 The story you're 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. An attractive blonde secretary is found beaten to death in a downtown office building. You've only one lead to start with, a length of steel pipe wrapped in heavy paper. There's no trace of the killer. Your job? Get him. The documented drama of an actual crime. For the next 30 minutes in cooperation with the Los Angeles police department, you will travel step by step on the side of the law through an actual case transcribed from official police files. From beginning to end, from crime to punishment, Dragnet is the story of your police force in action. It was Wednesday, September 28th. It was hot in Los Angeles. We were working the night watch out a homicide detail. My partner's Ben Romero. The boss is Thad Brown, chief of detectives. My name's Friday. I was on the way back from the crime lab, and it was 1148 p.m. when I got to room 42. Homicide. Romero? Ben? Hey, Romero? Not here. You, Friday? Oh, yeah. Lopie, how are you? You seen Romero around the last half hour? I'm supposed to meet him here. Well, he's come and gone. Still around the building, though. Got a call. What was it about, you know? Yeah, I was on that killing tonight. Call came from one of the cruiser cars checking the neighborhood down where it happened. Yeah, did they find something? Picked up a guy about three blocks in the murder scene, acting suspicious. Men in the cruiser car figured maybe you'd want to talk to him. They're bringing the man in now? Yeah. Yeah, you've been over checking with the crime lab? Yeah, there's not much. Murder weapons about all we got so far. It's a piece of pipe with heavy manila paper wrapped around it. Uh-huh. Are the fingerprints doing any good? Yeah, they lifted a lot of fingerprints. They all belong to the victim. None of them are foreign. Hey, you got a toothpick, Joe. Had corn on the cob from there. No, I haven't. Why don't you try the top drawer over there in Mike Penya's desk? He usually has... Oh, yes. Thanks. I understand why there wasn't much to look at the killing, I mean. It was a pretty vicious thing. The girl took a terrible beating. Who found the body? One of the scrub women in the building. It was an office up on the 9th floor, import, export company. The victim was a secretary there. She's a pretty girl. She dead long? Must have happened around 7 o'clock tonight. That's my figure. It's just a guess. What's the girl's name? Been identified yet? Yeah, Adele Pryor. Her boss is out of town. She was working in the office alone. There was no one suspicious seeing entering or leaving the office around the time of the murder. There's no one we know of, anyway. You know, it's going to take a lot of checking. Yeah. Any idea what the motive could have been? Well, it wasn't robbery. They didn't keep any cash in the office. As far as we know, the girl wasn't carrying much money. We'll start making the rounds in the morning, checking with her friends, see what we can pick up. Joe Friday, you're on. Yeah, I'm right here. Back here, Ben. Oh, hi, Joe. Hi. Hi. They bring the guy in, Ben? Mm-hmm. I'll be brief you about it, Joe. Yeah, a cruiser car picked up a suspicious-looking guy near the murder scene. Is that about the size of it? A little more than that. They found the man beating his head against a brick wall in the back alley about two blocks from the office building where we found the body. Guy had been drinking heavily, and when they picked him up, he was pretty far gone. Kept mumbling something about how he didn't deserve to live, or he's a murderer, killer, not too coherent. They asked him about the dead girl, Adele Pryor? Yeah, but the stuff he said didn't make much sense. He sobered up a little since he picked him up. We might as well see what we can get out of him before we book him in, huh? Got him in the interrogation room now. Okay, give it a try anyway. Any calls come in. You know where to find us, Lopie. Yeah, sure, right here. Thanks a lot. Did you check with the crime lab, Joe? Yeah, about all we're sure of is the murder weapon. No prints, no other physical evidence. Maybe it won't matter. Got half an idea. We might have the killer now. The guy they picked up? How'd he figure it out? Just a hunch. I don't think he's as drunk as he pretends. We're gonna have to place him a lot closer to the murder scene than two blocks away. You can't prove a thing the way it stands. I was downstairs when they brought the man in. I talked to him while he was bringing up the interrogation room here. Told me he knows a dead girl. All right. Said he was with her an hour before she died. Shortly before eight o'clock that night, a scrub woman in a downtown office building near the intersection of 8th and South Grand Avenue entered an office on the ninth floor of the building to do her usual cleaning chores. Lying face down behind a desk in the small office, she found the body of 28-year-old Secretary Adele Pryor beaten to death. When we arrived at the scene, routine investigation began, but almost immediately we found ourselves down a blind alley. Repeated questioning of all persons in or about the office building failed to turn up anything in the way of leads. Thorough investigation of the murder scene with the crime lab crew met with the same kind of luck. They knew they had the murder weapon. That was all. The deputy coroner arrived and removed the body to the morgue for posting. At 10 o'clock that night, three hours after the approximate time of the prior girl's death, officers in a cruiser car patrolling the area found a drunken man butting his head against a cement wall and muttering incoherently about a murder. He was picked up and taken immediately to the interrogation room where Ben and I questioned him. We'd talked to him a full hour before he began to make sense. He gave his name as Robert French, age 34, an unemployed electrical engineer. While we questioned him, two men from homicide were sent to check the hotel room where French told us he was staying. I don't know. I guess I had three or four drinks at Dusty's place and I went down the street to the Blue Canary. I had some more drinks there. I don't remember what happened after that. I wasn't feeling so good. You say you were drinking at Dusty's place around 7 p.m., is that right, French? Suppose so. I wasn't watching the clock. I guess it was around 7. Well, did you talk to anybody while you were in the bar? No, just the bartender. His name's Sarge. I don't know his last name. He'll tell you I was there. What time was it when you got to Dusty's place, French? I couldn't tell you for sure. About 6.30 maybe. Sarge could probably tell you the bartender. When you were coming up in the elevator, you told us you knew Adele Pryor. Yeah, I knew her. Used to work for her husband or ex-husband, I mean. They've been divorced seven, eight years now. You said you saw Adele Pryor in her office late this afternoon, French. What was the reason for the visit? I borrowed a couple of dollars from her. She was always pretty good that way. Nice kid. Don't know why anybody'd want to kill her like that. Well, how about the show that you were putting on out in the street tonight, French? Beating your head against that wall? What was that all about? Drunk. Really drunk. Felt so low I wanted to kill myself. Just lay down and die. Well, how's that? You're remorseful? Felt sorry for something you'd done? I don't know. I don't think of any special reason for it when I get that way. I just keep thinking I want to die. I haven't got the nerve for it, though I know that like my old man always used to tell me. I haven't got the nerve to do anything right. Just wasn't born that way. I guess that's it. Do you use narcotics, French? No. I haven't even got the nerve for that. Booze, that's all. It's good enough for me. Say, do you think we could go out for a cup of coffee? Maybe I could use it. We'll have some brought up, huh? Ben, you mind going down the hall and check with Lopey? Ask him to have some coffee brought up, huh? Yeah, okay. And see if those two men had checked back in yet, would you? Right? Appreciate it, Sergeant. Sure gonna be mean when all this booze wears off. I'd like to ask you a little more about the prior, girlfriend. Just how well did you know her? Not too well. I guess I used to see her maybe once a month. Up there at her office? Yeah, that's right. She was a nice girl. Whenever I was broke, I could always depend on her for a couple of bucks. I liked her. She was a nice person. Did you ever go out with her? Oh, no. I never did. No romance stuff. I didn't like her that way. She was just a good person. We got along okay. You want a cigarette? No, thanks. It's full of cotton already. How about this business of Adele prior lending you money? Do you think quite a bit of you? Well, I did her a couple of favors once. When I was working for her husband, she was still married to him. She was going out with a guy she liked on the side. She was out with this guy once, and I saw him together. She asked me not to say anything, so I didn't. Before she got a divorce, I used to cover up for her all the time. She never forgot it, I guess. How about when you saw her in her office tonight? Franchise, she seemed all right to you. Yeah, same as ever. Ask her if she could lend me a five, and she did. I left. It was about a quarter after six, I guess. Or anyone else in the office when you left? Yeah. There was a guy waiting in the little reception room there. Didn't know who he was. You remember what he looked like? Well, tall fella, about my size, my age. Joe, can I see you a minute? Yeah. Dorothy and Brian have checked in and just got back from going over Franchise's hotel room. They find anything? White shirt, a pair of brown shoes, a pair of dark trousers. What about them? Blood stains on all of them. The stained pieces of clothing found in the suspect's hotel room were delivered to Lieutenant Lee Jones at the crime lab for detailed examination. Coffee was brought in, and Ben and I continued to question Franch until about 4 a.m. He denied any knowledge or complicity in the killing of 28-year-old Adele Pryor. He told us the blood stain clothing in his hotel room was the result of an accident he'd been in two weeks before when he'd been drinking heavily. He was checked through R&I while we talked to him, but he had no previous criminal record. Franch kept insisting that we check on the tall, dark-haired man who'd been waiting in the reception room of the prior girl's office the night before when Franch left her. We gave the description of the suspect, along with the MO to the stats office, requesting them to furnish us with any information regarding any assaults or any solved or unsolved murder. At 4.15 a.m., we booked in Robert Franch at the main jail on suspicion of 187 PC murder. The next morning at 10 a.m., the legwork began. Lopez and Dorothy from Homicide started checking on the background and alibi of the suspect, Robert Franch. It didn't hold much water. None of the people at either of the bars where Franch said he'd been drinking at the time of the murder could definitely vouch for his presence, but they all volunteered the information that no matter how much he drank, Franch was never violent toward other people, only himself. Lopez and Dorothy continued investigating the suspect while Ben and I checked on the background of the victim, Adele Pryor. At 8.25 p.m., we got back to the office. Lopez, are you and Dorothy doing any good? Nothing to celebrate over. Long day, tired feet. What'd you find out, Lopez? Anything new at all? Oh, maybe Franch is our man. Can't prove it by me. Every place we checked, everybody we talked to, same answer. He's a smart guy with a good education. He's on the bottle, and he's out of work. Everybody seems to like him. He gets drunk, but he never bothers anybody. That's about the worst anybody could say about him. Drinks too much. Well, how about he's being friends with a dead girl? Did he get anything there? Yeah, and only proves he was telling you the truth, though. As far as we could find out, there was nothing going between the two of them. Everything we got only verifies what he told you. He had no interest in the girl except a bar offer when he was broke. You got in touch with the girl's ex-husband, did you? Yeah, he couldn't add anything. All clear there. Hey, uh, by the way here, Lee Jones called from the crime line just before he came in. What did he have, Lopie? Finished testing the bloodstains in those clothes they found in Franch's hotel room. None of the stains on him match the victim's blood type. It's another dead end. Yeah. It's sure hard to figure. You got anything else, Lopie? Oh, yeah. You're good, Lee's tough. A report for you from the stats office. Oh, thank you. You asked to make a run for you last night, didn't you? Yeah, I did. What's it look like? Just a minute. Yeah, it doesn't help much. Looks like more leg work. What's that, Joe? Well, Franch told us when he left to Dell prior last night there was a man in the reception room waiting to see her. He gave us the guy's description and the stats office made a run on it for us. This is the best one they got. Yeah. Guy's name is William Tanner, WMA 33 years old, 6 foot 195 pounds, dark hair, dark complexion. Fits a description. Franch gave us the guy. The rest of it's a lot closer to home. What do you mean? William Tanner was a prominent suspect in the Donaldson murder last September. Testimony of friends and relatives subsequently cleared him. Donaldson's murder is still unsolved. What's the point? Well, the same thing that killed Donaldson killed a Dell prior. What do you mean? Piece of steel pipe wrapped in paper. To the working detective assigned to examine a criminal case, the element of coincidence when it occurs generally serves to complicate any investigation. Toward the solution of the crime, coincidence may mean a lot or it may mean nothing. In any event, it can't be dismissed. This time we had two examples of coincidence to deal with. A girl had been beaten to death in an office building. Within two blocks of the murder scene, we found a man fairly well acquainted with a victim who admitted seeing the girl within an hour of her death. Primary investigation uncovered some facts which tended to incriminate the man, some facts which tended to prove him innocent. Was his presence in the immediate neighborhood of the killing only coincidental? Or was he there at the particular time for the purpose of murder? We didn't know. By the same token, a man by the name of William Tanner was suspected one year before of beating an elderly woman to death with an identical murder weapon, a length of steel pipe wrapped in paper. This same person, William Tanner, matched the description of a man reportedly seen entering Adele Pryor's office shortly before she was murdered. Tanner also had a criminal record of one conviction for assault. Maybe it was a lead, maybe it was nothing. It had to be checked out. We showed Tanner's mugshot to our first murder suspect, Robert French, but he failed to identify it. We went to William Tanner's last known address, but he'd moved. We checked with his next of kin, his brother, Martin Tanner. He was with the city fire department. We found him on duty at the neighborhood fire station on Norwich Avenue. No, I'm afraid not, Sergeant. I haven't seen my brother Bill in three weeks now. If he's not at his apartment, I couldn't tell you where to find him. We tried the last address we had on him. He wasn't there. 8625 Norman Road? Oh, no, no. He moved out of there six, seven months ago. I got his new address in my locker. I can give it to you if you want. We'd appreciate it. Yeah. Okay, back this way and then upstairs. All right. What's it about, Sergeant? My brother in some kind of trouble again, I guess, huh? Oh, it's just a routine check. You sound like you almost expect your brother to be in trouble, Tanner. I'm going to tell you the truth. I guess I do. I don't know what... Excuse me, man. No, it's not our call. Well, how would you mean that, Tanner? What's happened to your brother? Well, to tell you the truth, I don't know. Bill and I used to live together with our mother. Ma died about two years ago. I don't think Bill ever really got over it. He was a lot closer to Ma than I was. I see. After she died, he drank quite a bit for a while, and he tried women, lots of them. After that, he turned to religion. We thought that had helped. Would have, too. Except that he's an odd guy. He even finds ways of distorting the Bible. I guess he's still pretty religious. He goes to all the revivals, the tent meetings, all that kind of thing. Uh-huh. Do you know any of his women friends? Yeah, I do. Two or three of them. How about the name Adele Pryor? Does that mean anything to you? Uh-huh. Would she be kind of a pretty girl, blonde hair, nice clothes? Yeah, that's right. Have you met her, Tanner? Yeah, Bill had me meet her once. He seemed to like her quite a bit. Why? Was he pretty serious about her, or would you know that? Yeah, he was serious about her all right. He told me that. I don't think it worked both ways, though. It looked to me like she was playing the field. Bill took it way too serious. How do you mean? Well, they went together steady for a while, and then they broke it up. She did, I mean. Uh-huh. How'd your brother take that? Not so good. I remember the night about a month ago. Never saw Bill like that before. Real bad shape. Wasn't drinking either. Is that so? Never saw Bill like that in my life. Like what, Tanner? Off his head. He could have gone out and killed a girl. Before we left the fire station, we got William Tanner's new address from his brother, Martin. It was the same address as that of the murdered girl, Adele Pryor, an apartment house close by the intersection of Wilshire and La Brea. Tanner's apartment was on the third floor, just down the hall from the Pryor girl's apartment. But Tanner wasn't there. The apartment manager told us he'd moved out the night before without leaving a forwarding address. Ben put in a call to the suspect's place of business in industrial chemical company, where Tanner was employed as assistant office manager. What was the reason, sir? Oh, I see. Uh-huh. Yeah, well, all right. Thanks very much. We'll be checking with you later. Bye. What'd they say? Tanner left yesterday, quit without giving any notice. Told him he had a better job lined up. Where? South America. Saturday, October 1st, 8 a.m. We got out of broadcast and an APB on murder suspect William Tanner. We checked with a local U.S. State Department office, but they had no record of granting a passport recently to a William Tanner to travel in a South American country. We talked to the various consulates in the city representing South American nations, but none of them had issued a visa to a William Tanner recently. Or anyone answering his description? Together with Brian and Lopez from Homicide, Ben and I continued the search for the missing suspect. The deeper we checked into his background, the more we became convinced that, mentally, Tanner was far from normal. Most of the people who knew the suspect told us the same story his brother had given us. In recent months, Tanner had taken strongly to religion. He attended revival meetings and similar religious exercises every night in the week. He talked nothing but repentance. He quoted the scriptures constantly. He adopted the habit of carrying a Bible with him wherever he went, reading from it aloud every chance he got. He kept urging his friends to join him in being saved. On Monday, October 3rd, we began a check of the various revival halls. On Wednesday, October 5th, we found him. He was attending a gospel revival in a meeting hall in the south end of the city. He told us he had a room in a small hotel directly above the meeting hall, but he seemed reluctant to take us up there. While Lopez and Brian got a pass key from the manager and went up to check the room, Ben and I questioned Tanner downstairs in the lobby of the meeting hall. I'm sorry to hear about Dell. What happened to her? It's a terrible thing, isn't it? Yes, sir. We understand you and you and Dell prior fairly well, Mr. Tanner. Is that correct? Yes, that's correct. I liked her quite a bit at one time. You see a lot of each other. I was engaged to her, you know. Well, how is it you never married, Tanner? Did she break off the engagement? No, no. I was lucky. I found out in time. I broke off with her. What do you mean, you found out in time? What did you find out? I found the truth, Sergeant. The everlasting word. For know this and understand that no unclean person or covetous one has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. For these have given themselves up in disparate sensuality, readily practicing every kind of uncleanness. Do not then become partakers with them. That's the everlasting word, Sergeant, the holy book. Yes, sir. I'm not quite sure I follow you. Open your eyes and ears to the everlasting word and you will know and understand all things. It's a very simple officer. I don't want to say anything uncharitable about her. Adele wasn't for me. I'm glad I found out in time, that's all. When's the last time you saw her, Tanner? You remember? No, I don't. Not exactly. I think I saw her a week or so before it happened before they found her dead. Where was that that you saw her? How's that? I say, where was it the last time you saw her? On the street. It was downtown somewhere. I passed her on the street. You used to live in the same apartment how she did, isn't that right? Just down the hall from her? Yes, sir. I did. Why? And for a full week, you didn't happen to see the prior girl around the apartment building at all? No, that's right. When I broke off with Adele, that was it. I had no reason to see her anymore. Well, it's not too clear, Tanner. It doesn't jib with what we've been told about you and the prior girl. Well, the lies, of course. I suppose you know that. Adele's a beautiful girl. Very beautiful. A lot of men she knew were jealous of her. All the way we understand it, Tanner. You never did break off with Miss Pryor. You were going around with her, and you were seen with her right up to the day of her death. Well, that's certainly a lie, and I can prove that. As soon as I found out about Adele, that was weeks before she was killed. As soon as I found out, that was the end. I broke off with her right away. I'd like to know what you're referring to, Tanner. You found out what? Adele. Adele. She was one of those. Huh? I'm sorry. She was. The sinner. I almost went out of my mind when I found out she knew it was wrong. She must have known. It was right there in the book for anybody to read. Do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts. Now, look, Tanner, what are you trying to tell us? It was terrible. She sinned all the time. She committed terrible sins. Will you come into this side room over here? I can tell you all about her. I'd just as soon not talk about it here. I'm sure. Go ahead. And here. Just one question before you get started, Tanner. Yes? Did you ever visit Adele prior to a place of visions downtown at her office? No, I never did. Why? Did you visit Adele prior at her office the day she was killed? The Lord is my witness, Sergeant. I have nothing to fear. Why should you ask me that question? Oh, we have a report that you were seen going into the office less than an hour before the prior girl was murdered. I'd like to have you clarify that for us, if you would. Certainly. It's a lie. I'm sure you weren't in that office with her just before she died. Well, let me tell you about her sins. There was never anything as evil as this, Sergeant. Is that right? Yes. It was a terrible shock. I liked Adele. I think I loved her. We'd been going out for two months. Sometimes I'd take her here so that she could learn about the everlasting word, so that she could know about the terrible sins some people commit, or drinking and parties and carrying on. Things no one should do, especially girls like Adele. Beautiful girl. How can you be sure she was doing anything wrong, Tanner? Do you have any real proof of that? Everything, Sergeant. I knew. Just knowing that she was sinning against the Lord. Did you know any of the other men she went out with? They were sinful. I knew that. They only liked Adele because she was beautiful. Did you know any of the men, Tanner? Did you know for a fact that there was anything wrong? I knew everything, Sergeant. She was a beautiful girl, and I thought she was a woman of the Lord, and I wanted her for my wife. But she gave in to sin. Now, I guess that's her business, Tanner, how she lived. We're trying to find out how she died. Well, just let me tell you about it. I'd lie there in the dark in my room upstairs, and I'd wait to hear her come in down the hall. It was always late, two and three o'clock in the morning, I'd hear her come in. You still haven't told us, Tanner. What about the men she went out with this program? Slays of the devil, every one of them. I thought I'd go out of my mind. All right, now, come on. You want to tell us, Mr. Hobotic, is that what made you do it? No, wait a minute. You don't want to wait to listen. You say, made me do it, made me do what? I think you know what we mean, Tanner. You want to tell us now? It's a terrible thing, all this sin around us. It's a grave thing, the whole world. There is not one just man. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks after God. There is none who does good. No, not even one. The throat is an open sepulcher, where their tongues they have dealt deceitfully. The venom of asps is beneath their lips, their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the path of peace they have not known. There's no fear of God before their eyes. No fear of God. Yes, sir. We're still like an answer to our question. Maybe we could talk a little better downtown. The wisdom and the knowledge is here and now. I knew Adele and her terrible sins, they had to be paid for. Adele had to pay for every one of them. You want to get to the point, Mr. Knopf. What is it? What are you trying to tell us? The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the charity of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. So she sinned and so she died. Yeah. In the name of God and in the name of our Lord. Amen. I killed her. William Harold Tanner was brought downtown immediately where he volunteered a complete statement admitting full guilt for the murder of Adele Pryor. Bloodstained clothing found in his room corroborated his story. It was obvious that the man was mentally unbalanced. He gave us the details of how he murdered Adele Pryor because she spurned his attentions. We began questioning him about the Donaldson murder, which had taken place more than a year before and which was still unsolved. The victim, 64-year-old Louise Donaldson, had met death in the same manner as Adele Pryor. No, I didn't know the old lady, but she had money. I'd been told that. I was broken. I needed the cash, so I thought it'd be a good thing. This was in September a year ago that you murdered her? Yes, sir. September, all right. She was all alone. She didn't have anybody. She was sick. I probably did her a favor. Your package here says that you figured in the investigation on the plot to blow up the Rexmore Hotel about three years ago, homemade bomb planted in the basement of the hotel. Yes, that was mine three years ago in September. You never could have traced it. Too bad the bomb didn't go off. I hated those hotel people. That's right. What was the matter? I worked at that hotel once, you know. Worked hard, too. One Saturday they held up a paycheck. I didn't get it till next Tuesday. Never forgot that. September. September? Now, what's that got to do with it? I don't know, really. September's always been the time that's all. I work into some kind of trouble. Last four years, every September, I don't know what it is. Seems to be the best time to get rid of them. Yeah, September. It's always September. I didn't really want to kill Adele. It wasn't anything else I could do. She was a sinner. Yeah. Drinking, running around, she committed sins all the time. Worse kind of sins. Terrible. Let me tell you, maybe you better check the book, Tanner. You're way ahead of her. What do you mean? What kind of sins worse than murder? The story you have just heard was true. The names were changed to protect the innocent. On January 10th, the trial was held in Superior Court, Department 87, City and County of Los Angeles, State of California. In a moment, the results of that trial. Further investigation proved beyond the doubt that William Tanner, besides murdering Adele prior, had also taken the life of 64-year-old Louise Donaldson the year before. And that he was responsible for the attempted bombing of the Rexmore Hotel the year before that. After examination by three psychiatrist appointed by the state, the suspect was found to be sane at the time of the murders. Tanner was convicted of first-degree murder and received the death penalty. He was executed in the lethal gas chamber at the State Penitentiary, San Quentin, California. You have just heard DRAGNET, a series of authentic cases from official files. Technical advice comes from the Office of Chief of Police W.H. Parker, Los Angeles Police Department.