 Dragon and ladies and gentlemen the story you are about to hear is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned a robbery detail Three holdup men have robbed and beaten two supermarket operators in your city You've got a good description of the thieves Your job get them It was Tuesday November 3rd. It was cold Los Angeles. We were working the day watch out a robbery detail My partner's Frank Smith the boss chief of detectives that browns my name is Friday We've gotten a hot shot call about a robbery and it was 946 a.m. We got to the corner a lock wouldn't bark now and it was locked in market Officer back there now Friday in Smith's simple robbery. Oh, yeah, I'm Jackson unit 3a 7 you answered the call. Yeah, we got here a couple of minutes ago Where's the victim back room? He's pretty bad off ambulance attendance with him now Mm-hmm a partner's checking the neighborhood if there's nothing you need me for I'll give my hand Yeah, make it to a level before you leave William. Right. Thank you. Looks like there was quite a fight Yeah, stuff all over the place. Come on Gotta clean up these cuts try to hold still Yeah, something you want we're out of several robbery is this the victim. Yeah a couple of cuts nothing serious Tell him about Andy. He's the one who really got it. Who's Andy? Yeah, the clerk pretty rough looks like it might be a fracture Joe, he's on the truck now Let me get this tape on you now that you do it might be a good idea if you saw your doctor Yeah, what about Andy? We're gonna take him down Georgia Street receiving you're gonna call me. Let me know about it I might be better if you call them. Yeah, okay. I see you guys. Yeah. Yeah, sure One guy really clouded me hurts. Mm-hmm. What if you left telling us what happened here three of them three came in and held Up the place clouded me and Andy. I sure hope he's gonna be all right. What's your name, sir? Cliff Hall You own the store to you know me and Andy run it that would like to buy it what time these men come in Must've been around 930 round there Did you give the opposite or answer the call of description of the man? Yeah, it was the first thing they asked me go ahead, please I was getting the money ready for the bank deposit and he was back here stacking bottle cases These three guys came in first off. I thought they were customers. Yeah, couple of them walked the back of the place I thought they were picking out stuff the other one kind of stood around by the cash register where I was go ahead Well after he was there for a minute and I see the other two aren't picking up nothing I asked him if there was something I could get for him. That's when he pulled out a gun What about the other two? Oh work like they had some kind of signal Soon as the one in front pulled his gun the other two did too I'll ask me to put all the money in a paper bag Got the bag from up in front there take it right out of the stack and handed to me said for me to put The dough in it you recall his exact words what the way you said it the words are used you recall them Let me say I think it was Put all the dough in this bag don't say anything just do as I say that was the way he said what you do that Like he said you had that gun pointed right at me. I could see the other two guys I wouldn't have done anything but what he told me I put the money in the bag I thought they'd leave the place but that's when Andy came out I guess he wondered what the other two were after you see from where he was he couldn't see the guns He walked out to him asked if there's anything specially we're looking for What happened then Then he saw what was happening Saw the guns and he tried to throw the guys out I don't know why he did it and he's like that he gets an idea in his head and there isn't anything It'll shake it loose He tied into those two guys almost had him whipped to even with the guns The guy that was with me. So it was going on yell back at him told him not to shoot He ran back and laid his gun alongside and he's had a whole clotted him right along in here Andy dropped like a sack of potatoes and the three guys ran out of the store How much money did they get you know, I hadn't finished up with a bank statement yet I'd just be guessing but I'd say about eight thousand dollars Might run to eight five, but that's about it. I see. Now if you could just give us a description of the man All three of them if you could yell The one who was with me must have been about five eleven Kind of dark complex it had straight black hair what color was eyes brown Do you have any marks or scars you could see no clean shaven Yeah, I had a real dark beard looked kind of like he had some kind of talcum powder on you remember how he was dressed Let's see Dark blue suit great top coat great hat was he wearing a tie? Do you know Yeah, a great tie with maroon stripes, you know kind of diagonal a thin tie Anything unusual about him make it easier for us to identify him No, I don't think so. How about the gun he was carrying what kind was it? I couldn't see the name No, sir. I mean was it an automatic or revolver? Oh an automatic look like a big caliber I'd say 45 one of the other fellas had a revolver But the guy with me and the small one had automatics, you know if they drove a car Well if they did I didn't see it might have had to park right out in front for all I know I told you I was busy when they came in when they left I was too worried about Andy to pay any attention to him Why are they hitting a terrible thing right along here? Oh, excuse me a minute. I got some aspirin here in the door. Yes, sir You're hoping he's gonna be all right. We've been together a long time Can't get over that little guy the one who hit me I should have taken him But the big one is tough looking a real fighter Well, this is gonna help much. Huh? He's gonna lose this one We got the descriptions of the other two men and the supplementary local broadcast was gotten out The two officers who'd answered the call found a woman in the neighborhood Who'd seen three men leave the vicinity immediately after the robbery She said that she was parked in a car half a block from the store on the same side of the street She explained that about 9 20 a.m. A car pulled into a parking place in front of her She'd seen three men leave the car and walked down the sidewalk in the direction of the locked-in market About 10 minutes later the men came back to the car They appeared to be in a hurry. One of the men was upset and arguing with the other two She told the officers that they'd gotten into the car and driven off toward hollywood boulevard We asked her to describe the three men the description she gave us matched the one we'd gotten of the thieves She gave us a description of the car and another supplementary broadcast was put out We asked her to come down the city hall to go through the mudbooks to see if she could give us a positive identification The report from georgia street receiving hospital indicated that the victim of the slugging andrew rich was suffering from a fractured jaw and a concussion He was given emergency treatment and removed to the county hospital The crime lab crew came out and they went over the store for physical evidence They were able to lift three partial fingerprints from the counter next to the cash register Dean bergman and latent prince explained that the partials were not enough for identification But that if we apprehended the holdup men, he'd be able to tell us if they'd left the impressions 10 27 a.m. We took the victim clippard hall and the woman who'd seen the car to the mug room They went through the mug books, but they were unable to come up with an identification We had the staff's office make a run on the mo They came back with a list of 17 names of men who at one time or another had used the same method of operation The list was split and sergeants mead and lightener worked with us in checking the names out Thursday 3 48 p.m. Frank and I got to the sixth name on our list Cherry Evans tonight, right? Yeah Sure dark in this hall. We ought to wash the windows. Let some light in here. Oh, yeah Why not be in we'll try again Now let's talk to manager. Yeah The manager we want to see a minute Mr. Man Come on. Let's open up. Yeah, we can get out of here. Please Look, you got no right to come busting in here like this. You're so cool. What are you putting that trouble for? It's good. That's all I just got scared All right, you feel somebody walking up and shoves away into your room. You ain't gonna stand around and just let them do it He's playing Joe. I told you that All right. I got no trouble. I don't want none. You check with galloway. You'll tell you I'm home every night at nine o'clock every night. Where were you this morning? Huh this morning? Where were you? What time you just tell us what you did starting when he got up I was up all night. I got a virus or something. I couldn't sleep. Take a look there in the dresser. You can see the stuff I've been taking I haven't been out of this room not for a couple of days. Can you prove that? Why can't you? No, there wasn't anybody here. You getting any phone calls? No I don't know what this is all about. You guys are leaning on me for nothing. Now you talk to galloway. You'll tell you I've been working. Well, look here. I'll show you don't I just want to show you something I got in a draw. You stay right there. I'll get it for you Okay, good night. Take a look in the top drawer there left hand side Please what you mean? Yeah, that's it. I'll take the rubber band off and look you'll see I'm telling you the truth Hey, you see it's all the check receipts. I've got them from where I worked you look at them I'm working every day and I'm home at night on nine o'clock every night. How about it, Joe? There you see. You haven't out of this room all day, huh? Not a minute. Oh, come on. What's all this about anyway? What do you guys have to figure? Maybe you could tell us Yeah I'm sorry without you telling me what you want. There's nothing I can give you. You see any of the boys anymore I mean the fellas I know before fell. That's right. Now if I can help it I'm trying to stay away from see any of them lately Yeah, so alex a couple days ago alex. Yeah, alex finley. I knew him when I was up in queue We came in when I was working to talk to him at all All right, just settle all best couple of minutes talking about some of the guys we know seeing the rackets now I don't know John Perot. Yeah, I think so. Do you give you anything? Oh a couple of rumbles, but if I turn them over to you, I don't want to credit for them You don't know where you got them. All right Alex tells me there's a gang that's going to start working here in town market jobs How many men from what alex says is for all heavy guys finley. What? You know, I don't think so. He Trulled it to me that he just heard it. Do you say anything about who the four men are? No, I don't think you knew he just said they were heavy and they were starting to work You know where we can get in touch with alex? No, well, you might check with galloway at the parole office. He might have. Yeah, we will I'll probably see him again. I'll try to get the information if I can Well, what is it? What does you want to know who the guys are? That's right. Okay Now like I told you though, I don't want any credit for it I'm in real trouble if it gets around that I'm playing footsie with you. Yeah, sure I'll try to find out when they're gonna start working too. Well, don't you worry about that? Huh? We already know that 4 10 p.m We got in touch with fed galloway at the state adult parole officers and we checked on jerry evanston From what the record showed the story evanston had told us was true His parole officer had reported him working and apparently living up to the conditions of his release We left him one of our cards and asked him to call us in the event. He heard from alex finley 4 21 p.m. We checked back into the office and we met with sergeant's meet and light They told us that they checked out the names on their half of the list without result We sent a teletype up to george brett and ci i sacramento giving him the description of the hold-up man And listing the m o that they've used We asked him to run the information through their files and forward any information they came up with 5 19 p.m. We're about to get something to eat and then we checked back into the office Good dinner, huh joe? Yeah, I just saw a guy could eat so many insulators as you Yeah, I can't help it get started on him can't seem to stop Yeah, you got any soda in your locker? No, you got trouble again. You know, I always do and we have enchiladas You ought to remember that when you order a half a dozen. I suppose so I get it robbery friday. Yeah What was that? They're pretty sure are they? There's a lab been called. Yeah. Yeah, okay, right. Thanks Oh, that's a break. Yeah, they just found the getaway car 647 p.m. We left the office and drove out to where the car had been found Was parked on Lockwood Avenue five blocks from the market that had been robbed The radio car officers had spotted that had called the office immediately when they saw brown paper bag in the back seat bearing the printed name locked in the market A crew from latent prints came out and went over the car They were able to come up with a single print from a man's index finger Bergman compared it with a partial stand at the market. They masked We checked the white slip from the car and found that the vehicle was stolen The report on it had been filed at 10 37 a.m. That morning We talked with the people and we needed vicinity, but none of them were able to tell us anything about the people who'd parked the car However, we did come up with an elderly man who told us that he'd seen three men get into another car about 945 that morning He said that he remembered it because the driver of the car pulled into a parking space and stopped the motor Another automobile had parked directly in front of the car and the driver of the first machine had moved so that there was no one in front of them The man went on to say that a few minutes after the driver pulled into her second parking place Three men had come around the corner gotten into the car and the forum had driven off The witness was unable to give us a description of the car other than to say that it was a late model Plymouth or Ford The only description he could give us of the men was that one of them was large and was wearing a gray top coat and a hat And that one of them was small 8 40 p.m Frank and I went back to the office and checked out for the night the following morning at 8 o 2 a.m. I checked back in for work Hi Joe morning kind of cold out. Yeah You look happy this morning. I didn't sleep a wink last night Joe not a wink. It's a matter Stomach next time I even think about eating that gelato stop me. What are you Joe? Yeah, sure Any mail coming? I don't know. I just got in There's an ad here from that store over in west 6th. They're having their annual sale. Yeah I want to try to get over there like to get me into a suit for Christmas You know there's a special delivery from breton, huh? Probably those mugs will be asked for I'll see Yeah for six of them you want to get in touch with cliff hall you drive over and have them take a look at them Yeah, you got any other pictures? Yeah, we can mix them up. I'll call Paul. Okay I sure hope we get a night in that we haven't got much to go on There's gotta be a break someplace. We're gonna find it From what Finley said about the gang starting up an operation doesn't sound like just one job No Start on a strain they can do a lot of damage. It doesn't give us much choice, does it? No, I gotta get to them 8 27 a.m Frank and I left the office and drove over to talk to the victim cliff hall We showed him the mug shots george breton had sent us He picked one out and said that he was positive that the man in the picture was the one who'd held him up The name on the mug shot was herald bishop According to the record breton had sent us bishop had been convicted twice on violation of 211 pc armed robbery 9 20 a.m We drove over to the county hospital and showed the pictures for the other victim and were rich He picked a mug shot of bishop as a suspect who'd robbed and beaten him The notation on bishop's picture gave us the information that he was on parole at the time He returned to the office and put in a call to fred galloway at the state adult parole office. Yeah, fred. This is joe friday mm-hmm Yeah, fine. We like some information on a herald bishop san francisco number 8 2609 26 that's right male white Caucasian We got a mug from breton Now he says it on parole Yeah, if you will Thanks a lot Checking the master fire now leading lightener standing by if we need him and we get this address. We're gonna have to move fast. Yeah. Yeah fred When was that? Well, how's his report there? I see no, I don't know Yeah, I suppose Right fred. Thank you Now you can tell me enlightened and relax Bishop's got an out-of-state parole. He's living over in phoenix. Well, he still could be getting into california No, I'm not likely. Huh fred check with his parole officer. Yeah, he's got a job. He's been reporting to his parole officer every month We asked fred galloway at the state parole office to contact bishop's parole officer in phoenix and check him closely The report came back that the suspect had a job with a small contractor and that he'd been working regularly He'd also been giving monthly reports to his officer We'd add a suspect identified by two of his victims and yet if the information we'd gotten was correct It would have been a physical impossibility for him to have committed the robbery We got a copy of his jacket and looked over his past record We found that bishop had been arrested for armed robbery the first time 18 years previously He'd been brought to trial and acquitted The next arrest was 10 months after his trial. He'd been convicted and served six years at sam quinton He'd been released and within six months bishop had been picked up again This time he was sent to fulsome penitentiary While he was there he appeared to be a model prisoner and after serving four and a half years he'd been placed on parole After leaving the prison he'd requested and he'd been granted an out-of-state leave In checking bishop's mo we found that it matched exactly that of the thieves who'd held up the locked in market The time of approach was the same the number of men used was the same the method of leaving the scene was exact We had a suspect and yet he couldn't have committed the crime Three weeks passed on saturday november 26 the thieves hit again In checking with the victims they identified the mugshot of bishop We put him a long-distance call to the phoenix police department and asked them to check on the suspect We got word back that he was in their city. They told us that he wasn't at work due to a virus infection They went on to say that they checked with his landlady and that she told him that bishop hadn't left his apartment at all on the day of the theft Monday november 28 we got our first break in the case I'll get Robert's friend. Yeah Oh, yeah jerry uh-huh You sure about that Where how about the rest of Yeah, just a minute toss me that paddle. Yeah, here we go Okay, jerry go ahead Yes How do you spell at it la lea h y Uh-huh. I got uh-huh You know the address Yeah Okay, thanks jerry. We'll get in touch with you right Jerry evansson remember the guy we talked to over in south seven. Yeah all the way he tells it. We aren't too far off What do you mean? He saw bishop in town last saturday We put in a call and we found that there were two major airlines with flights to phoenix The flight time they listed was one hour and 35 minutes by air If bishop caught the last flight leaving phoenix, he could arrive in los angeles at 11 20 p.m The night before he planned to commit a robbery the next day after the hold up He could catch a plane from the los angeles international airport that would have him back in phoenix at 8 25 p.m By doing this he would be absent from his work only one day and he could schedule his flight So it's not to hit on the days when he had an interview with his parole officer Tuesday november 29th a meeting was held in chief bab browns office It was decided to put a special stake out on the airport and wait for the suspect to come into town At that time he'd be followed and taken into custody as he prepared to commit another robbery The names of the three other men jerry evansson have given frank as having been involved in the hold ups Had been checked through our and i all three of them had arrest records Surveillancees were placed on their homes when they were kept under constant watch Monday december 12th 11 15 p.m. Frank and i relieved the stake out at the airport There's a batch over there. We can keep all the gates in jim Wonder when he's gonna hit again The last couple of weeks is sure dragged by him. Yeah Anything on the other three guys? Well, I talked to think he mean this morning He enlightened her stake out of ladies apartment. How they doing nothing The parking the car down the street what they say ladies like a clock. He comes in at 5 a.m. Leaves at 9 p.m. Every day That's the guy. Yeah There you go Joe Yeah, let's let him get outside. Yeah, he's got any luggage I'm just bringing up outside reasonably for him there All right, come on. Let's see him. Yeah, there he is getting into that cab. Come on Frank and I got in our car and followed the cab taken by the suspect We followed him out of the airport grounds and then up the bray avenue The cab turned right on the washington boulevard and headed for downtown los angeles. We pulled up to a stoplight Still got him. Yeah, he's still up ahead in front of that blue mercury. See him. Yeah, you got the number the cab 2974 There's the lights Right, let's go Better try to pick it up a little Frank cabs pulled away from us. Yeah Think you've seen us. No Can't you close in a little? Traffic's too heavy. He's a siren. We'll tip him. Yeah Still see him. Yep There's a break guy had to make it a right turn now. We're right behind the cab. Yeah, I'll close in now good Watch it Frank that guy pulling out of the alley hold on We drove down the street after the stoplight had changed the car failed to make a boulevard stop coming out of an alley And we'd hit it broadside the damage done to both cars was considerable and we lost our suspect Frank got to a phone and called the office He gave them the number of the cap that bishop was in and asked for a traffic investigation car The office started a search for the missing suspect Lieutenant jacksmeyer told us to proceed to the apartment of tom lehi to wait for further development In the meantime a citywide broadcast went out carrying the description of bishop and the other three men involved in the theft Frank and I arrived at the apartment when we relieved me and lighten it We had the manager the place led us into lehi's room. We waited 1 30 a.m 2 30 4 o'clock 5 30 a.m Frank and I had been on duty for over 21 hours At 5 45 the phone in the apartment rang once and then it quit That was the arranged signal between us in the office Frank put in the call Lieutenant smeyer told us that officers max herman and ed benson were on the way out to relieve us 15 minutes later. We heard somebody in the hall. Yeah, yeah, probably benson and herman. Yeah I'll get it All right, so yeah, come on There's no way off this roof bishop throw that gun out here and you follow it You're out of your mind cock. Give it up. How is he? I'd better call an ambulance. Yeah, we've had some out of his pocket Something they'll never use yeah airplane ticket to phoenix Harold nelson bishop thomas nagel lehi and charles ebert lee were taken into custody and brought to trial for two counts Of robbery in the first degree They were convicted and received sentence as prescribed by law Robbery in the first degree is punishable by imprisonment in the state penitentiary for a period of not less than five years Because of his previous record thomas nagel lehi was given the maximum sentence and is now serving life imprisonment in the state penitentiary folsom california Drag net is a presentation of the united states armed forces radio service