by Hal Erickson
synopsis
This episode is based on the Dragnet radio broadcast of December 27, 1951, which was originally written to acknowledge the death of Jack Webb's costar Barton Yarborough. The TV version opens as Joe Friday (Webb) mourns the loss of his longtime partner Ben Romero (the role played by Yarbrough), who has succumbed to a sudden heart attack. But Friday recovers sufficiently to team with a new partner, Frank Smith, and search for a pair of holdup men who have escaped to a desolate patch of farmland on the L.A. County border. The role of Frank Smith is played in this and several other episodes by Herb Ellis; the "real" Smith, Ben Alexander, would not join the series for several weeks to come.
