The Big New Years

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.