The Big Laugh

Originally Aired: March 8, 1953

Dragnet #194, "The Big Laugh," Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Frank Smith are working bunco detail, tracking a confidence man who has been preying on lonely women for the past year. When they meet with Miss Harris, a victim who works at the Armstrong Thomas Department Store, she tells them about a charming man who romanced her with dinners, moonlit drives, and promises of marriage. After courting her with phone calls and affection, he left town on a supposed business trip to San Francisco, then called claiming he had lost his wallet and needed one hundred dollars. Miss Harris sent the money, only to discover he had disappeared completely. She struggles with the humiliation of being taken advantage of, recognizing how her loneliness made her vulnerable.

Friday and Smith learn that their suspect, Jonathan Benton, has stolen approximately thirty-seven thousand dollars from women across Los Angeles using the same method. He answers personal ads, sweeps women off their feet with whirlwind courtships, then stages the lost wallet scenario. The detectives receive a promising lead when a man matching Benton's description places a new ad in the paper under the name Thomas Conan, and they head out to question him.

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