Original subtitles

[ Frida y Nam? ting] This is the ciz‘y— [as Ange/es, California,

Geographical/y, the biggest in the world...

andsti/lgro wing,

Every day the population increases by almost a thousand

/t begins to get crowded

Three mil/ion people were here ahead of them.

There are all kinds—

the young and the old

those who love...

and those who hate.

The y’re the kind who make work for me, / car/ya badge,

/t was Thursday, September 75,

/t was hot in L os Ange/es. We were working the day watch out of Burglary Di Vision,

My partner’s Bill Gannon. The boss is Captain Mack

My name is Friday.

/t was 7:30 am, We were reporting in early for another day

/t got started in a hurry.

A large quantity of high—velocity gelatin dynamite had been stolen...

fl’om a consumer’s storage magazine.

We had to try and find it before somebody used it.

[Man Narrating] The story you are about to see is true.

The names have been changed to protect the innocent

Here‘s one to go on.

Night watchman, DonneIIy Construction Company. Yeah.

This morning, he flushed two men in a station wagon.

When he got close, they threw something at his car. What‘s that?

U.S. Army hand grenade.

[Friday Narra ting] Captain Mack had told the Bomb 5quad..

to meet us at the construction companysupp/yyard..

located at 5/auson and Florence, in the southern section of the city

Civilian possession of a hand grenade is a violation of the Dangerous Weapons Control Law

Pulling the safety pin had to be the act of a desperate man ora sick mind

Either way, the incident had to be in vest/gated

8: 78 a. m. We arrived at the Donne/ly Construction Company

Matt Kemper, the night watchman, met us at the company ofiice.

Ray Murray, fl’om 5. /. D., anda demo/itions expert were alreadyat the scene.

[Kemper] Them bomb men over there, you gotta hand it to ’em— nerves like solid steel

[Shudders] Kinda gives me the shakes.

UneXpIoded grenade is somethin‘ I don‘t wanna fool with.

Yes, sir. Wanna tell us what happened here?

Just like I said on the phone.

Around 6:00 am. I was making my last rounds when I come across this car...

parked right by the magazine.

/didn’t think much ofit— hard/ya night / don ’t have to chase ofi‘ a lover or two.

— [Gannon] Yes, sir. — Then / seen they wasn ’t lovers at all

— They was breakin‘ into the magazine over there. — Who was breaking in?

Two men. But you won‘t have no trouble tracin‘ ‘em.

— How‘s that, sir? — Took down the license.

— That was the thing to do, wasn’t it? — Yes, sir. Do you have the number?

Oh, yes. I wrote it down so it wouldn‘t get away from me.

I‘ll run it through D.M.V.,Joe. Right.

Now, Mr. Kemper, I wonder ifyou could give me a description ofthe man.

WeII, young feIIas they were. Must‘ve been crazy to throw that grenade.

— Did you notice how they were dressed, anything like that? — Mmm, no, sir.

I‘m sorry. I couldn‘t tell you. I guess I got a little rattled.

We”, were they tall or short? Do you remember how they were built? Heavy or inght?

No, sir. I just can‘t heIpyou, Sergeant.

But I‘ll think on it, and ifI can pull anything up I‘ll sure teIIyou.

— It‘II heIp ifyou can remember. —Yes, sir, I‘ll try.

Joe, this is Gene EIIis, chiefengineer on the construction project.

Mr. EIIis. Sergeant Friday.

Would you tell the sergeant what you told me?

— I just finished checking our explosives inventory. — Yes, sir?

We‘re minus eight cases.

That‘s 400 pounds ofhigh—velocity gelatin dynamite.

— You mean it‘s been stolen? — Has to be. Wasn‘t issued on thisjob.

You‘ re s u re? Positive.

— Lock on the magazine door, it’s been jimmied — Looks like a pryjob,Joe.

Four hundred pounds. What’s that mean in explosive strength?

That‘s 1,640 cartridges ofhigh—velocity stuff, one ofthe most powerful dynamites manufactured.

— Yes, sir. — It‘d level two city blocks.

[Friday Narra ting] 8:30 a. m.

Ray Murray and the men fl’om the bomb squad had finished their preliminary in vest/gation...

of the unexploded hand grenade.

Murray filled us in while we waited in the construction company ofi7ce fora report fiom D.M. I/....

on the suspect’s license number.

Fortunately, the primer was damped so it wouldn‘t detonate.

The dynamite cartridges that were stolen— what size are they?

One and a quarter by eight inches. Two hundred in a 50—pound case. Eight cases missing.

—Yeah. — Mr. Ellis, haveyou figured how many blasting caps are missing?

I figure three containers. That‘s 72 caps.

— I hope the thieves know how to handle ‘em. — What do you mean, Ray?

Extraneous electricity H u h ?

These are electric blasting caps,Joe.

A lot of people who don‘t handle explosives are unaware that unwanted electrical energy can enter a blasting circuit from the outside.

Yea h. Transmission lines, straight currents, lightning, static

Even radio or television transmission.

You mean, any radio or TV station in town could set ‘em off?

Depends on how close they get to an FM or TV transmitter.

— What about car radios? — Ifthey‘re used for transmitting, like ours, they‘re a decided danger.

Yeah, but we can ’t be sure whoever took ’em will know that

— Ifthey don‘t, odds are they‘ll have the caps and the dynamite pretty close together. — Yeah.

Makes whoever‘s got the stuff virtually a time bomb. Could go up anytime.

I got a hunch it‘s not the work ofvandals. Nobody‘d steal this kind ofthing for resale.

No legitimate concern would accept it Probably couldn‘t be fenced either.

Well, that leaves us an alternative, doesn‘t it?

Whoever walked offwith it intends to use it.

— We gotjust one big question. — Yeah.

Where, and when?

[Friday Narrating] 8-45 am.

D.M. V. came up with a make on the license number of the suspect’s station wagon.

/t was registered to a Samuel H. Halpern, legal the same,

70 7 9 San Marcos Street

/t was located up in the Hollywood Hills.

9: 7 0 a. m. We arrived at Halpern ’s address. We missed him by 70 minutes.

His wife told us he was an insurance aojus ter and had just lefi‘ for his office on Wilshire Boulevard

He was not driving the station wagon.

According to Mrs. Halpern, they had traded it in on a new car o ver a month ago.

Furthermore, she assured us her husband had been home with her all last night

She furnished us with the name of the car dealer to whom the y had sold theirstation wagon.

Peterson Motors. /t was on I/entura Bou/e vard in Van Nuys.

We lefi‘ the Halpern residence and took the fieeway out to Van Nuys to Peterson Motors...

to check out the station wagon used in the burglary.

9:35 am.

Charlie? This is Fred.

That blue ‘61 Comet station wagon we took in trade last month— IicenseJMI 663—

What‘s with it? Okay, okay. Let me write it down.

AlbertAmory.

9025 Po yn tel/e Street

Right.

Okay. Thanks, Charlie.

Theyjust mailed the new owner‘s pink slip up to Sacramento.

That‘s okay, sir. We have it.

— Oh, you have? — Thanks very much, sir.

— Sounds like you‘re in a hurry. —We are.

[Friday Narrating] 7 0' 75 a. m.

We dro ve o ver to 9025 Po ynte/le Street

From the side walk, we could look down a short drive way into the garage.

/t was empty

Yeah? What do you want? Are you Albert Amory?

What? Is your name Albert Amory?

AI Amory. That‘s right. What‘s the problem? Police officers.

We‘d like to talk to you. Look, Ijust woke up. I‘m still a little foggy. Come on in.

The place is kind ofa mess.

The wife usually runs a vacuum around before she goes to work in the morning.

Unless I‘m asleep. You work nights, doya?

Yeah. I‘m a bartender at a place called theJade Pagoda down in New Chinatown.

— What kind ofwork does your wife do? — She‘s a checker in a supermarket.

Look, is this something about her? Did something happen to her?

— No, not that we know of. —Well, let‘s have it, huh?

No Mickey Mousing around. Lay it out straight and simple.

You own a station wagon, license numberJMI 663?

Does it have something to do with my car? What happened? Was it in an accident?

— Do you own the car? —That‘s right. But I haven‘t seen it since I 0:00 last night.

— Did you report it missing? — No.

— But I was mad enough to do it last night. —Whydidn‘tyou reportyour car missing?

— I figured the guy‘d have it back this morning. —What guy?

A fella who hangs around the Pagoda— Siggie.

— What‘s his full name? — / neverheard it F verybody just calls him Siggie.

Do you know where he lives? N o.

— How about where he works? — No.

Are you in the habit ofloaning your car to somebodyyou don‘t even know?

Look, I know him. He‘s a regular. There‘s a whole crowd ofthem.

— You ever been arrested? — No.

There was a burglary last night Two men. License number and description fits yourstation wagon.

— You figure Siggie was one of‘em? — It kinda looks that way, doesn‘t it?

— You have any idea who the other man was? — No, I don‘t.

This Siggie— usually come in your place every day?

As a rule, yeah. But tell you the truth, I don‘t care ifhe never comes in again.

Well, now, that‘s the big difference.

Huh? We do.

[Friday Narra ting] Amory described Siggie as being Caucasian,

slender build fair complexion, about 25 years old no distinguishing marks orscars.

/t still wasn ’t much to go on.

Bill phoned R84 and checked the moniker file.

There were five Siggies listed None of them fitted the description.

Bill also checked outA/ Amory. He was clean.

7 045 a. m. We drove downtown to Central City, up North Broadway to New Chinatown.

The jade Pagoda was located in the middle of the block on L ing/i Way

We picked out a booth in the back of the room and sat down to wait for the suspect..

kno wn only as Siggie.

7:55 pm. We ’d been waiting for o ver three hours.

Still no sign of him.

We continued to wait

A/Amoryrelieved the dayman.

The suspect had failed to show

4:00p.m. Fella standing over there, end ofthe bar.

Yeah? What about him? Name‘s Grove.

Might be able to tell you where Siggie is. How do you figure?

I saw Siggie loan him some moneylast night.

Your name Grove? That‘s right.

Police officer. I‘d like to talk toyou. What for?

You mind stepping over here for a minute?

I haven‘t done anything. Then you‘ve got nothing to worry about, have you?

You mind ifI smoke? Don‘t be cute.

— What‘s your full name? — Grove. Nelson P. Grove.

— We‘re looking for a friend ofyours. — Oh, yeah? Who‘s that?

—Siggie. —Siggie.

Come on, mister. You know who we mean.

You hang around here all the time. So does he. Last night you got some money from him.

Oh, Siggie. I tapped him fora buck. That‘s how well I know the guy.

Siggie. Is that a nickname?

Yeah. I think his name is Chapman. Donald Chapman. Something like that.

— Where does he live? — Couldn‘t say. I don‘t know him that well.

I‘llcall itin,Joe.

Seems like a decent—enough guy. Sure hope he ain‘t done nothin‘ bad.

Depends on how quick we get to him.

[Friday Narra ting] 4: 7 0 p. m.

I‘ll leave you one ofour cards. Ifyou think ofanything else, give us a call, will ya?

Joe, looks like we struck oil.

Donald Chapman, age 31, 662 Tamarack Street, North Hollywood.

— Fits the description. Out on bail. — For what?

— He‘s awaiting trial for A.D.W. —Yeah? Go on.

/n volved in a traffic accident, Sunset and La Brea.

— Locked bumpers with another car. Minor damage. Sounds a little psycho. — Yeah?

The other driver— man named Leroy Wilson.

What about him? This Chapman jumped out of his car andshot Wilson in the arm.

— .22 caliber revolver. — Why? Because ofthe accident?

— Not according to the report. Chapman gave another reason. — What‘s that?

Wilson‘s a Negro.

[Friday Narrating] Thursday, September 75, 5'00p.m.

We had to move fast

We were reasonab/ysure that 400 pounds of dynamite were in the hands of a man...

who had already committed an irrational assault with a deadly weapon.

/f he was the same man, we figured he wou/dn ’t hesitate to use the dynamite.

Dona/d Chapman is address was an apartment in the rear of a single residence on a quiet street

The property was owned by a Mrs. Anna L ogan.

She told us Chapman was a peculiarperson, but very quiet

She didn ’t have a pass key She didn ’t know if he was in or not

There was a car in the garage.

The license number confirmed it was the station wagon used in the burglary at the construction company

The car was empty, as far as we could tell

/oe/

Looks like it‘s all here. Caps too. Yeah.

I haven‘t touched it. I figure we‘d better let the Bomb Squad check it.

Right. I‘ll call the office.

I wouldn‘t use the car radio.

[Friday Narrating] 5'45p.m.

Bill cal/ed Captain Mack and filled him in.

The Bomb Squad was immediately notified

D.A.‘s office is sending somebody over to advise us oflegalities. Yeah.

Cruiser units are working the block, trying to clear everybody out.

Well, that‘ll tear it. But there‘s nothing else we can do.

The minute Chapman hits the neighborhood he‘ll get hinky.

Captain said he‘d caution all ofour people not to use radio transmitters.

Chapman‘s description— what about broadcast?

Went on the air five minutes ago to all units.

Phil Masturian, D.A.‘s office. This is Bill Gannon. My name‘s Friday.

We seem to have a legal problem here.

— Murray thinks the dynamite ought to be moved out. — That‘s right.

You know that evidence can be legally removed only by permission ofthe owner,

incident to an arrest, or by authority of a search warrant

—/oe, are the caps in the closet too? — That‘s right.

— What aboutjust removing those? — Well, we discussed that.

Your case could go out the window /t could contaminate the evidence. /n a way, we ’re almost as bad ofif

— What about the people living in this block? — Trying to clear ‘em out. Gonna take time.

You know the right radio frequency could take out this entire block.

It‘s your case, Sergeant.

Get ‘em outta here.

Joe? Bill?

Yeah, Ray? How many cases ofdynamite were missing?

Eight. 400 pounds. Why?

We‘re not out ofthe woods yet. How‘s that?

I checked the caps. Some ofthose are missing. Yeah?

And you haven‘t got eight cases.

What do you mean? Four ofthese are empty.

[Friday Narrating] 7:75 pm.

With the definite kno w/edge that four cases of the dynamite were missing, it became a race against time.

We had to presume that Chapman had remo ved a portion of the explosives with a definite target in mind

Let‘s face it,Joe. It‘s hopeless.

That guy Chapman— Look at thisjunk. Hate literature by the ton.

Yeah, I know. Mind like that, how do you think along with it?

I don‘t know, Bill, but we gotta try.

How about civil rights activities? Anything planned here in the city? Rallies or meetings?

No, I thought ofthat. Nothing that I know of.

Ifwejust had a piece ofsomething, anything we could grab hold of.

Yeah, and that dynamite, no telling where he planted it, ifhe planted it.

Ten—to—one he did. Four cases.

He‘s got enough there to blow a pretty good hole in something, hasn‘t he?

Sergeant Friday? Yea h ?

Martin, IA—29. My partner and I are working the security detail.

— Yeah? — We heard the emergency broadcast on the suspect‘s description.

— Spotted this guy walking in this direction. — Go on, Martin.

Description checks out So does his /.D. My partner’s bringing him up here.

—What‘s his name? — Donald L. Chapman.

[Friday Narra ting] 805 p. m.

We placed the suspect under arrest and advised him of his constitutional rights.

He steadflas t/y refused to tell us anything

He insisted he didn ’t know how the dynamite got into his apartment

You expect us to believe you got a closet full ofdynamite and you didn‘t know it was there?

How would I know? I hardly ever go in the closet.

Never mind the smart answers. We can bust you right now for receiving stolen property.

— Then why don‘t you do it? —Just tell us what you did with those other four cases.

Maybe I‘ll change my mind. You told me I don‘t have to talk to you. Maybe I won‘t.

It‘s quite a collection you got here, Chapman.

Flags, rifles, hand grenades, machine gun, German helmet.

— You go for this stuff too? — Brought some things back in ‘45.

You got a Lufi‘wafi‘e dagger? I been trying to pick up one ofthose. Scarcer than hen‘s teeth.

—I think maybeI do. —What‘llyou take forit?

— I‘ll make it easy. —Yeah?

Just tell us what you did with the dynamite. No deal

— What kind ofa fool do you take me for? You wouldn‘t sell it to me anyway. — I might, for some right answers.

Tell us about the dynamite. What time is it?

Why? / gotta know what time it is.

I lost my watch.

835 Is that all?

— What do you mean by that? — We got lots oftime.

[Friday Narra ting] We stayed at it

The weapons in Chapman is apartment were checked and unloaded

Other armament was placed out of his reach.

Chapman wanted to talk about even/thing but the missing dynamite.

The more he talked the more convinced Bill and / became that he had planted the explosives,

and it was on/ya matter of time now where and when it would be detonated

He sho wed no outward sign that it had been yet

77,57p.m.

He did. He really did.

He had the right idea too— keep the races pure.

No room for troublemaking minorities.

All right, Chapman. We‘ve heard all that four or five times.

Yeah, but you‘re not convinced yet.

— You oughta read some of this stuff— pamphlets, books. — Some other time.

Ifyou feel the way you say you do, you must have planted that dynamite where it‘d do a lot of harm.

You can bet on that.

Suppose we don ’t believe you Maybe you ’re just lying to make yourself look big

— What time you got? — 12:15.

Well, pretty soon you‘ll know ifI‘m lying or not.

[Friday Narra ting] We kept at it all night

We sent out for coffee and sandwiches.

Bill and / knew our only hope was to get Chapman to tell us what he had done with the four missing cases of dynamite.

Sunrise was beginning to break

Chapman continued his hate barrage.

/t was beginning to get on Bill is nerves, and mine too.

Chapman continual/y wanted to know the time.

/t was 832 am.

What‘d you do that for? Because we‘re about to throw up.

Come on, Chapman. Let‘s go downtown. It‘s not time yet.

It is foryou. Let‘s go. Do we have to go right now?

Right now. What time is it?

Why? I gotta know. Please!

No dice! Sit down!

You want the time ofday so bad, you tell us why.

— I gotta know. — We‘ll trade. We want to know why.

All right. Ifit‘s after 9:00, I‘ll tell you.

— It‘s five after. — /knewit /knewit

I can tell you now.

— You would’ve spoiled even/thing if / ’d told you before. — Told us what?

There‘s a school, see— 48th Street School. It ain‘t there now.

—What doyou mean? — It went up at 9:00 sharp.

— You blew up a school? — Why, sure.

— Wouldn‘t you ifyou was me? — What?

Starting today it was gonna be integrated.

[No Audible Dialogue]

[Friday Narra ting] 8:4 7 a. m.

/lied to Chapman about the correct time.

The important thing was, it told us part of what we ’d been trying to find out

The 48th Street School would hold its first class at 9:00 a. m.

They were immediately notified of the dynamite threat

They were instructed to evacuate the school buildings and the grounds...

fora distance of two blocks in all directions.

Ra y Murray and the Bomb Squad were dispatched to the school to try and locate the charge.

You lied. You lied to me.

— Where ’d you plant the charge? — You figure it out. I‘m not telling you anything.

You might as well. The school‘s being cleared right now.

— You can‘t do any harm except to destroy an empty building. — We‘ll see.

—Where is it? — One thing‘s sure.

— What‘s that? — They won‘t be able to go to that school.

You‘ll never find where I put that charge.

You‘rejust running up a bigger bill. Now, tell us where you put that dynamite.

Not a chance.

[Phone Rings ]

Friday. Yeah, Ray.

You did, huh? Where?

Yeah. Yeah, me too.

They found the dynamite. Ventilator shaft. It was rigged to one ofthe school bells.

Would‘ve gone offat 9:00 am.

Don‘t worry. There‘s others who feel like me.

Don‘t make much difference what happens to me. They‘ll get thejob done.

Wait and see. There‘ll be other times.

You listen to me, you wide—mouthed punk. We‘ve heardjust about all we want from you.

I know my rights. I know the law too. You‘ll want to know a lot more. A motive, for one thing.

Hate‘ll do for a start.

— Put that walnut—sized brain to work on this— You keep harping about minorities. — That‘s right.

Well, mister, you‘re a psycho, and they‘re a minority too.

[Narrator] The story you ha ve just seen is true.

The names were changed to protect the innocent

On No vember 7 5,

trial was held in Department 784,

Superior Court of the State of California,

in and for the County of L os Ange/es.

/n a moment, the results of that trial

The suspect was found guilty on a variety of charges. ..

ranging fiom burglary in the first degree to attempted murder.

A fi‘er his arrest, Chapman identified his confederate as one HarryA/bert/ones.

A fi‘er an exhaustive search, the suspect was finally located in Nevada...

where he was serving a sentence in the state prison...

afi‘er con viction on another charge.