November 6, 2025 • 25 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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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
The story you're about to hear is true. The names have.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Been changed to protect the innocent.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Dragnet. You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned to homicide detail.
A young girl has been found in a cheap hotel room,
apparently an attempt at suicide. There's reason to suspect foul play.
Your job investigate.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
It was Thursday, November nineteenth. It was warm in Los Angeles.
We were working the day watch out of Homicide Detail.
My partner's Frank Smith. The boss is Captain Mormon. My
name is Friday. We just got in a call from
Georgie Street Receiving Hospital. It was nine forty six am
when we got to the second floor the treatment room.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yeah, did I see doctor Hall.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Please come in, Joe so Rank, Hi, Doc, there's the girl. Yeah,
how she doing? I'm not sure yet, just finished the transfusion.
When you're gonna know, we think she's gonna live that
there's no way of telling them right now how much
damage has been done to the brain tissue. Bad bruise
on her face must have received a bad blow. It
might have gotten when she fell. Let's go outside, I
(01:20):
can use the smoke okay, Well, if there's any change,
I'll be out in the hall.
Speaker 5 (01:23):
All right, that's true.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
You got a cigarette, I'm fresh on.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Yeah, here you are, Frank, Yeah, thanks, here's a match.
Speaker 6 (01:38):
Thanks.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
I didn't know you gave transfusions and cases like.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
This, Doc won't have to very often. You see a
thing like this. The carbon monoxide in the gas joins
with the hemoglobin and in the red cells won't let go.
Blood takes the monoxide through the system and suffocates the
brain tissue. We've given her some coramine helps speed up
the heart action.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Wait.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Look, she's got a good chance of living, but we
won't know how bad it really Isn't till later when
you find out who she is.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
Ala clari and stuff. We found her waller. Name's Mona Fenton.
Another thing that doesn't make much sense. She registered into
the hotel as missus John North.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
There's we can find out she wasn't married.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
How'd you come up with that?
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Well, when the office got worried about it, we tried
to get in touch with her husband. Called the phone
number on the ID that we found on her wallet,
talked with her mother.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
She says, a girl single.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
How about the guy she was with. You've been able
to talk to him?
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Nope, I haven't found out who he is.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Her name doesn't check out, not that we can find.
How about the mother, did you give you anything?
Speaker 4 (02:27):
We just talked to her for a minute. We're going
over there when we leave here.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Maybe she can come up with some answers.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
I sure, hope.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
So a couple more questions you can ask her.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Yeah, what's that?
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Find out if the girl's been under a doctor's care, Well,
what you mean checked her over when she came in
and found marks on her own? Yeah, I think she's
an addict.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
At eight thirty am that morning, a guest in a
small hotel on Grand Avenue had thought that he detected
the odor of gas in the halls of the building.
He notified the desk clerk, and together they conducted the
search of the premise. Finally, they ascertained that the escaping
gas was coming from a room on.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
The third floor of the hotel. When the desk clerk got.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
No answer to his calls, he used a pass key
to open the door. Sprawled across the bed was a
girl who appeared to be in her early twenties. If
the gas heater in the room had been turned on
full and the windows were closed, locked, and stuffed with
pieces of torn sheets to keep the fumes.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
In the room.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
The quick action of the desk clerk had undoubtedly saved
the girl's life.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
While a hotel guest called.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
An ambulance, the clerk turned off the gas, opened the windows,
and administered artificial respiration to the girl until the ambulance
crew arrived. As an attempted suicide, the homicide detail had
to make an investigation of the Frank and I were assigned.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
To the case. After we talked to Doc Hall.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
At Georgia Street Receiving Hospital, we drove down to the hotel.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Where the girl had been found.
Speaker 6 (03:46):
Right in here.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Anybody had been in this room since the other officers left.
Speaker 6 (03:51):
Oh, sir told me to lock it until you could
see it.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
All right, See this is just the way you found it,
Is that right?
Speaker 6 (03:58):
Well?
Speaker 7 (03:58):
Yes, of course the gas is turned off and I
opened the windows, But everything else is the same.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
I see from what you said on the phone, she
came in last night, Is that right?
Speaker 7 (04:09):
Yes, sir, at least that's what the registration book says.
Speaker 6 (04:12):
They checked in at ten fifteen.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Did you take care of him?
Speaker 4 (04:15):
No?
Speaker 6 (04:16):
I was out to dinner when they got here.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Who checked him in? Jeff, Jeff Christensen see around?
Speaker 6 (04:21):
No, not right now. He'll probably be back tonight.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
You know where we can find him.
Speaker 6 (04:26):
I don't know.
Speaker 7 (04:27):
See, Jeff got paid last night cause his week's wages.
Speaker 6 (04:30):
Last I saw him.
Speaker 7 (04:31):
He's on his way out on the town with some
of his friends. Jeff goes out on the town. Maybe
we don't see him a couple of days.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
I see, But you figure he'll be back tonight.
Speaker 7 (04:40):
Oh, yes, yes, Jeff only worked a couple of days
last week, so he gonna go on much.
Speaker 6 (04:45):
Of the town.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Did you see the man? Miss spent and came in with?
Speaker 6 (04:48):
No, I didn't. You were already in the room when
I got back to dinner. I checked the book.
Speaker 7 (04:53):
I got the money from Jeff before I left. The
man must have gone out sometime earlier this morning. I
was asleep my room, just back of the desk. Color
must have got out while I was asleep, I see.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Did you get any calls from the room at all?
Speaker 6 (05:07):
Other one?
Speaker 7 (05:08):
Like I told, those uniformed officers were here, I didn't
see them at all. A lot of people. As a
matter of fact, I was thinking, how nice and quiet
they were, But the way the room books, they sure
must have had some sort of argument.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
See, but you know if they brought any baggage with him.
Speaker 7 (05:23):
Matter of fact, I know they didn't. Sure looks like
they did some heavy drinking though it. Yeah, glasses and
bottles almost empty.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Yeah, I rather you wouldn't touch the bottle.
Speaker 6 (05:35):
Oh yeah, I got Alamo. Say you talk to the
girls people yet?
Speaker 2 (05:39):
No, sure we haven't.
Speaker 6 (05:40):
But you're planned to see him, aren't you.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Yes?
Speaker 7 (05:43):
Yeah, I wonder if you'd do me a favor, you
know when you see a people, Yes, sir, what's that?
Speaker 6 (05:47):
Well?
Speaker 7 (05:48):
I don't much mind the dirty glasses and having to
straighten the room up. That's all part of the hotel business.
But I wish you'd say something about the torn sheets.
Tell a people about him. I don't want to cause
no trouble, but maybe if they know how about sheets
were all torn up, they'd want to make good on them.
Speaker 6 (06:04):
You will mention it, won't you, Yes, sir, I'll call
your office, Joe.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
I haven't sent out a crew to see what Prince
we can lift? All right? Who else is the past
year in this room? Well?
Speaker 6 (06:14):
You mean beside me? Yes? Well, ain't nobody.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Where's the key kept?
Speaker 6 (06:18):
That hangs on a nail next to desk. That's big nail,
lath hangs.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Right on it.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
When you came into the room, did you notice if
there was ending around the door to keep the gas inside?
Speaker 6 (06:27):
I don't follow you.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
Well you found pieces of torn sheets around the windows?
You say, Now, was there anything like that.
Speaker 6 (06:33):
But the door? Oh?
Speaker 7 (06:35):
Oh yes, I'm with you now, Yeah, I let me
think as I remember. No, No, there wasn't nothing there
just around the windows.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Was the key in the lock when you came up here?
Speaker 6 (06:46):
You mean inside of the room?
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Yes, that's right. No.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
No.
Speaker 6 (06:49):
The reason I know that for sure is that I
looked through the keyhole. I had to see what was
in the room. Oh, sis key wasn't here, of course,
I don't.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Mean nothing, sir.
Speaker 6 (06:59):
Well, only a couple of the rooms have keys.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Anyway, we don't use them anymore.
Speaker 8 (07:02):
You mean you don't lock the doors. Sure, we lock
the doors. We got them all locked all the time.
This is a respectable hotel. Of course we lock the doors,
but not with those keys. We got those other locks
on the doors. Oh I see see, yeah, see there
sort of like Yale.
Speaker 7 (07:17):
Locks, that kind you know that's what locks the doors,
not the other keys.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Yes, I see, of course we lock the doors. Yes,
the locks catch when the door is closed, though, is
that right?
Speaker 6 (07:28):
Yeh, lock some tight.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
I got in touch with Lee Jones, Joe. He sent
the crew right over.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Good.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
I checked with Doc Hall. How's the girl? Oh, she's
coming along. Doc says she's doing better.
Speaker 6 (07:40):
Oh, these fellas that you're gonna have rooming around here?
What's this all about? There's something wrong.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
We're not sure yet, sir.
Speaker 6 (07:46):
Oh, it always happens like this, know that?
Speaker 2 (07:49):
What's that? Sir?
Speaker 6 (07:49):
I try to run a.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Respectable place, Goodness knows I do.
Speaker 6 (07:52):
I keep it right up the date. There's good service,
and something like this happens.
Speaker 7 (07:56):
There's no reason for that girl to do a thing
like this, not in my hotel.
Speaker 6 (08:00):
Now, you cops coming here. CoP's gonna be all over
the place. Tenants aren't gonna like it. They ain't gonna
like it at all, just because of that girl. Why
did she have to come in here and do a
thing like this?
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Why do'd she have to do it at all? Sir?
Speaker 4 (08:21):
Eleven twenty six am. We questioned the people in the hotel.
None of them could remember hearing any undue noise coming
from the room where the girl had tried to kill herself.
Normally the investigation would have been routine, but with the
possibility of foul play, we had to check every angle
and then check it again. The crew from the crime
lab arrived and went over the room. Under the bed,
they found an empty capsule, the type commonly used to
(08:43):
dispense caron. They also came up with a clean set
of fingerprints on both glasses.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
They were photographed, and the water.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
Glasses themselves were removed to the crime lab to be
booked as evidence. The registration card the couple had signed
was turned over to Don Meyer and handwriting the name
was checked through our record bureau, through the phone book,
and through the city directory.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
But when the leads were checked.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
Out, we were no further in knowing who the man was.
We'd take in the room with Mona Fenton. Word was
left at the hotel for the.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Handy man to contact us as soon as he returned.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
Word was also left that if the man who had
registered with the Fent and girl returned, we were to
be called eleven forty five am. The men from the
crime lab finished their investigation and returned to the office
to compile the results. Frank and I left the hotel
and drove out to the address listed on the girl's
identification was a large white colonial home near one of
the colleges.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
We rang the door bell and waited.
Speaker 9 (09:33):
Yes, missus Fenton, Yes that's right. What is it you want?
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Police officers would like to talk to you.
Speaker 9 (09:37):
Oh, come in, thank you. It's about Mona, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 9 (09:43):
I knew something like this would happen. I knew it
all alone.
Speaker 10 (09:46):
Will you find she first had this crazy idea? When
she first told me about it? I knew kids. Try
to tell them, just try, and they tell you that
times have changed.
Speaker 9 (09:55):
They say that you're not keeping up with the time.
They know it all. Nobody can tell them anything.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
But what idea is this? Missus Simmons?
Speaker 9 (10:01):
When she wanted to quit school and take the job
in that drive in restaurant and.
Speaker 10 (10:04):
A ridiculous thing I ever heard of, Nobody could talk
her out of it.
Speaker 11 (10:08):
Sod knows.
Speaker 9 (10:08):
I tried. I knew something like this stet. I just
knew it.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
Ask ma'am, do you know any reason why your daughter
might want to take her own life?
Speaker 11 (10:18):
Are you a policeman too, ask.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Ma'am on Frank Smith, this is my partner, Joe Friday.
Speaker 9 (10:22):
How do you do how do you do?
Speaker 2 (10:24):
You know any reason when your daughter might wanna kill herself?
Speaker 9 (10:27):
It's a little hard to say, mister Friday, what's that?
Speaker 6 (10:31):
Well?
Speaker 9 (10:31):
No, and I had quite an argument about her leaving school.
Speaker 10 (10:33):
It's one of those silly things that starts and gets
all out of hands.
Speaker 9 (10:36):
You know, we both have pride and neither one of
us is going to back down. I haven't seen Wanda
to talk to for over a month.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
So she lived here, ma'am?
Speaker 10 (10:46):
Yes she does, mister Smith. There's an outside entrance to
her room. She comes and goes as she pleases, doesn't
need a meal fear so, I hardly ever see her.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Do you know if she's been under a doctor's care?
Speaker 6 (10:57):
Oh?
Speaker 9 (10:57):
I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Why do I say, well, your daughter a diabetic?
Speaker 9 (11:02):
No she isn't, mister.
Speaker 10 (11:02):
Friday, all these questions about mona and a doctor, what
are you trying.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
To find out?
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Does your daughter have any special boyfriends? Missus Finnon?
Speaker 9 (11:09):
She did have? Who was that Richard Burdick?
Speaker 11 (11:12):
Nice boy?
Speaker 10 (11:13):
Lona and he were planning to get married when I
got out of school and along with everything else, that
just blew up. Everything seemed to go all at the
same time.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Did your daughter have any trouble with us, Bertie.
Speaker 9 (11:25):
No, nothing you could call real trouble.
Speaker 10 (11:28):
It's that they agreed to disagree with Mona's idea.
Speaker 9 (11:31):
Richard didn't want anything to change. She was very much
in love with her.
Speaker 6 (11:35):
Uh huh.
Speaker 9 (11:35):
Does he know about this?
Speaker 2 (11:36):
I don't think so, Miss Fenton. We haven't told him.
Speaker 10 (11:39):
I don't know what he's going to do. When he
hears about it. It's gonna hit him awfully hard. He's
the sensitive type.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Does your daughter have any close friends that she might
confide him?
Speaker 5 (11:47):
I suppose she does.
Speaker 9 (11:48):
She's talked about some of the girls where she worked.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Would you give us her names? Please?
Speaker 11 (11:52):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Yes, I will.
Speaker 9 (11:53):
I'll write them down for you those I can remember.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
I'm fine. Has your daughter been in good spirits lately, Spurs?
Speaker 10 (11:58):
I know, yes, she's all. We seemed happy enough when
I saw her. I told you, we haven't said much
more than hello the last month, but she seemed tappy.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
You said that she broke up with this verdict boy?
Speaker 6 (12:08):
Is that right?
Speaker 12 (12:08):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (12:09):
When was that?
Speaker 9 (12:10):
Six weeks? Two months?
Speaker 6 (12:11):
Ago.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
You know what caused it, the job, all.
Speaker 9 (12:14):
The other things. Mana kept making dates with him and
then breaking him at the last minute. I guess Richard
just got tired of being stood up.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Well, does he and your daughter have any arguments?
Speaker 10 (12:23):
Did you know of No, it just decided that it
wouldn't work out for them.
Speaker 9 (12:27):
They just decided to stop seeing each other.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Did your daughter have any other steady boyfriends? Anyone that
she saw quite a bit of Maybe, Well.
Speaker 9 (12:34):
There was one boy. He was quite a bit older
than Mona. She saw a lot of him the last
couple of weeks.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
You know who he was?
Speaker 9 (12:41):
No, I never met him.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
I only saw him one What if he could describe
him for.
Speaker 10 (12:45):
No, I'm afraid I can't. He drove by for Mana
one night, going to pick her up for a date,
parked out in front and haunted the horn I see.
I went to the front door to tell him to
come in. Mona wasn't ready yet, but he wouldn't.
Speaker 9 (12:55):
Just sat out there and waited. I didn't get a
good look at him.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Could you describe the car for us?
Speaker 9 (13:00):
I'm not good. It was one of those foreign cars
or convertible. I think it might have been a Jaguar.
I'm not sure about that, though.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
We're you sure it wasn't an American Automobiles.
Speaker 9 (13:09):
Yes, I'm sure about that.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
How about the color of the car? Can you tell
us that it was.
Speaker 9 (13:14):
Awfully dark out there?
Speaker 10 (13:15):
I'm not sure. I'd rather not say, Officer, if I
can't be sure.
Speaker 9 (13:19):
You understand that.
Speaker 10 (13:20):
I wouldn't want to tell you something and then have
it turn out to be wrong. You can understand that,
can't you.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 9 (13:25):
Did you see Mona this morning?
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yes? We did.
Speaker 9 (13:28):
Is she all right? They think so yet, aren't you sure?
Speaker 4 (13:32):
Well, when we talked to the doctor, they were doing
everything they could.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
They seem to think that she was going to be
all right.
Speaker 6 (13:37):
Thank god.
Speaker 10 (13:39):
It's so hard, mister Friday, to know that your child
is sick, that she tried to kill herself.
Speaker 9 (13:44):
You want to go to it and not be able to.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
It's so hard.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
Try to take it easy, if you, camera, Spinton, If
you'll just give us the names of the.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Girl that she might know, we'll be on our way.
Speaker 9 (13:58):
Yes, I'll write them for you.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Thank you. Yeah, excuse me, surely?
Speaker 9 (14:05):
Hello, Yes, it is us, Yes, they're here.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Guess a moment for you I'll get a job.
Speaker 5 (14:16):
I'll get those names for you.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
Mister, did your daughter ever refer to this man in
the foreign car by name?
Speaker 9 (14:22):
No, I don't think she did.
Speaker 10 (14:24):
Oh I know is that whenever she went out with him,
it was the big date of the bunch.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
How often did she see him?
Speaker 9 (14:29):
Eighty A couple of times a week. It might have
been more. I have no way of knowing what she
was doing.
Speaker 10 (14:35):
She kept pretty much to herself when she met him,
but I could tell he was the biggest thing in
her life.
Speaker 11 (14:40):
He was it.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
So yeah, say a minute, yes, excuse him.
Speaker 9 (14:45):
This man, I'll finish this list, thank you.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Yeah, car was from Jack Smiers at the office. Yeah,
Jess removed her to the general hospital. Yeah, she had
a relapse. I don't think she's gonna live.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
We obtained the name of the drive in restaurant where
the Fentman girl was employed. We also got the names
of the girls that she worked with. In the address
of her boyfriend, Richard Birdie. Missus Fenton also gave us
a list of names of persons who might be able
to aid us in the investigations. Under further questioning, the
mother was still unable to furnish us with a motive
for her daughter's attempt to take.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Her own life. The apparent lack of a motive or.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
Any type of a suicide note, coupled with the bruise
on the girl's chin, made the likelihood of foul play
more than possible. Twelve fifty seven pm, we left the
Fentland home and drove over to the drive in. We
stopped on the way and put him the call of
the office. There still hadn't been any report of the
handy man at the hotel.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
The only person who could.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
Give us a description of the man who had registered
at the place with the Fentland girl. When we got
to the drive in, we asked about a Peggy Greeks
and one of the girls on the list. After a
few minutes, the girl came over to our car.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
You what does he means you, Peggy Greekson?
Speaker 11 (15:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (15:59):
What, we'd like to ask you some questions about Mona Finland.
Who you guys police officers would just like to talk
to you.
Speaker 11 (16:04):
I gotta get it, okayd with the manager. I'm on
duty now, lunchtime, pretty busy.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
I gotta get it, okayed. I'll take care of it right, fine, I'll.
Speaker 13 (16:10):
Check with the manager, joll ride, This isn't gonna take long.
I got a couple of customers waiting.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Pers My partner will take care of it.
Speaker 13 (16:16):
I ain't the manager knowing that worries me. It's the
tips they're gonna leave make what I do, and the
tips are important. Yes, ma'm it's all this about Mona anyway.
Speaker 9 (16:24):
What are the cops after her for?
Speaker 11 (16:25):
Well, she tried to kill herself this morning, Mona.
Speaker 9 (16:28):
Yeah, why should do a.
Speaker 11 (16:30):
Thing like that?
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Boy thought maybe you could help us.
Speaker 11 (16:32):
There or me. I haven't got anything to do with it.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Well, we understand you were pretty friendly with it.
Speaker 11 (16:36):
Oh.
Speaker 13 (16:37):
Sure, I was a friend of Mona's, but I don't
know anything about no suicide.
Speaker 11 (16:40):
I don't know anything about it, and I don't wanna.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Do you know any reasons she might try to take
her own life?
Speaker 11 (16:44):
Not a reason in the world, not Mona.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
You know she was under a doctor's care for any reason?
Speaker 11 (16:49):
You know, I mean, I don't know, don't say anything
about it.
Speaker 9 (16:52):
Never said a word?
Speaker 4 (16:53):
Why sh Well, that's what we're trying to find out.
Can you think of any enemy she had, anybody who
might have.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Wanted to hurt her?
Speaker 13 (16:59):
How far is this gonna go Why do you mean, miss,
I mean, who's gonna hear about this?
Speaker 11 (17:02):
Who's gonna hear the answer?
Speaker 2 (17:03):
I'm gonna give you, oh, no one, not what he
got for us.
Speaker 13 (17:06):
Well, I'll give you this for free. If anything happened
to money, you go talk to Dick Burdick. Talk to him.
Speaker 11 (17:11):
He'll be able to tell you why to say that, because.
Speaker 13 (17:13):
It's true, no other reason. It's a real bum. You
ask me, I think there's something.
Speaker 11 (17:17):
Wrong with him, you know in the head.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Would you have any reason to say that?
Speaker 11 (17:21):
All the reason in the world.
Speaker 13 (17:22):
Poor girl, this bumb all the time, coming around and
giving her trouble, all the time, telling how he's gonna
kill her and anybody that comes nearer.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Berdick said that to miss Spentling.
Speaker 11 (17:30):
Did he half a dozen times? Wasn't morean a week ago?
My MoMA told me she told him off, told him to.
Speaker 13 (17:35):
Get lost, want to be part of him, to leave
her alone. He made a big scene.
Speaker 11 (17:39):
You wanna tell me all about it. One day this
terry drove in here.
Speaker 13 (17:42):
Tell one of those flashy faring cars, the Jaguar.
Speaker 11 (17:45):
I think so yeah, Mike.
Speaker 13 (17:47):
Why well, one day he drove into the place mother
took care of him. I guess he liked money, kept
coming back, always parked in her station. Anyway, this birdic
kid found out about It wasn't anything for him to
worry about. But he made a big thing about Tolmana.
She was supposed to stop seeing Terry said if she didn't, he.
Speaker 11 (18:03):
Was going to cause real trouble.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Did he see what he was going to do?
Speaker 9 (18:06):
Oh?
Speaker 11 (18:06):
I think he was kidney. I don't think he really
mant that.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
He's just a kid. Who would he say?
Speaker 11 (18:11):
I really don't think he met we all right?
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Now? Wouldn't he say to her?
Speaker 11 (18:15):
Said, if you found him together again, kill him both.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
We talked to the other girls on the drive in.
From them, we got the same story about the scenes
that Richard Berdick had created. We got more information about
the threats that he'd made against the Fenton girl and
Terry Hamilton. From one of the girls. We got the
address of Hamilton. Two forty five pm. We left the
drive in and drove over to the address of the
girl's boyfriend, Richard Bertie. We talked to the landlady.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
She told us that the Berdick boy had regular habits.
He paid his rent on time, he never had any visitors.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
She told us that he wasn't in his room at
that time, but she said that she had let us
in and her company.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
We went upstairs. She unlocked the door and Frank and
I went in. Want to check the bedroom. I'll take
the kitchen. Yeah, there's nothing out there. How'd you do? Oh,
it looks like we're a little late. What his clothes
are gone? We checked the room further.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
Every indication was that Richard Berdick had left the apartment
in a hurry. We talked to the landlady again. She
could give us no reason for his disappearance. She gave
us the name of his employer. We'd put in a
call to them, but they told us that Bertie could
failed to show up for.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Work that day four fifteen pm.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
We put in a call to the hotel on Grand Avenue,
but the handyman still hadn't returned, and there'd been no
word from him. We went back to the office and
checked the name Richard Berdick through II, but we found.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
No criminal record for anybody answering his description.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
We put out a local m APB on him. At
four thirty nine pm, we got a call from General hospital,
telling us that the Fenton girl would regained consciousness and that.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
We could talk to her.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
Frank and I left the office and traveled code too
out to the hospital. The doctor on duty told us
that the girl was out of.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Danger, but that she was very weak. He asked us
not to get her excit.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
I didn't he let us into her room, Miss Beeman?
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Yes, who were you police officers?
Speaker 5 (20:12):
Why can't you leave me alone? Go away?
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Just a couple of questions we'd like to ask you.
Speaker 5 (20:16):
I don't wanna talk to anybody. Why Why didn't you
leave things the way they were? Why didn't you leave
me alone?
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Well, you had a lot of people worried, Miss, no.
Speaker 5 (20:23):
Reason for it be better all the way around. If
things had happened the way I planned.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Them, and you did try to kill yourself. Yes, who
was with you in that hotel room?
Speaker 5 (20:34):
M mister Morris, Yeah, it was Terry. It was always Terry.
He was gonna marry me. Then he didn't. He said
he wouldn't.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
He didn't that way you did what you did? Yes,
you used narcotics mipm hm. He used narcotics.
Speaker 5 (20:51):
Yes, it was.
Speaker 9 (20:51):
Terry's I did too.
Speaker 5 (20:54):
I think that's all he wanted with me just to
get me hooked, so I'd have to do what he said.
I think that was the reason.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
How about this, Richard Burdy, what about him?
Speaker 4 (21:02):
Do you have anything to do with you? Deciding to
take your own life a lot of ways.
Speaker 5 (21:07):
The mistake I haven't made was leaving Richer. Now, I
thought it was smart, real smart. I was gonna show him.
Terry said he'd marry me. He said he was in
love with me.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
He gets you started on narchotics.
Speaker 5 (21:17):
Yeah, at first it wasn't so bad. I loved him,
really I did. Then when I had to have the fixes,
he changed told me he couldn't give it to me anymore.
I was gonna have to pay for it. I tried
to tell him, to tell him that I loved him,
that I wanted to be with him. So I went
to the hotel to talk it over, try to come
(21:37):
to an understanding, some kind of an understanding. He said
that he didn't wanna have anything to do with me.
He wanted no part of me anymore, said that I
was gonna have to pay for the h from now on.
I didn't have any way to pay for it. He
said it wasn't any of his business.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
He a use it.
Speaker 5 (21:57):
Yeah, also stupid.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Also stupid, ma'am.
Speaker 5 (22:04):
The whole thing. I had it real good all the
way around, and then I went ahead and ruined everything,
tore it all down. Even if I'd have killed myself,
it would have been no answer, not the right answer anyway.
I know that I know it real well.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
All right, can you tell us where you can find
this terry?
Speaker 11 (22:24):
You bet I can.
Speaker 5 (22:26):
I want to see him, feel like I do. I
want him to know what it's like.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Would you be willing to meet with him? Make a
bye of narcotics force?
Speaker 5 (22:35):
You name the time, I'll be there. I'll be there
if I have to crawl, alright, anybody get some resks now,
I guess so I'm pretty tired. Did you see my mother?
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 5 (22:51):
Is she real mad at me?
Speaker 2 (22:52):
No? I don't think she is.
Speaker 9 (22:54):
Would you call.
Speaker 5 (22:55):
Her, ask her to come and see me. Tell her
I'm sorry, Tell her I want to see her.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
I should be glad to hear that.
Speaker 9 (23:03):
I hope.
Speaker 5 (23:03):
So I got so much to tell her her and
Richard how much to tell him both?
Speaker 2 (23:10):
All right, miss, we'll get in touch with it.
Speaker 5 (23:13):
And you tell me when you want me to call Terry.
You tell me all terrible.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Thing isn't what's that?
Speaker 5 (23:22):
Terry? He's been around a long time. Must be other
girls in the same fix, all because of him, Girls
who have a bad habit and have to do what
he says, Girls like me.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Terrible.
Speaker 5 (23:34):
Nobody knows how many yes? Where's it going to end?
Speaker 2 (23:39):
When you meet him?
Speaker 14 (23:49):
Terry Norris Hamilton was tried and convicted a violation of
the State Narcotics Act that FELONNY one count. He received
sentence as prescribed by law. Violation of the State Narcotics
Act that felony is honicable by imprisonment and the state
penitentiary for a period of from one to five years.
Mona Irene Fenton pled guilty to the same charge and
was placed on probation.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
For a period of three years, with a provision that
she be.
Speaker 14 (24:11):
Placed under the care of a competent psychiatrist, Dragnette.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
The Story of Your Police Force in Action is a
presentation of the United States Armed Forces Radio Service.
Speaker 12 (25:00):
Stop Stop, stepper, supper steps, stump, snap covers, slap slapper,
(25:26):
competent st
Speaker 8 (25:32):
St ST
Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
The story you're about to hear is true. The names have.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Been changed to protect the innocent.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Dragnet. You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned to homicide detail.
A young girl has been found in a cheap hotel room,
apparently an attempt at suicide. There's reason to suspect foul play.
Your job investigate.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
It was Thursday, November nineteenth. It was warm in Los Angeles.
We were working the day watch out of Homicide Detail.
My partner's Frank Smith. The boss is Captain Mormon. My
name is Friday. We just got in a call from
Georgie Street Receiving Hospital. It was nine forty six am
when we got to the second floor the treatment room.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yeah, did I see doctor Hall.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Please come in, Joe so Rank, Hi, Doc, there's the girl. Yeah,
how she doing? I'm not sure yet, just finished the transfusion.
When you're gonna know, we think she's gonna live that
there's no way of telling them right now how much
damage has been done to the brain tissue. Bad bruise
on her face must have received a bad blow. It
might have gotten when she fell. Let's go outside, I
(01:20):
can use the smoke okay, Well, if there's any change,
I'll be out in the hall.
Speaker 5 (01:23):
All right, that's true.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
You got a cigarette, I'm fresh on.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Yeah, here you are, Frank, Yeah, thanks, here's a match.
Speaker 6 (01:38):
Thanks.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
I didn't know you gave transfusions and cases like.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
This, Doc won't have to very often. You see a
thing like this. The carbon monoxide in the gas joins
with the hemoglobin and in the red cells won't let go.
Blood takes the monoxide through the system and suffocates the
brain tissue. We've given her some coramine helps speed up
the heart action.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Wait.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Look, she's got a good chance of living, but we
won't know how bad it really Isn't till later when
you find out who she is.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
Ala clari and stuff. We found her waller. Name's Mona Fenton.
Another thing that doesn't make much sense. She registered into
the hotel as missus John North.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
There's we can find out she wasn't married.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
How'd you come up with that?
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Well, when the office got worried about it, we tried
to get in touch with her husband. Called the phone
number on the ID that we found on her wallet,
talked with her mother.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
She says, a girl single.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
How about the guy she was with. You've been able
to talk to him?
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Nope, I haven't found out who he is.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Her name doesn't check out, not that we can find.
How about the mother, did you give you anything?
Speaker 4 (02:27):
We just talked to her for a minute. We're going
over there when we leave here.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Maybe she can come up with some answers.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
I sure, hope.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
So a couple more questions you can ask her.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Yeah, what's that?
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Find out if the girl's been under a doctor's care, Well,
what you mean checked her over when she came in
and found marks on her own? Yeah, I think she's
an addict.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
At eight thirty am that morning, a guest in a
small hotel on Grand Avenue had thought that he detected
the odor of gas in the halls of the building.
He notified the desk clerk, and together they conducted the
search of the premise. Finally, they ascertained that the escaping
gas was coming from a room on.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
The third floor of the hotel. When the desk clerk got.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
No answer to his calls, he used a pass key
to open the door. Sprawled across the bed was a
girl who appeared to be in her early twenties. If
the gas heater in the room had been turned on
full and the windows were closed, locked, and stuffed with
pieces of torn sheets to keep the fumes.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
In the room.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
The quick action of the desk clerk had undoubtedly saved
the girl's life.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
While a hotel guest called.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
An ambulance, the clerk turned off the gas, opened the windows,
and administered artificial respiration to the girl until the ambulance
crew arrived. As an attempted suicide, the homicide detail had
to make an investigation of the Frank and I were assigned.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
To the case. After we talked to Doc Hall.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
At Georgia Street Receiving Hospital, we drove down to the hotel.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Where the girl had been found.
Speaker 6 (03:46):
Right in here.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Anybody had been in this room since the other officers left.
Speaker 6 (03:51):
Oh, sir told me to lock it until you could
see it.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
All right, See this is just the way you found it,
Is that right?
Speaker 6 (03:58):
Well?
Speaker 7 (03:58):
Yes, of course the gas is turned off and I
opened the windows, But everything else is the same.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
I see from what you said on the phone, she
came in last night, Is that right?
Speaker 7 (04:09):
Yes, sir, at least that's what the registration book says.
Speaker 6 (04:12):
They checked in at ten fifteen.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Did you take care of him?
Speaker 4 (04:15):
No?
Speaker 6 (04:16):
I was out to dinner when they got here.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Who checked him in? Jeff, Jeff Christensen see around?
Speaker 6 (04:21):
No, not right now. He'll probably be back tonight.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
You know where we can find him.
Speaker 6 (04:26):
I don't know.
Speaker 7 (04:27):
See, Jeff got paid last night cause his week's wages.
Speaker 6 (04:30):
Last I saw him.
Speaker 7 (04:31):
He's on his way out on the town with some
of his friends. Jeff goes out on the town. Maybe
we don't see him a couple of days.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
I see, But you figure he'll be back tonight.
Speaker 7 (04:40):
Oh, yes, yes, Jeff only worked a couple of days
last week, so he gonna go on much.
Speaker 6 (04:45):
Of the town.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Did you see the man? Miss spent and came in with?
Speaker 6 (04:48):
No, I didn't. You were already in the room when
I got back to dinner. I checked the book.
Speaker 7 (04:53):
I got the money from Jeff before I left. The
man must have gone out sometime earlier this morning. I
was asleep my room, just back of the desk. Color
must have got out while I was asleep, I see.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Did you get any calls from the room at all?
Speaker 6 (05:07):
Other one?
Speaker 7 (05:08):
Like I told, those uniformed officers were here, I didn't
see them at all. A lot of people. As a
matter of fact, I was thinking, how nice and quiet
they were, But the way the room books, they sure
must have had some sort of argument.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
See, but you know if they brought any baggage with him.
Speaker 7 (05:23):
Matter of fact, I know they didn't. Sure looks like
they did some heavy drinking though it. Yeah, glasses and
bottles almost empty.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Yeah, I rather you wouldn't touch the bottle.
Speaker 6 (05:35):
Oh yeah, I got Alamo. Say you talk to the
girls people yet?
Speaker 2 (05:39):
No, sure we haven't.
Speaker 6 (05:40):
But you're planned to see him, aren't you.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Yes?
Speaker 7 (05:43):
Yeah, I wonder if you'd do me a favor, you
know when you see a people, Yes, sir, what's that?
Speaker 6 (05:47):
Well?
Speaker 7 (05:48):
I don't much mind the dirty glasses and having to
straighten the room up. That's all part of the hotel business.
But I wish you'd say something about the torn sheets.
Tell a people about him. I don't want to cause
no trouble, but maybe if they know how about sheets
were all torn up, they'd want to make good on them.
Speaker 6 (06:04):
You will mention it, won't you, Yes, sir, I'll call
your office, Joe.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
I haven't sent out a crew to see what Prince
we can lift? All right? Who else is the past
year in this room? Well?
Speaker 6 (06:14):
You mean beside me? Yes? Well, ain't nobody.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Where's the key kept?
Speaker 6 (06:18):
That hangs on a nail next to desk. That's big nail,
lath hangs.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Right on it.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
When you came into the room, did you notice if
there was ending around the door to keep the gas inside?
Speaker 6 (06:27):
I don't follow you.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
Well you found pieces of torn sheets around the windows?
You say, Now, was there anything like that.
Speaker 6 (06:33):
But the door? Oh?
Speaker 7 (06:35):
Oh yes, I'm with you now, Yeah, I let me
think as I remember. No, No, there wasn't nothing there
just around the windows.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Was the key in the lock when you came up here?
Speaker 6 (06:46):
You mean inside of the room?
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Yes, that's right. No.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
No.
Speaker 6 (06:49):
The reason I know that for sure is that I
looked through the keyhole. I had to see what was
in the room. Oh, sis key wasn't here, of course,
I don't.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Mean nothing, sir.
Speaker 6 (06:59):
Well, only a couple of the rooms have keys.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Anyway, we don't use them anymore.
Speaker 8 (07:02):
You mean you don't lock the doors. Sure, we lock
the doors. We got them all locked all the time.
This is a respectable hotel. Of course we lock the doors,
but not with those keys. We got those other locks
on the doors. Oh I see see, yeah, see there
sort of like Yale.
Speaker 7 (07:17):
Locks, that kind you know that's what locks the doors,
not the other keys.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Yes, I see, of course we lock the doors. Yes,
the locks catch when the door is closed, though, is
that right?
Speaker 6 (07:28):
Yeh, lock some tight.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
I got in touch with Lee Jones, Joe. He sent
the crew right over.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Good.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
I checked with Doc Hall. How's the girl? Oh, she's
coming along. Doc says she's doing better.
Speaker 6 (07:40):
Oh, these fellas that you're gonna have rooming around here?
What's this all about? There's something wrong.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
We're not sure yet, sir.
Speaker 6 (07:46):
Oh, it always happens like this, know that?
Speaker 2 (07:49):
What's that? Sir?
Speaker 6 (07:49):
I try to run a.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Respectable place, Goodness knows I do.
Speaker 6 (07:52):
I keep it right up the date. There's good service,
and something like this happens.
Speaker 7 (07:56):
There's no reason for that girl to do a thing
like this, not in my hotel.
Speaker 6 (08:00):
Now, you cops coming here. CoP's gonna be all over
the place. Tenants aren't gonna like it. They ain't gonna
like it at all, just because of that girl. Why
did she have to come in here and do a
thing like this?
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Why do'd she have to do it at all? Sir?
Speaker 4 (08:21):
Eleven twenty six am. We questioned the people in the hotel.
None of them could remember hearing any undue noise coming
from the room where the girl had tried to kill herself.
Normally the investigation would have been routine, but with the
possibility of foul play, we had to check every angle
and then check it again. The crew from the crime
lab arrived and went over the room. Under the bed,
they found an empty capsule, the type commonly used to
(08:43):
dispense caron. They also came up with a clean set
of fingerprints on both glasses.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
They were photographed, and the water.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
Glasses themselves were removed to the crime lab to be
booked as evidence. The registration card the couple had signed
was turned over to Don Meyer and handwriting the name
was checked through our record bureau, through the phone book,
and through the city directory.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
But when the leads were checked.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
Out, we were no further in knowing who the man was.
We'd take in the room with Mona Fenton. Word was
left at the hotel for the.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Handy man to contact us as soon as he returned.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
Word was also left that if the man who had
registered with the Fent and girl returned, we were to
be called eleven forty five am. The men from the
crime lab finished their investigation and returned to the office
to compile the results. Frank and I left the hotel
and drove out to the address listed on the girl's
identification was a large white colonial home near one of
the colleges.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
We rang the door bell and waited.
Speaker 9 (09:33):
Yes, missus Fenton, Yes that's right. What is it you want?
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Police officers would like to talk to you.
Speaker 9 (09:37):
Oh, come in, thank you. It's about Mona, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 9 (09:43):
I knew something like this would happen. I knew it
all alone.
Speaker 10 (09:46):
Will you find she first had this crazy idea? When
she first told me about it? I knew kids. Try
to tell them, just try, and they tell you that
times have changed.
Speaker 9 (09:55):
They say that you're not keeping up with the time.
They know it all. Nobody can tell them anything.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
But what idea is this? Missus Simmons?
Speaker 9 (10:01):
When she wanted to quit school and take the job
in that drive in restaurant and.
Speaker 10 (10:04):
A ridiculous thing I ever heard of, Nobody could talk
her out of it.
Speaker 11 (10:08):
Sod knows.
Speaker 9 (10:08):
I tried. I knew something like this stet. I just
knew it.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
Ask ma'am, do you know any reason why your daughter
might want to take her own life?
Speaker 11 (10:18):
Are you a policeman too, ask.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Ma'am on Frank Smith, this is my partner, Joe Friday.
Speaker 9 (10:22):
How do you do how do you do?
Speaker 2 (10:24):
You know any reason when your daughter might wanna kill herself?
Speaker 9 (10:27):
It's a little hard to say, mister Friday, what's that?
Speaker 6 (10:31):
Well?
Speaker 9 (10:31):
No, and I had quite an argument about her leaving school.
Speaker 10 (10:33):
It's one of those silly things that starts and gets
all out of hands.
Speaker 9 (10:36):
You know, we both have pride and neither one of
us is going to back down. I haven't seen Wanda
to talk to for over a month.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
So she lived here, ma'am?
Speaker 10 (10:46):
Yes she does, mister Smith. There's an outside entrance to
her room. She comes and goes as she pleases, doesn't
need a meal fear so, I hardly ever see her.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Do you know if she's been under a doctor's care?
Speaker 6 (10:57):
Oh?
Speaker 9 (10:57):
I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Why do I say, well, your daughter a diabetic?
Speaker 9 (11:02):
No she isn't, mister.
Speaker 10 (11:02):
Friday, all these questions about mona and a doctor, what
are you trying.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
To find out?
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Does your daughter have any special boyfriends? Missus Finnon?
Speaker 9 (11:09):
She did have? Who was that Richard Burdick?
Speaker 11 (11:12):
Nice boy?
Speaker 10 (11:13):
Lona and he were planning to get married when I
got out of school and along with everything else, that
just blew up. Everything seemed to go all at the
same time.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Did your daughter have any trouble with us, Bertie.
Speaker 9 (11:25):
No, nothing you could call real trouble.
Speaker 10 (11:28):
It's that they agreed to disagree with Mona's idea.
Speaker 9 (11:31):
Richard didn't want anything to change. She was very much
in love with her.
Speaker 6 (11:35):
Uh huh.
Speaker 9 (11:35):
Does he know about this?
Speaker 2 (11:36):
I don't think so, Miss Fenton. We haven't told him.
Speaker 10 (11:39):
I don't know what he's going to do. When he
hears about it. It's gonna hit him awfully hard. He's
the sensitive type.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Does your daughter have any close friends that she might
confide him?
Speaker 5 (11:47):
I suppose she does.
Speaker 9 (11:48):
She's talked about some of the girls where she worked.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Would you give us her names? Please?
Speaker 11 (11:52):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Yes, I will.
Speaker 9 (11:53):
I'll write them down for you those I can remember.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
I'm fine. Has your daughter been in good spirits lately, Spurs?
Speaker 10 (11:58):
I know, yes, she's all. We seemed happy enough when
I saw her. I told you, we haven't said much
more than hello the last month, but she seemed tappy.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
You said that she broke up with this verdict boy?
Speaker 6 (12:08):
Is that right?
Speaker 12 (12:08):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (12:09):
When was that?
Speaker 9 (12:10):
Six weeks? Two months?
Speaker 6 (12:11):
Ago.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
You know what caused it, the job, all.
Speaker 9 (12:14):
The other things. Mana kept making dates with him and
then breaking him at the last minute. I guess Richard
just got tired of being stood up.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Well, does he and your daughter have any arguments?
Speaker 10 (12:23):
Did you know of No, it just decided that it
wouldn't work out for them.
Speaker 9 (12:27):
They just decided to stop seeing each other.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Did your daughter have any other steady boyfriends? Anyone that
she saw quite a bit of Maybe, Well.
Speaker 9 (12:34):
There was one boy. He was quite a bit older
than Mona. She saw a lot of him the last
couple of weeks.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
You know who he was?
Speaker 9 (12:41):
No, I never met him.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
I only saw him one What if he could describe
him for.
Speaker 10 (12:45):
No, I'm afraid I can't. He drove by for Mana
one night, going to pick her up for a date,
parked out in front and haunted the horn I see.
I went to the front door to tell him to
come in. Mona wasn't ready yet, but he wouldn't.
Speaker 9 (12:55):
Just sat out there and waited. I didn't get a
good look at him.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Could you describe the car for us?
Speaker 9 (13:00):
I'm not good. It was one of those foreign cars
or convertible. I think it might have been a Jaguar.
I'm not sure about that, though.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
We're you sure it wasn't an American Automobiles.
Speaker 9 (13:09):
Yes, I'm sure about that.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
How about the color of the car? Can you tell
us that it was.
Speaker 9 (13:14):
Awfully dark out there?
Speaker 10 (13:15):
I'm not sure. I'd rather not say, Officer, if I
can't be sure.
Speaker 9 (13:19):
You understand that.
Speaker 10 (13:20):
I wouldn't want to tell you something and then have
it turn out to be wrong. You can understand that,
can't you.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 9 (13:25):
Did you see Mona this morning?
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yes? We did.
Speaker 9 (13:28):
Is she all right? They think so yet, aren't you sure?
Speaker 4 (13:32):
Well, when we talked to the doctor, they were doing
everything they could.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
They seem to think that she was going to be
all right.
Speaker 6 (13:37):
Thank god.
Speaker 10 (13:39):
It's so hard, mister Friday, to know that your child
is sick, that she tried to kill herself.
Speaker 9 (13:44):
You want to go to it and not be able to.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
It's so hard.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
Try to take it easy, if you, camera, Spinton, If
you'll just give us the names of the.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Girl that she might know, we'll be on our way.
Speaker 9 (13:58):
Yes, I'll write them for you.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Thank you. Yeah, excuse me, surely?
Speaker 9 (14:05):
Hello, Yes, it is us, Yes, they're here.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Guess a moment for you I'll get a job.
Speaker 5 (14:16):
I'll get those names for you.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
Mister, did your daughter ever refer to this man in
the foreign car by name?
Speaker 9 (14:22):
No, I don't think she did.
Speaker 10 (14:24):
Oh I know is that whenever she went out with him,
it was the big date of the bunch.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
How often did she see him?
Speaker 9 (14:29):
Eighty A couple of times a week. It might have
been more. I have no way of knowing what she
was doing.
Speaker 10 (14:35):
She kept pretty much to herself when she met him,
but I could tell he was the biggest thing in
her life.
Speaker 11 (14:40):
He was it.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
So yeah, say a minute, yes, excuse him.
Speaker 9 (14:45):
This man, I'll finish this list, thank you.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Yeah, car was from Jack Smiers at the office. Yeah,
Jess removed her to the general hospital. Yeah, she had
a relapse. I don't think she's gonna live.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
We obtained the name of the drive in restaurant where
the Fentman girl was employed. We also got the names
of the girls that she worked with. In the address
of her boyfriend, Richard Birdie. Missus Fenton also gave us
a list of names of persons who might be able
to aid us in the investigations. Under further questioning, the
mother was still unable to furnish us with a motive
for her daughter's attempt to take.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Her own life. The apparent lack of a motive or.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
Any type of a suicide note, coupled with the bruise
on the girl's chin, made the likelihood of foul play
more than possible. Twelve fifty seven pm, we left the
Fentland home and drove over to the drive in. We
stopped on the way and put him the call of
the office. There still hadn't been any report of the
handy man at the hotel.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
The only person who could.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
Give us a description of the man who had registered
at the place with the Fentland girl. When we got
to the drive in, we asked about a Peggy Greeks
and one of the girls on the list. After a
few minutes, the girl came over to our car.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
You what does he means you, Peggy Greekson?
Speaker 11 (15:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (15:59):
What, we'd like to ask you some questions about Mona Finland.
Who you guys police officers would just like to talk
to you.
Speaker 11 (16:04):
I gotta get it, okayd with the manager. I'm on
duty now, lunchtime, pretty busy.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
I gotta get it, okayed. I'll take care of it right, fine, I'll.
Speaker 13 (16:10):
Check with the manager, joll ride, This isn't gonna take long.
I got a couple of customers waiting.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Pers My partner will take care of it.
Speaker 13 (16:16):
I ain't the manager knowing that worries me. It's the
tips they're gonna leave make what I do, and the
tips are important. Yes, ma'm it's all this about Mona anyway.
Speaker 9 (16:24):
What are the cops after her for?
Speaker 11 (16:25):
Well, she tried to kill herself this morning, Mona.
Speaker 9 (16:28):
Yeah, why should do a.
Speaker 11 (16:30):
Thing like that?
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Boy thought maybe you could help us.
Speaker 11 (16:32):
There or me. I haven't got anything to do with it.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Well, we understand you were pretty friendly with it.
Speaker 11 (16:36):
Oh.
Speaker 13 (16:37):
Sure, I was a friend of Mona's, but I don't
know anything about no suicide.
Speaker 11 (16:40):
I don't know anything about it, and I don't wanna.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Do you know any reasons she might try to take
her own life?
Speaker 11 (16:44):
Not a reason in the world, not Mona.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
You know she was under a doctor's care for any reason?
Speaker 11 (16:49):
You know, I mean, I don't know, don't say anything
about it.
Speaker 9 (16:52):
Never said a word?
Speaker 4 (16:53):
Why sh Well, that's what we're trying to find out.
Can you think of any enemy she had, anybody who
might have.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Wanted to hurt her?
Speaker 13 (16:59):
How far is this gonna go Why do you mean, miss,
I mean, who's gonna hear about this?
Speaker 11 (17:02):
Who's gonna hear the answer?
Speaker 2 (17:03):
I'm gonna give you, oh, no one, not what he
got for us.
Speaker 13 (17:06):
Well, I'll give you this for free. If anything happened
to money, you go talk to Dick Burdick. Talk to him.
Speaker 11 (17:11):
He'll be able to tell you why to say that, because.
Speaker 13 (17:13):
It's true, no other reason. It's a real bum. You
ask me, I think there's something.
Speaker 11 (17:17):
Wrong with him, you know in the head.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Would you have any reason to say that?
Speaker 11 (17:21):
All the reason in the world.
Speaker 13 (17:22):
Poor girl, this bumb all the time, coming around and
giving her trouble, all the time, telling how he's gonna
kill her and anybody that comes nearer.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Berdick said that to miss Spentling.
Speaker 11 (17:30):
Did he half a dozen times? Wasn't morean a week ago?
My MoMA told me she told him off, told him to.
Speaker 13 (17:35):
Get lost, want to be part of him, to leave
her alone. He made a big scene.
Speaker 11 (17:39):
You wanna tell me all about it. One day this
terry drove in here.
Speaker 13 (17:42):
Tell one of those flashy faring cars, the Jaguar.
Speaker 11 (17:45):
I think so yeah, Mike.
Speaker 13 (17:47):
Why well, one day he drove into the place mother
took care of him. I guess he liked money, kept
coming back, always parked in her station. Anyway, this birdic
kid found out about It wasn't anything for him to
worry about. But he made a big thing about Tolmana.
She was supposed to stop seeing Terry said if she didn't, he.
Speaker 11 (18:03):
Was going to cause real trouble.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Did he see what he was going to do?
Speaker 9 (18:06):
Oh?
Speaker 11 (18:06):
I think he was kidney. I don't think he really
mant that.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
He's just a kid. Who would he say?
Speaker 11 (18:11):
I really don't think he met we all right?
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Now? Wouldn't he say to her?
Speaker 11 (18:15):
Said, if you found him together again, kill him both.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
We talked to the other girls on the drive in.
From them, we got the same story about the scenes
that Richard Berdick had created. We got more information about
the threats that he'd made against the Fenton girl and
Terry Hamilton. From one of the girls. We got the
address of Hamilton. Two forty five pm. We left the
drive in and drove over to the address of the
girl's boyfriend, Richard Bertie. We talked to the landlady.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
She told us that the Berdick boy had regular habits.
He paid his rent on time, he never had any visitors.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
She told us that he wasn't in his room at
that time, but she said that she had let us
in and her company.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
We went upstairs. She unlocked the door and Frank and
I went in. Want to check the bedroom. I'll take
the kitchen. Yeah, there's nothing out there. How'd you do? Oh,
it looks like we're a little late. What his clothes
are gone? We checked the room further.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
Every indication was that Richard Berdick had left the apartment
in a hurry. We talked to the landlady again. She
could give us no reason for his disappearance. She gave
us the name of his employer. We'd put in a
call to them, but they told us that Bertie could
failed to show up for.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Work that day four fifteen pm.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
We put in a call to the hotel on Grand Avenue,
but the handyman still hadn't returned, and there'd been no
word from him. We went back to the office and
checked the name Richard Berdick through II, but we found.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
No criminal record for anybody answering his description.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
We put out a local m APB on him. At
four thirty nine pm, we got a call from General hospital,
telling us that the Fenton girl would regained consciousness and that.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
We could talk to her.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
Frank and I left the office and traveled code too
out to the hospital. The doctor on duty told us
that the girl was out of.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Danger, but that she was very weak. He asked us
not to get her excit.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
I didn't he let us into her room, Miss Beeman?
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Yes, who were you police officers?
Speaker 5 (20:12):
Why can't you leave me alone? Go away?
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Just a couple of questions we'd like to ask you.
Speaker 5 (20:16):
I don't wanna talk to anybody. Why Why didn't you
leave things the way they were? Why didn't you leave
me alone?
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Well, you had a lot of people worried, Miss, no.
Speaker 5 (20:23):
Reason for it be better all the way around. If
things had happened the way I planned.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Them, and you did try to kill yourself. Yes, who
was with you in that hotel room?
Speaker 5 (20:34):
M mister Morris, Yeah, it was Terry. It was always Terry.
He was gonna marry me. Then he didn't. He said
he wouldn't.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
He didn't that way you did what you did? Yes,
you used narcotics mipm hm. He used narcotics.
Speaker 5 (20:51):
Yes, it was.
Speaker 9 (20:51):
Terry's I did too.
Speaker 5 (20:54):
I think that's all he wanted with me just to
get me hooked, so I'd have to do what he said.
I think that was the reason.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
How about this, Richard Burdy, what about him?
Speaker 4 (21:02):
Do you have anything to do with you? Deciding to
take your own life a lot of ways.
Speaker 5 (21:07):
The mistake I haven't made was leaving Richer. Now, I
thought it was smart, real smart. I was gonna show him.
Terry said he'd marry me. He said he was in
love with me.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
He gets you started on narchotics.
Speaker 5 (21:17):
Yeah, at first it wasn't so bad. I loved him,
really I did. Then when I had to have the fixes,
he changed told me he couldn't give it to me anymore.
I was gonna have to pay for it. I tried
to tell him, to tell him that I loved him,
that I wanted to be with him. So I went
to the hotel to talk it over, try to come
(21:37):
to an understanding, some kind of an understanding. He said
that he didn't wanna have anything to do with me.
He wanted no part of me anymore, said that I
was gonna have to pay for the h from now on.
I didn't have any way to pay for it. He
said it wasn't any of his business.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
He a use it.
Speaker 5 (21:57):
Yeah, also stupid.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Also stupid, ma'am.
Speaker 5 (22:04):
The whole thing. I had it real good all the
way around, and then I went ahead and ruined everything,
tore it all down. Even if I'd have killed myself,
it would have been no answer, not the right answer anyway.
I know that I know it real well.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
All right, can you tell us where you can find
this terry?
Speaker 11 (22:24):
You bet I can.
Speaker 5 (22:26):
I want to see him, feel like I do. I
want him to know what it's like.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Would you be willing to meet with him? Make a
bye of narcotics force?
Speaker 5 (22:35):
You name the time, I'll be there. I'll be there
if I have to crawl, alright, anybody get some resks now,
I guess so I'm pretty tired. Did you see my mother?
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 5 (22:51):
Is she real mad at me?
Speaker 2 (22:52):
No? I don't think she is.
Speaker 9 (22:54):
Would you call.
Speaker 5 (22:55):
Her, ask her to come and see me. Tell her
I'm sorry, Tell her I want to see her.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
I should be glad to hear that.
Speaker 9 (23:03):
I hope.
Speaker 5 (23:03):
So I got so much to tell her her and
Richard how much to tell him both?
Speaker 2 (23:10):
All right, miss, we'll get in touch with it.
Speaker 5 (23:13):
And you tell me when you want me to call Terry.
You tell me all terrible.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Thing isn't what's that?
Speaker 5 (23:22):
Terry? He's been around a long time. Must be other
girls in the same fix, all because of him, Girls
who have a bad habit and have to do what
he says, Girls like me.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Terrible.
Speaker 5 (23:34):
Nobody knows how many yes? Where's it going to end?
Speaker 2 (23:39):
When you meet him?
Speaker 14 (23:49):
Terry Norris Hamilton was tried and convicted a violation of
the State Narcotics Act that FELONNY one count. He received
sentence as prescribed by law. Violation of the State Narcotics
Act that felony is honicable by imprisonment and the state
penitentiary for a period of from one to five years.
Mona Irene Fenton pled guilty to the same charge and
was placed on probation.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
For a period of three years, with a provision that
she be.
Speaker 14 (24:11):
Placed under the care of a competent psychiatrist, Dragnette.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
The Story of Your Police Force in Action is a
presentation of the United States Armed Forces Radio Service.
Speaker 12 (25:00):
Stop Stop, stepper, supper steps, stump, snap covers, slap slapper,
(25:26):
competent st
Speaker 8 (25:32):
St ST
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