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 Dragon That,
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But now, from February fifteenth, nineteen fifty one, here is
the Big Crime.
Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 3: This program is for you, not your children.
Speaker 4: The story you were about to hear is true, only
the names have been changed to protect the innocent. You're
a detective sergeant. You're assigned a juvenile bureau. A worried
mother calls your office and reports that her four year
old twin girls are missing. Ours pass the children fail
to turn up. Your job find them.
Speaker 5: Dragnet the documented 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 files.
From beginning to end, from crime to punishment, Dragnet is
the story of your police force in action.
Speaker 3: It was Saturday, August seventh, was hot in Los Angeles.
We were working the day watch out a juvenile bureau.
My partner's Ben Romero, the bosses inspector Bowling.
Speaker 2: My name is Friday. Was seven thirty five pm when
we got to where we parked our car. Eighty K.
Speaker 3: I din't see their house is back that way. Huh yeah,
let you swing around here.
Speaker 6: Huh how I am on that side.
Speaker 2: Okay, twenty year room here. No, you better wait a minute,
huh Okay, it's all clear now.
Speaker 6: I don't know about you. I think there's something sour
about the whole thing.
Speaker 3: Well, wait till we check at the house. The kids
might have turned up while we were going, I hope so.
Speaker 2: Sure.
Speaker 6: We had to go back there empty handed, not one
lousy lead. It's hard to figure the little girls just
wandered off. Somebody should have spotted him by this time,
unless there was some kind of an accident. What time
you got twenty minutes, dake five hours. It's a long
time for a pair of four year olds to be
out of sight, and the parents are going to be worried,
sick when we tell him. Let's set up the next
block in it. Oh yeah, might as well pull up
right here.
Speaker 2: That's good.
Speaker 7: Yeah, let's go, lousy job, I'll put in with you.
Speaker 8: Oh yeah, officers come in.
Speaker 2: Thank you. Have you heard anything?
Speaker 3: No, you're not too much, mister Carson. We just finished
checking the neighborhood.
Speaker 8: Somebody around must have seen the kids. Did you talk
to everybody?
Speaker 2: We checked out all the names you gave us.
Speaker 6: Their everyone who knows your little girls, the kids, they
play with, their friends, parents, storekeepers in the area.
Speaker 8: But somebody had to see that. They got to be
around someplace Joe until he got lost in that park.
I know they would have headed up toward home.
Speaker 9: What is it, jo find.
Speaker 2: No, we're still checking, mss Carson. There's nothing much to
tell you right now.
Speaker 10: Somebody's gott have seen Telly and Joan couldn't have wondered
off that far.
Speaker 6: I don't think it's as bad as it might seem
to you, ma'am. Children have been missing a lot longer
than your two little girls and turned up all right.
Speaker 2: Just try to relax, miss Carson.
Speaker 10: Why hasn't somebody seen they wandered off from us in
the park, But it's only three blocks from the house.
Why isn't somebody seen it's dark? God knows what could
have happened to them.
Speaker 8: Take it easy, honey, don't start imagining things.
Speaker 6: I think it's just a matter of time, ma'am. We've
got three teams of men working on it with us.
Gott not a broadcast on you, little girl.
Speaker 10: Did you talk to the Stanleys down the street.
Speaker 2: Yes, ma'am, we did. We checked out all the names
that you gave us.
Speaker 3: There is one thing we wanted to ask you about, Sargy,
all about the spot in the park where you had
your picnic this afternoon where the little girls wandered off from.
Speaker 10: It's exactly where I pointed it out to the other offices,
by the eucalyptus grow right off Seventh Avenue. Just about
two thirty this afternoon, we finished lunch, Frank was taking
a nap, and I was reading. I saw the girls
playing tag over by the trees. I looked up in
a few minutes and they were gone, just like I
told the other officers.
Speaker 2: Then you're sure about that location, of.
Speaker 9: Course, I'm sure. Where should I lie to you?
Speaker 10: I want to find the girls, Please find them.
Speaker 2: Search, yes, ma'am.
Speaker 8: Come on, honey, take it easy, huh. It's just never
happened to us before. Sergeant Joan un Tilly had never
gone off like this. It's not like him, that's all.
It's only babies.
Speaker 2: Really, would you like me to get that boy, mister Carson, Yes, sir,
would you please? Sure? Oh? Hi, Willkie Joe? Anything? No,
that's yet you want to step outside? Yeah? Or half?
Speaker 11: And I checked with a guy who runs an ice
cream wagon. He works the area in the park where
the kids are disappeared.
Speaker 2: What do he tell you?
Speaker 11: I saw a couple of little girls about a half
them mile from Eucalyptus Grove about three o'clock this afternoon.
Were with a man, Yeah, says he saw. The man
put the kids in a truck, drove off with him.
Speaker 2: Eight pm.
Speaker 3: Together with Tom Wilkie, Ben and I left the home
of mister and missus Frank Carston, the parents of the
missing girls, without telling him about the latest report until
it was positively confirmed. We felt that telling him would
serve no purpose other than to worry them needlessly. The
ice cream vendor, mister George Comanches, who had reported seeing
the four year old girls, considered to drive out with.
Speaker 2: Us to the park area.
Speaker 3: Where he'd spotted the children in the company of an
unidentified man.
Speaker 6: I was right over there was this big guy mustache.
He had the little girls, one on each hand. He
was walking them out of that clump of trees over there.
I think you can describe the man for his met command.
I didn't look that close. I thought he was the father.
Speaker 12: The kids were sniffling, you know, maybe like he had
been crying.
Speaker 2: A better check out over there by the trees. I'm
looking at him. Yeah, sure, stand Ralph, I want to
give a look over here.
Speaker 6: Didn't you notice anything at all about this man Mitri manches?
I mean other than his monthday Wow, big man, big shoulders,
regular truck driver, you know, work shoes, blue shirt, blue pants, jeans.
Speaker 3: I guess how about the color of his hair, some
kind of distinguishing marks.
Speaker 2: Maybe, No, I don't know. I thought he was the father.
Speaker 6: The kids were sniffling, the little girls. Was anything wrong?
It didn't look like.
Speaker 2: How about this man's truck? Did you notice that? No?
Speaker 6: I didn't. I was busy with the freezer motor. Then
gives me lots of trouble all the time.
Speaker 2: What about the license number?
Speaker 12: Do you have to look at that maybe I should
have looked.
Speaker 2: I didn't.
Speaker 6: Bag of peanuts, orses warm, nice and fresh.
Speaker 2: Hey, hey, why don't you eat him while they're warm? Good? No,
I save him for my boys. Crazy for peanuts.
Speaker 3: Okay, excuse us, mister Panson, Sure, sure, go ahead, Yeah, welcome.
Speaker 2: Stan found these over in the bushes where the trees aren't.
Let me see.
Speaker 11: Little girl's petticoat, little girls dress ripped pieces.
Speaker 2: Eight four pm.
Speaker 3: The area where the torn clothing was found was roped
off and checked for footprints and other physical evidence.
Speaker 2: None was found.
Speaker 3: Homicide Detail was notified and joined in the investigation. The
torn petticoat and dress were taken down to Lee Jones
at the crime Lab for examination, and they were shown to
the father of the missing children, Frank Carston. He definitely
identified them. The search for the four year old twins
joan until he was intensified. An emergency spot check was
made of all known and registered sexual psychopaths. From the
hundreds of names, the Status office came up with one
that might possibly tie in. He was listed as GHL Grahamburg.
His address was at the end of Seventh Avenue, close
by the park area where the Carston twins had disappeared
Mama Sheet. Gremberg was described as tall, well built, dark
hair with a mustache. We found him at his work,
a small bar out in the Wilshire district. He was
the organist there. Yeah, that's right. I live on seventh
Avenue right across the park.
Speaker 6: A matter of this time, missing juveniles, can you account
of your time between noon and six o'clock to night? Gramber,
I don't know if I can or not. I don't
keep a daily log. You know they didn't tell me
how to do that.
Speaker 3: Well, tell us where you were between noon and six tonight,
that's all we want to know.
Speaker 2: That's quite a bit, don't you think.
Speaker 12: Well, as I told you, I was playing canastera with
a maiden hat with that shock hen Look.
Speaker 3: We're not in the mood for smart answers. You just
give us an alibi we can check, that's all.
Speaker 12: I don't know why you always have to bother me
when something happens.
Speaker 6: You made your own reputation. We didn't know what about it.
I left my apartment about eleven thirty this morning. I
went down to the Union Hall and paid my dues,
had lunch with some friends with the boo pitching on Wilcox.
Speaker 12: Theell me went on a tour of one of the studios.
Speaker 2: All right, well your friends confirmed that story for you.
Speaker 5: Oh no, they won't.
Speaker 12: They left town tonight eight fifteen, trained for San Francisco.
Speaker 2: Oh yes, miss Seln a special friend of mine from
up north Graham was to hear Indian love call.
Speaker 6: Okay, certainly, mister Selton right away?
Speaker 2: What about a Gramberg who's looking.
Speaker 6: For your alibi? Already told you my friends left town.
You can check with a guard at the movie studio
if you want. We had a pass, time punched in,
time punched out. It should be all there. You want
to call and check that studio.
Speaker 12: Yeah, I don't mean to be rude, Sage.
Speaker 6: I always did feel that registration business is unfair, of course,
grossly unfair.
Speaker 2: How do you suggest we keep track of you? Why
do I have to be kept track of anyway? You
know as well as I do.
Speaker 6: Your record is all a lie. I hardly even touched
the kid. I paid my time anyway. Why can't you
give me a break every time something happens to a kid?
Speaker 2: I have a cop on my neck.
Speaker 3: Were you in the seventh Avenue park at any time today?
Speaker 2: Gramberg?
Speaker 3: Were you in the Seventh Avenue park todays.
Speaker 12: Matter of fact, I was. Yeah, I took a walk there.
Speaker 6: Time was in But I know I left my friends
after lunch, came home to freshen up about one thirty.
I guess I was in a park about one forty
five two o'clock.
Speaker 2: Only stayed a few minutes. When'd you leave? About two fifteen?
You went from the park to meet your friends at
the studio? Exactly right? Chance? Did you see two dark
haired little girls while you were in the park. No,
I didn't see anybody. I was by myself. I was
sure of that.
Speaker 6: Well, of course, I'm sure if I did see him,
it wouldn't mean anything. I don't molest kids. I don't
get along with him, that's all. And another one, Graham,
I wonder if you might playing Diane at aiversary party.
Speaker 9: You know?
Speaker 2: All right? Thanks Greg? What I was saying, Sergeant, it's
the truth.
Speaker 12: I couldn't hurt a little kid.
Speaker 2: I never could.
Speaker 12: No one says you have I know, but I just
want you to know how I feel.
Speaker 2: Maybe I don't get along with kids, but I couldn't.
Speaker 12: Hurt him little girls especially.
Speaker 2: I like kids.
Speaker 6: Really, I just don't understand how I like him.
Speaker 2: Real strange thing, isn't it? Yeah?
Speaker 6: It yeah, yeah, I see as.
Speaker 2: You talk to the studio. Yeah, I checked with the
guard What are you saying? Lamberg was there from two
thirty to four thirty. He double checked the time. Yeah,
his alibi is good.
Speaker 3: Ten fifty five pm, the four year old Carston girls
were still missing. A special detail of men from homicide
were assigned to a general canvas of stores and homes
in the Park area. All the residents were questioned. No
one had seen the children. Eleven twenty pm. We headed
back for the Carston home.
Speaker 2: I'm all out of smoke, Joe, You've got some? No,
I'm out to.
Speaker 3: The drug store up ahead. I guess we can get some.
There a car in front of us. That's Wuilke and
Bates car.
Speaker 2: And let's see. Yeah. Oh, here's Wilkie coming out of
the drug store. Well, mel, Joe, just talk to the office.
Anything new.
Speaker 11: They got a call from the Valley station a few
minutes ago. Yeah, the little girls had been fomed.
Speaker 5: You are listening to Dragnet for the step by step
solution to Tonight's authentic case history.
Speaker 2: Eleven twenty five pm.
Speaker 3: As soon as we got the word that the four
year old Carston twins had been found, Ben and I
drove back to the office where Inspector Bowling filled us in.
A few minutes past eleven PM, a motorist out in
the valley spotted the two small girls walking hand in
hand along a deserted side road off Ventura Boulevard. Their
clothing was dirty and torn. They were alone. The motorists
picked them up took them to the Valley Division station,
where the girls were identified.
Speaker 2: We sent out a partial cancelation on the APB.
Speaker 3: The twin girls were taken to the Georgia Street Receiving Hospital,
where they were treated her cuts and bruises.
Speaker 2: When they were returned to their home, the doctor reported
that both girls.
Speaker 3: Had been criminally molested. The search for the abductor went on.
Late the next day, Ben and I drove out to
the Carston home to talk to the twins, Joan and Tilley.
Speaker 2: They had no luck at all.
Speaker 3: They were still shaking up from the excitement and shock
of their experience. We went back to the living room
with their mother, Helen Carston.
Speaker 10: It was the same thing this morning when I tried
to question them. They just don't want to talk about it.
Speaker 9: Must have been.
Speaker 2: Horrible for them. Didn't tell you anything at all?
Speaker 10: Of course, Well, Joan just refuses to talk about it.
She says the man was big. It's all I could
get out of her. Tilly seems a little more willing
to talk, though she's always been a little more forward
than Joan, ever since they were babies.
Speaker 2: I see, Well, could.
Speaker 3: She add anything in all of what your other little
girl told you about the man?
Speaker 10: She told her father the man had a mustache, probably
impressed her because my husband wears one too. Pretty certain
she's right about that. I can usually tell when she's
making up things.
Speaker 2: Well, how about the way the man was dressed his clothes?
Speaker 9: No mentioned anything particular.
Speaker 10: Tilly told me the man was dirty. She said it
two or three times, dirty, dirty clothes. She might have
met the man had work clothes on. She has so
many expressions.
Speaker 9: I don't know.
Speaker 6: How did the man get your little girls into the truck?
You offer them candy or.
Speaker 2: Something like that.
Speaker 10: Tilly said something about a kitten. The man had a
little kitten, and he was going to give it to
them if I told him about that once. I told
him a thousand times, stay away from strangers don't go
with them.
Speaker 2: Yes, ma'am. Did they tell you anything else at all
about the man's description?
Speaker 10: Tilly said, the man was big. I don't know if
you could count on that. Everybody looks big to her.
I talked to her an hour, but she just kept
repeating the same story. The man made them cry to her,
their dresses hurt them.
Speaker 9: It's horrible for it.
Speaker 2: Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 6: Does he tell you anything at all about the truck
the man was driving. Maybe the color or something like that.
Speaker 10: Well, Tilly called it a big car, funny big car.
She said it was red, with red pictures all over her.
You can't put much faith in that, though, Why not, ma'am?
Why everything's red to Tilly? Now everything has red pictures
on it. Just a phase she's going through. A few
weeks ago, it was blue. Everything was blue to her.
Now it's red. Everything's red.
Speaker 2: I see.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 3: You think they might be able to tell you a
little more in a day or so, after they've quieted down.
Speaker 10: Well, I don't know. I certainly hope. So, thank god
it's all over. They're home safe. That's all it counts.
Speaker 3: Oh man, I'm afraid there's more to it than that
what The man that did it still free. Monday, August ninth,
the search for the suspect went on.
Speaker 2: All of us.
Speaker 3: The men from Juvenile and Homicide Detail were pretty much
feeling our way in the dark. Repeated questioning of residents
living in the area where the abduction took place.
Speaker 2: Net it is nothing.
Speaker 3: Our two star witnesses, the four year old twins were
able to contribute a little.
Speaker 2: We stayed on it.
Speaker 3: Another three days of pounding the pavement, knocking on doors,
and asking stock questions lead nowhere.
Speaker 2: As in most cases.
Speaker 3: Like this one, the criminal enjoyed the distinct advantage of
having victims who were unable because of their age, to
clearly identify him.
Speaker 2: Tuesday, August tenth, in.
Speaker 3: The late afternoon, we got a call from a Bernice Hopper,
a real estate agent in the West Hollywood area.
Speaker 2: Four or fifteen pm. Ben and I drove out the interviewer.
Speaker 9: Excuse me, officer, I just got to find that listing.
Speaker 2: Book first, right here, miss Over.
Speaker 9: I just know it's got to be here someplace. So
yesterday morning I remember just sink, oh, here it is there.
You can start to do business again. Well, I don't
know who's going to help you and in your case officers.
But I certainly think something should be done about it. Flagrant,
that's the only word I can think of. Just flagrant.
Speaker 2: Would you like to tell us about it? Man?
Speaker 9: I saw him yesterday, for one thing, So I was
coming back from lunch, but two thirty in the afternoon, mondays,
I always have late lunch.
Speaker 2: Yes, I think I was.
Speaker 9: Just passing the corner a few blocks from the grammar
school right up above on Prospect Avenue, and I saw
this truck park and this truck driver leaning out of
the window talking to some children, just tops, they were.
Speaker 2: Just tops, Yes, ma'am. What happened?
Speaker 9: Well, what happened? It's not so much that it's just
the way this truck driver was talking to these children.
I must have been at least twenty feet from them,
and even I could hear what was that man in
his language? Just filth. I couldn't understand that a grown
man talking to little tops like that, every kind of filth,
every obscene word you think of. Flagrant, just flagrant.
Speaker 6: Was there any point in the way he was talking
to the children's offer? I mean, was he mad at them?
He seems sober? Or what was it?
Speaker 2: It?
Speaker 9: Was filth, that's all I know. Obviously, just dirt and filth.
Some of the children didn't like it, and they told
him that only made him do it all the more.
I really think you ought to check up on him.
Speaker 2: Yes, ma'am, well can you tell us anything else about it?
Speaker 6: Oh?
Speaker 9: Would you excuse me? How do you do? My name
is Bernice Hopper?
Speaker 2: May I help you? How do you do? I'm Arthur Thomlinson.
You showed me in the White Place last weekend?
Speaker 9: Oh yes, of course, mister Thomason cottage out on Norwich.
Speaker 2: Wasn't it. Yeah, that's right. Well, the wife and I
certainly didn't like it. She wants me to put a
deposit on Its still for sale like that.
Speaker 9: Well no, as a matter of fact, I stole it monday.
It's just like I told you, things go fast, of
course if you had a substantial down payment to make
at the time.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, it did take me a few days to
get some money together.
Speaker 2: It's too bad. Raine certainly loved the place. It's too bad.
Speaker 6: I guess.
Speaker 9: I'm very sorry mister thomasin There wasn't anything I can do.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I know that. Well, thanks anyway, man, I
guess We'll keep looking. Something may turn on.
Speaker 9: I'm sure it. Well, thanks for stopping by again, mister Thomason.
Yeah bye, oh by. Everybody wants something for nothing. They
want houses, but they don't show the money.
Speaker 2: What was it the truck driver that you saw? Now?
Speaker 9: Oh yeah, Well, after hearing that talk of his, I
just copied down the license number of the truck I
got right here in my desk.
Speaker 6: Oh how about the truck driver? Man, did you get
a good love in him?
Speaker 9: I certainly did. The way he acted to those children.
Speaker 2: Unusual about his appearance.
Speaker 9: Oh, nothing beside his foul mouth. He was tall, dark,
had a mustache, ties in one more thing truck he
was driving. Yes, ma'am, there were pictures painted on the side,
circus animals. I think.
Speaker 2: Did you notice the color?
Speaker 6: Oh?
Speaker 9: Yes, it was red. Even the pictures are red.
Speaker 2: Four forty five pm.
Speaker 3: We took the license number of the truck, which Bernice
Hopper had given us, and drove back to the office
and check through DMV. We found the truck was registered
to a commercial baking firm in the south end of town.
Through their personnel department and their dispatcher's office, we got
the name and address of the employee who was driving
the truck. The same day, Bernice Hopper had spotted the
driver talking to the school children.
Speaker 2: His name was Lester Wiley.
Speaker 3: We checked a little further found that he was driving
the same truck the day the Carston twins were abducted.
We called into R and I, while he had no
criminal record. Six point thirty pm, we located the suspect
at his home, an old style green and white bungalow
on the edge of the Highland Park district. He sat
in the dining room and drank some kind of sweet
wine from a large water glass while we questioned him.
Speaker 2: It's sure stupid, I mean, huh. I didn't even ask
if you wanted some of this.
Speaker 6: No, thank you. I'd like to have you explained about
your language in front of those school kids.
Speaker 13: Nothing explained. A bunch of those kids are hanging around
the truck. How maybe they wanted to. I didn't grab
some of the cakes and stuff. I read them off
it so well. I still doesn't explain the filthy language, Wiley.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 13: Maybe I wasn't feeling good that day, might let a
few cuss words slip.
Speaker 2: I haven't made anything, but it I like kids. Do
you usually make deliveries up around that school area? Welly,
that's so yeah, I get around quite a bit. It's
not what they tell us down where you were. Huh.
Speaker 6: You had no business in the neighborhood of that school.
Your delivery routs on the other end of town, so
I can't drive for a walter.
Speaker 13: Huh, I get the deliveries made. What are they squawking.
Speaker 2: About, like to know what you were doing it from
that neighborhood.
Speaker 6: It's on my lunch aar drove up to see a friend.
I got a friend living near the school. What's the
matter anyway?
Speaker 2: Don't you think you've had enough of that? Oh? Cannot
tell me what I have to do in my house.
It's my house. I want a glass of wine.
Speaker 6: I have it.
Speaker 2: You're not telling me what to do, all right, Well,
I just take it easy, take it easy. Nothing.
Speaker 6: I talked to you too long enough. There's the door.
You're not coming in here telling me what to do.
Speaker 2: You better get your coats. We'll talk downtown.
Speaker 6: We're not talking any place now, get out, Get out
of his house right now.
Speaker 2: Afraid your alibi is not gonna hold up.
Speaker 6: Well, I don't know what you're talking about. You're trying
to frame you, don't you think I know that that
doesn't make much sense. Why should we want to frame you.
Speaker 13: I know what you're getting at, just what you're getting
at those two little girls last week. You're going to
say I took him. You're gonna say I did things
to him. Well, I didn't had anything to do with it,
didn't you. Oh no, no, I didn't. Look I'm sorry.
I'd just sit down. Mean what I said, because I
just got nervous.
Speaker 2: Sure, well, and we understand. Why an't you let me
get a couple of glasses.
Speaker 9: Huh?
Speaker 2: Have some of this wine warms you up? Good?
Speaker 6: Oh?
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 6: I just like to have you straightening us out and
a couple of things, and we'll let you alone.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 6: I like to know if you're gonna count for your
time between twelve noon and eleven pm last Saturday.
Speaker 2: That's to day somebody picked up those two little girls,
isn't it. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 13: Well, I don't know, just making deliveries like I always
do up to eleven o'clock at they I was a
little late.
Speaker 2: Yeah that's not usual though. That's so you know they're
working day, so it's good wine.
Speaker 13: I might have been near the park where those kids were,
doesn't mean anything, though. I get around quite a bit
a lot of deliveries to make.
Speaker 3: All right, Come on, how about it? Wellly, did you
grab those two little girls?
Speaker 2: Why did you?
Speaker 1: All right, mister up, get out of my house.
Speaker 6: Got out of my house, all.
Speaker 2: Right, Ben, get them on them.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you don't have approve, but you know that.
Speaker 2: And what about it, Wally, it's the use? Oh good
at all you want to tell us about it. I
didn't mean it, that's all. I didn't mean it.
Speaker 13: Just once in a while something goes wrong with me.
I like kids, like them too much. I guess.
Speaker 6: I didn't mean to hurt him. You're ready to go
now anything you say. I thought I had it with
me when I grabbed the kids. I was in my
coat pocket and I lost it.
Speaker 2: Glad you lost what pocket knife? I was going to
kill him.
Speaker 4: The story you have just heard was true, only the
names were changed to protect the innocent.
Speaker 5: On December tenth, trial was held in Superior Court, Department
eighty seven, City and County of Los Angeles, State of California.
In a moment, the results of that trial, now here
is our star Jack Webb.
Speaker 2: Thank you friends.
Speaker 3: As you might have heard me say before on Dragnet,
we try to present the kind of entertainment that you want.
Speaker 2: You're the boss.
Speaker 5: Lester Wiley waived his rights to a preliminary hearing and
at his arraignment in Superior Court he entered a plea
of guilty to one count of kidnapping and one count
of child molesting. He received the sentence as prescribed by
law and is now serving his term in the state penitentiary.
You have just heard Dragnet, a series of authentic cases
from official files. Technical advice for Dragnet comes from the
Office of Chief of Police W. H. Parker, Los Angeles
Police Department.
Speaker 4: Now there's more exciting listening with Counterspy on NBC.
Speaker 1: Welcome Back. This is a great episode. It shows how
Dragnat balanced the need to show sensitivity while also shining
light on difficult issues. In this case, it dealt with
a very real issue of child abductions and molestation without
getting too explicit, and it highlighted the problems out there. Certainly,
the police can question registered offenders, but so many are
not caught or have not been caught in under the
radar The only way they found out in this case
was because of the language he was using around kids.
I questioned in the past, and still questioning whether he'd
even be reported today. I think so many people feel
free to talk however they like around kids that no
one would take notice of it. The TV version of
this is also very good, and it's a little different
for the performance of Jack Krushan, who played the criminal.
The TV episode actually ends after Friday and his partner
leave with the suspect, the camera panning down to show
the knife on the floor and dwell on it, showing
how something that was this horrible really could have actually
been much much worse. Well, now we turn to listener
comments and feedback, and we start on Instagram with a
comment regarding the radio version of the Big cast Brains
Benton rights that was a creepy criminal. Great job by
Stacy Harris and Melanie comments fun fine scene. The sound
effects team rocked. Thanks Melanie. Web actually had five sound
effects men work on Drag Now and there was just
a great dedication to realism and professionalism in the way
they did everything, and they did a great job making
that story come a lot. I will go ahead and
tease and I'll tease a bit at the end of
the episode. Our video theater this week will actually be
the TV version of the Big cast, so you can
compare it to the radio version. I actually think that
while Stacy Harris did a good job, the actor in
the TV version does even better. And there were also
some interesting things that they did with the TV version
of the fight, So I encourage you to check that
out on Video Theater and the History Chaser riots. Thank
you for keeping these pieces of history alive. And another
listener comment specifically regarding the episode add insult to injury,
the quote unquote mom only gets a year on a
manslaughter charge. Children didn't rate too highly even back then,
and in a similar vein on Spotify, Frosty Booboo rites
one year for manslaughter of a child. I would agree that,
based on everything we heard in that episode, one year
seemed rather lenient. I checked an undercurrent California law, involuntary
manslaughter can carry sentence of up to four years in
prison and voluntary manslaughter up to eleven. I don't know
if the statues have been changed over the years to
make the sentence for manslaughter horser, but again, we didn't
get anything in that episode that would make us think
that there were mitigating circumstances that would indicate a lesser sentence.
It does always seem that there are some judges who
just don't take these sort of things as serious asly
as they ought. Every few years there'll be a situation
where there's a crime against.
Speaker 6: A child and.
Speaker 1: Their person is found guilty and the sentence just doesn't
seem just at all. Another comment from YouTube regarding this episode,
a listener writes, as a parent, I think this might
have been the single hardest episode to listen to of
any show on your channel. Thanks for the comment and
sorry about that. Of course that was posted before today's episode,
which for many listeners might be much more difficult. But
on this one anyway, I warned you, and so did
Jack Webb about it. There are a number of episodes
that really do hit hard and hit differently for me
now that I'm a parent, This one and The Big
Children to a certain extent, and then something like twenty
two Rifle for Christmas. Now keep in mind that they
replay twenty two Rifle for Christmas in December of nineteen fifty,
so parents got all three of those episodes within about
a two and a half month period. I will say
that while there are some episodes that can be emotionally
challenging to a degree, I don't think you really get
something quite on that level throughout the rest of the
radio series. So I don't know. Maybe they got a
few letters from parents asking them to maybe tone it
down to that. Back to Spotify and another comment regarding
the Big Cast, Mike writes, twelve men dropped completely from
site serial killer much. Yeah, I think that the killer
in the Big Cast would fit the modern definition of
a serial killer. It just wasn't a term in use
back in the nineteen fifties, at least not on Dragnet.
But he definitely fits. And there were serial killers like that.
You might think of some of the ones who were
more sensationally perverse, but there were quite a few serial
killers in more modern times who very much fit the
profile of the in in that episode. And then we
have some comments from Harrison regarding a few episodes, and
we start with the big Jump where he begins with
a quote from the episode this, Harrison is a mental case.
Well that's a fine. How do you do, Ben, I've
had a few episodes I've listened to where the villain
killer bad guy Lowlife wasn't named Graham, and it is
a little weird listening to, so I empathize. He goes
on to write, this episode is one of my favorites.
The last line you told me which way to lean
is why Ben Romero is my favorite partner of Joe's.
I enjoy their small talk and the way they express
their friendship through lines like that. Well, thanks so much, Erison,
and I think that there is something about Ben Romero.
When you get into Ben Alexander and later Harry Morgan,
they do bring a certain added entertainment value to the episode.
If at all possible, writers give them two or three
minutes for comedy sketch in which they show how odd
and quirky they are, and I quite enjoy that. But
with Ben Romero, I think you do have someone who
feels more authentically like an actual police officer, an actual
typical police officer with deadpan humor and ways of trying
to make a lot of situations that really could have
been quite deadly. My favorite example of that is in
that episode the City Hall Bombing or the Human Bomb,
where Friday gets the bomb and trips and falls down
the steps. The bomb goes flying but doesn't go off,
and it turns out that it needed a hard pull,
so they're safe, though they easily could have got blown up.
And Ramero just comes over to Friday and says, clumsy,
that is such a real moment and it really does
work quite well in the context of the show. And
I don't think any other Joe Friday partner would.
Speaker 6: Pull that off.
Speaker 1: And regarding the Big Family, he writes, maybe I miss something,
but isn't the crime. Isn't it a crime to at
the very least the wasted man hours of the police department.
I figure if anyone would be irked at that, it'd
be Joe Friday. Well, to be fair, I think Joe
Friday showed he was irked in a professional way. He's
not going to go off on the gentleman. But he
did tell him, you know, aren't we kind of entitled
to an explanation. We were put to a lot of
trouble because of this or words to that effect. So
obviously he was annoyed and he felt like, come on,
you got to explain what happened here, but it's not
something you can prosecute for now. You or I at
any time we'd like, can go down to the bus station,
buy a ticket to Oklahoma City, not tell anyone where
we're going or why we're going, and just wander around
Oklahoma City. Hitch hike around Oklahoma and that's not a crime,
you know, unless hitch hiking in Oklahoma is. Then don't
hitch hike in Oklahoma. I'm not an expert on Oklahoma law,
but regardless, you know, if you just want to wander
around Oklahoma, that's not a crime. Of course, you know,
if you get in the wrong place, there are vagrancy
laws and things like that. But if I disappear from
Boise without giving any notice, I don't have any responsibility
to the city of Boise to tell them, Hey, I
need to let you know where I'm going so that
you don't worry, because I'm not accountable to them. Now,
there are people I am accountable too, and I'm not
going to do that. But the city is not owed
an explanation and the best defense if they try to
drag him under court for some pretense and say, yo,
you caused us to spend a lot of man hours,
and is response to me who asked you to? I
didn't ask you to. I didn't ask you to go
in spend your time searching for me. Oh, yes, the
police were irked, but no, that is an auto crime.
And then we go back a bit where Harrison riots
regarding Ben's quest for Graham bread. You mentioned a place
in Illinois that supposedly still makes their version of the bread. Well,
it just so happens I live in Illinois. Maybe this
could be a podcast special assignment. I don't want to
be careful here because actually, as a state, Illinois has
some of the highest concentration of listeners in the entire country.
I could say the entire world, which would be true,
but eighty percent of our listeners are in the US,
so that is just being overly dramatic. Illinois has the
sixth highest population in the United States, but produce the
third most downloads to our podcast, a bit more than Florida,
which has double the population. All that to say, want
to swamp this poor bakery. But they do actually ship
their bread, which is good because our Illinois listeners are
centered around the Chicago area, and according to Google Maps,
this bakery is about a forty minute drive, which you
think about it, you know, both ways you're looking at
an hour and twenty minutes to try out some bread,
and even further if you're in other parts of the state.
And let me just say I do not have any
experience with this bakery. They aren't paying and I can't
vouch for the quality. But if you want to try
it out, it is the Ideal Bakery Ideal Bakery dot
net and they are in elk Grove Village if you
have to drive any distance there, I would go on
the website, get their phone number and call ahead. But
if you want to just have them bread ship to
you and find out what it is that so excited
the Romeros about this, then yeah, I just go to
ideal Bakery dot net and you can order it shipped
and probably from outside of Illinois as well. All right, well,
now it's time to thank our Patreon supporter of the day,
and I want to go ahead and thank Eliza. Eliza's
been one of our Patreon supporters since July twenty twenty one,
currently supporting the podcast at the shawmus level of four
dollars or more per month. Thanks so much for your support, Eliza.
That'll lie actually do it for today. If you're enjoying
the podcast. Please follow us using your favorite podcast software,
and if you're enjoying the podcast on YouTube, be sure
to like the video, subscribe to the channel, and mark
the notification bell, all those great things that help YouTube
channels to grow. We'll be back next Saturday with another
episode of Dragnet for public domain video Theater. This weekend,
we are bringing you the big cast television version with
Lee Marvin. You can find that on our YouTube channel.
You can also find it at Video Theater dot Great
Detectives dot net and wherever you get video podcasts such
as the Apple podcast S or or Podbean and now
on Spotify. And then join us back here on Monday
for the adventures of the falcon.
Speaker 6: Where I am? I wonder if you can help me out.
Look at them tooes making a bird dog. I'm afraid not.
I've quit the rocket. I said to be a cinch.
I'm looking for a girl named Florette de Val. It's
like looking for John Smith in New York. And so
I learned the hard way. I ran into one of
them this afternoon, almost got myself in a jam.
Speaker 2: You know what happened.
Speaker 6: It's a long, dull story. Well, I don't mind as
long as your brandy holds out well. During the war,
my brother wound up in the hands of the Castapo
thanks to a Floretta val I got a tip she
was in Paris and living in the Polus the wrong lucky.
She was the wrong girl, lucky for whom. Huh, I
see you're packing a gun. Yeah, she hadn't done some
fast talking that John Diarmes might be hunting a killer tonight.
Speaker 7: Obviously she was the wrong girl.
Speaker 6: Yeah, she couldn't possibly have known Paul. She was brought up.
Wait a minute, she knew his name was Paul. You
probably told her No, I just referred to him as
my brother. She was the one who came up with
a name of love call. You know what? Do you know?
She was the right Florette de val after all? Sorry, wearing,
I got a run. And where do you think you're going?
Correct a mistake I made. You're out of the mind.
Be a good kid and stay out of this oka.
Speaker 2: If you think I'm gonna let you walk out of
here and commit murder.
Speaker 6: That's exactly what I think. Now, get out of my way.
Don't be a fool. Call you're gonna get out of
my way? Give me that gun Okay.
Speaker 1: Hope you'll be with us then in the meantime, send
your comments to Box thirteen at Great Detectives 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.