 Sound off for Chesterfield. Chesterfield. The only cigarette in America to give you premium quality in both regular and king size brings you dragnet. 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 robbery detail. For the past six months, the managers of large markets in your city have been the victims of a hold-up man. You thought you had the suspect in custody. You were wrong. Your job? Get him. There's only one premium quality cigarette in America available in both regular and king size. And that is Chesterfield. Premium quality in a cigarette means the world's best tobaccos, the best ingredients, the best cigarette paper. Only Chesterfield gives you this premium quality in both popular sizes. King size Chesterfield contains tobaccos of better quality and higher price than any other king size cigarette. That's certainly important to every king size smoker. Of course, it's the same fine tobacco as in regular Chesterfield. There is absolutely no difference except that king size Chesterfield is larger. Contains so much more of these premium quality tobaccos that you get more than a fifth longer smoke from king size Chesterfield. Yes, the modern way to sell cigarettes is the Chesterfield way. Premium quality both regular and king size. And either way you like them. Chesterfields are much milder. Chesterfield is best for you. 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 Saturday, March 22nd. It was cold in Los Angeles. We were working the day watch out of robbery detail. My partner's Frank Smith. The boss is Captain Didion. My name's Friday. We're on our way out from the office and it was 9.36 a.m. when we got to 4623 Linwood Bakery Shop. Yes, sir. Can I help you? Police officers, ma'am. Oh, yes, you want to see Mr. Jenkins. He's in the back. Right through that door. Thank you, ma'am. How is Mr. Jenkins? He's all right. Got a bad cut on his head. The ambulance was here. Uh-huh. Do you know if there are any witnesses? I don't know. The other officers are checking it now, I guess. About how long have they been here? I'd say 10 minutes. All right, ma'am. Thank you. Who is it? Police officers, sir. My name's Friday. It's my partner Frank Smith. Oh, what happened to the other officer? Well, he left, Mr. Jenkins. A couple of questions we'd like to ask you about this. Yeah, sure. Pull up that chair there. Thanks very much. You feel all right, sir? Yeah, I had aches a little, but I feel okay. Guy from the ambulance said I should see my own doctor. I'm no one I'm going to get time to do that. It's nothing serious. A little cut. Yes, sir. Would you tell us just what happened here? Sure. There's not much to it. What do you want me to start? Well, what time did the man come in? I see. Must have been about 6.30 this morning. I was just frying the donuts. I heard this knock on the back door and I let him in. What do you look like, sir? Just like the descriptions in the paper. That's how I know it was the black mask bandit. Had the overcoat on, the hat, and the mask on his face. Was he carrying a gun? Yeah, it looked like a .38 revolver, a long barrel. What happened then? Well, at first, I couldn't figure it. You know, I'd written a paper where he was robbing markets. I couldn't figure what he was doing in a bakery. He was alone then, huh? Yeah, at least I couldn't see anybody with him. All right, go ahead, sir. Well, he came in and sat down, told me to go ahead with what I was doing, sat right over there in that chair, leaned back against the wall and just talked. What'd he talk about, do you remember? Best of not, nothing special. Then he asked me to hand him one of the donuts I'd finished, said he wanted one of the chocolate ones. I gave it to him, he just leaned back and ate it. I see. I asked him what he wanted, why the gun, you know? Yes. He said he didn't want me to get any bright ideas. He asked me how much money I had. Yeah. He probably had about 150 bucks and he said that wasn't much. I said it wasn't, but it's all I had. Then I asked him if he was going to rob me. What'd he say to that? He said he probably would. All this time, did he keep the mask on? Yeah, he never took it off. How long was he here? Well, he got here, like I said, at 6.30. He left about 8.15, just before Vera came in. She's the one who found me. Vera? Yeah, she's the girl who takes care of the store. You probably saw her out front when you came in. Oh, yeah, sure. Go ahead. Well, I finished up with the donuts and then I asked him if he'd like a drink. I said I had some brandy locked up. Ask him if he'd like a shot. Mm-hmm. He said he would. I went over to get it. I keep it over there in that cupboard. And when I walked over, I had to walk right in front of him. Yeah. Well, you probably know it gets pretty hot in a bakery, the ovens and all. I guess he was kind of relaxed. Yeah. But when I walked by him, I grabbed his gun, took it right out of his hands, and he jumped up and told me to hand it over to him, said for me to give it back and I wouldn't get hurt. I told him he had the shoe on the wrong foot that I was calling things now. What'd he do then? Well, if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, if it hadn't happened to me, I'd never believe it. What's that? When I took the gun away from him, he looked real surprised. That's when I told him that I was a boss and he just stood up and started to walk toward me. I told him to stop. I pointed the gun at him, told him to stay where he was. Yeah. But he didn't stop. He kept coming right at me. I told him again, but he kept right on walking. And then I fired at him. Well, it wasn't any farther away from him than 10, maybe 15 feet. Didn't hit him, so I pulled the trigger again. Shot right at him six times. Right at him. He just kept walking at me. Now, first I thought the shells in the gun were blanks. And then I could see where the bullets were hitting. Well, there you can see a couple of them in the wall. I couldn't believe my eyes. I missed him every time. What'd he do right after you shot at him? When I fired the last shot, the gun clicked a couple of times. He just stopped and laughed. He said that I'd run out of bullets and I'd better give the gun to him. Did you? Yeah, I threw it at him as hard as I could. I missed him then, too. The gun hit the floor and I could see the sparks fly, and then he picked it up and came after me. I didn't think I'd be in much trouble. He looked so little. But when he grabbed at me, I knew I'd had it. That man had hands like a vice. He grabbed my arm and hit me on the head right here. He knocked me out. He came, too, and Vera came in. The guy was gone, so was the money. Where'd you keep this money? In my pocket. I had it in my wallet. I don't usually put it in the cash register until Vera gets in. I see. Now, you said that when the gun hit the floor, you saw the sparks fly from it, is that right? Yeah. You know, like when you hit a piece of flint with another rock, like the Boy Scout. Yeah. I like that. Did you notice if the gun seemed damaged in any way? No, I didn't have time to notice anything. Right after that, he hit me. I wonder if he'd give us a description of the man. Sure. Like I told the other officers, he was a little man, real old. How old would you say? Oh, maybe 50 or so, not any younger. You're pretty sure about that, are you? Yeah. About how tall? Maybe 5'2". Not any more than that. Kind of hard to tell with that big coat on. It looked like it was 5 or 6 sizes too big. It looked kind of funny at first, then you realized who he was, and it wasn't funny anymore. Mm-hmm. I wasn't too scared of him when I first saw him, even when he came at me, but when he grabbed my arm, I knew I had trouble. Yes, sir. I still can't understand. There's six shots, and I didn't hit him once. I tell you, the guy's not human. Well, he's scoring pretty good for a ghost. 10.02 a.m. The crew from the crime lab came out and went over the bakery. Ray Pinker removed the slugs from the wall on the floor and took them back to the lab. The bandit, as usual, had worn gloves, so there was no possibility for fingerprints. The search of the neighborhood failed to turn up any new leads. None of the people in the immediate area had seen anyone answering the description of the black mask bandit. Additional supplementary bulletins were gotten out, and all of the cars in the surrounding vicinity were alerted. The stats office had made run after run on the M.O. of the bandit. The leads they gave us were all checked out. All gunsmiths were alerted in the event that the suspect's weapon had been damaged and that he might try to have it repaired. All leads were checked and rechecked. They netted us nothing. Informants were questioned and re-questioned. The plan that had been worked out for checking with the managers of the supermarkets in the city was continued. Three weeks passed. The bandit hit again. This time, a market just outside of Eagle Rock. The M.O. was the same as it had been used in the previous robberies. However, in this one instance, the market didn't have a storage refrigerator, so the thief locked the manager in a back room. In locking the door, the suspect had taken off his gloves and latent prints was able to lift a partial print from the doorknob. It wasn't enough for classification, but Bergman said that if we apprehended the man, he'd be able to identify him for us. June came and went. July, August. The bandit had been operating without interference for almost a year. He'd widened his theater of operations. Reports had come in from San Francisco to Stockton, from San Diego to Pomona. In each case, the suspect seemed to know what markets were being staked out, and he stayed away from them. The legwork continued without result. Tuesday, August 19th. Frank and I checked back into the office. Man, I never see it to fail. Every time we have lunch at Sal's, I eat too much. Yeah, he puts out a good lunch, doesn't he? Too good. Want to check the book? All right. Anything? I'll call from Jerry. Inform it? Yeah. He says he can't get with me tonight. He'll call in the morning. Righty? Smith? Yeah, Skipper. One idiot with you. Right away. Sit down. All right. Well, what is it? You guys been on this black mess thing how long now? That's going on a year, isn't it? You're no closer to him than you were when you started. Not much. You know you're tying up half a minute metro. You got this town covered like a blanket, and you still can't turn the guy. We're doing everything we can, Skipper. We've been here for the last six months, and I wasn't going to buy that anymore. I mean it this time. Just exactly what have you got on the guy? I think you know it just as well as we do, Skipper, description MO, even the partial print Bergman lifted from that place out in Eagle Rock. We've been over it a hundred times. It isn't a lead that we haven't run out and then checked over again. Nothing new on the information from Folsom? No, nothing. We've had 5,000 circulars printed. They're scattered all over the country. Doesn't look like the guy's ever done time before. The way it works, you'd think he knew exactly what we were doing. We cover the markets, he hits the bakeries. We cover the bakeries in LA, they cover the stores, then he hits up north. Where we are, he ain't. How about the car, the Ford? No, nothing. We got no license. You ever hear anything on the damaged gun? No, he never tried to have it fixed that we can find out about. He's gotten ahold of another gun in some place. The latest reports say he's using a revolver with a two-inch barrel. Well, where do you stand now? I don't know. We got every store from La Siena got Alameda covered, from Hollywood Boulevard South to Jefferson. Big area? Yeah, it's a lot of stores too. There's a cruiser car, or a cop-in, or near every large store and bakery in that area. Every police unit in the city is looking for the guy. If he hits again, we should get him. Friday? Yeah, Murr. A call just came from Wilshire. I figure you want it. Here you go. Thank you. What is it? We got the whole town waiting for him with open arms. Everything's set and he pulls a switch. What is it, Friday? The black mask bandit. He's going in for kidnapping now. The local broadcast stated that the manager of one of the big supermarket chains in the city had been taken from his home about 2.30 in the morning. The bandit forced him to drive to the store and open the safe. The thief then bound the manager and left the premises. The manager gave us a complete description of the bandit and locals and APBs were gotten out on him. In this instance, the thief didn't use his own car. He forced the manager to drive his car to the market. The manager told us that when they'd left the house, he hadn't seen any other cars on the streets. Tuesday, August 19th, 5.20 p.m. Frank and I got in touch with Lieutenant Dick Tiernan of the Sheriff's Robbery Squad. Together with him, we worked out a plan to try to keep the homes of the managers under surveillance. In addition to this, men from the sheriff's department aided in canvassing the houses of the owners and managers. Each car was assigned three houses, while other cars covered three markets each. A month passed. The black mask bandit hit five times, each time in areas which were not under direct surveillance. Friday, September 26th, 5.20 a.m. we got a call at home that there had been another kidnapping, this time an elderly market manager and his wife. Frank and I drove out to see them. The radio unit had returned them to their home. Yes? Mr. Gunther? That's right. Police officers, Mr. Gunther. Oh, yes. You have some sort of identification? Yes, sir. Here's my ID card. My name's Friday. This is my partner, Frank Smith. How do you do? Come into the living room, won't you? Thank you very much, sir. Sit down. Hope you didn't mind my asking about your identification, just that the way things have been happening, you can't be too sure. Yes, sir, we understand. I wonder if you'd mind telling us what happened. Sure. Awful thing. Awful. Just can't believe that a man these days would do a thing like this. Seems that he'd know not to be so cruel. Yes, sir. Just what did happen? Well, last night, it must have been about 2 or 2.30, I woke up with this flashlight shining in my eyes. First, I didn't know what it was. Just this real bright light, you know? Yes, sir. Well, right away, of course, I knew there was somebody else in the room. About that time, Agnes woke up. Agnes is my wife. Yes, sir. Anyway, she woke up, wanted to know what was going on, I told her I didn't know. All this time that light didn't move. Just stayed in one place and showing right my eyes. Yes, sir. And we heard this voice tell us to get out of bed. Said he wanted me to go with him. I told him to get out of the house that I didn't want any trouble. If he wanted money, he'd find all we had in the house right on the dresser with my wallet. Could you see who the person was, sir? No, not then, the light and all. But I got out of bed and then I could see a little old man with a black mask over his eyes. How could you tell his age, sir? Well, just could, that's all. Little, beady eyes. And his mouth mean. Never saw a mouth like that on a young man. His voice was old, I could tell. Yes, sir. Well, he told me to get dressed. Said that I should hurry up about it. What was the arm? Could you tell that? Yes, I could see it. He was holding a gun. All this time Agnes was yelling at him to get out of the house. She's not well, you know. Yes, sir. Agnes, she has a bad heart. Been to the doctor for years. Takes pills and medicine. That's the big reason that I did what he said. I didn't want there to be any trouble to get Agnes excited. I understand. Well, finally I told him if he'd get out of the room and leave her alone, I'd do what he wanted. Not to give him any cause to hurt anyone. Then he did about the meanest thing he could have done. Told Agnes to get out of bed. Said for her to get up and get dressed and go with us. Just can't understand why he'd want to do a thing like that. Just plain meanness. Yes, sir. Did your wife do what he said? Well, at first she said she wouldn't do it. Really told him off. I thought he'd maybe get mad and hit her. He was mean enough to do it. And finally I asked her to do what he wanted. Figured that'd be the easiest way of getting him out of the place. I thought that maybe I could talk him out of taking her with us, but I couldn't. He made you leave the house, then? Yeah, told me to get the car out of the garage and then he and Agnes get in the back seat. Made me drive down to the store. Did you notice any other cars in the area? Any cars parked near your house that weren't usually there? No. On the way to the store, though, I saw a police car. I thought about trying to attract their attention. He must have thought about it too, though. Why'd he say that? Well, he told me that if I did anything he'd call attention to us. He'd kill Agnes. I think he would have, too. I didn't do anything to get him upset. Yes, sir. Well, we got to the market and he made me open the safe and then he took the money and tied us up. I begged him not to tie Agnes. I've never done that before, Sergeant. I'm 52 and I've never begged a man for anything. But I did this time, begged him not to kill Agnes. I knew that if he tied her up, like he said he was going to, the killer pleaded with him, but he didn't do any good. Tied her up and put that tape over her mouth. One thing I can say for him, though, just one, he called the police and told him where we were. If he hadn't done that, I think we'd have both died. Agnes almost suffocated. Where's your wife now, Mr. Gunther? In the other room. Doctors with her. He gave her a sedative. Awful thing, Sergeant. I just don't know how anyone could be that mean. Just one reason we can think of. What's that? He's had a lot of practice. 11.30 a.m., we talked to Mrs. Gunther. She told us pretty much the same story that we'd gotten from her husband. The police car in the area was contacted, but they reported that they hadn't noticed the Gunther car. The unit that was patrolling the area around the store was contacted. They reported that they had checked the store at 3.15 a.m. At that time, there were no lights and no suspicious cars in the vicinity. The black mask bandit had been working for over a year. In that time, he'd robbed 59 stores that we knew of. His theater of operations had taken him from Northern California right down to the Mexican border. From the desert to the beach, he'd stolen approximately a half a million dollars. The entire nation had received communications carrying the description of the suspect. The entire facilities of the police and sheriff's departments in Los Angeles were devoted to apprehending him. Thousands of man hours had gone into stakeouts and searches. None of them produced any results. As the case grew in importance, robbery detail began to get an average of 30 calls a day from well-meaning citizens with information. Every lead, no matter how remote, had to be checked out. This meant more hours of legwork and interrogation. Every officer in the Southland was looking for the bandit. Every car and motorcycle on the streets had his description. None of it did any good. Thursday, October 2nd, 11.05 p.m. Frank and I checked back into the office. Well, there's another one that didn't go any place. Yeah, you want to fill out the reports? I'll check the book. Yeah. Never fails, does it, Joe? What's that? Oh, something like this one comes along. Some people use it to get back at their neighbors. Take that deal tonight. Pretty silly, huh? I'd like to know who gave us that tip. There's something kind of sneaky about anonymous phone calls. Well, we'd miss a lot of breaks if we didn't get them. Yeah. You figure we're ever going to nail this guy? Who knows? I'm getting a little punchy. Every time we miss him, we get another pasting. Have you read the papers lately? Where do you got to expect that, Frank? You're probably calling it the way it looks to them. There's only one way to answer, miss the nail, I got it. Robert, it's Friday. Yeah, that's... What's that? Can you speak a little louder? I can't... That's better. What? Uh-huh. When does this happen? Yeah, what's the address out there? Yeah, the street. Now give me the number. That's right. All right, you bet. We'll take care of it. Right, bye. Looks like something here. Market manager's son. Yeah? Says someone's just kidnapped his father. You are listening to Dragnet, the authentic story of your police force in action. The modern way to sell cigarettes is the Chesterfield way. Premium quality in both regular and king size. And we're the only one that does it. We tell you what Chesterfields are made of to give you that premium quality in both popular sizes. Our scientists select the best materials. They select for Chesterfield the world's best tobaccos, blend them just right. And they keep Chesterfields tasty and fresh with the best of moistening agents. Now here's something else that's completely modern about Chesterfield. People smoke Chesterfield and we tell you what happens, scientifically but simply. A medical specialist is making regular bimonthly examinations of a group of people from various walks of life. 45% of this group have smoked Chesterfield for an average of over 10 years. After eight months, the medical specialist reports that he observed no adverse effects on the nose, throat and sinuses of the group from smoking Chesterfield. I'd say that means real mildness. And finally, we ask you to try Chesterfield and prove what we say. Chesterfield is best for you. They're much milder to give you all the pleasure that the modern cigarette can give. 1123 p.m. Frank and I checked the manager's name on the list. We got the address and seven minutes later we pulled up in front of the store. In the rear of the store, we could see two men. One was dressed in a bathrobe, the other in a large overcoat with a brown hat pulled down over his eyes. Part in front of the store was a dark blue 1951 Lincoln. We checked the car and found that it bore the registration of Donald Anderson, the manager. Frank went around to the rear door of the market and I covered the front entrance. We waited. At 1142 p.m. the bandits started for the front door. All right, Mr. Police Officer, hold it up there. Come on, drop the gun. Give it up. Defense, Joe. All right, come on, Mr. Give it up. Yeah, come on, let's get over this. He's not over here. No, we missed him. He must have got over that wall. I'll get back to the car and notify the radio units. All right. You think you hit him? Yeah, here it is. Hold it, Joe. Here. See? By the fence. Oh, yeah. Blood stains, quite a few of them. I'll stay here and check. Okay, I'll be right back. Watch yourself. Unit 1K80 to control one. Unit 1K80 to control one. While attempting to arrest market bandit during commission of robbery, he exchanged fire with suspect. Suspect is known to be wounded. Suspect armed, use caution. Suspect seen fleeing on foot. All cars and area converge on corner figure-o and wood lawn. Suspect described as WMA. 50 to 55 years. 130 to 140 pounds. Block off area at Vernon to Slosson. At Vernon to Slosson. And from figure-o to main. Suspect last seen going through houses at 49th and figure-o. That's 4-9 in figure-o. Roger 1K80. Attention, all units. Attention, vicinity of 49th and figure-o. Robbery suspect wounded while attempting robbery to market. Suspect described as WMA. 50 to 55 years. 130 to 140 pounds. Block off area at Vernon to Slosson. Vernon to Slosson. And from figure-o to main streets. Suspect last seen going through houses at 49th and figure-o. Unit 1K80 to control one. Unit 1K80 to control one. Suspect is known to be armed. Approach with caution, use caution. Unit 1K80 to control one. KMA-367. Suspect at 49th and figure-o. Known to be armed. Approach with caution. Repeat. Approach with caution. What do you figure, Frank? He's in here someplace. Let's find him. In the next three hours, 37 police cars combed the area. Every possible hiding place was investigated. A house-to-house search was started. Citizens were asked to lock their doors and open their homes to no one. In one of the yards, we found the hat and coat worn by the suspect, but apparently he'd made good his escape. Broadcasts were gotten out to the entire city, putting them on the alert. Additional officers were sent to the blockaded area to help with the search. Captain Didion came out from the office to direct the operations. 3.30 a.m., the area had been checked and rechecked. No sign of the suspect. Frank and I went back to our car. I don't know, Joe. The guy's got his jinxed. Seems like everything we do, he's got to speak. It doesn't make much sense, does it? We got to turn him sometime. Yeah, we've been saying that for a year. Didion was sure in a rare mood tonight. Mommy's got trouble with his stomach again. I'm going to have trouble with mine if this keeps up much longer. Joe, the car. Yeah, take the other side of it. All right. All right, come on out of the car, mister. Come on, we know you're there. Get out. Come on, throw that gun out here. You can't go anywhere. Give it up before you get killed. I ain't coming out. Don't you try. Come after me. You haven't got a chance. I dropped that gun. No more shells. I can't fight anymore. I quit. I quit. Please don't shoot anymore. All right, throw that gun out here. Come on. All right, now get out of the car. Keep those hands up. Put them behind your head. All right, come on over here. Turn around. Put your hands against the car. Straight out in front of you. I'll take it. Hey, you're going to call an ambulance for me. I'm hurt. Can't you see I'm a hurt? Are you going to do anything for me? Please, clean, Joe. Right here. Here. Get your hands behind you. I'm going to put on a call for the ambulance. Try it. You didn't have to shoot. I would have stopped if I'd known you was cops. You got trouble with your ears? No. We told you we were officers. You built this thing. We just went along with you. That lousy deal anyway. I should have stopped. I should have quit when I was ahead. If I'd have stopped, you guys would have never caught me. Never. They're on the way, Joe. Go ahead. What's your name, mister? Jerry. Jerry Rogers. How old are you? 35. All this time we're looking for an old man. How do you figure it, Joe? I don't know. Gray hair, big overcoat, and mask. Witnesses didn't get too good a look at him. Yeah. You ever been arrested, Rogers? Yeah, once. Is that ambulance ever going to get here? It's coming. What'd you fall for? Huh? What were you arrested for? Drunk driving. Oh, I should have quit. I should have laid off. Man, it's too bad you didn't figure it that way a little sooner. Look, I don't want any morals. What's that ambulance going to get here? Don't worry about it, Rogers. Huh? You've got a lot of time. The story you've just heard was true. The names were changed to protect the innocent. On February 4th, trial was held in Department 87, Superior Court of the State of California, in and for the county of Los Angeles. In a moment, the results of that trial. Now, here is our star, Jack Webb. Thank you, George Fenerman. Let me tell you again why Chesterfield is best for me and for you. Now you have scientific evidence on the effects of smoking. No adverse effects on the nose, throat, and sinuses of the group from smoking Chesterfield. And remember, Chesterfield is the only cigarette to give you premium quality in both regular and king size. I'd like you to buy Chesterfields and prove that Chesterfield is best for you. Regular or king size, they're much milder to give you all the pleasure the modern cigarette can give. Gerald Stephen Rogers was tried and found guilty of 12 counts of robbery in the first degree and four counts of kidnapping. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in the state penitentiary San Quentin, California. Ladies and gentlemen, the National Safety Council reminds you to make sure your car is really in shape for winter driving. Check headlights, windshield wipers, tires, and brakes. And then winterize your driving. Get the feel of the road when you start out. Keep well behind the car ahead. Instead of slamming on brakes and starting a skid, pump your brakes to slow down or stop. And always take your time in winter time. 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. Technical advisors Captain Jack Donahoe, Sergeant Marty Wynn, Sergeant Fance Brescher. Heard tonight were Ben Alexander, Ralph Moody, Harry Bartel, Jack Kruschen. Script by John Robinson. Music by Walter Schumann. Hal Gibney speaking. Sound off for Chesterfield. Either way you like them, regular or king size, you'll find premium quality Chesterfields much milder. Chesterfield has brought you Dragnet transcribed from Los Angeles. Tonight it's adventure with Barry Craig, confidential investigator on NBC.