The Big Juvenile Division

Originally Aired: January 17, 1952 Dragnet #136, "The Big Juvenile Division," Sergeant Joe Friday and his partner Ed Jacobs are called to the Hollandbeck Juvenile Division to assist Detective Gardner with a dangerous situation brewing on the East Side. Five rival teenage gangs—the Purple Hearts, Blue Devils, Apaches, Happy Valley, and Rose Hill—are on the verge of an all-out war. The gangs have been stockpiling homemade weapons including stilettos, brass knuckles, and ice picks, and some groups have been pressured to either join forces with the powerful Apache gang or fight them. Gardner identifies seventeen-year-old Robert Lawson, leader of the Apaches, as the primary instigator—a charismatic troublemaker with a bad juvenile record who operates by manipulating other kids to do his dirty work. Friday and the juvenile division detectives face a ticking clock as they try to prevent bloodshed among the well-organized gangs, some with their own cars, hideouts, and even girlfriends running alongside them. When the gang members and their parents are called in for questioning, the full scope of the planned violence becomes chillingly clear. The officers must find a way to break Lawson's influence and stop the war before these teenage "soldiers" turn their makeshift arsenal into a tragedy.