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1001 Radio Crime Solvers
THE BIG SAINT and THE BIG BULLET CASING
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Two episodes of Dragnet!! Check out our latest podcast 1001 True Crime From Another Time wherver you get your podcasts or at www.bestof1001stories.com
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Yep, switching and saving with GEICO feels just like that. Get more with Geico. Welcome back everyone to 1001 Radio Crime Solvers. This is your host, John Hagedorn. And be sure to catch our other brand new podcast, 1001 True Crime from Another Time. That's 1001 True Crime from Another Time. Wherever you get your favorite podcast, the story you are about to hear is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent. Fatima Cigarettes Best of all, Long Cigarettes brings you Dragnet. You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned to auto theft detail. A well organized ring of car thieves begins operations in your city. It's one of the most puzzling cases you've ever encountered. Your job? Break it. You'll be amazed when you compare Fatima with other long cigarettes. You'll find they now cost the same. But in Fatima, the difference is quality. You see, Fatima is the quality king size cigarette because it contains the finest domestic and Turkish tobaccos, superbly blended. And Fatima is extra mild with a much different, much better flavor and aroma than any other long cigarette. So compare Fatima yourself. Fatima's now cost the same as other long cigarettes. But your first pup will tell you, ah, that's different. Yes, in Fatima, the difference is quality. Ask your dealer for Fatima, the quality king size cigarette. Best of all, long cigarettes. Start enjoying Fatima tomorrow, 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, Dragneth is the story of your police force in action. It was Monday, May 11. It was fair in Los Angeles. We were working the day watch out of Auto Theft detail. My partner is Ben Romero. The boss is Captain Stilson. My name's Friday was 8:35am when I got to room 40. Auto Theft Division Captain's office Morning. Friday morning. Hi, Joe. Ben. Want to sit down? Thank you. I was just telling Romero here I'm briefing all the men in the bureau on this thing. That's the reason I called you two in. Yeah, you got some figures here I want to go over with you. All right. Because you know the percentage of all auto theft recoveries is 96 to 98% on the average. That's normally. Yeah. Been checking the monthly averages. The past four months that percentage has dropped to the low 80s. Quite a drop. Corner pocket thinks so too. They want some action on it. Well, we've been working on it. Absolutely no pattern to the thefts. Time, location. The method makes it impossible to stake out on it. Yeah, those are some of the reasons our percentage is taking such a dive. I know the problems, we all do. But we gotta break this thing soon. Well, it figures. We're dealing with a well organized bunch. They know what they're doing. Cross checking all the reports. It seems to boil down to this in general, it appears that all the outstanding thefts are GM cars. Cads, Pontiacs, Chevys, Oldsmobiles. All late models. All seem to be in good condition. Low mileage cars. Well, in addition to the regular broadcast intelli types, we got out a special bulletin on us, didn't we? That's right. All the thefts were listed. License, make, model and color. Been sent to all major cities and border patrol stations. Nothing so far. I was checking through the salvage reports. Salvage by. Do you have the last two months ice, Skipper? March and April. Yeah, right here. Notice the same thing. That outfit down on San Pedro Street. Yeah. Let me see. Yeah. This is a composite on the report for the past two months. That's right. This one here, Herman Salvage. 2716 West San Pedro. They seem to deal a little heavy on General Motors cars, don't they? Yeah, they do. I've been watching the buys on this place for the past few weeks now. Wanted to make sure it wasn't coincident. Well, looks like a good place to run down anyway. You two want to check it out? All right, fine. 2716 West San Pedro. That's it. Outfit appears to be okay. Never been out of line. Seems funny they should deal with the top Avian GM cars, didn't it? Right. When auto recovery percentage takes a dive. Yeah. Do you have the last salvage report there came? Yeah, the last one. Here you are. Thank you. Yeah. Here's one for Herman's. 1949 Cadillac. A little further down. Herman's again, 47 old. You know, there's five GM buys on the list. Herman got four out of five of them. Let's find out why. From the time an automobile is first manufactured and sold, a constant and complete record is maintained on that automobile. His certificate of ownership, the pink slip in the state of California. His certificate of registration, a white slip. These two slips of paper contain the information necessary for the positive identification of your car. A fact that every motorist knows. Now, there are many agencies that work for the protection and security of your automobile. One of these is the National Auto Theft Bureau. A kind of nationwide clearing house. Acting upon information supplied by the various insurance companies and other allied agencies. This bureau forwards all facts and figures concerning the disposition of motor vehicles on a nationwide basis. Reports are made available to all law enforcement agencies. One of the pieces of information put out by the National Auto Theft Bureau is the salvage report listing all sales and purchases of automobiles that for one reason or another may have been relegated to the junkyard or to the salvage company. A fact that many motorists may not know. 9:14am Ben and I checked through the police commission and found that the owner of Herman Salvage was a Herman Lester. He had been in business at the same location for six years and appeared to be a reputable businessman. We drove down to 2716 West San Pedro to check it out. It was an average looking garage with a connecting salvage yard filled with several hundred smashed up cars of all makes and models. It was 9:32am when we walked into the garage. There's a fellow there in a white shirt. Yeah, I see him. Can I help you gentlemen? Yes, sir. Police officers. Auto theft detail. Oh, yes. Don't believe I know you fellas. My name's Lester. This is Sergeant Friday. My name's Romero. How you do? How are you? Are you the owner here? Yeah, that's right. Whatever happened to Mac and Donovan? Used to drop in once, twice a month. Haven't seen him for two, three weeks now. Well, they're a little busy on a special assignment. Oh, I see. All right if we look around? Oh, you bet. Make yourselves right at home. Anything special? No, just looking. Okay. Notice you've been pretty busy, huh? Yeah, had a pretty good month. Salvage racket's gonna get sour again. Looks like with the Korean war and all the cutbacks. Doesn't seem to have hit you so far. Well, no, not so far. Looks like it may tighten up anytime. I noticed from our salvage report you've been doing a big business in GM merchandise. Yeah, we have. You know, they're starting to build tanks back there now. We wanted to make sure we wouldn't run short on parts. You get a lot of call for GM parts, do you? Oh, yeah, we sure do. Everybody in town knows if they need something for a Caddy or a Buick or any of those cars, this is the place to come. We kind of built up a reputation specializing in GM used parts. I see. Mind if we check your last few buys? Fine. You have 49 Cadillac, 47 Old Pontiac, 48, 1949 Chevrolet. Wonder if we might see those. Yes, sir. Right out in the yard back this way. All four of them are really bent up bad shape. Just breaks your heart to see beautiful merchandise like that all smashed up. I don't know what people are thinking of the way they drive. Yeah, you take a new Caddy, one of those new convertibles, really beautiful merchandise. Somebody takes one out, rolls it, we pick it up and tow it down here. Beautiful car like that all rolled up in a ball. Georgia Street Receiving Hospital probably picked up the rent. Yeah. Truly a shame. Well, here we go. There's a Caddy. Oh, yeah. Let's see. The Olds and the Pontiac are in that row there. You see him? Yeah. And that Chevrolet, wasn't it? Yes, sir. 1949. Yeah. Oh, yeah. There she is over there. Third car down. Maroon. Maroon one? Yeah. Down there. Yeah. Looks like a graveyard, doesn't it? Sure does. What do you do with all these cars? Strip them down for parts. Well, at least the four year check in now. Yeah, they're all total wrecks. Nothing much can be done with them except for parts. Mm. How about that Cadillac down there? The sedan? That one over there? Can't you fix that one up? That doesn't look beyond repair from here. Oh. Step around the other side here. You can't see from where you're standing here. The right side's all stove in. By the time you figure replacing those side panels and fenders trim, we couldn't come out on it. Yeah, I see now. Well, I don't know too much about it, but it'll look good from over there. Yeah, that's what we get all the time. People want us to pay top prices for stuff we can't get our money out of. If we could repair them, fix them up and resell them as a complete automobile. There'd be a lot of money in this business. You do that with some of them, don't you? Oh, very few of them, I'll tell you. That's what we look for. But we don't always get lucky. I see. Say, how'd you boys like to see some really beautiful merchandise? What's that? Well, come on back in the shop. All right. Kind of a hobby, am I? Mm. Here's what keeps us busy. Plates and pink slips on the way up to Sacramento for cancellation. Uh huh. Yeah. Over this way. Here we are. Take a look at this baby. Yeah. A hot rod, huh? No, not exactly. We don't go in for that kid stuff racing around town. Well, sure looks like one. Yeah, but it's a little better than most of the kids can throw together. What'll it do? We clocked her up at Muroc at 112 last weekend. You know, they've been coming in here from all over town to see this car. That's so. Yeah. You ever get up to Muroc Dry Lake? No, I never do. But that's the place for it, running around town. And those things can cause a lot of accidents. Those drag races the kids have. Yeah, we don't go in for that stuff. This is strictly scientific as far as I'm concerned. I like to build them up, See, we can make them. Do cost a lot of money, don't they? Got $5,400 in this one Right now I'm putting more into it. Mallory ignition mil heads, twin Wakefields. Here, let me start it up for you. Okay. 120 horses under there. Yes. Sounds good. Listen to that. Beautiful, isn't it? Yeah. Lot of power here. Go in. You got to see it up in the lake. He really goes, Cal. Bet this all made up out of salvage cars. Every bit of it. Buy a few things new, but most of it's right out of wrecks like those outside. There takes a lot of talent to build up something like this from scrap, doesn't it? No, not really. After you've been at it as long as I have, it's not too tough. The trick is to get more speed out of them than anyone else can. Yeah, we did a good job on this car. Right? Well, if you put your mind to it, you can do a lot with a wrecked car. Before we left Herman Salvage, we checked all four of the GM cars that were listed on the salvage report. We made a careful check on all of the cars in the yard and in the garage. Paying special attention to the few cars that were in the process of being rebuilt by Herman Lester's mechanics. We went over his records, carefully checking the disposition of all of his buys for the past several months. Everything was in perfect order. We found that in the past three weeks, Lester had taken in 10 cars. Eight of them had been stripped down for parts and two of them had been rebuilt and resold. The investigation showed that four of those cars were GM cars. And the two that were resold were both General Motors. 11:28am Ben and I drove back to the office and asked Mack and Donovan if they'd checked through the two resale cars to make sure everything was in order, as the reports indicated. We checked through on the remaining eight cars that were listed by Herman Lester, who was broken down for parts. According to dmv, all plates and pink slips had been returned to them for cancellation. 11:50am well, that's it, Joe. You know, eight of the cars check out. Two of those were jammed. Yeah, well, that leaves just the two that Mac and Donovan are checking, huh? I don't know. Everything down there looked all right, succinctly. Wasn't holding back anything as far as I could tell. Cooperative. Everything in order. If those two that Mac and Donovan are working on check out, I gotta. I'd say. Well, seems to me Lester told us everything. Everything we ask him anyway. No, I don't think he got back. If he did, I got an idea who might be able to tell us. Somebody's been left out in the cold here. What are you getting at? Well, now, if Herman's been able to buy up all those GM cars, what have the other salvage dealers been doing about him? Friends of thought. Let's check his competition. 12:40pm we drove back down to West San Pedro Street. We picked out a group of salvage companies in the immediate neighborhood close to Herman's. 3209 West San Pedro John's Wrecking Yard. We introduced ourselves and started to talk with the owner, a John Bacon. A routine check was made of his establishment, and as far as we could tell, everything appeared to be okay. And that's all you made, huh? Just that one buy? That's it. 1946 Ford. We're dying a slow death. Business pretty bad, huh? Never seen it worse, at least as far as we're concerned. How do you account for that, Mr. Bacon? Oh, everything, I guess. Business bad all over at the moment. Scrap metal situations in a state of flux. Present time in looking around, Mr. Begin, we noticed you don't have much in the Way of General Motors, Doc, is that because of GM going into war production? Any cutback would eventually affect you fellas, wouldn't it? No, no, not at all. Cutback would, sure, but there's no tremendous curtailment right at the present time. They're still turning out a lot of automobiles back then. Well, then what's your problem? We're being outbid right up and down the line by the same outfit. Who's that? Company by the name of Herman Salvage, just up the street there. Go out to buy a piece of merchandise. Their boys just won't let us get near it. They pay more than you do, huh? More than we can. Sergeant. I honestly don't see how they're coming out on some of their deals. It's that much out of line, huh? Certainly is. You know, whenever there's anything available, all the salvage companies get their bid in. Well, Herman simply outbids all of us. Yeah, it makes it kind of rough. I'm not the only one. Pete Larkin up the street. Old man Hart Henry next door. All of us. I don't know what we can do about it. Herman seems to be doing all right. No matter what he pays for his cars. None of us can figure it out. Just judging from the number of cars he outbids us on and the number he rebuilds. I just can't see how he's coming out. But he is, huh? Figure he's laying odds on a big shortage. That's what all of us think. He's laying in a stockpile. Is that the idea? Sure. What else could it be? We continued our check on all salvage dealers, both in the neighborhood of Herman Lester's place and throughout the city. Seemed to be be a fact well known to most dealers. That Herman was outbidding all of them on any and all GM automobiles. The only possible explanation was that he must be trying to lay in a large stockpile of this particular make of car. 3:35pm we received word from Sergeants Mack and Donovan that they'd checked out the two remaining cars listed in Herman's books. The resales. Ben was right. They checked out with no discrepancy. During the next 10 days, the investigation continued. The theft of late model GM cars continued with few recoveries. Suspects were arrested and questioned. We could find no connection that might lead us to an organized ring of car thieves that might be responsible for the lack of GM car recoveries. The salvage reports showed no change in Herman's buying technique. Apparently, he was still dealing heavy on the one particular make of car. Thursday, May 25th. We received a teletype from DMV listing all the salvage buy transfers. In making our usual daily check of this teletype, we noticed a 1949 Cadillac engine number 598-77-4415. It had been resold from salvage to a used car lot. That's the place right up the block. Yeah, I see. Same Cad we saw in Herman Salvage yard. Yeah. It's funny, isn't it? The one in particular that I asked him about. You remember? Yeah, I remember. You thought it could be fixed up. He said, no. It's only been a little over two weeks ago, hadn't it? Yeah, I try. Well, it still doesn't prove anything. Here we are. Jake's. This is the place. Yeah. There's a cab in the front line right down there, huh? Mm. I don't see anyone around, do you? No, I don't. Well, I guess it's hard to check the engine number anyway. Yeah. I'll get the hood released. Right. Yeah. There we go. Yeah. The engines had a good steam cleaning. Let's see. 5, 9, 8, 7, 7, 4, 1 5. That's it. Herman sure did a nice job on it, didn't he? Yeah. Almost looks too good, doesn't it? Yeah. Just a minute. Yeah. Body cereal doesn't match. Doesn't correspond with the engine model. It's a 49 body. Could be a late 49, but it's a definite switch, isn't it? It sure is. That's funny. Yeah. Look at this right side here. This was the bad side, wasn't it? Yeah, that's right. Does it look like it's been rolled out to you? No. There's no feathering, no orange peel. Either that's the best repaint job I've ever seen, or it's never been in an accident. Yeah. I'll take a look underneath. Okay. Wanna move your feet there? Yeah. All right. Anything? No, nothing. There's not a seam or a joint under there. No welding marks of any kind. This car's never been in a smash up. The engine number checks, the body doesn't. And this is the one Herman couldn't fix up. That's what he said. Maybe he changed his mind. Or he lied. You are listening to Dragnet from beginning to end. Dragnet is the authentic story of your police force in action. Now, from beginning to end, the Fatima story. Actual convincing proof that in Fatima, the difference is quality. Quality of tobaccos. The finest domestic and Turkish varieties. Extra mild and superbly blended. To give you a much different Much better flavor and aroma. Quality of manufacture, Smooth, round, perfect cigarettes rolled in the finest paper money can buy. Manufactured in the newest and most modern of all cigarette factories. Quality even to the appearance of the bright, clean, golden yellow package. Carefully wrapped and sealed to bring you Fatima's rich, fresh, extra mild flavor. Because of its quality, its extra mildness, its better flavor and aroma, more long cigarette smokers are now insisting on Fatima than ever before. So if you smoke a long cigarette, compare Fatima, you'll find they now cost the same. But your first pup will tell you, ah, that's different. Yes, in Fatima, the difference is quality. Insist on Fatima. Start enjoying the quality. King size cigarette Fatima. Best of all long cigarettes. 1949 Cadillac engine number 598-77-4415. In checking out this automobile, Ben and I had found that the engine number corresponded with the salvage report concerning Herman Lester's place. The one big item that did not jive was the fact that the engine was now mounted in a different body than when the car left the factory. A fact that had to be accounted for in complete detail. When we had checked this automobile on 11 May at Herman Salvage Yard, both engine and body numbers corresponded. In taking a close look at the car, it was obvious that the body had not been repaired in any way. It was clear that this particular car had not been in any kind of collision. We went back to the rear of the lot and asked one of the salesmen not to sell the car without informing us. When we got back to the office, we started rechecking all of the auto theft reports. We found five stolen Cadillacs, but all the body styles and models were different, with the exception of one. A 1949 Cadillac sedan reported stolen on May 14. It was registered in the name of William Brownell. We checked his home and found that he was at work. He was a superintendent for the North American Van line. We drove over and picked him up and took him to Jake's Hughes Car lot on Vermont Avenue. This is the car, Mr. Brownell. Mm. Well, it's just like mine, but I don't think it's the one. Are you sure? For one thing, it's a different color. My car was maroon. You want to step over here, Mr. Brownell? Sure. You know, if you look very closely here on the door edging and on the jamb right here. See, this is the one place sometimes they miss with a spray gun if they're going to repaint it. Oh, yeah. There's a faint trace of red under the blue paint there. Looks like it could Be maroon, doesn't it? Yeah. Does it? This car's been repainted. It was maroon. Uh huh. Well, mine didn't have these kind of seat covers. We'll see. Same kind of upholstery I had, though. Underneath here. I don't know, Mr. Del Nelder. Must be something other than the color in the upholstery that you'd know your own car by. Never gave it much thought. Well, there's usually some little identifying mark of some kind. I know that on my car. The lens on the right headlight got broken and I had to replace it with one that didn't match. Something like that, sir? Let me see. Could I look inside there a minute? Sure. Right here under the speedometer, there was a thumbprint pressed into the factory. It's pretty deep. No, it's not there now. And don't forget that the car's been repainted. It might have been covered up. No, this was cleared out of the metal. Apparently when they were installing the instruments at the factory. The panel wasn't dry yet. Not there now. They couldn't have covered it up unless they made a special point of it. Well, sometimes that's done. Car thieves are kind of clever. Well, I'm sorry, gentlemen. I don't think this is my car. Don't think I don't wish it was, but it's not. Can you think of just one other thing? Maybe just one mark of identification is all we need. No. Even these tires aren't mine. I had white sidewalls. Could have been switched. They were pretty new. Wait a minute. I think I remember something. No, there's no rip up there. What's that, sir? I just thought of something. The boys down at the office gave me a St. Christopher metal. You know, the large metal kind you're supposed to bolt to your dashboard? Yes, sir. I didn't want to put it on, so I carried it around with me in the car. There was a rip up there in the inner lining of the top, but see, there's no rip in this. Let me see. How about it, Ben? Yeah. Yeah, I can feel it. Does it feel like a metal? Let me get my pocket knife on it. What do you think they replaced the clock? I don't know. Yeah. Yeah, I hear. Dad? Mm? Is this it, Mr. Brownell? That's it. Look on the back there. My name's engraved on it. You see? Yes, sir. I sure didn't think this was my car. I never would have known it. That's what the guys figured. Who stole it? The 1949 Cadillac was taken to the police garage and a complete and thorough check was made. The car, with the exception of the engine, was positively identified as the property of William Brownell. This definitely implicated Herman Lester and showed his salvage operations to be illegitimate. He had obviously been buying one particular make of salvage automobile, outbidding all his competitors to do so. When he would buy a piece of wrecked equipment, an exact duplicate would be stolen to match it. He would then dispose of the engine from the stolen vehicle and replace it with a salvage engine. With this system of operation, Herman Salvage had been enjoying a lucrative business which accounted for a great percentage of the stolen cars that we hadn't been able to recover. 7:25pm May 25, we drove out to pick up Herman Lesker. His home address was listed as 8625 Wonderland Drive. It was up in the Laurel Canyon district, a heavily wooded section of Los Angeles. Pretty nice place up in there. Yeah, what you can see of it through the trees now. Let's go look at that, Jill. Looks like the 50. Old everything there but the engine. No plates. I didn't notice that from the street, did you? Never could have seen it from down there. Looks like a garage back up in there, doesn't it? Perfect spot. Can't see any of this from the street with all those trees. Pretty fancy layout for a home garage. Good size. Somebody's working up in there. Yeah. Come on. Hi there. Brings your fellows right up here. Want to have a little talk with you. Oh, you bet. Come on in the house. Have a cold beer, huh? No, this will be all right. Joe, you got a hot seat? Yeah, right here. Kind of caught me by surprise here, working out in the garage. Yeah, that figure's Lester. These plates are from a stolen car. Are you sure that's right? You remember a 49 Cadillac we looked at down at your place a couple of weeks ago? I'm not sure. 49 cat. That's right. Whatever became of that car? Oh, no, I remember. Yeah, I sold that car to Jake's over in Vermont. Thought you told us you couldn't fix it up. I don't remember. You sure you don't mean some other car now? No, it's the same one. You know, the one we mean. How about it? How about what? That was a stolen car, Lester, and you know it. That's a stolen car out there in the yard, isn't it? What's that hoist, then? There he goes, Joe. All right, Lester, hold it. Stop it. Stop, Joe. All right, come on. Stop it, Lester. Drop the hammer. Go with me. All right. I'll get the cuffs, Joe. Come on, get up. On your feet. All right, come on. Your feet. Stand still. Rough one, huh? Yeah. Come on, Lester. Let's go. How'd you find out who took you off? Say, Christopher. The story you've just heard was true. Only the names were changed to protect the innocent. On August 15, trial was held in Superior Court Department 82, City and County of Los Angeles, State of California. In a moment, the results of that trial. And now, here is our star, Jack Webb. Thank you, friends. One of the first things a detective learns is that you can't rely on snap judgments or first appearances. You get all the evidence first, and then you arrive at a decision. And that's just as true when it comes to choosing a king size cigarette. Place a Fatima alongside any other king size cigarette. Now, side by side, they'll look identical when you smoke them. You'll find a world of difference. You'll find, as I have, in Fatima, the difference is quality. Quality that gives you extra mildness, a much better flavor and aroma. If you haven't smoked Fatima's yet, buy a pack tomorrow. See if you don't agree. In Fatima, the difference is quality. Herman W. Lester was tried and convicted on three counts of grand theft auto and two counts of grand theft money. All sentences to run consecutively. Grand theft auto was punishable by imprisonment for a term of 1 to 5 years. Grand theft money by a term of 1 to 10 years. The suspect was also filed on by federal authorities for violation of the dire act. You have just heard Dragnet, a series of authentic cases from official files. Technical advice comes from the office of Chief of Police W.H. parker, Los Angeles Police Department. Fatima cigarettes. Best of all, long cigarettes has brought you Dragnet portions. Transcribed from Los Angeles. Stay tuned for counterspy next over many NBC stations AT&T customers. Switching to T Mobile has never been easier. We'll pay off your existing phone and give you a new one free. All on America's largest 5G network. Visit t mobile.com carrierfreedom to switch today. Pay off up to $650 via virtual prepaid MasterCard in 15 days. Free phone up to $830 via 24 monthly bill credits plus tax. Qualifying port in trade and service on Go 5G next and credit required. Contact us before canceling entire account to continue bill credits or credit stop and balance and required finance agreement is due. How do you feel when you switch to Geico and save on your car insurance? It's like going to work on one Thursday morning and thinking to yourself just one more day until Friday. But then somebody in the elevator says happy Fri. Yay. Then you check your phone quickly and discover today is actually Friday. So yes, Happy Friday. Random stranger in the elevator. Happy Friday indeed. Yep, switching and saving with Geico feels just like that. Get more with Geico. If you love chilling mysteries, unsolved cases and a touch of mom style humor, Moms and Mysteries is the podcast you've been searching for. Hey guys, I'm Mandy. And I'm Melissa. Join us every Tuesday for Moms and Mysteries, your gateway to gripping, well researched true crime stories. Each week we deep dive into a variety of mind boggling cases as we shed light on everything from heists to whodunits. We're your go to podcast for mysteries with a motherly touch. Subscribe now to Moms and Mysteries. Wherever you get your podcast, the story you are about to hear is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent. Fatima cigarettes. Best of all, Long cigarettes brings you Dragnet. You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned a homicide detail. You go to an apartment house and answer to a shooting and dead body. Call her husband tells you it's suicide. The facts show it to be murder. Your job? Find out. You'll be amazed when you compare Fatima with other long cigarettes. You'll find they now cost the same. But in Fatima, the difference is quality. You see, Fatima is the quality king size cigarette because it contains the finest domestic and Turkish tobaccos, superbly blended. And Fatima is extra mild with a much different, much better flavor and aroma than any other long cigarette. So compare Fatima yourself. Fatima's now cost the same as other long cigarettes, but your first pup will tell you, ah, that's different. Yes, in Fatima, the difference is quality. Ask your dealer for Fatima, the quality king size cigarette. Best of all, long cigarettes. Start enjoying Fatima tomorrow. 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 Sunday, March 9th was windy in Los Angeles. We were working the day. Watch out. A homicide detail. My partner's Ben Romero. The boss is Thad Brown, Chief of Detectives. My name's Friday. It was 4:35pm when we got to the first of the Kelsey Apartment Hotel, apartment 112. Hi Joe, Ben. Hi Harry. How are you? What have you got here, a woman's dead. Shot through the right temple with a.45 automatic. Husband claims it's suicide. What's the name? Mr. And Mrs. Andrew Robertson. Wife's name was Marie. That's Mr. Robertson right over here. Has the crime lab been called? About two minutes ago. Fine. Mr. Robertson, this is Sergeant Romero. Sergeant Friday. How do you deal? How are you? Have you questioned Mr. Roberts? No, not yet. Mr. Robertson, do you want to tell us what happened here? I'd just gotten back from the Karner grocery store. My wife and I had a little argument going. It started before I left for the store and it was still on when I got back. I see. She was fixing chicken fried steaks for dinner, putting a flour on them. We had a few more words and I went over and sat on the davenport right where I am now. She was standing there on the doorway to the kitchen. She said something that set me off and I guess I got pretty mad and said a few things. Then she went back over to that little nightstand there by the door to the kitchen. That one right there? Yeah, that's it. That's where I keep my army automatic. She pulled it out of the drawer and backed up into the kitchen. She put the gun to her head and said, this will put an end to the argument once and for all. I yelled at her and tried to stop her, but I was too late. She pulled the trigger and fell right there where she is. What'd you do then? I went upstairs to Ted Carlton's place. He lives in 212, right above us. We don't have a phone here. I asked him to call the police and send for an ambulance. Did you go over to see how badly your wife was shot? Yeah. I forgot to tell you. The minute she fired, I rushed right over to her, but I was too late. She was dead. Now, did you touch anything in here? Move, anything at all? No, sir, not a thing. I've been sitting here ever since I got got back down from Ted's room upstairs. I see. Joe? Yeah? Empty cartridge casing here on the floor. Yeah. When Jones gets here, we'll measure the distance out. Just a minute. We can put this saucer over till the crime lab gets here. Right. Crime lab's here Friday. Lee. Joan Ohi hello, Joe B. Would you mind taking Mr. Robertson downtown? We'll be right down as soon as we finish up here. Right, Joe. See you later. Thanks a lot, Harry. Let's go. Well, what have we got here? Shot through the right temple. Husband claimed suicide. What's under the Saucer, empty casing. Looks like she was flowering meat, huh? That's what the husband says. Yeah, that's probably what that is in the barrel of the automatic there. Yeah, we notice that. Wastebasket's sure full, isn't it? Yeah. Right tempo, huh? 45 automatic. Yeah. If she shot herself in the kitchen, how do you figure the empty casing got out there in the living room? Position of the body doesn't warrant that. That'll be Ed McGill, the photographer. Come in Friday. How are you, Ed? Well, what you want to shoot? Why don't you get an overall of the room first and grab one in the kitchen there. All right. Wait till I get that saucer off the casing end. Okay. Yes, Mary. You want to move over there, Lou? Oh, yeah, thanks. All right, now, you want the kitchen right from where you are now is good. We can get out of your way here. Okay. This is fine now, right over the body. Better get that chair to stand up. Oh, yeah. Here you are. Not much room to work in here. Can you get it all in there? Yeah, I think so. Use the waste basket as your outside line here and kitchen sink on the other side. Can't get the sink in. Will you settle for the waste basket only? Fine. Just use that as your right hand sideline, huh? Okay. So while you fellows finish up in here, we're gonna run upstairs in a minute. Okay, Joe. Come on, man. Where do you want to go first? 212. Well, that's this Ted Carlton Robertson mentioned in it. Yeah, the fellow who's supposed to have called in for him. All right. Yeah, here it is right at the head of the stairs. Yes, police officers. You're Mr. Carlton? Yes, that's right. Come in. Thank you very much. This is an awful thing, isn't it? Yes, sir. We understand that you're a friend of the Rock. Yes, I am. Have you found out anything yet? You think Andy killed her? We don't know. We haven't completed our investigation. Oh, I see. I'll bet that's the way it was. I hate to say that, but from all indications, it certainly looks that way. How do you mean? The argument, the shouting, then that single shot. I don't know, but it sure struck me that Andy did it. When did the argument start? Was it prolonged, do you know? What do you mean? When did it start? What time? You know, this one Today started about 3:30 when Andy got back from the store. But they've been our arguing ever since I've known him. How long have you known them? About two years. Those two never should have gotten married to begin with, if I'm any judge. Are you married? No, sir, I'm not. Wonder if you could tell us, did Mrs. Robertson ever say anything that would lead you to believe that she was in fear of her life? Well, yes, she did. One time, Andy stalked out of the apartment down there and Marie came up here to see me. She was in tears, all broken up about it, as usual, during these spats. I see. She said, I'll try to remember exactly how she put it. She said, andy gets so mad sometimes, I think he's gonna kill me. What did they usually argue about, do you know? All different things. This particular time that I was telling you about, I think it was over as being late for dinner. Now, aside from this one instance, is there anything else that you can tell us? Well. And he has a terrible temper that I know. We used to go out and bowl once in a while. Marie, Andy and myself, we had to stop every time he'd miss a spare. You'd think it was the end of the world. What? He usually seemed to take it out on his wife most of the time, yeah. Although I must say, I caught it a few times myself. Abusive language. She really carried on over nothing at all. Did Robertson leave his wife home alone much of the time? No, not any more than usual. Seems like he always wanted to get home just so they could argue. Everybody in the apartment house knows about him. You said that Mrs. Robertson came up here after that one particular argument. Yes, sir, that's right. Well, does she come up here often? No, not very often. Just when she was unusually upset and her nerves were on edge. But only then when Andy would rush out mad. Well, do you know whether or not Robertson owns a gun? Yes, I believe he does. Matter of fact, I know he does. One night we were having trouble with prowlers and he came up here with his automatic. Later on, I think I asked him where he got the gun. He said, from the army. Is there anything else you can add, Mr. Gordon? I was the one who called the police. You knew that. That's what we understand. Didn't Andy tell you? He came up here right after the shot and asked me to call the police for him. They don't have a phone. Well, exactly how did he tell you? What do you mean? Well, what were his exact words? Can you remember them? Well, he said, my wife's shot. Call the police and get an ambulance quick. And what was your reaction to this? I'd heard the shot, so I wasn't too surprised. But When Andy came running up here, I knew before he said a word. You could tell. Just to look at him, you could tell what? Something was wrong. I had a hunch all along that this might happen someday. What's that? That Andy and Kelly's wife, Ben and I continued questioning the various neighbors in the apartment building. Their stories all matched in every detail. The Robertsons had been known to argue quite frequently and quite loud. None of the neighbors could definitely say that they had ever heard Andrew Robertson threaten his wife. All of them volunteered. It would be entirely possible. We put in a call to R and I. We found that there was no previous record on Andrew Robertson nor his wife, Marie. Before Lee Jones had finished his investigation, latent fingerprint men had arrived and the men from the coroner's office were standing by for removal of the body. We canvassed the neighborhood and checked with the various merchants in the area. They could shed no further light on the death of Marie Robertson. The coroner removed the body from apartment 112 and Lee Jones continued with his investigation. Ben and I returned downtown for further interrogation of suspect. Everything I've told you is the truth. Would you mind going over just once more? All right. We had our quarrels and arguments and I guess some of them were pretty bad. But I'd never do a thing like this to Marie. Well, you don't seem very upset about all this, Robertson. I'm not crying, if that's what you mean. I'm sorry she had to do it. Tried to stop her, but there was nothing I could do. Well, you seem to be taking all this pretty well under the circle circumstances. I don't know if I can explain how I feel about it. You see, Marie and I weren't too happy the past couple of years. We. We've been married eight years and I guess from the start we never could hit it off. Did you used to argue quite a bit? No, not at first. We didn't. Just seemed that we've drifted apart the last couple of years. We seem to fight all the time over nothing at all. I honestly believe we fell out of love. Well, would you mind telling us again exactly what happened this afternoon? First of all, I got up. I always liked to sleep on Sundays. She asked me to go to the store. That started the argument. She knows I don't like to go shopping, but it seemed like she was always forgetting something and I'd have to go. When I got back from the store, she was making chicken fried steaks for dinner. She was putting a flour on the meat. We argued back and Forth for a minute and then she stepped into the living room. I went over and sat on the davenport. All right, go on. We had a few more words and she went over to the small nightstand by the kitchen door and took out my army automatic that I kept in there. She backed up into the kitchen and pointed the gun at her head. Here, she said. This will end the argument once and for all. As I said, I was on the davenport about 12ft away from her. I yelled at her. What'd you say? I said, marie, put that gun down. It's loaded. Before I could reach her, she pulled the trigger. Then what'd you do? I rushed over to her, but it was too late. She was dead. What happened then? We don't have a phone, so I rushed upstairs to the apartment. Right over us. Ted Carlton's. I asked him the phone for the police and the ambulance. Did you tell Carlton about your wife? Yes, I did. I told him she'd been shot. Then where'd you go? So just like I told you, out of the apartment. I went back downstairs and waited in the living room for you people to get there. Did you go near your wife's body? No, I did not. Did you always keep that gun loaded? Yes, I did. I always kept it loaded and actuated the shell in the chamber. But I kept the safety lock on. Marie knew how to operate the gun because I showed her for when I was out late. She wasn't strong enough to actuate it, but she could work to safety. Did your wife ever try to commit suicide before? Not to my knowledge. Well, Mr. Robertson, you sure that everything you've told us is the truth? It's the absolute truth, every word of it. Well, sir, here's the way it looks to us. We think you killed your wife. I didn't. Let us lay out a few things for you. We talked to your friends and neighbors in the apartment house. We have people who will testify to the fact that your wife was afraid that you might kill her. She told one man that it isn't true. I don't know what she may have told somebody, but I didn't kill her. It's a known fact throughout the entire apartment building that you and your wife had violent quarrels. The kind of arguments from all reports that could easily lead to something like this. I told you, we argued, but I didn't kill Marie. I couldn't do a thing like that. Mr. Robertson, we've made a preliminary investigation of your apartment. You say your wife killed her. Let me show you some of the flaws in Your story here. All I can say is what I've told you is the truth. I didn't kill her. Now, you told us that your wife went to the nightstand and got the gun. That's right. How did she pick up the automatic? How do you mean? Well, how'd she take it? From the drawer. Like anyone would pick up a gun by the butt. She picked it up like anybody would was going to use it. You're sure about that? Positive. She didn't touch anything but the butt. Well, she had part of her hand on the trigger. We know that. But she didn't touch any other part of the weapon. She did not. She didn't have time. Well, then how do you account for the fact that we found traces of flower on the barrel of the gun? Well, sure. She was flowering meat. Well, how did the flower get on the barrel? I don't know. Well, isn't it true that when you approached her with the automatic pointed at her, she tried to ward off the shot with her hand? Isn't that how the flower got on that barrel? That isn't true. Well, now, you said your wife was putting flour on some steaks. That's right. How do you account for the fact that we didn't find any flour on the butt of the gun where it belonged or on the drawer of the nightstand where you say she first picked up the automatic? I can't answer that. I don't know what all this means. Well, it means that unless you've got some kind of explanation, we have to assume that you're lying, that you killed your wife. I don't know how to explain all these things, but I didn't kill her. Mr. Robertson, you say you were an army man. Isn't that what you told us out at the apartment? Yes, I was a sergeant in the army during the last war. What outfit were you in? I was an instructor in sidearm weapons at Santa Ana Army Air Base. Then you'd be somewhat of an Authority on the Colt.45 caliber automatic pistol, wouldn't you? I guess I would, yeah. That was one of the weapons I instructed in. You'd know all about the system of ejection employed by the colt company on their.45 automatic? Yes, I would. The empty casing ejects to the right up back, is that correct? Yeah, that's right. In other words, if you were pointing a.45 at me and you pulled the trigger, the empty casing would eject to your right up and form the floor to the rear on your right side. All right? Yeah. That's where it would end up. You still maintain that your wife shot herself? Yes, I do. Where was she standing when she pulled the trigger? As I told you before, in the kitchen. How was she standing? What do you mean? Which way was she facing? Well, let's see. Facing me. Yeah, that's right. In the kitchen, with her back to the sink, facing out toward me. And where were you? On the davenport, in the living room, facing her. Now, bearing in mind what we've already discussed and agreed upon concerning the ejection system over 45, how do you account for the fact that the empty casing was found in the living room 6ft and 4 inches from the kitchen? Well, let's see. I'll figure it for you. The empty casing should have been found on the floor of the kitchen somewhere to the right and rear of your wife. Isn't that about it? I don't understand. Why are you trying to prove me guilty? I've told you, and I swear to you, I didn't kill my wife. Well, it would be a physical impossibility for that empty casing to have landed anywhere but in the kitchen if your wife had pulled the trigger of that automatic. Well, how about that? What can I say? Please believe what I'm telling you. I didn't do it. Not according to the evidence. I don't understand any of this. Well, here's the way we've got it reconstructed. You had a quarrel. You got the gun. You met your wife at the doorway to the kitchen. You pointed the gun at her. She tried to ward it off with her left hand, leaving flour on the barrel of the gun. You fired, and the casing was thrown up and back to the right where it landed on the rug of the living room. The testimony of the neighbors. The flower on your wife's hand, the position of the empty casing. Robertson, you're it. I don't know why all these things are the way you say they are. We do. We don't believe your wife committed suicide. You think about it. Come on, Ben. Yeah, well, what do you think? Evidence we've got so far has got him tabbed. Yeah. With all that proof, he still refuses to copy something doesn't jab. Maybe we can find out why. You are listening to Dragnet from beginning to end. Dragnet is the authentic story of your police force in action. Now, from beginning to end, the Fatima story. 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We had Gene Bechtel take Andrew Robertson's statement. We had his testimony that his wife had committed suicide. A fact that he couldn't prove and that we could disprove. We had before us the final investigation. All evidence was taken to the crime lab for analysis. The photographs taken at the scene were developed and brought in for careful checking. In accordance with Robertson's story, both he and his deceased wife were given paraffin tests to determine the presence of nitrates. Both of them were fingerprinted. And Latent Prince details started to check them out. Two teams of men were sent out to talk with the close relatives of the two people. Sunday, March 9, 7pm we got a call from Lt. Lee Jones that he had the final results of his investigation. We went over to the second floor of the Central Station crime lab. Got a couple of things for you. How'd you make out with Robertson? Well, he insisted it was suicide. What's your ID on it? Let me show you what we got. Yeah, look at this. No picture of the.45 casing? That's right. Take a close look at it. Right here. In particular, you notice this one edge is a little crimped here. Yeah. Ejector marks. No, here are your ejector marks up here. See, this crimping is something entirely different. What is it? You remember where you found this, Casey? Six feet four inches into the living room. That's right. We wondered how it could have been thrown that far by the ejector. If the husband's story is true, the ejector didn't do that. I wondered too. On closer inspection, I noticed this crimping. Let me show you how this casing got out there in the living room. Here's an identical.45 caliber called empty casing. Yeah. We'll place it here on the floor on a piece of carpeting. The same thickness that was in their kitchen linoleum. Now watch this. I'll step on it. Hitting it from an angle. There's your answer to that. When the husband ran over to his wife's side, what did he say he did? Yeah, it's about the size of it. He stepped on the casing accidentally and certainly not caring about it at that moment, at bounced out into the living room just like a tiddlywink. Notice the casing. Now the crimping. Check it against the photo. Looks exactly the same way. It matches. Did the flower on the barrel of the gun. It was flour. By the way, did it figure in for you fellas? Well, yeah, we figured the wife was trying to ward off the gun when he pointed it at her. Certainly the logic. Let me show you how it really got on there. Here's that shot of the kitchen out there. Uh huh. Notice the waste basket here. Pretty full, isn't it? Yeah, we noticed that when we were out there. What you probably didn't notice is this here's a blow up of just that section where the waste basket was. Can you see what's on the top of the stuff in the basket there? Hold it over here. Leave a little lights in. Yeah, it looks like a flour sack. Is that what. That's right. An empty flour sack. Now, figuring the position of the body in relation to that wastebasket, when she dropped the gun fell from her hand striking the wastebasket, bouncing off and landing on the floor where you found it. You said when she dropped the gun you figured it was suicide. It's beginning to shape up that way, isn't it? There was no flower found on the butt of the gun. That part of the automatic didn't come in contact with the flower sack. Yeah, but at least she was flowering. Meat to be. There were no traces of it on her right hand. On the palm, just on the back. In checking the clothing, we found streaks of flour where she could have wiped her hands clean before picking up the gun. Yeah, and out there we could only see the backs of her hand. The coroner checked that through. Huh. Doesn't look like he killed her. There's more here. As you know, we ran paraphernalia tests on both the victim and Robertson. Yeah, here's the results of the test. See Andrew Robertson, known nitrates negative. Marie Robertson, evidence of nitrates positive. She fired a gun, he didn't. That's it. There's something else. Here's the report from Latent Prince. Smudges one good thumbprint, right hand belonging to Marie Robertson. Indicating she Was the last one to handle the weapon. Well, that's about it. No, that's more fair. Now, this shot was taken facing the east wall of the kitchen. That's the wall that would be on anyone's left sitting on the davenport in the front room. Wouldn't be possible to see that wall from the davenport. No, it wouldn't. That's right. You can see the white X where we located the slur. Yeah. Relative to the position of the body, if she was standing holding the gun at approximately a right angle with the side of her head, the bullet would come to rest approximately 4 inches below the crown of her head. There's a check out. The coroner says she was 5 4. The bullet was found at a height of 5 and 1 8, proving that she shot herself rather than anyone else doing it. Judging from the inclination of the bullet, as you know, this is critical. Yeah. From what it's worth, the condition of the wound indicates that it was inflicted from extreme close range. Fair point, when you consider that most people wouldn't submit to being shot from close range without a struggle or unless taken by surprise. From all reports, we know she wasn't taking much pride. Well, that's it, fellas. That's all I have. Thanks, Lee. Sure enough. Crime lab. Jones? Yeah, right here. Just a minute. Either one of you. All right, Lee. I'll get it, huh? Thanks, Brady. Oh, hi, Harry. You did, huh? What's that? Mm. Yeah. Do you have the letter with you? It does, huh? Yeah. Yeah. Right, Harry. Thank you very much. Bye, Harry. Fremont. He just left. Marie Robertson's mother. What'd she have to say? Well, Fremont says she gave him a letter. He's on his way in with it now. It was written by Marie Robertson. Says something about taking her own life. Her mother says that the husband couldn't have done it. Says the daughter's shown indication in the past of wanting to take her own life. Well, that about Stacy makes few. Kind of good, doesn't it? Yeah. Finding a man clear on a charge instead of having to hang him up. Come on, Ben. Right. Where you headed? Back cross street. Where do I get my coat? I'll go with you. What for? I want to see him too. When you tell them the story you've just heard was true. Only the names were changed to protect the innocent. On March 12, the hearing was held in the office of the coroner, City and county of Los Angeles, State of California. In a moment, the result of that hearing. And now here is our star, Jack Webb. Thank you, friends. A great many listeners have written this saying that they first bought Fatima's because they liked our program. But they go on to say that after smoking their first pack, they agree with everything that we've said about them, that Fatimas are extra mild, that they do have a better flavor and aroma. Well, naturally, we're pleased when you get acquainted with Fatimas because all of us on Dragnet are convinced Fatima is the best of all long cigarettes. When you buy your first pack, I'm sure you'll agree. In Fatima, the difference is quality. Andrew William Robertson was immediately released from custody. A 510form was made out exonerating him from any complicity in the death of his wife. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. James M. Fox, president of the Southern California chapter of the Mystery Writers of America. The Edgar Allan Poe awards of the Mystery Writers of America are made each year for outstanding contributions in the field of mystery. This year, by a nationwide vote of 300 professional mystery writers, the radio award goes to Dragnet. For consistent excellence in the use of the medium in the best traditions of our craft. The Mystery Writers of America are happy to present their Edgars statuettes of Poe to Dragnet's Jim Moser, who writes the scripts and a duplicate statuette to Dragnet. Congratulations, Mr. Moser. Thank you, Mr. Fox. You have just heard Dragnet a series of authentic cases from official files. Technical advice comes from the office of Chief of Police W.H. parker, Los Angeles Police Department. Fatima cigarettes. Best of all, Long cigarettes has brought you Dragnet portions transcribed from Los Angeles. Stay tuned for counterspy next over many NBC stations. Thanks for joining us at 1001 Radio Crime Solvers reviews and comments are always appreciated. ATT customers switching to T mobile has never been easier. We'll pay off your existing phone and give you a new one free. All on America's largest 5G network. Visit t mobile.com carrierfreedom to switch today. 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