Lauder is a prison warden, and in a couple of days an inmate there, a former professor of parapsychology who committed some gruesome murders of women at knifepoint, is to be hanged.

The warden meets with the prisoner (played in a brilliant performance by Ralph Bell in which you're almost sorry to hear him die if only because he won't be back in the play) who tells him that he (the professor) in turn had met with a man who also had committed similar crimes and been put to death. The first man to be put to death told the professor that he was possessed by the spirit of the man who had been "Jack the ripper", and (in an interesting twist on the tale of reincarnation) said that he would begin to possess the professor's soul in advance of his (the other man's death).

The professor in his first meeting tells the same story to Lucas Lauder, the warden. Later that night, at dinner with his wonderful, loving wife, he handles a steakknife and starts to dream of killing her...

(If I can I'll put an .mp3 file of a clip of Bell's character interacting with the Lauder character...Bell was magnificent for this episode, IMHO.) 