Latest / Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas / Dragnet: The Big Dare (EP1652)

Transcript

Dragnet: The Big Dare (EP1652) · Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas

• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: This is your host, Adam Graham. If you have a comment,
• 0:36
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• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Before we do get started, I do want to let
• 0:54
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• 1:28
  Speaker 1: This weekend, check out my review of The Empire Strikes
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Back radio drama and you can have all of my
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: reviews automatically delivered to your Kindle and you can try
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: that service out free for two weeks through the Kindlestore. Well,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: now it's time for today's episode of Dragnet. The original
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: airdate August third of nineteen fifty and the title is
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: The Big There.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: The story you are about to hear is true, only
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: the names have been changed to protect the innocent.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: Dragnet.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned a homicide detail. A
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: woman is knife to death in her home. The body
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: bears the mark of inhuman attack. The killer escapes your
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: job get.
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: Him a.
• 2:40
  Speaker 5: Dragnet the documented drama of an actual crime. While the
• 2:44
  Speaker 5: next thirty minutes, in co operation with the Los Angeles
• 2:46
  Speaker 5: Police Department, you will travel step by step on the
• 2:49
  Speaker 5: side of the law through an actual case, from official
• 2:52
  Speaker 5: police files, from beginning to end, from crime to punishment.
• 2:56
  Speaker 5: Dragnet is the story of your police.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: Force in action.
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: It was Wednesday, September twenty nine, was warm in Los Angeles.
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: We were working the night Watch out of homicide detail.
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: My partner's Ben Romero. The boss is Captain Blaine Steed.
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: My name is Friday. I was on the way back
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: from the interrogation room. It was eleven twenty three PM
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: when they got to Room forty two. Homicide Hyler Angelo
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: Joe like type this up for me. It's a dead
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: body report. Yeah, thank you, thank you. Yoh, how you doing?
• 3:30
  Speaker 6: They bring Palmer in here.
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: He's in the interrogation room.
• 3:33
  Speaker 7: Captains with him what's his story, and claims he had
• 3:35
  Speaker 7: nothing to do with it. He contacted any of the
• 3:37
  Speaker 7: boys lads because.
• 3:39
  Speaker 6: He hasn't got any in town. It was just him
• 3:40
  Speaker 6: and his.
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: Mother who called juvenile. Halt anything.
• 3:42
  Speaker 6: Yeah, they look after him for the time being. Pretty
• 3:45
  Speaker 6: big shock for kid.
• 3:46
  Speaker 7: Yeah, just get anything out of him, Harry and I
• 3:48
  Speaker 7: have been talking to him, just starting to make sense.
• 3:51
  Speaker 6: You want to lend a hand.
• 3:52
  Speaker 8: Sure, We're going to the beach tomorrow with my mother and I.
• 4:00
  Speaker 9: Shit, they all that's all.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: I know.
• 4:04
  Speaker 9: That's all.
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: Harry.
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: Hi, you want to give it a say?
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: All right, Robert, come on, Son, it's gonna be all
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: right now. We need your help. Robert.
• 4:18
  Speaker 7: I think you can answer a few questions for us.
• 4:21
  Speaker 7: How about it, bivedet Son and man, get you something.
• 4:25
  Speaker 9: I'm hungry, okay, and ask this stuff.
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: I'm here. I take it it's clean hand and chief.
• 4:34
  Speaker 9: Yeah, well you're the cop that drove me down here,
• 4:38
  Speaker 9: aren't you.
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: That's right.
• 4:40
  Speaker 8: I'm not going back to the house. You don't have to,
• 4:42
  Speaker 8: so I'm never going back to that place was awful.
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: Could you start from the beginning for us, Bob, and
• 4:47
  Speaker 4: just take it easy. Tell us what you know.
• 4:50
  Speaker 9: Okay, I think I could have a coke.
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: I'll think I have a coptain be right back all right.
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: Here, thanks, Harry.
• 4:56
  Speaker 8: Well, all I know is I'm at the house about
• 4:59
  Speaker 8: half seven. Mom gave me the money to.
• 5:02
  Speaker 9: Go to a show.
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: Was she alone in the house when you left?
• 5:05
  Speaker 9: Yeah, that's right. We had dinner and then I went
• 5:08
  Speaker 9: to the show.
• 5:08
  Speaker 6: You usually go to the show and school nights.
• 5:10
  Speaker 10: Then.
• 5:11
  Speaker 8: Oh, but Mom asked me if I wanted to go.
• 5:14
  Speaker 8: She gave me the money. Double features. She told me
• 5:17
  Speaker 8: to stay for both pictures.
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: Did she usually tell you that?
• 5:19
  Speaker 9: No, she always said to just stay for one picture.
• 5:22
  Speaker 9: She didn't want me coming home so late.
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: Was she expecting anybody to visit her? I mean after
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: you had gone.
• 5:27
  Speaker 9: She didn't say so. She just told me to stay
• 5:29
  Speaker 9: for both pictures.
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: That's all.
• 5:31
  Speaker 9: What time the movie let out almost eleven o'clock, pretty late?
• 5:35
  Speaker 8: So I went straight home. I was in the bedroom.
• 5:40
  Speaker 8: She was on the floor. There was this knight bitt night.
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: What'd you do? Then? Son?
• 5:46
  Speaker 8: Right outside Hollered Wallace came over from next door, went
• 5:53
  Speaker 8: inside and looked, and they called the cops.
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: That knife you saw in the bedroom, it was blood
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: on it all over.
• 5:58
  Speaker 9: It was terrible.
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: See the knight before?
• 6:02
  Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah, Roy gave it to my mom last year.
• 6:05
  Speaker 9: It's a bowling knife. Who is this Roy Mom's boyfriend,
• 6:10
  Speaker 9: one of them. He's in the navy.
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: Was he at your house tonight?
• 6:13
  Speaker 8: I told you it was just Mom and I. Roy
• 6:15
  Speaker 8: had a fight with Mom about two weeks ago. He
• 6:18
  Speaker 8: said he didn't like her have another boyfriends.
• 6:19
  Speaker 9: And they had a fighter.
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: They argued, is that what you mean?
• 6:22
  Speaker 9: Yeah? And once Roy slept my mother?
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: No, no, thanks Harry as you? Oh yeah, son? Did
• 6:34
  Speaker 4: you know most of your mother's friends? Most of them? Yeah?
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: Can you think of any of them who might have
• 6:40
  Speaker 4: wanted to hurt your mother?
• 6:42
  Speaker 8: I don't know, Roy Palmer, maybe he was mad at her.
• 6:47
  Speaker 8: He's the only one I can think of.
• 6:50
  Speaker 9: I don't know. I don't want to think about it anymore.
• 6:52
  Speaker 4: All right, certainly won't buy it anymore tonight. Thanks a lot. Yeah,
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: you want to follow through with you, little hall. See
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: if the boy's taking.
• 7:01
  Speaker 6: Care of okay, he's going to be an interrogation room.
• 7:03
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I got a few more questions for Roy Palmer.
• 7:05
  Speaker 11: Right, check you later, Okay, crying my back yet, Friddy?
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: No, not yet yet. Just talked with the Reynolds boy.
• 7:20
  Speaker 12: Yeah, I can't believe anything that kid tells you. He's
• 7:23
  Speaker 12: a liar. He hates me.
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: You give him reason to hate you, Palmer, The kid's
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: a liar, that's all. You were his mother's boyfriend, He says.
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: Two weeks ago you had a fight with her that
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: you slapped her.
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: All right, I slapped her.
• 7:33
  Speaker 13: I don't make a murder.
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: I wasn't near that house last night, and I didn't
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: kill her.
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: He found your knife in her bag.
• 7:38
  Speaker 10: Huh?
• 7:38
  Speaker 4: A bowlo knife, bone handle. That's not mine.
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: I gave it to her a year ago for a president,
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: didn't even though she still had it. Look, why do
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: you have to pick on me.
• 7:46
  Speaker 13: Because you had a motive and you haven't got an alibi?
• 7:48
  Speaker 12: What about all those bumps she used to run around with.
• 7:51
  Speaker 12: Why don't you ask them for alibis when we find him?
• 7:53
  Speaker 13: We lost him.
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: Do you know any of them, Palmer? The other men
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: that she went out.
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: With, How'd I know him? The only time she ran
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: around was when I was on sea.
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: Duty.
• 8:00
  Speaker 12: How do you know she was running around friends of mine?
• 8:02
  Speaker 12: He saw her out with these guys.
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: I get it. Interrogation room Friday.
• 8:09
  Speaker 13: Lee Jones, Joe, just get back from the Dixon House.
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: Anything off to fast stop.
• 8:13
  Speaker 14: Layton Prince checked the murder weapon, that knife, dusted the handle.
• 8:17
  Speaker 6: Yeah, fingerprints perfect.
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: Scept Captain Steve and I took the suspect, Roy Palmer
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: down the hall and had his fingerprints taken the same
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: time across the street in the crime lab, a set
• 8:31
  Speaker 4: of fingerprints were lifted from the weapon which had taken
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: the life of missus Betty Dixon. The two sets of
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: prints were checked and rechecked. They didn't match. Every object
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: in the murder house was gone over for fingerprints and
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: further evidence. Roy Palmer's fingerprints were on none of them.
• 8:47
  Speaker 7: He was released pending further investigation. The only suspect in
• 8:52
  Speaker 7: one of the most savage murders in.
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: The history of the city was free. The next morning,
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: Captain Stephen I met with Chief Detective stat Brown. How
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: about the dead Woman's you talk to him again? Well,
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: ra merrows with him. Now. He's taking down a list
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: of all the people and his mother and friends, neighbors, everybody.
• 9:06
  Speaker 15: No luck, he had would set of fingerprints. Now I
• 9:08
  Speaker 15: got no record on him checking him through Washington. We
• 9:10
  Speaker 15: already got kicked back pretty soon, I.
• 9:11
  Speaker 4: Said, the prince and a piece of envelope. That's the
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: physical evidence. Huh. Yeah. One of the top corners off
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: an envelope had a postmark on a town cinema, Sonoma
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: High End with anything. No, not so far might turn
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: up when we start checking the victims' friends. So you
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: posted the body of this corner that she saw this
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: corner's report, Yeah, I did. I don't have to tell you.
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: You're not after an ordinary killer.
• 9:32
  Speaker 13: One had three iPhones.
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: Revenge motive maybe, yeah, the reaction of the dead woman's neighbors.
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: That's what's got me stopped. No one heard a thing.
• 9:41
  Speaker 13: Mitchell and Diddeo was still covering the neighborhood. I haven't
• 9:43
  Speaker 13: found anyone yet of it, saw or heard anything unusual.
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: Well, I can't buy it. A woman isn't just cut
• 9:47
  Speaker 4: down like that without some kind of a commotion. Besides,
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: the homes in that neighborhood are fairly close together.
• 9:50
  Speaker 13: It would you take much to make yourself heard from
• 9:52
  Speaker 13: one house to the other.
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: Was not a robbery or brigery. No, According to the boy,
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: the house is intact. Nobody touched anything leaves you with
• 9:59
  Speaker 4: a boyfriend a though, we're stuck with you alright?
• 10:03
  Speaker 13: Gee, well, how'd you make out better than I thought?
• 10:06
  Speaker 6: The boy was over most of his shop this morning?
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: Did he talk?
• 10:09
  Speaker 6: I have pages of names and addresses he gave me.
• 10:11
  Speaker 4: All of How about that boyfriend angle?
• 10:13
  Speaker 7: How about half a dozen names? Seems the mother had
• 10:16
  Speaker 7: quite a social life sense. The boy's father died, confron
• 10:19
  Speaker 7: the boy's story about going to the movies. Yeah, it
• 10:20
  Speaker 7: checks out.
• 10:21
  Speaker 6: Pretty nice kid, considering the environment he's been raised in.
• 10:24
  Speaker 4: How about those names? Ben? Any of them lists? Sonoma
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: is their hometown?
• 10:27
  Speaker 13: Mm?
• 10:28
  Speaker 14: I think so?
• 10:28
  Speaker 6: Let me check here?
• 10:29
  Speaker 7: Okay, no, no, no, huh oh, none of 'em?
• 10:38
  Speaker 15: All right, you better start digging into that list post
• 10:41
  Speaker 15: mark my Italian later. Meantime, you still have that set
• 10:42
  Speaker 15: of fingerprints.
• 10:43
  Speaker 4: Little chance for mistake there.
• 10:45
  Speaker 15: When they reached the right land of his princil collective
• 10:47
  Speaker 15: with a killer that makes it simple for him.
• 10:48
  Speaker 13: Huh, Prince will tell us who he is? You got
• 10:50
  Speaker 13: only one answer to dig for him?
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: Yeah, where he is? Thursday September thirty at eleven am,
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: we started checking the list of the murdered woman's friends
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: through R and I for any possible criminal record. It's
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: usually the case that a major crime rates headline space
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: twice when the crime is committed when the criminal was apprehended.
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: Between the two, more than often, there's a space of
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: weeks and months, sometimes even years, in which the police
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: officer goes through the monotonous, undramatic business of checking files,
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: asking questions, sifting and sorting leads and evidence until he
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: finally reaches the criminal for a news story. It's pretty
• 11:28
  Speaker 4: dull material, but it proves out the contention of most
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: working detectives. You don't catch criminals with headlines. Monday, October fourth,
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: we checked with a Miss Lucille Dana, a counter clerk
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: at a little market out on Crenshaw's.
• 11:42
  Speaker 10: Terrible I've been away on my vacation. What about when
• 11:45
  Speaker 10: I got home yesterday?
• 11:46
  Speaker 6: You were pretty good friends with Beddy Dixon. Alright, right,
• 11:49
  Speaker 6: Miss Dana.
• 11:49
  Speaker 10: Yeah pretty close. Excuse me minute it all take care
• 11:52
  Speaker 10: this customer? Yeah, all right, isn't there them?
• 11:59
  Speaker 16: Sir?
• 11:59
  Speaker 10: Uh no?
• 12:00
  Speaker 13: Two backs of the jelly beans please?
• 12:02
  Speaker 9: Uh right?
• 12:06
  Speaker 13: Oh catch 'ep.
• 12:08
  Speaker 10: It's nineteen seven nine eighty seven, which is not Mark
• 12:21
  Speaker 10: Just a minute, Tommy, Yeah, number two com beans how
• 12:25
  Speaker 10: much a minute? Sixty seven? Heys two seventeen out of
• 12:37
  Speaker 10: five two seventeen two twenty twenty five fifty three dollars
• 12:50
  Speaker 10: four five.
• 13:01
  Speaker 6: A yeh, A curse.
• 13:06
  Speaker 10: I just can't get over it, Sergeant Boord.
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: Betty, we understand that you used to go out with
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: the Dixon woman in this stay in. Do you know
• 13:12
  Speaker 4: most of her close friends.
• 13:14
  Speaker 10: Well, most of her men friends. We used to double
• 13:16
  Speaker 10: date a lot together.
• 13:18
  Speaker 4: I wonder if you'd take a look at this list
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: of names that we have here.
• 13:21
  Speaker 10: Alright, let's see, m hm.
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: Now does that about cover all her boyfriends, all that
• 13:29
  Speaker 4: you know of anyway?
• 13:30
  Speaker 10: Yeah? I think so. Let's see Tony Moore's you breathe
• 13:35
  Speaker 10: and Neil.
• 13:37
  Speaker 11: You don't have.
• 13:37
  Speaker 10: Floyd down here?
• 13:38
  Speaker 6: Who is that? Floyd?
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: Who?
• 13:39
  Speaker 10: I never did know what his last name was. He
• 13:41
  Speaker 10: used to take both of us out, Betty, and I
• 13:43
  Speaker 10: seemed to like her quite a bit.
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: When's the last time she was out with him?
• 13:46
  Speaker 10: Do you know, oh, five or six months ago? At least?
• 13:49
  Speaker 10: Kind of strange? How do you mean Floyd jealous?
• 13:52
  Speaker 17: You know?
• 13:53
  Speaker 10: Hot Temper said he was Spanish, but he had a
• 13:56
  Speaker 10: light complexion. Oh excuse me.
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: Sure, yes, sir?
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: Uh A pack of that mint gum and some lighter
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: friends place.
• 14:04
  Speaker 10: Twenty five? Thank you?
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: All right? Could you describe this Floyd Force, mister?
• 14:16
  Speaker 10: Well, he was kind of fresh and conceited in some ways.
• 14:19
  Speaker 10: He was attractive, a lot of fun.
• 14:22
  Speaker 6: How about his physical appearances?
• 14:23
  Speaker 10: Wait and hype about six feet I'd say, nice bill?
• 14:27
  Speaker 10: How did eighty pounds? I guess huh, dark hair, dark
• 14:31
  Speaker 10: brown eyes, good dancer.
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: How do you and miss Dixon get along?
• 14:36
  Speaker 10: Oh? I don't think he did it. Floyd and Betty
• 14:38
  Speaker 10: used to fight all the time, but she used to
• 14:39
  Speaker 10: fight with Roy Palmer. Do I don't think Floyd did it?
• 14:42
  Speaker 4: Is he in town now? Do you know?
• 14:44
  Speaker 17: No?
• 14:44
  Speaker 10: I don't. As I said, last time I saw him
• 14:46
  Speaker 10: was six months ago.
• 14:46
  Speaker 6: Would you know if missus Dixon saw him recently?
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: She did?
• 14:49
  Speaker 10: You didn't tell me?
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: You have no idea then? Where we could get in
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: touch with this Floyd?
• 14:53
  Speaker 10: Well, no, I don't. He's from up north originally?
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: Is that all?
• 14:57
  Speaker 10: Yeah? So Noma.
• 15:02
  Speaker 4: Ben and I went back to the office and got
• 15:04
  Speaker 4: up a teletype to the Sonoma Police Department along with
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: a description of the suspect named Floyd. Then we checked
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: with the sixteen year old son of the murdered woman.
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: He remembered the man called Floyd, and essentially his description
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: of the suspect checked out with that giving us by
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: his mother's friend Lucy o'daana. Three PM, we met with
• 15:20
  Speaker 4: Lieutenant Harry Didion and Captain Steve.
• 15:22
  Speaker 18: Do you want to fill am Endidion finally got in
• 15:24
  Speaker 18: touch with the dead woman's next door neighbors, name's Conroy.
• 15:27
  Speaker 6: Get anything at him.
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: They seem to be the only ones who heard anything
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: the night of the murder.
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: What they have to say?
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: I see, Yeah, they saw Missus Dixon's.
• 15:36
  Speaker 18: Son Robert leave the house about seven thirty the night
• 15:38
  Speaker 18: of the murder, and nothing till eight thirty. Yeah, he
• 15:43
  Speaker 18: heard loud pounding in the back door of the Dixon home.
• 15:45
  Speaker 18: The door finally opened. They heard an angry woman's voice
• 15:48
  Speaker 18: invite the person in for man. Yeah, any description, not much?
• 15:51
  Speaker 18: She was tall, good bill, not much.
• 15:53
  Speaker 14: Check.
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: Neighbors said it was quiet then for about an hour
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: and they heard a woman crying. Said it sounded like
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: Missus Dickson.
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: They make out any of the conversations.
• 16:01
  Speaker 18: I got it right here man. About nine thirty, they
• 16:05
  Speaker 18: heard Missus Dixon let aloud talking. She said, why don't
• 16:09
  Speaker 18: you kill me? Then Floyd put me out of my misery?
• 16:12
  Speaker 18: Anything else I said. It was quiet between nine thirty
• 16:15
  Speaker 18: and ten, and they heard something. It sounded like the
• 16:18
  Speaker 18: thought of a body falling on the floor, piece of furniture, overturn.
• 16:21
  Speaker 4: No screams for help.
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: Funny, but the neighbors say no. The only other thing
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: they heard was missus Dixon.
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: She was a quote.
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: She said, do a good job, finish me.
• 16:31
  Speaker 13: Off my of them. Neighbors started calling the police.
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: They told me they didn't want to get mixed up
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: in a family fight. None of their business. She had
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: quite a few men visitors.
• 16:38
  Speaker 4: That's all of it.
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: No one more thing.
• 16:41
  Speaker 18: I guess this is what made the neighbors think everything
• 16:43
  Speaker 18: was all right. About ten fifteen they heard a man's
• 16:46
  Speaker 18: voice couldn't make out any words, and they heard Missus
• 16:49
  Speaker 18: Dixon say please kiss me goodbye. A few minutes after that,
• 16:53
  Speaker 18: they heard someone leave for the back door. They see
• 16:56
  Speaker 18: him not very good. I think it was the same
• 16:58
  Speaker 18: man they saw going pretty tall, good Bill, it's it?
• 17:02
  Speaker 13: Where does it leave us?
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: Pretty weird?
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: Come by that, I don't know.
• 17:06
  Speaker 13: There was supposed to be a sane woman. She'd have
• 17:08
  Speaker 13: to be pretty drunk to ask around.
• 17:09
  Speaker 6: The killer man didn't have to be pretty drunk to
• 17:11
  Speaker 6: take her.
• 17:11
  Speaker 13: Up on why the killer used that buller knife on
• 17:14
  Speaker 13: the victim. A piece of envelope we found by the buddy.
• 17:18
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it was postmark Sonoma. There's a state mental hospital
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: up there.
• 17:23
  Speaker 13: It's as Dodge.
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: Maybe we're dealing with a maniac. Four pm Monday, R
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: and I could give us nothing because of the meager description.
• 17:34
  Speaker 4: Ben and I checked out of the office and went
• 17:36
  Speaker 4: over to the State building to the Department of State Institutions. First,
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: we checked the name Floyd through the files, using it
• 17:41
  Speaker 4: as a last name, then as a first name. We
• 17:44
  Speaker 4: failed to connect either the names didn't fit the description
• 17:47
  Speaker 4: of the suspect, or they were elderly men still confined
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: to the institution at Sonoma. We checked through the files
• 17:52
  Speaker 4: using Floyd as a middle name. We came up with
• 17:54
  Speaker 4: two recent parolees from Sonoma. Both matched the description almost perfectly.
• 17:58
  Speaker 4: Both had the middle name of Lloyd. We checked out
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: the first one, Charles Floyd Johansson. We found out that
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: he'd been returned to Sonoma, almost a month before the
• 18:07
  Speaker 4: second parole, he still had his freedom. We took us
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: out of his fingerprints back to the office and had
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: them checked out with a set of prints found on
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: the murder weapon.
• 18:14
  Speaker 6: How's it chape up, Joy?
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: Richard Floyd Coleman, that's the right name, Yeah, honeymake.
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: He's your killer.
• 18:31
  Speaker 5: You are listening to dragnet.
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: Monday October fourth, seven pm we got on an APB
• 18:43
  Speaker 4: in a radiogram on Richard Floyd Coleman. We checked DMV
• 18:47
  Speaker 4: for possible auto ownership. From his record, we found that
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: he had been confined twice to the State Metal Hospital
• 18:52
  Speaker 4: at Sonoma, the first time for a period of two years,
• 18:55
  Speaker 4: the second time for fourteen months. Hospital file showed us
• 18:59
  Speaker 4: that on both the keys he had been committed by
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: his older sister, Evelyn Coleman, his only living relative. Her
• 19:04
  Speaker 4: address was listed as fifty six forty Upper Terrace, an
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: apartment court in the East Wiltshire district. We drove out
• 19:10
  Speaker 4: to question her and one of her apartment windows was
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: a hand lettered sign seamstress dresses made to order Evelyn
• 19:17
  Speaker 4: Marie Coleman. She turned out to be a tall, quiet girl.
• 19:19
  Speaker 4: In her thirties, gray eyes, brown hair. She worked on
• 19:22
  Speaker 4: the sewing machine while we talked with her.
• 19:26
  Speaker 17: I'm sorry to be so rude, Sergeant, but I have
• 19:28
  Speaker 17: to have this blouse ready by two this afternoon. This
• 19:31
  Speaker 17: towler was coming to call for it.
• 19:32
  Speaker 6: That's perfectly all right.
• 19:34
  Speaker 17: Exactly what was it you wanted to know?
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: It's about your brother Richard?
• 19:38
  Speaker 17: Oh eight being wrong?
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: Now, we're just checking, that's all. We'd like to talk
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: to him.
• 19:42
  Speaker 6: What about routine check when it's ten? He spent some
• 19:45
  Speaker 6: time up at some normal.
• 19:47
  Speaker 17: Yes he did, but he's had a hard time of it.
• 19:50
  Speaker 17: Doctors don't seem to know the temple where Richard.
• 19:53
  Speaker 10: He's so mixed up.
• 19:54
  Speaker 4: You're his only living relative.
• 19:56
  Speaker 10: Yes, i am. Folks died when we were both young.
• 19:59
  Speaker 10: Practic had raised Richard myself.
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: Have you seen your brother lately, miss Corman?
• 20:02
  Speaker 12: No, not lately.
• 20:03
  Speaker 6: Why is there any idea where we might contact him?
• 20:07
  Speaker 17: Well, no, I don't you see? He travels around the
• 20:09
  Speaker 17: state of Good Eal.
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: Oh is he working?
• 20:11
  Speaker 17: No? He writes from time to time. Oh what was
• 20:14
  Speaker 17: it you want to seehim about? Sergeant?
• 20:16
  Speaker 4: With just routine questioning, we like to talk to him.
• 20:18
  Speaker 6: Oh, where was he when you last heard from him,
• 20:20
  Speaker 6: Miss Coleman, Well.
• 20:21
  Speaker 17: Couldn't you tell me what you want to seem about?
• 20:23
  Speaker 4: We just like to question him, that's all.
• 20:26
  Speaker 17: Well what about you can tell me?
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: Is your brother in the city now?
• 20:29
  Speaker 10: Oh?
• 20:29
  Speaker 17: I don't know.
• 20:30
  Speaker 10: I just got back.
• 20:31
  Speaker 17: I I haven't heard from him in two weeks, almost
• 20:34
  Speaker 17: three weeks.
• 20:34
  Speaker 6: Does he usually stay here when he's in town?
• 20:36
  Speaker 10: Well?
• 20:37
  Speaker 17: Sometimes? Yes? Is Floyd in some kind of trouble?
• 20:40
  Speaker 4: Is that the name? He usually goes by? Floyd?
• 20:42
  Speaker 14: Oh?
• 20:43
  Speaker 17: Most of his friends call him Floyd.
• 20:45
  Speaker 4: Why do you think he might be staying with one
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: of his friends here in the city.
• 20:48
  Speaker 10: He might be.
• 20:48
  Speaker 17: I don't know. I look, sergeant, if Floyd's in trouble,
• 20:52
  Speaker 17: you can tell me. I see him to do lots
• 20:54
  Speaker 17: of trouble before.
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: Not this kindness.
• 20:56
  Speaker 6: Women.
• 20:58
  Speaker 10: Oh whish there was something I could do.
• 21:01
  Speaker 6: Where was he when your last yard from He.
• 21:03
  Speaker 17: Was in Santa Barbara? He wrote me, please, sergeant, why
• 21:08
  Speaker 17: do you have to see Floyd? Excuse me?
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: Yeah? Sure?
• 21:15
  Speaker 10: Hello?
• 21:16
  Speaker 17: Oh yes, it's Tyre. Uh huh, well maybe just a
• 21:21
  Speaker 17: few minutes late.
• 21:22
  Speaker 10: Would two thirty be ari? I? Oh fine, thank you,
• 21:26
  Speaker 10: light and tire. Bye, I'll have to hurry.
• 21:30
  Speaker 17: Missus Tyler's bly.
• 21:32
  Speaker 4: Sure, you go right ahead.
• 21:34
  Speaker 17: I really don't make much of a dressmaker, but I'm
• 21:36
  Speaker 17: saving up. I'm go to buy a place in the
• 21:38
  Speaker 17: valley further out. Be fine for Floyd, and mean you
• 21:41
  Speaker 17: awfully good for him. Floyd has to get away from excite,
• 21:44
  Speaker 17: but he's awful.
• 21:45
  Speaker 4: Nod say, miss Fallner.
• 21:47
  Speaker 10: I'm sergeant.
• 21:48
  Speaker 4: Are those your brother's suitcases in the alcohol factor?
• 21:51
  Speaker 10: Yes they are.
• 21:52
  Speaker 17: They've been there for a month. I'll keep his odds
• 21:54
  Speaker 17: and ends for him.
• 21:55
  Speaker 6: I'm sure he hasn't been here in the past.
• 21:57
  Speaker 17: Man, Oh yes, I'm sure. Please, sergeant, Why don't you
• 22:01
  Speaker 17: tell me the truth? I've been through this before when
• 22:04
  Speaker 17: his trouble with Floyd?
• 22:06
  Speaker 10: What is it this time?
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: It's pretty bad? What is it? We want to ask
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: him about a murder?
• 22:11
  Speaker 10: Oh?
• 22:11
  Speaker 17: No, he wouldn't do that. You're you sure it was Floyd?
• 22:16
  Speaker 6: Would like to talk to him, Floyd.
• 22:25
  Speaker 17: Flora, it didn't have to happen. It's gonna buy a
• 22:32
  Speaker 17: place in the valley so I'd been liked there. It's
• 22:37
  Speaker 17: gonna take care of him mount in the valley.
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: Do you have any idea where we could find him,
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: Missus Coleman.
• 22:42
  Speaker 10: No, I don't. I don't know where he is, Santa Barbara,
• 22:46
  Speaker 10: that's the last I heard.
• 22:49
  Speaker 17: I've been worried about him.
• 22:50
  Speaker 6: If he was in the city, would he come here
• 22:52
  Speaker 6: to stay man.
• 22:53
  Speaker 17: Well he did before, yes, but I don't know about
• 22:56
  Speaker 17: no Does he have a car, No, not.
• 22:58
  Speaker 14: That I know of.
• 22:59
  Speaker 17: Noah, I don't know what he's living on. He doesn't
• 23:02
  Speaker 17: have any money.
• 23:04
  Speaker 10: Who was a woman?
• 23:05
  Speaker 6: Oh, Missus Dixon seems to know you've brought up pretty well.
• 23:11
  Speaker 4: You better grab that Ben, all right?
• 23:15
  Speaker 7: Hello, Yeah, that's all right, thank you, Yeah, Missus tid,
• 23:24
  Speaker 7: I shall pick up her blast tomorrow.
• 23:30
  Speaker 4: Ben and I left Devln Coleman's place and went back
• 23:33
  Speaker 4: to the office. A stakeout was placed on her apartment.
• 23:35
  Speaker 4: Two days went by, nothing happened, despite the fact the
• 23:39
  Speaker 4: suspect's sister had promised to cooperate fully with us and
• 23:42
  Speaker 4: locating her brother. A team of men was assigned to
• 23:44
  Speaker 4: follower wherever she went as insurance against any possible slip up.
• 23:48
  Speaker 4: As far as we were concerned, no precaution was out
• 23:50
  Speaker 4: of reason. A maniac was on the loose in the city,
• 23:53
  Speaker 4: the same maniac who had murdered the Dixon woman. He'd
• 23:55
  Speaker 4: done it once, and if the urds was there, he'd
• 23:57
  Speaker 4: do it again. We sweated out the next three days.
• 24:01
  Speaker 4: On the afternoon of the sixth day, we got an
• 24:02
  Speaker 4: urgent call from one of the parole officers in the
• 24:04
  Speaker 4: State Institution's department, from Missus Gertrude Vaughan. Ben and I
• 24:08
  Speaker 4: went over and checked with her.
• 24:09
  Speaker 10: Call came in about twenty minutes ago. Sergeant Man's voice.
• 24:12
  Speaker 6: What do you have to say?
• 24:13
  Speaker 10: He wanted to talk to me about the Betty Dixon case.
• 24:16
  Speaker 10: Is he nervous?
• 24:16
  Speaker 4: You're saying do anything about it?
• 24:18
  Speaker 10: I didn't want to frighten him more if asking too
• 24:19
  Speaker 10: many questions. I got the idea you had something you
• 24:22
  Speaker 10: wanted to get off his mind.
• 24:23
  Speaker 4: What did he mention? Anything specific? I mean, names, places,
• 24:26
  Speaker 4: anything like that.
• 24:27
  Speaker 10: No, but I got the impression he knew quite a
• 24:28
  Speaker 10: bit about the case.
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: What else?
• 24:30
  Speaker 10: We promised he'd be here by four o'clock, said he'd
• 24:33
  Speaker 10: be ready to talk.
• 24:35
  Speaker 4: Well, it's two forty five now, all right, Ben, okay,
• 24:39
  Speaker 4: pull up a chair. We waited three point fifteen three
• 24:45
  Speaker 4: thirty three forty five, no sign of the anonymous caller.
• 24:50
  Speaker 4: Four pm, still no sign. We waited at four point
• 24:55
  Speaker 4: thirty the office door opened and a tall, thin girl
• 24:58
  Speaker 4: with brown hair came in and walked straight toward the
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: desk of Parole Officer grig Rude Vaughn, which saw Miss
• 25:03
  Speaker 4: Vaughan motioned. The girl across the room toward us was
• 25:05
  Speaker 4: Evelyn Coleman.
• 25:10
  Speaker 17: Sergeant.
• 25:11
  Speaker 10: Miss Coleman, Hi, I know where Floyda is.
• 25:14
  Speaker 17: I'll take it to him.
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: Four point thirty five pm, Ben and I left the
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: State building with Evelyn Coleman, got in our car and
• 25:22
  Speaker 4: drove north across the city according to her directions, until
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: we got on a highway sixty six. We continued driving
• 25:27
  Speaker 4: north out of the city. Evelyn Coleman sat quiet in
• 25:30
  Speaker 4: the backseat, looking at her hands folded in her lap.
• 25:33
  Speaker 4: Except for directions, she said nothing. Approximately three miles out
• 25:36
  Speaker 4: of the city, she directed us off onto a county highway.
• 25:39
  Speaker 4: We drove east for a few miles, and then we
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: turned north onto an unpaved road line with eu Glyptus trees.
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: We've gone a little less than a mile when she
• 25:46
  Speaker 4: directed us to pull up.
• 25:50
  Speaker 10: We can walk the rest of the way.
• 25:52
  Speaker 4: Okay, it's not fast, right, all right?
• 25:58
  Speaker 10: This way?
• 26:00
  Speaker 4: Your brother been out here all this time?
• 26:02
  Speaker 17: M He didn't tell me.
• 26:04
  Speaker 10: He called this morning, supposed to give himself up.
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: What happened?
• 26:08
  Speaker 10: I don't know.
• 26:08
  Speaker 17: He's worse now.
• 26:09
  Speaker 10: I think could hardly understand him on the phone.
• 26:12
  Speaker 17: Does make sense?
• 26:13
  Speaker 4: Is he alone now?
• 26:15
  Speaker 17: Was when I left him?
• 26:16
  Speaker 10: We go across this field here?
• 26:18
  Speaker 4: Okay, is your brother Ian? No?
• 26:26
  Speaker 10: Yeah, shocked by the trees. You'll see he's treated.
• 26:31
  Speaker 4: Right, Yes, ma'am, we'll see to it.
• 26:43
  Speaker 6: Heaven, Heavy.
• 26:45
  Speaker 17: I brought them in, Floyd, they'll take you back.
• 26:50
  Speaker 14: I'm Richard Floyd Cohen. I want to tell you I
• 26:53
  Speaker 14: killed Betty dix al right, Ben. I wanted to marry her.
• 27:00
  Speaker 14: She didn't want her. She dared me to kill her.
• 27:02
  Speaker 14: I grabbed a knife.
• 27:03
  Speaker 4: We can talk about it later.
• 27:04
  Speaker 14: She was lying on the floor. She said, kiss me goodbye.
• 27:07
  Speaker 9: I held on her.
• 27:08
  Speaker 14: She seemed to go to sleep.
• 27:09
  Speaker 10: We have to go for him.
• 27:10
  Speaker 9: You tell him, Heavy, I loved her.
• 27:12
  Speaker 14: You tell him that.
• 27:13
  Speaker 17: Yeah, I will.
• 27:14
  Speaker 14: She dared me to kill her, She said, I didn't
• 27:16
  Speaker 14: have the nerve she asked me to. Yeah, all right,
• 27:18
  Speaker 14: come on, try to tell him that at the hospital. Now,
• 27:22
  Speaker 14: I'm not crazy.
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: The story you have just heard was true, only the
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: names were changed to protect the innocent.
• 27:36
  Speaker 5: On December fourth, trial was held in Superior Court Department
• 27:39
  Speaker 5: eighty six, City and County of Los Angeles, State of California.
• 27:42
  Speaker 5: In a moment the results of that trial, and.
• 27:44
  Speaker 4: Now here is our star, Jack Webb, thank you. To
• 27:48
  Speaker 4: prove a suspect's guilt or innocence is in Tonight's case,
• 27:51
  Speaker 4: the working detective spends many a long hour with a
• 27:53
  Speaker 4: man in question in the interrogation room, the crime lab,
• 27:57
  Speaker 4: with his friends, his enemies, gets to know is man well?
• 28:01
  Speaker 4: Thank you.
• 28:11
  Speaker 5: Richard Floyd Coleman was examined by six psychiatrists appointed by
• 28:15
  Speaker 5: the court and was found to be criminally insane. He
• 28:18
  Speaker 5: was committed to the State Mental Hospital at Mendocino for
• 28:21
  Speaker 5: an indefinite period of time. You have just heard Dragnet,
• 28:28
  Speaker 5: a series of authentic cases from official files. Technical advice
• 28:32
  Speaker 5: for Dragnet comes from the Office of Chief of Police W. W. Wharton,
• 28:36
  Speaker 5: Los Angeles Police Department.
• 28:43
  Speaker 16: Sarah Berner is delightful in Sarah's Private Caper. Next on NBC, this.
• 29:02
  Speaker 17: Is Andrew J.
• 29:02
  Speaker 5: Graham, author of the web surface series Oh and a
• 29:05
  Speaker 5: Man of His Wife.
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: You're listening to the great detectives of Old Time Radio.
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: Welcome back. I had to chuckle a bit at that
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: description conceded a good dancer. Yeah, let's put that out
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: on an APB. I think to be a real life
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: police detective in that situation requires a real good mastery
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: of any tendency towards sarcasm at any rate. A couple
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: of programming notes. First of all, I mentioned several months
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: back that due to our video hosting company Blip removing
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: all of our videos without notice, that our video theater programs,
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: a lot of them disappeared. Well, they're all back up,
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: so you should be able to watch them now. And
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: also coming up tomorrow, we celebrate one thousand, six hundred
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: and fifty episodes, which we achieved on Thursday with the
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: Nick Carter. It's a special that you won't want to
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: miss and it's a program that aired after the official
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: end of the Golden Age of radio. And of course
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: on Monday we'll have The Saint and then next Saturday
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: join us for another episode of Dragnet. In the meantime,
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: send your comments to Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net,
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives, and become one
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: of our friends on Facebook, Facebook dot com slash radiodetectives
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: from Boise, Idaho. This is your host, Adam Graham signing off.