 The story you are about to hear is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent. You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned a burglary detail. For the past 18 weeks a gang of safe men have been breaking into large grocery stores all over the city. They work fast. You can't localize their operations. Your job? Get them. 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, September 16th. It was hot in Los Angeles. We were working the day to watch out a burglary detail. My partner is Ben Romero, the boss is Captain Wisdom. My name is Friday. It was 7.45 a.m. when I got to the service station on the corner. The phone booth. 2-5-2-4, please. Hi, Dick. This is Friday. Romero there. Hold on, Joe. Thank you. This Friday, Ben. Yeah, where you been? Well, my car again. Something's wrong with that distributor. I'm gonna leave it at the service station. I'll grab a streetcar down, huh? Hey, hit him. We're at this time. Wilson. Our staycots are doing a lot of good, aren't they? I'm worn out from last night. All righty. Okay. You said Mel Rosengreen? Yeah, it's from out there. Okay. Right. I can get over there as fast as I can. Okay. I'll see you later, huh? Joe, just a minute. Yeah, sounds a little upset. How's he look? For 18 weeks, Ben and I had been assigned to this same case. The burglary gang was victimizing only Wilson Brothers markets throughout the city and in surrounding towns adjacent to the city of Los Angeles. Their criminal activities had given them well over $100,000 stolen from these various markets. Additional officers were assigned from the Metropolitan Division, and the case had grown to large proportions. It was 12 minutes past eight when I arrived at Mel Rosengreen Streets, the latest Wilson market to be victimized. Same thing, Joe, just like all the rest, you know, the crime lab finder meeting. Ben, you're in gone. We found a few particles of cloth, probably from the guy's gloves, some metal shavings for spectrographical analysis. Same as on all the other jobs. Well, how'd they gain entry? Same way, around front. Looks like a tire line. Drive the door open. How about the burglar line? No problem. There's a ladder. Line up and take a look. Yeah. See it? Yeah, I see it. Cut the key leads again, huh? Nothing's different, Joe. Just exactly the same. All right. Well, that really tears it, doesn't it? Yeah. 252 men on stake out last night, and they know just which market to hit one that isn't covered. When you figure Wilson's got over 300 stores, we can't cover them all. I think we might have some of the luck we're sure overdue. Nobody could be this lucky this long. Now they're out to break the record. Haven't turned up anything new at all, huh? Not so far. I've been looking around. Come on. Yeah. Rubles and Armstrong in the store? Yeah, they're checking the back of the store's stock room. Employee's locker room. And how much was taken? Told you on the phone, $462. Some checks, about $200 worth. Well, this is whimsy. I suppose the thieves have discontinued the weekend jobs? I don't know. Your guess is as good as mine. Here's a buck. Yeah. Sure a good clean job. A lot different than those first ones, huh? Yeah, they've come a long way. That was safe, but certainly well-lighted, wasn't it? 200 watt bulb up there. Still burning when we got here. Doesn't do much good with all those boxes piled up over there in front of the window, though. Mind you, he says he went there when he closed up last night. Well, nothing seems to bother him, does it? They move in, don't chance turning out the light. They just pile crates up between themselves and the street, and they take their time drilling the box. That's it. There's the usual empty pop bottles, three of them. Cool bits of it, you know. Hi, Friday. Didn't know you were here yet. Hello, Rubles. How are you? Maybe we got something. Yeah? Fished these out of the drain in the bathroom. What do you got? Looks like they tried to get rid of them. Some of the checks torn up and this fishing license ripped them, too. Where could I see those bits? Charles W. Royal issued last month. Good chance he might have carried the license in his pocket and mixed up with the checks. First, maybe he was going to take the checks, but changed his mind and tore them up, the license with him. Let's hope you're right, Dick. But it might just belong to some employee here. Well, we've been kind of figuring these jobs might have an inside connection. Maybe this is it, huh? Let's check it out. Maybe this is the break we've been looking for. We went back to the office and checked the name Charles W. Royal through R&I. No record. We contacted the management of the Wilson markets. He had been an employee at the store, which was just held up. He'd been transferred six months prior to their Van Nuys branch. In checking back, we found that the Van Nuys market was one of the first stores to be burglarized. He was placed under surveillance for several days, and during this period, another Wilson market was burglarized. The officers conducting the surveillance accounted for all of Royal's time during the burglary. He was brought in for questioning and cleared of any complicity in the burglaries. Monday, September 28th, 80 a.m., we met with Captain Wisdom. The reason for Royal's fishing license was because he left the behind of that store when he was transferred. That's right. Manager of the store confirmed it. He said he kept it in a safe form, so it wouldn't get lost. That lead went nowhere. None of them go anywhere. We don't get any leads. Then no kickbacks on any of our teletypes, APVs, radio grins. In between Armstrong, Rubles, and Ben and I, the girls in the stats office think we're on the payroll down there. We're wearing out the cards, having to make runs on the gang's MO for us. How about that last stuff Burton from CII sent down? We checked all three of them out. Nothing. Boys in the crime lab got a lot of physical evidence if they could make something out of it. That's just it. You can't make something out of nothing. Yeah, we got much up there. A few steel shavings off those safe, a couple of broken bits, a handful of cotton fuzz, they think it's off the guy's gloves. Can't work miracles. Yeah, that's right. I don't think we've overlooked anything, Captain. Every neighborhood in the vicinity of every burglary has been checked and rechecked. And all you turned up was that one woman? Yeah, the one that saw the three men out in back of the Wilson Market over on Vermont. She thought they worked there. Didn't know she'd witnessed the burglary when we told her. She couldn't identify any of them. No, she couldn't. I just checked with the sheriff's office. These burglaries are driving them crazy, too. No leads. Boys from the parole office have been trying to give us a hand. We've checked out everything they sent us on discharges and parolees. Nothing fit. Well, did the markets seem to be cooperating, holding up their end as they were instructed? Well, as far as we can tell, right to the letter. Yeah. All the safes that were concealed in any way have been moved out in a more conspicuous spot. All well-eliminated. The Wilson Company has bought better-made safes to replace the ones that were broken into. They're replacing their old models as fast as they can. Doesn't seem to stop them. Yeah. All that's according to the book. Doesn't figure with all those precautions they'd be foolish enough to tip off their thieves. Behind me. Oh, yeah. Take a look at this. Yeah. Larson and Gunn turned this up at that Venice Boulevard job night before last. Made me a graph steakhouse instructions. That's right. They were put out by the management of the markets. Every time we informed them of a steak out night, they put these inner-store memos on. Yeah. That was for the purpose of informing all the different store managers of the police department's plan so they'd be sure and comply with our instructions. Yeah. Motor was okay, but the effects have been causing us more trouble than we know. Well, weren't these destroyed after the store managers read them? Apparently not. We notified the management of the stores to be staked out a week in advance so that they could quietly let the stores know about it. We wanted the lights left on. It turned off to move the safe out of hiding all the various instructions. And the management of the market chain just took it on themselves to send out these memio sheets, huh? Not only that. In checking the last couple of jobs, either these sheets were in the manager's desks or they were posted in the store someplace. All the thieves had to do was go through a desk and check a bulletin board and then go right where we'd be. Without this advance information, maybe it'll slow them down. Maybe we can write in on part of the luck we're due. Yeah. Come on over here with the pin map. Hey, uh, Friday a red pin for you. One for you, Romero. You put them in. I got calluses on my thumb from trying to keep up with those things. Yeah. You know, Venice Boulevard and Rockwell. Mm-hmm. Vermont and Method. You know, just look at them on there. I'm gonna run aside of pins if we don't blow the whistle on them. I'm getting a little sick of it myself. Take a good look at the map here. Yeah. All the red pins of these market jobs in and around here and through here. Mm-hmm. As you know, Wilson's got stores throughout most of Southern California. Yeah. They've hidden it around the metropolitan area, Pomona, Glendale, a couple of times at the beach cities. But look over here. It's equal. Yeah. Now, for some reason, they're leaving Eagle Rock alone. And seven Wilson markets out there, not one of them been touched. Well, maybe they're hit there next, huh? And we double-checked all cruise units out there. Told them to be doubly alert. Also to report any suspicious moves around any of the stores. I want to report on any and all cars driving below normal speeds anywhere near those markets. Anything even remotely out of line. There's seven stores in around that area. Excuse me. Burglary, Wisdom. My high ball. Who's that? They did. Colorado and Bryce. Yeah, right away. Yeah. That was Lieutenant Vaughan Highland Park. I was wrong. There's only six stores in Eagle Rock now. How do you mean? They knocked one over last night. The preliminary investigation of the Wilson Brothers market in Eagle Rock yielded no additional physical evidence, but it definitely showed that we were dealing with the same gang of thieves. In this last burglary, they got away with $1,152. 734 p.m. After five hours of continuous checking in the immediate neighborhood of the latest market to be burglarized, Ben and I located a Mrs. Olive Rebarred. We felt sure that we'd reached a turning point in the case. Mrs. Rebarred had seen two of the gang members at work in the Wilson market at Colorado and Bryce in Eagle Rock. She agreed to come downtown and go through photographs of criminal suspects. No. Not any of these. Let's try the next two places. There are a lot of them, aren't there? Yes, ma'am. There's still a lot more to go here. I see it. No, none of these. How much that finishes this book? How many is that make that we've been through? I believe this one makes 15. Just looking at all those faces makes you wonder, are there any honest people? Well, these books represent an accumulation of many years, you understand? You keep pictures of everybody and everybody in prison? Well, within our jurisdiction, yes, and a great many more besides. I see. Ben, how about that Folsom book up there for 45 and 46? All right. I'll put this one back. Fine. 46, yeah, that's it. All right, here we are. You ready, Mrs. Rebarred? All right. I don't believe it's any of these. All right. Turn the next piece down. And how about these? This one, you know, that one fellow looked a little like one of them. I thought he did it first. What was that? This one. No, I was wrong. You looked familiar at first glance. Well, now we told you before, Mrs. Rebarred, if any of these men, their ears, eyes, nose, chin, any part of them looks like any part of the men that you saw we'd like to know that. We'll have our sergeant put off up in our crime lab, drop a composite for you. You mean you put all the different features together? Yes, ma'am. You think it might help them anyway? I mean it will certainly help us. I didn't realize that you were that thorough. I only have to be. Well, I'm just not that sure about any of their features. It was just like I told you, I didn't get too good a look at them, but I thought I might remember. There's so many pictures here. Well, would you like to rest a little while, Mrs. Rebarred? We've been going at this thing for about two hours now. No, that's all right. No, I want to help if I can. I think I'll open this door a little, Joe. All right. I have a little draft in from the hall. There. I'll get you a little stuff in here sometime. Thank you. I wonder if you'd like a cold drink or some kind of Coke, something like that. No, thank you. That's very kind. I don't care for one. All right. Would you like to go on? Yes, I could. You understand that when I saw these men in the store, I had to look through the front window. They must have been at least 40 feet away from me. I had a shout to be heard. Yes, ma'am. We understand. It didn't come over to me at all. I just can't believe that they were really those lightning burglars. Isn't that what the paper called them? Yes, ma'am. They were just as big as life are standing behind the meat counter. They even had on butcher's apron. It's still hard to believe because they didn't act like burglars at all. Sometimes they don't. The only thing that struck me funny was that anybody would be working there on a Sunday. I've seen men in there before. It just didn't seem right that they'd be working there. I wanted to get in to pick up a box of starch. They told me to come back Monday morning when they were open. Well, if you could have seen over the counter from where you were standing, you would have seen the floor safe right there in the meat department. They were trying to open it. I never would have known it. You're sure you people couldn't have made a mistake? No, ma'am. I don't think so. We've checked there and there was no authorized employees in that store yesterday morning. Well, that's to them then, ma'am. Yeah, we're pretty sure it was. Let me help you, ma'am. I just read by these pages. It's stuck together. Thank you. Yeah. There you are. I've seen so many photographs. They're all beginning to look alike to me. If you'd like to rest a while, that's fine. Maybe you'd like to go home and come back a little later. You know something? What's that, ma'am? I'm positive now. Yeah. I wouldn't know those men if I saw them. You are listening to Dragnet. From beginning to end, Dragnet is the authentic story of your police force in action. Once more, what appeared to first be a good lead dissolved into nothing. The stakeouts were continued. Everything possible was being done to apprehend them. The burglaries of the Wilson markets continued. On the night of October 3rd, officers D.B. O'Connell and P.W. Murphy were working the stakeout on one of the Wilson markets in Eagle Rock. At 2.33 a.m., they had observed a gray Ford Coupe, California license 9 Robert 9813, driving at normal speed until reaching the storefront and then slowing down perceptibly, showing unusual interest in the market. Lieutenant Armstrong and Sergeant Rubles checked the license number through DMV. The car was registered to apply to our Bingham, 2-3-3 South Carmona Place in Eagle Rock. It was placed under surveillance while we made a thorough check into his background. We located him at the neighborhood bar on Colorado Boulevard. We talked to him for an hour. So that's it? I'm not your man. You sure you didn't drive past that Wilson market on Bellevue Avenue? I didn't say I'd never driven by it, but not on the night you said. Well, have you driven by another night? I remember that. I live out here, and I drive down Bellevue a lot, but I don't know if I've ever been by that market. I suppose I have. We have your license number and the word of two officers will sell you. I'm afraid they must be mistaken. You have the word of Benny and Walt. You just talked to them. I told you I was here on the night of October 3rd. I stayed here until almost daylight talking to Walt. He closed up at 2. We sat around and talked. What did you say your car was parked all this time? Right out in front. Ben Walt told you that, too. I'm telling you, I never left this place ever night. Is it possible you could have forgotten? Not all three of them. And you didn't loan your car to anybody? No, sir. I never loaned my car. I stayed right out there in front. What did you say you did after this place closed? As I said, I sat around and talked to Walt. He owns a place. What did you talk about? Well, I don't know of this and that. I don't recall exactly. Did you go to work the following day? Yes, I did. It was funny. You'd sit up on that talking and go to work. I don't have to be to work until I please. You know, my own boss here. You run your business all by yourself, do you? No, I have two secretaries. They make up checks, keep the books. What kind of business did you say you were in? Business management. You know, the thing that bothers me is why you're asking me all these questions. Routine investigation. It doesn't sound very routine to me. I don't understand. We're on an assignment. During the course of that assignment, it became necessary to interrogate you. I still don't understand. Anything else you want to know? No, sir. I think that pretty well covers it. Something I'd like to know. Is there a law against slowing down in front of a market? Ben and I felt that Bingham was lying for some reason that we were not aware of. All efforts were made to determine that reason. We made a complete search of his residence. His relatives, friends and associates were interrogated. The two men who had alibied for him were checked out. No evidence was obtained to connect him in any way with the Wilson Market burglaries. The surveillance was continued on the three men. During the next two weeks, another market was burglarized. None of the three men could have been involved in any way. Another month went by. The burglaries continued unchecked. The newspapers had dubbed them the lightning bandits. There was only one exception to the title. By this time, they'd begun to repeat on markets to hit again where they had burglarized the state previously. December 3rd, 4 a.m. Ben and I were cruising the central area of the section not covered by stakeout. I figured there's only one way to beat this thing. I asked for a transfer before they offered one. Well, it seems like every way we turn were stopped. No leads, nothing. Here it is almost Christmas again. Those market thieves started last Easter. Yeah, I know. Well, we got everything covered again tonight as best we can. We could just keep all the markets covered at one time. Well, that's been done a couple of times, you know that. Yeah, I know that. But keep them covered all the time until we get to them. If we had the manpower, we could do it. Yeah. You want to swing in close to the curb, here's another market. You see anything? No, nothing on this side. I can't see the safe in there, can you? No. Those vegetable counters are partially blocking it. Lights on, though. Yeah, this side's clear, too. Rear of the store backs up against that other building, doesn't it? Yeah, only a front and side entrance. You swing around again. Would you make a U? You see some? No, I'm not sure. Just pull back up and film again, huh? All right. Okay, this is fine. Don't kill your engine. You hear that? I'm not sure. Come on. You hear it now? All right, stop. Come on. The throwing vegetables at that front window. We're trying to draw our attention here. Now you cover the side, I'll try to force them to you. Right, there's the news, right? Right, I see it. You want to shake them down? Yeah, all right. All right, stand still. Go from Joe. I'll see if there's any more besides these two. All right. Who tipped Joe? If we'd have had a tip, we'd have gotten you a long time ago. That's it. Just these two. Somebody must tip Joe. You couldn't be this lucky. Why not, you've had your share. The two men were taken into custody and were identified as Wilford Lawson and Thomas Greenfield. A check with R and I showed no previous record on either man. After a short interrogation, Wilford Lawson admitted his part in all of the burglaries of the Wilson Brothers markets. He steadily refused to give us any information as to the other possible members of the Burgary gang. Thomas Greenfield was interrogated. He was the more timid of the two. He claimed that this was the first job he'd been on with Lawson. That he did not know of any other members of the gang. That he'd only served as lookout on this particular Burgary and that he was not deeply involved. In further investigation of the two suspects, Armstrong and Rubel found that they had been seen in the company of still another man. It was impossible to get any kind of lead on the remaining suspect. We took the matter up with Captain Wisdom. It was our combined belief that we should allow Thomas Greenfield to be released on the grounds that we believed this story about his slight part in the crimes. He was placed under close 24-hour surveillance Thursday, December 6th. Two days after we released Thomas Greenfield, we were called into Captain Wisdom's office. Yes, we played it the right way in letting Thomas go. How do you mean? Well, first of all, we passed one up last October. You remember Bingham, the guy driving slow past the market in Negro Rock? Yeah. Well, he's the one we want. And these two letters, both postmarked today, we picked them up on that mail stop on Lawson. Where they from, Thomas? Yeah. A couple of choice parts. Yeah, listen to this. A client says to tell you he's not sore anymore. Ever since that mix-up, him and Walt and Benny decided this was the best way to play it. He says he didn't want no part of what's yours. And then there's a lot more here. It says he'll get an attorney for Lawson and he thinks he really put one over on us. Anyway, all three of them are in it all the way. Well, how does Bingham figure in it? We had him under surveillance, didn't we? You know, listen to this from this other letter. Oh, here it is. I've been talking with CB. Clive Bingham getting real clever now using initials. I've been talking with CB several times only on the phone. He's really not sore. He's played out since that time. He figured he might be hot. That's enough, isn't it? It's all there. It adds. Okay, you got one to roll on. Yeah. Go out and pick them up. This time we'll keep them. The story you've just heard was true. All of the names were changed to protect the innocent. On March 22nd, trial was held in Superior Court, Department 88, City and County of Los Angeles, State of California. In a moment, the results of that trial. All three suspects, Wilford George Lawson, Clyde Robert Bingham and Thomas Llewellyn Greenfield were filed on for burglary in the second degree. Wilford G. Lawson was filed on for 12 counts. Clyde R. Bingham for six counts. Thomas L. Greenfield for three counts. Sentences to run consecutively. They are now serving their time in the state penitentiary. In view of the fact that the authorities were unable to prove the defendants were armed at the time of the burglaries and the stores were not inhabited, they could only be filed on for burglary in the second degree. Second degree burglary is punishable by a term if not less than one, nor more than 15 years. Ladies and gentlemen, we wish to gratefully acknowledge the Michael Award presented by the Academy of Radio and Television Arts and Sciences. The Academy voted Dragnet the finest program of its kind. It is with deep humility that Dragnet accepts this citation, the highest award bestowed by the radio and television industries. You have just heard Dragnet, a series of authentic cases from official files. Technical advice comes from the Office of Chief of Police W. H. Parker, Los Angeles Police Department. Fatima cigarettes, best of all, long cigarettes...