Factual crime drama (1935 - 57)

This "best remembered" of all the crime stoppers shows was billed as "the only national program that brings you authentic police case histories." Phillips H. Lord, already in radio, was looking for a new show concept.

He hit upon the angle doing a crime show, like the gangster films of the early 1930s, but making it the real thing, about the real criminals and cops and the FBI.A cross between the newspapers and the movies…what an idea! He went right to Washington, and got the tacit approval of J. Edgar Hoover himself to develop a show that used only closed cases (thus getting a good outcome) and had a solid law-enforcement slant.

Lord wrote his first episode right in the Justice Building in Washington.The show began on NBC as "The G-Men," with Chevrolet as sponsor.

Changing to Gangbusters the show came on strong right from the start and was a radio sensation. The pace was fast, the action was real and sometimes violent, the crimes and criminals were acted doing what was written about in the papers.

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Working his way through the major crimes and criminals, Lord turned to accounts of lesser known, but often more interesting true crime cases.The sound effects were great, and the hard-hitting tales were told with all the thrills of a good gangster movie.It followed that, like the notices in the Post Office, he could relay real wanted poster information on the show as well. During Gangbusters, alerts were broadcast for real criminals wanted by the police or FBI, and teasers called "Crime Buster Clues" were given as teasers to keep the audience ready for more!

Also in the true crime vein on old time radio is Mr. District Attorney and This Is Your FBI.

Later Dragnet, Crime Does Not Pay, and Tales of the Texas Rangers, took the idea on as well. Dragnet is a fine show, and stayed as close to the real cases as any "true crime" old time radio show ever did.

Tales of the Texas Rangers was the modern western version of Dragnet, and is a solid, well done crime show. Less factual, but still exciting, are I Was a Communist for the FBI, and The FBI in Peace and War.