The Big Drive

Originally Aired: August 14, 1952

Dragnet #164, "The Big Drive," finds Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Frank Smith investigating a brutal homicide in a vacant lot near Fountain and Selma. The victim, beaten to death with a piece of concrete, is discovered by schoolgirls whose screams bring the entire neighborhood running. Unfortunately, well-meaning neighbors have trampled the crime scene, obliterating crucial physical evidence before the police arrive. The only lead comes from a young couple who heard men arguing near a dark sedan around the time of the killing, but they can provide few useful details about the car or its occupants.

Through the victim's driver's license and personal effects, Friday and Smith identify him as John Allen Iverson, a twenty-eight-year-old man. With robbery ruled out as a motive since Iverson's money and expensive watch remain untouched, the detectives face the difficult task of determining why he was killed. They must now deliver the devastating news to his mother, a widow who has already endured the loss of her husband just two years earlier. The investigation begins with few clues and many questions.