User Reviews

DRAGNET "The Big Grandma" 1953

This is the 23rd episode of the 283 episode run of the original Police Detective series, DRAGNET. This series ran from 1951 to 59.

Sgt Joe Friday (Jack Webb) and Detective Frank Smith (Ben Alexander) are working the day watch out of Forgery Division. They are assigned a case known as the "Granny Forger". It seems that for the last 9 years an elderly woman shows up three times a year and passes a barrage of bad paper. She has taken various businesses for 20 grand over the 9 years.

The woman is hitting stores again and everyone just says it was a sweet old woman passing the checks. It takes the Detectives several months of pounding the sidewalks etc before they catch a break. They track the lead to a woman, Gwen Delano, who is the culprit. It turns out the woman was using the crime spree to drum up some cash to give to charity. Charity or not, it is off to see a judge.

Review - The Big Grandma Aired 1-8-53 Above the norm of the usual episodes involving bad check writing with a twist, no age discrimination here; the suspect has white hair, indeed could be somebody's grandmother. The timeline on the episode is April 17 until suspect sentencing date that December, the suspect was arrested in October.

The story has a message of perseverance, nine years going on ten, the same person committing these crimes, no luck catching her. Friday narrates her slip-up was stealing and using her friend's charge-a-plate to write checks at a department store. The plate belonged to a long-time customer. Why the store could not identify the user wasn't the name on the plate is a mystery. The manager okayed the check as he told Friday, Smith, because the plate and signature matched one of their best customers; he didn't see the person actually cashing the check was not the person named on the plate. The saleslady would bring the check with ID to the manager for approval.

The officers go to the plate owner's house, finding she had lost the plate recently, verifying the likely time of the loss with the actual suspect. Friday's claim the forger had finally made a mistake using that plate as identification. A visit to the suspect's house extracts the wanted confession of guilt after all these years. Grandma was convicted on two counts of forgery, the remaining charges were set off the calendar. Suspect is now serving her term in the California Institution for Women, Tehachapi, CA. The guest cast is familiar to some, frequent enough appearances in the series, and well played roles from all. An episode worth watching based on the tracking of the evidence to the suspect.