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 drag Net.
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going to Patreon dot Great Detectives dot net. Now from
September thirteenth, nineteen fifty one, here is the Big Waiter.
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 to homicide detail. A sixty four
year old shopkeeper is found murdered, beaten to death in
the back room of his store. The body bears the
marks of a savage attack. There's no trace of the killer.
Speaker 3: Your job get him.
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 in action.
Speaker 5: It was Wednesday, February nineteenth, was cloudy in Los Angeles.
We were working to night watch out a homicide detail.
My partner's Ben Romero. The boss's Thad Brown, Chief of Detectives.
My name is Friday. We're on the way out from
the office and it was ten fifty six pm when
we got to ten sixteen South Twelfth Street, the apex
Man's Shop.
Speaker 6: Yes, Sir Friday and Romero, Central Homicide High de Cord.
Speaker 7: Oh, yes, I've been waiting for you. My partner's upstairs
in the back talking.
Speaker 5: To victim's wife. You answered the call. Dig Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 7: Miles and Kiva, Unit sixteen are who are you?
Speaker 5: Miles?
Speaker 7: Kiva's talking to Missus Wilford, victim's wife. She found the body.
Speaker 6: What's that up a blouve? How's that music up for somewhere?
Sounds like a party?
Speaker 7: Oh yeah, well that's a dance place.
Speaker 5: Takes a hole up the floor of the building.
Speaker 6: Wonderland Dance Hall.
Speaker 4: I think that's it.
Speaker 5: When was the body find, Miles? You know?
Speaker 7: Well, the wife wasn't very definite about it. She told
her she came in the shop here about ten o'clock tonight.
The place was wide open, nobody behind the counter said.
She looked around a while, finally found her husband's body
in the storeroom. Back there for a week's stomach's pretty brutal.
What else do you have to say?
Speaker 5: Oh, not too much.
Speaker 6: She's pretty close mouthed.
Speaker 7: Probably the shock of finding her husband like that.
Speaker 8: I don't know.
Speaker 5: Do you want to show us where he is, Miles, Yeah,
it's straight back this way.
Speaker 7: The victim's name is Joseph Wilford. Owned the store around
it himself. My wife says he's had the business here
for twenty three years. It's a typical men's shop. And
you can see that that's around the left in here. Okay,
go ahead, he used this for a storeroom.
Speaker 6: I guess that's it. As far as we know the
body hasn't be touched.
Speaker 9: Yeah, sure took a terrible being the elderly man.
Speaker 7: My wife said he was sixty four last birthday. She
couldn't think of any enemies he has. Anybody want to
do this?
Speaker 6: Where'd he keep his cash? Did she tell you that?
No cashratister?
Speaker 7: I guess can't be sure the lighton Prince gets here?
Speaker 5: Yeah? Did you call the crime lab yet? I wait
for you, Fellows. I want to call him now, would
you min sure? Sor say you might as well call
the coroner while you're at it. Tell him it's no
big rush.
Speaker 10: Yeah right.
Speaker 6: Take a look around here, Jill. It's like a tornado
ripped through.
Speaker 9: Yeah, chair overturned, flows all over the floor. Yeah, however,
man look at the body. Yeah, his arms tied behind
his back.
Speaker 6: Ordinary clothesline? Row? What's that cloth k nodding around his neck?
Speaker 5: I don't know. Looks like it could be a woman's slip,
isn't it.
Speaker 9: Whoever it was, they weren't taking any chances he lived
through it.
Speaker 5: The wounds on.
Speaker 6: The head here and the next thing, Yeah, looks like
he was stamped on by boots something like that. Maybe
a narrow heel show brutal.
Speaker 5: He doesn't look too much like a robbery motive, not
from the beating he took, anyway, looks.
Speaker 6: Like he might have had a taste for art all
over the wall here pin up girls, fancy counter the
crime lab.
Speaker 7: On a way off?
Speaker 5: Oh thanks Madams notified deputy corner.
Speaker 6: Anything else I can do for you?
Speaker 5: Yeah? Would you mind getting a wife down here? Miss
Wilford would like to talk to her? Sure, right away,
thank you.
Speaker 6: How's she feeling any hysterics?
Speaker 5: No, she's pretty quiet.
Speaker 7: She went upstairs to rest a couple of housekeeping rooms
up there.
Speaker 5: I guess that's where she and her husband live. What'll
tell her she doesn't feel too well? We could come
up there and talk to her.
Speaker 6: Right, what do you think?
Speaker 5: I don't know. We'll see what the crime lab can
come up with. We can start checking around the neighborhood
after we talk to the wife.
Speaker 6: Take a look here.
Speaker 5: What's that there?
Speaker 6: It's funny. Not much place in a habitash raet for
things like this. Look a woman's nightgown, black lace packed
in a gift? Is that a card there?
Speaker 5: Yeah? See if we can read it without touching? It
says to a beautiful girl, you've been away too long,
hoping we'll never be parted again, Signed Joseph Wilford.
Speaker 6: Seems a little funny. Huh, maybe his wife's been on
a trip. He's going to give it to hers a bread.
Speaker 9: When's the last time you gave your wife a black
lace nightgown?
Speaker 5: Eleven o five pm. The two officers who'd answered the call,
Miles and Keever, brought the victims way. Missus Agnes Wilford downstairs,
and Ben and I questioned her. She was a small,
slight woman, dark haired, dark brown eyes, and sharp nose
and chin. She looked to be in her early fifties.
She said that both she and her husband had emigrated
to America from northern Germany twenty five years before. We
asked her how her married life with mister Wilfrid had been,
but you kept dodging the question. We asked her how
she happened to find the body.
Speaker 6: The bodies just as you found it, Missus Wilford. You
didn't disturb anything.
Speaker 5: No.
Speaker 11: I just came back from her friends and looked, and
I saw him and he was dead.
Speaker 10: Somebody killed Joseph.
Speaker 5: And you're pretty sure that your husband wasn't having any
trouble with anybody.
Speaker 10: No, m No, he didn't have any enemies. Not to
do this.
Speaker 6: Here's Ma'amma. You lived upstairs in the back of the
store with mister Wilfrid, Is that rightman?
Speaker 11: For a long time? Yes, we lived upstairs in the rooms.
It was nice, saved money for rend.
Speaker 5: Well. Do you have any idea at all why her
husband's dead, Why somebody'd want to kill him?
Speaker 11: There was money in the store they'd kill for there,
you policemen, people killed for money, you know that.
Speaker 9: Do you know where mister Wilfrid kept his money, ma'am?
Speaker 11: There was a wooden drawer on the table in the
back roomy would keep the money there. But I looked
when I came in first, it was empty.
Speaker 5: Was there any money in that drawer tonight? You know that?
Speaker 10: Oh?
Speaker 11: Yes, three four hundred dollars? Anyway, Joseph always kept it
in there a terrible place up above the music all
the time, the noise.
Speaker 10: You should make them be quiet. The dance halls have
been up there for a year tonight, anyway, this should
be quietes, ma'am.
Speaker 6: About the money mister Wilfrid had in this.
Speaker 11: Store, maybe one thousand dollars seven eight hundred, maybe that anyway.
Speaker 10: And then his wristwatch he had on that's gone too.
Speaker 6: Can you give us a description of the watch, Missus Wilford?
What make it was?
Speaker 5: What look like?
Speaker 10: Yes, I can give that to you.
Speaker 11: It's white gold, expensive riding on the back, Agnes Joseph
one birthday I gave it to him.
Speaker 5: Have you been away from your husband recently, ma'am? I
mean on a trip or anything like that.
Speaker 10: No, I haven't been way.
Speaker 5: Why well, we don't mean to upset you at a
time like this, but would you know if your husband
had any women friends? Ms?
Speaker 10: Wolf, if you have a cigarette, I'd like one.
Speaker 6: Oh yes, ma'am.
Speaker 10: Here we are, thank you very much.
Speaker 5: Thank you for your liking. Thank you.
Speaker 10: Do we have to talk about it?
Speaker 6: I'm afraid some man, most.
Speaker 10: Of them, I know, for ten years it's been like this.
Speaker 11: There were many of them, young women. Joseph didn't try
to hide it from me. I knew all about it.
Speaker 5: And you continued to live with your husband all this time.
Speaker 6: Man, I did.
Speaker 10: He'd bring the girls to the shop here.
Speaker 11: Sometimes when they'd come, I'd go away for a while.
After they were gone, I'd come back Joseph and I
would never talk about it.
Speaker 9: You mean you never had any arguments with your husband
about the women.
Speaker 11: No, he never lied to me about the girls he
had them, that's all. This was something he expected me
to understand.
Speaker 6: I see you say you knew several of these women
your husband went out with. Could you give us their names?
Speaker 5: Please?
Speaker 11: Yes, there's an address book upstairs in Joseph's desk.
Speaker 10: The names are in there.
Speaker 5: I see.
Speaker 9: Would you mind joining us that address book now?
Speaker 5: Please?
Speaker 10: Yes, we can go upstairs. I'll get it for you.
Speaker 6: There's one question I'd like to ask you, Missus Wilfrid,
about your husband.
Speaker 12: Ma'am.
Speaker 11: I don't know, hurt very much at first, and then
by and by didn't hurt so much.
Speaker 10: Time, I guess. Beg your pardon if you want.
Speaker 11: To get used to anything, Yes, ma'am, even a man
who doesn't love you anymore.
Speaker 5: We went upstairs to the housekeeping rooms, where Missus Wilfrid
gave us her husband's personal address book. She also gave
us a description of his wristwatch, which had been removed
from the body, along with the name of the jeweler
who'd sold her the watch. It was a Hamilton with
a diamond studded dial. The crime lab crew arrived downstairs
and began their routine investigation. We finished questioning the victim's wife,
and then we started checking the neighborhood. Only a few
of the stores in the area were still open. We
found only one possible witness, a newsboy who told us
that he'd seen an attractive, dark haired woman enter the
store earlier in the night, at about eight thirty p m.
His description of her was only sketchy. Another hour of
checking the neighborhood and we went back to the store.
Lieutenant Lee Jones and the crime lab crew finished checking
over the entire layout. They went back downtown to give
a thorough examination to what physical evidence that they'd found.
The deputy coroner arrived and removed the body. Together with
hubcun Forbes from Homicide, Ben and I spent most of
the next day checking with store owners in the immediate
neighborhood of Wilfrid's Haberdashery. They could tell us nothing we
had already found out. We got the description and serial
numbers of the victim's missing wristwatch, notified the pawn shop detail,
and got out a broadcast on it. Three forty five pm.
We checked with the office.
Speaker 6: We've got a slow enough start on this thing. Huh.
Everybody tells it's the same story.
Speaker 5: Yeah, seems to be pretty common know age. He had
a lot of girlfriends. I guess we better start checking
out the names of that address book. Huh.
Speaker 6: Yeah, her beats all doesn't in jail?
Speaker 5: What's that?
Speaker 6: Missus will for ten years? Her husband's dating other women
right in front of her isn't normal? And see why
she didn't just pack up and leave.
Speaker 5: It's kind of hard to figure that maybe she was
still in love with him. Wonder how Forbes and Hubco
made out.
Speaker 6: I checked the books. If we got a call?
Speaker 9: Yeah, see, no, no word from her?
Speaker 6: No? Lee Jones called from the crime lab wants us
to check with him. I call him two six six
seventh please, that's right.
Speaker 5: I guess we better check with the morgue too. Huh.
See if they got the body posted yet?
Speaker 6: Yeah? I leave from maryl Oh, what was did you
get the name? I see? All right, I'm buy what
do you have? Lee talked to the corner already. Wilfred
died about nine o'clock because of death with strangulation.
Speaker 9: How about those wounds in the head and on the neck.
Speaker 6: That didn't do it. The cloth died around his neck
was a woman's slip for her?
Speaker 9: Or did you pick up anything off at any laundry marks?
Speaker 6: And he did better than that. Yeah, we got the
name of the laundry.
Speaker 5: After checking for all stains and markings on the woman's slip,
which had been found knotted around the murder victim's neck,
Lee Jones had examined it under a special fluorescent light.
He found a type of marking used by only one
large laundry service in the city. We checked with the
managers of the laundry company and found that the slip
had been cleaned by them for a miss Elised Dressler.
She had a North Hudson Street address. We started checking
on her. The first lead came from the dead man's
personal address book. We found the name of Elisee Dressler
listed along with her address and telephone number. There was
a single word scribbled beside her name and enclosed with parentheses.
It said Max. That was all five forty two pm.
We drove out to the address, a Spanish style apartment
house on North Hudson. We rang but there was no answer.
The apartment manager told us Miss Dresler worked as a
dancer at the nightclub on West Seventh Street. Ben and
I drove to the club, a high price theater restaurant,
which was newly opened. We were told the least dressler
wasn't due there until nine pm. We had a couple
of ham and cheese sandwhich isn't some coffee at a
lunch cotter, and we checked back at the club a
few minutes past nine. The show was already started. We
located the dressler girl in her room backstage. She was
a tall, fairly attractive blonde. We started questioning.
Speaker 6: Her, Can you tell us where you were last night? Miss?
Speaker 12: Yeah?
Speaker 13: All right here I work every night at Monday.
Speaker 5: We closed in What time did you get here last night?
Speaker 13: Just about eight o'clock. I had something to eat and
a change in my costume, went to work.
Speaker 6: Do you know if mister and Wilfrid had any enemies? No,
maybe somebody was having trouble with No.
Speaker 13: Oh, maybe that wife of his. Is none of my business.
I wouldn't know.
Speaker 5: You can't think of anybody at all or might want
him out of the way.
Speaker 14: No, I don't think so. He and Max Hollins had
some arguments. But that's only time I saw Joe mad
at anybody. This Max Hollins, he's the man who arranged
for me to come out from New York.
Speaker 13: Joe Max been friends for a long time.
Speaker 6: What were the arguments about Miss Tresler? Do you remember?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 13: About me?
Speaker 14: You see, Max brought me out here, and I suppose
at first he thought he owned me. He think I
should go out with any other men but him.
Speaker 13: Max's Steven sometimes was so my I like Wilford, so
I went out with him. I went out with Max too.
Speaker 5: Well, these arguments they had about you, would you say
that they were pretty mad at each other? Max and
this mister Wilfrid.
Speaker 14: Well, last week Max was very angry with Joe, but
I think he got over it.
Speaker 13: Could we talk together later. It's almost time for me
to go on.
Speaker 10: I'm been to get outside.
Speaker 5: Oh sure, excuse me, I'll get it. We'll wait backstage
here for you, Miss Tresler. Is that all right?
Speaker 10: Yeah?
Speaker 13: Fine? Oh that's all right. I still have a few minutes.
Speaker 5: Well, how about the last time you were in Wilfrid's store,
Miss Tresler? Can you remember that?
Speaker 14: Not exactly at least six months ago? I hardly ever
went to see Joe there.
Speaker 6: Did you ever have any occasion to leave any clothing
with Wilfrid and his store? Maybe for cleaning alteration?
Speaker 13: No, I never left him. Maybe it's possible they could
be there.
Speaker 5: What do you mean?
Speaker 13: I have some nice slips?
Speaker 10: You know?
Speaker 14: First I sent him out, but Joe saying you're a
very nice French laundry to do him? He come to
my place to pick him up and then take him
to the laundry. Maybe he could have left him in
his shop one day.
Speaker 5: Well, would anybody besides yourself have access to the clothes
in your apartment? Maybe a roommate?
Speaker 13: No, I live by myself.
Speaker 14: I have the only key to the door except Max Hollands,
he's got one.
Speaker 13: It is my apartment house see upstairs floor. Nobody else
had the key.
Speaker 6: Could you send any clothing to the French laundry with
mister Wilfrid recently?
Speaker 14: Yesterday I did two nice slips of mine. But Joe
Wilford didn't call him. I send him over with Max.
Speaker 5: How'd that happen?
Speaker 14: Max said he might as well take him. He was
going down that neighborhood by the habitash room and I
want to see Wilford anyway, Max that he wanted to
fix up their argument.
Speaker 5: We continued questioning the Dressler girl after she finished her
first act at the theater restaurant. She told us that
she hadn't seen Max Hollands since early the day before.
She was taken downtown, where she gave us a full statement.
Further questioning got us the information that the argument between
the two men, Joseph Wilfrid and Max Hollins over the
affections of Elice Dressler, was far from settled. At their
last meeting. The girl admitted that it was a serious
argument and that it ended up in a fistfight between
the two men. She said Max Hollins was out of
town for the night, but that he'd return early the
next evening for work. He was employed as manager of
a room service department at a large downtown hotel. Eleven
thirty pm, Ben and I drove back to the apartment
house on North Hudson, and together with a building manager,
we checked Max Holland's apartment. We found nothing. The manager
told us Holland's car was parked in the apartment garage,
so we went down and gave it a routine check
under the front seat, we found a paper bag with
a pair of gloves in it. There were bloodstains on
both gloves. We dropped him off at the crime lab
for examination. At six o'clock the following night, Ben and
I went to the room service department of the Downtown
hotel where Hollins was employed.
Speaker 15: Sorry, said mister Hollins is late, this seitting. It should
be here pretty soon.
Speaker 6: You notify you had been late.
Speaker 15: Well, he caught. Yes, probably be here in ten to
fifteen minutes. I'm his assistant, can help it.
Speaker 5: No, it's all right, we'll wait, all right, pardon me,
I wonder if we could look at your wristwatch.
Speaker 15: Please, surely it's just a few minutes past it.
Speaker 5: We just wanted to look at the watch if we
call sure here, could you take it off, like, look
at the back of it if it's all right?
Speaker 15: Sure, that's all right, Yeah, that's looking at it.
Speaker 6: Just got it yesterday, that's all same. Engraving agonist to Joseph.
Speaker 5: Where'd you get this watch? Sir? All right? What's the matter?
Where'd you get it?
Speaker 15: Max Hollins? He sold it.
Speaker 4: Tommy, You are listening to Dragnet. Actual stories from official
police files.
Speaker 5: February twenty first, Friday, six thirty pm, we called the
office and notified them that we'd located the wristwatch taken
from the body of the murder victim, Joseph Wilfrid. A
stakeout was placed on the North Hudson Street department house.
Ben and I stayed on at the hotel waiting the
return of the murder suspect, Max Hollands. We talked to
his assistant and found out that Hollins had a room
in the hotel where he could sleep whenever he was
called on to work. Late at night, six fifty five pm,
we called the office back and asked for a couple
of men to be sent over to check the suspects room.
A few minutes later, Hollins himself showed up for work.
Apparently he'd been doing some drinking. Ben and I questioned
him at his desk to stall for time until him
in from the office could get to the hotel and
make a thorough check of the suspects room. Hollins was
kept busy on the phone taking room service orders from
the hotel guests. In between calls we talked to him.
Speaker 8: I left a lease in the apartment, and then I
took a few pieces of laundery. She hadn't dropped them
off at Wilfrid's store. It was about six o'clock Wednesday night.
Speaker 6: You mentioned the address a girl you wanted to see
mister Wilford. You wanted to patch up an argument you'd
had with him.
Speaker 8: Yes, I just wanted to make sure he didn't have
any bad feelings about it. Really wasn't much of an argument.
Speaker 5: How long did you stay at Wilfrid's store, mister Hollins,
Do you remember then?
Speaker 8: Twenty minutes, maybe a half hour. We talked and we
had a glass of wine in the back room. No,
it was upstairs. We drank the wine and everything was
all right. I guess it was about half past six
when I left the store. It was all right then.
Speaker 5: Well, did anybody come in the store when you were there?
Speaker 8: No, there's nobody.
Speaker 6: How about missus Wilford. Was he in the store at
all during the time you were there on Wednesday?
Speaker 8: No? He said she was gone for the day, she'd
be back later on. We finished our talk and I left.
The last time I saw Joseph, it was a terrible
thing for somebody to kill him excuse me again, please,
room service. May I help you? Please? Yes, sir, Yes, sir, Well,
could I suggest the palace cock solid, very nice. Yeah,
half of other chucks filled with flesh, crab meat one
thousand dollars, dressing, garnish with slices of avocado.
Speaker 6: All right.
Speaker 8: Two orders some consummat all right, wrench rose, coffee and brandy.
Eight thirteen, Yes, sir, right away, Fred, this order for
eight thirteen. That's mister and missus Morrow eight thirteen. Make
it quickly, please, Yes, one of the best men I have, Fred.
We keep a very high standard in our room service,
only the very best. They're all Geneva man.
Speaker 6: Yes, sir. Something else we'd like to find out.
Speaker 8: Only one years ago I came here to the hotel.
It was nothing that was serving garbage, bad service, very bad.
I built our staff one by one.
Speaker 5: I did it.
Speaker 8: There's our staff list. There find us waiters in the country.
Henry Sanchez, Fred LaSalle, Conrad Lutz, jos Wick, Yes, and
Elma Creighton. He waited on the President when he came
to visit here from Washington. The President thought so much
of our service he wrote a letter to elim later
on no argument at all. I have the best spend
in the country, the best food. Twenty one years to
make it like it is, I did it all myself.
Speaker 5: I understand you and Wilfrid were old friends, mister Hollins.
He knew him quite a number of years, all right.
Speaker 8: Most of his life. Yes, I knew Joseph in the
Old Country. We came from the same town. Terrible thing
that's happened. I always liked Joseph a good friend.
Speaker 6: What about these arguments you had with him lately about
the girl at least dressler amount anything.
Speaker 8: No, but it showed something typical of Joseph. Maybe it
was the business he was in dollars, it's all he
thought about the big dollar. He knew he had more
money than I did. He thought he could do anything
with it. About the girl, Elise I took a visit
to the Old Country three years ago, Spausbourg.
Speaker 6: That's where I.
Speaker 8: Learned my trade from the best matrids in Europe. I
met Elisea on my way back in New York. You
can check up and all my background. I worked at
the Grand Hotel in Bustles, that's when it was the best.
I was at the Carlton in London, and I went
to Venice the Hotel Danieli, after I went to the
Hotel Majestic in.
Speaker 6: Con Yes, sir, what would that have to do with
miss Presner?
Speaker 8: Very nice girl.
Speaker 5: We liked each other.
Speaker 8: When I came back here, I arranged for her to
come out from New York. Took care of everything. I
thought I'd like to marry her when she came here.
Speaker 5: How about it, Hollins, You want to tell us.
Speaker 6: Now, sir?
Speaker 5: Did you kill Wilford?
Speaker 8: Excuse me? Please, room service? May I help you?
Speaker 6: Please?
Speaker 8: Yes, mister Sutter, Dinner for twelve tomorrow night in your
sweet your wife and I made up the menu, certainly,
mister Sutter. I'll check it over for you. Let's see.
We serve caviat with plini to start with, and the
soup conserme magdaline, and with the soup a mantiatto. Yes,
so that's Spanish. Then crab legs sunday Na, sir, sunday Nea.
That's crab legs rolled in breadcrumbs, fried and butter, served
in a terrap and dish with besher meal sauce. After
that the chateaubriand with truffle sauce. Soup la potatoes, small
green Pieace francille, and with that we serve Ponte twenty seven. Dessert.
We shall have peach Blombay coffee and liqueurze afterward. Yes,
Sir Henry Sanchez and Condreed Loots, they will serve you.
Thank you, Thank you, mister Saturn. Good night, real gentleman.
Mister Sadah, he knows how to give it in a party.
Your school. Not so many of them left now. It's
not like it used to be. People aren't the same anymore. Oh, yes, Fred,
what is it?
Speaker 15: A message for the offices here, sergeant?
Speaker 5: Oh, thank you, excuse this minute, of course. What is it?
It's from Forbes. I checked his room in the hotel.
I didn't find anything better.
Speaker 6: Get him downtown, yeah, Hollins will have to ask you.
Speaker 5: To come downtown.
Speaker 8: Oh yes, get my top coat on here there this way, sergeant.
Huh you park your car in the hotel garage?
Speaker 6: No, sirrps right ontowenth street, you go out the.
Speaker 8: Side, go then this way, just starting the rain. Do
you both have your top quote?
Speaker 5: Yeah, well let's go. We're parked right down this way.
Speaker 8: What did the least say? The least best?
Speaker 5: She said, you had a fight with Wilfrid. You went
to see him the same day was murdered.
Speaker 8: Yes, it's terrible. It's too bad.
Speaker 6: I might as well tell you, sir. We've got the evidence.
Quite a bit of it all points to you.
Speaker 8: Oh how is that.
Speaker 5: All a pair of gloves you were wearing. We found
him the risk watch he took off the body. We
found that too. Yeah, you want to tell us about it.
Speaker 8: I didn't use good sense. I didn't know what to
do when I went to see him, but I didn't
have it in my mind to kill him. God knows.
I tried to talk to him. I asked him please
to stay away from the least. I asked him as
a friend. All he said to me was Max, I
give her presents and she likes me. I have the
money to give her what she wants me. You haven't
got the money. That's what he said to me. He
had a fight with him, then, No, there wasn't any fight.
I'm not sorry I killed him, but I'm not sorry.
Speaker 5: You want to give us a statement about it downtown.
Speaker 8: I suppose I'm not ashamed of it.
Speaker 9: All right, let's go down this way.
Speaker 8: Any man would have done the same How could you
hear such talk and not kill him?
Speaker 6: How about the rest watch she took off of him,
the money from the drawer.
Speaker 8: I wanted to hurt him more, even after he was dead.
After I beat him and beat him, I knew it
would be the worst way to hurt Joseph to take
his money.
Speaker 6: Here we are and then back out.
Speaker 8: Yeah, sergeant, Yeah, I've told you now.
Speaker 6: I killed him.
Speaker 8: Don't you think I had a right to kill him.
Speaker 5: I wouldn't know, but he was like that.
Speaker 8: The first time you met Joseph, you would know he
was bad. It was better for everybody for him to die.
First time you met him, you would know that.
Speaker 5: I'm sorry, I wouldn't know, mister Wow. The only time
I met him, he was dead.
Speaker 2: The story you have just heard was true. The names
were changed to protect the innocent.
Speaker 4: On June fourth, trial was held in Superior Court, Department
eighty nine, City and County of Los Angeles, State of California.
In a moment the results of that trial, Max Hollins
was tried and convicted of murder in the first degree.
He was executed in the lethal gas chamber of 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 15: Statue for Counterspy next on NBC.
Speaker 1: Welcome Back. I would feel a bit more sorry for
the assistant getting taken for that stolen watch. But it
did have that engraving which should have been a clue.
But that he wouldn't even think to Jack perhaps speaks
to the amount of respect that the killer had within
his industry, and sadly forthited. I have no doubt about
the victim being a bad person independent of him and
whether you could tell it or not. If you really
could tell it first time you talked to him, then
the question is what were you doing being his friend
for so many years. I have noticed that the way
the episodes tend to work, if Herfield plays a character
than Lee Jones will not end up appearing in the episode,
even if he is providing key information. It will all
just be carried forward by exposition, listener comments and feedback.
Now and we have an email here from David and
he's emailing regarding the episode The Big Crazy. Hi, Adam,
I've heard this episode before, but it didn't hit me
until this time that it's basically a Dragnet Halloween episode,
although it was broadcast in August. Besides the reference to
Markim that you noted, there are a lot of Edgar
Allan Poe references. The name of the murdered woman is Bernice,
which is similar to the titular character in Poe's story Bernice,
which is about a mentally disturbed man whose fiance is
thought to be dead but who actually isn't. The when
sisters are reminiscent of post story William Wilson, which is
about doppel gangers and death, although a very different way
from this episode imposed story The Black Cat, the main
character and his wife have a cat that the main
character murders. He then murders his wife and her body
is discovered because of the meowing of a supernatural cat.
The scene where the mentally disturbed husband, which is with
the two policemen and gradually acts more and more erratic
until he confesses to a murder, is straight out of
the Telltale Heart. Since this is Dragnet, this case must
have been based on a real life event, but I
would really love to know how close it was to
the true story and how many references to Paul were
worked into the story, or if I'm just seeing patterns
where none exists. As always, thanks for your podcast and
the undless hours of entertainment you bring us. Well, that
is a really insightful email, David, and not something I'd
picked up on because it was Dragnet. But I can
see where you're coming from, and it makes sense to
notice that, you know, as it was released this year
or right around Halloween time. As with most Dragnet cases,
it's particularly rare for us to have a firm knowledge of, Oh, yeah,
this is the case they were talking about. We don't know.
If I were to speculate, I'd imagine that there were
portions of the story that were very reminiscent. I mean,
even if you get to the ending where the man
breaks down, confesses and kills himself because of someone pretending
to be his dead wife and him being a somewhat
disturbed mystery fan, it really would suggest that type of treatment.
But it would be interesting to know, like where is
the fiction and where is the reality. If I were
to bet, I would think that the cat was something
the writer's created based on what was there, But who knows.
Thanks so much for the question. And then we also
have a comment regarding our best of the twenty twenty
four to twenty five season of this coming from Spotify.
Doctor who Done It wrote the Mister and Missus North
episode was like the Twilight Zone for some reason. The
addition of jazz music made it extra creepy. It's an
interesting choice when it comes to creepy or scary music.
There are a lot of choices out there. Classic there
are certain pieces of classical music or other type of
organ or orchestral music that can create this sort of
moody atmosphere. But where jazz I think can really work
in that context is it works in another way just
kind of to create that sort of feeling of alarm
and panic, you know, when it comes at you with
that really fast pace, much more like a frantic build.
But I definitely agree the music was a big part
of what made that episode work. All right, Well, now
it's time to thank our Patreon supporter of the day,
and I want to go ahead and thank Kevin, Patreon
supporter since July currently supporting the podcast at the Detective
Sergeant level of seven dollars and fourteen cents or more
per month. Thanks so much for your support, Kevin. That
will do it for today. If you're enjoying the podcast,
please follow us using your favorite podcast software, And if
you're enjoying the podcast on YouTube, be sure to like
the video, subscribe to the channel, and worked the notification bell.
We'll be back next Thursday with another episode of Drag Nap.
But join us back here tomorrow for yours truly. Johnny,
all are ware?
Speaker 11: Uh?
Speaker 6: You say that when you saw who the beneficiary is?
Speaker 12: A worthless nephew of Bills who hangs around the pool
rooms in Colorado Springs.
Speaker 15: He's been in a couple of scrapes with the logs.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, let me.
Speaker 15: See if I can open this wood, Maybe catches stuck
on hit it?
Speaker 13: You know?
Speaker 12: Anyhow, I've always felt as Tommy Walker wouldn't stop short
of murder if he thought it. Oh good, and holy Ray, Hey,
look at all those crazy wires. No wonder she was missing.
Speaker 6: You didn't put that wiring in there? Are you kidding?
Speaker 4: Ray?
Speaker 15: Come on?
Speaker 6: Hit the deck? Huh, Come on the side of the road,
back of this rock.
Speaker 15: What's the matter?
Speaker 12: Right?
Speaker 6: Get down fast?
Speaker 2: What's got into you?
Speaker 12: Johnny?
Speaker 6: And love?
Speaker 5: No? You look, let me smooke.
Speaker 1: I hope you'll be with us then. In the meantime,
send your comments to Box thirteen at Greatdetectives 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 Graham signing off.