Radio Archeaology

Dragnet: The Big Press - Catching the Cowards

For more than a month, lone women across the western stretches of Los Angeles had been beaten, robbed, and left on the pavement. The attacks came at night, the descriptions were hopelessly vague, and the two men behind it had vanished into the dark each time. Detectives Joe Friday and Ben Romero of the LAPD's Robbery Detail knew they had to stop waiting for a break and manufacture one. With four policewomen from the Juvenile Bureau and a special detail from the Metropolitan Division, they set up a sprawling decoy operation - marked bills, shoulder holsters hidden under street clothes, and patrol cars running silent through residential blocks. The trap held for days without a bite. Then policewoman Nancy Short walked her assigned route on Willoughby and Hudson - and the attackers struck. The victim fought back. She tore a pocket off one assailant's coat and left Friday and Romero holding a driver's licence belonging to 18-year-old George Landon. From Landon's confession, the trail led to his accomplice, Tommy Decker - the one who brought the gun, stole the cars, and did the hitting. Friday and Romero tracked Decker to a garage on South Flower Street. What followed was a chase through the shop floor, a locked locker room, and a gun thrown out in surrender before Decker ran out of places to hide. Episode Quotes "To the police officer, the lowest thief and most cowardly is the purse snatcher who preys on women." - Sergeant Friday "I didn't wanna do it. I didn't wanna do it anytime. He talked me into it." - George Landon "18 years old. What's it prove? ... Sometimes you kinda wonder if it's true - there's no such thing as a bad boy." - Sergeant Friday  Special Thanks to our sponsor: Tablet Pharmacy [tabletpharmacy.ca] for supporting ThePulseCommunity.ca [https://thepulsecommunity.ca/]. You'll find all episodes of The PULSE Community Podcast on Apple [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-pulse-community-podcast/id2408950], Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/pulsecommunitypodcast], Amazon [https://music.amazon.ca/podcasts/pulse-community-podcast], iHeart [https://www.iheart.com/podcast/pulse-community-podcast], TikTok [https://www.tiktok.com/@thepulsecommunity] and YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@ThePulseCommunity/podcasts] Podcasts, as well as ThePulseCommunity.ca [https://thepulsecommunity.ca/].  Check out Skookum Kid's Stories on Apple [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/skookum-kids-stories/id1780899270], Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/4UOmR05dLEHr435KnsFMEx], Amazon [https://music.amazon.ca/podcasts/9bf626bc-c187-482c-9910-252f76ad78c2/skookum-kid's-stories], iHeart [https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1333-skookum-kids-stories-227327267/], and YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@SkookumKidsStories/podcasts] Podcasts.  Sign up for our weekly newsletter [bit.ly/PulseNewsletterSignup] of new podcast releases and contests!   #ThePulseCommunity #ThePulsePodcast #Dragnet #RadioArchaeology #ClassicRadio #OldTimeRadio #ParksvilleQualicumBeach #VancouverIsland #JoeFriday #RadioDrama

Gunsmoke: When the Truth is Buried

Jim Cobbett had waited a long time to stop being alone. A homesteader known more for his stubbornness than his luck, Jim had finally brought a bride out to his Kansas spread - a handsome, high-strung woman named Lila, fresh from back east. Matt Dillon and Chester watched them leave the wedding celebration and ride into the prairie night, and for a while, Dodge City was content to leave them to it. But a month or so later, Hank Lewes - Jim’s long-time rival, a man with a grudge as old as a water rights dispute - came into the marshal’s office with a story: Lila was gone. Jim sat alone on the homestead, stock missing, wife nowhere to be found, and not a word of explanation to offer. Dillon brought Doc out to the homestead, already suspicious of a story that didn’t quite fit. What he found beneath those flowers was the truth - and a grief too quiet and bone-deep to be anything but real. Episode Quotes: “Loneliness’ll do that to a man sometimes.” - Marshal Matt Dillon “I just couldn’t not have planted flowers there.” - Jim Cobbett Special Thanks to Our Sponsor, Tablet Pharmacy [https://www.tabletpharmacy.ca/] for supporting ThePulseCommunity.ca. Looking for more Vancouver Island Content? The PULSE Community website [https://thepulsecommunity.ca/] The PULSE Community Podcast is on Apple [https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-pulse-community-podcast/id1234567890], Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/thepulsecommunity], Amazon [https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/thepulsecommunity], iHeart [https://www.iheart.com/podcast/thepulsecommunity], TikTok [https://www.tiktok.com/@thepulsecommunity] and YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@thepulsecommunity] podcasts, as well as ThePulseCommunity.ca [https://thepulsecommunity.ca/]. Check out Skookum Kid's Stories [https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/skookum-kids-stories] with NEW Colouring pages on Apple [https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/skookum-kids-stories], Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/skookumkids], Amazon [https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/skookumkids], iHeart [https://www.iheart.com/podcast/skookumkids], and YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@skookumkids] Podcasts. #ThePulseCommunity #ThePulsePodcast #Gunsmoke #RadioArchaeology #ClassicRadio #OldTimeRadio #ParksvilleQualicumBeach #VancouverIsland #MattDillon #Western

Dragnet: The Hunt for the Badge Bandit

For two months, a predator had been working the darkened parks and canyon roads of Los Angeles — a stocky, blonde man who flashed a badge, then turned on his victims with his fists. Fifteen robberies. Fifteen assaults. Sergeants Joe Friday and Ben Romero of the LAPD were hunting a ghost: the Badge Bandit, Charles Kirby, a man the department knew by description but couldn’t catch. When the trail finally closed in a canyon road confrontation, Kirby rammed their vehicle and vanished into the brush, leaving both detectives hospitalized. Friday walked out in two days. Romero stayed ten.  Back on duty, Friday was assigned to a decoy operation — parked on Mulholland Drive in the small hours with Policewoman Dorothy River, waiting for Kirby to take the bait. He did. The arrest came quickly, quietly — until the system stumbled.   Episode Quotes “There’s only one way a guy like that ever quits.” — Captain Steed “You can’t work if you don’t eat.” — Mrs. Friday Special Thanks to Our Sponsor Tablet Pharmacy [https://tabletpharmacy.ca/]. You'll find all episodes of The PULSE Podcast on Apple [https://apple.com/], Spotify [https://spotify.com/], Amazon [https://amazon.com/], iHeart [https://iheart.com/], TikTok [https://tiktok.com/] and YouTube [https://youtube.com/] podcasts, as well as ThePulseCommunity.ca [https://thepulsecommunity.ca/]. Check out Skookum Kid's Stories [https://skookumkids.com/] on Apple [https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/skookum-kids-stories], Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/skookumkids], Amazon [https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/skookumkids], iHeart [https://www.iheart.com/podcast/skookumkids], and YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@skookumkids] Podcasts. Sign up for our weekly newsletter of new podcast releases and contests! ThePulseCommunity.ca [https://thepulsecommunity.ca/]. #ThePulseCommunity #ThePulsePodcast #Dragnet #RadioArchaeology #ClassicRadio #OldTimeRadio #ParksvilleQualicumBeach #VancouverIsland #JoeFriday #BadgeBandit

Gunsmoke: Two Mothers - A Good Woman With a Gun and a Promise

Jake Meisner is to hang for shooting an unarmed man in a drunken brawl. His mother Hattie knows he’s guilty — knows the law is the law — and she walks into Marshal Dillon’s office and tells him plainly: if Jake hangs on Thursday, she will kill him. She is a woman of her word. Dillon believes her. So do Doc and Kitty, who spend the rest of the episode trying to find a way through to her before Thursday arrives. On one side of Dodge, Lorenda Henshaw is burying the son Jake killed. On the other, Hattie Meisner is loading a gun. Both women are beyond easy comfort, and the resolution — when it comes — arrives not through force or clever strategy but through two mothers finding each other across an impossible divide. Episode Highlights & Quotes “I’ve done my thinking. I know it won’t help Jake. It won’t even help me — but I’ve got to do something.” — Hattie Meisner “The only way to feel close to my dead son is to feel love — love for him and love for the world. Without it, he fades away.” — Lorenda Henshaw Text us about this episode: Send us a text [https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/2408950/open_sms] Voice message: Voice message The PULSE [https://www.speakpipe.com/ThePulse] and be part of the podcast.  Special Thanks to Our Sponsor Thrifty Foods Parksville [https://www.thriftyfoods.com/store-locations/parksville] — helping local nonprofits, charities, and schools through their Smile Card bulk program.  You’ll find all episodes of The PULSE Community Podcast on Apple [https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-pulse-community-podcast/id1234567890], Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/thepulsecommunity], Amazon [https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/thepulsecommunity], iHeart [https://www.iheart.com/podcast/thepulsecommunity], TikTok [https://www.tiktok.com/@thepulsecommunity] and YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@thepulsecommunity] podcasts, as well as ThePulseCommunity.ca [https://www.thepulsecommunity.ca/]. Check out Skookum Kids Stories on Apple [https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/skookum-kids-stories], Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/skookumkids], Amazon [https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/skookumkids], iHeart [https://www.iheart.com/podcast/skookumkids], and YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@skookumkids] Podcasts, as well as SkookumKids.com [https://www.skookumkids.com/]. Sign up for our weekly newsletter [https://thepulsecommunity.ca/newsletter] of new podcast releases and contests! “Like, Share & Listen!” #ThePulseCommunity #PulsePodcast #ParksvilleQualicumBeach #SkookumKidsStories #RadioArchaeology #Gunsmoke #MattDillon #ClassicRadio #RadioDrama #OldTimeRadio

Dragnet: The Big Fake - a Race Against Time

Detectives Joe Friday and Ben Romero of the LAPD’s Personnel Division caught an assignment unlike most — a complaint filed against one of their own. Rookie officer Russell Clark, just two and a half months on the job and with a pregnant wife at home, stood accused of robbery and assault by a man he thought he had helped. Clark’s story was straightforward: he found a drunk — Gerald Stacey — sprawled at the foot of a stairway with a broken arm. A doctor on scene confirmed Stacey had fallen. Clark drove him to emergency, bought him a sandwich, and delivered him home. The next morning, Stacey walked into a police station and accused Clark of dragging him behind the auditorium, beating him, and stealing $128. Clark was booked, stripped of his badge and gun, and locked in a county jail cell. The newspapers ran with it. Episode Quotes “You really think I rolled that character? Come on, tell me the truth.” - Officer Russell Clark “We might believe you, Clark, and that doesn’t make any difference if this man files a charge against you. It’s gotta be settled in court.” - Sergeant Friday  Special Thanks to Our Sponsor Tablet Pharmacy [https://bit.ly/TabletPharmacy] for supporting ThePulseCommunity.ca.  You’ll find all episodes of The PULSE Community Podcast on Apple [https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-pulse/id1484522385], Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/4P8Hljp7eLyJUYJSo4ZV0c], Amazon [https://music.amazon.ca/podcasts/2f4f76dc-7f51-45dd-aed8-2aff25d1b975/the-pulse], iHeart [https://www.iheart.com/podcast/223325851/], TikTok [https://www.tiktok.com/@thepulsecommunity] and YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7o73xloapbe613vMmGuehg] Podcasts, as well as ThePulseCommunity.ca [https://thepulsecommunity.ca/].  Check out Skookum Kid’s Stories [https://skookumkids.com/] on Apple [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/skookum-kids-stories/id1780899270], Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/4UOmR05dLEHr435KnsFMEx], Amazon [https://music.amazon.ca/podcasts/9bf626bc-c187-482c-9910-252f76ad78c2/skookum-kid%27s-stories], iHeart [https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1333-skookum-kids-stories-227327267/], and YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@SkookumKidsStories/podcasts] Podcasts.  Sign up for our weekly newsletter [https://bit.ly/PulseNewsletterSignup] of new podcast releases and contests! #ThePulseCommunity #ThePulsePodcast #Dragnet #RadioArchaeology #ClassicRadio #ParksvilleQualicumBeach #VancouverIsland