Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho. This
is your host, Adam Graham. If you have a comment, email it
to me Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net, follow us on Twitter at
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also become one of our ongoing Patreon supporters far as little as two dollars per
month, and I want to welcome Anton as our latest Patreon supporter at the
shamous level of four dollars or more per month. Thank you so much for
your support. Anton. Now it's time to not play an old time radio
program for you. Let me go ahead and explain we're returning to the order
of episodes we were in before Christmas and actually after the truck Hijackers. There
are seven straight weeks of lost episodes, by far the longest gap in the
Dragnet radio show, and make up the vast majority of Missing Apple. However,
many of these programs were turned into TV programs and did not have their
copyright renewed, so are in the public domain. I've found that the TV
soundtracks of Ragnet episodes that were originally written as radio programs still work as audio
only. It's a bit different with Magnet episodes that were originally written for television.
I looked into playing the audio version of The Big Thief, but I
found that you really did need the visuals for that. But again, those
that were written for radio work fine as just listening to the soundtracks. So
I want to bring you as many of the stories that were done on radio.
So for the next two weeks, we will be bringing you TV soundtracks
of the audio of the TV shows and commenting on them afterwards. And we've
got another one that will end up playing probably in about a couple years or
so, not gonna happen again soon. The TV episode came from a period
in season one of the drag Net TV series where Barney Phillips was playing Friday's
partner, Sergeant Ed Jacobs. So with that little advisory, let's go ahead
and take a lesson to today's episode. The original airedate of the TV episode
was June nineteenth, nineteen fifty two, of a radio script that originally aired
October twentieth, nineteen forty nine, and the title is the Big Lamp Ladies
and Gentlemen storry you were about to see is true? The names have been
changed to protect the innocent. The fourth largest city in the United States and
still growing every year. We get more of everything, population, transportation,
stores, crime, buildings, and more crime. More than fifty thousand major
crimes were committed last year alone. That means fifty thousand criminals. They ranged
from professional killers to petty thieves. A lot of them are experts. Every
year they seem to get better at their jobs, and the better they get,
the harder I work. I'm a cop. It was Tuesday, April
twenty eighth. That was warm in Los Angeles. We were working the day
watch out of Safety Detail, Burglery Division. My partners had Jacob's the boss's
Captain Wisdom. My name is Friday. It was two sixteen PM when we
got back to the Hall of Justice, Superior Court, Department thirty eight.
On January fourth, the safe in the Grand Herald building was burglarized. It
took us weeks before we narrowed on the suspects to one man. He was
an ex khan, a two time loser. It took more weeks of interrogation,
gathering evidence, long hours in the crime lab to build our case against
him. It was a big job, a hard one. He was gillty.
We were convinced of it. We had one step to go. It
was the jury. We had to convince them highly USI Gonley, I think
we got them. Joe, did you testify yet this morning? How to
work on physical evidence? Tied in person? We all six points. Jury
impressed. Had to tell Buckley's got a smart lawyer. I was sucking to
the assistant DA. The case ought to go to the jury late today.
What's coming up next year? I'm doing back to understand when this recess is
over. The Superior Court is again now in session, remain seated, no
spoken base. Let the record show that the jury is the dependent and the
counsel are President Prush Custon may proceed, if it please your honor, I'd
like to recall Leland Jones to stand. Leland Jones take the stand. Proceeders,
if I may your honor, for the benefit of the record, state
that Leland v. Jones has been duly sworn that counsul for the defense has
stipulated that he's a forensic chemist attached to the Scientific Investigation Division of the Los
Angeles Police Department, and that he's qualified to testify as an expert in the
case proceed Jones. Earlier today in this court you heard the testimony to the
effect that Conrad Buckley had identified these exhibits as his own, this wool jacket,
this pair of trousers, and these shoes. Did you not I did
this morning, mister Jones. You pointed out these pertinent facts about these articles
of clothing. First, people's exhibit one of the red paint smudges on the
soles of the shoes. They matched the paint on the ventilation pipe which leads
to the third four of the Grand Herald building. Is that great? That
is cragt You further stated that the footprints left at the scene of the crime
are made by a size EH shoe with cuban heels and metal taps on each
toe. Is act correct. That's right. People's exhibit one A pair of
black shoes identified by the defendant as his own, their stamped size eight cuban
heels, metal taps on each toe. Mister Jones, you're acquainted with the
fact that on the night of January fourth, someone scaled the ventilator pipe at
the third four of the Grand Herald Building, forcibly entered the attic of the
building, gained access to an adjoining suite of offices, and their burglarizes set.
I'm acquainted with that fact. Is it possible that someone else other than
the defendant could a burglar? That say, in my opinion, now on
where do you base your conclusion? I'd base it on the application of the
law of probabilities to such a case as this. Would you explain that to
the jury? Please? First, let's apply a set of figures to these
facts. Let's say conservatively that one man in every hundred in this city wears
a size eight shoe at cuban heels and metal taps on the shoes. Then
let's say that one man in every hundred has red paint smudges on the soles
of the shoes, same color and same texture as the paint from the building.
Further, let's estimate that one man in a hundred also wears ten ribs
to the inch woven trousers and wool jacket woven twelve ribs to the inch.
Let's also estimate that one man in a hundred carries a small piece of charred
laugh in his jacket. Then, let's say that one man in a hundred
carries in the cuffs of his trousers particles or plaster similar to the plaster in
the attic of the Grand Harold Building. What are the chances in that one
man in this city other than the defendant could possess all six of these various
items. That would be one chance in one trillion. You arrive at that
figure, mister Jones, Well, simply by multiplying one hundred by itself six
times over. You mean only one man in one trillion other than the defendant
could have burglarize the safe on the third floor of the Grand Herald Building.
That's correct, one trillion. Can you give the jury something to compare that
figure with? That's more people and have lived on earth since the beginning of
time. Lee Jones was the last witness to testify in the case of the
State versus Conrad Buckley. For the rest of the afternoon, the defense lawyer
and the Assistant DA delivered their summations. The defense lawyer was eloquent and colorful.
We spoke for more than an hour and threw up every possible smoke screen
he could think of to disguise the facts of the case. The Assistant DA
reviewed again the six points of physical evidence clearly defined. At five minutes to
five that afternoon, the case went to the jury. We were expecting a
quick verdict. We didn't get it. The jury was locked up for the
night and we went home. The Superior Court State of California and for the
County of Los Angeles is now in session. The honor of John Edwards judged
beside him. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, have you reached a verdict?
Yes, Yourana, we have hand me the verdict. Read the verdict
Superior Court of the State of California, in and for the County of Los
Angeles, people versus Conrad Buckley, weath a during the above and title acts
and find the defendant not guilty. No talking back there, please so say
you want to say all, Is this your verdict? It is the card
Di verdict, Ladies and gentlemen of the jury. I've been a judge for
twenty six years. For the past fourteen years i've presided in this particular court.
May I say now that this is the worst miscarriage of justice I've ever
witnessed. After hearing your verdict in this case, I can arrive at only
one conclusion, ladies and gentlemen of the jury. Either you are innately dishonest,
or you are complete morons. Court to journey as soon as possible.
The District Attorney's office began exploring the personal life and background of each one of
the twelve jurors. They contacted their neighbors, their friends, their acquaintances.
They checked back ten years in the lives of every one of them. They
found nothing. The jury was indifferent. They wouldn't follow the case. All
the facts were there la None of the jurors were fixed. The DA's office
found out that much. Why wouldn't they follow the case. A lot of
people think they're doing their city a big favor when they serve on a jury.
They figured all they have to do is sit in the jury box for
a few days, mark a ballot as fast they can then leave each man.
They pay the taxes, they pay for these trials. They can follow
the technical case closely if they want to. A lot of them not that
conscientious. They don't think it means money in their pocket, so they don't
care. We went through hell on this thing. Four months to catch him,
three months to prove him Gilly, and the jury blew it. You
want my opinion, Lee, I think it stinks. You don't have an
opinion, Joe, you're a cop. The case of Conrad Buckley became just
another item filed away with hundreds of thousands of others in the Record Bureau of
the Los Angeles Police Department. Six days after he was acquitted, he left
the city, and a few weeks later was reported in Baltimore, Maryland.
After that, he dropped from sight. Summer came, Autumn, Christmas,
New Year's. On Wednesday morning, he had and I checked in for work
as usual. What's the date, ed Wednesday, February First. You might
get over that cold, Joe? Yeah? Finally, how about your kid?
Yeah, he's okay, wife Scott one? Now, Hi morning,
kid, Hi got a minute. Cutter printing company was robbed last night.
How much there's the crime report fourteen five hundred. Yeah, it's a big
haul. Yeah, most familiar climb to drain pipe, to the roof,
kicked in a skylight on red Buckley's back and down. I think it might
add up, could be sounds like it. There's one sure way to make
it and put him in smaller words and big type. I don't know how
to make it any more positive than the last time. I don't know if
that Greek was the lamp of a found an honest man. But get the
guy ed and I drove out to the Cotter Printing Company and spent the rest
of the morning and most of that afternoon checking into the fourteen thousand dollars safe
burglary. We examined the office where the burglary took place and the smashed skylight
with a thief entered. We traced his path from the time he got into
the building the time he left, no fingerprints, no leads. How many
safemen you know that worked like Buckley? Well, let's see, there's Hagen.
He works about the same, but he's up at que Walters. He
operates like Buckley. He's doing time too. Anybody else, No, not
that I can think of. All right, find Buckley, find out where
he lives, who his friends are, where he eats, find out what
he's doing. He want us to tail him. Give him town of your
room. When you get the dope on him, we'll have a squad of
men tail him ultimately. All right, where do we start? Dementsis barre
down on Central Avenue in your fifth When was he there last Monday? First
night he got in town. Might be his favorite spot? Okay, anything
else? Her? Buckley's learned a new tricks since he's been away. Yeah,
carries a gun. That night, had and I started down into the
south end of the city to find Conrad Buckley. First stop was Camanche's Bar.
Buckley didn't show. The next night was the same, and the night
after that no sign. On the fourth night, at ten minutes past eight
pm, Saturday, February fourth, he had spotted Buckley entering. We waited.
At twenty five minutes past midnight, Buckley came out the main entrance with
a blonde woman on his arm. He walked unsteadily. The two of them
got into a gray car and sat there talking. What's the license number?
Joe nine Roberts seven oh two one? Get a make Yeah? Control one,
request a rolling make in the three column nine Roberts seven O two nine
Robert seven O two Roger eighty K stand by km A three six seven.
It's a nice looking car. Yeah, if it's his, might pan out.
If we're lucky, Control one to a K, come in EIGHTYK to
control one, go ahead nine Robert seven O two car registered to missus Conrad
Buckley nine three nine South Norwich Road, Beverly Hills, EIGHTYK to control one
Roger can any three sixty seven? What does that prove? Prosy supporting a
new car in my wife? Let's find out how a trail Buckley and the
blonde woman we figured to be his wife to nine three nine South Norwich Road
in Beverly Hills. We waited at three am. Head called Captain Wisdom,
and a couple of men were sent out to relieve us. By Friday of
that week, February tenth, we had his movements fairly well established. We
turned all the information we had over to Captain Wisdom, and he assigned a
crew of eight men to tail the suspect constantly in alternate ships. The trap
was set six pm Tuesday, February fourteenth. I'll get it Friday talking.
Yeah, Kevin, what's up? Uh huh yeah, right, Buckley,
he's making a move. We left the city Hall and drove out to the
side of the stake out near Buckley's home on South Norwich Road. Captain Wisdom
was there waiting for us. Left his place alone. He was on foot
Berg and Marconi tailed him to a bar. That's where he lost him.
And he hasn't come back to this place, and yet I gotta hunt you.
Well, his car is still there. Yeah, we can shake him
down. If he's been out on the cable tonight, he should have whatever
he stole with him. Uh. Car there in the driveway. Uh,
chuck your license? Uh nine Roberts seven O two. That's Buckley's car.
There's somebody coming out of the house and his wife looks like it. Does
she know either one of it? No follow her, can't just go any
It's okay. Can you see the door from here? Yeah? This is
fine, Captain, so move, let's sweat it down. The blond woman
entered the apartment house at twelve sixty one Wilcox Avenue at fourteen minutes past eleven
pm. At five minutes past midnight, she came out and got in her
car. A man was with her. Buckley must be the hot aut You
two follow them when they got to the house. Shake him down. What
about you, I'll check the apartment. Beat you back at the office.
Right at twenty one minutes past midnight, Ed and I pulled up at the
Buckley home at nine three nine South Norwich Road. We waited until Buckley and
his wife got in the house. Then we went in and shook him down.
We found nothing. We searched the house, the garage, in the
car. Nothing all right, you can put your stuff away places clean,
Joe, Nothing right now, I tell you I'm clean. I'm going one
thing on me. I'm clean. It's a nice car you're driving. The
Buckley is at yours. That's right. I like nice things. That costs
money. What doesn't Once you get back in town last week? Why what
are you doing with your time? Morris Cabinet Company. I'm a journeyman carpenter.
When do you work nights? Good job? Believe me, I'm legit.
All right, you stay that way and we won't have any trouble.
Ed and I left Buckley's house, drove back to the office and checked in
with Captain Wisdom. He told us that he had talked with a manager of
the apartment house of twelve sixty one Willcox Avenue. Buckley was running apartment seven
A in the building under the name of James E. Wilson on the air
reach. You used the apartment only once or twice each week. The rent
was seventy five dollars a month. What'd you find in the apartment, Captain?
He keeps two complete changes of clothes in the closet because the place is
empty except for one Thing's at a burglary too, Yeah, found him under
a false bottom drawer instead of safe. Jimmy's small sledge the works. Then
he works out of the apartment. Hu he's getting cagy, or he thinks
he is. After a job. He probably comes back to the apartment,
gets rid of his work clothes, and figures he's pretty safe. Well in,
all we have to do is keep an eye on that apartment. The
next time he pulls a job, we grab him. That's right, the
next time we pick him up, it's going to be for keeps. That
depends on the jury, doesn't it. At three am that morning, Wisdom
ordered a steak out of twelve sixty one Willcox Avenue. The steakout on his
home also continued. During the next week. The suspect was seen to come
and go from his home, and on two occasions he visited his apartment during
the daylight hours. No suspicious moves on his part were reported. The stakeout
went on five weeks later. On March twenty second, the safe in the
offices of Butterfield and Crusion Wholesale Grocer's was burglarized of seven five hundred dollars.
That afternoon, Wisdom had an I met with Lieutenant Lee Jones in the crime
lamb. It's cyclo hexsay, a coot top product. It's colorless and it's
odorless. When it's rubbed into the surface of an object, it's invisible of
the naked eye. Well what about it be? It's a crystalline hydrocarbon slightly
soluble in either or alcohol. Uh huh, we're here at they show you
this claw happily. Yeah, what do you do? Yeah? Dust it
on here? Now? Can you see or feel anything at all? Seems
to disappear. I can't feel anything. Oh yeah, you want to catch
that light? Please? Sure? How hell? Look how about that seems
to glow? Yeah? Will this stuff rub awfully try it now, look
at your hands. Nothing harmful in that stuff at all. Hell on this
stuff, stay on, Lee, maybe as long as twenty four hours only
shows up under that ultramatu lamp. That's why it well. Does it work
on everybody? Did it work on Buckley? Ten minutes later, Wisdom put
in a call to the two men on stake out at Buckley's apartment on Wilcox
Avenue. They reported that the apartment was empty. Buckley hadn't been near it
since early the day before. At six pm that night, Lee Jones ed
and I went to the apartment, let ourselves in with a pass key,
and went to work with two jars of cyclo hexaye. We dusted it on
everything in sight, on Buckley's clothes, his shoes, his hat, and
on the set of burglary tools which we found on the false bottom drawer.
We rubbed it in until it was invisible. We arranged everything exactly the way
we found it, and then we went back to the office. Lee Jones
had a portable ultra violet light set up for immediate use. Wisdom alerted Communications
to pass along immediately all reports of burglaries throughout the city. We waited.
At midnight, we went out in ships for sandwiches and coffee. The watch
kept on. Two thirty am. I got it, wisdom. Uh thanks
Harvard and Wilson Boulevard safe job, two of'em. Call Lee Jones,
I'll need you downstairs. Alright, what do you think We'll let the lamp
tell us facts, don't keep the storefront clear? Ten feat on either side?
Anything late? You know? In a minute? Okay about alright,
we can try it. I'll get the lightly. That's it. That's all
lamp. The Greek with the lamp had and I did, didn't it?
Before we left for at Buckley's house, Lee Jones directed the photographer to stay
at the scene of the burglary and take photographs of the telltale cyclo hexane prince
and all other pertinent photographs for use in court. At eight minutes past four
am, we walked into Buckley's living room and now, I look, this
is kind of getting on mine us. It's four in the morning. That
out that's right down there right moves all that stuff. What's that you got?
Right? Lee? Okay? So was a life? What's this all
about? Anyway? Look at yourself? What are you doing? To me,
what is all this stuff like a Christmas tree? You know I don't
have to take this stuff. You haven't got anything on me. I hadn't
even court once before, and you had to turn me loose. Yes,
we had you in court, and I can tell you every move you made
in that case. Yeah, you tell me if I'm wrong. You climbed
the back of the Grand Herald building using some pipes of supports. You crawl
across the roof on your hands and knees the firewall. You raised up a
couple of times to see if everything was clear. You went over the firewall,
leaving impressions of your coat and trousers, one of the coat buttons with
scratch or you went over ston looked down. You then went to the front
of the building, walking in a crouch position, to see if there are
any police cars in the vicinity. And you returned to the skylight. I'm
gonna do keep telling. You removed the glass from the skylight, crawled through
the entrance, kicked a hole through a plaster wall into the attic. You
broke some of the charred laughs so that you could crawl through the attic to
an opening in the office of the Grand Harald Building. Then you opened the
safe and took out twelve hundred and fifty dollars. Is that right? No,
I took thirteen hundred and fifty. Okay, you give me a couple
hours and I'll tell you what you did on this case. Here's your coat.
Yeah, we've got my clothes who are ruined for the time you need
them again. I'll be out of style. Al right, come on,
let's go on. October fifteenth, trial was held in Superior Court, Department
eighty four, City in County of Los Angeles, State of California. In
a moment the results of that trial, the suspect was tried and convicted a
first degree burglary. Due to his previous convictions. He was sentenced to life
imprisonment. A solid episode revealing the police being innovative and finding a way to
trap a clever criminal. The Greek with a lamb was a reference to Diogenes,
who legendarily carried out lamp saying he was looking for a man or has
been translated as an honest man. It kind of came about indirectly, but
this may be the best use of a fourth century BC philosopher and Dragnet of
course it's the only one still. Also, I love them naming a company
Butterfield and Crusion. Butterfield was herb Butterfield. The actor who played Lee Jones
also the commissioner on Dangerous Assignment, and Jack Khrushan was one of those character
actors who popped up everywhere and did a lot of dragnets, so they got
memorialized in the script. The first part of the episode is one of those
that's really divisive among Dragnet TV watchers. And while the nineteen sixties series has
many divisive episodes, I think that this may be the most controversial online anyway
of any of the nineteen fifties TV episodes, and it centers around the trial.
Many loved the judge giving the jury what for and others absolutely hated it.
And then there was Lee Jones's testimony. There are many questions and challenges
that twenty first century people have about the testimony, particularly those odds that he
gave of a trillion to one by modern standards. There are two problems with
the odds he gave. First is what's known as the prosecutor's fallacy. To
quote a succinct bit of Wikipedia, the prosecutor's fallacy involves assuming that the prior
probability of a random match is equal to the probability that the defendant is innocent.
There has been a lot written about the prosecutor's fallacy, and I'm not
able to explain all of the statistical maths and reasoning that goes into that discussion,
and it definitely makes for some interesting reading. I should also add that
there is a similar defense attorney fallacy. The other problem is that Lee Jones
was just on the stand spitballing odds without any necessary basis. In fact,
the odds of this are one hundred to one, and let's say the odds
of that are one hundred to one, and let's say the odds of the
thing are also one hundred to one. Well, as he said, he
was being conservative. Most likely with many of these numbers, he was really
just making them up. One of my favorite comments on this particular aspect of
his testimony was, let's not just say, let's have some proof. If
an expert in a modern courtroom were to create a number like a trillion to
one as the odds someone other than the defendant committed to crime, that could
end up getting in trouble on appeal, although from what I read, the
prosecutor could probably get away with making that sort of inference during closing arguments.
And if you sit down on the stand as an expert supposing random odds to
reach that figure rather than something that's been scientifically established, that's going to be
a real problem, and most judges wouldn't allow it, and if they did,
it could be an issue on appeal. However, that's no mark against
this episode. By documenting how cases were investigated and prosecuted, it reflects and
captures these standards of I guess, in this case nineteen forty nine, not
today's, and if some methods are flawed, it at least illustrates that,
and those who are interested can see how and why processes have changed or evolved.
It also doesn't really reflect anything negatively about the characters. Lady Jones was
just testifying according to his understanding at that time. And I think many of
us have had jobs where we did one thing and then the procedures and processes
changed, and what we did in the past would not have been allowed going
forward. And that's no judgment or reflection on us or on our professionalism or
how we do our jobs, so we kind of have to be a little
careful about that. I can understand how that scene might bother some modern listener
reviews, but you do need to keep the times in perspective. The whole
theory of the prosecutor's fallacy wasn't even developed until nineteen eighty seven, so all
right. Well now we turned to listener comments and feedback and had a comment
regarding the special we played for Police File from Ron Over on Spotify. He
writes, I thought there was very little imagination left to the audience. The
music was too suspenseful for tracking down a counterfeitter. Just bad. But then
I also got a comment regarding the same episode on YouTube. This one comes
from Michael, who writes, I'm Australian and used to listen to this show
as a youngster before TV swept away radio drama. Thanks so much and glad
we played one that you had some familiarity with. And then finally we have
a comment regarding one of our replays, and this one comes from Honeybee regarding
the horrible Hamburger. I absolutely love anything with Vincent price on. Thank you
so much and I'm glad you enjoyed that replay. Well, now it is
time to thank our Patreon supporter of the day, and I want to go
ahead and think Neil. Neil has been one of our Patreon supporters since September
of twenty sixteen, currently supporting the podcast at the shamous level of four dollars
or more per month. Thank you so much for your support, Neil,
and that will do it for today. We will be back next Saturday with
another episode of Dragnatt, but join us back here on Monday with the next
adventures of the Falcon Wear. Yes, Mike A living right, my name
is Bonnie Murdoch Style center dress company. I want to hire. I never
was much good on Hamsteachen. All right, you've had your joke. Now
may I come in? Sure? Thanks? They called you the folk and
some such father out, don't they? Oh? I haven't called every Kana
Faller all in the book. Well, I'm not much for fancy names,
but I understand your shop can deliver the goods that's what I want. Or
just what goods do you have in mind? I want you to find a
man for me. What man name's Elliott Finch, bookkeeper worked for us until
the day didn't show up for work this morning and his wife doesn't know where
he is. How much did he get away with? How do you know
about that? When the bookkeeper disappears and his boss rushes frantically to a detective.
Good you're on the board thirty thousand wearing thirty thousand nice round simoleans to
coin a couple of cliches. Finch certainly believed in making Hay and brother that
ain't hay. Hope you'll be with us then in the meantime, do you
send your comments to Box thirteen at Greatdetectives dot net, Follow us on Twitter
at Radio Detectives, and check us out on Instagram, Instagram, dot com,
slash Great Detectives from Boiseadahol. This is your host, Adam Graham,
Sign and off.