The Big Crazy

Originally Aired: August 30, 1951 Dragnet #116, "The Big Crazy," Sergeant Joe Friday and his partner Ben Romero investigate the puzzling disappearance of a 30-year-old woman who has been missing for three months. Ruth Daly comes to homicide detail to report that her twin sister, Bernice Butler, vanished in early March. Ruth explains that she delayed reporting the disappearance because Bernice had done this once before, going to Arizona for a month without telling anyone. However, Ruth's recent visit to Bernice's husband Jimmy has left her deeply unsettled. As she was leaving, he looked at her with a horrible expression and said, "You'd be surprised if I killed her, wouldn't you?" Friday and Romero track down James Butler at the print shop where he works. The thin, blonde husband proves sullen and uncooperative, showing complete indifference to his wife's three-month absence. Butler's hostile demeanor and strange behavior raise immediate red flags. He admits to frequent arguments with Bernice, casually mentioning that he would "beat it out of her" when she got "too fresh." As the detectives press him for answers about his missing wife, Butler's bizarre responses suggest something far more sinister than a simple domestic dispute.