The Big Paint - Dragnet | 10/20/1953 (Ep218)
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Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 2: The story you are about to hear is true. The
names have been changed to protect the innocent. Drag Met
is brought to you by Chesterfield, made by Liggott and Myers,
first major tobacco company to give you a complete line
of quality cigarettes. You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned to
auto detail. An organized gang of thieves has been stripping
cars in your city. None of the stolen merchandise has
turned up. There's no lead to the identity of the
members of the gang. Your job stop them. Smokers by
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Speaker 3: Dragnet the documented 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 files,
from beginning to end, from crime to punishment, Dragnet is
the story of your police force in action.
Speaker 4: It was Tuesday, June thirteenth. It was overcast in Los Angeles.
We were working the day watch out of auto theft detail.
My partner's Frank Smith. The boss is Captain Nelson. My
name is Frany. I was on my way into the
office and that was seven fifty two am when I
got to Room forty five, a bottle theft.
Speaker 1: Warren, Joe, I have Bob.
Speaker 4: You've seen Frank.
Speaker 1: Oh Yah hasn't been here.
Speaker 2: Oh all right, Joe.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: When I gets in telling them down r and.
Speaker 4: I h yeah, sure.
Speaker 1: We how's it going? Oh? Pretty good? What happened to you?
Speaker 6: If it's all the same to you, I'd rather not
talk about him that bad?
Speaker 4: Huh.
Speaker 1: You've seen Joe. Guy's over his locker.
Speaker 6: Nice Warren, Joe, what happened to you, Joe, I'd rather
not discuss it.
Speaker 4: Well, what happened all those scratches on your face there?
Speaker 1: Please? Joe? I was just asking, looked pretty bad? Huh? Joe? Yeah,
you know I look pretty bad.
Speaker 4: Huh. I thought you didn't want to talk about it,
she said, If.
Speaker 6: About this gets out you I had ever gonna live
it down. All right, I've been had Joe cop for
twelve years. I've been had Well, what's it all about?
He won't spread this around?
Speaker 1: Will you? Look?
Speaker 4: I just asked you what happened. Now, if you don't
want to tell me, I'll go along with you. You don't
say a word. Come on, let's get on the reports.
What do you say? You better get in touch with
Bulls when he comes in trying to check some of
these out.
Speaker 6: Huh, you're not even interested?
Speaker 1: Huh?
Speaker 6: All right, do you want to tell me about it? Well,
if you really want to here, go ahead. Well, last
night I took Fade down to the store.
Speaker 4: She had a little shopping to do.
Speaker 6: Small stuff, you know, potholders, dish towels, things like that. Yeah,
I got a parking place right in front of the store,
so I waited.
Speaker 1: In the car for it.
Speaker 6: I was sitting there listening to the radio when this
fellow walked up to the car. He leaned in the
window and asked me if I had a minute. I
told him I did, and asked him what he wanted.
Did you know the guy never saw him before, didn't
know him from Adam.
Speaker 1: Right off, I could see the guy had trouble.
Speaker 4: What do you mean?
Speaker 6: Well, he looked real bad, like he'd been on a
drunk for at least a week. Clothes were all rumpled up,
look like he slept in him for a week.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
Speaker 4: Yeah, what did this guy want to talk to you about?
Speaker 1: Well, I saw him.
Speaker 6: I figured he was gonna put the bite on me,
so I braced myself.
Speaker 4: You know, you braced yourself.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know. I'm a real sucker for hard luck stories.
Speaker 6: Fay's always telling me I should learn to stay away from
those guys.
Speaker 1: She would just say on the other night.
Speaker 4: That what this guy wanted?
Speaker 1: Huh?
Speaker 4: Well, what do you want? This fella had talked to you?
Speaker 1: Oh, well, he gave me this.
Speaker 6: Story about how I'd been on a bat and how
he was broken and he needed some money to clean
up before he went home. Well, he makes it real
plain that he does not want a handout.
Speaker 1: Nothing for nothing.
Speaker 4: Well you suppose he meant by that.
Speaker 1: That's when he showed me the package.
Speaker 4: The package? Yeah, what package?
Speaker 1: Well, the one he was carrying. Didn't I tell you that?
Speaker 4: No he didn't yet.
Speaker 1: Well, you see before I couldn't see it.
Speaker 6: Then he showed it to me it's all done up
in tissue paper, ribbons and all paper was kind of dirty,
like he'd been carrying it for a long time.
Speaker 1: Ribbon was a little tired, but it was there.
Speaker 4: Oh.
Speaker 1: He asked me if I wanted to buy it?
Speaker 4: That was this package?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 1: What was in it?
Speaker 6: He asked me if I wanted to buy that or
what was He took off the paper and he opened
the thing up and Joe in it is a brand
new razor, brand new.
Speaker 1: Worth twenty six bucks in town.
Speaker 4: What kind of a razor?
Speaker 1: Well, he said he'd let me have it for twenty bucks.
Speaker 4: No, what kind of a razor? You just a raiser?
The kind of shaved Yeah?
Speaker 1: An electric raw?
Speaker 4: Oh well, you didn't tell me it was electric, didn't
I say that?
Speaker 1: Joe?
Speaker 4: He said he'd let you have it for twenty bucks
just because he needed the money.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Well it happened that I didn't have twenty bucks, you
know me, So I told him I couldn't make a deal.
Speaker 4: Then he left.
Speaker 1: Huh No, Joe, Look, you wanted to hear it. Will
you let me finish?
Speaker 4: Well, it takes you a little time. I have to
keep drawing you out here.
Speaker 6: I'm sorry, Joe, I want you to get all the facts,
and we're officers together. We talked back and forth for
a little bit. Guy finally said that I looked like
I had an honest face.
Speaker 4: That's a new approach.
Speaker 6: And then Joe well so finally says, you let me
have the razor for fifteen bucks.
Speaker 3: So I bought it.
Speaker 4: That's how you cut your face up with that new
electric razor?
Speaker 1: Well, in a way.
Speaker 6: You see, I had to buy some blades last night,
and since I had the new electric, I didn't do it.
Speaker 4: Well, you don't need blades for an electric.
Speaker 1: No, it wasn't for the electric, Joe, the old one
that I had.
Speaker 4: But you had the electric, now, serre.
Speaker 1: Once I had that in my hand, I didn't want anything.
The only thing I had in the house.
Speaker 6: Was a blade. There was a week old. So I
got up this morning plugged in my brand new electric.
What do you figure happened?
Speaker 4: Well, I wanted to take a real blind guess it
didn't run.
Speaker 1: How'd you know?
Speaker 4: Well, the same thing happened to Murphy over and Robbery
last month. There was a big laugh around here. You
were one of the guys who laughed the most, don't
you remember.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I remember now it's miserable Murphy know about this yet?
Speaker 1: No, I ain't about to tell him either.
Speaker 5: Riddy Smith, Yeah, skier, see you guys right.
Speaker 1: Close the door. That's it down.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 1: What happened to you? Smith?
Speaker 2: Uh?
Speaker 5: It's a long starge skipper and you can tell me
later once you guys take a look at this.
Speaker 4: What do you got there?
Speaker 5: Just saw Chief Brown on the way and he's getting
pressure from the corner pocket.
Speaker 1: He went. This thing cleared up? What is the joe?
Speaker 5: Last few weeks, car strippings taking a big jump. The
line of stuff not just happening in certain neighborhoods. We
got reports there from the Valley, Hollywood, Wielshire, all of
the divisions. Same thing's happening all over town. Talk to
the boys and the sheriff's office. They're getting it same
in Burbank, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica.
Speaker 1: Doesn't seem to.
Speaker 5: Be any place. They aren't getting too ah about.
Speaker 1: The stolen stuff. Skip for any of it show.
Speaker 5: Up yet, not that we can find. All the usual
outlets have been checked. None of the loot can be.
Speaker 1: Bought, any special kind of things being taken.
Speaker 5: Let him see those reports, Yeah, here. Thanks, take a look.
We're not messing with kids in this thing. We had
the victims. Tell if this gang can break into a
locked car and lift the radio in under ten minutes,
they can pull all four wheels off a car in
under six minutes. Insurance companies are screaming. They already got
into the police commission. Chief Brown told me this morning
he didn't care how we did it, but he wanted.
Speaker 4: It to stop. Well where do we start?
Speaker 5: Well, up to now, the investigation has been handled pretty much,
but the divisions from here and it's in your laps.
Speaker 1: Use as many men as you need. Just bring the
thieves in, you know, working on anything now?
Speaker 4: Are No, No, we're just winding up at Gibson thing.
Couple reports to finish. We should be through by noon.
Speaker 5: We turned the reports over to somebody else. I want
you to turn on this thing right away. Okay, anything
you need let me know, right checulated right.
Speaker 1: Smith, Yes, sir?
Speaker 5: How'd you get all those cuts in your face there?
Shading well in a way?
Speaker 1: Yah? Yeah, same thing used to happen to me.
Speaker 5: Why didn't you get yourself in electric raising?
Speaker 4: Eight eleven am Frank and I asked one of the
other men in the detail to take care of the
reports on the case that we'd finished, and then we
started through the statements we've gotten from Captain Nelson. From them,
we got a pretty good idea of how the car
stripping ring was operating. There seemed to be a definite
plan for the thefts. Most of the stolen articles were
in the luxury class only. Radios were taken from Cadillacs
and Lincolns. Heaters were stolen from Chrysler's special hubcaps from
foreign cars were listed among the stolen property. We have
the Stats Office make a run on the m that
we could piece together, but their information let us nowhere.
In none of the reports was there a possible description
of the thief. The times the cars were stripped in
the locations where the burglaries occurred made it apparent, but
it was a large scale operation. For the next two
days we talked to the victims. We double checked the
time of the thefts and the movement of the victims
immediately preceding the car stripping. We asked about people loitering
in the vicinity of the parked cars. None of the
drivers who'd been victimized could supply us with any more
evidence than they'd given us in their statements. Friday, June sixteenth,
we checked the list of recent paroles from state penitentiaries
and work farms looking for ex convicts who'd been involved
in cases of car stripping. The list of names we
came up with were checked out that they let us nowhere.
In the meantime, the pressure from the citizens groups in
the city had gotten worse. At the end of the
first week we'd been working on the case, the value
of stolen articles reached about five hundred dollars a day.
Additional officers were assigned to patrol of the streets radio cars,
doubled the number of field interrogations they normally made, and
although several arrests were made, the possibles picked up apparently
had no part in the activities of the organized ring.
On Saturday, June twenty fourth, we got a call from
an ex convict. He asked us to come out to
his garage.
Speaker 5: And talk to him. Come on back here, fellas, we
can talk a while I finish up.
Speaker 1: Alright, Hey, kind of place you got here around?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I've been pretty lucky, got just about all I
can handle now. The way business is going, I'm gonna
have to take on some more help.
Speaker 4: How many many got working for in aisle?
Speaker 1: Two full time saturdays.
Speaker 5: They got a couple of kids who come in and
help out with.
Speaker 1: The watch jobs.
Speaker 5: Uh huh, Now we can talk right here.
Speaker 1: Pull up a couple of those charites. U.
Speaker 5: There's a rag there on that bench. If you wanna
wipe 'em off. They get a little dirty standing around.
Speaker 4: It's okay, Yeah, what do you wanna see us about?
Speaker 5: Well, first off, I wanna tell you guys that I
appreciate the way you treated me when I fell.
Speaker 1: I'll never forget it. Real nice. Don't worry about it now.
Speaker 5: I read in the papers where you're getting a lot
of heat on the stripping going around.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 5: I just wondered how you're doing on it. That's going
pretty slow.
Speaker 4: Why do you know anything? I got a couple of rumbles,
you know. It's hard not to hear him.
Speaker 1: Uh, I heard that. None of the stuff's been shoved
at right, we haven't seen any of it, by the way.
Speaker 5: I get it. You're on about to hand me that
socket wrench with you.
Speaker 1: This one? Yeah, yes, here you go, thanks fella.
Speaker 5: I came in here a couple of days ago. I
knew him from before. He said he wanted to do business.
Speaker 1: Uh huh.
Speaker 5: He asked me if I was interested in some good buys.
Speaker 1: And used radios.
Speaker 4: Uh huh.
Speaker 2: I had told him I might be if they were good.
He said these were the best all gms.
Speaker 5: Then he gave me the price. When I heard that,
I knew something was up. What was he asking him?
I told me he could deliver six Cadillac radios, but
twenty eight fifty apiece. I asked him where he got him?
Speaker 4: What'd he say to that?
Speaker 5: I told him he wasn't any of my business. Said
what he got him didn't make the radios play any.
Speaker 6: Different or makes you figure he might be in on
the operation we're after all.
Speaker 5: I told him, if he could make deliveries at that price,
I'd want a lot more than a half.
Speaker 4: A dozen, you know.
Speaker 5: He said he couldn't supply him, said that he only
could spring six. I asked him if he was working alone.
He told me no, I figured I ought to give
you guys a call.
Speaker 4: Might be something for you, he said, you know him,
Uh yeah, from before?
Speaker 1: Say you guys like a cold beer?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 1: No, thanks, h your mind. If I have one. It's
kind of hot.
Speaker 5: Well go ahead, thanks, he gets a little hot. You're
really noticing, Are you sure you guys don't want a beer?
Speaker 4: Well, no, Hoss.
Speaker 1: Never could drink out of a can.
Speaker 5: It seems to taste better in a glass. Ah, that's good.
Speaker 4: Who was the guy?
Speaker 5: L that's Manny Manny Phillips. You know he get in
touch with him.
Speaker 1: I haven't got the slightest idea.
Speaker 4: Did he ever fall him?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I did time at Q for GTA jem pro.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 5: I think he made it free. Like I told you,
I didn't know him real well. He used to hang around,
never had much to do with him. Yeah, this is
the first time I've seen him since I got out.
Speaker 1: I've been staring clear of the old bunch.
Speaker 5: Makes it easier if you don't power around with him.
Speaker 1: Business.
Speaker 5: I got's going good, got no trouble with anybody, and
I wanted to go on like this.
Speaker 1: Never could figure it.
Speaker 5: Guy falls out and right away he's back with the
same old bunch.
Speaker 1: How you gonna stay clean like that? Well you aren't.
Speaker 5: Somewhere along the line. You gotta make a mistake. You're
right back where you started.
Speaker 4: I'll take you to learn it.
Speaker 1: I spent four and a half years at the joint.
Speaker 4: H some of 'em fall harder than that out, Yeah,
they still don't learn. Eleven twenty am we called the
office and Sergeants Bob beck An officer Art Mohner came
out to the garage to stake out in case the
suspect came back. Frank and I took Al Woodson down
to the city Hall and checked the name Manny Phillips
through R and I. From the packages that were pulled,
we were able to get an identification of the man
who'd offered the radios for sale. We checked the information
contained in the package. Phillips, whose real name was Manuel
Richard Phillips, had an arrest record dating back twelve years.
He'd spent one year at Fred C. Nella's School for
Boys for car stripping when he was fourteen. From the
time of his release, he'd been arrested on the average
of once every two weeks. His age at the time
of his latest release from San Quentin was given US
twenty six. Out of that time, he'd spent a total
of eight years in state penal institutions. From his package,
we obtained his last recorded address we checked it out
and found that he'd moved three months before we checked
his forwarding address he'd moved. Finally, after talking to the
managers of nine more rooming houses and apartments, we came
up with his present residents the land that he told
us that Phillips apparently didn't work for a living, but
the but he always had the money for his rent.
She described him as quiet and said that he usually
spent a good part of the daylight hours in his room.
She was unable to tell us anything about his friends
or any business associates that he might have. A stakeout
was set up on the place immediately. Because of the
apparent size of the operation, it was decided not to
attempt to take the suspect in the custody at this time. Instead,
Captain Nelson agreed that we should keep Phillips under surveillance
and try to learn more about the car stripping game.
For the next week, we followed Phillips twenty four hours
a day. There were at least two officers tracing his movements.
On three nights, he was watched while he stripped cars
of expensive accessories. The area was put under a Code
five so there would be no possibility of the suspect
learning he was under observation. Eleven days after the surveillance began,
Phillips was observed to visit a large marine supply yard
down in San Pedro. The next night, July sixth, he
drove up to the place at eleven thirty seven pm.
He parked his car in front of the gate and
dropped the large bundle over the fence. Immediately afterwards, he
returned to his room. The following morning, at eight oh
six a m. We met with Sergeant Beck in Captain
Nelson's office.
Speaker 5: But to find out about the ownership of the supplier.
Speaker 4: A license was issued to a Harry Swinson.
Speaker 1: How about him? We checked the name through the Eye Bureau.
Nothing on him there, Beck, you and Mueller came up
with anything not that you haven't got. We staked out
on the yard every night since we found it. Hasn't
been a night that passed. Some car hasn't made a
delivery of some kind. Got the license numbers of all
the cars. They've all been checked out. We know who
they are and where to find him.
Speaker 4: We've had a tail on Swinson every minute. Must have
eyes in the back of his head. Soon as one
of our men falls and step. He knows it. The
way he's acted, there is nothing we can prove.
Speaker 1: What's the DA's office saying about it.
Speaker 6: We had lunch with Alexander yesterday's skipper, laid out the
evidence we had.
Speaker 1: Yeah told us.
Speaker 6: We tried to take Swinson to court, but we've got
to laugh us out of town.
Speaker 1: And where does that put you?
Speaker 4: Well, really not much further than we were. We know
who's behind the ring, we know where they're operating from.
The big thing now is to find the plant. Unless
we can produce a stolen merchandise in Swinson's possession, we
haven't got a case. It'll stand up.
Speaker 5: No leaks about the plant, no, not that we can find.
Speaker 4: Everybody that's been near Swinson's place has been tailed twice
a week. There's a truck that leaves the yard. There's
no way of telling what's in it, and the times
we followed it we've lost it.
Speaker 5: How about a bug can you get running in the
Swinson's office.
Speaker 4: There's no way of getting them out of there long
enough to install one. The night watchman's always on the premises.
We're not even sure he's not in on it too.
So where do you stand on it. Are your guests
as good as ours? Alexander says it without finding a plant,
we can't take him the court now. We've used every
trick in the book to get him to lead us
to it, and not one of them's worked. They haven't
left the thing open their planet real smart.
Speaker 5: How many men involved in the operation, Well, we're not sure,
but as near as we can figure twelve.
Speaker 4: That's not counting Swinson of that night watchman.
Speaker 5: You've been in the business long enough to know it then,
of course that and there is that many men working,
there's got to be a leak someplace you know find it.
Speaker 3: You are listening to Dragnet, the authentic story of your
police force election at cigarette dealers, in vending machines, at
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Speaker 1: Chester Fields, Please.
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Speaker 3: No adverse effects to the nose, throat, and sinuses from smoking.
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Speaker 4: For the next week, a close surveill on was kept
on Swinson's marine supply yard, but there were no brakes
kickbacks from George Bratton up at CII in Sacramento and
from Washington. D C didn't disclose any previous criminal record
on the suspect during that week. On Tuesday July eleventh
and on Thursday, July thirteenth, a large steak truck left
the yard. The back of the truck was covered with
a piece of canvas so that we were unable to
see what was in it, but we were reasonably sure
that it contained stolen merchandise. In scouting the neighborhood for
a possible place to establish a more workable stakeout, we
came across an empty office on the second floor of
the building directly across the street from Swinson's place of business.
Officers equipped with binoculars maintained a constant watch on the
activities in the yard. After another week, the events that
had been seen were reported to Assistant District Attorney Adolph Alexander,
and he stated that if we could get pictures of
the operation, we might be able to make a case
that would stand up in court. Monday, July seventeenth, we
met with Sergeant put Off in the crime lab.
Speaker 5: How far are you going to have to be from
the serject Jim Well, second floor across the street. Are
you going to be able to take all the pictures
during the day?
Speaker 6: Don't think so, put Off. Most of the activity runs
after nine at night.
Speaker 5: M No, be for the infrared, then we can shoot
it with a four x five.
Speaker 4: How about Life?
Speaker 5: Is there any sort of telephone pole traffic signal in
front of the place?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think so. The way I remember, if there's
a phone pole about ten feet to the left of
the gate as you face the yard.
Speaker 5: Oh, we can tie the lights to that. Then, well,
any chance they could be spotted outside, we can put
them up pretty high. Irregular lamp reflectors would have the
infrared fielders. If you know they're there and look up,
you're gonna be able to spot them. Any chance of
taking movies, yeah, we can swing that. Life magazine has
been experimenting with a new fast film results i've seen
whether it are pretty amazing? Oh you need is one
street lamb. We can use that.
Speaker 6: Well, if you have to string the infrared lights. Wasn't
it be better to shoot the movies on that kind
of film?
Speaker 5: Well, you'd get something film's pretty slow though. The better
to use the stuff lives come up with.
Speaker 4: And how long will it take you to set it up?
Speaker 5: How careful do we have to be?
Speaker 4: You know, these guys are pretty cagy. They get the
id at all. We're dead.
Speaker 5: Well, we can have a couple of men go out
in the morning and outfit them as linemen. They should
be able to have the rig ready for you by
tomorrow night.
Speaker 4: We can start shooting pictures in now. Should be able
to you all right.
Speaker 5: Jail or you know, I think he's over the court
this morning, Jim.
Speaker 4: Well, and maybe you can help us out there too.
What's that we're trying to figure some way to tail
a truck. We've been trying to find the plant these
guys are using for a couple of weeks. Now we
just can't get near him. We wondered if Jay might
have any ideas on that.
Speaker 5: Probably use fluorescent paint. I don't they do it?
Speaker 4: What's the gimmick there?
Speaker 5: They tie a can a transparent fluorescent lacquer to the
back of the truck, punch a hole in the can,
and all you gotta do is follow the drops.
Speaker 1: You punch a hole in the can. Would all the
stuff run out?
Speaker 5: Well, there's a couple of brands on the market. They've
got enough viscosity so the paint will stay in the
can regulate the frequency of the drops.
Speaker 1: But the size of the hole?
Speaker 4: Can you see it?
Speaker 5: Not without ultra violet lamp tire one of those of
the hood of your car. And you got a maid, you.
Speaker 4: Got the equipment here to do that.
Speaker 5: Well, would you have Jay give us a call when
he comes in right, you'll know more about it. And
I do be able to give you all a dope. Okay,
I'll get right on the other for you.
Speaker 4: Thanks a lot.
Speaker 5: Say how long you've been after this bunch?
Speaker 4: Well, let's see, we got the assignment on June thirteenth.
I'd make it over a month now a lot of time,
or maybe now we'll have something to show for it.
The following morning, Tuesday, July eighteenth, two men from the
crime lab installed three one thousand watt lamps in front
of the marine supply yard. The reflectors were equipped with
heavy infrared fillers. Test exposures from our position across the
street indicated that whatever pictures we got would be recognizable
enough as to be admitted in a quarter of loft.
The new fast film was obtained and sixteen millimeter cameras
were installed in the window of the office across the
street from Swinson's. We talked with Sergeant Jay Allen and
the crime lab and he went to work on the
use of the fluorescent paint. After experimenting, he was able
to come up with a correct size hole in the
bottom of the can so that a single drop of
the lacquer would fall from the can every ten seconds.
A portable ultraviolet lamp was obtained and was ready for
immediate installation on our car. For the next three nights,
we sat in our vantage point and we photographed all
activity on the suspect's premises. The pictures were shown to
ad Off Alexander in the District Attorney's office and he
told us that they would play a large part in
the prosecution of the case. However, he said that if
we could come up with the hiding place of the
stolen loot, a conviction would be assured. Tuesday morning, July
twenty fifth, three fifteen am, Frank and I took the
canfi fluorescent paint and climbed the fence into the supply yard.
Back here, Hi, how's the thing?
Speaker 1: I didn't say?
Speaker 4: How you? Better hold of a minute?
Speaker 1: Who's there.
Speaker 4: The watch him? Yeah? Better get back in the shadows
and come on easy, Why out?
Speaker 1: I know you're there. Come on now?
Speaker 5: Where is it?
Speaker 4: It was close?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Alright, let's go and the truck should be back in
the shed. Hight m oh, alright, here we are.
Speaker 1: There's a can.
Speaker 4: You wanna hang it. I'll keep an eye on it, alright.
See the best thing on here? Uh? I thought up
this handle. This didn't work at all. Wait a minute,
you bet it?
Speaker 1: Uh?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm me your handkerchief. Wait a minute, a sharp edge.
Speaker 1: On this watch? Yey?
Speaker 4: Here it is alright, Wait a minute, we're still clear there?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 4: What about that watchman?
Speaker 2: Hey went back?
Speaker 4: Not there we are? How about to stop him in
they can? I got it in place. The first bump
should knock it out. Uh hope, So it's gotta work alright. Now,
let's try to get out of here. See if you
can kick something else with you on the way. Tuesday night,
at eleven thirty five pm, the steak truck pulled out
of Swinson's Marine supply Yard. Sergeant Bob Back, Frank and
I were parked in an alley just down the street.
We let the truck get a good twenty minutes start
on us, and then the ultraviolet lamp was attached to
the hood of our car. Frank started the motor and
we pulled out into the street.
Speaker 1: That's about anything yet.
Speaker 6: No, maybe the lacquer dried up around the court held
at the place, and that's a happy thought.
Speaker 1: Oh, here's the corner. Which way?
Speaker 4: I wait a minute, let's take a chance straight ahead. Huh?
All right, there's nothing up this way. You better double back. Okay,
let's try to the left this time.
Speaker 1: How about it's anything yet?
Speaker 4: Going up a little more with you? Yeah, yeah, there
it is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, look at that stuff.
Speaker 5: It's really lit up.
Speaker 4: For the next thirty five minutes, we followed the trail
left by the fluorescent faint. From time to time we'd
lose the trail, but we'd always pick it up again.
The truck followed the main Highway from San Pedro to
Santa Monica and then turned left up Santa Monica Canyon.
The trail round around towards Sunset Boulevard and turned to
the left about one mile from the beach. The drops
indicated that the truck had left the main street and
turned onto a private dirt road. Half a mile along
the road, the trail stopped in front of a large
wooden building in the middle of a field. We turned
off the car lights and went up to the place.
The blinds on the windows were drawn, but there were
lights on in a front room. Sergeant Beck covered the
rear of the building, and Frank and I went up
to the front door. All right, yeah, what are you
doing here?
Speaker 1: Police officers?
Speaker 4: You're under arrest. What is anybody else here in the building?
Speaker 1: Where are yourestuing me for?
Speaker 4: You want to check with Beck? Frank?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 3: What are you doing coming in here like this?
Speaker 6: You got no right coming around kicking doors?
Speaker 4: I save it, Swinston, How do you know my name?
We've been watching you for a month now. Is there
anybody else in this house?
Speaker 1: You on this place?
Speaker 5: I'm not answering anything until I see a lawyer.
Speaker 4: Don't you call it anyway you want, we can find out.
Speaker 3: I've got no right in here.
Speaker 5: I want to see my lawyer that Swinson.
Speaker 1: What's a chart burglary? Do you think you make it stick?
Speaker 4: We're gonna try, mister.
Speaker 1: Where's your evidence? You got to have evidence? We got it.
There's nobody else here, Joe.
Speaker 6: Back room's full of stuff, radios, heaters, tires all here.
Speaker 1: So what you can't put me away for that?
Speaker 4: All right? Let's go to Swinson just a minute.
Speaker 1: Will you listen to you?
Speaker 5: Money?
Speaker 4: All right?
Speaker 1: And you got this all wrong. You're making a big
mistake here.
Speaker 5: I intend to pay for every bit of that stuff
back there.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna pay for it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's right, you will.
Speaker 1: The story you have just heard is true.
Speaker 2: The names were changed to protect the innocent.
Speaker 3: On December twelfth, the 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.
Speaker 2: Now here is our star Jack Webb.
Speaker 4: Thank you, George Finnamon. Friends, we'd like to express our
appreciation to all of you who made our Dragnet theme
song so popular. Whenever wherever you hear it. We hope
it'll remind you to try a Chesterfields to join. The
thousands were changing to Chesterfields and getting the one cigarette
that's low and nicotine highest in quality. Chesterfield, best for me,
best for you.
Speaker 3: All other members of the gang were taken into custody
and were brought to trial. Harry Ralph Swenson, along with
his accomplices, was tried and convicted of fourteen counts of
burglary in the second degree and received sentences.
Speaker 1: Prescribed by law.
Speaker 3: Burglary and the second degree is punishable by imprisonment and
the state penitentiary for a period if not less than
one nor more than fifteen years.
Speaker 4: If you had only one book, the Bible, do you
know that you would have within its covers the finest
examples of literature, both in prose and poetry. You'd have
stories which have never been equaled, adventure, love, history, and prophecy.
So read your Bible every day during National Bible Week.
Speaker 3: You have just heard Dragnet, 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 Win Sergeant Van
s Brascher. Heard tonight were Ben Alexander, Vic Perrin, Jack Krusian,
script by John Robinson, music by Walter Schumann, Hell Gidney speaking.
Watch an entirely new drag Net Case History each week
on your local NBC television station. Please check your newspapers
for the.
Speaker 2: Day and time Chesterfield has brought you Dragnet transcribed from
Los Angeles. Have you tried new cork tip Fatima. It's
the smooth smoke with Fatima tips of perfect cork king
size for longer filtering and Fatima quality for a much
better flavor and aroma. Fatima is made and guaranteed by
Ligod and Myer's Tobacco Company. Try Fatima today. Here Frank
Sinatra as Rocky Fortune tonight on the NBC Radio Network
Speaker 4: Boo