Latest / The Great Detectives Present Dragnet (Old Time Radio) / Dragnet: The Big Parrot (EP4610)
Transcript
- 0:28Speaker 1: Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Orlando, Florida.
- 0:34Speaker 1: This is your host, Adam Graham. In a moment, we're
- 0:38Speaker 1: going to bring you this week's episode of Dragnet. Before
- 0:42Speaker 1: we get started, I do want to encourage you, if
- 0:45Speaker 1: you enjoy the podcast, to follow us using your favorite
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- 1:03Speaker 1: That's peel box one five nine thirteen Boise Aldohol eight
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- 1:16Speaker 1: per month by going to Patreon dot Great Detectives dot net.
- 1:21Speaker 1: Now from November sixteenth, nineteen fifty here is the Big Parrot.
- 1:33Speaker 2: The story you were about to hear is true, only
- 1:36Speaker 2: the names have been changed to protect the innocent. You're
- 1:46Speaker 2: a detective sergeant. You're assigned a homicide detail. A man
- 1:50Speaker 2: and his wife are found dead in a rooming house.
- 1:53Speaker 2: A dead parrot lies on the floor beside them. The
- 1:56Speaker 2: killers set fire to the room to cover his tracks.
- 1:59Speaker 2: Your job get.
- 2:01Speaker 3: Him Dragnet the documented drama of an actual crime. While
- 2:14Speaker 3: the next thirty minutes, in cooperation with the Los Angeles
- 2:16Speaker 3: Police Department, you will travel step by step on the
- 2:19Speaker 3: side of the law through an actual case. Transcribed from
- 2:22Speaker 3: official police silence, from beginning to end, from crime to punishment.
- 2:27Speaker 3: Dragnet is the story of your police force and action.
- 2:33Speaker 4: It was Wednesday, April second, was windy in Los Angeles.
- 2:36Speaker 4: We were working early morning watch on a homicide. My
- 2:39Speaker 4: partner's Ben Romero. The Boss'stad Brown, Chief Detectives. My name
- 2:42Speaker 4: is Friday. I was on the way back from communications.
- 2:45Speaker 4: That was five twenty five am when I got to
- 2:47Speaker 4: Room forty two homicide.
- 3:21Speaker 2: Hello is this Miss Jones?
- 3:24Speaker 5: Is Joe Friday. I'm sorry to buy him. Miss Jones?
- 3:26Speaker 2: Is Lee there? Oh yes, Joe, just a minute, I'll
- 3:29Speaker 2: wake him.
- 3:31Speaker 6: Lee Lee, Honey, it's Joe Friday.
- 3:36Speaker 4: He wants to talk to him. Yeah, Joe, I'm sorry
- 3:44Speaker 4: to wake you. Can you come down right away? Got
- 3:46Speaker 4: a call from fire headquarters a couple of minutes ago.
- 3:48Speaker 4: They had a fire in a rooming house over on
- 3:50Speaker 4: Seventh Street. They found two dead bodies, in one of
- 3:52Speaker 4: the rooms. Well, the battalion chief doesn't think so. They
- 3:55Speaker 4: found both bodies on the bed. There was evidence of
- 3:57Speaker 4: arson in the room.
- 3:58Speaker 7: What kind of proof of that?
- 4:00Speaker 4: The victims, that's why we called you. Fire department thinks
- 4:03Speaker 4: they were dead before the fire started. Five thirty am,
- 4:10Speaker 4: Romero and I drove out to the rooming house on
- 4:12Speaker 4: Seventh Street, was a two story building in the middle
- 4:14Speaker 4: of the block between South Grand and Toledo Avenue. On
- 4:17Speaker 4: one side of it was a small transient hotel, and
- 4:19Speaker 4: the other a building which housed a book binding firm
- 4:22Speaker 4: and studios for an acrobatic dancing school. When we got there,
- 4:25Speaker 4: the salvage crew was still working. We were directed to
- 4:28Speaker 4: the second floor, where we met with a man in
- 4:30Speaker 4: charge from the fire department, battatty In Chief Sullivan.
- 4:34Speaker 2: It's right down the hall here. Watch your step there.
- 4:42Speaker 5: You have the names of the victims.
- 4:43Speaker 2: Chief.
- 4:44Speaker 8: We think it's Guthrie, mister and missus Charles Guthrie old
- 4:47Speaker 8: Coels who lived here for some time. I understand, Oh yeah, I.
- 4:53Speaker 2: We figure that's where it started, right under the bed
- 4:55Speaker 2: over there. Heap must have been terrific. Under the walls.
- 5:01Speaker 5: This is where most of the damage was done.
- 5:02Speaker 2: Ye.
- 5:03Speaker 8: No rooms on both sides got it too. Not as
- 5:05Speaker 8: bad as this though. Guthries had two rooms, this and
- 5:08Speaker 8: the one adjoining through the door that when the fire
- 5:11Speaker 8: starts got on the idea about a quarter to five,
- 5:14Speaker 8: I'd say a landlady smelled the smoke about ten to five,
- 5:16Speaker 8: put in the alarm.
- 5:17Speaker 2: Fire was out three minutes after five.
- 5:19Speaker 4: Any other casualties besides the Guthries, I mean, no, just
- 5:22Speaker 4: a too Okay, go.
- 5:25Speaker 2: Run the bed here, m yeah, well the worst I've seen.
- 5:36Speaker 5: Yeah, it's pretty bad.
- 5:38Speaker 4: Well, Ben, you can see from the position of the
- 5:40Speaker 4: two bodies doesn't look to me like the suffol kidd mm.
- 5:43Speaker 4: No evidence that they tried to get out of the room,
- 5:46Speaker 4: both relaxed.
- 5:47Speaker 5: Looks like somebody did them in then tried to cover
- 5:48Speaker 5: with arsen n chief.
- 5:50Speaker 8: Yeah on the floor there, Oh yeah, parrot, somebody rung
- 5:54Speaker 8: its neck, looks like to me and then throw it
- 5:56Speaker 8: there on the floor.
- 5:57Speaker 4: There's the empty cage there in the corner and doors
- 5:59Speaker 4: of 'em set.
- 6:01Speaker 2: Yeah, Wine subs still talking to the landlady.
- 6:05Speaker 8: He hasn't come back. Clyde likely to meet Friday and Rabello. Sorry,
- 6:09Speaker 8: Friday and Ramera homicide detail. This is Clyde wine from
- 6:11Speaker 8: the Arsen squint. You want to show him that set
- 6:15Speaker 8: up Clyde, how it was touched off.
- 6:16Speaker 4: I'm glad to you can take a look under the
- 6:19Speaker 4: bed there tells most of the story.
- 6:21Speaker 2: You see directly underneath that h what is that wine?
- 6:27Speaker 4: Pretty charred rags and papers had a good soaking and
- 6:31Speaker 4: kerosene before they were touched off, strung out all under
- 6:34Speaker 4: the bed here.
- 6:35Speaker 2: Couldn't miss her through. Guy whoever set it up. Most
- 6:39Speaker 2: of the carpeting in the room was douts with kerosene too.
- 6:42Speaker 8: As much you can kind of. And the man who
- 6:43Speaker 8: touched it off. And there's something about timing devices. You
- 6:46Speaker 8: want to show him that rig clide.
- 6:48Speaker 2: Right here, Yeah, ordinary electric heater. This automatic timer was
- 6:54Speaker 2: connected to it then plugged in. Heater was placed under
- 6:57Speaker 2: the bed right next to the rags and papers. Timer
- 7:00Speaker 2: was set probably for about four forty five am. Timer
- 7:04Speaker 2: let go on schedule. Eater warmed up, rags and papers
- 7:08Speaker 2: caught fire, then the mattress.
- 7:11Speaker 5: You can see the rest for yourself.
- 7:13Speaker 2: That time a pretty intricate way man who put it together.
- 7:16Speaker 2: There was no amateur, as the chief said, must have
- 7:18Speaker 2: known something about clockwork. Yeah, Mac, excuse me, I'll be
- 7:23Speaker 2: back in a minute.
- 7:24Speaker 5: Too bad. That's very lest.
- 7:27Speaker 4: You find anything else it might die in g not
- 7:29Speaker 4: in this room. No, did parrot there door the cage
- 7:33Speaker 4: of the Probably a pet might have been out of
- 7:36Speaker 4: the cage at the time of the fire. It's possible
- 7:38Speaker 4: the parrot could have suffocated, chief not from what I
- 7:40Speaker 4: can see. No, as I say, it looks to me
- 7:42Speaker 4: like somebody wrung the bird's neck. A few green feathers
- 7:45Speaker 4: on the floor there. That's the joining room in Moore.
- 7:50Speaker 8: Okay, I figure that Guthries used it as a sitting room. Yeah,
- 8:00Speaker 8: you see the fire didn't wipe out everything.
- 8:04Speaker 5: Joe, Come on, mate, Right.
- 8:09Speaker 4: This carpet here with the door, dark stains.
- 8:15Speaker 2: What do you think could be blood? Heavy stains?
- 8:19Speaker 4: Sure enough of them, looks like more of 'em by
- 8:22Speaker 4: the desk there, some on the wall.
- 8:24Speaker 2: Too, desk drawers open here.
- 8:30Speaker 5: Yeah, I see that.
- 8:31Speaker 8: It's about it, you know as much as we do
- 8:33Speaker 8: so far. Yeah, we know how the fire was touched off.
- 8:36Speaker 8: Were satisfied didn't kill those two people in there? The
- 8:39Speaker 8: boys Marsian squad talking to the other rumors in the
- 8:41Speaker 8: building right now, you can check with them. Okay, Well,
- 8:43Speaker 8: thank you very much, Chiane.
- 8:44Speaker 2: I certainly appreciate not at all usual brakes, isn't it?
- 8:48Speaker 2: How's that?
- 8:49Speaker 4: This is fire Prevention Week five fifty three am. Lieutenant
- 8:56Speaker 4: Lee Jones and the crew from the Crime I have arrived.
- 8:59Speaker 4: Davis the photogh for Dean Bergmann from Layton Prince. Pictures
- 9:02Speaker 4: were taken of both rooms which made up mister and
- 9:04Speaker 4: Missus Guthrie's living quarters.
- 9:06Speaker 5: Photographs of the bodies were taken.
- 9:07Speaker 4: Bergmann processed for fingerprints while Lee Jones continued his investigation.
- 9:11Speaker 4: Ben and I went down the hall to the landlady's apartment,
- 9:13Speaker 4: where we met with Ray Schubert, one of the men
- 9:15Speaker 4: from the Arson Squad.
- 9:16Speaker 9: These met her from Homicide Division, Sergeant Friday from marro
- 9:20Speaker 9: missus dead min That.
- 9:21Speaker 6: Right, yes, Claras Diadman. How do you do I managed
- 9:24Speaker 6: the house here? Would either of you care for a
- 9:27Speaker 6: cup of tea?
- 9:28Speaker 2: No thing?
- 9:28Speaker 5: I wouldn't care for him. When did you last see
- 9:30Speaker 5: mister and missus Guthrie?
- 9:31Speaker 6: Man, Well, now let me see missus Guthrie. I saw
- 9:37Speaker 6: her just before dinner last night, a little before six.
- 9:39Speaker 6: I went into barroneag and a cup of flour. She
- 9:42Speaker 6: was all right?
- 9:42Speaker 5: Then?
- 9:43Speaker 2: Was there anyone with her?
- 9:44Speaker 5: No, Firshi was alone. What about mister Guthrie? When'd you
- 9:47Speaker 5: last see him?
- 9:48Speaker 2: At seven thirty?
- 9:50Speaker 6: I looked out my window and I saw him closing
- 9:52Speaker 6: up the parking lot.
- 9:54Speaker 5: Did the Guthries have any visitors at all yesterday? Do
- 9:56Speaker 5: you remember that?
- 9:57Speaker 6: Oh? Just what I know of Jack Marshman. He's working
- 10:01Speaker 6: for mister Guthrie about a year.
- 10:03Speaker 5: And now when did Marshman visit the Guthries?
- 10:06Speaker 2: Do you know?
- 10:07Speaker 6: Round four yesterday afternoon? Yes, I was there too, Visus
- 10:11Speaker 6: Guthrie and Jack and I had a cup of tea together,
- 10:14Speaker 6: and then Jack left to go back to work, and
- 10:16Speaker 6: then I left.
- 10:17Speaker 9: You didn't notice anyone else in or near the Guthrie
- 10:20Speaker 9: rooms after that?
- 10:21Speaker 5: No.
- 10:24Speaker 6: I had my dinner and listened to a radio play,
- 10:27Speaker 6: and then I went off to bed.
- 10:30Speaker 5: Oh, I know you're upset, Missus Stedman.
- 10:31Speaker 4: But can you think of anybody who might have wanted
- 10:33Speaker 4: to do away with the Guthries, anybody who had a
- 10:35Speaker 4: reason to do them hard?
- 10:36Speaker 6: As far as I know, Sergeant, they didn't have an
- 10:39Speaker 6: enemy in the world. I guess I was wrong. It's terrible, terrible.
- 10:44Speaker 2: To nice, ma'am. We leave our card here.
- 10:47Speaker 4: Wait all right if you want to contact, just don't
- 10:49Speaker 4: hesitate to call anytime. All right, thank you, thank you,
- 10:53Speaker 4: Miss Stedman. Goodbye, ma'am, good gry. What time you got
- 11:04Speaker 4: six fifteen? It's pretty early.
- 11:06Speaker 5: They ought to be.
- 11:06Speaker 4: Able to post the bodies for us this morning, say Friday.
- 11:09Speaker 4: Oh yes, gee, Jones, your crime lab man's looking for you.
- 11:12Speaker 5: Thank you. Ben you called the corner.
- 11:14Speaker 2: Yeah, he's on his way over.
- 11:22Speaker 7: Lee, all right, I'm looking for you. Got a few things. Yeah,
- 11:28Speaker 7: what's that this hammer punted over in the corner under
- 11:32Speaker 7: some of the rubble. He stains on the metal handle
- 11:36Speaker 7: here on the head, gave it the Benzdine test his
- 11:39Speaker 7: blood and figures to murder weapon.
- 11:41Speaker 2: I have no more.
- 11:41Speaker 7: When to get the corner's report, Berkman looked a lot
- 11:43Speaker 7: of nice prints, a lot of them all over everything. Yeah,
- 11:46Speaker 7: on the handle of this hammer, on that timing contraption
- 11:50Speaker 7: over there, the one that touched off the fire. Even
- 11:53Speaker 7: left some in the next room on that metal box
- 11:55Speaker 7: and draw the dead. That good Prince rometri and they match.
- 11:58Speaker 7: Go on the next room. Something right, Yeah, those stains
- 12:08Speaker 7: on the coppet by the door, the stains on the
- 12:11Speaker 7: coppet by the desk, those on the wall, blood stains,
- 12:14Speaker 7: all of them. You can see here, sail of stains,
- 12:18Speaker 7: all leading through the door into the murder room.
- 12:20Speaker 4: You figure they were murdered in here, and then the
- 12:22Speaker 4: killer took the bodies in the next room and put
- 12:23Speaker 4: him on their bed, and.
- 12:24Speaker 2: Then he said fire to cover up. That's my guess.
- 12:26Speaker 7: How about the prints on the box in the desk,
- 12:27Speaker 7: and might have been money in the box?
- 12:30Speaker 5: Possible burger.
- 12:31Speaker 2: That's an angle.
- 12:32Speaker 7: I'll take scrapings from these stains on a biological precipitate
- 12:35Speaker 7: when I get back to the lab.
- 12:36Speaker 2: I'll let you know how it times out. I'd just
- 12:38Speaker 2: stop finishing.
- 12:38Speaker 4: Up rightly, Thanks very much. Well, that looks like we're
- 12:43Speaker 4: in fair of shape. A hammer, a couple of fingerprints, right, yes, Hubert,
- 12:51Speaker 4: My father.
- 12:51Speaker 9: Worked from mister Guthrie in the parking lot. Jack Marshman
- 12:54Speaker 9: just got here.
- 12:54Speaker 5: Did you talk to him?
- 12:55Speaker 2: Why?
- 12:55Speaker 9: And I having one of the empty rooms down the hall?
- 12:57Speaker 5: Thanks? Which way down here?
- 13:02Speaker 4: It seems pretty well broken up he talked to anyone
- 13:04Speaker 4: besides using to get here?
- 13:06Speaker 9: No, I told him the guts we're dead, that's all.
- 13:08Speaker 9: He's taking it pretty hard. Which one I hear?
- 13:17Speaker 2: As friends I had Charlie Water. I knew I should
- 13:21Speaker 2: have stayed with him. I knew I should have. These
- 13:23Speaker 2: men are from homicide, mister Marshman, Sergeant Friday, Sergeant Romerow.
- 13:27Speaker 5: You know, mister Marsham, how are you?
- 13:30Speaker 2: I don't know what I can tell you. I can't
- 13:32Speaker 2: understand or Charlie what.
- 13:39Speaker 4: Well?
- 13:39Speaker 2: What can I do to help? Would like to have
- 13:41Speaker 2: you answer a few questions if you don't mind, you
- 13:43Speaker 2: certainly certain anything to help out it? Please? You gotta
- 13:49Speaker 2: find out whoever did it. You got to find out
- 13:50Speaker 2: who killed.
- 13:51Speaker 4: We're gonna try, mister Marsham. Now would you tell us
- 13:53Speaker 4: the last time you saw that Guffy's alive?
- 13:56Speaker 2: Sure, Bud. Missus Guthrie about oh four point fifteen yesterday,
- 14:03Speaker 2: have to know him. Me and missus Studman. She's a landlady.
- 14:06Speaker 2: We had tea with her and I went back to
- 14:10Speaker 2: help mister Guthrie at the parking lot. When's the last
- 14:13Speaker 2: time you saw him? Oh, it's about six thirty. So
- 14:16Speaker 2: when I get off duty at the lder, I said
- 14:18Speaker 2: goodbye to Charlie I never dawned on him. It was
- 14:21Speaker 2: the last time I'd see him alive. I just can't understand.
- 14:25Speaker 4: It's such a vicious thing, Charlie Martin, very terrible.
- 14:30Speaker 5: Yes, sir, you won't just sit down there, mister Marshall.
- 14:32Speaker 2: Oh, thanks you much? Right?
- 14:38Speaker 4: Yeah? Are you sure you're the only one who talked
- 14:41Speaker 4: to Marshman? Since that's right, I met him at the
- 14:43Speaker 4: door downstairs. Well, the only thing you told him was
- 14:46Speaker 4: that the Guthries were dead. That's all he got from us.
- 14:48Speaker 4: Any chance he could have been in the room since
- 14:50Speaker 4: the fire, not a chance. And how do you know
- 14:52Speaker 4: somebody killed him?
- 15:03Speaker 10: You are listening to dragnett authentic stories of your police
- 15:06Speaker 10: force and action.
- 15:14Speaker 4: Wednesday, April second, six forty five, Am Lee Jones and
- 15:17Speaker 4: his men completed their investigation and took their findings back
- 15:19Speaker 4: to the crime lab for further examination.
- 15:21Speaker 5: The Deputy Coroner arrived and removed the.
- 15:23Speaker 4: Bodies of mister and Missus Guthrie to the County Morgue,
- 15:26Speaker 4: together with Clyde Wyant and Ray Shubert of the Arson squad.
- 15:29Speaker 4: Ben and I continued questioning the Guthrie's friend and employee,
- 15:32Speaker 4: Jack Marshman, his answers got more confused, and he kept
- 15:35Speaker 4: contradicting himself. In some ways, he seemed childlike, in others
- 15:38Speaker 4: a good deal more complex. We strung along. In order
- 15:41Speaker 4: to keep up the pretense that he was not a suspect.
- 15:43Speaker 4: We asked him to come along with us while we
- 15:45Speaker 4: checked his living quarters, a two room basement apartment near
- 15:47Speaker 4: Olympic in South Flower. Who explained it as a routine check,
- 15:51Speaker 4: Marshman was calm and self assured.
- 15:54Speaker 2: Wow here it is save yourself.
- 15:57Speaker 4: Yeah, nice comfortable play. I like been here for about
- 16:01Speaker 4: three years. All this room is where I do my living.
- 16:03Speaker 4: Pulled down bed. It's a little gas plate over there.
- 16:05Speaker 4: It's handy compact.
- 16:07Speaker 5: H I see. What do you use this next room for?
- 16:11Speaker 4: Here?
- 16:11Speaker 2: Jam, it's my shop I like to put around You
- 16:13Speaker 2: care to see it? Yeah, okay, mm hmm. It's very nice.
- 16:21Speaker 2: What's your hobby? Watchmaking? Here? Used to be a watchmaker.
- 16:24Speaker 2: I've worked at it later on. Job is pretty hard
- 16:26Speaker 2: to find.
- 16:27Speaker 5: Yeah, these parts here on the bench you making something?
- 16:32Speaker 4: Jack, just fooling around all alarm clock Down'm fixing it
- 16:36Speaker 4: up for friends.
- 16:37Speaker 5: All these wires and things, they all go into the works.
- 16:39Speaker 2: Something more or less year. Just something that's falling around.
- 16:42Speaker 2: It gives me busy, you know, I like a hobby.
- 16:44Speaker 2: There say it's good.
- 16:45Speaker 5: For you, that's what they say.
- 16:46Speaker 2: Yeah, where does this dog? Marshom?
- 16:48Speaker 4: It's my closet, just some clothes and stuff and they're
- 16:50Speaker 4: just junk. But it's only a closet. They're just clothes
- 16:54Speaker 4: and junk. Is that in the sea?
- 16:55Speaker 5: Say Jack? Do you usually keep this stuff around?
- 16:58Speaker 4: Huh? Oh it's uh it's kerosene and it's pretty dangerous
- 17:03Speaker 4: a store like this.
- 17:04Speaker 5: There's no cap on it.
- 17:05Speaker 4: I'm glad you reminded me. I got to get a
- 17:07Speaker 4: cap for that. I used to wash up.
- 17:10Speaker 2: Dirty working around the bench. This shirt is trisy, Jack.
- 17:14Speaker 4: I wish you wouldn't drive get stuff. I would of
- 17:15Speaker 4: gets my stuff all mixed up.
- 17:17Speaker 2: Yeah, they're mine, and I figured it's dangerous. Quite a
- 17:20Speaker 2: few of them. Uh, some kind of pain I was using.
- 17:22Speaker 2: I'm pretty sloppy with pain.
- 17:25Speaker 4: It's no pain, is a jack. It's looked like blood
- 17:27Speaker 4: to me. What difference does it make it working clothes?
- 17:31Speaker 4: I think for your reason was in a day? Why
- 17:32Speaker 4: don't you lay off? Who cares what kind of stain
- 17:35Speaker 4: it is? You're coming here, snooping around, looking all around.
- 17:38Speaker 2: I invited.
- 17:39Speaker 4: You know, I didn't give you the place. This is
- 17:41Speaker 4: my apartment, this is my shop. You can get out, Yeah,
- 17:44Speaker 4: I mean you, both of you can get out.
- 17:46Speaker 5: It's a matter of jack.
- 17:47Speaker 2: I said, you can get out.
- 17:48Speaker 5: All right. You want to tell us before we go,
- 17:51Speaker 5: I'll tell you what why you killed the Guthries.
- 17:54Speaker 2: What do you mean Why.
- 17:56Speaker 5: Did you kill mister MSUs Guthrie?
- 18:00Speaker 2: No reason, I just did.
- 18:06Speaker 5: Nine am.
- 18:07Speaker 4: We put the stain clothing in the materials from the
- 18:09Speaker 4: workbench in the car, together with the suspect. We headed
- 18:12Speaker 4: back for the office. On the way, Marshman was quiet.
- 18:15Speaker 4: He asked for some breakfast. We stopped and bought him
- 18:17Speaker 4: some ham and eggs. We tried to get him to talk,
- 18:19Speaker 4: he refused. After breakfast, we dropped the stain clothing and
- 18:23Speaker 4: the other things of the crime lab, and then we
- 18:24Speaker 4: drove to the City Hall. We parked the car in
- 18:26Speaker 4: front of the Spring Street entrance and started up the stairs.
- 18:31Speaker 2: Wait a minute, we'll draw. I've been thinking, yeah, it's
- 18:36Speaker 2: all a mistake. What is I didn't know what I
- 18:39Speaker 2: was talking about. I didn't kill him.
- 18:42Speaker 4: Ninety seven am then and I took the suspect into
- 18:45Speaker 4: the interrogation room.
- 18:46Speaker 5: We checked him through R and I. He had a
- 18:47Speaker 5: record of two petty thefts the year before. We went
- 18:50Speaker 5: back to the interrogation room and got on the phone.
- 18:52Speaker 5: We called Layton. Fingerprints.
- 18:54Speaker 2: We made him Joe the prints on the hammer, the
- 18:57Speaker 2: timing device in the middle box in the desk.
- 18:59Speaker 5: They long to Marshman. Ten oh three am. I call
- 19:03Speaker 5: the County Morgue.
- 19:04Speaker 9: What is identified as mister and missus Charles Guthrie. Cause
- 19:07Speaker 9: of death Missus Guthrie, multiple depressed fractures of the skull,
- 19:10Speaker 9: subarachnoid hemorrhage, blunt instrument. Cause of death, Mister Guthrie about
- 19:14Speaker 9: the same compressions of the brain in the occipital area
- 19:17Speaker 9: around the brain stem.
- 19:19Speaker 5: Ten twenty five am. I put in a call to
- 19:21Speaker 5: the Lee Jones at the crime lab.
- 19:22Speaker 2: The material from the work bench are the same that
- 19:24Speaker 2: went into that automatic time at Joe used together the
- 19:27Speaker 2: cut ends of some of the wires. They match.
- 19:29Speaker 4: How about the stains on his clothes human blood? Ten
- 19:32Speaker 4: forty five am. We laid it out for the suspect,
- 19:34Speaker 4: step by step.
- 19:35Speaker 2: Let me rest her well off, feel better, Let me think.
- 19:38Speaker 5: We stayed with him. We waited. Eleven twenty am the
- 19:41Speaker 5: suspect opened his eyes.
- 19:43Speaker 4: Sorry, yeah, I want to talk about it. Eleven twenty
- 19:50Speaker 4: five am. Schubert and Wyant from the Arsonal squad joined
- 19:52Speaker 4: us were called in one of the stenographers to take
- 19:54Speaker 4: Marshman's statement Eleanor Eastlade.
- 19:56Speaker 5: She automatically took down the time, the place, and those present.
- 20:00Speaker 4: This is me, So she's like, she's gonna record your
- 20:02Speaker 4: statements so there'll be no misunderstanding as to what you
- 20:04Speaker 4: say at this time.
- 20:05Speaker 2: How are you doing now? Yoh, you want to handle
- 20:08Speaker 2: the question all right?
- 20:12Speaker 4: Jack, We've got a few preliminaries here for you. Okay,
- 20:17Speaker 4: John Everett Marshaman that's your true name.
- 20:19Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 20:19Speaker 5: Where do you live?
- 20:20Speaker 2: One two and a half Morgan Place, parvm B.
- 20:23Speaker 5: What's your age? Very center, occupation?
- 20:25Speaker 2: Watchmaker? When I'm working well on, Jack.
- 20:28Speaker 4: You've vindicated to us in the previous conversation that you're
- 20:31Speaker 4: willing to make a statement setting forth the true facts
- 20:33Speaker 4: surrounding the death of mister MSUs Chiles Guthrie.
- 20:35Speaker 2: That's right. I'll tell you.
- 20:37Speaker 4: Were you in there home Tuesday April first, that's yesterday, Yeah,
- 20:40Speaker 4: that's right. I was What time did you get there
- 20:42Speaker 4: first time? About five minutes to four in the afternoon.
- 20:47Speaker 4: Missus Guthrie was there, and so was the landlady, Missus Stedman.
- 20:50Speaker 4: He had some tea. Was anybody else present while they
- 20:52Speaker 4: were there?
- 20:52Speaker 2: No? This is the three of us.
- 20:54Speaker 5: How long did you stay there?
- 20:56Speaker 2: M I left about four fifteen, I guess guess as
- 20:59Speaker 2: are about twenty minutes.
- 21:01Speaker 5: Where'd you go when you left?
- 21:02Speaker 4: Went back to the parking lot as usually, Charlie Guthrie
- 21:05Speaker 4: left and went home to dinner.
- 21:07Speaker 2: He got back about six fifteen. I left six thirty,
- 21:09Speaker 2: quitting two.
- 21:10Speaker 4: Where'd you go after you left the parking lot? Went
- 21:12Speaker 4: around the block and then back to the Guthrie's place.
- 21:15Speaker 4: Why'd you go back there to get money?
- 21:18Speaker 2: Charlie never paid me enough, picked me up, expected me
- 21:20Speaker 2: to work for nothing.
- 21:22Speaker 4: All right, now, in your own words, when you tell
- 21:24Speaker 4: us just what happened starting when you went at the
- 21:25Speaker 4: Guthrie's apartment.
- 21:26Speaker 2: The second time, Missus Guthrie opened the door and I
- 21:30Speaker 2: went in. Shoot, gave me a cup of tea, and
- 21:33Speaker 2: I told her I wanted some money. She wouldn't give
- 21:35Speaker 2: me any. I don't know why but I was mad.
- 21:37Speaker 2: I was second tired of both of them. They never
- 21:39Speaker 2: gave me enough money.
- 21:39Speaker 5: Ella, I'd even it, Serge, all right, go ahead please.
- 21:43Speaker 4: Missus Cauthrey went in the next rome and I went
- 21:45Speaker 4: over the desk and got the money from the box that.
- 21:47Speaker 2: They keep it in. I don't know how much. I
- 21:48Speaker 2: grabbed all of it, and the parrot started squawking. Missus
- 21:51Speaker 2: Guthrie came running in. She saw me with the money,
- 21:54Speaker 2: and she says, Jack picked up something and hit her.
- 21:58Speaker 2: Was the hammer pitting it? Can you remember how many
- 22:02Speaker 2: times you ate him? Moistmen?
- 22:03Speaker 6: Oh?
- 22:03Speaker 2: I don't know. She fell down. Parrot was still squawking,
- 22:07Speaker 2: jumping around the cage, and I went over, opened the
- 22:09Speaker 2: door of the cage and pulled a parrot out and
- 22:12Speaker 2: stopped moving. Finally went in the bedroom and threw it
- 22:15Speaker 2: on the floor, and I dragged Missus Guffree in the
- 22:18Speaker 2: bedroom and put her on the bed and I left.
- 22:20Speaker 5: Where'd you go?
- 22:21Speaker 2: No, I don't know. I walked around, tried to think
- 22:24Speaker 2: of something. It's cold. I got a bottle of wine.
- 22:28Speaker 2: I drank it and I got to thinking about what
- 22:31Speaker 2: Charlie do when he got home. I knew he'd be
- 22:33Speaker 2: sure I did it. He always blamed me for everything.
- 22:36Speaker 2: So I finally went back to the Guthrie's place and
- 22:38Speaker 2: found the hammer that I used.
- 22:39Speaker 5: On hr What you intend doing with the hammer killed Charlie?
- 22:43Speaker 2: She had it coming, so did he.
- 22:44Speaker 4: You can't blame me if they forced me into what
- 22:46Speaker 4: anybody would have done the same. What'd you do after
- 22:49Speaker 4: you found the hammer again? I picked it up and
- 22:52Speaker 4: waited for Charlie to come home. Remember that wine made
- 22:58Speaker 4: me feel pretty good. I stood there in the dark
- 23:01Speaker 4: holding the hammer, watched out the window for Charlie.
- 23:04Speaker 2: It was cold out. I remember that it's radio on
- 23:08Speaker 2: down the hall, and I held on in the hammer
- 23:10Speaker 2: and waited for Charlie. Neon light across the street that
- 23:14Speaker 2: came through the windows. Old lady was on the bed
- 23:18Speaker 2: and there I could see the parrot on the floor.
- 23:22Speaker 2: It was quiet, I had a smoke. Traffic kept going
- 23:28Speaker 2: by outside. I could hear that. Held on in the hammer.
- 23:35Speaker 2: It's windy y. I kept thinking missus Gully was looking
- 23:39Speaker 2: at me from the bed, but she wasn't. Charlie came
- 23:42Speaker 2: home at the usual time, the left of seven point thirty,
- 23:44Speaker 2: and I stood by the door came in and closed
- 23:50Speaker 2: the door after him. When he reached for the lights,
- 23:51Speaker 2: I hit him, me fell down. I hit him some more.
- 23:55Speaker 2: You couldn't blame anybody would have done the same. Anybody
- 23:57Speaker 2: would have the way he kicked me around? How many
- 23:59Speaker 2: times did you? I don't know? Was it twice? Three times?
- 24:04Speaker 2: Hit him really quick moving?
- 24:06Speaker 4: So I took hi, dragged him into the bedroom, put
- 24:10Speaker 4: him on the bed with his wife. I put him over,
- 24:13Speaker 4: wiped the stains off of me and lift offs the
- 24:15Speaker 4: only thing I could do. Where'd you go?
- 24:16Speaker 2: Then? My place? I knew that timer. I had to
- 24:20Speaker 2: do the trick. I put it in a shopping bag
- 24:22Speaker 2: with some stuff, and I went back to the Guthries.
- 24:25Speaker 2: They were still there on the bed. The parrot was
- 24:28Speaker 2: on the floor. Would you repeat that last part in
- 24:30Speaker 2: the tomashment? Oh? I said. They were still on the
- 24:32Speaker 2: bed the Guthries, and the parrot was on the floor
- 24:34Speaker 2: next to the bed. Put the carristion on the cap
- 24:36Speaker 2: and the rags and paper uner the bed and raked
- 24:38Speaker 2: up the electric heater and the automatic time and he
- 24:40Speaker 2: set it off a little slower.
- 24:41Speaker 5: Yeah, we'll just speak up Jack, and then slowed down
- 24:43Speaker 5: just a little bit.
- 24:44Speaker 4: Oh sorry, how did you read the time? When he
- 24:46Speaker 4: set off the heating down?
- 24:48Speaker 2: I ought to take all morning to tell you you
- 24:50Speaker 2: got the timer. I'll take it apart and explain it
- 24:52Speaker 2: if you want. What was your purpose and setting fire
- 24:54Speaker 2: in the room? You knew both mister and missus Gustin were.
- 24:57Speaker 5: Dead, didn't you?
- 24:57Speaker 2: Well? Sure surely were. They forced me into it. I
- 25:00Speaker 2: set the fire and make it look like an accent,
- 25:01Speaker 2: like they'd burned it day.
- 25:02Speaker 5: What would you do after you set the timer?
- 25:04Speaker 2: All left, went down the street and a couple of
- 25:06Speaker 2: bottles of wine, talked to the guy man, and I
- 25:09Speaker 2: walked around a while. It was too cold, so I
- 25:11Speaker 2: went on, when'd you get home? Two thirty? Maybe? I
- 25:15Speaker 2: don't remember too well.
- 25:15Speaker 5: Did you go right to bed?
- 25:17Speaker 2: Yeah?
- 25:17Speaker 5: You go to sleep?
- 25:18Speaker 2: No?
- 25:20Speaker 10: No?
- 25:21Speaker 2: I laid there and read a movie magazine, drank the wine,
- 25:24Speaker 2: finally finished up the two bottles, and those what times
- 25:27Speaker 2: you get up a little before six? This morning? I
- 25:30Speaker 2: went down to the guthriest to know was Arona. So
- 25:31Speaker 2: I met you guys. Well you know all the rest
- 25:35Speaker 2: because I've been with you ever since.
- 25:37Speaker 5: All right, Jack, anything else you'd like to add?
- 25:39Speaker 2: Noah? I told you everything all right.
- 25:44Speaker 4: In the statement was given free and voluntarily, and there's
- 25:46Speaker 4: been no promise of immunity or reward extended to you.
- 25:49Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right.
- 25:50Speaker 4: There was any force, violence, or drest used. Did intduce
- 25:52Speaker 4: you to make the statement?
- 25:53Speaker 2: No?
- 25:54Speaker 5: Okay.
- 25:55Speaker 4: These questions and answers have been recorded by the secretary
- 25:58Speaker 4: here after they've been transcribed.
- 25:59Speaker 5: Will you be willing to sign? And it is a
- 26:00Speaker 5: true statement? You sure, sure, sir? All right? Only you
- 26:03Speaker 5: get that out soon as possible. Thank you, You're welcome.
- 26:13Speaker 2: All that's it. Huh, all of it.
- 26:15Speaker 5: That's it.
- 26:16Speaker 2: That's good. Good. I'm tired. It's been a long night,
- 26:20Speaker 2: a long one. Get used to it.
- 26:22Speaker 5: Huh, they're going to get longer.
- 26:30Speaker 2: The story you have just heard was true, only the
- 26:33Speaker 2: names were changed to protect the innocent.
- 26:36Speaker 10: On July twenty ninth, trial was held in Superior Court,
- 26:38Speaker 10: Department eighty sixth, City and County of Los Angeles, State
- 26:41Speaker 10: of California. In a moment the results of that trial,
- 26:50Speaker 10: John Everett Marshman was tried and convicted of murder in
- 26:52Speaker 10: the first degree two counts, and darson one count He
- 26:55Speaker 10: is now serving a life term in the state penitentiary
- 26:58Speaker 10: without possibility of parole. You have just heard Dragnett, a
- 27:05Speaker 10: series of authentic cases from official files. Technical advice comes
- 27:09Speaker 10: from the Office of Chief of Police W. H. Parker,
- 27:11Speaker 10: Los Angeles Police Department.
- 27:20Speaker 2: Coming up with the People Them Screen Director's Playhouse on NBC.
- 27:32Speaker 1: Welcome back. A good setup that ends in a pretty
- 27:34Speaker 1: simple solution. It's a reminder that the working detective doesn't
- 27:39Speaker 1: have an assurance that an interesting setup will lead to
- 27:42Speaker 1: some long drawn out case with a clever mastermind at
- 27:47Speaker 1: the heart of it. And of course it's a happy
- 27:50Speaker 1: situation when they don't have to deal with that sort
- 27:53Speaker 1: of thing. But as is the case with Dragnet, even
- 27:58Speaker 1: though we don't get a very complex mystery, we do
- 28:02Speaker 1: get a thorough look at the procedures of taking a
- 28:08Speaker 1: suspects confession back in nineteen fifty and how that's professionally done. Well,
- 28:14Speaker 1: now we turn to listener comments and feedback, and we
- 28:19Speaker 1: are going to our listener survey and Joseph Rites, I
- 28:24Speaker 1: love Barry Craigan near a Wolf. If not for Adam,
- 28:27Speaker 1: I would not have fallen in love. Thank you well,
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- 28:34Speaker 1: just a fan of the great Detectives of Old Time Radio,
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- 28:54Speaker 1: somebody is reading me a bedtime story. It's become a
- 28:58Speaker 1: daily ritual with me. And then I'm scrolling up here
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- 29:07Speaker 1: scam comments, I'm the only one who sees these. This.
- 29:12Speaker 1: Another listener rides, thanks for the podcast. Old Time Radio
- 29:16Speaker 1: Detectives are great, And then have this comment from Sonia,
- 29:23Speaker 1: who rides, I was thrilled to learn there as a
- 29:25Speaker 1: video companion, but couldn't find it under the stated public
- 29:29Speaker 1: domain video theater. Turns out it shows up under public
- 29:32Speaker 1: domain detective video theater. I just want old to know
- 29:36Speaker 1: because the video content is such a treat well, thank
- 29:39Speaker 1: you so much. I did go ahead and check. And
- 29:42Speaker 1: if you put it into Google public domain video theater,
- 29:45Speaker 1: it'll bring up my YouTube playlist of the videos first,
- 29:51Speaker 1: and then the video podcast is under that. Of course,
- 29:56Speaker 1: if you put video theater dot Great Detectives dot now
- 30:00Speaker 1: that will bring up the feed for the podcast that
- 30:03Speaker 1: you're able to subscribe to, but I will admit that
- 30:07Speaker 1: there is kind of a naming discrepancy between YouTube and
- 30:13Speaker 1: the website title, and I should give some thought as
- 30:17Speaker 1: to the best way to resolve that. So I appreciate
- 30:19Speaker 1: you taking the time to comment, and Sonya, I'm really
- 30:23Speaker 1: glad that you enjoyed the Video Theater and I hope
- 30:27Speaker 1: others who are interested in older video content will check
- 30:31Speaker 1: that out as well. I've got some really exciting plans
- 30:35Speaker 1: for this season on Video Theater, which I'll talk about
- 30:39Speaker 1: as twenty twenty five develops. But one thing that we
- 30:43Speaker 1: do have planned for this weekend is we should have
- 30:47Speaker 1: the very first episode of Dragging It on television, either
- 30:53Speaker 1: on YouTube or the video podcast length. Now it is
- 30:57Speaker 1: time to thank our Patreon supporter of the and I
- 31:00Speaker 1: want to thank Ben Benzman, one of our Patreon supporters
- 31:03Speaker 1: since September twenty twenty, currently supporting the podcast at the
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- 31:23Speaker 1: We will be back next Saturday with another episode of
- 31:27Speaker 1: dragnet I mentioned our video theater that's coming up this week.
- 31:31Speaker 1: But join us back here on Monday as the Great
- 31:35Speaker 1: Detectives of Old Time Radio resumes with an episode of
- 31:38Speaker 1: the Adventures of the Falcon Wear.
- 31:41Speaker 4: Sorry, baby, you might as well learn the facts of
- 31:45Speaker 4: life now.
- 31:48Speaker 5: Information.
- 31:50Speaker 2: I'd like the phone number of Al Romero. Oh Angel,
- 32:07Speaker 2: you don't know what. I'll go away. Oh, for Pete's sake,
- 32:14Speaker 2: Wait a minute, where's my robe? I said, Wait a minute,
- 32:22Speaker 2: what are you wearing? It all depends.
- 32:25Speaker 10: It depends on the time of day before seven.
- 32:27Speaker 2: I'm not myself.
- 32:28Speaker 11: I know it's late, but I've got to see you.
- 32:29Speaker 2: I'll come back in the morning.
- 32:30Speaker 11: It's no good time, is of the essence. I don't
- 32:33Speaker 11: know what I'll do it.
- 32:33Speaker 9: I won't.
- 32:34Speaker 11: I'll take it easy, but you don't understand.
- 32:36Speaker 2: Well, I never will at this rate.
- 32:38Speaker 5: I sit down, Thank you.
- 32:41Speaker 11: I suppose I should introduce myself.
- 32:43Speaker 5: I suppose you shouldn't.
- 32:44Speaker 11: My name is Joan Andrews.
- 32:45Speaker 2: Joan Andrews.
- 32:46Speaker 11: If you say so, don't you believe me?
- 32:49Speaker 2: I never questioned the ladies word at four o'clock in
- 32:51Speaker 2: the morning, but I wouldn't advise you to come back
- 32:54Speaker 2: at five with that story. Why look at Joan Andrews.
- 32:58Speaker 2: How come your initials on your purse?
- 32:59Speaker 5: A jay?
- 33:01Speaker 11: Oh this belongs to a friend.
- 33:05Speaker 2: All right, Angel, have it you away?
- 33:06Speaker 11: I tell you it's the truth.
- 33:07Speaker 2: Well let's hear the rest.
- 33:09Speaker 11: Well, I'm engaged to a man named Vince Calvin.
- 33:12Speaker 5: Vince Calvin?
- 33:13Speaker 11: You do you know him?
- 33:15Speaker 2: Yeah? So I won't offer my congratulations.
- 33:18Speaker 11: Well, Vince has been threatened.
- 33:19Speaker 5: How do you know?
- 33:20Speaker 11: He told me?
- 33:21Speaker 5: Go on?
- 33:21Speaker 11: That's all there is to it. I want you to
- 33:23Speaker 11: see nothing happens to her.
- 33:25Speaker 2: No, Angel, enough is enough.
- 33:26Speaker 10: You can't expect me to buy that.
- 33:28Speaker 11: I swear it's true.
- 33:30Speaker 2: Is Calvinoia here? No?
- 33:31Speaker 11: And he mustn't find out. He thinks he can take
- 33:33Speaker 11: care of himself.
- 33:35Speaker 5: From what I know of that gent, he can.
- 33:36Speaker 11: I can't afford to gamble. You've got to protect him.
- 33:39Speaker 11: Why don't you go to the cops because I don't
- 33:41Speaker 11: want any publicity. Vince would kill me.
- 33:43Speaker 2: If there was. And this is the man you're engaged too.
- 33:46Speaker 11: I didn't mean it that way.
- 33:47Speaker 10: How did you mean it?
- 33:48Speaker 11: Look, mister Waring? It all comes down to this, Either
- 33:50Speaker 11: you want the case or you don't.
- 33:52Speaker 1: I hope you'll be with us then. In the meantime,
- 33:55Speaker 1: send your comments to Box thirteen at Great Detectives dotty,
- 34:00Speaker 1: follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives, and check us
- 34:03Speaker 1: out on Instagram, Instagram, dot com slash Great Detectives From Orlando, Florida.
- 34:10Speaker 1: This is your host, Adam Graham, sogn and off.