The Hardened Detective Who Inspired Dragnet

Dragnet’s Joe Friday might not have been a real person but one of his civilian consultants that he routinely turned to for help, Raymond Pinker, was in fact based upon a real person. As such, many of the cases referenced in the show were also based upon real-life cases cracked by Pinker.

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Pinker helped lay the groundwork for all the forensic analysts that came after him. He was apart of the nations first crime lab in Los Angeles and helped it grow from a small ill-equipped, dingy, chem lab with a Bunsen burner, a microscope, and a few test tubes into a full-fledged modern facility with dozens of experts, spectrometers, and centrifuges, and the respect of the academic and law enforcement community to boot.

Pinker redefined the way investigators looked at crime scenes. He was able to see the little details that most people would overlook, and equipped with that knowledge, he was able to make inferences about the methods and motives of the perpetrators that were more-often-than-not right on the money.

This video is going to look at the life and times of Raymond Pinker, the man that provided most of the of the source material for the popular TV and Radio program Dragnet. He is a fascinating individual whose name history doesn’t often bring up, but he certainly deserves some recognition – especially considering how influential his work has been to both the entertainment industry and the world of law enforcement.

The Hardened Detective Who Inspired Dragnet

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