Speaker 1: Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from
Speaker 1: Voice Idaho. This is your host, Adam Graham. In a moment,
Speaker 1: we're going to bring you this week's episode of Dragnet.
Speaker 1: But first I do want to encourage you. If you're
Speaker 1: enjoying the podcast, please follow us using your favorite podcast software,
Speaker 1: and today's program is brought you apart by the financial
Speaker 1: support of our listeners. You can support the show by
Speaker 1: meiling a donation to Adam Graham Peelbox one five nine
Speaker 1: one three. That's Peelbox one five nine thirteen Boise Idaho
Speaker 1: eight three seven one five, and you can also become
Speaker 1: one of our ongoing Patreon supporters for as little as
Speaker 1: two dollars per month. Just go to Patreon dot Great
Speaker 1: Detectives dot net. But now, from March twenty seventh, nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty two, here is the Big Rose.
Speaker 2: The story you were about to hear is true. The
Speaker 2: names have been changed to protect the innocent. You're a
Speaker 2: detective sergeant. You're assigned a homicide detail. A thirty eight
Speaker 2: year old woman disappears. She leaves her sister and her
Speaker 2: four children behind. There's evidence of foul play. Your job
Speaker 2: find her.
Speaker 3: Drag mat the documented drama of an actual crime. For
Speaker 3: the next thirty minutes, in cooperation with the Los Angeles
Speaker 3: Police Department, you will travel step by step on the
Speaker 3: side of the law through an actual case transcribed from
Speaker 3: official police violence, from beginning to end, from crime to punishment.
Speaker 3: Dragnet is the story of your police force in action.
Speaker 4: It was Monday, June third, was overcast in Los Angeles.
Speaker 4: We were working the day watch out of homicide detail.
Speaker 4: My partner's aid, Jacob's the boss's that brown, Chief of detectives.
Speaker 4: My name is Friday. I was on the way back
Speaker 4: from communications and it was eight fifteen am when I
Speaker 4: got to Room forty two homicide. Joe, let's do I Brian?
Speaker 4: You seen Ed went all a minute, said he'd be
Speaker 4: right by. Oh thank you. I don't see anything in
Speaker 4: the book. Nothing new, huh, not much pretty slow.
Speaker 5: Now's your mother, Joe? Or she wasn't feeling too well?
Speaker 4: No, she's not. As a matter of fact, doctor says
Speaker 4: to anemia. It's gonna take a little time to get
Speaker 4: over it. I guess I'm sorry to hear it. I
Speaker 4: gotta do some checking down at the auto desk.
Speaker 5: If I get any calls, I hadn't to switch it
Speaker 5: down there with you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, sure will, Brian, thanks you bet you? Oh, excuse
Speaker 4: me for.
Speaker 5: Me, Tom all right?
Speaker 4: Ed, what'd they give you?
Speaker 5: Missing report? Woman? How about the Ma'm no.
Speaker 4: It's nothing, not the missing report there.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's all here. Someone out on sixty fourth Street
Speaker 5: names Rose Baker. It's been gone about a week.
Speaker 4: Last scene Tuesday, May twenty seven pm. Who's this? It
Speaker 4: made the report Carl Shelton, Who's he's her boyfriend.
Speaker 5: Miss Baker's husband died about five years ago. It's been
Speaker 5: running around quite a bit since then. Had a lot
Speaker 5: of man trouble.
Speaker 4: She disappeared before then.
Speaker 5: Huh yeah, half dozen times. Never been gone this long though.
Speaker 5: Holmes took this report from Shelton. He gathered Miss Baker's
Speaker 5: not too stable. She's going to drink quite a bit.
Speaker 5: Doesn't see to care anything for her home or kids.
Speaker 4: Seeing here she has four children. They're living with her aunt,
Speaker 4: missus Baker's sister. It's kind of a funny arrangement in there.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Baker. Woman packed her bags and walked out of
Speaker 5: the house about a year ago. Her sister's been taking
Speaker 5: care of the kids ever since. My mother comes back
Speaker 5: for a visit once in a while.
Speaker 4: Miss address we've got on missus Baker. It's the same
Speaker 4: address as her boyfriend, Carl Shelton.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's right. They both have apartments in the same building.
Speaker 4: This a recent picture of miss Baker supposed to.
Speaker 5: Be Yeah, nice looking woman.
Speaker 4: Huh. Sister's listed here as the last person who saw Well,
Speaker 4: how's that Baker?
Speaker 5: Woman?
Speaker 4: Still wasn't living at home, was she?
Speaker 5: According to the sister, missus Baker came over to the
Speaker 5: house to see her the night she disappeared, sometime around
Speaker 5: eight o'clock. Two of them had some business to talk over.
Speaker 5: Seems the sister had a check for four hundred dollars
Speaker 5: she got from selling some furniture. Claimed the kids had
Speaker 5: been sick, she had doctor bills to pay.
Speaker 4: Missus Baker's sister took care of things to that extent.
Speaker 5: Apparently, anyway, after the sister got the check for selling
Speaker 5: the furniture, Miss Baker wanted half the money. Sister said,
Speaker 5: that's why she came to see her that night. Two
Speaker 5: of them got in the car and went out to
Speaker 5: find somebody to cash a check.
Speaker 4: One drink of water, no, no thanks, Then you get
Speaker 4: a four hundred dollar check cash at eight o'clock at night?
Speaker 5: Would you know, sister sitting miss Dickon, did somebody good
Speaker 5: cash at farm? Turned out the person couldn't cash it.
Speaker 5: Sister stopped at the bar for glass of beer as
Speaker 5: a Baker took a car and went to look up
Speaker 5: somebody else she thought could cash it. That was it.
Speaker 5: Miss Baker hadn't been seen since.
Speaker 4: Who was is somebody else?
Speaker 5: Well? I did? Sister claimed she doesn't know. Miss Baker
Speaker 5: didn't tell her.
Speaker 4: Sounds like missus Baker wanted the whole check, wouldn't you say?
Speaker 5: That's what the sister figured, and Miss Baker didn't come back.
Speaker 5: She finished the glass of beer, left the barn, started
Speaker 5: walking home. Two blocks from the house, she found her
Speaker 5: car park and it was time to Miss Baker. Car
Speaker 5: keys were in the glove compartment. So it's a sister's
Speaker 5: share of the money. Two hundred dollars in cash.
Speaker 4: Well, how about the firm that issued the check? They
Speaker 4: get it back canceled?
Speaker 5: Yeah, a couple of days ago. Miss Baker's endorsement on
Speaker 5: the back.
Speaker 4: Yeah sounds pretty wild, isn't it.
Speaker 5: The whole thing does talk to half dozen people who
Speaker 5: saw miss Baker that night. None of their stories gibed
Speaker 5: Hony mean. Her boyfriend, Carl Shelton, he claims Miss Baker
Speaker 5: told him she was going out of town for a
Speaker 5: few days with a girlfriend.
Speaker 4: They check it out.
Speaker 5: Yeah, girlfriend didn't know anything about it. Then they talked
Speaker 5: to a woman who works with Miss Baker. She said, yeah,
Speaker 5: the Baker woman was planning a trip. Miss Baker mentioned
Speaker 5: anything about it to her sister. No, sister said, Miss
Speaker 5: Baker told her just the opposite, said she was getting
Speaker 5: out of her apartment into a new place. She's going
Speaker 5: to spend the next couple of days moving. They checked
Speaker 5: the boyfriend. Shelton said, if Miss Baker was moving was
Speaker 5: new to him.
Speaker 4: Either she's a liar or one of her friends are huh.
Speaker 5: It's all Baltic stuff. No two stories anywhere near like, what.
Speaker 4: Do they figure for a motive? They got a line
Speaker 4: on anybody who might have wondered out of the.
Speaker 5: Way, big field to pick from. She fought with Carl Shelton,
Speaker 5: she fought with his sister, some of the people she
Speaker 5: worked with. She had three four other men around town
Speaker 5: on the string too. Any one of them could have
Speaker 5: wanted her out of the way.
Speaker 4: All our relative has been checked out, all our friends
Speaker 4: places she'd be most likely to go.
Speaker 5: I'll check not a trace of or nothing.
Speaker 4: I guess we better start moving on. It a lot
Speaker 4: of ground to cover. See if we can't straighten out
Speaker 4: some of those stories.
Speaker 5: One thing's sure, somebody's Lyne.
Speaker 4: Eight thirty five am. Before we left the City Hall,
Speaker 4: we checked with Sergeant Holmes and Missing Persons who had
Speaker 4: taken the report on Rose Baker's disappearance. He had nothing
Speaker 4: to add to what was in the report with what
Speaker 4: he'd already told ed. First on the interview list was
Speaker 4: the sister of the missing woman, Bernice Maron. She was
Speaker 4: employed as a saleswoman for a grocery supply firm. We
Speaker 4: called at the home where Miss Maron lived with her
Speaker 4: four nieces and nephews, but there was no answer. The
Speaker 4: next door neighbor told us that Miss Marron was working,
Speaker 4: that she usually didn't get home until four or fifteen
Speaker 4: or four thirty in the afternoon. In the meantime, we
Speaker 4: figured we might as well check the next name on
Speaker 4: the list, Missus Baker's boyfriend, Carl Shelton. We'd already checked
Speaker 4: him through our and I and he had no record.
Speaker 4: We drove out to his address, a three story apartment
Speaker 4: house on sixty fourth Street. Shelton's apartment was on the
Speaker 4: main floor rear. He answered the door in his bathrobe
Speaker 4: and slippers. He told us that he was employed at
Speaker 4: one of the local oil refineries, and that this particular
Speaker 4: week he was working the graveyard shift eleven at night
Speaker 4: until seven in the morning. He showed us back to
Speaker 4: a small kitchen at the rear of the apartment. While
Speaker 4: we questioned him, he fixed a percolator of coffee and
Speaker 4: put it on the stove.
Speaker 5: You're sure about miss Baker's plans are and she never
Speaker 5: mentioned anything to you about moving out of the apartment
Speaker 5: house here, you know.
Speaker 6: And never somebody's handing you a line there. If Rosie
Speaker 6: was going to move, she'd tell me about it.
Speaker 5: This minute.
Speaker 6: I gotta get that coffee.
Speaker 5: Looks about that?
Speaker 6: He always watch some java.
Speaker 4: Got an old potfully, Yeah, Noah, and I'll thank you.
Speaker 4: How long did you say you've known miss Baker?
Speaker 6: About a year year and a half. You got along
Speaker 6: pretty good, she'd right from the start. Sure don't understand
Speaker 6: her taken off like this.
Speaker 4: Miss Baker ever talked to you much about the family,
Speaker 4: her sister, four children. I mean, did you see them regularly?
Speaker 4: Seemed to get along with them allright to you.
Speaker 6: I don't think i'd know that. Rosie never had much
Speaker 6: to say about him. The only thing I could gather
Speaker 6: was that she just got sick of the routine, you know,
Speaker 6: keeping up a house, doing the wash, mopping dust, and
Speaker 6: taking care of four kids.
Speaker 5: She just checked out.
Speaker 6: That's all her sister beniee takeover. You ask me. She
Speaker 6: never should have had a family to begin with. Rosie
Speaker 6: isn't the kind. She's a party girl, likes a good time,
Speaker 6: you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: Something I don't understand.
Speaker 5: Shelton.
Speaker 4: You said a minute ago you couldn't figure out miss
Speaker 4: Baker's going off like this when you filed a missing
Speaker 4: report on her. You said she was planning a trip
Speaker 4: out of town.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 4: Well, isn't it possible she might have taken off without
Speaker 4: telling you? No, I don't think so.
Speaker 6: She'd have told me she's planning a trip, all right,
Speaker 6: But she wasn't going to leave till the next night,
Speaker 6: Wednesday night. She's going to pick up this girlfriend of hers, Iris,
Speaker 6: and the two of them were going to take the
Speaker 6: bus down to Laguna for a couple of days.
Speaker 4: Well, it's our understanding this girlfriend Iris didn't know anything
Speaker 4: about the trip. Can you explain that?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 6: I guess Rosie forgot to tell her. I can't figure
Speaker 6: these women sometimes. Maybe she was gonna phone her Wednesday morning.
Speaker 6: She knew Iris could get away almost anytime.
Speaker 5: And you think it's possible she might have gone down
Speaker 5: to Laguna by herself.
Speaker 6: No, that's not like Rosie. Besides, before I went in
Speaker 6: a reporter missing, I called a couple of places down
Speaker 6: Laguna where Rosie usually stops that they hadn't seen her.
Speaker 5: Possible she might have gone some other place.
Speaker 6: No, without telling me. No, desides, she wouldn't go alone.
Speaker 6: I know that, Sheldon.
Speaker 4: We understand missus Baker was friendly with two or three
Speaker 4: other men around town. You think it's possible she might
Speaker 4: have gone someplace with one of them.
Speaker 6: Sheldon, No, No, I can't buy that. If it was
Speaker 6: eight months ago, i'd say maybe, but not not.
Speaker 4: Why not?
Speaker 6: We had it out, that's all, it was all settled.
Speaker 6: She wouldn't do anything like that. Again, pretty sure about that?
Speaker 6: I am yeah, positive. I didn't get it at all.
Speaker 6: She wouldn't do that. To me and off just packing
Speaker 6: up and leaving. Rosie wouldn't do that to me. She's
Speaker 6: got four children. Yeah, she did it to them.
Speaker 4: We questioned Carl Shelton for another half hour, but he
Speaker 4: failed to come up with anything in the way of
Speaker 4: a definite lead. Ten forty a m. We drove to
Speaker 4: the home of the missing woman's girlfriend and Iris Kirby.
Speaker 4: Two things she was pretty definite about. She knew nothing
Speaker 4: about an out of town trip Missus Baker was supposed
Speaker 4: to have planned for the two of them, and secondly,
Speaker 4: she had no use for Carl Shelton. She told us
Speaker 4: that Shelton was her ex boyfriend and that she had
Speaker 4: introduced him to Rose Baker, and that shortly after that
Speaker 4: he dropped her. A few weeks later, Shelton began to
Speaker 4: keep steady company with Missus Baker. Outside of her personal
Speaker 4: grievance against Shelton, Iris Kirby had nothing to offer in
Speaker 4: the way of a lead to the whereabouts of her friend.
Speaker 4: Eleven thirty a m. We got in the car and
Speaker 4: headed for the factory in the south end of town
Speaker 4: where Rose Baker was employed. We stopped off in the
Speaker 4: way for lunch, a bowl of soup and a sandwich.
Speaker 4: Had had a cheeseburger and a piece of pie before
Speaker 4: we left. We checked the office to see if there
Speaker 4: were anny calls. Nothing. The place where missus Baker worked
Speaker 4: was on Santa Fe Avenue, a one story building covering
Speaker 4: almost half a block. They manufactured men's work clothes, shirts,
Speaker 4: and overalls. We checked with a personnel office. We asked
Speaker 4: if Rose Baker had any friends that she worked with.
Speaker 4: We were told that there was a Mildred Dunn who
Speaker 4: was a fairly close friend of the Baker. Woman ed
Speaker 4: and I waited in the office while they sent down
Speaker 4: to the plant for Mildred Dunn.
Speaker 5: Miss Dunn, that's right, police officers. My name's Jacobs. Is
Speaker 5: my partner starting Friday.
Speaker 7: How do you do are you?
Speaker 4: I'd like to ask a few questions about Rose Baker,
Speaker 4: missus Dunn. I understand you're pretty close friend to hers.
Speaker 8: Yes, that's right. I've known Rose ever since she came here.
Speaker 8: She worked on the machine next to me.
Speaker 5: She come home yet No, not yet. You remember miss
Speaker 5: Baker saying anything you about taking a trip, Miss done
Speaker 5: mean just before she disappeared.
Speaker 9: Yes, she did. She'd been looking forward to it.
Speaker 8: That's probably where she is, don't you think off on
Speaker 8: her trip?
Speaker 4: Oh we don't know, ma'am. Did you mention anything definite
Speaker 4: about the trip to you? Where she was going when
Speaker 4: she was leaving, Well, I.
Speaker 8: Think she was going to Laguna Beach.
Speaker 9: It's hard to tell.
Speaker 8: She's always kidding around, Rose is. Once she said she
Speaker 8: was going to fly to Switzerland for a vacation, Sam Fritz.
Speaker 8: She's always kidding around like that. Oh, that's so like
Speaker 8: Once when she had a date with Fred, she said
Speaker 8: she was going to the pump room in Chicago, you know,
Speaker 8: just being funny.
Speaker 4: I see who is this Fred? Missus dune fell.
Speaker 8: In the shipping department. Fred Lyons nice fella.
Speaker 4: He and Missus Baker so much of each other.
Speaker 8: They used to, yes, quite a bit. I don't know
Speaker 8: if they were serious about each other. I thought they
Speaker 8: were till a last month or so. Maybe they had
Speaker 8: a tip or something. Maybe Rose got tired of him.
Speaker 5: I don't know, but you do to think the two
Speaker 5: of 'em were serious at one time.
Speaker 8: Oh yes, it wasn't more than a month ago, and
Speaker 8: all of a sudden they weren't sweet on each other.
Speaker 8: Least Rose wasn't about him.
Speaker 9: She told me that I guess we.
Speaker 4: Better check on him.
Speaker 8: Ed.
Speaker 4: Is this Fred Lyons working to day? Do you know?
Speaker 8: Ma'am?
Speaker 10: Oh?
Speaker 8: No, he quit last Tuesday.
Speaker 4: One fifteen pm. We finished questioning, Mildred done and we
Speaker 4: went back to the personnel office to get Fred Lyons's
Speaker 4: description the last known address. We checked out the address,
Speaker 4: but Lyons had moved out the previous Tuesday and left
Speaker 4: no forwarding address. We questioned the landlady, looked over his rooms,
Speaker 4: checked through the neighborhood, and talked to everybody he knew.
Speaker 4: We found nothing to indicate that Lyons had anything directly
Speaker 4: to do with Rose Baker's disappearance, but we did find
Speaker 4: out that he knew missus Baker and that he thought
Speaker 4: quite a bit of her. We went back to the office.
Speaker 4: Gott a broadcast and an apb on Lions.
Speaker 5: I want to check the book, Josie. If we got
Speaker 5: any light calls?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, right, homicide Jacob, that's right? All I sure?
Speaker 5: Where was that? All right? Thank you got something? Yeah?
Speaker 5: Hollywood Division, woman's purse fond the bacont lot out there,
Speaker 5: high school kid founded a lot of identification inside. Yeah,
Speaker 5: Rose Baker. Three point fifteen pm.
Speaker 4: The purse was brought downtown to the crime lab for
Speaker 4: detailed examination. Brian and Barrett from Homicide went out to
Speaker 4: interview the boy who found the purse and to check
Speaker 4: the neighborhood where it was discovered. Meantime, Ed and I
Speaker 4: drove out to talk to the missing woman's sister, thirty
Speaker 4: six years old, Bernie Marrin. She and her sister's four
Speaker 4: children lived in a five room stuck out house just
Speaker 4: off Exposition Boulevard. We got there shortly after Miss Maron
Speaker 4: returned home her job. Her two older nephews were out
Speaker 4: in front cutting the lawn. She showed us into a
Speaker 4: neatly kept living room where we interviewed her. She was
Speaker 4: a plain looking woman, brown haired, gray eyes. She showed
Speaker 4: little concern about her sister's disappearance.
Speaker 11: I gave up trying to keep track of her a
Speaker 11: long time ago. Sorry, and I haven't any idea where
Speaker 11: she's gone. I used to worry about her.
Speaker 5: I don't you know how about that person of hers
Speaker 5: that was found the sapronym Miss Mariam. Wouldn't you say
Speaker 5: that makes it a little unusual?
Speaker 9: An I don't think so. She loses things all the time.
Speaker 9: I don't know what she does.
Speaker 11: When she goes off of those things. I don't want
Speaker 11: to know. It's drunk and does a lot of fooling around.
Speaker 11: I suppose she's lost two or three persons the same way.
Speaker 4: What about last Tuesday, the night she disappeared, you know,
Speaker 4: so she'd been bringing in.
Speaker 11: Yeah, I got the idea she'd had a couple of
Speaker 11: highballs before she came over. She wasn't drunk, but she
Speaker 11: wasn't feeling any pain. I will say, would you excuse me?
Speaker 11: I want to yell with the kids out there? Yes,
Speaker 11: ma'am right right, that's enough of that playing around out there.
Speaker 9: Let's decided person that lawn more.
Speaker 2: Huh okay, no.
Speaker 9: Better, hurry up. You still got the backyard, you do, remember?
Speaker 1: Yah?
Speaker 11: Well, a good thing that came out of that married
Speaker 11: sergeant throws kids out there. There's two more besides Frank
Speaker 11: and Bobby. The girls, my nieces. One's nine, one, seven,
Speaker 11: marvelous kids. Girls are just as pretty as pictures. I'm
Speaker 11: glad I have a chance to take care of them.
Speaker 11: I guess I just like kids. I can't understand it
Speaker 11: when people don't appreciate them. I don't have a family
Speaker 11: of my own.
Speaker 4: Oh, I see, miss Marin, when you were with your
Speaker 4: sister last Tuesday night, you say she didn't mention anything
Speaker 4: at all about taking that trip out of town.
Speaker 9: No, just the opposite.
Speaker 11: Like I told you, she said she was moving out
Speaker 11: of her apartment into a new place. That's why she
Speaker 11: needed the money.
Speaker 3: M m.
Speaker 5: Well, what's the story about this money your sister came
Speaker 5: to pick up, Miss Mann. I don't think I quite
Speaker 5: got that clear.
Speaker 11: Well, we had this baby grand piano my mother gave
Speaker 11: Rose to me just before she died. Kids have been
Speaker 11: sick the last couple of months, one thing and another.
Speaker 11: I needed a little money to catch up on some
Speaker 11: doctor bills, so I sold the piano and I needed
Speaker 11: to do it, but the bills had to be paid.
Speaker 5: Well.
Speaker 11: Rose found out about it somehow, and she wanted half
Speaker 11: of the money I got for the piano. She wanted
Speaker 11: the money for herself, and she wasn't even willing to
Speaker 11: pay for her own kids doctor bills.
Speaker 9: It'd be different if I was charging her to take
Speaker 9: care of the kids.
Speaker 4: I just do it because I like them.
Speaker 11: Well, anyway, she found out about it and I had
Speaker 11: to split the check with her.
Speaker 9: The whole thing was for four hundred dollars.
Speaker 5: I understand your sister got the check cash that night.
Speaker 9: That correct, Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 11: It was eight o'clock at night. But Rose said she
Speaker 11: knew somebody who'd cash it. She wanted the money that
Speaker 11: night and save an argument. We got in the car
Speaker 11: and went to see this friend of hers, some bartender.
Speaker 11: He couldn't cash the thing, so Rose took the car
Speaker 11: and went out to look up another friend she thought
Speaker 11: would cash it. I didn't want to go chasing all
Speaker 11: over town with her, so I stayed at this bar
Speaker 11: and had a beer.
Speaker 3: M hm.
Speaker 4: And that's the last time you saw your sister's Yes.
Speaker 11: I waited a couple of hours, and then I walked home.
Speaker 11: With two blocks from the house. I saw my car
Speaker 11: pulled up the curb right on Exposition Boulevard. Car keys
Speaker 11: were in the glove compartment, two hundred dollars in cash
Speaker 11: right under them.
Speaker 9: No sign of Rose, though.
Speaker 5: Well, what time was it when he got back to
Speaker 5: the house.
Speaker 11: You remember, it was after eleven It close to eleven thirty.
Speaker 9: I think I went right to Ben And.
Speaker 4: Since that time, you've had no indication where your sister
Speaker 4: might have gone, No form calls, no letters, no word
Speaker 4: from one of her friends who might have seen.
Speaker 9: No, not a thing. She's in trouble.
Speaker 11: You can't understand why I'm coming for a long time,
Speaker 11: last five years, going downhill all the time.
Speaker 9: She's no good, sergeant. I don't know how it happened.
Speaker 9: Just no good at all.
Speaker 5: Thank you very much, Miss Barren.
Speaker 4: Thank you, ma'am.
Speaker 9: Oh, not at all. No trouble. Yes, I'd better get
Speaker 9: dinner started for the kids.
Speaker 4: Well, if you hear anything about your sister, we'd appreciate it.
Speaker 4: If you give us a call.
Speaker 11: Yes, all right, it's going to be the same old story,
Speaker 11: same thing all over again.
Speaker 9: You can bet on it, ma'am.
Speaker 11: She'll come back when the money's gone.
Speaker 4: Five point fifteen pm, ED and I drove back downtown
Speaker 4: and went directly to the crime lab. The missing woman's purse,
Speaker 4: which had been found in the vacant lot out in Hollywood,
Speaker 4: had been examined thoroughly. They'd found nothing that had provided
Speaker 4: us with a new lead. We checked communications, but there
Speaker 4: was still no answer to the APB we'd gotten out
Speaker 4: on Fred Lyons, the man who'd worked with Rose Baker
Speaker 4: and who dropped from sight the same day she did.
Speaker 4: Thirty pm. We got back to the squadroom.
Speaker 5: Hi, I'm Brian. You just get back. Yeah, you get
Speaker 5: the word. No, what's that missus Baker? They just found
Speaker 5: her body.
Speaker 3: You are listening to dragnet authentic stories of your police
Speaker 3: force in action.
Speaker 4: June third, Monday, six pm, the body of thirty eight
Speaker 4: year old Rose Baker had been discovered in the Hollywood
Speaker 4: Hills area, approximately three fourths of a mile from the
Speaker 4: intersection of Mulholland Drive and oaknol Terrace. A dirt road
Speaker 4: branched off to the left of Mulholland and wound about
Speaker 4: three hundred yards down the hill to a dead end stop.
Speaker 4: Just below the guardrail which circled the edge of the road.
Speaker 4: There were two eucalyptus trees. They overlooked a deep ravine
Speaker 4: covered with scrub oak and patches of laurel. Halfway down
Speaker 4: one slope of the ravine they found the body of
Speaker 4: the missing woman. There were two bullet holes in the
Speaker 4: left side of the skull. There was another one at
Speaker 4: the base of the throat. In her clenched right hand.
Speaker 4: There was a fifty cent piece. The immediate area surrounding
Speaker 4: the body had been roped off and Lieutenant Lee Jones
Speaker 4: and the crime lab crew were making their preliminary investigation.
Speaker 4: There was no sign of the murder weapon. The coroner arrived,
Speaker 4: and when the preliminary investigation was completed, the body was
Speaker 4: taken downtown to the County Morgue. All clothing and personal
Speaker 4: effects were removed from the body and sent to the
Speaker 4: crime lab for detailed examination. Rose Baker's sister, Bernice Meron,
Speaker 4: was brought to the County Morgue and identified the body.
Speaker 4: A few minutes after ten o'clock that night, ed and
Speaker 4: I got back to the office.
Speaker 12: I got it.
Speaker 4: I'm side Friday, is it, Sergeant Friday? Yeah, sir, that's right.
Speaker 12: This is Carl Shelton.
Speaker 5: Sergeant.
Speaker 6: You were out to talk to me this morning.
Speaker 4: You remember, Oh yeah, Sheldon, I heard about Rosie.
Speaker 12: Just a couple of minutes ago.
Speaker 10: I got to talk to you, Sergeant.
Speaker 12: I gotta tell you.
Speaker 5: Was that?
Speaker 4: So do you want to tell me now?
Speaker 6: I don't want to tell you on the phone.
Speaker 10: I'll drive in to see you.
Speaker 12: I'll leave right now.
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, all right, do you mind telling me what
Speaker 4: it's about?
Speaker 12: Yeah?
Speaker 10: I know who killed Rosie?
Speaker 4: Eleven oh eight pm Karl Shelton arrived at the office
Speaker 4: ed and I took him down the hall to the
Speaker 4: interrogation room, where he gave us his story. He told us,
Speaker 4: first of all, that he was well acquainted with most
Speaker 4: of the regular customers at the tavern where Rose Baker
Speaker 4: and her sister had first stopped to cash the four
Speaker 4: hundred dollars check. He told us one of these people,
Speaker 4: Leroy Hanson, had contacted him after he read in the
Speaker 4: morning paper about Missus Baker's murder.
Speaker 6: I've known Larroy at least four or five years. He
Speaker 6: used to work with him. He wouldn't lie to me.
Speaker 5: What this pellattas Shelton, that's Leroy Hanson. He said.
Speaker 6: He got to the bar a little after midnight. Hadn't
Speaker 6: be at least that because Leroy doesn't get off work
Speaker 6: to eleven thirty. Said he saw Rosie sitting in a
Speaker 6: car parked a couple of doors down from the bar.
Speaker 6: There was a woman in the car with her. He
Speaker 6: described her just like Rosie's sister. They were having a
Speaker 6: beef and.
Speaker 4: His friend of yours here what missus Baker and this
Speaker 4: woman were talking about.
Speaker 6: No, but he's smart enough to know a big argument
Speaker 6: when he sees one, he says, they were really going
Speaker 6: to it? Is he sure about the time? He's got
Speaker 6: to be. Larroy works at a sheet metal plants south
Speaker 6: of town. He gets off at eleven thirty, takes him
Speaker 6: more than a half hour to get in. Why should
Speaker 6: he lie about it. He wasn't even gonna mention it
Speaker 6: till he found out she was dead.
Speaker 5: This woman, he says, Miss Baker was with She fits
Speaker 5: her sister's description that.
Speaker 6: Close exactly, and there was a guy with Leroy.
Speaker 4: He'll back it up.
Speaker 6: If the sister says she wasn't sitting in that car
Speaker 6: with Rosie outside that bar after midnight, she's a liar,
Speaker 6: well she is.
Speaker 4: If you can prove your story.
Speaker 6: Here's the phone you asked Learroi.
Speaker 4: Eleven twenty two pm. We put in calls to both
Speaker 4: of the men who were supposed to have seen Rose
Speaker 4: Baker and her sister Bernice sitting in a parked car
Speaker 4: outside the tavern six nights before. Both of them corroborated
Speaker 4: Carl Shelton's story down to the last detail. They were
Speaker 4: especially certain about the time. Bernice Marron told us that
Speaker 4: on the night her sister Rose disappeared, she hadn't seen
Speaker 4: her after nine fifteen PM, and that she had walked
Speaker 4: home and was in bed by eleven thirty. Both Leroy
Speaker 4: Hanson and his friend told us that they had seen
Speaker 4: Rose Baker and a woman answering her sister's description sitting
Speaker 4: together in a car parked outside the tavern. They were
Speaker 4: both certain at the time that it was well past midnight.
Speaker 4: We made a check on Leroy Hanson and his friend.
Speaker 4: As far as we were able to find out, there
Speaker 4: was no logical reason why they should lie about what
Speaker 4: they'd told us. Ed and I got in the car
Speaker 4: and drove out to the home of Bernice Maron, just
Speaker 4: off Exposition Boulevard. It was twenty minutes past midnight. We
Speaker 4: rang the front doorbell and got her out of bed.
Speaker 9: Oh officers and then who it was? Come in?
Speaker 5: Thank you man?
Speaker 11: Oh, you have to wait long before I answered, I
Speaker 11: sleep pretty sound.
Speaker 5: Would have to ask you to get dressmas Maren like
Speaker 5: to talk to you downtown.
Speaker 4: Why what's the matter, Well, some more questions we have
Speaker 4: to ask you, ma'am. A few more things we have
Speaker 4: to clear up about your sister. It's pretty important.
Speaker 11: I've told you everything I know. I don't like to
Speaker 11: go out and leave the kids alone at night. What
Speaker 11: is it you want to ask me about?
Speaker 4: Well, you told us the last time you saw your
Speaker 4: sister was about nine fifteen last Tuesday night, and it's marya.
Speaker 9: Yes, that's right.
Speaker 4: We've got a couple of people who claim they saw
Speaker 4: you with your sister after midnight Tuesday. You were sitting
Speaker 4: with her in your car parked outside of tavern. You're
Speaker 4: having an argument with her. At least two people saw
Speaker 4: you and they'll swear to that.
Speaker 9: No, that couldn't be right. They said it was after
Speaker 9: midnight and they saw me.
Speaker 4: Yes, ma'am, that's what they say.
Speaker 9: And do you believe it? You believe it was me?
Speaker 4: Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 9: We do you think I killed Rose? Said it?
Speaker 4: Yes, ma'am. We think so. How about it, miss marn It'll.
Speaker 11: Take me a minute to get my clothes on. I
Speaker 11: want to talk to the oldest boy man if you, Frank,
Speaker 11: But it'll be all right.
Speaker 4: I'll have to go along with you, all right, this.
Speaker 9: Way down the hall in here. I don't want to
Speaker 9: wake the other kids fighting helping, all right, Frank.
Speaker 7: Wake up, Frank, Frankie, what do you want as I
Speaker 7: hate to wake you up, Frankie, I'm gonna have to
Speaker 7: go downtown tonight. I'm leaving now in case I'm not
Speaker 7: here when you and.
Speaker 9: The kids get up. I want you to take care
Speaker 9: of everything, all right, honey.
Speaker 12: Okay, what do.
Speaker 7: You have to go downtown for it?
Speaker 11: Well, it's something about your mother. Frank might take a
Speaker 11: little time. You see the girls get off to school
Speaker 11: on time in the morning, won't you, Bobby too. The
Speaker 11: sandwiches are all made, they're in the ice box. All
Speaker 11: you have to do is put them in a paper sack.
Speaker 9: All right, yeah, okay, why do you have to go now?
Speaker 4: Can't you wait until tomorrow?
Speaker 11: I'm afraid not, Honey. You take care of everything, huh.
Speaker 11: Make sure all the doors are lot and don't forget
Speaker 11: to feed the dog.
Speaker 5: No, I'll forget.
Speaker 4: What's the matter?
Speaker 5: Is anything wrong?
Speaker 10: Oh?
Speaker 4: Of course not now.
Speaker 11: If something happens so I can't get back tomorrow, I'll call.
Speaker 9: You on the phone.
Speaker 11: All right, Yeah, okay, you'll be sure and call huh,
Speaker 11: I'll call you, honey. Go to sleep now, it'll be
Speaker 11: all right. You get some sleep. Good night, thank'ee.
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, good night.
Speaker 11: I'm sorry to keep you waiting. I had to tell
Speaker 11: Frank what to do. The kids wouldn't understand. I mean
Speaker 11: if they woke up and didn't find me here.
Speaker 4: Yes, ma'am, what'd you do with a murder gun? Miss?
Speaker 9: Ma'm in my garage. I'll show you.
Speaker 11: I had her for kids to raise. It's not easy.
Speaker 11: You know what it costs to feed them, put clothes
Speaker 11: on their back. It's not the kids I minded. They're wonderful.
Speaker 11: I love every one of them. I'm glad to get
Speaker 11: the chance to raise them. Never married myself, never had
Speaker 11: any of my own. Hasn't been easy at all, working
Speaker 11: all day, coming home, cooking for them, doing the wash,
Speaker 11: trying to keep the house clean. Rhodes never gave me
Speaker 11: a dime to pay a bill for her own kids too.
Speaker 11: She gave us nothing, and she tried to take everything,
Speaker 11: tried to bleed me for my last dollar. I catched
Speaker 11: the check that night and said she was going to
Speaker 11: keep all the money. I couldn't stand anymore. We are
Speaker 11: you and I killed her?
Speaker 4: Yeah, Well, I'm sorry, ma'am.
Speaker 5: We'll have to go.
Speaker 9: Yes, all right, Well I do, sergeant, What'll I say?
Speaker 4: I advise you to tell the truth. You'll get a
Speaker 4: fair trial.
Speaker 9: I know that it's not what I mean. What do
Speaker 9: you mean inside there? What am I going to say?
Speaker 9: How'll I explain it?
Speaker 5: Ma'am?
Speaker 9: The kids? How do you tell four kids you killed
Speaker 9: their mother?
Speaker 2: The story you have just heard was true. The names
Speaker 2: were changed protect the innocent.
Speaker 3: On October third, trial was held in Superior Court, Department
Speaker 3: ninety two, City and County of Los Angeles, State of California.
Speaker 3: In a moment the results of that trial, When their aunt,
Speaker 3: Bernice Alberta Meren, was apprehended on suspicion of one to
Speaker 3: eighty seven PC, the four Baker children were taken into
Speaker 3: protective custody by juvenile authorities. Bernice Maren was indicted for
Speaker 3: murder and entered a plea of self defense. She claimed
Speaker 3: that at the time of the murder, her sister attacked
Speaker 3: her with a knife while they argued over the division
Speaker 3: of the four hundred dollars check. Bernice Maren was tried
Speaker 3: in Superior Court by a jury composed of nine men
Speaker 3: and three women. She was found not guilty. You have
Speaker 3: just heard Dragnet a series of authentic cases from official files.
Speaker 3: Technical advice comes from the Office of Ties Chief of
Speaker 3: Police W. H. Parker Los Angeles Police Department Technical Advisors
Speaker 3: Captain Jack Donahoe, Sergeant Marty Winn, Sergeant Fans Bracer. Heard
Speaker 3: tonight were Barney Phillips, Virginia Gregg, Vic Perrin. Script by
Speaker 3: Jim Moser, music by Walter Schumann, Hell give Me Speaking.
Speaker 4: Next, It's Counterspy on NBC.
Speaker 1: Welcome Back. What kind of an interesting ending in that
Speaker 1: she was acquitted? It what was mean? With quite a
Speaker 1: few questions about the real life situation as well some
Speaker 1: of the adaptation issues, like did the alleged attack from
Speaker 1: Rose actually happen or was it something that she made
Speaker 1: up later. It does seem like when police confronted her
Speaker 1: that would probably be one of the first things that
Speaker 1: she would say. The adaptation leaves it feeling like that
Speaker 1: she acted in anger, so it'd be more like a
Speaker 1: case of perhaps manslaughter. And of course, if the self
Speaker 1: defense story was true, it seems like there would be
Speaker 1: some corroborating evidence in the car or on the body,
Speaker 1: although this might also be a case of a situation
Speaker 1: where you could say to someone no jury in the
Speaker 1: world would ever convict me if I took some rash action,
Speaker 1: and it actually is true, Bernice would be a very
Speaker 1: sympathetic defendant, and a lot of people, if not most people,
Speaker 1: have had a relative similar to Rose, so maybe that
Speaker 1: sympathy overrowed any evidence. If, on the other hand, it
Speaker 1: really was self defense and there was not any sort
Speaker 1: of maliciousness, you'd hope that she would get a custody
Speaker 1: of the kids back, or at least that that process
Speaker 1: would be considered. But again, there is a limit to
Speaker 1: what we can know from the Dragonet radio play. All right, well,
Speaker 1: now it's time to thank our Patreon supporter of the day.
Speaker 1: Thank you to Nancy, Patreon supporter since March of twenty sixteen,
Speaker 1: currently supporting the podcast at the Detective Sergeant level of
Speaker 1: seven dollars and fourteen cents or more month. Thanks so
Speaker 1: much for your support, Nancy, and that will do it
Speaker 1: for today. If you're enjoying the podcast, please follow us
Speaker 1: using your favorite podcast software and be sure to rate
Speaker 1: and review the podcast wherever you download it from. We'll
Speaker 1: be back next Thursday with another episode of Dragonet. But
Speaker 1: join us back here tomorrow for yours truly, Johnny it
Speaker 1: all or where?
Speaker 12: Nice to hear from you again, Johnny. What can I
Speaker 12: do for you?
Speaker 10: Roy? I'm putting this call on expense account. Oh ain't that?
Speaker 3: Ain't all?
Speaker 10: If I could make connections down to New York. Well,
Speaker 10: let's see, there's a plane leaving for the West Coast
Speaker 10: a little after midnight, so i'd arrive in LA early
Speaker 10: in the morning.
Speaker 12: Coming out of here.
Speaker 10: Unless somebody's been pulling my leg, Roy, you have a
Speaker 10: policy holder named Helen Daner, Yes, we certainly do. Well, now,
Speaker 10: what's that mean.
Speaker 12: She's an elderly woman of Spenser who lives up in
Speaker 12: the little town Tomorrow Bay, that's about two hundred miles
Speaker 12: north of here, Johnny. She called his office early this afternoon.
Speaker 12: She demanded your phone number there in Hartford, and well
Speaker 12: I didn't give it to her.
Speaker 3: Why not us?
Speaker 12: She wouldn't say why she wanted to get in touch
Speaker 12: with you, knowing how busy you always are. Will, But
Speaker 12: just a few minutes ago I began to wonder about it. Yes, well,
Speaker 12: after all, if she wanted to contact you about some insurance.
Speaker 10: Matter, Yeah, well, did you call her back?
Speaker 12: Yeah, since we hadn't lot her insurance, that is, I
Speaker 12: tried to, but I got no answer.
Speaker 10: And right I'm going to grab that plane I was
Speaker 10: talking about.
Speaker 12: Well, I wait, did you get to you. Did you
Speaker 12: talk to her?
Speaker 10: Yes, and it has something to do with her insurance money.
Speaker 10: So I'm flying out there riot your company's expense, not
Speaker 10: just a minute, unless, of course, you'd rather pay off
Speaker 10: her insurance to some beneficiary, honey, then just be sure
Speaker 10: to have a rental car waiting for me when I
Speaker 10: pull into the airport.
Speaker 1: I hope you'll be with us then in the meantime,
Speaker 1: send your comments to Box thirteen at Greatdetectives dot net,
Speaker 1: follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives, and check us
Speaker 1: out on Instagram, Instagram dot com, slash Great Detectives from
Speaker 1: Boise Atohole. This is your host, Adam Gray, him signing off.