Unit 99 and Night Watch

Case Closed! (old time radio)

A dual episode from classic radio crime series 'Case Closed' featuring real-time police recordings: a domestic dispute involving custody con

Key takeaways

• Real-time police work captured via radio broadcasts highlights the immediacy of law enforcement responses in mid-20th century America.

Main topics

• Domestic disturbance call
• Child custody conflict

Notable quotes

"She has got a right to leave the baby. She can leave any time she wants."

"This baby comes first."

Conclusion

The episode underscores the importance of real-time police reporting a

Transcript preview

Speaker 4 (0:10) This is Case Closed, crime stories Speaker 5 (0:12) from the golden age of radio. Speaker 1 (0:28) Unit 99 to KMA 907. Unit 99, Sergeant Guthrie, 909. In service and on the air. Speaker 8 (0:39) This Speaker 1 (0:39) is Sergeant Bruce Guthrie of Unit 99 at Headquarters, Police Department, City of Sacramento, California. My detail is to ride in Unit 99, our tape recorder-equipped radio car, and to respond whenever the dispatcher transmits a signal to one of our other units on duty somewhere in the city. At the scene, we make the recordings which we provide for this program. Now, to tell you more about Unit 99, here's our chief, James V. Hicks, Sacramento Police. Speaker 5 (1:12) When Unit 99 takes off on the dispatcher's radio signal, everything which happens is real. What you hear, happens. This is the standing order to Sergeant Guthrie, the officer in charge of Unit 99. Get it on the spot while it's going on. And as you listen. This is what Guthrie does. Now to Unit 99 and Sergeant Bruce Guthrie on duty. Speaker 1 (1:36) We have a disturbance call. 415, we'll cover it. The unit is just coming around the corner. Pulled up in front of the address. Let's follow them into the house and see what it is. Hi, Leo. How are you? Hello. Hello. Sir, this is my wife. I come home tonight and I left her. I got a note from my wife that she's leaving me. Now she got a right to leave me with my boy. She certainly has. To walk right out. She certainly has. Fine, okay. Now I'm glad of that. Now what reason can she leave me? She was pretty white and over 21. Speaker 8 (2:26) And for cruelty. Speaker 1 (2:28) Well, that's something you'd have to take up in court. I have a lawyer Speaker 8 (2:31) and he says he has a lawyer and he's going to take my boy away from me and prove me an uncivilized mother and all this stuff. I didn't even want to talk to him. I told her not to let him in because I knew how he'd act. He'd scream and... Oh, Melinda, Speaker 1 (2:41) what Speaker 8 (2:41) would you think your husband Speaker 1 (2:42) would think if you just fly home? I don't Speaker 8 (2:45) want Speaker 1 (2:45) to talk Speaker 8 (2:46) to you anymore. If Speaker 1 (2:48) I got it right, she let me in. I didn't break in or nothing. Speaker 8 (2:51) I didn't call her nothing. You did, too. All right, I called her nothing. I Speaker 1 (2:56) called her all kinds of names. We'll say I called her all kinds of names, hon. I called her all names. What did I call her? Tell me what I called her. What kind of names? All right. I called all kinds of names. She let me in. This is between my wife and I. I come home. I find the note. What would you do? She has left. Speaker 7 (3:15) I'm sorry, Mom. Speaker 1 (3:16) You pressed charges against me. I can't help that. That's fine. Now, is my wife got a right to leave the home with the baby? Now, without separation of court or anything, that's all I want to know. She does. I already told you that. She has got a right to leave the baby. She can leave any time she wants. Speaker 2 (3:32) All right. Speaker 1 (3:32) Now, otherwise, could I leave anytime I want? Anytime you want. Sergeant, we've been married for, we've been back together now. We were separated for four months. We've been back together for one whole year. And how long have we been back together? Speaker 8 (3:44) That doesn't concern right now. It Speaker 1 (3:46) does concern right now. Speaker 8 (3:47) I'll be fine. Now, you've got no Speaker 1 (3:49) more right to that baby than I have. Speaker 2 (3:51) Now, Speaker 1 (3:52) I don't know what the sergeant said. Now, that's your baby. It's my baby. I'm not worrying about it. I'm worrying about the baby's sake, hon. I'm not worrying about what I think is right. I know what is right, what I'm supposed to do. Now, whatever the sergeant says, I'm going to do it. But listen, I'll tell you one thing, that whatever comes first, this baby comes first. Speaker 7 (4:09) This fellow was trying to protect us while he was calling the old man. Protecting what? I never said anything. I told you, Mom, you slapped Speaker 1 (4:15) me here. I told you, slap me here. He Speaker 7 (4:18) got right up in my face, as close to my face, and just called and screamed at me. My woman just slapped Speaker 1 (4:22) me. Speaker 7 (4:22) They did not have a right to. They Speaker 1 (4:24) don't Speaker 7 (4:24) have Speaker 1 (4:24) a Speaker 7 (4:24) right Speaker 1 (4:24) to strike anyone, ma'am. Speaker 7 (4:25) Well, I'll tell you what. I told Speaker 1 (4:27) you, strike the other one. Strike it now. You're so smart. No, he has no right to push anyone around. And he has no right to be in here if you don't want him here. Speaker 7 (4:36) Well, I tried my best to get him to get out because he told me that he wouldn't. I said, there won't be no trouble, Mom. I promise you, there won't. Now, that's what he said. And he heard you, and she did, too. Speaker 1 (4:47) Are you going to prefer any charges against him tonight? I Speaker 7 (4:49) certainly am. I'm for disturbing the peace because he promised me Faye Boone wouldn't be in the trouble. Speaker 1 (4:57) Did he actually put his hands on you? Speaker 7 (5:00) Yeah, he sure did. He pushed me. Speaker 1 (5:03) Well, you have a right to have him put in jail for disturbing the peace, and you can sign a citizen's arrest, which you would have to do, and you would have to appear in court against him. Speaker 7 (5:14) Are you willing Speaker 1 (5:15) to do that? I Speaker 7 (5:15) certainly am, because I'm going to tell you something. I have put up with this guy, and what I mean to say, see, he's half gambling and gambling and gambling. Speaker 1 (5:21) I'll go out and talk to the officers and have one of them come in and have you sign a citizen's arrest, and they will take care of the man for you. They are. Well, the only thing that's going to happen is you'll get into a disturbance out here. I didn't Speaker 2 (5:33) mean to have any trouble. You'll get into a disturbance over here at the mother's home, and then what'll happen is she'll have you thrown in. Speaker 1 (5:42) Well, I mean, I just act out of her place and no, I want to talk to Tennessee the mother-in-law would like to talk to you inside Speaker 1 (5:55) Well, there's nothing I can say. The only thing is that I come home and find no time. She's gone. Like I said, we've had a little trouble before. But then if she would sit down and talk to us, she hasn't said anything. When I left tonight, I said, I'm going to Bowling Alley. I'm going to have a beer. Maybe I'll boil a couple of things. And that's fine. Now, as far as the drinking goes, that don't bother me at all. She wanted to go out dancing. I don't want that stuff. I got the boy in there to remember. And that's one thing that I'm living for right now. Otherwise, I wouldn't put up with this for nine years. Like you said, that's not here nor there. That's in the court. Speaker 2 (6:26) Well, the thing is, you can't... I don't want to take it to court. You can't settle anything by coming over here and raising a rumpus. Well, I didn't raise no rumpus. Well, I can't say anything. What are you saying? I'm talking to you. Because the woman can, and she probably will, put you in jail if you come over here. You'd be better off waiting till tomorrow. Well, I figured that, yeah. Speaker 1 (6:48) This has happened a Speaker 2 (6:50) couple, three, four times before. If you still have a problem tomorrow, I'd probably be better off settling it in court rather than having words the way you do. Speaker 1 (7:02) I'd rather not do it. I think I've got a little better judgment than that. Well, he's somebody that you have to consider. Well, that's the only thing I'm thinking about right now. I'm thinking, boy, the kid is young, and he's not even four years old yet. And she's worrying about it. She's been out with a fellow here at the telephone company. She's been going out. I've been back with her. She's been out with that fellow five different times since we've been back a year and six months. And I haven't said a word. I've even forgiven her for those things. Her mother went and bought her $120 worth of clothes that I couldn't afford. How can I buy those things? and go in and ask her mother there. What are you going to do with this fellow? We're going to advise him to go home and maybe he can solve the Speaker 2 (7:47) problem better tomorrow by phone or in a personal interview with his wife. As far as tonight's concerned, if he comes back, we'll have to book him. Speaker 1 (7:54) What right has a wife that... It's got a boy, we'll say four years old, and she's got material things that she's thinking about, and she's not thinking about things that really matter, why she's doing these kind of things. She's done this three or four different times now, and why can't she see that the happiness is ahead of everything? I don't understand it. That's something that neither you nor I can understand. Well, the good Lord might. The good Lord might figure it all out. I don't know. Leo, is the mother-in-law Speaker 2 (8:27) going to press charges? Not tonight, no. She's going to go down and see the city prosecutor Monday and, if possible, get a peace bond against the boy to keep him away from Speaker 5 (8:35) the property. This case is commonplace, the type which police officers encounter frequently. All the ingredients of domestic discord were present. A gambling husband, a wife clinging to a doting mother, and a child who will probably be the principal sufferer. The man was released. with a warning to create no further disturbance. Speaker 1 (9:25) Captain, did you put out a call for Unit 99? I Speaker 5 (9:27) did. The boys, there was a stick-up lady and her daughter who was in one of the banks out there getting some change, and she came out, as I understand it, got in her car, and as she started to drive away, this young fellow stuck them up and took the money, quite a large sum, and the officer's a surgeon, and H. Taylor responded to the call, and they were fortunate in getting the culprit we have in the building now, the victim. her daughter and the culprit. Oh, Speaker 1 (9:55) here comes the officers now. This is Officer Taylor and Sergeant. You're the ones that picked up this man on the stick-up? That's right, Sergeant. Where is he now? He's upstairs on the third Speaker 6 (10:04) floor. Would you mind giving us some of the details on this? Well, we received a call to investigate a possible 211 and Grand Theft Auto at the Fruit Ridge shopping area. And we responded to the victim, and her child was there, and there was several witnesses that... told us that the man had ran south in the Fruits Shopping Area and jumped a fence. And so Officer Surgeon and myself, we drove around the vicinity looking for him. And we had various reports from different citizens around there seeing him, but none could put a finger