Jimmy Valentine’s Gamble
Description
Jimmy Valentine, whom O. Henry met while both were serving time in an Ohio penitentiary, is released and returns immediately to his chosen profession: safe-cracking. Pursued by the feds, he lands in the small town of Elmore, Arkansas, and prepares to rob its only bank. But when he meets the bank president's daughter, Annabelle, Jimmy decides to go straight. He opens a shoe store and becomes engaged to Annabelle, hoping, mistakenly, the feds will never find him.
In a little Arkansas town, Ralph D. Spencer used to crack safes but now runs a shoe store and has found a good life. He loves Annabel Adams, whose father owns the bank. When a detective comes looking for Spencer, things get dangerous. But Spencer proves he's changed when he uses his old safe-cracking skills to rescue a child who is stuck and needs help.
A small Arkansas town is the setting for this story of Ralph D. Spencer, a former safecracker who has found peace and happiness in a shoe store, and Annabel Adams, the banker's daughter. Trouble stirs when a detective tracks Spencer down, but the criminal's redemption comes when he uses his old skills to save a trapped child.
CBS Radio Mystery Theater is a radio drama series created by Himan Brown that was broadcast on CBS Radio Network affiliates from 1974 to 1982, and later in the early 2000s was repeated by the NPR satellite feed. In New York City it was not aired by the then all-news WCBS but by its originating station, WOR, which produced and announced it as simply Radio Mystery Theater.
Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Updated Jul 16, 2026.
