 Ladies and gentlemen, the story you're about to hear is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent. Dragmen. You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned a robbery detail. A gang of truck hijackers has been working in your city. They've stolen 14 loaded trucks. They've kidnapped and beaten one of the drivers. There's no clue to their identity. Your job? Get them. It was Wednesday, June 4th. It was warm in Los Angeles. We were working the day watch out a robbery detail. My partner's Frank Smith, the boss of Chief of Detective Stad Brown. My name's Friday. We were on our way out from the office and it was 9.47 a.m. when we got to the county hospital. Ward 419. Hi. Mr. Gilmour? Yeah, I know you guys. No sir, we're police officers. This is my partner Frank Smith. My name's Friday. Hello. A couple of stools over there. Drag them up. Sit down. I'll get them. Here you go. How do you feel, Mr. Gilmour? Rough, real rough. I feel like I've ridden 50 miles in the back of a ready mixed cement truck. Went for the pills. It'd be a good man. I think I'd go off my rocker. You want to tell us what happened? Yeah, as much as I can remember. Only goes so far then there's a room full of black. If you'll tell us what you can, please. Yeah. Yesterday, that's when it was. Yesterday morning, I checked in for work. Had a load. I was going to take over to Phoenix. Supposed to shove off about 10, 10.50. Did you know what you were carrying? Yeah. I saw the way building. Some of the stuff they were loading it. Used furniture. Didn't make any difference to me. They load the truck and I'll drive it. I went across the street. Little coffee place over there. Got my back and bottle filled and came back. By that time, they had the truck loaded. I signed the way building the office. Went out and got into the truck. The two guys were waiting for me. They were in the cab of the truck? Yeah. Sitting there kind of scrunched down so you couldn't even see them from the outside. As soon as I opened the door, one of them had a gun pointed at me. Told me to get into the truck like there was nothing wrong. Just start the motor and get the truck away from me. Did they get out of the truck at that time? No. No, they were waiting for me when I got there. They told me to drive away and I did. Wasn't going to mess around with them having a gun. Yeah. Go ahead. We drove about three blocks and they told me to pull into an alley just off of Santa Fe. Santa Fe in what, you mean? By Porter Street, between Porter and Enterprise. I see. Would you like to go ahead? Then they told me to pull into the alley. And when I did, they made me get out of the truck, put me around back and broke the seal and told me to get inside. And that's what you did? Officer, if they had told me to jump off the city hall that a gunner hadn't done it with that gun pointed at me. Now I'm a coward. All the ways I got around and I'm going to do just like he tells me. Yes, sir. Those guys were mean, you could tell. How's that? Oh, I'm kind of a student of phonology. I could tell about those fellas real plain. Student of what? Phonology. You know, bumps on the head? They all mean something. Of course, I didn't get a chance to make a good examination of these guys, but I could see it. Real criminal heads. Bumps stole me some. One fella had a head that was one of the worst I've ever seen. Yes, sir. His means was a mother, I could tell. Had a bump right here. Here, see? Yeah. His means was a mother. Yes, sir. Well, what happened after they tied you up? Just left me there. I see. You want to go on? Yeah. I must have drove for about 20 minutes and stopped pulling some sort of a driveway. How do you figure that? Well, right after they stopped, they made a half u-turn and backed up. Backed up this ramp. Steve. Then they stopped and took me out of the truck. Blindfolded me and made me get out of the truck. Now, this place where they stopped, that's where they unloaded the furniture, did they? Yeah. I must have taken it out of there. I heard them something around the truck. Sounded like they were unloading it. Now, what'd they do after they got all the furniture out? Put me back in, drove out to where you found the truck. After they both climbed into the back, they beat me up. Don't remember much after that. Both of them worked you over, huh? Yeah. Both of them got in their licks, especially the one who was mean to his mother. He was vicious. He was mean. They kept hitting me with their fists until I just passed out. Don't remember anything after that until I came to in the back of the truck. That's when I called the cops and the guys in the uniform came out. I guess they're the ones who called you. Yes, sir. Now, is there any way that you might be able to tell us where they took you? You mean when they unloaded the furniture? Yes, sir. Well, I think maybe I got an idea. I tried to figure out how fast they was driving. And after you've been a driver for a while, you get to know. I'd say they were going about 20 miles an hour. We were still in town. My own guess is that they went out Alameda. Must have gone out Santa Fe and then turned out to be Alameda. I remember hearing kids yelling, I'd probably be Santa Fe High School. Yeah. I guess they went out Alameda to maybe 43rd or 44th and they turned right. Kind of hard to figure it then. The truck got tied up in traffic. It was hard to tell if they were stopping for that or if they were just out of light. But I'd say that they were up to about Avalon. Maybe they went up to San Pedro. I don't think so. I'd say Avalon. Then they turned left and headed for Hawthorne. I'm not sure how far they went. But I'd figure maybe around Rosecrans and then they turned a couple more times and they stopped and drove up that steep ramp. You figure they ended up around Rosecrans and Avalon. Yeah, yeah. I guess that's not much help though, huh? Well, it gives us an idea where to start looking. A couple other things that might help you. What's that? Well, it seems that when we started to back up the ramp, I heard a bump, like they backed into a car. They didn't hit it hard, but I bet they did hit a car. After that they pulled the truck forward and stopped and backed up again. This time they scraped into the side of a house. I could feel it run along the side of the truck. It sounded like they might have torn up some of the wood on the house. Will that help any? Yeah, sir, we'll have our crime lab check the truck and see if they can come up with anything. Sure hope you can. Oh, you talked to my boss yet? No, sir, but he's been notified we understand. Bet he's plenty sore about it. Well, we wouldn't know about that, but he should understand that it wasn't your fault. He should, but he won't. I know. That right? Yeah. He doesn't understand anything that doesn't go on his way. Spot of a mile off. What's that, sir? His head. All kinds of bumps. 10.06 a.m. We continued to question the victim, Russell Gilmore. He gave us descriptions of the two men who kidnapped him. He also told us that at one time he heard one of the men call the other by the name Leo. Further, he told us that when the two bandits had taken him from the truck, they placed him in a garage. He was able to feel the wall, and he said that he was sure it was a plaster wall and as much as he could feel the studs and the wire holding the plaster. He said that at one time he heard a woman come out of a house and say something to the thieves while he unloaded the car. He told us that the garage wasn't very large because there was no echo on the sounds that were made in the building. We called the office and got out a supplementary broadcast on the thieves carrying their description. 10.40 a.m. Frank and I left the county hospital and drove over to Central Station. We went up the crime lab and talked to Ray Pinker. On the right rear fender, we found evidence that the truck had hit a car. Looked at some paint chips. Got them here. Uh-huh. Looks like a blue car, huh? Yeah. I checked the paint with a Ditzer production color book. Here, I'll show you. Got all the paints catalogued by color. Uh-huh. Here. This is the one. Yeah, but Ray, there are a lot of blues here. How can you be sure this is it? Well, here. You see, they've got a color patch on each page in the book. A hole in the patch. Oh, this little hole here, huh? Uh-huh. Well, we just put this chip we lifted from the truck and the hole. Now, lay it down. Get this lamp. There. Color matches. Get them the same light and you can see the same paint. Huh. Look at that, Joe. Same. Yeah, see. Well, what do we got out of it, Ray? The car the truck hit was a 1953 Hudson jet. It was a single-tone car. You know, the top color matches the body color. Yeah. They only use this on one color car unless you've got a special order. Uh-huh. Did you find any house paint on the side of the truck? Yeah. Over here. Might be able to do a little better on that for you. Uh-huh. House truck ran to about 36 years old. Might be a little more than that, but it's right around there. How could you come up with that? Been painted 18 times. Figure once every two years, you come out with 36. Yeah. How do we know it's been painted every two years? We don't, Frank. Just guessing. But the layers of paint are pretty even. Might indicate they did it regularly. You know, it didn't let the paint go too far before they redid it. Oh, yeah. Here are the chips of the house paint. Here, I'll put one of them under the microscope. Here, take a look, Joe. Okay. You see okay? I am. I'm adjusting. Yeah. That's what you mean. Now, you notice the first coat was a cream white. Uh-huh. And they stuck pretty much to that for the next half dozen paint jobs. Then they changed to a barn red. End of green, then back to cream white. That goes on for three layers, and then to the blue that's on it now. Yeah. Ray, if we find a house, can you tell us if it's the same one? It shouldn't be too hard. There aren't many of them around. Well, how many? Well, 18 coats would be 18 factorial. That's multiplying 18 times 17 times 16 times 15, so on to times one. I gotta work that for you. I hope you have. I'm not with you at all. Here. Well, look. Works out to one in six quadrillion, four hundred and two trillion, three hundred and seventy-three billion, seven hundred and five million, seven hundred and twenty-eight thousand chances of finding its twin. Oh. That's pretty long odds. Well, if every man, woman, and child on the face of the earth own ten houses as a piece, there wouldn't be another one like it. Eleven thirty-seven a.m. We put in a call to Layton Prince. Harlan Stahl told us that his crew had gone over the truck thoroughly, but had failed to come up with anything. We contacted the stats office and asked them to make a run on the M.O. that the thieves had used. They told us that the results would be ready for us late in the afternoon. We contacted Hit and Run detail, but there'd been no reports that could have been the car that the truck had hit. We went to the office and got a large map of the city. Then we drove out to the county hospital to talk to the victim again. We asked him to trace his movements while he'd been held prisoner in the back of the truck. He drew a line down Santa Fe Avenue, up to Alameda, then over to Avalon Boulevard on 43rd Street. From there, he traced the streets down to Rosecrans Avenue. He drew a circle on the map centered on the intersection of Rosecrans Avenue and Avalon Boulevard. He told us that we'd find the house we were looking for inside the circle. Before we left him, we made arrangements for the mug shots to be taken to the hospital for him to check for a possible identification of the suspect. 12.40 p.m. We contacted records and identification division and asked them if they'd had any luck on running on A.M. Leo. We were told that they had three possibles for us. The addresses on the packages were not in the area that had been circled by the victim, Russell Gilmore. We got in touch with Lieutenant Jack Smires and filled him in on the developments. He called Metro Division and made arrangements for three additional teams of men to work with us in a search of the streets within the circle drawn by the victim. He also contacted the divisional commanders and asked for their cooperation. The men were instructed to find a residence with a steep driveway leading to a detached garage. The house would have a wooden porch on the right side of the house as it faced the street. It would be damaged to the wood on the porch. Also, there was a possibility that a Hudson automobile would be parked either in the driveway or on the street right next to it. The car would have some damage done to it. 5.15 p.m. Frank and I got back to the office from the search area. Man, I'm sure tired. Well, I'm with you. A lot of streets out there. Yeah, a lot of houses on the streets. I don't know how the guys from Metro are doing it. I don't know. I get it. Robbery Friday. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Just a minute. Let me get there. Yeah, okay. Hang on to it. We'll be right out. Right. All the Metro boys did some good. Huh? The house. The address given us on the phone was 1486 Cedar Street down in Compton. It took us 35 minutes to get out there from the city hall. The officers from Metro Division Reserve stood by until we got there. We found the house located on Cedar between Dwight Street and Tawada Avenue. It was a one-story frame building with a stucco garage in the rear of the lot. On the left front side of the house was a wooden porch which had been straight by some large object. Several of the tickets in the railing were broken. On the street in front of the house next door, we found a 1953 Hudson jet painted a light blue. There was a dent in the left rear vent. We couldn't tell for certain, but the color of the car and the color of the paint on the porch seemed to match the chips that we'd seen in the crime lab. While the officers from Metro covered the rear of the building, Frank and I rang the front doorbell. There was no answer. We checked the garage, but we found nothing that would tie the house owners in with the robbery kidnapping. The interior walls of the garage were rough wooden studs. Between them, we could see chicken wire embedded in plaster. The physical description of the house, the ramp leading to the garage, the garage itself, and the car parked on the street matched in every detail the picture that we'd been given by the victim. 6.10 p.m. We got the name Conrad Lewis from the mailbox in front of the house, and while the officers from Metro checked it with our office, Frank and I went next door to talk with the neighbors. Yeah? What if we could talk to you, man? Sure. Who are you? Well, it might be better if we got an awful porch. You ain't coming in here unless I know who and what you are. The police officers. Oh. Yes, ma'am. Here's our identification. Oh, yeah. Well, come on in. Thank you, ma'am. I'm Myrtle Richards. This is my partner, Sergeant Friday, on Frank Smith. Oh, how do you do? How are you, ma'am? You just sit down. I'll turn off the television. Thank you. Comedy. I've seen it before a couple of times. I always laugh at them again when they're funny. Yes, ma'am. It's a great boon to the people of television. This is only 12 inch, but I think maybe next year I'll get a bigger one and maybe even color. They got it now, you know. It's true color. It's beautiful. Yes, ma'am. Of course, I ain't actually seen it myself. I just read about it, you know. Beautiful. Oh, I'm a great fan. I got it on all day. Right from the early show to the late, late show. I understand next week one of them stations is going to start early, early show. Now, that'll be nice, won't it? Yes, ma'am, sure. I wonder if we could ask you a few questions. My certainty. You just go right ahead. That car out front does that belong to you? The blue one? Yes, ma'am. Yeah, that's mine. I just got it a few months ago. That's what you hear about, huh? A bigger part? About how somebody hit my car. Isn't that what you're here for? No, not exactly. Do you know who hit your car? No. I wish I did. If I knew I'd sue him, imagine hitting a car that's parked right at the curb and not leaving a note or something to say who did it. A person ran into me, must be insured, wouldn't cost him nothing. All he had to do was leave a card. Yes, ma'am. When was the automobile hit? Yesterday morning. I walked down to the market to do some shopping, get some things for dinner, pretzels, potato chips, things to eat while I watch the TV. When I got back, the dent was there. Did it while I was gone. Did it and didn't even leave a card. Yes, ma'am. Could you tell us who lives next door to you, please? Which side? The left side over there. Well, that's Lewis' house. Why are you asking about them? How long have they lived there? Do you know? Well, I guess it's been about ten years. They moved in right after Conrad. That's Mr. Lewis right after he opened up the new store. What line of business is he in? Well, I got some kind of the shipping business. It has deals with different stores all over the state. Did you see Mr. Lewis yesterday? Yes. Matter of fact, I did. He come over like usual at 5.30. He usually come over at that time, doesn't he? Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, yeah. You see, there's a TV show he likes to see. I watch it, but his wife don't care for it. She watches something else. So Conrad comes over here. He was here last night. You see him during the day at all? No, I didn't. You know where they are tonight. I'm not sure, but I think they went to the movie. It seems to me Mrs. Lewis said that her and Conrad was going to a show over in town. That's probably for us. I'll get him. I'm adding so. Didn't anybody come call on me this time tonight? Oh, it's Anderson, Joe. I'll be right back. All right. Have you noticed any trucks in the neighborhood lately, Mrs. Richards? Oh, well, I'll have to think about that for a minute. Mm-hmm. You don't mean like the guy, but you can truck, do you? No, man. Large moving vans. See the others quite a bit. Yeah. Well, let me see. Well, there were some people that just moved into a new house down the street. That was about a month ago. That didn't help. Well, thank you, Mrs. Joe. See you. Yeah. Excuse me, please, Mrs. Richards. Yeah, you go ahead. Yeah. Anderson ran the name Conrad Lewis through the files. Mm-hmm. He's been convicted for armed robbery. The record showed that Conrad Lewis had been arrested for suspicion of armed robbery 10 years before. He'd been brought to trial, convicted, and sent to San Quentin. He'd served six years, and then he'd been released. He was not on parole at the time. Frank and I parked our car down the street from Lewis' house and we waited for him to return. At 10.57 p.m., we saw a dark car in Lincoln's sedan turn onto the street and swing into the driveway of the Lewis residence. A man and a woman got out of the car and entered the house. Frank and I waited a few minutes and then we walked up to the front door and rang the bell. Yeah? You Conrad Lewis? Yeah, that's right. Who are you? Police officers like to talk to you. Sure. Come on in. What's this all about? Something wrong? Do you own a truck? A truck. Do you own one? No. You mind telling me what this is all about? Can you account for your time since Monday night? Why? What's all about and I'm not going to tell you a thing until you let me know what you want? Now what do you want? The answers to those two questions. 12.15 a.m. it had been only a little over 48 hours since Russell Gilmore had been kidnapped and beaten and we had a suspect in custody. However, Lewis refused to admit any complicity in the crime. We talked to him for several hours but he told us nothing. He admitted that he'd been arrested before and that he'd served time in San Quentin. However, he stuck to his statement that since his release he'd done his best to live by the law. With the evidence at hand he was booked at the main jail on a charge of suspicion of violation of section 211 PC. We obtained the keys to his place of business and Frank and I went out to check it. It was a large wholesale store selling used furniture. A search of the premises failed to turn up any of the stolen merchandise. While Frank went through the stock rooms I checked the business ledgers. Nothing back there either, Joe. How'd you do? Well, according to these Lewis does a big shipping business. That's what the woman next door told us. Yeah. He's been making shipments up to Oakland regular. Yeah. Right here. He's been sending large lots of used stuff to a place on MacArthur Boulevard. There's a whole list of it here. Tables, living room sets, TV sets. Better get in touch with the police up there and have them check this place out, huh? Yeah. Without that stolen property we're not going to have a very good case against them. You got the address of the place up north? Yeah. Let's go back to the office and get a call in. Right. I'm sure they'll come up with the answers. I thought they don't. We might be in trouble. Yeah. The DA's office is liable to throw the whole thing out. The DA's office is open on Thursday, June 5th, 8.20 a.m. We put in a call to Captain of Inspector Tony Bolger in Oakland and asked him to check on the recipient of the furniture shipment from Lewis. We also gave him as detailed a description of the stolen merchandise as we were able to obtain. In the meantime, Lewis had been admitted to bail and was released. Thursday, 11.15 p.m. Frank and I got back to the office from checking a lead on one of the suspects who'd driven the truck. I got it. Robbery Friday. Yeah. Yes, it is. I'm going to Oakland. Let's hope we called it. Yeah. Yeah, Tony. Yeah. But what'd he say? Well, that's the way it looked from here. What? Yeah, right. Okay. Thank you. How about it? When he talked to the man who bought this stuff, he's clean. How about the merchandise itself? It's all stolen. 11.20 p.m. We got in touch with Lieutenant Smires and filled him in on the new developments. After we talked to him, we contacted officers Max Herman and Ed Benson in the house on Cedar Street. It took us less than half an hour to get out to Compton. The other officers were there by the time we arrived. While they covered the back door, Frank and I went up to the front. Who knows? It's us. I'm going to try it again. He's in the driveway. We know he's in there. Wait a minute. Sounds like somebody's coming out. Yeah. What are you doing out here? Aren't you guys ever going to get home and talk? I got a choice. No, you haven't. Come on in. You want to go through the house again? That won't be necessary. Yeah. It's the same as before. Maybe you better spell it for me. We can go that route if that's the way you want it. Go ahead. I like fairy tales. All right. We got a report from a victim who was robbing kidnap. He was able to give us a description of this house, of your garage, and of the whole setup. You've been on a spike again. You see him? We took a sample of the paint from your front porch. It matches paint found on a truck that was hijacked. A lot of houses in L.A. Not painted like this one. You think you're going to send me to the joint with a batch of paints? It's going to help. Look, cop, you know I've been the rounds. Hold on a moment. I'll just forget you were here tonight. We got the plant. What? We got the plant. They moved in on it. The man you saw with stolen furniture, too, was willing to testify. You know we got your coat, now why not cop out? That's the way it hangs, son. That's the way. All right, I'll get my coat and go with you. Just point it out. We'll get it for you. In the closet. Never mind. You didn't make a point of it. No. Outside. He's in his car. Yeah, come on. He's heading down toward Rosecrans. That's the only ambulance we've sent for a doctor. I see the sun. I didn't know the street couldn't go through. A lousy break. I'd have made it if I'd stayed off this street. It never got me if I'd stayed off this street. I just turned the car and all of a sudden I was on a dead end. Fade, you're wrong there, mister. Huh? You've been there a long time. That Austin Lewis and his Confederates were apprehended and brought to trial on 11 counts of Grand Theft Auto and one count of kidnapping. One sentence as prescribed by law. Grand Theft Auto is punishable by imprisonment in the state penitentiary for a period of not less than one nor more than 10 years. Kidnapping is punishable by imprisonment for a term of from one to 25 years in the state penitentiary. Dragnet is a presentation of the United States Armed Forces Radio Service.