You are about to hear a story based on actual events.
To protect the innocent, names and places have been changed.
Auto Light and its 96,000 dealers bring you Miss Agnes Moorhead in a story taken from
life.
Tonight's presentation of Suspense.
Tonight Auto Light presents the evil of Adelaide Winters, a story about the awful results of
a woman's greed starring Miss Agnes Moorhead.
Well there's Stanley Smart, the brainy boss of our bustling baseball club.
What's the matter Stan, battery trouble?
Yeah, Hollow, I forgot to fill my battery with water and it's dead as a cellar dwellers
pen and chances.
Oh, why not farm it out in favor of an Auto Light Stay Full battery, the battery that
needs water only three times a year in normal car use.
Lots on the ball, eh Hollow?
Ah, sure has Stan, because the famous Auto Light Stay Full has over three times the liquid
reserve of batteries without Stay Full features.
And that advantage alone helps overcome one of the greatest causes of battery failure.
Sounds like just what I need, Hollow.
I Stan the Auto Light Stay Full is tops, independent starting power and gives longer life as proved
by tests conducted according to accepted life cycle standards.
Oh, lead me to it Hollow.
Just call Western Union by number and ask for operator 25.
She'll quickly and without obligation tell you the name and address of your nearest Auto
Light battery dealer who handles the famous Auto Light Stay Full.
The battery that needs water only three times a year in normal car use.
And remember from bumper to tail light, you're always right with Auto Light.
And now with the evil of Adelaide winters and the performance of Miss Agnes Moorhead,
Auto Light hopes once again to keep you in suspense.
I am grateful for any chance to tell my story to explain my position in the entire horrible
affair.
Since the doctors finally removed the bullet from the base of my skull, I'm able to speak.
For over six years, my body has been paralyzed and I have had to remain silent.
But now I can speak.
You wait.
You weigh all the facts about whether I did Edward Porter more harm than good.
The war years had made the work of astral communicators mediums.
They'd made our work important and necessary.
We believe it's as necessary as life itself to believe in life after death, especially
during a war when people's loved ones are dying.
It's important mediums bring courage to despair.
Did you get all the newspapers?
Yeah, Adelaide, I got them all.
Read me the list.
Now, for the week of July 8th, the War Department announces the following members of the Army
listed as dead.
PFC Thomas...
Just those missing in action, Robert, please.
Oh, Adelaide, I still don't like it.
It doesn't make much difference if you like it.
Now, look, I taught you everything about this medium racket.
Oh, yes, you taught about tin horns blowing and faces painted with phosphorescent coloring.
You taught me a series of Halloween tricks.
Carnival mumbo jumbo.
I made it pay, Robert.
I made it a science.
You took them from me.
I didn't need them.
I have insight.
You don't.
I know about people's superstition and desperation.
I can read people's weaknesses.
Did you teach me those things?
You?
You don't know anything.
Not even your own weakness.
You're a terrible weakness.
Adelaide, don't...
You need me, Robert.
I don't need you.
I did once, but not now, not anymore.
Go ahead.
Go ahead, walk out.
Walk out the front door.
Please don't talk like that.
Adelaide, you know I'd never leave you.
Of course I do.
But, look, haven't we made enough?
All the people we've taken so far...
Help, Robert.
That's why you've never been a successful medium.
We haven't taken or used anyone.
We've helped them.
Rich old dowagers who are on their last legs anyway.
People with nothing but time and dough to waste.
People who've lost their loved ones, the bereaved and despairing.
We give them hope.
The widows and weeping mothers.
We bring them contact with their loved ones who've died on some distant battlefield.
I don't know, I wish I understood you.
I wish I knew what you want.
I want money and happiness, and they are the same.
But we've got money.
Not enough.
Read me the list of those missing in action, Robert, and their addresses and their phone
numbers, please.
PFC Timothy Aldington, 927 North King Avenue, Cutler Nine...
It's not a good neighborhood.
Oh, Adelaide, would it be simple to just contact the relatives of the men who were killed?
Wouldn't it be easier to work them?
No, I told you, no.
With a man missing in action, who's to say my information about how or if he died is
right or wrong?
Who?
Not even the War Department, not even the men who are supposed to know.
Continue, Robert.
All right.
Staff Sergeant Abe Feynman, 826 East 32nd Street.
That's a very poor district.
People are poor.
I see.
Corporal John Porter, 1438 Williamsburg Road, Hammer 4...
That one.
Call that one, Robert.
Use that phone.
I'll listen in on this one.
All right.
Hello?
Is this Mr. Porter?
Yes.
Corporal John Porter's...
Father, I'm his father.
What is it?
This is the Ward apartment.
You found him.
I'd almost given up hope, but you found my son alive.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
proprietary authority.
You're finally going to run away and surrender towing all your lives.
You told me to keep silent.
Can we get in touch with the program?
Please let me and Juatari out before the end of the day...
It's kind of strange, isn't it?
Then what about a demonstration?
But at the same time...
Where is Edward Porter?
Edward Porter?
Tak out my son, and you found my son alive?
Your son is dead, Mr. Porter.
Mr. Porter, não-p blood Vなんだ smoothια
Great.
많은
바� TOA
For how long?
Edward Porter...
That was his name, Edward.
The father he didn't know.
And even though he was skeptical, when I telephoned him, he came to my office,
skeptically, but in desperation.
Don't you see? He came to my office with the hope he'd find his dead son.
I usually never come to these things.
You don't believe in them, Mr. Porter.
I don't know. I knew once, I don't know now.
Well, it's difficult to know anything for certain in moments like this.
I've been a realist all my life.
Yes, well, so have I.
I'm a successful businessman.
I've always dealt with facts. Facts and figures.
Well, this is real, Mr. Porter.
Maybe. I mean, I don't know.
What you really mean is you hope so. You hope it's true.
You hope it's real.
Yes. Yes, that's it. I hope it's real.
That it's not a racket.
Rackets are only out for money.
Well, I will want money, Mr. Porter. I must live, too.
But I only want your money if I've helped you.
Do you understand?
Only if I've made the life of the astral world, of the life beyond this one,
only if I've made it bring happiness to you.
You're a good woman, Mrs. Wittes. A good woman.
We shall start, Mr. Porter, with the lights on.
With all things visible to you.
We shall start.
What could Edward Porter turn to?
His friends?
They all had their own problems, the same kind or different, but problems.
Could he turn to his work? Didn't mean anything anymore.
Or his money?
He had only gathered it for his son, his only son, his only child, and that child was dead.
Only I could help.
And we tried for seven days to make contact with his son.
Seven days devoted exclusively to Edward Porter.
I hear...
I... I hear the faint sounds of guns firing.
Yes, it's very distant.
Very distant.
I can't quite...
Yes, there's a face.
I... I cannot... I cannot see the face.
A voice. Yes, there's a voice.
It was terrible the way I died.
Who? Who is it?
Is it John? John, is it you?
A voice.
You speak.
We're friends.
I was afraid of dying.
But now, here, now it is beautiful.
Dying is hard, but death is beautiful.
Please, please, who?
John. I am John.
It is John, Father.
A voice. Thank heavens.
Father, I must leave. Do not lose me.
No, John, stay. Please, stay.
Do not lose me.
John, dear son, my son.
Mrs. Winters.
Oh, we've reached him, Mr. Porter.
We've reached your son.
Thank you, Mrs. Winters. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Some say I should have known.
Some say I made him ill, that the shock...
Well, that it affected him.
But I say it would have happened anyway, because he had nothing to hold on to.
Nothing. I gave him something.
You may disagree with the astral science.
You may, that you're right.
But who else did Edward Porter any good when his son was killed in combat?
Who else brought him any comfort for that horrible, horrible thing?
I did. Only I.
Maybe that's why he would sit for extra hours, waiting.
Not just for a seance, for me.
I had brought him happiness.
Mrs. Winters.
Come in, come in, Mr. Porter.
Oh, I've helped so many people today. So many.
But that's my dedication. Anyone who needs help.
Maybe too many.
Why did you say that? Why too many? How could I possibly help too many?
Never mind. Let's begin.
You're acting unusual today, Mr. Porter.
Is something wrong?
I mean, is there a new problem I can help you with?
I said begin. No talk. Begin.
Oh, now see here, Mr. Porter, I offer my services.
I give freely of my services to help others.
But after all, that doesn't give license to you or anyone else.
Well, even you. I mean, considering the amount of sessions we've had.
I know. But it doesn't even give you a right to talk like that.
Did you hear me, Mr. Porter? Mr. Porter?
I can't stand your spending so much time with others.
It's my work.
Mrs. Winters, I want all your time.
That's quite impossible and quite expensive.
I can afford it. I must be with my son more.
We'd be pestered all day long by other clients, Mr. Porter.
They'd keep coming.
I know. I realize.
And McBain, my assistant, he's always been with me.
Bring him, both of you. Live in my home. It's a huge house.
Since my wife died years ago.
But you know all that. Since she died.
Yes, I know.
Now, my son.
I know.
I need your help.
You can bring my son to me. You must. You must.
Well, I would be failing mankind if I didn't.
I would be failing my duty.
Of course, Edward. Of course.
Auto Light is bringing you Miss Agnes Moorhead
with Joseph Kearns and Herb Butterfield in
The Evil of Adelaide Winters.
Tonight's production in radio's outstanding theater of thrills
Suspense.
Well, that's the old ball game.
Congratulations, Stan.
Never could have managed it without that pitcher, Harlow.
You mean Ace McDougall?
No, my new Auto Light staple.
That's the power pitcher for perfect starts.
What a battery.
Oh, you visited your Auto Light battery dealer, eh, Stan?
Yes, sir. And I found his name by calling Western Union and asking for operator 25.
Well, you're set now because the Auto Light staple needs water only three times a year in normal car use.
And what's more, it gives longer life as proved by tests conducted according to accepted life cycle standards.
It can't beat that winning compilation.
No, sir, Harlow.
Right you are. So friends, see your nearest Auto Light battery dealer soon.
To quickly learn his address, call Western Union by number and ask for operator 25.
Without obligation, she will tell you where you can buy an Auto Light staple.
The battery that proves you're always right with Auto Light.
And now, Auto Light brings back to our Hollywood sound stage, Miss Agnes Moorhead in Elliot Lewis's production of
The Evil of Adelaide Winters, a dramatic report well calculated to keep you in
suspense.
Why should I think there was anything wrong in moving into Edward Porter's huge home?
It was a beautiful new home for his son.
But now his son was dead in the war and I was bringing his son to him.
Making Edward Porter think the life his son had gone to was really a better life, a fuller life, a happier life.
Maybe that should have been my warning.
Maybe I should have known.
But the money was so wonderful.
The house was so beautiful.
The money in house for a dead man's voice once a day.
Only Robert McBain warned against it.
I just picked up the mail. There's a letter for you.
Me? A letter for me here?
War Department.
You opened it. You opened my mail.
It's addressed to Porter, but it's for you.
What was it? What did it say?
Yeah, read it yourself.
Seems the government doesn't like mediums posing as the War Department.
Who could have told them about me?
Well, they don't mention any names.
But they say mediums have been contacting the parents of war casualties.
I've done that. They must be me.
Well, what difference does it make? We've taken Porter for enough.
You shut up.
I'm warning you, Adelaide. I can see it. You can't.
I can see his eyes when you walk past him.
It's time to lay off, to get out.
Oh, no. Oh, no, Robert.
You would like that.
You'd like me to run to leave all this.
Well, I won't.
Because I'm going to marry Edward Porter.
Mar...
Oh, you can't. You wouldn't.
Oh, Adelaide, I've worked for you. I've loved you.
I've hung around because I loved you.
And you can still hang around, Robert.
No. No, not now. Not now. I won't.
Getting brave again, Robert?
This is a comfortable life, just being a dead man's voice.
Going to throw it over for love?
I'm not marrying for love.
Why should you throw all this away for love?
Did he ask you to marry him?
Speak up, Robert. I can't hear you.
I said, did he ask you to marry him?
No, but he will.
Oh, you're awfully sure of yourself about everything?
Of course he'll ask me.
Because he must hold on to me.
I'm the only person who can bring his son to him every day, like a clock.
Like a stopwatch.
Like a pistol shot.
Something's wrong with him. I'm warning you.
Yes, I can bring his son to him like a stopwatch, Robert.
Even now, I say no one, no one could have foreseen the events.
I'm sure of that.
As sure as I am that no one would have acted any differently than I did.
As little by little I became the most important thing, the only thing in Edward Porter's life.
The only thing beside a voice he worshipped.
Yes, worshipped.
Could any woman refuse such adoration?
Such love?
John sounded happy, Adelaide.
What? What, Edward?
I said he sounded happy.
Happier than I've ever heard him.
Yes, they are happy in that other world.
How wonderful to feel happy again.
To feel hopeful.
To share your life with someone, yes.
To share it with you.
Edward.
John didn't say much today.
That isn't like him.
He's always talkative.
I wonder if I've been saying the right things to him, Adelaide.
You speak of him as if he's like us.
Isn't he?
Well, of course we're all one spirit.
Of course he's like us.
But we have a life on this world to live before the other one.
We have so much to live for.
Can it compare to the other world beyond the grave?
Why, no, but we must wait our time.
We cannot ignore this life.
We are in it.
We must live as best we can.
I don't know if I ever could without John.
This was built for my son.
But you haven't lost him.
Through me you regained John.
That's why all this is yours, Adelaide.
Well, I'm only a kind of employee.
Don't say that, John.
I'm paid a salary.
You're not an employee.
Well, am I more?
Like a member of the family.
Like, but not actually.
There's a great difference between like and actually.
You're the family, you and John and I.
You and I.
John is a spirit now.
You and John and I, one family, one unit again.
I'm not your wife.
You speak like I'm your wife.
I'm not, Edward.
Not at all.
You will be my wife.
My dear, my wonderful wife.
Edward.
Kind, sweet Edward.
My husband, Edward.
I said something odd here, now, with us.
No, Edward, no, darling.
Like we were with John for the first time.
As if we were with John.
No, Edward.
It's not that.
Like he wanted us to share our happiness with him.
Like he wanted us to be with him.
I was terrified.
I'd never seen it before, a reaction like his.
Well, once, a woman, she just disappeared one day.
She'd lost her husband and two children in an automobile accident
and I calmed her down in seances, talking to her dead family,
making them seem real.
Then one day she just disappeared and left a note.
She said she was going to join them.
He's sick.
He's dangerous, Adelaide.
You're trying to intimidate me.
He doesn't know what's real or not.
You're jealous again.
I'm trying to tell you how dangerous it is.
How dangerous, Robert?
I don't know exactly.
Will he turn me over to the police?
There's more, something more.
Will he demand his money back?
The money's paid me.
Oh, I don't know.
The money means nothing to him.
He's losing his reason, his...
What?
How?
Don't generalize, be specific.
If you're as smart as you say you are, you ought to run.
Not until I have all of this.
You can walk out that front door.
Now, with me.
I have to stay and get what I worked for.
It's mine.
You're scared.
I won't leave.
Not for anything, not until I'm married to him.
You're really frightened.
You're just putting on an act.
Nothing can make me leave.
Nothing.
Nothing, nothing.
You know I'm right.
Please, please, Adelaide, you know...
You're a coward.
Adelaide, you're a coward.
Coward.
I should have listened to Robert's warning.
I should have.
But how could I take the advice of a man I didn't respect?
How?
I couldn't even accept Robert's advice when Edward Porter canceled the seances for one
entire day.
Even though he was with me every minute of those 24 hours.
Even when he sat in a chair in my room while I slept.
Not speaking, just watching.
Always watching.
Even then I couldn't admit Robert was right.
I had to be right.
I had always been right.
Even though I barely slept, I was afraid to sleep.
So terribly afraid.
Even then I couldn't admit Robert was right.
That Edward Porter was past my control.
Adelaide.
I'm not asleep, Edward.
I thought you were.
I've been watching you for hours.
And I've been watching you too, Edward.
I couldn't sleep.
So very strange.
Have I?
Like you didn't trust me.
Oh, but I do, I do, my dear.
My dear Adelaide.
I trust you more than I've ever trusted any human being I've known.
Well, what's wrong?
What's bothering you?
How much does this mean to you?
Our marriage?
This house.
Nothing without you, Edward.
And my money?
Only something to share with you.
Nothing more?
Nothing.
You're my life.
And you're mine.
You and John.
Both of you.
Why do you keep saying that?
What?
About John.
John is dead, Edward.
He's waiting, but he's not with us.
Not really.
What does John mean to you?
A son.
Your son and mine.
You love him as I love him.
I told you that.
Edward.
Why do we have to wait?
Edward, I don't understand.
Why must we keep him waiting?
You can't be serious.
You said this world, this material world, meant nothing without me.
No, Edward.
No, this is our world.
This is the one we live in.
What is there to wait for?
This is a place of evil and sin and corruption.
You said so.
You've shown me that.
Edward.
Edward, that gun.
Put it away.
You've shown me the beautiful world that lies beyond the grave.
It was exaggerated.
I mean, under strain and upset, things get distorted.
We see what we want to.
Don't you understand?
It's not perfect beyond.
It isn't.
Don't say that.
You taught me faith.
Don't lose faith now.
Don't be afraid of leaving this world.
It's the only world, the only one.
There is no astral world beyond.
None.
It was a lie.
I only wanted money and position.
Believe me, only money and position, and the rest was a lie.
John's voice, a lie?
John's voice, my own son's voice?
I know his voice in a crowd in eternity.
I know his voice.
I'll show you.
I'll show you it was a lie.
Robert McBain, he's in his room.
Come on.
Come to his room, Edward.
Come back here, Adelaide.
It's a lie.
It's a lie, Robert.
He'll tell you.
There's no life beyond.
You'll tell...
Robert, tell him that...
You'll tell...
Robert!
Robert, where are you?
Oh, no!
The coward, the coward he left!
It was a lie!
There's no life beyond.
Don't be afraid.
Stop, Edward!
Stop!
You're insane!
John?
These years it's been just lying here, not able to talk, to tell my side of it.
But now it's out.
Now you know.
You judge.
You judge whether I did harm.