Dragnet: The Big Whiff (EP5059)

The Great Detectives of Old Time Radio| Daily Mystery Dramas

In 'Dragnet: The Big Whiff,' Sergeant Joe Friday and Detective Frank Smith investigate the mysterious death of an unidentified woman found i

Key takeaways

• The victim's apparent suicide is complicated by the presence of a man's handkerchief soaked in chloroform, suggesting foul play.

Main topics

• Homicide investigation
• False confession

Notable quotes

The story you are about to hear is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Conclusion

The episode concludes with skepticism toward Mitchell's confession, emphasizing that

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:27) Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho. This is your host, Adam Graham. In a moment, we're going to bring you this week's episode of Dragnet. But first, I want to encourage you, if you're enjoying the podcast, please follow us using your favorite podcast software. And our listener support and appreciation campaign continues. One of our ongoing Patreon supporters for as little as $2 per month. Just go to patreon.greatdetectives.net. But now, from June 5th, 1952, here is The Big Whiff. Speaker 1 (1:07) The story you are about to hear is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent. Speaker 1 (1:30) You're a detective sergeant. You're assigned a homicide detail. A woman is found dying in a vacant lot, her identity unknown. Your job? Investigate. Speaker 1 (1:51) The documented 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. Speaker 2 (2:14) It was Thursday, October 16th. It was cloudy in Los Angeles. We were working the night watch out a homicide detail. My partner's Frank Smith. The boss is Captain Warman. My name's Friday. It was 9.48 p.m. when I got to Georgia Street Receiving Hospital, Dr. Hall's office. Joe, how are you? Hi, Doc. How about that case you got in from 7th and Union? How's she doing? She died about five minutes ago. Fill Speaker 8 (2:34) me in. What do you got on it? You talk to the radio car officers, ones that handle the call? Frank's talking to him now out in the lobby. Speaker 2 (2:39) Thought I'd check in with you while he was handling that end. Speaker 8 (2:41) Not an awful lot to tell you, Joe. Ambulance G2 brought her in from the location. She was alive when they brought her in. Did everything I could for her. Didn't help much. Too far gone. What's it look like? Chloroform poisoning. Pretty obvious. Probably self-administered. Looks like that anyway. She didn't last long. Speaker 2 (2:55) It's a little unusual, huh? Speaker 8 (2:56) Chloroform? Yeah. Under the circumstances, it sure is. Anything else? How do you mean? Well, any probable causes. Any marks on her? No. A little scratch on her wrist. That's about all. Where you got her now? Can we look at her? Yeah. Bag number three. Come on. Speaker 2 (3:11) Ed Barrett called us, asked us for help. Rough night, huh? Speaker 8 (3:14) Yeah. Traffic went crazy tonight. A dozen cases in the last two hours. A couple of homicides, too. Busy night. You got the weekend coming up, huh? Yeah, not looking forward to it. Here we go. Over here. Chloroform sure hangs on, doesn't it? Sure strong. Notice the burns around her mouth and nose. Discoloration. Well, who is she? Any idea? We got her down as Jane Doe. You're gonna have to take it from there. I understand the radio car officers couldn't identify her. Apparently pretty Speaker 2 (3:43) well off, huh? Speaker 8 (3:44) Nice clothes. Seems to be well kept. I'd say so. Expensive jewelry there. Rings. Wristwatch. A little Speaker 2 (3:49) strange for a probable suicide, isn't it? Looks like she took good care of herself. Hair all done up. Fingernails. About how old, would you say? Speaker 8 (3:57) Not more than 35. Just about that. Here's the chart, honey. Mm-hmm. Time arrival, 9.38 p.m. From southwest corner of 7th and Union, vacant lot. Reason for call, possible drunk woman down. Jane Doe, number four. Female, Caucasian, approximate age 35. Weight, 128 and one quarter. Height, 5 foot 4. Brown hair, hazel eyes. Listed as Nordic descent, probable suicide. That's it. Okay, Doc, thanks. I better look up Frank, see what he's got, huh? Okay. Haven't notified the coroner yet. You fellas want to take care of that? Yeah, sure. We'll call her. About all we can do unless we find some relatives to notify her. Joe? Yeah, Frank. Speaker 5 (4:33) Oh, hi, Doc. Speaker 8 (4:34) How are you? Speaker 5 (4:34) Frank? Looks like you're losing weight. Yeah, four pounds in two weeks. Not too bad for me, anyway. What'd you get, Joe? Chloroform poisoning. Probable suicide. Find Speaker 8 (4:42) out who she is? I gotta get back to my office. If there's anything I can help you with, come on back. Right, Doc. Thanks very much. Okay. How about any identification? Speaker 5 (4:49) No, I talked to the fellas that took the call. Unit 182. It was a routine call. 390W down. They couldn't find out who put the call in. Said they found her in a vacant lot lying over against the side of a building. Yeah. They said she looked like she'd been drinking. Then I got a whiff of the chloroform. And they found this empty container by her side. Here. Here you go. Ties in. They were careful handling him. Anything else? Well, while they're waiting for the ambulance, they talked to some of the people in the neighborhood. They couldn't tell them anything about the woman. The building they found her next to is a vacant store. No identification on her at all? No, nothing. No purse or wallet. I checked missing persons. No one of her description reported. Fellas who handled the call said they went over her clothing. No marks of identification. Better notify Leighton Prince, huh? Maybe they can identify her. I already called him, Joe. Looks like probable suicide. Sure, a new twist, though. Chloroform route. Speaker 2 (5:32) Doesn't figure it out. What do you think? I don't know. No violence committed on the body, no indication of robbery. She had a wristwatch on, rings too. Wouldn't figure anyway, chloroform angle. Yeah, no Speaker 5 (5:42) other physical evidence out there, huh? I mean, besides the chloroform container. Nothing else besides the handkerchief. Yeah, plain white handkerchief, chloroform on it. They found it next to the body. It's the only thing that doesn't fit 100%. What Speaker 2 (5:52) do you mean? Speaker 5 (5:52) It's a man's handkerchief. Speaker 2 (5:57) 10.25 p.m. Frank and I took the dead woman's clothing, the handkerchief, and the almost empty container of chloroform and drove back downtown to the office. We dropped off the clothing and the handkerchief at the crime lab to be processed for possible identifying marks. The chloroform container was taken to latent fingerprints for examination. The following morning, the body of the unidentified woman was taken to the county morgue for posting. As soon as the dead woman's prints were made available to us, they were checked through our record bureau and also through the record bureau at the sheriff's office. In addition, they also made a run on her description. They were unable to identify her. We checked with the crime lab, but they couldn't help us either. A detailed examination of the dead woman's clothing failed to yield any leads as to her identity. Latent prints didn't have any better luck with the chloroform container. The only prints they found on it were those of the dead woman. Meantime, the morning papers had picked up the story and given it front page billing. 11.16 a.m. Speaker 5 (6:50) How's that again, Doc? Uh-huh. Yeah, I see. Speaker 5 (6:56) A little unusual, wouldn't you say? Yeah. Okay, we'll pick it up after lunch. Right, bye. Anything? Yeah, doc, Cephalo at the morgue just finished forcing the body. What'd he say? The chloroform killed her. They even found traces of it in the stomach. Huh? That's right. That's a weird one, isn't it? Doesn't leave much doubt. Suicide. No indication it was anything else, is it? I got it. Speaker 2 (7:19) Homicide, Friday talking. Yes, sir. Now, Mitchell? Mm-hmm. That so? Yeah, sure. I'd be glad to. Yeah, we'll be here. You want to give us your address? Hello? Here we go. What was it, Joe? Somebody named James Mitchell. He's on his way down to see us. Wants to talk to us about the dead woman. Yeah. He says he killed her. Speaker 2 (7:44) 11.50 a.m. While Frank and I waited around for Mitchell to show up, we checked his name through R &I, but we were unable to find anything on him. A few minutes before 1 p.m., a short, blonde-haired man in a blue serge suit entered the squad room and asked for us. He introduced himself as James Mitchell. Frank and I took him to the interrogation room where we started to question him. He told us he was a steel worker by trade, currently unemployed. He said he was originally from Alabama, that he'd been in California for approximately two years. After that, he lapsed into silence. We tried to question him about the dead woman, but we made little headway. The only admission we could get from him was that he killed the woman. Outside of that, he refused to say anything. Speaker 5 (8:22) Now, how about it, Mitchell? What's the trouble? You called us, volunteered a confession. You said you killed the woman. You wanted to tell us a story. Now, why don't you answer our questions? Jim, how about it? Aren't you feeling well? You want us to call a doctor? Jim? You're not giving us much