The Big Kid

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 information about tensions brewing between two rival gangs: the Pink Rats and the Orchids. Initially resistant, the moody teenager eventually reveals the conflict started over a girl who moved from Orchid territory into Pink Rat turf, sparking a series of escalating retaliations. The situation grows more urgent when Angie describes how Orchids attacked a Pink Rat member with a bicycle chain, leaving the victim hospitalized. Most alarming is intelligence about a planned party at a Rat member's house this Saturday night, combined with news that the Orchids recently burglarized rifles and a twelve-gauge shotgun. Friday and Smith face a ticking clock to prevent the violence before Saturday arrives and teenage gang warfare erupts on the streets of Los Angeles.