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 encourage you, if you're enjoying the podcast,
to please follow us using your favorite podcast software. And
today's program is brought to you in part by the
financial support of our listeners. You can support the show
by mailing a donation to Adam Graham Peelbox one three.
That's fuel Box one five nine thirteen, Boise, Aldaho eight
three seven one five. Now from April third, nineteen fifty two,
here is the Big street Car.
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. A man is
shot down on the street of a residential neighborhood. He's
critically wounded. You don't know who the assailant is. You
don't know where he is.
Speaker 3: Your jobey.
Speaker 4: The documented drama of an actual crime. Well the next
thirty minutes, in cooperation with the Los Angeles Police.
Speaker 3: Department, you will travel.
Speaker 4: Step by step on the side of the law through
an actual case transcribed from official police violence, from beginning
to end, from crime to punishment. Dragnet is the story
of your police force in action.
Speaker 5: January twentieth was mild in Los Angeles. We were working
the night Watch out of homicide detail.
Speaker 6: My partner's Ed Jacobs. The boss is stad Brown, Chief
of Detectives.
Speaker 7: My name is Friday.
Speaker 5: I was on the way back from dinner and it
was nine fifty seven pm when I got back to
the City Hall Room forty two pharmacide detail.
Speaker 3: All right, make it in time.
Speaker 7: No, they were closed up.
Speaker 3: It's too bad.
Speaker 7: Why Gee cafeteria down the street.
Speaker 3: I was terrible, nothing at all.
Speaker 6: Huh Well, I figured.
Speaker 5: I'd be safe for the corn beef hash even that
wasn't much soggy, you know, probably standing all day.
Speaker 3: It's too bad.
Speaker 8: I asked Johnny if you'd stay open a couple of
minutes late, told him you were coming right over.
Speaker 6: The place was closed tight. When I got there, I
couldn't raise anybody.
Speaker 8: Sharp lives a really good tonight. Some great pie too,
boys and berry best I had anyway for them.
Speaker 7: Say you got any of those bike car pills in
your locker? I can sure you use one.
Speaker 8: I'm afraid not. You had the last one to Jeane
Bechdel tonight. He hit at the cafeteria too. I hi,
say any phone calls for me? Murial downstairs office called
run you asked for They got it ready.
Speaker 6: It was the only call. Yeah, what is it else?
I'm wrong? Oh?
Speaker 7: You've been moping around like you lost your best friend.
What's the matter? You man at the world?
Speaker 6: No, just my young loss. Wife had her father and
mother over for lunch today. The old man's getting to
be a real pain in the neck. Don't get along
with him, uh, I keep trying to. Doesn't seem to
do much good. All he can think of his money.
It's all he can talk about while.
Speaker 8: Let it boy, you my in law has been talking
about it for years, forgetting you won't let you.
Speaker 6: And then he puts his foot inside the front door.
It's the first thing you hear. Crusty old guy, that pipe.
He smokes enough to knock you over.
Speaker 7: Why don't you duck out when they come over? Tell
him you got a call. You have to go to work.
Speaker 6: The wife sounded that once. She makes me hang around,
keeps telling me your father and mother like me. You
never know what. The old guy's a real tyrant.
Speaker 2: See.
Speaker 6: The wife comes from a big family. Every time I
see her, old man he has to make a point
of telling me how smart as other sons in law?
How much doll I'm making? Yeah, see yeah, same routine.
Every time one of his daughter's married a carpenter, he's
making twenty dollars a day. When I'm married a hot carrier,
he's making twenty five dollars a day. Always ends up
asking me how much I'm making.
Speaker 3: Why don't you tell himuch? Some of his business I
did today?
Speaker 6: That's what started the argument. I walked out, crusty old guy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well I got it.
Speaker 6: Homicide fiddy, yes, black?
Speaker 7: Would you repeat yes, sir, I have it fine, thank you?
Speaker 9: Yes?
Speaker 7: Or right away? Shooting Kirkman near l Pine.
Speaker 6: Let me grab my coat.
Speaker 5: Nos Man down on the sidewalk, apparently hurt. Bad neighbor
said it was a family fight. Tomorrow we better hustle
it out.
Speaker 6: Let's go. That's one good thing about this job.
Speaker 7: What do you mean trouble?
Speaker 6: You don't know what it is to hear about other.
Speaker 5: People's Sergeant al Shambra and I go out to the scene,
of the shooting Code three.
Speaker 7: Red light and siren.
Speaker 5: We located the victim lying on the sidewalk approximately fifty
feet from the intersection of Kirkland Avenue and Alpine Street.
He was a dark haired man, looked to be in
his early forties, tan complexion, well built. He'd been shot
several times in the chest, once in the shoulder. He
appeared to be unconscious. A handful of curious neighbors were
standing by. One of them, a short, bawling man, identified
himself as Ernest. Quickly, he said he was the victim's
next door neighbor.
Speaker 3: What's man's name, mister Whitley?
Speaker 6: Wally Radford lives right next door to me, been my
neighbor for years.
Speaker 3: Where do you live?
Speaker 6: This apartment court right here? I live in the cottage
next to the end when they're number eight, while he
lives at number nine one, right in the end they're
facing this.
Speaker 7: Yeah. What do you know about the shooting, mister Whitley?
Speaker 6: Well, I didn't have anything to do with it. I
was watching television with a wife. I heard the shots outside.
You can ask the wife.
Speaker 7: Sh'll tell you you heard the shots outside of Radford's cottage.
Speaker 6: Right, yeah, that's right. Where's that was to come?
Speaker 3: They've been notified there on the way.
Speaker 7: Well, who did the shooting, Whitley, would you know that?
Speaker 6: Well, not for sure. We were watching television, like I said,
when I heard the shots, wife and I. At first
I heard the shots, and then I heard somebody yell.
I thought it was some high school kids in a
hot rod or something, you know, horse around outside. My
wife told me to get up and take a look anyway,
so I did.
Speaker 7: On the way to the door, I.
Speaker 6: Heard another shot, and then somebody yelled out again like
they were hurt. Must have been six or seven shots anyway.
Just as I opened the door, I saw Wally go
running fast. I didn't know what was coming off. He
ran right out toward the street here weaving back and forth.
Looked like it had a couple of drinks. I didn't
know what it was.
Speaker 3: You didn't see the actual shooting. You didn't see anyone
with a gun?
Speaker 6: Oh No, The only one I saw was Wally. He
ran right by me, holding his hands up to his chest.
I yelled to him, but he didn't stop. I didn't
know if he was drunk or what. When he got
out here to the sidewalk. I saw him fall down.
I went after him. It's terrible, say either one. You
got to smoke. Yeah, look I'm still shaking like a leaf.
There you go, swell, thank you.
Speaker 7: All the life.
Speaker 6: Yeah, please, you're welcome.
Speaker 7: Was Radford still conscious when you reached him, you.
Speaker 6: Know, just about? Yeah? I don't know how many times
he was shot. He was rolling around on the ground.
Pain was terrible. The whole front of his shirt was
all stained. I yelled to Mike Desmond, one of the
other neighbors. He called you, fellas good Redford, saying anything
to you how it happened. We kept moaning about the pain.
That made me sick. It was a relief when he
passed out.
Speaker 7: Did he tell you how it happened?
Speaker 6: Yeah? His wife. I figured that was it when I
saw it was wrong with him.
Speaker 7: He told you his wife shot him.
Speaker 6: Oh, they had a big fight today. Wiley and his
wife started this afternoon. Been going on all day, all night,
yelling at each other, throwing things around. I never expected this, though.
Something must to snapped. She must be out of her mind.
Where's his wife now?
Speaker 7: I don't know.
Speaker 6: It's still back in their cottage. I guess I've been
here since the shooting. I didn't see her leave.
Speaker 9: Joe.
Speaker 6: Yeah, we got our hands full.
Speaker 7: Now.
Speaker 6: What he done was talking one of the neighbor women
back in the court here, she said to missus Radford
wanted her about five minutes ago, identified herself as the
victim's wife, Cottage number nine, mus Radford went with a
neighborhood and she said she was giving fair warnings. She
wanted to pass the world. What do you mean, She's
going to kill anybody that comes.
Speaker 5: After ten twenty eight pm, the ambulance arrived and the
attendants administered first aid to the victim of the shooting,
Wallace Radford, before he was rushed to Georgia Street Receiving
Hospital for further treatment. Radford regained consciousness long enough to
confirm the fact that it was his wife who shot him.
That was about all he could tell us before the
sedatives took effect. The two officers and two of the
radio cars which were standing by, were detailed to keep
the crowd away from the apartment court where the shooting
took place, in particular Cottage nine, where the Radfords lived.
The blinds were drawn in the house. There were no
lights showing. We called the Radford cottage on the poem,
but there was no answer. Al Shambra and Ed circled
around and back for a closer.
Speaker 7: Look at the place.
Speaker 5: I continued interviewing the Radford's next door neighbor, Ernest Quidley.
Speaker 6: I guess I should have known it had come to
this someday. We'd have been fighting lately. Wally and his
wife have been there nothing but wrangling day and they.
Speaker 7: Were You any idea where missus Radford got the gun.
Speaker 6: She must have used Wally's. I guess don't know where
else she gets her hands on one.
Speaker 7: He keeps a gun in the house, does he?
Speaker 6: Yeah, as long as they've known to me. It's thirty
eight automatic. I don't know to make them?
Speaker 7: Do you happen to know if Missus Radford was used
to handling the gun?
Speaker 6: No, a typical woman. I remember Wally and Stella were
over for cards one night.
Speaker 7: Stella, that's missus Radford.
Speaker 6: I don't know how it came up, but Wally and
Stella started arguing about him keeping a gun in the house.
Stella didn't like it a bit, said she was afraid
of guns, didn't even like to have him around. That
surprise you even knew how to pull a trigger.
Speaker 7: You said, the Radford's had a big fight today. What
was it about?
Speaker 6: You had to know single thing. I guess Stella was
always accusing Wally a running around with other women, run
around town drinking. As far as I know, it wasn't true.
Matter of fact, it was just the opposite. If anybody
was on the town, it was Stella. I have at
least one guy she was making eyes at. Oh, she's
your friends.
Speaker 7: Why what to look like?
Speaker 3: Not good? House is pitch dark? An't there anyone moving
around inside?
Speaker 6: It won't be easy to get out of that shoe.
The way the cottage is situated.
Speaker 7: Wow, what's the problem?
Speaker 6: The rere of the housebacks up against that hill. There
there was a small space between the end of the
house and the hill, and no back door. Just windows.
One of them's open a few inches.
Speaker 7: I mean, the front door is the only way in
the place.
Speaker 3: I on the left the house or left hand side.
Speaker 6: That's a kitchen door. Sorry, at least right in the kitchen,
just like our place. All the cottages laid out.
Speaker 7: The same living rooms just inside the front door. They know, Yeah,
that's right.
Speaker 6: Bedroom's in the right rear kitchen and the left rear
a small bathroom leading off the bedroom.
Speaker 7: Least the left.
Speaker 6: She won't come out peasibly. How about a two guys
show that ought to bring her up?
Speaker 7: Well, I don't know if we'll need today. I might
be a waste of time.
Speaker 5: Whitley here was just telling you, missus, Radford isn't familiar
with guns. Do you think you know how to reload
the automatically?
Speaker 6: No, sir, I'm pretty sure she wouldn't. I don't even
know if Wally had another clip of shells around the house.
Even if you did, Stella wouldn't know.
Speaker 7: What to do with it.
Speaker 8: How about to clip the s all ready thing? On
the chance you got a couple of shells left.
Speaker 6: She fired more than half a dozen of them. I
know that she must have gone crazy. They were at
least seven or eight shots just about empty in the gun.
Speaker 7: How about it?
Speaker 5: You want to try rushing the place, Let's go kide
me all right. You better stay out here for the
time being, mister Whitley might be some shooting. You know
that you'd take any chances?
Speaker 7: Yes, for sure.
Speaker 6: Okay, So I'll be right back here if you want.
Speaker 7: Thank you very much, all right? Let's try it.
Speaker 3: How do you want to handle it?
Speaker 6: Why don't you and I'll take the side door. I'll
go in the front. I want to see if we
get a rise out of her first.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I might be sure to give it up without
a fight. I'll call out to her a couple of
times first. If there's no answer, we'll rush the place.
Speaker 6: Okay, now, let's.
Speaker 7: Make it all together. I just wait for a signal.
Speaker 8: I'll call it aut right, okay, all right, sid, I'll
do it just behind the shrub over there. There's a
little time to get around.
Speaker 7: Huh. Yeah.
Speaker 5: Know when I call out to rush, make it fast.
It's the only thing we've got in our favor. We'll
try and surprise you, right, say you'll have bab be careful.
Speaker 7: That's Radford. There's Ratford.
Speaker 9: Can you hear me?
Speaker 7: Police officers got your place around it. I want you
to come out, can you hear me?
Speaker 10: Miss Radford? We want you to come out, Miss Radford?
All right, let's go hit the door, go Joey?
Speaker 9: All right?
Speaker 7: Yeah? What about you and the kick and tempty? Okay,
just a minute? Living room's efty?
Speaker 1: Not in here?
Speaker 7: Add in the bedroom?
Speaker 3: Nothing hair? Yeah, how about that? They go back, here
are you bedroom? Straight back?
Speaker 7: All right, have a look when you check the bathroom.
Speaker 3: In all the closet, everything, she's gone.
Speaker 5: Ten forty six pm we double checked the cottage, all
the buildings and possible hiding places adjoining the Radford house,
and then we combed through the immediate neighborhood around the
apartment court. There was no trace of a suspect Stella Radford.
In the apartment. We found a picture which neighbors told
us was a good likeness of missus Radford. Al Shambra
got to a phone called the office and a local
broadcast and an APB was gotten out on her. We
figured she probably slipped out of the house without being
noticed during the general excitement immediately after the shooting. Her
phone called at one of the neighbors warning that she'd
kill anyone who came after her. Only served as a
stall to give her more time for a getaway. Ten
fifty five pm, Ray Pinker and the crime lab crew
arrived and began their preliminary investigation. Judging from the bloodstains
out on the furniture, in the rug, in the living
room and on the front steps of the cottage, Radford
had first been shot while he was in the living room,
and then apparently he ran out the front door to
escape the gunfire.
Speaker 7: A trail of seven empty shells.
Speaker 5: Ejected from a thirty eight caliber automatic seemed to indicate
that his wife followed him out the front door, still
firing at him as he tried to get away. We
checked the apartment court garage, but the Radford's car was
still there. We remained at the apartment court interviewing the
neighbors and trying to get a line on some of
Missus Radford's known friends and associates.
Speaker 6: Joe, how'd you make a much ol neighbor I talked.
Speaker 7: To, hardly even knew the Radford's How about.
Speaker 6: You that much better? You're in the apartment up the
way named Joanne Taylor. She told me she knew Radford's
wife fairly well. Says she has a sister in town.
Doesn't have any idea where she lives.
Speaker 5: Though, how about the boyfriends Missus Radford' supposed to running
around with?
Speaker 7: Hearing anything about.
Speaker 6: That, she thinks she was doing a little running around.
She doesn't know who the men are though. Hearing about
Radford's condition, I checked with George's treat a couple of
minutes ago. It's pretty critical. I don't know if he's
going to make it her name.
Speaker 8: Oh back here, hustler, come on, But he got Redford,
his neighbors next to Whitley's. Just got a call from
miss Radford. She's talking to mister Whitley on the phone
right now.
Speaker 7: Let's go. I don't know what this is.
Speaker 11: What I was on?
Speaker 6: Oh yes, I was just gonna run and get you.
Speaker 7: You had missus Radford on the phone.
Speaker 6: I did, Yeah, she hung up just before you came in.
Speaker 3: Wouldn't talk though. Did you tell you where she is?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 6: She sure sounded funny. I think something snatched.
Speaker 7: She's a little crazy or what she said?
Speaker 11: What she called?
Speaker 6: You said she wanted to find out if her no
good husband was dead. Yet that's all I could make A.
Speaker 5: While ed and I waited with mister Whitley in his
apartment al shamber, got to another phone in one of
the adjoining apartments, called our business office and gave them
the number of the Whitley's telephone. He asked them to
make arrangements as soon as possible to have all incoming
calls at the Whitley's trace to their origin meantime, Ed
and I were briefing Ernest Whitley as to what he
should say if and when the suspect Stella Radford called
him back. There was no phone extension in his apartment,
so the only way we'd be able to monitor the.
Speaker 7: Conversation would be for Whitley to share the receiver with.
Speaker 5: One one of us were waiting eleven thirty pm, eleven
forty five midnight, twelve fifteen am.
Speaker 7: Sorry, all right, try and keep the receiver till then
so we can listen.
Speaker 5: Sure, hope, I got it straight?
Speaker 11: Okay, Hello, I needed Stella.
Speaker 9: Do you find out what I told you to?
Speaker 6: Yeah? Yeah, I call the hospital.
Speaker 7: While he's a lot better.
Speaker 6: It's not as bad as they thought it was. What
do you mean it's not bad?
Speaker 3: You're trying to kid me.
Speaker 6: No, it's a truth. Still, it's not half bad at all.
While he's gonna be all right.
Speaker 9: Couldn't I'm shot him four or five times?
Speaker 5: Ell? Could he be all right?
Speaker 6: I didn't say he was all right.
Speaker 7: I say he was going to be all right.
Speaker 6: Look, it's nothing serious. It's not half as bad as
they thought.
Speaker 9: You're lying, you know you're lying.
Speaker 6: Let's come on, snap, out of it. Well you're still
it's going to be all right.
Speaker 7: Wal He forgives you, believe me, he does.
Speaker 6: Now, look, why don't you come home. We'll get the
whole thing straightened out. There won't be any trouble.
Speaker 12: Why don't you trying to kid me?
Speaker 9: It's not going to be all right.
Speaker 6: I've seen the last you and the last of Wallie.
Speaker 11: Still, I'm with my boyfriend.
Speaker 6: Now we're getting out of town. Now, wait a minute, Stelle,
use your head. Huh. Don't go rushing in anything. Don't
have to tell me.
Speaker 5: I know what I'm doing.
Speaker 6: I don't care if that dumb husband of mine lived
or dies, but just.
Speaker 9: Telling me better not try to follow it, Stell.
Speaker 6: My boyfriend and ex he's got a gun and he
knows how to use it. Well, Stella, wall you listen
a minute.
Speaker 3: The cops too, in case they're going to follow us.
Speaker 9: They try and stop it, and they're going.
Speaker 6: To have a fight in there. Look, you keep talking.
When you listen for just a minute, where are you now,
let me come down and talk to you.
Speaker 9: Not a chance, just be a waste of time.
Speaker 5: I'll leave it with my boyfriend in half an hour.
Speaker 7: You can tell I'll be done.
Speaker 6: Wait a minute, Stelle. He gave me a message for you, Annie.
He left something with me. He wants you to have it.
What's wallet?
Speaker 7: He gave it to me just before he left for
the hospital.
Speaker 6: He got ninety four dollars in it, says he doesn't
care what you think of He wants you to have
the money.
Speaker 7: Ninety four dollars.
Speaker 6: Yeah, he didn't have that much money with hi.
Speaker 9: Where'd he get it?
Speaker 6: Well, I don't know anything about that, but it's right
here in his wallet, just the way he gave it
to me. He wants you to have it, that's.
Speaker 3: All I know.
Speaker 9: I don't get it.
Speaker 4: He didn't have that much money.
Speaker 6: Well, what do you want me to do? Take it
back to him? Tell me you didn't want it. Look,
give the guy a break, Hostelle. It's the only way
he's got to show you how he feels about you, Stell.
Speaker 3: Isn't that right?
Speaker 9: Well?
Speaker 7: How about it, Stelle?
Speaker 6: You got the money with you? I told you, yeah,
pick it up anytime you want. No, you bring it
down here.
Speaker 4: I'll put your camp there, buy your.
Speaker 12: Drinks if you meet my boyfriend.
Speaker 6: Yeah, Stelle, Stelle, Yeah, it's about twelve thirty out.
Speaker 11: Be down here in half an hour.
Speaker 6: Huh, I'm in a bar right on the corner.
Speaker 10: You can't miss it.
Speaker 6: Well, what corner ninth and Avalon.
Speaker 5: As soon as the suspect Stella Radford hung up, we
went to the apartment Cottie's next door, where al Shambra
was on the phone in constant communication with our business office.
Speaker 7: He told us that somehow there's been a slip up.
Speaker 5: They were unable to trace the call to its point
of origin twelve thirty six am. According to plan, Ernest
quickly left his apartment, called a taxi and headed downtown
to keep his appointment with a.
Speaker 7: Suspect Stella Radford.
Speaker 5: Ed Jacobs and Lieutenant Tony Ruis from Homicide followed him.
Al shamber and I stood by at the apartment more
waiting one am one point thirty two am.
Speaker 6: I think they'd call us anyway. I wonder what the
hitch is. It's kind of hard to figure out, steer.
Speaker 7: They ran into some kind of.
Speaker 6: Trouble, made missus Radford. She really warmed up for the
idea when the money was mentioned.
Speaker 7: Apparently, yeah, I was listening in.
Speaker 5: When Whitley gave her the story, she seemed to go
for it's kind of hard to tell the way this
whole thing shaped up.
Speaker 6: She might be them. Now give a look.
Speaker 7: Than Joe, Oh yeah, what happened? How to go?
Speaker 8: We covered the bottle of clothing. Priz neighborhood gave a
funny of time. Yeah, no, lock, she didn't show.
Speaker 4: You are listening to Drag Meet Authentic stories of your
police force and action.
Speaker 5: Friday, January twenty first to twenty eight am, with the
failure of the suspect, Stella Radford to keep the date
with her next door neighbor Ernest Quidley at the Avalon
Boulevard bar, we reached a temporary stalemate. Despite the fact
that checks were made at all restaurants, bars, and other
business places in the vicinity.
Speaker 7: Of Ninth and Avalon opened that time of night, there
was no report or trace of the suspect.
Speaker 5: While the search continued, we stood by at the Whitley
apartment in the hope that missus Radford might call back.
A check of our records and Identification Bureau failed to
turn up any record on either the.
Speaker 7: Victim or the suspect.
Speaker 5: His wife ed called Georgia Street Receiving Hospital again, but
there was no change.
Speaker 7: Wallace Radford's condition was still critical.
Speaker 5: At two thirty five a m. Stella Radford telephoned again.
While we listened in. She told Whitley that she'd had
no intention of keeping that appointment with him at the
Avalon Boulevard bar. She told him that she knew he
was working with the police, that she saw officers follow
Whitley to the bar.
Speaker 7: Where they were supposed to have met.
Speaker 5: She again warned him of the consequences in the event
anybody tried to apprehend her. After she hung up, we
checked with the business office and they told us that
the calls had been coming from a telephone prefix which
was impossible to trace. Ten minutes later, Whitley got another
call from the Radford woman. The conversation went on for
the better part of twenty minutes. She didn't seem to
make much rhyme or reason. Her only concern was the
condition of her husband, whether or.
Speaker 7: Not he was dead. She hung up abruptly, but fifteen
minutes later she called Whitley again.
Speaker 6: Look, Stelle, I told you there isn't gonna be any
trouble now. Why don't you go and see Wally lying
down there in the hospital. He wants to see you.
How about it, Hostell? If he did or not, that's
all I want to know.
Speaker 7: My boyfriend and I are leave the first thing in
the morning.
Speaker 9: I want to find out before.
Speaker 6: Why don't you at least give me a chance to
talk to you? Estelle? Huh, we've been good friends.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 6: I wouldn't do anything to hurt you.
Speaker 7: You are Wally.
Speaker 6: Now let me talk to you. Hunh there's nothing to
talk about.
Speaker 1: They got any say to tell me now.
Speaker 5: All I want to do is out.
Speaker 6: I want to told you he's hurt, but he's going
to be all right. It's not serious, Stelle.
Speaker 9: Why don't you shove blind to me?
Speaker 6: But I'm not lying, Stelle. I wouldn't lie about something
like that. What's the matter with you anyway? You've been drinking?
Speaker 9: What's it your business?
Speaker 6: You're not getting me, Ornie. You're trying to help the cup?
Speaker 12: Don't you think I know that?
Speaker 9: What kind of a pool you think I am?
Speaker 6: I'm trying to help, Stelle, that's all you're You're kind of.
Speaker 9: Help, not me, though, you're kind of help the coup.
I know they're weakened, but we.
Speaker 7: Made that day to meet at the bar.
Speaker 5: You total all about it.
Speaker 6: No, No, you got it wrong, honey. I'm trying to
help both it and you and Wally. I'm trying to
help the best way I know how. Why don't you
come home? I told you straighten the whole thing out.
There won't be any trouble.
Speaker 9: Don't have me that I said.
Speaker 6: We're leaving count me and my boyfriend.
Speaker 9: What about that money?
Speaker 4: Nine?
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's ready, diners. Now, how can I get it
to you? If you don't trust me, get.
Speaker 4: Away from the cops.
Speaker 6: Maybe I could use the money, but I'm not giving myself. Look,
you're wrong about the cops. Still believe me?
Speaker 9: You are?
Speaker 6: Now, why won't you let me meet you someplace? Any
place you want? Just let me talk to you.
Speaker 5: I have to tell you that not to talk about.
Speaker 6: All I want to do is about Wally.
Speaker 9: Is he did yet?
Speaker 6: But I told you he's not dead. He's going to
be all right. Why can't you believe me? It's not
what they thought.
Speaker 7: Whial, He'll be okay in the next room.
Speaker 6: But what Forest Dell? Why not come on snap out
of it.
Speaker 3: Huh No, it's the.
Speaker 6: Truth, So help me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's my It just happened to strike me.
Speaker 7: You hear that street card.
Speaker 5: It just went by a minute ago.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I did.
Speaker 6: Why did you know this?
Speaker 5: A little before that we were listening on the phone.
Sounded like the same thing coming over the line, didn't it.
Speaker 8: Yeah, come to think of it, it did. Matter of fact,
I heard it a couple of times coming over the phone.
Was pretty regular.
Speaker 7: Now, that's what I mean.
Speaker 5: Street cars have been passing by here regularly too. Not
much of a time laps either, not much more in
a minute. Well, I mean between the time when we
hear it over the phone and the time the street
car actually passes this place.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Well, if we've got the right angle, there's only one
way to figure here. She's phoning from somewhere in the neighborhood,
and she's fairly close with and she saying, where do
we start looking? Car tracks only run two ways. Three
thirty am ed and I went back into the next
room and continue to monitor the conversation between Whitley and
missus Radford. Whitley seemed to know how to keep the
suspect talking, even though the purpose of her conversation seemed
to make little or no sense. At three forty two am,
while we listened in on the other end of the line.
We again heard the sound of a.
Speaker 6: Street car approach and pass Ed checked his watch.
Speaker 5: Approximately one minute thirty eight seconds later, we heard a
streetcar pass by in front of the apartment court. Before
Ed and I left, we gotted down a note for
Whickley asking him to keep missus Radford on the line just.
Speaker 7: As long as possible. We got in the car and
drove north along the car tracks at about the normal
speed of a street car.
Speaker 5: One minute and thirty eight seconds of driving brought us
a distance of little more than eight blocks. Was on
the fringe of a park area. There were only three
residential buildings in the immediate vicinity. There were no lights
showing in any of them. We checked the location for
public telephones, but we found none. Four or fifteen am,
we turned around, drove back to the apartment court.
Speaker 7: And, using the same timing procedure one minute thirty.
Speaker 5: Eight seconds of twenty five miles an hour, we drove
along the car line in a southerly direction.
Speaker 8: Shot how much of a choice Barser closed most of
the restaurants. No light's running on this block?
Speaker 7: Few up ahead, then the next block.
Speaker 3: ED, gotta come pretty soon, doesn't it?
Speaker 7: Yeah? It's a minute right now. I can't see how
we be wronging it?
Speaker 3: Can you too much to rite off? Is just a coincidence?
Speaker 7: A minute? Fifteen seconds? Minute twenty better? Slow down? Yeah?
Speaker 3: What do you think?
Speaker 7: There's a service station across the street and it's.
Speaker 6: Closed up with a lot of them have outside payphers.
Speaker 7: Don't think you see any No?
Speaker 3: None on this side? Say I'll pull up in there.
Speaker 7: Huh Yeah, there's the phone los in the back there.
There's no light though, looks.
Speaker 3: Like somebody in it. Looks like a woman yet is
come in? All right, hold it up, lady, he's running
for Joe.
Speaker 7: All right, come on, come on, hold it up, lady.
Speaker 6: Police office, they go, they go, me, what do you
think you're doing?
Speaker 7: Poice officer's lady? Here's our identification? Like talk to you?
Speaker 6: You leave me alone. Just leave me alone, that's all.
Speaker 12: I don't have to talk to you.
Speaker 3: And name still a Radford? Isn't it?
Speaker 7: No?
Speaker 3: No, it isn't that's your identification?
Speaker 6: Who sent you here?
Speaker 11: Who was it?
Speaker 7: Are you still a Radford?
Speaker 6: Who couldn't have found out?
Speaker 12: How'd you know I was here?
Speaker 5: It was on hee?
Speaker 8: Wasn't it him?
Speaker 2: And his friends?
Speaker 6: He told you. No, man, I don't see how you
found me. Somebody had to tell you. You never could
have found me. I don't see how I made any mistake.
Speaker 7: Yeah, that's right. Let's go, lady.
Speaker 2: The story you have just heard was true. The names
were changed to protect the innocent.
Speaker 4: On April sixteenth, trial was held in Superior Court, Department
eighty eight, City and County of Los Angeles, State of California.
Speaker 6: In a moment the results of that trial.
Speaker 4: The victim of the shooting, Wallace John Radford, recovered from
his wounds and refused to press charges against his wife. However,
she was tried in Superior Court and found guilty of
Section two forty five PC Assault.
Speaker 3: With a deadly weapon.
Speaker 4: She was sentenced to the term prescribed by law assault
with a deadly weapon as punishable by imprisonment in the
state penitentiary for a term not less than one nor
more than ten years.
Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen, Mister Joseph M. Kennick, President of the
California State Juvenile Officers Association, thank you. California State Juvenile
Officers Association has asked me to present this award of
merit to Jack Webb and to Dragnet for outstanding service
to law enforcement in the authentic and sympathetic portrayal of
the police officer in the field of delinquency control.
Speaker 5: Thank you very much, mister Kenney, and I'll be looking
forward to meeting you again and the members of your
association at your annual conference banquet tomorrow night.
Speaker 7: Here in Los Angeles, you have just.
Speaker 4: 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 Technical Advisors, Captain Jack Donaho, Sergeant
Marty Wynn, Sergeant Vance Bracer. Heard tonight where Barney Phillips, Herbellus,
Jack Pruschan, Helen Cleave, script by Jim Mozy, music by
Walter Schumann, Hell Gibney speaking.
Speaker 7: Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 2: Nature plus the threat of man made catastrophes make continuing
health and constant preparedness necessary. The Red Cross binds these needs.
Answer the Red Cross calls with a generous contribution.
Speaker 6: No, it's cod Spy on NBC.
Speaker 1: Welcome back. That cafeteria at the beginning is a menace
to public safety. Given how many police officers it was
a flecting a nice clue and bit of detective of
work that could have worked in a fictional story. For
the first time listening to this, I did question the
method because it seemed to me that on a very
basic level, you could have had one of the two
detectives outside monitoring street car traffic in the area, so
when the other one heard the streak car going by
after they'd heard it on the phone, the detective was
outside would know which exact direction to go, rather than
having to backtrack back and forth, which required keeping the
suspect on the line longer. Now, it could be a
change that was done for dramatic effect because it's a
little bit more tense, or it could be that the
real life officers didn't think think of that. To be fair,
this is at least my third time hearing this particular episode,
and I think this is the first time it's occurred
to me, and I was not under the influence of
the cafeterious food. Episode also has another important point at
the end where the husband, mister Radford, decides not to
press charges. Nevertheless, charges are brought, and this brings home
an important point where sometimes we can get misled by
fictional crime programs and get the idea that a victim's
decision to press charges or not determinative of whether a
prosecution will occur. That's just not the case. It is
usually the decision of the state as to whether they're
going to prosecute, although that does vary a little bit
by jurisdiction in some cases. Just as a practical matter
without a complaining witness, there are various crimes that are
just very hard to prove, and this is true certainly
of many domestic violence prosecutions. There are also some minor
crimes where a prosecutor might give weight to a victim's
request that prosecution not be pursued. Prosecutorial discretion can indicate
that it's just not wise to bring a prosecution involved
the correctional system in a minor situation that the parties
have come to an understanding one. But then there are
cases that are going to be prosecuted regardless of what
the victim said. It's wonderful the husband's choosing to be
a sport and not prosecute, but honestly, the police don't
need him to give evidence. They've got the gun she fired,
and likely they were able to run a paraffine test
and he ended up in the hospital in critical condition.
This is a serious crime. It's not something that you
can allow in society without consequence, so it's totally they
believable that they would go ahead and prosecute despite the husband.
Speaker 7: Not wanting it.
Speaker 1: Now it's time to thank our Patreon supporter of the day.
Thank you to Rochelle, Patreon supporter since April, 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, Roastale, And that will do it for today.
If you're enjoying the podcast, please follow us using your
favorite podcast software and be sure to rate and review
the podcast wherever you download it from. We'll be back
next Thursday with another episode of Dragnet, but join us
back here tomorrow.
Speaker 7: For your.
Speaker 9: This is Al Turner, a New Britain mutual.
Speaker 11: Hi. Oh, what goes with you these days?
Speaker 9: Johnny? One of our important clients is very anxious to
get in touch with you. Says that she's an old
friend of yours.
Speaker 12: Oh who is that?
Speaker 9: Her name is missus Virginia Haskell.
Speaker 12: Virginia Haskell, that's right? Uh, sorry, Al, but I'm afraid
I never heard of her before she.
Speaker 9: Got married about a year ago. Her name was Van
Doran Ginney.
Speaker 11: Van dorn Is.
Speaker 12: Oh well, now that's something else again, and I mean
something well, then you do know her.
Speaker 7: One of the most.
Speaker 12: Delightful bits of feminine polker tude I ever ran up against.
Believe me, a young man's fancy didn't have to wait
for spring to turn the thoughts of her.
Speaker 9: Now what does that mean?
Speaker 11: Oh?
Speaker 7: Ah?
Speaker 11: Even I had serious ideas about that gallop one time.
Speaker 12: Oh yeah, right after college. Isn't every kid of that
agent trigued by the idea of marrying into a fortune.
And very beautiful at least she was when I know her.
Speaker 9: Still is Johnny.
Speaker 11: So she's married to somebody by the name of Haskell.
Speaker 9: Huh, Gorton Haskell. They live on Birchbrook Road down in Bronxville,
New York.
Speaker 12: Funny, what well when I knew her, that blonde charmer
didn't have eyes for anybody but Paul Snowden. Who's Paul
Snowdon child? What sweetheight that sort of thing. Poor boy
making good on his own, you.
Speaker 6: Know a little bit.
Speaker 9: Ah, He is too proud to marry her because of
her money.
Speaker 12: But she swore that she'd never marry anybody else, that
he was her one true love.
Speaker 11: But I uh, I guess she changed her mind. What
does she want to see me about al?
Speaker 9: She didn't say. She did make it clear, however, that
it has to do with some of the family insurance.
Speaker 11: Well that's as good an excuse as any.
Speaker 9: Then, do you want to run on down.
Speaker 12: There for a longing look at the gorgeous Ginny van Durham.
But it'll cost you money out listen, Johnny.
Speaker 9: With the premiums we get for all the insurance she carries, life, house, property,
and so on.
Speaker 11: The sky is a limit, brother, Have you stucked your
neck out?
Speaker 9: Well, no, that doesn't mean you have.
Speaker 11: I'll be in touch.
Speaker 1: You'll be with us then in the meeting time. S
comments to Box thirteen at Greatdetectives dot net, follow us
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on Instagram, Instagram, dot com, slash Great Detectives from Boise, Idaho.
This is your host, Adam Graham signing off.