November 11, 2025 • 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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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
The story you're about to hear is true, only the
names have been changed to protect the innocent.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
NBC brings you drag Net.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned to burglary Detail. A
gang of hijackers has started to work in your city.
Truckloads of valuable merchandise are vanished. The thieves are clever,
seem to have a fool proof system. Your job find them.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Drag Nets the document a drama of an actual crime
investigated and solved. The men who unprelentingly stand watch on
the security at your home, your family, and your life
all 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 from
official police files, from beginning to end, from crime to punishment.
(01:07):
Drag Net is the story of your police force in action.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
It was Thursday, March sixth It was windy in Los Angeles.
We were working the night watch out of Burglary Detail.
My partner's Ben Romero. The bosses at Backstring she be detectives.
My name's Friday. I was on the way back from
a record Bureau. And it was five thirty five am
when I got to Room two, a interrogation room.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
Read this storm then, yeah, twenty six hundred dozen nylon stockings,
forty five bolts to sail, fifty eight cases imported burkey.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Where you're dumping this stuff? Of all it's what we
want to know.
Speaker 5 (01:46):
I told you the truth. I have nothing to do
with it. I don't know anything about it.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
What was the stolen way building in the Cavia truck?
How many times I have to tell you I don't know.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
If finger prints were all over it, you must have
carried it there.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
I didn't carry it. There's somebody's out to frame me.
How many in the hijack gang levelle I'm not in
a highjack game. I told you, I don't know. Why
are you gonna let me go?
Speaker 5 (02:08):
Who's the head of the gang. I don't know any
head of the gang. I want to get out of here.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
You're covering for somebody, not covering for anybody. You take
the rap for all this. You're gonna have a beard
down to your knees by the time you get out.
I'm not taking any wrap. Then let's have it. I'm tired.
Forty two thousand dollars worth. You know who took it,
you know where it is.
Speaker 5 (02:25):
They could have disappeared anywhere on their way from the
East to the Thousand Places.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Nothing was missing from those shipments when they came in
on the train, and everything was there when they were
unloaded the warehouse. And they don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
Every dollar's worth was a common for when it was
loaded on the truck.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Where is it now? I'm tired, We've been here all night.
Let me well, let me read it for you again.
Twenty six hundred dozen nine on stockings, forty five bolts
of silk, fifty eight cases imported perfume. And you're trying
to tell us somebody hijacked all it from the trucks
without you knowing it.
Speaker 5 (02:52):
The trucks were loaded at the warehouse, we went out
to eat, We came back out in the trucks, delivered
the stuff.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
And that's all I know.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
And while you were out eating, the receipts for the
little dis beard too, fat rad Levell.
Speaker 5 (03:02):
I don't know where the waybills are the shipping truck.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
That's his job. We talked to him. He says, one
of you could have taken the way and then he's
lying I didn't take him. Then what was this way
Bill doing in the cabre truck?
Speaker 5 (03:12):
I told you I don't know somebody's trying to frame
me why.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
I don't know somebody I don't know. Why? Then you
better come up with an answer. Mister.
Speaker 5 (03:21):
Look, I'm tired. We've been here since six o'clock last night.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
We're all tired. Who are you covering for? What are
you trying to build? Honey?
Speaker 6 (03:31):
That coffee let's been It's cool, that's all right, you
want some level No, but.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Now, look, let's get one thing straight. We've been here
all night. We be here all day tomorrow, the day
after that, and a day after that. We got enough
to make you on this. You know that we're gonna
stay with you to tell us the truth. Everything I've
told you all, I'm gonna tell you. We stay here
for six months.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
You got it?
Speaker 7 (04:10):
All?
Speaker 6 (04:12):
This your home phone hill Side eight three two one,
that's Friday three two one.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Sometimes your wife get up Laval. What do you mean, Ben?
Get an outsideline.
Speaker 5 (04:21):
Yeah, you're not gonna call my home.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
It's hill Side eight three two one, Ben upside, don't
do that.
Speaker 5 (04:32):
Don't not my wife. Please all right, ask the questions again.
This time I'll give you the answers.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Thomas Leavell was thirty eight years old. He was a
well respected man in his community. Sometimes it's like that.
You can question a man for hours. They'll never give
you any information. But somewhere in every man's makeup there's
a weak point. We were lucky enough to find Laval's.
He told us that he would give us the locations
where the hijack goods were hidding. He told us the
addresses were written on the ledge of a window sill
(05:08):
on the seventh floor of the teamster's union hall. Was
eight thirty am. Are the seventh floors that night? Yeah?
Do me your favorite, don't make it too big.
Speaker 5 (05:19):
Well, look, we have to walk through the hiring hall
before we get to the elevators in the back. Yeah,
these handcuffs, they'll see them. All the guys in the hall,
they know me. Can't you take them off my wrists
till we get in the elevator. Sorry, Leavello, I won't
try anything, but don't make me walk in front of
them with these hum Sorry, just till we get in
the elevator.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Can't you do that? I I don't want the guys
to see me. Well, here's my overcoat, Levalla, drive it
over your hands here and they won't see the cuffs. Hey,
come on, yeh.
Speaker 8 (05:56):
Hi Tom, Hi, Hi, i'd much.
Speaker 9 (06:04):
Oh that was easy.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Let's take the elevator.
Speaker 7 (06:08):
Yeah is that gren No?
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Thanks? Yep? Yeah, okay, lass, it's down this way. I
don't let me show you to the left, the window up,
(06:41):
I had the.
Speaker 7 (06:44):
Yeah, this one.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
I don't see anything on the window sill. It's on
the outside. And open the window and let me check. Yeah,
let me see you than driving. Me's trying to jump you.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
Get back here, get back back out of your here.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
J get him, Joe. He can't hold him. He's pulling
me out.
Speaker 10 (07:02):
Hold on, Ben, Joe, Joe, he's swimming.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
Try Joe, hold on.
Speaker 9 (07:07):
He's kicking loose.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
I can't hold him. Hold him, Joe.
Speaker 11 (07:13):
Oh, I couldn't hold him.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
You almost went wading. Let's get downstairs.
Speaker 9 (07:22):
What happened.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Call an ambulance. There's been an accident. Thomas Laval was
thirty eight years old who was a well respected man
in this community. He died with the same reputation. We
had a prisoner who had met his death while in
our custody. In cases like this, we had to have witnesses.
By the time we got to the street, the usual
accident crowded gathered.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
Anybody here see the accident.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Where'd you want witnesses? Yeah, that you said, Yeah, we
saw it. Let's get their names. Ben.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
My name's Pete Garfield. This is Jack Morris. We'll be
your witnesses. You'll probably be supinion for the end quest
tomorrow morning. Sure, we'll be there. We sell you push
the guy at the window. We saw you kill him.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
The next morning, at ten am, in the basement of
the Hall of Justice, Harold J. Lane, Deputy Corner City
and County of Los Angeles, read the report of the
findings of the autopsy on the body of the deceased
Thomas Laval. As his customary at a corner's inquest, the
identification witness was called to testify. First, Elizabeth Laval, Please
(08:28):
raise your right hand.
Speaker 12 (08:30):
Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you're about to
give to be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing
but the truth.
Speaker 10 (08:35):
So help you God, Yes, be seated. State your name,
Elizabeth Laval.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
What is your address? Twelve sixteen East Hamarillo Drives. What
is your occupation?
Speaker 10 (08:50):
I'm a housewife.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
What is your relation to the deceased?
Speaker 10 (08:54):
His wife?
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Have you viewed the body of the deceased in this office?
Speaker 10 (08:59):
Yes? Who was the deceased husband, Thomas Lavelle?
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Is there anything further you wish to add? Thank you?
Step down, please, Joseph.
Speaker 12 (09:14):
Friday raise your right hand.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Do you solemnly swear that the testimony.
Speaker 12 (09:23):
You're about to give to be the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth will help you God?
Speaker 1 (09:27):
I do be seated. State your name, Joe Friday. What
is your address? Forty six fifty six Collis Avenue. What
is your occupation? I'm a police officer in and for
the city of Los Angeles.
Speaker 12 (09:42):
Are you the investigating and arresting officer on this case?
Speaker 1 (09:45):
I am?
Speaker 12 (09:46):
Would you state briefly the facts relating to the death
of the deceased.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
On the morning following the arrest bios of the deceased
on suspicion of grand theft merchandise, he expressed a desire
to assist us in the apprehension of suspects involved in
these steps and the recovery of property taken in them.
Did he assist you well? He informed us that if
we took him to the teamster's Union Hall that he'd
be able to obtain addresses of the locations where the
(10:12):
stolen property was catched. You then took him there, Yes,
we did. What happened When we arrived, he requested us
to remove his handcuffs. We refused. Deceased then informed us
that the addresses were written on a window ledge on
the seventh floor. When we arrived at the window, under
the pretense of searching for the addresses, he threw himself
(10:32):
over the ledge. I grabbed his left leg to restrain him,
but he kicked loose.
Speaker 12 (10:36):
And did you at any time have any idea that
the disease planned such action?
Speaker 1 (10:41):
I did not. What did you do? Then? We immediately
went to the location of the body and had an
ambulance dispatched. Do you have anything further to state?
Speaker 13 (10:50):
No?
Speaker 7 (10:50):
I have not.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Are there any question from the jury?
Speaker 13 (10:54):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (10:54):
Huh?
Speaker 1 (10:55):
That's all all, sir? Friday stepped down. Peter Garfield, raise
your right hand. Yeah.
Speaker 12 (11:09):
Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you're about to
give to be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
But the truth. So help you God. Yeah, be seated
state your name, Pete Garfield.
Speaker 8 (11:22):
What does your address sixteen fifty four North Pico.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
What is your occupation? Truck driver down at General Warehouse.
Did you know the deceased? Yeah? How did you know him?
I worked with him?
Speaker 8 (11:34):
And then CoP's a liar and so it is his
buddy sitting over there.
Speaker 12 (11:37):
Please can find the testimony of this inquest to facts.
Were you present at the time the deceased met his death?
Speaker 1 (11:43):
I told you I was.
Speaker 8 (11:45):
Those two cops pushed Tom out of the window.
Speaker 12 (11:48):
Where were you at the time the deceased was pushed
or jumped from the window?
Speaker 8 (11:52):
Jack and I just left the Union Hall. We were
growing out the front door when.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
It happened, but attracted your attention or him.
Speaker 8 (11:57):
Scream When I looked up, Tom was falling. That cop
would stand at the window watch them.
Speaker 12 (12:02):
Did you see the officer push him?
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Yes, I saw him.
Speaker 12 (12:07):
Did I understand you to say you were on the
street outside the building at the time, Yeah, and you
saw the officers pushed the deceased from the window on
the seventh floor from your vantage point?
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 12 (12:19):
Isn't it true that that's a physical impossibility? What is
that you could have seen? What you testified too from
where you were standing. I know they pushed him, you know,
or you saw.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
I know that's some wouldn't jump out of the window.
Speaker 12 (12:33):
And it's true you didn't see the officers pushed the
deceased out of the window.
Speaker 8 (12:39):
No, I didn't see them.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Is there anything further you'd like to add? I must
have pushed them, any question from the jury, That's all?
Speaker 12 (12:48):
Garfield stepped down. Dorothy River, raise your right hand. Yes,
do you solemnly swear that the testimony you're about to
give to be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing
but the truth.
Speaker 10 (13:05):
To hope you God, I do be seated. State your name,
Dorothy River. What is your address two eleven South Beverly.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Drive, and what is your occupation.
Speaker 13 (13:17):
I'm a genographer at the Teamster's Union Hall.
Speaker 12 (13:21):
Were you present the morning the deceased met his death?
I was State where you were and what you were doing.
Speaker 9 (13:28):
I was in our office on the seventh floor doing
some filing.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Please state what you witnessed.
Speaker 13 (13:34):
The filing cabinet in our office is by the door.
The office faces on the hallway, and the door happened
to be open. I heard a commotion and looked out.
I saw those two officers struggling.
Speaker 9 (13:46):
With a man.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Did you hear any conversation? Yes, I heard that.
Speaker 13 (13:52):
Officer there say get back here, get back the man
outside the window.
Speaker 9 (13:56):
You'll let me go.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Let me go.
Speaker 13 (13:58):
This officer here, off, Sir Friday said, he's pulling me out.
Speaker 10 (14:03):
Hold on, ben Grabny.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
How far from the window were you?
Speaker 13 (14:08):
I'd say about fifteen feet.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Do you have anything else to add yes.
Speaker 13 (14:15):
As the two policemen started downstairs, Off Sir Friday said
to me, call an ambulance. There's been an accident.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Thank you, Miss River.
Speaker 13 (14:24):
Those officers didn't push that man out the window, they
were trying to hold him.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
After hearing additional witnesses, the coroner's jury retired at eleven
fifty seven am. Eight minutes later, they returned with their decision.
The deceased met his death voluntarily and by his own actions.
The homicide detail continued the investigation of Laval's death. A
week went by with homicide working one side. We hope
that they might turn up additional leads in the hijacking case.
(14:53):
Nothing turned up. It seemed that with the death of
Thomas Laval, our leads came to an abrupt stop. On
Tuesday mone in March sixteenth, at nine am, we got
a call from Chief of detectives at Backstream.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
Now once more, what about the way bills and these shipments.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
You check them everything.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
We could talk to everybody at hand them and talk
to him some more. Forty two thousand dollars and merchandise
doesn't just disappear. Who's the last one to handle those
waves bills?
Speaker 1 (15:16):
The warehouse ship the bills were signed and stamped. Two
hours after he fathered them in his desk, he disappeared.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
What about the truck drivers. You checked them out, talked
all of them.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Nothing so far, nothing.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
Was missing from those shipments until they left the warehouse.
Is that right?
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (15:29):
And somewhere in between the warehouse and the delivery points,
forty two thousand dollars worth of goods disappeared.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
And somebody's got to be hijacking those loads. We know that,
but how do we get to it.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
Maybe they're working alone, Maybe they're working with the truck drivers.
It's one of the others.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Got to be. Just hadn't lost leval well, you lost him.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
That doesn't close the case.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
You got a suggestion, Yeah, I got a suggestion.
Speaker 7 (15:47):
Crack it.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
You are listening to drag nets authentic stories from official
police files, and now an important announcement.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Ladies and gentlemen, We are pleased to announce that, starting
next Thursday, October sixth Dragnet will be brought to you
by Fatima Cigarettes.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
We'd like to take.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
This opportunity to thank you, the listener, for your excellent
response to our efforts in bringing you these weekly authentic
presentations of actual cases from official files. Your letters are
the only indications we have that Dragnet is a source
of your listening pleasure.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
We'd like to hear from all of you.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Starting next Thursday, October sixth, over most of these same
NBC stations, Dragnet will be heard weekly at ten thirty
pm Eastern Standard time, immediately following the supper club. Check
your newspaper for local release time.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
We stayed on the job. Another week went by no leeds.
We spent so much time at the general warehouse where
the merchandise disappeared, that we almost got to be a
part of the crew who we got to know everybody.
We made frequent visits to the teamster's union hall. It
got us nothing. On Wednesday, March twenty sixth, we reported
in for work at eight am.
Speaker 9 (17:10):
FDA it Rome.
Speaker 4 (17:12):
Ask Gibber you pooled around just long enough. They hijacked
another load last night, thirty one thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
What outfit?
Speaker 4 (17:18):
Same General Warehouse? Who's your contact down there? Ray Hobart,
Shipping Park. Hop down there right now and get the
details right it.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
There are two ways to sell this thing, you know.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
You can get those hijackers now or wait till General
Warehouse goes out of business. Get on it, Hobart.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Who was the shipping turk on duty last night?
Speaker 4 (17:38):
I was working for Sigi Sigelmeister, he's out of the cold.
And you saw this stuff was loaded on the trucks,
and you checked the way bill as usual, everything as usual,
checked the trucks out at two am, went back to
the office, file the waybills.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
And you work a pretty heavy schedule. Hobart. You started
at two am and you're still on duty.
Speaker 4 (17:55):
It took the last four hours of Siggy shift at
two am to six am.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
He had a cold.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
I was back here at ten this morning, stop my
own shift. When did you find out the way It
builds were missing one that ship?
Speaker 1 (18:06):
And last night?
Speaker 4 (18:07):
Uh, just four I went off maybe had piss five
quarters six.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Well, how about the truck drivers who handled that load? Hoo,
barn't you go? Let's see I got it right here. Okay,
here you go. Sargeant Jack Morris and Pete Garfield. Jack
Morris and Pete Garfield were brought in for questioning. We
double checked with Homicide and found that their reports on
Morris and Garfield tallied with ours. No previous records. Both
(18:33):
men had been tailed for a reasonable length of time
since their testimony at the Lavalle in quest. Their actions
failed to implicate them. Four days after the second hijacking,
we got a tip from one of our informants down
in the warehouse district. He told us that a man
in a gray suit had been hanging around the coffee
shop next to the teamster's union hall. He was peddling
nylon stockings cheap. There had been other reports like this
(18:54):
which we had followed up, but none of them had
paid off. Usually sex leads didn't pay off, but we
couldn't be sure. They had to be checked. Got a
few minutes before five that afternoon we found a nylon
salesman in a gray suit in the back booth of
the coffee shop. A joining the Union hall.
Speaker 9 (19:12):
Look bag, take a look, I'll find it. You can't
do better. Fifty one gaged islands look good?
Speaker 7 (19:18):
Huh?
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Sure do, don't they? Joe? Yeah, they do. We been
looking for you, Max. Some of the guys in the
Union hall said that you'd be around.
Speaker 7 (19:24):
Sure.
Speaker 14 (19:24):
I saw lots of these around the fall, truck drivers
just like you, buying them like crazy, good deal.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Sure looked like it. Man, How many pregnant?
Speaker 9 (19:31):
Half many as you want?
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Fall?
Speaker 9 (19:33):
Bits of pair your name?
Speaker 1 (19:34):
It got a couple of dozen for us?
Speaker 14 (19:35):
A couple of dozen? No, not on me, but I
can get 'em as many as you want.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Well, we're kind of in a hurry. Can you get
'em for uce fast?
Speaker 9 (19:41):
Couple of dozen?
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Let him make it three dozen?
Speaker 7 (19:43):
U Joe?
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Yeah, if you want three dozen? Can you get him now?
Speaker 9 (19:46):
A couple of hours. I can get them same quality.
Want to meet me here?
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Oh? I don't know. We wanted him for the night
my wife's birthday.
Speaker 9 (19:52):
You know, well maybe an hour and a half. How's
that three dozen? Meet you here?
Speaker 11 (19:56):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (19:56):
Look, Mike, maybe we're both head in the same direction.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Can we go with you and pick up the nine on?
Save time?
Speaker 14 (20:02):
Proud of it, and no, I don't think so. No,
why can't you wait all and a half? How's that?
Speaker 9 (20:07):
I'll find a better buying.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
I'm sorry, Mac, I wish we had the time. Well
where do you have to go to pick up these nihlids?
Speaker 13 (20:13):
Oh?
Speaker 14 (20:13):
Way out Sunset Boulevard near Fairfax. Can't you wait? I'll
make it fast.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Oh I can't wait, pay you and then go out
and pick 'em up ourselves.
Speaker 14 (20:21):
Huh, No, don't look that way. No, can't you wait here?
I'll make it fast.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
We ought to be home now, Joe. Yeah, sorry mister, we'll.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Have to skip him. Yeah. Maybe we can pick up
something on the way home, ben candy or something wife likes.
Speaker 9 (20:35):
Can now? Uh?
Speaker 14 (20:36):
Look, fellas, I I don't want to see you lose
out on this deal.
Speaker 9 (20:40):
I'll meet you halfway. How you mean?
Speaker 14 (20:42):
Look together, we will go out to Sunset and Fairfax.
Speaker 9 (20:45):
Huh they had the place.
Speaker 14 (20:46):
You'll wait there at the Hamburger stand and in five
minutes i'll bring you this stuff.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Okay, I don't know we're late already, but alright, it's
a deal. I'll call a wife until her We're gonna
be a little later. Three doesn't alright, you can't do better. Alright,
I'll be back in just a minute. Two five three
(21:18):
two five two three Chief of Detective's office, Chandler Mike
Joe Friday back strand there out right now, Joe, wanta
do me a favorite, Chandler? Make it fast, Get a
couple of men out the Sunset and fair Facts as
fast as you can. Tell him to watch for Ben
and me. You got that? Yeah, what else? We'll drive
up in our car with another man. Ben and I'll
get out of the car and go in the Hamburger stand.
The other man will walk off wherever you get. Tell
(21:40):
him to follow that man. You got it right, all right,
Just tail him, see where he goes, see what he does. Okay, Joe,
right away, all said Joe. She got dinner ready? Yeah,
just about We better hustle sure.
Speaker 9 (21:55):
Best dealing will let's go.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Five minutes to six, we pulled up at the corner
of Sunset Boulevard and Fairfax. It was almost dark. Ben
and I got out of the car and shout it
over for the hamburg to stand in the corner. We
caught a glimpse of Barsie and Kaplan. One of our
detective cars parked in the gas station on the opposite corner.
They had their eyes on our man. When the traffic
signals changed, the man crossed the street and headed down Fairfax.
Barsie and Kaplan waited a minute, and then they took
(22:20):
off after him. He turned at the next corner and
disappeared from sight. Ben and I ordered a cup of
coffee and we sat out of the wait. At half past six,
we were still waiting. At five minutes to seven, I
went across the street to the drug store and called
the office. Barsie and Kaplan hadn't been heard from their car.
One five k was not acknowledging calls. I had my
(22:41):
call switched from communications to backstand's office.
Speaker 4 (22:43):
Well, they lost him, frontay. I don't know how they
lost him, but they lost him.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Who's out there now?
Speaker 4 (22:47):
Sullivan and Whitney took a detail out there. They're calling
the neighborhood right now.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Well, how did it happen? A man just doesn't disappear
in the thin air.
Speaker 4 (22:53):
That's what I keep telling you about that stuff that's
been hijacked.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
The search for the Nylon salesman went on all that
night and most of the next day. From his description,
we ran a make on him. No previous records. He
disappeared completely. We were right back where we'd started from.
The only thing we could do was to start backtracking,
requesting the people at General Warehouse, the truck drivers, the
shipping clerks. We kept a close check on Garfield and Morris,
and we went back to the only possible lead still remaining,
(23:20):
Missus Laval. She could tell us nothing more than we
already knew when we left her. We started on the
neighbors for the second time around. For the rest of
the day we canvassed the immediate neighborhood. We got as
many opinions of the Laval's as they had neighbors. At
three point thirty that afternoon, we visited with Miss Gertrude Lancaster,
a fifty year old maiden lady who lived almost directly
(23:41):
across the street from the Laval house. She spent out
of town the first time we covered the neighborhood.
Speaker 13 (23:46):
The old single sergeant. There's no fool like an old fool.
Oh say, if I told you the chances I had
when I was a girl, would you not truck drivers
like that Laval man, God rest his soul, But fine
wealthy man that's as lowly as Templeton.
Speaker 10 (24:00):
You remember him, No, ma'am, I was engaged to him once.
Speaker 13 (24:03):
Butterfly ways, that's what he used to call me. Well,
I was slim in those days. Would you like to
see some pictures of me as a girl?
Speaker 4 (24:09):
No, no, thank you, ma'am. We'd just like to ask
you a few questions, that's all.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Could you tell us if the Lavals had many visitors
to their house in the past six months or so? Oh?
Speaker 13 (24:17):
My, no, funniest thing. I am the nosy type, Staudtean.
I like to know everything that goes on around my neighborhood.
And you can take my word for it. The Laval's
never had business, you know, Sergeant Friday, you remind me
of a young man I used to be engaged to
just a few years ago.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Yes, miss Langes, Now would you tell us please?
Speaker 4 (24:34):
Did you have any reason to think that there was
something little out of the ordinary about the Lavas?
Speaker 13 (24:39):
Oh little out of the ordinary, he says, But my
dear man, yes, here he was a truck driver, and
there she was with a home furnished life by asters.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Well.
Speaker 10 (24:47):
I even used to.
Speaker 13 (24:47):
See him caught some of the things home in that
car has beautiful things.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Rugs and glassware, boats of fabric.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
Oh gorgeous, and he'd bring these things home after work.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Is that it, Miss Lanska?
Speaker 13 (24:57):
Anytime anytime, day and night, weekends, anytime.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
After four, Joe, we better call office. Yeah, are you
sure of all that you've told us, Miss Langsi?
Speaker 14 (25:05):
Sure?
Speaker 13 (25:06):
Oh, my dear ma'am.
Speaker 10 (25:07):
Of course, I'm sure.
Speaker 13 (25:08):
I watched him and week after week.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Well, thank you?
Speaker 13 (25:10):
Well, Uh, won't you stay for a cup of tea?
I don't have Josephine fix it?
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Joseph no, thank you, ma'am.
Speaker 13 (25:15):
Well, and uh, perhaps a glass of sherry?
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Thank you? No, But there is something, yes, I wonder
if we could use your phone please?
Speaker 13 (25:23):
Oh yes, in the hall next to the umbrellas down,
Thank you.
Speaker 11 (25:28):
Ma'am, City Hall two five two three three thanks?
Speaker 7 (25:43):
End right.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
He had nothing much here, Well, it was something.
Speaker 4 (25:46):
Here, Barsia and Captain just called Pete. Garfield left his
house half an hour ago.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Then he picked up Marris. What's so unusual about that? Now?
Speaker 4 (25:52):
If he accept the guy driving the cars, the little
man and the gray suit, the Nylon salesman, Barsi and
Caplin are chilling him.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Well, they know, headed Doroth, I'll riverside Drive. There's nothing
out there but a golf course and a lot of
riding stables.
Speaker 4 (26:03):
I don't care what they do for recreation.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Go get him with red lightning, sir. And It took
us twelve minutes to pick up Barcie and Kaplan on
Riverside Drive at four twenty three pm. We fulled up
in front of the Blue Phony riding stables. Barcie and
Kaplan's car was overturned just beyond the driveway leading up
to the riding Academy. Caplain's hurt. I pulled an ambul,
I say, Ram, there's some kind of a car they in.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
They Swiss.
Speaker 9 (26:23):
They're driving a twelve tons bulldog semi.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Which way they had going north?
Speaker 4 (26:26):
Had a three minute lead on your new Mandy commercial.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Adam six five to three. Let's go Ben. Can you
see him?
Speaker 14 (26:35):
Joe?
Speaker 1 (26:35):
No, not yet. Watch that crossing.
Speaker 4 (26:39):
Up ahead, Joe, that's the semi.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Can you read it? Wait a minute, Adam sixty five
three at them. Took a ride on langersh don't lose them.
Speaker 4 (26:49):
They're pushing that semi too hard.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
Look at that trailer sway they.
Speaker 4 (26:52):
Have to stay on.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Languish him.
Speaker 9 (26:53):
They're going too fast to.
Speaker 4 (26:54):
Turn now traffic's closing in up ahead of them. Say
better knock time.
Speaker 9 (26:58):
That's what they're doing.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
Look at that trailer, whipp they're going over with it front.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Come on, all right, what I's gonna see. Yeah, they're
banged up with their alive.
Speaker 4 (27:25):
They are Joe, Yeah, Garfield, Morris, little Man and Grace.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Who's funny in it's Garfield's gonna swear we pushed that
truck through that window.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
The story you have just heard is true, only the
names were changed to protect the innocent. Peter Garfield, Jack Morris,
and John Dufo the stocking salesman, were hospitalized and later
brought to trial.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
They were convicted on charges.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
Of grand theft and received sentences as prescribed by law.
They are now serving their terms in the state penitentiary.
You have just heard the eighteenth in a new series
of authentic cases from official files. Technical advice for Dragnet
comes from the Office of Acting Chief of Police W. A. Wharton,
Los Angeles Police Department.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Tonight's program is dedicated to motorcycle Officer Elmer Forceman of
the Presno, California Police Department, who, on the afternoon of
October sixth, nineteen forty six, gave his life so that
yours might be more secure.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Remember.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
Starting next Thursday night, October sixth, Fatima Cigarettes invite you
to listen to Dragnet immediately following the Supper Club. That's
ten thirty pm Eastern Standard time over most of these
same NBC stations. Check your newspaper for local release time.
Dragnet came to you from Los Angeles.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
Judy Klova joins the star lineup of Saturday shows tonight
on NBC
Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
The story you're about to hear is true, only the
names have been changed to protect the innocent.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
NBC brings you drag Net.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned to burglary Detail. A
gang of hijackers has started to work in your city.
Truckloads of valuable merchandise are vanished. The thieves are clever,
seem to have a fool proof system. Your job find them.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Drag Nets the document a drama of an actual crime
investigated and solved. The men who unprelentingly stand watch on
the security at your home, your family, and your life
all 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 from
official police files, from beginning to end, from crime to punishment.
(01:07):
Drag Net is the story of your police force in action.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
It was Thursday, March sixth It was windy in Los Angeles.
We were working the night watch out of Burglary Detail.
My partner's Ben Romero. The bosses at Backstring she be detectives.
My name's Friday. I was on the way back from
a record Bureau. And it was five thirty five am
when I got to Room two, a interrogation room.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
Read this storm then, yeah, twenty six hundred dozen nylon stockings,
forty five bolts to sail, fifty eight cases imported burkey.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Where you're dumping this stuff? Of all it's what we
want to know.
Speaker 5 (01:46):
I told you the truth. I have nothing to do
with it. I don't know anything about it.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
What was the stolen way building in the Cavia truck?
How many times I have to tell you I don't know.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
If finger prints were all over it, you must have
carried it there.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
I didn't carry it. There's somebody's out to frame me.
How many in the hijack gang levelle I'm not in
a highjack game. I told you, I don't know. Why
are you gonna let me go?
Speaker 5 (02:08):
Who's the head of the gang. I don't know any
head of the gang. I want to get out of here.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
You're covering for somebody, not covering for anybody. You take
the rap for all this. You're gonna have a beard
down to your knees by the time you get out.
I'm not taking any wrap. Then let's have it. I'm tired.
Forty two thousand dollars worth. You know who took it,
you know where it is.
Speaker 5 (02:25):
They could have disappeared anywhere on their way from the
East to the Thousand Places.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Nothing was missing from those shipments when they came in
on the train, and everything was there when they were
unloaded the warehouse. And they don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
Every dollar's worth was a common for when it was
loaded on the truck.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Where is it now? I'm tired, We've been here all night.
Let me well, let me read it for you again.
Twenty six hundred dozen nine on stockings, forty five bolts
of silk, fifty eight cases imported perfume. And you're trying
to tell us somebody hijacked all it from the trucks
without you knowing it.
Speaker 5 (02:52):
The trucks were loaded at the warehouse, we went out
to eat, We came back out in the trucks, delivered
the stuff.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
And that's all I know.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
And while you were out eating, the receipts for the
little dis beard too, fat rad Levell.
Speaker 5 (03:02):
I don't know where the waybills are the shipping truck.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
That's his job. We talked to him. He says, one
of you could have taken the way and then he's
lying I didn't take him. Then what was this way
Bill doing in the cabre truck?
Speaker 5 (03:12):
I told you I don't know somebody's trying to frame
me why.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
I don't know somebody I don't know. Why? Then you
better come up with an answer. Mister.
Speaker 5 (03:21):
Look, I'm tired. We've been here since six o'clock last night.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
We're all tired. Who are you covering for? What are
you trying to build? Honey?
Speaker 6 (03:31):
That coffee let's been It's cool, that's all right, you
want some level No, but.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Now, look, let's get one thing straight. We've been here
all night. We be here all day tomorrow, the day
after that, and a day after that. We got enough
to make you on this. You know that we're gonna
stay with you to tell us the truth. Everything I've
told you all, I'm gonna tell you. We stay here
for six months.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
You got it?
Speaker 7 (04:10):
All?
Speaker 6 (04:12):
This your home phone hill Side eight three two one,
that's Friday three two one.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Sometimes your wife get up Laval. What do you mean, Ben?
Get an outsideline.
Speaker 5 (04:21):
Yeah, you're not gonna call my home.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
It's hill Side eight three two one, Ben upside, don't
do that.
Speaker 5 (04:32):
Don't not my wife. Please all right, ask the questions again.
This time I'll give you the answers.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Thomas Leavell was thirty eight years old. He was a
well respected man in his community. Sometimes it's like that.
You can question a man for hours. They'll never give
you any information. But somewhere in every man's makeup there's
a weak point. We were lucky enough to find Laval's.
He told us that he would give us the locations
where the hijack goods were hidding. He told us the
addresses were written on the ledge of a window sill
(05:08):
on the seventh floor of the teamster's union hall. Was
eight thirty am. Are the seventh floors that night? Yeah?
Do me your favorite, don't make it too big.
Speaker 5 (05:19):
Well, look, we have to walk through the hiring hall
before we get to the elevators in the back. Yeah,
these handcuffs, they'll see them. All the guys in the hall,
they know me. Can't you take them off my wrists
till we get in the elevator. Sorry, Leavello, I won't
try anything, but don't make me walk in front of
them with these hum Sorry, just till we get in
the elevator.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Can't you do that? I I don't want the guys
to see me. Well, here's my overcoat, Levalla, drive it
over your hands here and they won't see the cuffs. Hey,
come on, yeh.
Speaker 8 (05:56):
Hi Tom, Hi, Hi, i'd much.
Speaker 9 (06:04):
Oh that was easy.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Let's take the elevator.
Speaker 7 (06:08):
Yeah is that gren No?
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Thanks? Yep? Yeah, okay, lass, it's down this way. I
don't let me show you to the left, the window up,
(06:41):
I had the.
Speaker 7 (06:44):
Yeah, this one.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
I don't see anything on the window sill. It's on
the outside. And open the window and let me check. Yeah,
let me see you than driving. Me's trying to jump you.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
Get back here, get back back out of your here.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
J get him, Joe. He can't hold him. He's pulling
me out.
Speaker 10 (07:02):
Hold on, Ben, Joe, Joe, he's swimming.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
Try Joe, hold on.
Speaker 9 (07:07):
He's kicking loose.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
I can't hold him. Hold him, Joe.
Speaker 11 (07:13):
Oh, I couldn't hold him.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
You almost went wading. Let's get downstairs.
Speaker 9 (07:22):
What happened.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Call an ambulance. There's been an accident. Thomas Laval was
thirty eight years old who was a well respected man
in this community. He died with the same reputation. We
had a prisoner who had met his death while in
our custody. In cases like this, we had to have witnesses.
By the time we got to the street, the usual
accident crowded gathered.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
Anybody here see the accident.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Where'd you want witnesses? Yeah, that you said, Yeah, we
saw it. Let's get their names. Ben.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
My name's Pete Garfield. This is Jack Morris. We'll be
your witnesses. You'll probably be supinion for the end quest
tomorrow morning. Sure, we'll be there. We sell you push
the guy at the window. We saw you kill him.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
The next morning, at ten am, in the basement of
the Hall of Justice, Harold J. Lane, Deputy Corner City
and County of Los Angeles, read the report of the
findings of the autopsy on the body of the deceased
Thomas Laval. As his customary at a corner's inquest, the
identification witness was called to testify. First, Elizabeth Laval, Please
(08:28):
raise your right hand.
Speaker 12 (08:30):
Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you're about to
give to be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing
but the truth.
Speaker 10 (08:35):
So help you God, Yes, be seated. State your name,
Elizabeth Laval.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
What is your address? Twelve sixteen East Hamarillo Drives. What
is your occupation?
Speaker 10 (08:50):
I'm a housewife.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
What is your relation to the deceased?
Speaker 10 (08:54):
His wife?
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Have you viewed the body of the deceased in this office?
Speaker 10 (08:59):
Yes? Who was the deceased husband, Thomas Lavelle?
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Is there anything further you wish to add? Thank you?
Step down, please, Joseph.
Speaker 12 (09:14):
Friday raise your right hand.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Do you solemnly swear that the testimony.
Speaker 12 (09:23):
You're about to give to be the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth will help you God?
Speaker 1 (09:27):
I do be seated. State your name, Joe Friday. What
is your address? Forty six fifty six Collis Avenue. What
is your occupation? I'm a police officer in and for
the city of Los Angeles.
Speaker 12 (09:42):
Are you the investigating and arresting officer on this case?
Speaker 1 (09:45):
I am?
Speaker 12 (09:46):
Would you state briefly the facts relating to the death
of the deceased.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
On the morning following the arrest bios of the deceased
on suspicion of grand theft merchandise, he expressed a desire
to assist us in the apprehension of suspects involved in
these steps and the recovery of property taken in them.
Did he assist you well? He informed us that if
we took him to the teamster's Union Hall that he'd
be able to obtain addresses of the locations where the
(10:12):
stolen property was catched. You then took him there, Yes,
we did. What happened When we arrived, he requested us
to remove his handcuffs. We refused. Deceased then informed us
that the addresses were written on a window ledge on
the seventh floor. When we arrived at the window, under
the pretense of searching for the addresses, he threw himself
(10:32):
over the ledge. I grabbed his left leg to restrain him,
but he kicked loose.
Speaker 12 (10:36):
And did you at any time have any idea that
the disease planned such action?
Speaker 1 (10:41):
I did not. What did you do? Then? We immediately
went to the location of the body and had an
ambulance dispatched. Do you have anything further to state?
Speaker 13 (10:50):
No?
Speaker 7 (10:50):
I have not.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Are there any question from the jury?
Speaker 13 (10:54):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (10:54):
Huh?
Speaker 1 (10:55):
That's all all, sir? Friday stepped down. Peter Garfield, raise
your right hand. Yeah.
Speaker 12 (11:09):
Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you're about to
give to be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
But the truth. So help you God. Yeah, be seated
state your name, Pete Garfield.
Speaker 8 (11:22):
What does your address sixteen fifty four North Pico.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
What is your occupation? Truck driver down at General Warehouse.
Did you know the deceased? Yeah? How did you know him?
I worked with him?
Speaker 8 (11:34):
And then CoP's a liar and so it is his
buddy sitting over there.
Speaker 12 (11:37):
Please can find the testimony of this inquest to facts.
Were you present at the time the deceased met his death?
Speaker 1 (11:43):
I told you I was.
Speaker 8 (11:45):
Those two cops pushed Tom out of the window.
Speaker 12 (11:48):
Where were you at the time the deceased was pushed
or jumped from the window?
Speaker 8 (11:52):
Jack and I just left the Union Hall. We were
growing out the front door when.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
It happened, but attracted your attention or him.
Speaker 8 (11:57):
Scream When I looked up, Tom was falling. That cop
would stand at the window watch them.
Speaker 12 (12:02):
Did you see the officer push him?
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Yes, I saw him.
Speaker 12 (12:07):
Did I understand you to say you were on the
street outside the building at the time, Yeah, and you
saw the officers pushed the deceased from the window on
the seventh floor from your vantage point?
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 12 (12:19):
Isn't it true that that's a physical impossibility? What is
that you could have seen? What you testified too from
where you were standing. I know they pushed him, you know,
or you saw.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
I know that's some wouldn't jump out of the window.
Speaker 12 (12:33):
And it's true you didn't see the officers pushed the
deceased out of the window.
Speaker 8 (12:39):
No, I didn't see them.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Is there anything further you'd like to add? I must
have pushed them, any question from the jury, That's all?
Speaker 12 (12:48):
Garfield stepped down. Dorothy River, raise your right hand. Yes,
do you solemnly swear that the testimony you're about to
give to be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing
but the truth.
Speaker 10 (13:05):
To hope you God, I do be seated. State your name,
Dorothy River. What is your address two eleven South Beverly.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Drive, and what is your occupation.
Speaker 13 (13:17):
I'm a genographer at the Teamster's Union Hall.
Speaker 12 (13:21):
Were you present the morning the deceased met his death?
I was State where you were and what you were doing.
Speaker 9 (13:28):
I was in our office on the seventh floor doing
some filing.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Please state what you witnessed.
Speaker 13 (13:34):
The filing cabinet in our office is by the door.
The office faces on the hallway, and the door happened
to be open. I heard a commotion and looked out.
I saw those two officers struggling.
Speaker 9 (13:46):
With a man.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Did you hear any conversation? Yes, I heard that.
Speaker 13 (13:52):
Officer there say get back here, get back the man
outside the window.
Speaker 9 (13:56):
You'll let me go.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Let me go.
Speaker 13 (13:58):
This officer here, off, Sir Friday said, he's pulling me out.
Speaker 10 (14:03):
Hold on, ben Grabny.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
How far from the window were you?
Speaker 13 (14:08):
I'd say about fifteen feet.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Do you have anything else to add yes.
Speaker 13 (14:15):
As the two policemen started downstairs, Off Sir Friday said
to me, call an ambulance. There's been an accident.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Thank you, Miss River.
Speaker 13 (14:24):
Those officers didn't push that man out the window, they
were trying to hold him.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
After hearing additional witnesses, the coroner's jury retired at eleven
fifty seven am. Eight minutes later, they returned with their decision.
The deceased met his death voluntarily and by his own actions.
The homicide detail continued the investigation of Laval's death. A
week went by with homicide working one side. We hope
that they might turn up additional leads in the hijacking case.
(14:53):
Nothing turned up. It seemed that with the death of
Thomas Laval, our leads came to an abrupt stop. On
Tuesday mone in March sixteenth, at nine am, we got
a call from Chief of detectives at Backstream.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
Now once more, what about the way bills and these shipments.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
You check them everything.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
We could talk to everybody at hand them and talk
to him some more. Forty two thousand dollars and merchandise
doesn't just disappear. Who's the last one to handle those
waves bills?
Speaker 1 (15:16):
The warehouse ship the bills were signed and stamped. Two
hours after he fathered them in his desk, he disappeared.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
What about the truck drivers. You checked them out, talked
all of them.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Nothing so far, nothing.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
Was missing from those shipments until they left the warehouse.
Is that right?
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (15:29):
And somewhere in between the warehouse and the delivery points,
forty two thousand dollars worth of goods disappeared.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
And somebody's got to be hijacking those loads. We know that,
but how do we get to it.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
Maybe they're working alone, Maybe they're working with the truck drivers.
It's one of the others.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Got to be. Just hadn't lost leval well, you lost him.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
That doesn't close the case.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
You got a suggestion, Yeah, I got a suggestion.
Speaker 7 (15:47):
Crack it.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
You are listening to drag nets authentic stories from official
police files, and now an important announcement.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Ladies and gentlemen, We are pleased to announce that, starting
next Thursday, October sixth Dragnet will be brought to you
by Fatima Cigarettes.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
We'd like to take.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
This opportunity to thank you, the listener, for your excellent
response to our efforts in bringing you these weekly authentic
presentations of actual cases from official files. Your letters are
the only indications we have that Dragnet is a source
of your listening pleasure.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
We'd like to hear from all of you.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Starting next Thursday, October sixth, over most of these same
NBC stations, Dragnet will be heard weekly at ten thirty
pm Eastern Standard time, immediately following the supper club. Check
your newspaper for local release time.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
We stayed on the job. Another week went by no leeds.
We spent so much time at the general warehouse where
the merchandise disappeared, that we almost got to be a
part of the crew who we got to know everybody.
We made frequent visits to the teamster's union hall. It
got us nothing. On Wednesday, March twenty sixth, we reported
in for work at eight am.
Speaker 9 (17:10):
FDA it Rome.
Speaker 4 (17:12):
Ask Gibber you pooled around just long enough. They hijacked
another load last night, thirty one thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
What outfit?
Speaker 4 (17:18):
Same General Warehouse? Who's your contact down there? Ray Hobart,
Shipping Park. Hop down there right now and get the
details right it.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
There are two ways to sell this thing, you know.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
You can get those hijackers now or wait till General
Warehouse goes out of business. Get on it, Hobart.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Who was the shipping turk on duty last night?
Speaker 4 (17:38):
I was working for Sigi Sigelmeister, he's out of the cold.
And you saw this stuff was loaded on the trucks,
and you checked the way bill as usual, everything as usual,
checked the trucks out at two am, went back to
the office, file the waybills.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
And you work a pretty heavy schedule. Hobart. You started
at two am and you're still on duty.
Speaker 4 (17:55):
It took the last four hours of Siggy shift at
two am to six am.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
He had a cold.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
I was back here at ten this morning, stop my
own shift. When did you find out the way It
builds were missing one that ship?
Speaker 1 (18:06):
And last night?
Speaker 4 (18:07):
Uh, just four I went off maybe had piss five
quarters six.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Well, how about the truck drivers who handled that load? Hoo,
barn't you go? Let's see I got it right here. Okay,
here you go. Sargeant Jack Morris and Pete Garfield. Jack
Morris and Pete Garfield were brought in for questioning. We
double checked with Homicide and found that their reports on
Morris and Garfield tallied with ours. No previous records. Both
(18:33):
men had been tailed for a reasonable length of time
since their testimony at the Lavalle in quest. Their actions
failed to implicate them. Four days after the second hijacking,
we got a tip from one of our informants down
in the warehouse district. He told us that a man
in a gray suit had been hanging around the coffee
shop next to the teamster's union hall. He was peddling
nylon stockings cheap. There had been other reports like this
(18:54):
which we had followed up, but none of them had
paid off. Usually sex leads didn't pay off, but we
couldn't be sure. They had to be checked. Got a
few minutes before five that afternoon we found a nylon
salesman in a gray suit in the back booth of
the coffee shop. A joining the Union hall.
Speaker 9 (19:12):
Look bag, take a look, I'll find it. You can't
do better. Fifty one gaged islands look good?
Speaker 7 (19:18):
Huh?
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Sure do, don't they? Joe? Yeah, they do. We been
looking for you, Max. Some of the guys in the
Union hall said that you'd be around.
Speaker 7 (19:24):
Sure.
Speaker 14 (19:24):
I saw lots of these around the fall, truck drivers
just like you, buying them like crazy, good deal.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Sure looked like it. Man, How many pregnant?
Speaker 9 (19:31):
Half many as you want?
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Fall?
Speaker 9 (19:33):
Bits of pair your name?
Speaker 1 (19:34):
It got a couple of dozen for us?
Speaker 14 (19:35):
A couple of dozen? No, not on me, but I
can get 'em as many as you want.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Well, we're kind of in a hurry. Can you get
'em for uce fast?
Speaker 9 (19:41):
Couple of dozen?
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Let him make it three dozen?
Speaker 7 (19:43):
U Joe?
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Yeah, if you want three dozen? Can you get him now?
Speaker 9 (19:46):
A couple of hours. I can get them same quality.
Want to meet me here?
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Oh? I don't know. We wanted him for the night
my wife's birthday.
Speaker 9 (19:52):
You know, well maybe an hour and a half. How's
that three dozen? Meet you here?
Speaker 11 (19:56):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (19:56):
Look, Mike, maybe we're both head in the same direction.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Can we go with you and pick up the nine on?
Save time?
Speaker 14 (20:02):
Proud of it, and no, I don't think so. No,
why can't you wait all and a half? How's that?
Speaker 9 (20:07):
I'll find a better buying.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
I'm sorry, Mac, I wish we had the time. Well
where do you have to go to pick up these nihlids?
Speaker 13 (20:13):
Oh?
Speaker 14 (20:13):
Way out Sunset Boulevard near Fairfax. Can't you wait? I'll
make it fast.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Oh I can't wait, pay you and then go out
and pick 'em up ourselves.
Speaker 14 (20:21):
Huh, No, don't look that way. No, can't you wait here?
I'll make it fast.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
We ought to be home now, Joe. Yeah, sorry mister, we'll.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Have to skip him. Yeah. Maybe we can pick up
something on the way home, ben candy or something wife likes.
Speaker 9 (20:35):
Can now? Uh?
Speaker 14 (20:36):
Look, fellas, I I don't want to see you lose
out on this deal.
Speaker 9 (20:40):
I'll meet you halfway. How you mean?
Speaker 14 (20:42):
Look together, we will go out to Sunset and Fairfax.
Speaker 9 (20:45):
Huh they had the place.
Speaker 14 (20:46):
You'll wait there at the Hamburger stand and in five
minutes i'll bring you this stuff.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Okay, I don't know we're late already, but alright, it's
a deal. I'll call a wife until her We're gonna
be a little later. Three doesn't alright, you can't do better. Alright,
I'll be back in just a minute. Two five three
(21:18):
two five two three Chief of Detective's office, Chandler Mike
Joe Friday back strand there out right now, Joe, wanta
do me a favorite, Chandler? Make it fast, Get a
couple of men out the Sunset and fair Facts as
fast as you can. Tell him to watch for Ben
and me. You got that? Yeah, what else? We'll drive
up in our car with another man. Ben and I'll
get out of the car and go in the Hamburger stand.
The other man will walk off wherever you get. Tell
(21:40):
him to follow that man. You got it right, all right,
Just tail him, see where he goes, see what he does. Okay, Joe,
right away, all said Joe. She got dinner ready? Yeah,
just about We better hustle sure.
Speaker 9 (21:55):
Best dealing will let's go.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Five minutes to six, we pulled up at the corner
of Sunset Boulevard and Fairfax. It was almost dark. Ben
and I got out of the car and shout it
over for the hamburg to stand in the corner. We
caught a glimpse of Barsie and Kaplan. One of our
detective cars parked in the gas station on the opposite corner.
They had their eyes on our man. When the traffic
signals changed, the man crossed the street and headed down Fairfax.
Barsie and Kaplan waited a minute, and then they took
(22:20):
off after him. He turned at the next corner and
disappeared from sight. Ben and I ordered a cup of
coffee and we sat out of the wait. At half past six,
we were still waiting. At five minutes to seven, I
went across the street to the drug store and called
the office. Barsie and Kaplan hadn't been heard from their car.
One five k was not acknowledging calls. I had my
(22:41):
call switched from communications to backstand's office.
Speaker 4 (22:43):
Well, they lost him, frontay. I don't know how they
lost him, but they lost him.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Who's out there now?
Speaker 4 (22:47):
Sullivan and Whitney took a detail out there. They're calling
the neighborhood right now.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Well, how did it happen? A man just doesn't disappear
in the thin air.
Speaker 4 (22:53):
That's what I keep telling you about that stuff that's
been hijacked.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
The search for the Nylon salesman went on all that
night and most of the next day. From his description,
we ran a make on him. No previous records. He
disappeared completely. We were right back where we'd started from.
The only thing we could do was to start backtracking,
requesting the people at General Warehouse, the truck drivers, the
shipping clerks. We kept a close check on Garfield and Morris,
and we went back to the only possible lead still remaining,
(23:20):
Missus Laval. She could tell us nothing more than we
already knew when we left her. We started on the
neighbors for the second time around. For the rest of
the day we canvassed the immediate neighborhood. We got as
many opinions of the Laval's as they had neighbors. At
three point thirty that afternoon, we visited with Miss Gertrude Lancaster,
a fifty year old maiden lady who lived almost directly
(23:41):
across the street from the Laval house. She spent out
of town the first time we covered the neighborhood.
Speaker 13 (23:46):
The old single sergeant. There's no fool like an old fool.
Oh say, if I told you the chances I had
when I was a girl, would you not truck drivers
like that Laval man, God rest his soul, But fine
wealthy man that's as lowly as Templeton.
Speaker 10 (24:00):
You remember him, No, ma'am, I was engaged to him once.
Speaker 13 (24:03):
Butterfly ways, that's what he used to call me. Well,
I was slim in those days. Would you like to
see some pictures of me as a girl?
Speaker 4 (24:09):
No, no, thank you, ma'am. We'd just like to ask
you a few questions, that's all.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Could you tell us if the Lavals had many visitors
to their house in the past six months or so? Oh?
Speaker 13 (24:17):
My, no, funniest thing. I am the nosy type, Staudtean.
I like to know everything that goes on around my neighborhood.
And you can take my word for it. The Laval's
never had business, you know, Sergeant Friday, you remind me
of a young man I used to be engaged to
just a few years ago.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Yes, miss Langes, Now would you tell us please?
Speaker 4 (24:34):
Did you have any reason to think that there was
something little out of the ordinary about the Lavas?
Speaker 13 (24:39):
Oh little out of the ordinary, he says, But my
dear man, yes, here he was a truck driver, and
there she was with a home furnished life by asters.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Well.
Speaker 10 (24:47):
I even used to.
Speaker 13 (24:47):
See him caught some of the things home in that
car has beautiful things.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Rugs and glassware, boats of fabric.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
Oh gorgeous, and he'd bring these things home after work.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Is that it, Miss Lanska?
Speaker 13 (24:57):
Anytime anytime, day and night, weekends, anytime.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
After four, Joe, we better call office. Yeah, are you
sure of all that you've told us, Miss Langsi?
Speaker 14 (25:05):
Sure?
Speaker 13 (25:06):
Oh, my dear ma'am.
Speaker 10 (25:07):
Of course, I'm sure.
Speaker 13 (25:08):
I watched him and week after week.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Well, thank you?
Speaker 13 (25:10):
Well, Uh, won't you stay for a cup of tea?
I don't have Josephine fix it?
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Joseph no, thank you, ma'am.
Speaker 13 (25:15):
Well, and uh, perhaps a glass of sherry?
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Thank you? No, But there is something, yes, I wonder
if we could use your phone please?
Speaker 13 (25:23):
Oh yes, in the hall next to the umbrellas down,
Thank you.
Speaker 11 (25:28):
Ma'am, City Hall two five two three three thanks?
Speaker 7 (25:43):
End right.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
He had nothing much here, Well, it was something.
Speaker 4 (25:46):
Here, Barsia and Captain just called Pete. Garfield left his
house half an hour ago.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Then he picked up Marris. What's so unusual about that? Now?
Speaker 4 (25:52):
If he accept the guy driving the cars, the little
man and the gray suit, the Nylon salesman, Barsi and
Caplin are chilling him.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Well, they know, headed Doroth, I'll riverside Drive. There's nothing
out there but a golf course and a lot of
riding stables.
Speaker 4 (26:03):
I don't care what they do for recreation.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Go get him with red lightning, sir. And It took
us twelve minutes to pick up Barcie and Kaplan on
Riverside Drive at four twenty three pm. We fulled up
in front of the Blue Phony riding stables. Barcie and
Kaplan's car was overturned just beyond the driveway leading up
to the riding Academy. Caplain's hurt. I pulled an ambul,
I say, Ram, there's some kind of a car they in.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
They Swiss.
Speaker 9 (26:23):
They're driving a twelve tons bulldog semi.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Which way they had going north?
Speaker 4 (26:26):
Had a three minute lead on your new Mandy commercial.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Adam six five to three. Let's go Ben. Can you
see him?
Speaker 14 (26:35):
Joe?
Speaker 1 (26:35):
No, not yet. Watch that crossing.
Speaker 4 (26:39):
Up ahead, Joe, that's the semi.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Can you read it? Wait a minute, Adam sixty five
three at them. Took a ride on langersh don't lose them.
Speaker 4 (26:49):
They're pushing that semi too hard.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
Look at that trailer sway they.
Speaker 4 (26:52):
Have to stay on.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Languish him.
Speaker 9 (26:53):
They're going too fast to.
Speaker 4 (26:54):
Turn now traffic's closing in up ahead of them. Say
better knock time.
Speaker 9 (26:58):
That's what they're doing.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
Look at that trailer, whipp they're going over with it front.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Come on, all right, what I's gonna see. Yeah, they're
banged up with their alive.
Speaker 4 (27:25):
They are Joe, Yeah, Garfield, Morris, little Man and Grace.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Who's funny in it's Garfield's gonna swear we pushed that
truck through that window.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
The story you have just heard is true, only the
names were changed to protect the innocent. Peter Garfield, Jack Morris,
and John Dufo the stocking salesman, were hospitalized and later
brought to trial.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
They were convicted on charges.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
Of grand theft and received sentences as prescribed by law.
They are now serving their terms in the state penitentiary.
You have just heard the eighteenth in a new series
of authentic cases from official files. Technical advice for Dragnet
comes from the Office of Acting Chief of Police W. A. Wharton,
Los Angeles Police Department.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Tonight's program is dedicated to motorcycle Officer Elmer Forceman of
the Presno, California Police Department, who, on the afternoon of
October sixth, nineteen forty six, gave his life so that
yours might be more secure.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Remember.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
Starting next Thursday night, October sixth, Fatima Cigarettes invite you
to listen to Dragnet immediately following the Supper Club. That's
ten thirty pm Eastern Standard time over most of these
same NBC stations. Check your newspaper for local release time.
Dragnet came to you from Los Angeles.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
Judy Klova joins the star lineup of Saturday shows tonight
on NBC
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