Dragnet 1967 (1967) s01e08 Episode Script

1
[Friday Narrating]
This is the city— Los Angeles, California.
Like everyplace else,
money is what makes it go,
and there are
a lot of ways of getting it.
You can earn it.
You can speculate for it.
You can win it sometimes.
You can borrow it
or even buy it.
If you’re desperate enough,
you can steal it.
When you do, I go to work.
I carry a badge.
It was Monday, March 18.
It was cloudy in Los Angeles.
We were working the day watch
out of Robbery Division.
The boss is Captain Howe.
My partner's Bill Gannon.
My name's Friday.
In the space of two weeks, an armed
bandit had held up and robbed
10 branches of one of the city's
largest candy store chains.
We knew his M. O.
We had a good description.
So far, we had failed to identify him.
[Man Narrating]
The story you are about to see is true.
The names have been changed
to protect the innocent.
[Friday Narrating]
Monday, March 18, 9:00 a.m.
The candy store bandit
had entered the 10th store
shortly before 8:00 p.m.
the previous night.
The clerk, Mrs. Jean Hardy,
described him as a tall, gaunt man,
armed with a blue-steel automatic.
I've given notice, Sergeant.
The only reason I came in today
was to tell them to get somebody else.
- Yes, ma'am.
- I didn't feel I could quit
without giving them some notice.
They don't want me to leave.
They've even offered a raise,
but I told Mr. Claxton—
he's the manager—
I said, "Mr. Claxton, there isn't
enough money in this world
for me to go through that again"—
getting shot at, I mean.
We're pretty sure he's the same man
who held up the other Rachelle stores.
But this is the first time
he's used a gun.
Tell us what happened.
Well, I was about here
when he came in, checking the trays.
He saw me, but he walked
straight over there to the cash register.
I had an empty tray in my hand.
I took it with me when I moved over
to wait on him. I asked him what he wanted.
He brought his hand up like this.
- That's when I saw the gun.
- Yes, ma'am. Would you go on, please.
I remember thinking
very calmly, very clearly,
"This is a holdup.
It's happening to me."
- We understand.
- Well, then he said
to give him all the money.
As I opened the register,
with my left hand,
I made a half turn to the right
to set the tray down.
- That must've been what did it.
- What's that?
Making two movements at the same time.
It must have startled him.
I can't think of any other reason
why he should shoot at me. Can you?
- No, ma'am.
- Well, he's not getting a second chance.
I've given notice.
There's not enough money in this world.
Well, it's not likely
he'll ever come back to this
particular store again, Mrs. Hardy.
- You haven't arrested him, have you?
- No, not yet.
Well, then I don't know how
you can say he won't come back.
Well, we can't guarantee it, ma'am,
but we know he's never repeated
on a store so far.
Is that right? Never?
Oh, well, maybe
that does make a difference.
Here. Have one of these. Go ahead.
Or do you prefer light chocolate?
No, thanks. None for me.
All the same to me. Thanks.
You know, there's something wrong
with that holdup man.
How's that, ma'am?
I was talking about him
with Mr. Claxton this morning,
and he said the head office
had made the same comment.
- What's that?
- Ten candy stores, counting this one.
Yes.
Stolen all that money.
And never helped himself
to one piece of candy.
[Friday Narrating]
9:35 a.m. We went back to the office.
The captain wanted to see us.
Corner Pocket's been asking me
questions. I've got a few for you.
- Yes, sir.
- These candy store heists—
Why is he still operating?
- We just haven't been able
to make him yet.
- Ten hits.
- That oughta be enough to give you a fix.
- We've checked him out three ways.
- Yeah?
- We got a description.
Everybody's agreed on it.
- We pulled every mug shot that
even came close. He just wasn't there.
- Mm-hmm.
Then we tried working through his M.O.—
kind of store, the hours he works,
always a blue-steel automatic.
He's only fired it on this last job.
- Ballistics recovered the slug—.38 caliber.
- What else did you come up with?
Looks like he's new.
We've got nothing on him at all.
- Got prints, haven't you?
- Yeah, but nothing readable.
Ten candy stores have been knocked over
in almost as many days.
Unless it's the Invisible Man,
you must know something about him.
Well, we know he's not a big operator.
The most he's ever gotten was $50.
- Once it was only 10.
- But he's had steady work.
Well, the way we see it,
he had the shorts one day,
and he walked into that first store,
probably because it was handy.
- It worked for him once,
so he hasn't changed his M.O.
- Anything else?
The stores he's hit, all 10 of them,
are in the downtown area.
You could walk to any one of them
in an hour. Ten minutes on a bus.
- He's never hit the same one twice.
- How many stores does he have left
in the downtown area?
- Five.
- How long a stakeout, do you figure?
Well, he's never gone longer than
two nights running without making a hit.
If there were two men
in each of those five stores, we oughta
pick him up before the end of the week.
- Before the end of the week?
- Yes, sir.
If anybody asks me,
that's what I'll tell them.
[Friday Narrating]
Arrangements were made
to draw 10 men from Metro Division.
They were told they would be
on extra duty
from 6:30 p.m.
until 9:00, 10:00 or 1 1:00,
depending on the closing hour
of the candy store they were assigned to.
4:30 p.m. The officers reported
to the Robbery squad room for briefing.
All right, gentlemen.
If I could have your attention, please.
Here's a description of the suspect:
male Caucasian,
between 6' and 6'3" tall,
weight about 150 pounds,
thin and gaunt.
Nearly all the witnesses have used
those words to describe him.
- Thin and gaunt.
- Is he geed up?
- A couple of the women clerks said
they smelled alcohol on his breath.
- How about the kind of clothes?
A few times, a heavy, dark sweater.
Most of the time he wears
a cheap, gray suit that looks to be
a size too big for him.
His M.O. is always the same.
He's never hit anything
but Rachelle candy stores.
Never before 7:00 p.m.
Usually near closing.
And only if there are
no customers in the stores.
The suspect carries
a blue-steel .38 automatic.
- Do we check out shotguns?
- No. These stores are too small.
- Too close to the sidewalk.
- Is he trigger-happy?
He was last night.
[Friday Narrating]
A team was assigned to each
of the five downtown candy stores
that had not yet been robbed.
They would take up their positions
at 6:30 p.m.
Bill and I would be in Unit 1K-80
on rolling stakeout.
5:48 p.m.
Have to take off in about 20 minutes.
Oughta have a sandwich.
Be a while fore we can eat.
What are you gonna have?
- Oh, just coffee.
- You oughta have something solid, Joe.
- Well, coffee'll get it.
- It's your stomach.
- Where do you want to go? Upstairs?
- It's all taken care of.
- What do you mean?
- The food oughta be here any minute.
- Well, then why did you ask me
what I was gonna have?
- I wanted to see if I guessed right.
- Who's bringing it? One of the boys?
- Not with those legs.
Thanks, Miller.
Do I have any change coming?
Three cents.
That's all right.
Keep it for your trouble.
Thanks a million, Bill.
How are you, Joe?
Fine, Dorothy. Nice of you
to pick that up for us.
It's no trouble. I'm on the night watch.
You got a rumble going?
Yeah, five-way stakeout.
We gotta leave in a few minutes.
- You'd better get to that then, hadn't you?
- I'm just having coffee.
It's in there. Bill, didn't
you tell me to pick up two
of those mile-high sandwiches?
- That's right.
- Why didn't you tell me Joe didn't want one?
No use to waste it.
Oh, I didn't know that when I called you.
Joe was out of the office.
You know I never eat those things.
Pickles, onions and all that stuff.
[Radio Beeping]
I forgot.
[Man On Radio]
All units in the vicinity.
A 211 in progress
at 633 West Olive.
1A-12, handle the call. Code 3.
That's a Rachelle Candies, Joe.
[Friday Narrating]
6:20 p.m. Contrary to his M. O.,
the candy store bandit
had held up a store earlier
than he ever had so far.
The robbery had occurred
a good 25 minutes
before any of the teams on stakeout
had taken up their positions
in the Rachelle candy stores.
Goldman?
In the alley, Sergeant.
When we pulled up, the man ran out
of the candy store, down this alley.
Got off three rounds at us
before we returned the fire.
- [Friday] Nickel-plated revolver.
- Not the gun we've been looking for.
[Friday]
That's not the man
we've been looking for.
[Friday Narrating]
Tuesday, March 19, 10:00 a.m.
We met with Captain Howe.
That dead man in the alley last night—
Still think he's the wrong man?
- We know he is, Skipper.
- We've identified him.
- Name's Max Schifftler.
- Just in from Kansas City.
He hadn't been in town an hour
before he tried that robbery.
- It was just a coincidence.
- It made all the papers.
Good chance the guy
you're looking for will get hinky.
Could blow the stakeouts.
I think we oughta stay at it
a few more nights anyway.
- Your man has to know
you're waiting for him.
- Yes, sir.
- Then what's the point?
- What else have we got?
[Friday Narrating]
Tuesday, March 19, 7:00 p.m.
The stakeouts continued.
Bill and I cruised the area,
ready to respond immediately to a call
from any of the five candy stores.
9:00 p.m. Two of the stores
closed for the night.
The officers on stakeout
had nothing to report.
10:00 p.m. The other three Rachelle
candy stores closed without incident.
One thing we were sure of:
Since he had begun his series of robberies,
the gaunt bandit had never gone
more than two nights without making a hit.
Tomorrow night
would be the second night.
Wednesday, March 20.
We made a request to continue
the candy store stakeouts one more night.
Do we go another night?
Yeah. We're gonna be shorthanded.
Oh?
Edwards and Logan
have been pulled out.
No other teams available?
Yeah, one.
Yeah?
You and me.
[Friday Narrating]
8:00 p.m. Bill and I staked out
the Rachelle candy store on Wilshire.
Any of the other four teams would contact us
if anything happened at their locations.
We waited.
You know what they tell these clerks?
I mean in any candy store.
No. What's that?
First day on the job, help yourself.
Everything's free. Eat all you want.
You know what happens.
No. What's that?
You get so sick of candy,
you never want any more.
Is that so?
You bet.
How long have we been here?
Hour and 10 minutes.
Boy, just the smell of it
kind of fills you up, don't it?
[Phone Ringing]
This is Friday. Yeah.
Where? Where?
Yeah. Right away.
Anything?
Yeah, he hit right between us.
What do you mean?
He hit the same store
for the second time.
[Friday Narrating]
8:20 p.m. Despite our efforts,
the candy store bandit
had held up 1 1 stores in a row.
He had avoided the stakeouts
by repeating on one store he had robbed
only three nights earlier.
The clerk was the same one as before—
Mrs. Jean Hardy.
A black-and-white unit
had almost caught him on the job.
Female customer saw the man had a gun,
backed out, made the call from next door.
Yeah.
We were just two blocks over.
Got here in less than a minute.
Yeah.
Suspect was on the street by then,
saw us coming, fired twice.
I got one shot off,
he grabbed the side of his face
and stumbled around the corner.
Left a few drops of blood
on the street.
Those blood spots—
Let's follow 'em.
[Friday Narrating]
The spots pointed east,
toward skid row.
8:45 p.m. The trail of spots ended
at a cheap hotel on lower East Fifth Street.
Police officers.
Yes, sir?
We're looking for a tall man—
6', maybe 6'3".
Thin, around 150 pounds.
Yes, sir.
His face is bleeding.
He came in 10 minutes ago.
Where is he?
Claude Thibodeau. Room 12.
Does he live alone?
Yes, sir.
Stay off that phone.
He ain't got no phone
in his room.
Police officers! Get your hands
up on that wall! Move!
All right, turn around.
Get your hands behind your head.
I don't see why
you're so tough about it.
I'm not making
no trouble for nobody.
Now, that's the first time
you've been right in two weeks.
[Friday Narrating]
A search of the hotel room
failed to turn up the suspect's gun.
We took him downtown.
9: 15 p.m. Claude Thibodeau
was advised of his constitutional rights.
He did not want an attorney.
We made arrangements for a show-up.
The candy store clerk, Mrs. Hardy,
was asked to make the identification.
9:45 p.m. Mrs. Hardy was picked up
in a black-and-white unit
and brought downtown for the show-up.
We made out a 12.2 1 form
in the event she made an identification.
You know, Sergeant, I stayed on that job
entirely on your people's say-so.
You gave me your assurance
that man would never come back again.
We're sorry, ma'am.
He'd never held up
the same store twice.
You found out different,
didn't you?
Yes, ma'am.
- This is almost as bad as the holdup.
- How do you mean?
Being in a police station
is just like being in a hospital,
as far as I'm concerned.
It makes me terribly nervous.
- Well, it shouldn't take very long, Mrs. Hardy.
- Will he be able to see me?
No, ma'am. There's a copper screen
between the suspects and the witnesses.
You can see them clearly,
but they can't see you.
- You're sure?
- Yes, ma'am.
Who is that man
sitting down there?
- That's Sergeant Al Vietti of our division.
- What do I have to do?
A number of different men,
all similar in appearance
to the man who held you up
will walk out on that platform.
- Where will he be?
- Right in front of that height board,
along with seven other men.
- I'm supposed to pick him out?
- That's the idea.
- Just take your time and be sure.
- I don't want to pick out the wrong man.
We don't want you to either,
Mrs. Hardy. You just take your time.
- Al, send in the first line.
- Send in the first line.
Now, Mrs. Hardy,
we're going to adjust the lights
to approximate the brightness
of Rachelle's candy store.
You tell us when it looks right to you.
Bring 'em up, Al.
Bring up the lights.
There. That seems about right.
Hold it there, Al.
Hold it. All right.
Take a quarter turn to your left.
Your left, number four!
Your left!
Another quarter turn to the left.
Quarter turn to the left.
Number four, your left!
All right. Face the front.
Do you see the man
who held you up, Mrs. Hardy?
Would it be the second man
from the right?
You tell us, Mrs. Hardy.
Well, I've seen that man before.
I know that.
Where else could it have been?
- Second man from the right, you said?
- Yes, I believe so.
From your left, that's number seven.
- Yes, but I'm not just sure.
- Would you like to hear the man's voice?
- Well, you do have
other witnesses, don't you?
- Yes, we do.
The clerks in all the other
Rachelle stores saw him too.
Yes, ma'am.
But you saw him twice.
Well, I simply can't say for sure.
And I told you I wouldn't want
to send an innocent man to jail.
Are you sure the man who held you up
is not on that platform?
- No.
- Well, then.
I'm just not sure he is either.
Friday?
- You do any good here?
- Hardy woman's just not sure, Skipper.
- Maybe she's got a good reason.
- What do you mean?
Blue-steel automatic, 6'2", weight
around 150 pounds, thin and gaunt.
They're bringing him in.
- What about him?
- Man who looks like that just held up
a Rachelle's candy store 10 minutes ago.
[Friday Narrating]
10:45 p.m. The latest suspect's
name was George Watson.
He fitted the description
of the candy store bandit
in every respect.
We advised him of his rights,
and he agreed to talk to us
without a lawyer.
Watson's answers were confused
and contradictory.
1 1: 15. We decided to bring
the two suspects together.
Hello, George.
They got you too, huh?
Sure looks like it, don't it?
What do you got to say, Claude?
- It's up to George.
- All the same to me.
Well, where do you want to start?
Christmastime?
That's when I first run into George.
We was having a free turkey dinner
over at a rescue mission, you know?
- [Friday] Yeah.
- We got to talking, and
that makes a fellow pretty dry.
- So after a while,
we went looking for a drink.
- Go on.
Only trouble, I was broke, and George,
he didn't have no money neither.
Can't remember whether we ever
got a drink that day or not.
Do you, George?
No.
Maybe we just talked. Turned out
we had a lot in common, me and George.
- Yeah.
- Of course, we still needed
drinking money.
One day, George happened to say
he knew where there was a gun.
Found it in back of a bar one day
when I was gathering empties.
All right.
Let's get to the robberies.
I did it the first time,
then I told George.
Then he went out
and he held up a store.
After that, whoever needed money
would just take the gun
and go find a Rachelle's.
- You both held up those candy stores?
- Me and Claude. We took turns.
- And you used the same gun?
- Same one. We only had one.
Well, what about that, Thibodeau?
How did George get hold of the gun?
You used it tonight.
We had a special place to keep it.
We'd take it out, do the job
and put it right back.
- That way, we didn't have to talk about it.
- Where'd you keep it?
Buried under the alley
in back of the hotel.
- Me and Claude took an oath.
- What kind of an oath?
That we'd never shoot off the gun
to kill nobody.
Just like them two police tonight.
I wasn't even aiming at 'em.
Well, that's it.
I guess we've told you everything.
- No, not quite.
- Huh?
Why did you two
keep pulling those holdups?
- You must've figured
we'd have those stores staked out?
- How could we figure that?
These robberies
have had a lot of publicity.
- We didn't know that.
- Never heard nothin' about it.
- It was in all the papers.
- That don't mean anything to either of us.
- How's that?
- One of the things me
and George have in common.
- Yeah, what's that?
- We never learned how to read.
[Friday Narrating]
1 1:3 1 p.m.
Bill and I took the suspects downstairs
to the Central Jail, Felony Section,
to be booked for 2 1 1 P. C., Robbery.
While Bill waited
to sign the booking slips,
I started in on the paperwork.
[Sighs]
Kinda tired. You?
Yeah, a little. Why don't you
go on home? I'll finish up.
- Good. Sure you don't mind?
- Why, no. Go ahead.
I promised Eileen I'd help
my oldest boy with his homework.
- Is that so? What's he studying?
- Advanced calculus.
- Since when do you know
anything about calculus?
- I don't, but he doesn't know that.
I work from his math book, Joe.
He asks me questions. I answer him.
That's all.
Why don't you take off?
Well, I hate to leave you alone, Joe.
Why? I can find my way out.
Go on home.
- That's just it.
- What's it?
I keep thinking of you going home
to that apartment of yours, all alone.
What brought this on?
Eileen and I were talking
about you just this morning.
Single man like you. You never think
of settling down, do you?
- I'm settled.
- No, you're not, Joe.
Living alone like you do.
You never go out, have any fun.
Well—
I mean with a real nice girl,
somebody you got a lot in common with.
You know, you're beginning to sound
like a "lonely hearts" column—a bad one.
Now, you take tonight.
I'd like to see you go out,
have a nice late dinner
at some quiet, out-of-the-way place.
Maybe a couple of drinks.
You know, relax, take it easy.
- Yeah, I might do that.
- Not alone, Joe.
With a real nice girl.
That's your trouble.
- What is?
- You're shy.
You see a girl;
you're afraid to ask her.
Sure, I know a couple of girls.
Yeah, but none you got
anything in common with.
Well, how would you know?
You think about that, Joe.
I'll see you in the morning.
- I sure am tired.
- Yeah. Rest up.
♪[Whistling]
[Door Opens]
[Dorothy]
Joe?
- Sorry about your car, Joe.
- Huh?
Well, Bill called about 15 minutes ago.
He said he had to catch the tail end
of a lodge meeting.
- Wanted to know if I'd run you home.
It's right on my way.
- Yeah?
- What's the matter with your car?
- Didn't Bill tell you?
- No. Just said you were having
trouble with it.
- That's it.
- What?
- I'm having trouble with it.
[Narrator]
The story you have just seen is true.
The names were changed
to protect the innocent.
On July 10 and 15, trials were held
in Department 182, Superior Court
of the State of California,
in and for the County of Los Angeles.
In a moment, the results of those trials.
Both suspects were found guilty
on 1 1 counts of robbery in the first degree.
Robbery in the first degree is punishable
by imprisonment for not less than five years.