Speaker 1: Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from
boy S, Idaho. This is your host, Adam Graham. In
a moment, we're going to bring you this week's episode
of Dragnet. But first I want to encourage you. If
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Now from October fourth, nineteen fifty one, here is the
big one ad.
Speaker 2: The story you were about to hear is true. The
names have been changed to protect the innocent. You're a
detective sergeant.
Speaker 3: You're assigned to auto theft detail.
Speaker 2: A gang of criminals masquerading as legitimate auto dealers start
to work in your city. Innocent people are cheated out
of thousands of dollars. The thieves are clever, they work
a foolproof formula. Your job stop them.
Speaker 4: Dragnet the document a drama of an actual crime. For
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 Tuesday, February nineteenth. That was Chile in Los Angeles.
We're working the day Watch out of auto theft. My
partner's Ben Romero. The boss is Captain Nelson. My name
is Friday. We're on the way out from the office,
and it was ten twenty five am when we got
to the corner of thirty eighth Street and Maxbury Avenue,
the Green Leaf Danye Nursery School.
Speaker 3: Missus H. Palmer, is that right?
Speaker 5: I mean I think so. In just a minute I
kind of written down. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Excuse me, ma'am. We're looking for a Missus viol of Palmer.
Speaker 6: I'm missus Palmer, what is it you wanted?
Speaker 5: We're police officers, ma'am. This is my partner, sizent Rom.
Now my name is Friday. Auto theft detail.
Speaker 6: Oh, yes, about my car. You're going to investigate all
about it?
Speaker 7: Is that it?
Speaker 5: Yes, ma'am. We've been handling similar complaints the last month
or saw. We'd like to have you tell us everything
that happened in your case, if you would please.
Speaker 8: One of the most underhanded things I've ever heard of, Sergeant.
It would have been the same thing if he'd help
me up with a gun just out and ount robbery.
Speaker 3: Could you give us some of the details, ma'am, how
you were first approached on the deal.
Speaker 6: Excuse me a minute, please.
Speaker 7: Children, time to go inside. Now we're going.
Speaker 8: To color pictures with the crayons this morning.
Speaker 6: Missus Johnson has them all ready for you inside. O
my coast on run so long now inside, everyone.
Speaker 8: Certainly wish the warm weathered hurry up and come. Children
always raise such an uproar when he had to keep
them indoors. Worst part of running a day nursery to
winter months.
Speaker 5: Yes, man, I supposing now about your automobile and this parmer,
we understand you had it up for Sally Advertising one
of the local newspapers.
Speaker 6: Yes, that's right.
Speaker 8: I ran one of those three day one ads over
the weekend Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I thought I'd get
more from my car if I sold it myself. I mean,
instead of selling it to a used car lot.
Speaker 5: Absolutely. How many answers did you get on your walt ad?
Speaker 8: Well, just the one way it turned out. This man
came out and looked at my car first thing in
the morning. He offered to pay me exactly what I
was asking for it, so I sold it to him.
Speaker 6: That's just the way it went.
Speaker 3: Who was this man, missus Palmer? Was he representing some
auto company?
Speaker 8: Yes, he said he was. Anyway, he gave his name
to Joseph Newhall. I've got his card inside. Said he
was a buyer for Dan Barton Juice car lot on
South cap Street.
Speaker 6: Nicely dressed man. He made it all seem so honest.
Speaker 3: I was a deal of arranged, could you tell us,
I mean transfer the car, payment and so forth.
Speaker 8: Well, he gave me a check for fifty dollars down
payment to hold the car for him. Was a certified
company check, I see. He told me I'd be back
that afternoon with a certified check for the full amount
of the car eight hundred dollars.
Speaker 5: Did he take your car with him then, No, he didn't.
Speaker 8: That's why I had no reason to be suspicious. He
left me the check for fifty dollars and said he'd
be back later with the rest of the money. Said
in the meantime one of the employees from the used
car lot might be along to pick up the car
to save me the trouble of driving it downtown myself.
Speaker 3: Mm hmm, same Amo Joe all the way.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it looks like that. Well, how did it go
after that? In Miss Palmer?
Speaker 8: This worker from the used car lot came to the
house to pick up the car about one o'clock that afternoon,
gave me a check for the full mount of the car,
and I gave him the pink slip had a pair
of white cover alls on lettering on the back of
him Dan Barton Jews cars. Looked like a typical mechanic
or something. I wasn't the least bit suspicious.
Speaker 5: Um hm. How about the buyer, this Joseph Newhall. Did
he show up later in the day.
Speaker 8: No, he never came back. I've never seen him since.
Haven't seen my car either. I call that Dan Barton
juice car lot. The next morning they told me they
never heard of you.
Speaker 5: New Hall.
Speaker 8: Just made me a sick officer. I can't afford to
lose the money I had in that car.
Speaker 3: Yes, ma'am, we understand the same things happened to a
dozen people like you around the city.
Speaker 5: Do you remember what this man new Hall looked like?
Miss Palmer's physical description, maybe the clothes he was wearing.
Speaker 8: Yes, I've got it all written down, sergeant, in my diary.
Would you like to step inside please, I've got my
little office at the back.
Speaker 9: Of the school here.
Speaker 5: Well, thank you very much.
Speaker 8: Now, I always make a record of everything in my diary.
I've kept going ever since it was a girl in
college every day.
Speaker 3: I suppose you've got all the information on your car
to make license number, things like that.
Speaker 8: Oh, yes, indeed, I got everything together I thought might
help you right up these stairs.
Speaker 5: Please you go ahead. How about the description of the
man in overall, so, the one who came to pick
up your car. Would you remember him, ma'am.
Speaker 8: Yes, I've got that for you too. Everything I thought
would help. Just have a seat their officers. I've got
the things in.
Speaker 6: My desk here, thank you, right ahead, thank you. I
wouldn't mind.
Speaker 8: The whole thing so much, but as I say, I
can't afford to lose the cash I had tied up
my car.
Speaker 3: And seems to be the way the thieves operate, ma'am.
They've been cheating the people who at least of forty.
Speaker 8: Terrible thing just out and out robbery. There you are, sergeant,
uh huh, thank you, ma'am. There's the description of my car,
license number, all the rest.
Speaker 5: Yes, I see.
Speaker 9: And here's the description of the.
Speaker 8: Two men, Joseph Newhall and the man in coveralls who
picked up my car.
Speaker 3: Have you got that deposit check? New Hall gave him
his bomb and the check for fifty dollars.
Speaker 9: Right here, sergeant.
Speaker 8: I saw that company about it, Dan Marton's juice car lot.
Speaker 9: It's forgery, not worth the papers printed on.
Speaker 3: I look, Joe, yeah, I say, same as the other one.
Speaker 7: Thing.
Speaker 8: I don't understand how those crooks get these checks to
begin with.
Speaker 9: Did they steal it?
Speaker 5: No, man, we figured they had them printed up. We're
still trying to find out where.
Speaker 8: Well, you know what the men look like you'll be
able to find them, now, won't you.
Speaker 3: Only we should work that way, ma'am. We've had good
descriptions on both men for a month now. Hasn't helped
too much.
Speaker 8: I don't understand it at all. As I say, they're
only common crooks. They can't be that smart, can they.
Speaker 5: Well, there's only one way we can judge. We've been
hunting every day for a month now. Yes, they're still
running free. In the space of thirty three days, the
auto theft gang and victimized a dozen private citizens throughout
the city. In each instance, the approach and the method
of operation had been the same. The frontman for the
gang would personally answer a want head inserted in the
local newspaper by a private citizen advertising the sale of
his automobile. The frontman would represent himself falsely as a
buyer for Dan Barton's used car lot, a well known
and legitimate used car dealer. He'd offer to pay exactly
the sale price which the private party was asking as
a deposit. The so called buyer would leave a counterfeit
company check for fifty or one hundred dollars, with a
promise that he would return later in the day with
a certified check for the full amount. After a few hours,
another man, posing as an employee if Dan Barton's Used
Car Lot, would call for the car and drive it away.
Neither the car nor the so called buyer were ever
seen again. All efforts to trace them went for nothing.
Eleven forty am, Ben and I went back to the
office and got out a broadcast up on Entry APB
on Missus Palmer's car and also on the phony car
buyer who called himself Joseph Newhall. After lunch we met
with Sergeant Ormsby, one of the other four men out
of all that detail who were working the case with us.
Speaker 3: How'd you make out this morning? More? I mean that
lad go anyway at all?
Speaker 10: Wasn't bad As far as he went. We found a
place where they had the printing.
Speaker 2: Done, you know where.
Speaker 10: It was a small job printed way out in the valley,
printed up the phony checks with that heading on it.
Dan Barton's Used Car Lot got out some business cards
for him too.
Speaker 5: What with the names?
Speaker 10: You find out that same one, Joseph Newhall. He ordered
the checks and the business cards printed described him for us,
the same guy. Where's it go from there?
Speaker 5: No place?
Speaker 3: Brinda told us new Hall had a car.
Speaker 10: He couldn't give us a license number, couldn't even remember
the make of the body style.
Speaker 5: Thought it was a late model car.
Speaker 3: It's fund.
Speaker 5: That's not much help.
Speaker 10: No address on him either. It was a will call
order paid for in cash.
Speaker 5: You told the printer to call us if Newhall comes back.
Speaker 6: Ah, yeah, it's covered.
Speaker 10: I don't figure there's much chance Newhall was going to
do that. He ordered enough checks printed up the first
time last three year.
Speaker 3: I guess that's one lead we can forget.
Speaker 10: How about that special run the Status Office made for
us yesterday, Anything come out of that.
Speaker 5: Nothing. All the possibles on the list were checked out
all over clear. Nothing from Barton's used car lot either.
Everybody on their staff's been checked out. All their ex
employees too, No sign any one of them might add
a hand in the Yeah, oh either. Have you seen
the captain since this morning? No?
Speaker 10: Why that idea we were talking over at the last meeting.
You figures we'll go ahead with it this weekend.
Speaker 3: How does he figure on working? You know Army personal
con Day.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 10: Most of the private parties who want to sell their
cars themselves use that want.
Speaker 5: Ad deal over the weekend. They get a.
Speaker 10: Special rate if they run their ad Friday, Saturday and Sunday,
I know, Thursday, nights of the deadline for having the ads,
and if they're going to run the full weekend, and
that's when we start working on it.
Speaker 5: We get in touch with every private party who's filed
a want ad for the weekend advertising the set of
their car.
Speaker 10: Yeah, we'll contact them by phone, every one of them.
If we advise them that if anybody representing themselves as
a buyer for Dan Barton to use Car a Lot
answers their want ad, they're to get in touch with
us right away. If they can't stall the man long enough,
we tell them to accept the deposit check, take down
all the information on the man the car is driving.
Speaker 8: Know.
Speaker 3: To work out if we can get any kind of
cooperation is going to be a big job. We'll have
to cover all the want ads and all the papers.
Speaker 10: We've got a good description of that phony buyer, Joseph Newhall.
If they planted a want ad one of the papers.
Maybe he's the one of the gang who brought the
ad in. It's possible one of the ad takers might remember.
Speaker 5: It might be worth checking anyway, Or it could be
they might have phoned in the ad too. That wouldn't
help much.
Speaker 3: We might as well face it.
Speaker 10: It's not food proof, but it's a different approach. It's
a plan anyway. We tried everything else we can think
of to reach the thieves.
Speaker 5: I got him all about that body telling that's it?
When was that? I see? Yeah, yes, as soon as
we can, thank you, sir. Well, maybe we won't have
to wait for the weekend. A man out in Echo Park,
he runs a candy store out there. He advertised his
conference sale in this morning's papers said. The first one
to answer it was a buyer from Dan Barton's used
car lot. Gave his name as Joseph Newhall. Looks like
the same m all. They make a deal an only
candy store on a go for the deposit check. He
wanted to full him out, said the deal didn't satellite
to him. How's it stand now? New Hall said he'd
come back with a check for the full sale price
eight o'clock tonight, two twenty pm. We drove out and
questioned the candy store owner further. His description of new
Hall tallied with the others, but again the potential victim
had failed to get any kind of a description of
the car new Hall was driving, of the license number.
Ben and I staked out at the house. Eight pm
came and went. The suspect failed to show. By midnight,
there was still no sign of him. When he had
shaped up. New Hall apparently had a policy of making
a deal at first contact or forgetting about it. He
probably figured that if a person was at all suspicious,
the interval would give him time to check, and new
Hall wasn't giving away any odds. All day Wednesday, the
stakeout went on no sign of the suspect. On Thursday night,
the local newspapers gave us lists of names and phone
numbers of all private parties who had ordered want ads
for the coming weekend to advertise as the sale of
an automobile. We divided up the names and six of
us took turns on the phones and started calling each party.
We warned them about the carcept ring and advised them
of what steps to take in the event Joseph Newhall
or one of the other gang members approached them with
the proposition to buy their car. One of the private
parties we contacted was a mister Roy Harmon. Ben got
on one extension and read in the stock warning we'd prepared.
Sergeant Omsby used the other extension and called another party
running an ad serg.
Speaker 7: The Los Angeles Police Department.
Speaker 3: Out how that yes, and one of the gang usually
goes under the name of Joseph Newhall. Now if you're
contacted it all?
Speaker 5: How's that?
Speaker 3: When was that? Uh? I see, well where are you now?
Saying about an hour?
Speaker 5: All right?
Speaker 3: Thank you? What was that all about? Man with the
name of Harmon once a cocktail lounge out on the
South Cole He took in a check over the bar
last not company check from Dan Burton Jeue car Lot
says it was signed Joseph Newhall.
Speaker 5: Will he ought to remember who passed it?
Speaker 3: He does, I got it right here. A man was
the name of Frank Curtis. He's a regular customer at
the Boar. Harmon says. This Curtis came into place last
night with a man in a dark fruit and the
man seemed to be a friend of Curtis's. When I
asked him what the friend looked like, and he described
him it was new Hall.
Speaker 5: What about that check business?
Speaker 3: Harmon says he was tending boy at the time told
me this Frank Curtis and new Hall had quite a
few drinks together and he ran out of money. Newall
wanted to cash a check, but Harmon said.
Speaker 5: No, he didn't know him. Well.
Speaker 3: This Frank Curtis is a regular customer at the Boar,
and he offered the endorse the check for new Hall.
So Harmon said, okay, any case.
Speaker 5: Well, how well does Harmon know this customer?
Speaker 3: Is this Curtis pretty well, lives across the street from him.
Speaker 5: We checked Frank Curtis through R and I, but he
had no previous criminal record. We left the rest of
the list for the other men, and Ben and I
drove out and talked to Roy Harmon, the owner of
the cocktail lounge where the suspect, Joseph Newhaul atchachs to check.
With the help of his friend Frank Curtis. Harmon told
the same story he'd given Ben over the phone. Curtis
was a long time neighbor of his, the steady customer
at his cocktail lounge. Just for new Hall, He'd never
set eyes on him until the night before. Harmon gave
us the home address of Frank Curtis and we checked
it out missus. Curtis answered the door and told us
that her husband, Frank, was working the newly inaugurated night
shift at an aircraft plant on the south end of
the city. Then and I drove down to the plant,
and after checking with the personnel office, we finally located
Curtis at his work. He was an assistant foreman in
one of the aircraft assembly.
Speaker 11: Shops, the cruisigeant Romero. The last time I saw new
Hall before the other night was five years ago, just
to work at the walk plants together.
Speaker 7: To matter anyway, has it done something?
Speaker 11: We understand you endorsed to check the new Halls for
fifty dollars.
Speaker 7: Do you know him, met?
Speaker 11: Well, I mean that you'd endorse checks for him.
Speaker 7: Well, maybe I shouldn't have.
Speaker 11: Wife's always telling me I'll be more careful to who
I'm signing checks for.
Speaker 7: Why what happened anyway? It wasn't check any good.
Speaker 5: Do you have any idea where we could find this
friend of yours?
Speaker 11: This new Hall?
Speaker 7: Well, I don't know.
Speaker 11: During the war he and his wife lived in this
housing project off North Maine.
Speaker 7: I know they moved from that place though, Yeah, no
matter of fact. Oh Joe didn't tell me where he
was living.
Speaker 11: I gave him my address, told him and drop over
for a beer sometimes. Don't remember getting his address though.
Couldn't tell me what this is about.
Speaker 7: Huh, just a routine check.
Speaker 11: We'd like to locate new Hall.
Speaker 7: That's all. Got a few questions we'd.
Speaker 5: Like to ask him.
Speaker 11: Excuse me, we're gonna watch it here, so yeah, I
ain't coming through with that.
Speaker 7: Jake Dang.
Speaker 11: Okay, Fellas bet On through all, Claire, Rety go Bettest
family dollar three. They're getting busy again, all right, seems
like the old swing ship days all over again.
Speaker 7: Four years.
Speaker 11: Yeah. You mentioned a minute ago that new Hall is married,
miss Jerry. Yeah, that's right. What about his west? Can
you tell us anything at all about her?
Speaker 7: Betty? No, No, I don't think so.
Speaker 11: Her and Joe seemed to get along all right along
pretty well.
Speaker 7: Matter of fact, nice girl, Betty. I never minded her much.
The new Hal's have any children?
Speaker 5: Do you know that?
Speaker 7: No? No kid for them? Work her aunt Joe?
Speaker 5: Uh huh. Would you know if new Half's wife is
still working?
Speaker 7: I don't know, probably is, but yeah, yeah, matter of
fact she is. Joe happened to mention it the other
night when we were talking. Just happen to think of it.
Speaker 11: I go ahead, I remember I asked about Betty and
he said she was still working same old place, Sam
old job, that's all.
Speaker 5: Where is this place she works? You know?
Speaker 11: Yeah?
Speaker 7: City Hall.
Speaker 5: We continued questioning Frank Curtis, and he told us that,
to the best of his knowledge, the suspect's wife, Betty
new Hall, had a civil service rating and that she'd
worked as a file charak in the record room of
one of the bureaus in the municipal government. Early the
next morning, Ben and I got in touch with the
civil service officials at the city hall. They got out
of tracer on the wife of the suspect eleven twenty am.
I got it follow theft Friday, Yessie Hazah, I didn't
hear it when Yeah, I see Yessie right. We'll check
within about an hour. Bye. I don't know why we
always have to do it the hard way. Well, what
a call back on new Hall's wife. Most of checks
out just the way Curtis told us what Betty new
Hall quit her job a month ago, hasn't been around,
hasn't been seen since civil service can't even contact her,
what's the deal? She moved, no forwarding address, not a
trace of her. Saturday, February twenty third, the strongest lead
we'd had to the auto theft gang began to fade.
Missus Betty new Hall, the wife of our principal suspect,
wasn't to be found. We checked out all our known
friends and relatives, the places she was known to frequent.
There wasn't the trace of her. Ben got all the
available information on her from the Civil Service Office and
we got out a broadcast in the supplementary All Points bulletin.
We found out she had a ten year old son,
so we checked with the Board of Education to see
if the boy was registered in one of the city schools.
It wasn't listed. Still no response. He stayed on it.
In the meantime, the weekend was wearing past the halfway point.
The other two teams of men working the case were
standing by, but apparently none of the private parties who
were running want ads over the weekend advertising the sale
of an automobile had been approached yet by either Joseph
Newhall or some other member of the gang. If they
did make a contact, it hadn't been reported to us.
Saturday night, still no response. Eight to fifty pm. Ben
and I had some supper at Johnny Cochin's place and
then we went back to the office.
Speaker 3: Not a bad man at all. Huh, it's pretty fair
for a Saturday night good soup. Yeah, there's nothing like
that corn chowder down and puts out. It's the best.
Speaker 5: Sure we should do something about that coffee like taking
a shot of adrenaline, isn't it?
Speaker 3: It is pretty strong? And excuse me? Maybe this was
giving me this heart? Then where's Armsby? I thought he
was covering, so I he was here when I left
Joe Ben.
Speaker 5: High Army thought we lost you and taking a call
from Hollywood Division.
Speaker 3: Good piece of news. What's that new Haul's wife?
Speaker 10: They found her.
Speaker 5: At approximately twenty five minutes past eight that night, a
dark haired woman in her late thirties had brought a
young boy into a pharmacy in the Hollywood area. Apparently
the woman had been drinking, but she was not intoxicated.
The young boy with her, whom she identified as her
ten year old son, was badly cut and bruised about
the face and the head. The woman insisted that the
pharmacist on duty treat the boy and attend to his injuries.
After arguing with the woman, the pharmacist called the Hollywood
Receiving Hospital. An ambulance was dispatched, and the boy and
his mother were taken there for emergency treatment. At Hollywood
Receiving the woman gave her name as Betty Harrison and
her son's name was George Harrison, but a routine identification
checked by officers next door at the Hollywood Division station
disclosed her true name as Missus Betty Newhall. The desk
sergeant ordered her health for interrogation and notified our office
immediately nine thirty pm. Ben and I arrived at the
Hollywood Division.
Speaker 3: Her boy, George Missus Newhall, hadn't he happened to get
beat up like that? Pretty bad for little Phone.
Speaker 12: I warned Joe about hitting little George. I told him
if he did it again, I walk out. Well, I
did walk out.
Speaker 9: I don't care what happens to him.
Speaker 3: You mean the boy's father did that to him, beat
him up like that?
Speaker 12: He's not George's father. Second marriage, my name is to
be Doneley. I had two kids, one died.
Speaker 5: Uh huh.
Speaker 12: The divorce came through. I got custody as George and
I married Joe new Hall.
Speaker 5: You know why we're looking for your husband, Miss new.
Speaker 9: Hall, Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 5: Why do you think so?
Speaker 9: Car business? I knew what he was doing.
Speaker 3: Do you have any idea at or where we can
find your husband?
Speaker 5: Not sure?
Speaker 12: He might be a lot of places. Just can't get
over what he did to George. No reason at all.
Kid came home and asked if we could go to
the show. Husband got up and slapped him. Been drinking
quite a bit. He hit the kid with his closed fist.
Kept hitting a gown man, slugging a ten year old
kid like that. I don't care about any man where
George is concerned, nobody he's gonna treat a kid of
mine like that.
Speaker 3: You said you knew about your husband's dealing in the
car business, missus new Hall. How much do you know
about it?
Speaker 9: I didn't have any part of it.
Speaker 12: I can tell you that much was his idea from
the beginning of my husband's got the men together to
work the racket.
Speaker 9: He made all the plans to get.
Speaker 5: Why is it you quit your job at the city
hall in such a hurr?
Speaker 12: My husband's idea, I guess he thought, if anything happened.
He didn't want to be traced that easy. Then he
had to go and get drunk that night cash that check.
He always did stupid things like that.
Speaker 5: How about the gang your husband has working with him?
Is new Hall can tell us anything about them?
Speaker 9: Yes? I can.
Speaker 12: Three fellas working with him. I know, I s Deadman
and Curly Reese and Jack Whitmore. Maybe there's someone else
besides them, but I don't know 'em.
Speaker 3: You know where these men live, ma'am? Where we can
find 'em?
Speaker 9: I think I do. Yeah, I got the dresses at
home by this time.
Speaker 3: They probably on the run, though, But you do know
the places they were supposed to be staying.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I got the addresses at home.
Speaker 5: How about the cars they got on this deal they
were working? What are they doing with 'em?
Speaker 11: You know?
Speaker 9: I don't know for sure? They were moving them east?
Speaker 12: I think selling them back there, yes, ma'am. Why is
it the woman who always gets the dirty end of
the deal? My first marriage and this one Joe Newhall
a thief, heavy handed crook.
Speaker 9: Why can't I meet a decent man for a change?
Speaker 5: And I wouldn't know 'em man, neither one of 'em.
Speaker 9: They didn't like kids. They didn't want to have a home.
Why'd they have to be that way?
Speaker 5: Well, I'd like to ask you something if they could? Yeah,
whyjer Merriam ten forty three pm. We stopped at the
new Hall apartment on the way back to the city Hall,
called the office and arranged for a stakeout. The wife
of the suspect, Betty Newhall, gave us the names and
addresses of the people she knew to be working with
her husband, Joseph Newhall, and the auto theft gang. She
had no information to offer on the cars they might
be driving. When we got to the office, we took
a complete statement for Missus Newhall and then she was
booked in at the main jail on suspicion as grand
theft Auto eleven h nine pm. Together with Wilson and Normsby,
we started checking out the addresses of the gang members.
Our first two stops we got nothing. On our last
two we did a little better. We picked up a
Jack Whitmore, Curly Reese and a Carl Steedman, three of
the names which Missus Newhall had mentioned. We took them
downtown and booked them in at the main jail. That
still left the principal suspect, Joseph knew All unaccounted for
at one forty five am. The next morning, we got
a tip as to his whereabouts. It's a small hotel
in East first Street. We checked it out. The man
answering new Hall's description was registered in room two oh
nine on the second floor. We got a pass key
from the room clerk on duty and started up the stairs.
Speaker 3: Two o nine. It's down this way, Jim, all right, yeah, seven,
you know, yeah, see if we can get a rise. Yeah, yeah,
that's something in that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, police officers, so i'd hold up there, missus.
Speaker 3: What is this?
Speaker 5: Shake him down? Ben?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Hey, what is this? What's this all about?
Speaker 5: You generally sleep with your clothes on New Haulork.
Speaker 13: I don't know what you're talking about. What is this shakedown?
He's clean, Joe. I don't check his bad and I
stay out of those things. You haven't got any right
breaking in here like this, going through why.
Speaker 5: Problems relaxed New Halls won't take long.
Speaker 3: Two full pads of him, Joe find him in his suitcases.
Company checks Dan Barton juice because.
Speaker 5: We talked to your friends, mister. We got one side
of the store you want to come downtown, give us yours.
Speaker 13: You get nothing from me, not only see my lawyer.
You can't hold me on any churches, Grand.
Speaker 3: Theft, Auto or new Hall. We've got the witnesses, we've
got the evidence. If you've got something to say, say it.
If you haven't, will get along downtown. You haven't got
anything on me. You haven't got enough to hold me
an hour. We're going to give it a try.
Speaker 5: For a full five hours, we questioned new Hall both
at the hotel and later downtown in the interrogation room,
and after five hours of questioning, he finally broke and
admitted being the mastermind behind.
Speaker 3: The auto theft racket. Your true name is Joseph Woodard
new Hall. Is that right? Yeah, that's it now.
Speaker 13: You can't blame the whole set up on me, though
my wife had a hand in it just as much
as I did. Well, we've already got her statement. You
want to give us yours, and she's just as much
to blame as I am. We didn't hurt anybody anyway.
It's just a con deal, that's all. We didn't hurt anybody.
Speaker 3: How do you figure that? Well, just a simple con deal.
Speaker 13: People advertising their cars for sale, are trying to cheat
out a few bucks on themselves. Were just outfigured on
that song. You're ready to dictate a statement for us.
You know we outfigured you two. You'd never reached us.
It wasn't from my wife.
Speaker 3: We'd reach you if not in thirty years, you wouldn't.
Where'd you go in circles?
Speaker 13: Just one hitch my wife and that stupid kidderage just
because I slapped.
Speaker 3: Him around a little. I wouldn't be here if it
wasn't for that.
Speaker 5: When you better learn a lesson, mister wife. Next time
you fight, don't pick a ten year old.
Speaker 2: The story you have just heard was true. The names
were changed to protect the innocent.
Speaker 4: On May twenty ninth, 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,
a check off his fingerprints revealed that Joseph Newhall's true
name was Joseph Arren Henderson and that he had a
previous record of forgery and burglary in the state of
South Carolina. Henderson alias Newhall, was tried and convicted along
with its associates in the Auto Theft gang on eight
counts of grand theft and forgery of a fictitious check.
They receive sentences as prescribed by law. Grand theft is
punishable by imprisonment for not less than one or more
than ten years. Forgery of a fictitious check is punishable
by imprisonment in the county jail for not more than
one year or in the state penitentiary for not more
than fourteen years. The wife, Betty Newhall, was convicted as
an accomplice and was sentenced to serve one year in
the county jail.
Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen, our security and the peace of the
world are in danger, while hundreds of millions behind the
Iron Curtain are victims of vicious lies about the United
States and other free nations. Join the Crusade for Freedom
through your local Crusade Committee or by writing to General
Clay Empire State Building, New York City. Make a contribution
to its work. Help truth fight communism.
Speaker 14: Join the Crusade for Freedom.
Speaker 4: 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 1: Welcome back. This is one of those episodes, and it's
a bit of a theme in drag Net where criminals
get caught not because they're terrible criminals, but because they're
terrible people who make enemies and will double cross or
abuse someone who decides to turn them in. I will
also say that I don't relate to the whole criminal
idea that you gave the police a good run and
bragging about how long you kept the police going. I mean,
if fits in to the psychology, but I don't claim
to understand it. When you undertake a life of crime,
if you make a mistake, you lose. The big difference
is that he's going to spend a lot more time
in jail than if he'd been caught the first time.
That's the prize for being such a brilliant criminal in
giving the police such a run. And then, of course
you have the whole moral justification for this that people
who sell cars are trying to cheat because you think
you car dealers are entitled to a cut of the
sale price of a car, or maybe it's a belief
that everyone selling their car privately is trying to pull
a fast one in terms of overcharging or hiding facts.
You know, it's the sort of expectation that if you're dishonest,
then everyone else is.
Speaker 7: Well.
Speaker 1: Now we turn to listener comments and feedback, and we're
gonna start out over on Spotify. We have a couple
of comments in the same vein A doctor who done
it wrote did my ears deceive me? Did Ben get
the zinger? At the end of this episode, way to
go Ben? And Peter writes Ben Romero got the last
word in this episode. I wonder how this happened. Did
Jack Webb lose a bet to Barton Yarborough? I think
it's the case with Barton Yarborough as opposed to Friday's
later longtime partners in Bill Ginn and Frank Smith, that
there's a sense in which he can be go Friday's
equal in many ways in physicality, certainly that can be
seen in the very first TV episode of Dragnet, where
he is the one who goes around the ledge and
delivers the punch to the man holding the bomb, or
in terms of taking over the narrative. I think that
with both Frank Smith and Bill Ginn and there was
a sense in which they operated a little bit as
comic relief, not quite in the sense of Sergeant Tartaglia
over on Broadways my bait. But they were the types
who didn't really go in for physicality. They were lighter. Yeah,
Ben Alexander did have that fight scene in the nineteen
fifty for drag Net movie, but honestly that was a
bit of a stretch. So while they were latter roles,
there is a real sense in which Ben Romero is
just as much of a cop, just as much able
to carry on the narration and the logging of the
case when Friday got shot in the big Ben, So
can he deliver a closing singer?
Speaker 3: Sure?
Speaker 1: And probably he's Joe Friday's only partner who actually could.
And then we have a comment from Mechanics sixty six,
who writes, what's Ernie going to gain by not giving
up his partner? Being able to do time without a
snitch jacket? Going to prison as a guy who read
it out his partner means hard time and probably getting shift.
I don't know how two witnesses could think Arkansas and
Midwestern accents sounded the same. I thought the first one
was going to say he sounded like Romero. Virginia Gregg
played three parts. I wonder if they got paid extra
for that well, taking the questions or comments in reverse order.
I believe that everyone got union scale, which and most
of the radio actors really made their money just by
the sheer number programs that they were able to appear in.
I also thought when the witness said that the person
talked funny, that you know, when Romero was doing the question,
that she would reference that that Texas accent is such
a big part of who he is as a character,
and it's so rarely even mentioned or addressed. As to
Arkansas on Midwestern, that's a tough one. I don't know.
Maybe a lack of exposure to those areas of the country,
that's the only thing I can think of. Although they
are all are some regions of some states that could
have kind of a twenty as sort of accent, like
if you had been from southern Ohio. Have heard quite
a few folks around Cincinnati with an accent that might
be classed in the Southern style if you weren't aware
of like the regional dialects. Then have a couple of
comments over on YouTube regarding the Big Waiter, which posted
on Thanksgiving, James writes, thank you Adam for making sure
we get our dragon neffects even on Thanksgiving. I hop
this video and I do so every chance I get
Thanks Day. I appreciate you mentioning the hot feature, which
is something newer on YouTube that you can do to
help your favorite videos perform well. And I appreciate everyone
who does it with ours. Mark says, nice break from
too much Thanksgiving. Well, I'm glad that I'm able just
to be there every day, even if I do take
the day off. And I was actually in Montana on
Thanksgiving Day this year, but we have everything recorded in advance,
so we're there as regularly scheduled. And then Mark Wrights,
these old radio shows are amazing history. And then we
had a comment over on the Great Detectives of Old
Time Radio website, and this one comes. And then a
comment from Dick over on the Great Detectives website regarding
the Big Crazy. So the husband's relatives will be lawyering
up and taking both the police and his vindictive sister
in law to court over this wrongful death right bakevat
civil suit for driving him to suicide. The DEA ought
to be to look into investigating the sister in law
for criminal charges. Well, she clearly manipulated this situation and
may well have done so hoping for just this outcome.
That's some interesting speculation. I think that regarding the criminal case,
you're going to have an awful hard time proving intent.
I think that the police having signed off on the
plan would really make that hard. Been a civil case
against her, I think would be very difficult. I think
a case against the police, a civil case against the
police would definitely be brought these days. But this, of
course was long ago, and as Eric suggested, and I
would tend to agree, this was probably a lot earlier
than the nineteen fifties. I don't think it was in
the nineteenth century, probably, but it wouldn't surprise me if
it was from the nineteen tens or nineteen twenties, where
you had a far less litigious society, particularly when it
came to these sort of lawsuits that you would bring
against a police department. Now, certainly there are lawyers out
in the audience.
Speaker 5: I know that you listen.
Speaker 1: I don't mean that in some sort of weird way.
I just mean it because people have emailed in and
identified themselves as members of the bar, as officers of
the court, although not in so many words, So anyway,
there are legal experts might have different opinions on whether
this would you know, if something like this, it's kind
of unimaginable that a modern police department would do. This
would have merit in a modern system, but I can't
imagine anything happening on the cistern law. You just really
would have to read minds and make assumptions. And I
don't see how you could establish that she had the
state of mind that you suspect. But thanks so much,
appreciate the comment. Now it's time to thank our Patreon
supporter of the day, and I want to thank Tony,
Patreon supporter since March twenty twenty three, currently supporting the
podcast at the Shawmus level of four dollars or more
per month. Thanks so much for your support, Tony, 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 Dragging That, But join us back here tomorrow for
yours truly Johnny Dollar, where.
Speaker 15: It's almost as though you suspected somebody OF's murdering rays
it is the possibility, isn't it? Of course not who
several people like you. This is a few years of
a half baked marriage and struggling along. How you can
call wondering in Florida's struggle, I don't know.
Speaker 9: I told you time to make it right.
Speaker 15: Call well, now, long is the business now that it's
suddenly begin to process.
Speaker 9: I'm just trying to say that.
Speaker 15: And they all might still care for you, but look
pretty suspicious. Good, you don't know what you're talking about about,
Walt Bascom. It's pretty unusual one an insurance man. It's
so anxious to spend the company's money. But then if
he has intentions towards the beneficiary of the policy.
Speaker 8: As this is.
Speaker 15: Terrible, you're saying, I won't let you.
Speaker 6: I won't stand for this.
Speaker 15: Well, oh, now come on, put that thing down right cough.
Speaker 3: I thought you'd come here instead of going after the mountain.
Speaker 15: You know, everything you said was possible, dollar possible, but
not true. And I won't stand for you or anyone
else tormenting this fear this way. She's been through more
than she deserves as it is, and I'm not gonna
stand still while some stupid insurance. Dick makes her tear
her heart on right, cough and put that thing away,
and you get out of here. Just put yourself in
my foot I have. That's why I said, all those
wild theories of yours are possible, all of them. All
three of us have plenty the game with Ray Sheldon
out of the way, especially me, because in the long run,
I stand to benefit most. And I'd be number one
suspect because I was the last one to see Ray,
the only one who was with him when he died,
the only one who could have murdered him.
Speaker 6: But and this is a big.
Speaker 15: Bunt dollar, I had killed Ray Sheldon, neither you nor
anybody else would ever be able to prove it.
Speaker 1: Oh, you'll be with us then in the meantime, send
your comments to Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net,
follow us on Twitter, Radio Detectives, and check us out
on Instagram, Instagram, dot com slash Great Detectives from Boise, Idaho.
This is your host, Adam Graham. Sign and off.