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 are 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. And the Hello and welcome to Down These Mean Streets.

This week we're hearing again from Jack Webb, one of the patron saints of old time radio

detectives. Of course he's best known for Dragnet and his role of Sergeant Joe

Friday, but today we'll hear him in a series that aired on

CBS the year before Dragnet launched. It's Jeff Regan investigator, with Webb starring as the titular private eye.

Unlike most of the radio gum shoes, Regan wasn't a lone wolf. He was a hired operative for the International Detective Bureau.

The head man was Anthony J. Lyon, and that earned Reagan the nickname of the Lion's Eye.

Lion was a lazy money grubber who was always eager to collect the fees for Regen's dangerous

assignments but hated to lift as much as a finger to help his employees.

Lyon was first played by Wilms Herbert. A few months later he'd be heard as

Sergeant Otis opposite Dick Powell on Richard Diamond.

Wyan was also played by Herb Butterfield, who was a great actor, but I think Herbert was

a little better at playing up the weasley aspects of the Lion character.

Scripts for Jeff Regan were penned by some great radio crime writers, including E. Jack Newman, who wrote for Johnny Dollar in the lineup, and

Larry Roman, who wrote many Radio Adventures of Rocky Jordan.

But the big draw of the show today is Jack Webb's performance.

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