Unsolved Mysteries - Chinaman's Cell

Summary

Episode Overview

Podcast: Harold's Old Time Radio
Episode: Unsolved Mysteries - Chinaman's Cell
Date: August 4, 2026
Theme:
This episode revisits a suspenseful tale from the golden age of radio, focusing on the supernatural and psychological mystery of "The Chinaman’s Cell" set in old Hawaii. The story explores themes of belief in ghosts, the power of suggestion, and the psychological methods once used in crime investigations.

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Key Discussion Points & Episode Breakdown

1. Setting the Scene: The Hawaiian Plantation (02:10)

• The story opens on a plantation bungalow on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, with guests relaxing and chatting amidst breathtaking scenery.
• Atmosphere: The host, Jim Ferguson, and his guests discuss ghosts and haunted houses, setting a tone of skepticism and intrigue.

2. The Secret Story: Personal Encounters with the Supernatural (02:39–03:36)

• Jim Ferguson and Betty hint at a personal experience involving the supernatural.
• Jim explains their reluctance to discuss the story, especially with local staff—suggesting cultural sensitivity to supernatural beliefs.

3. The Crime: The Plantation Theft (03:36–04:39)

• Jim Ferguson finds himself falsely accused of stealing from the plantation safe.
• The tension rises among plantation workers, and suspicion casts a shadow over Jim.
  • Quote:
    Sheriff (04:35): “I think you better come along with me, Mr. Jim Ferguson.”
• Jim is arrested and faces trial, his only supporter being Betty.

4. Behind Bars: A Sheriff’s Unusual Request (05:13–06:00)

• The Sheriff expresses doubts about Jim’s guilt and proposes he spend a night in the old, uncomfortable cell block.
• Instructions: Jim must stay silent, no matter what happens during the night.

5. The Haunted Cell: The Chinaman’s Cell (06:50–09:31)

• Guests and the sheriff discuss the "haunted" history of a particular cell (the Chinaman's cell), rumored to drive inmates to panic.
  • Sheriff (07:36): “There he is. In that cell next to the Chinaman’s cell.”
  • Betty (07:48): “What fun. A haunted cell.”
• Watkins, now a suspect, is dared to spend the night in the haunted cell.

Memorable Scene: The Apparition (08:40–09:22)

• Visual description: A ghostly, phosphorescent hand appears, carrying a lantern—with no visible arm or body—terrifying the prisoner.
  • Quote:
    Narrator (08:41): “A bluish, phosphorescent light moving slowly across the front of the cell. A lantern. Yes, a lantern. Carried by a yellowed, wrinkled hand. But there’s nothing else. No arm, no body. Only a hand.”
• As fear magnifies, the prisoner (Watkins) breaks down and confesses to the crime.
  • Unknown (09:22): “Let me out. Let me out. I’ll confess. I did it. I took the money. I’ll admit anything. Only let me out.”

6. The Solution & Rationalization (11:19–End)

• The narration jumps back to the guests at Jim’s bungalow. Betty and Jim explain the resolution:
  • Betty (11:19): “The sheriff didn’t really believe Jim guilty. Not after I told him that Watkins had been paying attention to me.”
  • Jim Ferguson (11:25): "Betty was certain that Watkins took the money to get me sent to jail and out of the way."
• The haunted cell was a psychological tool: a place associated with a tragic suicide, used by the sheriff to pressure confessions out of suspects.

Exploration of the Supernatural vs. Psychology (11:31–End)

• The group debates whether hauntings are real or the result of suggestibility.
  • Jim Ferguson (11:43): “By no means. All in all, the sheriff has obtained over 70 confessions that way. Even if the person put into the cell doesn’t know about the Chinaman suicide, it makes no difference. Apparently.”
• Jim references scientific papers:
  • Quote:
    Jim Ferguson (11:57): “While inquirers believe that the appearances are due to the agency of spirits of the dead, they usually suppose the method to be a telepathic impact on the mind of the living by some automatic projection from a consciousness which has its center elsewhere.”
  • He cites the Encyclopedia Britannica: some places are “centers of permanent possibilities of being hallucinated in a manner more or less uniform.”
• Jim affirms his belief, blending skepticism with direct experience:
  • Jim Ferguson (End): "I saw it working on Watkins and that's all the proof I need."

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• Narrator (02:10): “The scene is a wide flung plantation bungalow high up on the slopes of Mauna Kea in Hawaii... On the lanai of the bungalow facing the tennis courts, the guests are sitting watching the play.”
• Sheriff (07:36): “There he is. In that cell next to the Chinaman’s cell. Chinaman’s cell? Yep. It’s haunted.”
• Narrator (08:41): “A bluish, phosphorescent light moving slowly across the front of the cell. A lantern... Carried by a yellowed, wrinkled hand. But there's nothing else.”
• Unknown (09:22): “Let me out. Let me out. I'll confess. I did it. I took the money.”
• Betty (11:19): “The sheriff didn’t really believe Jim guilty. Not after I told him that Watkins had been paying attention to me.”
• Jim Ferguson (11:57):
  “While inquirers believe that the appearances are due to the agency of spirits of the dead, they usually suppose the method to be a telepathic impact on the mind of the living by some automatic projection from a consciousness which has its center elsewhere.”
• Jim Ferguson (End): “I saw it working on Watkins and that’s all the proof I need.”

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Significant Segments & Timestamps

• 02:10 – Hawaiian setting and story introduction
• 03:36 – Jim accused of theft
• 05:13 – Sheriff’s intervention, suggestion of haunted cell
• 06:50 – Guests debate hauntings, dare to spend night in cell
• 08:40 – Apparition and confession scene
• 11:19 – Resolution and explanation; debate on ghosts vs. psychology

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Episode Takeaways

• Blend of Supernatural and Psychological: The show illustrates how atmospheres steeped in local lore and the power of suggestion can elicit extreme reactions—even confessions—regardless of the “truth.”
• Methods in Early Crime Solving: The haunted cell serves as an unconventional police tool, blurring the line between fear, persuasion, and justice.
• Enduring Debate: Even in the closing discussions, the episode leaves the audience wondering: are some places truly haunted, or does the mind conjure what it most fears when primed?

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This dramatized mystery is characteristic of old-time radio, combining suspense, character interplay, and social commentary in an engaging, atmospheric way. It remains both a supernatural ghost story and a subtle exploration of human psychology.

Transcript

[Narrator]

Unsolved mysteries. Out of deference to people who may still be living, character names in some of these true unsolved mysteries have been changed. Make mad the guilty and appalled the free, confound the ignorant and amaze indeed the very faculties of eyes and ears. This quotation from Shakespeare's Hamlet could well have been written about tonight's unsolved mystery. The mystery of the Chinaman's cell.

[Jim Ferguson]

It.

[Betty]

Sam.

[Narrator]

The scene is a wide flung plantation bungalow high up on the slopes of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Far below the rolling slopes, the blue Pacific sparkles through the green of the palm trees above the volcano tints the cloudless sky in the reflected red from the crater, Hale Maumau Pele's house of everlasting fire. On the lanai of the bungalow facing the tennis courts, the guests are sitting watching the play. Their host, Jim Ferguson, turns to face them as their laughter dies down.

[Jim Ferguson]

Now, you fellows don't believe in haunted houses?

[Narrator]

Well, I don't, Jim. I believe that there's an explanation for everything.

[Betty]

Well, isn't a ghost an explanation for a haunted house?

[Sheriff]

So you have a champion, Jim.

[Jim Ferguson]

Are you really serious, Betty?

[Betty]

Yes, I'm serious. You see, both Jim and I have reason to believe in ghosts and haunted houses, haven't we, Jim?

[Jim Ferguson]

Not only reason to believe in them, but reason to thank them. Or him. Or it, depending upon how one feels inclined to refer to a ghost.

[Betty]

Well, why have we never heard of this before, Betty? Been keeping secrets from your school day chums, have you? Well, I never mention it in company because I don't like to remind Jim of it.

[Jim Ferguson]

And I avoid the subject because I don't like to have Betty thinking too much about it. You see, some of our Japanese help and the huff do for them to realize that their boss is a believer in the same sort of thing. Stupid reasoning, isn't it? But it seems to work that way. Now, don't go into a lengthy talk

[Sheriff]

on keeping up appearances just to sidetrack

[Jim Ferguson]

our inquiries about this haunted house. Oh, but it isn't a haunted house.

[Betty]

Well, what is it then?

[Jim Ferguson]

I suppose I'd better tell them.

[Betty]

You might as well, since you've managed to get yourself in as deeply as you have.

[Jim Ferguson]

Well, when I first came out to the islands, things were a good bit different. No electric lights in the plantation houses, no automobiles. Everyone rode horseback and going visiting was an adventure. I was auditor at one of the bigger plantations and Betty was teaching school.

[Sheriff]

We.

[Jim Ferguson]

Well, we were rather fond of one another. Even at that early stage in the proceedings. One Monday morning I arrived down at the mill to find an excited group. Japanese, Portuguese, Hawaiians, everybody standing.

[Unknown Bystander]

What's up?

[Narrator]

What's the matter?

[Jim Ferguson]

What Pilikia tell me.

[Unknown Bystander]

Plenty trouble.

[Narrator]

Got someone breaking the store and stealing money.

[Jim Ferguson]

The dickens you say.

[Sheriff]

Hey, wait a minute there. Who are you? Where are you going?

[Jim Ferguson]

I'm the auditor. Oh, hello there.

[Sheriff]

Mr. Watkins, the manager. Mr. Watkins here tells me that you're the only man who has access to the safe.

[Jim Ferguson]

But I'm not. Mr. Watkins has access to the safe. How dare you. What do you mean by implying that

[Narrator]

I stole the money?

[Jim Ferguson]

Didn't you imply that I stole it when you told the sheriff that I was the only one who had access to the safe? You've got keys to the safe too.

[Narrator]

But my keys are in the safe.

[Sheriff]

I think you better come along with me, Mr. Jim Ferguson. All right, come along.

[Narrator]

See you later, Mr. Watkins. Off to jail marches Jim Ferguson. A preliminary hearing decides that he must stand trial. Time drags by on leaden feet and times passing is made less bearable by the knowledge that everyone on the plantation believes Jim Ferguson guilty. Everyone, that is, but Betty. And one night, quite late, Jim hears the clanging of the outer gate and hollow ring of footsteps approaching down the long stone flagged corridor leading to his cell.

[Betty]

Why, Betty, not so loud, dear. The Sheriff wants to talk to you.

[Jim Ferguson]

Oh, yes, Sheriff.

[Sheriff]

Young fellow, I don't know whether or not you're guilty.

[Betty]

No, he's not. I know he's not.

[Jim Ferguson]

Well, thanks, Betty.

[Sheriff]

Well, it's as I say, I don't know. But I have my doubts. I want you to do something for me.

[Jim Ferguson]

I'll do anything. Anything at all.

[Sheriff]

All right. I want you to change cells. I want to put you in the old cell block. It's damp and uncomfortable, but it'll only be for one night.

[Jim Ferguson]

But what's the idea?

[Betty]

Please do as the sheriff asks, Jim.

[Jim Ferguson]

All right.

[Sheriff]

And one other thing. I don't want you to open your mouth tonight. Don't say a word.

[Jim Ferguson]

I'm not likely to. There isn't anyone to talk to.

[Sheriff]

But I'm having some guests visiting the prison in a few moments. Friends of yours? And that's why I'm warning you, no matter what happens, don't you say one word.

[Narrator]

I won't.

[Sheriff]

Come on then. We gotta hurry. In here.

[Jim Ferguson]

Well, it is cold and damp here.

[Betty]

Well, goodbye for now, Jim.

[Narrator]

Goodbye, dear.

[Sheriff]

Come on, Miss Betty. They'll be here any moment.

[Narrator]

Puzzled as to what the Sheriff has in mind, Jim Ferguson stands in his cell, gripping the Bars and staring out into the moon. Flooded jail yard. Beyond the high jail wall, a group of Hawaiians strum their ukuleles while the sheriff and Betty stand on the jail steps, awaiting the arrival of their guests. Well, there we are, Sheriff.

[Sheriff]

Come right into the jail. There's got to be a first time for everything, you know. How many prisoners, Sheriff? Eleven.

[Betty]

Is that all?

[Sheriff]

We don't have much crime here. We only built this new block because the old one is uncomfortable, not because we needed more room. How old is the old block? About 70 years. It's built of blocks of lava. Now, here's where we go through the lock. All clear.

[Betty]

Oh. All the doors open at one time now.

[Sheriff]

Now step inside.

[Narrator]

I thought you were coming with me.

[Jim Ferguson]

With us, Betty.

[Betty]

The sheriff asked me. I hated to refuse.

[Jim Ferguson]

You go back with me.

[Betty]

Let's wait and see.

[Sheriff]

You see? It's really quite a comfortable jail. Jails go. Now we go through this way to the old cell block.

[Jim Ferguson]

Anyone in there now?

[Sheriff]

Yep. Jim Ferguson.

[Betty]

Oh, let's go in and see him.

[Sheriff]

There he is. In that cell next to the Chinaman's cell. Chinaman's cell? Yep. It's haunted.

[Narrator]

Whoever heard of a cell being haunted?

[Sheriff]

This one is.

[Betty]

What fun. A haunted cell.

[Narrator]

What rubbish. I'm surprised at you, Sheriff, believing in that stuff.

[Sheriff]

Perhaps no one yet's been able to stay a night in it.

[Jim Ferguson]

Imagination. Pure imagination.

[Betty]

Dare you to go in.

[Jim Ferguson]

Who, me?

[Betty]

Yes, dare you to. I'll let you take me to the dance Saturday if you do.

[Narrator]

That's a bargain.

[Jim Ferguson]

All right, Sheriff, open her up.

[Narrator]

I'm not afraid of your ghost.

[Sheriff]

I'm warning you.

[Jim Ferguson]

Rot.

[Sheriff]

Open.

[Narrator]

Watkins steps into the Chinaman's cell. The guests turn and leave. The moon sinks until only a slender beam of ghostly light shines over the empty jail yard. In a moment, that, too is gone. Blackness, walls, cell, bars, passageway, all merge into one black, yawning void. What was that? Watkins starts and peers into the darkness.

[Jim Ferguson]

A light.

[Narrator]

A bluish, phosphorescent light moving slowly across the front of the cell. A lantern. Yes, a lantern. Carried by a yellowed, wrinkled hand. But there's nothing else. No arm, no body. Only a hand. A hand that lays the lantern down. Twisted, gnarled, crooked fingers. Yellow fingers, ghostly fingers reaching out.

[Sheriff]

Out.

[Jim Ferguson]

Let me out.

[Narrator]

Let me out. They've gone. Left me alone.

[Unknown Bystander]

Help. Let me out.

[Narrator]

It's coming closer. Twisting, groping.

[Unknown Bystander]

Let me out. Let me out. I'll confess. I did it. I took the money. I'll admit anything. Only let me out. Let me out. Let me out.

[Narrator]

In just a moment you will hear a solution to the mystery of the Chinaman's cell. Sam. Sa. Ladies and gentlemen. Inasmuch as any solution must of necessity be supposition, liberties of time, place and character exist in the solution for which you have been waiting. We returned to the lanai before Jim Ferguson's house where the guest await an explanation that certainly wasn't experience.

[Betty]

You see, the sheriff didn't really believe Jim guilty. Not after I told him that Watkins had been paying attention to me.

[Jim Ferguson]

Betty was certain that Watkins took the money to get me sent to jail and out of the way.

[Betty]

But the Chinaman's cell? I don't understand it.

[Jim Ferguson]

The sheriff told us that a Chinaman guilty of murder and waiting execution hanged himself in that cell. What of it? Well, anytime the sheriff wanted to get a confession, he placed his suspect in that cell and before long they were shrieking to get out.

[Betty]

Oh, so yours wasn't the only experience.

[Jim Ferguson]

By no means. All in all, the sheriff has obtained over 70 confessions that way. Even if the person put into the cell doesn't know about the Chinaman suicide, it makes no difference. Apparently.

[Betty]

But there must be a logical explanation.

[Jim Ferguson]

Let me read you extracts from the papers of the Society for psychical research. Volume 15, page 64. While inquirers believe that the appearances are due to the agency of spirits of the dead, they usually suppose the method to be a telepathic impact on the mind of the living by some automatic projection from a consciousness which has its center elsewhere. I end the quotation. But here's an interesting remark in the Encyclopedia Britannica. The cases abundantly offered in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research suggest that certain localities more than others are centers of permanent possibilities of being hallucinated in a manner more or less uniform. So by Jove, even science admits the so called ghost. Yes, and even if science didn't, I do. I saw it working on Watkins and that's all the proof I need.