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January 8, 2026 • 29 mins
Step into the world of classic crime with "The Dragnet Collection." Featuring iconic radio episodes from the golden age of detective drama, this collection brings you the methodical investigations, sharp dialogue, and thrilling cases of Sergeant Joe Friday and his team. If you love true crime, classic noir, or vintage radio, this is a must-listen!
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
The story you were about to hear is true.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
The names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Speaker 3 (00:12):
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Speaker 4 (00:26):
You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned the homicide detail. A
thirty nine year old housewife disappears suddenly, there's no explanation
for it.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Five days later, evidence of possible.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Foul play is uncovered. Your job investigate.

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Speaker 3 (01:39):
Dragnet the documented drama of an actual crime, while the
next thirty 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.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Dragnet is the story of your police force.

Speaker 6 (02:05):
Was Wednesday, September fifteenth, that was hot in Los Angeles.
We were working a day watch out a homicide. My
partner's ed, Jacob's the boss's stab Brown chief the detectives.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
My name was Friday.

Speaker 6 (02:14):
I was on the way back from the launch and
it was twelve fifty six pm when I got to
Room forty two homicide.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
Hi Joe waiting, Si, Hi, add now here he got
something for us? Uh huh. Here's a reporter right here.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
Guide her by the name of Abbot.

Speaker 7 (02:28):
Called in the day before yesterday Chester Abbot said his
wife disappeared from their home out in the valley Thursday night.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
He says she thinks she left him. Oh that was
every day.

Speaker 7 (02:35):
Not this way, it doesn't Walsh and I went out
to talk to the man. Yesterday's story doesn't make too
much sense.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
What I mean now, None of.

Speaker 7 (02:41):
His wife's clothes are missing, none of her luggage. She
even left her pocketbook behind full of money. We found
out from the neighbors. The missing woman has a seventeen
year old boy by a former marriage.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
Does that mean anything?

Speaker 7 (02:50):
He's an only child. Mother dotes on the kids. She
didn't even say goodbye to him. Well, how'd this Chester?

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Abbit?

Speaker 2 (02:55):
Impress?

Speaker 8 (02:56):
You's pretty Grascy was washed and made no cooperation. Wants
to find his wife, doesn't he? Oh no, I'm not sure.
He's no help.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
I can tell you that much. Could I see it
report out?

Speaker 2 (03:03):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (03:04):
He?

Speaker 1 (03:04):
Thank you. Flaunt's trouble labb.

Speaker 7 (03:07):
At age thirty nine, Abbot's second husband, Firstman, died a
little after the boy was born. Mm disappeared Thursday night
in the home five forty six Plasco Road between sevent
eight o'clock.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
Well, when did Abbot call him?

Speaker 7 (03:19):
Notifive Monday afternoon. Told us he thought his wife might
have been spending the weekend with her sister.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
When he found out she was, and't he called us?

Speaker 2 (03:26):
You meet the boy when you were out there?

Speaker 1 (03:27):
Yeah, that's another thing, honey.

Speaker 7 (03:28):
Mean a kid came riding up on a bike when
we were talking in one of the neighbors would tried
to talk to him. That the old man came out
and hustle the boy into the house, and then he
started showing us out.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
Oh what's his trouble?

Speaker 7 (03:38):
Told us it was our job to find his wife,
not to go prying into his stepson's affairs. That's a
new slat.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
Well, how about the woman's friends and relatives? They've been
checked out yet out.

Speaker 7 (03:45):
Well she's on it now. I don't think he's had
much luck contacting him so far. I'll tell you the truth.
I don't like the looks of it. Yeah, missus, Abbott,
have any other relatives here? I mean besides his sister?

Speaker 8 (03:55):
Two ass Yeah, I got the list right over here. Sure,
wish we had a chance to talk.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
To that boy. Notice anything else out of the way
about mister rabbit?

Speaker 7 (04:03):
Al And I don't know there's that list, Jill, Oh,
thank you.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
Abbot was upset all right.

Speaker 7 (04:10):
I don't know, though it didn't exactly strike me as
reacting the way a normal man reacts when his wife's disappeared.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
Well, how about a copy of this report? You don't
win despair?

Speaker 7 (04:17):
Yeah, sure, just a minute, you know, missing person's spaghetti?

Speaker 8 (04:22):
That's right, this is Pagetti speaking?

Speaker 2 (04:24):
Was that? Oh?

Speaker 1 (04:26):
Yeah? Yeah, sure?

Speaker 8 (04:28):
About what ah, I could four o'clock fine, all right,
sound dubai.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
And I was the boy.

Speaker 7 (04:38):
I was telling you about mister rabbit stepson when he
want wants to talk to a.

Speaker 8 (04:41):
Sounded worried about his mother. They think something's happened to her.

Speaker 6 (04:47):
In police work, missing Persons detail is not a department
separate in itself.

Speaker 1 (04:52):
It's organized as a point of homicide division.

Speaker 6 (04:54):
When the possibility of homicide arises in the course of
handling the case missing persons, immediately turn is the matter
over to homicide officers for investigation. When we got the
call from the Abbot boy, we automatically took over. According
to al Barghetti, the boy said he suspected his stepfather.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
And he didn't want him to know of any meeting
between him and police officers.

Speaker 6 (05:15):
At three point fifteen, Ed and I left the office
and drove to the meeting place designated by the boy,
the dairy Land Fountain and Coffee Shop near the corner
of Fairfax in Hollywood Boulevard. We got there three point
fifty pm. At eight minutes past five, the Abbot boy
still had not arrived. We waited another fifteen minutes and
then we left and drove out to the valley and
pulled up in front of the main gate to the
Abbot Nursery on Belasco Road. The house itself was set

(05:38):
well back on the property, which covered about five acres
of ground. The entire nursery was surrounded by a six
foot chain link fence, and it looked like every available
foot of ground inside was planted with some kind of
flower or shrub. Mister Abbot met us at the gate.
He had three full grown mastiffs with him. He held
him on a chain, said, nobody.

Speaker 7 (05:58):
Wanted the police officer chester Rabbit, that's right, what do
you want?

Speaker 1 (06:01):
Well, didn't get those dogs by remember every gas in question.

Speaker 7 (06:04):
It's pretty busy now could you come back tomorrow?

Speaker 2 (06:05):
And it's important.

Speaker 7 (06:06):
Abbit, We like talking out, all right, you have toast
time you down here?

Speaker 4 (06:10):
You can go quiet, I said, quiet.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
All right?

Speaker 7 (06:13):
What do you want?

Speaker 2 (06:14):
Mind?

Speaker 7 (06:14):
If we come inside you he's what dog and the
mind are pretty visious. We can talk here at the gate.

Speaker 1 (06:18):
All right.

Speaker 6 (06:18):
We've been a sign of Look into your wife's disappearance. Abbit,
that's my partner side is Jacob's.

Speaker 1 (06:22):
My name is Friday.

Speaker 8 (06:23):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 7 (06:24):
Find out anything about my wife.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
Had nothing definite. No.

Speaker 7 (06:26):
I thought maybe you could help us mind telling us
exactly what happened to night you disappeared. What do you
mean what happened?

Speaker 2 (06:31):
When did you see her last? When did you first
know that she was gone?

Speaker 7 (06:33):
We had dinner at thirsday night, about seven o'clock. Then
I laid down for a nap lunch, went out on
the front port for some mare. I woke up a
little four eight o'clock, went outside to look for her.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
She was gone. No one saw her leave, mister rabbit, And.

Speaker 7 (06:44):
I said, I know of maybe one of our neighbors.
You can ask them. They seem to know everybody's business.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
How about your step son?

Speaker 2 (06:49):
Wasn't he on Thursday night?

Speaker 7 (06:51):
Bruce Noody went out to the show with some other kid.

Speaker 2 (06:53):
When'd you get back from the show? You remember ten o'clock?

Speaker 1 (06:55):
I think, why where's the boy now? Abbitt?

Speaker 2 (06:57):
Who are you looking for?

Speaker 7 (06:58):
My wife or stepshun?

Speaker 2 (06:58):
Both of them?

Speaker 8 (06:59):
Where is he?

Speaker 7 (07:00):
I took him over to my sister, to nol Hamborough.
He's been feeling bad. She's his mother's a bear figure
and changed to do him good?

Speaker 2 (07:05):
And when did you take him over to your sisters?

Speaker 1 (07:06):
This afternoon what's Ed got to do with it?

Speaker 2 (07:08):
He'd like to talk to him.

Speaker 7 (07:09):
No, you can't go. One allowed the boys to upset
right now, and I can't allow it.

Speaker 1 (07:12):
I'm fraid you're going to have to allow it. Abbot.

Speaker 7 (07:13):
Listen, mister, you can get off this property right now
if you want to get freights with me. And no
CoP's given me any class. He got the hoey fass.

Speaker 1 (07:19):
Somebody's giving you sass.

Speaker 6 (07:20):
We want to talk to your steps on that so
all he might be able to give us a lead.

Speaker 1 (07:22):
Im wherebouts of your wife?

Speaker 7 (07:23):
And now I say you can't see the boys. You've
been looking for flargs for a week and you haven't
found a thing. I'll guess somebody else will look for he.
It's my business anyway, nobody.

Speaker 2 (07:30):
Else has our business if anything happened to her.

Speaker 7 (07:31):
What are you talking about?

Speaker 8 (07:32):
You better get your coat.

Speaker 7 (07:33):
Abbot like to talk to him out down something of
that gate. Now let these dogs go.

Speaker 1 (07:36):
You hate to shoot him, mistress?

Speaker 7 (07:37):
What are you trying to prove?

Speaker 2 (07:38):
Anyhow?

Speaker 7 (07:39):
What do I have to go ontown for?

Speaker 6 (07:40):
I'll tell you when we get there, I'll get your coat.
Chester Rabbit turned made his way up the path and
into the house. A few minutes later, he came out,
closed the gate behind him, and got into our car.
On the way back downtown, he talked pleasantly about the weather's,
the nursery business, and his dogs. When we got to
the office, we find out the reason for his sudden.

Speaker 1 (08:00):
Change in temperament. His lawyer was waiting for us at
the door.

Speaker 6 (08:03):
We tried to interrogate Abbot, but the lawyer objected to
just about every question we asked. It was hopeless and
we knew it, and so did the lawyer. We released Abbot,
but not before we got the name and address of
his sister in al Hambra, where the step son, Bruce
was supposedly staying. After Abbot and his lawyer left, ed
and I signed out of the office and drove to
al Hamber to check him.

Speaker 2 (08:22):
The boy forget you sure had this one peg real sleeper.

Speaker 6 (08:25):
Wellkn't know how the step son missed that date with
us this afternoon.

Speaker 2 (08:28):
If the boy called us from the house, stepfather could
overheurt him.

Speaker 1 (08:31):
That's possible. Sister's house ought to be along this blocks,
isn't it.

Speaker 7 (08:36):
Let's see fourteen oh eight I was six, Yeah, yeah,
there is great cottage fourteen oh two. Okay, let's pull
up here. Huh all right, yeah, nice looking, twice well kept,
nice neighborhood. Wonder how about prices run out here?

Speaker 2 (08:54):
H I'll get the bell. Yes, what is it police officers?
Ma'am you miss Abbot, Yes, Helen Abbot.

Speaker 6 (09:08):
Why, well, we talked to your brother earlier today, Miss Abbott.
He said he brought his step son, Bruce over here
to stay a while. We'd like to see him if
we could Bruce.

Speaker 5 (09:14):
Well, yes, he was here until about an hour and
a half ago.

Speaker 8 (09:17):
I went to the store. When I came back, he
was gone.

Speaker 2 (09:19):
Any idea what we can find a Missabboit?

Speaker 8 (09:21):
Well, I told him my brother Chester just before you
came to the door.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
Bruce isn't there?

Speaker 7 (09:25):
Yes, ma, you mind if we came in, looked around,
the sabbath won't take long.

Speaker 8 (09:28):
Well, why I told you Bruce isn't here.

Speaker 5 (09:31):
It's the true.

Speaker 8 (09:31):
There's no reason to lie about it.

Speaker 5 (09:33):
Is there?

Speaker 1 (09:33):
Well, no, ma'am, it's not that, then, what is it
no reason for me to lie to you?

Speaker 6 (09:37):
How about your brother? We went in and looked the
house over from one end to the other. It wasn't
a trace of the boy. We drove back to the
Abbot nursery and satisfied ourselves the boy wasn't there. Meantime,
the home of Chester Abbot's sister in al Hamber was
kept under constant surveillance.

Speaker 1 (09:53):
No one came or went. The next morning, when Ed
and I checked in for workers usual at eight a m.
We met with Sergeant alber Ga.

Speaker 7 (10:00):
Well, I had have an idea there might be something wrong.
What makes you so positive though? It's just did them
or not positive? It's the whole setup, I guess, smelts that.
How do you mean, for instance?

Speaker 1 (10:08):
Well, I'll have it's lawyer for one thing.

Speaker 6 (10:10):
If a man is innocent, he doesn't have his lawyer
sit with him and tell him not to answer any question.

Speaker 1 (10:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (10:14):
Number two, the kid's phone call. He didn't show up
for that date you figured. I don't know, could be
doesn't get along with his stepfather. Happens, you know, maybe
he's trying to get back at him for something or other.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
Yeah, that could be. Why is Habit hiding him out there?

Speaker 8 (10:25):
You're pretty sure he's.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
Hiding him off.

Speaker 8 (10:27):
Well, the thing's been going another way to take it?

Speaker 1 (10:29):
Uh?

Speaker 7 (10:30):
Missus Abbitt walked away from her home last Thursday night.
Nobody saw or she took nothing. WHI her No luggage,
no clothes, no money that's in you checked with her
family doctor yesterday told missus Abbott was in perfect health.
Checked her bank statements, double check the names through wanders
file repeaters, found missing persons, couldn't find it.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
Neither one.

Speaker 1 (10:45):
Her relatives too. How you talk to that some of 'em? Yeah,
I got a few more to check out this morning.

Speaker 7 (10:50):
Uh, one thing's certain. No clothes, no money, no luggage.
She couldn't have gone very far. He checked all the
angles out.

Speaker 6 (10:56):
Oh, the sheriff's office, the jails, the hospitals, set out
a teletype, and he's been gone almost a week and
nobody's seen her.

Speaker 1 (11:02):
Now's that add up to you? We got an idea.

Speaker 2 (11:04):
Yeah, I hope I'm wrong.

Speaker 6 (11:09):
Eight forty five am ed and I left the office
and continued making the rounds of the missing women's friends
and relatives. We checked at the Western National Bank, where
Missus Abbot maintained another account. Her saving statement showed a
total balance of thirty one, five hundred and sixty four
dollars and seventeen cents. Her checking account had a balance
of eight hundred and forty two dollars and seventy one cents.

(11:30):
At the Farmer's mutual we found the record of an
insurance policy issued to Florence Trumble Abbot. There was a
twenty pay life policy covering the insured in the amount
of thirty thousand dollars. The beneficiary was listed as the
insured sun Bruce Trumbull Abbot if living upon receipt of
such due proof, if not the insured's husband, Chester j Abbot.

(11:51):
For the time we finished checking the missing women's financial status,
we figured we had a fair suspect.

Speaker 1 (11:55):
In the husband Chester Abbit.

Speaker 6 (11:57):
From casual reports, we knew he was a free room
and almost to the point of obsession. If he was
greedy as well. If he wanted or needed money badly
enough to kill, then he had all the motives necessary
to murder his wife, maybe his step son. To six
forty pm ed and I drove back to the office.

Speaker 1 (12:16):
But long day out of manage. Yeah, winder fowl still around?

Speaker 2 (12:21):
Hey, Bargetti hel Yeah, here that's you Friday.

Speaker 8 (12:26):
Yeah, how'd you do get anything?

Speaker 2 (12:28):
A few things? Pretty? Fred up? Good?

Speaker 1 (12:30):
I got some more for you. Just walked in here
ten minutes ago.

Speaker 7 (12:33):
Bruce Sava, he's waiting in the next room.

Speaker 1 (12:37):
He went into the next room and met the Abbot boy.

Speaker 6 (12:40):
He was small for a seventeen year old, dark haired, thin,
a little on the sickly side. He seemed nervous and upset.
He told us that he wasn't able to keep the
day he made with us on the phone because his
stepfather did apparently overhear the conversation and drove the boy
immediately to his sister's place in al Hamburg.

Speaker 1 (12:56):
We asked the boy what made him.

Speaker 6 (12:57):
So sure that his stepfather was responsible for his mother disappearance.

Speaker 7 (13:01):
Well, for one thing, all three of us usually go
to the early show on Thursday night, Chester, Mom and me, but.

Speaker 8 (13:05):
Last Thursday we didn't go.

Speaker 2 (13:06):
Why was that?

Speaker 1 (13:06):
Son?

Speaker 8 (13:07):
Chester said he wasn't.

Speaker 7 (13:08):
Feeling too good and he wanted his mom to stay
home and take care of him, and he told me
to go on ahead to the show, so I did.

Speaker 1 (13:13):
For what time did you get home, Bruised?

Speaker 8 (13:15):
About a quarter to ten ten o'clock?

Speaker 1 (13:16):
Did you know it's anything unusual?

Speaker 8 (13:18):
When he got home so not so much.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
No, Mom wasn't there. I didn't think much about it.

Speaker 7 (13:22):
Then I thought maybe she was over to one of
the neighbors.

Speaker 2 (13:24):
Did you ask your stepfather where she was? Uh?

Speaker 8 (13:26):
Huh?

Speaker 1 (13:26):
He said he didn't know.

Speaker 8 (13:27):
He said he thought she was over at one of
the neighbors too.

Speaker 7 (13:29):
What was your stepfather doing when he got home, Just
sitting in the living room reading a paper.

Speaker 8 (13:33):
I usually don't talk to him too much.

Speaker 7 (13:35):
I just asked him where Mom was, and he told me,
and then I went back to my room and went
to bed.

Speaker 6 (13:39):
You know, it's anything unusual about the way he acted,
anything different about him at all?

Speaker 2 (13:43):
Well, I'm not too sure.

Speaker 7 (13:44):
He did seem a little nervous, though, jumpy, more than usual,
I think anything else. Well, when I came through the
front yard, I noticed the dogs had mud all over
their paws. Read himI and George, all three of 'em.
They musta been out in the nursery plots. Anything unusual
about that.

Speaker 1 (13:58):
In a way.

Speaker 7 (13:59):
Yeah, you see, the dogs don't go out in the
plots unless Chesters with him.

Speaker 1 (14:02):
He doesn't want him to trample the seedlings.

Speaker 7 (14:04):
I noticed Chester, you had mud on issues at night too,
And you figure your stepfather was out digging somewhere the
nursery plots that night. Yeah, that's right, digging somewhere he
must have been. Can't figure out why though, what it mean?
So my stepfather never works at night.

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Speaker 2 (15:43):
A a.

Speaker 6 (15:50):
Thursday, September sixteenth, seven oh five pm, we continued talking
to the missing woman's seventeen year old son, Bruce Abbott.

Speaker 1 (15:57):
As the interview went on, it became more and more.

Speaker 6 (15:59):
Obvious that the boy and his stepfather, chest Or Abbot,
didn't get along at all. Apparently the boy was jealous
of him, and he was jealous of the boy. Besides
his prejudice, Bruce also contradicted himself during the course of
the Questioning seven fifteen pm, the interview went on.

Speaker 7 (16:15):
I understand that, all right, son, But you say you
can't think of any reason why your father would be
out working in the nursery plots.

Speaker 2 (16:19):
That time of night.

Speaker 7 (16:20):
No sure, I can't. I don't know how I'd get
any work done. None of the plots are even light
at only the greenhouses.

Speaker 6 (16:25):
As well as possibly could have gotten that mudd on
his shoes working in one of the greenhouses.

Speaker 7 (16:29):
No sure, I don't see how all the pasant the
greenhouses are graveled, So my job is he they've kept gravel.
I know they weren't muddy because I fixed him the
day before. Well, what do you think it means, Bruce?

Speaker 1 (16:40):
I don't know.

Speaker 7 (16:41):
I don't want to think about it. I just know
he's done something. He's done something to her tr father, that.

Speaker 2 (16:46):
Is, your stepfather.

Speaker 7 (16:47):
Give you any reason for keeping you away from the
police officers he came to your house, I mean the
first two officers who showed up. No, he said people
were getting nosy. That's so he said it might be
better for me over at my aunt Helen's place.

Speaker 2 (16:56):
Do you think your aunt Helen might know where your
mother is?

Speaker 8 (16:59):
I don't think so.

Speaker 1 (17:00):
We hardly ever see Aunt Helen.

Speaker 7 (17:02):
We don't know her.

Speaker 2 (17:02):
Well at all. Well, do you know if your mother
and stepfather argued very much then?

Speaker 7 (17:06):
I mean big arguments sometimes, yeah, mostly about me.

Speaker 1 (17:10):
What do you mean?

Speaker 7 (17:11):
Chester's pretty tight? You know, doesn't like to spend money
at all. He and Mom used to argue.

Speaker 1 (17:15):
About whether I ought to get paid for the work.

Speaker 8 (17:17):
I did around the nursery.

Speaker 7 (17:18):
Chester didn't wanna pay me, but so yeah, when I
started working, he promised he'd pay me. I was saving
him to buy a thirty one model A. After a
couple of weeks when he didn't pay me, I asked
him about it. He told me I ought to be glad.

Speaker 2 (17:29):
To work for him for nothing, And your mother argued
with him about that.

Speaker 7 (17:32):
Sure if she got good and mad too, she should
have gotten mad. Was her money that bought the nursery?

Speaker 1 (17:36):
Anyway?

Speaker 7 (17:37):
Well, how'd you happen to get away from your aunt's place?

Speaker 1 (17:39):
Pruce wasn't too hard? How long?

Speaker 8 (17:40):
I had some shopping to do and she left me alone.
She locked the door to my room.

Speaker 7 (17:44):
Even the screen over the window was nailed down, but
I kicked it out and got away. I stayed at
a friend's house last night. You thought much about where
you're gonna stay in the nightcent We Well, I don't know,
Sergeant Burghetti.

Speaker 1 (17:54):
I was talking to him.

Speaker 7 (17:55):
He asked me if I wanted to go out and
have dinner and then stay at his house tonight.

Speaker 2 (17:58):
But I don't know.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
It was like a good idea to me.

Speaker 8 (18:01):
I oh no, sure, nice of him to ask me.

Speaker 7 (18:03):
I think it'd be a lot better for you, son.
Whytt to check in the next office ifore get his
ready to leave? Huh yeah, okay, Sergeant, thanks you met.

Speaker 2 (18:14):
Joe. What do you think?

Speaker 6 (18:16):
Sorrd to say? He might be lying before we signed
out of the office. That night, we met with Captain
Lorman and An outlined the plan to bring in the
husband of the missing woman for questioning alone. We figured
it would serve two purposes, clarify the boy's position in
the case and determine, one way or another if the
stepfather was withholding information about the disappearance of missus Abbot.

(18:39):
The big problem was to bring in Chester Rabbit for
interrogation without the knowledge of his lawyer. As we found
out more than once it was impossible to get anything
out of Abbot with his lawyer present.

Speaker 1 (18:49):
We set up a.

Speaker 6 (18:50):
Plan to call at the Abbot home early in the morning,
get the suspect out of bed, and bring him in
before his lawyer could be notified. At three point thirty
the following morning, Ed and I met at the office
started for the Abbot place. We brought along a couple
of pounds of fresh horse meat to keep the dogs
quiet if they raised a fuss. At ten minutes past,
Boy and we parked our car a few hundred feet
down the road from the Abbot nursery and made our

(19:11):
way toward the gate.

Speaker 1 (19:12):
I reached him and dried the lax. The dogs started up.

Speaker 2 (19:16):
How about a chill hoping.

Speaker 1 (19:18):
Now it's a padlocks. We're gonna have to climb the fence.
Saw some of that meat over them with you?

Speaker 6 (19:22):
Okay, there, that does it?

Speaker 1 (19:29):
Alright?

Speaker 2 (19:30):
Climb the se see high on the hounds. Looks like
it could take a leak off. Hoo.

Speaker 8 (19:34):
Take it easy, at hun, what's uh shit?

Speaker 1 (19:40):
It comes out of the dog and get somewhere of
their meat?

Speaker 2 (19:42):
Better out there you are, boy, go get it?

Speaker 1 (19:44):
Go on, alright, that's fine, Come on a tarry.

Speaker 2 (19:52):
Have a left joe right when it was along the
side of the house, Budge just.

Speaker 1 (19:55):
Went on, come on, wait there, I'll set the dogs on.

Speaker 2 (20:03):
Your police officers, Abbit, Fiddy and Jacobs. What kind of
business is this? What are you doing on here this
time of night? You're under arrest, miss Rabbit?

Speaker 1 (20:12):
What are you talking about?

Speaker 2 (20:13):
If you heard me, you're under arrest. What kind of
crazy thing is this?

Speaker 1 (20:16):
You're gonna pay for this?

Speaker 7 (20:17):
I'll have your job.

Speaker 1 (20:18):
How you want to get your coat?

Speaker 2 (20:19):
Your cops are asking for a pack of trouble.

Speaker 1 (20:20):
You know that i'd hit your coat.

Speaker 7 (20:21):
I'd like to know what you think you're doing. Where's
my step shown? Anyway? What have you done?

Speaker 2 (20:24):
With him.

Speaker 1 (20:25):
I got a better one for you, mister. Huh, what
have you done with your wife?

Speaker 6 (20:32):
Four twenty five am ed and I drove the suspect
Chester Rabbit back downtown to the office.

Speaker 1 (20:37):
He was quiet and sullen. We headed down the hall
for the squad room.

Speaker 6 (20:41):
Right, still run in the office now, probably by Yetty's
standing by.

Speaker 1 (20:45):
All right, have it in there.

Speaker 2 (20:46):
You're gonna pay for this. You can take my word
all night.

Speaker 1 (20:48):
If you want to take him in the officer and
stay with him, I'll.

Speaker 2 (20:50):
Check with alf Okay, so you bring him in. Yeah,
he's next door.

Speaker 7 (21:01):
Eds with him's tough. Somebody must have seen you. No,
I don't think so, I must have. Why what do
you mean Abbot's lawyer is sitting in the next room?

Speaker 1 (21:10):
How the lawyer had been notified? And couldn't be sure?

Speaker 6 (21:13):
Again we tried to question Abbott, and again, on the
advice of his attorney, he refused to answer.

Speaker 1 (21:17):
Practically every question we put to him.

Speaker 6 (21:19):
We released him that day Captain warm and assigned two
men to steak out on the nursery and report on
all of Chester Abbot's movements. A little after seven pm,
just after ninth fall, we tried again to bring a
suspect in for questioning without his lawyer's knowledge.

Speaker 1 (21:32):
It didn't work. The men assigned to stake.

Speaker 6 (21:34):
Out of the Abbot place reported definitely that someone was
tipping off the attorney.

Speaker 1 (21:38):
Whenever unknown visitors.

Speaker 6 (21:39):
Showed up at the nursery and drove off together with
mister Abbot, there was nothing we could do about it.

Speaker 1 (21:44):
The following morning, al Barghetti came up with the lead.
Had a long talk with the boy last night.

Speaker 8 (21:48):
I think he came up with a pretty fair lead.

Speaker 2 (21:49):
How's that the.

Speaker 1 (21:50):
Old man's responsible.

Speaker 7 (21:51):
We know there's only one way we'll get a conviction,
you know, find the body and enough evidence to tie
him in. Where do we start looking? In a new
rose bed. It's next to one of the greenhouses, an
Abbitt's nursery. Boy tell you this, Yeah, seems to make sense.
We know all man Abbot's crazy about.

Speaker 1 (22:05):
Saving a dollar.

Speaker 7 (22:06):
We found that out from the neighbors and the relatives
on the nursery trade, especially in the limited area Abbot
has to work in. You cultivate every foot of ground
you have, you plan every.

Speaker 1 (22:14):
Foot of soil with something.

Speaker 7 (22:15):
Oh yeah, what's the point, Well, Rabbit's not the type
to waste anything. He wouldn't let ground lie fallow when
he could plan something It might bring in a few
dollars next spring. Bruce tells me a stepfather has every
inch of the property planet was something everything except the
six by eight pot of ground on.

Speaker 1 (22:29):
That rose garden. What did the boys say, I plopping
vacant for a while.

Speaker 7 (22:32):
Well, he says, his stepfather got it ready for planning
a week and a half ago.

Speaker 1 (22:35):
It's still vacant.

Speaker 2 (22:36):
Be worth checking out. How do we do it?

Speaker 7 (22:37):
We can order up a crew from the crime lab.
They can take probings through the plot all around it.
They ought to be able to tell us how deep
the ground's been worked over lately.

Speaker 1 (22:45):
Okay, what do you figure tonight? I think so?

Speaker 2 (22:47):
Yeah, maybe eleven twelve o'clock.

Speaker 1 (22:49):
What about old man Abby? You think he's gonna sit
still for it?

Speaker 7 (22:51):
If the hunch pays off, he's gonna sit still a
long time. It was ten minutes past eleven. Then at
night when we got to the Abbot nursery, Lee Jones
and the crime lab crew, Al Barghetti d and two
other men from Homicide. The men on steak out told
us Chester Abbot, along with his attorney had left the
house a half hour before in his.

Speaker 1 (23:10):
Car, a dark blue coop.

Speaker 6 (23:12):
They hadn't returned. Ed brought along another supply of fresh
horse meat for the dog, so we didn't have any
trouble are We located the vacant plot of ground in
the rose bed next to one of the greenhouses, as Bruce.

Speaker 1 (23:23):
Abbot had described it to Barghetti.

Speaker 6 (23:25):
The crime lab crew started probing the ground obviously had
been worked over recently and to some depth.

Speaker 1 (23:31):
They started digging.

Speaker 2 (23:33):
Anderson, get that right over the head with it? Thanks,
Je see anything?

Speaker 1 (23:41):
Well, let's keep digging. It's right over here. Yeah you
know this is it.

Speaker 6 (23:50):
He wasn't taking any chances down a good.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
Four or five feet now, wouldn't you say?

Speaker 2 (23:54):
Yeah? At least that added some more light.

Speaker 8 (23:56):
Uh oh, let's go at it.

Speaker 1 (24:01):
I wait a minute.

Speaker 8 (24:03):
Yeah, a woman shoe here?

Speaker 1 (24:07):
H my, just about.

Speaker 6 (24:17):
Now, I said, shoulder there it's a body. I look
paid off all the boy had a figure.

Speaker 1 (24:24):
Yeah, too bad.

Speaker 2 (24:25):
He was right.

Speaker 6 (24:30):
Ed and I went back to our car and notified
communications to broadcast a warrant for murder on Chester Rabbit.
His description, together with a description of his car and
license number, was re broadcast every fifteen minutes.

Speaker 1 (24:41):
The attorney was contacted and.

Speaker 6 (24:43):
He stated that mister Rabbit had dropped him off at
his home more than an hour before. He knew nothing
of his whereabouts. Ed and I went back to check
the Abbot home and found the front door on lock.
We went inside and looked around. In one bedroom, we
found clothes scattered over the bed and on the floor.
There was only one old we left in one closet.
On the table next to the bed, we found an

(25:03):
airline's timetable. We got to the front and notified communications
to alert all special details at railroad stations, bus terminals
and airports.

Speaker 1 (25:11):
And then to get out on APB. After that we
checked with the airlines. One of them told us a
man answering.

Speaker 6 (25:17):
Average description of book passes to Mexico City that night
under the name of Charles Frasier. The plane was scheduled
to leave at one fifty two am at the Burbank Airport.
We called the detail at the airport and alerted them,
Then we drove.

Speaker 1 (25:29):
Over to the field to follow through on it.

Speaker 6 (25:31):
It was one thirty two am when Ed and I
took up our positions just inside Gate three, where passengers
were boarding flight seventy two for Mexico City. There was
no sign of the suspect, either on the plane or
in the waiting room.

Speaker 2 (25:44):
I think the shelf, I don't know about you, ver
Sparghetti over.

Speaker 7 (25:49):
There by the cocktail, sim oh yeah, what's time he got?

Speaker 1 (25:54):
Now? On planes? Do to take off?

Speaker 2 (25:57):
Another four?

Speaker 1 (25:58):
Mess? And that any sign of 'em?

Speaker 7 (26:02):
Now?

Speaker 2 (26:02):
No?

Speaker 7 (26:03):
Nothing, just made the rounds check with Stevens and Cummings.
If he got any came in somebody's suitcase. Couldn't have
possibly gotten too out of one of us seeing it.

Speaker 1 (26:10):
Well, well, he hasn't got much more time. Maybe it's
a dead end.

Speaker 5 (26:13):
Huh.

Speaker 8 (26:13):
You don't see how he could have gotten the wise to.

Speaker 2 (26:15):
You over there?

Speaker 1 (26:16):
No?

Speaker 2 (26:16):
No, by the ticket count of that you see him?

Speaker 7 (26:19):
Yeah, that's seem come on, huh, by just a minute, abbot,
I havn't a time now, I missed my plane.

Speaker 1 (26:27):
Do you have anything more to say to me?

Speaker 7 (26:28):
If you wait, I gets back right now at it
and take it up with my lawyer. I'm and Harry,
we found your wife's body. And then in the rose
bed next to the greenhouse.

Speaker 2 (26:34):
I don't know what you mean. You must be was
taking him no mistake, hands behind your back once. It's
all about.

Speaker 7 (26:38):
I haven't done anything, alright, let's go. No, just a minute,
you got it wrong. I don't know anything about it.

Speaker 1 (26:44):
We think you do?

Speaker 2 (26:45):
Now?

Speaker 1 (26:45):
Come on, wasn't my fault?

Speaker 7 (26:47):
Time? Didn't know what I was doing. I pleaded in sanity.
If she drove me to it, we were all get
about the bloynch she slapped me. I didn't mean to
do it. All right, let's go, abbit, Can you wait
just two minutes more?

Speaker 5 (27:00):
What for?

Speaker 7 (27:01):
I cleaned one from Mexico City?

Speaker 1 (27:05):
Honey, isn't it? What's saying?

Speaker 7 (27:07):
I was so close, just missed it, and by more
in one minute?

Speaker 1 (27:12):
You know you're wrong about that, abbit.

Speaker 7 (27:14):
Just one minute, that's all.

Speaker 1 (27:16):
Have you missed it before you ever bought your ticket?

Speaker 7 (27:19):
How do you figure it.

Speaker 1 (27:20):
When you first decided to kill your wife? Come on, the.

Speaker 4 (27:30):
Story you have just heard was true. The names were
changed to protect the innocent.

Speaker 3 (27:35):
On December nineteenth, trial was held in Superior Court, Department
eighty nine, city in County of Los Angeles, State of California.
In a moment, the results of that trial.

Speaker 2 (27:44):
Now here is our star, Jack Webb, Thank you.

Speaker 6 (27:47):
George Fenneman friends, I'm holding two sets of fingerprint cards.

Speaker 1 (27:50):
Now.

Speaker 6 (27:51):
On one prints founded the scene of a crime. On
the second, the suspects.

Speaker 1 (27:54):
Taken from the files. Now, the only way in the.

Speaker 6 (27:56):
World you can tell they're made by the same suspect
is by comparison. If you'll compare Fatima with any other
king size cigarette, you'll find Fatima's length filters the smoke
eighty five millimeters for your protection. Fatima's length cools the
smoke for your protection. Fatima's length gives you those extra
puffs twenty one percent longer than standards cigarette size, and

(28:17):
you get an extra mild and soothing smoke, plus the
added protection of Fatima quality. Prove it today by Fatima.

Speaker 3 (28:32):
Chester Vernon Abbott was tried and convicted of murder in
the first degree. The jury failed to recommend clemency. Abbot
was executed in the lethal gas chamber of the State
Penitentiary San Quentin, California. You have just heard Dragnet, a

(28:56):
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 Donaho, Sergeant
Marty Wynne, and Sergeant Vance Bracer. Heard tonight were Barney
Phillips and Herbellus. Script by Jim Mozer, music by Walter Schumann.

(29:18):
Hell Gidney speaking.

Speaker 4 (29:24):
Fatima Cigarettes, best of all King Size cigarettes, has brought
you Dragnet transcribed from Los Angeles. Now It's Counterspy on
NBC
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