 Ladies and gentlemen, the story you're about to hear is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent. DRAGONET You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned to homicide detail. An elderly man is threatening an entire neighborhood with a shotgun. He says he's going to use it to kill a man. Your job? Take it away from me. It was Tuesday, June 15th. It was hot in Los Angeles. We're working the day watch out of homicide detail. My partner's Frank Smith, the boss is Captain Larmine. My name's Friday. We're on our way out from the office. It was 1146 a.m. when we got to Unit 1 F-14. The police car standing by. Hi, Joe. Lloyd, what do you got? Take a look at the sign. Yeah. I will not live in the same neighborhood with a dog poisoner. Looks like he painted it himself. And there's a weekend figure he did. How'd you get the complaint? Came in, see the man. We got here. The guy was sitting up there with his shotgun. Told us to leave him alone. We figured maybe you'd be a little better equipped to handle it. I might not work out that way, but we'll give it a try. Anything we can do to help out? Just be here. Right. I made a move for a gun, and I'll have to kill you. What tells us why you're doing this? My business. Well, that gun makes it ours. You think that if you want to, it doesn't make any difference to me. I didn't ask you out here. Yeah, well, now that we made the trip, don't you figure you ought to tell us? No. Something to do with that sign? Might have, yeah. Well, you better tell us about it. I don't see how it's going to help. You won't know unless you try, will you? All right. I'll tell you what. You come up here with a porch. We'll talk. Make it slow. I'm proud of me smart. I can hit both of you with one shot from here. Yeah. Might not kill you, but it'll make you pretty sick. That's good. I'll move it right there. Just stand still. All right. You want to tell us what this is all about? My dog. Had a 14 years. And somebody killed her. Well, that's not much of a reason to sit out here and threaten everybody who walks by your house, is it? It is for me. Why? But I know that they will show up. Who will show up? Whoever done it. They'll walk down the street and when they do, I'm going to get them. Well, you know we're not going to let you do that. I don't see that there's much you can do to stop me. If you know who killed your dog, why don't you come downtown and make a complaint like you should? Evidence. What's that? I have evidence. Well, you must have a lot of it to be ready to kill a man. We'll see. Who do you think poisoned your dog? I don't know, but he'll be by it. Anybody else live in that house with you? No. There's nobody inside. I told you there ain't nobody. It used to be Queenie, but not now. This is a picture of it. Beautiful. I'm going to tell you something, old timer. What? You can sit there and think you got this thing under control, but you haven't. Is that right? Yes, sir. Then you'd better take another look. I've got the gun. Yeah, well, it might be that way. But there's a hundred more that are going to keep you from committing a murder out here. That's a hard word to use, isn't it? No, because that's what you're figuring to do, isn't it? How do you think you're going to stop me? You bring that gun up into firing position, and I'll show you how I'm going to stop you. All I'm trying to do is to pay back something. I don't want to hurt anybody else. Look, mister, why don't you tell us who you think poisoned your dog and why? You might be able to do something for you. Because I don't think it'd help. Why don't you give it a try? He was poisoned. I saw it come home. I saw it crawl right up that wall. On her stomach. Breaking her hind legs. Yeah. You wouldn't understand what she meant to me. She was like a person. Someone to talk to. She was a lot of company. This book here, written by a man who knew. He understood. Yeah, well, all that may be fine, but you got me right to sit out here with that shotgun. This man knew about dogs. Odd McIntyre. Who's that, sir? Old McIntyre? I want you to listen. This will explain just what I'm doing here. Hold it. Hold it right there. I'll drop this book and kill you. I want you to listen to this. I want you to listen carefully. Listen, sisters. I bid you beware of giving your heart to a dog. So throat-kippling and an excellent allergic. Why happen to be a dog lover who does not believe in that warning? Eight of the happiest years of my life was spent in the almost constant companionship of a devoted dog. When he was taken from me, surely but with merciful swiftness, it was a terrific heart wrench. For two days I grieved inconsolably. For weeks I walked the streets at night trying to get hold of myself. Yet now, when time has dulled the pain, I can truthfully say that the joy and understanding my dog brought into my life more than compensated for the sorrow of his passing. For my dog taught me many things as enduring as the ages. Outside of the divine relationship in the human, I know of no influence so ennobling as our relationship with a dog. My dog's name was Junior. He was a Boston bulldog weighing 24 pounds with a blaze and muzzle, white collar and feet tipped with white. His coat was a glossy brow of an audible leaf. He had a lovable lop ear that perked with quizzical and bad. He was full of joyous life and never, never outgrew his bankers. I picked him up in a Fifth Avenue dog shop in what's the same manner that one buys a drink at. I thought it was cute looking. He was then four weeks old and trotted sideways with mock seriousness. He took him home in my overcoat pocket. From that day on for eight years he played a big part in my life. He came to understand me better than most of my human associates did. He knew his time for play and my time for work. He did not trust us. His only illness displayed the heroic courage that characterized him until his death. One evening his mistress and I came home after the feather, and when we opened the door we missed his welcoming rush and bark. We found him lying on the floor of the bathroom in a pool of blood. When I bet over him there was a feeble front of his tail as much as to say, Don't worry. His eyes were glazing and I knew that he was in a desperate state. We worked over him several hours and finally in a wobbly manner he stood up. Walked unsteadily to the bedroom and picked up his play ball as if to say, You see, I'm all right. Power, he had another hemorrhage. With uncanny instinct he rushed into the tiled bathroom so as not to injure the collar. Fortunately he recovered quickly from his attack and in two days seemed as well as ever. Dogs are unerring in reflecting the characters of their masters and mistress. To junior I represented the play spirit. The wrong and flap doodle. He was somewhat of a rough neck in his relations with me. But with his mistress he was always gentle and careful. One of the important lessons junior taught me was to have more faith in my fellow beings. I for years knocked about as a newspaper reporter and had acquired that veneer of cynicism that is typical of the craft. I'd rather smart alecky attitude of having to be shown. Now I am the average human being as likely to earn the rest. But I found that with junior because of his implicit faith in me I never kept it trickly. I could not bear to abuse that rare confidence. And this set me to think that if we humans displayed the same faith in our fellows we should be less likely to have that confidence abuse. I come to the final chapter of junior's life with tears that are shed on a shame. As I have said he was my constant companion for eight happy years. My longest absence from him was when I was in Europe. By the quarantine regulations are so strict that it is quite unfair and selfish to take a dog there. Junior like all good dogs was faithful to the end. He died obeying my command which made his laws all the more tragic to me. I left him after his evening robber was away shortly after midnight. Upon my return his reading was it seemed to me especially joyous. It was so joyous in fact that it indirectly led to his death. Shortly before I arrived a servant had taken him out for a walk. But he was so glad to see me and he loved so to go out late at night without a muzzle or a leash on. But I human with him and we went out again together. It was very little traffic on Fifth Avenue and junior ran far ahead of me. He had been trained to wait at curvings when unleashed until he received the command go. Then he would race across the street like a flash. At the corner of 44th Street and Fifth Avenue I stepped to the curb. Look both ways for signs of traffic and seeing none shouted go. Junior was off at the bound. At that instant a party of breakfast joy riders in a heavy touring car swung madly around the corner and both wheels on one side passed over his body. There was a jeer of derision that the car shot north of the taillights gleaming red in the night. Junior staggered to his feet and as I lifted him in my arms he looked up with his soft, bleeding eyes. Begging for the help could not be. Hailing a taxi cab I hurried to my hotel a few blocks away. But before I reached there he had died without even a quiver of pain. He lies buried today in the picturesque little dog cemetery on the sloping hills of Hartsdale, New York. Above it are the green grass, the whispering trees and a stone carved with this inscription. Junior faithful to the end. There's a great columnist, old Macintyre. Yes. We'll all just wait. For what? A man who poisoned Queenie. They're expecting him, are ya? This is going to be something different for you two. How's that? You won't have to look for the man who killed him. Friday, see you in a minute? Yeah, what? We checked the old man through R and I. You find anything new? No, no record. How about the neighborhood? Perkins and Henry checked, talked to the people on the street. Clear. Then as we can find out his premier Hermit doesn't have much to do with anybody. No close friend? No, none that anybody knows about. He gets one piece of mail a month, evidently some kind of check. We talked to the manager at the grocery down the street. Collins is all the shopping there. What do you have to say about that check? It's from an insurance company, some kind of annuity. Anything else? No, the rest of the book's empty. Where do we go from here? Find some way to get that gun away from him. Any ideas? Well, if we could find the poison, it might give us a break. If there is a poison? No, Lloyd, I believe him. Anyway, it won't do any harm to shake the neighborhood. If we pick the guy up, maybe the old man will settle down. It's a big job. Yeah, well, that's a big gun. 007 p.m. We contacted the office and made arrangements. For additional cars to start a thorough search of the area. It was just an outside chance that the dog poisoner might still be in the neighborhood somewhere. The crowd in the sidewalk had gotten larger and the uniformed officers were having trouble keeping order. While I was talking to the office, a middle-aged woman broke through the lines and ran toward the porch and Peter Collins. Hold it right there, lady. Leave a friend of mine. Yeah, well, he won't be if he pulls a trigger on that gun. What are you trying to do, Pete Collins? What? What do you do? You know what you mean? We were all sorry, even clean. He died. Wasn't anybody on the street didn't want to do something? That's nice of you. You sit here with that gun, the shooting gallery, and none of us are with you to make it right. Talk to the officer, send out more men, gas guns. Anything on the poisoner? No, still looking. Lady, what do you know about him? Well, he lived next door for 16 years. You live alone all that time? Yeah. I think he was married before he moved here. Yeah. All he had was that old dog. Just a tour of him. Do you have any idea who might have poisoned the dog? We'd all like to answer to that one. Ma'am? Queenie's not the first one. There's been 13 others. Probably a dog on the block that hasn't gotten sick. We've done about everything we could. It isn't easy. What do you mean? The way the law is. What? We checked into it. Oh, dear. The way the law reads, in order to prove poisoning, you've got to see the person throw the bait. Yeah. None of us got time to sit around the back fence and watch people walking down the street. But even if you do see the person throw the bait, you can't just go in and arrest them. All right. The law says you've got to have part of the bait. That's hard to do. Mm-hmm. Makes it all the most impossible. You've been to the authorities, have you? Yeah. SPCA, police. They've all done what they could. Dogs keep right on dying. We even thought it may be hiring somebody on our own. You know, sort of a special cop. Yeah. It seems a shame, don't it? Ma'am? Poor old man. How could anybody get low enough to poison his dog? That's what he wants to know. Joe. Yeah. You better leave, lady. Oh, yeah. I guess it's nothing more than duty. Yeah, what do you got? Well, this man here, his name's Bentley Mocker. Yeah. You know, a farm man picked him up in an alley a couple of blocks from here throwing us over the back fences. Meat, huh? Yeah. Put that gun down, Collins. Ah! How about it, Joe? Collins, put it down. Get these people out of here. Right. What are we going to do? No choice now. Yeah. We've got to shoot him. 12.24 p.m. In spite of the precautions, began to look as if we wouldn't be able to take Collins' gun away from him without physical violence. As he raised the shotgun, cocked it and pointed it at Bentley Mocker, all of the other officers in the vicinity were ready to stop him. Collins, you use that gun, and I'm going to use mine. Put it down. I'll shoot through you to get to it. Yes, sir. You're going to have to. What's going on here? Did you do this to me? How about it? Did you poison his dog? He's crazy. He'll kill me if he gets chance. Just answer me. Did you poison his dog? What if I did? Answer the question, mister. All right, I did. I poisoned him. You've been dropping poison to meet all over this neighborhood, haven't you? There ain't anything you can do about it. 14 dogs killed around here. Did you do it? Pets. That's all they are. Good riddance. That's the way it looks to you, doesn't it? Sure. Rootin' around the yard, barkin' and yellin'. No good any of them. Y'all through? I could go on for hours about them. Had my way. I'd go to the courts to him. That dog was part of his life. What gives you the right to sneak around back alleys and side yards and kill off a pet that belongs to a child or an old man? I don't have to stand around here and listen to you. No, sir, you don't. Lloyd? Yeah, Joe. Take him downtown. On par. You've got no law to hold me. Yeah, well, maybe we can find one. In the way you talk, you think dogs are better than humans. In your case, they are. Come on, then. Let's go. Frank. Yeah? Tell him to stand by with a gas. Yeah. No other way, huh? No, I'll make one more try. Right. Collins, it's all over now. I'm going to tell you once more. Put that gun down. I don't like it. One chance at that question. He's gone. He's downtown. Now, this is the last time. Put it down. I don't care anymore. It's up to you. We've done all we can. That man ought to die. Put the gun down. I don't care. As soon as you shoot you. Collins, it's all over now. Put that gun down or we'll take it away from you. Joe. Yeah. Take a look. What's the kid want here? Well, look. No. A policeman. Maybe this will help. Then I'll read it. Did you read this? Yeah. Then we'll give it a try. Collins, there's a boy here who wants to see you. I don't want to talk to anybody. You might want to see him. Oh, him. It's okay. Then come up. Not as long as you've got that gun. Now, how about it? All right. Break it. Pick the shells out. Now, toss them down there on the lawn. Now, let that gun slide down the porch steps. Come on. Davey, what do you want to see me about? Ma said I should give you the smell. What's in it? Well, now the quickest way to find that is to read it, isn't it? My dear Mr. Collins, as you well know, all of your neighbors are deadfully sorry you lost your cleaning. I know this one may never take her place, but please give her the chance. Oh, yes. It's a little girl. Your neighbor is his Tom Evans. You want to see the puppy? Whoa. Come on, some of it sounds like your jacket here. Here. There you are. It's a little girl. Just a puppy. That's right. If we eat his collar, it doesn't fit too good. Uh-huh. Let me go left to get another one. No, I wouldn't worry about that. Uh-huh. She'll grow into that one. The story you've just heard is true. The names were changed to protect the innocent. On July 12th, Pryle was held in Division 68 Municipal Court, Los Angeles Judicial District. Lawrence Collins pled guilty to violation of Section 417-PC, drawing or exhibiting firearms. One count. Extenuating circumstances and lack of a prior record led the court to be lenient. The suspect was placed on probation for a period of three years. Bentley Jones-Mocker was tried and convicted of Section 596-PC, unauthorized animal poisoning, and received sentence as prescribed by law. Violation of Section 596-PC is punishable by imprisonment in the county jail for a period not to exceed six months, or a fine of not more than $500, or both such fine and imprisonment. Ladies and gentlemen, we are grateful to the McNaught Syndicate Incorporated for granting permission to read excerpts from OOMAC and Tire's article entitled, What My Dog Taught Me. 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.