 Dragon Ladies and gentlemen, the story you're about to hear is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent You're a detective sergeant you're assigned to bunco detail For the past year a confidence man has been cheating women in your city. You finally get a lead on him your job Get him Was Wednesday February 12th was cold in Los Angeles. We were working the day watch out of bunco detail my partner Frank Smith The boss is Captain Steve my name's Friday. We were at the Armstrong Thomas department store cafeteria And it was 314 p.m. When I got back to the table Hey, Joe, let me give you a hand. Thanks Here you are. Mr. Harris. Thank you. I Wonder if you tell us what this is all about now, man Surely sorry you had to wait, but I thought it might be better if we talked up here. Yes, ma'am Would you pass the sugar, please? Oh, yes, ma'am Well, it's not a pretty thing. I don't know how I could have been so foolish But I guess when you get to be my age and haven't gotten anything almost any attention makes you forget How'd you first meet this man, Ben? I Saw him first at a music cow. I met him very briefly that night. He called me the next day Said that he wanted to see me again Well, I told him that I didn't think it would be proper, but he insisted so that night we had dinner together It seems so nice. I still can't believe it. Yes, ma'am Such a wonderful time. I didn't think anybody could be so happy We ate at a wonderful little place down at the beach Then we went for a long drive and listened to the music on the radio Just beautiful Where the ocean looks all moonlight, you know When'd you see him again, ma'am? Not until he left He'd call a couple of times a day. You got a little embarrassing. The girl's story here got to kidding me about it, but I didn't care Then he told me he wanted to marry me. I couldn't believe it So wonderful. Yes, ma'am Then one day he told me that he was going to have to take business trip up north. When was that you remember, ma'am? I guess it was about three weeks ago or something like that Well, he left I went down to the station and saw him off He kissed me and said that when he got back we'd be married We were going over to Las Vegas on our honeymoon. Wonderful plan. Wonderful Then I heard something. He got Santa's sister. He called me from the hotel and said that he'd lost his wallet on the train He told me he'd lost everything All his money, identification, everything That's when he asked me for the hundred dollars. I didn't think that anything was wrong, so I sent it to him Why'd you send it, ma'am? To his hotel Did you hear from him at all after that, ma'am? Not a word At first I thought that maybe he was just kind of funny that he wouldn't say something about getting the money I sent But not a word Then I got worried Yes, ma'am, I understand Finally I called the hotel and they told me that he'd checked out. I Figured that maybe he was back in town and wanted to surprise me So I called his apartment The landlady told me that he had left a couple of weeks before That he didn't leave any forwarding address I didn't know what to think. I didn't want to believe that he just used me There didn't seem to be anything else to think Then, of course, it was only a hundred dollars Seems that if he'd wanted to rob me, he could have asked for more I still don't believe it even when I know it's true Yes, ma'am. I wonder if he could give us a description of the man Yes, I can do that He was tall About how tall, ma'am? Over six feet, maybe six feet too He had blonde hair, kind of wavy About how much would you say wavy, Mr. Harris? I'd just be guessing, but I'd say about 190 or so I wonder if you'd be kind enough to come down to the city hall and look at some pictures for us You think you might have one of them? It's possible, ma'am. Maybe it'd make you feel a little better to know that you're not the only woman that this bed has taken There have been quite a few I guess I knew that Even if I didn't want to believe it, I guess I knew it was just a confidence game Such a cruel thing, though To use a person's loneliness to rob them Yes, ma'am, it is And you've got along in years and you haven't got anything to hold on to Little attention and affection makes you forget everything else Nothing else seems to matter Yes, ma'am. I guess that's the way they figure Frank and I had been looking for Jonathan Bentham for the past year During that time, he'd taken approximately $37,000 from women in the Los Angeles area His method of operation was to answer the ads in the personal columns of the daily papers He'd give the woman a whirlwind courtship then under the pretext of having to clean up some business before married He'd leave town He'd call the next day and give them the story about losing his wallet and identification He'd ask them for $100 This in itself was to throw off the suspicions of the victim In the event that they suspected that they were being taken in a racket, $100 was small enough so that their fears were quieted Bentham would answer about 20 to 30 of these ads at a time And the request for money would hit all of the suspects at once We'd had several complaints lately and there was no way of knowing how many women were being taken And were too embarrassed to report it to the authorities 4.30 p.m. We drove Ms. Terrence back to the city hall and had her check the mug books She was unable to give us an identification, however Another month passed During that time, we received 14 more complaints In all instances, the description of the suspect matched that of Jonathan Bentham All available sources of information were checked Bulletons had been gotten out carrying his description and the name he used No result On Wednesday, March 25th, we got a call that a man answering Bentham's description had placed an ad in the personal columns of one of the daily papers He'd used the name of Thomas Colman The clerk at the ad counter gave us his address and at 5.32 p.m. Frank and I went out to talk to him Yeah? You Thomas Colman? Yeah, that's right. What can I do for you? Police officers would like to talk to you Sure, come on in. I was glad to talk to the law How do you do, Mr. Smith? I do If you boys would come on in, I'll shut the door Thank you And now, what's this all about? Oh, sir, did you put this ad in the paper? Now, let me see Uh, Texas Cowman desires to meet the teen young lady object companionship Spelled everything right to Ben Yes, sir, that's mine. I wrote it all myself How long have you been in Los Angeles? Well, now let's see Got in on the bus last Tuesday Dad make a week in a day Uh-huh. What brings you out here? Well, I guess you could say it's kind of a business trip Got a little tired of the same faces back home So I thought I'd just see what the rest of the country looked like What little days of it? Off in Texas, you know. Amarillo Yeah, what's all this about anyway? Some law I broke? No, it's about that ad Oh, you found out, huh? Thank you, pardon? Oh, you found out about me saying I was a cattle man That's it, ain't it? What do you mean? Well, now, I didn't mean to harm I do have a couple milk cows on the place A Holstein and a Guernsey That's real nice, too Just that I was a darn lonesome I kind of thought this might be a way to meet some nice gal I didn't mean to harm, you can see that, can't you? Yes, sir, I guess so I wonder if you'd mind taking a ride with us, sir Well, I should say not always happy to go along with the law Well, you figure to go to I'd like you to meet somebody Well, now that's right Nice of you. Got some gal you'd like me to meet, huh? Well, it's not exactly that, sir Well, it don't matter, none I got nothing to do anyhow Just sitting here wondering if I get any replies for the ad All right, sir You wouldn't mind? Let's go Not at all I'll get my hat 5.40 p.m. We drove Thomas Conant downtown And had a car go out and pick up Miss Terrence While we talked to Conant in the interrogation room She walked by the open door and looked in at the suspect She told us that he was not the man who victimized her She was returned to her home And after Conant had been checked through R and I He was released The next morning, Frank and I ran down a tip from an informant But it let us know where 10.18 a.m. We checked back into the office You get the latest bulletin from San Francisco, Joe? Yeah, I looked it over this morning They checked out the hotel Benton was staying at He checked out of there, they haven't seen him since Well, that means he's probably back here in town, huh? Well, in a few years We should start hearing about him again We'll see how I'll get it Funko Friday Who? Oh, yes, ma'am Yes, Miss Terrence, I remember Yes, ma'am, where was that? Would you give me that again? Yes, ma'am 4-8 Vine Uh-huh Yes, that's right, ma'am We'll get in touch with you Right, thank you very much Bye Great, Terrence Yeah, she just saw Benton Where? Went into an apartment out on Vine Street 10.41 a.m. Frank and I got to the apartment house on Vine Street We talked to the landlord And he told us that a man answering the suspect's description Was registered in apartment 4-B He was registered under the name Jonathan Benson He told us that this Benson had just moved in And paid his first month's rent in advance He'd said that he was just going to be in town for a short time And that in the event that he moved out before his month was up He expected no refund Frank and I went up to the fourth floor and knocked on the door Yeah? You're Jonathan Benson? Who are you? Police officers want to talk to you What about? Might be better if we talked inside Maybe I don't want you in my town All right, now, Mr. You'll get your hat We want to talk to you downtown What for? Come on, get your hat Just a minute, I think Maybe there's been some kind of mistake here Just tell me exactly what it is you're looking for I'm sure we can work it out Come on, Mr. Quits, stall him, get your hat, will you? Come on in I'll get my hat I'll get it for you In this closet? Yeah, the grave You sure you got the right man? Looks that way No way to work this out What do you mean by that? Well, I don't even know why you want me to go with you Seems you could fill me in on that Got some people we'd like to have you meet You'll see when we get there Here's your hat Come on, let's go You guys sure think you're the Gestapo Coming in here dragging a private citizen out of his house Do you have anything wrong? You got nothing to worry about then, have you? That's not the point I don't like it Coming in here and taking me downtown So a lot of stupid old broads can look at me Who said we wanted women to look at you? You did No, we said we wanted you to meet some people Must have misunderstood Yeah, I guess you did No way we can work this out There's no way, now come on Oh, just a minute I want to be sure I got my key I don't want to be locked out Don't worry about it What do you mean? You might not be coming back Frank and I took Jonathan Benson downtown We ran him through R and I But we got no identification His fingerprints were rolled and checked But they didn't make him Miss Terrence was called And asked to come down to the city hall To try to identify the suspect 2.30 p.m. We took him to the interrogation room You ever use the name Benton? No You sure? Yeah, you ever use any other alias? Why should I? You tell us Now look, why don't you come off it Tell me what this is all about You told us you just got in the town, is that right? Yeah, I've been here about a week Where'd you come from? Up north Where up north? San Francisco You live up there, do you? Most of the time, yeah Most of the time, what's that mean? Just that, most of the time I live in San Francisco That hard for you guys to understand What amount of work you in? The salesman Yeah, and what do you sell? Whatever people want to buy What are you selling now? Nothing right now That's why I'm here I'm looking for a deal You know a woman named Terrence Grace Terrence I don't think so Mike, why? We'd like to know Hey, maybe I'm wrong about all of this But it seems to me that when they Taught me civics in school They said that I had to be booked That you had to let me go They changed that law No, that law's still good Then let's stop horsing around I got a lot of things I want to do Fill me in on this And then let me out of here All right There's been a confidence man Working in the LA area Been taking money from women Gives him a big pitch about wanting To marry him And then he hits him up for a hundred Bucks and leaves him Sounds like a good rack He's taking a lot of money From people who haven't got it To spare A fan, I'd say I'd say a tough luck A fan, we'd say you're wrong Where do you look at it? Where do I fit into this little fantasy? You look good For the guy who's been Pulling the deal With flip and description matches So I look like another guy Everything else about you Checks out? So you figure You've made me for the jobs That's what we figure In the gas chamber I'll come off it, fellas You guys know you're trying To hang a bad rap on me You know it and so do I Now let's call the whole thing off I can get out of here And you can get to the pinocchio I'll get it Hello, Mr. Mitchell Mr. Mitchell, I'm here Hello, John What? Why'd you do it, Jonathan? Why? If you wanted the money You could have asked for it I'd have given it to you You didn't have to lie About what you saw Places full of amelonies What's wrong, Miss Terrence? Miss Targ, is that him? All right, how about it, Benson? I don't know what she's talking about What's this bit with that's him? Looney's jumping with it All right, now Benson I've had enough of that Now come off it You've just been identified We've got a lot more of them That we can have here I think they'll identify you too All right, John All right Oh, get her out of here One thing I can't stand Is a woman balling If something comes along You can't figure out Right away they've got a ball If anything comes along They've got to cry I'm sick of it All right, ma'am Maybe it'd be better If you waited in our office Yes, Sergeant I don't know why he did it Why he took this way to get the money I took this way because it was the easy way Your broads are all alike Every last one of you Let me get a few things straight first You say I took $100 from you Is that right? Yes All right I want you to think about this And think real careful Didn't I say that I wanted To borrow the money? Isn't that what I said? Borrow? Yes, that's what you said Did I say that I'd pay the money Back in any certain time? I don't know Well, you think real good You'll remember that I didn't I just said that I'd pay you back That's all I didn't say when I guess... I don't... I don't care There you are Is there any crime to borrow money From a friend? I borrowed the money from her I'll pay it back You said you wanted to marry me You said you loved me Oh, come off it, Sarah You got no beef You got the soft light And the romantic music You got it all Look at you Take a good look Who'd want to marry you? Here, just a minute Here Here's a hundred bucks I borrowed I want to pay you back I got $100 worth of laughs from you That much easy Here's your dough Now go home and have a good cry I wouldn't marry you if you were The last woman on Earth... That's enough of that, Benson You're not just kidding This old heartbeat with romantic ideas Put a laugh She thinks anybody want to marry her And she's a loony too I didn't think anybody could be this mean I didn't think anyone could be this cruel I don't believe... You got no choice You know it all along Thanks for the laugh Come on, Ms. Church Imagine that That old bag really thinking I'd marry you Yeah Real laugh Well, anyway, she got a dough back I said I'd pay her back I did You check with the rest of them I'll tell you the same thing I borrowed the money, that's all I can't help it if they thought something else I can't help it, Captain Come on, let's get this over with I want to get out of here Yeah You look upset, cut Don't be Won't prove anything I got something for you, Benson Is that right? Yeah, some place, some time You're going to make a mistake That's right Yeah, and when you do You're going to lean hard We had 12 of the victims of the confidence man Look at Benson All of them gave a positive identification But verified his story That he borrowed the money from them 425 p.m. Frank and I got in touch with the district attorney's office And talked with them What Benson had said was true In borrowing the money Or in saying he was borrowing it He'd committed no violation of the law We had to release him from custody A month passed During that time We'd heard nothing more from the suspect He'd stopped working the dodge In the Los Angeles area We contacted the San Francisco authorities And informed them of what had happened And he said that they'd be on the lookout for Benson During the next two weeks Frank and I worked on a ring of bunco artists That were working in the obituary columns On June 16th We got a call from Burgary division That they'd gotten a report of a theft And talking to the victim They'd gotten the name Jack Bentley They checked the files on him And found that it could be Jonathan Benson The victim of Miss Betty Lindsay Came to our office to talk to us I don't know why they thought That I should see you It's just a plain fact The officers in Burgary Said that they thought They might be interested in the thief, Miss Lindsay What if you tell us about him? Lousy chrome It's got a real schnook Schnook of the first water That's ma'am What's his name, please? Called himself Bentley Jack Bentley A bum What do you look like, Miss Lindsay? Tall and blond Kind of nice-looking guy If you went for the type No, no good bum What if you take a look I'll send him the pictures we've got here See if he's in need Sure I'd like to see you get him Where's the picture? Frank, would you get him for you? Yeah Where'd you meet this Bentley? Do you remember? Well, I'm sort of a hostess At a place downtown about 5th Anyway, about two or three weeks ago This schnook comes in Orders a couple drinks and leaves Next night he's back again Oh, he was a cagey one Didn't work too fast Took about a week to make the pitch Then he asked me out for dinner Well, he always seemed kind of nice So I told him I'd go Here are the pictures, ma'am If you just take a look through them And see if there's one of Bentley in there Sure Let's see No No No No Hey, this one's kind of cute What do you want it for? Oh, he works at Casualty Racket What's that? Gets the names of people that have died Tells their families that they ordered some stuff What kind of stuff? Oh, pen and pencil, sets, watches, cheap things Charges a lot of money for them Most of the people figure that it's one of the last things Their loved ones wanted So they pay the prices The stuff's worthless Well, I'll give you a racket But they're nice-looking guys, too So honest Well, that's why it works Yeah, I suppose so Well, let me see No, that's not him Hey, wait a minute Yeah That's him Ooh, what a nudnik Ma'am A nudnik, a real bum But that's him, I'm sure of it Benson Ma'am You mean you know this guy? Yes, ma'am What if he tells you exactly what happened? Sure, like I was telling you, this guy Benson? Yes, ma'am That's right, Jonathan Benson Yeah, well Anyway, he asked me out for dinner I told him I'd go It looked like he was very well-fixed I figured he wouldn't do no harm Well, see, I don't get out till 12.30 There ain't many places, nice places Open after that But I said, yeah So he told me he'd pick me up He got the call about 10 o'clock Said that he'd gotten through with whatever it was he was doing And that he came by to see if he could use my apartment to freshen up a bit Freshen up a bit Boy, what a way to heist the place Oh, what a bum Go ahead, ma'am Well, I gave him the key of the place He said that he'd stop at a drugstore and pick up a razor and shave and wash his face and he'd be back to pick me up The last I ever saw of him Walked off with a fur coat I had Saved for three years for that coat cost me 900 bucks And he took a ring worth about 150 Diamonds, along to my mother I sure hope you'll get him and nail him good Yes, ma'am Ooh, what a nuisance We continued to question Betty Lindsay She gave us the name of one of Benson's friends We checked on him and he gave us the name of a girl who knew the suspect We talked to her and she was able to give us Benson's address It was a roomy house on Franklin Avenue with area 6.47 p.m. Frank and I went up to his room Yeah, come on in I should have kept my mouth shut What do you guys want? I want to talk to you downtown, Benson We aren't going to get on that merry-go-round again I'm getting tired of this whole deal What are you guys trying to tire me this time? We didn't have to do it, Benson You took care of that yourself That's right You made a mistake What is it this time? You figure I took some candy away from a blind new boy? All right, come on, Benson Let's go You're going to arrest me this time or am I going as a favor? This time it's on us You mean we're playing for keeps now? Yeah What's the charge? Grand theft You're kidding No I really believe you're serious That's right You call it This is going to be interesting If you can't prove this I'm going to own City Hall and the first thing I'm going to do is fire you to You know that, don't you? Oh, we'll take that chance All right, but don't say I didn't warn you You know, Sunday I'm going to write a book Call it some of my best friends are caught Yeah, you do that I will You'll have the time We took the suspect downtown We talked to him for over an hour but he'd admit nothing Without being able to produce the stolen articles the case would be difficult to prosecute We had Benson take everything out of his pockets Among his personal effects we found a key to a locker in the subway terminal Two men from Bunko Division took the key and went down to the terminal They recovered a locked suitcase and brought it back to the squad room where we were questioning Benson How about it, Benson? This yours? Never saw it before in my life It's locked You got a key to this Benson It's locked It's locked It's locked It's locked You got a key to this, Benson? I told you it wasn't mine What more can I say? I see those keys there, huh? Yeah Here I don't know what this is all going to prove I told you the suitcase isn't mine Yeah, that figures that's how come the keys fit, huh? Cheap suitcase A lot of the keys doubled That's right Sure, lots of times I lost a key for one suitcase used a key from another one to open it Ever find one of these in the case? I never saw that fur coat in my life I haven't got the slightest idea how it got there I want to talk to a lawyer You're getting kind of jumpy, aren't you, Benson? Sure, I don't mind admitting it I told you I got no idea where that coat came from but I know you guys aren't going to believe it You're out to get me, you said so You're going to try everything you can do with it You want to tell us about it now? Nothing to tell I don't know nothing about it You don't ever give up, do you? I don't know what you're talking about I want to see a lawyer All right, we'll fix it so you can put that call in We got the owner of this coat on the way down here She's going to identify him and that's all we need Now, you just sit there and keep your mouth shut, will you? Hi, guys Fuck off, Smith What's that? Oh, yeah, sure Sure, I remember What? You did, huh? Well, that's swell Glad to hear it Well, I wouldn't know I'm not missing an authority, I guess Your name's what? Yeah, it's a nice name Well, I'll be glad to tell him I'm sure he'll be pleased Thanks very much for calling When are you leaving? I think Okay, thanks a lot, bye Anything? Yeah, that kid from Texas You know that Thomas Conan? Oh, yeah, I mean the cattle man Yeah, got an answer to his ad Is that right? Yeah, somebody called him up and said he made a real good deal for himself and he's shipping her back to Texas Now, you mean he found a girl? No, bought himself another whole scene The story you just heard was true The names were changed to protect the innocent On October 17th, trial was held in Department 87, Superior Court of the State of California in and for the county of Los Angeles Jonathan Arthur Benson, alias Jack Bentley was tried and convicted of grand theft He received sentence as prescribed by law Grand theft is punishable by imprisonment in the state penitentiary for not less than one, nor more than ten years You have just heard dragnet the authentic story of your police force in action and starring Jack Webb a presentation of the United States Armed Forces Radio Service