Our heroes try to solve some purr-fect crimes in these old time radio mysteries - each involving a cat. First, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson (played by Tom Conway and Nigel Bruce) find "The Clue of the Hungry Cat" (originally aired on ABC on October 26, 1946). Next, Bob Bailey tries to help an inventor and finds a murder in "The Iron Cat" from Let George Do It (originally aired on Mutual on June 12, 1950). Then, a panther is on the loose in Los Angeles and Sgt. Joe Friday has to track it down in "The Big Cat" from Dragnet (originally aired on NBC on June 15, 1954).

We're saluting James M. Cain - one of the fathers of hard-boiled crime fiction - with two of his stories recreated for radio. First, James Cagney plays a rising racketeer who takes advantage of a crusading reformer in "Love's Lovely Counterfeit" from Suspense (originally aired on CBS on January 17, 1948). Then, Burt Lancaster and Joan Bennett plot a murder and a swindle in "Double Indemnity" from The Ford Theatre (originally aired on CBS on October 15, 1948).

In this bonus episode, I'm sharing my five favorite installments of Crime Classics - the anthology of true crime stories taken from the pages of history. "Connaisseur of crime" Thomas Hyland (played by Lou Merrill) narrated the tales that ranged from BC until recent history. A dismembered corpse stuns Boston society in "The Terrible Deed of John White Webster" (originally aired on CBS on July 13, 1953), and a woman's murder of her philandering boyfriend is only the beginning of the story in "The Incredible Trial of Laura D. Fair" (AFRS rebroadcast from August 17, 1953). A pair of enterprising young men enter the corpse procurement business in "If a Body Need a Body, Just Call Burke and Hare" (originally aired on CBS on December 2, 1953). Plus, two of history's most notorious murders are dramatized - "The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln" (originally aired on CBS on December 9, 1953) and "Twenty-Three Knives Against Caesar" (originally aired on CBS on February 10, 1954).