The Big Shakedown

Friday - The Dragnet Podcast · Aug 6, 2026 · 31m

Originally Aired: May 22, 1952 Dragnet #154, "The Big Shakedown," finds Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Frank Smith called to the main jail interview room to meet with Lawrence Holmes, a small-time bookmaker they arrested the day before. Holmes, nervous and chain-smoking, has something weighing heavily on his conscience. He explains that after being pinched for bookmaking a year and a half earlier, he went straight until medical bills for his injured son and his wife's gallbladder operation forced him back into taking bets on the side. That's when a man claiming to be a vice officer named Ray…