The Big Rod

Originally Aired: March 16, 1954

Dragnet #239, "The Big Rod," Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Frank Smith investigate a vicious hit-and-run that leaves a young woman, Helen Chapman, clinging to life with critical injuries including compound fractures, a punctured lung, and brain concussion. Their only witness is Midge Hunter, a neighbor who saw the entire incident unfold beneath a streetlight. She describes how a hot rod—a battered black Ford from around 1940—came barreling around the corner and struck Mrs. Chapman as she stepped off the curb, the driver making no attempt to stop or even slow down.

As Friday and Smith interview Hunter, she reveals crucial details: the driver appeared to be a young man around nineteen or twenty, and the car had twin exhaust pipes and a club plate hanging from the rear bumper with a name ending in "wheels." With Mrs. Chapman unconscious and unable to provide any information, and her devastated husband Carl waiting helplessly at the hospital, Friday and Smith must track down the driver using only these fragmentary clues before the trail goes cold.