# Dragnet: The Big Juvenile Division (EP4949)

An episode of [The Great Detectives of Old Time Radio| Daily Mystery Dramas](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/335549005), 9 Apr 2026, 34 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pdrl.fm/997ffb/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/71152392/gd4949.mp3

Todays Mystery: Joe Friday tries to stop a juvenile gang war. Original Radio Broadcast Date: January 17, 1952 Originating from Hollywood Starred: Jack Webb as Sergeant Joe Friday, Barney Phillips as Sergeant Ed Jacobs, Charles Smith, Eddie Firestone, H Support the show monthly at patreon.greatdetectives.net Patreon Supporter of the Day:Blaine, Patreon supporter since January 2017 Support the show on a one-time basis at http://support.greatdetectives.net. Mail a donation to: Adam Graham, PO Box 15913, Boise, Idaho 83715 Take the listener survey…http://survey.greatdetectives.net Give us a call 208-991-4783 Become one of our friends on Facebook. Follow us on Instagram at http://instagram.com/greatdetectives Follow us on Twitter@radiodetectives Join us again tomorrow for another detective drama from the Golden Age of Radio.

## Transcript

[0:28] Speaker 1: Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho.
[0:35] Speaker 1: This is your host, Adam Graham. In a moment, we're
[0:39] Speaker 1: going to bring you this week's episode of Drag Nap.
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[1:02] Speaker 1: peelbox one five nine one three. That's Peelbox one five
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[1:21] Speaker 1: dot Great Detectives dot net. Well, now it is time
[1:27] Speaker 1: for today's echoed the Big Juvenile Division from January seventeenth,
[1:34] Speaker 1: nineteen fifty two.
[1:45] Speaker 2: The story you were about to hear is true. The
[1:48] Speaker 2: names have been changed to protect the innocent. You're a
[1:58] Speaker 2: detective sergeant. You're assigned to Homicide Special Detail. There are
[2:03] Speaker 2: rumors of an impending war between juvenile gangs in your city. Reportedly,
[2:07] Speaker 2: members of both gangs are well supplied with homemade weapons.
[2:11] Speaker 2: You don't know when the fighting will break out.
[2:13] Speaker 3: You don't know where your job stop it.
[2:27] Speaker 4: Dragnet the document a drama of an actual crime. For
[2:31] Speaker 4: the next thirty minutes, in cooperation with the Los Angeles
[2:34] Speaker 4: Police Department, you will travel step by step on the
[2:37] Speaker 4: side of the law through an actual case transcribed from
[2:40] Speaker 4: official police violence. From beginning to end, from crime to punishment,
[2:45] Speaker 4: Dragnet is the story of your police force in action.
[2:52] Speaker 5: It was Tuesday, October fourteenth, was cloudy in Los Angeles.
[2:56] Speaker 5: We were working a special detail out a homicide division.
[2:58] Speaker 5: My partners said, Jacob, it's the boss is Captain Lorman.
[3:01] Speaker 6: My name is Friday.
[3:02] Speaker 5: It was one eighteen pm when I got to twenty
[3:04] Speaker 5: fifteen East First Street, the second floor, Holland beg Juvenile Division.
[3:09] Speaker 6: Joe, Hi, let you find out nothing?
[3:11] Speaker 7: Yeah, Gardner had to go next door. He'll be back
[3:14] Speaker 7: a minute. Give us rundown on a thing.
[3:16] Speaker 3: FRIDAYA Hi, Hi.
[3:18] Speaker 6: How are you doing?
[3:18] Speaker 3: My good to see? How are things going downtown?
[3:20] Speaker 6: Why not? Bad? Little slow here?
[3:22] Speaker 3: You got problems, lots of them. Captain Brief you on
[3:24] Speaker 3: any of it.
[3:25] Speaker 5: No, he told us a check with you, you'd fill us in,
[3:27] Speaker 5: said maybe you could use some help.
[3:29] Speaker 3: All we can get. We're sitting on top of a
[3:30] Speaker 3: bomb out here. We don't know what it's going to
[3:32] Speaker 3: go off. What's the pitch Gardener? Juvenile gangs? Five of
[3:35] Speaker 3: them this time. The way we get it, they're ready
[3:36] Speaker 3: for trouble. All of them high school kid most of them.
[3:39] Speaker 3: Some of them are in junior high.
[3:40] Speaker 6: Well, how come five gangs? What are they planning? A
[3:42] Speaker 6: free for all?
[3:43] Speaker 3: It's a long story. They've been building up to this
[3:45] Speaker 3: thing for months. All east Side kids, we're here. It's
[3:47] Speaker 3: supposed to be an open war. Here's a list of
[3:50] Speaker 3: the different gangs involved. Thanks you see, they're same crowds
[3:55] Speaker 3: we've been riding hurt On for the last couple of years.
[3:57] Speaker 7: M h.
[3:58] Speaker 5: You've got the Purple Heart Gang, the Blue Devils, the Apaches,
[4:02] Speaker 5: Happy Valley, rose Hill.
[4:05] Speaker 3: Here's a breakdown on each one of them. Hard to
[4:07] Speaker 3: get exact figures, but we think it's fairly accurate. Purple
[4:10] Speaker 3: Heart Gang twenty six members leader Harold Fry seventeen. Blue
[4:14] Speaker 3: Devil's eighteen members, leaders Jack Holland, age seventeen and BUTCHERM.
[4:17] Speaker 3: Willis sixteen. The Apache's twenty two members leader Robert Lawson seventeen.
[4:21] Speaker 3: They're supposed to be the strongest bins.
[4:23] Speaker 6: Wow.
[4:24] Speaker 3: Happy Valley Gang twenty members leaders Roy Martin sixteen and
[4:27] Speaker 3: Josephilmers sixteen. Rose Hill Gang sixteen members, leader Thomas Resony eighteen.
[4:31] Speaker 6: Yeah. Well what's behind it, Gardner? I mean the gang
[4:34] Speaker 6: or that they're supposed to be planning.
[4:35] Speaker 3: A lot of factors enter into it. I guess it's
[4:37] Speaker 3: my own idea. The Apache Gang is doing most of
[4:39] Speaker 3: the promoting.
[4:39] Speaker 7: What's the object anyway, the.
[4:41] Speaker 3: Usual big shot idea. Some high school kids get the
[4:44] Speaker 3: Apaches figure they're going to run the whole east side.
[4:46] Speaker 3: They've already scared the Happy Valley Gang and the Blue
[4:48] Speaker 3: Devils into joining.
[4:49] Speaker 6: Up with them.
[4:50] Speaker 3: Well how they Mana's that I'd like to find out myself.
[4:53] Speaker 6: Well, how about the other two crowds there, Rose Hill
[4:55] Speaker 6: and the Purple Heart Bunch.
[4:56] Speaker 3: The story I get is they won't come in with
[4:58] Speaker 3: the Apaches. Spposed to be the reason for the war.
[5:01] Speaker 3: Either they joined up with the Apaches or they fight them.
[5:03] Speaker 3: It's a warning they got who'll be playing in big
[5:06] Speaker 3: time all the way. Sixteen seventeen year olds. They got
[5:10] Speaker 3: gang lieutenants, They got their own cards, their own hideouts.
[5:13] Speaker 3: Some of them even have their girlfriends running with them,
[5:15] Speaker 3: same age, none of them over seventeen.
[5:17] Speaker 6: What'd you get your information? Bill?
[5:19] Speaker 3: Half a dozen kids, most of them from the Blue
[5:21] Speaker 3: Devils in the Happy Valley Gang. They were mixed up
[5:24] Speaker 3: in a couple of after school fights in Hollandbeck Park.
[5:26] Speaker 3: The stories they gave us are enough. The curlier heir, Yeah,
[5:28] Speaker 3: what I mean about the big war they're going to have.
[5:31] Speaker 3: One of the girls we picked up gave us most
[5:33] Speaker 3: of a fifteen year old, says their boyfriends. One of
[5:35] Speaker 3: the big shots for the Blue Devils. What she had
[5:38] Speaker 3: to say, talked about it like it was some kind
[5:40] Speaker 3: of a game they were playing. I say, the Rose
[5:42] Speaker 3: Hill and the Purple Heart gangs were teaming up so
[5:44] Speaker 3: they could stand up against the other three. They've been
[5:46] Speaker 3: getting ready for the war for six weeks. Really organized.
[5:49] Speaker 7: I don't get it. Who's doing the organizing, who's promoting them?
[5:52] Speaker 3: I got an idea about that, and get to it
[5:54] Speaker 3: in a minute. Take a look at these over here, Yeah,
[6:01] Speaker 3: samples of the different weapons the gangs are getting together
[6:03] Speaker 3: for the big fight. Crazy kids, brass knuckles, homemade SAPs,
[6:11] Speaker 3: all kinds.
[6:12] Speaker 6: What's this here, garder my look.
[6:15] Speaker 3: Homemade stiletto, good six inch blade? Kids are supposed to
[6:19] Speaker 3: have dozens of them. Another one here? Look at this
[6:24] Speaker 3: ice pick. Anything you can think of, you name it.
[6:26] Speaker 6: We got it.
[6:27] Speaker 7: It's gonna be wholesale murder if we can't find a
[6:29] Speaker 7: way to stop it.
[6:30] Speaker 6: You've been able to finger what the real trouble is.
[6:32] Speaker 3: Bill, I got an idea. Yeah, he asked about the
[6:35] Speaker 3: gangs teaming up. A minute ago. We figured we got
[6:38] Speaker 3: a young hitler on our hands. Kid by the name
[6:40] Speaker 3: of Robert Lawson. He's supposed to be the ring leader
[6:42] Speaker 3: of the Apache gang. Moved in about a year ago
[6:44] Speaker 3: from the Middle West.
[6:45] Speaker 7: I want you to know about him, wrote a letter to.
[6:52] Speaker 3: We talked to the boy a couple of times. His
[6:54] Speaker 3: parents too, didn't do much good. Never had enough to
[6:57] Speaker 3: file a petition on him and bring him to the
[6:59] Speaker 3: attention of juvenile court. We know he's responsible for a
[7:02] Speaker 3: lot of the trouble we got, but he always has
[7:05] Speaker 3: some other kid do it for him. He never does
[7:06] Speaker 3: it himself.
[7:07] Speaker 8: You think he's responsible for working up the game where
[7:09] Speaker 8: either we figure he's our biggest problem.
[7:12] Speaker 3: We tried everything to reach the loss in kid, settle
[7:14] Speaker 3: him down. Check for the teachers at his school, the principal,
[7:18] Speaker 3: vice principal. They can't handle him. They figure on expelling
[7:21] Speaker 3: him if he doesn't straighten him.
[7:22] Speaker 6: How about the other youngsters in these games? I mean,
[7:24] Speaker 6: besides this lossome.
[7:25] Speaker 3: Boy, We've got notifications out for them and their parents.
[7:29] Speaker 3: We're supposed to be in here tomorrow night at seven thirty.
[7:31] Speaker 3: Maybe we can break laws in his hold on these kids.
[7:33] Speaker 7: Sure, got me.
[7:34] Speaker 9: It's a matter of this loss In boy's parents. Don't
[7:36] Speaker 9: they know what's going on? Can't they control him?
[7:38] Speaker 3: He tried to talk to the parents. They think we're wrong.
[7:41] Speaker 3: They're proud of the kid. It's been a high IQ.
[7:44] Speaker 3: They think he's a natural born leader. Yeah sure, yeah,
[7:48] Speaker 3: the mother says, people just don't understand the boy.
[7:50] Speaker 5: Well, maybe you should have told him, huh, Sam Quentin
[7:53] Speaker 5: is full of people we don't understand. The following night,
[7:59] Speaker 5: when the October fifteenth, the members and ringleaders of the
[8:02] Speaker 5: various juvenile gangs, along with their parents, showed up at
[8:05] Speaker 5: Hollenbeck Juvenile Division as requested in questioning each of the youngsters.
[8:10] Speaker 5: We definitely confirmed the reports we had of the impending
[8:12] Speaker 5: gang war. The interviews also revealed that if and when
[8:16] Speaker 5: the fighting did start, it would be more serious than
[8:19] Speaker 5: we had first figured. For one thing, there were more
[8:22] Speaker 5: youngsters involved than we thought. The gangs had been recruiting
[8:25] Speaker 5: new members, but a dozen in preparation for the street fights.
[8:29] Speaker 5: For another thing, we found out the teenagers weren't carrying
[8:32] Speaker 5: around eight inch knives and brass knuckles just for show.
[8:35] Speaker 5: If fighting started, they were ready and willing to use them.
[8:38] Speaker 5: We weren't sure how much we could count on it,
[8:40] Speaker 5: but after interviewing the parents and advising them how serious
[8:43] Speaker 5: the situation was, they promised their full cooperation. Most of
[8:47] Speaker 5: them agreed they'd maintained strict check on their youngsters and
[8:50] Speaker 5: keep them out of all neighborhood gang activities. Some of
[8:54] Speaker 5: the parents took a resentful latitude. They insisted the gangs
[8:57] Speaker 5: were harmless. They accused us of picking on the youngsters.
[9:00] Speaker 5: A few of the parents didn't even show up at
[9:02] Speaker 5: the meeting. Among these were the parents of seventeen year
[9:05] Speaker 5: old Robert Loss and the boy who seemed to be
[9:07] Speaker 5: promoting most of the trouble. The following morning, my partner
[9:11] Speaker 5: ed Jacobs and I drove out to his home and
[9:13] Speaker 5: we talked with his mother. She was friendly, but not
[9:15] Speaker 5: too cooperative.
[9:16] Speaker 10: I don't know why you say that, Sergeant. I appreciate
[9:19] Speaker 10: your worrying about my boy, but I'm sure it's not
[9:20] Speaker 10: as bad as you think.
[9:21] Speaker 9: I'm into contradict you, missus Lawson, but I'm afraid it
[9:24] Speaker 9: is a lot worse than you think.
[9:25] Speaker 10: That's what the other officers said too. But you really
[9:27] Speaker 10: don't have any proof, do you. I mean, a few
[9:29] Speaker 10: idle rumors. You certainly kind of accuse Robert on that basis.
[9:32] Speaker 5: We're not accusing Robert of anything, ma'am, it's not the point.
[9:34] Speaker 5: What we're trying to do is to head off the
[9:35] Speaker 5: trouble before it starts.
[9:37] Speaker 7: You were living in the Middle West before you came
[9:38] Speaker 7: to Los Angeles, that right, ma'am.
[9:40] Speaker 10: Yes, that's all right. Nebraska.
[9:41] Speaker 7: It wasn't your boy in some kind of trouble back there, Yes,
[9:44] Speaker 7: but it.
[9:44] Speaker 10: Didn't amount to anything. Could have been avoided so easily.
[9:47] Speaker 10: They just didn't understand Robert. That was the whole trouble.
[9:50] Speaker 6: Is he an only child man?
[9:51] Speaker 10: Yes, just Robert but he's not spoiled. I know it's
[9:54] Speaker 10: a great temptation with an only child, but we didn't
[9:57] Speaker 10: spoil him. Robert just doesn't like it. U.
[10:00] Speaker 7: I'm quite a bit of freedom, do you, ma'am? I mean,
[10:01] Speaker 7: does he go out night very often?
[10:03] Speaker 10: Well? He is seventeen years old going on eighteen. Yes,
[10:07] Speaker 10: my husband and I allow him to go out as
[10:08] Speaker 10: often as he likes, as long as he keeps up
[10:10] Speaker 10: with his studies. Robert's always done very well, always tops
[10:14] Speaker 10: in his class.
[10:15] Speaker 6: You know where he spends his time when he goes
[10:16] Speaker 6: at night.
[10:18] Speaker 10: He's usually down at the gym or at the library.
[10:20] Speaker 6: You know that for a fact? Do you?
[10:22] Speaker 10: I trust Robert if that's what you mean. He tells
[10:26] Speaker 10: me that's where he's going. I believe him. The mother
[10:28] Speaker 10: can't believe her own son. Who can she believe?
[10:30] Speaker 7: I'm about the company your boy keeps. You know any
[10:32] Speaker 7: of his friends, missus lawsman.
[10:34] Speaker 10: Few, Yes, there's the Miller boy and Jack Holland. They
[10:38] Speaker 10: seem to be fine boys.
[10:39] Speaker 7: Miller in Holland.
[10:41] Speaker 10: Yes, it doesn't seem to be anything wrong with him.
[10:43] Speaker 6: Well there is, ma'am. Well, both of them have juvenile records.
[10:47] Speaker 6: Both of them belong to your son's game.
[10:50] Speaker 10: Really, sergeant, how can you say that it isn't fair?
[10:55] Speaker 10: Wouldn't it be better to try and understand these boys
[10:57] Speaker 10: instead of picking on persecuting.
[11:01] Speaker 5: I don't know how we're going to make you understand
[11:03] Speaker 5: as laws and we're not picking on them. We're not
[11:05] Speaker 5: persecuting him. We know there's a gang problem. We know
[11:08] Speaker 5: your boys one of those at the bottom of it.
[11:09] Speaker 5: If something isn't done, there's going to be trouble. We're
[11:11] Speaker 5: going to stop it before it begins. We're going to
[11:13] Speaker 5: have to have your help.
[11:14] Speaker 10: I'm perfectly willing to cooperate.
[11:16] Speaker 6: You know that.
[11:18] Speaker 10: It must be Robert. Now excuse me, Robert. Bob is
[11:22] Speaker 10: that you?
[11:23] Speaker 8: Yeah?
[11:24] Speaker 10: Would you come in here a minute, Bob, we're in
[11:25] Speaker 10: the living room.
[11:27] Speaker 6: Yeah, what do you want?
[11:30] Speaker 10: These are police officers, Bobby. This is Sergeant Friday, Sergeant Jacobs.
[11:35] Speaker 10: Is that right?
[11:37] Speaker 6: Oh?
[11:39] Speaker 11: How about something to eat? Haven't you anything ready?
[11:41] Speaker 10: I wasn't expecting you, Bob. Won't take me a minute though.
[11:44] Speaker 10: You sit down there. I'll go out and get a
[11:46] Speaker 10: snack together for you.
[11:47] Speaker 12: Did that picture with Sandwich officers?
[11:50] Speaker 6: No, thank you? Oh thanks very much.
[11:52] Speaker 13: I'll be a minute Bob, we're just talking about you
[11:54] Speaker 13: when you came in.
[11:56] Speaker 11: What's it about, sergeant? Do you want to see me?
[11:57] Speaker 11: Or do you just want to talk to my mother?
[11:59] Speaker 6: As long as you here, we'd like to talk to
[12:00] Speaker 6: both of you. Bob, we got to take off pretty fast.
[12:03] Speaker 11: Just came home and get some eat. What's it about?
[12:06] Speaker 5: It's about Geronimo. That's the gang's code word for the
[12:09] Speaker 5: warrior setting up.
[12:10] Speaker 6: Isn't he?
[12:10] Speaker 11: I don't know what you're talking about.
[12:11] Speaker 9: Your gang, bomby apatches. We talked to half a dozen
[12:14] Speaker 9: of them last night down to the juvenile division.
[12:15] Speaker 5: All right, now, look, we've got the names of everybody
[12:18] Speaker 5: in your gang. We know the whole setup. You go
[12:20] Speaker 5: ahead with your idea and you're gonna buy a lot
[12:21] Speaker 5: of trouble.
[12:22] Speaker 11: A couple of cops were here last week and said
[12:23] Speaker 11: the same thing. I don't know anymore about it now,
[12:26] Speaker 11: and I did then? Honest, what's the pitch anyway?
[12:29] Speaker 7: You know what the pitch is, youngster?
[12:30] Speaker 11: I don't honest. You're trying to say, I'm in a gang?
[12:33] Speaker 6: Is that it? And you're unning up to your next son?
[12:35] Speaker 6: I why don't you come off?
[12:36] Speaker 5: And we bet you pegged and everybody that runs with you,
[12:38] Speaker 5: That includes the girlfriends you got in the gang.
[12:40] Speaker 6: You're not fooling anybody.
[12:41] Speaker 11: You must be a little crazy. I'm not in any gang.
[12:43] Speaker 11: They never even heard of one around here.
[12:45] Speaker 5: And you listen to me. Boy, You can take this
[12:48] Speaker 5: as a warning or a piece of advice. Either way,
[12:50] Speaker 5: you and your friends keep on playing punk gangs because
[12:52] Speaker 5: we're going to lean on you.
[12:54] Speaker 6: You understand.
[12:55] Speaker 11: What is this trying to scare me?
[12:56] Speaker 5: If it'll make you change your mind? Yeah, if the
[12:59] Speaker 5: street war comes, there's going to be big trouble. But
[13:02] Speaker 5: he think is going to happen when two hundred kids
[13:03] Speaker 5: tangle in a fight with knives and brass knuckles.
[13:05] Speaker 10: And I use your head, Bob a nice rowl of
[13:09] Speaker 10: hot soup baking and tomato sandwiches.
[13:14] Speaker 11: Yeah, you always make the soup too hot.
[13:16] Speaker 10: Oh, I didn't mean to let it cool off for
[13:18] Speaker 10: a minute. Then Bob has to eat and hurry along.
[13:22] Speaker 10: Off says, is there anything else you wanted to talk
[13:24] Speaker 10: to him about?
[13:24] Speaker 5: No, I think you've heard everything we have to say.
[13:27] Speaker 5: I wish you'd think it over, missus Lawson, you too.
[13:30] Speaker 11: Bob, nothing to think over. They're trying to say I'm
[13:33] Speaker 11: in a gang. They think I'm the leader.
[13:35] Speaker 10: You told them, didn't she?
[13:36] Speaker 6: Not sure?
[13:38] Speaker 11: They don't believe me.
[13:40] Speaker 10: I wish I could make you understand, Sergeant, He's not
[13:42] Speaker 10: a gang leader. Robert's telling the truth, pretty is, ma'am?
[13:47] Speaker 10: Well he is. I know he is. I mean, after all,
[13:50] Speaker 10: he's my son. I'm in a position to know him
[13:52] Speaker 10: better than you do. If he was lying, I know it.
[13:56] Speaker 10: I wish I could make you understand. Mother is the
[13:58] Speaker 10: only one who really knows her. I know Robert's telling
[14:03] Speaker 10: the truth, aren't you, Robert? Robert, that's so, isn't it?
[14:13] Speaker 10: You're telling the truth?
[14:14] Speaker 11: Aren't you sure? How about some more soup?
[14:21] Speaker 5: Before we left the house, we tried again to talk
[14:24] Speaker 5: to Robert lawson and his mother, but it was no use.
[14:27] Speaker 5: She believed every word he said, and he apparently refused
[14:29] Speaker 5: to believe the possible consequences of the war he was
[14:32] Speaker 5: planning for his gang of juveniles. We drove downtown and
[14:35] Speaker 5: had an interview with the boy's father at his work.
[14:38] Speaker 5: He was even less cooperative. He took on a belligerent
[14:41] Speaker 5: attitude and accused us of persecuting his son and ordered
[14:44] Speaker 5: us out of the office along with Sergeant Bill Gardner
[14:47] Speaker 5: and Frank Kerber.
[14:48] Speaker 6: We spent the rest of the afternoon and most of.
[14:50] Speaker 5: The following day checking with parents of youngsters who had
[14:53] Speaker 5: been recently recruited into one of the various East Side gangs.
[14:56] Speaker 5: Most of them were cooperative. Late that afternoon, Bill Gardner
[15:00] Speaker 5: hadn't myself met with Captain Stein back at Hollenbeck.
[15:03] Speaker 8: Juvenile strict curfew all over the area. We can start
[15:06] Speaker 8: tonight and what do you figure? Just on the weekends,
[15:08] Speaker 8: every night Sunday to Sunday. I'll get some more men
[15:10] Speaker 8: in to help out. Every youngster out in the street
[15:13] Speaker 8: after ten o'clock get stopped.
[15:15] Speaker 6: Everyone.
[15:15] Speaker 7: I'm caught with knives, SAPs, brass knuckles or.
[15:17] Speaker 8: Anything like them, They're going to be pulled in and
[15:19] Speaker 8: filed on no exceptions. Be a lot safer in custody
[15:22] Speaker 8: than mixing in the gang fight.
[15:23] Speaker 6: Yeah, a lot of help. Might teach some of the
[15:25] Speaker 6: parents a lesson anyway.
[15:26] Speaker 3: Yeah, excuse me, joven on division Stein.
[15:31] Speaker 8: Where was that when h Yeah right away, let's hustle
[15:36] Speaker 8: it Evergreen Avenue out near the cemetery.
[15:38] Speaker 6: Now, what is it? Curfew is a good idea?
[15:40] Speaker 7: We got it too late. Gang war.
[15:41] Speaker 6: It's already started. Before we left the office.
[15:46] Speaker 5: We had communications notify all J cars on the special
[15:50] Speaker 5: detail to proceed at once to the scene of the
[15:52] Speaker 5: major four point fifteen call. Ten cars were ordered to
[15:55] Speaker 5: cruise the area surrounding the actual scene of the fight
[15:58] Speaker 5: and to pick up any and all members of the
[16:00] Speaker 5: Juvenile gangs who showed any evidence of having been in
[16:03] Speaker 5: the fight or had in their possession any deadly weapon.
[16:06] Speaker 5: Captain Stein Bill Gardner ed and myself left the office
[16:09] Speaker 5: on a Code three and drove out to the scene
[16:11] Speaker 5: of the gang fight. When we got there, all the
[16:14] Speaker 5: J cars and three radio crews had the area blocked off.
[16:18] Speaker 5: An ambulance crew was treating more than a dozen youngsters
[16:21] Speaker 5: who had been injured during the fight. One of the
[16:23] Speaker 5: youngsters had a lacerated eye he'd been blinded. Most of
[16:27] Speaker 5: the other victims would carry scars for the rest of
[16:29] Speaker 5: their lives.
[16:30] Speaker 7: The juveniles wh'd.
[16:31] Speaker 5: Taken part in the battle and who'd been lucky enough
[16:33] Speaker 5: to escape without serious injury. Were being loaded into the
[16:36] Speaker 5: J cars and the radio cars. They were to be
[16:38] Speaker 5: removed to Juvenile headquarters at thirteen thirty five Georgia Street
[16:42] Speaker 5: for further investigation. Together with Bill Gardner and Frank Kerber,
[16:47] Speaker 5: Ed and I began covering the area, collecting dozens of
[16:49] Speaker 5: homemade weapons used in the gang fight. They'd be turned
[16:52] Speaker 5: over to Pete Brown Hollenbeck juvenal.
[16:54] Speaker 9: To be booked as evidence. Joe, Yeah, come on minute
[16:59] Speaker 9: over here. Yeah, have a look. He's a chained bloodstains
[17:06] Speaker 9: on it.
[17:07] Speaker 6: Lousy. Help, he's just gonna gather. Come on across the
[17:15] Speaker 6: street there the car in the driveway.
[17:17] Speaker 7: Yeah, helping.
[17:20] Speaker 13: He's hurt.
[17:21] Speaker 2: Somebody help him.
[17:22] Speaker 1: Bobby.
[17:23] Speaker 7: What's trouble, Bobby?
[17:24] Speaker 13: He was in the fight where the gang they stabbed him.
[17:26] Speaker 6: He's in the car. What is it?
[17:30] Speaker 7: Joe?
[17:32] Speaker 6: Take a look the lost and boyer. Yeah, knife in
[17:35] Speaker 6: his chest.
[17:35] Speaker 7: Want me to get the doctor.
[17:36] Speaker 6: Yeah, call a coroner too.
[17:48] Speaker 4: You are listening to drag net authentic stories of your
[17:52] Speaker 4: police force and action.
[18:02] Speaker 5: Thursday October sixteenth, five point thirty five pm, after the
[18:06] Speaker 5: discovery of Robert Lawson's body in the car parked in
[18:09] Speaker 5: the driveway adjoining the cemetery grounds, Ed brought the doctor
[18:12] Speaker 5: over from the ambulance. The seventeen year old Losson boy
[18:15] Speaker 5: was pronounced dead. The doctor made out the prescribed form
[18:18] Speaker 5: and marked Ada. While we waited for the crime lab
[18:22] Speaker 5: crew and the coroner to get there, Ed and I
[18:24] Speaker 5: questioned the girl who'd led us to the body. She
[18:27] Speaker 5: identified herself as Anne Porter, aged sixteen. She told us
[18:31] Speaker 5: she was Bob Lawson's girlfriend. She readily admitted accompanying him
[18:35] Speaker 5: to the scene of the gang fight that afternoon.
[18:37] Speaker 13: I knew what it was going to be like. I
[18:39] Speaker 13: knew right then came closer. Bob told the kids to
[18:41] Speaker 13: get ready. There were little ways from us. When they
[18:44] Speaker 13: stopped the other King of Purple hearts.
[18:46] Speaker 6: Yeah, go ahead.
[18:47] Speaker 13: There's a kid by the name of Jumpy.
[18:49] Speaker 10: He's the leader.
[18:50] Speaker 13: He stepped out in front of him and called the
[18:52] Speaker 13: Bob called him a bad names at bad things.
[18:55] Speaker 7: I suppoy you called Jumpy he knows real name.
[18:57] Speaker 13: N No, Jumpy's only his nickname. I know HI when
[18:59] Speaker 13: I see him the one point him out.
[19:01] Speaker 6: What happened after he called Bob. I don't know what.
[19:04] Speaker 6: I don't know.
[19:04] Speaker 13: I'm not sure. Everything seemed to happen at once. Bob
[19:07] Speaker 13: swore at me, pushed me back, told me to get
[19:09] Speaker 13: out of the way. Then he walked up to this
[19:11] Speaker 13: kid jumping right in front of their whole gang. I
[19:13] Speaker 13: screamed at Bob. I screamed at him, not too.
[19:15] Speaker 7: Why had to scream? What'd he do?
[19:16] Speaker 13: He had a chain under his coat. It was kind
[19:19] Speaker 13: of a short whip like Bob had it doubled up.
[19:22] Speaker 6: Yeah.
[19:23] Speaker 13: When he went up to Jumpy, Bob had a cigarette
[19:25] Speaker 13: in his mouth. He told Jumpy to light it for him.
[19:27] Speaker 13: He's supposed to mean his chicken if he does it. Jump,
[19:30] Speaker 13: He laughed at him. Bob took out the chain and
[19:32] Speaker 13: hit him across the face with it, hit him with
[19:34] Speaker 13: all his might, not jumping down. Was laying on the sidewalk.
[19:38] Speaker 13: His face was cut bad. Bob had the chain, kept
[19:41] Speaker 13: hitting him with it, and somebody gave a yell and
[19:43] Speaker 13: both the gangs started fighting.
[19:45] Speaker 6: Were you close to Bob lost? And most of the
[19:47] Speaker 6: time no.
[19:48] Speaker 13: Not first there's a lot of yelling and kicking and
[19:50] Speaker 13: fighting going on. I ran around and was looking and
[19:53] Speaker 13: finally saw Bob. I'm not sure it happened so fast.
[19:57] Speaker 7: What happened then?
[19:58] Speaker 13: I'm not sure. I thought I saw be pull a
[20:00] Speaker 13: knife on Bob, long and thin, maybe an ice pick.
[20:05] Speaker 13: Bobby was still hitting with a chain. It looked like
[20:09] Speaker 13: Jumpy hit Bob in the chest. Was something right over
[20:11] Speaker 13: the heart?
[20:12] Speaker 10: Bobby stopped.
[20:13] Speaker 13: Jumpy did it again.
[20:14] Speaker 12: Bobby got Fightey looked sick.
[20:17] Speaker 6: He turned around run What happened? Then?
[20:21] Speaker 13: Bobby kept running. I knew he was hurt. I went
[20:24] Speaker 13: after him. I saw him fall, but he got up.
[20:27] Speaker 13: He kept running. Then when the other gang grabbed me,
[20:29] Speaker 13: they hit me.
[20:31] Speaker 7: I understand.
[20:32] Speaker 12: I didn't find.
[20:33] Speaker 13: Bob until a fight was over heard, the cops, cars coming,
[20:36] Speaker 13: sirens coming around from everywhere.
[20:39] Speaker 3: I felt sick.
[20:40] Speaker 13: I finally found Bob though he was laying in the
[20:42] Speaker 13: back seat of the car, just laying there.
[20:44] Speaker 6: That's when you called out, Yes, I guess.
[20:48] Speaker 12: I knew it as soon as I looked at him, dead,
[20:52] Speaker 12: white as a sheet. Amy. Not when you find somebody dead,
[20:56] Speaker 12: not somebody loved it all right lyne.
[21:01] Speaker 10: You know that it won't be all right.
[21:04] Speaker 6: I love Bob.
[21:04] Speaker 12: Didn't you know that when he graduated, the first thing
[21:08] Speaker 12: we were going to get married, so miss hat to school,
[21:11] Speaker 12: we'd be married, be married.
[21:15] Speaker 6: Yea, yeah, how old are you?
[21:21] Speaker 12: I'm sixteen?
[21:22] Speaker 5: Why nothing? It happens to practically everybody. What people seem
[21:26] Speaker 5: to make a lot of mistakes when they're sixteen, six.
[21:34] Speaker 6: Thirty, PM.
[21:35] Speaker 5: The crime lab crew arrived, took pictures of the entire
[21:38] Speaker 5: scene along with all physical evidence, and dusted the murder
[21:40] Speaker 5: weapon an eight inch.
[21:41] Speaker 6: Knife for fingerprints.
[21:43] Speaker 5: The coroner arrived and after we'd completed our investigation, he
[21:46] Speaker 5: removed the body to the County Morde. Along with a policewoman.
[21:50] Speaker 5: We took Robert Lawson's girlfriend, sixteen year old Anne Porter,
[21:54] Speaker 5: down at Georgia Street Juvenile Division to the assembly room. There,
[21:57] Speaker 5: a special show up was held of all the boys
[22:00] Speaker 5: involved in the afternoon's fight. The Porter girl identified a
[22:03] Speaker 5: seventeen year old with the name of Warren's Stone, nicknamed Jumpy,
[22:07] Speaker 5: as the boy who'd stabbed Robert Lawson to death. At
[22:10] Speaker 5: least a dozen other subjects in the case identified the
[22:13] Speaker 5: boy by his nickname Jumpy. Three members of either gang
[22:17] Speaker 5: involved in the fight declared and sworn statements that Warren
[22:20] Speaker 5: Stone was the boy who'd attacked the Lowson boy with
[22:22] Speaker 5: a homemade Knight. Statements were taken from all concerned, and
[22:26] Speaker 5: the ring leaders of the gangs were detained. The other
[22:29] Speaker 5: subjects were released to their parents' custody after being notified
[22:32] Speaker 5: that they would be filed on, and a hearing held
[22:34] Speaker 5: in juvenile court. Anne Porter was returned home by a policewoman.
[22:39] Speaker 5: Seven fifty five pm. Ed Jacob's and I took the
[22:42] Speaker 5: subject Warren Stone to the Captain's office, where we tried
[22:44] Speaker 5: to question him about the murder.
[22:46] Speaker 6: He refused to say anything. I told you the truth.
[22:48] Speaker 6: I told you the whole story. I don't have to
[22:50] Speaker 6: tell you again. We're pretty sure you didn't tell us
[22:52] Speaker 6: the truth. One. We know you tangled with Bob Lawson
[22:54] Speaker 6: in that fight this afternoon. No I didn't.
[22:57] Speaker 7: We've got statements from a dozen kids.
[22:59] Speaker 6: Son.
[22:59] Speaker 7: They say last had a piece of chaine. He kept
[23:00] Speaker 7: slugging you with it. They say you pulled a knife
[23:02] Speaker 7: and stabbed him.
[23:03] Speaker 3: Now they know a lot of kids are knives.
[23:05] Speaker 6: Anybody could have stabbed him. Why are you picking on me?
[23:07] Speaker 6: It was your knife? Was your knife that killed him?
[23:09] Speaker 6: Your initials on it.
[23:11] Speaker 14: I lost a knife in the fight. Somebody could have
[23:13] Speaker 14: picked it up, he used it. No, they won't do
[23:15] Speaker 14: youngster in the handle of a knife spin processed. Your
[23:17] Speaker 14: fingerprints are all over it. I'm about it, son, Warren,
[23:26] Speaker 14: Come on, now, what do you.
[23:27] Speaker 6: Get to say.
[23:30] Speaker 7: Nothing?
[23:31] Speaker 11: I killed him?
[23:36] Speaker 5: Eight forty pm Warren Stone was booked in at Georgia
[23:39] Speaker 5: Street Jail on suspicion of one to eighty seven PC
[23:42] Speaker 5: murdered ed and I got in the car and drove
[23:44] Speaker 5: out to the home of the murder victim to notify
[23:46] Speaker 5: his parents, mister and Missus Robert Lawson. Mister Lawson wasn't
[23:50] Speaker 5: home from work yet. We broke the news of her
[23:52] Speaker 5: son's death to Missus Lawson as gently as we could.
[23:55] Speaker 5: She became hysterical and we called the family doctor, who
[23:58] Speaker 5: gave her saidatives. Later, when she recovered herself a bit,
[24:01] Speaker 5: she asked for the full story.
[24:03] Speaker 6: We told her, how could it happened?
[24:06] Speaker 15: Bobby?
[24:07] Speaker 10: How could it happen?
[24:09] Speaker 7: Sorry, man, there's not much we can say. We tried
[24:11] Speaker 7: everything we could to stop it.
[24:12] Speaker 10: You didn't stop it. You let them kill Bobby. You
[24:16] Speaker 10: let them kill him.
[24:17] Speaker 6: No, ma'am, we tried to warn him. We tried to
[24:20] Speaker 6: warn all of them. We're sorry.
[24:23] Speaker 10: You're not sorry. You didn't try. Bob's dead. Everything I had,
[24:32] Speaker 10: He's seventeen years old and he's dead. I can thank
[24:34] Speaker 10: you for that, my only baby.
[24:38] Speaker 6: I'm sorry you feel that way? Was it losson?
[24:40] Speaker 10: Why shouldn't I feel that way? You call yourselves policeman.
[24:45] Speaker 10: That boy who killed Bobby. You should have had him
[24:48] Speaker 10: in jail in the first place. Young killer nodding around
[24:53] Speaker 10: Lewis he is guilty.
[24:53] Speaker 12: As he is.
[24:54] Speaker 9: I'm not defending him, man, but he wasn't a young killer,
[24:57] Speaker 9: didn't even have a juvenile record.
[24:58] Speaker 10: I don't care anything about records.
[25:00] Speaker 6: Killer.
[25:00] Speaker 10: He took a knife and he killed Bob, and you
[25:01] Speaker 10: let him do it. You let him.
[25:04] Speaker 6: Well, I think we better be going in.
[25:05] Speaker 5: Yeah, you or your husband will have to identify the bodyman.
[25:11] Speaker 5: Tomorrow morning will be all right, the County Morgue, your God,
[25:16] Speaker 5: You'll have to be at the corner's inquest too. You'll
[25:18] Speaker 5: be notified about the time of the day.
[25:21] Speaker 10: I hope you have to live with this. I hope
[25:24] Speaker 10: you live with it like I have to live with it.
[25:26] Speaker 10: I hope it drives you crazy.
[25:28] Speaker 7: I know how you feel, ma'am, but you're wrong. I
[25:30] Speaker 7: think you'll realize.
[25:31] Speaker 10: That they murdered Bob. You let them kill him. I'll
[25:34] Speaker 10: always remember.
[25:34] Speaker 5: That, all right, And you remember something else. The last
[25:39] Speaker 5: time we came here to your house, he tried to
[25:41] Speaker 5: make you understand.
[25:43] Speaker 10: You didn't know Bobby. You didn't understand him. I was
[25:47] Speaker 10: the only one. I always knew what he was thinking,
[25:49] Speaker 10: what he wanted, what he was going to do. I
[25:51] Speaker 10: was the only one.
[25:52] Speaker 6: No, ma'am, there was somebody else. What the boy who
[25:55] Speaker 6: killed him.
[26:04] Speaker 2: The story you have just heard was true. The names
[26:07] Speaker 2: were changed to protect the innocent.
[26:09] Speaker 4: On November seventh, the hearing was held in Juvenile Court
[26:12] Speaker 4: Department thirty eighth, City and County of Los Angeles, State
[26:14] Speaker 4: of California. In a moment the results of that hearing and.
[26:17] Speaker 6: Now here is our star, Jack Webb, Thank you, George Fentaman. Friends.
[26:22] Speaker 5: Just as a hobby, I've been collecting early jazz records,
[26:24] Speaker 5: blues and two beat music like Leon Vick s Biderbeck
[26:27] Speaker 5: used to play, and of course just about everything Benny
[26:29] Speaker 5: Goodman has done.
[26:31] Speaker 6: I've always tried to build my collection on quality.
[26:43] Speaker 4: Seventeen year old Warren Ernest Stone was filed on alleging
[26:46] Speaker 4: violation of one eighty seven PC murder. The rest of
[26:49] Speaker 4: the juvenile gang ring leaders were filed on alleging two
[26:52] Speaker 4: forty two PC battery. They were all made wards of
[26:55] Speaker 4: the Juvenile Court and placed in detention homes under the
[26:58] Speaker 4: supervision of the state Uthathae. They are still confined in
[27:02] Speaker 4: state institutions for juveniles. You have just heard Dragnett, a
[27:15] Speaker 4: series of authentic cases from official files. Technical advice comes
[27:19] Speaker 4: from the Office of Chief of Police W. H. Parker,
[27:21] Speaker 4: Los Angeles Police Department. Heard Tonight where Barney Phillips, Charles
[27:25] Speaker 4: Smith and Deddy Firestone. Script by Jim Mosey, music by
[27:29] Speaker 4: Walter Schumann, Hell Gidney speaking.
[27:35] Speaker 6: Next.
[27:35] Speaker 11: It's David Harding and Counterspy on NBC.
[27:45] Speaker 1: Welcome Back. I should note that while most of the
[27:50] Speaker 1: TV adaptations of radio shows have the same episode title,
[27:56] Speaker 1: the TV version of this is generally known as The
[28:00] Speaker 1: Big War, and it's one of the only season seven
[28:04] Speaker 1: episodes of the TV series in circulation. It's a different
[28:09] Speaker 1: sort of dragnet. I think the typical dragnet episode tends
[28:13] Speaker 1: to highlight the methods and the tools that police have
[28:19] Speaker 1: at solving crime. This episode instead emphasizes the limits on
[28:27] Speaker 1: the police in preventing crime without the necessary cooperation. Because
[28:35] Speaker 1: what happened at The War was a very preventable, slow
[28:43] Speaker 1: motion tragedy, and it had to be very frustrating for
[28:48] Speaker 1: the officers who actually experience this because they had parents
[28:56] Speaker 1: who just would not cooperate, would not deal with reality
[29:00] Speaker 1: and in particular the ringleader who made the whole thing
[29:05] Speaker 1: come off. And once again you have a revisiting of
[29:09] Speaker 1: a recurring theme of Dragnet, of a lack of parental
[29:15] Speaker 1: responsibility leading to tragedy. And again I do think it's
[29:22] Speaker 1: a bit of a misnomer that Dragnet was very very
[29:25] Speaker 1: hard on kids or very critical of kids. Much more
[29:31] Speaker 1: critical of absent or clueless parents. All right, listener comments
[29:38] Speaker 1: and feedback now, and we start on Spotify with a
[29:43] Speaker 1: comment regarding the Big Red Part One, doctor who Done
[29:48] Speaker 1: It wrote, I heard the teas there on Broadways my beat,
[29:51] Speaker 1: so I knew Joe was going to go undercover, and
[29:54] Speaker 1: I thought, poor Romero, he never gets to do it.
[29:57] Speaker 1: Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. I
[29:59] Speaker 1: won't hear him again. I'm missing a guy who's been
[30:02] Speaker 1: dead seventy five years. Well, thank you so much. Appreciate
[30:07] Speaker 1: the comment and the sentiment. I definitely get it, and
[30:11] Speaker 1: I hope that you appreciate next week's encores, which I'm
[30:15] Speaker 1: aiming to include just programs featuring Barton Yarborough in guest roles.
[30:23] Speaker 1: Over on the site called x Ichabod Rights. I love
[30:27] Speaker 1: the old Dragnet radio program. I also like season one
[30:31] Speaker 1: of the Dragnet TV series. It was a really solid
[30:35] Speaker 1: short season. I guess we're referring to the fifty one series,
[30:40] Speaker 1: but he also mentions you tease us, Adam by only
[30:42] Speaker 1: showing part one. Well, well, I wasn't the one that
[30:46] Speaker 1: decided to make a too, make it a two parter.
[30:49] Speaker 1: That one's on Jack flip Over on YouTube. Some comments
[30:53] Speaker 1: regarding the Big Sorrow Kathy Wrights a touching tribute, and
[30:57] Speaker 1: James says, long live rom Arrow. Well, now it is
[31:01] Speaker 1: time to thank our Patreon supporter of the day. Thank
[31:05] Speaker 1: you to Blaine, Patreon supporter since January twenty seventeen, currently
[31:11] Speaker 1: supporting the podcast at the rookie level of two dollars
[31:16] Speaker 1: or more per month. Thank you for your support, Blaine,
[31:19] Speaker 1: And that will do it for today. If you're enjoying
[31:21] Speaker 1: the podcast, please follow us using your favorite podcast software
[31:27] Speaker 1: and be sure to rate and review the podcast wherever
[31:29] Speaker 1: you download it from. We'll be back in two weeks
[31:33] Speaker 1: with another episode of drag Net as we will take
[31:37] Speaker 1: a recording break next week, but join us back here
[31:41] Speaker 1: tomorrow for yours truly, Johnny Dollarware.
[31:44] Speaker 16: Mister Bugstein and his party were just cruising. They would
[31:48] Speaker 16: just take a knife.
[31:49] Speaker 15: Year Walston is the owner of the us HB.
[31:52] Speaker 17: Bullston always a big stock booker. He lives in Beverly Hills, Roxbury.
[31:58] Speaker 17: And what's the name of his job zero, It is
[32:01] Speaker 17: a tremendous job.
[32:02] Speaker 15: It's trumb met over one hundred feet from steamster wow
[32:06] Speaker 15: and feet long, Arthur, where does he keep it?
[32:09] Speaker 12: Now?
[32:09] Speaker 6: We're just all what his.
[32:10] Speaker 15: Dark down there in Barbo?
[32:12] Speaker 6: Oh? You know Balbo?
[32:13] Speaker 16: Yes, Yes, one of the nicest places by the ocean
[32:17] Speaker 16: in all of California.
[32:18] Speaker 15: Y Johnny, if I ever worked retire? Were the guests
[32:21] Speaker 15: on board, well let me see his wife of course,
[32:24] Speaker 15: and mister and missus Gerald Hooper and young Richard Spider
[32:27] Speaker 15: and Lee Woolway just cruising around, Yes, but they'd planned
[32:32] Speaker 15: to say, line up to San Francisco for that big
[32:33] Speaker 15: charity ball up there on the thirty off.
[32:35] Speaker 16: That's why they all had their finest clothes, the most
[32:38] Speaker 16: expensive jewelry with him. Three hundred and ninety four thousand
[32:44] Speaker 16: dollars worth of jewelry stolen, plus a few other things too,
[32:48] Speaker 16: mostly silverware. Things like that Actually was reported to me
[32:52] Speaker 16: by one of the guests on the yachts.
[32:53] Speaker 15: These these pirates simply pulled alongside in the middle of
[32:57] Speaker 15: the night, held them at gunpoint, took the.
[32:59] Speaker 6: Stuff and left.
[33:00] Speaker 16: Jack, I got it.
[33:00] Speaker 15: There were two of them.
[33:01] Speaker 3: My, they must have been a horror.
[33:03] Speaker 15: Tell us just where off the coast of Mexico did
[33:05] Speaker 15: this happen?
[33:06] Speaker 16: Well, I'm not quite sure. Mister Baltiston Mozilla, well he
[33:10] Speaker 16: was kind of vague about where it happened.
[33:12] Speaker 6: He's kind of vague.
[33:15] Speaker 7: Maybe I better talk to him.
[33:16] Speaker 1: I hope you'll be with us then in the meantime,
[33:18] Speaker 1: send your comments to Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net.
[33:23] Speaker 1: Follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives, and follow us
[33:28] Speaker 1: on Instagram, Instagram, dot com slash Great Detectives from Boise Idahome.
[33:35] Speaker 1: This is your host, Adam Graham signing off.

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