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Friday - The Dragnet Podcast

Presented by OTRPODS

Friday - The Dragnet Podcast is your ultimate destination for reliving the thrilling world of the classic Dragnet radio show. Step back into the gritty streets of Los Angeles with Sergeant Joe Friday as he brings justice to life through captivating, true-to-form storytelling. This unparalleled collection features beautifully remastered audio, accurate transcriptions, and detailed episode descriptions to give listeners the most authentic Dragnet experience.

Whether you're a longtime fan or a newcomer to old-time radio dramas, this podcast delivers the definitive version of Dragnet, preserving its iconic legacy for generations to come. Experience crime-solving at its finest with meticulous attention to detail, including cast insights for every episode.

245 episodes

  1. The Big New Years

    Mar 22, 2026 · 28 min

    Originally Aired: March 8, 1951 Dragnet #91, "The Big New Years," Sergeant Joe Friday and his partner Ben Romero are assigned to special duty on New Year's Eve, working the night watch out of homicide as thousands crowd downtown Los Angeles. What begins as a routine evening of handling street fights, drunk drivers, and minor disturbances takes a devastating turn when an officer needs help call escalates to a shooting at East Main and Darwin. Friday and Romero rush to the scene and discover the victim lying face down on the pavement with six bullet wounds. The dead man is Jack Conley, serial number 367, a veteran Central Homicide officer who had just invited them to a party at his home that very evening. As dozens of cruiser cars flood the area and officers begin a door-to-door search, Friday and Romero canvas the neighborhood for witnesses. They find people who heard the shots and saw a man in a dark suit fleeing the scene, but no one who can provide a solid identification. The investigation grows more difficult as Friday and Romero face the hardest part of their job: driving to Conley's home on Ralston Avenue, where his wife Betty waits with party guests, expecting her husband to arrive any minute.

  2. The Big Partner

    Mar 21, 2026 · 28 min

    Originally Aired: March 1, 1951 Dragnet #90, "The Big Partner," finds Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Ben Romero responding to a brazen jewelry store robbery in broad daylight. When they arrive at City Hall to begin their investigation, the case takes an unexpected turn—a traffic accident at Third and Ditchel leads them straight to their suspect. A truck driver named Lenny Brooks has wrestled down a man who pulled a gun on him after crashing through a red light, and dozens of diamond rings have spilled from the suspect's coat. The man is identified as Vernon Albert McCoy, a two-time loser fresh out of Folsom Prison with a history of armed robbery. The case seems wrapped up until McCoy engineers a daring escape from custody at Georgia Street receiving hospital, overpowering two transportation officers. Within hours, he's suspected in another armed robbery—this time hitting a gas station for quick cash. Friday and Romero trace McCoy's movements to a candy store in Boyle Heights, where the owner, Matthew Hobbs, reveals he saw the fugitive the previous night. As the detectives piece together McCoy's desperate flight through Los Angeles, they must anticipate his next move before this reckless criminal strikes again.

  3. The Big Couple

    Mar 3, 2026 · 31 min

    Originally Aired: February 22, 1951 Dragnet #89, "The Big Couple," Sergeant Joe Friday and his partner Ben Romero are called to investigate a heartbreaking case of fraud at the Holy Gospel Tabernacle. Reverend Andrew Olson explains how a seemingly devout couple, calling themselves Mr. and Mrs. Tom Herbert, approached him with an offer to write a history of his modest church for publication in a county historical book. After gaining his trust through weeks of dedicated research work, the Herberts claimed the publisher backed out and subtly convinced the Reverend and his church board to finance the book themselves. The small congregation scraped together $804.61 through ham dinners, advertising sales, and a bank loan Reverend Olson personally secured. When the promised delivery date passes and the Herberts vanish from their hotel on South Grand, Friday and Romero discover this is no isolated incident. The suspects match the description of a veteran husband-and-wife confidence team with a seventeen-year criminal record spanning multiple cities. These con artists have made their specialty preying on churches and clergymen, leaving struggling congregations robbed and Reverend Olson facing the devastating task of explaining the loss to his hardworking parishioners.

  4. The Big Crime

    Mar 2, 2026 · 31 min

    Originally Aired: February 15, 1951 Dragnet #88, "The Big Crime," Sergeant Joe Friday and his partner Ben Romero are called to investigate a terrifying case when four-year-old twin girls, Jo and Kelly Carson, disappear from a park during a family picnic. As hours pass without any sign of the children, the investigation takes on increasing urgency. The detectives methodically canvas the area, interviewing neighbors, friends, and storekeepers, but find no leads until they speak with an ice cream vendor named George Kamencek. He reports seeing two young girls matching the twins' description in the company of a large man with a mustache near a clump of trees in the park. The case takes a dark turn when torn pieces of the girls' clothing are discovered in the bushes. The detectives rope off the area and call in the crime lab while intensifying their search. An emergency check of registered sexual psychopaths produces a possible suspect named D.H.L. Glamberg, who lives near the park and matches the physical description. Friday and Romero track him down at his workplace, a small bar where he works as an organist, and begin questioning him about his whereabouts during the critical hours when the children vanished.

  5. The Big Cast

    Mar 1, 2026 · 31 min

    Originally Aired: February 8, 1951 Dragnet #87, "The Big Cast," Sergeant Joe Friday and his partner Ben Romero are assigned to a perplexing homicide case. Twelve men have vanished without a trace over a short period, and after four months of investigation, they finally track down their prime suspect: Henry Osworth Ross, a hot-tempered longshoreman living in a shabby rooming house. When Friday and Romero arrive to question him, Ross mistakes them for enemies from a bar fight and violently resists before realizing they're actually police officers. Back at headquarters, Friday and Romero interrogate Ross about one of the missing men, Paul Davis, who disappeared while driving to a new job. The detectives have evidence linking Ross to Davis's abandoned car, including forged signatures on the vehicle's pink slip and a suspicious letter—all in Ross's handwriting according to their experts. Despite the mounting evidence, Ross calmly denies everything, insisting he barely knows anyone named Davis and claiming someone must have copied his handwriting. As Ross sits casually scraping calluses from his hand, Friday and Romero face the challenge of breaking through his story to uncover what really happened to the dozen missing men.

  6. The Big Children

    Feb 28, 2026 · 31 min

    Originally Aired: February 1, 1951 Dragnet #86, "The Big Children," Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Ben Romero from the Juvenile Bureau investigate a disturbing report from a neighbor in the wealthy Bel Air district. Miss Jeanette Bajan, a cook working in one of the area's colonial mansions, has called in a complaint about two children from next door—seven-year-old Richard Kessler and his five-year-old sister Judy—who have been going door to door begging for food for the past several days. Despite living in a neighborhood of $50,000 homes, the children appear half-starved. When Friday and Romero visit the Kessler home, they find eight-year-old Richard alone, warming borrowed soup in a kitchen littered with empty whiskey bottles. The once-beautiful house is cold, dusty, and strewn with children's toys and scraps of stale bread. Richard, polite and well-mannered despite his dirty shirt, tries to maintain that everything is fine, but Friday gently presses him about his mother's whereabouts. The boy finally admits she left last Friday night and hasn't returned, leaving the children to fend for themselves in increasingly desperate circumstances.

  7. The Big Tomato

    Feb 27, 2026 · 32 min

    Originally Aired: January 25, 1951 Dragnet #85, "The Big Tomato," Joe Friday and his partner Ben Romero investigate a tragic case that hits close to home for Los Angeles families. When seventeen-year-old Kenneth Morrow dies after crashing his car into a street light at high speed, the investigation takes a darker turn. Officers discover a metal case containing marijuana on the floor of the wrecked vehicle, revealing that the boy's death wasn't just a simple accident but the result of drug use. Friday and Romero learn that Kenneth, once a good student with above-average grades, had undergone a dramatic personality change in recent months, becoming disrespectful, neglecting his studies, and lying to his parents about spending evenings at the library. As Friday and Romero dig deeper, they interview Kenneth's devastated father Thomas Morrow and his former girlfriend Peggy Kane, who describe a boy who seemed to have fallen in with the wrong crowd. The detectives discover that Kenneth's behavior shifted dramatically around Christmas, and they begin tracking down his associates, including Bob Lavelle, a fellow student who worked with Kenneth in the school cafeteria. With a dangerous marijuana operation targeting high school students and this being the second such death in eight months, Friday and Romero must work quickly to identify the suppliers before more young lives are destroyed.

  8. The Big Dance

    Feb 26, 2026 · 31 min

    Originally Aired: January 18, 1951 Dragnet #84, "The Big Dance," finds Sergeant Joe Friday and his partner Ben Romero tracking a pair of brutal young holdup men who have terrorized Los Angeles with 23 robberies in three months. The detectives are pulled from a quiet Sunday morning breakfast at Friday's apartment when another vicious crime occurs at a small newsstand on South Grand and Colonial. The victims are John and Madeline Wilden, an aging couple running a modest newspaper stand near a church. Mrs. Wilden is carried away unconscious, her face brutally beaten, while her husband struggles to explain what happened when he returned from getting change and discovered the robbery in progress. The holdup men fit the familiar pattern: two young men in their late teens or early twenties, one with red hair and another with dark hair, both willing to use shocking violence for small amounts of money. As Friday and Romero investigate the scene and question the shaken Mr. Wilden, they piece together the details of an attack that exemplifies the senseless brutality these young criminals bring to every job. The detectives face the challenge of stopping these unpredictable bandits before they strike again.

  9. The Big Jump

    Feb 25, 2026 · 31 min

    Originally Aired: January 11, 1951 Dragnet #83, "The Big Jump," Sergeants Joe Friday and Ben Romero race against the clock when they receive a call about a potential jumper at the Fitzroy building downtown. Walter Harrison, a 41-year-old mental patient, has climbed out onto a narrow 14-inch ledge thirteen stories above the street and threatens to leap to his death at exactly 2:00 p.m. The situation turns more dangerous when officers discover Harrison is armed with a carpenter's hammer and takes swings at anyone who tries to approach him on the ledge. With crowds gathering below and rescue nets being stretched out by the fire department, the detectives have less than half an hour to talk Harrison down. As the clock ticks toward the deadline, Friday and his team piece together what happened. Harrison came in for a routine physical examination with Dr. Turner when he suddenly became violent, claiming the medical staff was trying to kill him. After assaulting the doctor, he fled to the window ledge. Now, with Harrison's sister nearly hysterical and previous attempts to reach him failing, Friday must find a way to prevent the jump before time runs out.

  10. The Big Holdup

    Feb 24, 2026 · 32 min

    Originally Aired: January 4, 1951 Dragnet #82, "The Big Holdup," finds Sergeant Joe Friday and his partner Ben Romero hunting a dangerous criminal known as the rattlesnake bandit. This vicious holdup man has already robbed six people in the Los Angeles area, savagely beating his victims for no apparent reason even when they cooperate. Operating in stolen cars with an attractive blonde accomplice who seems to encourage his violence, the bandit strikes again while Friday and Romero are investigating his previous crimes. What makes this criminal particularly dangerous is his unpredictability—the holdups net him little money, rarely more than fifty dollars, yet he continues to brutally assault his victims without provocation. The case takes a deadly turn when the bandit attacks high school teacher Ralph Younger and his companion Ethel Donovan, a grade school teacher. After beating Younger and finding only three dollars in Donovan's purse, the bandit shoots her in the head and wounds Younger when he tries to intervene. Friday and Romero race against time to track down this increasingly violent criminal before he can strike again, working with the limited descriptions provided by traumatized victims while Ethel Donovan fights for her life in critical condition.

  11. The Big Family

    Feb 23, 2026 · 27 min

    Originally Aired: December 28, 1950 Dragnet #81, "The Big Family," Joe Friday and Ben Romero investigate the mysterious disappearance of John Keith Jarrett, a wealthy and prominent Los Angeles businessman. When Jarrett's abandoned car is discovered at the end of Pier 6 with a suicide note in his coat pocket, the case initially appears straightforward. However, crucial evidence complicates the picture: Jarrett's gun is found carefully hidden under the dashboard with two empty shells, and despite the suicide note, there's no body in the harbor. Friends and business associates insist Jarrett had no reason to take his own life. The investigation deepens when Friday and Romero interview Mrs. Jarrett, a pale, middle-aged woman who's been drinking heavily. Her chilling assessment of the family reveals a household held together in name only—a successful man too consumed by business to connect with his wife and two grown children. Mrs. Jarrett seems strangely detached from her husband's disappearance, explaining that Jack never cared much about having a real family. As the detectives prepare to interview the Jarrett children, they face a puzzling question: did this broken family finally reach a breaking point?

  12. 22 Rifle for Christmas

    Feb 22, 2026 · 31 min

    Originally Aired: December 21, 1950 Dragnet #80, "22 Rifle for Christmas," Sergeant Joe Friday and his partner Ben Romero respond to what begins as a routine missing child case but quickly becomes something far more sinister. When nine-year-old Stanley Johnstone disappears from his backyard on a cold December afternoon just days before Christmas, his mother Ruth initially believes he has simply run away from home as he once did before. However, when juvenile detectives Harry Levinson and his partner discover fresh blood stains in the backyard along with an empty .22 caliber shell casing, Friday and Romero realize they may be dealing with something much darker than a runaway child. As Lieutenant Lee Jones from the crime lab analyzes the blood evidence and a special detail is called in to aid the search, Friday questions Mrs. Johnstone about her son's habits and whereabouts. The investigation intensifies as the hours tick by with no sign of Stanley. With blood evidence mounting and the boy missing for over four hours in the pre-Christmas cold, Friday faces a race against time to discover what happened in that backyard and locate the missing child before it's too late.

  13. The Big Break

    Feb 21, 2026 · 31 min

    Originally Aired: December 14, 1950 Dragnet #79, "The Big Break," Sergeant Joe Friday and his partner Ben Romero close in on George R. Hoffman, a career criminal responsible for 18 armed robberies over three months. Acting on a tip that Hoffman is holed up in a bungalow on Buchanan Avenue, Friday and his team move in during a foggy night to make the arrest. The dangerous suspect, armed with two revolvers and a hunting rifle, attempts to flee but is cornered when his getaway car fails to start. With multiple victims identifying him in a lineup, Friday and the district attorney build what seems like an airtight case. However, on the morning of his scheduled court arraignment, Hoffman pulls off a daring escape from the county jail. Using steam from shower faucets to obscure the guard's view, he climbs out a window and scales down seven stories on the outside of the Hall of Justice building. After slugging a bailiff and disappearing into the street crowd, he immediately commits another robbery. Friday and the entire police force mobilize to recapture the desperate fugitive before he can strike again.

  14. The Big Picture

    Feb 20, 2026 · 31 min

    Originally Aired: December 7, 1950 Dragnet #78, "The Big Picture," finds Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Ben Romero working the day watch out of Juvenile Bureau when a Minnesota businessman named Wayne Kenworthy walks into their squad room with a disturbing discovery. While attending a convention in Los Angeles, Kenworthy purchased an obscene photograph from a bartender on Alvarado Street, only to recognize the young girl in it as his neighbor's daughter from back home. The girl, seventeen-year-old Lois Brewster, came to Hollywood eight months earlier hoping for a movie career, but stopped writing home two months ago. What Kenworthy doesn't know yet is that Friday and Romero have tragic news: the girl's body washed ashore at Venice Beach just days earlier, an apparent suicide. Friday and Romero brief Inspector Bowling on what they believe is a familiar pattern—phony talent scouts luring young girls with promises of stardom, then exploiting them for the obscene photography trade. The detectives launch an intensive investigation to track down everyone in the distribution chain, from the bartender who sold the photo all the way up to whoever photographed and printed them. Their key lead is Joyce Fowler, Lois Brewster's roommate who disappeared around the same time, but locating her proves difficult as the case grows more urgent.

  15. The Big Car

    Feb 19, 2026 · 31 min

    Originally Aired: November 30, 1950 Dragnet #77, "The Big Car," Sergeant Joe Friday and his partner Ben Romero are working the night watch out of robbery detail, hunting for a well-dressed bandit who has hit 15 food markets in Los Angeles over four months. The case takes an unusual turn when a man named Frank Potter walks into the interrogation room volunteering a detailed confession to all the robberies. Friday and Romero quickly expose Potter's story as a fabrication—he's a troubled man seeking publicity to impress his girlfriend, and they send him to the psychopathic ward for treatment. The real bandit remains at large and strikes again at a supermarket on Santa Monica Boulevard. Manager Harry Talbot describes the same pattern: a well-dressed man with a briefcase appearing just before closing time. This time, however, there's a new lead—clerk Everett Smiley witnessed the robber leaving in a car. As Friday and Romero interview Talbot in his office, they learn the bandit's chilling method: he threatens the manager's family by name and address, forcing compliance through fear rather than just violence.

  16. The Big Betty

    Feb 18, 2026 · 31 min

    Originally Aired: November 23, 1950 Dragnet #76, "The Big Betty," Sergeant Joe Friday and his partner Ben Romero of the Bunco Detail investigate a particularly cruel swindle operation targeting the families of deceased servicemen and recently departed loved ones. The case opens when Miss Bergstrom visits the detectives after being conned out of $78 for a worthless watch and pen-and-pencil set supposedly ordered by her fiancé Harry before he was killed overseas in the Marine Corps. The swindler, identifying himself as Spencer, preys on grieving relatives by claiming to be a friend of the deceased and presenting cheap merchandise with sentimental engravings as final gifts that need to be paid for. Friday and Romero discover this is part of a pattern, with half a dozen similar complaints in recent weeks from families victimized by con men who scan obituaries and casualty lists for targets. The detectives seek help from Judd, a reformed con man now running a legitimate baby laundry business, hoping his connections to the underworld can provide leads on the gang working this despicable racket through Los Angeles.

  17. The Big Parrot

    Feb 17, 2026 · 31 min

    Originally Aired: November 16, 1950

  18. The Big Mother

    Feb 15, 2026 · 31 min

    A three-day-old newborn is abducted from a hospital nursery during a rain-soaked night, triggering a frantic citywide search. With no ransom demand and no physical evidence, Sergeant Joe Friday and Ben Romero sift through false leads, anonymous tips, and mounting public pressure as the hours tick by. The investigation finally leads to a quiet neighborhood baptism—and a grieving woman driven by loss, desperation, and a heartbreaking need to replace the child she never got to bring home. Originally aired: November 9, 1950. Cast: Jack Webb, Barton Yarborough, Herb Butterfield, Harry Bartell, Parley Baer, Peggy Webber Tags: Dragnet, LAPD, detectives, truecrime, 1950s, noir, crime, kidnapping, infantabduction, investigation, manhunt, psychological, mentalhealth, hospital, suspense, drama, justice, police, classicradio

  19. The Big Church

    Feb 2, 2026 · 31 min

    A young woman begins receiving anonymous letters and phone calls threatening her with death for attending a small neighborhood church. As Sergeant Joe Friday and Ben Romero investigate what appears to be the work of a religious fanatic, the case grows darker when the woman reports a violent attack inside the church itself. But inconsistencies, forensic evidence, and subtle behavioral clues lead the detectives to a disturbing conclusion—one that reveals a lonely mind driven by a desperate need to be seen. Originally aired: November 2, 1950. Cast: Jack Webb, Barton Yarborough, Herb Butterfield, Harry Bartell, Parley Baer, Peggy Webber Tags: Dragnet, LAPD, detectives, truecrime, 1950s, noir, crime, falseaccusation, psychological, investigation, church, threats, hoax, mentalhealth, suspense, drama, justice, police, classicradio

  20. The Big Meet

    Jan 26, 2026 · 31 min

    A gang of seasoned narcotics dealers moves into Los Angeles with $100,000 worth of heroin, confident their international-tested methods will keep them untouchable. When a wary middlewoman alerts police to a proposed introduction, Sergeant Joe Friday goes undercover as a buyer to infiltrate the operation. As the deal escalates through late-night meetings, escalating demands, and mounting suspicion, the case builds toward a dangerous hilltop exchange where one wrong move could mean death—or freedom for the dealers. Originally aired: October 26, 1950. Cast: Jack Webb, Barton Yarborough, Herb Butterfield, Harry Bartell, Parley Baer, Peggy Webber Tags: Dragnet, LAPD, detectives, truecrime, 1950s, noir, crime, narcotics, heroin, undercover, investigation, stingoperation, manhunt, police, suspense, drama, justice, organizedcrime, classicradio

  21. The Big Grandma

    Jan 18, 2026 · 31 min

    For nearly a decade, an elderly woman known only as “Grandma” quietly bleeds Los Angeles merchants with forged checks—working just three months a year and never raising suspicion. As Sergeant Joe Friday and Ben Romero revisit the case during her tenth season of operation, a single mistake finally cracks her flawless routine. When a stolen charge plate leads detectives to a respected civic volunteer and church member, the truth reveals a twisted moral justification behind thousands of dollars in fraud—and a criminal who believed charity excused the crime. Originally aired: October 19, 1950. Cast: Jack Webb, Barton Yarborough, Herb Butterfield, Harry Bartell, Parley Baer, Peggy Webber Tags: Dragnet, LAPD, detectives, truecrime, 1950s, noir, crime, forgery, badchecks, investigation, fraud, charity, stingoperation, psychology, manhunt, suspense, drama, justice, classicradio

  22. The Big Quack

    Jan 17, 2026 · 31 min

    When a fashionable Hollywood woman is robbed while under medical “treatment,” Sergeant Joe Friday and Ben Romero uncover a dangerous con man posing as a psychiatrist. Operating a sham medical college and selling phony degrees, the suspect uses hypnosis and drugs to prey on wealthy patients—leaving one woman dead and others stripped of their valuables. The investigation exposes a wide-ranging fraud that ends in a dingy projection booth and the collapse of a deadly scam. Originally aired: October 12, 1950. Cast: Jack Webb, Barton Yarborough, Herb Butterfield, Harry Bartell, Parley Baer, Peggy Webber Tags: Dragnet, LAPD, detectives, truecrime, 1950s, noir, crime, fraud, conartist, fakeDoctor, investigation, burglary, hypnosis, medicalscam, confidencegame, suspense, drama, justice, police, classicradio

  23. The Big 38

    Dec 7, 2025 · 31 min

    A masked bandit’s robbery spree turns deadly when grocery clerk Bert Matthews is gunned down without warning. Sergeant Joe Friday and Ben Romero chase a killer who slips in and out of Los Angeles using taxi cabs as his getaway — a method that leads them straight into a tangled partnership between two young men, one a nervous hold-up artist and the other a cab driver with a .38 that’s already tied to a previous murder. As the investigation widens, a dropped gun, a terrified witness, and a trail of abandoned apartments pull the detectives closer to a suspect increasingly desperate to stay ahead of the law. Originally aired: October 5, 1950. Cast: Jack Webb, Barton Yarborough, Herb Butterfield, Harry Bartell, Parley Baer, Peggy Webber Tags: Dragnet, LAPD, detectives, truecrime, 1950s, noir, crime, murder, robbery, investigation, getawaycar, taxicab, manhunt, accomplice, stakeout, suspense, drama, justice, classicradio

  24. The Big Death

    Dec 7, 2025 · 31 min

    A wealthy warehouse owner makes a stunning proposition: he wants his wife murdered—and he’s willing to pay for it. When a nervous acquaintance reports the plot, Sergeant Joe Friday goes undercover as a hired killer to draw out every detail. What follows is a tense psychological game as Friday gains the suspect’s trust, uncovers the murder plan step-by-step, and races the clock to stop a killing scheduled to happen within hours. Originally aired: September 28, 1950. Cast: Jack Webb, Barton Yarborough, Herb Butterfield, Harry Bartell, Parley Baer, Peggy Webber Tags: Dragnet, LAPD, detectives, truecrime, 1950s, noir, crime, murderplot, undercover, investigation, hiredkiller, solicitation, suspense, drama, stingoperation, justice, police, homicide, classicradio

  25. The Big Pair

    Dec 7, 2025 · 31 min

    A quiet Los Angeles neighborhood becomes the hunting ground for a pair of burglars stripping entire homes of their furniture while families are away. With no solid leads and a city full of moving vans, Sergeant Joe Friday and Ben Romero set a trap: a network of decoy houses baited to draw the thieves out. When the suspects finally take the hook, the result is a tense takedown that exposes a husband-and-wife team running a fast-moving, citywide racket. Originally aired: September 21, 1950. Cast: Jack Webb, Barton Yarborough, Herb Butterfield, Harry Bartell, Parley Baer, Peggy Webber Tags: Dragnet, LAPD, detectives, truecrime, 1950s, noir, crime, burglary, investigation, movingvan, stingoperation, manhunt, husbandandwife, furnituretheft, suspense, drama, justice, police, classicradio