Latest / The Great Detectives Present Dragnet (Old Time Radio) / Dragnet: The Big Badge (EP4418)
Transcript
- 0:28Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho. This
- 0:35is your host stadam Gram. If you have a comment, email it to
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- 1:12to the podcast. There. You can also become one of our ongoing Patreon
- 1:18supporters for as little as two dollars per month at Patreon dot Great Detectives dot
- 1:26net. Well, now it is time for this week's episode of drag Net.
- 1:33The original air date is May the fifth, nineteen fifty and the episode
- 1:38is called The Big Badge. The story you were about to hear is true,
- 1:52only the names have been changed to protect the innocent. You're a detective
- 2:07sergeant. You're assigned to homicide detail for two months. A depraved criminal has
- 2:13been at work in your city. Men and women have been robbed, brutally
- 2:16attacked. Your job get them Dragnet the document a drama of an actual crime.
- 2:34All the next thirty minutes. In cooperation with the Los Angeles Police Department,
- 2:38you will travel step by step on the side of the law through an
- 2:42actual case from official police files, from beginning to end, from crime to
- 2:46punishment. Dragnet is the story of you are police force in action. It
- 2:54was Wednesday, Mark seventh, was cloudy in Los Angeles. We're working a
- 2:59night watching. I got a homicide. My partner's Ben Romero. The boss
- 3:02is that Brown chief a detectives. My name is Friday. I was on
- 3:07the way home from the office and it was two twenty five am when I
- 3:09got to Collis Avenue, number forty six, fifty six. Joseph, that
- 3:20you yeah, Ma all? I wake you? Well? What time is
- 3:23it? Little left? Two? Oh? You can't that. You've gotta
- 3:29have your own, Fred, don't worry. I'm okay. I've got a
- 3:31cold meat in the icebox. There's some pressed ham, a few slices of
- 3:35below me. Didn't you have any dinner? A couple of hamburgers and peace
- 3:39pie. I got hungry again. I had some nice beef stew for dinner.
- 3:45There's some less than the ice box. I'll come down in rollman poet.
- 3:47No, No, all I want is sandwich. Ma, you going
- 3:50back to sleep. You can't live on pie and sandwiches and chica strength and
- 4:00working all hours. First thing, you know, you're be getting sick.
- 4:04You need your food and you need your rest. Nobody cares when you're sick.
- 4:09You didn't have to get up. All I wants the sandwich tag effects
- 4:12him. Better have bowlful of stew here, don't take a minute to warm
- 4:15it up. Nice new potatoes in it, some of those onions you like
- 4:21to fi like Bermuda's. Okay, not too much enough, I'll get the
- 4:26melting business. Half past two in the morning. It kept you so late
- 4:31again, another steak out. It's the same time. A murder in Holland
- 4:35Park. No mind, the badge banded one poses as a policeman. Oh
- 4:40that one. You certainly ought to do something about him. Yeah, well
- 4:45I'm trying to. I can help find him. And there's a piece in
- 4:47the paper about it tonight. They say it's just terrible, the way he
- 4:50beats up people and robs them. Yeah, badge banded. The way he
- 4:56treats women ought to be ashamed. They got a put him away. We
- 5:02got somewhere rye bread. You're gonna have tomorrow off, Joseph. Thanks,
- 5:09No, The captain says, we worked straight through till we get the guy.
- 5:13M. I thought you're gonna have tomorrow off. Oh you ought to
- 5:16tell the captain you need your rest. You can't go on month. It's
- 5:20working all hours. He be coming down stick one of these days. M.
- 5:27Fifteen robberies, fifteen assaults, all in two months. Somebody's gotta stop
- 5:31'em. You ready, M? Yeah, I think so? Well?
- 5:36Can't they warn the people you wouldn't be getting robbed and beaten up? They
- 5:41were parked in those lonely places spooning so silly. Yeah, I'm afraid we
- 5:48can't do anything about that. My it's a public place. They got to
- 5:51write the park they want. Yeah, I suppose this. Let me have
- 5:55you played? Hold on, Hold, that's one another spoon before you can't.
- 5:59We're look if you don't eat M. It's good stewing, Yeah,
- 6:04sure it is, but you're down shop rides nice. His stewing beef's just
- 6:11wonderful. Yeah. Been weik late with you. Yeah. His wife's sore
- 6:15too. He hasn't been homework since we started on this. It's a tough
- 6:17one my time. Certainly I've changed since I was a girl, all this
- 6:24robbing, beating. Huh, Curson people email today, No, there's a
- 6:30couple of bills when you set the alarm. I gotta check back in at
- 6:34eight in the morning, eight o'clock. Where's the world live? And badge
- 6:40Man, it's got two more victims tonight. They were college kids. Doctor
- 6:44said he didn't think we should talk to him tonight, So I've seen him
- 6:46tomorrow morning at the hospital. And were they badly injured? Yeah? Pretty
- 6:49bad boy took a trouble beating. The girl was attacked, same as ny
- 6:53My. Well, it's very good, ma. I better get to bed.
- 6:57Yeah, that's what your face looks so thin. You need all the
- 7:00rest you can get. I'll get it. How who can that be?
- 7:02It's almost three in them. Well there's Lormon don homicide, Joe sorry to
- 7:10body. Yeah, Lorman, what is it? Kevin wants you were a
- 7:13murder to meet him in Hollywood? Laura right away. What's the matter now?
- 7:15Tack and hold up in Laurel Canyon twenty minutes ago. Yeah, got
- 7:17the area of blocked dog figure. They got the man trapped victims get in
- 7:20and look at the guy same description of badge batted. I left the house,
- 7:29went over and picked up Ben. We drove out to the edge of
- 7:30the Santa Monica Mountains where Hollywood Boulevard ends and Laurel Canyon begins. We headed
- 7:35back into the canyon to the blockaded area. Captain Steed from Homicide was there
- 7:40waiting for us. Hi scam, just a man. They had learned all
- 7:48communications. Again, I have n't tell them and I'll Ben who ever to
- 7:51start moving in right again. Sorry to call you back, couldn't be helped.
- 7:55How's it shaping up? Free search detail and vicinity of Laurel Canyon.
- 8:00You at sixty two k reports that they are at Mall, Hall of Drive
- 8:03and Oakstone Avenue. Nothing prey to report on, Joe. The house is
- 8:07shaping up and there's a sketch of the area covers just about all the lower
- 8:11Canyon district. Badge band had got these victims near the top of this hill.
- 8:15Here. Old man in the neighborhood heard a woman's scream phoned in how
- 8:18sure are we? The guy didn't get away, and the man who called
- 8:20in said the band that had trouble start in his car finally left it and
- 8:24took off into the brush. He was said, west down this road here.
- 8:28I just had a call from communication. See crew from Layton Prince run
- 8:31the way all right? Didn't report from the detail up on Canyon Road.
- 8:33Nothing yet. I'll stand by the radio. Okay. How much area we
- 8:37got to cover from the mouth of the canyon here all the way back to
- 8:41Ventura Boulevard on the west here from Lookout Mountain Avenue over the Restview Drive on
- 8:46the east. How much have we got to go? Crowley talked for the
- 8:48victims for a minute before they took him to Georgia Street. Yeah. The
- 8:52guy's descriptions the same, every set, blonde hair, chubby face on riom
- 8:56glasses. If he's on foot, there's twenty under rush around here to hide
- 9:01him. In a minute, I want to get this call in first,
- 9:03Taylor, have communications contacts seventy two K on the holder line station are yeah?
- 9:09I have the others closed in from the west of the ore, right,
- 9:11you two better get up on Groveland Drive. Line's pretty thin up there
- 9:15and use the help is at the area where you've been in the car.
- 9:18Yeah, I want you to cover all the houses in that area. Check
- 9:20that everybody can find the neighborhood. They may be able to help. They
- 9:24don't answer, find out why. Okay, I'll be making the rounds another
- 9:26ten minutes. Check with you. Then all right, that's going. One
- 9:30more thing. Yes, I'll tell you what I told the rest of them
- 9:33in. This guy's in the corner and he's got a gun. There's only
- 9:35one way out for him. Yeah, make sure it's not you. Three
- 9:41forty five am, Ben and I drove up to Groveland Drive and joined the
- 9:45search. We started our house to house canvas of the neighborhood where the suspected
- 9:48abandoned his car. None of the residents had any further information to give us.
- 9:54Four am. We kept on checking. Twenty three. Oh it's a
- 10:00long shift. Yeah, I could use some sleep. A wife of mine
- 10:05is boiling mad. She's even mad as the kid. Yeah, what's trouble?
- 10:09Oh and and her sent down some flower bugs from more than Yester's lotty
- 10:13old bug. Yeah. Kid was playing with a little girl next door yesterday
- 10:16and they found a box of flower bulls. They put the mess up'em in
- 10:20a part of water and boiled them on the dove. What they do that
- 10:24for? I don't know. There's another house up her head and we better
- 10:28check it. Yeah, I mean, ought to get some street lights up
- 10:35here. Yeah, had nice work working people up in the middle of Now.
- 10:41I don't like it anymore than they do, which we could make them
- 10:43believe. Uh mm, nice neighborhood up here. Oh what the price there
- 10:52is on these lots? Oh, they shouldn't be too high. And we
- 10:54say real estate's coming down? Uh yeah, what is the poice? Officers?
- 11:01So I had to disturb it. We like to talk to you man,
- 11:03all right, let me get the door open. What's been going on
- 11:09in the neighborhood to nights? Some kind of trouble? Cars racing up and
- 11:13down the hill. What's the trouble. Have you noticed any spongers in the
- 11:15neighborhood last hour? No? I just got the bed twenty minutes ago.
- 11:18I worked out of Paramount. We're shooting knights. What's all the commotion anyway?
- 11:22Looking for a suspect he's supposed to be around this area. Well,
- 11:24I haven't seen anybody. I thought I heard somebody out of the garage a
- 11:26few minutes ago. Went out and looked around, but I didn't see anything.
- 11:30Did you check to see if your car is still in the garage?
- 11:31No, I left it in the driveway. No. Sure, there's no
- 11:35car in your driveway. Sure there is. Let me show you. Hey,
- 11:39it's gone, and we'll use your phone. Yeah. Yeah, but
- 11:41I saw it just a few minutes ago. The car was right there in
- 11:45the driveway. You think that guy took my car. Yes, it's a
- 11:48pretty good bet. You got your license number handing in now. I don't
- 11:50remember it. I got it on a car in my wallet. Communication and
- 11:54you give us a description of your car. It's a Plymouth of dam black
- 11:56two doors in the damn we search detail, Laurel Canyon, I go some
- 12:00new information for all units in the detail. Here's the license number. Thanks
- 12:05when you broadcast this information to all units in the search detail. What was
- 12:09the making model of your car? Forty six black Plymouth the two door sedan
- 12:13UH nineteen forty six black Plymouth two door sedan license number? Let me see
- 12:20seven X ray two five six nine. This car just been stolen from one
- 12:24oh to one one Grove and drive. Any identifying marks on the car,
- 12:28well, I left my keys in't it? No, no, sir,
- 12:31I mean any special markings on the car. Maybe a dent in one of
- 12:33the fenders. Well, yeah, George, hold on, we get the
- 12:37right headlight went out on me last night. I haven't had it fixed.
- 12:39Yit the right headlight on the car's out. Notify all units in the search
- 12:41detail that we believe suspect is now in possession in this car. Right,
- 12:46thank you, let's go. Must have happened in the last fifteen minutes.
- 12:48I heard that noise and I went out to check the car was head then,
- 12:52well, here's our card. We'll be checking with you later. Yeah.
- 12:54I sure hope you'll find it. I don't know how I can get
- 12:56to work tomorrow without my car. We'll notify. Yeah, yeah, I
- 12:58sure hope. You fine. Thanks for your help. Come on, Ben,
- 13:07an X range Pod your Tea seven X range Pod six nine or just
- 13:13been stolen from one oh to eleven Groveland Drive. The right headlight is out.
- 13:24I don't think you could have gotten that cars the block you didn't.
- 13:26You better start searching the side roads. Yeah, there's one leading off to
- 13:33the left up ahead okay, let's try it. Wait a moment. There
- 13:39is a car coming down the hills. Artist you always making timing? Yo,
- 13:45only one headlight on it because I'm going right out. I turn around
- 13:46quick. Let's go wrong, get over to the inside. Attention all units,
- 14:01special attention all units in search detail the Kennedy of Laurel Kenyon EIGHTYK records
- 14:11in. An ambulance was called and Ben and I were taking to Georgia Street
- 14:20Receiving Hospital. There, I received emergency treatment for multiple cuts and bruises and
- 14:24a sprained left shoulder. Ben didn't do so well. He had a possible
- 14:28concussion, two broken ribs, and half a dozen severe cuts about the face
- 14:33and arms. We were then taken to the p and F ward. On
- 14:35the next afternoon, we had a visit from Captain Steed and Chief of Detective
- 14:39stad Brown Friday. I feel it pretty good, Chief, and saw Romaro
- 14:46across the hall. You came out better needed, yeah, I said,
- 14:48I hear he resting any oh much better? No danger involved needs rest.
- 14:52That's about all. How long I'll you be here? Two weeks? Recording
- 14:56the doctor? What about you? A couple of days? Too bad?
- 14:58You badge? Ben yeh, looks like you two got banged up for nothing.
- 15:03Oh, after we rammed your car, he ditched the black plymouth and
- 15:05then we figure he hit for the underbrush. Yeah. Sawhow when we were
- 15:09home you and Ben out of that wreck he slipped through the line. Any
- 15:13fingerprints on the car and only hit you. It's rotting like I guess it
- 15:16was his night. Huh. We're getting more men from Metro Division to help
- 15:20out, and we're doubling the number of decoys around the city policewomen huh,
- 15:24and we'll have each of'em planted in the park car along with an officer
- 15:26in every area of the Badge Bend. It's been working. All he has
- 15:30to do is grab at the bait once. Yeah, but if he goes
- 15:33for it, and I have plenty of time to choose and work the same
- 15:35set up every night till we reach him. It's a big operation. Might
- 15:39have to run it for weeks unless he quits. There's only one way a
- 15:41guy like that ever quits. Yeah, when we stop him. Saturday,
- 15:48March tenth, two pm, I was released from the P and F ward
- 15:52and went home. Ben stayed on at the hospital. He had at least
- 15:54another ten days to go before release. Sunday, I spent it home.
- 15:58Monday afternoon, I checked back in at the office and Captain Steve putting me
- 16:03on decoy duty for that week along with Policewoman Dorothy River. We were assigned
- 16:07to cover an isolated parking area near Mulhallum Drive and Beverly Glen. Was a
- 16:11nice view, but the duty was slow. No sign on the badge,
- 16:15bendit. Policewoman River and I waited it out from late evening to early morning
- 16:21from Monday through Thursday. Friday night came same thing we waited. How's Ben?
- 16:27You see him today? Yeah? He's doing fine. Be out next
- 16:32week. Grouchy, I guess sure you want a cigarette? Thank you?
- 16:37Sure? Tell it's Friday night? Mm? Thanks? How light you gets
- 16:44you're out in the force. What time you got m A quarter to two?
- 16:52Long nights? Yeah? Slow? Cold? No? Are you mm
- 16:56just a little? It's chilly up here in the early got a car full
- 17:03of kids just pulling out? Are the cars going too? Yeah? Are
- 17:08the only ones left? Uh? Steakhout's getting your nerves. So look,
- 17:15if you're a code, you can have my code. It doesn't bother me.
- 17:17No, No, that's right, Joe. Thanks. It's a beautiful
- 17:22view from a periodent all the lights. Yeah, you like to dance too?
- 17:29What I said? Do you like to dance? Well? Once in
- 17:32a while. I guess I'm not too good play well. Our club's having
- 17:36this big annual dance two weeks on Saturday. Yeah, might get a kick
- 17:38out of it. It's former. H leaves me out. I don't own
- 17:41a text. You could rent one, it'd be fun. Ah afraid I
- 17:45don't look good in a text. I never met a man who thought he
- 17:47did. Why don't you try it? I might be working well. I
- 17:51mean, if you're not working, why don't you come you going well?
- 17:53I was planning on him. Got a date? No, yeah, I
- 17:57have hopes. There's a car pulling in see yeah, parked over in the
- 18:06back of us. I can only make out one person in the car.
- 18:11Yeah, looks like a man. I can't be sure. Alright, come
- 18:15on over closer. We might as well look the part. Huh. Alright,
- 18:19it's getting out of the car. Is he coming this way? Walking
- 18:23over to the side of the road. It's got a flashlight looking around.
- 18:30It was built like the Badge Bandit short, heavy set, yeah, it's
- 18:33turning around. He's got his flashlight on us. He's coming up on your
- 18:37side of the car. I take it easy, you know what to do.
- 18:45Come on out of that car. Police officer. Alright, hold on,
- 18:48got a gun, Joe, Yeah, come on. I sat out
- 18:51of the car. Call either alright, alright, corop a gun. Come
- 18:55on, that's Jim. Yeah. Now I'll get the cuffs. Honey.
- 19:07Thanks. I didn't think I hit him that hard. You didn't, I
- 19:11didnim. Policewoman Dorothy River and I took the suspect to Hollywood Division, where
- 19:21he was booked in suspicion of robbery and gave his name as Charles Leon Kirby,
- 19:25aged forty six. Monday March nineteenth, Ben was released from the hospital
- 19:29and checked back in for work. A special show up was held at which
- 19:33ten of the seventeen victims definitely identified Kirby as the Badge bandit. The suspect
- 19:37had finally been apprehended. Now we started the slow process of formerly charging the
- 19:41man and presenting our evidence against him to bring him to trial. Ten Am,
- 19:47Ben and I went across the street to the sixth floor of the Hall
- 19:48of Justice to present our case against Kirby and to obtain a formal complaint against
- 19:52him. We met with Deputy District Attorney Broker Len't you get out of the
- 19:56hospital ben NICs morning? Sure? God's sick that play wit about your accident.
- 20:00That guy sure gave enough trouble, isn't he. Yeah, he's still
- 20:03giving his trouble. How's that he got in a tangle with another prisoner in
- 20:07Hollywood Division. Yeah, the other prisoner gave Kirby a pretty bad going over,
- 20:11cut him up and broke his left forearm. They're moving him in an
- 20:15ambulance from Hollywood to the prison ward at the General Hospital. When this happened,
- 20:18well this this morning. I think they're moving him downtown. Now it's
- 20:21off fore Now, how about your reports on Kirby? They all in order.
- 20:25Here's a summary report led his ten positive identifications containing ten cons for robbery
- 20:29and ten counts of portable rape. H Here are seven other crime reports,
- 20:34only partial identification on these. Okay, what's he got for crob writing evidence
- 20:40against him? Oh? He went through Kirby's apartment upon at least a dozen
- 20:44pieces of property that he took from his victims, mostly watches and jewelry.
- 20:48The victims identified every piece we found. Okay, let me get the details
- 20:52on it. Oh excuse me? That sure broke this big game? Yes,
- 20:57not you Friday, Thank you Friday? When yeah, right away?
- 21:04Well that does it went fro my, Kirby, we just broke out of
- 21:07that ambulance. You are listening to Dragnet. As soon as word of Kirby's
- 21:27escape came through, the information was broadcast to all points. All available cruiser
- 21:32cars and men were rushed to the escape area, and a door to door
- 21:34canvas got underway. All of the men were giving mugshots to Kirby together with
- 21:37his description. Eleven am. Then and I got back to the office.
- 21:41We found a message from Captain Steed to meet him in the chief the Detective's
- 21:45office. No further notice, the busy polls and the union station. Right,
- 21:51what's the story, Chief? That's what I'm trying to find out.
- 21:53Why do you make the break? Their Fourth and Maine couldn't have picked a
- 21:56better spot. The ambulance had just crossed Third in Maine when Kirby slug.
- 22:00The guard driver was too busy dodging traffic to notice what was going on in
- 22:03back. It's a lousy break. Herbie jumped out of the back end of
- 22:06the ambulance and disappeared in the crowd. No sigh of him, since it's
- 22:08fine. It takes us almost three months to reach the guy and he breaks
- 22:11away on a cheap flute like that. And he doesn't have many friends in
- 22:15town. He's only got one we know of. Yeah, my brother herby
- 22:18stage with him pretty often from when we gather. And brother lives in a
- 22:21rooming house down on Alimed. Anybody checked that. Yet we've got to stake
- 22:23down and the brother works at the box factory in the south end of town.
- 22:26Let's cover too, And it was not going far with a broken arm.
- 22:30What have you got on? Shop? Hold up Sixth Street? Having
- 22:32a few minutes ago, here's the description of the hold on man, stocky
- 22:36build, blonde hair, horned, ram glasses, Chevy fag. You were
- 22:38wrong about that broken arm. Come on. At eleven twenty am, Ben
- 22:45and I pulled up at the east age of pawn shop on Sixth Street.
- 22:48Inside we found the proprietor, Morris Brubaker, lying propped up against one of
- 22:52the showcases. It was an elderly man and his face and the head showed
- 22:55the marks of a savage beating. His wounds were hemorrhaging badly, an ambulance
- 22:59of tens. We're giving him first aid. I showed him Charles Kirby's mudshot.
- 23:03Asked the man, I wouldn't make a mistake. That's him. Was
- 23:07he a long missed brewbaker? Yes, by himself. He has to look
- 23:11at a watch. When I turned to get it, he kicked me.
- 23:15I fell against the showcase and cut myself. He pulled me in the back
- 23:18room. I didn't even know me. He kept he kept beating me.
- 23:22He's a mister Brubaker. Let me get this conference zone. How much did
- 23:26he get away with? You know? Uh? I'm not sure. Blue
- 23:29suit, blew overcoat, wrap around and navy blue booth. He he he
- 23:33kept hitting me, sug just take it easy to have you out of here
- 23:36in a minute. He kept hitting me like a crazy man. This is
- 23:38any septic might steal. Okay, what else he take? Misch Brubaker?
- 23:44Can you remember? Uh? Yes? Uh? From the cash regis see?
- 23:47He took money? How much? Thirteen forty dollars? I can't be
- 23:51sure. When he left your store? Did you see which way he was
- 23:53going? I don't know. He he he dragged me in the back room.
- 23:56He locked me and hed move now. So I said, okay,
- 23:59I know. I saw them going through the shelves there and the back of
- 24:03the car. I don't know. When'd you keep my account books and my
- 24:07gun box of shells too. You won't take a look then, yeah,
- 24:11my head, Yes, sir, Just take it easy. It's only going
- 24:14to be a minute now. The account books are still there. Yeah,
- 24:17he got the gun. Four pm, Kirby alias the Badge bandit was still
- 24:25at large. As far as we were concerned, the case was almost back
- 24:27to where it started from eleven weeks before. The suspect was still loose,
- 24:32It was well armed, was still free to rob, assault or murder.
- 24:36We had two big advantages, Kirby's possible broken arm, which would need medical
- 24:41attention, and secondly, the lead to Kirby's brother. At five point thirty
- 24:45pm, we had a report that the suspect was seen purchasing a ticket at
- 24:47a theater box office out on Hollywood Boulevard. We ran it down, it
- 24:51didn't pay off. At six point fifteen, a taxi driver thought he spotted
- 24:55Kirby boarding an outbound street car figure O and Pico was checked out. No
- 25:00results at seven o'clock. Then and I got something to eat, to drive
- 25:03in and we relieved the men on steak out at the rooming house on Alameda
- 25:07Street where Kirby's brother was staying. Ten pm. Midnight, no sign of
- 25:14Kirby. We waited. At three am. Hanson and Cummings of Homicide relieved
- 25:18us, and Ben drove me home. It was three forty five when he
- 25:22dropped me off at Collis Avenue number forty six, fifty six. Joseph,
- 25:37that you, yeah, my I didn't mean to wake you. Oh what
- 25:41time is it? Almost four? These late hours? You've got to get
- 25:48your best, Joseph. We'll be all right. Mar got something to eat
- 25:52in the ice box. There's a little cold meat and some cheese in the
- 25:55cupboards. Just want a sandwich. You're going back to sleep. I had
- 25:59some nice meat spaghetti for dinner. I can bombs down for you. My
- 26:07Hi. Sam's working whole hours, and you just get sick, Joseph,
- 26:11and you will see nobody cares about you when you're sip. I wish you
- 26:15wouldn't get up. Myke can fix something warm up and meat balls and spaghetti.
- 26:18You need something some stemp? Sure I get it, coy am,
- 26:22I hope it's not that off? Well Larman down homicide, Yeah, Alarmon,
- 26:30thought you'd like to know. They just got Kirby where at his brother's
- 26:33place about fifteen minutes ago. Hanson and Coming's grabbed him any trouble, No,
- 26:37grabbed him before he got to his gun. He just locked him up.
- 26:41Thought you'd like to know. Yeah, thanks, Marmon night, all
- 26:45right, that wasn't Joseph the offer smile. They got Kirby the badge Ben
- 26:56oh D say, well that's nice. Maybe you'll have some time off.
- 27:00No, dear, never fails, does it. You work on a case
- 27:03for three months, leave it for thirty minutes. It's all over. Well,
- 27:07food's warm. Is there anything else you won't? No? No,
- 27:12that's fine man. You go on to bed. Well all right, Joseph,
- 27:17Now don't stay up too long? All right? Right? Hey ma,
- 27:25yes, Joseph, have I still got that old tuxedor around? The
- 27:36story you have just heard was true, only the names were changed to protect
- 27:41the innocent. On June twenty seventh, trial was held in Superior Court,
- 27:45Apartment eighty seventh City and County of Los Angeles, State of California in a
- 27:49moment the results of that trial. Charles Leon Herbye, alias the Badge Bandit,
- 28:00was tried and convicted in Superior Court on several counts of armed robbery,
- 28:04rape, and assault with intent to commit murder. He was sentenced to life
- 28:07imprisonment. After serving one year in the state penitentiary, he was judged insane
- 28:12and committed to the State Mental Hospital at Mendocino. After two months there,
- 28:17he escaped. Charles Kirby, alias the Badge Bandit is still at large.
- 28:22You have just heard Dragnet, a series of authentic cases from official files.
- 28:26Technical advice for Dragnet comes from the Office of Chief of Police W. A.
- 28:30Wharton. This is NBC, the National Broadcasting Company. Welcome back.
- 28:45Well, I would have found that a really unsettling ending if I were listening
- 28:51to this back in nineteen fifty, that the Badge Bandit wasn't large. Now
- 28:57the actual original Badge band that Harry Dunlamp actually had his reign of terror in
- 29:06the nineteen twenties, went to prison and eventually ended up at the State Mental
- 29:11Hospital in Mendocino. He actually stayed there for five years making a break in
- 29:18August nineteen forty five, at the age of sixty, he escaped along with
- 29:22a twenty year old and together they held up the Cassa Blanca not Club.
- 29:27Well, mister Dunlap acted as the lookout while the younger man went in and
- 29:33committed this six thousand dollars robbery, and the younger man was actually recaptured,
- 29:40and there was news about that, but there was never any specific news item
- 29:45on Dunlap being recaptured. So does that mean that nearly sixty five year old
- 29:52Harry Dunlamp was still on the streets and a potential threat. Maybe, but
- 30:00also maybe not. One alert blogger found a newspaper item in the Mendocino Beacon
- 30:11about a matter before the County Superior Court in May nineteen forty nine, and
- 30:17it's one of those columns that just list cases that are being heard without any
- 30:22specific detail. And even though the blogger didn't go and check the court records,
- 30:30it's doubtful that those would still be around when the blogger wrote the post
- 30:34in twenty twenty, and the newspaper reference to hearing in regards to Harry Dunlap
- 30:41committed to the Department of Mental Hygiene for placement in the Mendocino State Hospital as
- 30:48a mentally ill person, but again we don't have any details on what the
- 30:53hearing was about. It doesn't necessarily mean he was recaptured, but he may
- 30:59well amend And it had been more than a quarter of a century since his
- 31:03notorious crimes and four years since the stick up where he didn't actually do the
- 31:10stick up, and it may not have been particularly noteworthy or newsworthy that a
- 31:18sixty four year old mental patient was recaptured. He did die in nineteen sixty
- 31:25four and his grave is in San Luis Obispo, but there was no obituary
- 31:30left behind as he had no family. Dunlamp was one of those criminals who
- 31:36was very notorious for a time but died utterly forgotten. At any rate,
- 31:41we did actually get Joe Friday having a win and able to eat something,
- 31:48and we've found out how he eats in the early days of dragging that anyway,
- 31:52hopefully Ben's wife fed him. It's also interesting to have Joe Friday's mother
- 31:59played by the much younger and last I heard still with us, Peggy Weber
- 32:04on the program. As the crimes appear to have been committed in the nineteen
- 32:07twenties. Her things are so bad these days. Comments have a bit of
- 32:13irony as this would have really happened when she was a much younger woman,
- 32:17not parking age maybe, But there are always these sort of notorious crimes that
- 32:22are committed. The question is generally what's the rate of the crimes and what's
- 32:28ultimately done about them in society. Well, now we turn to listener comments
- 32:34and feedback and we go over to the site called x where Daniel riots regarding
- 32:40the Big Trial. A great episode to introduce someone to Dragonet and how it
- 32:46brilliantly illustrates the meticulous detail of mundane police work. You either love it or
- 32:52hate it. Excellent analysis after the show. Adam enjoyed it from start to
- 32:55finish. Well, thank you so much, Daniel. And now it's time
- 32:59to thank our Patreon supporter of the day, and I want to go ahead
- 33:02and thank Robert, Patreon supporter since March of twenty twenty four, currently supporting
- 33:10the show at the Shamus level of four dollars or more per month. Thank
- 33:15you so much for your support, Robert, and that will actually do it
- 33:17for today. If you're enjoying the podcast, please follow us using your favorite
- 33:22podcast software, and if you're enjoying the podcast on YouTube, be sure to
- 33:28lock the video, subscribe to the channel, and mark the notification bell.
- 33:32We will be back on Saturday with another episode of Dragnet, but join us
- 33:38back here on Monday for the adventures of the fall can wear this undergun?
- 33:45I'm much worry something to me if you listen to the radio, m's wear
- 33:52the wrong program? What do you want? And I'm speaking? Oh,
- 34:00he and I are That's what he asked me over for what is he?
- 34:02He is in the study last year in the right end of the world.
- 34:06Thank you, mancoon. Do you mind tell him for me to quit stucking.
- 34:09I'm leaving as soon as I finished packers. I'll give him your message
- 34:15just walking. He won't ask me thanks. Hey, you don't need to
- 34:25leave him. Looks like he's left you permanently. What are you talking about.
- 34:30He's not sulking, He's dead. I hope you'll be with us then
- 34:34in the meantime. Send your comments to Box thirteen at Great Attractives dot net,
- 34:39follow us on Twitter at Radio Dettactives, and check us out on Instagram,
- 34:45Instagram, dot com. Last great detectives from Boise, Idaho. This
- 34:52is your host, Adam Graham, Sign and off.