Latest / Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas / Dragnet: The Mother-in-Law Mother (EP1442)
Transcript
- 0:28Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho. This
- 0:34is your host, Adam Braham. If you have a comment, send it
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- 0:55you know this program is brought to you by the financial support of our listeners.
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- 1:02Will send access to our premium sign as we do with all our nations
- 1:06of seven dollars or more, and you can support the show at support Great
- 1:11Detectives dot net. Well, now it's time for today's episode of Dragnet.
- 1:18The original air date November the twenty fourth of nineteen forty nine and title commonly
- 1:25known as The Mother in Law Murder. Ladies and gentlemen. The story you
- 1:40were about to hear is true, only the names have been changed to protect
- 1:46the innocent. You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned homicide detail. A vicious
- 2:01killer has taken the life of a sixty two year old woman. Suspicion points
- 2:07in only one direction. The murderer was heartless, cold blooded. Your job
- 2:14get him drag Net that documented drama of an actual crime. For the next
- 2:22thirty minutes, in cooperation with the Los Angeles Police Department, you will travel
- 2:27step by step on the side of the law through an actual case from official
- 2:30police files, from beginning to end, from crime to punishment. Drag Net
- 2:36is the story of your police force in action. It was Saturday, November
- 2:43fifth, was foggy in Los Angeles. We're working a day watch out of
- 2:46homicide. My partner's Ben Romero. The boss is at Backstrand Chievi Detectives.
- 2:51My name is Friday. It was three point thirty five PM when I got
- 2:53to Room forty two Homicide long distance. This is Friday in homicide. I'd
- 3:08like to place a call to mister Frank Lenard and Murphy, Idaho A number
- 3:12seven six one. Frank Bernard Murphy, Idaho seven six one. Yeah,
- 3:15that's right. The call has been played with the business office. Alright,
- 3:19Uh, do you want me to call your back surgeon? No, I'll
- 3:21hang on, Okay, I'll plank it for you. Let sister long distance,
- 3:32Mister Frank Bronard Murphy, Idaho Murphy seven sixth one. Thank you you
- 3:38have you're another player tracks to call the madicine seven nine six ones. Thank
- 3:45you the time in turgeon and the calls completed, operator rad operator, did
- 3:53you read it? Put a man? Yes, Murphy Idaho rooting and person
- 3:55rating. Say let see in a m P another alright, how bring you?
- 4:09Boys? E? Alright? What eleven bixl U one six O?
- 4:14Thank you about them through boys? Oh boy, things I'm calling nimbers.
- 4:28Oh birth the seven six one, Thank you keep bringing seven six one.
- 4:48They're ringing the number thirdens okay, thanks, uh uh Hello, mister Frank
- 5:00Grenar please Los Angeles calling. What do you want? Mister Frank Native Los
- 5:06Anglers calling? I'm Frank Renard. Go ahead, please all right talking,
- 5:11go ahead? Hello, Hello, hello Frank Lenard. Yeah, who's this?
- 5:15This is Sergeant Friday, Los Angeles Police Department. Got an urgent message
- 5:19for you, but me, what's the matter. Your wife, Dolores asked
- 5:24me to call you. Something's happened to your mother. What do you mean,
- 5:27what's happened? I better let your wife tell you. She wants you
- 5:30back in Los Angeles right away. But what's this all about? I can't
- 5:32leave my job. Now you better come. Your mother's been murdered. Talk
- 5:49to the skipper, joways on his way in. That's good. Did you
- 5:53call my husband? Did you? He's flying down from Idaho to Knife be
- 5:57here in the morning. You tell him about me, the trouble. I
- 6:00told him his mother was murdered. That's all I told him, Missus Renaud.
- 6:02What am I gonna say to Frank? He always sided in with his
- 6:05mother. He'll never believe me. What can I tell him? Jury can
- 6:10give you more trouble than your husband can. What you're gonna tell them?
- 6:13Are you stupid or something? How many times do I have to say and
- 6:15I didn't kill her? I didn't kill her. It's a small room,
- 6:17as Renard, we can hear you. Sit down, please. I won't
- 6:20sit down. You're not feeling this on me because I didn't know it.
- 6:24Anybody could have killed the old hag, but I didn't. Will you sit
- 6:26down, please? I don't have to take this on. No tramp chipping
- 6:29me and here asking me questions. I told you all I know. Look,
- 6:31you're in a bad spot. I hope you realize that I didn't kill
- 6:36as Renard. How long have you and your mother in law been living together
- 6:39in the house on Shava's Road. His strength. Took the job up in
- 6:43Idaho not six months. He said it'd be better for me while he was
- 6:47away living with her. Your neighbors told us you didn't get along very well
- 6:50with your mother in law. That's right, I didn't. She hated me.
- 6:54I hated her. You used to fight with her? Is that right?
- 6:56You hit her only a couple of times. She called me dirty names.
- 7:00I hit her. She pulled me by the hair, and I hated
- 7:03her like everything. I didn't kill her once more? Mister, And would
- 7:08you mind telling us how you spent your time since early this morning? Where
- 7:11you went, what you did? Everything? I told you already everything.
- 7:14Will you tell us again? Please? I got up about quarter to nine.
- 7:20I had a cup of coffee, and then I got dressed. The
- 7:24old lady was on the back porch doing the washing. What did your mother
- 7:27in law do for a living? I told you she took in washing.
- 7:30After I got dressed, I left the house. But ten minutes after nine,
- 7:34I went downtown to the dentist. He filled a tooth for me.
- 7:38It's hard, heir, Yo, Kaashka, what time did you leave the
- 7:42dentist's office? Not quarter after ten, maybe twenty after. You can ask
- 7:46king, what did you do after that? I walked around window shopping.
- 7:48Did you buy anything? Talk to anybody? I told you no. What
- 7:51time did you get home? Not past twelve? I went in the bedroom.
- 7:58The old lady was on the floor, blood all over. I felt
- 8:01her heart. It wasn't beating. Is that when you got the blood on
- 8:07your dress? Yeah? Now that's all I'm gonna say. Three times.
- 8:11I told you the same story already, and you still can't account for your
- 8:13time between ten twenty this morning, in the time you found a body and
- 8:16called the police at twelve thirty, I told you I left the dennist.
- 8:18I went windows shopping. Then I walked home. And during that time you
- 8:22didn't talk to anyone, and no one saw you. Lots of people saw
- 8:26me, people on the street downtown. I'm not tramped. I don't talk
- 8:28to everybody. None of your neighbors saw you come home as Renard. Of
- 8:31course they didn't see me. I cut across the back lot of from Penose
- 8:35Avenue. I came in the back way. The lady Whill was next door
- 8:37to you. She says she was in the backyard about noontime. She stayed
- 8:39there after one o'clock. She didn't see you come in the back way.
- 8:41Then she's a liar. She's a dirty liar. You and your husband took
- 8:45out an insurance policy on your mother in law last year, Is that right,
- 8:48Miss Renee? Sure it is? What of it? Five thousand dollars?
- 8:52Yeah? So what you know? A man by the name of George
- 8:56Martino? No, you better tell the truth, all right? So I
- 9:01do is a friend of mine. You've been running around with him since your
- 9:03husband's been away. None of your business. I do what I want.
- 9:07Your mother in law find out about Martino. That's what you thought about most
- 9:09of the time. Oh, she was crazy. He's a friend of mine.
- 9:13That's so. Are you telling the truth? Ms? Renard, Martino's
- 9:16a boyfriend of mine. I told you. That's all. Your mother in
- 9:20law found out you were running around with him. She warns you if you
- 9:22didn't shake Martino, she'd write your husband. You said you'd kill her if
- 9:24she did. That's a that's what your mother in law told one of the
- 9:26neighbor ladies. I said it just to scare her. One night I was
- 9:31drinking. We had a fight. She was yapping at me all night.
- 9:35I said it just a scare, But she wrote the letter anyway. That's
- 9:39what she said. But I didn't kill her. You had the time and
- 9:43the motive and the opportunity. It wasn't me. I didn't kill her.
- 9:48Interrogation room Friday, Joe, Yeah, Bill, where are you? Santa
- 9:52Monica picked up George Martino, Ben and I drove Missus Renard to Lincoln Heights
- 10:03Jail, fifth floor and had her booked on suspicion of one to eighty seven
- 10:05PC. When we checked back in at the office, Brennan and Wiseman,
- 10:09the other two men on the case with Ben and I, were questioning George
- 10:11Martino in the interrogation room. Ben and I stood by. Martino admitted only
- 10:16two things. He had been running around with Missus Renard since her husband left
- 10:18town, and he had heard Missus Renard express a desire to do away with
- 10:20her mother in law. After the questioning of Martino, Sergeant Brennan, Ben
- 10:24and I met with Chief Ed Bastrand was five fifteen pm. You get everything
- 10:28but the murder. Webinar that and Missus Renaud's conflation. She ought to come
- 10:33through on you. I don't know. She's scared, but she still got
- 10:35a smart mouth. What about Martino Brennan? Do you think he had a
- 10:39hand in it? I don't think so. We spent most of the afternoon
- 10:41talking to him. He hasn't got the guts. We took a statement and
- 10:43does Evan Labanon solid What was the cause of death? Strangulation, multiple fractures
- 10:48of the skull. All the motives are with missus Renard chief, pretty clear
- 10:52cut job. No evidence of robbery or burglary. I guess a couple of
- 10:56address or drawers in her bedroom were emptied on the floor and closed the store
- 10:58around. He obvious planned to make it look like burglary. Maybe we found
- 11:03three one dollar bills in plain sight. They were on the floor near the
- 11:05body. If a burgler went through his stuff, wouldn't have missed that money.
- 11:07And it shouldn't be too much trouble tying it up. Shouldn't be Scar
- 11:11Friday and Romero, you follow the case through right in just a minute?
- 11:16Hello Backstrand, Yeah, what all right? I'll send him over they Jones
- 11:26just finished checking the evidence of the crime lab. Yeah, he thinks Missus
- 11:28Renard's innocent. Now they are fellas. Facts don't lie. But she had
- 11:39every reason in the world to kill the old lady. In my book,
- 11:41she couldn't have killed it. All right, let's have it, Lee,
- 11:45How does the evidence add up? That's just it. Joe doesn't take a
- 11:46look dress missus Renard was wearing when she found the body. That's it.
- 11:52Blood smears near the hem. Two smears, that's all. Now, if
- 11:54she murdered her mother in law, there should be more blood on this dress.
- 11:56It shouldn't be smeared. I mean, first of all, I mean
- 12:00in which the old lady was killed, head was bettered in must have bled
- 12:03profusely, no question about that. I go ahead. Whoever murdered the old
- 12:05lady must have stains all over their clothes. Here's the important part. Because
- 12:11of the nature of the wound, it would have stained and drops, not
- 12:13smears. Well, how can you tell the difference? Maybe these are drop
- 12:16stains on her desk. They're not. I checked them with the microscope.
- 12:18Only the higher ribs of the cloth are stained. The smears nothing else.
- 12:22But a drop forms its own definite drop pattern and permeates the cloth soaks in.
- 12:26No signs of that on her dress I don't want. Now, here's
- 12:30a silk scarf. The old lady will strangling. Yeah, here's what I
- 12:33found in the not tied in the scarf. A blonde hair wavy. Old
- 12:37lady had dark hair, So does measure Nod. So does your boyfriend.
- 12:39That's what I mean. This blonde hair is one of two things that didn't
- 12:43belong at that Murdercy what else you got? This hiasedly small piece of plastic
- 12:48a gun? But I'd say, yeah, fish cross surfaced and a little
- 12:52smooth area here. Yeah, the killer could have hit the old lady of
- 12:54the butt of a gun and a piece of the stock could have chipped off
- 12:58like this. As a NOD doesn't own a gun. He did her money
- 13:00in law. Where does that leave us? I don't know. Joe.
- 13:03There's the stuff. You can't disregard it. Maybe you can explain it.
- 13:05Yeah, how well, first prove this dress isn't the one Missus Renard was
- 13:09wearing this morning. Didn't find the dress she did wear, and we know
- 13:13she wore this when the dentist identified it, and so did do with the
- 13:15neighbors. That's what I mean. The dress is too clean, doesn't belong.
- 13:18Yeah, this blonde hair, this piece of gun butt. They don't
- 13:20belong in that. When you think she's innocent, you're looking at the evidence.
- 13:24What do you think? Six pm, Saturday, November fifth, Ben
- 13:31and I went back to the office and met with Brennan Wiseman and ed Backstrand.
- 13:35The open and shutcase against Missus Renard was up in the air, but
- 13:39we still weren't sure that she was innocent of the murder of her mother in
- 13:41law. Ben and I drove to the Lincoln Heights Jail and interviewed the suspect
- 13:45again. She agreed to submit to a light detector test. We drove back
- 13:48to the office, contacted Sergeant Burger, the department's polyograph man, and set
- 13:52up a special test for the following day. The next morning, we met
- 13:56with Burger and formulated a list of key questions, and then we picked up
- 13:58Misus Renad and brought her to the third floor of the Old City Jail building
- 14:01the polygraph room. At ten thirty three am, the test got underway as
- 14:07usual, Sergeant Burger conducted the interview alone. Backstrand Ben and I waited outside.
- 14:11How about missus Reynold's husband getting down yet he's doing around news kind of
- 14:18smoke. Yeah, here you are right? Yeah? Thanks? Time?
- 14:30Is it now eleven twenty five? Here's burger? No ed, How what'd
- 14:35you get? I can study the chart a little more. The results are
- 14:39pretty well defined, though. How's it look? No reaction to the key
- 14:43questions, what's your opinion? I don't think she did it? You are
- 14:56listening to drag net authentic stories of your police election. Eight am, Monday,
- 15:05November seventh, Missus Reynard was released from custody. We questioned her husband,
- 15:09Frank Arnard. Briefly. They could tell us nothing more than we already
- 15:13knew. Brennan and Wiseman were called back on the case, and together the
- 15:16four of us started over again. From the beginning. We had a dead
- 15:20body, two pieces of physical evidence to work with, no idea how to
- 15:22fit them together, and no suspects. We went back to the Shava's Road
- 15:26neighborhood where a murdered woman lived, and started pushing doorbells. We canvassed the
- 15:31neighborhood for three days and we uncovered one slim lead. He was selling.
- 15:35Magazine's officer went door to door right up the street. Here a young fellow,
- 15:39could you describe the man force please, nothing to talk about, tasty
- 15:43face, pimply complexion, blonde hair. Five thirty pm, Wednesday, November
- 15:50the ninth, Ben and I met with Brennan and Wiseman and had Backstrand's office
- 15:54to compare notes. Together. We had more than a dozen reports of the
- 15:56magazine salesman's presence in the neighborhood just prior to the murder of Missus Renard's mother
- 16:00in law. The various descriptions of the man which we obtained from the people
- 16:03in the neighborhood tallied closely about six feet, one hundred and seventy pounds,
- 16:07pimply complexion, blonde hair, fast talking about twenty five years old, or
- 16:11as we know scavery. He was the only stranger in the neighborhood last Saturday
- 16:14morning, only one that people remember anyway. How close did you trace him
- 16:17to the Renaard house? You got your list there, Brennan, Yeah,
- 16:19they are thanks. Let's see. He picked up his tracks down on Floresta
- 16:23Street, sold a couple of descriptions there, and he headed up Landers Avenue
- 16:27on the Chavas Road. Yeah. The Renards live at twenty two eighty Shavas
- 16:30Road and salesman talked to the woman at twenty two seventy four Shavas. That's
- 16:34three doors away from the renaurns. When has he seen there? Let me
- 16:37see where is that Brennan? Oh the fifteen to seven sheet show didn't have
- 16:41enough room on the report. Oh yeah, here is missus John Rico twenty
- 16:45two seventy four Shavas. The guy was there about eleven forty five Saturday morning,
- 16:49and that puts him in the ruining. First time he ever showed in
- 16:52that neighborhood and first time SKay, first kid. Not a very good sale.
- 16:56Here's the name of the company he's working for, the Harrison News Distributors.
- 16:59Did you check with him? And they're closed for the night. We'll
- 17:00call them the first thing tomorrow. Good. Here's something else for you.
- 17:03And a call from Frank Renaud this afternoon. What do you have to say?
- 17:07Seems in the excitement just after the murder, missus Renard overlooked a couple
- 17:11of things. What's and they're missing a yellow table model radio. It's in
- 17:15the bedroom where the old lady was killed. All that ties in with a
- 17:18robbery motive, and they're missing a ring too belonged to missus Renard. Topaz
- 17:22ring supposed to be worth a little money, but she didn't notice it was
- 17:25gone until the day. That's right. You got the serial number on the
- 17:26radio? Yeah, right here, Yeah, I's see yeah, Ben,
- 17:30here we are. It's the Emerson Model five one one eighty thousand two seven
- 17:34seven six on nine. A lot of small radios down, there's only one
- 17:38with that serial number on it. Track it down. A complete description of
- 17:45the Topaz ring and the serial numbers and description of a yellow table model radio
- 17:48were sent to the pawn shop detailed. The information was then placed on the
- 17:52stolen property list and relayed to every pawnshop operator in the city. The next
- 17:56morning, Ben and I interviewed the manager of the Harrison News distributing company.
- 18:00There. The suspect had given his name as Sam Bricker. We checked out
- 18:03his home address, turned out to be a gas station in North Hollywood.
- 18:07We took the suspect's job application blank with a specimen of his handwriting, and
- 18:10then we drove back to the office Sam Bricker. We were unable to get
- 18:15a make on the name from the record bureau. We checked the cards and
- 18:17every known criminal who was cataloged in the oddity file as having a pimply complexion.
- 18:21None of them matched. That night we got out on APB in a
- 18:23radiogram. The suspects trail led from one salesman's job to the next. On
- 18:29his last job, he gave his name as Albert Barry. His address is
- 18:33fourteen thirty Palado Drive. That was in the Echo Lake district. Ben and
- 18:36I drove out to check himteen twenty A, fourteen thirty, There it is,
- 18:41Jill. Yeah, he's just not a gas station. Huh. Come
- 18:45on tarsome huh. Yeah, I could stand a change. Yes, what
- 18:56is it? We're looking for an Albert Barry? Ma'am does he live here?
- 19:00Mister Barry, I'm sorry. He and his wife moved four days ago.
- 19:07We identified ourselves as police officers, and the head of the landlady,
- 19:11a missus Katherine Hoffman, show us the apartment which Barry and his wife had
- 19:14occupied. It was still vacant. In one of the closets in the apartment,
- 19:17we found a cheap overnight bag. The lock on it was broken and
- 19:19one of the seams had ripped it. I forgot about that old bag,
- 19:23and mister Barry told me I could throw it away take a look. Come
- 19:26in. How long has Barry been married? Do you know missus Hoffman?
- 19:30No, I don't, but the way they acted lovey dovey all the time,
- 19:33I don't think they've been together long. Some kind of an identification tag.
- 19:38Yeah, let me see up here. It's a tool disc. It
- 19:41looks like Dennery Jameson Larrabie, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. You're not after mister Barry,
- 19:48are you, officer, Yes, ma'am, we are. Did he
- 19:49leave a forward in an address? I wish she did. I'm holding three
- 19:52letters for missus Barry in my apartment right now. May we see them?
- 19:56Please? Certainly? Would you step this way please? My apartments just across,
- 20:00Yes, ma'am. Would you like a bottle of beer or something?
- 20:04No, ma'am, thanks. Let's see I thought I yes. Here are
- 20:12three of them sergeants from her folks. I think missus Barry's from Fresno.
- 20:18That's good. I want to copy down this return addressman, Yeah, go
- 20:21ahead, okay, that's c K L rick U l RI c K five
- 20:25two five North Lamona, Fresno. Yeah, Ray arm Is Hoffman. By
- 20:30the way, did the Berry say they'd call for their mail and missus Barry
- 20:33did. That's why I'm holding on to it all right, Just one more
- 20:36question. Do you remember if mister and missus Barry had a radio, Yes,
- 20:38they did, a small one. Do you remember what brand it was?
- 20:42No, I don't. It had a yellow case. That's all I
- 20:45remember. Before we left, we called ed Backstrand and he had an immediate
- 20:52stakeout placed at the apartment house in case the Berrys returned to pick up their
- 20:56mail. Ben and I went back to the office and placed the call of
- 21:00the Pittsburgh Police Department. We gave them a description and the number of the
- 21:03tool disc which we'd found in Barry's old suitcase. They said they'd check with
- 21:07a Jamison Larrabee company in the morning, and then they'd call us back that
- 21:11night. Ben and I drove to Fresno and checked in at the police station
- 21:14up there. Two officers were assigned to stake out the Ulrich home. We
- 21:18interviewed mister Ulric, who identified himself as Albert Barry's father in law. He
- 21:22told us his daughter had married the murder suspect eight months before, and he
- 21:25gave us pictures of Barry taken at the wedding. Ulric told us that he'd
- 21:27catch a Santa Fe train out of Fresno the next morning. He wanted to
- 21:30be in Los Angeles to take his daughter home. When Barry was apprehended was
- 21:34almost two am when Ben and I left Fresno and started back for Los Angeles.
- 21:38We checked in at the office at ten minutes past eight. The next
- 21:41morning, at eight thirty five, the call came through from the Pittsburgh Police
- 21:44Department. What did they say, Joe? It was a tool disc card
- 21:48right Jamison Larrabee Company. He issued eighteen months ago to one of their workers.
- 21:52How you give a name? Albert Barry. Eleven am, Monday,
- 21:57December the fifth, one month to the since the sixty two year old woman
- 22:00had been beaten to death. The pictures of Barry and his wife, which
- 22:04had been taken at their wedding, were printed up in wholesale lots and distributed
- 22:07to all points. Mister Lric Berry's father in law arrived in town and got
- 22:11himself a hotel room. We waited. There was no report from the stake
- 22:15out at the apartment house. We checked back in at the office at five
- 22:18minutes to one. I'll get it. I'm a side Friday this is mister
- 22:26Ulric's sergeant. I just got a call from my wife in Fesno. I
- 22:30thought you'd want to know what's that. The wife got a letter from Norma.
- 22:33They're living in South Pasadena an apartment. You got the address there,
- 22:37Yes, sir, that's what the wife called about. It's one thirty four
- 22:41Norway Terrace. When was the letter mailed? You know? Wife said it
- 22:44was postmark December, third day before yesterday. Get your coat on, al
- 22:48Rick will be right over. Ben and I picked up mister Alric at his
- 22:53hotel and drove to the South Pasadena address. Barry and his wife had the
- 22:57apartment on the top floor. Neither of them were at home. The landlord
- 23:02let us in with a pass key. In the bedroom we found a small
- 23:04yellow radio. We checked the serial numbers. They matched. It was the
- 23:08same radio stolen from the Renairn house. In the bedroom closet we found two
- 23:12suitcases. We checked through them. Oh, nothing in this one, girl.
- 23:17Oh here we are I look at these what are they? Chargeant?
- 23:19Pair of plastic gun bites. Let's see, Joe, one of them has
- 23:22been chipsy chargeant. Somebody coming up the stairs. All right, let's get
- 23:27in the living room. Be quiet? Yeah, what are you doing here?
- 23:41Where these men? Pleash Norman? They want Albert. He killed a
- 23:45woman. Try to write, Norman. It'll be all right. Did you
- 23:56know your husband killed a woman? Missus Berry? He told me last Saturday.
- 24:03We've been running away for a month now, moving all the time.
- 24:10I wanted to know why we told me? He said I was in it
- 24:15as much as human and I'm tired of running. Why did he kill her?
- 24:22Did he tell you that? He said it broke in the house.
- 24:29He didn't know anyone was home. The old woman was in the bedroom.
- 24:33She started to cry out, hit a gun, hit it with it.
- 24:37Where's your husband now? I don't know? Said he come home for dinner
- 24:45about five? About the groceries. What time he got been that past?
- 24:51Ring? That ring you were in, misson Burry? Your husband give you
- 24:56that? Yes? Why what kind of a stone is that? Brut?
- 25:00Gave it to me? Why nothing? We'll wait. Five o'clock came and
- 25:08went. Barry failed to show. Five point thirty. Oh Rick started to
- 25:14get nervous. Six o'clock, six thirty, no sign of Barry. I
- 25:19went to the window and kept an eye on the street below. At six
- 25:22forty five, A light green Nash and An pulled to a stop in front
- 25:25of the apartment house. A man got out and went into the main floor
- 25:27entrance. Burt, I'll let him all right. How long have you had
- 25:33the new car? A couple of days? Bert got it? Credit?
- 25:41What do you want me to do? Now? Does he have a key
- 25:42to the apartment here? He lost it? Okay when he rings? Let
- 25:45him in and just act naturally, Ben, yeah, yeah, you cover
- 25:48me. I'll get the cuffs on him, all right, by Burt?
- 26:00Loo got you all right? Top it? Mary? Okay? Man?
- 26:07Yeah, he's fast with a gun. Nice looking, isn't he such?
- 26:15You never think he'd kill anybody? Come on, let's take him in.
- 26:18I love him. I still love him. That you're a cop. You
- 26:26wouldn't understand. That's right, I wouldn't understand I'm a cop. The story
- 26:36you have just heard was true, only the names were changed to protect the
- 26:41innocent. On February sixteenth, nineteen forty seven, trial was held in Superior
- 26:47Court, Department eighty two, city in County of Los Angeles, State of
- 26:49California. In a moment the results of that trial, Albert Ralph Berry was
- 27:03tried and convicted of murder in the first degree. His wife, Norma Berry,
- 27:07was found innocent of the charge that she harbored a criminal. She was
- 27:11returned home with her father. Berry was executed in the lethal gas chamber at
- 27:15the State Penitentiary. You have just heard Dragnet, a new series of authentic
- 27:23cases from official files. Technical advice for Dragnet comes from the Office of Acting
- 27:29Chief of Police W. A. Wharton, Los Angeles Police Department. Tonight's
- 27:33program is dedicated to Private Hubert Wstes of the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department,
- 27:40who, on the night of May sixteenth, nineteen forty seven, gave
- 27:44his life so that yours might be more secure. Be sure to hear songs
- 27:48by Morton Dani tonight on NBC Welcome Back. Well. I know the title
- 28:03for today's episode was a bit of a misnomer, but it's kind of It's
- 28:07the popular accepted title that most websites had, and I couldn't find a good
- 28:14alternate title except for one that actually gave away the ending of the episode,
- 28:21so definitely don't want to use that In terms of the episodes. Some interesting
- 28:32things to note. I don't know if I noticed this when I played this
- 28:37six years ago, but the telephone call recreated the effect of calling right in
- 28:45my backyard. I'm Murphy, Idaho, and it was interesting to hear the
- 28:52process of that call in cities that I knew, like Boise and Nampa being
- 28:56mentioned. I have to say that Murphy is a really odd place to move
- 29:03for work. It's actually an unincorporated area designated by the census in rural Owayhee
- 29:11County. Of course, it's got some proximity to railroad. By the idea
- 29:17of someone moving out there from Los Angeles for work and leaving their wife behind
- 29:22boggles my mind a bit. I suppose he could have been driving into Boise,
- 29:27but that is a good drive. But I might be overthinking this.
- 29:32It's always possible that when choosing this plot detail, they just look for a
- 29:37city name in Idaho and figured out what exchanges the phone would connect to,
- 29:41beyond the whole local Idaho flavor thing. I like how this contrast with many
- 29:49of the other detective shows. Typically, the type of discoveries that Lee Jones
- 29:56made would be discovered by the private eye and something the police overlooked, while
- 30:02the police would in the typical detective program pursue the incorrect means until the private
- 30:08operative set them straight. But here, with the realism of Dragnet, the
- 30:14evidence forces a pivot both for the audience and for the detectives. And it's
- 30:18a pretty big pivot since we already didn't like the daughter in law, at
- 30:25least I didn't, But just the fact that he's not doesn't seem to be
- 30:29a very nice person doesn't make her a murderer. And it's a great pivot
- 30:33in the episode. All right, Well, now on to some listener comments
- 30:37and feedback, and we begin with Schubert, who says Jack Webb is still
- 30:47one of the best as Sergeant Joe Friday. And we also received an email
- 30:52from Junetta saying simply thank you for these programs. Well, thanks so much.
- 30:57I do appreciate you taking time to contact the program that will actually do
- 31:02it for today. We will be back on Monday with the Saint. Join
- 31:07us tomorrow as we'll be bringing you the TV version of the Dragnet Christmas program,
- 31:14The Big Little Jesus. We'll be bringing you the radio version next Saturday.
- 31:18In the meantime, sendra comments to Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net.
- 31:23Follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives and become one of our friends on
- 31:27Facebook, Facebook dot com. Slash Radio Detectives from Boise, Idaho. This
- 31:33is your host, Adam Grahamson and Off