The story you are about to hear is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent. You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned to auto theft detail. A gang of criminals masquerading as legitimate auto dealers start to work in your city. Innocent people are cheated out of thousands of dollars. The thieves are clever. They work a foolproof formula. Your job? Stop them. The documented drama of an actual crime. For the next thirty 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 Tuesday, February 19th, it was Chile in Los Angeles. We were working the day watch out of auto theft. My partner is Ben Romero, the boss is Captain Nelson, and my name is Friday. We were on the way out from the office and it was 10.25 a.m. when we got to the corner of 38th Street and Maxbury Avenue. The Greenleaf Day Nursery School. Mrs. Palmer, is that right? I think so, just a minute, I've got it written down. Yeah. Excuse me, ma'am. What is the police, ma'am? Martin America, Friday. Oh, yes, Tom. Going to get all about it, is that it? Yes, ma'am. We've been handling some of our complaints for the last month or so. We'd like to have you here. Tell us everything that happened in your case, if you would, please. One of the most underhanded things I've ever heard of, Sergeant. It would have been the same thing if you'd held me up with a gun, just out and out robbing. Could you give us some of the details, ma'am, how you were first approached on the deal? Excuse me a minute, please. Children, time to go inside now. We're going to color pictures with the crayons this morning. Mrs. Johnson has them all ready for you inside. Bruce, Michael, Sandra, go along now. Inside, everyone. Certainly with the warm weather, they'd hurry up and come. Children always raise such an uproar when we have to keep them indoors. Worst part of running a day nursery, they win a month's worth. Oh, ma'am, I suppose. How about your automobile, Ms. Palmer? We understand you had it up for sale. You advertised one of the local newspapers, I like. Yes, that's right. I ran one of those three-day want ads over the weekend, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I thought I'd get more for my car if I sold it myself. I mean, instead of selling it to a used car lot. Yes, ma'am. How many answers did you get on your want ad? Well, just the one way it turned out. This man came out and looked at my car first thing in the morning. He offered to pay me exactly what I was asking for it, so I sold it to him. That's just the way it went. Who was this man, Mrs. Palmer? Was he representing some auto company? Yes, he said he was, anyway. He gave his name to Joseph Newhall. I've got his card inside. Said he was a buyer for Dan Barton's used car lot on South Cat Street. Nice address, man. He made it all seem so easy to get. He was a very good guy. He made it all seem so easy to get. How was the deal arranged? Could you tell us? I mean, transfer the car payment and so forth? Well, he gave me a check for $50, sort of a down payment to hold the car for me. It was a certified company check. I see. He told me he'd get back that afternoon with a certified check for the full amount of the car, $800. Did he take your car with him, then? No, he didn't. That's why I had no reason to be suspicious. He said he was a good guy. He said he was a good guy. He said he was a good guy. He said he was a good guy. He said he was a good guy. He said he was a good guy. He said he was a good guy. He said he was a good guy. He said he was a good guy. He said he was a good guy. He said he was a good guy. He said he was a good guy. He said he was a good guy. He said he was a good guy. He said he was a good guy. He said he was a good guy. He said he was a good guy. I don't see why he'd be suspicious. He left me the check for $50. He said he needed it with the money. He said in the meantime, one of the employees from the used car lot might be along to pick up the car to save me the trouble of driving it downtown by itself. Same M.O. Joe all the way. Yeah, looks like it. Well, how did it go after that, Mrs. Palmer? up the car about one o'clock that afternoon. Gave me a check for the full amount of the car. I gave him the pink slip. Had a pair of white coveralls on, lettering on the back of them, Dan Barton Jews cars. Looked like a typical mechanic or something. I wasn't the least bit suspicious. How about the buyer of this Joseph Newhall? Did he show up later in the day? No, he never came back. I've never seen him since. Haven't seen my car either. I called that Dan Barton Jews car lot the next morning. They told me they never heard of Joseph Newhall. Just made me sick officer. I can't afford to lose the money I had in that car. Yes ma'am, we understand the same thing's happened to a dozen people like you around the city. Do you remember what this man Newhall looked like, Ms. Palmer's physical description, maybe the clothes he was wearing? Yes, I've got it all written down Sergeant, in my diary. Would you like to step inside please? I've got my little office at the back of the school here. Well, thank you very much. I always make a record of everything in my diary. I've kept going ever since I was a girl in college every day. I suppose you've got all the information on your car, the make, license number, things like that. Oh yes indeed. I've got everything together I thought might help you. Right up these stairs. Good, fine. You go ahead. How about the description of the man in overall, the one who came to pick up your car? Would you remember him ma'am? Yes, I've got that for you too. Everything I thought would help. Just have a seat there officers. I've got the things in my desk here. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. I wouldn't mind the whole thing so much, but as I say I can't afford to lose the cash I had tied up in my car. That seems to be the way the thieves operate ma'am. They've been cheating the people who can least support him. Terrible thing just out and out robbery. There you are Sergeant. Thank you ma'am. There's the description of my car, license number, all the rest. Yes, I see. And here's the description of the two men at Joseph's all the coveralls who picked up my car. Have you got that deposit check new or gave him his form of the check for fifty dollars? Right here Sergeant. I saw that company about it Dan Barton's used car lot. Forgery. Not worth the papers printed on. How we love you. Yeah, thanks. Hey Missy, how are you? One thing I don't understand how those crooks get these checks to begin with. Did they steal them? No ma'am, we figured they had them printed up. We're still trying to find out where. Well you know what the men look like. You'll be able to find them now won't you? Only we should work that way ma'am. We've had good descriptions on both men for a month now. Hasn't helped too much. I don't understand it at all. As I say they're only common crooks. They can't be that smart can they? Well there's only one way we can judge. We've been hunting every day for a month now. Yes. They're still... In the space of thirty three days the auto theft gang had victimized a dozen private citizens throughout the city. In each instance the approach and the method of operation had been the same. The front man for the gang would personally answer a want ad inserted in the local newspaper by a private citizen advertising the sale of his automobile. The front man would represent himself falsely as a buyer for Dan Barton's used car lot, a well known and legitimate used car dealer. He'd offer to pay exactly the sale price which the private party was asking. As a deposit the so called buyer would leave a counterfeit company check for fifty or one hundred dollars with a promise that he would return later in the day with a certified check for the full amount. After a few hours another man posing as an employee of Dan Barton's used car would call for the car and drive it away. Neither the car nor the so called buyer were ever seen again. All efforts to trace them went for nothing. Eleven forty a.m. Ben and I went back to the office and got out of broadcast in a supplementary APB on Mrs. Palmer's car and also on the phony car buyer who called himself Joseph Newhall. After lunch we met with Sgt. Moonsby, one of the other four men out of all theft detail who were working the case with us. How'd you make up this morning, army? That it going away at all? Wasn't bad as far as it went. We found the place where they had the printing done. Where was that? Smaller up in the valley. Printed up the phony checks with that heading on it, Dan Barton's used car. I got lots of business cards for him too. What was the name did you find out? The same one Joseph Newhall. He ordered the checks and the business cards. The printer described him for us, same guy. Where'd it go from there? No place. The printer told us Newhall had a car, he couldn't give us a license number, couldn't even remember the maker, the body style. Thought it was a late model car at Sparrow. No, that's not much help. No address on him either. It was a will call order paid for in cash. This is if Newhall comes back. Uh huh, yeah, it's covered. I don't figure there's much chance Newhall's going to do that. He ordered enough checks printed up the first time last of the year. Well, I guess that's one lead we can forget. How about that special run the stats office made for us yesterday? Anything come out of that? No, nothing. All the possibles on the list were checked out, all of them clear. Nothing from Barton's used car lot either. Everybody on their staff's been checked out, all their ex-employees too. No signing one of them might have had a hand in it. Yeah. Oh, either of you seen the captain since this morning? No, what? Well, that idea we were talking over at the last meeting, he figures we'll go ahead with it this weekend. How's he figuring on working, you know, any personal content? Yeah, that's right. Most of the private parties who want to sell their cars themselves use that want ad deal over the weekend. They get a special ready Saturday and Sunday. Oh, I know. Thursday nights is the deadline for having the ads in if they're going to run the full weekend, and that's when we start working on it. We get in touch with every private party who's filed a want ad for the weekend advertising a sale of their car, huh? Yeah, we'll contact them by phone, every one of them. We advise them that if anybody representing themselves is a buyer for Dan Barton's used car lot answers their want ad, they're to get in touch with us right away. If they can't stall the man long enough, we tell them to accept the information on the man the car is driving. It ought to work out if we can get any kind of cooperation. It's going to be a big job. We'll have to cover all the want ads and all the papers. We've got a good description of that phony buyer, Joseph Newhall. If they planted a want ad in one of the papers, maybe he's the one of the gang who brought the ad in. It's possible one of the ad takers might remember. It might be worth checking anyway. Well, it could be. They might have phoned in the ad too. That wouldn't help much. Might as well sniff food proof, but it's a different approach to plan anyway. We've tried everything else. We can think up the reach of these. I'll get it. All of that's party time. Yes, sir. What was that? Thank you. Yeah. Yes, as soon as we can. Thank you, sir. Well, maybe we won't have to wait for the weekend. What do you mean? A man out in Echo Park, he runs a candy store out there. He advertised his car for sale in this morning's paper. He said the first one to answer was a buyer from Dan Barton's used car lot. Gave his name as Joseph Newhall. Looks like the same M.O. Can I make a deal? Well, the candy store owner wouldn't go for the deposit check. He wanted the full amount. Said the deal didn't sound right to him. How does it stand now? Well, Newhall said he'd come back with a check for the full sale price. When? Eight o'clock tonight. Two twenty p.m. We drove out and questioned the candy store owner further. His description of Newhall tallied with the others, but again, the potential victim had failed to get any kind of a description of the car Newhall was driving or the license number. Ben and I staked out at the house. Eight p.m. came and went. The suspect failed to show. By midnight, there was still no sign of him. Well, the way it shaped up, Newhall apparently had a policy of making a deal at first contact or forgetting about it. He probably figured that if a person was at all suspicious, the interval would give him time to check. And Newhall wasn't giving away any odds. All day Wednesday, the stakeout went on. No sign of the suspect. On Thursday night, the local newspapers gave us lists of names and phone numbers of all private parties who had ordered want ads for the coming weekend to advertise the sale of an automobile. We divided up the names. The six of us took turns on the phones and started calling each party. We warned them about the car theft ring and advised them of what steps to take in the event Joseph Newhall or one of the other gang members approached them with a proposition to buy their car. One of the private parties we contacted was a Mr. Roy Harmon. Ben got on one of the things we prepared. Sergeant Ormsby used the other extension and called another party running an ad. Sergeant Ormsby, Los Angeles Police Department. How's that sir? Yes, and one of the gang usually goes under the name of Joseph Newhall. Contacted at all. All right, thank you. What was that all about? A man by the name of Harmon runs a cocktail down, got on South Cole. He took in a check over the bar last night, company check from Dan Barton's used car lot. Says it was signed Joseph Newhall. Well, they ought to remember who passed it. He does, I got it right here. A man by the name of Frank Curtis. He's a regular customer at the bar. Harmon says this Curtis came in the place last night with a man in a dark suit and the man seemed to be a friend of Curtis'. Well, I asked him what the friend looked like and he described him. It was Newhall. What about that check business? Harmon says he was tending bar at the time. Told me this Frank Curtis and Newhall had quite a few drinks together and they ran out of money. Newhall wanted to cash a check but Harmon said no, he didn't know him. Well, this Frank Curtis is a regular customer at the bar and he offered to endorse the check for Newhall. So Harmon said okay and he cashed it. How well does Harmon know this customer is, this Curtis? Pretty well. Lives across the street from him. We checked Frank Curtis through R&I but he had no previous criminal record. We left the rest of the list for the other men and Ben and I drove out and talked to Roy Harmon, the owner of the cocktail lounge where the suspect Joseph Newhall had cashed a check with the help of his friend Frank Curtis. Harmon told the same story he'd given Ben over the phone. Curtis was a long-time neighbor of his and a steady customer at his cocktail lounges. For Newhall he'd never set eyes on him until the night before. Harmon gave us the home address of Frank Curtis and we checked it out. Mrs. Curtis answered the door and told us that her husband Frank was working the newly inaugurated night shift at an aircraft plant in the south end of the city. Ben and I drove down to the plant and after checking with the personnel office we finally located Curtis at his work. He was an assistant foreman in one of the aircraft assembly shops. Mr. Smith, Sergeant Romero, the last time I saw Newhall before the years ago. We used to work at a work plant together. Come on, anyway, have you done something? We understand you endorsed a check with Newhall for fifty dollars. You know him that well? I mean if you'd endorsed checks for him? Well, maybe I shouldn't have. Wives always tell me I'll be more careful to who I'm signing checks for. Well, what happened anyway? Wasn't a check any good? Do you have any idea where we could find a friend of yours, this Newhall? Well, I don't know. During the war he and his wife lived in this housing project off North Main. I know they moved from that place though. Yeah. As a matter of fact, old Joe didn't tell me where he was living. I gave him my address, told him to drop over for a beer sometime. Don't remember getting his address though. Didn't tell me what this is about, huh? Just a routine check. We'd like to locate Newhall, that's all. Got a few questions we'd like to ask him. Excuse me, we were going to watch it here, Sergeant. Coming through with that jigsaw. Okay, fellas, straight on through, all clear. Critical fin assembly down the street. We're getting busy again, all right. Seems like the old swing ship days all over again. Four years. Yeah, you mentioned a minute ago that Newhall is married, Mr. Currie. Yeah, that's right. What about his wife? Can you tell us anything at all about her? Betty? No, no, I don't think so. Her and Joe seem to get along all right. Got along pretty well, matter of fact. Nice girl, Betty. I never minded her much. Does Newhall have any children? You know that? No, no kids. Both of them work. Her and Joe. Uh-huh. Would you know if Newhall's wife is still working? I don't know. Probably is. But yeah, yeah, matter of fact, she is. Joe happened to mention it the other night when we were talking. Just happened to think of it. Well, go ahead. I remember I asked about Betty and he said she was still working. Same old place, same old job, that's all. Where is this place she works? Do you know? Yeah, City Hall. We continued questioning Frank Curtis and he told us that to the best of his knowledge, the suspect's wife, Betty Newhall, had a civil service rating and that she worked as a file clerk in the record room of one of the bureaus in the municipal. The next morning, Ben and I got in touch with the civil service officials at the City Hall and they got out a tracer on the wife of the suspect. 1120 a.m. I got it. Auto theft Friday. Yeah, sir? How's that? Uh, I didn't hear it. When? Yeah, I think. Yeah, sir. Right. We'll check with you in about an hour. Bye. I don't know why we always have to do it the hard way. Why? Why? The call back on Newhall's wife. Most of it checks out just the way Curtis told us. What's her up? Betty Newhall quit her job a month ago. Hasn't been around, hasn't been seen since. Civil service can't even contact her. What's the deal? She moved. No forwarding address, not a trace of her. Exit Ball Road off the 57 freeway. Light up the holidays with a new vehicle from Anaheim Auto Center. We'll make your holiday dreams come true at Anaheim Auto Center with our incredible savings and huge discounts. Need some extra money for the holidays? Come to Anaheim Auto Center today and save thousands. We have a great selection of new vehicles and unbeatable service. Light up your holiday season today at Anaheim Auto Center. We want you to be completely satisfied. The holidays are the perfect time to buy a new vehicle. Why go anywhere else? We have it all at one convenient location near the Anaheim pond. So light up your holiday season with a great new car or truck from Anaheim Auto Center. Exit Ball Road off the 57 freeway. KNX 1070 News Radio. Saturday, February 23rd. The strongest lead we'd had to the Auto Fifth Gang began to fade. Mrs. Betty Newhall, the wife of our principal suspect, wasn't to be found. We checked out all our known friends and relatives, the places she was known to frequent. There wasn't a trace of her. Then got all the available information on her from the Civil Service office and we got out of broadcast and the supplementary all points bulletin. We found out she had a 10-year-old son, so we checked with the Board of Education to see if the boy was registered in one of the city schools. He wasn't listed. Still no response. We stayed on it. In the meantime, the weekend was wearing past the halfway point. The other two teams of men working the case were standing by, but apparently none of the private parties who were running want ads over the weekend advertising the sale of an automobile had been approached yet by either Joseph Newhall or some other member of the gang. If they did make a contact, it hadn't been reported to us. Saturday night, still no response. 8 50 p.m. Ben and I had some supper at Johnny Cokin's place and then we went back to the office. Not a bad meal at all, huh? Pretty fair for a Saturday night. Good soup. Yeah, nothing like that corn chowder Johnny puts out. It's the best. I sure wish you'd do something about that coffee. Like taking a shot of adrenaline, isn't it? It is pretty strong and excuse me, maybe that's what's giving me this heartburn. Where's Armsby? I thought he was covering. Oh, God, he was here when I left. Joe, Ben. Hi, Army. Thought we lost you. I'm taking a call from Hollywood Division. Good piece of news. What's that? Newhall's wife, they found her. At approximately 25 minutes past eight that night, a dark haired woman in her late 30s had brought a young boy into a pharmacy in the Hollywood area. Apparently the woman had been drinking, but she was not intoxicated. The young boy with her, whom she identified as a 10 year old son, was badly cut and bruised about the face and the head. The woman insisted that the pharmacist on duty treat the boy and attend to his injuries. After arguing with the woman, the pharmacist called the Hollywood Receiving Hospital. An ambulance was dispatched and the boy and his mother were taken to an air free treatment. At Hollywood Receiving, the woman gave her name as Betty Harrison and her son's name was George Harrison. But a routine identification check by officers next door at the Hollywood Division station disclosed her true name as Mrs. Betty Newhall. The desk sergeant ordered her held for interrogation and notified our office immediately. 9.30 p.m. Ben and I arrived at the Hollywood Division. The boy, George, Mrs. Newhall, how'd he happen to get beat up like that? Pretty bad for a little fella. I warned Joe about hitting little George. I told him if he did it again, I'd walk out. Well, I did walk out. I don't care what happens to him. You mean the boy's father did that to him, beat him up like that? He's not George's father. Second marriage. My name is to be Donnelly. I have two kids, one died. Uh-huh. When the divorce came through, I got custody of George and I married Joe Newhall. You know why we're looking for your husband, Mrs. Newhall? Yeah, I think so. Why do you think so? Car business. I knew what he was doing. Do you have any idea at all where we can find your husband? I'm not sure. He might be a lot of places. Just can't get over what he did to George. No reason at all. Kid came home and asked if he could go to the show. Husband got up and slapped him. Been drinking quite a bit. He hit the kid with his closed fist, kept hitting. A grown man slugging a 10-year-old kid like that. I don't care about any man where George is concerned. Nobody's going to treat a kid of mine like that. You said you knew about your husband's dealing in the car business, Mrs. Newhall. How much do you know about it? I didn't have any part of it. I can tell you that much. It was his idea from the beginning, my husband's. Got the men together to work their act. He made all the planning to get all the orders. How is it you quit your job at the city hall in such a hurry? My husband's idea, I guess. Thought if anything happened he didn't want to be traced that easy. Then he had to go and get drunk that night. Check he always did stupid things like that. How about the gang your husband has working with them, Mrs. Newhall? Can you tell us anything about them? Yes, I can. Two fellows working with them I know of. Deadman and Curly Reese and Jack Whitmore. Maybe there's someone else besides them, but I don't know of. You know where these men live, ma'am? Where we can find them? I think I do, yeah. I got the addresses at home. At this time they're probably on there. You know the places they were supposed to be staying? Yeah, I got the addresses at home. How about the cars they got on this deal they were working? What are they doing with them? Do you know that? I don't know for sure. They're moving east, I think. Selling them back there. Yes, ma'am. I didn't always get the deep marriage. The jealousy had a deeper... No. Even they didn't like kids. They didn't want to have a home. Why'd they have to be that way? Well, I'd like to ask you something, if I could. Yes. Why'd you marry him? 10 43 p.m. We stopped at the Newhall apartment on the way back to the city hall, called the office and arranged for a stakeout. The wife of the suspect, Betty Newhall, gave us the names and addresses of the people she knew to be working with her husband Joseph Newhall in the auto theft gang. She had no information to offer on the cars they might be driving. When we got to the office, we took a complete statement from Mrs. Newhall and then she was booked in at the main jail on suspicion of grand theft auto. 1109 p.m. Together with Wilton and Normsby, we started checking out the addresses of the gang members. Our first two stops, we got nothing. On our last two, we did a little better. We picked up a Jack Whitmore, Curly Reese, and a Carl Stedman. Three of the names which Mrs. Newhall had mentioned. We took them downtown and booked them in at the main jail. That still left the principal suspect, Joseph Newhall, unaccounted for. At 1 45 a.m. the next morning, we got a tiff with his whereabouts, a small hotel on East First Street. We checked it out. The man answering Newhall's description was registered in room 209 on the second floor. We got a pass key from the Rome clerk on duty and started up the stairs. 209 down this way, Gale. Here we are. See if we can get a ride. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Police officers. Hold it there, Mrs. Downs. What is this? What's this all about? You generally sleep with your clothes on, Newhall? Look, I don't know what you're talking about. What is this? Shaken? He's clean, Joe. I'll check his bag. And I'll stay out of those things. You haven't got any right breaking in here like this, going to my property. Relax, Newhall. This won't take long. Two full pads of them, Joe. Find them in his suitcase. His company checked. Dan Barton's used car. We talked to your friends, mister. We got one side of the story. You want to come downtown, give us yours. You get nothing from me, not unless you're my lawyer. You can't hold me on any charges. Crantheft Auto, Newhall. We've got the witnesses. We've got the evidence. If you've got something to say, say it. If you haven't, we'll get along downtown. You haven't got anything on me. You haven't got enough to hold me an hour. We're going to give it a try. For a full five hours, we questioned Newhall, both at the hotel and later downtown in the interrogation room. And after five hours of questioning, he finally broke and admitted being the mastermind behind the auto theft racket. Your true name is Joseph Woodard Newhall, is that right? Yeah, that's it. Now, you can't blame the whole setup on me, though. My wife had a hand in it just as much as I did. Well, we've already got her statement. You want to give us yours? She's just as much to blame as I am. We didn't hurt anybody anyway. It's just a con deal, that's all. We didn't hurt anybody. How do you figure that? Well, just a simple con deal. People advertising their cars for sale or trying to cheat out a few bucks on themselves, we just out-figured them, that's all. You really did dictate a statement for us? You know, we out-figured you, too. You'd never have reached us. It wasn't for my wife. We'd reach you. Not in 30 years you wouldn't. Where'd you go in circles? Just one hitch. My wife and that stupid kid I heard, just because I slapped him on that level, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for that. Well, you better learn a lesson, mister. Why? Next time you fight, don't pick a 10-year-old. The story you have just heard was true. The names were changed to protect the innocent. On May 29th, trial was held in Superior Court, Department 87, City and County of Los Angeles, State of California. In a moment, the results of that trial. A check of his fingerprints revealed that Joseph Newhall's true name was Joseph Orrin Henderson, and that he had a previous record of forgery and burglary in the state of South Carolina. Henderson, alias Newhall, was tried and convicted along with his associates in the auto theft gang on eight counts of grand theft and forgery of a fictitious check. They received sentences as prescribed by law. Grand theft is punishable by imprisonment for not less than one or more than 10 years. Forgery of a fictitious check is punishable by imprisonment in the county jail for not more than one year or in the state penitentiary for not more than 14 years. The wife, Betty Newhall, was convicted as an accomplice and was sentenced to serve one year in the county jail. Ladies and gentlemen, our security and the peace of the world are in danger while hundreds of millions behind the Iron Curtain are victims of vicious lies about the United States and other free nations. Join the Crusade for Freedom through your local crusade committee or by writing to General Clay, Empire State Building, New York City. Make a contribution to its work. Help truth fight communism. Join the crusade for freedom. 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. The team of cigarettes, best of all, king-sized cigarettes, has brought you Dragnet, transcribed from Los Angeles.
