The Big Lie

Originally Aired: October 12, 1952

Dragnet #173, "The Big Lie," Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Frank Smith respond to a homicide call on Byrne Street, where they meet Edith Curtis, a grief-stricken mother whose son Jeff has been shot to death. Mrs. Curtis explains that Jeff was cleaning his gun at the kitchen table when she heard loud voices followed by a gunshot. Rushing to the living room, she discovered her son lying dead and spotted an unfamiliar man fleeing the scene. She provides the detectives with a detailed description of the suspect: a man in his thirties or early forties, over six feet tall, wearing a blue denim outfit with distinctive trim.

As Friday and Smith begin their investigation, Mrs. Curtis reveals that her household has been marked by tragedy. Just two years earlier, her youngest daughter Alice committed suicide, a loss that nearly destroyed her. Now faced with another child's violent death, she struggles to find meaning in the relentless grief that has consumed her family. The detectives must determine whether Jeff's death was a random killing or connected to the family's troubled past.