The story you are about to hear is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.
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For a detective sergeant, you're assigned a homicide detail. A 22-year-old girl has been abducted.
Her family receives an anonymous message. The abductor demands $30,000 for the safe return of the girl.
Your job? Get him.
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The documentary 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 violence.
From beginning to end, from crime to punishment, Dragnet is the story of your police force in action.
It was Tuesday, October 18th. It was cloudy in Los Angeles. We were working the early morning watch out of homicide.
My partner's Ben Romero. The boss is Thad Brown, Chief of Detectives. My name's Friday.
I was on the way back from the stats office, and it was 3.26 a.m. when I got to room 42. Homicide.
Hi, Brian.
Hi. Got those mug shots you wanted, Joe. Here you go.
Oh, thank you. The captain leave yet?
They're waiting for me in the garage. You call back?
I'm going to right now, yeah.
Okay. I guess I better hustle it. See you out there, huh?
Right, Brian.
Hello?
Hello.
I'm sorry to wake you, Ben. This is Joe. How you feeling?
Oh. Hi, Joe. What time is it?
3.30 a.m. How's the sore throat?
Oh, it's not better. I ought to be back to work tomorrow.
Oh, we need you now, Ben. You want to be ready in about 20 minutes? I'll pick you up.
20 minutes? Okay. What's the matter?
A man by the name of Martin Sullivan, official down at the Third National Bank.
Yeah, what about it?
He's got a 22-year-old daughter. Or he had one.
Huh?
She's gone.
Less than 14 hours before, at 1 o'clock the previous afternoon,
Judith Sullivan was last seen driving off in a car with a man who'd represented himself as a friend of her father's.
At 11 o'clock that night, the Sullivan family received an anonymous letter demanding $30,000 for the safe return of the girl.
It had been the only contact made thus far by the abductor.
As soon as we got word of what had happened from the girl's father, a broadcast and an APB had been gotten out.
The entire force throughout the city had been alerted.
3.44 a.m. I pulled up in front of Ben's house.
Well, good morning.
Hi.
You made good time.
Where are we headed?
To Sullivan Home out on Castro Boulevard. Thad Brown's out there now with Brian.
Any leads to going?
No, not so far.
The girl disappeared a little before 1 o'clock yesterday afternoon.
Note from the abductor came through last night. They're asking $30,000.
I don't get it. Sullivan hasn't got that kind of money.
Yeah, I know that. Poor guy's almost out of his mind. Mrs. Sullivan too, they're all broken up.
Fill me in. How'd it happen?
Well, the girl was taken from a business school that she goes to.
Man had her called out of class. He told her her father was sick. Said he was a friend of the family.
How about the teachers? What was their story?
Well, they said the girl didn't want to go with the man at first, but he finally talked her into it and kept telling her her father was dying.
Yeah, lousy thing. Did he use the car?
Yeah, blue sedan. That's all we know. Witnesses didn't get the make of the license number.
Any description on the man?
Yeah. They say about 5'9", 160 brown suit and dark hair.
Is that all?
That's it.
Here's a copy of the letter that the Sullivan's got. You can read it. It's the usual.
All right, thanks. l have your daughter, Judy. Get $30,000 quick if you want her back alive.
Don't call police or l'll kill her. Contact you later. Sign the wolf.
Lousy kid. l don't know. l could think of a better name. Here we are.
Who's got the original note, Joe?
The crime lab. They're checking it for prints and handwriting.
Hi, Joe Romero. l'm in the living room.
Thank you, Joe.
That's the way l see it, Mr. Sullivan. You understand exactly what you have to do now?
Yes, l'll do as you say.
All right, sir. Here are the two men who will help you. Sergeant Friday and Romero, Central Homicide.
All right, Mr. Sullivan. l'll do as you say.
Mr. Brown, are you sure about all this? l keep thinking he might get frightened. He might do something to her.
Believe me, Mr. Sullivan, it's the only way. l know how you must feel, but we can't do anything else.
All right. l want to see Mrs. Sullivan first. Will you excuse me? l'll be ready in a moment.
All right, fine.
What is it, Chief? Any development?
l'm back here in the dining room.
Yes?
That's it on the table. Second note from the guy.
When did it come?
Half an hour ago. Guy had it delivered by a special messenger. He used a plain envelope.
The messenger kid didn't know anything about it. Doesn't remember what the guy looked like.
Let's take him.
Yes, all righty.
He says, ''Meet me in the Legion Park at five o'clock this morning near Balkan Drive.
Come alone, bring 30,000. We'll return girl. Don't tell the cops. l'll kill her if you do.''
lt's the same signature to Wolf.
Not much time, Chief. lt's 4 a.m. now.
l know. That's what we'll have to do as he says. There's no other way.
Sullivan's going out there alone, is he?
You're going with him, you'll remember. He'll be hidden in the trunk of his car.
All right. Anything else? Any plan you want us to follow?
Get him, that's all.
4.15 a.m. Ben and l went out back to the garage where Mr. Sullivan's car was parked.
We jammed ourselves into the trunk compartment and Brian closed the door on us.
The latch was rigged so that we could push open the door from the inside.
A few minutes later, Mr. Sullivan came out, got in the car, and we drove off.
At three minutes to five, we pulled up at the designated meeting place up in the Legion Park.
We waited. Nothing happened. Five minutes past 5 a.m. Still nothing.
Outside, it started to thunder.
The rain is starting, man. lt's windy.
Joe, are you here?
Yeah. l've got to come up the road toward us, haven't l?
Yeah. Wait a minute.
Coming over this way.
Yeah, sounds that way, doesn't it? Are you ready?
Right. Easy.
Coming back here. Watch it now.
Friday? l'm out.
Chief, is that you?
Yeah. Come on out. Meetings off.
What for, man? l'm breaking.
Come on.
What happened to the leg?
There we go.
Mr. Sullivan, you want to drive back home? We'll contact you there.
Yes, sir. All right.
Come on. Let's get over the car.
What's the story? Did he scare off?
The guy had no intention of following through with the meeting.
How come?
He told us he phoned a couple of minutes before 5 a.m.
We tried to trace the call. He wouldn't stay on the line long enough.
What'd he have to say?
A couple of things.
Number one, he wants more money.
Number two, he knows we're working the case.
What was his reaction?
He claims he doesn't care. We'll never get him anyway.
Well, how's the thing stand now?
$50,000. He wants it in the next 12 hours.
More than 16 hours had passed since word of Judy Sullivan's abduction
had been phoned into homicide.
During that time, an APB containing the descriptions of the suspect,
his car, and his victim had been dispatched to law enforcement agencies
throughout the entire area.
The same descriptions were being broadcast every hour.
The Sullivan home had been placed under strict surveillance,
and Mr. Sullivan instructed not to contact the suspect
without the knowledge of the police.
The girl's father had raised almost $10,000 in cash to buy him off,
and the serial numbers on each one of the bills had been copied
by a police stenographer and rechecked by a homicide officer.
So far, the wolf, as he called himself, had made three separate contacts,
but he'd covered his tracks well.
We knew he was somewhere in the city, 450 square miles of it.
We knew we had to find him.
618 A.M. We checked back into homicide.
What's going, boy?
Here's a copy of the letter, fellas.
Special delivery came in about 25 minutes ago.
Not safe, huh?
Hmm.
That's the same handwriting it looks like.
Check the postmark, Joe. Must have mailed it right after he grabbed the girl.
Let me see.
Stay away from Sullivan.
If the girl's found dead, it's your fault. Stay away.
Wolf.
Can't seem to make up his mind, huh?
Hmm.
They checking the original of this for prints, Tom?
Yeah, no word yet.
How about that second note? Anything on that?
Uh-huh.
Stahl lifted a couple of prints, running them through our eye.
Who's watching Sullivan House now?
Gomez and Faxter. Chief's out there, too.
He's still afraid the girl's father will try to make a deal with the guy.
He tried again?
No, not yet.
Well, he couldn't blame him if he did. He's worried sick.
Huh, guy?
No.
Homicide Romero. Here I try.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. How do you spell it?
Okay, right. Yeah, thanks a lot.
Record Bureau, those two prints Stahl lifted from the letter, run them through the single print file.
Any luck?
They gotta make.
The fingerprint that was lifted from the suspect's letter was identified as belonging to a Donald Alfred Kiefer.
WMA, age 29, 5 feet 8 inches, 170 pounds, brown eyes, dark brown hair.
He had one previous arrest for forgery in Los Angeles 10 months before.
At the time of his arrest, Kiefer's occupation was listed as bank clerk at the Third National Bank.
Well, I went down the hall to the Record Bureau to pull the crime report.
Brian checked by Leighton Prince to see if they'd gotten anything off the last note from the suspect.
Ben went to check with John Meyer in handwriting.
7 23 a.m. Chief Fad Brown got back to the office. I showed him Kiefer's crime report.
All right, what's the rundown on it?
Well, at the time, Kiefer pulled the forgery job at the bank. Mr. Sullivan was one of the vice presidents.
He was the one that preferred charges against Kiefer, and he saw that he was prosecuted.
Mm-hmm. Where's this Kiefer now?
Let me check that.
He was placed on probation on May 16th this year. He returned to his home in Omaha, Nebraska. That's 1380 Mackinac Avenue.
Did you call Omaha?
I got the call in now. Ben took an exemplar of Kiefer's handwriting from the package. Don Meyer's going over it now.
Chief?
Aye.
What about that Leighton note?
I got the report right here.
How's it look?
Well, Stoller put some prints off it, brought them out with the iodine fume gun. They match with the first. There's something else.
What's that?
They examined the paper for watermarks and texture. Both notes are written on the same paper.
Impressions show both pieces of paper from the same tablet.
Mm-hmm.
Check the density of the carbon in the pencil we used. Both specimens match. Same pencil.
Joe.
Oh, hi, Skipper.
Hi. Did you catch up with Don Meyer, Ben?
Yeah. He went over the handwriting. Looks pretty good.
What's the word?
As close as you can get, here are the two exemplars.
Mm-hmm.
Francis Crosses, double-loops as L, open A, pressure on the downstroke.
Ah.
Donald Kiefer, the wolf, same handwriting.
By noontime, Donald Kiefer's description had been broadcast throughout the entire area.
Bulletins were dispatched to all departments, and a supplementary APB was gotten out.
Special details were stationed at every post office in the city to watch for notes from the suspect that might come through the mail.
The bus depots, railroad terminals, the airports, and all main roads leading out of the city were kept under strict surveillance.
The entire Los Angeles area was broken down into single square mile districts, and a house-to-house canvas was started.
A squad of men were assigned to cover each square mile. Outlying towns and cities were requested to do the same.
By four o'clock that afternoon, one of the greatest dragnet operations in the history of the city was underway.
We were sure Donald Kiefer was somewhere inside. Five twelve p.m. We got the call back from the Omaha police.
Is that Joe?
Mm-hmm.
Again, please, what was that? Six X-ray, 419, Nebraska Plague.
Right. Fine, Lieutenant, thanks. Bye.
They made the car?
That and a lot more. The Omaha cops are looking for Kiefer, too. They want him for a robbery there two months ago.
He used a stolen blue sedan in the robbery. 1939 model, Nebraska Plague, six X-ray, 419.
What about his family and friends? Have they been checked?
Yeah, they say Kiefer left Omaha about six weeks ago. I don't know where he was headed.
We better get that car description that communicates it, huh? APB and a radiogram?
Yeah, right.
Righty, Romero?
Yeah.
What are you tied up with?
Just got a call back from Omaha. Make on Kiefer in the car.
Give it to me. You two get out to Sullivan the house as fast as you can. See Harris out there.
Okay, what happened?
Mr. Sullivan, he's disappeared.
You are listening to Dragnet, authentic stories of your police force in action.
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Wednesday, October 19th, 5.48 p.m.
Ben and I drove out to the Sullivan home where we checked with Bert Harris,
the man who'd been assigned to watch Mr. Sullivan.
He told us that at about 3 o'clock that afternoon,
the father of the missing girl had a phone call.
He said he had to go down to the bank, and Harris went with him.
While they were at the bank, Mr. Sullivan succeeded in decoying Harris
with a fake telephone call.
While Harris was answering the call, Sullivan disappeared.
Did Mr. Sullivan get any more money while he was at the bank, Bert?
Yeah, $5,000.
Did you get the serial numbers off the bills?
Uh-huh. I shouldn't have let him get out of my sight.
Forget it. Right now we've got to find out where he's gone to meet Kiefer.
Did you talk to Mrs. Sullivan about it, Bert?
Yeah, she said she doesn't know anything about it.
Where is she now?
Back in the sitting room lying down.
Now let's try her again, huh? She might be able to help.
Okay. It's back this way.
What timing got, Jim?
It's five minutes past six.
I get it.
Hello? How's that?
Yeah, where are you?
What?
Oh, well, where are you?
Where are you?
All right, we'll be right out.
Yeah?
Mr. Sullivan, he met with Kiefer out in Laurel Canyon.
Did he get his daughter back?
Yeah, he did. Wrapped in newspaper.
All units in the area were notified immediately that a contact had been made with the suspect Donald Kiefer.
We got in the car and we drove out to Laurel Canyon.
The entire area had been blocked off.
We found Martin Sullivan standing in the middle of the road at the end of East Winding Way.
500 feet down the hill was a private residence where Sullivan had telephoned us.
The only building in the immediate vicinity.
A few yards beyond the point where East Winding Way ended, back in a clump of tall grass, we found the body of 22-year-old Judy Sullivan.
We notified the crime lab, Chief Thatt Brown in the corner.
Despite the severe emotional shock, Mr. Sullivan told us the story.
He said Judy was all right.
I believed him. I wanted her back.
Judy. I tricked the officer, the one watching me.
Kiefer said to come alone. No police.
Did you see his car, Mr. Sullivan?
I wanted her back. I wanted Judy back.
I did as he said. I drove out here at 6 o'clock. I waited.
I put the money on the front seat, like he said.
Did he get the money, sir?
Then I got out. I left the parking lights on.
I stood up there by the end of the road and I waited.
And then he drove up.
He took the money.
And then he came up to me.
He had a gun.
I wanted Judy back.
He had a gun.
Did you see his car?
He said she was up there.
Beyond the road, she was tied to a tree, he said.
I wanted her back.
Now look, Mr. Sullivan, did you see his car?
I went to look for Judy.
He drove away.
She wasn't there by the tree.
I couldn't find her.
Now, way back.
I saw the money.
On the way.
Yes, sir.
Lord.
Let me find him.
Oh Lord, let me kill him.
Before he collapsed completely, we showed the dead girl's father a picture of Donald Kiefer and he identified him definitely.
The information was immediately relayed back to Central Division and rebroadcast over our entire radio system.
Teletypes were dispatched to sheriff's offices and communications sent to law enforcement agencies throughout the country.
9.52 p.m.
The house-to-house search was intensified.
The dragnet operation in which we hoped to trap the killer was drawing slowly inward.
A few minutes before midnight, Ben and I drove back downtown to the crime lab to check with Lieutenant Lee Jones.
Hey fellas, come on back.
Anything yet, Lee?
Just checking over these towels here.
Found them wrapped around the girl's body inside the papers.
What do you think about them?
What's that?
All yesterday's papers.
Every story about the girl's disappearance has been clipped out.
How about the towels? Any laundry marks at all, Lee?
Nothing so far, Joe.
Every one of them clipped off.
Mog, post the body yet?
They're doing it now.
Nasty one.
Oh, it sure is.
Any footprints or tire marks out where they found the body?
No, lots of them.
Got two of the men checking them now.
One thing.
What is it, Lee?
I don't know.
Under the seam here, this towel.
Wait a minute.
Give me that pair of snippers, will you, Joe?
Yes.
Here you go.
Thanks.
Press back under the seam here.
There.
That's one tag he missed.
Yeah, can you read the marking?
Greenway Apartments, Los Angeles.
1234 A.M.
We located the Greenway Apartments in the East Wilshire District,
and we checked with a manager.
He identified Kieffer's mugshot, but he said he hadn't been home
to the apartment since the day before.
We called the crime lab, and we went up to check the suspect's apartment.
One look was enough.
Lieutenant Lee Jones found specimens of the Sullivan girl's blood
in the wash basin and the bathtub drains.
In an adjoining garage, we found a car which Kieffer had used,
a blue sedan, Nebraska plates, 6X-ray, 419.
A cancellation of the warrant order for the car was issued,
and a stakeout placed at the apartment and in the garage
in case Kieffer decided to return.
All that night and into the next day, the citywide dragnet went on.
There was no sign of the killer.
At ten minutes past two that afternoon,
the first piece of ransom money showed up.
It was at a used car lot on the corner of Beverly and Naylor streets.
Two hours later, another piece of the money turned up
at a busy downtown department store.
In both cases, the man who passed the stolen money was finally identified
as Donald Kieffer.
Details were strengthened in both areas where the money appeared.
Research went on. 6.42 p.m.
Ben and I got a call to meet Chief Thad Brown at the Hollywood Division Station.
Tommy Bryan from Central Homicide was with him.
This is the way it stacks up now.
This pin map over here, this is where we're concentrating the search,
this area here.
How about the lead we had on him downtown? Did it work out?
No, the last 20 minutes we picked up three possible leads on the man
out in this neighborhood here.
East of Vine, south of Franklin, west of La Brea, north of Santa Monica.
More ransom money show up?
You got it there, Bryan. Rate it off.
Yeah. 5.35, sunset in Highland.
Newsboy thought he saw Kieffer crossing the street.
Twenty minutes later, a salesgirl in a dime store up on Hollywood Boulevard
thought she saw him.
Ten minutes after that, he was reported seen near the intersection
of Hollywood Boulevard and Las Palmas.
You figure the reports were reliable?
They were all checked out.
They didn't put too much faith in them until a few minutes ago.
How's that?
Five dollar bill was passed at a cigar store,
Hollywood Boulevard and Hawthorne ransom money.
They've already doubled the number of men and cars in the area.
Men stationed at every intersection to keep an eye on pedestrian traffic.
We're covering everything.
Street, stores, covering the whole neighborhood.
I'll get it.
Homicide, Bryan.
Yeah, just a minute. You, Chief.
Oh.
That, Bryan?
Yeah. Uh-huh.
Where?
Uh-huh. When was that?
No, stay there. We'll be right there. Goodbye.
Another piece of ransom money.
Where'd it turn up?
In a theater on Hollywood Boulevard between Fairview and Hawthorne.
Who passed the money? You think it was Kieffer?
Positive. They say he's in the theater right now.
The information on Kieffer was phoned into communications immediately,
and within a few minutes, men and cars converged on the neighborhood.
The one-half-mile area around the theater was completely blockaded.
Every exit and entrance to the theater was covered.
7.23 p.m. Ben and I, along with Chief Thad Brown and Tom Bryan,
met in the theater manager's office.
Brown outlined our plan of operation.
At 7.32 p.m., a detail of 14 men walked down the side aisles on the main floor of the theater
and took up their posts on either side of the orchestra pit.
The picture was stopped and every light in the theater was turned on.
Chief Brown, Bryan, Gomez, Faxter, Ben and myself went down the aisle and up onto the stage.
Chief Brown made the announcement.
Ladies and gentlemen, we'll go all the way quiet for a minute, please.
We're sorry to interrupt the picture, but this is a very important matter.
We're police officers. Maybe you've read about it in the papers.
A girl by the name of Judy Sullivan was abducted and murdered the day before yesterday.
We think we've traced the man who murdered her to this theater.
We believe he's in this theater now.
We're going to search the theater row by row and we'd like to ask for your cooperation.
There's no need to be mad or afraid.
Those who were still eaten out may do so.
But even on the main entrance, each one of you will be checked as you go out the door.
For the benefit of the man we're looking for, don't try to escape.
Every exit is covered. The entire area is locked in.
Don't place any more lights in general.
All right?
Hey! Hey, right there!
There he goes! There! I'm trying to get him!
Come on, Ben.
He's running down the alley, heading to the base!
Backstage, Joe. We can make it from here.
All right, come on. Through here.
Yeah.
Down here.
Right way.
In here.
Come on, over here.
Air conditioning unit for the theater.
Yeah.
I don't see him, do you?
No.
He can't get out. There's just two exits. We've got them both covered.
Look out, Ben!
There he is! All right, keeper, hold it!
Don't shoot! Don't shoot, I hear you!
All right, throw your gun over here!
Come on, throw it out!
Okay, I got it.
Give me that gun, too!
All right, let's take him.
All right.
Okay, you got my gun. I didn't mean to shoot. I tell you, you forced me to.
Put the cuffs on him, Ben.
Yeah, right.
Get your hands off of me!
All right, keeper.
Got the same for your cuffs.
All right, now hold it.
All right, Ben, you all right?
Yeah.
All right, try the cuffs on him now, huh?
Yeah, uh-huh.
Got him, huh?
Yeah.
Yeah, a rough one.
Hey, it's starting to rain again.
It's really pouring out there, Ben.
Yeah?
Guess you better get him out the car, huh?
What's the hurry?
How you mean?
Why spoil a good rain?
The story you have just heard was true.
The names were changed to protect the innocent.
On January 19th, trial was held in Superior Court, Department 87, City and County of Los Angeles, State of California.
In a moment, the results of that trial.
Now here is our star, Jack Webb.
Thank you, George Fenomen.
Friends, this Sunday evening, December 16th, Fatima brings you a television preview of Dragnet on Sound Off Time on NBC.
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Now it's an actual case history filmed right on the spot right at the City Hall downtown Los Angeles.
Starting in January, Dragnet will be seen regularly on television in addition to Dragnet Radio.
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Donald Alfred Keefer was tried and convicted of murder in the first degree, and on the recommendation of the jury, he received the death penalty.
He was executed in the lethal gas chamber at the State Penitentiary, San Quentin, California.
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.
Barton Yarborough, Sergeant Ben Romero, also heard work with Conner and Vic Perrin.
Script by Jim Moser, music by Walter Schuman, Hal Gibney speaking.
Fatima cigarettes, best of all king-sized cigarettes, as brought to you by Dragnet, transcribed from Los Angeles.
Counterspy fights international intrigue, next on NBC.