The Big Lilly

Originally Aired: June 14, 1953

Dragnet #208, "The Big Lilly," finds Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Frank Smith responding to a cryptic phone call about a woman who has been badly beaten. The anonymous caller hangs up before providing crucial details, leaving the detectives with only an address in the Westlake area. When Friday and Smith arrive at 8674 Cambria Street, they find a quiet apartment building where the landlady, Mrs. Ruth Baker, insists nothing is wrong. Upon investigating apartment 104, however, they discover a grim scene: Hazel Rockman lies unconscious on a bed, severely beaten with both eyes blackened. Evidence of a recent party fills the apartment, but Hazel's husband has mysteriously disappeared just minutes before the officers arrived.

As the ambulance rushes Hazel to Georgia Street receiving hospital, Friday and Smith begin piecing together what happened. Mrs. Baker describes Mr. Rockman leaving in a daze-like trance, walking out without a word. With the victim's life hanging in the balance and her husband on the run, the detectives must track down the missing man and uncover what turned a quiet evening into a violent assault.