 Welcome, Weirdos. I'm Darren Marlar and this is Retro Radio, old-time radio in the dark, presented by Weird Darkness. Each week I bring you a show from the golden age of radio, but still in the genre of Weird Darkness. I'll have stories of the macabre and horror, mysteries and crime, and even some dark science fiction. If you're new here, welcome to the show and be sure to subscribe or follow the podcast so you don't miss future episodes. And if you're already a member of this Weirdo family, please take a moment and invite someone else to listen in with you. Spreading the word about the show helps it to grow. If you're here because you're already a fan of nostalgic audio and print, you'll want to email WeirdDarkness at RadioArchives.com. When you do that, you'll get an instant reply with links to download full-length pulp audiobooks, pulp e-books and old-time radio shows for free. That's WeirdDarkness at RadioArchives.com. Coming up, it's an episode from The Witch's Tale, entitled Boa Goddess. Originally aired October 5, 1931. And so popular, they re-aired the episode on July 31, 1933, at March 18, 1937. One of the earliest horror series ever aired, The Witch's Tale was a much-loved radio program for New York kids during its time, which is from 1931 to 1938. The show's host was known as Old Nancy, The Witch of Salem, played by Adelaide Fitz-Allen in the beginning, along with her cat called Satan. Due to its popularity, The Witch's Tale was attempted to be adapted into a television series. However, despite the efforts to do so, it did not happen. Probably just ahead of its time, it would likely fit in very nicely with the creepy kid shows of today. Nevertheless, this radio series is one of the most remembered. Now, bolt your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights, and come with me into the Weird Darkness as we listen to The Witch's Tale and Boa Goddess. Now, go up to the fire and go into the living room. Go into the room, and soon you'll see a land of jungle. We're going into Mexico to a place called Yucatán, where the grass and vines is so sick and cold that all cities are in among them. The old Yucatán is long before the white man came. So we're going to hear three white men talking in the jungle, and we so begin our yarn about the Boa Goddess. The Boa Goddess. hahaha It ought to be a card into that picture right in Merián gave me hold up the torch. That's your I don't see no flat tawning it, but you said we go to find if that girl had only come along the shores, we wouldn't have to fool around like this. You and being among these young, long enough to know they are women. You cannot come on secret. Go on, She's the high priest's daughter. You take a chance on the taboo, especially with a lovin' me the way she does. She has taken chance enough as it is. You'll find you at his feet and get a raise until you're younger. You'll know it was by year eight. Then, her life will be. Look, whatever, it's only a squaw. Still, Marianne has a cute little trick at that. You've got such a sense of humor, Morgan. Every time you call that Indian girl Marianne, I got you love. Shut up, you swore. You think you'd be on fine if you know what happened? Keep your shirt on, Frenchy. It is kind of comical, Dutch. But I call all my girls Marianne, and not being able to speak this one's lingo, I don't know a real moniker anyway. Why a big girl for you? We're safe enough. Every man in the village is out in the jungle for that ceremony they're holding. Yes. It's your money, and it proves how much they are to fear. So, out there tonight? Then you let a boy constrict a crush on a man to death. Listen. Three beats on the door. Don't mean they're getting ready to kill that fellow now. God, if my folks back in Jersey knew their darling boy was living among a bunch of Yucatan and he's who just made sacrifices to snakes, they'd turn over in their graves. After three months among them, it is still difficult for me to realize that we have found a lost tribe of Aztecs. Leaving as their father is, it's undone we have to go. It was lucky they found lost and they killed. Another day lost in that bush, we both have been dead. That is what makes me dislike this thing we do tonight. These people save our lives. They took us in, and now we plan to rob them. I hope French people in all of Devil's Island ain't develop a sense of gratitude all of a sudden. And we have self-time on Devil's Island, Morgan. But I like you and not want to be naked or for murder. That's because you never had the nerve enough to kill a man your yellow stomach. You're not going to talk to that guy. Morgan, French, we cannot quarrel. You're right, Dutch. When we get what's underneath them free flat stones, it'll take all three of us to fight our way back to civilization through that bush. Ah, forget it, Frenchie. You're sure you'll find them or else in the temple. I've already shown you the little ones Mary Ann gave me, and she's told me in her sign language there's big ones where we're don't. You need to and not get all three of us and we get, as you say, to make us sleep. I wonder what Dutch can do, I've heard about them. What do you stop that? Look, Morgan, Frenchie, here is free flat stones. This is the place, we found it. Now don't try to listen, there's a trick to it. She showed me in the picture writing, you push the stone in the middle. French, I got it. Look at that. A passage here to open. There are temples underneath. Come on, down these stairs. French, I do not like these things. What's the matter? I don't know. You give me feeling that I'm standing here. I feel something for me too. Ah, both of you are so yellow. Give me that torch. I'm going down these stairs. You can't call me yellow. Dan, prove you're not. Come on. It is dark down here. Morgan, hold your torch. We don't need it in a minute. According to Mary and this passage, take the sudden bend into the temple proper, where the fire is always burning. Yeah, here it is. It is light. Yeah, it is temperate. Almost here. My God, good Lord. Up the stairs, where are I? French, before it's white. White, poor dumb idiot. It's only a statue. A statue? Yeah. But it had me going for a minute. It's so natural looking. I thought it was a real honest to God snake coiled up the strike. He knows. It is an idol. The image of the boy. Oh, look at that torch, Morgan. It's torn. It has a woman face. Mary and told me the truth. The idols' eyes are emeralds. These are ones that I have ever seen. And where is it that joins the woman's face? There is a necklace. More emeralds. You shall be read. Read. Millionaires. Let me climb up there and get them. Say, what was that? A drum. It sounded as if he touched a deer. Ah, there ain't no one with a drum in here. This is just a big bare room. It is okay. It is a warning. You're in a secret, please. You must not defile the holy image. Hand me your knife, Dutch. What are you going to do? Cut off that necklace and pry loose them emeralds. No, no, no, no. Ah, that's what we came here for, you fool. Here goes. Again that drum. Morgan, come here. It can't be fallen as if you take those stars. Big Morgan, there is something for me in this place. I'll go when I get these stars. No, no, no. It's all right. I got them. Look, those are from the idols. Big as eggs. I'm red. I'm red. Let's get out of here, queen. All right. I've got all I want now. And I'm a millionaire. A millionaire. All these stars. Let's get the prize. Listen. I mean it. It comes from inside the snake itself. The structure in time. Yes. The inside. Like we had it in the bush outside. It means the boa goddess will take soon a human sacrifice. A used guy is wine like a pair of old women. We got away from the Indians all right, didn't we? And with another day's chopping, we'll be out of this jungle of safe and civilization. Forget that story about a curse and something folly in us. We are not out of this jungle yet. There is something folly in us, Morgan. I feel it all about it in the bush. There's something I know is death. Oh yeah, grandmother. I am like French. I did not like to storm me. Then he left the temple. Are you guys dumb enough to take a hazen statue of a big snake where the woman's face can really do you any harm? It is not the statue I hear. But the teenage times are people's thoughts and their beliefs. Listen, Morgan. All gods are the same but different names. For how many centuries we don't know. An intelligent race has worshipped and feared that great snake we have insulted. Who is? To return to that drumbeat like before the boa goddess takes our human sacrifice. Since that's what troubling you fellas most, let's figure the drum was calling Mary Anne. Them Indians have probably finished her by now. Too bad. It was a cute little trick even if she was only a squire. Now, well, there's one easy way for you guys to clean yourselves if you think there's a curse on them emeralds. You just don't have to take your shoes. Don't do it, don't, Morgan. Now, you would like to take us out again. I thought that would bring you to time. It's too hot to do any more travel until night. I'm going to grab a few winks. Your turn to scare up some grub, Franky. All right. Give me your piece of neck. I've only got two bullets left. You can bring down a couple of birds with your machine, but you're not saving those two bullets for some reason. What do you mean? You are out of your jungle. You are no longer needed to help you. You think that I... I will not help you at that point. Anyway, I go and fuck dad. That's right. Stirbub's crazy as hell. Maybe. Why are you saving those two bullets, Morgan? Hey, you don't think I'm planning anything against pals like you and Frenchie, do you? Forget it. There's emeralds enough of the three of us. I'm rich. Inside of a month Dutch, I'm going to be sitting in the swellest hotel in New York. I'm going to become a gentleman, join highfalutin' clubs and go in for society and live like a king. Yeah, live. That Frenchman gives me a pain talking about death falling in us through the jungle, all on account of a couple of drumbeats you heard in that heathen temple. Morgan, it's wrong. It's here. It can't be. Hey, you got me here, James. How many times did he beat? Just like that night? Oh, don't mean nothing. Don't mean nothing. Something's got him. Oh, look, a broken switch. It doesn't look good. It's crossing out his life. There is a curse. It's breaking out. I won't believe it. The jungle's full of snakes. He just happened to cross a boar's path. Run, Dutch. Run before it comes for us. Hey, do go and try to save him. Look out of this. Good morning. I'm saving my two bullets. Leave him there and run your fool. Now we can split his share. Yeah. The split his share of death. For he is just the first of us to go. I don't believe in that stuff. Then look. Look back for the snake half-tongued his head. Say it. It has a face of a woman. Yeah. The feet of the boar got it. Run! Run! Run! Sure, young fella, I'm not stuck up like ordinary millionaires. I'd be glad to give you newspapers a true story of how me and Dutch got here to New York. I'm certainly much obliged, Mr. Morgan. You realize how interested the public is in the man who owns the largest emerald on Earth? Yeah. But I don't want those papers bringing no lies about me. Don't you be like those other fellas who wrote that I'm a nervous old man because they saw me pacing up and down the room like I'm doing now. And don't you say I'm a fear that anything counter me always looking over my shoulder and jumping at funny noises. That is just habit of mine. And don't you dare write there's a curse on my emerald. There ain't no intense curse. Course not, Mr. Morgan. That sensational stuff that you object to is all printed when a flash came in through associated press. Seems too madman had stumbled into a little settlement in Yucatan with a pocket full of emeralds in the story of a third man who'd been crushed to death by a boa constrictor with a woman's face. We couldn't pass up a yarn like that even though we know it was ridiculous. And it was ridiculous. Two men have just chopped their way out of the jungle they're up to say anything. You'll write that stuff is all a lie. Don't forget to print how I tried to save me dead partner Frenchy when the big snake got him though. But don't say the snake had a woman's face. It didn't. That was imagination. And there ain't no curse on my emeralds. None that can reach beyond the jungle anyway. What was that, Mr. Morgan? Oh, nothing. I'll just talk into myself. The jungle makes you do things like that young fella. It's great to be home in a city again. No snake can follow me to a big town like New York. You've spoken of your partners as Frenchy and Dutch. Will you give me their proper names, Mr. Morgan? Frenchy's dead. Oh, if I could only forget the way he died. Oh, excuse me. The name I knew Frenchy by was Jean Rinalve. And Dutch's real moniker is Adolf Appelman. Adolf Appelman? Yeah, he beat it out west to Chicago as soon as we hit the USA. Oh, he ain't nice to you reporter guys like me and don't like his name in the papers, but you can print he don't believe in no curse neither. Mr. Morgan, haven't you seen this morning's paper? Not yet. I just got up. What a story this'll make. No one dreamed he was your partner. Say, what's the matter with you? What are you doing at my telephone? Hello? Give me words 2 9 2 9 1 5. Look at that front page, Mr. Morgan. Read those headlines. Last night in Chicago hotel room, Adolf Appelman was crushed to death. Every bone in his body broken. Hello? Hello? Give me to the editor. He can come for it in the jungle. Them drum beats I heard last night was not a dream. City desk, get this, whopper of a story. The guy crushed to death in Chicago last night with a partner of the bird who is... I'm next. I'm next. Look here, Mr. Morgan. You may have discovered a million dollars worth of emeralds in South America. That gives you no license to come here to Chicago and try and tell the district attorneys of us how to run its business. But I gotta know what killed Dutch. Why did you have his body cremated for? I got here to see it. For one reason, because his wife ordered it done after the inquest. His wife? You've already been told that Appelman was married to a Miss Smith a few hours before his death. Another reason was? Because the body was too hardly crushed to serve any real purpose as a clue to the method of murder. Crushed? Crushed like Frenchy? In a book you say it couldn't have been a snake that done it. You swear it couldn't have been a snake? My dear Mr. Morgan, despite the wild newspaper theories, Morgan's pictures do not crawl promiscuously around Chicago. And if they did, there could have been no way for such a monster to have ended or left Mr. Appelman's room. No. There's no way for it to come here from the jungle. Where was Dutch's wife when it happened? Out of the room at the time, she says. But no woman on earth could have crushed your partner as we found him. If that's what you're driving at today, I was just wondering if she'd seen anything. If I could only know the way he died. Come in. Excuse me, sir. This is Appelman to see you. Well, ask her to come in. Now, Mr. Morgan, you can talk to her yourself if you like. How do you do? Ah, good morning, Mrs. Appelman. I'm sure you'll be glad to meet your poor husband's former partner, Mr. Morgan. We have met. Ah, that's funny. I feel that you and me have met someplace before. I meant that Dutch had spoken of you. Ah, I see. But your face is somehow familiar. What was your name before you married him? My first name is Mary Anne. Mary Anne? Poor Dutch has told me it's the name you prefer for women, Mary Anne. Mary Anne. To think I'd finally fall for a skirt whose real name was Mary Anne. How started you were when I first told you that was my name? Yeah, hit me like a voice from the dead. Not that a squirrel matters, you understand? But you knew even before I spilled the beans about how we got the emeralds and all. Yes, I knew. Dutch had told me everything. I don't know what I'd have done without you since Dutch was killed. You may meet someone around so he won't be all alone to think things. After we're married tomorrow, it'll be better still. Only I wish you hadn't made me to wait a whole year. Yeah, a year. Nothing's happened to me. I always knew that curse was just a bunker. You have no fear at all anymore? Me? I never was afraid of anything. My hair, turn and wipe, me lose and wait like I have is just from a run-down condition. The Dutch, he says, he had a fire on the moon, how Dutch was killed. And the explanation of them drumbeats and... I can't get out of my mind the way I saw Frenchy go. You have explained it all perfectly naturally to me a hundred times. You have no real faith in heathen gods, you know? No, of course not. Only but... With all imagination, the boy I saw in the jungle did not have a human face. That's an awful way to die like Frenchy, Mary Ann. Do you ever see a man killed by a boar? Wraps itself around him, coil on coil, doubling and trippling its own strength, and his eyes look into his and fascinate until he's dumb and helpless. And then slowly the coils tighten until the bones crack like pipe stems and the flesh becomes like potty, and he only screams once. Just once. What, can't die like that? I won't die like that. I'm rich now, I become a gentleman, I'm crazy about you, I want to live. Oh, you don't believe in Chris's, Mary Ann. You don't believe a crawling thing from the jungle can reach me even here? If I believed in the curse, I would believe neither distance nor civilization would have power to stay at vengeance. But you don't believe? Tell me you don't. Say like me, I think it's all bunk. Yes, I say it like you. Isn't it fortunate we can tell ourselves such things. It's so terrible to be afraid. For I am God who wished to punish hard for a long time before I struck, I would make my victims fear. I said, don't talk like that. Sometimes you make me afraid, because I don't know what you mean. But it'll be all right when we're married tomorrow, and then I'll have you to talk to all the time and learn to understand you. You haven't forgotten that for my wedding present, I shall have the great emerald you took from the outtake temple. Yeah, like I promised. Then, for the other that that gave you, you'll have the two greatest emeralds in the world, the eyes of the bore goddess. It will be nice to have them. They'll match your own eyes, Maryam, for they're green like the emeralds, and they fascinate me green and pink like the emeralds, like the eyes of the bore goddess. I've lost Maryam. Everybody's gone and we're alone. You're my wife now. Kiss me. Wait! Oh, you mustn't keep your husband waiting. A year I waited for you, Maryam. You shall wait but a short time longer. No other woman has ever put me off like you haven't. I'm crazy about you. Not about your eyes. They fascinate me. Green like emeralds. Why didn't you bring your emerald? The eyes of the bore goddess at our wedding. I shall wear them now for you alone. Are you going to put them on? Well, that's swell. God, I'm like a kid with you. When I finally fell for it, scared I fell hard. And I won't be afraid no more now for you'll be always with me. You won't leave me on the wedding night like you left that year ago. I will not leave you. I did not leave him. If you hadn't have left him, you'd have known what killed him. I do know what killed him. And why didn't you never talk with me? Say, what are you talking that way for? Who won't you stand in there with your back turned to me? What are you doing, Maryam? You seem to be grown tall, thin as somehow. So what are you doing? Turn around. Let me see you. Let me look into your eyes. Them emeralds are your eyes. Yes. You're the God of Goddess. Thumb. That means I claim my final sacrifice. No. No. I can't move, only stare into your eyes. And your body's life's changing into a monster snake. I will coil around you, so old, over-fold. And you will only gaze in my eyes in winter. Only when my coils tighten will you scream just once. Then will I give you your promised kiss. The kiss of death for the Mary and who is only a squall. All, all. I begin to coil. So cold. So cold. No, I can't die. For gain you defy the people's faith. I bind your feet. For gain you betray the people's hospitality. I bind your arms. For gain you destroy a woman's love and life. I bind your heart. For this you have been lest for lust of the free. Today as you yourself love, as after a year of mortal fear, you aspire to happiness and peace. Today I coil about your worthless soul and cross. And that's the story about the bow and goddess, the queen of all the snakes. Where Satan and me have been used to attend you now? Tortons in the Satan. Yeah, midnight Satan. Thanks for listening to this week's Retro Radio, Old Time Radio in the Dark. If you haven't done so yet, be sure to subscribe or follow the podcast so you don't miss future episodes. And if you like the show, please share it with someone you know who also loves Old Time Radio and Pulp Audio. If you want to hear even more, drop an email to weirddarknessatradiorchives.com and get an instant reply with links to download full-length Pulp Audio books, Holt E-Books, and Old Time Radio shows absolutely free. That's Weird Darkness at radioarchives.com. I'm Darren Marlar. I'll see you next time for Retro Radio, Old Time Radio in the Dark.