22 Rifle for Christmas

Friday - The Dragnet Podcast · Feb 22, 2026 · 30m

Originally Aired: December 21, 1950 Dragnet #80, "22 Rifle for Christmas," Sergeant Joe Friday and his partner Ben Romero respond to what begins as a routine missing child case but quickly becomes something far more sinister. When nine-year-old Stanley Johnstone disappears from his backyard on a cold December afternoon just days before Christmas, his mother Ruth initially believes he has simply run away from home as he once did before. However, when juvenile detectives Harry Levinson and his partner discover fresh blood stains in the backyard along with an empty .22 caliber shell casing…