Originally Aired: October 14, 1948
Suspense #311, "A Little Piece of Rope," stars Lucille Ball as Isabel, a con artist who preys on wealthy older men by posing as an innocent schoolgirl. Her scheme is simple yet effective: she lets respectable gentlemen pick her up near exclusive schools, waits until they drive to a secluded location, then knocks them unconscious with a blackjack and steals their wallets. Her victims never report the crimes, too ashamed to admit they were pursuing what they believed was a young girl. Isabel has built a comfortable life from this racket, earning up to a thousand dollars a month while her landlady believes she's a sweet, invalid tenant who takes therapeutic walks.
Everything changes when Isabel targets Alexander Rice, a seemingly ordinary insurance salesman who picks her up near Miss Cadwaller's school. After knocking him out as usual, she discovers something horrifying in his wallet: newspaper clippings about an unsolved series of murders and a small piece of rope. Isabel realizes she has just robbed the notorious strangler who has killed five girls in the past year, always leaving them in the hills with rope around their necks. Now the hunter has become the hunted, and Isabel must figure out what to do with her deadly knowledge.
