 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 64-year-old shopkeeper is found murdered, beaten to death in the back room of his store. The body bears the marks of a savage attack. There's no trace of the killer. Your job? Get 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 Wednesday, February 19th. It was cloudy in Los Angeles. We were working the night watch out a homicide detail. My partner's Ben Romero, the boss's thad brown chief of detectives. My name's Friday. We're on the way out from the office, and it was 1056 PM when we got to 1016 South 12th Street, the apex men's shop. Yes, sir? Friday in Romero, central homicide. ID card. Oh, yes, Sergeant. Been waiting for you. My partner's upstairs in the back talking to victim's wife. You answered the call, did you? Yeah, that's right. Miles and Keefer unit 16 are. Who are you? Miles. Now, Keefer's talking to Mrs. Wilfred, victim's wife. She found the body. What's that up above? How's that? Music up there somewhere. Sounds like a party. Oh, yeah, well, that's a dance place. It takes a hole up the floor of the building. A Wonderland dance hall, I think that's it. When was the body found, Miles, do you know? Well, the wife wasn't very definite about it. She told us she came in the shop here about 10 o'clock tonight. The place was wide open. Nobody behind the counter. Said she looked around a while, finally found her husband's body in the storeroom back there. Nothing for a weak stomach. It's pretty brutal. What else do you have to say? Oh, not too much. She's pretty close, Miles. Probably the shock of finding her husband like that. I don't know. Do you want to show us where he is, Miles? Yeah, that's straight back. Well, the victim's name is Joseph Wilfred, owner of the store ran it himself. Wife says he's had the business here for 23 years. The typical men's shop, you can see that. It's around the left. In here. OK, go ahead. He used this for a storeroom, I guess. That's it. As far as we know, the body hasn't been touched. Yeah, sure took a terrible beating. The elderly man, huh? Wife said he was 64 last birthday. She couldn't think of any enemies he has. Anybody want to do this? Where'd he keep his cash? Did she tell you that? No, cash register, I guess. Can't be sure late in Prince gets here. Yeah. Do you call the crime lab yet? I'm waiting for you, fellas. You want to call him now? Would you mind? Oh, sure, sorry. Say, you might as well call a coroner while you're at it. Tell him there's no big rush. Yeah, all right. Take a look around here, Joe. Looks like a tornado ripped through. Yeah. Chair overturned. Flows all over the floor. Come here, man. Look at the body. Hey, huh? His arms tied behind his back. Ordinary clothesline robe. What's that cloth nodding around his neck? I don't know. Looks like it could be a woman's slip, doesn't it? Wherever it was, they weren't taking any chances he'd live through it. The wounds on the head here and the neck, see? Yeah. Looks like he was stamped on by boots, something like that. Maybe a narrow heel. Sure brutal. Doesn't look too much like a robbery motor. Not from the beating he took anyway, huh? Looks like you might have had a taste for art all over the wall here, pent-up girls, fancy counter. That's Dr. Crime Lab, Sergeant. On the way out. Oh, thanks, Miles. Notified Deputy Coroner. Anything else I can do for you? Yeah, would you mind getting a wife down here, Ms. Wilford? We'd like to talk to her. Sure, right away. Thank you. How's she feeling? Any hysteria? No, she's pretty quiet. She went upstairs to rest. Couple of housekeeping rooms up there. Guess that's where she and her husband live. Well, tell her she doesn't feel too well. We could come up there and talk to her. Right, sir. What do you think? I don't know. We'll see what the Crime Lab can come up with. We can start checking around the neighborhood after we talk to the wife, huh? Mm-hmm. Let me take a look here. What's that there? It's funny. Not much place in the haberdashery for things like this, look. Woman's nightgown. Like lace, huh? Packed in a gift box. Is that a card there? Yeah, see if we can read it without touching it. Says to a beautiful girl, you've been away too long hoping we'll never be parted again. Signed Joseph Wilfred. Seems a little funny, huh? Yeah, it does. Maybe his wife's been on a trip. He's going to give it to her as a present. When's the last time you gave your wife a black lace nightgown? 11.05 PM. The two officers who'd answered the call, Miles and Kever, brought the victim's wife, Mrs. Agnes Wilfred, downstairs and Ben and I questioned her. She was a small, slight woman, dark hair, dark brown eyes, a sharp nose, and chin. She looked to be in her early 50s. She said that both she and her husband had emigrated to America from Northern Germany 25 years before. We asked her how her married life with Mr. Wilfred had been, but she kept dodging the question. We asked her how she happened to find the body. The body's just as you found it, Mrs. Wilfred. You didn't disturb anything? No, I just came back from a friend's and looked. And I saw him and he was dead. Somebody killed Joseph. And you're pretty sure that your husband wasn't having any trouble with anybody? No enemies? No, he didn't have any enemies not to do this. Yes, ma'am. You lived upstairs in the back of the store with Mr. Wilfred, is that right, ma'am? For a long time, yes. We lived upstairs in the rooms. It was nice. Saved money for rent. Well, do you have any idea at all why your husband's dead, why somebody'd want to kill him? There was money in the store. They'd kill for that. You're a policeman. People kill for money. You know that. Well, do you know where Mr. Wilfred kept his money, ma'am? There was a wooden drawer on the table in the back room. He would keep the money there. But I looked when I came in. First, it was empty. Was there any money in that drawer tonight, do you know that? Oh, yes, $300, $400. Anyway, Joseph always kept it in there. A terrible place up above the music all the time, the noise. You should make them be quiet. The dance halls have been up there for a year tonight. Anyway, they should be quiet. Yes, ma'am. About the money Mr. Wilfred had in the store. Maybe $1,000. $7,800, maybe that anyway. And then his wristwatch he had on. That's gone too. Can you give us a description of the watch, Mrs. Wilfred? What make it was, what it looked like? Well, yes, I can give that to you. It's white gold, expensive. Writing on the back. Agnes, to Joseph. On birthday, I gave it to him. Have you been away from your husband recently, ma'am? I mean, on a trip or anything like that? No, I haven't been away. Why? Well, we don't mean to upset you at a time like this, but would you know if your husband had any women friends, Mrs. Wilfred? If you have a cigarette, I'd like one. Oh, yes, ma'am. Here you are. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you. Do we have to talk about it? I'm afraid so, ma'am. Most of them I know. For 10 years it's been like this. There were many of them, young women. Joseph didn't try to hide it from me. I knew all about it. You continued to live with your husband all this time, ma'am? I did. He'd bring the girls to the shop here sometimes. When they'd come, I'd go away for a while. After they were gone, I'd come back. Joseph and I would never talk about it. You mean you never had any arguments with your husband about the women? No. He never lied to me about the girls. He had them, that's all. It was something he expected me to understand. I see. You say you knew several of these women your husband went out with. Could you give us their names, please? Yes, there's an address book upstairs in Joseph's desk. The names are in there. I see. Would you mind showing us that address book now, please? Yes, we can go upstairs. I'll get it for you. There's one question I'd like to ask you, Mrs. Wilfridge. You don't mind? Yes. About your husband, ma'am? I don't know. Heard very much at first. And then by and by, it didn't hurt so much. Time, I guess. A habit. Big a point. A habit. If you want to, you can get used to anything. Yes, ma'am. Even a man who doesn't love you anymore. We went upstairs to the housekeeping rooms where Mrs. Wilfridge gave us her husband's personal address book. She also gave us a description of his wristwatch, which had been removed from the body along with the name of the jeweler who'd sold her the watch. It was a Hamilton with a diamond studded dial. The crime lab crew arrived downstairs and began their routine investigation. We finished questioning the victim's wife, and then we started checking the neighborhood. Only a few of the stores in the area were still open. We found only one possible witness, a newsboy, who told us that he'd seen an attractive, dark-haired woman enter the store earlier in the night at about 8.30 PM. His description of her was only sketchy. Another hour of checking the neighborhood, and we went back to the store. Lieutenant Lee Jones and the crime lab crew finished checking over the entire layout. They went back downtown to give a thorough examination to what physical evidence that they'd found. The deputy coroner arrived and removed the body. Together with hubca and Forbes from homicide, Ben and I spent most of the next day checking with store owners in the immediate neighborhood of Wilfred's Haberdashery. They could tell us nothing we hadn't already found out. We got the description and serial numbers of the victim's missing wristwatch, notified the pawn shop detail, and got out a broadcast on it. 3.45 PM, we checked by the office. We've got a slow enough start on this thing, huh? Everybody tells it's the same store. Yeah, seems to be pretty common knowledge. You had a lot of girlfriends. I guess we better start checking out the names in that address book, huh? Sure beats all, doesn't it, Joe? What's that? Mrs. Wilfred, 10 years her husband's dating other women right in front of her. It isn't normal. Can't see why she didn't just pack up and leave. That's kind of hard to figure it out. Maybe she was still in love with him. Wonder how Forbes and hubca made out. Well, I'll check the books if we've got a call. OK. See, no? No word from him, huh? No, Lee Jones called from the crime lab wants us to check with him. I'll call him. OK, fine. 2-6-6-7, please. That's right. Guess we better check with the morgue, too, huh? See if they've got the body posted yet. Yeah. Hi, Lee, Mr. Romero. What was it? Did you get the name? I see. All right, all right, bye. What do you have? Lee talked to the coroner already. Wilfred died about nine o'clock. Cause of death was strangulation. How about those wounds on the head and on the neck? That didn't do it. The cloth died around his neck. Was it a woman's slip, all right? Yeah. Did he pick up anything off at any laundry marks? He did better than that. He got the name of the laundry. After checking for all stains and markings on the woman's slip, which had been found knotted around the murder victim's neck, Lee Jones had examined it under a special fluorescent light. He found a type of marking used by only one large laundry service in the city. We checked with the managers of the laundry company and found that the slip had been cleaned by them for a Miss Elise Dressler. She had a North Hudson Street address. We started checking on her. The first lead came from the dead man's personal address book. We found the name of Elise Dressler listed along with her address and telephone number. There was a single word scribbled beside her name and enclosed with parenthesis. It said Max. That was all. 542 PM. We drove out to the address, a Spanish-style apartment house on North Hudson. We rang, but there was no answer. The apartment manager told us Miss Dressler worked as a dancer at a nightclub on West 7th Street. Ben and I drove to the club, a high-priced theater restaurant, which was newly opened. We were told Elise Dressler wasn't due there until 9 PM. We had a cup of ham and cheese and which isn't some coffee at a lunch counter. We checked back at the club a few minutes past 9. The show was already started. We located the Dressler girl in her room backstage. She was a tall, fairly attractive blonde. We started questioning her. Can you tell us where you were last night, Miss? Yeah, all right here. I work every night at Monday. We close then. What time did you get here last night? Just about 8 o'clock. I had something to eat, and a change to my costume went to work. Do you know if Mr. Wilfred had any enemies? No. Maybe somebody was having trouble with? No. Maybe that wife of his, that's none of my business. I wouldn't know. You can't think of anybody at all who might want him out of the way. No, I don't think so. He and Max Hollins had some arguments, but that's the only time I saw Joe mad at anybody. Who's this Max Hollins? He's the man who arranged for me to come out from New York. Joe and Max have been friends for a long time. What were the arguments about, Miss Dressler, do you remember? Yeah, about me. You see, Max brought me out. He and I, I suppose, at first, he thought he owned me. He didn't think I should go out with any other men but him. Max is stubborn sometimes. Well, so am I. I like Wilfred, so I went out with him. I went out with Max, too. Well, these arguments they had about you, would you say that they were pretty mad at each other? Max and this Mr. Wilfred? Well, only last week. Max was very angry with Joe, but I think he got over it. Could we talk together later? It's almost time for me to go on. I've got to get outside. Oh, sure. Excuse me. I'll get it. We'll wait backstage here for you, Miss Dressler. Is that all right? Yeah, fine. Oh, that's all right. I still have a few minutes. Well, how about the last time you were on Wilfred's store, Miss Dressler? Can you remember that? Not exactly. At least six months ago, I hardly ever went to see Joe there. Did you ever have any occasion to leave any clothing with Wilfred in his store, maybe for a cleaning alteration? No, I never left him. Maybe it's possible they could be there. How do you mean? Well, I have some nice slips, you know. First, I sent him out. But Joe said he knew a very nice French laundry to do him. He'd come to my place, pick him up, and then take him to the laundry. Maybe he could have left him in his shop one day. Well, would anybody besides yourself have access to the clothes in your apartment, maybe a roommate? No, I live by myself. I have the only key to the door except Max Hollins. He's got one. He lives in my apartment house, the upstairs floor. Nobody else has a key. Did you send any clothing to the French laundry with Mr. Wilfred recently? Yes, they I did. Two nice slips of mine. But Joe Wilfred didn't call for him. I sent him over with Max. How'd that happen? Max said he might as well take him. He was going down that neighborhood by the habit of ashering. I wanted to see Wilfred anyway. Max said he wanted to fix up their argument. We continued questioning the dresser girl after she finished her first act at the theater restaurant. She told us that she hadn't seen Max Hollins since early the day before. She was taken downtown where she gave us a full statement. Further questioning got us the information that the argument between the two men, Joseph Wilfred and Max Hollins, over the affections of Elise Dressler, was far from settled at their last meeting. The girl admitted that it was a serious argument and that it ended up in a fistfight between the two men. She said Max Hollins was out of town for the night, but that he'd return early the next evening for work. He was employed as manager of a room service department at a large downtown hotel. 11 30 PM, Ben and I drove back to the apartment house on North Hudson. And together with a building manager, we checked Max Hollins apartment. We found nothing. The manager told us Hollins car was parked in the apartment garage, so we went down and gave it a routine check. Under the front seat, we found a paper bag with a pair of gloves in it. There were blood stains on both gloves. We dropped him off at the crime lab for examination. At six o'clock the following night, Ben and I went to the room service department of the downtown hotel where Hollins was employed. Sorry, Mr. Hollins is late this evening. He should be here pretty soon. He notified you he'd be in late? Well, he called, yes. Probably be here in 10 or 15 minutes. I'm his assistant. Can I help you? No, it's all right. We'll wait. All right. Pardon me. I wonder if we could look at your wristwatch, please. Surely, it's just a few minutes past that. No, we just want to look at the watch if we could. Oh, sure, here. Could you take it off? Like to look at the back of it if it's all right? Sure, it's all right. Here. That's looking, isn't it? Just got it yesterday. That's so. Same engraving. Agnes to Joseph. Where'd you get this watch, sir? Well, it's a matter. Where'd you get it? Max Hollins. He sold it to me. February 21st, Friday, 6.30 PM. We called the office and notified them that we'd located the wristwatch taken from the body of the murder victim, Joseph Wilfred. A stakeout was placed on the North Hudson Street apartment house. Ben and I stayed on at the hotel waiting the return of the murder suspect, Max Hollins. We talked to his assistant and found out that Hollins had a room in the hotel where he could sleep whenever he was called on to work late at night. 6.55 PM. We called the office back and asked for a couple of men to be sent over to check the suspect's room. A few minutes later, Hollins himself showed up for work. Apparently, he'd been doing some drinking. Ben and I questioned him at his desk to stall for time until the men from the office could get to the hotel and make a thorough check of the suspect's room. Hollins was kept busy on the phone taking room service orders from the hotel guests. In between calls, we talked to him. I left Elise in the apartment, and then I took the few pieces of laundry she had and dropped them off at Wilfred's store. It was about 6 o'clock Wednesday night. You mentioned to the dresser girl that you wanted to see Mr. Wilfred. You wanted to patch up an argument you'd had with him? Yes, I just wanted to make sure he didn't have any bad feelings about it. Really wasn't much of an argument. How long did you stay at Wilfred's store, Mr. Hollins? Do you remember then? 20 minutes, maybe a half hour. We talked and we had a glass of wine in the back room. No, it was upstairs. We drank the wine and everything was all right. I guess it was about half past six when I left the store. It was all right then. Well, did anybody come in the store while you were there? No, it was nobody. How about Mrs. Wilfred? Was she in the store at all during the time you were there Wednesday? No, he said she was gone for the day. She'd be back later on. We finished our talk, then I left. It was the last time I saw Joseph. It was a terrible thing for somebody to kill him. Excuse me again, please. Yes, sir. Room service, may I help you please? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Well, could I suggest the palace court salad? Very nice, yes. Part of artichokes filled with fresh crab meat, a thousand-dollar dressing, garnished with slices of avocado. All right, two orders. Some consomme, all right. French rolls, coffee, and brandy. Eight-thirteen. Yes, sir, right away. Fred, this order for eight-thirteen. Yes, Mr. Holland? That's Mr. and Mrs. Morrow, eight-thirteen. Make it quickly, please. Yes, sir. One of the best men I have, Fred. We keep a very high standard in our room service. Only the very best. They're all Geneva men. Yes, sir. Something else we'd like to find out. 21 years ago I came here to the hotel. It was nothing. They were serving garbage, bad service, very bad. I built our staff, one by one. I did it. There's our staff list there. Finest waiters in the country. Henry Sanchez, Fred LaSalle, Conrad Lutz, Joe Zwick. Yes, sir. And Elmer Creighton. He waited on the president when he came to visit here from Washington. The president thought so much of our service. He wrote a letter to Elmer later on. No argument at all. I have the best spend in the country, the best food. 21 years to make it like it is. I did it all myself. I understand you and Wilfred were old friends of Mr. Holland. You knew him quite a number of years, all right? Most of his life, yes. I knew Joseph in the old country. We came from the same town. Terrible thing that's happened. I always liked Joseph, a good friend. What about these arguments you had with him lately about the girl, Elise Dressler? Am I on anything? No, but it showed something typical of Joseph. Maybe it was the business he was in, dollars. It's all he thought about, the big dollar. He knew he had more money than I did. He thought he could do anything with it. How do you mean? About the girl, Elise. I took a visit to the old country three years ago, Strasbourg. That's where I learned my trade from the best metrodes in Europe. I met Elise on my way back in New York. You can check up on all my background. I worked at the Grand Hotel in Brussels. That's when it was the best. I was at the Carlton in London, and I went to Venice, the Hotel Danielier. After, I went to the Hotel Majestic in Cannes. Yes, sir, what would that have to do with Mr. Dressler? Very nice girl. We liked each other. When I came back here, I arranged for her to come out from New York to care of everything. I thought I'd like to marry her when she came here. How about it, Harlins? You want to tell us now? Sir? Did you kill Wilfred? Excuse me, please. Room service, may I help you please? Yes, Mr. Sutter. Dinner for 12 tomorrow night in your suite. Your wife and I made up the menu. Certainly, Mr. Sutter, I'll check it over for you. Let's see. We serve caviar with plignet to start with, then the soup, consomme, margolain, and with the soup, a monthi auto. Yes, sir, that's Spanish. Then crab legs, sandini. Sir? Sandini, that's crab legs rolled in breadcrumbs, fried and butter served in a terrapin dish with bechamel sauce. After that, the chateau brion with truffle sauce, soup-flavored potatoes, small green peas francais, and with that, we serve ponte conet 27. Dessert, we shall have peach flambé, coffee, and the curves afterwards. Yes, sir. Henry Sanchez and Conrad Lutz, they all serve you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Sutter. Good night, sir. Real gentleman, Mr. Sutter. He knows how to give it in a party. The old school. Not so many of them left now. It's not like it used to be. People aren't the same anymore. Oh, yes, Fred. What is it? A message for the officers here, Sergeant. Oh, thank you. Excuse us a minute. Oh, of course. What is it? It's from Forbes. I checked his room in the hotel. I didn't find anything. Better get him downtown, huh? Yeah. Hollands will have to ask you to come downtown. Oh, yes. Get my top coat on here. There. Out this way, Sergeant. All right. You park your car in the hotel garage? No, sir, outside on 10th Street. You go out the side door, then. This way. You're starting to rain. You both have your top coat? Yeah. Well, let's go. We're parked right down this way. What did Elise say? Elise Dressel? She said you had a fight with Wilford. You went to see him the same day it was murdered. Yes. It's terrible. It's too bad. Might as well tell you, sir. We've got the evidence. Quite a bit of it. All points to you. Oh, how is that? Well, a pair of gloves you were wearing, we found them. The wrist watch you took off the body, we found that, too. Yes. You want to tell us about it? I didn't use good sense. I didn't know what to do when I went to see him. But I didn't have it in my mind to kill him. God knows I tried to talk to him. I asked him, pleased to stay away from Elise. I asked him as a friend. Yes, sir. All he said to me was, Max, I give her a present since she likes me. I have the money to give her what she wants, Max. You haven't got the money. That's what he said to me. You had a fight with him, then? No, there wasn't any fight. I'm not sorry. I killed him, but I'm not sorry. You want to give us a statement about it downtown? I suppose. I'm not ashamed of it. All right, let's go down this way. Any man would have done the same. How could you hear such talk and not kill him? How about the wrist watch you took off of him? The money from the drawer. I wanted to hurt him more, even after he was dead, after I beat him and beat him. I knew it would be the worst way to hurt Joseph, to take his money. Here we are. In the back yard? Yeah. Sergeant. Yeah? I've told you now. I killed him. Don't you think I had a right to kill him? I wouldn't know. But he was like that. The first time you met Joseph, you would know he was bad. It was better for everybody for him to die. The first time you met him, you would know that. I'm sorry, I wouldn't know, mister. What? The only time I met him, he was dead. The horror you have just heard was true. The names were changed to protect the innocent. On June 4th, trial was held in Superior Court, Department 89, City and County of Los Angeles, State of California. In a moment, the results of that trial. Max Hollins was tried and convicted of murder in the first degree. He was executed in the lethal gas chamber at the State Penitentiary, San Quentin, California. 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.