Ladies and gentlemen, the story you are about to hear is true.
The names have been changed to protect the innocent.
Tragmen.
You're a detective sergeant.
You're assigned to homicide detail.
The body of an attractive woman has been found in a downtown office building.
Beaten to death with a piece of lead pipe.
The killer has escaped into the city.
Your job, find him.
It was Thursday, April 15th.
It was warm in Los Angeles.
We were working the day watch out of homicide detail.
My partner is Frank Smith.
The boss is Captain Lorman.
My name is Friday.
We just left the murder room and it was 7.40 a.m. when we got to suite 718, the building
manager's office.
Miss Joyce?
Yes.
Are you men cops?
Yes ma'am.
I understand you're the one who found the body, is that right?
That's right.
I found her.
It was an awful thing.
This is my partner, Frank Smith.
My name is Friday.
I wonder if you feel up to telling us exactly what happened.
Oh sure.
It's about the most terrible thing ever happened to me.
There's something we can get you, ma'am.
Oh no thanks.
Jamie brought me some hot coffee.
Where's Janie?
Janie, all of course she works the first three floors.
She brought me some hot coffee.
I see.
She was up here and they let her bring it.
All right Miss Joyce, if you'd just tell us about it please.
Right from the beginning, you want to hear all about the whole thing?
If you would please.
Well, I came on at four just like always.
I punched in and came up to the 10th floor and started in.
Got the things out of the closet on the 10th.
Usually I start on the 7th, but now and then I like to do it a little different and I start
on 10 and work down.
Yes ma'am.
What time was it when you found the body?
Oh, just a few minutes ago.
I guess about seven, right around in there.
I only had two more offices to do and I'd be finished.
I just had two more when I got there.
Yes ma'am.
Could you go ahead and tell us about finding the body?
Oh, well, I unlocked the door and I saw the light inside.
I thought it was kind of funny because usually it's dark.
You mean in the office?
Yes, and where Mrs. Fitzgerald's desk is, it's usually dark.
I thought it was kind of funny, like I said, but then I thought that maybe she was working.
She does accounting, you know, woman accountant, and I thought she was working, so I knocked.
I didn't just want to go right in if she was working, you know, disturbers, so I knocked,
but she didn't answer.
Go ahead, please.
I opened the door and went in.
Right off, I was kind of sore about it.
No excuse for a thing like that.
No excuse at all.
What do you mean?
Well, didn't you see the place?
Didn't you look?
Yes.
Well, then you know what a mess it was.
Papers all over the floor, and ashtrays spilled, all that mess, and I'm supposed to be through
at 730.
I'd never made it, never got through on time.
And that's when I saw her behind the desk.
Oh, it was an awful thing.
There she was on the floor, dead.
Yes, ma'am.
And there was no one else in the office?
No.
Just Mrs. Fitzgerald.
She was on the floor behind the desk.
And why'd you do that?
Oh, I screamed.
Loud, as loud as I could.
I wanted somebody to come up there right away.
When that was the first time I ever saw anybody dead.
Then I ran out of the office and went downstairs to get somebody to help.
Just an awful thing.
Oh, poor Mrs. Fitzgerald.
Oh, she was so sick.
I was so sick.
I was so sick.
I was so sick.
I was so sick.
I was so sick.
I was so sick.
I was so sick.
I was so sick.
I was so sick.
I was so sick.
Oh, poor Mrs. Fitzgerald.
Oh, she was so nice.
All the time saying hello when she'd come in early and I'd still be working.
Oh, I think about it, and I just can't believe that it's true.
I just can't hardly believe it.
Did you see anyone on the floor while you were working?
Yes, Mrs. Fitzgerald.
Oh, ma'am.
I mean, was there anybody in the halls of the building?
Oh, no.
No, not that I saw.
There wasn't anybody.
I haven't seen them if they were there, but they weren't.
Alright, Miss Joyce. We'll contact you tomorrow about a statement.
Meantime, we'll leave you one of our cards here.
If you think of anything we should know, we'd appreciate it if you'd give us a call.
Oh, I sure will. Anything at all I think of, I'll call you.
Can I go now?
Yes, ma'am. Certainly.
I'm going to go home and take a hot bath and calm my nerves.
Surely.
Oh, it sure is going to be a shock to her husband.
Of course, not that he'll mind too much.
I beg your pardon?
Her husband, you know, Mr. Fitzgerald.
Yes, ma'am. What about him?
Well, just that it isn't going to bother that one too much.
Why do you say that?
Well, I shouldn't have said anything.
Not a word. I shouldn't have told you I'd get fired, sure.
Well, if it's got anything to do with Miss Fitzgerald's death, maybe you'd better tell us, don't you think?
Well, if you'll promise not to tell the supervisor.
Alright, go ahead.
It gets dull just being in a big building by yourself, all alone at night when there isn't anybody around.
It's pretty dull.
Well, not for a while. Not real often.
Just once in a while I kind of read some of the letters that people throw away, you know, in the wastebasket.
They don't want them anymore, so when it gets real dull, I read them.
I've read some in Mrs. Fitzgerald's office from her husband, Mr. Fitzgerald.
Yeah.
Seems like they've been having some kind of a big fight, going to court and all.
I don't know what it's all about, but they've been fighting.
I guess he tells how she ought to leave him alone.
I guess she's asking for a lot of alimony or something. That's what it sounded like to me.
Some of the letters, the way he wrote to her, mean he used to threaten her all the time.
You saw these letters where he threatened her, did you?
Yes. One, I guess it was about a week ago.
He said in that that she tried to railroad the things through.
Now, that's what he said. Railroad the thing through. He'd come up here and...
Yes, go ahead.
Well, that's all there is. I couldn't find the other piece of the letter where he said what he was going to do.
See, she tore up the letters after she read them.
All right, Miss Joyce, thank you very much.
No, I hope I helped.
Yes, ma'am, you certainly have.
I wish I could have found that other piece of the letter. No way of knowing what it said.
Yes, ma'am.
Do you suppose he really meant it?
I don't know. We'll ask him.
The Murder Weapon
By the time Frank and I had arrived at the scene, the crew from the crime lab was there.
Photographs of the entire room were taken and fingerprints were lifted from the edges of the desk, from the top of a lamp, and from the molding around the door.
The murder weapon, a 15-inch section of heavy lead pipe, was booked for evidence.
There was nothing we could tell from the pipe itself other than the fact that it was the murder instrument.
It was a plain piece of three-quarter inch pipe.
One end was wrapped in a heavy brown paper. The other was bloodstained.
Because of the appearance of the office, it looked as if robbery was the motive for the crime.
However, on examination of the victim's personal effects, we found that two large diamond rings were still on her fingers.
In her purse, we found cash in the amount of $226.
On the desk itself, we found a woman's wristwatch set with 12 diamonds.
The fact that none of this had been removed apparently ruled out robbery as the motive.
The other employees of the building were questioned, but they were unable to shed any light on a possible suspect.
None of them had seen any unauthorized persons in the place after closing hours.
People on the street in the immediate vicinity were questioned.
The only lead we were able to come up with was that at approximately 7.02 a.m., a newsboy had seen a short, stocky man walk from the office building entrance.
Other than the brief description of the man's build, the witness was unable to tell us anything.
An immediate broadcast was gotten out on what information we had.
From a telephone book in the victim's desk, we got an address for her husband, Oscar Fitzgerald.
It was a men's club located in downtown Los Angeles.
Frank and I drove over to talk to him.
Come in.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Sit down. I'll call for some coffee. You fellas want some?
No, no thanks.
Oh, sure.
You don't mind if I have some?
No, you go right ahead.
Room service, please.
Kind of early for the cops to come calling in.
Yes, sir, I guess it is.
This is Mr. Fitzgerald, room 417. Would you please send up a pot of coffee?
That's right.
Oh, and send a large glass of orange juice too, huh?
Yeah, make sure it's cold.
417.
Right.
One thing I can't go is warm orange juice. Would you like a cigarette?
Yeah, thank you.
Now, what's this all about? What do you want to see me for?
Well, when's the last time you saw your wife?
Ada?
Thank you.
I guess a couple weeks ago. Why?
Well, can you narrow that down to a day?
Why? Any special reason for me to?
Well, we'd like to hear it.
Let's see. I guess it was around March 30th. I can check it if it's important.
Where did you see her?
My lawyers. We had a conference to try and work out the divorce and settlement.
What line of work are you in, Fitzgerald?
I think you'd better tell me what this is all about before I answer any more questions.
If this is some sort of trick Ada's trying, you tell her it won't work and she can get off my back.
No, it's no trick. I think it might be better if you'd cooperate with us and answer the question.
All right, but I'm going to tell you going in that if you try to pull a fast one, I'm going to deny everything I tell you now.
You tell us the truth, you won't have any trouble. Now, where do you work?
Right now, I'm between.
What's that mean exactly?
I'm an actor right now. I haven't got an assignment.
Where'd you work last?
Picture studio. Look, until you tell me what this is for, I'm not going to give you any names.
Can you give us your movements for the past few days?
Starting when?
Let's try the day before yesterday.
Okay, I got up and went out to see my agent. Of course, that was a waste of time.
Hung around the office for a couple hours and then had lunch on the strip.
After that, I came downtown, saw a movie, I came home, took a shower and then got to dinner again.
You proved that?
I have to, yeah. But you're getting no names until I know what's going on.
All right, how about yesterday? What'd you do then?
I got up and went out to my agents. He told me he had a part on the farm. We went out on an interview.
I was at the studio until about 4.30 and then we went back to my agents' office and had a couple of drinks.
After that, I came back here. Didn't feel too good and I went to bed.
The man at the desk would be able to verify all that, would he?
Yeah, just ask him.
Fitzgerald, how'd you get along with your wife?
Well, it's not any of your business, but I'll tell you. It isn't any secret. I hated everything about it.
You ever have any fights with her?
Not more than five a week for the past four years.
You ever hit her?
You know, people win money for answering questions on quiz shows. What happens if I answer the big one?
Well, that depends on how you're going to answer it.
I understand you wrote your wife some threatening letters. Now, is that right?
I guess you could call them that, yeah. I told her to get off my back and leave me alone.
Told her if she didn't, she was building more trouble than she could handle.
Did you ever threaten her life?
No. I'm not going to try to tell you that there weren't times when I could have killed Ada.
There were a lot of them, but it wasn't worth it, not for her.
What'd you argue about mostly?
The divorce. I've been trying to get one for the last four years. Ada wouldn't see it.
Finally, when I did talk her into it, the settlement she wanted was way out of line. I wouldn't go for it and told her so.
What's all this about the fights and the threatening anyway? Something happened to Ada, is that it?
Yes, sir.
Has she been hurt?
I'm afraid it's more serious than that.
She dead?
Yes, sir.
You think I did it?
No, we're checking everybody that knew her.
Okay, I told her there were times when I could have, when I maybe wanted to, but I wouldn't go to jail for it.
Not ever. You gotta find another boy and when you do, I'll go as lawyers' fee.
Yeah.
How'd they do it?
Piece of lead pipe.
Bad?
Yeah.
Rough way to go.
Is there an easy way?
We made a preliminary search of the room, but we found nothing that would tie in the victim's husband, Oscar Fitzgerald, with the crime.
We talked to the desk clerk and he verified the man's story that he'd been in his apartment the evening of the killing.
Fitzgerald made arrangements with us to attend the coroner's inquest and Frank and I went back to the city hall.
We checked with the crime lab on their investigation.
Lieutenant Lee Jones told us that they'd been able to lift several partial fingerprints from the murder weapon, but that they were impossible to classify.
He went on to say that the other prints that had been found at the scene were unusable as evidence, since it would be difficult to get enough points for identification.
The other physical evidence taken from the office was of little use.
A check had been made of the piece of pipe, but it was found to be of a common type and impossible to trace.
Microphotographs had been made of the serrated edges, and these had been booked as evidence.
We asked the stats office to make a run on the MO of the crime, and they told us that they would start through their files immediately.
For the next two days, Frank and I talked to all of the friends and relatives of the victim, attempting to find a motive for the crime.
From what we had to work on, the only plausible reason for the killing was either revenge or jealousy.
None of Mrs. Fitzgerald's friends or business acquaintances were able to point out anyone with a strong enough reason to kill the woman.
Monday, April 19, Frank and I got back to the office after interviewing one of the victim's business competitors.
Well, that's another one that didn't go anyplace.
Seems like that's all we've been drawing on this one, doesn't it?
Yeah. I'll check the book.
Anything come in from the stats office yet?
No. Said they'd have the rest to run for us this afternoon.
First punch didn't turn anything. I got it.
Homicide Friday. Yeah, Jack.
Anything on him? Sure.
We're no place now.
Well, no, anything's gotta be it.
Want to give me that address? All right.
All right, we'll check it. Go ahead.
All right, Jack. Thanks again. Bye.
Jack McCready says he talked to one of his informants this morning. Guy came up with a couple of good things, maybe.
Yeah?
One of them's about a guy in the Olympia bar at Fourth and Kohler. A fellow's pretty drunk, been doing a lot of talking down there.
Something for us? Maybe. He's bragging about beating a woman to death with a piece of pipe.
Four forty p.m. We left the office and drove over to the corner of Fourth and Kohler, the Olympia bar.
When we walked in, there were only a few customers in the place.
At the far end of the bar, a short, stocky man was sitting alone.
In front of him was an empty shot glass and a bottle of beer.
He appeared to be pretty drunk and as we entered, he was talking to the other people seated at the bar.
And if you guys don't believe it, just come outside with me and I'll show you.
I'll show you all, every one of you.
But, Heather, I got an empty glass. Now let's do something about it, huh?
I need a drink.
I think you had about enough of that, don't you?
Huh?
I said you had enough to drink.
Who are you to tell me that, huh?
Who are you to come in here and tell me what to do? What's the matter? You think you're cops or something, huh?
Is that what you think?
You called it. Come on, we want to talk to you.
You mean you are cops?
That's right.
Well, listen, you better get out of here and do it fast. If you know what's good for you, you just better.
Frank, yeah?
Take your hands off me. You guys don't hear good, do you?
Stand still.
You come messing around with me, you're gonna find out. You'll find out good. I'll give you the same thing I gave her, the same thing.
Hold it, Frank.
All right, come on, mister.
Who are you talking about?
I'll tell you who. I'll tell you good. And you'll know, leave me alone if you know what's good for you.
I'm talking about that Ada Fitzgerald, that's who. Ada.
You're messing with me and you'll get what she got. I'm a pretty rough fella, you know. Pretty rough.
That right.
You betcha. You're not dealing with a kid, you know.
Well, that makes it even then, doesn't it?
Huh?
You're not dealing with a woman.
We took the suspect down to the homicide squad room. He identified himself as Carl Neely. He was handcuffed to a chair and we ran his name through the record bureau.
He had a long string of arrests for various charges, including attempted robbery, assault, and assault with intent to do great bodily harm.
He'd never been convicted on a felony, but his record showed that he'd served two terms in the county jail for drunk charges and creating a public nuisance.
While we were checking his record, the suspect passed out in an alcoholic stupor in the squad room.
We contacted Sergeant Jack McCready and Officer Danny Galindo and asked them to make a search of the suspect's residence.
In going over the place, they'd found a bloodstained shirt and a coat. The garments were packed in a cardboard box that had been hidden under the kitchen sink.
They were brought downtown to us along with an empty envelope found in the apartment.
It had been sent to the suspect, Neely, and the return address on the back indicated that the letter had been sent by the victim's husband, Oscar Fitzgerald.
We waited for the suspect to come to, enough for us to question him.
Frank went out and brought back some hot coffee. We tried to get Neely to drink some of it. 8.40 p.m.
It's hot.
All right, come on, try some more.
You're a cop, son.
You've been there out before.
Yeah. What am I here for?
I want to talk to you about the Fitzgerald woman.
Oh, yeah? I'm spouting off again.
You said you killed her.
Figures.
Every time I get tanked up, I always kill somebody.
Where ever it fails.
All right, tell us about the Fitzgerald woman.
Nothing to tell. I read about it in the papers. This morning I started drinking.
It always happens when I've been belting the booze. I right away tell people I killed somebody.
These clothes here belong to you.
Let me see. I don't know, where'd you get them?
Are they yours?
I don't know.
You got that many clothes?
I know all the clothes I got. No trouble at all.
You don't dress as good as me.
All right, come off it, Neely. You're in trouble. Big trouble here.
You sat in the bar this morning, told everybody about how you'd beaten a woman to death.
We find these clothes in your apartment, blood stains all over them.
Here's another thing, this envelope. Where'd you get this?
Through the mail, like it says. You see the stamp?
You know Oscar Fitzgerald?
I don't get mail from strangers. Sure I know him.
Is it a crime to get a letter now?
What was in that envelope?
I don't think that's none of your business.
Well, we do. What kind of dealings have you got with Oscar Fitzgerald?
You used to work for him?
Doing what?
We took care of the place when him and Ada were married.
Sort of a general handyman.
When did you see him last?
I don't know, maybe a couple of months ago or around there. A couple of three months.
What did he find so important that he wrote you about it?
He loaned me some money. He sent me a check.
It was a loan, huh? Yeah.
Signed any sort of note for the money?
I endorsed the check. It said on it I was alone.
What are you guys trying to prove anyway?
You're trying to tie me in with Ada's killing?
You look good for it.
You're off your rocker. I had nothing to do with it.
Sure, you got me for drunk, but that's all.
Your record makes you look good for it.
The clothes we found in your apartment don't help you.
You sure Oscar Fitzgerald didn't pay you to kill his wife?
It'd be a lot better if you told us the truth here in the unit.
I'm telling you the truth. It's right in front of you.
All you gotta do is open your eyes. It's there.
Where'd the blood stains come from?
They're mine.
Well, tell us about it.
I got in a fight with another fellow.
Where?
The bar down on 7th.
When?
Wednesday.
Last week?
Yeah, last Wednesday.
What time did you have this fight?
Closing time.
That'd make it about 2 o'clock, huh?
That's when the bar is closed.
Where'd you go after you had the fight?
Went up to a friend's house and had a couple more drinks.
Who's a friend?
You don't know him. He's got no record.
What's his name?
I don't want him dragged into anything.
What's his name?
Jackie Meadows.
Let me see your hands, Neely.
Here.
You got some pretty bad bruises there.
You must have hit something pretty hard.
The fight I told you about, that's where those came from.
Tell us what you did after you left the bar.
I told you. I went up to Jackie's.
I had a couple of drinks.
What time did you get there?
Around 3, maybe 3.10.
What time did you leave?
About 5.
Where'd you go?
I don't remember too good. I was pretty boozed up.
Where do you think you went?
Well, Jackie was worried about me being cut up from the fight.
He wanted me to see a doctor.
Yeah?
He drove me down to Georgia Street Receiving Hospital.
I was there until 9.30 Thursday morning.
The call was put through to Dr. Hall at Georgia Street Receiving Hospital,
asking if a patient was given emergency treatment on the morning of Thursday, April 15.
A search of the hospital records verified the story told to us by the suspect, Carl Neely.
We checked through our crime reports and we found that a miscellaneous injury report had been made.
From the coroner's report, we knew that the victim had been murdered between the hours of 5 a.m. and 7 a.m. on that morning.
We got in touch with Neely's friend, Jackie Meadows, and he also verified the suspect's story.
He was booked in at the main jail on a charge of being drunk in a public place,
and Frank and I started checking out the remainder of the list that the stats office had given us.
Originally, there had been 12 names on the list.
We talked to 10 of them.
The 11th, a Norman Sitkin, had a record of burglary, attempted robbery, and assault with a deadly weapon.
He'd been arrested and brought to trial on a charge of murder three years previously, but he'd been acquitted.
The circumstances surrounding his arrest were the same as those in the Fitzgerald case.
The main reason he'd been released, a free man, was the testimony of his mother,
who had sworn that Sitkin had been home with her on the night of the killing.
When we went out to his home, we found that he wasn't there.
We talked to his mother and she told us that he'd been in San Diego for the past three days.
Under interrogation, we established the fact that on the night of the Fitzgerald killing,
Sitkin hadn't been at home, but that he had been in Los Angeles.
We put in a call to the San Diego authorities and talked to Lieutenant Mort Geer in the homicide detail.
We contacted the hotel where he was staying in Los Angeles, and a 24-hour stakeout was placed on the location.
Wednesday, April 21st, Frank and I got back from lunch.
Better put in a call to Mort, huh, see if they got anything on Sitkin?
Yeah. You want to do it?
Right.
Hi, this is Frank Smith, robbery.
Yeah, I'd like to put in a call to San Diego PD Homicide Bureau, Lieutenant Mort Geer.
No, it's a homicide.
Yeah, DR 132549.
Yeah, that's the one.
That's 3268. Huh?
Well, 58.
All right. Okay, Sam, thanks.
I'm on this one, Joe.
Oh, sorry. Homicide Friday.
Yes, sir?
No, that's right. When was that?
Yes, sir, right away.
Cancel that call, Frank.
What do you got?
Sitkin just walked into his hotel.
Frank and I left the office immediately and drove out to Sitkin's hotel.
We talked to the officers on stakeout, and they told us that the suspect had just returned.
They went on to explain that they'd given Sitkin no reason to suspect that anything was wrong, and that he'd gone directly to his room.
Frank and I got in the elevator, and we went up to the fourth floor.
Yeah?
All right, just a minute.
Yeah? What do you want?
You Norman Sitkin?
Yeah, what do you want?
Police officer.
Come on.
You got no right to do this. Let me see your warrant.
Get your coat, Sitkin. We want to talk to you.
What for? What do you got to talk to me about? I got nothing to say.
Get your coat.
Why? What's the charge? What are you taking me in for?
Suspicion of murder?
You're kidding.
Well, you just keep thinking that.
You mean this is for real?
Come on, let's go.
No, wait a minute. I want to know what this is all about.
Is that so?
Well, sure. I figure I had something to do with that woman who was beaten to death downtown.
Fitzgerald, I think that's the name, huh? Isn't that what you think?
Well, you seem to know all about it.
Well, you're way off on this one. I got an alibi that you can't break.
I can see you guys figuring, because I stood this kind of beef once before, you can make a stick this time.
Well, it won't work, cop. None of it fits together. I can prove where I was that night every minute.
All right.
That's right, every minute. You checking my house, happens I was with my mother, just like the other time. All night, I was home.
You going to stand on that?
Well, there isn't any other way.
Well, that's going to make it a lot easier, then.
What's that supposed to mean?
We talked to your mother. She says you weren't home that night.
She's wrong. You let me talk to her. She'll tell you. You just let me talk to her.
She's sure you weren't there. She's willing to testify to that.
Get out of my way!
All right, come on.
Want to get the cuffs?
Yeah.
Hold still.
Funny, isn't it?
What's that?
He might have been good on that first killing, the one he was acquitted on. His mother might have lied on the stand.
That's not going to make a lot of difference, is it?
Huh?
He's going to make up for it on this one.
Norman Edward Sitkin was tried and convicted for murder in the first degree.
On recommendation of the jury, he received the maximum penalty.
And on July 19th, he was executed in the lethal gas chamber at the State Penitentiary, San Quentin, California.
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