 The story you're about to hear is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent. Dragnet. You're Detective Sergeant. You're assigned a homicide detail. A young girl has been found in a cheap hotel room apparently in attempted suicide. There's reason to suspect foul play. Your job, investigate. It was Thursday, November 19th. It was Warman, Los Angeles. We were working the day watch out a homicide detail. My partner's Frank Smith. The boss is Captain Warman. My name's Friday. We just got in a call from Georgia Street receiving hospital. And it was 946 a.m. when we got to the second floor. The treatment room. Yes? Would you like to see Dr. Hall, please? Come in, Joe. Joe, Frank. Hi, Doc. Is this the girl? Yeah. How's she doing? I'm not sure yet. Just finished the transfusion. And when are you going to know? If we think she's going to live, but there's no way of telling right now how much damage has been done to the brain tissue. Bad bruise on her face. Must have received a bad blow. It might have gotten it when she fell. Let's go outside. Now, I can use the smoke. OK. Well, if there's any change, I'll be out in the hall. All right. You've got a cigarette. I'm fresh out. Yeah. Here you are. Frank? Yeah, thanks. Here's a man. I didn't know you gave transfusions in cases like this, Doc. Well, I have to very often. You see, a thing like this, the carbon monoxide in the gas joins with the hemoglobin in the red cells. It won't let go. Blood takes the monoxide to the system and suffocates the brain tissue. We've given her some chloramine, helps speed up the heart action. Wait, look, she's got a good chance of living, but we won't know how bad it really is until later. It's a rough one, isn't it? You find out who she is? Well, according to the stuff we found her wallet, her name's Mona Fenton. Another thing that doesn't make much sense, Doc, she registered into the hotel as Mrs. John Norris. There's a way we can find out she wasn't married. How'd you come up with that? Well, when the office got word about it, we tried to get in touch with her husband. We called the phone number on the ID that we found in her wallet. Talked with her mother. She's just a girl single. Well, how about the guy she was with? Have you been able to talk to him? No. Haven't found out who he is? Name doesn't check out, huh? Not that we can find. How about the mother? She give you anything? Let me just talk to her for a minute. We're going over there when we leave here. Maybe she can come up with some answers. I sure hope so. Couple more questions you can ask her? Yeah, what's that? Find out if the girl's been under a doctor's care. What do you mean? Checked her over when she came in and found Marx. On her arm? Yeah, I think she's an addict. At 8.30 a.m. that morning, a guest in the small hotel on Grand Avenue had thought that he detected the odor of gas in the halls of the building. He notified the desk clerk and together they conducted a search of the premises. Finally, they ascertained that the escaping gas was coming from a room on the third floor of the hotel. When the desk clerk got no answer to his calls, he used a pass key to open the door. Sprawled across the bed was a girl who appeared to be in her early 20s. The gas heater in the room had been turned on full and the windows were closed, locked and stuffed with pieces of torn sheets to keep the fumes in the room. The quick action of the desk clerk had undoubtedly saved the girl's life. While a hotel guest called an ambulance, the clerk turned off the gas, opened the windows and administered artificial respiration to the girl until the ambulance crew arrived. As an attempted suicide, the homicide detail had to make an investigation. Frank and I were assigned to the case. After we talked to Doc Hall at Georgia Street receiving hospital, we drove down to the hotel where the girl had been found. Right in here. Anybody been in this room since the other officers left? No, sir, told me to lock it until you could see it. All right, sir. This is just the way you found it, is that right? Well, yes, of course. The gas has turned off and I opened the windows, but everything else is the same. I see. From what you said on the phone, she came in last night, is that right? Yes, sir, at least that's what the registration book says. They checked in at 10.15. Did you take care of them? No, I was out to dinner when they got here. Who checked them in? Jeff, Jeff Christensen. See you around? No, not right now. He'll probably be back tonight. You know where we can find him? I don't know. See, Jeff got paid last night because his week's wages last I saw. I mean, he's on his way out on the town with some of his friends. Jeff goes out on the town. Maybe we don't see him a couple of days. I see. But you figure he'll be back tonight, huh? Oh, yes, yes. Jeff only worked a couple of days last week, so he couldn't go on much of the town. Did you see the man we spent and came in with? No, I didn't. He was already in the room when I got back from dinner. I checked the book. I got the money from Jeff before he left. The man must have gone out sometime earlier this morning. I guess I was asleep. My room just back from the desk. Well, I must have got out while I was asleep. I see. Did you get any calls from the room at all? Not a one. Like I told those uniformed officers to be here, I didn't see them at all. Not a peep of them. Matter of fact, I was thinking how nice and quiet they were. But the way the room books, they sure must have had some sort of argument. Yes, sir. But you know if they brought any baggage with them? Matter of fact, I know they didn't. Sure looks like they did some heavy drinking, don't it? Mm-hmm. Glasses, that model's almost empty. Yeah. I'd rather he wouldn't take the bottle. Oh, yeah, yeah, well, I'm... Say, you talk to the girls' people yet? No, sir, we haven't. But you're planning to see them, aren't you? Yes, sir. Yeah, I wonder if you'd do me a favor. You know when you see a people? Yes, sir, what's that? Well, I don't much mind the dirty glasses and having to straighten the room up. That's all part of the hotel business. But I wish you'd say something about the torn sheets. Tell the people about them. I don't want to cause no trouble, but maybe if they know how about the sheets were all torn up, they'd want to make good on them. You will mention it, won't you? Yes, sir. I'll call the office, Joe. Have them send out a crew. See what prints we can let. All right, fine. Who else has a path here to this room? Well, you mean beside me? Yes, sir. Well, there ain't nobody. Where's the key kept? That hangs on a nail next to the desk. That big nail there hangs right on it. When you came into the room, did you notice that there was anything around the door to keep the gas inside? I don't follow you. Well, you found pieces of torn sheets around the windows, you say. Now, was there anything like that but the door? Oh, oh, yes. I'm with you now. Yeah. Well, let me think. Does I remember? No, no. There wasn't nothing there just around the windows. Was the key in the lock when you came up here? You mean inside the room? Yes, sir. That's right. No, no. The reason I know that for sure is that I looked through the keyhole. I had to see what was in the room. Oh, sir, the key wasn't in. Of course, I don't mean nothing. Sir? Well, only a couple of the rooms have keys anyway. We don't use them anymore. You mean you don't lock the doors? Sure, we lock the doors. We got them all locked all the time. This is a respectable hotel. Of course, we lock the doors. But not with those keys. We got those other locks on the doors. Oh, I see. You see, yeah. See there? Sort of like Yale locks? That kind, you know. That's what locks the doors, not the other keys. Yes, I see. Of course, we lock the doors. Yes. The locks catch when the doors closed, though. Is that right? Yeah, locks them tight. I got in touch with Lee Jones, Joe. He sent a crew right over. Good. Now, check with Doc Hall. How's the girl? Oh, she's coming along. Doc says she's doing better. These fellas that you're going to have roaming around here, what's this all about? Is something wrong? We're not sure yet, sir. Oh, dear, dear. It always happens like this, don't it? What's that, sir? I try to run a respectable place. Goodness knows what I do. I keep it right off the date. It's good service and something like this happens. There's no reason for that girl to do a thing like this, not in my hotel. Now you cops coming here. Cops going to be all over the place. Tenants aren't going to like it. They ain't going to like it at all just because of that girl. Why'd she have to come in here and do a thing like this? Why'd she have to do it at all, sir? 1126 a.m. We questioned the people in the hotel. None of them could remember hearing any undue noise coming from the room where the girl had tried to kill herself. Normally, the investigation would have been routine, but with the possibility of foul play, we had to check every angle and then check it again. The crew from the crime lab arrived and went over the room. Under the bed, they found an empty capsule, the type commonly used to dispense heroin. They also came up with a clean set of fingerprints on both glasses. They were photographed, and the water glasses themselves were removed to the crime lab to be booked as evidence. The registration card the couple had signed was turned over to Don Meyer in handwriting. The name was checked through our record bureau, through the phone book and through the city directory, but when the leads were checked out, we were no further in knowing who the man was who'd taken the room with Mona Fenton. Word was left at the hotel for the handyman to contact us as soon as he returned. Word was also left that if the man who'd registered with the Fenton girl returned, we were to be called. 1145 a.m. The men from the crime lab finished their investigation and returned to the office to compile the results. Frank and I left the hotel and drove out to the address listed on the girl's identification. It was a large white colonial home near one of the colleges. We rang the doorbell and waited. Yes. Miss Fenton. Yes, that's right. What is it you want? Police officers would like to talk to you. Oh, come in. Thank you. It's about Mona, isn't it? Yes, ma'am. I knew something like this would happen. I knew it all along. Will you find it? She first had this crazy idea. When she first told me about it, I knew. Kids, try to tell them. Just try and they tell you that times have changed. They say that you're not keeping up with the time. They know it all. Nobody can tell them anything. But what idea is this, Mrs. Fenton? When she wanted to quit school and take the job in that drive-in restaurant, the most ridiculous thing I ever heard of. Nobody could talk her out of it, Lord knows I tried. I knew something like this, F. I just knew it. Yes, ma'am. Do you know any reason why your daughter might want to take her own life? Are you a policeman, too? Yes, ma'am. I'm Frank Smith. This is my partner, Joe Friday. You do. How do you know? Do you know any reason why your daughter might want to kill herself? It's a little hard to say, Mr. Friday. What's that? Mona and I had quite an argument about her leaving school. It was one of those silly things that starts and gets all out of hand, you know. We both have pride, and neither one of us was going to back down. Okay. I haven't seen Mona to talk to for over a month. So she lives here, ma'am? Yes, she does, Mr. Smith. There's an outside entrance to her room. She comes and goes as she pleases. Doesn't eat a meal here, so I hardly ever see her. You know if she's been under a doctor's care? No, I don't think so. Why do I have to ask that? Or is your daughter a diabetic? No, she isn't, Mr. Friday. Well, these questions about Mona and a doctor, what are you trying to find out? Does your daughter have any special boyfriends, Mrs. Finn? She did have. Who is that? Richard Burdick, nice boy. Mona and he were planning to get married when they got out of school. And along with everything else, that just blew up. Everything seemed to go all at the same time. Did your daughter have any trouble with this, Burdick? No, nothing you could call real trouble. But they agreed to disagree. With Mona's idea, Richard didn't want anything to change. He was very much in love with her. Does he know about this? I don't think so, Mrs. Fenton. We haven't told him. I don't know what he's going to do when he hears about it. He's going to hit him awfully hard. He's the sensitive type. Does your daughter have any close friends that she might confide in? I suppose she does. She's talked about some of the girls where she worked. Would you give us her names, please? Oh, yes, I will. I'll write them down for you if there's anything I can remember. All right, fine. Has your daughter been in good spirits lately? As far as I know, yes. She's always seemed happy enough when I saw her. I told you we hadn't said much more than hello the last month, but she seemed happy. You said that she broke up with this Burdick boy, is that right? Yes. But when was that? Six weeks, two months ago. You know what caused it? Good job. All the other things. Mona kept making dates with him and then breaking them at the last minute. I guess Richard just got tired of being stood up. Well, does he and your daughter have any arguments? Did you know that? No. It's decided that it wouldn't work out for them. They just decided to stop seeing each other. Did your daughter have any other steady boyfriends, anyone that she saw quite a bit of, maybe? Well, there was one boy. He was quite a bit older than Mona. She saw a lot of him the last couple of weeks. Know who we was? No, I never met him. I only saw him once. What if he could describe him for us? No, I'm afraid I can't. He drove by for Mona one night, couldn't pick her up for a date. Parked out in front of the home. I see. I went to the front door to tell him to come in. Mona wasn't ready yet, but he wouldn't. Just sat out there and waited. I didn't get a good look at him. Could you describe the car for us? Not good. It was one of those foreign cars, a convertible. I think it might have been a Jaguar. I'm not sure about that, though. But you're sure it wasn't an American automobile. Yes, I'm sure about that. How about the color of the car? Can you tell us that? It was awfully dark out there. I'm not sure. I'd rather not say, Officer, if I can't be sure, you understand that. I wouldn't want to tell you something, and then have it turn out to be wrong. You can understand that, can't you? Yes, ma'am. Did you see Mona this morning? Yes, we did. Is she all right? They think so, yeah. Aren't you sure? Well, when we talked to the doctor, they were doing everything they could. They seemed to think that she was going to be all right. Thank God. It's so hard, Mr. Friday, to know that your child is sick, that she tried to kill herself. Do you want to go to her and not be able to? It's so hard. Try to take it easy if you can, Ms. Benton. If you'll just give us the names of the girls that she might know, we'll be on our way. Yes, I'll write them for you. Thank you. Excuse me? Shirley? Hello? Yes, it is. Are? Yes, they're here, just a moment. For you. I'll get it, Jim. I'll get those names for you, Mr. Friday. All right, fine. Did your daughter ever refer to this man on the foreign car by name? No, I don't think she did. All I know is that whenever she went out with him, it was the big date of the bunch. How often did she see him? Maybe a couple of times a week. Might have been more. I had no way of knowing what she was doing. She kept pretty much to herself when she met him, but I could tell he was the big thing in her life. He was it. Oh, yeah. See a minute? Yes, excuse me, Ms. Benton. I'll finish this list. Thank you. Yeah, call us from Jack's Myers at the office. Yeah, just removed her to the dental hospital. Yeah, she had a relapse. I don't think she's going to live. We obtained the name of the drive-in restaurant where the Fenton girl was employed. We also got the names of the girls that she worked with and the address of her boyfriend, Richard Burdick. Mrs. Fenton also gave us a list of names of persons who might be able to aid us in the investigation. Under further questioning, a mother was still unable to furnish us with a motive for a daughter's attempt to take her own life. The apparent lack of a motive or any type of a suicide note coupled with the bruise on the girl's chin made the likelihood of falling. 12.57 p.m. We left the Fenton home and drove over to the drive-in. We stopped on the way and put in a call to the office. There still hadn't been any report of the handyman at the hotel. The only person who could give us a description of the man who registered at the place with the Fenton girl. When we got to the drive-in, we asked about a Peggy Greason, one of the girls on the list. After a few minutes, the girl came over to our car. You want to see me? You Peggy Greason? Yeah, why? We'd like to ask you some questions about Mona Fenton. Well, you guys. Police officers would just like to talk to you. I've got to get it okayed with the manager. I'm on duty now, lunchtime. Pretty busy. I've got to get it okayed. I'll take care of it. All right, fine. I'll check with the manager, just right. This isn't going to take long. I've got a couple of customers waiting for orders. My partner will take care of it. I ain't the manager knowing that worries me. It's the tips they're going to leave. Make what I do and the tips are important. Yes, ma'am. It's all this about Mona anyway. What are the cops after her for? Well, she tried to kill herself this morning. Mona? Yeah. Why? Why? Why'd she do a thing like that? I always thought maybe you could help us there. Why me? I haven't got anything to do with it. Well, we understand you're pretty friendly with it. Oh, sure. I was a friend of Mona's, but I don't know anything about no suicide. I don't know anything about it, and I don't want to. Do you know any reason she might try to take her own life? Not a reason in the world. Not Mona. Do you know if she was under a doctor's care for any reason? Right. You know? I mean, I don't know. It's insane thing about it. I never said a word. Why? Well, that's what we're trying to find out. Can you think of any enemy she had? Anybody who might have wanted to hurt her. How far is this going to go? Well, how do you mean, Miss? I mean, he's going to hear about this. He's going to hear the answers I'm going to give you. Well, no one. Not what he got for it. Well, I'll give you this for free. If anything happened to Mona, you go talk to Dick Burdick. Talk to him. He'll be able to tell you. Why do you say that? Because it's true. No other reason. It's a real bum. You asked me, I think there's something wrong with him. You know, in the head. Well, do you have any reason to say that? All the reason in the world. Poor girl. This bum all the time coming around, giving her trouble. All the time telling her I was going to kill her and anybody that comes near her. Burdick said that to Miss Favenditti? Half a dozen times. It wasn't more than a week ago. Mona told me she told him off, told him to get lost. She wanted any part of him to leave her alone. He made a big scene. Mona told me all about it. One day this Terry drove in here. Got one of those flashy foreign cars. A Jaguar? I think so, yeah. A Jaguar. Well, one day he drove into the place. Mona took care of him. I guess he liked Mona. He kept coming back, always parked in her station. Anyway, this Burdick kid found out about it. Wasn't anything for him to worry about, but he made a big thing about it. So, Mona, she was close to stop seeing Terry. He said if she did, he was going to cause real trouble. Did he say what he was going to do? Well, I think he was kidding. I don't think he really meant it. He's just a kid. Who would he say? I really don't think he meant it. Well, all right. Now, what would he say to her? He said if he found him together again, he'd kill him both. We talked to the other girls in the drive-in. From them, we got the same story about the scenes that Richard Burdick had created. We got more information about the threats that he'd made against the Fenton girl and Terry Hamilton. From one of the girls, we got the address of Hamilton. 2.45 p.m. We left the drive-in and drove over to the address of the girl's boyfriend, Richard Burdick. We talked to the landlady. She told us that the Burdick boy had regular habits. He paid his rent on time. He never had any visitors. She told us that he wasn't in his room at that time, but she said that she'd let us in. In her company, we went upstairs. She unlocked the door, and Frank and I went in. I'll check the bedroom. I'll take the kitchen. Yeah. There's nothing out there. How'd you do? Looks like we're a little late. What? His clothes are gone. We checked the room further. Every indication was that Richard Burdick had left the apartment in a hurry. We talked to the landlady again. She could give us no reason for his disappearance. She gave us the name of his employer. We put in a call to them, but they told us that Burdick had failed to show up for work that day. 4.15 p.m. We put in a call to the hotel on Grand Avenue, but the handyman still hadn't returned and there'd been no word from him. We went back to the office and checked the name Richard Burdick, who are our eye, but we found no criminal record for anybody answering his description. We put out a local and an APB on him. At 4.39 p.m., we got a call from General Hospital telling us that the Fenton girl had regained consciousness and that we could talk to her. Frank and I left the office and traveled Code II out to the hospital. The doctor on duty told us that the girl was out of danger, but that she was very weak. He asked us not to get her excited, and he let us into her room. Yes, who are you? Police officers. Why can't you leave me alone? Go away. Just a couple of questions we'd like to ask you. I don't want to talk to anybody. Why didn't you leave things the way they were? Why didn't you leave me alone? You had a lot of people worried, Miss. No reason for it. Be better all the way around if things had happened the way I planned them. And you did try to kill yourself? Yes. Who was with you in that hotel room? I mean, Mr. Morris? Yeah. It was Terry. It was always Terry. He was going to marry me, then he didn't. He said he wouldn't, he didn't. Is that why you did what you did? Yes. You used narcotics, Miss Fenton? Mm-hmm. You used narcotics? Yes. It was Terry's idea, too. I think that's all he wanted with me, just to get me hooked, so I'd have to do what he said. I think that was the reason. How about this Richard Burdy? What about him? Do you have anything to do with you deciding to take your own life? In a lot of ways. The mistake I haven't made was leaving Richard. I thought it was smart, real smart. I was going to show him. Terry said he'd marry me. He said he was in love with me. Did he get to start it on narcotics? Yeah. At first it wasn't so bad. I loved him. Really, I did. Then when I had to have the fixes, he changed. He told me he couldn't give it to me anymore. I was going to have to pay for it. I tried to tell him to tell him that I loved him. I wanted to be with him. That's why I went to the hotel to talk it over. I tried to come to an understanding, some kind of an understanding. He said that he didn't want to have anything to do with me. He wanted no part of me anymore. He said that I was going to have to pay for the age from now on. I didn't have any way to pay for it. He said it wasn't any of his business. He a user? Yeah. Also stupid, also stupid. Ma'am. The whole thing, I had it real good all the way around. And then I went ahead and ruined everything tore all down. Even if I had killed myself, it would have been no answer. Not the right answer anyway. I know that. I know it real well. Ma'am, can you tell us where you can find this Terry? You bet I can. I want to see him feel like I do. I want him to know what it's like. Would you be willing to meet with him? Make a bio-narcotics force? You name the time, I'll be there. I'll be there if I have to crawl. All right. You better get some rest now. I guess so. I'm pretty tired. Do you see my mother? Yes ma'am. Is she real mad at me? No, I don't think she is. Would you call her? Ask her to come and see me. Tell her I'm sorry. Tell her I want to see her. I should be glad to hear that. I hope so. I got so much to tell her, her and Richard. I'm much to tell them both. All right, ma'am. We'll get in touch with her. Then you tell me when you want me to call Terry. You tell me. All right, leave it. Terrible thing, isn't it? What's that? Terry. He's been around a long time. Must be other girls in the same fix all because of him. Girls who have a bad habit and have to do what he says. Girls like me, terrible. Nobody knows how many. Yes ma'am. What is it going to end? When you meet him. Vanorys Hamilton was tried and convicted of violation of the State Narcotics Act of felony one count. He received sentence as prescribed by law. Violation of the State Narcotics Act of felony is punishable by imprisonment in the state penitentiary for a period of from one to five years. Mona Irene Fenton pled guilty to the same charge and was placed on probation for a period of three years with the provision that she be placed under the care of a competent psychiatrist. The story of your police force in action is a presentation of the United States Armed Forces Radio Service.