Tales of Being Double Crossed

Crooks are crooked, and they do crooked things. It is part of their job descriptions, just like cheaters cheat. Crooks and cheats tend to go together, so there is little wonder there are so many double crosses.

An honest deal is often described as being square. The expression comes from architecture; it was a master builder's responsibility to ensure that the joints and corners of the structure he was building came to perfect ninety-degree angles so that the building would stand for generations. If the square is honest, then a cross is a cheat.

A double cross happens when a pair of crooks decide to work together and one cheats the other. Hardly surprising when we consider the nature of crooks and cheaters, but sometimes one of the crooks is not as crooked as he first appears. Sometimes he only becomes a crook because he has been wronged before. When the double cross brings justice to the original victim, audiences have good reason to cheer. Double crosses rarely work out that well in real life, but the notion makes for great radio.

• On Calling All Cars the manager of the Million Dollar Theater opens the safe to get the weekend's receipts and discovers the money missing. It has to be an inside job, but who could it be?
• Captain Midnight unwittingly tries to set up a double cross on his arch enemy Ivan Shark when Shark's daughter, Fury, her face greatly changed by plastic surgery, comes to Midnight's compound to steal a secret formula. Fury is amused when the Captain suggests that she might infiltrate Shark's organization, but can she really be sure that he is fooled by her disguise?
• On the March 16, 1955, the second mate of an ocean liner is forced to take command when his captain falls ill. During the crossing to New York, the officer has to deal with a missing little girl who is known for telling stories, enjoying dog biscuits, and being a genius. While she was missing, the little girl discovers a ring of smugglers who intend to double cross their customs agent partners. Can the little girl convince the officer of what is going on when he is busy pitching woo at her older sister?
• Philip Marlowe learns about the double cross when a jewel thief calls our hero to be his bodyguard. Unfortunately, the thief's partner slips Marlowe a mickey and kills the second-story man before Marlowe can get to him. Marlowe is hardly amused.
• If you listen to Westerns, then you know that the frontier was positively littered with "dirty double crossing polecats". The Lone Ranger came across more than his fair share of double cross schemes. We can't blame a hard-working settler for taking advantage of a situation, but if a really bad man gets too far out of hand, we know that the Masked Man will mete out justice.
• The Whistler brings us a delicious tale of double cross where a policeman's brother had been sent up the river for safecracking. He claimed that he had been forced to do the job at gunpoint, but had no proof. After he does his time and seems to be reformed, he gets wound up in another safe job but this time he manages to turn the tables on his partners who try to double cross him. Instead, he sets up his own double cross and forces his partners to admit that they were the ones who forced him into the first robbery.
• The agents on This is Your FBI get their lucky break when a group of convicts break out of local jail but succumb to "The Sentimental Double Cross". One of the group is injured during the breakout, and his partners convince him that he is going to die so he admits to having a sister who might have the key to finding the hidden loot.

See also: Revenge, Double Crossed, and Greed in Old Time Radio!