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Dragnet: The Big Smart Guy (EP4454) · The Great Detectives Present Dragnet (Old Time Radio)

• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: This is your host, Adam Graham. If you have a comment,
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: email it to me Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net,
• 0:43
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• 0:53
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  Speaker 1: podcast software. Today's program is brought to you in part
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: by the financial support of our listeners. You can support
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: the show on a one time basis by mainly and
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  Speaker 1: a donation to Adam Graham piel box one five nine
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  Speaker 1: one three. That's peel box one five to nine thirteen
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• 1:25
  Speaker 1: as two dollars per month, and I want to welcome
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Judy as our latest Patreon supporter, coming on board at
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: the Detective Sergeant level of seven dollars and fourteen cents
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: or more per month. Thank you so much for your support. Well,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: now it is time for this week's episode of Dragnet.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: The original air date June eighth, nineteen fifty and the
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: title is the big smart guy.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Story you're about to hear is true, only the names
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: have been changed to protect the innocent. You're a detective sergeant.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: You're assigned to homicide detail. A woman has been shot
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: to death. The apparent motive robbery, the killers still at large.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: Your job find him.
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: Dragnet the documented drama of an actual crime. For the
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: next thirty minutes, in cooperation with the Los Angeles Police Department,
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: you will travel step by step on the side of
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: the law through an actual case transcribed from official police files,
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: from beginning to end, from crime to punishment. Dragnet is
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: the story of your police force in action.
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: It was Friday, March sixteenth, was damp in Los Angeles.
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: We're working the night Watch out a homicide. My partner's
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: Ben Romero. The boss's Thad Brown, cheap of detectives. My
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: name is Friday. It was eleven forty five pm when
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: we got to where we parked our car. Second in Maine.
• 3:16
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: Couple of drops on the windshiel Yeah ohe it holds off.
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: I was thinking of going up to see the Cubs
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: and Bars play an exhibition game tomorrow.
• 3:26
  Speaker 5: Yes, maybe now a long it might be lucky. What's
• 3:28
  Speaker 5: the weather, manday.
• 3:31
  Speaker 6: You get the ideo. It's a slow knife. Yeah, might
• 3:37
  Speaker 6: not beat him my night. H March seventeenth, isn't it?
• 3:40
  Speaker 5: Oh? Yeah?
• 3:42
  Speaker 7: Did to a color station. All units in Kennedy of
• 3:49
  Speaker 7: one O two South Virgil two eleven and shooting code
• 3:52
  Speaker 7: three one. All units in Petend, South Virgil two eleven
• 3:56
  Speaker 7: and shooting Code three Unit thirteen.
• 3:59
  Speaker 6: You take a car happy Saint Patrick's Stair. Eleven fifty
• 4:07
  Speaker 6: eight pm.
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: We arrived at one O two South Virgil, the Bottling Hotel,
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: four story building. Sergeant Scheimer met us in the lobby
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: and informed us if the shooting took place at eleven
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: forty pm in room four thirty two, occupied by mister
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: and Missus Theodore V. Benham. Missus Benham was the victim.
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: We went up to the fourth floor, where Officer MacCready
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: was stationed outside the room.
• 4:27
  Speaker 5: Any witnesses only Benham says it was a thief.
• 4:30
  Speaker 6: Is you talk any to the people on the floor
• 4:31
  Speaker 6: and none, I'm saw anything.
• 4:32
  Speaker 5: They're all in their rooms. Any other way out of
• 4:35
  Speaker 5: here stairway in the rearly, it's the roof. I took
• 4:38
  Speaker 5: a look. Nothing up there.
• 4:40
  Speaker 6: Where's Benham across the hall line down coxes with him. Okay,
• 4:44
  Speaker 6: let's look at the body.
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: We went into the room, dreary place with a single
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: light hanging from the center of the ceiling. The carpet
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: was faded and worn in spots. On the north side,
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: we're a closet in the bathroom against the e the
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: squall was a dresser. Across the room was a double bed,
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: and at the foot of the bed window looking out
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: over the roofs of adjoining buildings and the marquee of
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: a movie house down the street. A steamer trunk was
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: in the corner and a straight backed chair was next
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: to the door. The mirror of the dresser was smashed
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: and on the dresser a Gideon Bible. On the bed
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: was the body of a woman's sprawled face down. There
• 5:21
  Speaker 4: were several splotches of blood on her coat, and the
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: chair was a thirty two twenty revolver, which mccreedy said
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: belonged to Benham, a husband of the murdered woman. We
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: asked mccreedy to put in a call to the crime
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: lab and we went across the hall to question Benham.
• 5:35
  Speaker 8: This is an awful shock. I'm not feeling well. I'm
• 5:37
  Speaker 8: under doctor's care. Amophilia, awful shock. Sit down please, yeah, I.
• 5:47
  Speaker 5: Don't know what it'll do to me. I should be
• 5:48
  Speaker 5: in the sanitarium right now. Most thing you're taking care
• 5:50
  Speaker 5: of Lincoln Sanitarium and Eagle Rock.
• 5:53
  Speaker 6: Could you tell us what happened tonight? What?
• 5:55
  Speaker 5: Yes? We my wife and I went out to the
• 5:59
  Speaker 5: Sycamore cab over in Alvarado.
• 6:01
  Speaker 9: What time was that, Oh, about nine p thirty, had
• 6:05
  Speaker 9: a couple of drinks and something to eat, and listened
• 6:07
  Speaker 9: to a piano player.
• 6:08
  Speaker 5: Then came home.
• 6:09
  Speaker 8: I knocked the door and Elizabeth went in first, went
• 6:11
  Speaker 8: over to the dresser. I just walked over to her
• 6:13
  Speaker 8: when a man stepped out of the closet in the
• 6:15
  Speaker 8: back of us. He had a gun.
• 6:17
  Speaker 6: Can you describe him?
• 6:18
  Speaker 5: I don't know.
• 6:19
  Speaker 6: I don't know.
• 6:19
  Speaker 5: Did you see his face? No, he had a blue
• 6:22
  Speaker 5: bandann over his face and he had a cap on a.
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: Blue and white chat Did you notice his clothes No, no,
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: I didn't anything else.
• 6:31
  Speaker 5: He seemed very nervous and he wasn't holding the gun.
• 6:33
  Speaker 6: Still.
• 6:34
  Speaker 9: My wife was opening a person. I said, well, I
• 6:36
  Speaker 9: haven't got very much, but I'll give you what we
• 6:38
  Speaker 9: had and he fired and hit Elizabeth. I put my
• 6:41
  Speaker 9: gun from my overcoat and started shooting.
• 6:43
  Speaker 5: Are you in the habit of getting a gun? No?
• 6:46
  Speaker 9: No, no, I'd noticed suspicious looking men followed me latet least,
• 6:48
  Speaker 9: so I bought one.
• 6:50
  Speaker 6: Is this the gun here? Yes?
• 6:52
  Speaker 5: Then what happened? Well, if I had all the bullets,
• 6:55
  Speaker 5: I don't know how I missed. The room was small.
• 6:58
  Speaker 9: He kept moving around all the time. M h, But
• 7:01
  Speaker 9: I guess I did miss Then he ran out of
• 7:04
  Speaker 9: the room. But how old would you say? This man looked, Oh, sorry,
• 7:07
  Speaker 9: I have him the fatas.
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: Te see a minute, Sergeant, Sure, we'll be back, mister Benham,
• 7:14
  Speaker 4: this has been an awful shock to me. In her eyes,
• 7:19
  Speaker 4: wife fell but Credy told us that Sergeant Shimer had
• 7:22
  Speaker 4: found a woman in the Nevada Hotel next door who
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: might know something. When next door in questioned missus Caroline Cromwell,
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: resident of the hotel, she occupied room four fifteen on
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: the top floor. She told us that about twenty seconds
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: after she heard the shots, she looked out the door
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: of her room and saw a man come down the
• 7:38
  Speaker 4: back stairs, which leads to the roof of the.
• 7:41
  Speaker 6: Hotel, and entered room four oh two. She had seen
• 7:44
  Speaker 6: the man several times and was positive of her identification.
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: Sergeant Shimer said the man was registered as Jack Morrison,
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: who went to room.
• 7:51
  Speaker 6: Four oh two.
• 7:53
  Speaker 10: All right again, police officer, What do you want? I
• 8:05
  Speaker 10: want to ask a couple of questions. I was going
• 8:07
  Speaker 10: to bed.
• 8:07
  Speaker 5: We'd like to talk to you.
• 8:09
  Speaker 6: Won't take very long.
• 8:10
  Speaker 5: All right? What do you want to know?
• 8:16
  Speaker 6: How long you've been in your room? What?
• 8:18
  Speaker 5: Ten minutes? Why?
• 8:19
  Speaker 10: Where were you to the movie? Which one right down
• 8:22
  Speaker 10: the street? Why are you asking me all these questions?
• 8:26
  Speaker 6: You've been drinking?
• 8:27
  Speaker 5: Hello, not much mind?
• 8:29
  Speaker 6: If we look around a little.
• 8:31
  Speaker 5: I was out all the time. I didn't know nothing
• 8:33
  Speaker 5: about a shooting, and you won't mind. If we're looking around,
• 8:36
  Speaker 5: you won't find nothing here. These all the clothes you've got. Yeah,
• 8:44
  Speaker 5: this's your coat?
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, you're wearing this tonight, were you?
• 8:50
  Speaker 5: No, it's the only coat in the closet. What'd you
• 8:52
  Speaker 5: do with the coat you were wearing? I guess I
• 8:55
  Speaker 5: was wearing that one.
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: Just spell it. The bottle of whiskey. It broke, No,
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: I know, got a hole here in the sleeve.
• 9:07
  Speaker 6: What you do with a broken bottle?
• 9:09
  Speaker 5: Threw it away? Where I don't know on the street. Yoh,
• 9:14
  Speaker 5: I thought of something sure stuck down between the wall
• 9:17
  Speaker 5: and the bat then looks like blood on it?
• 9:21
  Speaker 6: Is this yours? Where's the shirt you wore tonight? Take
• 9:28
  Speaker 6: off your pajama top? Why take it off?
• 9:32
  Speaker 5: All right?
• 9:33
  Speaker 11: Would?
• 9:34
  Speaker 5: I didn't have nothing to do without shooting next door?
• 9:40
  Speaker 6: What happened to hear?
• 9:42
  Speaker 5: Guy shot at me?
• 9:43
  Speaker 6: Who?
• 9:44
  Speaker 5: I don't know. I bought a bottle and had a
• 9:47
  Speaker 5: couple of drinks and went to the movie for a
• 9:48
  Speaker 5: little while. You might a little them away from the
• 9:50
  Speaker 5: bed play.
• 9:53
  Speaker 10: I came out of the movie because I was getting dizzy,
• 9:55
  Speaker 10: and I went up on the roof here to get
• 9:57
  Speaker 10: some there.
• 9:58
  Speaker 5: While I was standing there, guy ran a across the
• 10:00
  Speaker 5: roof and shot it me.
• 10:01
  Speaker 6: What the man looked like?
• 10:02
  Speaker 5: I don't know. He came from the roof of the
• 10:04
  Speaker 5: hotel next door and ran out of this place.
• 10:06
  Speaker 6: How big was he?
• 10:08
  Speaker 5: It was dark, I couldn't see.
• 10:10
  Speaker 6: What'd you do?
• 10:11
  Speaker 5: Well? After I was sure he was gone, I came down.
• 10:15
  Speaker 5: I was gonna have my arm fixed in the morning.
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: Better get your clothes on. Why you got a pretty
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: bad arm? You better have it fixed up. We'll take
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: you to George Street Receiving Hospital.
• 10:27
  Speaker 5: It's all right. I don't have to go there by anything.
• 10:30
  Speaker 6: Ben, No, you got a clean shirt? Any better wear
• 10:36
  Speaker 6: your pajama top? Then?
• 10:37
  Speaker 5: Oh, here's something. What did you say? Your name is
• 10:41
  Speaker 5: Jack Mars. Here's a card I found the close.
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: It says Tommy Kane, report for work Joe's Cafe at
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: lock March First.
• 10:50
  Speaker 6: Who's Tommy Kane?
• 10:53
  Speaker 5: That's me?
• 10:54
  Speaker 6: Where you're from?
• 10:56
  Speaker 5: Held you Illinois? How old are you two?
• 11:00
  Speaker 6: Why'd you leave Elgin?
• 11:01
  Speaker 5: No work? I've been bumming around.
• 11:04
  Speaker 6: You Ever been arrested?
• 11:06
  Speaker 10: I was picked up in a vague chargement here. Yeah,
• 11:10
  Speaker 10: I don't know why you guys are bothering with me.
• 11:12
  Speaker 6: When somebody gets shot, we bother one am.
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: We took King to Georgia Street Receiving Hospital, where they
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: found that a muscle in his upper right arm had
• 11:23
  Speaker 4: been severed and the right side of his chest was bruised.
• 11:27
  Speaker 6: Before taking him toward thirteen.
• 11:28
  Speaker 4: Hundred General Hospital for further treatment, we took him back
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: to the roof of the Nevada Hotel.
• 11:34
  Speaker 5: Still trying to rain.
• 11:36
  Speaker 6: Yeah, where were you standing when you got shot? At King?
• 11:41
  Speaker 5: Right over there?
• 11:42
  Speaker 10: I was leaning against the bricks where'd the man come from?
• 11:45
  Speaker 10: Out of that door in the other roof, roof of
• 11:48
  Speaker 10: the Bartlet Hotel?
• 11:49
  Speaker 5: Yeah?
• 11:50
  Speaker 6: Was he running when he shot at you?
• 11:51
  Speaker 5: Yeah? Yeah, he was.
• 11:52
  Speaker 10: Where'd he run? Right across here where we are? Then
• 11:56
  Speaker 10: he went through this door here into the Nevada Hotel.
• 12:00
  Speaker 6: Did you notice anything unusual about him?
• 12:02
  Speaker 10: Well, his face was covered with a handkerchief and he
• 12:04
  Speaker 10: wore a checked cat But you said before it was
• 12:06
  Speaker 10: too dark.
• 12:07
  Speaker 5: I could see that. I mean you know, I could
• 12:09
  Speaker 5: see that. I couldn't see his face and you were
• 12:12
  Speaker 5: standing over there with the pair of it.
• 12:13
  Speaker 10: Yeah, about about here?
• 12:18
  Speaker 5: Yeah, that's it. All right.
• 12:25
  Speaker 6: Let's get over the roof of the bottle.
• 12:30
  Speaker 11: A little high.
• 12:31
  Speaker 6: Can I help you? Over?
• 12:33
  Speaker 5: Come on?
• 12:34
  Speaker 6: Ben? You ever been in this hotel before? King?
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: No?
• 12:50
  Speaker 5: Everything all right, McCraney, yeah, Grand labs here checking the
• 12:54
  Speaker 5: murder room.
• 12:54
  Speaker 6: Ben him awake? I think so, mister Benham deah mind
• 13:02
  Speaker 6: if we come in?
• 13:03
  Speaker 5: Of course not.
• 13:06
  Speaker 6: You ever seen this man before?
• 13:09
  Speaker 5: Let me see? Can you stand over there in a light.
• 13:11
  Speaker 5: My ah as aren't as good as they used to be. Okay,
• 13:14
  Speaker 5: move over there. How's that that's better?
• 13:18
  Speaker 6: Just the man who shot your wife?
• 13:21
  Speaker 5: No, that's not the men.
• 13:25
  Speaker 4: We left instructions for another car to take Theodore Benham
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: to a Lincoln sanitarium and Eagle Roy we took Keane
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: toward thirteen hundred General Hospital.
• 13:33
  Speaker 6: Two forty two am.
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: We arrived back at the Partlett Hotel, where police chemist
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: Ray Pinker had finished his examination. Three slugs thirty eight
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: caliber and five slugs thirty two to twenty were found
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: in the mattress in the walls, all on the same
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: side of the room.
• 13:47
  Speaker 6: On the floor of the room we found a piece
• 13:49
  Speaker 6: of white cloth and some brown threads.
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: Ray Pinker returned to the crime lab while Ben and
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: I made in search of both hotels, the incinerators, the
• 13:57
  Speaker 4: alley in all likely places for the missing thirty eight
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: was not found. Three forty eight am. Ben went to
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: the record bureauer to check on any possible criminal record
• 14:06
  Speaker 4: Kane might have had. I went to the crime lab
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: to see what Ray Pinker had found.
• 14:11
  Speaker 12: Nothing on this one that's been a clean mess, and
• 14:15
  Speaker 12: nothing on these four thirty two twenties.
• 14:17
  Speaker 5: Who'd you find those?
• 14:19
  Speaker 12: About the thirty eight out of the window frame? Thirty
• 14:22
  Speaker 12: two twenties are in the south and east walls. How
• 14:24
  Speaker 12: about the others here. Well, in these two thirty eight slugs,
• 14:28
  Speaker 12: I found my minute portions of threads. They compare with
• 14:31
  Speaker 12: the dress and coat one of.
• 14:32
  Speaker 5: The deceased hid ben I checked Kane's record.
• 14:36
  Speaker 6: He told the true nothing more than a bag charge.
• 14:38
  Speaker 4: Uh, I was just gonna there's threads on two of
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: the thirty eight slugs and on one of the thirty
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: two twenties.
• 14:45
  Speaker 5: Same kind of threads and the same kind of thirty
• 14:47
  Speaker 5: two twenty. That's a gun venom unit. Yeah, did you
• 14:50
  Speaker 5: check the cloth yet? Well?
• 14:51
  Speaker 6: Right now?
• 14:53
  Speaker 5: Venom must have been shooting awful while. Where'd you find
• 14:56
  Speaker 5: the thirty two twenty slug right on the floor into
• 14:59
  Speaker 5: the bed, not any of the other thirty two twenties.
• 15:05
  Speaker 6: Yeah, this piece of cloth matches a shirt? How about
• 15:07
  Speaker 6: the coat? In those threads?
• 15:09
  Speaker 5: Got only a couple of threads that might match?
• 15:14
  Speaker 6: Let me have a coat? You better have? Benham taken
• 15:18
  Speaker 6: another look at Cane.
• 15:20
  Speaker 5: I guess so I could use a cup of coffee.
• 15:21
  Speaker 5: How about you?
• 15:22
  Speaker 6: As soon as we get finished, how about it? Ring?
• 15:27
  Speaker 6: You gotta make it?
• 15:31
  Speaker 5: Yeah?
• 15:32
  Speaker 6: I match now that's it?
• 15:33
  Speaker 12: Huh Oh one more thing, Yeah, fresh stains on the
• 15:37
  Speaker 12: carpet that room what kind whiskey?
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: March eighteenth, we picked up Benham and Lincoln Sanitarium and
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: drove him to the General Hospital. Three times. He asked
• 15:48
  Speaker 4: us to stop someplace so he could have a drink.
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: We told him to have to wait.
• 15:52
  Speaker 6: We arrived at Ward thirteen hundred and Kane was brought out.
• 15:58
  Speaker 5: Take a good look, mister Benham. No that isn't the man.
• 16:01
  Speaker 5: I'm sure of it, all.
• 16:03
  Speaker 4: Right, Kane, tie this handkerchief over your face. No, that way,
• 16:08
  Speaker 4: that's right. I'll put on this cap.
• 16:11
  Speaker 6: Kine. Stand over there, please a little further. That's good,
• 16:20
  Speaker 6: all right, mister Beth.
• 16:21
  Speaker 8: You know his eyes and for it look a little familiar.
• 16:24
  Speaker 8: But I don't know how. My nerves are all shot.
• 16:27
  Speaker 8: I can't be positive. I'm a sick man, all right, Kane.
• 16:34
  Speaker 8: I wish I could help you.
• 16:35
  Speaker 6: Boys. I'm along.
• 16:37
  Speaker 5: Please, you don't have to take me back to the
• 16:41
  Speaker 5: sanitary and just take me to a street car. I'll
• 16:43
  Speaker 5: make it, all right. God? Yeah, yeah, did I see
• 16:47
  Speaker 5: you a minute?
• 16:47
  Speaker 6: Sure? Yeah?
• 16:51
  Speaker 13: Did you notice anything when you first brought Caine out
• 16:54
  Speaker 13: of the ward? No, you must have been closing the door. Yeah,
• 16:58
  Speaker 13: I was that man venom. He winked at him.
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: You are listening to dragnet.
• 17:20
  Speaker 4: We took Venom back to his sanitarium. On the way,
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: he asked if he could be excused from testifying at
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: the in quest and preliminary hearing.
• 17:27
  Speaker 6: We told him it couldn't be done.
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: Seven pm, ben and I returned to the General Hospital
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: and took Keane into a small room adjoining the prison ward.
• 17:34
  Speaker 4: After three hours of interrogation, he stuck to his story.
• 17:38
  Speaker 10: Cigarette came, thanks, he's arm all right, hearts little Now.
• 17:48
  Speaker 5: When you guys going home, when we get a straight story.
• 17:51
  Speaker 5: I've been telling you all. I know. Yeah, you've been
• 17:53
  Speaker 5: telling it's the same story for two days. But it
• 17:55
  Speaker 5: doesn't hold water. What do you mean, how do you account.
• 17:57
  Speaker 6: For the fact that parts of your clothing were found
• 17:58
  Speaker 6: in that room?
• 17:59
  Speaker 5: I told you before. You must have made a mistake.
• 18:01
  Speaker 6: No, no, it's no mistake.
• 18:03
  Speaker 5: Mister Benham's starting to think you recognized.
• 18:05
  Speaker 6: Why do you wink at you?
• 18:07
  Speaker 5: He didn't wink at me.
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: We got somebody hero saw him, and he seems to
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: think whoever did the shooting didn't take the gun. When
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: when we drove him back to the sanitarium, he asked
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: us if we found.
• 18:15
  Speaker 5: It yet he thinks we will. How long has Benham
• 18:19
  Speaker 5: lived in la?
• 18:20
  Speaker 6: A long time?
• 18:21
  Speaker 5: How long?
• 18:22
  Speaker 6: Why do you want to know how long he's lived here?
• 18:25
  Speaker 5: Is a dead woman? Really his wife? Well?
• 18:27
  Speaker 6: Certainly she's his wife?
• 18:29
  Speaker 5: What where has he been since the.
• 18:31
  Speaker 6: Shooting in the sanitarium? An eagle rock?
• 18:33
  Speaker 5: What's the matter with him?
• 18:34
  Speaker 6: Nemophilia?
• 18:35
  Speaker 5: You know what that is?
• 18:36
  Speaker 12: No?
• 18:37
  Speaker 5: You sure that was his wife?
• 18:38
  Speaker 6: Positive?
• 18:40
  Speaker 5: She wasn't a stool pigeon? Stool pigeon? Where'd you get that?
• 18:43
  Speaker 6: At?
• 18:43
  Speaker 5: You? You guys never saw her before?
• 18:45
  Speaker 6: Never?
• 18:46
  Speaker 5: You never heard of her? Came?
• 18:47
  Speaker 6: What's eating you?
• 18:48
  Speaker 5: Did you check on her? We always do? Don't make
• 18:53
  Speaker 5: mistakes on anything like that, do you no?
• 18:56
  Speaker 6: Look, she was a pretty nice woman from all we
• 18:58
  Speaker 6: could find out.
• 18:58
  Speaker 5: Happily marriage for thirty year. Something's wrong?
• 19:01
  Speaker 6: What Kane? What's wrong?
• 19:03
  Speaker 5: Yeah? What Benham say about?
• 19:06
  Speaker 6: We told you? He says you look a little bit
• 19:08
  Speaker 6: like the man?
• 19:08
  Speaker 5: Do you say anything else? He winked at you, Kane?
• 19:11
  Speaker 5: Why she wasn't a bad looking woman, wasn't she?
• 19:14
  Speaker 6: Kane?
• 19:19
  Speaker 5: All right?
• 19:19
  Speaker 6: Now? How about it?
• 19:21
  Speaker 5: You guys swear that was his wife?
• 19:22
  Speaker 6: Yeah?
• 19:24
  Speaker 10: Okay, I'll tell you where the thirty eighties were the
• 19:27
  Speaker 10: mattress on the roof of the Nevada Hotel. Venham cut
• 19:29
  Speaker 10: a hole in it that day. He told me to
• 19:31
  Speaker 10: hide the gun there after shooting.
• 19:32
  Speaker 6: All Right, let's have a lot.
• 19:34
  Speaker 5: I don't want anybody to know I'm telling you of
• 19:36
  Speaker 5: this why. Venam's a real smart guy. He's got a gang.
• 19:40
  Speaker 5: He's in on it as much as I am. Yeah,
• 19:43
  Speaker 5: he double crossed me. He tried to kill me. I'm
• 19:46
  Speaker 5: going to jail. He's going with me, maybe he will.
• 19:52
  Speaker 4: Kane told us that he had known Benham for about
• 19:54
  Speaker 4: two months. During that time, Benham helped him along by
• 19:56
  Speaker 4: giving him a couple of dollars every once in a while.
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: On March eleventh, Benham got Cain a room in the
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: Nevada Hotel and gave him twenty dollars to buy a gun,
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: which Cain did. On March fifteenth, he gave Kan a
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: blue bandana and a checkered cap. On March sixteenth, he
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: told Kin that he'd been sent by a gang in
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: Chicago to kill a woman who.
• 20:14
  Speaker 6: Was a stool pigeon. He promised Kane one hundred dollars
• 20:16
  Speaker 6: for his help.
• 20:18
  Speaker 4: Early that evening, Benham told Kan how to enter their
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: room and where to hide.
• 20:22
  Speaker 6: When they came home, Benham stood by the door. Caine
• 20:24
  Speaker 6: stepped out.
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: Of the closet and, after a few words, shot the woman.
• 20:28
  Speaker 4: As he moved toward the bed, Benham started shooting at him.
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: Cain ran from the room and hid the gun and
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: the mattress on the roof, and then went to his
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: room and flushed the cap and bandana down the drain.
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: Eleven fifteen pm, Ben and I found a gun where
• 20:40
  Speaker 4: Cain said it would be thirty eight Special Detective Colt
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: Revolver two inch barrel number three eight one three two
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: seven eleven fifty two pm. We checked and found no
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: evidence that Benham belonged to any kind of a gang.
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: March nineteenth, nine am ben and I reported into homicide
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: and picked up Captain Steed and went over to doctor
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: Wagner to learn his autopsy report.
• 21:00
  Speaker 6: It showed that the deceased had been shot three times.
• 21:03
  Speaker 4: Two thirty eight slugs and one thirty two twenty were
• 21:06
  Speaker 4: recovered from the victim's body.
• 21:07
  Speaker 6: They were initial for evidence. Eight PM.
• 21:10
  Speaker 4: Captain Steve ben and I went to the sanitarium and
• 21:12
  Speaker 4: told Benham, if there were a few angles, we wanted
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: to clear up before the inquest.
• 21:15
  Speaker 6: Next morning, Benham got dressed and we drove back.
• 21:18
  Speaker 8: To the bottle of hotel was raining, and I'm still
• 21:22
  Speaker 8: trying to remember what happened.
• 21:24
  Speaker 5: I was very shocked that night. Yeah, I suppose you were.
• 21:27
  Speaker 5: Sometimes my memory comes back for a little business. The
• 21:29
  Speaker 5: red light.
• 21:30
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I see.
• 21:32
  Speaker 10: You know, the man who did the shooting knew you
• 21:34
  Speaker 10: lived in room four thirty two, and he knew you'd
• 21:36
  Speaker 10: be gone that night.
• 21:38
  Speaker 5: How do you suppose he figured that out?
• 21:40
  Speaker 6: Well?
• 21:40
  Speaker 8: I like the noticing that a lot of men had
• 21:42
  Speaker 8: been following me, suspicious looking minute until like the sergeant fight.
• 21:46
  Speaker 5: He didn't nice arge. Yeah, that's right, must have been
• 21:48
  Speaker 5: one of them. You never give money to characters on
• 21:51
  Speaker 5: the streets so much they might follow you. Hey, that
• 21:54
  Speaker 5: must be it. Many times they used to do that.
• 21:56
  Speaker 5: I'd be nice to them. They try to make friends.
• 21:58
  Speaker 5: Do you remember any of them?
• 21:59
  Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, I do. There was from Doors and Jolly
• 22:03
  Speaker 8: Swanson and fun.
• 22:05
  Speaker 5: Name name lame Kin.
• 22:10
  Speaker 8: Yeah, that he's a Kine. There you are, there, you
• 22:12
  Speaker 8: are the young man he took me to see in
• 22:14
  Speaker 8: the hospital. And I believe that's Kine.
• 22:18
  Speaker 5: Are you sure quite sure he's the burglar.
• 22:21
  Speaker 6: What makes you think he was a burglar?
• 22:23
  Speaker 5: What else would he be?
• 22:24
  Speaker 6: He didn't rifle any of the drawers or steal anything did.
• 22:27
  Speaker 5: He must have got there just before us. Did you
• 22:30
  Speaker 5: have anything important there?
• 22:32
  Speaker 6: Yes?
• 22:33
  Speaker 5: And insurance policies are your wife?
• 22:35
  Speaker 6: Yeah?
• 22:36
  Speaker 5: How much?
• 22:37
  Speaker 6: Well?
• 22:38
  Speaker 5: One policy for four thousand and two for twenty five
• 22:41
  Speaker 5: hundred years.
• 22:43
  Speaker 6: Who is the beneficiary? Right?
• 22:46
  Speaker 5: I am.
• 22:51
  Speaker 4: We took Benham up the room four thirty two where
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: he got out the insurance policies on his wife and
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: showed them to us. Then Captain State asked him to
• 22:57
  Speaker 4: reenact the shooting. Ben him act there's the killer.
• 23:00
  Speaker 6: I played Benham and Ben acted as his wife.
• 23:04
  Speaker 5: Well, the man was over here in the closet. My
• 23:06
  Speaker 5: wife and I came in that door, and then my
• 23:08
  Speaker 5: wife went open to the dress.
• 23:09
  Speaker 9: Oh here you turned on the light, oh yeah, and
• 23:13
  Speaker 9: then I closed the door, went over behind her like this.
• 23:17
  Speaker 5: She was closer to the bed. Yeah yeah. Were you
• 23:21
  Speaker 5: standing next to her?
• 23:22
  Speaker 6: Yeah?
• 23:23
  Speaker 5: You start to take off your coat.
• 23:24
  Speaker 8: Well, I was just going to when this man stepped
• 23:26
  Speaker 8: out of this closet here how far?
• 23:29
  Speaker 5: Oh here?
• 23:31
  Speaker 6: Yeah?
• 23:32
  Speaker 11: Yeah right here?
• 23:32
  Speaker 6: None?
• 23:34
  Speaker 8: Well he had the gun this and thatsked how much
• 23:35
  Speaker 8: money we had. Elizabeth said, we didn't have much from here. Yeah,
• 23:39
  Speaker 8: but but but she turned around.
• 23:41
  Speaker 5: Ye, that's it what happened then?
• 23:45
  Speaker 8: Well then I said, I haven't got very much, but
• 23:47
  Speaker 8: i'll give you what we have.
• 23:48
  Speaker 5: And he started shooting.
• 23:49
  Speaker 6: Yeah, but you said before that your wife started looking
• 23:51
  Speaker 6: in her purse.
• 23:53
  Speaker 5: Yeah, that's what she did.
• 23:53
  Speaker 8: I forgot, and that made him think she was going
• 23:55
  Speaker 8: after a gun. How do you know, Well, I suppose
• 23:59
  Speaker 8: that's what he thought. He shot, and Elizabeth fell on
• 24:01
  Speaker 8: the bed. I pulled out my gun and started shooting,
• 24:04
  Speaker 8: and the man right out the door.
• 24:05
  Speaker 5: And that's all. That's exactly what happened. Huh, just as
• 24:09
  Speaker 5: I remember it. Will I help you?
• 24:13
  Speaker 6: Not very much?
• 24:15
  Speaker 5: What's the matter.
• 24:16
  Speaker 4: Well, if you were standing where I am, there'd be
• 24:18
  Speaker 4: bullet holes on that side of them.
• 24:20
  Speaker 5: They're all on this side.
• 24:24
  Speaker 8: See, I got it. Come with me where you're going
• 24:28
  Speaker 8: on the roof for I want to show you something. Yeah,
• 24:31
  Speaker 8: it's raining there. Two umbrellas in the closet.
• 24:33
  Speaker 5: I'll get them. Why do you want to go up there?
• 24:35
  Speaker 8: I think I know where that gun might be hidden.
• 24:39
  Speaker 8: I'll bet it's there. Yeah, you take this umbrella. Thanks,
• 24:42
  Speaker 8: we'll take this one, captain, let's go. I bet it's
• 24:50
  Speaker 8: up there. We'll find you.
• 25:00
  Speaker 6: You got your twice light? Ben?
• 25:04
  Speaker 10: Yeah, should be around here somewhere.
• 25:09
  Speaker 11: What mattress my wife used to take sun maths on it.
• 25:12
  Speaker 11: Where would it be? But just about here?
• 25:15
  Speaker 5: I don't see any Sure it's up here.
• 25:18
  Speaker 11: I bet it's on the next roof. Didn't you say
• 25:20
  Speaker 11: ka live in that hotel? He probably moved it. Slash
• 25:25
  Speaker 11: light over there behind an elevator shaft there? Yeah, there
• 25:28
  Speaker 11: you see it. We have to climb over this parapet
• 25:30
  Speaker 11: to get on the other roof. Why it gab its
• 25:32
  Speaker 11: pretty slippery.
• 25:33
  Speaker 5: Okay, yeah, he's slipper. No, h.
• 25:44
  Speaker 11: This mattress there, that's it. Take a look all right, No,
• 25:52
  Speaker 11: nothing here? Did you look all around there? Did you
• 25:56
  Speaker 11: look in the corners? No, that would be a good
• 25:59
  Speaker 11: place to hide a gun? What you think?
• 26:02
  Speaker 5: And let me see?
• 26:03
  Speaker 11: It might be a hold cut in one of them?
• 26:06
  Speaker 5: Huh?
• 26:07
  Speaker 11: Maybe the other corner?
• 26:10
  Speaker 5: Now maybe this one?
• 26:15
  Speaker 11: Yeah, you see the mattress have been cut. No, No,
• 26:22
  Speaker 11: it's got to be here, father, Yeah, it's here, it's here.
• 26:32
  Speaker 11: I know it here, I'll find it. I'll find it.
• 26:38
  Speaker 8: You're way, you'll see I don't get it.
• 26:44
  Speaker 11: I know it's here. I'll fight your way, I'll get it.
• 26:51
  Speaker 11: I'll get it.
• 26:54
  Speaker 5: Yeah, all right, it's getting left, Jill.
• 26:59
  Speaker 11: We got the thirty eight.
• 27:00
  Speaker 5: Kane told us about it. Are you ready to talk? Yeah? Insurance?
• 27:05
  Speaker 5: Why you did it? Yeah, I'm a sick man. Let's
• 27:12
  Speaker 5: go Venham on your feet.
• 27:16
  Speaker 6: All right.
• 27:21
  Speaker 5: They played that ball game the other day? Yeah?
• 27:25
  Speaker 6: Who won?
• 27:25
  Speaker 5: Fires?
• 27:26
  Speaker 6: Eight to seven?
• 27:28
  Speaker 5: Sure?
• 27:28
  Speaker 8: Do like?
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: Baseball must be a real nice business. Yeah, fans only
• 27:33
  Speaker 4: yell at, they never do it. Let's kill the umpire.
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: The story we've just heard was true, only the names
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: were changed to protect the innocent.
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: On July second trial was held in Superior Court, Department
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: eighty nine, City and County of Los Angeles, State of California.
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: In a moment the results of that trial, Thomas Kane
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: was convicted of second degree murder and received a term
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: as prescribed by law.
• 28:09
  Speaker 6: Theodore V.
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: Benham was convicted of first degree murder and assault with
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: a deadly weapon. He received a life sentence and died
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: in prison one year later. You have just heard Dragnet
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: a series of authentic cases from official files. Technical advice
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: for Dragnet comes from the Office of Chief of Police W. A. Wharton,
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: Los Angeles Police Department. This is NBC, the National Broadcasting Company.
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: Welcome back. The husband's decision to wink at the suspect
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: maybe one of the stupid or ways we've heard someone
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: give themselves away on Dragnet, particularly once he's shot at
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: the guy, he's shrieked into helping him kill his wife,
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: like everything's gonna be okay, even after I tried to
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: kill you. Wink wink. But Dragnet is based on actual
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: police files, which serves as a reminder that criminals really
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: do some stupid things to give themselves away. The references
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: to Saint Patrick's Day in baseball were really built to
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: set up Fridays closing line about killing the umpire, which,
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: given how much they worked into the script, I don't
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: really think it was worth it now. Of course, being
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty, this was before Major League baseball was
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: played west of Saint Louis, and the only way you
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: got to see a major league team living in California,
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: even in a major city, was in an exhibition game,
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: probably around spring training, so the story had to be
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: set during spring training. Thus Saint Patrick's Day, Well, now
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: we turn to listener comments and feedback, and we got
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: a new response to our listener survey our listener rits,
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: I really enjoy listening to the old Detective shows, but
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: I also enjoy hearing about the backstories of the Detective
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: show that Adam Graham does well. Thank you so much.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: And I also want to go ahead and thank our
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: Patreon supporter of the day. And I want to thank Teresa,
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: Patreon supporter since October twenty twenty, currently supporting the podcast
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: at the shamous level of four dollars or more per month.
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your support, Teresa, and that
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: will actually do it for today. If you're enjoying the podcast,
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: please follow us using your favorite podcast software and be
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: sure to rate and review the podcast wherever you download
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: it from. We'll be back next Saturday with another episode
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: of Dragnet. On Sunday, we will have our next public
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: Domain Video Theater episode up, which will be an episode
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: of Racket Squad. But also tomorrow join us for our
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: four thousand, four hundred and fiftieth episode special where.
• 31:00
  Speaker 4: To Shield that double dealing No good woman didn't even
• 31:04
  Speaker 4: defend yourself in court.
• 31:06
  Speaker 5: Now she's letting you take the rap for her, But
• 31:08
  Speaker 5: it wouldn't do.
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: Any good to drag her into it, Mike.
• 31:11
  Speaker 10: I'd go to the chair in any case.
• 31:14
  Speaker 5: And remember, Mike, I'll deny everything I told you. Remember
• 31:17
  Speaker 5: that I know.
• 31:20
  Speaker 8: Ah, Jim, how could you fall for that corpus delect
• 31:23
  Speaker 8: I stuff?
• 31:25
  Speaker 6: Jim?
• 31:25
  Speaker 5: Don't you know what corpus delecti means?
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: Don't you know?
• 31:28
  Speaker 10: It has nothing to do with the body of the victim.
• 31:30
  Speaker 11: It means body of the evidence.
• 31:32
  Speaker 4: You can't be convicted unless the body of the evidence
• 31:34
  Speaker 4: is against you.
• 31:35
  Speaker 10: And it was all right even to the dressmaker saying
• 31:37
  Speaker 10: I was the only person there that night.
• 31:40
  Speaker 5: Ah. Nobody would believe the truth.
• 31:42
  Speaker 9: Now, perhaps they wouldn't if we had the truth.
• 31:45
  Speaker 6: What but I told you the truth, all of it.
• 31:49
  Speaker 5: I'm going to get to the root of all of this, Jim.
• 31:53
  Speaker 5: But why didn't you tell me sooner? Don't you see?
• 31:55
  Speaker 5: You've only left me for.
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: I hope you'll be with us then in the meantime.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: Send your calms to Bucks thirteen at Great Detectives dot net,
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives, and check us
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: out on Instagram, Instagram, dot com slash. Great Detectives from Boise,
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: Idaho This is your host, Adam Ram signing off.