waste your breath denying it.
20:22Among other items of proof,
20:25we've got photographic evidence.
20:33That wraps up the ghost story, Colby.
20:36Sir Oliver was caught in that roadblock ten years ago.
20:39Served his time, then came right back to Christenberry in his jewel cache.
20:43Photographic evidence, Connelly said.
20:46What do they mean?
20:47That picture you took of Luther Brenda walking back into the mausoleum.
20:51We developed it and blew it up.
20:53It was Sir Oliver wearing a plastic mask.
20:55It was a close copy of Luther Brenda's features.
20:58We found the mask in his luggage.
21:01But the casket was actually empty.
21:04Twice.
21:06Another law trick operation.
21:08Bet on it.
21:10Stop picking your brains.
21:12It's all ABC open and shut.
21:14Everything fits logically.
21:16Everything adds up.
21:16But they were sitting on the floor with their hands clasped around their knees.
21:22Walter and Polly like children listening to music.
21:26Colby, I'm begging you.
21:28Get that malarkey out of your head.
21:30Dead men don't sit down and play the organ.
21:34Don't they, Gabby?
21:36Listen.
21:36Oh, at a time like this, some jerk decides to play the organ.
21:41It's old Luther Brenda up there in the watchtower playing his favorite piece.
21:46He's out of his casket.
21:48At the organ.
21:50David's on the floor like a child.
21:52Listening to his father play.
21:54Colby, quit it.
21:56It's David's turn now.
21:58After Walter came Polly.
22:01David's last because he's the youngest.
22:05It's his turn now to go back to his father's keeping.
22:10Soon the music will stop and David will scream.
22:14Listen, Gabby.
22:22See, Gabby?
22:24David sits like the others on the floor.
22:27Dead.
22:29Is he dead, Sergeant?
22:31Yeah.
22:33Can't pin this one on, Lord Trick.
22:35Then what killed David Brenda?
22:38Old Luther Brenda killed him, Gabby.
22:42David was last to go because he was the youngest.
22:46Oh, shut up, Colby.
22:48You were saying, Sergeant?
22:50No visible injury.
22:53Offhand, I'd say he was frightened to death.
22:56Brought a seizure on himself.
22:57Sure, sure.
22:58That makes sense.
23:00They frightened himself to death.
23:02Does it make sense, Gabby?
23:06David Brenda played an organ solo for David Brenda.
23:11He sat at the organ pumping the pedals
23:13and sat on the floor at the same time.
23:17Sure, it makes sense.
23:19It's got to make sense.
23:21He played a funeral march
23:24and died listening to him.
23:27One man in two places at the same time.
23:33Does it really make sense, Gabby?
23:37Does it?
23:38Does it?
23:39Does it?
23:40Does it?
23:47So the Brenda's are back together again.
23:49Now, there's one gang that believes
23:52in the family ties that buy.
23:55Did some cynic whisper, straightjacket?
23:58Hmm?
24:00And that's Oliver.
24:01Nice guy to wrench your addict to.
24:06I'm told he's using himself as a basis for research now.
24:09He's bringing his notebook and pencil into the hot seat
24:12where they expect to record impressions
24:14that will electrify nobody but himself.
24:21And say, if you ever run into a walking corpse,
24:24mister, blow the whistle on yourself,
24:26you're on a dead-end street.
24:28Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
24:39Inner Sanctum is heard each week in the United States
24:42over CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System,
24:45and has been rebroadcast for servicemen and women overseas
24:48through the facilities
24:49of the United States Armed Forces Radio Service,
24:52the voice of information and education.
24:54Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
25:24Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no.
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