 Ladies and gentlemen, the story you're about to hear is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent. Dragmit. You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned a robbery detail. Two men are terrorizing your city. They're both armed and considered dangerous. Your job? Get them. It was Thursday, September 9th. It was warm in Los Angeles. We were working the night watch out a robbery detail. My partner's Frank Smith. The boss is Chief of Detective Stad Brown. My name's Friday. I was on my way back from the street. It was 11.42 p.m. when I got to the 8.14 club. The back room. I hate to think what's going to happen when Mr. Negra here is about to be pretty bad. Yes, sir. How about it, Joe? You catch the fellas yet? No, sir. The description's out. The guys from the F cars are checking the neighborhood. You haven't got nothing yet, though, huh? No, sir. Not yet. Wish I was home. Sir? If I was home, I could turn off the phone. I got one of those attachments in the extension in the bedroom that turns it off. Wish I was there now. Mr. Negra is really going to be sore. Was there anything at all about the two men that would stand out and make it a little easier for us to identify them? Tell you the truth, Sergeant. If there was, I didn't see it. All right. I was scared. Darn scared. I'm not afraid to say so. Yes, sir. I can tell you again, if you want me to, about the robbery. All right, if you would. It might be something you didn't remember the first time. Okay. I guess it was about a quarter to eleven when it came in, just a guess, but I think it was about then. Uh-huh. A dark one. He had the machine gun. He kind of moved over so he had a good look at the people sitting at the bar. Machine gun. I see. Go ahead. I guess he could have hit them all from where he was. Held the gun kind of low, you know, like it is, hip, here. What about the other one? Oh, he waited with his friend, then he walked up to the barn, stood right in the middle of the floor. He had the automatic, huh? Yeah. Yeah, looked like a 45. He stood right in the middle of the place, just looking there, watching me. What happened then? Well, it fell out in front, reached over, and pulled the plug in the jukebox, turned it off right in the middle of the record, pulled the plug. And that's what made the other people turn around. Uh-huh. Turned right around and looked at the guns. That's when the light fell, the one with the 45. He said, sit where you are. This is a stick up. Are those his exact words? Well, near as I can remember, yeah, he kind of had a squeaky little voice, uh, like it was still changing, you know? Yes, he... But those were the words. Sit right where you are. This is a stick up. All right, Mr. Gilmore, you want to go ahead? Well, the one with the funny voice told everybody to get up and turn around so they was facing the bar, you know, with their back to the holdup, man. They'd all turn around. Uh-huh. Then he told them to start from the back of the place and walk over to one of the tables and dump all their money out. Said not to forget anything, put it all there. Did they take anything besides money? Not that I saw. There were a couple of people who had pretty good looking watches on, but the only thing the band had seemed to want was cash. All right, see. Then they left after they got the money, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Walked to the door and said for us not to try to call anybody for five minutes. After that, they walked out. Did you see if they had a car? No, sir. They didn't even go near the door. We did, like they said, five minutes and after that I called you. You'd know them again if you saw them, would you? You bet I would. You put me in a crowd with them and I'll tell you, no trouble there, I'd know them. Oh, excuse me. Go right ahead. Eight, fourteen, Clown. Yeah. Oh, yeah, Mr. Negre. Uh-huh. I'll try. Well, who called you? Yeah. Well, there wasn't anything I could do about Mr. Negre. Well, no, sir. Both of them had guns. Yeah. All right, sir. That's the way you feel about it. All right, sir. Fine. I'll be in the morning. Man, I thought I heard you say you'd be in the morning now. Yeah. Well, I couldn't even pick up my money, you know. I see. The time I get here tomorrow I'll have another change of heart, so hire me back. I've been fired twelve times already. I'll be back tomorrow. I'll be back tomorrow. I'll be back tomorrow. I'll be back tomorrow. I'll be back tomorrow. I'll be back tomorrow. I'll be back tomorrow. I'll be back tomorrow. I'll be back tomorrow. I'm hired twelve times already. Mm, twelve. He always hires me back, doesn't anybody else work for him? Very. Well, you got a lot of trouble keeping health. A lot of. He thinks I should have stopped the hold of men myself. Just walked in with my bare hands and stopped them. Pretty silly when you think of it. Uh-huh. He says they were only kidding with the guns, but they wouldn't have really shot me. Pretty silly. Says he'd have died on it. All right. Doesn't take too much to figure that out. Well. Either way, I'd have lost, wouldn't I? The description of the suspects, the method of operation they'd used, everything about the robbery sounded just as if it had been read from our MO bulletins. For the past three weeks, Frank and I had been after the two gunmen. All sources of information had been tapped. Victims and witnesses had been questioned and re-questioned. People in the immediate vicinity had been talked to. Mug shots had been pulled and worn out by handling. To date, in concrete information, we had exactly what we'd started with. Two gunmen who were moving around at will and robbing citizens where and when they chose. The victims of the latest robbery were shown in the Mug books, but they were unable to make an identification. The canvas of the area turned up no usable information. Frank and I worked until 3.45 a.m. and then we filled out the log and left the office. The next morning, we checked with Captain Donahoe and Chief Brown. As a result of the meeting, we arrived at the only possible solution to apprehending the suspect, legwork and a lot of it. We spent the rest of the afternoon rechecking informants. At 9.30 p.m. we stopped for dinner and then we went back to the office. You got the address Sam gave you? Yeah, it's here somewhere. Yeah, there it is. You think it's worth checking out? Oh, we got nothing else to do, as well. So they get to be straightened up, we can take a ride out there and see them. Yeah. All right, Murphy. Got his hair, just a minute. Friday? Yeah, Murr. Uh, take three with you, Joe. Thanks. Three? Yeah. It was Friday. Yeah, boy. When was that? Well, it's possible. Do you see anybody else? All right, we'll come right over. Bye. Highland Park. They just picked up a guy for $4.59. Yeah. Matches the description of our blonde holdup, man. You think it'll check out? I don't know. They shook him down when he was picked up. They found a $45 with a full clip. It's pretty heavy for a burglar. Yeah, let's go over and talk to him. It'll be a break. We've been chasing luck long enough. Well, maybe we caught up. Frank and I signed out of the office immediately and we started over to Highland Park. It wasn't the first time we'd gone out on a similar call. During the time we'd been after the holdup men, there'd been several others. All of them had to be checked out. We never knew when an odd piece of information might turn the lead that we'd been looking for. Just before we turned off onto Avenue 64, a call came in over the radio. All units on sequence C1, stand by. You want to turn it up? Yeah, I got it. All units on sequence C1, stand by. Stand by 11-day-four. All units on sequence C1, please stand by. Sounds like a good one. All units in the vicinity of Highland Park area. All units in the vicinity of 6045 York Boulevard. Highland Park division. Units 11F2, 11F3, 11F5 and 11F7. And all traffic units, attention. That's a big one. At 1047 PM, this date, an armed man entered the Highland Park police station and forced an officer to release two prisoners. The man was armed with a submachine gun, believed to be a .45 caliber. Suspect is described as WMA. Police division is a large brick building located on York Boulevard. On the ground floor is a booking desk and a couple of administration offices. Directly behind the booking counter across the hall is a cell block. Prisoners are held there pending further investigation or transfer to the main jail. When Frank and I arrived, there were a dozen police cars around the building. Other units were searching the area for the escaped suspects. The call had gone after the entire state and members of the highway patrol and the sheriff's department and all other departments were joining in the manhunt. Frank and I talked to Officer Boyd Hutchins, the policeman who'd been on duty when the escape took place. He came in this side door and first I thought he just wanted some information. When I walked over to take care of him, I couldn't see the gun. He was carrying it low, kind of hidden by the counter. You didn't see him come into the building, did you? No, I was on the phone. First I knew him when he asked me if he could see Burton. I told him we couldn't swing it right then. Said he'd have to come back. And that's when he asked me if there was anybody around who could okay a visit. I told him there wasn't, said for him to come back in the morning. That's when he showed you the gun, huh? Yeah, he brought it right up over the counter. Said for me not to cause any trouble and I wouldn't get hurt. He didn't have to tell me. Yeah. There'd been a chance for him to take on. I might have tried it. I didn't see how it would prove anything for me to bleed all over him. They made me take him back to the cell block. I unlocked the door and he told Burton to come out. What about the other guy? Oh, his name is Kenneth Lechner. He was in the same cell with Burton. The guy with the machine gun asked if he wanted to go for the ride and Lechner said yes and then the three of them walked out of the building. Did they make any attempt to tie up anything like that? No, he just said sit tight. I wasn't about to argue. What do you know about this Lechner? Oh, he was picked up on a want from Oklahoma. With charge, murder. We went to the city hall and we checked the name Gail Burton through R&I. There was no record on him in Los Angeles. We forwarded the information on him to George Breton up at CII in Sacramento. The rest of the night was spent in checking out the possible places the suspects might have been hiding. In a city of over two million people, there are a lot of places. While we were combing the city, men from the sheriff's department were going over the county territory. We had a vague description of the car that was used, but it might match any one of several hundred being driven on the streets of Los Angeles. Roadblocks were set up on principal routes leaving the city. Special details were standing by at all train and bus depots when the airports were covered. Leaves and days off for all personnel were canceled, and by the time the search got out of low gear, over 3,000 policemen were looking for the three men. Field stations were set up in the less populated areas, and coffee and hot soup were served to the men participating in the search. The night dragged on without result. Saturday, September 11th, we received a report that two men answering the descriptions of Burton and the man who'd aided in his escape had tried to rent a boat down in San Diego. However, when this was checked out, it proved to be false. Saturday afternoon, we received information from George Burton that Burton had an arrest record in Sacramento and that mug shots and all information were being forwarded. We got in touch with the authorities in the northern city and asked them to check further on the friends and relatives of Burton. When the mug shots arrived, they were shown to the hold-up victims. Mr. Gilmore, I'd like to have you take a look at these pictures to see if you recognize any of them. You think there might be one here of the foe who held us up? Well, we want you to tell us if you can. Uh-huh. No. Not him. Well, you remember how I told you, Mr. Negrid, give me my job back? Yeah, I remember that. He did. Just like always. Oh, that's fine. As soon as he read in the papers how they broke out of jail, he said I was right not to cause trouble. As soon as he found out about the jailbreak, we're not sure they're the same men yet, Mr. Gilmore. Don't know why. Sir? Don't know why, ain't sure. Here's this picture. This is the man who held you up? Yeah, one and the same. How about it, Jeff? It's Burton. The other victims also identified Burton as one of the men who'd held them up. With the name of the man, we at least had some place to start. We put in a call to Sacramento and we talked to the police department up there. We found that the suspect had been arrested on charges of suspicion of burglary, suspicion of robbery, ADW and assault with intent to do great bodily harm. In spite of the numerous arrests, Burton had only served one term in the county jail. We got all available information on him and the search was intensified. We'd gotten reports from informants that the three men might try to escape across the border into Mexico. San Diego was notified of this and Al Gaepin was dispatched to the international boundary of Tijuana to aid the Mexican police. Two days passed without news of the suspects. Monday, September 13th, Frank and I got back into the office from chasing down a lead that went nowhere. Better check with a skipper. Yeah, I'll do it right away. I got it. Robbery Friday. Yeah, all right, I'll take it. Long distance in San Francisco. I might have gotten up there. Hello. It's Friday. Oh, yeah, Eddie. Mm-hmm. Yeah, well, we got the identification from Burton. No, nothing yet. When was that? That could be. It'd give him time, wouldn't it? Just a minute. Frank? Yeah? Said he vandivered up there. When did these guys pull the first job? I think it was August 16th, placed over on Pico. That's the first one, then. Yeah. August 16th, Ed. No, the other one doesn't show up on any of the sheets. Kenneth Lechner. No, we're expecting it from Oklahoma. You guys will check it out for us then, huh? All right, let us know as soon as you got something definite, will you? Right. Okay, Ed. Thanks for calling. All right, bye. What's he got? Well, I got a rumble that Burton was up there in the first part of August. He said it about a week, he said. Yeah. Ed says he's got an informant down in the Fillmore District used to run with Burton. He might give us a lead on the partner. How come? Well, according to the informant, Burton met a guy up north. They got real chummy. They left town together. Come up with a name? Yeah, he did. Kirby Monet, M-O-N-E-T. Been in trouble? Couple of times. Petty stuff. Rumbles got that he was always talking about going big for him in his own game, cutting into the heavy stuff. Matches? Real good. Monet's description is the same as our number two man. Pictures of Kirby Monet arrived from San Francisco and when they were shown to the victims of the thieves, we had a positive identification on our second suspect. Armed with this information, the job of the men in the field was considerably easier. Now they know who they were looking for. It was at 4 p.m. Frank and I started downstairs for our car. Excuse me, Phil. Yeah? You tell me where the office of the chief is. Down the hall and to the right. Thanks. There it is, Phil. Hold on. What do you want to see the chief about? What's personal? Maybe you better tell me, huh? If I wanted you, I'd ask it that way. I'd get over the wall. Better shake him down, Frank. All right. Over here. You don't have to go through all this. I'm not going to cause you any trouble. Your name's Kenneth Leckner, isn't it? That's right. You couldn't find me. I figured I'd come to you. Frank and I took the suspect to the squad room. We got in touch with Chief of Detective Stav Brown. We told him what had happened, and he said he'd come over to the office as soon as possible. We shook Kenneth Leckner, but we found nothing. We asked him to tell us about the jailbreak. I didn't have nothing to do with it. You've got to believe that. We'll let you tell us. I'm giving it to you the way it happened. Where are Mene and Burton? I don't know. Last I saw them, they were on our West Pico. You got an address? No. They were sitting in the car. They had a place case, and they were waiting for the crowd to clear before they took it. That's a bar out there. Got the name? No, I haven't got any idea. I told you, I want no part of it. That's the reason I left. You haven't got any idea where the place is, huh? No, none. You want to tag communications, Frank? Tell them about it. Yeah. I'll get it right away. You guys must have every cop in the country out looking for us. Never saw so much fuzz. Really? I can't go that route anymore. It doesn't work out for me. Never was any good at running. Do you hear anything at all about the plans they were making? No, not a lot. I don't think they trusted me very much. I was with them, but like an in-law or something. I'll tell you something, Sergeant. What do you mean? Well, they lost the road all the time talking about how they're going to put class back in hold-ups, going to form a big gang and really jump the cops, all the time talking like that, roof jobs. You got any idea where we can pick them up? Ain't nothing I'd like better than to give it the address, but I ain't got it. What about this car they're using? Can you give us description of it? Yeah, it's a 52-nash four-door stolen. It must be. They had it where we left Highland Park. You give us the number on the plate? I don't think so. I can't pull it up. I don't think I ever really took a good look at it. What about this machine gun they got shells for? They're loaded with them. These two guys are heavy enough to start a small war on their own. Monet carries a chopper and a .45 in his belt. Burton's got .245s in the .38. He carries a .38 strap to his leg. He's always laughing about it. He says, even if he's picked up, he's got to take it out. These guys are real far out. They've been reading too many comic books. All the time talking about Dillinger and Floyd. Burton even took the smoke and cigars. He says it makes them look like Doc Barker. And then he can give us a little help us nail them? No, nothing. All right, like me. Let's go. You taking me to jail? That's right. Are you doing me a favor, Sergeant? What's that? Give me a cell by myself. I hadn't much sleep in the last couple of days. I'd sure like to get something. Let's see what we can do. All right, sit still a minute. All right, let's go. You got to put these on again? That's right. All right, come on. Get the word out. Yeah, a little late. What do you mean? Burton and Monet have already hit the bar. The troll car spotted them on the way out. Yeah. There was a bee from the men in the car. It took Burton and the custody. Mm-hmm. Dropped him in the car and started to bring him in. Hadn't gone more than a couple of blocks from when they drove up. Rammed the police car and started shooting. Anybody hurt? Yeah. He took Burton away from the men in the unit and shot one of them. How bad? When he's at Georgia Street receiving now. They don't expect him to live. We had Count Fleckner held for the Oklahoma authorities. We contacted Captain Donahoe and told him what had happened. He'd taken over the search for the two suspects in the FICO area. A blockade had been set up on all streets leading into and out of the area. All vehicles were being stopped and searched. All pedestrians were being interrogated. Frank and I joined in the manhunt. By 6.30 the next morning, Wednesday, September 15th, the area had been covered without result. However, in checking all automobiles in the vicinity of the holdup, we'd come across a 1952 Nash gray in color. The left front fender was damaged and matched the description of the suspect's car very close. We put a stake out on the vehicle and it was kept under watch for the next 24 hours. During that time, no one approached it. We checked the license number with Auto Theft Division and found the car to be stolen. It had been taken from the owner five days before on September 10th. We brought Kenneth Fleckner from the main jail and he positively identified the car as the one driven by Monet and Burton. At the end of the surveillance, a crew from the crime lab came out and identified paint scrapings from the damaged fender as having come from the police car that had been rammed. A crew from Lake and Prince came out and went over the car while they worked Frank and I stood by. Looks like we gotta turn. It's not gonna do us much good if we can't find the guy with the key. Only should be about finished now. I'll check with him. All right. I'll walk over with you. Excuse me. Yes, ma'am. Something to do for you? You know what those men are doing to that car? Police business. You a cop? That's right. You tell me what's going on? Investigation. Of what? The car? That's right. What are you looking for? Information. Not gonna tell me, huh? It'll be a little better if we didn't, ma'am. Okay. But he's not gonna like it, not a bit. Who's that? So is it owns the car. It's not gonna like having all you guys roam around. You know the man that owns the car? Sure. He's beginning to get married, I know him. What's his name? Monet, kind of French-like, romantic. How long you know him? Not long, sort of a whirlwind quatship, you'd say. Just marry each other and we know. You know where this Monet is now? Not right off. I know where he'll be. Where's that? At his place. I'm supposed to meet him there at 7.30 tonight. We've got a date. Why, you want to talk to him? That's right. He's a nice fellow. You'll like him. Almost everybody does. Is that right? Never knew anybody met Toby. Didn't want to be around him all the time. Everybody wants to be around Toby. You know him. You'll see. He'll be too hard, man. Huh? He's already convinced us. We had the girl, Drew Silla Roth, show us where the suspect was living. The results of the investigation by Layton Prince brought out several partial fingerprints. These were identified as belonging to both suspects. We checked with the landlady at the apartment. She verified the fact that Monet and Burton had moved into the place three days before. She told us that neither man was at home. In our company, we checked the room. Under a pile of dirty clothes in one of the bureau drawers, we found several boxes of ammunition for the .45s and the .38s. There were also several hundred rounds of cartridges for the machine gun. Because of the physical structure of the building, it was decided that the best way to keep the place under surveillance would be for one team to cover the front door, another to watch the rear entrance, and a third to wait in the room itself. Frank called the office, and Sergeant Murphy, Rafferty, and Benson along with Lieutenant Stoner came out to help us. We instructed the manager to stay in her room and not let on to either of the suspects that we were in the building. We waited. 6.45 p.m. Should be showing up pretty quick, huh? Now, anywhere from Georgia Street? I talked to Stoner when he got here. I had given Simon a couple of transfusions. Figured they were going to be able to transfer him to General the first thing in the morning. You going to make it then? Looks like it. They took a .38 out of his left lung, two more out of his hip. Pretty rough go. What time he got? 6.47. Should be here by now if he's going to keep that date. Now, there's another one that comes first. At 7.06 p.m. there was a knock on the door. There was a signal with Weeder Reigns. We opened it and found that Lieutenant Stoner had come up to tell us that Gail Burton had been taken into custody. He'd approached the apartment, and as soon as the office had stopped him, he'd surrendered, offering no resistance. Stoner wanted to tell us that he and Benson would take the suspect downtown for booking. Frank and I settled back to wait for Mene. All right, Tony. Oh, I'd sure like a smoke. Why is it, Joe? You and I always draw the stake inside the room where all we can do is sit. I don't know. You usually ask for it that way, don't you? No. Next time, we're going to take one of the entrances. Sit out there in the car. Smoke when you want. If you want some to eat, you just run down the drugstore for a candy bar. It's a lot better duty, Joe. Sounds like somebody coming to me. Yeah. What's that? Yeah. All right, Mene, hold it right there. Watch it, Joe. See him. Down this way. No. He might have gone down the stairs. The apartment at the end of the hall. Right, come on. So last time around, Mene, throw that gun out and you follow it. Keep those hands where we can see him. OK, OK. I'll call him. I don't shoot anymore. I won't give him no more time. All right, hold it right there. I don't move. Keep those hands up. I'd have given it to you. I wasn't going to tell you anymore. Yeah, sure. I'll keep still. All right. Take your hands down. Don't take me in now. That's right. That cop I shot, he didn't die. No, you're pretty lucky. And all you got me for is robbery. That's all. Just robbery. That's all. Jail term doesn't make a lot of difference. That's right. Sure. A jailed built can hold me. Not one. I'll get out. I'll be running again. You see. I wouldn't give up. Bigger men than you said they'd come back. Yeah, show me. I sure like to meet them. Don't worry. You will. He was returned to the state of Oklahoma for a prosecution on a murder charge. A hold was placed against him by the state of California in the event he is paroled. Gail, Claude Burton and Kirby Arno Monet were tried and convicted of robbery in the first degree. Six counts. Violation of section 4574 PC bringing a firearm into a prison. Violation of the machine gun law and assault with intent to commit murder. Robbery in the first degree is punishable by imprisonment for a period of not less than five years. Violation of section 4574 is punishable by imprisonment for a period of not less than one year in the state penitentiary. Violation of the machine gun law is punishable by a term in the state prison not to exceed five years and or a fine of $5,000. Assault with intent to commit murder is punishable by imprisonment for a period of not less than one nor more than 14 years in the state penitentiary. You have just heard dragnet, the authentic story of your police force in action and starring Jack Webb, a presentation of the United States Armed Forces Radio Service.