1001 Radio Crime Solvers

Show Notes – Dragnet: “The Big Sour” & “The Big September Man”

THE BIG SOUR

In this classic Dragnet case, Friday and Smith are handed a mystery that begins with a single, bitter complaint — a man who insists the police aren’t doing enough to help him. What starts as a routine interview quickly turns into something far stranger. The complainant is angry, unpredictable, and convinced he’s being wronged, but nothing he says seems to add up. As Friday digs deeper, the case shifts from annoyance to danger, revealing a man whose bitterness has curdled into something explosive. “The Big Sour” is a sharp reminder of Dragnet’s strength: the way ordinary people, ordinary grievances, and ordinary days can suddenly turn into something deadly when the wrong mind snaps at the wrong moment.

THE BIG SEPTEMBER MAN

A quiet neighborhood is shaken when a young girl reports that a strange man approached her on her way home from school. Friday and Smith take the call, expecting a simple interview — but the details are unsettling, and the man’s behavior suggests something far more serious. As they canvass the area, they uncover a pattern: similar incidents, similar descriptions, all pointing to a predator who has been slipping through the cracks. The investigation becomes a race against time as the detectives work to identify the suspect before he escalates. “The Big September Man” is Dragnet at its most gripping, capturing the tension of a case where every minute matters and every detail could be the one that stops a tragedy.