 Ladies and gentlemen, the story you are about to hear is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent. You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned a homicide detail. A night watchman has been stabbed to death in a downtown appliance store. There's no apparent motive for the killing, no lead to the suspect. Your job? Find him. 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 transcribed from official police files. From beginning to end, from crime to punishment, Dragnet is the story of your police force in action. It was Monday, August 8th. It was warm in Los Angeles. We were working the day watch out a homicide detail. My partner is Frank Smith. The boss is Captain Lorman. My name is Frank. We're on the way out from the office and it was 826 a.m. when we got to the corner of 7th and Duke Common Streets. A Bentley appliance company. You're a big place, huh? You're somebody coming. Yeah, what do you want? Police officers. Oh, yeah, just a minute. Come on in. Thanks a lot. I guess it'd be a good idea if I locked the door again, huh? If you'd like to, yes, sir. Good idea. Here now, it's all secure. Uh, my name's Ralph Bentley. I'm the one who put in the call. This is Frank Smith. My name's Freddie. How you doing? How you doing, sir? Where's the body? Oh, back here in the stock room. Who found him, Mr. Bentley? Our building superintendent, Curtis Hallman. Is he here now? Yeah, he's upstairs. All right. I suppose you'll want to talk to him. Yes, we will. Oh, I'll get it. Go ahead. Oh, thanks. Over here, it's behind these packing cases. Uh-huh. Well, you can see there he was stabbed. Yeah. I'm sure a mess, isn't it? Yeah. What's his name? Mr. Bentley? Hmm? The victim's name? Oh, uh, Clyde Manick. I'm ATICK. Uh, IK, no C. Mm-hmm. What time was the body discovered? It must have been about 7 and 30. That's when Harlem comes to work. Did he find it right away? I don't know. I haven't been able to get him to say much. When I came in, he was just standing here looking that the body was kind of numb, you know. Mm-hmm. What time did you get here? Must have been about 7.45. That's when I called you, wasn't it? Yes, sir, about that time. Yeah, that's when it was on 7.45. How long has this Matic worked for you? Oh, three years. Uh, almost four. Is anything in here been disturbed? Not that I know of. I don't think Hallman touched anything. I couldn't talk to him very much, but I'm pretty sure he knows enough to leave things alone. Uh-huh. Well, I sure can't understand it. What's that? Well, take a look around. It doesn't look like there's a fight. Does it look like it to you? No. Well, that's it. What do you mean? Well, it stands to reason it was somebody he knew, some stranger to be signed. He wouldn't just let somebody come up and stab him in the back now, would he? Doesn't seem likely, does it? Well, in the three years he's been with us, I've never heard anyone say an unkind thing about Matic. Not one. Man didn't have an enemy in the world. Well, that doesn't mean much. Hmm? One of his friends didn't like him then. 8.30 a.m. We put in a call to the crime lab and asked them to come out and go over the scene. The manager let us upstairs to the main offices and we met the building superintendent, Curtis Hallman. He was a small man in his early 50s. I don't care how it looks from your Friday. I didn't do it. You've got to believe that. I didn't have anything to do with it. And nobody says you did, Hallman. The officers just want to ask you some questions. Well, I don't want them to think I killed him. I don't want them to think that. What time did you find the body? I guess it must have been around 7.30, someplace around in there. Mm-hmm. You see, I just come in, lock the door after me, and then I was going to come up here and change my clothes. Yeah. I got my own closet down there in the hall. My own closet. I was coming back, going upstairs, and I saw him just laying there. Right away, I knew he was dead. Mm-hmm. You didn't have to have nobody to tell me that. I knew he was dead. What'd you do? Nothing. Couldn't. What's that? Couldn't do nothing. First time I ever saw a dead man. I don't know. I guess he just stood there and looked. First time. Yeah, that's where he was when I came in. Yeah? I was just there. You see, I didn't kill him. Wasn't me. Somebody did it, but wasn't me. All right, all right, all right. Now, we was friends. Clyde and me. Friends. I, uh, I guess I should have told you. He doesn't mean any harm. I understand. Played cribbage once in a while in the morning. Me and Clyde played cribbage. Was there anybody else in the store when you got here home? Huh? You talking to me? Yes, sir. Did you see anybody else in the place when you got here? No. Just me and Clyde. Only he was dead. How'd you get in? Got a key. See? Right here. My own key. How many keys are there, Mr. Batley? Oh, it's three out. I got one home and has one. Matt had the other one. Mm-hmm. Maybe a contact with his family. Hasn't got one. As far as we know, he hasn't got any people. You can give us his address though, can't you? Oh, sure. No trouble at all. There's upstairs. What? Part of the deal we worked out when he started. A little room on the third floor. He gets that on the salary. Real nice. The way he fixed it up. All painted bookshelves, a lot of books. All over the place, books. Wonder if we could see it. Certainly. And you like it. Feel nice room. Nice and mine. Wish I had it. Uh, we can go down this way. Want me to go up with you? Yes, sir. If you'd like to. Sure. I like Clyde's room. Uh, be faster if we take the stairs. All right. Uh, here we are. All right, go ahead. Thank you. I guess Clyde had about every book printed. Great one for reading. That's all? Oh, yeah. All time had his face in the book. All time reading. Uh-huh. Smart. Knew all kinds of things. Just asked quite a question and he knew the answer. I was all time telling him he should go on the quiz shows. He'd have won them all. Knew the names of all the presidents. When they was elected. All about him. Is that right? Uh, it's right down this way. Mark. I used to sit there and look through the books. Didn't make much sense to me, but Clyde sure liked them. All right, Holman. I'm sure the officers know what you mean. I'm just trying to tell them. That's all. Tell them about Clyde. Sure. Oh, this is it. Oh, that's a lot. You have a key? No, I don't. I got one. Got it on the ring. You want me to open the door? If you would, yeah. Sure thing. Glad to help you. Yeah, find the right one now. There, you drop this. Um, why do you have a key to the room? Clyde gave it to me. Said it was all right for me to have it in case I won't clean up. He let me do that. Clean up. All right, well, do you have the key? Eh, yeah. Here it is. There you are. Hmm. Hey. Sure looks like there was a party in here. No. Certainly didn't have any idea things like this went on. Oh, just look at this room. Beer bottles all over the place, glasses. Empty bottle. This place is filthy. I was going to clean it up, Mr. Bentley. Honest I was. Right after I finished the rest of the building, I was going to clean it up. Fourteen beer bottles, all of them empty, boy. I don't see how a man could drink that much beer. Looks like he had some help, though. Huh? What do you got? Look at these glasses. Yeah. Lipsticks. Don't touch them. I'm sorry. Boy, that really doesn't. That's the capper. Sir? Well, when he took the job, I made it perfectly clear. No mistake about it, none at all. What do you mean? Beer drinking, I don't mind. He's got that right. But I told him there wasn't supposed to be any women up here. No. He knew it. Doesn't look good. Place of business just doesn't look good. No. I told him if he broke the rule once, just once he'd be sorry about it. That's what I told him. He's got no quarrel about it now. Huh? He's sorry. The crime lab arrived and started to go over the room. After photographs had been taken, the body was removed to the county morgue. Apparently the victim had died of internal hemorrhage caused by three deep stab wounds in the back. He'd been dead about 36 hours. From questioning the other employees of the store, we were able to find out a little about the victim's background. All of them knew him as a quiet man who kept pretty much to himself. We asked about the women friends. They couldn't help us there either. The questioning continued. As far as I know, there wasn't anybody. You ever mention any friends to you? No, we didn't talk much. I didn't see him a lot. You know, he'd be in the halls or something like that, but we didn't talk much. Is there anything more you can tell us that might help? I don't think so. If I think of anything, I'll let you know. All right, thank you very much. Is that all? Yes, ma'am. Well, sure you're getting us nowhere. Yeah. Let's have the next one, huh? All right. Did you come in on this last? Yes. It's a quarrel last, is that right? That's right. My name's Smith. It's a Saturday and Friday. I do. How are you? Would you like to sit down? Thank you. Guess it's about Mr. Matic, huh? That's right. Awful thing to have happen. I work in the office almost right under his room. Kind of gives me the creeps to think about it. A little creepy. Did you know him very well? Yeah, I guess you could say I did. I went to lunch with him a couple of times, even had a couple of dates. Not flower-type dates, though. How did that? He didn't bring flowers. Oh, I see. He met after work and went to dinner. Nothing serious. Mm-hmm. Do you know any of his other friends? Just about everybody in the place, and anybody that wasn't friends with Mr. Matic. Everybody liked him. Mm-hmm. Is there anybody special? You mean like a girlfriend? That's right. I don't know. That's maybe it was Bessie. Who's that, Miss? Bessie Rowan. Her and Mr. Matic were pretty friendly. You asked me, I'd say might even have been serious. She work here? Yeah, a stock room clerk, head of the department. All right, see. Pretty important job, got charge of all the ordering. Yeah. You ever been in Mr. Matic's room? I know you're just trying to do what you think is right, Mr. Friday. But I don't like what you're getting. No offense, Miss Lask. Just a routine question. Oh, the answer's no. I told you I just went out with him a couple of times. That's all. All right, see. You remember that? Yes, ma'am. Is Miss Rowan here this morning? No, she isn't. It's a funny thing, too. What do you mean? It's not like her to miss a day's work. Long as I've been here, she never done it before. Always here, always on time. Mm-hmm. That's why it's so funny. She called this morning and said she wouldn't be able to make it. She say why? Not really. Kind of talked around it, you know. Matter of fact, I didn't think she had a real reason for not coming in. How was that? The way she acted. Say, you don't think there's anything to do with Mr. Matic, do you? I wouldn't know. I'll bet that's it. She knows something. That's why she's not coming in. That's the reason. It's possible. More than that, she knows something. I'll bet you on it. Bet you anything. No, it wouldn't be too fair. We'd like to see you win. We checked all of the employees of the store through R&I, except for two drunk arrests for the janitor, Curtis Hallman, who was no record on any of them. We tried to contact Bessie Rowan at her home, but she wasn't there. The neighbors weren't able to tell us anything at my data's in finding her. We asked them to notify us in the event she returned. At 1246 p.m., an unidentified woman called the Bentley Appliance Company and asked for the victim. She was told that he was out and was asked to leave a phone number where she could be contacted. Frank and I checked with the phone company and found that the number was assigned to a public phone booth in a downtown department store. We drove over to the place and talked with one of the clerks. Yes, it seems to me there was a woman by the phone booth. Can you give us a description of her? Not a very good one, I'm afraid. Well, anything you can tell us might help. See, there is one thing, though. What's that? Might not mean anything. Well, what is it, ma'am? Her hair. Yeah. Real red. But the brightest red I've ever seen had to come from a bottle. Never saw any natural hair that color. All right. Does that help, honey? Well, we don't know yet. I didn't think it would. Just something you remember, something kind of outstanding. Mm-hmm. I just thought of it. Figured it might be a way for you to remember if it's the one you're looking for. Well, if it is, we've got another way. 4.35 p.m., Frank and I went back to the city hall and checked into the office. There was a note in the book for us to get in touch with Sergeant J. Allen at the crime lab. He just finished his preliminary examination of physical evidence and wanted to go over his findings with us. Back here, Joe. Frank. Yeah. Well, how'd you do? Not bad. Here, take a look. Yeah? These are the beer bottles we found in the room, 14 of them. They're clean. Able to lift three good prints from one of the glasses, though. Enough for identification? If you come up with a finger. Not enough for classification, though. Anything else? I went over the room with a vacuum cleaner. Found this in a couch. Earring. Yeah. Imitation stone. Monning's gold filled. Nothing else on it. Any way of checking where it was bought, Jay? I'll be pretty hard. Costume jewelry. A lot of places make it. Even more in that cellar. Found this handkerchief on the floor under the couch. No monogram. Any laundry marks? No. Went over with ultraviolet. There's nothing there. Is that it? Well, lipstick marks in the glasses we lifted them. Might be able to use them in that identification. Yeah. You, uh, come up with a motive yet? No. In those news, we can tell there wasn't anything stolen from the store. And the victim had $36 in cash on him. Expensive watch. Ring. None of it was touched. You got any more for us, Jay? I couldn't find the murder weapon. Wasn't in the room. We checked the rest of the place. Couldn't turn it. Any idea what it might have been, Jay? A sharp instrument. Probably a pocket knife. Three inch blade. Oh, one more thing. Not sure about it. Yeah. Yeah, I'll get it. What do you got there? Hair. Found him on the victim's jacket. No way of telling how long he had been there. Human? Yeah. Whoever they belonged to shouldn't be too hard to spot. What do you mean? Bright red. We left the crime lab and drove over to the Bentley appliance company. We went up to the second floor and talked with the secretary again. Coral asked. Sure, I can give you a description of Bessie. No trouble at all. Have you heard from her today? Not since this morning. I told you about that. You know how she wouldn't be in. Yeah. That's the only time. Now about the description. What color hair does she have? It's a blonde color. Darker light. Kind of in between. I guess that's the reason she fixes it up. How do you mean? Touch up. Usually a sort of strawberry blonde, I guess you call her. Last time she did it, I guess it was a week ago. She had an accident. Yeah. With the dye, she did something wrong. She looked funny. How do you mean? Well, it turned out wrong. Embarrassed her all over the place. Everybody was making cracks about it. She said she was going to redo it the first chance she had. Yeah. I kind of laughed myself. It was pretty hard to imagine. What's that? That color red hair. We returned to the office and filled out the reports. At 6.18 p.m., we got a call from one of the suspect's neighbors telling us that she'd returned home. We grew up out to talk to her. Bessie Rowan? That's right. Who are you? Police officer. I'd like to talk to you. Well, I haven't got anything to say to you. It's not going to do me much good, though. Is it? You're going to take me down to the poke anyway, aren't you? Aren't you going to? Might be better if we talk to the inside. Oh, well, then. Come on in. Ain't no difference where we talk. Not a bitch. You ain't going to believe me anyway. About what? That I didn't kill Clyde. You ain't going to believe me, are you? Why don't you tell us? All right, I will. What do you think of that, huh? What do you think of that? You alone here? No. I got three of my friends hiding in the closet. They usually don't come out this early, though. Waiting until it gets dark. That's when they like it when it's dark. Now, you want me to tell you now, huh? Do you? About what? About Clyde. How he's dead. You want me to? Why don't you try? No matter what I say, you're going to believe what you want to. So it'd be easier if I went along with you, wouldn't it, huh? Might be. Okay, then. I killed him. 6.23 p.m., we continue to talk to Bessie Rowan. Frank went out to the kitchen and made a pot of coffee. After we'd gotten several cups down, Miss Rowan, she sobered up and was able to answer our questions. I didn't mean it. I wasn't feeling very good. I guess that's why I said it. You see him Saturday nights? Yeah. After work. Met him, we went to the place on the corner, had a couple of drinks, and then I came home. Ever been to his room? Went to me as a company. Yeah. I guess it wouldn't do any good to lie about it. Yeah, I've been there. When? I don't know. I guess the last time was a week ago. Somewhere in there, I had a couple of drinks. How'd you and Matic get along? All right. We didn't set the world on fire. How'd you know he was dead? Heard it. Where? I'd rather not say, like, somebody in trouble. You've got a good-sized piece of that right now. Why don't you tell us? A friend of mine. I called this morning. That's how you found out? Yeah. I guess his friend wasn't supposed to say anything. As soon as she did, she told me not to say anything. What time did you see Matic last? I guess it was about 7.30. Right after we came out of the bar, he walked me back to the parking lot, and I came home. Anybody vouch for that? No. You can prove it there now. Maybe they changed the laws, huh? What do you mean by that? I always thought you had to prove I was guilty. Have they done away with that? No. Then start proving it. All right, get a coat and we'll go downtown. You want to book me? We'll see. You got to make a charge, don't you? If you want it that way. Never mind. I'll get a jacket. Where is it? Bedroom closet. You want to show me? You don't trust anybody, do you? Let's get the coat, lady. Okay. There you are. The gentleman will hold it. Yeah. It's all set? Yeah, I guess so. You turn off the coffee. Yeah, I think so. You better be sure. I'm not going to come home and have to clean a burned coffee pot. Don't worry about it. Huh? You might not be coming home. The woman was taken downtown to the city hall. Her fingerprints were taken. We checked her name and description through R&I once more, but we failed to come up with a record for her. 8.15 p.m. While I talked to her in the squad room, Frank went down the hall. You're going to let me go home. As soon as you tell us the truth. I've told you everything I know. It's all you're going to get. John. Now. Here it is. What's that? The solution to the case? It might be. It's a report from Wheaton Prince. Yeah? Your fingerprints match with the ones we found on some glasses in his room. What does that mean? You were in his room. I've already admitted that. You told us you weren't there Saturday. So, he's a sloppy housekeeper. Now, we talked to the janitor. He cleaned the room Saturday morning. The glasses weren't there then. How about it, Miss Rowan? Make it easier if you give us a statement. Come on. I thought it was there, but I didn't kill him. And that's the truth. Go ahead. After we left the bar, he asked me to come up and have a nightcap. I did. We had some stuff to talk over. What? We wanted to get married. We talked about it before. There was something hanging him up. I don't know what it was. I told him we couldn't go on like that anymore. It had to be either one way or the other. Either we'd get married or else we'd call the whole thing off. Yeah. He asked for a couple of days, said he'd clean up whatever the trouble was by then. I told him to go ahead. That's all. I had a couple of drinks and then I left and I came straight home. What time did you get there? About 10. Maybe 10.30. Why'd you lie to us? I don't know. I was drunk. You saw that. Yeah. I got scared. I could sure you'd think I did it. Did Maddie have any other girlfriends? I don't know. We didn't talk about it. Did he mention anybody else? Yeah. I guess. A couple of times he talked about it. Some girl that was giving him trouble called him at work, you know, and he's back. Told me he was trying to get rid of her. Possible she might have been the reason you couldn't get married. Yeah, might be. You know anything about her? No. He didn't talk much about her. A couple of times he'd be hacked because she'd called the store. He made a big scene. Said she was usually gassed. She was a real lush way he put it, drunk most of the time. Mm-hmm. Funny though. He didn't go for hard booze. Huh? Just drank beer. On the chance that the empty beer bottles we'd found in the victim's room had been bought in the neighborhood, we began an immediate canvas of the liquor stores in the area. We gave the dealers a description of Clyde Maddock, and we also asked if a woman had purchased 14 bottles of beer. In the first five stores, we drew a blank. But the clerk in the sixth told us that he had made such a sale on Saturday night to a woman. He was unable to tell us who she was, but he did say that he'd seen her several times in the neighborhood bar. We started to check them. Several bartenders knew the woman, but were unable to tell us her name or where we could find her. In 1220, we stopped at a place called the Pink Pigeon. Yeah, I know her. In here all the time. She's a beer drinker. You know her name? Well, let me think. Yeah, glad is something. I don't think I ever heard the last part. It wouldn't make me unhappy if she didn't come back. What do you mean? Well, she's all the time tanked, loud, dirty mouth. Sick like that doesn't do the place any good. You know where you can get in touch with her? What's the matter? She done something? We'd like to talk to her. Well, sure. I didn't mean to stick my nose in where it don't belong. I'm sorry. You know where you can find her? I don't know. I guess her place would be as good as any. Well, where is that? A couple of blocks up. It's a brown house, a second from the corner. You can't miss it. Just like her, a real mess. There's weeds all around. It's a brown house. All right, thank you. I'm glad to help on. I've been saying for a long time she was going to end up in real trouble. Been saying that for a long time. I've been telling everybody. They didn't believe me. Well, they will now. We left the bar and drove over to the house the bartender had described. There was a light on in the front room when we got there. The name on the mailbox read Mrs. Clyde Matic. Yes? You miss Matic? That's right. Who are you? Police officer. Come on in. I've been expecting you. Wait a minute, I'll get a coat. That's all right. I'll get it. You kind of surprised me. How's that? I kind of figured you'd find me before this. Didn't think it'd take this long. Did you kill him? Yeah. He wanted a divorce. I wouldn't give it to him. I wanted to marry some flusy where he worked. It wouldn't give me a chance to work things out. I tried to convince him he was wrong. I told him if he tried to leave me, he'd be sorry. I tried to convince him. He wouldn't believe me. Well, maybe he does now. Let's go. The story you've just heard is true. The names were changed to protect the innocent. On December 16th, trial was held in Department 97, Superior Court of the State of California, in and for the County of Los Angeles. In a moment, the results of that trial. Gladys Markham Matic was tried and convicted of murder in the second degree and received punishment as prescribed by law. Murder in the second degree is punishable by imprisonment for a period of from five years to life in the state penitentiary. 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.