The story you are about to hear is true.
Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.
Fatima cigarettes, best of all long cigarettes, brings you dragnet.
You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned to juvenile bureau.
A potential killer roams the halls of one of the high schools in your city.
Girl students have been brutally slashed by the criminal.
Your job, stop him.
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The document a 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 from official police files.
From beginning to end, from crime to punishment, dragnet is the story of your police force in action.
It was Thursday, November 4th. It was windy in Los Angeles.
We were working the day watch out of Georgia Street Juvenile Bureau.
My partner is Ben Romero. The boss is Captain Bowling, Commander Juvenile Division.
My name is Friday. It was 2.45 p.m. when we got to Charter High School.
Main entrance.
Which way Joe?
I don't know. We can ask this boy. Hey son.
Yeah?
Where's the principal's office?
Straight down the hall. Last door on the left.
Thank you. What's all the noise about?
Football rally. We're playing Piedmont today. Probably lose.
Can't beat confidence like that. Kids are sure funny nowadays.
Man, check that sign.
Junior prom. Dollar 25 per cup.
Makes you feel old, doesn't it?
I never did go to those high school dances.
How come?
Couldn't dance. Wife says I still can.
Yes sir?
Like to see Mr. Chase?
Could I have your names please?
Romero and Friday.
Oh yes, he's expecting you. You can go right in. That door there.
Thank you.
Mr. Chase?
Yes?
My name's Friday. I talked to you on the phone.
Oh yes, certainly Sergeant. Have a chair.
Thank you. This is my partner Ben Romero.
How do you do sir?
How are you Mr. Chase?
Sit down. Sit down.
Certainly glad to see you gentlemen. I'm at the end of my rope.
Would you mind briefing us Mr. Chase? How did all this trouble start?
I don't know how it started. I don't know why.
But here's the result Sergeant. This dress, blood stains on it.
What's the story?
A woman stormed in here and said her daughter came home from school yesterday wearing this dress.
And she told her mother she'd been knifed here at the school.
How many cases like this have you had?
Twenty-one in the past three weeks.
Why didn't you notify us?
Believe me Sergeant, I didn't know which way to turn.
When I first learned about these knifings, I wanted to call in the police, but some of the girls who'd been cut,
the parents didn't want it reported. The publicity, the notoriety, they didn't want it.
Hope you realize Mr. Chase that it's a pretty serious business.
Believe me I did realize. What could I do?
The knifings had to be stopped. The parents didn't want them reported.
I've tried everything humanly possible to find out who's responsible.
What have you tried Mr. Chase?
Well I called on some of the older students from the boys council.
I placed them all over the grounds of the buildings and told them to keep an eye out.
No results then?
The knifings have gone right on. This past week they've even gotten worse.
Oh that reminds me, just a moment please.
Yes Mr. Chase.
Doris, would you get Jim Travis please, have him come to my office right away.
Yes Mr. Chase.
Travis is head of the boys council. He helped organize the system of guards.
He might be able to give you some information.
You said a minute ago that the situation has been worse this past week.
You mean the knifings have gotten more frequent?
More frequent and more serious. One girl was cut very badly this morning.
She had to be sent home.
Are most of these girls cut in pretty much the same manner?
A school nurse treated some of them. She says it looked to her as though the girls had been slashed with a very sharp knife.
Probably a razor.
Is there any definite time pattern to these knifings?
All of them happen between periods when the students change classes.
The corridors are pretty well crowded and that's why it's so difficult to pin it down to any one person.
I see. How about the victims themselves Mr. Chase? Is there any set pattern there?
That's what has me frightened.
How do you mean?
Most of the victims are rather pretty girls. Whoever is doing this seems to have a preference for them.
It's frightening when you think of what kind of mind the person must have.
It's a little more than frightening Mr. Chase.
A person with a knife must be a mental case, probably a dangerous one.
I don't think he's going to be satisfied with just knifing the girls.
Killing?
Possible if we let it go much longer.
You wanted to see me Mr. Chase?
Come in Jim.
I would have come sooner. I was tied up with a rally committee.
Jim, this is Sergeant Friday and Sergeant Romero, police officers.
They're here to investigate the knifings. I thought maybe you'd be able to help out with some information.
Well, I still have the fellows on the council watching the corridors. We haven't seen anything yet.
Well, if you have any time after the rally Jim, we'd like to have you show us around.
Okay Sergeant.
Is the school nurse still in her office? She liked out for her too.
I think so. Jim, when does Miss Wesley go home?
3.30 on Thursday Mr. Chase. I'll tell her to stay on a few minutes.
That's fine. We'll meet you outside the office here.
Okay, I'll see you later then.
Right. Is the school out for the day?
Yes it is. I guess we'll have to wait a morning to interview the victims.
The first class is at 8 o'clock. I'll have the girls assemble in the classroom next to my office.
Alright Mr. Chase. Thank you.
I'll be right back Doris. See you gentlemen out.
Looks like the rally is just breaking up.
3 o'clock now. The game is at 3.30.
The kids are hurting Jim up the corridor.
Come on. Come on.
Let us through here. Let us through please.
Alright. The rest of you go about your business. Go on now.
What's the matter young lady? What's the trouble?
Patty, Mr. Jones. Patty Larson. She's fainted.
What's the matter with her?
Look at her dress. It's covered with blood.
An ambulance was called and the injured girl was taken to Georgia Street Receiving Hospital where she was treated for a cut on her right forearm and a deep slash across her hips.
She was not in serious condition.
It was the doctor's opinion that the wounds had been inflicted either by a very sharp knife or more probably a razor.
A detail of plain clothesmen were dispatched to Charter High School to keep the grounds and quarters under strict surveillance until further notice.
At 7.30 the next morning, policewoman Lorraine Jensen, Ben and I met at the high school with Principal Chase and Jim Travers, the head of the Boys' Council.
By 9 a.m., all of the 21 knifing victims were assembled in one of the empty classrooms.
Policewoman Jensen outlined our plan of questioning.
May I have your attention please?
This isn't going to take very long girls, but I will have to ask you to cooperate with us.
Try to remember every detail of the time and the place that the knifings occurred.
Do you all have a report for them to write on?
Yeah, they're all set.
We'd like to have you write three things.
First, exactly where you were when you were injured.
After that, write the date and the time.
Make that just as close as you can remember.
I don't remember, do you? You're not going to know what you're writing.
At the bottom of the page, write the name of the person you suspect might have cut you.
Your answer will be kept confidential.
Please don't compare notes of the girl next to you.
We want your version, not your neighbor's.
Sergeant.
Yeah, driver?
Five minute warning bell.
Yeah, okay.
All right?
Yeah, Joe.
There's a recess coming up. We want to check the quarters.
Can you make out alone for a little while?
Sure, you too. Go ahead.
We can check the slips when you get back.
All right, let's go, ma'am.
Yeah.
Top of the stairs is best, Sergeant.
Okay.
If you stand back a little from the railing, no one down below can tell if they're being watched,
either.
Okay.
I'm pretty much interested in police work. You know, the lie detector and stuff?
Uh-huh.
Will you keep on going here?
One more flight.
All right.
I wrote a paper once on the lie detector for our physiology class.
The teacher liked it.
Did that sell?
Yeah.
I've been reading how they take fingerprints, cloth imprints and all that.
Pretty interesting.
Here we are.
We can keep an eye on the whole corridor from here.
Okay.
What detail do you officers work on?
Georgia Street juvenile.
You know Lee Jones or Ray Pinker?
Oh, yeah.
I've read a lot about the crime lab.
Why don't you come downtown some afternoon? We'll show you around.
That'd be swell.
Okay.
Must be interesting, meeting all kinds of people and watching how they behave, you know.
Yeah, it's interesting.
During the recess, while the students moved from classroom to classroom,
we kept the main corridor under close surveillance.
The other men from juvenile bureau covered the rest of the corridors.
We kept an eye on the main corridor during the third recess between periods at 11 a.m.
Again, no results.
At 1130, Travers went to check with the members of the boys' council to set up the noon time watch.
Ben and I went back to the classroom on the main floor to check with policewoman Jensen.
We helped her tally the results of the questioning of the girl victims that morning.
Let's see.
17, 18, 19.
Well, that takes care of the lab.
Let's see.
There it is. Now what's it mean?
Well, 12 say they were knifed on the main corridor,
three knifed outside the building, four on the stairway, two in the classroom.
The times, they list. Doesn't look like there's any pattern there.
How about the suspects that they wrote down?
That's even got me beat.
We've got more of them than we have victims here.
There's four pages of names.
Some of the girls wrote down as many as five suspects.
That's kind of helpful, huh?
How many altogether?
Let's see. 34.
Oh, hi, Mr. J.
Did you find out anything?
Oh, it didn't turn out too well. Nothing definite.
Terrible morning.
Parents calling up newspapers.
I don't know. Certainly out of my hands.
Are there any assemblies scheduled for this afternoon?
Yes, after the fifth period. Why?
I think maybe a better cancel.
It seems like every time the kids are crowded together, we just ask for trouble.
No, all right. I'll have a cancel.
Fine. Something else, Mr. Jason.
The girls that we had in this room this morning, the victims,
we'd like to have every one of them brought back here after the next class, can't we?
All right, Sergeant. I'll have excuse slips sent to each one of them.
Thank you, sir.
Gives you the chills.
Those kids getting cut up in broad daylight.
Wherever it is, the guy's got a stomach for it.
How do you know it's a guy?
It's as good a guess as any.
How about the school employees, the janitors, the rest of them?
Checked them all out this morning.
When we get the girls back here, we'll go through the same routine.
One thing we missed the last time we talked to them.
We asked them to pick suspects.
We might have more luck if we have a bigger choice.
How do you mean?
Well, instead of asking to pick out somebody,
we'll tell them to list the names of every person who was around them or near them when they were cut.
It might work if we can spot a couple of repeats on the way.
Sergeant, they want you downstairs. Hurry.
Come on, Ben. What's the matter?
It's terrible, terrible. I found her.
You found who?
Nabeti Price.
Where?
Downstairs, unconscious. I'm afraid.
What do you mean you're afraid?
I'm not sure she's alive.
We located the unconscious girl in a corner of the basement near the rear entrance to the girl's locker room.
She'd been cut severely about the face and arms.
At Georgia Street Receiving Hospital, she was given an immediate blood transfusion.
In addition to her wounds, she was also treated for shock.
We questioned the victim. She stated that she did not see the person who attacked her.
Later that afternoon, she was removed to her own home upon the advice of her family physician.
1.35 p.m. Ben and I got back to the high school and checked in with policewoman Lorraine Jensen.
How did the last station turn out, Lorraine?
Way a lot better. It was a good idea, Joe.
Yeah? How'd we come out?
Pretty good.
You have the list they made out. 21 of them.
Each girl listed an average of eight persons around her at the time she was knifed.
Yeah.
There's one name that occurs on 19 of these 21 lists.
Here, Joe.
Jim Travers.
The Police Investigation
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Friday, November 5th, 1.45 p.m. Ben and I started checking on Jim Travers.
In the registrar's files, he was listed as James Kirkland Travers, 17 years old.
He was a well-known popular student. He was a fine athlete. He was from a well-to-do family.
His father was the head of an engineering firm. His mother was from one of the oldest families in the city.
During his three and a half years at Charter High, Jim Travers had maintained close to an A average in his studies.
He'd been president of his class since freshman year, and he'd held numerous other class offices.
We interviewed his teachers. They had nothing but praise for Travers.
They tabbed him as a brilliant young man with an excellent future.
We asked about Travers' friends, who we palled around with.
We picked up a small Lee. We were told that he had very few, if any, close personal friends among the students,
but he did have one girl at the high school he was especially fond of.
Her name was Barbara Ferris, a tall, dark-haired girl, exceptionally pretty.
Her scholastic record was almost as high as Travers'.
2 p.m. Policewoman Lorraine Jensen and I interviewed the girl in a small room off the principal's office.
We're not singling you out, Barbara. We're interviewing most of the girls in the upper classes.
You mean about what's been happening around school?
Yes, that's right.
Well, I don't know much about it. I was talking to Jim Travers last night.
He's a friend of mine. He told me why you were here.
How long have you known Jim Travers, Barbara?
Oh, since freshman year, I guess.
Do you go steady with him?
Well, we don't like to call it that, but I guess so.
We go to the dances together. Sometimes we go to the show on weekends.
Do you go out with him very often?
No, not very often. Jim's usually pretty busy. He studies a lot.
Does he go out with other girls? Do you know?
Well, no, I don't. Once he went out with Betty Fisher, he said he didn't like her much.
Betty's kind of a party girl. Jim likes to talk about things. You know, physiology, books, stuff like that.
Do you get along with him pretty well?
We get along fine. Sometimes he's moody, but I guess I am, too.
Could you tell us a little more about Jim? What's he like?
Well, what do you want to know that for? Is there anything wrong?
No, it's just routine questioning, Barbara. We have to check on everybody.
Oh, I see. Well, Jim's certainly all right. He's like the rest of the fellas at school, I guess.
Only he's smarter than most of them.
Well, is there anything maybe that's odd about him that you noticed? Anything very different?
No, not that I've noticed. He's always been pretty bashful, up until this last year anyway.
He's still that way sometimes when we go out on dates.
How do you mean? How is he bashful?
You know, about girls and things. He's always nice, though. He's not always thinking about necking and stuff like most of them.
You mean he's not the romantic type?
Well, he can be romantic when he wants to. Once we parked outside my house after a dance, he's always nice.
It was just this one time.
What was that?
Well, he kissed me and then he twisted my arm behind my back. He kept twisting it for no reason.
Yeah?
I told him it hurt me, but he wouldn't let go. He kept twisting my arm.
What did he say?
That's what was so funny. He said, I like you better than any girl I know.
Yeah?
Then he said, that's why I'm hurting you.
After talking with Barbara Ferris, we had a pretty good idea that Jim Travers was a suspect we wanted.
But because of his fine background and his record, we realized that we'd have to prove beyond any question of a doubt that he was the guilty person.
We had only one thing to go on besides the information Barbara Ferris had given us.
During the morning recesses, when Travers was with Ben and I was watching the corridors, not one knifing took place.
When we had left Travers and gone downstairs to check with Policewoman Jensen, a girl had been found slugged and cut at the rear of the girl's locker room.
Two thirty p.m., Ben and I met with the suspect.
How's it going, Sergeant? Any luck?
Not much, Jim. What's that, another rally?
No, a band practice.
Junior proms tonight, isn't it?
Yeah.
You talked to the girl who was knacked downstairs, huh? Find out anything?
No, not much. You want to stick with us this afternoon? I think you might be able to help us out.
Sure, I've got the fellows on the council standing by if you want them.
Fine. Let's go outside, huh? I've got something to tell you.
Sure, okay. We can go out this way.
I certainly appreciate your letting the tag along, hoping to help you.
I think you can, Jim.
When we talked to those girls this morning, we drew up a new list of possible suspects.
Yeah?
Funny thing, one of the names on the list was yours.
Well, I've got nothing to hide.
Well, we'll make a systematic check of each name on the list, most likely yours.
Well, we have to go on the line detector? I'd like to try that. I never saw one. Only pictures of them.
No, you won't have to go through that. It'll just be a couple of questions and then we're going to check your locker.
Okay, I'd be glad to show you.
Does this take us to the locker room?
Yeah, we can cut through here.
Say, when we were questioning those girls this morning, someone said that they saw you in different parts of the building when the nightings took place.
What do you mean?
Well, your location didn't exactly jive with your classroom schedule.
In other words, your class was on the third floor, but you were seen down in the main corridor. Now, how do you account for that?
Well, you see, I usually take walks between periods. Sitting in classrooms makes me nervous sometimes, you know.
Here, I'll get the door.
Okay.
Any other questions I can answer, Sergeant?
No, that's all.
How'd you happen to get into rest and police work, Jim? You said your father was an engineer, didn't you?
Yeah, that's right. I don't know how I got into it, but I just took to it, I guess.
I always like to watch people's reactions and their behavior. Fascinating.
The locker room's down this way.
Okay.
What are you planning on doing when you graduate? College?
Yeah, I guess so. Dad wants to send me to MIT.
It's good school.
Yeah. Say, if you ever have the time, I'd sure like to see some of the ballistics equipment down at the police crime lab. I've read up on ballistics quite a bit, too.
Oh, is that so?
Yeah. The polygraph light detector. That's my favorite, though. Wonderful machine.
Mm-hmm.
Imagine, charting positive and negative reactions like that. It's marvelous.
Yeah, it is.
Say, have either one of you ever read Dawson's treatise? I think it's called The Psychology of the Criminal Mind. You ever read it?
I think we had that in training, didn't we, Ben?
Mm-hmm. Feminine, can't you?
How about Criminal Behavior and its Basis, Maxwell's book? Did you ever read that one?
No, I don't think I did.
It's a great book. I got quite a few textbooks on crime. We went on sex crimes. I just got very good.
Mm-hmm. This locker room?
Yeah, I almost went past it. My locker's down this way.
How do you shave, Jim? You use an electric razor or a safety razor?
Me? Electric razor. They're the best.
Yeah, they're a lot easier to use.
Here it is. I'll open it for you.
All right. Ben, you got those envelopes?
Oh, yeah. Yeah, here they are.
Okay, would you step aside there, Jim?
Yeah, sure.
All right. We'll get some dust scrapings from the shelf here.
All right, there you are. Ben, you want to mark it?
Yeah. Jim Travers' dust scrapings from the locker.
All right. Let's see here. Here's some more scrapings from the bottom of the locker this time, huh?
Okay, I'll seal these envelopes. Here's a nail file.
Okay, Jim. Now will you hold out your right hand?
Hmm? Oh, yeah.
Hold an envelope under his hand, would you, Ben? Catch the nail scrapings?
Yep. Yep, here we are.
Say, what's all this for, Sergeant?
Oh, it's just routine with everybody, Jim.
Just going to take some sample specimens to run through the spectrograph.
The spectrograph?
Now, let me scrape that middle fingernail a little.
Oh, okay.
That's it. Now the index finger.
What about the spectrograph?
We use it all the time.
Well, it won't work in a case like this, will it?
All right, that's all for the right hand, Ben. Don't forget to mark the envelope.
Yep. Here's some Jim Travers scrapings from fingernails of right hand.
There we go.
All right, now the left hand, Jim.
Hmm? Yeah.
You know, we don't know if this is going to work or not. It's worth a try.
We'll know this afternoon.
This afternoon?
Yeah. We'll have to run you through on the machine. Hold the envelope a little closer, Ben.
Oh, yeah.
How's it going to help you?
It might tell us what you had for breakfast a week ago.
It might tell us what kind of clothes you wore three days ago.
What kind of objects you came in contact with.
Oh. Well, what kind of principle does it operate on?
Oh, I don't know. We can ask Lee Jones. Here, let me get the scrapings from your thumb.
All right, there it is. Now seal it and mark it, Ben.
All right.
You want to call the officers and tell them we're on our way in?
Yeah, I'll be in that room right next to the principal's office.
Okay. You can close your locker, Jim. That's all.
Yeah, all right.
We'll check the things in your pockets when we get to the crime line. Let's go.
That spectrograph must be a marvelous machine.
Well, it's worked for us a lot of times.
We've got evidence on the suspect that either it convicts him or it clears him.
You'll probably get a kick out of it.
I'd like to see it.
You say it tells you everything a person's come in contact with, huh?
Yeah, that's right.
Could it tell you how I shave?
Well, how do you mean?
I mean, with an electric razor or a safety razor.
Oh, yeah, sure. That's one of the primary things.
I don't know exactly how it works, but it does the job. We'll get Lee Jones to explain it to us.
How about this door? We can cut across the courtyard.
Oh, those are sure nice grounds.
Will they keep me long, downtown sergeant?
What do you think, Jim?
You know, the strange part about these knifings out here...
What's that?
Whoever's responsible probably doesn't even realize what he's doing.
Man, Lee's sick. He's very sick.
The best thing for him would be a doctor.
Just like any other sickness, it's not going to get better by itself.
Yeah.
The only trouble is he's just getting his appetite up with these knifings.
If he goes much longer...
How about that spectrograph, sergeant?
Say, for instance, if I happen to hold a knife in my hand or maybe a razor.
Oh, yeah, that'd show on the machine.
We go in here?
Yeah.
Terrible thing.
Whoever it is.
Terrible thing.
Yes, it is.
Here, Jim.
Joe, how's it going?
I think he's ready to tell us.
Hope so.
I expect a good one.
All right, son, you want to tell us about it now?
I couldn't help myself. I had to do what I had to.
I couldn't sleep, I couldn't study unless I did it.
I couldn't help myself.
You're responsible for all the knifings, are you?
Yeah.
You knew, didn't you?
Who told you?
You told us, Jim.
I'm glad you caught me. It was getting worse.
It might have been too late. I'm glad you caught me.
Why?
Barbara.
After the prom tonight...
Yeah?
I was going to kill her.
The story you have just heard was true.
Only the names were changed to protect the innocent.
On December 15th, the hearing was held in juvenile court,
Department 38, City and County of Los Angeles, State of California.
In a moment, the results of that trial.
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Seventeen-year-old James Travers was examined by court psychiatrists who found him to be one of the most dangerous mental cases they had ever examined.
The boy's parents, who cooperated to the fullest with the police officers and with the court,
made only one request, that the boy be committed to a private sanitarium.
James Travers is now under confinement at that sanitarium for an indefinite period of time.
You have just heard Dragnet, a series of authentic cases from official files.
Technical advice for Dragnet comes from the Office of Chief of Police, W.A. Wharton, Los Angeles Police Department.
Fatima cigarettes, the best of all, long cigarettes, has brought you Dragnet from Los Angeles.
Screen director's playhouse presents a Damon Runyon story, tomorrow on NBC.