Ladies and gentlemen, tonight in Miami, Florida, a group of men are gathered together for their
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For their day in, day out service to the public, Dragnet honors the 58th annual conference
of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.
The story you are about to hear is true.
The names have been changed to protect the innocent.
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Dragnet, the documented drama of an actual crime.
For the next 30 minutes in cooperation with the Los Angeles Police Department, you will
travel step by step on the side of the law through an actual case transcribed from official
police files.
From beginning to end, from crime to punishment, Dragnet is the story of your police force
in action.
It was Wednesday, February 6th.
It was cold in Los Angeles.
We're working the day watch out a homicide detail.
My partner is Ben Romero.
The boss is Thad Brown, Chief of Detectives.
My name's Friday.
I was on the way back from the record bureau and it was 11 18 a.m. when I got to room 42,
homicide.
Joe?
Hi.
Did she show up yet?
No, not a couple of minutes ago.
She's waiting for us now in the next room.
Did you talk to her at all?
No.
Seems to be a nice enough woman.
I don't know how much help she's going to be.
Yeah.
Go ahead.
Yeah, thank you.
Miss Banner, I'd like to have you meet my partner, Sergeant Friday.
Joe, this is Miss Banner.
Hello.
I'm sorry I wasn't home when you stopped by yesterday, Sergeant.
I got the card you left though.
I called in as soon as I got home.
Well, thanks for coming in, Miss Banner.
We have a few questions we'd like to ask you.
It won't take very long.
We have a communication from Atlantis Dillon back in New York, Miss Banner.
It's about her brother, Chester Dillon.
We understand you rented his home from him out on Wilson Avenue.
Mr. Dillon?
Well, yes.
I've got a two-year lease on the house.
I rented it from him last November.
Well, according to the letter we got from Mr. Dillon's sister, she's worried about him.
She hasn't heard from him in some time.
Do you have any idea where we could contact him?
Well, last I heard, he left on a trip to New York.
That was about eight weeks ago, I'd say.
You see, I usually sent a check for the rent, the apartment he had here, and when he left
on his trip, he told me to hold on to the rent checks and he'd collect them when he
got back.
How long did he say he'd be gone?
I don't remember definitely.
I think he said four or five months.
He didn't leave any forwarding address, any place you could contact him back east?
No, he didn't.
He just wanted to get away.
Didn't want to be bothered with anyone.
He wasn't feeling very well.
He was very depressed, poor man.
Well, why was that, ma'am?
Do you know?
Well, his wife died just a few months ago, you know.
No, ma'am, we didn't know.
All we got from his sister was that she hadn't heard from Dillon.
She was worrying.
She didn't give us any other information.
Oh, yes.
Mrs. Dillon died in last September, I think it was.
Poor man felt terrible about it.
Couldn't seem to get over it.
That's why he rented the house to me.
It reminded him too much of her.
Yes, ma'am, I understand.
Lovely home they have.
Mr. Dillon said he really didn't want to rent it, but he couldn't stand being alone in
the house.
It was a large place, you know.
Yes, ma'am.
We checked with the people living in the house now.
We understand you leased the place to them last month.
I subleased it, yes.
You see, it just got too big for me.
It was nice at first, but it got to be an awful lot of work.
I rented it to this family and took a smaller house down the street.
Would you happen to know any of Mr. Dillon's friends in the city, Miss Banner, anyone we
could contact who might know where we can locate him?
I don't know.
He didn't seem to have any friends.
He and his wife had only been in the city a year before she died.
He was retired, you know.
Yes, ma'am.
We talked to some of the neighbors out there.
They couldn't tell us much about him.
Maybe some of the people he did business with might know something.
Have you tried the neighborhood bank out there?
I know that's where Mr. Dillon had his account.
No, ma'am, we haven't yet.
Well, I can give you the bank's address.
It's about all, though.
That's the only contact you know of?
I'm afraid so, yes.
I didn't know much about Mr. Dillon's private affairs.
Whenever I talked to him, it seemed the only thing he had on his mind was his wife's death.
He couldn't seem to get over it.
Seemed like he didn't want to get over it.
You mentioned that when you leased his home, Mr. Dillon took an apartment.
Do you happen to have that address, Miss Banner?
Well, I don't have it with me now, but I have it at home.
I can call in and give it to you if you like.
If you would, please.
Certainly.
Well, thank you very much, Miss Banner.
You have our card.
When you hear anything at all from Mr. Dillon, we'd appreciate it if you'd call us.
Surely, I'll call you right away.
Do you think something could have happened to him?
Well, if possible, we don't know.
All we have is the letter from his sister.
It does seem kind of strange, doesn't it?
He wasn't feeling too well.
I wondered why he hadn't contacted me about sending the rent money to him.
He was such a nice man, Mr. Dillon.
I certainly hope nothing's happened to him.
Well, you say he was very depressed about his wife's death, ma'am.
Would you say that it was getting to be a little abnormal with him, maybe?
Well, I wouldn't know about that, Sergeant, but I didn't know he brooded about it all
the time.
He felt that he'd lost everything.
He didn't seem to want to go on.
Did he ever give you an indication that maybe he might take his own life?
I mean, all this brooding over his wife?
Well, no, nothing definite.
Just depressed and moody all the time.
Oh, now that I remember it, the last time I saw him, he did say something kind of funny.
Yes, ma'am.
What was that?
It was the day before he left.
We were talking about the rent money, and I asked him if I could send it to him.
He got kind of a strange look on his face.
He said, where I'm going, I won't need the money.
The day before we called on Lucille Banner for an interview, a letter had been received
from a Miss Gladys Dillon in Elmira, New York.
Her request was routine.
It was one of thousands of similar letters received every year by police departments
all over the country.
Each one of them has to be worked out to the satisfaction of all parties concerned, the
person who's reported missing and the person looking for them.
It's an enormous job requiring thousands of man hours annually.
Like the dozens of other investigations handled by the police officer, some of them end happily,
some of them in tragedy.
Whatever the result, the finding of a lost person is just as important to function of
your local police department as any other investigation.
Gladys Dillon hadn't heard from her brother recently.
She was worried about him.
She asked us to investigate.
Our initial interview with Lucille Banner, the woman who'd rented Chester Dillon's home,
failed to yield much of a lead as to his whereabouts.
The only source of additional information she could offer was the neighborhood bank
where Dillon had his account.
At four o'clock that afternoon, Ben and I drove out to interview the manager of the
bank, Mr. Harrison.
Yes, that's right.
Mr. Dillon's had his account with us ever since he came to Los Angeles.
I know him quite well.
Is there something you'd like to know about him?
Yes, sir, there is.
We had a request from his sister in New York she'd like to look in.
Well, I'm pretty sure his account's still open here.
Matter of fact, I'm positive it is.
At this moment, I'll have one of the clerks get his file.
All right, thanks, Mr. Harrison.
That reminds me, I almost forgot.
Yeah, what's that?
I've got to get to the bank tomorrow for sure, payment on my car's a day past due already.
I only got two payments left.
Oh, you're doing fine.
I got another eight months to go.
I'm not so fine.
Two more payments to go and now the wife wants a new one.
Never fail.
Here we are, Sergeant, just as I thought.
Mr. Dillon's account is still open.
Uh-huh.
There have been any recent deposits or withdrawals on the account?
Let's have a look here.
Uh-huh.
Just as I thought, nothing since he left on his trip.
His last withdrawal date was November 27th.
He mentioned to you that he was going on a trip, didn't he?
Yes, I think he said he was going back to New York, more or less a vacation trip.
His wife died recently.
He didn't take it too well.
Yes, we understand.
Did he leave any instructions about his account with you, Mr. Harrison, any address you could
contact him at if you had to?
No, he didn't leave any instructions with me.
No address, just a vacation trip.
He said he didn't expect to be gone too long.
Did he mention how long it would be?
Five or six weeks, I think that's what he said.
I happened to talk to him about it because at the time he made quite a sizable withdrawal.
I thought maybe he was a little unhappy with our service.
How much was the withdrawal, sir?
Let's see.
Here it is, November 27th.
He withdrew $2,400.
Was that in cash or in Travis' checks?
Do you know that?
No, it shows here that it was in cash.
Mr. Harrison, you said a minute ago that you knew Mr. Dillon pretty well.
Yes, that's right.
He used to stop and chat with me whenever he'd come in the bank.
That was usually once a week.
I didn't know him socially though.
You mentioned he seemed to take his wife's death pretty hard.
What would you say his mental condition was last time he saw him?
All right, I'd say.
Just after his wife's death, he wasn't in very good shape.
He brooded about it quite a bit.
And he began to pull out of it.
He seemed to be in a fairly good frame of mind.
He planned his vacation.
He was looking forward to it.
I see.
Why do you ask?
Is something wrong?
No, sir, not that we know of.
Routine check, that's about the size of it.
Does Dillon have any other real estate besides the house on Ralston Avenue?
Would you happen to know that?
Not to my knowledge, no.
He has no other business connections in Los Angeles.
Here are all his references right here.
See, most of them are charge accounts and so forth.
I remember the time he opened his account with us.
He told me he was retired.
He and his wife came out here for their help.
Do they have any relatives out here?
Do you know, Mr. Harrison?
No, from what I understand, both of their families are in the East.
They don't have any children according to his application.
They don't have any repute relatives.
And since Dillon was in here last November to make that withdrawal, you've had no communications
from him at all, have you?
No, sir, I haven't.
What seems to be the trouble?
Do you have an idea of something might be wrong?
Nothing definite, no, sir.
We've been told about his feeling depressed over his wife's death and there was some indication
he might possibly have done away with himself.
After what you've told us, it doesn't seem too likely.
I don't know.
I wouldn't like to commit myself.
As I say, he did seem to be getting over it.
I didn't know him that well, though.
It might be entirely possible.
He was devoted to Mrs. Dillon.
Maybe he could have taken his own life.
I don't know.
Well, it leaves a big question to answer, doesn't it?
What's that?
Why do you need the $2,400 to do it?
1.25 p.m.
We continued interviewing the bank manager, Mr. Harrison, but he was unable to come up
with any further leads.
Before we left the bank, he gave us a complete list of all of Chester Dillon's references.
We gave him our card and he told us he would pass along immediately any information he
might get on the whereabouts of Mr. Dillon.
1.45.
We went back to the office where we got a call from Lucille Banner.
She gave us Dillon's last known address and we drove out to check it.
It was an apartment court in the Pico Crenshaw area.
We talked to the manager and she told us that Dillon had moved out three months before,
on November 22nd.
He told her that he was moving in with a close friend of his and he gave her his forwarding
address.
It turned out to be a single-story frame cottage located in one of the older residential districts
of the city.
The name on the mailbox read Raymond L. Schaefer.
We rang the bell and a man who identified himself as Raymond Schaefer hushed us into
a small living room.
He told us that he was from the same town in the east that the Dillon's came from and
that he was a long-time friend of theirs.
No, I haven't seen Chester for months.
Last November I think it was.
That was the last time I saw him.
You say at that time Dillon was living in the apartment down in the Crenshaw area, Mr.
Schaefer.
Yeah, that's right.
You mean he never came here to live with you?
No, it's just like I told you before.
He talked about moving in here with me, but he never did.
I have no idea where he is.
Well, he gave you a name here as a forwarding address, Schaefer.
Have you been getting his mail?
Yeah, matter of fact I have.
He told me he was going to do that.
Never came to pick it up though.
Seemed funny to me.
You're still getting his mail here, is that right?
Yeah, it's still coming.
Not much of it.
Maybe a letter a week.
Mostly bills and advertising.
This list of names you've given us, sir, these are all the people in the east Mr. Dillon
was acquainted with, people he might contact on his trip back there, is that right?
That's all of them.
As far as I know, he hadn't been back there yet though.
How do you know that?
I got a letter from my sister Gert a couple of days ago.
If Chester was in town, Gert would have known about it.
He would have been sure to stop by and see her.
I wish I could help you.
To tell you the truth, I'm getting a little worried about him myself.
Well, just one more question, Mr. Schaefer.
You know if Mr. Dillon was in the habit of carrying large sums of money around with him?
No, I don't think so.
Chester was pretty cautious that way.
He wasn't too free with a dollar, you know.
Would you happen to know if he had a large sum of money with him the last time you saw
him?
No, if he did have, he didn't mention it.
I see.
Would you think of anything else that might give us a lead on Mr. Dillon's whereabouts,
anything at all?
I think I've told you everything.
I wish there was something I could tell you that had helped.
I sure hope nothing's happened to him.
Yes, sir.
Now, would you mind showing us that mail you're holding for Dillon, please?
Oh, sure, sir.
It's right over here.
It's in the desk.
There you are.
That's all of it.
Thank you.
Anything, Joe?
No, not much.
Bills, circulars.
There's one with a New York postmark, now, Maya, probably from his sister.
There's another one.
Only three days old.
From the union department store.
A couple more earlier dates on it.
That's about it.
You know, I'll copy down the return addresses on it.
Fine.
Mr. Schaffer?
Yeah?
There's a suitcase by the desk here.
Initials on it.
CLD?
Yeah.
CLD, is that your bag, Schaffer?
Oh, no, I forgot to tell you.
Chester left that here one day.
Huh?
How was that?
Well, that was one day just before he was going to leave on his vacation.
He brought it over here and said he'd like to leave it with me.
Forgot to mention it to you.
You bring anything else with him?
Yeah, he brought another suitcase with him, just like this one.
I got it in the other room.
He said he wanted to leave them here while he was on his vacation.
I'm sorry, I forgot to mention it.
Well, maybe you forgot something else, Schaffer.
What?
You don't take their suitcases on a trip, don't they?
2.30 p.m.
We continued questioning Raymond Schaffer.
We opened the two suitcases labeled with the initials of Chester Dillon and found an assortment
of personal items which Schaffer told us belonged to Dillon and his late wife.
Small pictures, cigarette boxes, books, similar articles, which apparently would not be taken
on a vacation trip.
None of them were of any great value.
After we left Schaffer's home, we checked into R&I and found he had no criminal record.
We checked further with friends and acquaintances of both men and found nothing to indicate
that Schaffer was in any way involved in the disappearance of Chester Dillon.
3.30 p.m.
We called the office and found that there had been no answers so far to the broadcast
and missing persons bulletins that we'd gotten out on Dillon.
We started checking the references given us by the bank.
First was the Union Department store.
It was located on Main Street in the south end of town.
We checked with the credit department to see what information we could get from them.
Yes?
Yes, here's the file on the Dillon's right here.
Chester Ellen Sarah J. on Ralston Avenue.
Yes ma'am, that's the one.
What information would you like, sir?
We're trying to locate Mr. Dillon, ma'am.
Have you had any recent change of address on that account?
No, we haven't.
They moved, you know.
Well, we believe so.
We don't know his present address, though.
Well, we do have an outstanding bill of theirs, I noticed.
Sent them several form letters.
We've been trying to contact them ourselves.
Have there been any recent charges on that account, you know?
Let's see.
Nothing too recent, no.
Last charge was made on December 5th.
Yes, Thursday, December 5th.
That's a couple of weeks after he disappeared, Joe.
Yeah, that's right.
What was that charge for, ma'am?
What did Mr. Dillon buy?
Oh, Mr. Dillon didn't buy anything.
Beg your pardon?
The slip was signed by Mrs. Dillon.
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4.15 p.m., Thursday, February 7th.
As soon as the clerk in the credit department at the union department store showed us the
sales slip with the late Mrs. Sarah Dillon's signature on it, we had the date on the sales
slip double-checked immediately.
The date as shown on the slip was correct beyond any doubt, December 5th.
That was a little more than two and a half months after Sarah Dillon had died.
Who the person was who forged her signature or why they'd forged it, we had no idea.
The amount of the charge purchased as shown on the sales slip was for $418, all of it
for women's clothing.
We attempted to check with the sales girl who handled the purchase, Allora Van Kurt,
but we were told it was her day off.
We called her home.
They told us that she was gone for the day and couldn't be located.
They said she'd be at work the following morning.
4.40 p.m., Ben and I took the sales slip with the forged signature on it and drove back
to the office.
We went directly to forgery detail, briefed them on our findings and gave them the sales
slip.
Then we drove back to the home of the Dillon's friend, Raymond Schaefer, and checked through
the two suitcases there.
We came up with a small photo of Mrs. Dillon along with exemplars of her handwriting as
well as her husband's, which we found in an autograph album in one of the suitcases.
The handwriting samples were checked against the signature on the sales slip, but neither
of them matched.
The work of compiling a list of all known female forgery suspects was begun immediately.
The following morning, Ben and I went back to the Union department store where we interviewed
the sales girl, Laura Van Kirk, who'd handled the purchase.
Yes, I remember making the sale officer.
I'm not too sure about the woman who bought the things, though.
I mean what she looked like.
Well, could you try to describe her force, Miss Van Kirk, as well as you can remember?
She had light brown hair, I'm pretty sure of that.
Not too old, maybe in her late 30s, early 40s.
She was a plain looking woman, five foot five or six, thin as I remember.
She wore glasses, I remember that, too.
I see.
You got that picture, Miss Delamere, Ben?
Oh, yeah.
Here you are.
Would you take a look at this picture, Miss?
Now, does that look like the woman you waited on?
No, no, that's not her.
The woman I waited on was much younger.
She had light brown hair, too, not gray.
Thin face, I think.
And she wore glasses, I'm sure of that.
Do you remember if there was a man with her, Miss Van Kirk, or was she alone?
No, she was alone.
Now that I remember, there was something very different about the glasses she wore.
I don't know if that's important or not.
What about her glasses?
They were horn-rimmed, as I remember, very light color.
And there was some metal work along the top edge of the frame.
Very smart looking, gold metal all along the top.
Light brown hair, slight bill, thin face, late 30s or early 40s, were light horn-rimmed
glasses and gold metal on the frame.
Yes, that's right.
Check me if I'm wrong, Joe.
That description, Tom familiar?
Just what I was thinking.
Horn-rimmed glasses, metal work on them.
The woman who came to see us at the office?
Yeah, you got it.
Lucille Banner.
Ben and I went back to the office and had Lucille Banner check through our eyes.
She had no criminal record.
Then we drove to the home on Ralston Avenue, which Chester Dillon had leased to Lucille
Banner, in which she in turn had sublet.
We obtained a copy of the lease, which the Banner woman had with the current tenants
and which bore her signature.
We brought the copy of the lease downtown, gave it to Don Meyer in handwriting, and asked
him to compare Lucille Banner's signature with the signature on the sales slip that
we'd obtained from the union department store.
Fifteen minutes later, he called us at the office with the result.
Yeah, Don.
Mm-hmm.
Good sell.
You're right.
Thanks a lot.
What'd he get?
Says there's no question in his mind.
Yeah.
Both signatures match perfectly.
What the reason was behind Lucille Banner's forging the signature of Mrs. Dillon on the
sales slip, we didn't know.
Whether or not it had any connection with the disappearance of Chester Dillon, we didn't
know.
As soon as we got the handwriting report from Don Meyer, Ben and I left the office immediately
and drove to the bungalow, which the Banner woman was renting on Ralston Avenue.
It was a block down the street from the Dillon house.
Lucille Banner wasn't at home, but a neighborhood gardener trimming a lawn in front of her house
told us that she was expected back shortly.
The gardener, who identified himself only as Julio, volunteered that he also did gardening
work for Miss Banner when she occupied the Dillon home.
He'd also worked for the Dillons when they lived in the house.
He told us he liked the Dillons quite a bit, but that he didn't have much use for Miss
Banner.
He seemed to be up on all the news in the neighborhood.
He trimmed the hedges of the lawn with hand shears as we talked to him.
Can you tell us anything about Miss Dillon and Miss Banner, Julio?
How'd they seem to get along, you know?
They get along all right, I guess.
When I worked at the big house down there for Miss Banner, that's before she moved,
I would see Mr. Dillon there.
He would be at the house maybe once, two times a week.
Miss Banner would ask him to come over for dinner for him.
Miss Banner likes him, I think.
Mr. Dillon, I don't know about him.
He wasn't feeling so good.
Still thinking about his wife.
Here, I'll finish up this clipping now.
There, all done.
You mentioned you don't like Miss Banner very much, Julio.
Why is that?
Did she ever give you a reason not to like her?
She's a little crazy, I think.
Funny woman.
When I used to work at the big house for her in the garden, she would watch me all the
time, follow me all around, tell me to do all kinds of crazy jobs.
She gave me good pay, though, so I do them.
How do you mean, Julio?
What kind of crazy job?
The compost box for fertilizer, you know.
She wanted me to build one for her in the backyard.
That was down the street, the Dillon house.
Mm-hmm.
Crazy woman.
She wanted me to build a compost box in the greenhouse.
I have a special place, Mark Farrell.
Who ever heard of that?
To build a compost box inside a greenhouse.
Crazy.
Oh, did you build it for her?
Yes, but not inside the greenhouse.
I built it outside, right next door to the greenhouse.
When she come outside, she go crazy almost, call me names.
Crazy.
She made me tear it up.
Then she made me build it inside the greenhouse, right on the place she had marked for it.
Sounds weird, doesn't it?
When did all this happen, Julio?
Do you remember?
When you built the compost box?
I mean, a couple of months ago about that.
It was just after Mr. Dillon went away.
I tried to tell Miss Banner, who ever heard of a compost box in a greenhouse?
She wouldn't listen.
She had to have it built in a certain place, right in the greenhouse, little piece of ground
in there.
The box had to go right on top of it.
Mm-hmm.
You figure she acted pretty strange about it, do you?
You think she had something in there, little piece of ground.
You think she had something to hide.
One fifteen p.m., Lucille Banner returned home and Ben and I went inside the house with
her, where we questioned her in the living room.
Outside in the front yard, the gardener, Julio, continued working on the lawn.
Lucille Banner was calm and composed.
We questioned her about the forged signature on the sales slip.
She would admit nothing.
The whole thing's too silly to even comment on.
I don't know what you're talking about, Sergeant.
We think you do, Miss Banner.
Our handwriting man has checked the two signatures, one on the sales slip and one on the lease.
They both match.
They were written by the same person, there's no doubt about it.
Been checked thoroughly.
Now what about it, Miss Banner?
There's no way out of it.
You ought to know that.
I'll deny it.
That's all.
I'll keep on denying it.
I wasn't in that store and I didn't forge any signatures.
Why would I do a thing like that?
What kind of a woman do you think I am?
All we know are the facts, ma'am.
Now why don't you give us a straight story?
It's going to save time and trouble for everybody concerned.
You've heard everything I've got to say.
This thing's ridiculous.
It's stupid.
I'm not answering any more questions.
You want to get your hat and coat, Miss Banner?
I'm afraid you'll have to come downtown with us.
What good's that going to do, I'll just keep on denying it?
You can't make me say I did a thing like that.
I want to get your coat, please.
It's right here.
All right.
Yes, ma'am.
The car's right out in front.
Hold it a minute, will you, Ben?
Yeah, okay.
Julio?
Yes, sir.
Can I see a minute?
Sure.
Hello, Miss Banner.
William.
A favor I'd like to ask of you, Julio.
You got a couple of minutes to spare?
Yeah, you want something?
We want to take a look in the back of your car.
Mr. Dillon's house, I'd like to have you come along with us, Julio.
It won't take very long.
Sure, okay.
I'll come along.
Bring a shovel along, will you, Julio?
I'd like to check something.
Yeah, okay.
I'll bring one.
All right, Miss Banner.
What's this about?
What are you trying to do?
Something we want to check in the Dillon's backyard.
It won't take long.
What would it have to do with me?
I don't have anything to do with that house.
I don't even live there anymore.
You realize that, don't you?
Yes, ma'am.
We realize it.
I'll call my lawyer.
I'll call my lawyer.
I'll call my lawyer.
I'll call my lawyer.
I'll call my lawyer.
I'll call him as soon as I get to a phone.
Julio?
Back this way, Sergeant.
Through the gate.
All right.
What are you trying to do to me?
You know I don't live here anymore.
I don't even have anything to do with this place.
You did live here, ma'am.
You lived here when Mr. Dillon disappeared, isn't that right?
What are you trying to say?
You've got no business on this property.
You've got no business here at all.
Yes, ma'am, we have.
What?
Did you kill Mr. Dillon?
Did you kill him?
Miss Manning?
All right, Julio, the compost box in the greenhouse.
Do you want to start digging?
You mean the compost box?
Yeah, okay.
He was an old man.
So old he was sick.
Ma'am?
He didn't want to live anymore.
He didn't have any reason for living.
Why shouldn't he give me the house?
Why shouldn't I have his money?
I was nice to him.
I cooked for him.
I wanted to take care of him.
He just didn't want to live anymore, that's all.
All right, Julio, you can hold it up.
You want to tell us, ma'am?
He needed a woman.
Anybody could tell that.
He needed me.
He's got a long sign, Chester and me.
I offered to marry him, and he wouldn't do it.
All he could do was think about his wife.
She was dead.
He'd sit around and talk about her all the time.
You killed him.
Is that what you're trying to say?
I wanted to marry Chester and take care of him.
He wouldn't do it.
He had an argument in the kitchen one night.
I had a gun, and I killed him.
I killed him.
Is that where you buried him?
In the greenhouse?
Yes, I buried him deep.
The gun, too.
He'll be all right.
Poor Chester.
Yeah.
He was so old.
He needed a woman.
Anyone could tell you that.
He needed me.
Well, I guess you made a mistake.
No, Sergeant, he did.
Yeah.
He didn't want me.
The story you have just heard was true.
The names were changed to protect the innocent.
On June 2nd, trial was held in Superior Court,
Department 86, City and County of Los Angeles, State of California.
In a moment, the results of that trial.
And now here is our star, Jack Webb.
Thank you.
Friends, during the past couple of years,
we've had many talks with law enforcement agencies
and received hundreds of letters from police officers all over the country.
We're especially pleased to know that so many of these men feel as we do
that Fatima is the best of all King Si cigarettes.
As a matter of fact, our sales reports prove beyond a doubt
that more and more smokers everywhere are switching to Fatima.
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You'll enjoy Fatima's extra mildness,
their much better flavor and aroma.
Next time, look for the golden yellow package and ask for Fatima.
Best of all, King Si cigarette.
The Seale Marie Banner was tried and convicted of murder in the first degree.
She received a sentence as prescribed by law.
She is now serving a life term in the state penitentiary for women
in Tehachapi, California.
You have just heard Dragnet, a series of authentic cases from official files.
Technical advice comes from the Office of Chief of Police, W.H. Parker,
Los Angeles Police Department.
Fatima cigarettes, best of all King Si cigarettes,
has brought you Dragnet, transcribed from Los Angeles.
Stay tuned for Counterspy, next on NBC.
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