Episode 109: The Big Confession

[00:00:16] Speaker A: The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society Podcast welcome to the Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society, a podcast dedicated to society, crime and horror stories from the golden age of radio. I'm Eric. [00:00:34] Speaker B: I'm Tim. [00:00:35] Speaker C: And I'm Joshua. [00:00:36] Speaker B: We love mysterious old time radio stories, but do they stand the test of time? That's what we're here to find out. [00:00:41] Speaker C: It's November and we're spending Thanksgiving month expressing our deepest gratitude to you, our mysterious listeners. Listeners like our guest today, Amy. Hello Amy. [00:00:52] Speaker D: Hi. [00:00:52] Speaker B: Amy is the mastermind behind the audio drama podcast 12 Chimes. It's midnight. She also happens to be a generous supporter of the Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society. As a reward, we've invited Amy to join us for a discussion of an episode of her choosing. Amy, what are we listening to today? [00:01:08] Speaker D: We are listening to an episode of Dragnet called the big confession. [00:01:12] Speaker A: In 1948, actor Jack Webb appeared in He Walked by Night, a film noir police procedural directed by Alfred L. Worker. While on set, Webb struck up a friendship with the film's technical advisor, Marty Wynn. Webb was fascinated by Wynn's tales of authentic police cases and believed the public would find these stories compelling too. [00:01:33] Speaker C: By the late 40s, the airwaves were filled with tough cops and private dicks, but none of them presented policing in the realistic way Wynn described it to Webb. In 1949, Webb proposed the idea of a radio show based on actual police cases to NBC executives who were lukewarm to the idea. However, the they were impressed by Webb's performance in the short lived detective series Pat Novak for Hire and decided to take a chance on the young actor's enthusiastic pitch. [00:02:00] Speaker B: Dragnet premiered June 8, 1949. Jack Webb played the laconic Los Angeles police sergeant Joe Friday, much like He Walked by Midnight. Dragnet used a low key documentary style. Webb narrated each episode with a clipped matter of fact tone, emphasizing facts over dramatic flourishes. [00:02:16] Speaker D: Over the course of the program, Friday had many police partners, including Ben Romero, played by Barton Yarbrough Bill Lockwood, played by Martin Milner and Ken Peters Ed Jacobs, played by Barney Phillips and Friday's longest serving partner, Frank Smith, played by Ben Alexander, Harry Bartel, Herb Ellis and Vic Perrin. Today's episode features Alexander in the role. [00:02:38] Speaker A: In 1952, Dragnet made the transition to television, a move that only increased the show's popularity. By the mid-1950s, Dragnet was watched by 50% of American households, held a top 10 rating spot through 1956. The television version ran concurrently with the radio program for nearly four years. In 1957, Dragnet left the radio, but the TV series continued until 1959, returning for another three year run in 1967. The influence of the program is still felt today in the form of police procedurals like CSI and Law and Order, as well as a reality show like Cops and Forensic Files. [00:03:15] Speaker C: And now, let's listen to the Big Confession from Dragnet. Originally broadcast March 30, 1954. [00:03:22] Speaker D: It's late at night and a chill has set in. You are alone, and the only light you see is coming from an antique radio. Listen to the sounds coming from the speaker. Listen to the music and listen to the voices. [00:03:42] Speaker E: Ladies and gentlemen, the story you are about to hear is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent. [00:03:48] Speaker F: Dragnet. [00:03:57] Speaker E: You'Re a detective sergeant. You're assigned a homicide detail. A young man walks into your office and tells you he has a problem. From the way he talks, you know it's serious. Your job. [00:04:08] Speaker F: Listen. It was Wednesday, September 8th. It was cold in Los Angeles. We were working the day watch out of Homicide. My partner's Frank Smith. The boss is Captain. Woman. My name's Friday. I was on my way back to the office from R and I, and it was 10:14am when I got to room 42. Homicide. [00:04:27] Speaker E: Pardon me, sir. [00:04:28] Speaker F: Yes, sir. [00:04:28] Speaker E: Are you a policeman? [00:04:29] Speaker F: Yes, sir, that's right. What can I do for you? [00:04:31] Speaker E: I want to talk to somebody. I'm not sure who, though. [00:04:34] Speaker F: If you tell me what it's all about, I might be able to help you. [00:04:36] Speaker E: Well, I gotta be sure it's the right person. You can understand that, can't you? [00:04:39] Speaker F: Yes, sir. [00:04:40] Speaker E: My name's Paul Marcus. [00:04:41] Speaker F: All right, Mr. Marcus. What is it you want to talk about? [00:04:44] Speaker E: Do you work in there in the Homicide department? [00:04:45] Speaker F: That's right. [00:04:47] Speaker E: You know all about murders then, huh? [00:04:48] Speaker F: You want to come into the office and talk? [00:04:50] Speaker E: No. No, I don't want to go in there. Is there someplace else we can go? I'd like to talk to you alone. This is kind of a personal thing. [00:04:55] Speaker F: All right, sir. Come on. Down the hall, interrogation room. [00:04:58] Speaker E: Nobody else there? [00:04:58] Speaker F: No. [00:04:59] Speaker E: That's good, because like I told you, this is a personal matter. I need your advice. [00:05:03] Speaker F: All right, sir. This way. [00:05:05] Speaker E: This is the first time I've ever been in the police department. I feel kind of funny just walking in and talking personal things to a stranger. [00:05:11] Speaker F: That's right. You understand? Go ahead. Want to sit down? Right there. [00:05:19] Speaker E: Thank you. [00:05:22] Speaker F: All right. You want to tell me about it? [00:05:24] Speaker E: You mind closing the door? [00:05:25] Speaker F: All right, now. What's your problem, Mr. Marcus? [00:05:31] Speaker E: I I told you it was personal. [00:05:33] Speaker F: Yes, I know. [00:05:34] Speaker E: I want to be sure I handled it right. I could get in a lot of trouble if I didn't. Been trying to figure out what to do about it for a week now and couldn't find the right answer. That's why I came here. You guys should know. [00:05:44] Speaker F: All right, now if you'll just tell me what's bothering you, we might be able to do something for you. [00:05:46] Speaker E: Uh huh. A whole week and no answer. I sure hope you've got it for me. [00:05:51] Speaker F: I'm sorry, Mr. Marcus. Baby, you don't tell me what this is all about. There's nothing we can do. [00:05:54] Speaker E: Well, it's nothing big, just a personal problem. I just want to know how to handle it. [00:05:58] Speaker F: All right, go ahead. [00:05:58] Speaker E: I killed a woman. [00:06:04] Speaker F: 10:18Am we got the name of the woman Paul Marcus said that he'd murdered. We also obtained a description of the victim. And Frank went down the hall to Missing Persons to see if a report had been filed on her. I waited with the suspect. [00:06:14] Speaker E: It's a personal problem. You know how to handle it. I wasn't sure. That's why I came to you. [00:06:18] Speaker F: All right. Where did you meet this Lorraine Farrell? [00:06:20] Speaker E: San Francisco. [00:06:21] Speaker F: How long ago? [00:06:22] Speaker E: A couple of weeks. I just knew her a little while before it happened. Just a couple of weeks. Fisherman's Wharf. [00:06:27] Speaker F: What's that? [00:06:27] Speaker E: Fisherman's Wharf. That's where I met her in San Francisco. I was on a vacation, two weeks with pay, and I went to San Francisco. Fisherman's Wharf. That's where I met Lorraine. [00:06:35] Speaker F: All right, go ahead. [00:06:36] Speaker E: When I was down there sitting on the dock, looking at the boats, just sitting there eating prawns. You know how they cook them in those great big pots? [00:06:41] Speaker F: Yeah. [00:06:42] Speaker E: Well, I was just sitting there eating prawns and I met her. [00:06:44] Speaker F: Well, where'd you kill her? [00:06:45] Speaker E: Look, you gotta let me tell this in my own way or I'm not gonna tell you at all. It's gotta be right. So you'll understand. Now, if you don't get it right, the whole thing's gone wrong. You see, it's a real personal thing. [00:06:54] Speaker F: All right, sir, go ahead. [00:06:56] Speaker E: Well, I was just sitting there eating prawns. Eating them and throwing the little tail pieces down in the water. You know how you do. [00:07:01] Speaker F: Mm. [00:07:02] Speaker E: Watching them kind of float around. Kinda. All of a sudden she was right there, sitting just alongside of me. [00:07:07] Speaker F: You ever see her before? [00:07:08] Speaker E: I never laid eyes on her till then. [00:07:10] Speaker F: All right, go ahead. [00:07:11] Speaker E: We both sat there for a minute. Then we started to talk. Just little things like nice weather and how long you've been in San Francisco, things like that. You know how you do. [00:07:18] Speaker F: How old you say the feral woman was? [00:07:20] Speaker E: 19. Turned 195 August. [00:07:22] Speaker F: All right. [00:07:23] Speaker E: She was born there, you know, in San Francisco. She told me about it when we were talking, how she was born there and grew up there. [00:07:28] Speaker F: Yeah. [00:07:28] Speaker E: Told me all about the school she went to, how she used to play on Strawberry island and Stow Lake. You ever been there? [00:07:33] Speaker F: Yes, sir. [00:07:34] Speaker E: It's kind of a beautiful place. You know, they got those rowboats and you paddle around the lake, and right in the middle is this island, Strawberry Island. There's all those swans that swim around. You can feed them. Real beautiful Strawberry Island. [00:07:46] Speaker F: Tell me something, Marcus. You ever been in the hospital? Huh? You ever had any mental care? Been under the supervision of a psychiatrist, maybe? [00:07:51] Speaker E: You think I'm crazy, don't you? [00:07:53] Speaker F: I'll just ask you a question. [00:07:54] Speaker E: No, I'm not. I've never been to a doctor. I'm telling you the truth. You'll see. [00:07:57] Speaker F: All right. You want to go in? [00:07:58] Speaker E: I guess you get a lot of crackpots in here telling you all kinds of phony stories, huh? [00:08:02] Speaker F: The doors are wide open all night. [00:08:04] Speaker E: I guess you get a lot of them. But I'm not a crackpot. I'm telling you the truth. I did kill her. But it's important you know why I did it. I gotta tell you the right way. If I don't, none of it's gonna be any good. [00:08:12] Speaker F: When'd you kill her? [00:08:13] Speaker E: September 1st. That's the day we left. September 1st. [00:08:15] Speaker F: That'd be a week ago today, huh? [00:08:17] Speaker E: Yeah, September 1st. Joe? [00:08:18] Speaker F: Yeah? See you a minute. All right. Just a minute, Marcus. Mm. All right. What do you got? Well, I checked Missing persons. Yeah? I got a report on the girl. Same name, description matches. When'd she disappear? September 1st. Well, that fits in with what he told us. Yeah, but there's something that doesn't. What's that? She's 16 years old. Each year, there are hundreds of citizens who walk into the nearest police station and confess to some sort of crime. Some have actually happened. Others have occurred only in the mind of the person confessing. No matter how wild the confession, how implausible the details of the crime, each report has to be checked out. To doctors, such cases are clinical, but to the working detective, they're the cause of a lot of legwork and a great deal of checking. They cost the taxpayer untold man hours and investigating time and many times result in nothing because of his attitude and his reluctance to give us the complete story, all at once it appeared that Paul Marcus might be one of these people. The fact that he named a girl who was missing meant little. Since it was possible for him to have read the story in a newspaper. The only way we had of being sure was to continue the interrogation. 10:34am she told me she wanted to. [00:09:28] Speaker E: Get away from home. That's what she told me. How it was rough for her there and she wanted to get away. [00:09:32] Speaker F: That's when you said you'd bring her down here. Is that right? Oh, no. [00:09:34] Speaker E: I didn't even suggest it. The whole thing was her idea. [00:09:36] Speaker F: She brought it up. [00:09:37] Speaker E: Yes. You see, after that first day on Fisherman's Wharf, I saw her several times. Almost every day. We'd meet someplace and talk. [00:09:43] Speaker F: Where would you meet her? [00:09:44] Speaker E: Well, sometimes in one of the hotel bars. Once we met out at the Steinhardt Aquarium. We met on the rotunda there. You know, where they have the big pool and all the alligators swimming around. You know where? [00:09:51] Speaker F: Mm. [00:09:52] Speaker E: Well, we met there once and we walked over to the place where they have the band concerts. Right across the way where the band plays. Only they weren't there that day. Wasn't anybody there, just Lorraine and me. We sat on the benches and talked. That's when she said she wanted to go with me. [00:10:04] Speaker F: To Los Angeles, huh? [00:10:04] Speaker E: Yeah, that's where I was going. She wanted me to take her. [00:10:08] Speaker F: She came right out and asked. [00:10:09] Speaker E: You sure. Told me how it was hard for at home and she wanted to get away. She told me she had friends here. Said she could stay with them until she got things straightened out. You know, get a job and a place of her own. [00:10:18] Speaker F: Mm. [00:10:18] Speaker E: Well, she was gonna do that. Get a place of her own and a job, and then she'd be all right. [00:10:22] Speaker F: You ever meet her parents? [00:10:23] Speaker E: No, I never went to the house. She told me where it was, though. Someplace out by the Twin Peaks Tunnel. I didn't know where exactly. She didn't want me to go out there. Said it would only cause her more trouble. That's why I'd meet her in town. [00:10:33] Speaker F: You ever meet any of her friends up in San Francisco? [00:10:36] Speaker E: Yeah, just once. We were in a drugstore on Market street having a sandwich. We were just sitting there, and she was telling me how it was bad for her at home. And a girl came in, looked like she was a schoolgirl. You know how I mean? Young. [00:10:45] Speaker F: Mm. [00:10:45] Speaker E: Well, she came in and talked to Lorraine. Then they went over to the phone. [00:10:48] Speaker F: Booths and talked you didn't actually meet the girl? [00:10:50] Speaker E: No, no. Lorraine said if I did, the girl might say something to Lorraine's parents and that would cause trouble. [00:10:55] Speaker F: You know this girl's name? [00:10:56] Speaker E: I think it was Grace. I'm not sure, but I think it was Grace. [00:11:00] Speaker F: When did you leave San Francisco? [00:11:01] Speaker E: Wednesday morning, September 1st. I want to get back in time to get some rest before I had to go to work, you know, my vacation was up and I had to go back to work. Where'd you pick up the girl? Wasn't a pickup. I was sitting on Fisherman's Wharf eating prawns and looking at the boats, and we started to talk. Wasn't a pickup. We just got friendly. [00:11:17] Speaker F: No, Marcus, he means where'd you pick up the girl when you left for Los Angeles? [00:11:21] Speaker E: Oh, I thought you meant when I met her the first time. That's what I thought. I met her out at the Tunnel. [00:11:26] Speaker F: Where's that? [00:11:27] Speaker E: Well, you know, where Castor street runs into Market? Where the Elkar comes in from the beach. That's where I met her. She came from home, had her suitcase and all, and she came out in the L car. [00:11:35] Speaker F: All right, go ahead. [00:11:36] Speaker E: Well, she got off the streetcar, got into my car, and we left for Los Angeles. [00:11:39] Speaker F: Where'd you kill her? [00:11:40] Speaker E: I told you before, if I don't tell it my way, it isn't gonna work. You're not gonna understand. It's gotta be my way. [00:11:45] Speaker F: All right, go ahead, Martin. [00:11:47] Speaker E: Well, it was a beautiful day. Just the kind of a day you want when you're going on a drive. You know how I mean? Clear and the sun shining. Yeah, well, that's what kind of a day it was. You could see all across the bay over to Berkeley. And way up north was real clear. [00:12:00] Speaker F: You wanna go ahead with your story, Mr. Friday? [00:12:03] Speaker E: Mm, my way? [00:12:06] Speaker F: Yeah, sorry. Go ahead. [00:12:08] Speaker E: All right. We drove all day. Stopped for lunch at a place near San Luis Obispo. A little lunch stand there. Had a French dip sandwich. It was one of the best I ever had. The meat was real lean, and they didn't sop up the bun with the gravy. Just the right amount. One of the best I ever ate. Lorraine liked them too. She didn't like the bread all sopped up with gravy. [00:12:25] Speaker F: Go ahead. What happened after you had lunch? [00:12:27] Speaker E: Well, we left there and drove on. We got down to around Malibu. I guess it was really before that where the divided highway is up the coast. You know, where the cliffs are? [00:12:35] Speaker F: Yeah, we know. [00:12:36] Speaker E: Well, we stopped. She was such a beautiful night. I just wanted to sit there and look at the ocean. People don't take time anymore. [00:12:42] Speaker F: What happened then? [00:12:43] Speaker E: We just sat there, had a cigarette and talked. That's when I told her. First time I ever said it. [00:12:49] Speaker F: What was that? [00:12:50] Speaker E: It's funny. I guess most fellows say it a lot. You know how I mean to a bunch of girls that never mean it. [00:12:54] Speaker F: Go ahead. [00:12:56] Speaker E: I told her. First time I said I loved her. And I told her that she didn't have to get a job. That I wanted to marry her and get her a house and all. And she wouldn't have no more trouble at home. How she'd have her own home and everything would be all right. I told her all that. [00:13:07] Speaker F: Yeah. [00:13:08] Speaker E: And that's when I knew right then you could divide the second in a million parts. And in one of them, one of the parts, I knew I had to do it. Kill her? Yeah. You see, she didn't tell me the real reason she lied to me. I knew I had to do it so she wouldn't lie to anyone else. You can understand that. You can see why I had to do it. [00:13:24] Speaker F: Well, maybe you better tell us. [00:13:26] Speaker E: Well, it was all a lie. All about the family being mean to her. All that was a lie. She just wanted to get to Los Angeles because she wanted to meet some other fella here. That's why she lied about the family, and that's why she did it. So, you see, I had to kill her. I had to. [00:13:39] Speaker F: How'd you kill her? Huh? I say, how did you kill her? [00:13:42] Speaker E: We got out of the car and walked over to the cliffs. We could see right down to the ocean. We just stood there. I just hit her. She fell down. It was quiet, so I pushed her over into the water. [00:13:53] Speaker F: Mm. What'd you do then, Marcus? [00:13:56] Speaker E: I got in the car and drove home. [00:13:58] Speaker F: You just left her there, huh? [00:14:00] Speaker E: Certainly there wasn't anything I could do for her. [00:14:02] Speaker F: You point out the place where all this happened? [00:14:04] Speaker E: Well, sure. It's up the coast where the highway's divided, north of Malibu. [00:14:08] Speaker F: It's real easy to find anybody else around. [00:14:10] Speaker E: You mean when I hit her? [00:14:11] Speaker F: That's right. [00:14:12] Speaker E: No, we were all alone. I didn't see anybody. Just the two of us. [00:14:16] Speaker F: All right, Marcus. You willing to give us a statement on all this? [00:14:18] Speaker E: You mean what I just told you? [00:14:20] Speaker F: Yeah. [00:14:20] Speaker E: Well, sure. You want me to tell all about it again? [00:14:22] Speaker F: We'll call in the stenographer so you. [00:14:24] Speaker E: Can write it down, huh? [00:14:25] Speaker F: That's the idea. [00:14:25] Speaker E: Well, sure, I'll tell him. [00:14:29] Speaker F: Tell me something, Marcus. When did you get out of the hospital? [00:14:32] Speaker E: I told you before, I was never in one. You guys sure make it tough, don't you? [00:14:36] Speaker F: What's that? [00:14:36] Speaker E: I came in here because I wanted to tell you about Lorraine. I wanted you to know so you wouldn't think it was my fault. That's all. So you wouldn't think it was my fault. And now you don't believe me. You think I'm just another crackpot trying to sell a phony story. You guys sure make it tough. [00:14:49] Speaker F: We gotta be sure. [00:14:49] Speaker E: When I'm telling you the truth, I want you to believe me. I want you to believe me. [00:14:54] Speaker F: And we're beginning to. A statement was taken from the suspect and he was booked in at the main jail on a charge of suspicion of violation of section 187pc murdered. We sent a teletype to San Francisco and we contacted Inspectors Ed VanderVoort and John O'Hare of Homicide Detail. We filled them in and asked that they check out the suspect's story on their end. We also asked that they send us all available information on the missing girl and that they check with her family and try to get a list of any known associates that she might have had in the Los Angeles area. Frank and I checked out of the office at 7:48pm and we went home for the night. The following morning at 9:23am Inspector Vandervoort from San Francisco called back. Uh huh. Yeah. When was that? Ed, Wait a minute. All right. Yeah, I got it. How about friends down here? How about friends down here? Oh, I see. Well, it should be here this afternoon then, right? Yeah, we'll check them out. No, no, that's on the way. We put it in the mail for you last. Well, you should have it by now then. Okay, right, Ed, thanks very much. We'll be checking with you. Right. Bye. How about it? Well, they checked the family and the friends. The place where Marcus said he stayed. Up there. Yeah. Marcus story checks out all the way. In the phone conversation, we learned that all of Lorraine Farrell's friends and relatives had been interviewed and their stories checked with the one given us by the suspect, Marcus. The girl and Paul Marcus had been seen together in the Bay City. The desk clerk at the hotel where the suspect had stayed verified the date that he checked out. It was the same day Lorraine Farrell disappeared. The officers in San Francisco were able to contact the girl the suspect had referred to as she recalled seeing a man answering Marcus description with a missing feral girl. Frank and I spent the rest of the day checking on the suspect. We talked to the people he worked with. They described Marcus as being moody and withdrawn. We talked with his landlady. Her description of the suspect's attitude was the same that we'd gotten before. We thoroughly searched Marcus apartment, and in a desk drawer, we found a loose leaf notebook with several pages of penciled notes describing the trip that he'd taken up to San Francisco. On one of the pages at the back of the book, we found a lengthy letter to a Lorraine in which Marcus apologized to the girl for killing her. But he went on to explain that he had no choice. We booked this evidence the following morning. Friday, September 10th, Frank and I drove down to the beach and we talked to the people in the vicinity where the suspect said the murder had occurred. We found an elderly couple who lived in a trailer on the beach. They recalled having seen two people answering the description of the suspect and the missing girl on the night that the murder occurred. We drove back to the main jail and we signed out Marcus. We took him down to the car and we drove him out to the beach. We turned up the highway and told him to let us know when we came to the place where he killed the feral girl. You sure you know where the place is, Marcus? [00:17:51] Speaker E: Yeah, I remember. It's just up the road a little bit. Just keep right on going. You'll find it. [00:17:55] Speaker F: Mm. [00:17:59] Speaker E: You'll see it now. There's kind of a parking place and a couple of trees. Eucalyptus, I think. There's two of them on the side of the parking place. You can't miss them. It's right ahead there on the left. [00:18:07] Speaker F: There. [00:18:07] Speaker E: You see? [00:18:08] Speaker F: Yeah. Okay. [00:18:14] Speaker E: Just look at all those cars. Everybody's in such a hurry. They never see anything. Just like they had blinders on. [00:18:18] Speaker F: You sure this is the place? [00:18:20] Speaker E: I told you, didn't I? No reason to say a thing like that if it wasn't true. Just pull right in there. That's it. Right over there. Right here is where I parked when it happened. Maybe over there a little bit more, but. Oh, right about here. [00:18:33] Speaker F: The two of you just sat here for a few minutes, is that it? [00:18:36] Speaker E: Yeah, we just sat here and had a cigarette. Then we got out of the car and walked over to the edge of the cliff. [00:18:41] Speaker F: All right. Come on, show us. [00:18:42] Speaker E: Sure. So you'll believe me. I'll show you. Now, we stood right over there. Right there. And I told her I was in love with her and wanted to marry her. [00:18:54] Speaker F: Now, you stay here. Just point out where you were. [00:18:57] Speaker E: You think I might try to jump off? Don't you? That's what you think, isn't it? [00:19:01] Speaker F: You just show us, huh? [00:19:02] Speaker E: I wouldn't do that. There's no reason to. I don't know why you wouldn't agree that I had to do it. I didn't have any other way to do it. [00:19:08] Speaker F: Where were you when you hit her? [00:19:09] Speaker E: Right there in that clump of grass. We stood there and looked down at the ocean and she told me about this other guy. That's when I hit her. She fell down right about. Right about there. [00:19:19] Speaker F: And where'd you push her? Off the cliff? [00:19:21] Speaker E: There. Right where I hit her. She was lying there. I guess she hit her head on something and she was real quiet. I just rolled her over the edge. It was right there. There. You see where the rocks are? Kind of worn. [00:19:30] Speaker F: Don't take a look. Yeah. No. You wait here. [00:19:35] Speaker E: Gee, if I'd have known it was gonna be this hard to get it straightened out, I don't think I'd have started the thing. When am I gonna get out of jail? [00:19:41] Speaker F: That isn't up to us. [00:19:42] Speaker E: Well, then I want to talk to the people who it's up to. I gotta tell them about Lorraine. How she lied to me and why I had to kill her. As soon as they hear the story, they'll understand. They gotta realize that there wasn't any other way. [00:19:51] Speaker F: How's it look? Well, I found that's caught in a branch just over the edge. Yeah, It's a girl's handkerchief. Read the name on it. Lorraine. Friday, September 10, 3:46pm we contacted the crime lab and asked them to come out and go over the scene. Officers stood by so that any physical evidence would not be disturbed until Lieutenant Lee Jones and his men had an opportunity to go over it. Frank and I, along with the suspect, drove back to town where we made arrangements with the city lifeguard service to search for the body. The following morning, a boat equipped with diving gear left Santa Monica harbor and took a course north. Experienced deep sea divers searched the crevices in the rocks beneath the cliffs. All of the sea bordering the vicinity was gone. Over. There was no trace of a body. The shoreline on either side of the murder spot was checked. Still no trace of the missing girl. In the meantime, two additional teams of men were assigned to check out the friends of Lorraine Farrell. They carried pictures of Paul Marcus and attempted to dig out any information on the suspect and the missing girl. 6:42pm Sunday. We called the main jail and asked that the suspect be brought to the city hall for additional questioning. [00:20:58] Speaker E: I Had a reason to do what I did. A good reason. Now, you let me talk to the responsible people around here and I'll have them tell you. I'm getting a little tired of being shoved around. You just bring in the boss and let me talk to him. [00:21:08] Speaker F: What day did you say that you left San Francisco? [00:21:11] Speaker E: September 1st. [00:21:12] Speaker F: I thought it was the second. The first? You said you left in the afternoon. Is that right? [00:21:16] Speaker E: In the morning. And you remember it? I don't know what all these questions are for. I told you I killed Lorraine. I walked in here and told you. There's no reason for all this, McGillis, just no reason. [00:21:24] Speaker F: Where'd you hide the body? [00:21:26] Speaker E: I didn't hide it. [00:21:27] Speaker F: Well, and where is it? [00:21:28] Speaker E: I told you, I put her in the ocean. [00:21:29] Speaker F: We haven't been able to find her. [00:21:30] Speaker E: Well, then you're not looking good. I told you the truth all along the line. I've told you. [00:21:33] Speaker F: Sure you didn't make a mistake about where all this happened? [00:21:35] Speaker E: Not a chance in the world. Right there by the parking place where the two trees are. [00:21:38] Speaker F: Well, maybe you just thought you left her there. [00:21:40] Speaker E: I know it. [00:21:41] Speaker F: Had you been drinking when you killed her? [00:21:42] Speaker E: No. We stopped and had a couple of beers on the way. Just a couple? Not enough to get drunk. [00:21:46] Speaker F: But you did have something to drink? [00:21:48] Speaker E: Well, sure, but not enough to get drunk on. [00:21:49] Speaker F: How many beers you have? [00:21:51] Speaker E: Two, maybe three. [00:21:52] Speaker F: All right, which was it, Two or three? [00:21:54] Speaker E: Well, what difference does it make? [00:21:55] Speaker F: Were you drunk? [00:21:56] Speaker E: No. [00:21:56] Speaker F: How about the girl? Was she drunk? [00:21:57] Speaker E: No. [00:21:57] Speaker F: You sure about that? [00:21:58] Speaker E: Yes. Yes, I'm sure. What are you trying to do? What difference does it make? Maybe we did have more than a couple, but what difference does it make? [00:22:04] Speaker F: Just trying to get things straight. We want to be sure we got the right story. [00:22:07] Speaker E: Well, you have. [00:22:10] Speaker F: All right. How about a cigarette, huh? Yeah, thanks, Frank. Yeah, thanks. Yeah, I gotta match you. [00:22:21] Speaker E: Hey, wait a minute. Don't light his, too. That's bad. [00:22:24] Speaker F: What do you mean? [00:22:24] Speaker E: Three on a match, it's bad. [00:22:26] Speaker F: It isn't. [00:22:27] Speaker E: Well, sure. You never do that here. [00:22:33] Speaker F: He got right home after he killed the Feral girl, huh? [00:22:35] Speaker E: Yeah, I drove right down the highway and went home. Traffic was kind of heavy. I thought about it. All those people all hurrying around, not taking any time. [00:22:43] Speaker F: Anybody see you when you came home? [00:22:45] Speaker E: What do you mean? [00:22:45] Speaker F: Well, anybody see you parked the car, go into your apartment? [00:22:47] Speaker E: Well, no, there wasn't anybody around. [00:22:49] Speaker F: Now, you said when you met the girl up in San Francisco that she had a suitcase with her. Is that right? [00:22:53] Speaker E: Yeah, she did. Artificial leather with real leather binding. [00:22:57] Speaker F: Where is it now, huh? What'd you do with her suitcase? [00:22:59] Speaker E: Well, I don't know. I don't remember. [00:23:01] Speaker F: We couldn't find it in your room. [00:23:02] Speaker E: Well, you didn't have no right to go through my room. No right at all. [00:23:05] Speaker F: We didn't find a suitcase. Where is it? [00:23:06] Speaker E: Well, I don't know. [00:23:07] Speaker F: You put it with a body? [00:23:08] Speaker E: Well, I might have. [00:23:09] Speaker F: Where? [00:23:09] Speaker E: I don't know. I don't remember. I hit her. She lied to me, and I hit her and I pushed her into the ocean. That's all I know. And that's all I'm going to tell you. [00:23:18] Speaker F: Joan, see you a minute? Yeah, sure. What do you got, Al? [00:23:25] Speaker E: They found the girl. [00:23:26] Speaker F: Where? [00:23:27] Speaker E: She's sitting in the squadron. [00:23:34] Speaker F: Frank stayed with the suspect in the interrogation room, and I went with Sergeant Alievas up to the office. Sitting at one of the tables was a small girl with jet black hair. As we came into the room, she was putting on lipstick. She glanced over at us, and then she went back to what she was doing. There wasn't any doubt about it. The girl in the squadroom was Lorraine Farrell. She dyed her hair and she had on a lot of makeup, but it was the missing girl. [00:23:58] Speaker E: Joe, this is Ms. Farrell. [00:24:00] Speaker F: Joe Friday. How do you do? [00:24:01] Speaker G: Hi. [00:24:02] Speaker F: Where'd you find her, Al? Friend up in Eagle Rock. [00:24:04] Speaker E: Says she's been there for a week. [00:24:06] Speaker F: Thanks, Al. Right. You seen the papers lately, Ms. Farrell? [00:24:10] Speaker G: Yeah, I read the funny. [00:24:12] Speaker F: You ought to read the front page. [00:24:13] Speaker G: You've been on them, all right. [00:24:15] Speaker F: Mm. We've had a lot of policemen out looking for you. [00:24:18] Speaker G: They probably needed the exercise. [00:24:19] Speaker F: Anyway, there's a man down the hall who thinks that he killed you. [00:24:23] Speaker G: That creep. Paul? [00:24:24] Speaker F: Yeah, Paul Marcus. That's his name. [00:24:26] Speaker G: Little creepy. I was glad to get away from him. Well, I gush he tried to give me about a home. Why, baloney. He's a real creep. You ought to keep an eye on him. He's gonna wig one of these days. [00:24:35] Speaker F: Is that so? [00:24:36] Speaker G: Yeah. He drove me down here, and when I told him I didn't want to have anything to do with him, he got real sore, started yelling, creep. [00:24:43] Speaker F: Where'd all this happen, Ms. Alpha? [00:24:45] Speaker G: Malibu Road out there. Stopped the car and gave me all the stuff about wanting to marry me. I was in love with me. Big deal. Said I was the first girl I ever said that to. Big deal. [00:24:54] Speaker F: What happened then? [00:24:55] Speaker G: I told him I didn't want no part of him. Told him to get lost, thank him for the ride, and told him to get lost. He flipped bad. He flipped. I took off, got a ride, came into the town. I got this girlfriend. Eagle Rock. I've been out there. He ought to watch that guy, though. [00:25:09] Speaker F: How old did you tell him that you were? [00:25:11] Speaker G: I don't know. Forget. I think 19, something like that. Forget. He confessed to killing me, huh? [00:25:17] Speaker F: That's right. [00:25:17] Speaker G: Confess. He's awake. [00:25:19] Speaker F: Let's take a walk, huh? [00:25:20] Speaker G: Where? [00:25:21] Speaker F: Come on. [00:25:21] Speaker E: Sure. [00:25:22] Speaker G: I got nothing to lose. Can you guys drive me back to Eagle Rock tonight? I got a date. I gotta be back pretty quick. [00:25:27] Speaker F: You're not gonna go back to Eagle Rock. [00:25:29] Speaker G: Who said so? [00:25:30] Speaker F: We're gonna have to hold you. [00:25:32] Speaker G: For what? I haven't done anything. [00:25:33] Speaker F: Well, you're a minor. We've got a missing report filed on you. Your folks are pretty worried. [00:25:37] Speaker G: They're always worrying about something. There ain't nothing for them to worry about. Then they worry about that. [00:25:41] Speaker F: Well, it doesn't make any difference. We're gonna have to hold you. [00:25:43] Speaker G: You just try it, cop. You just try it. You'll find out you got more trouble than you came in. One lump. [00:25:47] Speaker F: Mm. In here. This is Lorraine Farrell. Officer Smith. [00:25:56] Speaker E: Hello, Lorraine. [00:25:58] Speaker G: Hi. Creep. [00:26:00] Speaker E: I didn't mean to do it. You know that. I didn't really mean to do it, but there wasn't any other way. [00:26:04] Speaker G: What's the plan? You know what he's talking about. [00:26:06] Speaker F: He thinks he killed you. [00:26:07] Speaker G: Wait. [00:26:08] Speaker E: I didn't think I'd ever see you again. I didn't think I would. But I want you to know one thing, Lorraine. [00:26:12] Speaker G: What's that? [00:26:13] Speaker E: I forgive you for lying. [00:26:15] Speaker G: I told you it happened. [00:26:16] Speaker F: Yeah. Come on. [00:26:17] Speaker G: Where to? [00:26:18] Speaker F: We'll take you to the office and call a policewoman. [00:26:21] Speaker G: Send to the can, huh? [00:26:22] Speaker F: The juvenile hall. Come on, let's go. I'll take her job. [00:26:24] Speaker G: R. Bye, Paul. [00:26:26] Speaker E: Bye, Lorraine. I'm not mad at you anymore, you know. [00:26:29] Speaker G: I was worried. [00:26:35] Speaker E: Sergeant. [00:26:37] Speaker F: Yeah? [00:26:38] Speaker E: I want you to know how I appreciate it. [00:26:40] Speaker F: Yeah? What's that? [00:26:40] Speaker E: What you tried to do, I think, was real fine. Thanks. [00:26:43] Speaker F: I don't know what you mean. [00:26:44] Speaker E: You didn't fool me a bit, huh? I know I killed her. [00:26:55] Speaker F: Paul Nelson Marcus was held to answer a charge of violation of section 701WIC, contributing to the delinquency of a minor. After due deliberation, he was placed on probation and delivered into the hands of a competent psychiatrist. Lorraine Jean Farrell was returned to the custody of her parents. Dragnet. [00:27:14] Speaker E: The story of your police force in action is a presentation of the United States Armed Forces Radio. [00:28:33] Speaker A: That was the Big confession from Dragnet here on the mysterious old Radio Listening Society podcast once again, I'm Eric. [00:28:41] Speaker B: I'm Tim. [00:28:42] Speaker C: And I'm Joshua. [00:28:43] Speaker A: And that comes to us from Amy, who is joining us on the podcast. Hi, Amy. [00:28:49] Speaker D: Hello. [00:28:50] Speaker A: And Amy's joining us because she is a Patreon supporter. [00:28:54] Speaker C: And this is a reward for Patreon supporters at a certain level to join us for a hopefully entertaining discussion about an old time radio show. [00:29:03] Speaker A: I still don't believe people listen, so it's fantastic. Thank you for being here, Amy. This is so, so cool. And you brought us Dragnet. Before we start and start talking about what we thought of it, tell us why, when you knew you were gonna do this podcast, you chose this. [00:29:21] Speaker D: Well, this one really jumps out to me as a particularly odd Dragnet episode. My significant other played it for me immediately after hearing it because for its strangeness and of course, all the San Francisco references. I grew up in the Bay Area and I've lived here for over 20 years. It's kind of like when you go see a band and you hear somebody saying, you know, all right, San Francisco. It's very exciting. You know, when he talks about going out on the boat, you can still a rowboat out on Stow Lake. Today I take the L car through the tunnel that's in my neighborhood every day. I was actually at the Steinhardt Aquarium this morning. Those are always the things that kind of like, get you. But in terms of why this show, it doesn't have all the trappings of horror and suspense. It doesn't have the gothic kind of overtones, but it does somehow feel similar to some of those episodes. And I can't really put my finger on it. So I'm kind of looking to you fellas to help me pinpoint. What is it about this episode that feels more our suspense. [00:30:21] Speaker C: Y. I know of your fondness for lights out and arch Oblor, and the first thing that struck me about this is that Paul Lucas, the guy who's confessing here, reminds me of a character from a lights out with his unnatural calm. He has his almost childlike way. He speaks in a very particular cadence and has a lot of repetition in his dialogue. All stuff that Obloer uses a lot in his scripts. And that's the first thing I thought of when I heard him. [00:30:46] Speaker A: So before we go too far, because this is tying into what you just said, it's important that I find something out. Amy, do you listen to a lot of Dragnet radio shows? [00:30:55] Speaker D: A fair amount, yeah. [00:30:56] Speaker A: Okay. Have you ever Listened to a Dragnet before either one of you? [00:30:59] Speaker C: Oh, I have. Yeah. [00:31:00] Speaker B: I have not. But it's come recommended to me highly. And so my quick answer is, I'm so grateful that you put Dragnet on our plate here, because I don't know if I would have gone for it myself, but it really. In the realm of horror, suspense, crime, this is classic crime. So it really belongs here. [00:31:17] Speaker A: So now, tying into what Joshua just was saying, this is, to me, very typical of the patter of the cadence of the delivery of a Dragnet episode. You were just talking about the character and the repeating and all of those things. That, to me, is happening in a lot of Dragnet. Now, I'm gonna admit something. This is my first Dragnet radio show. I watched all of the television shows and loved them. And I found really no difference other. [00:31:47] Speaker C: Than, well, they ran ConCurrently, other than. [00:31:49] Speaker A: Colonel Potter wasn't on it. But they're all kind of like that. [00:31:53] Speaker C: There's a difference between the terse short sentence responses that are quite typical of Dragnet. But with the character of Paul, the repetition is something very different. And I think the scriptwriter here is using the repetition in his dialogue to suggest, as Friday quickly cues in on that this guy maybe isn't all there in the head. [00:32:13] Speaker A: There is a lot of that repeating, though, and maybe Amy can back me up where you go back and say the last five words you said in the sentence before and move on. That was very prevalent in the television show with all of the characters. [00:32:25] Speaker D: So I think there was a tone of naturalism to the repetition because, you know, when you're talking off script, you have a tendency to repeat yourself. And, you know, you've talked to that guy at a party who just keeps kind of saying the same thing but in different ways. And you're like, yeah, yeah, I got it, I got it. But here I think it was more of a neurotic repetition where he couldn't. Like, his whole bit's about, gotta tell it my way, man. And you're like, what way do you need to tell it? Like, what are you talking about? And I think it set me on edge in a way that other criminal characters don't, because most of them are conniving or very strategic about how they're talking. But he's very natural but neurotic, and his brain is working in a way that other people's brain generally don't. And I think that was the thing that stood out differently than someone's natural speech, where they're kind of repetitive or they're just freaking out about a car accident or shooting someone, and so they just keep babbling on about it. He just stuck to it. And it just felt a little more like. [00:33:31] Speaker A: I think what was unnerving for me was the response of Friday. The patience to go, okay, I'm just gonna ride this thing out. And I was saying to him, how can you be that patient? And why are you following him down hallways and into rooms and being, okay, I'll go in there and you can tell me. Nothing there. So that was unnerving to me. [00:33:52] Speaker D: Yeah. He is almost like the pace car. [00:33:56] Speaker A: Right. [00:33:57] Speaker C: It's interesting, though, that you bring that up because Friday's real practical approach, or patience, as you say, to questioning a suspect versus Paul's insistence on telling the story the right way. His way reminded me of a very similar scene in a Quiet Please episode that we listened to a couple months back, Let the Lilies Consider. And in both stories, the script sort of exploits this tension between the way a police officer gets to the facts and a storyteller gets to the facts. This sort of procedural versus personal. And Paul keeps saying, it's a real personal thing. It's particularly interesting in Dragnet because it's a show that prides itself on a procedural narrative. It literally promises to travel step by step on the side of the law through an actual case. And so I think that's what made this stand out to me. This seemed like Joe Friday's natural arch enemy because it's like he wants just the facts. He wants incriminating evidence, and Paul wants, like, a storyteller authenticating details. I was sitting on the wharf and eating prawns and throwing the tails in the water and watching them float away. And you can kind of imagine just Friday's brain exploding. [00:35:06] Speaker A: I never caught that. Was he eating prawns? I didn't. Was that in there? [00:35:11] Speaker C: It was a subtle throwaway line. [00:35:12] Speaker A: Or 12. Or 12. Yeah. [00:35:14] Speaker D: He keeps referring back to the eating of the prawns, which is just so dragnet. You know, having the conversation about, like, where'd you get that coat? And did your wife buy? Did you get it down the street? Where are we gonna have lunch? Now that you're talking, though, it makes me think that his kind of strangeness almost underscores Friday's strangeness because he's always the odd duck, but because he fits so well into the police procedural, like you're saying, you don't really notice it as much. But in this, he is so strangely patient, almost otherworldly patient. So he Almost is a little patient. [00:35:53] Speaker A: Not almost is like, he's insanely patient to the point of, there's something wrong with you, too. [00:35:58] Speaker B: Well, I take Friday. [00:35:59] Speaker D: Yeah, there's something wrong with you, too. [00:36:01] Speaker B: To be the guidepost of, should we be concerned about this guy? And at first, Friday is like, probably not, but we'll do a little checking. And as those little bits of checking start to pan out, I think that's what builds a little bit of the tension in the show. And the script is, well, if Friday's a little concerned, I'm a little concerned. [00:36:18] Speaker C: And there's some, I think, intentional comedy with Friday. You also have Paul, who's painting this picture, all this, again, authenticating detail about the wharf and the boats and the swans. And he's painting this picture of his whole day. And then Friday just cuts in with, have you ever been to a hospital? Are you under mental care? Those contrasts are kind of at the heart of what is joyful about Dragnet in general, but particularly this episode, because three fourths of it is just Paul and Friday in a room together, not communicating. [00:36:56] Speaker D: We're communicating very slowly. [00:36:58] Speaker A: And there's a fine line, I think, between that being compelling and not being compelling. Because even when they found the girl and she came in, it's like we walked into a city where everybody just woke up. [00:37:10] Speaker C: I find that mesmerizing. [00:37:11] Speaker A: Right. [00:37:12] Speaker B: That's when he sees her again. It delighted me to no end because it's so wrong. [00:37:18] Speaker A: No one's reacting. [00:37:19] Speaker F: Right. [00:37:19] Speaker B: Like 200-writing professor, they would say, this is completely wrong. Yes, but just the two different stories or two different points of view that have been established are so compelling and so grounded for as strange as they are, that I buy it, like, yes, hi, I'm sorry I killed you. That's the response, Right. [00:37:39] Speaker C: To take a step back here. I think you have to listen to Dragnet. In the context of the time in history in which radio shows, and I guess, television and movies, the performances were more heightened. We haven't got these naturalistic performances, so to our ears, their attempt at naturalism sounds weird because they are striking. This strong, defiant contrast to the extremely over the top acting styles of stage and screen. I think maybe to ears at this time, this felt really like you were eavesdropping on a real conversation as opposed to the melodrama of a lot of other. [00:38:14] Speaker A: Because of the contrast. [00:38:16] Speaker D: Yeah. Maybe you could call that formal naturalism. [00:38:18] Speaker C: I don't know. Yeah, I would call it that. But I love Lorraine, by the way. As long as we Brought her up. It's so nice to see a radio show in which it turns out that the woman isn't the victim. She actually duped him, got where she wanted to go. I mean, she does get sent back to her parents, which are kind of. [00:38:33] Speaker D: Like bummer and really doesn't give. I mean, doesn't give a darn. [00:38:37] Speaker C: Yeah. And I just love her from the get go because all of her lines are hilarious. When she says, hi, creep. [00:38:47] Speaker A: Yeah, that was a great moment. [00:38:49] Speaker D: Well, even her parting line. I went back. So I found the script online. I was sure that that was ad libbed. You know, I was worried. I really thought that was gonna be ad libbed. And it's in the script. But the delivery of it is great. [00:39:03] Speaker A: Her delivery of it is great. [00:39:04] Speaker C: But speaking of that script, I found that same one. But there are a lot of ad libs in here. Cause I was reading the script as I was listening along and one of my favorite Joe Friday lines that made me laugh both times I listened to it is totally different in the script and not anywhere near as funny. It's when Paul says to Friday, I suppose you get a lot of crackpots in here and Friday just says the doors are wide open all night. And it's delivered like that. I found that really hilarious. But in the script it's just the doors are open, which just isn't funny. But the more expansive, wide open all night suddenly to me makes it funny. There's also a phone conversation, a one sided phone conversation with Friday that has all this naturalism added to it that is not in the original script. He gets interrupted, he has to repeat himself because he can't hear it. And the script has none of that. And I wonder if that was all ad lib in the spot, if it was the director. I don't know. But it's really interesting to read along with an original script because it has huge sections crossed out on it too. That's fascinating. When Paul talks about three lights off a single match. [00:40:10] Speaker A: Oh yeah. [00:40:11] Speaker C: There's a whole nother passage in the original script where he goes on about reading books about superstition and what's good luck and bad luck. And it had this big X through it kind of wisely because it's a total red herring. It has nothing to do with anything. [00:40:23] Speaker B: I was so convinced that meant something. [00:40:24] Speaker C: Yeah, me too. [00:40:25] Speaker B: Cause I know the superstition. [00:40:27] Speaker A: I've never heard of the superstition. [00:40:29] Speaker B: Ah, thanks for cueing me. It comes from believe World War I, where if you were lighting A friend's cigarette. You'd never want to do three people in the same match because you'd have a light long enough for a sniper to find you. [00:40:44] Speaker A: I think that's true today. I think that if you hold a match long enough, a sniper's gonna find you. [00:40:48] Speaker B: I believe that. [00:40:49] Speaker A: Yeah. I think he's. [00:40:50] Speaker C: It's at least gonna burn your finger. I agree on that. [00:40:53] Speaker D: I had heard that. That superstition, but I didn't know the backstory. That's super cool. [00:40:58] Speaker A: Ask Tim anything. [00:40:59] Speaker B: I'll make something up. [00:41:01] Speaker A: He will make stuff up you wouldn't believe. [00:41:03] Speaker C: But if it's about Legion of Superheroes, it's gonna be deadly accurate. [00:41:07] Speaker B: True. [00:41:08] Speaker A: I said off air. I always get confused because it's podcast, so it's not to really air. But before we started recording, I said, oh, I'm so excited by what Joshua has written in our opening. Barton Yarborough was in Dragnet. I did not know that. I had no idea. Do you two gentlemen or Amy know why I love him? [00:41:31] Speaker B: I do not. [00:41:32] Speaker C: Is he in I Love a Mystery? [00:41:33] Speaker A: Oh, heck, yeah, he's in. [00:41:34] Speaker C: If you just say he was in I Love a Mystery, you're probably gonna be safe with Eric. [00:41:38] Speaker A: He's a. He's doc in I Love a Mystery and in the movies, and he's one of the only ones that lasted the entire run. And plus, when they did, I Love adventure, he stayed and when Adventures by Morse. Martin Yarborough. He's fantastic. He's a great actor. [00:41:52] Speaker D: If you're gonna throw out some trivia. [00:41:54] Speaker A: Yeah, nice. [00:41:55] Speaker D: I found that the guy who plays the killer, Herb Ellis, as you mentioned in the intro, he also plays the partner, Frank Smith in other episodes. So in this episode, it was. What was his name? Ben Alexander played Frank, but in other episodes, the guy who plays Paul plays Frank. [00:42:14] Speaker C: And Alexander's voice sounds a lot like Joe Friday. It's really hard to tell them apart. [00:42:18] Speaker D: Oh, yeah. [00:42:19] Speaker C: They have the exact same voice. I think it's kind of freaky. [00:42:24] Speaker B: I have to imagine if you're talking to Jack Webb, it's hard not to just get sucked into that pattern. [00:42:30] Speaker C: The whole time he's talking, you're going, uh, huh. Yep. Huh, Yep. [00:42:34] Speaker A: That's why Julie London left him. [00:42:36] Speaker C: No, that's a deep cut. [00:42:38] Speaker A: Was that a deep cut? You want a deep cut? I think it's fascinating that Jack Webb produced Emergency and hired his ex wife to be the lead. Julie London. [00:42:49] Speaker D: Yeah, they probably got along pretty well. [00:42:50] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:42:51] Speaker A: I just don't see that that often. In divorce, I have not seen it that often. [00:42:56] Speaker C: It's still Julie London. And if you have access to Julie London, you're gonna probably use that. [00:43:01] Speaker A: Don't say the words access to Julie London to me. I think the funniest line. You said the funniest line was we're open all night. I think the funniest line in this whole thing was he was referred to a competent psychiatrist because it allows for the idea that some aren't. [00:43:24] Speaker C: Yeah, well, I think that they have terrorists. [00:43:27] Speaker A: You're gonna go see Steve down the hall. That guy. [00:43:31] Speaker C: He's a crackpot. [00:43:32] Speaker A: He's a crackpot. [00:43:34] Speaker D: Well, it's such a careful. I don't even know if it's passive aggressive, but it's a nice, careful way to make an assessment of somebody, though. Have you happened to see a doctor at any point in your career? Although, of course, Paul picks up on that and is a little defensive. [00:43:51] Speaker A: Right. [00:43:52] Speaker C: Another funny line, I think, again, it goes to Lorraine when Friday says, we've had a lot of policemen out looking for you. And she says, they probably needed the exercise anyway. Yeah, I just love the cops were out of shape in 1954 too. [00:44:05] Speaker A: Right? [00:44:05] Speaker C: Big fat cop jokes. [00:44:09] Speaker A: I had to look up this phrase when he said, there's no reason for all this megillah. [00:44:14] Speaker D: Oh, I looked that up too. [00:44:16] Speaker A: Yeah. That became a fascinating rabbit hole for me because I don't know what you guys, but Magilla is McGilla Gorilla. [00:44:23] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:44:24] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:44:24] Speaker A: And I came across this whole thing that McGilla gorilla was not named after the slang term of magilla at all. And that the Hanna Barbera people who created it got really mad that people thought it was a referral to the slang of magilla because to them they had rhymed gorilla with magilla. And it was brilliant. They came up with the words. [00:44:46] Speaker D: Oh, they were defensive. Yeah. [00:44:48] Speaker A: But it's an old Hebrew word meaning the whole shebang and actually refers to the first five scrolls. Is that correct? [00:44:55] Speaker C: You're just making stuff up, huh? [00:44:59] Speaker D: I think I meant that too. [00:45:01] Speaker A: See, Amy's got my back. [00:45:03] Speaker C: Yeah. The first five books of the Bible are the McGillah, the Megillah, the next. [00:45:07] Speaker A: Five of the gorilla, and then there's the Grape Ape, and then Wacky Races is the New Testament. [00:45:13] Speaker C: All right, we have. We have totally gotten off topic. [00:45:18] Speaker A: No, we're right there, man. You're just not following. [00:45:21] Speaker B: This is the subtext of this episode. [00:45:23] Speaker C: As Jack Webb would say, uh huh. It's funny to look at that script because they actually write out, uh huh. [00:45:34] Speaker D: Well, I Mean, it's interesting how short all the sentences are in the dialogue and then you get compound sentences finally in Webb's voiceover in his narration. And they actually have more complicated sentences. [00:45:47] Speaker C: Yeah, it definitely has a little of the hard boiled influence. That very terse short. [00:45:52] Speaker B: I took it as well, the narration modeled after like police reports, actual dry documents. [00:45:58] Speaker D: Yeah. Well, speaking of that, one of the more. And you might have found this too, one of the more interesting little tidbits was Jack Webb had started a program that any police officer could submit a summary of one of his cases or her cases and receive a hundred bucks, which is pretty generous. Right. And one resourceful sergeant wrote up, that is if he could write up his co workers cases and get half the fee so he'd get 50 bucks. He later landed the job to review the scripts for accuracy and then met Jack Webb. And under the mentorship of Jack Webb, he sold his first script to a show called Mr. District Attorney. [00:46:33] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah. [00:46:34] Speaker D: That sergeant's name was Gene Roddenberry. [00:46:38] Speaker C: Whoa. That is Amy. Well done. [00:46:44] Speaker A: And now you know the rest of the story that was slightly more interesting than this. Dragon. [00:46:52] Speaker C: Nothing like a Paul Harvey reference to confuse most of the world. [00:46:57] Speaker A: Is that outdated? [00:46:59] Speaker C: Just a little bit. [00:47:00] Speaker A: Okay, sorry. Well, at least you got it. [00:47:03] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm very outdated first to say it. One thing I will say about Dragon that I really like is the very mundane Foley that they do very well. These very clean, simple footsteps, doors opening, chairs being pulled out and scraped against the floor. You feel the coldness because there are very little sounds other than that. And as long as we're on the trivia side of things, I read one source said that they were so obsessed with realism that the soundmen went to the real LA police headquarters and counted out the number of footsteps to get from room to to room and mimicked that number for the radio show. [00:47:42] Speaker A: That's obsessive compulsive. [00:47:44] Speaker C: That's crazy. [00:47:46] Speaker A: That's too much time. [00:47:47] Speaker C: That's Jack Webb. [00:47:48] Speaker A: Yes. [00:47:50] Speaker B: That is part of what I was thinking listening to it and afterwards thinking about it, of Jack Webb did this for 10 years. Something like that. 10 years unchanging. Just this note over and over again. Pitch perfect. [00:48:04] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:48:04] Speaker F: Wow. Yeah. [00:48:05] Speaker A: It didn't really developed into anything else. [00:48:07] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:48:07] Speaker C: Why would it need to? [00:48:09] Speaker A: Do you know who he reminds me of? Character wise? Joe Friday, in a modern Sense is Jack McCoy. District Attorney Jack McCoy. And Joe Friday, to me, even though it's. It's a different style of character, I. [00:48:20] Speaker C: Don'T know who that is. [00:48:21] Speaker A: Law and Order District Attorney. Anybody? Anybody? [00:48:24] Speaker C: No? Sorry. [00:48:25] Speaker B: That's the Paul Harvey spot of my brain. [00:48:26] Speaker A: Okay, someone out there is going. Good point, Mr. Webster. Fantastically well played. I think that's what made Law and Order so successful is it was that same approach. The calmness and the stoicness and the non evolving behavior of Jack McCoy was the same as Joe Friday. [00:48:47] Speaker C: And this is where all those procedurals come from. Before this, executives thought that people found this boring. This is the stuff they removed from crime dramas, the everyday elements of it. [00:48:58] Speaker A: Right. Well, any other points that anybody is dying to make about this, then we'll head to the vote. Tim, we'll start with you. [00:49:07] Speaker B: I don't have a good gauge as compared to other Dragnet episodes, but I would love to because I really, really enjoyed this. So I'll just assume that all the other Dragnet episodes are kind of like this, but not quite as good and call this a classic. [00:49:21] Speaker A: Joshua. [00:49:22] Speaker C: Yeah, I think I need to listen to more Dragons. I don't know if I'd call it a classic, but I just thoroughly enjoyed it for all the reasons I already said. I just felt like this matchup between the guy who wouldn't stop talking about extraneous details and Joe Friday, who just wants the most specific details, was just so fun to watch. And the fact that it was structured so that really everything that happened outside of conversations with Paul, for the most part, were done in narration and summary. So the only scenes we got were just those two. Definitely stands the test of time. [00:49:53] Speaker A: I would say that it stands the test of time. However, if I was to recommend it to someone, I would absolutely. If they'd never heard of Dragnet and didn't know what it was, sit them down for a few minutes and prepare them for this style. [00:50:06] Speaker B: Talk to your kids about Dragnet. [00:50:09] Speaker C: You don't want them learning about Dragnet on the playground. [00:50:13] Speaker A: But if you prepared them for this weird approach and style, they wouldn't spend the first 15 minutes going, what is happening? [00:50:20] Speaker C: I so want a recording of you preparing somebody for Dragnet. [00:50:25] Speaker D: So get this educational instructional video. [00:50:30] Speaker A: So I would say it does stand the test of time. I would say I like this episode because I think the suspense, so to speak, comes from the excruciating slowness of its development. So slow that that reminds me of a few scenes. And this is going to be a weird reference to Inglourious Basterds. [00:50:47] Speaker C: I was just going to say Tarantino. [00:50:49] Speaker A: Yeah, it has that. This is so excruciatingly long and I loved that. Movie because, wow. I was on the edge of my seat about six times. When. When. When are they going to find him under the floorboards? When are they going to realize that they're not Germans? When, when, when. In this, it was when, when, when. For me, a lot. When, when. And. And I think that that tension was kind of cool. [00:51:10] Speaker C: Do you think Barton Yarborough was under the floorboards during that entire scene? [00:51:14] Speaker A: He's under my floorboards. I don't know what that means. Amy, your vote? [00:51:19] Speaker D: Well, I love it, so I'm gonna say it's a classic, and it stands the test of time. I'm not sure that it's gonna ring as true with everybody, but, you know, I love San Francisco, and I love all the references, and it was just so strange. And the twist is so weird. Cause often Dragnet will have a little twist at the end, but this one kind of twists and then kind of sidestepped after the twist. I love this episode to death. But then again, Spawn of the Sub Human was one of my favorites of yours. [00:51:47] Speaker F: Wow. [00:51:47] Speaker D: So I don't know about myself. [00:51:48] Speaker A: You were doing so well, and then that happened. [00:51:52] Speaker D: No. And when Sinatra got fat. I'm sorry. I think that one's hilarious. [00:51:56] Speaker A: It is hilarious. It is. [00:51:58] Speaker C: It's a joy. [00:51:59] Speaker A: I love Spawn of the Subhuman for how terrible it is. I also like the Hands of Fate. [00:52:06] Speaker D: Yeah, that one's slow. [00:52:08] Speaker A: All right, Tim, tell them stuff. [00:52:10] Speaker B: Please go visit ghoulishdelights.com there you'll find other episodes of this podcast. It's a great way to get a hold of us, leave comments on episodes. You can find our contact page. You can reach our Facebook, our Twitter, our Instagram. All from ghoulishlights.com there's also information there about our live shows. And also, I said also, but I didn't have another thing. [00:52:31] Speaker C: That's okay. I'll save you. [00:52:34] Speaker D: Tim, you need to try that again. [00:52:35] Speaker B: Nope, they're not gonna let me. [00:52:38] Speaker C: I'll take Tim's also and run with it. Also, you can go to patreon.com themorals and you can become a supporter of the podcast like Amy. You might even end up on the podcast. Who knows? But there are a lot of different levels to support us at, and we appreciate it. You can also go to itunes and write a review. We like those, too. And also, I definitely want to throw this to Amy. And please tell our listeners where they can listen to 12 chimes. It's midnight, which is an awesome series of original audio dramas. Done in the style of old time radio. [00:53:10] Speaker D: You can check us out practically anywhere. We're on itunes. Stitcher and Google Play and Podbean and Podchaser. All those great places. Nobody listens to our show on YouTube. And that's okay. You can go to all those other places. [00:53:25] Speaker C: Just go to YouTube. [00:53:27] Speaker A: I have no idea what any of those words are. She just said Google Play made up. [00:53:35] Speaker C: All right, thank you so much for supporting the podcast and being here. This was really a lot of fun. We are great admirers of you, so it was great fun to have you on the actual podcast. [00:53:45] Speaker A: And thanks for the Gene Roddenberry tidbit. That was phenomenal. Thank you, Amy, so much. [00:53:51] Speaker D: All right. I. I hope I did okay. You guys are just so seasoned, it's a little intimidating. [00:53:55] Speaker F: Oh, no. [00:53:56] Speaker A: Oh, no. All right, so coming up. Up next, as a thank you to all our listeners, we asked you to vote on a Thanksgiving episode for us to feature. And the results of our online poll are in. You have chosen an episode of Dark Fantasy, the Thing from the Sea. [00:54:14] Speaker E: Until then, I was sitting on Fisherman's Wharf eating prawns and eating prawns and eating prawns and eating prawns and eating prawns and looking at the boats.