Latest / The Great Detectives Present Dragnet (Old Time Radio) / Dragnet: The Big Pug (EP4430)
Transcript
- 0:28Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho. This
- 0:35is your host, Standam Graham. If you have a comment, email it
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- 1:18become one of our ongoing Patreon supporters for as little last two dollars per month
- 1:23by going to Patreon dot Great Detectives dot net. Well, now it is
- 1:27time for this week's episode of Dragnet. The original air date May the eighteenth,
- 1:36nineteen fifty and the title is The Big Punk. The story you're about
- 1:48to hear is true, only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.
- 2:01You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned to robbery detail. An elderly woman
- 2:07on her way to the bank has been robbed and beaten senseless. The suspects
- 2:10are cruel, ruthless. Your job, get them. Dragnet the document a
- 2:25drama of an actual crime. For the next thirty minutes, in cooperation with
- 2:30the Los Angeles Police Department, you will travel step by step on the side
- 2:35of the law through an actual case transcribed from official police files. From beginning
- 2:38to end, from crime to punishment, Dragnet is the story of your police
- 2:44force in action. It was Saturday, August ninth, was hot in Los
- 2:50Angeles. We were working a day watch out of robbery detail. My partner's
- 2:53Ben Romero. The boss is ed Walker, Captain of robbery. My name's
- 2:57Friday. It was ten fourteen am when I got to a twenty seven eight
- 3:00robbery detail. Hi, hi, oh Joe, I went, how is
- 3:07he well? No, for a while, what the vets say? Thinks
- 3:09the dog picked up some kind of poisoned food. Oh that's too bad.
- 3:15Sure, hot, you got a penny? Yeah, yeah, there you
- 3:20are, Thank you. Somebody poison huh yeah, what about That's what the
- 3:32vet says. I never could figure why some people poisoned dogs. I don't
- 3:38understand some people not liking animal, but I can't see why they poison food
- 3:43and then just toss it around the wholesale lots. You know how I feel
- 3:46about that dog in mind, everything happens to him, I don't know what
- 3:47I'll do. Well, he'll be alright. Those vets can do wonders these
- 3:51days, I sure hope. So they told me to check back with him
- 3:53about noon. I'm about to melt in this heat. Yeah, doesn't seem
- 3:58to be any air at all. Well, mar Sunday, guess I'll just
- 4:00lie out in the backyard. It's going to be good to just loaf around
- 4:03and read the Sunday papers. Huh, it's a hot shot. I'll take
- 4:06it. My wife wants me to get out and get a little color.
- 4:10She says I'm better looking with a ten. She ought to know. All
- 4:13right, will you get married, Joe? After so long? It gets
- 4:15those you believe everything they tell you. There's one roll on it. Yeah,
- 4:17robbery and shooting. Victim's car was stolen. You want to get on
- 4:20it, all right, miss Color? Joe bank job, don't make any
- 4:23plans for Sunday ten fifty three, Am Ben and I pulled up in front
- 4:30of the Union Trust and Savings Bank at Melrose and Logan. I made our
- 4:32way through the usual crowd that was milling in and around the bank. We
- 4:35spoke with a manager of mister Bill forr. He told us that he didn't
- 4:39see the actual robbery. The victim was taken in the parking lot next to
- 4:42the bank. Her name was Myrtle Shaw, a longtime customer of the Union
- 4:46Trust and Savings four told us that she always did her banking at the same
- 4:49time each day, around ten in the morning, when the bank first opened.
- 4:53He said, she was the proprietor of Myrtle's Cafe, four doors west
- 4:56to the bank. Let us throw please, sorry, let us throw here.
- 5:00Officer over here, Yes, Friday and Romero Central robbery. Did you
- 5:04answer the call? Yes we did, Freeman and Wells. You're in at
- 5:08thirteen nine. Amn't have just left thinking, didn't want to go to Georgia
- 5:12Street. Said she wanted her own doctor. Okay, she inside of the
- 5:14faith. Yeah, let's go in, Benner you Freeman, No, I'm
- 5:16well screaming's inside. See if you can clear this crowdline when you will?
- 5:19Right? Thank you? All right? Seeing everything now? Let's move a
- 5:23lot of money backing me down there. She is over in the last books
- 5:34Freeman. Yes, Sir Friday, Romero Central Robbery. It's just a victim.
- 5:39Yes, that's right. My name's Myrtle Shaw Michel. Yes that's right.
- 5:45My name is Romero. This is sergeant for Friday from Robert to Vision
- 5:47Downtown. You men detect this, yes, ma'am. We'd like to ask
- 5:51you a few questions. Yes, all right. I hope you can catch
- 5:55the man that did this. We're gonna do all we can. It's a
- 5:58little hard for me to My faces are swollen. It hurt something terrible.
- 6:02What happened? One of them struck me? This man. We know that
- 6:05you want to tell us how it happened. And I was on my way
- 6:09to the bank. I drove in the parking lot there next door. Yeah,
- 6:12I just got out of my car when these men walked over to me.
- 6:15You're only four doors from the bank. Do you always drive such a
- 6:17short distance? No? No, I just picked up my car from Edgar's
- 6:21filing station. I haven't greased once a month. I see. Where was
- 6:28I just driving into the parking lot when these men walked up to you?
- 6:31Yes, oh, yes, well. One of them said, just hand
- 6:35over the money and there won't be any trouble. The other one said,
- 6:39this is a gun in my pocket. Grandma, Yeah, my head splitting.
- 6:44Did someone call doctor Van Hale, Yes, ma'am, he's on his
- 6:46way. Oh, thank you. Well. I carried my daz re seats
- 6:51in a cloth bank bag. I had it in my purse, and I
- 6:56wasn't sure if they knew I had any money. Yeah, I told him
- 6:59I didn't have. I was going in to dress him out and one of
- 7:01the men said, look, old timer, we don't want to get rough.
- 7:04Just handed over. We know you got it. What'd you do well?
- 7:08I turned and started to walk away, and I saw this one man's
- 7:11arm flash out of his pocket, and then something hide like a rock struck
- 7:15me on the side of the face. I just lugy with his gun.
- 7:17Oh yes, it couldn't have been in his hand. I don't think he
- 7:19could have cut my face like this with his hand. He should have let
- 7:23them take you to the emergency hospital. No, I don't want to go
- 7:26into the ablance. I want my own doctor. He don't know what to
- 7:28do. Ambulance screw gave her first daid she wouldn't let him take her.
- 7:31Thanks Michel. Would you know the man if you ever saw him again?
- 7:35I think so. Yes, one of them looked like the worst kind of
- 7:40a hoodlum when they got your money. Huh, Yes, they tell me
- 7:45they got away with my car too. How much money did you lose?
- 7:47One hundred and sixteen dollars and twenty three cents. Do you own this cafe?
- 7:51Yes? I do. It's a small place, as you can see.
- 7:56I do all cooking and serving up to eleven thirty in the morning.
- 8:00Then I have a college girl that waits on tables and afternoon and evening.
- 8:03Do you think those men have ever been in here inn cafe? See?
- 8:07Neither of them nor No, I never laid eyes on'em before to day.
- 8:09How about the girl who works for you? Think she's ever seen them
- 8:11before? I don't know. You can ask her. She should be here
- 8:16soon. What time is it now? Mm? Eleven twenty? She'll be
- 8:20along any minute. Oh. I wish there was something to stop this ache.
- 8:24And I know you must have a lot of pain, miss shall But
- 8:26we've got to ask a few more questions so we can get right on this.
- 8:30Yeah, I understand I'll cut you all I can. Ben, do
- 8:31you want to get the dope on the stolen car? In the description of
- 8:33the man, I'll call the office, right says there a payphone I can
- 8:37use here, Michelle, Yes, right over there behind the phone. Thank
- 8:41you. Do you need change? Yes, ma'am, I'm afraid I do.
- 8:46I'll just help yourself my cash register there, thank you. I put
- 8:54in a dime taking out two Nicholas. Oh well, now that wasn't necessary,
- 8:58young man, to tell me. I know that we don't like to
- 9:01open other people's cash registers. You're a police officer, answers yes, ma'am.
- 9:05I trust you. It seems to be the reason a lot of people
- 9:07don't. I called the office, and as fast as Ben repeated the information,
- 9:15I phoned it in. The detailed information was broadcast to all units.
- 9:18The stolen car was a nineteen forty six green Ford Sedan license number one x
- 9:22RAY one eight nine eight. All units were instructed to be on the lookout
- 9:26for the car and have found abandoned, to notify robbery detail immediately, and
- 9:30to keep the car un her surveillance until we arrived. I called in a
- 9:33description of the suspects and the fact that the money was taken in the cloth
- 9:35bag stamped Union Trust and Savings. Myrtle Shaw's doctor arrived and she was ordered
- 9:41to bed for rest and treatment. Ben and I interrogated all the possible witnesses
- 9:46in the parking lot. We found only one man who saw the actual robbery.
- 9:50His story compared to that of miss Shaw's, but he could add nothing
- 9:52more. We talked with a young college student who worked in the restaurant.
- 9:56She didn't think she'd ever seen the men in question. We drove back to
- 10:01the city Hall and went to the stat's office. They made a run for
- 10:03us on the descriptions and m that we had, and we pulled the packages
- 10:07of all possible suspects. The machine sorted out. We narrowed and sifted the
- 10:11twenty four possibles down to twelve. We took the mugshots out and showed them
- 10:16to the victim and the one witness. They could not identify any of them
- 10:18as the two men in the hold up. Two thirty five pm Saturday,
- 10:22we started to canvass the neighborhood door to door. It takes care of Logan
- 10:28Street from one block both sides. I want to start here on Milroe.
- 10:31No key, let's try this drug store. I'm on fire. Faver says
- 10:35it's supposed to hit ninety nine today. I believe it. Come on,
- 10:43yess it, police officers, we're looking for a couple of men. Here's
- 10:46the descriptions. I wonder if you'd read this and tell us if you've ever
- 10:48seen them. Yes, we've got time to have a copy. We better
- 10:54know. It's getting late. Oh afraid I've never seen anybody who answers either
- 10:58one of these descriptions. Sure, yeah, quite sure, thank you.
- 11:03I'll have to have that back. Oh, let's go. Is it just
- 11:11my imagination or does it seem to be getting hotter to you? Talking about
- 11:16it doesn't help. I'm tried ignoring it. That don't help neither. Let's
- 11:20try this bakery. How do you do? Gentlemen? All right, police
- 11:26officers, wonder if you'd read the two descriptions. Lest it here and tell
- 11:28us if you've ever seen either of these men? Yes, of course.
- 11:33No, it smells good in here, doesn't it. No, I don't
- 11:37seem to be calling about it looks like this anybody else in here might have
- 11:41seen him? No, I don't think so. I wait on trade Okay,
- 11:43thank you man. Let's go. That smells just like good old apple
- 11:48pie, doesn't it. Jail, we're baking Danny's coffee cake the moment.
- 11:56The next place here is a plastic factor. Yeah, that's like they're closed
- 12:01half day Saturday again. Somebody in there cleaning up. Yes, he didn't
- 12:07hear me. There it comes. You know, a lot of money in
- 12:13this plastics business really came into its own during the war, didn't Plants closed
- 12:22Saturday afternoon? Police officers. I wonder if you'd look this paper over and
- 12:26tell us if you may have seen two men answering these descriptions? All right,
- 12:31I have to put my glasses on then, No, I don't need
- 12:37them for sweeping, just reading. All right, here you are. What
- 12:46do you think? What was that? I said, what do you think?
- 12:48Have you seen him? I don't know. I mean, I'm not
- 12:52sure yet. I'm not sure. I may have seen one of them.
- 12:54How about the other one? That's what I mean. Yeah, I don't
- 12:58know about the other one. But you do remember I've seen one of them.
- 13:00I might have seen both of them, but you're not sure. I
- 13:03don't know. But do you want to tell us what you remember about the
- 13:05one you did see. Oh don't you want to know about the other one
- 13:09too, Yes, sir, we do. But I understand you to say
- 13:11that you didn't know about the other one. Oh, I don't. Well,
- 13:13you just tell us what you know then, then, yeah, we
- 13:15want me to just forget about the other fella. No, sir, but
- 13:16if you don't know, it's all right. I might know. Yeah,
- 13:20I haven't read about him yet. Oh, you asked me a question just
- 13:24as I finished reading about the first one. I was just studying on the
- 13:28second one at that time. Yes, you're sorry. What was that you
- 13:33asked me? It wasn't important. Then I'll read about the second one,
- 13:37yes, sir, thank you. Yeah. I seen them two or three
- 13:43days ago, both of them in this neighborhood. Yes, right around back
- 13:46in the parking lot. They work here. Oh so they don't seems to
- 13:50me. I've seen them a couple of times. What were they doing?
- 13:52I don't recall. I just remember i've seen them. Sure, Yes,
- 13:56I'm positive one of them had on a brown suit, the other gray.
- 14:00Just like it says, the descriptions fit all right. Do you have any
- 14:03idea where these men might be? Now? Oh, ship, we're investigating
- 14:05a robbery. We want these men for question. I wish I could help
- 14:09you more. I do know I've seen them, but that's about all.
- 14:13I don't know their names. All right, sir, what's your name?
- 14:15Says Williamson. We'll leave you one of our cars, mister Williamson if you
- 14:18see them again, appreciate you letting us know. Yes, sir, sure,
- 14:22Well let's go then, must we had something more definite to go on.
- 14:28We just had a picture the guys. Yeah, I had to help.
- 14:30There's a vacant lot in the corner. Fin she's out this blah.
- 14:33Let's double back on the other side of the street. Right. So four
- 14:39point thirty pm we continued knocking on doors, checking every place that was still
- 14:43open or showed any activity. Saturday afternoon, we talked with hotel managers,
- 14:48janitors, and clean up men at the different factories or business establishments. We
- 14:52checked grocery stores, private homes, everywhere that we could find anybody to show
- 14:56the descriptions too. By six fifteen pm, the only person who showed any
- 15:01sign of recognition of the two hold up men was still Seth Williamson, the
- 15:03janitor at the plastics plant. Before we took time out for a sandwich and
- 15:07a cup of coffee. We drove back to the city hall to check the
- 15:09office. Hy Friday. What do you saying, Marty? A couple of
- 15:18messages were you here? Thanks, it's a maud as you rom Mary,
- 15:22I'm dehydrated. That son almost Friday me. I'll joe that one calls your
- 15:28mother said tell your dogs out of danger. It's fine. Called him around
- 15:31too, huh. Yeah. Had other one from some guy who says he
- 15:33wants to talk to you right away. I've been calling in since about three
- 15:37this afternoon, Seth Williamson and called four times. Yeah, said tell you
- 15:41he'd waited that number there they heard, right, I call him right now.
- 15:46Been a hot downtown way pretty warm. Huh. And he kicked back
- 15:50on that stolen car. Oh, jeds in Sergeant Friday, Police Department.
- 16:00Oh, yes, I'm glad you called me back. I think I've got
- 16:02a little more information for you. Yeah, those two fellas you were looking
- 16:06for, did you find them? No? Not, Jed Well, I
- 16:07just remembered what they were doing out back there in the park Lott. Yeah,
- 16:11they were taking pictures of what the two girls that was with them.
- 16:15I remember now there were two young women with them, one who was a
- 16:18blonde and the other I don't recall how were they dressed. The blonde had
- 16:22on a white shirt of some kind in a black dress. That's all I
- 16:26can tell you for sure. Who was taking the pictures? First the fellows
- 16:30took the girl's picture, and then the girls took slapshots of the fellas.
- 16:33Thank you very much, mister Williamson. Oh yes, sir, it will
- 16:37goodbye, good bye. What do you got they've had their pictures taken?
- 16:41Yeah, let's find the prince. You are listening to drag Net the case
- 16:56history of a police investigation. Ben and I figured if we could possibly turn
- 17:07up the photographs that had been taken, we'd have something more definite to go
- 17:10on. We still had a lot of doubts. Maybe the janitor Seth Williamson
- 17:14was wrong, Maybe there were no pictures. If the snapshots had been taken,
- 17:18maybe they were still in the camera undeveloped. With any kind of fast
- 17:22service and processing, the photos could have been picked up by now. We
- 17:25figured it was worth the chance and the time involved to check the lead out.
- 17:29All we had was the victim scant description of the two hold up men
- 17:32and if we could possibly turn up pictures, it had help a great deal.
- 17:34If Williamson was right, we'd have another lead the two girls. Six
- 17:40forty pm we started checking drug stores, going through all prints that had not
- 17:42yet been picked up with the customers. We'd made the rounds of all the
- 17:45drug stores in the neighborhood earlier in the day, but we'd double checked the
- 17:49descriptions of the two men with the personality each store. By nine pm,
- 17:53we checked out ten drug stores and found nothing. We were going on the
- 17:56hunch that the photos would most likely be dropped off sitting somewhere in the immediate
- 18:00neighborhood. Was only a hunch, and we were running out of drug stores.
- 18:04Please, business, we'd like to go through your photos that have been
- 18:07left for developing. Yes, sir, here's the box right here. I
- 18:11don't thank you. I'll take half. Not very many this time though.
- 18:18Oh don't forget to check the negatives too. Sometimes they don't print him if
- 18:21they're bad. Yeah, I know, M no nothing in this one.
- 18:29Speak for sure to take a lot of pictures of the babies, don't m
- 18:33nothing. These are sure fuzzy pictures of the zoo. Pictures of Yellowstone man.
- 18:48Yeah, it's pey dirt. Maybe let me see two guys, two
- 18:55girls. One's a blond, white blouse, dark skirt, no clothes.
- 18:59Let's see left by Marion Lang, two twenty three East Bexel, Oh Claire.
- 19:03Yes, sir, you want to double check us on this envelope?
- 19:07Yes, sir, This date and time right here, three thirty pm August
- 19:08sixth Yes, that's correct. That's when the films were left for process,
- 19:12three days before the robber. Did you ever see this woman in the picture
- 19:15before? Let me see that's why. Yes, yeah, she comes in
- 19:19here quite often. Miss Lang is her name. How about these men?
- 19:22Are this other girl here? No? No, I've never seen them.
- 19:26When were these prints supposed to be picked up? I waited on her.
- 19:30She told me she'd pick them up Friday, yesterday. Well, we'll have
- 19:33to take these photos along with us. They'll be returned, all right,
- 19:34sir? How will I explain this to miss Lang? If this is the
- 19:37right address, you won't have to. Before we left, we called the
- 19:45office and had a stakeout placed in the drug store in case Marion Lang tried
- 19:48to pick up the photos. We checked the address she gave on the envelope
- 19:51to twenty three East Bixel. It was a small apartment building near the corner.
- 19:55The manager told us that Marion Lang had moved out the morning of August
- 19:57ninth, the day of the robbery. She left no forwarding address. The
- 20:02manager knew nothing of the other girl or the men in the photos. We
- 20:06checked with Myrtle Shaw, the victim. She positively identified the two men as
- 20:08the ones who robbed and slugger. She knew nothing of the two girls,
- 20:12hadn't seen them before. We put out a want on Marion Lang and gave
- 20:17the photos to Lieutenant Frank Cunningham and the record girl Monday morning, August eleventh
- 20:22morning, Brian Hell about the wash? Any record on the guys? Nothing
- 20:26we could find. Oh, I'm having copies sent out right now. Kind
- 20:30of thought maybe if we came up with pictures, we'd be halfway home.
- 20:33Maybe we are. How do you mean? I had Tony make some blow
- 20:36up some the negatives full of grain, probably taking the cheap box camera some
- 20:41kind, but they might help. What'd you find? I just checked the
- 20:44enlargements. They were still in the wash, but I think we got something.
- 20:47Let's go over the photocopy all right, Yeah, and good and clear.
- 21:08Now there's a ll everbey anyway, anyway we go. I had sixteen
- 21:18by twenty enlargements made. Let's show you what I found. Yeah, you
- 21:22guys, take a good look at the face of this this one man here
- 21:25who thought we did why? It's pretty hard to see in those small prince.
- 21:29Look here you see the nose on this one. I'd guess it's been
- 21:33broken one time or another, wouldn't you. Yeah? You see here scar
- 21:37with the left eye, scar with the right eye. A couple of'em.
- 21:41H look at the right ear. See how mashed it is. M
- 21:45We couldn't come up with any names for you, but how better to be
- 21:48safe to guess his line of work. Looks like a price fighter. Nothing
- 21:52in the oddity I I I checked and double checked everything I could lay my
- 21:56hands on here in the department. I don't place him if he was a
- 21:59boxer than he's standing, and I don't reg on. Isn't much wish I
- 22:03had something else for it s lead and it might be this morning we had.
- 22:11It was possible that one of the two hold up men in the photos
- 22:14could have been a professional fighter. From his appearance and Bill we felt it
- 22:17was a fair guess. We took copies of the snapshots to the State Boxing
- 22:21Commission, Los Angeles branch. We spoke with a mister Farmer, who couldn't
- 22:25seem to recall a man from his picture. We went over the description that
- 22:27the victim had given us. Farmer said that he knew a great many of
- 22:30the fighters because at one time or another they all check in and out of
- 22:33the Commission before about but the man in the snapshot remained unidentified. He checked
- 22:38through several hundred cards bearing the photographs of boxers and the files. No luck.
- 22:44Farmer suggested that we try the Spring Street Jim where the out of town
- 22:47fighters get into shape and the boxers intown train. We left him a copy
- 22:51of the photograph in our card so that he could continue checking back through his
- 22:53files. It was ten twenty two am when we got to the Spring Street
- 22:56gym. Here's the manager though, a man. You're the boss here?
- 23:08Yeah? What can I do for you? Police officers? Yeah, we're
- 23:11looking for a man we think might be a fighter. I wonder if you
- 23:14can help us out. Sure try. I'm Size and Friday. That's my
- 23:17partner, Ben romy Hey, why is Charlie Coleman. Here's a couple of
- 23:21photographs for you to look at, Mentacoma. Have you ever seen this fellow
- 23:25on the right, Let's see. Uh. Let's walk over by the window,
- 23:29get a little light on him. Wait a minute. He used to
- 23:37work out here all the time a couple of years back. Name is Billy
- 23:41H. Marshall. Yeah, that's right, one of the name, Billy
- 23:44the kid Marshall. Is he still around? Gee? I couldn't tell.
- 23:45You've been a good two years since I've seen him up here. Any idea
- 23:48where we might locate him? And I doubt it used to be Benny Farmer
- 23:52stable. Benny's been the east now over a year. Uh. Let me
- 23:55check back through my locker listings. Maybe I still got something on it.
- 24:02Let's see uh out cards. Yeah that's what we want. Let's take him
- 24:07over here by the window where we can read her. As I recall,
- 24:14Marshall wasn't much of a fighter. M father nursed him up through the po
- 24:19limbs, got him in the semi wind ups. He started hitting the bottom
- 24:26head the dames. Oh yeah, here we are. Can I see that?
- 24:30Please? Oh? Sure hear that? Okay? Billy the kid,
- 24:34big beefy boy, Real sucker for right Cross. Sixteen thirty seven Carber Avenue.
- 24:40That's the last address he got on him. Whatever the card says,
- 24:42yeah, real sucker for the old right cross. Thank you very much.
- 24:45MS Film. You're welcome boys anytime. What's he done? We just want
- 24:48him for questioning. Oh, I see if you should hear from him,
- 24:52don't tell him we're looking for him. Let's go. Thanks again. Uh,
- 24:55what do you think he did wrong? I don't know. How do
- 24:56you block a right cross? We called the new information into Captain Walker and
- 25:03he sent a crew him into the Boxing Commission to check further. Sixteen thirty
- 25:07seven Carver Avenue. It's a cheap rooming house in the west side of town.
- 25:11Marshall hadn't lived there for over a year and a half. A land
- 25:14that he gave us a forwarding address. The next place hadn't seen him for
- 25:18a year. We kept checking and rechecking, going from one into town to
- 25:21the other. Each place was a little better than the last. Was easy
- 25:23to trace Billy the kids rise in the fight games such as it was,
- 25:26but the condition of the places he lived in. We covered six different rooming
- 25:30houses, boarding houses and apartments each time his residence had been a little more
- 25:34recent. Five point fifteen pm, Monday, August eleventh, we pulled up
- 25:38in front of the Sunflower Hotel, four thirty three Banyon Street, rates two
- 25:42dollars a week. Enough, nobody at the desk. I'll ring the bell.
- 25:56How do you do, police officers, If you've got a William Marshall
- 26:00registered here, no, no one by that name here. You take a
- 26:03look at this picture. Either one of these men live here. Oh sure,
- 26:08that's Tom Green and George Martin room nine. Then now I could bus
- 26:12the room and see no, never mind room nine. You said, yeah,
- 26:17that's fine, that's come room nine. Cover me rid Yeah, special
- 26:32delivery ladder. You have to sign for it. I stand still. Police
- 26:41officers, thank the other one. Go shold it all right, Hold it
- 26:53right there, Marshall. Get over there against the wall. You get up
- 26:56over there withing O give me a hand, Joell, I help you have
- 27:03you all right? Yeah? Yeah, I'm okay. Here he is.
- 27:07Joe looks like his picture. Fit's a description except for one thing. Yeah,
- 27:12he's no sucker for a right cross. The story you have just heard
- 27:22was true, only the names were changed to protect the innocent. On March
- 27:27twenty seventh, nineteen forty seven, trial was held in Superior Court Department eighty
- 27:32one, City and County of Los Angeles, State of California. In a
- 27:34moment the results of that trial, both William Marshall and his accomplice were found
- 27:48guilty of armed robbery and grand theft auto and are now serving their terms as
- 27:52prescribed by law. You have just heard drag Nets, a series of authentic
- 27:59cases from official files. Technical advice Boy Dragnet comes from the Office of Chief
- 28:03of Police W. A. Wharton, Los Angeles Police Department. Screen Directors
- 28:07presents Lucille Ball as Miss Grant Tomorrow on NBC Welcome Back. Joe. Friday's
- 28:23dog is something I've forgotten about because it's never really talked about again. There
- 28:30was a period in the early nineteen fifties when Dragnet tried to give Friday's character
- 28:36definition. They gave him a living situation and living with his mother. They
- 28:41worked in a girlfriend who liked the mother was a recurring character, and here
- 28:45they gave him a dog. These sort of efforts came to an end as
- 28:49Friday just became an iconic representation of the police and that a personal life became
- 28:56kind of superfluous. Dragnet offers an interesting study in communication dynamics. Everyone speaks
- 29:07the same language, but they communicate differently, and dragon it does a really
- 29:12good job of capturing the nuance of how people interpret and respond to the police's
- 29:18question. And I thought that was a great example of that in the way
- 29:23the janitor answered. Of course, the big cloth that ultimately leads them to
- 29:30the suspects is not something that would work very well today, given that the
- 29:34vast majority of amateur photography and professional photography for that matter, is on either
- 29:42people's phones or digital cameras. Although I guess if the janitor could somehow identify
- 29:48that they were using a thirty five millimeter camera or something, that would be
- 29:53a lead and they would have a whole lot fewer places to go to look
- 30:00at film roles being developed, and a whole lot fewer pictures to look at.
- 30:07And I also have to say there was a bad job by the boxing
- 30:11guy. There was one item on the scouting report for this boxer and it
- 30:15was wrong. Either that or Joe Friday's got a really bad right cross.
- 30:21Well, now we turn to listener comments and feedback, and we start out
- 30:26with Emmett, and Emmett comments on YouTube regarding the Dangerous Assignment finale and he
- 30:34writes, I'm sorry to see the show go. It was truly surprising that
- 30:40no mention of it was given on the show. Usually they'd endo shows run
- 30:44by saying we hope to be back someday or something similar. Here it was
- 30:48just a quiet winding down to an unceremonious end. Farewell Steve Mitchell. Well,
- 30:56sometimes there is a bit more ceremony and open too, maybe will be
- 31:02back, which I think probably in nineteen fifty three they knew they were not
- 31:07going to find a radio sponsor for Dangerous Assignment, and certainly this was not
- 31:12going to be worth his time to do at the rate you could earn on
- 31:18a sustaining radio program. And while a lot of final episodes are missing,
- 31:26we've heard a few, and it really does vary a bit as to how
- 31:30much of an acknowledgment of this being the last episode we'll get, And there
- 31:36are plenty of episodes, even the very last episode of Yours truly Johnny Doller,
- 31:42the end of the Golden Ager Radio, You really would not know it
- 31:47listening to either that program or the suspense episode that was following it, that
- 31:53this was the end of series that had been on the air or off and
- 32:00on since the nineteen forties. On the other hand, a couple years back,
- 32:05when we played the finale of The Man Called X, Herbert Marshall essentially
- 32:10had a full curtain call to mark the end of the series which had been
- 32:16running for in this case, off and on for eight years. So it
- 32:21does vary. I think I appreciate the ends where there's more of an acknowledgement
- 32:28that it's ending and that or at least a particular season is ending and they
- 32:35don't know if they'll be back, or they hope they'll be back, but
- 32:39sometimes they just don't give it to you. And then we also have a
- 32:44comment on the end of Dangerous Assignment from Brain's Benton on Instagram. I'm sad
- 32:52to hear this last Dangerous Assignment. I've really enjoyed this adventure show. I've
- 32:57started to watch the TV show and I'd likely to touch more just because of
- 33:01Brian don Levy's on screen charisma and the sparkle in his eye when he delivers
- 33:07some of his one liners. Also, thanks for explaining her Butterfield role in
- 33:13Old Time Radio History a few weeks ago. I always thought it was odd
- 33:16that he got the same billing as Don Levy when he only shows up in
- 33:21the first two minutes of each episode. Looking forward to the new series next
- 33:25week. Well, thank you so much. Appreciate the comment Brains and the
- 33:30thing with Butterfield on Dangerous Assignment particularly. I think in the early episodes he
- 33:37would show up as the commissioner at the start of the episode, but he
- 33:43would often double up in another role in the series. I think that became
- 33:49less common in the nineteen fifty two fifty three episodes with the shorter time frame,
- 33:58they tended to fill all the those roles with the guest stars. And
- 34:02then also we have a comment on the listener survey from Eric. I really
- 34:08appreciate your sharing your and other people's comments. Well, thank you so much,
- 34:14Eric. And now it's time to thank our Patreon supporter of the day,
- 34:19and I want to go ahead and thanks Sarah. Sarah has been one
- 34:23of our Patreon supporters since July of twenty twenty, currently supporting the podcast at
- 34:29the shamous level afford ours are more per month. Thank you so much for
- 34:34your support, Sarah, and that will actually do it for today. If
- 34:37you're enjoying the podcast, please follow us using your favorite podcast software. And
- 34:44if you're enjoying the podcast on YouTube, be sure to like the video,
- 34:46subscribe to the channel, and mark the notification bell, all those great things
- 34:52that help YouTube channels to grow. We'll be back next Saturday with another episode
- 34:58of Dragnett. Join us back here tomorrow for an encore Johnny Dollar omnibus.
- 35:06But our regular lineup resumes on Monday with the Adventures of the fall can Wear.
- 35:12I'm calling from a phone booth and I'll mail you the money for your
- 35:14fee. All right, what do I do to earn it? I want
- 35:16to get rid of my boyfriend? Rid of him? Yeah, I'm hoping
- 35:20you can have him put in jail. Oh, for a minute, you
- 35:22had me worried. You may still have something to worry about. He plays
- 35:25rough what's his name, Murray Ross? Oh, I see what you mean.
- 35:30I've just been reading about him. Yeah, it's in the papers.
- 35:32The police questioned him, but they couldn't prove anything. But I know he
- 35:36beat up that man because he wouldn't join Murray's outfit. If they want to
- 35:38corner all the numbers men in town. Who's they? Murray and Albert ket
- 35:44Oh is Burkekett in this deal? He is the deal. Murray just runs
- 35:46the West End for him And just where do you fit? I don't fit
- 35:51anymore. That's just the trouble. I've been going with Murray, but I
- 35:53want out and he has other plans for you, and that's right. And
- 35:57my only hope is for him to be picked up. But so far nobody's
- 35:59been able approve anything that would stick. What makes you think I will?
- 36:01I have to do something. I've heard a lot about you. I got
- 36:04to get away. I simply got to, even if it means sending your
- 36:07boyfriend to jail. I hope you'll be with us then in the meantime,
- 36:10send your comments to Box thirteen at Greatdetectives dot net, follow us on Twitter
- 36:16at Radio Detectives, and check us out on Instagram, Instagram, dot com,
- 36:22slash Great Detectives from Boise, Idaho. This is your host, Adam
- 36:28Graham. Sign and off.