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Dragnet - "Big Holdup" (Old Time Radio, 1951) · Dragnet | Old Time Radio

0:00
Speaker 1: A robber known as the Rattlesnake Bandit is targeting couples
0:04
Speaker 1: in parked cars, taking small sums of money and leaving
0:08
Speaker 1: violence behind. On the Los Angeles night watch, Sergeant Joe
0:13
Speaker 1: Friday and Sergeant Ben Romero work to identify the man
0:17
Speaker 1: before he can strike again. Jack Webb and Barton Yarbrough
0:22
Speaker 1: head the cast in Dragnet, Big Holdup, originally heard on
0:27
Speaker 1: NBC January 4th, 1951, episode number 82. From the familiar
0:34
Speaker 1: police detail of Los Angeles comes a case moving through
0:38
Speaker 1: the city after dark, and now the original broadcast.
0:42
Speaker 2: ¶ ¶.
0:48
Speaker 3: The story you are about to hear is true. Only
0:51
Speaker 3: the names have been changed to protect the innocent.
0:54
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1:07
Speaker 3: You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned to homicide detail. A
1:11
Speaker 3: potential killer is on the loose in your city. He's
1:14
Speaker 3: robbed six people. For no reason at all, he beats
1:17
Speaker 3: his victims senseless. He moves fast.
1:20
Speaker 5: He's well-armed.
1:21
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1:30
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1:32
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2:01
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2:23
Speaker 4: Dragnet, the documented drama of an actual crime. For the
2:28
Speaker 4: next 30 minutes, in cooperation with the Los Angeles Police Department,
2:32
Speaker 4: you will travel step by step on the side of
2:34
Speaker 4: the law through an actual case transcribed from official police files.
2:38
Speaker 4: From beginning to end, from crime to punishment, Dragnet is
2:43
Speaker 4: the story of your police force in action.
2:45
Speaker 7: It was Thursday, March 8th. It was windy in Los Angeles.
2:51
Speaker 7: We were working the night watch on a homicide. My
2:53
Speaker 7: partner's Ben Romero, the boss is Thad Brown, chief of detectives.
2:56
Speaker 5: My name's Friday. I was on the way back from
2:58
Speaker 5: the record bureau. It was 11.45 p.m. when I got
3:00
Speaker 5: to room 42. Homicide. Joe? Joe? Hi, Bill.
3:08
Speaker 1: Romero called about five minutes ago. He's on his way
3:10
Speaker 1: in from Georgia Street.
3:11
Speaker 5: Oh, thank you.
3:16
Speaker 1: Is the captain still around? He's gone for the night.
3:18
Speaker 1: You can catch him at home if you want him. Trouble?
3:21
Speaker 5: The rattlesnake bandit got two more couples tonight. All right.
3:24
Speaker 1: Band?
3:25
Speaker 5: About the same as the last.
3:26
Speaker 1: Three jobs he pulled.
3:28
Speaker 5: Pretty vicious. Gave the victims a bad going over. Who
3:31
Speaker 5: are they? Young salesman and his girlfriend. They were parked
3:35
Speaker 5: up in the Silver Lake area. Bandit robbed them.
3:37
Speaker 7: When he didn't find enough money in the young fellow's wallet,
3:39
Speaker 7: he pistol whipped him, messed him up quite a bit.
3:41
Speaker 5: Hmm. Why'd he do that? Oh, there's no reason for it.
3:45
Speaker 7: The young girl in the car had an engagement ring on.
3:47
Speaker 7: She offered to hand it over. The bandit pulled her
3:49
Speaker 7: out of the car, punched her in the face, hit
3:50
Speaker 7: her quite a few times. Guy just seems to be
3:53
Speaker 7: looking for blood.
3:54
Speaker 1: No leads on him, huh?
3:56
Speaker 5: No, not so far. It looks like I'm out. Have
4:00
Speaker 5: you got any aspirin, Bill?
4:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, I got a fresh bottle this afternoon.
4:05
Speaker 5: Lousy headache. I've had it all night.
4:08
Speaker 1: How about the thief's M.O.? The same, huh?
4:10
Speaker 5: Has been so far.
4:11
Speaker 7: He works the outlying districts, parking areas. Doesn't seem to
4:14
Speaker 7: be any reason at all for these sluggings. The victims
4:17
Speaker 7: all agree on that. No provocation at all. The guy
4:19
Speaker 7: just seems to get a kick out of punching in
4:20
Speaker 7: somebody's face.
4:23
Speaker 1: Two pills in it?
4:24
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's fine. Thank you.
4:28
Speaker 1: Boys in robbery turn up anything?
4:31
Speaker 5: No, neither have we.
4:32
Speaker 7: Bandit operates in hot cars. He's got a few good
4:35
Speaker 7: prints to work with no make though the guy works
4:38
Speaker 7: alone well he did for the first two jobs.
4:42
Speaker 5: Last few times he had a bright.
4:43
Speaker 7: Looking blonde with him good looking you know nice figure
4:48
Speaker 7: victims say that she stands by and just seems to
4:51
Speaker 7: egg him on on.
4:54
Speaker 5: It seems to get a big thrill out of it.
4:55
Speaker 1: I guess hi bill how'd you do man Doctor didn't
5:01
Speaker 1: think it'd be a good idea to bother him too
5:03
Speaker 1: much tonight. We can talk to him tomorrow.
5:04
Speaker 5: How about the hold-up mail descriptions you get there?
5:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, from the girl. Matches what the other victims gave us.
5:08
Speaker 1: She didn't see the getaway car, though. Didn't have a chance.
5:11
Speaker 5: How about the young fellas? He's still unconscious?
5:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're going to move him to the county hospital.
5:14
Speaker 1: You should have seen his face.
5:16
Speaker 6: Yeah?
5:17
Speaker 1: Terrible. It's a mess. This bandit's girlfriend, the blonde, nothing
5:20
Speaker 1: at all on her? Victims say she's got a nice
5:23
Speaker 1: figure and good-looking. Quite a few like that in Los Angeles. Well,
5:26
Speaker 1: they're getting out of these stick-ups anyway. Can't be too much, huh? Oh,
5:29
Speaker 1: that's just it. None of the heists have netted them more.
5:31
Speaker 5: Than $ 50. Hardly worth the trouble.
5:33
Speaker 1: Hot shot?
5:34
Speaker 5: I'll get it.
5:37
Speaker 1: What is it?
5:39
Speaker 5: Winter. Rattlesnake bandit. He got another couple. Where? South end
5:45
Speaker 5: of Echo Park. Yeah? He shot both of them.
5:52
Speaker 7: Together with Cummings and McCready from Homicide, Ben and I
5:54
Speaker 7: drove to the scene of the holdup and shooting in
5:56
Speaker 7: the Echo Park area. The victims were identified as Ralph Younger, 34,
6:00
Speaker 7: a high school English teacher. He'd been beaten severely about
6:03
Speaker 7: the face and neck and shot once through the right shoulder.
6:07
Speaker 7: His companion was Athelma Donovan, 26.
6:09
Speaker 5: A grade school teacher. She'd been shot through the temple
6:12
Speaker 5: just above the eyes.
6:13
Speaker 7: She was still alive but in a critical condition. We
6:16
Speaker 7: questioned Ralph Younger briefly before he was removed by ambulance
6:19
Speaker 7: to the Georgia Street Receiving Hospital. His description of the
6:22
Speaker 7: holdup man tallied exactly with that of the rattlesnake bandit.
6:26
Speaker 5: He also gave us the description and license number of
6:29
Speaker 5: the getaway car.
6:30
Speaker 7: We got out a broadcast and an APB. The routine
6:34
Speaker 7: check of the area failed to turn up any leads.
6:37
Speaker 5: 11 a.m.
6:37
Speaker 7: The next morning, Ralph Younger told us the story from
6:39
Speaker 7: his hospital bed.
6:43
Speaker 5: I was.
6:43
Speaker 8: I was teaching Thelma how to drive, Sergeant. We were
6:48
Speaker 8: going along that side street when the sedan pulled up.
6:51
Speaker 1: Forced us over to the curb. And your friend, Miss Donovan,
6:54
Speaker 1: was sitting in the driver's seat then?
6:56
Speaker 5: That's right.
6:58
Speaker 8: I got out on my side and started over to
7:00
Speaker 8: ask this fellow what he was doing. Crowdness like that.
7:05
Speaker 8: He rushed up to me and started slugging me in
7:07
Speaker 8: the face with his gun. I went down.
7:10
Speaker 5: What did Miss Donovan do?
7:13
Speaker 8: She started howling for help. The holed up guy ran
7:16
Speaker 8: over and shoved his gun at her. He had it
7:18
Speaker 8: pointed at her head. I grabbed Thelma's purse and started
7:22
Speaker 8: looking through it.
7:25
Speaker 1: For money, I guess.
7:26
Speaker 5: Uh-huh.
7:28
Speaker 8: Say, would you mind moving this pillow over a little bit?
7:32
Speaker 1: Sure, I'll let you. There we are.
7:37
Speaker 5: How's that, okay?
7:39
Speaker 8: Come on.
7:40
Speaker 1: Under the shoulder, please. All right. Yeah. There you are.
7:46
Speaker 9: That's fine.
7:47
Speaker 5: Thanks. Were you lying on the street while all this
7:49
Speaker 5: was going on, Mr. Younger?
7:52
Speaker 8: No, he yanked me to my feet, made me stand
7:54
Speaker 8: by the car with my hands up. Thelma was crying.
7:57
Speaker 8: A hold-up man looked through her purse and then he said,
8:01
Speaker 8: Who are you trying to kid, ladies? You got more
8:04
Speaker 8: money than this. Thelma told him the truth. It was
8:10
Speaker 8: all she had, three dollars.
8:12
Speaker 1: What happened then?
8:14
Speaker 8: She shoved the barrel of the gun against her head
8:15
Speaker 8: and Right here by the temple. Then I heard the
8:19
Speaker 8: gun go off. Selma fell over in the seat. Wasn't
8:23
Speaker 8: any reason for it. No reason at all. He just
8:28
Speaker 8: shot her.
8:28
Speaker 5: And what did you do then? Do you remember?
8:30
Speaker 1: I jumped for the man.
8:32
Speaker 8: I wanted to kill him right there. He turned and
8:37
Speaker 8: fired the gun at me.
8:39
Speaker 5: Hit me right here.
8:39
Speaker 8: All over the shoulder. Then he ran out and got
8:43
Speaker 8: in his car and drove off.
8:45
Speaker 5: There was a blonde girl with him. I got a
8:46
Speaker 5: good look at her.
8:48
Speaker 8: Blonde, pretty, attractive.
8:50
Speaker 7: Well, is there anything else about the man's description that
8:53
Speaker 7: you might have forgotten to tell us last night?
8:56
Speaker 1: No, I don't think so. I gave you a license
8:59
Speaker 1: number of his car.
9:00
Speaker 8: Can't you find him that way?
9:01
Speaker 1: It was a stolen car, Mr.
9:02
Speaker 7: Young.
9:02
Speaker 1: We took it from one of his other victims. It
9:04
Speaker 1: was found out in Wilshire this morning.
9:06
Speaker 5: Mind it.
9:07
Speaker 1: I only wish I'd got my hands on him.
9:09
Speaker 5: Poor Thelma. How is she, do you know? Well, there's
9:13
Speaker 5: no late report. Maybe you better check with the doctor, huh? Yeah.
9:17
Speaker 8: Hey, before you go, would you mind ringing this button here?
9:20
Speaker 1: It's for the nurse.
9:22
Speaker 8: Her shoulder's giving me trouble again.
9:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay.
9:26
Speaker 5: Well, thanks very much, Younger. Sure hope that shoulder of
9:30
Speaker 5: yours gets better. I hope so.
9:32
Speaker 1: Goodbye. We'll be checking with you later on.
9:34
Speaker 5: Yeah, okay.
9:36
Speaker 1: Come on, then. Romero? Joe? How'd you do, Bill? Checked
9:46
Speaker 1: with the doctor. Donovan girl's still unconscious.
9:49
Speaker 5: Pretty critical. What'd the doc say? She got a pull-through?
9:51
Speaker 5: She might.
9:52
Speaker 1: I can't tell yet. One thing's sure, though. What's that?
9:55
Speaker 1: The bullet did a lot of damage. She's totally blind.
10:02
Speaker 7: Four days before a bullet from the hold-up gun had
10:05
Speaker 7: blinded schoolteacher Thelma Donovan for life, the rattlesnake bandit and
10:08
Speaker 7: his blonde girlfriend were unknown.
10:10
Speaker 5: To the city of Los Angeles.
10:12
Speaker 7: In the space of little more than 96 hours, they'd
10:15
Speaker 7: robbed and slugged a dozen people from one end of
10:17
Speaker 7: the city to the other. In every case, the attacks
10:20
Speaker 7: were just about as brutal and vicious as they were unprovoked.
10:23
Speaker 7: The amount of money taken from each.
10:25
Speaker 5: Victim was negligible.
10:26
Speaker 7: The only apparent conclusion was that the bandit and his
10:28
Speaker 7: girlfriend were out for blood.
10:31
Speaker 5: That night, despite a.
10:32
Speaker 7: Citywide alert to all radio cars and patrolmen, the suspects
10:35
Speaker 7: robbed and slugged.
10:36
Speaker 5: Two more couples between the hours of 10 p.m.
10:38
Speaker 6: And midnight.
10:40
Speaker 7: Between midnight and 1.30 a.m.
10:42
Speaker 5: They got two more victims.
10:43
Speaker 7: 2.30 a.m., Ben and I got back to the city hall,
10:47
Speaker 7: the carpool.
10:49
Speaker 9: 11-8, 6th and Spring.
10:51
Speaker 5: 11-8, 6th and Spring. It looks like a place over there, huh? Mm-hmm.
10:54
Speaker 1: I wonder how McCready and Cummings made out.
10:58
Speaker 7: I hope they got more than we have.
11:02
Speaker 1: Yeah.
11:03
Speaker 5: Yeah, this is good right here.
11:05
Speaker 1: Want to get the radio, Joe? Yeah, fine.
11:08
Speaker 5: Let's go.
11:12
Speaker 1: Doggone it. I knew I forgot something.
11:14
Speaker 5: What's that? Cigarettes.
11:15
Speaker 1: You got any left?
11:16
Speaker 5: I don't think so. Old pack is old. Oh, there's
11:21
Speaker 5: one left in here.
11:22
Speaker 1: Oh, that's all right. I can't take your last move.
11:24
Speaker 5: Oh, go ahead. There's a machine upstairs by the elevator.
11:26
Speaker 5: I'll get some. All right.
11:49
Speaker 1: I sure better get these shoes half sold. I'll be
11:51
Speaker 1: walking around on my stocking feet pretty soon.
11:54
Speaker 5: You just got them a couple of weeks ago, didn't you? Yeah,
11:56
Speaker 5: that's right.
11:56
Speaker 1: Tops are as good as new. Sold to the darn
11:58
Speaker 1: things went just like that. No wonder they had them
12:01
Speaker 1: on sale.
12:02
Speaker 5: Yeah. Just a minute. I want to get those smokes. Oh, yeah.
12:12
Speaker 1: All right. Skipper say he was going to stay around?
12:25
Speaker 5: Until about two, yeah. He's probably gone by now.
12:34
Speaker 1: That's a long day. Anything in the book?
12:39
Speaker 5: Just a minute. Yeah, your wife called.
12:41
Speaker 7: I want you to get a refill on that prescription
12:43
Speaker 7: for your little boy.
12:44
Speaker 5: Oh, okay. Hiya.
12:47
Speaker 1: How'd you two do?
12:48
Speaker 5: Nothing. How about you?
12:50
Speaker 1: Chandler called from robbery a minute ago. Thinks they may
12:52
Speaker 1: have something. Yeah? A 211, big service station out on Pico.
12:55
Speaker 1: Hold up man had a blonde in the car with him.
12:57
Speaker 5: What about description?
12:58
Speaker 1: Chides pretty well with the guy we're after. Well, the M.O.
13:00
Speaker 5: Doesn't.
13:01
Speaker 1: That thief and his girl haven't tried anything but car
13:03
Speaker 1: hold up since they started.
13:04
Speaker 5: How'd they manage the job?
13:05
Speaker 1: Well, you know how they've been operating for transportation. They
13:07
Speaker 1: rob the people, steal their car. When they reach another victim,
13:10
Speaker 1: they transfer to his car. First time they switched that
13:12
Speaker 1: system was tonight.
13:13
Speaker 5: A holdup on South Hoover, the man and his wife.
13:16
Speaker 1: Instead of changing over, they stayed in the blue Chevy Coupe,
13:18
Speaker 1: the same one they took in the job before that.
13:21
Speaker 1: Up to now, they've used the same hot car in
13:22
Speaker 1: the last three jobs. Sure going to help if they
13:24
Speaker 1: stick with it. What about the gas station in Dunwell?
13:27
Speaker 1: Excuse me, Crowley Chandler. Homicide Cummings.
13:32
Speaker 5: Yeah, Glenn. Uh-huh. 5-4-3-8-9.
13:37
Speaker 1: Right, thanks. They dug up a witness to the gas
13:40
Speaker 1: station job. Suspects drove off in a blue Chevy Coupe.
13:43
Speaker 1: License 5-4-3-8-9.
13:45
Speaker 5: Same car, huh?
13:46
Speaker 1: It stops me. What was the take? 23 bucks. Slugged
13:49
Speaker 1: the attendant. Took off. The broadcast's out. Area's been alerted.
13:52
Speaker 1: Nothing yet.
13:53
Speaker 5: Okay, Ben.
13:54
Speaker 6: Yep.
13:56
Speaker 1: Sure is growing into a long night.
13:58
Speaker 5: Yeah, you're gonna cover, huh, Bill?
13:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, it'll forget to get back.
14:00
Speaker 7: Right.
14:01
Speaker 5: Well, we'll be checking with you.
14:02
Speaker 1: Okay. Homicide, Romero. Yeah. How's that? Yeah, all right, thanks.
14:10
Speaker 1: Drugstore in South Fig, 211, Sluggin'. Blonde girl drove the
14:14
Speaker 1: escape car.
14:14
Speaker 5: Yeah.
14:15
Speaker 1: 5 Paul, 389.
14:16
Speaker 7: In the next three hours before dawn, the rattlesnake bandit
14:23
Speaker 7: and his blonde girlfriend held up and robbed a restaurant
14:26
Speaker 7: and two more service stations and made good their escape.
14:29
Speaker 7: For some unknown reason, they continued to use the same
14:32
Speaker 7: stolen car, the blue Chevrolet Coupe.
14:34
Speaker 5: By noontime the following.
14:36
Speaker 7: Day, composite pictures of the holdup couple were drawn up
14:38
Speaker 7: by the crime lab artist from the descriptions given by
14:41
Speaker 7: the victims. The pictures were printed up and given wide
14:44
Speaker 7: distribution throughout the city. The description and license number of
14:48
Speaker 7: the escaped car was in the hands of every radio
14:50
Speaker 7: car and patrolman in all divisions. The search was intensified.
14:54
Speaker 7: It got us nothing. The following night and early morning,
14:57
Speaker 7: without even slowing their pace, the suspects added four more
15:00
Speaker 7: holdups and sluggings to their credit. One of the victims
15:03
Speaker 7: was Fred Lerner, proprietor of a small lunch counter near
15:06
Speaker 7: 18th and Olive.
15:07
Speaker 1: I've been held up before, officer, a half dozen times.
15:10
Speaker 1: Never saw a punk as hard-looking as.
15:12
Speaker 5: This guy, though.
15:13
Speaker 1: You're sure about the description, Mr.
15:14
Speaker 7: Lerner?
15:15
Speaker 1: Well, he stood just as close as you're standing to
15:17
Speaker 1: me now. While looking his eye, waving that gun around,
15:20
Speaker 1: I wasn't taking any chances. I gave him everything.
15:24
Speaker 5: Which was that?
15:25
Speaker 1: Eighteen dollars and a half. Well, how about the getaway car?
15:28
Speaker 1: You're pretty sure of the make and the color? I
15:30
Speaker 1: ran to the door there as soon as they left.
15:32
Speaker 1: Saw them drive off. There's a license that says I
15:35
Speaker 1: wrote it down. It's 5P389. I saw the whole thing.
15:41
Speaker 1: Sure surprised Lois would tie up with a punk like him.
15:44
Speaker 5: Lois? Who's that?
15:45
Speaker 1: You know, the blonde who drives the car for him?
15:47
Speaker 1: Lois Hagen?
15:48
Speaker 5: How do you know that's her name? She used to
15:50
Speaker 5: be a waitress.
15:50
Speaker 1: Worked for my brother. Lois Hagen.
15:53
Speaker 6: Blonde.
15:54
Speaker 1: I spotted her right away in that car.
15:55
Speaker 5: Yeah? Yeah, sure. Lois.
15:58
Speaker 1: Didn't you know it was her?
16:02
Speaker 5: 7.30 a.m.
16:03
Speaker 7: We put in a call to the record bureau and
16:05
Speaker 7: had them check on the name and description of Lois Hagen.
16:07
Speaker 5: No make, no previous record. With the help of Fred.
16:11
Speaker 7: Lerner and his brother, we traced the Hagen girl to
16:13
Speaker 7: a drive-in where she used to work. There, we checked
16:15
Speaker 7: the employment records and got an address on her. 1800
16:18
Speaker 7: Norwich Drive. Turned out to be a small apartment house
16:21
Speaker 7: in West Hollywood. Ben checked with the landlady while I waited.
16:24
Speaker 5: In the car.
16:24
Speaker 9: And that's it.
16:26
Speaker 5: What'd you get?
16:26
Speaker 7: Talked to the landlady.
16:27
Speaker 9: She's managed the apartment for 16 years.
16:28
Speaker 5: Yeah?
16:28
Speaker 9: She never heard of Louis Egan.
16:30
Speaker 1: You are listening to Dragnet.
16:52
Speaker 4: Authentic stories of your police force in action. And now,
16:55
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16:58
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18:19
Speaker 5: Tuesday, March 13th.
18:21
Speaker 7: That night and the one following, the rattlesnake bandit and
18:24
Speaker 7: his blonde girlfriend, supposedly Lois Hagen, continued their campaign of
18:27
Speaker 7: holdups and sluggings.
18:29
Speaker 5: They robbed two liquor stores, an.
18:31
Speaker 7: All-night cafe, a cigar shop, and two more service stations.
18:35
Speaker 7: In each case, the descriptions of the suspects and their
18:37
Speaker 7: getaway car was the same. Routine investigations got nowhere. Ben
18:42
Speaker 7: and I went to work checking out the thin lead
18:44
Speaker 7: that we had on the girl known as Lois Hagen.
18:47
Speaker 7: After three days of pounding the pavement and asking questions,
18:49
Speaker 7: we found two former waitresses at drive-in restaurants who had
18:53
Speaker 7: worked with Lois Hagen. Both of them gave us addresses
18:56
Speaker 7: where they thought the Hagen girl had lived at one time.
18:59
Speaker 5: One of them was a phony. It was a vacant lot.
19:01
Speaker 5: The other panned out.
19:02
Speaker 7: It was a rooming house out in the Boyle Heights district.
19:05
Speaker 5: The manager told us.
19:06
Speaker 7: That the Hagen girl lived there two years before. She
19:09
Speaker 7: told us that as far as she knew, the girl's mother,
19:12
Speaker 7: a Mrs. Ernestine Hagen, still ran a small French laundry
19:15
Speaker 7: on South Hobart Boulevard. We found Mrs. Hagen working in
19:18
Speaker 7: her shop. She was a small, thin woman.
19:21
Speaker 5: With gray hair.
19:22
Speaker 9: Yes, I have a daughter, Lois. What's the matter?
19:25
Speaker 1: I'd like to talk to her, Ms.
19:26
Speaker 5: Hagen.
19:27
Speaker 1: Do you know where we can locate her?
19:28
Speaker 6: Probably sounds funny to you. I haven't seen my daughter
19:31
Speaker 6: in two years.
19:32
Speaker 5: Do you have any idea where she's living, ma'am?
19:35
Speaker 6: No, she's not much of a daughter. We didn't get along.
19:37
Speaker 6: As I say, two years ago we had an argument.
19:41
Speaker 9: She left me. Never wrote a letter.
19:43
Speaker 6: I just don't know.
19:44
Speaker 1: I see.
19:46
Speaker 6: I heard she was living in Detroit for a while.
19:48
Speaker 6: I guess she's back here now. One of my lady friends, Mrs. McCormick,
19:52
Speaker 6: saw Laura shopping out in Hollywood. That was about a
19:55
Speaker 6: month ago.
19:56
Speaker 5: Mm-hmm. How old is your daughter, Mrs. Hayes?
19:58
Speaker 9: She'll be 20 next month. She looks older than she
20:01
Speaker 9: really is.
20:01
Speaker 6: Would you excuse me, please?
20:04
Speaker 9: My flat iron back here. I have it heating.
20:07
Speaker 1: Certainly, ma'am. Do you have a copy of the composite
20:12
Speaker 1: picture of the girl?
20:14
Speaker 5: Yeah.
20:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's right here. Okay.
20:16
Speaker 6: I didn't realize it was getting so late.
20:18
Speaker 9: I have this rush order to get ready by four o'clock, officers.
20:22
Speaker 9: If you want, you can come back here. We can
20:24
Speaker 9: talk while I get it out.
20:25
Speaker 5: All right, ma'am. Thank you.
20:28
Speaker 1: Come on.
20:29
Speaker 9: There's a chair there with your life.
20:33
Speaker 1: Oh, thank you.
20:34
Speaker 6: Seems I'm always so busy lately.
20:37
Speaker 9: I used to have some fine help. It's not so
20:40
Speaker 9: easy to find anymore. Science seems awful hard. It's all right.
20:48
Speaker 5: I wonder if you'd mind looking at this picture, ma'am,
20:51
Speaker 5: this one here.
20:52
Speaker 9: Yeah, all right. Looks something like Lois. You're looking for her,
21:01
Speaker 9: isn't it? Has she done something again?
21:05
Speaker 5: Well, we're not sure, ma'am. Has she been in trouble before?
21:08
Speaker 9: I can't be more ashamed of her than I already am.
21:12
Speaker 5: Yeah.
21:14
Speaker 9: She's been in trouble before. She was nothing but trouble.
21:17
Speaker 9: My only child. The father died when she was a baby,
21:20
Speaker 9: but I guess she needed a father.
21:23
Speaker 6: I couldn't do anything with her.
21:25
Speaker 1: Was your daughter ever in any serious trouble with the police, honey?
21:28
Speaker 9: I don't know.
21:29
Speaker 6: Maybe.
21:31
Speaker 9: She was. I didn't hear about it. I tried to understand,
21:34
Speaker 9: and we never got along.
21:36
Speaker 1: I don't know.
21:37
Speaker 9: This makes me sick to.
21:39
Speaker 1: Think about it.
21:40
Speaker 5: Well, how about her friends, Mrs. Hagen? I mean her
21:41
Speaker 5: recent friends. Do you happen to know any of them?
21:44
Speaker 1: No.
21:45
Speaker 9: Lois never brought them home. I knew they were tramps.
21:48
Speaker 6: I heard the way the neighbors were talking. Trampy fellas,
21:52
Speaker 6: trampy girls. Drinking, doing things. You know, choosing those things
21:57
Speaker 6: at home.
21:58
Speaker 5: What was Lois' last known address? Do you have any
22:00
Speaker 5: idea at all?
22:02
Speaker 9: Place in Boyle Heights. The boarding house. Last I heard
22:06
Speaker 9: of Lois... She never wrote a letter. That's another thing.
22:10
Speaker 5: Yes, ma'am.
22:11
Speaker 9: She could have had the best education any girl could want.
22:14
Speaker 6: I worked 12 years in the laundry here to give
22:16
Speaker 6: it to her. I sent her to the convent. Even
22:20
Speaker 6: the nuns couldn't do anything with her. She only sassed
22:23
Speaker 6: them back.
22:24
Speaker 9: She finally quit altogether.
22:25
Speaker 1: I don't know.
22:26
Speaker 5: Can you think of anybody who might know where your
22:28
Speaker 5: daughter is? Maybe one of your relatives?
22:30
Speaker 6: No, we don't have any relatives here. I have a
22:33
Speaker 6: brother in Ohio, that's all. This lace blouse is in
22:38
Speaker 6: an awful lot of trouble.
22:41
Speaker 9: Would you pull out that club sergeant's piece?
22:43
Speaker 1: Yes, ma'am.
22:46
Speaker 5: I wonder if you have a picture of your daughter
22:48
Speaker 5: that we could borrow. We'll see that it's returned to you.
22:50
Speaker 9: Yeah, all right. I got lots of pictures of Lois.
22:53
Speaker 6: She's a pretty girl, you know. Looks quite a bit
22:56
Speaker 6: like me when I was young.
22:58
Speaker 1: Yes, ma'am. Well, thanks very much for your time.
23:01
Speaker 6: Even the nurses at the hospital said it when Lois
23:04
Speaker 6: was born.
23:05
Speaker 9: Beautiful child. Certainly strange, isn't it?
23:10
Speaker 5: How's that?
23:11
Speaker 9: And their babies. They all look so clean and so good.
23:14
Speaker 5: Yes, ma'am.
23:16
Speaker 9: What happens to them?
23:22
Speaker 5: Before we left Mrs.
23:23
Speaker 7: Hagen, we got a photograph of her daughter, Lois, and
23:25
Speaker 7: then we drove back to the office.
23:27
Speaker 5: We spent the rest of the.
23:28
Speaker 7: Afternoon showing the picture to several of the robbery victims.
23:31
Speaker 7: All of them identified the Hagen girl as the bandit's accomplice.
23:34
Speaker 7: We got out a supplementary broadcast. That night, the hold-up
23:38
Speaker 7: couple failed to put in an appearance. The following night,
23:40
Speaker 7: the same. Not a sign of him.
23:43
Speaker 5: Still no sign of the escape car either. Where they
23:46
Speaker 5: might be hiding out, we had no idea. The search
23:48
Speaker 5: went on.
23:49
Speaker 7: Repeated checks through the stats office and the record bureau
23:51
Speaker 7: failed to turn up any new leads.
23:53
Speaker 5: We stayed on it.
23:55
Speaker 7: Four nights later, the still unidentified hold-up man and Lois
23:58
Speaker 7: Hagen started in all over again. Two drugstore hold-ups, two
24:02
Speaker 7: robberies of couples.
24:02
Speaker 5: In parked cars. All of the victims were beaten senselessly. Monday,
24:07
Speaker 5: March 19th, 8 a.m. Joe? Hi. Did they turn up
24:14
Speaker 5: anything last night?
24:15
Speaker 1: Two more jobs. Both victims identified the Hagen girl as
24:18
Speaker 1: the accomplice.
24:19
Speaker 5: Anything else?
24:20
Speaker 1: Still using the same escape car. It's about it. Yeah.
24:23
Speaker 5: Well, we're no closer than we were a week ago, huh?
24:25
Speaker 1: I checked the hospital on the druggist this month.
24:27
Speaker 5: How's he doing?
24:28
Speaker 1: I don't know yet. Still unconscious.
24:30
Speaker 5: I'll get it. Homicide, Friday. Yeah, Mike. Where? Yeah, right away.
24:38
Speaker 1: What have you done?
24:39
Speaker 5: 32R, they're out on 18th and Hill.
24:40
Speaker 1: Yeah?
24:41
Speaker 5: The hold-up car. They just spotted it. 8.20 a.m.
24:47
Speaker 7: Together with Cummings and McCready, we drove out to 18th
24:50
Speaker 7: and Hill, where the officers in Unit 32R had the
24:52
Speaker 7: hold-up car staked out. It was parked in the back
24:55
Speaker 7: of a large service station on Hill.
24:56
Speaker 5: Street near the corner of 18th. We talked with the
24:59
Speaker 5: manager and he.
25:00
Speaker 7: Told us that a blonde girl answering Lois Hagen's description
25:03
Speaker 7: had left the car there earlier that morning just to
25:05
Speaker 7: have the distributor fixed and the battery recharged. She told
25:08
Speaker 7: him that she'd call for the car early that night.
25:11
Speaker 7: Because of the way that the service station was situated,
25:13
Speaker 7: it would have been impossible to stake out on the
25:15
Speaker 7: blue coupe without making it look obvious. We explained the
25:18
Speaker 7: setup to the manager and made arrangements for Ben and
25:20
Speaker 7: I to pose as employees. That way we could keep
25:23
Speaker 7: a close watch on the car until the suspects.
25:25
Speaker 5: Called for it.
25:26
Speaker 7: Cummings and McCready holed up in a coffee shop directly
25:28
Speaker 7: across the street.
25:29
Speaker 5: Two teams of.
25:30
Speaker 7: Men from robbery covered from their vantage points. Ben and
25:33
Speaker 7: I took up our posts as supervisors of the station's
25:35
Speaker 7: ten-minute car wash.
25:44
Speaker 1: They sure do a great business here, huh? Yeah.
25:47
Speaker 7: You mentioned to the manager about keeping the area clear
25:49
Speaker 7: around that cart, didn't you?
25:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's all set up. We're not going to have
25:53
Speaker 1: an excuse in the world if we miss those two.
25:56
Speaker 5: Yeah, if they show up.
25:57
Speaker 1: What are we supposed to do now? Pull these tickets
26:00
Speaker 1: off the cars as they move off the wash line? Yeah,
26:03
Speaker 1: that's all.
26:04
Speaker 7: Just slip the tickets in that box over there, see?
26:07
Speaker 6: Mm-hmm.
26:08
Speaker 1: Must have run them a few dollars, huh, installing all
26:10
Speaker 1: this equipment?
26:11
Speaker 5: Seems to be paying off, doesn't it? What time you
26:15
Speaker 5: got now?
26:16
Speaker 1: A few minutes past four.
26:19
Speaker 5: Want a smoke?
26:19
Speaker 1: No, I just put one out. 1 a.m.
26:26
Speaker 7: Ben spotted a young blonde girl turn the corner onto
26:28
Speaker 7: Hill and start up the street toward the service station.
26:31
Speaker 7: As she came closer, she looked to the right and
26:33
Speaker 7: the left. She paused in front of the station, looked
26:36
Speaker 7: on both sides of the street, and then she turned
26:37
Speaker 7: completely around and walked on past.
26:40
Speaker 5: It's Lois Hagen.
26:42
Speaker 1: She's going right down to the corner. How about it?
26:46
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'll put in with you.
26:47
Speaker 1: How about her tail? We can't just let her walk
26:49
Speaker 1: away from us.
26:50
Speaker 5: No, just a minute. Take a look.
26:53
Speaker 1: She's turning around. Coming back this way. She's coming in.
26:57
Speaker 5: Yeah, we better get back to our car. Looks like it. Right.
27:02
Speaker 7: The young blonde entered the garage office, paid the repair bill,
27:05
Speaker 7: and drove off in the hold-up car.
27:07
Speaker 5: Ben and I followed in 80K. Cummings and McCready tailed us.
27:11
Speaker 5: The blue coupe moved.
27:11
Speaker 7: Two blocks down Hill Street and then turned into an
27:14
Speaker 7: apartment garage. We parked on the street, went in and
27:17
Speaker 7: got the manager out of bed. We showed him Lois
27:19
Speaker 7: Hagen's picture. He told us that she was registered alone
27:21
Speaker 7: in apartment 16. He failed to recognize the description of
27:25
Speaker 7: the hold-up man. McCready and three men from robbery covered
27:28
Speaker 7: the front and back exits.
27:29
Speaker 5: Cummings, Ben, and I climbed the stairs to the third floor.
27:35
Speaker 5: Number 16. Joe? You want to ring it?
27:44
Speaker 6: Yeah?
27:44
Speaker 5: Sorry, ma'am.
27:46
Speaker 1: Bedroom, Bill.
27:46
Speaker 5: Right.
27:47
Speaker 2: I'll take the kitchen.
27:47
Speaker 7: Wait a minute.
27:48
Speaker 1: What is this?
27:48
Speaker 5: Police officers. You, Lois Hagen.
27:49
Speaker 7: You get out of here.
27:50
Speaker 6: Let me in.
27:51
Speaker 1: Bedroom's empty. Nothing back here.
27:52
Speaker 5: All right. Where is he? Come on. Let's have it.
27:54
Speaker 1: Frank, get out!
27:54
Speaker 5: Frank! Upstairs, you. Watch your belt.
27:57
Speaker 1: I got it.
27:57
Speaker 4: Come on, baby.
27:58
Speaker 5: Up.
27:59
Speaker 9: Upstairs, Joe.
28:00
Speaker 1: Watch it. Yeah, hold it. Back it up. Look out.
28:02
Speaker 1: Come on down, cop.
28:04
Speaker 5: Give me room. Give it up, mister. You haven't got
28:06
Speaker 5: a chance. Give me room.
28:08
Speaker 1: I'm coming down.
28:09
Speaker 3: We got the building covered, mister.
28:10
Speaker 7: Give it up.
28:10
Speaker 3: Look out, Joe.
28:11
Speaker 9: I'll get his gun.
28:14
Speaker 5: How is he?
28:16
Speaker 1: Dead. Joe, Ben, you all right?
28:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, Bill.
28:29
Speaker 5: You want to take the girl downstairs?
28:30
Speaker 1: Let me see you, please.
28:33
Speaker 5: Frank? Frank? All right, lady.
28:36
Speaker 9: It didn't have to happen.
28:37
Speaker 1: I tried to tell him, get away.
28:38
Speaker 9: He wouldn't listen.
28:39
Speaker 1: Never listen.
28:39
Speaker 5: Let's go. We were married yesterday. You didn't know that,
28:42
Speaker 5: did you?
28:43
Speaker 9: Just married.
28:44
Speaker 5: Yeah. Married two days. Yeah, well, honeymoon's over. Come on, lady.
28:50
Speaker 7: Come on.
28:56
Speaker 3: Story you have just heard was true. Only the names
28:59
Speaker 3: were changed to protect the innocent.
29:02
Speaker 4: On August 5th, trial was held in Superior Court, Department 87,
29:05
Speaker 4: City and County of Los Angeles, State of California.
29:07
Speaker 5: In a moment, the results of that trial.
29:09
Speaker 1: Now, here's our star, Jack Webb.
29:11
Speaker 5: Thank you.
29:12
Speaker 7: Here's an invitation we just received from New York's famous
29:15
Speaker 7: Stork Club. Host Sherman Billingsley asked us to pass it
29:18
Speaker 7: on to you Dragnet listeners.
29:19
Speaker 5: Who have television sets.
29:20
Speaker 7: It reads, Fatima, best of all long cigarettes, cordially invites
29:25
Speaker 7: you to see the Stork Club on television beginning this week. Well,
29:28
Speaker 7: Dragnet welcomes the Stork Club to the Fatima family. It's
29:31
Speaker 7: a fine television show. You know the Stork Club recommends
29:35
Speaker 7: only the best. And as Sherman Billingsley says... In long cigarettes,
29:39
Speaker 7: that means... extra mild Fatima. You can judge that yourself,
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Speaker 7: just as I have, by comparing Fatima.
29:45
Speaker 5: With other long cigarettes. Buy a pack of Fatimas.
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Speaker 7: You'll find they now cost the same, but in Fatima,
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Speaker 7: the difference is quality.
29:53
Speaker 3: ¶ ¶.
29:59
Speaker 4: The body of the dead hold-up man was identified as
30:01
Speaker 4: that of Frank Ralston Kilbride. His accomplice, Lois Hagen, was
30:04
Speaker 4: tried and convicted on six counts of armed robbery and
30:07
Speaker 4: assault with a deadly weapon. She received sentences as prescribed
30:10
Speaker 4: by law and is now serving her term in the
30:11
Speaker 4: state penitentiary for women. You have just heard Dragnet, a
30:19
Speaker 4: series of authentic cases from official files. Technical advice for
30:22
Speaker 4: Dragnet comes from the.
30:23
Speaker 3: Office of Chief of Police W.H.
30:24
Speaker 1: Parker.
30:30
Speaker 3: Fatima Cigarettes has brought you Dragnet, portions transcribed from Los Angeles.
30:35
Speaker 4: We the People is next on NBC.
30:45
Speaker 1: That brings us to the close of Dragnet. Big holdup.
30:48
Speaker 1: Good night, and thank you for sharing this radio hour.