August 17, 2025 • 30 mins
Chronicles the cases of a law enforcement officer in the American West, blending traditional Western themes with modern investigative techniques. The stories are based on real cases.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The National Broadcasting Company presents Joel McCrae Entails of the
Texas Rangers Tonight transcribe from Hollywood, another authentic reenactment of
a case from the files of the Texas Rangers. Now
(00:41):
from the files of the Texas Rangers come these stories
based on facts only. Names, dates, and places are big
ditches for obvious reasons. The events themselves are a matter
of records. Case Fortnite Pressure.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
It is eleven PM Saturday night in January nineteen thirty three.
Sheriff Russ Morton drives his car to the end of
the well lighted main street of Lingwood, Texas, and turns
onto a narrow wooden bridge that crosses the railroad yards
and leads to the Negro quarter of town. On the
fire side of the tracks. In the car with the
sheriff is his deputy, Sam Billings. Both men are uneasy.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Doesn't look like there's much doing across the track. Sam,
I don't get it here. I was over here less
than hour ago in the cafes. His packs so thick
you couldn't stir them with a stick. Who sent out
call for pedro at the canteen a cafe? I didn't
get half of what he said. It sounds scared to death.
Just kept yelling the come get old Loosifer out of
his place, Oh Lucifer, and imagine him's turn up no trouble,
(01:56):
Oh neither can I.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
But Sam, you don't like the look of this mm.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
There isn't a light showed in the whole quarter, not
even in shack or sandy. I'd have been a knife
in chaff, God knife, and might might make one place
for dark, but not all of 'em. Antena's off left
off next street. Nobody on the streets, not even a
dog in the prowl if old Lucifer is behind this,
he sure send everybody running for cover. Now, how can
(02:22):
an old man like sharefluck?
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Huh?
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Canteen ain't over neither. It's pedro goal Lucifer to leave
without waiting for our help. Yeah, then closed up tight
in a drum.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
Why I can't figure it?
Speaker 5 (02:36):
What are we gonna do?
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Now? We're gonna find out what's wrong over here. Keep
your eyes peeled. I'm gonna comb these streets until we
find a light or somebody stirring. Betther, reach over and
back and get that shot gun right. You never saw
nothing like this before.
Speaker 5 (02:52):
Yeah, neither of I.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
There's further spipelight on a chair head doorway over there.
It's old Lucifer. Stand right where you are, Fay, don't move.
Look freaking the sheriff. Something all over his shirt and
his pants, his hands. Uh, no, need to look at
him twice. It's blood. What happened to you, loose fer?
What's the matter over here?
Speaker 6 (03:14):
It's not doing, mister sheriff, all I doing. Ain't nobody
to blame but me.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
You got blood all over here and it doesn't look
like it. You're on who you're fighting with? Somebody in
Pedro's place trying to jump you.
Speaker 5 (03:25):
No, sir, I ain't had no trouble with nobody here.
Speaker 6 (03:29):
Had my trouble out to.
Speaker 7 (03:30):
The farm where I work out of the farm, Yes, sir,
I just walked into town a little while ago, trying
to get up my nerve to turn myself in.
Speaker 5 (03:40):
Sure. Uh, I killed mister Redford.
Speaker 6 (03:43):
I shot him dead.
Speaker 7 (03:45):
What you kill your boss, Mike Redford? Yes, sir, i'd
done it just me. We got the argument and I
shot him dead. I wonder it ain't a light on
over here.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
You can tell us the rest of it at the jail.
Those fur right now, you better get my car fast
before this news crossed the tracks. Yes, sir, we're in
for troubles here. Mike Redford's been mighty popular around here.
Get in back, woosefer, Get down on the floor and
stay there. Yes, I'm gonna drop you off on main street. Sam,
round up a constable and a couple of other deputies.
(04:18):
Get him to jail as fast as you can. We
may be able to keep this quiet until tomorrow. If
we can, it'll give you a chance to get a
few Texas rangers in to give us a hand.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
The news of Mike Redford's murder struck the town on
the afternoon of the following day, but by that time.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Sheriff Morton had help.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
He was joined at the Lingwood jail by Texas Ranger
Jace Pearson.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Here's Luciferth's confession if you want to see it, Jace.
He made a full statement when he brought him in
last night. Pretty short statement, yeah, shortened to the point.
Says he had it in for Redward for a long time,
made up his mind to settle last night, went up
the house, started to fight and shot him. These are
the clothes Lucifer was where blood all over them?
Speaker 4 (05:07):
You have the blood analyzed?
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Yeah, medical examiner did it when the JP ordered an autopsy.
It matches Redford's blood type. All right. We ought to
have a full off toops of reporting in ours, so
Captain Stinson ought to be here by then. Good. I
got my deputies posted around, but extra hands will be
a help in case of trouble.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
And the town looks peaceful enough.
Speaker 8 (05:27):
News hasn't been out long. We couldn't keep it quiet.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
After the medical examiner had the body brought in the
funeral home.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
Though, where are you keeping Lucifer?
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Oh that's him and the bunk and the cell back
the end of the block. There no other prisoners. I
had them all moved up into the tank upstairs.
Speaker 8 (05:41):
Idea.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
A statement says Lucifer worked on the Redford farm all
his life. Yeah, yeah, started there when Mike's grandfather on
the place and just stayed on. Oh, Lucifer must have
gone crazy or something, Jase. He's had a good home
out there. And he turns and bites the hand the feeder.
That's happened before I know.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
But Lucifer never gave you any trouble before this.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
She said, no, no, nothing, but unless you want to
count a little row he got in the last summer.
Didn't a mount to much, or was it. Oh, Lucifer
hit somebody with a shovel, some wandering farm hand that
worked out at Redford's for a few days, him and
Lucifer cleaning out a pig pen, it seems, and this
migratory start cussing Mike Redford. Lucifer told him to shut up.
The guy wouldn't, so Lucifer clipped him with the shovel.
(06:22):
That's the way the story come out. When they brought
Lucifer up before the judge, Judge fund him twenty five
dollars and Redford paid the fine form and took the
old man home. Sounds like Redford nor Lucifer were pretty close.
Speaker 8 (06:33):
Oh, Redford always treat them square.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
What she just told me doesn't fit in with this
statement you got from Lucifer last night. What do you
mean last summer he hit a migratory for cussing Redford.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
Look here on page two of.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
This statement, Lucifer says, I had a grudge in for
mister Redford ever since his pappy die and he come
to be my boss eight years ago. I didn't like
him and I made up my mind I'd kill him.
Doesn't fit, does it. If this were true, Lucifer wouldn't
have been up before a judge for defending Redford last summer.
Honey Jays took your horse out of the trailer and
wanted him.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
Thanks, Sam, Sheriff.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Lucifer's grandson, Chad's out in the hall. I want you know,
if he can see the old man.
Speaker 8 (07:12):
Just for a minute, please, mister sir, well, I guess
it won't hurt none.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Come on, thank you gotta visitor fil Lucer grandson Chad, No, please.
Speaker 9 (07:24):
You don't let him man.
Speaker 5 (07:25):
I don't want to see him.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Don't want to see nobody, grandpoot.
Speaker 5 (07:27):
We gotta get your lawyer or something.
Speaker 9 (07:29):
I don't want nothing. You go home, don't talk to me.
You just have home and stay there. Make him cools chaff,
make him gold.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
You know you want to go that old man? Maybe right.
Speaker 9 (07:39):
I don't want to see you now. Don't ever come
here again for Grandpa.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
You're got my mind, Chad, never mind, You get out
like you said and go home. Come on, Sam, you'd
better drive him out of time. Let him cut across
the fields and through the hills to his place. But
see that he stays off the highway when you leave him. Okay, Sheriff,
go ahead, Chad.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
Where does he live?
Speaker 8 (08:01):
Chad up in the hills, about four miles behind Redford.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
I'd like to take a ride out to Redford's place.
There is gonna be any trouble here. It won't come
before dark.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Besides, i'd like to talk to Chad. I'm gonna catch
Sam and ride with him. See if I can stop.
Speaker 8 (08:15):
Him from the window.
Speaker 9 (08:17):
Sam, Yeah, yeah, Wait a minute, Ranger's gonna ride out
with you.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Okay, he's waiting.
Speaker 5 (08:24):
Jeez.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
There's a deputy guard in the place out there, making
sure nothing's touched until we get photographs.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
Thanks, it's a ranger.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
What are you going out there for?
Speaker 6 (08:33):
I told the chef Hill think so?
Speaker 9 (08:35):
Who need to be going out there?
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Maybe there's no need for you being behind those bars either, Lucifer,
I'd like to make sure. I'd noticed a few peculiar
marks on Chad's face in the Sheriff's office and in
the car. I got a chance to see him close up.
(08:58):
It looked like scratch marks. The bitch of a dirty
bend that showed beneath the frayed cuff.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
Of his shirt.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
You took a full chance walking into town, Chad. People
are mighty hot about Redford getting killed.
Speaker 5 (09:09):
My grandpa wouldn't never kill him.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
One who knows that best is your grandpa. He says
he did kill him. Came in with Redford's blood over him. Yeah,
an awful lot of Redford's blood, judging with the clothes
the sheriff is holding.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
Where were you last night, Chad?
Speaker 5 (09:24):
I was home back in the hills.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
Anybody with you? Who can verify that? I said? Was
anybody with you?
Speaker 2 (09:31):
No?
Speaker 3 (09:31):
I was a loon. What do you mean alone? Ain't
your wife?
Speaker 5 (09:34):
There wasn't she with you. I wasn't at the shack.
I was just arounded doing what? Just walking around? That's all?
Speaker 4 (09:41):
Is that? How your face got scratched up? Walking around
in the dark.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
One of your eyes looks kind of puffy too, Like
he got hit.
Speaker 5 (09:47):
I got that chopping wood piece of killling.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Flew up and hit me a piece of kindling. Hit
you on the wrist too, for that sleeve of your
shirt up.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
I gotta cut that. That's all just cut?
Speaker 4 (09:57):
How'd you get it?
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Come on, Chad? Your place is only a mile up
behind Redford's.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
Were you on the Redford place at all yesterday.
Speaker 5 (10:03):
Sure, but not last night. Only in the afternoon.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
What were you doing there?
Speaker 5 (10:08):
I just went back to see my grandfoot.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
That's all about.
Speaker 5 (10:10):
What to get to Linda some money?
Speaker 4 (10:12):
He give it to you.
Speaker 5 (10:14):
Why not, Chad?
Speaker 3 (10:15):
You've been mooching on old man for years. He never
turns you down for anything.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
Why didn't he give you the money?
Speaker 10 (10:20):
Because mister Redford he saw us talking and he come
out of the house. He told Grandpa not to give me.
He said I was no counder. I'd be in and
my own and not barring from old man. Mister Redford.
He ain't never liked me, told me to get off
the place.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
I didn't want no trouble, so I got And you
just walked around on the hills near your house without
going inside where your wife could see you. I don't
like a smell of that story, Chad. And maybe you
never left Redford's place.
Speaker 5 (10:45):
I did, I tell you, honest, mister Sam, mister Ranger.
My wife will tell you that I did go home
last night for a minute. I left the house because
me and my wife had a fight.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Hmmm, nothing knew by that.
Speaker 5 (10:57):
She got mad when I didn't bring no money back.
We went round and round.
Speaker 10 (11:00):
She throws something at me in on Ham. She scratched
me up, cut my arm with a bread knife. That's
when I run out. You didn't go back to Redford's
after that?
Speaker 5 (11:08):
No, so I swear I never did go back.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
Here's the best place for you to get out. Chad,
got anything else you want to ask me?
Speaker 5 (11:16):
Jason?
Speaker 4 (11:16):
No, all right, Chad, you can go, yes, thank you, Thank.
Speaker 6 (11:20):
You very much.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
I'm just wondering if the old man couldn't be covering
up for him.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
You think he was lying about that fight with his wife?
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Could be Oh, his woman does have a temper. They
had it out hot and heavy before. How does he
make a living back in the hill and they don't.
They live in an abandoned shack up there. Couldn't pay rent,
no place, and he ain't worth his salt. When he
first got married, he tried to move his woman and
himself into Lucifer's place, but Redford.
Speaker 5 (11:47):
Wouldn't have it.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
Nohow, if anybody who was toting the grudge against Redford,
I bet on Chad, not old Lucifer. It's a sense
somebody was toting one Redford wouldn't be dead. Old Lucifer's
(12:09):
actions hadn't fit into the usual crime pattern, and when
we got to the Redford house, the pattern became even
more jumbled. Except for the body having been moved, everything
was left as the sheriff.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
Had found it.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
The body was laying right here. Jeez, you can see
the stain on the rug. Yeah, furniture knocked around, must
have been quite a fight.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
And a broken bottle over here.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Yeah, sheriff figure that's what finally knocked Redford out. Then
he got shot while he was out cold.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
Made the sheriff so sure of that.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Well, the body bullet fired right into the head from
close up, burns on the face and no blood around
except that at one spot on the floor, and those
hand Prince Lucifer left on the furniture and the wall of.
Speaker 4 (12:49):
Bevern's hand prince.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
It would bother me most Why if Lucifer shot Redford,
why didn't he just back off and get out of here?
Speaker 4 (12:55):
How'd he get blood all over him?
Speaker 3 (12:57):
And why'd he smear it all over everything like a
kid would the ten cent tub of red paint. Yeah,
see what you mean? Does seem like it was kind
of deliberate. You think an old man like Lucifer could
erect half this room.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
Fight in a younger man like Redford.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Ranger, I guess is sure for me, didn't think of
a lot of things, now that your pointing them on.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
That's not your fault.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
You thought you had a clear case in the confession.
That makes it easy to overlook things. Young fella like
Chad might have put up quite a fight with Redford.
What about the gun Redford was killed with, Well, we
haven't got it, Lucifer said he threw in some bushes
on the way in the town.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
Couldn't tell us.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Where the weapon might have been A thirty two or
thirty eight autops. He will tell us when we get
the slug. All right, let's get back to town. If
the old man is covering up for his grandson, are
we gonna break him down if he keeps on saying
it's Sam.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
Look at this on the cupboard.
Speaker 5 (13:51):
What two whiskey glass?
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Yeah, both of them full ring on the wood. Here
shows where the bottle was standing. Looks like Redford poured
two drinks, one for himself and one for somebody else,
But they didn't get to drink them. Fight probably started
before they got a chance to bend elbows. We know
the bottle is used to knock Redford out. Hey, that
kicks a hole in what we've been thinking, a big hole.
(14:16):
Who was Redford drinking?
Speaker 5 (14:18):
Ways es?
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Since it wasn't Chad, Redford ordered him off the place,
an old man's confession must be on the level now
it isn't, Sam, because it's not likely Redford would have
been having a loose friend for a drink. Either there
was somebody else here, somebody who either killed Redford or
saw who did?
Speaker 1 (14:48):
You are listening to Tales of the Texas Rangers, starring
Joel McCrae as Ranger Chase Pearson. We continue now with
tonight's case pressure, an authentic story from the files of
the Texas Rangers.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Sam and I headed back for town. The streets were
crowded but quiet, the way they should be on a
Sunday afternoon, but there was a tension we could feel.
We made one stop at the funeral parlor for a
look at Redford's body.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
Medical examiner was just finishing.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Hey, you can see, like I said, the bullet was
fired from close up.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Yeah, what'd you find, doc, Well, he'd been struck on
the head with blood object, then shot through the brain.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
At close range. I had the bullet here. You want that?
Speaker 3 (15:37):
It costs?
Speaker 5 (15:38):
Please?
Speaker 3 (15:40):
Heyoh thanks? Thirty two to twenty caliber. I'd give a
lot to get my hands on the gun. This came
out of Lucifer said, he ditched the gun. And Lucifer
said a lot of things and slugs flattened out.
Speaker 4 (15:53):
Plenty and usually so I notice, Eh, there's.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Something else to notice too, on the body, the burned
area around the What about it ought to be some
powder grains buried in the flesh, But there aren't none
that I can see.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
None, and I can see either.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
How about that?
Speaker 6 (16:08):
Doc?
Speaker 4 (16:09):
No, no, it is an unusual wound.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
When Lucifer told you he threw the gun away, did
he mention what kind of a gun?
Speaker 4 (16:15):
Said?
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Mmm?
Speaker 11 (16:17):
No?
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Why? Because this may give us a chance to trip
him up. This bullet didn't come from a small weapon.
It came from a thirty two to twenty caliber rifle.
How can you tell that without a ballistic check? For
one thing, the way the slug's flattened out rifle has
a couple one hundred pounds greater impact than a sidear
and plowing through a skull and flattened plenty. Yeah, but
There's another thing about a close range rifle shot. It
(16:40):
leaves a burn, but no powder grains in the skin.
Or revolver leave powder grains every time?
Speaker 4 (16:46):
That makes sense, Doc, Yes it does.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
With a revolver, the explosion of the pot on the
shelves only a couple inches away from a point blank target.
But with rifle, well has lent the barrel, you know. Yeah,
is my report. If you're headed for the Sheriff's office, we.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
Drop it off for you. So long, so long.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
I'm learning a lot as we go along here, James,
there's still something we both got to learn. Who killed
Mike Redford. There were a couple of ranger cars outside.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
The jail when we got there.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
Men from my company were standing casually at points along
the street, but they weren't as casual as they looked.
Jail was carefully circled and they commanded all approaches. Captain
Stinson was inside with the.
Speaker 4 (17:32):
Sheriff, Drace.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
The sheriff tells me, you are not satisfied with Lucifer's confission.
That's right, Kevin. How about bringing Lucier out here for
a minute, Sheriff. Sure thing things are gonna start blowing
around here after sundown, Jase, I.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
Know I felt it all the way through town. All
it needs is some hothead to start it off.
Speaker 5 (17:51):
Well, if it stops, we'll stop it. Oh, maybe there
won't be no trouble.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
The town's pretty crowded, Sam up, a lot of cars
coming in. Town's always crowding on Sunday. To not ganging
up any place.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
That can come later.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
If there's one sign of trouble you can't ignore. Take
a look out that window. There's not a woman in sight.
All the way down mean street. A man are coming
in alone.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
Here he is.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Jeez, thanks, Sheriff Lucifer. You said you killed Redford and
then threw the gun away.
Speaker 7 (18:20):
That's honest truth, mister Ranger. Where'd you throw it? I
don't remember, sir.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
Was it a gun like this one in my holster? Well?
Was it?
Speaker 6 (18:29):
Maybe? Guns look all the same to me?
Speaker 4 (18:32):
Or was it about the size of this one?
Speaker 6 (18:34):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (18:34):
Guns is about that size, not all guns.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
Lucifer, you're not telling me the truth because Redford wasn't
killed with this kind of a gun.
Speaker 4 (18:42):
He was killed with a rifle.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
You're covering up for Chad.
Speaker 6 (18:44):
No, sir, No, so Chad had nothing to do with it.
It is me, just me.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Listen to me, Lucifer. You think Chad killed Redford, but
I don't.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
If you want to help him, open up and tell
the truth.
Speaker 6 (18:54):
Oh, Chad couldn't have done it.
Speaker 7 (18:55):
He left the place with mister Redford runnymore upon it
I see him leave than what happened. I went to
my house and after it got Darctor was a shot,
a gun shot. It came mister Redford's house. I left
my place run over to see if anything was wrong.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
And and Redford was dead when you found him? And
how did he get blood all over him?
Speaker 4 (19:16):
Jess, you'll tell your chares go on, lustiener.
Speaker 5 (19:19):
I left him a little to hold his head on
my leaft.
Speaker 7 (19:23):
I beg him to talk to him, to say something
to old Lucifer. I knowed him since he was a
little boy, who watched him grow.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
But when you found him there, you thought Chatt had
sneak back to kill him. Man, I didn't know what
to Why should you come up on no good like Chad?
Speaker 6 (19:39):
He is my own flesh share, blood is thicker than water.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
How do you know Chad isn't for killer? Jase two
four whiskey glasses indicated that Redford was drinking with a
man who killed him, and he wouldn't be drinking of
the Chad, Sheriff, it ain't this come in out the
sheriff Rangers. What's on your mind? Flam?
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Oh, some of the men have been talking around Tom Sheriff.
They sort of appointed me to come up and see you.
He'd just been to the funeral home to see Mike Redford.
What's left of him? Mike was my neighbor and pretty
good friend too.
Speaker 8 (20:15):
Afterd you come to tell me, Flam.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
Not exactly.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Looks like you're expecting some trouble, and some of us
thought we'd like to volunteer to help you. But we
could take over the guard trick on jail for tonight
so you and the rangers can get some rest.
Speaker 8 (20:28):
You can go back and tell the boys we're not tired, Flam.
Speaker 4 (20:31):
And while you're out it, tell him Lucifer didn't kill Redford.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Words around that, Lucifer, confess Ranger.
Speaker 6 (20:37):
It wasn't mistake, mister Flamm. What I said wasn't true.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Of fine, Now you don't have to stay here, Lucifer
want you go home, back to Redford's farm.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
He's staying here.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Why if he got nothing to hold him on.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Protective custody, and that means just what it says, Flam,
he'll be protected. You can go now, all right, Sheriff,
Just a minute, mister Flamm.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
Yeah, cap'n.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
If you should see any men around who look like
they're fixing to start some trouble, do us a favor
and do them a favor too. Tell him to go home.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Sure, cap'n, I'll tell him.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Sam locked Loocifer up again with him?
Speaker 5 (21:19):
Sure, come on, lesber me soon.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
Flam looks like he may be the man who'll spark that.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
Crowd uh flaming red for the mighty clothes.
Speaker 5 (21:29):
Sheriff.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
We've got to move Loocifer out of the county for
safe keep him. If Plam gets a mob stirred up
at night, anything can happen, and a few people are
liable to get killed. He's safer in here than he'd
be we took him outside. Not if they fire this building.
Speaker 5 (21:43):
We'll move him right after Sunday.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
How where seems to me the best place to be
some small town lock up across the county line, where
nobody'd know him and nobody'd think of looking for him.
That's what I had in mind. Sam, here, cap'n get
Jason's horse, Charcoal out of his trader, pick up two
more horses, and make them all to the field south
of town. Hobble them and stash the saddles away under
cover so you'll.
Speaker 5 (22:04):
Know where they are later.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
Okay, after you leave them on the way back, you
can drop the word that we're moving Lucifer out of
here tonight.
Speaker 8 (22:11):
You mean you want the whole town or know it.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
They won't know as much as they'll think they're no sheriff.
After Doc, you and I can make a run in
my car. They'll figure we are moving Lucifer and they'll
all make a run to block us. Meanwhile, Jason, Sam
can slip him out the back and make for the
horses in the field. After that, Jase, it's up to you.
It's eleven miles cross country to Hills Crossing. There's a
lock up there. See that. Nobody stops you from getting
(22:36):
him to it. We waited until dark without turning on
a light in the building, and Captain Stenson, the sheriff,
took one of the deputies covered with a blanket and
made a run to the Captain's car, while Sam and
I took Loocifer out the back, ran across the field
where the horses had been left, and began to sadden them. Listen,
(23:00):
sounds like the sheriff and your captain hit trouble, James.
I believe somebody tried to block the road and cap
scaring them off.
Speaker 4 (23:05):
Sorry with that last.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Yeah, ready to go, Jess, after taking one hobble off, good, Come.
Speaker 4 (23:11):
On, Lucifer, I'll give you a boot.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
Yes, sir, here's shark hold jessh Hey you run, thanks,
steady boy, you sat Sam as.
Speaker 9 (23:19):
Soon as it gets mounted.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
No more shooting.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
No captain discourages him quick.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Yeah, but by now that crowd may know.
Speaker 10 (23:26):
They ain't got Lucifer in the.
Speaker 4 (23:27):
Car light to do him any good.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
This is gonna be a rough ride for you, Lucifer.
Let us know if you want to slow up or stop.
Speaker 6 (23:33):
I'll be all right, sir.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
Good, let's ride.
Speaker 5 (23:35):
I'p chart get up, boy, Come up.
Speaker 6 (23:38):
Just hang on the horn, Lucifer, Yeah, sir.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Come on boy.
Speaker 4 (23:47):
When we got to Hills Crossing, the town was dark
and sleeping, except for a couple of rangers who've been
sent down to take over guiding Lucifer. Once he was
safe under lock and key Samini started to ride back
to Lingwood.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Hey, you cutting the wrong way, James. We should turn
down that valley to Lingwood.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
I know it. We're not heading back for town yet.
I want to make one more stop.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Where back to the Redford farm again. That's not much
out of the way. Getting Lucifer safe was only part
of the job. We still gotta find out who killed Redford.
That means you've got to find out who was drinking
with him, if there was anybody. Lucifer said Redford didn't
have any visitors yesterday.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
He said he didn't see any visitor. That doesn't prove anything.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
He'd have been sure to see a car if wanted,
driven in his shacks near the farm road. Even if
he'd been inside, he'd heard it. Maybe the visitor didn't
use the road, might have come in on foot or
mounted from another side of the farmhouse. And I guess
it could be all right. Probably put his horse in
the barn or the back corral. That'd keep Lucifer from
knowing anybody who was.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
In the house.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
There's old wagon road the other side of that grove
of trees were coming to. We'll have easier riding once
we get over there. It's sam ooh woo chocolate. Oh boy, Hey,
what's the listen hounds and they're on trail.
Speaker 4 (24:56):
Look over there in the hill.
Speaker 6 (24:57):
Hey, something's on fire.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
Chase that right up hot Redford's place. Isn't that where
Lucifer's grandson Chad lives.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
Yeah, what are you supposed to going on with her?
Speaker 4 (25:05):
Somebody wants some blood. They didn't get it from Lucifer,
so they're running down his family.
Speaker 5 (25:08):
Come on up chart.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Oh boy, that shack is really flaming. Jason, if they
trapped him in there, he's had it. They haven't got
him yet. The dogs are still after something.
Speaker 6 (25:18):
Keep going.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
We raked our horses all the way. We've been about
a mile off when.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
The blaze started.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
When we reached the shack, it was a flaming heap
on the ground. We saw a woman staring at it
in a daze. She must have been Chad's wife.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
She wasn't harmed, so we took off after the sound
of the dogs.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
Listen to that, Jason, They got Chad tree and they
wouldn't sound off like that, And they just threw this thicket.
All right, Get trow a.
Speaker 11 (25:44):
Fleet on that tree and reach it.
Speaker 9 (25:45):
Till he fall.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
All that lamb you and whoever's with you, oh boy,
who was raising?
Speaker 4 (25:54):
Nobody's gonna kill you, Chad, you man, grab your hounds
and shut him eyes. You're all under arrest, and that
includes you, Flam.
Speaker 11 (26:01):
What for we were just doing a little night hunting.
The dogs treat Chad here by mistake.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
The dogs didn't set fire to his shack. And Arson's
a crime, Look, ranger, he killed my neighbor. Why just
switch to him? Because you couldn't get your hands on
old Lucifer.
Speaker 11 (26:15):
Never at it together. Redford ordered Chad off a place yesterday?
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Did you tell him that?
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Chad?
Speaker 4 (26:21):
Tell nobody but you, and you didn't get it from Lucifer,
Flam because you never got near him. So how do
you know who told you Redford chewed him out?
Speaker 3 (26:28):
Nobody had to tell me.
Speaker 11 (26:30):
I was visiting Redford at the house. He saw Chad
on the place, went out and ordered him off. But
after I left him or the old man sneaked in
and kill Mike.
Speaker 4 (26:38):
Throw that rifle over here, Flam, why never mind?
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Why just throw it over and be careful how you
throw it.
Speaker 11 (26:44):
We're willing to leave here peaceful, just a hunting.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
Weapon, a thirty two to twenty hunting weapon, just like
the one that killed Mike Redford the last time, Flam,
throw it over.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Come and get it.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
Hands off those guns directly.
Speaker 5 (27:01):
That's better.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
I'll gather in and pick up your pal, Flam. You
followed him out here, you can tote them back. Ye
hit me. I'm hurt, Fad.
Speaker 4 (27:09):
You just wing. It's a better break than you gave
Redford when you killed him.
Speaker 9 (27:13):
It was self defense.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
I killed himself sure while he was knocked out after
you hit him with that whiskey bottle. Should have finished
your drink, Flam. You'll never see another glass of whiskey
as expensive as that one.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Jack Flamm confessed to the murder of Mike Radford. His
statement disclosed that the killing had been the result of
an argument over ownership of a strip of land between
his farm and Radford's. Flam was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Four other men convicted of armed participation in the attempted
lynching of Old Lucifer and his grandson Chad were given
prescribed terms in the county jail. And now here again
(28:18):
is the star of our show, Joel McCrae.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
There are thousands of people living today who have survived
only because of the Red Cross. These people will never
have to be reminded of its great service to humanity.
But this year the Red Cross Drive has fallen short
of its needed goal. So give to the Red Cross,
won't you? And invest in humanity? Good Night, folks.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Next week Joel McCray and another authentic reenactment of the
case from the files of but Texas Rangers. Joel McCrae
(29:06):
is currently seen starring in the Universal International Technicolor production Frenchie.
Tonight's past included Tony Barrett, Will Wright, Herb Bigren, Ernie Whitman,
Roy Glenn, Bill Conrad, and Byron Kane. This story was
transcribed and adapted by Joel Murcott, and the program is
produced and directed by Stacy Keats.
Speaker 5 (29:29):
This is how Kidney.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
Speaking three times mean Good Times on NBC.
Speaker 6 (29:47):
Coming up next on NBC, It's the sixty four Dollars.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Question Accordion Playing quiz Master Phil Baker gathers another group
of contestants around the microphone to play your favorite quiz game,
adther up prizes for the lucky participants and excitement it
laughs for you at home.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Join Phil Baker now as he asks America's favorite question,
the sixty four dollars Question, on NBC
The National Broadcasting Company presents Joel McCrae Entails of the
Texas Rangers Tonight transcribe from Hollywood, another authentic reenactment of
a case from the files of the Texas Rangers. Now
(00:41):
from the files of the Texas Rangers come these stories
based on facts only. Names, dates, and places are big
ditches for obvious reasons. The events themselves are a matter
of records. Case Fortnite Pressure.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
It is eleven PM Saturday night in January nineteen thirty three.
Sheriff Russ Morton drives his car to the end of
the well lighted main street of Lingwood, Texas, and turns
onto a narrow wooden bridge that crosses the railroad yards
and leads to the Negro quarter of town. On the
fire side of the tracks. In the car with the
sheriff is his deputy, Sam Billings. Both men are uneasy.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Doesn't look like there's much doing across the track. Sam,
I don't get it here. I was over here less
than hour ago in the cafes. His packs so thick
you couldn't stir them with a stick. Who sent out
call for pedro at the canteen a cafe? I didn't
get half of what he said. It sounds scared to death.
Just kept yelling the come get old Loosifer out of
his place, Oh Lucifer, and imagine him's turn up no trouble,
(01:56):
Oh neither can I.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
But Sam, you don't like the look of this mm.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
There isn't a light showed in the whole quarter, not
even in shack or sandy. I'd have been a knife
in chaff, God knife, and might might make one place
for dark, but not all of 'em. Antena's off left
off next street. Nobody on the streets, not even a
dog in the prowl if old Lucifer is behind this,
he sure send everybody running for cover. Now, how can
(02:22):
an old man like sharefluck?
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Huh?
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Canteen ain't over neither. It's pedro goal Lucifer to leave
without waiting for our help. Yeah, then closed up tight
in a drum.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
Why I can't figure it?
Speaker 5 (02:36):
What are we gonna do?
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Now? We're gonna find out what's wrong over here. Keep
your eyes peeled. I'm gonna comb these streets until we
find a light or somebody stirring. Betther, reach over and
back and get that shot gun right. You never saw
nothing like this before.
Speaker 5 (02:52):
Yeah, neither of I.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
There's further spipelight on a chair head doorway over there.
It's old Lucifer. Stand right where you are, Fay, don't move.
Look freaking the sheriff. Something all over his shirt and
his pants, his hands. Uh, no, need to look at
him twice. It's blood. What happened to you, loose fer?
What's the matter over here?
Speaker 6 (03:14):
It's not doing, mister sheriff, all I doing. Ain't nobody
to blame but me.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
You got blood all over here and it doesn't look
like it. You're on who you're fighting with? Somebody in
Pedro's place trying to jump you.
Speaker 5 (03:25):
No, sir, I ain't had no trouble with nobody here.
Speaker 6 (03:29):
Had my trouble out to.
Speaker 7 (03:30):
The farm where I work out of the farm, Yes, sir,
I just walked into town a little while ago, trying
to get up my nerve to turn myself in.
Speaker 5 (03:40):
Sure. Uh, I killed mister Redford.
Speaker 6 (03:43):
I shot him dead.
Speaker 7 (03:45):
What you kill your boss, Mike Redford? Yes, sir, i'd
done it just me. We got the argument and I
shot him dead. I wonder it ain't a light on
over here.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
You can tell us the rest of it at the jail.
Those fur right now, you better get my car fast
before this news crossed the tracks. Yes, sir, we're in
for troubles here. Mike Redford's been mighty popular around here.
Get in back, woosefer, Get down on the floor and
stay there. Yes, I'm gonna drop you off on main street. Sam,
round up a constable and a couple of other deputies.
(04:18):
Get him to jail as fast as you can. We
may be able to keep this quiet until tomorrow. If
we can, it'll give you a chance to get a
few Texas rangers in to give us a hand.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
The news of Mike Redford's murder struck the town on
the afternoon of the following day, but by that time.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Sheriff Morton had help.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
He was joined at the Lingwood jail by Texas Ranger
Jace Pearson.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Here's Luciferth's confession if you want to see it, Jace.
He made a full statement when he brought him in
last night. Pretty short statement, yeah, shortened to the point.
Says he had it in for Redward for a long time,
made up his mind to settle last night, went up
the house, started to fight and shot him. These are
the clothes Lucifer was where blood all over them?
Speaker 4 (05:07):
You have the blood analyzed?
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Yeah, medical examiner did it when the JP ordered an autopsy.
It matches Redford's blood type. All right. We ought to
have a full off toops of reporting in ours, so
Captain Stinson ought to be here by then. Good. I
got my deputies posted around, but extra hands will be
a help in case of trouble.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
And the town looks peaceful enough.
Speaker 8 (05:27):
News hasn't been out long. We couldn't keep it quiet.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
After the medical examiner had the body brought in the
funeral home.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
Though, where are you keeping Lucifer?
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Oh that's him and the bunk and the cell back
the end of the block. There no other prisoners. I
had them all moved up into the tank upstairs.
Speaker 8 (05:41):
Idea.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
A statement says Lucifer worked on the Redford farm all
his life. Yeah, yeah, started there when Mike's grandfather on
the place and just stayed on. Oh, Lucifer must have
gone crazy or something, Jase. He's had a good home
out there. And he turns and bites the hand the feeder.
That's happened before I know.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
But Lucifer never gave you any trouble before this.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
She said, no, no, nothing, but unless you want to
count a little row he got in the last summer.
Didn't a mount to much, or was it. Oh, Lucifer
hit somebody with a shovel, some wandering farm hand that
worked out at Redford's for a few days, him and
Lucifer cleaning out a pig pen, it seems, and this
migratory start cussing Mike Redford. Lucifer told him to shut up.
The guy wouldn't, so Lucifer clipped him with the shovel.
(06:22):
That's the way the story come out. When they brought
Lucifer up before the judge, Judge fund him twenty five
dollars and Redford paid the fine form and took the
old man home. Sounds like Redford nor Lucifer were pretty close.
Speaker 8 (06:33):
Oh, Redford always treat them square.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
What she just told me doesn't fit in with this
statement you got from Lucifer last night. What do you
mean last summer he hit a migratory for cussing Redford.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
Look here on page two of.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
This statement, Lucifer says, I had a grudge in for
mister Redford ever since his pappy die and he come
to be my boss eight years ago. I didn't like
him and I made up my mind I'd kill him.
Doesn't fit, does it. If this were true, Lucifer wouldn't
have been up before a judge for defending Redford last summer.
Honey Jays took your horse out of the trailer and
wanted him.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
Thanks, Sam, Sheriff.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Lucifer's grandson, Chad's out in the hall. I want you know,
if he can see the old man.
Speaker 8 (07:12):
Just for a minute, please, mister sir, well, I guess
it won't hurt none.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Come on, thank you gotta visitor fil Lucer grandson Chad, No, please.
Speaker 9 (07:24):
You don't let him man.
Speaker 5 (07:25):
I don't want to see him.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Don't want to see nobody, grandpoot.
Speaker 5 (07:27):
We gotta get your lawyer or something.
Speaker 9 (07:29):
I don't want nothing. You go home, don't talk to me.
You just have home and stay there. Make him cools chaff,
make him gold.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
You know you want to go that old man? Maybe right.
Speaker 9 (07:39):
I don't want to see you now. Don't ever come
here again for Grandpa.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
You're got my mind, Chad, never mind, You get out
like you said and go home. Come on, Sam, you'd
better drive him out of time. Let him cut across
the fields and through the hills to his place. But
see that he stays off the highway when you leave him. Okay, Sheriff,
go ahead, Chad.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
Where does he live?
Speaker 8 (08:01):
Chad up in the hills, about four miles behind Redford.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
I'd like to take a ride out to Redford's place.
There is gonna be any trouble here. It won't come
before dark.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Besides, i'd like to talk to Chad. I'm gonna catch
Sam and ride with him. See if I can stop.
Speaker 8 (08:15):
Him from the window.
Speaker 9 (08:17):
Sam, Yeah, yeah, Wait a minute, Ranger's gonna ride out
with you.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Okay, he's waiting.
Speaker 5 (08:24):
Jeez.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
There's a deputy guard in the place out there, making
sure nothing's touched until we get photographs.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
Thanks, it's a ranger.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
What are you going out there for?
Speaker 6 (08:33):
I told the chef Hill think so?
Speaker 9 (08:35):
Who need to be going out there?
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Maybe there's no need for you being behind those bars either, Lucifer,
I'd like to make sure. I'd noticed a few peculiar
marks on Chad's face in the Sheriff's office and in
the car. I got a chance to see him close up.
(08:58):
It looked like scratch marks. The bitch of a dirty
bend that showed beneath the frayed cuff.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
Of his shirt.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
You took a full chance walking into town, Chad. People
are mighty hot about Redford getting killed.
Speaker 5 (09:09):
My grandpa wouldn't never kill him.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
One who knows that best is your grandpa. He says
he did kill him. Came in with Redford's blood over him. Yeah,
an awful lot of Redford's blood, judging with the clothes
the sheriff is holding.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
Where were you last night, Chad?
Speaker 5 (09:24):
I was home back in the hills.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
Anybody with you? Who can verify that? I said? Was
anybody with you?
Speaker 2 (09:31):
No?
Speaker 3 (09:31):
I was a loon. What do you mean alone? Ain't
your wife?
Speaker 5 (09:34):
There wasn't she with you. I wasn't at the shack.
I was just arounded doing what? Just walking around? That's all?
Speaker 4 (09:41):
Is that? How your face got scratched up? Walking around
in the dark.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
One of your eyes looks kind of puffy too, Like
he got hit.
Speaker 5 (09:47):
I got that chopping wood piece of killling.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Flew up and hit me a piece of kindling. Hit
you on the wrist too, for that sleeve of your
shirt up.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
I gotta cut that. That's all just cut?
Speaker 4 (09:57):
How'd you get it?
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Come on, Chad? Your place is only a mile up
behind Redford's.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
Were you on the Redford place at all yesterday.
Speaker 5 (10:03):
Sure, but not last night. Only in the afternoon.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
What were you doing there?
Speaker 5 (10:08):
I just went back to see my grandfoot.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
That's all about.
Speaker 5 (10:10):
What to get to Linda some money?
Speaker 4 (10:12):
He give it to you.
Speaker 5 (10:14):
Why not, Chad?
Speaker 3 (10:15):
You've been mooching on old man for years. He never
turns you down for anything.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
Why didn't he give you the money?
Speaker 10 (10:20):
Because mister Redford he saw us talking and he come
out of the house. He told Grandpa not to give me.
He said I was no counder. I'd be in and
my own and not barring from old man. Mister Redford.
He ain't never liked me, told me to get off
the place.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
I didn't want no trouble, so I got And you
just walked around on the hills near your house without
going inside where your wife could see you. I don't
like a smell of that story, Chad. And maybe you
never left Redford's place.
Speaker 5 (10:45):
I did, I tell you, honest, mister Sam, mister Ranger.
My wife will tell you that I did go home
last night for a minute. I left the house because
me and my wife had a fight.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Hmmm, nothing knew by that.
Speaker 5 (10:57):
She got mad when I didn't bring no money back.
We went round and round.
Speaker 10 (11:00):
She throws something at me in on Ham. She scratched
me up, cut my arm with a bread knife. That's
when I run out. You didn't go back to Redford's
after that?
Speaker 5 (11:08):
No, so I swear I never did go back.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
Here's the best place for you to get out. Chad,
got anything else you want to ask me?
Speaker 5 (11:16):
Jason?
Speaker 4 (11:16):
No, all right, Chad, you can go, yes, thank you, Thank.
Speaker 6 (11:20):
You very much.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
I'm just wondering if the old man couldn't be covering
up for him.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
You think he was lying about that fight with his wife?
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Could be Oh, his woman does have a temper. They
had it out hot and heavy before. How does he
make a living back in the hill and they don't.
They live in an abandoned shack up there. Couldn't pay rent,
no place, and he ain't worth his salt. When he
first got married, he tried to move his woman and
himself into Lucifer's place, but Redford.
Speaker 5 (11:47):
Wouldn't have it.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
Nohow, if anybody who was toting the grudge against Redford,
I bet on Chad, not old Lucifer. It's a sense
somebody was toting one Redford wouldn't be dead. Old Lucifer's
(12:09):
actions hadn't fit into the usual crime pattern, and when
we got to the Redford house, the pattern became even
more jumbled. Except for the body having been moved, everything
was left as the sheriff.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
Had found it.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
The body was laying right here. Jeez, you can see
the stain on the rug. Yeah, furniture knocked around, must
have been quite a fight.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
And a broken bottle over here.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Yeah, sheriff figure that's what finally knocked Redford out. Then
he got shot while he was out cold.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
Made the sheriff so sure of that.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Well, the body bullet fired right into the head from
close up, burns on the face and no blood around
except that at one spot on the floor, and those
hand Prince Lucifer left on the furniture and the wall of.
Speaker 4 (12:49):
Bevern's hand prince.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
It would bother me most Why if Lucifer shot Redford,
why didn't he just back off and get out of here?
Speaker 4 (12:55):
How'd he get blood all over him?
Speaker 3 (12:57):
And why'd he smear it all over everything like a
kid would the ten cent tub of red paint. Yeah,
see what you mean? Does seem like it was kind
of deliberate. You think an old man like Lucifer could
erect half this room.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
Fight in a younger man like Redford.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Ranger, I guess is sure for me, didn't think of
a lot of things, now that your pointing them on.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
That's not your fault.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
You thought you had a clear case in the confession.
That makes it easy to overlook things. Young fella like
Chad might have put up quite a fight with Redford.
What about the gun Redford was killed with, Well, we
haven't got it, Lucifer said he threw in some bushes
on the way in the town.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
Couldn't tell us.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Where the weapon might have been A thirty two or
thirty eight autops. He will tell us when we get
the slug. All right, let's get back to town. If
the old man is covering up for his grandson, are
we gonna break him down if he keeps on saying
it's Sam.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
Look at this on the cupboard.
Speaker 5 (13:51):
What two whiskey glass?
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Yeah, both of them full ring on the wood. Here
shows where the bottle was standing. Looks like Redford poured
two drinks, one for himself and one for somebody else,
But they didn't get to drink them. Fight probably started
before they got a chance to bend elbows. We know
the bottle is used to knock Redford out. Hey, that
kicks a hole in what we've been thinking, a big hole.
(14:16):
Who was Redford drinking?
Speaker 5 (14:18):
Ways es?
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Since it wasn't Chad, Redford ordered him off the place,
an old man's confession must be on the level now
it isn't, Sam, because it's not likely Redford would have
been having a loose friend for a drink. Either there
was somebody else here, somebody who either killed Redford or
saw who did?
Speaker 1 (14:48):
You are listening to Tales of the Texas Rangers, starring
Joel McCrae as Ranger Chase Pearson. We continue now with
tonight's case pressure, an authentic story from the files of
the Texas Rangers.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Sam and I headed back for town. The streets were
crowded but quiet, the way they should be on a
Sunday afternoon, but there was a tension we could feel.
We made one stop at the funeral parlor for a
look at Redford's body.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
Medical examiner was just finishing.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Hey, you can see, like I said, the bullet was
fired from close up.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Yeah, what'd you find, doc, Well, he'd been struck on
the head with blood object, then shot through the brain.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
At close range. I had the bullet here. You want that?
Speaker 3 (15:37):
It costs?
Speaker 5 (15:38):
Please?
Speaker 3 (15:40):
Heyoh thanks? Thirty two to twenty caliber. I'd give a
lot to get my hands on the gun. This came
out of Lucifer said, he ditched the gun. And Lucifer
said a lot of things and slugs flattened out.
Speaker 4 (15:53):
Plenty and usually so I notice, Eh, there's.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Something else to notice too, on the body, the burned
area around the What about it ought to be some
powder grains buried in the flesh, But there aren't none
that I can see.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
None, and I can see either.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
How about that?
Speaker 6 (16:08):
Doc?
Speaker 4 (16:09):
No, no, it is an unusual wound.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
When Lucifer told you he threw the gun away, did
he mention what kind of a gun?
Speaker 4 (16:15):
Said?
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Mmm?
Speaker 11 (16:17):
No?
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Why? Because this may give us a chance to trip
him up. This bullet didn't come from a small weapon.
It came from a thirty two to twenty caliber rifle.
How can you tell that without a ballistic check? For
one thing, the way the slug's flattened out rifle has
a couple one hundred pounds greater impact than a sidear
and plowing through a skull and flattened plenty. Yeah, but
There's another thing about a close range rifle shot. It
(16:40):
leaves a burn, but no powder grains in the skin.
Or revolver leave powder grains every time?
Speaker 4 (16:46):
That makes sense, Doc, Yes it does.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
With a revolver, the explosion of the pot on the
shelves only a couple inches away from a point blank target.
But with rifle, well has lent the barrel, you know. Yeah,
is my report. If you're headed for the Sheriff's office, we.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
Drop it off for you. So long, so long.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
I'm learning a lot as we go along here, James,
there's still something we both got to learn. Who killed
Mike Redford. There were a couple of ranger cars outside.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
The jail when we got there.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
Men from my company were standing casually at points along
the street, but they weren't as casual as they looked.
Jail was carefully circled and they commanded all approaches. Captain
Stinson was inside with the.
Speaker 4 (17:32):
Sheriff, Drace.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
The sheriff tells me, you are not satisfied with Lucifer's confission.
That's right, Kevin. How about bringing Lucier out here for
a minute, Sheriff. Sure thing things are gonna start blowing
around here after sundown, Jase, I.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
Know I felt it all the way through town. All
it needs is some hothead to start it off.
Speaker 5 (17:51):
Well, if it stops, we'll stop it. Oh, maybe there
won't be no trouble.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
The town's pretty crowded, Sam up, a lot of cars
coming in. Town's always crowding on Sunday. To not ganging
up any place.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
That can come later.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
If there's one sign of trouble you can't ignore. Take
a look out that window. There's not a woman in sight.
All the way down mean street. A man are coming
in alone.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
Here he is.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Jeez, thanks, Sheriff Lucifer. You said you killed Redford and
then threw the gun away.
Speaker 7 (18:20):
That's honest truth, mister Ranger. Where'd you throw it? I
don't remember, sir.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
Was it a gun like this one in my holster? Well?
Was it?
Speaker 6 (18:29):
Maybe? Guns look all the same to me?
Speaker 4 (18:32):
Or was it about the size of this one?
Speaker 6 (18:34):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (18:34):
Guns is about that size, not all guns.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
Lucifer, you're not telling me the truth because Redford wasn't
killed with this kind of a gun.
Speaker 4 (18:42):
He was killed with a rifle.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
You're covering up for Chad.
Speaker 6 (18:44):
No, sir, No, so Chad had nothing to do with it.
It is me, just me.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Listen to me, Lucifer. You think Chad killed Redford, but
I don't.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
If you want to help him, open up and tell
the truth.
Speaker 6 (18:54):
Oh, Chad couldn't have done it.
Speaker 7 (18:55):
He left the place with mister Redford runnymore upon it
I see him leave than what happened. I went to
my house and after it got Darctor was a shot,
a gun shot. It came mister Redford's house. I left
my place run over to see if anything was wrong.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
And and Redford was dead when you found him? And
how did he get blood all over him?
Speaker 4 (19:16):
Jess, you'll tell your chares go on, lustiener.
Speaker 5 (19:19):
I left him a little to hold his head on
my leaft.
Speaker 7 (19:23):
I beg him to talk to him, to say something
to old Lucifer. I knowed him since he was a
little boy, who watched him grow.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
But when you found him there, you thought Chatt had
sneak back to kill him. Man, I didn't know what
to Why should you come up on no good like Chad?
Speaker 6 (19:39):
He is my own flesh share, blood is thicker than water.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
How do you know Chad isn't for killer? Jase two
four whiskey glasses indicated that Redford was drinking with a
man who killed him, and he wouldn't be drinking of
the Chad, Sheriff, it ain't this come in out the
sheriff Rangers. What's on your mind? Flam?
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Oh, some of the men have been talking around Tom Sheriff.
They sort of appointed me to come up and see you.
He'd just been to the funeral home to see Mike Redford.
What's left of him? Mike was my neighbor and pretty
good friend too.
Speaker 8 (20:15):
Afterd you come to tell me, Flam.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
Not exactly.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Looks like you're expecting some trouble, and some of us
thought we'd like to volunteer to help you. But we
could take over the guard trick on jail for tonight
so you and the rangers can get some rest.
Speaker 8 (20:28):
You can go back and tell the boys we're not tired, Flam.
Speaker 4 (20:31):
And while you're out it, tell him Lucifer didn't kill Redford.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Words around that, Lucifer, confess Ranger.
Speaker 6 (20:37):
It wasn't mistake, mister Flamm. What I said wasn't true.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Of fine, Now you don't have to stay here, Lucifer
want you go home, back to Redford's farm.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
He's staying here.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Why if he got nothing to hold him on.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Protective custody, and that means just what it says, Flam,
he'll be protected. You can go now, all right, Sheriff,
Just a minute, mister Flamm.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
Yeah, cap'n.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
If you should see any men around who look like
they're fixing to start some trouble, do us a favor
and do them a favor too. Tell him to go home.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Sure, cap'n, I'll tell him.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Sam locked Loocifer up again with him?
Speaker 5 (21:19):
Sure, come on, lesber me soon.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
Flam looks like he may be the man who'll spark that.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
Crowd uh flaming red for the mighty clothes.
Speaker 5 (21:29):
Sheriff.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
We've got to move Loocifer out of the county for
safe keep him. If Plam gets a mob stirred up
at night, anything can happen, and a few people are
liable to get killed. He's safer in here than he'd
be we took him outside. Not if they fire this building.
Speaker 5 (21:43):
We'll move him right after Sunday.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
How where seems to me the best place to be
some small town lock up across the county line, where
nobody'd know him and nobody'd think of looking for him.
That's what I had in mind. Sam, here, cap'n get
Jason's horse, Charcoal out of his trader, pick up two
more horses, and make them all to the field south
of town. Hobble them and stash the saddles away under
cover so you'll.
Speaker 5 (22:04):
Know where they are later.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
Okay, after you leave them on the way back, you
can drop the word that we're moving Lucifer out of
here tonight.
Speaker 8 (22:11):
You mean you want the whole town or know it.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
They won't know as much as they'll think they're no sheriff.
After Doc, you and I can make a run in
my car. They'll figure we are moving Lucifer and they'll
all make a run to block us. Meanwhile, Jason, Sam
can slip him out the back and make for the
horses in the field. After that, Jase, it's up to you.
It's eleven miles cross country to Hills Crossing. There's a
lock up there. See that. Nobody stops you from getting
(22:36):
him to it. We waited until dark without turning on
a light in the building, and Captain Stenson, the sheriff,
took one of the deputies covered with a blanket and
made a run to the Captain's car, while Sam and
I took Loocifer out the back, ran across the field
where the horses had been left, and began to sadden them. Listen,
(23:00):
sounds like the sheriff and your captain hit trouble, James.
I believe somebody tried to block the road and cap
scaring them off.
Speaker 4 (23:05):
Sorry with that last.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Yeah, ready to go, Jess, after taking one hobble off, good, Come.
Speaker 4 (23:11):
On, Lucifer, I'll give you a boot.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
Yes, sir, here's shark hold jessh Hey you run, thanks,
steady boy, you sat Sam as.
Speaker 9 (23:19):
Soon as it gets mounted.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
No more shooting.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
No captain discourages him quick.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Yeah, but by now that crowd may know.
Speaker 10 (23:26):
They ain't got Lucifer in the.
Speaker 4 (23:27):
Car light to do him any good.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
This is gonna be a rough ride for you, Lucifer.
Let us know if you want to slow up or stop.
Speaker 6 (23:33):
I'll be all right, sir.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
Good, let's ride.
Speaker 5 (23:35):
I'p chart get up, boy, Come up.
Speaker 6 (23:38):
Just hang on the horn, Lucifer, Yeah, sir.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Come on boy.
Speaker 4 (23:47):
When we got to Hills Crossing, the town was dark
and sleeping, except for a couple of rangers who've been
sent down to take over guiding Lucifer. Once he was
safe under lock and key Samini started to ride back
to Lingwood.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Hey, you cutting the wrong way, James. We should turn
down that valley to Lingwood.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
I know it. We're not heading back for town yet.
I want to make one more stop.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Where back to the Redford farm again. That's not much
out of the way. Getting Lucifer safe was only part
of the job. We still gotta find out who killed Redford.
That means you've got to find out who was drinking
with him, if there was anybody. Lucifer said Redford didn't
have any visitors yesterday.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
He said he didn't see any visitor. That doesn't prove anything.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
He'd have been sure to see a car if wanted,
driven in his shacks near the farm road. Even if
he'd been inside, he'd heard it. Maybe the visitor didn't
use the road, might have come in on foot or
mounted from another side of the farmhouse. And I guess
it could be all right. Probably put his horse in
the barn or the back corral. That'd keep Lucifer from
knowing anybody who was.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
In the house.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
There's old wagon road the other side of that grove
of trees were coming to. We'll have easier riding once
we get over there. It's sam ooh woo chocolate. Oh boy, Hey,
what's the listen hounds and they're on trail.
Speaker 4 (24:56):
Look over there in the hill.
Speaker 6 (24:57):
Hey, something's on fire.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
Chase that right up hot Redford's place. Isn't that where
Lucifer's grandson Chad lives.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
Yeah, what are you supposed to going on with her?
Speaker 4 (25:05):
Somebody wants some blood. They didn't get it from Lucifer,
so they're running down his family.
Speaker 5 (25:08):
Come on up chart.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Oh boy, that shack is really flaming. Jason, if they
trapped him in there, he's had it. They haven't got
him yet. The dogs are still after something.
Speaker 6 (25:18):
Keep going.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
We raked our horses all the way. We've been about
a mile off when.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
The blaze started.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
When we reached the shack, it was a flaming heap
on the ground. We saw a woman staring at it
in a daze. She must have been Chad's wife.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
She wasn't harmed, so we took off after the sound
of the dogs.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
Listen to that, Jason, They got Chad tree and they
wouldn't sound off like that, And they just threw this thicket.
All right, Get trow a.
Speaker 11 (25:44):
Fleet on that tree and reach it.
Speaker 9 (25:45):
Till he fall.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
All that lamb you and whoever's with you, oh boy,
who was raising?
Speaker 4 (25:54):
Nobody's gonna kill you, Chad, you man, grab your hounds
and shut him eyes. You're all under arrest, and that
includes you, Flam.
Speaker 11 (26:01):
What for we were just doing a little night hunting.
The dogs treat Chad here by mistake.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
The dogs didn't set fire to his shack. And Arson's
a crime, Look, ranger, he killed my neighbor. Why just
switch to him? Because you couldn't get your hands on
old Lucifer.
Speaker 11 (26:15):
Never at it together. Redford ordered Chad off a place yesterday?
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Did you tell him that?
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Chad?
Speaker 4 (26:21):
Tell nobody but you, and you didn't get it from Lucifer,
Flam because you never got near him. So how do
you know who told you Redford chewed him out?
Speaker 3 (26:28):
Nobody had to tell me.
Speaker 11 (26:30):
I was visiting Redford at the house. He saw Chad
on the place, went out and ordered him off. But
after I left him or the old man sneaked in
and kill Mike.
Speaker 4 (26:38):
Throw that rifle over here, Flam, why never mind?
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Why just throw it over and be careful how you
throw it.
Speaker 11 (26:44):
We're willing to leave here peaceful, just a hunting.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
Weapon, a thirty two to twenty hunting weapon, just like
the one that killed Mike Redford the last time, Flam,
throw it over.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Come and get it.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
Hands off those guns directly.
Speaker 5 (27:01):
That's better.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
I'll gather in and pick up your pal, Flam. You
followed him out here, you can tote them back. Ye
hit me. I'm hurt, Fad.
Speaker 4 (27:09):
You just wing. It's a better break than you gave
Redford when you killed him.
Speaker 9 (27:13):
It was self defense.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
I killed himself sure while he was knocked out after
you hit him with that whiskey bottle. Should have finished
your drink, Flam. You'll never see another glass of whiskey
as expensive as that one.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Jack Flamm confessed to the murder of Mike Radford. His
statement disclosed that the killing had been the result of
an argument over ownership of a strip of land between
his farm and Radford's. Flam was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Four other men convicted of armed participation in the attempted
lynching of Old Lucifer and his grandson Chad were given
prescribed terms in the county jail. And now here again
(28:18):
is the star of our show, Joel McCrae.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
There are thousands of people living today who have survived
only because of the Red Cross. These people will never
have to be reminded of its great service to humanity.
But this year the Red Cross Drive has fallen short
of its needed goal. So give to the Red Cross,
won't you? And invest in humanity? Good Night, folks.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Next week Joel McCray and another authentic reenactment of the
case from the files of but Texas Rangers. Joel McCrae
(29:06):
is currently seen starring in the Universal International Technicolor production Frenchie.
Tonight's past included Tony Barrett, Will Wright, Herb Bigren, Ernie Whitman,
Roy Glenn, Bill Conrad, and Byron Kane. This story was
transcribed and adapted by Joel Murcott, and the program is
produced and directed by Stacy Keats.
Speaker 5 (29:29):
This is how Kidney.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
Speaking three times mean Good Times on NBC.
Speaker 6 (29:47):
Coming up next on NBC, It's the sixty four Dollars.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Question Accordion Playing quiz Master Phil Baker gathers another group
of contestants around the microphone to play your favorite quiz game,
adther up prizes for the lucky participants and excitement it
laughs for you at home.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Join Phil Baker now as he asks America's favorite question,
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