Latest / Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas / Dragnet: The Big Thank You (EP1526)

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Dragnet: The Big Thank You (EP1526) · Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas

0:28
Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho. This
0:34
is your host, Adam Graham. If you have a comment, email it
0:38
to me Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net, follow us on Twitter at
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Radio Detectives, and become one of our friends on Facebook, Facebook dot com
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slash Radio Detectives. Well, before we do get started, I do want
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to say this program is brought to you by the financial support of our listeners,
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and I in particular one to thank Mike, Mike and Sue so much
1:03
for their support as well as August and you can support the show at support
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dot Great Detectives dot net. Also over at great Detectives dot net you can
1:15
read my review of the final Philip Marlow novel Playback, and you can also
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subscribe to all of my reviews through the Kindlestore and you can try that service
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out free for two weeks. Well, now it's time for today's episode of
1:30
Dragnet. The original air date March the ninth of nineteen fifty and the episode
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is the Big Thank You. The story you are about to hear is true,
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only the names have been changed to protect the innocent. You're a detective
2:02
Sergeant you're assigned to Homicide Detail. A confessed murderess is parole from the State
2:08
Prison for Women. After seven months, the parole office loses contact with her.
2:15
Your job find her. Drag Net the documented drama of an actual crime.
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For the next thirty minutes, in cooperation with the Los Angeles Police Department,
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you will travel step by step on the side of the law through an
2:38
actual case from official police files, from beginning to end, from crime to
2:43
punishment. Dragnet is the story of your police force in action. Was Thursday,
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March ninth, was foggy in Los Angeles. We're working a day watch
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out of Homicide Detail. My partner's Ben Romero. The boss is that Brown
3:00
Chief of Detectives. My name is Friday. We're on our way back from
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the State Building and it was two forty five pm when we got to the
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City Hall Room twenty nine, handwriting analysis. I want to have a seat,
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Fred, Okay, thanks, I'll see if Don's wrong, maybe in
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the back room. All right, Don Meyer done you here? Yeah?
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Hi, Ben got a quick job for you. Don can spare a few
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minutes. Thanks, So, Hi, Joe didn't see him. I'd like
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to have you meet Fred Galloway State Baro, Fred, this is Don Myers,
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our handwriting man. Got a couple of signatures here. I'd like to
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have you check them now if you can, no, I can try see
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what you got. You want to show him? Fred? Yeah? Uh?
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These three sheets here, Don mark November, December, January. I'd
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like to know if the signatures on them compare with the signatures on these two
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here. They're marked February and March. I'm seeing. Thanks, mm hmm.
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Yeah, this shouldn't take long. Why don't you fellows have a seaton?
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Yeah? Okay, how does this thing shape up? Fred? You
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figured that the Johnson woman's jumped her parole got me? I don't know what
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to think. How long has it been since you got out of bread Well,
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let me check you out on the details. I got the dope right
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here. Fine. Annie Marie Johnson, you sent up for a life term
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nineteen thirty three, murdered her husband John shot him to death, started appealing
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for parole nineteen forty, finally won at May fourteenth last year, paroled into
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the custody of Missus Laura Gene Muller. Where does this Missus Muller live?
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Don Wilmington old friend of the Johnson woman. She fought for ten years to
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get her released from Tahatchepee. Have you been in touch with missus Muller lately?
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For only by mail? We've been sending her monthly report forms all long.
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She's the person that Annie Johnson was paroled to, so the form has
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to be filled out and signed by Missus Muller and mail back. Then.
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Yeah, and that's where you figured that something was wrong. We got the
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February and March reports back from her on time, all the usual questions answered
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promptly, and it was the signature writing didn't look like Missus Muller's ado or
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you think the Johnson woman is faking the signature. Maybe tried to contact the
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Muller house half a dozen times the past couple of days. Nobody home.
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Here you go, man, you got it. Yeah, let me see
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these three here November, December, January. They were signed by the same
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person. Now, signatures on the February and March reports. They're pretty bad
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imitations. One person signed these too, another person signed these. No match
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at all. Well, then the signatures on the last two reports were forged,
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I'd say, so she went up for murder that's your department. You
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want to run it down? Sure, what's it up to? It could
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be a lot of things, could be nothing. Annie Johnson ont to know.
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Ben and I checked out of the office and drove down to Wilmington.
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We located the home of mister and missus Joseph Muller on the Seaboard Drive,
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just off Annaheim Street. Was an old fashioned two story house set back on
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a big corner lot along with plenty of shrubbery. It was a faded gray
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with lots of Victorian gingerbread hung all over, fancy carved gables, carriage driveway
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with hitching posts and pieces of thick word glass setting some kind of a design
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in the window of the front door. Out in the harbor beyond term of
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the islands, you can hear the fog horns. They sure get the fog
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out here now, it's pretty thick today. My aunt used to live just
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above here, Grand Avenue. Oh, couldn't take the fog, so she
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moved out. The valley garden could stand some taking care of. Yeah,
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weeds are doing fine. We'll try it again. What do you think.
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Let's try the neighbors a right, that house across the street must be somebody
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there. I saw a woman shaking a dust mop out the window when we
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drove a all right, kind of a bleak looking spot up here on the
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hill. Isn't it not many houses around? Yeah, and this fog is
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doing nothing for me chills. You're right down to the boone. What's the
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name of the mailboxer? I see Miss Plora Carpenter. Maybe she can tell
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us something. Are you the sewing machine man? No, man, we're
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police officers. Like to ask you a few questions. Oh, I'm sorry,
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I thought you came about my singer. No, ma'am. I can't
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do any more work on my peasant skirt until the machine's fixed, and it
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has to be done by Saturday. Our folk dancing groups having a big jamboree
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Saturday night. Ibry step inside. Thank you. It is sageant Romero.
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My name is Friday. Folks, so refreshing, isn't it very vitalizing?
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Yes, ma'am. Are you acquainted with mister and missus Muller across the street,
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Miss Cardner, the Muellers. Yes, I've known them for years and
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they haven't any Johnson living with him. Yes, one of my very good
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friends. She's employed as a housemaid for the Mullers. Is that right?
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Well, I guess she could call it that. Actually, she's more of
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a companion than missus Mueller. Since poor mister Mueller got sick. What's his
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trouble? His mind? Poor man just lost his senses. He's at the
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State hospital at Norwalk. Let me see this is March. Must have been
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last November, Yes, became violent. Do you know where missus Muller is
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now in the sanitarium out near Pasadena? Not well at all? And Annie
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Johnson is she still living at the Muller's house cross the street? Oh jeez,
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she went downtown to do some shopping today. Did she say when she'd
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be back? No, she didn't. But we have a meeting of our
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book appreciation club day thirty tonight here at my house. And I certainly don't
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think she'd missed the meeting, Miss Garb. Do you happen to know the
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name of the senat ram where miss Motherstein gar Ways? That's what Anna told
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me. Garways rest home out by Pasadena. Have any of the neighbors been
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not to visit it? We? No, we haven't. And he said
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the doctors there thought it'd be better Missus Mute didn't have visitors. Wonder if
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you tell us where we could find a public telephone in the neighborhood. You
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can use my phone. Sergeants right back there in the hall. Fine,
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thank you, I'll call them, Joe, all right, I'll have the
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operator at George office. You're sure you can find your way back their sergeant.
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It's right under general persons pictures. Yes, I was just thinking of
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Sergeant Friday. Yes, would you know anything about repairing selling machine? I'm
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afraid. Oh, lovely, there you are. This is Anna Johnson's cat,
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Sage and his new simply gorgeous. Look at that one person, and
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they brought them with they when she came to live with the Muellers. Did
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the missus Johnson Missus Muller always seemed to get along fairly well together to you,
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I mean, no arguments. No, Ander's easiest person in the world
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to get along man. All those girls in the neighborhood, just ador,
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Joe. You talked to sanitarium, yeah, do, but checked the name.
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You know, Missus Muller is not there. They never heard of her.
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Ben and I left and interviewed some of the other people in the neighborhood.
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They all had the same high opinion of Annie Johnson as miss Carpenter did.
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They all had the impression that Missus Muller was under doctor's care at the
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Garaway Rest Home in Pasadena. Annie Johnson told them so. We found out
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that Missus Muller had one other living relative besides her husband, her niece Lorraine
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Muller. She lived out on Norwich Drive in Beverly Hills. Five point thirty
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PM, Ben and I drove back to the officer and made a spot check
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of every private rest home and sanitarium listed in the Los Angeles area. Missus
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Muller wasn't at any of them. We called the State hospital at Norwalk and
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they informed us that Joseph Muller was there, having been committed the second of
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November the previous year. It was critically ill. We put in another call
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to the Muller home. Still no answer. Six fifteen PM we drove out
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to Beverly Hills to the home of Missus Muller's niece, Lorraine. She was
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a tall, good looking girl with blonde hair and a bad call. I
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don't think I can help you, sir. I moved out of my aunt's
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house three months ago. I haven't seen her since we're you staying at the
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house when Annie Johnson came to live there. I was raised in that house.
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Mother and dad died when I was a baby. Uncle Joe and at
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Laura took care of me. They're wonderful people. Would you mind telling us
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why you moved? I don't mind. Everything was fine until Annie Johnson came.
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I didn't get along. Really, we thought all the time that so
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I don't know why. I just didn't like it. When Annie moved in,
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she took over the whole house. What's the connection between you, are
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Ant and Missus Johnson any blood relationship? No. Annie was a school chum
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of Aunt Laura's. When they sent her to prison for killing her husband,
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she wrote for help and your aunt helped her. She worked for eleven years
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at it. I don't know how much money she spent lawyers, you know.
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She finally got an for a and then she took Missus Johnson on as
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a housekeeper. Is that right? Yeah? She never did any work,
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Jack like, she owned the house like my aunt knuckle Oder everything they've done
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for when's the last time you heard from your aunt? It was a few
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months ago, around Christmas time. I called her up to wish her Merry
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Christmas. You have no idea where missus Muller might be. Now some friends
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that she could be staying with me? No, Aunt Laura only has a
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few friends the older in the neighborhood. She's not in the habit of going
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up without telling anyone, is she? No, never anything like that.
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I don't understand. Something must be wrong. Annie. Do you think she's
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done something? Do you? No, she couldn't have. She owes everything
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to Aunt Laura, her freedom, good home, nice clothes, money,
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everything my aunt could give her. Some people are like that. If it's
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free, they never get too much. Before we left Lorraine Muller's house,
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we got the name of her aunt's lawyer. We had dinner at a lunch
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corder on Losiana, and then we drove back to Wilmington to the Moor house.
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Lights were burning in the front windows. The fog was thick. Now,
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yes, that's her sing. Yeah, I want to ring the belt
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and you see in through the curtains. You Yeah, she didn't hear it.
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Let's ring it again and here she comes. Yes, are you missus
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Johnson? Yes, that's right. What is it police officers are identification.
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Oh yes, why don't you come in? Thank you? Mark you.
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We'll go in the parlor, shall we? All right? No word?
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February and March. Yes, we think the signatures on those two reports are
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forged. Oh those? Oh yes, I don't know what to say.
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I really didn't think it was that serious. I knew the reports had to
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be set in. Did you sign missus Muller's name on Well, yes,
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I did you see Laura Muller's at a sanitarium now resting up. I didn't
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want to bother her with all this business, so I signed them and put
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them in the mail. But forgery. I didn't think it was that serious.
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Which sanitarium is Missus Muller staying in Garraways a very nice place. It's
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near Pasadena. She's been there about two months now. Have you been out
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to visit her yet? No, I haven't. I'm a little ashamed of
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myself. I've just been too busy keeping up the he there's lots of work.
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Y. I understand. I suppose you drove Missus Muller to the sanitarium.
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As a matter of fact, I didn't. You said we don't have
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a car, so she took a taxicab. Have you telephoned missus Muller the
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sanitarium? It's just once the day she went in. She's there for a
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good risk. I don't feel that anyone should bother, not even myself.
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Does she have any other relatives besides her husband? That is not at all
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poor mister Muller. We had to send him away, you know, to
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Warlwalck State Hospital. Yes, ma'am got out of hand, just terrible.
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He almost murdered peor Laura once and those were awful days. He's much better
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off where he is. Yeah, it's too bad. Well that's about all,
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miss Johnson. Let me show you to the door. Thanks. You'd
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better contact your parole officer the first thing in the morning and clear up this
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matter of the reports. I'll do that, Thank you. Good night,
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missus Johnson. Thanks again. All right, good night. What time you
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got? Twenty minutes after a m The light just went on the Annie,
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Yeah, what do you say? We'd better go take a look around.
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What do you think? We're fine? I don't know. Maybe a reason
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for some of those lies, she told us. Eight thirty five pm.
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Annie Johnson left the house and crossed the Street to miss Carpenter's place in the
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Muller house. In a small desk in one of the rear bedrooms on the
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first floor, we found a file for missus Muller's business papers. In the
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file we located three of her insurance policies. That was one for five thousand
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and two for thirty five hundred. Each policy had a writer attacked, changing
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the beneficiary from Joseph Muller the husband, to Annie Johnson twelve thousand dollars worth
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insurance. Yeah, let's get them back on this floor. She got the
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policy numbers. Yeah, let's see. We'll see phone bill, light bill.
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Here's one Laborville daughter and now are paid to Tom McCrae, George Danny
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Johnson. Let's go. Yeah, I want to get this address here,
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Tom McCray he's Jefferson. There's a cat. Yeah, let's go see what
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we can find upstairs. Huh, it's a pretty cat. We went upstairs
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to the second floor of the house and searched the rooms. We went up
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another flight of stairs to the attic. For a full half hour, we
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searched through dozens of corrugated cartman's crammed with souvenirs and picture postcards, Joe come
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here, Yeah, take a look, wrapped the newspaper thirty two twenty cold
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three, empty cartridge. We got a gun and we got a suspect.
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Those insurance policies could be the motive. Let's pray to god there's no victim.
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You are listening to dragnets for the step by step solution to an actual
18:08
police case. Ten PM, an immediate stakeout was placed on the Muller residence
18:18
in case Annie Johnson made an attempt to leave during the night. Ben and
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I took the gun that we'd found to the crime lab for analysis. The
18:25
next morning, we checked with the Muller's family attorney. He had no ideas
18:30
to the whereabouts of Missus Muller, but he told us that about three months
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ago, she'd ordered him to drow up a new will for Under the new
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provisions, Annie Johnson was to be the sole heir of the Muller house and
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property, plus an additional fifteen hundred dollars in bonds. Friday, March tenth,
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eleven am, while Ben check with the insurance company, I met with
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Captain Elliott of homicide. You got everything with a victim, HU, where
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are you looking? We'd like to shake down the Muller house again before we
18:56
look anyplace else. Didn't have a chance to give it a thorough going over
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last night. You're sold on the idea. To Johnson, woman looks like
19:02
it. Sure it couldn't be a freak disappearance. I don't say nothing in
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my book. Annie Johnson's got some big reasons for lying to us. I'd
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like to find him. I did you figure in doing that? Well?
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If we could pull her in and question her, just to get her away
19:14
from the Muller place, I'd like to take a detail thement out there and
19:15
shake the house and talked about it. You checked with the insurance companies that
19:19
they shoot miss Muller's policies. Yeah, we got her right. Annie Johnson
19:22
gets the door if Missus Mutter dies, So something else. The changes in
19:26
the policies were made during the last two months at her home. It doesn't
19:29
jive. Why not? Annie Johnson told us that Missus Muller's been in the
19:33
sanitarium for more than two months. Here's a gabbard, Joe, what's that?
19:36
Gal unseen has went out to the state hospital Nora Walke to talk to
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mister Muller yeah, Joseph Muller died at eight o'clock last night, death from
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natural cause. And what's that proof? Wait a minute, when when Joseph
19:48
Muller was committed to the institution, Annie Johnson figured prominently in that commitment.
19:53
She had a lot to do with send him away. She didn't take any
19:56
chances, did she. Annie Johnson has left with the house, Arnes and
20:00
the insurance money she had early answers, Yeah, oh, but the right
20:03
one. While Captain Elliott called in Annie Johnson and questioned her, Ben and
20:08
I, together with the detail of men from Homicide and Lieutenant Lee Jones from
20:12
the crime Lab, drove out to Wilmington and started a thorough search of the
20:15
moorhouse. We took it floor by floor, starting with the attic. By
20:19
four o'clock that afternoon we had searched the attic and the second floor completely without
20:23
finding any additional physical evidence. Five point thirty pm, still nothing. The
20:30
fog was coming in. To think nothing. Captain Elliott called and said the
20:33
Johnson woman was on her way home. The search went on. Anyone checked
20:40
the cellar yet, let's give it a look, huh, Joe, come
20:47
on down pleas with me. Were checking some stains. What he got,
20:53
Lee picked up this line of stains here, Joe, did you run down
20:57
from the top of the stairs. Let me see mm hmm shot drops some
21:03
beens that dodn't see what happens? Okay, let's have a look around,
21:07
Gill sue we can find there's no lights down here. You'll have to use
21:10
your flesh. I go on much of anything, just to use the attic
21:18
of the storage place. Yeah, wait a minute, put the light over
21:22
this way where you go, No, in the corner. That's it.
21:26
See something I don't know? Yeah, have a look here. New patch
21:33
of cement looks pretty new alongside the rest. Yeah, there's a sledge and
21:37
a couple of shovels back in the garage. Get them with you. Yeah,
21:41
oh yeah, they just turned blue blood. Lee Jones took some sample
21:52
scrapings and went back to the crime lab to give them a precipitate test to
21:55
determine if the stains were made by human or animal blood. We broke away
21:59
the patch of it's new cement work in the cellar and we began digging.
22:03
Six thirty pm, Annie Johnson came home. We met her in the living
22:07
room. Sergeant I wonder if you'd mind explaining this intrusion. No, not
22:11
at all. Will you sit down. I believe I'm the one to offer
22:14
hospitality here. It's my house, is it, miss Johnson? Well,
22:17
it's in my charge, it's my responsibility. Yes, ma'am. I de
22:19
We just like to clear up a few things, that's all. I think
22:22
the police department's taken up enough of my time. I spent half the day
22:26
at the city Hall answering silly questions. Now, if you'll excuse me,
22:29
I have an appointment at the beauty shop at seven o'clock. Maybe a better
22:30
cancelor. I don't see any reason why I should. What is that noise
22:37
coming from the cellar? Someone's down there. They're police officers, Miss Johnson.
22:41
We're searching the half, searching this house with whose permission? Maybe they
22:45
didn't make it clear to your downtown. We've got a good reason to believe
22:48
that their crime has been committed. Why, missus Muller, she's missing.
22:52
I told your Captain Elliott this afternoon. Laura could have left the sanitarium.
22:56
She might have gone east to visit some friends in Cincinnati. I think she
23:00
has some friends in Cincinnati. How could missus Muller leave the sanitarium. She
23:03
was never there. Maybe she didn't stay at Garraways, could have been another
23:07
rest home. But she said you phoned her at Garraways. You said you
23:11
talked to her there. Theo's men downstairs. They're going to dig up the
23:15
whole house. I try this bill, Missus Johnson, would you mind telling
23:19
us what it was for? And there's a section of the cellar floor and
23:23
never been cemented. I decided to have it done while Laura was away.
23:27
The men are digging it up, miss Johnson. Why are they digging it
23:30
up? What right have they investigation? We'll see that the cement work is
23:33
redone when we're finished. This is impossible. I forbid it. This house
23:37
is is my responsibility. No need to worry. Everything will be left exactly
23:41
the way it was. We'll leave the house as soon as the men are
23:44
finished. Oh well, then perhaps I can keep my appointment with a hairdresser.
23:48
I won't be long. She'd be back around nine. I'm sorry.
23:52
I think you'd better stay. But I've told you everything I know. Did
23:56
you kill Laura Maller? Did I kill? I can't take anymore? I
24:00
guess why would I want to kill Laura. She's done everything for me.
24:03
She's given me a new life. Why no, of course I didn't kill
24:07
her. Oh, and there's no need to be upset, Oh my nerves.
24:14
I got to have something. Glass of sherry? Is dicky? How
24:22
long is it gonna take him? Not all defends mam. There's no reason
24:26
for this. You don't know that anything's happened to Laura. I'm try.
24:30
Laura's the best friend I have in Ola. Eleven years, that's how long
24:34
she thought to make them let me out of prison. She's the only one
24:38
who believed in me. Yes, ma'am she is. She's given me everything.
24:42
She wants me to have everything. Everything I want. I wouldn't have
24:48
a reason for killing her. Why my clothes, my home, here,
24:51
money, they're all Laura. She's given them to me. Would you like
24:56
a glass of sherry? Sergeant Pritty? No, no thanks. You know
25:00
Laura was much older than I, Sergeant. She could have taken her own
25:03
life. She didn't have much to live for, old and sick, but
25:08
I got everything to live for. Laura used to tell me that, so
25:12
she gave me everything. Laura was much older than I. Would you care
25:18
for a glass of sherry. Sergeant Romeiro, No, thank you. This
25:22
whole thing's so silly. Laura's away on a trip. She's much older than
25:27
I am. You know, I'm thirty eight. He wouldn't take me for
25:32
a woman thirty eight years old, would you, Sergeant No, ma'am.
25:34
I know I'm not really young anymore, but I'm still attracted. Don't you
25:38
think a lot of men prefer mature women, women with experience the background.
25:45
I know how to take care of a man. Sure, yeah, yeah,
26:07
yeah, we founder you didn't have anything, And of course she wanted
26:18
not. She knows I didn't mean it. She's the only one who knows
26:23
what I went through years in prison. Understood me. She gave me everything,
26:30
everything she did. Ask anybody. They all know how Laura about me.
26:34
Ask anybody. We can't ask her. The story you have just heard
26:47
was true, only the names were changed to protect the innocent. On July
26:52
fourteenth, trial was held in superior courts City and County of Los Angeles,
26:56
State of California. In a moment, the result of that trial, Annie
27:10
Marie Johnson was tried and convicted of murder in the first degree. She was
27:14
executed in the lethal gas Chamber at the State Penitentiary San Quentin, California.
27:25
You have just heard Dragnet authentic cases from official files. Technical advice for Dragnet
27:32
comes from the Office of Chief of Police W. A. Wharton, Los
27:34
Angeles Police Department. Dragnet wishes to thank the editors of Radio Television Life magazine.
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They have judged Dragnet the outstanding new program of the past radio season.
27:52
Tomorrow, here are the Ronald Coleman's charming series The Halls of Ivy on NBC.
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Welcome back. Well, this was a good, enjoyable episode of Dragnet.
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It certainly is not going to make my list of my favorite but it's
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a well done documentary style story, and without a doubt, the scene leading
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up to the discovery of the body is definitely very well done. It's an
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example of how in producing Dragnet, Jack Webb used sound effects to really build
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the drama. The only thing I questioned there I kind of wondered if it
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was even necessary to bring in the music. But still, just the way
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she was talking, it was a certain realism to it, even how she
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kept repeating herself, just showing how nervous she was, and how that tension
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was building with the scream to cap it off at any rate. We turned
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out as some listener comments and feedback, and this one comes from our first
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Mike. He writes, I'm sixty seven years old and enjoy listening to your
29:06
podcast on my iPod while walking my dog. Like almost everyone else, I
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enjoy Johnny Dollar. Although the current episodes are not nearly as enjoyable as the
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five parter, the later shows don't have enough time to properly develop the stories.
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Good point there, and I will say that having listened to Have Gone
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and Will Travel, CBS does start allowing more time for the stories later on
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if they follow that pattern, so hopefully around nineteen fifty nine nineteen sixty episodes
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will get a little better developed stories. But it goes on to say my
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current favorites are Dragnet and Philip Marlowe. I especially enjoyed Gerald Moore. I
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was reading an article recently where James Gardner had mentioned that he really enjoyed working
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with Moore when he appeared on Maverick because he was a true professional and definitely
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true of Gerald Moore. It was really a different era in acting where you
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had less egos and more just professionalism and dedication to doing the job. Even
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while Moore was on Philip Marlowe, he was making guest appearances on other shows,
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even other detective programs, in other sort of roles. And this was
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while he was being recognized with awards and such for his lead radio acting on
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Marlowe. I think in ways he was kind of like Martin Milner, who
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played Pete Malloy on Adam twelve and described himself as a working actor. And
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that's exactly what he was, whether he was the star of the show or
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he was playing a secondary character, if he was playing Philip Marlowe, or
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if he was Mister Fantastic, you saw that same dedication to qual work and
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just doing the job well and onto his comments regarding Dragnet. As for Dragnet,
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I remember watching the early TV shows at my grandparents' house when I was
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young and kind of grew up with Jack Webb as a teenager, I was
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more impressed by the fact he had been married to Julie London than I was
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by his acting. Once, like criticism of the recent Big Girl episode,
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I was disappointed the ending did not ever explain the motivation behind the killer's actions
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in beating up and shooting his victims. Keep up the good work. I
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look forward to many more enjoyable walks with the dog listening to your program.
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Well, good, good point regarding the lack of information on motivation, and
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thanks so much for the comment and the support. I do think one thing,
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particularly with nineteen fifties dragnet, is that sometimes they don't really go beyond
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what the police would care about in terms of motivation. We heard one explanation
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with the statement that we were dealing with a psycho, and I think that
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the unnecessary brutality of the attacks really does bear that idea out, I think,
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beyond the fact it was not relevant to them as investigating officers, so
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we didn't actually hear it. And there are other episodes like that, and
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I tend to think there's something to be said for them, though, particularly
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from the perspective of the modern listeners, because then we can kind of talk
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about it, We can think about it, and it actually makes the episode
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a little bit more stimulating rather than having it held out to us. Another
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episode where all the motivations aren't laid out plainly, i'd say, would be
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the big hate. And there are a few others where they just really like
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to leave things to us to interpret. And then we have an actual letter
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from Sue who went ahead and sent in a donation to listener support campaign through
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our peel box. I Adam, haven't been able to donate to your program
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in several years, So first of all, I'd like to give a shout
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out to everyone who did donate to keep the Great Detectors podcast going and encourage
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any who can afford it to contribute on behalf of those who can't. Second,
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I want to comment on the Dragnet child killer episode. I thought it
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was interesting that you mentioned you were surprised by the murderer the first time you
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heard it. I knew as soon as they introduced the character as a neighbor
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that he'd committed the crime, because nowadays, tragically, we know children are
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more often in danger from people they know than strangers. So my interpretation was
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that the episode was a lot less shocking today than it would have been in
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the nineteen fifties. And my wife was actually reading this letter and she speculated
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on my surprise being my ability to compartmentalized things into thinking and expectations for the
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nineteen fifties versus what I would expect from today's show. But you're right that
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there is definitely a great risk that children face from people that they know and
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that they should be able to trust. And the child killer episode came from
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a time when we knew our neighbors, and we trusted our neighbor, and
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because he lived as the same neighborhood as these girls, they didn't react to
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him as they would a normal stranger. In today's world, people who might
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live seventy five one hundred feet away from you may be just as much a
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stranger as somebody who lives across town. Such is the state of the world
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we live in. And she says at the end of that episode, you
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read a listener comment about a previous Dragnet episode where Web goes undercover, and
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wanted to second the idea that listening to these early Dragnet episodes is giving me
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a much better appreciation for the talents of Jack Webb. I'm one of the
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people who grew up watching the TV episodes in the nineteen sixties and therefore thought
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of him as a much more two dimensional than he was in these early days.
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I was also amused by some dialogue in a recent Nick Carter episode where
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he tells Patsy that he doesn't want to come across as and know it all.
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That is exactly my reaction to that character and why the Carter series is
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one of my least favorite of those you featured. Overall, however, I
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really enjoy the series and your commentary. Thank you for your work, Sue
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well Thanks so much, Sue Well So. And for those who aren't enjoying
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Nick Carter, I hope you'll like Boston Blackie better and he'll be here next
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season and for several seasons thereafter. And then we turn to an email from
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the second Mike, who says, thank you for your excellent podcast. I'm
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a huge fan of Philip Marlow, Johnny Doll, and absolutely love Vincent Price
36:01
as the Saint. Quick question, do you edit out some of the advertising?
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I know it may not be a popular opinion, but I think it
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would be great to hear more of those quirky, kishy mid century ads.
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I really appreciate your insights and opinion on each show as well. Please keep
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up the great work. Well, I'll go ahead and answer question. We
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do edit out some, but not a whole lot. Dragnet, We do
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and It's something we've done with Dragnet pretty much the first time we were through
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it, and it's certainly something that can be a bit of controversy and debate.
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I tend to remove the ads when I find them annoying myself. Now
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let me go ahead and take just clarify one thing. If you are charged
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with preserving and distributing preserved copies of old time radio, like an organization like
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the Old Time Radio Research Chures, you should preserve the ads if they're in
37:07
there. But it's basically when it comes to rebroadcasting these, a lot of
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the organizations that have distributed or just broadcast them with hosts have removed some have
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chosen to remove them, some have chosen not to, and most of them
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I do leave in I know that on my Old Time Radio Superman show,
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I've had a couple people say they wanted me to take the ads out of
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the Superman Show for PEP, but I personally don't have a problem with them.
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The other shows other than Dragnet, I don't remove the ads, though
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some of them have had the ads removed. That's been the case with most
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of the recent Nick Carter episodes. Johnny Doller was on a sustaining basis,
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and most of the surviving story are Armed Forces radio services, so those had
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public service announcements if those ads were included. Philip Marlow at this point is
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on a sustaining basis, so is Crime and Peter Chambers, and so was
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the Saint. Finally, we have a note from Andrew, who says,
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Dear mister Graham, do you know the Paul Temple radio series? It is,
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I believe the longest running radio detective series. Just thought i'd mention it,
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though I suppose you must have run across it. Thank you ever so
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much for your efforts. I'm particularly enjoying the Johnny Dollar when I hear the
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theme music I'm back in my room in the house I grew up in.
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So nice that these programs are still around for future generations to enjoy with best
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wiships, Andrew, Well, thanks so much. I have heard of Paul
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Temple. Paul Temple was probably the oldest of the British radio to Time actives,
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beginning in nineteen thirty eight, though several detectives have been on American radio
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prior to that, Sherlock Holmes and Charlie Chan Also mister Keene tracer of lost
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person. Though I suppose it could be said that Paul Temple was the first
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of the detectives who was entirely original to radio, and it did have a
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very successful run, although British radio was very different than American radio. American
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radio was of course commercial, and when we had a detective show and it
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was popular, it would air thirty nine to fifty two weeks per year.
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The Paul Temple stories were generally between six and eight episodes long, though there
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was a ten part episode, and there were several one part of Paul Temple
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stories that were say forty five minutes or hour long. But the series did
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enjoy great success and ran off and on between nineteen thirty eight and sixty eight,
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making a story at its height two stories a year and having gaps in
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some case of two or three years between stories. And actually since two thousand
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and six the BBC has been remaking some of the stories because particularly a lot
40:29
of the early stories were lost. In fact, of the Paul Temple stories
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before nineteen fifty three, only the nineteen forty two story Paul Temple Intervenes is
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in general circulation as a complete serial, and Mister Temple did also spin off
40:49
into television and film, so he's a character with a rich legacy and began
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on radio. Thanks so much for the comment, and I have seriously got
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to check some of these stories out because you're not the first person to mention
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that Andrew. All right, well, that will do it for today.
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We will be back on Monday with the Saint and then on Saturday join us
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for another episode of Dragnet. In the meantime, send your comments to Box
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thirteen at Great Detectives dot net, follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives,
41:22
and become one of our friends on Facebook, Facebook dot com. Slash Radio
41:28
Detectives from Boiseidaho. This is your host, Adam Graham signing off.