Speaker 1: Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho.
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Speaker 1: This weekend, I review the Neural Wolf novella collection Black Orchids.
Speaker 1: This is a re edited piece that I had done
Speaker 1: several years back, and for those who didn't read it
Speaker 1: the first time, I'll be sure and check it out.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, now it's time for today's episode of Dragnet.
Speaker 1: The original aired eight October fifth of nineteen fifty and
Speaker 1: the title is The Big thirty eight.
Speaker 2: The story you are about to hear is true, only
Speaker 2: the names have been changed to protect the innocent.
Speaker 3: Drag Met.
Speaker 2: You're a detective sergeant here assigned to robbery detail. A
Speaker 2: store clerk has been murdered, shot to death in a robbery.
Speaker 2: The hold up man is described as tall, well dressed.
Speaker 2: He escapes in a taxicab. Your job, get.
Speaker 4: Him drag Met the documented drama of an actual crime.
Speaker 4: For the next thirty minutes, in cooperation with the Los
Speaker 4: Angeles Police Department, you will travel step by step on
Speaker 4: the side of the law, through an actual case, from
Speaker 4: official police violence, from beginning to end, from crime to punishment.
Speaker 4: Dragnet is the story of your police force in action.
Speaker 5: It was Friday, August seventeenth. It was hot in Los Angeles.
Speaker 5: We were working the NiFe Watch out of robbery detail.
Speaker 5: My partner's Ben Romero. The boss is Captain Walker. My
Speaker 5: name is Friday. Was eight thirty five pm when we
Speaker 5: got to the Church of Saint Damien.
Speaker 6: The vest of you.
Speaker 5: That must be her playing the organ. Yeah, I don't
Speaker 5: see any stairs. I wonder how you get up there
Speaker 5: to the loft.
Speaker 7: Looks like that might be the sect and no one there.
Speaker 7: Let's ask her.
Speaker 5: Excuse me, sir, we're looking for an Ernestine Matthews. Understands
Speaker 5: she's the organist here.
Speaker 6: At the church.
Speaker 8: Oh that's her playing up there now, fighting over a
Speaker 8: few pieces for Sunday.
Speaker 7: Could you tell us how to get up to the
Speaker 7: choir officer?
Speaker 8: Surely through that door over there, follow the stairway straight up,
Speaker 8: cad miss thank you? Sure has been a long time.
Speaker 8: What's that climbing stairs to acquire a lot? Saying a
Speaker 8: lot in church? When I was a kid, the boys brano?
Speaker 6: All right?
Speaker 7: Can finally throw me out a boy's cheane?
Speaker 6: Yes? Did you want? Are you missus? Ernestine Matthews? Yes?
Speaker 7: Did you come about the new flow books?
Speaker 6: No?
Speaker 7: Ma'am? Police officers, Oh, can I help you?
Speaker 6: It's about your husband. Was Matthews burt?
Speaker 3: What about him?
Speaker 9: Has brit done something?
Speaker 7: He was hurt?
Speaker 6: Ma'am.
Speaker 9: I don't understand Bert's working at store?
Speaker 7: What do you mean he was hurt? I was a
Speaker 7: hold of dear.
Speaker 9: God, my husband.
Speaker 7: Was he hurt? Bad? Where is he?
Speaker 9: I've got to go to him. Is he in pain?
Speaker 7: No, ma'am, what are you trying to say? God, tell
Speaker 7: me the truth? Which hospital is he in?
Speaker 6: It took him to Georgia Street. They helped him all they.
Speaker 7: Could, Not trying to tell me the BRIT's dead. Not
Speaker 7: trying to tell me that are you?
Speaker 6: I'm sorry man.
Speaker 5: In the past sixteen days, seven armed robberies had been committed,
Speaker 5: apparently with the same man. The suspect was described by
Speaker 5: victims as tall, heavily built, and very nervous.
Speaker 6: He was armed.
Speaker 5: It's cold logic that every suspect who was armed in
Speaker 5: the commission of a robbery is a potential killer. It's
Speaker 5: a fact that's been proved one hundred times over. The
Speaker 5: man we were after had proven it again. We'd used
Speaker 5: every means at our disposal to identify him through the
Speaker 5: Stats Office, the Record Bureau, latent fingerprints, through informants and witnesses.
Speaker 5: We'd gotten not an APB on him containing his description
Speaker 5: and his method of operation. We'd maintained stakeouts. We hadn't
Speaker 5: reached him in time. Early that evening at downtown grocery
Speaker 5: store had been held up. One of the clerks, thirty
Speaker 5: one year old Bert Matthews failed to empty the cash
Speaker 5: register quickly enough, and the band had shot him three
Speaker 5: times through the chest.
Speaker 6: He died almost.
Speaker 5: Instantly in the hold up man escape was only one witness,
Speaker 5: another clerk who had been on duty in the store
Speaker 5: with Matthews at the time of the hold up. His
Speaker 5: name was Jess Tallman. He was brought to the city hall,
Speaker 5: where we questioned him further. Did you see Bird's wife?
Speaker 9: Does you know?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 8: We dropped off at the church on the way and
Speaker 8: drover to his sister's place.
Speaker 10: Still can't get it through my head. One minute I
Speaker 10: was talking to brit the next minute he was dead.
Speaker 10: It's kind of hard to take, you know.
Speaker 5: I'd like to go over that description of the hold
Speaker 5: up man. You were pretty upset out there at the story.
Speaker 5: Do you feel up to it now? Yeah, I'm okay,
Speaker 5: All right now. You just take it easy, tell us
Speaker 5: everything you remember, and take all the time you need.
Speaker 10: Well, I know he was a big guy, over six
Speaker 10: foot anyway, I'm sure that he had a good build too.
Speaker 9: Wasn't skinny?
Speaker 10: How about his face? Yes, you get a good look
Speaker 10: at it, yeah I did. It was thin and he
Speaker 10: kept working it around you know, twitching like guy who's
Speaker 10: bloody nervous.
Speaker 7: Can you tell us anything else about it?
Speaker 10: He was young, about twenty one, I'd say, had dark
Speaker 10: color eyes.
Speaker 9: That's about all I'd swear to sergeant. He had a
Speaker 9: hat on, I know that.
Speaker 6: How about the rest of his clothing.
Speaker 10: I wouldn't be sure about it. Have been a great
Speaker 10: blue coat, I don't know. I wouldn't want to give
Speaker 10: you a bump stare.
Speaker 6: Did you get a look at the gun?
Speaker 10: I couldn't miss that. It was a big one. It
Speaker 10: wasn't shine. He was kind of dark, blue collar. I
Speaker 10: can see the guy now walking in the store and
Speaker 10: pointing it at Burt.
Speaker 6: What time was that again, Jess? When the bandit showed up.
Speaker 10: Just about seven thirty. Bert was behind the counter. I
Speaker 10: was in the back stacking the shelves. The guy just
Speaker 10: walked in, point of the gun, said give.
Speaker 9: Me the dough.
Speaker 10: I heard him say that. Bert was kind of surprised.
Speaker 10: He just stood there for a minute and the guy said,
Speaker 10: hurry up, give me the doll. Bert said, okay, you
Speaker 10: can have everything, and he reached to get the door
Speaker 10: from the cash register.
Speaker 9: That's when the guy did it. He hit Bert right
Speaker 9: in my chest.
Speaker 6: What happened? Then?
Speaker 7: Bert moaned a little fell down on the floor. I
Speaker 7: got some mad.
Speaker 10: I started running for the guy, but he swung around
Speaker 10: at me with a gun and said stay where you are.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I didn't want to get killed.
Speaker 7: I stopped.
Speaker 9: You can't blame me for that, can you?
Speaker 7: Did you follow the man when he left?
Speaker 10: Well, you see, he backed out of the store, and
Speaker 10: when he got to the sidewalk, he jammed the gun
Speaker 10: in his pocket ran down the street. I ran out
Speaker 10: after him. So I'm jumping a taxi cab and take off.
Speaker 6: Did you get the CAB's number?
Speaker 10: Well, it was too far away for that, at least
Speaker 10: halfway down the block. I know somebody else must have
Speaker 10: been driving it, though.
Speaker 6: How do you know that the CAB's.
Speaker 10: Already moving when the hold up guy jumped in and
Speaker 10: got in the front seat.
Speaker 7: How do you know it was the front seat and
Speaker 7: not the back The.
Speaker 10: Way those cab doors open, you know, front doors swing
Speaker 10: out to the left, back when swing out to the right.
Speaker 5: That ties in. Joe used the same memo, I was
Speaker 5: the hold ups last week. Yeah you got anything else
Speaker 5: to add?
Speaker 6: Yes? And you think we ought to know?
Speaker 9: It's about the size of it. Sergeant, you don't think
Speaker 9: I'm yellow, do you?
Speaker 6: Well? What do you mean?
Speaker 9: I mean?
Speaker 10: Because I stopped when he pointed the gun at me.
Speaker 10: I guess I should have grabbed him. But that gun
Speaker 10: looked as big as a cannon. Let's face it, I'm
Speaker 10: not that much of a hair.
Speaker 6: I'll put in with you. Yes, neither am I.
Speaker 5: Along with the team of men from Homicide Detail, we
Speaker 5: continued our investigation of the hold up and killing. Ballistics
Speaker 5: reported that the slug's taken from the body of Burt
Speaker 5: Matthews had possibly been fired from a thirty eight caliber
Speaker 5: Colt Revere. The slugs were in good condition for identification.
Speaker 5: All the possible suspects picked from the mud books by
Speaker 5: the victims had been checked out. All of them had
Speaker 5: been cleared. Fingerprints left with the bandit at the scene
Speaker 5: of his latest crime were checked out.
Speaker 6: No mate. We tried to check the taxi cab used
Speaker 6: in the escape. We got nowhere. The morning after the
Speaker 6: Matthew was killing, we got a call.
Speaker 5: From Sheriff's Homicide who went across the street and checked
Speaker 5: with Inspector Bowers.
Speaker 11: Either one of you remember that case. About six months ago,
Speaker 11: the Harry Solomon killing.
Speaker 8: Oh yeah, inspect here. It's pretty vague right now. Your
Speaker 8: men handled it at Connecky.
Speaker 11: Yeah, let me lay it out fair. It's just possible.
Speaker 11: It might tie in with that killing you fell as
Speaker 11: had last night.
Speaker 6: And what's the angle.
Speaker 11: Harry Solomon was a taxi cab driver. The night of
Speaker 11: February twenty sixth somebody saw him pick up a fair
Speaker 11: at Sunset and Highland about ten thirty pm.
Speaker 9: That's the last time.
Speaker 7: He was seen alive.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think I remember.
Speaker 11: The next morning, we found Solomon's body in a ditch
Speaker 11: out in the valley, two thirty eight slugs in his head,
Speaker 11: found his cab a few yards up the road, abandoned.
Speaker 7: I used a thirty eighth same kind of gun used
Speaker 7: on last night's job.
Speaker 11: There's something else that ties him, yeah. A description of
Speaker 11: the passenger Salomon picked up at Sunset and Hyland the
Speaker 11: night he was murdered.
Speaker 9: The last fairy ever handled.
Speaker 5: White male American over six feet tall, heavy bill age
Speaker 5: twenty twenty one, dark eyes, had a dark suit on
Speaker 5: the half.
Speaker 7: Matches up all the way down the line.
Speaker 6: You had a robbery motor figured on the Solomon killing,
Speaker 6: didn't you.
Speaker 11: That's right, except for a five dollar bill hidden in
Speaker 11: as well. That Solomon didn't have a penny of his
Speaker 11: receipts for the night might have been another reason behind
Speaker 11: the killing.
Speaker 6: Besides that.
Speaker 11: Yeah, it's just barely possible. Solomon might have known the
Speaker 11: hold up man.
Speaker 9: The guy who killed it.
Speaker 6: How do you figure it?
Speaker 11: Solomon had been a cabby for fourteen years before he
Speaker 11: was murdered from this hold up man's moo, using cabs
Speaker 11: for a getaway car. It's possible he might have been
Speaker 11: a cab driver at some time or other.
Speaker 8: I mean, if the kell had got in a cab
Speaker 8: and thought Solomon recognized him was suspicious.
Speaker 11: That right could have been reason enough for him to
Speaker 11: kill ill Solomon. I know there's a lot of kods
Speaker 11: and ifs and maybees in it that I thought you
Speaker 11: might be interested.
Speaker 6: I would check it out first thing. How are your
Speaker 6: men coming on the Solomon face? Rod?
Speaker 9: This is pretty slow.
Speaker 7: We'll keep you posted on anything new for if we
Speaker 7: can help.
Speaker 5: We know, right bye, two sets of thirty eight slugs?
Speaker 7: What do you think?
Speaker 6: Let's ask the crime LAMB.
Speaker 5: We put in a request to RUSS Camp and Ballistics
Speaker 5: to check the thirty eight slugs found in taxi driver
Speaker 5: Solomon's body against those found in the body.
Speaker 6: Of grocery clerk Burt Matthews.
Speaker 5: Then we contacted the special agent at the taxi camp company.
Speaker 5: We asked him for pictures of all their drivers employed
Speaker 5: by the company during the past year who were six
Speaker 5: feet and highter over.
Speaker 6: He told us if they'd have a file ready for us.
Speaker 5: The following morning, we drove back to the office and
Speaker 5: checked in with Russ Camp at the crime lamb.
Speaker 6: He was examining the thirty eight slugs under the comparison mind.
Speaker 7: Just a few more match fellows have a share, Yeah,
Speaker 7: not much luck so far.
Speaker 8: Well well yeah, well that's it. Yeah, no, make these
Speaker 8: slugs come from two different guns.
Speaker 5: That night, two more armed robberies were committed, one at
Speaker 5: a liquor store, the other of a cafe. In both cases,
Speaker 5: the hold up man escaped in a taxi cab. The
Speaker 5: description of the man who robbed the liquor store matched
Speaker 5: that of the bandit who shot and killed Bert Matthews.
Speaker 5: The big switch came when we checked the cafe hold up.
Speaker 12: There.
Speaker 6: The victims described the suspect as short and fat with
Speaker 6: dark blonde hair. He had a deep scar on his chin.
Speaker 5: During the robbery, this suspect had become so nervous that
Speaker 5: he'd dropped his gun, but he'd succeeded in getting outside
Speaker 5: and escaping in a taxi cab before it could be apprehended.
Speaker 5: The gun was taken back to Lake and fingerprints and
Speaker 5: checked was clean. Russ Camp checked it through ballistics.
Speaker 8: Some days, I like this, what do you mean that
Speaker 8: cab driver Solomon was shot with a thirty eight?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 8: Bert Matthews was shot with a thirty eight, A different
Speaker 8: one though, it's kind of Bandit dropped tonight.
Speaker 6: It's a thirty eight too, you know, we know that
Speaker 6: what are you getting at?
Speaker 7: It doesn't match either case.
Speaker 5: The next morning we started working one of the few
Speaker 5: leads we had left. We drove down to the taxicab
Speaker 5: company and collected the pictures of all the drivers that
Speaker 5: they employed during the past year, who were six feet
Speaker 5: and highter over the.
Speaker 6: Eighty seven of them.
Speaker 5: We started checking them out. That's what the working detective
Speaker 5: calls legwork. It's slow and it's tedious, and you're not
Speaker 5: sure it's going to amount to anything even by the
Speaker 5: time you finished. Two nights later, the taxicab banded hit again.
Speaker 5: His first repeater a restaurant in South figure Row. He
Speaker 5: robbed the same place less than three weeks before. Ben
Speaker 5: and I interviewed the manager of mister Cavallo.
Speaker 7: Tell you, sergeant, I can't take any more of it.
Speaker 9: Twice in one month.
Speaker 7: Yes, sir, could we talk back then? In one of
Speaker 7: the bullets.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, come on, you've got a good look at
Speaker 6: the man. Did Jimmys Cavallo two feet from him face
Speaker 6: for the first time. It's not a joke, you know. So.
Speaker 7: I have no time for the customers, and too busy opened.
Speaker 9: The cash box for that thief.
Speaker 6: Yeah, shut up.
Speaker 7: Thanks.
Speaker 5: Well, when you're positive it's the same man who robbed
Speaker 5: you before, there's no question there none.
Speaker 8: I'm positive. And he used the same moo too, Yeah
Speaker 8: sure mo, what's that?
Speaker 7: Excuse me?
Speaker 8: I mean he used the same approach, the same method
Speaker 8: of operation. Everything was the same, the man, the gun,
Speaker 8: the taxi cab, everything.
Speaker 6: You didn't get the number of the cab. I looked
Speaker 6: for it and see any must cover it up, someway. Well,
Speaker 6: we've got some pictures here, mister Fallow. We'd like to
Speaker 6: have you a look at him. Just tell us if
Speaker 6: you recognize any of them, I won't do any good.
Speaker 7: I already did that. They showed me pictures the last time.
Speaker 7: This is a different lot. Oh all right, quite a
Speaker 7: few of them.
Speaker 5: I like to have you check each one of them careful,
Speaker 5: if you would just take your time.
Speaker 8: We can't sit here without coffee, Natalie, Well, I wouldn't, Natalie.
Speaker 7: I don't care for him. I don't be silly.
Speaker 9: You can't work without eating, Natalie. Coffee?
Speaker 7: Three? And now where do wife start?
Speaker 6: Well, he's right here. If you just check these over.
Speaker 8: Please, uh no, not him?
Speaker 6: Uh uh, not him either?
Speaker 7: Oh, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 6: Oh it's hot. No, not that one.
Speaker 8: No?
Speaker 9: Is that all?
Speaker 6: No, that's some more here. Yeah.
Speaker 8: Oh hey, that's an ugly looking guy.
Speaker 9: I don't look at that scar.
Speaker 7: You look familiar.
Speaker 5: No, better check with his skipper when we finished year.
Speaker 5: It's been a couple of hours in him that allows you.
Speaker 5: No good cease right here?
Speaker 6: This one?
Speaker 9: That's a guy.
Speaker 7: You're sure?
Speaker 9: I open my cash box twice for might No, his
Speaker 9: face in a.
Speaker 5: Million Morris Copley age twenty one description matches.
Speaker 6: It's copin.
Speaker 7: Thanks Mitch, cell.
Speaker 8: It's only forty minutes since the robbery's probably not even
Speaker 8: home yet, What can you do?
Speaker 6: We'll wait up. Ten thirty pm.
Speaker 5: We park down the street from five twenty seven Dayton Avenue,
Speaker 5: a two story white stucclel apartment house.
Speaker 6: We checked the.
Speaker 5: Names on the mailboxes. Morris Copley's wasn't on any of them.
Speaker 5: We rang for the manager.
Speaker 12: Copley Mars Copelan. No, he doesn't live here, never heard
Speaker 12: of him.
Speaker 5: I wonder if you'd take a look at this man
Speaker 5: this picture, ma'am. Have you ever seen this man before?
Speaker 12: Let me get over here in the line. Let me
Speaker 12: say now, No, it doesn't.
Speaker 6: Live here, and you've never seen him before.
Speaker 12: No, I didn't say that. I just said he doesn't
Speaker 12: live here.
Speaker 7: You haven't seen him before.
Speaker 12: I believe in my time is matter of fact. I'm
Speaker 12: sure of it. The friend of mister Touben's apartment five
Speaker 12: comes to visit mister Tauben every now and then.
Speaker 6: This is mister Tobin in now man, we like to
Speaker 6: talk to him.
Speaker 12: Nory not it works nice, never comes home for two
Speaker 12: a m. Yeah, here's a cab driver.
Speaker 3: You are listening to dragnet authentic stories of your police
Speaker 3: force in action.
Speaker 5: Ten five pm, in the presence of the manager We
Speaker 5: made a search of the apartment registered in the name
Speaker 5: of Ralph Tobin, the man who was supposed to be
Speaker 5: a friend of the suspect Morris Copley. We found nothing
Speaker 5: that would tie either of them up with the robberies
Speaker 5: and the killings. Before the manager returned to her apartment,
Speaker 5: we instructed her to say nothing about our being there
Speaker 5: in case Tobain or Copley returned. We called the office
Speaker 5: and told him we received an identification on Morris Copley.
Speaker 5: They checked them both through R and I. Neither had
Speaker 5: any criminal record. They got out an APB on Copley.
Speaker 5: We waited midnight, came nothing happened, one am, one thirty,
Speaker 5: still no sign of either man.
Speaker 6: One for.
Speaker 7: Somebody's coming. Run back your kitchen door, May you back
Speaker 7: or right?
Speaker 6: Hold it right there? Mister police officers?
Speaker 7: Oh Fanny, why is this a stick up?
Speaker 6: Police officers?
Speaker 7: Explain, Joe, what's it all about? What do you want you?
Speaker 6: Ralph Tobin?
Speaker 7: That's right, this is my apartment.
Speaker 6: You know him, Morris Copley.
Speaker 7: Copley, Yeah, I know him. You're looking for him. He's
Speaker 7: not here. We know that, we're wish I know I'm
Speaker 7: looking for him too. He owes me money.
Speaker 6: Hopefully he's a pretty steady visitor here, Is that right?
Speaker 8: He was till I let him at sixty five dollars.
Speaker 8: I haven't seen him since he took off.
Speaker 7: When was that? When? About two weeks ago? Just about?
Speaker 8: Look you mind if I sit down, I'm a little nervous.
Speaker 8: Go ahead kind of sets you. You know, why are
Speaker 8: you looking for Maury?
Speaker 5: Like to have you repeat what you said when you
Speaker 5: came in that door, what I said as to your
Speaker 5: word and they I mean before that said, I don't
Speaker 5: think I know what you're getting that officer.
Speaker 6: You said, Maury, you're back already, not what you said.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I guess I did.
Speaker 8: I guess I thought Maury came back to pay me
Speaker 8: the sixty five y bared You didn't make it sound
Speaker 8: like a dove, and I got the idea you were
Speaker 8: expecting inspecting him. I haven't seen more in two weeks,
Speaker 8: maybe three. It took me for sixty five hours.
Speaker 5: Right, that's enough small talking, Missus. Copley's in deep. You're
Speaker 5: going to match him if we don't get a straight story.
Speaker 8: Some cans of beer in the refrigerator, let's have one around.
Speaker 6: I get the beer where's copy.
Speaker 8: I'll swear in the Bible if you want me to.
Speaker 8: I don't know. Look if Maury pull anything heavy, I'm
Speaker 8: not in on it.
Speaker 5: Ben, you want to check with the manager. Ask her
Speaker 5: when's the last time she saw Copley here?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 8: Right now, Wait a minute, officers, I want to cooperate.
Speaker 7: Maury's in deep. That's his fault, not mine. That's right,
Speaker 7: isn't it. I'm right? No, where is he? I don't know.
Speaker 7: That's the truth. I tell you something else. I wasn't squaring.
Speaker 8: I saw Morey early tonight six o'clock, came here and
Speaker 8: borrowed another five from me.
Speaker 6: But you know the worry is now?
Speaker 8: No said sure? Like a can of beer? If you
Speaker 8: don't know, I said, still, I'll get.
Speaker 6: It for you.
Speaker 7: You sure you won't have one? No?
Speaker 6: Not me?
Speaker 7: No thanks, I don't want to.
Speaker 8: There you go, good cold beer. I like it when
Speaker 8: I get nervous. Always calms me down.
Speaker 6: There, you told me, yeah, sorry, you haven't taken your
Speaker 6: hat off.
Speaker 7: Oh I was nervous.
Speaker 6: I guess I forgot.
Speaker 7: Your hair always been dark blown since I was a kid. Yeah,
Speaker 7: why how about that scar in your chin?
Speaker 6: It's pretty deep.
Speaker 7: One beers. Sure good.
Speaker 6: I ask you about the scar.
Speaker 8: It's kind of embarrassing and I get a little high
Speaker 8: one night off a Merrygarai.
Speaker 7: Big night. Now I've heard everything.
Speaker 5: We had a robbery report a couple of nights ago. Tobin,
Speaker 5: hold up, man, it was just about your height and
Speaker 5: wake Yeah, dark blonde hair had a scar on his
Speaker 5: chin too. I'm afraid you got a wrong slat officer.
Speaker 5: I worked my cab every night of the week, wasn't me.
Speaker 5: Don't mind if we have a look at your car, sid.
Speaker 8: How'd you know I had a car? We didn't just
Speaker 8: give it a look Shally, Why do you want to
Speaker 8: look at it?
Speaker 6: Do you have anything to hide at it?
Speaker 7: Of course not?
Speaker 8: And then like May's oh in trouble, I was on
Speaker 8: the lamp. You probably think it's funny when you check
Speaker 8: the glove compartment in my car. Will we Yeah, you will?
Speaker 8: Why is that keep a gun in there? You know
Speaker 8: how many camp drivers get shot? A guy can't be
Speaker 8: too careful.
Speaker 6: What kind of gun do you have? Tobin?
Speaker 7: Revolver? Regular revolver?
Speaker 6: What caliber? Here? He ate? Why? Two thirty am?
Speaker 5: We searched his car, picked up his thirty eight caliber revolver,
Speaker 5: and then we drove Ralph Tobin back to the office
Speaker 5: where he was detained for questioning. We had a stakeout
Speaker 5: placed in his apartment. Russ Camp and Ballistics checked Tobin's
Speaker 5: gun against the slugs which had.
Speaker 6: Taken the lives of Harry Solomon and Bert Matthews.
Speaker 5: Was found beyond the question of a doubt that his
Speaker 5: gun had been used in the Solomon killing.
Speaker 6: We confronted Tobin with the evidence. He started talking.
Speaker 5: He told us that Copley was responsible for the murder
Speaker 5: of both Solomon and Matthews, that Copley had borrowed his
Speaker 5: gun for the Solomon job. In all the robberies except one,
Speaker 5: he described himself only as the accomplice.
Speaker 6: He drove the getaway taxi cab.
Speaker 5: The only occasion he tried to handle the actual hold
Speaker 5: up was at the cafe, where he became so nervous
Speaker 5: that he.
Speaker 6: Had dropped his gun.
Speaker 5: Before he was booked on suspicion of murder, Tobin told
Speaker 5: us that Morris Copley still had two thirty eight revolvers
Speaker 5: in his position. He insisted he had no idea where
Speaker 5: Copley was ben handled the questioning while a stenographer took
Speaker 5: Tobin's statement. I contacted Inspector Bowers and informed him of
Speaker 5: our progress.
Speaker 6: Eleven am.
Speaker 5: I got back to the squadroom, all right, to check
Speaker 5: back through that personnel record we got from the cab coming.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I got half an idea, I think. Yeah, see
Speaker 8: here on Copley's applications for the job.
Speaker 6: I'm sure we checked out all those references as they
Speaker 6: don't go anywhere.
Speaker 8: No, I mean that's right here all right? Yes, children
Speaker 8: one daughter aged four months when it's application dated May sixth,
Speaker 8: that means his baby was born in Baby Weary.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Sure Copley was working here then, so it's tender when
Speaker 5: the baby was born in the local hospital. But I mean,
Speaker 5: if we find the right hospital to the doctor they
Speaker 5: did lead us to him.
Speaker 6: There's the phone book. Let's go from noon until four pm.
Speaker 5: We called every hospital, sanitarium, clinic, and rest home listed
Speaker 5: in the book. The answers were the same, no record
Speaker 5: of confinement for a missus Morris Copley.
Speaker 7: Weah, it seemed like a good idea. He's calling now
Speaker 7: we've got one more.
Speaker 6: In the county hospital.
Speaker 5: Well, this is Sergeant Friday, Police Department Robbery Detail. Yes,
Speaker 5: I'd like to find out if you have any record
Speaker 5: of confinement for a missus Morris Copley. No, it's Copley,
Speaker 5: sa isn't Charlie? Yes, thank you. You might have sent
Speaker 5: his wife out of town to have a baby. That's possible. Yeah,
Speaker 5: m eleven eighteen, Thank you. Eleven eighteen, Rochester Copley's aunt.
Speaker 7: Let's go.
Speaker 6: Four thirty pm.
Speaker 5: Together with Olson and Thaxter from Homicide Detail, we drove
Speaker 5: out to eleven eighteen Rochester Avenue in the Frenshaw district.
Speaker 6: The house was vacant.
Speaker 5: From a neighbor, we learned that Copley's aunt had moved
Speaker 5: two weeks before. We got her address from one of
Speaker 5: her friends in the neighborhood and finally located her at
Speaker 5: work in a beauty shop on Melrose Avenue.
Speaker 6: We posed as traffic investigators.
Speaker 5: The aunt told us she thought we could find her
Speaker 5: nephew Morris at home and address on East thirteenth Street.
Speaker 5: Six pm. We located the house and parked the cars
Speaker 5: at half a block away. As we approached the house
Speaker 5: on foot, we saw a light burning in one of
Speaker 5: the windows on the left side of the house. Thaxter
Speaker 5: and Olsen covered the back at a given signal. We
Speaker 5: entered the back door, Ben and I went through the front.
Speaker 7: It's empty.
Speaker 6: Well Faxter, that's great.
Speaker 7: It looks like somebody passed him a tip off. Just
Speaker 7: in time. We've become missus places in here.
Speaker 6: We got out in a hurry. All right, Hey, what's
Speaker 6: going on here?
Speaker 7: A few men think you're doing police office? Is your name?
Speaker 6: Silvera? One of the neighbors.
Speaker 7: You're looking for the Copley's when they leave twenty minutes ago.
Speaker 7: I guess in an awful hurry, what's the trump?
Speaker 6: You know where they were going?
Speaker 8: No, but you might try mister Copley's at she lives
Speaker 8: over in Rochester.
Speaker 7: They're not there.
Speaker 6: Well, have you tried his sister's house? Six forty five pm.
Speaker 5: The neighbor, Silvera, directed us to the home of Morris
Speaker 5: Copeley's sister, a small frame cottage on the edge of
Speaker 5: Beverly Hills.
Speaker 6: The lights were on in the living room, but the
Speaker 6: shades were drawn. Thaxter and Olsen made their.
Speaker 5: Way quietly around to the back and I went up
Speaker 5: the front steps and rang the bell.
Speaker 7: Yes, what do you want you, miss Copley? Yes, what
Speaker 7: is it?
Speaker 6: Police officers? Ma'am? I'm sorry Oh, he isn't here, moorey
Speaker 6: isn't here. We know he's here.
Speaker 7: Living room's empty. Must be in the back, will you can't.
Speaker 9: She's in the bedroom of the baby.
Speaker 7: He's got a gun. You can't go in there.
Speaker 6: Where's the bedroom? See into the hall at that door.
Speaker 9: He wasn't sleeping.
Speaker 7: I think he's awake.
Speaker 6: Now, the baby close to him, the seme bed he's
Speaker 6: propped up on pools right next to it.
Speaker 7: He's got that gun with him. Don't go in, please.
Speaker 7: Where's the bed situated in the room.
Speaker 6: It's right inside the door of the Let please don't
Speaker 6: go in. She won't care what happens to the baby. Man,
Speaker 6: all open the door and you hit the light switch
Speaker 6: and cover me. Why the baby?
Speaker 7: You gotta stay heres, go for your baby. Won't get her.
Speaker 6: Let's go all right, that's going.
Speaker 9: Stop with you.
Speaker 6: Stap the gun bed?
Speaker 8: All right, I got it, Joe, all right to get him?
Speaker 8: Come on up, yo, Yeah, just a little frightened, ma'am.
Speaker 7: She's all right.
Speaker 9: I kill you, Mary, You tell him where to find us.
Speaker 9: Didn't you kill you for that?
Speaker 7: Lousy damn?
Speaker 9: Nobody else knows.
Speaker 7: She's the one who told you, and.
Speaker 6: Who told you you're looking at her? What do you
Speaker 6: mean your baby?
Speaker 2: The story you've have just heard was true, only the
Speaker 2: names were changed to protect the innocent.
Speaker 3: On December sixteenth, trial was held in Superior Court, City
Speaker 3: and County of Los Angeles, State of California. In a
Speaker 3: moment the results of that trial.
Speaker 7: And now here is our star, Jack Webb, thank you.
Speaker 5: The working detective knows that there is one mark of
Speaker 5: identification that never changes a man's fingerprints. The suspect may
Speaker 5: change his appearance in many ways, but his fingerprints always
Speaker 5: remain the same.
Speaker 6: A mark of identity that cannot be changed.
Speaker 3: Maurice John Copley and Ralph Edward Tilburn were tried and
Speaker 3: convicted of murder in the first degree, two counts. They
Speaker 3: were both sentenced to be executed in the lethal gas
Speaker 3: chamber of the State Penitentiary San Quentin, California. You have
Speaker 3: just heard Dragnet, a series of authentic cases from official files.
Speaker 3: Technical advice comes from the Office of Chief of Police W. H. Parker,
Speaker 3: Los Angeles Police Department. Coming up, we the people tomorrow
Speaker 3: enjoyed the life of Riley on NDC.
Speaker 1: Welcome back. Well, here we see how dragnet takes cases,
Speaker 1: not big headline earning cases, but well we would normally
Speaker 1: consider ordinary stories that you would end in the middle
Speaker 1: of the paper and makes them compelling. What we first
Speaker 1: of all get the real emotional investment in the victims
Speaker 1: in terms of what actually happened in the crime. And
Speaker 1: then we also get a little bit of a puzzling
Speaker 1: hook here with this focus on thirty eight's that keeps
Speaker 1: showing up and can't be tied to each other. That
Speaker 1: does work out in a very satisfactory and a well
Speaker 1: done way. All right, well, we do have a listener
Speaker 1: comment and feedback. This one is and it's from Dawn.
Speaker 1: He writes, Adam, I just found an early episode of
Speaker 1: Dragnet on a vinyl LP. It's complete and clean sounding,
Speaker 1: no cigarette sponsor at that point. At the end of
Speaker 1: the episode, it states that it was the eleventh of
Speaker 1: the series. Can you give me a title? Sure thing, don.
Speaker 1: The title officially was production eleven, though fans have come
Speaker 1: to know it as sixteen Juel Thefts. It's one of
Speaker 1: my top twenty five favorite Dragnet episodes ever, and it
Speaker 1: features Harry Morgan playing the villain, which certainly does make
Speaker 1: it a quite interesting story. But even if that at
Speaker 1: warn't the case, the story is just so good and
Speaker 1: so such a great illustration of how they managed to
Speaker 1: take drama out of a very Monday and even monotonous
Speaker 1: activity and really produce something memorable. I love that episode.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, that will do it for today. Coming
Speaker 1: up tomorrow our video Theater episode. Previewed it on Michael
Speaker 1: sainshow so not a whole lot to go into. Then
Speaker 1: be sure and join us on Monday for Michael Shane
Speaker 1: over Audio, and then Tuesday it will be The Crime
Speaker 1: Files of Lamont and next Saturday another episode of Dragnet.
Speaker 1: In the meanwhile, send your comments to Box thirteen at
Speaker 1: Great Detectives dot net, follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives,
Speaker 1: and become one of our friends on Facebook, Facebook dot com.
Speaker 1: Slash Radio Detectives from Boise, Adaho. This is your host,
Speaker 1: Adam Grahamson and off