This "Dragnet" film was a 'slim' take on the exploits of serial killer Harvey Glatman.
Don't know were the trailer came in at the end of the story, but it worked!
Vic Perrin, who played Don Negler, was the Control Voice for "The Outer Limits" series.
Friday and Gannon were great together!
Yeah, I've read that Glatman's abduction, photography, and murder of 3 women took place over almost a year's time, and then the 4th victim managed to wrest his gun away and that's how he was captured.
I happen to be watching this right now, and the scene was just played where the dead body is found near "dogtown." I've also noticed before that Sgt. Friday says the deputy coroner estimated the time of death between 2 and 4 a.m. Saturday morning. That's got to be a blooper they let get by-- because when they get the name Charles Laborg the desk clerk tells them he checked in the evening before at 6 p.m., and when they question his brother and his son, we learn he was there "the previous night," and it was on a Friday that their visit took place. But regardless, it doesn't seem to me there was enough certainty of Laborg's death to tell his relatives... perhaps to ask his brother to come and look at the body for identification, but not to tell them "yes wer're sure" when there has been no positive ID, and that they only latched onto this person via a book of matches of a hotel chain.
One of the victim's, Judy Ann Dull, worked occasionally as a bondage model for fetish photographer and artist John Willie (Adv. of Sweet Gwendoline). He remarked in a letter about her disappearance to a correspondent. Willie's LA photos could later be seen in LA Confidential, during the briefing scene, when Jack Vincennes goes back to Vice.
Vic Perrin voiced many a Hanna-Barbera cartoon, as well, and was the voice of Dr. Zinn, on Jonny Quest.
"Fortunately, Ah keep mah feathers numbered for just such an emergency!"
See also, for the true story behind this movie:
http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/glatman/disappear ed_1.html
As you can see, Webb took quite a few liberties with history, starting with placing the story in the late 1960s instead of the mid-50s, when it actually happened. Still, this show strikes me as the best thing Jack Webb ever did.
"I don't deduce, I observe."
This movie did remind me of the Glatman case. I'm glad other people made the same connection.
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