Title: Murders in Wax
Air date: May 15, 1938
Plot summary: Patrons at a wax museum admire the display showing the capture of crime boss George Keegan. It's a pretty impressive display, showing Keegan the crime lord being handcuffed while the mayor, the DA, Commissioner Weston, and Keegan's moll Edna Kelly look on. Then the Edna Kelly statue slips off its chair—because it isn't a statue! It's the corpse of the real Edna Kelly, who has been murdered!
The Edna Kelly wax figure is discovered with a slash across its cheek which is symbolic of squealers. Commissioner Weston thinks that someone in the underworld might believe that Keegan has turned informant and decides to interview the usual suspects, but The Shadow disagrees. The Shadow thinks that the killer is after the people in the museum's wax display, and he is proven right when the dead body of District Attorney Armstrong is found in the display just like Edna's. The Shadow thinks the likely culprit is Warden Drisgel at the local penitentiary where George Keenan is being held, because Drisgel is widely believed to be corrupt, and the people in the wax display are his political enemies.
Tropes:
- Dead Guy on Display: The corpses of Edna Kelly and DA John Armstrong are put up for display in the wax museum.
- Extra! Extra! Read All About It!: Newspaper vendors hawk papers with stories about the wax museum murder.
- Famous, Famous, Fictional: The wax museum shows displays of Bluebeard (the famous folk tale), Custer's last stand, and George Keegan's arrest.
- Old-Fashioned Rowboat Date: Another data point for the "Lamont Cranston and Margo Lane are sleeping together" argument: Lamont is rowing Margo on a lake somewhere when Margo, who was at the wax museum when Edna Kelly was discovered, tells him the story.
- Police Are Useless
- Apparently Commissioner Weston didn't think to have his men stake out the wax museum, which allowed Keegan to dump a second body there.
- The cops that grab Keegan at the end completely miss a second gun on his person, which he whips out and uses to kill Drisgel.
- Sleeping Dummy: Warden Drisgel arranges for Keenan's bed to be "stuffed with pillows" while Keegan sneaks out of prison to kill people.
- Wax Museum Morgue: Sort of. It isn't a deranged artist displaying waxed corpses instead of statues, it's a deranged killer removing the statues and replacing them with corpses.
