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1001 Radio Crime Solvers
DRAGNET TRIPLE PLAY THE BIG ODDS, THE BIG PICK, THE BIG BRINK
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3 Barwe knuckled, shotgun loaded, adrenaline rushing episodes of Dragnet for your listening enjoyment
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Chris Gethard
It's better over here. Now at T Mobile get four 5G phones on us and four lines for $25 a line per month when you switch with eligible trade ins, all on America's largest 5G network. Minimum of 4 lines for $25 per line per month with auto pay discount using debit or bank account, $5 more per line without autopay plus taxes and fees and $10 device connection charge phones via 24 monthly bill credits for well qualified customers. Contact us before canceling entire account to continue bill credits or credit stop and balance on a required finance agreement due bill credits end if you pay off devices early. Ctmobile.com hi, I'm Chris Gethard and I'm very excited to tell you about Beautiful Anonymous, a podcast where I talk to random people on the phone. I tweet out a phone number. Thousands of people try to call. Talk to one of them. They stay anonymous. I can't hang up. That's all the rules. I never know what's gonna happen. We get serious ones. I've talked with meth dealers on their way to prison. I've talked to people who survived mass shootings. Crazy funny ones. I talked to a guy with a goose slap. Somebody who dresses up as a pirate on the weekends. I never know what's gonna happen. A great show. Subscribe today. Beautiful Anonymous Dragnet is a presentation. Ladies and gentlemen, the story you are about to hear is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent drag men. You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned a burglary detail. In the past two months, a thief has broken into 18 markets. There's no lead to his whereabouts, no clue to his identity. Your job. Get him. It was Monday, December 14th. It was cold in Los Angeles. We were working the day watch out of burglary detail. My partner's Frank Smith. The boss is Captain Bernard. My name's Brian. We're on our way out of the office. Was 8:05am when we got to Georgia Street Juvenile Bureau. Sergeant Lindsay Simmons office. Yeah, look. Did you give it to him? Uh huh. Yeah. What do you say? Yeah, when he come back, huh? Well, did he have it for you? Yeah. Well, that'll teach you not to go that route anymore. All right, Patrick, tell the sergeant to call me when he gets back. Right. Hi, Friday Smith. How are you, Lindsey? Just talking to Gene Patrick over at Highland Park. You know him? Yeah, I met him a couple times. Picked up a youngster a couple of days ago on suspicion of burglary. Brought him into the office and Patrick talked to him. Yeah. Well, he finally bought it that the kid didn't have anything to do with the thefts. He told him to go home. Uh huh. Kid told Gene he didn't have the money to get home, so gene gave him 20 cents. Kid swore he'd come in and pay it back. Did he? Yeah, he came in this morning, gave Patrick two dimes, told him thanks for believing the story. Then Patrick got the kicker. Kid really did break into a house last night to get the money. What's Patrick got to say about that? He says the kid's honest in a sort of way. Did pay him back. Where's the youngster now? Got him over Highland Park Juvenile. I better call Gene. Maybe I can give him a hand. I got a couple of streetcar tokens I won't be using. Might like to have them. I'll hold it. If I was you, I don't think I'd bring it up to him for a couple of days. Well, what can I do for you two? Well, Lindsey, we've been working on a string of burglaries. You maybe got the word on them? I don't think so. What's the story? Bunch of store burglaries. Papers that tagged them. The milk bottle jobs. Oh yeah? Yeah. Seems Hartgrove was telling me something about them the other day. Where do we come in? Well, the way the jobs look, we've been thinking they maybe belong in your department instead of ours. How do you figure that? First off, the milk thing. What do you mean? Every job he's pulled, we found an empty milk bottle on the counter. Okay, what's that prove? Well, milk and kids go together. Sure, so do milk and ulcers. Maybe your thief's got the bull horse when he gets into the store. No, Lindsay, there's another thing. The way he prowls the places. All he takes is petty cash. Just a couple of bucks outside, candy, cigarettes, nothing big. Some of the places he's gone into, you could open the safe with a pocket knife. He hasn't even made a move toward him. Maybe he's kleptomaniac. Got a lot of them on the books. Maybe that's the way he gets his kicks. Oh, it's a nice try, Lindsay. If you know anybody that can climb through a 14 by 10 inch hole, you trot him up and we'll talk to him. Okay. I haven't got the names on my desk, but you take a trip to Santa Anita, you'll meet a lot of them jockeys you guys know. We'll Go along with you on this thing? Anything we can do. But until we're sure that there's a juvenile involved, there's nothing we can do. Anything turns up, we'll be sure to turn over to you. Now look, we're not trying to palm this thing off on you, Lindsey. We've had the stats office make so many runs on small adults that the cards are wearing out. It just seems that none of the leads we've been chasing come out anywhere. We figured that maybe you could come up with some answers for us. It's a new one on me, Joe. This milk bit. I've heard of a couple of thieves that went for it, but I can't name you a juvenile offhand. I'll pass the word around the day watch, see what they can come up with. I'll leave a note for Hartgrove. He can pass it on the night watch. Well, I appreciate anything you can do. No trouble. Been running you ragged on this, huh? It's pretty rough. It's just that we can't seem to be able to come up with anything that adds. Yeah? Excuse me. Yeah? Georgia Street Juvenile. Sergeant Simmons. Yeah, yeah, they're here. Which one? Okay, hang on. For you, Joe. Your office. Thank you. Friday talking. Yeah, right away. What's the address? Uh huh. Yeah, no, I got it. We'll leave right away. Who? Yeah, call him. Thanks. Oh, come on, let's go. The milk bottle kid. He hit again. The call had come from Lieutenant Ginder in Burglary. He told us that he'd just gotten a call from a storekeeper named Monty De Robertis. The man had called to report a burglary at his store at the corner of Jackson and Broadway streets. Lt. Ginder told us that the crime lab had been notified and had dispatched a crew to investigate the premises for physical evidence. Frank and I left Georgia Street Juvenile. We drove over to Figueroa. Then we turned over onto Broadway. The store that had been broken into was a small Italian delicatessen on the southeast corner. By the time we got there, the crime lab crew had already arrived and was winding up their investigation. We walked into the place and we met with Ray Pinker. Hi, Joe. Frank. Ray. Hi, Ray. How's it going? Usual thing. Bottle of milk on the counter. You want to check it over? Yeah. Come on back here. Thief made his entrance back here at the rear of the store. There it is. Broke out the window pane. Yeah, not very big, huh? That measures nine and a half by twelve and three quarters. No alarm on the window, huh? Yeah, you can see the wires. Here, take a look. Oh, yeah. How come the alarm didn't go off? I talked to the owner. He said he's had trouble with the alarm system last couple of weeks. Called the company and asked him to fix it. He thought it was okay. Guess there's something wrong someplace. Didn't work last night. What kind of alarm was it, Ray? I'll try it on the building. You know the kind. Yeah. What'd he take this time, Ray? Usual round of stuff. According to the owner, there are about four cartons of cigarettes missing, several boxes of candy. Can't be absolutely sure. So he's got a check his stock. Be better if you talk to him on that. Yeah, we will. We'll catch him later. Want to wait a minute? I'll check and see how the boys are doing on the prints. Had him check the counter in the milk bottle. Fine. Thanks, Ray. Be right back. Bye. I wonder when we're gonna blow the whistle on this guy. I don't know. Can't do it fast enough for me. I don't want you. Hey, Joe, look at this. You know, I'd like to get a couple of those before we leave. What are you talking about? Salami, Joe. Those right there. The hard Italian kind. See? Right there. Yeah. I remember last summer I was out in San Francisco. Yeah, I remember. Went up there to pick up a prisoner. Remember you were collecting days off. Yeah, I recall I had a hundred of them coming. Yeah, pretty funny. Anyway, I met Dan Shelley up there. You mean the Irish tenor? Yeah. He and I went down to Cookie's Bar for lunch. Cookie had some of this salami. Sliced it like paper. You could almost read through it. Well, it's the way it's supposed to be. I know, John. Anyway, Cookie sliced up a bunch of it, served it with cold cracked crab. Boy, I never tasted anything so good in my life. Don't you ever read the newspaper through sliced salami? Yeah, well, I never have. Have you? All the time. Just the funnies. Well, anyway, Faye's tried to find them for me. Salami liked this. Brought home all kind of things, but she's never found the right kind. You know, they'd be hard enough to pound tax with them. She got them home. Go ahead. Never forget old Cookie and that spread. Well, if you can get your mind off food for a minute, and I know that'll be tough. Let's get on with this thing, shall we? Yeah, sure. Gotta buy some of these before we leave. Just like Cookie head. Yep. Just finished with Powder. Joe. Yeah? Nothing. Whoever it Was. Drank the milk. He took the bottle out of the refrigeration compartment. Bottle's sweated and there isn't a print on it we can lift. Too bad. None of them any place, huh? No. We've gone over the place from top to bottom, so there we can't find them. That's not much help, is it? Came up with one thing. Maybe you can make something out of it. What's that? Outside the window in the back parking lot. Came up with an open package of cigarettes. Don't know if it belonged to the thief. Anything on it? No. Fog last night ruined any prints that were on it. Boys have got it if you want. Well, we take a look at it. Looks like everything's against us, huh? Another blank. Don't envy you guys trying to break this one. Most of the time there's a leak someplace. Somewhere along the line. The guy's gonna make a mistake and not cover something. Yeah, we've been saying that for weeks. This is either the smartest thief I've ever seen or the luckiest. What's this make for him? Number 19. Well, the chances to take for nothing. He's not getting anything out of the jobs. Maybe he isn't, but we are. What headaches. 9:38am we talked to the victim. He told us that as near as he could figure There was approximately $4 stolen from the store. Went on to say that he'd ascertained that five cartons of cigarettes and several boxes of candy bars were taken. He was unable to tell us if any other merchandise was taken until he'd made a complete inventory. He went on to tell us that There was over $600 in the safe but that as far as he could tell, there'd been no attempt to break into it. We made a canvas of the neighborhood and talked to the neighbors. None of them recalled having seen any suspicious people in the neighborhood the night before. None of them had seen any suspicious automobile in the area. The one thing that was apparent was that the thief was working in a definite pattern. He worked only on Friday and Saturday nights, always between 8pm and 12 midnight. Frank and I met with Captain Bernard and it was decided that we would maintain a rolling stakeout in the area in which the suspect operated. Four other cars from Metro reserves were assigned to work with us for the next five nights. We worked without result. It was slow and tedious, but considering the lack of information on the thief it was the only way we had left. We had to be on or near the scene when the thief struck again. Saturday night, December 19th, Frank and I met and drove out to the area. The streets were crowded with early Christmas shoppers. I'll sure be glad when it's over. Why? What's the matter? How many rooms in your apartment, Joe? Three. You know that. You've been there? Yeah. There won't be enough room. What are you talking about? Faye. What's Faye got to do with this? Hack, Joe. Real hack. Boy. What's the matter? I got up this morning. I felt great. Faye's got breakfast on the table all nice. Couple eggs, little pig sausages, nice. You know? Yeah. I come down to the table, she's got the food on, and I hit her with it. What, the food? No, Joe. I hit her with what I'm about to tell her. I tell her I'm gonna have to work tonight. You work every night this week. What's wrong with that? Well, that's the way I figure it. So I got a way out. You have, huh? Today is Fay's birthday. Well, you didn't tell me. It's not good to tell people, Joe. Oh, it isn't? No. Fay is over 30. Yeah, I kind of figured that. Don't you get it? I'm sorry, pal. You left me a couple of blocks back on this one. Look, I may never catch up. Fay's over 30, Joe. She's getting to the point where she's taken off years. See, how can he give a person a last birthday present? You know I'd tell you about it. They're going to give her a present. Only now, instead of 30, she's 29. You understand? Well, to be perfectly honest with you, no. But as long as you do, it's perfectly all right with me. Yeah? What about this morning? Well, I told her I was going to have to go to work. I got this present for brand new deep fat fryer. Real good. All wrapped up. Deep fat fryer, all wrapped up with ribbon. Beautiful. Shiny. Beautiful. So you gave it to her? Did it do any good? Not a pound. You know what she does with it? Well, at this point, I wouldn't even want to guess. I'm serious, Joe. This may mean the end of my home. Go ahead. She doesn't even open it. Just puts it in the closet on the back porch. Doesn't even pull the paper apart to peek at what's in it. Real mad, Joe. You may not let me back in the house tonight. Well, you can apologize when you get home. I don't know, Joe. Fay's pretty sore. Didn't even open the press. Not Giving a peek, huh? Listen. Yeah. Tell where it's coming from. Yeah, sounds like up on seventh. Come on. Yeah, right here. Pull up. Come on. I'll take the front. All right. Hey, hold it up there. Police officer. Stop or I'll shoot. Frank, he's coming around your way. Okay, take it easy. Go ahead and shoot. Come on and kill me. Go ahead, shoot me. It doesn't matter anymore. Go ahead. All right. Yeah, Just a kid, Joe. I see. What are you doing in the store, son? What do you think I'm doing? You ask you a question. So? Pretty stupid. What do you think I was doing? How many stores you broken into, son? Figure it out for yourself. Look, what do you got, a chip on your shoulder? You're big guys. Don't give me a lot of conversation. Do what you want to do. All right, boy, you call it. Come on. 11:50pm we called the office and told them that we had a subject in custody and that we were taking him to Georgia Street Juvenile Bureau. We put the boy in our car and we waited until a radio car arrived. We asked the officers to notify the owner of the store and stand by until he got there. We also asked that they make a 459report. 11:55pm we started to take the youngster to the Juvenile Bureau. What's your name, son? What difference does it make? Acting like that isn't going to help you. You guys pick me up, remember? You worry about it. I got nothing to be afraid of. Oh, yes, you have, boy. You could have been shot back there. Maybe you should have pulled the trigger. Look, son, what's the matter with you? Why you acting like this? You just got real lucky back there. That's the only reason you're alive now. It was dark in there. As far as I could tell, you were an adult. You didn't stop when I told you to. Now, according to the book, I could have shot you. You know that, don't you? Killing the kid better make you a big man. No, I'm just bringing it up to prove a point. Save it. Now, look, son, I want to tell you something. When you break into a place at night, you're not a kid anymore. You. You're asking for trouble. You got both your pockets full of it. The way you work tonight makes us think you're mixed up in a lot more thefts than just tonight. That right? You ever been arrested before? No. Never been in trouble with the law, huh? Sure, I'm a real criminal. I got a ticket once for riding my bike through a Boulevard stop, radio car. Stop me and tag me. Big deal, but they're gonna send me to San Quentin. Maybe you can give me the gas chamber. How old are you? What difference does that make? How old are you? You figure it, all right. You look like you're about 11 to me. That's what everybody thinks. Be 15 my next birthday. Don't get us. It's the truth. 15, that's what I'll be, 15. When were you born? 1939, November 2nd. You're small for your age, aren't you? Why do you say that? Aren't you? It's got nothing to do with it. Nothing at all. I can do anything. Any other kid can do anything. Don't you forget that. What's the matter with you? Is that a sore point with you? Huh? Your size. Is that a sore point? There's nothing wrong with my size. Doctor says that I'm all right. Just that some people aren't meant to be as big as others, that's all. There's nothing wrong with me. Now, come on, son. What you mean? Now, look, you know we're going to find out. How are you going to find out? We will. Now, why don't you save us all a lot of time and tell us the truth here? It'd be better if he did. If I do tell you, you gonna put it in the papers, what I tell you? There are gonna be a lot of reporters around. My name gonna get in the papers? Not from us. Can't tell you then. You mean if there's no reporters around, you aren't gonna tell us your name? Is that it? That's the way it is. It's kind of funny, isn't it? Maybe that's the way it looks to you. Where do you live? Can't tell you that either. Look, you got things all wrong. It isn't what you want to tell us. That's got nothing to do with this. You're going to tell us what we want to know sooner or later. Where are we going? Georgia Street. That's where the jail is. Why do you ask that? Because I want to know. Yeah, there's a jail there. Reporters. What? They're going to be reporters. What is this thing with reporters in you? What's this all about? Reporters put your name in the papers, don't they? Sometime? Well, you get the reporters all lined up. You get them from all the papers. You have them there, and I'll tell you all about it, the whole story. You just get the reporters and the photographers. Be sure about them. Because I want some pictures, too. Well, look, let me get this straight. What you say you aren't going to give us any information without the press being there, Is that right? That's the way it's going to be. You got it wrong, boy. What? Doesn't make any difference who's there, you're going to come around. Yeah, we'll find out. 12:10am we got to Georgia Street Juvenile Bureau. Frank pulled the car into the side alley and we took the subject out of the back seat. Up this way, son. It's a seedy looking place. Yeah, well, it's been here a long time. Looks like a set out of a picture. And don't you worry about it, huh? You want to take him down the hall, Frank? I'll check with Hargrove. Yeah. Come on, bud. Hi. Friday. Working kind of late, aren't you? Yeah, we are. I got the nut from Simmons on the milk burglaries. Checked around the night wise. Nothing on it, so I didn't call you. I don't think you have to worry about it. I think we got the answer. Yeah? We just picked up a kid. We got him dead to rights in the market. Open bottle of milk right next to cash register. Where is he now? Frank's got him down the hall. You think he's your boy? Yeah, looks like it. Everything adds up. The entrance. What, he tried to take the milk all along. Seems to fit. You got that kind of a case? What are you worrying about? Just two things. Yeah? Who he is and why he did it. He won't tell you? No. He's got some big thing working about the press. Says he won't give us anything without reporters being there. Makes it rough, Joe. You know the policy. Yeah, I do. He won't let us help him. If he wants publicity, take me down, introduce me as a reporter. Now. It might do. It won't do any harm to try. Let's go. Go ahead. Thanks. Who am I going to be? Well, tell him he's Sid Hughes from the Mirror, huh? Might as well be one of the good ones, son. You wanted to talk to somebody from the papers. Against the policy, but we swung it for you. This is Sid Hughes from the Mirror. Hi. You the fell that held that guy on the phone in Baltimore? Yeah. Great. I read all about it. Gonna write me up like that? I hope not, son. There were two men killed in that operation. I read all the stories. Everybody did. That's how I mean for you to write me up with a picture. What makes you think you got it Coming. You break into one store and try to steal a couple of cartons of cigarettes. That doesn't make the one store. I got into 19 of them. 19 before they caught me. That's important, isn't it? That's a story. I don't know. Might be a couple things we better get straightened out here. First off, what's your name? Better get your notebook out, be able to take all this down. Don't worry about it, son. You just answer the questions. I'll get it. Yeah, okay. My name's Elroy Graham. That's E, L, R O Y, G R A H A M. Yeah. How old are you? I told you once, almost 15. You said you'd broken into 19 stores. Is that right? Yeah. 19. Might have made him more, but something went wrong tonight. Had trouble with the burglar alarm. Thought I'd turned it off. Bad mistake. He's still working. If it wasn't for that. Guess it only takes one, though, huh, Mr. Hughes? Yeah, I guess so. You want to tell us why you did it? What? You had to have a reason for committing these robberies. You want to tell us what it was? Sure. Good reason. Real good. All right, tell us. Well, you see, I always had trouble at school. Never seemed to quite make it. All the guys like me. They all did. All the girls do, too. Got girls calling me almost every night, asking me to take them to dances, stuff like that. I don't go much for stuff like that. You can understand, can't you, Mr. Hughes? Go ahead, Elroy. Well, they wanted me for all the teams. Football, basketball, all the time, asking me to play. But I figure if you want to get ahead in the world, you got to have an aim someplace where you want to get. Figure out that work for it, and you're going to get there. Don't you find that true, Mr. Hughes? Go ahead. That's the way it was with me all the time. Turning down offers to be on some team, telling some girl that I couldn't take her to a dance. Just didn't have the time. Somehow I just couldn't make it. You can understand it. You've been around, you know, all the success kind of people. You write something and a lot of people read it. You know what I mean, don't you? Well, what's the matter? Something wrong? I'm trying to tell you what happened. I'm giving it to you straight. What's the matter now? You want to tell us the truth, Elroy? What? I don't know why you're trying to sell Us. This line, boy. It isn't necessary. I don't know why you did what you did, but I do know you had a reason. That's all we want to know. Just the reason. You don't believe me? Afraid not. How about you? No, son. I don't. Mr. Hughes? No. Can't even lie right. Can't even tell a lie. Good. All my life I've been trying to be like other kids. All the time. Getting beat up, getting left out of things. You know? Why then? You know. Go ahead, sir. Big reason. Biggest reason in the world. Because I'm almost 15 years old. I'm 4ft 7 inches tall. 4ft 7 weight. 97 pounds. That ain't very big. Not big enough. All the time, other kids shoving you around all the time. You're the joke. Get to the time when you figure it's easy to laugh too. Because if you don't, some kid's gonna beat you up. Get to the point where you don't care anymore. I used to clip out those coupons and send them in. Get the books back on how to build myself up. Worked at it. Didn't do nothing for me. I was still 4ft 7 and weighed 97 pounds. All the stuff I took didn't do no good. Still came out 4ft 7, 97 pounds. All right. So you want to tell us about the burglaries? I did it to be big. That's why I had the things other people wanted. Cigarettes, candy. The other things kids wanted. I had all that stuff that the other kids wanted made me important. Don't you see that? You gotta understand it, mister. That's why I wanted my picture in the paper. That's why I wanted the story. So the kids would know that I'd done something big. So they know. All right, son. It's gonna be all right. Here. No, it is like everything else I tried to do, I lost it up. I didn't mean to steal, but it was the only thing to do, the only way I had. Now, wasn't there some other. No. No, there wasn't. All the time, the other kids laughing all the time, talking. I just couldn't stand it anymore. I just couldn't. Here you go. Thanks. You can understand it, can't you? It makes sense. What's that, son? Wasn't so much the kid saying I was little. Yeah. But I didn't want to think I was small. 12:36am we contacted the parents of the grand boy and asked them to come down to the station. We talked to them for an hour and tried to fill them in. In view of the fact that the parents of the subject were responsible persons, the boy was booked for violation of section 459, PC delinquent, and he was released to his parents pending his hearing in juvenile court. Five days passed and we heard nothing from the boy on December 24th. Frank and I checked into the office Friday. Darryl, kid in the back wants to see you in Smith. Okay, thank you. Thanks for joining us at 1001 radio crime solvers. This is your host, John Hagedorn. We always appreciate reviews and comments, and we also invite you to check out 1001 Radio Days, where you'll find a whole lot of detective and cop shows there as well. Enjoy. Help me with that burglary thing the other night. Well, it isn't over yet, son. The court still has to make a decision on it. Yeah, but what you did to make me feel better. As far as I'm concerned, whatever the judge decides, I'll go along with it. I had a long talk with my folks, so we got it all talked out. All the way talked out. Well, that's good, son. We're glad of it, sir. Maybe you guys won't like it. I mean, me knowing you such a short time and all. Well, but I wanted to bring you these. Merry Christmas. Well, that's awful nice of you, Elroy, but it's necessary. I want to give them to you anyway for what you did for me. Well, that's mighty nice of you. All right. Sure appreciate it. A couple of packages. Cigarettes. Hope they're the kind you smoke. Yeah, son, they'll be fine. Thanks, son. Well, see you guys around, huh? Yeah, sure, son. Just one more thing, Sergeant. Yeah, son? Just thought you'd like to know. Yeah, what's that? I didn't steal those. Elroy. Merton Graham appeared before the juvenile court, where he admitted the alleged burglaries. At this time, under the counsel of the judge of the juvenile court, the subject was placed under the care of the probation department for a period of three years, with the provision that his parents take him to a competent psychiatrist. Ready, set, gift. The holidays are in full swing, and so are amazing deals at Amazon. You'll save so much on early holiday fashion gifts like cozy fits and stylish shirts. You'll have money left over for the matching sweaters everyone definitely wants to wear for the holiday car. Cheese. Or that ugly holiday sweater. That's, like, really ugly. Omg. That's, like really ugly. Oh, what fun it is to save Shop Amazon for all your Gifting needs after investing billions to light up our network. T Mobile is America's largest 5G network. Plus right now you can switch keep your phone and we'll pay it off up to $800. See how you can save on every plan versus Verizon and AT&T. @t mobile.com Keep and switch up to four lines via virtual prepaid card. Allow 15 days qualifying unlock device credit service ported 90 plus days with device ineligible carrier and timely redemption required. Card has no cash access and expires in six months. Ladies and gentlemen, the story you are about to hear is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent. Dragnet, you're a detective sergeant. You're assigned a robbery detail. A gang of truck hijackers has been working in your City. They've stolen 14 loaded trucks. They've kidnapped and beaten one of the drivers. There's no clue to their identity. Your job. Get them. It was Wednesday, June 4th. It was warm in Los Angeles. We working the day. Watch out. A robbery detail. My partner's Frank Smith, the boss of chief of Detective Thad Brown. My name's Friday. We were on the way out from the office and it was 9:47am when we got to the county hospital, Ward 419. Hi, Mr. Gilmore? Yeah. I know you guys? No sir, we're police officers. This is my partner, Frank Smith. My name's Friday. How you do? Hello. A couple of stools over there. Drag them up. Sit down. I'll get them. There you go. Thanks. How do you feel, Mr. Gilmore? Rough, real rough. Feel like I've ridden 50 miles in the back of a ready mixed cement truck. Weren't for the pills they'd be giving me, I think I'd go off my rocker. Mm. You want to tell us what happened? Yeah, as much as I can remember. Only goes so far. Then there's a room full of black. If you'll tell us what you can, please. Yeah. Yesterday. That's when it was. Yesterday. Yesterday morning I checked in for work. Had a load I was going to take over to Phoenix. Supposed to shove off about 10, 10:15. Did you know what you were carrying? Yeah, I saw the way Bill, some of the stuff they were loading used furniture. Didn't make any difference to me. They load the truck and I'll drive it. Uh huh. I went across the street, a little coffee place over there. Got my vacuum bottle filled, came back. By that time they had the truck loaded. I signed the way bill on the office, went out and got into the truck. The two guys were Waiting for me. They were in the cab of the truck? Yeah. Sitting there kind of scrunched down so you couldn't even see them from the outside. As soon as I opened the door, one of them had a gun pointed at me. Told me to get into the truck like there was nothing wrong. Just start the motor and get the truck away from me. Did they get out of the truck at that time? No, no. They were waiting for me when I got there. They me to drive away and I did. Wasn't going to mess around with them having a gun. Yeah, go ahead. And we drove about three blocks, and he told me to pull into an alley just off of Santa Fe. Santa Fe. And what do you remember? By Porter Street. Between Porter and Enterprise. I see. Like to go ahead. And they told me to pull into the alley. And when I did, they made me get out of the truck. Took me around back and broke the seal and told me to get inside. And that's what you did? Officer, if they'd have told me to jump off the. I hadn't done it. But that gun pointed at me. I'm a coward. Fellow weighs a gun around, and I'm gonna do just like he tells me. Yes, those guys are mean. You could tell. How's that? Oh, I'm a kind of a student of phrenology. I could tell about those fellows, real plain. Student of what? Phrenology. You know, bumps on the head. They all mean something. Of course, I didn't get a chance to make a good examination of these guys, but I could see it. Real criminal head. Mumps told me so. One fellow had a head that was one of the worst I'd ever seen. Yes, sir. He was mean to his mother. I could tell. Had a bump right here. Here, you see? Yeah, he was mean to his mother. I see. Well, what happened after they tied you up? Just left me there. I see. You want to go on? Yeah. They must have drove for about 20 minutes when they stopped. Pulled in some sort of a driveway. How do you figure that? Well, right after they stopped, they made a half U turn, then backed up. Packed up this ramp. Steep. Then they stopped and took me out of the truck blindfolded me and made me get out of the truck. Now, this place where they stopped, that's where they unloaded the furniture. Did they? Yeah. Must have taken it out of there. Heard them thumping around the truck. Sounded like they were unloading it. Well, now, what'd they do after they got all the furniture out? Put me back in. Drove out to where you found the truck after they both climbed into the back, beat me up. Don't remember much after that. Both of them worked you over, huh? Yeah, Both of them got in their licks. Especially the one who was mean to his mother. He was vicious. He was mean. They kept hitting me with their fist until I just passed out. Don't remember anything after that until I came to in the back of the truck. That's when I called the cops. And the guys in uniform came out. I guess they're the ones who called you. Yes, sir. Now, is there any way that you might be able to tell us where they took you? You mean when they unloaded the furniture? Yes, sir. Well, I think maybe I got an idea. I tried to figure out how fast they was driving. And after you've been a driver for a while, you get to know. I'd say they were going about 20 miles an hour. We were still in town. My own guess is that they were not. Alameda must have gone out Santa Fe and then turned on the Alameda. I remember hearing kids yelling. That'd probably be Santa Fe High School. Yeah, I guess we went out Alameda to maybe 43 or 44th, and they turned right. Kind of hard to figure it. Then the truck got tied up in traffic. It was hard to tell if they were stopping for that or they were just at a light. But I'd say that they were up to about Avalon. Maybe they went up to San Pedro. I don't think so. I'd say Avalon. Then they turned left and headed for Hawthorne. Not sure how far they went, but I figured maybe around Rose of Crayons. And then they turned a couple more times, stopped and drove up that steep ramp. Mm. Now, you figure they ended up around Rosecrans and Avalon? Yeah. Yeah. Guess that's not much help, though, huh? Well, it gives us an idea where to start looking. A couple other things that might help you. What's that? Well, it seems that when we started to back up the ramp, I heard a bump, like they backed into a car. They didn't hit it hard, but I bet they did hit a car. Yeah, after that, they pulled the truck and stopped and backed up again. This time, they scraped into the side of a house. I could feel it run along the side of the truck. Sounded like they might have torn up some of the wood on the house. Yeah. Will that help any? Yes, sir. We'll have our crime lab check the truck and see if they can come up with anything. Sure hope you can. Oh, you talked to my boss yet? No, sir. But he's been notified. We understand. I bet he's plenty sore about it. Well we wouldn't know about that. But he should understand that it wasn't your fault. He should, but he won't. I know that. Right? Yeah. He doesn't understand anything that doesn't go on his way. Spotted a mile off. What's that, sir? His head. All kinds of bumps. 10:06am we continued to questioned the victim, Russell Gilmore. He gave us descriptions of the two men who kidnapped him. He also told us that at one time he heard one of the men call the other by the name Leo. Further, he told us that when the two bandits had taken him from the truck, they placed him in a garage. He was able to feel the wall. He said that he was sure it was a plaster wall in as much as he could feel the studs and the wire holding the plaster. He said that at one time he heard a woman come out of a house and say something to the thieves while they unloaded the truck. He told us that the garage was very large because there was no echo on the sounds that were made in the building. We called the office and got out a supplementary broadcast on the thieves carrying their descriptions. 10:40am Frank and I left the county hospital and drove over to Central Station. We went up the crime lab and talked to Ray Pinker. On the right rear fender we found evidence the truck had hit a car. Lifted some paint chips, got him here. Looks like a blue car, huh? Yeah. I checked the paint with a ditzer protection. Here, I'll show you. I got all the paints cataloged by color. Uh huh. Here, this is the one. Yeah, but Ray, there are a lot of blues there. How can you be sure this is it? Well here you see they got a color patch on each page in the book. Hole in the patch. Oh, this little hole here, huh? Mm. We just put this chip we lifted from the truck in the hole. Now lay it down. Get this lamp there. Color matches. Get them the same light and you can see they're the same paint. Huh. Look at that Joe. Same. Yeah, I see. Well, what do we got out of it, Ray? The car the truck hit was a 1953 Hudson jet. It was a single tone car. You know the top color matches the body color. Yeah, they only use this on one color cars unless you got a special order. Mm. Did you find any house paint on the side of the truck? Yeah, over here. Might be able to do a little better on that for you. Uh huh. House the truck ran into is about 36 years old? Might be a little more than that, but it's right around there. How could you come up with that? Been painted 18 times. Figure once every two years, you come out with 36. Yeah, but how do we know it's been painted every two years? We don't, Frank. Just guessing, but the layers of paint are pretty even. Might indicate they did it regularly. You know, didn't let the paint go too far before they redid it. Oh, yeah. Here are the chips of the house paint. Here, I'll put one of them under the microscope. Here, take a look, Joe. Okay. You see? Okay, I haven't got a. I'll adjust it. Yeah, I see what you mean. You notice that the first coat was a cream white? Mm. And they stuck pretty much to that for the next half dozen paint jobs. Then they changed to a bar in red, then to a green, then back to cream white. That goes on for three layers and then to the blue. That's on it now. Yeah. Ray, if we find a house, can you tell us if it's the same one? Shouldn't be too hard. Aren't many of them around. Well, how many? Well, 18 coats would be 18 factorial. That's multiplying. 18 times 17 times 16 times 15, so on to times one. I got it worked out for you. I hope you have. I'm not with you at all here. Well, look, works out to one in six quadrillion. 4020-033737-05728,000 chances of finding its twin. Huh. That's pretty long odds. Well, if every man, woman and child on the face of the earth owned 10 houses apiece, there wouldn't be another one like it. 11:37am we put in a call to Leighton Prince. Harlan Stahl told us that his crew had gone over the truck thoroughly but had failed to come up with anything. We contacted the stats office and asked them to make a run on the MO that the thieves had used. They told us that the results would be ready for us. Late in the afternoon, we contacted hit and run detail, but there'd been no reports that could have been the car that the truck had hit. We went to the office and got a large map of the city. Then we drove out to the county hospital to talk to the victim again. We asked him to trace his movements while he'd been held prisoner in the back of the truck. He drew a line down Santa Fe Avenue up to Alameda, then over to avalon Boulevard on 43rd Street. From there, he traced the Streets down to Rosecrans Avenue. He drew a circle on the map centered on the intersection of Rosecrans Avenue and Avalon Boulevard. He told us that we'd find the house we were looking for inside the circle. Before we left him, we made arrangements for the mug shots to be taken to the hospital for him to check for a possible identification of the suspect. 12:40pm we contacted records and Identification Division, asked them if they'd had any luck on running the name Leo. We were told that they had three possibles for us. The addresses on the packages were not in the area that had been circled by the victim, Russell Gilmore. We got in touch with Lieutenant Jack Smyers and filled him in on the developments. He called Metro Division and made arrangements for three additional teams of men to work with us in a search of the streets within the circle drawn by the victim. He also contacted the divisional commanders and asked for their cooperation. The men were instructed to find a residence with a steep driveway leading to a detached garage. The house would have a wooden porch on the right side of the house. As it faced the street. It would be damaged to the wood on the porch. Also, there was a possibility that a Hudson automobile would be parked either in the driveway or on the street right next to it. The car would have some damage done to it. 5:15pm Frank and I got back to the office from the search area. Man, I'm sure tired. I'm with you. A lot of streets out there. Yeah, a lot of houses on the street. Wonder how the guys from Metro are doing? I don't know. I get it. Robbery, Friday. Yeah. Mm. Wait just a minute. Let me get there. Yeah. Okay. Hang on to it. We'll be right out. Right. All the Metro boys did some good, huh? The house. They found it. The address given us on the phone was 1486 Cedar street down in Compton. It took us 35 minutes to get out there from the City Hall. The officers from Metro Division Reserve stood by until we got there. We found the house located on Cedar between Dwight street and Tawana Avenue. It was a one story frame building with a stucco garage in the rear of the lot. On the left front side of the house was a wooden porch which had been scraped by some large object. Several of the pickets in the railing were broken. On the street in front of the house next door, we found a 1953 Hudson Jet painted a light blue. There was a dent in the left rear fender. We couldn't tell for certain, but the color of the car and the color of the paint on the Porch seemed to match the chips that we'd seen in the crime lab. While the officers from Metro covered the rear of the building, Frank and I rang the front doorbell. There was no answer. We checked the garage, but we found nothing that would tie the house owners in with the robbery kidnapping. The interior walls of the garage were rough wooden studs. Between, we could see chicken wire embedded in plaster. The physical description of the house, the ramp leading to the garage, the garage itself and the car parked on the street matched in every detail the picture that we'd been given by the victim. 6:10pm we got the name Conrad Lewis from the mailbox in front of the house. And while the officers from Metro checked it with our office, Frank and I went next door to talk with the neighbors. Yeah? Wonder if we could talk to you, ma'am. Sure. Who are you? Well, it might be better if we got in off the porch. You ain't coming in here unless I know who and what you are. We're police officers. Oh, yes, ma'am. Here's our identification. Oh, yeah. Well, come on in. Thank you, ma'am. I'm Myrtle Richards. This is my partner, Sergeant Friday. I'm Frank Smith. How do you do? How are you, ma'am? You just sit down. I'll turn off the television. Thank you. Comedy. I've seen it before, a couple of. I always laugh at them. Again, though. They're funny. Yes, ma'am. The great moon of the people television. This one's only 12 inch, but I think maybe next year I'll get a bigger one. Maybe even color. They got it now, you know, it's true color. It's beautiful. Yes, ma'am. Of course, I ain't actually seen it myself. I just read about it, you know. Beautiful. Oh, I'm a great fan. I got it on all day right from the early show to the Late Late Show. I understand next week one of them stations is going to start early. Early show. Now, that'll be nice, won't it? Yes, ma'am. Sure. I wonder if we could ask you a few questions. My, certainly. You just go right ahead. That car out front, does that belong to you? The blue one? Yes, ma'am. Yeah, that's mine. I just got it a few months ago. That's what you hear about, huh? I beg your pardon? About how somebody hit my car. Big dent. Isn't that what you're here for? No, not exactly. Do you know who hit your car? No. I wish I did. If I knew, I'd sue him. Imagine hitting a car that's parked right at the curb and not leaving a note or something to say who did it. Person that ran into me must be insured. Wouldn't cost him nothing. All he had to do was leave a card. Yes, ma'am. When was the automobile hit? Yesterday morning. I walked down to the market to do some shopping and get some things for dinner. Pretzels, potato chips, things to eat while I watch the tv. When I got back, the dent was there. Did it while I was gone. Did it and didn't even leave a card. Yes, ma'am. Could you tell us who lives next door to you, please? Which side? The left side. Over there. Well, that's Lewis House. Why are you asking about them? How long have they lived there, do you know? I guess it's been about 10 years. They moved in right after Conrad. That's Mr. Lewis. Right after he opened up the new store. What line of business is he in? Well, he got some kind of a shipping business. Has deals with different stores all over the state. Did you see Mr. Lewis yesterday? Yes, matter of fact, I did. He come over like usual at 5:30. He usually come over at that time, does he? Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, yeah. You see, there's a TV show he likes to see. I watch it. But his wife don't care for it. She watches something else. So Conrad comes over here. He was here last night. You see him during the day at all? No, I didn't. You know where they are tonight? I'm not sure, but I think they went to the movie. Seems to me Mrs. Lewis said that her and Conrad was going to a show over in town. That's probably for us. I'll get them. I'm adding. So. Didn't anybody come calling on me this time of night? Oh, it's Henderson. Joe, I'll be right back. Right. Have you noticed any trucks in the neighborhood lately, Mrs. Richards? Oh, well, I'll have to think about that for a minute. You don't mean like the garbage you can truck, do you? No, ma'am. Large moving vans. See the others? Quite a bit. Yeah. Well, now, let me see. Well, there were some people who just moved into a new house down the street. That was about a month ago. That didn't help. Well, thank you, Ms. Richards. Joe, see you minute. Yeah. Excuse me, please. Ms. Richards. Yeah, you go right ahead. Yeah. Henderson ran the name Conrad Lewis through the files. He's been convicted for armed robbery. The record showed that Conrad Lewis had been arrested for suspicion of armed robbery 10 years before he'd been brought to trial. Convicted and sent to San Quentin. He'd served six years and then he'd been released. He was not on parole at the time. Frank and I parked our car down the street from Lewis's house and we waited for him to return. At 10:57pm we saw a dark colored Lincoln sedan turn onto the street and swing into the driveway of the Lewis residence. A man and a woman got out of the car and entered the house. Frank and I waited a few minutes and then we walked up to the front door and rang the bell. Yeah? You Conrad Lewis? Yeah, that's right. Who are you? Police officers. Like to talk to you. Sure. Come on in. What's this all about? Something wrong? Do you own a truck? Hmm? A truck. Do you own one? No. You mind telling me what this is all about? Can you account for your time since Monday night? Why? Can you? Look, I don't know what this is all about, and I'm not going to tell you a thing until you let me know what you want. Now, what do you want? Answers to those two questions. 12:15am it had been only a little over 48 hours since Russell Gilmore had been kidnapped and beaten, and we had a suspect in custody. However, Lewis refused to admit any complicity in the crime. We talked to him for several hours, but he told us nothing. He admitted that he'd been arrested before and that he'd served time in San Quentin. However, he stuck to his statement that since his release he'd done his best to live by the law with the evidence at hand. He was booked at the main jail on a charge of suspicion of violation of section 211pc. We obtained the keys to his place of business and Frank and I went out to check it. It was a large wholesale store selling used furniture. A search at the premises failed to turn up any of the stolen merchandise. While Frank went through the stock rooms, I checked the business ledgers. Nothing back there either. Joe, how'd you do? Well, according to these, Lewis does a big shipping business. That's what the woman next door told us. He's been making shipments up to Oakland. Regular books tell what they were? Yeah, right here. He's been sending large lots of used stuff to a place on MacArthur Boulevard. There's a whole list of it here. Tables, living room sets, TV sets. Better get in touch with the police up there and have them check this place out, huh? Yeah. Without that stolen property, we're not gonna have a very good case against them. You got the address of the place up north? Yeah. Let's go back to the office and get a call in. Right. Sure hope they come up with the answers. Well, if they don't, we might be in trouble. Yeah, the DA's office is liable to throw the whole thing out. Thursday, June 5, 8:20am we put in a call to Captain of Inspectors Tony Bolger in Oakland and asked him to check on the recipient of the furniture shipment from Lewis. We also gave him as detailed a description of the stolen merchandise as we were able to obtain. In the meantime, Lewis had been admitted and was released Thursday, 11:15pm Frank and I got back to the office from checking a lead on one of the suspects who'd driven the truck. I got it. Robbery Friday. Yeah. Yes, it is. All right. Tony Bolger from Oakland. Let's hope we called it. Yeah. Yeah, Tony. Yeah. What'd he say? Well, that's the way it looked from here. Here. What? Yeah, right. Okay. Thank you. How about it? When you talk to the man who bought this stuff, he's clean. How about the merchandise itself? It's all stolen. 11:20pm we got in touch with Lt. Smyers and filled him in on the new developments. After we talked to him, we contacted Officers Max Herman and Ed Benson and made arrangements to meet them at the house on Cedar Street. It took us less than half an hour to get out to Compton. The other officers were there by the time we arrived. While they covered the back door, Frank and I went up to the front. I think he knows it's us. I don't know. Try it again. The car is in the driveway. We know he's in there. Wait a minute. Sounds like somebody's coming out. Yeah. What are you doing out here? Aren't you guys ever gonna get over? Mind if we come in and talk? I got a choice? No, you haven't, Lint. Come on in. You want to go through the house again? That won't be necessary. Yeah, I'm glad of that. What's it about this time? Same as before. Maybe you better spell it for me. We can go that route. If that's the way you want it. Go ahead. I like fairy tales. All right. We got a report from a victim who was robbed and kidnapped. He was able to give us a description of this house, of your garage and the whole setup. You've been on a spike again. You see him? We took a sample of the paint from your front porch. It matches paint found on a truck that was hijacked. A lot of houses in LA not painted like this one. You think you're going to send me to the joint with a batch of paint. It's going to help. Look, cop, you know, I've been the rounds. I've seen enough trouble to know it's rough to get a conviction with circumstantial evidence. That's all you got with me. Nothing more. Now, why don't you go home and I'll just forget you were here tonight. We got the plan. What? We got the plant. They moved in on it. The man you sold the stolen furniture to is willing to testify. You know, we got your code. Now, why not cop out? That's the way it hangs, huh? That's the way. All right, I'll get my and go. Just point it out. We'll get it for you in the closet. Never mind. He's making a. Wait a minute. Outside. He's in his car. Yeah. Come on. He's heading down toward Rose Crs. Better hit the siren. Right. He's turning on the Rose Crs. Take a left. I got him. See him? Wait a minute. Yeah. Up ahead there. Dry shot. Better not kill any people around. Can't you close in on him? I think we're pulling up. Making a turn. Yeah. Stay with him. Hang on. It's a dead end, Frank. Yeah. He's in trouble, Joe. Come on. Come on. Let's get him out of there. Hey, that door. Wait a minute. I'll give you a hand there. Can you get him? Better call an ambulance. The motor's in his lap. Still alive? Looks like it. Can you help me here? Yeah, let me get in there. All right. Come on. Let's put him down here. Yeah. All right. Take it easy, Louis. I'll call the ambulance. Right. Take it easy, Louis. We've sent for a doctor. I didn't see the sign. I didn't know the street didn't go through. Lousy break. Lousy break. I'd have made it if I stayed off the street. You'd never have got me if I'd stayed off the street. I just turned the car and all of a sudden I was on a dead end. Afraid you're wrong there, mister, huh? You've been there a long time. Conrad Austin Lewis and his confederates were apprehended and brought to trial on 11 counts of grand theft auto and one count of kidnapping. They were found guilty and sentenced as prescribed by law. Grand theft auto is punishable by imprisonment in the state penitentiary for a period of not less than 1 nor more than 10 years. Kidnapping is punishable by imprisonment for a term of from one to 25 years in the state Penitentiary Dragnet is a presentation of the United States Armed Forces Radio Service. Ready, set, gift. The holidays are in full swing and so are amazing deals at Amazon. You'll save so much on holiday wireless gifts like wearables and wireless accessories. You'll have money left over for an electric guitar to take your caroling to the next level. Or that Bluetooth speaker for a little extra help when the carolers forget the words. Still a queen to find, my friend. Oh, what fun it is to save. Shop Amazon for all your gifting needs. After investing billions to light up our network. T Mobile is America's largest 5G network. Plus right now you can switch keep your phone and we'll pay it off up to $800. See how you can save on every plan versus Verizon and at&t. @t mobile.com. keep and switch up to four lines via virtual prepaid card. Allow 15 days qualifying unlocked device credit service port in 90 plus days with device ineligible carrier and timely redemption required. Card has no cash access and expires in six months. Ladies and gentlemen, the story you are about to hear is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent. Dragnet, you're a detective sergeant. You're assigned a Bunco fugitive detail. An organized gang of pickpockets is working in your city. None of the victims can give a description of the suspects. There's no lead to their identity. Your job. Get them. It was Tuesday, May 10th. We were working the day watch out of Bunco fugitive division. Pickpocket teeth. My partner's Frank Smith. The boss is Captain Didion. My name's Friday. I was on my way back from communications and it was 11:14am when I got to room 38. Funko. Yeah. Anything come in from St. Louis? Yeah, they checked the Carney's plan back there. No trace of Beck. Trip was wrong then, huh? Yeah, it looks like it. Four, two now. Well, about all we can do is sit and wait for a reply on the radiogram. He's got to be someplace and he isn't going to stop working. There'll be word on him somewhere. I'll be glad when we turn the key. Yeah. Excuse me. Yes, sir? I wonder if you could help me. Oh, we'll try, sir. You want to come on in? What's it all about? I've been robbed, sir. They took my money. All of it? Every bit. I don't know how, but they took it all. I don't know what to do. Well, do you want to sit down? Yes, please. I don't Know how they did it? I tried to be so careful, but they took it all. 37 years doing without. Now I got nothing. This is my partner, Frank Smith. My name's Friday. Maybe if you tell us what happened here, we could help you. Yes, maybe. I'm Lewis Boning. Yes, sir. I live at 1820 Woodworth Court, Los Angeles. 12. I have a room there. I see. $14 a week in privileges. If you tell us what happened, Mr. Bonning, we might be able to do something for you. I'm trying to tell you. Trying to think of what happened. I don't believe it yet. Ana, you said you were robbed. Is that right? Yes. $5,200. All gone. Well, were you held up? No, nothing like that. If it was that way, I'd know. But just all of a sudden I put my hand in my pocket to peel the money and it wasn't there. Nothing was there. I had a pocket full of. Empty, sir. Do you usually carry that much money around with you? No, mister. I got it from the bank this morning. I'm going away. I was leaving Los Angeles. That's why I had the money, so I could leave. All right, sir. Suppose you start right at the beginning and tell us the whole story, will you? Well, my wife passed on four weeks ago. Monday, April 4th. That's when it happened. April 4th. We came to this country when we were both young. She died four weeks ago. Yes, sir. If you'd go on about the theft, please. Well, I thought I'd maybe go back to Chicago to live with one of my daughters. She asked me to come and I thought I would. So I drew out the money. You took the money out of the bank? Yes, this morning. $5,200. It's what we'd saved. I couldn't leave it here in the bank if I was going to be in Chicago. Well, you could have had the money transferred, you know. I guess that's what I should have done, but it's too late now. Did you have the money when you left the bank? Yes. I rolled the bills up and put them here in my pocket. Here, this. And on the left side. I kept my hand on the money, so I knew it was there. Now, what'd you do after you left the bank? Well, I was going home. I thought I'd walk home. I went down the street and then I thought I'd stop for some coffee. I was all packed at my room, so I didn't want to make a mess. I thought I'd have a cup of coffee. Out I went into big market. They have a coffee counter there. And I went in, sat down all the time. I kept my hand on the money. I could feel it through the pants. It was in my pocket. Yes, sir. I had coffee and I went to go out of the market. As I walked through all the people, a box fell off a stack of boxes. It almost hit me. I didn't think anything about it. Nobody was hurt. All the people in the market came over to me and asked, how's all right? But I said, yes, I was all right. Then I went out of the market. I got on the street. When I remembered about the money, it was gone now. It had been taken from you in the market, is that right? Yes, mister. It was in the market, I think. Let's get this straight. While you were in there, did anyone bump into you? I don't understand. I mean, anyone jostle you, bump into you without reason? No. No, I don't remember. Did anybody follow you from the bank to the market that you noticed? It was hard to tell, mister. There are a lot of people on the streets. It would be hard to tell if there was anyone. Yes, I understand. But was there any one person you recall having seen this morning? One face that you might remember, maybe? No, mister. I tried to think about it, but there's no one. I see. Do you think you'll get it back for me, sir? The money? It makes a big difference. How's that? Before, when I had the money, I could go and live with my daughter. With the money, I could be independent. It would be a different feeling. You understand, don't you? Yes, sir, I do. That's why it's so important you get the money back. So I can go live with my daughter. So I can do that. That's the only reason I trouble you. The only reason I have to ask you to find the man. That's the only reason I got. It's a little different with us, sir, huh? We've got another one. For the past several weeks, we've been getting reports of the existence of an organized gang of pickpockets working in Los Angeles. Contrary to most opinion, a pickpocket seldom works alone. Like everything else, it's gotten to be a highly specialized operation. Normally, there are several men to each team. The Jug Mob, who usually spends his time in banks looking for the victim. The shover who pushes or bumps the victim so his money can be taken. And the wire, who does the actual pocket picking. In certain types of operation, the Jug Mob is replaced by the short who works streetcars and spots people who have large amounts of money. Under normal circumstances, a professional group of pickpockets can take approximately $5,000 a day out of a tip or a crowd. 11:47am we had the victim, Lewis Bonning, look through the pictures of known pickpockets for a possible identification of the man who'd taken his money. He was unable to find anybody who looked familiar. We told him to go home. We said that we'd be in touch with him. 12:35pm Frank and I checked back into the office. It's a rough one, huh? Yeah. They all come out that color, don't they? I sure hope we can do some good for him. Yeah. Nice old guy. You want to get in touch with Slim Ramos? Let's go down and talk to him. He might be able to come up with something. Yeah, I'll get his number. I gotta get a new book. This one's getting almost impossible to use. Yeah, look at this. Numbers all crossed out. You know, when they change the prefixes. Yeah. Should've made a mess out of my book. Here it is. Expert 4. Slim Ramos there? Hey, Slim. This Frank Smith? Yeah. Good. Yeah. Say, Slim, wait a minute now. The reason I called you, Joe and I'd like to come down and talk to you if it's okay. You gonna be there this afternoon? Huh? No, nothing wrong. Just a couple of things we want to check over with you. Yeah, okay. See, around 2:30, huh? That all right? Yeah. Okay. Now I know where it is. Right. See you then. He's gonna be in all afternoon. Said he'd be glad to see us. Good. Maybe he's got something we can use on this thing. Well, he'll lay it out for us if he has. Well, it's the one good thing about starting with nothing, isn't it? Yeah. We can only go one way. 12:06pm Frank and I checked out of the office and we started for Santa Monica. Slim Ramos had been one of the best pickpockets in the business. He'd been arrested and served a term in San Quentin. After he'd been paroled, he'd opened a small stand on one of the amusement piers near the beach. From his past record, Ramos had been cooperative with the police department and several arrests were attributed to his information. Ramos was operating a Wheel of Fortune booth at the end of the pier. Frank and I parked the car and walked out. Quite a place, huh? Yeah. I gotta bring the kids down here some Sunday. They get a real kick out of it. Yeah. That Slim's booth there? Yeah, I don't see him. He said he'd be here. He might be around back. Yeah, I'd sure like to win one of those hams. Yeah, big ones, aren't they? Slim, you around? Yeah, hold on. Be right out. Hi, Joe. Frank, how are you? I was in the back packaging some groceries. What can I do for. I talked to you about a cannon operation. Yeah, I should have known. Come on back here. We can sit down. All right. Watch your heads on the counter. Yeah. Got a couple of chairs back here. Well, I can finish up the second. All right, go ahead. Oh, what's it about? You got any rumbles? About a bunch of work in the downtown area. What kind of operation? Jug mob like. I heard something about a bunch coming in from the east. KC I think. Seems I heard they worked a couple of still dates with a Connie back there. Boss didn't know they were working. When he found out, he had them kicked off the lot. You got any names, boss? No, not right off. Gotta check around. Might be able to come up with them. What's the bet? Yeah, they've been scoring good work in the downtown area. Took an elderly man for his life savings this morning. Uh huh. Figures, huh? They always pick on the elderly ones. Bump into a young guy, might give you trouble. Pick the old ones, they don't seem to notice it. Yeah. How you been doing, Slim? Oh, good. Got it real good. I ain't killing the world, but my rent's. I know there ain't gonna be a fuzz on my tail tonight. I got it real good. How long you been here now? I guess it's been about a year. Thought if I could get permission, I might go out with a carney this year. You know, with the front end. Got a letter from a friend that's got a grind store with one of the big ones. He says he might be able to get me in. A grind store? Yeah. You know, everybody plays, everybody wins. Pay a dime to win a piece of slum worth, maybe a couple of cents. Well, this carney I might go with has got no grift in the front end. All percentage games. Way I figured if you go out with a good one, the weather holds, you're going to do all right. You figure you can come out better than you do here? Oh, sure. You see, we get a real good play over the weekends. Regular days, it's kind of slow. Go out with a big carny, you can draw crowds anytime. If the weather's good, bound to come out better. You'll check into those names for us, will you, Slim? Yeah, I'll make a couple of calls. Can you make them now? No, I have to get in touch with the guy tonight. I'll get back to you first thing in the morning. All right, fine. Same number, MI 5211. That's right. Bunco fugitive. Yeah. All right, I'll give you a call. Ed, buy you guys a cup of coffee? No thanks, Slim, we're just gonna eat. Do you wanna come along? We'll buy you one. Okay, now hold on while I check with Harry. Have him keep an eye on things. All right, you go ahead. Okay, now watch the counter. I came up too fast the other day. Like took all the skin off my back. Yeah, hold on a minute, I'll be right back. All right. Nice looking place, huh? Yeah, he's painted it since we were down here last time. Yeah. Well, let's go. You painted up the place, huh, Slim? Yeah, thought I might turn a bigger tip. The place looked good. You know, people like a clean looking place. How are the rest of the booths doing down here, Slim? Doing pretty good. I told you, great. Other times a little slow. Uh huh. Any grip down here? No. At least if there is, I haven't heard of it. Guy in the Santa Monica Police Department, Lieutenant Cunningham. He keeps the place real clean. Yeah, that's right. Last thing I heard about was a guy was working with a CamelBak wheel. A what? Camelback, like mine, only this was gaffed. How? Smoothest pitch around the arrow is connected to a spindle. Spindle goes through a stand. Looks like there'd be no way to G it. Plain pipe looks clean. What's the gimmick? Well, the frame rests on four pins. Pins are supposed to be what anchors it to the counter. Uh huh. Now, three of the pins go into one piece of the counter. They really do hold the wheel in place. The other one goes through a separate piece of wood on the booth side of the counter. There's a space between the board on the booth side and the one the three legs go through. Yeah, and a pin in the fourth. It's connected with a bunch of levers inside. The pipe acts as a brake on the wheel. All the operator has to do is lean against the board and he's got complete control of the wheel all the time. That's a real nice deal, isn't it? Yeah, the way they figured. It's perfect in case they get a cowboy in the crowd. The mark can pick the wheel right up out of the counter. Shows that there's no wires running to it the wheels gaffed? There's no way to prove it. Set it up with a couple of sticks in front. Let them win a couple of times. You got it made. It's the way they figure it. Doesn't work out, though. Well, like on my wheel, I got 120 numbers on it. Figure I get good action. I'm gonna have maybe half of them covered right off. The odds are on my side. Out of the rest, there's only one winner. Half of them covered means a gross of about 6 bucks. I give away $5 worth of groceries. Even with a winner, I come out every time. Percentages prove it. Look at it that way, you don't need a gaffed wheel. That's too bad. More of them don't figure it like that. Yeah, I suppose. Took took me a long time to find it out. Yeah, but you came up with the answers. I hope I can do the same for you on the Cannon operation. So do we. It's funny. I get to think of when I was working so wire how we figured that anytime we could lift a poke from Lamarck was a big laugh. A lot of difference now. Yeah, right. Yeah. Now I sleep nights. 2:15pm we continued to talk to our informant, Slim Ramos. He said that he didn't know the name of the carnival the possible suspects had been fired from. He said that he'd call some of his contacts and try to get the information for us. We set up a time for him to get in touch with us. And then Frank and I drove back to the office. We contacted Captain Didion and made arrangements for additional men to be assigned to help us. Sergeants John De Betta and Danny Gilmore were asked to aid us in a search of the market where the victim had been robbed. We spent the next three hours in the market looking at the crowd in the hopes that we'd see a known pickpocket or even see a wire in operation. But the surveillance netted us nothing. We made arrangements for the victim's bank to be watched. The following morning, 6:15pm Frank and I got back to the squadron. Well, he sure does a good business, doesn't it? Right. The market, Joe. A lot of people go in there. Yeah. What's the matter with you? Well, I was just thinking. I guess it comes down to the point where the only way to hang on to your money is to carry it in your hand. Keep your fists closed. It's darn close. I was talking with Lieutenant Jack Swan. He was telling me a guy came in here from Nebraska, came In by bus? Yeah. He was sitting in the station waiting for a coach to take him up north. Had all his money in his shoe. In his shoe? Yeah, had it in his left shoe. Had the money all flat so we could walk on it. Figured it'd be safe there. Well, wasn't it? No. Dozed off for a minute. Next thing he knows, the shoe's off, the money's gone. How would anybody know where it was? I don't know. The guy that took it found it, though. Guy dozed off for a minute, loses his shoe and all his money. Anything turn up on it? No, I get it. Bunk. A fugitive. Friday. Yeah. Yeah. Slim. Mm. What was that name again? Yeah. What'd he say about it? Yeah. Wait a minute. Frank. Yeah. Here you go. Pencil too? Yeah. Okay. Thank you. All right, Slim. Go ahead. Was it with a K? What? O, L, C? C, as in Charlie. O, T? T. Right. You know where they stand. All right. Well, give us a call if anything more turns up, huh? Right. Okay, Slim. Thanks a lot. Right. Bye. How do you do? Well, pretty good. Three names of the guys who worked the Carney and KC yeah. Slim talked to a friend, got the information that the guys who work in the downtown area have been scoring real good. Say where we could find him? No, he's gonna try to get the address for us. Well, we took a big jump just knowing who they are. Deal now is to make it work. What do you mean, Al? Slim says his bunch is pretty hinky. They're playing it real careful. Yeah. Words out. They got two more big scores to make, and then they're gonna leave town. You are listening to Dragnet, the authentic story of your police force in action. The three names our informant had given us were Howard, Victor Lydon and Edward Alcott. We had the names checked through our Record Bureau, but we found that none of the three men had been arrested in Los Angeles. We got a radiogram off to the police department in Kansas City, the last place the trio was known to have worked. We asked that all information on the thieves be forwarded to us. We also sent a teletype to George Brereton up at Sacramento CII asking him to check the names for us. The following morning, Wednesday, May 11, we got word from Kansas City that the officials there were forwarding mug shots and descriptions of the three men. During the day, Frank and I met with Captain Didion and a surveillance of the downtown area banks was set up. On Friday morning, when Frank and I checked into work, a special delivery letter was waiting for us. In it we found the records and pictures of Kremer, Lydon and Al. The pictures were handed over to the photo lab and they started to reproduce them. The descriptions were sent to the print shop and MO sheets were made up. As soon as possible, the pictures and the bulletins were distributed to all bank guards in the area. Additional officers from Bunco Fugitive were placed in the vicinity. Frank and I maintained a rolling stakeout in the downtown area. At 9pm Friday night, the banks closed and we'd gotten no report that the thieves had worked. Local broadcasts were gotten out on the men, but there were no reply. Monday, May 16, the plan was put into effect. Again, no results. Tuesday, the gang didn't work. Began to look as if they might have closed up operations in Los Angeles and moved on. Wednesday, May 18, Frank and I came back from lunch. I'll get it. Local fugitive, Friday. Yes, sir, that's right. Where? Right. No, don't do anything. Let them know. Right. Let's go. Something good? The Shover bank guard just spotted him. The call had come from a bank at the corner of 7th and Jackson Streets. The guard told us that he'd seen one of the suspects enter the bank and under the pretense of filling out deposit slips observe the withdrawals that the customers were making. It took us a little under three minutes to get to the address. We checked with the guard and he pointed out the suspect, Frank to make out a deposit slip while I waited at the new account desk. When we entered the bank, the suspect was standing at the teller's window. In front of him was an elderly man. As the line moved up, the suspect began to examine the slip that he'd made out. Then, as the elderly man took his turn at the window, the suspect walked away and stopped by the door. He waited for the man to finish his business at the teller's counter. Then, as he passed through the door, the suspect fell and stepped behind him. Frank and I followed him down the street. As they walked through the crowds, he was joined by Edward Alcott, the shover in the operation. The elderly man entered a small tobacco store and as he went through the door, the wire. Howard Kremer joined the other two suspects. As the elderly man stood at the counter waiting to be served, the shover walked over to the magazine rack. He stood looking at the magazines for a moment and then as he turned away, he seemingly tripped and fell against the proposed victim. Though Frank and I knew it was coming, we were watching for it. And yet we missed the actual theft. The wire moved in and Removed the victim's money so fast that we couldn't see it. The shover took the wallet from the wire and the gang was ready to move on. Frank and I stepped into him. All right, Mr. Police Officers. You're under arrest. For what? Stop dreaming. You know the rot. Now, come on, beat it. Come on. All right, mister. Come on, get up. Leave me alone. You're going to regret this, shoving a citizen around. No reason for this. How about the other two? They're out. All right, let's get them downtown. How about the victim? No, he left when the beast started. Better try to catch him. You're going to be sorry for this. You wait. You're going to be real sorry. Shoving an honest citizen around. Yeah, that's a trouble with you punks. What do you mean? You're wrong on both counts. The three suspects were taken into custody and brought downtown. The victim's wallet was found on the person of Edward Al. It was identified by the owner and booked as evidence. 3:15pm we took the wire. Howard Kremer, to the interrogation room. Sit down, Kramer. Yeah. All right. You want to give us a statement? For what? Come off it. You know what we're talking about. You gotta have me cross with somebody else. I'm trying to level with you. I don't know what you're talking about. You want us to lay it out for you? I don't care much either way. You guys slam into a store where I'm trying to buy a pack of cigarettes and all of a sudden I got handcuffs on. You tell me I'm hooked for being a pickpocket. That's the way you want to tell it, huh? There ain't any other words. Your two friends tell it different. What two friends? Two fellas we picked up with you. This is a big town. A lot of people. You walk into a store. You don't ask who's standing next to you. They put the whole deal on you. Who lied to Malcolm? Never heard him. How long do you figure you're going to keep this up, mister? As long as it takes to get you on my side. They don't bill days that long. That's your loss. I'm a nice fellow if you take the time to get to know me. All right, Kremer. This is way off the road now. Maybe you got all day, we haven't. You can either give it to us here and now or we can drop you into a cell and let you wait it out. You put me in a tank and I'll be out in half an hour. How many times you been arrested? Who says there was a first? How many times you got the books? Look it up. We ask you a question. So I'm not a genius. I got trouble with audition. Take everything out of your pockets. What? Come on. Or why? Now, look, you're running out of funny time here, Kremer. Then you better ring the bell, because I'll need more of it. You got a job? Yeah, I'm a president of a bank. You're going way out on this, Kremer. I like the scenery. You work? Yeah. Where? Round. No special place. What do you do? I'm a sales. What do you sell? Whatever people can afford. All right. Now, come on. Put your things on the table. Right now. You can sign a receipt. They aren't going to be taken from you. Want to see what you're carrying? Okay. You boys deserve a break. But I'll tell you now, the numbers on my phone book are mine. Don't go near them. Come on, get it up. Here's my wallet. Handkerchief, comb, nail clippers, some change, a couple of ticket studs from a movie, a lousy picture, cigarette, slider. That's it. You got any money in that wallet? Yeah. How much? I don't know. I don't pay much attention to how much I'm carrying. You can't even come close to how much you got. No. Take it out and count it. Okay. One, two, three. All right. Comes out to $3,700. You must do real good at that salesman's job. Company pays big commissions. I put the money in your pocket. Why don't you put it in yours? What'd you say? Look, cop, I've been around. I've been with most of the carties in the country. One time or another, I know the score. There ain't a place in the world that the fix can't be put in. Now, why don't you just take the money, you drop it in your pocket. Now forget I was ever in here. Won't be nobody hurt. The old guys may be out a couple hundred bucks, but so what? He won't miss it. Why not put the fix in? We'll both come out all right. No, the fix just curdled. Kramer. What? You said we had the record while you called it. We got all the word about you way down the line. You talk about how you worked with carneys. How long, huh? What's the longest time you ever stayed with one outfit? I like to move. Yeah, sure you do. That's the way the People who run the show want it decent. Carney doesn't want a guy like you around you or anybody like you. You've been on the road taking money away from people who can't afford it for a long time. Now we nail you, and you come in here acting like a big man. You do the indignant bit. And then when that doesn't work, you try to buy your way out. You've had it, mister. We know it, and your two buddies know it. When are you going to take a good look? You really figure you've got it made, huh? We know we have. The other two guys really cop out. The whole thing all comes down to how you engineered it. You buy what they say, we buy it. Then there isn't much more for me to say, is there? Not a great deal. No. Okay, let's go. How about a statement? Why? Make it easier on yourself? Easier if I cop out? You know what I mean? Yeah. All right. Bring the girl in. I'll give you a statement. Frank? Yeah? You mind if I have a smoke? What was that? I said, you mind if I have a smoke? No, go ahead. Wild one, isn't it? What? Head it all down. So pat. Good Shover. Better jug Moth. I'll sit in the front row with any wire in the business. All that don't add up to a winner. That's like you said, huh? You got trouble with addition. Howard Nathan Kremer, Edward Francis Alcott. And Victor Frederick Lytton. Were tried and convicted on six counts of grand theft money. And received sentence as prescribed by law. Grand theft money is punishable by imprisonment in the state penitentiary. For a period of not less than 1 nor more than 10 years. Dragnet is a presentation of the United States Armed Forces Radio Service SA Ladies and gentlemen, the story you're about to hear is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent dragon. You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned a robbery detail. A gang has hijacked and robbed a bank truck. They've stolen over $100,000. There's no lead to their identity. Your job. Get him, Dragnet. The documented drama of an actual crime. For the next 30 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. Was Thursday, June 5th. It was warm and we were working the night. Watch out. A robbery detail. My partner's Frank Smith, the boss, chief Of Detective Thad Brown. My name's Friday. I was on my way back from the business office and it was 10:52pm when I got to room 27. A robbery. It's a gun. Yeah. Here's the gun. You got the double ought, Buck. Yeah. Jack. Here you go. Any word yet? No. We ought to be hearing pretty quick. Nothing from Herman and Benson, huh? Last we got from them, they were over on Hobart. No action there. Nothing. I get it. Robbery, fighting. Yes, ma'am, that's right. When was this? No, no, that's a burglary. If you'll hold on just a minute, I'll have you switch to them. Yes, ma'am. Hold on just one minute. Would you give this call to 2524, please? That's right. Burglary. Thank you. Woman who wants somebody to come out and talk to her about her husband's work pants being taken from the clothesline. You should have gone out. Yeah. You got a cigarette? I'm fresh out. Here you are. Got a Mac? Yeah. Thanks. Well, you might as well sit down. Take it easy. We got no idea how long we're going to be here. Guess so. You know, I'm still not real sure about how this tip came in. You want to fill me in? Call came through this afternoon. Man refused to give his name. Just said he had some information he thought we'd like to have. No idea who it was? No. Said it wasn't important. Went on to say that he could tell us where to pick up the men who held up the bank truck. Well? Well, I figured it might be a crank. So I asked him how we could be sure the story was true. How do you answer that? Said he could prove it. Said he had some of the serial numbers on the stolen bills. The checkout? Yep. Gave me the numbers from 10 of the 20s. I checked the serial numbers. They're good. And that's when he said he'd call back, huh? Yeah. Said he'd call tonight around 10 and give us the address where we could pick up the men. It's late now. About an hour, huh? Yeah, but he knows what he's talking about. But we gotta be here when the phone rings. No way of getting an ID on him, huh? None. What'd he say about the men they have? He? The way he tells it, they're loaded. Got all the guns and ammunition they need to hold out for a week. He knows that. Why couldn't he give us the address this afternoon? He said he wanted to put a lot of distance between him and the rest of them, see how many there were. Not right out way he talked, though. We figured there are three. Any names? No. Said he'd tell us where to pick them up. Said when we blew the whistle, they'd tell us. Might be a little tight taking them. If the way they handle the guards on the truck is any indication, it isn't going to be a picnic. How many men we got? Herman and Benson. We can call them in. Murph and Rafferty, Stewart, Increasing. Where are they now? Well, I saw Murph and Raft down at the business office just a minute ago. Said they'd be right in. I get it. Robbery, Friday. Yes, it is. Where? Yeah, put them through. Call from San Francisco. Operator says station distinction might be our boy. He'd have to fly up north to get there this fast. Airlines don't ask for recommendations when they sell a ticket. Wait just a minute. This Friday? Who's this? Okay, if that's the way you want it. Yeah, give me that address. All right, let me read that Back to you. 1657 Garfield Place, apartment 408. Is that right? Okay. Why don't you tell us your name? It won't do any. Hello? Hello? Hung up. I'll let the business office get on it, see if they can come up with a number. You got the address? Yeah, I got that. Here. The way he put it, job might be tougher than we figured. What do you mean? Well, I asked him his name. I told him it wouldn't make any difference if he told us. Yeah, he said make a lot of difference. So they'd kill him if they found out that he faked on him. That figures. Yeah. Said that when he reads in the papers that they're dead, then he'll come in when they're dead. Yeah. Says we won't take them alive. Ten days previously on Thursday, May 26, three men had stopped an armored truck on its way to the Federal Reserve Bank. The truck had stopped for collection on Wilshire Boulevard. The three hold up men had approached the truck and produced sawed off 12 gauge shotguns at gunpoint. Two of the men forced the drivers to go out to the San Fernando Valley. The third followed in another car on a side road south of Ventura Boulevard. The suspects had tied and then beaten the driver and the guard. The two men were placed in the back of the truck and after stealing all of the cash in the vehicle, the thieves had driven off. As soon as the theft was discovered, men from the Federal Bureau of Investigation were notified Together with them, Frank and I followed down every lead. The crime lab went over the truck but found nothing that would help us in getting to the thieves. Latent fingerprints were able to come up with nothing. The driver of the truck and the guard had been shown the mug books, but they were unable to make an identification. The method of operation was checked through the stats office, but when the leads that developed were checked out, we were in the same position as when we first got the call. We had no idea of who the thieves might be. Descriptions obtained from the two victims were broadcast to the entire nation, but there were no kickbacks. The FBI weighed and sifted all evidence in its Washington headquarters, but they came up with the same results. We had nothing. The phone call from the informant was the first concrete lead that we'd gotten. There were nine men from Robbery Division and three teams from the FBI in the operation. From the information we had, we knew the suspects were armed and they were dangerous. The people in the building were gotten out of their apartments. The building itself was completely surrounded. 1:36am we moved in. Boys in the street are set. Let's go. All right. Did you check the manager? Yeah. Descriptions of the men in the apartment match the one we got from the driver. The truck checks out to be the same guys. The manager say how many there were? 3. She's not sure they're all in. All right. Sounds like somebody's moving around in there. Well, you ready? Yeah. Let's go. Police officers. Stand still. What are you doing in here? You here alone? Yeah, alone. What are you looking for? Convention. Where are the other two? What two? Nobody else, Joe. Closet over there. Looks like an arsenal. Loaded with guns, couple of sawed off shotguns. You guys got no right to come in here like this. I don't know what you're looking for, but you ain't gonna find. What's your name? Hank Peterson. You rent this apartment with two other guys. Manager tells us that they're Harvey Fitzgerald and Lou Colton. Is that right? Yeah, they live here. Where are they now? I don't know. Out, maybe to a movie. I don't know. When do you expect them back? Look, they're big fellas now. They don't have to get me to sign a report card. They do what they want. They went out. I don't know where. They didn't tell me. They also didn't tell me when they'd be back. What's this all about? Where'd you get those guns? In the closet. They don't belong to me. Who do they belong to? One of the guys which One. Why are you coming in here and asking all these questions? I ain't done nothing. You got no beef with me. I don't think about the guns. Maybe Lou likes to hunt, I don't know. They belong to Colton, huh? Yeah, he brought them. You don't know where he is now? I told you, if I knew where he was, I'd tell you. I don't want any trouble. I don't like to have people pointing guns at me. Would you put that one away? Turn around. Why? I said turn around. Get over the wall. Put your hands up on it. Big deal. What happens now? You kick my feet out, I fall down. Stand still, I gotta jump. You gotta find nothing on me, I tell you, I'm clean. Nice try, Peterson. There's a.38 Colt Joe had in his belt. You go around pretty heavy for a fellow that doesn't want trouble, don't you? I carry a lot of money. Sometimes I think some guys are trying to take it away from me. I got to protect myself. Anybody's got the right to protect themselves. Yeah. You got a permit for this gun? No, I didn't get around to it yet. I'm going to, though, right away. I'll get one. You know how it is. You mean to do something, but you forget. Hey, can I stand up straight now? Yeah. Come on, Peterson. Get your hands behind you. Maybe you guys will tell me what this is for. What are you looking for? We'll tell you downtown. You know you're making a big mistake. That right? Sure. You really call this one wrong? You dragging an innocent man? I'm clean. I made a mistake when I didn't register the gun. I'll cop to that. But that's the edge. I don't go past there. No, you got it wrong. Peterson. Read me how we got you going in for the bank truck robbery. You and your two friends. You're going to stand for it. Keep talking about my two friends. I got no friends. I move in with a couple of fellas. All of a sudden I got a piece of some action there. Shove. And you got it wrong, cop. You aren't going to tell us you happen to be here at the wrong time, are you? Look, I'm from Chicago. I got a lead on a job out here. It gets cold in Chicago in the wintertime. I don't like the cold. Get a lead on a job out here in California. So I put an ad in the paper. Tell him how I'd like to drive out with the guy, share expenses. Fellow that answers the ad Wants to leave when I gotta go is Luke Colton. I took a third of the tab driving out. We got into town. He's got this apartment lineup. This one right here. I got no place to stay, so he says for me to pad down with him. That's it. The beginning, the middle, the end. Anything outside of that, I don't know. If you got trouble with Lou, then take it up with him. But don't make me fit in. I got no part of the action. I don't want any. What about the gun? Hmm? The gun you had on you. I tried to explain that I meant to get a permit for it. I didn't get around to it yet. What about the ones in the closet? Well, talk to Lou. They belong to him. Maybe he's gonna open a museum. All right, let's get out of here. Come on, let's go. Look what you did to the door, breaking it up like that. No reason. All you had to do was knock. Landlady's gonna be pretty sore about it. I'd have let you in if you'd have knocked. Breaking up a door like that. She's gonna be real sore. Probably won't talk to. Well, it's going to be a while before she's got the chance. While Frank and I took Henry Peterson downtown, the other officers from Robbery maintained the surveillance on the apartment. Because of the construction of the building, it was impossible to wait inside of the room. However, all of the entrances were covered. 2:40am we checked the suspect through R I, but we found that he had no record in Los Angeles. His fingerprints were taken and forwarded to Washington for checking. It was printed and mugged and then placed in a cell in the felony section at the main jail. The rest of that night, the watch in the apartment continued without results. The following morning, Frank and I met with Lt. Smyers at a special show off of the suspect for the driver and the guard of the armored car. Without hesitation, they both stated positively that Peterson was one of the men who'd held them up. The kickback arrived from Washington with the information that Peterson was wanted for escape from the state penitentiary in New Jersey. He'd been convicted on a charge of murder and robbery and given a life sentence. The record showed that he'd escaped from the prison on Friday, May 9, two weeks before the truck had been robbed. 4:15pm we had him brought from his cell and Frank and I talked to him in the interrogation room at the main jail. You got a cigarette? Yeah. Here. Thanks. Here's a match. What do we got going now. Same thing. We want to know about the robbery of that armored car. You figure there's something I could tell you on it, huh? We wouldn't be here otherwise. I'll make you a deal. We don't make them. No, no. Hear me out. You might go for this. We can't promise you anything. You're asking me to come over to your side? Seems like you'd be willing to come a little closer to the line. What do you got to say? How bad you got me nailed. Steep as it can go. For real? That's right. I'll lay it out. All of it? Yeah. We got the kick back from Washington. We know you're wanted for escape. We checked the guns from the apartment. Found out they were taking in a burglary in Chicago. Tuesday, May 13th. Go ahead. We checked with the Chicago papers. The ad you told us about, asking for a ride out here. It was never run. You guys are sure thorough. The victims of the robbery identified your picture. They sure? They're sure. No chance for a mistake. No chance. If I cop out, where am I gonna do the time? We don't decide then. You think they'll send me back to Jersey? I told you, we got no say in that. It's so cold back there. It's nice here in California. I like to stay here. Nothing you guys can do. So I can take the fall in Quentin, huh? Nothing. Any way you hear it, I'm nailed, huh? That's right. Okay. Maybe it's marked down that I copped out. They'll let me stay in California. It'll be put down that way. Okay. Where do you want me to start? Try the beginning. Go to places. Any you were worth the hold up, huh? Yeah. How about the other two? You picked them up yet? No. They haven't come back to the apartment. Might be good if they didn't. Where do you come up with that? Heavy. Real heavy. What are their names? Luke Colton, Harvey Fitzgerald. Those are the names in the mailbox. Are they real? As far as I know. You aren't sure, huh? No. Part of what I told you is true. I broke out of a jail in Jersey, then beat it to Chicago. Laid around for a couple of days, then started looking for some action. I was broke. I needed a score to set me up. Sitting in a bar down on State street one night and I met Lou and Harvey. They tipped me to the job out here. You mean they came all the way out here to pull the one job? Yeah. They got a rumble about how it'd Be a cinch. Came out to run it off. Then they figured on going back, leaving you cops with nothing. When were they figuring on leaving? I don't know. This was their part of the deal. I told them going in I wanted to stay out here. Didn't make any difference to them. We all figured that if we cut up $100,000 score, none of us was going to look bad. For all I know, they might be on the way back now. Their clothes were still in the apartment. You know how many suits you can buy with a third of $100,000? Go ahead. Yeah, well, after the job, we made the split, talked it over and decided to dig in for a few days and then take off. At least they decided to leave. Didn't say when. I told you. Now, they might be on the way back now. Who else knows you're in on the job, huh? Outside of you three, Colton, Fitzgerald. Who else knows about it? Isn't anybody. Where's your part of the money? Got it down the bus depot. Got it in the locker down there. How long has it been there? Since day before yesterday. How often do they clean out them lockers? Every 24 hours. Then there's $33,000 floating around in the check room. You got the key of the locker? Yeah. Where is it? In my shoe. I got a tape in the. You want to give it to us? Well, no, but I don't guess there's any other way. No. Okay. You spend any of the money? You mean the stuff we stole? That's right. No, not a dime. Why do you ask that? Who else might know the serial numbers on the bills? Well, nobody. Nobody but us. And I guess the guys at the bank. They got a record of them, I guess. How about Colton Fitzgerald? They spend any of their part? I don't know. You gotta ask them. That the car you drove out after the armored truck, who'd that belong to? Colton. The one we drove out here in. What kind of car is it? Plymouth, 1952. What model? Sedan. Color? Light blue. You know the license number? No, I never paid any attention to it. What state's it out of? Illinois. Who drove the car when you went on the holdup? Harvey Fitzgerald, huh? Yeah. He drove the car and Lou and I went in the truck. Either of them been arrested before? I'm not sure, but I think Lou fell in New York. I'm not sure, though. How about Fitzgerald? No. At least he never said anything about it. Only way I knew about Lou is that he talked about the food and that's the way I knew about him. You know what he fell for? Armed robbery, I think. And there was a kidnap rap too, but he beat it. He out clean? I don't know. Seems like you planned a job with two guys that you didn't know very well, doesn't it? I was hungry and I was cold. I wasn't about to ask for a life story when they offered me a part of the action. How'd they pick you? I told you, I was in a bar on State. Lou and Harvey came in. Both of them were carrying a load. I was sitting there drinking beer, just the three of us in the place. And Lou was drinking pretty heavy. He gets in a beef with the barkeep. And I saw the roll he was carrying. So I figured that if I could take his side in the brawl, maybe I can make a touch. We walked out of the bar and he offered to buy me a meal. Next thing I know, I'm on the way to California. I'm a partner in a piece of goods that looks safe. All that time in the car and you didn't find out anything about your two partners? We drove straight through. When we weren't driving, we were sleeping. Anyway, I wasn't a solid member of the club. I wasn't about to get my nose mashed in for having it someplace where it didn't belong. I figured if they wanted me to know something, they'd tell me. You go with them for the guns? No. They already got nose when I fell in. You knew they were stolen? Guys turn up with that kind of muscle and can't come from anywhere else. Sure, I knew it was stolen. Colton and Fitzgerald have any friends out here? No, not in la. Anywhere on the coast. Well, I hear Lou's got some people up north. Where? Maybe San Francisco, Marin County. I don't know. Might even be Oakland, somewhere around the Bay Area. They say anything about going up there? No. Of course they might have. The way Lou likes to eat, coming out here, he'd go 10 miles out of the way because he knew a place that had a good chili size. Think nothing of it. Never saw anybody who liked to eat so much. Real gourmet. Only with him, it was glutton. He mentioned any names of people he knew up north? No, just said he had people. Anything about the car they're driving that would make it easy to spot? What do you mean? Well, like a dented fender, a scratch, anything to identify it? Yeah. Yeah, it might be something. There's a kind of scratch in the back left fender, I think. Woman backed into us on the way out here. Cut right through the metal. You think of any reason why they might ditch the car? No. We kept a close tab on the papers right after the job and looked to see how much you had on it. When we didn't see anything, we figured the car was all right. I don't think they'd ditch it. Be pretty easy to trace. Lou owns it outright. Unless he want to try to grab cold plates. He'd drive it like it was. Okay. We'll get your things and you can come over the City hall and make a statement. How about the key to the locker? Oh, yeah, there it is. Probably some money due on the package I'll have to owe you. What's that? 33,000. I haven't got the dough to bail out the package. Kind of works out even. What? You'd have no place to spend. An immediate APB was gotten off carrying the names and descriptions of the two suspects. Also a description of the car. A radiogram was sent to DMV at Illinois requesting the license and description of any car registered to a Lewis Colton. While Eleanor Eastlack took Peterson's statement, Frank got in touch with the telephone company. They'd finished checking the phone call we'd gotten from San Francisco, but the information they gave led us no farther toward apprehending the suspects. The call had been made from a pay booth in the Ferry Terminal building. We got in touch with the FBI and filled them in on the developments. As a result of Peterson's statement, the number of men maintaining the surveillance at the apartment on Garfield Place was cut to one team working days and one team working the night watch. We put a call into San Francisco and talked to Chief of Inspectors James English. We filled him in on what had happened. He assigned Inspectors Sutton and Zimmerman to work with us on the case. 5:46pm we checked out a trip car and we left for San Francisco. Took us a little under 10 hours to drive the 405 miles between the two cities. At 4:03am we stopped in Oakland and put in a call to the San Francisco Police Department. How much? Yeah, just a minute. Frank, you got a quarter? Yeah. Thanks. Here you are. 264, please. Hello, it's Joe Friday. Yeah, you got a message there for me from Charlie Sutton or Jules Zimmerlin? Hmm? Yeah. No, no, we just got in. Yeah, Oakland. What? Just a minute. You see that street sign up there? Yeah. Wait a minute. Fifth and Poplar. Fifth and Poplar. Yeah. No, we're coming right over. When was This. I see. Well, if Charlie calls in, tell him that we're on the way, will you? Right. Thank you. Well, we're almost too late. What do you mean? They got a lead. Sutton and Zimmerman called in 30 minutes ago. Yeah. They got the car waiting for the suspects. Now you are listening to Dragnet. The authentic story of your police force in action. The address the business office had given me on the phone was a large garage located at the corner of Union Avenue and Lynch streets. When Frank and I got there, we met with Inspectors Sutton and Zimmerman. They told us that when they'd gotten the apb, a call had gone out immediately to the officers in the city to be on the lookout for a 1952 blue Plymouth with a dent in the left rear fender and carrying Illinois license plates. The suspects had parked the car in a no parking zone on O'Farrell street between Taylor and Mason streets. At the peak hour of traffic. The car had been towed away from the parking place and left in the garage. While it was in the garage, the information on it had been received from our department and an immediate stakeout was placed on it. We felt reasonably sure that the suspects would return for the automobile. They had no reason to think that there might be anything wrong. The address of the garage had been left so that they might find the car. All that would be necessary to release it would be the payment of the fine for overtime parking along with the towing and garage fee. The garage itself was a large building. It provided four stories for parking. The suspect's car was on the basement level. We were able to keep watch on it from a small office near the exit ramp. The attendants were instructed to act as if nothing was wrong when the suspects came in. Once we knew that they were in the building, the entrances and exits would be blocked and they would be taken into custody. There was nothing to do but wait. 5:30am no sign of Colton and Fitzgerald. 6:15am Frank went out and brought back some hot coffee. 6:45, 7am People began to come into the garage to get their cars, but not the two suspects. The later it became, the more difficult it would be for us to take the two men into custody. If there was going to be any shooting, we'd be in a bad position with civilians in the range of fire. 7:38, 804am Somebody coming down there? Yeah. You see who it is? No. Jules? Yep. You and Charlie want to cover the other side, right. And watch it. We should be able to get a pretty good look at him. Yeah. Lousy deal. You parked the car and you towed off the street. What kind of town is this? They got a sign. You should have put it in the garage. You and your smart ideas. You, Reed. Why didn't you see the sign? Who can tell? You any Coltman? Fitzgerald? Yeah. You see Jules and Charlie? Wait a minute. Yeah, over by the gray murk. Looks like they're all set. All right, let's go. Let's get this crate out of here. The cops picked their vent. They should have been more than me. Still not sure they're the right thing to do. Look, you don't have to think. If I wanted somebody for that, you'd still be back east. You know, one of these days, you're gonna open that mouth just a little too wide. What do you guys want? Police officers. You're under arrest. Runner. Hit them off. Joe, the ramp. Joe. I'll get him. Colton, this isn't the way out. You follow your own max pop. The doors are blocked. Colton, you're in here for good. You're wearing the wrong kind of glasses. I'll get out now. Look, we got you for robbery. Don't make it anymore. Joe. Yeah, he's over in the corner. How about Fitzgerald, Sutton and Zimmerman? God. Their guns in their lap. Want no part of trouble. Colton doesn't figure it that way. I'll try to get around him. I. Watch yourself. Keep those people back out of the doorway. Go on, Frank. I'll cover you. You come near me, C. I'll get it. There's three more. Colton, you aren't going to get by all of us. Your partner quit. Why not be smart like him? He got smart. He's scared. All right, Colton, I'm coming to you. Throw down. I got it. Colton. Colton. You see him, Joe? No. Take it easy, Joe. Colton. How about it? He's hit. You can't tell how bad. He still got the gun. Colton, you're going to hear me. Throw that gun out here. Nothing. Come on. Better call an ambulance. Right. Never should have taken us. Better take it easy, Colton. You're hit where it shows. Never should have taken this. Two of you. Two of us? You got it wrong, mister. Huh? You were outnumbered going in. The story you have just heard is true. The names were changed to protect the innocent. Harvey Ned Fitzgerald and Lewis Jeffrey Colton were tried and convicted of kidnapping, robbery in the first degree and violation of the Dangerous Weapons Control Act. They were found guilty and sentenced as prescribed by law. Kidnapping as punishable by imprisonment for a period of from 1 to 25 years in the state penitentiary. Robbery in the first degree by imprisonment for a term of not less than five years. Violation of the Dangerous Weapons Control act by imprisonment in the state prison for a period of not less than five years. Henry Vincent Peterson was remanded to the authorities of New Jersey for completion of his sentence. A hold was placed on him by the State of California in the event he has paroled. You have just heard Dragnet the authentic story of your police force in action and starring Jack Webb, a presentation of the United States Armed Forces Radio sa After investing billions to light up our network, T Mobile is America's largest 5G network. 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