Dragnet - Garbage Chute

Ladies and gentlemen, the story you're about to hear is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent. Fatima cigarettes, best of all long cigarettes, brings you dragged meat.

You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned a homicide detail. A young woman has been murdered. The body was discovered behind locked doors. The assassin is too large. Your job, find him.

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Traignets. The documented drama of an actual crime. For the next 30 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 from official police files. From beginning to end, from crime to punishment, dragnet is the story of your police force in action.

It was Tuesday, January 9th, the stormy in Los Angeles. We were working a day watch out a homicide detail by partners Ben Romero, my name is Friday. I was on the way to work in 6.45 a.m. when I got to the steps of the city hall, the main street entrance.

Hey Joe, wait up.

Morning, Ben.

What did they call you? 5.00 a.m. Don't know who called you here.

Missed him while out in there.

Pretty well.

It's been a so full of work. See the time for it then?

Yeah, new chief of detectives. Wait a minute, I want to get some gum.

I can spare a minute.

You know, I heard about the new chief. Bad brown. Good man.

Is that him?

Thank you.

I always said, make up the minds but our shift. Work days and call you back tonight. Work nights and call you back days.

Once putting for a desk job. We never have to call you back here all the time. He's just tired to please. No, yeah.

Thanks, you can.

It's a great way to start off as your new chief. Call you back on a rotten morning like this.

We're glad you got the job, Ben. Now, congratulations, Chief.

It's hard to follow men like Ed Beckstramp. Gonna meet your help.

You got it.

Laura Barclay was the dead body report nightclub entertainer.

Nightbody found the body an hour ago. Who's covered?

Burton and Anderson, they're out there now.

The lamp cord still turned a figure out how the guy got in the house.

Doors and windows all locked.

Where? The tech.

For now, yeah. I just came from there. I think there's more.

Any reason? Her room wasn't proud.

Yeah. Just a hunch. Play it for me.

Ben and I left that Brown's office picked up Lieutenant Lee Jones at the crime where I have been drove to the West Adams District.

Number 16 Imperial place where the body of Laura Barclay had been found.

It was an ornate crane structure done in Victorian style at least 30 to 40 years old.

Number 16 was on the ground floor. We went in.

A narrow hallway led to the bedroom in the rear of the house.

Two gas jet fixtures which had been converted to electricity were the only elimination.

This place has seen better day.

Anybody else coming out Lee?

I see flash bulbs down there. They must be here already.

The turret is ready. Down this way.

Hi, Burton.

The target was covering the body position. Peterson's dusty for French.

Fred, shoot a couple of overheads. Don't make them all angle shots. Get up high and then move in close.

The chief was right. Room's in pretty good order.

Did you talk to anybody, Burton?

Land lady lives upstairs. Only two people living in a building.

Did you tell you anything?

Said the Barclay girl paid a rent on time. Good tenant.

Plays the organic blue fox cocktail line.

Any idea how the murder got in here?

Not yet. Every door and window in the place is locked.

Anything else? That's it so far.

We'll give you 15.7 and what we got.

Okay, Lloyd. You and Anderson have another detail?

Yeah, I'm working on that westwood thing.

It's too uniform and outside if you want anything.

Thanks. Looks like a tough one, Joe.

Where we did it much to come in through the keyhole.

I'll see you later.

Slow way.

Andy, stop.

He doesn't know the best thing for Prince. Nothing yet.

Only piece of physical evidence so far.

The lamp court she was strangled with.

I'll run it through downtown.

Not as silent as trouble. Maybe she wanted to die.

Check the bathroom, will you then?

Talk around the kitchen.

Hey, Peter, if you're just of the ranch here.

Not there. Not this way, right?

I'm going to shoot at it.

Ben, come here a minute, will you? Ben.

Yeah?

Come in the kitchen, will you?

You got a pencil?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, here you are.

Take a look at this garbage sheet here.

Let me see.

About eight feet to the ground.

Yeah, big enough for a man to get through.

Oh, yeah.

Man, no problem.

Lee.

I'll be right there.

It could be the antidote.

We either got in this way or he was in the house when she came home.

What do you got?

A garbage sheet here.

What do you think?

It could be.

Let me grab a kit.

Let's see.

A little bit of powder in there.

There it is.

No.

Nothing on the outside of the lid.

Look pretty clean.

Must have just been scrubbed abrasions here.

Got a pencil?

Here, here, again.

Hold it up, David.

Yeah, mm-hmm.

Yeah.

There we go.

Large prints.

Unusually large.

Big hands.

Can I look inside the shoota minute?

Go ahead.

Watch out the lid.

Yeah, well.

Looks like it's blocked off upstairs.

This thing hasn't been used for garbage for some time.

Most of them are condemned for years back.

I'll get fed to shoot these.

Let's go in the living room.

At Desmond Dustedly?

Yeah, it's clean.

Go ahead.

Take a look, Joe.

There.

Forty graphs.

Hmm.

Hundreds of them.

All men.

They have.

All different.

We, Jones and the crime lab,

threw funny stuff and went back to central division.

Two uniformed officers remained on duty

at the scene of the crimes.

That brown had men sent out to canvas the neighborhood.

Ben and I went upstairs and talked with a land lady.

A Mrs. Emma Smith.

Yeah.

Police officers.

You miss me?

Yes.

You're not the same officers I've talked with before.

No, ma'am.

What if we could ask you a few questions?

I've told you.

The other officers, everything I knew.

We have to double check, Mrs. Emma?

Who was the girl who lived in the apartment in 16th?

Laura Barkley.

Is that the name she used?

The mail she received?

Was it the dress that way?

Yes, it was.

She was a very good tenant longer.

No trouble with her at all.

When did she move here?

About four or five years ago.

I have the rent receipts.

I always sleep.

I always save receipts did you always live by yourself? Oh yes that apartment

rents to one person only. Did she have many visitors friends dropping in?

Then that I ever saw pretty much to herself Laura when then came yesterday and took away

what's that man? The organ electric one Laura rented it from a big downtown

turn used to practice all the time my it was beautiful in the gloaming she used to

play that for me. Mrs. Smith when did the man come and take the organ away?

Yesterday in that noon about 430. Was Miss Barclay at home when they came? No she wasn't she left

me a note to let the man so I left the man I never allowing one in the apartment

without a note. You know the name of the company where she went to the organ? The

brain years it was called down on South Spring. Well didn't you think it was unusual at

Miss Barclay? Didn't have any friends? Now officer I didn't say Laura didn't have any

friends what I said was that she didn't have any friends who came to see her here she

moved here from a hotel for women that's the reference she gave me. I'll see I wonder if

you could give us the address of that hotel please. Go right it down for you. Thank you.

I'm Miss Smith did you hear any unusual sounds in Miss Barclay's flat last night? Anything

out of the ordinary? If I had I would have called the police and

me to save the girl's life. No thank you very much Miss Smith here's a call. There's

anything you think of after you've gone don't hesitate to call. Thank you I will. I hope

you get the dirty men who killed Laura. Well we didn't say it was a man Miss Smith. Well

isn't it all? Where's the night? Before we left Miss Smith we asked her

about the garbage here. She said it had not been in use for the last four years. We

showed her the stack of photos she could identify none of them. We drove back to

Central Division we checked Brazier's music store. The two men who moved the

organ were checked out and cleared. We went to the win hotel for young

ladies make it tell us nothing Laura Barclay's references were all good. We went

back to the office and met with Chief of Detective Stad Brown. You think he got

names with the garbage. That's where it looks to you. Went all over the

apartment if there's another way we haven't found it. All right you know I got

in who is it? We got out an APB on his ammo light and fingerprints and making a

run of those prints we found. We got an idea about these pictures here. Most

of them theatrical still show people. Frank LaTour and his Kenan circus to Laura

all my love Frank. I think what you do here's a guy I check with this morning. Bernard

Caribbean theatrical booking agent. Yeah Barney's office is down in the

orphan building. He can hill. He booked her into the blue fox. See what he can

tell you. All right. I'm glad to pick you up. Well yeah. Well you got more

than you started with. Yeah those fingerprints making a make on them will be

close to the guy. So was the Barclay girl but he got away.

I wonder if we could see Mr. Caribbean. Who's calling please? Sergeant

Romano and Sergeant Friday police officers. One moment please. That's it. Two police

officers to see Mr. Caribbean Sergeant Friday and Sergeant Romero is that right?

Yes ma'am. Send them in. Go right in. Thank you.

When they rose the roses bust through the snow. I'll be coming home again.

When then General Sherman tanks are covered with ice. I'll be home for good and

want that thing. No. This guy's stuff is cold.

Sit down. Thank you. Can I help you? Let me say that you booked Laura Barclay.

Yeah that's right. I spoke with a fellow's name right here. She's fat down. That's

right. He asked me about Laura. Too bad about that. And he closed. We're working

on it Mr. Caribbean. That makes a person pull a stunt like that. Lord

didn't have no enemies. She had one. Well I don't know much about it except I've

been booking her for about four years. Good ordinance. Pretty far boys too. Cut

some pictures here. I only could take a look at them. Yeah sure. Quite a

stack. Yeah well Frankie let's learn that dog's great act. I book him. Ricky

Rogan King of the tap. Got Sauron Oco and that singing seal of his. Yeah I know

all these people. I book him off. Laura Barclay worked with all these people. One

time another yeah. Doing a war USO camp shows you know. Do you know where

she was close to any of them? Well come to think of it she was. That

Frankie Latour crazy about them dogs he is. No I mean the men themselves. Anybody

that you seem particularly interested in. Never heard of mention anybody. Pretty

girl. Did you know a very well Miss Groovy? Only once she came in and I

found a town on an engagement. I'm a married man. Well and you don't think there's

anything to these pictures here at hers. Well I wouldn't say so. When you're on the

road you always collect photos of the people you work with. So the nearest. Well

thank you very much Mr. Corrubian. Here's our card. You bet you. I sure hope you

catch the guys. What do I you picked on Laura? Sometimes they don't have a reason.

When they left Bernard Corrubian's office we checked by the blue Fox cocktail

lounge. It was still early. The sign said open 5 p.m. It was 3.15. We went to

the morgue in the basement of the Hall of Justice and looked at the corner's

report. The autopsy report stated that the cause of death for Laura Barclay

was strangulation. We went to the second floor of the old city jail building. The

crime lab. Nothing of the lamp called standard URL 110 line by anywhere. No

prints. How about the shielding? When back down rechecked you were right. The guy

got in through the garbage shoot. I'm more of the same prints along with some

clothed impressions in the dust. Tell me anything. The guy was wearing some kind of

tweed on the gole 15 to the inch. How about the size of a manly? How big could he

be to clear that shoot? It had a 20 inch diameter almost any man could squeeze

through that. Check the ground level of the shoot cement no footprints. You don't

have too much for it. I got one thing for you. What's that? I think I have found

you noted. Not the one listed on the report. Here are the blowups of the body. It's

36x54 here. Hold that in. Look through this magnifying glass here. The right hand.

See where I'm pointing? Ring finger. Yeah. Look like room mark. That's right. Pretty wide.

Must have been good sightings. I might still be in that room. I called that brown. He

had the room rechecked. No sign. You think we got a burglary by our hand? That's my

guess. Dad had the voice check with the land lady. She didn't know anything about

any rings of a broccoli girl might have had. That doesn't help. I think I got something

else here. That's very rough. There are cards in one of the pockets inside checked out

from the LA public lightberry main branch. I think these might be your lead on the missing

rings. Lightberry and Caesar persons hands every time they checked out a book. That makes

sense. We'll play it that way. What department were the books checked out of the music room?

Well, it's it. I think you've got your motive now on a good set of prints. You're close.

Thanks a lot. Well, let's go to the library, Ben. I'll get it.

Frank, Rob. No, this is Friday. Oh, thanks, Frank. We got some motive. How do you mean?

I'll make on those fingerprints. Nothing.

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430pm Tuesday January 9th heavy rain. Laura Barclay's murderer was still a free man. Ben and

I were sure that whoever left their fingerprints on the inside of that garbage tube was the same

man who murdered the Barclay girl. He had no previous record. His first crime as far as

we knew was a killing and the odds were all in his favor. The fingerprints gave us nothing.

All we had left to lead us to the killer were three library books and a stack of old theatrical

photos. The solution of most crimes for the working detectives is method and persistence. When

you have clues, you work with them. When you don't, you work your way to a logical conclusion

as best you can. We went to the Los Angeles Public Library, the main branch. The librarians

in the music room handle thousands of readers every week. None of them remembered Laura Barclay.

We drove over to the Blue Fox cocktail lounge. We interviewed the manager and he knew nothing

of her personal life. We talked to Harry Schumann and the organist who had taken Laura Barclay's

place. What would you like to hear, fellas? Police officers like to talk to you, man.

But Laura, yeah, Fred. All right, if I keep on playing, the manager wants full 15 minutes sets.

Go ahead, that's all right. What can I tell you? How long have you known Ms. Barclay?

Oh, four or five years. Terrible thing. We got to get to where we did it.

Yeah, we're going to try. Can you think of anybody that might have killed her?

I know, you ask that question of everybody. I don't know. Does anybody ever know for sure?

Sometimes. Well, I don't know. When you think of a person, you never think to my murder.

Maybe you might know a few things about it that you could fill us in on.

I'll try. She went for jewelry much, rings, things like that.

Funny you should ask that. She was nuts for it. It's good things. Rings had a couple of

beauties. Diamonds, they were big stones, cost 4,000. I know she used to put most of her money

into those rings. She'd buy them on time? Yeah. I remember one night she was overjoyed.

The night she paid them off cost a lot of dough. Can you describe those rings for us?

Not too good. I can give you the name of the jewelers she bought them from. That'll do.

Do you know anybody else that we might talk to? I don't know any of her friends. She was

an only child. No living relatives that I know of. How about her landlady?

Yeah. I guess that's it, Harry. Thank you. For what? I wish I could help more.

If everybody had your attitude, we'd be out of a job.

Before we left the blue box, Harry Schumann gave us the address of Laura Barclay's

jeweler. The next morning we checked with a manager of the store and he gave us a complete

description of the two diamond rings which the dead girl had purchased. They were valued at

$4,000. He gave us detailed drawings of the rings. We went back to the office,

gave the information to Burgary detail. And all points bulletin was put out describing them.

Pawn shops throughout the city and state were alerted to watch for the stolen rings.

We had lunch with Chief Bad Brown at Costa's company.

Never mind, Omar. I'll get it.

Hmm. Thank you, Chief. I'll get the tip.

Still was good.

Have some change with the cigarette machine.

Thanks. Did he take rest, Joe? No, no thanks, thank you.

Let's go.

What do you think, Sam?

The description of the rings and the emotion helps. He didn't turn up.

Good chance he's holding on to him.

Could be his first job, probably scared.

Anybody check back over the neighborhood there?

This is the afternoon and this morning, not a door to ourselves with a district called

and checked out. It's a dead end, not where. Only those friends have checked out.

Well, they didn't. They had a kickback from Bradets and Sacramento and his MO.

No make. We'll have to get him with what we've got.

Here's the car.

Should we have picked up all the loose ends?

Well, we've been back over the course three times.

Go over it again. Keep going over it until something breaks.

For the next ten days, we retraced our steps.

From the room where the crime was committed throughout the neighborhood to the place where she worked,

back to the same dead end.

Ben and I checked and double checked each other to make certain that neither of us had overlooked

even the smallest detail of the investigation. We've got no place.

There's 8 a.m. January 19th.

I'm aside, Friday.

There's some rubles in Burberry Joe.

Yeah, Dick.

Got something for you.

John Pull last night.

Couple of watches, stranded pearls.

How do we figure in it?

Is MO?

Yeah.

Can I get in for the garbage suit?

Besides fingerprints and photographs, one other marked by which the unknown criminal

has identified is by his method of operation, his MO.

Once a thief finds a successful means of operation, he seldom changes it.

In our search for Laura Barclay's murderer, we had checked our files and found no criminals at large

whose practice it was to gain entrance to a garbage suit.

It was reasonably safe to assume that this was the same man.

It was 2 p.m. January 23rd.

I was on my way back from the record, girl.

Just had a call, Joe.

I'm a Radcliffe informant.

Yeah.

Since two days ago, he heard about some guy who was making the run,

he's trying to peddle a couple of diamond rings.

Same ones.

And he's not sure.

Doesn't know what the guy looks like.

Any idea where the guy is now?

Has never been around since.

Told him to keep his eyes open.

That's good.

Come in here, you two.

What do you got, then?

The port just came down from Burberry.

Pond shopped down on North Main, took on a watch and stranded pearls last night.

Yeah.

Same stuff that Rugal's called you about.

Yeah, I remember.

Where's it dying?

Same guy tried to peddle a couple of diamond rings.

10 a.m. January 25th.

Fat brown arranged to have all pawn shop detail calls concerning a suspect,

put through to us on extension 2521, homicide.

Five days passed.

No further work.

Homicide, Friday.

This is George Roach.

Ever in the upper pawn shop, second in May?

Yeah, what's the matter?

Man in the air, trying to turn those diamond rings.

Once in the stall and property list, we can't talk now.

Stall them, we'll be right down.

Come on, man, move it.

Yeah?

The next corner.

There it is.

Just up the floor.

Pull up.

All right, let's go.

Hell.

Here we are.

Hey, tell us. Look how joy's got to go.

All right, Joe?

Yeah, out the back way.

Let's get him.

There he goes, up there.

Can you hit him?

He didn't stop him.

Watch it.

Come on, Joe.

He's turning on the spring.

He ran into that cafeteria.

Oh, it's true.

Come on, let's run.

Where'd he go, Steve?

Yeah, there he goes.

He's headed for the kitchen.

Come on.

Stop that, man.

Stop it, man.

Up the back door into the alley.

There he goes.

That's been...

All right, Joe, stop.

He's not stopping.

Stay clear.

He's done.

All right, come on.

All right, get his guns here.

He got him in the leg, Joe.

Hit his head when you fail.

All right, snap him on.

Huh.

Look on the little thing of his right here.

Two diamond rings.

Yeah, it doesn't make sense, does it?

What's that?

$4,000 with the diamonds and he's laying on a pile of garbage.

The story you have just heard was true.

Only the names were changed to protect the innocent.

On April 2nd, 1947, trial was held in Superior Court

Department 81, city and county of Los Angeles, state of California.

In a moment, the results of that trial.

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Lola Barclay's murderer was identified as Martin Eric Swanson.

He was tried and convicted of murder in the first degree.

His case was fought through the Supreme Court of California

and in the United States Supreme Court.

In both instances, his conviction was upheld.

Last Friday morning after a delay of five years,

Martin Eric Swanson was executed in the lethal gas chamber at the state penitentiary.

You have just heard Greg Nets, a new series of authentic cases from official files.

Technical advice for Greg Nets comes from the office of acting chief of police

W.A. Wharton's Los Angeles Police Department.

Greg Nets honors the city of Youngstown, state of Ohio,

and the men who make up the Youngstown Police Department,

another of America's great law enforcement agencies.

One of these men, chief of police Edward J. Allen,

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Listen to Dragnet next week and be sure to hear Morton Donny tonight on NBC.