Cop and Robber
Citizens can be thankful for policemen like Dalton Robert Patton, whose funeral was held yesterday.
Patton, 58, who retired from the LAPD in 1943, was not a “front page cop.” He preferred to work quietly, without fuss.
Friends yesterday recalled his classic encounter with a safe cracker. Patton, detective captain at Hollywood station, spent months tracking him down and had him, as the saying goes, “dead bang.”
But to everyone’s consternation a jury acquitted him. After the trial the burglar said, “No hard feelings, captain. And I want you to know I’ll never crack another safe in your division .”
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PATTON DIDN’T FORGET; he waited. One day months later he saw the man’s name on a make sheet for drunk driving. He checked the jail and learned he would not be released on bail for several hours. He went to the robber’s address, was admitted to his apartment by the landlady and found what he suspected would be there — a canvas bag of yeggman’s tools. He put a coating of powdered anthracite on them and departed. His guess was that the robber would need money for bail and a lawyer and try for it the only way he knew. The robber did — one safe in Glendale, another in Burbank. This time, when confronted with Patton’s telltale evidence — powdered anthracite is invisible but glitters like gold under black light — the robber disgustedly pleaded guilty. ::
SILVER LINING ::
SPEAKING OF which, the movie “Operation Petticoat” has a scene in which George Dunn, crewman on a sub docked at a South Pacific island during WWII, is enjoying a luau when a Japanese plane strafes the area. He hits the deck, gets up covered with a red smear and exclaims, “Gosh, I’ve been killed.” Then he tastes the red stuff and says, “Cranberries!”
A month ago the line hardly meant anything; now it’s bringing down the house. ::
“May I express my thanks to the fine doctors who take time out of busy schedules to drive miles to General Hospital to study the cases of heart patients like myself and prescribe medication. Not all doctors are money grabbers.” ::
He led off stating one of the most spectacular floats would be the “crater monster” from the film “Journey to the Center of the Earth.” Then this sentence: “The monster, breathing jets of smoke from the nostrils of its giant serpent head, is expected to kindle the yule spirit in the heart of every Hollywood child.” ::
“The investigation of TV quiz show fixing has me wondering if the committee will look into the matter of the ladies not so well blessed as others who put on false fronts and derrieres. After all, they are fooling people into believing their structure is all Mother Nature, which is dishonest and fraudulent. Not to mention the letdown the ladies would get upon finding out their he-man wore padded shoulders and built-up shoes. Personally I have no worries but this thing is leading from one place to another so fast.” Somebody was bound to bring it up. ::
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