Latest / Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas / Dragnet: The Big Pug (EP1586)
Transcript
- 0:28Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho. This
- 0:33is your host, Adam Graham. If you have a comment, email me
- 0:38Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net, follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives,
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- 0:50Detectives. Well, before we do get started, I do want to encourage
- 0:54you to pick up your copy of Slime incorporate it. It's my first detective
- 0:59novel and it's now available as an audiobook. I set it in Boise,
- 1:03Idaho, and it's a tale of political corruption and murder, great mystery and
- 1:08really inspired by all the great detectives I've encountered. You can pick it up
- 1:14in the at audible dot com or in the iTunes store. Full list of
- 1:19all the titles I've written available at store dot Great detectives dot net. Also
- 1:23over at Great Detectives dot net. Check out my faults on the novel of
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- 1:34your kindle. You can try the service out free for two weeks. Just
- 1:38go to the kindlestore search for the Great Detectives of old time radio. Well,
- 1:42now it's time for today's episode of Dragnet. The original air date is
- 1:48maybe eighteenth of nineteen fifty and the title is The Big Pug. The story
- 2:02you're about to hear is true, only the names have been changed to protect
- 2:07the innocent. Drag Net. You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned to robbery
- 2:21detail. An elderly woman on her way to the bank has been robbed and
- 2:24beaten senseless. The suspects are cruel, ruthless. Your job get them drag
- 2:40Net The document a drama of an actual crime. For the next thirty minutes,
- 2:46in cooperation with the Los Angeles Police Department, you will travel step by
- 2:50step on the side of the law through an actual case transcribed from official police
- 2:53files, from beginning to end, from crime to punishment, Dragnet is the
- 2:59story if you're a police force in action. It was Saturday, August ninth.
- 3:05It was hot in Los Angeles. We were working the day watch out
- 3:07of Robbery Detail. My partner's Ben Romero. The boss is Ed Walker,
- 3:12Captain of Robbery. My name is Friday. Was ten fourteen am when I
- 3:15got to Room twenty seven eight Robbery Detail. Hi, Hi, Joe,
- 3:22I went, hi, is he well? No, for a while.
- 3:24What did vets say? Thinks the dog picked up some kind of poisoned food?
- 3:28Oh it's too bad. Sure, hot, you got a penny?
- 3:35Oh yeah, there you are. Thank you. Somebody poison Huh, yeah,
- 3:49that's what the vet says. I never could figure why some people poisoned
- 3:53dogs. I don't understand some people not liking the animal, but I can't
- 3:58see why they poisoned food and then just talk around wholesale lots. You know
- 4:01how I feel about that dog. I mind everything happens to him. I
- 4:03don't know what I'll do. Well. I hope you all right. Those
- 4:04vets can do wonders these days. I sure hope. So they told me
- 4:08to check back with him about noon. I'm about to melt and his heat.
- 4:13Yeah, doesn't seem to be any air at all. Well, mar
- 4:15Sunday, guess I'll just lie out in the backyard. It gonna be good
- 4:18to just loaf around, read the Sunday papers. Huh, it's a hot
- 4:21shot. I'll take it. My wife wants me to get out and get
- 4:25a little color. She says I'm better looking with a ten. She ought
- 4:28to know all right, where'll you get married, Joe? After so long
- 4:30it gets so'd you believe everything they tell you? There's one roll on it?
- 4:32Yeah, robbery and shooting. Victim's car was stolen. You want to
- 4:35get on it all right, miss Joe? Bank job, don't make any
- 4:38plans for Sunday ten fifty three am, Ben and I pulled up in front
- 4:45of the Union Trust and Savings Bank at Melrose and Logan. We made our
- 4:48way through the usual crowd that was milling in and around the bank. We
- 4:51spoke with a manager of mister Bill forr. He told us that he didn't
- 4:55see the actual robbery. The victim was taken in the parking lot next to
- 4:58the bank. Her name was Myrtle Shaw, longtime customer of the Union Trust
- 5:01and Savings four told us that she always did her banking at the same time
- 5:05each day, around ten in the morning when the bank first opened. He
- 5:09said she was the proprietor of Myrtle's Cafe, four doors west of the bank.
- 5:14Let us throw please, sorry, let us throw again. Officer over
- 5:16here, Yes, Friday and Romero Central Robbery. Did you answer the call?
- 5:20Yes, we did, Freeman and well you're going at thirteen nine.
- 5:24I haven't had just left, thank him. Didn't want to go to Georgia
- 5:27Street, said she wanted her own doctor. Okay, she inside the cafe.
- 5:30Yeah, let's go in, Benner you freeman. No, I'm well,
- 5:31screaman's inside. See if you can clear this crowd a little? What
- 5:34you will? Right? Thank you? All right, I've seen her with
- 5:36the Let's move along. It's yere, she is over in the last boots
- 5:49Freeman. Yes, sir, Friday and Romero was central robbery. It's just
- 5:54a victim. Yes, that's right. My name's Myrtle Shaw Michelle. Yes,
- 6:00my name is from maryl This said, started fighting from Robert Devision downtown.
- 6:03You men detect this, yes, ma'am. We'd like to ask you
- 6:06a few questions. Yes, sir, right, I hope you can catch
- 6:10the men that did this. We're going to do all we can. It's
- 6:13a little hard for me to talk. My faces a swollen. It hurt
- 6:16something terrible. What happened? One of them struck me? Yes, ma'am,
- 6:19we know that you want to tell us how it happened. And I
- 6:23was on my way to the bank. I drove in the parking lot there
- 6:26next door. Yeah, I just got out of my car when these men
- 6:29walked over to me. You're only four doors from the bank. Do you
- 6:31always drive such a short distance? No? No, I just picked up
- 6:35my car from Edgar's fille in station. I haven't greased once a month.
- 6:41I see where was I just driving into the parking lot and these men walked
- 6:46up to you. Yes, oh, yes, well. One of them
- 6:48said, just hand over the money and there won't be any trouble. The
- 6:51other one said, this is a gun in my pocket. Grandma, Yeah,
- 6:56my head's splitting. Did someone call doctor Van Hare, Yes, ma'am,
- 7:00he's on his way. Thank you. Well. I carried my DAZE
- 7:05receipts in a cloth bank bag. I had it in my purse, and
- 7:10I wasn't sure if they knew I had any money. Yeah, I told
- 7:13him I didn't have any I was going in to dress him out, and
- 7:16one of the men said, look, old timer, we don't want to
- 7:18get rough. Just handed over. We know you got it. What'd you
- 7:21do? Well? I turned and started to walk away, and I saw
- 7:25this one man's arm flash out of his pocket, and then something hid like
- 7:28a rock, struck me on the side of the face. I just luggy
- 7:30with his gun. Oh, yes, it couldn't have been in his hand.
- 7:33I don't think he could have cut my face like this with his hand.
- 7:35He should have let them take you to the emergency hospital. No,
- 7:39I don't want to go into an ablance. I want my own doctor.
- 7:42He don't know what to do. Ambulance screw gave her first daid. She
- 7:44wouldn't let him take her. Thanks Michael. Would you know the man if
- 7:48you ever saw him again? I think so. Yes. One of them
- 7:53looked like the worst kind of a hoodlum when they got your money. Huh,
- 7:57yes, they tell me they got away with my car too. How
- 8:01much money did you lose? One hundred and sixteen dollars and twenty three cents.
- 8:05Do you own this cafe? Yes? I do. It's a small
- 8:09place, as you can see. I do all cooking and serving up to
- 8:11eleven thirty in the morning. Then I have a college girl that waits on
- 8:16tables and afternoon and evening. Do you think those men have ever been in
- 8:18here in the cafe? See neither of them, for no, I never
- 8:22laid eyes on them before today. How about the girl that works for you?
- 8:24Think she's ever seen them? Before. I don't know. You could
- 8:28ask her. She should be here soon some time. Is it now eleven
- 8:31twenty? Yeah, she'll be along any minute. Oh. I wish there
- 8:37was something to stop this ache. And you know you must have a lot
- 8:39of paying Misshell. But we've got to ask a few more questions so we
- 8:41can get right on this. Yeah, I understand. I'll cut you all
- 8:45I can. Ben, do you want to get the dope on the stolen
- 8:46car and a description of the man? I'll call the office right says there
- 8:50a payphone I can use here, Michelle, Yes, right over there behind
- 8:54the phonte. Thank you. Do you need change? Yes, ma'am,
- 8:58I'm afraid I do. I'll just help yourself my cash register there, thank
- 9:01you. I put in a dime taking out two nickelas. Oh, well,
- 9:11now that was necessary. Young men, you didn't have to tell me.
- 9:13I know that we don't like to open other people's cash registers. You're
- 9:16a police officer, answered yes, ma'am. I trust you. It seems
- 9:20to be the reason a lot of people don't. I called the office,
- 9:26and as fast as Ben repeated the information, I phoned it in. The
- 9:28detailed information was broadcast to all units the stolen car was a nineteen forty six
- 9:33green Ford sedan license number one x ray one eight nine eight. All units
- 9:37were instructed to be on the lookout for the car and have found abandoned,
- 9:41to notify robbery detail immediately and keep the car under surveillance until we arrived.
- 9:46I called in a description of the suspects and the fact that the money was
- 9:48taken in a cloth bag stamped Union Trust and Savings. Myrtle Shaw's doctor arrived
- 9:54and she was ordered to bed for rest and treatment. Ben and I interrogated
- 9:58all the possible witnesses in the parking lot. We found only one man who
- 10:01saw the actual robbery. His story compared to that of miss Shaw's, but
- 10:05he could add nothing more. We talked with a young college student who worked
- 10:09in the restaurant. She didn't think she'd ever seen the men in question.
- 10:13We drove back to the city Hall and went to the stat's office. They
- 10:16made a run for us on the descriptions and m O that we had,
- 10:18and we pulled the packages of all possible suspects. The machine sorted out.
- 10:24We narrowed and sifted the twenty four possibles down to twelve. We took the
- 10:28mugshots out and showed them to the victim and the one witness. They could
- 10:31not identify any of them as the two men in the hold up. Two
- 10:33thirty five pm Saturday, we started to canvass the neighborhood door to door.
- 10:39It takes care of Logan Street from one block, both sides. I want
- 10:43to start here on Melroe. O key, let's try this drug store.
- 10:48I'm on fire. The faber says it's supposed to hit ninety nine today.
- 10:50I believe it. Come on, yuess. Police officers were looking for a
- 10:58couple of men. Here's the descriptions. I wonder if you'd read this and
- 11:01tell us if you've ever seen him. Yes, we've got time to have
- 11:05a coupe. You know, we better not. It's getting late. No
- 11:09afraid, I've never seen anybody who answers either one of these descriptions. You
- 11:11sure, yeah, quite sure, Thank you. I'll have to have that
- 11:16back. Oh, let's go. Is it just my imagination or does it
- 11:26seem to be getting hotter to you? Talking about it doesn't help. I'm
- 11:30tried ignoring it. That don't help neither. Let's try this bakery. How
- 11:37do you do? Gentlemen? All right, police officers, wonder if you'd
- 11:39read the two descriptions lest it here and tell us if you've ever seen either
- 11:41of these men? Yes, of course. No. First smells good in
- 11:48here, doesn't it. No, don't seem to be calling about it looks
- 11:52like this. Anybody else in here might have seen them. No, I
- 11:54don't think so. I wait on trade. Okay, thank you, ma'am.
- 11:56Let's go. That smells just like good old apple pie, doesn't it
- 12:03you. We're baking Danny's coffee cake at the moment. The next place here
- 12:11is a plastic factory. Yeah, that's fact. They're closed half day Saturday.
- 12:13Again. Somebody in there cleaning up. Yes, you didn't hear me.
- 12:22There it comes. You know, a lot of money in this plastic
- 12:26business really came into its own during the war, didn't Plants closed Saturday afternoon?
- 12:37Police officers, I wonder if you'd look this paper over and tell us
- 12:39if you may have seen two men answering these descriptions. All right, I
- 12:43have to put my glasses off. Yeah, no, I don't need them
- 12:50for sweeping. Just read it all right? Here you are what do you
- 12:58think? Welcome? I said, what do you think? Have you seen
- 13:01him. I don't know. I mean, I'm not sure yet. I'm
- 13:05not sure. I may have seen one of them, how about the other
- 13:07one? That's what I mean. Yeah, I don't know about the other
- 13:09one, But you do remember seeing one of them. I might have seen
- 13:13both of them, but you're not sure. I don't know. But do
- 13:16you want to tell us what you remember about the one you did see?
- 13:18Oh? Don't you want to know about the other one too? Yes,
- 13:20ir, we do. But I understand you to say that you didn't know
- 13:22about the other one. Oh I don't. Well, you just tell us
- 13:24what you know then, then, yeah, we want me to just forget
- 13:28about the other fella. No, sir, but if you don't know,
- 13:30it's all right. I might know. Yeah, I haven't read about him
- 13:33yet. Oh, you asked me a question just as I finished reading about
- 13:37the first one. I was just studying on the second one at that time.
- 13:41Yes, sir, Sorry, what was that you asked me? It
- 13:46wasn't important. Then I'll read about the second one, yes, sir,
- 13:50thank you. Yeah, I seen him two or three days ago, both
- 13:56of them in this neighborhood. Yes, right around back in the parking lot.
- 13:58They work here. Oh, so they don't. It seems to me
- 14:01I've seen them a couple of times. What were they doing? I don't
- 14:03recall. I just remember i've seen them. Sure, yes, I'm positive
- 14:09one of them had on a brown suit, the other gray, just like
- 14:11it says the description's fit. All right, you have any idea where these
- 14:15men might be? Now? Oh? Sure, we're investigating a robbery.
- 14:18We want these men to question. I wish I could help you more.
- 14:20I do know I've seen them, but that's about all. I don't know
- 14:24their names, sir. What's your name? Says Williamson. We'll leave you
- 14:28one of our cars, mister Williamson if you see them again. Appreciate you
- 14:31letting us know, Yes, sir, Sure, well let's go then,
- 14:35mush we had something more definite to go on. We just had a picture
- 14:39of the guys. Yeah, I had to help. There's a vacant lot
- 14:43in the corner faces out this bla. I's double back on the other side
- 14:46of the street. Right, So h four point thirty pm. We continued
- 14:52knocking on doors, checking every place that was still open or showed any activity.
- 14:56Saturday afternoon, we talked with hotel managers, janitors, and clean up
- 15:01men at the different factories or business establishments. We checked grocery stores, private
- 15:05homes, everywhere that we could find anybody to show the descriptions to. By
- 15:09six fifteen pm, the only person who showed any sign of recognition of the
- 15:13two hold up men was still Seth Williamson, the janitor at the plastics plan.
- 15:16Before we took time out per sandwich and a cup of coffee, we
- 15:18drove back to the City Hall to check the office. Hi, Friday,
- 15:28what do you saying, Marty. A couple of messages for you here.
- 15:30Thanks, It's about as you rom meer. I'm dehydrating. That sun almost
- 15:35fried me well, Joe. That one call asked your mother said, tell
- 15:39your dog's out of danger. Oh it's fine calling around too, huh yeah.
- 15:43And had other one from some guy who says he wants to talk to
- 15:45you right away. I've been calling in since about three this afternoon. Seth
- 15:48Williamson call four times. Yeah, said tell you he'd wait at that number
- 15:52there they heard run. I call him right now in a hottowntown lay pretty
- 15:58warm man, and he gets back on that stolen car. No jed and
- 16:06mention plastics this Sergeant Friday, Police department. Oh, yes, I'm glad
- 16:10you called me back. I think I've got a little more information for you.
- 16:12Yeah, those two fellas you were looking for, did you find them?
- 16:15No? Not Jed, Well, I just remember what they were doing
- 16:19on back there in the parking lot. Yeah, they were taking pictures of
- 16:22what the two girls that was with him. I remember now. There were
- 16:26two young women with them, one who was a blonde and the other I
- 16:30don't recall how were they dressed. The blonde had on a white shirt of
- 16:33some kind and a black dress. That's all I can tell you for sure.
- 16:37Who was taking the pictures. First of the fellows took the girl's picture,
- 16:41and then the girls took slapshots of the fellas. Thank you very much,
- 16:44mister Williamson. Oh yes, sir, it will goodbye, good bye.
- 16:48What do you got they've had their pictures taken. Yeah, let's find
- 16:52the prince. You are listening to drag Net, the case history of a
- 17:04police investigation presented in the public interest by Fatima cigarettes Ben and I figured if
- 17:18we could possibly turn up the photographs that had been taken, we'd have something
- 17:22more definite to go on. We still had a lot of doubts. Maybe
- 17:25the janitor Seth Williamson was wrong, Maybe there were no pictures. If the
- 17:29snapshots had been taken, maybe they were still in the camera undeveloped. With
- 17:33any kind of fast service and processing, the photos could have been picked up
- 17:36by now. We figured it was worth the chance and the time involved to
- 17:40check the lead out. All we had was the victim scant description of the
- 17:44two hold up men, and if we could possibly turn up pictures, it
- 17:45had help a great deal. If Williamson was right, we'd have another lead
- 17:49the two girls. Six forty pm we started checking drug stores, going through
- 17:53all prints that had not yet been picked up with the customers we'd made.
- 17:57The rounds of all the drug stores in the neighborhood are earlier in the day,
- 18:00but we double checked the descriptions of the two men with the personnel in
- 18:03each store. By nine pm, we checked out ten drug stores and found
- 18:07nothing. We were going on the hunch that the photos would most likely be
- 18:11dropped off the processing somewhere in the immediate neighborhood. It was only a hunch,
- 18:14and we were running out of drug stores. Please, business, we'd
- 18:18like to go through your photos that have been left for developing. Yes,
- 18:19sir, here's the box right here. I thank you. I'll take half,
- 18:26not very many this time, Hugh. Oh, don't forget to check
- 18:30the negatives too. Sometimes they don't print them if they're bad. Yeah,
- 18:33I know, no nothing in this one. Speakers who will take a lot
- 18:41of pictures as the babies don't nothing. These are sure fuzzy pictures of the
- 18:51zoo. Pictures a yellow stone man, Yeah, Peter. Maybe let me
- 19:03see two guys, two girls. One. It's a blond, white blouse,
- 19:08dark skirt, no clothes. Let's see left by Marion Lang two twenty
- 19:15three s Bexel for Claire. Yes, sir, you want to double check
- 19:18us on this end below? Yes, sir, This date and time right
- 19:19here, three thirty pm, August sixth Yes, that's correct. That's when
- 19:23the films were left for process, three days before we were Did you ever
- 19:26see this woman in the picture before? Let me see that's why. Yes,
- 19:30yeah, she comes in here quite often. Miss Lang is her name.
- 19:33How about these men? Are this other girl here? No? No,
- 19:37I've never seen them. When were these prints supposed to be picked up?
- 19:40I waited on her. She told me she'd picked them up Friday yesterday.
- 19:44Well, we'll have to take these photos along with us. They'll be
- 19:45returned, all right, sir? How will I explain this to miss Lang?
- 19:48If this is the right address, you won't have to. Before we
- 19:55left, we called the office and had a stakeout placed in the drug store
- 19:57in case Marion Lang tried to pick up the photos. We checked the address
- 20:02she gave on the envelope to twenty three East Bixel. It was a small
- 20:04apartment building near the corner. The manager told us that Marion Lang had moved
- 20:08out the morning of August ninth, the day of the robberck. She left
- 20:11no forwarding address. The manager knew nothing of the other girl or the men
- 20:15in the photos. We checked with Myrtle Shaw, the victim. She positively
- 20:18identified the two men as the ones who robbed and slugger. She knew nothing
- 20:22of the two girls, hadn't seen them before. We put out a wad
- 20:26on Marion Lang and gave the photos to Lieutenant Frank Cunningham and the record girl
- 20:30Monday morning, August eleventh morning, Frank, how about any record on the
- 20:37guys? Nothing we could find, though, I'm having copies sent out right
- 20:41now. Kind of thought maybe if we came up with pictures, we'd be
- 20:44halfway home. Maybe we are. How do you mean? I had Tony
- 20:47make some blow up some of the negatives, full of grain, probably taking
- 20:49the cheap box camera some kind, but it might help. What'd you find?
- 20:53I just checked the enlargements. They were still in the wash, but
- 20:56I think we've got something. Let's go over the photo copy, all right,
- 21:18yeah and good and clear? Now there's all everybody anyway, anyway we
- 21:26go. I had sixteen by twenty enlargements made. Let's show you what I
- 21:30found. Yeah, you guys, take a good look at the face of
- 21:33this this one man here? Who thought we did? Why? It's pretty
- 21:37hard to see a those small prince. Look here you see the nose in
- 21:41this one. I guess it's been broken one time or another, wouldn't you.
- 21:45Yeah? You see here scar with the left eye, scar with the
- 21:49right eye. A couple of them. Yeah, look at the right ear.
- 21:53See how mash it is. We couldn't come up with any names for
- 21:59you, but how better to be safe to guess his line of work.
- 22:02Looks like a price fighter. Nothing in the auditive. While I checked and
- 22:06double checked everything, I'd glabed my hands on here in the department. I
- 22:08don't place him. If he was a boxer, I then he's standing.
- 22:11I don't reg on. Isn't much wish I had something else for It's a
- 22:15lead in. It might be mor than we had. It was possible that
- 22:22one of the two hold up men in the photos could have been a professional
- 22:26fighter. From his appearance and bill, we felt it was a fair guess.
- 22:29We took copies of the snapshots to the State Boxing Commission in Los Angeles
- 22:33Branch. We spoke with a mister Farmer, who couldn't seem to recall a
- 22:36man from his picture. We went over the description that the victim had given
- 22:38us. Farmer said that he knew a great many of the fighters because at
- 22:41one time or another they all check in and out of the commission before about
- 22:45but the man in the snapshot remained unidentified. He checked through several hundred cards
- 22:49bearing the photographs of boxers in the files. No luck. Farmer suggested that
- 22:55we try the Spring Street gym, where the out of town fighters get into
- 22:57shape and the boxers intown train. We left him a copy of the photograph
- 23:02in our card so that he could continue checking back through his files. It
- 23:04was ten twenty two am when we got to the Spring Street gym. Here's
- 23:11manager though a man. You're the boss here? Yeah? What can I
- 23:19do for you? Police officers? Yeah, we're looking for a man we
- 23:22think might be a fighter. I wonder if you can help us out.
- 23:25Sure try. I'm Sage and Friday. That's my partner, Ben La Meryl.
- 23:27Hey, when is Charlie Coleman. Here's a couple of photographs for you.
- 23:32I looked at Mentacoma. Have you ever seen this fellow on the right.
- 23:36Let's see. Let's walk over by the window, get a little light
- 23:38on him. Wait a minute. He used to work out here all the
- 23:47time a couple of years back. Name is Billy Marshall. Yeah, that's
- 23:52right, one of the names, Billy the kid Marshall. Is he still
- 23:55around? Gee? I couldn't tell. You've been a good two years since
- 23:56I've seen him up here. Any idea where we might locate? I dobt.
- 24:00It used to be a Benny farber Stable. Benny's been the East now
- 24:03over a year. Let me check back through my locker listings. Maybe I
- 24:07still got something on him. Let's see h out cards. Yeah, that's
- 24:15what we want let's take him over here by the window where we can read
- 24:18her. As I recall, Marshall wasn't much of a fighter. Father nursed
- 24:29him up through the po limbs, got him in the semi windups. He
- 24:33started hitting the bottle head the dames. Oh yeah, here we are.
- 24:38Can I see that? Please? Oh sure hear that? Billy the kid,
- 24:45big beefy boy, Real sucker for right Cross. Sixteen thirty seven Carverer
- 24:48Avenue. That's the last address he got on them. Whatever the card says,
- 24:52yeah, real sucker for the old right Cross. Thank you very much,
- 24:55Mss Filmer. We're welcome boys anytime. What's he done? We just
- 24:57wanted for questioning. Oh see, if you're sure to hear from him,
- 25:00don't tell him we're looking for him. Let's go. Thanks again. What
- 25:03do you think he did wrong? I don't know. How do you block
- 25:07a right cross? We called the new information into Captain Walker and he sent
- 25:12a crew him into the Boxing Commission to check further. Sixteen thirty seven Carver
- 25:17Avenue. It was a cheap rooming house on the west side of town.
- 25:21Marshall hadn't lived there for over a year and a half. The land that
- 25:23he gave us a forwarding address. The next place hadn't seen him for a
- 25:26year. We kept checking and rechecking, going from one into town to the
- 25:30other. Each place was a little better than the last. Was easy to
- 25:33trace Billy the kids rise in the fight game, such as it was,
- 25:36but the condition of the places he lived in. We covered six different rooming
- 25:40houses, boarding houses, and apartments, each time his residence had been a
- 25:44little more recent. Five point fifteen pm, Monday, August eleventh, we
- 25:48pulled up in front of the Sunflower Hotel, four thirty three Banyon Street,
- 25:52rates two dollars a week. Enough at the dance, I'll ring the bell.
- 26:04How do you do, police officers? Have you got a Billy Marshall
- 26:08registered here? No, no one by that name here. Did you take
- 26:12a look at this picture? Either one of these men live here? Oh
- 26:18sure, that's Tom Green and George Martin Room nine. Then now I could
- 26:22bus the room and see no, never mind room nine. You said,
- 26:25yeah, that's let's come room nine. Cover me right, yeah, special
- 26:41delivery ladder. You have to sign for it. Stand still, police officers,
- 26:51What you been? Thank the other one? Shout all right, hold
- 27:02it right there, Marshall, get over there against the wall. You get
- 27:04up over there. Weady O give me a hand, Joel, I help
- 27:10you? Have you all right? Yeah? Yeah, I'm okay. Ah.
- 27:15Here is Joe looks like his picture if it's a description, except for
- 27:18one thing. Yeah, he's no sucker for a right cross. The story
- 27:30you have just heard was true, only the names were changed to protect the
- 27:33innocent. On March twenty seventh, nineteen forty seven, trial was held in
- 27:38Superior Court, Department eighty one, City and County of Los Angeles, State
- 27:41of California. In a moment the results of that trial, both William Marshall
- 27:55and his accomplice were found guilty of armed robbery and grand theft auto and are
- 27:57now serving their terms as prescribed by law. You have just heard Dragnets a
- 28:06series of authentic cases from official files Technical Advice Board. Dragnet comes from the
- 28:11Office of Chief of Police W. A. Wharton, Los Angeles Police Department.
- 28:15Screen Directors presents Lucille Ball as Miss Grant Tomorrow on NBC Welcome Back.
- 28:30Well, a lot to really lock about this episode. I like the way
- 28:36this just sort of built throughout the story with this. How do you find
- 28:44someone Buddy can identify there's a stranger, no fingerprints, and it's a fascinating
- 28:48process. How you just you do the like work. Can you find somebody
- 28:53who saw something very small and really just went from there. It's fascinating to
- 29:00see how this legwork works. Oftentime. It can sound kind of boring when
- 29:07described by someone else, but it really is interesting how they went through that
- 29:11process. And I thought it was a funny thing at the end when Joe
- 29:15remarked about how the guy was not a sucker for a right cross. The
- 29:19only thing that didn't work about this episode for me was having to trying to
- 29:23have Joe Friday do the personal sloss of life sort of moment rather than the
- 29:33partner. Though of course that would really become Frank smith purview once he joined
- 29:37the show, but that's still a couple of years away. All right,
- 29:41Well, we have some listener comments and feedback to get to. First a
- 29:45comment on episode fifteen sixty eight regarding the Big Job as good as usual.
- 29:52Love that scene in the cafeteria. Such things make it all the more real
- 29:57and believable. And then we have a comment on episode fifteen seventy four,
- 30:04the Big Badge of Missus Friday, Bobby Lee says, reminds me of my
- 30:12mom. Well, definitely a very good acting job and a very nice sort
- 30:18of mother and a half, and probably an exaggerated version of my mom,
- 30:26and a lot of good moms as well. And then we have William who
- 30:36shares on Facebook a link to a page from the UCLA Library with a picture
- 30:45of the badge Banded who was actually convicted back in nineteen twenty four. And
- 30:53with that nineteen twenty four conviction, that does bring up a very important point
- 30:57about these early episodes of Dragnet, and that is that many of them came
- 31:06from cases that weren't you know, five or six years old, but or
- 31:10even you know, a year old. You know, you hear things.
- 31:12I remember when I used to get NBC and watch that they would have headlines,
- 31:19you know, commercials for Law and Order talking about how it was ripped
- 31:23from the headlines. Well, Dragonet wasn't necessarily like that. The cases could
- 31:29be quite a bit old. In this case, they took and dramatized a
- 31:34case that was more than twenty five years old. So it's so obviously that's
- 31:41going to require some additional modifications. So thanks so much for sharing that,
- 31:47and then we got a tweet from Scott Hi, Adam, I enjoy your
- 31:51old time radio show. I download them from iTunes. I do have a
- 31:55favorite Dragnet The Big Little Jesus. Well, that's certainly very good show and
- 32:00it's on my list of a top twenty five favorites. In a very strong
- 32:10episode and it really does does work in a sort of timeless way, which
- 32:20was why it was originally was written about an incident that occurred in the nineteen
- 32:24twenties, broadcast in nineteen fifty three and then brought back in the nineteen sixties
- 32:32and remains just a beloved classic episode in one of the truly heartwarming episodes of
- 32:38Dragnet. Well, thanks so much for your comments. Do appreciate them all.
- 32:44We will be back on Monday with the Saint and we'll also be talking
- 32:49about our new Patreon campaign, and then next Saturday another episode of Dragnet.
- 32:53In the meantime, send your comments to Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net,
- 32:59follow us on Twitter at radio Detectives, and become one of our friends
- 33:02on Facebook, Facebook, dot com, slash Radiodetectives. From Boise, Idaho,
- 33:07this is your host, Adam Grahamson and off