 to hear is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent. Dragnet. Detective Sergeant, you're assigned a homicide detail. A woman reports her sister is missing. The story she gives you indicates foul play. Your job, investigate. It was Tuesday, April 8th. It was warm in Los Angeles. We were working the day watch out a homicide division. My partner is Frank Smith. The boss is Captain Lorman. My name is Freddy. I was on my way back from the business office and it was 1146 a.m. when I got to room 42. Homicide. It's just too bad. Yes, ma'am. Hi, Joe. Hi. Mrs. Moffat, this is my partner, Sergeant Friday. Joe, this is Mrs. Moffat. How are you, ma'am? How do you do? Want to tell him the story? Say it'll do any good. Yes, ma'am. Well, then my sister is gone. Yes. Disappeared and I want you to find her. Won't you see her last? A couple of weeks ago. Could you give us a date? You have a calendar? Yes, ma'am. Right on the wall there behind you. Oh. This is 8th Maggie's birthday. It was in March and I'd make it 14th of March. I see. She came by to thank me for the party. Had a few of the girls in for her. That's your sister? Yes, Margaret Shane. Have you heard anything from her since then? Not a peep. What about our home? Have you checked there? Tried to call her on the phone a couple of times. Didn't talk to her, though. Who would you speak with? Her husband. Did you ask him where your sister was? Yes, I came right out with it. Didn't mess anything up. What do you have to say? Well, then just beat around. Didn't come out with a yay or no. Just beat around. How about the rest of her family? Isn't any. I'm the only living relative she has. Impossible. She's ill? If that's so, I'd know about it. We were pretty close. Hardly no secrets from each other. I see. Now if you're all done asking me the same questions this fellow has, I want to know. I know there's something wrong. I want you to find out. All right. We'll check on it. I want you to do more than that. A lot more. Big part? I want you to arrest Maggie's husband. Well, why? Because he killed her. We checked the name and description of the woman through missing persons files, but we failed to find anything on her. While I talked to Karen Moffat, Frank went down the hall and ran the names Margaret Shane and her husband Gordon through R and I. There was nothing on either one of them. 106 p.m. We left the office and drove out to check the missing woman's house. Doesn't seem like anybody's home. Well, let's check the bank. All right. You think there's anything to it? You know, as much as I do, we both started from the same place. Yeah. I'll get it. Somebody home? Yeah. I wonder why he didn't bark when we knocked on the door. I don't know. There's nothing here. Let's check the garage there. We tried to hide it. Blood stains. Lab requesting that a crew be set out to check the stains that we found on the floor. We talked to the neighbors about the couple and we got the address of the place where Mr. Shane was employed. It was a large wholesale carpet company. We found Shane in one of the offices. That's right. No, ma'am, if it's put in, it should make the room a lot warmer. Another carpet you've chosen shouldn't show anywhere for years. Well, we found that color doesn't show the dirt. No, ma'am. Well, it'll increase the value of your home. Well, that's right. Oh, we can have it in for you day after tomorrow. That's right. I'll give you a call. All right. Bye. Yes, sir. Can I do something for you? Mr. Shane. That's right. You want to come in? What can I do for you? Police officers. Frank Smith. My name's Friday. How do you do, sir? Something wrong? No, sir. Just a couple of questions we'd like to ask. Oh, sure. Cigarette? Yeah, thanks. How about you, Mr. Smith? Yes, thanks, sir. Well, all right. I've got it. Then what's this all about? You know where your wife is, Mr. Shane? Oh, there's something about Maggie? Well, do you know where she is? Look, Mr. Friday, if there's something wrong with Maggie, I got the right to know about it. Yes, sir, that's true. We're not sure there's anything wrong. We'd like to talk to Mrs. Shane. We hope you'd tell us where we might reach her. Was she in trouble? No, sir. Well, then I don't understand all the questions. We've got a report that she's missing. Who filed it? Her sister. That figures. How's that? She is never going to stop. I'll believe it. Follow you. Karen's been hacked at me ever since I married Maggie. Now, the day goes by she doesn't plan some kind of a dig. Does she have a reason? Yeah. She had it all fixed for Maggie to marry someone else. I came along and upset her plans. Been trying to break us up ever since. That's all. Yeah. This fellow, she was trying to palm off on my wife. Karen's husband worked for him. She figured it'd be real soft having the bosses and the brother-in-law. Well, the way I worked out the slob had to work for Eleven. Almost killed Karen every time she thinks of it. Where is your wife? I wish I could tell you. What? I wish I knew where she was. Haven't you got any idea? No. A couple of weeks ago I came home from work. Maggie was gone. I haven't seen her since. Can you pin it down? Uh, Thursday, a week. She called during the day to tell me she wanted me to go out to dinner. Said she wanted me to be home on time. I told her I wouldn't be able to make it. We had words. She hung up when I got to the house. She was gone. Have you got any kind of a note? Yeah. Have you got it? I don't think so. I was pretty upset. Guess I must have thrown it away. Haven't seen her around since. You know, you've got quite a woodworking shop in your garage. Yeah, yeah. Stuff's getting a little rusty now. I haven't felt like doing anything. This trouble with your wife was another man involved? It'd be hard to say. What do you mean? Well, Maggie's an attractive girl. Everywhere she went, there was some guy trying to make time. Might have been someone special I wouldn't know. I wonder if we could use one of the phones outside. You use this feeling? Well, one of the others will do. Well, sure. Go ahead. I'll call a lot of them, Joe. See what they've come up with. Okay. There's no to your wife left. What did you say? You mean the exact words? If you remember. It was pretty simple. Just that she was leaving me. Said she didn't have to tell me why, then I knew. Did she say where she was going? No. Figured maybe she went back east. She's got some friends there. Where? Nebraska, I think. I've never met them. How about clothes? What? Did she take any clothes with her? Oh, yeah. I guess so. She had quite a few. I looked at her closet. I couldn't tell what was gone. She took her fur coat, though. Did you try to contact any of her friends? I called around. I didn't find out anything. Oh, things are far, Sergeant. Isn't there anything new about a wife leaving her husband? Read about it all the time in the papers. Karen's just stirring up trouble. She's sore at me. Always has been, always will be. Joe. Yeah. Excuse me. Yeah, sure. Talk to the lamb. Yeah. We're talking about a blood stain. Mm-hmm. We're not too far off. Huh? Human blood. I took Gordon Shane back to his house. During the ride, he was quiet and he refused to be led into a conversation about his wife. When we arrived at the house, we took him back to the garage. The crew from the crime lab had gone back to the office to make the grouping tests on the blood stains. We should tell me what this is all about. We figure you might have the answer to that. When are you going to stop talking in riddles? Now, Shane, you know what we're after. You'll save yourself a lot of trouble if you go along with us. I don't know. What are you after? You dragged me away from my job, caused me a lot of embarrassment. Now, how about calling the game so we both know what we're playing? All right, fine. Sure. You got an explanation for this? What? The blood stains here on the floor. Yeah, sure. I killed a couple of people. This is where I did it. We don't need any joke, Shane. Just figure it out. Well, you better turn in your deer stalker cap. I made those stains myself. Yeah? I was working on the lathe. Chiseled slipped out of my hand, cut my foot. When does it happen? A couple of weeks ago. Before or after your wife left. Now you're ready to stop the game. It's a real easy question, Shane. Give us the answer the same way, will you? Before. How much? A couple of days. You told us your wife left on the 27th of March. Is that right? Yeah, I guess so. Is it right or isn't it? It's right. When did you cut your foot? The Sunday before. How'd you pull that date up? No trouble. It's the last time I worked out here. Oh, well, it got that bad. It'll be a mark, wouldn't it? Yeah. Mind showing us? Now that all. You know your blood type? What's your blood type? Oh. How about your wife's? I don't know. Somehow we never quite got around to talking about it. All right. Let's go in the house. You can show us your foot there. Yeah, sure. You think you might be able to come up with a note your wife left as well? Well, look. You know much about the law. What do you mean? If I get out of this, can I bring suit against my sister-in-law? What's that? Well, it seems there should be something I can do to close her mouth. All the time Maggie and me were together, she was causing trouble. I like her really fix her good. That's a civil matter. You better see her lawyer about that. Wait a minute. I'll get the door. Living room. All right. You want to go ahead? Yeah. Yeah. This is the living room. You can sit on any place. All right. A little messy. I haven't spent a lot of time here since she left. Just toss those things on the floor. Don't worry about it. You want to see if you can find that note now? Yeah. I think maybe it's in the desk. I'll get it. Wait a minute. I'll have a look first. You guys don't trust anybody, do you? That's the way it's going to be. You got to go with it. All right. All right. I'm going to make sure I haven't got a machine gun hidden in there. You know you've done pretty good up to here, Shane. Don't press your luck. Yeah. Go ahead. Tear the place up. Too bad I haven't got a wall bed. You could look for her in there. It doesn't seem to make any difference to you that your wife left it all, does it? That's the way it looks. Yeah. Well, you ain't far off. Real load off my back. We've been married over four years and all that time I haven't had a minute's rest. Thinking how she was going to run off for somebody else. Figured that she'd drop me now. It's over. I don't have to worry anymore. You got it wrong, Shane. That's right. Yeah. Take a look, Joe. Hey, what do you got there? You got no right to go through my personal things. When did you see your wife last? I'm not going to say anything more. You're trying to lead me into something. Looks like you found your own way now. How about it? I'm not going to talk anymore. It's all right. You call it any way you want. No matter how it turns out, you're going to carry the load. All right. She left on the 27th. That's the last time you saw her. Yeah. Have you heard anything from her since then? No. And I hope you got an answer for these. Where do you got? A couple of checks made out to you and they're signed by your wife. What's that prove? The dates and the checks make a lie out of you, Shane. Huh? They were written a week after she left you. We made a search of the house but we failed to turn up anything more that would tie Gordon Shane in with his wife's disappearance. We looked through the desk and we found several letters that she'd written. These were taken for handwriting comparison. We also found several pictures of the missing woman. A check with the neighbors failed to give us anything further to work on. All of them told us of constant fights between Shane and his wife. One of the people said that on several occasions the sound of sobbing had been heard coming from the house. At 5.20 p.m. Frank and I left the place and took Shane down to the city hall. The checks and samples of Mrs. Shane's writing were turned over to Larry Sloan for comparison. We put in a call to the crime lab but we found that the blood grouping tests were not finished. 6.12. We took the suspect to the interrogation room. Just sit down over there, Shane. Okay. How long you think you're going to be able to hold me? Depends on when we get the truth. If you saw the cut on my foot, you didn't find anything at the house. Look, you're grabbing a shadow. You're still having told us about the checks? No reason to. Everything I say, you twist around so it ends up something I don't mean. Where'd you get the checks? From Maggie. What about the date on them? I don't know. I guess you made a mistake when they were written. Where'd you get them? Found them at the desk. Well, didn't you think it was kind of funny that your wife would write a couple of checks and just leave them laying around on the desk? No. Maggie was always doing something like that. She didn't care about money. How about you, Shane? Huh? Make any difference to you? Look, I'm getting tired of this. Some crazy old bag comes in here, tells you a fairy tale, and you buy it all away. Any special reason why you're taking my sister-in-law's word for it? Boy, she tells us things that up. Well, then you better go over the column again. My wife walked out on me. There wasn't any fight when it happened. She just picked up and she left. I don't know where she is. I don't much care. But you put this down in your book. I didn't kill her. Now, look, leave me alone. When do I get to call a lawyer? We'll set it up for you. You're fast because you're getting nothing more from me. That's the way you want it. It wasn't any other way. I'm telling you the truth and you don't believe it. Might as well keep my mouth shut so you can't make it any worse. All right, Gordon. We'll take you over to the main jail. You can call your lawyer from here. What are you holding me on? Suspicion of murder. You just don't give up, do you? Look, we've got to go along with the evidence. Well, you better check it again because you're making a mistake somewhere along the line. That's the way it looks to you, does it? Yeah. Go over the road again. Find it. You're a cop. No, let's do it the easy way. The suspect was removed to the main jail and held for further investigation. Frank checked the office and I went down the hall to talk to Larry Sloan in handwriting. Joe, how's it going? You all through those checks, Larry? Just wrapping it up. All right, the way. Sure, sit down. What do you figure? I don't want you to tell us. Mm-hmm. How'd it start? Complaint. Woman wanted us to find her sister. Well, where did the checks fit in? Found him with a husband. It dates a couple of days after she disappeared. Uh-huh. Figure he might have written them, huh? Well, that's one way. Well, that doesn't. Okay, what do you got? The endorsement on the back of Shane's writing. His signature. Yeah, here you can see it. No trouble there. The O's, Wade pulls the stroke down on the S. That's his. What about the writing on the face? Well, look here. Shading on the G. Yeah. The way the crossbar on the T's pulled up. These are the samples and you got the same thing right here. No doubt about it, huh? Not with me. Okay. No one wrote the checks. Joe. In here, Frank. Oh. Just talked with Lee at the crime lamp. Yeah. He finished the grouping test. What do you find? Got in touch with Karen Moffat. Found out the missing woman's blood type. Yeah. Stains on the floor aren't hers. They belong to Shane. How you doing, Joe? Not good. Looks like we got the wrong man in jail, doesn't it? We're listening to Dragnet. The authentic story of your police force in action. The main jail to see Gordon Shane. We talked to him for over an hour. He told us that he and his wife had been having trouble for quite a while and that they'd separated on several occasions. He went on to tell us that he didn't know for sure whether there was another man involved, but that he'd heard his wife spent a lot of time in a small bar on Vermont Avenue. He said that it was possible we could pick up some information on her there. Frank and I left the jail and drove over to the place. It was an average neighborhood tavern. We talked to the bartender. Only one way to describe her. Man on man. Is there anybody special that Mrs. Shane spent a lot of time with? Would you know? Gee, I don't know. A lot of people in here like a family. I guess if you had a nail it down, it'd be Leonard. Who's Leonard? Another regular. He's here almost every afternoon. He and Mrs. Shane were pretty friendly, huh? Yeah, real buddies. We used to come in and get gas together, spend the whole afternoon, sit down there at the inn and play horse. Played by the hour. Not for money. We don't allow that in here. What do you know about him? Not much. Doesn't figure him and Maggie had hit it off, though. Why do you say that? Well, it just doesn't. She liked her fellas big. You know, dark and handsome. Leonard's a little guy. Not more than five-fourths. Sure ain't anything to look at. What's his last name? I think it's P-U-R-D-Y. Pretty. That seems like it. What's he look like? Not much about him. You'd remember. He's a little guy. Blonde hair. Real bad complexion. He's a mustache. You know, big kind of handlebar-like. Yeah. You know where he lives? Not for sure. I think he's got a room over on Fox in some place. I don't know the number. Where's your phone? Through the back door there. Thanks. I'll check it, Jim. All right. This is pretty work for a living? No, regular. What's he do to you, no? I need some kind of salesman. Door to door. I don't know what he peddled. He knew him a couple of times with a sample case, though. You've been around lately? No. I hadn't thought about it, but I guess I haven't seen him in a couple of weeks. You ever hear what he and Mrs. Shane talked about? Word here and there. Nothing you could put together. I think she spent the time with him because she didn't have to worry about it. How do you mean that? Well, you know, a little guy like that couldn't give her no trouble. He's always around. Maggie didn't have a car, so Leonard is a driver if she wanted to go someplace. What kind of a car? 41 to Silver. Parked it out back a couple of times. It's a real wreck. All right. What'd she do? Huh? Maggie, what are you after? Like I said, we'd like to talk to her. Sure, doll. You get to know her. You know, that doesn't matter how much money she spent. She can't switch you back. She spent quite a bit in here, did she? Yeah. Her and Leonard had really put the drinks away. Both of them had hollow legs. You know, I've seen some pretty heavy drinkers walk up against them. They don't stand a chance. Maggie can really put it away. Always causes trouble. Honey, me? It's loud. Yelling all over about how she could buy and sell everybody in a place. A couple of times I had asked her to get out. Things like that hurt business, you know. She carried a lot of money with her, did she? Oh, yeah. Always had a bundle. Since she was an heiress or something. I don't know. She was always loaded, though. Anything on party? Yeah, sure as. Yeah. Got out of state mental hospital six months ago. From his package, we found that Leonard Purdy had been arrested several times for suspicion of grand theft, however, he hadn't been convicted on any of them. Also, the right team drunk arrest against him. We put in a call to Georgia Street Psycho Detail and we talked to Lieutenant Quinn. He remembered Purdy. He went on to say that the suspect had been in to see him several times since his release. He told us that Purdy had committed himself to the state hospital as an alcoholic. Quinn went on to say that when Purdy was drunk, he became violent and that on three of his arrests, it had taken several officers to subdue him. We contacted the authorities up at Camarillo. They told us that the suspect had been released by them after treatment and that he apparently was cured. We checked the last address in his package, but we found that he'd moved. A local in the APB was gotten out on him. We asked DMV to furnish any and all information on a car registered to him. Two days went by without a word of him. In the meantime, we talked to all of his friends and acquaintances. From each one of them, we got the same story. Leonard Purdy was a freeloader who'd do anything for a dollar. On Thursday, April 10th, we got word that the suspect had been seen in a second hand store down on Main Street. We checked the area and got an identification from his mug shot. He'd come in to pawn a man's watch. From the buybook, we got an address on Gladys Avenue. We talked to the landlady and found that the suspect was in his room. Frank and I went upstairs. What's that? That's right. Who are you guys? Police officers who want to talk to you. I got nothing to do with cops. Why don't you come in? Right. Yeah. You're long? Not long. That's good. I don't feel like making small talk. I don't know if you drink, but they're just barely enough for me. You can understand me. Put the glass down, Purdy. Why? Put it down. Look, you got no right to come in here and tell me what to do. Nobody asked you. No. It's my closet. Does per coat belong to you, Purdy? Yeah. I get cold nights. You know a woman with the name of Margaret Shane? Never heard of her. You sure about that? I'm sure. I got nothing to answer to you. Before you come in here, tell me what to do. I don't have to give you one single answer about nothing. You better come up with one. What's that? This coat. What about it? It's got Margaret Shane's name in it. Must be a mistake. I don't know anybody named Shane. Nobody. We got a lot of people who say you do. You telling me the truth? Same people tell us you were with her when she disappeared. They don't know what they're talking about. The way they put it, it's pretty straight. Who told you? Who? Just give me some names. Everybody we talked to. They said I was with her. And where is she? I don't know. You got to do better than that. It's the truth. I don't know where she is. I killed her, but I don't know where she is. The suspect down to the city hall and questioned him. He finally sobered up enough to tell us that he'd gotten into an argument with the Shane woman and beaten her to death. He went on to say that his car was being repaired and that he'd rented one and driven it out into the desert. He buried the victim there. We showed him maps of the area, but he was unable to tell us where to find the body. He only knew that he'd put it in the culvert along the roadside. We got the name of the automobile rental agency and we called them. Their records gave us the date of the rental and the mileage the car had been driven. We put the suspect in our car and started out toward the Mojave desert. As we drove, Perti verified our route. By dividing the total mileage in half and figuring the distance between his house and the office of the auto rental company, we had a vague idea where to start looking. After we'd been driving for over two hours, we pulled to the side of the road. How's the look around here? Yeah, it might be it. I think up the road a little way. Remember that big rock over there? Remember that pretty good? It's up ahead a little. All right. We drove for another 30 minutes and then Perti directed us to pull off onto a dirt road. We drove another half a mile and we came to the end of the road. We can't go any further. Don't have to. Huh? I remember now. Let's get out of the car. Stay close to us, Perti, right here. All right. Which way? Over here. It's your beautiful day. Yeah. It's different when you get out in the country. Everything's got a different color. Come on, Perti. Where is she? Over there behind the bushes. I'll go look. Always been the big trouble. What's that? Boozing it up. Every time I get a few drinks, I don't know what I'm doing. After I got out of the hospital, I had it made, you know. I'd be able to stay away from it. First time I had trouble, I went back. I always went back. How about it? Yeah. She's there. All the time, that's what caused the trouble. Wouldn't be if it wasn't for me boozing it up. Uh-huh. If I could just stay away from it, I wouldn't have any problems. I want to give it up if I could just find a way. You got one now. On August 14th, trial was held in Department 98 Superior Court of the State of California in and for the County of Los Angeles. Murder in the second degree and received sentence as prescribed by law. Murder in the second degree is punishable by imprisonment for a period of from five years to life in the state penitentiary. Drag net. The story of your police force in action is a presentation of the United States Armed Forces Radio Service.