Ladies and gentlemen, the story you are about to hear is true. The names have been changed
to protect the innocent. Dragman.
You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned a homicide detail. A young girl has been found
in a cheap hotel room, apparently an attempted suicide. There's reason to suspect foul play.
Your job, investigate.
It was Thursday, November 19th. It was warm in Los Angeles. We were working the day watch
out a homicide detail. My partner is Frank Smith. The boss is Captain Norman. My name
is Friday. We just got in a call from Georgia Street Receiving Hospital and it was 9.46
AM when we got to the second floor. The treatment room. Yes? Would you like to see Dr. Hall
please? Come in, Joe. Joe, Frank. Hi, Doc. Is this the girl? Yeah. How's she doing? I'm
not sure yet. Just finished the transfusion. When are you going to know? We think she's
going to live, but there's no way of telling right now how much damage has been done to
the brain tissue. Bad bruise on her face. Must have received a bad blow. Might have
gotten it when she fell. Let's go outside. I can use the smoke. Okay. If there's any
change I'll be out in the hall. All right, Doctor. You got a cigarette? I'm fresh out.
Yeah, here you are. Frank? Yeah, thanks. Here's a match. Thanks. I didn't know you gave transfusions
in cases like this, Doc. Don't have to very often. You see, a thing like this, the carbon
monoxide in the gas joins with the hemoglobin in the red cells and won't let go. Blood takes
the monoxide through the system and suffocates the brain tissue. We've given her some coramine,
helps speed up the heart action. Wait, look, she's got a good chance of living, but we
won't know how bad it really is until later. It's a rough one, isn't it? You find out who
she is? Well, according to the stuff we found in her wallet, her name's Mona Fenton. Another
thing that doesn't make much sense, Doc, she registered into the hotel as Mrs. John Norris.
There, as we can find out, she wasn't married. How'd you come up with that? Well, when the
office got word about it, we tried to get in touch with her husband. We called the phone
number on the ID that we found in her wallet, talked with her mother. She says the girl's
single. How about the guy she was with? You been able to talk to him? No, we haven't found
out who he is. Name doesn't check out, huh? Not that we can find. How about the mother?
Did she give you anything? We just talked to her for a minute. We're going over there
when we leave here. Maybe she can come up with some answers. I sure hope so. A couple
more questions you can ask her. Yeah, what's that? Find out if the girl's been under a
doctor's care. What do you mean? Checked her over when she came in, found marks. What
her arm? Yeah, I think she's an addict. At 8.30 a.m. that morning, a guest in a small
hotel on Grand Avenue had thought that he detected the odor of gas in the halls of the
building. He notified the desk clerk, and together they conducted a search of the premises. Finally,
they ascertained that the escaping gas was coming from a room on the third floor of the
hotel. When the desk clerk got no answer to his calls, he used a passkey to open the door.
Scrawled across the bed was a girl who appeared to be in her early twenties. The gas heater
in the room had been turned on full, and the windows were closed, locked, and stuffed with
pieces of torn sheets to keep the fumes in the room. The quick action of the desk clerk
had undoubtedly saved the girl's life. While a hotel guest called an ambulance, the clerk
turned off the gas, opened the windows, and administered artificial respiration to the
girl until the ambulance crew arrived. As an attempted suicide, the homicide detail
had to make an investigation, and Frank and I were assigned to the case. After we talked
to Doc Hall at Georgia Street Receiving Hospital, we drove down to the hotel where the girl
had been found.
Right in here.
Anybody been in this room since the other officers left?
No, sir. They told me to lock it until you could see it.
All right, sir. Now, this is just the way you found it, is that right?
Well, yes, of course. The gas is turned off, and I opened the windows, but everything else
is the same.
I see.
From what you said on the phone, she came in last night, is that right?
Yes, sir. At least that's what the registration book says. They checked in at 10.15.
Did you take care of them?
No, I was out to dinner when they got here.
Who checked them in?
Jeff, Jeff Christensen.
See around?
No, not right now. He'll probably be back tonight.
Know where we can find him?
I don't know. See, Jeff got paid last night. He cut his week's wages. Last I saw him, he's
on his way out on the town with some of his friends. Jeff goes out on the town. Maybe
we don't see him for a couple of days.
I see. But you figure he'll be back tonight, huh?
Oh, yes, yes. Jeff only worked a couple of days last week, so he ain't gonna go on much
of the town.
Did you see the man Miss Benton came in with?
No, I didn't. They were already in the room when I got back from dinner. I checked the
book. I got the money from Jeff before I left. The man must have gone out sometime earlier
this morning. I guess I was asleep. My room's just back of a desk. The fellow must have
got out while I was asleep.
I see. Did you get any calls from the room at all?
Not a one. Like I told those uniformed officers to be here, I didn't see them at all. Not
a people. Matter of fact, I was thinking how nice and quiet they were. But the way the
room looks, they sure must have had some sort of argument.
Yes, sir. But you know if they brought any baggage with them?
Matter of fact, I know they didn't. Sure looks like they did some heavy drinking, don't it?
Mm-hmm.
Glasses, that bottle's almost empty.
Yeah. I'd rather you wouldn't check the bottle.
Oh, yeah, yeah, well, I won't. Say, you talk to the girls' people yet?
No, sir, we haven't.
But you plan to see them, aren't you?
Yes, sir.
Yeah, I wonder if you'd do me a favor. You know, when you see a people.
Yes, sir, what's that?
Well, I don't much mind the dirty glasses and having to straighten the room up. That's
all part of the hotel business, but I wish you'd say something about the torn sheets.
Tell the people about them. I don't want to cause no trouble, but maybe if they know how
about the sheets were all torn up, they'd want to make good on them. You will mention
them, won't you?
Yes, sir. I'll call the office, Joe. Have them send out a crew, see what prints we can
lift.
All right, fine.
Who else has a passkey to this room?
What, you mean beside me?
Yes, sir.
Well, ain't nobody.
Where's the key kept?
It hangs on a nail next to desk, that big nail there, hangs right on it.
When you came into the room, did you notice if there was anything around the door to keep
the gas inside?
I don't follow you.
Well, you found pieces of torn sheets around the windows, you say. Now, was there anything
like that but the door?
Oh, oh, yes, I'm with you now, yeah. Now, let me think. As I remember, no, no, there
was nothing there, just around the windows.
Was the key in the lock when you came up here?
You mean inside the room?
Yes, sir, that's right.
No, no. The reason I know that for sure is that I looked through the keyhole, tried to
see what was in the room. No, sir, the key wasn't in. Of course, I don't mean nothing.
Sir?
Well, only a couple of the rooms have keys anyway. We don't use them anymore.
You mean you don't lock the doors?
Sure, we lock the doors. We got them all locked all the time. It's a respectable hotel. Of
course we lock the doors. But not with those keys. We got those other locks on the doors.
Oh, I see.
Yeah, see there? Sort of like Yale locks. That kind, you know. That's what locks the
doors, not the other keys.
Yes, I see.
Of course we lock the doors.
Yes. The locks catch when the door is closed, though, is that right?
Yeah, locks them tight.
I got in touch with Lee Jones, Joe. He sent a crew right over.
Good.
I checked with Doc Hall. How's the girl?
Oh, she's coming along. Doc says she's doing better.
Oh, these fellows that you're going to have roaming around here, what's this all about?
Is something wrong?
We're not sure yet, sir.
Oh dear, dear. It always happens like this, don't it?
What's that, sir?
I try to run a respectable place. Goodness knows I do. I keep it right up to date. It's
good service, and something like this happens. There was no reason for that girl to do a
thing like this. Not in my hotel. Now you cops come in here. Cops going to be all over
the place. Tenants aren't going to like it. They ain't going to like it at all. Just because
of that girl. Why'd she have to come in here and do a thing like this?
Why'd she have to do it at all, sir?
Well, we'll have to wait and see.
1126 A.M. We questioned the people in the hotel. None of them could remember hearing any undue
noise coming from the room where the girl had tried to kill herself. Normally, the investigation
would have been routine, but with the possibility of foul play, we had to check every angle
and then check it again. The crew from the crime lab arrived and went over the room.
Under the bed, they found an empty capsule, the type commonly used to dispense heroin.
They also came up with a clean set of fingerprints on both glasses. They were photographed, and
the water glasses themselves were removed to the crime lab to be booked as evidence.
The registration card the couple had signed was turned over to Don Meyer in handwriting.
The name was checked through our record bureau, through the phone book, and through the city
directory, but when the leads were checked out, we were no further in knowing who the
man was who'd taken the room with Mona Fenton. Word was left at the hotel for the handyman
to contact us as soon as he returned. Word was also left that if the man who'd registered
with the Fenton girl returned, we were to be called. 11.45 a.m. The men from the crime
lab finished their investigation and returned to the office to compile the results. Frank
and I left the hotel and drove out to the address listed on the girl's identification.
It was a large white colonial home near one of the colleges. We rang the doorbell and
waited.
Yes?
Miss Fenton?
Yes, that's right. What is it you want?
Please, officer, would you like to talk to me?
Oh, come in.
Thank you.
It's about Mona, isn't it?
Yes, ma'am.
I knew something like this would happen. I knew it all along.
Will you find it?
When she first had this crazy idea, when she first told me about it, I knew. Kids, try
to tell them. Just try and they tell you that times have changed. They say that you're not
keeping up with the time. They know it all. Nobody can tell them anything.
What idea is this, Mrs. Fenton?
When she wanted to quit school and take the job in that drive-in restaurant. Most ridiculous
thing I ever heard of. Nobody could talk her out of it, Mona.
Nobody could talk her out of it, Lord knows I tried. I knew something like this would happen.
I just knew it.
Yes, ma'am. Do you know any reason why your daughter might want to take her own life?
Are you a policeman, too?
Yes, ma'am. I'm Frank Smith. This is my partner, Joe Friday.
You do?
Do you know any reason why your daughter might want to kill herself?
It's a little hard to say, Mr. Friday.
What's that?
Mona and I had quite an argument about her leaving school. It was one of those silly things
that starts and gets all out of hand, you know. We both have pride and neither one of us
was going to back down. I haven't seen Mona to talk to for over a month.
Does she live here, ma'am?
Yes, she does, Mr. Smith. There's an outside entrance to her room. She comes and goes if
she pleases. Doesn't need a meal here, so I hardly ever see her.
Do you know if she's been under a doctor's care?
No, I don't think so. Why do you ask that?
Is your daughter a diabetic?
No, she isn't, Mr. Friday. Why all these questions about Mona and a doctor?
What are you trying to find out?
Does your daughter have any special boyfriends, Mrs. Fenton?
She did have.
Who was that?
Richard Burdick, nice boy. Mona and he were planning to get married when they got out
of school and along with everything else, that just blew up. Everything seemed to go
all at the same time.
Did your daughter have any trouble with this, Burdick?
No, nothing you could call real trouble, but they agreed to disagree.
Mona's idea, Richard didn't want anything to change. She was very much in love with her.
Does he know about this?
I don't think so, Mrs. Fenton. We haven't told him.
I don't know what he's going to do when he hears about it. He's going to hit him awfully hard.
He's the sensitive type.
Does your daughter have any close friends that she might confide in?
I suppose she does. She's talked about some of the girls where she worked.
Would you give us her names, please?
Oh, yes, I will. I'll write them down for you, those I can remember.
All right, fine. Has your daughter been in good spirits lately?
As far as I know, yes. She's always seemed happy enough when I saw her.
I told you we hadn't said much more than hello the last month, but she seemed happy.
You said that she broke up with this Burdick boy, is that right?
Yes.
When was that?
Six weeks, two months ago.
You know what caused it?
The job, all the other things.
Mona kept making dates with him and then breaking them at the last minute.
I guess Richard just got tired of being stood up.
Does he and your daughter have any arguments that you know of?
No.
It's decided that it wouldn't work out for them. They just decided to stop seeing each other.
Did your daughter have any other steady boyfriends? Anyone that she saw quite a bit of, maybe?
Well, there was one boy. He was quite a bit older than Mona.
She saw a lot of him the last couple of weeks.
Know who he was?
No, I never met him. I only saw him once.
What if you could describe him for us?
No, I'm afraid I can't. He drove by for Mona one night, trying to pick her up for a date.
Parked out in front and honked the horn.
I see.
I went to the front door to tell him to come in. Mona wasn't ready yet, but he wouldn't.
Just sat out there and waited. I didn't get a good look at him.
Could you describe the car for us?
I'm not good. It was one of those foreign cars, a convertible.
I think it might have been a Jaguar. I'm not sure about that, though.
But your shirt wasn't an American automobile.
Yes, I'm sure about that.
How about the color of the car? Can you tell us that?
It was awfully dark out there. I'm not sure.
I'd rather not say, officer, if I can't be sure. You understand that.
I wouldn't want to tell you something and then have it turn out to be wrong.
You can understand that, can't you?
Yes, ma'am, of course.
Did you see Mona this morning?
Yes, we did.
Is she all right?
They think so, yes.
Aren't you sure?
Well, when we talked to the doctor, they were doing everything they could.
They seemed to think that she was going to be all right.
Thank God.
It's so hard, Mr. Friday, to know that your child is sick, that she tried to kill herself.
To want to go to her and not be able to.
It's so hard.
Try to take it easy, if you can, Miss Benton.
If you'll just give us the names of the girls that she might know, we'll be on our way.
Yes, I'll write them for you.
Thank you.
Excuse me.
Shirley.
Hello.
Yes, it is.
What?
Yes, they're here at the moment.
For you.
I'll get a job.
I'll get those names for you, Mr. Friday.
Sorry, sorry.
Did your daughter ever refer to this man in the foreign car by name?
No, I don't think she did.
All I know is that whenever she went out with him, it was the big date of the bunch.
How often did she see him?
Maybe a couple of times a week.
Might have been more.
I had no way of knowing what she was doing.
She kept pretty much to herself when she met him.
But I could tell he was the big thing in her life.
He was it.
No?
Yeah.
See you in a minute.
Yes, excuse me, Miss Fenton.
I'll finish this list.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Call us from Jack Smires at the office.
Yeah.
Just removed her to the general hospital.
Yeah.
She had a relapse.
They don't think she's going to live.
We obtained the name of the drive-in restaurant where the Fenton girl was employed.
We also got the names of the girls that she worked with and the address of her boyfriend, Richard Burdick.
Mrs. Fenton also gave us a list of names of persons who might be able to aid us in the investigation.
Under further questioning, the mother was still unable to furnish us with a motive for her daughter's attempt to take her own life.
The apparent lack of a motive or any type of a suicide note coupled with the bruise on the girl's chin made the likelihood of foul play more than possible.
Twelve fifty-seven p.m.
We left the Fenton home and drove over to the drive-in.
We stopped on the way and put him in the call to the office.
There still hadn't been any report of the handyman at the hotel, the only person who could give us a description of the man who registered at the place with the Fenton girl.
When we got to the drive-in, we asked about a Peggy Greeksen, one of the girls on the list.
After a few minutes, the girl came over to our car.
You want to see me?
You Peggy Greeksen?
Yeah, why?
We'd like to ask you some questions about Mona Fenton.
Who are you guys?
Police officers. We'd just like to talk to you.
I've got to get it okayed with the manager. I'm on duty now. Lunchtime.
Pretty busy. I've got to get it okayed.
I'll take care of it.
Alright, fine.
I'll check with the manager, Joe.
Right.
This isn't going to take long. I've got a couple of customers waiting for orders.
My partner will take care of it.
Well, ain't the manager knowing it worries me. It's the tips they're going to leave.
Make what I do and the tips are important.
Yes, ma'am.
It's all about Mona anyway.
What are the cops after her for?
Well, she tried to kill herself this morning.
Mona?
Yeah.
Why? Why'd she do a thing like that?
Well, we thought maybe you could help us there.
Why me? I haven't got anything to do with it.
Well, we understand you're pretty friendly with it.
Sure, I was a friend of Mona's, but I don't know anything about no suicide.
I don't know anything about it and I don't want to.
Do you know any reason she might try to take her own life?
Not a reason in the world. Not Mona.
Do you know if she was under a doctor's care for any reason?
No. I mean, I don't know.
Didn't say anything about it. I never said a word.
Why she?
Well, that's what we're trying to find out.
Can you think of any enemies she had? Anybody who might have wanted to hurt her?
How far is this going to go?
Well, how do you mean, miss?
I mean, who's going to hear about this? Who's going to hear the answers I'm going to give them?
Well, no one. Now, what do you got for us?
Well, I'll give you this for free.
If anything happens to Mona, you go talk to Dick Burdick.
Talk to him. He'll be able to tell you.
Why do you say that?
Because it's true. No other reason. He's a real bum.
You ask me, I think there's something wrong with him. You know, in the head.
Well, do you have any reason to say that?
All the reason in the world. Poor girl.
This bum all the time coming around, giving her trouble.
All the time telling her how he's going to kill her and anybody that comes near her.
Burdick said that to Miss Fenton, did he?
Half a dozen times. It wasn't one a week ago.
Mona told me she told him off, told him to get lost. She wanted any part of him, to leave her alone.
He made a big scene. Mona told me all about it.
One day this Terry drove in here.
Got one of those flashy foreign cars.
The Jaguar?
I think so, yeah.
Alright, go ahead.
Well, one day he drove into the place. Mona took care of him.
I guess he liked Mona. He kept coming back. Always parked in her station.
Anyway, this Burdick kid found out about it.
Wasn't anything for him to worry about, but he made a big thing about it.
Told Mona she was supposed to stop seeing Terry. Said if she didn't, he was going to cause real trouble.
Did he say what he was going to do?
I think he was kidding. I don't think he really mattered. He's just a kid.
Who would he say?
I really don't think he mattered.
Well, alright. Now what did he say to her?
Said if he found them together again, kill them both.
We talked to the other girls on the drive in.
From them we got the same story about the scenes that Richard Burdick had created.
We got more information about the threats that he'd made against the Fenton girl and Terry Hamilton.
From one of the girls we got the address of Hamilton.
2.45 p.m. We left the drive in and drove over to the address of the girl's boyfriend, Richard Burdick.
We talked to the landlady. She told us that the Burdick boy had regular habits.
He paid his rent on time. He never had any visitors.
She told us that he wasn't in his room at that time, but she said that she'd let us in.
In her company we went upstairs. She unlocked the door and Frank and I went in.
I'll check the bedroom. I'll take the kitchen.
Yeah.
Nothing out there. How'd you do?
Looks like we're a little late.
What?
His clothes are gone.
We checked the room further.
Every indication was that Richard Burdick had left the apartment in a hurry.
We talked to the landlady again. She could give us no reason for his disappearance.
She gave us the name of his employer.
We put in a call to them, but they told us that Burdick had failed to show up for work that day.
4.15 p.m. We put in a call to the hotel on Grand Avenue,
but the handyman still hadn't returned and there'd been no word from him.
We went back to the office and checked the name Richard Burdick through our eye,
but we found no criminal record for anybody answering his description.
We put out a local and an APB on him.
At 4.39 p.m. we got a call from General Hospital telling us that the Fenton girl had regained consciousness
and that we could talk to her.
Frank and I left the office and traveled code two out to the hospital.
The doctor on duty told us that the girl was out of danger, but that she was very weak.
He asked us not to get her excited and he led us into her room.
Miss Fenton?
Yes, who are you?
Police officers.
Why can't you leave me alone? Go away.
Just a couple of questions we'd like to ask you.
I don't want to talk to anybody. Why didn't you leave things the way they were?
Why didn't you leave me alone?
I mean, you had a lot of people worried, Miss.
No reason for it.
Be better all the way around if things had happened the way I planned them.
And you did try to kill yourself?
Yes.
Who was with you in that hotel room?
You mean Mr. Morris?
Yeah.
It was Terry.
It was always Terry. He was going to marry me, then he didn't.
He said he wouldn't, he didn't.
That way you did what you did?
Yes.
You used narcotics, Miss Fenton?
Hmm?
You used narcotics?
Yes, that was Terry's idea, too.
I think that's all he wanted with me, just to get me hooked so I'd have to do what he said.
I think that was the reason.
How about this Richard Burdick?
What about him?
Do you have anything to do with you deciding to take your own life?
In a lot of ways.
The biggest mistake I ever made was leaving Richard.
I thought it was smart, real smart. I was going to show him.
Terry said he'd marry me. He said he was in love with me.
He got you started on narcotics?
Yeah.
At first it wasn't so bad. I loved him, really I did.
Then when I had to have the fixers, he changed.
Told me he couldn't give it to me anymore.
I was going to have to pay for it.
I tried to tell him to tell him that I loved him.
I wanted to be with him.
So I went to the hotel to talk it over.
Try to come to an understanding, some kind of an understanding.
He said that he didn't want to have anything to do with me.
He wanted no part of me anymore.
Said that I was going to have to pay for the H from now on.
I didn't have any way to pay for it.
He said it wasn't any of his business.
He a user?
Yeah.
Also stupid, also stupid.
Ma'am?
The whole thing. I had it real good all the way around.
And then I went ahead and ruined everything, tore it all down.
Even if I'd have killed myself, it would have been no answer.
Not the right answer anyway.
I know that. I know it real well.
Can you tell us where you can find this Terry?
I bet I can.
I want to see him feel like I do.
I want him to know what it's like.
Would you be willing to meet with him?
Make a buy off Narcotics Force?
You name the time, I'll be there.
I'll be there if I have to crawl.
All right. You better get some rest now.
I guess so.
I'm pretty tired.
Did you see my mother?
Yes, ma'am.
Is she real mad at me?
No, I don't think she is.
Would you call her?
Ask her to come and see me. Tell her I'm sorry.
Tell her I want to see her.
Now she'll be glad to hear that.
I hope so.
I got so much to tell her, her and Richard.
How much to tell them both?
All right, Miss Femme. We'll get in touch with her.
And you tell me when you want me to call Terry. You tell me.
All right, we will.
Terrible thing, isn't it?
What's that?
Terry.
He's been around a long time.
Must be other girls in the same fix all because of him.
Girls who have a bad habit and have to do what he says.
Girls like me, terrible.
Nobody knows how many.
Yes, ma'am.
Where's it going to end?
I'll meet him.
Terry Norris Hamilton was tried and convicted of violation of the State Narcotics Act, a felony, one count.
He received sentence as prescribed by law.
Violation of the State Narcotics Act, a felony, is punishable by imprisonment in the State Penitentiary for a period of from one to five years.
Irene Fenton pled guilty to the same charge and was placed on probation for a period of three years with the provision that she be placed under the care of a competent psychiatrist.
Dragnet, the story of your police force in action is a presentation of the United States Armed Forces Radio Service.
The United States Armed Forces Radio Service is a production of the United States Armed Forces Radio Service.