Speaker 1: Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho.
Speaker 1: This is your host, Adam Graham. If you have a comment,
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Speaker 1: But now it's time for today's episode of Dragnet. The
Speaker 1: original air date July the twenty seventh, nineteen fifty The
Speaker 1: title The Big Gent Part two.
Speaker 2: The story you're about to hear is true only the
Speaker 2: names have been changed to protect the innocent.
Speaker 3: Dragnet.
Speaker 2: You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned to Robbery Detail. Three
Speaker 2: persons are shot down in a twelve thousand dollars hold up.
Speaker 2: One of the bandits is apprehended, convicted, and sent to
Speaker 2: prison for life. The other one is still at large.
Speaker 4: Your job, get.
Speaker 5: Him Dragnet the documented drama of an actual crime. For
Speaker 5: the next thirty minutes, in cooperation with the Los Angeles
Speaker 5: Police Department, you will travel step by step on the
Speaker 5: side of the law through an actual case from official
Speaker 5: police files.
Speaker 3: From beginning to end, from crime to punishment. Dragnet is
Speaker 3: the story of your police force in action.
Speaker 6: Whose Tuesday, June sixth, it was cloudy in Los Angeles.
Speaker 6: We're working a day watch out of Robbery Detail. My
Speaker 6: partner's Ben Romero. The boss is Captain ed Walker. My
Speaker 6: name is Friday. I was on the way back from Communications.
Speaker 6: It was eleven thirty five am when I got to
Speaker 6: Room twenty seven to eight Robbery Divisions. Oh all right,
Speaker 6: Oh hi Dave. Message in the book for you.
Speaker 7: They men a couple of minutes ago.
Speaker 6: Oh thank you, woman's boy.
Speaker 7: How did you call?
Speaker 6: Yeah, thank you Dave.
Speaker 8: I'll get it now, George State Juvenile Room at.
Speaker 6: Bentley Policewoman River there, please.
Speaker 9: Since a minute, River, hold on, please miss River.
Speaker 6: Dorothy Joe Friday.
Speaker 9: Oh yes, Joe, you got the message.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you're worrying about your purse.
Speaker 9: I can't find it anywhere. Did I leave it in
Speaker 9: your car last night?
Speaker 6: Found it this morning. I can leave it at the
Speaker 6: desk here if you like, you can pick it up
Speaker 6: some time today. Thanks a lot, Sure, Dorothy, I.
Speaker 9: Had a wonderful time last night, Joe. I certainly enjoyed it.
Speaker 6: Yeah, pretty good movie, huh they Dorothy?
Speaker 10: Uh.
Speaker 6: Mother and I were talking this morning at breakfast, like
Speaker 6: him over the house sometime for dinner. Mind'd like to
Speaker 6: meet you.
Speaker 9: Oh sure, that'd be fine. I'd like to meet your mother.
Speaker 6: How about a weekness coming Monday? That's my day off?
Speaker 6: Is that okay?
Speaker 9: All right? Weekness Monday?
Speaker 6: The weather's good. Well, maybe we can have a barbecue
Speaker 6: out in the back.
Speaker 9: It sounds wonderful.
Speaker 6: Okay, see you later then, bye, Joe. Hi, how to
Speaker 6: work out?
Speaker 8: Man?
Speaker 11: It didn't another force alarm?
Speaker 6: Sure there's a scorch. You're up today?
Speaker 11: Four months working that one solid lead where are we going?
Speaker 11: I haven't got the answer. I've run down so many
Speaker 11: bum tips. I don't think I know the real thing
Speaker 11: would hit me in the face.
Speaker 7: Joe Wire and.
Speaker 12: Mark Gear from San Diego just got here.
Speaker 13: You want to come in, Yeah, right away?
Speaker 6: All right, sit on.
Speaker 7: Hope you two have more than we have.
Speaker 11: Sell on that report on the skipper's desk, four month's
Speaker 11: leg work, gold, nothing at all, lots.
Speaker 6: Of phony tips, bum leads. We've got three steak outs going.
Speaker 6: His mug shots plastered all over town.
Speaker 7: No go, huh.
Speaker 6: I don't know. I think he's got the perfect face
Speaker 6: for a killer. You can hang his description on a
Speaker 6: million guys. Got nothing on him at all, been here,
Speaker 6: just ran down the last lead we own.
Speaker 11: Yeah, force nothing on the app and got the dust
Speaker 11: on it cold enough to bury.
Speaker 12: How long has it been since it happened back in January?
Speaker 8: With me?
Speaker 7: Yeah, twenty seven Stanley Finance Company, San Diego.
Speaker 6: It's all right there.
Speaker 12: And the report in Yeah, I see ald up shooting.
Speaker 12: Got twelve thousand suspects of Frank Cheney Church Weber Cheney
Speaker 12: did the shooting.
Speaker 7: That's what stops me. What's that took us?
Speaker 14: A couple of weeks to grab turk. Weburn put him
Speaker 14: away here. It's more than four once and Cheney's still
Speaker 14: on the loose.
Speaker 6: Doesn't that he can't be that smart? Well, he's free.
Speaker 6: I can't think of a better testimonial.
Speaker 12: What about the other angles Friday? Besides those three steakhouts.
Speaker 6: We covered the town for Cheney. He had four months
Speaker 6: of his hotels, rooming houses, motor courts, bars, restaurants, the works.
Speaker 6: Must have a couple of thousand copies of his mug shots.
Speaker 6: Bet around, no response. I get four or five calls
Speaker 6: a day on him. Been going on for weeks now
Speaker 6: we check him out, never the right man. What about
Speaker 6: his wife? She's still supposed to be with Cheney.
Speaker 7: Isn't she funny thing? We haven't had one report on her.
Speaker 6: Last time all two of 'em are supposed to have
Speaker 6: been seen together was five weeks ago. That was up
Speaker 6: and stopped him.
Speaker 12: Cheney's mother in law lives in Marysville, still had a
Speaker 12: steak out in her house.
Speaker 6: Yeah, no leads there either.
Speaker 7: How about it?
Speaker 6: Mark?
Speaker 14: Nothing to offer? How about the SAME's up here? There
Speaker 14: is something we'd like to check on, though. Yeah, one
Speaker 14: of McGuire's informance was parole two weeks ago.
Speaker 7: He served time with Cheney and Fulsom.
Speaker 6: You have any things to say?
Speaker 7: Yeah, his idea. Frank Cheney was the most hated man
Speaker 7: at Folsom.
Speaker 6: Most of the kinds had given their right arm to
Speaker 6: cool him off. M What made him so popular? Pretty
Speaker 6: much of it.
Speaker 13: Ran at the Warden's office three times a week regular
Speaker 13: and informed in the other cans every chance he got.
Speaker 12: You figure some of them might want to even the score,
Speaker 12: do you if they know anything?
Speaker 7: I'm pretty sure they'll.
Speaker 6: Talk with the try and their leads can't mean any
Speaker 6: colding what we got anyway? Are you gonna need any
Speaker 6: help more?
Speaker 7: No? Mcguarre and I can handle a questioning. We'll go
Speaker 7: up to Folsom tomorrow.
Speaker 12: Okay, I don't think there's any argument. This thing needs
Speaker 12: a quick answer, Joe, you and Ben will have to
Speaker 12: push a lot harder and a lot faster. Jane's robbing
Speaker 12: killed before give him the chance he'll do it again.
Speaker 6: We've run down all the possible ankles they had. We
Speaker 6: check every lead wee con take up. There's one you miss, yeah,
Speaker 6: the right one. Find it. From the day Frank Cheney
Speaker 6: had been identified as the killer, and the San Diego
Speaker 6: hold up murder four months before all of us realized
Speaker 6: the danger of another killing. As long as he was
Speaker 6: loose after eighteen years in prison, Cheney had a gun
Speaker 6: and he had his freedom again. We knew he wouldn't
Speaker 6: give him up easily. Thursday June eighth, Lieutenant Mark Gear
Speaker 6: and Sergeant Tony Maguire returned from Folsom Prison after talking
Speaker 6: with most of the convicts who knew Cheney well during
Speaker 6: his prison days. They had a list of more than
Speaker 6: forty leads to run down Ben and I took half
Speaker 6: of him. We started checking. It went kind of slow
Speaker 6: and the results were thin. After running down the first
Speaker 6: dozen leads, we'd found out nothing about the suspect that
Speaker 6: we didn't already know. Monday, June twelfth, we checked with
Speaker 6: a John streezact supposedly one of Cheney's close friends up
Speaker 6: at Fulls. He'd been paroled before Chaney and he was
Speaker 6: now working at a large commercial engraving firm down on
Speaker 6: East Maine.
Speaker 15: Yeah.
Speaker 13: I know Cheney pretty well, Sag pretty well, Ustimnutally you know. Yeah,
Speaker 13: I does it, And I know why you're here.
Speaker 6: Sergeant. I can't help you.
Speaker 11: You were pretty close to Chaney up at full from
Speaker 11: Worchestrees act best friend, and everybody was his best friend.
Speaker 6: Everybody could do him some good. And you haven't seen
Speaker 6: or heard from him since he got out.
Speaker 13: No, but I don't want to. I learned fast. What
Speaker 13: do you mean he's a bump sergeant? Some people born
Speaker 13: that way tried to talk me to a break once
Speaker 13: I didn't buy. I knew we'd gone right to the
Speaker 13: warden with it. Some people have borne that way bombs.
Speaker 11: You think somebody might be hiding him up, somebody's pals?
Speaker 11: How about them? He's got any pals?
Speaker 6: I don't know. I could tell you this. They didn't
Speaker 6: come out of fulsom Did you think of anything at
Speaker 6: all that might give us some kind of a lead
Speaker 6: on Genie? I wish I could believe me. I better
Speaker 6: get back on the job.
Speaker 7: Shot form me.
Speaker 6: He's no better than Cheney. Bum alright, stree Zach, thanks
Speaker 6: a lot. Like know. If you're hear anything, I'm gonna
Speaker 6: leave you one of our cards here. Yeah, okay, so
Speaker 6: here's frasacht. What'd you go up for in here? Just
Speaker 6: what I'm doing? Huh great? We kept at it, checking
Speaker 6: out the leads. One by one the same slow, dull
Speaker 6: routine that we've been on for four months. It ate
Speaker 6: up valuable time, but it was necessary. You never know
Speaker 6: what a lead's worth until you check it out. During
Speaker 6: the past months, from the least promising sources, we'd uncovered
Speaker 6: a half a dozen bits of information about the suspect.
Speaker 6: None of them concludes, but they helped point the way.
Speaker 6: We found out Cheney's favorite sport was sailing. Yacht clubs
Speaker 6: up and down the coast were contacted and asked to
Speaker 6: watch for him. We learned where Cheney got his eyeglasses
Speaker 6: contact lenses. We went to the optician, got the prescription
Speaker 6: for them, and had copies of it distributed to all
Speaker 6: optical firms in the area. They got a request for
Speaker 6: lenses which matched those in Cheney's eyeglasses or contact lenses.
Speaker 6: They were to notify us From a former colleague friend.
Speaker 6: We found out that the suspect was once treated for
Speaker 6: tuberculosis and because of this, he drank only goat's milk.
Speaker 6: All the retailers in the area who sold goats milk
Speaker 6: were contacted and alerted. We set up a system to
Speaker 6: check regularly all the mail received by relatives of both
Speaker 6: Chaney and his wife Thursday, June fifteenth.
Speaker 12: Hi, Ha, Diego called while you were out.
Speaker 6: What year did they come up with anything? Fair?
Speaker 12: One lead told him Cheney learned the printing trade while
Speaker 12: he was up at folsom knew the business well enough
Speaker 12: to work at it.
Speaker 6: San Diego checking that out, he alerted the Printer's Union.
Speaker 6: We'll do the same up here.
Speaker 12: Picture and story on Chaney'll be in the Union newspaper
Speaker 12: next week.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and we dug up another bit on Cheney. We
Speaker 6: got it this morning. It's sat instead of ordinary. Ey
Speaker 6: had last this.
Speaker 11: Chaney has been known to work contact lenses, you know,
Speaker 11: blast fits right over your eye.
Speaker 6: Good chance he might be wearing them now. Kind of
Speaker 6: helped change his appearance.
Speaker 11: And we got the prescription for the lenses firm. Chane's
Speaker 11: eye doctor got the information to all the optical.
Speaker 6: Firms in town.
Speaker 7: Right, man out here to see you.
Speaker 6: Okay, thank you, Dave.
Speaker 12: All right, that's all better. Contact San Diego and keep
Speaker 12: them posting.
Speaker 7: Gentlemen here too.
Speaker 16: Yes, all right, chargent you remember me, Vince Pertoli, you're
Speaker 16: in my place.
Speaker 6: Last month the White House girl placed down on Alimeda. Yeah,
Speaker 6: that's right. Block the Union station. Both of you came in.
Speaker 12: Yeah, you had coffee and an omelet.
Speaker 6: You like, sure? Yeah, what can we do for you? Bertally?
Speaker 16: Remember you were talking to me, You said you were
Speaker 16: looking for somebody. You left some pictures in this car
Speaker 16: to yours here.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 16: Well I lost the pictures. I don't know why I
Speaker 16: lost him, but I kept your card. That's why I
Speaker 16: came to see you. What Well, as I say, I
Speaker 16: lost the pictures, but I still have an idea.
Speaker 8: What they look like.
Speaker 6: Have you seen either one of those people, the man
Speaker 6: of the woman.
Speaker 7: Well that's why I came to check with you.
Speaker 16: A week ago, one of my steady waitresses quit and
Speaker 16: I hired this brunette with a.
Speaker 6: Hard luck story.
Speaker 7: Hey carefors take a gun?
Speaker 6: Licorice flavor? No, no, no, I think.
Speaker 16: Well, after a couple of days, I remember that picture
Speaker 16: you gave me and I thought she looked a little
Speaker 16: like it.
Speaker 7: That's why I kept her eye on him.
Speaker 6: Did you notice anything out of the ordinary? You bet.
Speaker 16: She never dates anybody, not even me, and I'm the boss.
Speaker 16: Not ugly either.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 16: She always claims she's got to get home, never gives
Speaker 16: a reason, says she lives alone?
Speaker 6: Or where does she live? A couple of blocks.
Speaker 16: From my place on North Jersey. I think I checked
Speaker 16: the place where she does her shop and me tell
Speaker 16: me she buys enough groceries for three people.
Speaker 6: She still insisted she's living by herself.
Speaker 16: Yeah, that's why I thought i'd better check with you.
Speaker 16: I lost the pictures, but I hung on your card.
Speaker 6: Would you take a look at this photograph of totally.
Speaker 16: Yeah pursing when you gave me looks just like her
Speaker 16: Mary Swoan?
Speaker 6: Who Mary Sloan? What your name isn't it? You want
Speaker 6: to turn that picture over missus Frank Cheney. Thursday, four pm,
Speaker 6: Ben and I drove down to the White House Grill
Speaker 6: and had a cup of coffee. We got a good
Speaker 6: look at the waitress, whom the owner, Vince per Toli,
Speaker 6: suspected of being Missus Cheney. We left and waited outside
Speaker 6: in the car until five o'clock when the suspect came out.
Speaker 6: We followed her at a grocery store and from there
Speaker 6: to a Rundown apartment building on Graystone Alley, just off Temple.
Speaker 6: We waited a few minutes and then we followed her
Speaker 6: in the tab on one of the mailboxes read Mary Sloan,
Speaker 6: Apartment sixteen. We went up which one Joe number sixteen?
Speaker 6: Down this way? Come on, I guess we better try
Speaker 6: the door.
Speaker 8: Who is there?
Speaker 6: Who is police officers? Hop them up?
Speaker 8: What do you want?
Speaker 6: Open the door? Anybody else in here? My brother he's
Speaker 6: sick sleeping in the next room. You can't be disturbed.
Speaker 6: Come on, Ben, you can't go in there. Honey, the
Speaker 6: cock go shoe the window, all right, get back inside here,
Speaker 6: come on.
Speaker 8: Here, all right?
Speaker 6: Are you all right? Yeah? He broke bread? You were Yeah,
Speaker 6: you got clipped for nothing, not cheney. We drove the
Speaker 6: man and the woman, who identified herself as Mary Sloan,
Speaker 6: back to the office where they are identified as fugitives
Speaker 6: from Miami, Florida. The man was wanted on charges of
Speaker 6: first degree burglary. The woman was the accomplice. We turned
Speaker 6: the case over to Bunko Fugitive Detail. A little after
Speaker 6: eleven o'clock Friday morning, Ben got a tip to the Cheenie
Speaker 6: had been seen the night before at a small bar
Speaker 6: down there. Pullark and that's a Los Angeles suburb. He's
Speaker 6: supposed to be living in the area. We spent Friday,
Speaker 6: Saturday and Sunday tracking it down and went nowhere. On Monday,
Speaker 6: for the first time in three and a half weeks,
Speaker 6: we had some time off half a day. I picked
Speaker 6: up a policewoman, Dorothy River, and drove her out to
Speaker 6: the house for lunch. We had a barbecue out in
Speaker 6: the backyard. Certainly a wonderful place you have here on Socrietay,
Speaker 6: beautiful garden.
Speaker 17: Oh thank you. It's a lot of work keeping it up.
Speaker 17: Roses didn't do well at all this year, acis you.
Speaker 6: Know much more spaits Dorothy? The fires just right now.
Speaker 6: Oh no, thanks, Joe, I've had plenty.
Speaker 17: Care for another cup of coffee? All right, thank you.
Speaker 17: I'm glad you could come today, Dorothy. Joseph's been talking
Speaker 17: so much about you. Oh you sproused me a little
Speaker 17: when I met too.
Speaker 9: How's that?
Speaker 17: No, Joseph, I don't think you look at all like policewomen.
Speaker 17: Most of them are rough looking, I think.
Speaker 6: Oh no, I don't think so.
Speaker 9: They look like most women.
Speaker 17: Nothing much out of the ordinary about them. Oh well,
Speaker 17: times have certainly changed. We didn't have police women when
Speaker 17: I was a girl.
Speaker 6: Probably could have used them.
Speaker 17: Well, I don't know. I don't think we have so
Speaker 17: much crime then times were much different. You seem so
Speaker 17: young for such work, Dorothy, Policewomen.
Speaker 13: I'm twenty five, missus Friday in the department, almost two
Speaker 13: years as.
Speaker 17: Your young girl. Joseph's thirty one. You know, yes, I know.
Speaker 6: Hey Ma, how about letting me get you?
Speaker 17: Oh no, no match, all right, Joseph. You just sit there,
Speaker 17: have your coffee. I'm used to this, have to get
Speaker 17: used to housework when you're married. Wonderful dinner, Joe.
Speaker 9: Your mother is very sweet.
Speaker 6: Yeah, real subtle, isn't she motherly instinct. Somebody has to
Speaker 6: look after you. That's the phone, Dorothy. I better grab it.
Speaker 6: I'll be right back. Okay, never mind, moll let me
Speaker 6: get it. Friday tongue.
Speaker 9: This is Walker.
Speaker 6: Joe, check back in right away. What do you got.
Speaker 12: Spring in West Tampa, the Second National Bank.
Speaker 6: Yeah, Frank Chaney just.
Speaker 8: Held it up.
Speaker 3: You are listening to drag nets.
Speaker 6: Monday, June nineteenth, three pm. I went back to the office,
Speaker 6: picked up Ben and Captain Walker, and the three of
Speaker 6: us drove to the scene of the robbery at the
Speaker 6: corner of Spring and West Temple the Second National Bank.
Speaker 6: Ricketts and Thaster from robbery details were already there. Questioning
Speaker 6: the witnesses, we talked to the bank's vice president in
Speaker 6: charge at the time of the hold up on mister Bronson.
Speaker 6: He had a weld on the right side of his
Speaker 6: head and was pretty badly shaken.
Speaker 4: He had his hand in one of his coat pockets
Speaker 4: and he walked straight over to me. It's the first
Speaker 4: thing he said, this.
Speaker 6: Is a hold up. You're a positive of The identification
Speaker 6: is brun.
Speaker 4: I'm certain this picture here it's the man, all right.
Speaker 4: The others will tell you the same.
Speaker 12: Who is that mister Bronson?
Speaker 4: The tellers eh all got a good look at him,
Speaker 4: no mistake.
Speaker 6: Well what happened after Cheney approached him. He was very calm,
Speaker 6: very quiet.
Speaker 4: Huh, he said, do exactly what I tell you, Call
Speaker 4: for help and I'll kill you. He would calm all
Speaker 4: the way through it, just like it was an ordinary
Speaker 4: business with him.
Speaker 6: Did he have you get the money for him?
Speaker 8: No?
Speaker 4: He ordered me from back to the front counter there
Speaker 4: and we went from cage to cage. Each time he
Speaker 4: had me say the same thing to the teller, this
Speaker 4: is a hold up. Give me all the currency you have,
Speaker 4: don't call for help.
Speaker 6: How many taillers? Did he have you collect from five?
Speaker 4: Just lying along here? Windows one to five? My knees
Speaker 4: were shaking so hard I could barely walk. I kept
Speaker 4: wondering if one of the taillers might try to sound
Speaker 4: the alarm.
Speaker 6: Answer? What happened? After he got the money?
Speaker 4: He had me walk in front of him down there
Speaker 4: to the side exit. That's when he hit me. I
Speaker 4: guess side of my head. You can see here where
Speaker 4: they by?
Speaker 12: How much money did he get to?
Speaker 4: You know, I'm not quite sure more than four thousand.
Speaker 4: I can't help but think how lucky I am. That
Speaker 4: man's a killer. I'm certain of it.
Speaker 6: Are you sure that we can't fix you up with
Speaker 6: a ride home? No? No, I'll be all right, Thank you.
Speaker 4: My wife's on the way down now.
Speaker 7: Can I answer your pause enough?
Speaker 8: Yes?
Speaker 6: Thanks to excuse us for your bronson, Yes, certainly.
Speaker 7: How did I fall to do?
Speaker 6: On the getaway?
Speaker 8: Cops?
Speaker 6: Andy? You?
Speaker 10: Yeah?
Speaker 6: U two?
Speaker 15: This afternoon he went to a used car lot up
Speaker 15: and figure out about eight blocks from here, I asked
Speaker 15: to be shown a late night Ford Yeah salesman took
Speaker 15: him for a demonstration ride. When he pulled up for
Speaker 15: an Artario Cheney jabbed a gun at him and told
Speaker 15: him to get out.
Speaker 6: Salesman got out, Jady drove.
Speaker 12: Off and fifteen minutes later he walked in here and
Speaker 12: pulled the robbery.
Speaker 7: That's at the bank.
Speaker 15: Tell us tab the same fault as they get away car,
Speaker 15: broadcasting all points on the car.
Speaker 6: Nothing yet. What time you got from here? M ten
Speaker 6: minutes before?
Speaker 12: What time the alert to thanks here?
Speaker 6: Two forty five? Everything covered?
Speaker 15: Yeah, Union Station, both airports and bus depos are all alerted.
Speaker 6: Roadblocks set up in.
Speaker 11: The highways since two forty five, just about and changing
Speaker 11: somewhere in the city.
Speaker 12: Find him.
Speaker 6: Six pm, the search went on. We called into the
Speaker 6: office and had them notify San Diego of the latest
Speaker 6: developments in the case. At seven pm, the weather started
Speaker 6: to cloud up. Still no sign of Cheney or the
Speaker 6: getaway car. At eight o'clock it started to ring. A
Speaker 6: few minutes past ten, two door Ford sedan was found
Speaker 6: abandoned on San Pedro Street near South Park. A license
Speaker 6: number matched out of Cheney's getaway car, so Dan was
Speaker 6: impounded and towed to a garage for fingerprinting. Ben called
Speaker 6: the office in an emergency. Detail from Metropolitan Division was
Speaker 6: sent out to help in a house to house canvas
Speaker 6: of the neighborhood where the car had been found. By
Speaker 6: four point thirty the next morning, we got to nowhere,
Speaker 6: so we decided to give it up until later in
Speaker 6: the day. At six thirty am, we had poached eggs
Speaker 6: and coffee at an all night driving. Seven am it
Speaker 6: was still raining. We checked back in at the office.
Speaker 6: I don't know, it seems like every time we have
Speaker 6: to work late, it's gonna rain. You got in those
Speaker 6: little white tablets in your locker breakfast gaining inigestion.
Speaker 11: I think I've got a fume that. It reminds me.
Speaker 11: How did the dinner come off yesterday? Do of them
Speaker 11: get along the rye?
Speaker 6: Oh?
Speaker 8: All right?
Speaker 6: You know how it is? My are usual? Few things
Speaker 6: to say. Well, Dorothy handled a pretty good, good sense
Speaker 6: of humor, A nice living girl sensing.
Speaker 7: It I have for Sarah, do any good?
Speaker 6: No?
Speaker 14: Not much phone message in the book four you are
Speaker 14: supposed to call as soon as you get.
Speaker 6: In m and had four to one nine known name.
Speaker 7: No, you're supposed to call the number. That's all?
Speaker 6: Oh okay, Well, how's new house? Though pretty good?
Speaker 7: Takes a lot of money. Got the forums in for
Speaker 7: the patty. I'm going for the cement this weekend.
Speaker 6: Got the place fenced Offia not yet.
Speaker 7: No, most pickets cost money.
Speaker 6: Fellas are telling me that you're doing all the work yourself.
Speaker 7: Me and the brother in law.
Speaker 14: Yeah, costs a lot of money in new house, so good.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it was Frank Cheney's grandfather. Yeah, says to come
Speaker 6: over right away. Seven thirty am it was still raining.
Speaker 6: Ben and I drove out to the older section of
Speaker 6: the Wilshire district. To the Cheney mansion represented one part
Speaker 6: of the suspect's life that we could never figure. As
Speaker 6: a child and later as a young man. Frank Cheney
Speaker 6: had had every advantage and comfort that a millionaire father
Speaker 6: could buy for him, yet for some reason, he'd settled
Speaker 6: on a career of crying. Seven forty five am, Ben
Speaker 6: and I were shown into the main hallway of the
Speaker 6: Cheney home by the butler. He recognized us from the
Speaker 6: previous visits. He took our hats and coats, and then
Speaker 6: led us up the staircase to the master bedroom. At
Speaker 6: the far Into the second floor, we found Cheney's eighty
Speaker 6: two year old grandfather popped up in a four poster bed,
Speaker 6: his face was gray and sunken. It was a nurse
Speaker 6: in a white starched uniform standing by.
Speaker 17: You couldn't go a nurse go on, I'll be outside.
Speaker 6: I didn't need to Chaney.
Speaker 11: Yes, yes, you have some information for us, mister Cheney.
Speaker 10: Of course, that's right.
Speaker 13: Carled sit down, Thank you, sir. That hold up yesterday,
Speaker 13: the bank robbery. I know all about.
Speaker 18: It as Frank contacted you. It's like the police get
Speaker 18: right to the point as he contacted you. Yes, e
Speaker 18: hand me that class of water police. No man, yeah, ah.
Speaker 13: Ugh, thank you, No, don't leave it on the table. Then,
Speaker 13: when Frank got out of prison last year he came
Speaker 13: to see me. I offered him one more chance. I
Speaker 13: told him, if he decided to earn his way up,
Speaker 13: all the helpe I could give him. He said he would, Yes, Sir,
Speaker 13: I was a fool like everyone else.
Speaker 6: I believed him. Any idea where Frank is now?
Speaker 13: I gave him everything it was possible to give him.
Speaker 13: He directed the family, his father's life, my life, everything.
Speaker 6: He touched your ruin. You know where he is, naw say.
Speaker 13: He telephoned me day before yesterday. He was going away
Speaker 13: Central America.
Speaker 6: Why didn't you notify us he was going away. I
Speaker 6: thought it'd be better. We've had enough notoriety newspaper stories.
Speaker 6: How was he going to get to South America's Swedish ship?
Speaker 13: Is going to work his way going from San Pedro,
Speaker 13: staying in some hotel there you don't know the name.
Speaker 10: Fight and take him away, bury him some place.
Speaker 6: Okay yo, Yeah, thank you very much, mister Cheney sash, Yes.
Speaker 7: Sir, Frank will have a gun, he'll try to use it.
Speaker 10: Yes, sir, kill him.
Speaker 6: Nine am. Ben and I went back to the office
Speaker 6: and put in a call to the Swedish Vice consult
Speaker 6: on South Spring Street. They told us that three days
Speaker 6: before a man answering Chene's description signed on the Swedish
Speaker 6: Motorship Southern Cross as a member of the engine room crew.
Speaker 6: We picked up Sergeant Stackster and Davis and drove down
Speaker 6: to San Pedro. The Southern Cross was still taking on cargo.
Speaker 6: When we got there. We showed Cheney's mud shot for
Speaker 6: the first mate.
Speaker 7: God the American Cameron. That's him.
Speaker 10: He signed on this trip.
Speaker 6: Was he aboard the ship? Now?
Speaker 2: Oh, he's hided up there on deck's there?
Speaker 10: I guess event, what.
Speaker 6: If you take us to him.
Speaker 10: Please hold right, ben ben ho the command and eating thing.
Speaker 4: All right, you say the game, they might just be
Speaker 4: better watch it then?
Speaker 10: Yeah, oh cool through hair.
Speaker 6: Maybe you better stay behind here, sir, we'll take him stand.
Speaker 6: Might be a little trouble here. Do you wanna stay
Speaker 6: behind us?
Speaker 10: What right?
Speaker 7: You must stay in the end?
Speaker 3: Gender room stay theyhead then to end her lesson a companion,
Speaker 3: be right, thank you?
Speaker 6: Oh come on, I'll watch you step in there. Sure,
Speaker 6: Let men, this one's my spotted it all right, Channy Holt.
Speaker 6: He's making a brain ho it's going top side hustle,
Speaker 6: Come on a ladder, look, go give it up.
Speaker 10: He's going for the game, all right, stop him?
Speaker 6: Yeah, through the shoulder, Yeah, bumped his head when he fell.
Speaker 6: Got to get the cuffs on him. Ourn everybody, this
Speaker 6: beer too. I she didn't notice when we came a boy.
Speaker 6: Huh looked top side red flag? Oh yeah, taken on fuel.
Speaker 10: Huh.
Speaker 6: There's some of the cargo right over there. Oh I explosive.
Speaker 2: The story you have just heard was true, only the
Speaker 2: names were changed to protect the innocent.
Speaker 3: On November, second trial was held in Superior Court, City
Speaker 3: and County of San Diego, State of California. In a
Speaker 3: moment the results of that trial. Frank Bertram Cheney was
Speaker 3: tried and convicted of murder in the first degree. He
Speaker 3: is now awaiting execution in the lethal gas chamber at
Speaker 3: the State Penitentiary San Quentin, California. This is NBC's national broadcasting.
Speaker 19: This is Andrew Ryans with OTR Westerns dot com, where
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Speaker 19: great Detectives of Old Time Radio with Adam Graham and
Speaker 19: now let's get back.
Speaker 3: Into the show.
Speaker 1: Welcome back.
Speaker 9: Well.
Speaker 1: I liked the little touch of realism where they went
Speaker 1: in and they had a fugitive, but it was the
Speaker 1: wrong person. I also thought that the way they tried
Speaker 1: to subtenly answer the question of how someone like that
Speaker 1: could turn out to be a criminal. With that background
Speaker 1: shown through. The grandfather really was a lot more upset
Speaker 1: about the difficulty that this was bringing to the family,
Speaker 1: more than he was his grandson, and certainly more than
Speaker 1: he was the victims, and that sort of callous disregard
Speaker 1: had a definite effect. Also on the ship see a
Speaker 1: very good job on the Swedish accents. I did wonder
Speaker 1: about the explosives explanation whether having those explosives on the
Speaker 1: deck it seemed like the main purpose it served was
Speaker 1: so we wouldn't be surprised that there wasn't more noise
Speaker 1: on the deck. All a good episode. Also interesting to
Speaker 1: see Mother Friday at work cross examining a potential bride
Speaker 1: for Joe Friday and strangely off it should be noted.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it should be, but I guess
Speaker 1: I will. But Joe Friday is actually a little bit
Speaker 1: older than Jack Webb, who was only just past thirty
Speaker 1: at the time of this recording, said to be thirty
Speaker 1: one by missus Friday. All right, well, that will actually
Speaker 1: do it for today. Join us tomorrow our video theater episode.
Speaker 1: It's an episode of La Queen this month and then
Speaker 1: the next four weeks we're gonna have special radio programs
Speaker 1: as we celebrate one thousand, six hundred and fifty episodes
Speaker 1: and then get into our listener support campaign in the meantime, though,
Speaker 1: if you do have a comment, send it to me
Speaker 1: Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net, follow us on
Speaker 1: Twitter at Radio Detectives, and become one of our friends
Speaker 1: on Facebook, Facebook dot com, slash Radiodetectives. Coming up on Monday,
Speaker 1: the Saint and then next Saturday, another episode of Dragnet
Speaker 1: from Boise, Idaho. This is your host, Adam Grahamson and
Speaker 1: off