 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 February 10th it was cold in Los Angeles we were working the day watch out a juvenile detail my partner's frank Smith the boss is captain powers my name's friday i was on my way into the office and it was eight oh one a.m. when i got to georgia street juvenile squad room hi frank well well what do you think about what rude what do you think well she's nice was that all you got to say well what do you want me to say the delight her she's a nice girl yeah you got another date with it no i thought i'd call her sometimes you said you'd call her you'd say when no i just said sometimes sometimes i don't say he's not gonna like it why just not joe not sure we had it this time look Frank i think it's real nice of you and fay to be concerned i don't think that i don't appreciate it but when you asked me over last night i figured we're just gonna have dinner and sit around and talk i i didn't know anything about this girl gonna be there but you think you should have told me let me know joe you like girls don't you of course i like girls we couldn't have done that you know it allows the whole thing up if we told you ahead of time we would just wanted you to meet her get the full effect bang like that i got the full effect and we tried to set it all up for you she has pretty don't you think yeah i guess so blue eyes red hair i think she's real pretty cool you know fay and me had a whole evening plan right from the time you two met i kind of got that idea what do you mean when you're about as subtle as a water buffalo now you tell me where we were obvious go ahead tell me well all right first off the music that album or records are yours there what's it called love music or whatever it was mood for lovers yeah i bought them special yeah and the flowers on the table you gotta have flowers you gotta have something for the center of the table you must have gone a long way for those orange blossoms you had to have those well he's not going to like it well i'm very sorry about that frank oh we're just trying to show you the advantages of getting married yeah well i appreciate you and fay trying but let me do it my way any mail this morning huh any mail yeah you put a note here okay it's for the police show you gotta sell tickets huh yeah so do you here's your book you're not mad are you joe oh man it's just that all the time people are trying to be helpful you well i kind of hate to say it behind her back i'd say i hate to say it behind her back but it was phase i did i didn't have any partner yeah phase i did phase i did you're sure you're not sore no i told you man sure i'm sure frank yeah no root what look it wasn't the fact that she was a redhead wasn't it friday yeah yeah what do you got take a look at this here sir i have some information for you about a big dope ring it's important i talked to you i'll meet you at the streetcar stop at 7th and Broadway on the east side after 3 45 p.m. to my afternoon Wednesday that's the day huh read the recipe i can't tell you my name now but i'll be wearing a green skirt and a plaid sweater i'll be standing right by the streetcar stop what do you think i don't know no signature you got to hang the envelope well postmarked la addressed the juvenile division no way of telling where it came from i think it's from a crack there's one place we can find out yeah 7th and Broadway the fact that the note had been addressed to juvenile division instead of narcotics detail indicated that the person who wrote it had some knowledge of the workings of the police department it also led us to believe that the writer was a juvenile we checked again with captain powers on the letter and was decided that we'd make the meet that afternoon frank and i spent the rest of the morning going over reports on a case that we just finished in the 3 15 p.m. we left the office frank stopped the car at 8th and Broadway for a traffic signal and i got out and walked the remaining block there was no one at the streetcar stop dressed in a green skirt and a plaid sweater while frank circled the block i waited 3 40 p.m. still no sign at 352 a woman of about 23 got off the streetcar and waited on the corner she was wearing a dark green suit with a plaid blouse i waited for some indication that she might be the person we were waiting for but she gave me finally she turned walked across the street disappeared into the crowd 4 o'clock 4 15 still no sign of a letter writing 4 30 quarter to 5 frank pulled into a loading zone near the corner and i went over to talk to him what do you think a lot i know she's an hour late now uh-huh no it must have been from a crane yeah i guess so well come on get in we better go back to the office now hey wait a minute joe but right there across the street oh yeah matches the description must be her well she's looking this way i'll check it she looked about 15 brown hair and a thin young face she was carrying an armful of school books she paused in the corner and watched me i walked up to her and told her i was a police officer she nodded and then walked out to the safety zone and climbed onto a waiting street car i followed her she walked to the back of the car and took a seat i sat down next to her i could see frank following us in our car we rode three blocks before she spoke i'm sorry i was late sorry i usually try to be on time maybe even a little early that's the way it should be don't you think what was it you wanted to talk about miss i got hung up at school couldn't get away when i thought i would yeah that's the reason i'm late well you said something in the note about an narcotics screen how much am i going to get involved in this what do you mean how deep am i going to get i don't want any trouble myself we're doing this to help somebody but i don't want to get mixed up in it myself maybe you better tell me what it's all about first huh we can decide the rest of it later that's the way it has to be well you called us remember yeah i guess so what's your name edna your last name that isn't going to help any you don't need it how old are you fifteen all right what about this dope ring i want to tell you about it a friend of mine is in pretty deep i think she's hooked bad i want to help her what's your friend's name you have to have that well we're not going to be able to do very much without it are we catherine i can't give you your last name i can't how old is she this dean all right now what makes you think she's using narcotics i just know that's all that's a pretty serious charge you must have some reason for saying it's got a reason i've got good reasons you think i'd go to the cops if i didn't have you think that what kind of narcotics do you think she's using heroin you know that for sure do you yeah i've seen her take a fix where where'd she take the fix i've seen her do it in her room at home place near school but louis apartment louis louis conklin he's got catherine hook he's the one i want to see you get how's he well i don't know i think i'm 20 21 what'd you meet him don't bow bow last summer catherine and he went down for a week we met them then louis and vince you know this benza's last name i think it's bill be al yes so now these two boys are they supplying catherine with a heroin yeah they got it for how'd you happen to meet them first day we were down at bow bowl we went down to the beach we saw them then we didn't talk to them right off not the first day uh the next day they came over to where we were then laid down on the beach they had a portable radio and they were playing it loud they were playing it real loud yeah well louis asked us if they had the radio on too loud and we said no then we got to talking all right go ahead we found out that they knew a lot of the kids that go to our school so we talked about them we talked and listened to the radio or either you're or catherine's parents with you no catherine's father's got a friend elizabeth bow all the time we were staying with her all right go ahead after we knew him a week one night they suggested that we go for a ride down the coast toward san diego now they'd never given us any trouble so catherine and me topped it over and decided to go they'd never gotten fresh or anything so we thought it'd be all right we drove down the beach and then we stopped boys had some beer in the car and we drank some of it just a little we didn't think it would hurt just a little all right i guess drank more than we thought because we both got a little drunk first time i ever got drunk all i wanted to do was go home and go to sleep that's all i wanted to do i didn't feel good i remember that i didn't feel good go ahead i got out of the car and i walked around for a while after i walked i felt better and i went back to the car catherine and the two boys were smoking i could smell it when i got in the car real sweet sick marijuana yeah mince asked me if i wanted some told him i didn't they all laughed again said i was just a little kid called me chicken so i did you smoked the marijuana did you yeah but not very much got sick again i threw the stick away that made vince sore because i hadn't smoked very much he got out of the car and found what was left of the cigarette and put it in a box he had then he got in the car and the three of them all drank some more of the beer and smoked the rest of the marijuana they were all laughing yelling catherine was smoking too yes she was having a great time laughing it up seems like everything that happened was just about the funniest thing she ever heard they were all laughing and telling me what a square i was finally i couldn't stand it anymore so i said if they wouldn't take me home i'd walk what they say to that told me to go ahead said i was a drag anyway and they'd be glad to get rid of me you left them yeah i tried to get catherine to go with me she said she was having too good a time she wasn't leaving she told me to go home and to expect her when she walked in yeah so i left the guy in the car and walked up the highway was going to catch her ride back to town pretty scared but i wanted to get back i didn't feel very good i waited for the car but the ones that went by wouldn't stop then vince and louis and catherine came by they told me to get into the car and we drove home i had to wait out in front with catherine until she sobered up said she was too drunk to go into the house what time did you get home well it's been three or three thirty you see vince and louis again well i didn't but catherine did every night we were there she went out with him i didn't want to have anything more to do with him she told me if i said anything to the people we were staying with she caused me a lot of trouble i like catherine she's my best friend i didn't want to see her get into any trouble but when we left that boy she quit seeing the father that's what i thought she stopped seeing them did she no and school started again she was still going with louis i'd see her around the school but she wouldn't have anything to do with me said i was at cube talking all the time about how she didn't know they grew corners like me anymore how'd you find out she was on her own one day i saw her take a pop she was at her house and i came over to talk to her she was pretty sick and she went into a room i went in after to see if i could help and i saw her taking a fix after that i didn't see much of her i guess she didn't want me around knowing she was hooked when was all this about two months ago i've seen her a couple of times since she looks real bad her parents know anything about the narcotic i don't know there's just her father i don't think he cares much if he does he's not doing anything about it but i'm just telling you all this so you'll get louis and vince they're the ones that started her they're seeing that she gets the age you know where we can find them yeah louis has a little apartment over in the west lake area you know the address no but i can show you where it is all right i just want to see you get them get them good mm-hmm she was my best friend now she won't have anything to do with me nothing now maybe we can straighten it out what do you want to do now well first we better get off this street car mm-hmm end of the line edna and i got off the street car and frank picked us up we stopped at a drug store and put in a call to the office requesting that a police woman be sent out to pick the girl into custody ten minutes later officer iran gardener arrived and the four of us drove over to the west lake area the young girl pointed out the building where she told us that vince bill and louis conklin lived she gave us a description of the two suspects and finally after miss gardener had talked to her she also gave us the full name of her friend catherine pilgrim we checked at the building and found that the two suspects occupied apartment 4g frank and i talked to the manager of the place but she told us that the pair weren't in and that she didn't know when they'd be back we returned to the car and told officer gardener to take edna to george street juvenile and holder until we could get there after that frank called the office and ran the names vincent bill and louis conklin through our and i they both had misdemeanor records in california and bill had served time in the county jail for possession of narcotics we called captain powers and told him what had happened and then we returned to the apartment and set up a surveillance at seven twenty five p.m. we heard someone coming down the hall everybody thinks it's all gonna be all right i know i'll make a call get you fixed up just calm down hold it right there police officers hey what are you doing in here you got no right to break in like this what's this all about i gotta go then i got all of that miss pelton how do you know who i am what are you gonna do don't say anything cat you don't tell them nothing turn around bill what for where you shove me around turn around i'll take them stand you won't find nothing cop i'm clean call him nothing where's conklin you gotta figure it's so good you tell me better watch that mouth kid it's gonna get you in the trouble you tell me all about it cop i got no problem what are you taking us in on what's the charge violation of narcotics act and contributing yeah you didn't find anything on me you didn't find anything in the pad you've been on a spike cop and you know it now why don't you run along and i'll forget all about you being all right let's go where you're taking downtown to jail in a little hall you're gonna call my father that's right well he won't tell you anything he won't tell you a word give your mouth shut why i got nothing to hide i'm not a hype yes my father let me see your arms deal huh your sleeves roll them up come on quick here when you get those marks you tell me let me see your arms miss pelton not gonna prove anything not a thing let me see him go ahead honey if you don't go along with him they bring out the rubber hose somebody messed with you a long time ago come on miss pilgrim let me see your arms all right here how about it job take a look fresh needle marks we called narcotics division and asked them to come out and go over the room in an attempt to find a trace of narcotics we put in a call to the office an iran gardener came out and took the pilgrim girl into custody the stakeout was set up on the apartment to apprehend the other suspect louis conklin frank and i took vince biel to the office and questioned him for over an hour but he failed to come up with his source of supply for the heroin it was turned over to officers from narcotics detail and booked in at the main jail and suspicion of violation of the state narcotics act a felony a call had been put into the father of kathen pilgrim and at 9 37 pm he arrived at the office friday and smith where are my name's friday what can i do for you i'm robert pilgrim i want my daughter she's downstairs right now a doctor's taken care of her what for well she's pretty sick mr pilgrim sick what's the matter you've gotten a right to give her any kind of medication without my approval we couldn't reach you how hard did you try we called your home and your place of business we got no answer our doctor thought it was best to give the girl something right away what's wrong with it what are you doing to it your daughter's a narcotic addict mr pilgrim that is a lie now you get her up here right now you hear me you get on that phone and have a brush this office right now i'm taking her home afraid we can't do that who are you to tell me what's gonna happen i pay your salary officer don't forget if you don't get on that phone and have my daughter brought up here right now i'll make some calls and you'll be pounding the beat out in the tulis i've got a lot of friends in this town then you've got a daughter who's hooked bad as she told you that no sir but all the tests point that way she's got needle marks all up and down her arm well you better get out and find a lawyer fast because i'm going to pull that tin badge right off here that's how you bet it is how do i get a line dial nine hello jack this is bob pilgrim i'm down at the police station yeah yeah cat he's here the cop says she's a hothead i want you to tell him here you talk to him yes sir who am i speaking with mm-hmm yes sir yes sir well we did find hypodermic marks all right sir we'll be checking with you now you'll get my daughter i'll ever set right up wanna come out the hall frank yeah who'd be called as a family doctor we might not have a case here what's the matter well the doctor says he's been treating the girl for the past six months yeah i've been giving her hypodermic injection with the doctor's statement there was nothing we could do but release the girl to her father pending further investigation the parents of the teenager who had written us the first letter came to the office and she was released to them at 11 40 pm that night we got word that the other suspect had returned to the apartment and had been taken into custody it was identified as lewis conk on age 23 and was taken to the main jail and booked on the same charges as vincent biel their apartment was gone over but no trace of narcotics was found the question both suspects again but they failed to cooperate with us frank and i checked out of the office and went home the following morning we drove out to see the doctor who had told me he was treating a pilgrim girl he said the girl was underweight and highly nervous and that he had been giving her vitamin injection he went on to say that he'd stopped treating her five months previous at her father's request and that he had not seen the girl since then february 11th 10 24 am we checked the car belonging to vincent biel in the trunk we found an expensive leather jacket that looked too expensive to be worn by a man who had the reputation of never holding a job we took the jacket over to the crime lab and had it checked from a cleaning tag we got the name of the cleaner who'd serviced the jacket we contacted him and he remembered the jacket it having been among several stolen from his store with this information we went back to the main jail and had the conchran boy brought from his cell he told us that the jacket belonged to vincent biel he was brought into the interview room this leather jacket belonged to you vincent no i never saw it before conchran says it's yours i don't know maybe it is what difference does it make take a look we want to know yeah yeah it's mine where'd you get it where do you think i bought it you know someplace you can get these without buying them yeah the same place you picked this one up what's that supposed to mean you know a man named ted hartman who ted hartman ted hartman never heard of him he knows you maybe he's got a better memory than me says he used to work for him is that right yeah you know how about it maybe i did i had a lot of jobs the cleaner says you work for him a couple of weeks last december that's a long time ago says this jacket was stolen from him but where do i fit he thinks he stole it he's crazy he sure enough to make a complaint he'll laugh him out of court conchran says it's yours i told you i bought it conchran wants no part of a burglary wrap what conchran tell you maybe we ought to get your side of it huh what he'd tell you i got a right to know look he's gonna make a beef like that i mean i got a right to know what he said he wants no part of it he lays it all on you he's no good i don't figure for a guy i could trust he did all right on the deal loot kept us both going what do you mean i thought he told you all about it well we want to hear it from you a lot of time stories get all mixed up now we want to get it right now we knocked the place but it was both of us lou was in on it all the way go ahead we'll be scratching for h we had a real bad we needed some way out i thought about the cleaning place i think we could score a good what we did all right took care of three of us for a long time you confident on the pilgrim girl better that's it what were you shooting me and lou kept it down the pilgrim kid she built up fast she was juicing five caps a day i should have listened to louie kept telling me to drop her lever alone well it wasn't anything between us it just for last and then all of a sudden she was hooked bad we had to do something we stole her jacket so we could keep her supplied five caps a day you know it's a lot of h i tried to break her down i tried to cut her habit i did what i could you can see that can't you i did everything i could how much was that five twenty three p.m frank and i along with police woman iron guard who drove out to the pilgrim residents they went up to the front porch and rang the bell yeah what do you want like to see your daughter you get out of here you get out of here right now i've had enough of this shoving around from you it's about time you learned your place it might be better if we came in anything you've got to say to me you can say here i don't want any cops in my house you want to get your daughter what for we're gonna have to take her down to juvenile hall you guys just don't give up do you you want me to call my doctor again we talked to him this afternoon and you know the story and i get out of here you want to get your daughter look i've got a gun inside if you're still here when i come back i'm gonna you listen to me mister you've been acting like a big man long enough you can play the part of the outrage apparent with your family but don't try it with us i'm not gonna have you talk to me like that not much you can do about it we got the boys been supplying your daughter with narcotics it's pretty clear that this home isn't the place for her she's a good girl we didn't say she wasn't and why don't you leave her alone you know better than that do you boys and good downtown i got a lot of friends you're gonna need them all right you want to make a case out of this i'll fight you in every court in the country before i let you take my daughter away from me now you just try it your daughter's a drug addict she's sick she's got to be straightened out she needs help who are you to set yourself up as the jury you got a fine girl in there she got all the breaks except somebody who thinks enough of her to stand by her there's anything she wants she doesn't have what about the things she needed you let her run all over the town by herself she gets in trouble and you won't take the time to care for her what about those two men who got her started what are you gonna do with them they're guilty but hadn't been for those two this never would have happened they'll be taken care of you lay the blame any place you want mister but if you're honest you'll keep it what's gonna happen to her should be given medical attention we'll do what we can i can afford to take care of her i've got the money i'll hire the best people i wanted to have the best yeah she's mine i'm her father i've got the right to take care of her yes that's right hmm why didn't you vincent norman bill and louis shellman conklin were tried and convicted of one count of burglary and additional charges of violation of the state narcotic act of felony and contributing to the delinquency of a minor they received sentences as prescribed by law burglary is punishable by imprisonment for a period of not less than five years in the state prison kathryn norine pilgrim had a hearing in juvenile court and was made a ward of that court 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