 Ladies and gentlemen, the story you're about to hear is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent. Dragmint. You're assigned a robbery detail. In the past five weeks, an unidentified holdup man has robbed 12 drugstores. He's taken money and narcotics. There's no lead to who he is or where he is. Your job, find him. It was Tuesday, March 16th. It was warm in Los Angeles. We were working the day watch out a robbery detail. My partner's Frank Smith. The boss is Chief of Detective Stad Brown. My name's Friday. We were on our way out from the office, and it was 9.36 a.m. when we got to the corner of Boulevard Boulevard in Westmoreland. The Tishner drugstore. In the back. No. Something you want? Yes, sir. We'd like to see Harry Tishner. Hey, I'm him. Police officers. This is Frank Smith. My name's Friday. How are you doing, sir? About the robbery, huh? Would you like to tell us what happened? I was robbed. We'd just like you to tell us how. Oh, now I'm with you. Yeah, I'm right with you. Let's go back and sit down. You have to tell the story, and time just melts away. Yes, sir. I'll be comfortable while we all fall out. Yes, sir. Is this all right here? Yeah. Like a phosphate or something? No, sir, no. No, thanks, sir. Okay. And let's quit all this fooling around and get out of business. Want me to tell you about the holdup? Yes, sir, we'd like that. Good, good. That's just what I'm going to do. Aren't you going to take anything down, right? Well, yes, sir, as soon as you tell us the story, now, if you'd like to start it. Well, it came in about eight. That was this morning? Yes. Just walked right in the door, came back to the prescription counter and stood there. Mm-hmm. Had this little piece of paper in his hand. I figured it was from a doctor, you know, prescribed medicine. Yes, sir. Was it? Well, go ahead. What was it? A note written on there like this. This is a stick up. Don't make any noise. It was a note, huh? Just pushed the note across the counter. I didn't have to have anybody push me off a cliff to know what was going on. No, sir. I was being robbed. Yes, sir. You want to go ahead? Well, after he showed me the note, he kind of pushed me back into the little room at the rear of the store. You know, kind of store place. Now, did he say anything to you at all? Not a word, just pointed with that gun for me to get into the back room. I went. I see. What happened then? He pushed me down to the floor and then tied my hands and feet. What do you use? You mean to tie me up? Yes, sir. Rope? Oh. Well, did he bring it into the store with him? No, sir. He picked it up in household on his way back to the prescription counter. I see. Go ahead, please. As soon as we got to the store room, he took off the label and then undid the rope. He made a loop and put it around my feet. Next thing I knew, I was all trussed up and rolled the ropes ready for the oven. I see. I'll say one thing for the guy, though. What's that? He's very neat. He tied good knots. Yes, sir. Other officers, the ones in the black and white car, you know. Yes, sir. Them. Yeah, what about them? Oh, yeah. Well, they took the ropes with them. He said something about taking them to a laboratory. Mm-hmm. Well, you can see if you want to. It was very neat. Yes, sir. What happened after the ban to tie Jeff? Rob me. You personally? Yes, personally and otherwise. Well, sir, would you please tell us? Well, first off, he went to the safe and took the tin box out, opened it right up and took the money. Is that all he stole from the cash box? Yeah. I had some government bonds in there, but he didn't take those. Mm-hmm. Guess he knew they wouldn't do him any good. All right, sir. He didn't take them, took the money, but didn't take the government bonds. According to what you told the officers this morning, the thief took a supply of narcotics, too. Is that correct? He was in the safe, too. Well, now, after he finished with the safe, what happened? He left. He walked out of the place. He just handled right out. During the time he was in the store, he didn't say anything at all. Is that all right? Did anybody else come in while he was here? You mean like a customer? Yes. No. Oh, excuse me. That might be our office, Mr. Tishner. We left this number. Okay. If it is, I'll tell you. Thank you. Tishner drugs. Uh-huh. Oh, yeah, Mrs. Cantwelly. Uh-huh. No, shouldn't be. Uh-huh. No, I can't do that. If you have your doctor called me, I'll make it up and send it over. Yeah. No, no, not without a prescription. Uh-huh. Okay. Well, I'll call you when it's ready then and you can send Lanny over. Right. Bye, Mrs. Cantwelly. Huh? Oh, well, if that's the way you feel, I won't. Oh, sure. Okay. Goodbye. You know, I can't imagine why she'd say a thing like that. Just no reason at all. Sir? Mrs. Cantwelly told me when her son comes over to get the prescription not to give him any candy. Oh, I see. I usually throw in a licorice after, though. Uh-huh. Don't want me to do it. That's too bad. Yes, sir. I wonder if we can go ahead with the description. Sure. I guess so. Well, now, from what you told the investigating officers, the man's about 35 to 38. Mm-hmm. Light and color, 5 feet 10, 175 pounds, no visible marks or scars. Is that right? Well, I guess that's pretty close. Well, if there's anything different, we'd appreciate you telling us now. No, not with you. Because I can't understand why Mrs. Cantwelly would say a thing like that. It's that penny-lickish whip. A little bitty thing. Yes, sir. We understand. Like that. Couldn't hurt anybody. Yes, sir. Would you be able to identify the hold-up man if you saw him again? Oh, yeah, no trouble. I'd know it. He'd never say a thing like that. Sir. The fellow who robbed me. What do you mean? Oh, on the way out, the way I was laying, I saw him stop right up there with a can in magazine, stopped dead in his tracks. He went over and helped himself. Mm-hmm. Took the top off and helped himself a handful. Sure must like him. What was that, sir? Lickish whips. Just reached into the jar into the handful. After that, he left. Is that right? Yeah. As soon as he put his gloves back on. What was that? Couldn't work the top of the jar with a glove, so he took them off. Now, use his bare hands. 10.02 a.m., Frank put in a call to Harlan Stahl on latent fingerprints. We asked him to come out and go over the glass candy jar. While we waited for him, Frank and I checked the list of stolen narcotics with the drugist, Harry Tishner. We also made arrangements for him to come downtown and look through the mug books. When the glass candy jar was checked, Harlan Stahl was able to come up with two partial prints. They were enough for comparison, but not for identification. 11.15 a.m., Frank and I left the store and spent the rest of the afternoon checking out the list of names we'd gotten from the stats office. Several of the possibles looked good, but after each one of them was investigated, we still didn't have a suspect in custody. Wednesday morning, March 17th, at 8.06 a.m., Frank and I met in the squad room. Good morning, Joe. Hi. I tried to call you this morning. I thought maybe you'd want to stop and have some breakfast. I'll have to house Harlan, huh? Did you check the book? Yeah. Anything? I'm a skipper once, doctor. I figured that'd happen. Is he in now? Yeah. Come on, let's get it over with. I'm going to try and line it up this afternoon. Yeah, I'll call you back. Mm-hmm. Yeah, they're here right now. Bye. Do you want to see us, Captain? Yeah, come in, sir. Going in, I won't tell you who's on my back about this thing, and you don't give me any excuses, right? Uh-huh. Where are you? Still in front of the first store. That's how long it go? It's been five weeks. What do you know about it? WMA. Description. Clothes. Match on all the jobs? Close enough so we know it's the same guy. Okay, what else? He uses a stolen car to get to the store. He drives it away. He isn't too careful to hide the license plate. We've been able to come up with three out of the five. Check the cars out? Yeah. Clean. Not a print on them. Nothing else. Picked up something yesterday. I should help him. What's that? I'll start a list with a couple of partials from a candy jar. That'll be enough for comparison. Can't make the suspect on the line. No, it's not enough to classify. What about the narcotics he's taking? Show up any place? No, not that we can find. We've been down all the alleys. There's nothing there. There's a rally. Hop Squad's got nothing on it. If none of it's showing up, then it could mean he's using his stuff himself. That's what we got figured. How about the stats office? They spend much more time down there. They're going to put us to work with the machines. Informants? They've given us smiles. That's about all. You think they're holy? No. Come over here. Take a look at the map. The way he's picking the place is he's set up a pretty definite operating schedule. Here, Venice Boulevard, Kingsley Drive, Western Adams, Washington, the rest of them. They're all grouping this area. Yeah. I figure he's going to keep working in the vicinity until he hits them all. Then maybe he'll move on to something else. Might help if we could come up with a reason that he's working there. Anything you can come up with, it's got to help. Yeah, we know. It's true that he's been using the narcotics himself. It's just a matter of time before we hand this one over to Homicide. He's going to walk into the store. Somebody's going to give him trouble if he's underneath. He isn't going to take it. Yeah. So it adds up to a big stop in the past. Well, if we work the area, it's going to take a lot of men, you know? We'll get them. I've talked to Stoner. He's taken care of all the help you need from here. There'll be four teams available. You can call Metro Division for whatever else you need. All right. We'll set it up for the night, then. Check with communications. Make sure you get to three ways working. Right. This guy's been pressing his luck for a long time. Yeah. I'm bound to run short on it sometime. Robert, are you done at home? Yeah. When? Okay, we'll take care of it. Looks like you just got partners. What do you mean? Your boy just made a 13. Drugs are out on Pico. Yeah. They don't expect a victim to live. I left the office and drove over to Georgia Street receiving hospital. We talked with the officer on duty. He told us that the victim's name was George Raylor. He owned a small neighborhood drugstore at the corner of Pico Boulevard and Vineyard Avenue. He went on to say that he didn't have all of the particulars of the beating, but that it had occurred during the commission of a robbery. We talked to Dr. Sebastian. He told us that the elderly man was suffering from a fractured skull, broken ribs, and possible internal injuries. He added that from Raylor's appearance it looked as if he'd been beaten about the head and shoulders with a heavy instrument and kicked in the chest. We left word to call as soon as he could be questioned and then we drove over to the store on Pico. Yes, there's something I can do for you? Police officers. Well, how's Mr. Raylor? You've seen him? No, we haven't, Judge. You heard anything? Is he gonna be all right? Well, we don't know that yet. I sure hope so. Yeah, a guy who hit him sure did a job. Just beat him something awful. Yeah, we know. Not enough just hitting him, but then he knocked him down and stomped him. Awful. Can you hear when it happened? Yeah, I saw the whole thing. You want to tell us what happened? You mean for the investigation? Yeah. Okay. You want to give us your name first? Calvin Webster. You work here in the store, do you, son? Yeah, that's right. Sort of a general left hand. What was that? Well, you see, Mrs. Raylor's his right hand. I'm the left. Yeah. She wasn't here today and down having her hair fixed. Probably just as good. All right, Webster. You want to tell us? Well, Thor came in about 8.30, right after we opened. He came in and went back to the prescription counter. I was going back to tell him that Mr. Raylor would be right out and then he was. Raylor? Yeah, he was back checking the stock on vitamin pills. We do a big business in him. I have to have a pretty careful watch on the supply. I wouldn't want to get caught short. All right, go ahead. Well, the fellow, the hold up man, you know. Yeah, go ahead. We took this little piece of paper out of his coat. I figured it was a prescription, look like it. Mm-hmm. Well, it turned out to be the note where he said he wanted the money. Mm-hmm. Did you see the note? Well, not so as I can read it. First I knew there was something wrong when Mr. Raylor started to yell at the guy. Told him to get out of the store, ran around the counter and tried to grab him. Mm-hmm. It was time for me to call the police. Call the cops. Call the cops like that. He yelled at me. What'd you do? Well, I looked to see if I had a dime. What? Well, you see in the past, Mr. Raylor's had trouble with people making phone calls on a private phone, so he had one of those little lock things put on it. You can answer incoming calls, but you can't phone out. I see. So I needed a dime to call the cops. Yeah. Well, I didn't have one. Only 75 cents for my lunch, a half and a quarter. I see. Well, all this time Mr. Raylor's yelling. He's yelling and the robber's hitting him. You know what to do. Uh-huh. I thought about running back and trying to help, but Mr. Raylor don't like for nobody to do something different than what he says. Yeah. He told me to phone. Yeah, sure. Well, then all of a sudden, bang, a fella hit Mr. Raylor with a gun, took it right out of his pocket and hit him on the head. Next thing, Mr. Raylor's on the floor, this fella stomping him. Mm-hmm. Well, I couldn't just stand by no more, so I went back to help. Too late. What was that? Well, it was too late. Mr. Raylor was on the floor, and this guy was pointing the gun at me and was leaving the store. I didn't see how it would help any to try and stop him. Was there anybody else in the store at the time? No, just Mr. Raylor and me. We just opened up. Still kind of getting ready for the day. Did you get a good look at this guy? Oh, yeah. I saw him good. All right, then you'll be able to give us a description. Yeah, I'll tell you how he looked. Did you see if he drove a car? I guess so. But don't you know for sure? Well, no, I didn't go out after him. I figured that it would take somebody a lot bigger than me to stop him. Besides, I had to take care of Mr. Raylor. I see. Did you see the gun he was using? Yeah, I got a real good look at it when he was sitting the boss. That's fine. What kind of a gun was it? A pistol. You know, all I could see in the movie. A look son was. It was a revolver and automatic. I think it was a revolver. I had a barrel on it. Short. About that long? Uh-huh. We'd like you to come downtown and look at some pictures if you would. At the city hall? That's right. I'll be glad to help out as soon as Mrs. Raylor comes back. I'll go with you. All right, fine. I can't leave the store alone, you know. Uh-huh. You want to give us the description of the man now? You bet. I'm sure if you catch the fella. So do we. Is this the same guy I've been reading about in the papers? That's right. He's mean. Real mean doing a thing like that to Mr. Raylor. Yeah, we know. He's been getting away with it for a long time, hasn't he? Like a guy running up a big bill. That's right. He'll pay it. As soon as someone arrived to take care of the drug store, we took Calvin Webster down to the city hall. He was showing all of the mug books and pictures of recent parolees. He was unable to make an identification. We had him return to his home and then Frank and I checked with Dr. Sebastian over at Georgia Street receiving hospital. He told us that the latest victim had been transferred to the county hospital and was out of the critical stage. He went on to say, however, that it would be several hours before we'd be able to talk to him. We checked with Captain Donahoe and Lieutenant Stoner. We also contacted officers from Metropolitan Division and made arrangements for the additional cars that we'd need in setting up the rolling stakeout. That night at 7.30 p.m., the plan was put into operation. Ten undercover cars maintained a watch on the drugstores in the area. All suspicious vehicles were checked on. All pedestrians, loitering in the vicinity, were interrogated. Our suspect remained free. Three days went by without result. The bandit had stopped his operations. On Sunday, March 21st, Frank and I were driving up Western Avenue just north of Pico. What do you think? I don't know. Maybe after he had that trouble with the railroad, he decided to call it quits. Doesn't figure. Huh? The guy that's had the brakes he has not gonna let something like a beating stop him. No. Hope you're right. All units on frequency one, stand by. All units on frequency one, stand by. Might be a good one. Yeah. Stand by 1J14. All units in the vicinity of 1947 Wilton Place. 1, 9, 4, 7, Wilton Place. An officer needs help, Coast 3. All units in the vicinity of 1947 Wilton Place. An officer needs help, Coast 3. You got the lens? Yeah, here you are. An officer needs help. Of all the calls in the book, this is the one that no officer wants to get. Not because of an outdone sense of loyalty to a fellow police officer, but because it means that somebody has decided that lawful authority has no meaning for them. Such a person is an extreme menace to every citizen in the city. By showing that they have no respect for the competence of an armed professional officer, they have also shown that they will not consider for an instant the life of an unarmed citizen. By the time we arrived at the scene, there were 14 police units in attendance. From one of the officers, we got the story. You know, I was working in the street, saw this young guy run out of liquor store, stopped to see what was going on. Yeah. Told the fellow to stop. Didn't make any difference. Kept going, huh? Yeah. Officer in the car told him to stop. He'd shoot. The suspect turned around and fired at the policeman. How is he? Flash wound. What about the suspect? Well, he didn't get the chance to fire more than twice. Got him over there? Yeah. Anything from the owner of the liquor store? Well, just that the suspect tried to hold him up. He walked in, showed him a note. The owner went along with it, handed over the money, and then the suspect left. That's it. Better take a look. Yeah. Well, it might be a break. It's a hard way to get it in. Yeah. I'll take a look. How about it? I can't tell for sure. Huh? Description doesn't match too good. Yeah? No. I don't think it's our suspect. We're listening to Dragnet, the authentic story of your police force in action. A good police officer was taken to Judge Street receiving hospital for treatment. The suspect was removed to the county morgue. Pictures were taken when they were shown to the victims of the drugstore bandit. They all said he was not the man we were after. The rolling stakeout continued without result. During the next week, we answered several 211 calls in drugstores, but the ammo the thief used eliminated him as our suspect. Thursday, March 25th. Frank and I checked into the squad room. How's it going, Joe? Kind of tired. Yeah. I get this one wrapped up and I'm going to try to take a few days off. There you go. Robbery Friday. Yes, that's right. No, we're handling. The one was that. All right, would you like to give me that address? All right, yes, I have it. We'll check it out. Might be something in it. Thanks for letting us know. Right. Thanks again. Bye. What do you got? A call from a radio unit out in Hollywood. Yeah. The answer to 4.15 this morning, a woman and her husband were having a brawl. Uh huh. A man had left when the officers got there. The woman refused to make a complaint. Was she placed the original call? No, it came from one of the neighbors. Uh huh. When the officers were leaving, the woman said she'd handle a beef herself, said she'd take care of her husband, called him a lousy hold up man. Yeah. She made the statement she could put him in San Quentin inside of five minutes. Well, if he's the guy we're looking for, I don't think we can do it that fast. No, we sure try. We left the office and drove out to the address I'd gotten on the phone. It was a small one-story house set well back on the lot. When we got there, the lights were on. Frank and I went up the front door and rang the bell. Yeah. Miss Kearney. That's right. Police officers like to talk to you. What about? I'd be better if we talked inside. All right. It's my partner Frank Smith. My name's Friday. How you do? All right. You alone here in the house? It's the baby and me. I see. Where's your husband? Look, before I start telling you a lot, why don't you let me know what this is all about? We got a report from a radio car that there was a disturbance here this morning. Is that right? Wasn't anything. Me and Keith had a beef. Not even we're calling the cops about. The officer said you made the remark that your husband was a hold up man, that you could send him to prison. Is that right? They talk a lot, don't they? They listen more, lady. You want to tell us what you meant? Yeah. We'll go ahead. You go back and tell the little boys in a place who doesn't know you. You go back and tell the little boys in a place who's there wrong on this one. Is that so? Yeah. Because I meant nothing. Nothing at all. Pretty serious thing to say without reason, though, isn't it? This morning I had a reason. Why don't you want to tell us what it was? I don't see why not. Your cops start nosing around. You'll find out anyway. I got trouble with my old man. What kind of trouble? He's out with other women. Didn't come home last night. We had a beef about it. The cops were called and they used their big ears. The guys made the trip out here for nothing. Now beat it. Now look what you've done. He's playing fine and you come in and you know he's a big stink. You got him all upset. I'll get him. What's your husband's full name? Keith J. Kearney. How long you lived in Los Angeles? A little over six weeks. Where you from? Idaho. Your husband ever been in trouble with the police before? Keith's got a hard time not being in trouble with anybody. Has he ever been arrested? I don't know. How long you been married? Seven years. And you don't know if he's ever been arrested? No, I don't. You got a picture of your husband? You mean that you can have? We'd like to take a look at it, yeah. Not a lot. I haven't got one. Not a thing to help it. Doesn't hold a job of any kind. No, Keith's a professional avoider. He doesn't like anything steady. They're going to look like he means me too. What do you do with his time? Nothing. Just lives it. So you're in the evening? If he was there wouldn't have been the beef this morning and you wouldn't be asking a lot of questions. I don't know what you're trying to get me to say, but I can't go along with you. You got a problem with Keith and talk to him. Leave me out of it. I'll get it. You know where your husband is now? No. You don't have any idea, huh? Not the least. There you are, little fella. Here is your keys. The husband drive a car? Yeah. What kind is it? 41 Plymouth. When do you expect your husband back? When he walks in the door. All right, Ms. Kearney, I think that'll do it. Sorry if we've caused you any trouble. You have and you're not. Good night. Those keys that the baby was playing with? No, why? Plastic tag on them had a license number. Yeah. One of the stolen cars used in a drugstore holdup. Then I went back to the car and drove around the block parking up the street from the Kearney residence. We called the name of the man and his wife into R&I, but there was no record on either one of them. Because of the remark made by his wife and the finding of the car keys, it was decided to stake out on the house and wait for the husband to return. 7.30 p.m., 8.30, 9.00 p.m. The lights in the house went out, but there was still no sign of Keith Kearney. 10, 10.30. We called the office and told them we'd waited out. 10.45 p.m. Joe. Yeah. You see what kind it is? Looks like a flimmer. Check's out, huh? Yeah, let's take him. All right, Kearney, hold it up. Stop, Kearney. Get away from me, stop. He's trying to make his house. Yeah. Kearney, you're not going to make the front porch. Don't give your family any more trouble than they got. Now throw down that gun. All right, let's give it back to him. He's down, Joe. Come on. Throw that gun away. You hear me? Looks like he's hurt bad. And received sentence as prescribed by law. Robbery in the first degree is punishable by imprisonment for a period of not less than five years. Dragnet is a presentation of the United States Armed Forces Radio Service.