Overview[]
Devil’s Due was an episode of the radio program Lights Out (1934-1947) which aired on April 26, 1939. Rather than being an episode written by veteran show writers like Wyllis Cooper or Arch Oboler, the story was a fan submission that won first place in a Lights Out writing competition. It follows two sadistic criminals who find out they had a “silent partner” in their most successful operations.
Story[]
The story begins with a criminal duo by the names of Cookie Donovetti and Mitchell “Big Mitts” Rozinski after a big score from a robbery in which people were killed. Cookie is antsy due to the killing that was done and Mitts makes fun of him about his lack of nerve. Mitts tells Cookie to relax because he knows a good hideout to escape detection at an old warehouse. When they get to the warehouse, the door to enter is locked. As the duo contemplates their next move, they hear the canter of hooves near them, but see nothing. A short time after hearing the hooves, a dapperly dressed man stands in front of them telling them they have the right entrance, opening the once locked door, and the three men enter the warehouse.
The mysterious well dressed man knows Mitts’ and Cookie’s names, but isn’t forthcoming with his own. Rather, telling them he has been a silent partner in their criminal enterprises and now he wants the men to join his organization. Mitts, impressed with his knowledge and style, is interested in his offer, while Cookie doesn’t trust the man and doesn’t believe he has any knowledge of their activities. With that, the mysterious man tells his first story.
The First Story[]
The man tells the story of the first job Mitts and Cookie had done together. The duo had staked out a small house in the country where they found out an old man was living alone with his fortune somewhere in the house. They break into the house at night and look for where the money could be hidden to no success. They then hear the old man moving through the house and ambush him. Initially, the man denied having any money in the house, but after Mitts beats him and Cookie sticks hot needles under his nails, the man gives up the location of his fortune. After finding it, Cookie promptly slits the old man’s throat.
The duo are in disbelief that the mysterious man could know what happened in such detail, but tells them he was watching the whole time. Cookie wants to run, but is told he can’t run. Mitts wants to know how he knows about them to which the man replies he knows so much about them and proceeds to another story about their criminal activities.
The Second Story[]
Cookie is in an apartment with a girl that he and Mitts kidnapped and the girl is sobbing. Cookie has no sympathy for the girl and her crying, saying they don’t care about her, but the money they could get for her ransom. At that point, Mitts shows up after he went to where the ransom would be dropped by the girl’s father. Mitts is enraged because he cased the drop area from a vantage point and saw police all around. Cookie gets flustered the police are on them and suggests killing the girl and escaping, but Mitts makes a different proposal to show the girl’s father their resolve. He holds out the girl’s hand and has Cookie cut off her ring finger with an expensive diamond ring on it to mail back to her father.
The man then reveals they were paid handsomely after mailing the finger, but the girl had died from Sepsis before the money was even delivered, which he called a “splendid joke”. Afterwards, the man moved on to the last story.
The Third Story[]
The duo are in a bakery roughing up the owner, an old German expat for $25,000 he had in the shop safe from money he had won in a sweepstakes. No matter how much they beat him, he wouldn’t tell the two the combination to the safe. This led to Mitts and Cookie escalating their torture methods by taking hot grease from one of the owner’s pots and dripping it on the back of his neck. When that failed, Mitts ended up shoving his face in the hot oil, rendering him unable to talk. Incensed they couldn’t get the combination, Mitts wants to roast him in one of the bakery ovens, but before he could get him inside, he breaks the owner’s neck while trying to shove at him, killing him. The two, disappointed they couldn’t get the money, go to leave when the safe automatically opens, granting them access to the $25,000 plus extra earnings by the bakery.
Now both Mitts and Cookie are very wary of their host, but the man says he has prominent positions in his organization for them and has many people they know already working for him. When Cookie asks who he knows that is working for him, the man says his brother is working for him. Cookie says it’s impossible because his brother is…and stops short of mentioning his fate. It doesn’t stop the man from finishing the story, telling Mitts that Cookie stabbed his own brother to death over an argument over the split of a robbery. He would also mention Mitts’ former partner being with him and the marks of Mitts’ hands still on his neck from when he was strangled to death.
Asking one more time who the mysterious man is, he is disappointed at their denial of the situation and announces himself as Abaddon, Beezlebub, and other names of The Devil and intimates he is the reason for their good fortune in those jobs and now he has come for his due. He seals the bargain first by laying his hands on their chests and with the flaming hellfire, ripping their hearts out of their chests. He then summons the flames of Hell to burn them, but not consume them. The two, knowing they are damned, willingly go with the man into the depths and their eternal torment.
Aftermath[]
Two police are called to the scene by a homeless man claiming to have seen “Devil’s Work”. Upon arriving at the crime scene, the two dead hoodlums are found on the ground with their hearts torn out and the area smells of sulfur. On the ground are burn marks in the shape of cloven hooves. The police officers believe it really is the work of The Devil, but seem hesitant to share that belief with anyone else.