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Speaker 1: of old time radio. Now it's time for today's episode
Speaker 1: of Dragnet. The original air edate October the twenty sixth
Speaker 1: of nineteen fifty two, and this one is the big number.
Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen. The story you were about to hear
Speaker 2: is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.
Speaker 2: You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned a robbery detail. You've
Speaker 2: got a call that a bank has been robbed from
Speaker 2: the mo You'll know the job was done by a professional.
Speaker 3: He's made good his escape. Your job get him.
Speaker 4: Dragnet the documented drama of an actual crime. While the
Speaker 4: next thirty minutes, in cooperation with the Los Angeles Police Department,
Speaker 4: you will travel step by step on the side of
Speaker 4: the law through an actual case transcribed from official police violence,
Speaker 4: from beginning to end, from crime to punishment, Dragnet is
Speaker 4: the story of your police force in action.
Speaker 5: It was Monday, January twenty first. It was cold in
Speaker 5: Los Angeles.
Speaker 6: We were working the.
Speaker 7: Day watch out of robbery detail. My partner's Frank Smith.
Speaker 7: The boss is Captain Didion.
Speaker 6: My name is Friday. Was two fifty six.
Speaker 5: Pm when I got the room. Twenty seven eight robbery.
Speaker 8: Joe yeah, sure cold.
Speaker 7: Uh yeah, papersition you'd warm up a little for the
Speaker 7: end of the week. Oh, I hope, So i'llut your
Speaker 7: weekend go.
Speaker 6: Don't bring it up. What happened at my house is
Speaker 6: only one thing that could happen.
Speaker 7: What do you mean my brother in law arm and
Speaker 7: all the time, it just sits around the house, sits
Speaker 7: there and reads those detective magazines.
Speaker 6: Doesn't he work. He's ever held a job, He's kept
Speaker 6: it a secret, just moves around between the relatives.
Speaker 7: This year it's phase turned and he just sits around
Speaker 7: all day. Yeah, reads those detective magazines. Always send him
Speaker 7: for those books that are sent in the plane wrappers,
Speaker 7: you know, the ones to tell you how you can
Speaker 7: have a business.
Speaker 6: In your own home. Yeah, I know what you mean. Well,
Speaker 6: this time he really did it.
Speaker 7: He sent for one that tells you how to go
Speaker 7: into the house cleaning business. I thought at first it
Speaker 7: might be a pretty good deal. You know, if it
Speaker 7: worked out, he could give a fair hand with the
Speaker 7: house else. Saturday morning, the book gets to the house
Speaker 7: with all the formulas and instructions for making the cleaners,
Speaker 7: for the rugs and the postings.
Speaker 8: You know.
Speaker 7: First off, he bars five bucks from me to buy
Speaker 7: the stuff to mix the formulas.
Speaker 6: Then he goes to the kitchen and takes all the
Speaker 6: fays good pants to mix up the goop in.
Speaker 7: It smells terrible, all the bleaches and soaps. And I'm
Speaker 7: sitting in the front room watching television. All and all,
Speaker 7: I'm pretty comfortable, you know. He comes in, he says
Speaker 7: the room is filthy. End he's going to clean it.
Speaker 6: Tells me to get out of the room, and he's
Speaker 6: going to surprise all of us. Yeah, well he did.
Speaker 7: Fay and I took the kid down at the barbers
Speaker 7: to have her haircut, the little shopping for the weekend.
Speaker 6: He should have seen the house when he got back.
Speaker 6: Joe just miserable. What wouldn't he be done?
Speaker 7: First off, he wasn't there left a note on the
Speaker 7: kitchen table telling us that he was out for a walk.
Speaker 7: I kind of figured when it happened. So Fay and
Speaker 7: me walked into the living room. Joe, you wouldn't believe
Speaker 7: it is so they almost think pretty awful.
Speaker 6: Worse than that room was beautiful.
Speaker 7: Everything ended was clean as a whistle, all spotless, Kurt carpit,
Speaker 7: the upholstery, even the tables have been waxed, what's wrong
Speaker 7: with that?
Speaker 6: Sounds to me like a pretty good deal, Faye, or
Speaker 6: what about her?
Speaker 7: Right away she starts climbing all over me, reads me
Speaker 7: off for being so mean to him, says all about
Speaker 7: how I should be ashamed of myself, said that I
Speaker 7: should have thought of the house cleaning gimmick myself. I
Speaker 7: should have given him a hand and cleaning up the place,
Speaker 7: and that the next day off we have to do
Speaker 7: the whole house. I tell you, Joe, no matter what
Speaker 7: the guy does, it always ends up making me look bad.
Speaker 5: Well, you say, you've only got this year with him,
Speaker 5: huh Yeah.
Speaker 7: Then he goes to Fay's sister in Pedemont. Oh, sure
Speaker 7: be glad when that time comes.
Speaker 6: Hot shot, I'll get it.
Speaker 7: Adt to eleven bank robbery in progress. It took us
Speaker 7: a little over four minutes to get to the bank
Speaker 7: at the corner of Lebanon and Broadway. In that time,
Speaker 7: in the bandit had completed the robbery and made good
Speaker 7: his escape.
Speaker 6: A radio car had arrived at the scene, and.
Speaker 7: The officers had gotten a description of the car and
Speaker 7: of the bandit. They called the information in the communications
Speaker 7: and the broadcast has gotten out to all cars in
Speaker 7: the vicinity to be on the alert for the hold
Speaker 7: up man. Two forty pm. Frank and I arrived at
Speaker 7: the bank.
Speaker 6: Back there, bank guard. Yeah, I couldn't tell her. What
Speaker 6: do you want me to do?
Speaker 3: Try to stop and haven't shoot that gun off.
Speaker 6: He'd killed half the people in here.
Speaker 9: I'm not saying that you should have actually tried to
Speaker 9: stop him. All I'm saying is that there is something
Speaker 9: that you should have done. You just stood there and
Speaker 9: looked at it. You could see the gun. There must
Speaker 9: have been something you could do.
Speaker 6: I beg your Friday, sir.
Speaker 8: You get away.
Speaker 9: You're probably in cahoots for the robber. You probably came
Speaker 9: back to get the rest of the money. Well, Gibson though,
Speaker 9: just down there to stop these man.
Speaker 6: We're police officers, sir.
Speaker 9: You see Gibson there. Police officers go a badge of something.
Speaker 9: After this, I don't think I'll trust anyone again.
Speaker 6: Yes, sir, he's their ID edification.
Speaker 7: Oh yeah, it's Officer Friday.
Speaker 6: He's my partner, Frank Smith.
Speaker 7: How do you do I suppose you want to ask
Speaker 7: me a lot of questions. Well, there are some things
Speaker 7: we'd like to know, so you'd like to talk in
Speaker 7: my office. I guess it'll be more quiet there.
Speaker 9: Fine, would be all right if Gibson came along. I'd
Speaker 9: like to have him see how a couple of real
Speaker 9: detectives work.
Speaker 6: Yes, sir, I think it'll be all right.
Speaker 9: Fine, Back this way, our officer, Friday. This is Gibson,
Speaker 9: the bank guard.
Speaker 8: Now I use the term loosely.
Speaker 7: There's mister Jones.
Speaker 6: At Smith, Sir Frank Smith.
Speaker 9: Oh, yes, Smith, go ahead, just it down any place?
Speaker 6: Yes, thank you.
Speaker 7: How you listening?
Speaker 6: Good Gibson?
Speaker 5: Yes, sir, mister Allan, you were the victimy.
Speaker 7: I certainly was.
Speaker 6: It was just three o'clock.
Speaker 9: Gibson was just putting up the chain across the door,
Speaker 9: you know, to keep people out. Yes, sir, Gibson was
Speaker 9: out there.
Speaker 7: I was in here in my office.
Speaker 6: Go ahead, Gibson.
Speaker 7: Tell the officers about it.
Speaker 6: Yes, sir.
Speaker 10: Well, he parked his car right in front of the bank,
Speaker 10: and when he pulled up, I thought it was a
Speaker 10: customer trying to get in before the bank closed. I
Speaker 10: held the chain for him.
Speaker 6: That was nice of you. What happened then, mister Gibson.
Speaker 10: As soon as he got the doorway, I saw the
Speaker 10: shot gun he had it kind of under his coach,
Speaker 10: you know. I tried to stop him, but he had
Speaker 10: the gun pointed right at me. He said that if
Speaker 10: I made a move, he'd as soon shoot me as look.
Speaker 7: At mem Sure it was a shotgunny, Yes, sir, I
Speaker 7: could tell it was a twelve gage.
Speaker 6: It was sawed off.
Speaker 10: Told me to get over in that little alcohol the
Speaker 10: entrance to our escro department. I did, and he told
Speaker 10: me a hand over my gun. I started to get
Speaker 10: it out of the holster, and I thought that maybe
Speaker 10: I'd have a chance to surprise him. But he must
Speaker 10: have known when I was planning.
Speaker 6: Why do you say that?
Speaker 10: He told me to face into the corner. Then he
Speaker 10: took the gun out of the holster. M hm, Well,
Speaker 10: I did what he told me.
Speaker 6: What happened.
Speaker 10: Then he asked me where the manager was. I found
Speaker 10: it out his office.
Speaker 7: Well to this time, did any of the people in
Speaker 7: the bank have any idea what was going on?
Speaker 8: No?
Speaker 10: Certain way he acted. He knew what he was doing
Speaker 10: right off. I knew there wasn't anything I could do,
Speaker 10: and kept thinking about the people in the bank.
Speaker 3: That shotgun.
Speaker 6: Didn't want anyone to get hurt.
Speaker 7: It's only bribe thing you did.
Speaker 6: Do you want to go on? What happened then?
Speaker 10: Well, like I said, he asked where the manager's office was.
Speaker 10: I showed him and he told me he wanted me
Speaker 10: to go back there with him.
Speaker 6: Uh huh.
Speaker 3: We walked back there.
Speaker 10: He put the shotgun under his coat and buy some miracle,
Speaker 10: nobody saw it.
Speaker 9: That's where he brought me into the picture. He just
Speaker 9: walked in, told me it was a stick up. He
Speaker 9: had this little leather bag, the kind of doctor uses.
Speaker 9: He opened it up, told me to walk in front
Speaker 9: of him.
Speaker 6: Uh huh.
Speaker 9: He made me carry the bag ket the gun at
Speaker 9: my back all the time, I could feel it, And
Speaker 9: he walked down the row of windows, the ones into
Speaker 9: the teller's boxes. Each one he made me stop and
Speaker 9: asked the tellers for the money.
Speaker 6: Did he touch anything at all? Do you remember? No?
Speaker 9: No, he wore gloves all the time. He was real careful,
Speaker 9: wouldn't touch anything. After I put the money into the bag,
Speaker 9: you'd tell each one of them that if they made
Speaker 9: a sound, he'd kill me and then come back and
Speaker 9: kill them too. It was terrible, almost scared me to death.
Speaker 6: For who was it?
Speaker 10: They turned in the alarming Water, the clean up man
Speaker 10: swer he was in the back of the bank, and
Speaker 10: he came out of the Vice president's office.
Speaker 6: He saw the robber, and then he sneaked back into
Speaker 6: the room and called you.
Speaker 10: The bandit just barely got out of the place when
Speaker 10: the police car pulled up.
Speaker 7: We gave the other officers the description of the car
Speaker 7: and the bandit.
Speaker 6: Yes, sir, we heard the broadcast. All the cars in
Speaker 6: the area had been alerted.
Speaker 7: I wonder if I could have a drink of water, Officer.
Speaker 9: I'm so nervous. I'm still not over it. My stomach's
Speaker 9: going to be grinding.
Speaker 6: For a month.
Speaker 5: You're a member of the Federal Reserve here, Oh, yes, well.
Speaker 7: Then the Federal Bureau of Investigation will being out of two.
Speaker 6: Yes, sir, Water's right over here.
Speaker 7: I keep in the office for my pills. I have ulcers,
Speaker 7: you know. Would you like a drink?
Speaker 6: No, sir, no, no, thank you.
Speaker 7: Well what happened after the man finished taking the money
Speaker 7: from the cage.
Speaker 10: He walked out at the front of the place and
Speaker 10: got in his car. By that time I could hear
Speaker 10: the sirens of the police car coming. He just left
Speaker 10: on the way out. He said, if we told him
Speaker 10: anything about him, and he'd come back and kill us.
Speaker 7: Yes, he looked right at me when he said it.
Speaker 7: You've got to give me some sort of protection. I'm
Speaker 7: not going to make a sitting duck of myself.
Speaker 6: We'll take care of that.
Speaker 7: Could you give us a description of the man, sir,
Speaker 7: I've already given it to the two officers who were here.
Speaker 5: Well, we know, sir, but if you wouldn't mind, of
Speaker 5: course not.
Speaker 6: How tall would you.
Speaker 9: Say he was, oh about five or eleven, maybe six feet?
Speaker 6: How old would you say he was? Thirty thirty five?
Speaker 7: Round in there?
Speaker 6: How much do you think he weighed?
Speaker 7: About one hundred and sixty? Maybe I'm not very good
Speaker 7: at guessing.
Speaker 6: Might How about his coloring?
Speaker 5: It was a darker light, light light.
Speaker 9: He had real light blonde hair. His eyebrows were almost invisible.
Speaker 9: They were so light that you almost couldn't see them
Speaker 9: at all, same.
Speaker 7: With his eyelashes.
Speaker 6: How about his clothes, beg your pardon his clothes? What
Speaker 6: was he wearing?
Speaker 7: Well, he had on a blue shirt.
Speaker 10: I'm sorry, shirt.
Speaker 6: I think it was a white shirt.
Speaker 9: Well, no, I'm sure it was blue. I remember because
Speaker 9: he was wearing a brown coat. I thought that he
Speaker 9: certainly didn't have very good taste. What was wearing a
Speaker 9: blue shirt and a brown coat?
Speaker 6: No, gipson.
Speaker 7: All the shirt was blue.
Speaker 9: No tie, brown coat and black loafers shoes. I remember
Speaker 9: these because they were the only thing about him that
Speaker 9: looked good. It looked like those ones that are advertising
Speaker 9: the magazines, you know, skegans or something like that.
Speaker 6: Black. Was there anything unusual about him? I big pardon
Speaker 6: any unusual.
Speaker 7: About him, anything he might cause you to remember him,
Speaker 7: know him if you saw him again. Well, there were
Speaker 7: the bandages.
Speaker 6: What's that?
Speaker 9: When he came in he had bandages on his face,
Speaker 9: one over his right eyebrow, another on his chin right.
Speaker 7: Here, sort of on the throat.
Speaker 6: You mean regular bandage, no show.
Speaker 10: They were those adhesive kind you know, with a gauze
Speaker 10: on table all together.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, And you say he had one over the
Speaker 6: right eyebrown and one on his chin.
Speaker 7: Yes, sir, I.
Speaker 6: Still think it's a white shirt.
Speaker 7: I said it was blue. Are you trying to say
Speaker 7: that I don't know blue when I see.
Speaker 10: No, sir, I just think that you might have made
Speaker 10: a mistake in all the excitement.
Speaker 7: Officer, Yes, it was a blue shirt.
Speaker 6: How about his car, the one he got away in.
Speaker 7: It was parked right out in front.
Speaker 6: Did you see it? Certainly?
Speaker 7: I saw it. I was standing right in the door
Speaker 7: when he drove away.
Speaker 6: What can he described the car for it?
Speaker 9: Yeah, it's like I told the other officers. It was
Speaker 9: a late model Buick, dark blue cope.
Speaker 10: I'm sorry, sir, but it was a green Ford.
Speaker 5: Now let's see if we can't let straw and tell
Speaker 5: his story.
Speaker 6: Mister Gibson will check it when you.
Speaker 9: Can, or I don't know what you're trying to prove
Speaker 9: with these officers. After the way you handle the affair,
Speaker 9: there's no use trying to impress them with your promise.
Speaker 6: As a detective.
Speaker 7: It was a dark blue Buick coupe. Anything unusual about
Speaker 7: the car that you could see? And he dented defenders, stickers,
Speaker 7: windshield emblems, anything like that.
Speaker 6: Would you remember?
Speaker 7: No, I didn't notice anything special, No, sir, looked.
Speaker 6: Pretty new as far as I could tell. I. Fine.
Speaker 7: Well, you two gentlemen of helpless a lot here. There
Speaker 7: are some questions we'd like to ask the other people
Speaker 7: in the bank.
Speaker 9: Oh, yes, that's what the other officer said. I told
Speaker 9: them all to stay. You like to talk to them now, yes, sir, fine,
Speaker 9: I'll send them in.
Speaker 7: Here to you.
Speaker 6: No, we can talk to them out there, sir br Oh.
Speaker 7: Fine, Gibson, maybe you can help them.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, off, sir yeah, Gibson.
Speaker 10: I didn't want to tell you why we were in there.
Speaker 10: He'd probably make some remark. I didn't even tell.
Speaker 6: The other officers.
Speaker 10: It's about the license number of the bandit's car.
Speaker 6: Did you get it?
Speaker 10: Well, not all of it, sir, just the first three numbers.
Speaker 7: The bank guard went on to explain that in the confusion,
Speaker 7: he had failed to give the information about the license
Speaker 7: number to the other officers. We continued to talk to him.
Speaker 7: He told us that the bandit.
Speaker 6: Had tied a cloth over the rear license plate, and.
Speaker 7: That as he drove away from the scene, a corner
Speaker 7: of the cloth had come loose and he was able
Speaker 7: to see the first three numbers of the plate. We
Speaker 7: call this information in the communications, and the supplemental broadcast
Speaker 7: was gotten out. In company with agents from the FBI.
Speaker 7: We talked to the rest of the employees and the
Speaker 7: bank From them, we got a fairly good description of
Speaker 7: the hold up man and of his car. They agreed
Speaker 7: that it was a late model dark Ford Sedan with
Speaker 7: FBI agent Tom Ashurd. Frank and I checked by the
Speaker 7: office and asked the Stat's office to make a run
Speaker 7: on the mo. We checked the outity file on R
Speaker 7: and I on the possibilities that the tape might have
Speaker 7: been used to cover scars or other marks that would
Speaker 7: make identification easier. Ninety six pm we stopped and got
Speaker 7: some sandwiches and coffee, and.
Speaker 6: Then we went to the DMV offices. Hi, Joe, George,
Speaker 6: you know Frank? Yeah, h how's it going, George? Tom
Speaker 6: Ashford agent and the FBI's working with us on this thing.
Speaker 10: Oh right, Glad Knight, Yeah, same Here.
Speaker 6: Where do we find the files here? George? Oh, that's
Speaker 6: the number, guest one U five. That's all we have,
Speaker 6: not much.
Speaker 8: Oh, you'll find a file for that number in these George. Here. Uh,
Speaker 8: you know what kind of card is?
Speaker 6: Yeah? Ford Sedan, late model. We're not sure what year up?
Speaker 6: Go to it? I don't remember you Yeah, and ninety
Speaker 6: nine possible.
Speaker 11: Well that's it for the night. I think I'll shove
Speaker 11: off anything. You guys need to be somebody here. You
Speaker 11: can give me a call. Leave the home number on
Speaker 11: the desk, right, thanks. Lock ad Night, Jordecknight, Help you
Speaker 11: find before I get back so away.
Speaker 5: Well, let's get to us right, Let's see.
Speaker 6: One U five.
Speaker 7: It took us the next eight hours to go through
Speaker 7: the almost ten thousand licensed registrations. Each file card had
Speaker 7: to be checked for a similarity of make and model.
Speaker 7: Each automobile in the Los Angeles area was listed, and
Speaker 7: then each one in the entire state.
Speaker 6: Each of them had to be checked out.
Speaker 7: Six oh two am, Tuesday, January twenty second, we finished checking.
Speaker 6: The file that does it?
Speaker 10: I did know there was so many cars in California,
Speaker 10: let alone that many with a license that begins with
Speaker 10: one U five in the Los Angeles area.
Speaker 6: What's a total, Joe? How's it look?
Speaker 7: Well, we got a place to start here, three hundred
Speaker 7: and two names. Six thirty am we checked back into
Speaker 7: the office and then we went home to get a
Speaker 7: couple of hours sleeps. At eight thirty am, Frank, Tom
Speaker 7: and I met on the robbery office. Captain Diddyon had
Speaker 7: assigned four other teams of men to work with us.
Speaker 7: The FBI had also assigned additional agents. The list of
Speaker 7: possibles was divided up and we began to check them out.
Speaker 7: We spent three days on it. In each instance, we
Speaker 7: didn't talk to the person involved directly, but to their neighbors.
Speaker 7: We didn't explain what it was that we were after,
Speaker 7: merely that we were conducting an investigation. We ran into
Speaker 7: the usual false leaves, the usual petty jealousies in the neighborhood.
Speaker 6: It all served to slow.
Speaker 7: Us down and make the job more difficult. There'd been
Speaker 7: no replies to the local or the APV that we'd
Speaker 7: gotten out of the car or the bandit. The staff's
Speaker 7: office had come up with two possibles on them. These
Speaker 7: were both checked out, but let us know where. We
Speaker 7: went back to checking out the license plate numbers. January
Speaker 7: twenty eighth, the names on our list were down to seven.
Speaker 7: The next one was a mister Ivan Q.
Speaker 6: Field.
Speaker 7: We rang the bell to the house next door and waited, yeah,
Speaker 7: sorry to buy you man, police officers.
Speaker 6: When if we could talk to you police?
Speaker 12: Well, what's it about? I haven't done.
Speaker 7: Anything, no, man, We'd just like to ask you a
Speaker 7: couple of questions about your next door neighbor.
Speaker 12: Mister Field, I should have known. I thought a couple
Speaker 12: of times about calling you about him myself, A miserable man.
Speaker 10: I wonder if we could come in, ma'am, I'd be
Speaker 10: better than talking.
Speaker 6: Out before you.
Speaker 12: Just bet you can come right in. I'll tell you
Speaker 12: what you want to know, Thank you very much. What
Speaker 12: are you wanting for? What's you done?
Speaker 7: Or we're just conducting investigation, ma'am. A few things we'd
Speaker 7: like to know about mister Field.
Speaker 12: Uh huh, Well, you don't have to play cozy with me.
Speaker 12: I know what kind of people they are. Can't understand
Speaker 12: it either, ma'am, I said, I couldn't understand it. His
Speaker 12: brother's so nice, real gentleman. Seems hard to believe that
Speaker 12: they even be related, let alone be brothers. Nothing but
Speaker 12: trouble since he and his wife moved in.
Speaker 6: You mean it's not their house, of course not.
Speaker 12: Don't think he'd one of them could afford the rent
Speaker 12: on the one room apartment, let alone a house.
Speaker 6: Would you know if they have a car?
Speaker 12: No, No, not them. Like I said, I don't think
Speaker 12: he's ever worked, just lives off his brother. His brother
Speaker 12: has a car's real nice.
Speaker 6: What kind of a car is, ma'am? Do you know?
Speaker 12: Yes?
Speaker 6: It's a Ford. You know what marble matter? Yes, ma'am,
Speaker 6: the Coopers.
Speaker 12: It's the damn real nice, sort of a dark green,
Speaker 12: only I guess it really isn't dark then it isn't
Speaker 12: like really just green pretty though.
Speaker 6: Yes, ma'am. Do you know if mister Field's in right now?
Speaker 12: Yes? I think so. I saw him out in the
Speaker 12: backyard a couple of hours ago, him and his wife.
Speaker 12: She was prancing around. One of them, skimpy little sun
Speaker 12: suit's terrible, no decency at all, I tell you, Officer,
Speaker 12: Neither one of them any good.
Speaker 6: Do you know what mister Field does for a living? Oh?
Speaker 12: You mean does he work? Yes, ma'am, Oh no, at
Speaker 12: least I've never seen any indication that he does. All
Speaker 12: he does is just sit around the yard and throw
Speaker 12: rocks up my cats.
Speaker 7: It's terrible.
Speaker 12: That's what I was gonna call you about. Isn't there
Speaker 12: a lar or something about throwing things at poor dumb animals?
Speaker 6: Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 12: Of course cats aren't really dumb. Lots of times I
Speaker 12: think they're a lot smarter than some people I know.
Speaker 10: Now, I wonder if you could describe ivan feel forest, ma'am.
Speaker 6: Oh.
Speaker 12: Sure, he's kind of a little man, not very big.
Speaker 6: About how tall man?
Speaker 8: Oh?
Speaker 12: Maybe five feet seven?
Speaker 6: How about his coloring.
Speaker 12: I mean it's hair, yes, ma'am, dark, very dark.
Speaker 6: Let's that's out. Well, thank you very much, ma'am. Sorright
Speaker 6: it cause you all this trouble.
Speaker 12: Oh, no, trouble at tall? Are you going to arrest
Speaker 12: him now?
Speaker 6: No, ma'am, well why not?
Speaker 12: What about the rocks and my cat?
Speaker 6: Well? I think the SPCA are the people you want
Speaker 6: to talk to on man.
Speaker 12: Well, all right, but I tell you right now, mister
Speaker 12: Field isn't going to like it. He likes my cat.
Speaker 12: He isn't gonna like the idea at all when he
Speaker 12: hears about it. Just wait until he gets home. I'll
Speaker 12: tell him about his brother he's been acting.
Speaker 6: Or just a minute, ma'am.
Speaker 5: Yes, you mean that the man living next door isn't
Speaker 5: Ivan Field.
Speaker 12: No, I didn't say it was.
Speaker 8: It's his brother, Harry brother.
Speaker 12: What's the matter with you, young man? Don't you hear
Speaker 12: well everything I say? Yes me to repeat?
Speaker 6: Well, I don't mean to him, Ma'am'm just that I
Speaker 6: want to be sure of what you say.
Speaker 12: What's going on here?
Speaker 6: First?
Speaker 12: Ask me a lot of questions about mister Field, and
Speaker 12: then I tell you that he isn't home and his
Speaker 12: wife went back East for the holidays. They haven't come
Speaker 12: back yet. While he was gone, he.
Speaker 6: Said that his brother could.
Speaker 12: Use the house. I thought at first it would be nice.
Speaker 12: Then I found out Harry is nothing like his brother,
Speaker 12: nothing at all.
Speaker 6: I wonder if you could describe him for it?
Speaker 8: Right?
Speaker 12: You want to know about everybody, don't you.
Speaker 5: Well, we just like a description of Harry Field man.
Speaker 6: That's all.
Speaker 12: Well, he's taller than Ivan. Harry must be close to
Speaker 12: six feet. It doesn't look anything like Ivan and any
Speaker 12: other way. Ivan's dark and Harry's life. His hair almost
Speaker 12: doesn't have any fellow's real blonde.
Speaker 6: How long ago do they move in?
Speaker 12: Well, now, let me see Elizabeth, that's my Persian captain. Well,
Speaker 12: Elizabeth had her last letter in December, the December the twelfth,
Speaker 12: Harry and his wife moved in the next morning. I
Speaker 12: remember that because I was up most of the night
Speaker 12: with Elizabeth. She didn't need me awfully independent. But it
Speaker 12: was the morning that they moved in, or I remember
Speaker 12: it well. Elizabeth had six little kittens. It was December
Speaker 12: thir when Harry moved in.
Speaker 5: And they've been using Ivanfield's cars.
Speaker 12: Oh my, yes, hardly a day goes by. But what
Speaker 12: they don't drive it somewhere.
Speaker 6: I want if you could use your phone?
Speaker 12: Man, Oh sure, it's on the table there in the hall.
Speaker 6: Thanks, I'll check the names.
Speaker 7: Who are would you happen to know if this Harry
Speaker 7: Field has any marks the scars on him?
Speaker 6: Well, now let me see.
Speaker 12: I think so. Seems to me that I saw him
Speaker 12: and his wife out in the backyard one day. He
Speaker 12: was wearing swimming trunks and she was in one of
Speaker 12: those sun suits I told you about its graceful.
Speaker 6: Yes.
Speaker 12: Well, it seems to me that he had a scar
Speaker 12: on his leg, yes, just above the knee. I think
Speaker 12: it was the right leg.
Speaker 7: No. What I meant, man, was does he have any
Speaker 7: marks in his face, in his forid or on his chin?
Speaker 12: No? No, no mark. Oh wait a minute. The other
Speaker 12: day I noticed he had a cut over his right eyebrow.
Speaker 12: It looked like he'd been in a fight, probably a
Speaker 12: drunken brawl.
Speaker 7: Yeah, anyway, talk to cunning hamm He checked the name.
Speaker 7: Looks like it might be the same one. What's that
Speaker 7: they paroled to Harry cue Field from San Quentin? Description
Speaker 7: checks out Monday, Parol, December tenth. Last year did a
Speaker 7: term for robbery.
Speaker 4: You are listening to Dragnet, the authentic story of your
Speaker 4: police force in action.
Speaker 7: January twenty eighth, four point thirty pm. We called the
Speaker 7: office and told them of the latest developments. Tom Ashford
Speaker 7: called the local FBI office and arrangements were made to
Speaker 7: take Harry Field and his wife in the custody. A
Speaker 7: further check on him was made through R and I
Speaker 7: and we found that his record listed four arrests for
Speaker 7: armed robbery with only one conviction. He spent four and
Speaker 7: a half years in San Quentin before he'd gotten his parole.
Speaker 7: The name of his brother was also check. He had
Speaker 7: no previous record. The car and Fields driveway match to
Speaker 7: one used by the bandit. Five twelve pm the men
Speaker 7: from Robbery arrived and the plan for taking Field was formulated.
Speaker 7: The working detective knows that the successfully apprehend and armed
Speaker 7: and dangerous suspect, he must act quickly and employ the
Speaker 7: one big advantage on his side, the element of surprise.
Speaker 7: By moving rapidly before the suspect becomes aware of any
Speaker 7: attempt to apprehend him, the officer, in many cases cannot
Speaker 7: only avoid bloodshed, but can often have a better chance
Speaker 7: of preserving any and all physical evidence necessary to prosecute
Speaker 7: the suspect. Five thirty six pm. We were ready to
Speaker 7: move in.
Speaker 6: I'll set gentlemen are on back. Good, no indication he
Speaker 6: knows what sulf. The lights are still are.
Speaker 7: Let's hope it stays that way of that's sobriety A
Speaker 7: Jenkins woman.
Speaker 6: Yeah, over, ma'am.
Speaker 5: Would you mind keeping your voice down?
Speaker 6: We don't want feel to know we're here.
Speaker 12: Well, I'm not talking loud, but there's something I want
Speaker 12: you to know.
Speaker 7: Well, it'd be better if you went back into your house, ma'am.
Speaker 7: Just stayed atill this is over again.
Speaker 12: That's sorry, but I want to tell you about that.
Speaker 6: Ma'am.
Speaker 12: Well, I got to thinking and I figured maybe here
Speaker 12: he wasn't too bad at it.
Speaker 6: After all, we don't want to be rude here. But
Speaker 6: I think it'd be better people back in your house.
Speaker 6: All this talking is a lot.
Speaker 5: Will let him know that we're here, but that's just it.
Speaker 12: I don't want anybody grout. So I called him, well,
Speaker 12: I called him, told him he didn't have a chance
Speaker 12: to give himself up.
Speaker 5: Unknowingly, missus Jenkins had made it.
Speaker 6: Impossible to take the suspect without violence by warning him.
Speaker 6: She had put him on the alert.
Speaker 5: We had no alternative now, but the apprehendum is best
Speaker 5: we could.
Speaker 6: Five forty pm.
Speaker 10: Caleb and Crowley are cover in the back of the
Speaker 10: fellows are covering the sidewinders.
Speaker 6: All right, let's go.
Speaker 7: What do you want?
Speaker 8: Open up?
Speaker 6: Come on, Field, we want to talk to you.
Speaker 8: Oh, be there in a minute.
Speaker 6: He open up, Field police officers.
Speaker 8: All right, over there in a minute.
Speaker 6: Let's go. He's stolid block. Come on, let's hit it, all.
Speaker 7: Right, all right, the fireplace, Joe, I'll get it, guys,
Speaker 7: I'll roll you cups only Malone.
Speaker 6: I'm straight, bags full of money.
Speaker 5: Joe Parsley burns my money.
Speaker 10: I could do what I want with it, and you
Speaker 10: bet you can't.
Speaker 5: Hands behind you.
Speaker 6: Come on, I'll take him down. He's clean, Joe.
Speaker 7: You got him.
Speaker 6: Huh Yeah, we got part of the loop too. He
Speaker 6: was trying to burn it. Charlie and Ill shake the
Speaker 6: rest of the house, right Mac, All right, how about it? Field?
Speaker 6: We got the money. People are can identify you.
Speaker 7: Car park in the driveway fits the description. You've been
Speaker 7: through this before. I got out a que on December tenth.
Speaker 7: You pulled this job on January twenty.
Speaker 10: First set right, Like I said, I fell once, I
Speaker 10: did my time.
Speaker 6: Joe, Yeah, Mac bomb his wife hiding in the back bedroom,
Speaker 6: bomb a saw off shotgun.
Speaker 10: Let's get him out of here, say Frank, Yeah, message
Speaker 10: came in for it before I left the office forgot
Speaker 10: about it.
Speaker 8: Say who it was? Firm?
Speaker 6: No, I didn't leave the name. Here's a number. One's
Speaker 6: your phone right away. I'll call it now. We can
Speaker 6: take feeling good Mac. Thanks, we'll be right behind you.
Speaker 6: We're want to talk to his wife anyway, okay, forel
Speaker 6: let's go all right, come on, Frank, come on Hollywood
Speaker 6: two four seven one. I don't know anybody with that number.
Speaker 6: A simple way to find that just to call him.
Speaker 6: And it's kind of late. I'll go ahead and call
Speaker 6: him anyway. Yeah, here's a phone.
Speaker 10: I'll check where you later, Frank, check right time?
Speaker 6: Come on, let's go. I want to use the phone. Yeah,
Speaker 6: go ahead. You gotta die. Yeah, yeah, I'll leave it
Speaker 6: for the call.
Speaker 8: Who it is? Hello?
Speaker 6: What place is it? Oh? Well, this is Frank Smith.
Speaker 6: Are you looking for me? Yeah? Yeah, he dies. Oh yeah,
Speaker 6: that's that's the right address. Yeah, I should have known.
Speaker 7: What's that call from the Murphy house, Queen and Company,
Speaker 7: where they were my brother in law call him in
Speaker 7: the queen up our house?
Speaker 6: Yeah? What about how they wanted no where to send
Speaker 6: the bill?
Speaker 2: The story you have just heard was true. The names
Speaker 2: were changed to protect the innocent.
Speaker 4: On February nineteenth, trial was held in federal courts City
Speaker 4: of Los Angeles, State of California. In a moment the
Speaker 4: results of that trial, Kerry Q. Field was tried and
Speaker 4: convicted a violation of the federal bank robbery Statue. He
Speaker 4: received a sentence of twenty years in the Federal Penitentiary
Speaker 4: McNeil Island, Washington. The investigation showed his wife, Dora Field,
Speaker 4: was not implicated in any way in the robbery. You
Speaker 4: have just heard Dragnet a series of authentic from official files.
Speaker 4: Technical advice comes from the Office of Chief of Police W. H. Parker,
Speaker 4: Los Angeles Police Departments Technical Advisors. Captain Jack Donahoe, Sergeant
Speaker 4: Marty Wynn, Sergeant Vance Brasier. Heard tonight, We're Ben Alexander
Speaker 4: wit Connor, Jack Rushan, script by John Robinson, music by
Speaker 4: Walter Schumann.
Speaker 6: Hell give me speaking tonight.
Speaker 7: It's Barry Craig, confidential investigator on NBC.
Speaker 13: This is Andrew from Otrwesterns dot com. I wanted to
Speaker 13: invite you to come take a look at her site
Speaker 13: where we put on podcasts of old time radio Westerns.
Speaker 13: Check us out at Otirwesterns dot com. You're listening to
Speaker 13: the great detectives of old time Radio with Adam Graham.
Speaker 13: Let's get back into the show.
Speaker 1: Welcome back. I have to hand it to Ben's wife's
Speaker 1: family for having the forethought set up a dedicated system
Speaker 1: of rotating relatives in order to deal with the deadbeat
Speaker 1: brother in law. Now, of course, what the bank owner
Speaker 1: wanted the guard to do in this episode is generally
Speaker 1: the opposite of what most modern companies want people to
Speaker 1: do when confronting a robber, because the guard did the
Speaker 1: only thing he could do well. I do think the
Speaker 1: bank president had a legitimate complained about holding the door
Speaker 1: open for the or the chain open for the guy. Well,
Speaker 1: that's usually good customer service. You kind of think, all
Speaker 1: things considered, he might have spotted the guy was up
Speaker 1: to no good from a greater from a distance. That's
Speaker 1: the end. We see how things can get messed up
Speaker 1: if you decide to take action just on your own thought,
Speaker 1: rather than contacting the police. Thankfully, no one got hurt
Speaker 1: or killed as a result of the landlady's intervention, though
Speaker 1: the bank did have some money loss that obviously can't
Speaker 1: be recovered. All right, well, that will actually do it
Speaker 1: for today. Join us back here tomorrow video Theater and
Speaker 1: it will be Richard Diamond. Join us back on Monday
Speaker 1: for not Beat, and then next Saturday another episode of Dragnet.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, send your comments to Box thirteen at
Speaker 1: Great Detectives dot net, follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives,
Speaker 1: and become one of our friends on Facebook, Facebook dot com,
Speaker 1: Slash Radiodetectives from Boise, Idaho. This is your host, Adam
Speaker 1: Graham signing off.