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
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December fourteenth, nineteen fifty Here is the Big Break.
Speaker 2: The story you're about to here is true, only the
names have been changed to protect the Ennison. You're a
detective sergeant. You're assigned to Robbery Detailed. You've been tracking
a hold of men for months. You finally get a
line on where he's hiding. You know he's dangerous, well armed.
Your job get him power.
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 files. From beginning to end, from crime to punishment,
Dragnet is the story of your police force in action.
Speaker 2: It was Wednesday, March eighteenth, was cold in Los Angeles.
We're working the night Watch out of Robbery Detail. My
partner's Ben Romero. The boss is Captain ed Walker. My
name's Friday was nine forty eight pm when I got
to Room twenty seven eight Robbery Detail.
Speaker 4: Joe, how are you ready to go?
Speaker 5: Yeah, we've gotta hustle. Here's your top quart.
Speaker 4: Joe, Thank you? Ben? Uh. Where's Tom?
Speaker 5: We can pick him up down the hall and is
checking out some teargas shelves.
Speaker 4: Might need him.
Speaker 2: How about the address? You confirm it? Twenty one hundred
Bannon Avenue. It's a corner house, Diskiver. You know what
to expect when you get out there. Don't take any chances.
He's long in the house, all right, supposed to be. Yeah,
that won't give you much of a break.
Speaker 4: Hone.
Speaker 2: You mean he's heavy on guns. Two revolvers and hunting rifles. Ooh,
he's not shy about using them. Don't forget it, right,
ed slacks, Ben, let's go, Jane. It's been a long haul. Yeah,
I hope this washes it up. Hunting rifle, a couple
of revolvers. What do you think, Joe? Now are eighteen.
Speaker 4: Robberies and three months You know the guy as well
as I do.
Speaker 5: Well, what's your guess?
Speaker 4: His name was Hoffman George rr.
Speaker 2: In our files, his criminal record dated back to high
school days. Petty theft, grand theft, auto burglary, armed robbery.
His record included two terms at Preston Reformatory and one
at San Quentin. Hoffman's latest campaign was a three month
run of armed robberies. We tried everything we knew to
stop him, but it wasn't enough. We'd failed to get
a line on him until one of Captain Walker's informants
came up with a tip that Hoffman had been hiding
out for the past month and a small bungalow on
the corner of Buchanan Avenue in Selma Street.
Speaker 4: According to the information.
Speaker 2: The suspect had a good supply of food, ammunition and
three guns. Ten fifteen pm, together with Sergeants Tom Gaffney
and Slats Henry, Ben and I parked our car down
the street and started toward the house. Was foggy, the
street was poorly lighted, so we approached the house. We
could see a light burning in one of the rooms
at the rear of the bungalow. M the light in
the back room.
Speaker 6: Joe just went out there, Slats, you in town when
I cover the back Let's go down.
Speaker 2: Be careful, all right, Ben, easy, h Wait a minute,
Joe curtains in that corner room. I thought I saw
him move.
Speaker 4: Up on Ben the front door. Come hit it, yeah,
come on, hit it again.
Speaker 6: Come on, they gotta block or something something pile against
Come on once more?
Speaker 5: Why's the front.
Speaker 4: The front rooms?
Speaker 5: There?
Speaker 4: Yo, went out the side window. Where do you go?
Speaker 5: Across the street? Got him pin down behind that car there,
he's in the car.
Speaker 6: All right, let's go for the tires, all right, Hoffman,
give it up. Cover this end, slats right, Ben, that
head across the street and you see it. Yeah, okay,
let's run for it.
Speaker 4: You okay, Joe, Yeah, hap fun.
Speaker 5: You haven't got a chance.
Speaker 6: Rowt your guns, okay, Ben, give it back all right,
all right, I'm coming out.
Speaker 4: Rot your guns.
Speaker 6: Throw him in the street, all right, Get out of
the car, hands behind your head, come.
Speaker 5: On, all right, all right, hands mind your back now, slats.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you want to get our car?
Speaker 5: Right, y'all? Who told you?
Speaker 4: Who gave you the tip?
Speaker 5: Does it matter? I made it easy enough for you car.
It started to be three miles away. If it would
have started, better call it toe drug hunt.
Speaker 4: Joe. Let me give it a look. Lousy luck, that's
all it is.
Speaker 5: What was wrong with it?
Speaker 4: Joe?
Speaker 5: I tried it.
Speaker 4: It wouldn't start for me. It should have turned on
the ignition.
Speaker 2: George Hoffman was taken downtown and booked on suspicion of robbery.
At a special show up, he was identified by more
than a dozen of his robbery victims. Between his arraignments
and his preliminary hearings, we worked together with the District
Attorney's office and lining up witnesses and preparing the evidence
against the suspect.
Speaker 4: We figured we had an airtight case.
Speaker 2: Hoffman's trial and Superior Court was set for May fourteenth. Hi, Joe,
Hi a slash, Let's do it and still a raining Hoffman.
Speaker 4: Yeah, this trial's coming up.
Speaker 5: Hey, what happened to your eye? Yeah?
Speaker 4: How about that?
Speaker 5: I'll never live with that.
Speaker 4: Come here, let's see.
Speaker 2: This real black guy ever had had a bruised plenty
and they hurt you know, Yeah, how'd that happened?
Speaker 4: Well?
Speaker 2: Every week Gaffney and I grew up the neighborhood Boys
Club after work to help coach the kids' sports. You know,
last week we had boxing lessons. I was coaching this
one youngster. He turned out to be a lot quicker,
and I thought, you're really connected.
Speaker 4: I guess everybody in the building has heard the story.
Speaker 2: Huh, just about Gaffney took care of that captain called
me in this morning, asked me if I wanted to
file assault charges against the kid.
Speaker 4: Some joke never fails. Are you still coaching the kids
up there this week?
Speaker 2: Kids are supposed to get lessons in wrestling.
Speaker 5: I'm not taking any chances.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they've been watching television for months.
Speaker 5: I was the other room.
Speaker 2: Yeah okay, Oh so that's hi.
Speaker 5: I've been high home Any good. Put your coat on, Joe, Yeah,
it's a matter.
Speaker 4: George Hoffman, Yeah, just.
Speaker 5: Broke a jal.
Speaker 2: The morning of his escape, Hoffman was scheduled to appear
in Superior Court for arrangement. According to routine, he was
taken from his county jail cell on the twelfth floor
of the Hall of Justice and escorted to the jail
shower room on the fourteenth floor. There, he was to
take a bath, changed to his civilian clothes for his
appearance in court. While he was in the shower room,
he turned on the hot water faucets, filling the room
with steam to hide his actions from the guard. He
succeeded in forcing his way out through one of the windows,
climbed up one story to the roof, Realizing that he
couldn't escape down through the building. He lowered himself over
the ledge of the roof, and using the narrow crevices
between the bricks to hold on, he climbed seven stories
down the outside of the building. At the eighth floor,
he found an open window and got inside. He slugged
the bailiff who tried to stop him, and then ran
down the remaining flights of stairs into the street and
disappeared in the crowd.
Speaker 4: Twenty minutes later, he robbed A.
Speaker 6: Denis's office at third in Los Angeles Streets and got away.
Speaker 2: Police and sheriff's deputies covered the city for him. Ben
and I were among them. Eleven fifty five pm. We
checked back in with captain ed Walkers.
Speaker 5: You want to cut that speaker bed h six and
spring one line. Nothing not a trace, Hiven. He must
have a good friend someplace in town. Everything's covered.
Speaker 2: His friend's relatives is hide out everyone he knows, every
place he's ever been. We plugged every loophole, wing, think
of the depots, terminals, the airports.
Speaker 5: Still don't trace him.
Speaker 2: I sure is a strange no stranger than climbing down
the side of a building.
Speaker 4: Did you check that story out?
Speaker 3: Ed?
Speaker 2: It's the truth Apparently Hoffman planned the thing out pretty carefully.
How do you mean The sheriff's men talked to some
of the prisoners in the jail. They said Hoffman was
practicing for it since the day we put him in there.
He'd work out five to six hours every night, building
up his hands and fingers.
Speaker 5: How do you do that?
Speaker 2: Used the upper bunk in his cell, hang from the
edge of it with the tips of his fingers.
Speaker 5: He'd do it for.
Speaker 2: Hours, pulling his body up and down. He had little
grooves in the wall, dug his fingertips into him. Prisoners
say he got so he could hold himself up like
that ten minutes of the stretch.
Speaker 4: That's pretty amazing. How about the bail If he slugged.
Speaker 2: He'll be all right. A couple of bad bumps on
the head. That's robbery walker. Oh yeah, little John. I
sent him out about ten minutes to go to relieve you. Yeah,
they ought to be there pretty soon, right.
Speaker 4: How about our schedule?
Speaker 2: Ed, far as I know, we're going all night on
this thing. Sheriff's office is the same. You two were
relieved at eleven thirty. Better check back about five thirty, am. Okay, Well,
it's a hot shot. I got it.
Speaker 4: What is it?
Speaker 5: Drug store hold up? I think it's Hoffman.
Speaker 2: The scene of the holdup was the rex Lake Pharmacy
on the corner of Pico Boulevard and Pine Lake Street.
The victim of mister Clarence Geringer, told us that the
holdup man it entered through a rear door, slugged him,
and escaped on foot with his overcoat and about one
hundred and fifty dollars in cash.
Speaker 4: We showed him a number of mug shots. He identified
George Hoffman as the bandit.
Speaker 2: A special detail of men were ordered on a thorough
search of the general area around the drug store.
Speaker 4: No sign of the suspect.
Speaker 2: The city wide dragnet continued all that night and into
the next day, no developments. The search went on a
week passed two weeks. At ten pm, when the day
Hoffman was scheduled to be tried in Superior Court, he
beat up and robbed a forty year old liquor salesman
in the Highland Park area. Again, he made good his escape.
Routine investigation failed to turn up a single lead. June eighth,
the suspect was still at large. The legwork continued eight seventeen.
Is at the address you've got? Yeah, he said it
was near the corner. Oh yeah, yeah, there is. The
town's in the hobby shop. Yeah, what's going.
Speaker 4: So?
Speaker 5: Look at the electric trains. Look at that one beautiful layout.
Speaker 6: Huh, I guess that's all the handle him here electric trains.
There must be money in it.
Speaker 2: Look at those signals there, sweaches, they're all automatic. Wonder
if my boy is old enough for a train?
Speaker 4: You it must be the manager over there, come up,
say excuse me, sir, just.
Speaker 2: A moment, please be right way. You gotta check this
transforms all right?
Speaker 5: Uh huh?
Speaker 2: Automatic coupling on the tanker car looked out or killed
her with a mistake. Now, well let's see. Yes, he's
a dandy, isn't he. Oh I'm sorry, gentlemen. Have to
keep up our maintenance on the rolling stock.
Speaker 4: What can I do for you? Police officers were looking
for mister Townsend.
Speaker 2: Oh, yes, I'm Roy Townsend. You're the sgeant I talked
with on the phone.
Speaker 4: Yes, sir, that's right. This is my partner, Sergeant Romerom.
You mentioned that you might have some information for us.
Speaker 2: Yes, as a matter of fact, I may have about
that fellow who climbed out and escaped. No, it was
in all the papers Hoffman hoff and that's it. I'm
a pretty good one for faces. I think I might
have seen him last night.
Speaker 5: Where was that?
Speaker 2: On my way home from the meeting? I belonged to
a model train club. Don't get enough of it here
every day?
Speaker 4: Yes, sir, we'd like to know about this man that
you saw.
Speaker 2: As I say, I saw him going into the auto
court just down the street from where mother and I lived.
It was pretty late after midnight. Or where do you live,
mister Townsen although by Pasadena Royal Oaks Avenue. I know
missus Cox at the auto court. Very well, I say, well,
this man that you saw last night, you're sure it
was Hoffman? I saw his picture in the paper when
he climbed down and escaped. I don't say I'm positive
it was him, but I'm good on Facebook. Well, uh,
I wonder if you didn't mind checking through these pictures?
Speaker 4: Not at all?
Speaker 6: M m m hm m Yeah, this one he's the
one I saw, am I right, that's Hoffman. Do you
happen to know if he's staying there at that auto court?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 2: Yes, he's been there for a month, say, sergeant, if
you find out it really is this Hoffman, don't tell
Missus Cox at the auto card it had just break
her heart? Was that so she's sort of an amateur detective.
She thinks she knows face is better than I do.
After we left the train shop, we called the office
and filled them in. Captain Walker called Pasadena and notified them.
Then we drove out to the.
Speaker 4: Auto court where the suspect was reportedly seen.
Speaker 5: Yes, you want something?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 6: Are you?
Speaker 4: Missus Cox?
Speaker 5: Yes, I'm the manager here. If you want lodgings, we're
filled up. You might try the Golden Eagle straight down
the street there.
Speaker 2: Police officers, Miss Cox, do you have mister Hoffman's dying
here Hoffman?
Speaker 5: No, I don't got a hoff buyer? Though you sure
that's not it?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 5: Woon't you look at this picture? Man recognize? Yes, but
his name's not Hoffman. It's Kine number twenty three. He's
not in though left this morning?
Speaker 4: Was that so?
Speaker 5: Yes, we'll be back for another hour.
Speaker 3: You are listening to Dragnet.
Speaker 4: Before going on steak out.
Speaker 2: At the auto court where George Hoffman was registered, Ben
put in a call to the office.
Speaker 4: The owner of the court.
Speaker 2: Missus Cox gave us a pass key to Cottie's number
twenty three, where the suspect was staying. We advised her
to say nothing to Hoffman when he returned. We went
to Cottage twenty three and waited. An hour passed, Hoffman
failed to show. Another hour went by, still knows, well,
what do you think you got me? I don't know
when an hour overdual, no chance it could have been taple.
I don't see how missus Cox is the only one
who knows we're here. There's no reason for ever warning.
I don't know these things were all here, his clothes.
You know.
Speaker 4: We've had longer waits than this. Relax.
Speaker 5: Huh yeah, I wait a minute.
Speaker 4: Can you see who it is?
Speaker 5: Man coming from next door? Joe, Okay, I'll cover you
open it? Oh your new telephone directory? Oh yeah, thanks?
Anything wrong? No, there's nothing wrong things new phone book?
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: We waited another hour. George Hoffman still had failed to appear.
At four that afternoon, we checked with the offer.
Speaker 4: No word. At five point thirty, we were still waiting.
Speaker 2: I'm just thinking, Jill, Yeah, I fellow Townsend in the
training chef. I'm sure it must be a dandy hobby
electric train. It runs into money, though, didn't it. I
think I'll talk to the wife about it. Their education,
you know, my boy sure get a kick out of
having his own Train's pretty young, isn't he three years old?
I could show him how to work it, put things
together for him again. Yeah, oh yeah, I know, I'll wayne. Okay,
then what's doing Skipper? Just got a call from Pasadena. Yeah,
they picked up Hoffman ten minutes ago. The suspect, George Hoffman,
was taken back to Los Angeles and lodged in county jail.
Speaker 4: This time there was no escape.
Speaker 2: At his superior court trial on August sixteenth, he was
convicted on several counts of armed robbery and sentenced to
the state penitentiary.
Speaker 5: From August to January of the following year.
Speaker 4: The months went fast.
Speaker 2: We washed up a string of liquor store hold ups
just before Chris got two days off. My uncle George
and Ann Allen came down from rent and Washington to
visit with my mother during the holidays. In January, Ben
was off work for a week with a bad dose
of flu. Another five months went by. Toward the end
of June, we got word that George Hoffman was no
longer at the State penitentiary after serving eleven months. The
former hold up man had been parolled into the army
with a provision that he served overseas. Another three weeks
passed July twelfth, Tuesday, Ben and I had lunch at
Cocin's cafe and check back in at the office. I
wish Cocaine would change his menu as a little oftener.
Fried beans and pastrami sandwiches. Seems to have the same thing.
Speaker 4: Every time you sure dug into him. I got the
idea that you'll like him, oh like more.
Speaker 5: I don't just eat too much. That's all. Three sandwiches,
two plates of beans. I wonder I never ate dinner, eh, Joe? Yeah,
you two back from lunch. You want to grab a sandwich?
Speaker 4: Jack? Go aheads last week and covered. Okay, thanks.
Speaker 5: There's somebody waiting in the next room for you. Want
to see you?
Speaker 2: Okay, see later, all right. I want to see who
it is, Joe. I'll check the book. Yeah, all right, fine, Yes, sir,
my name is Friday. You want to see me?
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's right, sardon remember me. George Hoffman?
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, Hoffman in the Army uniform there. I didn't
recognize you.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I thought it might fool you.
Speaker 4: I guess you heard about me.
Speaker 5: Good break, huh, I'm glad you feel that way.
Speaker 4: How you doing with the army? Huh?
Speaker 5: Pretty good?
Speaker 4: I like it, that's fine.
Speaker 7: Just thought i'd drop up and see your fellas. Say,
you're still that partner your head.
Speaker 4: What's his name?
Speaker 5: Rodriguez Romero?
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, we still work together. Yeah Romero.
Speaker 5: I knew it was some kind of name like that.
Speaker 6: Yeah, Well, come on in, Hoffman, Oh thanks, hey, Ben,
George Hoffman. Here he stopped in to see us.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, hi, a long time Laufman.
Speaker 7: Hi, pretty good, Sartin, Thanks sir, Just thought I stop by.
You know, sure, there's no hard feelings your thing?
Speaker 5: You got any idea when you're going overseas?
Speaker 7: Boys in my outfit? Figured day after tomorrow. That's kind
of one reason why I dropped in and see you.
Speaker 4: Well, how's that?
Speaker 7: Well, I know it's pretty nervy.
Speaker 5: But I got lots of that.
Speaker 7: You see, a bunch of us are on leave till
tomorrow noon. Figured we go out tonight and I'm a
little short.
Speaker 5: You know how the army pays?
Speaker 4: Okay, how about a couple of bucks. George will not
do you any good?
Speaker 5: Sure as swell you sorry, believe me, I'll see you
get it back. Here's a couple more Hoffman might help out. Well,
it's Slee's tell you how much I appreciate it.
Speaker 4: I give you my word.
Speaker 5: I won't forget it. I'm going to pay this money
back to you.
Speaker 4: I don't forget it, George. We're glad to help you out.
Speaker 5: Well, thanks again for the touch. Huh. Sure, and I
see you drop a card if you get a chance
to hear how you're doing over there, Sure thing, see
you later.
Speaker 4: Huh. Right, good luck you boy. Looks like a turned
for the better anyway. Huh.
Speaker 5: But it was my last two bucks though, going to
never failed. We had to give him something. Yeah, but
what do I do for lunch money? Tomorrow?
Speaker 2: Two pm we drove out to the Wilshire District to
interview a robbery victim. We brought him back downtown and
took his statement. Four point thirty pm we checked back
in with Captain.
Speaker 4: Walker Hiks Kibber.
Speaker 2: Henry says that ex con George Hoffman was in to
day Yeah to talk to him.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's right, Ed why have a look. Hey, MP's
laughed about twenty minutes ago as well. Here two bucks
went for nothing.
Speaker 2: Ben Hoffman's wanted huh broke out an Army prison ten
o'clock this morning. Together with the army authorities, local officers
joined in the city wide search for George Hoffman. At
ten o'clock that night, a food market on Santa Fe
and Rialo was robbed in the proprietor beaten from our mugshots,
the victim identified Hoffman as the hold up man. Shortly
after midnight, a drugstore on Crenshaw was held up. Hoffman
was again tapped as the suspec. The next two days
the search was intensified, no leads. Two more days went by.
Late Saturday morning, we got a hurry up call from
the detail on duty at the Union station. Paffman had
been reported in the vicinity. Ben and I drove down
to the depot to check with the officer in charge.
Slats Henry. Spot him, Joe, No, let's have a look
back by the ticket catters. Huh huh, Yeah, there he
is over by the phone.
Speaker 4: Luth come out.
Speaker 5: High slash, Hi, looks pretty good.
Speaker 4: What's the story.
Speaker 2: One of the newsboys up the street gave us a
tip about an hour ago. Guy gave him a dollar
to come down here and buy a ticket for him,
ticket to Phoenix.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Kid came in, bought the ticket, who went back up
the street and gave it to the man. We showed
the kid a bunch of mugshots. He picked out Hoffman's man.
Speaker 4: He's not wearing his army uniformer.
Speaker 5: No brown suit and dark blue overcoat. No had That's
what the kid told us.
Speaker 2: Any idea which twin he was taking for Feeni, Not exactly.
He asked when the first train for Phoenix was. Newsboy
told him three thirty five.
Speaker 5: Minutes to twelve.
Speaker 6: Now you got enough men to handlet's lance, everything's covered,
only one thing lacking, Yeah Hoffman.
Speaker 5: Well.
Speaker 2: The stakeout continued on the Union station. Ben and I,
together with Gaffney and Henry from Robbery, covered the bars,
restaurants and hotels in the immediate area for a sign
of the suspect. Two thirty pm. What do you think
we better head back down for the station. See what's doing?
Speaker 5: Okay. I'd like to have a dime for every mile
we have logged on this case.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Joe, have a look where across the street, dark
blue overcoat, same build as Hoffman. I'll bet on him.
Come on, he spotted us. Yeah that's Hoffman. Come on,
we'll pick it up.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I lost him, Joe.
Speaker 5: Where'd you go?
Speaker 4: Turn down First Street? Come on, hurry up across the street.
Bend here. What's the traffic? Where do you go?
Speaker 5: I've seen him that antique store on the cornery, running there.
Speaker 4: Come on.
Speaker 1: There he is?
Speaker 4: All right, Hoffman, out of the way, mister, fight. Hold
right there, Hoffin, I'm coming out.
Speaker 5: What's a joke? I said, I'm coming out. You hear me.
Speaker 6: You're doing the hard way, George, come on, dropping dropping,
all right, Huffman, all right on your face, Come on, get.
Speaker 4: Up now, I get your hands behind you.
Speaker 5: Sure what goods are going to do?
Speaker 4: All right, mister, let's go.
Speaker 5: What goods are going to do?
Speaker 2: I already proved that I can break jail anytime.
Speaker 4: I proved it twice. You're going right back in again?
What's that?
Speaker 2: Prove the story you have just heard was true? Only
the names were changed to protect the innocent.
Speaker 3: On October eighth, 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. George R.
Hoffman was tried and convicted on several counts of robbery
and received a life sentence as a hardened criminal. After
serving ten months of his sentence, Hoffman attempted an escape
and failed. A few weeks later, he took his own
life in his prison cell by hanging.
Speaker 5: Adies and gentlemen.
Speaker 2: Next week, in answer to your requests, Dragnet will repeat
A Gun for Christmas.
Speaker 5: The actual case history broadcast last year during the ule
Tide season. That's next Thursday, December twenty First.
Speaker 3: 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: We the people as next with more good Times on NBC.
Speaker 1: Welcome Back. This is one of my favorite Dragnet stories,
although I'll be honest that this is one where I
do prefer the tea version to the radio version, as
it's a really fun to watch visual story, particularly for
early television, and also the casting is better with both
Frank Smith as Friday's partner and also the railroad enthusiast
is better cast. I don't think the type of quirky
that they were able to get out of that actor
in the TV version is really in herb Butterfields wheelhouse. Still,
the radio version is plenty exciting and funding its own right.
One thing I hadn't noticed was the bit where Hoffmann
failed to start the car because he didn't turn the
ignition over. This little detail did a good job of
illustrating that despite all of his viciousness and cunning, he
lacks the sort of cool headedness that you really need
to have if you end up confronting the police. Now,
I will say because I love the TV version, I
did look up the im d B reviews of the
TV version of the episode and was surprised by a
few of the reviews, though I guess I probably shouldn't
have been. A couple of reviewers noted that the episode
showed law enforcement as pretty incompetent, and it showed all
the flaws in the system, and why was Dragon that
doing this as it was supposed to be about glorifying
the police. Now, I don't think they really gave a
concrete example of how our heroes failed, but they complained
about things like him escaping from jail and also the
parole into the military. Honestly, I think these reviewers like
George Hoffman missed the point. Now there is a legitimate
debate over parole processes and when we should have laws
that lock a criminal up and throw away the key.
That's a legitimate public policy debate I won't try to settle,
but I do think that some key context is being
missed in the criticism, and some of it is the
confusing nature of dragnet storytelling. Because I first watched this
as the nineteen fifty three TV episode, I had an
image in my mind that he was going overseas, kind
of like when my dad went into the military for
the first time later on in the fifties, over to
somewhere like West Germany. But in the real incident that
this was based upon, that's not likely the escape case,
because by the time that this episode aired in nineteen
fifty Hoffen had been back to prison and tried to
break out and committed suicide. And I would venture a
guest that most likely the events occurred during World War Two,
and so he was likely being parolled into a war zone,
either Western Europe or into the South Pacific. The second
thing is that while was on the police's size, it
didn't portray them as superhuman, nor did it portray others
in law enforcement as completely infallible. And there are all
kinds of evidences of police and competence. I don't know
that not planning for a guy teaching himself how to
climb down the side of a building like Spider Man
is a huge failure of competence. But the Big Break
is actually a story about a very dangerous, very cunning
criminal running up against the determine and steady of a
professional police force ready to take him the moment he
makes a mistake. And that's why at the end of
the day, Friday asked him what it proved after they
managed to recapture him every time he broke out. And ultimately,
the thing with guys like Hawfman is that they'll continue
to press their luck until it runs out. Now, you
may not agree with the message of the episode, but
that's what it's about. Well, now we turn to listener
comments and feedback, and I have a letter from Jackie
and Paul, and Jackie writes, thank you so much for
your Adams Old Time radio podcasts. My husband and I
have been thoroughly enjoying yours truly, Johnny Doller, and we
also have tales of the Texas Rangers, Near a Wolf
and a couple of others in our rotation. Now, if
you're wondering about the Adams Old Time Radio Reference, I
actually have all of the podcast I've done with old
time Radio over the years, including things like The Old
Time Dragnet Show, The War, The Old Time Radio Snack Wagon,
Amazing World of Radio, as well as Great Detectives and
all of our podcast Fate and I put it in
a channel on Apple Podcasts. Really delighted they were able
to find me that way, and Jackie says they'd like
to be kept a breast of any news shows that
I add, or even a lineup of all your current shows.
The best way to stay abreast of any news shows
is just our main feed for the Great Detectives of
Old Time Radio, which is updated in the Apple podcast
Store as well as other podcast services, and also can
check out a website at Great Detectives dot net. But
thanks so much for the lovely letter, and also thank
you for Pat who writes. Thanks for all the work
you put in well, Thank you so much pat and
now it is time to thank our Patreon supporter of
the day, and I want to thank Jerrie, Patreon supporter
since June twenty twenty four, currently supporting the podcast at
the Shawmus level of four dollars or more per month.
Thanks so much for your support and that will 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. Join
us this weekend for a Dragnet public domain video theater
episode at videotheater dot Great Detectives dot net, on our
video theater page on Spotify, or on our YouTube channel.
But we will be back tomorrow as we kick off
our listener support and appreciation campaign.
Speaker 8: Where I went there to tell him to stay away
from my sister. We had a fight. The manager came
and stopped this. I told Hanson I'd kill him if
it didn't lay off. The manager heard this. Then I
went home.
Speaker 4: What time was it about eight thirty the.
Speaker 8: Police claimed I returned to Hanson's apartment and shot it.
I couldn't prove I was at home all night. It
was going rough for me until Patricia Park testified she
was with me at the time when the crime was
said to have been committed.
Speaker 9: Why didn't you do the police in the first phase
that this Patricia Park was with you?
Speaker 8: Well, that's the whole trouble. She wasn't what Her claim
that she spent the hours nine till midnight with me
was a lie. In fact, I never met the woman
in my life.
Speaker 9: Have you contacted this Patricia since East, mister Bokok, Yes,
but she refuses to see me. Gee forho and missus
Patricia Park and tenor that you must hear it once
her own good.
Speaker 1: I 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
boy Satta Hole. This is your host, Adam Graham's son
and all