 The story you are about to hear is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent. Fatima cigarettes, best of all long cigarettes, brings you dragnet. You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned to hit and run felony detail. A dead body is found in the streets in the early hours of the morning. There's only one clue, a set of skid marks on the pavement. Your job? Find the killer. If you want a long cigarette, smoke the best of all long cigarettes. Smoke extra mild Fatima. Yes, Fatima is the king-size cigarette, which contains the finest Turkish and domestic tobaccos superbly blended to make it extra mild. To give Fatima a much different, much better flavor and aroma than any other long cigarette. That's why Fatima has more than doubled its smokers coast to coast. Enjoy extra mild Fatima yourself. Best of all, long cigarettes. It's wise to smoke extra mild Fatima. It's wise to smoke extra mild Fatima. 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 Monday, April 19th. It was windy in Los Angeles. We were working the day watch out of traffic division. My partner's Ben Romero. The boss is Lieutenant Calphrey, commander AID. My name's Friday. It was 7.55 a.m. when I got to the second floor at 123 South Figaroa Street, accident investigation. Get in run felling detail. Good morning, Joe. George? How is it? Oh, it's not much better. Still aching. Oh, rough. A lousy thing kept me up most of the night. Check with that dentist who told you about it? Yeah, I did. Says it's a wisdom tooth. This one here. Oh, yeah. Says it's got to come out. Supposed to go back and see him the day. That's rough. Remember a friend of mine had his wisdom teeth out? Hurt like the devil. Terrible. Finally pulled him. Acre five or six days after. Excuse me, Joe. Yeah, Mickey? Better have a 57 on that bottle up your hand. Okay. I got most of it down. I'll finish it up. Friday? Hi. Ben coming in? He's down the record, bro. Let's see that Joe, if you're honest. Hmm. It hasn't gone down much. It's a bad wisdom tooth. Dennis says he's going to have to yank it. Bum deal, eh? That's the first time I ever had any trouble with him. I remember a few years back, my sister Gertrude had trouble with the wisdom tooth. I'm packed in. Yeah? Old sight of a face was swollen. Poor kid was in terrible pain. Full week. Even after they pulled it, it still hurt. Oh. Hi, Joe. Hi. Wicked up the overnight reports down in the records in my career. Oh, thanks, Ben. This one on top here. I like to have you two check it out. A dead body report. Yeah. I left me a note on it. That's about all I had to figure. What's the story? Just what you see in the report. The victims. Edward Raymond Stokes, 732 Delano Street, apartment 2. His body was found on the gutter near 63rd and Vermont, three o'clock this morning. No witnesses. Only one piece of evidence. Yeah, see, they got it listed here. Skid marks near the body. Is that all? That's it. Parent hit and run. Where's the body, man? Neighborhood mortuary out there. Emerald Hills Funeral Home. One of the deputy coroners handled the body. Well, I named Joe Laramore. Anybody claim it, champ? No. Okay. Ben, you ready? Yeah, let's go. We'll check you later, man. Yeah. You need any help? I've got McLennan and Rogers on hand. Right. How do we manage to draw all the choice ones? I don't know. Skid marks in the dead body. Yeah. Oh, say, I almost forgot. How's your Joe? Oh, it still hurts. Oh, it's tough. Man, still swollen. Mm-hmm. What did Dennis say? Wisdom tooth. Oh, measurable. Yeah. Wife had the same thing a couple of years back. Dennis tried to yank the tooth and it broke right in two. Finally got it out. That's good. Funny thing about wisdom teeth. What's that? After they pulled them. Hurts for five or six days. 8.33 a.m. Ben and I drove out to 63rd in Vermont and rechecked the spot where the dead body of Edward Stokes had been found. According to the report, the body was found two feet west of the easterly curb and 32 north of 63rd Street on Vermont. We examined the skid marks. They showed definite signs of being a lot older than 24 hours. The consistency of the rubber was weak and there were heavy dirt smudges over them indicating more aware than they could have possibly had since the estimated time of the victim's death. We got back in the car and drove to the Emerald Hills Funeral Home at Vernon and Denver Avenue. Sure is rotten weather for April, huh? Yeah. He's funeral home. Do you ever notice it? What's that? Why do they always put awnings over the windows and never open a drain? I don't know. Come on. The offices. Mr. Brass played on that door over there. Let's have a look. Yes, sir. Here's somebody, Jim. Oh. Gentlemen, the idea of service? Police officers. I'd like to talk to Mr. Laramore. I believe he's a deputy corner. Hi, Mr. Laramore. You came about to hit and run victim? Yeah, that's right. This is Sergeant Romero. My name's Friday. We'd like to check the body if we could. Certainly. Let's back this way. Understands you moved the body from the scene of the accident here to the mortuary? Yes, that's right. Early this morning. Unusual case. Careful, there's two steps down just inside the door. Why do you say it's unusual, Mr. Laramore? Well, yeah, let me show you. Yeah. Now, for one thing, the victim had a basal skull fracture. I don't know about you, gentlemen, but in the hit and run cases I've handled, a basal fracture is a pretty rare thing. Well, it is possible, isn't it? Yes, it's possible. Anything's possible, as they say. But it's not usual. There are a few other things here, too. Yeah. Tell us the victim's knee here. Single, clean cut. Also, these wounds on the head. I've never seen anything like it in hit and run cases I've been called in. Well, a wound on the knee doesn't jive, does it? If it was hit by a car, the knee should be skinned up quite a bit. Exactly. Well, you know how it usually is. The automobile hits the victim. There's always signs that the body was either dragged or thrown, shredding of clothing, skinned knees, legs, elbows. No sign of that here. You don't think the victim could have been killed by hit and run cars, any? No, I don't say that. It's possible that it might have been a car, but, well, let's say it's not very probable. Has anybody at all inquired about the body, Mr. Larmor? No one, no. That's funny. All right, Tom. Excuse me a moment. Yeah, sure. Yeah. Where do we start? I don't know. Maybe we won't have to. Hmm? Another lead like this, we can turn it over to homicide. Sergeant? Yeah? She's a young lady in the lobby. Yeah. She wants to claim the body. The girl was shown the body. She identified it as that of Edward Raymond Stokes. She gave her name as Marion Fuller, the victim's common law wife. After she recovered from her shock, she asked if she might sit down for a while and rest. We took her into one of the offices in the mortuary and then got her a glass of water. She told us that she had last seen Stokes alive at about 1 a.m. that morning. They'd been drinking together at a neighborhood bar on Vermont Avenue between 63rd and 64th streets. Half a block from where the victim's body had been found sprawling the gutter. Why don't you sit down over there, Miss Fuller? Thanks. How long did you know Edward Stokes and Fuller? About six years. Fun enough. He's been together pretty much the last couple of years, though. Oh, my God. Would you mind telling us exactly what happened while you were with Stokes last night? I can't think. This headache's killing me. We should try, Miss Fuller. It's important. Well, Mary and I had dinner together at the Spanish oven facedown on South Fig. That was about a quarter to eight. Then we drove out to the Brown Barrel in Vermont, the bar I told you about. Mary and I go there most of the time. We stayed there and drank, played a little shuffleboard. Yeah, go ahead. Oh, we stayed too long. Drank a little too much. I started talking to this fella next to me, and he got sore. Always got jealous when he was drunk. Poor Eddie. Did Eddie fight with this other man, Miss Fuller? Oh, no, I stopped him. That made Eddie mad. He never could drink right. He always wanted to take a fight. Who was the other man, you remember? No, I don't. I guess I had a lot to drink, too. He's just some guy at the bar. He's a headache. It's not going to take much longer, just a few more questions. Morgan's getting on my nerves. What happened after you broke up the argument between Stokes and the other man? Nothing. We stayed in the bar. Eddie played shuffleboard most of the time. I was one of the booths drinking. Around one o'clock I started feeling sick, so I went outside and sat in the car. I guess I passed out there. In your car? No. I guess it belonged to one of the fellas in the bar. I passed out, and that's all I can remember. Did you sleep in the car all night? No. I guess whoever owned it drove me home. Well, how do they know where you live? Must have been one of her friends. I don't know. I don't remember anything till this morning. They phoned me up and said Eddie was dead. Who phoned you, Miss Farr? One of her friends. I don't remember. I had a rotten headache. Well, you can do better than that. I tell you, I don't remember. They phoned and told me Eddie was dead. Somebody ran Eddie down. All right. Where are we going? Downtown. We'll have a stenographer take your statement. I've got a terrible hangover. I don't want as bad as this. Neither is Eddie. Let's go. On the way back to the office, Ben stopped at a drugstore and I picked up a box of aspirin, a wisdom tooth who's giving me trouble again. We clerked at the soda farm and fixed something for Marion Fuller's hangover. When we got her back to the office, we questioned her for more than an hour, but she gave us only one additional piece of information. The victim, Eddie Stokes, had been married before and divorced. His ex-wife lived out in the valley with her two children, and on several occasions she came to see Stokes at the Vermont Avenue bar when he failed to make the monthly payments for the support of the children. Each time they'd argued bitterly. We had a police stenographer take the four women's statement and then she was released. 10.45 a.m., Sergeants Rogers and McLendon were assigned to check out the Vermont Avenue bar where Stokes had last been seen alive. Ben and I drove out to the valley to the home of Catherine Stokes, the victim's former wife. She met us on the front porch. Inside it sounded like one of the children was practicing the piano. We told her what had happened. Last week I think it was. Yes, Thursday last week. Eddie hadn't sent any money for the kid's support for three months. I hated to chase after him like that. There wasn't anything else I could do. Where did you meet him, Miss Stokes? That boy used to hang around. It's over on Vermont called the Brown Bell or something. Mm-hmm. Wouldn't you like to come inside? Yes, thank you. Do you happen to know anybody by the name of Marion Fuller? Yes, Eddie mentioned her. There's a man seen a woman like that. Do you know anything about her at all? No. Whenever I saw Eddie, he'd mention he was running wrong with her. Yes, he wanted to make me jealous. Was your husband a pretty heavy drinker? Yes, he was. So I got the divorce. Eddie was such a fine boy when we got married. Good home. You didn't know any of the people he'd been running around with lately? No, just the Fuller woman, that's all. Can you think of anything at all that might possibly have a bearing on his death? No. Eddie was probably drinking, wanted in the street, and a car hit him. I don't know. Oh, there's the bakery, man. I've got to get some bread and a few things. Excuse me. I think that's about all, don't you, Joe? Yeah. I'll tell you, I'll leave our car to Miss Stokes in case you want to contact us for any reason. No. It was so wonderful when we were married, Eddie and I. My folks gave us this house as a wedding present. We got wonderful presents. Yeah. We had everything we wanted. A car, nice house, kids. It was wonderful that we started drinking. Then everything went. It was a job. All of a sudden, I never knew why. Yes, ma'am. How do men get that way? How do they start? I don't know. We only see a part of it. Yeah? When they finish. 12 noon, Ben and I drove back into town to Vermont on 63rd Street for a meet with Sergeant Rogers and McLendon. They told us that they checked out the bartender who'd been on duty the night before and also seven of his customers. Their stories were almost identical. Each of them remembered seeing Eddie Stokes at the bar. Each of them remembered he was playing shuffleboard that he was drinking heavily and that he left the bar at about 1.45 a.m. All of us had the idea that for some reason the bartender and the customers were lying. In most cases, it's hard to find two witnesses who tell identical stories, let alone seven. For the rest of that afternoon, Rogers, McLendon, Ben and I spent our time canvassing the neighborhood in the vicinity of the Brown Barrel Tavern. 4.45 p.m. We talked to the proprietor of a small grocery store two blocks down the street from the tavern. He told us that he rarely visited the bar, but that he thought that the man who ran the butcher shop next to his place, Mr. Eugene Murray, was a regular patron of the Brown Barrel. So we went next door. Nice-looking mates, ain't you? Yeah, those steaks look good, don't they? Two pounds. Who knows now, Mrs. Kidney? Got some nice fresh kidneys today. No, no. George won't touch kidneys. That'll be all. You put it on the bill. I want you, Mr. Murray. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Yes, sir, gentlemen. Can I hug you? Police officers, Mr. Murray, I'd like to ask you a few questions. Oh. I'm sure. Glad to help out if I can. Have you ever been in the Brown Barrel Tavern down the next block there? Brown Barrel. I go there all the time. Say, would you mind if I fix up another while we're talking? The customer's going to pick it up in a couple of minutes. I don't like to keep waiting. Sure, go ahead. I got to go to the ice mart. When's the last time you were in the Brown Barrel, Mr. Murray? Closing pictures. We got dinner tomorrow and... By what time was that? Pretty close to two. What's the matter? Some kind of trouble? Did you notice anything unusual while you were in there, anybody fighting or arguing? No. We were only in there a couple of minutes, but now that you mention it, there was something funny happening. What was that? Well, a bartender call and a half dozen of the neighborhood gang were back in one of the booths talking together. They seemed kind of nervous. And none of them seemed to be having a good time. Yeah. A wife and I yelled hello at them, but they kind of gave us a go-by. Then this drunk came up to us. And he said, Officer, would you reach that knife for me? Which one? That one. Oh, yeah, here you are. Yeah, thank you. Go ahead. Yeah, well, this drunk came up to us and whispered to me, say, you better get out of here. There's been a fight. Isn't that a beautiful piece of me? Well, I didn't pay much attention to him. He was pretty drunk and hardly understand him. I guess they have a lot of fights in there anyway. Is that all he told you? That's been a fight? Yeah, that time. Well, he came back a couple of minutes later and whispered the same thing, you better get out. There's been a fight, he said. The wife and I just laughed at him. He said, I know all about it. A guy's been murdered. You are listening to Dragnet, the case history of a police investigation presented in the public interest by Fatima Cigarettes. Fatima, the long cigarette that has more than doubled its smokers coast to coast. And there's a very good reason for this amazing increase. Men and women everywhere are finding out it's wise to smoke extra mild Fatima. I agree, says Dick Highland, sports columnist. I agree, says Shirley Gellman, registered nurse. I agree, says Frank Fenton, author. I agree, says Nancy Appel, news writer. Yes, all agree. It's wise to smoke extra mild Fatima. So, enjoy extra mild Fatima yourself. The King-sized cigarette, which contains the finest Turkish and domestic tobaccos, superbly blended to make it extra mild. You will prefer Fatima's much different, much better. Flavor and aroma. You will agree. It's wise to smoke extra mild Fatima. It's wise to smoke extra mild Fatima. Best of all, long cigarettes. 6 p.m. Ben and I went back to homicide to turn the case over to them. They asked us to handle the investigation for another day because they were short of men at the moment and because there was still a big doubt as to whether or not any stokes had really been murdered. Finally, the only solid lead we had was the second-hand testimony of a drunken witness, that and the deputy coroner's doubts that stokes was actually the victim of a hit-and-run. Mr. Murray, the butcher, didn't know the name of the man who told him that there'd been a murder and he could give us only a meager description. We brought Marion Fuller back in and re-questioned her. She stuck to her story. She didn't remember anything. She was released again. It looked like we were in for a long night. We went across the street for a bowl of soup and a sandwich. When we got back, Ben called his wife and said we'd be working late. I called my mother. Working late again? Oh, Joseph. How's your tooth feeling? That's a little better, Ma. It's still pretty tender. I'm going to go to the dentist tomorrow. Yeah, he's okay. One of the fellas down here told me about him. I'll see you a little later. Don't wait up. Yeah, okay, Ma. Goodbye. So that butcher's wife on the phone, Ms. Murray? What's she have to say? Ask her the same questions we asked Murray. She couldn't add much. Same story. Roger's and McClendon just called in. He's still out at that bar. Finally got somebody to talk a little. What'd they get? The bar boy out there, he says there was a fight happened about 1.30. He doesn't remember who was fighting. Not much, Hal. Bar boy's name is Milner. He told Roger he went outside about 20 minutes to 2 to put the garbage out. He saw the fuller woman asleep in that car. You get the license number? No. Said there was a ticket on the windshield. Ben and I checked with the sergeant of the Watts at 77th Street Division. He told us Unit 111 was a sign to the area where the Brown Barrel was located. When checking their worksheet, we found that Unit 111 had issued a hang-on citation the night before to a car parked near 63, 30 and 1.5 Vermont Avenue. The address of the Brown Barrel Tavern. We checked the license number through DMV and found that the car was registered to a William R. Huddy, 14 Naylor Street. We drove out to the Naylor Street address and talked to Huddy's wife. She told us he was playing in a shuffleboard tournament that night at a bar down on South Olive Street. 8.55 p.m. we checked in at the bar. Barken? Oh, yes, sir. What'll it be? You know if there's a William Huddy in here? He's supposed to be playing a shuffleboard game here tonight. Yeah, I know him. He's with the Highland Park team. Yeah, let me see. Yeah, that's him up now, up on the blue shirt. Thank you. Come on, Ben. All right. Yeah, that's it, pal. Good wait. Make it another three. That cleans him. Good one, pal. Yeah, it's pretty close. Beat that one, thanks. Excuse me? Yeah. Are you William Huddy? Yeah, that's right. Police officers would like to talk to you a minute. Oh, what about? I'd like to ask you a few questions. You step over here, man. Yeah, all right. Were you at the Brownbell Tavern out on Vermont last night? Yeah, I was. Why, what's the matter? You know a Marion Fuller? Yeah, she hangs around the place. She goes with a guy named Eddie. Did you drive her home last night? Yeah, as a matter of fact, I did. She passed out in my car. She's a nice kid, but she drinks a lot. I drove her home. You mind telling us what happened at the bar last night when you were there? Well, I come in about nine o'clock and I start playing shuffleboard with a couple of guys. This guy, Eddie, still wins one. Yeah? Well, he got in a beef with a guy at the bar with a Marion. It's nothing big, though. The guy left after a while. Go ahead. That's about all. I left the place around 1.30, and I said he was beefing with some merchant semen about that time. Was the Fuller girl still at the bar at that time? No. When I went outside, I saw her sleeping on my car. So I drove her home. I left her off and then came back to the bar. That's when they told me. You told you what? Well, they said Eddie had a fight with this merchant semen. They said it'd be better if we kept it quiet. Who told you that? Carla Bartender. And I got the real story from one of the fellas I was playing shuffleboard with, Leo McCarty. What did he tell you? Well, he said that when Eddie's stokes left, the merchant semen followed him out. He said he chased Eddie. McCarty went out about five minutes later. Yeah? Well, the merchant semen was gone. His stokes was lying in the gutter down the street. Mm-hmm. Did McCarty look at him? Yeah, he said stokes looked pretty bad. So he looked like he was dead, but I would believe that. Why not? This McCarty always exaggerates. 10.15 p.m., we had William Huddy come back to the office with us where we questioned him further and took his statement. Then we had his friend Leo McCarty brought in along with a bartender at the Brown Barrel Tavern and the customers that he'd framed his story with. McCarty was the first to give us the straight story and then the others followed. The bartender, Carl Janssen, who also owned the bar, was the last to break. How about it, Janssen? Why didn't we get a straight story to begin with? Well, what about the publicity? How would that look, a murderer on my place? It could work out worse than that, Mr. Janssen. You've been withholding evidence. You talked these people into the same deal. I had to protect myself. The newspapers, all the scandal, the recommends business, I had to keep it quiet. It's not my fault that stokes has killed. I didn't do it. I'm not to blame. No, but you know who is to blame. Now, how about it? Who is he? He works on the ships. Comes in here most of the time when he's in port. What's his name? Henry Baxter. Okay, some of his paychecks. Ben, you better get the captain, huh? Yeah. Hit the run, Felony, Freddie. Oh, yeah. No, just a minute. For you, Janssen. Thank you. Yes. Yes, Frida, just a minute. Sergeant. Yeah. It's my wife. She's at the bar now. I thought you ought to know. Yeah. Henry Baxter. Frida says he just came in. I talked to Janssen's wife and told her to delay Baxter as long as possible without arousing his suspicions. 11.25 p.m. Ben and I and Mr. Janssen, along with Rogers and McClendon, drove out to the Brown Barrel Tavern on Vermont. When we got there, Baxter was gone. Mrs. Janssen told us he was pretty drunk with the time he left the bar. She'd watched him go down one block, cross the street, and then enter a small nightclub on the opposite side called the Pink Shamrock. She'd been keeping an eye on the place and knew Baxter was still inside. We went down the street to the nightclub. Rogers and McClendon covered the back entrance. We got inside in the middle of a floor show. Blonde was doing some kind of a dance. Can you spot him, Mr. Janssen? Yeah. How about over on this side, back in the corner there? No. No, he's not there. It's so dark in here I can't see too well. There's a rear exit to the place. He could have slipped out that way. Gentlemen, I'd like that picture taken. So, can you photograph? No, no thanks. Maybe we'd better check with the waiter, Ben. I saw you just a minute. That man over there at that table. Where? Yeah, I mean, almost positive. Where? Right like that next to that pillar. Just behind it, you see. All right. Come on, Ben. You stay right here, Mr. Janssen. You bet. A little waiter, another cold car. Your name going to be Baxter? Yeah. That's right. What? Police officers like to talk to you. Yeah. What? Yeah. Outside. I'll sign nothing. I'm going to see a show. Let's go outside. Come on, Baxter. Wait a minute. What's the beef anyway? You know what the beef is. Sure, I know what the beef is. Come on, Baxter. Well, Ozzie's punk got his stokes trying to give me a bad time. Now, he knows what a bad time is. All right, Baxter. Come on. Ozzie's punk stokes. I showed him how it's done. You keep your voice down. I slugged him. Pounded his head on the curb. He was drunk. He never knew what happened. Come on, outside. Hey, everybody, I'm killing any stokes. Let's get him out of here. Yeah, OK. How's that tooth feel, Joe? Seems OK. Better have the dentist yank it out first thing tomorrow. I think I'll hold off for a while. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent. On July 30th, trial was held in Superior Court, Department 87, City and County of Los Angeles, State of California. In a moment, the results of that trial. It's amazing how many long cigarette smokers are changing to extra mild Fatima. Here is the actual report. From its smokers. Yes, more and more smokers every day are discovering that Fatima is the king size cigarette that is extra mild. Extra mild because it contains the finest Turkish and domestic tobaccos, superbly blended to make it extra mild, to give it a much different, much better flavor and aroma. Enjoy extra mild Fatima yourself. Best of all, long cigarettes. It's wise to smoke extra mild Fatima. It's wise to smoke extra mild Fatima. Henry John Baxter was tried and convicted in Superior Court of Manslaughter. He received the sentence as prescribed by law and is now serving his term in the state penitentiary. You have just heard Dragnet, a series of authentic cases from official files. Technical advice for Dragnet comes from the office of Chief of Police W. A. Wharton, Los Angeles Police Department. Fatima cigarettes. Best of all, long cigarettes has brought you Dragnet transcribed from Los Angeles. Sarah Burner stars in Sarah's Private Keeper, next on NBC.