The story you are about to hear is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent. Fatima cigarettes, best of all long cigarettes, brings you dragnet. You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned the homicide detail. A man crouches on the window ledge of a downtown building 13 stories above the street. He threatens to leap to his death within the hour. Your job, stop him. You'll be amazed when you compare Fatima with other long cigarettes. You'll find they now cost the same. But in Fatima, the difference is quality. You see, Fatima is the quality king-size cigarette because it contains the finest Turkish and domestic tobacco superbly blended. And Fatima is extra mild with a much different, much better flavor and aroma than any other long cigarette. So compare Fatima yourself. Fatima's now cost the same as other long cigarettes, but your first puff will tell you. Ah, that's different. Yes, in Fatima, the difference is quality. Ask your dealer for Fatima, the quality king-size cigarette. Best of all long cigarettes. Start enjoying Fatima for a new year of greater smoking enjoyment. Dragnet, the documentary drama of an actual crime. For the next 30 minutes in cooperation with the Los Angeles Police Department, you will travel step by step on the side of the law through an actual case transcribed from official police files. From beginning to end, from crime to punishment, Dragnet is the story of your police force in action. It was Thursday, September 6th. It was warm in Los Angeles. We were working the day watch out of homicide detail. My partner's Ben Romero. The boss is Captain Steed. My name's Friday. I was on the way back from communications and it was 1.28 p.m. when I got to room 42. Homicide. You ready, Skipper? Yeah, coming. Ben, what's up? Just got the call, 3rd and Temple. Yeah? Fitzroy building, 13th floor. They got a jumper. All righty, Ben. Let's hustle it. All right. What's the story? Skipper took the call. Not much to tell. Guy's perched out on a window ledge, 13 floors up, threatening to jump. Yeah? What time you got Romero? 1.33. Not much time. What? The guy on the ledge you served notice. Well, how do you mean? Says he's gonna jump at 2 o'clock. 1.36 p.m. Ben pulled a car to a stop at 3rd and Temple, with double park near the intersection, and started to cross the street to the building on the northeast corner. It was a steel-framed structure with a block granite facing. The stone lettering over the main entrance read, R.H. Fitzroy building, 1927. The immediate area had been blocked off in all directions. The sidewalks directly adjacent to the building on 3rd Street and on Temple Street had also been cleared of all pedestrian traffic. Hundreds of curious onlookers jammed against police lines at the far side of the intersection. Reaching back for a full block in either direction, hundreds more had packed in behind them. Thirteen stories above the pavement was the center of attraction, the figure of a man standing upright on a narrow ledge, looking down at the crowd. On the street directly below him, men from the fire department's rescue squad were hurriedly stretching out nets. We entered the building, took the elevator to the 13th floor. Who's standing by up here, Skipper? Bechtel and Wiseman. They saw the crowd gathering in the street and they went back for lunch. Looked up and saw a guy on the edge that came right up. How long has the guy been standing out there? About 15 minutes. Sure is one little crowd. Must be a couple thousand people down there. Yeah. What was that room number, Friday? 1305. Yeah, it's down this way. There's Beck book. Beck? Hi. I was just searching for you. The office is down here. Okay. How's it stand now? Still out there, ready to jump. We got 22 minutes to figure out how to stop him. What's the story anyway? I'll let the doctor tell you. Go ahead. Through here. Nurse, where'd Dr. Turner go? He was out to meet Dr. Rice. He's bringing him right up. This is Captain Steed, homicide in the Flanahan. How do you do? How's your Friday, Romero? How do you do? How are you? Well, he climbed outside this window here. Yeah. Right now he's standing on the ledge about 12 feet to the right of the window. The ledge is about 14 inches wide. No other windows closer to him? No, this is it. Did you try to talk him out of it, get him back inside? We took a turn at it, yeah. Wiseman crawled out on the ledge, talked to him, so did I. One of the queerest jumpers I've come across. What do you mean? He's got a hammer with him, a carpenter's hammer. Whenever you get close to him, he takes a cut at you. Wiseman wasn't looking for it. Had a duck fast. He almost went over it. Was there any other way to reach him? We checked the whole layout. This window's the closest. What about lowering a man from the roof? A wide piece of cord is up there, a big overhang. Put a man down on a rope and he'd be hanging three feet from the side of the building. Wouldn't come close to the guy. How about this doctor you mentioned, Beck? You figure he can help? It's worth a try. Miss Lennan? Yes, Sergeant. You saw it happen. You know better than I do what Dr. Turner's idea is. Would you fill these men in, please? Make it brief. Surely. Another man on the ledge. Who is he, do you know? Walter Harrison, Miss Dane. He's one of the doctor's patients. His sister brought him in for a routine checkup. That was about one o'clock. How old was the man? Forty-one. His sister told us he's been complaining of a backache lately. While the doctor was examining him, and Mr. Harrison flew up all of a sudden. He yelled out we were trying to cripple him, that we wanted to kill him. Oh, excuse me, please. Sure. Dr. Turner's office. No, I'm sorry. Not this afternoon. We have an awful lot of trouble. Yes, all right, Dancer. Well, what happened after Harrison started to act up, Miss Lennan? Dr. Turner and I tried to hold him. He shoved us both out of the way. He hit the doctor in the face, then he ran to the window, got out on that ledge, and crawled along the side of the building. He's been there ever since. Miss Harrison has a mental case? Yes, he's been for ten years. Been in and out of the state hospital at Camillo a couple of times. Sister Ruth's been taking care of him. She was here when it happened. Where is she now? Next door, the treatment room. Thelma, that's the other nurse. She's looking after Miss Harrison. She's pretty close to hysteric. Tried to talk to her, Skipper. Not much help so far. You say the doctor's been treating this, Mr. Harrison? No, he just came in for a physical checkup. Dr. Reich's been handling his mental condition. That's where Dr. Turner is now getting Reich. He has his office in the next building. What time you got, Ben? Hmm. Getting short. Nineteen minutes to two. How about a time element, Beck? If he's going to kill himself, why is he waiting for two o'clock to do it? He's got me. He scribbled a note out there, threw it down to the street. One of the men in the rescue squad grabbed it and brought it up. I got it right here. Here, let me see. Can I look at that, Dancer? Mm-hmm. They want my life. They want... What's his next one? Dead. Dead. They want me dead. Oh, okay. I'd like to pray first. I'll jump at two o'clock. What's this last thing, Ben? I can't remember. Let me see. At two o'clock, don't touch my body. That's it. Don't touch my body. You saw the guy at close range. Beck, what do you think? He's serious. I don't know. I'm not even going to guess. How about me going out and talking to Skipper? It might work. He won't do any harm. That ledge is 14 inches wide, Romero. If you slip, I don't want to explain it to your wife and kid. Well, how about me giving it a try? That jumper case last October, I was on that one. It's volunteer duty, Joe. I'm not going to order you. You know the recipe. Yeah, I'll watch it. You want to stand by here at the window, Ben? Yeah, okay. Let's get that window off, huh? There's blinds. Yeah. There's blinds, huh? Okay. Give me a hand with the window. All right. Come on. Up she goes. I'm stuck. Yeah, I did. All the way up, huh? There he goes. Okay. Be careful now, huh? Yeah, I will, Joe. Yeah, Beck. Don't forget about that hammer the guy's got. It's just my guess. Yeah, what's that? The guy might want to die. I don't think he wants to do it alone. 1.43 p.m. If we could take Walter Harrison's word for it, we had exactly 17 minutes to talk him into a change of mind before he plunged to his death on the pavement 13 stories below. I crawled out of the window and started inching my way along the narrow ledge. Went slow. I kept my eyes on Harrison. He stood about 10 feet away from me, looking down at the crowds jamming the streets below. I edged along to within 8 feet of him. He didn't seem to notice me. He was a fairly tall man, about 5 foot 10, medium bill, dark hair. He was wearing gray pinstripe trousers, a white shirt, no coat, no necktie. I got to within 6 feet of him. He raised one arm and made a motion with his fist at the crowd below. You animal! You dirty bag of animal! You won't touch me! I'll jump right through you! You won't even touch me! I kept edging toward him. He still didn't seem to notice me. I turned his body a little. I kept pounding the side of the building with a hammer. I got a look at his right hand. He held the carpenter's hammer. I got to within 5 feet of him. An airliner passed overhead. Harrison looked up and muttered something, then he turned and saw me. I'm going to kill you. It's all right with me, Walter. Why do you want to kill yourself? You're only going to hurt people. You don't care about people. You don't care about me. What am I doing out here? You got it wrong, Walter. A lot of people care about you. They want you back inside. They want you where it's safe. You're another one of those. You want to get your hands on me. You want a gun. Well, you're not. I'm going to kill you. It's all right, Walter. You can kill me. I want to help you first. You stay back! Don't you move anymore. I got this hammer and I'll smash your face with it. I'll smash you! I only want to talk to you. I know we can straighten this out. I'll do it my way. You understand? My way? I know who you are. You've been after me before. I know what it's all about. Yeah, I know you do, Walter, but you got it wrong. Now look, you're going to jump off this building at two o'clock. That's in 15 minutes. That's right. You bet I am. All right, now let's talk it over for five of those minutes, huh? Can't do any harm. I'm not going to hurt you. How about it? Okay? Why should I talk to you? Because I care about what happens to you. So does your sister. So do a lot of people. And you're like a lot of people. You're going to want to get your hands on them. Like those animals down there, the whole dirty pack of them. They want to grab on them, get all around close and put their hands on me. Well, they're not going to do it. Of course they're not. Nobody's going to hurt you. You know that, don't you? You bet your life they're not. You see that dirty pack down there? Well, they don't know it, but I'm going to jump right through them. I'm going to jump right through all of them. They won't even touch me and I can do it right now. Wait a minute, Walter. Don't forget your promise. What are you talking about? What promise? Two o'clock. You wrote that down yourself. You said you wouldn't jump until it was two o'clock. That was no promise. I just wrote it down. That's all. Just two o'clock. Yeah. Well, your sister believed it. We gave her the note. She says it's your promise. Now, are you going to make a liar out of yourself? You're the liar. Ruth didn't say that. She didn't say it was a promise. You got to take my word for that. All right. Let's go in and ask her. How about it? See Ruth inside? Sure. Come on. Come on. Take my hand, Walter. All right. All right. I'll take your hand. Watch your step. Look out, will you? You get back there. Get back. Now, next time I won't miss. I'll smash you whole hard. You think you're pretty smart, don't you? You're trying to trick me. I told you before, I know who you are. You're trying to get your hands on me. You promised your sister two o'clock. You're still going to break that promise? I'm not like you in that sack down there. I don't break promises. Everybody knows that, Walter. They trust you. Now, come on. How about talking this thing out? What time is it? One forty-six. Fourteen minutes to go. You're lying. How do I know that's the time? You can look at my watch. Here. Right here. You stand back. I told you before. You stay away from me. I just wanted to show you the time, that's all. All right. You can look at that big clock up the street, see? The one on the side of the Hobart building up there? Fourteen minutes. How do I know that's right? How do I know they're not in with you two? You already said it, big company. They don't care about you or me. They got a business to run. Is there a clock? They don't care what happens. No. No, of course not. They don't care. All right. Well, I'll just keep an eye on this clock. All right. You don't mind if I talk while you wait, do you? What's that plane doing up there? Oh, it's just an airliner. Probably on its way into Burbank. You're not fooling me. That plane's been by before. It's flying low, too. Yeah. I guess I didn't notice it. Well, what difference does it make? Probably watch it, flying back and forth. Maybe they're the police. They're trying to do something. They're trying to get their hands on me. Well, let's see. Yeah. Might be their plane. It's a big one. Sure. Sure, they're trying to do something, coming right by here, flying low. It's the same one. I can see. Look. Do you see there on the wing? Yeah, what's that? The number right there on the wing. It's the same one that's passed over a few minutes ago. Will you get away from me? All right, Walter. Give me that. Give it to me. You're backstabbing me, Walter. You thought you tricked me. You didn't know I had my pocket knife. Well, I can kill you with it now. I can kill you right now. Yeah. I told you before, it's all right with me. Just look out there. Watch your step on the ledge, will you? I should have cut your hand off. I should have cut your whole arm off and thrown it to those animals down there. Look at that blood all over your hand. Well, I'm sorry, Walter. It's not your fault. I just wanted to talk the whole thing over to tell you how your sister feels about it. You're a liar. I knew it when I looked at you. Now you get away. You get away before I kill you. Look, there's only one thing I can tell you. Your sister Ruth's sitting inside there and she's worried sick. She's waiting for you. She wants to take you home. Now how about it? There's no reason for always. You know that, don't you? Do I? Sure you do. Your sister and your family, they care about you. They want you home again. They want you with them. There's no reason to be standing out here now, is there? You wait until two o'clock, mister. Yeah. I'll show you the reason. One forty eight p.m. Twelve minutes left. I made my way along the ledge, through the window, back into the office. Dr. Wright, a man who'd been treating Walter Harrison for his mental sickness, was already there with Dr. Turner. While the nurse bandaged up my hand, Captain Steed, Ben and I talked with him. I've treated Harrison for ten years, on and off, I guess. He showed some improvement. Not much definite paranoid tendencies. Did he ever try this before, Dr. Wright? Not to my knowledge. His sister might tell you more. I really don't know what to advise you to do. He's never been this violent before, using a hammer and a knife. There you are, sir. I think that's you all right? Yeah, that's fine. Thank you. There's only one thing I've got to know, doctor. Is it worth letting another one of my men go out there on that ledge? I'm afraid that's your decision, Captain. It may help, it may not. I know the patient, but I can't read his mind. I was just thinking, we might bring Harrison's sister to the window and have her talks on. Think that might help, doctor? Very possible it might. In a spot like this, I'm in the same boat you are. It's all guesswork. You think Harrison's really going to be ready to jump at two o'clock, doctor? From what Sergeant Friday tells me, yes, I think he'll jump. We've got to come up with something. We can't just stand around and watch a guy take a dive down 13 story. I wish I knew the answer. There's got to be one someplace. There's got to be an answer. Well, let's check your watch. We've got ten minutes to find it. You are listening to Dragnet, authentic stories of your police force in action. And now here's an authentic report from Fatima cigarettes. In 1949, Fatima more than doubled its smokers coast to coast. 1950, another record-breaking year with more long cigarette smokers insisting on Fatima quality than ever before. In 1951, enjoy Fatima quality yourself. Yes, friends, in Fatima, the difference is quality. Quality of tobacco, the finest Turkish and domestic varieties, extra mild and superbly blended to give you a much different, much better flavor and aroma. Quality of manufacture, smooth plump cigarettes rolled in the finest paper money can buy. Quality, even to the appearance of the bright, clean, golden yellow package, carefully wrapped and sealed to bring you Fatima's rich, fresh, extra mild flavor. Compare Fatima yourself. Fatima's now cost the same as other long cigarettes, but your first puff will tell you, ah, that's different. Yes, in Fatima, the difference is quality. Start enjoying Fatima for a new year of greater smoking enjoyment. Insist on Fatima, the quality king-size cigarette. Best of all, long cigarettes. It's the sworn duty of the peace officer to protect the lives of the citizens of the community in which he serves. That isn't always limited to protecting the citizens from criminals and lawbreakers. Oftentimes, the citizen has to be protected from himself. The drunken driver can do as much harm to his own person as he can to others. The same for the narcotic addict, the same for mental incompetence such as Walter Harrison. If he was being assaulted, robbed, or shot at by a gunman, it would have been no more serious. Harrison's life was in jeopardy. Trying to save him had to be the first consideration. One fifty p.m. Sergeant Jack Wiseman inched his way out on the ledge of the thirteenth story and kept Walter Harrison busy talking, anything to keep his mind off the jump. Captain Steed got on the phone and talked to the manager of the Hobart building, a twelve-story structure three blocks away with a large clock set into either side of it, the same clock Harrison was keeping time by. Yeah, that's right, just so you don't make it look too obvious. Okay, Mr. Walsh, thank you. I'm going to do all I can. Let's hope it works. Yeah, what do you say? They're going to start slowing down the clock in the building right away. If Harrison goes by that time, it's going to be a long ten minutes. Well, how much they figure they can stretch it? About five or six minutes without making it look too obvious. We can sure use it. Let's hope Harrison doesn't catch on. Manager said they'll stop the clock when it's a minute to go. It'll never reach two o'clock. Skipper. Yeah, Merrill. I just checked with the rescue squad down the street. They're stringing out more nets. Well? They're not guaranteeing anything. How do you mean? They're worried about those ledges jutting up from the building every other floor. They say if Harrison jumps close enough, he's bound to hit one of them. If he does, he'll be dead before he reaches street level. Nets down there won't do him any good. Well, nothing we can do about it. Something else we'll have to hand over to Locke. Have they come up with any ideas, Ben? Just one. Sounds like it could work. What's that? They figured like we did. The overhang on the roof is too wide to lower a man directly down on top of Harrison to grab him. Yeah? They think it might work if they try this. Put a man in a rope sling just over the edge of the roof. Lower him down toward Harrison as close as possible without death. Give him a good line. Let him try to rope Harrison. I don't know. Have they got any candidates to try it? Yeah, Warren. That guy's been on the rescue squad for years. Supposed to be an expert with a lasso. Captain? No, might do it. I don't know. Yeah. What happens if he misses Harrison? Who knows? What happens if Harrison jumps? Captain? I just got off that ledge in a hurry. He came at me with that knife. Is he any closer to the window? He backed off again. Something else. That clock in the Hobart building. Yeah. Pretty sure he's wise to that gimmick. He's given it up. What do you mean? The two o'clock deadline. He's not going to wait for it. One fifty-five p.m. A specially equipped police car with loudspeakers mounted on the roof was rushed to the intersection of 3rd and Temple Streets opposite the Fitzroy building. Sergeant Jack Wiseman took Walter Harrison's sister Ruth down on the elevator to the street. She got on the police car microphone and started talking to her brother over the loudspeakers. Word was passed to the special detail of men from the fire department's rescue squad standing by on the roof of the building. They went to work. Captain Steed went up to the roof to see if he could assist them. Ben and I waited in the office on the 13th floor. The nurse, Miss Lenahan, and Gene Bechtoe were with us. One fifty-seven p.m. The men on the roof started to lower the man from the rescue squad in the rope sling. He held a double-strength lasso in his hand. The end of it was wrapped around his body and tied securely. Ben and I watched from the window. We looked along the narrow ledge. Walter Harrison stood erect and motionless, an open pocket knife in one hand, his feet poised in the brink of a thirteen-story jump. The voice of Harrison's sister drifted up from the loudspeakers down on the street. Walter? This is Ruth, Walter. Can you hear me? This is Ruth. I want you to come home with me, Walter. Please. You've got to understand. Sister's doing all right. Finish it for sure if it looks up. Yeah, sure will. There's nothing wrong. No one's going to hurt you. We want to help you, Walter. Please. I can't see, Jill. They're letting the man down? Yeah. Coming slow. There's nothing to be afraid of. You know that, don't you? Come home with me, please. I'll take care of you. I'll see that you're safe. That you're all right. Jill, how's Harrison doing? Can you see? Yeah. He's looking down. Not moving at all. Nobody's going to hurt you, believe me. These people are your friends. They want to help you. Can you hear me, Walter? They want to help you. That's it. What? He's looking down on the rope. He's just above Harrison now. They're your friends. You can trust me, your sister Ruth. You've got to trust me, Walter. I want to take care of you. I want to take you home. Yeah, I see the man now. He's right above me. Got the lasso ready. Keep your fingers crossed. What is it? What's happening? A lasso. He's throwing it. Get him away from me! Missed, Joey, missed! Walter, wait a minute, Harrison! No, I didn't lie! Get him away from me! Get him away from me! Pull that man up! Pull him out of the way! Don't spill on the ledge. I'm going out. Joe, wait a minute. It's only a chance. Why don't you get him mad at you? Say anything and insult him. Well, I'll try. Anything to make him go for you. If you can get him down to this window, I can grab him. If I get him by the window, I'll hold on to him, huh? Yeah, when you grab him, try to lean as close to the building as you can. There's not much to lean on the other way. One-fifty-nine p.m. I got through the window and out onto the ledge. The crowds jamming the streets below had swollen to almost twice their size. A few blocks away, the big clock on the side of the Hobart building read five minutes to two, but Harrison wasn't looking at it. He still had his eyes fixed on the pavement thirteen stories beneath us. He torn off his collar and his shirt was ripped open with a neck. He waved his arms and shouted at the crowd below as he tottered along the ledge toward the corner of the building, away from the window that I was supposed to lure him into. In his right hand, he still held onto the open pocket knife. You're not going to get your hands on me. You're not even going to get close. Wait a minute, Harrison. Watch it. You watch me, mister. I'm going to jump right through them down there. Those dirty animals, you just watch. All right, wait a minute. I got a message for you from your sister Ruth. Now, do you want to hear it? I want to get your hands on me. None of you. I'll see you later. You're a phony, Harrison. You're a phony liar. I'm a what? You don't hurt me. You're not kidding anybody. You don't think I can jump, huh? Well, you just watch. Anybody can jump. Any phony can do that. Right? It doesn't take anything. Those animals down there in the street, any one of them could do that. You're just like one of them. I've still got this knife. I've used it before. I can kill. You can kill anything. You haven't got the guts. You're a phony. You're a liar. You're a rotten liar. I can cut you to pieces. Oh, you talk big, Harrison, but you're all talk. I can cut you to pieces. You haven't got me fooled, mister. Not for a minute. I'll cut you to pieces. You haven't got half the nerve. You're a phony and you know it. You're a rotten liar. You stand still. Go on. You stand still and I'll show you. Oh, you talk a real good game, but that's about all. You're all talk. I'll show you. I still have my knife and I'll kill you right now. Yeah, sure you will. You're backing away. You're afraid. You're a phony, Harrison. Nobody's afraid of a phony. Cut you a cut. I'm waiting for you. Come on. What's the matter, Harrison? You're not, you're not waiting. Stay still and stop backing away. Now stop. I tell you, you come and get me, huh? Haven't you got enough nerve? And you're just talking again. All talk, huh? That window. You've got to stop by the window and then I'll cut you to pieces. All right, Harrison. Here. Now you go ahead. Prove you're a phony. You're a liar. I'll show you. You rotten liar. All right, Warren. Now drop it. Drop it. I'll cut you to pieces. Drop it. Drop it. Don't look out. Grab them. They're going to fall. Well, how close can it get? Here. Nurse? That was just wonderful, Sergeant. Both of you. Are you all right? Yeah, fine. Would you mind getting Captain Sneed for us, please? You know who he is. I'll be right away. Well, that was a rough one. Yeah, Dan. It looked like you were both going over the side. Yeah. Thought I'd lost you, Joe. Well, you didn't have to worry. No? No. You told me which way to lean. The story you have just heard was true. Only the names were changed to protect the innocent. On September 10th, a sanity hearing was held at the County Hospital Psychopathic Ward, City and County of Los Angeles, State of California. In a moment, the results of that hearing. Now here is our star, Jack Webb. Thank you. Friends, there's one big difference in long cigarettes, and here's the one sentence that tells the full story. Jack, you're a great man. There's one big difference in long cigarettes, and here's the one sentence that tells the full story. In Fatima, the difference is quality. That's why this headline is being featured in leading national magazines. Yes, these new Fatima full-page color ads are another proof of Fatima's fast-growing popularity. More long cigarette smokers are insisting on Fatima quality than ever before. Now, if you're a long cigarette smoker like I am, buy a pack of extra-mild Fatimas. You'll find, as I have, that Fatimas now cost the same, but in Fatima, the difference is quality. After being examined by six psychiatrists, Walter John Harrison was judged mentally incompetent. On his sister's request, he was committed to a private sanitarium. Seven months later, Harrison took his own life by hanging. You have just heard Dragnet, a series of authentic cases from official files. Technical advice comes from the Office of Chief of Police, W.H. Parker, Los Angeles Police Department. Fatima cigarettes, best of all long cigarettes, has brought you Dragnet, portions transcribed from Los Angeles. The People is next with stories of today on NBC.
