May 10, 2025 • 23 mins
Please enjoy Big T.V a great episode of the OTR legend Dragnet
This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI
This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Ladies and gentlemen. The story you're abatu here is true.
The names have been changed to protect the innocent.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Drag men.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned the missing person's detail.
You get a call that a young mother and a
nine month old baby have disappeared. Routine investigation turns up
the possibility of foul play.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Your job find them.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
It was Tuesday, August twelfth. It was warm in Los Angeles.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
We were working the day watch out a homicide division
missing person's detail. My partner is Frank Smith, the boss's
capital wrman. My name is Friday. We're on our way
out from the office, and it was ten fourteen am
when we got to eighteen sixty.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Five Malabar Street manager's apartment.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
I'm gotta try it again. R Yeah, you.
Speaker 5 (01:02):
Just a minute on a sass as I can.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Sounds like she's got trouble. Yeah yeah, this plicier police officers, ma'am.
I'd like to talk to you.
Speaker 6 (01:11):
Come in, I gotta take care of it. Thank you, Lan,
sit down and I'll be right back, all right, thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Sounds like colic to me, all right, Yeah, sounds like colic.
I wonder if you got a hot water bottle. Hot
water bottle, put it on the kid's stomach, makes them
feel better.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
Both of ours have the college? Or are three hot
water bottles? One two kids? Oh, Joe, we watched the
stop run.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
One of them.
Speaker 6 (01:34):
Baby's teething, having a rough time.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Oh, this is my partner, Frank Smith. My name is Friday.
We'd like to ask you some questions about one of
your tenants.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Oh, which one I missed? Shipley. We understand she had
apartment two of seven.
Speaker 6 (01:43):
Yeah, she did want about her.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
You know what, we can get touch to her.
Speaker 6 (01:46):
You've got any idea? Wanted to see your last I
guess it must have been a month ago.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Possible you might be able to give us an exactly on.
Speaker 5 (01:51):
There if I could have done that. I told you
right out, I got nothing to hide. Well, we didn't
mean to say that you had, Man, it sounds like
it sounds an awful lot like it. I'm gonna be
honest with you. When Harry had first moved in here,
we got along fine. She was all the time wanting
me to tell her how to take care of the
baby when it came. That's when I got along just fine.
He's down a little cup of coffee in the afternoon, chummy.
When all of a sudden it all got different.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Why was that one?
Speaker 5 (02:12):
Just did Her husband was overseas in the army. I
guess hellwait, miss him ptty much.
Speaker 6 (02:17):
Anyway. She was always saying how she did we sh
could be here when the baby was born, got terrible depressed.
Speaker 5 (02:22):
I see moody, you know, yes, man, I did what
I couldn't chair up. Used to go out there and
we'd sit and talk. Taught her how to knit, gave
her some need as and nodded a little present. I
thought maybe he'd give her something to think about, kind
of take her mind off her and her husband didn't
do no good.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
When I old her husband been away, you know, four.
Speaker 6 (02:38):
Months, it's time he's over in Japan. I think army.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Mm mm, Harry.
Speaker 5 (02:41):
Used to go out once in a while, we're down
at the show. Seemed like just about every picture she
saw made her sadder. I guess that's why she did it.
Speaker 6 (02:47):
She just got the set.
Speaker 5 (02:48):
She couldn't take it any more. Huh, what's that tried
to kill herself? Oh, shepley.
Speaker 6 (02:52):
Yeah. I got the kids in bed one night and
went up there.
Speaker 5 (02:55):
I hadn't heard nothing from her that day, so I
went up to see how she was. Good thing I
did too, found her right there in the living room.
She cut her wrists right away. I called for the
doctor and all the ambulances and police came running around.
Took her to the hospital. Big deal, I guess I
found her in time, though they pulled it through. M
I walk up there and find her dying that far
from death's door. And when she comes home from the hospital,
what thanks do.
Speaker 6 (03:15):
You think I get?
Speaker 3 (03:16):
I wouldn't know.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Quit nothing, not.
Speaker 5 (03:19):
A single solitary word do I get. She's mad, says
I should have left her alone, let her done it.
Come in here when she got back and read me
off in words that I ain't used to hearing. M
I got five kids, mister. They take a lot of time,
and I ain't got enough to go running around after nobody.
Speaker 6 (03:32):
Who don't thank a person for saving their life like that?
I called it quits right then, right at that minute,
we were no longer friends. M M.
Speaker 5 (03:38):
Why didn't she make the attempt on her life last September?
I remember the day. It was a second maybe the
third week, I'm not sure about what day it was. Anyway,
after I saved her life. She's mad at me.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
See how many people here in Los Angeles? Would you know?
Speaker 6 (03:50):
I never heard her talking.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
None.
Speaker 5 (03:51):
She's got a sister, I don't know, but I don't
know where she is. Don't think Harry ever.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Said, Oh, what does she say to you? When she left?
Speaker 3 (03:58):
She'd give you any idea where she was going.
Speaker 6 (04:00):
I didn't even see her. She didn't even come by
and say so long, goodbye, take a jump nothing. She
just left. One night, she's here, next morning she's gone.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
She get an email while she was here.
Speaker 5 (04:08):
Yeah, once in a while she get a letter from
her husband. Then there was a couple of letters from
San Francisco. I don't know who they was from.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
She'd take everything with her, all of her personal things.
Speaker 6 (04:16):
Nothing left it all here. Of course it's not much,
but it's all here.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
I see where are the things, ma'am.
Speaker 6 (04:21):
Downstairs in the basement. I got it all put away.
Speaker 5 (04:23):
And see she ever comes back, it's gonna cost her
too storage and for me to pack it. I told
you as much dress as you close for the baby,
for and a rapt a couple of records. That's about it,
even seem if you want.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Tom we might take a look at'em before we leave.
Speaker 6 (04:34):
Yeah, sure thing, I'd let you take 'em, though, I
got a collect for the storage.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Test, ma'am.
Speaker 5 (04:38):
Miss.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
If we have any close friends at Juneral, not that
I know, of course, she might've had some done Dream Palace?
Speaker 5 (04:43):
Who is that where she worked dance all downtown. She
was kind of hostess there.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
M that's the name of the places at Dream Palace.
Speaker 5 (04:48):
Yeah, she might've had some friends down there. None of
them never came here, though, at least if they.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Did on her own, You don't have any reason that
she might have left them such a hurry.
Speaker 6 (04:56):
Not right off, I can't think of one. There was
something wrong with her though.
Speaker 5 (04:59):
When she came back to the home, you know, when
she had the baby, she was worried about something.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Would you know what it was?
Speaker 5 (05:03):
No?
Speaker 6 (05:04):
Well, I know is that when she'd been home a
couple of days, she came down.
Speaker 5 (05:06):
Here and asked me to do some work on the apartment.
I told her if she wanted anything done, she could
do it herself. The way she talked to me, would
she wanted to cheer? Least thing I ever heard of.
She didn't have anything to steal? Well, she wanted all
the locks on the doors changed.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Ten forty six am.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
In the company of the apartment manager, Barbara Fleischer, Frank
and I went down to the basement and looked through
the missing woman's effects.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Other than the phonograph, several.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
Cardboard boxes have used baby clothes and cheap woman's dresses.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
We found nothing.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
There were no snapshots or letters to atus and ascertaining
where she might have gone. We asked missus Fleischer to
notify us in the event that she heard from the
shiping woman. We put in a call at Georgia Street
Receiving Hospital and verified the story about the attempted suicide.
Eleven fifteen am, we checked the phone book for the
address of the Dream Palace. Dance hall was on the
second floor of a large building at the corner of
seventh and Margot Street. On the front of the building
(05:59):
were set faded photographs of contest winners with the cups
that they'd won and the name of the proprietor, Ernest Lasnie.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
We went upstairs.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
There's a large barn like room with crepe paper birds
hanging over the lights.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
In the rear of the place, at one of the tables,
we found Lasnie.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
He was just eating his lunch.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
It's a last ni. I what I like to ask
you some questions where police officers. My name is Smith's.
My partner starts on Friday. All right, how are you?
I want your hands to borrow arm some Thank you Prawley.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
No, thank you.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
All he does are right ahead. All the makings Brad
Butter Islamic. Pick. I'll help yourself. No thanks, mister Lasnie,
don't mind if I go ahead him? A bunch of
kids coming in three thirty. I get the place cleaned up.
Where you get here? No, so you are out of head.
Well I'm feeling about.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
It's about one of your employees with one girl named
Harriet Shipley.
Speaker 6 (06:46):
Oh yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Don't there's you don't work here anymore, didn't work anymore?
Speaker 7 (06:50):
Got any idea where she is? No, I've got the spiders.
Ain't seen Nadine about maybe six month?
Speaker 2 (06:56):
No, sir, you don't understand we're inquiring about a Harriet Shipley. Yeah,
I don't know. I told Jim nin's here in six months.
What's this about Nadine? That's a club name.
Speaker 7 (07:05):
Uh see once the girls don't like to use their
real names in case Ubonna wants to get chum me
away from here. It's easier if we don't know the
girl's real name. Harriet used Nadine. Understand, you got a
bunch of them.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
One of the girls leaves, we put the name back
in a hat. New girl picks It had fourteen Nadine
since we opened twenty seven out.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Years yea, I say, do you have any idea where
the Shipley girl is?
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Mike? Check her husband, he might know. We understand he
was in the army. Yeah, I'm trying. He is overseas.
He should know where his wife is. Ask him, Well,
we'll probably do that.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
So we thought maybe we could turn her up ourselves.
There's been a missing report filed on her mission.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Who told me? Sir? Who told her about her being missing? Newport?
Was filed by her mother in law? Well, I wish
I could help your follows out.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
And the last time he saw the Shipley girls, she
say anything about leaving town?
Speaker 2 (07:48):
No, wouldn't we surprised him?
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Why you say that?
Speaker 4 (07:51):
Were kid was scared to death? Told me she wanted
to get away. Do you know what she was frightened about? Yeah,
clip bender, that's what she was afraid of.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Cliff what was he?
Speaker 7 (08:01):
Well, well, I'll tell you the whole thing would be
easier that way. One favor I got asked him, yes, sir,
you won't tell what if I told you he'd come
up here, he could tear the place apart easy. You
gotta promise me with Tom that's here, you go ahead.
Well Nadine, uh, Harriet, Well, she can't work for me.
(08:22):
About a year and a half ago, came in and
told me she'd had some experience in a dance place
in the Midwest.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
I remember her name right off, probably come to me
well when.
Speaker 7 (08:31):
I told her i'd try her, you know, sort of
probation worked out to mine, and the week I put
her on permanent stood real well a while. The guys
got to coming in just to dance with her. Wouldn't
have nobody else, just Nadine or Harriet.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
On sis she met Cliff. He'd come in one night,
fell for it, and they started to go together. I
told him I didn't like the idea of girls going
out with the customers. Not good business. Didn't make any
difference to them, though, they kept right on seeing each other.
It's this vendor fellaw. Yeah. Well, anyway, when at the
soldier come in, he was took right away with Nadine,
asked her.
Speaker 7 (09:03):
For a dance, kept buying tickets online so he could
dance with to come back the next night, same one.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
All night long he dance with Nadine. That are yeah,
that's right. Called it Nadine. You know I told you
about made Cliff twenty sword, but there wasn't anything he
could do about it. She wanted to be with a soldier.
Wasn't too long for it. She told him he was
gonna get married. Well, where got around about that?
Speaker 7 (09:22):
Really made Cliff hack real hacked? Yes, yeah, well him
and a soldier shipley. I had a fight downstairs one
night after we closed. Guess Cliff waited for him and
Nadine to come down. Anyway, It was a real brawl
tops and everything. Cliff really cleaned up on the soldier.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Didn't know any good do what he mean? Nadine told
Cliff to stay.
Speaker 7 (09:40):
Away from her, keep far away, called him to hearn
the soldier was gonna get married and if they were through,
she went clipping her on a soldier. Nadine got married
a couple of days later, and she quit her job
right after that. I heard he went overseas and the
Cliff was around trying to break things up. Didn't do
no good, though. Nadine loved the soldier and she planned
to stay with him. Yes, well, I tried to talk
to Cliff, tell him to stay out of it the
(10:00):
girl along.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
What was that I've torn? Leave the girl alone? I said,
tell me any good? He was sure. He tried to
chieve with his girl. Might take some time, but he'd
get her for run an hour. I figure you told
her that too, That's what she was afraid of, aug Glamour.
Stiff told me that I believe him.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
What's that tho?
Speaker 2 (10:18):
He was going to kill her?
Speaker 4 (10:27):
Twelve twenty six pm, after we'd gotten the names and
addresses of the employees of the Dream Palace who knew
the missing girl, Frank and I went back to the office.
We had the names checked through the record bureau, but
we found that only one of the fourteen people on
the list had arrest records. That one was a Cliff
Bender who had been picked up on a charge of
suspicion of burgery.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
However, according to the information on the report, he'd been released.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
Because of lack of evidence. We checked the log about
the fight Lasnik had mentioned. We found that an FI
card had been filed, but that no arrest had been made.
We went over to Room forty five and we talked
with Sergeant eggen Waller and Sergeant Rubles, the officers who
handled the burglary case. They told us that in their
contacts with Bender, he was sullen and uncooperative. They told
us that he'd been seen in the company of known criminals.
(11:09):
We also told us that, in their opinion, they considered
the man dangerous. We checked his last known address, but
we found that he'd moved in July, leaving no forwarding address.
While Frank and I checked out the rest of the
missing girl's friends and acquaintances, Sergeant.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Graham and Cliff Bailey tried to check on Bender.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
We talked to everybody on the list we'd gotten from
Ernest Lasnik, but none of them could give us any
idea where we might find the Shipley girl.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Most of them, however, told us about the.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Threat that Bender had made against her life and expressed
the opinion that he was responsible for her disappearance. The
next day, Wednesday, August thirteenth, Frank and I went by communications.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Then we checked back into the office. I told you
a moner in law that missing girl called again this morning.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
No, No, he didn't, and she wanted to know how
we were doing, what progress has been able to make.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
When would you tell her? Well, I filed her in
on what we found.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
I didn't tell her about bender though. I just said
we thought we'd be able to find the girl. You
talked to her when you made the originally important you Joe, Yeah,
what'd you think?
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Well?
Speaker 3 (11:56):
What do you mean? Well, isn't there something that's a
little off base to you? I don't know what you're
going to get in.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
Well, this seems to me that she doesn't care if
you find her daughter in law, and not all she
cares about the kid was Yeah, I kind of got
the idea of myself why she talked. Doesn't seem that
she and the girl got along too well, does it? No,
just seems like there's something she hasn't telling us.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
I don't know there is.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
I asked her this morning she'd heard from her son
if he knew anything about where his wife might be,
which say to that, She told him she didn't want
to bother him, make him worry. Wouldn't even tell me
his mailing address, so she didn't want him alarmed. Unless
it was a reason way I see it. His wife
being gone as reason enough why, it seems to me.
And I told her that, she said our job would
just find the girl and the baby, and that's all
cooperates like that isn't gonna make it any easier, is it?
Speaker 3 (12:34):
We only do so much if she isn't gonna help us.
Speaker 4 (12:36):
It doesn't make a lot of sense her fileing the
report then hold him out information.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
I mean, I mean, better go and talk to her again.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
She even get the whole story. How about Graham and
Baileyard from him? Now, there was a note in the
book they gotta lead on Bender. Raham said they were
gonna run it down for us this morning. That's telling
you go now mm hmmm, alright forty three. I don't
want to talk to Skipper. Make arrangements to put a
picture the ship the girl on suspects one it this afternoon,
might be able to finch.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Out, you know, sure a lot of loop, says I
got a.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
Messing person's frank, Yeah, agree, Where what'd you say? Well
that's about the same h what?
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Yeah? What do you wanna call a crime ler?
Speaker 6 (13:18):
Like?
Speaker 4 (13:18):
No one meet County right away right back? Only found
where a Bender was living. What do you mean what
checked out last June about the same time the ship
they girl disappeared. A land that he hasn't seen him since.
Guys came up to something else. Yeah, a couple of
shirts for a baby. Uh uh, bloodstains all over him.
Ten o two am we got to the apartment where
(13:39):
Bender had been living. The crew from the crime lab
were there and they were photographing the roman the clothing
that had been found.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Sergeant Jay Allen.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Told us that he'd have to run a precipitate test
on the stains before he could tell whether or not
they were of human origin.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Ten forty five am they.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
Finished their investigation on the scene and they went back
to Central station to compile the results. Frank called the
office and the local M and APD were put out
on to Bender, asking that he'd be picked up as
a possible suspect. We also had his card flagged in
the record bureau. We talked to the landlady of the
apartment building and she told us that Bender had left
his apartment hurriedly one night about the middle of June.
She was unable to tell us the exact date, but
(14:14):
she did go on to say that she'd been getting
a check for the rent each month. We asked her
if she could show us either one of the checks
or an envelope that had come in. She explained that
she had thrown the envelopes away and had cashed the checks.
She was unable to tell us where they'd been mailed from.
She said that as far as she knew, she'd never
seen the Shipley girl in Bender's apartment. We asked her
to notify us immediately in the event of the suspect returned.
(14:35):
We put in a call to the bank where the
rent checks were cast, and we asked that they give
us the information on it. One thirty PM, Frank and
I went over to the crime lab and we talked
to Jay Allen.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
He told us that the stains on the baby flows
were human blood.
Speaker 4 (14:47):
He showed us the photographs taken, but there was nothing
in them that would give us any lead as to
either the girls or benders whereabouts. That afternoon, the picture
of Harriet Shipley was telecast over the police program. We
got several calls from citizens who said that they'd seen
the girl.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Checked them all out.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
One of the callers, a bus driver, told us that
he'd seen the girl and the baby on his bus
during the month.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Of June, and that she'd gotten off in San Diego.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
We alerted the police in that city to look for
Thursday morning, Frank and I checked into the office.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Go and check the book. Frank sees his name in
San Diego. Frank, I got it.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
Missing persons Friday. Yes, that's right, Yes we did. Where
are you sure about that?
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Right away? Frank, get your coked. We got Shipley girl.
They founded.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
The call had come from a nurse at the State
Metal Hospital in Camarillo. She told me that they had
a patient who resembled the photograph of the missing girl
ass televised on our police program. Frank and I left
the office and drove out to the hospital. We talked
to the nurse and to the doctor who was taking
care of the sick girl. From personal effects and the
scars on our wrists, we were reaching be sure of
the identification. The doctor told us if the girl had
(16:03):
been committed on July seventeenth by her sister under the
name Harriet Law.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
He told us that the.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
Girl was undergoing treatment, but that there was little hope
for complete recovery and that it would be some time
before she could be permitted to leave the bio afoord.
We tried to talk to her, but we were unable
to get any coherent answers. We asked about the baby,
but the authorities were unable to give us any information.
We got the name and address of the sister who
had committed the Shipley girl, and we drove down to
San Diego to talk to her. It was a small
(16:28):
place in a wartime housing development. The paint was peeling
off the flyboard walls, and the front yard was overgrown
with weeds. The woman who answered the door identified herself
as Pauline Lavin.
Speaker 6 (16:38):
Sure, well you want to know. Don't make no difference.
Now you go back and tell her it's too late,
way too late. Seldom missus Shipley, Harriet's mother in law.
You go back and tell her she done it good.
Ain't nothing left to do to Harriet, It's all been done.
You can tell her that.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Well, we don't work for miss Shipley.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
Man.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
We're trying to find out what happened to your sister
and the baby.
Speaker 6 (16:54):
Who asked you to find out in first place with
her wasn't it wasn't you to win?
Speaker 2 (16:57):
She filed her report That's what I mean.
Speaker 6 (17:00):
W you go back and tell her. There's nothing more
she can do to Harriet as a baby or Big Jerry,
nothing at all she can do.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Where's the baby man?
Speaker 6 (17:06):
He's not here.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
You know where he is.
Speaker 6 (17:08):
Yes, but I'm not gonna tell you. I'm not gonna
tell anybody. I promise Harriet, I wouldn't tell her.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
I'm gonna keep the problem.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
He was laughing.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
We don't wanna hurt your sister. We're just trying to
get to the truth. How many of you better tell
us what you know.
Speaker 6 (17:18):
You ain't doing this.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Rule the ship?
Speaker 6 (17:20):
No men? Alright, then I'll tell you, but not for her.
I wouldn't give her the right time of day. She's
the one that did it, the whole thing. You can
let it right at her feet, all right. You wanna
tell us about it? Said they got married. She's given
the kids trouble right from the first she heard about it.
Said that Harriet wasn't good enough for a son, said
Harry was cheap, didn't maything give us a good kid.
(17:41):
They got married anyway, they were in love, So they
got married.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Mm.
Speaker 6 (17:44):
So as Big Jerry went overseas, she started on Harriet
to get an annoment all the time, writ in her letters,
telling her how cheap she was and if she really
loved Jerry, she'd get an anublement. And she found out
about the baby, so she started saying how they should
get a divorce.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Is Harriet's husband know about this?
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Would you know?
Speaker 6 (17:58):
Sure?
Speaker 2 (17:59):
All long he knew it.
Speaker 6 (18:00):
He didn't like it, told his mother to stay out
of their lives, kept telling her, but it didn't do
any good none. Then Harriet got the wire, the one
that told about Big Jerry being dead, almost killed her.
I thought it was going too They was really in love.
It was not often you see something like them, too,
real love the Kinye lived, not the kindie talk about
(18:22):
m M. One night, right after she got the wire,
she got a phone call from San Francisco from Ole
Miss Shipley. She told Harry that she was going to
the court to take the baby away from her, said
she could prove Harriet wasn't a good mother and she
didn't deserve to have the baby.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
Was Harriet living here at the time.
Speaker 6 (18:38):
No, She'd come down every weekend, but she wasn't living here.
There was a guy up in la that was giving
her trouble. Tell her named Bender. I think he was
with her when she tried to kill herself. He ran
out so he wouldn't get mixed up in it. He
was already giving Harriet trouble, so she left one night
to get away from him and old missus Shipley. She
came down here and said that she just wanted to
be left alone with her baby. It's not a lot
(18:59):
to ask, is that? Just to be left alone was
for all Missus Shiffer, she just wouldn't let Harriet alone,
kept after saying how she was gonna take away the baby,
how Harriet was an unfit mother, kind of got on
her mind. Finally, there wasn't much else she was thinking about,
but how to keep her baby. She went out walking
one night, took the baby with it, rained, rained, real hard.
(19:22):
I guess the baby took cold anyway. The next day
he came down with a bad fever. A couple of
days later he was dead.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Not even a year old and he was dead. I
want to go on.
Speaker 6 (19:36):
Harriet sat around for a week, didn't say anything, didn't
do nothing, just stare at the wall, didn't even cry,
just sat and looked at the wall. And all of
a sudden she just fell apart. I called the doctor,
said it was a breakdown, and said I should have
her committed. I signed the papers and that's where she is.
I went up to see her.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
She didn't even know me.
Speaker 6 (20:00):
I'm her sistant and she didn't even know. So you
just tell them, miss Shipley, how she did good. You
just tell her what she did to my sisters, tell
her how the babies did. And she's finally got what
she wanted because now Harriet hasn't got the baby.
Speaker 5 (20:14):
Nobody's got him. Nobody, nobody. I want that?
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Yeah, where too?
Speaker 3 (20:29):
And then we bet it back the time?
Speaker 2 (20:31):
I guess so Seemans Shipley. We got back to Los
Angeles at nine thirty pm.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
We went directly to the hotel where Miss Shipley was staying.
Desk clerk told us that she left word that she
was not to be disturbed. He called the room and
she asked if we come up. We took the elevator
to the seventh floor and we walked down the hall.
Speaker 8 (20:59):
Evening Dodgers lad helps the Smith come in.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Thank you.
Speaker 6 (21:02):
I'm just having a drink. May I fix you one?
Don't think how about you?
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Missus Smith? No? Thank you?
Speaker 8 (21:06):
You don't mind if I go ahead, just sit down.
I'll be right with you this quick said it was important.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 6 (21:13):
You found my daughter in law, miss ma'am.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
And the baby.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Where is he? Is he still with us?
Speaker 2 (21:19):
No, ma'am, he's not already.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
Your daughter in law's pretty sick, Miss Shepley.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
Oh, yes, ma'am.
Speaker 5 (21:25):
She's in the state hospital up at Cameron Camilla's, ma'am,
at the mentoral hospital, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
That's right.
Speaker 6 (21:32):
I'm sorry to hear about Harriet, but I knew she
wasn't very stable.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Why didn't you tell us your son was dead?
Speaker 8 (21:37):
Missus Shipley, I didn't say it had any bearing on
the thing. What difference does it make?
Speaker 3 (21:43):
You don't seem to be very interested in his way.
Speaker 8 (21:45):
I'm going to be honest with you, Sergeant. I'm not
not in the least interested in what she does or
where she is. I never did deal she was the
right girl for my son. Never when the baby was born.
Speaker 6 (21:55):
I tried to go along with it. I tried to
be nice to her. She wouldn't have it.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
It'dn't even be friendly.
Speaker 6 (22:01):
She poisoned my son and turned him against me.
Speaker 8 (22:04):
She's a terrible woman, just terrible whatever happened to her
is just exactly what she's.
Speaker 6 (22:09):
Got coming naturally.
Speaker 8 (22:11):
I'm sorry, it's the way it is, but there's nothing
I can do. All I'm interested in right now is
my grandchild. I want him, and if I have to
go to court to get him, then I'll do it
that way.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
I won't be necessary, ma'am.
Speaker 5 (22:25):
Where is he?
Speaker 8 (22:26):
I'd like to go and get him out of Jerry's
wife can't take care of him.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
He's dead, ma'am.
Speaker 6 (22:33):
This is some kind of a joke that you're making
up to help my daughter in law keep him.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
It won't work.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
It's no joke, is the truth. He died in the
hospital and saying, ne.
Speaker 6 (22:44):
It's not right, it's not right that he said.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
She did this, herriot. She did it to get even
with me. I know she did.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
We're sorry monster.
Speaker 6 (22:56):
Wait, it's my husband than Jerry. I haven't got anybody
modeled by myself. Isn't anybody in the world who cares?
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Nobody? I was sorry that chiple.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
I wish there was something.
Speaker 7 (23:09):
Would you do?
Speaker 8 (23:10):
No, you're not you like the rest of them, Harriet,
she is the one nobody has to consider in this mess.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Just her? What about the babies.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
The story you've just heard is true. The names were
changed to protect the Unison Dragnet.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
The Story of your Police Force in Action as a
presentation of the United States Armed Forces Radio Service
Ladies and gentlemen. The story you're abatu here is true.
The names have been changed to protect the innocent.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Drag men.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned the missing person's detail.
You get a call that a young mother and a
nine month old baby have disappeared. Routine investigation turns up
the possibility of foul play.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Your job find them.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
It was Tuesday, August twelfth. It was warm in Los Angeles.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
We were working the day watch out a homicide division
missing person's detail. My partner is Frank Smith, the boss's
capital wrman. My name is Friday. We're on our way
out from the office, and it was ten fourteen am
when we got to eighteen sixty.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Five Malabar Street manager's apartment.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
I'm gotta try it again. R Yeah, you.
Speaker 5 (01:02):
Just a minute on a sass as I can.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Sounds like she's got trouble. Yeah yeah, this plicier police officers, ma'am.
I'd like to talk to you.
Speaker 6 (01:11):
Come in, I gotta take care of it. Thank you, Lan,
sit down and I'll be right back, all right, thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Sounds like colic to me, all right, Yeah, sounds like colic.
I wonder if you got a hot water bottle. Hot
water bottle, put it on the kid's stomach, makes them
feel better.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
Both of ours have the college? Or are three hot
water bottles? One two kids? Oh, Joe, we watched the
stop run.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
One of them.
Speaker 6 (01:34):
Baby's teething, having a rough time.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Oh, this is my partner, Frank Smith. My name is Friday.
We'd like to ask you some questions about one of
your tenants.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Oh, which one I missed? Shipley. We understand she had
apartment two of seven.
Speaker 6 (01:43):
Yeah, she did want about her.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
You know what, we can get touch to her.
Speaker 6 (01:46):
You've got any idea? Wanted to see your last I
guess it must have been a month ago.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Possible you might be able to give us an exactly on.
Speaker 5 (01:51):
There if I could have done that. I told you
right out, I got nothing to hide. Well, we didn't
mean to say that you had, Man, it sounds like
it sounds an awful lot like it. I'm gonna be
honest with you. When Harry had first moved in here,
we got along fine. She was all the time wanting
me to tell her how to take care of the
baby when it came. That's when I got along just fine.
He's down a little cup of coffee in the afternoon, chummy.
When all of a sudden it all got different.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Why was that one?
Speaker 5 (02:12):
Just did Her husband was overseas in the army. I
guess hellwait, miss him ptty much.
Speaker 6 (02:17):
Anyway. She was always saying how she did we sh
could be here when the baby was born, got terrible depressed.
Speaker 5 (02:22):
I see moody, you know, yes, man, I did what
I couldn't chair up. Used to go out there and
we'd sit and talk. Taught her how to knit, gave
her some need as and nodded a little present. I
thought maybe he'd give her something to think about, kind
of take her mind off her and her husband didn't
do no good.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
When I old her husband been away, you know, four.
Speaker 6 (02:38):
Months, it's time he's over in Japan. I think army.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Mm mm, Harry.
Speaker 5 (02:41):
Used to go out once in a while, we're down
at the show. Seemed like just about every picture she
saw made her sadder. I guess that's why she did it.
Speaker 6 (02:47):
She just got the set.
Speaker 5 (02:48):
She couldn't take it any more. Huh, what's that tried
to kill herself? Oh, shepley.
Speaker 6 (02:52):
Yeah. I got the kids in bed one night and
went up there.
Speaker 5 (02:55):
I hadn't heard nothing from her that day, so I
went up to see how she was. Good thing I
did too, found her right there in the living room.
She cut her wrists right away. I called for the
doctor and all the ambulances and police came running around.
Took her to the hospital. Big deal, I guess I
found her in time, though they pulled it through. M
I walk up there and find her dying that far
from death's door. And when she comes home from the hospital,
what thanks do.
Speaker 6 (03:15):
You think I get?
Speaker 3 (03:16):
I wouldn't know.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Quit nothing, not.
Speaker 5 (03:19):
A single solitary word do I get. She's mad, says
I should have left her alone, let her done it.
Come in here when she got back and read me
off in words that I ain't used to hearing. M
I got five kids, mister. They take a lot of time,
and I ain't got enough to go running around after nobody.
Speaker 6 (03:32):
Who don't thank a person for saving their life like that?
I called it quits right then, right at that minute,
we were no longer friends. M M.
Speaker 5 (03:38):
Why didn't she make the attempt on her life last September?
I remember the day. It was a second maybe the
third week, I'm not sure about what day it was. Anyway,
after I saved her life. She's mad at me.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
See how many people here in Los Angeles? Would you know?
Speaker 6 (03:50):
I never heard her talking.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
None.
Speaker 5 (03:51):
She's got a sister, I don't know, but I don't
know where she is. Don't think Harry ever.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Said, Oh, what does she say to you? When she left?
Speaker 3 (03:58):
She'd give you any idea where she was going.
Speaker 6 (04:00):
I didn't even see her. She didn't even come by
and say so long, goodbye, take a jump nothing. She
just left. One night, she's here, next morning she's gone.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
She get an email while she was here.
Speaker 5 (04:08):
Yeah, once in a while she get a letter from
her husband. Then there was a couple of letters from
San Francisco. I don't know who they was from.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
She'd take everything with her, all of her personal things.
Speaker 6 (04:16):
Nothing left it all here. Of course it's not much,
but it's all here.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
I see where are the things, ma'am.
Speaker 6 (04:21):
Downstairs in the basement. I got it all put away.
Speaker 5 (04:23):
And see she ever comes back, it's gonna cost her
too storage and for me to pack it. I told
you as much dress as you close for the baby,
for and a rapt a couple of records. That's about it,
even seem if you want.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Tom we might take a look at'em before we leave.
Speaker 6 (04:34):
Yeah, sure thing, I'd let you take 'em, though, I
got a collect for the storage.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Test, ma'am.
Speaker 5 (04:38):
Miss.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
If we have any close friends at Juneral, not that
I know, of course, she might've had some done Dream Palace?
Speaker 5 (04:43):
Who is that where she worked dance all downtown. She
was kind of hostess there.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
M that's the name of the places at Dream Palace.
Speaker 5 (04:48):
Yeah, she might've had some friends down there. None of
them never came here, though, at least if they.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Did on her own, You don't have any reason that
she might have left them such a hurry.
Speaker 6 (04:56):
Not right off, I can't think of one. There was
something wrong with her though.
Speaker 5 (04:59):
When she came back to the home, you know, when
she had the baby, she was worried about something.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Would you know what it was?
Speaker 5 (05:03):
No?
Speaker 6 (05:04):
Well, I know is that when she'd been home a
couple of days, she came down.
Speaker 5 (05:06):
Here and asked me to do some work on the apartment.
I told her if she wanted anything done, she could
do it herself. The way she talked to me, would
she wanted to cheer? Least thing I ever heard of.
She didn't have anything to steal? Well, she wanted all
the locks on the doors changed.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Ten forty six am.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
In the company of the apartment manager, Barbara Fleischer, Frank
and I went down to the basement and looked through
the missing woman's effects.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Other than the phonograph, several.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
Cardboard boxes have used baby clothes and cheap woman's dresses.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
We found nothing.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
There were no snapshots or letters to atus and ascertaining
where she might have gone. We asked missus Fleischer to
notify us in the event that she heard from the
shiping woman. We put in a call at Georgia Street
Receiving Hospital and verified the story about the attempted suicide.
Eleven fifteen am, we checked the phone book for the
address of the Dream Palace. Dance hall was on the
second floor of a large building at the corner of
seventh and Margot Street. On the front of the building
(05:59):
were set faded photographs of contest winners with the cups
that they'd won and the name of the proprietor, Ernest Lasnie.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
We went upstairs.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
There's a large barn like room with crepe paper birds
hanging over the lights.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
In the rear of the place, at one of the tables,
we found Lasnie.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
He was just eating his lunch.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
It's a last ni. I what I like to ask
you some questions where police officers. My name is Smith's.
My partner starts on Friday. All right, how are you?
I want your hands to borrow arm some Thank you Prawley.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
No, thank you.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
All he does are right ahead. All the makings Brad
Butter Islamic. Pick. I'll help yourself. No thanks, mister Lasnie,
don't mind if I go ahead him? A bunch of
kids coming in three thirty. I get the place cleaned up.
Where you get here? No, so you are out of head.
Well I'm feeling about.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
It's about one of your employees with one girl named
Harriet Shipley.
Speaker 6 (06:46):
Oh yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Don't there's you don't work here anymore, didn't work anymore?
Speaker 7 (06:50):
Got any idea where she is? No, I've got the spiders.
Ain't seen Nadine about maybe six month?
Speaker 2 (06:56):
No, sir, you don't understand we're inquiring about a Harriet Shipley. Yeah,
I don't know. I told Jim nin's here in six months.
What's this about Nadine? That's a club name.
Speaker 7 (07:05):
Uh see once the girls don't like to use their
real names in case Ubonna wants to get chum me
away from here. It's easier if we don't know the
girl's real name. Harriet used Nadine. Understand, you got a
bunch of them.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
One of the girls leaves, we put the name back
in a hat. New girl picks It had fourteen Nadine
since we opened twenty seven out.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Years yea, I say, do you have any idea where
the Shipley girl is?
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Mike? Check her husband, he might know. We understand he
was in the army. Yeah, I'm trying. He is overseas.
He should know where his wife is. Ask him, Well,
we'll probably do that.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
So we thought maybe we could turn her up ourselves.
There's been a missing report filed on her mission.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Who told me? Sir? Who told her about her being missing? Newport?
Was filed by her mother in law? Well, I wish
I could help your follows out.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
And the last time he saw the Shipley girls, she
say anything about leaving town?
Speaker 2 (07:48):
No, wouldn't we surprised him?
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Why you say that?
Speaker 4 (07:51):
Were kid was scared to death? Told me she wanted
to get away. Do you know what she was frightened about? Yeah,
clip bender, that's what she was afraid of.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Cliff what was he?
Speaker 7 (08:01):
Well, well, I'll tell you the whole thing would be
easier that way. One favor I got asked him, yes, sir,
you won't tell what if I told you he'd come
up here, he could tear the place apart easy. You
gotta promise me with Tom that's here, you go ahead.
Well Nadine, uh, Harriet, Well, she can't work for me.
(08:22):
About a year and a half ago, came in and
told me she'd had some experience in a dance place
in the Midwest.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
I remember her name right off, probably come to me
well when.
Speaker 7 (08:31):
I told her i'd try her, you know, sort of
probation worked out to mine, and the week I put
her on permanent stood real well a while. The guys
got to coming in just to dance with her. Wouldn't
have nobody else, just Nadine or Harriet.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
On sis she met Cliff. He'd come in one night,
fell for it, and they started to go together. I
told him I didn't like the idea of girls going
out with the customers. Not good business. Didn't make any
difference to them, though, they kept right on seeing each other.
It's this vendor fellaw. Yeah. Well, anyway, when at the
soldier come in, he was took right away with Nadine,
asked her.
Speaker 7 (09:03):
For a dance, kept buying tickets online so he could
dance with to come back the next night, same one.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
All night long he dance with Nadine. That are yeah,
that's right. Called it Nadine. You know I told you
about made Cliff twenty sword, but there wasn't anything he
could do about it. She wanted to be with a soldier.
Wasn't too long for it. She told him he was
gonna get married. Well, where got around about that?
Speaker 7 (09:22):
Really made Cliff hack real hacked? Yes, yeah, well him
and a soldier shipley. I had a fight downstairs one
night after we closed. Guess Cliff waited for him and
Nadine to come down. Anyway, It was a real brawl
tops and everything. Cliff really cleaned up on the soldier.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Didn't know any good do what he mean? Nadine told
Cliff to stay.
Speaker 7 (09:40):
Away from her, keep far away, called him to hearn
the soldier was gonna get married and if they were through,
she went clipping her on a soldier. Nadine got married
a couple of days later, and she quit her job
right after that. I heard he went overseas and the
Cliff was around trying to break things up. Didn't do
no good, though. Nadine loved the soldier and she planned
to stay with him. Yes, well, I tried to talk
to Cliff, tell him to stay out of it the
(10:00):
girl along.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
What was that I've torn? Leave the girl alone? I said,
tell me any good? He was sure. He tried to
chieve with his girl. Might take some time, but he'd
get her for run an hour. I figure you told
her that too, That's what she was afraid of, aug Glamour.
Stiff told me that I believe him.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
What's that tho?
Speaker 2 (10:18):
He was going to kill her?
Speaker 4 (10:27):
Twelve twenty six pm, after we'd gotten the names and
addresses of the employees of the Dream Palace who knew
the missing girl, Frank and I went back to the office.
We had the names checked through the record bureau, but
we found that only one of the fourteen people on
the list had arrest records. That one was a Cliff
Bender who had been picked up on a charge of
suspicion of burgery.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
However, according to the information on the report, he'd been released.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
Because of lack of evidence. We checked the log about
the fight Lasnik had mentioned. We found that an FI
card had been filed, but that no arrest had been made.
We went over to Room forty five and we talked
with Sergeant eggen Waller and Sergeant Rubles, the officers who
handled the burglary case. They told us that in their
contacts with Bender, he was sullen and uncooperative. They told
us that he'd been seen in the company of known criminals.
(11:09):
We also told us that, in their opinion, they considered
the man dangerous. We checked his last known address, but
we found that he'd moved in July, leaving no forwarding address.
While Frank and I checked out the rest of the
missing girl's friends and acquaintances, Sergeant.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Graham and Cliff Bailey tried to check on Bender.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
We talked to everybody on the list we'd gotten from
Ernest Lasnik, but none of them could give us any
idea where we might find the Shipley girl.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Most of them, however, told us about the.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Threat that Bender had made against her life and expressed
the opinion that he was responsible for her disappearance. The
next day, Wednesday, August thirteenth, Frank and I went by communications.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Then we checked back into the office. I told you
a moner in law that missing girl called again this morning.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
No, No, he didn't, and she wanted to know how
we were doing, what progress has been able to make.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
When would you tell her? Well, I filed her in
on what we found.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
I didn't tell her about bender though. I just said
we thought we'd be able to find the girl. You
talked to her when you made the originally important you Joe, Yeah,
what'd you think?
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Well?
Speaker 3 (11:56):
What do you mean? Well, isn't there something that's a
little off base to you? I don't know what you're
going to get in.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
Well, this seems to me that she doesn't care if
you find her daughter in law, and not all she
cares about the kid was Yeah, I kind of got
the idea of myself why she talked. Doesn't seem that
she and the girl got along too well, does it? No,
just seems like there's something she hasn't telling us.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
I don't know there is.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
I asked her this morning she'd heard from her son
if he knew anything about where his wife might be,
which say to that, She told him she didn't want
to bother him, make him worry. Wouldn't even tell me
his mailing address, so she didn't want him alarmed. Unless
it was a reason way I see it. His wife
being gone as reason enough why, it seems to me.
And I told her that, she said our job would
just find the girl and the baby, and that's all
cooperates like that isn't gonna make it any easier, is it?
Speaker 3 (12:34):
We only do so much if she isn't gonna help us.
Speaker 4 (12:36):
It doesn't make a lot of sense her fileing the
report then hold him out information.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
I mean, I mean, better go and talk to her again.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
She even get the whole story. How about Graham and
Baileyard from him? Now, there was a note in the
book they gotta lead on Bender. Raham said they were
gonna run it down for us this morning. That's telling
you go now mm hmmm, alright forty three. I don't
want to talk to Skipper. Make arrangements to put a
picture the ship the girl on suspects one it this afternoon,
might be able to finch.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Out, you know, sure a lot of loop, says I
got a.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
Messing person's frank, Yeah, agree, Where what'd you say? Well
that's about the same h what?
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Yeah? What do you wanna call a crime ler?
Speaker 6 (13:18):
Like?
Speaker 4 (13:18):
No one meet County right away right back? Only found
where a Bender was living. What do you mean what
checked out last June about the same time the ship
they girl disappeared. A land that he hasn't seen him since.
Guys came up to something else. Yeah, a couple of
shirts for a baby. Uh uh, bloodstains all over him.
Ten o two am we got to the apartment where
(13:39):
Bender had been living. The crew from the crime lab
were there and they were photographing the roman the clothing
that had been found.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Sergeant Jay Allen.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Told us that he'd have to run a precipitate test
on the stains before he could tell whether or not
they were of human origin.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Ten forty five am they.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
Finished their investigation on the scene and they went back
to Central station to compile the results. Frank called the
office and the local M and APD were put out
on to Bender, asking that he'd be picked up as
a possible suspect. We also had his card flagged in
the record bureau. We talked to the landlady of the
apartment building and she told us that Bender had left
his apartment hurriedly one night about the middle of June.
She was unable to tell us the exact date, but
(14:14):
she did go on to say that she'd been getting
a check for the rent each month. We asked her
if she could show us either one of the checks
or an envelope that had come in. She explained that
she had thrown the envelopes away and had cashed the checks.
She was unable to tell us where they'd been mailed from.
She said that as far as she knew, she'd never
seen the Shipley girl in Bender's apartment. We asked her
to notify us immediately in the event of the suspect returned.
(14:35):
We put in a call to the bank where the
rent checks were cast, and we asked that they give
us the information on it. One thirty PM, Frank and
I went over to the crime lab and we talked
to Jay Allen.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
He told us that the stains on the baby flows
were human blood.
Speaker 4 (14:47):
He showed us the photographs taken, but there was nothing
in them that would give us any lead as to
either the girls or benders whereabouts. That afternoon, the picture
of Harriet Shipley was telecast over the police program. We
got several calls from citizens who said that they'd seen
the girl.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Checked them all out.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
One of the callers, a bus driver, told us that
he'd seen the girl and the baby on his bus
during the month.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Of June, and that she'd gotten off in San Diego.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
We alerted the police in that city to look for
Thursday morning, Frank and I checked into the office.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Go and check the book. Frank sees his name in
San Diego. Frank, I got it.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
Missing persons Friday. Yes, that's right, Yes we did. Where
are you sure about that?
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Right away? Frank, get your coked. We got Shipley girl.
They founded.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
The call had come from a nurse at the State
Metal Hospital in Camarillo. She told me that they had
a patient who resembled the photograph of the missing girl
ass televised on our police program. Frank and I left
the office and drove out to the hospital. We talked
to the nurse and to the doctor who was taking
care of the sick girl. From personal effects and the
scars on our wrists, we were reaching be sure of
the identification. The doctor told us if the girl had
(16:03):
been committed on July seventeenth by her sister under the
name Harriet Law.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
He told us that the.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
Girl was undergoing treatment, but that there was little hope
for complete recovery and that it would be some time
before she could be permitted to leave the bio afoord.
We tried to talk to her, but we were unable
to get any coherent answers. We asked about the baby,
but the authorities were unable to give us any information.
We got the name and address of the sister who
had committed the Shipley girl, and we drove down to
San Diego to talk to her. It was a small
(16:28):
place in a wartime housing development. The paint was peeling
off the flyboard walls, and the front yard was overgrown
with weeds. The woman who answered the door identified herself
as Pauline Lavin.
Speaker 6 (16:38):
Sure, well you want to know. Don't make no difference.
Now you go back and tell her it's too late,
way too late. Seldom missus Shipley, Harriet's mother in law.
You go back and tell her she done it good.
Ain't nothing left to do to Harriet, It's all been done.
You can tell her that.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Well, we don't work for miss Shipley.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
Man.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
We're trying to find out what happened to your sister
and the baby.
Speaker 6 (16:54):
Who asked you to find out in first place with
her wasn't it wasn't you to win?
Speaker 2 (16:57):
She filed her report That's what I mean.
Speaker 6 (17:00):
W you go back and tell her. There's nothing more
she can do to Harriet as a baby or Big Jerry,
nothing at all she can do.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Where's the baby man?
Speaker 6 (17:06):
He's not here.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
You know where he is.
Speaker 6 (17:08):
Yes, but I'm not gonna tell you. I'm not gonna
tell anybody. I promise Harriet, I wouldn't tell her.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
I'm gonna keep the problem.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
He was laughing.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
We don't wanna hurt your sister. We're just trying to
get to the truth. How many of you better tell
us what you know.
Speaker 6 (17:18):
You ain't doing this.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Rule the ship?
Speaker 6 (17:20):
No men? Alright, then I'll tell you, but not for her.
I wouldn't give her the right time of day. She's
the one that did it, the whole thing. You can
let it right at her feet, all right. You wanna
tell us about it? Said they got married. She's given
the kids trouble right from the first she heard about it.
Said that Harriet wasn't good enough for a son, said
Harry was cheap, didn't maything give us a good kid.
(17:41):
They got married anyway, they were in love, So they
got married.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Mm.
Speaker 6 (17:44):
So as Big Jerry went overseas, she started on Harriet
to get an annoment all the time, writ in her letters,
telling her how cheap she was and if she really
loved Jerry, she'd get an anublement. And she found out
about the baby, so she started saying how they should
get a divorce.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Is Harriet's husband know about this?
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Would you know?
Speaker 6 (17:58):
Sure?
Speaker 2 (17:59):
All long he knew it.
Speaker 6 (18:00):
He didn't like it, told his mother to stay out
of their lives, kept telling her, but it didn't do
any good none. Then Harriet got the wire, the one
that told about Big Jerry being dead, almost killed her.
I thought it was going too They was really in love.
It was not often you see something like them, too,
real love the Kinye lived, not the kindie talk about
(18:22):
m M. One night, right after she got the wire,
she got a phone call from San Francisco from Ole
Miss Shipley. She told Harry that she was going to
the court to take the baby away from her, said
she could prove Harriet wasn't a good mother and she
didn't deserve to have the baby.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
Was Harriet living here at the time.
Speaker 6 (18:38):
No, She'd come down every weekend, but she wasn't living here.
There was a guy up in la that was giving
her trouble. Tell her named Bender. I think he was
with her when she tried to kill herself. He ran
out so he wouldn't get mixed up in it. He
was already giving Harriet trouble, so she left one night
to get away from him and old missus Shipley. She
came down here and said that she just wanted to
be left alone with her baby. It's not a lot
(18:59):
to ask, is that? Just to be left alone was
for all Missus Shiffer, she just wouldn't let Harriet alone,
kept after saying how she was gonna take away the baby,
how Harriet was an unfit mother, kind of got on
her mind. Finally, there wasn't much else she was thinking about,
but how to keep her baby. She went out walking
one night, took the baby with it, rained, rained, real hard.
(19:22):
I guess the baby took cold anyway. The next day
he came down with a bad fever. A couple of
days later he was dead.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Not even a year old and he was dead. I
want to go on.
Speaker 6 (19:36):
Harriet sat around for a week, didn't say anything, didn't
do nothing, just stare at the wall, didn't even cry,
just sat and looked at the wall. And all of
a sudden she just fell apart. I called the doctor,
said it was a breakdown, and said I should have
her committed. I signed the papers and that's where she is.
I went up to see her.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
She didn't even know me.
Speaker 6 (20:00):
I'm her sistant and she didn't even know. So you
just tell them, miss Shipley, how she did good. You
just tell her what she did to my sisters, tell
her how the babies did. And she's finally got what
she wanted because now Harriet hasn't got the baby.
Speaker 5 (20:14):
Nobody's got him. Nobody, nobody. I want that?
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Yeah, where too?
Speaker 3 (20:29):
And then we bet it back the time?
Speaker 2 (20:31):
I guess so Seemans Shipley. We got back to Los
Angeles at nine thirty pm.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
We went directly to the hotel where Miss Shipley was staying.
Desk clerk told us that she left word that she
was not to be disturbed. He called the room and
she asked if we come up. We took the elevator
to the seventh floor and we walked down the hall.
Speaker 8 (20:59):
Evening Dodgers lad helps the Smith come in.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Thank you.
Speaker 6 (21:02):
I'm just having a drink. May I fix you one?
Don't think how about you?
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Missus Smith? No? Thank you?
Speaker 8 (21:06):
You don't mind if I go ahead, just sit down.
I'll be right with you this quick said it was important.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 6 (21:13):
You found my daughter in law, miss ma'am.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
And the baby.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Where is he? Is he still with us?
Speaker 2 (21:19):
No, ma'am, he's not already.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
Your daughter in law's pretty sick, Miss Shepley.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
Oh, yes, ma'am.
Speaker 5 (21:25):
She's in the state hospital up at Cameron Camilla's, ma'am,
at the mentoral hospital, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
That's right.
Speaker 6 (21:32):
I'm sorry to hear about Harriet, but I knew she
wasn't very stable.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Why didn't you tell us your son was dead?
Speaker 8 (21:37):
Missus Shipley, I didn't say it had any bearing on
the thing. What difference does it make?
Speaker 3 (21:43):
You don't seem to be very interested in his way.
Speaker 8 (21:45):
I'm going to be honest with you, Sergeant. I'm not
not in the least interested in what she does or
where she is. I never did deal she was the
right girl for my son. Never when the baby was born.
Speaker 6 (21:55):
I tried to go along with it. I tried to
be nice to her. She wouldn't have it.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
It'dn't even be friendly.
Speaker 6 (22:01):
She poisoned my son and turned him against me.
Speaker 8 (22:04):
She's a terrible woman, just terrible whatever happened to her
is just exactly what she's.
Speaker 6 (22:09):
Got coming naturally.
Speaker 8 (22:11):
I'm sorry, it's the way it is, but there's nothing
I can do. All I'm interested in right now is
my grandchild. I want him, and if I have to
go to court to get him, then I'll do it
that way.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
I won't be necessary, ma'am.
Speaker 5 (22:25):
Where is he?
Speaker 8 (22:26):
I'd like to go and get him out of Jerry's
wife can't take care of him.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
He's dead, ma'am.
Speaker 6 (22:33):
This is some kind of a joke that you're making
up to help my daughter in law keep him.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
It won't work.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
It's no joke, is the truth. He died in the
hospital and saying, ne.
Speaker 6 (22:44):
It's not right, it's not right that he said.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
She did this, herriot. She did it to get even
with me. I know she did.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
We're sorry monster.
Speaker 6 (22:56):
Wait, it's my husband than Jerry. I haven't got anybody
modeled by myself. Isn't anybody in the world who cares?
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Nobody? I was sorry that chiple.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
I wish there was something.
Speaker 7 (23:09):
Would you do?
Speaker 8 (23:10):
No, you're not you like the rest of them, Harriet,
she is the one nobody has to consider in this mess.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Just her? What about the babies.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
The story you've just heard is true. The names were
changed to protect the Unison Dragnet.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
The Story of your Police Force in Action as a
presentation of the United States Armed Forces Radio Service
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