 The story you are about to hear is true only the names have been changed to protect the innocent. Fatima cigarettes. Best of all, long cigarettes brings you dragnet. You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned to auto theft detail. A well-organized ring of car thieves begins operations in your city. It's one of the most puzzling cases you've ever encountered. Your job? Break it. You'll be amazed when you compare Fatima with other long cigarettes. You'll find they now cost the same, but in Fatima the difference is quality. You see Fatima is the quality king-size cigarette because it contains the finest domestic and Turkish tobaccos superbly blended and Fatima is extra mild with a much different, much better flavor and aroma than any other long cigarette. So compare Fatima yourself. Fatima's now cost the same as other long cigarettes, but your first puff will tell you... Ah, that's different. Yes, in Fatima the difference is quality. Ask your dealer for Fatima, the quality king-size cigarette. Best of all, long cigarettes. Start enjoying Fatima tomorrow. 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, May 11th. It was fair in Los Angeles. We were working the day watch out of auto theft detail. My partner is Ben Romero. The boss is Captain Stilson. My name's Friday. It was 8.35 a.m. when I got to room 40, Auto Theft Division. Captain's office. Morning, Friday. Morning. Hi, Joe. Ben. Want to sit down? Thank you. I was just telling Romero here and briefing all the men in the bureau on this thing. That's the reason I called you to him. Yeah. I got some figures here. I want to go over with you. All right. Does he know the percentage of all auto theft recoveries is 96 to 98 percent on the average? That's normally... Yeah. And checking the monthly averages. The past four months that percentage has dropped at a low 80s. Quite a drop. Corner Pocket thinks so too. They want some action on it. Well, we've been working on it. Absolutely no pattern to the thefts. Time, location, the method. Makes it impossible to stake out on it. Those are some of the reasons our percentage is taking such a dive. I know the problems. We all do, but we got to break this thing soon. Well, the figures we're dealing with a well-organized bunch. They know what they're doing. And cross-checking all the reports, it seems to boil down to this in general. Here's all the outstanding thefts or GM cars. Cads, Pontiacs, Chevy's, Oldsmobile. All late models. All seem to be in good condition. Low mileage car. Well, in addition to the regular broadcast and teletypes, we got out a special bulletin, honestly. That's right. All the thefts were listed, license, make, model, and color. And sent to all major cities and border patrol stations. Nothing so far. I was checking through the salvage reports. Salvage buy. Do you have the last two months, Thanksgiving March and April? Yeah, right here. I know it's the same thing. It outfitted down at San Pedro Street. Yeah, let me see. Oh, yeah. This is a composite on the report for the past two months. That's right. This one here, Herman and Salvage, 2716 West San Pedro. They seem to be a little heavy on General Motors' car, don't they? Yeah, they do. I've been watching the buys on this place for the past few weeks now. I wanted to make sure it wasn't coincidence. Well, it looks like a good place to run down, anyway. You two want to check it out? All right, fine. 2716 West San Pedro. That's it. Well, if it appears to be OK, never been out of line. Seems funny. They should deal with the top avian GM cars, doesn't it? Right when our recovery percentage takes a dive. Yeah. Do you have the last salvage report there, Kevin? Yeah, the last one. Here you are. Thank you. Yeah. Here's one for Herman's, 1949 Cadillac. A little further down, Herman's again. 47 Ohls. Yeah. There's five GM buys on the list. Herman got four out of five of them. Let's find out why. From the time an automobile is first manufactured and sold, a constant and complete record is maintained on that automobile. The certificate of ownership, the pink slip in the state of California, the certificate of registration, the white slip. These two slips of paper contain the information necessary for the positive identification of your car. The fact that every motorist knows. Now, there are many agencies that work for the protection and security of your automobile, one of these is the National Auto Theft Bureau, a kind of nationwide clearing house. Acting upon information supplied by the various insurance companies and other allied agencies, this bureau forwards all facts and figures concerning the disposition of motor vehicles on a nationwide basis. Reports are made available to all law enforcement agencies. One of the pieces of information put out by the National Auto Theft Bureau is the salvage report, listing all sales and purchases of automobiles that, for one reason or another, may have been relegated to the junkyard or to the salvage company, a fact that many motorists may not know. 9.14 a.m. Ben and I checked through the police commission and found that the owner of Herman Salvage was a Herman Lester. He had been in business at the same location for six years and appeared to be a reputable businessman. We drove down to 2716 West San Pedro to check it out. It was an average looking garage with a connecting salvage yard filled with several hundred smashed up cars of all makes and models. It was 9.32 a.m. when we walked into the garage. There's a fella there in a white shirt. Yeah, I see him. Can I help you, gentlemen? Yes, sir. Police officers. Auto theft detail. Oh, yes. I don't believe I know you, fellas. My name's Lester. This is Sergeant Friday. My name's Romero. How you do? How are you? Are you the owner here? Yeah, that's right. And whatever happened to Mack and Donovan used to drop in once twice a month. Haven't seen him for two, three weeks now. Well, they're a little busy on a special assignment. Oh, I see. Hard if we look around here? Oh, you bet. Make yourselves right at home. Anything special? No, just looking. Okay. Notice you've been pretty busy, huh? Yeah. Had a pretty good month. Salvage rackets gonna get sour again, looks like with the Korean War and all the cutbacks. Doesn't seem to have hit you so far. Well, no, not so far. Looks like it may tighten up anytime. I noticed from our salvage report you've been doing a big business in GM merchandise. Yeah, we have. You know, they're starting to build tanks back there. Now we want to make sure we wouldn't run short on parts. You get a lot of call for GM parts, do you? Oh, yeah, we sure do. Everybody in town knows if they need something for a caddy or a buick or any of those cars. This is the place to come. We're kind of built up a reputation of specializing in GM used parts. I see. Mind if we check your last few by? Fine. You have 49 Cadillac, 47 Oles, Pontiac 48, 1949 Chevrolet. I wonder if we might see those. Yes, sir. All right, out in the yard. Back this way. Oh, four of them are really bent up. Bad shape. This breaks your heart to see beautiful merchandise like that all smashed up. I don't know what people are thinking of the way they drive. Yeah. You take a new caddy, one of those new convertibles. Really beautiful merchandise. Somebody takes one out, rolls it. We pick it up and tow it down here. Beautiful car like that all rolled up in a ball. Georgia Street receiving lots. They'll probably pick it up the way. Yeah, I'm really ashamed. Here we go. There's a caddy. Oh, yeah. The Oles and the Pontiac are in that row there, you see? Yeah. And that Chevrolet wasn't it? Yes, sir, 1949. Oh, yeah. There she is over there. Third car down. Maroon, okay? Maroon one, yeah, down there. Looks like a graveyard, doesn't it? Sure does. What do you do with all these cars? Strip them down to the park? Well, at least the four-year check-in now, yeah. They're all total wrecks. Nothing much can be done with them except for parts. How about that Cadillac down there, the sedan? That one over there, can't you fix that one up? That doesn't look beyond repair from here. Oh, step around the other side here. You can't see from where you're standing. Here. The right side's all stove in. By the time you figure your place, no side panels and fenders. Tram, we couldn't come out on it. Yeah, I see now. Well, I don't know too much about it, but it'll look good from over there. Yeah, that's what we get all the time. People want us to pay top prices or stuff we can't get our money out of. If we could repair them, fix them up, resell them as a complete automobile, there'd be a lot of money in this business. You do that with some of them, don't you? Well, very few of them, I'll tell you. That's all we look for, but we don't always get lucky. Mm-hmm, I see. Say, how'd you boys like to see some really beautiful merchandise? What's that? Well, come on back in the shop. All right. Kind of a hobby of mine. Mm-hmm. Here's what keeps us busy. Plates and pink slips on the way to Sacramento for cancellation. Oh, mm-hmm. Yeah, over this way. Here we are. Take a look at this, baby. Yeah, a hot rod, huh? Oh, not exactly. We don't go in for that kid stuff racing around town. Well, sure, it looks like one. Yeah, but it's a little better than most of the kids can throw together. What did it do? We clocked her up at Murak at 112 last weekend. You know, they've been coming in here from all over town to see this car? That's all. Yeah. You ever get up to Murak to our lake? No, I never do, but that's the place for it. Running around town on those things can cause a lot of accidents. Oh, it's drag races the kids have? Yeah. We don't go in for that stuff. This is strictly scientific as far as I'm concerned. I like to build them up to see what we can make them do. Costs a lot of money, don't they? Got $5,400 in this one right now. I'm putting more into it. Mallory ignition, milled heads, twin wakefields. Here, let me start it up for you. Okay. 120 horses under there. Yeah, sounds good. This all made up out of salvage cars? Every bit of it. Buy a few things new, but most of it's right out of wrecks like those outside there. Takes a lot of talent to build up something like this from scrap, doesn't it? No, not really. After you've been at it, as long as I have, it's not too tough. The trick is to get more speed out of them than anyone else can. Yeah, you did a good job on this car, right? Oh, if you put your mind to it, you can do a lot with a wreck car. Before we left Herman's salvage, we checked all four of the GM cars that were listed on the salvage report. We made a careful check on all of the cars in the yard and in the garage, paying special attention to the few cars that were in the process of being rebuilt by Herman Lester's mechanics. We went over his records, carefully checking the disposition of all of his buys for the past several months. Everything was in perfect order. We found that in the past three weeks, Lester had taken in 10 cars. Eight of them had been stripped down for parts, and two of them had been rebuilt and re-sold. The investigation showed that four of those cars were GM cars, and the two that were re-sold were both General Motors. 11.28 a.m. Ben and I drove back to the office and asked Mac and Donovan if they'd checked through the two resale cars to make sure everything was in order as the report's indicated. We checked through on the remaining eight cars that were listed by Herman Lester as broken down for parts. According to DMV, all plates and pink slips had been returned to them for cancellation. 11.50 a.m. Well, that's it, Joe. Eight of the cars checked out, two of those were GMs. Well, that leaves just the two that Mac and Donovan are checking, huh? I don't know. Everything done there looked all right. So, since Lester wasn't holding back anything, as far as I could tell, co-operative, everything in order, if those two that Mac and Donovan are working on check out. I get a hunch they will. Seems to me Lester told us everything, everything we asked him anyway. I don't think he held back. If he did, I got an idea who might be able to tell us somebody's been left out in the cold here. What are you getting at? Well, now, if Herman's been able to buy up all those GM cars, what have the other salvage dealers been doing about it? Friends of thought. Let's check his competition. 12.40 p.m. We drove back down to West San Pedro Street. We picked out a group of salvage companies in the immediate neighborhood close to Herman's. 3209 West San Pedro, John's wrecking yard. We introduced ourselves and started to talk with the owner of John Bacon. A routine check was made of his establishment and as far as we could tell, everything appeared to be okay. And that's all you made, huh? Just that one buy? That's it. 1946 forward, we're dying a slow death. Business pretty bad, huh? Never seen it worse, at least as far as we're concerned. How do you account for that, Mr. Bacon? Oh, everything, I guess. Business bad all over at the moment. Scrap metal situations in the state of flux at the present time. And looking around, Mr. Bacon, we noticed you don't have much in the way of General Motors, though. Is that because of GM going into war production? Any cutback would eventually affect you, fellas, wouldn't it? No, no, not at all. Cutback would, sure, but there's no tremendous curtail when it's right at the present time. There's still turning out a lot of automobiles back there. Well, what's your problem? We're being outfitted, right up and down the line, by the same outfit. Who's that? Company by the name of Herman's Salvage. Just up the street there. Go out to buy a piece of merchandise. Their boys just won't let us get near it. They pay more than you do, huh? More than we can, Sergeant. I honestly don't see how they're coming out on some of their deals. It's that much out of line, huh? Certainly is. You know, whenever there's anything available, all the salvage companies get their bid in. Well, Herman simply outbids all of us. Yeah, it makes it kind of rough. I'm not the only one. Pete Larkin up the street, old man, huh? Henry next door, all of us. I don't know what we can do about it. Herman seems to be doing all right, no matter what he pays for his cars. Mm-hmm. Herman's gonna figure it out. Just judging from the number of cars he outbids us on and the number he rebuilds, I just can't see how he's coming out. But he is, huh? Figure he's laying odds on a big shortage. That's what all of us think. He's laying in a stockpile, is that the idea? Sure. What else could it be? We continued our check on all salvage dealers, both in the neighborhood of Herman Lester's place and throughout the city. Seemed to be a fact well known to most dealers, that Herman was outbidding all of them on any and all GM automobiles. The only possible explanation was that he must be trying to lay in a large stockpile of this particular make of car, 3.35 p.m. We received word from Sergeants Mack and Donovan that they had checked out the two remaining cars listed in Herman's books, the resales. Ben was right. They checked out with no discrepancy. During the next 10 days, the investigation continued. The theft of late model GM cars continued with few recoveries. Suspects were arrested in question. We could find no connection that might lead us to an organized ring of car thieves that might be responsible for the lack of GM car recoveries. The salvage reports showed no change in Herman's buying technique. Apparently, he was still dealing heavy on the one particular make of car. Thursday, May 25th. We received a teletype from DMV listing all the salvage by transfers. In making our usual daily check of this teletype, we noticed a 1949 Cadillac, engine number 59877415. It had been resold from salvage to a used car lot. That's the place right up the block. Yeah. The same Cad we saw in Herman's salvage. Yeah, it's funny, isn't it? The one in particular that I asked him about, you remember? Yeah, I remember. You thought it could be fixed up? He said no. It's only been a little over two weeks ago, hasn't it? Yeah, I try. Well, it still doesn't prove anything. Here we are. Jake's. This is the place. Yeah, there's a Cad in the front line right down there. I don't see anyone around, do you? No, I don't. Well, I guess it's hard to check the engine number anyway. Yeah, I'll get the hood released. Right. Now there we go. Yeah, the engine's had a good steam cleaning. Let's say 59877415. That's it. Herman sure did a nice job on it, didn't he? Yeah, almost looks too good, doesn't it? Just a minute. Yeah. Body serial doesn't match. Doesn't correspond with the engine model. It's a 49 body. Could be a late 49, but it's a definite switch, isn't it? It sure is. That's funny. Yeah. Look at this right side here. This was the bad side, wasn't it? Yeah, I'd try. Does it look like it's been rolled out to you? No, there's no feathering, no orange peel. Either that's the best repaint job I've ever seen or it's never been in an accident. Yeah. I'll take a look underneath. Yeah, all right. Okay. You want to move your feet there? Yeah, all right. Anything? No, nothing. There's not a seam or a joint under there. No welding marks of any kind. This car's never been in a smash-up. The engine number checks the body doesn't. And this is the one Herman couldn't fix up. Yeah, that's what he said. Maybe he changed his mind. Or he lied. You are listening to Dragnet. From beginning to end, Dragnet is the authentic story of your police force in action. Now from beginning to end, the Fatima story. Actual convincing proof that in Fatima, the difference is quality. Quality of tobaccos. The finest domestic and Turkish varieties. Extra mild and superbly blended to give you a much different, much better flavor and aroma. Quality of manufacture. Smooth, round, perfect cigarettes. Rolled in the finest paper money can buy. Manufactured in the newest and most modern of all cigarette factories. Quality even to the appearance of the bright, clean, golden, yellow package. Carefully wrapped and sealed to bring you Fatima's rich, fresh, extra mild flavor. Because of its quality, its extra mildness, its better flavor and aroma. More long cigarette smokers are now insisting on Fatima than ever before. So if you smoke a long cigarette, compare Fatima. You'll find they now cost the same. But your first puff will tell you. Ah, that's different. Yes, in Fatima, the difference is quality. Insist on Fatima. Start enjoying the quality king-size cigarette. Fatima. Best of all, long cigarettes. Nineteen forty nine Cadillac, engine number five nine eight seven seven four one five. In checking out this automobile, Ben and I had found that the engine number corresponded with the salvage report concerning Herman Lester's place. The one big item that did not jibe was the fact that the engine was now mounted in a different body than when the car left the factory. A fact that had to be accounted for in complete detail. When we had checked this automobile on the 11th of May at Herman's salvage yard, both engine and body numbers corresponded. In taking a close look at the car, it was obvious that the body had not been repaired in any way. It was clear that this particular car had not been in any kind of collision. We went back to the rear of the lot and asked one of the salesmen not to sell the car without informing us. When we got back to the office, we started rechecking all of the auto theft reports. We found five stolen Cadillacs, but all the body styles and models were different with the exception of one, a 1949 Cadillac sedan. Reported stolen on May 14th. It was registered in the name of William Brownell. We checked his home and found that he was at work. He was a superintendent for the North American Van Line. We drove over and picked him up and took him to J.P.U.'s Carl Island, Vermont Avenue. This is the car, Mr. Brownell. Well, it's just like mine, but I don't think it's the one. Are you sure? For one thing, it's a different color. My car was marooned. You want to step over here, Mr. Brownell? Well, you know, if you look very closely here on the door edging and on the jam, right here, see, this is the one place sometimes they miss with a spray gun if they're going to repaint it. Oh, yeah, there's a faint trace of red under the blue paint there. Looks like it could be marooned, doesn't it? Yeah, it does it does. This car's been repainted. It was marooned. Uh-huh. Well, mine didn't have these kind of seat covers. I'll see. Same kind of upholstery I had, though, underneath here. I don't know. Mr. Brownell, there must be something other than the color and the upholstery that you'd know your own car by. Never gave it much thought. Well, it was usually some little identifying mark of some kind. I know that on my car, the lens on the right headlight got broken and I had to replace it with one that didn't match. Something like that, sir? I see. Could I look inside there a minute? Sure. All right, here under the speedometer, there was a thumbprint pressed into the factory. It was pretty deep. No, it's not there now. And don't forget that the car's been repainted. It might have been covered up. No, this was cleared out of the metal, apparently, when they were installing the instruments at the factory. The panel wasn't dry yet. Not there now. They couldn't have covered it up unless they made a special point of it. Well, sometimes that's done. Car thieves are kind of clever. I'm sorry, gentlemen. I don't think this is my car. Don't think I don't wish it was, but it's not. Can you think of just one other thing, maybe? Just one mark of identification is all we need. No. Even these tires aren't mine. I had white sidewalls. Oh, could have been sweet. They were pretty new. Wait a minute. I think I remember something. There's no rip up there. What's that, sir? I just thought of something. The boys down in the office gave me a St. Christopher metal. You know, the large metal kind. You're supposed to bolt to your dashboard? Yes, sir. I didn't want to put it on, so I carried it around with me in the car. There was a rip up there and the interlining of the top, but she is no rip in this. Let me see. How about it, then? Yeah. Yeah, I can feel it. Does it feel like a metal? Get my pocket knife on it. Okay. What do you think? They replaced the cloth up there? Yeah. Yeah, here it is. Is this it, Mr. Brownhouse? That's it. Look on the back there. My name's engraved on it, see? Yes, sir. Well, I sure didn't think this was my car. I never would have known it. That's what the guy's figure who stole it. The 1949 Cadillac was taken to the police garage and a complete and thorough check was made. The car with the exception of the engine was positively identified as the property of William Brown L. This definitely implicated Herman Lester and showed his salvage operations to be illegitimate. He had obviously been buying one particular make of salvage automobile outbidding all his competitors to do so. When he would buy a piece of wrecked equipment, an exact duplicate would be stolen to match it. He would then dispose of the engine from the stolen vehicle and replace it with a salvage engine. With this system of operation, Herman's salvage had been enjoying a lucrative business which accounted for a great percentage of the stolen cars that we hadn't been able to recover. 7.25 p.m., May 25th, we drove out to pick up Herman Lester. His home address was listed as 8625 Wonderland Drive. It was up in the Laurel Canyon District, a heavily-witted section of Los Angeles. Pretty nice place up in there. Which you can see of it through the trees. Well, let's go. Look at that, Joe. Looks like a 50-O's. Everything there but the engine. No plates. I didn't notice that from the street, did you? Never could have seen it from down there. Looks like a garage back up in there, doesn't it? Perfect spot. Can't see any of this from the street with all those trees. Pretty fancy layout for a home garage. Good side. Somebody's working up in there. Come on. Brings you fellas right up here. Won't have a little talk with you. Oh, you bet. Come on in the house. Have a cold beer, huh? No, this'll be all right. Joe, uh, you've got a hot sheet. Yeah, right here. Kinda caught me by surprise here working out in the garage. Yeah, that figures, Lester. Least plates are from a stolen car. You sure? That's right. You remember a 49-cat lack? We looked that down at your place a couple of weeks ago. Oh, that's sure. 49-cat? That's right. Whatever became of that car. Oh, now I remember. Yeah, I saw that car to Jake's over over a month. Thought you told us you couldn't fix it up. I don't remember. You sure you don't need some other car now? No, it's the same. No, it's the same one. You know the one we mean. How about it? How about what? That was a stolen car, Lester, and you know it. That's a stolen car out there in the yard, isn't it? What's that hoist then? There he goes, Joe. All right, Lester, hold it. Stop it, stop, Joe. I'll get the cuffs, Joe. Come on, get up on your feet. All right, come on. On your feet. Stand still. Rough one, huh? Yeah. Come on, Lester. Let's go. How'd you find out who took you off? St. Christopher. Just heard was true. Only the names were changed to protect the innocent. On August 15th, trial was held in Superior Court, Department 82, City and County of Los Angeles, State of California, in a moment the results of that trial. And now, here is our star, Jack Webb. Thank you. Friends, one of the first things a detective learns is that you can't rely on snap judgments or first appearances. You get all the evidence first, and then you arrive at a decision. And that's just as true when it comes to choosing a king-size cigarette. Place a Fatima alongside any other king-size cigarette. Side by side, they'll look identical. When you smoke them, you'll find a world of difference. You'll find as I have, in Fatima, the difference is quality. Quality that gives you extra mildness, a much better flavor and aroma. If you haven't smoked Fatimas yet, buy a pack tomorrow and see if you don't agree. In Fatima, the difference is quality. You'll find as I have, in Fatima, the difference is quality. You'll find as I have, in Fatima, the difference is quality. Herman W. Lester was tried and convicted on three counts of grand theft auto and two counts of grand theft money, all sentences to run consecutively. Grand theft auto was punishable by imprisonment for a term of one to five years, grand theft money by a term of one to 10 years. The suspect was also filed on by federal authorities for violation of the Dior Act. 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. Fatima Cigarettes, best of all, Long Cigarettes has brought you Dragnet, portions transcribed from Los Angeles. Stay tuned for Counter-Spire next over many NBC station.