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 That.
But first I want to encourage you. If you're enjoying
the podcast, please follow us using your favorite podcast software.
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dot net and I want to thank our latest Patreon supporter,
Thank you to Brad coming on board at the Shawmus
level of four dollars or more per month. Thanks so
much for your support, Brad. And now from December thirteenth,
nineteen fifty one, here is the big overtime.
Speaker 2: He The story you were about to hear is true.
The names have been changed to protect the innocent. You're
a detective sergeant. You're assigned to homicide detail. A twenty
two year old girl has been abducted. Her family receives
an anonymous message. The abductive demands thirty thousand dollars for
the safe return of the girl.
Speaker 3: Your job get.
Speaker 4: Him Dragnet, 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 violence, from beginning to end, from crime to punishment.
Dragnet is the story of your police force in action.
Speaker 5: It was Tuesday, October eighteenth. That was cloudy in Los Angeles.
We were working the early morning watch out a homicide.
My partner's Ben Romero. The boss is Thad Brown, Chief
of Detectives.
Speaker 3: My name is Friday.
Speaker 5: I was on the way back from the Stat's office
and it was three twenty six am when I got
to Room forty two homicide.
Speaker 3: Hi Brian, Hi, that's the mugshots you wanted. Joe Ego, Oh,
thank you?
Speaker 6: The Captain Levia Hey waiting for me in the garage.
Speaker 3: You call back. I'm going to write now.
Speaker 5: Yeah, okay, I guess I better hustle it. See you
out there right, Brian. I'm sorry to wake you.
Speaker 7: Ben.
Speaker 3: This is Joe. How are you feeling?
Speaker 2: Oh a hi Joe?
Speaker 3: What time is it? Three thirty am? How's a sore throat?
Speaker 2: Is it not better?
Speaker 3: I want to be back to work tomorrow. We need
you now. Ben, you want to be ready about twenty minutes.
I'll pick you up. Twenty minutes.
Speaker 8: Okay, what's a minute.
Speaker 3: Man by the name of Martin Sullivan official down at
the Third National Bank.
Speaker 5: He's got a twenty two year old daughter, already had one.
Speaker 3: She's gone.
Speaker 5: Less than fourteen hours before at one o'clock the previous
afternoons with Sullivan was last scene driving off in a
car with a man who'd represented himself as a friend
of her father's.
Speaker 3: About eleven o'clock.
Speaker 5: That night, the Sullivan family received an anonymous letter demanding
thirty thousand dollars for the safe return of the girl.
It had been the only contact made thus far by
the abductor. As soon as we got word of what
had happened from the girl's father, a broadcast and an
APB had been gotten out. The entire force throughout the
city had been alerted. Three forty four am. I pulled
up in front of Ben's house.
Speaker 3: That good morning. Hi, you made good time. Hey, where
are we headed?
Speaker 5: The Sullivan home out on Castro Boulevard. Thad Brown's out
there now with Brian and In leeds to go on.
Speaker 3: No, not so far.
Speaker 5: The girl disappeared a little before one o'clock yesterday afternoon.
Speaker 3: Note from the abductor came through last night. They're asking
thirty thousand.
Speaker 5: I don't get it. Sullivan hasn't got that kind of money.
And I know that poor guys almost out of his mind.
Missus Sullivan too, they're all broken up in How did
it happened? Well, the girl was taken from a business
school that she goes to. Man had her called out
a class. He told her father was sick, said he
was a friend of the families.
Speaker 3: How about the teachers, what was their story?
Speaker 5: Well, I said the girl didn't want to go with
a man at first, but he finally talked her into it,
kept telling her father was dying.
Speaker 3: Yea's the thing. Did he use the car?
Speaker 5: Yeah, blue sedan, that's all we know. Witnesses didn't get
the make of the license number. Any description on the man. Yeah,
they say about five feet nine hundred and sixty, brown
suit and dark hair.
Speaker 3: You know that's it. Here's a copy of the letter
that the Sullivan's got. You can read. It's the usual.
Speaker 9: All right, I have your daughter, Judy get thirty thousand
dollars quick. If you want her back alive, don't call
police or I'll kill her. Contact you later, signed the
wool who's the kid?
Speaker 3: I don't know. I could think of a better name.
Here we are. Who's got the original note? Joey? I
am lad there checking it for Prince and handwriting.
Speaker 6: Hi Joe Romero in living Thank you Doe.
Speaker 8: That's the way I see it, mister Sullivan. You understand
exactly what.
Speaker 3: You have to do now.
Speaker 9: Yes, I'll do as you say, all right, sir. Here
the two men will help you. Serge in Friday and
Romero Central homicide. Alright, mister Brown, are you sure about
all this?
Speaker 6: I keep thinking he might get frightened, he might do
something to it.
Speaker 9: Believe me, mister Sullivan. It's the only way I know
how you must feel. But we can't do anything else.
Speaker 3: All right.
Speaker 9: I want to see missus Sullivan first, when you excuse me,
be ready in a moment.
Speaker 6: All right, fine, what is it?
Speaker 3: Cheap? Any development?
Speaker 9: Back here in the dining room? Yeah, it's it on
the table. Second note from the guy?
Speaker 3: When did it come? Half an hour ago? Guy?
Speaker 9: I had delivered by a special messenger. He used a
plain envelope messenger. Kid didn't know anything about it, doesn't
remember what the guy looked like.
Speaker 5: Let's see Joe, Yeah, he says, meet me an Alesioned
park five o'clock this morning, near a bulk and drive
come alone, Bring thirty thousand. We'll return girl. They'll tell
the cops. I'll kill her if you do. It's the
same signature wolf. Not much time, Chief, it's four am.
Speaker 9: Now I know what we'll have to do. As he says,
there's no other way. Sullivan's going out there alone, as.
Speaker 8: You're going with him, You and Romera and be hidden
in the trunk of his car.
Speaker 3: All right, anything else? Any plan you want us to follow?
Got him? That's four or fifteen am.
Speaker 5: Ben and I went out back to the garage where
mister Sullivan's car was parked. We jammed ourselves into the
trunk compartment and Brian closed the door on us. The
latch was rigged so that we could push open the
door from the inside. A few minutes later, mister Sullivan
came out, got in the car, and we drove off.
At three minutes to five, we pulled up at the
designated meeting place up in Allegian Park, We waited, nothing happened.
Five minutes past five a m. Still nothing outside. It
started the thunder rain starting, man, Wendy, Yeah we're here.
Speaker 8: Yeah, it's kinda coming up the road toward us.
Speaker 3: Sounds like yeah, man, yeah, coming over this way, Yeah,
sounds that way doesn't come already? A right?
Speaker 5: Easy coming back here?
Speaker 3: Watching now.
Speaker 8: Right, riding imbout chiefs that you. Yeah, I'm not after meeting.
Speaker 3: I'm breaking m LA.
Speaker 9: Mister Sullivan, you want to drive back home? We'll contact
you there, yes, sir, all right, come on, let's get.
Speaker 3: Over the car. Right. What's the story? Did he scare off?
Speaker 9: The guy had no intention of following through the league?
How come he told us he phoned a couple of
minutes before five am. We tried to trace the call.
He wouldn't stay on the line long or what do
you have to say? A couple of things. Number one,
he wants more money. Number two, he knows we're working
the case.
Speaker 8: What was the reaction? Names, he doesn't care. We'll never
get him anyway.
Speaker 3: Well, how's the thing stand now?
Speaker 6: Fifty thousand dollars he wants it. In the next twelve hours.
Speaker 5: More than sixteen hours had passed since word of Judy
Sullivan's abduction had been phoned into homicide. During that time,
an APB containing the descriptions of the suspect, his car,
and his victim had been dispatched to law enforcement agencies
throughout the entire area. The same descriptions were being broadcast
every hour. The Sullivan home had been placed under strict surveillance,
and mister Sullivan instructed to contact the suspect without the
knowledge of the police. The girl's father had raised almost
ten thousand dollars in cash to buy him off, and
the serial numbers on each one of the bills had
been copied by a police stenographer and rechecked by a
homicide officer. So far, the wolf, as he called himself,
had made three separate contacts, but he'd covered his tracks well.
We knew he was somewhere in the city, four hundred
and fifty square miles of it. We knew we had
to find him. Six eighteen am we checked back into homicide.
Speaker 3: What's doing Broy here?
Speaker 10: Just copy the letter Fellas Special delivery came in about
twenty five minutes ago.
Speaker 3: Let's see, huh, that's the same handwriting. It looks like.
Speaker 9: Check the postmarks Jill must have mailed it right after
he grabbed a girl. Let me see, stay away from Sullivan.
If the girl's found dead, it's your fault.
Speaker 3: Stay away, woolf It seemed to make up his mind.
Speaker 5: Huh They checking the original of this for Prince Tom Yeah,
no word yet.
Speaker 3: How about that second note? Anything on that? Uh? Huh?
Speaker 6: Stah lifted a couple of princes running on R and I.
Speaker 3: Who's watching Sullivan house now?
Speaker 5: Gomez and Thaxter chiefs out there too. He's still afraid
the girl's father will try to make a deal with
the guy.
Speaker 3: He tried it yet? No, not yet. Well, he couldn't
blame him if he did. He's worried, sick. I'm got it.
Speaker 8: Homicside from now a right?
Speaker 3: Try? How do you spell it? Okay? Right?
Speaker 9: Yeah, thanks a lot, Record Bureau. Those two prints still
lifted from a letter. Run him to the single print file.
Any luck, they got a mink.
Speaker 5: The fingerprint that was lifted from the suspects letter was
identified as belonging to a Donald Alfred Kiefer, WMA, aged
twenty nine, five feet eight inches, one hundred and seventy pounds,
brown eyes, dark brown hair.
Speaker 3: He had one.
Speaker 5: Previous arrest for forgery in Los Angeles ten months before.
At the time of his arrest, Keeper's occupation was listed
as a bank clerk at the Third National Bank. I
went down the hall of the record bureau to pull
the crime report. Brian checked by Layton Prince to see
if they'd gotten anything off the last note from the suspect.
Ben went to check with Don Meyer and handwriting. Seven
twenty three am. Chief bad Brown got back to the office.
I showed him Keeper's crime report.
Speaker 3: All right, what's the rundown on it? Well, at the.
Speaker 5: Time Keifer pulled the forgery job at the bank, mister
Sullivan was one of the vice presidents. He was the
one that preferred charges against Keifer, and he saw that
he was prosecuted.
Speaker 3: Where's this Keifer? Now, let me check that it was
placed on probation.
Speaker 5: On May sixteenth this year, he returned to his home
in Omaha, Nebraska. That's thirteen eighty McK and I avenue.
Speaker 3: You call Omaha. I got the call in now.
Speaker 5: Ben took an exemplar of Keefer's handwriting from the package.
Speaker 3: Don Meyer's going over it.
Speaker 8: Now, Chief Hi, what about that last note?
Speaker 3: I got the report right? Here.
Speaker 10: How's it look well, Stallft, that's some prince off It
brought him out with the ion fume gun. They matched
with the first. There's something else, what's that? They examined
the paper for watermarks and texture. Both notes are written
on the same paper. Impressions show both pieces the paper
from the same TABN checked the density of the carbon
and the pencil they used. Both specimens match same pencil.
Speaker 3: Joe, Hi, did you catch up a down run man? Yeah?
He went over. The handwriting looks pretty good. What's the word?
As close as you can get here.
Speaker 9: They're two exemplars Flanc's crosses double loops, his ale open
as prasure on the Downstow Donald Keefer the wool, same handwriting.
Speaker 5: By noontime, Donald Keeper's description had been broadcast throughout the
entire area. Bulletins were dispatched to all departments, and a
supplementary APB was gotten out. Special details were stationed at
every post office in the city to watch for notes
from the suspect that might come through the mail. The
bus depots, railroad terminals, the airports, and all main roads
leading out of the city were kept under strict surveillance.
The entire Los Angeles area was broken down into single
square mile districts and a house to house canvas was started.
A squad of men were assign to cover each square mile.
Outlying towns and cities were requested to do the same.
By four o'clock that afternoon, one of the greatest dragnet
operations in the history of the city was underway. We
were sure Donald Keeper was somewhere inside. Five twelve pm,
we got the call back from the Omaha police.
Speaker 3: Is that so again? Please?
Speaker 8: What was that six x ray four to one nine
Nebraska plates?
Speaker 3: Right? Find lieutenant? Thank you, Bry They made the car.
Speaker 9: That and a lot more. The Omaha cops are looking
for Keeper too, and they want him for a robbery.
Speaker 3: There're two months ago.
Speaker 9: Huh he used to stolen blue Sedanan in robbery in
nineteen thirty nine, model Nebraska plate six x ray four
one nine.
Speaker 3: What about his family and friends? They've been checked.
Speaker 9: Yeah, they say Keifer left Omaha about six weeks ago.
I don't know where he was heading. We better get
that car description in the communic cases. Huh, apb in
a radiogram?
Speaker 3: Yeah right?
Speaker 9: Friday, Mary, Yeah, what are you tied up with? Just
got a call back from Omaha. Make on Keifer in
the car, give it to me. You two get out
to sell them in the house. Fat so you can't
see Harris out there.
Speaker 3: Okay, what happened? Mister Sullivan has disappeared.
Speaker 4: You are listening to dragnet authentic stories of your police
force in action.
Speaker 5: Wednesday, October nineteenth, five forty eight pm, Ben and I
drove out to the Sullivan home where we checked with
Bert Harris, the man who had been assigned to watch
mister Sullivan.
Speaker 3: He told us that at about three o'clock.
Speaker 5: That afternoon, the father of the missing girl had a
phone call.
Speaker 3: He said he had to go down to the bank,
and Harris went with him.
Speaker 5: While he were at the bank, mister Sullivan succeeded in
decoying Harris with a fake telephone call. While Harris was
answering the call, Sullivan disappeared.
Speaker 8: Did mister Sullivan get any more money while he was
at the bank.
Speaker 3: By yeah, five thousand dollars? Did you get the serial
numbers off the bills? I shouldn't let him get out
of my sight. I forget it right now. We've got
to find out where he's going to meet Keifer diould
you talk to missus Sullivan about it?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: So she doesn't know anything about it. Where is she now?
Back in the sitting room, lying down? Now, let's try
her again how she might be able to help. Okay,
it's back this way. What time he got, Jim, it's
five minutes past six?
Speaker 4: I get it.
Speaker 3: Hello, how's that?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Where are you? Oh? Where are you? Where are you?
All right? We'll be right out.
Speaker 5: Yeah, missus Sullivan he met with Keifer out and Laurel Canyon.
Speaker 3: Did he get his daughter back? Yeah? He did. Wrapped
in newspaper.
Speaker 5: All units in the area were notified immediately that a
contact had been made with the suspect, Donald Keefer. We
got in the car and we drove out to Laurel Canyon.
The entire area had been blocked off. We found Martin
Sullivan standing in the middle of the road. At the
end of East Winding Way. Five hundred feet down the
hill was a private residence where Sullivan and telephoned his
the only building in the immediate vicinity. A few yards
beyond the point where East Winding Way ended back in
a clump of tall grass, we found the body of
twenty two year old Judy Sullivan. We notified the crime
lab chief Fat Brown in the corner. Despite the severe
emotional shock, mister Sullivan told us the story.
Speaker 9: He said, Judy was all right. I believed him. I
wanted her back, Judy. I tricked the officer, the one
watching me. Keifer said to come alone, no police. Did
you see his car, mister Sullivan. I wanted her back.
I wanted Judy back. I did as he said. I
drove out here at six o'clock.
Speaker 6: I waited. I put the money on the front seat,
like you said.
Speaker 3: Did he get the money, sir?
Speaker 9: And then I got out. I left the parking lights on.
I stood up there by the end of the road
and I waited, and then he drove up. He took
the money, and then he came up to me. He
had a gun. I wanted Judy back. He had a gun.
Speaker 3: Did you see his car? He said?
Speaker 7: She was up.
Speaker 9: There beyond the road. She was tied to a tree.
He said, I wanted her back.
Speaker 3: Oh look, mister Sullivan, did you see his car.
Speaker 9: I went to look for Judy. He drove away. She
wasn't there by the tree. I couldn't find her.
Speaker 3: Not the way back.
Speaker 7: I saw the bump on the way, Yes, sir, lord,
let me find it.
Speaker 9: Although I left kill him before he collapsed completely.
Speaker 5: We showed the dead girl's father a picture of Donald
Keefer and he identified him definitely. The information was immediately
relayed back to Central Division and rebroadcast over our entire
radio system. Teletypes were dispatched to sheriff's offices and communications
sent to law enforcement agencies throughout the country. Nine fifty
two PM, the house to house search was intensified. The
dragnet operation in which we hoped to trap the killer
was drawing slowly inward. A few minutes before midnight, Ben
and I drove back downtown to the crime lab to
check with Lieutenant Lee Jones.
Speaker 3: Ay, Fillas, come on back, anything yealy?
Speaker 11: Just checking over these tolls here, I'm rapped around the
girl's body inside the papers, any thing about it?
Speaker 3: What's that? Oh?
Speaker 11: Yesterday's papers. Every story about the girl's disappearance has been
clipped out.
Speaker 3: How about the towels, any laundry marks at all?
Speaker 11: Way, nothing so far, Joe, every one of them clipped
off log posts the body.
Speaker 3: Yet they're doing it now, nasty one.
Speaker 5: Yeah, sure, any footprints or tire marks out where? They
found the body.
Speaker 8: Oh, lots of them.
Speaker 3: Got two of the men checking them.
Speaker 8: Now, one thing, what is it?
Speaker 3: Men? I don't know. Under the seam here this towel.
Speaker 11: Wait a minute, give me that pair of snippers. Way jo, Yeah,
there you go, thanks, pressed back under the seam.
Speaker 3: Here there it's one tag he missed. Yeah, can you
read the marking?
Speaker 11: Greenway Apartments, Los Angeles.
Speaker 3: Twelve thirty four am.
Speaker 5: We located the Greenway Apartments in the East Wiltshire district
and we checked with a manager. He identified Keeper's mugshot,
but he said he hadn't been home to the apartment
since the day before. We called the crime lab and
we went up to check the suspects apartment. One look
was enough. Lieutenant Lee Jones found specimens of the Sullivan
girl's blood in the wash basin and the bathtub drains.
Speaker 3: In an adjoining garage, we found.
Speaker 5: The car which Keefer had used, a blue Sedan Nebraska
plates six X ray four one nine. A cancelation of
the want order for the car was issued in a
stake out placed at the apartment in the garage in
case Keeper.
Speaker 3: Decided to return.
Speaker 5: All that night and into the next day, the city
wide dragnet went on, was no sign of the killer.
At ten minutes past two that afternoon, the first piece
of ransom money showed up. It was at a used
car lot on the corner of Beverly and Naylor Streets.
Two hours later, another piece of the money turned up
at a busy downtown department store. In both cases, the
man who passed the stolen money was finally identified as
Donald Keefer. Details were strengthened in both areas where the
money appeared. The search went on six forty two pm.
Then and I got a call to Meat Chief Thad
Brown at the Hollywood Division station. Tommy Bryant from Central
Homicide was within us.
Speaker 3: This is the way it stacks up. Now.
Speaker 9: This pin map over here, This is where we're concentrating
the search in this area here.
Speaker 8: How about the lead we had on him downtown? Didn't
it work out?
Speaker 9: The last twenty minutes we picked up three possible leads
on the man out in this neighborhood here. He's divined
south of Franklin, west of Librea, north of Santamoni.
Speaker 3: More ransom money show up? You got it there, Brian
rate it off? Yeah.
Speaker 10: Five thirty five Sunset and Highland newsboy thought he show
key for crossing the street. Twenty minutes later, a sales
girl in the diamond store up on Hollywood Boulevard, I
thought you saw him. Ten minutes after that, he was
reported seen near the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Lost Parmis.
You figure the reports were reliable and they were all
checked out. Didn't put too much faith in him til
a few minutes ago.
Speaker 9: How's that five dollar bill was passed at a cigar
store Hollywood Boulevard and Hawthorne. Ransom money. We've already doubled
the number of men and cars in the area, men
stationed at every intersection to keep an eye on pedestrian traffic.
We're covering everything, streets, stores, covering the whole neighborhood.
Speaker 3: I'll get it, Brian, Yeah, just a minute, you chief?
Oh that Brian?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Where how when was that? No?
Speaker 9: Stay there, We'll be right there. Goodbye. Another piece of
rentsom money?
Speaker 3: Where to turn up?
Speaker 9: The theater in Hollywood Boulevard between Fairview and Hawthorne.
Speaker 3: Who passed the money?
Speaker 9: They think it was Keifer and positive they say he's
in the theater right now.
Speaker 5: The information on Keifer was phoned into communications immediately, and
within a few minutes men and cars converged on the neighborhood.
The one half mile area around the theater was completely blockaded.
Every exit and entrance to the theater was covered. Seven
twenty three pm, Ben and I, along with Chief Thad
Brown and Tom Bryan, met in the theater manager's office.
Brown outlined our plan of operation. At seven thirty two pm,
a detail of fourteen men walked down the side aisles
on the main floor of the theater and took up
their posts on either side of the orchestra pit. The
picture was stopped and every light in the theater was
turned on. Chief Brown, Brian Gomez, Faxter, Ben and myself
went down the aisle and up onto the stage.
Speaker 3: Chief Brown made the announcement.
Speaker 12: Ladies and gentlemen, you're hold it quiet for a minute, please, We're.
Speaker 13: Probably to interrupt the picture of This is a very
important matter.
Speaker 12: We're police officers and you've read about it. To the
Maidens girl to the name of Judy Sullen was abducted
and murdered day before yesterday. We think we embraced the
man who murdered her to this there. We believe he's
in this diner. Now we've gotta search the theater.
Speaker 3: Robi Rowan, we'd like.
Speaker 2: To ask your co operation.
Speaker 8: Don't need to be Maggie.
Speaker 3: You're afraid.
Speaker 13: Those who way to lead, now they do.
Speaker 3: So see what the man.
Speaker 4: Each one of you will be checked as you go out.
Speaker 8: Of the door.
Speaker 13: But the benefit of the man we're looking for it.
Don't try to escape. Every exit is covered. Hi, heard
you lucky. Don't place any more lives in jerim all right, ha.
Speaker 9: Come on, Ben, backstage show.
Speaker 3: We can make it from America. All right? Come on,
throw here down here?
Speaker 2: Right? Will you in here?
Speaker 3: Come on over here, hair conditioning unit for the theater. Yeah,
I don't see him to you, you can't get out.
There's just two exits. We've got them both covered.
Speaker 8: Look out there he is all right, keeper, hold it.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 10: Throw your gun over here, come on, throw it out.
Speaker 3: Okay, I got it, all right. Let's take him. Yeah,
all right, okay, you got my gun.
Speaker 4: I had to be in your shoot.
Speaker 3: Actually, your force meant the cups on him. Ben here right,
get your hands off of me, all right, taver got
the same for you too. I hold it all right, Ben,
You are right, all right? Try the cuffs on him.
Speaker 9: Now, yeah, yeah, it's starting to rain again.
Speaker 3: Really poorn out there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess.
Speaker 10: You better get him out of the car.
Speaker 3: What's the hurry? How you mean, why spoil a good rain?
Speaker 2: The story you have just heard was true. The names
were changed to protect the innocent.
Speaker 4: On January nineteenth, trial was held in Superior Court, Department
eighty seven, City and County of Los Angeles, State of California.
In a moment the results of that trial, Donald Alfred
Keeper was tried and convicted of murder in the first degree,
and on the recommendation of the jury, he received the
death penalty. He was executed in the lethal gas chamber
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. Bartney Arborough is Sergeant Ben Romero
also heard work with Connor and Vic Perrin. Script by
Jim Mozy, music by Walter Schumann, Hell Gibney.
Speaker 14: Speaking Counterspy Fights International Intrigue. Next on NBC, Welcome Back Now.
Speaker 1: This episode sounded familiar to me and not just in
the sense that I've heard it a few times already,
but that it sounded like another episode, and indeed it was.
Uh And you actually have to go back to nineteen
forty nine and one of the very early episodes of Dragnett.
This was just when the Fatima sponsorship had started, back
on September tenth, nineteen forty nine, in the Sullivan kidnapping. Now,
this wasn't so much a script reuse as you often
hear on many detective programs, but it took the same case.
But there were some key changes that were made, and
a lot of these are minor, but he added up
to quite a bet. One thing is that when the
ransom was paid, this was back when Raymond Bird was
playing at Backstrand, and it made the papers after she'd
been killed, and he said that he hoped that it
would stick in people's minds as a reminder we don't
make deals with killers, so essentially offering a bit of
a condemnation of the victim's father for making the payment.
In the nineteen forty nine episode, it's established that the
killer had been sent to jail for forgery on the
basis of the actions of the father, so this was
a bit of revenge, and that's not in the nineteen
fifty one version. And there's also more of the killer
being like, I'm so much smarter than police. That was
referenced once, but it was a much bigger element in
the nineteen forty nine case. And there's a sense in
which you get a lot less melodrama and a lot
more just straightforward documented case of how the crime was solved. Well,
this is kind of a testament to how Dragnet had
refined itself since the beginning, with these little adjustments in
tone and style. Obviously, the big statement about not paying
killers could come off as preaching, and Dragnet had kind
of and that was not the direction the show was going,
particularly in comparison to many other programs on the air
in the same genre. Now, of course, an important announcement
about the launch of the Dragnet TV series. They had
two episodes that were already filmed and ready for air,
and Dragnet would end up on in every other week
schedule for this first season alternate with the TV version
of Gangbusters, while still continuing the radio version. Well, now
we turn to listener comments and feedback, and we have
some comments We start on Spotify. Regarding the Big Affair,
Mechanics sixty six rides, I disagree about how to deal
with the police. Politely but firmly state I want to
cooperate with you, officer, but first I will need to
consult with my attorney and also have him or her
present at all times. That's certainly a valid approach, probably
the safe approach, and again better than sitting there trying
to just snow the police with an obviously false story.
And of course there are episodes of drag now where
with no lawyer present, the guilty person keeps giving contradictory
statements to the police, which is not something that you
would want brought up in court. And then Harrison adds, Wow,
partial cast credits is a welcome edition. It's awes when
we get them. And then we have another comment for
Mechanics sixty six. This one is regarding the Big Bungalow.
Friday should have given the informant speech to Romero when
he complained about paying for Red's lunch. I can understand
the sentiment, but no explaining it to the listener as
the voice of the police is one thing. As he
is informing us as people who are outside the police
and have been exposed to various media myths and portrayls.
What the situation with informants is with Ben Romero, he
already knows. And imagine if you're a police officer and
you make a complaint to your partner, he says, you
ought not to complain about it. The informants play this
vital role in the police department. We after respect them
and we should be glad for the services they provide.
That is annoying. That is not Joe Friday in the
nineteen fifties. That's Joe Friday in the nineteen eighty seven movie.
Plus cripping about the job is practically Romero's favorite pastime. Plus,
as we'll learn later, Romero was actually the detective who
helped bring Friday along on the force and really is
the only partner that had an equal rank with him.
You don't pull that on a mentor unless you want
a very early look. And of course we should mention
that this is Barton Arborough's last episode, that we'll hear
him as Ben Romero, and we'll talk more about that
next week. Regarding the Big Hands, James says, in response
to one of the comments that you read I distinctly
remember an episode that took place after Miranda rights became
a thing. It made for some interesting dialogue between Joe
Friday and the Chief. Now I thought of the Dragnet
nineteen sixty six TV movie, but I think James was
referencing an episode of the radio program, which wouldn't have
been referencing Miranda versus Arizona since that was decided in
nineteen sixty six. There was another California case in regards
to the admissibility of evidence that had a big impact
on Joe Friday, and it was one of the last
radio episodes, the Big Ruling and then the Butcher five
O three two ass you travel back in time to
nineteen fifty, you have to produce a detective radio program,
and you have an unlimited budget. Give me five cast members,
the themes, along the showwriter, and it would be factor fiction.
Did I leave anything out? Well, No, It's tough to say,
because it's tough to come up with an original Haunts
In terms of nonfiction. I don't know if there's a
particular thing that stands out as a story that must
be told. In terms of fiction, I think I would
probably lean on a couple of adaptations. I'm not going
to try to create my own noir detective. I would
honestly want to make a second season of the New
Adventures of Neural Wolf with Sydney green Street, but I
would want them to be closer to the book in
terms of the tone of the story and to actually
adapt stories of Rex Stout, And as I said, i'd
want green Street back in the main role. Honestly, I'd
love Bob Bailey as Archie Goodwin. I think he's got
a great voice for it. I love Tim Hutton in
a Neural Wolf mystery, but the voice is very, very
New York and doesn't match with the profile of Archie
Goodwin as someone who comes from the Midwest. I think
baileywood evoke that better. For Inspector Kramer, i'd want Ed Bagley,
and for Fritz, I'd go with Hans Conried. And if
you want one that is out of this world, I
would produce a Martian Manhunter radio program. Now, if you're
aware of the Martian Man Hunter at all, you're aware
of him as a Justice superhero from DC. However, when
he was introduced in comics, he was not only a Martian,
but he was a detective stranded on the planet who
solved mysteries. And I think a weekly series about a
Martian in mid nineteen fifties America solving mysteries that would
be fascinating. And I think i'd have the Martian man
Hunter played by Michael Rennie. Now, in terms of who
would write, if you were talking about a neuro Wolf series,
I'd probably pair someone who had a lot of experience
with adaptation, like John C. Wilson or Ernest Conoy with
a talented mystery writer, and I'd probably want to compare
samples to get just the right person. And then for
Martian Manhunter it would probably be Robert Rith and Ernest
Conoy theme song. I would have them write an original
theme tune.
Speaker 3: I would not even.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would not pick stock music or something already existing.
No somewhere I'll find You or anything like that. We
would we would have something original, but I don't know
what it would be since I wouldn't be the one
riding the music. But thanks so much, appreciate the question.
Now it's time to thank our Patreon supporter of the day.
Thank you so much to Richard, Patreon supporter since October
twenty twenty five currently supporting the podcast at the Shawmans
level of four dollars or more per month. Thanks so
much for your support, Richard, and that we'll do it
for today. If you're enjoying the podcast, please follow us
using your favorite podcast software and be sure to read
and review the podcast wherever you download it from. We'll
be back next Thursday with another episode of Dragonet. But
join us back here tomorrow for yours truly, Johnny doll
Or where.
Speaker 15: Two years ago you had Curley sent up to the
pen and that's right for the male department store jobby.
Then just a few days ago he swore that he'd
get you for that, that he'd kill you, didn't he?
So what happened when he escaped and came hit a
heart for a few days ago? I know all about
that from reading your report. Thanks to some quick thinking
on your part, the police nabbed him instead. Plus the
loot from the department store robbery. You know who deserves
a real credit for that, the girl I had a
date with tonight until you spoil things with your phone.
Speaker 3: Call, Johnny.
Speaker 15: As you know, either you or the police wounded Curly Waters,
which is why he was taken to the hospital and
placed under guard instead of being locked up.
Speaker 16: So well, well, I see you managed to locate him.
Here's lieutenant you, Okayed Dollar?
Speaker 15: Any reason why I shouldn't be Howie?
Speaker 16: Has mister Wells told you what's happened now?
Speaker 3: But I think I can guess.
Speaker 15: Curly Waters escaped from the hospital.
Speaker 16: Yes, I had three good men there watching over him,
but he managed to get by them, how with help one.
Speaker 8: Of his old pronies, Kimpy Taylor.
Speaker 16: Yes, Gimpy created as turbans out in the hall, and
when they went after him, Curly crashed out through the window.
When they went back in after him, Gimpy took it
on the lamb.
Speaker 3: Three good men, did you say you'll.
Speaker 1: Be with us then? In the meantime, send your comments
to Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net. Follow us
on Twitter Radio Detectives. Check us out on Instagram, Instagram,
dot com slash Great Detectives from Boise, Idaho. This is
your host, Adam Graham signing off.