The Big Test

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.

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