August 28, 2025 • 32 mins
Today's Mystery: Joe Friday and Ben Romero investigate the disappearance of a rich society woman.
Original Radio Broadcast Date: June 14, 1951
Originating from Hollywood
Starring: Jack Webb as Sergeant Joe Friday; Barton Yarborough as Sergeant Ben RomeroIvy-Style Article on Clipper Craft Clothes.
Support the show monthly at patreon.greatdetectives.net
Patreon Supporter of the Day: Rosa, Patreon supporter since January 2020.
Support the show on a one-time basis at http://support.greatdetectives.net.
Mail a donation to: Adam Graham, PO Box 15913, Boise, Idaho 83715
Take the listener survey at http://survey.greatdetectives.net
Give us a call at 208-991-4783
Follow us on Instagram at http://instagram.com/greatdetectives
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Join us again on Monday for another detective drama from the Golden Age of Radio.
Original Radio Broadcast Date: June 14, 1951
Originating from Hollywood
Starring: Jack Webb as Sergeant Joe Friday; Barton Yarborough as Sergeant Ben RomeroIvy-Style Article on Clipper Craft Clothes.
Support the show monthly at patreon.greatdetectives.net
Patreon Supporter of the Day: Rosa, Patreon supporter since January 2020.
Support the show on a one-time basis at http://support.greatdetectives.net.
Mail a donation to: Adam Graham, PO Box 15913, Boise, Idaho 83715
Take the listener survey at http://survey.greatdetectives.net
Give us a call at 208-991-4783
Follow us on Instagram at http://instagram.com/greatdetectives
Follow us on Twitter @radiodetectives
Join us again on Monday for another detective drama from the Golden Age of Radio.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho.
This is your host, Adam Graham. In a moment, we're
going to bring you this week's episode of Dragnet. But
first I do want to encourage you. If you're enjoying
the podcast, please follow us using your favorite podcast software.
(00:49):
And today's program is brought to you in part by
the financial support of our listeners. You can support the
show on a one time basis support dot Great Detectives
dot net. I want to thank Gene for supporting the
program that way. You can also become one of our
ongoing Patreon supporters for as little as two dollars per
month at Patreon dot Great Detectives, dot neit well Now
(01:15):
from June fourteenth, nineteen fifty one, here is the big Building.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
The story you were about to hear is true, only
the names have been changed to protect the innocent. You're
a detective sergeant. You're assigned to homicide detail. A wealthy
society woman in your city vanishes. Two months passed before
(01:51):
her disappearance is reported to the police. There's suspicion of
foul play. Your job investigate.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Drag Net, the documented drama of an actual crime. For
the next thirty minutes, in cooperation of the Los Angeles
Police Department, you will travel step by step on the
side of the law through an actual case transcribed from
official police buyos, from beginning to end, from crime to punishment.
Dragnet is the story of your police force in action.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
It was Monday, February eighth, was foggy in Los Angeles.
We're working the day watch out of homicide detail. My
partner's Ben Romero. The boss is Thad Brown, Cheap of Detectives.
My name is Friday. We're on the way out from
the office and it was eleven twenty three am when
we got to the ninth floor of the Medical Dental
building from nine to twelve.
Speaker 5 (02:52):
Doctor Marston, Yes, what is it, police officers? Doc you
I talk to you.
Speaker 6 (02:57):
Oh yes, I'm sorry, daydreaming. I guess I didn't hear
you come in.
Speaker 7 (03:00):
Well, my name is Friday. Doctor. This is my partner,
Sarzan Romero. How do you do, gentlemen. It's about the
missing person's report on your wife. You filed it yesterday.
Speaker 6 (03:08):
Yes, that's right, sergeant. Certainly glad you came. Like to
have this whole thing straighten out. As quickly as possible.
I want my wife back with me.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
Well, we'll do everything we can, doctor. There's a few
things we'd like to have you straightened out for us,
if you will. I thought I made it pretty clear
in that report I filed yesterday. What is it you
have a question about.
Speaker 5 (03:22):
I've got a copy of the report right here, says
says your wife disappeared December ninth.
Speaker 6 (03:30):
That's a little over two months ago. Dot there, Yes,
that's correct. December ninth, Sunday night, we were out having dinner.
We had a little argument, and Louise left. I didn't
hear from her until the following Friday. That's when she
wrote me. The first letter was from New York.
Speaker 7 (03:42):
We weren't you a little alarmed to find out your
wife had left you in Gone East?
Speaker 5 (03:45):
Well?
Speaker 6 (03:45):
I wasn't too happy about it, but we'd had a
few arguments before. I always figured it that both of
us good if Louise got away for a little while. No,
I wasn't particularly worried as friends in New York? Would
you care for cigarette?
Speaker 7 (03:58):
Not right now? Doctor light for you?
Speaker 5 (04:00):
Thank you. I understand your wife didn't stay with her
friends this trip. Doctor No.
Speaker 6 (04:07):
Apparently she didn't. However, I wasn't too concerns. She wrote
me letters twice a week, and then she wrote Stanley.
That's her son. He's in military school. We has wrote
to him regularly too.
Speaker 5 (04:18):
And the last letter you got from your wife was
about two weeks ago, yes, or exactly two weeks ago.
Speaker 7 (04:23):
I had the same postmark on New York. Will have
me any idea at all where she was staying back there?
Speaker 6 (04:28):
That's a strange part of it. Sergeant Louise didn't put
her return address on any of the letters. I inquired
of some of our friends back there, but none of
them hadn't seen her. I suppose she was staying at
a hotel. I don't know which one, though.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
Well about those letters, doctor, you know you're sure that
they're in your wife's handwriting. You don't think they could
be forgers doing.
Speaker 6 (04:46):
It's possible, but I don't think so. Sergeant, I know
my wife's handwriting. Do you have all the letters with you, sir? Yes,
I'll have my secretary get them before you leave. She's
out to lunch now. I oh, student pleense cry, yes,
Doctor Marston, well, missus Taylor, Oh, yes, I'm glad you
reminded me.
Speaker 5 (05:04):
Thank you.
Speaker 6 (05:06):
I'm sorry, officers, there's a denture I have to have
ready for one of my patients by this afternoon.
Speaker 7 (05:10):
Would you mind if I.
Speaker 6 (05:11):
Go ahead and work on it while we talk here? No,
it's perfect, all right, doctor, you go right ahead. Do
you mind sipping in the lad back here?
Speaker 5 (05:16):
All right?
Speaker 7 (05:17):
Go ahead, man.
Speaker 6 (05:22):
I'm sorry to interrupt everything like this. I do have
to have this denture ready, though.
Speaker 7 (05:27):
We understand.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
Doctor. You say the night your wife Louise disappeared, the
two of you had an argument.
Speaker 7 (05:33):
Yes, that's correct.
Speaker 6 (05:35):
We were having dinner out at our country club and
I guess Louise had too many cocktails. She gets in
a nasty mood when she drinks too much. I asked
her to stop drinking. She flared up and walked out
of the place.
Speaker 5 (05:45):
Uh huh.
Speaker 7 (05:45):
Did anyone besides yourself see her leave?
Speaker 5 (05:48):
Oh?
Speaker 6 (05:48):
He has two or three couples friends of ours. When
I found out Louise had gone off to New York,
I thought, well, it was her way of teaching me
a lesson. I wasn't too disturbed about it until the
letters stopped coming.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
But your son, Stanley, do you know if he's still
getting the letters from his mother.
Speaker 7 (06:03):
No, he's not.
Speaker 6 (06:04):
I telephoned him, but his school he stopped getting letters
about the same time I did.
Speaker 7 (06:09):
Let's see, where did I put that cast to me? Oh,
let's see.
Speaker 5 (06:13):
We are then, as far as you know, doctor, no
one at all has actually seen your wife since that
night at the country club when she walked out and left.
M hm, that's correct.
Speaker 6 (06:30):
Did I say if I hadn't been getting those letters
from her every week from New York, I would have
called the police in long ago?
Speaker 7 (06:36):
Would you excuse me me? Oh?
Speaker 6 (06:38):
Oh, yeah, got a bit of oxide in this old
crown I've cast here.
Speaker 7 (06:46):
A little bit of acid should take care of that. Well,
what's your theory on all this? Doctor?
Speaker 4 (06:53):
Your wife leaves suddenly, and she goes to New York,
she corresponds with you and your son, and then her
letters stopped coming.
Speaker 7 (07:00):
What do you think might have happened?
Speaker 6 (07:02):
Frankly, Sergeant, the whole thing's a terrible family mix up.
Get this crown here out of the acid.
Speaker 5 (07:16):
Well, how do you mean, doctor, a family mixed up?
Speaker 6 (07:20):
For just that, There's only one reason for Louise disappearing,
the way she has money, money, and that stepfather of
hers say, would you switch on that small motor there, Sergeant,
I've got to polish up this crown and get it
in shape.
Speaker 5 (07:33):
Oh yeah, sure, thank you.
Speaker 7 (07:39):
Well, what do you mean, doctor, how does your wife's
stepfather fit into all this money?
Speaker 6 (07:43):
Man, it's about the size of it. I don't know
if you're aware of it, but my wife, Louise was
left considerable amount of money by her, and well those
are fortune. As a matter of fact, Louise's stepfather has
always been trying to get his hands on it.
Speaker 7 (07:58):
Excuse me again, sure a boy.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
Well, and you think your wife's stepfather is responsible for
her disappearance?
Speaker 7 (08:10):
Is that right?
Speaker 5 (08:10):
Oh?
Speaker 6 (08:11):
I'm not making any direct accusations, Sergeant. Two days ago,
or two days before Louise disappeared, I had eighty thousand
dollars in bonds.
Speaker 7 (08:19):
Signed over to her.
Speaker 6 (08:21):
Checked around since she's been gone, haven't been able to
locate the bonds anywhere.
Speaker 5 (08:24):
You think she had the bonds with her when she left.
Speaker 6 (08:27):
Because I'm sure, pardon me, just a that's a fine
cast with yourp margins on.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
Now the eighty thousand dollars worth of bonds, doctor, do
you have any way of proving that you gave those
to your wife.
Speaker 6 (08:46):
Well, certainly, I had my wife signed receipt for them.
You're welcome to check it over if you like.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
Just how do you think your wife stepfather figures in?
There is there any indication he might have made a
move to get the bond.
Speaker 6 (09:01):
Enough to satisfy me? Yes, my secretary told me about it.
Leonora Dexter. That's the girl in the reception room the
night after my wife left me at the country club,
that would be December tenth. Miss Dexter was at the
airport waiting for a friend to arrive on a plane.
While she was waiting, she saw my wife and her
stepfather cross through the waiting room and go out to
the main gate.
Speaker 7 (09:21):
Your secretary sure it was really your wife and her.
Speaker 6 (09:23):
Stepfather, And that's what she told me. You are certainly
welcome to talk to her yourself if your life.
Speaker 5 (09:28):
Yes, Well, besides the bunds, do you know of anything
else to value that your wife had with him when
she left?
Speaker 6 (09:35):
No, I don't think so. She had her first coat on.
Of course, it's expensive. She was wearing a diamond ring
anniversary gift for me, large solitaire worth quite a.
Speaker 7 (09:43):
Bit of money.
Speaker 6 (09:44):
You can get the description from the jeweler. I'll give
you his name, a right, doctor, your wife's stepfather. We'd
like to have his name and address.
Speaker 7 (09:51):
Too, surely.
Speaker 6 (09:51):
Yeah, I'll have my secretary check on both of them.
Right now, Sergeant, you've got to find Louise.
Speaker 7 (09:59):
I've got to have a with me. What would do
everything we can?
Speaker 6 (10:01):
Doctor, We promise you that I know my wife wouldn't
stay away of her own free will, not this long,
not at a time like this.
Speaker 5 (10:07):
How do you mean?
Speaker 7 (10:09):
Let me show you here it is.
Speaker 6 (10:18):
This is the final drawing the architect made for us.
What do you think of it?
Speaker 7 (10:22):
Oh? That certainly is.
Speaker 6 (10:25):
It's got to be our own building, twelve stories, fine
as in the city, Robert A. Marston building for a
professional man. Louise and I have looked forward to it
for a long time.
Speaker 7 (10:36):
I understand.
Speaker 6 (10:37):
We settled on the final plans a week before she disappeared.
Contractors will start construction a few weeks now. There's supposed
to be a great day in our lives, laying the cornerstone. Yes,
I understand, great day, Robert A. Marston building. It's funny thing,
isn't it.
Speaker 7 (10:54):
Officers?
Speaker 5 (10:54):
How's that?
Speaker 6 (10:56):
Nothing's very great unless there's somebody to share it with.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
Before we left the office of doctor Robert Marston, we
talked with his secretary, Miss Leonora Dexter. She confirmed the
doctor's statement that on the night after Louise Marston had
disappeared from the country club, she had seen both Missus
Marston and her stepfather at the city's international airport. She
said she did not follow them, she had no idea
of their destination. Doctor Marston gave us the letters his
(11:23):
wife had written him during her absence, and also his
wife's signed receipt for the eighty thousand dollars with a bond.
Each of the letters was postmarked New York, and the
dates on them ranged from December fifteenth to March twenty fourth.
Speaker 7 (11:36):
Oben and I drove back to the.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
Office and put in a call to the home of
the missing woman's stepfather, of mister William House. Then we
went down the hall to the office of Don Meyer,
our handwriting expert. We gave him the letters which supposedly
had been written by Missus Marston from New York, along
with a signed receipt for the bonds, and various other
exemplars of her handwriting which we had obtained from her Bank.
Two fifty pm, the missing woman's step father, William House,
(12:01):
arrived at the office. He was a tall, graying man, dignified,
well dressed.
Speaker 8 (12:05):
It's about time the police started looking into this thing.
How long does a person have to be missing before
there's an investigation?
Speaker 5 (12:10):
The missing report was only files yesterday. Mister hass If
you knew your stepdaughter was gone, why didn't you report him?
I've had private detectives working on this for a month,
had him checking everything about the case. How much luck
have they had, frankly, not much. I still got him
working on it well.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
Getting back to what we have on hand, mister House,
how about this statement of doctor Marston's secretary. She says,
as she saw you with missus Marston at the International
airport the night after she disappeared.
Speaker 5 (12:34):
It's a lie.
Speaker 8 (12:34):
I haven't been near that airport in six months. It's
a lie, and I can prove it. I don't know
what Marston's up to, but he isn't going to get
away with it.
Speaker 5 (12:42):
What do you mean with that?
Speaker 8 (12:43):
I think he's murdered Louise. I think he killed her
and buried her somewhere. That's my honest opinion. You sound
sure of it. I am sure of it. I knew
Marsden for what he was the day I met him.
He's a fortunate hunt, a pure and simple He's after
Louise's money and nothing's going to stop him.
Speaker 5 (13:00):
Nothing has stopped him.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
Well, I was under the impression that doctor Marston was
wealthy before he married your stepdaughter, isn't it right?
Speaker 5 (13:06):
Certainly not.
Speaker 8 (13:07):
He was just another poor dentist with a lot of
big ideas. All this talk about putting up a building
naming it after himself while Louise fought him on that constantly.
He's some kind of crazy egotist.
Speaker 5 (13:18):
What about the eighty thousand dollars in bonds he says
he signed over to missus Marston if he told you
that he's a bigger lad than I thought.
Speaker 7 (13:25):
Well, he gave us a receipt for the bonds that
was signed by his wife. Can you accounfid them?
Speaker 8 (13:29):
Frankly, No, Either he got her signature on it by
some kind of trick or he forged it. I'm sure
he never had that much money. Those bards belonged to Louise.
Speaker 5 (13:38):
What about the letters doctor Marston got from his wife?
You think they were forged to I'm positive they were,
don't you see, Officer, it's the perfect cover up for it.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Well, one way or the other, it's not going to
take us long to find out the truth. Our handwriting
man's checking over the letters in the bond receipt. Now,
can you fill us in at all on doctor Marston's background,
mister House.
Speaker 8 (13:56):
Only since he's been connected with the family since he
married Louise.
Speaker 5 (14:00):
Say, would you give me a cigarette? Please? I went
off and left mine at home. Oh, sure, here you are,
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 8 (14:11):
I can't tell you how I feel about it, Officer.
I'm afraid of that man. I'm definitely afraid of him.
I know he's done something terrible to Louise.
Speaker 7 (14:19):
Well, how can you be so sure of it, mister House?
You must have some basis for your opinion.
Speaker 8 (14:23):
I just know, that's all, Sergeant. If Louise had just
disappeared and there wasn't any question of money involved, I
wouldn't be so anxious about it. But eighty thousand dollars
worth of bonds, that'd be enough to tempt Marston to
murder his own mother.
Speaker 5 (14:37):
You don't know him like I do. Well, what do
you know about him? There? There must be something concrete.
Speaker 8 (14:43):
I can tell you this much, Officer Marston's a man
who is capable of murder. Now, I'm a sensible man.
I don't walk up and down the street.
Speaker 5 (14:51):
Looking for murderers.
Speaker 8 (14:53):
But I know when we've got one in the family
that much, you've got to believe, you will believe it.
Speaker 4 (14:59):
Ru excuse me, just some an object then, pomic side Friday,
Yeah done, all right, callum right, thank you? Not well,
that was our handwriting man, mister House. Yeah, he just
finished checking the writing in those letters and on the receipt.
Speaker 7 (15:17):
For the bonds. But to say full dreis no, sir.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
They're genuine, every one of them. As soon as William
House left the office, Ben and I began an immediate
check of his whereabouts.
Speaker 7 (15:29):
The night after his stepdaughter.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
Louise Marston had disappeared, we talked to his friends and associates,
members of the staff at the club where he lived.
We found a dozen people who backed up houses claim
that he was nowhere in the vicinity of the airport.
The night after Missus Marston dropped from sight, we went
back and talked with doctor Marston Secretary Leonor Dexter. She
still insisted that she had actually seen house at the
(15:52):
airport with the missing woman. Doctor Marston and the stepfather
continued to accuse each other of murder. At our request,
WEP efforts were made by the New York Police to
locate missus Marston.
Speaker 7 (16:03):
No luck.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
We checked and rechecked with the maid at the home
of the missing woman. All she could tell us was
that Louise Marston never returned home after leaving the country club,
and also that she'd been wearing a fur coat and
an expensive diamond solitaire ring. A week passed and then
two weeks. We stayed on it, but there wasn't much progress.
The case of Louise Marston came to a virtual standstill Wednesday,
(16:25):
February twenty fourth, Hi.
Speaker 7 (16:27):
Jill, good morning. Anything new.
Speaker 5 (16:29):
Yeah, I think we got to break the Marston caze.
Oh what do you got made out of doctor Marston's home?
She called first thing this morning, said doctor Marston had
a little dinner party out there last night.
Speaker 7 (16:39):
What about it.
Speaker 5 (16:40):
One of the people there was Marston's secretary, that Leonor Dexter. Oh, yeah,
she was wearing a large diamond ring. You know. Maide
got a good look at the ring, says it the
same one missus Marston was wearing the night she disappeared.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
You are listening to drag Met authentic cases from official
police files.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
Wednesday, February twenty fourth, nine fifteen am, Ben and I
drove out to the home of doctor Robert Marston and
talked to the maid. She told us that on the
previous evening, the doctor had a small dinner party, and
that one of the guests was the doctor's secretary, Leonor Dexter.
Speaker 7 (17:29):
The maid told us that she'd gotten a close look at.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
The diamond ring that miss Dexter was wearing, and that
she was sure it was the same ring that the
doctor's wife, Louise Marston, had been wearing the night she disappeared.
Ten twenty am, we left the Marston house and headed
downtown to the doctor's office in the Medical Dental Building.
Speaker 7 (17:46):
The office was closed and locked.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
We got back in the car and drove out Sunset
Boulevard to Lenar Dexter's home address. We found the secretary
having breakfast alone in her two room apartment. She explained
that on Wednesdays the doctor never opened his office. Before
we questioned her about the dinner party at the doctor's
home the night before we asked her about the diamond
ring that she wore at the party.
Speaker 7 (18:07):
She became confused and hesitant.
Speaker 5 (18:08):
And what about it, Miss Dexter? Was that your diamond
ring and were wearing at the dinner party?
Speaker 9 (18:13):
No, Sergeant, it wasn't. I guess it belongs to doctor Marston,
either him or his wife.
Speaker 7 (18:17):
Or did he give it to you as a present?
Speaker 9 (18:19):
No? You see, I guess the doctor had a few
cocktails before dinner, maybe one too many. He went upstairs
and came down with a ring. He insisted I wear it.
He was very insistent. I didn't want to make a scene,
so I put the ring on. I gave it back
to the doctor just before we left the house. My
boyfriend was with me at the party and we had
a terrible argument over it. He's very jealous.
Speaker 5 (18:41):
Tell me, Miss Dexter, did doctor Marston have any special
reason for wanting you to wear the ring?
Speaker 9 (18:46):
No? Just said he liked me, that I was pretty
and or how to have pretty things. My boyfriend didn't
like him at all.
Speaker 7 (18:52):
We had you ever seen that particular diamond ring, miss Dexter,
I mean before last night.
Speaker 9 (18:56):
I don't know, Sergeant Knight.
Speaker 5 (18:58):
I think so.
Speaker 9 (18:59):
I'm not sure.
Speaker 5 (19:00):
And where do you think you saw the ring before.
Speaker 9 (19:03):
Missus Marston. I think I saw her wearing it once.
Speaker 7 (19:06):
Was she wearing it the night you were supposed to
have seen her at the airport?
Speaker 9 (19:09):
I don't know what you mean. I didn't notice the ring,
but I saw Missus Marsham at the airport.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
I'd like to have you think this thing out for yourself,
Miss Dexter. Missus Marston's been gone for almost three months now.
There's a strong possibility that she might have been murdered.
You can make up your own mind about it. Miss
If you're not involved in that disappearance, i'd advise you
to tell us the truth might save you a lot
of trouble.
Speaker 7 (19:31):
Miss Dexter.
Speaker 9 (19:34):
You mean about my seeing mister House at the airport
with a doctor's wife, but I after she.
Speaker 7 (19:38):
Disappeared, Yes, ma'am, that's right. You sure that's the truth.
Speaker 9 (19:41):
I didn't want to get involved, Sergeant. I didn't want
any part of it.
Speaker 5 (19:44):
You mean you didn't see Missus Marston and stepfather at
the airport that night that you made it all up.
Speaker 9 (19:49):
I didn't make it up, Sergeant, I swear I didn't.
He told me what to say he said to do
it as a favor for him.
Speaker 4 (19:54):
Who's that miss Dr Marston. We continued to question the
secretary of Leonora Dexter. She confessed that Doctor Marston had
directed her to tell the story about seeing Louise Marston
and her stepfather William House at the International Airport.
Speaker 7 (20:10):
It was all a complete lie.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
She said that Marston had explained that the whole thing
was just a practical joke, that it didn't mean anything.
When Missus Marston was officially reported missing, she thought of
going to the police, but Marston had frightened her out
of taking any such action. The only other suspicious thing
she could recall about Missus Marston's disappearance was a conversation
between the doctor and his architect, mister Harold Whitmore. He
(20:32):
was the architect who had planned and designed the projected
Robert A. Marston building for a professional men all. The
secretary told us the doctor's conversation with the architect had
taken place about a month before Missus Marston's disappearance, and
that she had heard the doctor mentioned to the architect
something about New York and a packet of letters. Leonara
Dexter was taken downtown where she gave us a complete
signed statement. Ben and I got in the car and
(20:54):
drove to the offices of architect Harold Whitmore over on
South Hope Street. He was a tall, florid faced man,
very cooperative.
Speaker 8 (21:02):
Yeah, I remember that conversation with doctor Marston. He gave
me a bunch of letters, at least a couple of dozen. Anyway,
they were addressed to the doctor and his little boy, Stanley.
Speaker 5 (21:09):
What do you want you to do with the letters,
mister Whitmore.
Speaker 8 (21:12):
He asked me if I had any friends in New York,
and I said I did. Then he said he was
playing some kind of practical joke on his wife and son.
He gave me the letters and asked me if i'd
send them to a friend in New York and have
him mail them back one of a time.
Speaker 7 (21:23):
You agreed to do that.
Speaker 5 (21:24):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 8 (21:26):
Letters were all sealed and stamped, all in order the
way they were supposed to be mailed. I just sent
him back to this friend of mine. Bob Rogers in
New York forgot all about it.
Speaker 7 (21:34):
Mister Whitmore. How long have you known him, doctor Marston?
Very long?
Speaker 8 (21:37):
No, not too long, only in a business way. He
wants to put up this office building of his, and
I'm handling the job for him. He's sure nuts on
the subject, can't wait till we start construction on the job.
I think his life depended on it. You know much
about his personal life. What'd your first meet him?
Speaker 5 (21:52):
See?
Speaker 6 (21:53):
I think he was around October last year. He and
missus Marston were building a summer place down at Maliboun
and I helped out with the plans. The doctor was
always hanging around there, helping out with the work whenever
he could.
Speaker 7 (22:03):
Uh huh. And that's the only previous contact that you
had with him.
Speaker 5 (22:07):
That's about all ye know.
Speaker 7 (22:08):
Building the beach house.
Speaker 6 (22:09):
Doctor Marston thought he had some new ideas about building
a new type basement in the place. So yeah, not
a bad job on a seller for an amateur. He
used enough cement on it to think a battleship.
Speaker 4 (22:19):
Just second or swit one? Did doctor Marston cement in
the basement while the house is being built?
Speaker 7 (22:23):
Is that?
Speaker 5 (22:24):
No?
Speaker 7 (22:24):
No?
Speaker 6 (22:25):
About a couple of months later, around the middle of December,
I think, do.
Speaker 7 (22:28):
You remember the date exactly when he did the cement work?
Speaker 8 (22:31):
Not exactly about twelfth, the thirteenth of December. I think yeah,
right after his wife disappeared.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
Wednesday, February twenty fourth, one thirty pm, Ben and I
picked up doctor Robert Marston and brought him downtown to
the office. We questioned him for an hour and informed
him of the evidence against him. Despite the statement of
architect Harold Whitmore, the doctor insisted he was innocent of
any crime connected with the disappearance of his wife. We
contacted the New York Police Department and asked them to
(23:00):
check on architect Whitmore's friend, Robert E.
Speaker 7 (23:02):
Rogers.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
A special detail of men was dispatched to the summer
home at Malibu to see what they could find. Half
an hour later, doctor Robert Marston was placed in the
car and Ben and I drove.
Speaker 7 (23:12):
Him to the Malibu home.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
We continued question him during the drive, but he refused
to make a statement of any kind. On our arrival
at the beach cottage, we found Marston's young son, Stanley,
together with a maid and the family butler. We took
doctor Marston downstairs to the basement. The man had a
large section of the cement flooring ripped up. They were
digging in the room up above. We could hear young
Stanley Marston playing on a toy harmonica.
Speaker 6 (23:43):
I'd like to know something, sergeant, just for my information, sir,
why do you think I'd kill my wife?
Speaker 7 (23:49):
Why do you think I'd do such a thing.
Speaker 5 (23:50):
We're not sure yet if you did, killer?
Speaker 6 (23:52):
And why do you have these men doing this digging
up the whole basement? Why do you think I killed her?
Find anything? You might as well tell them to stop
now they won't find anything. I explained everything to you.
Why can't you take my word for it?
Speaker 4 (24:07):
You still haven't explained about those letters, Why you had
them sent to New York? Why I had the mail
back here one at a time.
Speaker 7 (24:13):
Got nothing to do with it. Why can't you believe me?
Speaker 5 (24:15):
Your wife didn't disappear without a reason. Doctor, We'd like
to know what the reason is.
Speaker 7 (24:19):
I told you, I told you a dozen times over.
You know what happened.
Speaker 6 (24:22):
We were at the country club, Louise and I. She
was drinking a lot.
Speaker 7 (24:24):
I told her to lay off. He had an argument.
She walked out, that's all.
Speaker 5 (24:29):
She walked out.
Speaker 7 (24:29):
I didn't see her anymore.
Speaker 5 (24:30):
Yeah, so we'll have it all worked out. Don't worry
about it.
Speaker 6 (24:34):
Why can't that maid look after the boy up there
making all that noise, and why can't you take him
out somewhere down to the beach?
Speaker 5 (24:41):
Yeah, oh yeah, right.
Speaker 6 (24:49):
Charging. What do you want me to say?
Speaker 7 (24:52):
What's that?
Speaker 6 (24:53):
They've found her? You know that Louise right where I
buried her. What do you want me to say? Oh,
that's up to you.
Speaker 5 (25:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (25:01):
She wouldn't understand, would you, Sergeant?
Speaker 6 (25:03):
The only thing I ever wanted in my life, she
wouldn't let me have it, the building, Robert A. Marston
building for a professional man.
Speaker 7 (25:11):
You mean your wife wouldn't give me the money for it.
That's why your quarreled, is that it.
Speaker 6 (25:14):
I tried to tell her one fight after another. She
didn't know how much it meant to me.
Speaker 7 (25:18):
And that's why you killed her.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Huh.
Speaker 6 (25:20):
I followed her outside the country club that night, drove
her to my office. She was pretty drunk.
Speaker 7 (25:23):
Uh huh.
Speaker 6 (25:25):
We pretended she was on a trip to New York.
I had to write the letters, had her sign the
receipt for the bonds. Wasn't hard to do. How'd you
kill her? Put my hands around her throat, didn't stop
until she was dead.
Speaker 5 (25:36):
Joe, yell, men, thank Fornor. You ready to go? Doctor.
Speaker 6 (25:40):
All right, there's a dream of a lifetime, Sergeant. I
almost had it.
Speaker 7 (25:46):
The Robbert A.
Speaker 6 (25:47):
Marston Building, the finest in the city. Yeah, you want
to come upstairs, doctor, will get your coat. You'll try
to understand, won't you. I wanted something that would last,
my own building, my name on it, something you'd remember. Well,
that's the reason I killed Louise. She didn't want me
to have it, my own building, something that would last,
(26:10):
make the people remember.
Speaker 4 (26:11):
Well, you made a doctor. Who I worry. You don't
need a building. I'll remember you.
Speaker 6 (26:16):
Ah.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
The story you have just heard was true, only the
names were changed to protect the innocent.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
On June third, trial was held in Superior Court, Apartment
eighty seven, City and County of Los Angeles, State of California.
In a moment the results of that trial, Robert Alexander
Marston was charged with murder in the first degree. Ten
(26:49):
days after his trial opened in Superior Court, the suspect
took his own life in his jail cell by hanging.
You have just heard Dragnet a series of authentic cases
from official filets. Technical advice comes from the Office of
(27:10):
Chief of Police wh Parker, Los Angeles Police Department.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Stay tuned for Counterspy next over most NBC stations.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Welcome back, a good episode and as this is it broadways,
my bait herb Butterfield wasn't the murderer. I do wonder
if people are a little less game today in helping
with practical jokes because the secretary, the architect, and the
architect's friend all got involved in a murder plot. That way,
(27:52):
there's a lesson in that, all right, well, listener comments
and feedback, and we got a recent comment regarding this
story in its first plane many years back, Mechanics sixty
six 't eight two rides. I guess psycho paths with
money need to see their names on buildings. And then
kind of an interesting one that sent me down a
(28:14):
fun rabbit trail. And this comes from one of our
compilations which had some of our season four episodes in it,
which featured the Clipper clipper Craft run of Sherlock Holmes,
ryans Arise. I wonder if Friday and Romero ever shot
(28:34):
for clipper Craft close well. I kind of wondered whether,
based on the ads they were in East Coast only brand,
but that doesn't appear to be the case, so they
might have particularly given the price point of the suits
and how thrifty that you had to be on the
(28:57):
lapd but they would not have been the target audience.
Clipper Craft in the nineteen fifties pitched their suits to
college men, which neither Friday in Ramera were. There's a
really fascinating article about how clipper Craft appealed very specifically
(29:20):
to Ivy League college men and they had a lot
of interesting things, including ads with men with tigers heads
wearing the suits. They even had a mister Keene suit,
but it was not named after the famous investigator, the
(29:40):
Tracer of Lost Persons. And I will try to remember
to add a link to the article on ivydash style
dot com from twenty nineteen. Great little blog entry. They
are so much fun stuff, all right. Well, now it
is time to thank our Patreon supporter of the day,
and I want to thank Rosa, Patreon supporter since January
(30:02):
twenty twenty, currently supporting the podcast at the Detective Sergeant
level of seven dollars and fourteen cents or more per month.
Thank you so much for your support, Rosa, and that
will do it for today. If you're enjoying the podcast,
please follow us using your favorite podcast software, and if
you're enjoying the podcast on YouTube, be sure to lock
(30:25):
the video, subscribe to the channel, and mark the notification bell.
We will be back next Thursday with another episode of Dragnat.
But join us back here tomorrow for yours truly, Johnny
dollar Ware.
Speaker 10 (30:38):
Great, I can't help you much, Johnny. Joe went with
apparently told you all there is to tell about it.
Speaker 6 (30:43):
You were out looking for a taxi at the time,
went with, got slut.
Speaker 10 (30:46):
That's right. I feel sorry for Joe. That was a
lot of diamond to lose.
Speaker 7 (30:52):
Must be quite a storm.
Speaker 10 (30:54):
I would you go for those things? I know, I
guess some people really have a thing about dim.
Speaker 7 (31:00):
But don't you huh?
Speaker 10 (31:02):
All right, just happens. There are a couple of things
I prefer like.
Speaker 5 (31:06):
What like money and mink?
Speaker 7 (31:09):
Huh?
Speaker 2 (31:11):
But now according to your fiance you.
Speaker 10 (31:12):
Wait a minute, according to my what your fiance?
Speaker 3 (31:17):
What was it?
Speaker 5 (31:19):
Johnny?
Speaker 10 (31:19):
That may be his idea, but it's not mine.
Speaker 7 (31:22):
Well, you're not engaged.
Speaker 10 (31:24):
It's been very nice to me, and I like him,
but we're just friends a far as I'm concerned. Oh yeah,
I'm afraid I'm not the engaged type. Johnny I've tried
it once or twice, but it didn't work. Seems to
interfere with my hobby.
Speaker 7 (31:40):
Your hobby.
Speaker 10 (31:41):
Yeah, having fun.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
I hope you'll be with us then. In the meantime,
send your comments to Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net,
follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives, and check us
out on Instagram, Instagram, dot com, slash Great Detectives from Boise, Idaho.
This is your host, Adam Graham signing off.
Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho.
This is your host, Adam Graham. In a moment, we're
going to bring you this week's episode of Dragnet. But
first I do want to encourage you. If you're enjoying
the podcast, please follow us using your favorite podcast software.
(00:49):
And today's program is brought to you in part by
the financial support of our listeners. You can support the
show on a one time basis support dot Great Detectives
dot net. I want to thank Gene for supporting the
program that way. You can also become one of our
ongoing Patreon supporters for as little as two dollars per
month at Patreon dot Great Detectives, dot neit well Now
(01:15):
from June fourteenth, nineteen fifty one, here is the big Building.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
The story you were about to hear is true, only
the names have been changed to protect the innocent. You're
a detective sergeant. You're assigned to homicide detail. A wealthy
society woman in your city vanishes. Two months passed before
(01:51):
her disappearance is reported to the police. There's suspicion of
foul play. Your job investigate.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Drag Net, the documented drama of an actual crime. For
the next thirty minutes, in cooperation of the Los Angeles
Police Department, you will travel step by step on the
side of the law through an actual case transcribed from
official police buyos, from beginning to end, from crime to punishment.
Dragnet is the story of your police force in action.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
It was Monday, February eighth, was foggy in Los Angeles.
We're working the day watch out of homicide detail. My
partner's Ben Romero. The boss is Thad Brown, Cheap of Detectives.
My name is Friday. We're on the way out from
the office and it was eleven twenty three am when
we got to the ninth floor of the Medical Dental
building from nine to twelve.
Speaker 5 (02:52):
Doctor Marston, Yes, what is it, police officers? Doc you
I talk to you.
Speaker 6 (02:57):
Oh yes, I'm sorry, daydreaming. I guess I didn't hear
you come in.
Speaker 7 (03:00):
Well, my name is Friday. Doctor. This is my partner,
Sarzan Romero. How do you do, gentlemen. It's about the
missing person's report on your wife. You filed it yesterday.
Speaker 6 (03:08):
Yes, that's right, sergeant. Certainly glad you came. Like to
have this whole thing straighten out. As quickly as possible.
I want my wife back with me.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
Well, we'll do everything we can, doctor. There's a few
things we'd like to have you straightened out for us,
if you will. I thought I made it pretty clear
in that report I filed yesterday. What is it you
have a question about.
Speaker 5 (03:22):
I've got a copy of the report right here, says
says your wife disappeared December ninth.
Speaker 6 (03:30):
That's a little over two months ago. Dot there, Yes,
that's correct. December ninth, Sunday night, we were out having dinner.
We had a little argument, and Louise left. I didn't
hear from her until the following Friday. That's when she
wrote me. The first letter was from New York.
Speaker 7 (03:42):
We weren't you a little alarmed to find out your
wife had left you in Gone East?
Speaker 5 (03:45):
Well?
Speaker 6 (03:45):
I wasn't too happy about it, but we'd had a
few arguments before. I always figured it that both of
us good if Louise got away for a little while. No,
I wasn't particularly worried as friends in New York? Would
you care for cigarette?
Speaker 7 (03:58):
Not right now? Doctor light for you?
Speaker 5 (04:00):
Thank you. I understand your wife didn't stay with her
friends this trip. Doctor No.
Speaker 6 (04:07):
Apparently she didn't. However, I wasn't too concerns. She wrote
me letters twice a week, and then she wrote Stanley.
That's her son. He's in military school. We has wrote
to him regularly too.
Speaker 5 (04:18):
And the last letter you got from your wife was
about two weeks ago, yes, or exactly two weeks ago.
Speaker 7 (04:23):
I had the same postmark on New York. Will have
me any idea at all where she was staying back there?
Speaker 6 (04:28):
That's a strange part of it. Sergeant Louise didn't put
her return address on any of the letters. I inquired
of some of our friends back there, but none of
them hadn't seen her. I suppose she was staying at
a hotel. I don't know which one, though.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
Well about those letters, doctor, you know you're sure that
they're in your wife's handwriting. You don't think they could
be forgers doing.
Speaker 6 (04:46):
It's possible, but I don't think so. Sergeant, I know
my wife's handwriting. Do you have all the letters with you, sir? Yes,
I'll have my secretary get them before you leave. She's
out to lunch now. I oh, student pleense cry, yes,
Doctor Marston, well, missus Taylor, Oh, yes, I'm glad you
reminded me.
Speaker 5 (05:04):
Thank you.
Speaker 6 (05:06):
I'm sorry, officers, there's a denture I have to have
ready for one of my patients by this afternoon.
Speaker 7 (05:10):
Would you mind if I.
Speaker 6 (05:11):
Go ahead and work on it while we talk here? No,
it's perfect, all right, doctor, you go right ahead. Do
you mind sipping in the lad back here?
Speaker 5 (05:16):
All right?
Speaker 7 (05:17):
Go ahead, man.
Speaker 6 (05:22):
I'm sorry to interrupt everything like this. I do have
to have this denture ready, though.
Speaker 7 (05:27):
We understand.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
Doctor. You say the night your wife Louise disappeared, the
two of you had an argument.
Speaker 7 (05:33):
Yes, that's correct.
Speaker 6 (05:35):
We were having dinner out at our country club and
I guess Louise had too many cocktails. She gets in
a nasty mood when she drinks too much. I asked
her to stop drinking. She flared up and walked out
of the place.
Speaker 5 (05:45):
Uh huh.
Speaker 7 (05:45):
Did anyone besides yourself see her leave?
Speaker 5 (05:48):
Oh?
Speaker 6 (05:48):
He has two or three couples friends of ours. When
I found out Louise had gone off to New York,
I thought, well, it was her way of teaching me
a lesson. I wasn't too disturbed about it until the
letters stopped coming.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
But your son, Stanley, do you know if he's still
getting the letters from his mother.
Speaker 7 (06:03):
No, he's not.
Speaker 6 (06:04):
I telephoned him, but his school he stopped getting letters
about the same time I did.
Speaker 7 (06:09):
Let's see, where did I put that cast to me? Oh,
let's see.
Speaker 5 (06:13):
We are then, as far as you know, doctor, no
one at all has actually seen your wife since that
night at the country club when she walked out and left.
M hm, that's correct.
Speaker 6 (06:30):
Did I say if I hadn't been getting those letters
from her every week from New York, I would have
called the police in long ago?
Speaker 7 (06:36):
Would you excuse me me? Oh?
Speaker 6 (06:38):
Oh, yeah, got a bit of oxide in this old
crown I've cast here.
Speaker 7 (06:46):
A little bit of acid should take care of that. Well,
what's your theory on all this? Doctor?
Speaker 4 (06:53):
Your wife leaves suddenly, and she goes to New York,
she corresponds with you and your son, and then her
letters stopped coming.
Speaker 7 (07:00):
What do you think might have happened?
Speaker 6 (07:02):
Frankly, Sergeant, the whole thing's a terrible family mix up.
Get this crown here out of the acid.
Speaker 5 (07:16):
Well, how do you mean, doctor, a family mixed up?
Speaker 6 (07:20):
For just that, There's only one reason for Louise disappearing,
the way she has money, money, and that stepfather of
hers say, would you switch on that small motor there, Sergeant,
I've got to polish up this crown and get it
in shape.
Speaker 5 (07:33):
Oh yeah, sure, thank you.
Speaker 7 (07:39):
Well, what do you mean, doctor, how does your wife's
stepfather fit into all this money?
Speaker 6 (07:43):
Man, it's about the size of it. I don't know
if you're aware of it, but my wife, Louise was
left considerable amount of money by her, and well those
are fortune. As a matter of fact, Louise's stepfather has
always been trying to get his hands on it.
Speaker 7 (07:58):
Excuse me again, sure a boy.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
Well, and you think your wife's stepfather is responsible for
her disappearance?
Speaker 7 (08:10):
Is that right?
Speaker 5 (08:10):
Oh?
Speaker 6 (08:11):
I'm not making any direct accusations, Sergeant. Two days ago,
or two days before Louise disappeared, I had eighty thousand
dollars in bonds.
Speaker 7 (08:19):
Signed over to her.
Speaker 6 (08:21):
Checked around since she's been gone, haven't been able to
locate the bonds anywhere.
Speaker 5 (08:24):
You think she had the bonds with her when she left.
Speaker 6 (08:27):
Because I'm sure, pardon me, just a that's a fine
cast with yourp margins on.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
Now the eighty thousand dollars worth of bonds, doctor, do
you have any way of proving that you gave those
to your wife.
Speaker 6 (08:46):
Well, certainly, I had my wife signed receipt for them.
You're welcome to check it over if you like.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
Just how do you think your wife stepfather figures in?
There is there any indication he might have made a
move to get the bond.
Speaker 6 (09:01):
Enough to satisfy me? Yes, my secretary told me about it.
Leonora Dexter. That's the girl in the reception room the
night after my wife left me at the country club,
that would be December tenth. Miss Dexter was at the
airport waiting for a friend to arrive on a plane.
While she was waiting, she saw my wife and her
stepfather cross through the waiting room and go out to
the main gate.
Speaker 7 (09:21):
Your secretary sure it was really your wife and her.
Speaker 6 (09:23):
Stepfather, And that's what she told me. You are certainly
welcome to talk to her yourself if your life.
Speaker 5 (09:28):
Yes, Well, besides the bunds, do you know of anything
else to value that your wife had with him when
she left?
Speaker 6 (09:35):
No, I don't think so. She had her first coat on.
Of course, it's expensive. She was wearing a diamond ring
anniversary gift for me, large solitaire worth quite a.
Speaker 7 (09:43):
Bit of money.
Speaker 6 (09:44):
You can get the description from the jeweler. I'll give
you his name, a right, doctor, your wife's stepfather. We'd
like to have his name and address.
Speaker 7 (09:51):
Too, surely.
Speaker 6 (09:51):
Yeah, I'll have my secretary check on both of them.
Right now, Sergeant, you've got to find Louise.
Speaker 7 (09:59):
I've got to have a with me. What would do
everything we can?
Speaker 6 (10:01):
Doctor, We promise you that I know my wife wouldn't
stay away of her own free will, not this long,
not at a time like this.
Speaker 5 (10:07):
How do you mean?
Speaker 7 (10:09):
Let me show you here it is.
Speaker 6 (10:18):
This is the final drawing the architect made for us.
What do you think of it?
Speaker 7 (10:22):
Oh? That certainly is.
Speaker 6 (10:25):
It's got to be our own building, twelve stories, fine
as in the city, Robert A. Marston building for a
professional man. Louise and I have looked forward to it
for a long time.
Speaker 7 (10:36):
I understand.
Speaker 6 (10:37):
We settled on the final plans a week before she disappeared.
Contractors will start construction a few weeks now. There's supposed
to be a great day in our lives, laying the cornerstone. Yes,
I understand, great day, Robert A. Marston building. It's funny thing,
isn't it.
Speaker 7 (10:54):
Officers?
Speaker 5 (10:54):
How's that?
Speaker 6 (10:56):
Nothing's very great unless there's somebody to share it with.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
Before we left the office of doctor Robert Marston, we
talked with his secretary, Miss Leonora Dexter. She confirmed the
doctor's statement that on the night after Louise Marston had
disappeared from the country club, she had seen both Missus
Marston and her stepfather at the city's international airport. She
said she did not follow them, she had no idea
of their destination. Doctor Marston gave us the letters his
(11:23):
wife had written him during her absence, and also his
wife's signed receipt for the eighty thousand dollars with a bond.
Each of the letters was postmarked New York, and the
dates on them ranged from December fifteenth to March twenty fourth.
Speaker 7 (11:36):
Oben and I drove back to the.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
Office and put in a call to the home of
the missing woman's stepfather, of mister William House. Then we
went down the hall to the office of Don Meyer,
our handwriting expert. We gave him the letters which supposedly
had been written by Missus Marston from New York, along
with a signed receipt for the bonds, and various other
exemplars of her handwriting which we had obtained from her Bank.
Two fifty pm, the missing woman's step father, William House,
(12:01):
arrived at the office. He was a tall, graying man, dignified,
well dressed.
Speaker 8 (12:05):
It's about time the police started looking into this thing.
How long does a person have to be missing before
there's an investigation?
Speaker 5 (12:10):
The missing report was only files yesterday. Mister hass If
you knew your stepdaughter was gone, why didn't you report him?
I've had private detectives working on this for a month,
had him checking everything about the case. How much luck
have they had, frankly, not much. I still got him
working on it well.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
Getting back to what we have on hand, mister House,
how about this statement of doctor Marston's secretary. She says,
as she saw you with missus Marston at the International
airport the night after she disappeared.
Speaker 5 (12:34):
It's a lie.
Speaker 8 (12:34):
I haven't been near that airport in six months. It's
a lie, and I can prove it. I don't know
what Marston's up to, but he isn't going to get
away with it.
Speaker 5 (12:42):
What do you mean with that?
Speaker 8 (12:43):
I think he's murdered Louise. I think he killed her
and buried her somewhere. That's my honest opinion. You sound
sure of it. I am sure of it. I knew
Marsden for what he was the day I met him.
He's a fortunate hunt, a pure and simple He's after
Louise's money and nothing's going to stop him.
Speaker 5 (13:00):
Nothing has stopped him.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
Well, I was under the impression that doctor Marston was
wealthy before he married your stepdaughter, isn't it right?
Speaker 5 (13:06):
Certainly not.
Speaker 8 (13:07):
He was just another poor dentist with a lot of
big ideas. All this talk about putting up a building
naming it after himself while Louise fought him on that constantly.
He's some kind of crazy egotist.
Speaker 5 (13:18):
What about the eighty thousand dollars in bonds he says
he signed over to missus Marston if he told you
that he's a bigger lad than I thought.
Speaker 7 (13:25):
Well, he gave us a receipt for the bonds that
was signed by his wife. Can you accounfid them?
Speaker 8 (13:29):
Frankly, No, Either he got her signature on it by
some kind of trick or he forged it. I'm sure
he never had that much money. Those bards belonged to Louise.
Speaker 5 (13:38):
What about the letters doctor Marston got from his wife?
You think they were forged to I'm positive they were,
don't you see, Officer, it's the perfect cover up for it.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Well, one way or the other, it's not going to
take us long to find out the truth. Our handwriting
man's checking over the letters in the bond receipt. Now,
can you fill us in at all on doctor Marston's background,
mister House.
Speaker 8 (13:56):
Only since he's been connected with the family since he
married Louise.
Speaker 5 (14:00):
Say, would you give me a cigarette? Please? I went
off and left mine at home. Oh, sure, here you are,
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 8 (14:11):
I can't tell you how I feel about it, Officer.
I'm afraid of that man. I'm definitely afraid of him.
I know he's done something terrible to Louise.
Speaker 7 (14:19):
Well, how can you be so sure of it, mister House?
You must have some basis for your opinion.
Speaker 8 (14:23):
I just know, that's all, Sergeant. If Louise had just
disappeared and there wasn't any question of money involved, I
wouldn't be so anxious about it. But eighty thousand dollars
worth of bonds, that'd be enough to tempt Marston to
murder his own mother.
Speaker 5 (14:37):
You don't know him like I do. Well, what do
you know about him? There? There must be something concrete.
Speaker 8 (14:43):
I can tell you this much, Officer Marston's a man
who is capable of murder. Now, I'm a sensible man.
I don't walk up and down the street.
Speaker 5 (14:51):
Looking for murderers.
Speaker 8 (14:53):
But I know when we've got one in the family
that much, you've got to believe, you will believe it.
Speaker 4 (14:59):
Ru excuse me, just some an object then, pomic side Friday,
Yeah done, all right, callum right, thank you? Not well,
that was our handwriting man, mister House. Yeah, he just
finished checking the writing in those letters and on the receipt.
Speaker 7 (15:17):
For the bonds. But to say full dreis no, sir.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
They're genuine, every one of them. As soon as William
House left the office, Ben and I began an immediate
check of his whereabouts.
Speaker 7 (15:29):
The night after his stepdaughter.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
Louise Marston had disappeared, we talked to his friends and associates,
members of the staff at the club where he lived.
We found a dozen people who backed up houses claim
that he was nowhere in the vicinity of the airport.
The night after Missus Marston dropped from sight, we went
back and talked with doctor Marston Secretary Leonor Dexter. She
still insisted that she had actually seen house at the
(15:52):
airport with the missing woman. Doctor Marston and the stepfather
continued to accuse each other of murder. At our request,
WEP efforts were made by the New York Police to
locate missus Marston.
Speaker 7 (16:03):
No luck.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
We checked and rechecked with the maid at the home
of the missing woman. All she could tell us was
that Louise Marston never returned home after leaving the country club,
and also that she'd been wearing a fur coat and
an expensive diamond solitaire ring. A week passed and then
two weeks. We stayed on it, but there wasn't much progress.
The case of Louise Marston came to a virtual standstill Wednesday,
(16:25):
February twenty fourth, Hi.
Speaker 7 (16:27):
Jill, good morning. Anything new.
Speaker 5 (16:29):
Yeah, I think we got to break the Marston caze.
Oh what do you got made out of doctor Marston's home?
She called first thing this morning, said doctor Marston had
a little dinner party out there last night.
Speaker 7 (16:39):
What about it.
Speaker 5 (16:40):
One of the people there was Marston's secretary, that Leonor Dexter. Oh, yeah,
she was wearing a large diamond ring. You know. Maide
got a good look at the ring, says it the
same one missus Marston was wearing the night she disappeared.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
You are listening to drag Met authentic cases from official
police files.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
Wednesday, February twenty fourth, nine fifteen am, Ben and I
drove out to the home of doctor Robert Marston and
talked to the maid. She told us that on the
previous evening, the doctor had a small dinner party, and
that one of the guests was the doctor's secretary, Leonor Dexter.
Speaker 7 (17:29):
The maid told us that she'd gotten a close look at.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
The diamond ring that miss Dexter was wearing, and that
she was sure it was the same ring that the
doctor's wife, Louise Marston, had been wearing the night she disappeared.
Ten twenty am, we left the Marston house and headed
downtown to the doctor's office in the Medical Dental Building.
Speaker 7 (17:46):
The office was closed and locked.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
We got back in the car and drove out Sunset
Boulevard to Lenar Dexter's home address. We found the secretary
having breakfast alone in her two room apartment. She explained
that on Wednesdays the doctor never opened his office. Before
we questioned her about the dinner party at the doctor's
home the night before we asked her about the diamond
ring that she wore at the party.
Speaker 7 (18:07):
She became confused and hesitant.
Speaker 5 (18:08):
And what about it, Miss Dexter? Was that your diamond
ring and were wearing at the dinner party?
Speaker 9 (18:13):
No, Sergeant, it wasn't. I guess it belongs to doctor Marston,
either him or his wife.
Speaker 7 (18:17):
Or did he give it to you as a present?
Speaker 9 (18:19):
No? You see, I guess the doctor had a few
cocktails before dinner, maybe one too many. He went upstairs
and came down with a ring. He insisted I wear it.
He was very insistent. I didn't want to make a scene,
so I put the ring on. I gave it back
to the doctor just before we left the house. My
boyfriend was with me at the party and we had
a terrible argument over it. He's very jealous.
Speaker 5 (18:41):
Tell me, Miss Dexter, did doctor Marston have any special
reason for wanting you to wear the ring?
Speaker 9 (18:46):
No? Just said he liked me, that I was pretty
and or how to have pretty things. My boyfriend didn't
like him at all.
Speaker 7 (18:52):
We had you ever seen that particular diamond ring, miss Dexter,
I mean before last night.
Speaker 9 (18:56):
I don't know, Sergeant Knight.
Speaker 5 (18:58):
I think so.
Speaker 9 (18:59):
I'm not sure.
Speaker 5 (19:00):
And where do you think you saw the ring before.
Speaker 9 (19:03):
Missus Marston. I think I saw her wearing it once.
Speaker 7 (19:06):
Was she wearing it the night you were supposed to
have seen her at the airport?
Speaker 9 (19:09):
I don't know what you mean. I didn't notice the ring,
but I saw Missus Marsham at the airport.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
I'd like to have you think this thing out for yourself,
Miss Dexter. Missus Marston's been gone for almost three months now.
There's a strong possibility that she might have been murdered.
You can make up your own mind about it. Miss
If you're not involved in that disappearance, i'd advise you
to tell us the truth might save you a lot
of trouble.
Speaker 7 (19:31):
Miss Dexter.
Speaker 9 (19:34):
You mean about my seeing mister House at the airport
with a doctor's wife, but I after she.
Speaker 7 (19:38):
Disappeared, Yes, ma'am, that's right. You sure that's the truth.
Speaker 9 (19:41):
I didn't want to get involved, Sergeant. I didn't want
any part of it.
Speaker 5 (19:44):
You mean you didn't see Missus Marston and stepfather at
the airport that night that you made it all up.
Speaker 9 (19:49):
I didn't make it up, Sergeant, I swear I didn't.
He told me what to say he said to do
it as a favor for him.
Speaker 4 (19:54):
Who's that miss Dr Marston. We continued to question the
secretary of Leonora Dexter. She confessed that Doctor Marston had
directed her to tell the story about seeing Louise Marston
and her stepfather William House at the International Airport.
Speaker 7 (20:10):
It was all a complete lie.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
She said that Marston had explained that the whole thing
was just a practical joke, that it didn't mean anything.
When Missus Marston was officially reported missing, she thought of
going to the police, but Marston had frightened her out
of taking any such action. The only other suspicious thing
she could recall about Missus Marston's disappearance was a conversation
between the doctor and his architect, mister Harold Whitmore. He
(20:32):
was the architect who had planned and designed the projected
Robert A. Marston building for a professional men all. The
secretary told us the doctor's conversation with the architect had
taken place about a month before Missus Marston's disappearance, and
that she had heard the doctor mentioned to the architect
something about New York and a packet of letters. Leonara
Dexter was taken downtown where she gave us a complete
signed statement. Ben and I got in the car and
(20:54):
drove to the offices of architect Harold Whitmore over on
South Hope Street. He was a tall, florid faced man,
very cooperative.
Speaker 8 (21:02):
Yeah, I remember that conversation with doctor Marston. He gave
me a bunch of letters, at least a couple of dozen. Anyway,
they were addressed to the doctor and his little boy, Stanley.
Speaker 5 (21:09):
What do you want you to do with the letters,
mister Whitmore.
Speaker 8 (21:12):
He asked me if I had any friends in New York,
and I said I did. Then he said he was
playing some kind of practical joke on his wife and son.
He gave me the letters and asked me if i'd
send them to a friend in New York and have
him mail them back one of a time.
Speaker 7 (21:23):
You agreed to do that.
Speaker 5 (21:24):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 8 (21:26):
Letters were all sealed and stamped, all in order the
way they were supposed to be mailed. I just sent
him back to this friend of mine. Bob Rogers in
New York forgot all about it.
Speaker 7 (21:34):
Mister Whitmore. How long have you known him, doctor Marston?
Very long?
Speaker 8 (21:37):
No, not too long, only in a business way. He
wants to put up this office building of his, and
I'm handling the job for him. He's sure nuts on
the subject, can't wait till we start construction on the job.
I think his life depended on it. You know much
about his personal life. What'd your first meet him?
Speaker 5 (21:52):
See?
Speaker 6 (21:53):
I think he was around October last year. He and
missus Marston were building a summer place down at Maliboun
and I helped out with the plans. The doctor was
always hanging around there, helping out with the work whenever
he could.
Speaker 7 (22:03):
Uh huh. And that's the only previous contact that you
had with him.
Speaker 5 (22:07):
That's about all ye know.
Speaker 7 (22:08):
Building the beach house.
Speaker 6 (22:09):
Doctor Marston thought he had some new ideas about building
a new type basement in the place. So yeah, not
a bad job on a seller for an amateur. He
used enough cement on it to think a battleship.
Speaker 4 (22:19):
Just second or swit one? Did doctor Marston cement in
the basement while the house is being built?
Speaker 7 (22:23):
Is that?
Speaker 5 (22:24):
No?
Speaker 7 (22:24):
No?
Speaker 6 (22:25):
About a couple of months later, around the middle of December,
I think, do.
Speaker 7 (22:28):
You remember the date exactly when he did the cement work?
Speaker 8 (22:31):
Not exactly about twelfth, the thirteenth of December. I think yeah,
right after his wife disappeared.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
Wednesday, February twenty fourth, one thirty pm, Ben and I
picked up doctor Robert Marston and brought him downtown to
the office. We questioned him for an hour and informed
him of the evidence against him. Despite the statement of
architect Harold Whitmore, the doctor insisted he was innocent of
any crime connected with the disappearance of his wife. We
contacted the New York Police Department and asked them to
(23:00):
check on architect Whitmore's friend, Robert E.
Speaker 7 (23:02):
Rogers.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
A special detail of men was dispatched to the summer
home at Malibu to see what they could find. Half
an hour later, doctor Robert Marston was placed in the
car and Ben and I drove.
Speaker 7 (23:12):
Him to the Malibu home.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
We continued question him during the drive, but he refused
to make a statement of any kind. On our arrival
at the beach cottage, we found Marston's young son, Stanley,
together with a maid and the family butler. We took
doctor Marston downstairs to the basement. The man had a
large section of the cement flooring ripped up. They were
digging in the room up above. We could hear young
Stanley Marston playing on a toy harmonica.
Speaker 6 (23:43):
I'd like to know something, sergeant, just for my information, sir,
why do you think I'd kill my wife?
Speaker 7 (23:49):
Why do you think I'd do such a thing.
Speaker 5 (23:50):
We're not sure yet if you did, killer?
Speaker 6 (23:52):
And why do you have these men doing this digging
up the whole basement? Why do you think I killed her?
Find anything? You might as well tell them to stop
now they won't find anything. I explained everything to you.
Why can't you take my word for it?
Speaker 4 (24:07):
You still haven't explained about those letters, Why you had
them sent to New York? Why I had the mail
back here one at a time.
Speaker 7 (24:13):
Got nothing to do with it. Why can't you believe me?
Speaker 5 (24:15):
Your wife didn't disappear without a reason. Doctor, We'd like
to know what the reason is.
Speaker 7 (24:19):
I told you, I told you a dozen times over.
You know what happened.
Speaker 6 (24:22):
We were at the country club, Louise and I. She
was drinking a lot.
Speaker 7 (24:24):
I told her to lay off. He had an argument.
She walked out, that's all.
Speaker 5 (24:29):
She walked out.
Speaker 7 (24:29):
I didn't see her anymore.
Speaker 5 (24:30):
Yeah, so we'll have it all worked out. Don't worry
about it.
Speaker 6 (24:34):
Why can't that maid look after the boy up there
making all that noise, and why can't you take him
out somewhere down to the beach?
Speaker 5 (24:41):
Yeah, oh yeah, right.
Speaker 6 (24:49):
Charging. What do you want me to say?
Speaker 7 (24:52):
What's that?
Speaker 6 (24:53):
They've found her? You know that Louise right where I
buried her. What do you want me to say? Oh,
that's up to you.
Speaker 5 (25:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (25:01):
She wouldn't understand, would you, Sergeant?
Speaker 6 (25:03):
The only thing I ever wanted in my life, she
wouldn't let me have it, the building, Robert A. Marston
building for a professional man.
Speaker 7 (25:11):
You mean your wife wouldn't give me the money for it.
That's why your quarreled, is that it.
Speaker 6 (25:14):
I tried to tell her one fight after another. She
didn't know how much it meant to me.
Speaker 7 (25:18):
And that's why you killed her.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Huh.
Speaker 6 (25:20):
I followed her outside the country club that night, drove
her to my office. She was pretty drunk.
Speaker 7 (25:23):
Uh huh.
Speaker 6 (25:25):
We pretended she was on a trip to New York.
I had to write the letters, had her sign the
receipt for the bonds. Wasn't hard to do. How'd you
kill her? Put my hands around her throat, didn't stop
until she was dead.
Speaker 5 (25:36):
Joe, yell, men, thank Fornor. You ready to go? Doctor.
Speaker 6 (25:40):
All right, there's a dream of a lifetime, Sergeant. I
almost had it.
Speaker 7 (25:46):
The Robbert A.
Speaker 6 (25:47):
Marston Building, the finest in the city. Yeah, you want
to come upstairs, doctor, will get your coat. You'll try
to understand, won't you. I wanted something that would last,
my own building, my name on it, something you'd remember. Well,
that's the reason I killed Louise. She didn't want me
to have it, my own building, something that would last,
(26:10):
make the people remember.
Speaker 4 (26:11):
Well, you made a doctor. Who I worry. You don't
need a building. I'll remember you.
Speaker 6 (26:16):
Ah.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
The story you have just heard was true, only the
names were changed to protect the innocent.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
On June third, trial was held in Superior Court, Apartment
eighty seven, City and County of Los Angeles, State of California.
In a moment the results of that trial, Robert Alexander
Marston was charged with murder in the first degree. Ten
(26:49):
days after his trial opened in Superior Court, the suspect
took his own life in his jail cell by hanging.
You have just heard Dragnet a series of authentic cases
from official filets. Technical advice comes from the Office of
(27:10):
Chief of Police wh Parker, Los Angeles Police Department.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Stay tuned for Counterspy next over most NBC stations.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Welcome back, a good episode and as this is it broadways,
my bait herb Butterfield wasn't the murderer. I do wonder
if people are a little less game today in helping
with practical jokes because the secretary, the architect, and the
architect's friend all got involved in a murder plot. That way,
(27:52):
there's a lesson in that, all right, well, listener comments
and feedback, and we got a recent comment regarding this
story in its first plane many years back, Mechanics sixty
six 't eight two rides. I guess psycho paths with
money need to see their names on buildings. And then
kind of an interesting one that sent me down a
(28:14):
fun rabbit trail. And this comes from one of our
compilations which had some of our season four episodes in it,
which featured the Clipper clipper Craft run of Sherlock Holmes,
ryans Arise. I wonder if Friday and Romero ever shot
(28:34):
for clipper Craft close well. I kind of wondered whether,
based on the ads they were in East Coast only brand,
but that doesn't appear to be the case, so they
might have particularly given the price point of the suits
and how thrifty that you had to be on the
(28:57):
lapd but they would not have been the target audience.
Clipper Craft in the nineteen fifties pitched their suits to
college men, which neither Friday in Ramera were. There's a
really fascinating article about how clipper Craft appealed very specifically
(29:20):
to Ivy League college men and they had a lot
of interesting things, including ads with men with tigers heads
wearing the suits. They even had a mister Keene suit,
but it was not named after the famous investigator, the
(29:40):
Tracer of Lost Persons. And I will try to remember
to add a link to the article on ivydash style
dot com from twenty nineteen. Great little blog entry. They
are so much fun stuff, all right. Well, now it
is time to thank our Patreon supporter of the day,
and I want to thank Rosa, Patreon supporter since January
(30:02):
twenty twenty, currently supporting the podcast at the Detective Sergeant
level of seven dollars and fourteen cents or more per month.
Thank you so much for your support, Rosa, and that
will do it for today. If you're enjoying the podcast,
please follow us using your favorite podcast software, and if
you're enjoying the podcast on YouTube, be sure to lock
(30:25):
the video, subscribe to the channel, and mark the notification bell.
We will be back next Thursday with another episode of Dragnat.
But join us back here tomorrow for yours truly, Johnny
dollar Ware.
Speaker 10 (30:38):
Great, I can't help you much, Johnny. Joe went with
apparently told you all there is to tell about it.
Speaker 6 (30:43):
You were out looking for a taxi at the time,
went with, got slut.
Speaker 10 (30:46):
That's right. I feel sorry for Joe. That was a
lot of diamond to lose.
Speaker 7 (30:52):
Must be quite a storm.
Speaker 10 (30:54):
I would you go for those things? I know, I
guess some people really have a thing about dim.
Speaker 7 (31:00):
But don't you huh?
Speaker 10 (31:02):
All right, just happens. There are a couple of things
I prefer like.
Speaker 5 (31:06):
What like money and mink?
Speaker 7 (31:09):
Huh?
Speaker 2 (31:11):
But now according to your fiance you.
Speaker 10 (31:12):
Wait a minute, according to my what your fiance?
Speaker 3 (31:17):
What was it?
Speaker 5 (31:19):
Johnny?
Speaker 10 (31:19):
That may be his idea, but it's not mine.
Speaker 7 (31:22):
Well, you're not engaged.
Speaker 10 (31:24):
It's been very nice to me, and I like him,
but we're just friends a far as I'm concerned. Oh yeah,
I'm afraid I'm not the engaged type. Johnny I've tried
it once or twice, but it didn't work. Seems to
interfere with my hobby.
Speaker 7 (31:40):
Your hobby.
Speaker 10 (31:41):
Yeah, having fun.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
I hope you'll be with us then. In the meantime,
send your comments to Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net,
follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives, and check us
out on Instagram, Instagram, dot com, slash Great Detectives from Boise, Idaho.
This is your host, Adam Graham signing off.
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