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Dragnet: The Big Winchester (EP4929) · The Great Detectives Present Dragnet (Old Time Radio)

• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: This is your host, Adam Graham. In a moment, we're
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: going to bring you this week's episode of Dragnet. But
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: first I do want to encourage you. If you're enjoying
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  Speaker 1: Today's program is brought to you in part by the
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  Speaker 1: financial support of our listeners. You can support the show
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  Speaker 1: Adam Graham peelbox one five nine one three. That's peel
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• 1:11
  Speaker 1: month at Patreon dot Great Detectives dot net. But now,
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: from August sixteenth, nineteen fifty one, here is the Big Winchester.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: The story you were about to hear is true, only
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: the names have been changed to protect the innocent. You're
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: a detective sergeant. You're assigned to homicide detail. An elderly
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: man has found dead in the living room of his
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: home as a single bullet hole in his chest. On
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: the surface, it appeared to the man took his own life,
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: but the evidence points to the opposite.
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: A job investigate.
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: Drag Mett, the documented drama of an actual crime. For
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: the next thirty minutes, in cooperation with the Los Angeles
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: Police Department, you will travel step by step on the
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: side of the law through an actual case transcribed from
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: official police files, from beginning to end, and from crime
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: to punishment. Drag net is the story of your police force.
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: In action.
• 2:35
  Speaker 5: Was Wednesday, January tenth. It was cold in Los Angeles.
• 2:38
  Speaker 5: We're working a day.
• 2:39
  Speaker 6: Watch out of homicide detail.
• 2:41
  Speaker 5: My partner's Ben Romero, the boss of bab Brown, Chief
• 2:43
  Speaker 5: of Detectives.
• 2:44
  Speaker 6: My name is Friday.
• 2:45
  Speaker 5: Was eight twenty five am when I got to the
• 2:47
  Speaker 5: Police Academy the doctor's office.
• 2:53
  Speaker 6: Good morning, morning, and I after I'm checking in for
• 2:56
  Speaker 6: my annual.
• 2:57
  Speaker 7: Physical Oh okay, all right, see your name Joe Friday, see.
• 3:09
  Speaker 8: Friday, just like the day in the week. Yeah, that's right, Friday.
• 3:15
  Speaker 8: I can't seem to find it too.
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: Sure you were notified?
• 3:17
  Speaker 5: Yeah, the teletype was posted in the office a couple
• 3:19
  Speaker 5: of days ago.
• 3:20
  Speaker 6: Annual physical exams. My name was right near the top
• 3:22
  Speaker 6: of the list.
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: Fri I d a y oh yeah, yeah, here you are,
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: Joseph Friday. That's it? Yeah, well, all right, Friday, let's
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: get your name down here he right, thirty four Where
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: you were Central Homicide m Cerial Memory twenty two eighty
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: eight I two eight okay, Friday, you want to step
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: this way? All right? Step off your shoes? Your coaching trick? Okay?
• 4:01
  Speaker 6: Like keeping you busy?
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: Oh pretty busy. I have forty five hundred men in
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: the department. Everyone has to have an annual physical. I
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: gotta get you wait and send you along inside dock's
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: probably ready for you by now over here? Oh never
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: for that advances offer? Is that? Alright? Just a minute,
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: it's for you, Frida of your office? Thank you? Body
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: tell you this has ben Joe?
• 4:31
  Speaker 9: You got throw over there?
• 4:32
  Speaker 6: No, not quite. I haven't seen doc Vance yet.
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: What's the matter?
• 4:34
  Speaker 8: Did buddy call up by west Lake Park?
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: Radio?
• 4:37
  Speaker 8: Cars out there?
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: Now?
• 4:38
  Speaker 6: No one else in homicide to handle it right now.
• 4:40
  Speaker 8: They're pretty busy now usually coming back to the yolks.
• 4:42
  Speaker 9: Why don't you make me out there?
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: It's nine three two old Laurel Lane.
• 4:46
  Speaker 6: I just really have that pad doctor, Thank you? Nine
• 4:50
  Speaker 6: three two old Laurel I got it. What's the story?
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: Old man was found Disney's living room, put over his chairs.
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: Man in the radio cars at the first to look
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: like the old minute Ki himself and I'm sure enough.
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: I mean thank you, Tomail.
• 5:06
  Speaker 6: Eight forty five am.
• 5:08
  Speaker 5: I left the doctor's office at the Police Academy and
• 5:10
  Speaker 5: drove to the Westlake area, where I met Ben in
• 5:12
  Speaker 5: front of the cottage where the dead body had been found.
• 5:15
  Speaker 5: We went inside and checked with one of the men
• 5:17
  Speaker 5: from the radio car who was standing by. The dead
• 5:20
  Speaker 5: man was identified as Martin Latimer, aged sixty eight, a
• 5:23
  Speaker 5: retired owner of a couple of neighborhood grocery stores in
• 5:26
  Speaker 5: the city.
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  Speaker 6: He was lying sprawled on his side on the floor.
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  Speaker 5: There was a bullet hole in his chest, just above
• 5:31
  Speaker 5: the heart where the slug had entered the body. There
• 5:33
  Speaker 5: was another larger wound in the back through the left
• 5:36
  Speaker 5: shoulder blade where the bullet emerged. Approximately eight feet across
• 5:40
  Speaker 5: the room from the body was another chair. There was
• 5:42
  Speaker 5: a Winchester rifle wired firmly to the top, its muzzle pointing.
• 5:46
  Speaker 6: Directly above the spot where the body lay on the floor.
• 5:49
  Speaker 5: A thick white string was found wound firmly around the
• 5:53
  Speaker 5: trigger of the rifle. It ran through a metal ring
• 5:55
  Speaker 5: on the stock of the gun and stretched across the room.
• 5:58
  Speaker 6: Where it had been tied to the dead man's right
• 5:59
  Speaker 6: end finger.
• 6:01
  Speaker 5: At first glanced, it seemed like an obvious suicide arrangement.
• 6:04
  Speaker 5: Officer Hotness, one of the men in the radio car,
• 6:06
  Speaker 5: would answered the call to the exception.
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: I know, sergeant, maybe I'm all wet. Just doesn't jail
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: ride for me? Who discovered the body?
• 6:12
  Speaker 8: Harker next to our neighbor and missus Donwarth, my partner's
• 6:15
  Speaker 8: with her.
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: Now, you fellows called the crime lafe. Yeah, they're on
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: their way. Uh.
• 6:19
  Speaker 6: Was the old man the only one who lived in
• 6:20
  Speaker 6: the house here, Yeah, that's.
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: What the neighbor told us. I should like to see
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: what the crime lab crew is going to think of it. Well,
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: what's the big question, Highness?
• 6:27
  Speaker 8: Well, I know it's none of my business, sergeant, you
• 6:29
  Speaker 8: fellas or the detectives.
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: I just couldn't help. But notice, though, what's that? Well there.
• 6:37
  Speaker 8: Over here, this rifle wired to the back of the chair.
• 6:41
  Speaker 8: I take a side along the barrel of the rifle.
• 6:43
  Speaker 8: See what you think.
• 6:47
  Speaker 6: Right through the site huh, pointed right above the arms.
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: You're over there.
• 6:51
  Speaker 6: It's in the street lane of the body.
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: Uh, how much fist?
• 6:54
  Speaker 5: The old man pulled a string tied to his index finger,
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  Speaker 5: and it set off the trigger took the slug through
• 6:58
  Speaker 5: the chest.
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: Really, yeah, that's what I figured. Now here, take a
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: look the wall directly behind the old man.
• 7:04
  Speaker 8: Yeah, the slug went clean through the body. We know
• 7:07
  Speaker 8: that through the chest above the heart, that out through
• 7:10
  Speaker 8: the shoulder blade.
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: See what you mean?
• 7:13
  Speaker 8: Oh here, Now take a look at this wall here,
• 7:16
  Speaker 8: got a mark on it. M Yeah, one of the things.
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: Sure up. The old man was shot in that position.
• 7:21
  Speaker 8: The slug had to come this way, you know, pass
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  Speaker 8: through his body right about this height here.
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: Uh huh. We got to find a bullet on this
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: wall right right around here.
• 7:32
  Speaker 5: It ought to be not a trace of a slug here,
• 7:35
  Speaker 5: Not much chance it could have been deflecting.
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  Speaker 3: You think, Well, that's what I thought. It's a thirty
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: thirty Winchester enough power to go through a couple of
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: plaster walls.
• 7:42
  Speaker 6: Well, we know the slug went through the Body's got
• 7:44
  Speaker 6: to be somewhere in one of these four walls.
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: Take a look over here and see what you think.
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: All right down here near the corner of the wall
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: where well right here, Yeah, it looks like it. Man,
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  Speaker 3: something's out of killed.
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  Speaker 8: The raffle will never good of throwing the slug this
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  Speaker 8: far down on the wall, not the way it's wide
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  Speaker 8: of the chair there.
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  Speaker 6: Besides that, it's way out of line at least.
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  Speaker 3: Four feet the way I figured here.
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  Speaker 8: I know it's none of my business, Sergeant. I couldn't help,
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  Speaker 8: but notice it. Though you want me to stand by outside.
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: You don't care if you will?
• 8:14
  Speaker 6: Would you mind checking with your partner see if we can.
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: Have that neighbor lady brought over for questioning, would you right?
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: I'll check with him now, thank you. Sure, I'm going
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: to take another look at that ride.
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  Speaker 6: Well, it sure doesn't add up too well, does it.
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  Speaker 5: Even if the old man jerked the gun when he
• 8:26
  Speaker 5: pulled the trigger with that stringer rings with the slug
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  Speaker 5: couldn't have passed through his chest out of his back and.
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: The hit the wall where it did stand just behind
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: the body. What did Joe? If it's possible to line
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: and there? All right? What about here? Look about it
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: to you?
• 8:40
  Speaker 6: Uh?
• 8:41
  Speaker 8: Yeah, that's good. Let me see. No, not a chance, Joe.
• 8:46
  Speaker 8: It's way out of lining. That's the gun that killed him.
• 8:49
  Speaker 8: The old man didn't pull the trigger, not from there anyway.
• 8:52
  Speaker 6: There's one other chance, you know, somebody pulled it for him.
• 8:58
  Speaker 5: Lieutenant Lee Jones arrived with his crime lab crew and
• 9:01
  Speaker 5: went to work. We put in a call to the
• 9:03
  Speaker 5: coroner's office, and then the dead man's neighbor, missus Elsie Donald,
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  Speaker 5: was brought over for questioning. She was a chubby, matronry
• 9:09
  Speaker 5: lady about forty five. She told her she'd been a
• 9:12
  Speaker 5: neighbor to the aging Martin Latimer for more than ten years.
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: I think that you knew mister Latimer pretty well. Man.
• 9:18
  Speaker 10: Yeah, I suppose didn't have any relatives. Poor man all alone.
• 9:23
  Speaker 10: He was in the grocery business for years. He made
• 9:26
  Speaker 10: some nice money, I guess retired about eight years ago,
• 9:30
  Speaker 10: sold both his stores, and then come from a mortgage
• 9:33
  Speaker 10: on one of them one hundred and fifty dollars a month. Yeah,
• 9:37
  Speaker 10: I was very comfortable. Wasn't that penny painter at all?
• 9:41
  Speaker 10: But they were stripty it just the same way with
• 9:44
  Speaker 10: my husband Court. He used to say, take care of
• 9:47
  Speaker 10: the dimes and the dollars would take care of themselves.
• 9:49
  Speaker 5: Well, Missus Donald, can you think of any reasons why
• 9:52
  Speaker 5: Latimer would want to take his own life.
• 9:54
  Speaker 10: Oh I suppose, And poor man's getting along in years
• 9:58
  Speaker 10: a long time. Day was it's Friday. He was going
• 10:00
  Speaker 10: to die with cancer?
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: That's so. Did missus Latimer have cancer? Do you know? Oh?
• 10:04
  Speaker 9: No, he kept thinking he was going to die with it.
• 10:08
  Speaker 9: Could you come next door to my place while I
• 10:11
  Speaker 9: get some of my laundry out?
• 10:13
  Speaker 6: We could talk there.
• 10:14
  Speaker 10: It was just across the yard.
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: All right, man, that'll be fine.
• 10:17
  Speaker 6: If you want to tell Lee Jones will be next door.
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: Ben is you better let Hockins know too, right uptown?
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 10:26
  Speaker 9: About that cancer business officer. Mister Latimer was always talking
• 10:30
  Speaker 9: about it, Yes, ma'am. He'd find him into a doctor
• 10:32
  Speaker 9: about it. That was last week only he came back
• 10:36
  Speaker 9: and he told me the doctor said for him not
• 10:38
  Speaker 9: to be so silly about it.
• 10:39
  Speaker 10: He was a well man and good health.
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: What was the last time that you saw Ladimer? Man?
• 10:45
  Speaker 10: Day before yesterday? We laughed and joked over the bed. Then,
• 10:51
  Speaker 10: poor man, he had such a nice smile. Remind me
• 10:53
  Speaker 10: a good deal of cord. That was my husband.
• 10:56
  Speaker 5: I'd like to have your honest opinion, Miss Dono, do
• 10:59
  Speaker 5: you think mister Laimer killed himself.
• 11:01
  Speaker 10: Well, I suppose that rifle is there? That gentleman some
• 11:04
  Speaker 10: SAPs Joe.
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: I wonder if I could talk to you.
• 11:06
  Speaker 6: Man, Yeah, okay, would you like to go on ahead
• 11:08
  Speaker 6: over next door.
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: Man, We'll be right with you. All right, off set,
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: Thank you very much. We'll be right there, man. Yeah.
• 11:16
  Speaker 8: Crime lab crews having a field day. I see if
• 11:19
  Speaker 8: the old man shot himself with that regular to make
• 11:21
  Speaker 8: ripples car they find anything definite, bested the rifle for fingerprints,
• 11:24
  Speaker 8: didn't find a one.
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: How about that?
• 11:26
  Speaker 6: You know it makes less sense in that slug buried
• 11:29
  Speaker 6: in the corner of the wall.
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: And it.
• 11:31
  Speaker 8: Checked the disk in the living room, found some correspondence
• 11:34
  Speaker 8: like him I was having with some woman to a
• 11:36
  Speaker 8: lonely hearts club.
• 11:38
  Speaker 6: You find any reason why I'd want to die?
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: Pretty good reason.
• 11:40
  Speaker 8: Why i'd want live. Found a photograph beautiful girl not
• 11:44
  Speaker 8: to be about twenty four or five?
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: What about it? He was gonna marry him.
• 11:50
  Speaker 5: The crime lab crew continued their routine investigation of Martin
• 11:54
  Speaker 5: Latimer's cottage.
• 11:55
  Speaker 6: They removed the thirty to thirty slug from.
• 11:57
  Speaker 5: The corner of one wall then and I went there
• 12:00
  Speaker 5: to question the neighbor, missus Donwalth. There didn't seem to
• 12:03
  Speaker 5: be any common ground at all between the evidence in
• 12:05
  Speaker 5: the house and the information that she had to offer.
• 12:08
  Speaker 6: As we continued questioning her, missus Donwald.
• 12:10
  Speaker 5: Remembered that a month before Latimer had told her that
• 12:13
  Speaker 5: something might happen to him and he wanted to make
• 12:15
  Speaker 5: out a will.
• 12:16
  Speaker 6: He asked if she would witness the will.
• 12:18
  Speaker 5: A few days later, Latimer's lawyer came to the house
• 12:20
  Speaker 5: and Missus Donwith witnessed the signing. At that time, she said,
• 12:23
  Speaker 5: Latimer made the remark, I don't feel like going on
• 12:26
  Speaker 5: much longer.
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: Anyway.
• 12:28
  Speaker 5: If death means a rest, I think I deserve one.
• 12:31
  Speaker 5: Missus Donworth kept busy with the laundry while we interviewed her.
• 12:35
  Speaker 10: Would you let me.
• 12:35
  Speaker 9: Get by to the man?
• 12:37
  Speaker 10: Sorry, I have to get some of the sign then, yes, ma'am,
• 12:39
  Speaker 10: I'm sorry.
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: I'm afraid there's one thing I don't remember you telling us. Ma'am.
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: Did you hear anything out of the ordinary going on
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: next door this morning or last night?
• 12:51
  Speaker 9: No, nothing I noticed anyway, Well, did you see that
• 12:55
  Speaker 9: knob on the wall sh or the one on the lift?
• 12:58
  Speaker 9: I mean that's over here yeah, just lifted up and
• 13:00
  Speaker 9: turned around.
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: Off.
• 13:01
  Speaker 10: Please, it says off right there in the die?
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: Are ye think? No?
• 13:08
  Speaker 9: There was nothing I heard from next year I remark
• 13:11
  Speaker 9: about it.
• 13:12
  Speaker 5: Of course.
• 13:13
  Speaker 9: There's so noisy around here that time of morning you
• 13:15
  Speaker 9: can't even hear yourself think anyway?
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: How's that? Man?
• 13:18
  Speaker 9: Trucks pads and buy up and down every morning. They're
• 13:21
  Speaker 9: not small trucks either. They start in at six am.
• 13:24
  Speaker 9: They rattle paths for two three hours sleep.
• 13:27
  Speaker 6: The first good explanation is in on this thing.
• 13:29
  Speaker 8: Could you give us the names of some of the
• 13:31
  Speaker 8: other people on the street who knew mister Latham and
• 13:33
  Speaker 8: pretty well miss He's done with?
• 13:34
  Speaker 9: Yeah, I fols, I don't think any of them knew
• 13:37
  Speaker 9: the poor man as well as I did.
• 13:40
  Speaker 10: Most of them are younger folks.
• 13:42
  Speaker 9: You know, parties and things when you got up around
• 13:46
  Speaker 9: sixty five? Are pat that like mis Latimer? Parties don't
• 13:50
  Speaker 9: mean so much anymore?
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 13:54
  Speaker 9: Just a nice pride home with a good heating system,
• 13:57
  Speaker 9: good books on the shelf, good man the house.
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: Is that all you can yes, ma'am? Well, thank you
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: very much.
• 14:04
  Speaker 8: We'll leave our card here in case you want to
• 14:06
  Speaker 8: contact the Sprain Reading all right.
• 14:10
  Speaker 6: There's one more thing, missus Donalz.
• 14:12
  Speaker 5: We understand Latimer was corresponding with several women to a
• 14:15
  Speaker 5: lonely hearts club.
• 14:16
  Speaker 6: Did you ever mention that to you? No?
• 14:18
  Speaker 10: He never did I find out from the male man.
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: He's a regular gossip. Uh huh.
• 14:24
  Speaker 6: And Latimer never mentioned any other women that corresponded with.
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: Is that right?
• 14:28
  Speaker 10: I pretended I didn't even know about it.
• 14:31
  Speaker 6: He never brought it up.
• 14:34
  Speaker 9: Don't understand why you want to meet a lady that way.
• 14:37
  Speaker 9: Almost of them are looking forward as a man with
• 14:39
  Speaker 9: money so they can quit work and lay around the house.
• 14:42
  Speaker 6: Well, thanks again, missus Donald has been very helpful.
• 14:45
  Speaker 9: Yeah, cool man, I wonder what made night let us
• 14:49
  Speaker 9: ever stilly women's little good day to done him? You
• 14:53
  Speaker 9: ro let us all over the country. Getting tired of
• 14:56
  Speaker 9: working myself go to stay the postage too. I was
• 15:01
  Speaker 9: right next door. Would have married him in a minute.
• 15:08
  Speaker 5: We left missus Donald's house a few minutes past noon
• 15:11
  Speaker 5: and we went back next door to Latimer's cottage. The
• 15:13
  Speaker 5: crime lab crew had finished their investigation and the deputy
• 15:16
  Speaker 5: coroner arrived. He took the body downtown for autopsy. We
• 15:21
  Speaker 5: talked over the crime lab findings with Lieutenant Lee Jones,
• 15:24
  Speaker 5: and he felt the same way that Ben and I did.
• 15:26
  Speaker 6: The theory that.
• 15:26
  Speaker 5: Latimer had shot himself to death was possible in many respects,
• 15:30
  Speaker 5: but it was far from plausible. We checked through Latimer's
• 15:33
  Speaker 5: correspondence with the women that he'd contacted by mail through
• 15:36
  Speaker 5: the Lonely Hearts Club, especially the young girl he obviously
• 15:39
  Speaker 5: intended to marry, judging from his letters to her. Our
• 15:42
  Speaker 5: picture showed her to be a brunette, dark eyes, young
• 15:45
  Speaker 5: and very attractive. The inscription at the bottom read with
• 15:48
  Speaker 5: Love Catherine. There was no return address on either the
• 15:51
  Speaker 5: photo or the letter. Ben called a check with the
• 15:54
  Speaker 5: Lonely Hearts Club.
• 15:55
  Speaker 8: Yes, ma'am, no, that's all right, we'll probably be dropping
• 15:58
  Speaker 8: down at Coulter answered.
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: By what they say? It might be it Joe. Club
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: secretary says they've been having trouble with somebody who signs
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: her pictures just like this one was Love Catherine. I
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: described a picture. The secretary says, it's the same girl.
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: What's the angle?
• 16:13
  Speaker 8: The girl doesn't belong to the club, but somehow she
• 16:15
  Speaker 8: got a list of the members and their addresses.
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: He writes to them.
• 16:18
  Speaker 8: Usually old men get them set from imagine they send
• 16:21
  Speaker 8: for huh. Her letters come from the east, from different cities.
• 16:25
  Speaker 8: She writes and asks for trained Fred out here. Men
• 16:28
  Speaker 8: send her their money for clothes and trained fair. That's
• 16:30
  Speaker 8: the last time that she's gone, Oh that a's.
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: Up, all right? This one letter here, this one.
• 16:37
  Speaker 5: I hate to ask you, dear, but if you could
• 16:39
  Speaker 5: send me the traveling money and just a little extra
• 16:41
  Speaker 5: for some clothes, I will take the first train and be.
• 16:44
  Speaker 8: With you in a week to become your wife. Awaiting
• 16:46
  Speaker 8: that precious moment. And so it kind of poured it
• 16:49
  Speaker 8: on thick. What's the date on there, Let's see December thirtieth,
• 16:53
  Speaker 8: it's twelve days ago.
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: What do you think that was possible?
• 16:56
  Speaker 5: She could have showed up, tried to grab all the
• 16:58
  Speaker 5: old man's money she could find. Maybe he caught her
• 17:01
  Speaker 5: at it, she killed him, rigged up this phony, set
• 17:03
  Speaker 5: up to make it look like Latimer shot himself in
• 17:05
  Speaker 5: a whole more water.
• 17:05
  Speaker 8: If we could find out you really came here, maybe
• 17:08
  Speaker 8: we better start ringing a few doorbells here.
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: Other neighbors might come up with something. What do you say,
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: Let me see that girl's pictures, you know, m yeah, yeah, yeah, no,
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: photographer's name. Now in the back here, Ben, yeah, now
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: down here in the corner, in the corner of the
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: picture mounting, Oh yeah yeah X six six six fly
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: three must be some kind of manufacturer's marking photography supplatter.
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: Guess it stands with a type of player. Uh. You
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: know anything about the photo baiting? You know? I know?
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: Neither do I. Let's find somebody who does huh.
• 17:45
  Speaker 6: Before we drove back to the office, Ben and I
• 17:47
  Speaker 6: covered the rest of the neighborhood and talked to everybody.
• 17:49
  Speaker 5: Who knew the dead man, Martin Latimer, even remotely. They
• 17:52
  Speaker 5: told us nothing that we didn't already know.
• 17:54
  Speaker 6: There had been no strangers seen visiting the old man.
• 17:57
  Speaker 5: No one had noticed anything out of the ordinary's daily routine.
• 18:01
  Speaker 5: Three o'clock that afternoon, we checked with the police photo lab.
• 18:05
  Speaker 5: They told us that the symbols stamped on the cardboard
• 18:07
  Speaker 5: frame of the photograph signed Katherine, were symbols used by
• 18:10
  Speaker 5: a photo supply company up in San Francisco. We went
• 18:13
  Speaker 5: back to the office and got in touch with the
• 18:15
  Speaker 5: San Francisco firm. We were told that the symbols indicated
• 18:18
  Speaker 5: the style and the size of photographic mounting and further
• 18:22
  Speaker 5: that this particular type of mounting was distributed only throughout
• 18:25
  Speaker 5: seven Western states.
• 18:26
  Speaker 6: They gave us a list of eighteen photo studios in
• 18:29
  Speaker 6: Los Angeles.
• 18:30
  Speaker 5: Who kept that particular mount in stock. It was a
• 18:32
  Speaker 5: long chance, but we started checking them out. Meantime, we'd run.
• 18:36
  Speaker 6: The girl through R and I and gotten out an
• 18:38
  Speaker 6: APB seeking information on her.
• 18:40
  Speaker 5: Three days later, Ben and I had checked out ten
• 18:42
  Speaker 5: of the eighteen photo studios on our list.
• 18:44
  Speaker 6: The eleventh was the m and Y Family Portraits on Melrose.
• 18:48
  Speaker 8: Yes, sir, help you police officers. Would you mind taking
• 18:51
  Speaker 8: a look at this photograph? Actor see Would you like
• 18:55
  Speaker 8: an enlargement? Got a special price in enlargements this week.
• 18:57
  Speaker 6: No, sir, just like no.
• 18:58
  Speaker 5: If you can identify this girl, well, do you recognize
• 19:02
  Speaker 5: your it?
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: Also? I know sure you wouldn't like an enlightenment.
• 19:17
  Speaker 4: You're in a Cruisi car of a metropolitan police department.
• 19:20
  Speaker 4: You receive a routine radio car.
• 19:22
  Speaker 11: All units attention, All units pick up and hold for investigation.
• 19:26
  Speaker 11: The following vehicle nineteen forty eight Ford two door Sedan,
• 19:30
  Speaker 11: black whiteside wall tires.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: There are many cars that fit this description.
• 19:35
  Speaker 6: You listen for more facts.
• 19:36
  Speaker 11: This car will have extensive damage to write front end
• 19:39
  Speaker 11: license number nine Robert nine seven oh seven in the
• 19:44
  Speaker 11: seven column nine Robert nine seven o seven KMA.
• 19:51
  Speaker 6: Now you can pin it down to one.
• 20:01
  Speaker 5: Saturday, January thirteenth, one thirty five pm. We showed the
• 20:04
  Speaker 5: photograph of the girl to the proprietor of the photo
• 20:07
  Speaker 5: studio on Melrose Avenue, and he identified her as one
• 20:10
  Speaker 5: of his customers.
• 20:11
  Speaker 6: He told us her name was Doris Chambers.
• 20:13
  Speaker 5: She was twenty two years old and a postgraduate student
• 20:16
  Speaker 5: in chemistry at the university. She came from a fairly
• 20:19
  Speaker 5: well to do family and her father was the president
• 20:21
  Speaker 5: of a local neighborhood bank.
• 20:23
  Speaker 6: She didn't even come close to the type of girl
• 20:25
  Speaker 6: that we were looking for.
• 20:27
  Speaker 5: We got the address from the photographer, drove out to
• 20:29
  Speaker 5: the home and interviewed the Chambers girl. She gave a
• 20:32
  Speaker 5: younger appearance than she did in her picture. She couldn't
• 20:35
  Speaker 5: recognize the handwriting on the photo, nor did she understand
• 20:37
  Speaker 5: the inscription with love Catherine. After questioning her, it became
• 20:41
  Speaker 5: a parent that she knew nothing at all about sixty
• 20:44
  Speaker 5: eight year old Martin Latimer.
• 20:45
  Speaker 8: I wonder if you'd mind taking another look at the
• 20:47
  Speaker 8: handwriting on a pictures familiar though, No.
• 20:53
  Speaker 12: No, I couldn't be sure that it way seems like
• 20:55
  Speaker 12: I've seen it, though.
• 20:56
  Speaker 6: Well, when'd you say you had his picture?
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: Made? Me?
• 20:58
  Speaker 12: Bridd a year ago at graduation? My mother had extra
• 21:01
  Speaker 12: copies made up.
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: She liked it.
• 21:03
  Speaker 12: I didn't care for it much.
• 21:04
  Speaker 6: Could you tell us how many people have prints.
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: Of this picture?
• 21:07
  Speaker 12: Mama had two dozen copies made up. She took twelve
• 21:09
  Speaker 12: and I took twelve. She sent them to relatives. Friends
• 21:12
  Speaker 12: of ours kept a few.
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: What'd you do with yours?
• 21:16
  Speaker 12: Send them to friends? Girls at school? Few my boyfriends.
• 21:19
  Speaker 6: Can you remember if you autographed any of them?
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 21:22
  Speaker 12: Some of them, the ones from my girlfriends, others that
• 21:25
  Speaker 12: gave up playing.
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: Can you try and think who you gave those? Two
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: missed the unsigned picture?
• 21:31
  Speaker 12: One went to Carl I know that, and Ray and
• 21:34
  Speaker 12: Bred and down Warren.
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: I think that's it. I wonder if we could have
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: their full names and that addresses play.
• 21:43
  Speaker 12: Yes, all right, don't know what I'm saving. Always jumped
• 21:46
  Speaker 12: for old letters. Could I see that picture?
• 21:51
  Speaker 6: Please?
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah? I here you go.
• 21:54
  Speaker 12: Oh it's the same writing. I thought I'd seen it before.
• 21:58
  Speaker 12: This old letter from Waurn writing doesn't it look the
• 22:01
  Speaker 12: same to you?
• 22:03
  Speaker 6: Looks close to John when I've done my own handwriting.
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: Check it over.
• 22:06
  Speaker 6: Who's this Warren, Miss Chambers, Warren White.
• 22:09
  Speaker 12: Here's his address right here.
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: I'll copy it, jem Fine.
• 22:13
  Speaker 12: Warren and I went to college together. We were engaged
• 22:16
  Speaker 12: to be married for a while and I broke it off.
• 22:18
  Speaker 12: I see, Warren's a serious boy. He was very thorough
• 22:21
  Speaker 12: with perfectionist, you know, Sergeant. He never does things halfway.
• 22:25
  Speaker 12: That's so, never knowing Warren to do anything in his
• 22:28
  Speaker 12: life half way, not one.
• 22:29
  Speaker 6: Well, he's going to have a perfect record of that
• 22:30
  Speaker 6: handwriting matches. What can they do to I don't know,
• 22:33
  Speaker 6: but they won't do it halfway.
• 22:39
  Speaker 5: Two fifty five pm we left the home of Doris
• 22:41
  Speaker 5: Chambers and drove down Beverly Boulevard to seven forty three
• 22:44
  Speaker 5: North Clarewood Avenue, an apartment house where the suspect was
• 22:48
  Speaker 5: supposed to be living. We talked as the manager and
• 22:50
  Speaker 5: he told us that one White had moved without giving
• 22:53
  Speaker 5: notice three days before on January tenth, the same day
• 22:56
  Speaker 5: sixty eight year old.
• 22:57
  Speaker 6: Martin Lattimer was found dead in his home.
• 23:00
  Speaker 5: We got on the phone talked to Doris Chambers again
• 23:03
  Speaker 5: and she gave us a lead on one White's married sister.
• 23:06
  Speaker 5: Seven thirty PM, we met with the sister of the
• 23:08
  Speaker 5: murder suspect and she told us that her brother Wan
• 23:11
  Speaker 5: had phoned that morning and asked for an emergency loan
• 23:13
  Speaker 5: of two hundred dollars, which she didn't have to give him.
• 23:16
  Speaker 5: The sister gave us White's new address and we checked
• 23:19
  Speaker 5: it out with one of those rundown futuristic style apartment
• 23:22
  Speaker 5: houses built in the mid thirties. Was on a narrow
• 23:24
  Speaker 5: road high above Sunset Boulevard, overlooking most of Hollywood.
• 23:28
  Speaker 6: White wasn't in and the manager.
• 23:29
  Speaker 5: Said he wasn't expected back till early the next morning.
• 23:32
  Speaker 5: We had the manager let us in White's apartment. We
• 23:35
  Speaker 5: waited midnight, one am. No sign of the.
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: Suspect, no denying.
• 23:42
  Speaker 8: It is sure a beautiful view from here.
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: The best in town.
• 23:45
  Speaker 6: Be nice for single fellows up here when it wouldn't
• 23:48
  Speaker 6: work with the family though.
• 23:49
  Speaker 8: How about you, Joe, Why don't you get your mother
• 23:51
  Speaker 8: looking around up here? Be a beautiful place for the
• 23:53
  Speaker 8: two or him?
• 23:54
  Speaker 5: No, only might ever leave the house. It's been there
• 23:56
  Speaker 5: for forty years. I guess you'll stayed until she dies.
• 24:00
  Speaker 5: What would be nice after you?
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: Though? In whatever you m, why don't you try to
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: talking into it? You've got nothing to live.
• 24:07
  Speaker 13: I might do there once you slide up one of
• 24:09
  Speaker 13: the windows, get a little stuff in there. H Oh,
• 24:18
  Speaker 13: now that are that's great?
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah? What time they got? M one forty five? All
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: it's a long night.
• 24:31
  Speaker 5: We waited. Three am. Four am four point thirty was cold.
• 24:37
  Speaker 5: There was still no sign of the suspect. Worn white
• 24:40
  Speaker 5: five am, five thirty six am the sky was getting
• 24:45
  Speaker 5: white over in the east. Six thirty seven am, seven
• 24:50
  Speaker 5: thirty We kept waiting, no sign of the suspect.
• 24:54
  Speaker 6: We called the office and the range for a relief.
• 24:58
  Speaker 6: Eight am we could hear.
• 24:59
  Speaker 5: Groups of you youngsters passing by outside, trooping into the
• 25:02
  Speaker 5: main yard of a grammar.
• 25:03
  Speaker 6: School just below the apartment house. We kept waiting.
• 25:07
  Speaker 5: At eight fifteen am we heard a car full up
• 25:09
  Speaker 5: in front of the apartment house. Footsteps came down the driveway.
• 25:13
  Speaker 6: Up the path and stopped outside the door. We heard
• 25:16
  Speaker 6: a key turn in the lock.
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: What is this? What do you want? If you want what? Yes,
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: the police officer's got some questions, would like to ask you.
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: It's all right, officers, Why don't you sit down. I'm
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: not going to give you any trouble. Right, I killed him.
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: Maybe I'll never know why, but I killed him. One
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: give us about it.
• 25:43
  Speaker 6: Must have had a reason for it, rigging it for
• 25:45
  Speaker 6: a suicide. Do you have anything against it?
• 25:48
  Speaker 14: I hardly even knew. You just got picture of doors
• 25:51
  Speaker 14: to food, made some good money doing it.
• 25:53
  Speaker 6: I needed you're willing to give us a statement about
• 25:55
  Speaker 6: the whole thing.
• 25:56
  Speaker 14: I haven't anything to hide, Officers, minute I killed him,
• 25:59
  Speaker 14: I knew all over right there, And at one minute
• 26:02
  Speaker 14: I knew you'd come and find me somehow. I didn't
• 26:03
  Speaker 14: know when, but you'd come and find me.
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: Well, okay, Ben, you better head downtown. Yeah. What it's
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: a great sound, isn't it. What's that? The schoolyard? The
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: kids got a great sound to it? Good one? You
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: want to get your hat? All right?
• 26:24
  Speaker 14: How can anybody figure you're starting a schoolyard like those
• 26:27
  Speaker 14: kids down there running around yelling?
• 26:30
  Speaker 6: I started the same.
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: Let me going wonder what it is?
• 26:34
  Speaker 14: It happens an eight year old red hip kid must
• 26:37
  Speaker 14: be one down there.
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: Now.
• 26:39
  Speaker 14: The other kids will grow up, get jobs, work and die.
• 26:42
  Speaker 14: It'll be all right, Yeah, one kid will end up
• 26:45
  Speaker 14: in an alley with a gun in his hand. How
• 26:48
  Speaker 14: can anybody figure, I don't know, a bunch of kids
• 26:51
  Speaker 14: playing in the schoolyard someday one of them.
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: Is a killing. Yeah, let's go. You tell me what's
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: the answer.
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: The story you have just heard was true, only the
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: names were changed to protect the innocent.
• 27:13
  Speaker 4: On April, second trial was held in Superior Court, Department
• 27:15
  Speaker 4: eighty eight, City and County of Los Angeles, State of California.
• 27:18
  Speaker 4: In a moment the results of that trial, Warren Thomas
• 27:30
  Speaker 4: White was tried and convicted of murder in the first degree.
• 27:33
  Speaker 4: He received a sentence of life imprisonment. He is still
• 27:36
  Speaker 4: serving his term in the state penitentiary. Fulsome California ladies
• 27:40
  Speaker 4: and gentlemen.
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: To build our strength against aggression, we've got to equip
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: our armed forces with weapons of war and at the
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: same time produce plenty of civilian goods so that we
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: can keep prices down. Remember, the better we produce, the
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: stronger we grow.
• 28:06
  Speaker 4: You have just heard Dragnet a series of authentic cases
• 28:09
  Speaker 4: from official filets. Technical advice comes from the Office of
• 28:12
  Speaker 4: Chief of Police wh Parker, Los Angeles Police Department.
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: Stay tuned for Counterspy next over NBC.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: Welcome back. A bit of a nineteen fifties version of
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: identity staff working here, although low tech and far more
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: easily traceable than its modern variant. I love that exchange
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: where she said to Joe Friday, well, what can they
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: do to him? And he said, I don't know, but
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: they won't do it halfway. It was also kind of
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: fun to have Friday and Romero jonesy about the sus
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: Bax apartment. Yeah, they so often get stuck on these
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: really long waits where they're waiting around for someone. And
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: I guess if you're gonna do that, it's good to
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: do it somewhere where you get a nice view. Well,
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: now we turn to listener comments and feedback, and we
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: start on Spotify with a comment from Mechanic sixty six,
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: who riots they had to change the penalty for kidnapping
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: from death because there was no incentive to keep the
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: victims alive. Well, I think there's some intuitive logic in
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: that that doesn't appear to be the case, at least
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: from a statutory perspective. The death penalty provision of the
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: Federal kidnapping Statue was overturned in nineteen sixty eight in
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: the court case United States versus Jackson, and the reason
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: it was overturned in that case was because the death
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: penalty could only be imposed by the jury, so if
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: kidnappers had a bench trial, they had no possibility of
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: being executed. What the court found in that particular case
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: is that having that provision impaired the right to trial
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: by jury, because essentially the defendants would have to fear
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: for their lives if they went ahead and exercised their
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: constitutional right in that case. Now, according to Justice Department interpretation,
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: the death penalty is now available for kidnapping under the
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety four Crime Belt, and there are states where
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: there are aggravated kidnapping statutes still. But from a practical standpoint,
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: it's not done. And I think it more has to
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: do with the idea that courts have taken a dim
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: view of death penalty for cases that have not resulted
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: in death. It's not, say a Supreme Court precedent that
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: you couldn't do it absolutely, but there's enough potential risk
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: of an appeal that prosecutors generally just don't consider it
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: an option. So the death penalty has gone away for
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: kidnapping as a practical matter, more as a concern about
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: the way courts would rule, rather than concerns about these
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: sort of perverse incentives it might create for kidnappers. Then
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: we have a couple of comments over on YouTube regarding
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: the Big Sophomore. Sarge seven fourteen says, thank you Adam
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: for the stream and Sanggraf says five star drama. Well,
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: thank you so much. Appreciate you taking the time to
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: comment on YouTube. Well, now it's time to thank our
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: Patreon supporter of the day, and I want to go
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: ahead and nink John Patreon supporter since September twenty sixteen,
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: currently supporting the podcast at the shawmus level of four
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: dollars or more per month. Thanks so much for your support, John,
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: and that will actually do it for today. If you're
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: enjoying the podcast, please follow us using your favorite podcast software.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: And if you're enjoying the podcast on YouTube, be sure
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: tock the video, subscribe to the channel, in mark the
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: notification bell, all those great things that help YouTube channels
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: to grow. We will be back next Thursday with another
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: episode of Dragnet. But join us back here tomorrow for
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: yours truly, Johnny Dollar ware.
• 32:53
  Speaker 4: Your husband disappeared the night before last.
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: Yes, that's right.
• 32:55
  Speaker 15: What time, I'm not sure. Around that night, somebody came
• 33:01
  Speaker 15: to see him, of a strange sort of man.
• 33:05
  Speaker 3: How do you mean strange?
• 33:06
  Speaker 15: Well, he was dressed in rough clothes, a seaman's jacket.
• 33:11
  Speaker 15: He said he was an old friend of my husband's.
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: Did he give you his name, missus Farman, only blinker Blinker?
• 33:18
  Speaker 15: Yes, he said that's what everybody called him. I guess
• 33:21
  Speaker 15: because he kept blinking his eyes very rapidly.
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: I see.
• 33:24
  Speaker 11: Well.
• 33:25
  Speaker 15: I showed this this blinker person into the den where
• 33:28
  Speaker 15: my husband was and left the two of them together.
• 33:30
  Speaker 15: A few minutes later, my husband came out and told
• 33:33
  Speaker 15: me he was going to drive Blinker downtown and find
• 33:35
  Speaker 15: him a hotel room. So I went to bed. I
• 33:39
  Speaker 15: was tired and went right to sleep. And well, my
• 33:42
  Speaker 15: husband and I have adjoining bedrooms. When I went in
• 33:45
  Speaker 15: to call him yesterday morning, he was gone the bed.
• 33:49
  Speaker 15: It hadn't been slept in. I called his office, thinking
• 33:52
  Speaker 15: he might have decided to work late, but they hadn't
• 33:54
  Speaker 15: seen him.
• 33:55
  Speaker 3: Then you call the police, yes, missus Foreman.
• 34:00
  Speaker 4: Had your husband ever mentioned this man Blinker before?
• 34:03
  Speaker 15: No, I'm quite certain he hadn't.
• 34:05
  Speaker 3: Can you describe him well?
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: I hope you'll be with us then. In the meantime,
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: send your comments to Box thirteen at Greatdetectives dot net,
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives, and check us
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: out on Instagram, Instagram, dot com slash Great Detectives from Boise, Idaho.
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: This is your host, Adam Graham signing off.