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Chesterfield brings you Dragnet.
Ladies and gentlemen, the star you are about to hear is true.
The names have been changed to protect the innocent.
You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned to homicide detail.
You get a call from a friend who's been offered $5,000 to kill a man.
He can't tell you who made the offer.
He does tell you that no matter what happens, the man is going to be killed.
Your job? Stop it.
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Don't you want to try a cigarette with a record like this? Chesterfield.
Dragnet, the documentary 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 Monday, February 9th. It was cold in Los Angeles. We were working the day watch out of homicide detail.
My partner is Frank Smith. The boss is Captain Norman. My name is Friday.
I was on my way into the office and it was 7.45 a.m. when I got to room 42. Homicide.
Back to you, John? Yep. You're in early, aren't you? Yeah, I couldn't sleep last night.
Dropped off about three this morning then woke up at five, couldn't get back to sleep.
Got up, made some coffee and decided to come on in the office. Yeah, I had a little trouble last night too.
You did? What's your trouble? I don't know. I got up late yesterday morning. I guess that was it.
I'll get it. Alright.
Homicide Friday. Yep. Yeah, I remember.
Johnny. Yep. When did you get the letter? Yeah, we'll be right over. Right. Bye.
You remember that bartender over in that place on 6th Street, a fellow named Johnny? Yeah, is that him on the phone?
Yeah, he says he's got an offer to make himself a fast $5,000. What for? Somebody wants him to kill a man.
8, 10 a.m. Frank and I drove over to John Bronson's apartment. He lived in a new development on Wilshire Boulevard.
We checked the name plates in the lobby of the building and then we went up to apartment 6B. We rang the bell and waited.
Hiya, Joe, Frank. Come on in. How are you, John? Good to see you, John.
Kind of early to get you guys over here, but I got worried about it and figured I'd better talk to you.
You want to tell us what it's all about? Yeah, come on out in the kitchen. I got some coffee made. Okay.
Here, sit down there. I'll pour you a cup of coffee. Alright. Good.
Well, it started last night. I guess it was about 10, 10, 15. Payphone in the bar rang, kept ringing. I went over to answer it.
I fell on the other end and asked for Johnny. Yeah. I told him it was me and then he hit me with a deal.
At first I thought he was kidding. What did he say? He asked me if I wanted to make a fast $5,000.
Of course I told him yeah. Then he sprung the snapper and said he wanted me to kill this guy, a fellow named Wilhelm Ulrich.
You know this Ulrich? No, never laid eyes on him. First time I even heard the name. Okay, go ahead, John.
Well, this guy on the phone started to lay it out, told me how he wanted it done. Here's your coffee. Thank you.
I asked the joker who he was. He said it didn't matter. All that counted he said was that I knock off this Ulrich guy. Yeah.
I told him I didn't know who the man was and I didn't know where to get in touch with him to kill him.
You know, kind of going along with the gag all this time, thought it was a joke. Uh-huh.
Well, this fellow on the phone said he'd give me all the dope I had to have, said he'd get it in mail this morning. Yeah.
Came special delivery just before I called you, special. Uh-huh. You got the letter, have you?
Yeah, I got it in the other room. I'll get it for you. All right, I'll go with you.
John, how much have you handled the letter? Well, I opened it up. I didn't know what was in it. Uh-huh.
If I'd have known what it was, I wouldn't have touched it at all, but I didn't know.
I looked at it when I found out what was in it and figured I'd better call you. Couldn't see any way to tell who sent it.
Maybe you can when you see it. Uh-huh. When I saw what it was, I didn't touch it anymore. Uh-huh.
Well, let's see here. Money. Yeah, five one hundred dollar bills.
And what's the letter say? Just a minute. I'm just by the edge here.
This is Johnny. Here's the down payment. You'll get the rest when you finish the job.
The name is Wilhelm Ulrich. The address is 2192 Vine Street, Hollywood.
It's written on the typewriter. No signature. That's it.
Let me see it, William. Oh, you can see it here.
First off, I thought the whole thing was a joke. I didn't believe it. You know, I just thought it was some drunk trying to be funny.
We get calls like that all the time, guys, trying to be funny. Yeah.
And when I got this letter, I got scared. I ain't gonna kill nobody, especially somebody you don't even know, not for no five thousand.
Did you recognize the voice on the phone, John? No, I don't think I ever heard it before.
You got any idea why he'd called you? No, I've been clean. I haven't got a record.
Nothing like that. I run a clean place. Never done anything that could tie me up with the rackets. Yeah, we know.
Well, maybe I ran a little booze during Prohibition. Not much, just a little. Everybody was doing it then, but I'm clean now.
Joe, there's a postmark here on the letter. It's mailed in Hollywood. Yeah, I saw that. We can check the postal authorities on the mailbox number, find out when it was picked up, huh?
Yeah. Time on it here is 11, looks like 1145 last night. That's the time.
You sure that you don't know Ulrich, John? Possibility he's been in your bar sometime, maybe, huh?
Well, that'll be hard to say. We do a good business. Lots of people come in, I don't know.
You know, just come in once in a while. I wouldn't know who they were. They keep quiet, and I ain't getting nosy.
Well, we're going on back to the office. You'll probably hear from the caller again, Johnny, and as soon as you do, you let us know, will you?
You gonna see this Ulrich phone? Yeah, we'll talk to him. Might be better if you don't say anything about this to anybody, John.
Oh, no worry, I won't. Okay, we'll be talking to you later. You be at the bar? Yeah, I'll be there at four. Okay, thanks a million.
No strain, glad to do it. Can't get over it, that guy calling, making an offer like that. I just can't get over it. He should know better than that. Yeah?
Sure, yeah, I don't know. Somebody ain't gonna kill somebody they don't even know.
We drove back to the city hall and turned the letter over to the crime lab to see if they could find any physical evidence to help us identify the writer.
We ran the name Wilhelm Ulrich through R&I and we found no record. A further check on the name and we came up with one possibility.
The address listed on the report was the same as the one given in the letter. We pulled the package and checked it.
Let's take a look at it. All right.
Now, let's see, there's a crime report and a statement here. Report from George Street Receiving Hospital.
Now, what's the date on that? January 2nd last year.
Well, it seems this Ulrich got a hold of some poison wine. Wine. Yeah. Hey, wait a minute. Yeah?
You remember, Joe? He was an old guy. He was a German. He got a bottle of wine for Christmas and opened it New Year's Day.
We worked that case with Lamonic and Gallina. Oh, sure. I remember now. Yeah, we ran down some of the leads for him. They didn't go anywhere. Yeah.
That was the one where he didn't know where the wine came from, isn't it? Yeah. Nothing came from it. The leads didn't go anyplace.
As I remember, he's a nice old guy. I wonder why somebody's after him. I don't know. Last time we couldn't find anybody with a motive.
Well, there's one someplace.
We'd helped investigate an attempted poisoning of Wilhelm Ulrich over a year ago.
Somebody sent him a bottle of imported wine. Ulrich had opened the wine for dinner on New Year's and had drunk some of it.
A short time later, he was seized with violent stomach cramps. He was rushed to George Street Receiving Hospital for treatment.
He was then transferred to the county hospital for further treatment.
Examination of the remaining wine showed that it had been dosed with a quantity of poison.
Fortunately, Ulrich didn't drink much of the poison wine and he recovered.
Detectives Joe LaMonica and Danny Galindo had handled most of the investigation.
We'd helped them briefly in checking out some of the leads that they'd gotten. We checked with them again on the case.
From the crime report, we got a list of the people that the two officers had interviewed.
We checked with them and they gave us as much personal information as they could.
One fifteen p.m. We drove out to see Wilhelm Ulrich. We found him in the yard digging in a rosebed.
No, I can't understand it. I never quite believed that about the wine, sir.
Why do you say that, Ulrich?
Well, I found it hard to believe in my heart that anyone would want to do me harm.
I have no enemies. No one that hates me enough to want to kill me. I'm sure of that.
Well, I'm afraid you could be wrong about that, Ulrich.
The officer said that before. Somehow, though, I just can't believe it.
I have nothing anyone would want to kill me for. All of the people I know are my friends. We all got along.
Yes, sir.
Look at that. Isn't that a beautiful rose? Such loveliness.
Mm-hmm.
No? I'm sorry, officers. You're mistaken about this.
I wonder if we could talk to you in the house, sir.
Yes, that might be better. I could make you a cup of hot tea if you'd like.
No, sir. Thanks. Just the same.
Have you officers had lunch yet?
Yes, sir. Thank you.
Oh, I thought maybe you'd like a sandwich. Just got some liverwurst from a little place downtown.
German. Excellent food.
Mm-hmm.
Here, I'll get the door.
Just sit down any place. I have to get the dirt off my shoes, Marta.
I would be very angry if I tracked dirt around.
Marta, that's your daughter, isn't it?
Yes. She comes over every couple of days and straightens up the house for me.
Wonderful girl, Marta. I don't know what I'd do without her.
Yes, sir. Now, there's a couple of things we'd like to ask you.
Certainly. Anything I can do to help.
Well, I would like to go over the information on the report here.
Is that from the last time? The time of the wine?
Yes, sir. That's right.
All right. If you just ask anything you want, I've got nothing to hide.
All right, sir.
We checked the crime report you filled out last year.
Now, has anything changed in your family since then?
No. You gentlemen still working on that?
Well, yes, sir. We have another matter to discuss here.
There's one thing that has changed.
What's that, sir?
The part here about me running the business.
That's changed. I still run it in a way.
I still supervise it, but Robert, he actually runs it.
Robert. You mean this name here, Robert Davis?
Yes. He's my son-in-law, Marta's husband.
He takes care of the business now. He's a good boy.
Marta's lucky to have him.
How long has your son-in-law been running the business, Mr. Ulrich?
Well, let me see. It's been about eight, nine months.
He took over right after I got out of the hospital.
He's done wonders with it. Wonders.
How's that, sir?
Modernized. It changed it all around.
Had one of those efficiency experts come in and study the people.
Time and motion men, I think they call them.
They come in with a stopwatch and look at the people doing the work
and figure out how long it should take them to do a certain job.
And then they plan how the job can be done faster and cheaper.
Wonderful thing. Big changes.
Yes, sir. I don't want you to take offense at this, Ulrich,
but how are the relations between you and your son-in-law?
I don't think I understand.
How do you get along? Do you have any quarrels, disagreements?
Oh, no. Robert and I never disagree.
I found out that it didn't pay to argue with him.
Sir?
I found out that it didn't pay. He was always right.
Uh-huh.
Yes, you see, we had a few arguments when he took over the business
about this time and motion study thing.
I see. You want to tell us about these arguments?
They weren't anything serious.
I didn't think that it was a good idea to change.
I couldn't see any reason for it. Everything was going good.
The business was making money. Everybody seemed to be happy.
I didn't want to take a chance, disturbing a good thing.
You know, the golden goose.
Uh-huh. You want to go ahead, please?
Well, Robert said that we were behind at times,
that if we didn't do something about it,
we wouldn't be able to compete with other people.
We manufacture women's dresses, you know.
Sir, I saw that on the report.
I finally told him to go ahead. I thought that he'd fail. He didn't.
Now we compete. More dresses, more money.
The employees are happy. They have music, coffee times. They like it.
But it's all changed. I don't go down there anymore.
I don't care much for it. It's changed.
So I just stay home and work in the garden.
It's Robert's factory now.
You and Robert haven't had any other disagreements, have you?
Oh, no. He's a fine young man, running the business very well.
He's a good boy. I'm lucky to have him.
Well, how about your competitors, Mr. Ulrich?
How do they feel about this change in the way you operate your business?
They resent it?
Oh, no. I haven't really got any competitors.
The big manufacturers don't care.
I don't make enough dresses to bother them.
And the other little men are in the same boat with me.
They're too busy running the factories to worry about me.
Now, can you think of anybody who might want to do a thing like this?
How about that phone call?
I told you before I can't. I find it very hard to believe.
Well, I would have to talk to the people that you know, the people around you.
We'd appreciate it if you didn't tell anybody what we were after.
If you wanted that way, it's so hard to believe.
I still think you're wrong.
Looks like it's going to rain. Be good for the flowers.
It's been dry up in the valley. Farmers need the rain.
Yes, sir. You'll go along with us on this thing, will you?
Not tell anybody about it?
Sure. I'll help.
It's all right if I tell my daughter and son-in-law about it, isn't it?
Well, it'd be better if you didn't say anything to him or your daughter, not to anybody.
They're going to see you here. They're going to ask questions. They're not stupid.
Yes, sir. You could tell them that we were asking about somebody that you employ. How'll that be?
What do I say if Robert asks what it's about? I have no secrets from him.
Well, tell them we ask you not to tell anybody about it.
Tell them it's a police business. It happens all the time.
I suppose I could do that, but I don't like it. I don't like it at all. It's lying.
Yes, sir. That may be true, but it's the best way.
Oh, I guess it's a small lie. I can't tell myself that it's a small lie.
We'll have some policemen come out and watch Mr. Alrick until we find the person who's doing this.
Do you have to do that?
Yes, sir. I'm afraid so.
Well, no, I don't like that at all. Even worse than the lying. No, no, I don't like it at all.
Mr. Alrick, I wonder if you really understand that when we ask you not to tell anybody about this,
when we want to keep you under surveillance, it's just for your protection.
But if what you say is true, if somebody really does want to kill me, if somebody hates me that much...
Yes, sir.
Can you stop him?
We called the office and had a team of men sent out to keep Wilhelm Alrick under surveillance.
His house and his person were to be watched 24 hours a day until we apprehended the person or persons who wanted him killed.
We spent the rest of the afternoon talking to the people in the neighborhood.
From all of them, we got the same story. Alrick was liked and respected through the area.
All of the local shopkeepers and their business associates told us that he paid cash for everything he bought and that his credit was good.
He was active in the local flower club and had twice in the past served as president of the organization.
The neighbors confirmed what Alrick had told us about his family.
His son-in-law and his daughter seemed to be devoted to the elderly man
and were constantly trying to get him to sell the house he lived in and come to live with them.
6.42 p.m. We returned to the office.
Man, it's really coming down, huh?
Yeah, it sure is.
You got a raincoat in your locker?
Yeah, I got one of those plastic kind in the bag.
Oh, yeah, I want to get me one of those.
I'll get mine. We'll go over and check the son-in-law. You got his address?
Yeah, it's a place out on Ivar.
Sure was a nice old man, huh?
Yeah, he seems to be.
If you want to grab my coat, I'll get the phone.
Yeah, I'll get it.
Thank you.
Homicide Friday.
Yeah.
Uh-huh.
Yeah, John. When?
Yeah.
No, we'll be right over. Right away. You bet.
Frank. Yeah?
Call from the bartender, Johnny.
Yeah?
Says he just got another phone call.
Person told him that he'd gotten a down payment for the job,
and he wanted to know why Ulrich hadn't been killed.
Yeah.
Guy said if Johnny didn't get on it,
the money wouldn't do him any good.
Told him to make up his own mind.
Uh-huh.
Either he makes good on the job or they'll kill him.
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Music
7, 10 p.m.
We got to the bar on 6th Street.
There were only a couple of people in the place.
The bartender, Johnny, told us
of the phone call that he'd received.
He said that the person on the phone
had told him that if he didn't hurry up
and kill Ulrich,
Johnny himself would be taking care of him.
We called Lee Jones at the crime lab
to ask him if he'd been able to come up
with anything on the letter.
He told us that there was no way of tracing it.
Fingerprints found on the letter
were those of the bartender.
Photographs were taken of the letter
and along with the money,
it was booked for further evidence.
We'd gotten in touch with the postal authorities
and they said that they'd give us assistance.
They gave us the location of the box
where the letter had been mailed.
They said they'd try to find out who sent it.
We arranged for a stakeout on the bar
and then we called the men at Ulrich's home.
They told us that the son-in-law, Davis,
and Ulrich's daughter had been there,
but that no one else had seen
or spoken to the elderly man.
9.32 p.m., Frank and I drove out
to check on Robert Davis.
We got to the apartment house
and rang the bell to the manager's room.
Yes?
Miss Franklin?
Yes, what is it?
Police officers, ma'am.
We'd like to talk to you if we could.
Oh, well, I suppose it's all right.
Come on in.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, ma'am.
This is my partner, Frank Smith.
My name's Friday.
What is it you wanted to see me about?
Oh, we'd like to talk to you
about one of your tenants, please.
Oh? Which one?
I bet I can guess.
Ma'am.
It's about that couple on the fifth floor,
isn't it?
The Radcliffs.
It's them, isn't it?
No, ma'am, it isn't.
We'd like to talk to you about
a Robert Davis and his wife.
The Davises?
Yes, ma'am.
Why, I never thought it.
It should be the Radcliffs,
the way they carry on.
The Davises.
I never thought it.
What do you want to know about them?
Well, it's just a routine investigation, ma'am.
Can you tell us how long they lived here?
Well, see now.
They've been almost six years.
They've been in the building, you know.
Yeah, six years anyway.
They haven't always lived
in the same apartment, though.
Ma'am.
When they moved in,
they was in a little apartment
on the second floor,
living room, they pulled down a bed,
a little bitty place.
Then they moved up to the sixth floor,
two bedroom, nice place.
Nice people.
The Davises, her wife,
never thought it.
Do they have any close friends
in the building, would you know?
Well, not Mr. Davies.
He's kind of the quiet type.
Never has much to do with anybody
he keeps to himself.
Mm-hmm.
Now, Mrs. Davis,
that's a different thing.
She's a living doll.
She's nice to everybody
and so sweet.
Never had a harsh word for anybody.
Always a smile.
I think Mr. Davis thinks
he's too good for anybody.
He always seems kind of snooty.
Yes, ma'am.
Do you ever have any arguments
with anybody in the building
that you might know of?
Well, he's had a few arguments,
like everybody else does.
Like I said before,
he thinks he's too good for anybody.
He thinks he's better than anybody.
He's got no right to, either.
Ma'am.
Why, he owes half the people
in the neighborhood money.
Way behind in his bills,
owes me a couple of months rent.
Never seems to be able
to pay anybody he owes.
I talked to the milkman,
owes him for a month back.
Every time he asks for his money,
Davis tells him to come back
and stop hounding him.
I can't understand it.
Seemed like such nice people
when they moved in.
Two years ago,
that's when the trouble started.
It was our understanding
that he had a pretty good job.
And he has.
Works for his father-in-law,
manages some kind of a factory.
Addresses, I think.
Oh, but that isn't it.
He makes enough money.
He just spends it faster
than he makes it, that's all.
I think he gambles.
Why do you say that, ma'am?
Oh, he's always going off
on some kind of business trip.
At least that's what he says it is,
but I know different.
Yes, how's that, ma'am?
Well, he'd come back
from one of those
business trips once.
Cab pulled up,
and it just happened
that I was standing out in front.
A driver got out
and gave him the bill for the cab,
all the way from the airport.
Almost $6.
Well, anyway,
when Mr. Davis got the money
out of his pocket
to pay the cab bill,
a chip fell on the sidewalk.
He didn't think that I saw it,
but I did.
The cab driver did, too.
Well, what kind of a chip was it, ma'am?
Well, you understand,
I'm not a gambling woman,
so I wouldn't know.
But the cab driver, he knew.
Oh, you just betcha,
he knew right away.
He picked up the chip
and handed it back to Mr. Davis
and said something about
being in Las Vegas kind of kid,
and you know.
Yes, ma'am.
Well, I've seen Mr. Davis
get upset, but never like that.
He grabbed the chip away
from the cab driver
and told him to mind
his own business.
Said that he'd had the chip
a long time,
that it didn't concern
the cab driver.
He was real mean.
Uh-huh.
And then at night,
well, the argument
that he and the missus had,
I never in all my days
heard anything like that.
Well, what happened, ma'am?
Well, you understand,
that I just happened to be
in the hall.
I was making sure
that the lights on the floor
were all on.
Those bulbs are always burning out,
and I was checking them, you know.
Yes, ma'am.
Well, anyways,
I hear this argument
coming from the Davises' apartment.
Mrs. Davis is telling how she
isn't going to stand for it anymore.
Mr. Davis better settle down
and get to work
and stop this foolishness.
She didn't come right out
and say what foolishness,
but I could tell.
I could tell.
It was his gambling,
that's what it was.
Yes, ma'am.
Is there anything else
that you could think of
that you could tell us
about the Davises?
No, I don't think so.
I'm kind of surprised, though.
I don't like him,
but I never thought
that he'd have the police
after him.
Well, we're just conducting
a routine investigation,
Mrs. Franklin.
Oh, now you don't have
to play cagey with me.
I know about you, policeman.
You and your routine investigations.
You ain't fooling me.
You want him for something.
Now, what is it?
Can you tell me?
Ma'am, it's just police business,
just routine.
We'd appreciate it
if you didn't say anything
to anybody about us being here.
Oh, sure, I'll go along with you.
I won't tell a soul,
not a living soul.
Thank you very much,
Mrs. Franklin.
I'm going to leave you our card.
We'd appreciate it
if you'd give us a call
if anything comes up.
Uh-huh.
I'll call you back, too, 1-1.
Is that right?
Yes, ma'am.
Just ask for the homicide division
that's written down there.
All right, you just bet I will.
I'd be glad to help.
I'm just glad to.
All right, fine.
One thing, though.
Yes, ma'am?
Are you sure there ain't nothing
that you want those people
on the fifth floor for?
The Radcliffe's?
From the manager's office,
we called the Ulrich home.
We talked to Mr. Ulrich.
He told us about the visit
that afternoon from the Davises.
He said that he hadn't told
Robert Davis anything
about the threats on his life.
We went upstairs and talked to Davis.
We told him that we had
a serious matter to discuss with him,
and then we asked him to accompany us
down to the city hall.
I don't know what you're talking about.
I told the police everything
I know about this a year ago.
I don't know anything about it.
Wish I could help, but I can't.
You know, this has got me worried.
Well, if you haven't done anything wrong,
you've got nothing to worry about.
I haven't done anything wrong.
In here.
Go ahead.
All right, now tell me
what this is all about.
Frank?
Yeah?
Go check the office, see if we've got
any answers to the calls this afternoon.
Right.
You got a cigarette?
Yeah.
Help yourself.
Well, let's get to it, huh?
I've got to get home, get some sleep.
I've got a rough day tomorrow.
This won't take very long.
How do you get along with your father-in-law?
All right, why?
Like to know?
Well, I don't see how that concerns you,
but you ask, so I'll tell you.
We get along fine, me and the old man.
We get along just great.
Does that make you happy?
That's not the point.
Anything?
No, nothing new.
You go over to Las Vegas much, Davis?
Not much. Why?
How often would you say you went over there?
Maybe a couple times a year,
not any more than that.
When was the last time?
What's so important about when I was in Vegas last?
You guys spent a little more time
finding out who was trying to kill my father-in-law.
Less time asking questions that don't make any sense.
You'd be doing a better job.
What can you tell us about somebody
trying to kill your father-in-law?
All I know is what he told me this afternoon.
What did he tell you?
Not much.
Said something about a bartender,
something about a phone call.
Did he tell you who the bartender was?
No, just that it was someplace over on Sixth.
All right, Davis, come off it, huh?
What do you mean, come off it?
You want to tell us why you did it
or do you want us to tell you?
Did what? I got nothing to tell you.
I don't know what you guys are talking about.
We talked to your father-in-law this morning.
We told him that we'd gotten a report
that his life had been threatened.
We didn't tell him how it happened.
We didn't tell him where our information came from,
so he didn't know.
All right, so maybe I got it someplace else.
Oh, wait a minute. You couldn't.
We didn't talk to anybody else.
No, I heard it someplace.
I don't remember, but I heard it.
We checked around,
found out you gamble quite a lot.
You're a steady loser.
You owe a lot of money in town, don't you?
They're right.
Yeah, that's right.
I think we can make you for the threat on Ulrich's life.
I don't think we'll have any trouble at all.
You had the motive, you had the opportunity.
First thing in the morning,
we'll check with the factory.
We'll see if you made a withdrawal of $500.
We make that, and you've got big trouble.
You figure you're going to be able to do that?
We think so, yeah.
We'll get your father-in-law down here
and ask him what he told you this afternoon.
Find out if he did tell you about that bartender,
about the bar on sixth, about the phone call.
You know, it doesn't look like
it's going to be too much trouble making you for this.
Save your time.
What do you mean?
You don't have to go through that thrash.
I did it.
I tried to have the old man knocked off.
Were you the one who sent him the wine last year?
Yeah.
That's when it started.
I started to gamble.
Lost a lot of money.
Couldn't pay it back.
No way to pay it back.
Guys I owed the money to were leaning on me.
I had to pay them off.
Had to.
Yeah.
I can only think of one way,
get rid of the old man.
Didn't you get a pretty good salary out of working for him?
Yeah, pretty good, but it didn't go far.
Not far enough.
I tried to win it back,
make good on the losses I had.
I couldn't do it.
The more I gambled, the worse it got.
I just couldn't do it.
It wasn't any other way.
The other way, I decided to kill the old man.
It's the only way.
Can't you see that?
It's the only way I could get clear.
I know.
I figured if I could get rid of the old man,
I'd have everything fixed.
Everything would be okay.
I guess it worked out all right anyway.
What do you mean?
Well, there's nothing in the book
they can throw at me.
He's still alive, I didn't kill him.
Who got hurt?
You did.
How do you figure?
I didn't kill him.
You're going to jail for trying.
The story you have just heard is true.
The names were changed to protect the innocent.
On June 18th, trial was held in Department 89,
Superior Court of the State of California,
in and for the County of Los Angeles.
In a moment, the results of that trial.
And now here is our star, Jack Webb.
Thank you, George Fenomen.
I want to thank all of you for your interest in Dragnet.
Thanks very much for your letters.
We really appreciate them,
and we'll try to keep around giving you
the kind of a show that you like.
I want to thank all of you, too,
who have switched to Chesterfield.
I know you're going to like them,
and I know you'll find their best for you.
Now, you folks who haven't tried Chesterfield,
I'd like you to pick up a carton tomorrow.
Chesterfield, it's a great smoke.
Robert Walter Davis was tried and convicted
of attempted homicide.
He received sentence as prescribed by law.
Attempted homicide is punishable by imprisonment
in the state penitentiary
for a period of not less than 20 years.
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.
Technical advisors, Captain Jack Donahoe,
Sergeant Marty Wynn, Sergeant Vance Brasher.
Heard tonight were Ben Alexander, Vic Perrin,
script by John Robinson, music by Walter Schuman,
Hell Gibney speaking.
For a million laughs, tune in to Chesterfield's
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Chesterfield has brought you Dragnet
transcribed from Los Angeles.
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Tonight, it's Adventure with Barry Craig on NBC.