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Dragnet - "Big Housemaid" (Old Time Radio, 1955) · Dragnet | Old Time Radio

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: On July twenty sixth, nineteen fifty five, NBC aired Dragnet
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: program number three hundred ten. In this Los Angeles burglary
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Detail case, Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Frank Smith investigate
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: a woman posing as a housemaid to enter private homes.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Once she is employed, cash and valuables disappear, and the
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: detectives follow the pattern of residential thefts before additional households
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: can be victimized. The investigation carries Friday and Smith from
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: burglary detail to the private residences at the center of
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: the reports. Jack Webb is Sergeant Friday, Ben Alexander Officer
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Smith in Big Housemaid from the Chesterfield sponsored series Ladies
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: and Gentlemen. The lights are down, the microphone is live,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: and now the original broadcast.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: Ladies and Gentlemen. The story you are about to hear
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: is true.
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: The names have been changed to protect the innocence. You're
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: a detective sergeant. You're assigned the burglary detail. A woman
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: closing as a housemaid has been stealing cash and other
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: valuables from homes in your city. Your job stopper.
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: Dragment the documented drama of an actual crime.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: For the next thirty minutes.
• 1:50
  Speaker 5: In cooperation with the Los Angeles Police Department, you will
• 1:53
  Speaker 5: travel step by step on the side of the law
• 1:55
  Speaker 5: through an actual case transcribed from official police violence, beginning
• 2:00
  Speaker 5: from crime to punishments.
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: Dragnette is the story of your police force and action.
• 2:10
  Speaker 6: It was Tuesday, October eleventh, was cloudy in Los Angeles.
• 2:12
  Speaker 6: We were working today watch out of Burglary details. My
• 2:14
  Speaker 6: partner's Frank Smith. The boss is Captain Bernard. My name
• 2:17
  Speaker 6: is Frank R. On our way back from lunch and
• 2:19
  Speaker 6: it was one seventeen PM when we got the room
• 2:21
  Speaker 6: forty five Burgerary.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: Hey Smith, huh, your wife, pauled while Jah wants you
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: to call her back.
• 2:29
  Speaker 7: Oh thanks, that's funny. I'd like say to call in
• 2:33
  Speaker 7: the middle of the day. Kids are all right when
• 2:35
  Speaker 7: I left this morning?
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: When what she wants? Why don't you call her and
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: find out you're not married? Joe, You don't understand.
• 2:42
  Speaker 7: Sometimes a guy wants a minute to think things over sory,
• 2:44
  Speaker 7: to prepare himself if he's done something he shouldn't.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: Well, have you about what done something you shouldn't? Of
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: course not? Then be my guest. Okay, Well, I don't
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: mind for you too. That's mighty nice, funny.
• 3:12
  Speaker 7: I know the kids are all right smart, Hi honey. Yeah,
• 3:17
  Speaker 7: and they just tell him we're out the line to
• 3:20
  Speaker 7: find something wrong. Oh, I want to happen nice if
• 3:28
  Speaker 7: you know who?
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: Did you reported? Why not? All right? I wasn't tell him.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: I guess we could.
• 3:40
  Speaker 7: Yeah, sure, that's affinitely, yeah, Joseph, I'll be about seven
• 3:48
  Speaker 7: thirty eight. All right, any thanks for telling me. If
• 3:52
  Speaker 7: anything comes up, party.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: Get bye? Nice old lady like that? What's that? I
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: don't think you ever met her?
• 4:01
  Speaker 7: Joe names missus Vesper doesn't sound many. She used to
• 4:04
  Speaker 7: live next story to us when I was a kid,
• 4:06
  Speaker 7: who known me since since.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: I can remember. She's alone now.
• 4:12
  Speaker 7: They calls her up every once in a while. See
• 4:13
  Speaker 7: she's all right. Who called her this morning? As Vesper says,
• 4:17
  Speaker 7: she had some money still and some jewelry happened yesterday?
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: Didn't she report it? Fate doesn't seem to think so
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: wants me to talk to her. Let's go, well, Joe,
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: you got to promise me something. You got to give
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: me your word right here. I don't want you to
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: kid me afterwards about the way she treats me. Miss Desper.
• 4:37
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I told you she's known me all my life. Well,
• 4:40
  Speaker 7: sometimes she acts like I'm still a little boy, you.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: Know, so you won't rid me about anything, anything at all.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: But what are you getting there? Well, she doesn't think
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: I ought to be on the forest. For one thing,
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: I might as well to tell you about it. I
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: don't she will. She always claims I should have taken up.
• 4:57
  Speaker 7: Something else, like what, oh, you know the crazy idea
• 5:00
  Speaker 7: people especially about kids. Well, Miss Vesper thinks, I we'll see.
• 5:04
  Speaker 7: When I was a lot younger, really young, ten or twelve,
• 5:07
  Speaker 7: but I used to sort of memorize.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: Things, little pieces and poems.
• 5:13
  Speaker 7: Memorize things, poems and little pieces, and I'd go next door.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: And assign them for Yeah, you say, she knowing you
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: all our life. Yeah, practically it'll be true if we
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: don't get out there once. He got a real kick
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: out of them poems.
• 5:25
  Speaker 7: And I wasn't much good, But she was prejudiced because
• 5:28
  Speaker 7: she liked me.
• 5:28
  Speaker 5: You know.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: I want to go, Yeah, but I just want to
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: explain this that she.
• 5:33
  Speaker 7: Thinks I should have kept at it, made up my
• 5:35
  Speaker 7: career reciting poems, No, not exactly reciting Joe.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: I didn't just resign him you wrote them too.
• 5:43
  Speaker 6: Yeah, Frank and I left the office and go out
• 5:51
  Speaker 6: to the home of missus Sarah Vesper. She lived in
• 5:53
  Speaker 6: a small bungalow on Lost Palmer Street in the Miracle
• 5:55
  Speaker 6: Mile district.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: It was two o seven pm when we got there.
• 5:59
  Speaker 8: Right, goodness sake, Frank Smith, Where on earth did you
• 6:03
  Speaker 8: come from afternoons?
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: Vesper?
• 6:05
  Speaker 8: Missus Vesper? What's gotten into Frank? You've never called me
• 6:10
  Speaker 8: that before in your whole life. Ah man, answer, well,
• 6:14
  Speaker 8: now that's more like it. Who's this you got here
• 6:17
  Speaker 8: with you?
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: And that's my partner? Sorry Friday?
• 6:20
  Speaker 8: Oh please, you work for Frank? Do your young man?
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: And Sarah we work together.
• 6:27
  Speaker 8: Oh you don't see well I expect that keeps you
• 6:30
  Speaker 8: from getting lunesome, don't it. Yes, my goodness, Now, don't
• 6:35
  Speaker 8: just stand there, Come on inside, both of you.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: Thank you very much.
• 6:40
  Speaker 8: Well there, this isn't the dunes coincidence? Ma'am you're coming
• 6:44
  Speaker 8: to visit me today? Oh? Sit right down, Sit right down.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: After your boss. Nice, believe it or not.
• 6:52
  Speaker 8: I was talking to your wife only this morning. Then
• 6:55
  Speaker 8: the next thing I know, here.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: You are, yes, ma'am, faith only.
• 7:00
  Speaker 8: Oh, I just remember that's why you're here, ain't it
• 7:05
  Speaker 8: on account of what I said to Faith? Yes, I
• 7:08
  Speaker 8: should never have mentioned it to her. I don't know
• 7:11
  Speaker 8: what's the matter with me. I must be losing my mind.
• 7:14
  Speaker 8: There's something I just keep forgetting that you're a policeman.
• 7:19
  Speaker 8: Oh well, you oughtn't to have been one in the
• 7:21
  Speaker 8: first place. Now if you've just taken my advice as
• 7:25
  Speaker 8: oh now, don't misunderstand me, please, I'm not criticizing the police.
• 7:30
  Speaker 8: We certainly couldn't get along without him, and I'd be
• 7:32
  Speaker 8: the first to say so. But some people have a
• 7:36
  Speaker 8: talent for one thing, and some people are talented in
• 7:39
  Speaker 8: a different directions. Isn't that right, mister Friday? Yes, you
• 7:43
  Speaker 8: take Frank here. You had a real talent for making
• 7:46
  Speaker 8: up verses, even when he was just a little type.
• 7:50
  Speaker 8: I'll bet you didn't know that, did you.
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: Well? I heard a little something about him.
• 7:55
  Speaker 8: A real talent, That's what it was. Why I remember
• 7:59
  Speaker 8: some of here poems to my dying day, the rind
• 8:03
  Speaker 8: and everything. The answer tells one about the rainbow That
• 8:09
  Speaker 8: was one of his very best Did he ever do
• 8:13
  Speaker 8: it for you, mister Friday?
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: No? No, I don't think he did.
• 8:16
  Speaker 8: Oh it gave you such a beautiful picture, just like
• 8:21
  Speaker 8: an artist that painted it only with words. You know
• 8:25
  Speaker 8: what I mean?
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm not sure.
• 8:27
  Speaker 8: I go ahead, Frank say it from mister Friday.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: Please answer now.
• 8:32
  Speaker 8: I know he'd like to hear it, wouldn't you, mister Friday?
• 8:36
  Speaker 8: All right, Frank, so one about the rainbow?
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: I don't remember it? Answer now?
• 8:42
  Speaker 7: You're just being modest, yes, Joe, No, really, I don't answer.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: I don't remember, not a word.
• 8:49
  Speaker 8: Honest, seems funny. I'd forget a thing like that. I mean,
• 8:53
  Speaker 8: when you made it up yourself.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: Well, it's been a long time.
• 8:57
  Speaker 8: Hasn't been any longer for you than it has for me?
• 9:00
  Speaker 8: And I can still remember it just as clear as
• 9:03
  Speaker 8: the first time I heard it. What rainbow? Rainbow up
• 9:09
  Speaker 8: so high?
• 9:11
  Speaker 9: That's how it begun, mister Friday. Rainbow rainbow up so high,
• 9:18
  Speaker 9: blue and red and yellow and brown like an.
• 9:22
  Speaker 8: Arch across the sky. Won't you ever tumble down? Where
• 9:32
  Speaker 8: did it go from there? Frank? The next verse? What
• 9:37
  Speaker 8: was it?
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but we haven't got much time.
• 9:41
  Speaker 8: Oh well, anyway, that gives you an idea of Frank's talent.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: Yes, man, what sure does.
• 9:47
  Speaker 7: Awesome, And Sarah, would you just tell us about the
• 9:51
  Speaker 7: things that were stolen from you?
• 9:54
  Speaker 8: Well, I suppose I should have gotten in touch with
• 9:57
  Speaker 8: the police. Well, I didn't see where that would help
• 10:01
  Speaker 8: matters none, just like closing the barn door after the
• 10:04
  Speaker 8: horse had been stolen. And besides, he didn't want to
• 10:08
  Speaker 8: hurt Barbara's feelings.
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: Barbara my niece.
• 10:11
  Speaker 8: You remember Barbara Frank, Oh, sure you've played out in
• 10:15
  Speaker 8: the backyard with her the whole summer. She was visiting me.
• 10:18
  Speaker 8: Kind of a scrawny girl. Of course, she's filled out now,
• 10:22
  Speaker 8: you just wouldn't recognize her, has two children of her own,
• 10:25
  Speaker 8: nice home out in Westwood.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: Yes, what's your niece got to do with all this?
• 10:31
  Speaker 8: Miss vesper Or she's the one who sent her man,
• 10:34
  Speaker 8: the Keenan woman.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: Well, did you know your niece was sending this woman over?
• 10:38
  Speaker 6: No?
• 10:39
  Speaker 8: No, I guess it was supposed to be kind of
• 10:42
  Speaker 8: a surprise. Oh, anyway, she just come up to the
• 10:46
  Speaker 8: door yesterday morning, all along about nine point thirty now,
• 10:49
  Speaker 8: said she was ready to go to work first and
• 10:53
  Speaker 8: didn't know what she was getting at. And then she
• 10:55
  Speaker 8: explained about Barbara hiring her.
• 10:57
  Speaker 10: To give me a hand of course I don't need.
• 11:00
  Speaker 8: Nobody little place like this, no trouble at all. But
• 11:05
  Speaker 8: didn't want to hurt Barbara's feeling, so I told her
• 11:08
  Speaker 8: to come on in and figured maybe she could help
• 11:11
  Speaker 8: out some of the heavy work, you know, turning the
• 11:13
  Speaker 8: mattresses and moving furniture.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: Sure, what was the woman's name?
• 11:17
  Speaker 7: Answer?
• 11:18
  Speaker 8: Margaret? That's what she told me, Margaret.
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: Do you know her last name? No?
• 11:22
  Speaker 8: No, don't think she even mentioned it.
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: All right, what happened next?
• 11:25
  Speaker 8: Well, we did the cleaning, not that she was much
• 11:28
  Speaker 8: of a housekeeper, practically had to go over the whole
• 11:31
  Speaker 8: place after she left.
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: But how long she stayed?
• 11:34
  Speaker 8: Path day, that's what she said. Barbara hired her for
• 11:37
  Speaker 8: must have been about oh then after one when she went,
• 11:42
  Speaker 8: didn't even give me a full four hours. Insisted on
• 11:46
  Speaker 8: my fixed nurse some lunch too. I tell you that
• 11:49
  Speaker 8: woman sure had her share a goal my sandwiches. At
• 11:52
  Speaker 8: the same time she was robbing me. Wonder she didn't
• 11:56
  Speaker 8: ask for car fare?
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: Well, just what was it?
• 11:58
  Speaker 8: She stole my cash man, cleaned out every pocketbook in
• 12:02
  Speaker 8: the dresser, found the bills I had hit under the
• 12:05
  Speaker 8: dresser's scarf too.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: Yes, man, how soon did you find out that these
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: things were going a little.
• 12:09
  Speaker 8: While after she left, when I went to straighten up
• 12:12
  Speaker 8: the mess she'd made.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: You still haven't talked to your niece about all this.
• 12:15
  Speaker 8: I told you I didn't want to get her all upset.
• 12:19
  Speaker 8: I suppose she will think it's funny I haven't called
• 12:21
  Speaker 8: a thinker.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: I wonder if you'd mind calling her?
• 12:23
  Speaker 7: No, you mean right now, yes, ma'am, do I have
• 12:27
  Speaker 7: to Well, we'd like to get this cleaning woman's name
• 12:30
  Speaker 7: and andress. You don't have to say why you're calling
• 12:32
  Speaker 7: it Sarah.
• 12:33
  Speaker 8: She's bound to know something's wrong. Barbara's no fool.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: Well, if you won't talk to her, we will. We
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: can find out where she lives.
• 12:41
  Speaker 8: Huh. I guess I was wrong about you, Frank Smith.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: Ma'am.
• 12:45
  Speaker 8: Yes, you're turned into a policeman after all, looking to
• 12:50
  Speaker 8: give toss and the teeth. That's what it is. Bob
• 12:53
  Speaker 8: is going to think you don't appreciate all she's done
• 12:55
  Speaker 8: for me.
• 12:56
  Speaker 7: You wait there, I'll be right back, all right, go ahead,
• 13:01
  Speaker 7: and said, hmm, go on, get it over with ride
• 13:05
  Speaker 7: me about the poem. That's why you're smirking. I Rody
• 13:08
  Speaker 7: did that and just sit there with a silly smirk
• 13:10
  Speaker 7: on your face. I suppose you never made up any
• 13:13
  Speaker 7: poems when.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: You were a kid. I'll bet blue and red and
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: brown like an ar chip in the sky. When would
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: you tumble down?
• 13:24
  Speaker 8: Is that it?
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: Of course? I wasn't a real talented poet. Yeah. What
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: are you staring at that? Oh? Nothing? I want to
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: stop it, will you? No? I just noticing you need
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: a haircut, don't you. I'm gonna get one a week.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: You're not letting it grow along?
• 13:40
  Speaker 6: Man?
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: Why would I? Johns will help me. If we ever
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: get out of here slipped out, I will say another word,
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: I promised, or look either all I don't even look.
• 13:53
  Speaker 8: Stranger.
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: Did you get a hold of your niece, miss Vesper? Oh?
• 13:57
  Speaker 8: Yes, yes, I talked to her. But I don't understand it.
• 14:01
  Speaker 8: Simply don't understand it by cleaning woman?
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: What about her?
• 14:06
  Speaker 8: Robert didn't have anything.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: To do with it?
• 14:08
  Speaker 8: Well, she's never even heard of her.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: Frank and I continued to talk to the victim. Missus.
• 14:18
  Speaker 6: Vesper told us that the suspect was WFA about forty
• 14:21
  Speaker 6: years old, five feet three or four, weighing approximately one
• 14:24
  Speaker 6: hundred and forty pounds, said She was wearing a house
• 14:27
  Speaker 6: dress and a light gray coat. She also gave us
• 14:29
  Speaker 6: a detailed description of the jewelry that had been stolen.
• 14:31
  Speaker 6: Frank telephoned Missus Vesper's niece and she said she was
• 14:33
  Speaker 6: not acquainted with anyone who answered the suspect's description. Five
• 14:37
  Speaker 6: seventeen PM, the crime lab reported they had found no.
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: Physical evidence at the Vesper residence.
• 14:42
  Speaker 6: Three days later, October fourteenth, we received the theft report
• 14:45
  Speaker 6: from a woman living near Wiltshire and Western the suspect
• 14:47
  Speaker 6: of being entrance by saying that a neighborhood sent her
• 14:49
  Speaker 6: to clean. The description tallied with what we already had.
• 14:53
  Speaker 6: During the next two weeks, nine more thefts were reported.
• 14:56
  Speaker 6: In each case, the suspect had used the same m all,
• 14:58
  Speaker 6: and the description indicated that the crimes had all than
• 15:00
  Speaker 6: the work of the same woman. Each of the thefts
• 15:02
  Speaker 6: took place within a few blocks of Gulcher Boulevard, in
• 15:05
  Speaker 6: the area between vermondern Fairfax. In one instance, the suspect
• 15:09
  Speaker 6: had been seen departing on the wiltshre Bus. Police officers
• 15:12
  Speaker 6: takedout buses and bus stops. Lists of the stolen property
• 15:16
  Speaker 6: were sent to all pawn shops in the city. Two
• 15:18
  Speaker 6: women were brought in for questioning that the victims were
• 15:20
  Speaker 6: unable to give positive identification. Employment agencies for domestic workers
• 15:24
  Speaker 6: were contacted. Newspaper want ads were checked. No leads developed.
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: Saturday, October twenty ninth, two seventeen pm.
• 15:32
  Speaker 6: I get it, Burgery Friday. Who oh yeah, yeah, Corky,
• 15:40
  Speaker 6: but that yeah, thanks if you can, okay, Kirky eleventh.
• 15:47
  Speaker 6: YEA woman's in his pawn shop trying to unload a
• 15:49
  Speaker 6: diamond clip. Kirky says, it's on our list. We left
• 16:15
  Speaker 6: the office and drove down a Krky Levet's pawn shop
• 16:18
  Speaker 6: on South Maine. Over the phone, Kirky had said he
• 16:20
  Speaker 6: would stall a woman as long as he could. It
• 16:22
  Speaker 6: was two twenty eight pm when we got to his place.
• 16:24
  Speaker 6: The woman was still there.
• 16:27
  Speaker 10: You make up your mind, bus to give me some
• 16:29
  Speaker 10: doll on the thing or hand it back. I'll take
• 16:31
  Speaker 10: it someplace else.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: Does have a look at it? Carky for sure?
• 16:33
  Speaker 8: Hey what is it?
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: Police officers?
• 16:35
  Speaker 11: Huh, let's go take your hands off me or let's
• 16:39
  Speaker 11: go thanks Carky, Yeah, thanks a lot.
• 16:42
  Speaker 10: I suppose you let me in on it.
• 16:44
  Speaker 8: What's to be?
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: We're talking over at the officer about what this clip?
• 16:47
  Speaker 8: I mean, it's hot?
• 16:48
  Speaker 10: Is that what you're getting in?
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: What don't you tell us?
• 16:52
  Speaker 10: Wouldn't you know it?
• 16:53
  Speaker 11: Lucky reader? She walked into it this time, and it
• 16:56
  Speaker 11: looks like it. Your clown's got your minds all madea
• 16:59
  Speaker 11: You think I still left him?
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: Don't somebody did.
• 17:06
  Speaker 6: Two forty two pm we contacted Control one and notified
• 17:09
  Speaker 6: them we were bringing in a female suspect.
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: They took down our mileage in location and made a
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: note of the time.
• 17:14
  Speaker 6: Eight minutes later we pulled into the city hall and
• 17:16
  Speaker 6: we again checked with Control one.
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: Foala.
• 17:18
  Speaker 6: Suspect was being searched by a policewoman. We talked to
• 17:20
  Speaker 6: one of the victims. The victim positively identified the diamond
• 17:23
  Speaker 6: clipp is belonging to her.
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: Three forty one pm we interrogated the suspect in the
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: squad room. All right, so all you want a cigarette?
• 17:34
  Speaker 6: Yeah, all right, I suppose you tell us about it.
• 17:43
  Speaker 6: Come Onrita, let's get it over with.
• 17:45
  Speaker 8: I's ray to tell you.
• 17:46
  Speaker 10: Guys nor all and we know some of them.
• 17:48
  Speaker 6: Your name's Rita Baines. You fall them three times forgery,
• 17:51
  Speaker 6: grand theft, burglary. He made two trips to the Hatchet,
• 17:53
  Speaker 6: being one to Corona.
• 17:54
  Speaker 10: So you looked up my record.
• 17:55
  Speaker 8: Big deal.
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: Let's talk about this diamond clip.
• 17:57
  Speaker 8: Huh okay, pretty in it?
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: What did you get? Rita?
• 18:00
  Speaker 10: Didn't I steal it? Isn't that why you brought me
• 18:02
  Speaker 10: up here?
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: That's a difference.
• 18:06
  Speaker 10: You wouldn't believe me no matter what I told you.
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: Why don't you try the truth? Okay?
• 18:11
  Speaker 8: It was a gift.
• 18:12
  Speaker 10: Yeah, yeah, lady gave it me.
• 18:15
  Speaker 11: I don't know, never saw her before in my life. Sure,
• 18:18
  Speaker 11: I was riding the bus yesterday afternoon. She was sitting
• 18:20
  Speaker 11: next to me, had that pen on, asking me if
• 18:22
  Speaker 11: I liked it?
• 18:23
  Speaker 8: You bet, I said sure.
• 18:25
  Speaker 10: The girls said I could.
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: Have it, just handed it right over, just like that.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: What'd she look like, Rita?
• 18:30
  Speaker 8: I don't know. Forty and be forty five along the
• 18:33
  Speaker 8: happiest day.
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: And you've never seen her before first time?
• 18:37
  Speaker 8: You know.
• 18:37
  Speaker 10: When I was a little girl, my folks always told
• 18:39
  Speaker 10: me not to take things and change.
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: Sure they did.
• 18:42
  Speaker 8: I guess they were right, all right?
• 18:45
  Speaker 11: Reader?
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: What do you do for litter?
• 18:47
  Speaker 8: Wait? Table?
• 18:48
  Speaker 7: Where borrowed on?
• 18:49
  Speaker 10: People?
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: You work days or.
• 18:50
  Speaker 8: Nights, nights?
• 18:51
  Speaker 10: Mostly don't not move four o'closs.
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: Every Morning's free them law against you. Ever do any housework?
• 18:57
  Speaker 10: Straighten up my room once in a while, You.
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: Ever do housework for somebody else, like a cleaning woman.
• 19:02
  Speaker 10: I ain't that hard up for a job, even with
• 19:04
  Speaker 10: a record.
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: All right, let's talk about this pen some more.
• 19:08
  Speaker 10: You didn't believe me.
• 19:08
  Speaker 6: It's pretty hard to swallowing this. Yeah, Ladia Blanco says
• 19:11
  Speaker 6: worth over one hundred dollars.
• 19:13
  Speaker 10: Palm broker didn't think so.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: People don't go around giving one hundred dollar clips, not
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: do they. What'd you get it?
• 19:19
  Speaker 8: Same on the bus asked me if I liked it?
• 19:21
  Speaker 10: I said yes, she gave it me. Yeah, you guys
• 19:24
  Speaker 10: don't mind if I stick to that story. Dar, you're
• 19:26
  Speaker 10: seeing his hot's the truth?
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: Which bus? Were you?
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 19:28
  Speaker 8: Well?
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: Where'd your friend get off? You get off?
• 19:31
  Speaker 10: I don't know.
• 19:32
  Speaker 8: I got off first.
• 19:35
  Speaker 11: You don't go with somebody else telling you that you might.
• 19:37
  Speaker 10: Go along with her?
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, sure we would, but not me.
• 19:41
  Speaker 11: Not beat a bank, you cops give a gall of
• 19:43
  Speaker 11: record from then on.
• 19:44
  Speaker 10: She might as well be dead. Sure, anytime there's trouble
• 19:47
  Speaker 10: pick her up. She probably did it. She tells you didn't.
• 19:49
  Speaker 10: She's probably lying.
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: You know, you got one thing wrong.
• 19:51
  Speaker 10: D I oughtn't know.
• 19:52
  Speaker 8: It's happened to me often enough.
• 19:53
  Speaker 10: I'm the gal with a record.
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but we didn't give it a yet.
• 20:01
  Speaker 6: Frank and I continued to question the suspect, but she
• 20:03
  Speaker 6: refused to change her story.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: Eight forty two pm.
• 20:06
  Speaker 6: A special show up was held for several of the
• 20:08
  Speaker 6: burglary victims, none of them identified Rita Baines. Nine oh
• 20:11
  Speaker 6: six pm she was released from custody and we went
• 20:13
  Speaker 6: back to the office.
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: Well, she didn't take bag clips. She knows who did.
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: Maybe that's the reason, Joe. Nobody's gonna go to all
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: the trouble with stealing and stuff and then give it away.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: Burgery Friday, Yes, ma'am, what's that I see? M hm, Yes,
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: we would. What's your address? All right, thank you very much,
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: just a few minutes, goodbye. Well, here we go again,
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: another burglary, another piece of free jewelry. Frank and I
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: drove out to one address on South Ridgley Drive. Nine
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: thirty two pm. We talked to missus Lucy Heflin.
• 21:01
  Speaker 6: She showed us a pearl choker that had been given
• 21:03
  Speaker 6: to her by a woman she met at a bus
• 21:04
  Speaker 6: stop earlier in the evening.
• 21:05
  Speaker 8: I didn't want to take it. I told her so,
• 21:07
  Speaker 8: but she wouldn't listen. And then afterwards, when I got
• 21:10
  Speaker 8: home and thought about it, well, I started wondering if
• 21:12
  Speaker 8: maybe there was some reason why she was so anxious
• 21:14
  Speaker 8: to get rid of those pearls. So I called you.
• 21:15
  Speaker 8: Where was it?
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: You saw this one?
• 21:16
  Speaker 8: Mizepplin corner Wheelshire and Barstow. That's where I was waiting
• 21:19
  Speaker 8: for my bus. I take the wheelchair Express home. She
• 21:22
  Speaker 8: was on a low call see, and when it pulled up,
• 21:25
  Speaker 8: she got out. I guess she must have turned her
• 21:26
  Speaker 8: ankle or something. Anyway, she dropped her pocketbook. Well, I
• 21:30
  Speaker 8: helped her pick up her things, and that's when she
• 21:31
  Speaker 8: gave me this choker. I see that she didn't have
• 21:33
  Speaker 8: any use for herself and for me to keep it.
• 21:36
  Speaker 8: Tried to give it back that you wouldn't wait. I
• 21:38
  Speaker 8: tried to follow her, but just then my bus came along,
• 21:40
  Speaker 8: and I knew there wouldn't be another one for maybe
• 21:42
  Speaker 8: an hour. They don't run very regular after eight o'clock. Anyway,
• 21:46
  Speaker 8: I figured I could always return the choker if that
• 21:48
  Speaker 8: seemed like the best thing.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: Are you going to do that, Miss Epvlin, you know
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: the woman?
• 21:52
  Speaker 8: Oh no, no, but I watched her from the bus.
• 21:54
  Speaker 8: We had to wait for the light to change, so
• 21:56
  Speaker 8: I was go into a building, apartment house. I suppose
• 21:59
  Speaker 8: that's where she lived.
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: Ms.
• 22:05
  Speaker 6: Hefflin told us that the woman had entered an apartment
• 22:07
  Speaker 6: house on Barstow Street, two doors from the Wiltshire Corner.
• 22:10
  Speaker 6: We asked her to describe the suspect, and her description
• 22:13
  Speaker 6: talent with what we already had. Ten fifteen pm, we
• 22:16
  Speaker 6: drove over to the Barstow Avenue address and talked to
• 22:18
  Speaker 6: the manager of the apartment. He told us that a
• 22:20
  Speaker 6: woman answering the suspect's description lived on the second floor,
• 22:22
  Speaker 6: Apartment seven.
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: He said that her name was Edna Landy. Frank and
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: I went upstairs to talk to her. Let's see somebody's coming.
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: Ms Landy, Yes, sir police officers. Oh, I can to
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: come downtown with his mss Landy.
• 22:49
  Speaker 8: All right, I'll get my coach.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: Never mind, I'll get it for you.
• 22:52
  Speaker 8: Send the closet over there, Okay.
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: I'll look around while I'm at it here.
• 22:56
  Speaker 8: Yeah, you won't find anything, that's all.
• 23:00
  Speaker 12: I gave the last of it away just to see
• 23:02
  Speaker 12: me lady I met at the bus stop. Gave the
• 23:05
  Speaker 12: last piece to her nicely.
• 23:07
  Speaker 8: She was very kind to me, helped me when I
• 23:09
  Speaker 8: dropped my purse. I'm glad I had something nice for
• 23:15
  Speaker 8: Pearl Choker.
• 23:16
  Speaker 10: That's what it was.
• 23:17
  Speaker 8: Yeah, clean Joe, I said you wouldn't find anything.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: Why'd you do it? Miss Landy? Why'd you steal those things?
• 23:27
  Speaker 8: Oh? I wasn't stealing.
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: Oh you weren't personal.
• 23:31
  Speaker 8: You're just teaching them a lesson. Yeah, they needed it,
• 23:35
  Speaker 8: needed it bad. You would trust anybody. Always say you're
• 23:38
  Speaker 8: stealing from them.
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: But who are you talking about, Miss Landing.
• 23:41
  Speaker 8: People that hired me to work for them do their cleaning.
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: These people didn't hire you.
• 23:46
  Speaker 8: They're all the same folks out here, back east and
• 23:49
  Speaker 8: all the same.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: Where's back East.
• 23:51
  Speaker 8: Cargo Cargo, Illinois.
• 23:54
  Speaker 12: Doesn't matter how much you do, how hard you try, ma'am,
• 23:58
  Speaker 12: sooner or later something's missing, I say took it.
• 24:02
  Speaker 8: We formed ten years, doesn't matter least little thing gets lost.
• 24:04
  Speaker 8: To say you're a thief nicely made up my mind. Shown.
• 24:08
  Speaker 8: As long as they're gonna blame anyway, might as well
• 24:10
  Speaker 8: do something to deserve it. Good lesson. That's what they need.
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: All right, let's go.
• 24:17
  Speaker 8: I'm an honest woman. I've always been honest. Sure, I
• 24:20
  Speaker 8: never took that money from missus dressers. She was wrong
• 24:22
  Speaker 8: to say. I did. Never took nothing that didn't.
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: Belong to me until you came out here different.
• 24:29
  Speaker 8: Even then, I wasn't taken from myself. I gave all
• 24:32
  Speaker 8: the jewelry away. It wasn't from me.
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: I was more than jewelry is landing a lot of
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: money missing too.
• 24:37
  Speaker 8: I didn't keep it. Oh, send it off, every penny,
• 24:40
  Speaker 8: send it to charity.
• 24:40
  Speaker 12: Different charity is all over. I wouldn't keep something that
• 24:44
  Speaker 12: wasn't mine. Maybe next time they'll be a little more careful.
• 24:47
  Speaker 8: Who they say is a thief. Yes, doesn't like to
• 24:50
  Speaker 8: chuse somebody when she hasn't done it. Just because you're
• 24:52
  Speaker 8: the cleaning woman. That doesn't mean you're not honest.
• 24:55
  Speaker 12: Well I showed them it doesn't. If I really wanted
• 24:58
  Speaker 12: to be a crook, how easy it was. I mustn't
• 25:02
  Speaker 12: think I was doing anything wrong. No, just trying to
• 25:06
  Speaker 12: make them understand, that's all. Clinging woman's like everybody else.
• 25:09
  Speaker 12: She's got feelings too, in pride like everybody else. Maybe
• 25:13
  Speaker 12: now they'll see where they made their mistake. They better,
• 25:17
  Speaker 12: I will Stanford being called a liar and a seat
• 25:19
  Speaker 12: not anymore. Folks better treating me a whole lot different
• 25:22
  Speaker 12: from here on in.
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: Well, that's right, miss Landy, what they will.
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: The story you've just heard is true. The names were
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: changed to protect the innocent.
• 25:40
  Speaker 4: On December fourteenth, the hearing was held in Department ninety six,
• 25:43
  Speaker 4: Superior Court at the State of California in and Paul,
• 25:46
  Speaker 4: the County of Los Angeles in a moment the results
• 25:49
  Speaker 4: of that hearing, Edna foster Land was examined by three
• 26:01
  Speaker 4: psychiatrists appointed by the court and was found to be
• 26:04
  Speaker 4: mentally incompetent. She was committed to a state medical hospital
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: for an indefinite.
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: Period of treatment.
• 26:19
  Speaker 4: You have just heard Dragnet, a series of authentic cases
• 26:22
  Speaker 4: from official pilots. Technical advice comes from the Office of
• 26:26
  Speaker 4: Chief of Police W. H. Parker, Los Angeles Police Department.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: We leave Los Angeles with Dragnet episode three hundred and ten,
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: Big Housemaid. Follow Dragnet for more classic broadcasts.