Speaker 1: Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho.
This is your host, Adam Graham. In a moment, we're
going to bring you this week's episode of Drag Napp.
But first I want to encourage you. If you're enjoying
the podcast, please follow us using your favorite podcast software.
And today's program is brought to you in part by
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one of our ongoing Patreon supporters for as little last
two dollars per month by going to Patreon dot Great
Detectives dot net. But now, from August ninth, nineteen fifty one,
here is the big screen.
Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen, The documented story you will hear during
the next thirty minutes is not a subject commonly discussed.
It is a criminal problem that is not yet nationwide,
but it's a problem which is growing rapidly. We present
it now so that you may recognize it for what
it is if and when it invades your city. The
story you were about to hear is true, only the
names have been changed to protect the innocent. You're a
detective sergeant. You're assigned to Bunco Detail. You begin to
receive reports of a vicious new racket growing in your city,
the television repair racket. The repairman lie overcharge bill you
for work not done for parts not needed for parts
they don't install your job.
Speaker 3: Stop them.
Speaker 4: Drag Net the documented drama of an actual crime. For
the next thirty minutes, in cooperation of 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 buyos, from beginning to end, from crime to punishment.
Dragnet is the story of your police force in action.
Speaker 5: It was Monday, January nineteenth, was overcast in Los Angeles
in the day watch out of Bunco Detail. My partner's
Ben Ramero. The boss is Captain McCauley. My name's Friday.
Who was nine fifteen am when we got to the
third floor of the Los Angeles Daily News, the Assistant
City Editor's office.
Speaker 6: All right, Friday, come on in so down.
Speaker 5: Good morning, Jack, like you to meet my partner, Ben Ramero. Ben,
this is Jack Connett, staff writer for the Daily News.
Speaker 7: All right, can they I don't know you're Ben, Sit down, fellas. Thanks.
Speaker 6: We just left the skipper over at the City Hall.
Did the Captain briefly on this thing?
Speaker 8: Yeah, he gave us a parcel, Phil and we've been
working on it from our end in about two weeks now.
Speaker 7: Well, Paul Price, he's our radio TV editor. Paul and
I had a long session with Captain mccaully yesterday and
I guess now we're all ready.
Speaker 6: To move on this thing. We'll do everything we can.
Would you like to fill Ben in and what you
told me yesterday on the phone. Yeah.
Speaker 7: Well, Price was the one who began getting the first
complaints here at the paper. Tremendous number of his readers
wrote him complaints about being victimized by a crooked television repairman.
Speaker 6: About being charged too much for repair.
Speaker 7: Partly Yeah, some of the people even sent in receipts
with their letters. So they felt the guys who fixed
their sets were dreaming up on neces sary repairs, charging
him for work not done. So said they knew they
were built for parts not even replaced or installed in
their sets.
Speaker 5: Ben Jack told me yesterday about a letter he got
in some men said he felt he'd been over charged
and he just started to belly ache about it.
Speaker 7: Yeah, a fellow to the name of Vincent said, he
just put up an old fashioned squawk about it, and
repairman brought the price down at least one third.
Speaker 6: That doesn't sound very good.
Speaker 7: We kind of figured operators like that must have too
many repair sets on hand that their customers can't afford
to bail out.
Speaker 6: That's why they cut. Sounds like a ClearCase of a
two bit jip, doesn't it. Something's got to be done
about it.
Speaker 7: We're ready to give it a big plan our paper
expose the fraud for what it really is. Captain McCauley says,
Chief Parker's okay on our plan, and we can count
on full police cooperation.
Speaker 6: That's the way we got it, Jack. We were told
to work with you people till we broke this thing.
Speaker 7: Fine, we dug up a little amunation to start with.
I think went around and interviewed about fifteen different television
repairman in various neighborhoods, and about three out of five
gave me the same pitch.
Speaker 6: Whether they know you were with a newspaper.
Speaker 7: No, I told him I was a factory representative. For
a new kind of rosmin Cors Soider company. I was
taking orders. Actually, I dropped in the different stores sh
out to breeze with him, and they didn't seem to
get wise. A couple of even placed orders for the start.
Speaker 6: And why did you find that?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 7: I just wanted to try and get the general attitude
of some of these jip artists, and I really got
an air for One of the last places I hit
was a tiny little hole in the wall out near
Canoga Park. As I say, about two out of five
are honest, hard work and repair man. This fellow was
one of them. What are you getting at, Jack?
Speaker 6: For a while, this.
Speaker 7: Fellow worked for a guy that employed about five men
in the shop, you know, finally quit him because he
didn't like the way this big operator did business. Fellows
in the next office, I want you to hear it
from him, just as I got it.
Speaker 6: Excuse me, young, Okay, heyk will you come in please? Sure? Master?
Speaker 7: This is Hank Corter, Sergeant Friday, Sergeant Ben or Merrow
Police Department. Hank, I wonder if you tell these officers
a little bit what you told me about kill Gore
TV specialists.
Speaker 6: All right, Now, suppose.
Speaker 7: I'm a customer and I commend to kill Gore's I
don't like the size of my repair bill. What were
you instructed to say? We generally tried to talk him
out of any complaint. Suppose I complained about all the
multiple charges. I wanted an explanation of the work he did.
Speaker 9: What then, tell you that it wouldn't do any good
to explain You wouldn't understand all the technical stuff anyway.
Speaker 6: Uh huh, tell us killed Gore's attitude with the customer.
Speaker 10: You mean about the loose wires test?
Speaker 6: Yeah? Please?
Speaker 9: Well, kill Gore used to tell us that if we
only charged fifty cents for fixing the loose wire, the
customer wouldn't believe we really fixed his set.
Speaker 10: So we used to charge quite a lot more.
Speaker 6: Well, how much more?
Speaker 9: For example, for Nichols worth of wire, we'd usually charge
four dollars and.
Speaker 11: Seventy five cents. Pretty fair profit, and it's a real run.
Speaker 6: What else can you tell us?
Speaker 9: Ah, Well, we'd never let a customer watch any of
the TV repair a job for example, for customer cause
it says he thinks.
Speaker 11: The two is blown out and it'll only be a
simple replacement job.
Speaker 9: In his home, and we'd tell him the parts are
getting hard to get, and we'd have to take his
set into the shop and charge him a higher rate
because we had to pay black market prices for the tube.
Speaker 6: Was there any truth in that? I mean about the
tubes being hard to get? Not much.
Speaker 9: Some of them are getting a little hard to get,
But we never paid any black market prices at Killed Goys.
Speaker 10: We just slugged the customer, right, So tell.
Speaker 6: Him about how you used to swap parts on a
new set.
Speaker 9: Eh, Well, we lots of times pared a new tube
for one NOTTS so good, one NOTTS so good. We
put in a set with a bad too, and the
bad tube would exchange the factory under one of you guarantee.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I don't miss an angle, do they? Well that's it.
Speaker 7: You've heard from a man who couldn't stomach such practice
and quit went into business. A little bit of a
shop isn't doing too well, are you, Hank?
Speaker 6: No?
Speaker 9: But I think I can build up the business that
don't make quite as much profit as Killed Goers.
Speaker 11: But I don't chisolm my customers either.
Speaker 6: Thanks a lot, Hank. I wonder if you'd wait in
the next office for me.
Speaker 11: Sure, I hope I've helped a little bit to crack
down on some of these guys.
Speaker 6: Well, we think you have, Hank, thanks a lot.
Speaker 11: Nice to match him, right, See letter seems like a nice.
Speaker 6: Hey he is.
Speaker 7: I've checked on him, and I've talked with some of
his customers since I met him.
Speaker 6: He's honest. It's a pretty vicious racket in it. Yeah,
I want to be stopped now.
Speaker 7: Television is a wonderful medium of entertainment, but a lot
of the country doesn't have it yet. But when the
cable goes through and it finally opens up that people
should know about, the swindlers and crooks will try to
drip him.
Speaker 8: Yeah, it's the same way when radio first came. It
always seems like when anything new comes along, anything a
little complicated, maybe a little too involved for the average guy.
Have a few smart punks victimize him, robbed the consumer line.
Speaker 5: Well, and naturally we got to have some positive evidence
before we can finally complaint with the city attorney on
this thing.
Speaker 6: Yeah, are you follow us to any ideas where.
Speaker 8: To start on the best way to crack down on
these crouckt operators is to catch them red handed with
evidence and hold up in court. Yeah, we think maybe
we've got an idea.
Speaker 5: But we were talking to Dick Saunders over in our
sound lab and he says that he can bungle a
new TV set and we can market and photograph it
before it goes out to.
Speaker 7: Be repaired, and when it's returned or effort's fixed, the
life what we need to go to court on.
Speaker 6: Uh, yeah, that's it. We can operate right out of
one of our own homes and all we have to
do is hope the repairment overcharges us or tries the gippis. Yeah,
that's right, let's hope it works. From what we've heard.
It's got to ten am.
Speaker 5: The staff writer, Jack Connette, Ben and I drove back downtown.
On the way, it was decided that we'd use Cannet's
home as the place from which to operate. It was
centrally located in an average neighborhood. When we got back
to our office, we contacted one of the local television
dealers and asked for the loan of one of their sets.
They recommended Kate Halbert because the chassis is easily accessible
and any trouble could be located quickly because parks are visible.
A sixteen inch k Halbert console model was sent to
our sound lab. Ten eighteen am. We met with Dick Saunders,
our police lab technician.
Speaker 12: Here's a set sixteen inch console model, serial numbers CE
two eight one seven.
Speaker 6: Nine oh one. What have you done to it to day?
Speaker 12: Well, first off, I tested the set and it performed perfectly.
It's a good set, brings in a fine picture. See
funny test Pattern's fine. Huh, Yeah, it's good. Tested all
the tubes all okay. How are you marking the set? Yeah?
Shame you know two about it?
Speaker 6: Here?
Speaker 12: Now if you look closely here at the base of
the socket, see it.
Speaker 6: What's that this is? It isn't it?
Speaker 2: Dick?
Speaker 6: A little tiny dot of green paint.
Speaker 12: That's right, Ben, I'm marking every part of the set
with his tiny green dot.
Speaker 6: Works good.
Speaker 7: I didn't spot it out out anyone else w especially
if they didn't know about it.
Speaker 6: Yeah. That so we're hoping.
Speaker 12: In addition to this type marketing, we've taken all serial
numbers off the tubes and various parts. Anything that carried
any form of coding we took down. All major components
have been marked, transformers, coils, condensers, tuning in it so on.
Speaker 6: Did you get any pictures in it?
Speaker 12: Yeah, we did. Took photographs of the set in and
out of the cabinet. Took them from four different angles,
just to be sure we were well covered.
Speaker 6: Well, how did you bungle it?
Speaker 12: Well, here's what I did to put the set out
of commission. I burned out the filament of the five
U four g lough Voll direct fire tube. What's the
cost of that particular tube, souders, Well, this tube ordinarily
retails for a dollar sixty five cents.
Speaker 6: Well, what does that do to the set? I mean
burning out the tube.
Speaker 12: By burning out that filament, we cause the sound and
picture circuits to be completely inoperative.
Speaker 5: It won't work at all until that particular tube is
replaced by a good one.
Speaker 10: That's right, Joe.
Speaker 6: Well, how big a job would it be to trace
of troubling?
Speaker 12: Well, could easily be detected by casual observation or by
noting that the tube, normally very hot, is cold.
Speaker 6: How much time would you say that request to make
a repair like this?
Speaker 12: Ooh, I just may not. Over half hour would be
required a place to set an operating order?
Speaker 6: Half hour?
Speaker 5: Okay, thanks a lot, Dick, Are you're going to take
care of getting your set out to Cannet's home right away.
Speaker 12: Yeah, yeah, there's a dress right here. We'll get it
right out, all right. Fine, if you can try to
get whoever repairs is set to give you an itemized
bill of all work done in parts and stall right
in case you call more than one outfit today, here's
an extra bad five or four gtube. Thank you, Nick,
anything you'd like to.
Speaker 6: Know, No, I think that about covers it for me. Jack.
One more thing.
Speaker 7: I was just wondering if somebody spots the trouble right
away and replaces the tube, what do you think they
ought to charge to labor and all.
Speaker 12: I checked through RTA on that this morning. They said
to make a house call and replace the detective tube
should not exceed four dollars and fifty cents.
Speaker 6: Okay, thanks, That does it for now? Yeah, I guess so.
Speaker 12: Well you're all set, then, I think we'll get what
you're after.
Speaker 6: Well, we should. The odds are all on our side.
Speaker 5: Ten thirty am, Monday, January nineteenth, we left the sound
Lab on West First Street and walked back to Bunco Division.
Speaker 6: We met with Captain McCauley and filled him in.
Speaker 5: We gave him the newspaper man Jack Cannett's address and
told him he could reach us there. The Console model
television set was delivered to Canet's home and properly installed.
When we arrived at his home, we started going through
the yellow classified section of the phone directory. We made
a list of several TV service stores, just picked at random.
We chose a wide variety. We picked stores that were
listed with large boxed in ads, stores that carried no ads,
just a listing. Ben called two places and staggered the
call so that the repairman would arrive about one hour apart.
It was eleven thirty am when the first man made
his service call Bart's TV Experts on Hollywood Boulevard. It
took him forty five minutes. Was twelve fifteen when he
left Jack Cannett's home.
Speaker 8: It must have been one of the two out of five.
Huh yeah, he seems okay. I wonder if I could
see that bill. Oh here you Gorjoe. Thanks, It looks okay.
Speaker 5: Replace five U four G tube dollars, sixty five service charge,
two fifty total charges four dollars and fifteen cents.
Speaker 8: That kind of bears out connects thinking doesn't remember. When
we ask him how many men work in the shop,
he said he's alone. Yeah, I think you'll find that
that's a pretty good barometer. All the servicemen working alone
aren't like this guy, But the bigger percentage of the
honest ones are.
Speaker 6: When's the next one due to arrive in any minute?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 8: Call the place with the name of Cheney's Video Repairs.
They over on Beverly Boulevard and had a big end.
It looks like a pretty big outvent. Oh here's that
other defective tube that Dick gave us.
Speaker 6: Yeah, better get it in. He's sad.
Speaker 8: Yeah, let's see here we are. Five few, four, g Okay,
here you go, thanks Joe, here's a new one the
guy put in.
Speaker 6: Got it?
Speaker 8: Okay, I get this back on again. Okay, yeah, fine,
better turn it on to make sure it's not working.
Speaker 6: I got it. How about the two bend? Can you see?
Is it lighting up?
Speaker 12: No?
Speaker 6: Not yet. I pushed his set back against the wall.
We better leave it on for a while, Jack, just
to make sure. Yeah, here we are. I gave you
the other tube. Yeah, I got it right here in
my pocket.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 6: I'd like to try something if you follower thing, it'll
be okay, what's it?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 7: I got a good little camera, like a three y
F you know, Candid. I think maybe if I turn
all the three way lamps up to four. Here's a
triple A fast film. It's in the camera now, maybe
we can grab some shots at the gun while he works.
Speaker 5: What do you think, Well, if you're careful, don't let
him get wise. Maybe you ought to shoot some of
all of us, just so he doesn't think anything about it.
Speaker 7: Yeah, that's what I figured out. Just sit down on
that chair over there. But the set make him think
I'm just testing or something. I think I can bring
it off without arousing any suspicion. Okay, by get anything,
the guy's out of line. Will run the shots in
the daily news.
Speaker 8: What do you figure on doing, Jackie gonna run a
series on the TV repair racket.
Speaker 7: Yeah, that's the plan, leap Pain. He's our executive editor.
He thinks it's high time somebody exposed a swindle in
the paper and it'll be the next service man. I
let him in, right, better turn off the set.
Speaker 10: Yeah, television repair. That's why I learn from change and
Beverly Blue Boy.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, come on here, thanks.
Speaker 10: Oh what's used to be the trouble?
Speaker 6: We don't know?
Speaker 10: Is that's right over here?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 10: Thanks?
Speaker 13: Kay Halbert? Huh sixteen inch nice set? Oh what seems
to be wrong? If I knows something? Nothing seems to work.
Speaker 10: What do you mean?
Speaker 6: No?
Speaker 10: Picture's tall? How about sound?
Speaker 6: Nothing?
Speaker 10: Uh huh, I'll be alright to pull the set away
from the wall.
Speaker 6: Here, go right are and give you a hand.
Speaker 10: Oh no, it's sorry, I can handle well.
Speaker 6: I make some tools out.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 10: How long you have this set?
Speaker 6: Oh about two or three months?
Speaker 10: Dark in here? I wonder if we could have a
little more light.
Speaker 6: Sure, I'm gonna get these lamps up for you.
Speaker 10: Thanks.
Speaker 6: How's that?
Speaker 13: Oh fine? Thanks? Say it's a nice little camera you
got there. What kind is it?
Speaker 7: I like three f one to five limbs? An experimenting
with some new indoor film. Do you mind being a
guinea pig?
Speaker 10: It's all right with me. Shaneaway's good film on me, though, I.
Speaker 6: Think you're gonna get anything in this light yet.
Speaker 10: Maybe worth a try anyway, I don't know about this set.
Speaker 6: What do you mean?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 13: It looks bad, hard to tell without getting it down
to the shop. Looks to me like your blocking transformers gone.
Speaker 6: And what's that mean? Well, I take the set in,
can't fix it here?
Speaker 10: Huh, I'm afraid not.
Speaker 13: You see, your parts are getting a little hard to
get these days, as set manufacturers are having a tough
time getting quality parts, and sometimes we have to spend several.
Speaker 10: Hours just tracing the trouble.
Speaker 5: Well, I guess that knocks out the ball game tonight,
I fellas sorry, take a couple of.
Speaker 10: Days at least, want to really check it over.
Speaker 6: Sure it's not a tube? What kind of stuff? Just
blue eye?
Speaker 13: No, that's what most people think every time their set
goes out. It's definitely not a tube. Oh, it might
be some bad tubes. But your trouble's a great deal
more than that.
Speaker 6: I think you got any idea what it's gonna run us.
Speaker 10: It's hard to say right off hand.
Speaker 6: Four or five dollars.
Speaker 10: No, it's gonna run more than that.
Speaker 13: I'll take the setting with me now, and I'll get
it back to you as soon as possible.
Speaker 6: You're gonna take the whole set, No.
Speaker 13: I'll just pull a chassis out of the cabinet. Leave
the cabinet here. Oh say, by the way, yeah.
Speaker 10: If everything turns out, it you'd like to see those pictures.
Speaker 6: Yeah, if everything turns out, you will.
Speaker 4: You are listening to Dragnet Authentic Cases from official police files.
Speaker 5: Thursday, January twenty second, nine am, the TV set was
returned to reporter Jack Cannett's home after having been repaired
by a servicing company called Cheney's Video Repairs. We found
that the man who had come to Cannet's home to
make the service call was Robert V. Cheney, the owner
of the service outfit.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 5: As soon as the set was returned, we called the
sound lab and had it picked up and taken downtown.
Sergeant Marshall Zeno, who was working with us out of
Bunco Detail, called and said that Dick Saunders had finished
his investigation and wanted to see us right away. Ten
thirty am. We went down to West First Street the
Police sound Lab. Saunders went over his findings with us.
Speaker 12: Here are the photographs before and after. Before we go
over these, let me show you what we found out
about your repair job. Okay, Oh, here's that receipt Chaney
he gave you when he returned the set. Yeah, here's
what the repair bill states. Replaced vertico blocking transformer replaced
five U four G tube, six AU six tube and
twelve AU seven tube.
Speaker 6: And the charge was thirty two dollars and fifty cents.
Speaker 12: Plus ninety eight cents tax, or a total of thirty
three dollars and forty eight cents.
Speaker 6: Well, how does that break down, Dick?
Speaker 12: What appears that the ninety eight cents tax was for
twenty eight dollars worth of material used in the repair.
Speaker 6: Did they really put in all that stuff?
Speaker 12: You got yourself a prize package in that outfit. All
they did was to replace the five U four G tube.
Speaker 6: That's all they did.
Speaker 12: Yeh, here's the capper. The five U four g is
a war surplus tube, but it works. Okay.
Speaker 6: What else did you find?
Speaker 12: According to the photographs and coding system, no vertical blocking
transformers six a U six tube or twelve AU seven
tube were replaced. Let's get back the potus here. You
can take these along for your package. You see in
the set here, you know, let me show you see
this tube is the only part mentioned in the receiver.
Otherwise it doesn't carry our green paint coating system. Let
me turn the set around. Here the channel selector here this, yeah,
that's the tuning knob to bring in the station's channel selector.
They call it turn't it?
Speaker 6: Okay?
Speaker 12: Falls off pretty easy, doesn't it?
Speaker 6: Sure does? He? Thanks?
Speaker 12: They left out the spring clip in here. It should
have been put back in because that's what hold of
the knob secured to the shaft.
Speaker 6: I've had that happen on radio sets.
Speaker 12: Yeah. Sometimes they're a little stubborn to put back in.
But a good repairman never leave it. H Yeah, something
else here to sit around in the back.
Speaker 6: I'll get it there. Oh, thanks Ben?
Speaker 12: See her See how loose the chassis he is in
the cabinet now?
Speaker 6: It sure is.
Speaker 12: Wasn't that way when we got it from the Kay
Halbert dealer anymore than the channel selector was faulty. Perfect
shap from the guy. Look at the size of that chassis.
It's pretty heavy, yeah it is. Originally there were four
screws used to hold the chassis in the wood cabinet.
Cheney's repair outfit only put one back in. One screw
to hold that heavy chassis. It's a pretty sloppy job,
all right. You know what they'd probably tell you if
you ask him about this.
Speaker 6: It only requires one screw.
Speaker 12: The bad repairment can always improve on factory standards, usually
for his own convenience, certainly doesn't improve the product.
Speaker 6: Well, it looks like we got what we were after.
I think we got enough, Joe, I do. Let's see
what the city attorney thinks.
Speaker 5: We collected all the evidence in the case against Cheney's
video Repairs. We met with Captain McCauley and took it
up to the second floor of the City Hall. We
met with Assistant City Attorney Boyd Taylor and showed him
our findings.
Speaker 6: He issued a warrant for the arrest of Robert W.
Speaker 5: Cheney, charging him with violation of Section forty four PC,
one count eleven. Thirty am Thursday, January twenty second, Ben
and I drove out to make the arrest.
Speaker 6: Jack Kennett went along with us. This is it Cheney's
video repairs. Yeah, come on, Jack, there's Cheney behind the car. Yeah,
oh there, all right?
Speaker 10: How's the set working?
Speaker 6: All right?
Speaker 10: We did a good job on that one. Gave you
a better break on the price, and I thought we could.
Speaker 6: You know, police officers, you're under arrest.
Speaker 10: Were your kidding?
Speaker 13: What for petty theft? Come on, let's go petty theft? Well,
I don't understand. You're the fellows I fix that set
for up and cress and drive.
Speaker 10: Aren't you.
Speaker 6: That's right? Your bill was a little high, wasn't it.
Speaker 10: Oh No, wait a minute. If that's all that's bother,
you know, let's talk it over.
Speaker 6: Come on, let's go.
Speaker 13: Look, I can fix that up with you guys. Just
tell me how much you want to pay and we'll
work out something.
Speaker 5: That seems to be the way you worked to every
PAYI AD deal right from the start, when you didn't
can sell us about it till now.
Speaker 13: Well, look, you know how it is in this business.
If you don't charge some customers a little money, they
don't think you did anything to their sets.
Speaker 6: You gotta try charging them for just the work you do.
Speaker 10: Can't we get together on this thing. Let's just forget
the whole deal.
Speaker 13: You don't know me anything. Now Here here, I'll refund
all your money. We'll call it square.
Speaker 6: Never mind, just leave them money in the cash register
and get your code.
Speaker 8: Can't prove anything anyway, we think we can just step
around the counter this way.
Speaker 10: Look, mister, you're not a cop, are you?
Speaker 3: Oh not?
Speaker 10: Well, then tell them this isn't not a fair deal.
Speaker 13: I'll give you back your money, trait. It's a little
late for that, chenny phone. Let's get some the papers
be ruined. You run out of business.
Speaker 6: That's the way we got it figured. How many men
you have working here for you? Four? Why this right here?
You ever read this?
Speaker 3: What is it?
Speaker 10: Oh? The thing from the RTA?
Speaker 6: Here? Read article two? Would you?
Speaker 3: Two?
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 13: I will conduct myself and my business in an honest
and straightforward manner, meriting and inspiring the confidence of my customers.
Speaker 10: Yeah, I know about this.
Speaker 6: You remember the RTA Radio Technicians Association at you? Yeah,
I am read Article four?
Speaker 13: Would I propose to charge justin fair price for all
professional services rendered?
Speaker 6: And I read this article seven.
Speaker 13: I will engage only in fair and ethical practices recommended
and approved by the Radio Technicians Association as being conducive
to public confidence.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 10: I read all this before.
Speaker 6: It's too bad you didn't remember it.
Speaker 2: The story you have just heard was true, only the
names were changed to protect the innocent.
Speaker 4: On April fifteenth, trial was held in Superior Court, Department
eighty two, City and County of Los Angeles, State of California.
In a moment, the results of that trial and now
here is our star, Jack Webb.
Speaker 6: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 5: In the few remaining moments, we'd like to take this
opportunity to thank you once again for your many kind
letters of encouragement that come in from week to week.
And also we'd like to answer a few questions about
our program which seem common to many of the letters
that we receive from you. Many of you have inquired
why at the end of the program, in recounting the
punishment of the criminal involved in the particular case, we
generally refer to the sentence received as the term prescribed
by law. Well, we use this reference for the following reason.
In the state of California, the length of a convicted
crist criminal's prison term is not set by the court,
but by the state adult authority. Most of the time,
a criminal is merely found guilty by the court and
then sentenced to the state penitentiary. After he serves a
year in prison, the convict has a hearing before this
state adult authority, at which time his actual sentence is set.
So you can see why we can't give you the
actual sentence in many cases. Now, other questions common to
many of your letters concerned some of the authentic technical
police terminology which comes up from time to time on dragnet.
With the help of George Fennemon, we'd like to explain
some of the more common ones for you if we may.
Speaker 6: First, you've heard us used the.
Speaker 12: Term or the letters APB APB that's in All Points
bulletin a communication dispatched to all divisions and law enforcement
agencies throughout the state.
Speaker 6: And then we feel sure that you remember the term
mama sheet.
Speaker 2: A mama sheet is the master information inform on a
criminal in a police department file. It contains his complete description,
his habits, relatives, acquaintances, everything about him known to the police.
Speaker 5: Thank you, George, and thank you ladies and gentlemen for
your very fine letters from time to time. If we may,
we'll take this opportunity to explain a few more of
our authentic police terminology.
Speaker 6: Thank you.
Speaker 4: Robert W. Cheney, owner and operator of Cheney's Video Repairs,
was tried and convicted on several counts of violating Section
forty four PC petty theft. He was fined two hundred
dollars and received the sentence as prescribed by law. Petty
theft is punishable by imprisonment in the County Jail for
not more than six months.
Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen, Dragnett wishes to thank the Los Angeles
Daily News and its feature writer Jack Connett for their
valuable assistance in preparing this case for present. It is
our combined belief and knowledge that not all television repair
servicemen are dishonest and unscrupulous in their practices. A great
percentage of these technicians are forthright and conduct their business
in strict compliance with the Code of Ethics. It is
these men who, when informed of the unfair conditions that
exist in their trade, will drive the dishonest and crooked
from their profession.
Speaker 4: You have just heard drag Met, a series of authentic
cases from official files. Technical advice comes from the Office
of Chief of Police W. H. Parker, Los Angeles Police Department.
Speaker 6: It's the Silver Jubilee on NBC.
Speaker 2: For twenty five years, NBC has been bringing you the
very best in radio entertainment.
Speaker 7: Listen now to another exciting story on Counterspy coming up
on MBC.
Speaker 1: Welcome back, Well. This was definitely an important episode for
its time. Television was still in the process of adoption
in nineteen fifty only nine percent of American households had
a television set. This would expand to twenty three percent
by the end of nineteen fifty one, so there were
going to be far more television set owners who could
be victimized, so it was viotal to get this warning out.
The timelessness comes back to one comment that Romero made
that the something very similar it happened when radio came out,
and that it happened with every new technology. And while
it's not exactly the same, every new technology, and we
have seen so many over recent years, comes with a
new type of scam. It was also kind of prizing
they use the actual name of the reporter as a
character in the story. They do that often with police,
but kind of different, but I understand why they did it.
I also enjoyed the Jack Web answering the listener questions segment,
and I don't think they did anymore, which is kind
of a shame, because it would be great to have
those around because sometimes there are unanswered questions or things
that we don't know about, or we just have to
kind of guests, and so it's great to have something
a bit more authoritative that you can sign to. All right,
listener comments and feedback. Now and we go to Spotify
and we have a couple of comments on The Big Sophomore.
Don Wright's Wow, this one had Johnny Dollar level sorrow.
I'm pretty sure people listening to the original would have
turned off the radio, turned to each other and said,
just happened. It would be interesting to figure out how
listeners reacted to this particular episode. It's not one of
the ones that's frequently talked about, but it is kind
of a pattern of drag now and you can see
it going into the nineteen sixties TV series as well,
of talking about issues that are generally not dealt with
or we're not generally dealt with at the time, particularly
when it comes to kids and their plot and so
calling to mind this sort of reality that could very
well have been going on in the listener's own communities.
I think it's a challenging thing and certainly some listeners
might not have quite known what to make of it.
And then Harrison wrote The Big Sophomore. Indeed, the things
he had to deal with and we'll have to deal
with psychologically for the rest of his life are herculean
for anyone to deal with, let alone a teenager. Very true, Harrison.
All right, well, now it's time to thank our Patreon
supporter of the day, and I want to go ahead
and think Todd Uh. Todd has been one of our
Patreon supporters since January twenty twenty two, currently supporting the
podcast at the Shawmus level of four dollars or more
per month. Thank you so much for your support, Todd,
and that will do it for today. If you're enjoying
the podcast, please follow us using your favorite podcast software.
And if you are enjoying the podcast on YouTube, be
sure to lock the video, subscribe to the channel, and
mark the notification bell. We'll be back next Thursday with
another episode of Dragonet. But join us back here tomorrow
for yours truly, Johnny Dollar.
Speaker 14: Where well, Journey, we fix this place up real night,
since you've seen that you always.
Speaker 6: Spend a lot of dawn, so so we want to
buy insurance on it.
Speaker 15: Oh well, then hop on over to George down and
see your old friend Joe pick A Tello about it.
Speaker 6: After all, he's your insuranceation, yeah is he? Well?
Speaker 15: Sure what cars he is? Didn't he send you all
the other insurance you lefty? Had something happened to Joe.
Speaker 3: Yeah, only I don't know what it is.
Speaker 6: What do you mean?
Speaker 3: What is just?
Speaker 8: I don't know.
Speaker 14: I talked to him on the phone, asked him to
come out here. He says okay, but he don't come.
Thank somebody's knocked him off.
Speaker 3: And I called him again.
Speaker 14: He's sukay again, give me right over, but he.
Speaker 3: Still don't come.
Speaker 15: Well, have you gone over to Georgetown to see him,
to see what's the matter?
Speaker 5: Five?
Speaker 3: Six, maybe even a half a dozen times?
Speaker 1: What every time?
Speaker 14: He ain't lefty? I don't get it. That's what I'm
trying to tell you. There's something wrong about it, Johnny.
And if I want you, I come down here and
fine on.
Speaker 1: I hope you'll be with us then in the meantime,
send your comments to Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot yet,
follow us on Twitter Radio Detectives. Check us out on Instagram, Instagram,
dot com, slash Great Detectives from Boise the Altohol. This
to your host, Adam Graham, signing off,