Latest / Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas / Dragnet: The Big Badge (EP1574)
Transcript
- 0:28Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho. This
- 0:34is your host, Adam Graham. If you have a common email it to
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- 0:52Detectives. Well, before we do get started, I do want to let
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- 1:26Detectives dot net. Also over at great Detectives dot net this weekend and Dragnet
- 1:33listeners will love this. I have my review of a Dragnet novel written in
- 1:38nineteen fifty eight and available for your electronic devices, called The Case of the
- 1:44Courteous Killer. Check out my review at Great Detectives dot net and you can
- 1:49get all of my reviews of media and Golden Age material delivered right to your
- 1:59kindle, and you can try that service out free for two weeks. I
- 2:01just search for great detectives of Old Tom Radio in the candle store. Well,
- 2:07now it's time for today's episode of Dragnet. The original air date May
- 2:12fourth of nineteen fifty and the title is The Big Badge. The story you
- 2:27were about to hear is true, only the names have been changed to protect
- 2:32the innocent. Dragnet. You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned to homicide detail.
- 2:49For two months. A depraved criminal has been at work in your city.
- 2:53Men and women have been robbed, brutally attacked. Your job get them
- 3:07Dragnet the documented drama of an actual crime. All the next thirty minutes,
- 3:13in cooperation with the Los Angeles Police Department, you will travel step by step
- 3:17on the side of the law through an actual case from official police files,
- 3:22from beginning to end, from crime to punishment. Dragnet is the story of
- 3:27your police force in action. It was Wednesday, March seventh, was cloudy
- 3:34in Los Angeles. You're working the night watch out of homicide. My partner's
- 3:38Ben Romero, the boss's Dad Brown, chief of detectives. My name is
- 3:42Friday. I was on the way home from the office and it was two
- 3:45twenty five am when I got to Collis Avenue number forty six fifty six.
- 3:54Yes, thank you, yeah, Ma, I wake you? What time
- 4:00is it? A little laughter? Two? You've got to have your bread.
- 4:05Don't worry. I'm okay. I've gotten cold meat in the ice box.
- 4:10There's some pressed ham, a few slices of belowey. Didn't you have
- 4:14any dinner? A couple of hamburgers and piece of pie. Hungry again.
- 4:18I had some nice beef stew for dinner. There's some lesson the ice box.
- 4:23I'll come down and roll and no, no, All I want is
- 4:25sandwich. Ma, you're going back to sleep. You can't live on pie
- 4:33and sandwiches and kick up and straights and working all hours. First thing you
- 4:39know, you've been getting sick. You need your food and you need your
- 4:42rest. Nobody cares when you're sick. You didn't have to get up.
- 4:46All I want the sandwich and fix it. Better. Have bone full of
- 4:48stew here you don't take a minute to warm it up. Nice new potatoes
- 4:54in it, some of those onions you like TOOI like bermudas not too much
- 5:00enough. I'll get the meltings half past two in the morning. It kept
- 5:06you so late again another steak at the same time. The murder in Holland
- 5:12Park, No, the badge Bane poses as a policeman. You certainly ought
- 5:16to do something about him. Yeah, well, I'm trying to. We
- 5:20can't find him. There's a piece in the paper about it tonight. But
- 5:25they say it's just terrible, the way he beats up people and robs them,
- 5:29badge banded, the way he treats women. Shame. They ought to
- 5:33put him away, not tom You're going to have tomorrow off, Joseph,
- 5:43thanks b Captain says, we work straight through till we get the guy.
- 5:48I thought you're gonna have tomorrow off. You ought to tell the captain you
- 5:53need your rest. You can't go on like it's working all hours. You'd
- 5:57be coming down stick one of these days. Mm hm. Fifteen robberies,
- 6:02fifteen the salts, all in two months. Somebody's got to stop them.
- 6:09You ready, I think you can't. They warn the people. You wouldn't
- 6:13be getting robbed and beaten up. They weren't parked in those lonely places,
- 6:17spooning so silly. Yeah, I'm afraid we can't do anything about that.
- 6:23My public place. I got to write the park. Then I suppose let
- 6:28me have your plate. That's another spoon food. You can't work if you
- 6:33don't eat good stew Sure it is, but you're down shop rides nice.
- 6:43It's stewing beefs just wonderful. Then we're late with you. Yeah, his
- 6:48wife's saw too. He hasn't been homework since we started on this. It's
- 6:50a tough one my time. Certainly I've changed since I was a girl,
- 6:57all this robbing, beating up people. You email today, No, there's
- 7:03a couple of bills. Well, you set the alarm. I got to
- 7:08check back in at eight in the morning. Where's the worldly badge? Man?
- 7:13It's got two more victims tonight. They were college kids. Doctor said
- 7:16he didn't think we should talk to him tonight. So I've seen hi tomorrow
- 7:18morning at the hospital. Were they badly injured? Yeah, pretty bad boy
- 7:23took a terrible beating. The girl was attacked same as another. My Well,
- 7:28it's very good, ma. I better get to bed. Yeah,
- 7:30answer, your face looks so thin. You need all the rest you can
- 7:33get I get it. How can that bea it's almost three in them.
- 7:40Hello, there's Lormon, Don Homicide, Joe, sorry to bother you.
- 7:43Yeah, alarmon, what is it? Kevin wants you were married to meet
- 7:46him in Hollywood? Laura right away? What's the matter now? Attack and
- 7:47hold up Laurel Canyon twenty minutes ago. Yeah, got the area of blocked
- 7:50off. Figure they got the man trapped victims, get out and look at
- 7:54the guy. Same description, the badge matted. I left the house,
- 8:01went over and picked up Ben. We drove out to the edge of the
- 8:03Santa Monica Mountains where Hollywood Boulevard ends and Laurel Canyon begins. We headed back
- 8:07into the canyon to the blockaded area. Captain Steed from Homicide was there waiting
- 8:11for us. Hi skip just a minute, taylarned all communications again. I
- 8:22haven't tell them an I want to ventur to start moving in. Sorry to
- 8:24call you back. Couldn't be helped. Okay, how's it? Shaping street
- 8:28search detail and the vicinity of Laurel Canyon. Un had sixty two k reports
- 8:33that they are at Mulholland Drive and Oakstone Avenue. Nothing for the report,
- 8:37Joe, how's it shaping up? And there's a sketch of the area.
- 8:41It was just about all the Laurel Canyon district. We know badge band had
- 8:45got these victims near the top of this hill here. Old man in the
- 8:48neighborhood heard a woman's screaming, phoned in. How sure are we? The
- 8:50guy didn't get away? Well, the man who called in said the bandit
- 8:52had trouble start in his car, finally left it and took off into the
- 8:56brush. He was headed west down this road here. I just had a
- 9:00communications see crew from Laton. Prints are on the way, all right,
- 9:03Any report from the detail up on Canyon Road? Nothing yet, I'll stand
- 9:05by the radio. How much area we got to cover from the mouth of
- 9:09the canyon here all the way back to Ventura Boulevard on the west here from
- 9:13Lookout Mountain Avenue over the Respue Drive on the east. How much have we
- 9:18got to go on? Crowdly talked to the victims for a minute before they
- 9:20took him to Georgia Street Guy's descriptions the same, heavy set, blonde hair,
- 9:24chubby face on rim glasses. If he's on foot, there's plenty of
- 9:30underbrush around here to hide him. It's a minute. I want to get
- 9:33this call in first, Taylor, have communications contact seventy two K on the
- 9:37older line station there. The others close in from the west and north right.
- 9:41You two better get up on Groveland Drive. Line's pretty thin up there
- 9:46and use the help. Is that the area where you've been in the car?
- 9:48Yeah, I want you to cover all the houses in that area.
- 9:50Check where everybody can find the neighborhood. They may be able to help.
- 9:54They don't answer, find out why. Okay, I'll we're making the rounds.
- 9:56Another ten minutes. Check with you. Then, all right, that's
- 10:00one more thing, Yes, sir, I'll tell you what I told the
- 10:01rest of them. In This guy's in the corner and he's got a gun.
- 10:05There's only one way out for her. Yeah, make sure it's not
- 10:07you. Three forty five am, Ben and I drove up to Groveland Drive
- 10:15and joined the search. We started our house to house canvas of the neighborhood
- 10:18where the suspected abandoned his car. None of the residents had any further information
- 10:22to give us. Four am. We kept on checking twenty three hours.
- 10:30It's a long shift. Yeah, I got used some sleep. My wife
- 10:33of mine is boiling. Man, she's even mad as the kid. Yeah,
- 10:37what's trouble? Oh and and hers sent down some flower bug from Oregon,
- 10:41Yes, the bloody old bug. Yeah. Kid was playing with a
- 10:45little girl next door yesterday and they found a box of flower bugs. They
- 10:48put the mess up them in a pot of water and boiled them on's dough.
- 10:52Would they do that for? Oh? No, there's another house up
- 10:56ahead, and we better check it. Yeah, we ought to get some
- 11:03street lights up here. Yeah, nice work, working people up in the
- 11:09middle of the night. I don't like it anymore than they do, which
- 11:11we could make them believe. Nice neighborhood up here. What the price is
- 11:22on these lines? It shouldn't be too high, and say real estate's coming
- 11:24down? Yeah, what are the waste officers? Sorry to disturb it.
- 11:31We like talking a minute, all right, Let me get the door over.
- 11:37What's been going on in the neighborhood to nights? Some kind of trouble,
- 11:39cars racing up and down the hill. What's the trouble. Have you
- 11:43noticed any strangers in the neighborhood last hour? No? I just got the
- 11:46bed twenty minutes ago. I work out of paramoun. We're shooting nights.
- 11:48What's all the commotion anyway, we're looking for a suspect. He's supposed to
- 11:50be around this area. Well, I haven't seen anybody, and I thought
- 11:54I heard somebody out of the garage a few minutes ago. Went out and
- 11:56looked around, but I didn't see anything. You checked to see if your
- 11:58car is stolen. No, I left it in the driveway. Oh sure
- 12:01there's no car in your driveway. Sure there is. Let me show you.
- 12:05Hey, it's gone and we'll use your phone. Yeah. Yeah,
- 12:09but I saw it just a few minutes ago. The car was right there
- 12:13in the driveway. Do you think that guy took my car? Yes,
- 12:15it's a pretty good bet. You got your license number handing. I don't
- 12:18remember it. I got it on a car in my wallet. Communication and
- 12:22you give us a description of your car. It's a Plymouth sedam black two
- 12:24doors in the dam with search detail, Laurel Canyon, I got some new
- 12:28information for all units in the detail. Here's the license number. Thanks when
- 12:33you broadcast this information to all units in the search detail. What was the
- 12:37making model of your car? Forty six black Plymouth the two door sedan?
- 12:41Uh, nineteen forty six black Plymouth two door sedan, license number. Let
- 12:46me see seven X ray two five six nine. This car has just been
- 12:50stolen from one oh to one one Grove and Dry. Any identifying marks on
- 12:54the car, well, I left my keys in it. No, no,
- 12:58sir, I mean any special markings on the car. Maybe a dent
- 13:00in one of the fenders. Well, yeah, George, hold on,
- 13:03we get the right headlight went out on me last night. I haven't had
- 13:05it fixed yet. The right headlight on the car is out. Notify all
- 13:09units in the search detail that we believe suspect is now in possession in this
- 13:11car. Right, thank you, let's go. It must have happened in
- 13:15the last fifteen minutes. I heard that noise. Now went out to check
- 13:18the car was there then, But here's our card. We'll be checking with
- 13:20you later. Yeah. I sure hope you'll find it. I don't know
- 13:22how I can get to work tomorrow without my car. We'll notify. Yeah,
- 13:24yeah, I sure hope you'll find this. Thanks for your helping.
- 13:28Bend just been stolen from one oh to eleven Grove Line Drive. The right
- 13:43headlight is out. I don't think you could have gotten head cars to the
- 13:52blocking getting you better start searching the side roads. Uh yeah, there's one
- 13:58reading off to the left, up the head here, let's try it.
- 14:05Wait a minute, there's a car coming down the hills. Artist. You
- 14:07always making timing, Joe, only one headlight on the case. I'm right
- 14:11out. Turn around quick, there's no room. Get over to the inside
- 14:13the cans. Then turn home on. We're going on. Attention, all
- 14:26units, special attention, all units in search detail all right in. An
- 14:43ambulance was called and Ben and I were taking to Georgia Street Receiving Hospital.
- 14:46There I received emergency treatment for multiple cuts and bruises and a sprained left shoulder.
- 14:52Ben didn't do so well. He had a possible concussion, two broken
- 14:54ribs, and half a dozen severe cuts about the face and arms. We're
- 14:58then taking to the P and F for the next afternoon. We had a
- 15:01visit from Captain Steed and Chief A Detective stab Brown Friddy. I feel it,
- 15:07Oh pretty good, Chief, you saw romaro across the hall. You
- 15:11came out better needed, Yeah, I said, I hear you resting any
- 15:15oh much better? No danger involved needs the rest. That's about all how
- 15:18long I could be here two weeks recording to the doctor, what about you
- 15:22A couple of days too bad, you badge Ben. Yeah, it looks
- 15:26like you two got banged up for nothing. After he rammed your car,
- 15:28he dished the black plymouth and then we figure he hit for the underbrush.
- 15:31Yeah, Samo, when we were home, you and bent out of a
- 15:35wreck. You slipped through the line. Any fingerprints on the car when we
- 15:39held you, it's rotten black. I guess it was his night. Huh.
- 15:41We're getting more men from Metro Division to help out, and we're doubling
- 15:45the number of decoys around the city policewomen. Huh. We'll have each of
- 15:48them planted in the park car, along with an officer in every area of
- 15:50the Badge Bend. It's been working. All he has to do is grab
- 15:54at the bait once. Yeah. If he goes for it and have plenty
- 15:56of time to choose and work the same set up every night until we reach
- 16:00you. It's a big operation. Might have to run it for weeks unless
- 16:03he quits. There's only one way a guy like that ever quits. Yeah,
- 16:06when we stop him. Saturday, March tenth to two pm, I
- 16:12was released from the P and F ward and went home. Ben stayed on
- 16:15at the hospital. He had at least another ten days to go before release.
- 16:21Sunday. I spent it home Monday afternoon. I checked back in at
- 16:23the office and Captain Steed put me on decoy duty for that week along with
- 16:27Policewoman Dorothy River. We were assigned to cover an isolated parking area near Mulhullum
- 16:33Drive in Beverly Glen. Was a nice view, but the duty was slow.
- 16:37No sign on the badge bend. The policewoman River and I waited it
- 16:41out from late evening to early morning from Monday through Thursday. Friday night came
- 16:47same thing we waited as Ben. You see him today, Yeah, he's
- 16:52doing fine. Be out next week. Grouchy, I guess. Oh sure
- 16:56want cigret? Thank you? Sure? It's Friday night. Mm hmma,
- 17:06college kids, you're out in the force. What's ay a quarter to two
- 17:14long nights? Yeah? Slow, new cold, No, you just low.
- 17:19It's chilly up here in the early one's got power full of kids just
- 17:25pulling out. The car's going through. Yeah, we're the only ones left.
- 17:33Hie steakhouts going your nerves. So look, if you're cold, you
- 17:37can have my code. It doesn't bother me. No that it's right.
- 17:42It's a beautiful view from a periodent all the lights. Yeah, you like
- 17:48to dance too, I said you like to dance? Oh, what's the
- 17:52world? I guess I'm not too good. Play well. Our club's having
- 17:56its big annual dance two weeks from Saturday. Yeah, might get a kick
- 18:00out of it. It's formal. Leaves me out. I don't own a
- 18:03text. You could rent one, it'd be fun. Ah afraid I don't
- 18:06look good in the text. I never met a man who thought he did
- 18:08have don't you try it? I might be working well, I mean,
- 18:11if you're not working, how did you come you going? Well? I
- 18:15was planning on him. Got a date? Yeah, I have hope.
- 18:21There's a car pulling in see yeah, parked over in the back of us.
- 18:29I can only make out one person in the car. Yeah, looks
- 18:32like a man. I can't be sure. All right, come on over
- 18:36closer. We might as well look the partner. All right, it's getting
- 18:41out of the car. Is he coming this way? Walking over to the
- 18:45side of the road. He's got a flashlight looking around. He was built
- 18:51like the badge Bandit short have you said. Yeah, it's turning around.
- 18:55He's got his flashlight on us. He's coming up on your side of the
- 18:59car. I take it easy, you know what to do. I'm on
- 19:04out of that car, please, all right, hold on, gun,
- 19:07Jim, Yeah, come on, I said, out of the car.
- 19:11Ball here, all right? All right, crop the gun drop it?
- 19:22Thanks Jim. Yeah, Now I'll get the cuffs. Honey. Thanks.
- 19:29I didn't think I hit him that hard. You didn't, I didn't.
- 19:37Policewoman Dorothy River and I took the suspect to Hollywood Division, where he was
- 19:40booked on suspicion of robbery and gave his name as Charles Leon Kirby, aged
- 19:44forty six. Monday March nineteenth, Ben was released from the hospital and checked
- 19:48back in for work. A special show up was held at which ten of
- 19:52the seventeen victims definitely identified Kirby as the Badge bandit. The suspect had finally
- 19:56been apprehended. Now we started the slow process, so formerly charging the man
- 20:00and presenting our evidence against him to bring him to trial. Ten Am Ben
- 20:06and I went across the street to the sixth floor of the Hall of Justice
- 20:07to present our case against Kirby and to obtain a formal complaint against him.
- 20:11We met with wuty District attorney Broker. Why'd you get out of the hospital
- 20:15then? Yes, morning, Sure got's sick. Heard about your accident.
- 20:18That guy sure gave enough trouble, isn't he? Yeah, he's still giving
- 20:22his trouble. How's that he got in a tangle with another prisoner in Hollywood
- 20:26Division h The other prisoner gave Kirby a pretty bad going over, cut him
- 20:30up and broke his left forearm. They're moving him in an ambulance from Hollywood
- 20:33to the prison award at the General Hospital. When this happen, well,
- 20:36just this morning. I think they're moving him downtown. Now it's off one.
- 20:40Now. How about your reports on Kirby? They all in order.
- 20:42Here's a summary report led his ten positive identifications containing ten cons for robbery and
- 20:47ten counts of forcible rape. And here are seven other crime reports only partial
- 20:52identification on these. Okay, well you guy for crab writing evidence against him.
- 20:59Oh. We went through Kirby's apartment on at least a dozen pieces of
- 21:02property that he took from his victims, mostly watches and jewelry. The victims
- 21:06identified every piece we found. Okay, let me get the details on it.
- 21:11Excuse me, sure broke speaking? Yes you Friddy? Thank you Friday?
- 21:19When yeah, right away? Well that does it. Kirby, we
- 21:23just broke out of that ambulance. You are listening to dragnet the case history
- 21:37of a police investigation. As soon as word of Kirby's escape came through,
- 21:48the information was broadcast to all points all available cruiser cars and men were rushed
- 21:52to the escape area, and a door to door canvas got underway. All
- 21:55of the men were giving mugshots of Kirby together with his description. Then and
- 22:00I got back to the office, he found a message from Captain Steed to
- 22:03meet him in the Chief of Detective's office. Mandy, have no further notice.
- 22:07Checked the busty polls and the union station. Right, what's the story,
- 22:11Chief, That's what I'm trying to find out. Where do you make
- 22:12the break? There? Fourth and Maine. Couldn't have picked a better spot.
- 22:15The ambulance had just crossed Third and Maine when Kirby slugged the guard.
- 22:18The driver was too busy dodging traffic to notice what was going on in back.
- 22:22It's a lousy break Kirby jumped out of the back end of the ambulance
- 22:25and disappeared in the crowd. No sign of him. Since it's fine.
- 22:27It takes us almost three months to reach the guy and he breaks away on
- 22:30a cheek flupe like that. And he doesn't have many friends in town.
- 22:33He's only got one we know of. Yeah, my brother Kirby stays with
- 22:37him pretty often. From when we gather. The brother lives in a rooming
- 22:38house down on Alimeter. Anybody checked that. Yet we've got to stake down
- 22:41and the brother works at the box factory in the south end of town.
- 22:44That's covered too, And it was not going far with a broken arm.
- 22:48What have you got on? Jump hold up sixth Street? Having a few
- 22:49minutes ago, here's the description of the hold up man, stocky bill,
- 22:53blonde hair, horn, rim glasses, chevy fag. You were wrong about
- 22:56that broken arm. Come on eleven twenty am, Ben and I pulled up
- 23:03at the East Asia pawn shop on Sixth Street. Inside we found the proprietor,
- 23:07Morris Brubaker, lying propped up against one of the showcases. It was
- 23:11an elderly man. His face and the head showed the marks of a savage
- 23:14beating. His wounds were morrhaging badly, and ambulance attendants were giving him first
- 23:18aid. We showed him Charles Kirby's mugshot. Asked the man, I wouldn't
- 23:22make a mistake. That's him. Was he a lone, missed Brewbaker.
- 23:26Yes, by himself. He has to look at a watch, And when
- 23:30I turned to get it, he kicks me. I fell against the showcase
- 23:33and cut myself. He pulled me in the back room. I didn't even
- 23:37know me, he kep. I kept beating me, easy, mister,
- 23:40Brewbaker, did you get this conference? Hi? How miss? Did he
- 23:42get away with it? You know? I'm not sure? Blue shot,
- 23:45blue overcoat, wrap around, navy blue both. He kept hitting me.
- 23:51I said, just take it easy, to have you out of here in
- 23:52a minute, kept hitting me like a crazy man. Is an aseptic?
- 23:56My stinglo? Okay? What else did he take me? Sprewbaker? Can
- 24:00you remember? Yes? From the cash regis he took money? How much?
- 24:06Thirteen forty dollars? I can't be sure. When he left your store?
- 24:08Did you see which way he was going? I don't know. He
- 24:11dragged me in the back room. He locked me in made the moving now
- 24:14said okay, I don't know. I assaw him going through the shows there
- 24:18and the back of the carner. I don't know. Why'd you keep my
- 24:22account books and my gun a box of shelves You wouldn't take a look then,
- 24:26yeah, my head, Yes, sir, just take it easy.
- 24:29It's only going to be a minute now. The count books are still there.
- 24:32Yeah he got the gun. Four PM, Kirby alias the Badge Band
- 24:40it was still at large. As far as we were concerned, the case
- 24:42was almost back to where it started from eleven weeks before. The suspect was
- 24:47still loose, was well armed, was still free to rob, assault,
- 24:51her murder. We had two big advantages, Kirby's possible broken arm, which
- 24:55would need medical attention, and secondly the lead to Kirby's brother. Thirty PM,
- 25:00we had a report that the suspect was seen purchasing a ticket at a
- 25:03theater box office out on Hollywood Boulevard. We ran it down, it didn't
- 25:07pay off. At six point fifteen, a taxi driver thought he spotted Kirby
- 25:11boarding an outbound street car. Figaro and Pico was checked out, no results.
- 25:15At seven o'clock then and I got something to eat to drive in and
- 25:18we relieved the men on steak out at the rooming house on Alameda Street where
- 25:22Kirby's brother was staying. Ten pm. Midnight, no sign of Kirby.
- 25:29We waited. At three am. Hanson and Cummings of Homicide relieved us,
- 25:33and Ben drove me home. Was three forty five when he dropped me off
- 25:37at Collis Avenue number forty six fifty six. Joseph at you, yeah,
- 25:53my, I didn't mean to wake you. What time is it? Almost
- 25:57four late hours? You've got to get your rest, Joseph. We'll be
- 26:03all right. MA got something to eat in the ice box. There's a
- 26:07little cold meat and some cheese and the covers. I just want a sandwich.
- 26:10You're going back to sleep. I have some nice meatballs and spaghetti for
- 26:14dinner. I can barm some for you. My I'm Sandie working a whole
- 26:22hours. You just get sick, Joseph, and you will see nobody cares
- 26:26about you when you're sick. I wish you wouldn't get up, Minke.
- 26:29I can fix something, warm up the meatballs and spaghetti. You need something,
- 26:33sub stem sure, I get it, Corey am I hope it's not
- 26:37that office. Well, alarmon don homicide, Yeah, alarmon, thought you'd
- 26:44like to know. They just got Kirby where and his brother's places about fifteen
- 26:47minutes ago. Hanson and Cummings gradude any trouble. No grabbed Hi before he
- 26:51got to his gun. He just locked him up. What you'd like to
- 26:53know? Yeah, thanks, Marmon night. That was Joseph the office smile.
- 27:07They got Kirby the badge Ben Oh did say that's nice. Maybe you'll
- 27:11have some time off now? Yeah, never fails, does it. You
- 27:15work on a case for three months, leave it for thirty minutes. It's
- 27:18all over. Well, food's warm. Is there anything else you won't No?
- 27:25No, that's fine. You go on to bed. Well, all
- 27:27right, Joseph, and don't stay up too long. Hight night. Hey
- 27:34may have I still got that old tuxied around. The story you have just
- 27:48heard was true, only the names were changed to protect the innocent. On
- 27:53June twenty seventh, trial was held in Superior Court, Apartment eighty seven,
- 27:57City and County of Los Angeles, State of California. In a moment the
- 28:02results of that trial, Charles Leon Kirby, alias the Badge Bandit was tried
- 28:12and convicted in superior Court on several counts of armed robbery, rape, and
- 28:17assault with intent to commit murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. After
- 28:21serving one year in the state penitentiary, he was judged insane and committed to
- 28:23the State Mental Hospital at Mendocino. After two months there, he escaped.
- 28:29Charles Kirby, alias the Badge Bandit, is still at large. You have
- 28:33just heard Dragnet, a series of authentic cases from official files. Technical advice
- 28:37for Dragnet comes from the Office of Chief of Police W. A. Wharton.
- 28:41This is NBC, the National Broadcasting Company. Welcome back. I love
- 29:00this episode. Actually, the first time I heard this story wasn't actually on
- 29:10Dragon on the proper Dragon mat but a recreate creation done by SPURDVAC. That's
- 29:17the Society to Preserve and encourage Radio drama, variety and comedy. They did
- 29:25a recreation of it, and it's always interesting to listen to those, and
- 29:32they did a good job on the sound effects, and particularly on that whole
- 29:38turn I thought where they got into the accident, that was a very very
- 29:44good effect. Peggy Weber appears as Joe Friday's mother. And in case you're
- 29:48wondering how old the actress who played that frail old lady was, she was
- 29:55twenty five, right about that. That's the wonderful thing about all if you've
- 30:00got some voice flexibility. Though perhaps it was a little bit exaggerated, but
- 30:06it was so such a sweet moment. I did have to admit Joe Friday
- 30:14talking about housing being affordable and going down in California, you definitely know that
- 30:23that's from another era, though I do understand there had been some reductions from
- 30:29the big peak. It's still quite a bit expensive in that part of the
- 30:34country. This one has probably one of the most unsettling endings, given that
- 30:41we're told that this madman was, you know, committed, and he's still
- 30:48at large, and since we've changed all the names, we don't we're not
- 30:53actually giving the names at the end and telling them, you know, how
- 30:57to catch them like on like that might do on Gangbusters or something. The
- 31:03scene in the car with policewoman Rivers was interesting, as she was basically asking
- 31:11Friday to ask her out, and at the end we get the hint that
- 31:17Friday may have picked up on it. Those about a week or so after
- 31:22the fact, Web definitely plays Friday with a bit of awkwardness around the idea
- 31:29of any sort of romance or dat but it's still early in the series when
- 31:33he lives with his mother and he even does think about going on a date
- 31:37every now and again. All right, well, once again a word about
- 31:41Patreon. It is an idea where we would hopefully move towards replacing our listener
- 31:48support campaign with regular, recurring a listener support for the show on a monthly
- 31:56basis through the Patreon webs And when we do this, there are both milestone
- 32:02rewards as well as individual rewards that would be considered, and I'd like to
- 32:08hear from listeners. We've already got nice feedback whether they think this is a
- 32:15good idea and what sort of rewards or milestones would they like to see.
- 32:20Some options that have occurred to me is perhaps adding a separate old time radio
- 32:25podcast focusing on some other program, or moving any sort of advertisement after the
- 32:34show so that we get into the program a bit more quickly, or adding
- 32:39a Patreon special where listeners who donate a certain amount are able to suggest a
- 32:47special program or episode we'll do once a month and then we have the idea
- 32:52of listeners recording say a bumper to be played on the show, So I'd
- 32:58love to hear from you. Do you think Patreon campaign is a good idea
- 33:02with the and what sort of rewards should we have on the show. I
- 33:07would love to hear from you. Email me Box thirteen at great Detectives dot
- 33:12net, follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives, and become one of our
- 33:17friends on Facebook, Facebook, dot com, slash Radiodetectives from Boise, Idaho.
- 33:23This is your host, Adam Graham signing off.