Originally Aired: March 27, 1956
Suspense #643, "The Murderess," stars Kathy Lewis as Marion, a woman consumed by dread as she counts down the final hours before Margaret Bailey's execution at 8 PM. Marion awakens determined to distract herself through the day, avoiding newspapers and radio broadcasts, yet she cannot escape reminders of the convicted killer everywhere she turns. When her cleaning woman Laura arrives, their conversation inevitably drifts to Mrs. Bailey's case, with Laura insisting the attractive widow must be innocent and speculating that "another woman" might be the real murderer, sitting somewhere laughing while Bailey faces death. Marion's anxiety intensifies when Laura discovers a hidden photograph of a man Marion claims is a disreputable cousin, though her extreme reaction suggests otherwise.
As the clock ticks relentlessly forward and Marion deflects her mother's innocent invitation to watch television at eight o'clock, the tension builds around Marion's mysterious connection to the case. Her obsessive time-checking, her inability to look at her own reflection without seeing the word "murderess," and her terror that Laura might remember where she's seen the man in the photograph all point toward a devastating secret that will be revealed when eight o'clock finally arrives.
