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 homicide detail.
A police officer is shot down on the front steps of his home.
There's no apparent motive for the shooting.
The assailant escapes in a blue sedan.
Your job, get him.
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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 from official police
files.
From beginning to end, from crime to punishment, Dragnet is the story of your police force
in action.
It was Sunday, May 23rd.
Was warm in Los Angeles.
We were working the day watch out of homicide.
My partner is Ben Romero.
The boss is Thad Brown, chief of detectives.
My name is Friday.
I was off duty reporting back in on an emergency call.
It was five minutes past 3 a.m. when I got to room 42.
Homicide.
Hi, Joe.
Hi.
How is he?
He's dead.
Well, went kind of fast.
I just got the call a couple of minutes ago.
He died and went to the hospital.
Friday, Ben.
Let's go.
Thad Brown's office.
All right.
How did it happen, Skipper?
I haven't got all of the details.
This guy used a shotgun point blank.
Fillmore didn't have a chance.
Chief of detectives, office Egan.
Crime lab here.
Out there now.
Right.
Chief Brown, Egan.
Down the hall with Captain Wayne, intelligence office.
He said to have you wait.
Okay, we'll be inside.
Right.
You want to fill us in, sir?
I'm going to go to the office.
I'll be right back.
You want to fill us in, Skipper?
I don't know much to tell.
Fillmore was working the day watch out of robbery.
He left work at six o'clock last night, drove home.
Yeah.
He had dinner and then he and his wife went to a show.
He got home about 1130, went to bed.
Yeah.
About 1 30 this morning the front doorbell rang and Fillmore answered it.
His wife said she heard him open the door and there was a gunshot.
She ran to the front door in time to see a guy jump in a car and drive away.
Fillmore was lying on a porch, chest ripped open.
You see the guy used his shotgun?
Yeah.
No other information on the car he used?
Blue sedan that's all the wife could tell us.
She didn't get the license number.
Said it looked like a new model car.
No physical evidence.
I haven't found anything yet.
Here's the ball, Chief.
Elliot, you briefed Friday in Ramel?
Told him much as I know.
Any idea what the guy's motive was?
Revenge.
Any leads?
Just one.
Ben White intelligence came up with it.
Grabbing the name of Jake Carver.
Carver?
Not familiar.
Got out of Folsom three days ago.
Served seven years armed robbery.
Yeah.
Fillmore was the man who got Carver and sent him up.
By the time he was sentenced, Carver swore up and down he'd get Fillmore when he got
out.
Hot-headed punk.
Where do we look for Carver?
Already checked where he's supposed to be staying.
Not there.
A list of guys he used to run with before he went to Folsom.
Thanks.
Nice to see you, Joe.
Where is this?
Ralph Danton, Ernie Travis, Jaime Flores.
Carver been seen around town since he got out?
Once that we know of in a bar out on Sunset Boulevard, Flores was with him.
Well, how about Travis and Danton?
They still around?
Let's see.
Travis went east two years ago.
Danton's around.
Still runs with Flores.
That's where you start.
Flores?
Yeah.
Okay.
Any reason?
Two.
Flores' sister used to go with Carver.
Yeah.
Flores owns a blue sedan.
3.20 a.m.
We checked Jaime Flores' last known address.
The old 76 Hotel down on South Alameda.
Flores had moved.
His forwarding address was his mother's house, 1232 Alabama Street out in Boyle Heights.
His mother told us Jaime was living on County View Avenue in Highland Park.
4.30 a.m.
We located the address.
Hmm.
No garage here.
I wonder where Jaime keeps his car.
Hmm.
Not parked on the street.
Yeah?
What do you want?
Police officers.
Oh.
Like to talk to Jaime Flores?
Jaime?
It's late.
We're in bed.
It's important.
We'd like to talk to him.
All right.
Wait.
I'll go get him up.
Jaime.
Come on.
Get up.
Hmm?
Come on, Jaime.
Cops at the door want to talk to you.
What did they say?
They want to talk to you.
What?
Okay, baby.
Yeah, officers.
What can I do for you?
You Jaime Flores?
That's right.
We're looking for Jake Carver.
You know where he is?
I wish I did.
I'm through with that guy.
Why?
What's the matter?
He brought my car the day before yesterday.
Said he'd only be gone a couple hours.
I'm still waiting.
You own a blue sedan, is that right?
Yeah.
I own a 48 Chevy.
Why?
Did he crack it up?
Couldn't tell you.
Do you have any idea where we can look for Carver?
If I did, I'd be looking myself.
Do you know if Carver's got a gun?
Why?
Had punk pull a job?
Does he have a gun?
No trunk of the car.
I use it on hunting trips.
What kind?
Shotgun.
4.45 a.m.
We got out of broadcast in an APB on Jake Carver, containing a complete description of the car
and its license number.
Road blocks were set up on all main roads leading out to the
city, and police details at the airports, bus depots, and the railroad terminals were
alerted.
All of the people whom Carver was known to have run with before he was sent to Folsom
Penitentiary were rounded up and brought in for questioning.
While Captain Elliott from Homicide supervised the interrogation, Ben went across the street
to check with a coroner at the morgue.
I contacted Lee Jones at the crime lab.
6 a.m.
We met in Chief of Detective Stad Brown's office.
Crime lab.
Find anything?
Single footprint, that's all.
Jones found it in one of the flower beds in front of Fillmore's home.
Does it tie in?
Size 10.
That's Carver's size.
That'll help.
Is there any indication Carver might still be in the city?
No.
There was a good three hours between the time Fillmore was shot and the road blocks went
up.
What about Carver's pals?
Did they help any?
Well, Flores is the only one who ever met the same since he got out.
What about Flores' sister, Dorothy?
She lives out in Long Beach.
And Senas and Burton are bringing her in now.
That guy Flores, did you question him again, Elliott?
Yeah.
Satisfied with everything he told you that he knows?
That's right.
He doesn't seem to be too close to Carver.
No record of any correspondence with him while he was in Folsom.
What about the coroner's report?
Shotgun, close range, hit him hard.
There's mugshots of Carver.
Are they out?
Photocopies still working on it.
Turning out 2,000.
Excuse me.
Brown speaking.
Albert.
Right.
They got Dorothy Flores in the interrogation room.
You want to talk to her, Elliott?
Ben, you and Joe talked to her.
Gill and Senas and Burton are checking in here.
I got another angle I want them to start on.
Right.
Let's go, Joe.
He must be as mad as a hatter.
Three days out of Folsom and he kills a cop.
Yeah, if it was him.
You got any other idea?
We need more than a footprint.
We got to find the gun and we got to prove that he used it.
Hi.
You two going to take over?
Yeah, Lloyd.
You and Gill check in at the chief's office.
The captain wants to see you.
Okay.
You're the next woman to stand by.
It's fine.
Let's go, Gill.
See you guys later.
All right.
You're Dorothy Flores?
Yeah.
You know why you're here?
Jake Carver.
That's what they told me.
That's right.
You know where he is?
No.
Have you seen Carver in the past three days?
Look, I don't want any part of the guy.
He's nothing to me.
He never was.
You used to go around with him, didn't you?
Seven years ago.
Before he went to Folsom.
What happened to your eye, Miss Flores?
Those bruises there on your arm.
We had a party.
I fell and bumped myself.
Looks like a pretty new black eye.
Did you have the party last night?
I told you, Jake's nothing to me.
He's a crazy hothead.
I don't want any part of him.
Was he around to see you last night?
I used to go with him.
That's all.
I don't care what happened to him.
You saw him last night.
I didn't.
This is on a murder rap, Miss Flores.
I didn't want to see him.
He came to my room.
He forced his way in.
I didn't want any part of him.
When was it?
Early this morning.
What time?
About two o'clock.
Maybe ten after.
He wanted money.
He acted like a crazy man.
I told him I didn't have any money.
He slugged me.
That's how I got his mouth.
What do you want the money for?
He said he got the cop who sent him up.
He had to get out of town.
He took my purse.
It's $48 in it.
Was he driving your brother's car?
Yeah.
I didn't want any part of him.
I got nothing in this.
Did he tell you where he was headed?
Mexico.
He's got friends across the border.
Tijuana.
All right.
Stay with her, Ben.
And get us to Nogga for two, will you?
Yeah.
Righty.
The Flores girl, Skipper.
Carvasaur this morning admitted shooting Fillmore.
She says he's headed south for Tijuana.
Maybe he stopped off on the way.
How do you mean?
The drugstore in San Pedro just held up.
Owner was shot and killed.
Yeah?
The guy was driving a blue sedan.
An immediate alert was tele-typed to the coastal town south of Los Angeles.
In the vicinity of San Pedro.
The San Diego police were alerted as were the Mexican authorities in Tijuana and other
designated points of entry along the California-Mexico border.
7.50 a.m.
Ben and I, together with Lloyd Barton and Al Schamber of Homicide, drove down to San
Pedro and checked in with Lieutenant Maxwell at San Pedro Homicide.
What kind of a gun did the guy use, Lieutenant?
I checked the body.
It looks like it could have been a.45.
No chance it might have been a shotgun.
No, not that kind of a wound.
Who saw the guy make his getaway?
My wife did.
We live right across the street from the drugstore.
Wife heard the shooting and ran to the window.
She says it was a blue sedan.
She didn't see the license plate?
No.
I got a look at the car before it disappeared.
It looked like a Chevy to me.
There's been no sign of it since the roadblocks went up?
Not yet.
It's pretty hard to understand.
How do you mean?
Take a look at the map here.
Here's Palace Verde's and Clifton to the west.
Roadblocks there.
Yeah.
Here's the roadblock to the north, just this side of Harbor City.
Another one northeast, near Wilmington.
Yeah.
This one here outside of Long Beach.
Had four roads to pick from.
They're all blocked off, huh?
No turnoffs, no detours.
All the roads are under patrol.
You think he got south beyond Long Beach before the roadblocks went up?
Not a chance.
Yeah.
It's hard to figure.
He could be hiding out somewhere along the way.
Excuse me.
This is Lieutenant Maxwell.
Where?
Okay.
Be right there.
Anything?
I found the car off the coast highway.
Blue Chevy sedan.
How about Carver?
Blood stains in the front seat.
That's all they found.
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8.45 a.m.
We found the blue Chevrolet sedan.
It was lying overturned in a ditch just off a dead end road on the edge of a grove of
eucalyptus trees.
Oil was still dripping from the crankcase.
There were blood stains on the upholstery in the front seat.
In the glove compartment we found two empty shotgun shells, Ben marked them with his initials
for evidence and wrapped them in a handkerchief.
The fingerprint men were called.
We fanned out and started the search of the general area.
See if we can't pick up a trail in this eucalyptus grove here.
Sure has got me beat.
What's that?
Car all smashed up back there, blood all over.
The guy must have been hurt.
How'd he get this far away from the car?
What makes you think he did get far?
Neither that, or he's hiding right under a nose.
No sign of a trail through here?
No, there's nothing.
There's a clearing up ahead.
Come on, let's cut through this brush here.
Ben, come here.
Yeah?
Take a look.
The trunk of this tree.
Brown smears on it.
Blood?
Maybe.
Look, higher up on the trunk there's the same thing.
Wait a minute.
Up in the tree.
Can you see anything up there?
No, the branches are pretty thick.
Trees go pretty high up.
Good 60 feet up there.
Come here, Joe.
Yeah?
Follow my hand.
No, just over at the left where I'm pointing.
Oh, yeah.
Cover, Ben.
You all right, Joe?
Yeah.
Can you see him?
Yeah, up near the top.
Right.
Stay off, Burton.
Don't come in the clearing.
He's up in one of the trees.
Throw that gun down, then come down yourself.
All right, Ben.
Hit him, Joe.
Hold it.
It's Carla.
Shotgun's over there.
You alive?
Yeah.
It's a hard tree to climb.
I wonder how he got up there.
I don't know.
But this was the only way to get him down.
We called an ambulance and had Jake Carver taken back to Los Angeles to the county hospital,
the prison ward.
We took the shotgun and the empty shells and booked them as evidence with the property
clerk.
The wrecked blue sedan was impounded.
Two counts of murder were filed against Carver with the district attorney.
There was still one important piece of evidence missing, the.45 pistol used in the robbery
and murder of the San Pedro drug addicts.
A month passed.
While Carver recuperated in the prison ward of the county hospital, we were busy building
a case for his conviction.
We still had only enough evidence to convict him for one of the murders.
Another two months went by.
On August 30th, Jake Carver was brought to trial for the shotgun murder of police officer
Robert Fillmore.
Ten days later, the jury found him guilty of first degree murder.
He was sentenced to a life term in Folsom Penitentiary.
Knowing that we didn't have enough evidence to convict his client for the murder of the
drug addicts, Carver's lawyer demanded an immediate trial on the second charge.
Wednesday, September 12th, 10 a.m.
I was called to chief of detective's office.
Rodney, sit down.
Thank you.
Elliot and I have been talking about this Jake Carver thing.
Have you set the trial date yet?
Starts next Tuesday, bringing Carver down from Folsom tomorrow.
That's bum luck.
We're not going to convict him on the evidence we've got.
We don't even have the gun.
We've got to get a conviction.
He beat the death rap for killing Fillmore.
If he gets over this one, it means he's still eligible for parole.
So he serves ten years, maybe.
Good behavior.
He gets out and he's ready to start him all over again.
If we could just sew him up for killing that drug addict, we could put him away for good.
I don't know how, Skipper.
It's a pretty good bet that no jury will convict him unless we find that gun.
We've got another, Al.
Just one.
What's that?
We can get Carver to admit he killed that drug addict.
That's a neat trick.
When you and Ben got him last May, did he see you at all?
Did he think he could recognize you again?
Couldn't have gotten a very good look from where he was up in that tree.
Ben did all the testifying at the trial.
I wasn't even there.
No, he wouldn't know me.
Why?
When they bring Carver down from Folsom tomorrow, they'll put him in county jail while he's
waiting trial.
Yeah.
Chief figures that we could plant you in the same cell with him.
There's a chance he might talk if you play it right.
No, I don't know.
He's no beginner.
Neither are you.
You carve enough of the right bait at the right time, there's a chance he'll put his
foot in it.
Maybe.
All right.
Will you set it up with the county jail?
Yeah, and remember, he's a killer.
Don't take any chances.
I suppose he gets wise.
Well, we'll know you tried.
The following day at 2 p.m., I was booked at central jail as Joe Ramis, a robbery suspect.
Ramis was the actual name of an Eastern thief whom we knew was not acquainted with Jake
Carver.
After being mugged and fingerprinted, transportation officers took me to the 12th floor of the
Hall of Justice where I was booked into the county jail.
After that, I was taken down to a cell block on the 10th floor known as the high power
tank where prisoners charged with major crimes are held.
During the day, the individual cells are left open and the prisoners are allowed to visit
with one another.
I was taken back and shown the cell I was assigned to.
Jake Carver was already there.
He was playing two handed poker with another inmate on the lower bunk.
Hey, guy Ramis, this cell here.
Take the top bunk.
All right.
How many cards you want?
Make it two, Jake.
Hey, move, will you?
I want to get in my bunk.
Come on, make your bet.
Says two cigarettes.
You're two, bunk you six.
I said I'd like to get in my bunk.
I'm going to get in my bunk.
I said I'd like to get in my bunk.
Go on, Sam, play your game.
OK, I'll see you.
Maybe you didn't hear me, Sam.
I said I want to get in my bunk.
I heard you, Mac.
I don't like shoving around like this.
All right, now sit down.
What's your complaint?
Didn't they tell you when you came through the door?
They bury you in the hole for beefing in here.
Then as long as I'm in here with you, let's get it straight right now.
Don't bother me.
While you're at it, keep your rum-dum pals out of here, you understand?
I don't think I do.
You'll be around for quite a while, smart guy.
I won't forget this.
Oh, yeah.
Chow time.
Come on, here it is.
What are you doing down there, darlin'?
Nothin'.
I always sit on the floor.
Well, get back to yourself, chow.
Yeah.
See you, Jake.
Yeah.
What's this junk they feed you?
Boiled beef, boiled potatoes.
It's a habit with them here.
Junk?
Can you buy from the outside?
Candy?
Sometimes pie.
A guy comes around in the morning.
Who are you?
Joe Ramis.
Ramis, huh?
Chicago?
I've been there.
So have I.
I'm Jake Carver.
Hiya.
All right.
What are you up for?
Talk to my lawyer.
You got a smart mind.
You got a big one.
You take care of your own lawyer.
I'm not a lawyer.
I'm a lawyer.
You take care of your own worries, huh?
I'll take care of mine.
I ain't got any worries.
I got it made.
Hey, you want that piece of bread?
I don't want any of it.
Take it.
Tell the truth.
I never had it so good.
No witnesses, no evidence.
You can't touch me.
Sure.
That's why you're in here.
Three days passed.
By playing the part of the tough gunman from Chicago, I succeeded in getting close to the
close to Carver.
Because of the close confinement, I was with him almost constantly, but he still refused
to confide.
In a roundabout way, I pressed him as much as I could for the answer without making him
suspicious.
No results.
8.55 p.m. Sunday, two days before the trial opened.
Sam, Jake Carver, and I were playing blackjack in the aisle just outside our cell.
All right, Sam, hit me.
There you are.
Okay, I'm good.
Ramis?
I'll stay in.
18, pay 19.
That's all for me.
Me too.
I'm gonna hit the sack.
Yeah, just when I start to come back.
Always crying.
Hey, Ramis, seems to me I remember you.
Haven't I seen you around City Hall?
Sure.
I live there.
All right, it's time.
Lock up.
Ramis?
What's he talking about?
I don't know.
I got a headache.
It's killing me.
Yeah?
Let me crack your neck.
It'll help it.
No, it's no good.
You got any of them brown pills?
Come on, I'll crack your neck.
Loosen up those nerves.
Always helps me.
Yeah?
Yeah, here, let me show you.
Come on, turn around.
Take it easy.
Just relax.
Let yourself go.
Yeah.
I'm gonna get my hands around the back of your neck.
Come on, relax.
This one won't hurt you.
All right.
You gotta be careful with this stuff.
You could break a guy's neck, you know?
Take it easy, huh?
What's the matter?
Come on, relax.
All right.
Let me get a better grip on your neck.
Take it easy, huh?
All right, now.
Eh.
Always do it, how's that?
That's not bad.
Feels a little better.
I'll work something.
Sure.
Hey, I noticed you had a visitor today.
One of the boys in the East?
No, a friend of mine out here.
He just got in town.
The coppers are trying to pin a killing on him.
No, who is he?
Max Wesley, a good man.
Tried to say he pulled a job down in San Pedro.
Pedro?
What kind of job?
Stick up drugstore a couple months ago.
Yeah?
That's what they got me on, you know?
Funny.
I think I'll get some shut-eye.
What about this job they're trying to hang on him, you tell you?
I don't remember.
The guy who ran the store was shot up and died.
Max wasn't even in town when it happened.
Happened in May?
Last May?
I don't know.
See you in the morning.
Yeah.
Hard bed.
They didn't have nothing on Max, huh?
They let him go.
Oh, I bet he's out on bail.
I mean, no evidence on him.
No gun, huh?
Yeah, he's got a gun.
I think that's what Max said.
Where'd they find it, they say?
I don't know where they found it.
Go to sleep, will you?
He mentioned anything else about Pedro, like San Pedro Hills?
Yeah.
Maybe that's what they found.
I think Max said that.
Oh.
I couldn't be.
I understand that.
Hey, Ramos, it wasn't the Harbor Drug Store, was it?
What's eating you anyway?
Will you go to sleep?
Look, Ramos, Ramos, I gotta know.
It's important.
What are you talking about?
I gotta get some sleep.
Will you listen a minute?
I ditched a gun down there in the San Pedro Hills.
All right, what are you worrying about?
They don't send you up for hiding guns?
Listen, I'm hot on that job.
They got me on one murder rap, they tagged me on another one.
It's for keeps.
What do you want me to do?
Talk to the governor?
Are you sure this guy Max said that they found a gun?
Now look, Carver, Max said they found a gun in the San Pedro Hills.
Now you get on down in your bunk and let's talk about it in the morning, huh?
Wait, what kind?
Did he say what kind?
I don't know, I don't remember.
Was it a.45?
Something like that, yeah, a.45, I guess that was it.
Now get, listen, got that jailer barking down here.
Quiet down in there.
All right.
Can you go to sleep now?
I can't, it's not the same one.
They couldn't have found it, they haven't talked to me.
Ramos.
When did they find the gun?
Did Max tell you that?
When did they find the gun?
Wait.
I don't know.
He didn't say where?
San Pedro Hills.
Ramos, I gotta know.
Wasn't by a covert, was it?
On the hill road?
I don't know, I'll ask Max.
The next time I see him.
Is that where you ditched yours?
They couldn't have found it, nobody could have.
This covert, see back on the road.
There was a piece of cement broken off the bottom edge of the covert, kind of a hollowed out space inside.
I pushed the dirt all around it.
You gotta ask Max.
Ask him where they found that gun.
Yeah, I'll see him Wednesday, I'll ask him.
You gotta find out, they could put me away for good.
What are you worrying about?
They haven't paired you up yet with the gun they found.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's right.
Maybe they didn't figure it, maybe they forgot.
Maybe.
Yeah.
Cops are dumb.
They forget.
That's what everybody says, isn't it?
Yeah, that's what everybody says.
The story you have just heard was true.
Only the names were changed to protect the innocent.
On September 18th, trial was held in Superior Court, Department 91, City and County of Los Angeles, State of California.
In a moment, the results of that trial.
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The murder gun, a 45 caliber automatic pistol, was recovered from the San Pedro Hills and Jacob John Carver was brought to trial.
He was tried and convicted of murder in the first degree.
The jury again refused to recommend the death penalty.
Carver is now serving a life term in the state penitentiary without possibility of parole.
You have just heard Dragnet, authentic cases from official files.
Technical advice for Dragnet comes from the Office of Chief of Police, W.A. Wharton, Los Angeles Police Department.
Dragnet wishes to thank the editors of Radio Best magazine for their considerate appraisal of this program.
For those of you who may be interested, a novelized version of Dragnet appears in the April issue of Radio Best.
Fatima cigarettes, the best of all long cigarettes, has brought you Dragnet from Los Angeles.
Tomorrow, hear Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Coleman in the halls of Ivy on NBC.