Loading...
About this Episode
Step into the world of classic crime with "The Dragnet Collection." Featuring iconic radio episodes from the golden age of detective drama, this collection brings you the methodical investigations, sharp dialogue, and thrilling cases of Sergeant Joe Friday and his team. If you love true crime, classic noir, or vintage radio, this is a must-listen!
Hosts & Guests
Transcript
Ragnar.
Ladies and gentlemen, the story you're about to hear is true.
The names have been changed to protect the innocent.
You're a detective sergeant.
You're assigned a juvenile detail.
You get a call from Georgia Street receiving hospital.
A three-year-old child has been brought in.
Her condition is critical.
There's evidence of foul play.
Your job? Check it out.
It was certainly August 14th. It was warm in Los Angeles.
We're working the night. Watch out of juvenile detail.
My partner is Frank Smith. The boss is Captain Powers.
My name's Franky.
I was on my way back from detention cells.
It was 7.28 p.m. when I got to the second floor of Georgia Street, Julian.
Squad room.
Hi, how'd it go?
Those kids won't come to a thing.
What about the weapons? Only admit they had them and that's all.
Nothing about what they were going to do with them.
No.
I don't know, Joe.
Today, kids got a lot more than we ever had.
TV, cars, a lot of things.
Yeah.
Don't seem like they aren't happy unless they're figuring out how to beat somebody's brains out.
No, it doesn't go for all of them.
Well, enough to give us a headache.
Yeah.
I take those kids upstairs.
If they spend the same time doing something constructive,
if they do make them a zip-guns,
and saps it, they have something worthwhile, something worth remembering.
Well, maybe it'll work out the same way.
For me, they won't forget this.
Do you have an old Friday?
Yeah, Doc.
Once you come in.
Anybody with it?
Give me that again, wouldn't you?
Yeah, I got it.
Okay.
We'll check it.
That's right.
We'll get back to you later.
Thanks, Doc.
Bye.
It was Dr. Sebastian.
Yeah.
This brought a little girl into emergency, had convulsions.
Oh, she did?
Get on the rail.
Frank and I notified homicide division, and we left the office and go about to the address I'd gotten on the phone.
1784 Malabar Street was a small wooden house set on the back of the lot.
A dead oak tree in the front yard was overgrown with ivy.
Several broken and rusty children's toys were half-getting in the weeds near the front porch.
We rang the front doorbell.
Somebody ought to be home the lights are on.
Let's try it again.
Yes, I'm going to come in.
Uh-oh.
Yes?
Ms. Manson.
That's right.
Where do you want?
Police officers who like cars too.
Oh, we have to go through with all the kids.
Don't you think I feel bad enough?
We're sorry about you, ma'am.
There's some questions we have to ask you.
Oh, come in.
Sit down.
Thank you, thank you.
This is Frank Smith and my name is Friday.
How do you do him, Ms. Manson?
Hello.
You're the child's aunt, is that right?
Yeah, my mother's my sister.
And where's your mother?
I don't know.
I've been trying to get in touch with her.
Left message is all over town, but I guess she ain't got any of them.
The child stayed with you, did she?
Yeah.
Then, here, since she was six months old,
I feel like she was my own.
I got three kids myself, all boys.
Always one of the girls.
When Jones said I could have Melissa made me feel real good.
Like a daughter, my own, real good.
No, it didn't make any difference to Jones.
None at all.
Wasn't anything that mattered much to her.
I always thought Melissa was something that shouldn't have happened.
In the way, that's what she said.
Yes, ma'am.
In the way.
What happened to Susan?
What do you mean?
Well, you're the one who called the hospital, aren't you?
Yeah.
Susan said something wrong, called them.
What happened?
Well, this is Sunday.
Yeah.
Every Sunday morning, Jones comes by and picks up Melissa.
Picks it for the day.
Mm-hmm.
Just like always.
She was here this morning.
Yes, ma'am.
It's gonna be a big day.
She told the baby they were going up to the park to the zoo,
to see the animal.
Mm-hmm.
Oh, we...
We all sat around neat.
My kid's a baby and Jones, and kids want to get dressed.
Yeah.
After she was dressed, they left.
Don't Melissa.
Go to the zoo and the ride.
Real big day.
Real big.
Mm-hmm.
About six they came back.
That's the evening.
Yeah.
The clock.
Oh.
The baby.
They didn't look real good.
Kind of hot and fluffy.
Yeah.
I asked Jones if she'd given her a lot of junk.
She said, no, nothing better.
I heard her.
That's what she said.
Mm-hmm.
She came in the house and then she left.
Said she had an appointment that she couldn't be late.
Just dumped the baby inside the house and walked out.
I see.
I gave her a bath.
Thought it might make her feel better.
One little fever.
One bath supposed to bring down a temperature.
Mm-hmm.
Didn't.
Didn't do any good at all.
I asked her if she was hungry.
She said she was so well.
I gave her some dinner.
Had no more taking one bite and she had the first sip.
Mm-hmm.
Sitting right there at the table and she had it.
I didn't know what to do.
Never had nothing happen like that before.
I didn't know what to do.
Did you call a doctor?
Yeah.
We don't have a telephone.
So I went out the corner.
There's a booth at the gas station.
Yeah.
I didn't want to leave the baby alone.
But there wasn't any other way.
Nothing else I could do.
The doctor wasn't at home.
I left work trying to come right over and then I came back.
Then no sooner walk into the house and she had no other fit.
She scared me to death.
Poor little thing.
I could fish.
She was in pain.
Terrible pain.
There wasn't anything I could do for her.
I just couldn't wait anymore.
I went back and called the emergency hospital.
I asked him to send an ambulance.
Told him it was important to send somebody right away.
A couple minutes after that, the men got here and took her away.
Poor little thing.
Yes, ma'am.
She looked at me.
I asked him to stop the pain.
Began me almost tore my heart out of my chest to see her.
It's a little.
It was killing me.
Yes.
Every day when they got out of there,
they didn't even live long enough from the time they were not even long.
Yes, ma'am.
We know.
Just a baby.
Two years of machine death.
Just a tiny little baby.
Poor little thing.
A lot of people could die and it wouldn't make any difference.
No, she was beautiful.
She was beautiful.
She was beautiful.
I might die.
I might die.
Are you sure there's something we can get for him anymore?
No.
Nothing.
There's nothing we can help now.
Nothing at all.
Ma'am, has there been any history of this type of attack in your family?
Do you mean fifth?
Appalachia.
Anything of that nature?
No, there have been anything like that.
Well, now the child tells you that she felt sick.
We didn't have no idea that there was something wrong.
It was too late.
Did she complain of stomach cramps, remember?
No, she didn't.
What did you have for dinner?
Ground meat, tatus, the green beans.
Couldn't have been that meter sick.
We all ate the same thing.
The kids and me, none of us had any trouble.
Did your sister separate it from her husband?
Yeah, they hadn't been together for over a year.
Then that long, anyway, I suppose.
He's supposed to contribute support, but he doesn't.
Not a dime.
I see.
Did she provide support for the little girl?
She was the baby's mother, but that's as far as it went.
Tanned to count from a listen that landed in my lap.
Remember what she had rodeo with?
Joe didn't even come over and stare.
Just didn't care.
Mailed a little doll for the baby.
Guess that was supposed to make up for her mother not being there.
Can you tell us where we can contact your sister?
Sure.
Place over on Hewitt Street, got in the apartment there.
You have the address?
Yeah.
We're doing much good to go over there, though.
Why is that?
She probably ain't home.
Chances are she's out someplace running around having a good time.
I see.
Don't even know that baby's dead.
Hasn't got the slightest idea.
I will go and see her.
I hope you won't mind waiting for her to show up.
You're going to have to.
Probably wait a long time.
Yes, ma'am.
She don't care about the baby.
Never did.
Tell me a couple of times.
Just a rock around her neck.
Talked about how hard it was for her to get a husband with a kid.
All the time, how the baby was making it hard for her.
Oh, she ever thought about herself.
Didn't want anything to interfere with that.
Just herself.
She didn't care about the baby.
She didn't care at all.
She probably won't even talk to you.
I think she will.
Why should she?
No reason for it.
Even say it.
Yes, there is.
What?
We're trying to find out why the child died.
She just got sick, that's all.
Doesn't anything more to it?
Melissa just got sick.
You seem pretty sure about it.
Of course I am.
Couldn't be anything else.
You think it was anything else?
You think there was something wrong?
We don't know yet.
I'm going to talk to Joe and ask her.
And he longs Melissa to happen today.
She ought to be able to tell you.
Talk to her.
That's not what we'll do.
I hope it does you some good.
She surprised me a bit as she knows what had happened.
What's that?
She probably got an idea.
I wouldn't want her to know what I told you this.
Why me?
If there's something wrong with the way Melissa died,
if there is.
That's not.
And she surprised me if John killed her.
Frank and I left the house and drove over to the apartment on Hewitt Street.
The name of the mailbox read Joan Gaiman.
We rang a bell, but there was no answer.
We talked to the land lady and Mrs. Inet Fendon.
She told us that the Gaiman woman had left the place about 715
in the company of a man and she hadn't returned.
We asked her what she could tell us about this Gaiman.
It's kind of hard to say right off.
She's funny, you know how I mean?
Nothing.
Well, there's a lot of people who don't like her.
Lots of them.
I think she's kind of wild where she runs around, party and up.
You'll hear a lot of talk about her.
Got to kind of make up your own mind about it.
Mm-hmm.
Any idea where we can find her?
No.
Could be in half a dozen places.
She got on a run.
She's liable not to throw down for a couple days.
You know the man she's with?
Sorry.
I can't help you there.
I've seen him before.
It's not many times.
I don't think Joan goes out with him much.
Something wrong?
What?
Something happened to John?
No, ma'am.
Must be some reason you're nosing around.
And then you want to tell me?
It might be a little better if we talk to Ms. Gaiman.
So what you want?
I can apply to something don't concern me.
That's right.
Have you ever met Mrs. Gaiman's little girl?
You mean Melissa?
That's right.
Sure.
Don't be here several times.
Sunday, you know, Joan has a little girl.
How they seem to get along?
What?
Ms. Gaiman and their daughter.
How they get along?
Well, you said it yourself.
Melissa's her daughter.
Now.
What do you heard?
Huh?
Somebody's been talking about how Joan treats the kid?
Well, maybe you better tell her.
I don't want to get in no trouble.
You understand that?
No.
Well, I'd be down here watching the television.
Maybe don't mind them.
I'd hear Joan yell at the baby.
Wow.
She used words of kid shouldn't hear, not that young.
Of course not.
Of course not.
Those kind of words are ever good for a youngster.
But she or not for one only two years old.
Yeah.
Anyway, she'd yell for a while.
And it'd be quiet.
Yes, she hit the kid a couple times.
Things calm down.
Now do you know if Mrs. Gaiman ever hit her daughter?
Well, sure.
I saw it with my own eyes.
We had words about it.
Joan told me to mind my own business.
I had to keep my nose where it belonged.
I told me how Melissa was her kid.
And if she thought a slap would do some good, she was going to give it.
Mm-hmm.
She did.
Only a couple times they weren't slaps.
Mm-hmm.
Like this.
With a closed fist.
They're right along here.
Right above the ear.
A couple times in the face.
I saw the kid with a black eye myself, sure.
There's Mr. Gaiman, see his wife.
Not that I know.
He said a couple times that he doesn't.
I don't think she even knows where he is.
Kind of sad, you know?
Mm-hmm.
What happened?
That's how all the trouble started.
Mr. Gaiman.
Both of them used to live here when they got married.
Their stuff seemed pretty happy.
Didn't have no idea there was anything wrong.
Mm-hmm.
And when the baby was born, the trouble started.
Or long before the whole building knew about it.
Or there were a couple of people who had an idea before.
What's that?
About her.
Mm-hmm.
Oh, running around down the bar, drinking, talking with other men.
I'm not approved.
There have been anybody who would say that about me, nobody.
Mm-hmm.
But I just don't believe in married women doing it.
It's nothing.
That's what caused the trouble right now.
You just put it down to that.
Oh, why they had some big arguments.
Big ones.
Hear them all over the building.
All over the block, I guess, if he was listening.
Well, it wasn't long after that he walked out on it.
Left her flat for the baby.
That right up to move out.
Even took his photograph.
It's everything.
Don't think she's seen since.
Well, are they divorced, you know?
I don't know about that.
Sometimes she's talked about getting one.
I don't think she ever gone through with it.
No, she's planning on it.
Okay.
She wants to get married again.
Show me that a hundred times, because she wants to find a man and settle down.
Just about all she talks about.
Yes, the big problem is Melissa.
Mm-hmm.
Well, I know she's had the chance.
I know that for sure.
Mm-hmm.
A couple of men have even talked to me about it.
I don't know how they want to marry Joan.
They're not a home for her.
Oh, it comes back to the same thing.
What's that?
None of the men want her ready-made family.
They're all willing to have one of their own,
but it ain't easy for a woman with a two-year-old child.
Not easy at all.
Mm-hmm.
I know she thought a couple times about leaving the kid with a sister.
I've got a problem there, too.
Because they're always fighting about it.
You know what the argument's for about?
Sure.
Joan says she didn't think she was doing enough to support the kid.
You know, they get you out of head more money.
Any of these crimes that are good violence?
Yeah, I heard them upstairs yelling and screaming at each other.
Almost as bad as Joan and her husband.
Sisters saying that either she had to hand over more money
or else take Melissa out of the house.
Joan saying that she didn't care what happened to the kid.
Y'all and all over the place.
They're all willing to carry it on.
Mm-hmm.
They honest about it.
I don't think either one of them really wanted a little girl.
Neither one of them.
Well, it's been just as happy if she'd never been born.
Poor little kid.
One of them didn't try to put her in another home, you know.
Find some people who wanted her,
but giving her a chance to grow up being loved.
Don't try.
At least they could have done, given a little kid a chance.
Oh, I don't know.
Maybe some day Joan will wake up, realize what she's doing.
Mm-hmm.
May this be real.
Let's hope it's not too late.
In the company of the manager, Frank and I checked Joan Guyman's room.
There was no indication that she wasn't going to return.
We asked Ms. Fendon to notify us as soon as she heard from the guyman.
We returned to the office and checked with the crime lab.
They finished going over the child's clothing
and they hadn't found anything out of order.
We put on the call to the corner's office
and we talked to Chief Deputy Corner Vic Wallidge.
He told us that the autopsy would be held at 10 a.m.
the following morning that we should have the result by 11.
He went on to say that in his examination of Melissa Guyman,
he found several bruises on her neck and back.
However, he was unable to tell us if the blows
might have been strong enough to cause her death.
For all 16 a.m., we ran the name Joan Guyman and her sister through our night.
There was no record on the sister,
but we found that the Guyman woman had been arrested several times
in charges of 4127A.
The rest of the night was spent in checking out the place
that she was known to a frequently.
An attempt was made to find her husband without result.
The next day, Frank and I met in the squad room early
to put through a call to the corner's office.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
What about the bruises?
I see.
How long is that going to take?
Right.
We won't keep in touch again.
Okay.
Bye.
How about it?
They finished.
What's the cause of that?
They're still not sure.
What do you mean?
They think she might have been poisoned.
The autopsy had failed to show the cause of death of Melissa Guyman.
Further tests were to be conducted.
In the meantime, the search for her mother continued.
A check with a lamb that he showed the victim's mother
hadn't returned to her home during the night.
We contacted her sister, but she told us she hadn't heard from Joan Guyman.
The afternoon papers carried a story on the little girl's death.
Frank and I checked with Sergeant Jay Allen again,
but he hadn't come up with anything new.
3.20 p.m.
You want to go out and see if the sister?
I don't think it's going to do much good.
She said she'd call if she heard anything.
Yeah.
I guess.
You have a little sweat.
Yeah, that's right.
Mm-hmm.
There we have.
Where are you?
All right, stay right there.
That's right.
Huh?
It goes with canned.
Joan Guyman.
She.
Bar down on East Fifth.
Do you know about the little girl?
Yeah.
I want to see it.
It's right away.
I want to make you see them.
She's got more of a reason.
Mm-hmm.
So she killed her daughter.
Frank and I left the city hall and drove over to the bar.
When we walked into the place that appeared to be deserted,
the bartender told us there was a woman answering the description we gave him
in one of the near boots.
Joan Guyman was in her late 20s, but she looked at least 40.
She'd been drinking heavily and she'd been crying.
Oh, yeah.
Somebody look before.
You miss Guyman?
That's right.
Who are you?
Police officers.
Frank Smith, my name is Friday.
Yeah.
I know you'd be here.
I know.
Good.
Why don't you sit right down and make yourself comfortable?
What are your thoughts I talked to?
They talked to me.
Yeah.
Well, you know why I shoot from down here.
You want to tell us about it?
No.
How's that?
You asked me if I wanted to talk about it.
Well, I don't.
I want to think about it.
I wish it never happened.
All right.
You probably think it's funny.
I'm not crying, don't you?
Don't you?
You think there's something wrong with me?
Maybe it was death and I'm not crying?
Well, do you want to know why?
Do you want to know?
Why don't you tell us, lady?
Because I ain't no tears left.
I'm not a single one.
I'm all cried out.
That's why.
You better put that down.
You better not put that down.
I think I'll have a lot more.
A lot more.
You said you killed your little girl, is that right?
That's right.
We'll tell us about it with you.
No reason not to.
No reason for anything anymore.
All right, go ahead.
I killed her.
I killed her.
It's like I'd put a gun up to her head.
I killed her.
Is this the same?
Go ahead.
Oh, poor little kid.
She don't want much.
Hardly anything.
One of those dolls with the hair you can wave.
That's all.
The doll was curly hair and her mother.
She got the doll.
I gave it to her yesterday.
When we came back from the zoo,
she said she was happy.
She was happy.
Another thing I wouldn't give her.
No mother.
Poor little kid.
She doesn't have no mother.
Just made us all this way.
Yeah.
This side, did it?
What's that?
I killed her.
If I'd been her mother and kept her with me,
it'd never have happened.
She'd be all right now.
I'm neglect.
That's what did it.
I'm neglect.
And I gave it to her.
I never paid no attention to her.
All the time.
Too busy with what I was doing.
I paid attention to her.
I paid no attention to her.
All right, come on, lady.
Where are we going?
Downtown.
I think we'll be able to talk better there.
Oh, I know I'm going in place.
I'm going to stay right here.
Why are babies dead?
Poor little kid didn't have no mother.
Why don't you just go away and leave me alone?
You know we can't do that.
Why not?
There were a lot of something that says you got to harm people
that what you're doing.
Right.
Yeah.
No.
You and me alone got the right to do this to me.
But I can't do it.
Come on back here and do it all.
Come on.
Don't cause me more trouble.
If you were a gentleman, you wouldn't do this to me.
You were a lady we wouldn't have to.
We took the woman back to the city hall.
After several cups of hot coffee, she straightened out
enough to give us a story.
She went over each step of the previous day,
naming all the places she and her daughter had gone
and all of the food's eaten.
There was no apparent cause for the child's death.
Intense.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
There was no apparent cause for the child's death.
In talking to her, we found that the child was wearing
different clothing when she was brought to the hospital.
Frank and I drove out to Mrs. Diamond's sister's home
and picked up the dress and the coat the little girl had worn.
It was turned over to the crime lab, 215 PM.
You know, Friday.
Yeah.
I don't know.
We'll have to check it.
Right.
Yeah.
Soon we know.
Right.
Right pink roll with the lamb.
Yeah.
And she's going over the little girl's dress.
Find me, huh?
And a couple of stains.
Yeah.
Traces of poison.
Along with the crew from the crime lab,
Frank and Mrs. Diamond and I went back to her apartment
where a thorough search was started.
From the analysis of the stains found on the child's dress,
Sergeant Jay Allen said the death might have been caused
by my new quantities of poison in another fluid.
While he and his crew went over the apartment,
Frank and I talked to Mrs. Diamond.
Couldn't be anything here.
Where's the child alone at all yesterday?
No, I don't think so.
We went to the zoo and came back here.
We gave her the doll and we played with that for a while.
Did you leave the apartment at all?
Yeah.
Now the coroner to make a phone call,
only gone a couple minutes.
Your daughter was here alone.
Oh, yes, but she couldn't have gotten into anything.
I was only gone a little while.
Still playing with the doll when I got back.
Mrs. Diamond, our crime lab seems to think
she might have been poisoned by some sort of polish.
Well, what do you mean?
Looks like a metal polish is sometimes.
I don't have any of that in the house.
You're sure?
Certainly.
I don't know my play.
I have to tear everything up like this.
And I'll be straightened out.
I hope so.
It's like there's never going to be an M to it.
Joe?
Yeah, okay.
See you then.
What do you got?
I think this is where we found out the kitchen under the sink.
Metal polish.
Yeah.
It isn't one of the standard brands.
Certainly it's one of the off-brands either.
I've never seen it before.
Well, the bottle's almost empty.
The cap was off and we found it.
Did he catch it?
Might have spilled out.
No, it doesn't look like it.
It's not on the floor around the bottle.
You want to come out in the kitchen?
We'll check up the prints.
They got the kit out there.
Can we tell for sure, Jay?
No, we can get an idea though.
There, Joe.
It's coming through.
You see there?
No.
What do you think?
After all the child's prints to be sure,
it looks like it though.
The things are pretty small.
You can see yourself.
Pretty tiny.
I know.
I mean, it doesn't.
I know.
I'm a thank you.
They find.
You know what happened?
We think so, yeah.
How?
We found an empty bottle of metal polish in the kitchen.
Looks like your daughter drank something.
She couldn't have.
I was with her all the time.
She couldn't have gotten to it.
You said you left her alone.
Not that long.
She didn't have time.
It was only gone a couple of minutes.
That's all.
It's a couple of minutes.
That was long enough.
It's not true.
Just making it up.
Trying to make it all my fault.
No, ma'am.
Yes, you are.
You're trying to make out I did kill her.
You're saying it's my fault.
Well, it isn't.
Well, then you tell us.
So?
Who's fault is it?
The story you've just heard is true.
The names were changed to protect the innocent.
On August 18th, an inquest was held in the coroner's office
in and full the county of Los Angeles state of California.
After examining all the evidence,
a coroner's jury decided that the death of Melissa June Geiman
was due to accidental poisoning.
You have just heard dragnet,
the authentic story of your police force in action,
and starring Jack Webb,
a presentation of the United States Armed Forces Radio Service.
.
.
.
.
