Episode Overview

Podcast: Harold's Old Time Radio
Episode: Dyke Easter Detective 1939-03-19 – "This Time For Creeps"
Release Date: September 22, 2025

This episode takes listeners on a journey back to the golden age of radio drama, presenting an atmospheric and twisting tale featuring Dyke Easter—the hard-boiled private detective. The plot weaves a classic noir mystery around a supposed murder, tangled identities, and the seedy consequences of greed, revenge, and betrayal.

Key Discussion Points & Story Breakdown

1. A Desperate Client and a Bloody Confession

Timestamps: 01:07 – 05:35

• Harriet Taber bursts into Dyke Easter’s office, urgently seeking help to "beat a murder charge."
  • Notable exchange:

    Harriet Taber: "He said you didn't understand me. I said I killed a man." [02:45] Dyke Easter: "What you expect? Congratulations." [02:50]

• She claims to have killed a man (Max Arlach) but is vague and terrified, threatening Easter with a gun to force him to take her case.
  • Memorable line:

    Harriet Taber: "You'll help me or I'll kill you too. I'd just as soon die for two as for one." [04:42]

  • Easter disarms the situation (“Shut up. Now sit down.” [04:58]), takes her gun, and accepts the $300 retainer.
• Harriet's stated motivation for the shooting: "I hated him. He ruined my life." [05:20]

2. The ‘Dead’ Man is Alive—or Is He?

Timestamps: 05:35 – 08:09

• Easter tracks down Max Arlach’s address, expecting a corpse, but instead, Arlach answers the door alive.
  • Arlach dismisses the incident as a “$300 joke on Taber.”
  • Easter notes a suspicious bloodstained rug, raising doubts about the story’s surface simplicity.

    Dyke Easter: "By the way, Mr. Arak, it's none of my business, but if nothing happened, why is this rug blood stained?" [08:09]

3. A Real Murder and Police Pressure

Timestamps: 08:45 – 12:37

• By the next morning, Arlach is actually murdered, and Easter is hauled in by the police.
  • The police accuse Easter of providing a fake alibi for Taber; ballistics link the murder weapon to Harriet’s gun (now in Dyke's desk).

    Sheriff: "...either Tabor used this gun on Arlac at 10 o'clock, then gave it to you, or you used it on Arlac yourself at midnight. Take your choice." [10:16]

• Easter insists on his innocence and sticks to the timeline that Arlach was alive after midnight.
• Police try to force Easter to reveal Taber’s whereabouts. He takes a beating but refuses to cooperate.

4. Chasing the Truth

Timestamps: 13:18 – 15:42

• Taber calls Easter in the middle of the night, arranging a clandestine meeting.
  • Easter is careful, aware it could be a trap, but goes anyway.
• At the hideout, Taber, on the verge of suicide, is shot by police. Taber dies with multiple bullets in his body, which will later prove significant ("seven slugs in him" [15:08]).
  • Dyke reflects, "I knew as much about the case as anybody else. With five cents." [15:13]

5. A Puzzling Body Count and a Lonely Heart

Timestamps: 16:50 – 24:15

• Easter can't reconcile how a man who supposedly died from six police bullets turns up with seven slugs in his body.
  • Dyke Easter: "I could spend two months getting a bullet hole in my shoulder heels and figure out how a man who gets hit by six police bullets comes out of a river with seven slugs in his body." [16:50]
• He investigates Harriet Taber’s background and tracks her to a rooming house, interacting with her and other tenants. Their encounters are tinged with loneliness, desperation, and unspoken truths.
• Harriet details her relationship with her late husband (Jim Taber) and business partner Max Arlach, shedding light on motives and past betrayals.
  • On being lonely:

    Harriet Taber: "I'm a widow now. Completely free. You'll think I'm bold. I'm lonely." [21:36]

  • On the murder:

    Harriet Taber: "Jim was forced out of the company, so he killed Max. Does that tell you anything?" [24:16]

6. The Final Twist: The Dead Return

Timestamps: 26:55 – 29:22

• In a surreal sequence, Easter witnesses Harriet leaving with Jim Taber—supposedly dead and already buried.
  • "The voice was Jim Taber’s...But Taber had been buried a month ago with seven slugs in his body...Now here before my eyes, Harriet had stepped into a car with him and they were getting away." [27:01]
• After a car chase, Jim Taber is finally killed for real by police, and in the chaos, all is revealed.

7. Resolution & Aftermath

Timestamps: 29:22 – 31:10

• Easter and Harriet exchange final words. Harriet will inherit her (now truly) late husband's share; Vern Pollard, the true villain, is revealed as the manipulator who orchestrated both murders and staged Jim Taber’s apparent earlier death.
  • Dyke Easter: "First, Vern and Arlach killed your husband at Arlach's house. Then Vern came to me and pretended to be Jim Taber, confessed Arlach's murder..." [29:40]
• Easter rejects payment, reflecting on the emotional and physical cost of detective work.
  • Dyke Easter: "You got money now. You think you can pay me for anything? The beatings and bullets in the shoulder and a few assorted scars. No, you can't pay me. Not with money." [30:43]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the detective’s worldview:

  Dyke Easter: "Murder is my business. You can cry on my shoulder or ask me to stop bullets with my teeth for $25 a day and what have I got to show for it? A few assorted scars, a broken knuckle, a two by four office, one desk, two chairs, one filing cabinet, a private detective's license and a telephone..." [01:11]

• Taber’s desperation:

  Harriet Taber: "You'll help me or I'll kill you too. I'd just as soon die for two as for one if you don't swear me I'm dying. I got a bad heart. I died." [04:42]

• On loneliness:

  Harriet Taber: "You made me feel pretty and desirable. But I'm not. Not really. I was the kind Jim wanted. Somebody he could rule. Not the kind who'd appeal to Max Arlington." [23:39]

• On closure as a detective:

  Dyke Easter: "Have you ever felt like something that crawled out from under a rock? No. You're lucky. I let her go...She'd never forgive me. Never gave you the brush off, eh?" [25:00] Dyke Easter: "Now I'm paid off. Mark the account square. Shut the book. Why not? I'm Dyke Easter. I work for pay. Murder is my business." [31:06]

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Client’s confession and case setup: 01:07 – 05:35
• Surprise: The ‘victim’ is alive: 05:35 – 08:09
• Murder discovered & police interrogation: 08:45 – 12:37
• Taber’s final call & fatal showdown: 13:18 – 15:42
• The seven bullets puzzle: 16:50 – 18:05
• Harriet’s backstory & unraveling of motives: 21:36 – 24:16
• Supernatural twist—Taber returns: 26:55 – 29:22
• Resolution & closure: 29:22 – 31:10

Tone & Style

The episode perfectly channels the snappy, hard-boiled dialogue and existential gloom of classic detective radio drama. The language is blunt, sardonic, and world-weary, reflecting Dyke Easter’s jaded perspective—“Murder is my business,” he often repeats, underscoring both his competence and cynicism.

Summary

“This Time For Creeps” is a moody, twist-filled detective drama where truth seems as elusive as justice. Dyke Easter is pulled into a web of deceit, double-crosses, and false leads as he hunts the real murderer behind a murder-that-wasn’t, and then was. With sharp banter, plot twists, a dose of existential loneliness, and a killer third-act reversal, this episode stands as a classic example of golden age radio storytelling.

Listeners are taken on a journey through lies, loneliness, and the blurred lines between victim and perpetrator—ending with a detective who, for all his effort, knows that some costs can't be paid in cash.