August 9, 2025 • 29 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The National Broadcasting Company presents Joel McCrae in Tales.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Of the Texas Rangers.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Tonight transcribe from Hollywood another authentic reenactment of a case
from the files of the Texas Rangers, Tales of the
Texas Rangers, starring Joel McCrae as Ranger Jase Pearson, Texas
more than two hundred and sixty thousand square miles and
(00:32):
fifty men who make up the most famous and oldest
law enforcement party in North America. Now from the files
(00:53):
of the Texas Rangers come these stories based.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
On fact only. Names, dates, and places are fictitious for
obvious reasons.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
They advanced themselves are a matter of record case for
Tonight no living witnesses.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
It is eleven thirty am a Monday morning in November.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Nineteen thirty nine.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Sheriff Ross Bedsby turns his car into a quiet residential
street of Harper's Landing, Texas. Seated in the car with
him is Missus Blackburn, a medical assistant. She becomes increasingly
nervous as they approach a sign marking the home of
doctor Walter Hennett.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Now don't go get and jump him, is Blackburn. There
could be one hundred reasons for the dock to be.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
Missing, not Doc Hemmid. And you know it.
Speaker 5 (01:44):
It ain't like him to just disappear. No sign of
him since Saturday night. Wasn't a church yesterday, and he
ain't at his house this morning. He's always there for visiting.
How is it nine thirty?
Speaker 2 (01:54):
So he's probably out on a house call, maybe over
to the hospital at Ridge here if he.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
Was the pone operator know about it. Besides, his car
is still in the garage.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Oh here's a house. Better get out of the car
and see if we can't read him.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
That's what I've been trying to do all morning.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
You sure he wasn't at church yesterday?
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Of course, I'm sure.
Speaker 5 (02:16):
He always gave me a ride home to my place,
and I'd always make someday breakfast for him before he'd
start on his house calls.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
You don't work for.
Speaker 5 (02:23):
A man for ten years without learning his habits, especially
a doctor.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Well, he's gotta be around some place.
Speaker 6 (02:32):
Doc heh Dc, Doc Doc.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Helmet, who do have a keem?
Speaker 5 (02:43):
His blackburn never needed one before front door, the waiting
room's always been open except at night.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Of course, he could have driven off with somebody but oh, I.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
Don't know if he's here. Why doesn't he answer?
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Well, even doctors get sick, and Doc hammigs no young
Street might have had a stroke. What are you gonna do,
Sherif we gotta get inside, I got no legal right
to bust in without a warrant. But that'll take time,
and maybe this can't wait.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
Why don't you just go in?
Speaker 6 (03:13):
Then?
Speaker 4 (03:13):
Doc knows you, he'd understand.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
He doesn't understand, I reckon. He'll just have to assume
me for a broken window. I'll knock this and in
with my gun. Then I'll climb in and let you
in through the door.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
Well, hurry, all right, come in.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Where's Dark's bedroom back here?
Speaker 6 (03:41):
Not here?
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Bed's been used though, it's all.
Speaker 5 (03:43):
Made up Saturday night when I left and he slept
here Saturday night.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Bathroom doors open. Nothing in there. Reckon, We better go
through the rest of the house. Kitchen's clear, you can
see out back through the windows. There's nothing there either, Sheriff.
I'm I'm frightened. The sliding door to his office was
closed when we come into the waiting room. Better have
(04:10):
a look at that office. He isn't in here. I
don't know, Oh, sheriff better stay back in his back brin.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
Oh, doctor him dressed.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
In a robe and pajamas, must have had a heart attack,
come in here to get something for it. And wait a.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Minute, what is it? Oh? This robe, it looks like blood.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Tis blood from a bullet wound. He's been murdered.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Sheriff Betsby made an immediate request for the aid of
a Texas Ranger.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Ranger Jace Pearson was assigned. He joined the sheriff at.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
The home of doctor Hemmat shortly after one pm.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Jason, this miss Blackbury and she was Doc's helper. And
this is Ranger Pierson, Miss Blackburn, Hady hodey, ma'am. I
asked Miss Blackburn to stay until you got here. Reckon.
She knows more about Doc than anybody. I gather. You
didn't live here in the.
Speaker 7 (05:15):
House, ma'am.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
No, I have my own place.
Speaker 8 (05:19):
I don't know just what I'd like to ask you yet,
until I look around. Would you mind waiting a little longer?
I stay as long as you need me, thanks, ma'am.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Where's the body? Sheriff in the office through that sliding door.
I've been keeping it closed off. Nobody's been in here
but me and one deputy. He just took a couple
of pictures. Yeah, nickle examiner been here yet, No, but
he'll be along soon. He's driving down from.
Speaker 8 (05:44):
Hesterville Mark alongside the doc's temple here and bruise about
two inches long.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
A pretty heavy blow.
Speaker 8 (05:53):
It's like he might have been knocked out with a
gun barrel.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
That figures because he wasn't standing up when he was shot.
He was lying here on the floor. Makes you think
so bullet went right through the chest and buried in
the floor on him. I've moved him a little and
I dug the slug up here forty five.
Speaker 8 (06:09):
Yeah, it's something funny about this though. What a bit
of blood on this examination table almost six feet away
from the body.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yeah, I wondered about that myself.
Speaker 8 (06:19):
The instrument tray and surgical dressings pulled up beside the table,
and there's a couple of hypodermic needles that look like
they've been used.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Well, jash. Doc couldn't have been trying to treat his
own wound. He never moved after he was shot, of
that slug wouldn't have been in the floor right und him.
Of course, he might have staggered around before he was shot.
Speaker 8 (06:37):
After he got hit on the head, it still wouldn't
count for the blood on this table. There was no
bleeding from the mark on his head.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
That means the blood on the table come from somebody else.
Speaker 8 (06:46):
Medical examiner can type it for us later. I want
to see missus Blackburn for a minute.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
We can use some help from you now, Miss Blackburn.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
I'll tell you anything I can.
Speaker 8 (06:58):
Missus Blackburn, was it part of your job to clean
the doctor's offices?
Speaker 4 (07:02):
Yes, every day after his final visiting hours.
Speaker 8 (07:05):
According to the sign outside, his evening hours were from
five to seven pm.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
That's right.
Speaker 8 (07:10):
I think you cleaned the place after seven pm Saturday night.
Speaker 6 (07:13):
Yes.
Speaker 7 (07:14):
What time did you leave?
Speaker 5 (07:16):
Well, doctor had a few calls to make after visiting
ours house cars. I waited until he got back and
fixed his dinner for him. I reckon it was late
when I left, after ten o'clock.
Speaker 8 (07:30):
Look through the door of the examination room from mount.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
Yes.
Speaker 8 (07:37):
Is that surgical tray usually in that position? I mean,
did you leave it like that Saturday night?
Speaker 4 (07:42):
No, everything was put away in the cabinet.
Speaker 8 (07:45):
How about the examination table? You cleaned that off Saturday night?
Speaker 6 (07:48):
Yes?
Speaker 8 (07:49):
Was the doctor expecting any patient after you left late.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
No, no, he said he was going right.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
To bed, and he must have gone to Jays. The
bed had been slept in and you can see what
he was wearing.
Speaker 7 (08:00):
Doc.
Speaker 8 (08:01):
I think it'd be all right for you to go
home now, ma'am. If I need any more information, we
can reach you there.
Speaker 6 (08:06):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Tell the deputy outside that I said to drive you home.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
I'd assume walk.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Yes, Well, thanks for helping me. Is Blackburn? Well? That said?
It was one thing, Jase. Doc had an unexpected patient
late Saturday night, somebody who routed him out of bed
and killed him.
Speaker 8 (08:26):
But why I got an idea was to keep the
doc from calling you, keep him from calling me?
Speaker 6 (08:31):
What do you mean?
Speaker 8 (08:31):
Whoever came here was hurt bleeding, So it wasn't a
planned visit. Not somebody who came here deliberately to kill
the dot. Doc was killed to keep him from talking
about the visit.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Oh, Doc cam It had never talked about a patient's business.
Speaker 8 (08:44):
Only in one case where the law would require it.
He'd have to report it if he treated anybody for
a bullet wound.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
That's right, Jase, that could be it. That probe on
the instrument tray has blood on it, And that's just
what a dog had use to dig out a bullet.
Speaker 8 (08:58):
I know I've got a few dug outs myself. Let's
call this examination room again.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
What are you looking for? If we're right, a.
Speaker 8 (09:05):
Slug Doc dug out of his patient. We found it
wrapped in a piece of bloodstained gauze in one of
the trash containers. There was something else in the container too,
part of a faded blue denim shirt that had been
used to bind a wound.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Here. Must have been a bad wound case that denim
was soaked.
Speaker 7 (09:28):
Yeah, and take a look at this slug.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Looks like a slug from a savage three h three.
But Doc was killed by forty five. That's natural.
Speaker 8 (09:35):
The man who came here wounded was shot someplace else
by somebody else. Wouldn't be the same gun feller where
after must have been in a gunfight. Then it's the
way it shapes up.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
With all that blood.
Speaker 8 (09:45):
He couldn't have come far, couldn't have waited too long
to get to a doctor. And the chances are he
wasn't alone. Somebody must have been helping him.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Oh, they could have just left Doc knocked out, trusted
him up, and gotten away.
Speaker 6 (09:54):
Why'd they have to kill him?
Speaker 7 (09:56):
I can't answer that one. When the medical examiner.
Speaker 8 (09:58):
Gives us the wounded man's bloo bood type, I'm gonna
send the two slugs we've got through to Austin for
a ballistic check, get a run down on every police
report involving gunplay that took place anywhere within one hundred
miles here on Saturday night. The medical examiner came and,
after a quick check, gave us the blood type of
the man we were after. I arranged for the two
(10:20):
slugs we had to be sent through to Austin. At
the same time, phoned for a complete report on all
shooting incidents that had occurred on Saturday night. Then the
sheriff and I started to drive to his office.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
This looks like a tough one to me, Jason. We
got a blood type check for but I reckon A
million people in Texas have type old blood.
Speaker 8 (10:37):
Yeah, but not all of them are gonna have a
recent bullet wound.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
They can't account for. You're right if we find one
who's been wounded. But for all we know, the man
duck feed It might have got hisself shot by accident.
If he did, he wouldn't have killed a doctor keep
him from report in it. Guess you got me hogged
height on that point, Jason, hold it him in a chair.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
For me.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
KTXA go ahead.
Speaker 9 (11:02):
He info you requested on cases involving firearms none reported
your general vicinity to Saturday.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Night ten four. There is possible though Unit ten what
is it? Body of man.
Speaker 9 (11:15):
Killed by gunfire discovered a few hours ago on slope
of thunder Ridge, Robling County, about seventy miles west your
present location. Time of death not yet determined, waiting report
of medical examiner.
Speaker 8 (11:28):
Ten four is another unit assigned to that case.
Speaker 9 (11:32):
Unit three covering this.
Speaker 8 (11:34):
Unit proceeding to join Unit three to explore possibility of
link between two killings.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Ten four.
Speaker 9 (11:40):
Best approach to scene is west slope of thunder Ridge.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
We'll have to leave carr go in mountain ten four.
Speaker 9 (11:47):
Unit three making contact by field said, will notify Unit
three of.
Speaker 8 (11:51):
Your coming ten four. Unit ten clear, katy x A Austin.
You think that might hook up with us? Jeez, it's
the only thing that's turned up now the ranger units there.
Unit three, that's Steve Clark. We can work it together.
Suppose I leave you on deck here to cover anything
that turns up suits me.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Just drop me in my office. Even if this fellow
you're gonna see who was killed on Saturday night, Jays,
it could still be a coincident, I know. But it'll
stop being a coincidence if he was killed by the
same forty five that was used to murder Doc Hemmot.
Speaker 8 (12:29):
I dropped the sheriff off, then headed for thunder Ridge.
When I got to the base, I unloaded charcoal to
my horse trailer and started to climb. The sun was
sinking as I started up the slope, and darkness came fast.
The spot of torches moving like fireflies. I rode for them.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Easy, easy, charcoal, watch your foot in the morning.
Speaker 6 (12:50):
Hello, Are oho that you? Steve?
Speaker 7 (12:55):
Right coming up to you? Hardy Steve, hardy Jays, gotta
walkie talking message you were coming. Didn't come down the
road to meet you because we wanted to get the
body out of here. A medical examiner can't do much
of We get it into town. Where is the body?
Back down a pack mule with the chef's deputies. I'm
(13:16):
leading the way down.
Speaker 8 (13:17):
I might as well get moving then I'll ride with you, right.
Speaker 6 (13:20):
All right?
Speaker 7 (13:20):
We're gonna move again all this gully, all the way
down and watch a step come up.
Speaker 8 (13:25):
I'm on cherky and he lying on How long he's
been dead.
Speaker 7 (13:30):
Not for sure, but I think it's gonna fit in
with what you're looking for. What I can judge he
was killed Saturday night.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Got anything to back that up?
Speaker 6 (13:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (13:38):
And the man's a cowpol works on that ranch at
the base of the ridge. He rode up here Saturday
night to see some Mexican guy he's been caught in.
But he never did get back to the ranch after
he left or shack.
Speaker 8 (13:48):
I don'onder why anybody traveled all the way up here
to kill him. He was ambushed on the way back
to the ranch. It'd been just as easy for the
killer to wait until he hit the flat down of
the ranch.
Speaker 7 (13:57):
Funny you should say that, why because he was shot
down on the.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Flat And how'd his body get up here and there?
Speaker 7 (14:03):
Z I can figure he started to ride back up
to get help. He wasn't killed right off, fell out
of the saddle and died where it fell.
Speaker 8 (14:09):
Seems to me he'd have ridden onto the ranch for help.
Speaker 7 (14:12):
On the ranch house is eleven miles off back up
this way. It was only one mile, Jase. I'll be
able to show you the whole thing when we get down.
I'll follow the tracks both ways.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Say you leave your car in your mind.
Speaker 7 (14:23):
Yeah, well they're shooting. Took place not far from where
we parked. There was a break in the fence there
and the marks of a truck. But they want deep
enough to make a cast of them. You mean whoever
gunned him had a truck down there. Yeah, that's right, Jase.
We say there are cattle tracks all over the place too.
Speaker 8 (14:37):
I might mean he's surprised somebody who was trying to
run some stock off the play.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Yeah, not only trying, but succeeding.
Speaker 7 (14:43):
Few white faces that were grazing in that section can't
be located.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
And he's fitting with your doctor.
Speaker 8 (14:49):
Killing depends on whether your cow polk was killed by
forty five and whether he returned fire and hit one
of the men he saw down there.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
And he fought with him, all right. He was carrying
a saddle rifle.
Speaker 7 (14:59):
He dropped it when he go I got here to reckon,
I've found it beside his tracks down below, already standing
on Austin.
Speaker 8 (15:04):
Only one thing you gotta tell me, then, and I'll
know if the two killings go hand in hand.
Speaker 7 (15:08):
What kind of a rifle was the kaw Polk using?
What God you're looking for, Jason Savage, three oh three,
you got a case, That's what it was.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
In just a moment, we will continue with Tales of
the Texas Rangers, starring Joel McCrae as Ranger Chase Pearson.
Speaker 10 (15:34):
Three chimes mean good times on NBC. We're posting a
little because here at NBC you will find the roughest, toughest,
most romantic crime fighters ever assembled under one network roof.
Take Wednesday evening, for example. On Wednesdays you'll hear action
with mister District Attorney, the Big Story, and that new
daring private eye, Rex Saunders, played by Rex Harrison. So
just keep your mystery ear glued to your NBC station
(15:57):
every Wednesday.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
We continue now with Tales of the Texas Rangers and
tonight's case No Living Witnesses, an authentic story from the
files of the Texas Rangers.
Speaker 8 (16:15):
The cow Pol and doctor him Hat had been killed
by the same men.
Speaker 7 (16:18):
All right.
Speaker 8 (16:19):
Ballistics proved the bullet dug out of the floor from
under the doctor was a twin to the forty five
taken out of the murdered cow Polk.
Speaker 7 (16:25):
Steve Park and I put our.
Speaker 8 (16:26):
Horses in the double trailer I was towing and headed
for Harper's Landing Ballistic boys.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
If the lab didn't take long, compare those slugs, did they?
And never do it? All fits even test fire the
cow Polke's rifle.
Speaker 7 (16:38):
I fired the slug Doc Hammi took out of that
patient we're looking for.
Speaker 8 (16:42):
We're not only looking for him, We're gonna find him.
And whoever was with him, it must.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Be more than one man, all right.
Speaker 7 (16:47):
Once you told me about the blood on that piece
of denim shirt, he couldn't have been in any condition.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
To drive by himself, not all the way to Hopper's Landing.
Speaker 8 (16:54):
Eh seventy miles, and he must have known he was
gonna need a doctor.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Hey, you look like that gives you know? It? Does?
I think it answers a question.
Speaker 8 (17:02):
The sheriff asked me why they killed the doc instead
of just tying him up, And what's the answer. They
killed him because they didn't just happen by his place.
They knew Doc Hammitt, and he knew them.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
That's a big conclusion, Jason.
Speaker 8 (17:14):
It's not hard to reach either. Look, Steve, doc Hemot's
house in Harper's Landing isn't on the main street through town.
It's on a side street, not easy to find in
the middle of the night unless you knew where it was.
Not only that, but they had to pass through two
bigger towns on the way there.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Town's with more than one doctor.
Speaker 8 (17:31):
Steve, if you were shot and wanted to keep it covered,
but you had to be treated, what would you do?
Speaker 7 (17:37):
Well, go to my own family, doc I reckon and
hope that I could talk him into keeping it quiet.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
You're right, jas That means the men we were after
must live in or near Harper's Landing.
Speaker 8 (17:47):
Let's say, on a ranch somewhere outside the town, someplace
they could have taken stolen cattle.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
We know the brand mark and those stolen white faces. Say,
we're going to do some range riding.
Speaker 8 (17:56):
Until we find them, until they show up for sale
at some commission house or auction barn.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
You think the sheriff will be willing to ride with us?
Speaker 8 (18:02):
I see will doc Emman was a friend of his,
and the sheriff doesn't take to.
Speaker 11 (18:05):
Killers Arson ranch is about two miles farther.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
On might stop there and get some grub if you'd like.
I'm all for a cheff.
Speaker 7 (18:21):
I about Jase, haven't taken much eating time for the
past two days.
Speaker 8 (18:25):
Oh, why don't you just grab a handful of range grass.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
It's loaded with vitamins.
Speaker 7 (18:29):
You'll be loaded with buckshot if you come up with
any more ideas like that.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Yeah, come on, jas before we get some skinny that
augusty wind who lift us right out of the saddle. Okay, okay,
I guess the horses can use the rest. You see that, cheff.
You don't care about us, just the horses. Look who's talking.
Speaker 7 (18:43):
I never saw you sit down to a meal without
seeing to it that your.
Speaker 8 (18:46):
Horse was fed and watered first.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
I's only kidding, Jase. Let's get out of that Larson
place right, Get up, boy?
Speaker 7 (18:51):
Yeah, I wish we'd find some sight of those white faces.
We must have looked over a couple of thousand head
without finding a single old brand.
Speaker 8 (19:00):
They gotta be around, Steve. They haven't been sold through
any commission house or barn. All records have been checked
back through last Saturday.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
We better find them soon, for too many people know
what we're doing. Ranchers who've seen us know we're not
riding this range for exercise. At the Larson ranch off
there to the right of the Mesa there, No, that
place belongs to Anti Kobern and his son Jed. Yeah,
pull up him in at those cattle racking.
Speaker 8 (19:26):
Kind of funny, Jason disturbed and excited melling around.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
You can't see.
Speaker 7 (19:30):
Any reason for it, wide open range, no sign of
a coyote or a mountain cat.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
It must be something they smell.
Speaker 8 (19:37):
I've seen them act just that way when a beef
has been slaughtered on the range. Blood smell stirs them
up and they start bunching just like that.
Speaker 7 (19:43):
Oh, nothing that hurt to interest us, though Jase can
see none Ofhing's white faces. Their white parts might have
been painted over, you know that kind of camouflage been
used before, and I can't tell her. We get close up.
We're gonna have to check them sooner or later. Might
as well be now.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Well, there goes hurling Steve. I guess eat on the
Coburn place too. Yeah, but Jensie and Jed ain't exactly hospitable. Well,
come on, get up for yeah, sharky, I had a
bunching right along Cobra and Spence line.
Speaker 7 (20:12):
That's good, and you won't have to cut the fence
if you just tie the horses off there and climb through.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
They sure are acting up.
Speaker 8 (20:20):
All right, hold up, I'll hold the white Jason, climb through, sheriff,
and I'll come through and hold it for Steve. Right, Okay, Steve,
(20:40):
come ahead, Okay.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
I'm gonna let it go. Yeah, ain't no strange stock here, Jace.
They're all wearing Coburn's brand. Yeah. I can't spot any
of that have been altered. Besides, is not a white
face in the lock? It's you that plane?
Speaker 6 (20:58):
Now?
Speaker 2 (20:59):
What are these so head up about? And it beats me?
What are you looking at?
Speaker 6 (21:03):
Jay?
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Tracks?
Speaker 8 (21:05):
The way they've been milling around Mark's form a big
circle and a bowlder over there seems to be the
middle of it, and move up toward it, and then
they start to mill and pull back.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Come on, wow, look at the messer red answer around
that boulder?
Speaker 7 (21:21):
Are they just pouring in and out of that barming
hole under it?
Speaker 6 (21:24):
Hey? Look at him?
Speaker 8 (21:25):
And hole's bigger than it looks. Most of it's been
covered by the boulder. Hey, let's see if we can
move it out, see you?
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Yeah, jam two?
Speaker 7 (21:35):
Tight Jay, there's enough of an opening for my arm.
I'll stretch flat and stick my hand down there. We'll
walk out. Jaceh you will get ants all over. I
don't care about the ants so much. I just hope
I don't get.
Speaker 8 (21:46):
A mess a gopher teeth in my hand.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Feel anything down there? Yeah?
Speaker 7 (21:52):
Look Quickliine, Hey, Jase, you better wash that off right away.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Will you've got your wire clippers?
Speaker 6 (21:57):
Sure?
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Fortsmatic got the fence and bring the horses through.
Speaker 7 (21:59):
We're gonna boulder.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Why, jess what's down there?
Speaker 8 (22:02):
It felt like a bunch of fresh skinned beef hides.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
They were hides, all right, stripped from a.
Speaker 8 (22:12):
Half dozen white face A place where the brands should
have been were burned over to obliterate what had been there.
Packed the hides on our horses and headed for the
cobra and ranch house.
Speaker 6 (22:22):
He sure wiped out any proof on those hides.
Speaker 8 (22:24):
Yees, Yeah, there wasn't something wrong with him. They wouldn't
have gone to the trouble of hiding them.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Pretty smart. What'cher the stuff before they sold?
Speaker 8 (22:31):
It probably figured every commission house in the state to
be watching for brands. They couldn't risk ordering them, and
they couldn't risk keeping the stock around. You've seen the
Coburns lately, Sheriff.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Haven't seen Jed for some time. But I saw a
Yancy only last night at the drug store in town.
Speaker 7 (22:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
He buying something. Yeah, he was a lot of stuff, bandages,
adhesive tape. I saw the druggist wrapping it up. Sounds
like the stuff they'd need to change presses and a
bad wound. Jays they were coming to their sheds houses
just the other side.
Speaker 7 (22:59):
Of ride right into the sheds. Leave the horses there.
I don't want them to see these hides.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Yeah, okay, here we are. Oh boy, take a.
Speaker 7 (23:13):
Look on that floor there, jays over there, Yeah, on
the spot cleaned up.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Mighty good. Look we're gonna beam.
Speaker 8 (23:19):
Right over it.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Meat hooks, little blood on them. Yeah, I must have
done his butchering ride here. They'd awful sure to get
that floor clean. Let's go talk to him. There's Yancy
now at the backscreen door. How do antie what you
fellas want on my frieze? The rangers want to have
a little talk with you. I ain't got much time
(23:40):
for talking, and I got whooped to do.
Speaker 7 (23:42):
It's a weed, where's your son.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
I don't know. What do you mean? You don't know?
Just like I said, they don't know? Oh anything else
I can help you with. Don't get smart, Yancy. You
know where Jed is? You better talk. You took your
ship a little trip down to mixed school. Suppose you
invite us in and tell us all about we can.
I don't have to heave you in if I don't
want your share. He's perfectly right, Sheriff.
Speaker 8 (24:04):
So Steve and I'll just wait here while you ride
into town and get a warrant and we can invite
ourselves in.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
You want to make us do it the hard way, Yancy.
I ain't got nothing to hide, want come in? Come in?
You keep a gun in the house, shot gun, then
in the corner by the stool, about a forty five? Yancy,
never own one.
Speaker 8 (24:26):
You haven't slaughtered any beef lately either, have you.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Any log in it?
Speaker 7 (24:31):
Nobody said there was stashing the hides away under a
boulders a little bit unusual.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
You're getting kind of pale, Yancy. There ain't no what
you stop for, Yancy.
Speaker 8 (24:42):
You're about to say there aren't any brand marks left
on those hides. Weren't you you putting words in my mouth.
Choose your own words, but answer me. Tell the truth.
Where's your son, Jed? I told you he's not in Mexico.
He's hold up someplace, recovering from a wound. The wound
Doc Hemmett was killed for treating.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
I don't know what you're talking about sitting here, can.
Speaker 7 (25:00):
You, Jay's look at that ladder in the corner, just
a letter.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
I was was fixing to do some pink.
Speaker 7 (25:07):
A man who's gonna paint usually buys some paint before
he brings a ladder in.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
What's that up in the ceiling looks like andrey into
the attic.
Speaker 7 (25:14):
Get get your hands off that.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
It's better. I'll hold this for safe keeping. You might
hurt somebody keeping covered, Steve. I'm gonna use that ladder
and see what we got upstairs. I help. Kid's probably
up there, and he's kind of come quiet. If he's
a corner smart.
Speaker 6 (25:33):
Share cover share, don't move he smart, Jed.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
You can't get out of that attic.
Speaker 7 (25:40):
No, but I can go the head off and anyone
comes off here to take Now, I gotta see who
for us.
Speaker 6 (25:46):
Remember that we.
Speaker 7 (25:47):
Don't have to come up after you, Jed. We can
rake every foot of that ceiling with gunfires. Yeah, that's
just a sample, gonna make it look like a sieve
and you look like one with it.
Speaker 8 (25:58):
Now, you better get down here with your father while
still got the chance.
Speaker 6 (26:01):
Come down, Jed, come down to the kid.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
You We didn't do nothing. They can't prove nothing, how
about it, Jed? Alright, Well, my leg is hur You
have to bring a ladder on.
Speaker 8 (26:11):
To heaven down, sure, just to make it friendly. Open
that trap all the way and drop your gun down here.
All right, Eh, that's better, all right, Sheriff, set the
ladder up again.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
This is the gun we wanted. Steve, Yeah, forty five?
All right, yet, piece yourself down and I'll help you. Ah,
my leg hurts. Come look, we didn't do nothing, and
that's all we were going to see. We didn't do nothing.
Speaker 6 (26:42):
Here.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
You love it up in Huntsville.
Speaker 8 (26:45):
Then it's full of innocent fellas, just like you. You ready, Steve, Yeah,
Sheriff all said, jeez good, all right, Yancy Jed get moving.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
Throughout their trial, Yancey and Jed Covens steadfastly denied any crime. However,
Jed's blood type matched the blood found in the office
of doctor Hemmett, and ballistic experts definitely identified his forty
five caliber gun as the weapon used to murder both
doctor Hemmett and the cowboy whose body was found.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
On thunder Ridge.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
It took the jury less than two hours to bring
in a verdict of guilty. The covens were sentenced to
Huntsville Penitentiary for the rest of their natural lives.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
And now here again.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
It's the start of our show, Joel McCrae.
Speaker 8 (27:52):
I believe you'll enjoy an amusing story I heard recently.
Comes from a young lady who lives in the Lone
Star State. It seems that a Sunday school teacher was
making quite an impression with the little ones in her
class as she told how the Pharaohs of early Egypt
drove the children of Israel from that land. A little
fellow in the front row was biting his nails fiercely
as the teacher went on to describe the cruelties inflicted
upon the Israelites, how they were beaten and driven forth
(28:15):
without food or water. When the story was over, the
young fries stared straight ahead. Finally he snapped, gee, whiz,
where were the Texas Rangers? See you next week, Folks,
Good Night.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Next Week Joel McCrae, and another authentic reenactment of a
case from the files of but Texas Rangers.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Joel McCray is currently seen starring in the.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Universal International Technicolor production Frenchie. Tonight's Past included Tony Barrett,
Virginia Greig, herbellas Ed Begley and Parley Bear. This story
was transcribed and adapted by Joel Murcott, and the program
was produced and directed by Stacy Keith.
Speaker 7 (28:59):
Hell Get Me Speaking.
Speaker 10 (29:10):
Three Times Mean Good Times on NBC Turn Back the
Calendar Tomorrow evening, The Railroad Hour takes you back to
a golden, bygone era with a refreshing presentation of the
musical comedy High Button Shoes. Railroad Hour singing star Gordon
McRae is joined by Margaret Whiting for this program, and
Remember Tomorrow you'll also hear a concert by the Boston
(29:32):
Pops Orchestra. Phil Baker invites you to join the sixty
four Dollars Question Next on NBC
The National Broadcasting Company presents Joel McCrae in Tales.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Of the Texas Rangers.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Tonight transcribe from Hollywood another authentic reenactment of a case
from the files of the Texas Rangers, Tales of the
Texas Rangers, starring Joel McCrae as Ranger Jase Pearson, Texas
more than two hundred and sixty thousand square miles and
(00:32):
fifty men who make up the most famous and oldest
law enforcement party in North America. Now from the files
(00:53):
of the Texas Rangers come these stories based.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
On fact only. Names, dates, and places are fictitious for
obvious reasons.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
They advanced themselves are a matter of record case for
Tonight no living witnesses.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
It is eleven thirty am a Monday morning in November.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Nineteen thirty nine.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Sheriff Ross Bedsby turns his car into a quiet residential
street of Harper's Landing, Texas. Seated in the car with
him is Missus Blackburn, a medical assistant. She becomes increasingly
nervous as they approach a sign marking the home of
doctor Walter Hennett.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Now don't go get and jump him, is Blackburn. There
could be one hundred reasons for the dock to be.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
Missing, not Doc Hemmid. And you know it.
Speaker 5 (01:44):
It ain't like him to just disappear. No sign of
him since Saturday night. Wasn't a church yesterday, and he
ain't at his house this morning. He's always there for visiting.
How is it nine thirty?
Speaker 2 (01:54):
So he's probably out on a house call, maybe over
to the hospital at Ridge here if he.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
Was the pone operator know about it. Besides, his car
is still in the garage.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Oh here's a house. Better get out of the car
and see if we can't read him.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
That's what I've been trying to do all morning.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
You sure he wasn't at church yesterday?
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Of course, I'm sure.
Speaker 5 (02:16):
He always gave me a ride home to my place,
and I'd always make someday breakfast for him before he'd
start on his house calls.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
You don't work for.
Speaker 5 (02:23):
A man for ten years without learning his habits, especially
a doctor.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Well, he's gotta be around some place.
Speaker 6 (02:32):
Doc heh Dc, Doc Doc.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Helmet, who do have a keem?
Speaker 5 (02:43):
His blackburn never needed one before front door, the waiting
room's always been open except at night.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Of course, he could have driven off with somebody but oh, I.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
Don't know if he's here. Why doesn't he answer?
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Well, even doctors get sick, and Doc hammigs no young
Street might have had a stroke. What are you gonna do,
Sherif we gotta get inside, I got no legal right
to bust in without a warrant. But that'll take time,
and maybe this can't wait.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
Why don't you just go in?
Speaker 6 (03:13):
Then?
Speaker 4 (03:13):
Doc knows you, he'd understand.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
He doesn't understand, I reckon. He'll just have to assume
me for a broken window. I'll knock this and in
with my gun. Then I'll climb in and let you
in through the door.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
Well, hurry, all right, come in.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Where's Dark's bedroom back here?
Speaker 6 (03:41):
Not here?
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Bed's been used though, it's all.
Speaker 5 (03:43):
Made up Saturday night when I left and he slept
here Saturday night.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Bathroom doors open. Nothing in there. Reckon, We better go
through the rest of the house. Kitchen's clear, you can
see out back through the windows. There's nothing there either, Sheriff.
I'm I'm frightened. The sliding door to his office was
closed when we come into the waiting room. Better have
(04:10):
a look at that office. He isn't in here. I
don't know, Oh, sheriff better stay back in his back brin.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
Oh, doctor him dressed.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
In a robe and pajamas, must have had a heart attack,
come in here to get something for it. And wait a.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Minute, what is it? Oh? This robe, it looks like blood.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Tis blood from a bullet wound. He's been murdered.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Sheriff Betsby made an immediate request for the aid of
a Texas Ranger.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Ranger Jace Pearson was assigned. He joined the sheriff at.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
The home of doctor Hemmat shortly after one pm.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Jason, this miss Blackbury and she was Doc's helper. And
this is Ranger Pierson, Miss Blackburn, Hady hodey, ma'am. I
asked Miss Blackburn to stay until you got here. Reckon.
She knows more about Doc than anybody. I gather. You
didn't live here in the.
Speaker 7 (05:15):
House, ma'am.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
No, I have my own place.
Speaker 8 (05:19):
I don't know just what I'd like to ask you yet,
until I look around. Would you mind waiting a little longer?
I stay as long as you need me, thanks, ma'am.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Where's the body? Sheriff in the office through that sliding door.
I've been keeping it closed off. Nobody's been in here
but me and one deputy. He just took a couple
of pictures. Yeah, nickle examiner been here yet, No, but
he'll be along soon. He's driving down from.
Speaker 8 (05:44):
Hesterville Mark alongside the doc's temple here and bruise about
two inches long.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
A pretty heavy blow.
Speaker 8 (05:53):
It's like he might have been knocked out with a
gun barrel.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
That figures because he wasn't standing up when he was shot.
He was lying here on the floor. Makes you think
so bullet went right through the chest and buried in
the floor on him. I've moved him a little and
I dug the slug up here forty five.
Speaker 8 (06:09):
Yeah, it's something funny about this though. What a bit
of blood on this examination table almost six feet away
from the body.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yeah, I wondered about that myself.
Speaker 8 (06:19):
The instrument tray and surgical dressings pulled up beside the table,
and there's a couple of hypodermic needles that look like
they've been used.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Well, jash. Doc couldn't have been trying to treat his
own wound. He never moved after he was shot, of
that slug wouldn't have been in the floor right und him.
Of course, he might have staggered around before he was shot.
Speaker 8 (06:37):
After he got hit on the head, it still wouldn't
count for the blood on this table. There was no
bleeding from the mark on his head.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
That means the blood on the table come from somebody else.
Speaker 8 (06:46):
Medical examiner can type it for us later. I want
to see missus Blackburn for a minute.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
We can use some help from you now, Miss Blackburn.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
I'll tell you anything I can.
Speaker 8 (06:58):
Missus Blackburn, was it part of your job to clean
the doctor's offices?
Speaker 4 (07:02):
Yes, every day after his final visiting hours.
Speaker 8 (07:05):
According to the sign outside, his evening hours were from
five to seven pm.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
That's right.
Speaker 8 (07:10):
I think you cleaned the place after seven pm Saturday night.
Speaker 6 (07:13):
Yes.
Speaker 7 (07:14):
What time did you leave?
Speaker 5 (07:16):
Well, doctor had a few calls to make after visiting
ours house cars. I waited until he got back and
fixed his dinner for him. I reckon it was late
when I left, after ten o'clock.
Speaker 8 (07:30):
Look through the door of the examination room from mount.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
Yes.
Speaker 8 (07:37):
Is that surgical tray usually in that position? I mean,
did you leave it like that Saturday night?
Speaker 4 (07:42):
No, everything was put away in the cabinet.
Speaker 8 (07:45):
How about the examination table? You cleaned that off Saturday night?
Speaker 6 (07:48):
Yes?
Speaker 8 (07:49):
Was the doctor expecting any patient after you left late.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
No, no, he said he was going right.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
To bed, and he must have gone to Jays. The
bed had been slept in and you can see what
he was wearing.
Speaker 7 (08:00):
Doc.
Speaker 8 (08:01):
I think it'd be all right for you to go
home now, ma'am. If I need any more information, we
can reach you there.
Speaker 6 (08:06):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Tell the deputy outside that I said to drive you home.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
I'd assume walk.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Yes, Well, thanks for helping me. Is Blackburn? Well? That said?
It was one thing, Jase. Doc had an unexpected patient
late Saturday night, somebody who routed him out of bed
and killed him.
Speaker 8 (08:26):
But why I got an idea was to keep the
doc from calling you, keep him from calling me?
Speaker 6 (08:31):
What do you mean?
Speaker 8 (08:31):
Whoever came here was hurt bleeding, So it wasn't a
planned visit. Not somebody who came here deliberately to kill
the dot. Doc was killed to keep him from talking
about the visit.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Oh, Doc cam It had never talked about a patient's business.
Speaker 8 (08:44):
Only in one case where the law would require it.
He'd have to report it if he treated anybody for
a bullet wound.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
That's right, Jase, that could be it. That probe on
the instrument tray has blood on it, And that's just
what a dog had use to dig out a bullet.
Speaker 8 (08:58):
I know I've got a few dug outs myself. Let's
call this examination room again.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
What are you looking for? If we're right, a.
Speaker 8 (09:05):
Slug Doc dug out of his patient. We found it
wrapped in a piece of bloodstained gauze in one of
the trash containers. There was something else in the container too,
part of a faded blue denim shirt that had been
used to bind a wound.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Here. Must have been a bad wound case that denim
was soaked.
Speaker 7 (09:28):
Yeah, and take a look at this slug.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Looks like a slug from a savage three h three.
But Doc was killed by forty five. That's natural.
Speaker 8 (09:35):
The man who came here wounded was shot someplace else
by somebody else. Wouldn't be the same gun feller where
after must have been in a gunfight. Then it's the
way it shapes up.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
With all that blood.
Speaker 8 (09:45):
He couldn't have come far, couldn't have waited too long
to get to a doctor. And the chances are he
wasn't alone. Somebody must have been helping him.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Oh, they could have just left Doc knocked out, trusted
him up, and gotten away.
Speaker 6 (09:54):
Why'd they have to kill him?
Speaker 7 (09:56):
I can't answer that one. When the medical examiner.
Speaker 8 (09:58):
Gives us the wounded man's bloo bood type, I'm gonna
send the two slugs we've got through to Austin for
a ballistic check, get a run down on every police
report involving gunplay that took place anywhere within one hundred
miles here on Saturday night. The medical examiner came and,
after a quick check, gave us the blood type of
the man we were after. I arranged for the two
(10:20):
slugs we had to be sent through to Austin. At
the same time, phoned for a complete report on all
shooting incidents that had occurred on Saturday night. Then the
sheriff and I started to drive to his office.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
This looks like a tough one to me, Jason. We
got a blood type check for but I reckon A
million people in Texas have type old blood.
Speaker 8 (10:37):
Yeah, but not all of them are gonna have a
recent bullet wound.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
They can't account for. You're right if we find one
who's been wounded. But for all we know, the man
duck feed It might have got hisself shot by accident.
If he did, he wouldn't have killed a doctor keep
him from report in it. Guess you got me hogged
height on that point, Jason, hold it him in a chair.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
For me.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
KTXA go ahead.
Speaker 9 (11:02):
He info you requested on cases involving firearms none reported
your general vicinity to Saturday.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Night ten four. There is possible though Unit ten what
is it? Body of man.
Speaker 9 (11:15):
Killed by gunfire discovered a few hours ago on slope
of thunder Ridge, Robling County, about seventy miles west your
present location. Time of death not yet determined, waiting report
of medical examiner.
Speaker 8 (11:28):
Ten four is another unit assigned to that case.
Speaker 9 (11:32):
Unit three covering this.
Speaker 8 (11:34):
Unit proceeding to join Unit three to explore possibility of
link between two killings.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Ten four.
Speaker 9 (11:40):
Best approach to scene is west slope of thunder Ridge.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
We'll have to leave carr go in mountain ten four.
Speaker 9 (11:47):
Unit three making contact by field said, will notify Unit
three of.
Speaker 8 (11:51):
Your coming ten four. Unit ten clear, katy x A Austin.
You think that might hook up with us? Jeez, it's
the only thing that's turned up now the ranger units there.
Unit three, that's Steve Clark. We can work it together.
Suppose I leave you on deck here to cover anything
that turns up suits me.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Just drop me in my office. Even if this fellow
you're gonna see who was killed on Saturday night, Jays,
it could still be a coincident, I know. But it'll
stop being a coincidence if he was killed by the
same forty five that was used to murder Doc Hemmot.
Speaker 8 (12:29):
I dropped the sheriff off, then headed for thunder Ridge.
When I got to the base, I unloaded charcoal to
my horse trailer and started to climb. The sun was
sinking as I started up the slope, and darkness came fast.
The spot of torches moving like fireflies. I rode for them.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Easy, easy, charcoal, watch your foot in the morning.
Speaker 6 (12:50):
Hello, Are oho that you? Steve?
Speaker 7 (12:55):
Right coming up to you? Hardy Steve, hardy Jays, gotta
walkie talking message you were coming. Didn't come down the
road to meet you because we wanted to get the
body out of here. A medical examiner can't do much
of We get it into town. Where is the body?
Back down a pack mule with the chef's deputies. I'm
(13:16):
leading the way down.
Speaker 8 (13:17):
I might as well get moving then I'll ride with you, right.
Speaker 6 (13:20):
All right?
Speaker 7 (13:20):
We're gonna move again all this gully, all the way
down and watch a step come up.
Speaker 8 (13:25):
I'm on cherky and he lying on How long he's
been dead.
Speaker 7 (13:30):
Not for sure, but I think it's gonna fit in
with what you're looking for. What I can judge he
was killed Saturday night.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Got anything to back that up?
Speaker 6 (13:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (13:38):
And the man's a cowpol works on that ranch at
the base of the ridge. He rode up here Saturday
night to see some Mexican guy he's been caught in.
But he never did get back to the ranch after
he left or shack.
Speaker 8 (13:48):
I don'onder why anybody traveled all the way up here
to kill him. He was ambushed on the way back
to the ranch. It'd been just as easy for the
killer to wait until he hit the flat down of
the ranch.
Speaker 7 (13:57):
Funny you should say that, why because he was shot
down on the.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Flat And how'd his body get up here and there?
Speaker 7 (14:03):
Z I can figure he started to ride back up
to get help. He wasn't killed right off, fell out
of the saddle and died where it fell.
Speaker 8 (14:09):
Seems to me he'd have ridden onto the ranch for help.
Speaker 7 (14:12):
On the ranch house is eleven miles off back up
this way. It was only one mile, Jase. I'll be
able to show you the whole thing when we get down.
I'll follow the tracks both ways.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Say you leave your car in your mind.
Speaker 7 (14:23):
Yeah, well they're shooting. Took place not far from where
we parked. There was a break in the fence there
and the marks of a truck. But they want deep
enough to make a cast of them. You mean whoever
gunned him had a truck down there. Yeah, that's right, Jase.
We say there are cattle tracks all over the place too.
Speaker 8 (14:37):
I might mean he's surprised somebody who was trying to
run some stock off the play.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Yeah, not only trying, but succeeding.
Speaker 7 (14:43):
Few white faces that were grazing in that section can't
be located.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
And he's fitting with your doctor.
Speaker 8 (14:49):
Killing depends on whether your cow polk was killed by
forty five and whether he returned fire and hit one
of the men he saw down there.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
And he fought with him, all right. He was carrying
a saddle rifle.
Speaker 7 (14:59):
He dropped it when he go I got here to reckon,
I've found it beside his tracks down below, already standing
on Austin.
Speaker 8 (15:04):
Only one thing you gotta tell me, then, and I'll
know if the two killings go hand in hand.
Speaker 7 (15:08):
What kind of a rifle was the kaw Polk using?
What God you're looking for, Jason Savage, three oh three,
you got a case, That's what it was.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
In just a moment, we will continue with Tales of
the Texas Rangers, starring Joel McCrae as Ranger Chase Pearson.
Speaker 10 (15:34):
Three chimes mean good times on NBC. We're posting a
little because here at NBC you will find the roughest, toughest,
most romantic crime fighters ever assembled under one network roof.
Take Wednesday evening, for example. On Wednesdays you'll hear action
with mister District Attorney, the Big Story, and that new
daring private eye, Rex Saunders, played by Rex Harrison. So
just keep your mystery ear glued to your NBC station
(15:57):
every Wednesday.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
We continue now with Tales of the Texas Rangers and
tonight's case No Living Witnesses, an authentic story from the
files of the Texas Rangers.
Speaker 8 (16:15):
The cow Pol and doctor him Hat had been killed
by the same men.
Speaker 7 (16:18):
All right.
Speaker 8 (16:19):
Ballistics proved the bullet dug out of the floor from
under the doctor was a twin to the forty five
taken out of the murdered cow Polk.
Speaker 7 (16:25):
Steve Park and I put our.
Speaker 8 (16:26):
Horses in the double trailer I was towing and headed
for Harper's Landing Ballistic boys.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
If the lab didn't take long, compare those slugs, did they?
And never do it? All fits even test fire the
cow Polke's rifle.
Speaker 7 (16:38):
I fired the slug Doc Hammi took out of that
patient we're looking for.
Speaker 8 (16:42):
We're not only looking for him, We're gonna find him.
And whoever was with him, it must.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Be more than one man, all right.
Speaker 7 (16:47):
Once you told me about the blood on that piece
of denim shirt, he couldn't have been in any condition.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
To drive by himself, not all the way to Hopper's Landing.
Speaker 8 (16:54):
Eh seventy miles, and he must have known he was
gonna need a doctor.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Hey, you look like that gives you know? It? Does?
I think it answers a question.
Speaker 8 (17:02):
The sheriff asked me why they killed the doc instead
of just tying him up, And what's the answer. They
killed him because they didn't just happen by his place.
They knew Doc Hammitt, and he knew them.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
That's a big conclusion, Jason.
Speaker 8 (17:14):
It's not hard to reach either. Look, Steve, doc Hemot's
house in Harper's Landing isn't on the main street through town.
It's on a side street, not easy to find in
the middle of the night unless you knew where it was.
Not only that, but they had to pass through two
bigger towns on the way there.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Town's with more than one doctor.
Speaker 8 (17:31):
Steve, if you were shot and wanted to keep it covered,
but you had to be treated, what would you do?
Speaker 7 (17:37):
Well, go to my own family, doc I reckon and
hope that I could talk him into keeping it quiet.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
You're right, jas That means the men we were after
must live in or near Harper's Landing.
Speaker 8 (17:47):
Let's say, on a ranch somewhere outside the town, someplace
they could have taken stolen cattle.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
We know the brand mark and those stolen white faces. Say,
we're going to do some range riding.
Speaker 8 (17:56):
Until we find them, until they show up for sale
at some commission house or auction barn.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
You think the sheriff will be willing to ride with us?
Speaker 8 (18:02):
I see will doc Emman was a friend of his,
and the sheriff doesn't take to.
Speaker 11 (18:05):
Killers Arson ranch is about two miles farther.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
On might stop there and get some grub if you'd like.
I'm all for a cheff.
Speaker 7 (18:21):
I about Jase, haven't taken much eating time for the
past two days.
Speaker 8 (18:25):
Oh, why don't you just grab a handful of range grass.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
It's loaded with vitamins.
Speaker 7 (18:29):
You'll be loaded with buckshot if you come up with
any more ideas like that.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Yeah, come on, jas before we get some skinny that
augusty wind who lift us right out of the saddle. Okay, okay,
I guess the horses can use the rest. You see that, cheff.
You don't care about us, just the horses. Look who's talking.
Speaker 7 (18:43):
I never saw you sit down to a meal without
seeing to it that your.
Speaker 8 (18:46):
Horse was fed and watered first.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
I's only kidding, Jase. Let's get out of that Larson
place right, Get up, boy?
Speaker 7 (18:51):
Yeah, I wish we'd find some sight of those white faces.
We must have looked over a couple of thousand head
without finding a single old brand.
Speaker 8 (19:00):
They gotta be around, Steve. They haven't been sold through
any commission house or barn. All records have been checked
back through last Saturday.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
We better find them soon, for too many people know
what we're doing. Ranchers who've seen us know we're not
riding this range for exercise. At the Larson ranch off
there to the right of the Mesa there, No, that
place belongs to Anti Kobern and his son Jed. Yeah,
pull up him in at those cattle racking.
Speaker 8 (19:26):
Kind of funny, Jason disturbed and excited melling around.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
You can't see.
Speaker 7 (19:30):
Any reason for it, wide open range, no sign of
a coyote or a mountain cat.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
It must be something they smell.
Speaker 8 (19:37):
I've seen them act just that way when a beef
has been slaughtered on the range. Blood smell stirs them
up and they start bunching just like that.
Speaker 7 (19:43):
Oh, nothing that hurt to interest us, though Jase can
see none Ofhing's white faces. Their white parts might have
been painted over, you know that kind of camouflage been
used before, and I can't tell her. We get close up.
We're gonna have to check them sooner or later. Might
as well be now.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Well, there goes hurling Steve. I guess eat on the
Coburn place too. Yeah, but Jensie and Jed ain't exactly hospitable. Well,
come on, get up for yeah, sharky, I had a
bunching right along Cobra and Spence line.
Speaker 7 (20:12):
That's good, and you won't have to cut the fence
if you just tie the horses off there and climb through.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
They sure are acting up.
Speaker 8 (20:20):
All right, hold up, I'll hold the white Jason, climb through, sheriff,
and I'll come through and hold it for Steve. Right, Okay, Steve,
(20:40):
come ahead, Okay.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
I'm gonna let it go. Yeah, ain't no strange stock here, Jace.
They're all wearing Coburn's brand. Yeah. I can't spot any
of that have been altered. Besides, is not a white
face in the lock? It's you that plane?
Speaker 6 (20:58):
Now?
Speaker 2 (20:59):
What are these so head up about? And it beats me?
What are you looking at?
Speaker 6 (21:03):
Jay?
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Tracks?
Speaker 8 (21:05):
The way they've been milling around Mark's form a big
circle and a bowlder over there seems to be the
middle of it, and move up toward it, and then
they start to mill and pull back.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Come on, wow, look at the messer red answer around
that boulder?
Speaker 7 (21:21):
Are they just pouring in and out of that barming
hole under it?
Speaker 6 (21:24):
Hey? Look at him?
Speaker 8 (21:25):
And hole's bigger than it looks. Most of it's been
covered by the boulder. Hey, let's see if we can
move it out, see you?
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Yeah, jam two?
Speaker 7 (21:35):
Tight Jay, there's enough of an opening for my arm.
I'll stretch flat and stick my hand down there. We'll
walk out. Jaceh you will get ants all over. I
don't care about the ants so much. I just hope
I don't get.
Speaker 8 (21:46):
A mess a gopher teeth in my hand.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Feel anything down there? Yeah?
Speaker 7 (21:52):
Look Quickliine, Hey, Jase, you better wash that off right away.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Will you've got your wire clippers?
Speaker 6 (21:57):
Sure?
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Fortsmatic got the fence and bring the horses through.
Speaker 7 (21:59):
We're gonna boulder.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Why, jess what's down there?
Speaker 8 (22:02):
It felt like a bunch of fresh skinned beef hides.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
They were hides, all right, stripped from a.
Speaker 8 (22:12):
Half dozen white face A place where the brands should
have been were burned over to obliterate what had been there.
Packed the hides on our horses and headed for the
cobra and ranch house.
Speaker 6 (22:22):
He sure wiped out any proof on those hides.
Speaker 8 (22:24):
Yees, Yeah, there wasn't something wrong with him. They wouldn't
have gone to the trouble of hiding them.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Pretty smart. What'cher the stuff before they sold?
Speaker 8 (22:31):
It probably figured every commission house in the state to
be watching for brands. They couldn't risk ordering them, and
they couldn't risk keeping the stock around. You've seen the
Coburns lately, Sheriff.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Haven't seen Jed for some time. But I saw a
Yancy only last night at the drug store in town.
Speaker 7 (22:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
He buying something. Yeah, he was a lot of stuff, bandages,
adhesive tape. I saw the druggist wrapping it up. Sounds
like the stuff they'd need to change presses and a
bad wound. Jays they were coming to their sheds houses
just the other side.
Speaker 7 (22:59):
Of ride right into the sheds. Leave the horses there.
I don't want them to see these hides.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Yeah, okay, here we are. Oh boy, take a.
Speaker 7 (23:13):
Look on that floor there, jays over there, Yeah, on
the spot cleaned up.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Mighty good. Look we're gonna beam.
Speaker 8 (23:19):
Right over it.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Meat hooks, little blood on them. Yeah, I must have
done his butchering ride here. They'd awful sure to get
that floor clean. Let's go talk to him. There's Yancy
now at the backscreen door. How do antie what you
fellas want on my frieze? The rangers want to have
a little talk with you. I ain't got much time
(23:40):
for talking, and I got whooped to do.
Speaker 7 (23:42):
It's a weed, where's your son.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
I don't know. What do you mean? You don't know?
Just like I said, they don't know? Oh anything else
I can help you with. Don't get smart, Yancy. You
know where Jed is? You better talk. You took your
ship a little trip down to mixed school. Suppose you
invite us in and tell us all about we can.
I don't have to heave you in if I don't
want your share. He's perfectly right, Sheriff.
Speaker 8 (24:04):
So Steve and I'll just wait here while you ride
into town and get a warrant and we can invite
ourselves in.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
You want to make us do it the hard way, Yancy.
I ain't got nothing to hide, want come in? Come in?
You keep a gun in the house, shot gun, then
in the corner by the stool, about a forty five? Yancy,
never own one.
Speaker 8 (24:26):
You haven't slaughtered any beef lately either, have you.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Any log in it?
Speaker 7 (24:31):
Nobody said there was stashing the hides away under a
boulders a little bit unusual.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
You're getting kind of pale, Yancy. There ain't no what
you stop for, Yancy.
Speaker 8 (24:42):
You're about to say there aren't any brand marks left
on those hides. Weren't you you putting words in my mouth.
Choose your own words, but answer me. Tell the truth.
Where's your son, Jed? I told you he's not in Mexico.
He's hold up someplace, recovering from a wound. The wound
Doc Hemmett was killed for treating.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
I don't know what you're talking about sitting here, can.
Speaker 7 (25:00):
You, Jay's look at that ladder in the corner, just
a letter.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
I was was fixing to do some pink.
Speaker 7 (25:07):
A man who's gonna paint usually buys some paint before
he brings a ladder in.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
What's that up in the ceiling looks like andrey into
the attic.
Speaker 7 (25:14):
Get get your hands off that.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
It's better. I'll hold this for safe keeping. You might
hurt somebody keeping covered, Steve. I'm gonna use that ladder
and see what we got upstairs. I help. Kid's probably
up there, and he's kind of come quiet. If he's
a corner smart.
Speaker 6 (25:33):
Share cover share, don't move he smart, Jed.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
You can't get out of that attic.
Speaker 7 (25:40):
No, but I can go the head off and anyone
comes off here to take Now, I gotta see who
for us.
Speaker 6 (25:46):
Remember that we.
Speaker 7 (25:47):
Don't have to come up after you, Jed. We can
rake every foot of that ceiling with gunfires. Yeah, that's
just a sample, gonna make it look like a sieve
and you look like one with it.
Speaker 8 (25:58):
Now, you better get down here with your father while
still got the chance.
Speaker 6 (26:01):
Come down, Jed, come down to the kid.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
You We didn't do nothing. They can't prove nothing, how
about it, Jed? Alright, Well, my leg is hur You
have to bring a ladder on.
Speaker 8 (26:11):
To heaven down, sure, just to make it friendly. Open
that trap all the way and drop your gun down here.
All right, Eh, that's better, all right, Sheriff, set the
ladder up again.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
This is the gun we wanted. Steve, Yeah, forty five?
All right, yet, piece yourself down and I'll help you. Ah,
my leg hurts. Come look, we didn't do nothing, and
that's all we were going to see. We didn't do nothing.
Speaker 6 (26:42):
Here.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
You love it up in Huntsville.
Speaker 8 (26:45):
Then it's full of innocent fellas, just like you. You ready, Steve, Yeah,
Sheriff all said, jeez good, all right, Yancy Jed get moving.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
Throughout their trial, Yancey and Jed Covens steadfastly denied any crime. However,
Jed's blood type matched the blood found in the office
of doctor Hemmett, and ballistic experts definitely identified his forty
five caliber gun as the weapon used to murder both
doctor Hemmett and the cowboy whose body was found.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
On thunder Ridge.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
It took the jury less than two hours to bring
in a verdict of guilty. The covens were sentenced to
Huntsville Penitentiary for the rest of their natural lives.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
And now here again.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
It's the start of our show, Joel McCrae.
Speaker 8 (27:52):
I believe you'll enjoy an amusing story I heard recently.
Comes from a young lady who lives in the Lone
Star State. It seems that a Sunday school teacher was
making quite an impression with the little ones in her
class as she told how the Pharaohs of early Egypt
drove the children of Israel from that land. A little
fellow in the front row was biting his nails fiercely
as the teacher went on to describe the cruelties inflicted
upon the Israelites, how they were beaten and driven forth
(28:15):
without food or water. When the story was over, the
young fries stared straight ahead. Finally he snapped, gee, whiz,
where were the Texas Rangers? See you next week, Folks,
Good Night.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Next Week Joel McCrae, and another authentic reenactment of a
case from the files of but Texas Rangers.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Joel McCray is currently seen starring in the.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Universal International Technicolor production Frenchie. Tonight's Past included Tony Barrett,
Virginia Greig, herbellas Ed Begley and Parley Bear. This story
was transcribed and adapted by Joel Murcott, and the program
was produced and directed by Stacy Keith.
Speaker 7 (28:59):
Hell Get Me Speaking.
Speaker 10 (29:10):
Three Times Mean Good Times on NBC Turn Back the
Calendar Tomorrow evening, The Railroad Hour takes you back to
a golden, bygone era with a refreshing presentation of the
musical comedy High Button Shoes. Railroad Hour singing star Gordon
McRae is joined by Margaret Whiting for this program, and
Remember Tomorrow you'll also hear a concert by the Boston
(29:32):
Pops Orchestra. Phil Baker invites you to join the sixty
four Dollars Question Next on NBC
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