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Speaker 1: today's episode of drag Net. The original air date is
Speaker 1: October the nineteenth, nineteen fifty two, and this one is
Speaker 1: the big Pill.
Speaker 3: Sound off, ladies and gentlemen. The story you were about
Speaker 3: to hear is true. The names have been changed to
Speaker 3: protect the innocent. You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned a
Speaker 3: homicide detail. Naval intelligence tells you that two marines have
Speaker 3: been picked up with the shore Patrols. They are reported sick,
Speaker 3: one is in critical condition. Foul play is suspected. Your
Speaker 3: job investigate.
Speaker 2: Drag Man, the documented drama of an actual crime, while
Speaker 2: the next thirty minut that it's in cooperation with the
Speaker 2: Los Angeles Police Department. You will travel step by step
Speaker 2: on the side of the law through an actual case.
Speaker 2: Transcribe from official police files from beginning to end, from
Speaker 2: crime to punishment. Dragnet is the story of your police
Speaker 2: force and action.
Speaker 4: It was two of the July tenth. It was hot
Speaker 4: in Los Angeles.
Speaker 5: We were working to day watch out a homicide detail
Speaker 5: my partner's Frank Smith, the boss's Captain Warreman.
Speaker 4: My name is Friday.
Speaker 5: There was seven fifty eight am when I got to
Speaker 5: Room forty two Homicide one and Joe all us get in. Yeah,
Speaker 5: anything in the book, I'm looking. What's scenario? You hacked
Speaker 5: about something?
Speaker 6: No?
Speaker 5: No, why do you ask that I begas? You're sorry
Speaker 5: about something? What do you take a sour pill and
Speaker 5: keep this up? You won't be asked to post toothpaste ads? Well,
Speaker 5: that's funny, all right, Joe, tell your uncle daddy what's amatic?
Speaker 4: Not a said court deal? Yesterday? It was miserable thing
Speaker 4: you and Gaffney had been working out.
Speaker 5: Yeah, the White Glove band. It came up while you
Speaker 5: were out on vacation. Spent over a month on uncovered it.
Speaker 5: From every looked like we had the guy anyway. Turned
Speaker 5: we had an idea how much he'd taken on each job.
Speaker 5: Lee thought he traced him on every movie made, on
Speaker 5: each of the deals.
Speaker 4: We figured we really had the guy.
Speaker 5: DA's office thought so too, had quitting. Yeah, let him
Speaker 5: walk right out twelve men Good and True. Let that
Speaker 5: chief Woodlum walk right out on the streets to Freeman.
Speaker 4: Well, that's where to go sometime. Very mister Friday here, Yes, sir,
Speaker 4: I'm Friday. Something I do for you?
Speaker 7: Well, I'm Richard Houston, Naval Intelligence Deputy Chief.
Speaker 4: Frown directed me to you.
Speaker 5: I say it was my partner Frank Smitton like, shit down, sir,
Speaker 5: What is it we can do for you?
Speaker 7: Well, we get a weird one. That's why we thought
Speaker 7: your department ought to be in on it. About all
Speaker 7: I can tell you is just the skeleton of the thing.
Speaker 7: We don't know all the details. We haven't gone into
Speaker 7: it completely yet. We figured you fellows would like to
Speaker 7: be in on it. From the beginning. Looks like it's
Speaker 7: going to be a police investigation. Says to begin I
Speaker 7: should go back three weeks ago and tell you the
Speaker 7: story as near as we've been able to reconstructed yestrict
Speaker 7: right to have. Well, a couple of Marines left the base.
Speaker 7: They'd just gotten back from Korea, both on a forty
Speaker 7: eight hour pass.
Speaker 4: We figured they came up here to La They.
Speaker 7: Had a lot of back pay in the their pockets.
Speaker 7: We don't know where they started, but they ended up
Speaker 7: in the Chief Hotel. We got a call from the
Speaker 7: Shore Patrol early Monday morning, they'd gotten a complaints that
Speaker 7: the two boys were causing a disturbance in the hotel.
Speaker 7: They picked them up and found they both were in
Speaker 7: a pretty bad way. They had him shipped to the
Speaker 7: Naval hospital down at Long Beach. By the time they
Speaker 7: got there, they were really rocky. Well, I'm sorry, sure,
Speaker 7: but I don't quite see just how we're connected with this.
Speaker 4: Well, I'm getting to that. I'm sorry, all right, I'm
Speaker 4: a little long winded.
Speaker 7: Anyway, last night, the boys had been awl for over
Speaker 7: two weeks. They were brought into the hospital. Like I said,
Speaker 7: the doctors did what they could, but it was too
Speaker 7: late to help. One of the boys died late last night.
Speaker 7: We're not sure about the other one. That's for you, coming, sir.
Speaker 7: They were both poisoned.
Speaker 4: Nine oh six.
Speaker 5: Am, Frank and I talked with Captain Lorman. Then we
Speaker 5: checked out a crypt car and left for Long Beach.
Speaker 5: When we got there, we talked with a doctor in charge.
Speaker 5: He told us that it would be later that night
Speaker 5: before the boy would be completely out of danger. He said, however,
Speaker 5: that we could talk to him if we played our
Speaker 5: questions so that the answers could be kept fairly brief.
Speaker 5: We looked over the boys record. His full name was
Speaker 5: Jack Wayne Walker, aged twenty four. He'd enlisted in the
Speaker 5: Marine Corps on January fourteenth, nineteen fifty.
Speaker 4: He'd spent almost a.
Speaker 5: Year in the Far East, and his service record had
Speaker 5: been good until this time. The record of the victim,
Speaker 5: PFC Edward Monaghan, was pretty much the same.
Speaker 4: The boys had both come from the same town.
Speaker 5: In Arkansas, the date of their enlistment was the same.
Speaker 5: They'd served overseas at the same time. At three forty
Speaker 5: eight pm, the doctor rushered us into Jack Walker's room.
Speaker 4: Who are you police officers? Jack? We like to talk
Speaker 4: to you. What's it about. I haven't done anything, at
Speaker 4: least they don't think i'd know.
Speaker 5: It's not that we'd like to find out what happened
Speaker 5: when you're up in LA.
Speaker 6: I killed my buddy up there. That's what happened. You
Speaker 6: heard about that, didn't you?
Speaker 4: Yes, we did. That's what we want to talk to
Speaker 4: you about.
Speaker 6: Poor ed year in Courier. Guys taking potshots at us
Speaker 6: cold mud, and we've got to come back here to
Speaker 6: get it. I didn't trust that little crumb. I knew
Speaker 6: we shouldn't have had anything.
Speaker 4: To do with it, or you shouldn't have trusted who
Speaker 4: Stubby you know the rest of his name?
Speaker 6: No, just Stubby.
Speaker 8: I just can't believe.
Speaker 4: It about Ed.
Speaker 6: We shoved off, well a going to have a last fling.
Speaker 6: Ed was getting married as soon as we got home.
Speaker 4: All right, if we could just start right at the beginning,
Speaker 4: Oh sure, Well, first.
Speaker 6: We both had a forty eight hour pass. We figured
Speaker 6: to go down are, like I said, for last fling,
Speaker 6: a few drinks. Look, some of the lights, have a
Speaker 6: little fun, sort of a bachelor party for ed Ford.
Speaker 4: Got hit you.
Speaker 6: Well, we pulled into town, see I think it was
Speaker 6: Saturday morning. A couple of buddies told us about a
Speaker 6: joint up there we could have some fun. Yeah, we
Speaker 6: head up there and nice little place that hour in
Speaker 6: the morning, I guess about ten ten thirty. Well, we
Speaker 6: started to drink. Gets pretty foggy after that, like little
Speaker 6: parts in a jigsaw, you know, you sort of see
Speaker 6: a little bit of everything, but the whole picture ain't there.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Well, I remember we hung around the place for two
Speaker 6: days and then it all really goes black. The next
Speaker 6: thing I remember, we woke up in some flea bag.
Speaker 6: I remember looking at the calendar on the wall. We
Speaker 6: was already a couple of days a wall. Ed and
Speaker 6: I talked about what we should do, and then we
Speaker 6: get to trying to think up an excuse for the
Speaker 6: COO for being a wall with our co ain't easy,
Speaker 6: He's had experts.
Speaker 4: Try.
Speaker 6: Ed says, he figured out something. So we stopped at
Speaker 6: the bus deepole get back to base. On the way,
Speaker 6: we pass this bar and Ed says, well, maybe we
Speaker 6: ought to stop and have one more for the road.
Speaker 6: So we do, and I don't remember much for a
Speaker 6: couple more days, and I remember once we stopped and
Speaker 6: watched the guy get tattooed. Ed and I got talking
Speaker 6: about it, you know, whether or not we should have
Speaker 6: it done. Finally figure it's kind of kids stuff, so
Speaker 6: we didn't. I remember that because it was right after
Speaker 6: we left the tattoo place, went to this bar. We
Speaker 6: met Stubby.
Speaker 4: Well this is the fellow that you were talking about. Yeah,
Speaker 4: it's him, and you met him in the bar.
Speaker 6: Uh huh yeah. Ed now was sitting there trying to
Speaker 6: figure out what's going to do. You know, we're pretty
Speaker 6: broke by this time. And then two weeks, over two weeks,
Speaker 6: they wall anyway sliced.
Speaker 4: Do we have big trouble?
Speaker 6: Yeah, Well, we walked into this place, was about four
Speaker 6: point thirty five in the afternoon, at leastly as I
Speaker 6: can tell, that's about what time it was. A whole
Speaker 6: deal gets kind of foggy. We sat down this bar
Speaker 6: in order to drink and just setting there mind our
Speaker 6: own business, trying to figure what we ought to do.
Speaker 6: Then this stubby joker comes up, sits down next to it,
Speaker 6: brings his drink.
Speaker 4: Well, he was in the bar when you came in.
Speaker 6: Yeah, well, at least I think so. I didn't pay
Speaker 6: much attention, but he had a drink when he come up.
Speaker 4: To heaving me. Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 6: Well he got to talking about the Core, and next
Speaker 6: thing we know, he's setting up the drink where we
Speaker 6: was fixed loan as he wanted to buy. We wasn't
Speaker 6: going to argue.
Speaker 4: Did they seem to know this stubby in the bar?
Speaker 6: Yeah, the waits on tables called him my name to
Speaker 6: go ahead. Yeah. Well, this stubby kept going on about
Speaker 6: how he liked the Core and how he'd want to
Speaker 6: whole flock of citations in Korea told us all about.
Speaker 4: The time it spent in Japan.
Speaker 6: At first we thought he was just throwing a bunch
Speaker 6: of coconuts at us. But we'd ask him about places
Speaker 6: in Korea and things you could only know if you
Speaker 6: was there.
Speaker 4: He'd come up with the answers all right.
Speaker 6: But even with all that, there.
Speaker 4: Was something that just didn't ring true.
Speaker 6: Yeah, anyway, long, about eight or eight thirty that night,
Speaker 6: Stubby got in a thrash with the bartend or something
Speaker 6: about the price of the drink. So he suggested we
Speaker 6: go up to his place and get a jug, you know,
Speaker 6: and drink up there. I wasn't too hot for the idea,
Speaker 6: but Ed said we had nothing to lose, and we
Speaker 6: didn't have a sack for the night, and there wasn't
Speaker 6: much doe left, so we shoved off with him.
Speaker 4: The Stubby live a.
Speaker 6: Hotel down on Fifth I'll tell you how to find
Speaker 6: the place, same place you were picked up in.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we got the address that. Oh, okay, Well what
Speaker 4: happened when you got Stubby's room?
Speaker 6: We cracked the jug, sat around drinking for a while,
Speaker 6: and then Ed and I went to sleep. I tell you,
Speaker 6: the next morning we had the biggest hangovers in the
Speaker 6: entire United States and Canada, both of us.
Speaker 4: We felt miserable.
Speaker 6: ED start beefing about the cheap booze Stubby wronging on us.
Speaker 4: That's when he tried to tell us on them.
Speaker 6: Pill What those one of them things supposed to relieve hangovers?
Speaker 4: You mean the candidies selling drug stories. Oh no, no, damn.
Speaker 4: Stubby told us about that. One h he'd come.
Speaker 6: Back to the States. He stood some duty in the
Speaker 6: hospital and said the while he was there he got
Speaker 6: them pilled, said there was a special prescription that there's
Speaker 6: it's great for headshrinking.
Speaker 4: And wanted us to try. And did you?
Speaker 8: Well, no, not right away.
Speaker 6: He kept after us though, kidding us about being big
Speaker 6: tough marines with a hangover. And then he took one
Speaker 6: of the pills. Least wise we thought he did so,
Speaker 6: Ed and I figured then we didn't have anything to lose.
Speaker 4: You took one of these hangover pills, and yeah, we
Speaker 4: both did. What happened then?
Speaker 6: Well, nothing right away, Stubby said, take a little time
Speaker 6: for it take effect. We got up, started to get dressed,
Speaker 6: ed and I thought we'd better get back to the base.
Speaker 6: You know, it would probably be in enough troubles of
Speaker 6: was that I was worried about a hangover.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he left the room. No, he was just getting
Speaker 4: our stuff together and Ed took six said they.
Speaker 6: Had awful pain the stomach, like a cramp, you know.
Speaker 6: We asked stubby if the pill could have caused it.
Speaker 6: He said no, it must have been the booze. Well,
Speaker 6: right about then, I was getting ready to mop up
Speaker 6: the place of this stubby, I figured sure, giving us
Speaker 6: a mickey.
Speaker 4: I couldn't figure why though.
Speaker 6: Then it hit me that fell Yeah, I guess so,
Speaker 6: real bad cramps in my stomach. I got real dizzy.
Speaker 6: Rooms started to go around, and we asked the stubby
Speaker 6: to call a doctor. And that's when we knew it
Speaker 6: was reading.
Speaker 4: How's that?
Speaker 8: Well?
Speaker 6: We knew then he was nuts off his trolley and
Speaker 6: neither of us walk It had doubled up and passed
Speaker 6: out and I could hardly keep awake.
Speaker 4: We both laid it on the floor.
Speaker 6: I kept asking this bomb to get us a medic.
Speaker 4: Did he you know?
Speaker 6: He just stood there and laugh at us, laughed like
Speaker 6: a crazy fool. He kept saying we was big, strong marines.
Speaker 6: We should be able to take a little stomach ache.
Speaker 6: I woul run to do a doctor.
Speaker 4: There's no time. Did he make any attempt to get
Speaker 4: your medicals.
Speaker 6: You know, it's just like I said. He just stood
Speaker 6: there and laugh at us. Then he got real, got
Speaker 6: crazy leer on his face, said he'd show us, and
Speaker 6: he fixed us up good for what we'd done. Then,
Speaker 6: I don't know, well, I thought about was getting had
Speaker 6: met to a doc about this time. I didn't much
Speaker 6: care what the little screwball did. Then it really started
Speaker 6: hopping on how he's getting even with us. I tried
Speaker 6: to get at him. I have killed him if I
Speaker 6: could about it. I tried to get at him, but
Speaker 6: I fell and went out. I guess that's when he
Speaker 6: said that thing about that we wouldn't be the last
Speaker 6: ones he'd get right. Well, he said like this, you
Speaker 6: guys are the first, just the first, but there's going
Speaker 6: to be more, a lot more.
Speaker 4: We continued to talk to Jack Walker.
Speaker 5: He gave us a complete description of the man he'd
Speaker 5: known as Stubby, and going over the story again with him.
Speaker 4: There were a few changes in it, but none that
Speaker 4: couldn't be accounted for by his condition.
Speaker 5: We got the address of the bar where he'd met Stubby.
Speaker 5: We checked with the doctor and he told us that
Speaker 5: both boys had been given a powerful corrosive poison. He
Speaker 5: went on to say that it was a miracle that
Speaker 5: Jack Walker was still alive. Nine twenty six pm, Frank
Speaker 5: and I drove back to Los Angeles.
Speaker 4: We checked into the office.
Speaker 5: And ran the name Stubby through the Moniker file and
Speaker 5: R and I, but we found nothing. We got out
Speaker 5: a local and an APB on the description and the name.
Speaker 5: The stats office started a run on the mo Frank
Speaker 5: and I checked the hotel on Fifth Street and the
Speaker 5: manager showed us the room, but he said that it
Speaker 5: had been cleaned and occupied since the two Marines had left.
Speaker 5: Layton Prince went over the room but failed to come
Speaker 5: up with anything. We took the hotel registration card and
Speaker 5: booked it in his evidence. The man had signed his
Speaker 5: name as Alton Richards. The manager gave us the same
Speaker 5: description is the one we'd gotten from the marine. We
Speaker 5: ran the name through R and I, but we failed
Speaker 5: to come up with any new lead. There'd been no
Speaker 5: replies to the broadcast, and the staff's office had finished
Speaker 5: the run and had come up with four possible suspects.
Speaker 4: Leaves were checked out, but they let us nowhere.
Speaker 5: Two thirty am we checked the bar, but we found
Speaker 5: it was closed Wednesday eight fourteen am. We briefed Captain
Speaker 5: Lrmon on the developments, and then we went over to
Speaker 5: again check the bar where the two Marines were supposed
Speaker 5: to have met Stubby. The place was deserted except for
Speaker 5: one man drinking a beer. The waitress was sitting in
Speaker 5: a rare booth filing her fingernails. Frank and I went
Speaker 5: back to talk to her.
Speaker 6: Yes, something you.
Speaker 4: Want, well, police officers, Miss, we'd like to talk to.
Speaker 6: You, captain.
Speaker 4: Yes, ma'am, that's my partner, go Friday. My name is Smith. Yes, boy?
Speaker 4: Does that sound fronny? Here's a ID card?
Speaker 9: Yes, Smith?
Speaker 4: All right?
Speaker 9: What do you want?
Speaker 4: You mind if we sit down? No, go ahead and live.
Speaker 4: What's it's all about? Do you work here?
Speaker 9: Study here most of the time?
Speaker 4: What's your name? Miss? Vera?
Speaker 6: Vera gay?
Speaker 4: I'm gay? Were you working here around the eighth and
Speaker 4: ninth or the tenth of July?
Speaker 9: Yeah? And you can make it Vera?
Speaker 4: You know most of the people who come in here
Speaker 4: regular doly?
Speaker 6: Yeah, I suppose so.
Speaker 4: I wonder if you look at this description, tell us
Speaker 4: if you know the man here way? What's that name?
Speaker 4: White male American? Yeah?
Speaker 9: Wma thirty six years, five feet seventy five feet nine,
Speaker 9: one hundred and fifty five pounds.
Speaker 4: Dubby.
Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah, I know him, comes in here all the time.
Speaker 9: Nice guy, loud when he gets drunk. It's always nice
Speaker 9: to me, though. Tell me I should be in pictures,
Speaker 9: you know the movie?
Speaker 4: Yes, man, you seen him today?
Speaker 9: No, he had to ever get in before maybe noon
Speaker 9: one o'clock. It just doesn't bother he does it my fall,
Speaker 9: him my nail, not at all. He does bother some people,
Speaker 9: you know, like rounding a piece of chalk down a.
Speaker 4: Blackboard, Miss Stubby. Does he have any other name? Do
Speaker 4: you know it? Yeah? Paul Rodgers, that's another one, John.
Speaker 4: How do you want to go ahead? And miss?
Speaker 6: No?
Speaker 9: Not with him a couple of times.
Speaker 6: Finally gave it up. I couldn't go that route.
Speaker 4: What's that man?
Speaker 6: Well he talked about.
Speaker 9: Was either him in the Marine Corps, what a big
Speaker 9: hero he was, or else how he was going to
Speaker 9: get me in pictures, you know movies? Yes, n I
Speaker 9: didn't come out to California to get in the movies.
Speaker 9: I came out to be a private secretary. I mean
Speaker 9: those jobs are a little hard to get, so I
Speaker 9: work here make enough for coffee and cakes. And when
Speaker 9: a job comes along, I'll take it. Work in a
Speaker 9: big office, nice boss. Who knows he might even marry me?
Speaker 9: That movie holp him for me, you know, sir, not
Speaker 9: your little vera.
Speaker 4: Did you work on the night of the night it's
Speaker 4: night before last? Let's see, Yeah, I was in. You
Speaker 4: happened to see the study Rogers that night?
Speaker 6: Well, I gotta think about that.
Speaker 9: Let's see, that was the night we had the fight
Speaker 9: just before closing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he was in earlier. You happen to notice if
Speaker 4: he was with anybody? What's it all about?
Speaker 8: He do something you wanted for we?
Speaker 4: We just like to talk to him.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 9: Well, if he did anything, we had nothing to do
Speaker 9: with it.
Speaker 6: This is a good place.
Speaker 9: We got nothing to do with the people come in,
Speaker 9: got the price of a drink to get served. We
Speaker 9: don't ask for trouble.
Speaker 4: Oh, we aren't going to cause any trouble. Miss. We
Speaker 4: just want to talk to this Rogers.
Speaker 9: Yeah, well we aren't running into it.
Speaker 4: You remember if he was with anyone, Yeah, he.
Speaker 9: Was with a couple of marines. Left with him. Had
Speaker 9: a beef with Sam. He's a night bartender complained that
Speaker 9: the drinks were too high. I don't know what he
Speaker 9: was crying about. He's been drinking here a long time,
Speaker 9: never had problems before.
Speaker 4: You saw him leave with these two marines then, yeah.
Speaker 9: Three of them walked out. I think actually they sort
Speaker 9: of floated up. Two kids were really boiled.
Speaker 4: You remember what time it was when they left?
Speaker 9: Oh, and that'd be kind of hard to tell.
Speaker 4: We were pretty busy. It was pretty important, man.
Speaker 9: Let me think, I guess maybe around eight maybe eight
Speaker 9: thirty round in there.
Speaker 6: It's just a guess, though.
Speaker 4: Do you have any idea where this Rogers lived?
Speaker 9: Yeah, I've been there a couple of times.
Speaker 4: So tell on South Hill? Can you give us the address?
Speaker 9: Yeah?
Speaker 6: I got it in person.
Speaker 9: I should have known he was a phonny all we'd say.
Speaker 9: And I thought he could get me in pictures, you.
Speaker 4: Know the movies.
Speaker 9: Yes, don't come that way. Don't you understand. I didn't
Speaker 9: come out here to get in pictures. I came out
Speaker 9: to be a private secretary. Here's the address. Here, keep it.
Speaker 9: I won't be using it anymore.
Speaker 4: Thank you. Okay, here's our card. If you think of
Speaker 4: it any more. You think we ought to know, we'd
Speaker 4: appreciate a call from her.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I think sure.
Speaker 4: Appreciate your health.
Speaker 9: Well, you never know, maybe I don't need your health sometime.
Speaker 9: Matter of fact, you might be able to lend me
Speaker 9: a hand.
Speaker 4: What's that you know?
Speaker 9: Any picture producers? You know movies?
Speaker 5: Frank called the name Paul Rodgers into the office and
Speaker 5: the supplementary broadcast and an APV were gotten out. A
Speaker 5: stakeout was arranged on the bar. We went back to
Speaker 5: the city hall and the check threw R and I
Speaker 5: on the name Paul Rogers netted us nothing. We drove
Speaker 5: over to the hotel on South Hill. The manager told
Speaker 5: us that Rogers was not in his room. He went
Speaker 5: on to say that Rogers had not been using his
Speaker 5: room regularly for the past week or so, but that
Speaker 5: he had been in a couple of days before in
Speaker 5: the company of a soldier, and that as far as
Speaker 5: he knew, the soldier was still in in the company
Speaker 5: of the manager. Frank and I went upstairs. The manager
Speaker 5: un locked the door and we went in. Rememb Frank,
Speaker 5: is someone in bed? Yeah, come on you, how about it?
Speaker 4: In just a minute, how about it, Joe, I don't
Speaker 4: know he's dead.
Speaker 2: You are listening to drag met the authentic story of
Speaker 2: your police force in action.
Speaker 5: Wednesday, July eleventh, twelve forty pm. We called the Coroner's office.
Speaker 5: Then we got in touch with the crime lab and
Speaker 5: the photographers. After the pictures had been taken, the body
Speaker 5: was removed. The victim was a soldier in his mid
Speaker 5: thirty On the nightstand beside the bed we found an
Speaker 5: empty pill bottle.
Speaker 4: And a suicide note.
Speaker 5: The note was booked as evidence and turned over to
Speaker 5: Don Meyer for comparison with a handwriting taken from the
Speaker 5: hotel registration card that Rogers had signed. The men from
Speaker 5: Latent Prince went over the place thoroughly. They came up
Speaker 5: with several classifiable prints. Fingerprints found on the bottle belonged
Speaker 5: to the victim. There were several other sets in the
Speaker 5: room which were not identified.
Speaker 4: The crime lab went.
Speaker 5: Over the room and they went back to the lane
Speaker 5: have to make their analysis. All officers in the area
Speaker 5: were alerted to be on the lookout for Rogers. Frank
Speaker 5: and I talked to the manager of the hotel, a
Speaker 5: Henry Cory. He told us that Rogers had lived in
Speaker 5: the hotel for the past four and a half months.
Speaker 5: He said that Rogers was quiet, kept pretty much to himself,
Speaker 5: and for the most part was a good tenant. He
Speaker 5: said that on several occasions Rogers had gotten behind in
Speaker 5: his rent, but that he'd always managed to come up
Speaker 5: with the money. The manager told us that in the
Speaker 5: conversations he'd had with Rogers, the main topic had been
Speaker 5: the Marine Corps and the.
Speaker 4: Suspects record overseas.
Speaker 5: Rogers presented himself as an armchair general, constantly calling down
Speaker 5: the way the situation was being handled. He would refer
Speaker 5: to his own exploits, but when questioned about his leaving
Speaker 5: the service, he became vague and evasive. Additional handwriting samples
Speaker 5: were obtained and sent to Meyer. The manager told us
Speaker 5: that the latest victim had come in with Rogers the
Speaker 5: night before, and that at the time he'd been pretty drunk.
Speaker 4: They'd gone upstairs, and when.
Speaker 5: Rogers had left in the morning, the manager assumed that
Speaker 5: the soldier had gone The night before three twenty pm,
Speaker 5: Frank and I went back to relieve the stakeout at
Speaker 5: the bar.
Speaker 4: Back again, Yes, mis gay, thank you.
Speaker 9: I think like every time I see you. I'm doing
Speaker 9: something with my nails this morning, filing them now I'm
Speaker 9: filing them again.
Speaker 6: I wanna put.
Speaker 9: Polish on them after this. I guess you think I'm
Speaker 9: pretty vain.
Speaker 4: No, I'm a new color called frosted rose.
Speaker 6: Pretty kind of iridescence.
Speaker 9: What the label says to.
Speaker 8: Sprinkle your nails with stardust?
Speaker 6: It's pretty battle.
Speaker 9: Too, make sure put things up nice now days. Oh,
Speaker 9: here comes your boy.
Speaker 4: It's Rogers.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeh want within, I's gone, Sevan, I have.
Speaker 4: All the sexes, boys and pretty dull.
Speaker 6: You're doing a great early.
Speaker 3: Yet here's your drink.
Speaker 4: A week more bits here you go? All right, thanks freak,
Speaker 4: let's go. No trouble now, not unless he makes it.
Speaker 6: Hi, fellow, something you want you Paul Rogers?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 8: Who are you?
Speaker 4: Police officers? Would I to talk to you?
Speaker 6: I don't want any trouble in here.
Speaker 4: There's not going to be any trouble. Always fights.
Speaker 10: Why is everybody comes into a bar and starts fights
Speaker 10: to somebodace else to be Rogers?
Speaker 8: Well for you kt nothing the home mea.
Speaker 4: We'll talk to you about that too.
Speaker 10: Well, let me finish my drink, No pray not, Let's
Speaker 10: go now, I said, I was going to finish my drink.
Speaker 4: Don lane's can it mister?
Speaker 6: And go?
Speaker 8: I said, I was going to finish my drink though.
Speaker 6: All right, let's draw your feet, nothing on him, take.
Speaker 4: Him to the office.
Speaker 6: Sergeant, Yes, sir, thanks sure, appreciate it. So what's that
Speaker 6: after a minute there, you're going to have a fight.
Speaker 5: We took the suspect back to the city hall. Then
Speaker 5: we checked the name through the Marine base in San Diego.
Speaker 5: Lieutenant Richard Houston called back to say that Rogers had
Speaker 5: received a court martial and a dishonorable discharge.
Speaker 4: In January of that year.
Speaker 5: He'd been tried by a military court on the charge
Speaker 5: of stealing alcohol from the hospital pharmacy and selling it
Speaker 5: to the patients in the hospital. We stopped in handwriting
Speaker 5: analysis and Don Meyer took an exemplar of the suspect's writing.
Speaker 5: When we checked by the office, there was a message
Speaker 5: from Sergeants Bill Cummings and Harry Hansen stating that their
Speaker 5: investigation had shown that the death of the soldier in
Speaker 5: Roger's room was suicide beyond any doubt. Seven forty six pm.
Speaker 5: Frank and I talked to the suspect in the interrogation room.
Speaker 10: Terrible thing, treating a veteran like right, Let's save it.
Speaker 10: Rogers there's a few questions we'd like some answers to.
Speaker 10: I got nothing to hide, all right.
Speaker 4: What were the conditions of your discharge from the Marine Corps?
Speaker 8: What do you mean?
Speaker 4: Did you get an honorable discharge or a dishonorable discharge?
Speaker 10: I had a little trouble Loozzi. Officers never did understand
Speaker 10: what the problems in the enlisted man were.
Speaker 4: What do you do for a living, rogers?
Speaker 10: I work around. Do you have a steady job? What
Speaker 10: do you mean steady when you've held for SayMore in
Speaker 10: six months? Haven't been out of service that long? Where'd
Speaker 10: you serve in the courts Japan?
Speaker 4: Korea? How long are you there? About?
Speaker 8: Four or five month? Why did you come back? I
Speaker 8: was wounded? How what do you mean?
Speaker 4: How just that? How were you wounded? Well?
Speaker 8: I wasn't exactly wounded. I had my feet frostbit.
Speaker 5: According to this here you went a wallen, got lost.
Speaker 5: When they found you, your feet were frozen.
Speaker 4: Is that right? What's set? You got your record in
Speaker 4: the car?
Speaker 8: Got a lot of nerve digging into that. That's what
Speaker 8: you got me in here for? Anyway? I done nothing
Speaker 8: that puts me in line for this kind of tree.
Speaker 4: I know a couple of marines named dead Monahan and
Speaker 4: Jack Walker.
Speaker 8: Monahan Walker, No, I don't think I know.
Speaker 4: You ever register in a hotel on Fifth Street.
Speaker 8: No, I live over on Hill.
Speaker 4: You know a soldier named Marty Wilton. What's he got
Speaker 4: to do with it? We found him dead in your room?
Speaker 4: You're cracking out? Yeah, sure, Rogers, we just dreamed. We
Speaker 4: found that body.
Speaker 8: I had nothing to do with him. Met him in
Speaker 8: a bar.
Speaker 10: He said he wasn't feeling too good, said he didn't
Speaker 10: have a place to sleep. I let him have my room.
Speaker 10: Something wrong in that? Be a little kind and how
Speaker 10: even that gets you in trouble?
Speaker 4: Be sure you don't know a marine named Deed Monahan?
Speaker 5: Positive, there's something wrong, Rogers. Girl at the bar says
Speaker 5: she saw you leave the place with two marines. They
Speaker 5: could have been Monahan and Walker.
Speaker 8: Well maybe I know him. I might and still not
Speaker 8: know their names.
Speaker 4: You didn't take him up to a room. You'd read
Speaker 4: it in a hotel on fifth Street?
Speaker 8: No, I told you once. I never lived on Fifth.
Speaker 5: Checked with our handwriting man. He says, you're writing matches
Speaker 5: some samples. We foundhim the hotel registered.
Speaker 8: Maybe I write like somebody else No, we don't think so, mister.
Speaker 4: How about Jack Walker? Maybe you know him, he just
Speaker 4: didn't remember him.
Speaker 8: You know, I keep telling you I don't know them.
Speaker 4: Vera says, you do.
Speaker 8: Well, she's lying?
Speaker 4: Is she sure she is?
Speaker 8: She's trying to say her own skin. For one, she
Speaker 8: doesn't want to stand a rap for murder, can't you see?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm go ahead, Roger.
Speaker 8: I'm saying nothing until I see my lawyer.
Speaker 4: I'm sure you don't want to tell us why I
Speaker 4: did it.
Speaker 8: I got nothing to say.
Speaker 4: Makes it tough, Roger, What do you mean? Just makes
Speaker 4: it rough? That's all. Looks like you're gonna have to
Speaker 4: stand a murder rap. Yeah, that's the way it looks.
Speaker 8: Well, I didn't mean it. I didn't. I just wanted
Speaker 8: to get even, that's all.
Speaker 10: Just get even for what Roger, for the way the
Speaker 10: cors treated me, kicked me out.
Speaker 8: I didn't do anything really wrong.
Speaker 4: Cop a little alcohol, that's.
Speaker 8: All, no harm done.
Speaker 4: They look at it a little different.
Speaker 10: Yeah, that's a trouble stinking brass. They're all alike. They
Speaker 10: don't care what happens to us. The guys in the
Speaker 10: field try to get a job. I looked everywhere I
Speaker 10: just didn't fit. Seemed like everywhere I went, I got
Speaker 10: into trouble. I wanted like it was when I first
Speaker 10: went in, Like it was after boot camp, walking down
Speaker 10: the street, girls looking at you, A marine, a big man.
Speaker 10: It took that away from me. They wouldn't let me
Speaker 10: list again. I tried, but they wouldn't let me. You
Speaker 10: can understand what that I do to a guy, can't you.
Speaker 4: I don't know who've.
Speaker 8: Torn me apart? Right?
Speaker 10: Then I decided to get even all the stinking gyrings
Speaker 10: in the world. They wouldn't let me in, and I
Speaker 10: hated them. Remember what happened to day? You gave the
Speaker 10: two boys the pills? Do you sure remember all of it?
Speaker 10: They cried for a medic. There weren't big men then, No, sir,
Speaker 10: they sure weren't.
Speaker 4: All right, ryders. We'll get us denial, Tell me, sergeant, Yeah,
Speaker 4: did I get both of them? Now?
Speaker 10: Walker's going to be all right, be a young one,
Speaker 10: that's right, A real nice kid.
Speaker 4: Lucky too, Is that right? Yeah?
Speaker 10: No worries really got it made. Uniform, That's what does it.
Speaker 10: Uniform makes all the difference.
Speaker 4: In the world. Man. We don't worry. You'll get one.
Speaker 3: The stary you have just heard was true. The names
Speaker 3: were changed to protect the innocent.
Speaker 2: On November thirteenth, trial was held in the Apartment eighty seven,
Speaker 2: Superior Court of the State of California in and for
Speaker 2: the County of Los Angeles. In a moment, the results
Speaker 2: of that trial.
Speaker 4: Now here is our star, Jack Webb, Thank you, George Fennerman.
Speaker 5: In modern crime detection, the working detective depends on scientific research.
Speaker 5: He relies on the services of trained experts in ballistics, communications, fingerprints,
Speaker 5: to name just a few. He's interested only in facts.
Speaker 4: Paul M.
Speaker 2: Rodgers was tried and convicted on one count of murder
Speaker 2: in the first degree. He was sentenced to life imprisonment
Speaker 2: in the State Penitentiary San Quentin, California. You have just
Speaker 2: heard Dragnet a series of authentic cases from official files.
Speaker 2: Technical advice comes from the Office of Chief of Police W. H. Parker,
Speaker 2: Los Angeles Police Department Technical Advisors, Captain Jack Donahoe, Sergeant
Speaker 2: Marty Wynn, Sergeant Vance Braischer. Heard tonight were Ben Alexander, Virginia,
Speaker 2: Greg Jack Cruchan, script by John Robinson, music by Walter Schumann,
Speaker 2: Hell Gidney speaking.
Speaker 4: Tonight.
Speaker 3: It's Barry Craig, Confidential Investigator on NBC. This is Andrew J.
Speaker 8: Graham, author of the web surface series Oh and a
Speaker 8: Man of His Wife.
Speaker 4: You're listening to the great Detectives of Old time radio.
Speaker 1: Welcome back. A pretty hideous act. Now, Dragnet had a
Speaker 1: story that kind of reminded me of this the Big Watch.
Speaker 1: That was different because the crime was at least a
Speaker 1: little bit less senseless. See, people were targeting officers and
Speaker 1: they would also rob them for beating them up, and
Speaker 1: you know, they had their resentments, but there was more
Speaker 1: to it than that, and this was less brutal or
Speaker 1: you just have a case of cold blood and murder
Speaker 1: out of a sense of envy because they had what
Speaker 1: you want. And yeah, it's just an incredible and spotful crime.
Speaker 1: I did find the waitress to be interesting a character,
Speaker 1: and her reluctance to express interest and carefulness to avoid
Speaker 1: giving the impression that she came out to Los Angeles
Speaker 1: to get into pictures is understandable because it was such
Speaker 1: a cliche thing to do at the time. Generally, if
Speaker 1: you actually came out there, it painted you as a
Speaker 1: bit naive. Where she came out there or not, her
Speaker 1: dates with Stubby kind of stirred it in her a
Speaker 1: little bit, even though she would really loath to admit it.
Speaker 1: Listener comments and feedback. Now, Ben rits In, Hi, and
Speaker 1: my name is Ben. I'm fifteen years old and I've
Speaker 1: been listening to your podcast for maybe two years now.
Speaker 1: Your show has helped me through a lot of tough times,
Speaker 1: and I listen to it every night because it helps
Speaker 1: me sleep. I just want to say thank you very much.
Speaker 1: I also just pledged at the chief of detectives level,
Speaker 1: thanks for all you do and keep up the good work,
Speaker 1: sir well. Ben, thank you so much for supporting the program,
Speaker 1: and I am very honored and humble by your support
Speaker 1: of the show. I'm glad that you found it helpful
Speaker 1: and I can't say just how much I appreciate you
Speaker 1: supporting the program. Thanks again so much for your support. Ben.
Speaker 1: Then we have a comment from Wes who rits in
Speaker 1: regarding the Big Jolt, good Old Turner and Brown the
Speaker 1: unsung Euros of dragnet. I think one thing about dragnet
Speaker 1: that's a good comment. But one thing about Dragnet is
Speaker 1: and there were some, particularly during the Golden Age, some
Speaker 1: movies and even some radio programs that you had the
Speaker 1: idea of this very small universe of policemen who are
Speaker 1: actually working or who could actually contribute to a case.
Speaker 1: And one thing about Dragnet, particularly in the nineteen fifties,
Speaker 1: is that you have people show up that you might think,
Speaker 1: just in a general narrative sense, are somewhat random with
Speaker 1: information or from some division we would never think of.
Speaker 1: But it's also serving to play up and to remind
Speaker 1: viewers and listeners that there are a lot of people
Speaker 1: working in the police department, and they often will on Dragnet,
Speaker 1: even Frank and to their own suspect, there are several
Speaker 1: episodes where that happened. All right, well, thanks so much, Wes.
Speaker 1: That will do it for today. Join us back here
Speaker 1: on Monday for Nightbeat. Next Saturday, Dragnet again. If you
Speaker 1: do have a comment, send it to me Box thirteen
Speaker 1: at Great Detectives dot net, follow us on Twitter at
Speaker 1: Radio Detectives, and become one of our friends on Facebook, Facebook,
Speaker 1: dot com, slash Radiodetectives. From Boise, Idaho, this is your host,
Speaker 1: Adam Grahamson and off