Dragnet – Big Church. ep73, 501102

Homicide detail. A young woman is receiving threatening letters from a fanatic. Your job, get him.

Joe Friday and Ben Romero show up at the church to begin the investigation. The letters sent to a female church member are turned over by the priest, but with no return address, and postmarks from all over the city, the common notebook paper isn’t much to go on. Is there any resentment in the young lady joining the church? Phone calls also accompany the letters, signed alternately… a sister in the lord, or Brother Griswald.

Miss Wilson is interviewed, but can only add that she does have several old boyfriends, but can’t think of either boy or girl friends who would make threats. Stakeouts, handwriting analysis, and visits to old employers. Will patterns emerge? Evidence begins to point to Dorothy Wilson writing the letters to herself. If that’s true, then who just tried to kill her?

Found unconscious, gagged, and on the choir room floor, Miss Wilson is soon calmed as she reports on the crime, and gets medical attention. Joe Friday comes forward to confront the girl with inconsistencies in her story. Did she write the letters? Dorothy is evasive, and wants to talk about other things besides the case. Did she write the letters? Joe’s persistence pays off, but why did she do it? Is the attention she got going to be worth the attention she’ll be getting from the judge?