Latest / Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas / Dragnet: The Big Grab (EP1622)

Transcript

Dragnet: The Big Grab (EP1622) · Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas

• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Great Detectors of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: This is your host, Adam Graham. If you have a
• 0:38
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  Speaker 1: donations to a support dot Great Detectives dot net and
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: over a Great Detectives dot net. This weekend my review
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: of the Rock Ferd Files episode There's One in every Port.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: Now it's time for today's episode of Dragnet. The original
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: air date is June the twenty ninth of nineteen fifty
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: and the title is The Big Grab.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: The story you are about to hear is true only
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: the names have been changed to put actually innocent drag Net.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned to homicide Detail. A
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: woman has disappeared, taken from her home by a man
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: posing as a police officer. Your job find her.
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: Drag Net the documented drama of an actual crime. While
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: the next thirty minutes, in cooperation with the Los Angeles
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: Police Department, you will travel step by step on the
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: side of the law through an actual case. Transcribed from
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: official police violence, from beginning to end, from crime to punishment.
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: Dragnet is the story of your police force in action.
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: It was Tuesday, airfril for. It was warm in Los Angeles.
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: We're working the night watch out of Homicide Detail. My
• 3:05
  Speaker 4: partner's Ben Romero. The boss is Thad Brown, Chief of Detectives.
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: My name is Friday. It was ten minutes past six
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: pm when I got to the basement of the City Hall.
• 3:13
  Speaker 5: Carpools over here.
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: Joe, Hi, that Brown will be down in a minute.
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: Captain will follow us out later. Okay, no contact here, No,
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: I're still waiting. You take care of the local broadcast
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: already going out. They'll put the descriptions on the air
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: every hour. How's luck to you now, I don't know.
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: There's nothing more we can do to make a contact.
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: Oh there's that brown now you want to squeeze over them?
• 3:43
  Speaker 6: Oh yeah sure?
• 3:45
  Speaker 5: Hi gee, Hi, let's go. Might as well take Beverly Boulevard.
• 3:51
  Speaker 5: I bet, I mean it's as fast as any. You
• 3:53
  Speaker 5: got the adress there?
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: Friday, Yeah, six seventeen, Paris Avenues Albiaco Park.
• 3:57
  Speaker 5: Who's covering the house now? Raws and Pachelli or staked
• 3:59
  Speaker 5: out in the private garage cross the street from the house.
• 4:01
  Speaker 5: Donahan Wiseman are on duty inside of the castle. Place
• 4:06
  Speaker 5: a little smoke, Mm nice, I'd mean one little joe.
• 4:09
  Speaker 7: Yeah, but you got the story from the maide of
• 4:14
  Speaker 7: the castle's house, that right.
• 4:16
  Speaker 5: Check it out.
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: I'm pretty sure she's telling it straight. Anything thing's wrong
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: I don't think she's got a hand in it here been.
• 4:27
  Speaker 5: Oh huh. You get to call about three this afternoon,
• 4:29
  Speaker 5: m a few minutes after we went right out and
• 4:32
  Speaker 5: talked for the name. How did she tell him? I
• 4:34
  Speaker 5: said she was fixing dinner about two this afternoon.
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: When the doorbell rang, she answered it, and the young
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: man in the great suit asked for missus Kestle by name.
• 4:41
  Speaker 5: He told the maide it was an emergency hall.
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: Well, the maid said, missus Kestle came to the door,
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: and the man identified himself as a police officer, told
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: missus Kessel her husband had been hurt in an accident
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: and she was to come right away. Man show his identification.
• 4:53
  Speaker 4: Maid said no, said miss Keston. Just took it for ground.
• 4:55
  Speaker 5: He was a cup. Yeah, go ahead.
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: Missus Castle got her coat and left with him man.
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: About an hour later, her husband, Professor Kessel, got home.
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: He wasn't hurt, he hadn't been in an accident. He
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: hadn't seen his wife.
• 5:06
  Speaker 5: Then, as he heard it from the maid what had happened,
• 5:07
  Speaker 5: he got on the phone, called that. What's the background
• 5:10
  Speaker 5: of the husband? This?
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: Uh, professor Kessel, he was supposed to have quite a name.
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: He's a professor of philosophy out at Simmons College, at a.
• 5:16
  Speaker 5: Small school out in near Glendale.
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: Oh, yeah, devout man, president of one of the local synagogues.
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: Sure about the maid story, huh, sure as we can be.
• 5:25
  Speaker 4: She gave us a good description of the man who
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: picked up in his castle.
• 5:27
  Speaker 5: I got it right here. Yeah yeah.
• 5:32
  Speaker 7: My wife male American twenty five to thirty years old,
• 5:34
  Speaker 7: six people in seventy to eighty pounds, great suit.
• 5:37
  Speaker 5: Bray had boone shoes about.
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: The car he used late monaschev let, dark blue, white
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: side was that's on the maid to Dalis.
• 5:44
  Speaker 5: He didn't notice theize.
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: You've been here. Cut over on the Westlake. That'll take
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: us past the detail on this professor Kessel. See you've
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: been told what to do. Yeah, he's been briefed. We've
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: had a couple of men with him since this thing broke,
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: taking it pretty hard.
• 5:55
  Speaker 5: How old a man is he? Oh? It was late thirties,
• 5:58
  Speaker 5: wouldn't you say so?
• 5:59
  Speaker 8: Ben?
• 6:00
  Speaker 5: Close to forty nice one square two kids in the family,
• 6:03
  Speaker 5: just about school age, boy and a girl.
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: It's the next one, not to be very savenue. Yeah,
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: there's a big greyhouse down next game for a white trim.
• 6:12
  Speaker 5: Don't park too close to the house. I saw to
• 6:15
  Speaker 5: do it right here. Don't say yeah, what time you guy?
• 6:20
  Speaker 6: Alright?
• 6:20
  Speaker 5: Seventeen most dard.
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: Where's the garage I mean are covering from? Can you
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: see beyond that light pole there? The white stucco place?
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: Oh uh, next one? Use a cassel home doesn't look
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: very rich. Neither did the Kessels. I don't think they
• 6:34
  Speaker 4: got much money.
• 6:46
  Speaker 9: Hi, dunnah come in, but the husband, Yeah, I just
• 6:55
  Speaker 9: got our phone call a couple of minutes ago.
• 6:57
  Speaker 10: I listened on the extension. Who call We try to trace?
• 7:01
  Speaker 10: If the guy wouldn't stay in the line longer, what'd
• 7:03
  Speaker 10: you say? Tele the cops to stay away? Said it twice.
• 7:06
  Speaker 10: Tele cops to stay away, said.
• 7:08
  Speaker 5: If they don't out kill her.
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: The Kessel house had already been placed under strict surveillance,
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: and the victim's husband instructed not to contact the abductors
• 7:21
  Speaker 4: without knowledge of the police. To the working detective, there's
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: only one rule to go by when the job of
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: solving an abduction is put in his hands. Find the
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: victim as fast as possible, get the victim to safety,
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: then go after the criminal.
• 7:34
  Speaker 5: It's not an easy job.
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: The responsibility isn't light, and the outcome isn't always successful.
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: If you press too hard, the abductor gets frightened and
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: kills the victim. If you don't press hard enough, the
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: criminal has more time to work for his payoff and
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: than escape.
• 7:48
  Speaker 5: Somewhere between the two was the right answer. We had
• 7:51
  Speaker 5: to find it.
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: Six thirty pm, special details of men were ordered out
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: to the bus depots, the railroad terminals, and the airports.
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: Roadblocks were set up at all an arter he's leading
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: into and out of the city. Every branch post office
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: in Los Angeles was covered to watch for possible ransom
• 8:05
  Speaker 4: notes addressed to Professor Kessel. Six forty pm. We met
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: in the Kessel's living room.
• 8:11
  Speaker 5: Gee Wiseman.
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: Professor Kessel be down in a minute, says he's sorry
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: to keep you waiting. Feeling an inventter. A little phone
• 8:17
  Speaker 4: call about his wife shook him up a bit. How
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: about those people came in a few minutes ago. Were
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: they relatives? I have dozen of them. They're waiting back
• 8:24
  Speaker 4: in the kitchen. They know about usus kestle. They didn't.
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: They've been invited to dinner. They didn't know anything was
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: wrong till they got here. Kessel, lastman's stay for the meal.
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: Wants to keep up appearances for the sake of his kids.
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: Doesn't want them to worry about their mother. The dinner
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: that important to him. Well, tonight's the start of the
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: Pesa and the Jewish religion passover. It's one of the
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: big holidays. Oh, I see when they started off with
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: his dinner tonight?
• 8:46
  Speaker 5: Is that the weak.
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: Yeah, big dinner. They called him saviors tonight they have
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: the first Savior.
• 8:51
  Speaker 5: Good even. Sorry to keep you waiting. How are you
• 8:54
  Speaker 5: please shuit down.
• 8:56
  Speaker 7: We don't like to intrude on your privacy, Professor Kessel,
• 8:58
  Speaker 7: but I think you can see it's necessary.
• 9:00
  Speaker 5: Oh, yes, of course, I'm very grateful. There's anything at
• 9:04
  Speaker 5: all I could do to help.
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: Do you have any idea who might be responsible for
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: abducting your wife?
• 9:09
  Speaker 5: That's what has me so confused.
• 9:11
  Speaker 11: How do you mean, Well, I'm sure I have people
• 9:15
  Speaker 11: who don't like me, who don't like us, But someone
• 9:17
  Speaker 11: who would take my wife who says they'll kill her.
• 9:20
  Speaker 5: No, I don't know who it could be.
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: How about the voice and the telephone, Professor, did you
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: recognize it at all?
• 9:26
  Speaker 11: No, it didn't sound like anyone I knew. He talked
• 9:29
  Speaker 11: so fast I could hardly understand the man.
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: Do you think the person who took your wife had
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: some other motive besides holding her for ransom?
• 9:37
  Speaker 11: I can't understand that either. If it's money they want,
• 9:39
  Speaker 11: why go after a teacher's wife. Fifteen hundred dollars in
• 9:42
  Speaker 11: the bank, that's all I have that in this house.
• 9:45
  Speaker 11: How about your immediate family? Professor, Well, my wife, Ruth.
• 9:50
  Speaker 11: People have quite a bit. I guess you would call
• 9:53
  Speaker 11: them rich, but it's their money, not mine.
• 9:57
  Speaker 5: I can't understand why anyone would do it for Ruth.
• 10:03
  Speaker 5: Anything happened should.
• 10:08
  Speaker 8: Also.
• 10:11
  Speaker 5: I'm sorry, that's all right, we understand. Yes, Bertha, come in,
• 10:15
  Speaker 5: would you please? Gentlemen, this is my sister Bertha. She's
• 10:19
  Speaker 5: here with her husband for the sator. How are you, Albert.
• 10:24
  Speaker 5: It's late sundown. It's time to start to kid. Yes,
• 10:28
  Speaker 5: all right, Bertha. You tell everyone to come to the
• 10:30
  Speaker 5: table up right here. The officers will have the first Yes, Bertha,
• 10:35
  Speaker 5: please set the places say.
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: We don't mean to intrude here. We can wait outside
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: while you have your dinner.
• 10:43
  Speaker 11: Oh no, please, I'd be honest to have you sit
• 10:46
  Speaker 11: at the table with us. No one in the house
• 10:48
  Speaker 11: should be without food tonight for for Passover.
• 10:51
  Speaker 5: It's the law. How's that sing? Oh excuse me, the
• 10:55
  Speaker 5: Hebrew law. Would you come this way please?
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: He turned and let us down the hallway into the
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: dining room. A long white cloth covered the table. In
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: the center was a brightly polyshed brass candelabra holding four
• 11:09
  Speaker 4: lighted tapers.
• 11:11
  Speaker 5: There were a few platters of food already.
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: Set out and at the head of the table where
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: Professor Kessel stood and opened prayer book. In order not
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: to add to the alarm of his two small children
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: in the absence of their mother, Professor Kessel introduced us
• 11:23
  Speaker 4: as friends from Simmons College.
• 11:26
  Speaker 11: Uh, this is mister Brown, mister Friday, mister Wiseman, mister Romero.
• 11:32
  Speaker 5: Of course you know, sit down, please sit down? Yeah, no,
• 11:39
  Speaker 5: smells good? Yeah yeah you good enough? Room there, Joe?
• 11:43
  Speaker 5: Oh fine, how does it work, Wiseman? Should we join
• 11:46
  Speaker 5: in the prayers? Not unless you speak Hebrew? Yello, hanno,
• 11:53
  Speaker 5: mellollo by a pre I'll go f and yeallo hano
• 12:00
  Speaker 5: my alarm call arm. But I'm a monoclawshine vicause. But
• 12:06
  Speaker 5: mis my song adnoilo hano.
• 12:14
  Speaker 12: Game was my nameless I am haga my twice.
• 12:22
  Speaker 5: Yeah, all right, Friday talking, This is Lacy. Joe just
• 12:34
  Speaker 5: got a call from the morgue. Yeah, you brought on
• 12:36
  Speaker 5: the body a few minutes ago. They checked the description. Yeah,
• 12:39
  Speaker 5: I think it's missus Kestle.
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: I went back into the dining room and told Chief
• 12:47
  Speaker 4: Brown about the car.
• 12:48
  Speaker 5: He told Professor Kessel.
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: He said he'd finished as quickly as possible so as
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: not to alarm the children, and go with us to
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: the morgue to check the identity of the body.
• 12:57
  Speaker 5: The prayers continued, along with the dinner.
• 12:59
  Speaker 12: A lot more and you're dare follow son a baro
• 13:03
  Speaker 12: Demitri called difico, called a shot ho shoon barbar this
• 13:13
  Speaker 12: rival a shot o dely shown our barber a fire.
• 13:19
  Speaker 13: John, Yes, Papa Monish donor Halala Nicole Hallay los sba
• 13:29
  Speaker 13: halay los a o' clean ha made to Matsore hal
• 13:34
  Speaker 13: La has said, hullo mason.
• 13:42
  Speaker 6: Clean Sure you're cold, Papa.
• 13:51
  Speaker 5: It was the wise man. What was the boy's name?
• 13:54
  Speaker 5: It's part of the ceremony.
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: During the meal, I'm supposed to ask his father certain
• 13:57
  Speaker 4: questions about the passover, and then the father, I am
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: I guess it was too much for Kessel no broken.
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: Then would the boy ask him? Why is this night
• 14:06
  Speaker 4: difference from any other knight? Seven thirty pm. Sergeants Wiseman
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: and Donna hosted on duty at the house while Chief Brown,
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: Ben and I drove Professor Kessel to the County morgue.
• 14:24
  Speaker 4: On the way, we called in and checked with Captain
• 14:26
  Speaker 4: Steed of homicide. He told us there's been no reports
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: on missus Kessel. Seven forty three pm, Ben and I
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: took Kessel to the basement of the Hall of Justice,
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: County Morgue.
• 14:38
  Speaker 5: This way, professor, Oh, yes, are you sure you feel
• 14:44
  Speaker 5: up to it? Thank you. I'll be all right cold
• 14:48
  Speaker 5: in here, Yes, sir, Hi Fellas, it's back here. Okay,
• 14:54
  Speaker 5: this is Professor Kessel. Archie.
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: How do this way?
• 14:59
  Speaker 5: Jane do number five? I called over as soon as
• 15:01
  Speaker 5: I brought it in. Yeah, thank you.
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: Found the body in the avenue nineteen, the river bed
• 15:05
  Speaker 4: a crossing the auto camp.
• 15:06
  Speaker 5: No identification.
• 15:07
  Speaker 6: No here, we are.
• 15:11
  Speaker 5: All right, professor, Good god, good god, professor. No, it's
• 15:40
  Speaker 5: not my wife.
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: It seemed as if both the victim and whoever had
• 15:48
  Speaker 4: taken her advantage completely. At eleven thirty Captain Steve Ben
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: and I went across the street for a cup of
• 15:54
  Speaker 4: coffee and a Friday egg sandwich. We got back to
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: the office of ten minutes to midnight, still no At
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: two am, Ben and I drove back to the Kestle
• 16:03
  Speaker 4: house to relieve Donnahow and Wiseman. We stood our watch
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: in the living room. In the bedroom directly above, we
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: could here Professor Kessel pacing the floor most of the night.
• 16:12
  Speaker 4: At five am, Captain Steed called. He told us a
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: letter addressed to the Professor who had been reported at
• 16:17
  Speaker 4: the Arcade Post Office. As soon as the outside of
• 16:21
  Speaker 4: the envelope had been photographed and checked for Prince, it
• 16:23
  Speaker 4: would be brought out for Professor Kessel to open. Yeah,
• 16:31
  Speaker 4: I'll get it, Chief. Good morning, Hiley, Hi Joe.
• 16:40
  Speaker 5: In here. Did you lift anything off the envelope? Leave
• 16:43
  Speaker 5: nothing we can use? No, I'd had him all up
• 16:46
  Speaker 5: with the letter. Good morning. You brought the letter. It's
• 16:50
  Speaker 5: right here, Professor Kessel. I'd like you to stand by
• 16:52
  Speaker 5: while we open it. This is Lieutenant Jellnsmart Crime left.
• 16:56
  Speaker 5: You check the note for fingerprints. Oh, yes, I can
• 16:58
  Speaker 5: get you a letter open. I think this one over here. Yeah,
• 17:01
  Speaker 5: that's all right. I could give her my pocket. Now,
• 17:04
  Speaker 5: you want to grab one corner of the paper banner,
• 17:07
  Speaker 5: just the tip of the corner. Here's your fingernail, okay,
• 17:15
  Speaker 5: and that open up and pin down these corners. Yeah,
• 17:21
  Speaker 5: what is it for?
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: At the words you're put together with small printed letters.
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: They all seem to be the same kind of typeface.
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: Letters will probably clipped from a book. Then pasted together
• 17:32
  Speaker 4: to fall these words?
• 17:34
  Speaker 5: Who sent it? What does it say? Thanks? Lly?
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: If you want to see your wife alive, have thirty
• 17:43
  Speaker 4: thousand small bills? Tonight tell police I kill her. Instructions
• 17:48
  Speaker 4: following mail.
• 17:50
  Speaker 5: No sign to thirty thousand. I haven't got the money.
• 17:54
  Speaker 5: I can't get it. You'll kill her, mister Kessel, there's
• 17:57
  Speaker 5: still a chance. But what can I do. I haven't
• 18:01
  Speaker 5: got that much money, he says, he'll kill it. What
• 18:04
  Speaker 5: can we do? What we've been doing? Yes?
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: Wait, you are listening to Dragnet. The case history of
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: a police investigation presented in the public Interest.
• 18:34
  Speaker 5: Wednesday, seven am.
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: With the aid of an iodine fume, gun Lee Jones
• 18:38
  Speaker 4: checked the extortion letter from missus Kessel's abductor for fingerprints
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: and other marks of identification.
• 18:42
  Speaker 5: He found nothing.
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: The piece of paper on which the cutout printed letters
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: had been pasted was of a common variety sold in
• 18:49
  Speaker 4: most stationary and five and ten cents stars. Jones photographed
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: both sides of the envelope in the letter. Eleven am,
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: still no word. None of the special details had anything
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: to report.
• 19:02
  Speaker 5: At one pm, another letter was delivered to the house.
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: The envelope was open and the letter removed carefully and
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: pinned down at the corners. Put together. The name is
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: the last one. Tonight eleven o'clock. Come alone your car,
• 19:17
  Speaker 4: Tell police, I kill her?
• 19:20
  Speaker 5: Is there more Friday?
• 19:21
  Speaker 4: Yeah, drive corner lake Shore, Charters Street, wrap money, brown paper,
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: small bills. Come alone your car, put package by fireplug,
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: then leave. Tell police and I killer no signature. I
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: haven't got the money, like Sure and Charter. That shouldn't
• 19:42
  Speaker 4: be too hard for us to catch. Sounds pretty much
• 19:44
  Speaker 4: like an amateur. It makes a touch if he's green,
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: he a little scary easy, he's scared to make kill her.
• 19:49
  Speaker 4: Not if we reach him.
• 19:51
  Speaker 5: How can I get the money?
• 19:52
  Speaker 7: You won't need any When a dummy package made up,
• 19:55
  Speaker 7: there will be a single dollar bill inside.
• 19:57
  Speaker 5: Used to be newspapers, cut the size of currency. It's
• 20:00
  Speaker 5: what you will deliver. But when he gets the package,
• 20:02
  Speaker 5: when he finds out it's not the money, what's he
• 20:04
  Speaker 5: going to think? We'll explain it to him.
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: Starting at ten o'clock that night, more than a dozen
• 20:13
  Speaker 4: cars from the Detective Bureau circleed the area around Lakeside
• 20:16
  Speaker 4: Avenue and Charter Street, keeping a distance ranging from three
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: quarters to a full mile away, so as not to
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: scare off the abductor. Some of the cars were parked
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: in service stations, some in private driveways. The neighborhood was
• 20:28
  Speaker 4: located in the heart of a new veterans housing project.
• 20:30
  Speaker 4: For a full five blocks in either direction. There were
• 20:33
  Speaker 4: no buildings of any kind where we could keep an
• 20:35
  Speaker 4: eye on the package of fake ransom money.
• 20:38
  Speaker 5: The owner of one of the completed.
• 20:39
  Speaker 4: Houses nearest the spot on Charter Street was contacted and
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: he agreed to let us use his home as a
• 20:44
  Speaker 4: lookout point for the steakhout. That night nine pm, Ben
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: and I took up our positions on the roof of
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: the lookout house. We were equipped with two pair of
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: night binoculars and a walkie talking.
• 20:57
  Speaker 5: I could think of a few other places I'd rather
• 20:59
  Speaker 5: spend to.
• 21:00
  Speaker 4: Nine How well can you see that intersection from here?
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: Comes in fun with these binoculars. The guy shows we
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: ought to see him.
• 21:10
  Speaker 5: I better check with the captain again. What time he got?
• 21:14
  Speaker 5: Nine five? Where's the skipper puck? Private driveway in your charter?
• 21:18
  Speaker 5: And heyward Friday to one oh five K. Friday to
• 21:23
  Speaker 5: one oh five K, come in, go ahead.
• 21:30
  Speaker 14: Got a clear view of the intersection. Nothing yet outside
• 21:33
  Speaker 14: of cramp legs. You're reading me, okay, got your old
• 21:38
  Speaker 14: fine over roger standing by.
• 21:44
  Speaker 5: You're lucky my kid can't see me.
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 21:46
  Speaker 4: Why you'd never understand? Why should his father be sitting
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: on top of somebody's roof late at night.
• 21:51
  Speaker 5: He'd never get in. We waited.
• 21:55
  Speaker 4: Ten o'clock came ten thirty. At exactly eleven PM, as
• 21:58
  Speaker 4: we watched through our night inoculars, we saw Professor Kessel
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: drive up to the designated location five blocks away, placed
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: the fake package of ransom money by the fire hydrant
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: near the intersection, and then drive away eleven thirty. We
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: waited midnight two am. Nothing happened. The package was still
• 22:18
  Speaker 4: lying with the fire hydrant undisturbed. Captain Steed checked with
• 22:21
  Speaker 4: us periodically on the walky talkie. At three thirty am,
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: we were still waiting. At a few minutes past six am,
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: Professor Kessel was directed to return to the intersection, pick
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: up the package, and drive back to his home. His
• 22:33
  Speaker 4: wife's subductor had failed to show. Maybe the suspect had
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: sensed the trap. Maybe he had no idea of showing
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: up in the first place. Maybe Missus Kessel was dead.
• 22:41
  Speaker 5: We didn't know. Ten am Thursday, no further contact from
• 22:46
  Speaker 5: the abductor.
• 22:47
  Speaker 4: A special detail from Homicide, including Ben and I, were
• 22:50
  Speaker 4: ordered on a door to door canvas of the general
• 22:52
  Speaker 4: area around Lakeside Avenue on Charter Street. After seven hours
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: of ringing doorbells and asking questions, we came across from
• 22:58
  Speaker 4: mister Harold Olander, one of the long time residents of
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: the Silver Lake area.
• 23:02
  Speaker 5: We showed him the general description of missus Kessel's subductor.
• 23:05
  Speaker 15: Yeah, that could be Thompson. I don't know for sure, though.
• 23:09
  Speaker 15: Where did you see this tom flin, mister Lander? Oh,
• 23:11
  Speaker 15: I saw him lots of times. He reached that cottage
• 23:14
  Speaker 15: of mine down the street there, you see the white one.
• 23:17
  Speaker 15: Does Does Thompson have a car?
• 23:19
  Speaker 5: Thompson? Yeah, yeah, new one. I wonder if you could
• 23:21
  Speaker 5: describe it Chevrolet, nice looking blue color.
• 23:25
  Speaker 15: I think could be You know, is Thompson in the
• 23:27
  Speaker 15: house now, mister Allander? Nope, So I drive away over
• 23:31
  Speaker 15: this morning. I can show you the house. If it's
• 23:34
  Speaker 15: the fish of police business, it is, Come on, then
• 23:37
  Speaker 15: I got the key right here, cottage just down the
• 23:40
  Speaker 15: block there, see the.
• 23:42
  Speaker 5: One, I mean, the white one. Yes? How long has
• 23:45
  Speaker 5: Thompson been in the house two weeks tomorrow. You noticed
• 23:49
  Speaker 5: anything unusual about him? Mm?
• 23:51
  Speaker 15: Looking special, comes and goes at odd hours. But then
• 23:54
  Speaker 15: a lot of people do. I don't fry sit out
• 23:58
  Speaker 15: right here? Does he usually keep all the blinds drawn? Yeah,
• 24:03
  Speaker 15: now that you mention it, a lot of people do
• 24:06
  Speaker 15: like this. I wanna check back in the kitchen, Ben, yeh,
• 24:19
  Speaker 15: look at the living room, sergeant. Yeah, I'm gonna stick
• 24:21
  Speaker 15: a finish. That's funny.
• 24:24
  Speaker 5: You sure you didn't see anybody else in this house
• 24:26
  Speaker 5: besides Thompson? No, No, he's the only one. Looks like it.
• 24:30
  Speaker 4: Joe found this woman's purse step in one of the
• 24:33
  Speaker 4: kitchen cabinets. This sales slip was in the per miss
• 24:37
  Speaker 4: Albert Kessel. They're a phone here, mister Landers out.
• 24:41
  Speaker 5: In the hall. All right, you're just still connected, Yeah, Joe,
• 24:49
  Speaker 5: I'll check back in the bedroom.
• 24:50
  Speaker 4: Fla your phone, right, Ben, No, you better stay with me,
• 24:53
  Speaker 4: mister Orlander if you will, all right, homicideide, do you
• 25:03
  Speaker 4: any idea where this Thompson is now?
• 25:04
  Speaker 5: Mister Lander. No, if he comes and goes, I don't
• 25:08
  Speaker 5: like deprive homicide Steed. This Friday skipper, we got one
• 25:13
  Speaker 5: for you. I've got one for you. Hmmm, missus Kessel,
• 25:16
  Speaker 5: she's been five.
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: Missus Kessel was unharmed. She had no idea where she
• 25:23
  Speaker 4: had been or why she had been suddenly released. All
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: additional information which she could furnish on the suspect was
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: immediately relayed to the entire state in an APB. Two
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: hours later, at a neighborhood garage, Thompson patronized.
• 25:34
  Speaker 5: We got his license number.
• 25:35
  Speaker 4: We ran it through DMV and found the car was
• 25:37
  Speaker 4: registered in the name of Charles Cattrell one O one
• 25:40
  Speaker 4: one five Green Oak Drive.
• 25:41
  Speaker 5: Seven PM. Yes, police officers, is Charles control here?
• 25:57
  Speaker 8: Yes, come in. I knew you'd find him. I kept
• 26:05
  Speaker 8: hoping that I knew you'd find you. Give himself up.
• 26:11
  Speaker 8: I'm his wife.
• 26:12
  Speaker 5: I talked to him.
• 26:14
  Speaker 8: There won't be any.
• 26:14
  Speaker 5: Trouble, no trouble.
• 26:16
  Speaker 8: Where is You got to understand he didn't know what
• 26:19
  Speaker 8: he was doing. We needed money.
• 26:21
  Speaker 7: He didn't know what he was doing.
• 26:23
  Speaker 5: Well to search the house, ma'am, Charlie, Charlie, don't know many.
• 26:39
  Speaker 5: Get your hands behind your head.
• 26:40
  Speaker 4: I don't have a gun, all right, Ben, behind your Backlie.
• 26:48
  Speaker 13: You didn't know what you were doing.
• 26:50
  Speaker 6: Jo.
• 26:51
  Speaker 5: We needed the money. I thought it would work. What
• 26:53
  Speaker 5: I do wrong? Come on?
• 26:55
  Speaker 6: Should have worked? I plan it all out? Where did
• 26:58
  Speaker 6: I make a mistake when you thought of it? The
• 27:08
  Speaker 6: story you've just heard was true, only the names were
• 27:12
  Speaker 6: changed or protect the innocent.
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: On August, second trial was held in Superior Court Department
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: eighty six, City and County of Los Angeles, State of California.
• 27:20
  Speaker 5: In a moment the.
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: Results of that trial, Charles Catrill was tried and convicted
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: of kidnapping and received the sentence as prescribed by law.
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: He is now serving his term in the state penitentiary.
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: You have just heard Dragnet, a series of authentic cases
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: from official files. Technical advice for Dragnet comes from the
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: Office of Chief of Police W. A. Wharton, Los Angeles
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: Police Department.
• 28:00
  Speaker 5: Next here Sarah Berner and Sarah's Private Caper on NBC.
• 28:20
  Speaker 16: This is Andrew Ryans with OTR Westerns dot Com, where
• 28:23
  Speaker 16: we stream live old time radio Westerns twenty four hours
• 28:26
  Speaker 16: a day, seven days a week with a special twist.
• 28:29
  Speaker 16: You select the tracks that get to be played. We've
• 28:33
  Speaker 16: got a thousand different episodes from shows like Gunsmoke, Tales
• 28:36
  Speaker 16: of the Texas Rangers, Escape, Genautry, and many more. Come
• 28:41
  Speaker 16: check us out at OTR Westerns dot com slash Live Again.
• 28:45
  Speaker 16: That's OTR Westerns dot Com slash Live. You're listening to
• 28:49
  Speaker 16: the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio with Adam Graham
• 28:52
  Speaker 16: and now let's get back into the show.
• 28:59
  Speaker 5: Welcome.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: Well, this is a story that's kind of a contrast
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: to earlier kidnapping stories. We get to see the process
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: with cooperation with the police and how they work here.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: And I do like one thing I do like with
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: Dragnet and particularly this character's story is in a lot
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: of series, there's a stalkway that characters act, you know,
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: if you have a situation where a husband is missing
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: or dead, the wife is either cold or just all
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: over the place weeping. I think with Dragnet there are
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: other ways that really work great with characterization and make
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: people feel real. And certainly the way that the satyr
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: was used here was really effective just to show this
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: husband's real state of distress in dealing with this horrific situation.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: Other than that, a fairly basic case. But we do
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: have some listener comments and feedback. This one comes from
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: Lou who says, I'm a longtime fan in American living
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: in Sydney in probably a few years behind George Ragnet
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: podcast Timeline. Don't know if you're still doing the podcast,
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: but your coverage of that particular show, for both the
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: radio and TV we're honestly an equivalent of taking a
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: college class on the subject. Your personal interest and wealth
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: of information and are amazing. And I've been listening to
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: old time radio for a long time, but what you
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: brought to the game was education, inside research and a
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: wealth of information that would otherwise be impossible to find.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you'll ever see this email, but
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: I thought i'd toss it into the Internet like a
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: message in the bottle. I just wanted to offer a
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: word of thanks, not just for dragging it and the
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: university level education about everything to do with Jack Webb,
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: but your hard work and helping people across several generations
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: to understand old time radio in general. At the end
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: of the day, it's time travel at its heart. Look
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: while I'm here, I did, and I have a chance
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: to ask a true professor or a question. Do you
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: remember the original house address for Joe Friday? And the
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: earliest address that I was able to dig up for
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: Joe Friday was in the episode Tom LaVall when he
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: had to testify regarding his Laval's suicide in the truck
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: hijacker case, and the address given was forty six fifty
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: six call Us Avenue. If anyone's aware of an earlier address,
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: I mean now, but I think forty six fifty six
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: Collis Avenue would be the address. During the early days,
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: his mom was a charming element to the Joe Friday character,
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: but as the show matured, he matured and his character
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: became considerably hard and his real cops do. And he
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: was wondering, when are you aware of any episode where
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: Joe Friday transitioned from living with his mom to living
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: as a bachelor. The answer is no, I'm not aware.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: It was basically a decision that they stopped doing it
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: over radio when they basically found out that, unfortunately, it
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: was just not going to work over television. I mean,
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: over radio is pretty easy for a woman her twenties
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: to play Joe Friday's mother, but when you get onto
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: television it becomes considerably harder. I mean, you can add
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: makeup and close and go through a rigamarole, but you know,
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty two fifty three, how convincing it's going
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: to be is going to be a bit of a
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: variable factor, and for characters kind of on and off,
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: it just made sense for them to not include mother.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: So that goes away in the early part of the fifties,
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: but there's no specific transition or acknowledgement that anything's changed.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: Oftentimes you would have situations where, you know, even whole
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: characters would disappear from a series and there would never
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: be an acknowledgment that they were there. So yes, even
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: before Happy Days, there was the Chuck Cunningham syndrome. Thanks
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: so much for your good question, LOEU, and I appreciate
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: you listening to the show out there in Sydney. That
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: will do it for today. If you do have a comment,
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: send it to me Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net,
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives, and become one
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: of our friends on Facebook, Facebook, dot com, slash Radiodetectives
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: From Boise, Idaho. This is your host, Adam Grahamson and
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: off