Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Ladies and gentlemen. The story you were about to hear
is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Drag Meant is brought to you by Chesterfield, made by
Ligott and Myers, first major tobacco company to bring you
a complete line of qualities cigarettes. You're a detective sergeant.
You're assigned a hit and run felony detail. A young
(00:36):
woman has been run down and seriously injured. The driver
of the car has fled from the scene.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Your job find him today. Friends, you hear these three
words everywhere. Chesterfield's for me. The Chesterfield you smoked today
is the best cigarette ever made. Best for you because
Chesterfield gives you proof of highest quality, low nicotine, the
(01:05):
taste you want, the mildness you want. Chesterfield is best
for you because it's tested and approved by thirty years
of scientific tobacco research. Chesterfield is best for you because
it has an established good record with smokers, proven by
test after test. Yes, Friends, the Chesterfield you smoke today
(01:28):
is the best cigarette ever made for the taste you want,
the mildness you want. Join the thousands now changing to
Chesterfield always say Chesterfield's for me.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Dragnet. The document a drama of an actual crime. For
the next thirty minutes, in cooperation with the Los Angeles
Police Department, you will travel step by step on the
side of the law through an actual case transcribed from
official police spolence, from beginning to end, from crime to punishment.
Dragnet is the story of your police force in action.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
It was Tuesday, April seventh. It was cold in Los Angeles.
We were working the day watch out of Traffic Bureau.
Didn't run fellony detail. My partner's Frank Smith. The boss's
Captain Calfee. My name is Friday. We're on our way
out from the office and it was eight forty am
when we got to seventeen eighty four Byram Street front door.
Better try it again, huh helay me? Sound like somebody coming?
Speaker 4 (02:37):
Yeah, something you wants hunter, that's right, who you want?
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Police officers? We like to talk to you.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
Oh about the thing last night?
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Huh yes, ma'am, that's right.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
Well, come on in. You can't stand around for long.
Speaker 5 (02:47):
I'm gonna be late for work as it is.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Come on, thank you. It's my partner, Frank Smith. My
name is Friday. How do you do Hi?
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Sit down there, I gotta get ready to leave. There's
some coffee there in the caraffe.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
If you want no, thank no, ma'am, thank you.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Would you mind pouring me a cup? You'll find everything
right there on the table.
Speaker 5 (03:04):
Two sugars.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
All right?
Speaker 4 (03:07):
What do you want to know about last night? I
told the officers who were there all I.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Know, yes, ma'am, we know. We read their report. We'd
like to go over with you, if it's all right.
Speaker 5 (03:14):
It seems like a wasted time to me.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
It's been a little more of it trying to catch
the kid that hit the girl. It'd be better all
the way.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Around, s ma'am. There's your coffee. Oh, thank you?
Speaker 4 (03:24):
Now doorm either one of you got a cigarette?
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Yes, ma'am, here you are, here's light. Thanks.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
What do you want to go over?
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Well, according to what you said to the officers last night,
you saw the accident. Is that right? I saw it.
Speaker 5 (03:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
I don't think it was an accident, if you ask me,
I think the kid deliberately hit the girl.
Speaker 5 (03:45):
Deliberately.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Oh why say that? Well?
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Is the way it looked, that's all kind of feeling.
Wade came barreling around the corner. He must have seen her.
She was right under the light. Didn't even make an
attempt to stop none at all. I saw the girl
step off the curb right under the light. He had
to see her head to anyway. She stepped off the
curb and started to cross the street. Harry and me
saw her. She started to cross, and then all of
(04:09):
a sudden, this kid in the hot rod was coming
right at her. Was anything she could do?
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
She kind of looked up at the car and then
well like she was gonna run, but you didn't have time.
The car hit her and knocked her down.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Did you get a good look at the car?
Speaker 4 (04:25):
You mean, the one that hit her, Yes, ma'am, you
bet I did. Passed right under the light, got a
real good look at it.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
I wonder if you describe it for us.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
I told the cups all about it last night. Seems
like that'd be enough. Why do I have to go
through it again?
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Well, there might be something he didn't think of last night,
was hundre something you might have forgotten.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Isn't likely, but if you got to have it, I
guess that's the way it's gotta be. Hope we can
get it over with fast enough. I gotta get down
to the corner so I won't miss my bus.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Well, if it had helped, we can drive you to work.
You can give us the information on the way. Well,
that'll be fine.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
Wait a minute, I'll get my coat. How did it
look when you came in?
Speaker 3 (04:58):
We did it look like it was gonna No, it's
pretty cold though, paper.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
Said it might rain today. No, better take an umbrella.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
What kind of a car was it, miss Hunter?
Speaker 4 (05:07):
A hot rod? You know, the card real low, two
exhaust pipes, kind of beat up.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
What kind of a car was it? The brand name?
Speaker 4 (05:14):
I guess it was a Ford looked like for him
hard to tell. It was kind of banged up.
Speaker 5 (05:19):
You know.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
I don't know why the police allowed cars like that
on the streets. Anyway, it couldn't be very safe.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Can you tell us what year the car was?
Speaker 4 (05:26):
Well, I'm not real good at that, but I'd say
maybe a nineteen forty It might have been nineteen forty one.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
It's a pre war car though, huh yeah, I'm sure
that my kidding. Man? Kay? Thanks? Where can we drop you? Man?
Speaker 4 (05:46):
When you're first and Broadway? Will be fine?
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Just on the corner there, okay, Miss Hunter? Was or
anything about the car that did make it easier to identify.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
Not especially black Ford all beat up. I'm sure i'd
not if I saw it again any place.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Did you get to go look at the driver of
the car.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
No, not too good. All I could see was that
he was a kid, you know, maybe nineteen twenty years old.
Uh huh? You like to see you get that kid?
Is the girl? Alright? She looked pretty bad last a right.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Oh, she's still in a critical condition. Doctors aren't sure yet.
Well she'll be all right, sure, hope she is.
Speaker 5 (06:17):
Have you talk to her?
Speaker 3 (06:18):
No, we haven't, not yet.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
It's a terrible thing, kids like that running around in
hot rides, barreling around the city. Person's not safe on
the streets anymore.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Just because the car's got twin tail pipes. This hunter
doesn't have to be a hot ride.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
Well, this one was even had the little sort of
license plate hanging down from the back bumper.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
You mean a state license plate.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
No, one of those with a club name on it,
you know, the kind.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
There's not a notation of that on the report that
we remember.
Speaker 5 (06:43):
I guess I.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Forgot all the excitement at all. I must forgot.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Well, did you see the name on that plate?
Speaker 4 (06:48):
Yeah? Not real good, but I saw it.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
I think you can remember it, not all of it.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
The last part was wheels something wheels.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Two words you're pretty sure that are?
Speaker 4 (06:59):
Yeah, wheels, that's the word I saw. I didn't remember
it last night. I guess it didn't seem important. Then,
must be a lot of cars that have those plates
on them all over town.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Yes, we know.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
Don't seem like it's going to help much. A lot
of cars with those plates on them, lots of them, yes, ma'am.
Even if you do find the kid with one of them,
how are you going to know if he's the right one?
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Well, it's not going to be too hard. Hum this,
Carl'll tell us.
Speaker 6 (07:19):
According to the report, an automobile driven by one male
occupant struck a woman while she crossed the intersection of
Olympic Boulevard and Connecticut Street the night before.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
When the ambulance arrived at the scene, the victim, who
was identified as missus Helen Chapman, was unconscious and was
removed to Georgia Street Receiving Hospital for emergency treatment. Members
of the Crime Labbit arrived at the scene and gathered
what physical evidence they could find. All citizens in the
vicinity were interrogated and their statements were taken. Photographs of
the corner were made and held for evidence. Because of
(07:51):
the hit and run aspect of the case, Frank and
I had been assigned to investigate it. At one fourteen pm,
we drove over to Georgia Street Receiving Hospital to talk
to the attending position, doctor SIBP Bastion. He said the
patient's condition was so critical that she couldn't be moved
to her own hospital. He told us that the victim
hadn't recovered consciousness to the point where she could be questioned.
He went on to tell us that she'd been administered
Serah albuman to counteract shock. He listed her injuries for
(08:14):
us compound fractures of the femur, rib fractures and associated
internal injuries including a punctured lung and brain concussion. Was
not expected that she'd live. Frank and I left the
doctor and walked down the hall. In the waiting room,
we met a tall, thin man who looked as if
he hadn't slept in several days. On the floor in
front of him was a small pile of half smoked cigarettes.
He identified himself as the victim's husband, Carl Chapman. I
(08:36):
didn't know.
Speaker 5 (08:36):
I came home from work.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
They'd told me about it. I didn't even know. Didn't
they try to call you at work?
Speaker 5 (08:41):
No, I guess they called the house. There wasn't anybody home.
I just walked up to the door and there was
a note telling me to call it. Didn't even know
about Helen. I see you, like cigarette Chapman. Thanks. You
talked to the doctor, Yes, sir, we just did. Is
there anything new can be?
Speaker 3 (09:00):
All right? Well? I don't know, Yeah, and asked the
doctor yourself.
Speaker 5 (09:03):
Why don't anybody tell me anything? All the time? I
ask how my wife is? They tell me to ask
the doctor. Why won't they tell me? I don't know, sir.
Can't even find out if she needs anything. It won't
let me see her. Anybody who'll tell me what's really
hattening in there? It's been over ten hours. Nobody will
tell me what's going on.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
The best thing. Try to sit down and take it easily.
Speaker 5 (09:20):
Oh that's great to say, Just sit down, easy to say.
It's not your wife who's in there. It isn't someone
you love. Why are you here anyway? Why don't you
out trying to get the rotten little plunket did it?
Why don't you look for him. We'll get to him, sir,
when after Helen's dead? Is that going to be when
you start looking. We're looking for him now. We came
over in the hopes that we could talk to your wife.
We thought she might be able to give us some information.
(09:42):
What in God's name do you want from her? The
name and address of the kid I ran it down?
Do you have to get out of bed and go
find him for you? It's your job yours. Always talk
about the police department being so good, But what.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Are you doing.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
You're standing around here with your toeing the dirt, waiting
for my wife to come to and enough to point
the kid out.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
All right, sir, not take it easy, naked easy nothing.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
You listen to me, Bothy, if you listen, if she dies,
if that kid killed her, I'll find him. I don't
know how, but I will. I'm gonna do the same
thing to him with my hands that he did with
this car. I'll find him. I swear I'll find him,
and I'm gonna kill him with my hands.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
I'm gonna kill him, mister Chapman.
Speaker 5 (10:20):
Yeah, I see you for a moment, yeah, would you
excuse us for a minute? Start sure, doctor, we'll wait
out in the hall. It's a rough one a minute. Yeah,
I wonder what's going on in there.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
I don't know. Better call the skipper, tell him about
that plate on the car, get a broadcast out on it.
Check the phone book for the address of the National
hot Rod Association. Better talk with him. He might have
something for us on the club. Right, you better start up.
Speaker 5 (10:51):
You better find him fast, because I'm you ought to
go home and get some sleep, mister Chapman, you're all warning.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
I'm not gonna get this sleep until I catch that kid.
How was the girl?
Speaker 5 (11:06):
She's dead, both of them, both of them. Yeah, she's
going to have a baby in a couple of months.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
Three point fifteen pm, Frank and I drove out to
the offices of the National hot Rod Association on Hollywood Boulevard.
We met with Bud Coons and Wally Parks. They checked
their records for clubs with the last name Wheels. There
were three in their files. Two were in the eastern
part of the United States, and one was listed as
having headquarters in now Hamburg, California. We obtained the name
and address of the president of the club, and we
(11:37):
drove out to see him. We found him in the
garage behind the house, working on a nineteen forty one Ford.
We introduced ourselves and he asked us to sit down.
Speaker 5 (11:44):
What do you want to see me about?
Speaker 3 (11:46):
We understand that you're the president of the Square Wheels?
Speaker 5 (11:48):
All right, yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Why how many members do you have in the club?
Speaker 5 (11:51):
Eighteen eighteen actives. There's a couple of guys in the service.
What's this all about anyway? How come the questions?
Speaker 3 (11:57):
All? Do your members have the metal plates with a
club name on their Yeah?
Speaker 5 (12:01):
Get them when they paid the initiation for you want.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Anybody else have them?
Speaker 5 (12:04):
Not legally?
Speaker 3 (12:05):
What do you mean?
Speaker 5 (12:06):
Or a couple of them out been stolen from members?
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Any of the fellas in the club drive a black
pre War forward?
Speaker 5 (12:11):
Yeah, I guess we got about five of them. I
got one myself. As a matter of fact, listen, why
can't you tell me what this is all about? Figure?
If I knew what you wanted, I could help you out.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
A woman was run down by a hot ride last night.
One of the witnesses saw a plate on the car
that might have been from your club.
Speaker 5 (12:25):
No kidding, it's the way we get it. What did
it look like?
Speaker 3 (12:28):
I always say it had twin pipes, pretty well, beat
up white sidewall tires.
Speaker 5 (12:32):
It's not one of ours, then it's not pretty sure.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
What about the plate?
Speaker 5 (12:35):
I told you we've had a couple of them stolen.
Must have been one of them.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
How come you're so sure it wasn't one of your members?
Speaker 5 (12:40):
Oh? I know the cars in the club. There is
a yoyo and the bunch.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
What's a yo yo?
Speaker 5 (12:44):
Yeah? You know, a shot rod, junk? Heapo, I see,
I don't know. It seems like every time there's any
trouble with a car, we're five years old. It's a
hot ride? Sure, not fair? That's so yeah, come out, shay.
I'll take a look at that. I've been working on
for three years, got over twelve hundred bucks in it.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Take a look at it. It's a lot of money. Yeah,
it's a good car. But what's approved?
Speaker 5 (13:08):
The car that ran that woman down wasn't a hot rod?
Speaker 3 (13:10):
How do you figure that?
Speaker 5 (13:12):
You said it was a wreck, didn't you.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
That's right.
Speaker 5 (13:13):
We haven't got a wreck that's allowed on the streets
in this club. I don't know a legal club that
has a yo yo in it. We got a safety
check every month. Any car that isn't safe has to
be fixed with the guys out. A lot of clubs
operate that way.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Yeah, we know the kid's.
Speaker 5 (13:25):
Bill rods for two reasons, because they want the cars
to run better, be more efficient, or else they want
something a little different than you can buy in a showroom.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
Well, all this sounds good, but a woman was killed
last night by a kid driving a hopped up car
some kind.
Speaker 5 (13:37):
Maybe it had twin pipes a loud muffler, but I'll
give you odds from here to Bonneville that it wasn't
a hot rod. I know how you guys feel. We're
always getting it. Every kid behind a wheel and the
secondhand car is a potential killer. The way the paper's pictures,
we just roam around looking for somebody to run over.
That's not true. You check the records, I think you
will find it. The ratio between tickets giving out the
(13:58):
members of Hot Ride Club, members of the NHRA, and
any other group of drivers will make the hot rodders
look pretty good. He hasn't been a ticket in our
club in the last year and a half. The one
before that was for overtime parking. Oh I'm sorry, fellas,
that car last night wasn't one of our guys. And
you can bet he wasn't a hot rodder either.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
You got anywhere one who could have gotten the plank?
Speaker 5 (14:17):
Well, not right off, or we'll find him. How there's
only so many streets in Los Angeles, we'll find him.
Guys like that make things rough on the clean drivers
in this town. We'll find him for you.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
And we'll appreciate any help you can give us on this,
but it's police business. If you find him, give us
a car right away.
Speaker 5 (14:31):
Don't worry. We will. How do I get in touch
with you.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
And leave you one of our cars anytime? You call us?
Speaker 5 (14:36):
All right, I'll get on the phone and get the
fellows rounded up.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
If you're turn anything, call us right away. Don't try
to take care of it yourselves.
Speaker 5 (14:42):
Only one thing we're interested in. You know what's in
proven to you it wasn't one of us. That's what's important.
Showing you we're on your site.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Well, that shouldn't be too hard, huh. There's a lot
of room. We got the names and addresses and the
members of the Square Wheel Club, and we talked to him.
We checked their car cars and each of them volunteered
to assist us in attempting to locate the hit and
run vehicle. Six forty pm, Frank and I got back
to the office. During the afternoon, the broadcast on the
(15:09):
car gone over the state wire and every police officer
in the state of California was looking for the hit
and run car. When we checked with communications, there'd been
no replies to our broadcasts. Seven to fifteen pm. We
put in a call at Georgia Street Receiving Hospital and
we talked again to doctor Sebastian. He told us that
the victim's husband, Carl Chapman, had been placed under the
care of his family doctor and had been given sedatives
(15:29):
to make him sleep well. I checked the Lieutenant Wilfrim
on the developments. Frank went over to the crime lab
and talked with Lieutenant Lee Jones. Eight forty seven pm
we met back in the squad room. Any word, yeah, nope.
Got a call from Al Gibbs hot Rod Clumb. Yeah.
He says, all the clubs in the area are looking
for the car. They divided the city up in sections.
Members are checking all the streets. No lot though, no
(15:50):
nothing well, they turned a couple of cars, but they
don't check out. How'd you do? Pretty good? Got the
report here. I had a couple of sandwich of Sana
and got the Swiss on rye in the bagger. Where's
coffee right there? Carton? Oh the Lambshi did a good
job on the stuff. Here here's a scene. Victims found
(16:11):
ten feet four inches from the northeast corner, four feet
eight inches from the north pedestrian crosswalk and put it
about here, wouldn't it. Yeah, they found particles of broken
glass checked on at the lighthouse lenses from nineteen forty four. Yeah,
here's a picture on. Yeah, in the gutter of the
southwest corner they found this. There's a bumper guard. Yeah,
(16:32):
I looked at it's new any brand name, Yeah, but
it's not gonna help much distribute it all over the country.
A lot about skid marks, any sign of them, No,
not that they could find either. The kid didn't have
time to use him rails. He didn't want to. They
came up with this though, Yeah, what's that? Some marks
from attire? He says he thinks they were made when
the kid dug out the getaway spun the back wheels.
(16:55):
Sure indicate that he didn't mean to stop at any time. Huh.
Well that's the way Leaves got it. Figure. Well, it
is much to go on, isn't it come easier? Well,
let's go out and check the neighborhood again. We might
still be able to turn up a decent description. We
start checking the garages in the morning. Try to turn
a car with a broken headlight and a missing bumper guard. Okay,
better call communications, get out of supplemental on the tires. Yeah,
(17:16):
I'll take care of hi guys. Get a run Fellony Friday. Yeah, yeah,
that's right.
Speaker 5 (17:24):
M hmm.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Anybody there, No, don't keep it in surveillance. We'll be
right out. Yeah, don't burn it right bye? What do
you got from its beginning to go our way? Maybe? Huh?
They found the car.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
You are listening to dragnet, the authentic story of your
police force in action. Chesterfield's for me. You hear it
everywhere tonight.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
We hear from America's number one band leader, Ray Anthony,
who with his attractive wife d plays college dates from
coast to coast in cigarettes.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
The young crowd really goes for Chesterfields. I've noticed that
wherever we've played, and I guess it's one of the
reasons Chesterfield is America's most popular two way cigarette. Of course,
D and I are Chesterfield smokers too. We know they're
best for us.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Chesterfields for me. You hear it everywhere. The Chesterfield you
smoked today is the best cigarette ever made. For the
taste you want, the mildness you want. Join the thousands
now changing to Chesterfield.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
During a routine patrol of the streets in East Los Angeles,
a radio unit had come across the car parked at
the curb on Vancouver Avenue. They'd stopped to investigate and
found that it matched the description that we'd sent out
on the phone. I'd instructed the officer not to search
the car, but merely to keep it under surveillance and
check and hold anyone who approached it. Frank and I
notified the crime lab of the find, and then we
left the office and drove out to the location. We
(19:04):
talked to the officers in the police car and they
told us that they hadn't seen anyone near the vehicle.
We checked the registration and found that the registered owner
was a Jack Moore. The white slip gave us an
address in Hollywood, while the crime lab went over the car,
we drove out to Moore's address to talk to him.
He lived in a large house built in the mid
twenties as a private residence. It had been converted into
a boarding house. Frank covered the rear entrance. I rang
(19:25):
the front doorbell.
Speaker 5 (19:32):
Yeah, well you are waking me.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Up this time of night, police officers. You have a
tenant here named Jack Moore. What about it? We'd like
to talk to him too late, Mac he ain't here, Worzy,
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (19:43):
He moved out this afternoon.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
He didn't say where he was going. A thorough search
was made of the suspects room. The manager told us
that Moore had come home that morning, packed his belongings
and left the house. We called the crime lab and
Lieutenant Lee Jones told us that they established that Moore's
car was the one that had run down the Chapman girl.
We talked to the other people in the rooming house.
(20:06):
None of them could tell us where more might have gone.
We put in a called auto records, but the car
was not listed as being stolen. Frank called his name
into R and I. We found that he had no
felony record from the occupants of the rooming house. We
found that the suspect had no relatives in this state
and no close friends that they could recall. Layton Prince
came out and went over the room, and in going
over it we found a waste basket more it used
(20:27):
to dispose of articles that he didn't want. In the
basket we found several match folders from a bar out
on West seventh Street. We put in a call to
the bar, but we found that it was closed. From
the manager of the rooming house, we got a good
description in the suspect, along with the information that he
received no mail and that he was apparently unemployed. A
stakeout was set up on the house and at three
thirty six am, Frank and I checked out of the
(20:47):
office and went home for the night. The next day, Wednesday,
April eighth, we contacted DMV and asked that they give
us all information on the car. Nine to fifteen am,
we drove over the bar on West seventh Street.
Speaker 5 (21:00):
Yet open little ten police officers like some information licenses
back there in the wall and plain sight. There's nothing
going on here.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
You have a customer in your name, Jack Moore.
Speaker 5 (21:08):
We just opened the doors. We got no say about
who comes in a long as they don't cause trouble.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
We don't either. This guy's about twenty or twenty one,
five eight five, ten hundred and sixty five pounds blonde,
names Moore, Jack Moore. What's he done? Do you want
to talk to him about? What police business? Have you
seen him?
Speaker 5 (21:24):
Nothing that's going to get the bar in trouble.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
That's a simple question, mister. Have you seen him? Maybe?
Speaker 5 (21:29):
Yeah, you tell me what it's all about. I might
be able to help you out.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
They're running out of time. Have you seen Jack Moore? Yeap?
When last night here?
Speaker 5 (21:38):
Yeah, he was in, got liquored up. I tossed him
out when we closed.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
Where is he now?
Speaker 5 (21:41):
You better ask him.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
I'm gonna tell you once more. If you know where
he is, you're gonna save yourself a lot of time
by cooperating with us.
Speaker 5 (21:46):
I run a clean place here. I don't want any
trouble with the cops. My license is on the wall.
I got no choice of the customers who come in here.
I don't want to get mixed up in any.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
We're not calling it that way. That's the way it is.
This is a clean place that's not what the book says.
You've been tabbed a couple of times with serving miners.
You run be girls. You haven't served straight liquor in
here for a couple of years. We have to get
the information from you downtown. That's the way it's going
to be. Get your coat. Oh that look, fellas. I
was just trying to take care of my sea. You
did get your coat.
Speaker 5 (22:10):
Isn't there some way we can work this thing out?
I don't want any trouble.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
Where's Jack Moore?
Speaker 5 (22:13):
I try to run a clean place. A couple of
times I've been We've been over all that before.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Now where is he?
Speaker 5 (22:19):
I got him up at my place? You there, now,
I guess so we got pretty loaded last night. Told
me he didn't have any place to pad down. I
took him home. What's the address, eighteen sixty two and
a half Woodworth Court, Room fourteen.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
All right, let's go. Yeah, and don't try to call him.
Speaker 5 (22:33):
I got no phone in the room. He's done anything.
I had no part in it. Just trying to help
a friend out, that's all. Just help a friend out. Yeah, sure,
you tell him that he got me in trouble, all
because I tried to help him.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
Out.
Speaker 5 (22:44):
You just tell him, yeah, we will, and tell him
not to come around here anymore. Tell him to keep out.
Tell him that, will you for me? Tell him not
to come back.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
Don't you worry about it. He won't be back. We
called the office and another team of detectives came out
to the bar to keep the bartender onder surveillance in
the event that he might try to contact the suspect.
It took five and a half minutes to drive to
the Woodward Street address. It was a large building located
at the end of a blind street. Room fourteen was
(23:10):
on the third floor in the front of the building.
Frank and I approached the room and we listened. There
was no sound from inside. You want to try the door, yeah,
some Yeah, there he is in bed. Yeah, looks like
the right guy. I must wake him up. Come on,
come on, wake up, come.
Speaker 5 (23:31):
On, let me alone, Charlie, come on, get up, get up,
Let me alone. I told you, Charlie, let me.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Well, you guys, what are you doing police officers? You're
under arrest. Wait a minute, come on, stand still, all right,
all right, I quit? I quit. You want to shake him, Franks? Yeah, yeah,
he's clean. Well, you're taken me.
Speaker 5 (23:56):
I ain't done nothing.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
You got no reason to push me.
Speaker 5 (23:58):
Around like that.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Let us go where we are you gonna take me
downtown for what? Manslaughter? I didn't do it.
Speaker 5 (24:04):
I didn't.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
You got the wrong guy.
Speaker 5 (24:06):
You got the wrong one.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
I didn't do it.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
I comme on us move, but you got the wrong one.
Speaker 5 (24:09):
I didn't do it. I didn't know what you wanted.
That's why I run.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
I didn't know what you wanted to do. Now, so
let's go. The suspect was taken to the squadroom, where
he was questioned. He refused to admit any part in
the crime. He was confronted with the physical evidence and
with the ownership of the hip run vehicle. The witness
to the crime came to the office and said that
(24:33):
Jack mr was the man that she'd seen at the
wheel of the car when Helen Chapman had been run down.
Throughout the interrogation, the suspect refused to say anything. At
one forty seven pm, the door of the squad room
open and Carl Chapman came.
Speaker 5 (24:45):
In whereas he I'm know he's here. I want to
say it easy. I heard you called him. I want
to see him. I want to tell him. Is that
the kid? Are you the one? You're the one who
killed Helen? Well, answer me, all right, take it to
your Chapman. Is he the one?
Speaker 3 (24:58):
The evidence points that way? Yeah? Please, I want you
to do something for me. What's that Go away out
of here. We can't do that, Chapman. He's in customs.
Please please leave me alone with him. Come on, Chapman,
you better wait outside in just a minute.
Speaker 5 (25:11):
Listen to me, kidd, when they put you in that cell,
you get down on your knees and thank God that
they found you before.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
Right, did you understand?
Speaker 5 (25:20):
You thank him in every day you live, you thank him.
You do that because I would have killed you.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
Take it easy, chap My wife's dead because of him.
Speaker 5 (25:28):
Yeah, that you killed her. They got lost to save
people like you, but none for her, None for her
and the baby. They didn't have any laws, none for them.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
All right, Chapman, Come on, take it easy, Frank, come onsw.
Speaker 5 (25:42):
Yeah, pretty upset?
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Any I want you to remember something, kid. In the
years I've been in this department, I've seen some bad ones,
real bad teenage kids that didn't know any better, scraped
up off the pavement, sent home to their parents, drunks
who were too loaded to know what went on. There's
been a lot of them go through here, but you
finish way ahead of the field. Boy, you talk good.
I bet you're an electure team around here. I'm getting
fed up with your kids roaming the streets and death traps. Now,
(26:08):
I don't care about you. You want to wrap yourself
around a post, you go ahead. We'll try and stop you,
but don't you take somebody else with you. Every year
the number gets bigger, more people killed. It isn't the
honest drivers that do. It's people like you who don't
care for anybody else. Now, we've tried about everything in
the books to make you understand. Doesn't look like any
of them did any good, does it? I'm a bad one.
Ain't you killed a human being? Boy? A woman who
didn't even know you. She never saw you until it
(26:29):
was too late. You threw a ten and a half
a metal at one hundred and twenty pound wman, and
then you ran away and left there in the gutter
to die. You wrecked the family. You tore it right
down the middle and rolled over it. You've ruined the
lives of all the people around that woman, you gave
a group of decent kids a bad time because you
stole their name. Now you get on your feet, young fella,
and you keep that smart mouth of years closed. You understand?
Speaker 5 (26:47):
Can I ask you something?
Speaker 3 (26:48):
What's that hit and run? How much like get? I
don't know, but it won't be enough. Star.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
You have just heard is true. The names were changed
to protect the innocent.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
On October fourteenth, trial was held in Department ninety seven,
Superior Court of the State of California in and for
the County of Los Angeles. In a moment the results
of that trial. Now here is our star, Jack Webb.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
Thank you, George Venemon. Thousands of smokers all across the
country are now changing to Chesterfield. We like you to
give them a try too. I know you'll like them
because the Chesterfield you smoke today is the best cigarette
ever made for the taste you want and the mildness
you want. Smoke America's most popular two way cigarette, regular
King Size Chesterfield.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Jack Carlisle Moore was tried and found guilty of manslaughter
one count and received sentence as prescribed by law. Manslaughter
is punishable by imprisonment and the state penitentiary for a
period not to exceed ten years. You have just heard Dragnet,
(28:07):
a series of authentic cases from official files. Technical advice
comes from the Office of Chief of Police W. H. Parker,
Los Angeles Police Department Technical Advisors, Captain Jack Donahoe, Sergeant
Marty Winn, Sergeant Franz Bracer. Heard tonight were Ben Alexander Joyce, McCluskey,
Kerry Bartel mcperrin. Script by John Robinson, music by Walter Schumann.
(28:29):
Hell give me speaking.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Watch an entirely different drag Net case history each week
on your local NBC television station. Please check your newspapers
for the day in time, Chesterfield has brought you drag Net.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
Transcribed from Los Angeles filter tip smokers. This is it.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
L and M Filters, the only filter tip cigarette with
plenty of good taste, the right length for effective filtration,
and just the right filter. Only the L and M
filter contains the miracle product alpha cellulose. You get much
more flavor, much less nicotine. This is it, as Betett
(29:13):
Surf puts it. L and M filters are just what
the doctor ordered by L and M Filters, America's highest
quality and best filter tip cigarettes. Here Rocky Fortune following
(29:39):
John Cameron, Swayzee, and the news on the NBC radio
network
Ladies and gentlemen. The story you were about to hear
is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Drag Meant is brought to you by Chesterfield, made by
Ligott and Myers, first major tobacco company to bring you
a complete line of qualities cigarettes. You're a detective sergeant.
You're assigned a hit and run felony detail. A young
(00:36):
woman has been run down and seriously injured. The driver
of the car has fled from the scene.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Your job find him today. Friends, you hear these three
words everywhere. Chesterfield's for me. The Chesterfield you smoked today
is the best cigarette ever made. Best for you because
Chesterfield gives you proof of highest quality, low nicotine, the
(01:05):
taste you want, the mildness you want. Chesterfield is best
for you because it's tested and approved by thirty years
of scientific tobacco research. Chesterfield is best for you because
it has an established good record with smokers, proven by
test after test. Yes, Friends, the Chesterfield you smoke today
(01:28):
is the best cigarette ever made for the taste you want,
the mildness you want. Join the thousands now changing to
Chesterfield always say Chesterfield's for me.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Dragnet. The document a drama of an actual crime. For
the next thirty minutes, in cooperation with the Los Angeles
Police Department, you will travel step by step on the
side of the law through an actual case transcribed from
official police spolence, from beginning to end, from crime to punishment.
Dragnet is the story of your police force in action.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
It was Tuesday, April seventh. It was cold in Los Angeles.
We were working the day watch out of Traffic Bureau.
Didn't run fellony detail. My partner's Frank Smith. The boss's
Captain Calfee. My name is Friday. We're on our way
out from the office and it was eight forty am
when we got to seventeen eighty four Byram Street front door.
Better try it again, huh helay me? Sound like somebody coming?
Speaker 4 (02:37):
Yeah, something you wants hunter, that's right, who you want?
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Police officers? We like to talk to you.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
Oh about the thing last night?
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Huh yes, ma'am, that's right.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
Well, come on in. You can't stand around for long.
Speaker 5 (02:47):
I'm gonna be late for work as it is.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Come on, thank you. It's my partner, Frank Smith. My
name is Friday. How do you do Hi?
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Sit down there, I gotta get ready to leave. There's
some coffee there in the caraffe.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
If you want no, thank no, ma'am, thank you.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Would you mind pouring me a cup? You'll find everything
right there on the table.
Speaker 5 (03:04):
Two sugars.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
All right?
Speaker 4 (03:07):
What do you want to know about last night? I
told the officers who were there all I.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Know, yes, ma'am, we know. We read their report. We'd
like to go over with you, if it's all right.
Speaker 5 (03:14):
It seems like a wasted time to me.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
It's been a little more of it trying to catch
the kid that hit the girl. It'd be better all
the way.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Around, s ma'am. There's your coffee. Oh, thank you?
Speaker 4 (03:24):
Now doorm either one of you got a cigarette?
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Yes, ma'am, here you are, here's light. Thanks.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
What do you want to go over?
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Well, according to what you said to the officers last night,
you saw the accident. Is that right? I saw it.
Speaker 5 (03:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
I don't think it was an accident, if you ask me,
I think the kid deliberately hit the girl.
Speaker 5 (03:45):
Deliberately.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Oh why say that? Well?
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Is the way it looked, that's all kind of feeling.
Wade came barreling around the corner. He must have seen her.
She was right under the light. Didn't even make an
attempt to stop none at all. I saw the girl
step off the curb right under the light. He had
to see her head to anyway. She stepped off the
curb and started to cross the street. Harry and me
saw her. She started to cross, and then all of
(04:09):
a sudden, this kid in the hot rod was coming
right at her. Was anything she could do?
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
She kind of looked up at the car and then
well like she was gonna run, but you didn't have time.
The car hit her and knocked her down.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Did you get a good look at the car?
Speaker 4 (04:25):
You mean, the one that hit her, Yes, ma'am, you
bet I did. Passed right under the light, got a
real good look at it.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
I wonder if you describe it for us.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
I told the cups all about it last night. Seems
like that'd be enough. Why do I have to go
through it again?
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Well, there might be something he didn't think of last night,
was hundre something you might have forgotten.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Isn't likely, but if you got to have it, I
guess that's the way it's gotta be. Hope we can
get it over with fast enough. I gotta get down
to the corner so I won't miss my bus.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Well, if it had helped, we can drive you to work.
You can give us the information on the way. Well,
that'll be fine.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
Wait a minute, I'll get my coat. How did it
look when you came in?
Speaker 3 (04:58):
We did it look like it was gonna No, it's
pretty cold though, paper.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
Said it might rain today. No, better take an umbrella.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
What kind of a car was it, miss Hunter?
Speaker 4 (05:07):
A hot rod? You know, the card real low, two
exhaust pipes, kind of beat up.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
What kind of a car was it? The brand name?
Speaker 4 (05:14):
I guess it was a Ford looked like for him
hard to tell. It was kind of banged up.
Speaker 5 (05:19):
You know.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
I don't know why the police allowed cars like that
on the streets. Anyway, it couldn't be very safe.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Can you tell us what year the car was?
Speaker 4 (05:26):
Well, I'm not real good at that, but I'd say
maybe a nineteen forty It might have been nineteen forty one.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
It's a pre war car though, huh yeah, I'm sure
that my kidding. Man? Kay? Thanks? Where can we drop you? Man?
Speaker 4 (05:46):
When you're first and Broadway? Will be fine?
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Just on the corner there, okay, Miss Hunter? Was or
anything about the car that did make it easier to identify.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
Not especially black Ford all beat up. I'm sure i'd
not if I saw it again any place.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Did you get to go look at the driver of
the car.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
No, not too good. All I could see was that
he was a kid, you know, maybe nineteen twenty years old.
Uh huh? You like to see you get that kid?
Is the girl? Alright? She looked pretty bad last a right.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Oh, she's still in a critical condition. Doctors aren't sure yet.
Well she'll be all right, sure, hope she is.
Speaker 5 (06:17):
Have you talk to her?
Speaker 3 (06:18):
No, we haven't, not yet.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
It's a terrible thing, kids like that running around in
hot rides, barreling around the city. Person's not safe on
the streets anymore.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Just because the car's got twin tail pipes. This hunter
doesn't have to be a hot ride.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
Well, this one was even had the little sort of
license plate hanging down from the back bumper.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
You mean a state license plate.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
No, one of those with a club name on it,
you know, the kind.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
There's not a notation of that on the report that
we remember.
Speaker 5 (06:43):
I guess I.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Forgot all the excitement at all. I must forgot.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Well, did you see the name on that plate?
Speaker 4 (06:48):
Yeah? Not real good, but I saw it.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
I think you can remember it, not all of it.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
The last part was wheels something wheels.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Two words you're pretty sure that are?
Speaker 4 (06:59):
Yeah, wheels, that's the word I saw. I didn't remember
it last night. I guess it didn't seem important. Then,
must be a lot of cars that have those plates
on them all over town.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Yes, we know.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
Don't seem like it's going to help much. A lot
of cars with those plates on them, lots of them, yes, ma'am.
Even if you do find the kid with one of them,
how are you going to know if he's the right one?
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Well, it's not going to be too hard. Hum this,
Carl'll tell us.
Speaker 6 (07:19):
According to the report, an automobile driven by one male
occupant struck a woman while she crossed the intersection of
Olympic Boulevard and Connecticut Street the night before.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
When the ambulance arrived at the scene, the victim, who
was identified as missus Helen Chapman, was unconscious and was
removed to Georgia Street Receiving Hospital for emergency treatment. Members
of the Crime Labbit arrived at the scene and gathered
what physical evidence they could find. All citizens in the
vicinity were interrogated and their statements were taken. Photographs of
the corner were made and held for evidence. Because of
(07:51):
the hit and run aspect of the case, Frank and
I had been assigned to investigate it. At one fourteen pm,
we drove over to Georgia Street Receiving Hospital to talk
to the attending position, doctor SIBP Bastion. He said the
patient's condition was so critical that she couldn't be moved
to her own hospital. He told us that the victim
hadn't recovered consciousness to the point where she could be questioned.
He went on to tell us that she'd been administered
Serah albuman to counteract shock. He listed her injuries for
(08:14):
us compound fractures of the femur, rib fractures and associated
internal injuries including a punctured lung and brain concussion. Was
not expected that she'd live. Frank and I left the
doctor and walked down the hall. In the waiting room,
we met a tall, thin man who looked as if
he hadn't slept in several days. On the floor in
front of him was a small pile of half smoked cigarettes.
He identified himself as the victim's husband, Carl Chapman. I
(08:36):
didn't know.
Speaker 5 (08:36):
I came home from work.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
They'd told me about it. I didn't even know. Didn't
they try to call you at work?
Speaker 5 (08:41):
No, I guess they called the house. There wasn't anybody home.
I just walked up to the door and there was
a note telling me to call it. Didn't even know
about Helen. I see you, like cigarette Chapman. Thanks. You
talked to the doctor, Yes, sir, we just did. Is
there anything new can be?
Speaker 3 (09:00):
All right? Well? I don't know, Yeah, and asked the
doctor yourself.
Speaker 5 (09:03):
Why don't anybody tell me anything? All the time? I
ask how my wife is? They tell me to ask
the doctor. Why won't they tell me? I don't know, sir.
Can't even find out if she needs anything. It won't
let me see her. Anybody who'll tell me what's really
hattening in there? It's been over ten hours. Nobody will
tell me what's going on.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
The best thing. Try to sit down and take it easily.
Speaker 5 (09:20):
Oh that's great to say, Just sit down, easy to say.
It's not your wife who's in there. It isn't someone
you love. Why are you here anyway? Why don't you
out trying to get the rotten little plunket did it?
Why don't you look for him. We'll get to him, sir,
when after Helen's dead? Is that going to be when
you start looking. We're looking for him now. We came
over in the hopes that we could talk to your wife.
We thought she might be able to give us some information.
(09:42):
What in God's name do you want from her? The
name and address of the kid I ran it down?
Do you have to get out of bed and go
find him for you? It's your job yours. Always talk
about the police department being so good, But what.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Are you doing.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
You're standing around here with your toeing the dirt, waiting
for my wife to come to and enough to point
the kid out.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
All right, sir, not take it easy, naked easy nothing.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
You listen to me, Bothy, if you listen, if she dies,
if that kid killed her, I'll find him. I don't
know how, but I will. I'm gonna do the same
thing to him with my hands that he did with
this car. I'll find him. I swear I'll find him,
and I'm gonna kill him with my hands.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
I'm gonna kill him, mister Chapman.
Speaker 5 (10:20):
Yeah, I see you for a moment, yeah, would you
excuse us for a minute? Start sure, doctor, we'll wait
out in the hall. It's a rough one a minute. Yeah,
I wonder what's going on in there.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
I don't know. Better call the skipper, tell him about
that plate on the car, get a broadcast out on it.
Check the phone book for the address of the National
hot Rod Association. Better talk with him. He might have
something for us on the club. Right, you better start up.
Speaker 5 (10:51):
You better find him fast, because I'm you ought to
go home and get some sleep, mister Chapman, you're all warning.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
I'm not gonna get this sleep until I catch that kid.
How was the girl?
Speaker 5 (11:06):
She's dead, both of them, both of them. Yeah, she's
going to have a baby in a couple of months.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
Three point fifteen pm, Frank and I drove out to
the offices of the National hot Rod Association on Hollywood Boulevard.
We met with Bud Coons and Wally Parks. They checked
their records for clubs with the last name Wheels. There
were three in their files. Two were in the eastern
part of the United States, and one was listed as
having headquarters in now Hamburg, California. We obtained the name
and address of the president of the club, and we
(11:37):
drove out to see him. We found him in the
garage behind the house, working on a nineteen forty one Ford.
We introduced ourselves and he asked us to sit down.
Speaker 5 (11:44):
What do you want to see me about?
Speaker 3 (11:46):
We understand that you're the president of the Square Wheels?
Speaker 5 (11:48):
All right, yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Why how many members do you have in the club?
Speaker 5 (11:51):
Eighteen eighteen actives. There's a couple of guys in the service.
What's this all about anyway? How come the questions?
Speaker 3 (11:57):
All? Do your members have the metal plates with a
club name on their Yeah?
Speaker 5 (12:01):
Get them when they paid the initiation for you want.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Anybody else have them?
Speaker 5 (12:04):
Not legally?
Speaker 3 (12:05):
What do you mean?
Speaker 5 (12:06):
Or a couple of them out been stolen from members?
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Any of the fellas in the club drive a black
pre War forward?
Speaker 5 (12:11):
Yeah, I guess we got about five of them. I
got one myself. As a matter of fact, listen, why
can't you tell me what this is all about? Figure?
If I knew what you wanted, I could help you out.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
A woman was run down by a hot ride last night.
One of the witnesses saw a plate on the car
that might have been from your club.
Speaker 5 (12:25):
No kidding, it's the way we get it. What did
it look like?
Speaker 3 (12:28):
I always say it had twin pipes, pretty well, beat
up white sidewall tires.
Speaker 5 (12:32):
It's not one of ours, then it's not pretty sure.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
What about the plate?
Speaker 5 (12:35):
I told you we've had a couple of them stolen.
Must have been one of them.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
How come you're so sure it wasn't one of your members?
Speaker 5 (12:40):
Oh? I know the cars in the club. There is
a yoyo and the bunch.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
What's a yo yo?
Speaker 5 (12:44):
Yeah? You know, a shot rod, junk? Heapo, I see,
I don't know. It seems like every time there's any
trouble with a car, we're five years old. It's a
hot ride? Sure, not fair? That's so yeah, come out, shay.
I'll take a look at that. I've been working on
for three years, got over twelve hundred bucks in it.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Take a look at it. It's a lot of money. Yeah,
it's a good car. But what's approved?
Speaker 5 (13:08):
The car that ran that woman down wasn't a hot rod?
Speaker 3 (13:10):
How do you figure that?
Speaker 5 (13:12):
You said it was a wreck, didn't you.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
That's right.
Speaker 5 (13:13):
We haven't got a wreck that's allowed on the streets
in this club. I don't know a legal club that
has a yo yo in it. We got a safety
check every month. Any car that isn't safe has to
be fixed with the guys out. A lot of clubs
operate that way.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Yeah, we know the kid's.
Speaker 5 (13:25):
Bill rods for two reasons, because they want the cars
to run better, be more efficient, or else they want
something a little different than you can buy in a showroom.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
Well, all this sounds good, but a woman was killed
last night by a kid driving a hopped up car
some kind.
Speaker 5 (13:37):
Maybe it had twin pipes a loud muffler, but I'll
give you odds from here to Bonneville that it wasn't
a hot rod. I know how you guys feel. We're
always getting it. Every kid behind a wheel and the
secondhand car is a potential killer. The way the paper's pictures,
we just roam around looking for somebody to run over.
That's not true. You check the records, I think you
will find it. The ratio between tickets giving out the
(13:58):
members of Hot Ride Club, members of the NHRA, and
any other group of drivers will make the hot rodders
look pretty good. He hasn't been a ticket in our
club in the last year and a half. The one
before that was for overtime parking. Oh I'm sorry, fellas,
that car last night wasn't one of our guys. And
you can bet he wasn't a hot rodder either.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
You got anywhere one who could have gotten the plank?
Speaker 5 (14:17):
Well, not right off, or we'll find him. How there's
only so many streets in Los Angeles, we'll find him.
Guys like that make things rough on the clean drivers
in this town. We'll find him for you.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
And we'll appreciate any help you can give us on this,
but it's police business. If you find him, give us
a car right away.
Speaker 5 (14:31):
Don't worry. We will. How do I get in touch
with you.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
And leave you one of our cars anytime? You call us?
Speaker 5 (14:36):
All right, I'll get on the phone and get the
fellows rounded up.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
If you're turn anything, call us right away. Don't try
to take care of it yourselves.
Speaker 5 (14:42):
Only one thing we're interested in. You know what's in
proven to you it wasn't one of us. That's what's important.
Showing you we're on your site.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Well, that shouldn't be too hard, huh. There's a lot
of room. We got the names and addresses and the
members of the Square Wheel Club, and we talked to him.
We checked their car cars and each of them volunteered
to assist us in attempting to locate the hit and
run vehicle. Six forty pm, Frank and I got back
to the office. During the afternoon, the broadcast on the
(15:09):
car gone over the state wire and every police officer
in the state of California was looking for the hit
and run car. When we checked with communications, there'd been
no replies to our broadcasts. Seven to fifteen pm. We
put in a call at Georgia Street Receiving Hospital and
we talked again to doctor Sebastian. He told us that
the victim's husband, Carl Chapman, had been placed under the
care of his family doctor and had been given sedatives
(15:29):
to make him sleep well. I checked the Lieutenant Wilfrim
on the developments. Frank went over to the crime lab
and talked with Lieutenant Lee Jones. Eight forty seven pm
we met back in the squad room. Any word, yeah, nope.
Got a call from Al Gibbs hot Rod Clumb. Yeah.
He says, all the clubs in the area are looking
for the car. They divided the city up in sections.
Members are checking all the streets. No lot though, no
(15:50):
nothing well, they turned a couple of cars, but they
don't check out. How'd you do? Pretty good? Got the
report here. I had a couple of sandwich of Sana
and got the Swiss on rye in the bagger. Where's
coffee right there? Carton? Oh the Lambshi did a good
job on the stuff. Here here's a scene. Victims found
(16:11):
ten feet four inches from the northeast corner, four feet
eight inches from the north pedestrian crosswalk and put it
about here, wouldn't it. Yeah, they found particles of broken
glass checked on at the lighthouse lenses from nineteen forty four. Yeah,
here's a picture on. Yeah, in the gutter of the
southwest corner they found this. There's a bumper guard. Yeah,
(16:32):
I looked at it's new any brand name, Yeah, but
it's not gonna help much distribute it all over the country.
A lot about skid marks, any sign of them, No,
not that they could find either. The kid didn't have
time to use him rails. He didn't want to. They
came up with this though, Yeah, what's that? Some marks
from attire? He says he thinks they were made when
the kid dug out the getaway spun the back wheels.
(16:55):
Sure indicate that he didn't mean to stop at any time. Huh.
Well that's the way Leaves got it. Figure. Well, it
is much to go on, isn't it come easier? Well,
let's go out and check the neighborhood again. We might
still be able to turn up a decent description. We
start checking the garages in the morning. Try to turn
a car with a broken headlight and a missing bumper guard. Okay,
better call communications, get out of supplemental on the tires. Yeah,
(17:16):
I'll take care of hi guys. Get a run Fellony Friday. Yeah, yeah,
that's right.
Speaker 5 (17:24):
M hmm.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Anybody there, No, don't keep it in surveillance. We'll be
right out. Yeah, don't burn it right bye? What do
you got from its beginning to go our way? Maybe? Huh?
They found the car.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
You are listening to dragnet, the authentic story of your
police force in action. Chesterfield's for me. You hear it
everywhere tonight.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
We hear from America's number one band leader, Ray Anthony,
who with his attractive wife d plays college dates from
coast to coast in cigarettes.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
The young crowd really goes for Chesterfields. I've noticed that
wherever we've played, and I guess it's one of the
reasons Chesterfield is America's most popular two way cigarette. Of course,
D and I are Chesterfield smokers too. We know they're
best for us.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Chesterfields for me. You hear it everywhere. The Chesterfield you
smoked today is the best cigarette ever made. For the
taste you want, the mildness you want. Join the thousands
now changing to Chesterfield.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
During a routine patrol of the streets in East Los Angeles,
a radio unit had come across the car parked at
the curb on Vancouver Avenue. They'd stopped to investigate and
found that it matched the description that we'd sent out
on the phone. I'd instructed the officer not to search
the car, but merely to keep it under surveillance and
check and hold anyone who approached it. Frank and I
notified the crime lab of the find, and then we
left the office and drove out to the location. We
(19:04):
talked to the officers in the police car and they
told us that they hadn't seen anyone near the vehicle.
We checked the registration and found that the registered owner
was a Jack Moore. The white slip gave us an
address in Hollywood, while the crime lab went over the car,
we drove out to Moore's address to talk to him.
He lived in a large house built in the mid
twenties as a private residence. It had been converted into
a boarding house. Frank covered the rear entrance. I rang
(19:25):
the front doorbell.
Speaker 5 (19:32):
Yeah, well you are waking me.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Up this time of night, police officers. You have a
tenant here named Jack Moore. What about it? We'd like
to talk to him too late, Mac he ain't here, Worzy,
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (19:43):
He moved out this afternoon.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
He didn't say where he was going. A thorough search
was made of the suspects room. The manager told us
that Moore had come home that morning, packed his belongings
and left the house. We called the crime lab and
Lieutenant Lee Jones told us that they established that Moore's
car was the one that had run down the Chapman girl.
We talked to the other people in the rooming house.
(20:06):
None of them could tell us where more might have gone.
We put in a called auto records, but the car
was not listed as being stolen. Frank called his name
into R and I. We found that he had no
felony record from the occupants of the rooming house. We
found that the suspect had no relatives in this state
and no close friends that they could recall. Layton Prince
came out and went over the room, and in going
over it we found a waste basket more it used
(20:27):
to dispose of articles that he didn't want. In the
basket we found several match folders from a bar out
on West seventh Street. We put in a call to
the bar, but we found that it was closed. From
the manager of the rooming house, we got a good
description in the suspect, along with the information that he
received no mail and that he was apparently unemployed. A
stakeout was set up on the house and at three
thirty six am, Frank and I checked out of the
(20:47):
office and went home for the night. The next day, Wednesday,
April eighth, we contacted DMV and asked that they give
us all information on the car. Nine to fifteen am,
we drove over the bar on West seventh Street.
Speaker 5 (21:00):
Yet open little ten police officers like some information licenses
back there in the wall and plain sight. There's nothing
going on here.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
You have a customer in your name, Jack Moore.
Speaker 5 (21:08):
We just opened the doors. We got no say about
who comes in a long as they don't cause trouble.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
We don't either. This guy's about twenty or twenty one,
five eight five, ten hundred and sixty five pounds blonde,
names Moore, Jack Moore. What's he done? Do you want
to talk to him about? What police business? Have you
seen him?
Speaker 5 (21:24):
Nothing that's going to get the bar in trouble.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
That's a simple question, mister. Have you seen him? Maybe?
Speaker 5 (21:29):
Yeah, you tell me what it's all about. I might
be able to help you out.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
They're running out of time. Have you seen Jack Moore? Yeap?
When last night here?
Speaker 5 (21:38):
Yeah, he was in, got liquored up. I tossed him
out when we closed.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
Where is he now?
Speaker 5 (21:41):
You better ask him.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
I'm gonna tell you once more. If you know where
he is, you're gonna save yourself a lot of time
by cooperating with us.
Speaker 5 (21:46):
I run a clean place here. I don't want any
trouble with the cops. My license is on the wall.
I got no choice of the customers who come in here.
I don't want to get mixed up in any.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
We're not calling it that way. That's the way it is.
This is a clean place that's not what the book says.
You've been tabbed a couple of times with serving miners.
You run be girls. You haven't served straight liquor in
here for a couple of years. We have to get
the information from you downtown. That's the way it's going
to be. Get your coat. Oh that look, fellas. I
was just trying to take care of my sea. You
did get your coat.
Speaker 5 (22:10):
Isn't there some way we can work this thing out?
I don't want any trouble.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
Where's Jack Moore?
Speaker 5 (22:13):
I try to run a clean place. A couple of
times I've been We've been over all that before.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Now where is he?
Speaker 5 (22:19):
I got him up at my place? You there, now,
I guess so we got pretty loaded last night. Told
me he didn't have any place to pad down. I
took him home. What's the address, eighteen sixty two and
a half Woodworth Court, Room fourteen.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
All right, let's go. Yeah, and don't try to call him.
Speaker 5 (22:33):
I got no phone in the room. He's done anything.
I had no part in it. Just trying to help
a friend out, that's all. Just help a friend out. Yeah, sure,
you tell him that he got me in trouble, all
because I tried to help him.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
Out.
Speaker 5 (22:44):
You just tell him, yeah, we will, and tell him
not to come around here anymore. Tell him to keep out.
Tell him that, will you for me? Tell him not
to come back.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
Don't you worry about it. He won't be back. We
called the office and another team of detectives came out
to the bar to keep the bartender onder surveillance in
the event that he might try to contact the suspect.
It took five and a half minutes to drive to
the Woodward Street address. It was a large building located
at the end of a blind street. Room fourteen was
(23:10):
on the third floor in the front of the building.
Frank and I approached the room and we listened. There
was no sound from inside. You want to try the door, yeah,
some Yeah, there he is in bed. Yeah, looks like
the right guy. I must wake him up. Come on,
come on, wake up, come.
Speaker 5 (23:31):
On, let me alone, Charlie, come on, get up, get up,
Let me alone. I told you, Charlie, let me.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Well, you guys, what are you doing police officers? You're
under arrest. Wait a minute, come on, stand still, all right,
all right, I quit? I quit. You want to shake him, Franks? Yeah, yeah,
he's clean. Well, you're taken me.
Speaker 5 (23:56):
I ain't done nothing.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
You got no reason to push me.
Speaker 5 (23:58):
Around like that.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Let us go where we are you gonna take me
downtown for what? Manslaughter? I didn't do it.
Speaker 5 (24:04):
I didn't.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
You got the wrong guy.
Speaker 5 (24:06):
You got the wrong one.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
I didn't do it.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
I comme on us move, but you got the wrong one.
Speaker 5 (24:09):
I didn't do it. I didn't know what you wanted.
That's why I run.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
I didn't know what you wanted to do. Now, so
let's go. The suspect was taken to the squadroom, where
he was questioned. He refused to admit any part in
the crime. He was confronted with the physical evidence and
with the ownership of the hip run vehicle. The witness
to the crime came to the office and said that
(24:33):
Jack mr was the man that she'd seen at the
wheel of the car when Helen Chapman had been run down.
Throughout the interrogation, the suspect refused to say anything. At
one forty seven pm, the door of the squad room
open and Carl Chapman came.
Speaker 5 (24:45):
In whereas he I'm know he's here. I want to
say it easy. I heard you called him. I want
to see him. I want to tell him. Is that
the kid? Are you the one? You're the one who
killed Helen? Well, answer me, all right, take it to
your Chapman. Is he the one?
Speaker 3 (24:58):
The evidence points that way? Yeah? Please, I want you
to do something for me. What's that Go away out
of here. We can't do that, Chapman. He's in customs.
Please please leave me alone with him. Come on, Chapman,
you better wait outside in just a minute.
Speaker 5 (25:11):
Listen to me, kidd, when they put you in that cell,
you get down on your knees and thank God that
they found you before.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
Right, did you understand?
Speaker 5 (25:20):
You thank him in every day you live, you thank him.
You do that because I would have killed you.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
Take it easy, chap My wife's dead because of him.
Speaker 5 (25:28):
Yeah, that you killed her. They got lost to save
people like you, but none for her, None for her
and the baby. They didn't have any laws, none for them.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
All right, Chapman, Come on, take it easy, Frank, come onsw.
Speaker 5 (25:42):
Yeah, pretty upset?
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Any I want you to remember something, kid. In the
years I've been in this department, I've seen some bad ones,
real bad teenage kids that didn't know any better, scraped
up off the pavement, sent home to their parents, drunks
who were too loaded to know what went on. There's
been a lot of them go through here, but you
finish way ahead of the field. Boy, you talk good.
I bet you're an electure team around here. I'm getting
fed up with your kids roaming the streets and death traps. Now,
(26:08):
I don't care about you. You want to wrap yourself
around a post, you go ahead. We'll try and stop you,
but don't you take somebody else with you. Every year
the number gets bigger, more people killed. It isn't the
honest drivers that do. It's people like you who don't
care for anybody else. Now, we've tried about everything in
the books to make you understand. Doesn't look like any
of them did any good, does it? I'm a bad one.
Ain't you killed a human being? Boy? A woman who
didn't even know you. She never saw you until it
(26:29):
was too late. You threw a ten and a half
a metal at one hundred and twenty pound wman, and
then you ran away and left there in the gutter
to die. You wrecked the family. You tore it right
down the middle and rolled over it. You've ruined the
lives of all the people around that woman, you gave
a group of decent kids a bad time because you
stole their name. Now you get on your feet, young fella,
and you keep that smart mouth of years closed. You understand?
Speaker 5 (26:47):
Can I ask you something?
Speaker 3 (26:48):
What's that hit and run? How much like get? I
don't know, but it won't be enough. Star.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
You have just heard is true. The names were changed
to protect the innocent.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
On October fourteenth, trial was held in Department ninety seven,
Superior Court of the State of California in and for
the County of Los Angeles. In a moment the results
of that trial. Now here is our star, Jack Webb.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
Thank you, George Venemon. Thousands of smokers all across the
country are now changing to Chesterfield. We like you to
give them a try too. I know you'll like them
because the Chesterfield you smoke today is the best cigarette
ever made for the taste you want and the mildness
you want. Smoke America's most popular two way cigarette, regular
King Size Chesterfield.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Jack Carlisle Moore was tried and found guilty of manslaughter
one count and received sentence as prescribed by law. Manslaughter
is punishable by imprisonment and the state penitentiary for a
period not to exceed ten years. You have just heard Dragnet,
(28:07):
a series of authentic cases from official files. Technical advice
comes from the Office of Chief of Police W. H. Parker,
Los Angeles Police Department Technical Advisors, Captain Jack Donahoe, Sergeant
Marty Winn, Sergeant Franz Bracer. Heard tonight were Ben Alexander Joyce, McCluskey,
Kerry Bartel mcperrin. Script by John Robinson, music by Walter Schumann.
(28:29):
Hell give me speaking.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Watch an entirely different drag Net case history each week
on your local NBC television station. Please check your newspapers
for the day in time, Chesterfield has brought you drag Net.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
Transcribed from Los Angeles filter tip smokers. This is it.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
L and M Filters, the only filter tip cigarette with
plenty of good taste, the right length for effective filtration,
and just the right filter. Only the L and M
filter contains the miracle product alpha cellulose. You get much
more flavor, much less nicotine. This is it, as Betett
(29:13):
Surf puts it. L and M filters are just what
the doctor ordered by L and M Filters, America's highest
quality and best filter tip cigarettes. Here Rocky Fortune following
(29:39):
John Cameron, Swayzee, and the news on the NBC radio
network
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Are You A Charlotte?
In 1997, actress Kristin Davis’ life was forever changed when she took on the role of Charlotte York in Sex and the City. As we watched Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte navigate relationships in NYC, the show helped push once unacceptable conversation topics out of the shadows and altered the narrative around women and sex. We all saw ourselves in them as they searched for fulfillment in life, sex and friendships. Now, Kristin Davis wants to connect with you, the fans, and share untold stories and all the behind the scenes. Together, with Kristin and special guests, what will begin with Sex and the City will evolve into talks about themes that are still so relevant today. "Are you a Charlotte?" is much more than just rewatching this beloved show, it brings the past and the present together as we talk with heart, humor and of course some optimism.