Los Angeles, NBC brings you Dragnet.
["Dragnet Theme"]
Ladies and gentlemen, the story you are about to hear is true.
The names have been changed to protect the innocent.
["Dragnet Theme"]
You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned to robbery detail.
You get a call that a large market has been held up.
You have a good description of the thief.
Your job, get him.
["Dragnet Theme"]
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.
["Dragnet Theme"]
It was Monday, March 10th. It was raining in Los Angeles.
We were working the day watch out of robbery detail.
My partner is Frank Smith. The boss is Captain Didion.
My name's Friday.
I was on my way into the office and it was 8.02 a.m. when I got to room 27A.
Robbery.
So?
Yeah, Frank.
Really coming down, isn't it?
Yeah, pouring out in the valley.
That so?
Yeah. Keeps coming down like this, going to cause a lot of trouble.
Sure makes the day, man.
Yeah, how's that?
When it gets raining like this and she begins to think about the house,
you know, doing something about it, changing stuff around.
Is that so?
Spent the whole day yesterday moving furniture.
Finally got it all set just before dinner.
Looks pretty good, too.
What happened?
Well, we got through dinner and all went in to look at television.
Yeah.
The way she had the furniture, none of us could see a thing.
The chairs were either so close you couldn't see or else they rolled way across the room.
Well, you're not supposed to get too close, are you, anyway?
Yeah, but, Joe, we only got a 10-inch screen.
We got one of those big magnifiers on it, and if you get to one side,
everybody looks like they got the month.
Had to move all the stuff back the way it was.
So, hot shot, I'll get it.
All right, get your coat. We got one to roll on.
What is it?
Liquor store robbery.
812 a.m. We arrived at the scene of the holdup.
It was a large liquor grocery store at the corner of San Marino Avenue and 6th Street.
A radio unit was already there.
Frank and I checked with them, and then we talked with the victim, a Mr. Henry Alden.
I was just standing there at the counter.
This old guy came in, pulled a gun, told me he wanted the money.
I gave it to him.
Uh-huh. He said on the phone that he was elderly. Is that right?
Yeah, old guy. Must have been about 65 or 70.
Real bum.
How do you mean?
Oh, he was dressed, you know, old clothes, real seedy.
Uh-huh.
Why don't you tell us just what happened?
Well, sure. It was about 8 this morning.
I opened up, and I was there making out the deposit slip for the bank.
Guy walked in the back door and pulled his gun, told me he wanted the money.
Uh-huh.
Well, like I said, I gave it to him.
He told me to get into the closet back there, tell me to lie down on the floor.
I did, and he had that gun pointed right at my head.
I did like he told me.
I see. What happened then?
Well, he walked over to the door and flipped the lock on her a couple of times, you know, to make sure it worked.
Yeah.
And then he figured it was okay, and he told me not to make any noise for five minutes.
He locked the door.
Well, that's it. Took all the money.
How much money did he take, would you know?
Yeah, to the penny. I just finished adding it up, just a minute.
All right.
I got the figures on the machine. Tell you right away.
That is $5,200.52. That's it exactly.
You said the guy came in the back door, then, right?
Yeah, that's right.
Well, were you open? I mean, was the door open for business?
No, we weren't. You see, I usually don't open before 8.30.
Leave the back door open, though, for deliveries, bread and milk, stuff like that.
Uh-huh. What if you could give us a description of the man?
Well, sure. Like I said, he was old.
Say, around 70, not in there.
Uh-huh. About how tall was he?
I'd say maybe five-seven, not much more than that.
How much did he weigh, would you know?
Not much. Maybe 125.
How about his complexion?
Real tan, like he'd be on the sun a lot. Face was all wrinkled.
How about the color of his eyes?
Blue, real blue.
Uh-huh. Now, what about his clothes?
They were real bummed. Had on this old overcoat, brown, all frayed, ragged around the sleeves.
Had a patch on the right elbow. Patch looked like it was kind of dark, surge material.
Was he wearing a hat?
Yeah, yeah, blue, all beat up. You could see the dirt around the brim.
Uh-huh. How about his shirt and trousers?
Blue striped shirt and old kind of brown pants, no press.
Looked like he was getting ready to jump in, a real seedy.
Did he wear glasses?
No, no, he didn't.
Was he clean shaven or did he wear a mustache?
How about a four or five day old growth of beard, white.
I see. Did he have any marked scars that you could see?
No, nothing like that. At least not that I could see.
How about the gun? Was it a revolver, an automatic?
Well, it looked like an automatic. Might have been a.45. I didn't look too close at that.
Yeah. Did he have any sort of an accent when he talked to you?
No, no, nothing like that.
All right, Mr. Alden. I'll get the description out.
Right, right, right.
Mr. Alden, did the man say anything to you that might help identify him?
No, not that I can think of. He kept telling me he was real sorry he had to do this.
That I'm really sorry, but I have to have the money, I have to.
Kept asking me if I understood. I told him no.
He said that someday I would.
Real weird. Kept apologizing while he robbed me.
I see. You're the owner here, are you?
No, no, I'm just a manager. The owner's Mr. Wood. He's going to be real mad when he hears about this.
Second time in three months we've been held up.
Getting a little tired. Couple more times the insurance company isn't going to stand for it.
That's it. Do you usually have that much money in the store?
Most of the weekends, yeah. You see, a lot of our stuff is pretty expensive.
This is about the only store in the neighborhood that's open over Sunday.
We get a lot of trade. Weekend business usually runs between three and five thousand.
By how many employees are there in the store?
Three, all two. We stay open until two thirty in the morning.
I come in in the morning and work until noon. Hank comes in and there's two of us until six.
And John comes in and he works on through.
Once in a while Mr. Wood comes in himself and we get busy.
What if I could have their name in the business?
Sure. They weren't involved there, I'm sure of that.
So we have to check them out anyway, Mr. Alden?
Yeah, I suppose so. But I tell you, he knew what he was doing, the way he moved.
The way he knew just when to come in. This fellow's done that sort of thing before.
Trying to say he was sorry about taking the money. He wasn't fooling anybody.
I tell you, not at all. Real bum, seedy, you know?
Yes, sir.
All that baloney about how he had to have the money wasn't any other way.
He wasn't sorry, not at all.
Yeah, well, he probably will be.
Nine thirty a.m. Frank and I started the canvas of the immediate vicinity.
None of the store owners in the area had seen anyone answering the description of the holdup man.
None of them had seen any suspicious cars in the area.
We asked the liquor store manager to go with us to the city hall to look at the mug books.
We called the store owner and when he arrived we drove downtown.
The victim went through the mug books on known holdup men but failed to make an identification.
A local and an APB were gotten out on the suspect.
We asked the stats office to make a run on the MOUs and they came back with fourteen possible.
It took us two days to check them out. They led us nowhere.
The papers caught on to the story and letters began to pour in with advice and tips.
On Monday, March seventeenth, the full week after the robbery,
Frank and I had lunch and checked back into the office.
See the afternoon papers, Joe?
Yeah, pretty funny, huh?
Yeah, they're taking up the story.
Everybody got a different idea of who the old guy is and why he did it.
Have you read some of the stories?
Yeah, sure. The only thing is a lot of people seem to think the old guy is a real Robin Hood.
Well, that's all right but they forget to be walking that store with a gun.
Wasn't anybody to say that he wouldn't have pulled the trigger if somebody got in his way?
Yeah, should be glad when we get him and find out what it's all about.
I get it.
I'll be fighting.
Yes, ma'am, it is.
No, ma'am.
No, ma'am, we haven't caught him yet.
What was that?
Yes, ma'am, uh-huh.
Would you give me that address again?
Yes, I have it.
Yes, ma'am.
All right, thank you.
Uh, there's another one.
What's that?
Landlady runs a place out on 9th Street.
Says she's got a tenant that she's sure the old fellow we're looking for.
How come?
Says all the old guy does is stay up in his room.
The other day the landlady's daughter went upstairs for something.
Tenant chased her down the stairs, yelling at her to stay away from his room, all that sort of thing.
He was tired of people not respecting his rights, the rights of an old man, something like that.
I couldn't get her all the phone description she gave him pretty much matches the one we got.
What do you figure?
Well, we got no choice. We'll check it out.
One fifty-eight p.m. Frank and I got to the rooming house on 9th Street.
It was a large four-story building.
We talked to the landlady and she gave us what information she could.
She told us that the tenant's name was Roger Dietrich.
She told us that he'd lived in the building for the past eight years.
She went on to tell us that he had some sort of a private income and that he rarely left his room.
The landlady explained that earlier the same morning her eleven-year-old daughter had gone to the attic to get some old newspapers
and that on the way she'd run into Mr. Dietrich.
The tenant had yelled at her and told her that her daughter had run into Mr. Dietrich.
The tenant had yelled at her and told her that as long as he was paying rent on the room, he wouldn't have anybody snooping around.
We checked and found that he got no mail except the single letter a month with the income check.
Two thirty p.m. Frank and I went up to the fourth floor and knocked at the door.
I want to try it again.
Yeah.
Go away!
I don't want any! Go away!
Mr. Dietrich?
Who is it?
Police officers. We'd like to talk to you.
Oh, just a minute.
Who'd you say you were?
Police officers. We'd like to talk to you.
What's your name?
My name's Friday. This is my partner, Frank Smith.
Uh-huh. I guess it's all right. Come here.
Thank you.
Well, you got to come out that thing this morning, huh?
Sir?
Why, you don't have to play cage with me. I know that she called you the old busybody.
That bad kid of hers is just like her. He's always snooping.
Well, there wasn't anything to it. The kid come up here, was snooping around, trying to find out what I was doing.
I'm not ready yet.
What do you mean, you're not ready?
No. The book's not finished yet. It will be in another year.
And the whole world will see it. Maybe men their ways.
Give them some hope to avoid what's coming.
Well, sir, that's not why we're here.
Don't lie to me. I know all about you. I know that you'd be around. You're trying to stop me.
I knew it. I knew it all the time.
You see that stack of magazines over there?
Yeah.
Every copy of Life magazine ever printed, right for free. I'd be attracted to it. I use it for research.
Well, I don't quite understand it, do you think?
That's from my book.
Oh, yeah.
It's going to be in five volumes called The Eagles of the Machine Age and its Effect on Mankind.
Five volumes. That's five volumes. Got the first four finished.
Working on the last one now. That's how I knew you were coming.
I worked it out on the chart.
Well, we'd like to talk to you about what you were doing a week ago, sir.
Oh, you were? Oh, well.
Well, yes, I did get on that. I knew it should be checking me. I knew it. I saw it in the chart.
I'm getting close now.
Well, it's going to sit up and take notice. Sit right up.
Yes, sir.
Did you go out last Monday?
Monday? Last? Yes, yes. I went out to get some supplies. I got them to come right back.
Would you tell us what time of day that was?
All night, sir. I always go out at night.
Yes, sir. Where'd you get these, what are they, supplies?
Well, that's a little place down the street. I always buy things there. Very nice, very nice.
Yes, sir. And the man down there would be able to tell us if you were there, wouldn't he?
Oh, sure, yes. He and me had a talk about my book. I was really interested.
Really interested. We talk all the time. I just finished volume four, you know, about what's going to happen.
The machine is allowed to continue. It's going to be terrible.
I'll make you a pint.
The way the world's going, all these atom bombs, now the hydrogen bombs, going to blow the world right away.
Even if they stop there, things aren't going to be the same. They're all going to be different.
They're right.
You just betcha. You know what kids are going to look like a thousand years from now?
Well, I imagine pretty much the same way they do now, huh?
Yes, sir. And I just, where you're wrong, take a picture right here.
That's volume four, you know, volume four. I'll get it.
There you are. See? I'll do it up myself.
Yeah. Well, what is it?
Well, you see, that's the way we're all going to look. You see that?
Yes.
That large head, tall brain, little bitty legs.
That's from the week we won't be doing any walking, you see, just riding all the time.
One great big eye right in the middle of the head, and the right arm fit only for eating breakfast food that makes noise,
and turning on the television sets, see?
Uh-huh.
Yes, sir. That's what the chart says we're going to look like if we all eat atom bombs.
Yes, sir. I wonder if you'd mind coming downtown with us.
In an automobile?
Yes, sir.
Well, I'm afraid not. You see, I don't breathe in them. They're not going to last, you see.
Well, I'm sorry, Mr. D. Drake, but we have to ask you to go with us.
Please, please, huh?
Yes, sir. That's fine.
Well, I don't like it, but I guess I've got no choice. That right?
Yes, sir. That's fine.
Well, all right. That way. I'd rather ride in an automobile.
Won't be around long, you know. I'll just fade right out of existence.
Is that right?
Yeah. I think that's going to happen in my book.
Uh-huh.
Volume 5.
3.01 p.m. We drove Roger Dietrich down to the city hall and checked him through R&I. We found no record on him.
We got in touch with a holdup victim, Henry Alden, and asked him to come down to the city hall to see if he could identify the suspect.
He got to the robbery squad room at 4.15 p.m.
No, no, I'm sure of it. That's not the guy.
Well, what's all this about anyway? What are you officers trying to do?
Oh, it's all right, Mr. Dietrich. We're just conducting a routine investigation. It's all right now.
Oh, it is, huh?
Yes, sir. We can take you home now, if you like.
In that police car?
Yes, sir.
Well, how about this fellow? Are you going, too?
No, sir.
Oh, well, GBRD just passed.
Would you mind dropping me off at Person Square? I'd like to listen to a speech.
A friend of mine's written it this afternoon. Brilliant, man.
Oh, my. He's already written twelve books. All on odds.
That's O-D-D-S, odds.
Like, what are the chances of a comic falling on your house?
Or, what are the chances of a certain horse winning the Kentucky Derby?
All things like that.
Brilliant, man.
Yes, sir. He's dead and bulk.
Is that right?
Yep. Spends all his money on research.
I got it.
Probably Friday.
Yeah, Barnes?
Uh-huh.
Yeah. When'd you pick him up?
Yeah.
All right. No, we'll be right over.
Anything?
Yeah. Barnes over at the main jail. Since they got a drunk over there, he's doing a lot of bragging.
What about?
Heist in the liquor store for fifty-two hundred dollars.
Four thirty p.m. We had Roger Dietrich taken to his home, and then Frank and I went over to the main jail.
We talked to Officer Phil Barnes.
He told us that an Arnold Jefferson had been picked up and booked for L.A.M.C. 4127A on the previous day.
Barnes went on to say that this was Jefferson's forty-second arrest on drunk charges.
We had the suspect brought to the interview room, and we talked to him.
All right, Jefferson. Now, what's all this about you holding up a liquor store?
What do you know about it?
You match the description of the man who committed the robbery.
The clothes there that you're wearing are like the ones the victims described.
Now, about it. You figure you can prove it without me telling you?
Yeah. If Alden identifies you, we can.
Alden?
He's the man who was robbed.
He's outside now. We want him to take a look at you.
That won't be necessary. You got the right man.
["The
We had the victim, Henry Alden, look at the suspect, Arnold Jefferson.
He identified him positively as the man who had held up the liquor store.
We took Jefferson back to the city hall and checked him through R.N.I.
He had no felony record. Seven thirty p.m. We took him to the interrogation room."
I knew you'd get me. I knew it all the time.
Did I, Ryan?
Sure. I knew it even before I held up the store.
You know, I didn't really want to do it.
You know, I really meant it when I told him I was sorry about doing it.
It really meant it.
Mm-hmm.
Guess maybe you find that kind of hard to believe.
Well, I suppose you tell us about it, huh?
I guess the best way would be to start from the beginning, huh?
Yeah.
First thing you should understand is I think basically that I'm an honest man.
All my life I've never cheated anyone or taken anything that didn't belong to me.
I've tried to live pretty much by the golden rule.
Yes, sir.
Sometimes, maybe lots of times, it'd be a little hard to do, but I did my best.
Yes, sir. Go ahead.
I was born in the Middle West. Tiny little town. You've probably never heard of it.
In dawn most of the map. Went school there through the eighth grade.
Then I decided that I wanted to see the rest of the country.
Worked my way through every one of the 48, every one of them.
Uh-huh.
Did a lot of things, met a lot of people.
That's right.
Well, all that time, all my life, I never did anything real big.
Nothing that I could ever tell anybody about and be proud.
Nothing to tell people about.
Oh, good.
I'm 72 years old now. It's a long time to live and never do anything big.
A long time.
Came downtown one day, sat in a plaza in the sun, met some really nice people.
People like me, people without much reason.
Got to coming down every day, sitting and talking, changing ideas.
Found a lot of good friends. Most of them were alone.
And I guess being alone made us members of the same club.
Got to be a sort of a lodge. 17 of us.
Used to meet, talk about things, the way the world was going, how things looked for the future, all things like that.
Friends.
Yeah, sick.
How'd you get along all that time? How'd you live?
Oh, I get a little pension from the state, enough to get along on. I don't need much.
Well, one day I got to thinking about how I didn't really have anything big to remember.
That's when I decided.
You mean on the robbery?
Yeah.
Decided that if I could get my hands on a lot of money, a lot of it all at once, I could have something.
Yeah?
So I started to figure.
First off, I had to figure out what kind of a store to rob.
Had to be one where I could get enough money.
Thought about it quite a while.
When I had that figured, I picked up the store.
And then I, uh, cased, is that right?
Yeah, that's right.
Well, I cased the store, figured how I'd do it.
And I figured that I'd have to have a gun.
Yeah.
Got one of those little plastic ones.
Bought the dime store, fixed it up a shoe black.
Couldn't hurt anybody, just plastic.
Looked real, but couldn't hurt anyone.
Of course, the victim wouldn't know that, would he?
Yeah, I thought considerable about that.
Worried about it a lot.
About how if there was any trouble, it'd make it hard with just a plastic gun.
Oh, and not that I wanted to hurt anybody.
I didn't.
But I got to thinking, what would happen if somebody got scared and thought it was real?
Could be trouble there.
Mm-hmm.
No, no, not before I'd go any further.
I want you to know that right at this point, I knew I was doing wrong.
I knew it.
Knew that I'd have to go to jail for what I did.
Knew it, and it didn't matter.
Had to be that way.
Well, now if you knew that, why'd you go ahead with the robbery?
Wasn't any other way to get the money.
At least none that I could think of.
Believe me, I tried to think of one.
All right, go ahead.
And I held up the place, took the money, and then I made the man get in the closet.
Did that so he wouldn't try to follow me.
I was sorry about it.
Tried to tell him, but I don't think he really believed it.
Don't think he did.
What'd you do then?
I took a bus out to the airport.
Thought about taking a cab, but then I figured that I'd want to save as much money as I could so I could have it later.
Yeah.
I inquired around out there at the airport and found a place where I could rent an airplane.
I paid for it in advance so there wouldn't be any trouble.
Hired it to go to San Francisco.
Round trip, both ways.
You hired an airplane?
Yep.
Big one.
Carried 18 people.
That's what I needed.
Real comfortable seats, two mortars, had a girl paint on the front.
From the wall, I guess.
All right, go ahead.
And I took the bus back to town, and I started walking around the plaza.
I ended up with all 17 of my friends, a whole bunch of them.
Talked to them all.
Guys who had been nice to me, even if it wasn't anything I could do for them.
Told them to meet me at First and Main, right by the fountain in front of City Hall that night.
Told them that I was going to throw a party.
A party they'd never forget.
Well, we got together that night and took a cab out to the airport.
Well, as a matter of fact, we took four cabs.
Had to show the drivers that I had the money for the tickets.
Guess they thought that he was going to try to get a free ride.
But when I showed them the money, they drove it out.
Gave them a good tip.
Nice fellow.
Mm-hmm.
Got on the airplane and flew off to San Francisco.
Wonderful.
Got into the city and then we started.
Really had a time.
Lasted three days.
Wasn't anything we didn't see, nothing we didn't do.
Three days of it.
Real living.
Everything was on me.
Paid for it all.
Went to the best places, ate the best food, drank the finest wine.
Really did.
Where did you stay when you were in San Francisco?
Hotel down on Howard.
Not the richest in town, but real nice.
Clean rooms.
All right. Go ahead.
Well, by the time that I thought we'd stayed long enough, we all got on the plane and come back.
Cutting Wednesday morning.
Took cabs downtown, then we all went to breakfast.
Had a real whopper.
Kind of a farewell to the whole party.
After I settled up for the wake-up, I only had a dollar and seventy-five left.
Gave it to her for a tip.
Sure made her happy.
I don't guess she makes much down there.
Yeah.
Well, does any of your friends know where you're getting the money for this party?
Oh, no. You see, when I first got the idea, I told them that I had a real rich brother.
Told them that he died and that I was his only relative, that all the money would get to me.
I figured that I could sort of set things up for doing that.
Seemed to work all right. None of them said anything.
Uh-huh. You remember the man you chartered the airplane from?
Oh, sure. A real nice fella.
I got his card. I kept it.
Started a souvenir. I can give it to you if you want it.
Yeah, well, I'd like to have it. You ever done any big time?
Me? Oh, no, no. No, just a grunker-esque.
Lots of them.
Yeah.
Big thing about this is that I wish there was some way to keep the boys from finding out, so they wouldn't have to know.
Of course, I know that I'm not going to see them again, but just the same.
What are they going to think? How are they going to take this when they hear about it?
I don't know. I sure was wrong. Really wrong.
How long will they put me in jail for, you guys know?
Well, it depends.
Depends on what?
What the court says.
Oh. Still have to go to prison, though, huh?
Yeah, I'm afraid so.
Uh-huh.
Well, I haven't got much left.
Guess no matter what they say, it's going to be life for me.
Well, they're not going to want us to decide that.
Yes, I know. You guys have been real nice.
In a way, I'm glad it's over.
Like I said before, I knew you'd get me. I knew it all the time right from the beginning.
Glad to figure out how it'd be when you did get me. What I'd say, how I'd act.
Wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. Not hard at all.
One thing, though.
Yeah, what's that?
I kind of wish I hadn't done it. I really do.
I keep thinking to my friends how they're going to take it.
Now, you want to go?
You want to take me back now, huh?
Yeah, I'll bet we have to.
Going to put me back in the tank?
No, not this time.
Upstairs?
Yeah, upstairs.
That means I'll have a sailor all to myself. Be nice. I'd like to be alone.
All right. You all set Jefferson?
Yeah. This way.
Seventy-two years, nothing to show for it. Nothing.
Only one thing I can really say I did with my life.
What's that, Jefferson?
Wasted 72 years.
The story you have just heard was true. The names were changed to protect the innocent.
On July 24th, trial was held in Department 89, Superior Court of the State of California,
in and for the County of Los Angeles. In a moment, the results of that trial.
Arnold Peter Jefferson was tried and found guilty of one count of robbery in the second degree.
He was sentenced to the state penitentiary for the term as prescribed by law.
Robbery in the second degree is punishable by imprisonment for a period of not less than one year.
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.
Technical advisors, Captain Jack Donahoe, Sergeant Marty Wynn, Sergeant Vance Fisher.
Heard tonight were Ben Alexander, Vic Brogman, Ralph Moody.
Script by John Robinson. Music by Walter Schuman. Hal Gitney speaking.
Transcribed from Los Angeles, Dragnet is an NBC Radio Network production.