Get this and get it straight. Crime is a suckers road and those who travel it wind up in the gut of the prison of the grave.

The story you were about to hear is true, only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

The Adventures of Sam Spade Detective.

The Adventures of the Saints starring Vincent Prize.

Bob Bailey in the exciting adventures of the man with the action-packed expense account.

America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator.

Yours truly, Johnny Deller. I'm going to Hello and welcome to Down these Mean Streets where this week we're

saluting one of the biggest names in the world of radio crime solving Jack Webb. Born April 2nd 1920,

Webb is best known of course as the creator, producer, and star of Dragnet, and while Joe Friday was his most famous radio and television role, Webb played several other detectives on the air.

Unlike the no-nonsense civic-minded cop of Dragnet, these characters were hard-boiled with

flexible morals, and they were driven by money more than a sense of responsibility.

Today we'll hear three of them in a trio of mysteries

beginning with Jeff Regan investigator.

Webb starred as Regan, a $10 a day operative for a broken down detective agency, from July to December

1948.

He was known as The Lion's Eye because his boss was the corpulent and corrupt Anthony J. Lyon,

a fat-headed figurehead who was always willing to throw Regan under the bus.

Their relationship, which was adversarial but never violent,

always made for good scenes.

And Regan's mysteries were penned by a great lineup of radio writers,

including Johnny Dollar and lineup writer E. Jack Newman and

Larry Roman, a regular writer on Rocky Jordan. Roman wrote the episode we'll hear today

...