Friday - The Dragnet Podcast

Originally Aired: December 22, 1953 Dragnet #227, "The Big Little Jesus," Sergeants Joe Friday and Frank Smith are called away from their Christmas preparations when a priceless religious statue is stolen from the Old Mission Plaza Church, the oldest church in Los Angeles. Father Xavier Rojas reports that the infant Jesus figure from the church's beloved nativity scene has disappeared sometime bet...

Originally Aired: December 15, 1953 Dragnet #226, "The Big Brink," Detective Sergeant Joe Friday and his partner Frank Smith are working the night watch out of robbery detail when they receive a promising break in a major case. Ten days earlier, three armed men hijacked a bank truck on Wilshire Boulevard using sawed-off shotguns, making off with over $100,000 in cash. They forced the drivers to th...

Originally Aired: December 8, 1953 Dragnet #225, "The Big Pick," Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Frank Smith of the Bunco Fugitive Division tackle an organized gang of pickpockets plaguing Los Angeles. The case becomes personal when elderly Lewis Bonning visits their office in desperation. The heartbroken widower had withdrawn his entire life savings of $5,200 from the bank that morning, planning...

Originally Aired: December 1, 1953 Dragnet #224, "The Big Odd," Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Frank Smith investigate a brutal truck hijacking that leaves driver Russell Gilmore beaten and hospitalized. The case is part of a larger pattern—14 loaded trucks have been stolen by an organized gang operating in Los Angeles. Friday and Smith visit Gilmore at County Hospital Ward 419, where the victim,...

Originally Aired: November 24, 1953 Dragnet #223, "The Big Present," finds Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Frank Smith working burglary detail on a puzzling string of market break-ins that has plagued Los Angeles for two months. With eighteen stores hit and no solid leads, the detectives consult Sergeant Lindsay Simmons at the Georgia Street Juvenile Bureau, suspecting their thief might be a young...

Originally Aired: November 17, 1953 Dragnet #222, "The Big Flight," begins when Sergeants Joe Friday and Frank Smith respond to a brutal robbery at a corner market on Lockwood and Barton Avenues. The victim, Cliff Hall, and his partner Andy were working when three armed men entered the store demanding money. While Hall complied with the gunman's orders to put approximately $8,000 in a paper bag, A...

Originally Aired: November 10, 1953 Dragnet #221, "The Big Kid," Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Frank Smith are working the juvenile detail when rumors surface of an impending gang war in Los Angeles. They interview seventeen-year-old Angelo "Angie" Markal, a repeat offender arrested for burglary who belongs to the Little Wall Street gang. During questioning, Friday and Smith press Angie for info...

Originally Aired: November 3, 1953 Dragnet #220, "The Big Rain," Sergeants Joe Friday and Frank Smith are working the night watch in homicide when they catch a brutal assault case during a torrential Los Angeles rainstorm. A woman in her early forties is found sprawling across a sidewalk with her head in the gutter, barely saved from drowning by the position of a storm drain. She appears to have a...

Originally Aired: October 27, 1953 Dragnet #219, "The Big Fraud," Sergeant Joe Friday and Frank Smith find themselves juggling two disturbing complaints that may be connected. The first victim, an irate Keith Jefferson Mather, storms into the Bunco division demanding arrests after being charged five dollars for a shoeshine. When he refused to pay, three men emerged from a car to intimidate him. Be...

Originally Aired: October 20, 1953 Dragnet #218, "The Big Paint," finds Sergeant Joe Friday and his partner Frank Smith facing a sophisticated organized crime operation. An organized gang of thieves has been systematically stripping cars across Los Angeles, stealing radios and wheels with remarkable speed and efficiency. The stolen merchandise hasn't turned up at any of the usual outlets, and poli...

Originally Aired: October 13, 1953 Dragnet #217, "The Big Plea," Sergeant Joe Friday and his partner Frank Smith are tracking down two holdup men operating in Los Angeles. Their investigation leads them to the Universal Hobby Shop in Van Nuys, where they question Stanley McGowan, an ex-convict working as a model ship rigger. McGowan is carefully staying clean while on parole, dutifully carrying hi...

Originally Aired: October 6, 1953 Dragnet #216, "The Big Little Mother," Detectives Joe Friday and Frank Smith are called to the Beckworth department store to investigate a forger who has been systematically hitting the establishment for six years. The credit manager, Mr. Donaldson, explains that the suspect operates with a simple but effective method: she charges small items to legitimate account...

Originally Aired: September 29, 1953 Dragnet #215, "The Big Try," Friday and Smith's quiet morning at homicide is interrupted when reporter Sid Hughes calls with an urgent case. A man named Jan Patachek has phoned the newspaper saying he's going to kill himself and has barricaded himself in his apartment. Hughes is convinced this isn't a crank call, something in Patachek's voice tells him the thre...

Originally Aired: September 22, 1953 In Dragnet #214, "The Big Slip," Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Frank Smith are working the day watch on the Auto Theft detail when they receive a call from Jesse McGowan, owner of a used car lot on Washington Boulevard. McGowan believes he may have purchased a stolen vehicle and needs the detectives to investigate. Before heading out on the call, Friday finds...

Originally Aired: September 15, 1953 Dragnet #213, "The Big Cab," Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Frank Smith are called to the hospital in the early morning hours of February 18th to interview Raymond Bailey, a 62-year-old grocery store owner who has just regained consciousness after two days in a coma. Bailey was brutally beaten with a sawed-off shotgun during a Monday night robbery at his small...

Originally Aired: September 8, 1953 Dragnet #212, "The Big Lift," Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Frank Smith find themselves frustrated by an elusive burglar who has been plaguing Los Angeles for five weeks. Seventeen homes have been stripped of valuables by a thief with a consistent method of operation: punching holes in window screens, jimmying windows, and making off with jewelry between 6:00...

Originally Aired: September 1, 1953 Dragnet #211, "The Big Bop," Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Frank Smith investigate a series of holdups that have plagued Los Angeles for three weeks. A lone gunman has been systematically robbing check cashing agencies and small stores at gunpoint, taking only paper currency and leaving no fingerprints. When they arrive at the Harrison Check Cashing Agency on...

Originally Aired: June 28, 1953 Dragnet #210, "The Big Ham," Sergeant Joe Friday and Frank Smith are called to investigate what appears to be a suicide in the Westlake Park district. A young woman has been found dead in an apartment rented to a man named Ross Mitchell, who is nowhere to be found. The victim, initially unidentified as Jane Doe Number 17, is soon identified by her father, Robert And...

Originally Aired: June 21, 1953 Dragnet #209, "The Big Revolt," Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Frank Smith of the Missing Persons Detail investigate the disappearance of Henry Borg, a 51-year-old contractor who failed to return home from work. When his worried wife reports him missing after checking with his coworkers, Friday and Smith begin their methodical investigation. They check jails, hospi...

Originally Aired: June 14, 1953 Dragnet #208, "The Big Lilly," finds Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Frank Smith responding to a cryptic phone call about a woman who has been badly beaten. The anonymous caller hangs up before providing crucial details, leaving the detectives with only an address in the Westlake area. When Friday and Smith arrive at 8674 Cambria Street, they find a quiet apartment...

Originally Aired: June 7, 1953 Dragnet #207, "The Big Will," Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Frank Smith respond to a shooting call on a rainy Sunday night in Los Angeles. When they arrive at 1981 East Borendo, they find Charles Stahl, a 55-year-old bachelor, lying unconscious on his kitchen floor with a gunshot wound to the chest. Paul West, Stahl's longtime neighbor and friend of forty years, ha...

Originally Aired: May 31, 1953 Dragnet #206, "The Big Gun Part 2," Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Frank Smith continue their investigation of an organized car theft ring, interrogating suspect Sloan in the interview room at the main jail. After his partner Summers has already broken and confessed, Sloan reluctantly agrees to cooperate, but insists he doesn't know the identity of the mysterious bo...

Originally Aired: May 24, 1953 Dragnet #205, "The Big Gun Part 1," Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Frank Smith catch a case involving a missing rental truck. After Frank recounts his disastrous fishing trip that ended with him spending his day off catching nothing but sunburn on a pier, the partners head to Coventry U Drive truck service on Pico Boulevard. Manager Stephen Cole reports that a man n...

Originally Aired: May 17, 1953 Dragnet #204, "The Big False Move," opens with Sergeant Joe Friday arriving at the Robbery division office suffering from debilitating headaches and ringing in his ears. His partner Frank Smith insists the problem is a salt deficiency and plies Friday with salt tablets and bottled Poland water before they can investigate their case. The detectives proceed to intervie...

Originally Aired: May 10, 1953 Dragnet #203, "The Big Joke," Friday and Smith receive an unusual early morning call from Johnny Bronson, a bartender they know from 6th Street. Johnny tells them about a mysterious phone call he received the night before, in which an unidentified man offered him $5,000 to kill someone named Wilhelm Ulrich. At first, Johnny thought it was a prank, but when a special...