Latest / The Great Detectives Present Dragnet (Old Time Radio) / Dragnet: The Big Producer (EP4979)
Transcript
- 0:28Speaker 1: Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho.
- 0:35Speaker 1: This is your host, Adam Graham. In a moment, we're
- 0:39Speaker 1: going to bring you this week's episode of Dragging It.
- 0:42Speaker 1: But first, I do want to encourage you, if you're
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- 1:16Speaker 1: dot Great Detectives dot net. Now from February twenty first,
- 1:22Speaker 1: nineteen fifty two, here is the big producer.
- 1:33Speaker 2: The story you were about to hear is true. The
- 1:36Speaker 2: names have been changed to protect the innocent. You're a
- 1:47Speaker 2: detective sergeant. You're assigned a juvenile division. A steady supply
- 1:51Speaker 2: of obscene literature is finding its way into a half
- 1:54Speaker 2: a dozen high schools in your city. You get a
- 1:57Speaker 2: lead on one of the sources of supply, A seventeen
- 2:00Speaker 2: year old high school senior. Your job pick him up.
- 2:13Speaker 3: Dragnet the documented drama of an actual crime. For the
- 2:17Speaker 3: next thirty minutes, in cooperation with the Los Angeles Police Department,
- 2:21Speaker 3: you will travel step by step on the side of
- 2:23Speaker 3: the law through an actual case transcribed from official police violence,
- 2:27Speaker 3: from beginning to end, from crime to punishment. Dragnet is
- 2:31Speaker 3: the story of your police force in action.
- 2:38Speaker 4: Was Wednesday, November eight was windy in Los Angeles. We're
- 2:41Speaker 4: working the day watch out of Juvenile Division. My partner's aid,
- 2:44Speaker 4: Jacob's the boss's captain Stein.
- 2:46Speaker 5: My name is Friday. Was eleven oh five am when
- 2:48Speaker 5: we got to.
- 2:49Speaker 4: The basement floor of Gorman High School, the locker room.
- 2:54Speaker 6: Which way, Steve, I want to show us which locker's yours.
- 2:56Speaker 7: You still haven't told me what this is all about.
- 2:58Speaker 7: Routine checks on Yeah, but why do you have to
- 3:00Speaker 7: pick on me? Why do you have to see my locker?
- 3:03Speaker 5: We're not picking on you, Steve. Now, how about it?
- 3:04Speaker 5: Which locker is yours?
- 3:06Speaker 7: Right here?
- 3:07Speaker 8: This is mine?
- 3:08Speaker 7: Three eighteen. Here's the key, No you open it, Steve.
- 3:12Speaker 7: Just a couple of personal things of mine. That's all
- 3:15Speaker 7: all right. I'll open it. Well, there you are see
- 3:25Speaker 7: for yourself. Want to take your things out of the locker?
- 3:27Speaker 7: Cent you can see what's in there? Cancher, my gym stuff.
- 3:30Speaker 7: A couple of textbooks.
- 3:31Speaker 6: How about digging back in the corner left hand side
- 3:33Speaker 6: there where where? I mean? Come on, Steve, dig them
- 3:35Speaker 6: out back here?
- 3:37Speaker 7: You mean he's joke books?
- 3:38Speaker 5: That's right. Let's have a look.
- 3:40Speaker 7: Huh why just a couple of joke books? Kid gave
- 3:43Speaker 7: him to me?
- 3:43Speaker 5: Bring them out, Steve.
- 3:45Speaker 7: Okay, just a couple of them. Kid came to me there.
- 3:50Speaker 6: Looks like more than a couple.
- 3:53Speaker 5: That's what you call a joke book, Steve.
- 3:54Speaker 7: That's what the kids call him. Yeah, some of them
- 3:57Speaker 7: are a little dirty. That's so bad though.
- 3:59Speaker 5: They're filthy Steve. And you know I know what you
- 4:01Speaker 5: get them.
- 4:01Speaker 7: I told you kid gave him to him.
- 4:03Speaker 6: Oh what's his name?
- 4:04Speaker 7: Some kid around school I don't remember right.
- 4:06Speaker 6: Now, gave you these books for nothing.
- 4:07Speaker 7: Sure, I had a couple he wanted. We traded off
- 4:09Speaker 7: a lot of the kids, haven't they trade him around?
- 4:12Speaker 4: That stack you got there? They looked pretty new. Couldn't
- 4:14Speaker 4: have been passed around much?
- 4:15Speaker 7: Maybe not, I don't know, matter of.
- 4:17Speaker 4: Fact, they look brand new, don't think, don't even look
- 4:18Speaker 4: like they've been open yet.
- 4:19Speaker 7: How come you're rousing me on this thing? What about
- 4:21Speaker 7: the other kids?
- 4:22Speaker 5: They got them too, they're buying them, Steve, They're not
- 4:24Speaker 5: selling them.
- 4:24Speaker 7: I'm not selling them. Anybody says that's a liar.
- 4:26Speaker 6: No good.
- 4:27Speaker 9: So we talked to the fellows here at the high school.
- 4:29Speaker 9: Some kids are over the junior high school too. They
- 4:31Speaker 9: all say you're the one who's selling them.
- 4:32Speaker 4: They're liars, both the fellas in high school and the
- 4:34Speaker 4: kids down the street in junior high. They say, you've
- 4:36Speaker 4: been selling this stuff for months, now about it.
- 4:39Speaker 7: They're lying, that's all. They don't know what they're talking about.
- 4:43Speaker 9: You've been selling these thirty five cents a piece, three
- 4:45Speaker 9: for a dollar last couple of weeks. You've been peddling
- 4:47Speaker 9: pictures to a dollar piece. You got any of them
- 4:49Speaker 9: in your locker?
- 4:49Speaker 6: Steve?
- 4:51Speaker 7: A couple I got them off another kid?
- 4:53Speaker 8: What other kid?
- 4:54Speaker 5: What's his name? What's his name?
- 4:57Speaker 7: Some kid? I don't remember.
- 4:59Speaker 5: It's not much of an answer.
- 5:00Speaker 7: What do you want from me?
- 5:01Speaker 5: Anyway?
- 5:02Speaker 7: I told you I'm not selling the books. I don't
- 5:04Speaker 7: care what those other groops say. It's my work against theirs.
- 5:06Speaker 6: And maybe you ought to get this straight. Son.
- 5:08Speaker 9: We're not out to get you your way down the line.
- 5:10Speaker 9: We want the people at the top, the men who
- 5:11Speaker 9: print this junk, the wholesalers, the big distributors.
- 5:14Speaker 7: So why ask me? I don't know anything about it. Nothing.
- 5:16Speaker 6: You don't want to cooperate is anything?
- 5:18Speaker 7: What am I supposed to cooperate about. I'm not mixed
- 5:20Speaker 7: up in anything.
- 5:21Speaker 5: We think you are a son, We know you are.
- 5:24Speaker 5: Who you selling this for? What do you get your supply?
- 5:26Speaker 10: Oh?
- 5:26Speaker 7: Yeah, see, that's what's in my locker. I ain't selling
- 5:29Speaker 7: I don't have any supply. You got to go far
- 5:31Speaker 7: to prove I have.
- 5:32Speaker 5: Not very far? Steve what from about here to your home?
- 5:37Speaker 4: Eleven thirty eight am, after picking up his supply of
- 5:40Speaker 4: obscene books and photographs to be booked later as evidence
- 5:43Speaker 4: ed and I drove the subject Stephen Banner to his home,
- 5:45Speaker 4: approximately a mile from the high school. His apprehension and
- 5:49Speaker 4: our theory that he probably kept the bulk of his
- 5:51Speaker 4: supply of books and pictures that are near his home
- 5:54Speaker 4: was no accident. For weeks, we'd known that a steady
- 5:57Speaker 4: stream of pornography was being fed into a half a
- 5:59Speaker 4: dozen in high schools and junior high schools throughout the city. Books, photographs, pictures,
- 6:05Speaker 4: and pamphlets of the worst kind. Because of embarrassment on
- 6:08Speaker 4: the part of the curious teenage kids who bought this stuff,
- 6:11Speaker 4: it wasn't easy to pick up.
- 6:12Speaker 5: A solid lead.
- 6:14Speaker 4: After weeks of observation and questioning, we finally narrowed down
- 6:17Speaker 4: the principal source of supply to a single teenage boy,
- 6:20Speaker 4: Stephen Banner. Even then, we knew he must be only
- 6:24Speaker 4: one of one hundred small time distributors working for the
- 6:26Speaker 4: persons directly responsible for manufacturing this sort of thing. Our
- 6:30Speaker 4: only hope was that he'd be willing and able to
- 6:32Speaker 4: supply us with the names of the persons responsible. When
- 6:35Speaker 4: we got to Stephen Banner's home, where he lived with
- 6:38Speaker 4: his sister and brother in law, we searched it thoroughly,
- 6:40Speaker 4: but we found nothing. Both his sister and brother in
- 6:43Speaker 4: law were at work. We went back and started checking
- 6:46Speaker 4: through the garage at the rear of the house.
- 6:50Speaker 6: Joe back in a conic. Yeah, have a look, Steve,
- 6:54Speaker 6: want to tell us about this?
- 6:57Speaker 9: Yeah, these books here, these pictures, case foot of them.
- 7:04Speaker 5: Yeah, well about it? Son, Your sister and brother in
- 7:07Speaker 5: law know about.
- 7:08Speaker 7: This, No, they don't know anything. I didn't think you'd
- 7:11Speaker 7: find him.
- 7:12Speaker 5: Are you ready to tell us about it?
- 7:14Speaker 7: My sister going to have to find out.
- 7:15Speaker 5: I don't know. This team's going to be pretty hard
- 7:16Speaker 5: to keep it from her.
- 7:18Speaker 7: Yeah, I guess.
- 7:18Speaker 6: So who's a contact? Son? Where'd they come from?
- 7:21Speaker 7: Charlie, Charlie Freiberg Only the books, though pictures came from
- 7:25Speaker 7: another guy. It's a long story.
- 7:27Speaker 6: We got the time son, who is this fird?
- 7:30Speaker 7: Met him downtown one Sunday Penny Archide on Broadway. Me
- 7:34Speaker 7: and this other kid were in there. Bud Spencer Friburg
- 7:37Speaker 7: came up, started to talk to us, all right, go on.
- 7:39Speaker 7: He finally took a couple of these books out of
- 7:41Speaker 7: his pocket, came him to us. He wanted to know
- 7:43Speaker 7: what we thought of him. Old us he had plenty
- 7:45Speaker 7: of them, if we knew any of the other kids
- 7:47Speaker 7: who wanted him.
- 7:48Speaker 6: He knew you and your friend Bud were in high school.
- 7:50Speaker 7: Yeah, that's right.
- 7:51Speaker 5: What else, Steve?
- 7:52Speaker 7: That's about it? Yes, me and but if we wanted
- 7:54Speaker 7: to sell for them around school.
- 7:55Speaker 6: His friend here is Bud Spencer. He's selling them too.
- 7:58Speaker 7: Yeah, he goes to a different school. Though we both
- 8:01Speaker 7: of us did pretty good with the books sold real fast.
- 8:03Speaker 7: The pictures were even better.
- 8:05Speaker 4: So you say you didn't get the pictures from Friburg,
- 8:08Speaker 4: there was somebody.
- 8:08Speaker 7: Else, man by the name of Jack, you don't know
- 8:10Speaker 7: his last name. Friberg put us onto him, gave us
- 8:13Speaker 7: an introduction, set up the deal. We got the pictures
- 8:16Speaker 7: for seventy five cents. Most of the time they got
- 8:18Speaker 7: us a dollar, dollar and a half apiece button. I
- 8:21Speaker 7: did pretty good.
- 8:23Speaker 4: You know, any other fellows working for this Freiburg Steve
- 8:25Speaker 4: and the other kids in school and.
- 8:27Speaker 7: No just butting me, that's all I know. It wouldn't
- 8:30Speaker 7: be so bad if it was just the books. Lousy Charlie,
- 8:34Speaker 7: you had to go and promote the party routine. Get
- 8:35Speaker 7: everybody mixed up in that.
- 8:37Speaker 6: What do you mean, what's it all about, Charlie.
- 8:39Speaker 7: He stays at this place out on Sepalvita. It's a motel.
- 8:43Speaker 7: That's where we always contacted him. Yeah, after a couple
- 8:46Speaker 7: of weeks when we got to know him, he asked
- 8:47Speaker 7: me and but out to this place, said he was
- 8:48Speaker 7: going to throw a party, told us to bring our
- 8:50Speaker 7: girlfriends along. Turned out we were the only ones at
- 8:53Speaker 7: the party, Me and Bud and the girls and Charlie Freiberg.
- 8:57Speaker 7: Party lasted pretty late. I should have smart enough to
- 9:00Speaker 7: figure it out. I wasn't.
- 9:02Speaker 5: What do you mean, Steve, figure out?
- 9:03Speaker 11: What?
- 9:04Speaker 7: Why Charlie be throwing parties just for us? The first
- 9:07Speaker 7: two times there wasn't anything wrong. We just talk danced
- 9:10Speaker 7: with the girls, drank some beer. Charlie told us to
- 9:12Speaker 7: have a good time. He threw a party every Friday night.
- 9:16Speaker 7: Never broke up till after three o'clock.
- 9:17Speaker 6: Old your girl friend Jr's.
- 9:19Speaker 7: And Buds seventeen. They were both seventeen. They've been around though.
- 9:22Speaker 7: No use kidding you. They weren't very smart. I can
- 9:24Speaker 7: tell you that none of us were. I guess. Next
- 9:27Speaker 7: couple of parties, Charlie had whiskey there. Them girls drank
- 9:30Speaker 7: right along with him.
- 9:31Speaker 5: So did we cribe break served the whiskey?
- 9:33Speaker 12: Did he?
- 9:34Speaker 7: Yeah, that's right. He noted the drinks, kept handing the
- 9:36Speaker 7: girls a lot of stuff about how I used to
- 9:37Speaker 7: be a director in pictures. He had a lot of
- 9:39Speaker 7: connections in Hollywood. The last party I was at, he
- 9:43Speaker 7: said he was going to get the girl's screen test
- 9:45Speaker 7: a lot of malarchy like that?
- 9:47Speaker 5: What else Steve?
- 9:48Speaker 7: I don't know. I had a beef with Charlie about
- 9:50Speaker 7: it and I walked out. I haven't been back since.
- 9:53Speaker 6: He still throw these Friday night parties, do you know?
- 9:55Speaker 7: Maybe I don't know, remember three or four after the
- 9:58Speaker 7: last one I walked out on. Think Charlie's just great? God,
- 10:02Speaker 7: So I can't stand the guy.
- 10:03Speaker 5: How about the party? She didn't show up for Steve
- 10:05Speaker 5: and get a run down him.
- 10:07Speaker 7: I heard a couple of things. Yeah, sure, glad, I
- 10:09Speaker 7: wasn't there.
- 10:10Speaker 5: What do you mean?
- 10:11Speaker 7: Dumb girls never fails, the oldest line in the world.
- 10:15Speaker 7: They still go for it.
- 10:16Speaker 5: What's that?
- 10:17Speaker 7: Tell him? You're going to get him in the movies?
- 10:23Speaker 4: We continued questioning the subjects seventeen year old Stephen Banner.
- 10:26Speaker 4: He gave us a full description of the man who
- 10:28Speaker 4: had been selling him the books, Charles Freiberg, and also
- 10:31Speaker 4: a description of the man known as Jack, the one
- 10:33Speaker 4: who had been supplying him with pictures and photographs. In addition,
- 10:36Speaker 4: he gave us the addresses of the two men, a
- 10:38Speaker 4: fair description of Freiburg's car no license number, and the
- 10:42Speaker 4: names and addresses of the two girls. He and his
- 10:44Speaker 4: friend had taken to Freiburg's parties.
- 10:46Speaker 5: One PM.
- 10:48Speaker 4: ED and I took the case of obscene books from
- 10:50Speaker 4: the garage loaded in the backseat of our car, and
- 10:52Speaker 4: Stephen Banner directed us to the high school attended by
- 10:55Speaker 4: his friend Bud Spencer. We picked up the Spencer boy
- 10:58Speaker 4: and drove him and bannered down on Town to Georgia
- 11:00Speaker 4: Street Juvenile, where we booked them in on seven hundred
- 11:03Speaker 4: B Welfare and Institution Code lack of supervision. We drove
- 11:08Speaker 4: to the motel out on Supulvita, but the suspect, Charles Freiberg,
- 11:11Speaker 4: had moved out five days before, no forwarding address.
- 11:15Speaker 5: It wasn't a dead end though. From his motel.
- 11:17Speaker 4: Registration card we got the description and license number of
- 11:20Speaker 4: his car. On the way into the office, we checked
- 11:23Speaker 4: out the address of his confederate, the man known as Jack.
- 11:26Speaker 4: He'd moved the same day as Freiburg. No forwarding address.
- 11:30Speaker 4: Back at the office, DMV got a make on the
- 11:32Speaker 4: license number for us the car registered in Freiburg's name
- 11:35Speaker 4: two thirty nine West ninety second Street. We went down
- 11:38Speaker 4: to R and I and pulled the package on the
- 11:39Speaker 4: suspect three forty pm.
- 11:44Speaker 6: Last address on was three years old. How's his record read?
- 11:49Speaker 5: Well, he's been in the business before.
- 11:50Speaker 4: A couple of bag charges, three to eleven charges to
- 11:53Speaker 4: possession obscene literature, served.
- 11:55Speaker 6: Eight months in Kylie jail. Mug shot there, Yeah, here
- 12:00Speaker 6: close enough.
- 12:01Speaker 4: The way the boy described him, I'd say, so, there's
- 12:03Speaker 4: m two Huh, same pitch. The last time they got
- 12:07Speaker 4: him working in the high school trade passed himself off
- 12:09Speaker 4: as a studio man, movie director.
- 12:10Speaker 6: How about the other man, Jack? You had anything there
- 12:12Speaker 6: that chat?
- 12:14Speaker 4: I gave the information on him to the stats. I
- 12:15Speaker 4: was they're going to make a run for us. Well,
- 12:19Speaker 4: I guess we better check on the kid's girlfriends. Huh,
- 12:21Speaker 4: get their stories?
- 12:22Speaker 6: Yeah, I suppose so.
- 12:23Speaker 9: It sure gets me, Joe, what's that very young girls
- 12:26Speaker 9: like that out at motel parties with three am drinking?
- 12:29Speaker 6: Yeah, seventeen year old. No reason for it, no reason
- 12:31Speaker 6: at all.
- 12:32Speaker 5: I think a one that might do their parents.
- 12:38Speaker 4: We checked out the suspect's address, furnished this by DMV
- 12:41Speaker 4: and also the information from the.
- 12:43Speaker 5: R and I package They went nowhere.
- 12:45Speaker 4: We had a second interview with Steven Banner and his
- 12:48Speaker 4: friend Bud Spencer. We showed them Freiburg's mugshot and both
- 12:51Speaker 4: of them identified it. We got out a broadcast and
- 12:54Speaker 4: an apb on him. Four to twelve am. Together with
- 12:57Speaker 4: policewoman Doreen statesl Ed and I drove out to the interne.
- 13:00Speaker 4: The two teenage girls involved a Dorothy Ryan and a
- 13:03Speaker 4: Laura Osburn. We stopped at the home of the Osbourne
- 13:06Speaker 4: girl first, but she wasn't there, and neither were her parents.
- 13:09Speaker 4: An older sister told us that both the mother and
- 13:11Speaker 4: father were working and that Laura was at a neighborhood
- 13:13Speaker 4: school for models, taking her weekly lesson. We checked at
- 13:16Speaker 4: the modeling school, a converted second floor social hall, where
- 13:19Speaker 4: we finally located the girl, a tall brunette, dark eyes,
- 13:22Speaker 4: fair complexion. The heavy makeup didn't do much to hide
- 13:26Speaker 4: her age. While a modeling lesson went on, Policewoman statesill
- 13:29Speaker 4: ed and I talked to the girl off in one
- 13:31Speaker 4: corner of the hall.
- 13:34Speaker 13: Your friend Steve Banner, he took you to those parties
- 13:36Speaker 13: at mister Friburg's placed. U. Huh, that's right, very nice man.
- 13:39Speaker 13: It was always nice to Dorothy and me. Dorothy Ryan,
- 13:42Speaker 13: she came to the parties with Bud. He's a friend
- 13:44Speaker 13: of Steve Banner's.
- 13:45Speaker 4: You have no complaint to make about this, mister Friberg.
- 13:47Speaker 4: He never caused you trouble of any kind.
- 13:49Speaker 13: Charlie will know. So I told you before that business
- 13:52Speaker 13: about Steve getting magic, because Charlie told us you'd get
- 13:54Speaker 13: us in the movies. What was silly, That's all, plain
- 13:57Speaker 13: and silly. Charlie was just helping us. How do you mean, Laura, Well,
- 14:00Speaker 13: he's in Hollywood, you know, Charlie Freiberg. He has lots
- 14:02Speaker 13: of connections. He just wanted to help us get some
- 14:05Speaker 13: good modeling job. That's why he took our pictures. There
- 14:08Speaker 13: was nothing wrong. You continued going to these Friday night
- 14:10Speaker 13: parties without the two boys, is that right? Yes, Dorothy
- 14:12Speaker 13: and me, there wasn't anything wrong with it. We know
- 14:15Speaker 13: Charlie as well as they did by that time. Few
- 14:17Speaker 13: bathings the pictures, that's all. There was nothing wrong in that.
- 14:20Speaker 13: Do you ever see Prince of any of those pictures?
- 14:22Speaker 13: Either you or Dorothy rad No, But Charlie's going to
- 14:24Speaker 13: get us some he promised he would.
- 14:25Speaker 5: You know where he is now?
- 14:27Speaker 13: No, he moved having any idea where he is.
- 14:29Speaker 9: When's the last time you saw Freiburg, Miss, about ten
- 14:32Speaker 9: days two weeks ago.
- 14:34Speaker 13: What's this all about? Offs are you looking for Charlie?
- 14:37Speaker 5: How does he usually contact you, Laura? By phone?
- 14:39Speaker 13: Yeah, usually calls.
- 14:42Speaker 5: Has he called you lately?
- 14:44Speaker 2: Well?
- 14:44Speaker 13: I don't know why are you looking for him?
- 14:48Speaker 6: Can't you tell me routine investigation?
- 14:49Speaker 5: Miss?
- 14:50Speaker 7: Oh?
- 14:51Speaker 13: I'm sorry, I don't know where Charlie is. Why can't you.
- 14:54Speaker 6: Tell me why you want him?
- 14:55Speaker 5: We want him?
- 14:56Speaker 13: Why can't you give me a reason?
- 14:58Speaker 6: This is one of the reasons, Laura.
- 15:00Speaker 7: Look at this picture.
- 15:02Speaker 13: Charlie took this.
- 15:03Speaker 5: It's his business, Laura. That's the way his police record reads.
- 15:06Speaker 13: I can't believe it.
- 15:07Speaker 4: That's one reason we want Friburg. There's lots of others.
- 15:09Speaker 4: You're willing to help us, Laura.
- 15:11Speaker 13: He said they'd be beautiful glamours.
- 15:12Speaker 12: They're not.
- 15:13Speaker 6: You know where he stays now?
- 15:15Speaker 13: No, I'll find out though.
- 15:16Speaker 5: What do you mean?
- 15:17Speaker 13: I've got a date with him, supposed to meet him
- 15:19Speaker 13: out on Wilster, Wilsher and Librea. When's at eight o'clock
- 15:21Speaker 13: tomorrow night?
- 15:32Speaker 3: You are listening to dragnet authentic stories of your police
- 15:36Speaker 3: force and action.
- 15:45Speaker 4: November eighth, Wednesday, five point thirty pm After our interview
- 15:49Speaker 4: with seventeen year old Laura Osborne, policewoman Doreen States, Aled
- 15:52Speaker 4: and I drove to the home of Laura's girlfriend, Dorothy Ryan,
- 15:55Speaker 4: who was also present at the motel parties given by
- 15:58Speaker 4: the suspect, Charles Freiberg.
- 16:00Speaker 5: Her story of what.
- 16:01Speaker 4: Had happened was essentially the same as the one we
- 16:03Speaker 4: got from the Osbourne girl. That night, we met with
- 16:06Speaker 4: the parents of both girls. They were well meaning and cooperative.
- 16:10Speaker 4: They admitted their mistake was the same old story of
- 16:12Speaker 4: lack of supervision.
- 16:13Speaker 5: And very little home life.
- 16:15Speaker 4: The parents told us that they had no idea of
- 16:17Speaker 4: what had been going on or the late hours that
- 16:20Speaker 4: their teenage girls had been keeping. Besides promising closer supervision
- 16:24Speaker 4: of the girls, they told us they would notify us
- 16:26Speaker 4: immediately if the suspect Freiburg made any attempt to contact
- 16:29Speaker 4: their daughters. Six twenty five p m. We got back
- 16:33Speaker 4: to the office, put in a call to Stephen Banner's
- 16:35Speaker 4: home and notified his sister and brother in law that
- 16:37Speaker 4: the boy was being held for further interrogation.
- 16:40Speaker 5: We also notified the parents of Bud Spencer.
- 16:43Speaker 4: The following morning, Ed and I went across the Street
- 16:45Speaker 4: to the District Attorney's office, presented our case and a
- 16:47Speaker 4: warrant was issued on Charles Freiburg for seven o two
- 16:50Speaker 4: wic contributing to the delinquency of a miner. At seven
- 16:54Speaker 4: o'clock that night, Ed and I staked out on a
- 16:56Speaker 4: cocktail lounge near the intersection of Wilshire and Lobrea, the
- 17:00Speaker 4: place where a suspect that told Laura Osborn to meet
- 17:02Speaker 4: him seven thirty seven forty five.
- 17:06Speaker 5: We waited.
- 17:08Speaker 9: I think maybe we're in business. Joe down the corner
- 17:11Speaker 9: there waiting with the signal to change dog suit.
- 17:13Speaker 6: Dog hat. Yeah, could be across and over now heading
- 17:17Speaker 6: for the bar.
- 17:18Speaker 5: All right, let's go.
- 17:24Speaker 6: M No mistaken, Hey, fellow, pull it up on the
- 17:27Speaker 6: William how's.
- 17:28Speaker 5: That police officer? Is your name Friburg?
- 17:32Speaker 8: No, that's not my name, it's your identification.
- 17:34Speaker 6: Please.
- 17:35Speaker 8: Yes, I've got my identification. Why can we see it?
- 17:37Speaker 5: Please?
- 17:38Speaker 8: Why what do you want your identification? Before? I haven't
- 17:41Speaker 8: done anything.
- 17:42Speaker 6: Let's call mister talk about a downtown.
- 17:44Speaker 8: Wait a minute, just a minute. I don't want any trouble.
- 17:47Speaker 8: I'll show you. Yeah, driver's license. Rest of my stuff,
- 17:55Speaker 8: Charles Friburg. It's an old addressident. Yeah, I haven't had
- 17:58Speaker 8: time to change it. Just got back town. Which the matter? Anyway?
- 18:01Speaker 6: Where you stay in Freiburg?
- 18:03Speaker 8: No place. I just got back in town. I told
- 18:05Speaker 8: you that. Not staying any place yet, no connections at all.
- 18:08Speaker 8: Where's your car? I don't have one. I've had one
- 18:10Speaker 8: for a year. I sold it. Look how about filling
- 18:13Speaker 8: me in? What do you want with me?
- 18:14Speaker 5: You want to step over here Freiburg by.
- 18:16Speaker 8: The way, all right, just like to know what's going on,
- 18:19Speaker 8: and so I'd.
- 18:20Speaker 9: Like to see what you're carrying in your pockets. Take
- 18:21Speaker 9: ere with theing out, please, one pocket at a time.
- 18:23Speaker 8: What is this a shakedown? You can start with your
- 18:25Speaker 8: coat pockets, all right.
- 18:30Speaker 6: There?
- 18:31Speaker 8: Okay, all right now.
- 18:32Speaker 6: The other one.
- 18:37Speaker 8: Okay. We said you don't have a car Freburgh, of
- 18:40Speaker 8: course not I told you that.
- 18:42Speaker 5: But what are you doing with that parking ticket?
- 18:47Speaker 4: We walked the suspect Freiburg two blocks to the parking
- 18:50Speaker 4: lot listed on the clean check that he had in
- 18:52Speaker 4: his coat pocket. He had black hair streaked with gray.
- 18:55Speaker 4: Looked to be in his mid fifties. We questioned him
- 18:58Speaker 4: on the way, but he'd admit nothing. We located his
- 19:01Speaker 4: car in the parking lot and searched it. In the
- 19:03Speaker 4: glove compartment, Besides a half a dozen photographs and small books,
- 19:06Speaker 4: we found a key with a metal disk attached to it.
- 19:09Speaker 4: Stamped on the disc were the words west Side Studios
- 19:11Speaker 4: number twenty three.
- 19:13Speaker 5: Freiberg refused to identify the key. He refused to admit
- 19:16Speaker 5: a thing. We walked him back to our car, and.
- 19:19Speaker 4: Together the three of us headed out for the old
- 19:21Speaker 4: west Side Studios, just off Jefferson Boulevard. On the way,
- 19:24Speaker 4: we tried again to question the suspect, but we got nowhere.
- 19:28Speaker 4: He refused to answer even the simplest questions. One look
- 19:31Speaker 4: at the west Side Studios, kne knew right away the
- 19:34Speaker 4: place had seen better days. It had been fairly prominent
- 19:37Speaker 4: in the early days of motion picture making, but all
- 19:39Speaker 4: that was left now was two square blocks of broken
- 19:41Speaker 4: down scenery, one dilapidated sound stage, and a row of
- 19:44Speaker 4: weather beaten cottages, the tar paper peeling off the roofs.
- 19:48Speaker 4: We got out of the car and started up the walk.
- 19:50Speaker 4: The faded sign over the main gate read west Side
- 19:53Speaker 4: Studios founded nineteen twenty and down in one corner admissioned
- 19:57Speaker 4: by pass only the guard shack at the gate was
- 20:00Speaker 4: boarded up, no sign of a night watchman.
- 20:03Speaker 5: We kept walking.
- 20:07Speaker 6: How come I don't keep a watchman at the gate
- 20:08Speaker 6: for Iberg. Don't they make pictures here anymore? You bet
- 20:10Speaker 6: they do.
- 20:11Speaker 8: Place has been going downhill for a long time, coming
- 20:13Speaker 8: back though?
- 20:15Speaker 6: Then?
- 20:16Speaker 5: You do know the place?
- 20:16Speaker 6: Is that right?
- 20:17Speaker 8: Yeah? I know it? I should know it.
- 20:19Speaker 6: What do you mean by that?
- 20:20Speaker 8: Nothing?
- 20:21Speaker 5: You rent an office here?
- 20:22Speaker 6: Is that it? Friburg?
- 20:25Speaker 8: Yeah? That's right straight down the way there, Collage twenty three.
- 20:29Speaker 5: What's your job doing some kind of movie work?
- 20:31Speaker 8: Yeah? I've been for thirty years, more than thirty years.
- 20:33Speaker 6: That's so you an actor?
- 20:35Speaker 8: Friburg. Haven't you ever heard the name? I'm a producer?
- 20:38Speaker 11: Oh?
- 20:38Speaker 5: I see, why don't you tell us that? To start with?
- 20:41Speaker 8: I want to know different reasons. I don't like to
- 20:44Speaker 8: throw my weight around. I have a lot of connections
- 20:46Speaker 8: in Hollywood, you know that's so in the trade thirty years, Albert,
- 20:50Speaker 8: one of the first. You can make a lot of
- 20:51Speaker 8: friends for thirty years.
- 20:53Speaker 6: Yeah, I guess so. How about those books we've found
- 20:55Speaker 6: in your car? Those pictures? How explain them?
- 20:57Speaker 8: This studio will be back on the speak of the year.
- 20:59Speaker 8: I'll bet a thousand dollars on it, this whole block
- 21:02Speaker 8: here sound stages. I got the plans for him in
- 21:04Speaker 8: my desk.
- 21:05Speaker 5: So do you have an interest in this lot?
- 21:06Speaker 8: Not exactly, not right now anyway, I did have an interest, though,
- 21:11Speaker 8: I will again I was one of the original owners.
- 21:13Speaker 8: You know.
- 21:14Speaker 5: Still haven't got an explanation.
- 21:15Speaker 4: How about the books and pictures we found in your car?
- 21:17Speaker 8: Oh? That nothing to explain? Is there just a few
- 21:20Speaker 8: gimmes I picked up?
- 21:22Speaker 5: You know a boy the name of Stephen Banner.
- 21:24Speaker 8: Banner, No, I don't think so.
- 21:26Speaker 6: Why how about Bud Spencer? You know him?
- 21:28Speaker 11: No?
- 21:29Speaker 8: I knew what George Spencer wants. Actor. I was back
- 21:32Speaker 8: in the old days.
- 21:33Speaker 4: So how about Laura Osborn, Dorothy Ryan?
- 21:36Speaker 5: You know them?
- 21:37Speaker 8: No, it's pretty hard to say, you know, sergeant. Over
- 21:40Speaker 8: the years, in this business especially, you meet an awful
- 21:42Speaker 8: lot of people.
- 21:43Speaker 5: Well these are fairly recent. You ought to remember them.
- 21:45Speaker 5: They're just kids, seventeen.
- 21:46Speaker 8: Year olds, No afraid, I don't recall the names. Town
- 21:51Speaker 8: stage Bell. They got a company over there doing some
- 21:53Speaker 8: shooting tonight television films. They make them too fast. Trade's
- 21:58Speaker 8: not like it used to be. Quality. That's what we
- 22:01Speaker 8: went after gone. Now it's all gone. West Side will
- 22:05Speaker 8: do it again, though. You can bet on that we're
- 22:06Speaker 8: coming back.
- 22:07Speaker 6: Look, how about leveling Friedburg. You know why we picked
- 22:10Speaker 6: you up? You know why we're out here.
- 22:11Speaker 8: I just did. I don't know why.
- 22:13Speaker 12: Oose.
- 22:14Speaker 8: Look across the road that's set over there, the old
- 22:16Speaker 8: greenhouse there, colonial mansion, Weather's Fate of the Colors, a
- 22:20Speaker 8: little typical old Southern mistake. Now you know, we shot
- 22:23Speaker 8: some beautiful footage there. Pictures are classic in its own right.
- 22:27Speaker 8: Maybe you remember it Moonlight Magnolia's but changed the title later,
- 22:31Speaker 8: Loved and the Moonlight beautiful thing?
- 22:34Speaker 5: You ever see it? No, I don't think so.
- 22:36Speaker 8: I couldn't tell you how many beauties we turned out
- 22:38Speaker 8: that year. I was a young fellow. Then Song and Stripe,
- 22:42Speaker 8: Moonlight Magnolia's Little Orphan Girl, Sweetheart at the campus at your.
- 22:46Speaker 6: Cutt examinter Friberg. What's that just down away there? Number
- 22:50Speaker 6: twenty three?
- 22:50Speaker 8: Oh yeah, completely forgot about it. I hope you'll excuse
- 22:56Speaker 8: the way it looks. I have been able to find
- 22:58Speaker 8: a good accommodations in town. I've been saying it.
- 22:59Speaker 5: The office.
- 23:00Speaker 8: We have a little couch there I sleep on that.
- 23:03Speaker 8: We have a hot plate too good enough to boil
- 23:05Speaker 8: the coffee in the morning.
- 23:07Speaker 4: How come you couldn't find space in town? The hotel's
- 23:09Speaker 4: a pet USh are they?
- 23:10Speaker 8: I'm the one time used to be staying at Guas.
- 23:12Speaker 8: I just soon camp here at the studio and stay
- 23:14Speaker 8: at one of those places downtown. Jay, would you like
- 23:18Speaker 8: to see the rest of the lot. Pretty interesting if
- 23:20Speaker 8: you've never seen a real movie lot, I mean a
- 23:22Speaker 8: high class one.
- 23:23Speaker 5: We've seen him, mister Friber. We'd like to check your office.
- 23:25Speaker 8: Oh all right, this is it, cotty. You need a
- 23:29Speaker 8: good coat of paint. Of course, it'll all be done
- 23:32Speaker 8: pretty soon. West Side is going to come back strong.
- 23:34Speaker 8: You can bet on that, guess so, oh watch it
- 23:39Speaker 8: on that first step there, it's loose. Have to call
- 23:41Speaker 8: maintenance and get that fixed. Yeah, it's all right, man.
- 23:48Speaker 8: Here we are well. Didn't you see the opposite? And
- 23:59Speaker 8: very much?
- 24:00Speaker 4: What if you want a gentlemen, you want to check
- 24:02Speaker 4: that cabinet there? Ed, I don't take a look through
- 24:03Speaker 4: these cases over now. Okay, this picture here on the wall.
- 24:13Speaker 4: That's the cast and the production staff on my first film.
- 24:17Speaker 4: Here's the other one. Me and Harsey Bernard he autographed
- 24:21Speaker 4: the picture for me, Bernard himself. Those were the days,
- 24:25Speaker 4: all right. Quality, that's what we went after. And the pictures,
- 24:30Speaker 4: real quality, not like to day gone, the good days,
- 24:36Speaker 4: fine pictures. It's gone, oh gone. How about at Freiburg,
- 24:46Speaker 4: these chases of books here in these photographs.
- 24:48Speaker 8: Not my fault, Believe me. I had to make a living.
- 24:51Speaker 8: I had to make money. How do you think it
- 24:53Speaker 8: feels to get cheap like that? I used to be young,
- 24:57Speaker 8: I was big, I was talent, big pictures. How do
- 25:01Speaker 8: you think it feels to get cheap all of a sudden,
- 25:04Speaker 8: cheap enough to do this kind of thing.
- 25:05Speaker 5: Nobody forced It was your choice, mister.
- 25:07Speaker 8: It wasn't my choice. You're wrong. All I want to
- 25:11Speaker 8: do is make pictures. There isn't a chance anymore, not
- 25:14Speaker 8: like the old days. You eat hundreds of thousands, millions,
- 25:19Speaker 8: it's gone, it's all gone. I had to eat. I
- 25:24Speaker 8: had to put clothes on my back.
- 25:26Speaker 6: You admit you're responsible for this books pictures. You're working
- 25:28Speaker 6: in the high school trade kids like Steve Banner Bud Spencer.
- 25:32Speaker 8: After nineteen thirty five, I couldn't get a job. I
- 25:35Speaker 8: didn't want this. I had to do it. I'm ashamed.
- 25:41Speaker 8: Who wouldn't be. I had to eat. It was the
- 25:44Speaker 8: only way, and I had to live.
- 25:46Speaker 5: There's honest jobs to be had. How about this man
- 25:48Speaker 5: named Jack, He was.
- 25:48Speaker 8: In with me. He was my cameraman back in the
- 25:51Speaker 8: old days. You can't blame him either. He had to
- 25:53Speaker 8: live too.
- 25:54Speaker 6: He wanted to come downtown with us. He give us
- 25:56Speaker 6: a statement, yes, all, all right?
- 25:59Speaker 8: Anything?
- 26:00Speaker 5: How about the parties, the two girls, Laura Osborne, Dorothy Ryan.
- 26:03Speaker 8: I took some pictures at you all. I didn't harm
- 26:05Speaker 8: them nothing anyway, he added, Ron Freiburg.
- 26:08Speaker 5: You know that.
- 26:09Speaker 8: Yeah, I know. But just to have the kids there,
- 26:12Speaker 8: it made you remember the days in your life, best
- 26:15Speaker 8: days in anybody's life. That's so when he used to
- 26:18Speaker 8: have money, when he used to be young.
- 26:30Speaker 2: The story you have just heard was true. The names
- 26:34Speaker 2: were changed to protect the innocent.
- 26:35Speaker 12: On January twenty ninth, trial was held in Superior Court,
- 26:38Speaker 12: Department eighty seven, City and County of Los Angeles, State
- 26:41Speaker 12: of California. In a moment the results of that trial,
- 26:53Speaker 12: the suspects, Charles Zieman Freiberg and his accompliced Jack L.
- 26:56Speaker 12: Lavery were tried and convicted on four counts of contributing
- 27:00Speaker 12: to the delinquency of miners. Both of them served full
- 27:03Speaker 12: terms in the county jail. Contributing to the delinquency of
- 27:06Speaker 12: miners is punishable by a fine if not more than
- 27:09Speaker 12: one thousand dollars, or by imprisonment in the county jail
- 27:12Speaker 12: for one year, or by both fine and imprisonment. You
- 27:25Speaker 12: have just heard Dragnet, a series of authentic cases from
- 27:29Speaker 12: official files. Technical advice comes from the Office of Chief
- 27:32Speaker 12: of Police W. H. Parker, Los Angeles Police Department. Heard
- 27:36Speaker 12: tonight were Barney Phillips, Virginia Gregg, and Ralph Moody. Script
- 27:40Speaker 12: by Jim Moser, music by Walter Schumann, Hell Gibney speaking.
- 27:50Speaker 5: Now It's Counterspy on NBC.
- 28:00Speaker 1: Welcome back. You know, there are some people who imagine
- 28:04Speaker 1: that in the past we were tougher on crime as
- 28:09Speaker 1: a general rule, and we've gotten softer. The truth is
- 28:13Speaker 1: usually quite a bit more complicated, as you will see
- 28:18Speaker 1: that there are some crimes we have gotten more strict
- 28:21Speaker 1: on enforcing and others we've let up on. And this
- 28:25Speaker 1: is a good example. A year in the county jail
- 28:29Speaker 1: and a thousand dollars fine if you did what mister
- 28:34Speaker 1: Freiberg did and you're caught. Today you are looking at
- 28:39Speaker 1: multiple felon accounts, sensual federal prosecution, and a law more
- 28:46Speaker 1: and just listening to the accounts of what he did,
- 28:52Speaker 1: and in particular the one girl they talked to to me,
- 28:56Speaker 1: I'm like, this is not this should not be a
- 28:59Speaker 1: mistaket And the TV version of this has even more
- 29:05Speaker 1: issues in that regards. But that was the state of
- 29:09Speaker 1: affairs back then. Well, now we turn to listener comments
- 29:13Speaker 1: and feedback, and we go to our listener survey and
- 29:16Speaker 1: Peter in Franklin, Massachusetts comments I've been listening more or
- 29:21Speaker 1: less daily since I discovered this podcast in twenty twenty.
- 29:25Speaker 1: Few things have captured my attention as long as Old
- 29:28Speaker 1: time radio has. I guess you could say that I'm
- 29:31Speaker 1: hooked and Joe and Dixon Missouri Wright's great show. And
- 29:35Speaker 1: now it's time to thank our Patreon supporter of the day,
- 29:39Speaker 1: and I want to thank Jeffrey, Patreon supporter since July
- 29:43Speaker 1: of twenty twenty three, currently supporting the podcast at the
- 29:48Speaker 1: shawmus level of four dollars or more per month. Thanks
- 29:50Speaker 1: so much for your support, Jeffrey, and that will do
- 29:53Speaker 1: it for today. If you're enjoying the podcast, please follow
- 29:56Speaker 1: us using your favorite podcast software, and sure to rate
- 30:00Speaker 1: and review the podcast wherever you download it from. We
- 30:04Speaker 1: will be back next Thursday with another episode of Dragnet.
- 30:08Speaker 1: But join us back here tomorrow for yours truly, Johnny,
- 30:12Speaker 1: it all or where George here?
- 30:15Speaker 11: So?
- 30:15Speaker 10: What happened? George? The cops haul him off and throw
- 30:17Speaker 10: him into the clink, Durrango? Who else, Johnny?
- 30:20Speaker 11: This man is unbelievable. It's fantastic.
- 30:22Speaker 6: Huh.
- 30:23Speaker 11: I don't know how he worked at how much it
- 30:25Speaker 11: cost him? And of course, as always, he game here
- 30:27Speaker 11: loaded with money thousands Johnny.
- 30:29Speaker 14: Yeah, well, but the.
- 30:30Speaker 11: Police didn't even take those six guns away from him.
- 30:33Speaker 10: Brother, All the more reason why I'm getting out of here.
- 30:35Speaker 11: Yes, Durrengo still thinks he's living in the old days
- 30:38Speaker 11: of the wild and wooly West.
- 30:40Speaker 10: What oh, you bet your life?
- 30:43Speaker 14: I am, and I'm putting all the costs of transportation
- 30:45Speaker 14: on expense account. Alla, was you who got me into
- 30:48Speaker 14: this whole thing?
- 30:48Speaker 11: Listen to me?
- 30:49Speaker 7: Where are you going?
- 30:50Speaker 10: What do you think? I tell you?
- 30:51Speaker 14: You're in co hoats with his wild old man this
- 30:54Speaker 14: trying to get me to marry his niece. So, Johnny,
- 30:56Speaker 14: if you and Carol love each other, so, what do
- 30:58Speaker 14: you think we want him to force us into it?
- 31:00Speaker 11: Suppose we?
- 31:02Speaker 10: Yeah? Oh, come on, George, I'm in a hurry. George.
- 31:07Speaker 11: Are you in your apartment? Johnny?
- 31:09Speaker 14: That's right, but not for any longer than Why do
- 31:13Speaker 14: you ask that you stay right there?
- 31:15Speaker 1: Johnny?
- 31:16Speaker 10: Dranggell you just stay right there.
- 31:18Speaker 11: I'm coming right over. I gotta talk to you, young
- 31:21Speaker 11: color and that ain't all.
- 31:22Speaker 1: Give me, Gunny hope you'll be with us then in
- 31:26Speaker 1: the meantime. Send your comments to Box thirteen at Great
- 31:30Speaker 1: Detectives dot net, follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives,
- 31:35Speaker 1: and check us out on Instagram, Instagram, dot com, slash
- 31:40Speaker 1: Great Detectives From Boise, Idaho. This is your host, Adam
- 31:45Speaker 1: Graham signing off.