Speaker 1: Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho.
This is your host, Adam Graham. In a moment, we're
going to bring you this week's episode of dragonnapp But
first I do want to encourage you. If you are
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go to Patreon dot Great Detectives dot net. But now,
from March sixth, nineteen fifty two, here is the Big Evans.
Speaker 2: The story you were about to hear is true. The
names have been changed to protect the innocent. You're a
detective sergeant. You're assigned a personnel division. A resident of
your city files a report of assault and battery. His
shoulder is dislocated. He's been badly beaten. He claims his
assailant was a young police officer. Your job investigate.
Speaker 3: Dragnet the document a drama of an actual crime. For
the next thirty minutes. In cooperation with the Los Angeles
Police Department, you will travel step by step on the
side of the law through an actual case transcribed from
official police violence. From beginning to end, from crime to punishment,
Dragnet is the story of your police force in action.
Speaker 4: It was Tuesday, June eleventh. That was mild in Los Angeles.
We were working the day Watch out of BIA. My
partner's said Jacobs. The boss's Lieutenant Jesse. My name is Friday.
It was ten twenty three am when I got to
ROM eighty three Squadron.
Speaker 5: No, you catch up with a lieutenant.
Speaker 4: Yeah, in a meeting, said he'd be out about eleven thirty.
He wants us to handle it for the time being.
Speaker 5: Uh oh, Joe, this is Officer Blanchet. Is my partner,
Joe Friday.
Speaker 6: I'm glad to know you're Friday. I think I've seen
you're on Central a couple of times.
Speaker 7: Yeah, sure, how are you? What's this thing all about?
Do you mind telling me you worked yesterday?
Speaker 5: Did you?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 5: That's right, my regular beat south Central area.
Speaker 4: Anything out of the ordinary happened while you were on duty?
Speaker 6: No, not much. Made a couple of pinches, that's about all.
Pretty quiet Otherwise, did.
Speaker 4: You make one of those arrests at seven nine two
eight Cortland Avenue.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's right, woman, Two men users, all three of
them were booked in violation State Narcotics Act.
Speaker 5: Any of the three familiar to you at all? Blanchet?
Speaker 6: I mean, had you ever seen him before the time
he arrested him? No, none of them. I knew the place, though,
I've been keeping an eye on it lately. One of
those old fashioned homes converted into a rooming house.
Speaker 4: Uh huh.
Speaker 6: I've been noticing some of the people going in and
out of the place. They didn't look too good to me.
That's why I say I've been keeping an eye on
the house. And what's the story on this?
Speaker 2: Anyway?
Speaker 5: You get a kickback and out of the rest I made. Well,
we'd like to have your version of it first, Blanchet,
Exactly what happened? How'd you come to make the pinch? Well?
Speaker 6: I was walking my regular beat. I think it was
about three thirty yesterday afternoon. I was going along Cortland
the seventy nine hundred block. A woman came out of
the front door and hailed me. She complained about a
five or seven party in the house couple of doors
down the street, and.
Speaker 4: That was at number seven nine two eight, the boarding house.
Speaker 7: Ah yeah, I checked it out. The party was going
on up on the third floor. I went up, found
the girl and the two men in the room facing
on the street. The girl was fixing a pop for
herself when I came in two caps of heroin on
the table in front of her.
Speaker 4: What'd you do?
Speaker 5: Then?
Speaker 7: I made a grab for the two caps. One of
the guys beat me to it. He got him, ran
to the next room and tried to flush him down
the drain. He didn't quite make it, though, I got
one of the caps before he could.
Speaker 5: Get rid of it. What'd you do?
Speaker 6: Then blanted and I sat to three of them down,
called into the office. I checked the room over while
we were waiting, found two more caps of heroin, usual
equipment to go with it. When the radio car showed up,
the three of them were taken downtown and narcotic squad
and booked.
Speaker 4: So all I can tell you about well, during the
time you were waiting there in the room, Blanche, did
you have any trouble with this aspects at all?
Speaker 5: I got a lot of talk from one of the men.
Speaker 6: Fellow by the name of Ebba, he's supposed to run
the boarding house, claims he didn't have anything to.
Speaker 5: Do with it. He didn't know. The girl was a hype,
you know, the usual stuff, and that was the extent
of it. Just tough.
Speaker 4: Sure, that's all. Why, well, that's not the story. According
to Evans, he had his lawyer bail him out last night.
He was in the file charges against you.
Speaker 5: Huh, what do you mean?
Speaker 4: Salt and battery. He claims that you worked him over
for no reason at all. He says you beat him
up and dislocated his shoulder.
Speaker 5: Oh, he's crazy, he's lying. I didn't work him over all.
Speaker 4: He says, he's got witnesses to prove it. Blanchard. The
two people who were with him, the woman the other man,
he says elsewhere, that's what you did.
Speaker 7: But it's not true. They're trying to cook up a frame.
I didn't touch any of them.
Speaker 5: We lis. Evans looked like he's been messed up, cuts
and bruises all over his face, his shoulders fairly recent too.
Speaker 6: I know that, but I didn't do it. He was
in the same shape when I found him up in
that room yesterday. Matter of fact, I asked him about it.
He wouldn't tell me. It's a truth, Sergeant so helped me.
All three of them are lying. I didn't beat him up.
Speaker 4: Mel's your word against theirs, Blanchard. The facts seemed to
favor Evans.
Speaker 6: I don't get this at all. Two of those people
are known hypes. State swear anything for a free cap.
You know that what good is their word?
Speaker 5: No good at all. It's not up to est to decide.
Eavans filed to complaint to our job to follow through.
Speaker 4: Now you're sure about the shape Evans was in when
you found him up in that room yesterday, Blanched. He
was already marked up, Is that right?
Speaker 5: I'm sure he was. I told you I asked him
about it. He wouldn't answer me.
Speaker 4: But you had no way of proving that you couldn't
possibly have been responsible for it.
Speaker 5: Well, it's up to him, isn't it. Evans? He says,
I worked him over. Let him prove it.
Speaker 7: Well, praid he's got to jump there. Two witnesses. Yeah,
but they're lying. You must know that they're lying.
Speaker 4: Well, now, look, you can see the position puts us in.
If you're innocent, we're going to do all we can.
If you're guilty, will see that you get everything that's
coming to you.
Speaker 6: You know it as well as I do. Sergeant, I
had no reason to beat him up.
Speaker 5: I didn't do it.
Speaker 7: It's not up to test Blanche. You the court will
have to decide. Doesn't make sense, none of a test.
Speaker 5: There's no other way to handle it. We got forty
five hundred men in the department. We don't claim they're
all saints. Once in a while, when them turns bed
and all of us get a black guy hearing a
jam Blanchard like anyone else, you'll get a fair trial. Yeah, well,
what happens now? Do I draw suspension?
Speaker 4: Yeah? That's right. If you're clear to the charges in court,
they'll be a hearing before the border.
Speaker 5: Writes, Am I through right now?
Speaker 4: We left the bookie in at the main jail. Care
to be presented at DA's office.
Speaker 5: Tomorrow doesn't make sense. I had no reason to beat
up Evans, no reason at all. You sure that I am?
What do you mean, of course, I'm sure. Well, Evans
claims you did have a reason, a good one.
Speaker 4: What he says, you handed him a proposition he wouldn't
go for, so you worked him over.
Speaker 5: What do you mean, what kind of a propos of
bad kind? Huh?
Speaker 4: He says, you wanted to pay off. Investigating charges against
a police officer involves exactly the same procedure as cases
where private citizens are concerned, prove the suspect innocent or guilty.
If Blanchard was innocent, it wasn't going to be an
easy job proving it. If he hadn't beat up the complainant,
George Evans and dislocated his shoulder, it seemed the only
way out would be to find the man who did
either that or proved that the two witnesses Evans had
come up with were lying. If Blanchard was guilty, if
he actually had slugged and beaten Evans, we had to
find sufficient evidence, and we had to find a motive.
Eleven ten am ed and I took Officer Harry Blanchard
over to the main jail where he was booked in
and lodged in one of the cell blocks. Went upstairs
to the Women's jail, where we interviewed one of the
witnesses to the alleged beating and Eleanor Rowland. She'd had
previous arrests for vagrancy, grand theft, auto and petty theft,
as well as an established reputation as a user of narcotics.
She was twenty three years old.
Speaker 8: Yeah, it was terrible that cop really roughed him up,
Pearl Evans. Cop didn't have to treat him like that.
Speaker 5: How long have you known George Evans, miss Rowland your
old friends?
Speaker 8: No, I wouldn't say that. I met him a couple
of weeks ago when I came down from the.
Speaker 4: North San Francisco, Portland.
Speaker 8: I was visiting up there. I'm a Portland girl originally.
Speaker 4: Well, how about this other man you were with at
the time Officer Blanche had picked you up? Is Ray Sherman?
He and old friend Buster.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I've known him a few years.
Speaker 5: You know Evans very well.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I guess she could say that Ray's had a
room at the boarding house a couple of years. I
guess he's good friends with Evans. Say can I ask
you something? You ever worked narcotics up in Portland?
Speaker 9: Oh?
Speaker 5: Man never had.
Speaker 8: Hm, face is familiar. Could have sworn I mitched in Portland?
Speaker 4: Do you want to run over that story again for us?
Miss Rowland, about what happened yesterday?
Speaker 8: Much to say, just as soon as I told you.
Speaker 4: Usually stay at evans rooming house when you're in town to.
Speaker 8: No, it's only the second time I was there.
Speaker 5: How about George was either at the time?
Speaker 8: No?
Speaker 5: Not.
Speaker 8: First me and Buster had a pop and then we
sat around the top. Evans came in a little later.
Three of us talked, told him me and Buster not
to bring any more junk in the house. He didn't
want to get into trouble. Then speak of the devil.
A cop walked in.
Speaker 4: What happened?
Speaker 8: Then Buster grabbed two caps off the table, tried to
get rid of him. He only got rid of one,
though the cop got the other one.
Speaker 4: How the argument start to remember that between Evans and
the officer.
Speaker 8: I mean, well, I was a little high at the time.
I don't remember word for word. Heavens said he didn't
have anything to do with it, but the cop kept
pressing him. He told Evans he'd forget about it if
Evans would pay him off. Evans told him, no, we
wouldn't give him a cent, and then the cop started
beating him up.
Speaker 5: You were in the same room with them all this time.
Speaker 8: Yeah, bustering me. We saw it all, peorl. Evans. He
really got worked over. Cop didn't have to treat him
like that. Say are you sure you're not from Portland?
Speaker 5: Yes, ma'am, I'm sure. Now about how many times would
you say the officer hit Evans?
Speaker 8: I couldn't tell you that exactly dozens of times, I guess,
kept hitting him with his fists, pushed him all around
the room. I was a little high at the time.
I don't remember everything exactly. Sure could use a booster.
Speaker 4: About now, are you sure about it? Meaning you've told us,
miss Rowland that's the truth?
Speaker 8: Yeah, that's right. Some of the details I didn't remember
so well. He straightened it out for me, though. He
told me just what happened. Who's that George Evans?
Speaker 4: Eleven fifty am ed and I continued questioning Eleanor Rowland.
The more we talked to her, the more we were
convinced that at the time of the alleged beating, she
was under a heavy dose of narcotics and that for
the most part, she picked up her version of the
story from the alleged victim, George Evans. We went down
to the second floor of the main jail to one
of the interview rooms, where we talked to the second witness,
Ray Sherman alias Tom Raymond, alias Buster Raymond. He also
had a long record as a user of narcotics. He
gave the same general version of the incident as the
Roland girl did, but despite the girl's story, he claimed
he was not under the influence of narcotics at the time.
Officer Blanchard entered the Roman made the arrests. Besides that,
there were other discrepancies. One o five pm, we had
some lunch at the Federal Cafe and then we drove
out to interview the complainant in the case, George Evans.
After checking at his rooming house, we finally located him
in a neighborhood bowling alley. He was sitting at a
bar joining the actual playing area, drinking a bottle of beer.
Parts of his face and neck were bandaged and his
left shoulder was in a cast. He appeared friendly and cooperative.
Speaker 7: I kept telling the cop I didn't have any money,
told him wouldn't give him a payoff.
Speaker 5: Even if I did so, he started working you over that, right, Evans, Yes,
that's right.
Speaker 7: I don't have anything against cops normally, but this guy,
that's something else.
Speaker 5: How do you ever get in the forest anyway?
Speaker 4: Had you ever had any contact with Officer Blanchard before yesterday?
Speaker 10: Evans?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 7: I did twice before came to the house. Accused me
of running a hideout for thieves junkies. Tried to get
me to pay him off then too.
Speaker 5: I wouldn't do it. So when was that Evans? About
six eight months ago? Yeah, at least that.
Speaker 4: Well, how was it you didn't report Blanchard? Then?
Speaker 7: Well let him wantn't caused any trouble, get mixed up
in a law case. I figured I could take care
of myself. But after that, going over yesterday, that was
enough for me. I don't understand how the guy ever
made the force to begin with. Aw the matter shoulder
of mine, he really tore it apart.
Speaker 4: I'll just spend your time yesterday, Evans. Do you mind
telling us?
Speaker 5: No, I don't mind.
Speaker 7: Slept till about half past twelve one o'clock, had a
little bit of a hangover, and I got up and
made some breakfast and read the paper.
Speaker 5: That's about size. I mean you were in your room
all day after the time he went down the hall
to Race Shermon's room. That's right. Ray was there with
this girlfriend of his, Eleanor. I didn't know she was
a hype.
Speaker 7: That's the truth. Ray should have known him better having
her there. I don't like the kind of stuff going
on on place.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 4: We've checked you through the recond Bureau Evans. There's been
three or four similar cases at your places the last
few years. Hasn't there a couple?
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's a real problem. I don't know how you
keep him out the whole neighborhood around here. You know,
pretty hard to stop it.
Speaker 4: I guess we understand you were in the room there
while the girl helped herself to a fix. Is that right?
Speaker 7: No, I wasn't in the room when she took the fix.
I got there a couple of minutes after. I didn't
even know what was going on. You could ask Gray
Sherman the girl too. Let'll tell you I wasn't there.
That's something else we wanted to ask you about. Sherman
and the girl.
Speaker 5: Don't seem too sure there are stories, can you straighten
us out there? What do you mean, Oh, Sherman tells
us one thing, A girl tells us something else. Can't
seem to get together.
Speaker 4: But I told him, he told him what?
Speaker 5: Well, nothing, I told him. I told the truth. That's
all that stupid ray. He doesn't know half the time
what he's doing.
Speaker 4: Well, it doesn't make it much of a witness in,
does it.
Speaker 5: What do you mean he was there when that cop
slugged me beat me up? You could see that much. Well,
that's just it. We're not sure he did.
Speaker 4: Huh.
Speaker 5: The girl says, Blanche would work you over in the
living room. There, Sherman says, Blanche took you out in
the kitchen and beat you up. Now, which is it?
I think I'm beginning to get the pitch.
Speaker 4: How's that you're out to cover up with that cop?
Speaker 5: Is that it? Take care of your own.
Speaker 4: We're designing to investigate this thing, Evans, just like any
other criminal case. Blanche is not getting any more of
a break than any other suspect would.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Sure, we still haven't asked our question. Where did
it happened? Living room, my kitchen?
Speaker 7: The interview's all over, Sergeant, I got the pitch. You
can take this back to your office. I'm going to
get that cop convicted. It's the last thing I do.
Speaker 5: You can count on that.
Speaker 4: What's the matter, Evans? All we did was ask you
a simple question.
Speaker 5: Don't try to kid me, Sergeant. I got the angle.
You're trying for a cover up. Okay, go ahead and
try now.
Speaker 4: Look, why don't you snap out of it, mister. Nobody's
trying to cover up unless it's you. Sherman and the
girl are your witnesses. Some of the points of their
stories don't check out. We want to clear them up.
Does that sound unreasonable?
Speaker 5: I told you, Sergeant, it's no use. I got your angle.
Answer me one more thing, Evans. You're on your own.
I'm telling you nothing.
Speaker 7: Who was a doctor that treated you after you were
beating up down at Georgia Street?
Speaker 5: There, merchant? See you ort to know that now? I
mean for your shoulder. We checked over your car down
at Georgia Street, and no mention there a dislocated shouldern nose.
I didn't even know I had one till I was
bailed out. I had mowned doctor.
Speaker 4: Fix you mind giving us his name?
Speaker 5: Why should I? I was willing to go along cooperate.
Then you started playing a cage. You're trying to cover
up for that cop. Now you work it out in
your own.
Speaker 4: All right, mister, anyway you want it, you bet that's the.
Speaker 5: Way I want it. You had this whole thing fram
from the beginning.
Speaker 4: You're off the track, Evans.
Speaker 5: You're not kidding me. You're trying to prove that cops
inisen trying to make me out a liar. What am
I supposed to do to help you prove I'm a liar?
Speaker 4: Now you helped enough already, ED and I double checked
through Officer Blanchet's departmental record. It showed that Blanchet had
been working his present beat for a little more than
four months. Evans had told us that Blanchard allegedly had
solicited payoffs from him at least six to eight months before.
The following day, ED and I made further inquiries in
the neighborhood of evans rooming house and also among his
friends and associates. For one thing, we found out that
Evans had not spent the entire morning and early afternoon
in the house. He'd been seen leaving his place by
several neighbors at about ten AM. Through one of his contacts.
We got the address of an ex wife since remarried,
and Marie Evans A. We located her in a small
apartment in the East Wiltshire district, a small brunette woman
about thirty five.
Speaker 5: Now, you tell her she used to be married to Evan, Yah,
that's right. Well what kind of business was Evans in
when you were married to him, ma'am?
Speaker 9: Well we had that rooming house over on Courtland.
Speaker 4: That's what we know about that. Was there anything else?
Speaker 9: Well, I don't know.
Speaker 4: It does matter anyway, just a routine investigation. We'd like
to have as much background on him as you can remember.
Are you on fairly good terms with Evans?
Speaker 5: Now?
Speaker 9: No?
Speaker 10: I haven't seen him since we split up about you
and a half ago. I think that's why I couldn't.
Speaker 5: Stand what was the trouble? Mammy mind telling us just asn't.
Speaker 10: Much good, that's all. I find a lot of names
to fit him. He was in everything by me. That's
why I got away from him. Every cheap, lousy racket
I can think of, he was in it, pedland, dope, blackmail,
making the book, some of the two bit rackets.
Speaker 9: He's been in all of them. One after the other.
I had to get away.
Speaker 5: Rooming house on Courtland Avenue. That's he's been operating all this.
Speaker 9: Time, as long as I've known him, Yeah, about three years.
Speaker 4: I'd say, is narcotics just a sideline with him? Or
does he go in for it pretty heavy?
Speaker 9: He was in it pretty heavy when I left him.
I know what he's been doing since. I don't care.
I soon forget all about it.
Speaker 4: Yes, man, m I can understand.
Speaker 9: What's the matter. Now, go to a case against him, Well.
Speaker 5: Not exactly. Evans is filed against the police officer, assault
and batteries. So listening and bribe, we're investigating the charges.
Speaker 9: Sounds like him some coup really rough him up.
Speaker 4: Oh we don't know, ma'am. That's what we're trying to
find out.
Speaker 9: I don't like to help you out. I don't think
I can.
Speaker 4: Well, just one more question, ma'am. Why you were married
to Evans? Did you have a family doctor, I mean
one that you called regularly when you were sick? Yeah?
Speaker 9: We did.
Speaker 4: Why What was his name? Can you remember?
Speaker 9: Yeah? Doctor Chase. Do you like his address?
Speaker 4: Two forty seven pm. We got to doctor Chase's office,
and luckily we found him in.
Speaker 5: Say a look at this magazine, Joe, Well, National Geographic
looks like a real old one when you say.
Speaker 4: It sure does covers torn offer.
Speaker 5: Yeah, what do you know about? That's older? Or I
thought look good?
Speaker 4: This yere? What do you got his pictures?
Speaker 5: There? Look four pages of him? Pretty grand affair. Huh yeah,
Teddy Rose felt breaks ground for Panama Canal. How about that?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Already keep you waiting, gentlemen.
Speaker 4: That's perfectly all right. Doctor.
Speaker 5: Let's see how you want to know about mister Evans,
Doctor George Evans.
Speaker 11: Oh, yes, Evans. What wasn't exactly sergeant? What'd you have
in mind?
Speaker 4: Well, the first thing we'd like to know is if
you've treated Evans recently, the last week or so.
Speaker 5: Yes, as a matter of fact, I have.
Speaker 11: And he was in here well if I see now,
let's see, yes, I thought so. He was in here
three days ago. I had some bad cuts and bruises.
They'd already been treated, though there wasn't much.
Speaker 5: I could do. Was there anything else wrong with him? Doctor? No?
Speaker 10: Not.
Speaker 11: Actually I examined his shoulder. He insisted it hurt him.
He wanted me to put it in the cast.
Speaker 4: You put the cast on did you.
Speaker 11: Well, there really wasn't any need for it, but I
put it on anyway, a little bit of psychiatry so
to make him feel better. Well, honey, mean, doctor, was
my need for it? Just one of those peculiar things.
I've been treating Evans for some time.
Speaker 10: You know.
Speaker 11: Yeah, So that's what we understand. It's fairly unusual, hardly
a rare case, though. I suppose you might call it
a trick. Shoulder looks as if it might be dislocated,
but it actually isn't. I think it's voluntary.
Speaker 4: You mean he could do this thing himself.
Speaker 11: Oh, yes, she can make it appear dislocated anytime he wants.
Speaker 3: You are listening to dragnet authentic stories of your police
force and action.
Speaker 4: Saturday, June fifteenth, ten am, the investigation continued. Meantime, the
newspapers were still making front page material out of the story.
One of the morning banner lines read cop slugs crippled
citizen to get payoff, and another one police brutality rouses
entire city. Our investigation went on early Saturday afternoon, ed
and I succeeded in locating a former friend of Evans
who told us that he'd seen him downtown the morning
of the day on which the alleged beating had taken place.
The same time, Evans told us he was in bed
nursing a hangover. The former friend of Fred Werner said
Evans was in the company of two known gamblers, Carl
Sweetzer and Stanley Parrish. He told us that he'd spotted
the three of them together at about eleven forty five am.
We questioned Sweetser and Perish, but they refused to tell
us anything. They admitted that they were acquainted with Evans,
but they knew nothing about the beating he'd received. We
continued making the rounds. Five thirty pm we dropped with
the main jail and questioned Evans. Two witnesses again, Ray
Sherman and Eleanor Rowland. We got the same stories as before.
Six eighteen pm we got back to the city hall.
Speaker 5: We'll stretcher. IM sure be glad to get home.
Speaker 4: Yeah, not a bad day, though he had fair luck.
Speaker 5: And I suppose son could always be better. She'd like
to get the straight story one way or the other.
You want to check the book ed see if we
got anything. Oh, okay, not much, Joe all from a
Tom Donnelly you know Donnalley.
Speaker 4: No, it didn't sound too familiar to me.
Speaker 5: I got it. Personal Jacobs, Isa Alfray, he's gone for
the night. Uh huh no, I'm sorry, wouldn't No, all right,
thank him? Another message here for us Joe in the book. Yeah,
Blanchard's wife again. I'm getting to feel pretty silly about
telling her the same thing that after night. Why don't
you call her tonight?
Speaker 4: Well, you've been doing all right? When I give up now?
Personnel Friday? Yeah, what was that.
Speaker 5: Your name? Yeah?
Speaker 4: Okay, ten o'clock tonight. All right, that's fine and so sure, Yeah,
we'll meet you, okay ten o'clock. Yeah, fine, Bye, sounds
pretty good. What was the name of Martin? Kimbro says
he knows George Evans. He wants to talk to us tonight.
What's a pitch? I don't know. It might be straight,
might not. What'd you say about Evans being worked over?
He claims he knows all about it? Yeah, he says
Blanchard couldn't possibly have done it. Seven oh five pm.
We went over to Frank Kange's place, had some dinner,
and then we drove out to interview the man who'd
identified himself on the phone as Martin kimbro We located
him at the designated meeting place, a small bar just
off Beverly Boulevard and Normandy Avenue. Kimbro was a small man,
slight build, middle aged. He seemed less sure of himself
than he did on the phone. He said that he
knew George Evans fairly well, and that up until six
months before he'd been on good terms with him. He
didn't go into details, but he gave us the general
idea that Evans had cheated him on some business deal
the two of them had been engaged in. We asked
Kimbroe about the beating Evans had taken. He said it
was common knowledge among the people he traveled with that
gamblers Carl Sweezer and Stanley Parrish were responsible for beating
up Evans. He'd welched on a gambling debt and the
two of them had been after him for months to
pay off. He also said he knew a close friend
of the two gamblers who told him that in private,
Carl Sweetzer openly boasted of beating up Evans. According to
kimbro the beating had taken place about one pm the
Monday before the same day, officer Blanchard allegedly had given
him the beating relocated Sweetzer in the coffee shop of
a small hotel on South Rampart Street.
Speaker 5: I'm fraid I know which talk about sharg and I
don't know any Georgia emas. I've never heard him. We
understand you do sweets. I heard you used to play
cards with him. Got it from a couple of people,
that's all. I guess they made a mistake. I don't
remember the name at all. Maybe he's going under a
different one.
Speaker 4: Huh, Well, how about his description? You ought to remember that?
Speaker 5: Well, maybe I meet quite a few people. It's kind
of hard to place all of them, you know, kind
of looked.
Speaker 4: Like well, he's tall, dark complexion, dark hair, scar under
his chin. He dresses pretty well, usually wears a suit.
Speaker 5: Yeah, does means a thing to me. Runs a rooming
house over on Courtland to Avenue. It's been in quite
a few rackets on and all. Sure, I afraid it
wouldn't know him.
Speaker 4: Now. Look, we haven't got any beef with you, sweet soo.
That's not the point. Evans is trying to get away
with the fast when we're out to stop and we
could use your help. How about it?
Speaker 5: I don't see how I kind of help you. What's
a beef? Anyway?
Speaker 4: We think you know it's been all over the newspapers
the last couple of days.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, a young cop once Evans got against him. Anyway,
I was trying to save face. We figure that's what
we hear anyway? Well, what I mean?
Speaker 4: Well, I think you know how Evans likes to play
the big shot. It wouldn't do his stock much good
around town if the real story got out.
Speaker 5: I don't follow. What's story you're talking about.
Speaker 4: About his welching on a gambling tab getting roughed up.
If he says a cop did it makes him look
a lot better than it. He comes out of it
pretty clean that way down.
Speaker 5: Here passes all. Yeah, why you guys, have some coffee?
I hate you along, okay, as soon as the waitress
comes around, all what else you hear about this Evans?
Pretty bad boy? Right, bad enough?
Speaker 4: He's got a fast mouth, telling quite a few stories
around the neighborhood.
Speaker 5: That's all I might remember him to all the dark
guy arounds the room house.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's right, you should remember him. He's mentioned you
in a couple of the stories he's passing around. Where'd
you get that? Talking to a fellow last night, he says.
Evans claims that that card game he was in with
you was rigged. That's why he didn't pay you off.
He claims, you and Stan Perry's framed the whole thing.
Speaker 5: I still laugh. Huh if only bums are all alike,
lose a couple of dollars and squeal like a pig.
What's this Evans doing? Now? Who's up for a narcotics trap?
He's out on veil funk? What's your stake in this thing?
Speaker 4: We're trying to clear the thing up. Apparently Evans figures
he's going to frame the young cop, save face, talk himself.
Speaker 5: Out of a bad situation, or what do you want
from me? The truth? I'm not going to talk myself
in a jail, young cop or not, We're not asking
you to. You want to clear the case? Huh? I
only need his proof. The cop didn't give Evans a
working over, that's right, Okay, you got a deal.
Speaker 4: Without actually incriminating himself in any way. Carl Sweetzer gave
us information and leads, which, after they were checked out,
showed definitely that George Evans was slugged and beaten in
a neighborhood at least a mile from his rooming house.
We talked to half a dozen people who saw Evans
in that neighborhood. Shortly after one pm the day of
the incident, we talked to the clerk at the drug
store where Evans went to bi iodine and bandages. They
all told us that he bore the markings of a
severe beating as early as one o'clock that afternoon. Evans
had told us repeatedly that he'd received the beating at
the hands of Officer Blanchard no earlier than three or
three fifteen that afternoon. Ed and I drove over to
the main jail, where we interviewed Evans two witnesses again.
The girl Eleanor Rowland was the first to break. She
admitted that Evans had promised both her and her friend
Ray Sherman fifty dollars apiece if they would go along
with him and his plan to frame Officer Blanchard for
assault and battery and soliciting a bride. After an hour
of questioning, Sherman admitted the same thing. We had a
stenographer take their statements. Four fifty pm ed and I
got in the car and drove to the rooming house
on Cortland Avenue.
Speaker 5: Yeah, oh h right, sorry, do.
Speaker 4: You want to get your coade? Evans like to see
you downtown?
Speaker 5: What forwards it about filing a false report? You know
this darning. What are you talking about? What do you
mean a false report?
Speaker 4: You've been checked out all over town, Evans, your doctor,
your ex wife, your gambling friends. We talked to them all.
Speaker 5: So what what's that prove? Anyway? Proves you were lying?
Mister had the young officer Blanchard, he didn't beat checked.
There's nothing wrong with your shouldery. The doctor Chasell vouch
for that.
Speaker 7: I don't care what he says. I don't care what
any of them to say. I got my case against
that cop. I'm sticking with it.
Speaker 5: You're not going to talk me.
Speaker 4: Why don't you give it up? Evans? We had to
talk with Carl Sweetsert. What do you tell you enough
to convince this you're trying to frame Blanchard. We've got
statements from people who saw you before you got back
home Monday afternoon. They say you were mussed up. Then
that was at one o'clock in the afternoon. You've been
telling us Blanchard wasn't at your place till three o'clock.
Now he explained that, I don't.
Speaker 7: Know, Maybe I didn't have the time right My watch
could have been off. Doesn't make any difference anyway. It's
gonna make a lot of difference. How about getting your code.
I'm going to call my lawyer first. That isn't going
to do much good. We've got statements from your two witnesses,
Ray Sherman and the girl.
Speaker 4: They've admitted the whole thing. Now, you haven't got.
Speaker 5: Much of a case left. I don't care what they say.
They're lying, both of them. They're lyon.
Speaker 4: You ought to know, mister, you taught them how.
Speaker 2: The story you have just heard was true. The names
were changed to protect the innocent.
Speaker 3: On September, second trial was held in Superior Court, Department
eighty nine, City and County of Los Angeles, State of California.
In a moment the results of that trial, a complaint
was received on George Evans from the City Attorney's office
for violation of section fifty two to forty three Municipal
Code filing a false report to the Police Department of misdemeanor.
He received a sentence of thirty days in the county jail.
Ray Sherman was tried and found guilty of Section eleven thousand,
five hundred Health and Safety Code possession of narcotics. He
was sentenced to one year in the county jail in
three years probation. Eleanor Rowland was filed on as a
vague attic Section eleven seven hundred and twenty one Health
and Safety Code. She was sentenced to sixty days in
the county jail. Officer Harry Blanchard was clear of the
charges pending against him and was reinstated with back pay.
You have just heard Dragnet, a series of authentic cases
from official files. Technical advice comes from the Office of
Chief of Police W. H. Parker, Los Angeles Police Department
Technical advisors Captain Jack Donahoe, Sergeant Marty Wynne, and Sergeant
Vance Bracer. Heard tonight were Barney Phillips and wit Connor.
Script by Jim Moser, music by Walter Schumann, hal Gidney speaking.
Speaker 4: Now It's Counterspy on NBC.
Speaker 1: Welcome Back. As the case unfolds, it becomes painfully apparent,
but a big risk that Evans was taking. The two
witnesses he relied upon were junkies, so it's such a
big risk about on them being consistent and sticking to
a story and then throwing in his tricks shoulder as
part of the alleged injury. Clearly he hadn't considered the
degree to which this was going to be investigated. But
he's not some random idiot doing something for no reason.
To him, it was a way to preserve his criminal reputation,
as the gamblers were making an example of him, and
when word got around it would mark him as as
a welcher and it would be just generally bad for
his ability to function in the world of vice he
operated in. And truth be told, even if they had
found his evidence wanting and not enough to prefer charges
against the officer, they would not have probably been able
to bring a charge against him because they still had
the injuries and the witnesses, So it would have ended
up a situation where there was not enough evidence to
charge the officer and he might receive some lesser consequence
because of Evans deceiving them about the trick shoulder that
cast doubt on the entire allegation, But to actually turn
it around and charge them. They needed the cooperation of
the guy who beat Evans up, and I think Evans
probably would have expected that'd be very hard to get.
He would it just be a case where he accused
the officer, nobody got charged, and he just goes around
and saying, yeah, the cops, they just defended their own
and let the guy get off. But yeah, cop beat
me up. Can you believe it? And it's very hard
for the gamblers, yeah, particularly to officially tell their story
because they committed a crime. But then Friday gives them
some incentive because not only did Evans welch on a beat,
which the gamblers are not in the beating people up business.
They are in the taking money from people business. And
if you ignore all their attempts to collect and they
have to physically injure you, that is an effort to
preserve their reputation. That is not what they're in business for.
So the idea that this guy welched and didn't pay
off on his bet, it would have them angry. But
then he learns not only that, but he's been going
around town saying the game he lost the money in
was crooked. Well, that's a reputational harm to the gamblers,
and so he finds a way to cooperate without incriminating himself,
because at this point the police aren't concerned about vice
in particular or some beating that there's no witness to
other than the participants and who Evans wouldn't testify against anyway,
They're concerned about clearing up the involvement of the officer. Now,
one thing I should note is that we don't actually
positively learned from the narration that Friday got that information
that Evans was going around spreading that rumor. The information
he summarizes is very generic. Now, he could have gotten
that information, but technically it's also possible that he came
up with that as a way to get the cooperation
of the man he needed. Understanding that particular psychology. I
also have to note a little bit of absurdity and
dragnet or absurdism, I guess in humor. And that's also
a bit subtle, even while being absurd. And that was
in the doctor's office where Jacobs found the old magazine.
And of course, if you've been in a doctor's office,
and this may change as magazines become less popular, but
you will often find a few years old magazines, and
so they exaggerated this to the max with the Teddy
Roosevelt breaks ground on the Panama Canal. Now, technically, Teddy
Roosevelt did not break ground on the Panama Canal. He
visited the construction site, but the groundbreaking actually occurred in
nineteen oh four, but he visited it in nineteen oh six.
So this takes the idea of old magazines in the
doctor's office to the extreme, as apparently there's a forty
six year old magazine in this office. This would be
like going into your doctor's office and find Today in
twenty twenty six and finding a magazine talking about the
start of the Iran hostage crisis and how President Quarter
is going to handle that. It's a subtle, absurd thing
that you don't expect to find and drag that, But
there it is. Listener comments and feedback now, and we
go to YouTube where Cuthbert two five four six comments
on the Big Honeymoon. Dragnet never gets old. Indeed, even
though magic gauzines and doctor's office do all right. Well,
now it's time to thank our Patreon supporter of the day.
And I want to go ahead and thank Judith, Patreon
supporter since March twenty sixteen, currently supporting the podcasts at
the shawmus level of four dollars or more per month.
Thanks so much for your support, Judith, and that will
do it for today. If you're enjoying the podcast, please
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We'll be back next t stores today with another episode
of Dragnet. But join us back here tomorrow for yours truly,
Johnny Dollar.
Speaker 12: Where it's just that I don't like being threatened. Johnny
knows I have enough trouble keeping this aulco under control
of just the daily run of problems I have to
face at the office. What do you mean by you know,
you know, people demanding more from their insurance than they deserve,
people filing claims when they aren't entitled in any insurance
at all, and then trying.
Speaker 9: To Oh what nothing, Johnny, I just.
Speaker 4: I'll be all right.
Speaker 5: You forget to take one of your pills, right, No,
but maybe I better take another? Yes, me, you're taking
too many of them.
Speaker 1: But what was this talk about being threatened?
Speaker 12: Well, Johnny, this fellow by the name of oh oh.
Speaker 6: No, Ray, Johnny say, what's the matter this pepe in
my stomach?
Speaker 5: It's killing me.
Speaker 1: I hope you'll be with us then. In the meantime,
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 Boise, Idaho.
This is your host, Adam Graham signing off.