Latest / The Great Detectives Present Dragnet (Old Time Radio) / Dragnet: The Big Family (EP4640)
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
- 0:38Speaker 1: going to get into this week's episode of Dragnet. If
- 0:42Speaker 1: you are enjoying the podcast, please follow us using your
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- 0:59Speaker 1: Great Detective dot net. You can also send along a
- 1:03Speaker 1: one com donation using the zell app to box thirteen
- 1:07Speaker 1: at Great Detectives dot net. And I want to thank
- 1:10Speaker 1: Scott for supporting the podcast that way. Thank you so much, Scott.
- 1:15Speaker 1: And now from December twenty eighth, nineteen fifty, here is
- 1:19Speaker 1: the Big Family.
- 1:30Speaker 2: The story you are about to hear is true, only
- 1:33Speaker 2: the names have been changed to protect the innocent. You're
- 1:44Speaker 2: a detective sergeant. Here as signed the missing person's detail.
- 1:49Speaker 2: A wealthy businessman in your city drops from sight. There's
- 1:53Speaker 2: no trace of him, there's no apparent.
- 1:55Speaker 3: Reason for his disappearance. Your job find him.
- 2:09Speaker 4: Dragnet the documented drama of an actual crime for the
- 2:13Speaker 4: next thirty minutes in cooperation with the Los Angeles Police Department.
- 2:17Speaker 4: You will travel step by step on the side of
- 2:19Speaker 4: the law through an actual case transcribed from official police olence,
- 2:23Speaker 4: from beginning to end, from crime to punishment. Dragnet is
- 2:27Speaker 4: the story of your police force in action.
- 2:33Speaker 3: It was Saturday, February sixth, was foggy in Los Angeles.
- 2:36Speaker 3: We're working the day watch out of missing person's. My
- 2:39Speaker 3: partner's Ben Romero. The boss is Sad Brown, Chief of Detectives.
- 2:42Speaker 3: My name is Friday. I was on the way back
- 2:45Speaker 3: from communications and it was eight fifteen am when I
- 2:47Speaker 3: got your room sixty seven a missing persons Hello, Joe, Oh, hi, advance, Hey,
- 2:55Speaker 3: coming on a Jared case. Oh nothing, that's a dead
- 2:57Speaker 3: end so far. Yeah, it's a tough one, Joe. Yeah. Man,
- 3:02Speaker 3: just got a call from Evan's Harbor Division. They found
- 3:05Speaker 3: Jared's car where parked at the end of Peer six
- 3:07Speaker 3: Abandon found about seven o'clock this morning. You know. They
- 3:10Speaker 3: checked the car over. They found Jarrett's coat in the
- 3:13Speaker 3: front seat, letter in the bucket, suicide note. John Keith
- 3:19Speaker 3: Jarrett was a prominent and prosperous man. He was a
- 3:21Speaker 3: well known civic figure and socialite. As a young man.
- 3:24Speaker 3: He'd inherited a moderately successful business from his father and
- 3:27Speaker 3: over a period of twenty years, built it into a
- 3:29Speaker 3: million dollar concern. Was apparently happily married to an attractive woman,
- 3:34Speaker 3: and he was the father of two grown children, a son, Keith,
- 3:37Speaker 3: aged twenty six, and a daughter, Evelyn, age twenty three.
- 3:41Speaker 3: According to his friends, business associates, employees, and advisors, there
- 3:45Speaker 3: was no logical reason for Jared taking his own life.
- 3:48Speaker 3: The letter found in the abandoned car on Peer six
- 3:51Speaker 3: was brought downtown and the handwriting checked and massed perfectly
- 3:54Speaker 3: with the other specimens of Jared's writing. There was no
- 3:57Speaker 3: sign of the gun which Jarrett was supposed to have carried.
- 4:00Speaker 3: Nine five am, Ben and I drove down to San Pedro,
- 4:04Speaker 3: boarded police boat number one and joined with officers Brett
- 4:07Speaker 3: Hanby and Tredder in a two hour search of the
- 4:09Speaker 3: area around Pier six. We found nothing. Eleven forty am
- 4:14Speaker 3: the launch headed back for the dock. Perfect.
- 4:18Speaker 5: Yeah, I can't make it out.
- 4:22Speaker 3: Not a trace. Well, it might take a little time.
- 4:24Speaker 3: It's pretty fair chance at the tide swept the body
- 4:26Speaker 3: out of the area. It could still turn up. This
- 4:28Speaker 3: fuck's not helping much. Yeah, maybe I'm just on me
- 4:33Speaker 3: this morning, Joe, I sure can't buy this thing the
- 4:35Speaker 3: way it stands. I'll put in with you there. Jared
- 4:37Speaker 3: disappears Thursday night after work. His car doesn't turn up
- 4:40Speaker 3: to this morning. He made up his mind to jump
- 4:43Speaker 3: off the pier.
- 4:43Speaker 6: White.
- 4:44Speaker 3: You start to run an extra day and I ad,
- 4:46Speaker 3: I don't know how about miss Jared? What you do? Backs?
- 4:49Speaker 3: Flying in late tonight from Sacramento. We can check her
- 4:52Speaker 3: in the morning.
- 4:52Speaker 5: No, yeah, it looks like we just found in.
- 4:56Speaker 3: Yeah, I'll trime. I ought to be through checking the car.
- 4:59Speaker 3: Huh yeah, just about Yeah. These boys on p D
- 5:03Speaker 3: one short can handle this thing again again. Well, I'm
- 5:09Speaker 3: gonna call in from the phone in the dock. You
- 5:10Speaker 3: want to stand by here a minute? Okay, watch your
- 5:12Speaker 3: step by George Leprick. All right, Michigan five two one one,
- 5:33Speaker 3: please all right, grandly please, Finally, Joe Friday, did you
- 5:46Speaker 3: look over that car? Mm? Hm? Where? Oh yeah, we'll
- 5:52Speaker 3: check with you, right, thanks.
- 6:05Speaker 5: How'd they do Joe anything?
- 6:07Speaker 3: Jared's gun? The crime lab boys finally found it where
- 6:09Speaker 3: in his car? It was hidden up ondo the dashboard? Yeah,
- 6:12Speaker 3: gun has been fired. Recently two empty shells. How the
- 6:19Speaker 3: recovered gun might tie in with Jared's disappearance in the
- 6:21Speaker 3: suicide note, We had no idea. When the car was
- 6:24Speaker 3: found abandoned at the end of Peer six, the obvious
- 6:27Speaker 3: guess was that Jared had taken his life by drowning.
- 6:29Speaker 3: If that was the case, what accounted for the two
- 6:31Speaker 3: empty shells in his gun? Why was it carefully hidden
- 6:34Speaker 3: under the dashboard of the car after it was used?
- 6:37Speaker 3: Why were the only fingerprints on it those of Jared.
- 6:40Speaker 3: Together with Sergeant John Epperson, Ben and I spent the
- 6:42Speaker 3: rest of the day interviewing the friends and business associates
- 6:45Speaker 3: of the missing man. The answers were the same. Not
- 6:48Speaker 3: one of them could think of a good reason why
- 6:49Speaker 3: Jared would take his life. More than half of them
- 6:51Speaker 3: thought that he'd met with some kind of foul play.
- 6:54Speaker 3: Late that night, Missus Jared arrived back in the city.
- 6:57Speaker 3: The next morning Sunday, Ben and I drove out to
- 6:59Speaker 3: them mansion in bel Air to talk to her. She
- 7:02Speaker 3: was a pale, middle aged woman with a strong smell
- 7:04Speaker 3: of liquor on her breath.
- 7:05Speaker 7: Was just fixing these flowers? Not very good to keep
- 7:08Speaker 7: them out of water very long.
- 7:09Speaker 3: You know, just may go right ahead with it.
- 7:11Speaker 8: Wouldn't you care for some brandy or something?
- 7:13Speaker 3: No, thank you?
- 7:14Speaker 8: Coffee or something else?
- 7:15Speaker 3: No, not right now, thank you.
- 7:17Speaker 8: I think I might extend a little brandy help sometimes in.
- 7:20Speaker 5: The morning, Sergean, I'd like to have you tell me
- 7:27Speaker 5: the truth.
- 7:28Speaker 3: What do you think is happened to my husband? Well,
- 7:29Speaker 3: that's just what we're trying to find out. This is Jared.
- 7:31Speaker 3: All we have to go on is that letter that
- 7:33Speaker 3: we found in his car.
- 7:36Speaker 7: I can't believe there's anything in that. Jack and I
- 7:38Speaker 7: have been married thirty one years. He'd never take his
- 7:40Speaker 7: own life. I know him that well.
- 7:42Speaker 3: The letter was in his handwriting. Man, we've confirmed that.
- 7:45Speaker 8: That's why I say it's so confusing.
- 7:49Speaker 7: Look not a gorgeous rose, a little scarlet they come,
- 7:54Speaker 7: that's gorgeous.
- 7:57Speaker 3: Yes, ma'am. It'll be possible for us to talk to
- 8:00Speaker 3: your son and daughter, Miss Jared. It's just a routine investigation.
- 8:03Speaker 7: What'd rather not have Keith or Evelin brought into this?
- 8:07Speaker 7: If you don't mind, are you sure you wouldn't care
- 8:09Speaker 7: for some brandy?
- 8:11Speaker 3: I don't mean to sound arbitrary, man, but this case
- 8:13Speaker 3: isn't exactly trivial, and I'm afraid that your son and
- 8:16Speaker 3: daughter will have to be brought into it sooner or later. Oh, well,
- 8:19Speaker 3: can't be hoped.
- 8:19Speaker 8: I guess I feel like I'll give you their addresses.
- 8:22Speaker 7: Keith lives in Hollywood and my daughter Evelyn has an
- 8:24Speaker 7: apartment near Malibu.
- 8:26Speaker 8: He's the one married, both single now Evelyn's been divorced.
- 8:31Speaker 3: Any trouble between you and your husband, I mean, any
- 8:33Speaker 3: recent arguments? Is Jef not recent?
- 8:39Speaker 8: No, we didn't get along too well, that's all.
- 8:41Speaker 3: When you don't think any family trouble could account for
- 8:43Speaker 3: mister Jared's disappearance, I don't think so.
- 8:46Speaker 7: Jack and I rarely argued. We didn't get along, that's all.
- 8:49Speaker 7: It was no worse last week than it was ten
- 8:51Speaker 7: years ago.
- 8:52Speaker 3: Oh, he has his work.
- 8:55Speaker 8: I have my interests worked out, as well as a
- 8:58Speaker 8: lot of marriages.
- 8:59Speaker 3: I guess i'd better get one of these flowers. No
- 9:03Speaker 3: friends intended, ma'am. But you don't seem too disturbed by
- 9:05Speaker 3: what's happened suicide note and all. Just I don't you
- 9:11Speaker 3: don't think this marriage trouble that you mentioned a little
- 9:13Speaker 3: while ago could lead to your husband's suicide.
- 9:15Speaker 8: I didn't mean that much to Jack, good or bad.
- 9:18Speaker 8: His family never meant.
- 9:19Speaker 3: That much to him.
- 9:20Speaker 7: Huh, there's always the company, business making money.
- 9:24Speaker 3: We never worked that.
- 9:28Speaker 8: Jack didn't care about having a real family.
- 9:30Speaker 3: It didn't mean that much to him.
- 9:31Speaker 8: He wrecked everything I ever wanted, bore you with a story.
- 9:36Speaker 3: Do you know of any business troubles that might have
- 9:38Speaker 3: upset him?
- 9:39Speaker 9: No?
- 9:40Speaker 7: Jack never discussed business with me. He had his own interests.
- 9:43Speaker 7: The children had their own interests. Yes, I have mine, ma'am.
- 9:49Speaker 8: I drink, Sergeant, it's something to do.
- 9:53Speaker 7: I drink every day in the week. I drink quite
- 9:56Speaker 7: a bit. It's only been since the children left.
- 10:00Speaker 3: Blame them.
- 10:01Speaker 7: Jack didn't care. I guess I didn't care myself anymore.
- 10:05Speaker 7: We never were a family.
- 10:06Speaker 3: Do you know if your husband's seen your son or
- 10:08Speaker 3: daughter recently? He never visits him.
- 10:10Speaker 8: He never had anything in common with him.
- 10:13Speaker 3: You still don't think that this trouble has any connection
- 10:15Speaker 3: with what might have happened to mister Jared.
- 10:17Speaker 8: Maybe I don't think so.
- 10:20Speaker 3: Doesn't seem to matter that much to me. How do
- 10:22Speaker 3: you mean it doesn't matter, Sergeant? I don't hate Jack,
- 10:26Speaker 3: I don't love him.
- 10:27Speaker 8: I just don't care, that's all.
- 10:34Speaker 3: Before we left the bel Air mansion, we got the
- 10:36Speaker 3: addresses of the son and daughter and checked over mister
- 10:39Speaker 3: Jared's room No Leeds. One PM, Ben and I drove
- 10:42Speaker 3: down a Malibu to interview the daughter, Evelyn Jared. She
- 10:45Speaker 3: lived in a small modernistic cottage bordering on the beach.
- 10:48Speaker 3: She was attractive and well dressed. The age of twenty three,
- 10:52Speaker 3: she'd been twice married and twice divorced. She sat on
- 10:55Speaker 3: the sofa filing her fingernails while we talked to her.
- 11:00Speaker 10: I don't mean to be rude, Sergeant. I have a
- 11:02Speaker 10: date at two thirty. I don't want to be late.
- 11:05Speaker 5: We'll try to make it as quick as possible. Miss Jared.
- 11:07Speaker 5: We talked to your mother this morning.
- 11:09Speaker 3: She told us you haven't seen too much of your
- 11:11Speaker 3: father the last two years.
- 11:12Speaker 10: Yes, that's right. None of us were ever really close
- 11:15Speaker 10: to him.
- 11:15Speaker 3: When's the last time that you saw your father, miss Jared.
- 11:18Speaker 10: Well, up until last Thursday night, I hadn't seen him
- 11:21Speaker 10: for about five months.
- 11:21Speaker 3: I guess, well, you saw your father last Thursday night,
- 11:24Speaker 3: was it? Has?
- 11:25Speaker 10: He called me that afternoon, said he wanted to have
- 11:27Speaker 10: dinner with me and.
- 11:28Speaker 3: Brother, Keith. Did you have dinner with him?
- 11:30Speaker 10: Yes, a little Spanish place on No Rose. Keith was
- 11:34Speaker 10: late as usual.
- 11:35Speaker 3: Wasn't that pretty unusual for your father, having you and
- 11:37Speaker 3: your brother get together with him for dinner.
- 11:39Speaker 10: It didn't happen very often. Mother probably told you about that.
- 11:43Speaker 3: Well, how did he seem that night? Did you notice
- 11:45Speaker 3: anything unusual about him?
- 11:47Speaker 9: Oh?
- 11:47Speaker 10: He was pretty much the same as always. Asked Keith
- 11:50Speaker 10: and me how we were getting along, if we needed
- 11:52Speaker 10: any money.
- 11:52Speaker 5: He didn't mention anything about leaving the city, going on
- 11:55Speaker 5: a trip. Maybe, no, we didn't.
- 11:58Speaker 10: We had dinner, a few drinks.
- 11:59Speaker 3: I left. What time was that, miss Jack?
- 12:02Speaker 10: Well after midnight? I say, Well, Keith and my father
- 12:07Speaker 10: stayed on. They said they were going to have a
- 12:08Speaker 10: few more drinks. Can't you say, Red?
- 12:13Speaker 3: No? Thank you very enough? Here you are, I thank you.
- 12:20Speaker 5: How was your father when you left? Missy had in
- 12:22Speaker 5: a pretty good mood.
- 12:23Speaker 3: Oh.
- 12:24Speaker 10: He and Keith were arguing as usual after a few drinks.
- 12:27Speaker 10: He always argue, anything's serious.
- 12:29Speaker 3: I don't know.
- 12:30Speaker 10: Keith had some debts. He wanted Dad to pay them off.
- 12:33Speaker 10: There's one thing I'd like to ask you, Sergeant. Yeah,
- 12:36Speaker 10: I read the story in the paper. That gun you
- 12:38Speaker 10: found in my father's car? Was it a nickel plated
- 12:41Speaker 10: revolver of thirty two? Yes, that's right, there were two
- 12:43Speaker 10: shells fired. Funny Dad hasn't had that gun for a year.
- 12:48Speaker 10: The reason I know is because after my divorce I
- 12:50Speaker 10: moved into this place alone. I thought it'd be a
- 12:52Speaker 10: good idea to have a gun around, so I asked
- 12:54Speaker 10: my father for his We told me he'd given it
- 12:57Speaker 10: away already, he didn't have any more use for it.
- 13:00Speaker 3: Would he give it to to?
- 13:00Speaker 10: You know? Told me give it to my brother Keith.
- 13:03Speaker 10: That was almost a year ago. Must be a mistake
- 13:07Speaker 10: Keith had the gun. How could they find it in
- 13:09Speaker 10: my father's car?
- 13:10Speaker 3: Maybe Keith can tell us. As soon as we left
- 13:17Speaker 3: Evely and Jared, we drove to a public phone booth
- 13:19Speaker 3: and Ben put in a call to the Greencastle Apartments
- 13:21Speaker 3: in Beverly Hills, where Keith Jared was living. There was
- 13:24Speaker 3: no answer. Ben called a manager of the apartment.
- 13:26Speaker 5: Yes, sir, how's eh?
- 13:29Speaker 11: When did you say?
- 13:31Speaker 5: I said, all right, thank you, Brian, and we got something.
- 13:36Speaker 3: What's that? Jared's son doesn't live there anymore? Manager says
- 13:38Speaker 3: he moved in a hurry. Yeah, well, Thursday night.
- 13:52Speaker 4: You are listening to drag net authentic stories of your
- 13:55Speaker 4: police force and action.
- 14:06Speaker 3: Sunday, February seventh, four pm, Ben and I drove to
- 14:09Speaker 3: the apartment vacated by Keith Jarrett and checked it over.
- 14:12Speaker 3: No leads. We called Missus Jarrett and her daughter Evelyn.
- 14:15Speaker 3: They had no idea of Keith's whereabouts. Missus Jarrett suggested
- 14:19Speaker 3: that we call a fashionable tennis club out in Hollywood,
- 14:21Speaker 3: which her son belonged. There. They told us that Keith
- 14:24Speaker 3: Jarrett was scheduled to play in a tournament match on
- 14:27Speaker 3: their courts the following morning, Monday, February eighth, ten thirty am.
- 14:31Speaker 3: We checked in at the tennis club. What Joel. I
- 14:42Speaker 3: talked to the mount at the desk. Yeah, he says,
- 14:44Speaker 3: Keith Jarret's run here some place. He's having a boy
- 14:46Speaker 3: paging and send him over to it. Okay, And if
- 14:49Speaker 3: this is where he moved after he left the apartment.
- 14:51Speaker 11: No, I talked to the desk.
- 14:53Speaker 5: They don't have living quarters.
- 14:54Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm not sure of beautiful stretch a long and yeah,
- 14:58Speaker 3: I wonder if they have any trouble with go.
- 15:03Speaker 5: Nice job, my.
- 15:05Speaker 3: NaN's Jarrett you're a gentleman looking for me. Oh yeah,
- 15:08Speaker 3: police officers, Jared, we'd like to talk to you a
- 15:09Speaker 3: few minutes if you don't like, oh.
- 15:11Speaker 11: Not at all.
- 15:13Speaker 3: A match coming up? Yeah, I got time. What can
- 15:16Speaker 3: I do for it? It's about your father, Jared. We've
- 15:18Speaker 3: been assigned to the case. Thought you might be able
- 15:20Speaker 3: to help us out. Oh yeah, i'd tell you anything
- 15:22Speaker 3: I know. Figure SUICIGNA, Well, we're not quite sure. We
- 15:25Speaker 3: talked to your sister. We understand that she had dinner
- 15:27Speaker 3: with her and your father last Thursday night. Yeah, I did.
- 15:30Speaker 12: Kind of unusual. We haven't spent much time together the
- 15:32Speaker 12: last couple of years. My father and I didn't get
- 15:34Speaker 12: along too well.
- 15:35Speaker 3: How he seems to you? Thursday night? All right?
- 15:37Speaker 12: Yeah, pretty much Sam. As always, we ate, had a
- 15:40Speaker 12: few drinks and it was about the size of it.
- 15:41Speaker 5: What time did you leave the last don't you remember?
- 15:44Speaker 3: Oh?
- 15:44Speaker 12: One, one thirty? I guess your father leave with you. Yeah,
- 15:47Speaker 12: that's right. We drove to my place for night camp,
- 15:49Speaker 12: talked a little and then he left. What'd you talk about?
- 15:52Speaker 12: You recall same old thing? Try to argue me there
- 15:55Speaker 12: taking a job with a company. He's been trying to
- 15:57Speaker 12: sell me out for years.
- 15:58Speaker 3: I never could see it. So what do you do now? Jack? Tennis?
- 16:02Speaker 3: How's that? I played tennis all of the tournaments. I
- 16:06Speaker 3: like it pretty well. My father never could see it.
- 16:08Speaker 3: He calls his tennis bumps. I see when you don't
- 16:11Speaker 3: have a regular job that you work out. No, that's
- 16:14Speaker 3: what we always argue about. I like tennis, though.
- 16:18Speaker 12: Begure, if you've got the money and you don't have
- 16:20Speaker 12: to work, you might as well be doing something you like.
- 16:23Speaker 3: Are you foundly scare for stick of gum? No? Thank you? No,
- 16:26Speaker 3: excuse me.
- 16:30Speaker 12: You know I've been doing pretty well since our shrinks
- 16:34Speaker 12: in my background. I'm shooting fourth in this tournament.
- 16:38Speaker 3: That's so pretty good.
- 16:41Speaker 12: Life falling all a lot of fresh air. I stud
- 16:44Speaker 12: and girls around ben't passed people. You still live in town, Jack?
- 16:48Speaker 12: My friend and I ran a place north. How they
- 16:50Speaker 12: would have just moved there? When'd you move sometime last week?
- 16:53Speaker 3: Why?
- 16:54Speaker 5: Thursday night?
- 16:55Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right, Thursday night. That's supposed to mean something.
- 16:58Speaker 3: You left pretty much in a hurry, and I guess so. Yeah,
- 17:01Speaker 3: mind telling us? Why?
- 17:03Speaker 13: Look, let's go back in the Louns. Okay, a little
- 17:14Speaker 13: more privacy. You know you're just advertising.
- 17:16Speaker 3: What's that? I got quite a few bills around town
- 17:19Speaker 3: that he's paying. Try to get my father to cover him.
- 17:22Speaker 12: When I saw him Thursday nine, he turned me down,
- 17:24Speaker 12: So I figured the best thing to.
- 17:25Speaker 3: Do is move. I'd lose some of the bill collectors
- 17:29Speaker 3: for a while. Anyway, do you usually notify your family
- 17:32Speaker 3: when you move. We're im gonna let him know. I
- 17:33Speaker 3: haven't gotten around to it yet.
- 17:36Speaker 11: I don't think I get it.
- 17:37Speaker 3: All these questions just routines. Here. We understand that your
- 17:40Speaker 3: father gave you a gun about a year ago, thirty
- 17:42Speaker 3: two revolver Nickel player. No, that's right.
- 17:44Speaker 5: Well, if you had the gun out come, it was
- 17:45Speaker 5: fun in your father's car.
- 17:47Speaker 3: Because he asked me for it back. What must have
- 17:49Speaker 3: been months six weeks ago. You say why you wanted
- 17:52Speaker 3: it back? No, I didn't ask him.
- 17:54Speaker 12: I dropped it off one day and when I was
- 17:56Speaker 12: going by his office. You can check with his secretary,
- 17:58Speaker 12: mister Butler. Jerry follows, if you don't mind, I'm being
- 18:01Speaker 12: a run. I got that doubles match coming.
- 18:03Speaker 3: Well, just one more questions, Jared, can you think of
- 18:05Speaker 3: a good reason why your father want to take his
- 18:07Speaker 3: own life? Just one, Yeah, you met my mother. During
- 18:15Speaker 3: the next three weeks, besides checking on dozens of other
- 18:18Speaker 3: missing persons calls, we continued pushing the search for John
- 18:21Speaker 3: Keith Jarrett. One by one, we eliminated the possibilities. Jared's
- 18:25Speaker 3: personal physician told us that after a recent examination, he
- 18:28Speaker 3: considered his patient to be in sound physical and mental health.
- 18:31Speaker 3: We rechecked Jared's business rating. His company was an excellent
- 18:35Speaker 3: financial condition. His bank statements were gone over. Nothing showed there.
- 18:39Speaker 3: We talked to Jared's lawyer. He could think of nothing
- 18:41Speaker 3: to account for his class disappearance or a possible suicide.
- 18:45Speaker 3: We went back and retraced our steps outside of the
- 18:48Speaker 3: gun found in Jarrett's car, which tied in with nothing.
- 18:50Speaker 3: There was no hint of foul play involved. Two months
- 18:53Speaker 3: went by, we kept pressing the search. We got nowhere. Thursday,
- 18:56Speaker 3: April eleventh, I had lunch at the Federal Cafe and
- 18:59Speaker 3: then I took our car eighty k to the police
- 19:01Speaker 3: garage for servicing. One fifteen PM. I checked back in
- 19:05Speaker 3: at the office. Joe Hi got something, Yeah, Jared case,
- 19:14Speaker 3: This kickback just came through from Washington. Let me see
- 19:16Speaker 3: look here here Walter John Mitchell, Port Santa Thomas. Yeah
- 19:23Speaker 3: we've been there, a little fishing town North sant Oh yeah,
- 19:26Speaker 3: sure sure. Walter Mitchell, small boat operator, applied for a
- 19:30Speaker 3: coast Guard pass March eighteen. Let me see checked the
- 19:33Speaker 3: fingerprints on Mitchell's application found to be the same as
- 19:37Speaker 3: fingerprints on missing Prisons board. And well how about that?
- 19:40Speaker 5: Yes, we made it John Jarrett Walter Mitchell, same man.
- 19:48Speaker 3: Two pm then and I checked out of the office,
- 19:50Speaker 3: got in the car and drove down the coast to
- 19:52Speaker 3: Port Santa Tomas, a small fishing town with a population
- 19:55Speaker 3: of two hundred and fifty. On his application for a
- 19:58Speaker 3: coast Guard pass, a man who signed himself Walterer John Mitchell,
- 20:02Speaker 3: listened to his address as Peer two berth number eleven.
- 20:06Speaker 3: When we checked there, the berth was empty. We talked
- 20:08Speaker 3: to one of the villagers fishing from the pier. He
- 20:10Speaker 3: pointed to a fishing craft lying halfway out in the
- 20:13Speaker 3: bay and identified it as the Blanche Ass Mitchell's boat.
- 20:16Speaker 3: He said he was having engine trouble. A man told
- 20:18Speaker 3: us that he had a small boat that he rent
- 20:20Speaker 3: out for two dollars. We took him up on it.
- 20:28Speaker 5: Shure hot down here. Thank god get rid of this coat.
- 20:32Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a good idea. Yeah, I'll give you a
- 20:35Speaker 3: hand there.
- 20:37Speaker 5: Oh, I'm sure a long pull.
- 20:45Speaker 3: We've me to take over for a while.
- 20:46Speaker 5: You. We're almost there now, yeah, how easy.
- 20:54Speaker 3: Now we're coming alongside here?
- 20:56Speaker 11: All right, how don't I do it?
- 21:03Speaker 5: Mister Mitchell?
- 21:05Speaker 3: Walter Mitchell? Yeah, I mean what the police officer, sir like,
- 21:10Speaker 3: talk to you if.
- 21:11Speaker 14: You have a minute.
- 21:11Speaker 3: Oh all right, I'm a board.
- 21:14Speaker 10: Oh that's study there.
- 21:17Speaker 9: All right, I got it, go ahead, bench, all right,
- 21:22Speaker 9: you better grab all my hand.
- 21:23Speaker 3: Yeah, all right, thank you, High up and climb a board. Yes, sir,
- 21:30Speaker 3: thank you for it.
- 21:33Speaker 5: Thank you. My name is Romarro said, this is my
- 21:37Speaker 5: partner talking Friday.
- 21:38Speaker 6: How do you know you do?
- 21:39Speaker 11: Sit here?
- 21:40Speaker 9: We are if you sit on that hat cover if
- 21:42Speaker 9: you like? Clean scrubbed it down myself this morning.
- 21:45Speaker 3: Nice, Thank you sir.
- 21:47Speaker 11: Beautiful day, isn't it? Nice? Warm sun?
- 21:49Speaker 3: Look at that water as clear as crystal? Good life
- 21:52Speaker 3: out here obviously. Yes, I guess you have a pretty
- 21:55Speaker 3: good hunch while we're here.
- 21:56Speaker 11: Well, I don't know like to have you tell me
- 21:59Speaker 11: Your real.
- 21:59Speaker 3: Name's jer right, isn't it John? Keith? Jared?
- 22:01Speaker 9: Yeah, I thought, so I've been halfway expecting it. Tell me,
- 22:04Speaker 9: how do you find it?
- 22:05Speaker 3: Your application for a post guard past check the fingerprint
- 22:08Speaker 3: on it?
- 22:08Speaker 11: Well, yeah, but you didn't have anything to compare them with,
- 22:11Speaker 11: did you when.
- 22:11Speaker 5: You applied for that permit to carrier gun? We got
- 22:14Speaker 5: a set of your prints.
- 22:15Speaker 3: They went out with a missing person's bulleting on you.
- 22:17Speaker 11: Oh yeah, I forgot.
- 22:18Speaker 5: Washington match up the print and sent the information along that.
- 22:21Speaker 9: Yeah, it's all right, shurehanded to you, fellas. I thought
- 22:24Speaker 9: I was pretty smart covering up.
- 22:26Speaker 3: Well, how about it, mister Jared, I mean taking off
- 22:29Speaker 3: like you did. Don't you figure that maybe have a
- 22:30Speaker 3: little explaining to do? Yeah, imagine I do smoke. Oh
- 22:34Speaker 3: thank you, Yes, Suir, I like one. I got to
- 22:36Speaker 3: manage it here.
- 22:39Speaker 5: Well, no need to tell you.
- 22:40Speaker 9: You've got a lot of people worrying on you. I
- 22:42Speaker 9: don't think there's too many. My secretary may be right. Well, yes, sir, Look,
- 22:46Speaker 9: I realize you men know your business. I know I
- 22:49Speaker 9: don't have to remind you, but I just like to
- 22:51Speaker 9: make it clear. What's that I know a little bit
- 22:53Speaker 9: of the law, and I want you to understand this.
- 22:55Speaker 9: If you should tell anyone where I am. I'd consider
- 22:58Speaker 9: it an invasion of my personal Okay, anyway you want it.
- 23:02Speaker 9: Maybe you can't figure out my disappearing the way I did,
- 23:05Speaker 9: but I think you know that legally I've done nothing more.
- 23:09Speaker 9: I've respected the rights of the law. Now I want
- 23:11Speaker 9: the law to respect my right.
- 23:13Speaker 3: Yes, sir, it's friend with us, Mister Jack is just
- 23:15Speaker 3: one thing. We've chased down quite a few blind alleys
- 23:18Speaker 3: on this thing. That all suicide. That you stayed the
- 23:21Speaker 3: gun the letter. Do you think that maybe that earns
- 23:23Speaker 3: us an explanation.
- 23:24Speaker 9: I'm sorry about the legwork. Believe me, you can hear
- 23:27Speaker 9: the story if you want a short version alone, which.
- 23:30Speaker 5: One anyway you wanted? Tenant?
- 23:32Speaker 11: Uh, you met my family having Yeah? We have my
- 23:35Speaker 11: wife yes, my son.
- 23:36Speaker 3: Keith, yeah, my daughter yes.
- 23:38Speaker 11: And you know what they're like.
- 23:40Speaker 9: My wife spent an alcoholic for eight years. Might be polite.
- 23:43Speaker 9: She's a drummer. My son's a tennis bum. There's no
- 23:46Speaker 9: other word for that. My daughter, yes, you know it
- 23:49Speaker 9: as well as I do. Two divorces, different boyfriend every week.
- 23:52Speaker 9: You might as well be walking the street. I work
- 23:55Speaker 9: hard for my family, Sergeant. I was proud of them
- 23:58Speaker 9: once what would you do they turned out the way
- 24:01Speaker 9: they had.
- 24:01Speaker 3: I don't think I could say, mister Jared, I don't
- 24:03Speaker 3: know your family that well.
- 24:04Speaker 9: It's a good reason you don't size. And I paid
- 24:06Speaker 9: a lot of money to keep them off the front page.
- 24:09Speaker 9: One jam after another scandal, ten years of.
- 24:12Speaker 11: Them covering up for them.
- 24:14Speaker 3: I got tired. It did tire.
- 24:17Speaker 9: Maybe I'm just kidding old you men care for a
- 24:20Speaker 9: cobal a beer. No, well, there's nothing more to tell, officers.
- 24:25Speaker 9: I worked most of my life for my family. I've
- 24:27Speaker 9: had three vacations in twenty years. I tried to do
- 24:30Speaker 9: everything I could for them. They're riding apart, SiGe and
- 24:33Speaker 9: all three of them. I didn't want to stand around
- 24:36Speaker 9: and watch them rut. That's why I left. I see,
- 24:40Speaker 9: they each have their own trust fund. They'll be taken
- 24:43Speaker 9: care of.
- 24:44Speaker 3: Well. I guess it's none of my business, mister jud
- 24:46Speaker 3: But do you think that you might have been to blame?
- 24:48Speaker 3: Maybe your children?
- 24:49Speaker 11: I mean, I don't know.
- 24:51Speaker 9: Maybe if I made the mistakes, I guess I'll pay
- 24:54Speaker 9: for them. It's not much fun changing your life when
- 24:57Speaker 9: you're fifty two years old. It's lonely, sometimes pretty lonely.
- 25:03Speaker 3: What are you gonna do now?
- 25:04Speaker 11: You know you sail around?
- 25:06Speaker 9: I guess take the blanchest down to Mexico, all around,
- 25:09Speaker 9: do some fishing.
- 25:11Speaker 3: It's lonely sometimes I'll get used to it.
- 25:14Speaker 11: Say you men wouldn't like to stay on board for dinner,
- 25:17Speaker 11: would you? I'm even learning to cook?
- 25:19Speaker 5: No, thank you, miss Jay.
- 25:21Speaker 3: I guess we better start getting back on, gentle Yeah, yes,
- 25:24Speaker 3: we had.
- 25:25Speaker 9: Well, thanks very much for dropping by office. Sorry about
- 25:29Speaker 9: that extra legwork I caused you for here. What's this
- 25:33Speaker 9: two dollars for the rent of the rowboat? Oh no,
- 25:36Speaker 9: that's right, you go on take it. I can afford.
- 25:38Speaker 3: That's all right. Glad to have met you, mister jarret Or.
- 25:41Speaker 3: Good luck to you same, do you Friday? Goodbye? Watch
- 25:45Speaker 3: your step then, yes, yeah, we got it all righty okay, Joe, come.
- 25:52Speaker 9: Ahead, all right, past off, pi'll line boy.
- 25:55Speaker 3: Okay, thanks, mister Mitchell, goodbye, good bye, good luck, gentlemen.
- 26:00Speaker 3: Luck to you, nice fellow. That mister Mitchell home. Yeah
- 26:14Speaker 3: strange Joe, I don't know. He seems pretty happy. Must
- 26:19Speaker 3: have been pretty rough on him. Yeah, what's it prove?
- 26:24Speaker 3: It's no crime to get lost?
- 26:33Speaker 2: The story you have just heard was true, only the
- 26:37Speaker 2: names were changed to protect the innocent.
- 26:40Speaker 4: On April nineteenth, the final report was filed by officers
- 26:43Speaker 4: investigating the disappearance of John Keith Jarrett in a moment.
- 26:46Speaker 3: The results of that report now here is our star
- 26:49Speaker 3: Jack Webb, thank you, Happy New Year from Dragnet.
- 27:03Speaker 4: After a complete investigation by officers assigned to the case,
- 27:06Speaker 4: it was found that John Keith Jarrett had acted within
- 27:09Speaker 4: his rights legally, for the officers to disclose his whereabouts
- 27:14Speaker 4: would have constituted an invasion of privacy. Three years ago,
- 27:18Speaker 4: unknown to his family of friends, John Jarrett died and
- 27:22Speaker 4: was buried anonymously. You have just heard Dragnet, a series
- 27:40Speaker 4: of authentic cases from official files. Technical advice for Dragnet
- 27:44Speaker 4: comes from the Office of Chief of Police W. H. Parker,
- 27:48Speaker 4: Los Angeles Police Department.
- 27:57Speaker 3: We the People's next More Good Time NBC.
- 28:10Speaker 1: Welcome back. A fascinating mystery with a lot of surprises.
- 28:16Speaker 1: And with the gun, you thought there might have been
- 28:19Speaker 1: an indication the case was going towards the Sun being guilty,
- 28:23Speaker 1: and that fizzles out and the case ends up going
- 28:27Speaker 1: another direction. And one thing I like about Dragnet is
- 28:32Speaker 1: that they occasionally acknowledge the reality that policemen don't necessarily
- 28:38Speaker 1: just stick with one case securely. On something like a
- 28:41Speaker 1: missing person's case, or if you don't find the person
- 28:45Speaker 1: you're looking for right away, the trail can go cold
- 28:50Speaker 1: rather quickly. And in a case like that where you
- 28:53Speaker 1: run out of leads, you take steps, you send out alerts,
- 28:58Speaker 1: you forward along information to other agencies, and then you
- 29:03Speaker 1: focus on other cases that may be more pressing or
- 29:08Speaker 1: have more leads, and you'll be alert man you work
- 29:12Speaker 1: on other things, and so Dragonet portrays that detectives may
- 29:16Speaker 1: have more than one active case at once, which you
- 29:19Speaker 1: often wouldn't think to or watching other detective programs of
- 29:24Speaker 1: the time. Now, obviously there are other divisions where they're
- 29:27Speaker 1: going to be more focused on the same case, particularly
- 29:31Speaker 1: when you're dealing with a string of crimes that are
- 29:35Speaker 1: being committed regularly and you're on that case, that's going
- 29:40Speaker 1: to take up a lot more of your time and
- 29:42Speaker 1: to probably be focused more on that and for longer.
- 29:46Speaker 1: But in this case, the guy disappeared once, he's not
- 29:49Speaker 1: going to disappear again, and so they work on other things.
- 29:53Speaker 1: I do think he got a little bit too cute
- 29:56Speaker 1: with his setup where he had the car in the river,
- 30:01Speaker 1: and he also had the gun with shells missing, and
- 30:06Speaker 1: it reminded me a little bit of the Three Tools
- 30:10Speaker 1: of Death by GK. Chesterton, where there were too many weapons,
- 30:16Speaker 1: and that left re Marra like, Okay, what is it.
- 30:18Speaker 1: We're supposed to think that he was shot or he
- 30:22Speaker 1: drowned and that may have been his biggest mistake in this. Now,
- 30:27Speaker 1: how you feel about what he did complicated matter, because
- 30:31Speaker 1: on one hand, the episode clearly showed that his family
- 30:37Speaker 1: was difficult, although I like that they showed that difficulty
- 30:41Speaker 1: in a way that wasn't that's over the top, top
- 30:46Speaker 1: of mister chameleon approach. But it was clear that they
- 30:51Speaker 1: were all very problematic people, none of them had a
- 30:54Speaker 1: desire to get better, and that they really did not
- 30:58Speaker 1: care at all about I mean, there is indifference to
- 31:02Speaker 1: your father, and then there is filing your nails while
- 31:06Speaker 1: the police talk about him either committing suicide or perhaps
- 31:09Speaker 1: being a victim of foul play. On the other hand,
- 31:12Speaker 1: there's a sense where you might feel that he's at
- 31:15Speaker 1: least partially responsible for how things turned out with his family,
- 31:21Speaker 1: and that he's running away from the wreckage. He helped create,
- 31:25Speaker 1: and there are some indications of that. If nothing else,
- 31:28Speaker 1: someone who responds to the collapse of his family by
- 31:31Speaker 1: writing them off as a bad loss and faking his
- 31:34Speaker 1: own death after years of enabling their bad behavior suggests
- 31:39Speaker 1: something about how he related to his family. However, regardless
- 31:44Speaker 1: of how you feel, the point of the episode is
- 31:47Speaker 1: that it's not the job of the police to impose
- 31:50Speaker 1: a sort of solution or a way for people to
- 31:54Speaker 1: have to respond to difficult circumstances. As he said, he
- 31:58Speaker 1: didn't violate the laws law, and that's the only way
- 32:01Speaker 1: they could compel him. Now, obviously, you can violate the
- 32:05Speaker 1: law by trying to fake your own death. We've heard
- 32:08Speaker 1: enough cases on Johnny Dollar where insurance fraud is involved
- 32:12Speaker 1: in these sort of cases, and there are probably other
- 32:15Speaker 1: frauds that could be committed, as well as some related
- 32:19Speaker 1: to dodging civil liability, but none more applicable here. He
- 32:23Speaker 1: made sure his family was financially taken care of, which
- 32:27Speaker 1: was all they cared about anyway, and went fishing, and
- 32:30Speaker 1: there's no law against that.
- 32:32Speaker 3: Now.
- 32:32Speaker 1: This episode does contain one line I found weird, and
- 32:37Speaker 1: it's where Friday said that the man seems pretty happy,
- 32:42Speaker 1: and I mentioned that it was an odd line the
- 32:46Speaker 1: first time. Some people didn't get what I found weird
- 32:48Speaker 1: about and say it sounds perfectly fine, but I wish
- 32:52Speaker 1: that Friday had a sarcastic partner for once, who said,
- 32:55Speaker 1: you know, I kind of gathered that. In between him
- 32:57Speaker 1: explaining how he chucked his tire life's work because his
- 33:01Speaker 1: family was an utter disaster, talked about the difficulty of
- 33:05Speaker 1: restarting life at fifty two, and him explaining that he
- 33:09Speaker 1: lives a life of total isolation. I'd say pretty happy
- 33:13Speaker 1: as how i'd read him too. Now, the guy was pleasant,
- 33:17Speaker 1: but I don't get happy. Was it like a nineteen
- 33:20Speaker 1: fifties idea that if you were pleasant and friendly that
- 33:23Speaker 1: you were therefore happy, Because to me, he came off
- 33:27Speaker 1: as a obvious, very lonely person, and that's the way
- 33:32Speaker 1: that Butterfield pitched him. You get the sense that he's
- 33:37Speaker 1: glad just to have company, and that's why he invites
- 33:40Speaker 1: Friday and Romero to dinner because he's so incredibly lonely, or,
- 33:46Speaker 1: as Joe Friday would say, pretty happy. Listener comments and
- 33:49Speaker 1: feedback now and we go comments regarding the episode. The
- 33:54Speaker 1: big picture A great episode, well, thanks so much, Michael,
- 33:57Speaker 1: and now it's time to think or preon supporter of
- 34:01Speaker 1: the day and I want to go ahead in ninth Damien.
- 34:04Speaker 1: Damien's been one of our Patreon supporters since Mark's currently
- 34:07Speaker 1: supporting the podcast at the rookie level of two dollars
- 34:10Speaker 1: or more per month. Thanks so much for your support, Damien,
- 34:13Speaker 1: and that will do it for today. If you're enjoying
- 34:16Speaker 1: the podcast, please follow us using your favorite podcast software
- 34:21Speaker 1: and be sure to rate and review the podcast wherever
- 34:24Speaker 1: you download it from. We'll be back next Saturday with
- 34:28Speaker 1: another episode of Dragnet, but join us back here tomorrow
- 34:32Speaker 1: for our next listener support Slash Appreciation special.
- 34:36Speaker 14: Weear of his head us faith exactly one minute and
- 34:40Speaker 14: twenty two seconds later. I was a made of minutes, minutes,
- 34:43Speaker 14: a made of seconds and killing this seemingly negligible interval
- 34:46Speaker 14: of time. You have wounded an hour, Oh I have.
- 34:48Speaker 3: Well, I'm sorry.
- 34:49Speaker 11: The traffic's pretty heavy out here this hour of the morning.
- 34:51Speaker 14: You know you should have started a minute in twenty
- 34:53Speaker 14: two seconds earlier.
- 34:53Speaker 11: I'm sorry.
- 34:54Speaker 14: There was a bore on the telephone, kept talking about
- 34:56Speaker 14: how valuable his time was. Well, don't apologize only waste
- 34:59Speaker 14: more time. Here's your check, one hundred dollars. My cars
- 35:02Speaker 14: just around the corner. I paid that chafe at a
- 35:04Speaker 14: large salary. We mustn't keep him waiting. In the meantime,
- 35:07Speaker 14: you may as well start earning your fee.
- 35:09Speaker 2: I've been earning it for the past twenty two minutes
- 35:11Speaker 2: and twenty two seconds.
- 35:12Speaker 3: Right.
- 35:14Speaker 14: I suspected as much you'd drive a car.
- 35:17Speaker 11: Yeah, you mean one man drives all that.
- 35:20Speaker 14: I see him, that rascally chaffeur of mind sleep in
- 35:23Speaker 14: the backseat, all right, come out of there, Hey, watch.
- 35:28Speaker 6: Moto. Hell you're exactly one minute than twenty two seconds.
- 35:33Speaker 6: Sleep But now don't apologize, only waste more time. Come along,
- 35:38Speaker 6: cars just around the corner. Pay that schoever a large fowler.
- 35:41Speaker 6: You must't keep him waiting. Uh huh, I suspect it
- 35:46Speaker 6: as much? Do you drive a car as Promoto, the
- 35:49Speaker 6: Viker and the oh never mind, never mind? I see him,
- 35:52Speaker 6: I see who needs to be that rats gone asleep
- 35:55Speaker 6: in the back seat, Get out of there, watch out.
- 36:01Speaker 1: I hope you'll be with us then in the meantime.
- 36:03Speaker 1: Send your comments to Box thirteen at Greatdetectives dot net.
- 36:09Speaker 1: Follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives and check us
- 36:12Speaker 1: out on Instagram, Instagram, dot com, slash Great detectives from Boise, Idaho.
- 36:19Speaker 1: This is your host, Adam Graham signing off.