 Ladies and gentlemen, the story you are about to hear is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent. You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned a homicide detail. You get a call telling you that the body of a man has been found in the motel room. There's no lead to his true identity. Your job? Check it out. 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 fire. From beginning to end, from crime to punishment, Dragnet is the story of your police force in action. It was Tuesday, July 19th. It was hot in Los Angeles. We were working the night watch out a homicide detail. My partner is Frank Smith. The boss is Captain Laurelman. My name's Friday. I was on my way back from the main jail and it was 5.27pm when I got to room 42. Time of the time. Hi, how'd it go? He's willing to make a statement. He copped to the whole thing. Gonna save us some time? Yeah. Gonna save a lot more if he's going with us last week though. Yeah. What do you got? Paper work. Want to give me a hand? Yeah. Here. Okay. How's the family? Ain't pretty good. They think she's got a panthecitis. They think she has a panthecitis. Spoke me up at 2.30 this morning and got a pain in their side. Sure it was a panthecitis. I told her to call a doctor. No, she didn't think it was that bad. Not to call a doctor. Just enough to keep me awake, worrying about it. I'm worrying the whole thing's gone though. No trouble. Says it's probably hard for her. I'd like to give her a couple of your Pepto pals. Oh, Joe, that's very funny. Homicide fighting. Yeah, that's right. What's that? What's that address? All right, we'll be right out. No, no, not anything. All right, goodbye. Work? Work. I made it to the motel out onto the pulpit. I found a body in one of the cabins. Yeah. I think it's a suicide. Frank and I left the office and drove out to the address. It was a modern motel set back from the highway. There were 14 cabins surrounding a swimming pool on the lot. We met with a woman who had placed the call and the owner of the place. Right over there. Number 18. Any of them touching the room? No, sir. As soon as I saw him, I knew what had happened. I locked the door and called you. What's his name? Registered as Tom Rustat in Phoenix. How long has he been here? About 10 days. I'd have to take the card to be sure. See you alone? Mm-hmm. Here, I got the keys. Go ahead. Thank you, sir. You touched the body at all? No, I should say not. Mm-hmm. I've worked around motels for a long time. Yet, and so nothing bothers me. Tell you though, this almost. They'd like to scare me half to death. Yes, ma'am. Better call a lab after we come out of it. Yeah. You all right if I use the phone in the office? Well, sure. You go right ahead. It's on the desk, back at the counter. All right. Thing like this. It isn't going to do the place any good. All right. I hope it can be played down in the paper. Does it? This is the first kind of trouble we've had. Suicide. Sure, it was going to help. We thought it was some way to change it. Well, it is, but that wouldn't help much either. What do you mean? He's dead, isn't he? Yeah, but he had health. FIX03PM, the crew from the crime lab arrived and started their investigation. Apparently, the victim had been killed with a small caliber gun. However, a search of the room failed to turn it up. The coroner's office was notified. They came out to check the body and go through his effects. 6.18 PM, Frank and I talked with a motel owner in this cabin. Here's the registration card. You can see there where he signed this. Are you driving a car, do you know? Oh, I never saw one. Oh, how'd he get here? You mean when he checked in? Yeah. It's like camp. Yeah. Did you know why he was in town? No, he never mentioned it. Did he work? I don't know. When he checked in, did he say how long he'd be staying? No, he said it might be a week, 10 days. How about visitors? Yeah. I didn't see him. What about phone calls? Yeah, I didn't need some. Do you have a record of him? No. Usually we do. All the calls go through the board, but he used the phone booth outside. Oh, sure. A couple times, I was out by the pool at night, you know? Sure. I'd be out there and I'd see him in the booth. A couple of times, he talked for quite a while. But you haven't got any idea of who he was calling? No. A dime call, though. What, sir? He caught him a dime. I heard the bell ring when he dropped the money. Well, they all do. You getting any mail? No. You paid for his room in advance? Yeah, the first time, he gave me the money for a week. And just a few days ago, he paid for another week. How do you pay it? What do you mean? Well, by check or cash. Oh, cash. What size bell do you remember? I never saw him use anything smaller than a 50. He sure seemed to have a lot of them. Just maybe a couple thousand dollars. Did he always care that kind of money with him? Well, I wouldn't know about that. I guess he must have kept something smaller, though. Isn't everybody can change at 50? Not everybody. You going to let his people know? What's that? We must have some people over in Phoenix that should know about him being dead. Yeah. Sure don't feel it's my place to tell them. No, sir, we'll take care of it. Okay. It's going to be a shock to him. A guy his age. Probably got a wife and family not going to do him any good. Well, we're supposed to raise them. Didn't do much for him. In going over the place, the crime lab found the room had been ransacked. Although none of the possessions of the victim had been taken, there was no money in the room and no personal identification could be found. The place was gone over for fingerprints. Several clean sets were lifted, but they belonged to the dead man. No other usable physical evidence was recovered. The coroner's office checked through the victim's luggage. In one of the suitcases, they found an un-stamped letter addressed to a jewelled cell in Reno, Nevada. Its contents explained that the victim expected to be in that city at the end of the month. There was no way of establishing a relationship between the suitcases. The coroner sealed the motel, Roman Frank, and I returned to the office. We sent a radiogram to the authorities and Phoenix staff for all information on Tom Roos' staff. The following morning, Wednesday, June 20th, we got their answer. There it is, Joe. Phoenix? Yeah, take a look. Yeah, boy. Don't make it rougher. Yeah. They never heard of him. In the hope of getting an identification of the victim, his fingerprints flashed out of the door. In the hope of getting an identification of the victim, his fingerprints' classification and description were sent to George Breton up at CII Sacramento, FBI headquarters in Washington, and to the police departments in the seven western states. A close check of his clothing revealed that Tom Roos' staff's boots were tailor-made and had been made in Reno. We contacted the authorities there and asked them to check on the tailor shop from the area. We also asked if they'd check out the woman Roos' staff had written to. While we waited for the answer, we contacted the cab companies that had serviced the area around the motel. We asked them to go over their waybills and report all trips from the motel and all trips to the address. Two hours later, we got the list and started to check out the drivers. Sure, I remember that guy. A couple more like him. I could buy my own cab company. Play with me. He's a big tipper. Never heard anything less than a half a sawbuck. Now, if the stand got to be a real battle, it was going to pick them up. You know what'll do? Yeah. Where'd you usually take them? Different places. The restaurant shows different places. Did he ever tell you what he was doing in town? Well, we'd talk, you know, long drive downtown. He was kind of dull. A couple of times, he wrote in the front seat with me. Guess maybe the company wouldn't like it, but that's the way he wanted it. What'd you talk about? Weather, fishing, lots of things. Yeah. Mostly about girls, though. He thought he was quite a ladies man. Well, he dressed all that money he should have been. You ever see any of his friends? Listen, how come you're asking all these questions? It plays matter. I knew that when I got the word from the front office. They told me to ride with you all the way. But what's the beef? You have to lose that business, huh? Investigations. Now what about his friends? Well, she wouldn't want them to find out about the whole deal. Probably wouldn't call me anymore. What's that? My shift. Who? I don't know her last time. Some dimbo loose dad knew. Ever meet him? Not from him? What that means? Well, if she was in the cab, you know, I'd pick him up here, drive over to her place, then take the two of them down to a restaurant. So real beautiful. It's called Blanc Gorgeous. Loose dad was pretty friendly with her, wasn't he? Yeah, I guess so. Way to talk to you like that a lot. You got her address? Yeah, I suppose. Huh? Why are you guys rousers going to lead by it's back to me? Because it's a lot of trouble. I thought you was a funny guy to talk about a lot of things, but you don't like to have you ask questions, especially about him. Yeah. But we'll touch you when I talk about where he was from, what he's just for living. Yeah. That's why it's important you don't get me trouble with him. I can use those tips. Well, don't count on them anymore. Huh? They won't be coming. We got the address of the woman the driver knew was Marsha. We called the office to check on the wires. We'd sent. There's been no answer to any of them. 1.30 p.m. we drove over to see the woman. There's a new apartment building on Wilshire Boulevard. On the mailbox we found the name Marsha Lovequist and the information that she occupied apartment 14. We went up and rang the bell. Well, that doesn't look like she's home. Let's check with the man over here. All right. You're a pretty cool image, huh? Yeah. You know, you ought to get a place down here. It'd be great for you. I would, huh? Sure. Nice apartment, cool. Get some fun. Yeah, I got a lot of time for that. Well, once in a while, that wouldn't cost so much. Mm-hmm. Be nice. Bein' safe. Come over and see you. Hey, kid. You bet. Well, you wouldn't want to be a hog about the pool, would you? Not me, thanks. If you feel that way, just forget the whole thing. That's what I was planning. You just forget it. Here's the manager. Can I help you? One of you could tell us where you find Miss Lovequist. Marsha? Yeah, that's all right. Oh, sorry a few minutes ago. Oh, yes. There she is over at the pool. See you with a shy hat. Oh, yeah. Thanks very much. You're welcome. Miss Lovequist? Yes. What police officers like to ask you a few questions? Police? I don't know what I could tell you, but go ahead. Start if we sit down. Sure. I'll have a couple of stools. Thank you. Thank you. I'll go. Miss Frank Smith, my name's Friday. How do you do? That's fine. Now, what do you want to see me about? You know a man named Ruth, Ted? Yeah, why? Looking to talk about him. In trouble? No, we're just checking. Oh. Oh, what do you want to know? You know where he's from? Me, his hometown. Okay. He's from someplace up north. I don't think he ever said. How'd you happen to meet him? Cocktail party. Hotel downtown. There was a convention. My agent got me a job as a hostess. I'm a model. He does more than TV. I get a lot to take what you can get. Yeah. Tom was there. We got to talk. We went out for dinner. Quite a bit after that. Did he tell you what he did for a living? No, I don't think so. That was a nice thing. Talked like one. What about this convention? You know what it was for? Oh, standard. But he didn't have anything to do with that. He was just there. He saw me. He was sitting at the bar and one of the guys asked him to come up and have a cup of drink. He wasn't a dentist. Do you have any friends here in town, would you know? Yeah, I don't. Why don't you ask him? He'd go along with you. Nice guy. He'd be able to answer these questions a lot better than me. Well, we're checking everybody who knew him. Oh, I see. No, nice guy. Had a lot of fun. When did Sam last night? He stayed for yesterday. We had dinner. Took a dive. Came back for a nightcap and then he called a cab and went home. Did you hear from him yesterday? No. I didn't expect to. Why? Well, you see, we had kind of a fight. Nothing serious. I didn't figure I'd hear from him until maybe a day. You know, we both got over the mad. Can you tell us what the argument was about? Well, it was the same to you. I'd rather than a heart. It was pretty important that we know. Well, I guess you can't do any harm. He was just getting too serious, I tell you. Yeah? Too serious. Told him I had to go out of town on a modeling job. Santa Barbara began a couple days and got real mad. He didn't want me running around like that anymore. Real possessive. I told him he didn't have any right to tell me what to do, that we weren't married, you know? Yeah. Well, Sam had got loud. He kept telling me I wasn't going to Santa Barbara and he's saying he couldn't stop me. He finally called the cab and went home. What time was that? Well, I guess about 3.30. I've been four. No later. All right, thank you very much. If you should think of anything else, we'd appreciate a call. Thank you. Maybe one of our cards? Mm-hmm. Ask Frida one of us? Yes, ma'am. Okay, I'll tell you who you ought to talk to. Who is that? We ought to see him, anyway. I haven't heard anything, but Tom might have gone over there. Who? This photographer I was going to Santa Barbara with. Tom might have gone over to see him. Can you give us his address? Yeah, I got it upstairs. Did Rooster had no this photographer? Well, I never met. He knew about him, though. Yeah. That's why I might be able to tell you something. What? Well, Tom thought there was something between us, this other fellow and me. Of course, I told him it was silly. It didn't make any difference, though. Real jealous, possessive. Said him and the other fellow were going to tangle someday. I hope not. Why? I know the other guy. He killed Tom. We got the name and address to the photographer, and then we drove back to the city hall. We made a check through R&I, but we found no record on him. 3.06 p.m. Well, it looks like we might have a lead. Yeah, well, it turns out, don't you? Homicide Friday. Yeah. Yeah, Jack. And all we've been waiting for it. Can you give it to me over the phone? We'll pick up the copy later. Okay, go ahead. Mm-hmm. All right. How do you spell that? R-O-S-S-E-L-L-E. Yeah. All right. So, as soon as it comes in. Yeah, we'd appreciate a call on it. Right. Okay. Jack Ricketts down in communications. Yeah. Got a cellotype from Reno. A button there? Yeah. Thomas Roselle. That's the name on the letter. Yeah, they ran it down. Well, they got on it. It's been arrested for buncoes, grand theft, money, forgery. Haven't been able to make any of a mistake. Mm-hmm. And what they say a couple of months ago, he went into a new line. They figure that's what he's picked it now. What's that? Nautotics. All right. What about this Roselle woman? She assisted? No, his wife. Huh? Mary's got three kids. Her up there, and this Marcia woman here, and he's flinging a real line. Well, they come up with anything more? A possible motive, maybe. Yeah. When Roselle left town, they got a rumble he was coming down here on business. Uh-huh. At 12 ounces of heroin to pedal. We put in a call to an narcotics division and talked to Captain Walter. He told us they didn't have anything on Roselle, but they'd heard about a new supply of high-grade heroin being moved into town. We drove on what we'd found, and then we drove out to talk to the photographer, the victim's girlfriend had mentioned. Well, I'm sorry, fellas. I haven't got any idea what you're talking about. Have you seen Tom Ruth's dad or Roselle? Sure, I didn't see that. But I didn't have anything to do with killing him. I didn't know he was dead. It's all over the afternoon papers. Don't you boys read your own publicity? When do you say him? Bruce Dancer. I had four lives. Monday? Yeah, I guess so. Really Tuesday morning. What time? Well, about 4.15... Yeah, I said 4.15, I remember, because he woke me up. I looked at the clock. What do you want? I had some wild idea of something going between me and Marcia. Was it? Well, I don't see it as any of your business, but it doesn't matter to me, so I'll tell you. No, that wasn't. He's a model. I'm a photographer. I work from that day to 25 bucks an hour. That's all there was. Yeah. I ain't gonna tell you it wouldn't have been nice, but it just didn't happen. I don't believe in romance around the office. I don't even cause trouble. Yeah. What happened when Bruce Dancer came in? All made a lot of accusations. I told him they went through, said he had a filthy mind, told him to get out. Did he go? Well, I tried a little muscle. I'd bellowed him a couple of times, and that ended it. Mm-hmm. I poured him a drink to show him there weren't any hard feelings, and a couple more. Yeah. Picked it around a while, and he left. What did you talk about? Looked in my suspect that we owe him my back. We're talking to everybody who knew him. Well, you can cross my name off of this. I'd bellowed him that's all. I didn't shoot him. All right. Did he call a cab from here when he left? No, he was going to, and he decided to walk. Did you see him leave? Certainly. I locked the door after. All right. Watched him walk outside in the winter there. Must have changed his mind about the cab, though. What? Cab must have changed his mind. I thought he said he didn't take one. I said he didn't call. When a cursor picked him up, they drove off. You didn't get the number the cab did you? Look, a guy woke me up at four o'clock in the morning, came in here, wanted to start a beef. I finally got rid of him. I'm a nine to six boy. I haven't got time to stand around windows and get cab numbers for you cops. I went back to sleep. All right. Next time anything comes up, give us a call, will you? Yeah, sure. Take this car away. Oh, look, I'm sorry if I sounded off, just that I don't want to get mixed up in it. You can understand that, can't you? Sure. No hard feelings, eh? No. Well, to be honest with you, I didn't like Rushton. I didn't like him an inch, but I didn't hate him. Not enough killing. Somebody did. We contacted the cab company again. I'm asked them to check the way bills from Nestler's address. They came up with one trip on Tuesday morning. The dispatcher gave us the driver's name and told us where we could find him. I remember the guy. I looked like he had a beef with somebody. You know, a real cut up. Where'd you take him? I think, uh, there's a hotel downtown. Remember the name? I dropped him off at the corner of Margo. He went into a hotel there. Let's see, you know. The Roland Arms, I think it was. Yeah, yeah, that's the place. All right, thanks a lot. I'm glad to help out. Say, this fella, he had the same one that was killed yesterday? That's right. Oh, I sure have seen a lot of him. Use papers, television, a lot of him. Always works that way, don't it? What do you mean? After you're dead, you're famous. Mm-hmm. When it's too late to enjoy it. Frank and I drove down to the Roland Arms Hotel. We talked where the clerk would have been on duty Tuesday morning. He remembered a man answering the victim's description and told us he'd inquired about a guest named Wallace Alney. Because of Ruth's bad insistence, the clerk had put through a call to Alney, and the guest said, let's hope they can come upstairs. He went on to say that about 30 minutes later, both men had left the hotel together. At 9.40 p.m., we went up to Wallace Alney's room. There it is, John. Yeah, it's a mess. Yeah? Wallace Alney? Frank? Please talk to him. Sure, come on in. This is Frank Smith. My name's Friday. All right, yeah. That's all right. Like a drink? I'm just gonna fix myself one. No thanks. I always like a drink before dinner, sharpens up the old appetite. Yeah. Mind if we look around? No, go ahead. If there's anything special, I might be able to help. No, it's all right. All right, thanks a lot of it. Maybe you'd better tell me if this is all about, huh? You know a man named Tom Roostad, a little zeal? Why? Do you know him? Yeah, I'm in. I'm clean, Joe. I don't know much climbing. And what about Roostad? When did you see him last? I don't know. A few days ago. You want to pin it down for us? Monday. Yeah, Monday. That's the last time you saw him. Yeah, we had a couple of drinks in the bar at the corner. I haven't seen him since. We got two people who said you did. All right. Yeah. I'm gonna talk to them. Leave me alone. Have you ever been arrested? Why? Have you? Yeah. What be? I don't think I'm gonna answer that. You don't have to. We'll find out. Michael. Where are you from? All around. Name a city. First, go Vegas, Casey, all around. How about Reno? Yeah, I've been to. Now, where you met Roostad? Look, uh... What do you guys ask? You got the answer to that when I saved some time. I got a lot of time. Totally. Well, let's be honest with each other, huh? Go ahead. Why don't you guys lay out what you got, and I'll tell you how close you are. And they kind of silly women? Why? Like playing checkers with yourself. Nothing I can do then. How about the closet? If you make a pinch, I got no choice. If you're wrong, I'll own City Hall. I don't think we are. And be my guest. All right. You're under arrest. Charge. Suspicion to murder. I'll take the closet. Save it. Trouble. I killed it. A third to the closet turned up a driver's license and other identification for Thomas Roselle. They also found a 25 caliber gun, $2,700 in cash, and a quantity of heroin. The suspect was taking to the City Hall for questioning. He ran his name through R&I and found that he had several arrests in the state of California for violation of the State Narcotics Act. 12.16 a.m. He got the full story. We were in business up north. We know? Yeah, we made a lucky buy. He came down here to sell it. I gave him some connections where he could dump it. Go ahead. He was down here a couple days. He sent a wire telling me the merchandise wasn't moving. I knew it was a lie. Right away I knew it's good stuff like that. It had to be a market. Oh. And I got the word. What do you mean? Well, a friend of mine he called telling me about Tom and this Marsha doll. Now they were running around. Yeah. This guy told me Tom he dropped about seven grand of it already. Sure. As soon as I heard that I got on my horse, made it down here. What happened? Couldn't find out where he was staying. Didn't have a trace. What about the motel? I didn't know about that. As far as I knew he was supposed to be here and that's the way we arranged it. Yeah. I sent out word I wanted to see him for him to get in touch right away. He did. He tried to give me the same line about how he couldn't sell it. What's the market for it? I told him we'd better call a whole deal off. Just give me this stuff right now. What happened then? Oh, and I saw how much he had left. I told him he was lying. I called him a dirty thief and we had a fight. Nice shot. All right. You're willing to give us a statement? Sure. Why not? I'll get it. No. Does wife know you? I guess so. That's too bad. I know her. She's a real nice kid. She's really in love with that Tom. I guess she did it pretty hard. I wouldn't know. Oh, no. In her she would. Nice kid like that and he's run out with him and doing a thing like that there. Why don't you take another look? What? What'd you do to her? The story you've just heard is true. The names were changed to protect the innocent. On November 19th, trial was held in Department 99, Superior Court of the State of California in and for the county of Los Angeles. In a moment, the results of that trial. Wallace Hamilton, old name, was tried and convicted of murder in the second degree and received sentence as prescribed by law. Murder in the second degree is punishable by imprisonment for a period of from five years to life in the safe penitentiary. You have just heard Dragmen, a series of authentic cases from a family and a family and a family and a family and a family and a family and a family and a family and a family and a family and a family and a family and a family and a family and a family and a family and a family and a family and a family and a family and a family and a family and a family and a family and a family and a family and a family and a family and a family and a family and a family and a family and a family and a family and a family and a family on your local NBC television station. Please check your newspapers for the day and time. Chesterfield has brought you Dragonet, transcribed from Los Angeles.