Latest / The Great Detectives Present Dragnet (Old Time Radio) / Dragnet: The Big Knife (EP4424)
Transcript
- 0:28Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho. This
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- 1:25thank Daniel for becoming our latest Patreon supporter at the rookie level of two dollars
- 1:30or more per month. Thank you so much for your support, Daniel.
- 1:34Well, now it is time for this week's episode of Dragnet. The original
- 1:38air dight mayl eleventh, nineteen fifty The title is The Big Knife. The
- 1:55story you were about to hear is true, only the names have been changed
- 2:00to protect the innocent. You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned the Juvenile Bureau.
- 2:15A potential killer roams the halls of one of the high schools in your
- 2:17city. Girls students are then brutally slashed by the criminals. Your job stop
- 2:24him. Dragnet the documented drama of an actual crime. For the next thirty
- 2:38minutes, in cooperation with the Los Angeles Police Department, you will travel step
- 2:43by step on the side of the law through an actual case from official police
- 2:46biolemist, from beginning to end, from crime to punishment. Drag Net is
- 2:52the story of your police force in action. Thursday, November fourth, with
- 2:59Windy and Watson, we were working the day Watch Georgia Street, Juvenile Girl.
- 3:02My partner's Ben Romero. The boss is Captain Bowling, Commander Juvenile Division.
- 3:07My name is Friday. It was two forty five pm when we got
- 3:10to Charter High School main entrance. Which way is yo? I don't know.
- 3:17We can ask this boy, hey son, Yeah, where's the Principal's
- 3:22office? Straight down the hall, last door on the last thank you.
- 3:23What's all the noise about football? Rolly, we're playing Pimont. Today's probably
- 3:28lose. Can't leave confidence like that. It's just your funny now day.
- 3:34Yeah check that sign m junior prom dollar twenty five per cup makes you feel
- 3:42old and I never did go to those high school events. Ho'll come good
- 3:46advance last says it still can. Yes, like to see mister Chase.
- 3:54Could I have your names? Flee, Romero and Friday. Oh yes,
- 3:57you can go right in that s thank me, mister Chase. Yes,
- 4:08my name's Friday. I talked to you on the phone. Oh yes,
- 4:11certainly. Sergeant's never chairing. Thank you. This is my partner, Ben
- 4:15Romain. How do you do, sir? I am at Chase, Sit
- 4:17down, sit down, certainly. Glad to see you, gentlemen. I'm
- 4:20at the end of my room. Would you mind breathing as mister Chase,
- 4:24I at all this troubles start. I don't know how it's happened. I
- 4:27don't know why, but here's the results. I do this dress, bloodstains
- 4:31on it. That's historic. A woman stormed in here and said her daughter
- 4:36came home from school yesterday wearing this dress. As she told her her mother.
- 4:41She'd been knife here for school. How many cases like this have your
- 4:45hand? Twenty one in the past three weeks. Why didn't you notify us
- 4:47and leave me? Sergeant? I didn't know which way to turn when I
- 4:50first learned about these knife things. I wanted to call in the police,
- 4:53but some of the girls who had been cut, the parents didn't want to
- 4:57report of the publicity, there's no rioting. He didn't want it. I
- 5:00hope you realize it, Jason. It's a pretty serious man, Believe me,
- 5:03I did real life. What could I do? The knifings had to
- 5:08be stopped. The parents didn't want them reported. I've tried everything humanly possible
- 5:12to find out who's responsible. What have you tried, mister Chase Well.
- 5:15I called on some of the older students from the Boys Council. I placed
- 5:19them all over the grounds of the buildings and told them to keep an eye
- 5:21out. No results, and the knifings have gone right on this past week.
- 5:25They've even gotten worse. Oh that reminds me just a moment. Please,
- 5:29yes, Darris, would you get Jim Travis, Please have them come
- 5:31to my office right away. Travis is head of the Boys Council, he
- 5:36helped organize the system of guards. He might be able to give you some
- 5:40information. He said a minute ago that the situation has been worse this past
- 5:43week. I mean the knifings have gotten more frequent, more frequent, and
- 5:46more serious. One girl was cut very badly this morning. He had to
- 5:48be sent home. A most of these girls cutting pretty much the same manner.
- 5:53The school nurse treated some of them. She says that look to her
- 5:56though the girls had been slashed with a very sharp knife, probably a razor.
- 6:00Is there any definite time patterns of these knifings. All of them happened
- 6:03between periods when the students change classes. The cards are pretty well crowded,
- 6:09and that's why it's so difficult to pin it down to any one person.
- 6:12I see. How about the victims themselves, missus Chase? Is there any
- 6:15set pattern there? And that's what has me frightening? What I mean,
- 6:19most of the victims, a lot of pretty girl. Whoever's doing this seems
- 6:23to have a preference for them. Fight me. When you think of what
- 6:27kind of mind the person must have, it's a little more than frightening,
- 6:30mister Chase. Person with a knife must be a metal case, probably a
- 6:33dangerous when. I don't think he's going to be satisfied with just knifing the
- 6:36girls. Possible if we let it go much longer. You wanted to see
- 6:41me, missus jaseos come in, Jim for what have come sooner? I'm
- 6:45tied up with a rally committee and Jim missus sergeant fight in sergeant for mayor
- 6:47of police officers they had to investigate the knifings. I thought maybe you'd be
- 6:53able to help out with some information. Well, I still have a fellows
- 6:56on the council watching cards. I haven't seen anything yet, but if you
- 7:00have any time after the rally gym, we'd like to have you show us
- 7:01around. Okay, So here's the school nurse still in your office and I
- 7:05talk for her too, and I think so jid. When does missus Wesley
- 7:09go home at three thirty on Thursday, Mister Chase, I'll tell her to
- 7:12stay on a few We'll meet you outside the office here. Okay, I'll
- 7:16see you later then, right the school out for the day, Yes,
- 7:20I guess we'll have to wait the morning to interview the victims. The first
- 7:24class is at eight o'clock. I'll have the girls assemble in the classroom next
- 7:27to my office. All right, mister Chason, thank you, I'll be
- 7:34right back. Dos see you gentlemen are like the rally is just breaking up.
- 7:43Huh, three o'clock and all the games, the three things. The
- 7:46kid's hurting me, a gym up, the cord on, let us go,
- 7:55let us go. Okay, oh my, the rest of you go
- 8:00about your business. You're go on. Now, what's about? A young
- 8:03lady with control? A woman? Look at her dresses and COVID with romans.
- 8:11An ambulance was called and the injured girl was taken at Georgia Street Receiving
- 8:16Hospital, where she was treated for a cut on her right forearm and a
- 8:18deep slash across her hips. She was not the serious condition was the doctor's
- 8:24opinion that the wounds had been inflicted either by a very sharp knife or more
- 8:26probably a razor. A detail of plain clothesmen were dispensed to chart her high
- 8:31school to keep the grounds and quarters under strick surveillance until further notice. At
- 8:37seven point thirty the next morning, policewoman Loreene Jensen Ben and I met at
- 8:41the high school with Principal Chase and Jim Travers, the head of the Boys'
- 8:43Council. By nine am, all of the twenty one nineing victims were assembled
- 8:48in one of the empty classrooms. Police Woman Jensen outlined our plan of questioning.
- 8:52May I have your attention please? This isn't going to take very long,
- 8:56girl, so I will have to ask you to cooperate with us.
- 9:01Try to remember every detail of the time and the place that the nothing's occurred.
- 9:05We all have a report formed, Rita. You'd like to have your
- 9:09ride. Three things. First, exactly where you were when you were injured.
- 9:16After that writes the date and the time. Make that just as close
- 9:20as you can remember it was. The bottom of the page writes the name
- 9:24of the person you suspect might have cut you. Your answer will be get
- 9:28confidential. Please don't compare notes with the girl next to you. We watch
- 9:33your version, not to your neighbors. Sorry anyway, yeah, Travis,
- 9:37five minute morning though, Yeah, okay, all right, yeah, Joe,
- 9:41there's a recess coming up. We want to check the quarters. Can
- 9:43you make out along for a little one. I'm sure you to go ahead.
- 9:46You can check the clips when you get back, right, let's go
- 9:54top of the stairs. Best. Sorry, Okay, if you stand back
- 9:58a little the railings. No one down below the tellus are being watched either.
- 10:03Okay, I'm pretty much interested in police work, you know, the
- 10:07light detecting stuff. Let you keep on going here, one more fight,
- 10:11all right. I wrote a paper once on the light detective because theology class
- 10:16teacher liked it. So yeah, I've been reading how they take the fingerprints
- 10:20prok and Prince and all that. Pretty interesting. Here we are. We
- 10:26can keep an eye on the whole card from here. Okay, what detail
- 10:31you officers work on Georgia Street, Juvenis you know Lee Jones or a rag
- 10:35binker. Oh? Yes, I've read a lot about the crime when once
- 10:39you come downtown, some might and we'll show you wrong. I'd be swell.
- 10:41Okay, must be interesting meeting all kinds of people watching out of behavior.
- 10:46Yeah. During the recess, while the students lived from classroom to classroom,
- 10:52we kept the main quarter on the close surveillance. The other men from
- 10:56Juvenal Bureau covered the rest of the corridors. We kept than I on the
- 11:00main quarter. During the third recess, between periods at eleven am again or
- 11:05results at eleven thirty, Travers went to check with the members of the boys
- 11:09council to set up the noontime watch. Then and I went back to the
- 11:11classroom on the main Florida Check with policewoman Jensen. We helped your tally the
- 11:16results of the questioning of the girl victims that morning see seventeen eighteen nineteen.
- 11:26Who takes care of the lots? I see there it is? Now?
- 11:30What's it means? Well? Twelve say they were knifed on the main corridor.
- 11:35Three knife outside the building or on the stairway, two in a classroom
- 11:41at times they list doesn't look like there's any pattern there. How about the
- 11:45suspects? If you looked down, that's even't got me beef. You've got
- 11:48more of them than we have victims. Here the four pages of name.
- 11:54Some of the girls wrote down as many as five suspects. It's kind of
- 11:56helping. That's how many altogether? Pretty four? Oh, I'm as day.
- 12:03Did you find out anything? It didn't turn out too well? Nothing
- 12:07definite? Terrible morning parents calling up the newspapers. I don't know, certainly
- 12:13out of my hands. Are there any assembly schedules for this afternoon? Yes,
- 12:16after the fifth period? Why I think maybe a better canceling it seems
- 12:20like every time the kids are crowded together, we just ask for trouble.
- 12:22All right, I'll have a can't find something else on it? The girls
- 12:26that we had in this room this morning, the victims. We'd like to
- 12:30have every one of them brought back here after the next class, can all
- 12:33right, I'll have it two slip cents to each morning, Thank you,
- 12:35sir, Give you the chill kids getting cut up in broad dayline. Wherever
- 12:41it is, the guy's got a stomach for it. How do you know
- 12:45it's a guy? But of guesses? Any how about the school employees,
- 12:48the janitors inst check them all out the coin. When we get the girls
- 12:54back here, we'll go through the same routine. One thing we missed the
- 12:56last time we talked to them. Yeah, we asked to pick suspects.
- 13:01We might have more lucky if we have a bigger choice. Oh, how
- 13:03do you mean? Well, instead of asking to pick out somebody, we've
- 13:07found on the list the names of every person who was around them or near
- 13:11them when they were touched and might have worked. If we can found a
- 13:13couple of repeats on that they went to downstairs? Hory, come on,
- 13:16then, what's the matter it's terrible, terrible if found her. She found
- 13:20who who? Very price square downstairs, unconscious. I'm afraid. What do
- 13:22you mean you're afraid? I'm not sure she's alive. We located the unconscious
- 13:30girl in the corner of the basement, near the rear entrance to the girl's
- 13:33locker room. She had been cut severely about the face and arms. At
- 13:37Georgia Street Receiving Hospital, she was given an immediate blood transfusion. In addition
- 13:41to her wounds, she was also treated for shock. We questioned the victim.
- 13:45She stated that she did not see the person who attacked her. Later
- 13:48that afternoon, she was removed to her own home upon the advice of her
- 13:50family. Position one thirty five pm. Then and I got back to the
- 13:54high school and checked in with a policewoman, Lorraine Jensen. How'd the last
- 14:01station turned out? Ray a lot at it? It was a good idea,
- 14:03Jim, Yeah, how'd we come out? Pretty good? You have
- 14:07a list? They made out twenty one of them. Each girl listed an
- 14:11average of eight persons around her. Sometimes she's nice. Yeah, one name
- 14:16that occurs on nineteen twenty one. There they do, Jim Travers, you
- 14:33are listening to Dragnet, the case history of a police investigation presented in the
- 14:39Public Interest. Friday, November fifth PM, Ben and I started checking on
- 14:50Jim Travers in the registrars filed he was listed as James Kirkland Travers, seventeen
- 14:56years old. It was a well known, popular student. It was a
- 15:00athlete. He was from a well to do family. His father was the
- 15:03head of an engineering firm. His mother was from one of the oldest families
- 15:07in the city. During his three and a half years at Charter High Him,
- 15:09Travers had maintained close to an A average in his studies. He'd been
- 15:13president of his class since freshman year, and he'd held numerous other class offices.
- 15:18We interviewed his teachers. They had nothing but praise for Travers. They
- 15:22tabbed him as a brilliant young man with an excellent future. We asked about
- 15:26Traver's friends, who we powered around with who picked up a small league.
- 15:31We were told that he had very few, if any, close personal friends
- 15:33among the students, but he did have one girl at the high school he
- 15:37was especially fond of. Her name was Barbara Ferris, a tall, dark
- 15:43haired girl, exceptionally pretty. Her scholastic record was almost as high as Travers.
- 15:48Two PM, policewoman Lorraine Jensen and I interviewed the girl in a small
- 15:52room off the principal's office. Were now singling you out, baba. We're
- 15:58interviewing most of the girls in the upper classes. You mean about what's gonna
- 16:00happening around school? Yes, that's right. Well, I don't know much
- 16:03about it. I was talking to Jim Travis last night. He's a friend
- 16:07of mine. He told me why you were here? How long has he
- 16:10known Jim Travis's father, Oh, since freshman year. I guess you go
- 16:12study with him. Well, you don't like to call it that, but
- 16:15I guess. So we go to the dances together. Sometimes, we go
- 16:19to the show on weekends. You go out with him very often? No,
- 16:22not very often. Jim's usually pretty busy. He studies a lot.
- 16:26Does he go out with other girls? You know? Well? No,
- 16:27I don't. Once he went out with Betty Fisher. He said he didn't
- 16:32like her much. Betty's kind of a party girl. Jim likes to talk
- 16:34about him with you know, dis geology books, stuff like that. Do
- 16:37you get along with him pretty well? You get along fine? Sometimes he's
- 16:41moody, but I guess I am too. Could you tell us a little
- 16:44more about Jim? What's he likes? Well, what do you want to
- 16:48know? That fool? Is there anything wrong? No, it's just routine
- 16:49questioning. But I mean we have to check on everybody I see. Well,
- 16:53Jim's certainly all right. He's like the rest of the fella. That's
- 16:56the school, I guess, only he's smarter than most of him. Was
- 17:00there anything Maybe it's odd about him that you noticed anything? He's very different?
- 17:04Mmm? No, not that I've noticed. He's always been pretty bashful
- 17:08up until this last year. Anyway, he's still that way sometimes when we
- 17:12go out on dates. Not do you mean how is he bashful? You
- 17:15know about girls and things. He's always nice, though he's not always thinking
- 17:19about necking him stuff like most of them. You mean he's not the romantic
- 17:23type. Well, he can be romantic when he wants to. Once we
- 17:26parked outside my house after a dance. He's always nice. It was just
- 17:30this one time, so that was nice. Well, he kissed me and
- 17:34then he twisted my arm behind my back. He kept twisting it for no
- 17:37reason. You know. I told him it hurt me, but he wouldn't
- 17:41let go. He kept twisting my arm. What do you say? That's
- 17:45what was so funny. He said, I like you better than any girl
- 17:48I know. Yes, Then he said, that's why I'm hurting you.
- 17:56After talking with Barbara Ferris, he had a pretty good idea that Jim Travers
- 17:59was suspect we wanted, but because of his fine background and his record,
- 18:03we realized that we'd have to prove beyond any question of a doubt that he
- 18:07was the guilty person. We had only one thing to go on, besides
- 18:10the information Barbara Pars had given him during the morning recesses when Travers was with
- 18:15Ben and I was watching the corridors. Not one night thing took place when
- 18:18we had left Travers and gone downstairs to check with policewoman Jensen. The girl
- 18:22had been found slugged and cut at the rear of the girl's locker room.
- 18:26Two thirty pm. Then and I met with a suspect. How it is
- 18:30going, sir? Any luck? Not much? Jim? What's that another
- 18:34rally? No band practice? Junior proms tonight, isn't it? Yeah?
- 18:40Your doctor? The girl was nice downstair? Huh find out anything? No
- 18:44not much. You want to stick with us this afternoon. I think you
- 18:48might be able to help us out. Sure, I've got the colors on
- 18:51the council standing by. You want him bline, let's go out. Huh,
- 18:53I got time to tell sure, Okay, we can't go out this
- 18:57way, and I certainly appreciate your learning and time along. Hoping you help
- 19:07us. I think you can, Jim. So when we talk to those
- 19:10girls this morning, Uh, we drew up a new list of possible suspects.
- 19:14Yep, funny thing. One of the names on the list is yours.
- 19:18Well, I've got nothing to hide. Oh, we'll make the system.
- 19:22Thattic checks each name on the list and stuff with joy. Well,
- 19:26where we have to go on the line detector? I don't like to try
- 19:29that. I never saw one. Only pictures. No, No, you
- 19:30won't have to go through that. I don't. Just be a couple of
- 19:33questions and then we're gonna check your locker room. Okay, I'm you glad
- 19:36to show you. Does this take us to the locker room? Yeah,
- 19:38we can cut through here. Say. Uh. When we were questioning those
- 19:44girls this morning, some almost said that they saw you in different parts of
- 19:48the building, of the nineties six thing? What do you mean? Well,
- 19:51your location didn't exactly jibe was your classroom schedule. In other words,
- 19:56your class was on the third floor, but you were seen down on the
- 19:57main cord in the honey out for them. Well, you see, I
- 20:02usually take walks between periods. Sitting in classrooms makes me nervous sometimes. You
- 20:06know, here, I'll get the door. Any other questions I can answered,
- 20:14sergeant, No, that's all. How'd you happen to get an interested
- 20:18in police work exam and said your father was an engineer, didn't you?
- 20:21Yeah, that's right. I don't know how I got into it. I
- 20:23just to put you out. I guess. I always like to watch people
- 20:26reactions and every behavior. That mean, Oh, the locker room's down this
- 20:32morn Okay, what are your funding on doing when you gudge with Sally?
- 20:37Yeah? I guess so dad wants to send to a mits for school.
- 20:41Yeah, say, uh, did you ever have the time. I'm sure
- 20:45like to see some of the ballistics equipment down of the police crime lab.
- 20:49I read up on the ballistics quite bit too. Oh is that so?
- 20:52Yeah? The probably a graph flight attackers. That's my favorite thing. Wonderfulness
- 20:57imagine charting probably different negative reactions like that's marvelous. Yeah, say either one
- 21:04of you ever read Dawson Was Treated? Uh? I think it's called the
- 21:08Psychology of the Criminal Mind. You ever read it? Uh? I think
- 21:12we had that in training, didn't we done? Fem Like? How about
- 21:17uh? Criminal behavior in this basis maxuals? Did you ever read that one?
- 21:21Mm? No, I don't think that did. That's a great book.
- 21:23We got quite a few textbooks on crime. We went on sex crimes.
- 21:26I just gone very good that the locker room. Sh I almost went
- 21:32past it. My locker is down this way. How do you shave?
- 21:37Jim? You an electric razor or safe gradier? Me? Electric razier they're
- 21:42the best. Yeah, a lot easier to use, hearing, it's all
- 21:45open the frame. Yeah. Then you've got those envelopes. Uh yeah,
- 21:53yeah, yeah they are. Okay? Would you step aside there, Jim?
- 21:56Yeah? Sure, we get some dust straight industry shelf. All right,
- 22:04there you are, Ben, you want to market no ten drivers?
- 22:10Just scraping on locker. All right, let's see. Here's here's some more
- 22:15scraping from the bottom of the locker this time. Okay, all stume these
- 22:19envelopes. Oh, here's a nail file. Okay, Jim, Now when
- 22:25you hold out your right hand, Oh yeah, hold an envelope under his
- 22:30hand. What you been catch the nail scraping? Thank? Here, I
- 22:34say, what's all this for? Argeant? What's this routine that everybody?
- 22:37Jim, I'm just gonna take some sample specimens to run through the spectrograph spectadrap
- 22:45No, I'll just scraped that middle finger nail. No, okay, that's
- 22:49it now the index finger. What about the specscraph? Well, used it
- 22:56all the time. Oh, it won't work in a case like this.
- 23:00What that's off for the right hand man? Don't forget to market envelope?
- 23:03Yeah, Jim travers scrapings finger news right? Ah, Joe right? Not
- 23:17the left hand Jim. H yeah. No, we don't know if this
- 23:22is gonna work or not. It's worth a try. We'll know this afternoon's
- 23:26afternoon. Yeah, we'll have to run you through on the machine. Hold
- 23:30the end book a little closer there. Yeah, well, well, how's
- 23:33it gonna help you? I might tell us what you had for breakfast a
- 23:37week ago, might tell us what kind of clothes you wore three days ago,
- 23:41kind of objects she came in contact with. Oh, well, what
- 23:47kind of principle does it operate on you? Oh? I don't know.
- 23:48We can ask Lee Jones here. Let me get the scrapings from your thumb.
- 23:52All right, there it is, and see what the market. Ben.
- 23:56You want to call the office and tell them all our way in?
- 23:59Yeah, in that that room right next to the frience was a okay,
- 24:03you enclose your locker, Jim, I saw, yeah, all right,
- 24:08we'll check the things in your pockets when we get to the crime. Right,
- 24:11let's go on. That's spectograph must be a marvelous machine. Well,
- 24:18it's worked for worth a lot of time. We've got evidence on the suspected,
- 24:22either convicts them or clears them. You'll probably get a kick out of
- 24:26it. I'd like to see it. You say it tells you everything a
- 24:30person who's coming in contact with n't. Yeah, I say, could I
- 24:34tell you how I shaved? Well, what do you mean? I mean,
- 24:38whether an electric razor or safety every year? Sure, that's one of
- 24:42the primary things. I don't know exactly how it works, but it does
- 24:47the job. We'll get Lee Jones to explain it to him. About this
- 24:49door, we can cut across the court here, it's a sure nice ground.
- 24:56Will he hit me long downtown? Sergeant? Well you thanks, Jim.
- 25:00You know, there's strange part about these knifings out here. What's that
- 25:06whoever is responsible probably doesn't even realize what he's doing. Mandelie's sick. He's
- 25:11very sick. The best thing for him to be a doctor, just like
- 25:15any other sickness. It's not going to get better by itself. Yeah.
- 25:21The only trouble is he's just getting his appetite up with his knifings. See
- 25:26those much longer? How about that spectagraph? Sergeant? Say, for instance,
- 25:30Well if I happened to hold a knife in my hand, or maybe
- 25:33a raiser. Oh yeah, that is showing the machine we're going here.
- 25:38Yeah, terrible thing. Whoever it is, terrible thing? Yes, it
- 25:53is, I him going. I think you're ready to tell it, hope,
- 26:17So backphone, all right, son, you want to tell us about
- 26:25it now. I couldn't know my so I has a dude, I had
- 26:30to I shouldn't sleep, my goodness study unless I did it. I couldn't
- 26:37know my sosponsible for all. And I thinks are you you're new to you?
- 26:51You're told I'm glad you caught me. It's getting worse. It might
- 26:56have been too late. I'm glad you caught me. Barbara after the prompt
- 27:00tonight here I was going to kill her. The story you have just heard
- 27:12was true, only the names were changed to protect the innocent. On December
- 27:18fifteenth, the hearing was held in Juvenile Court Department, thirty eighth City and
- 27:22County of Los Angeles, State of California. In a moment the results of
- 27:25that trial, seventeen year old James Travers was examined by court psychiatrists, who
- 27:38found him to be one of the most dangerous metal cases they had ever examined.
- 27:42The boy's parents, who cooperated to the fullest with the police officers and
- 27:45with the court, made only one request that the boy be committed to a
- 27:49private sanitarium. James Travers is now under confinement at that sanitarium for an indefinite
- 27:56period of time. You have just heard Dragnet, a series of authentic cases
- 28:04from official fails. Technical advice for Dragnet comes from the Office of Chief of
- 28:08Police W A. Wardon Los Angeles Police Devicement. Green Director's Playhouse presents the
- 28:18Damon Runyon story tomorrow on MDC Welcome Back. This is such a good episode.
- 28:36It is one of my top twenty five favorite Dragnet episodes in any medium,
- 28:42and it's very chilling for the crimes that were committed and how close the
- 28:51police came to dealing with a real tragedy. I think the bit where they
- 28:57subtly wore Jim Dan is one of the best confession scenes in Dragnet. They
- 29:03didn't go really hard, and I think Friday maintained a friendly conversational tone throughout,
- 29:11but provided enough nudges to get Jim to feel like they were closing in
- 29:17using a clever bluff about the spectrograph. The successors to the spectrographs of nineteen
- 29:23fifty are still used in police investigations to this day, but therefore identifying unknown
- 29:30substances, bodily fluids and things of that sort. Friday was turning the spectrograph
- 29:37into a magic crime solving box to elicit a confession from a golible teenager,
- 29:44but really it was for his own good. Friday was right that Jim was
- 29:48not well, and if Friday hadn't convinced him to own up to what he'd
- 29:52done, he would have become a killer as it was, he got the
- 29:56help he needed to protect himself and society. There was an early hint of
- 30:00Jim being the culprit that I didn't catch the first few times I listened to
- 30:04the episode, But because this is one that really stuck with me, I
- 30:08knew, even though I haven't listened to this in years, that Jim was
- 30:14the perpetrator. And early on he mentioned that a spot they were at was
- 30:19a place where you could watch people and them not know it. That to
- 30:25me was a bit unusual. Now, some people have backgrounds and professions that
- 30:30require that sort of thinking. You know, you walk into a building and
- 30:34you look around, and you're just automatically looking at places where you can observe
- 30:40people, places where you can make an exit. Things like that that when
- 30:45you come through through certain security and military professions. But for seventeen year old
- 30:52boy, I thought that seemed a bit off. I think that the first
- 30:57few times I just ignored it. I thought that it was just because he
- 31:03was in charge of setting up the guards. But I think that sort of
- 31:07thinking, well, it doesn't prove anything. It probably should have given a
- 31:11hint speaking of the guards. I don't think i've talked about or really reflected
- 31:18on how utterly messed up the reaction of the principle was. Maybe it's just
- 31:22because of the news of the past decade or so of schools dealing with issues
- 31:29portingly leading to death, but I can't even with this principle. He waited
- 31:34until the twenty first knifing to call the police because he was trying to protect
- 31:40reputations, and the only reason he ended up calling was because a parent stormed
- 31:45in and brought her daughter's bloody dress and dropped it right on front of his
- 31:49desk, and he thought that this was something he could handle internally by having
- 31:57unarmed boys act as guards to look out and make sure that no one was
- 32:02going to knife a girl. That was his plan, And you know,
- 32:07the sort of chef's kiss of it was that he actually chose the guy who
- 32:14was doing the knife fiends to set up the guard system, and he just
- 32:17kept rolling with his plans as girls were getting stabbed in his school every day.
- 32:25Now, I appreciate that this was a different time, but I still
- 32:32think that it was off. I mean, Sergeant Friday even asked the question
- 32:38like, why didn't you call a sooner? Why are we only hearing about
- 32:43this after the twenty first knife fees, and the show often had subtle educational
- 32:50thrust. And I think if there's a message coming out of this, it's
- 32:54that you don't wait on this sort of thing, you know, you don't
- 32:59just say it's just one or five knifeings, you know, no big deal.
- 33:04We can probably take care of it ourselves. But I think that the
- 33:07temptation to put protecting reputations and institutions over protecting lives and safety make this story
- 33:21really feel like something very similar could happen just as easily today. All right,
- 33:29Well, I do want to go ahead and thank Alexis for rating The
- 33:34Big Trial and the Big Job over on the Good Pods app. Thank you
- 33:38so much appreciate the five star rating. And also want to go ahead and
- 33:45thank our Patreon supporter of the day, and I want to thank April.
- 33:49April has been one of our Patreon supporters since February twenty seventeen, currently supporting
- 33:54the podcast at the Detective Sergeant level of seven dollars and fourteen cents or more
- 34:00for a month. Thank you so much for your support, April, And
- 34:02that will actually do it for today. If you're enjoying the podcast, please
- 34:07follow us using your favorite podcast software, and be sure to rate and review
- 34:12the podcast wherever you download it. From next Wednesday, we'll be bringing you
- 34:19the first episode of Broadways My Beat. Next Saturday, we'll be back with
- 34:23an episode of Dragnet Tomorrow listen for a special encore presentation, but we will
- 34:32return on Monday with our regular lineup and an adventure with the falcon Wear.
- 34:38If you're worry, what's door? Listen? More done it? Just keep
- 34:44your hands rightly on? What are you doing here? Chuck? Red Davis
- 34:47was knocked off a couple of hours ago. That still doesn't answer my question.
- 34:51I don't see why not one the cops think I did it too.
- 34:53You can prove I didn't. Now is it add up? Not to my
- 34:55liking? You better get somebody else. This is wearing. Maybe I haven't
- 34:59handled this right, but I didn't kill Red? And why didn't you tell
- 35:00that to the police. You don't think for a minute they believe me?
- 35:04Was I told you? Why? I don't either. I look, Mike,
- 35:06I know you don't like me, but give me credit for a little
- 35:07intelligence. If I was gonna knock off Davis, would I shoot my mouth
- 35:10off all of the time. So I tell you I didn't kill him,
- 35:13then who did? I've got no idea. Okay, Morgan, I'll see
- 35:17what I can do for you. First, I want you to surrender to
- 35:20the cops. Ono. I think that's no deal. I'll wait a minute,
- 35:22Mic, I'll make you a promposition. I'm not interested, but Pete,
- 35:25say give me a chance, would you. I'm convinced that, with
- 35:28any luck, you can clean this up in a couple of hours. If
- 35:30you haven't by then I'll give myself up. I hope you'll be with us
- 35:34then in the meantime, send your comments to Box thirteen at Greatdetectives dot net,
- 35:38follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives, and check us out on Instagram,
- 35:44Instagram, dot com, slash Great Detectives from Boise Altohol. This is
- 35:49your host, Adam Graham signing off.