Latest / The Great Detectives Present Dragnet (Old Time Radio) / Dragnet: The Big Market (EP4894)
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 Dragnat. But first, guy,
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- 1:14Speaker 1: Great Detectives dot net. But now, from October twenty fifth,
- 1:20Speaker 1: nineteen fifty one, here is the Big Market.
- 1:34Speaker 2: The story you were about to hear is true. The
- 1:37Speaker 2: names have been changed to protect the innocent. You're a
- 1:49Speaker 2: detective sergeant. You're assigned a robbery detail. A pair of
- 1:53Speaker 2: bandits are staging a rapid fire campaign of holdups in
- 1:56Speaker 2: your city. In twenty one days, eleven food markets have
- 1:59Speaker 2: been robbed. The hold ups go on the suspects are
- 2:03Speaker 2: still unidentified.
- 2:05Speaker 3: Your job get.
- 2:06Speaker 4: Them Dragnet the documented drama of an actual crime. Well
- 2:16Speaker 4: the next thirty minutes, in cooperation with the Los Angeles
- 2:19Speaker 4: Police Department, you will travel step by step on the
- 2:22Speaker 4: side of the law through an actual case transcribed from
- 2:25Speaker 4: official police buyers, from beginning to end, from crime to punishment.
- 2:30Speaker 3: Drag Net is the story of your police force and action.
- 2:38Speaker 5: It was Tuesday, September twenty sixth, was hot in Los Angeles.
- 2:42Speaker 5: We were working the day Watch out of robbery detail.
- 2:44Speaker 5: My partner's Ben Romero. The boss is Captain Didions. My
- 2:47Speaker 5: name is Friday.
- 2:48Speaker 3: Was nine to eighteen am.
- 2:49Speaker 5: When I got to the record Bureau that's in in
- 2:51Speaker 5: Cunningham's office.
- 2:54Speaker 3: Joh, what's doing? Not too much?
- 2:56Speaker 5: Got a job you can do for us? Frank like
- 2:58Speaker 5: to have it as soon as you can get it out. Oh,
- 3:00Speaker 5: it's about on these market bandits. We've already gotten out
- 3:03Speaker 5: a dozen teletypes and bulletins on them. I like to
- 3:05Speaker 5: get out some mimiographs too. If we can general distribution,
- 3:07Speaker 5: then what do you want on them?
- 3:09Speaker 3: Well, I better lay out the whole thing for you.
- 3:12Speaker 5: A lot of the copies are going to the Retail
- 3:14Speaker 5: Grossers Association all their members.
- 3:16Speaker 3: No luck with those two fives so far. No, I
- 3:19Speaker 3: know closer than we weren't three weeks ago. Figure this
- 3:22Speaker 3: ought to plug another loophole. How many copies you figure
- 3:24Speaker 3: you want on this? By a thousand? Yeah, let's find
- 3:26Speaker 3: that how to do it? All? Right? Okay? Now what
- 3:31Speaker 3: do you want to go in at? Joe?
- 3:32Speaker 5: And you better lead off with the first job they pulled.
- 3:34Speaker 5: That was on the third of this month. Makes a
- 3:36Speaker 5: little better than three weeks now. They hit a supermarket
- 3:38Speaker 5: out on Pico Okay, got it. Ever since, they've averaged
- 3:43Speaker 5: about three jobs a week. We know they're hitting nothing
- 3:46Speaker 5: but supermarkets. All of them are main thoroughfares, No small
- 3:49Speaker 5: neighborhood stuff.
- 3:50Speaker 3: You got it.
- 3:51Speaker 5: So far, they've confined their operations to the seventy seventh
- 3:54Speaker 5: Street division in the county territories, generally the south end
- 3:57Speaker 5: of town.
- 3:58Speaker 3: There are two men, and they got a pretty well
- 4:00Speaker 3: established them all. I've established them. Okay.
- 4:04Speaker 5: They're hitting in the morning hours, usually from the time
- 4:07Speaker 5: the market's open up until around noontime. They use a
- 4:10Speaker 5: stolen car ninety five percent of the time, a car
- 4:14Speaker 5: stolen from the industrial area. Cars they steal for the
- 4:17Speaker 5: jobs are always either a Pontiac or Nash. We also
- 4:21Speaker 5: know they're dropping the stolen cars within a short radius
- 4:24Speaker 5: of the hold up scene, about a half a dozen
- 4:26Speaker 5: blocks or so.
- 4:27Speaker 3: In some instances, they use.
- 4:29Speaker 5: A second automobile or a public transportation some kind buster
- 4:32Speaker 5: street car, you know, to make their getaway after they.
- 4:34Speaker 3: Drop out over kind. I'm sorry, I went a little faster.
- 4:37Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, I got it.
- 4:39Speaker 3: Okay, Well go ahead.
- 4:43Speaker 2: Now.
- 4:44Speaker 3: They usually pull up and park directly.
- 4:45Speaker 5: In front of the market that they're going to hold up.
- 4:48Speaker 5: One of the men always remains in the car behind
- 4:50Speaker 5: the wheel. Apparently it's always the same man. There's a
- 4:52Speaker 5: description meager. We know he's good size, MWA, fairly large build.
- 4:58Speaker 5: Here's about the best description we been able to piece
- 5:00Speaker 5: together on the second man, picked up a little bit
- 5:02Speaker 5: from each victim. Second man described as MWA, also about
- 5:09Speaker 5: five foot eight inches, medium bill, one hundred and fifty
- 5:11Speaker 5: five one hundred and sixty pounds. Always wears a hat,
- 5:14Speaker 5: brown suit, rough material of some kind, maybe tweed.
- 5:18Speaker 3: Want a smoke, Frank, huh smoke? Oh no.
- 5:24Speaker 5: When he enters the market for the hold up, the
- 5:26Speaker 5: second man always holds a white handkerchief, holds a white
- 5:30Speaker 5: handkerchief to his face as if he's wiping his eyes,
- 5:33Speaker 5: keeps most of his face covered with it. During the robbery,
- 5:35Speaker 5: he's armed with a nickel plated revolver, possibly thirty eight caliber.
- 5:38Speaker 3: We know the jobs are well.
- 5:39Speaker 5: Cased because in almost every instance, the suspect goes directly to.
- 5:42Speaker 3: The manager of the market.
- 5:43Speaker 5: Directly the manager, he hands the manager of brown paper sack,
- 5:48Speaker 5: tells him to put the money in it, and then
- 5:49Speaker 5: he takes off.
- 5:50Speaker 3: So far, he's never attempted any rough stuff, no gun play.
- 5:54Speaker 5: On three occasions, when the suspects got only small amounts
- 5:57Speaker 5: of money at one market, they hit again in fifteen
- 5:59Speaker 5: or twenty minutes at another store in the same general area.
- 6:02Speaker 5: They never make any attempt to disguise or conceal a
- 6:05Speaker 5: license number, run and get away car, as I say,
- 6:07Speaker 5: they always abandoned the car a short distance from the
- 6:09Speaker 5: whole up scene.
- 6:10Speaker 3: Let's see. Yeah, okay, I got it.
- 6:15Speaker 5: Well that's about all of it, Frank, I guess you
- 6:16Speaker 5: can boil it down into some kind of shape her.
- 6:18Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, I'll have it typed up in the form.
- 6:20Speaker 3: I'll get your copy before we make the rod and
- 6:22Speaker 3: see if it's okay with you find things now go
- 6:26Speaker 3: it's a good huh, No, it isn't.
- 6:27Speaker 5: Frank, pretty slow. I've been on top of the thing
- 6:29Speaker 5: for a couple of weeks. Now we're still looking for
- 6:31Speaker 5: some kind of a break.
- 6:32Speaker 3: See.
- 6:33Speaker 6: I understand, Ben Chandler from your office to go for
- 6:35Speaker 6: some fishing down in Mexico.
- 6:36Speaker 5: Huh yeah, not doing bad. But I hear I got
- 6:39Speaker 5: a cat from yesterday. He's down by ken o'bay. He
- 6:42Speaker 5: put the bite on me to send him a dozen
- 6:43Speaker 5: mount and plugs.
- 6:44Speaker 3: Yeah. Fish must be hitting pretty good down there, that's
- 6:46Speaker 3: what he says.
- 6:47Speaker 5: Yeah, it's a big brown sea bass especially. I wouldn't
- 6:49Speaker 5: mind getting in a couple of days down there myself.
- 6:51Speaker 3: Excoose me. Yeah, I give view a cunt again. Yes
- 6:56Speaker 3: a minute, you're Joe, thanks man? Yeah, oh yeah, Man?
- 7:02Speaker 3: When all right? Yeah, okay, right away?
- 7:05Speaker 5: Yeah, fine, check that formul later. Frank might be a
- 7:09Speaker 5: little change market Bandits they hit again.
- 7:15Speaker 3: At nine eight.
- 7:16Speaker 5: Am, Ben and I got in the car and drove
- 7:18Speaker 5: to the scene of the Bandit's latest hold up, a
- 7:20Speaker 5: new supermarket out on Swason near the intersection of South Broadway.
- 7:24Speaker 3: After interviewing the.
- 7:25Speaker 5: Manager of the store and all available witnesses to the robbery,
- 7:28Speaker 5: there wasn't much doubt about the identity of the suspects.
- 7:30Speaker 5: The description and m O fitted perfectly with that of
- 7:32Speaker 5: the two men who'd been staging the whirlwind campaign of
- 7:35Speaker 5: market robberies throughout the south end of the city for
- 7:37Speaker 5: the past three weeks. The approach and execution of the
- 7:40Speaker 5: hold up was the same in every detail, even to
- 7:43Speaker 5: the stolen car they'd used, which was found abandoned a
- 7:45Speaker 5: short distance from the robbery scene. There was only one deviation,
- 7:49Speaker 5: and that was the first break we'd had in the
- 7:50Speaker 5: case since it started. A woman customer at the market
- 7:53Speaker 5: and Missus Thomas Swanson, saw the hold up man as
- 7:56Speaker 5: he left the store and ran to the getaway car.
- 7:58Speaker 5: She told us that the car door apparently stuck when
- 8:00Speaker 5: he tried to pull it open, but he took away
- 8:02Speaker 5: the handkerchief which he'd held to his face in order
- 8:04Speaker 5: to pull the door open with both hands.
- 8:07Speaker 3: During those few seconds. She got a good look at him.
- 8:09Speaker 5: After taking the crime report and making our preliminary investigation,
- 8:13Speaker 5: we brought Missus Swanson downtown.
- 8:15Speaker 3: We had her check through mug.
- 8:16Speaker 5: Books of all recent parolis from the state penitentiary, all
- 8:19Speaker 5: ex convicts with robbery records.
- 8:21Speaker 3: After a couple of hours.
- 8:22Speaker 5: Of checking mugshots, she couldn't seem to make positive identification.
- 8:26Speaker 7: Very sorry, off, sir, just gets a little confusing after
- 8:28Speaker 7: a while looking at all these pictures. I did get a
- 8:31Speaker 7: good look at the man's face. I just can't settle
- 8:33Speaker 7: on one of these pictures, though.
- 8:35Speaker 8: Well, from what you did see of missus Swanson, the
- 8:37Speaker 8: lower part of the man's face especially, Can you find
- 8:40Speaker 8: a good likeness in any of these Well.
- 8:42Speaker 7: Yes, I can find good likenesses for some of his features,
- 8:45Speaker 7: but none of them are altogether in any one of
- 8:47Speaker 7: these pictures here, Like the mouth and chin on this
- 8:49Speaker 7: man here, yes, ma'am, is that pretty close most exactly,
- 8:52Speaker 7: i'd say, And then the nose on this one here,
- 8:55Speaker 7: it's the very same. I just hadn't seen any picture
- 8:58Speaker 7: that fits them all together, you know what I mean.
- 9:00Speaker 3: That's right, I understand.
- 9:01Speaker 5: Now these five pictures here that you've picked out, you'd
- 9:03Speaker 5: pretty much say that they incorporate all the features of
- 9:05Speaker 5: the man that you saw getting there.
- 9:08Speaker 7: This man here, and this one too, i'd say, the
- 9:11Speaker 7: lower part of his face was exactly like that. The
- 9:14Speaker 7: small mouth mustache just like that, and the chin pointed
- 9:17Speaker 7: like on this man, and the.
- 9:18Speaker 8: Upper part of his face. Would you say it resembles
- 9:20Speaker 8: these others yet?
- 9:21Speaker 7: Yes, these three here, just the upper part you see
- 9:25Speaker 7: around the eyes beforehead, I'd say that was very close.
- 9:30Speaker 7: I'll just put the two sets of pictures together. I
- 9:32Speaker 7: think you'd have the man perfectly. Sorry, I can't be
- 9:35Speaker 7: more help to you, as I say, looking at all
- 9:37Speaker 7: these books of pictures, it kept.
- 9:38Speaker 3: A little confusing. Well, you've given us quite a bit
- 9:40Speaker 3: of help, man, Thank you very much, not at all.
- 9:42Speaker 7: Is there anything else?
- 9:43Speaker 3: No, thank you? Not right now.
- 9:44Speaker 5: We've got your address and telephone. We'll probably be contacting
- 9:47Speaker 5: you in a day or two. If you'd like to
- 9:48Speaker 5: wait right here, we'll make arrangements to have one of
- 9:50Speaker 5: the officers drive you back your home.
- 9:51Speaker 3: All right, Thank you very much, by man, we'll be
- 9:54Speaker 3: talking to you. Yeah, yes, buyout. What do you think, Joe?
- 10:00Speaker 5: You know what's more than we had yesterday? Her description
- 10:02Speaker 5: is the best we've got him the guy so far.
- 10:04Speaker 8: How about getting a composite picture made up from the
- 10:06Speaker 8: mug shots you picked up?
- 10:07Speaker 5: That's what I was thinking. Do you want to duck
- 10:08Speaker 5: in and get somebody to drive him Swanson home. I
- 10:11Speaker 5: want to go in here in the captain's office.
- 10:12Speaker 3: Filmy. Oh okay, thanks man Friday. How'd you make that?
- 10:18Speaker 3: Could have been worse, Captain.
- 10:19Speaker 9: I wouldn't find anything in the mug books.
- 10:21Speaker 3: No positive identification.
- 10:23Speaker 5: She picked out five of them she thought were close.
- 10:25Speaker 5: I think maybe put off over the crime, about to
- 10:27Speaker 5: be able to make up a pretty good composite from him.
- 10:29Speaker 3: Mm hm.
- 10:29Speaker 9: She fairly positive about the man's description.
- 10:31Speaker 3: Yeah, it seems to have a clear idea good composite.
- 10:34Speaker 3: Ought to help us quite a bit.
- 10:35Speaker 9: You get this new description, that memi graph you haven't
- 10:37Speaker 9: made up?
- 10:37Speaker 3: No, not yet. I want to see Frank about it.
- 10:39Speaker 8: Then, Hi, s camper Man got a hold of just
- 10:42Speaker 8: guns out hez Joey's gonna drive miss Swanson home?
- 10:44Speaker 3: Fine? Did you ask her if he checked on that
- 10:46Speaker 3: last run we made through the stats office? Yeah, he
- 10:47Speaker 3: picked it up.
- 10:48Speaker 8: He and Frankistrater gonna start checking the names this morning.
- 10:51Speaker 8: It's not much of a list and pretty well picked
- 10:53Speaker 8: over already.
- 10:53Speaker 9: So you got from the witnesses out there this morning
- 10:56Speaker 9: description from this missus Swanson.
- 10:57Speaker 3: Yeah, it's about it. The rest of it was there.
- 11:00Speaker 3: He usual remo.
- 11:01Speaker 5: Swanson woman was the only one who got a good
- 11:02Speaker 5: look at the guy when he took the handkerchief away
- 11:04Speaker 5: from his face.
- 11:05Speaker 3: I'm about to get away.
- 11:06Speaker 8: Are they find same as Yeah, there's Leyton prints checked
- 11:08Speaker 8: it over clean.
- 11:09Speaker 9: Well, two thieves had their share luck. When we get odds.
- 11:12Speaker 5: How about Metro division Captain? Can we get any help
- 11:15Speaker 5: out there?
- 11:15Speaker 3: What do you got in mind?
- 11:16Speaker 5: Well, we know the take that the two thieves got
- 11:19Speaker 5: in that job this morning was pretty small for him.
- 11:22Speaker 3: Three hundred and forty dollars. Yeah, from their.
- 11:24Speaker 5: Remo in the past, we know whenever they get a
- 11:26Speaker 5: small take on a job, they usually hit another place fast.
- 11:29Speaker 5: They work in a fairly concentrated area down the South end.
- 11:33Speaker 5: They only go after big markets on the main thoroughfares. Well,
- 11:36Speaker 5: I was thinking if we could get some help from Metro,
- 11:38Speaker 5: put maybe fifteen or twenty crews down in the area
- 11:41Speaker 5: for the next couple of days, might stand a good
- 11:42Speaker 5: chance of grabbing him.
- 11:43Speaker 8: When we're talking to Dick Tiern and O what the
- 11:45Speaker 8: Sheriff's office kipper, he says he could put some of
- 11:47Speaker 8: his men down that area too, cover the county on
- 11:49Speaker 8: the on the fringe's the territory around there?
- 11:51Speaker 3: What do you think? I'm fine?
- 11:54Speaker 9: Frankon gets Stevens at Metro right now, said it up.
- 11:57Speaker 9: So you've got twenty crews right just about?
- 11:59Speaker 3: Yeah, with any kind of luck at all. We ought
- 12:01Speaker 3: to lend him.
- 12:02Speaker 9: Sure worth trying, lieuten Stevens. Please, Yeah, Joe, it's Harry Dideon.
- 12:08Speaker 3: Fine.
- 12:09Speaker 9: Fine, we got a little stickout problem here. How about
- 12:11Speaker 9: using some of your men about thirty all right, I'll
- 12:14Speaker 9: settle for twenty five okay, yeah, and south end of
- 12:18Speaker 9: town those market bandage.
- 12:21Speaker 3: Fine.
- 12:21Speaker 9: Do you haven't report here at robbery seven o'clock tomorrow morning?
- 12:25Speaker 9: All right, thanks a lot, and I'll set you got
- 12:28Speaker 9: twenty five men seven o'clock tomorrow morning. Oh case, we'll
- 12:31Speaker 9: give you a dozen teams to start with, and Dalas
- 12:33Speaker 9: and the strata one more. I mean you figure working
- 12:35Speaker 9: from the Sheriff's.
- 12:36Speaker 3: Office, about four or five teams I mentioned.
- 12:38Speaker 9: All right, it's your operation, you too, me in charge
- 12:40Speaker 9: on our end. You run the show. You'll brief them
- 12:42Speaker 9: in if you need anything, call me right.
- 12:45Speaker 8: How about the overall plans, gip you've got any special
- 12:47Speaker 8: ideas on it?
- 12:48Speaker 3: Just one you know, get.
- 12:49Speaker 5: Them one to eighteen pm. We got the revised description
- 12:55Speaker 5: of one of the hold up men into Lieutenant.
- 12:57Speaker 3: Point Cunningham at the Record Bureau.
- 12:59Speaker 5: He told us a thousand copies of the special mimiograph
- 13:01Speaker 5: form containing all available information on the two market bandits
- 13:04Speaker 5: would be ready for us.
- 13:05Speaker 3: That night.
- 13:07Speaker 5: We met with Sergeant Putoff, the artist at the Crime Lab,
- 13:09Speaker 5: and he went to work making up a composite picture
- 13:12Speaker 5: of one of the suspects from the mugshots selected by
- 13:14Speaker 5: the robbery witnessed Missus Swanson. When the picture was completed,
- 13:18Speaker 5: we had Missus Swanson check it for similarity to the
- 13:20Speaker 5: actual hold up man, and then we brought it back
- 13:22Speaker 5: to the Record Bureau where a thousand copies were.
- 13:24Speaker 3: Made of it.
- 13:25Speaker 5: The pictures, along with the mimiograph forms, were sent immediately
- 13:28Speaker 5: to the Retail Grocers Association for distribution to all market
- 13:31Speaker 5: operators throughout the city. Additional copies of the picture and
- 13:35Speaker 5: the information sheet were given to each man who was
- 13:37Speaker 5: to work the stakeoff when we met in the squadron
- 13:39Speaker 5: at seven o'clock the next morning. Besides the men from
- 13:42Speaker 5: Metropolitan Division and the men from Robbery who are going
- 13:45Speaker 5: to work with US. Lieutenant Dick Tiernan and Sergeant Dave
- 13:48Speaker 5: Terry from.
- 13:48Speaker 3: The Sheriff's Office were also there for the briefing.
- 13:51Speaker 8: Well, briefly, that's a rundown on the two saspects and
- 13:54Speaker 8: the molda follom.
- 13:55Speaker 3: It's the same information and description on them. You will
- 13:57Speaker 3: find those memio forms we handed out. Joey, let's take
- 14:01Speaker 3: over give them their sign. Yeah. Well, if you just
- 14:04Speaker 3: take a look at this spin.
- 14:05Speaker 5: Up map here for a minute, I'll try and brief
- 14:08Speaker 5: you on how the steak out's going to go the
- 14:10Speaker 5: way we got it figured anyway. Well, we've worked out
- 14:13Speaker 5: a plan we think ought to be the easiest and
- 14:14Speaker 5: the best way to work it. If any of you
- 14:16Speaker 5: have any suggestions as we go along, which you'd like
- 14:18Speaker 5: to have them all right now, as you can see
- 14:22Speaker 5: from the map here, the steakout areas in the south end.
- 14:26Speaker 3: It runs from can y'all see it from there? Okay?
- 14:29Speaker 5: It runs from Santa fe Avenue over here on the east,
- 14:32Speaker 5: the Vermont Avenue on the west, running north and south.
- 14:37Speaker 5: Now we'll have to cover from Santa Barbara Avenue on
- 14:39Speaker 5: the north down of Manchester. That'll be the southern boundary.
- 14:44Speaker 5: I said, that's the area the thieves have been working,
- 14:47Speaker 5: and we're going to have fourteen of our own crews
- 14:49Speaker 5: covering that area, and Dick tenn And and Dave Terry from
- 14:51Speaker 5: the Sheriff's office, we'll have their men covering and joining
- 14:54Speaker 5: county territory. Now we've broken a map down into equal units.
- 14:59Speaker 5: As you can see here, each unit will be covered
- 15:01Speaker 5: by one car, and each of you will be assigned
- 15:04Speaker 5: a unit number Romal and myself will be an eighty K.
- 15:08Speaker 3: We'll have a roving unit. We'll cover the entire area.
- 15:11Speaker 5: You'll have three way radios in your car, so you'll
- 15:13Speaker 5: be able to contact us directly if you have to. Now,
- 15:16Speaker 5: if you'll check the map again, you can see these
- 15:19Speaker 5: green pins we've placed here in well. Each one of
- 15:22Speaker 5: them represents a market robbery. Now notice that every one
- 15:24Speaker 5: of them is on a main thoroughfare. Hey, Manchester Golf Broadway,
- 15:30Speaker 5: Vernon South Hoover. Now I don't have to tell you
- 15:33Speaker 5: that that's where you'll have to keep a sharp watch
- 15:35Speaker 5: on the main street.
- 15:36Speaker 3: Each of the individual units here on the.
- 15:38Speaker 5: Map will be covered by one car. As is said,
- 15:41Speaker 5: each one's roughly nine blocks square. Now you'll be responsible
- 15:45Speaker 5: for the area assigned to you. We haven't got too
- 15:47Speaker 5: much time, So before we go down the list to
- 15:49Speaker 5: assign the areas, have you got any questions, any questions
- 15:52Speaker 5: at all? Ah?
- 15:53Speaker 10: Yeah, suppose there's a two to eleven call in somebody
- 15:56Speaker 10: else's area, I mean, other than the.
- 15:58Speaker 3: One you're assigned to. Do we leave our area and
- 16:00Speaker 3: head over there. No, Jess, I meant to bring that out.
- 16:03Speaker 5: If there's a robbery call in somebody else's area, stay
- 16:05Speaker 5: put soul you get a call.
- 16:07Speaker 3: In the hand, anything else?
- 16:09Speaker 11: Yeah, how about the managers of these markets, they've been
- 16:12Speaker 11: briefed on a steak off.
- 16:13Speaker 3: I know we're going to be covering the area. Yeah,
- 16:15Speaker 3: they've all been alerted.
- 16:16Speaker 5: Now in case of a hold up, they might try
- 16:18Speaker 5: to contact you directly.
- 16:19Speaker 3: They'll be looking for you. You'll be looking for them. Bet it,
- 16:23Speaker 3: Bob's I've covered for you. Yeah.
- 16:25Speaker 9: Well, I'm just wondering about this Number two suspect, the
- 16:27Speaker 9: want of drives to get away car.
- 16:29Speaker 3: Yeah, well it says you have a dope sheet.
- 16:31Speaker 5: Number one suspect carries a nickel play at a revolver.
- 16:34Speaker 3: How about number two he carry a gun? Well, I
- 16:37Speaker 3: wish I could answer that we don't know all the
- 16:39Speaker 3: information we got on Amazon the sheet right there.
- 16:42Speaker 9: I see.
- 16:43Speaker 3: Well, they're never try any rough stuff anyway, do they?
- 16:45Speaker 3: No gun player? They've never heard anyone. No, not yet.
- 16:49Speaker 3: Don't let them make you. The first.
- 16:53Speaker 5: Seven thirty am we finished handing out the assignments and
- 16:57Speaker 5: the men left to take up their stakeout positions in
- 16:59Speaker 5: the south end of the city, two men to a team,
- 17:02Speaker 5: each team in a three way radio car, each car
- 17:04Speaker 5: to patrol a designated nine square block unit. There were
- 17:08Speaker 5: twenty such units within the frame of the overall stakeout area.
- 17:12Speaker 5: At the same time, cruiser cars from the Sheriff's Office,
- 17:15Speaker 5: operating on their own radio setup, began patrolling the fringe positions,
- 17:18Speaker 5: which fell in county territory. Through Control one at our
- 17:22Speaker 5: Communications division. We kept in continual contact rhythm. Eight am,
- 17:28Speaker 5: all the cars were in position, each of them patrolling
- 17:30Speaker 5: their individual nine square block unit. The first two hours
- 17:34Speaker 5: passed no reports, no sign of the mockt bandits.
- 17:37Speaker 3: Between ten am and noon, half a dozen.
- 17:40Speaker 5: Possible suspects were stopped and questioned by different teams, and
- 17:43Speaker 5: then brought to the seventy seventh Street Division for processing.
- 17:46Speaker 5: All of them were eliminated. The afternoon of the first
- 17:49Speaker 5: day went pretty much the same. We had shakedowns on
- 17:52Speaker 5: four parked cars in the area and more shakedowns on
- 17:55Speaker 5: possible suspects. Nothing materialized. The next morning, Ben and I,
- 17:59Speaker 5: along with the other thirty two men in the Steakhoup,
- 18:01Speaker 5: picked up where we left off again, no sign of
- 18:03Speaker 5: the suspects, no reports. The morning of the third day,
- 18:07Speaker 5: the Steakhout detail met in the squad room as usual
- 18:09Speaker 5: and then left to take up their regular assigned positions.
- 18:12Speaker 3: Seven thirty five am. How about it, Joey ready to go? Yeah,
- 18:15Speaker 3: just a minute, Okay, let's go. I'll get it. Okay.
- 18:21Speaker 3: Robbery Friday? Yeah, where when was that? Yeah? By the way, Oh,
- 18:27Speaker 3: come on, we got a hurry. What is market bandits?
- 18:29Speaker 3: Maybe we got him. Seven fifty am.
- 18:34Speaker 5: Ben and I arrived at the intersection of fifty eighth
- 18:36Speaker 5: in San Pedro Streets. Two of our Steakhout Cruiser cars
- 18:39Speaker 5: were pulled up at the southwest corner. One of the
- 18:42Speaker 5: teams was Jess Gonzalez and his partner Frank Estrada. Gonzalez
- 18:46Speaker 5: briefed us on what had happened.
- 18:47Speaker 10: Victims, the owner of the supermarket down the block in
- 18:49Speaker 10: San Pedro was walking from his house to the store.
- 18:52Speaker 3: He passed the corner here about seven thirty five am.
- 18:54Speaker 10: Had three hundred and forty dollars on him party yesterday's
- 18:57Speaker 10: receipts from the store. They got him right at the street,
- 19:00Speaker 10: took every dollar of it. He sure it was in
- 19:01Speaker 10: market band memo description. They check out all the way.
- 19:04Speaker 10: We had two teams on as soon as we got
- 19:06Speaker 10: the word located to hold up car a minute ago?
- 19:08Speaker 10: Where is it Donna avalon Boulevard?
- 19:09Speaker 3: How about the Steve's chest? Car was empty? No trace.
- 19:30Speaker 5: Saturday, eight o five am, the latest victim of the
- 19:33Speaker 5: market Bandit's the owner of the supermarket on San Pedro Street,
- 19:37Speaker 5: was taken to the seventy seventh Street Division, where the
- 19:39Speaker 5: crime report was made. He told us that one of
- 19:41Speaker 5: the men who robbed him bore a very close resemblance
- 19:44Speaker 5: to the composite picture which we'd had drawn.
- 19:46Speaker 3: Up of one of the suspects.
- 19:48Speaker 5: We figured we missed grabbing the holdup men by a
- 19:50Speaker 5: matter of minutes, even though some of our units were
- 19:53Speaker 5: in the general area at the time of the robbery.
- 19:55Speaker 3: It did little good.
- 19:57Speaker 5: The victim had delayed reporting the hold up five minutes
- 20:00Speaker 5: because the bandits had threatened to find him and kill
- 20:02Speaker 5: him if we did. Despite the fact that they'd changed
- 20:05Speaker 5: their mo to the extent of robbing the store owner
- 20:08Speaker 5: on the street instead of in the market proper, we
- 20:11Speaker 5: had no doubt that the same two men we were
- 20:12Speaker 5: looking for had committed to hold up. The abandoned car,
- 20:15Speaker 5: which they'd used in the robbery, was gone over.
- 20:17Speaker 3: For fingerprints, but it was clean.
- 20:19Speaker 5: Meantime, the steakout went on Saturday, passed Sunday, Monday, nothing,
- 20:25Speaker 5: no leads on the suspects, not a trace of them. Tuesday,
- 20:28Speaker 5: the same thing all over again. The operations settled down
- 20:31Speaker 5: to a dull routine. Tuesday night we checked the closing
- 20:35Speaker 5: of the last market in our steakout area ten forty
- 20:37Speaker 5: five pm. Ben and I drove back the seventy seven
- 20:40Speaker 5: Street Division.
- 20:41Speaker 8: Every day seems to get a little longer. These lousy
- 20:44Speaker 8: steak cutsure don't wear very well on me.
- 20:46Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know what the setup is going to be.
- 20:47Speaker 5: If we don't get a break pretty soon, we can't
- 20:49Speaker 5: hang onto the gang from Metro Division forever.
- 20:51Speaker 3: Joe has been a bad month. All I need now
- 20:53Speaker 3: is a visit from the in law and do it
- 20:55Speaker 3: at fine.
- 20:56Speaker 5: You talked to Jesse dinner, didn't jail. What do you
- 21:00Speaker 5: say about those two men they picked up on South
- 21:02Speaker 5: Maine this afternoon.
- 21:03Speaker 3: They brought him in for processing, checked him out. I
- 21:05Speaker 3: couldn't find anything wrong. Both of them came gold. Yeah.
- 21:13Speaker 3: How about grabbing some lead after we check on? Okay,
- 21:16Speaker 3: I want to stop by Johnny Cokins. What about uh
- 21:18Speaker 3: frank dip sandwich? How's that sound? I haven't had one
- 21:21Speaker 3: for a long time. It suits me.
- 21:23Speaker 2: How was that? Oh?
- 21:26Speaker 3: Sorry, I know. Oh wait a minute, he just came in.
- 21:30Speaker 3: It's for you.
- 21:30Speaker 5: Friday turned in from the Sheriff's off. Oh yeah, thanks
- 21:32Speaker 5: Bob Friday talking. Got Dick just now. Yeah, we'll be
- 21:40Speaker 5: over right away. Ain't got anything market bandits pulled a
- 21:43Speaker 5: hold up a couple of minutes ago and store on
- 21:45Speaker 5: Graham Avenue. It's out in County Territory. Yeah, one of
- 21:48Speaker 5: the sheriffs. You gonna took the call. Chase the hold
- 21:49Speaker 5: up car two miles They get the themes while you're
- 21:51Speaker 5: half right, huh they got one of them. Ten fifty
- 21:56Speaker 5: two pm, Ben and I drove to the Sheriff's Firestone Substate,
- 22:00Speaker 5: where the market bandit suspect was taken after his apprehension.
- 22:03Speaker 3: When we got there, we talked to Deputy.
- 22:05Speaker 5: Sheriff's sergeants Eddie Jones and Mel Viney, who had made
- 22:08Speaker 5: the arrest. They said they arrived at the scene of
- 22:10Speaker 5: the hold up the market on Graham Avenue a few
- 22:13Speaker 5: moments after the bandits pulled away and they're stolen Nash Sedan.
- 22:16Speaker 5: Jones and Viney gave chase, but when they finally forced
- 22:19Speaker 5: the hold up card to a halt, the driver was
- 22:21Speaker 5: the only one in the car. Somewhere along the route
- 22:24Speaker 5: of the two mile chase, the second robbery suspect had
- 22:27Speaker 5: succeeded in jumping out along with the loot taken in
- 22:29Speaker 5: the robbery and making good his escape. A broadcast and
- 22:32Speaker 5: the bulletin was gotten out immediately. The hold up suspect
- 22:35Speaker 5: they'd apprehended had been fingerprinted and they were checking on
- 22:38Speaker 5: his identification Downtown. Ben and I went in to talk
- 22:41Speaker 5: to him. Jones and Viney stood by while we questioned him.
- 22:44Speaker 3: I still don't know what it's all about.
- 22:46Speaker 8: Property clerk could give you an itemizer sipt for everything
- 22:48Speaker 8: you have on you take everything out of your wallet.
- 22:50Speaker 3: Now put it out in tailor.
- 22:53Speaker 6: Making a pretty big thing out of nothing, aren't you.
- 22:56Speaker 6: I haven't done anything. You want to check those things
- 22:58Speaker 6: from his wallet? Band, the cards, some of those papers?
- 23:00Speaker 6: I mean, yeah, that's your true name on this card here,
- 23:08Speaker 6: Grant B. Jameson, All right, that's right. This is your
- 23:11Speaker 6: present address.
- 23:13Speaker 3: Yeah. Have you ever been arrested before? Oh? You asked
- 23:16Speaker 3: that it's not gonna take too much time to find out.
- 23:18Speaker 6: You might as well tell us. We still don't know
- 23:20Speaker 6: what this is all about. I was speeding a little,
- 23:22Speaker 6: that's all. I haven't done anything.
- 23:23Speaker 3: You know.
- 23:24Speaker 5: You're kidding yourself, James, And we got everything on you
- 23:26Speaker 5: that we need. What do you think you're gonna gain
- 23:29Speaker 5: my stallings? You must have me mixed up with somebody else.
- 23:32Speaker 5: I don't know what you're getting at this card here
- 23:35Speaker 5: you took out of your wallets. You recognize why these
- 23:38Speaker 5: names and addresses you've got jotted down on the back
- 23:40Speaker 5: of it? Mind checking them out for I don't know
- 23:43Speaker 5: what you mean. Take a look he's here? Whose addresses
- 23:47Speaker 5: are they?
- 23:48Speaker 3: Who are the people?
- 23:49Speaker 6: Let's see? No, I don't think I even remember 'em.
- 23:55Speaker 6: Just something I scribbled.
- 23:56Speaker 3: Down, that's all. You don't even remember one of 'em. No,
- 23:58Speaker 3: I don't think so how do you ask? Why don't
- 24:02Speaker 3: you come off with? Mister? What are you talking? You
- 24:04Speaker 3: know what we're talking about. You know it as well
- 24:06Speaker 3: as you know your own name.
- 24:07Speaker 5: Fourteen robberies down here in twenty eight days you had
- 24:10Speaker 5: picked up in the hold up car. After the last
- 24:11Speaker 5: try tonight your partner gets away. Now you go right
- 24:13Speaker 5: on kidding yourself, Jamison, play it real close. You see
- 24:16Speaker 5: how far it gets you. I sure wish I know
- 24:19Speaker 5: what you're talking about. I don't know a thing about
- 24:21Speaker 5: any robberies. All right, then you stand by mister. You're
- 24:24Speaker 5: going to know a lot more about him. You're gonna
- 24:26Speaker 5: know a lot in the hurry. Yeah, just as soon
- 24:28Speaker 5: as we pick up your partner.
- 24:32Speaker 3: Twelve twenty am.
- 24:33Speaker 5: We continued to question the suspect, Grant Jamison, but he
- 24:36Speaker 5: refused to admit anything, even the fact that he'd stolen
- 24:39Speaker 5: the car that he'd been apprehended in.
- 24:41Speaker 3: The only strong lead.
- 24:42Speaker 5: We could pick out from the articles found on his
- 24:44Speaker 5: person was the list of Foreig names and addresses jotted
- 24:46Speaker 5: on the back of a.
- 24:47Speaker 3: Car found on his wallet.
- 24:49Speaker 5: Twelve thirty am, Ben and I left the sub station
- 24:52Speaker 5: and drove to the address Jamison that told us was
- 24:54Speaker 5: his present residence, an apartment house on Vernnon Avenue. The
- 24:58Speaker 5: manager told us he'd moved least a year ago without
- 25:01Speaker 5: leaving a forwarding address. One am, we began checking out
- 25:04Speaker 5: the list of four names and addresses which we'd found
- 25:06Speaker 5: in the suspect's wallet. The first was a Jack Williams.
- 25:10Speaker 5: His address a Spring Street roaming house. The land lady
- 25:13Speaker 5: told us he'd moved to Cleveland, Ohio, three months before.
- 25:16Speaker 5: The second was a John Gallagher. His address a third
- 25:19Speaker 5: rate hotel in East Hollywood. He hadn't been registered there
- 25:22Speaker 5: in the past two months. The third was a Matthew Sandford.
- 25:25Speaker 5: His address turned out to be an apartment house in
- 25:27Speaker 5: the Crenshaw District.
- 25:32Speaker 3: One. A place to light on the mail box is
- 25:34Speaker 3: over here, Joe. Yeah, here you go. You see the
- 25:38Speaker 3: name there? Mm yeah, here.
- 25:40Speaker 8: Here it is mL Sandford. That out of be a
- 25:42Speaker 8: apartment five. Right, let's try.
- 25:46Speaker 3: Front door open, Saint yeah, let's company number five should
- 25:54Speaker 3: be done this way? I guess number five. Okay, give
- 26:00Speaker 3: it a try. Go ahead. That you police officers, you
- 26:15Speaker 3: Matthew Sam get up here, all right, get it all right?
- 26:20Speaker 3: Come on, I've a gun down alright, got it? Joe?
- 26:25Speaker 3: All right, get your hands, I'll cover him. Look around.
- 26:28Speaker 3: Huh right, what is this anyway? What's the idea you
- 26:31Speaker 3: tell us you pulled the gun. You've got no business
- 26:33Speaker 3: in here, You got no right? All right?
- 26:35Speaker 8: You just stand still. We'll explain it. Downtown money sacks.
- 26:38Speaker 8: Joe found him in the desk, same market they hit tonight.
- 26:41Speaker 8: All right, Samford, you've got nothing from me. I don't
- 26:43Speaker 8: know what you're talking about it yet his coat?
- 26:44Speaker 3: What have you been?
- 26:45Speaker 10: Yeah?
- 26:46Speaker 3: What are you trying to build anyway? You haven't got
- 26:48Speaker 3: anything on me. Fourteen robberies, mister, that's what we got
- 26:50Speaker 3: on you. Do you think you got proof? We got it? Yeah,
- 26:53Speaker 3: fourteen victims. Come on, let's go.
- 27:03Speaker 2: The story you have just heard was true. The names
- 27:07Speaker 2: were changed to protect the innocent.
- 27:09Speaker 4: The two Market bandit suspects, Grant Burton Jamison and Matthew
- 27:12Speaker 4: Roy Sanford were tried and convicted on fourteen counts of
- 27:16Speaker 4: first degree robbery and received sentences as prescribed by law.
- 27:20Speaker 4: First degree robbery is punishable by imprisonment in the state
- 27:23Speaker 4: penitentiary from five years to life. You have just heard
- 27:35Speaker 4: Dragnet a series of authentic cases from official files. Technical
- 27:40Speaker 4: advice comes from the Office of Chief of Police W. H. Parker,
- 27:43Speaker 4: Los Angeles Police Department.
- 27:50Speaker 1: Welcome back. Well a good case and one of those
- 27:54Speaker 1: episodes where the capture comes from a partnership with Los
- 28:00Speaker 1: Angeles County, which is really important in real life to
- 28:06Speaker 1: so many LAPD operations. I also did like the scene
- 28:11Speaker 1: of making the composite picture. It was a bit different
- 28:17Speaker 1: other scenes that I had seen. For example, in He
- 28:23Speaker 1: Walked By Nine, they had kind of like pre cut
- 28:29Speaker 1: images of different features to determine how the person looked,
- 28:38Speaker 1: and they had multiple witnesses. Here you just had one witness,
- 28:43Speaker 1: but she was able to say it looked a little
- 28:45Speaker 1: bit like this top of the face and that bottom
- 28:49Speaker 1: of the face, and that was a way they produced
- 28:52Speaker 1: the composite. And of course there is the secret star
- 28:56Speaker 1: of the episode, the mimeograph. It's not something that people
- 29:01Speaker 1: are as familiar with, but it was really important before
- 29:07Speaker 1: you had photo copiers come along. Starting in the latter
- 29:13Speaker 1: part of the sixties and then into the seventies, these
- 29:17Speaker 1: were a huge step ahead for printing and running off copies.
- 29:22Speaker 1: And certainly would be a vital tool in trying to
- 29:26Speaker 1: get multiple copies of anything out to the police force.
- 29:31Speaker 1: And I actually know of the mimeograph. My first time
- 29:37Speaker 1: hearing of it wasn't in this episode of Dragon That
- 29:40Speaker 1: or any other episode or movie from the era, or
- 29:46Speaker 1: even radio program. You don't hear those mentioned a lot.
- 29:50Speaker 1: It was actually from a nineteen eighty sitcom. My favorite
- 29:55Speaker 1: comedy show when I was growing up was Perfect Strangers,
- 29:59Speaker 1: and it featured a mimeograph machine. They made it believable.
- 30:03Speaker 1: It was the first episode where they were working in
- 30:08Speaker 1: the newspaper, and the writers recognized the mimeograph machine would
- 30:14Speaker 1: be a great set piece for the sort of physical
- 30:18Speaker 1: comedy they did on that show, And so the writers
- 30:21Speaker 1: had the copy machine breakdown, and so Balki had to
- 30:27Speaker 1: use the mimeograph machine. Cousin Larry tried to help him,
- 30:32Speaker 1: and hilarity in suit believable in nineteen eighty seven that
- 30:37Speaker 1: a venerable Chicago newspaper would have one of those machines
- 30:41Speaker 1: still around, But these days I don't think you would
- 30:44Speaker 1: find one outside of a museum or a private collection. Perhaps, Well,
- 30:49Speaker 1: now it's time to then call our Patreon supporter of
- 30:52Speaker 1: the day, Thank you song on Spend twenty fifteen, currently
- 30:55Speaker 1: supporting the podcast at the much level of four dollars
- 31:01Speaker 1: or more promont Thanks so much for your support, John.
- 31:03Speaker 1: That will do it for today. If you're enjoying the podcast,
- 31:06Speaker 1: please follow us using your favorite podcast software and be
- 31:11Speaker 1: sure to rate and review the podcast wherever you download
- 31:13Speaker 1: it from. We'll be back next Thursday with another episode
- 31:17Speaker 1: of drag Nap. But join us back here tomorrow for
- 31:21Speaker 1: yours truly, Johnny Dollar.
- 31:23Speaker 11: Where, hey, Marian, having trouble? Yeah, some kids been monking
- 31:29Speaker 11: just a lot.
- 31:30Speaker 3: You want some bait?
- 31:31Speaker 2: No, this is one trip I didn't come to fish.
- 31:34Speaker 11: How is it by the way fish?
- 31:36Speaker 3: Yeah? Fine, just my lot.
- 31:38Speaker 11: No, I'm supposed to meet somebody there.
- 31:40Speaker 3: Oh, it must be that fellow out there. He was
- 31:43Speaker 3: already there when I got here.
- 31:45Speaker 11: Oh you see that boat the bottom side up on
- 31:48Speaker 11: the pier in.
- 31:48Speaker 3: Near the end.
- 31:49Speaker 11: I mean the man sitting beside her, Yeah, and himself
- 31:53Speaker 11: a fishing rod. Looks like could be on some bait.
- 31:56Speaker 11: I'll walk out with you and see if you go mine.
- 31:59Speaker 5: Not at all.
- 32:00Speaker 11: So their fishing has been good?
- 32:01Speaker 3: Huh? What have they been catching?
- 32:04Speaker 11: Quite a few bass last couple of days off the pier. Yeah,
- 32:07Speaker 11: there's some kelp beds and close brings me in around here.
- 32:12Speaker 3: Funny and your friend there. You don't see it.
- 32:15Speaker 12: Hey sleep, I guess, Hey, watch out, he's living. Got
- 32:21Speaker 12: but hm, hey, mister, mister, he isn't sleeping.
- 32:27Speaker 3: That's right, he's dead.
- 32:29Speaker 1: I hope you'll be with us then in the meantime.
- 32:32Speaker 1: Send your comments to Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot ne.
- 32:37Speaker 1: Follow us on Twitter, Radio Detectives. Check us out on Instagram,
- 32:41Speaker 1: Instagram dot com, slash Great Detactives from Boise, Idaho. This
- 32:47Speaker 1: is your host, Adam Graham signing off.