The Big Sour

Originally Aired: September 20, 1951 Dragnet #119, "The Big Sour," Sergeant Joe Friday and Detective Ben Romero investigate a brutal home invasion robbery targeting an elderly couple in the Westlake Park area. When Friday arrives at Georgia Street Receiving Hospital, he learns that seventy-one-year-old Wendell McClung has been savagely tortured by two armed bandits who invaded his modest home. The thieves burned the soles of his feet and stabbed his hands repeatedly with what appears to be a hat pin, forcing him to reveal where he and his wife Catherine kept their valuable jewelry collection, including a four-carat diamond signet ring. Friday and Romero visit the crime scene and interview Mrs. McClung, who provides limited information since one of the bandits knocked off her glasses during the assault, leaving her nearly blind throughout the ordeal. She recalls that one suspect was called Sam and the other spoke with a distinct Midwestern or Texas accent. The detectives suspect an inside job, as the thieves seemed to know exactly what jewelry the unassuming couple possessed. As the investigation unfolds, a potential lead emerges involving a young magazine salesman who may have witnessed something crucial on the night of the robbery.