It was Christmas morning in Los Angeles, and Detectives Joe Friday and Ben Romero were already at a churchyard crime scene before sunrise. The victim: a woman with no identification, lying in the rain-soaked grounds of San Andreas Cathedral. The only clues were a cheap fountain pen, a door key that fit no lock anyone could find, and a cast of boot prints from the wet earth nearby. By the time they identified the woman as Maria Camacho – a 38-year-old seamstress who had been drinking her way through Christmas Eve in the bars of East Los Angeles, the trail was already cold and getting colder.
Friday and Romero spent the next two days canvassing every bar in the neighbourhood, tracing Maria’s last movements from cantina to cantina, from the testimony of bartenders and busboys to the quiet workbench of a shoeshine man on Chicago Street. A fleck of brown boot polish on the victim’s face. A key that finally found its lock. And a man drinking alone in the back room of a mission annex, with three empty wine bottles on the table and a broken beer bottle in his hand. From a Christmas morning murder with nothing to go on, Friday and Romero built the case one meticulous step at a time.
Episode Quotes
“I know the feet when I see ‘em. I don’t know the faces.” – Angelo, the Shoeshine Man
“He drinks to forget. Whenever Frank starts drinking, that means he’s worrying.” – Mission Director
Radio Archaeology is a Vancouver Island podcast celebrating the Golden Age of Radio through classic broadcasts including Gunsmoke, Dragnet and other timeless radio dramas while exploring the history of vintage broadcasting and storytelling. Radio Archaeology is part of The PULSE Podcast Community.
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