 detail. My name's Frank Smith, the boss of Chief of Detective Stad. My name's Friday. We're on our way out from the office and it was 10.15 a.m. and we got to the corner of 7th Street and Bunker Hill Avenue. The Stoneman flower shop. Just good there. It didn't move around. Just good. Oh, you felt it was gonna see me? Police officers. This is Frank Smith. My name is Friday. Is that true? That's right. Robert's one of 16. Do you answer the call? Yeah. I'm a fellow that shot the crook, you know. Yes, you get a description? Yeah, it's out. Metro is sending a couple of cars to help us look for the suspect. Very good. Anything else I can do for you? No, not right now. Okay, I'll get on outside then. Right, thank you. You'll take care of the report then, won't you? Yeah. Okay, we'll check with you. Good. Nice fella. Yes, sir. Could have used him back to home. Sir? Good man like that. Could have used him. What do you mean? Rounded detective agency back home. Had a couple of men sleuthing around. Made a good of him. Mm-hmm. Would you tell us what happened here? Ain't nobody done that yet? No, sir. We just got a hotshot call. There's been a robbery shooting. We came right out from the office. Hmm. You heard about? No, sir. Well, don't you worry. I'll tell you both and give you the whole story. All right, sir, if you would. Abner Stosek. What's that, sir? Full name's Abner Davis Stosek. After Jeff. Who? Jefferson Davis, the president. Oh. Don't usually use the middle name. People out here don't seem to understand three just front and back. Abner Stosek. Yes, sir. All right. Now, if you tell us what happened. The shot Dan Vell. That's the victim. Yep. Shot him right here. Just above spleen. Here. How'd it happen? It looked like 38 automatic. Well, yes, sir. But what led up to the shooting? Two fellas. They tried to rob him. Mm-hmm. Tried it with the wrong two men. Tell you that. Mm-hmm. Out loud. Sir? Tell you that out loud. Oh, I see. You want to go on? Well, same thing every morning. Yes, sir. We make up the deposit slip. Take the money to the bank. You're the one who does it right and don't have to do the walking. This time, Dan Vell rode. I was gonna make a trip. Yes, sir. I was about to leave. These two young guys come in the place. First off, I think they want to buy some flowers, you know, something like that. Yes, sir. Dan Vell is going to take care of them. Excuse me a minute, will you? Yes, sir. Go out ahead. Stone and florid. Yes, sir. Oh, no, we can take care of them for you. That's right. Where do you want them sent? Yeah, just let me check the book here a minute. Walnut Creek. Yep. Yeah, we can do it for you. No, sir. We'll send them by wire. Well, they'll be delivered in about an hour. That's right. You want the long stands? Yeah, well, they're 750, it doesn't. That's right. Yes, you want to give me the charge information on that card? Yes, sir. How do you spell that? Yes, sir, the number? No, sir, the one on the lower right. Yeah, it's 726. All right, is there a message? No, not at all, sir. I think it's real pretty. Yeah. No, they'll put the card in. We just wire the order. They'll be very nice. Yes, sir. Thank you. Call us again. That's right. Bye. Got to send some roses up to Walnut Creek, birthday for girl named Irma. Mm-hmm. What if we get back to what happened here? Oh, yeah. Well, these two fellas came in and just stood there with the feet kind of spread out like they just got off a boat, you know. Stood there, just looked around. Was there anybody else in the store? Just Dan Bell and me. I see. What'd the men say to you? Only one of them talked to Darkwin. He asked me if there's anybody in the back at work room back here. Mm-hmm. I told him there wasn't, and that's when he showed me the pistol, stood there in high cotton, waving it around, told me to hand over the bag of money. Were you carrying it at the time? I told you that before I was on my way to the bank, Dan Bell wrote the slip, I was going to the bank. I understand. Now, what'd he say when he showed you the gun? Said it was a stick up. He remembers exact words. Well, I'm kind of fast for man. Let me see. I think it was, don't try anything. It's a stick up, like Addie said. I see. Now, how did the shooting start? Well, Dan Bell said he wasn't going to have no kid talk to him like that. He reached out, took a swing at the kid, a real roundhouse. Mm-hmm. Dark kid ducked back, pulled the trigger, shot Dan Bell right here. Splendid. Dropped like a rock. Mm-hmm. I pulled out my gun, started shooting. You always carry a gun? When I'm going to the bank, you never know what's going to happen. You have a permit? It's against the law to carry a gun without permission, ain't it? Yes. Well, then I got it. After you pulled your gun, what happened? A shot. Yeah, I can understand that. Shot right at the dark fellow. You hit him. I don't often miss. I see. Hit him three times, here in the chest. Mm-hmm. What was the other man doing while this was happening? He pulled out a gun too, and the balloon went up. Well, it's flying all over the place. Yeah. Then both of them took off, run out of the place, I followed them. Mm-hmm. Got the door. The dark one turned around. Gonna shoot at me again. Mm-hmm. Didn't move fast enough. I pulled the trigger, hit him right in the middle of the chest. Went down like a dropped duck. What about the other one? He started running down the street. I guess about the only thing he was wanting was to get away. Yeah. Took two shots at him while he was running. I blazed away. Only had two more bullets in the gun. I gave them both to him. You hit him? Yeah, at least once, because I saw him jerk. It might have been both times. He kept running, though. What'd you do then? Come back in here, see what I could do for Danville, meet him as comfortable as I could, and then I'd call the police. All right. He came sliding up and took out after fellow that got away. The ambulance came, picked up Danville and the other guy. Yes, sir. Now, what if he could give us the description of the man that got away? Yeah. Yeah. I'll call Georgia Street and check on the other suspects. They're gonna do no good. Why? You don't have to inquire about him. He's dead. You're sure about that. Son, I know when somebody's dead. Yes, sir. I hit that fellow four times in the chest with a .44. I saw him drop about as much life as a sack of cornmeal. He was dead. All right. I'm sure sorry. What are you sorry about? I say it's a real sorry that you can't work with that other young fellow that was in here. You know the one in uniform. He was a bright boy. This fellow here, he couldn't even fill out an application for our agency. Would you give us the description? First line. I'll make a point. I say he wouldn't even be able to fill out the first line. I didn't know who Jeff Davis was. I'd believe. Yeah, and how about that description? Well, the fellow was about your height, weighed in maybe 150 round there. He had light hair, lighter at the top and down by his head like he was bleaching the sun. Any marks of scars? No, nothing that stand out. He had kind of a flat face. What about his clothes? White shirt, kind of tan pants, carrying a leather jacket with a fur around the collar. Yeah, I know what you mean. Both of them had those. Was there anything in the way that he talked, an accent maybe? No, just North talk. I can't tell the difference much of the time. Would you know the man if you saw him again? Bet I would. Just stand him up in front of me and I'll lay it on, point him right out. What did you find out? I talked to the hospital, Joe. Yeah. Are you sure you hit one of the suspects, mister? Positive. And he was on the sidewalk. Saw him hit and die. What's the matter? Only ambulance only brought in one person. Yeah. Dead man's gone. Talk to the ambulance crew. They told us that they'd only picked up one person at the scene. They went on to say that there wasn't another injured party on the premises anywhere. A check with the officer who answered the original call brought out the information that there hadn't been anybody on the sidewalk when the radio card got in there. Frank put out a local broadcast to all cars in the area and I went back to talk to Abner Stose. I told you before, that boy ain't too bright. Now, you're sure you shot that man? Look, I'll go along with you and say maybe I did miss the first three times. I didn't likely, but just for the sake, I'll admit it. All right, sir. But I know I hit him outside. I was closer to him than I am to you. Ain't nobody could miss that close. All right. Come on outside. Take a look at the sidewalk. You tell me if it's my imagination. All right, fine. Got it out, Joe. All the cars in the area you're looking for. All right, fine. One thing I'm always proud of is the way I can shoot. I don't hardly ever miss. I know I didn't this time. Now, just look at that. Take a look. You tell me that's Bud, ain't it? Yes, sir. It looks like it. It is. I was standing right here, right here. He was there. He turned around, tried to shoot me. I fired at him. He went down right there. You can see where the big stain is, right there. How'd they get there? What do you mean? Well, did you see a car? Yeah, I told the other cops about it. That's it right there. It drove up in it and got out. Did you see him get out of the car? Yeah, I was just leaving the store and I saw him right after they come in the store. All right, go and check the car. Yeah. Now, don't go touching it. The cops said not to. Was there anybody else who saw the man on the sidewalk? You mean beside me? That's right. Not that I know of. As soon as I entered my gun at the Blonde fella, I went back in the store. I stayed there till the police car pulled up. Not more than three, maybe four minutes. Yes, sir. Not more, but I'm telling you, he was right here. Lying there and he was dead. Crime lab's on the way out to check the car. Well, like the suspect might have gotten up and walked away didn't it? If he did, then it's really one for the books. Trail of blood stains here. Never nothing like this happened back home. Back here when you shoot somebody's got the courtesy to stay shot. Trail stops. Let's check over there and see if we can pick it up. Yeah, just stops. Maybe somebody picked him up in the car. Yeah, must be. Was there anybody else parked in front of the store at the time? Not that I remember. You can see yourself. We got the sign where it says just for the customers. You're absolutely sure there was nobody else. If I wasn't, I'd have told this fella. Yes, you didn't see the man get up off the sidewalk. No, I wasn't no reason for me to look at him. As far as I was concerned, he was dead. He still ain't sure he wasn't. Well, the trail of blood stains showed that he did leave here. He still don't sell me. Better start checking the neighborhood. You want me to help you? No, sir. That won't be necessary. Mr. Friday. Yes, sir. Could I talk to you for a minute? All right. Alone. Excuse me, Frank. Yeah. Mr. Friday, I saw that man fall. I saw him hit the sidewalk. I know he was hurt bad. He wasn't going to get up. I'm sure of it. Yes, sir. We understand. I told him all that. I just don't see how I could have made a mistake like that. That fella couldn't have gotten up. He's dead. Yes, sir. We believe you, but he's not here. That don't change a thing, my boy. How's that? He's dead someplace else. That's all. An immediate search was started of all buildings in the area. If the suspect had walked away from the scene, the amount of blood on the sidewalk indicated he couldn't have gotten far without help. While Frank and I talked to the shopkeepers in the vicinity, a check was made of the car that the thieves had used. It was found to be stolen and arrangements were made to talk to the owner. Members of the crime lab crew came out and checked the vehicle. They were unable to turn up anything we could use in identifying the holdup men. 1128 a.m. Frank and I talked to the owner of a small tobacco shop. I saw the whole thing. Well, where were you during the shooting, Mr. Collard? Right out in front of. Look down the street and there it was, just like it was a cinema scope. Now, sir, did you see the actual shooting? Well, not the first. No, I was in here behind the counter, fixing up a new bunch of pipes we just got in, putting them up on the board. All of a sudden I heard this noise. First off, I thought it might be a backfire. Then I knew. Yes, sir. The boss, it was shops. So I went outside to see what was going on. Next thing I see, these three guys come out on the sidewalk, right in front of the flower shop, three of them. Abner and a couple more. One of them black haired. The other was kind of blonde. Yeah. One of them tried to get Adner. The other one took off in this direction. I see Abner raised that gun of his and pointed at me and I ducked inside. Did one of the men go by here? Yes, Abner shot at him a couple of times. Must have hit him, because I could see he was hurt when he run fast. Did you see where he went? No. I told you when those shots started to go by, I didn't want to wait around to see if one of them was monogrammed for me. I left. All right. Can you tell us what direction the man took? Not after he went through the door. Must have gone around the corner. Well, why do you say that? Well, because when I went back out, I couldn't see him. If he'd gone up the street, I'd have been able to. Now, did you see the man out in front of the store? You mean Abner? No, sir. The one he was shooting at. Yeah, I got a pretty good look at him. Where was he? He just lying there. He wasn't moving around much. Did you see him get up? No, I don't. What's all this about the other guy for? What do you mean? The one Abner killed. Well, the question's about him. Well, sir, he's gone. You mean he got away? Yes, sir. It looks that way. Well, I don't see how that could be. I went right by him a couple of feet away. There wasn't no life in him there. Nothing. He left there and somebody had to carry. Yes, sir. That's the way it looks. No reason for anybody to do it. The man was dead. There's no reason at all. Well, there must have been one. Why? He's not there. Frank and I checked out the rest of the neighborhood, but we failed to turn up any information. None of the shopkeepers in the vicinity had seen where the blonde holdup man had gone. All of them who had seen the man on the sidewalk were willing to testify that he was dead. Yet the physical evidence at the scene indicated that he'd gotten up under his own power and walked away carrying four bullets in his chest. Two forty p.m. Frank and I returned to our car and began to cruise the streets in the area. Three fifteen p.m. Well, it doesn't look like we're gonna find him. Well, Frank, he's gotta be here someplace. Unless somebody picked him up. Yeah, it's possible. Yeah, fell on the bench over there. You see him? Oh, yeah. Waiting for the bus. He was there when we went by before. Take it easy when you pass him this time. All right, better pull over. Yeah. Matches the description. Uh huh. Looks like blood stains on his shirt from here. That sure does. Fits him good. All right. You cover him from that side. I'll go this way. Right. Joey, he's got a gun. Joey, you all right? Yeah, thanks to this mailbox. I saw him pull a gun. I thought sure he got you. We didn't miss by much. I'm only better checking. Yeah. I hit him twice, Joe. I get easy. At least he's dead. It wasn't anything I could do. It was he with him puts us in the corner. Yeah. He was our lead to the other suspect. We're listening to Dragnet, the authentic story of your police force in action. 27. From his package, we found that he'd been arrested several times on charges of armed robbery and that he'd served one term in San Quentin. Abner Stose had identified him positively as one of a holdup man. Frank and I went back to the office to do a complete check on his friends and known acquaintances in the hope that we could turn up something that leads to the other man. The search for the dark suspect was continued during the night without result. The next morning we met with Lieutenant Stoner and we made arrangements for additional men to aid us in checking out the list that we'd made on Burnham's friends. 847 a.m. You ready? Yeah. Let's go. I get it. Yes, sir. Right away. Yes, sir. Bye. The victim, Abner Stose. Yeah. Says he came across something this morning. What is it? Should tell us who the missing man is. We left the office and drove out to the floor of shop. Abner Stose met us at the door. I don't know why I didn't think of it yesterday. What's that, sir? Remember how I told you it was both carrying leather jackets? Yeah. After I shopped a one fellow on the sidewalk, I came back in here to take care of Danville. Yes, sir. I looked around to find something to put under his head. Wait here, man. I'll get it. All right. I guess I didn't think much about it. You know, kind of all upset. Uh huh. We're cleaning up this morning. I found it. It should give you something to work on. Well, there it is. You still see the stains on where the fellow dropped it. Yeah. Are you sure this jacket belonged to the missing suspect? Yeah. You remember how I saw him drop it when he got shot? I remember it good. All right, sir. Thank you very much. We'll check it out. You shouldn't be too much trouble. Okay. Here, take a look. I found this myself here. Uh huh. Laundry tag. And we have Lieutenant Lee Jones started to check through his records for the name of the cleaner that had serviced the garment. Frank and I went back to the office and talked with officers O'Donnell and Gerber. They told us that the list of the suspect's friends had been checked without result. The search for the missing man had been called off and the additional units had returned to Metro Division. At four thirty p.m. we got the call from Lee Jones. He gave us the name and address of the cleaner. Frank and I left the office and drove over to his shop. Somebody can do for you. Police officers. Frank Smith, my name's Friday. Oh, how you doing, sir? Hope there's nothing wrong. No, sir. We just like some information. I got it. It's yours. Oh, that's sir. Ever seen this before? A lot of jackets. A lot of marathons. How about this tag here? One of yours, isn't it? Let me see. Yeah, that's not mine. Can you tell us who brought this jacket in to be cleaned? It'd be hard to say. Well, the way we got it belongs to a fellow about twenty five, dark hair, about a hundred and fifty-five. We do a good-sized business. It's hard to remember all the people who come in. That's right, sir. But do you have that many leather jackets? No. Wait a minute. I'm thinking that. It might be outside, but it could be. What's that? Halleck. Norman Halleck. He looks like how you said. I've done some work for him in his family. It might be him. Can you tell us where we can find him? I've got his address in the book. I can look it up for him. If you would, please. It might be. Now, he's been in trouble with the cops before. Would you know what for? No, the neighborhood got it. I don't think I'd want to put mine in there. Norman Halleck, H-A-L-I-K, one of two six sevens back in the ministry. All right, sir. Thank you very much. Why don't you tell me what he's done? Think it'd be better if we talk him about that. Sure. His business anyway. That's a trouble with people nowadays. They're all the time pushing in on somebody else. Telling things they aren't sure about. Giving people bad names for nothing. Oh, there's one small difference here. This fellow made his own name. We got Halleck's address. We drove back to the office. We checked the name through R and I and found that he had several arrests for robbery and one for assault with a deadly weapon. We pulled his mug shot and drove out to see the victim at Mnestosa. That ain't him. Wait a minute. Here he is. You're sure, are you? Yeah, thanks, sir. Let me see that again. Go ahead. Is it the same? Here's a little shorter. No, it doesn't make any difference. Sir. That's the man. Over the address on Sacramento Street. We checked with a landlady and she told us that Norman Halleck was in his room. We went upstairs. Hands up on that wall. Come on, move. Well, what's this all about? Come on, let's go. Well, you got to make a charge. All right, suspicion of robbery. Get out of your head. You tell us about it, will you? Sure, it's a bad beat. It always is, isn't it? It doesn't make any difference. You take me down, book me. I'll be out right away. Oh, and he's a little time. Yeah, well, then you're in real trouble. Huh? He just ran out of it. Turks, the suspect's room, but we failed to find anything to further time in with a robbery shooting. He was taken to the city hall where Frank and I talked to him in the interrogation room. How about it? Does that jacket belong to you? I don't know. Cleaner says it does. A lot of leather jackets. How'd you know this one's mine? Oh, I'd hell, like, now, come on, we got your maid and you know it. I told you before, this is a bad beat. You're going to save yourself a lot of time to cop out. I'm glad to help, but I can't give you anything. Where were you yesterday? Home. Anybody to back that up? Yeah. Well, you can come up with a name. Sure, all you need. You know what? Jeffrey Burnham? Burnham? B-U-R-N-H-A-M. I don't know a lot of people, I might know. All right, now, this is a simple question. Just give us an answer, will you? You put it like that, I got to say no. Stand up. Huh? Nothing wrong with your ears. Stand up. All right, now what? Take off your coat. What? Your coat. Take it off. Guys, it's gone straight up. All right, now what? Take your shirt off. Huh? Come on, it's simple. Take the shirt off, will you, fella? I put the third degree out. You're gonna freeze me to death? Come on, move. All right, now what? Turn around. Why don't you turn on the blue light? Frank, all right, you can put your clothes on and sit down, Halleck. Come on. Yeah. You stay there, Halleck. Duffel good for a while, didn't he? Shirt blows it up. Yeah. Supposed to be shot four times in the chest. Not a bullet wound on him anywhere. Ranged and the suspect was shown to the victim. On seeing Halleck in person, he was unable to give us a positive identification. The suspect was detained at the main jail while we checked out his alibi for the day of the robbery. It held. Several people swore that he was two miles from the scene when the shooting took place. We questioned him about the leather jacket. He was unable to come up with an explanation as to how it could have gotten to the scene. We checked out all of the people in the building where he lived, all of his friends and associates, and on June 11th, he was released from custody. 10.16 a.m. Frank and I got back to the office from the main jail. Well, I guess better check with a skipper, huh? Yeah. You got a good excuse? Yeah, we'll just tell him the way it happened. He has to go along with it. The truth. Well, Joe, it isn't logical that a man could walk around with four bullets in his chest and we can't find him. Well, then you tell me what we're looking for. Don't you think Halleck gave us all he had? I don't know. At least we know he's clean. Yeah. Where do we go from here? We'll go tell the skipper. All right. Put it in the books and keep working on it. We got one thing with it. Huh? That guy's around someplace. Sooner or later, somebody's going to have too much to drink, maybe getting a fight with a girlfriend, trust somebody too much, but they're going to say something. When they do, we'll hear about it. We'll get to him. Yeah. Just a matter of time. Mm hmm. One thing, we got more than he has. In the captain's office, robbery division, Los Angeles Police Department. Police force in action as a presentation of the United States Armed Forces radio service.