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 Dragnet. But
first I do want to let you know that if
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That's pio box one five nine thirteen, Boise, Idaho eight
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per month. Just go to Patreon dot Great Detectives dot net.
But now, from September twenty seventh, nineteen fifty one, here
is the Big September Man.
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. You're assigned a homicide detail. An attractive blonde
secretary is found beaten to death in a downtown office building.
You have only one lead to start with a length
of steel pipe wrapped in heavy paper. There's no trace
of the killer. Your job get him.
Speaker 3: Dragnet the documented 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 bias,
from beginning to end, from crime to punishment. Dragnet is
the story of your police force in action.
Speaker 4: It was Wednesday, September twenty eighth, was hot in Los Angeles.
We're working the night watch out of homicide detail. My
partner's Ben Romero. The boss's Thad Brown, Chief of Detective's
my names. I was on the way back from the
crime lab and it was eleven forty eight pm when
I got to Room forty two Homicide Romeo, Ben, Hey,
Rameol not here you ridy? Oh yeah, lope, how are you?
You've seen Ramero around the last half hour, supposed to
meet him here.
Speaker 5: He's coming gone still around the building though. Got a call.
Speaker 4: What was it about? You know?
Speaker 6: Yeah, I was on that killing the night call came
for one of the cruiser cars checking the neighborhood down
where it happened, ye know, they find something picked up
a guy about three blocks in the murder scene, acting suspicious.
Speaker 5: Men in the cruiser car. Figured maybe you'd want to
talk to him.
Speaker 4: They're bringing the man in now.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, even know. We're checking with the crime lab.
Speaker 4: Yeah, not much murder weapons. About all we got so far.
It's a piece of pipe with heavy manilla paper wrapped
aro on it.
Speaker 5: Lighting prints do any good?
Speaker 4: Yeah, they lifted a lot of fingerprints. They all belonged
to the victim. None of them are four him.
Speaker 5: Hey you got a tooth pick Joe and corner and
the coventer.
Speaker 4: No, I haven't want you to try the chop draw
over there in Mike Pena's desk he usually has.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, thanks. I understand. It wasn't much to look
at the killing.
Speaker 4: I mean it was a pretty vicious thing. The girl
took a terrible beating.
Speaker 5: Oh who found the body?
Speaker 4: One of the scrub women in the building was an
office up on the ninth floora import export company. Victim
was a secretary there. She's a pretty girl.
Speaker 5: M hm. She did long.
Speaker 4: Must have happened around seven o'clock tonight. That's my figure.
It's just a gas.
Speaker 5: What's the girl's name been identified yet?
Speaker 4: Yeah, Adele Prior. Her boss is out of town. She
was working in the office alone. Was no one suspicious
scene entering or leaving the office around the time of
the murder. There's no one we know of anyway.
Speaker 6: You know, it's gonna take a lot of checking. Yeah,
any idea what the motive could have been.
Speaker 4: Well, it wasn't robbery. They didn't keep any cash in
the office as far as we know. The girl wasn't
carrying much money. We'll start making the rounds of the
morning checking with her friends, see what we can pick up.
Joe Friday, Yeah, right here, back here, Ben.
Speaker 7: Oh, oh, hi, Joe lovely.
Speaker 5: Hi. They bring the guy in Ben, mm hmm.
Speaker 7: I hope you briefly about it.
Speaker 4: Jo. Yeah, a cruiser car picked up a suspicious looking
guy near the murder scene. That about size of it.
Speaker 7: That they found the man beating his head against a
brick wall in the back alley about two blocks from
the office building where we found a body. Guy had
been drinking heavily and when they picked him up, he's
pretty far gone. Kept mumbling something about how he didn't
deserve to live. He was a murderer killer not too cohering.
Speaker 5: They asked him about the dead girl, dope briar.
Speaker 7: Yeah, but the stuff he said didn't make much sense.
He sobered up a little since he picked him up.
We might as well see what we can get out
him before we booke him in.
Speaker 3: Huh.
Speaker 7: Got him in the interrogation room.
Speaker 4: Now, okay, you got to try anything. Any calls come in.
You know where to find a slope, Yeah, sure, right,
thanks a lot.
Speaker 7: Did you check with the crime lab, Joe?
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 4: About all we're sure of is the murder weapon. No prints,
no other physical evidence.
Speaker 7: Maybe it won't matter. Got half an idea we might
have the killer now. The guy they picked up, how
they figured it just too hunch. I don't think he's
a drunk as he pretends.
Speaker 4: We're gonna have to place him a lot closer to
the murder scene than two blocks away. You can't prove
a thing the way it stands.
Speaker 7: I was downstairs when they brought the man in and
talked to him while they would bringing up the interrogation room. Yeah,
told me he noticed the dead girl all right, said
he was with her and before she died.
Speaker 4: Shortly before eight o'clock that night, a scrub woman in
a downtown office building near the intersection of eighth and
South Grand Avenue entered an office on the ninth floor
of the building to do her usual cleaning chores. Lying
face down behind a desk in the small office, she
found the body of twenty eight year old secretary Adele Pryor,
beaten to death. When we arrived at the scene, routine
investigation began, but almost immediately we found ourselves down a
blind alley. Repeated questioning of all persons in or about
the office building failed to turn up anything in the
way of Leeds thorough investigation of the murder scene, but
the crime lab crew met with the same kind of luck.
They knew they had the murder weapon. That was all.
The deputy corner arrived and removed the body to the
morgue for posting. At ten o'clock that night, three hours
after the approximate time of the prior girl's death, officers
in a cruiser car patrolling the area found a drunken
man butting his head against a cement wall and uttering
incoherently about a murder. He was picked up and taken
immediately to the interrogation room, where Ben and I questioned him.
We'd talked to him a full hour before he began
to make sense. He gave his name as Robert French,
aged thirty four, an unemployed electrical engineer. While we questioned him,
two men from homicide were sent to check the hotel
room where French told us he was staying.
Speaker 9: I don't know. I guess I had three four drinks
at Dusty's place, and I went down the street to
the Blue Canario had some more drinks there. I don't
remember what happened after that. I wasn't feeling so good.
Speaker 7: You say you were drinking at Dusty's place around seven pms? Then, right,
Frank suppose so? I wasn't watching the clock. I guess
it was around seven.
Speaker 4: Well, did you talk to anybody while you're in the bar?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 9: Just a bartender. His name is Sarge. I don't know
his last name. He'll tell you I was there.
Speaker 4: What time was it when you got to Dusty's place, French?
Speaker 9: I couldn't tell you for sure, about six thirty. Maybe
Sarge could probably tell you.
Speaker 7: The bartender when you were coming up in the elevator,
you told us you knew a Dell prize.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I knew her used to work for a husband
or ex husband, I mean, had been divorced seven eight
years now.
Speaker 7: You said you saw Adele Pryor in her office late
this afternoon, French. What was the reason for the visit?
Speaker 9: I bought a couple of dollars from her. She was
always pretty good that way, nice kid. Don't know why
anybody'd want to kill her like that?
Speaker 4: Well, how about the show that you were putting on
out on the street tonight, French? Beating your head against
that wall? What was that all about?
Speaker 9: Drunk? Really drunk, felt so low I wanted to kill myself,
just lay down.
Speaker 4: And die from How's that you remorseful? Felt sorry for
something you'd done.
Speaker 9: I don't know. I don't think of any special reason
for it. When I get that way, I just keep
thinking I want to die. I haven't got the nerve
for it, though, I know that, Like my old man
always used to tell me, I haven't got the nerve
to do anything right. Just wasn't born that way. I
guess that's it. Do you use narcotics, French? No, I
haven't even got the nerve for that booze. That's all.
It's good enough for me, see you think we could
go out for coffee. Maybe I could use it.
Speaker 4: We'll have something brought up. Huh, Ben, you mind going
down the hall check with Littlepie, ask him to ask
a coffee brought up? Huh yeah? Okay, and see if
those two men are checked back in here?
Speaker 9: Would you right? Appreciated? Sergeant? Sure can be mean when
all this boozewears off.
Speaker 4: I'd like to ask you a little more about the
prior girl friends. Just how well did you know her?
Speaker 9: Not too well, I guess I used to see her
maybe once a month up there at their office. Yes, right,
she was a nice girl. Whenever I was broke, I
could always depend on her for a couple of bucks.
Speaker 5: I liked it.
Speaker 9: Was a nice person.
Speaker 4: Did you ever go out with her?
Speaker 8: Oh?
Speaker 9: No, I never did, no romance stuff. I didn't like
her that way. She was just a good person. We
got along, okay. No cigarette, No, it's not things. It's
full of cotton already.
Speaker 4: How about this business of Adele prior lending you money?
She think quite a bit of you, boy.
Speaker 9: I did her a couple of favors once when I
was working for her husband she was still married to him.
She was going out with the guy she liked on
the side. She was out with this guy once and
I saw him together. She asked me not to say anything,
so I didn't. Before she got a divorce, I used
to cover up for her all the time. She never
forgot it.
Speaker 7: I guess how.
Speaker 4: About when you saw her in her office tonight franchise?
She see him all right to you?
Speaker 9: Yeah, same as ever. Asked her if she could lend
me a five, and she did.
Speaker 4: I left.
Speaker 9: It was about a quarter after six.
Speaker 4: I guess anyone else in the office when you left.
Speaker 9: Yeah, it was a guy waiting in the little reception
room there. Didn't know who he was.
Speaker 4: Do you remember what he looked like?
Speaker 9: Tall fella about my size, my age.
Speaker 7: Joe, Can I see you man?
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 7: Dorothy and Brian have checked in and just got back
from going over French's hotel room. They find anything white shirt,
a pair of bronze shoes, pair of dark trousers.
Speaker 4: What about them?
Speaker 7: Bloodstains on all of them.
Speaker 4: The stained pieces of clothing found in the suspect's hotel
room were delivered to Lieutenant Lee Jones at the crime
lab for detailed examination. Coffee was brought in and Ben
and I continued to question French until about four am.
He denied any knowledge or complicity in the killing of
twenty eight year old Adele Prior. He told us the
bloodstained clothing in his hotel room was the result of
an accident he'd been in two weeks before when he'd
been drinking heavily. He was checked through R and I
while we talked to him, but he had no previous
criminal record. French kept insisting that we check on the tall,
dark haired man who had been waiting in the reception
room of the prior girl's office the night before. When
French left her, We gave the description of the suspect
along with them to the Stat's office, requesting them to
furnish us with any information regarding any assaults or any
solved or unsolved murder. At four point fifteen am, we
booked in Robert French at the main jail and suspicion
of one eighty seven PC murder. The next morning, at
ten am, the legwork began. Lopez and Dougherty from Homicide
started checking on the background an alibi of the suspect,
Robert French. He didn't hold much water. None of the
people at either of the bars where French said he'd
been drinking at the time of the murder, could definitely
vouch for his presence. But they all volunteered the information
that no matter how much he drank, French was never
violent toward other people, only himself. Lopez and Doherty continued
investigating the suspect while Ben and I checked on the
background of the victim of del Pryor. At eight twenty
five pm, we got back to the office.
Speaker 7: Hi, been waiting for you too. I'm hoping you and
Doherty do any good.
Speaker 5: Nothing to celebrate over long day, tired feet.
Speaker 4: What'd you find out, LOPI, anything new at all?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 6: Maybe French as are a man, can't prove it, but
me every place we checked, everybody we talked to the
same answer. Yeah, he's a smart guy with a good education.
He's on the bottle and he's out of work. Everybody
seems to like him. He gets drunk, but he never
bothers anybody. That's about the worst anybody can say about him.
Speaker 5: Drinks too much?
Speaker 4: Well, how about his being friends with the dead girl?
Did think of anything there?
Speaker 5: Yeah, it only proves he was telling you the truth.
Speaker 6: Though, as far as we could find out, there was
nothing going between the two of them. Everything that God
only verifies what he told you. He had no interest
in the girl except the bar offer.
Speaker 4: When he was broke. You got in touch with the
girl's ex husband, did you?
Speaker 10: Yeah, he couldn't add anything.
Speaker 5: All clear there? Hey, uh by the way here, Lee
Jones called from the crime light just for you. Came in.
Speaker 7: What did he have?
Speaker 4: Lope?
Speaker 6: Finished testing the blood stains and those clothes they found
in French's hotel room.
Speaker 10: None of the stands on a mass victim's blood type.
Speaker 5: It's another dead end.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's sure hard to figure. You got anything else, Lope?
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, he's good. A report for you from the
stats office.
Speaker 4: Oh thank you.
Speaker 5: He asked to make a run for you last night.
Speaker 4: Yeah I did.
Speaker 7: What's it looked like?
Speaker 4: Just not? Yeah, it doesn't help much. Looks like more legwork.
Speaker 10: What's that you we?
Speaker 4: French told us when he left Adell prior last night,
there was a man in the reception room waiting to
see her. He gave us the guy's description and the
stats office made a run on it for us. This
is the best one they got.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 4: The guy's name is William Tanner wm A thirty three
years old, six foot, one hundred ninety five pounds, dark hair,
dark complexion.
Speaker 7: It's a description French gave us as a guy.
Speaker 4: And the rest of it's a lot closer to home.
Speaker 10: What do you mean?
Speaker 4: William Tanner was a prominent suspect in the Donaldson murder
last September. Testimony of friends and relatives subsequently cleared him.
Donaldson's murder is still unsolved. What's the point, Well, the
same thing that killed Donaldson killed a Dell pryor what
do you mean? Piece of steel pipe wrapped in paper.
To the working detective assigned to examine a criminal case,
the element of coincidence, when it occurs, generally serves to
complicate any investigation towards the solution of the crime. Coincidence
may mean a lot, or it may mean nothing. In
any event, it can't be dismissed. This time we had
two examples of coincidence to deal with. A girl had
been beaten to death in an office building within two
blocks of the murder's scene. We found a man fairly
well acquainted with a victim who admitted seeing the girl
within an hour of her death. Primary investigation uncovered some
facts which tended to incriminate the man some facts which
tended to prove him innocent. Was his presence in the
immediate neighborhood of the killing only coincidental? Or was he
there at the particular time for the purpose of murder
We didn't know. By the same token, a man by
the name of William Tanner was suspected one year before
beating an elderly woman to death with an identical murder weapon,
a length of steel pipe wrapped in paper. This same person,
William Tanner, matched the description of a man reportedly seen
entering Adele Pryor's office shortly before she was murdered. Tanner
also had a criminal record of one conviction for assault.
Maybe it was a lead, maybe it was nothing. It
had to be checked out. We showed Tanner's mugshot to
our first murder suspect, Robert French, but he failed to
identify it. We went to William Tanner's last known address,
but he'd moved. We checked with his next of kin,
his brother, Martin Tanner. He was with a city fire department.
We found him on duty at the neighborhood fire station
on Norwich Avenue.
Speaker 10: No, I'm afraid not Sergeant, I haven't seen my brother
Bill in three weeks now. If he's not at his apartment,
I couldn't tell you where to.
Speaker 7: We tried the last address we had on him. He
wasn't there, eighty six twenty five Norman Road.
Speaker 10: Oh no, no, he moved out of there six seven
months ago. I got his new address in my locker.
I can give it to you if you want.
Speaker 4: We'd appreciate it.
Speaker 10: Yeah, Okay, back this way and then upstairs. All right,
what's it about, Sergeant, My brother in some kind of
trouble again?
Speaker 7: I guess huh, Oh, it's just a routine check. You
sound like you almost expect your brother to be in trouble.
Tanner to tell you the truth, I guess I do.
Speaker 4: I don't know what.
Speaker 10: Excuse me, man, No, it's not our call.
Speaker 4: Well, how would you mean that, tenor what's happened to
your brother?
Speaker 10: Well, tell you the truth.
Speaker 5: I don't know.
Speaker 10: Bill and I used to live together with our mother.
Ma died about two years ago. I don't think Bill
ever really got over it. He was a lot closer
to Mott than I was. After she died, he drank
quite a bit for a while, and he tried women
a lot something. After that, he turned to religion. We
thought that had helped, would have too, except that he's
an odd guy, even finds ways of distorting the Bible.
I guess he's still pretty religious. He goes to all
the revivals, the tent meetings, all that kind of thing.
Speaker 4: Huh. Do you know any of his women friends?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 10: I do, two or three of them.
Speaker 4: How about the name Adele Pryor does that mean anything
to you?
Speaker 10: Would she be kind of a pretty girl, blonde hair,
nice clothes, Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 7: Have you met her, Tanner?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 10: Bill had me meet her once. He seemed to like
her quite a bit.
Speaker 7: Was it pretty serious about her? Or would you know that?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 10: He was serious about her, all right, He told me that.
I don't think it worked both ways though, looked to
me like she was playing the field. Bill took it
way too serious.
Speaker 4: How do you mean?
Speaker 10: Well, they went together steady for a while and then
they broke it up cheated.
Speaker 4: I mean, how'd your brother take that?
Speaker 10: That's so good? I remember the night about a month ago.
Never saw a bill like that before. Real bad shake
wasn't drinking either. Is that you never saw a bill
like that? In my life, like what Tanner off his head,
He could have gone out and killed the girl.
Speaker 4: Before we left the fire station. We got William Tanner's
new address from his brother Martin. It was the same
address as that of the murdered girl, Adele Pryor, an
apartment house close by the intersection of Wiltshire and Lobrea.
Tanner's apartment was on the third floor, just down the
hall from the prior girl's apartment, but Tanner wasn't there.
The apartment manager told us he'd moved out the night
before without leaving a forwarding address. Ben put in a
call to the suspect's place of business, an industrial chemical company,
where Tanner was employed as assistant office man.
Speaker 7: What was the reason, sir, oh I see huh yeah,
well all right, thanks very much. We'll be checking with
you later. By what they say, Tanner left yesterday, quit
without giving any notice. Told him he had a better job.
Line where South America.
Speaker 3: You are listening to dragnet authentic stories of your police
force and action.
Speaker 4: Saturday, October first, eight am, we got out a broadcast
and an APB on murder suspect William Tanner. We checked
with the local US state Department office, but they had
no record of granting a passport recently to a William
Tanner to travel in a South American country. We talked
to the various consulates in the city representing South American nations,
but none of them had issued a visit to a
William Tanner recently or anyone answering his description. Together with
Brian and Lopez from Hide, Ben and I continued the
search for the missing suspect. The deeper we checked into
his background, the more we became convinced that mentally Tanner
was far from normal. Most of the people who knew
the suspect told us the same story as brother had
given us. In recent months, Tanner had taken strongly to religion.
He attended revival meetings and similar religious exercises every night
in the week. He talked nothing but repentance. He quoted
the scriptures constantly. He adopted the habit of carrying a
Bible with him wherever he went, reading from it aloud
every chance he got. He kept urging his friends to
join him in being saved. On Monday, October third, we
began a check of the various revival halls. On Wednesday,
October fifth, we found him. He was attending a gospel
revival in a meeting hall in the south end of
the city. He told us he had a room in
a small hotel directly above the meeting hall, but he
seemed reluctant to take us up there. While low pezant,
Bryan got a pass key from the manager and went
up to check the room. Ben and I questioned Tanner
downstairs in the lobby of the meeting.
Speaker 10: I'm sorry to hear about Dell. What happened to her?
It's a terrible thing, isn't it.
Speaker 7: Yes, sir, we understand you knew Adele Prior fairly well,
mister Tanner, is that Greg?
Speaker 10: Yes, that's correct. I liked her quite a bit of
one time. You see a lot of each other. I
was engaged to her, you know, well, how was it
you never married?
Speaker 4: Tanner? Did she break off the engagement? No?
Speaker 10: No, I was lucky. I found out in time I
broke off with her.
Speaker 4: What do you mean you found out in time? What'd
you find out?
Speaker 10: I found the truth, Sergeant, the everlasting word for Know
this and understand that no unclean person or covetous one
has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and God.
For these have given themselves up in despaired sensuality, readily
practicing every kind of uncleanness. Do not then become partakers
with them. That's the everlasting Word, Sergeant, the Holy Book.
Speaker 7: Yes, sir, I'm not quite sure of folly.
Speaker 10: Open your eyes and ears to the everlasting Word, and
you will know and understand all things. It's very simple, Officer.
I don't want to say anything uncharitable about her. Adele
wasn't for me. I'm glad I found out in time,
that's all.
Speaker 7: When's the last time you saw it? Tanner? You remember?
Speaker 10: No, I don't, not exactly. I think I saw her
week or so before it happened, before they found her dead.
Where was that that you saw?
Speaker 4: How's that? I say?
Speaker 7: Where was it the last time you saw.
Speaker 10: Her on the street? It was downtown somewhere. I passed
her on the street.
Speaker 4: Used to live in the same apartment house she did.
Isn't that right just down the hall from her?
Speaker 10: Yes, sir, I did.
Speaker 4: Why and for a full week you didn't happen to
see the prior girl around the apartment building at all.
Speaker 10: No, that's right. When I broke off with Adele, that
was it, I had no reason to see her anymore.
Speaker 7: Well, it's not too clear, Tanner. It doesn't gibe with
what we've been told about you and the prior girl.
Speaker 10: Well the lies, of course. I suppose you know that
Dell was a beautiful girl, very beautiful. A lot of
men she knew were jealous of them all.
Speaker 4: The way we understand a Tanner, you never did break
off with miss Pryor. You were going around with her,
and you were seen with her right up to the
day of her death.
Speaker 10: Well, that's certainly a lie, and I can prove that.
As soon as I found out about Adele, and that
was weeks before she was scared. As soon as I
found out that was the end, I broke.
Speaker 4: Off with it right away. Like to know what you're
referring to, Tanner, You find out.
Speaker 10: What Adele Adele? She was one of those huh, I'm sorry,
she was the sinner. I almost went out of my
mind when I found out she knew it was wrong.
She must have known was right there in the book
for anybody to read. Do not let sin rain and
your mortal body so that you obey its.
Speaker 4: Lusts Now, look, Tenor, what are you trying to tell us.
It was terrible.
Speaker 10: She sinned all the time. She committed terrible sins. Will
you committed a side room over here, I can tell
you all about her. I justice, so you will not
talk about it here.
Speaker 7: I'm sure go ahead.
Speaker 4: In here.
Speaker 10: Huh huh.
Speaker 7: Just one question before you get started.
Speaker 4: Tenor Yes?
Speaker 7: Did you ever visit a Dell prior to a place
of business downtown at her office? No?
Speaker 4: I never did. Why did you visit a Dell Prior
at her office the day she was killed?
Speaker 10: The Lord is my witness, Sergeant, I have nothing to fear.
Why should you ask me that question?
Speaker 4: Oh, we have a report that you were seen going
into the office less than an hour before the prior
girl was murdered. Like to have you clarify that for
us if you would.
Speaker 10: Certainly it's a lie.
Speaker 7: And you're sure you weren't in that office with it
just before she died.
Speaker 10: Well, let me tell you about her sins. There was
never anything as evil as this, sergeant?
Speaker 4: Is that right?
Speaker 10: Yes? It was a terrible shock. I like to Dell.
I think I loved her. We've been going out for
two months. Sometimes I'd take her here so that she
could learn about the everlasting words, so that she could
know about the terrible sin some people commit, or drinking
and parties and carryings on things no one should do,
especially girls like at Deell, beautiful girl.
Speaker 4: How can you be sure she was doing anything wrong? Tanner?
Do you have any real proof of that everything?
Speaker 10: Sergeant? I knew just knowing that she was sinning against
the Lord.
Speaker 7: Did you know any of the other mention what I was?
Speaker 10: They were sinful? I knew that they only liked to
Dell because she was beautiful.
Speaker 4: Did you know any of the men, Tanner? Did you
know for a fact that there was anything wrong?
Speaker 10: I knew everything, Sergeant. She was a beautiful girl, and
I thought she was a woman of the Lord, and
I wanted her from my wife, but she gave in
to sin.
Speaker 4: Now I guess that's her business. Tenor how she lived,
we're trying to find out how she died.
Speaker 10: Well, just let me tell you about it. I'd lie
there in the dark in my room upstairs, and I'd
wait to hear her come in down the hall was
always late, two and three o'clock in the morning, I'd
hear it comes.
Speaker 7: We still haven't told us, Dannan, what about the men?
She went out with this program, slaves.
Speaker 10: Of the devil, every one of them. I thought, I
go out in my mind.
Speaker 4: All right, Now, come on, you want to tell us, mister,
howbotch is that? What made you do it? No?
Speaker 10: Wait a minute, you don't want to wait to listen.
You say, made me do it?
Speaker 9: Made me do what?
Speaker 4: I think? You know what we mean? Tannor you want
to tell us now.
Speaker 10: It's a terrible thing. All is sin around us. It's
a grave thing. The whole world. There is not one
just man. There is none who understands. There's none who
seeks after God. There is none who does good, No,
not even one. The throat is an open separacher. With
their tongues they have dealt deceitfully. The venom of asps
is beneath their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness. Destruction and misery are in their ways and
the path of peace they have not known. There's no
fear of God before their eyes, no fear of God.
Speaker 7: M yes, sir, we're still like an answer to our question.
Maybe we could talk a little better downtown.
Speaker 10: The wisdom and the knowledge is here, And now I
knew Adele and her terrible sin they had to be
paid for. Adele had to pay for every one of them.
Speaker 4: You want to get to the point, mister, Now, what
is it? What are you trying to tell us?
Speaker 10: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the charity
of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be
with you all. Amen. So she sinned, and so she
died well the name of God and the name of
our Lord. Amen.
Speaker 4: I killed her. William Harrold Tanner was brought downtown immediately,
where he volunteered a complete statement admitting full guilt for
the murder of Adele Prior. Bloodstained clothing found in his
room corroborated his story. It was obvious that the man
was mentally unbalanced. He gave us the details of how
he murdered a Dell Prior because she spurned his attentions.
We began questioning him about the Donaldson murder, which had
taken place more than a year before and which was
still unsolved. The victim, sixty four year old Louise Donaldson,
had met death in the same manner as Adele Prior. No.
Speaker 10: I didn't know the old lady, but she had money.
I'd been told that I was broken. I needed the cash,
so I thought be a good thing.
Speaker 7: This was in September a year ago that.
Speaker 10: You murdered, yes, or September. All right, she was all alone,
she didn't have anybody, she was sick. I probably did
her a favor.
Speaker 4: Your package here says that you figured in the investigation
on the plot to blow up the Rexmore Hotel about
three years ago. Homemade bomb planted in the basement of
the hotel.
Speaker 10: Yes, that was mine three years ago in September. Never
could have traced him, too bad the bomb didn't go off.
I hated those hotel people a right, right, What was
the matter? I worked at that hotel once, you know,
I worked hard too. One Saturday that held up a paycheck.
I didn't get it till next Tuesday. Never forgot that September.
Speaker 4: September, Now, what's that got to do with it?
Speaker 10: I don't know.
Speaker 4: Really.
Speaker 10: September has always been the time. That's all I work
into some kind of trouble. Last four years, every September,
I don't know what it is. Seems to be the
best time to get rid of them. Yeah, September, it's
always September. I didn't really want to kill Adele. Wasn't
anything else I could do. She was a sinner, yeah, drinking,
running around. She committed sins all the time. Worst kind
of sins.
Speaker 4: Terrible. Let me tell you, maybe you better check the
book tenor your way ahead of her. What do you mean,
what kind of sins? Worse than murdered?
Speaker 2: The story you have just heard was true. The names
were changed to protect the innocent.
Speaker 3: On January tenth, 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, further investigation
proved beyond the doubt that William Tanner, besides murdering Adele Prior,
had also taken the life of sixty four year old
Louise Donaldson the year before, and that he was responsible
for the attempted bombing of the Rexmore Hotel the year
before that. After examination by three psychiatrists appointed by the state,
the suspect was found to be sane at the time
of the murders. Tanner was convicted of first degree murder
and 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.
Speaker 4: Stay tuned for Counterspy next on NBC.
Speaker 1: Welcome back. To admit that this is one of those
cases where doing video theater can present a challenge, because
we played this on video theater about six months ago,
and the main points I can offer would be kind
of repeating themselves, as what stands out here is the
need for the police to look beyond what's obvious and
to dig deeper to find the truth, as well as
the overall sensitivity with which the way that the suspect
twisted religion was used. And that's perfectly illustrated, I think
by the fact that he had committed these to other
crimes before he had gotten into religion or started using
religious language. This isn't a case where a suspect did
something out of a religious motivation. It's a case where
he used religious language to justify his own inclinations. The
only other thing that I noticed here is that this
is probably the only time that they had this episode
air in September, and it's it's a little unusual for
a dragon that episode like this to be seasonally appropriate. Now,
of course you do have the Christmas episodes that aired
at Christmas, but those were really an exception. There were
many crimes that occurred at Christmas or Passover or New
Year's and they essentially just aired whatever part of the
year they aired. So to make sure that the Big
September Man aired in September, that's an interesting choice, although
it wouldn't be repeated on television. Listener comments and feedback now,
and we have a comment regarding the Big Waiter from
Mechanics sixty six, who writes on Spotify all the talk
about food made me hungry. Her Butterfield may not play
Lean Jones when he plays other characters, but I've certainly
heard him play multiple parts many times on different shows,
and I think that's definitely true. He was one of
those radio actors who was just so valuable to have
around because he could double and triple up quite easily. Admittedly,
I think it happens more on the shows where he
doesn't have a regular role, but even on Dangerous Assignment,
for example, because the commissioner was generally after the first
few episodes, only in the first scene of the show.
He could easily come back and provide a second voice.
He was just an incredible character actor, and my appreciation
for him has only grown in recent years. And then
we have a comment over on YouTube from Eric regarding
The Big Crazy. That was a strange one. Did this
episode come from a case in the late eighteen hundreds?
How else could Friday and Romero not fired after that?
I really really did not like that in that story.
In the very grounded world of Dragnet, are you sure
you didn't accidentally play an episode of Inner Sanctum or
The Whistler? Well, Eric, it was Dragnet, but I get
the feeling that it was to borrow phrase from mister Spock,
not Dragnet as we know it. I don't know for
sure when this case, the one that the Dragnet episode
was based on, actually occurred, but there are at least
three episodes of Dragnet that have been traced definitively to
the nineteen twenty And of course, just two days ago
we played an episode of The Big Story, which aired
in nineteen forty seven but was based on an incident
that occurred in nineteen fifteen. I think that I could
buy that this occurred in the first cour century of
the twentieth century. Eric, I was thinking it had to
be sometime in the nineteenth but I think modernity creep
slowly and the difference between late nineteenth and early twentieth
century is probably not as profound as one might think.
But thanks so much, appreciate the comment and get where
you're coming from totally. All right, Well, now it's time
to thank our Patreon supporter of the day, and I
want to thank Daniel, Patreon supporter since June twenty twenty four,
currently supporting the podcast at the rookie level of two
dollars or more per month. Thanks so much for your support, Daniel.
That will actually do it for today. If you're enjoying
the podcast, please follow us using your favorite podcast software.
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Me back next Thursday with another episode of Dragnet. But
join us back here tomorrow for yours truly, Johnny Dallar,
where I'll.
Speaker 4: Be very honest with you. Doctor.
Speaker 8: His insurance company thinks your opinion of death from natural
causes might be wrong. My tentative opinion, mister Dollar, Lamont
Schofield suffered from well rather than boy with a lot
of medical terminology. Let's say he had a heart condition,
one that required that he'd take it easy, and of
course medication, what kind of medication digitalis for the most
part to limit the frequency of his heart contractions. And
more recently he's been receiving intervening injections of sidillanid.
Speaker 4: His nurse gave him the injections.
Speaker 9: Yes, it's under my orders.
Speaker 8: I understand. She's an old burlesqueen. Some years ago he
starred Mary in one of his Broadway productions. It was
a flop, But shouldn't he have had a regular license
registered nurse.
Speaker 10: She was a registered nurse, mister Dollar.
Speaker 7: A good looker.
Speaker 8: Over the years, Lamart kept himself pretty well, surrounded by
well some of them were very pretty girls, but not
this Mary. So a doubt they were all after his money,
including Mary. Well, mister Dollar, I told you my tentative
opinion was death due to natural costs. So the paper's reported.
But now let's face it, doctor if she hastened his
demise by saying overdose in one of those injections I
learned and while acting under your orders by using something
that you put into her hand now justin look pretty
bad for you too, couldn't it.
Speaker 1: You'll be with us then in the meantime. Send your
comments to Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net, follow
us on Twitter at Radio Detectives, and check us out
on Instagram, Instagram, dot com slash Great Detectives From Boise, Idaho.
This is your host, Adam Grahamson and all