August 7, 2025 • 29 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The National Broadcasting Company presents Joel McCrae Entails of the
Texas Rangers Tonight Transcribed from Hollywood, another authentic reenactment of
a case from the files of the Texas Rangers. Tales
(00:25):
from the Texas Rangers, starring Joel McCrae as Ranger Jase Pearson,
Texas more than two hundred and sixty thousand square miles
and fifty men who make up the most famous and
oldest law enforcement body in North America. Now from the
(00:55):
files of the Texas Rangers. From these stories based on
fact only named states, places are pictationous more obvious reasons.
The events themselves are a matter of records. Case for
Tonight Dead Giveaway.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
It is one thirty am, December fourth, nineteen forty five.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
A single light glows in the living.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Room of a farmhouse four miles from the town of
Ashton in West Texas. Inside the house, a frantic young
woman tries to place a telephone.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Cloth operator Operator. Oh please, operator operator, give me the
sheriff quickly.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
Is that hum, missus Janise?
Speaker 5 (01:45):
Yes, yes, hurry well, this is Mary Lumissus Janise.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
I'm working night now.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
He is on ther loom.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Stop talking and give me the sheriff.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
All all rise, Ross Baker.
Speaker 5 (02:01):
Jeff, this is missus Dean.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
You've got to come out of my house right away,
right away.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
Take it easy, Missus Dean. What seems to be wrong?
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Somebody sprowling around outside trying to get into the hole.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
Is John there?
Speaker 2 (02:12):
No, he went to Eppling on business.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Something woke me up. I thought a fist, it was
a baby, and then.
Speaker 5 (02:18):
I heard annoy outside.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Mister what is it? Somebody came in.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
I'll be right there.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Who are you you?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
It took Sheriff Ross less than fifteen minutes to get
to the Dnean farm, but Missus Deanean and a four
month old baby were dead when he arrived.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
The sheriff call.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Over the assistance of the Texas Rangers. Ranger Jason Pearson
was assigned. James Pearson. Yeaes, serf, you got here right quick.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Yeah, was over the next county when your call came through.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
I hope you got a little sleep because you won't
get much now. Better come in out of this cool.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
How long ago did it happen? About a half hour
ago one thirty.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Missus Deneine called me, woke me up at home, said,
somebody was trying to bust in right in here.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Jason shot right through the chest. Huh yeah. She leave
the phone hanging off the hook like that, I reckon.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
So whoever broke in, they broke in just before I
hung up. Nothing's been touched, Jase. I know I had
a time getting past your deputies down the main road.
The phone operator has been buzzing everybody. We don't want
half the county bargain to hear messing things up, so
I blocked them all.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Good. Where's the baby in there? The front bedroom?
Speaker 2 (03:53):
You can look if you want a Jason's little more
than I can take twice.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
How only four months? Jase, little girl? Where'd you break in?
Side door? I'll show you. Where's the husband?
Speaker 2 (04:08):
I believe on business. I call the chief of police there.
He's gonna check the hotels and notify it.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Now here's the door. It was wide open.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
That's how I got in to open the front door.
The block doesn't seem to be broken. Must have been picked.
The Kneans keep much money around the house. There's little
or as much as most folks, I guess, but I
don't think any's missing. There's Miss Denan's purse on the
kitchen table.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Till I couldn't have missed that.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
You check it, Yeah, about forty dollars and it hasn't
been touched.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Well, it wasn't robbery, then, sheriff.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
No, there's no sign of any other motive, But there's
gotta be one, Jase. Yeah, the toughest motive of all,
because it's the easiest hidden hate, the kind of hate
the devil wouldn't hold. We went through the rest of
the house, but we didn't find anything that would.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Help us until we got out.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
It's cold tonight, jas rounds frozen hard. Yeah, we find
a trace, it won't be much. Keep your flasks close
to the ground.
Speaker 5 (05:10):
All right.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Why are you working back of the house here, away
from the driveway, because I think the killer came in
from this direction, probably on foot. Why why you said
missus Denean told you she woke up when she heard
somebody prowling around outside. Yeah, a horse or a car
coming up the gravel road around front would have made
even more noise.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Woke grow up sooner, say that's right.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
I heard your car coming from White a ways off.
That's why I was standing out in front to meet you.
When you drove a Wait a minute, what is it, Jase?
Speaker 3 (05:39):
He's a bailing wire been in the shape of a key. Well,
that must be what he used to get here.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Maybe, or maybe that's what somebody wants us to think.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Let's take another look at that door. What makes you
think the wire was planted there.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Jason, I'll tell you better. When we tried it in
the lock?
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Beats me. Why a killer leaves something deliberately.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
That's what makes me think something's wrong. This wouldn't have
been dropped so close to the house. And grab the
door and hold it up high. I don't want to
mess up any prints around the lock.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
You got it. Now, let's see how this wire fits.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Yeah, goes in perfect, Jase.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Yeah. Watch when I turn it, eh, Kadi, wires just
twisted and.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Go keep on twisting. This wire isn't strong enough to
turn the tumbler in the lock.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Then how did the killer get in? Jase?
Speaker 2 (06:33):
If you ask me, Sheriff, I think he had a
regular key. I put in a call for a fingerprint crew,
and the sheriff called to have the bodies picked up
for autopsy. Then we went outside and started trailing again.
We found a few directional traces, but they petered out
(06:55):
in the darkness.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
I can't see anything at night on this ground.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Jase cutting back and forth a little further and we're following,
was weaving trying to throw us off.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
So it just makes it tougher to track.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
He's got to be headed for someplace, some definite direction.
We might as well establish which direction. Yeah, there's nothing
much we can do except this until we have some daylight,
save us an hour in the morning. Then we can
track on horses without wasting time finding out which way
to go. By sonup, we knew the killer's general direction
(07:32):
had been west. Sheriff got his horse from town, I
unloaded charcoal from the trailer, and we rode. He kept
heading west, all right, but there's nothing out this way
for miles once he got into those hills up ahead.
Speaker 5 (07:44):
Any kind of a road between here and the hills?
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Yeah, old wagon road just beyond the scrub on the
rise we're coming to.
Speaker 5 (07:50):
Doesn't connect with the state road.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
It does, but nobody uses it.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Maybe somebody dead is in good enough condition for a
car to run through. Reckon it is it is? You
figure he had a car waiting for him.
Speaker 5 (08:03):
I had to have a car or a horse staked
out someplace.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Come on, let's make right for the road.
Speaker 5 (08:08):
Yeah, I can road lead to any other farm in
the area.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Used to lead the Cold Mullet place that's burned out.
Nobody living there anymore, No old folks dead, Young ted
Mullet moved away a couple of years ago. Oh, here's
the road, Charco had it pretty straight. Last tracks we
saw must have reached the road right near here, and
we'll find some mark if he crossed it and kept going.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
He didn't keep killing.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Look tire track had a car staked out all right,
turned the car around here to head back for the highway.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Could have been somebody else waiting in the car for him.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Maybe, but I don't think so. Look at the heel
marks walked around to the driver's.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Side of the car to get in. Yeah there's something
else here too. Dropped this cigarette button stepped on him. Yeah,
sure didn't smoke much of.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
It, didn't even burned down to the brand mark. At
least we know what Brandy smokes about. All we do
know Jays won't be anything to follow up the main road.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
He sure won't leave a trail there. No, not up.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Let's get back to the house. We rode back to Denin's.
As we came to the farm, we saw a couple
of cars that hadn't been there when we left. Looks
like company sheriff car next to mine belongs to our lab.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Then others must be the corners.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
A corner o'ld have been and gone by now No, no,
that isn't the corners car. There's blue sit down that
belongs to Walter Danen. Husband, Yeah, must cut back to
Maveleene Yes.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Deneen, All right, there he is sitting on the side porch.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Walter Denien sat with his face buried in his hands
until we dismounted and walked up to an a Lab
cruise in the house looking for layton In Prince Hardy Walter, Oh,
how Walter right?
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Can't tell you how? I don't say anything.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Please ask me anything you like, But I don't want
anybody else telling.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Me how sorry they are?
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Better let me talk to him. Share sure, mister Demean.
It'd help us a lot to know one thing, you
or your family have any enemies?
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Enemies? Could there be an enemy as bad as this?
We know the house wasn't robbed.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Have you ever had any trouble with anybody, no matter
how small it seemed. Now is the time to remember it.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
There was anybody, I wouldn't tell you. I take care
of it myself. That's no way to be Walter. Don't
go tell me how to act sheriff. You didn't come
home to your house ten minutes ago. You didn't find
your wife and kidd way I found that, mister Dean.
Why don't you try to get a little rest. We'll
(11:01):
talk to you later.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Yeah, Okay, anything I can do, Walder, just holler.
Speaker 5 (11:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
We've been able to think of anybody who might have
had it in for him. Not a soul, Jace, unless
it was Ted Mullen. When you told me about family
that was burned out. Yeah, but Jace, thatdd was five
years ago. Sometimes hate doesn't die with age. What happened?
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Old folks just got the brooden and died off after
the house burned. Young Ted blamed Walter. Why windmill at
the Mullein place was busted.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
They try to borrow from Walter to get it fixed,
but he turned him down.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Ted said, of the middle had been working, it would
have pumped enough water for him to put the fire.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
On Young mull in the kind to hold a grudge for.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
After five years. Jeez, and he moved out a long
time ago. Where who knows? Come on, I'll call my
headquarters by radio. Maybe didn't get a line on Mullet.
All right, they find out where he is and won't
do any harm to check on where he was Right now,
I won't have heard it.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
I can't believe that a man after hold its share.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Well, that's only Water's car, Jase, what are you looking at.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
The design of the tire?
Speaker 6 (12:07):
Fair?
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Look at him?
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Oh, that may be the same design we saw in
the dirt road where the killer picked up a car
to make his getaway.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
But Jess, that was hard ground.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Could barely see the tread and tires like that are standard.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
Are lots of cars?
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Yeah, I know, just the same. I want to look
this car over left his ignition keys in?
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Are you going to start it?
Speaker 2 (12:31):
No? I just want to take a look at the dash.
He said he got back from Abilene ten minutes ago,
didn't he That's what he said.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Take a look at.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
That temperature gauge. Let me see register's cold. Yeah, only
it should be pretty warm. If he finished the drive
a couple one hundred miles just ten minutes ago. Could
have dropped back, Jase, not in ten minutes.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
Share.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
It's a cold morning, but not that cold. I want
to talk to Daneen again.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
You see something else? I sure do. Look at this
on the frame.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Of the door service station lubrication sticker. Yeah, dated December,
second day before yesterday, eighteen thousand, four.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Hundred and twelve miles.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
The mileage on the dash shows he's driven less than
two hundred miles since then.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
He couldn't have been in Aballeene.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Well wait a minute, Jace, I admit that looks funny.
But the man we were chasing he ground out a cigarette, remember,
or what about it?
Speaker 3 (13:27):
I've known Walter since he was a boy, Jace. He
don't smoke. Si oh, Mary Lou Simmons phone operator? Who
let you in? Mary Loo? I told the deputy I
put Missus Dean's call through to you last night. He
thought you might want to talk to me. Ain't it
just awful you talk to me?
Speaker 5 (13:46):
I was still on the line after you hung up, Sheriff.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
I heard it, all the shots and everything.
Speaker 5 (13:51):
You hear any voice beside Missus Denan.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
No, no, I just heard her say, who are you?
Speaker 7 (13:56):
What do you want?
Speaker 3 (13:57):
And then the shots. That was all you sure? She said,
who are you? Oh? Cross my heart? I heard it
as plane.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
I guess you don't want to talk to Walter now,
do you, Jesse, No.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
I guess not.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
You are listening to Tales of the Texas Rangers, starring
Joel McCrae as Ranger Jase Pearson, And now we continue
with the night's case Dead giveaway, an authentic story from
the files of the Texas Rangers.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
I didn't want to question Walter Deneen until I'd had
a chance to check on his movements.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
The sheriff and I drove into town and called the
Abilene police. The answer didn't fit.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
I don't think there's any doubt about who he was.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Ranger.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Okay, thanks, thanks very much. Well, yes, that does a sheriff.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Kneen was an Abilene huh uh huh.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Checked into the House hotel yesterday about noon, checked out
again at two ten this morning, right after the police
notified him of the murder. Police could have spoken anybody
on the phone, and they didn't tell him by phone.
Police sergeant went up and told him direct description of
Walter Tally's too. But there's something that doesn't tally though
mileage on that car could be something wrong with this
(15:26):
pedometer cable happened to MI car a few weeks back, maybe,
and I'll be back sometime tomorrow.
Speaker 5 (15:33):
Where are you going, Jase, Abilene.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
As soon as I hit the highway, I put in
a short wave called a headquarters station KTXA.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Unit ten to KTXA.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
KTXA go ahead, you to tend this unit en route
to Abilene. Request Abilene police secure names of all contacts
made by subject.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Walter Deneen registered Harris Hotel there yesterday. Well to the
unit ten.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Unit ten sent piece of wire back to lab for examination.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
Any report yet not yet?
Speaker 5 (16:12):
Why aren't think of Prince both on the.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Study will give you a call ten for Unit ten
Claire the XI Austin.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
When I reached Tambouline.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
I got a complete rundown on Walter Deneen's activities. It
was too complete, like he was making sure his time
in the city would be accounted for. One of the
people who'd seen him was his attorney. Well, yes, yes,
Ranger missed Danien Spence several hours with me yesterday afternoon.
We had dinner together last night, went to the theater.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
What did you come to see you.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Abound Well, some investments. He's been doing a little speculating
cotton good or bad. Well, it's client business, and I
don't think I have the right to discuss it.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
And find out by checking with the exchange. I'm just
asking you to save time, all right.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
His losses have been rather heavy, more than he could afford,
much more. He carry much insurance on his wife and child.
Speaker 5 (17:16):
No mother, no, nothing large.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Alright, thanks, one more thing.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Are you sure Daneen doesn't benefit financially by his wife's death?
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Uh ranger.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
He couldn't have gotten back to ashed And by one
thirty last night after we'd been out.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
That isn't what I asked.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Well, missus Danan had a good bit of money in
her own rights case of her dead, though she had
it tied up in trust for the child.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
But the child is dead too. What happens now, Well,
in that case the entire state will probably.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Go to mister Dania. I made one more stop before
I headed back to Ashton. I made a visit to
the garage with the hotel Harris. I keep the location
of all guest cars on his index tracks, so we'll
(18:12):
know which doors they're in.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
When they want him. Was Walter Denin's car in here yesterday? Janine,
that's d im isn't it there?
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Uh huh, No, there was no record of it.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Was he a guest at the hotel? Yes?
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Is there any parking lot around here he might have used?
Not convenient to the hotel and parking is free here
for guests or I don't think he'd choose a lot.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Neither do I?
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Thanks. Before I left Abilene, I called my headquarters.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
They had a report.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
No strange prints had been found in Deneen's house. The
wire key looked like a plant. I hung up and
made another call to Sheriff Ross.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
I'm beginning to wonder about Walter myself.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Jeez, why he's been kind of curious about where you are.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
I told him he went to Abiline just to see
who to draw him out?
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Good? How do you react?
Speaker 4 (19:05):
Kind of nervous? And he said something about flying up
to Abiline and back.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Oh. He never did say oh, but he gave the
impression that he drove even.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
Saw he was there when the killer took place.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Yeah, but the killer had the use of Daneen's car.
Can you get your hands on the car that's over.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
In the back of the future of parlor right now,
that's where Deaneien said he's gone just a few minutes
ago when he stopped fight to.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Ask about you.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
We'll grab that car and check it for fingerprints. I'll
be there as fast as I can roll.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
Oh howdy, Jay car all worked over? Sheriff Yeah, or
to have reports on the Prince soon sent him to Austin.
Find any strangers. Quite a few one set that weren't Dnien's.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
If they belong to a professional killer, there's a good
chance he'll have a record. Where's Dnien's My deputies are
out looking for him.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Why. I thought he was at the funeral, so I
until I went in to look for him.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
After we finished on the car. Undertaker said he'd left
more than an hour ago by the front door.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
It's the spotted you working over the car. Come on,
let's find it.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Yeah, not at the house, not any place in town.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
There could he be if he hasn't run out trying
to cover up for a couple of mistakes.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
He won't run not yet. Why because his alibi is
air tight. We can shake it unless we find the
killery hired. We can't shake it enough. He took a
big gamble, and he's got too much.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
At stake to run off his wife's money. How do
you know about that?
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Just thinking back a little late, folks knew missus Denan's
family left her well off. Walter married her not long
after they passed on. A lot of people thought the
money had something to do with it.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
I wish you'd remember that sooner.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Well, Jace, they seemed close, and then there's the baby.
Baby was just something extra that got into NaN's way. Oh,
never gotten any of the money.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
Of KTXA unit ten. Maybe a report on the Prince
Unit ten go ahead, kt XA.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Have report on Prince lifted from a car at Ashton, Texas,
once set identified as belonging to Joe Crofton. Joe Crofton
any line on his whereabouts? Finished serving parole four months ago,
last addressed in the Parole office with shack located western
slope of Casket Mountain ten four Unit ten Claire ADYXA.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Austin Crofton must be the killer, then, Jase, I'll bet
on it.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
How far the Casket Mountain about twenty miles and turns
south another five after that.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
Well, we'll need horses if he's far up.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Should have brought your horse along the trailer with charcoal.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
I can borrow one. Crofton's gonna be tough to take.
You sound like you know him.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
I wrote the ticket for his last trip to Huntsville
six years ago.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
That was murder too, but copped out with a man's ter.
Please better not take any chances, Jason. He starts shooting,
we'll have to toss it back dead center. Now.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
You gotta take him alive. He'll talk to keep from
burning once we get him. Yeah, yeah, I see if
Walter Deanneen paid him to do the job. He's the
only one can break the NaN's alibi. It's right, So
no matter what happens, we gotta take him alive. Thropton's
(22:28):
cabin was up all right way. Sheriff borrowed a horse
from the man who directed us. Quite a climb, Jayson,
I'm not so bad to following this march, though, fools.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
He isn't there. I gotta hunt he will be.
Speaker 5 (22:42):
I don't think Danin had enough money to pay for
this kill him.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
He was almost broke.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
I mean he planned to pay off out of his
wife's money when he got it. Yeah, I wonder how
Walter arranged for him to get the car that night
how much to arrange left it near the airport to
the keys in it. Cropton brought it back and left
it in the same spot. Probably left the house keep
for him too. Club compartment maybe yeah. With the airport
(23:06):
forty miles from Ashton. Nobody recognized the car or a
strange driver come in at night us an abandoned row.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
Look.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Huh hey, another horse left tracks here too, Yeah, and
they're fresh. Oohoy, I must be Crofton's horse while he
was taking the rough way. Just cut into the wash
here to find a better trail. Grafton lives up here,
he'd know the best trail.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Who else be coming up here? Denive to shut him up?
Come on, Jock here, give off. Not too fast, chaser
will spill.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
You gotta risk it.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Too slow, it'll be too late.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
We reached the shack and crept up on him. There
was no horse around and no sign of life. Tried
to draw fire.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
By shit going ourselves, but none came. We had to
go in.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
All right, hold your gun ready, sheriff, and don't come
into like car.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
You all right, Jason, all right, sheriff, Come in nobody here?
Huh oh wait.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
A oh that Crawton.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Yeah, that's him. Deneen got here first. Jace.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
This fellow looks like he shot himself. Guns in his
own hand. No, what's his paper beside him? Let's see
Jasey did kill himself. This note says so confesses the
murders too.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
Sure it does.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
But Walter Deneen wrote that, and that note's gonna hang him.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
How do you know? Have you ever seen the Niens writing? No,
I've seen Crofton's before.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
He signed his name with an ex prison record show
he's illiterate, never could read or write. Come on, Sheriff,
gonna put out a pickup for the new We'll pick
him up ourselves.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
He can't be far off, but if he'd.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Headed back down the waters, we'd have passed him.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
On our way up.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
He must be going across the top of the mountain.
Go down the other side. Come on.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
We raked our horses as fast as they could move.
He spotted a rider ahead of us as he topped
the slope. He heard us because he looked back and
whipped his mouth and disappeared. He knows were on him.
Got about three hundred yards.
Speaker 5 (25:28):
We'll get him.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
Keep powder leather head. We're coming to the top. Now
keep blowing the saddle.
Speaker 5 (25:35):
Watch out for an ambush.
Speaker 6 (25:37):
There is combing down too fast, up her parsel tumbling
the down break. Then he was passing too hard, ain't
he feed? Look I scrambled behind the rocks. Woo, charcoal
head oo.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
Get the turn.
Speaker 6 (25:52):
That's a house.
Speaker 5 (25:52):
How swawk.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
He's down onto that rock shelf.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Perfect cover, not too Bullet's a ricochet back from that
ledge behind him. See that dent and the lens. Yeah,
draw your gun and we'll empty it on him. Hit
right below the dent. All right, all right, let's hope
for a billiard shot. Start firing.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
I please draw your gun out to nan. Don't shoot anymore, okay, Sheriff.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Let's take you.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
And I was sorry for you, Walter up until a
few hours ago. You gotta get me into a doctor.
You're not hurt badly. We'll get you to a doctor.
All I want to know is how you met crofton.
Come on, Walter, talk up. I'll sell his picture in
the paper when he got out of jail. I made
(26:59):
a deal with him a couple of months ago.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Yeah, a deal to wipe out your own wife and kid.
It must be great to be as brave as you are,
get af Deneen, you got a long way to go.
(27:27):
Walter Deneen confessed and made a plea for clemency. It
was not granted, and on the eleventh day of October
nineteen forty seven he died in the electric chair at Huntsville.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
And now here again is the start of our show.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Joel McCrae with another interesting antecdote about the Texas Rangers.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
When the Allies invaded Normandy in World War Two, it
an ideas to how far the fame of the Texas
Rangers had spread. Both surrendering Nazis and liberated free French
said they knew the war was as good as over
because the Texas.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Rangers had landed.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Of course, it was the heroic American Ranger troops who
made the landings, but nothing could convince the Nazi war
prisoners that these were not the terrible Texans they had
heard about in many American legends. Good Night, folks, see
at the same time next week.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Next week Joel McCray and another authentic reenactment of a
case from the piles of the Texas Rangers. Joel McCray
is currently seen starring in The Universal International Technicolor production
(28:49):
Saddle Trent.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
Tonight's cast included.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Tony Barrett, Loreen Tuttle, Mike Barrett, hal Marsh, and Paul Freest.
This story was transcribed and adapted by Joel Murcot, and
the pro is produced and directed by Stacy Keach.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
This is Hal Give Me Speaking.
Speaker 7 (29:14):
Three chimes mean good Times on NBC. Monday means music,
Fine music on NBC. Listen tomorrow for these great musical programs,
the NBC Symphony and the Band of America. Be sure
to listen Monday as Milton Catams conducts the NBC Symphony
Orchestra in a full hour concert of the finest music
on the air. And listen to for Paul Laval conducting
(29:37):
the Band of America. Every Monday on NBC. Bill Harris
reminding you that next it's Theater Guild on NBC
The National Broadcasting Company presents Joel McCrae Entails of the
Texas Rangers Tonight Transcribed from Hollywood, another authentic reenactment of
a case from the files of the Texas Rangers. Tales
(00:25):
from the Texas Rangers, starring Joel McCrae as Ranger Jase Pearson,
Texas more than two hundred and sixty thousand square miles
and fifty men who make up the most famous and
oldest law enforcement body in North America. Now from the
(00:55):
files of the Texas Rangers. From these stories based on
fact only named states, places are pictationous more obvious reasons.
The events themselves are a matter of records. Case for
Tonight Dead Giveaway.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
It is one thirty am, December fourth, nineteen forty five.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
A single light glows in the living.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Room of a farmhouse four miles from the town of
Ashton in West Texas. Inside the house, a frantic young
woman tries to place a telephone.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Cloth operator Operator. Oh please, operator operator, give me the
sheriff quickly.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
Is that hum, missus Janise?
Speaker 5 (01:45):
Yes, yes, hurry well, this is Mary Lumissus Janise.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
I'm working night now.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
He is on ther loom.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Stop talking and give me the sheriff.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
All all rise, Ross Baker.
Speaker 5 (02:01):
Jeff, this is missus Dean.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
You've got to come out of my house right away,
right away.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
Take it easy, Missus Dean. What seems to be wrong?
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Somebody sprowling around outside trying to get into the hole.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
Is John there?
Speaker 2 (02:12):
No, he went to Eppling on business.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Something woke me up. I thought a fist, it was
a baby, and then.
Speaker 5 (02:18):
I heard annoy outside.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Mister what is it? Somebody came in.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
I'll be right there.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Who are you you?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
It took Sheriff Ross less than fifteen minutes to get
to the Dnean farm, but Missus Deanean and a four
month old baby were dead when he arrived.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
The sheriff call.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Over the assistance of the Texas Rangers. Ranger Jason Pearson
was assigned. James Pearson. Yeaes, serf, you got here right quick.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Yeah, was over the next county when your call came through.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
I hope you got a little sleep because you won't
get much now. Better come in out of this cool.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
How long ago did it happen? About a half hour
ago one thirty.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Missus Deneine called me, woke me up at home, said,
somebody was trying to bust in right in here.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Jason shot right through the chest. Huh yeah. She leave
the phone hanging off the hook like that, I reckon.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
So whoever broke in, they broke in just before I
hung up. Nothing's been touched, Jase. I know I had
a time getting past your deputies down the main road.
The phone operator has been buzzing everybody. We don't want
half the county bargain to hear messing things up, so
I blocked them all.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Good. Where's the baby in there? The front bedroom?
Speaker 2 (03:53):
You can look if you want a Jason's little more
than I can take twice.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
How only four months? Jase, little girl? Where'd you break in?
Side door? I'll show you. Where's the husband?
Speaker 2 (04:08):
I believe on business. I call the chief of police there.
He's gonna check the hotels and notify it.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Now here's the door. It was wide open.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
That's how I got in to open the front door.
The block doesn't seem to be broken. Must have been picked.
The Kneans keep much money around the house. There's little
or as much as most folks, I guess, but I
don't think any's missing. There's Miss Denan's purse on the
kitchen table.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Till I couldn't have missed that.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
You check it, Yeah, about forty dollars and it hasn't
been touched.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Well, it wasn't robbery, then, sheriff.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
No, there's no sign of any other motive, But there's
gotta be one, Jase. Yeah, the toughest motive of all,
because it's the easiest hidden hate, the kind of hate
the devil wouldn't hold. We went through the rest of
the house, but we didn't find anything that would.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Help us until we got out.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
It's cold tonight, jas rounds frozen hard. Yeah, we find
a trace, it won't be much. Keep your flasks close
to the ground.
Speaker 5 (05:10):
All right.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Why are you working back of the house here, away
from the driveway, because I think the killer came in
from this direction, probably on foot. Why why you said
missus Denean told you she woke up when she heard
somebody prowling around outside. Yeah, a horse or a car
coming up the gravel road around front would have made
even more noise.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Woke grow up sooner, say that's right.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
I heard your car coming from White a ways off.
That's why I was standing out in front to meet you.
When you drove a Wait a minute, what is it, Jase?
Speaker 3 (05:39):
He's a bailing wire been in the shape of a key. Well,
that must be what he used to get here.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Maybe, or maybe that's what somebody wants us to think.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Let's take another look at that door. What makes you
think the wire was planted there.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Jason, I'll tell you better. When we tried it in
the lock?
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Beats me. Why a killer leaves something deliberately.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
That's what makes me think something's wrong. This wouldn't have
been dropped so close to the house. And grab the
door and hold it up high. I don't want to
mess up any prints around the lock.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
You got it. Now, let's see how this wire fits.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Yeah, goes in perfect, Jase.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Yeah. Watch when I turn it, eh, Kadi, wires just
twisted and.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Go keep on twisting. This wire isn't strong enough to
turn the tumbler in the lock.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Then how did the killer get in? Jase?
Speaker 2 (06:33):
If you ask me, Sheriff, I think he had a
regular key. I put in a call for a fingerprint crew,
and the sheriff called to have the bodies picked up
for autopsy. Then we went outside and started trailing again.
We found a few directional traces, but they petered out
(06:55):
in the darkness.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
I can't see anything at night on this ground.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Jase cutting back and forth a little further and we're following,
was weaving trying to throw us off.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
So it just makes it tougher to track.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
He's got to be headed for someplace, some definite direction.
We might as well establish which direction. Yeah, there's nothing
much we can do except this until we have some daylight,
save us an hour in the morning. Then we can
track on horses without wasting time finding out which way
to go. By sonup, we knew the killer's general direction
(07:32):
had been west. Sheriff got his horse from town, I
unloaded charcoal from the trailer, and we rode. He kept
heading west, all right, but there's nothing out this way
for miles once he got into those hills up ahead.
Speaker 5 (07:44):
Any kind of a road between here and the hills?
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Yeah, old wagon road just beyond the scrub on the
rise we're coming to.
Speaker 5 (07:50):
Doesn't connect with the state road.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
It does, but nobody uses it.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Maybe somebody dead is in good enough condition for a
car to run through. Reckon it is it is? You
figure he had a car waiting for him.
Speaker 5 (08:03):
I had to have a car or a horse staked
out someplace.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Come on, let's make right for the road.
Speaker 5 (08:08):
Yeah, I can road lead to any other farm in
the area.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Used to lead the Cold Mullet place that's burned out.
Nobody living there anymore, No old folks dead, Young ted
Mullet moved away a couple of years ago. Oh, here's
the road, Charco had it pretty straight. Last tracks we
saw must have reached the road right near here, and
we'll find some mark if he crossed it and kept going.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
He didn't keep killing.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Look tire track had a car staked out all right,
turned the car around here to head back for the highway.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Could have been somebody else waiting in the car for him.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Maybe, but I don't think so. Look at the heel
marks walked around to the driver's.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Side of the car to get in. Yeah there's something
else here too. Dropped this cigarette button stepped on him. Yeah,
sure didn't smoke much of.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
It, didn't even burned down to the brand mark. At
least we know what Brandy smokes about. All we do
know Jays won't be anything to follow up the main road.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
He sure won't leave a trail there. No, not up.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Let's get back to the house. We rode back to Denin's.
As we came to the farm, we saw a couple
of cars that hadn't been there when we left. Looks
like company sheriff car next to mine belongs to our lab.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Then others must be the corners.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
A corner o'ld have been and gone by now No, no,
that isn't the corners car. There's blue sit down that
belongs to Walter Danen. Husband, Yeah, must cut back to
Maveleene Yes.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Deneen, All right, there he is sitting on the side porch.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Walter Denien sat with his face buried in his hands
until we dismounted and walked up to an a Lab
cruise in the house looking for layton In Prince Hardy Walter, Oh,
how Walter right?
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Can't tell you how? I don't say anything.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Please ask me anything you like, But I don't want
anybody else telling.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Me how sorry they are?
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Better let me talk to him. Share sure, mister Demean.
It'd help us a lot to know one thing, you
or your family have any enemies?
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Enemies? Could there be an enemy as bad as this?
We know the house wasn't robbed.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Have you ever had any trouble with anybody, no matter
how small it seemed. Now is the time to remember it.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
There was anybody, I wouldn't tell you. I take care
of it myself. That's no way to be Walter. Don't
go tell me how to act sheriff. You didn't come
home to your house ten minutes ago. You didn't find
your wife and kidd way I found that, mister Dean.
Why don't you try to get a little rest. We'll
(11:01):
talk to you later.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Yeah, Okay, anything I can do, Walder, just holler.
Speaker 5 (11:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
We've been able to think of anybody who might have
had it in for him. Not a soul, Jace, unless
it was Ted Mullen. When you told me about family
that was burned out. Yeah, but Jace, thatdd was five
years ago. Sometimes hate doesn't die with age. What happened?
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Old folks just got the brooden and died off after
the house burned. Young Ted blamed Walter. Why windmill at
the Mullein place was busted.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
They try to borrow from Walter to get it fixed,
but he turned him down.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Ted said, of the middle had been working, it would
have pumped enough water for him to put the fire.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
On Young mull in the kind to hold a grudge for.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
After five years. Jeez, and he moved out a long
time ago. Where who knows? Come on, I'll call my
headquarters by radio. Maybe didn't get a line on Mullet.
All right, they find out where he is and won't
do any harm to check on where he was Right now,
I won't have heard it.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
I can't believe that a man after hold its share.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Well, that's only Water's car, Jase, what are you looking at.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
The design of the tire?
Speaker 6 (12:07):
Fair?
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Look at him?
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Oh, that may be the same design we saw in
the dirt road where the killer picked up a car
to make his getaway.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
But Jess, that was hard ground.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Could barely see the tread and tires like that are standard.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
Are lots of cars?
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Yeah, I know, just the same. I want to look
this car over left his ignition keys in?
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Are you going to start it?
Speaker 2 (12:31):
No? I just want to take a look at the dash.
He said he got back from Abilene ten minutes ago,
didn't he That's what he said.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Take a look at.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
That temperature gauge. Let me see register's cold. Yeah, only
it should be pretty warm. If he finished the drive
a couple one hundred miles just ten minutes ago. Could
have dropped back, Jase, not in ten minutes.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
Share.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
It's a cold morning, but not that cold. I want
to talk to Daneen again.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
You see something else? I sure do. Look at this
on the frame.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Of the door service station lubrication sticker. Yeah, dated December,
second day before yesterday, eighteen thousand, four.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Hundred and twelve miles.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
The mileage on the dash shows he's driven less than
two hundred miles since then.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
He couldn't have been in Aballeene.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Well wait a minute, Jace, I admit that looks funny.
But the man we were chasing he ground out a cigarette, remember,
or what about it?
Speaker 3 (13:27):
I've known Walter since he was a boy, Jace. He
don't smoke. Si oh, Mary Lou Simmons phone operator? Who
let you in? Mary Loo? I told the deputy I
put Missus Dean's call through to you last night. He
thought you might want to talk to me. Ain't it
just awful you talk to me?
Speaker 5 (13:46):
I was still on the line after you hung up, Sheriff.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
I heard it, all the shots and everything.
Speaker 5 (13:51):
You hear any voice beside Missus Denan.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
No, no, I just heard her say, who are you?
Speaker 7 (13:56):
What do you want?
Speaker 3 (13:57):
And then the shots. That was all you sure? She said,
who are you? Oh? Cross my heart? I heard it
as plane.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
I guess you don't want to talk to Walter now,
do you, Jesse, No.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
I guess not.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
You are listening to Tales of the Texas Rangers, starring
Joel McCrae as Ranger Jase Pearson, And now we continue
with the night's case Dead giveaway, an authentic story from
the files of the Texas Rangers.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
I didn't want to question Walter Deneen until I'd had
a chance to check on his movements.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
The sheriff and I drove into town and called the
Abilene police. The answer didn't fit.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
I don't think there's any doubt about who he was.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Ranger.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Okay, thanks, thanks very much. Well, yes, that does a sheriff.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Kneen was an Abilene huh uh huh.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Checked into the House hotel yesterday about noon, checked out
again at two ten this morning, right after the police
notified him of the murder. Police could have spoken anybody
on the phone, and they didn't tell him by phone.
Police sergeant went up and told him direct description of
Walter Tally's too. But there's something that doesn't tally though
mileage on that car could be something wrong with this
(15:26):
pedometer cable happened to MI car a few weeks back, maybe,
and I'll be back sometime tomorrow.
Speaker 5 (15:33):
Where are you going, Jase, Abilene.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
As soon as I hit the highway, I put in
a short wave called a headquarters station KTXA.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Unit ten to KTXA.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
KTXA go ahead, you to tend this unit en route
to Abilene. Request Abilene police secure names of all contacts
made by subject.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Walter Deneen registered Harris Hotel there yesterday. Well to the
unit ten.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Unit ten sent piece of wire back to lab for examination.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
Any report yet not yet?
Speaker 5 (16:12):
Why aren't think of Prince both on the.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Study will give you a call ten for Unit ten
Claire the XI Austin.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
When I reached Tambouline.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
I got a complete rundown on Walter Deneen's activities. It
was too complete, like he was making sure his time
in the city would be accounted for. One of the
people who'd seen him was his attorney. Well, yes, yes,
Ranger missed Danien Spence several hours with me yesterday afternoon.
We had dinner together last night, went to the theater.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
What did you come to see you.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Abound Well, some investments. He's been doing a little speculating
cotton good or bad. Well, it's client business, and I
don't think I have the right to discuss it.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
And find out by checking with the exchange. I'm just
asking you to save time, all right.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
His losses have been rather heavy, more than he could afford,
much more. He carry much insurance on his wife and child.
Speaker 5 (17:16):
No mother, no, nothing large.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Alright, thanks, one more thing.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Are you sure Daneen doesn't benefit financially by his wife's death?
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Uh ranger.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
He couldn't have gotten back to ashed And by one
thirty last night after we'd been out.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
That isn't what I asked.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Well, missus Danan had a good bit of money in
her own rights case of her dead, though she had
it tied up in trust for the child.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
But the child is dead too. What happens now, Well,
in that case the entire state will probably.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Go to mister Dania. I made one more stop before
I headed back to Ashton. I made a visit to
the garage with the hotel Harris. I keep the location
of all guest cars on his index tracks, so we'll
(18:12):
know which doors they're in.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
When they want him. Was Walter Denin's car in here yesterday? Janine,
that's d im isn't it there?
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Uh huh, No, there was no record of it.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Was he a guest at the hotel? Yes?
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Is there any parking lot around here he might have used?
Not convenient to the hotel and parking is free here
for guests or I don't think he'd choose a lot.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Neither do I?
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Thanks. Before I left Abilene, I called my headquarters.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
They had a report.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
No strange prints had been found in Deneen's house. The
wire key looked like a plant. I hung up and
made another call to Sheriff Ross.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
I'm beginning to wonder about Walter myself.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Jeez, why he's been kind of curious about where you are.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
I told him he went to Abiline just to see
who to draw him out?
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Good? How do you react?
Speaker 4 (19:05):
Kind of nervous? And he said something about flying up
to Abiline and back.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Oh. He never did say oh, but he gave the
impression that he drove even.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
Saw he was there when the killer took place.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Yeah, but the killer had the use of Daneen's car.
Can you get your hands on the car that's over.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
In the back of the future of parlor right now,
that's where Deaneien said he's gone just a few minutes
ago when he stopped fight to.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Ask about you.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
We'll grab that car and check it for fingerprints. I'll
be there as fast as I can roll.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
Oh howdy, Jay car all worked over? Sheriff Yeah, or
to have reports on the Prince soon sent him to Austin.
Find any strangers. Quite a few one set that weren't Dnien's.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
If they belong to a professional killer, there's a good
chance he'll have a record. Where's Dnien's My deputies are
out looking for him.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Why. I thought he was at the funeral, so I
until I went in to look for him.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
After we finished on the car. Undertaker said he'd left
more than an hour ago by the front door.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
It's the spotted you working over the car. Come on,
let's find it.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Yeah, not at the house, not any place in town.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
There could he be if he hasn't run out trying
to cover up for a couple of mistakes.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
He won't run not yet. Why because his alibi is
air tight. We can shake it unless we find the
killery hired. We can't shake it enough. He took a
big gamble, and he's got too much.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
At stake to run off his wife's money. How do
you know about that?
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Just thinking back a little late, folks knew missus Denan's
family left her well off. Walter married her not long
after they passed on. A lot of people thought the
money had something to do with it.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
I wish you'd remember that sooner.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Well, Jace, they seemed close, and then there's the baby.
Baby was just something extra that got into NaN's way. Oh,
never gotten any of the money.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
Of KTXA unit ten. Maybe a report on the Prince
Unit ten go ahead, kt XA.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Have report on Prince lifted from a car at Ashton, Texas,
once set identified as belonging to Joe Crofton. Joe Crofton
any line on his whereabouts? Finished serving parole four months ago,
last addressed in the Parole office with shack located western
slope of Casket Mountain ten four Unit ten Claire ADYXA.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Austin Crofton must be the killer, then, Jase, I'll bet
on it.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
How far the Casket Mountain about twenty miles and turns
south another five after that.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
Well, we'll need horses if he's far up.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Should have brought your horse along the trailer with charcoal.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
I can borrow one. Crofton's gonna be tough to take.
You sound like you know him.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
I wrote the ticket for his last trip to Huntsville
six years ago.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
That was murder too, but copped out with a man's ter.
Please better not take any chances, Jason. He starts shooting,
we'll have to toss it back dead center. Now.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
You gotta take him alive. He'll talk to keep from
burning once we get him. Yeah, yeah, I see if
Walter Deanneen paid him to do the job. He's the
only one can break the NaN's alibi. It's right, So
no matter what happens, we gotta take him alive. Thropton's
(22:28):
cabin was up all right way. Sheriff borrowed a horse
from the man who directed us. Quite a climb, Jayson,
I'm not so bad to following this march, though, fools.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
He isn't there. I gotta hunt he will be.
Speaker 5 (22:42):
I don't think Danin had enough money to pay for
this kill him.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
He was almost broke.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
I mean he planned to pay off out of his
wife's money when he got it. Yeah, I wonder how
Walter arranged for him to get the car that night
how much to arrange left it near the airport to
the keys in it. Cropton brought it back and left
it in the same spot. Probably left the house keep
for him too. Club compartment maybe yeah. With the airport
(23:06):
forty miles from Ashton. Nobody recognized the car or a
strange driver come in at night us an abandoned row.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
Look.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Huh hey, another horse left tracks here too, Yeah, and
they're fresh. Oohoy, I must be Crofton's horse while he
was taking the rough way. Just cut into the wash
here to find a better trail. Grafton lives up here,
he'd know the best trail.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Who else be coming up here? Denive to shut him up?
Come on, Jock here, give off. Not too fast, chaser
will spill.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
You gotta risk it.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Too slow, it'll be too late.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
We reached the shack and crept up on him. There
was no horse around and no sign of life. Tried
to draw fire.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
By shit going ourselves, but none came. We had to
go in.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
All right, hold your gun ready, sheriff, and don't come
into like car.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
You all right, Jason, all right, sheriff, Come in nobody here?
Huh oh wait.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
A oh that Crawton.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Yeah, that's him. Deneen got here first. Jace.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
This fellow looks like he shot himself. Guns in his
own hand. No, what's his paper beside him? Let's see
Jasey did kill himself. This note says so confesses the
murders too.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
Sure it does.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
But Walter Deneen wrote that, and that note's gonna hang him.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
How do you know? Have you ever seen the Niens writing? No,
I've seen Crofton's before.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
He signed his name with an ex prison record show
he's illiterate, never could read or write. Come on, Sheriff,
gonna put out a pickup for the new We'll pick
him up ourselves.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
He can't be far off, but if he'd.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Headed back down the waters, we'd have passed him.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
On our way up.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
He must be going across the top of the mountain.
Go down the other side. Come on.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
We raked our horses as fast as they could move.
He spotted a rider ahead of us as he topped
the slope. He heard us because he looked back and
whipped his mouth and disappeared. He knows were on him.
Got about three hundred yards.
Speaker 5 (25:28):
We'll get him.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
Keep powder leather head. We're coming to the top. Now
keep blowing the saddle.
Speaker 5 (25:35):
Watch out for an ambush.
Speaker 6 (25:37):
There is combing down too fast, up her parsel tumbling
the down break. Then he was passing too hard, ain't
he feed? Look I scrambled behind the rocks. Woo, charcoal
head oo.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
Get the turn.
Speaker 6 (25:52):
That's a house.
Speaker 5 (25:52):
How swawk.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
He's down onto that rock shelf.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Perfect cover, not too Bullet's a ricochet back from that
ledge behind him. See that dent and the lens. Yeah,
draw your gun and we'll empty it on him. Hit
right below the dent. All right, all right, let's hope
for a billiard shot. Start firing.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
I please draw your gun out to nan. Don't shoot anymore, okay, Sheriff.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Let's take you.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
And I was sorry for you, Walter up until a
few hours ago. You gotta get me into a doctor.
You're not hurt badly. We'll get you to a doctor.
All I want to know is how you met crofton.
Come on, Walter, talk up. I'll sell his picture in
the paper when he got out of jail. I made
(26:59):
a deal with him a couple of months ago.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Yeah, a deal to wipe out your own wife and kid.
It must be great to be as brave as you are,
get af Deneen, you got a long way to go.
(27:27):
Walter Deneen confessed and made a plea for clemency. It
was not granted, and on the eleventh day of October
nineteen forty seven he died in the electric chair at Huntsville.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
And now here again is the start of our show.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Joel McCrae with another interesting antecdote about the Texas Rangers.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
When the Allies invaded Normandy in World War Two, it
an ideas to how far the fame of the Texas
Rangers had spread. Both surrendering Nazis and liberated free French
said they knew the war was as good as over
because the Texas.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Rangers had landed.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Of course, it was the heroic American Ranger troops who
made the landings, but nothing could convince the Nazi war
prisoners that these were not the terrible Texans they had
heard about in many American legends. Good Night, folks, see
at the same time next week.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Next week Joel McCray and another authentic reenactment of a
case from the piles of the Texas Rangers. Joel McCray
is currently seen starring in The Universal International Technicolor production
(28:49):
Saddle Trent.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
Tonight's cast included.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Tony Barrett, Loreen Tuttle, Mike Barrett, hal Marsh, and Paul Freest.
This story was transcribed and adapted by Joel Murcot, and
the pro is produced and directed by Stacy Keach.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
This is Hal Give Me Speaking.
Speaker 7 (29:14):
Three chimes mean good Times on NBC. Monday means music,
Fine music on NBC. Listen tomorrow for these great musical programs,
the NBC Symphony and the Band of America. Be sure
to listen Monday as Milton Catams conducts the NBC Symphony
Orchestra in a full hour concert of the finest music
on the air. And listen to for Paul Laval conducting
(29:37):
the Band of America. Every Monday on NBC. Bill Harris
reminding you that next it's Theater Guild on NBC
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