Dragnet – Big Book. ep43, 500406

Assigned to Juvenile Bureau, the high schools in your area have been flooded by obscene literature. Your job, put a stop to it. The meeting of the PTA is turned over to detectives Romero and Friday to hear the complaints. Possessing lewd literature is apparently not a crime, but selling it is. The problem will be in finding the seller, and proving he has intent to sell. Should stronger laws be made, or should better attempts be made to develop strong character in young people? Traviss is caught selling the dirty books… well… funny books as he calls them.

Hitting the streets, Joe Friday hopes to find the source of the lewd books, and shut the printer down. The next step, a stakeout on his supplier. Along the way, Barney isn’t shy about asking the waitress in the taco stand to pose for his book, or even show a sample to Joe. Acting in undercover mode, Joe closes the trap to haul Barney in, but there’s still more to this racket.

Curiosity of youngsters, and stupidity of adults is what Joe calls this kind of smutty business. More peddlers of smut are picked up, but little progress to the supplier is made. A long standing print house, specializing in bibles and faith material is where the leads point to. Joe and Ben visit the print shop, where all seems above board. The give away is some of the folks who were picked up for the smut are hanging around. A stakeout pays off, and printing plates of the smut are confiscated.