Friday - The Dragnet Podcast

Originally Aired: September 14, 1952

Dragnet #169, "The Big Bull," Detective Sergeant Joe Friday and his partner Frank Smith are closing in on the last member of a vicious robbery gang. After successfully rounding up the crew responsible for 32 armed robberies across Los Angeles, only one dangerous criminal remains at large: Leroy Bentley, known as "The Bull," the gang's brutal heavyman who routinely beat victims for no apparent reason. With an informant's help, Friday and Smith are days away from making the final arrest.

The case takes a dark personal turn when Frank Smith receives an urgent call from his wife Faye. A man identifying himself as Bull Bentley has phoned their home with terrifying threats against Frank's family, warning that the phone is tapped and the house is being watched. When the Smiths' young son Mike fails to arrive home from school, Friday and Smith must race to find the boy while Captain Diddy sends backup to protect the family. With a desperate criminal who has nothing to lose targeting one of their own, the detectives face their most personal and dangerous challenge yet.

Originally Aired: September 11, 1952

Dragnet #168, "The Big Tear," Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Frank Smith take on a cunning burglar who has stolen approximately $80,000 in money and jewelry over the course of a year. The suspect's unusual calling card is drinking a glass of milk in the living room of every house he burglarizes, carefully wiping away any fingerprints before leaving through the back door. Despite operating in broad daylight between 3:30 and 6:00 PM in the Wilshire to Pico area, he remains a phantom—victims who have glimpsed him leaving provide wildly contradictory descriptions, from tall and thin to short and husky.

Captain Wisdom assigns Friday and Smith to the case full-time, supplementing their investigation with ten Metro Division patrol units to saturate the neighborhood. For two months, the detectives work the area methodically while the burglar strikes only twice more, somehow evading the heavy police presence. Then, just fifteen minutes before the end of their watch on September 5th, Friday and Smith spot a man struggling with a door lock using a suspicious-looking tool—and their patience may finally be rewarded.

Originally Aired: September 4, 1952

Dragnet #167, "The Big Ray," Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Frank Smith respond to what appears to be a straightforward accidental death at 2102 West Francis Avenue. Alfred Kenneth Prater has collapsed during dinner, apparently from a heart attack, striking his head on the table and fracturing his skull. His wife Ellen describes a devoted husband and happy fourteen-year marriage, explaining how Alfred suddenly clutched his chest and staggered before falling. However, the routine investigation takes a troubling turn when Ellen's mother, Mrs. Atkins, offers a starkly different account of the victim and the incident.

Mrs. Atkins insists that Alfred was drunk, not suffering a heart attack, and paints a picture of a lazy, abusive man who resented her presence in the household. She describes him as a "drunken bum" who spent time carousing in bars and mistreated his family. The conflicting testimonies from the two women create immediate tension, with Ellen defending her late husband's character while her mother remains adamant about what she witnessed. With no prior medical history and no death certificate, Friday and Smith must determine whether this was truly an accident or something more sinister.

Originally Aired: August 28, 1952

Dragnet #166, "The Big Test," Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Frank Smith face a harrowing case when a young man named Bruce Hamilton staggers into the homicide division with his face badly cut and bruised. Bruce tells a shocking story: he and his best friend Kevin had been prospecting in Mexico during summer vacation when a group of horsemen rode into their camp. After the leader spoke to them in Spanish, which they couldn't understand, the situation turned violent. When Kevin tried to stop the men from ransacking their supplies, he was shot twice and killed. Bruce managed to escape into a gully, barely avoiding the bullets fired at him.

Visibly shaken and fighting back tears, Bruce recounts how he returned to bury Kevin with his bare hands after the attackers had stolen everything from their camp. With no supplies, identification, or transportation left behind, he walked five miles only to discover their car had been stolen as well. Now Friday and Smith must determine whether this tragic tale holds up to investigation, as the exhausted young man's ordeal raises questions that only careful detective work can answer.

Originally Aired: August 21, 1952

Dragnet #165, "The Big Paper," Sergeant Joe Friday and his partner Frank Smith are called to forgery detail when small neighborhood merchants fall victim to a check forger using an old but effective scheme. Martin Miller, owner of Marty's Mart at Sixth and Benson, arrives at the station after being sent by his banker, Mr. Alms. Miller explains that someone has been forging checks from his business account under the name Roger Theodore. While the bank initially discovered seven forged checks all passed on the same Saturday night, Miller and his wife Emma conduct their own investigation and discover the thief actually stole fourteen checks from the back of their checkbook, which they keep under the counter with the size twelve paper bags.

Friday and Smith begin piecing together how the theft occurred. Miller can't recall any suspicious strangers in his store, but admits that he and Emma sometimes leave the counter unattended when they duck into the back for lunch. The detectives realize the checks must have been stolen within the past couple weeks, around the time the Millers received their new checkbook. As Friday sends Miller to give a full statement to the stenographer, the investigation into this methodical check forger begins.

Originally Aired: August 14, 1952

Dragnet #164, "The Big Drive," finds Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Frank Smith investigating a brutal homicide in a vacant lot near Fountain and Selma. The victim, beaten to death with a piece of concrete, is discovered by schoolgirls whose screams bring the entire neighborhood running. Unfortunately, well-meaning neighbors have trampled the crime scene, obliterating crucial physical evidence before the police arrive. The only lead comes from a young couple who heard men arguing near a dark sedan around the time of the killing, but they can provide few useful details about the car or its occupants.

Through the victim's driver's license and personal effects, Friday and Smith identify him as John Allen Iverson, a twenty-eight-year-old man. With robbery ruled out as a motive since Iverson's money and expensive watch remain untouched, the detectives face the difficult task of determining why he was killed. They must now deliver the devastating news to his mother, a widow who has already endured the loss of her husband just two years earlier. The investigation begins with few clues and many questions.

Originally Aired: August 7, 1952

Dragnet #163, "The Big Impression,"

Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Frank Smith respond to a brutal robbery at the Morgan Hotel, where elderly jeweler Mr. Ruman has been attacked and robbed of a fortune in unset diamonds—possibly worth over a hundred thousand dollars. The victim had brought his finest collection to room 922 to meet with Fred Roberts, a man claiming to be entering the diamond business, and his supposedly wealthy father. While examining the stones by the window, Roberts struck Ruman on the back of the head and fled with the entire collection in a black leather sample case.

As Friday interviews the shaken victim, Ruman fixates on Roberts' "shifty, little bitty eyes set close together," insisting he should have recognized the danger from the start. Despite his injuries and trauma, Ruman seems oddly preoccupied with status, expressing disappointment that the police sent only a sergeant rather than a captain to investigate such a significant crime. Friday and Smith gather descriptions from hotel staff and prepare to take Ruman to headquarters to review mug shots, while investigators search for the missing weapon and any trace of the elusive Fred Roberts.

Originally Aired: July 31, 1952

Dragnet #162, "The Big Signet," Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Frank Smith investigate a vicious robbery at a South Hill cafe where 68-year-old owner William Reiner was brutally pistol-whipped during a holdup. Two armed bandits made off with over $800 in cash and a valuable $1,500 diamond signet ring. When responding radio car officers surprised the criminals, they managed to shoot one of them—identified as career criminal Benny Ashford—but his accomplice escaped into the night. Ashford refuses to cooperate from his hospital bed, leaving the detectives to piece together the identity of the second suspect.

Friday and Smith visit the Reiner home to interview the victims, hoping to gather crucial details that might have been overlooked during the initial investigation. Mrs. Reiner, shaken by the violence against her elderly husband and now determined to sell their restaurant, works to recall details about the suspects. She believes the two men may have been customers in the bar earlier that evening, and she remembers the face of the man who attacked her husband with frightening clarity. The detectives methodically gather her description of the escaped assailant as they build their case.

Originally Aired: July 10, 1952

Dragnet #161, "The Big Hate," presents Sergeant Joe Friday and Frank Smith with a haunting mystery. A 25-year-old man named Gordon John Miller is discovered hiding in a freight car at a deserted train yard, clutching the body of a dead woman. Despite the grim circumstances, Gordon refuses to speak or cooperate with investigators, even as Friday patiently walks him through everything the police already know. The victim's identity remains unknown at first, with no visible marks to indicate cause of death, though evidence suggests she was a heavy drinker.

As Friday works to break through Gordon's wall of silence, the investigation slowly yields clues. Among Gordon's possessions are a woman's handkerchief, an address book, and a ring engraved with the name Elizabeth. When fingerprint analysis finally identifies the victim as Elizabeth Hoffman, a 52-year-old music teacher, Friday presses harder for answers. Gordon's continued refusal to explain his connection to the dead woman or why he was found cradling her body in that boxcar only deepens the mystery surrounding this tragic case.

Originally Aired: July 3, 1952

Dragnet #160, "The Big Trio," Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Frank Smith investigate a devastating traffic accident involving four teenagers and an elderly couple. At Georgia Street Receiving Hospital, Friday and Smith learn the grim details: 16-year-old Charles Wheeler took his father's car without permission and convinced three younger children to join him for a joyride. What started as a neighborhood drive escalated into a high-speed chase when Wheeler spotted a police car and decided to outrun it, boasting that he could drive as fast as his father. The result is catastrophic—two 13-year-old girls and a 12-year-old boy suffer horrific injuries, with one girl facing amputation of both legs.

When Mr. Wheeler arrives at the hospital, he refuses to accept his son's responsibility for the accident. Arrogant and defensive, he blames the police for chasing the boy and insists his son is an excellent driver because he taught him himself. As Friday attempts to explain that Charles had no driver's license and endangered lives during a nineteen-mile chase involving eleven police cars, Wheeler's denial and misplaced pride reveal the true cause of the tragedy.

Originally Aired: June 26, 1952

Dragnet #159, "The Big Roll," opens with Sergeants Joe Friday and Frank Smith investigating a violent abduction on a downtown Los Angeles street. At the corner of 11th and South Pierce, bar owner Leon Morley describes the terrifying scene he witnessed around 6 p.m.: two men dragging a screaming, bloodied victim into a gray sedan. The victim pleaded with his attackers, offering them money and his car, but the men forced him into the vehicle and sped away. Morley noticed blood on the victim's clothes and staining the sidewalk, suggesting this was more than a simple robbery.

As Friday and Smith piece together witness statements and examine the crime scene, a troubling question emerges: if the assailants only wanted money, why take the victim with them? The detectives fear the worst - that if the victim can identify his abductors, they may never release him alive. When a call comes in reporting the abandoned gray sedan found at Third and Bixel with bloodstains in the back seat, Friday and Smith rush to the scene, hoping for leads that will help them locate the missing man before it's too late.

Originally Aired: June 19, 1952

Dragnet #158, "The Big Jules," Sergeant Joe Friday and his partner Frank Smith are assigned to narcotics detail, attempting to track down the source of high-grade European heroin that has been flooding Los Angeles for two months. Their break comes when a felony car brings in a well-dressed man named Jennings, caught with two capsules of the same high-quality heroin taped inside his shirt collar. Despite being clearly under the influence, Jennings insists he's not an addict and can "take it or leave it alone," refusing to reveal his source because he's "not an informer."

After booking Jennings into the main jail, Friday and Smith return the next morning to find him in the early stages of withdrawal, trembling and desperate. Faced with his worsening condition, Jennings finally breaks down and gives up a name: Eddie, a tall, blonde bartender who works at a bar on South Main Street near Fourth. Jennings reveals he pays Eddie six dollars per capsule and once followed him to a beer garden on Manchester where Eddie apparently made a pickup. With this lead, Friday and Smith now have their first real connection to trace up the supply chain.

Originally Aired: June 5, 1952

Dragnet #156, "The Big Whiff," begins when an unidentified woman is found dying in a vacant lot at 7th and Union. Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Frank Smith respond to what appears to be a suicide by chloroform poisoning. The victim, tagged as Jane Doe Number Four, is a well-dressed woman in her mid-thirties wearing expensive jewelry, making suicide seem unlikely. Despite her apparent affluence, she carries no identification, no purse, and no wallet. The only clues are an empty chloroform container and a man's handkerchief found near the body.

As Friday and Smith begin their investigation, the autopsy confirms chloroform poisoning with traces found even in her stomach. With no identification possible through fingerprints or missing persons reports, the case appears to be at a standstill. Then the detectives receive an unexpected phone call from a man named James Mitchell, a currently unemployed steel worker, who claims he killed the woman and wants to come in and talk to them.

Originally Aired: May 29, 1952

Dragnet #155, "The Big Fourth," finds Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Frank Smith assigned to juvenile detail, investigating a disturbing pattern of infant abductions. When eight-month-old baby Donaldson is stolen from his mother's car at a neighborhood shopping center, it marks the third child stealing case in less than three weeks. All three cases share a chilling similarity: each baby is taken from the same twelve-square-block area in Los Angeles, with no witnesses, no clear motive, and virtually no evidence. The only potential lead comes from Mrs. Donaldson, who recalls seeing a middle-aged, gray-haired woman in a green sedan parked nearby.

As Friday and Smith work with Captain Stein to devise a decoy operation using policewomen with baby carriages, an unexpected development interrupts their planning. A woman named Marion Bolger phones the station insisting she needs to be investigated to prove her innocence in the baby thefts. Though the detectives have never heard of her and haven't identified any suspects, Mrs. Bolger's strange, unsolicited confession raises immediate questions. Friday and Smith head to her Ewing Street address to determine whether they've found their baby snatcher or encountered something even more peculiar.

Originally Aired: May 22, 1952

Dragnet #154, "The Big Shakedown," finds Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Frank Smith called to the main jail interview room to meet with Lawrence Holmes, a small-time bookmaker they arrested the day before. Holmes, nervous and chain-smoking, has something weighing heavily on his conscience. He explains that after being pinched for bookmaking a year and a half earlier, he went straight until medical bills for his injured son and his wife's gallbladder operation forced him back into taking bets on the side. That's when a man claiming to be a vice officer named Ray Williams came into his store.

Holmes reveals that Williams flashed a badge, admitted knowing all about Holmes's illegal operation, then made a shocking proposition: for a hundred dollars a week in protection money, Holmes could continue making book without fear of arrest. Williams claimed the payoff had to cover himself, his partner, and a couple of higher-ups. When Holmes protested he couldn't afford that much, Williams gave him two weeks to expand his operation and generate the cash. Now Friday and Smith face a deeply troubling case: investigating one of their own for extortion and corruption.

Originally Aired: May 15, 1952

Dragnet #153, "The Big Mail," Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Frank Smith investigate a brazen armed robbery of a United States mail truck carrying twenty-two sacks of registered mail. The case begins with no leads on the identity of the holdup men who forced the postal vehicle off the road and made off with their valuable cargo. In the squad room at 11:05 PM, Friday and Smith interview Bud Houston, the shaken mail truck driver who still vividly recalls the terrifying moments when three armed men in a dark blue sedan forced his truck to the curb on a darkened stretch of Ferguson Street.

Houston recounts how the robbers, one of whom was called Sid and appeared to be the leader, held guns to the crew's heads and commandeered both the postal truck and its crew. As the investigation unfolds, Friday methodically questions Houston about every detail of the truck's routine route from the post office to Union Station and back, searching for any clue that might lead to the perpetrators. With a Post Inspector on the way and Houston's partners being treated for head injuries, the detectives face the challenge of tracking down the thieves with minimal evidence to guide them.

Originally Aired: May 8, 1952

Dragnet #152, "The Big Gamble," Sergeant Joe Friday and his partner Bill Lockwood are tracking a professional gambling ring that's been victimizing dozens of Los Angeles citizens. The operation is elusive, constantly moving locations day to day, making it nearly impossible for the vice detail to pin down. When a down-on-his-luck informant named Dave stops by their office, Friday and Lockwood take him for coffee and donuts to hear what he's learned. Dave has been keeping his ears open at a bar near the bowling alley where he works as a pin setter, and he's overheard something promising about the gamblers' next move.

Dave reports overhearing a conversation involving a man called Mike, whom Friday identifies as Mike Filmer, someone already on their radar. According to Dave's information, there's a big game planned for that night at 11:30 at an address on Gibbons Avenue. As Friday slips Dave a ten-dollar bill for his help, the detectives prepare to follow up on this lead, hoping it will finally give them the break they need to shut down the operation.

Originally Aired: May 1, 1952

Dragnet #151, "The Big Safe," finds Sergeant Joe Friday working the safe detail in Burglary Division, where a professional crew has been hitting drug stores, liquor stores, and markets across Los Angeles for over two months. With his regular partner Bill Lockwood sidelined by an ankle injury, Friday interrogates Charles W. Boyd, a nervous suspect picked up by officers Jones and McCready during a drugstore stakeout. Boyd was caught at quarter to five in the morning trying to jimmy his way into a closed pharmacy, armed with a crowbar he claims is just a tire tool.

Boyd insists he was simply sick and looking for medicine, but his story doesn't hold up under Friday's methodical questioning. The suspect drove ten miles past multiple all-night drugstores, spent over ten minutes casing the location, and tried both front and back doors before attempting to force entry. Friday believes the MO matches the string of professional safe burglaries perfectly—the time, location, and type of business all fit the pattern. As Boyd continues to deny any involvement in safe work, Friday presses harder, determined to crack the case.

Originally Aired: April 24, 1952

Dragnet #150, "The Big Elevator," finds Sergeants Joe Friday and Bill Lockwood responding to a baffling case at Georgia Street Receiving Hospital. A young woman in her early thirties has been found dead in a hospital elevator, slumped in a wheelchair and dressed only in her nightgown, bathrobe, and slippers. Night nurse Grace Morgan discovered the body after hearing the elevator arrive but seeing no one exit. Dr. Terrell's examination reveals mysterious abrasions on the victim's shoulder and head, along with the smell of alcohol, but no clear cause of death. Most puzzling of all, the woman carries no identification, and receiving hospital attendant Ray Collins reports that a man brought her in around 11 p.m., requested a wheelchair, refused assistance, and then vanished.

Friday and Lockwood face a perplexing mystery with virtually no leads. The detectives must determine not only how the woman died, but who she is and why someone would bring her to a hospital only to abandon her alone in an elevator. With only the woman's clothing to examine and a vague description of the mysterious man from Collins, Friday and Lockwood begin their methodical investigation from the ground floor up.

Originally Aired: April 17, 1952

Dragnet #149, "The Big Bunco," Sergeant Joe Friday faces a formidable challenge when an experienced confidence man sets up shop in Los Angeles, swindling two elderly women out of more than $8,000 through an elaborate business investment scheme. The bunco artist operates with a polished method: renting expensive offices, hiring attractive secretaries, placing enticing want ads for business opportunities, and convincing legitimate plant owners to unknowingly participate in his cons. Working with the skeletal leads of the suspect's description and method of operation, Friday pursues the case even as he undergoes a significant personal transition.

As the investigation heats up, Friday must break in a new partner, Bill Lockwood, a young detective with no bunco experience who happens to be the nephew of Friday's former partner, the late Ben Romero. While his colleague Charlie expresses concern about relying on a green partner during such a dangerous investigation, Friday remembers his own early days and the patient guidance Ben Romero once provided him. Now Friday must simultaneously track down a clever criminal and mentor the next generation of detective, honoring his former partner's memory through training his nephew.

Originally Aired: April 10, 1952

Dragnet #148, "The Big Show,"

Sergeants Joe Friday and Ed Jacobs from Juvenile Division respond to a troubling case at the Los Angeles bus depot. A woman named Marjorie Lewis, in town to meet her husband returning from overseas, reports that a fellow passenger has abandoned a seven-week-old baby boy. The mother, identified as Dorothy Miller from Tucson, sat next to Mrs. Lewis during the long bus ride from Arizona. Upon arriving at the depot, Miller asked Mrs. Lewis to hold her infant son Stephen while she retrieved her luggage from the check stand, then vanished without a trace.

Mrs. Lewis describes Miller as a seemingly devoted mother who took wonderful care of her baby throughout the journey. The young woman appeared perfectly normal—a pretty, dark-haired twenty-year-old who gave no indication anything was wrong. As Friday and Jacobs interview Mrs. Lewis and examine the baby, they're left with a baffling question: why would a caring mother abandon her healthy infant with a complete stranger? With no leads on Dorothy Miller's whereabouts and a helpless baby in their care, the detectives begin their investigation to find answers.

Originally Aired: April 3, 1952

Dragnet #147, "The Big Streetcar," opens with Detective Sergeant Joe Friday and his partner Ed Jacobs working the night watch out of Homicide Detail when they catch a call about a shooting on Kirkman near Alpine. Racing to the scene code three, they find Wally Radford, a dark-haired man in his early forties, lying on the sidewalk shot several times in the chest and shoulder. Neighbor Ernest Whitley tells Friday and Jacobs he heard multiple shots while watching television with his wife, then saw Radford stagger past his door, weaving and clutching his chest before collapsing on the sidewalk. Before losing consciousness, the critically wounded victim manages to tell Whitley who shot him: his own wife.

As Friday and Jacobs begin their investigation, they learn the Radfords had been fighting all day and into the night, with neighbors hearing them yelling and throwing things. Now Mrs. Radford has apparently fled the scene, though she reportedly made a phone call to a neighbor shortly after the shooting. With the victim clinging to life and the suspect at large, Friday and Jacobs must piece together what happened during this deadly domestic dispute and locate Mrs. Radford before the trail grows cold.

Originally Aired: March 27, 1952

Dragnet #146, "The Big Rose," Friday and Jacobs catch a perplexing missing persons case that quickly points to foul play. Thirty-eight-year-old Rose Baker has vanished without a trace, leaving behind four children in the care of her sister, Bernice Maron. The case is a tangle of contradictions from the start. Mrs. Baker was last seen the night of May 27th when she visited her sister to demand half the proceeds from a furniture sale. After taking the car to cash a check, she never returned—but the sister later found the vehicle parked two blocks from home with $200 in cash left behind in the glove compartment.

As Friday and Jacobs begin their investigation, they discover that nobody's story matches up. Rose's boyfriend Carl Shelton claims she was leaving town with a girlfriend. A coworker says she was planning a trip. The sister insists Rose was moving to a new apartment. With a victim known for heavy drinking, multiple romantic entanglements, and a history of abandoning her children, the detectives face a wide field of potential suspects—and someone is definitely lying.

Originally Aired: March 20, 1952

Dragnet #145, "The Big Border," finds Sergeant Joe Friday and his partner Ed Jacobs hunting two dangerous escaped convicts who have vowed they'll never be taken alive. Andrew Powell and Bertram Selby have broken out of San Quentin and are headed for Los Angeles, armed and desperate. When Friday and Jacobs track down Ruth Thompson, Powell's former fiancée, they interrupt her friend's birthday party with urgent questions. Ruth initially claims she hasn't seen Powell in years, not since she broke off their engagement when he went to prison for armed robbery.

Under Friday's persistent questioning, Ruth finally breaks down and admits the terrifying truth: Powell and Selby showed up at her door that very morning. Threatening her with a knife, they stole money, her dead father's clothes, and his .38 caliber revolver. Ruth's final words to the detectives are chilling—Powell swore the police would never take him alive and promised there would be a fight if they tried. Friday arranges round-the-clock surveillance on Ruth's home and workplace as the manhunt for the armed fugitives intensifies.

Originally Aired: March 13, 1952

Dragnet #144, "The Big Fire," finds Sergeant Joe Friday and his partner Ed Jacobs investigating a bizarre landlord-tenant dispute that has taken a dangerous turn. Mrs. Cameron and her friend Doris Ashby, both young mothers who recently relocated to Los Angeles with their husbands for work at an aircraft plant, have leased apartments in a building recently purchased by a man named Daniels. Despite signing leases and paying rent in advance, when the women attempt to move in with their furniture, Daniels appears on the scene and flies into a rage, making various excuses about why the apartments aren't ready—claims Mrs. Cameron knows are lies.

The situation escalates dramatically when Daniels pulls a gun and threatens to shoot the women and the moving men if they proceed. With Mrs. Cameron holding her four-month-old baby, the terrified group retreats and calls the police. Now, as Friday interviews the distraught Mrs. Cameron in her cramped auto court quarters, he must determine whether they're dealing with a dangerous madman or whether something else is behind Daniels' violent refusal to honor the leases for his vacant apartment building.