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 Dragging It.
But first I do want to encourage you, if you're
enjoying the podcast, to please follow us using your favorite
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his little last two dollars per month now from June seventh,
nineteen fifty one. Here is the big impostor.
Speaker 2: The story you're about to hear is true, only the
names have been changed to protect the innocents. You're a
detective sergeant. You're assigned to Missing Persons detail. A ten
year old boy disappears from his home in a remote
section of the city two nights and two days past.
Speaker 3: There's not a trace of the boy.
Speaker 2: Your job find out.
Speaker 4: Drag Net the documented drama of an actual crime. Well
the next thirty minutes, in cooperation with the Los Angeles
Police Department, you will travel step by step on the
side of the law through an actual case transcribed from
official police files, from beginning to end, from crime to punishment.
Dragnet is the story of your police force and action.
Speaker 5: It was Wednesday, August fourth, was hot in Los Angeles.
We're working the day watch out of Juvenile Bureau. My
partner's Ben Romero. The boss's Inspector Bowling. My name's Frany.
We were on the way out from the office and
it was two twenty five pm when we got to
Bowers Avenue, number twelve eighteen.
Speaker 3: Yees police officers. Man would like to see mister Sherman.
Speaker 6: We'll certainly, officers, won't you come in?
Speaker 7: Thank you very much.
Speaker 6: I'm from next door. I saw you around here yesterday. Yes, ma'am,
came over this morning look after poor mister Sherman.
Speaker 3: Yes, ma'am. Well, how's he feeling today too?
Speaker 6: Well? Fixed him some nice chicken broth for lunch, and
then I helped him in his wheel chair and took
him out in the backyard out in the sun, good
hot sun. It's wonderful for his legs. He has arthritis, you.
Speaker 3: Know, Yes, so we understand. What if we could talk
to him, Miss.
Speaker 6: Kelly, Well, yes, I guess you have to. He's still
out in the back sleep in his chair. Last time
I looked, seems ashamed of disturb him.
Speaker 7: Well, he called us at the office that he wanted
to see as as soon as we could make it
out here.
Speaker 6: Was it about his grandson, Jimmy? They called him?
Speaker 7: Yet no man searching parties calling in the area. There's
still no trace of the boy.
Speaker 3: Did any of the other.
Speaker 5: Officers who were out here covering the neighborhood talk to you,
miss Kelly.
Speaker 6: Oh, yes, there was mister Lorman, Detective Lorman.
Speaker 3: Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 6: I told him everything I knew about Jimmy's disappearance. It
was right after dinner hour on Monday, about six thirty
last time I saw Jimmy.
Speaker 3: I see.
Speaker 6: I came out the side door were to empty the garbage,
and I saw Jimmy hiking up the side of the
hill there just in back the house, all by himself.
Nice boy.
Speaker 7: As far as you know, missus Keller, Jimmy is mister
Sherman's only living relative.
Speaker 6: That's right. His only relative, his only grandchild. Jimmy's mother
and father were killed in an auto wreck that was
three or four years ago. Sherman's had a terrible lot
of tragedy. Jimmy and his grandfather, they're the only ones left.
Speaker 5: You can't think of any reason why the boyould want
to leave his grandfather.
Speaker 6: King, none at all. Mister Sherman's a wonderful man. Jimmy
loved him.
Speaker 8: I knew then, Missus Keller, Missus Keller.
Speaker 6: We can go through the house out the back this way.
Speaker 3: Thank you, go ahead of him.
Speaker 6: Yeah, okay, visitors for you, Missus Sherman. How are you
feeling all right?
Speaker 9: I suppose? Hellos? What about the boy? Have you found
him yet?
Speaker 5: Well, nothing yet, mister Sherman. We've added more men to
the searching party. We're doing everything we can.
Speaker 9: I'm gone two nights and two days. Tell me the truth, sergeant,
what's happened to the boy?
Speaker 7: All right?
Speaker 10: Now?
Speaker 3: We don't know any more about it than you do, Servant.
That's no reason to give up, hope.
Speaker 7: You told us yourself yesterday that Jimmy's been messing once before.
It turned out alright that time he.
Speaker 8: Wasn't gone for two nights and two days.
Speaker 9: Maybe you just say I'm old and I've got funny ideas,
But I got a feeling, Sergeant, something's happened to Jimmy.
Speaker 8: Something's happened, and I can't do anything about it.
Speaker 6: You just put those thoughts out of your head, mister Sherman.
They're gonna find Jimmy. It's gonna be all right. Why
don't you pull up those lawn chairs there, Sergeant. Right,
I'm gonna go in the house and fix some coal
lemonade for you. Man.
Speaker 11: Well, thank you man.
Speaker 5: We got your phone message at the office, mister Sherman,
anything specially you wanted to talk to us about.
Speaker 9: Yes, there was something when you were talking to me yesterday. Yes, Sir,
I told you that Jimmy had on a brown jacket
when he disappeared Monday night. Yeah, I was wrong, Sergeant.
We found the jacket in his room. All he was
wearing was a pair of blue jeans in this white sweatshirt.
Speaker 8: Do you think that might help any.
Speaker 3: Yes, sir, it might.
Speaker 5: We'll send out a supplementary description of his clothes. We'll
see that everybody's notified.
Speaker 9: Just wish I could be out there with a searching party.
Aps writers is pretty bad today. It caught me in
a terrible time. I don't know what I'd do if
anything happened to the boy.
Speaker 7: I know we have asked you this before, mister Sherman,
but can you think of any reason at all why
your grandson would want to leave home?
Speaker 9: No, sir, no reason at all. Those two colligue pops
over there in the pin Jimmy just bought him last
week with his own money saved up together. The boy's
crazy about dogs. That's why I say, just wouldn't pick
up and leave everything. Boy and me got a long fine.
No reason for it, Sagean. Something's happened to the boy.
Speaker 8: I just got a.
Speaker 7: Feeling offer, Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 6: A telephone call for either one out here.
Speaker 3: I'll get it, Ben, I'll be right back.
Speaker 6: All right, is your office calling?
Speaker 3: Thank you, miss Keller.
Speaker 6: Where's that telephone? Straight back there in the hall?
Speaker 3: Thank you very much. Friday talking.
Speaker 12: This is Pooling.
Speaker 11: Joe just heard from the search.
Speaker 3: Party up of the hill or did they find something?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 13: In the Allian Fark carrier by the upper reservoir. Huh
found a pair of kids trousers right by the edge
of the water.
Speaker 3: What kind of trousers, blue jeans?
Speaker 13: Nothing in the pockets. They'll start dragging for a body
as soon as they get the equipment. Check it out
with a grandfather. Huh see if the boy was in
the habit of hiking up there around the reservoir.
Speaker 5: Right, we'll call in just before we leave here, right, Joe, Right, bye.
Speaker 6: Well, there's your lemonade, sergeant, just port it for you nicely.
Speaker 3: Thank you, ma'am.
Speaker 8: What was it something about the boy?
Speaker 5: Well, nothing definite, no, sir, Just to report on the
search party. They're still up in the Allegian Park area.
Speaker 8: Oh, I see.
Speaker 5: Did your grandson Jimmy do much hiking in that neighborhood there,
mister Sherman.
Speaker 8: Yes, I think he did. Likes to hike up there
on the reservoir.
Speaker 5: Why the name on the three sixteen report missing juvenile
read James Phillip Sherman, WMA, ten years old. He lived
with his sixty eight year old grandfather, Oscar Sherman, and
a small cottage in a sparsely populated section of the city.
Shortly after six pm on Monday, the boy went outside
to play when darkness fell, and he failed to return home.
His crippled grandfather went out to look for him. Half
an hour later, the neighbors joined in in the search.
No sign of the boy. At ten pm, Juvenile Bureau
was notified, and throughout the night squads of men on
foot and cruiser cars canvassed the area. A local broadcast
and an all points bulletin was gotten out on the boy.
Neither the grandfather or the neighbors could find any reason
for his disappearance.
Speaker 3: After almost forty eight hours of.
Speaker 5: Continuous searching, the only lead we had was the pair
of trousers found on the edge of the Upper Reservoir
in Alegian Park. They were to the grandfather, but he
failed to give positive identification. Dragging operations at the reservoir
began immediately. Meantime, Ben and I, together with Lorman and
Lopez from Homicide, checked out every possible lead on the
missing youngster. One of the tips came from a Frank Grady,
an unemployed carpenter who lived five blocks from the Sherman home.
Speaker 14: I don't know how much is maybe worth you, Sergeant.
I don't want to get anybody into trouble, but I
figured this is a pretty important thing.
Speaker 12: What is it?
Speaker 7: You want to tell us, mister Grady, Well, as.
Speaker 14: I say, I don't want to get anybody in any trouble,
but have you checked over everybody in this neighborhood?
Speaker 7: I think we've talked just about everybody in there. You
don't jujo well either us of the man from homicide.
Speaker 14: Why he asked Grady, Well, there's a guy who's down
the street there, right down the corner from this house,
old guy by name on Gilby.
Speaker 3: What about him?
Speaker 14: I say, I don't want to cause any trouble, but
maybe you ought to double check him. One thing, his
next convict and all that. Another thing. He hates everybody
in the neighborhood, hates the kids too. Wouldn't be surprised
if he was man.
Speaker 7: Why do you say that, Griddy? Does he have any
special reason for disliking the Sherman boy?
Speaker 14: Oh, Man Gilby wouldn't need a reason. A real queer
one say, I got a couple of cans of cold
beer in the icebox and I fixed you follows up?
Speaker 5: What makes you think this Gilby had anything to do
with the boys disappearance, mister.
Speaker 14: Grady, Well, number one, I saw man Gilby out walking
Monday night when the Sherman kid disappeared. Yeah, saw him
walking along the road up there, the same one that
goes up by the reservoir, and I watched him. It
was dark by the time he got back to his house,
and check on him again if I were you as.
Speaker 7: Sure as you know. Has Gilby ever been in trouble
for bothering the kids in the neighborhood?
Speaker 14: Oh, sergeanty bothers everybody in the neighborhood. Real queer lives
by himself, always complaining about something.
Speaker 11: Frankly, I think he's your man.
Speaker 8: I think he took that kid and he did something
to him.
Speaker 3: Do you have anything at all to back up your opinion.
Speaker 14: You dig her on, you'll find something on him.
Speaker 11: There's no good, no bed on it.
Speaker 14: I've had a couple of runnings with him myself. He
just isn't any good.
Speaker 5: That's all well, all right, Grady, thanks for the tip.
We'll be sure and double check on the man.
Speaker 14: You won't tell him where you got the tip though, huh.
Like I say, I've had run ins with him before.
It might cause trouble.
Speaker 3: No, he won't know where we got it.
Speaker 14: Thanks again, Okay, sergeant, that's a pretty important thing. I
didn't want to make anybody look bad. But oh man,
it's just no good. You understand that, don't you?
Speaker 3: Sure, Graddy? We understand.
Speaker 5: As a matter of routine, we double checked on Grady's neighbor,
mister Harold Gilby. We found out that he had no
jail record and that he had been at work on
Monday from three to eleven pm. He could have had
no direct connection with the Sherman boys disappearance, no more
than Gritty himself could have had. The so called tip
he'd offered us was like one hundred other phony leads
in one hundred other cases, spiteful small minded neighbors trying
to use the tragic situation to work out their jealousies
and prejudice on somebody that they didn't get along with
in the neighborhood. The search continued, so did the hot weather. Friday,
August sixth, sign of the missing boy, the temperature climbed
into the mid nineties. Dragging operations at the reservoir went
on Saturday, August seventh, more legwork, more hot weather. By noontime,
Ben and I had run down the last lead we
had on ten year old Jimmy Sherman went nowhere, one pm.
We headed back for the office to check with Inspector Bowling.
Speaker 7: These are the days when I wish I had a
little swimming pool in my backyard. Grew'll be nice to
go home too, you know, I'll save your money. Oh
it doesn't cost some munch. No. I read in a
magazine where a fellow built his own pool for ninety
five dollars and thirty seven cents.
Speaker 3: It can't be much of a pool, can it.
Speaker 7: Oh? Yeah, it's good size.
Speaker 8: Of course.
Speaker 7: He did all his own labor, had all his friends
in to help out. He must have had a lot
of friends, didn't, Yeah, he did after he finished the pool.
Speaker 15: Al Right, Hey benh hi skipper, how'd you two make
out anything?
Speaker 3: I don't no luck at all.
Speaker 11: It makes you unanimous. Did you hear about the old
man boy's grandfather?
Speaker 7: No, what happened.
Speaker 11: I guess the strain got too much for him.
Speaker 3: Lapsed.
Speaker 11: They're moving him to a hospital. Oh it's too bad.
Speaker 3: Our men still up their dragnant.
Speaker 11: Reservoir finished this morning? Nothing?
Speaker 7: How about the search party? Nothing there either, I suppose.
Oh I'm not a trace of the boy. It's a
blind alley all the way around. How about the APU B.
The radiogram had three replies so far, none of them
fanned out.
Speaker 15: You're a rabbit, juvenile br our Bowling there for it?
No good eh, all right, check you later. I heard
it once, I heard it fifty times. No trace of
the boy. That means, Kipper, something real weird about the
whole thing.
Speaker 5: Well, little look, we know he didn't just disappear into
the thin air. Kid's gone. There's a good reason for it.
There's got to be an answer somewhere.
Speaker 11: That's right, you'll find it.
Speaker 5: Another week passed, and then a month, two months. We
were no farther along than the day we started on
the case. In November, we had a teletype from Chief
Earl Claire of the Phoenix, Arizona Police Department reportedly the
Sherman boy had been seen in Phoenix. Was another false alarm.
The Christmas holidays wore on into a new year. February
came and went, then March April. Tuesday, May third, Ben
and I got a call to check in with Inspector Bowling.
Speaker 11: This telegram just came in from Dayton, Ohio. I'm love,
thank you.
Speaker 7: Let's see Joe. What is it?
Speaker 5: Jimmy Sherman they found him. Nine months had gone by,
almost to the day since the Sherman boy had disappeared.
The grandfather was contacted immediately. When he was told his
grandson had been found and that he was safe, the
old man was unable to answer.
Speaker 3: He broke down and wept.
Speaker 5: In our communications with the Dayton, Ohio police, they told
us that the boy had been found wandering along a
highway just outside that city, and that he'd appeared to
be in a kind of a dazed condition. The boy
told the Dayton officers that he'd been kidnapped a short
distance from his home in Los Angeles by a man
in a blue sedan. He gave them detailed descriptions of
both the man and the car. He told them that
for the past nine months a man had held him prisoner,
driving from state to state, never letting the boy out
of his sight. He said the kidnapper told him on
several occasions that he was holding him for ransom and
that he was waiting to get money from his grandfather.
On May eighth, the youngster was returned to Los Angeles
and reunited with his grandfather. On May tenth, we got
a call from the grandfather that he wanted to talk
to us, Ben, and I drove out to see him.
Speaker 8: I'm right in ever since, glad to see it.
Speaker 7: How are you, sir when I miss him?
Speaker 8: Sorry to cause all this trouble chasing you out here.
Speaker 3: Like this, not at all, sir. What is it you
want to see us about?
Speaker 9: Well, I'm not really sure about it, Sachan. That's the
whole thing of it. I don't know if it's me
or what it is.
Speaker 7: What's bothering you, miss jim.
Speaker 8: It's the boy, Jimmy, I don't know what to see.
Speaker 3: Well, what do you mean, sir? He's all right, isn't he.
Speaker 5: We saw him as we drove up, playing out in
the backyard and the doctor checked him over here.
Speaker 8: No, it's not that. The boy's healthy enough, nothing wrong
with him.
Speaker 3: Well, then what is it, sir?
Speaker 9: Maybe it sounds a little weird to you, but I'm
just not sure. You're not sure what that boyart there? Sergeant,
I'm not sure he's really my grandson.
Speaker 4: You are in the communications division of a metropolitan police department,
the Teletype Room.
Speaker 16: Forty three Los five twenty nine fifty one twelve oh
three pm ap b WMA one fifty five t six,
dark haired, dark eyes, wearing gray suit, no hat. Suspect
is wearing glasses, heavy build, twenty two years Suspect is
armed with blue steel revolver.
Speaker 17: Any information forward, You have just heard a teletype description
of a suspect. This information will apply to many, but
screening will eliminate all but one.
Speaker 5: Tuesday, May tenth, two pm, when the aging grandfather Oscar
Sherman told us that he wasn't sure whether the recovered
boy was really his grandson, Ben and I didn't know
what to think. Our first reaction was that the shock
of recovering the boy after he'd almost been given up
for lost, had been too much for the old man.
Mister Sherman admitted that there was no physical difference in
the boy as far as he could see, but he
still insisted that there was something wrong, but the boy
seemed different somehow. To satisfy the grandfather, Ben and I
talked to the boy, but he failed to give us
any reason to believe that he was not Jimmy Sherman.
We checked with the boy's friends, all the people in
the neighborhood who'd known Jimmy over a period of years.
Speaker 3: They confirmed our opinion a few thought that.
Speaker 5: The youngster had changed a little, but no one had
any serious doubts about it. The boy was really Jimmy Sherman,
so the matter was dropped. Thursday, May twelfth, Ben and
I had lunch and then we checked back in at
the office.
Speaker 7: Joe, I want to grab.
Speaker 3: That juvenile bureau Friday mister, Yes, sir, Yes, sir, how
are you?
Speaker 12: I want you to come out and take this boy? Gotcha?
He's not my grandson, I'm sure of it.
Speaker 3: Well, how do you mean, sir, This boy's got a.
Speaker 12: Scar on his side.
Speaker 7: Yes, sir, my grandson never had an operation in his life.
Speaker 5: Before we left the office, Ben and I briefed Inspector
Bowling on the phone call from the grandfather.
Speaker 3: Then we drove back to the Sherman house.
Speaker 5: While Oscar Sherman didn't claim that he knew his grandson's
complete medical history, he was certain that the boy had
not had his appendix out and that he had not
had an operation. He told us that his neighbor, missus Keller,
could substantiate there that she had known Jimmy since.
Speaker 3: He was a baby. We put in a call to
the Sherman's family doctor. He wasn't in.
Speaker 5: We left a message, and then we went next door
to see missus Keller. We found her in the kitchen,
washing dishes.
Speaker 6: Got couple more to rents. Can wait a minute, yes,
of course, No, to tell you the truth, Sergeant. I
just don't know what to think about mister Sherman. Maybe
the whole thing was too much for him. As mine's
going back up.
Speaker 7: Do you at knowledge missus Keller was the boy ever
operated on?
Speaker 6: No, not as far as I know. As possibly he
did have an operation, I didn't hear about it. Sorry.
As far as I'm concerned that boys, Jimmy Sherman, I
don't know what his grandfather's up to with all that
silly talk.
Speaker 5: Well, if it's not really the boy, we won't have
too much trouble finding the truth.
Speaker 6: There's no question in my mind. Of course it's Jimmy.
Why when he was over here the other day he
talked about the party I gave for him one Halloween.
He even remembered the children who were there.
Speaker 3: Are the other neighbors as sure about the boy as
you are?
Speaker 6: Just about mis Foster down the street. Jimmy was in
to see her yesterday. He talked about some changes she'd
made in her living room, asked her about some relatives
she has living out of town. Think about it. Jimmy
even remarked on that new trailer rose I planted out
in front science as the boy's dogs. Why they knew
that youngster the minutity set foot in the yard.
Speaker 5: Yes, ma'am, well, thank you very much, missus Keller. If
we have any more questions, we'll contact CENTA.
Speaker 6: All right, sergeant, couldn't picture a cup of coffee? Could I?
Speaker 11: Oh?
Speaker 3: No, thank you to take the time now, poor.
Speaker 6: Mister Sherman, I don't know what to make of it.
Speaker 7: I'm so mixed up, yes, ma'am, so are we.
Speaker 5: We left the neighbor missus Keller, and went back next
door to the Sherman house. The grandfather told us that
the family doctor hadn't returned to our call yet.
Speaker 3: At three point thirty pm, the boy came.
Speaker 5: Home from school, changed his clothes, and went out into
the backyard to play. We figured we had nothing to
lose in talking to the boy again. We found him
in the small workshop at the rear of the garage,
where he was sawing on a piece of plywood with
a hacksaw. We talked to him for about twenty minutes.
It was no different than the first time we interviewed him.
It was relaxed and talkative.
Speaker 10: Say would you hand me that hamm of their officer?
Speaker 7: Oh? Yeah, yeah, here you go. Thanks.
Speaker 10: Why do I ever get this thing finished? It's gonna
be the best coaster around here. These are the wheels
I'm gonna put on it. Pretty good, aren't they?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 3: They look fine. Son. Do you like building things, coasters
and things like that? Oh?
Speaker 10: Yeah, I like it? Alright, it's fun.
Speaker 7: Your granddad says you've changed quite a bit since you
got back. Jim says you didn't like working around the
shop here before.
Speaker 10: Well, I guess I don't really. You know, once in
a while, I like to come out and fool around.
Speaker 7: Have you seen mister Barlow down the street since you
been back?
Speaker 10: Mister Barlow? No, I went down to see him, but
he wasn't home. Maybe I'll go down and see him tomorrow.
Speaker 3: His name isn't Barlow, is it, Ben? I thought it
was Robinson.
Speaker 10: Oh yeah, that's all right, mister Robinson. Sometimes I forget.
Speaker 3: How do you wouldn't your grandfather get along? Jim?
Speaker 11: All right?
Speaker 10: Oh?
Speaker 6: Sure?
Speaker 10: Every once in a while. It's kind of funny at me.
I don't know. I guess he's still worried about that
man taking me away.
Speaker 3: You know all I've been feeling lately, Jim Okay, sure, I.
Speaker 10: Feel fine, hardly ever get sick. That's good.
Speaker 3: You ever been in the hospital, son, ull just.
Speaker 10: Once had my appendix out. I hate hospitals. I can
I have that kend of nails there? Please?
Speaker 7: Oh? Yeah, yeah, here you are.
Speaker 10: I'm gonna make this good and strong.
Speaker 3: You know, I'd like to ask you a question, Son, Yeah,
what's your real name?
Speaker 10: Jimmy Sherman?
Speaker 6: You know that?
Speaker 3: No, I'd like to have the truth. Son, Who are you?
Speaker 10: He must be fooling officers. You know who I am?
Jimmy Sherman.
Speaker 5: No, Jimmy Sherman never had his appendix out, Son, But
you did, and you've got a sky to prove it.
Speaker 3: Haven't you?
Speaker 10: Sure I had my appendix out? Ask my grandpa. He'll
tell you.
Speaker 7: I'm Freddy, won't Son. He says he's not your grandfather.
He says you don't belong here. His grandson never had
an operation in his life.
Speaker 3: How about it's sin? Do you want to tell us
about it?
Speaker 10: Oh, Grandpa isn't feeling wrough. He doesn't know what he's seeing.
Speaker 3: Well, he knows you're done his grandson. Come on, what about.
Speaker 10: It's son, all right, I'm not Jimmy Schuman.
Speaker 5: He told us his real name was Donald Rush. He
said he'd run away from his home in Springfield, Ohio,
two weeks before. He said that he'd been picked up
by the police on a highway just on the outskirts
of Dayton, Ohio.
Speaker 3: On returning the boy.
Speaker 5: To the station, the police officers saw that he fitted
the description of the missing California boy perfectly, was almost
as if the two were identical twins. Under the impression
that the youngster was suffering from shock or amnesia, the
police officers told him all about his home and his
friends in California. They gave Donald Rush all the information
that they had on the missing Sherman Boy, all the
newspaper stories, pictures, the dozens of teletypes and circulars which
had been sent across the country in an effort to
locate the missing youngster. On his way out to California
on the train, the Rush boy was given dozens of
newspapers to read, which contained thousands of words concerning the
disappearance of Jimmy Sherman. So by the time he got
to Los Angeles, Donald rush knew everything he had to
know about the boy he was impersonating. We questioned the
Ohio youngster further. Besides an exceptionally high IQ, he admitted
to having an almost photographic memory. We took him in
the house to face the grandfather of the boy that
he'd been impersonating. The boy was still missing.
Speaker 7: Mister Sherman, Yes, sir, sit down, won't you. The boy
here has a confession for you. He wants to tell
you himself.
Speaker 8: And I think I know I was right all along,
wasn't my set.
Speaker 10: I didn't mean anything by it, mister. I just thought
it'd be fun to make up like somebody else for
a while.
Speaker 3: You wouldn't know the difference was just no, sir, afraid
I wouldn't a picture over there on the mattle, I'm
the boy here. They look exactly alike to me.
Speaker 8: There's only one thing I'd like to know.
Speaker 6: Yeah, why did you do it?
Speaker 8: Why'd you try and fool me?
Speaker 10: I don't know, mister. I ran away from home and
the cops picked me up in your date and he
thought my name was Jimmy Sherman. They said I was
missing kids from California.
Speaker 3: Why didn't you straighten him out right then? Son?
Speaker 10: I was kind of afraid if I told him what
my roommate was, they would have sent me back home.
So I just let him think I was really Jimmy Sherman,
and they seemed to be pretty sure I was.
Speaker 7: How long did you think you could keep it up, son,
pretending it were somebody I.
Speaker 10: Don't know, Yes, I never thought much about that. I
got here and everybody was nice to me. I just
didn't think about anybody finding out, honest, mister, I didn't
mean to do anything wrong. I didn't mean to hurt anybody.
Speaker 8: And you never saw my grandson. You never saw it, Jimmy.
Speaker 10: No, Sir, I just got on the train. They brought
me out here.
Speaker 3: You don't know where he is, You don't know how
it is, or I'd try to take it easy, mister Sherman.
Speaker 8: Why would you do it?
Speaker 7: Boy?
Speaker 8: You're a stranger. Why would you try to fool me
about Jimmy?
Speaker 10: Sorry, mister, I didn't mean it. I didn't mean it.
Speaker 11: Thought I hadn't.
Speaker 10: Come on then, Sir, I didn't want to make him
cry like that, Sergeant, honest, I'm sorry. Couldn't you just
let me stay here with him?
Speaker 3: No, I'm afraid not, Sam, I don't.
Speaker 10: Do anything wrong. Don't you think I could just stay
here with him. I'll go right back in there now,
I'm telling him, I'm sorry.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm sorry too, youngster, But you're not the boys
looking for.
Speaker 2: The story you have just heard was true, only the
names were changed to protect the innocent.
Speaker 4: On Wednesday, May twentieth, the meeting was held at the
Juvenile Bureau City in County of Los Angeles, State of California.
In a moment the results of that meeting, Donald Rush,
who impersonated missing ten year old Jimmy Sherman, was returned
to the custody of his parents at their home in Springfield, Ohio.
Four months later, the body of Jimmy Sherman was discovered
buried on a farm on the outskirts of Riverside, California.
The boy had been murdered. His killer, a farmer in
the neighborhood, was subsequently apprehended and brought to trial. He
was found guilty of murder in the first degree and
was executed at the state penitentiary San Quentin, California. You
have just heard Dragnet, 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 7: Stay tuned for Cowver Spy next over most NBC.
Speaker 3: Stations, welcome back.
Speaker 1: This is one of those stories which is stranger than fiction.
If you were telling this story on another detective show
about a ten year old boy who was able to
impersonate another ten year old boy on newspaper accounts and
mistaken identity, people would say, yeah, this is really far fetch,
that would never really happen. But given dragnettes based on
a true story setup, you've got to treat it as credible.
I did find myself wondering about this imposter kid's home life.
He clearly did not want to go home. Now. Of course,
sometimes kids do that for you know, perfectly normal, reasonable reasons,
but sometimes there's more going on there, and I wonder
whether that would have been interrogated more if this sort
of thing were to happen today. All right, well, listener
comments and feedback and have a comment from Alfred on
YouTube looking for a Joe Friday fan fiction of the
war years. Thanks for the comment. Now, we do know
from the episode The Big Escape that Joe Friday did
serve in World War Two, and that episode also introduced
us to one of his war bodies, but after that
we don't have any information of what went on. Now,
I'm not aware of anyone having taken up to write this,
and I am aware of dragging that fan fiction. And
while it's not inherently interesting, it could be interesting depending
on what people were able to come up with. You know,
Joe Friday was one of those war veterans who just
didn't talk about it, and there were a lot of
of men who served in war who were like that.
My wife's grandfather was one of those. So there'd be
a lot of room to speculate. Your only limitations really
in writing something like that, if you were wanting to
be consistent at all, is you'd have to listen to
The Big Escape and stay within the confines of the
limited information that is revealed about Joe's war service in
that episode, because I think that's the only one it's
talked about.
Speaker 7: Now.
Speaker 1: If you wanted to take an old time radio episode
and treat it as fan fiction about Joe Friday's war service.
You could take the episode Operation Fleur de Lee, where
the character played by Jack Webb is not giving his
real name because he's afraid of what might happen to him.
That character is pretty different from Joe Friday, but the
events of that story could be seen as so traumatically
transformative that they led to changes in personality. I think
that might be the only World War two old time
radio episode with Jack Webb. Of course it was broadcast
after the war. But thanks for the comment, and I
do want to go ahead and thank Kelly, Patreon supporter
since July twenty seventeen, currently supporting the podcast at the
Shawmus level of four dollars or more per month. Thanks
so much for your support, Kelly, and that will do
it for today. If you're enjoying the podcast, please follow
us using your favorite podcast software and be sure to
rate and review the podcast wherever you download it from.
We'll be back next Thursday with another episode of Dragnet.
But join us back here tomorrow for yours truly, Johnny
Dollar where.
Speaker 10: Picking us up in the air.
Speaker 15: Take a deep one, Johnny, you smell it?
Speaker 4: Tell us not kerosene. How I don't think it's gasoline either.
Speaker 2: Ib at trumping highly inflammable. The boys that chemical truck
could get it out, and I learn something first.
Speaker 4: These stores always stuck a lot.
Speaker 2: Of cleaning fluid stuff like that hus that are not inflammable.
Speaker 7: Well, how much, honey, look out.
Speaker 1: I hope you'll be with us then in the meantime,
send your comments to Box thirteen at Greatdetectives dot net,
follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives, and check us
out on Instagram, Instagram, dot com slash Great Detectives from
Boise Ataho. This is your host, Adam Graham signing off.