Originally Aired: January 17, 1934
In Calling All Cars #8, "The Steele Kidnapping," the annual police ball of 1921 comes to a devastating halt when Chief Charles E. Jones receives word that Officers Bill Brett and Harry Clester have been brutally murdered. The killers, not satisfied with shooting the two policemen, have driven their car back and forth over the bodies before fleeing the scene. Grief-stricken officers abandon the festivities as a city-wide manhunt begins immediately, with many not even stopping to change out of their evening dress.
Detectives Jesse Urban and Harry Hickok team up with Harry J. Raymond, night chief of the theft bureau of the automobile club, to track down the murderers of their fellow officers. Despite initial dead ends, Raymond's persistent questioning of the neighborhood yields a crucial witness: an old ex-gold miner who saw the entire shooting unfold. The witness describes a man in a light checkered suit with thin hair fleeing across a vacant lot, and Raymond discovers a piece of broken glass at the scene that may prove vital to solving the case.