Originally Aired: November 15, 1955
In Suspense #624, "Once a Murderer," Thomas Shaw finds himself trapped in a nightmare that begins when he and his foreman Bert discover the murdered body of a young woman named Anna Leeming in an empty shop. Shaw had been working at the location the previous day and had given the keys to a stranger in brown plus-fours who claimed to have leased the property. When the shop owner reveals he never leased the premises to anyone, Shaw's story becomes impossible to prove, and he becomes the prime suspect in an unsolved murder case.
For two years, Shaw endures relentless suspicion from police, neighbors, and potential employers. Even after he identifies a suspect matching his description of the stranger, the man provides an airtight alibi, leaving Shaw under a permanent cloud of doubt. Unable to find steady work and watching his wife Peggy suffer from the whispered accusations of their neighbors, Shaw reaches a breaking point. Desperate to end the torment destroying his family, he makes a fateful phone call to Chief Inspector Osburn with a shocking decision that could change everything.
