 Ladies and gentlemen, the story you are about to hear is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent. Dragnet is brought to you by Chesterfield. Made by Liget and Myers. First major tobacco company to give you a complete line of quality cigarettes. You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned a robbery detail. You get a call from an informant telling you the three known gangsters have moved into your city. You don't know who they are or why they're in Los Angeles. Your job, check them out. To sell a product, you have to make it good and keep it good. What do the latest reports show about Chesterfield? Well, our research laboratory has compared it with the leading cigarettes in the country. Chesterfield is highest in quality, low in nicotine. Another good reason why thousands of people are changing to Chesterfield every day. Smoke America's most popular two-way cigarette. Regular or king size. You'll find Chesterfield really mild. Really satisfying. Best for you. Dragnet, 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, August 4th. It was warm in Los Angeles. We were working the day watch out of robbery detail. My partner's Frank Smith, the boss's chief of detectives, Thad Brown. My name's Friday. We were on our way out from the office and it was 9.42 a.m. when we got to the Osborn Tricky's Bath. Steam room. Hot in it. Yeah. Must be Dell back there. Yeah. Dell? Yeah, who is it? It's Friday and Smith. Oh, I'll be right with you. Okay. Hey, Joe, did you ever have one of these? Well, what? Turkey's bath. You ever had one? No, no, I never had. I understand they're great for coals. You just sit there and it burns the germs right out. It's great. You ever have one? No, but Armin, my brother-in-law, he takes them all the time. He tells me about how it does for coals. Next time he has one, I think I'll go with him. Yeah, that's a good idea. All right. Sorry to keep you waiting. We've been having trouble with the boiler. Gotta keep a close check on the steam pressure in here. That's okay. Let's get out of here, huh? It won't make me unhappy. It sure is hot, Dell. Go on upstairs. We can talk there. Okay. What do you got for us, Dell? It might not go any place, but I thought I'd fill you guys in on it. Mm-hmm. Fallen rolled in here last night. Must have been about 10-30. Nightman's out with a coal, so I had to fill in. A coal? Yeah, some kind of virus or something. Oh, yeah. Come on. We can talk in the office. Sit down here. Mind if I go over some of these bills while we talk? No, go ahead. Well, uh, this bimbo pulls in here last night, really carrying a load. I registered him and had Jimmy take him upstairs. Guy's kind of loud, you know, rolling all over the place. I wanted to get him upstairs to a room. Figured he'd sack out, and we wouldn't hear no more from him. Yeah. Well, he had a different idea. A couple of minutes later, he comes downstairs and wants to know what's going on. What do you mean? He wants to know where the steam room is. Says he's not going to sit in the little room all night. He paid for his steam bath. That's what he wants. Yeah. When he starts to talk about his high-powered friends and this deal they're out pulling, I kind of figure there's something wrong. You tell you what the friends were? No, not right now. I just mentioned a guy named Bud. Kept talking how Bud was going to be sore at him because he got drunk. Must have said it a hundred times. How Bud was going to be real sore. Sounded to me like this, Bud is the big man in the deal. I see. No idea what the deal is, though, huh? No, most he said was that when they left town, they were all going to have a lot of money. More money than I'd ever seen. You got the name on this guy? Oh, here's the register here. Let's see. Hey, let's see right here. Uh-huh. Running in Carmichael, Los Angeles. Didn't give an address, huh? Once he mentioned he had to meet Bud at a hotel down on South Flower. Didn't say which one, though. Flowers along Street? Hell, that doesn't help much. Didn't give any ideas at all of what the deal was going to be, huh? No, it must be a good one, though. Why do you say that? Well, when I took him up to his room last night, I could see his clothes hanging on a chair. On top of his coat, he had a shoulder holster. Looks like a .45 automatic in it. The way I look at it, the guy that's carrying that kind of muscle is figuring on scoring heavy. You make any phone calls while I was here? No. Anybody had the room since he left? No, I told the cleanup man to leave it alone. Figured you'd want to go over it. That's a good idea. What time do you leave this morning? Jimmy says it was about 7.30. I figured sure he'd sleep most of the morning. I'd have known he was going to leave that early. I had to call you last night. Well, we better take a look at that room, Del. Might be able to come up with something that'll tell us who he is. I got something else for you. Yeah, what's that? I mentioned this Carmichael to Jimmy last night. Told him I thought there was something wrong. Yeah. The reason the guy left so early is that he got a call from somebody. I guess it's the guy that picked him up. Did this Jimmy see who it was? No, did the next best thing, though. Yeah, what's that? Got the license number of the car. 10.15 a.m., we got in touch with Layton Prince, and Harlan Stahl sent a crew out to go over the room. Frank put in a call to the record bureau, and he had the name Vernon Carmichael checked. There was no record on anyone answering the description that we'd gotten from the manager of the Turkish bands. In addition, the radiogram was sent to the Department of Motor Vehicles in Pennsylvania, asking for all available information on the owner of the car bearing the license number that we've been given. 11.30 a.m., Harlan Stahl's crew finished checking the room, and they told us that they'd been able to lift a complete set of clean fingerprints from a water glass. They were photographed and classified. In checking our files, there was no record of the prints. They were forwarded to George Breton up at Sacramento to CII and to the FBI in Washington, D.C. Two days passed. On Friday, August 6th, we got the word from DMV in Pennsylvania that the car was registered to a Howard Nielsen. The radiogram also gave us a description of the car and the registered owner's address in Pittsburgh. On receipt of this information, we got in touch with the police department in Pittsburgh and found that Howard Bud Nielsen had a misdemeanor record. Late Friday afternoon, the kickback from Washington, D.C. arrived with the information that the fingerprints found in the room at the Turkish bath were those of Vernon Carmichael. His record listed arrests for petty theft and robbery in Pennsylvania. He'd been brought to trial, but he'd been acquitted. Both men were well known to the police department in Pittsburgh as hoodlums. On Saturday morning, the mug shots of both Nielsen and Carmichael arrived. 10.15 a.m., we met with Lieutenant Jack Smyers and we decided that the information coupled with the records of the two men made the incident worth investigation. The mug shots of the pair were copied and a canvas of the hotels on South Flower Street was studded in an attempt to find the residents of the suspects. The search went on for another two days without results. Monday, August 9th, 11.47 a.m., Frank and I got back to the office from communications. You know, we're gonna feel pretty silly if Carmichael and Nielsen are already back there. Yeah. Getting looked like the tip from Dell about the hotel and flower was off, huh? Yeah. Still a lot of places to check, though. Friday? Yeah. We got it for you. What? Carmichael and Nielsen. We found the hotel. At 10.30 that morning, officers Murphy and Rafferty had gotten the first affirmative answer to their questions about the suspects. A room clerk in a small hotel at the corner of South Flower Street in Bunker Hill Avenue had recognized the mug shots of Carmichael and Nielsen. Further questioning brought out the name of the third man in the trio. He was identified as Ernest Hunter. A check of the name through our records netted us no new information on him, and the name in the description was forwarded again to Brereton up at CII in Sacramento and again to Pittsburgh for possible identification. In talks with Lieutenant Smyers and Chief of Detective Stad Brown, it was decided to keep the man under 24-hour surveillance. Three additional teams of men from robbery detail were assigned to the jury. For the next seven days, the three men were under constant watch. Their habits were regular. Their movements during the day followed the same general pattern. The kickback on Ernest Hunter disclosed no criminal record. At the end of the first week of watching the men, it was decided that the next step in the operation was to place a microphone in their room so that we might be able to monitor their conversations. Frank and I got in touch with a sound crew at the crime lab and we made arrangements for them. The necessary permits were obtained from the Federal Communications Commission and the listening equipment itself was ready. We made arrangements with radio car officers to pick up the suspects for investigation. The sound crew, Frank and I, along with Murphy and Rafferty, stood by for word that the trio was in custody. Tuesday night, 9.40 p.m. Should be getting word pretty quick. Yeah. That's Mers. Yeah. Red 1 to Red 2. Come in, Red 2. No, not yet. Sounds like they got him. Yeah, you want to take it? Yeah. Stand by, Red 3. Outpost 1 to monitor. Outpost 1 to monitor. Go ahead. Monitor to Outpost 1. Information received that suspects are in custody. Repeat suspects are in custody. Acknowledge. Outpost 1 to monitor. Outpost 1 to monitor. Message received. Outpost 1 up. You heard it. Yeah. Red 1 to Red 2 and Red 3. Red 1 to Red 2 and Red 3. You read me Red 2 and 3? Red 1 to Red 3. Suspects are now in custody. Proceed with installation of listening equipment. Over. Red 3, please keep contact. Red 1 to Red 2. Come in, Red 2. Can you see the suspect's apartment from where you are? Red 1 to Red 3. Come in, Red 3. Are you in the apartment yet? Is there a radio in the room? It's on the nightstand next to the bed. Can you fix that before you leave? On the wire so it won't work. Good. Where are you putting the bug? Do it now until we get it finished, huh? Yeah. We've got the recorder all set up. Yeah, it's in the room. Sound crew came in this afternoon and made the installation on it. You know how to work it? Yeah, I think so. Jack, check me out. Oh, that's pretty simple. Just like playing a piano. Press a key and away it goes. Well, I hope you got it. I've always had trouble with it. Last time out, I wanted to rewind one of the spools and listen to something. Ended up erasing everything we had. Yes, I remember that very well. I was afraid you wouldn't. Sound crew. Yeah. Red 1 to Red 3. Have you seen anybody in the halls? Yeah, let's hope it holds out. 11.15 p.m. The installation of the listening equipment was completed. And Frank and I, along with Officer Pat Murphy, took up our positions in the room we intended to use as a monitoring post. Officer Rapparty went back to the city hall and told them that we'd finished and we were ready to have the suspects released. In the meantime, Carmichael Nielsen and Hunter had been fingerprinted and mugged. A search of their persons had failed to reveal any incriminating evidence, and the time that they'd been held had allowed us to make the necessary installation. After the trio had been released, we received information that they were proceeding toward the hotel. Frank, Murphy, and I waited for them at the monitor post to come into their room. 12.35 a.m. That's them. Get the recorder, huh? You want to take care of the log, Frank? Yeah. See, it's 12.36 a.m. That's it. That's what you think. They had a reason. You're so smart you tell me why. Ah, shut up. We didn't come. I thought you weren't such a big man when he started to ask you the questions. You all the time said, how are you going to come all the way. Why don't you shut up? Probably when you got tanked up in that Turkish frat, that's probably what tipped her. What tip? A couple of uniform cops stopped us on a routine investigation. They got nothing. Anything on it? Should they get rid of us gold? Well, do you? You think you can let us go? Oh, why don't you dry up? Hunter? Yeah? Turn on the radio. Where do I get some music? Next time you get tanked, come back here. I've got to go roaming all over town. That's why they picked us up. You said something. What'd I say? You know what I said? I'm telling you. You're being a big man. You're telling me what I said to him. I said, yeah. Go ahead. Tell him. You said something. I don't know what it was, but you shut up your mouth. Hey, Hunter, what's the matter with the radio? I thought you were going to turn it up. Nice. I didn't shut for a while. That's the way it looks to you. Yeah. Stop. You guys don't shut up up there for a while. Get out of here. I'm shut up. Get some sleep tonight. That's the way it went for the next five days. When the men were in the room, they argued continually. They talked about the deal they were working on, but from their conversation, there was no way of learning what they planned. When they left the room, they were constantly under surveillance, but their movements were routine. They took their meals in the same restaurant. They went to movies, they sat in bars, always together. During the time they were out of the apartment, they made no local contacts. They received no telephone calls. They made none. We knew that they were planning something, but there was no way of knowing what it was. All conversation in the room was recorded and listened to over and over again in the hope that we could come up with some kind of a lead. But the time spent in replaying the recordings netted us nothing. From what they'd said, we figured that whatever they were planning would take place on either Tuesday, August 17 or on Wednesday, August 18. On Tuesday, three-way cars were assigned to the streets in front of a hotel, but the suspects acted as usual. On Wednesday, they didn't leave their room. Frank, Murphy and I continued to wait. On the streets outside, three other teams of men were standing by and under cover cars. 9.30 p.m. That's their telephone. Get the recorder, Murph. Yeah. 9.31 p.m. Yeah. Okay, we'll be right now. Where have we got it? Right, we're seeing about 30 minutes. Right. Hey, how are we going to know you? There's some stuff just got in. We're supposed to pick it up right away. Oh, it's like maybe we better work now. Let's do it soon I'll get it out. Outpost 1, the units 1K89, 1K88, 1K87. Suspects are leaving room. Suspects are leaving room. Outpost 1, out. All right, let's go. I wish we knew what it was. Sounds like it might be in narcotics. Well, it could be. It doesn't make a lot of difference, does it? Yeah. At least we know what's something. By the time we got to the street, the suspects were getting into their car and pulling away from the curb. Frank, Murphy and I got to our car and followed them. They drove down three blocks further. They pulled into a gas station and apparently asked directions. They turned south on Broadway and drove about a mile. At Santa Barbara Avenue, they turned left again and drove three blocks. They stopped and parked the car in front of a small bar. We informed the other units of the activity and asked them to stand by in the area. Carmichael got out of the car and ended the bar. Murphy left us and ended the bar after him. Carmichael returned in a few minutes with another man. The two of them got back into the car and they talked. At 12, four of the men got out of the automobile and then they ended the bar. Shortly after that, Carmichael, Nielsen and Hunter walked out of the place. Carmichael was carrying a small package wrapped in plain brown paper and tied with a string. The fourth man wasn't with them. Frank and I got out of our car and approached the men as they stood talking. All right, hold it up, police officers. Over there. Put your hands up on that wall. What's going on? Get your hands up there. Frank, you want to check on the package? Yeah. Keep your hands on that wall. What are you talking about? I've got to lay this one to you. You really took care of this. Stand still and keep quiet. How about it, Frank? I don't know. What do you mean? Where's money? $20 bills. Must be $15,000, $20,000 worth. Queer? As far as I can tell, it's good. Where does that put it? Well, it's $20,000 here. Yeah. Let's find out where they got it. You are listening to Dragnet, the authentic story of your police force in action. There are good reasons why thousands of people are changing to Chesterfield every day. Why Chesterfield is the largest-selling two-way cigarette in America. Why Chesterfield is best for me and best for you. People these days want facts. When you want people to use your product, you have to tell them what effect it has on people who do use it regularly. That's why a doctor has examined for almost two years a large group of Chesterfield smokers. 45% of them have, on the average, been smoking Chesterfields for well over 10 years. What is the effect on these people from smoking Chesterfield? No adverse effects to the nose, throat, and sinuses, says the doctor. Consider Chesterfield's record with these smokers with millions of other smokers throughout America. Another good reason for you to change to Chesterfield. Regular or king-size, Chesterfield is best for me, best for you. Ten o'clock two a.m. the force has arrived at Chesterfield and the city hall for interrogation. We got in touch with the Secret Service and asked them to come over to the office to check on the currency. The agent arrived and after looking at the money pointed out several minute mistakes that had been made in the engraving of the plates. He went on to explain, however, that this particular printing was one of the best that he'd ever seen. He told us that the paper used in the bills would be analyzed and that we'd receive copies of the reports and then we'd send them to the office man questioned Nielsen in the interrogation room. Frank and I talked to Carmichael in the squad room. We questioned him for about an hour, but he refused to say anything that would help us get a lead to the source of the counterfeit. 1.30 a.m. How long you figure you can keep this up, Carmichael? I don't know what you're talking about. Come off it. We're getting tired of playing kid games. We want to know where the queer came from. They say where they were running the errand for. He went along for the ride. The whole thing was Carmichael's idea. We thought maybe we'd go to work on Hunter and see what we can get from him. You going to stick with Carmichael? I guess so. From what we heard in the room if there's going to be a break, I got a hunch it's going to come from him. You get anything, let us know. Right away. A big man's back again. Your friend you're the big wheel in the whole thing. He said that? I said you could talk to him if you want to. We ain't going to make it. He ain't going to lay it on me. You want to tell us your side of it? Yeah, I'll tell you the way it happened. That lousy bum. How you like that? Him saying I'm the wheel. I'll tell you. All right. Now where did the queer come from? I don't know. I thought you were going to tell us. I'm doing that. I really don't know where it came from. You turn up with $20,000 and $20 bills and you ask us to believe that you don't know where it was printed. You don't know that way again. So you don't believe me. That's the way it happened. The guy who approached you just walked up and said here's $20,000. Just like that, huh? No, the deal was that Neilson Hunter and me were supposed to come out here. We were supposed to check into a hotel and wait for a call. Guy who called us would have the queer. He turned it over to us and we'd pass it. You bought the counterfeit? Yeah. What did you pay for it? Two and a half. For $20? Yeah, two and a half for $20. You paid the other man we picked up? Yeah, we gave him $2,500. Ever seen a man before? No contact in Pittsburgh. No, a guy back east was an old man. How old? I don't know. Maybe 55, 60, around in there. Not the fella you met tonight. I told you that before. It's not the same man. Do you hear him use the name of any kind? No. Just to call him Pop. That's all. Pop. Give us a description of this man, Pop. What's in it for me? Well, what do you got now? Nothing. All right, it'll stay that way. You're in big trouble, Carmichael. If you're smart at all, you're going to cop out the whole thing and cooperate with us. I'll see Neilson. Him all the time. Yeah, I just want to see Neilson get his, that's all. Just want to see him get his. We're going to want you to look at some pictures, too. I told you I'd go the right. You just tell me what you want to know if I got the answer so of you. All right. What did he tell you? What? That allows Neilson. What did he tell you about how it happened? You tell it the way I did? You tell it that way? Not much, yeah. Sure. That's the way it happened. Can't be told the other way. Well, Neilson might give you an argument there. Further interrogation of the other three men in the operation served to corroborate the story that we'd suspect. Once the other men were confronted with the fact that Carmichael had told us everything he knew concerning the operation, they all followed suit. But other than telling us that they knew the head man and the counterfeiting act as pop, they couldn't come up with any further information. From the man who'd been in the bar, we learned that he'd met pop in Pittsburgh. He also told us that as far as he knew, the counterfeiter had been in prison at one time or another. However, the suspect was unable to tell us in what state or on what charges pop had served time. He went on to tell us that he'd gotten the money in Pittsburgh later. The Secret Service had completed their analysis of the counterfeit bills and they told us that they were some of the most perfect printing jobs that they'd run across. The counterfeiter had made one major mistake, however. In the printing of the currency, he'd impregnated the paper with small silken hairs so that it would stand close inspection. The currency now in use is made with nylon hairs. The agent from the Secret Service told us that they had agents working on tracing the manufacturer of the paper in the hopes that they could come up with a lead as to the identity of pop. Thursday, August 19th, we ran the name pop through our moniker file. Of the 47 cards turned over to us by the record bureau, 19 of the suspects listed match the descriptions that we've been given. The pictures of the men were pulled and shown to Carmichael and the other three suspects. They were unable to give us an identification. The name and description was sent to George Brerkeman in Sacramento and he sent us another 150 possible. These were checked out without result. The nickname and physical description of the man was sent to Washington and we got back over a thousand names and pictures. It took us six weeks working with the Secret Service to check out these possibles. The results? Nothing. Tuesday, October 5th, Frank and I got back to the office. I get it. Robbery, Friday. Yeah. Mm-hmm. All right, wait a minute. We'll get that down. All right, go ahead. Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah, well, it should check out. Mm-hmm. Right. Okay, we'll meet you. What you got? Report of the paper and the queer bills just came through. Yeah. Looks like we found pop. In checking the manufacturers of paper similar to that used in the counterfeit $20 bills, the Secret Service had come up with a name of a small print shop in the eastern section of Los Angeles. The paper used was of an unusual type and there were not many orders for it. This particular shop had ordered large quantities of it in the past and was continuing to use it. In checking out the name of the man on the order blanks, the Secret Service had found that he'd been convicted of robbery and had served a term in the Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta. He'd been released and had come to California and opened a small print shop. We spent the next two days checking the suspect out. His name was given to Stanley Jackson, age 47. For the next week, the print shop and Jackson himself were kept under constant surveillance. On Thursday, October 14th at 11.50 p.m., the suspect was followed to his print shop. I'll cover the front of the shop, Joe. Right, man. Come on, Frank. Yeah. Sounds like a press, doesn't it? Yeah. Come on. The back door is around here. Can you see what's going on in there? No. The wind is all painted over. What do you think? The wind doesn't leave us with a lot of choice. If we go in and he's not putting counterfeit, we're going to make him so hinky that we might never nail him. Yeah. If we don't go in, he might get rid of the plates. We're in trouble there, too. Yeah, like I said, we haven't got much choice, have we? All right, let's go. What's going on? What are you doing in here? Police officers. You're under arrest. Want to check the press, Frank? Right. You want to meet here like this? I know my rights. You haven't got a warrant. You've got no right to act like this. Want to kill Frank? I got it. The plates were in the press show. Doing the green overlay. Take a look. You haven't got any right touching those. They're mine. They belong to me, mister. Where'd you get the plates, Jackson? They're good, aren't they, mister? The very best. Where'd you get them? Made them? Made them myself. Where'd you learn engraving? In prison. When they sent me to prison, I learned all about engraving. Real engraving. Not photoprocessed, but the real thing. The finest plates I've ever seen. The best. Beautiful money, isn't it? Best I've ever seen. Fool anybody. Did it all myself. Pass it anywhere. Fool anybody. Anywhere. Yeah. Just look at it, mister. That's a genuine article, isn't it? Real money. It's perfect. Absolutely perfect, mister. No, you're wrong there. The government didn't print it. The star you have just heard is true. The names were changed to protect the innocent. On January 11th, trial was held in Federal Court, Southern District of California. In a moment, the results of that trial. Now, here is our star, Jack Webb. Thank you, George Phenomenon. Friends, we've tried very hard to set a dragnet standard. Now, to put that in just a few words, we try to make each program the kind of entertainment that you want. Now, we're going to keep working real hard at that. And you know the people who make Chesterfields feel the same way about their cigarette. To sell a product, you have to make it good and keep it good. And the latest reports from our research lab shows Chesterfield is highest in quality. Highest in quality, low in nicotine. Smoke America's most popular two-way cigarette. Chesterfield, regular our king's eyes. They're milder, they're satisfying. They're best for me, best for you. Vernon Alex Carmichael, Howard Raymond Nielsen, Ernest Richard Hunter, Phillip Roger Harger, and Stanley Norman Jackson were tried and convicted of violation of Title 18 U.S. Code, Section 474, printing and issuing counterfeit money. Violation of this title is punishable by a fine of $5,000 and imprisonment and a federal penitentiary for a period not to exceed 15 years. You have just heard DRAGNET, the series of authentic cases from official files. Technical advice comes from the Office of Chief of Police, W.H. Parker, Los Angeles Police Department. Technical advisors, Captain Jack Donahoe, Sergeant Marty Wynn, Sergeant Frans Brasher. Heard tonight were Ben Alexander, Chris Cassell, Jack Krushen, Harry Bartell. Script by John Robinson. Music by Walter Schumann. Hal Gibney speaking. Watch an entirely different DRAGNET case history each week on your local NBC television station. Please check your newspapers for the day and time. Chesterfield has brought you DRAGNET, transcribed from Los Angeles. Have you tried new cork tip Fatima? It's the smooth smoke Fatima tips of perfect cork. King size for longer filtering and Fatima quality for a much better flavor and aroma. Remember, Fatima with tips of perfect cork is made and guaranteed by the makers of Chesterfield, Liget and Meyers Tobacco Company.