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Dragnet: The Big Dare (EP4502) · The Great Detectives Present Dragnet (Old Time Radio)

• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: This is your host, Adam Graham. If you have a comment,
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: email it to me Box thirteen at Greatdetectives dot net.
• 0:44
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• 0:54
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  Speaker 1: podcast software. Today's program is brought you in part by
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  Speaker 1: the financial support of our listeners. You can support the
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  Speaker 1: show on a one time basis by mailing a donation
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  Speaker 1: to Adam Graham peelbox one five nine one three. That's
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• 1:19
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• 1:25
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• 1:30
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• 1:33
  Speaker 1: so much, to Marry supporting the podcast at the rookie
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  Speaker 1: level of two dollars or more per month. Thank you
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: so much for your support.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: Mary.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Now it's time for this week's episode of Dragnet. The
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: original air date August third, nineteen fifty and the title
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: is The Big Deal.
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: The story you are about to hear is true, only
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: the names have been changed to protect the innocent. You're
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: a detective sergeant. You're assigned a homicide detail. A woman
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: is knife to death in her home. The body bears
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: the mark of inhuman attack. The killer escapes.
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: Your job get him.
• 2:38
  Speaker 5: Dragnet the documented drama of an actual crime. While the
• 2:42
  Speaker 5: next thirty minutes, in cooperation with the Los Angeles Police Department,
• 2:46
  Speaker 5: you will travel step by step on the side of
• 2:48
  Speaker 5: the law through an actual case, from official police files,
• 2:51
  Speaker 5: from beginning to end, from crime to punishment. Dragnet is
• 2:55
  Speaker 5: the story of your police force in action.
• 3:01
  Speaker 6: It was Wednesday, September twenty ninth, was warm in Los Angeles.
• 3:04
  Speaker 6: We were working the night Watch out of homicide detail.
• 3:07
  Speaker 6: My partner's Ben Romero. The boss is Captain Blaine Steed.
• 3:10
  Speaker 6: My name is Friday. I was on the way back
• 3:12
  Speaker 6: from the interrogation room. It was eleven twenty three pm
• 3:15
  Speaker 6: when they got through Room forty two Homicide. Hyler aim flow.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: Joe like, type this up for me.
• 3:24
  Speaker 6: It's a dead body report. Yeah, OK, thank you, Yeah,
• 3:28
  Speaker 6: how you doing?
• 3:29
  Speaker 7: They bring Palmer in here.
• 3:30
  Speaker 6: He's in the interrogation room. Captains with him. What's his story?
• 3:33
  Speaker 6: Who claims he had nothing to do with it? He
• 3:35
  Speaker 6: contacted any of the boys, Wilders, because he hasn't got
• 3:38
  Speaker 6: any in town. It was just him and his mother
• 3:40
  Speaker 6: who called juvenile halt any. Yeah, they look after him
• 3:42
  Speaker 6: for the time being. Pretty big shock for a kid. Yeah,
• 3:45
  Speaker 6: just get anything out of.
• 3:46
  Speaker 7: Him, Harry and I have been talking to him, just
• 3:48
  Speaker 7: starting to make sense. You want to lend a hand.
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: Sure, we're going to the beach tomorrow. My mother and I shit,
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: they all that's all I know.
• 4:03
  Speaker 8: That's all.
• 4:05
  Speaker 6: Right. Hi, you want to give it a back, all right, Robert,
• 4:12
  Speaker 6: come on, son, it's gonna be all right now. We
• 4:16
  Speaker 6: need your help, Robert. I think you can answer a
• 4:18
  Speaker 6: few questions for us.
• 4:20
  Speaker 7: How about it back, son, and then get you sent me.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: Okay, asked the stuff.
• 4:28
  Speaker 6: We're here.
• 4:29
  Speaker 7: Take it.
• 4:29
  Speaker 6: It's cleaning at you.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you're the cop that drove me down here, aren't you.
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: That's right. I'm not going back to the house. Would
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: have to so I'm never going back to that place.
• 4:43
  Speaker 6: Was Could you start from the beginning for us, Bob
• 4:46
  Speaker 6: and just take it easy.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: Tell us what you know, okay, I think I could
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: have a coke. I'll think I have a copain.
• 4:53
  Speaker 6: You're right there?
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: All right here? Thanks?
• 4:56
  Speaker 9: Well, all I know is I left the house about
• 4:58
  Speaker 9: half past seven. Mom gave me the money to.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: Go to a show.
• 5:02
  Speaker 6: Was she alone in the house when you left?
• 5:04
  Speaker 9: Yeah, that's right. We had dinner and then I went
• 5:07
  Speaker 9: to the show. You usually go to the show and
• 5:09
  Speaker 9: school night then, holl but Mom asked me if I
• 5:12
  Speaker 9: wanted to go. She gave me the money. Double features.
• 5:15
  Speaker 9: She told me to stay for both pictures.
• 5:17
  Speaker 6: Did she usually tell you that?
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: No, she always said to just stay for one picture.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: She didn't want me coming home so late.
• 5:23
  Speaker 6: Was she expecting anybody to visit her? I mean after
• 5:25
  Speaker 6: you had gone.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: She didn't say so. She just told me to stay
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: for both pictures, that's all.
• 5:30
  Speaker 7: What time the movie let out?
• 5:33
  Speaker 9: Almost eleven o'clock, pretty late? So I went straight home.
• 5:37
  Speaker 9: One was in the bedroom, she was on the floor.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: There was this night.
• 5:43
  Speaker 8: Night.
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: What'd you do?
• 5:44
  Speaker 10: Then?
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: Son?
• 5:46
  Speaker 9: Right outside hollered while this came over from next door.
• 5:52
  Speaker 9: Went inside and looked, and then they called the cops.
• 5:55
  Speaker 6: My knife you saw in the bedroom. It was blood
• 5:57
  Speaker 6: on it all over it was terrible see the night before.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Roy gave it to my mom last year.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: It's a Bola Knight.
• 6:06
  Speaker 7: Who is this.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: Roy Mom's boyfriend, one of them. He's in the navy.
• 6:11
  Speaker 6: Was he at your house tonight?
• 6:13
  Speaker 9: I told you it was just Mom and I. Roy
• 6:15
  Speaker 9: had a fight with Mom about two weeks ago. He
• 6:18
  Speaker 9: said he didn't like her have another boyfriends, and.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: They had a fight.
• 6:20
  Speaker 6: They argued, is that what you mean?
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah? And once Roy slept my mother one of.
• 6:25
  Speaker 6: The Joe No, no, thanks, Harry as you com Oh yeah, son?
• 6:34
  Speaker 6: Did you know most of your mother's friends?
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: Most of them? Yeah?
• 6:39
  Speaker 6: Can you think of any of them who might have
• 6:40
  Speaker 6: wanted to hurt your mother?
• 6:42
  Speaker 9: I don't know Roy Palmer. Maybe he was mad at her.
• 6:47
  Speaker 9: He's the one when I can think of.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't want to think about it anymore.
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: All right, certainly will buy it anymore tonight, Thanks a lot.
• 6:54
  Speaker 6: Yeah, you want to follow through the juvenile hall.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: See at the boy's taking care.
• 7:01
  Speaker 7: Of Okay, he's going to be an interrogation room.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 7:04
  Speaker 6: I got a few more questions for Roy Palmer.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: All right?
• 7:06
  Speaker 7: Checking in here?
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: Cry, Am I back yet? Friddy?
• 7:18
  Speaker 6: No? Not yet yet, just talked with the Reynolds boy.
• 7:21
  Speaker 11: Yeah, I can't believe anything that kid tells you. He's
• 7:24
  Speaker 11: a liar.
• 7:24
  Speaker 7: He hates me.
• 7:25
  Speaker 6: You give him reason to hate you. Palmer, the kid's
• 7:27
  Speaker 6: a liar, that's all. You were his mother's boyfriend. He says,
• 7:30
  Speaker 6: two weeks ago you had a fight with her that
• 7:32
  Speaker 6: you slapped her.
• 7:33
  Speaker 11: All right, I slapped her. I don't make a murder.
• 7:35
  Speaker 11: I wasn't near that house last night, and I didn't
• 7:36
  Speaker 11: kill her.
• 7:37
  Speaker 6: He found your knife in her bag. Huh A bowlo
• 7:39
  Speaker 6: of knife, a bone handle.
• 7:41
  Speaker 7: That's not mine.
• 7:42
  Speaker 11: I gave it to her a year ago for a president,
• 7:44
  Speaker 11: didn't even though she still had it.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: Look, why do you have to pick on me because
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: you had a motive and you haven't got an alibi?
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: What about all those bumps she used to run around with?
• 7:51
  Speaker 11: Why don't you ask them for alibis?
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: When we found him, we lost him.
• 7:54
  Speaker 6: Do you know any of them, Palmer? The other men
• 7:56
  Speaker 6: that she went out with, how do I know him?
• 7:58
  Speaker 6: The only time she ran around was when I was
• 8:00
  Speaker 6: on sea duty. And how did you know she was
• 8:01
  Speaker 6: running around friends of mine? He saw her out with
• 8:04
  Speaker 6: these guys. I'll get it. Interrogation room Friday, Lee.
• 8:10
  Speaker 7: Jones, Joe, just get back from the Dixon House.
• 8:12
  Speaker 12: Anything off to fast stop Layton Prince checked the murder weapon,
• 8:16
  Speaker 12: that knife, dust of the handle.
• 8:18
  Speaker 7: Yeah, fingerprints perfect.
• 8:19
  Speaker 6: Scept Captain Steve and I took the suspect, Roy Palmer
• 8:28
  Speaker 6: down the hall and had his fingerprints taken the same time,
• 8:31
  Speaker 6: across the street in the crime lab, a set of
• 8:32
  Speaker 6: fingerprints were lifted from the weapon which had taken the
• 8:35
  Speaker 6: life of missus Betty Dixon. The two sets of prints
• 8:38
  Speaker 6: were checked and rechecked. They didn't match. Every object in
• 8:41
  Speaker 6: the murder house was gone over for fingerprints and further evidence.
• 8:45
  Speaker 6: Roy Palmer's fingerprints.
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: Were on none of them.
• 8:48
  Speaker 6: He was released pending further investigation. The only suspect in
• 8:53
  Speaker 6: one of the most savage murders in the history of
• 8:55
  Speaker 6: the city was free. The next morning, Captain Stephen I
• 8:58
  Speaker 6: met with the Chief of Detective stat Brown.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: How about the dead woman's son, You talk to him again?
• 9:03
  Speaker 6: Well, Ver marrows with him. Now he's taking down a
• 9:04
  Speaker 6: list of all the people with his mother and new friends, neighbors, everybody.
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: No luck he ed would have set a figure prints
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: Now I got no record on him checking him through Washington.
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: We already got kicked back pretty soon. So the prince
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: and a piece of envelope, that's the physical evidence that.
• 9:17
  Speaker 6: Yeah, one of the top corners off an envelope had
• 9:19
  Speaker 6: a postmark on a town Sonoma.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: Sonoma high in with anything.
• 9:23
  Speaker 6: No, not so far might turn up when we start
• 9:25
  Speaker 6: checking the victims. Friends.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: So you're supposed to the body of this corner that
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: she saw this corner's report, Yeah, I did. I don't
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: have to tell you. You're not after an ordinary killer.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: One had three knife forms.
• 9:35
  Speaker 6: Revenge motive maybe, Yeah, the reaction of the dead woman's neighbors.
• 9:40
  Speaker 6: That's what's gotten me stopped. No one heard a.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: Thing, Mitchell and Dideo.
• 9:43
  Speaker 10: I was still covering the neighborhood and I haven't found
• 9:45
  Speaker 10: anyone yet saw or heard anything unusual.
• 9:47
  Speaker 6: Well, I can't buy it. A woman isn't just cut
• 9:48
  Speaker 6: down like that without some kind of a commotion. Besides,
• 9:50
  Speaker 6: the homes in that neighborhood are fairly close together.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: You take much to make yourself heard from one house
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: to the other. Was a robbery or bravery?
• 9:56
  Speaker 6: No, according to the boy, the house is intact. Nobody
• 9:59
  Speaker 6: touched anything.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: Leaves you with a boyfriend Angle, lover's quarrel.
• 10:02
  Speaker 6: We're stuck with you know?
• 10:04
  Speaker 8: Ah?
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: I changed? Well, how'd you make out better? Nice talk?
• 10:08
  Speaker 7: Boy was over most of his shock this morning.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: Did he talk?
• 10:11
  Speaker 7: Five pages of names and addresses he gave me on.
• 10:14
  Speaker 6: The How about that boyfriend angle?
• 10:16
  Speaker 7: How about half a dozen names? Seems the mother had
• 10:18
  Speaker 7: quite a social lifecense.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: The boy's father died from the boy's story about going
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: to the movies. Yeah, it checks out.
• 10:23
  Speaker 7: Pretty nice kid, considering the environment he's been raised in.
• 10:26
  Speaker 6: How about those names?
• 10:27
  Speaker 8: Ben?
• 10:27
  Speaker 6: Any of them lists? Sonoma is their hometown?
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: Mm? Think so?
• 10:31
  Speaker 7: Let me check here too, Yeah, no, no, huh, well no, all.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: Right, you better start digging into that list. Postmark might
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: tie in later. Meantime. You still have that set of fingerprints, little.
• 10:46
  Speaker 6: Checks for mistake there when they reach the right middles,
• 10:48
  Speaker 6: presill collective with a killer.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: That makes it simple for him. Huh, Prince will tell
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: us who he is? You got only one answer to
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: dig for him?
• 10:54
  Speaker 6: Yeah, where he is. Thursday, September thirtieth, eleven a m.
• 11:02
  Speaker 6: We started checking the list of the murdered woman's friends
• 11:04
  Speaker 6: through R and I for any possible criminal record. It's
• 11:08
  Speaker 6: usually the case that a major crime rates headline space
• 11:11
  Speaker 6: twice when the crime is committed, when the criminal was
• 11:13
  Speaker 6: apprehended between two more than Often there's a space of
• 11:17
  Speaker 6: weeks and months, sometimes even years, in which the police
• 11:21
  Speaker 6: officer goes through the monotonous, undramatic business of checking files,
• 11:25
  Speaker 6: asking questions, sifting and sorting leads and evidence until he
• 11:28
  Speaker 6: finally reaches the criminal for a news story. It's pretty
• 11:31
  Speaker 6: dull material, but it proves out the contention of most
• 11:34
  Speaker 6: working detectives.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: You don't catch criminals with headlines.
• 11:38
  Speaker 6: Monday, October fourth, we checked with a Miss Lucille Dana,
• 11:41
  Speaker 6: a counter clerk at a little market out on Crenshaw.
• 11:46
  Speaker 8: I've been away on my vacation. What about when I
• 11:48
  Speaker 8: got home yesterday?
• 11:49
  Speaker 7: You were pretty good friends with Betty Dixon? All right,
• 11:52
  Speaker 7: Miss Danna, Yeah, pretty close.
• 11:54
  Speaker 8: Excuse him minute, I'll take care dis customer.
• 11:56
  Speaker 6: Yeah, all right, is.
• 12:01
  Speaker 8: Thirteen, sir?
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: Uh no two bags of jelly beans? Please?
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: Uh uh huh.
• 12:09
  Speaker 7: Okay catch up?
• 12:11
  Speaker 8: What hmeteen seven? Alright, eighty seven? This is not mark,
• 12:24
  Speaker 8: is miss Tommy?
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 12:27
  Speaker 13: Number two?
• 12:27
  Speaker 8: Comb?
• 12:28
  Speaker 11: How much a lot?
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: Fifty better?
• 12:31
  Speaker 8: Thanks? Two seventeen out of five two seventeen two twenty
• 12:50
  Speaker 8: twenty five fifty three dollars four five A. Yeah, you course,
• 13:09
  Speaker 8: I just can't get over it, Sergeant.
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: For Betty, we.
• 13:12
  Speaker 6: Understand that you used to go out with the Dixon woman,
• 13:14
  Speaker 6: this Dina. Do you know most of her close friends.
• 13:17
  Speaker 8: Well, most of her men friends. We used to double
• 13:20
  Speaker 8: date a lot together.
• 13:21
  Speaker 6: I wonder if you'd take a look at this list
• 13:23
  Speaker 6: of names that we have here.
• 13:24
  Speaker 8: Alright, let's see m hm.
• 13:30
  Speaker 6: Now does that about cover all her boyfriends, all that
• 13:33
  Speaker 6: you knew of anyway?
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 13:34
  Speaker 8: I think so. Let's see Tony Moore's, Jill Breathe and Neil.
• 13:40
  Speaker 8: You don't have Floyd don't here?
• 13:42
  Speaker 7: Who is that? Floyd?
• 13:43
  Speaker 8: Who I never did know what his last name was,
• 13:45
  Speaker 8: used to take both of us out, Betty and I
• 13:47
  Speaker 8: seemed to like her quite a bit.
• 13:48
  Speaker 6: When's the last time she was out with him?
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: You know?
• 13:50
  Speaker 8: Oh? By her six months ago?
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: At least?
• 13:53
  Speaker 8: That's strange. What do you mean Floyd jealous?
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: You know?
• 13:57
  Speaker 8: Hot Temper said he was Spanish but had a lot complexion.
• 14:01
  Speaker 8: Oh excuse me, sure I sink.
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: Uh pack of that mint gum and some wider friends places.
• 14:08
  Speaker 11: Twenty five?
• 14:11
  Speaker 8: Thank you?
• 14:12
  Speaker 6: All right?
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: Could you describe this Floyd Force, Misteranne.
• 14:21
  Speaker 8: Well, he was kind of fresh and conceited in some ways.
• 14:24
  Speaker 8: He was attractive, a lot of fun.
• 14:26
  Speaker 7: How about his physical appearances? Wait, and height about.
• 14:29
  Speaker 8: Six feet, I'd say, a nice bill. How do eighty pounds?
• 14:33
  Speaker 8: I guess huh, dark hair, dark brown eyes, good dancing.
• 14:38
  Speaker 6: How do you and miss Dixon get along? Oh?
• 14:40
  Speaker 8: I don't think he did. Floyd and Betty used to
• 14:42
  Speaker 8: fight all the time, but she used to fight with
• 14:44
  Speaker 8: Roy Palmer to. I don't think Floyd did.
• 14:47
  Speaker 6: Is he in town?
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: Now?
• 14:47
  Speaker 14: Do you know?
• 14:48
  Speaker 8: No? I don't. As I say, last time I saw
• 14:50
  Speaker 8: him was six months ago.
• 14:51
  Speaker 7: Would you know if missus Dixon saw him recently?
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: She did?
• 14:54
  Speaker 8: You didn't tell me?
• 14:55
  Speaker 6: You have no idea then, where we could get in
• 14:56
  Speaker 6: touch with this Floyd?
• 14:57
  Speaker 8: Well, no, I don't. He's from up north. Originally was
• 15:01
  Speaker 8: that so? Yeah? Sonoma?
• 15:07
  Speaker 6: Ben and I went back to the office and got
• 15:08
  Speaker 6: off a teletype to the Sonoma Police Department along with
• 15:10
  Speaker 6: a description of the suspect named Floyd. Then we checked
• 15:14
  Speaker 6: with the sixteen year old son of the murdered woman.
• 15:16
  Speaker 6: He remembered the man called Floyd, and essentially his description
• 15:19
  Speaker 6: of the suspect checked out with that given us by
• 15:21
  Speaker 6: his mother's friend Lucie O Dana. Three PM, we met
• 15:24
  Speaker 6: with Lieutenant Harry Didion and Captain Steve Do you want.
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: To fill am end?
• 15:27
  Speaker 15: Did you finally got in touch with the dead woman's
• 15:30
  Speaker 15: next door neighbors name's Conroy, get anything at him? They
• 15:33
  Speaker 15: seemed to be the only ones who heard anything the
• 15:34
  Speaker 15: night of the murder, and what they have to say. See, Yeah,
• 15:40
  Speaker 15: they saw Missus Dixon's son Robert lee the house about
• 15:42
  Speaker 15: seven thirty the night of the murder. Nothing till eight thirty. Yeah,
• 15:48
  Speaker 15: he heard loud pounding in the back door of the
• 15:50
  Speaker 15: Dixon home. The door finally opened. They heard an angry
• 15:52
  Speaker 15: woman's voice invite the person man for man, Yeah, in
• 15:55
  Speaker 15: a description not much he was tall, good bill that
• 15:58
  Speaker 15: much Jack kwant. The neighbors said it was quiet then
• 16:01
  Speaker 15: for about an hour, and they heard a woman crying.
• 16:03
  Speaker 15: Said it sounded like Missus Dixon.
• 16:05
  Speaker 6: They make out any of the conversations.
• 16:06
  Speaker 15: I got it right here man. About nine thirty, they
• 16:10
  Speaker 15: heard Missus Dixon let a loud talking. She said, why
• 16:14
  Speaker 15: don't you kill me? Then Floyd put me out of
• 16:16
  Speaker 15: my misery?
• 16:17
  Speaker 6: Anything else?
• 16:18
  Speaker 15: They said it was quiet between nine thirty and ten,
• 16:22
  Speaker 15: and they heard something. It sounded like the thud of
• 16:24
  Speaker 15: a body falling on the floor, a piece of furniture overturn,
• 16:26
  Speaker 15: No screams for help. Funny, but the neighbors say no.
• 16:29
  Speaker 15: The only other thing they heard was missus Dixon.
• 16:33
  Speaker 6: A quote.
• 16:34
  Speaker 7: She said, do a good job, finish me off.
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: None of the neighbors thought of calling the police.
• 16:39
  Speaker 15: Well, they told me they didn't want to get mixed
• 16:40
  Speaker 15: up in a family fight. None of their business. She
• 16:42
  Speaker 15: had quite a few men visitors.
• 16:44
  Speaker 6: That's all of that.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: No one more thing.
• 16:47
  Speaker 15: I guess this is what made the neighbors think everything
• 16:49
  Speaker 15: was all right. About ten fifteen, they heard a man's voice,
• 16:52
  Speaker 15: couldn't make out any words. Then they heard Missus Dixon
• 16:55
  Speaker 15: say please kiss me goodbye. A few minutes after that
• 16:59
  Speaker 15: they heard someone leaping the back door. They seem not
• 17:02
  Speaker 15: very good. I think it was the same man they
• 17:04
  Speaker 15: saw it go in. Pretty tall, good bill, that's it.
• 17:08
  Speaker 15: Where does it leave us?
• 17:09
  Speaker 7: Pretty weird by that?
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: I don't know. There was supposed to be a sane woman.
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: She'd have to be pretty drunk to ask him around.
• 17:15
  Speaker 7: The killer man, it'd have to be pretty drunk to
• 17:17
  Speaker 7: take her up.
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: On why the killer used that buller knife on the victim.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: A piece of envelope we found by the buddy.
• 17:24
  Speaker 6: Yeah, it was postmark Sonoma. There's a state mental hospital
• 17:28
  Speaker 6: up there, sost Dodge. Maybe we're dealing with a maniac.
• 17:35
  Speaker 6: Four pm Monday, R and I could give us nothing
• 17:38
  Speaker 6: because of the meager description. Ben and I checked out
• 17:41
  Speaker 6: of the office and went over to the State building
• 17:43
  Speaker 6: to the Department of State Institutions. First, we checked the
• 17:45
  Speaker 6: name Floyd through the files, using it as a last name,
• 17:48
  Speaker 6: then as a first name. We failed to connect either
• 17:51
  Speaker 6: the names didn't fit the description of the suspect, or
• 17:54
  Speaker 6: they were elderly men still confined to the Institution of Sonoma.
• 17:57
  Speaker 6: We checked through the files using Floyd as a middle name.
• 18:00
  Speaker 6: We came up with two recent parolees from Sonoma. Both
• 18:03
  Speaker 6: matched the description almost perfectly. Both had the middle name
• 18:06
  Speaker 6: of Floyd. We checked out the first one, Charles Floyd Johansson.
• 18:10
  Speaker 6: We found out that he'd been returned to Sonoma almost
• 18:12
  Speaker 6: a month before the second parole. He still had his freedom.
• 18:15
  Speaker 6: We took as out of his fingerprints back to the
• 18:17
  Speaker 6: office and had them checked out with a set of
• 18:19
  Speaker 6: prints found on the murder weapon.
• 18:21
  Speaker 7: How's it chap up?
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: Joy?
• 18:23
  Speaker 6: Richard Floyd Coleman, that's the right name, Yeah, honeymake he's
• 18:27
  Speaker 6: your killer.
• 18:38
  Speaker 5: You are listening to Dragnet the case history of a
• 18:41
  Speaker 5: police investigation presented in the Public Interest.
• 18:50
  Speaker 6: Monday, October fourth, seventh p m. We got on an
• 18:53
  Speaker 6: APB in a radiogram on Richard Floyd Coleman. We checked
• 18:56
  Speaker 6: DMV for possible auto ownership. From his record, we found
• 19:00
  Speaker 6: that he had been confined twice to the State Mental
• 19:02
  Speaker 6: Hospital at Sonoma, the first time for a period of
• 19:05
  Speaker 6: two years, the second time for fourteen months. Hospital file
• 19:08
  Speaker 6: showed us that on both occasions he had been committed
• 19:11
  Speaker 6: by his older sister, Evelyn Coleman, his only living relative.
• 19:14
  Speaker 6: Her address was listed as fifty six forty Upper Terrace,
• 19:17
  Speaker 6: an apartment court in the East Wiltshire district. We drove
• 19:20
  Speaker 6: out to question her and one of her apartment windows
• 19:23
  Speaker 6: was a hand lettered sign seamstress dresses made to order
• 19:27
  Speaker 6: Evelyn Marie Coleman. She turned out to be a tall,
• 19:29
  Speaker 6: quiet girl in her thirties, gray eyes, brown hair. She
• 19:33
  Speaker 6: worked on the sewing machine while we talked with her, I'm.
• 19:37
  Speaker 8: Sorry to be so rude, sergeant, but I have to
• 19:39
  Speaker 8: have this blouse ready by two this afternoon. This tower
• 19:42
  Speaker 8: was putting a call for it.
• 19:43
  Speaker 7: That's perfectly all right, coolman.
• 19:45
  Speaker 8: Exactly what was it that you wanted to know?
• 19:47
  Speaker 6: It's about your brother Richard?
• 19:49
  Speaker 8: Oh eighteing wrong?
• 19:50
  Speaker 6: Now, we're just checking, that's all. We'd like to talk
• 19:52
  Speaker 6: to him.
• 19:53
  Speaker 16: What about routine check when there's ten? He spent some
• 19:56
  Speaker 16: time up at so Norma, Yes he did. Richard's had
• 19:59
  Speaker 16: a high a time of it. Doctors don't seem to
• 20:02
  Speaker 16: know the trouble for Richard.
• 20:04
  Speaker 8: He's so mixed up.
• 20:05
  Speaker 6: You're his only living relative, Yes.
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: I am.
• 20:07
  Speaker 8: Folks died when we were both young. Practical could raised
• 20:10
  Speaker 8: Richard myself?
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: Have you seen your brother lately, miss Corny?
• 20:13
  Speaker 8: No, not lately.
• 20:14
  Speaker 7: Why is there any idea of where we might contact him?
• 20:18
  Speaker 8: Well? No, I don't you see? He travels around the
• 20:20
  Speaker 8: state of good Eal.
• 20:21
  Speaker 6: Oh is he working?
• 20:22
  Speaker 7: No?
• 20:23
  Speaker 8: Well, he writes from time to time. Oh what was
• 20:25
  Speaker 8: it you want to see him? Aout sergeant with.
• 20:27
  Speaker 6: Just routine questioning, We like talk to him.
• 20:29
  Speaker 7: Oh where was he when you last heard from him?
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: Miss Corna?
• 20:32
  Speaker 8: Well, couldn't you tell me what you want to se
• 20:34
  Speaker 8: him about.
• 20:34
  Speaker 6: We just like to question him, that's all.
• 20:37
  Speaker 8: Well what about you can tell me?
• 20:38
  Speaker 6: Is your brother in the city now?
• 20:40
  Speaker 8: Oh, I don't know. I just got back. I I
• 20:43
  Speaker 8: haven't heard from him in two weeks, almost three weeks.
• 20:45
  Speaker 7: Does he usually stay here when he's in town?
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: Well?
• 20:48
  Speaker 8: Sometimes? Yes? Is Floyd in some kind of trouble?
• 20:52
  Speaker 6: Is that the name he usually goes by? Floyd? Oh?
• 20:54
  Speaker 8: Most of his friends call him Floyd.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: Why do you think he might be staying with one
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: of his friends here in the city?
• 20:59
  Speaker 6: Might be?
• 21:00
  Speaker 8: Yeah, I don't know.
• 21:01
  Speaker 14: Look, sergeant, if Floyd's in trouble, you can tell me.
• 21:04
  Speaker 14: I've seen him through lots of trouble before.
• 21:07
  Speaker 7: Women.
• 21:09
  Speaker 8: Uh wish there was something I could do.
• 21:13
  Speaker 14: Where was he when your last year a car He
• 21:15
  Speaker 14: was in Santa Barbara? He wrote me, Please, sergeant, why
• 21:19
  Speaker 14: do you have to see Floyd?
• 21:22
  Speaker 8: Excuse me?
• 21:23
  Speaker 6: Yeah?
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: Sure?
• 21:26
  Speaker 6: Hello?
• 21:28
  Speaker 8: Oh yes, miss Tyler? Uh huh, well maybe just a
• 21:33
  Speaker 8: few minutes late with two thirty bri I'm fine, Thank you,
• 21:38
  Speaker 8: start twer bye. H have to hurry, missus. Tyler's fly
• 21:43
  Speaker 8: sure you go right ahead. I really don't make much
• 21:47
  Speaker 8: of a dressmaker. But I'm saving us. I'm going to
• 21:49
  Speaker 8: buy a place for the valley further out. Be fine
• 21:52
  Speaker 8: for Floyd. Mean, you're awfully good for him. Solo'd has
• 21:55
  Speaker 8: to get away from excite. But he's awful.
• 21:57
  Speaker 6: Now, say, miss Callan, m are those your brother's suitcases
• 22:02
  Speaker 6: in the alcohol.
• 22:02
  Speaker 8: Fact that, yes they are. They've been there for a month.
• 22:05
  Speaker 8: I'll keep you gods in end story.
• 22:07
  Speaker 7: I'm sure he hasn't been here in the past.
• 22:09
  Speaker 8: Now, Oh yes, I'm sure. Please, Sergeant, Why don't you
• 22:14
  Speaker 8: tell me the truth? I've been through this before, his
• 22:16
  Speaker 8: trouble with Floyd? What is it this time?
• 22:19
  Speaker 6: It's pretty bad?
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: What is it? We want to ask him about a murder?
• 22:23
  Speaker 8: Oh? No, he wouldn't do that. You're you sure it
• 22:28
  Speaker 8: was Floyd?
• 22:29
  Speaker 7: Would like to talk to him, Floyd.
• 22:37
  Speaker 14: Floor, it didn't have to happen. It's gonna buy a
• 22:45
  Speaker 14: place in the valley. I'd liked there. It's gonna take
• 22:50
  Speaker 14: care of him mount in the valley.
• 22:51
  Speaker 6: Do you have any idea where we could find him?
• 22:53
  Speaker 6: Missus Colman, No, I don't.
• 22:56
  Speaker 4: I don't know where it is.
• 22:58
  Speaker 14: It's got a barber at the last I've been worried
• 23:02
  Speaker 14: about him if he was.
• 23:03
  Speaker 7: In the city, would he come here to stay man.
• 23:05
  Speaker 6: Well, he did before, yes, but I don't know about no,
• 23:09
  Speaker 6: because he have a car.
• 23:10
  Speaker 4: No, not that I know of.
• 23:12
  Speaker 8: No, I don't know what he's living on. He doesn't
• 23:14
  Speaker 8: have any money.
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: Who was a woman?
• 23:18
  Speaker 7: H Missus Dixon seems to know your brother pretty well.
• 23:24
  Speaker 6: You better grab that Ben, all right?
• 23:28
  Speaker 12: Hello, Yeah, that's all right, thank you. Yeah, Missus Tyler
• 23:37
  Speaker 12: shall pick up her gloss tomorrow. Ben and I left
• 23:44
  Speaker 12: Evelyn Coleman's place and went back to the office. The
• 23:46
  Speaker 12: stakeout was placed on her apartment.
• 23:48
  Speaker 6: Two days went by, nothing happened, despite the fact that
• 23:52
  Speaker 6: the suspect's sister had promised to cooperate fully with us
• 23:55
  Speaker 6: and locating her brother. A team of men was assigned
• 23:57
  Speaker 6: to follower wherever she went, his insurance against her impossible
• 24:00
  Speaker 6: slip off. As far as we were concerned, no precaution
• 24:03
  Speaker 6: was out of reason. A maniac was on the loose
• 24:06
  Speaker 6: in the city, the same maniac who had murdered the
• 24:08
  Speaker 6: Dixon woman. He'd done it once, and if the urds
• 24:10
  Speaker 6: was there, he'd do it again. We sweated out the
• 24:13
  Speaker 6: next three days. On the afternoon of the sixth day,
• 24:15
  Speaker 6: we got an urgent call from one of the parole
• 24:17
  Speaker 6: officers in the State Institution's department and Miss Gertrude Vaughan.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: Ben and I went over and.
• 24:22
  Speaker 6: Checked with it.
• 24:23
  Speaker 13: Call came in about twenty minutes ago. Sogeant Man's voice,
• 24:26
  Speaker 13: what do you have to say? He wanted to talk
• 24:27
  Speaker 13: to me about the Betty Dixon case.
• 24:29
  Speaker 6: Seemed nervous saying do anything about it.
• 24:31
  Speaker 13: I didn't want to frighten him more for asking too
• 24:33
  Speaker 13: many questions. I got the idea he had something he
• 24:35
  Speaker 13: wanted to get off his mind.
• 24:37
  Speaker 6: What did he mention? Anything specific? I mean, names, places,
• 24:39
  Speaker 6: anything like that.
• 24:40
  Speaker 8: No, but I got the impression he knew quite a
• 24:42
  Speaker 8: bit about the case.
• 24:43
  Speaker 6: What else?
• 24:44
  Speaker 8: I promised he'd be here by four o'clock, said he'd
• 24:46
  Speaker 8: be ready to talk.
• 24:48
  Speaker 6: Well, it's two forty five now, all right, Ben, okay,
• 24:53
  Speaker 6: pull up a chair. We waited. Three point fifteen, three thirty,
• 25:00
  Speaker 6: three forty five, no sign of the anonymous caller. Four pm,
• 25:05
  Speaker 6: still no sign.
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: We waited.
• 25:08
  Speaker 6: At four point thirty the office door opened and a tall,
• 25:11
  Speaker 6: thin girl with brown hair came in and walked straight
• 25:13
  Speaker 6: toward the desk of pearol officer Gertrude Vaughn. We saw
• 25:16
  Speaker 6: Miss Vaughan motion. The girl across the room toward us
• 25:19
  Speaker 6: was Evelyn Coleman.
• 25:24
  Speaker 8: Sergeant, Miss Coleman, why I know where Floyda is. I'll
• 25:28
  Speaker 8: take it to him.
• 25:32
  Speaker 6: Four thirty five pm. Then and I left the State
• 25:34
  Speaker 6: building with Evelyn Coleman, got in our car and drove
• 25:37
  Speaker 6: north across the city according to her directions, until we
• 25:39
  Speaker 6: got on a highway sixty six. We continued driving north
• 25:42
  Speaker 6: out of the city. Evelyn Coleman sat quiet in the
• 25:45
  Speaker 6: back seat, looking at her hands folded in her lap.
• 25:47
  Speaker 6: Except for direction, she said nothing. Approximately three miles out
• 25:51
  Speaker 6: of the city, she directed us off onto a county highway.
• 25:53
  Speaker 6: We drove east for a few miles, and then we
• 25:55
  Speaker 6: turned north onto an unpaved road lined where your glyptus trees.
• 25:59
  Speaker 6: We'd gone a little less than a mile when she
• 26:00
  Speaker 6: directed us to pull up.
• 26:04
  Speaker 8: We can walk the rest of the way.
• 26:06
  Speaker 7: Okay, it's not far, all.
• 26:12
  Speaker 8: Right this way.
• 26:15
  Speaker 6: Your brother been out here all this time.
• 26:17
  Speaker 8: He didn't tell me. He called this morning, supposed to
• 26:21
  Speaker 8: give himself up.
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: What happened, I don't know.
• 26:23
  Speaker 8: He's worse now. I think I could hardly understand him
• 26:26
  Speaker 8: on the phone. Does makes sense?
• 26:28
  Speaker 6: Is he alone now?
• 26:29
  Speaker 8: It was when I left him. We'd go across this
• 26:32
  Speaker 8: field here.
• 26:32
  Speaker 6: Okay, is your brother arm No?
• 26:41
  Speaker 8: Yeah, shocked by the trees. You'll see he's treated.
• 26:46
  Speaker 6: Right, Yes, ma'am, we'll see to that.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: Heaven heav I brought.
• 27:01
  Speaker 8: Them in, Floyd, they'll take you back.
• 27:05
  Speaker 7: I'm Richard Floyd Cohen.
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: I want to tell you I killed Betty Dixon, all right, Ben.
• 27:13
  Speaker 7: I wanted to marry her.
• 27:15
  Speaker 6: She didn't want it.
• 27:16
  Speaker 7: She dared me to kill her.
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: I grabbed a knifef we can talk about it later.
• 27:19
  Speaker 7: She was lying on the floor. She said, kiss me goodbye.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: I held on her.
• 27:23
  Speaker 7: She seemed to go to sleep.
• 27:24
  Speaker 10: We have to go for it.
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: You tell him heavy, I loved her.
• 27:27
  Speaker 8: You tell him that, Yeah, I will.
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: She dared me to kill her.
• 27:31
  Speaker 7: She said I didn't have the nerve she asked me to. Yeah,
• 27:33
  Speaker 7: all right, come on, try to tell him that at
• 27:36
  Speaker 7: the hospital. Yeah, I'm not crazy.
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: The story you have just heard was true, only the
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: names were changed to protect the innocent.
• 27:51
  Speaker 5: On December fourth, trial was held in Superior Court Department
• 27:55
  Speaker 5: eighty six, City and County of Los Angeles, State of
• 27:57
  Speaker 5: California in a moment the results of that trial, and
• 28:00
  Speaker 5: now here is our.
• 28:01
  Speaker 6: Star, Jack Webb, thank you. To prove a suspect's guild
• 28:05
  Speaker 6: or innocence is in Tonight's case, the working detective spends
• 28:08
  Speaker 6: many a long hour with a man in question in
• 28:11
  Speaker 6: the interrogation room, the crime lab, with his friends, his enemies,
• 28:15
  Speaker 6: gets to know his man well.
• 28:26
  Speaker 5: Richard Floyd Coleman was examined by six psychiatrists appointed by
• 28:30
  Speaker 5: the court and was found to be criminally insane. He
• 28:33
  Speaker 5: was committed to the State Mental Hospital at Mendocino for
• 28:36
  Speaker 5: an indefinite period of time. You have just heard Dragnet,
• 28:43
  Speaker 5: a series of authentic cases from official files. Technical advice
• 28:47
  Speaker 5: for Dragnet comes from the Office of Chief of Police W. W. Wharton,
• 28:51
  Speaker 5: Los Angeles Police Department.
• 28:56
  Speaker 10: Sarah Berner is delightful in Sarah's Private Caper. Next on NBC,
• 29:14
  Speaker 10: Welcome Back.
• 29:15
  Speaker 6: Well.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: In the end, the solution of the case came down
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: to a very unfortunate mix of an intoxicated victim and
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: a mentally unstable killer leading to a tragedy. And it's
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: probably a case that would have been considered unbelievable as fiction.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: But I think as something that actually happened. It was
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: very credible.
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: Well, now it's time to thank our Patreon supporter of
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: the day, and I want to go ahead and thank
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: David's been one of our Patreon supporters since March of
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, partly supporting the podcast at the Chief
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: of Detective level of thirty dollars or more per month.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your support, David, And that
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: will actually do it for today. If you're enjoying the
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: Pond podcast, please follow us using your favorite podcast software
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: and be sure to rate and review the podcast wherever
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: you download it. From this weekend, check out public domain
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: video theater over at video theater dot Great Detectives dot net,
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: and on our YouTube channel. We have an episode of
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: Racket Squad this week, and we'll be back next Saturday
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: with another episode of Dragon That Join us back here
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: tomorrow for four thousand, five hundred episode special Ware.
• 30:34
  Speaker 7: And the messages.
• 30:37
  Speaker 4: You sure, no phone calls, no s I'm sorry, get
• 30:42
  Speaker 4: me miss Eve Coleman at the Hotel Clavis.
• 30:45
  Speaker 8: Of course, you take it in your room.
• 30:48
  Speaker 7: I take it here, Senor.
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: Are you sure you don't want to take.
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: Around petty.
• 31:03
  Speaker 8: Senor? Kennedy, you said Senor to Eve Colmer.
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: That's what I said.
• 31:12
  Speaker 8: Yes, I am sorry, Senor, but there is no one
• 31:18
  Speaker 8: registered there by that name.
• 31:22
  Speaker 4: All right, all right.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: I hope you'll be with us then. In the meantime,
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: send your comments to Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net,
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives, and check us
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: out on Instagram, Instagram, dot com, slash Great Detectives from
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: Boise Adahol. This is your host, Adam Graham signing off.