- Police Chief Regan: To prevent other crimes, your police department has prepared five don'ts. DON'T let your children accept rides from strangers, sometimes these are one-way rides leading to death. The amiable stranger may be a killer. DON'T let your children accept presents from strangers. A bag of popcorn or a candy bar is not worth your child's life. DON'T send children on after-dark errands, the night works in behalf of the killer who preys on our young. If you must have something from the store after sundown, get it yourself. DON'T let your child play unattended in wooded places or empty lots. Though your eyes aren't on them, somebody else's may be watching. DON'T let your children become friendly with Pop, that nice old character in your neighborhood. Most of these men are harmless, but there are exceptions. It's up to you to make sure your child isn't the victim of one of these exceptions. And now for one all important do: If you notice any suspicious characters lurking around schools and playgrounds, DO call at once, your police department: Central 5000, the life you save may be your child's life.
- Charlie Marshall, crime boss: I'm glad you're here to defend me, Dan, Riggert just said that I'm the baby killer.
- Riggert: Oh I didn't mean you personally, boss.
- Charlie Marshall, crime boss: Make me a case, counselor, I'll need that glass. Make me a case.
- Dan Langley: Gentlemen of the jury, I'll be brief. I know we're all anxious to get away, I myself have a very important case waiting, a case of scotch. But believe me, gentlemen, this is the most important case since I went to the bar. Mr. Marshall here is not only my client, he's my friend, I've known him for years since he was a boy. He was a good boy, good to his mother. Gentlemen you have the faces of honest men, good judges of character, look at my client, you judge for yourselves whether he would be capable of these heinous crimes by simply asking yourselves, whether you, you for instance, would be capable of killing an innocent baby.
- Mrs. Coster: Where's Elsie? Why didn't you wait for her?
- Boy: We thought she went home with someone else. We wanted to wait for her. Honest, Mrs. Coster!
- Police Chief Regan: I tell you, Mayor, we're doing everything possible. We may pick up that murderer in the next five minutes or we may never find him. All we can do is follow every lead.
- The Mayor: You're not dealing with a punk or a tin horn, usual procedure won't work! Catching this man is going to take brains, imagination.
- Police Chief Regan: Maybe you have some ideas we can use.
- The Mayor: IDEAS! I've got a million of them! It's not my job to run this department, it's yours! I've got a city to run, this just one department. People in this city depend on me for transportation, for hospitals, for sanitation! Not to go out and catch this murderer!
- Inspector Carney: I'm sorry, Mr. Mayor, I haven't got him yet.
- The Mayor: Of course you haven't, you know why? You're not thinking this through! Now listen, take a tip, use this!
- [points to head]
- The Mayor: Put yourself in the killer's place, what would you do if you were a killer? Now you figure that out and you've got your man.
- Inspector Carney: Ordinarily you look for a dame or a bankbook, get a victim with known enemies, what do we got? Some missing shoes. What're we looking for? A man with a twisted mind. Could be anybody.
- Lt. Becker: I just washed out the last bum we picked up.
- Inspector Carney: Maybe we should widen the field.
- Lt. Becker: Bums don't sue for false arrest.
- Inspector Carney: We keep on picking up bums and the guy we're looking for could be a professor, a storekeeper, maybe even a cop. We look for him in honky tonks and he might be on a golf course.
- Mother of murdered child: I can't believe it. I can't believe it, not my baby.
- Father of murdered child: We read about those other children in the papers but, our baby...
- Inspector Carney: It could be anyone's child, anyone's, NO one is safe.
- Charlie Marshall, crime boss: You see, Riggert? The thought of these murders turns even Pottsy's stomach, imagine the feelings of the general public. Your average citizen isn't too concerned whether the police catch us or not, less the press stirs them up for political reasons, because in one way or another we service almost the entire community. But when it comes to catching a baby killer, they want action from their police department.
- Riggert: That's what I said, they're on the spot.
- Charlie Marshall, crime boss: So what do they do? The counselor here's told us what happened at Mick's. How's your floating craps game, Sutro?
- Sutro: Just floating, keeping its head above water but that's about all. A few of the boys got tabbed so they're laying low.
- Charlie Marshall, crime boss: That's what I thought, MacMahan?
- MacMahan: Same, or worse. Yeah you can't even show your face around the high schools these days.
- Charlie Marshall, crime boss: Pottsy?
- Pottsy: Where's the cops get the idea baby killers play slot machines?
- Riggert: Sure boss, it's the same as us, they've been tapping a lot of our bookies, cigar store, barbershop stuff.
- Charlie Marshall, crime boss: Riggert, excuse me, counselor.
- [points to stack of glasses]
- Charlie Marshall, crime boss: What do you think that means?
- Riggert: People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones? I don't know, boss.
- Charlie Marshall, crime boss: We're in a business with a take of millions, from Pottsy's slot machines to your wire service.
- [points to bottom row]
- Charlie Marshall, crime boss: These are the runners, the pickup men, they collect the first money.
- [points to second row]
- Charlie Marshall, crime boss: These are the drops, the district offices.
- [points to third row]
- Charlie Marshall, crime boss: This is the center, you boys.
- [points to top glass]
- Charlie Marshall, crime boss: This is me. We're on the top there. Riggert, you think everything is lovely just because we're not in front of the Grand Jury and your face isn't on the front pages.
- Riggert: Sure.
- Charlie Marshall, crime boss: Yeah sure, but look what happens on the top there when the bottom is knocked out!
- [swipes glasses off the counter]
- Charlie Marshall, crime boss: See what I mean? Clean up the mess, Counselor.
- Riggert: Who do we frame?
- Charlie Marshall, crime boss: No frame, Riggert. This killer isn't going to stop just because they make an arrest. We've got to find him and stop him ourselves.
- Sutro: Oh, we ain't gonna help the cops, we're gonna BE the cops.
- Charlie Marshall, crime boss: We've got the organization to keep an eye on every child in this city. Our runners and pickup men are in the city all the time. We've got drops in candy stores, barber shops, newsstands, shoe shine parlors, even got our own radio system, our cabs the Ajax outfit. With their two-way system they cover this town.
- Pottsy: The way I see it, my boys are gonna be dishing out the third degree for a change. They're gonna like that.
- Sutro: A fine operation this is gonna be.
- Charlie Marshall, crime boss: That's right, a major operation: Operation M.
- Pottsy: M? I don't get it.
- Sutro: M for Murderer, dope.
- Martin W. Harrow: You see, I've discovered something very important -- very important for everybody to know: I haven't got it all figured out yet -- I can't put it all -- my fingers -- keep it all -- pieces together, but it's too important. People gotta listen: You see, my mother always told me that -- this always took me a while to figure out -- but my mother always said that men are born evil and cruel and awful. Not just all people, but men! Men are evil and low, and that's the hardest thing for man to fight against. That's the hardest thing for man. You have to be hurt, you have to be punished in order to be good, you have to be whipped and tortured and crucified in order to understand! She's a good woman. She's beautiful, her hand's gently crossed on her breast. Why should she suffer? Why should she of all women when she -- see that's what I never understood. This is important -- this part: When I stole the blanket for her, she knew I was trying to be good, but she made me take the blanket back to the sheriff. It was only at the County Farm that I really understood: I found a bird, a blackbird. It had a broken wing and I nursed it. And then when it was almost well and wanted to fly away and I thought about it escaping, I remembered that it was a world of men; a bird flying into a world too ugly and cruel -- too ugly and cruel for birds and children, so I knew I had to kill her children! The bird! I had to kill a bird so I'd be punished and keep her out of the fire! Now you see? It's been the coldest winter too while I was looking for work. There'd be many things I could do if I could only get this figured out. If they don't hang me by the neck, I may have time to figure it out at the County Farm. County Farm! Hanged by the neck until -- my father should have been hanged for the things he did! She said so! When I think of the vile, horrible, ugly, cruel things I have to do in order to be punished! I don't wanna do them! I don't want to, but I can't help myself! I can't help myself! I CAN'T HELP MYSELF!