The story you are about to hear is true.
Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.
You're a detective sergeant.
You're assigned to burglary detail.
For the past 18 weeks a gang of safe men have been breaking into large grocery stores all
over the city.
They work fast.
You can't localize their operations.
Your job?
Get them.
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 Wednesday, September 16th.
Was hot in Los Angeles.
We were working the day watch out a burglary detail.
My partner's Ben Romero.
The boss is Captain Wisdom.
My name's Friday.
It was 7.45 a.m. when I got to the service station on the corner.
I went through the balloon.
With the founded the double half, sir, I can only help put back my
2524 please.
Hi, Dick.
This is Friday.
Romero there.
Thank you.
Hey, Romero, take two.
I'm on it.
Take two.
Romero.
This Friday, Ben?
Yeah, where you been?
Wow, my car again.
Something's wrong with that distributor.
I'm going to leave it at the service station.
I'll grab a street car down.
Hey, here again, Joe.
This one makes 37 jobs.
Where at this time?
Wilson Brothers Market at Melrose and Green.
Drilled it safe and walked out with 462 dollars.
Well, our steakouts are doing a lot of good, aren't they?
I'm worn out from last night.
I didn't get any sleep either.
I just had time to go home and brush my teeth when this thing broke.
Okay.
He said Melrose and Green and Melrose and Green.
I'm going to leave it at the service station.
I'll grab a street car down.
Okay.
Where at this time?
I'm going to leave it at the service station.
Here's goose goose goose.
Looks like they tried to get rid of him.
Some of the checks torn up and his fishing license ripped in two.
Where could I see those be?
Charles W. Royal issued last month.
Good chance he might have carried the license in his pocket and got it mixed up with the
checks.
First maybe he was going to take the checks but changed his mind and tore them up, the
license with him.
Let's hope you're right, Dick.
But it might just belong to some employee here.
Well, we've been kind of figuring these jobs might have an inside connection.
Maybe this is it.
Let's check it out.
Maybe this is the break we've been looking for.
We went back to the office and checked the name Charles W. Royal through R&I.
No record.
We contacted the management of the Wilson Markets.
He had been an employee at the store which was just held up.
He had been transferred six months prior to their Van Nuys branch.
In checking back we found that the Van Nuys Market was one of the first stores to be burglarized.
It was placed under surveillance for several days and during this period another Wilson
Market was burglarized.
The officers conducting the surveillance accounted for all of Royal's time during the burglary.
He was brought in for questioning and cleared of any complicity in the burglaries.
Monday September 28th 8 a.m. we met with Captain Wisdom.
The reason for Royal's fishing license being in with those checks was because he left it
behind at that store when he was transferred.
That's right.
Manager of the store confirmed it.
Said he kept it in a safe form so it wouldn't get lost.
Well, that lead went nowhere.
None of them go anywhere.
We don't get any leads.
And no kickbacks on any of our teletypes, APBs, or radio, Glenn.
Between Armstrong, Rubles, and Ben and I, the girls in the stats office think we're
on the payroll down there.
We're wearing out the cards having to make runs on the gang's MO for us.
How about that last stuff Burton from the C.I.I. sent down?
Well, we checked all three of them out.
Nothing.
The boys in the crime lab got a lot of physical evidence if they could make something out
of it.
That's just it.
You can't make something out of nothing.
They haven't got much up there.
A few steel shavings off those safes, a couple of broken bits, a handful of cotton fuzzies
I think is off the guy's gloves.
Can't work miracles.
Yeah, that's right.
I don't think we've overlooked anything, Captain.
Every neighborhood in the vicinity of every burglary has been checked and rechecked.
And all you turned up was that one woman?
Yeah, the one that saw the three men out in the back of the Wilson Market over on Vermont.
She thought they worked there.
Didn't know she'd witnessed a burglary when we told her.
She couldn't identify any of them.
No, she couldn't.
I just checked with the sheriff's office.
These burglaries are driving them crazy too.
No leads.
Of course, when the parole office has been trying to give us a hand, we've checked out
everything they sent us on discharges and parolees.
Nothing fit.
Well, did the markets seem to be cooperating, holding up their end as they were instructed?
Well, as far as we can tell, right to the letter, yeah.
All the safes that were concealed in any way have been moved out in a more conspicuous
spot, all well-illuminating.
The Wilson Company has bought better-made safes to replace the ones that were broken
into.
They're replacing their old models as fast as they can.
Doesn't seem to stop them.
Yeah, all that's according to the book.
I figure with all those precautions, they'd be foolish enough to tip off the fees.
Behind me.
Oh, yeah.
Take a look at this.
Yeah.
Larsen and Gunn turned this up at that Venice Boulevard job night before last.
Remember, you grabbed stakeout instructions.
That's right.
Put out by the management of the markets.
Every time we informed them of a stakeout night, they put these interstore memos on.
That was for the purpose of informing all the different store managers of the police
department's plans so they'd be sure and comply with our instructions.
That was okay, but the effects have been causing us more trouble than we know.
Weren't these destroyed after the store managers read them?
Apparently not.
We notified the management of the stores to be staked out a week in advance so that they
could quietly let the stores know about it.
Whether we wanted the lights left on and turned off to move the safe out of hiding, all the
various instructions.
And the management of the market chain just took it on themselves to send out these memio
sheets, huh?
Not only that.
In checking the last couple of jobs, either these sheets were in the manager's desk, so
they were posted in the store someplace.
All the thieves had to do was go through a desk and check a bulletin board and then they'd
write where we'd be.
Without this advance information, maybe it'll slow them down.
Maybe we can write in on part of the work we do.
Yeah.
Come on over here to the pin map.
Here you are, Friday.
A red pen for you, one for you, Romero.
You put them in.
I got calluses on my thumb from trying to keep up with those thieves.
Yeah.
Venice Boulevard and Rockwell.
And from us, yes.
Just look at them on there.
I'm going to run us out of pins if we don't blow the whistle on them.
I'm getting a little sick of it myself.
Take a good look at the map here.
All the red pins are these market jobs in and around here and through here.
As you know, Wilson's got stores throughout most of Southern California.
Yeah.
They've hit in and around the metropolitan area, Pomona, Glendale a couple of times at
the beach cities.
Look over here.
And then they go up.
Yeah.
Now, for some reason, they're leaving Eagle Rock alone.
Seven Wilson markets out there.
Not one of them have been touched.
Maybe they'll hit their next time.
We double checked all cruiser units out there, told them to be doubly alert.
Also to report any suspicious moves around any of the stores.
I want to report in any and all cars driving below normal speeds anywhere near those markets.
Anything even remotely out of line.
There's seven stores in and around that area.
Excuse me.
Burglary wisdom.
The high ball.
Who's that?
They did.
Colorado and Bryce.
Yeah, right away.
Yeah.
That was Lieutenant Vaughan Highland Park.
I was wrong.
There's only six stores in Eagle Rock now.
What do you mean?
They knocked one over last night.
The preliminary investigation of the Wilson Brothers Market in Eagle Rock yielded no additional
physical evidence, but it definitely showed that we were dealing with the same gang of
thieves.
In this last burglary, they got away with eighteen hundred and fifty two dollars.
One thirty four p.m.
After five hours of continuous checking in the immediate neighborhood of the latest market
to be burglarized, Ben and I located a Mrs. Olive Rebarred.
We felt sure that we'd reached a turning point in the case.
Mrs. Rebarred had seen two of the gang members at work in the Wilson Market at Colorado and
Bryce in Eagle Rock.
She agreed to come downtown and go through photographs of criminal suspects.
No.
Not any of these.
Let's try the next two, please.
There are a lot of them, aren't there?
Yes, ma'am.
There's still a lot more to go here.
I see it.
No.
No, none of these.
That finishes this book.
How many does that make that we've been through?
I believe this one makes fifteen.
Just looking at all those faces makes you wonder, are there any honest people?
Well, these books represent an accumulation of many years, you understand.
You keep pictures of everybody?
Everybody in prison?
Well, within our jurisdiction, yes, and a great many more besides.
I see.
Ben, how about that Folsom book up there for forty five and forty six?
Right.
I'll put this one back.
Fine.
Forty six, yes, that's it.
All right.
Here we are.
You ready, Mrs. Rebar?
All right.
No.
I don't believe it's anything.
All right.
Turn the next page.
How about these?
This one, you know, that one fellow looked a little like one of them.
I thought he did it first.
Which one was that?
This one.
No, I was wrong.
He looked familiar at first glance.
Well, now we told you before, Mrs. Rebar, if any of these men, their ears, eyes, nose,
chin, any part of them looks like any part of the men that you saw, we'd like to know
that.
We'll have our sergeant put off it up in our crime lab, drop a composite for you.
You mean you put all the different features together?
Yes, ma'am.
You think it might help in any way?
I mean, it'll certainly help us.
I didn't realize that you were that thorough.
Well, we have to be.
Well, I'm just not that sure about any of their features.
It was just like I told you, I didn't get too good a look at them, but I thought I might
remember.
There's so many pictures here.
Would you like to rest a little while, Mrs. Rebar?
We've been going at this thing for about two hours now.
No, that's all right.
No, I want to help if I can.
I think I'll open this door a little, Joe.
All right.
I've got a little draft in from the hall.
There.
It gets a little stuff in here sometimes.
Thank you.
I wonder if you'd like a cold drink or some kind of coke, something like that.
No, thank you.
That's very kind.
I don't care for one.
All right.
Would you like to go on?
Yes, I guess.
All right.
No.
You understand that when I saw these men in the store, I had to look through the front
window.
They must have been at least 40 feet away from me.
I had a shout to be heard.
Yes, ma'am, I understand.
They didn't come over to me at all.
I just can't believe that they were really those lightning burglars.
Isn't that what the paper called them?
They were just as big as life.
They're standing behind a meat conner.
They even had on butcher's aprons.
Still hard to believe because they didn't act like burglars at all.
Sometimes they don't.
The only thing that struck me funny was that anybody be working there on a Sunday.
I've seen men in there before.
It just didn't seem right that they'd be working there.
I wanted to get in to pick up a box of starch.
They told me to come back Monday morning when they were open.
If you could have seen over the counter from where you were standing, you would have seen
the floor safe right there in the meat department.
They were trying to open it.
I never would have known it.
You're sure you people couldn't have made a mistake?
No, ma'am, I don't think so.
We've checked there and there was no authorized employees in that store yesterday morning.
That's so.
Well, it must have been them then.
Yeah, we're pretty sure it was.
Let me help you there, Mrs. Rebry.
These pages are stuck together.
Thank you.
There you are.
I've seen so many photographs.
They're all beginning to look alike to me.
If you'd like to rest a while, that's fine.
Maybe you'd like to go home and come back a little later.
You know something?
What's that, ma'am?
I'm positive now.
Yeah.
I wouldn't know those men if I saw them.
You are listening to Dragnet.
From beginning to end, Dragnet is the authentic story of your police force in action.
Once more, what appeared to first be a good lead dissolved into nothing.
The stakeouts were continued.
Everything possible was being done to apprehend them.
The burglaries of the Wilson Markets continued.
On the night of October 3rd, officers D.B.
O'Connell and P.W. Murphy were working the stakeout on one of the Wilson Markets in Eagle
Rock.
At 2.33 a.m., they had observed a Gray Ford Coupe, California license 9-Robert, 9813,
driving at normal speed until reaching the storefront and then slowing down perceptibly,
showing unusual interest in the market.
Lieutenant Armstrong and Sergeant Rubel checked the license number through DMV.
The car was registered to a Clydar Bingham, 233 South Carmona Place in Eagle Rock.
It was placed under surveillance while we made a thorough check into his background.
We located him at the neighborhood bar on Colorado Boulevard.
We talked to him for an hour.
So that's it.
I'm not your man.
Are you sure you didn't drive past that Wilson Market on Bellevue Avenue?
I didn't say I've never driven by it, but not on the night you said.
Well, have you driven by it on other nights?
I wouldn't remember that.
I live out here and I drive down Bellevue a lot, but I don't know if I've ever been by
that market.
I suppose I have.
We have your license number and the word of two officers who sell you.
I'm afraid they must be mistaken.
You have the word of Benny and Walt.
You just talked to them.
I told you I was here on the night of October 3rd.
I stayed here until almost daylight talking to Walt.
He closed up the two and we sat around and talked.
What did you say your car was parked all this time?
Right out in front.
Ben Walt told you that too.
I'm telling you, I never left this place the other night.
Is it possible you could have forgotten?
Not all three of us.
And you didn't loan your car to anybody?
No, sir.
I never loaned my car.
I stayed right out there in front.
What did you say you did after this place closed?
As I said, I sat around and talked to Walt.
He owns the place.
What did you talk about?
Oh, I don't know, this and that.
I don't recall exactly.
Did you go to work the following day?
Yes, sir, I did.
It seems funny you'd sit up all night talking and go to work.
I don't have to be to work until I please.
You know, I'm my own boss.
Yeah.
Well, you run your business all by yourself, do you?
No, I have two secretaries.
They make out checks, keep the books.
What kind of business did you say you were in?
Business management.
You know, the thing that bothers me is why you're asking me all these questions.
Routine investigation.
It doesn't sound very routine to me.
I don't understand.
We're on an assignment.
During the course of that assignment, it became necessary to interrogate you.
I still don't understand.
Anything else you want to know?
No, sir, I think that pretty well covers it.
Something I'd like to know.
Yeah.
Is there a law against slowing down in front of a market?
Ben and I felt that Bingham was lying for some reason that we were not aware of.
All efforts were made to determine that reason.
We made a complete search of his residence.
His relatives, friends, and associates were interrogated.
The two men who had alibied for him were checked out.
No evidence was obtained to connect him in any way with the Wilson Market burglaries.
The surveillance was continued on the three men.
During the next two weeks, another market was burglarized.
None of the three men could have been involved in any way.
Another month went by.
The burglaries continued unchecked.
The newspapers had dubbed them the lightning bandits.
There was only one exception to the title.
By this time, they'd begun to repeat on markets to hit again where they had burglarized a
safe previously.
December 3rd, 4 a.m., Ben and I were cruising the central area, the section not covered
by Stacom.
I figured there's only one way to beat this thing.
Yeah, what's that?
Ask for a transfer before they offer us one.
Wow, it seems like every way we turn, we're stopped.
No leads, nothing.
Here it is almost Christmas again.
Those markets that you started last Easter.
Yeah, I know.
Well, we got everything covered again tonight as best we can.
If we could just keep all the markets covered at one time.
Well, that's been done a couple of times, you know that.
Yeah, I know that, but keep them covered all the time till we get to them.
If we had the manpower, we could do it.
Yeah.
You want to sway in close to the curb, here's another market.
Yeah.
See anything?
No, nothing on this side.
I can't see the safe in there, can you?
No.
Those vegetable counters are partially blocking it.
Lights on though.
Yeah, this side's clear too.
Rear of the store backs up against that other building, doesn't it?
Yeah, only a front and side entrance.
You swing around again, will you make a U?
You see something?
No, I'm not sure.
Just pull back up in front again.
All right.
OK, this is fine.
I'll take care of your engine.
You hear that?
I'm not sure.
Come on.
You hear it now?
No, it's stuck.
Come on.
They're throwing vegetables at that front window.
We're trying to draw our attention here.
Now you cover the side, I'll try to force them to U.
Right, there's a new track.
Right, I see it.
All right, hold it right there.
Get your hands in the air.
I got them, Joe.
You want to shake them down?
Yeah, all right.
All right, stand still.
Go from Joe.
I'll see if there's any more besides these two.
Right.
Who tipped you off?
If we'd had a tip, we'd have gotten you a long time ago.
I said just these two.
Somebody must have tipped you off.
You couldn't be this lucky.
Why not?
You've had your share.
The two men were taken into custody and were identified as Wilford Lawson and Thomas Greenfield.
A check with R&I showed no previous record on either man.
After a short interrogation, Wilford Lawson admitted his part in all of the burglaries
of the Wilson Brothers markets.
He steadily refused to give us any information as to the other possible members of the burglary
gang.
When Thomas Greenfield was interrogated, he was the more timid of the two.
He claimed that this was the first job he'd been on with Lawson, that he did not know
of any other members of the gang, that he'd only served as lookout on this particular
burglary, and that he was not deeply involved.
In further investigation of the two suspects, Armstrong and Ruble found that they had been
seen in the company of still another man.
It was impossible to get any kind of lead on the remaining suspect.
We took the matter up with Captain Wisdom.
It was our combined belief that we should allow Thomas Greenfield to be released on
the grounds that we believed his story about his slight part in the crimes.
He was placed under close 24-hour surveillance, Thursday, December 6th.
Two days after we'd released Thomas Greenfield, we were called in to Captain Wisdom's office.
I guess we played it the right way on letting Thomas go.
How do you mean?
Well, first of all, we passed one up last October.
You remember Bingham, the guy driving slow past the market in Eagle Rock?
Yeah.
That's the one we want.
And these two letters, both postmarked today, we picked them up on that mail stop on Lawson.
Were they from Thomas?
Yeah.
A couple of choice parts.
Listen to this.
Client says to tell you he's not sore anymore.
Ever since that mix up him and Walt and Benny decided this was the best way to play it.
He says he don't want no part of what's yours.
And then there's a lot more here.
He says he'll get an attorney for Lawson and he thinks he really put one over on us.
Anyway, all three of them are in it all the way.
Well, how does Bingham figure in it?
We had him under surveillance, didn't we?
You know, listen to this from this other letter.
Oh, yeah, here it is.
I've been talking with CB.
Clyde Bingham getting real clever now using initials.
Yeah.
I've been talking with CB several times only on the phone.
He's really not sore.
He only laid out since that time.
He figured he might be hard.
That's enough, isn't it?
It's all there.
And then OK, you got one to roll on.
Yeah, go out and pick him up.
This time we'll keep him.
The story you just heard was true.
One of the names were changed to protect the innocent on March 22nd.
Trial was held in Superior Court, Department 88 City and County of Los Angeles, state of
California.
Here are the moment the results of that trial.
All three suspects, Wilford George Lawson, Clyde Robert Bingham and Thomas Llewellyn
Greenfield were filed on for burglary in the second degree.
Wilford G. Lawson was filed on for 12 counts, Clyde R. Bingham for six counts, Thomas L.
Greenfield for three counts, sentences to run consecutively.
They are now serving their time in the state penitentiary.
In view of the fact that the authorities were unable to prove the defendants were armed
at the time of the burglaries and the stores were not inhabited, they could only be filed
on for burglary in the second degree.
Second degree burglary is punishable by a term of not less than one, nor more than 15
years.
Ladies and gentlemen, we wish to gratefully acknowledge the Michael Award presented by
the Academy of Radio and Television Arts and Sciences.
The Academy voted Dragnet the finest program of its kind.
It is with deep humility that Dragnet accepts this citation, the highest award bestowed
by the radio and television industries.
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.
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