# Dragnet: The Big Honeymoon (EP4969)

An episode of [The Great Detectives of Old Time Radio| Daily Mystery Dramas](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/335549005), 7 May 2026, 31 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pdrl.fm/997ffb/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/71871098/gd4969.mp3

Todays Mystery: Joe Friday and Ed Jacobs hunt down a con man who marries women for their money and leaves them. Original Radio Broadcast Date: February 7, 1952 Originating from Hollywood Starred: Jack Webb as Sergeant Joe Friday, Barney Phillips as Sergeant Ed Jacobs, Virginia Gregg Support the show monthly at patreon.greatdetectives.net Patreon Supporter of the Day:kpass, Patreon supporter since May 2023 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
[0:34] Speaker 1: Boise Idahol. This is your host, Adam Graham. In a moment,
[0:38] Speaker 1: we're going to bring you this week's episode of Dragonet.
[0:41] Speaker 1: But first I want to encourage you. If you're enjoying
[0:44] Speaker 1: the podcast, please follow us at using your favorite podcast software.
[0:49] Speaker 1: And today's program is also brought to you in part
[0:51] Speaker 1: by the financial support of our listeners. You can support
[0:54] Speaker 1: the show on a one time basis. Support dot Great
[0:56] Speaker 1: Detectives dot net and become one of our ongoing Patreon
[1:00] Speaker 1: supporters for as to as little as two dollars for
[1:03] Speaker 1: months and just go to Patreon dot Right Detectives dot net.
[1:09] Speaker 1: But now, from February seventh, nineteen fifty two, here is
[1:15] Speaker 1: the Big Honeymoon.
[1:17] Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen.
[1:17] Speaker 3: Due to technical difficulties beyond our control at the moment,
[1:20] Speaker 3: the drag Net program originally scheduled at this period has
[1:23] Speaker 3: been postponed temporarily.
[1:25] Speaker 2: It will be heard in just a few moments.
[1:29] Speaker 4: The writer's at j Boss Bosses Katty sta Is Friday.
[1:33] Speaker 4: They're on the way and away on the office ten
[1:35] Speaker 4: thirty eight am. When we got to Paris Avenue number
[1:40] Speaker 4: two one.
[1:40] Speaker 5: Three, Yes, how do you do, miss Wagner. Police officers,
[1:44] Speaker 5: I'm Sergeant Jacobs, as my partner, Sergeant Friday.
[1:47] Speaker 6: Oh, yes, sergeant, I've been expecting you. Would you come in? Please?
[1:49] Speaker 2: Thank you very much, thank you.
[1:52] Speaker 6: I hope you'll excuse the way the house looks. Officers
[1:54] Speaker 6: right in the middle of packing getting ready to move.
[1:56] Speaker 2: I understand, try not to keep you, Miss Wagner.
[1:59] Speaker 6: So much to do making arrangements for Dorothy's funeral undertaker
[2:02] Speaker 6: than all this moving business on top of it, I
[2:05] Speaker 6: couldn't bear to stay here any longer, though.
[2:06] Speaker 2: Yes, man, we understand. We'll make it as brief as
[2:08] Speaker 2: we can.
[2:09] Speaker 4: I'd like to have you tell us about this trouble
[2:11] Speaker 4: that your sister had as much as you know about.
[2:13] Speaker 6: It, I mean, plain out and out murder. In my opinion,
[2:15] Speaker 6: might just as well have taken a gun and killed her,
[2:17] Speaker 6: no difference.
[2:18] Speaker 4: You knew all about the relationship between your sister Dorothy
[2:21] Speaker 4: and this man Reynolds, Is that correct, Yes.
[2:22] Speaker 6: Right from the beginning. I was there when they met.
[2:25] Speaker 6: Would you mind if I went ahead packing these few
[2:27] Speaker 6: things here my sister's things I like to finish up
[2:30] Speaker 6: before I leave. Have an appointment at noon in the mortuary.
[2:33] Speaker 2: Surely go right ahead.
[2:38] Speaker 6: Few books, nick Knacks personal things to Dorothy's foolish woman.
[2:42] Speaker 6: I gave her credit for more.
[2:43] Speaker 2: Since about this man Reynolds, Miss Wagner, I thought.
[2:46] Speaker 6: Threw him right from the start. I tried to tell
[2:48] Speaker 6: Dorothy it was a fortune hunter, money hungry. Of course
[2:51] Speaker 6: she wouldn't listen. She always knew better.
[2:53] Speaker 2: Charles R. Reynolds. Is that the name you knew him by, ma'am?
[2:56] Speaker 6: Yes, that's right. Dorothy and I met him one Sunday
[2:58] Speaker 6: night in the hotel dining room. Two of us always
[3:01] Speaker 6: had dinner at the hotel Sunday nights every Sunday.
[3:03] Speaker 2: That's the hotel out on Wilchire you told us about.
[3:06] Speaker 6: That's correct, be exactly a month this coming Sunday. Came
[3:09] Speaker 6: up to our table and introduced himself. Claimed he knew
[3:11] Speaker 6: my father when he was a lot. Dad owned some
[3:14] Speaker 6: big packing plants in the East. Died nine years ago,
[3:17] Speaker 6: left the estate to Dorothy and me.
[3:19] Speaker 4: I see, was you have anything to add to the
[3:21] Speaker 4: description that you gave us on Reyl's Miss Wagoner? I mean,
[3:24] Speaker 4: can you think of anything unusual about him at all?
[3:25] Speaker 4: Scars peculiar mannerisms anything with that.
[3:28] Speaker 6: No, nothing special. M dressed well, as I say, apparently, cultured,
[3:31] Speaker 6: well traveled. He was handsome enough attractive. I knew it
[3:36] Speaker 6: was only after our money, though. Playing up to Dorothy
[3:38] Speaker 6: that way, kissing her hand, taking her out all the time,
[3:41] Speaker 6: probably would have tried the same thing with me. It's
[3:44] Speaker 6: lucky I knew better.
[3:45] Speaker 5: How did your after the first meeting with him as wagoner?
[3:47] Speaker 5: Did you start to enny of your sister Dorothy right away?
[3:49] Speaker 6: Yes? The next night called here at our home and
[3:52] Speaker 6: asked Dorothy to the theater. I think he was going
[3:54] Speaker 6: to ask me, but he was too smart for that.
[3:56] Speaker 6: I knew it for what he was hum Imagine that
[4:02] Speaker 6: poems Dorothy wrote in high school love poems silly. She
[4:08] Speaker 6: never did get it out of her head.
[4:11] Speaker 2: You and your sister lived alone here in the house,
[4:13] Speaker 2: did you, ma'am?
[4:14] Speaker 6: Yes, Dorothy and I and the maid. I don't wanna
[4:17] Speaker 6: stay here after what's happened, though, I'm going to my
[4:19] Speaker 6: cousins in Vermont. Never want to see this place again.
[4:21] Speaker 4: Yes, ma'am might understand. How soon after you met Reynolds
[4:24] Speaker 4: did he marry her.
[4:25] Speaker 6: Sister a little over two weeks. He'd been seeing her
[4:28] Speaker 6: almost every night, taking her out, dancing to the theaters,
[4:30] Speaker 6: big dinners, bringing her home late and sit here in
[4:33] Speaker 6: the living room. I could hear them from my bedroom upstairs,
[4:36] Speaker 6: laughing him telling her how beautiful she was. Forty two
[4:40] Speaker 6: year old woman.
[4:41] Speaker 2: Imagine that you're about the same, aide. Your sister was
[4:44] Speaker 2: just about a little older.
[4:46] Speaker 6: People always took us for twins, though there's a snapshot
[4:52] Speaker 6: of me taking in my twenties. The boy with me there,
[4:55] Speaker 6: he wanted to marry me my money, of course, that's
[4:57] Speaker 6: all he wanted, too bad. Dorothy never seemed to realize
[5:02] Speaker 6: that about men. Girls from wealthy families have to be careful.
[5:05] Speaker 4: And we understand Reynolds took your sister out of town
[5:08] Speaker 4: to be married as overly.
[5:08] Speaker 6: Yes, Las Vegas. Reynolds had told her his bank funds
[5:12] Speaker 6: were tied up temporarily in a Canadian bank. He wrote
[5:15] Speaker 6: Dorothy a check for ten thousand dollars, and she gave
[5:17] Speaker 6: him her check for the same amount. He said he
[5:20] Speaker 6: wanted to book reservations for around the world trip for
[5:22] Speaker 6: both of them. I see the same day Dorothy gave
[5:25] Speaker 6: him the check, he cashed it the bank called her
[5:28] Speaker 6: about it, and she said it was perfectly all right.
[5:30] Speaker 6: Hour after he cashed it, Reynolds disappeared, no trace of him.
[5:34] Speaker 6: Of course, his check's worthless.
[5:36] Speaker 4: We found that out, and you figured that's the only
[5:38] Speaker 4: reason your sister took her own life.
[5:39] Speaker 6: There's no other reason. Wasn't the money so much? Dorothy
[5:43] Speaker 6: has her share of the estate. It's a shame, I suppose,
[5:46] Speaker 6: awful shame, disappointment. She should have known better a woman
[5:50] Speaker 6: her age.
[5:50] Speaker 2: Had your sister ever been married before Miss Wagner?
[5:53] Speaker 6: Yes, when she was eighteen, ran off to Chicago and
[5:56] Speaker 6: married a young fellow. She claimed she loved him too
[5:59] Speaker 6: naturally he was atter dar money. My father and I
[6:02] Speaker 6: went and brought her home. We had the marriage anulled.
[6:05] Speaker 6: It was that way all her life. Half a dozen
[6:07] Speaker 6: men they brought Dorothy nothing but misery. And this was
[6:11] Speaker 6: a last this Charles Reynolds.
[6:13] Speaker 4: How about his background, ma'am? His business connections? He ever
[6:15] Speaker 4: mentioned any of that to you or your sister?
[6:17] Speaker 6: Claimed he had interests all over South America, Australia, seemed
[6:20] Speaker 6: to have plenty of money. Guess his kind always has.
[6:24] Speaker 6: Do you think you'll find him?
[6:25] Speaker 2: We're gonna try h Miss Wager.
[6:27] Speaker 6: Dorothy went upstairs to her bedroom and stayed there. She
[6:30] Speaker 6: looks as strange. She took out some press flowers from
[6:33] Speaker 6: a book. Some boy'd given them to her once years ago,
[6:37] Speaker 6: don't know who. She just sat on the edge of
[6:40] Speaker 6: her bed and stared at them, old press flowers. Next morning,
[6:44] Speaker 6: the maid came upstairs and Dorothy was lying on the floor,
[6:48] Speaker 6: empty bottle of pills next to her. Awful disgrace. Never
[6:52] Speaker 6: happened before in our family.
[6:55] Speaker 4: If you don't mind, miss Wagoner, we like to get
[6:56] Speaker 4: as many particulars about this man Reynolds as you can remember.
[7:02] Speaker 2: There.
[7:03] Speaker 6: That's a last. I don't know what else to tell you,
[7:07] Speaker 6: off Cirl. I know is I was young when Dorothy
[7:09] Speaker 6: was young. I could have had a man if I wanted.
[7:12] Speaker 6: But I didn't run off when I was eighteen to
[7:14] Speaker 6: marry a boy. I knew my duty. It wasn't proper,
[7:18] Speaker 6: it wasn't a love. I didn't run off as a
[7:20] Speaker 6: middle aged woman to marry a fortune hunter either. What
[7:24] Speaker 6: made her do it?
[7:25] Speaker 2: I wouldn't know, ma'am. She was your sister.
[7:27] Speaker 6: What kind of a man was he? What kind of
[7:28] Speaker 6: a mind? Making love? Kissing her? Just to take her money.
[7:33] Speaker 6: Imagine selling somebody with a kiss.
[7:36] Speaker 4: Well, it's not the first time, ma'am is that so
[7:39] Speaker 4: look it up. You'll find it in the Bible eleven
[7:46] Speaker 4: eighteen am. We continued to interview the victim's sister for
[7:49] Speaker 4: another forty minutes, and then we left the Wagner home,
[7:52] Speaker 4: drove back to the office and continued our investigation of
[7:54] Speaker 4: the suspect, Charles R.
[7:56] Speaker 2: Reynolds.
[7:57] Speaker 4: As far as we were concerned, the criminal was new
[7:59] Speaker 4: to us, but the crime wasn't. The marriage rackets as
[8:02] Speaker 4: old as any con game on Earth, and as con
[8:04] Speaker 4: games go, it's one of the lowest. It trades on
[8:07] Speaker 4: one of the most natural and normal instincts. A man
[8:09] Speaker 4: or a woman has a desire for companionship, a home,
[8:13] Speaker 4: and a family, and for the sake of an easy dollar,
[8:16] Speaker 4: it betrays the victim and the instinct ruthlessly, regardless of
[8:19] Speaker 4: the consequences. In the case of forty two year old
[8:23] Speaker 4: heiress Dorothy Wagner, the disappointment was too much to cope
[8:26] Speaker 4: with for her. The marriage game ended in the front
[8:29] Speaker 4: parlor of a mortuary on South Hoover Street. For the suspect,
[8:33] Speaker 4: Charles Reynolds, it had continued to be a paying business
[8:36] Speaker 4: until he was stopped. After Homicide Detail completed their investigation
[8:40] Speaker 4: of the case and it was definitely determined that Dorothy
[8:43] Speaker 4: Wagner took her own life, the matter.
[8:45] Speaker 2: Was turned over to US. Eleven fifty am.
[8:48] Speaker 4: We got off a request to Las Vegas asking them
[8:50] Speaker 4: for all the information on the marriage, and then I
[8:53] Speaker 4: contacted the Stat's office and asked them to make a
[8:55] Speaker 4: run on the suspect for US based on his detailed
[8:57] Speaker 4: description and also on his method of operation. I went
[9:00] Speaker 4: back down the hall and met d Jacobs at the
[9:02] Speaker 4: R and I encounter.
[9:05] Speaker 2: How you doing? Not too much luck?
[9:06] Speaker 5: Joe Forgery didn't come up with anything either, nothing on
[9:09] Speaker 5: him in their files.
[9:09] Speaker 2: I mean, so much of a start is it? Apparently
[9:11] Speaker 2: this is the first time he's worked at town Horns.
[9:13] Speaker 2: We couldn't find anything on the name, not the main file.
[9:15] Speaker 5: Anyway, what do you got there? I asked John to
[9:18] Speaker 5: check the correspondence file. He came up with this out
[9:22] Speaker 5: of Chicago. He came in over three months ago. Inquiry
[9:25] Speaker 5: from their Bunco detail suspect the name right here, Frank L.
[9:29] Speaker 4: Richland, same angle Marry draggedt mm. Yeah them was pretty
[9:33] Speaker 4: close any description? Oh here, what do you think six foot,
[9:38] Speaker 4: one hundred and seventy pounds, gray, wavy hair, blue eyes,
[9:41] Speaker 4: fair complex and.
[9:44] Speaker 2: That's fairly close, could be.
[9:46] Speaker 5: Here's the alias list Richland US as long as your arm.
[9:49] Speaker 5: Here's one caught our I Reynolds Alius George A. Reynolds,
[9:53] Speaker 5: Thomas R. Reynolds alias C. H. Reynolds alias Charles R.
[9:56] Speaker 4: Reynolds once owned him for forgery, buncle grand theft a
[10:00] Speaker 4: lot of experience. How about a mud shot on this.
[10:02] Speaker 2: One mm none attached, no LA contacts either.
[10:05] Speaker 4: Now we better get off a wire to Chicago. PD
[10:07] Speaker 4: haven't sent us what they can on him.
[10:09] Speaker 6: Uh.
[10:09] Speaker 4: I want to prove it one way or the other.
[10:10] Speaker 4: But at the end of the week maybe, uh yeah.
[10:12] Speaker 5: Copy is named out here, right, Frank Ellen Richland Correspondence
[10:17] Speaker 5: number C one four three seven three two Chicago case
[10:23] Speaker 5: number D day six one two dash three two tension
[10:28] Speaker 5: Lieutenant Smikels.
[10:30] Speaker 2: I'm just thinking it.
[10:31] Speaker 4: Huh the last time anyone saw Reynolds?
[10:34] Speaker 2: When was it? Ten twelve days ago? Ten days ago?
[10:36] Speaker 5: Yeah, September twenty third, same day, cash the check and
[10:39] Speaker 5: took a run out.
[10:40] Speaker 4: Well, if he's working in the city for the first time.
[10:42] Speaker 4: He must figure he's had some fair luck. Ten thousand
[10:45] Speaker 4: on the first try is pretty encouraging.
[10:46] Speaker 2: Uh.
[10:47] Speaker 4: If he gets the idea of the town's a gold mine,
[10:49] Speaker 4: he's not gonna pull out steaks here.
[10:50] Speaker 5: Mm figures probably trying to reach a couple of other
[10:53] Speaker 5: women with the same angle.
[10:54] Speaker 2: It could be he's working on it now.
[10:55] Speaker 4: Well that's the problem. What do you mean the women
[10:58] Speaker 4: say he's been romancing three or four around town. He's
[11:00] Speaker 4: got them all prime. How are you going to warn
[11:03] Speaker 4: a woman about a thief before a purse is gone.
[11:09] Speaker 4: After getting off a wire to Chicago regarding the suspect,
[11:12] Speaker 4: which was in addition to the broadcast in the APV,
[11:15] Speaker 4: We've gotten out on him, Ed Jacobs and I continued
[11:17] Speaker 4: checking out the various contacts that he'd made in the city.
[11:20] Speaker 2: We checked stores where he shopped, banks where.
[11:23] Speaker 4: He allegedly did business, restaurants and hotels which he reportedly patronized.
[11:28] Speaker 4: It took three days of dull, steady legwork. You can
[11:31] Speaker 4: say it much faster than you can do it. All
[11:33] Speaker 4: of the bank references, without exception, were falsified. Where he
[11:36] Speaker 4: made purchases, it was strictly cash dealing, the same for
[11:40] Speaker 4: the restaurants he'd frequented. Besides meager descriptions of the man,
[11:43] Speaker 4: the restaurant employees weren't able to help us much. At
[11:45] Speaker 4: one of the two hotels where we learned he was
[11:48] Speaker 4: a guest for a full month, we finally netted half
[11:50] Speaker 4: a lead.
[11:51] Speaker 2: One of the bell boys.
[11:52] Speaker 4: Told us that the man known as Charles Reynold seemed
[11:55] Speaker 4: to be pretty friendly with the head waiter in the
[11:56] Speaker 4: hotel dining room at Henry Kingsbury. He get at Kingsbury
[12:00] Speaker 4: in the dining room in mid afternoon, directing arrangements for
[12:03] Speaker 4: a large private party to be held that night. Across
[12:06] Speaker 4: the dance floor, the orchestra was on the bands stand, rehearsing,
[12:10] Speaker 4: the musicians in their shirt sleeves. Kingsbury was reserved, not
[12:14] Speaker 4: too cooperative. Yes, I was acquainted with mister Renolds, no
[12:19] Speaker 4: more than the other guests.
[12:20] Speaker 5: Though that's not the way we get it, mister Kingsbury here,
[12:22] Speaker 5: you were pretty friendly with him.
[12:24] Speaker 7: Only as far as my job goes, that's my business
[12:26] Speaker 7: making people feel at home, making them comfortable.
[12:28] Speaker 2: We I understand Reynolds was a pretty heavy tipper, Is
[12:30] Speaker 2: that right? He always took good care of me and
[12:32] Speaker 2: the boys.
[12:32] Speaker 8: The waiter.
[12:32] Speaker 2: He was very generous. Did he expect anything special in
[12:35] Speaker 2: return for the tips that he gave? I don't think
[12:37] Speaker 2: I understand why they you do? How about it?
[12:39] Speaker 7: Well, he was always very good to us, all of us,
[12:41] Speaker 7: so I can highly refuse, refuse what When he first
[12:44] Speaker 7: moved into the hotel, he became friendly with me, introduced himself,
[12:47] Speaker 7: gave me a good tip in advance to take care
[12:49] Speaker 7: of him. First few nights here he spent at the
[12:51] Speaker 7: cocktail bar, you know, meeting people, buying a few drinks,
[12:54] Speaker 7: getting acquainted. Third or fourth night, that's when he asked me.
[12:58] Speaker 7: You know, he said, once some prominent women came into
[13:01] Speaker 7: the dining room, wealthy women, would I point them out
[13:03] Speaker 7: to him? Single women? Of course, I couldn't see any harm.
[13:06] Speaker 7: And then he put a twenty dollars bill in my hand.
[13:08] Speaker 7: I said, yes, I would, After all, we have to
[13:10] Speaker 7: look out for ourself.
[13:11] Speaker 2: Did he expect anything else for those tips?
[13:13] Speaker 7: I don't know.
[13:14] Speaker 5: I don't think he'll be right if I told you.
[13:16] Speaker 5: You know, while we're here, mister Kingsbury, we leveled with him.
[13:18] Speaker 5: We expect you to do the same with us.
[13:20] Speaker 7: Well, there was the two Wagoner sisters. They came here
[13:23] Speaker 7: every Sunday night for dinner. Regular routine for them. Yeah,
[13:26] Speaker 7: mister Reynolds is at the bar. He asked who they
[13:28] Speaker 7: were and I told him. He seemed impressed. He asked
[13:31] Speaker 7: me to help with an introduction to them, and I did.
[13:34] Speaker 7: Next afternoon he came to me again. He said he
[13:36] Speaker 7: was taking one of the Wagoner's sisters to dinner that night.
[13:38] Speaker 7: It was important to him, and gave me another big tip.
[13:40] Speaker 7: Said he wanted us to roll out the red coppet
[13:42] Speaker 7: for him that night. What that consists of, well, special consideration,
[13:46] Speaker 7: the best treatment in the house.
[13:47] Speaker 2: You know.
[13:48] Speaker 7: I was to act as if I'd known him for years. Well,
[13:51] Speaker 7: it was a good tip. I did what he asked.
[13:52] Speaker 7: Did I say, we have to look out for ourself.
[13:55] Speaker 7: Has happened on once today? Two or three times? Yeah,
[13:58] Speaker 7: Miss Wagner, Athy Wagner. She seemed impressed. At the time.
[14:02] Speaker 7: I didn't think anything was wrong with it.
[14:04] Speaker 4: You actually didn't know Reynolds, Is that right? You'd never
[14:06] Speaker 4: seen him before? Well, I suppose yes. I only found
[14:10] Speaker 4: out later though reading the papers. I mean, what really happened.
[14:13] Speaker 4: I didn't know what he was at the time. You
[14:15] Speaker 4: couldn't see what Reynolds was up to. You didn't know
[14:17] Speaker 4: what he was doing.
[14:17] Speaker 7: Oh, naturally not. He was a good tipper, that's all
[14:20] Speaker 7: I know. It was the money. Yeah, look up for herself. Yeah.
[14:24] Speaker 7: I felt sorry about miss Wagner. I went to the funeral.
[14:27] Speaker 7: They couldn't say I'm to blame, could they?
[14:29] Speaker 2: What happened? I mean, it's not on my conscience. You
[14:31] Speaker 2: wouldn't say so, would you. She's dead, mister, you figured it.
[14:38] Speaker 4: Thursday, October thirteenth, the investigation continued, still no sign of
[14:42] Speaker 4: the suspect. We got an answer from Las Vegas and
[14:44] Speaker 4: also from the Chicago p d's Bunco detail on our inquiries.
[14:48] Speaker 4: They enclosed mugshots and fingerprint classification of the suspect, Frank
[14:52] Speaker 4: Richland alias Charles R.
[14:53] Speaker 2: Reynolds.
[14:54] Speaker 4: The pictures were shown to witnesses and acquaintances who'd known
[14:57] Speaker 4: the suspect, and they definitely established for Thank Richland and
[15:01] Speaker 4: Charles Reynolds as one and the same person. We got
[15:04] Speaker 4: out of supplementary APV containing the latest information on the suspect. Saturday,
[15:08] Speaker 4: October fifteenth, we got our second complaint on the marriage
[15:11] Speaker 4: Bunco artist, this time from the propractice of a small
[15:14] Speaker 4: chain of lunch counters in the San Pedro area. From
[15:17] Speaker 4: missus Hagar Linstrom ed and I drove down to the
[15:20] Speaker 4: Harbor area, where we interviewed her. At one of her
[15:22] Speaker 4: lunch counters, she identified Richland's mugshot. Her story of the
[15:26] Speaker 4: marriage swindle matched closely with that of the previous victim,
[15:29] Speaker 4: Dorothy Wagner.
[15:32] Speaker 9: Yeah, he was a fine gentleman, mister young richlid it
[15:35] Speaker 9: will know what happened.
[15:36] Speaker 6: They don't know what to say.
[15:37] Speaker 2: He told you it was from England, Miss Winstrom, Is
[15:39] Speaker 2: that right? Yeah?
[15:39] Speaker 9: He talked like Englishmen. He could speak good English, like
[15:42] Speaker 9: from London or someplace. Says he builds boats, baked once
[15:47] Speaker 9: beg boats. Oh, yes, he told me that's his business.
[15:50] Speaker 9: He said he had lots of mone Maybe he would
[15:52] Speaker 9: sail around the Verve on the honeymoon. Maybe he will
[15:55] Speaker 9: come back still, I hope.
[15:57] Speaker 2: So I wouldn't call on that, Miss Linstrom. Would you
[15:59] Speaker 2: tell us this please? How'd you happen to meet this
[16:01] Speaker 2: man Richland at.
[16:02] Speaker 9: The hotel up the street, the Bay Hotel? Taking sure
[16:06] Speaker 9: to ye, the one on the Axon Street. Yes, they
[16:09] Speaker 9: seem to know. He was a rich man, nice clothes here.
[16:12] Speaker 9: He spent money a lot, and they got married. They
[16:15] Speaker 9: spent lots of money.
[16:16] Speaker 2: Where were you married, ma'am?
[16:17] Speaker 9: They went down to Mexico one weekend, liven down there
[16:21] Speaker 9: and they got married.
[16:22] Speaker 6: It's just romantic, very nice. If I'm Mars liked it.
[16:27] Speaker 2: Who's that, ma'am?
[16:28] Speaker 6: Lars? That's him down the counter there, Lars, my daughter.
[16:32] Speaker 2: Oh, your brother went along with you when you got married,
[16:35] Speaker 2: Is that right?
[16:35] Speaker 9: Lars and I go every choice together. They don't do
[16:38] Speaker 9: anything without Lars, mister Richland, that's nice about it. He
[16:42] Speaker 9: does seem to mind. Lars used a minnes. They call
[16:45] Speaker 9: him a Lars. Huh, Lars a Norse.
[16:50] Speaker 6: And I run the business together. At the's all the
[16:52] Speaker 6: fountains we have. It's a long time.
[16:54] Speaker 9: They have work at it, hard work it. We make
[16:58] Speaker 9: good living. Not easy though, that's fright. It was so
[17:01] Speaker 9: bad mister Rishland. Three thousand dollars he took, They said
[17:07] Speaker 9: that halielas. They want to know about mister Reshland a.
[17:11] Speaker 2: He was no good when they find them eating.
[17:14] Speaker 4: Another three thousand dollars he got from you, ma'am?
[17:16] Speaker 2: How did that work. I mean, did you give him
[17:18] Speaker 2: the money? Lend it to him? Just? What was it?
[17:20] Speaker 9: When we came back to mix a coof friend being married,
[17:23] Speaker 9: mister Rishland and me and Flars, he said it was
[17:26] Speaker 9: waiting for money from his bank in New York. Mister
[17:29] Speaker 9: Reshland said that he wrote me a check for three
[17:31] Speaker 9: thousand dollars. He gave him a check for three thousand.
[17:35] Speaker 6: Even Mars thought it was all right.
[17:37] Speaker 2: The new Lars, Yeah, it was crazy. His check was
[17:40] Speaker 2: no good. He beat nim up paper chin good. It's
[17:44] Speaker 2: quite a bit of money, Miss Linstrom. What kind of
[17:45] Speaker 2: a story do they give you?
[17:46] Speaker 9: He would buy the tickets for a honeymoon trip, That's
[17:49] Speaker 9: what he said.
[17:50] Speaker 6: I don't trip together.
[17:52] Speaker 9: Romantic mister Rishland and me and Lars, Hey didn't mind
[17:57] Speaker 9: last coming along?
[17:57] Speaker 2: Heather that Hey, Lars, No, he didn't now this.
[18:01] Speaker 4: Richland disappeared right after he cast you checked, Yes.
[18:03] Speaker 9: Sir, he got the money and he was gone six
[18:06] Speaker 9: days ago. They've never hurt him. A don't know I
[18:09] Speaker 9: had did this to us.
[18:10] Speaker 6: He thought he loved me. He thought he lost my husband.
[18:15] Speaker 2: We haven't seen or heard anything of him since he disappeared.
[18:17] Speaker 6: Not me and no lars. But maybe they know. That's
[18:20] Speaker 6: why they call you officers.
[18:22] Speaker 2: Yes, ma'am, they have.
[18:23] Speaker 9: His friend on town. Yeah, I'm Swenson. He met mister
[18:26] Speaker 9: Racheland law once friend of us here. It's fens and
[18:29] Speaker 9: callars on the telephone. He said he saw mister Rationlan
[18:32] Speaker 9: downtown going into the hotel.
[18:34] Speaker 2: Are you sure it was Richard?
[18:36] Speaker 6: Yeah, he said he so.
[18:37] Speaker 2: I long ago to see him, and last night.
[18:41] Speaker 4: We got on the phone right away and talked to
[18:43] Speaker 4: the friend of the linstruments, James Swinson, who gave us
[18:46] Speaker 4: the name and location of the downtown hotel where he
[18:48] Speaker 4: thought he'd seen the suspect Richland the night before. Ed
[18:51] Speaker 4: called the hotel and checked with a desk clerk.
[18:53] Speaker 5: Yes, fairly to all wavy gray hair, fair complexion, might
[18:57] Speaker 5: be registered as John Richland.
[18:59] Speaker 2: M Hey, what check with you later? Hi? Any what?
[19:04] Speaker 5: I registered as Harold Richland. Descriptions match. He's still there
[19:07] Speaker 5: checked out this morning.
[19:19] Speaker 10: You are listening to drag met authentic stories of your
[19:22] Speaker 10: police force and action.
[19:32] Speaker 4: Saturday, October fifteenth, two thirty pm at Jacobs and I
[19:35] Speaker 4: drove back downtown to the hotel where the Bunco suspect
[19:38] Speaker 4: Richland supposedly had been staying. The desk clerk definitely identified
[19:42] Speaker 4: his mugshot and told us that the man registered as
[19:44] Speaker 4: Harold Richland had checked out a few minutes before nine
[19:47] Speaker 4: am that morning, no forwarding address. We examined the room
[19:51] Speaker 4: he'd been staying in, talked to the residents and the
[19:53] Speaker 4: employees of the hotel, but we failed to come up
[19:55] Speaker 4: with a single lead as to the suspects whereabouts. During
[19:59] Speaker 4: the week that followed, we received three different kickbacks on
[20:02] Speaker 4: the all points we'd gotten out on Richland. We checked
[20:04] Speaker 4: each one of them out, but they failed to materialize
[20:07] Speaker 4: into anything. We stayed on it. October nineteenth, Wednesday, seven
[20:11] Speaker 4: fifty am. Morny, Hi, what's doing?
[20:14] Speaker 5: Charlie Frost called from Forgery. He went over to talk
[20:16] Speaker 5: to him and came up with something on the Richland thing.
[20:18] Speaker 2: Yeah, what's it? Picked up a woman.
[20:20] Speaker 5: Last night the name of Helen Stokes got a good
[20:22] Speaker 5: sized record checks Bunco Records now got her this time
[20:25] Speaker 5: on a check beef. She wrote one for thirty five
[20:27] Speaker 5: hundred dollars.
[20:28] Speaker 2: Yeah, well I was a time with us. Check was
[20:29] Speaker 2: made out to Harold Richland.
[20:33] Speaker 4: Eight fifteen am we signed out, drove over to the
[20:36] Speaker 4: main jail and had the forgery suspect Helen Stokes brought
[20:39] Speaker 4: to one of the interrogation rooms. She was a dark haired,
[20:42] Speaker 4: fairly attractive woman in her early thirties. As a bunco artist,
[20:46] Speaker 4: she apparently knew her trade pretty well. She was relaxed
[20:49] Speaker 4: and talkative. She told us Richland and introduced himself to
[20:52] Speaker 4: her at a Palm Springs resort the week before when
[20:55] Speaker 4: the business at the check come up as.
[20:56] Speaker 11: Soon as we got back in turn and gave me
[20:58] Speaker 11: the story. His money was in a New York bank.
[21:00] Speaker 11: I played along with a gag. He wrote me a
[21:01] Speaker 11: piece of wallpaper for thirty five hundred dollars.
[21:03] Speaker 2: I did the same for him.
[21:04] Speaker 6: What's the difference? Nobody hurt both check solid rubber.
[21:06] Speaker 2: Maybe you forget, ma'am, there's a law against it.
[21:08] Speaker 6: To me a gag. I told you that. You would
[21:10] Speaker 6: have loved to have seen his face when he found
[21:12] Speaker 6: out the check was a phony.
[21:13] Speaker 11: You don't think they're gonna push the charge against me,
[21:15] Speaker 11: do you.
[21:15] Speaker 4: No, We've already told him and she wrote a bad one.
[21:17] Speaker 4: There's a law against it.
[21:18] Speaker 11: That was only stringing him around. I mean, his check
[21:20] Speaker 11: was a phony. Too, I didn't have anything to gain. Look,
[21:23] Speaker 11: suppose I help you find him? Would you give me
[21:25] Speaker 11: a hand on this? See I get a break.
[21:26] Speaker 5: We can't make any promises. You cooperate helps find Richland?
[21:29] Speaker 5: Be taking into consideration, all right, cheer on?
[21:32] Speaker 6: You can tell a lover boy, I tip.
[21:33] Speaker 11: Chure you know where Richland is now I can come
[21:35] Speaker 11: close to hers. I mean I know where will be
[21:36] Speaker 11: next week.
[21:39] Speaker 4: On further questioning, Helen Stokes told us that on one occasion,
[21:42] Speaker 4: while she was at Palm Springs with Richland, she prowled
[21:45] Speaker 4: his hotel room, went through his personal effects, and read
[21:48] Speaker 4: his correspondence. She told us that she read one letter
[21:51] Speaker 4: from a friend of Richland's inviting him for a visit
[21:53] Speaker 4: the week of October thirty first. She also noted Rixland's
[21:56] Speaker 4: answer accepting the invitation. She said the friend's name was Maurice.
[22:00] Speaker 2: Archer, and that the letter came from an Ocean Boulevard
[22:03] Speaker 2: address in the beach town of Venice.
[22:05] Speaker 4: We went back to the office ran Archer's name, threw
[22:08] Speaker 4: R and I and found out that he had a
[22:09] Speaker 4: previous criminal record of petty theft and grand theft. We
[22:13] Speaker 4: located him in an ocean Boulevard address and brought him
[22:15] Speaker 4: in for interrogation.
[22:17] Speaker 2: If there was any trouble, he wanted no part of it.
[22:20] Speaker 4: After talking to him only a few minutes, he broke
[22:22] Speaker 4: down and told us where we could find Richland, an
[22:24] Speaker 4: address out near the end of Melrose Avenue. It was
[22:27] Speaker 4: an apartment court.
[22:28] Speaker 2: The suspect was registered in one of the rare cottages
[22:31] Speaker 2: under the name of Reynolds. It wasn't at home, ed
[22:34] Speaker 2: and I went on stakeout inside the cottage.
[22:36] Speaker 4: We waited six point thirty pm.
[22:40] Speaker 2: Somebody coming in.
[22:41] Speaker 4: Yeah, call it right there, mister police officers.
[22:45] Speaker 2: What's this? Hands out neiltman? Come on up. I don't understand.
[22:47] Speaker 4: They want to shake him down in Yeah all.
[22:52] Speaker 2: Right, queen.
[22:52] Speaker 7: Look, I don't know what you want, officers, but it
[22:54] Speaker 7: is a mistake. Your name Charles Reynolds Reynold, No, my
[22:57] Speaker 7: name is Richland. That don't do Let's go now.
[23:00] Speaker 2: Please? What am I accused of? Who's accusing you? Last
[23:02] Speaker 2: pigeon you had lined up, she wanted us to tell
[23:04] Speaker 2: you Helmond Stokes.
[23:05] Speaker 7: Stokes only Dan. You can't believe her, officers. She's phony,
[23:09] Speaker 7: She's nothing but a connor. It's a good reason to
[23:10] Speaker 7: believe her.
[23:11] Speaker 4: Well, it takes one to know one.
[23:16] Speaker 2: Seven oh five pm.
[23:18] Speaker 4: After checking through the cottage, ed and idro Richland downtown
[23:21] Speaker 4: and took him to the interrogation room.
[23:22] Speaker 2: He'd admit nothing.
[23:24] Speaker 4: We called miss Wagner, the sister of his first victim,
[23:26] Speaker 4: and she was still in town. She agreed to come
[23:29] Speaker 4: down to the office to confront the suspect.
[23:31] Speaker 2: So did the second victim, Agar Linstrom and.
[23:33] Speaker 4: Her brother Lars. Cars were set out to pick them
[23:37] Speaker 4: up and a special show up. Richland was picked out
[23:40] Speaker 4: as the guilty man. We took him back to the
[23:42] Speaker 4: interrogation room. Miss Wagner was the first one called in.
[23:45] Speaker 4: She again identified Richland alias Reynolds, as the man who
[23:49] Speaker 4: had married and swindled her sister Dorothy.
[23:51] Speaker 2: All right, miss Werner, that'll be all, thanks very much
[23:53] Speaker 2: for coming in.
[23:53] Speaker 6: Yes, all right, thank you.
[23:56] Speaker 7: Look, I don't know that woman. I'm not trying to
[23:57] Speaker 7: be stubborn, but I'm afraid you're wrong.
[23:59] Speaker 2: I met them and you want Listrom's are outside y'all
[24:01] Speaker 2: waiting all.
[24:02] Speaker 12: Right for you, Miss Lens from mister Linsco from many place,
[24:12] Speaker 12: Miss Linston, mister Winston.
[24:15] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I don't know you.
[24:17] Speaker 9: I've never seen you before you married me, John, you
[24:20] Speaker 9: wanted to be my husband.
[24:21] Speaker 6: You said that, Why did you want to hurt me?
[24:24] Speaker 2: Sorry?
[24:24] Speaker 9: I don't know what you said for you and me
[24:27] Speaker 9: and marsh to go in the boat honeymoon around the world.
[24:30] Speaker 6: You and me and Marsh you said on those things?
[24:33] Speaker 6: Why did you want to hurt us?
[24:36] Speaker 2: But enough for you. I don't know what they're talking about.
[24:38] Speaker 2: Bait you will. Mister mars Bice, he said you all
[24:42] Speaker 2: go around the world honeymoon? All right, all right, get
[24:46] Speaker 2: him out of here, okay, mister Winston, thanks.
[24:48] Speaker 6: It's no good Lars, come not this please?
[24:54] Speaker 2: Yeah, thank him, thank you very much. All right, all right, Ris,
[25:00] Speaker 2: you're ready to give us a statement?
[25:02] Speaker 13: Right?
[25:02] Speaker 2: Don't tell you.
[25:02] Speaker 7: You can't blame me for that one though. You wouldn't
[25:05] Speaker 7: have gone through with that view yourself. Nobody would have.
[25:07] Speaker 2: What's wrong? A nice looking girl? Sure? I don't mean man.
[25:10] Speaker 2: What do you mean, big clown? Or brother Lawrence? Yeah?
[25:13] Speaker 2: How'd you like to take that along on a honeymoon?
[25:23] Speaker 2: The story you have just heard was true. The names
[25:26] Speaker 2: were changed to protect the innocence.
[25:28] Speaker 10: On January fourteenth, trial was held in Superior Court Department
[25:32] Speaker 10: eighty eighth City and County of Los Angeles, State of
[25:34] Speaker 10: California in a moment the results of that trial. Frank
[25:46] Speaker 10: Richland was tried and convicted of two counts of grand
[25:49] Speaker 10: theft and three counts of forgery of a fictitious name.
[25:52] Speaker 10: After serving his term in the state penitentiary at San Quentin, California,
[25:56] Speaker 10: he used to be released to Chicago authorities for prosecution.
[26:00] Speaker 10: Grand theft is punishable by imprisonment for not less than
[26:03] Speaker 10: one nor more than ten years. Forgery of a fictitious
[26:07] Speaker 10: name is punishable by imprisonment from two to fourteen years.
[26:21] Speaker 10: You have just heard Dragnet, a series of authentic cases
[26:24] Speaker 10: from official files. Technical advice comes from the Office of
[26:27] Speaker 10: Chief of Police, wh Parker, Los Angeles Police Department. Heard
[26:31] Speaker 10: tonight where Barney Phillips and Virginia Gregg. Script by Jim Moser,
[26:36] Speaker 10: music by Walter Schumann, Hell Gibney speaking.
[26:44] Speaker 2: February eighteenth.
[26:45] Speaker 3: Here the Gala City Service Silver Radio Jubilee on NBC.
[26:56] Speaker 1: Welcome back of that little one. Technical delay at the
[27:01] Speaker 1: beginning was a bit rare and different, but really all
[27:06] Speaker 1: we missed was the sort of introductory comments, so we
[27:11] Speaker 1: essentially do get the whole story. This one is an
[27:15] Speaker 1: interesting one, and certainly a couple of interesting marriage cases.
[27:20] Speaker 1: You definitely feel like that there was a bit more
[27:24] Speaker 1: going on with the sister and her feelings. And while
[27:30] Speaker 1: I can sort of understand the sentiment of why he
[27:34] Speaker 1: didn't want to marry the second victim, the fact that
[27:40] Speaker 1: she wanted to take her brother along on the honeymoon
[27:44] Speaker 1: is a perfectly valid reason to not marry her, but
[27:48] Speaker 1: not to count her out of her money. All right,
[27:51] Speaker 1: listener comments and feedback now, and we go to a
[27:55] Speaker 1: comment from Jeff on Patreon, who writes regarding the the
[28:00] Speaker 1: court interesting to hear an episode with court scenes included,
[28:05] Speaker 1: since that it is off an overlooked part of police
[28:09] Speaker 1: on the radio. And that is a good point. We
[28:13] Speaker 1: rarely get to experience, and this wasn't just on radio,
[28:18] Speaker 1: but television as well. We rarely get to experience the
[28:22] Speaker 1: whole courtroom aspect on Dragnet, either TV or radio. Yeah,
[28:29] Speaker 1: and you occasionally get a scene or two something like
[28:32] Speaker 1: what you got in The Big I Am, And they
[28:37] Speaker 1: also had that grand jury scene in the nineteen fifty
[28:41] Speaker 1: four Dragnet movie. But because the episodes are usually structured
[28:47] Speaker 1: around the investigations, you don't get a whole lot of
[28:51] Speaker 1: time in court, and kind of to make up for that,
[28:53] Speaker 1: Dragnet did do a couple of court focused episodes. The
[28:59] Speaker 1: other one I can think of is the Courtroom from
[29:04] Speaker 1: season four of the nineteen sixties drag Net. Well, now
[29:08] Speaker 1: it's time to thank our Patreon supporter of the day,
[29:11] Speaker 1: and thank you to k Pass, Patreon supporter since May
[29:14] Speaker 1: twenty twenty three, currently supporting the podcast at the Shawmus
[29:19] Speaker 1: level of four dollars more per month. Thanks so much
[29:22] Speaker 1: for your support, k Pass, and that will do it
[29:24] Speaker 1: for today. If you're enjoying the podcast, please follow us
[29:28] Speaker 1: using your favorite podcast software and be sure to rate
[29:32] Speaker 1: and review the podcast wherever you download it from. We
[29:36] Speaker 1: will be back next Thursday with another episode of Dragnet.
[29:40] Speaker 1: But join us back here tomorrow for yours truly, Johnny Dollar.
[29:45] Speaker 8: Where I, mister Dollar, make yourself at home. I must say,
[29:51] Speaker 8: you want it all upset about the loss of your warehouse?
[29:54] Speaker 8: Should I be sit down? Sure, mister Dollar.
[29:59] Speaker 13: That building's in a losing proposition for years because of
[30:03] Speaker 13: its bad location, because of zoning restrictions and the cost
[30:07] Speaker 13: to tearing it down. I have done nothing but lose
[30:10] Speaker 13: money on it all. But I've been very careful to
[30:14] Speaker 13: keep up the insurance, so now that it's gone up
[30:18] Speaker 13: in flames, I shall let long last collect on it.
[30:21] Speaker 8: Three hundred and forty thousand dollars.
[30:24] Speaker 13: That's right, And with whatever I can get from some
[30:27] Speaker 13: of the misguided investor of the land itself, I'll be
[30:30] Speaker 13: sitting pretty I see now. Don't get any funny ideas,
[30:34] Speaker 13: mister investigator. The police have found nothing whatsoever to suggests Arson,
[30:41] Speaker 13: No will they.
[30:43] Speaker 8: You sound pretty sure of that. I'm sure of it,
[30:46] Speaker 8: even if it were a job that you didn't have done,
[30:48] Speaker 8: I'm sure of it. You know something, mister Barnwell, I'm
[30:53] Speaker 8: not so.
[30:53] Speaker 13: If you can be of any help in putting through.
[30:56] Speaker 8: My can you hear what I said? I heard? Mister
[30:58] Speaker 8: Dollar doesn't worry me a bit.
[31:02] Speaker 1: I hope you'll be with us then in the meantime,
[31:04] Speaker 1: send your comments to Box thirteen at Greatdetectives dot net,
[31:10] Speaker 1: follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives, and check us
[31:14] Speaker 1: out on Instagram, Instagram, dot com, slash Great Detectives from Boise, Idaho.
[31:22] Speaker 1: This is your host, Adam graham Son and off

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.