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The story you're 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 robbery detail.
An elderly woman on her way to the bank has been robbed and beaten senseless. The suspects are cruel, ruthless.
Your job. Get them.
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Bragnets. 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.
It was Saturday, August 9th. It was hot in Los Angeles. We were working the day watch out of robbery detail.
My partner is Ben Romero. The boss is Ed Walker, captain of robbery. My name is Friday.
It was 10.14 a.m. when I got to room 27 a.m. robbery detail.
Hi.
Hi.
What's up?
Hi, Wayne.
How are you?
Well, no, for a while.
What did the vet say?
Things the dog picked up some kind of poison food.
Too bad.
It's your hot.
Do you got a penny?
Yeah.
Yeah, there you are.
Thank you.
Somebody's poisoned, huh?
Yeah.
That's what the vet says.
I never could figure why some people poison dogs.
I don't understand some people not liking animals, but I can't see why they poison food and then just toss it around.
They'll sell us.
You know, I feel about that dog of mine.
Everything happens to him. I don't know what I'll do.
I hope you all right. Those vets can do wonders, either.
I'm sure hope so. They told me to check back with him about noon.
Yeah.
I'm about to melt in his heat.
Yeah. Doesn't seem to be any air at all.
Well, more Sunday. Guess I'll just lie out in the back.
You're going to be good to just loaf around. Read the Sunday papers, huh?
So hot shot.
Hot trigger.
My wife wants me to get out and get a little color.
She says I'm better looking with a tan.
She ought to know.
All right. Will you get married?
Joe, after so long, you get so you bleed everything they tell you.
There's one to roll on.
Yeah.
Robert and Shootin' Victor's car was stolen.
Do you want to get on it?
Right. Let's go, Joe.
Bank job. Don't make any plans for Sunday.
10.53 a.m.
Ben and I pulled up in front of the Union Trust and Savings Bank at Melrose and Logan.
I made our way through the usual crowd that was mowing in and around the bank.
We spoke with a manager, Mr. Bill Four.
He told us that he didn't see the actual robbery.
The victim was taken in a parking lot next to the bank.
Her name was Myrtle Shaw, a longtime customer of the Union Trust and Savings.
Four told us that she always did her banking at the same time each day around 10 in the morning when the bank first opened.
He said she was the proprietor of Myrtle's Cafe, four doors west of the bank.
Let us through, please.
Sorry. Let us through again.
Officer, over here.
Yes, sir.
Friday in Romero Central, robbery. Did you answer the call?
Yes, sir.
I did. Freeman in a well, she went to 13.9.
Amon, it's just left.
I think him didn't want to go to Georgia Street, said she wanted her own doctor.
Okay, she inside the cafe?
Yeah.
What's going on, Ben? Are you Freeman?
No, I'm well, it's Freeman's inside.
See if he can clear this crowd level.
All right. Thank you.
All right. You see everything now.
Well, let's give it a line.
Come on.
It's black in his face.
All right, officer.
Here she is, over in the last booth.
Freeman?
Yes, sir.
Friday in Romero Central, robbery.
Is that the victim?
Yes, that's right.
The name's Moodle Shaw.
Miss Shaw?
Yes, that's right.
My name is Romero, this is Sergeant Friday.
We're from robbery division downtown.
You men detect this?
Yes, men.
We'd like to ask you a few questions.
Yes, all right.
I hope you can catch the man that did this.
Well, we're going to do all we can.
It's a little hard for me to top my face as a swollen.
It hurts something terrible.
What happened?
One of them struck me.
Yes, man. We know that.
Do you want to tell us how it happened?
And I was on my way to the bank and drove in the parking lot there next door.
Yeah.
I just got out of my car when he was a man walked over to me.
You know, only four doors from the bank.
Do you always drive such a short distance?
No, no.
I just picked up my car.
I just fell in station.
I haven't greased once in a month.
I see.
Where was I?
You're just living in the parking lot from these men walked up to me.
Yes.
Oh, yes.
Well, one of them said, just hand over the money and there won't be any trouble.
Now, the other one said, this is a gun in my pocket, grandma.
Yeah.
My head's splitting.
Did someone call Dr. Van Hale?
Yes, man. He's on his way.
Oh, thank you.
Well, I carried my days receipt in a cloth bank bag.
I had it in my purse, and I wasn't sure if they knew I had any money.
Yeah.
I told them I didn't have any.
Now, I was going in to draw some out and one of the men said, look, old timer,
we don't want to get rid of just hand over.
We know you got it.
What'd you do?
Well, I turned and started to walk away.
And I saw this one man's flash out of his pocket and then something hard like a rock
struck me on the side of the face.
That's a sluggish with his gun.
Oh, yes.
It couldn't have been his hand.
I don't think he could have cut my face like this with his hands.
You should have let them take you to the emergency hospital.
No.
No, I don't want to go in the ambulance.
I want my own doctor.
You don't know what to do.
I'm doing screw-gatherer first aid.
She wouldn't let him take her.
Mm-hmm.
Thanks.
Miss Show, would you know the men if you ever saw him again?
Well, I think so, yes.
One of them looked like the worst kind of a hoodlum.
And then they got your money.
Oh, yes.
And they tell me they got away with my car too.
How much money did you lose?
$116.23.
Do you own this cafe?
Yes, I do.
It's a small place as you can see.
I do all cooking and serving up to $11.30 in the morning.
And then I have a college girl who waits on tables and after noon and evening.
Do you think those men have ever been in here in the cafe?
No.
Have you ever seen either of them before?
No, no.
I never laid eyes on them before today.
How about the girl who works for you?
You think she's ever seen them before?
I don't know.
You could ask her.
She should be here soon.
What time is it now?
Mm-hmm.
11.20.
Yes, you'd be along in a minute.
I wish there was something to stop this aching.
I know you must have a lot of pain, Miss Shaw,
but we've got to ask a few more questions so we can get right on this.
Yeah, I understand.
I'll tell y'all I can.
Ben, do you want to get the dope on the stolen car and the description of the man I'll call the office?
Right.
Say, is there a pay phone I can use here, Miss Shaw?
Yes.
Right over there behind the phone.
Thank you.
Do you need change?
Yes, ma'am, I'm afraid I do.
I'll just help yourself and the cash register there.
Thank you.
I put in a dime taking out two nickels.
Oh, well, that wasn't necessary.
Young man, you didn't have to tell me.
Well, I know, but we don't like to open other people's cash registers.
You're a police officer, aren't you?
Yes, ma'am.
I trust you.
That seems to be the reason a lot of people don't.
I call the office, and as fast as Ben repeated the information, I phoned it in.
The detail information was broadcast to all units.
The stolen car was a 1946 green Ford sedan, license number 1x-ray-1898.
All units were instructed to be on the lookout for the car, and have found a bandit to notify a robbery detail immediately
and keep the car under surveillance until we arrive.
I called in the description of the suspects, and the fact that the money was taken in the cloth bag stamped Union Trust and Savings.
Metal Shaw's doctor arrived, and she was ordered to bed for rest and treatment.
Ben and I interrogated all the possible witnesses in the parking lot.
We found only one man who saw the actual robbery.
His story, compared to that of Miss Shaw's, but he could add nothing more.
We talked with the young college students who worked in the restaurant.
She didn't think she'd ever seen them in in question.
We drove back to the city hall and went to the stats office.
They made a run for us on the descriptions and ammo that we had, and we pulled the packages of all possible suspects.
The machine sorted out.
We narrowed and sifted the 24 possibles down to 12.
We took the mug shots out and showed them to the victim in the one witness.
They could not identify any of them as the two men in the holdup.
235 p.m. Saturday.
We started to canvas the neighborhood door to door.
I'm taking a logon straight from one block, both sides.
I'm just starting here on Melro.
No, King.
Let's try this drugstore.
I'm on fire.
The paper says it's supposed to hit 99 today.
I believe it.
Come on.
Yes, sir?
Police officers.
We're looking for a couple of men.
Here's the descriptions.
I wonder if you'd read this and tell us if you've ever seen them.
Yes.
We've got time to have a call.
No, we're better than not.
It's getting late.
No, afraid I've never seen anybody who answers either one of these descriptions.
You sure?
Yeah, quite sure.
Thank you.
I'll have that back.
Oh.
Let's go.
He's just my imagination and doesn't seem to be getting hotter to you.
I'm talking about it doesn't help.
I'm trying to ignore him if I don't help neither.
Let's try this carefully.
How do you do, darling?
All right.
Police officers.
One of you'd read the two descriptions left to hear and tell us if you've ever seen either of these men.
Yes, of course.
No.
It smells good in here, don't you?
No.
You don't seem to be calling.
Nobody looks like this.
Anybody else in here who might have seen it?
No, I don't think so.
I wait on trade.
Okay, thank you, man.
Let's go.
It smells just like good old apple pie, doesn't it, Joe?
We're baking Danish coffee cakes for Mom.
All right.
The next place here is a plastic factory.
Yeah, it looks like the clothes have placed out of there yet.
Somebody in there cleaning up.
Yes, he didn't hear me.
All right, come.
Got a money in this plastic business.
Mm-hmm.
Really came into its own during the ward.
Oh, yeah.
Plants closed Saturday afternoon.
Police officers.
I wonder if you'd look this paper over and tell us if you may have seen two men answering these descriptions.
All right.
I have to put my glasses on.
Yes, sir.
Then I don't need them for sweeping.
Just read it.
Right here, yeah.
Mm-hmm.
What do you think?
What was that?
I said, what do you think if you see them?
Well, I don't know.
I mean.
I'm not sure yet.
I'm not sure.
I may have seen one of them.
How about the other one?
That's what I mean.
Yeah.
I don't know about the other one.
But you do remember seeing one of them?
I might have seen both of them.
But you're not sure.
I don't know.
But do you want to tell us what you remember about the one you did say?
Well, don't you want to know about the other one, too?
Yes, sir, we do.
But I understood you just said that you didn't know about the other one.
No, I don't.
Well, you just tell us what you know, then.
Then, yeah, well, why don't we just forget about the other fellow?
No, sir.
But if you don't know, it's all right.
I might know.
Yeah.
I haven't read about him yet.
Oh.
If you ask me a question just as I finished reading about the first one,
I was just starting on the second one at that time.
Yes, sir.
Sorry.
What was that you asked me?
Wasn't important.
Then I'll read about the second one.
Yes, sir.
Thank you.
Yeah.
I see them two or three days ago, both of them.
This neighborhood, yes, right around back in the parking lot.
They work here?
No, sir.
They don't.
Seems to me I've seen them a couple of times.
What were they doing?
I don't recall.
I just remember I've seen them.
You sure?
Yes, I'm positive.
One of them had on a brown suit the other gray, just like it says here.
The descriptions fit all right.
You have any idea where these men might be now?
No, sir.
We're investigating a robbery.
We want these men for questioning.
I wish I could help you more.
I do know I've seen them, but that's about all.
I don't know their names.
All right, sir.
What's your name?
Seth Williamson.
We'll leave you one of our cars, Mr. Williamson.
If you see him again, I appreciate you letting us know.
Yes, sir.
Sure.
Well, let's go then.
I wish we had something more definite to go on.
We just had a picture, the guy.
Yeah, it had it helped.
He's vacant, nothing to go on.
I think he's out this blow.
Let's double back on the other side of the street.
All right.
Sure.
4.30 p.m.
We continued knocking on doors, checking every place that was still open
or showed any activity Saturday afternoon.
We talked with hotel managers, janitors, and clean-up men
at the different factories or business establishments.
We checked grocery stores, private homes,
everywhere that we could find anybody to show the descriptions to.
By 6.15 p.m., the only person who showed any sign of recognition
of the two hold-up men was still Seth Williamson,
the janitor of the plastic plant.
Before we took time out for Sandwich and the cup of coffee,
we drove back to the city hall to check the office.
Hi, Friday.
What are you saying, Marty?
A couple of messages for you, Your Honor.
No matter if you were a man.
I'm dehydrated, that son almost fried me.
Not sure that one caller from your mother
that tell you a dog's out of danger.
Oh, it's fine.
Calling around, too, huh?
Yeah.
There are other ones from some guy who says he wants to talk to you right away.
I've been calling since about three this afternoon.
Seth Williamson, call four times.
Yeah.
Said tell you he'd wait at that number there, they heard it running.
I'll call him right now.
In Hot Town, Illinois.
Free warm, huh?
Can you kick back on that stolen car?
Nope, I'm Jeff.
I'm Vincent Blastix.
Who's Sergeant Friday, police department?
Oh, yes, I'm glad you called me back.
I think I've got a little more information for you.
Yeah.
Those two fellows here were up in fog.
Did you find them?
No, I'm Jeff.
Well, I just remembered what they were doing out back there in the parking lot.
Yeah.
They were taking pictures of what?
I remember now.
They were two young women with a one who was a blind and the other I don't recall.
How were they dressed?
The blind had on a white shirt or some kind and a black dress.
That's all I can tell you for sure.
Who was taking the pictures?
The first fella stuck the girl's picture and the girl's stuck slap shots or the seller.
Thank you very much, Mr. Williamson.
Oh, no, I'll help you.
Yes, sir.
Well, goodbye.
Goodbye.
What do you guys?
They've had their pictures taken.
Yeah.
That's fine, the prints.
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Then I figured if we could possibly turn up the photographs that has been taken, we'd have something more definite to go on.
We still had a lot of doubts.
Maybe the janitor Seth Williamson was wrong, maybe there were no pictures.
If the snapshots had been taken, maybe they were still in the camera undeveloped.
With any kind of fast service and processing, the photos could have been picked up by now.
We figured it was worth the chance and the time involved to check the lead out.
All we had was the victim's scant description of the two hold-up men and if we could possibly turn up pictures, it would help a great deal.
If Williamson was right, we'd have another lead, the two girls.
6.40 pm, we started checking drug stores, going through all prints that had not yet been picked up by the customers.
We'd made the rounds of all the drug stores in the neighborhood earlier in the day, but we'd double-check the descriptions of the two men with a personality store.
By 9 pm, we'd checked out 10 drug stores and found nothing.
We were going on the hunt that the photos would most likely be dropped off the processing somewhere in the immediate neighborhood.
It was only a hunch and we were running out of drug stores.
Police, we'd like to go through your photos that have been left for development.
Yes, sir.
Here's the box right here.
Oh, thank you.
I'll take care.
Not very many this time, though.
Oh, don't you get to check the negatives, too. Sometimes they don't print them at the bad.
Yeah, I know.
No, nothing in this one.
I think we'll take a lot of pictures of babies, don't we?
Oh, nothing.
These are sure fuzzy.
Pictures of the zoo.
Pictures of yellow stone.
Man, you know?
Pader, maybe. Let me see.
Two guys.
Two girls. One's a blonde, white, blouse, dark skirt.
Oh, let me see.
Left by a Marion Lang 223, Michelle.
Oh, Claire.
Yes, sir.
You want to double check us on this envelope? Yes, sir.
This date and time right here, 3.30 pm, August 6th.
Yes, that's correct. That's when the films were left for processing.
Three days before the rubber. Did you ever see this woman in the picture before?
Let me see.
This boy, yes.
Yeah, she comes in here quite often. This Lang is her name.
I don't know about these men or this other girl here.
No, no, I've never seen them. When were these prints supposed to be picked up?
I waited on her.
She told me she'd picked them up Friday yesterday.
Well, we'll have to take these photos along where they'll be returned.
All right, sir. How would I explain this to Miss Lang?
If this is the right address, you won't have to.
Before we left, we called the office and had a stake outplace
in the drugstore in case Marion Lang tried to pick up the photos.
We checked the address she gave on the envelope.
223 East Bixel was a small apartment building near the corner.
The manager told us that Marion Lang had moved out the morning of August 9th
the day of the robbery. She left no forwarding address.
The manager knew nothing of the other girl or the man in the photos.
We checked with Murtle Shaw, the victim.
She positively identified the two men as the ones who robbed and slugged her.
She knew nothing of the two girls hadn't seen them before.
We put out a warrant on Marion Lang and gave the photos
to Lieutenant Frank Cunningham in the record deal.
Monday morning August 11th.
Morning, Frank. Hello.
Any record on the guys?
Nothing we could find, though.
I'm having copies, I don't right now.
Kind of thought maybe if we came up with pictures, we'd be halfway home.
Maybe we are.
How do you mean?
I had to only make some blowups from the negatives.
Full of grain.
Probably taking the cheap box camera sometime, but it might help.
All right.
I just checked the enlargements.
They were still in the wash.
But I think we got something.
Let's go over the photocopy.
All right.
All right.
Yeah, I'm good and clear now.
There is a lever, but anyway.
There we go.
I had 16 by 20 enlargements made.
This is sure you would have found.
Yeah.
You guys take a good look at the face of this one man here.
I thought we did why.
It was pretty hard to see on those small prints.
Look here.
You see the nose on this one?
Uh-huh.
I guess it's been broken one time.
Another one, too.
Yeah.
You see here?
Scar over the left eye.
Scar over the right eye.
A couple of them.
Uh-huh.
Look at the right ear.
See how nasty it is?
Uh-huh.
We couldn't come up with any names for you.
But now better to be safe to guess his line of work.
Looks like a price fire.
Nothing in the oddity of life.
I checked and double checked everything.
I can lay my hands on here in the department.
I don't place them at the box there when he's standing.
I don't know what's going on.
Isn't much.
We should have something else for you.
Salute, isn't it?
Might be.
More than we had.
It was possible that one of the two hold-up men in the photos
could have been a professional fighter.
From his appearance in Bill, we thought it was a fair guess.
We took copies of the snapshots to the State Boxing Commission
Los Angeles Branch.
We spoke with a Mr. Fimer and couldn't seem to recall a man
from his picture.
We went over the description of the victim and given us.
Fimer said that he knew a great many of the fighters
because at one time or another they all checked in
and out of the commission before about.
But the man in the snapshot remained unidentified.
He checked through several hundred cards
during a photograph of boxers in the files.
No luck.
Fimer suggested that we try to spring street gym
where the out of town fighters get into shape
and the boxers in town train.
We left him a copy of the photograph in our card
so that he could continue checking back through his file.
It was 10.22 am when we got to the spring street gym.
Here's the manager, Doc.
Oh, man.
You the boss here?
Yeah.
What can I do for you?
Please, officers.
Yeah.
We're looking for a man we think might be a fighter
I wonder if he can help us out.
Sure, try.
I'm Sergeant Friday.
It's my partner, Ben Romero.
All right.
Plane is Shawnee Coleman.
He was a couple of photographs
we didn't look at meant to Coleman.
Mm-hmm.
Have you ever seen this fellow?
On the right.
Let's see.
Let's walk over by the window.
Get a little light on him.
Wait a minute.
I used to work out here all the time,
a couple of years back.
Name is Billy.
Marshall.
Yeah, that's right.
One of them named Billy the Kid Marshall.
Is he still around?
Well, gee, I couldn't tell you.
It's been a good two years since I seen him up here.
Any idea where we might locate him?
I got it.
He used to be a Benny Farmer stable.
Benny's been the yeast now over a year.
Let me check back through my locker listings.
Maybe I still got something on it.
Let's see.
Outcards.
Yeah, that's what we want.
Let's take him over here by the window
where we can read him.
It's very cool.
Marshall wasn't much of a fighter.
Five are nursing him up through the polyms.
Got him in the semi-windups.
He started hitting the bottle.
He played the games.
Oh, yeah, here we are.
Can I see that, please?
Oh, sure.
Billy the Kid.
Big beefy boy.
Real sucker for right cross.
1637 Carver Avenue.
That's the last address he got on him.
Whatever the car says here.
Real sucker for the old right cross.
Thank you very much, Mr. Donald.
You're welcome, boys.
Anytime.
What's he done?
We're just wanting to request him.
Oh, I see.
If you're sure to hear it from him,
don't tell him we're looking for him.
Let's go.
Thanks again.
What do you think you did wrong?
I don't know.
How do you block a right cross?
We called a new information
in the Captain Walker
and he sent a crew
and ended a boxing commission to check further.
1637 Carver Avenue.
It was a cheap roaming house
in the west side of town.
Marshall hadn't lived there
for over a year and a half.
The land I gave
is a forwarding address.
The next place
hadn't seen him for a year.
We kept checking and rechecking
going from one end to town to the other.
Each place was a little better than the last.
It was easy to trace
Billy the kids' rise
in the fight games,
such as it was,
but the condition of the places
he lived in.
We covered six different roaming houses,
boarding houses,
and apartments.
Each time his residence
had been a little more recent.
515 p.m.
Monday, August 11th.
We pulled up in front
of the Sunflower Hotel
433 Banyan Street.
Rates,
$2 a week and a half.
Nobody at the desk.
I'll ring the bell.
How do you do?
Police officers.
If you've got a Billy Marshall
registered here.
No, no one but that name here.
You take a look at this picture.
Either one of these men live here.
Oh, sure.
That's Tom Green and George Martin.
Room 9.
The end now.
I could bust the room and see you.
No, never mind.
Room 9, you said.
Yeah, I said that time.
Let's go.
Room 9.
Cover me, Brian.
Yeah?
Special delivery letter.
Look at another door.
You have to sign for it.
I stand still, police officers.
Huh, Tom.
Watch him, man.
Take the other one, Tom.
Look.
Yo.
Joe, look out.
All right, hold it right there, Marshall.
Get over there against the wall.
You, get up.
Over there with him.
Move.
Give me a hand, Joe.
I'll help you up.
You all right?
Yeah.
Yeah, I'm okay.
There he is, Joe.
Looks like his picture fits in the description.
Except for one thing.
Yeah?
He's no sucker for a right cross.
The story you had just heard was true.
Only the names were changed to protect the innocent.
On March 27, 1947, trial was held in Superior Court Department 81 city and county of Los Angeles state of California.
In a moment, the results of that trial.
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It's wise to smoke extra mileed Fatima.
Both William Marshall and his accomplice were found guilty of armed robbery and grand theft auto and are now serving their terms as prescribed by law.
You have just heard dragnets.
A series of authentic cases from official files.
Technical advice for dragnet comes from the Office of Chief of Police, W.A. Wharton, Los Angeles Police Department.
Fatima cigarettes.
The best of all long cigarettes has brought you dragnet transcribed from Los Angeles.
Screen directors present Lucille Ball is Miss Grant tomorrow on NBC.
The best of all long cigarettes.
