If you’re not subscribed to the OTRR’s Groups.io, you might have missed this notice from Joe Webb about a newly discovered episode of Indictment.
“Indictment 1956-07-15 Corpus Delicti AFRTS#26
https://archive.org/details/Indictment560715
Indictment was a groundbreaking series in the late 1950s. It was known for its real-life scripts and for employing an integrated cast that represented the ethnic diversity of the characters of the stories and New York City.
Indictment presented fictionalized accounts of real-life events as gathered and experienced by a former New York City (Manhattan) assistant district attorney Eleazar Lipsky. He was best known as a successful novelist, especially his work which became the film Kiss of Death (1947). Most scripts were written by radio veteran Allan Sloane (The Big Story and many others) with Lipsky’s consultation.
The Indictment series has been underappreciated. Surviving episodes had poor sound because they were likely home radio airchecks using consumer recorders. Some sound like they may have been done with a microphone in front of a speaker. Such sound, with its hum and tape noise made it difficult to appreciate the series and discouraged collectors from making Indictment a collectible and enjoyable pursuit.
This particular recording is from an AFRTS disc and is the cleanest sounding recording available and seems to be earliest in the series found so far. The series did not announce its titles, meaning that the first lines of scripts are the only reliable way to differentiate between broadcasts.
The disc was transferred by Mr. Douglas Hopkinson. The date and title was verified by researcher Karl Schadow from scripts archived at the Library of Congress.
Enjoy!”