August 3, 2025 • 30 mins
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The DNIST Day Show returns to the air at this
hour the first week in October. Remember the DNIST Day
Show beginning here October seventh, presenting Joel McCrae in Tales.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Of the Texas Rangers on stage tonight, transcribed from Hollywood,
another an NBC's parade of exciting half hour presentations, Tales
(00:31):
of the Texas Rangers, starring Joel McCrae as Ranger Pearson, Texas,
more than two hundred and sixty thousand square.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Miles and fifty men who make up.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
The most famous and oldest law enforcement body in North America.
Now from the piles of the Texas Rangers come these
(01:03):
stories based on fact only. Names, dates, and places are
fictitious for obvious reasons. The events themselves are a matter
of record. Tonight's case play Poor keats.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
At five minutes past midnight on December twelfth. Several years ago,
Sheriff Bob Smiths of Bradshaw County, Texas staged a raid
on a gambling establishment located on a country road. But
there were no patrons in the house, and the Sheriff's
face grew dark red as he and the local constable
failed to find any evidence.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Isn't it.
Speaker 5 (01:49):
I'm serious, room Ei this.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Year, you're sure of that, hun, Jim, not even a
decade cart see.
Speaker 6 (01:54):
Sheriof Like I told you, I quit the racket. Yet
this is the fourth time this year you routed me
out of bed.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
I know you're operating Wharton, and I'm gonna get you
for it. You're not gonna milk the citizens of this county,
not while I'm sheriff. Look Sheriff, this happens to be
my house.
Speaker 5 (02:11):
Why and know why?
Speaker 3 (02:12):
You finish your business here? How about getting out? I
guess we might as well go share. No, Jim, we're
gonna stay a minute. I want to talk to Walton
and you about what I was sure of this rate tonight.
Jim did sure, just like I've been sure the last
three times, because only you and me ever knew about him.
I didn't tell nobody but you, Jim.
Speaker 6 (02:34):
You the constable sounds like he's accusing you of tipping
me off.
Speaker 5 (02:39):
Done.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
I know he tipped your Wharton, but it wats what
she's saying, Bob and all that talk about law and
order and wanting to uphold him. Let me see your wallet, Jim,
take it out and let me see you. Now, wait
a minute, Sheriff, you shut up. Come on, Jim, I
want to see if you're carrying the kind of money
an honest man gets for being a peace officer. When
I carry on me is my own business. Why you
cheap too, bitch, snake?
Speaker 6 (03:01):
Nothing cheap about a few one hundred once in a while,
and be smart, Sheriff, get a fuel for yourself once.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
You listen to him, Sheriff, he's talking saints. Come on
both here, I'm taking you. You can't make anything stick.
Maybe not, but I'm gonna make this counted too hot
for both here. I'm gonna run you out of the
hands off me, sir. If you're up a rest, I
got it, Just hold a well. I get you.
Speaker 5 (03:28):
I got it, don't you. You killed him? You kill him.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
You grabbed his gun and killed him. He was after you, Wharton.
I got a gun on my own, none the constable
for you set me up for a frame. Not necessarily, Warten.
It's up to you. His body could be moved out
of here. What's your play?
Speaker 5 (03:52):
What do you want? No more chicken mash?
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Fifty percent of your take and you can go right
on operation with him.
Speaker 5 (03:58):
Dead's you're crazy fool you're.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Forgetting Samon Walton. I'm top dog now in investigating this
murray would be my job until the new sheriff is appointed,
but I don't think I'm going to be able to
solve it.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
The body of Sheriff Smithers was found the next morning,
dumped in a ditch by the side of an old
wagon road. During the next few days, Constable Jim Dunn
conducted a seemingly honest but fruitless investigation, even following the
efficient Peace Officer's routine of making use of the State
lab facilities at Austin, but citizens of Bradshaw were not satisfied,
(04:38):
nor was the editor of the Bradshaw Times. Clippings of
his editorials were on file with Captain Stintson of the
Texas Rangers, and the captain sent for Ranger Jase Pearson.
Speaker 5 (04:51):
You want to see me, Captain, Yeah, jeez, sit down.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
There's no acting sheriff appointed by the Court of Bradshaw
County here.
Speaker 5 (04:58):
Jeez, I think you better.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Take over about the killing of Sheriff Smithers. I'd like
to I knew Smithers. See that's right, you worked with
him about five years ago when he first took office,
cleaned that county up in three months and cleaned it good.
Speaker 5 (05:13):
And it doesn't look like it stayed clean, Jase. Not.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
According to this editorial clipping from the Bradshaw Times.
Speaker 5 (05:19):
I've read it. It's going to be a tough one, Jace.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
No clue to the killer, and the trailers had a
couple of days to cool off.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
And I'd better get gone before it gets any cooler.
You'll hear from me, uh, Jace, Yeah, cap'ain.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
I just want to reminder whoever did it doesn't hesitate
to kill a man wearing a badge.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
I reached Bradshaw in the early morning. The town was
waking up and the Bradshaw Times was turning out its
bi weekly addition. I went in to see the editor,
Frank Carlin.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
So you read my editorials? Eh, I'm glad you know
somebody's reading.
Speaker 5 (06:03):
You've got readers all right.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
People have been clipping them out and mailing them into
our headquarters.
Speaker 6 (06:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (06:08):
I guess there's always a handful of people old.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
Uh wonder what the world would do without them.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
Everybody was so burned the day of the killing him.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
Then in forty eight hours they want to forget it.
Speaker 5 (06:20):
It's always Edwin.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
How about the Constable Jim denn Oh he's all right,
I guess, but.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
He's only been constable for a year. He just doesn't
have the experience that to take the quart a couple
more days to decide on a new show. I've better
knock out a story on your rangers coming in might.
Speaker 5 (06:36):
Wake the people up again. I'd rather you didn't, mister Carlin.
I'll be around and they'll know soon enough. See what
you mean?
Speaker 4 (06:45):
Want me to lay off the editorials for a while
if you don't mind. You know, Sheriff and I are
on different sides of the fence politically, But he was
an honest man and.
Speaker 5 (06:56):
I liked him.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
I got a headline back there, all said and gathered
in dust, it says.
Speaker 5 (07:03):
Sheriffs kill a court ranger. Give me a chance to
use it. I found a.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Place to park my horse trailer and put charcoal in
the pasture. Then I headed for the Constable's office and
met Constable Jim Dunn.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
They're all a re course in my investigations. Ranger, you
think I haven't done a good job, maybe those who
change your mind. I even check ballistics with the Austin layab.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
My being here is in the criticism of you, mister Dunn.
I'm here because I was sent until a new sheriff
is appointed, and to give you a help.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
I've done everything possible. I've questioned almost one hundred people.
I've checked alibis on more than a dozen possible suspects.
Speaker 5 (07:51):
It's all there.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah, everything's here, everything except the murderer. And that's the
only thing I'm interested in seeing, mister Dunn. A little
cooperation between us might clean it up.
Speaker 5 (08:04):
I'm sure I'm blue Ranger. It's been getting under my skin.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
This murder could have been committed by anybody, some bum
from a hobo jungle, some drunk anybody.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
We can't arrest anybody. We've got to arrest somebody, somebody definite.
Exactly where was the body found?
Speaker 3 (08:22):
The old wagon road bypasses Town about two miles north.
Speaker 5 (08:25):
Is it fit for a car.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Yeah, but you gotta go round about to get to it,
almost eleven miles. You won't find nothing there, though.
Speaker 5 (08:32):
I like to take a look. Anyhow. Can't we cut
cross country on horses? Yeah, shorter if you want it.
I want to my horses in a pasture. I'll each
at the edge of town in five minutes.
Speaker 7 (08:54):
E body was found just a little further on. You
can see the road now, not much of a road left.
Speaker 5 (09:00):
I'm no use for it anymore. Sheriff must have had
some reason for using other feat came away out here anywhere?
Who bo charco Hey?
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Sheriff's car was found right over here by the side
of the road.
Speaker 5 (09:15):
Where was he lying right beside? It?
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Been dead about seven eight.
Speaker 5 (09:20):
Hours when he was found? Who found him? Cow polk
looking for some strays?
Speaker 1 (09:24):
And it's lucky otherwise the body might have been here
for a few days or even weeks before somebody came
across it. Yeah, you get pictures of the position of
the car and the body. Of course I did anything else, Yeah,
any exhibits, cast the footprints, anything like that. No, when
I got the call, I brought a bunch of men
out with me. I was excited, and I didn't think
(09:44):
to stop him from tramping around. And see why you'd
be upset? Well, if there was anything to find, it's
a since it isn't here now, whether it would have
wiped it out if your men.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Hadn't You want to go back the time?
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Yeah, I want to look at the car.
Speaker 5 (10:05):
How about the exhibits from the sheriff's body. I sent the.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Bullets and the gun in your lap. Checken terrified it
was the sheriff's own gun.
Speaker 7 (10:14):
I'm talking about the clothes he was wearing.
Speaker 5 (10:16):
You got those, haven't you sure? I got him? I
got all the evidence it.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Was and you should have sent it all in. I
wanna look at that stuff too. I'll step it up
on tart.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Here's everything called tag everything the sheriff was wearing when.
Speaker 5 (10:45):
He was killed. I see, And this the shirt he
was wearing.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
See the blood and bullet holes, don't she?
Speaker 5 (10:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (10:52):
How come your lab didn't find any prints on the
gun when I sent.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
It in, didn't even have the sheriff's own prince. It
was white clean.
Speaker 5 (11:01):
Hm. Well, this is kind of a what Well.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
The sheriff was shot twice and they dug one slug
out of him.
Speaker 5 (11:08):
The other one passed clean through. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
According to the coroner's report, one schlug hit his collar
ball and that stopped.
Speaker 5 (11:15):
That's what I mean. The course of the bullets.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Both shots fired into the left side, just above the kidney,
but the one that came through came out the right
side of his shirt collar here right through his neck.
Speaker 5 (11:25):
What about it?
Speaker 1 (11:27):
It's a funny course for a bullet to take unless
the man who fired the gun was lying down and
fired up at the sheriff.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what I figured too. They must
have had a fight for the gun. He got it,
but the sheriff knocked him down.
Speaker 5 (11:40):
And no, that isn't the way it happened. How do
you know?
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Because the sheriff wouldn't have turned his back on a
man who had just taken his gun. Besides, these powder
burns show the gun was being held right against the
shirt when it was fired.
Speaker 5 (11:52):
What do you think happened? Then?
Speaker 1 (11:55):
And the sheriff must have been in some position where
he was bent over forward, which he wouldn't be unless
but he was holding him in that position.
Speaker 5 (12:02):
Here, stand in front of me for a minute. Now,
you're back toward me. What are you gonna do?
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Slip one hand under your arms and then up behind
your head and a half nelson, and twist your other
arm behind.
Speaker 5 (12:12):
You on an arm lock, and binge over forward like this.
Speaker 7 (12:17):
The sheriff was held like I'm holding you now, and
the bullets were pumped into him.
Speaker 5 (12:23):
See what I mean?
Speaker 3 (12:24):
That's just a guess.
Speaker 5 (12:27):
It's a guess. I'm gonna back up.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
And if the sheriff was held in a half nelson
and an arm lock, it tells us something else that
there were two men in on the murder unless the
killer had three hands and used the third one to
fire the gun.
Speaker 5 (12:41):
That's pretty smart figure in ranger.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Only because it's the kind of figure and I've been
doing for a long time.
Speaker 5 (12:48):
These the photos were taking at the scene.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Yeah, the sheriff's body in the car, the car, the
body moved any before these were taken. Nope, car was
right there with the sheriff flat on his face beside it.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
And less than two feet away from it, his right
side toward the car. Yeah, the bullet that passed through
the sheriff came out on his right side.
Speaker 5 (13:09):
That means it should have hit the car, But there's
no mark. I don't see that. That helps, you say,
It helps plenty.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Then it tells us the sheriff wasn't killed out there,
He was killed someplace else and brought out there.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
You are listening to Tales of the Texas Rangers, starring
Joel mc crae as ranger Chase Pearson. Now we continue
with the night's case play for keeps an authentic story
from the files of the Texas Rangers.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
I knew the Sheriff Smith had been killed by two men,
and his body had been moved after the killing, but
it wasn't nearly enough. It was evening before I figured
out my next.
Speaker 5 (14:08):
Move, a move I didn't like to make evening, ma'am.
Remember me why HiT's Jace Pearson.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Isn't it, Yes, ma'am, been a long time, Missus Smithers, Oh.
Speaker 8 (14:26):
Come in, Chase, come in.
Speaker 9 (14:30):
I I suppose you know about Bob, Yes, ma'am, and
that's why I'm down here.
Speaker 5 (14:36):
I came by to pay my respects.
Speaker 9 (14:39):
Cunny thing. First time Bob brought you through that door.
I never reckoned you might be back someday looking for
a man who killed him.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
I wish it could have been for another reason, ma'am,
But Bob kept things working so well here. There seldom
was any reason for a Ranger to come visiting Bradshaw County.
Speaker 9 (14:58):
I know how you, fellow, just keep working along. Can
I offer you a bite to eat?
Speaker 5 (15:04):
Please? Jase happy? Real fine? Miss Smithers.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
I knew it might help her and me if she
could keep a little busy with her hands, doing woman
things in the kitchen, and I tried to eat, but
kept remembering the man who'd sat across the same table
from me five years before.
Speaker 5 (15:24):
Big, honest, stubborn and unafraid.
Speaker 8 (15:28):
Kit It's mighty nice of you to stop by, Jace.
Bob would have been happy to see us sitting here again.
Speaker 9 (15:36):
He always said, a man with a good appetite was
right with the world.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Maam, I guess Jim Dunn has already asked you, But
do you have any ideas about who might have killed Bob?
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Oh?
Speaker 9 (15:48):
No, everything went so well for a few years. All
I know is the last year so Bob was upset about.
Speaker 5 (15:57):
Gambling after anybody, in particular a man named Walton.
Speaker 9 (16:02):
Lou Walton has a big house on the South Road
out of town. Bob always says it was a gambling house,
but he could never catch Walton.
Speaker 5 (16:12):
You mean he rated the place a couple of times.
Speaker 9 (16:17):
Last time was and night he was killed.
Speaker 5 (16:21):
Dun didn't tell me about that.
Speaker 9 (16:23):
Bob was killed after he left there Walton's I mean,
Dunn said they didn't find anything. So Bob started back
the town, but he never got home.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Missus Smithers, I have to ask a favor, A favor I.
Speaker 5 (16:40):
Don't like to ask.
Speaker 9 (16:41):
I want to help Jase every way I can.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
I want your permission to have Bob's body exhumed for
further examination.
Speaker 5 (16:51):
He is it necessary.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
I'm not satisfied with the examination that was made here,
all right, Jase, I'd like to have a more thorough
examination made for headquarters. I'm sending him the clothes Bob
was wearing for lab check, and I don't want anybody
to know about it for now.
Speaker 8 (17:09):
All right, you're gonna get him unch and Chase, I'm gonna.
Speaker 5 (17:15):
Try awful hard man.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
Well, fay Ranger, I've been waiting for you, but maybe
you might have turned in for the night.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
I'm going to in a few minutes. I just came
back to pick up the clothing exhibits.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Well, I locked him wiggin and big them out.
Speaker 5 (17:43):
I want to send him out to cam Maybury for
lab tests.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Well, all right, I'll give you a receipt for him.
Speaker 5 (17:49):
Okay, done? Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
In those reports of yours, I didn't see any mention
of a man named lou Walkin.
Speaker 5 (17:57):
Why should it be.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
I understand that Walton's a gambler and that you helped
Smithers raid his place. The knight Smithers was killed.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
I hear the exhibits there, thinking way out of line
on Walton. His alibi's air tight acrdon to who? According
to me, I was with him all night after Smithers
left the place.
Speaker 5 (18:15):
You didn't come back to town with the sheriff. No.
I stayed at Waltons.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Why because the sheriff asked me to stay there. We
didn't find anything, But the sheriff figured if I hung around,
somebody might show up a call up looking for a
game and not be able to get him some evidence,
the anything else you wanna know?
Speaker 1 (18:35):
No, I guess that lets Walton. Now, I'll take these things.
Speaker 5 (18:39):
Sure, go ahead, see them all done?
Speaker 3 (18:47):
Right?
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Some please?
Speaker 5 (18:51):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Kill two four three ohe please?
Speaker 10 (18:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Hello, well done? And get those people out and shut down.
Speaker 7 (19:04):
Why?
Speaker 5 (19:05):
What's wrong? That range is too smart?
Speaker 3 (19:07):
I try to make things look good for myself, and well,
I guess I.
Speaker 5 (19:10):
Made him look too good. How much does he know?
All he's going to know?
Speaker 3 (19:14):
You just close down and stand pat until he wears
himself out.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
The sheriff's body was dug up in the examiner's report
sent on to Austin headquarters also had the exhibits I'd
gotten from done. By late afternoon of the next day,
Captain Stintson telephoned me long.
Speaker 5 (19:38):
Distance got a complete report from the lab. Jez go ahead, Captain.
Speaker 11 (19:42):
You were right about the position of the body when
the shots were fired. AUTOMSI report shows the organs were
pierced in a manner that'd be possible only if the sheriff.
Speaker 5 (19:50):
Were bent over forward good anything else?
Speaker 11 (19:53):
Yeah, that shirt you sit up labs thinks Smithers was
killed indoors.
Speaker 5 (19:58):
Why some lint stuck the blood?
Speaker 11 (20:00):
And hell when it dried, analysis indicates it comes from
a fabric used in expensive competing wild in color.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Thanks captain, and maybe enough to wind this up. Then
you're convinced that Walton was running a gambling joint.
Speaker 5 (20:18):
Mister Colin was.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
And is I swear to nobody'd been able to prove it.
You know how suckers are. They lose their shirts and
keep their mouths shut. Think they're in on a smart thing,
and they.
Speaker 5 (20:29):
Help the racket.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Tears that cover up, and Walton must have been tipped off,
but he was being raided part of the racket. They
pay off and get tiptoe. You ever been in Walton's house? No,
you know anybody who has been there? Well, it's no sacred.
The newspaper men gamble moans.
Speaker 5 (20:45):
Good for him. My line of type man plays horses.
I know Pete be there in a minute.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
Howdy, Ranger, howdy Pete? Have you ever been in low
Walton's place? Come on, I don't stole tele arrange.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
It's well, oh yeah, I've been there once or twice.
Speaker 5 (21:03):
I only want to know one thing.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
You notice any carpeting in the house coppet?
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Oh? Sure, the house is lack a palace, woll cop
it all over the place.
Speaker 5 (21:12):
What color? Well, it's a kind of a purple, i'd say.
How about saying violent? Yeah, yeah, I guess that's what
it's called. You got something, Ranger.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Yeah, I'm gonna wake up the nearest judge and get
a search warrant for Walton. You better brush the dust
off that headline you told me about. I think you're
gonna get a chance to use it.
Speaker 6 (21:38):
I was wondering when you get around to me, Ranger,
seems like everybody who wears a badge just loves to
poke his nose into my life.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
I wouldn't worry about your nose, Walton, if you want
to be smart, watch out for your mouth.
Speaker 6 (21:51):
I didn't mean anything range you, just that a man
ought to well, or to have a little privacy.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
And you love the death cells of Huntsville. They're real private.
Speaker 5 (22:00):
Well.
Speaker 6 (22:00):
I always cooperated the constable Jim Dunn, he'll tell you that.
Speaker 5 (22:04):
I bet he would nice carpeting you got here. I
like the color.
Speaker 6 (22:10):
Yeah, yeah, let me get you a drink or something,
ranging all good stuff.
Speaker 5 (22:16):
I don't have anything but the best.
Speaker 6 (22:18):
You know the old saying the best is nothing too
good Walds.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Then a strong cleaning fluid used on a piece of
this rug, and one spot faded just a little.
Speaker 5 (22:28):
Well, I spilled some wine. I had a party one night,
the night the sheriff Smithers was here last, No, no,
before that.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Oh oh that's right. I forgot. Nobody was here the
night Smithers came.
Speaker 5 (22:41):
No, no, nobody.
Speaker 6 (22:44):
The constable he stayed, stayed most of the night after
the sheriff left.
Speaker 5 (22:49):
Yeah, so he told me, let me show you the
rest of the house upstairs.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
All thanks, I just want to look at the walls
in this room. Sure pretty, you know what, Huntsville they
don't have pretty walls like these, just cold concrete and
steel bar What.
Speaker 5 (23:06):
Do you keep talking about Huntsville.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
I'll tell you as soon as I stand up on
this chair and rip off this new piece of wallpaper.
Speaker 5 (23:13):
You have no right to.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Just looking for this small bullet hole papered over. Of course,
you know that one bullet went right through the sheriff.
Speaker 5 (23:23):
The hole was repapered because the heavy picture fell. The
nail made the whole thirty eight caliber nail. Then I
have this rug ripped up and sent to my lamb Walding.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
No cleaning fluid made will wipe out all of a
blood trace.
Speaker 5 (23:38):
Even a drop is enough to hang you. I didn't
do it. I tell you done. Shut him, it was done. Done.
Shut him. Hold your wrists out. You'll never get those Huney.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
You bet wrong this time, gambler. Now get up, I'm
taking you in. I took him through town to the
county jail, and I walked over to the Constable's office.
But Done wasn't there. I had to find him quick
before he knew I had walked. I headed back for
(24:14):
the jail, and so I turned into the street. I
saw something move in the shadows. There was another car
not far from mine. It's the Constable's car, and done
was getting into it.
Speaker 5 (24:26):
Done wait a minute, the way he clean A rat
(24:49):
punctured my tires.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
You an attend to kt x A you and attend
to kt x A.
Speaker 5 (24:57):
Kt x ay o a tent.
Speaker 7 (24:58):
Go ahead in a tent.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Unit ten convinced Constable Jim Dunne's subject sought in killing
of Sheriff Smithers, Bradshaw County, attempting get away, headed north
on State Highway nineteen from Bradshaw. Alert Highway Patrol in
all units for complete roadblock of area order no further
radio communication. Subject in Constable's marked car equipped with sharp
wave receiver.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
We'll do.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Unit ten's car Commission will attempt to commandeer another car
for pursuit.
Speaker 5 (25:25):
Unit ten ten four.
Speaker 7 (25:27):
KAT step off the wait, please please step back, Come
on sharp, Let's hope dun heard that car.
Speaker 5 (25:42):
Come on here, ye up, come on. I had to gamble.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
The last part of my call had been a plant
a plan I wanted done to here. He'd know he
couldn't get more than fifteen or twenty miles before he
was blocked unless he took some back road, and I'd
seen him take a north turn out of town toward
the wagon road. He dumped the sheriff's body on it.
It was eleven miles for him by car, two miles
across country from me. I raked charcoal all the way,
(26:17):
reached the road, and Rope dragged a couple of dead.
Speaker 5 (26:19):
Logs across him. We finished just in time.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
I heard the whine of a car coming over the
rise in the rough road as the first glimmer.
Speaker 5 (26:25):
Of the headlights stabbed the darkness.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
I tied charcoal back in the trees and dropped in
the brush to wait.
Speaker 5 (26:34):
That's the end of the road.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
Done.
Speaker 5 (26:38):
Don't try backing out.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
Now.
Speaker 7 (26:43):
You haven't got any tires. I'm giving you a chance
to surrender.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
Don you get your tang and rain you mess done.
Speaker 7 (26:54):
Now I'm coming around the car to get you. You
want to shoot it out, let's go.
Speaker 5 (27:03):
Wait a minute.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
Sorry, no shoon, no shoe, look out, I'll drop my gun.
Speaker 5 (27:12):
Persie hoad On, come here.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Neither were Smithers when you lifted his gun and killed
him with it.
Speaker 5 (27:22):
Good thing for Texas. All constables aren't like you. Come on.
Walton's waiting for you at the jail. Looks like you'll
be partners again. At Huntsville.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
The following week, the headlines of the Brideshaw Times read
Sheriff killers Court. Though Jim Dunn protested his innocence, Lou
Walton's confession and evidence submitted by the Rangers convinced the
court of Dunn's guilt. Both were sentenced to life imprisonment
at Huntsville.
Speaker 5 (28:18):
This is Joel McCrae.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
In one hundred and twenty five years since their organization
was founded, the Texas Rangers have written many new pages
into the history of law enforcement.
Speaker 5 (28:28):
With only a handful of men in a.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Vast territory, they have never failed to live up to
their slogan, first to advance, never retreat.
Speaker 5 (28:37):
That is the creed a Ranger follows.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
And they have a belief that was impressed on me
by one of their officers, a belief that often brings
them victory over tremendous odds. In the words of the
Texas Rangers, a man who is wrong can't stand.
Speaker 5 (28:51):
Up to a man who is right. And keep on coming.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
Next week we bring you another exciting case taken from
the files of the Texas Rangers.
Speaker 5 (29:00):
Hope you'll be listening. Good Night.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Next week, Joel McCrae and another authentic reenactment of a
case from the files of not Texas Rangers. Joel McCrae
is currently seen starring in the MGM production Stars in
My Crown. This story was transcribed and adapted by Joel Murcott,
(29:28):
and the program is produced and directed by Stacy Keach.
This is Hal Give Me Speaking.
Speaker 10 (29:43):
Three Chimes mean Good Times on NBC In just five weeks,
Dennis Day and Judy Canova bring back their two delightful
programs in an hour of Fun for All on Saturday nights.
This weekend, four hundred Americans have a holiday date with death.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Stay off the list, Be careful. This is NBC, the
National broadcasting Company.
The DNIST Day Show returns to the air at this
hour the first week in October. Remember the DNIST Day
Show beginning here October seventh, presenting Joel McCrae in Tales.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Of the Texas Rangers on stage tonight, transcribed from Hollywood,
another an NBC's parade of exciting half hour presentations, Tales
(00:31):
of the Texas Rangers, starring Joel McCrae as Ranger Pearson, Texas,
more than two hundred and sixty thousand square.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Miles and fifty men who make up.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
The most famous and oldest law enforcement body in North America.
Now from the piles of the Texas Rangers come these
(01:03):
stories based on fact only. Names, dates, and places are
fictitious for obvious reasons. The events themselves are a matter
of record. Tonight's case play Poor keats.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
At five minutes past midnight on December twelfth. Several years ago,
Sheriff Bob Smiths of Bradshaw County, Texas staged a raid
on a gambling establishment located on a country road. But
there were no patrons in the house, and the Sheriff's
face grew dark red as he and the local constable
failed to find any evidence.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Isn't it.
Speaker 5 (01:49):
I'm serious, room Ei this.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Year, you're sure of that, hun, Jim, not even a
decade cart see.
Speaker 6 (01:54):
Sheriof Like I told you, I quit the racket. Yet
this is the fourth time this year you routed me
out of bed.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
I know you're operating Wharton, and I'm gonna get you
for it. You're not gonna milk the citizens of this county,
not while I'm sheriff. Look Sheriff, this happens to be
my house.
Speaker 5 (02:11):
Why and know why?
Speaker 3 (02:12):
You finish your business here? How about getting out? I
guess we might as well go share. No, Jim, we're
gonna stay a minute. I want to talk to Walton
and you about what I was sure of this rate tonight.
Jim did sure, just like I've been sure the last
three times, because only you and me ever knew about him.
I didn't tell nobody but you, Jim.
Speaker 6 (02:34):
You the constable sounds like he's accusing you of tipping
me off.
Speaker 5 (02:39):
Done.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
I know he tipped your Wharton, but it wats what
she's saying, Bob and all that talk about law and
order and wanting to uphold him. Let me see your wallet, Jim,
take it out and let me see you. Now, wait
a minute, Sheriff, you shut up. Come on, Jim, I
want to see if you're carrying the kind of money
an honest man gets for being a peace officer. When
I carry on me is my own business. Why you
cheap too, bitch, snake?
Speaker 6 (03:01):
Nothing cheap about a few one hundred once in a while,
and be smart, Sheriff, get a fuel for yourself once.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
You listen to him, Sheriff, he's talking saints. Come on
both here, I'm taking you. You can't make anything stick.
Maybe not, but I'm gonna make this counted too hot
for both here. I'm gonna run you out of the
hands off me, sir. If you're up a rest, I
got it, Just hold a well. I get you.
Speaker 5 (03:28):
I got it, don't you. You killed him? You kill him.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
You grabbed his gun and killed him. He was after you, Wharton.
I got a gun on my own, none the constable
for you set me up for a frame. Not necessarily, Warten.
It's up to you. His body could be moved out
of here. What's your play?
Speaker 5 (03:52):
What do you want? No more chicken mash?
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Fifty percent of your take and you can go right
on operation with him.
Speaker 5 (03:58):
Dead's you're crazy fool you're.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Forgetting Samon Walton. I'm top dog now in investigating this
murray would be my job until the new sheriff is appointed,
but I don't think I'm going to be able to
solve it.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
The body of Sheriff Smithers was found the next morning,
dumped in a ditch by the side of an old
wagon road. During the next few days, Constable Jim Dunn
conducted a seemingly honest but fruitless investigation, even following the
efficient Peace Officer's routine of making use of the State
lab facilities at Austin, but citizens of Bradshaw were not satisfied,
(04:38):
nor was the editor of the Bradshaw Times. Clippings of
his editorials were on file with Captain Stintson of the
Texas Rangers, and the captain sent for Ranger Jase Pearson.
Speaker 5 (04:51):
You want to see me, Captain, Yeah, jeez, sit down.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
There's no acting sheriff appointed by the Court of Bradshaw
County here.
Speaker 5 (04:58):
Jeez, I think you better.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Take over about the killing of Sheriff Smithers. I'd like
to I knew Smithers. See that's right, you worked with
him about five years ago when he first took office,
cleaned that county up in three months and cleaned it good.
Speaker 5 (05:13):
And it doesn't look like it stayed clean, Jase. Not.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
According to this editorial clipping from the Bradshaw Times.
Speaker 5 (05:19):
I've read it. It's going to be a tough one, Jace.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
No clue to the killer, and the trailers had a
couple of days to cool off.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
And I'd better get gone before it gets any cooler.
You'll hear from me, uh, Jace, Yeah, cap'ain.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
I just want to reminder whoever did it doesn't hesitate
to kill a man wearing a badge.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
I reached Bradshaw in the early morning. The town was
waking up and the Bradshaw Times was turning out its
bi weekly addition. I went in to see the editor,
Frank Carlin.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
So you read my editorials? Eh, I'm glad you know
somebody's reading.
Speaker 5 (06:03):
You've got readers all right.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
People have been clipping them out and mailing them into
our headquarters.
Speaker 6 (06:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (06:08):
I guess there's always a handful of people old.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
Uh wonder what the world would do without them.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
Everybody was so burned the day of the killing him.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
Then in forty eight hours they want to forget it.
Speaker 5 (06:20):
It's always Edwin.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
How about the Constable Jim denn Oh he's all right,
I guess, but.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
He's only been constable for a year. He just doesn't
have the experience that to take the quart a couple
more days to decide on a new show. I've better
knock out a story on your rangers coming in might.
Speaker 5 (06:36):
Wake the people up again. I'd rather you didn't, mister Carlin.
I'll be around and they'll know soon enough. See what
you mean?
Speaker 4 (06:45):
Want me to lay off the editorials for a while
if you don't mind. You know, Sheriff and I are
on different sides of the fence politically, But he was
an honest man and.
Speaker 5 (06:56):
I liked him.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
I got a headline back there, all said and gathered
in dust, it says.
Speaker 5 (07:03):
Sheriffs kill a court ranger. Give me a chance to
use it. I found a.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Place to park my horse trailer and put charcoal in
the pasture. Then I headed for the Constable's office and
met Constable Jim Dunn.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
They're all a re course in my investigations. Ranger, you
think I haven't done a good job, maybe those who
change your mind. I even check ballistics with the Austin layab.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
My being here is in the criticism of you, mister Dunn.
I'm here because I was sent until a new sheriff
is appointed, and to give you a help.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
I've done everything possible. I've questioned almost one hundred people.
I've checked alibis on more than a dozen possible suspects.
Speaker 5 (07:51):
It's all there.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah, everything's here, everything except the murderer. And that's the
only thing I'm interested in seeing, mister Dunn. A little
cooperation between us might clean it up.
Speaker 5 (08:04):
I'm sure I'm blue Ranger. It's been getting under my skin.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
This murder could have been committed by anybody, some bum
from a hobo jungle, some drunk anybody.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
We can't arrest anybody. We've got to arrest somebody, somebody definite.
Exactly where was the body found?
Speaker 3 (08:22):
The old wagon road bypasses Town about two miles north.
Speaker 5 (08:25):
Is it fit for a car.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Yeah, but you gotta go round about to get to it,
almost eleven miles. You won't find nothing there, though.
Speaker 5 (08:32):
I like to take a look. Anyhow. Can't we cut
cross country on horses? Yeah, shorter if you want it.
I want to my horses in a pasture. I'll each
at the edge of town in five minutes.
Speaker 7 (08:54):
E body was found just a little further on. You
can see the road now, not much of a road left.
Speaker 5 (09:00):
I'm no use for it anymore. Sheriff must have had
some reason for using other feat came away out here anywhere?
Who bo charco Hey?
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Sheriff's car was found right over here by the side
of the road.
Speaker 5 (09:15):
Where was he lying right beside? It?
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Been dead about seven eight.
Speaker 5 (09:20):
Hours when he was found? Who found him? Cow polk
looking for some strays?
Speaker 1 (09:24):
And it's lucky otherwise the body might have been here
for a few days or even weeks before somebody came
across it. Yeah, you get pictures of the position of
the car and the body. Of course I did anything else, Yeah,
any exhibits, cast the footprints, anything like that. No, when
I got the call, I brought a bunch of men
out with me. I was excited, and I didn't think
(09:44):
to stop him from tramping around. And see why you'd
be upset? Well, if there was anything to find, it's
a since it isn't here now, whether it would have
wiped it out if your men.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Hadn't You want to go back the time?
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Yeah, I want to look at the car.
Speaker 5 (10:05):
How about the exhibits from the sheriff's body. I sent the.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Bullets and the gun in your lap. Checken terrified it
was the sheriff's own gun.
Speaker 7 (10:14):
I'm talking about the clothes he was wearing.
Speaker 5 (10:16):
You got those, haven't you sure? I got him? I
got all the evidence it.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Was and you should have sent it all in. I
wanna look at that stuff too. I'll step it up
on tart.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Here's everything called tag everything the sheriff was wearing when.
Speaker 5 (10:45):
He was killed. I see, And this the shirt he
was wearing.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
See the blood and bullet holes, don't she?
Speaker 5 (10:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (10:52):
How come your lab didn't find any prints on the
gun when I sent.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
It in, didn't even have the sheriff's own prince. It
was white clean.
Speaker 5 (11:01):
Hm. Well, this is kind of a what Well.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
The sheriff was shot twice and they dug one slug
out of him.
Speaker 5 (11:08):
The other one passed clean through. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
According to the coroner's report, one schlug hit his collar
ball and that stopped.
Speaker 5 (11:15):
That's what I mean. The course of the bullets.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Both shots fired into the left side, just above the kidney,
but the one that came through came out the right
side of his shirt collar here right through his neck.
Speaker 5 (11:25):
What about it?
Speaker 1 (11:27):
It's a funny course for a bullet to take unless
the man who fired the gun was lying down and
fired up at the sheriff.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what I figured too. They must
have had a fight for the gun. He got it,
but the sheriff knocked him down.
Speaker 5 (11:40):
And no, that isn't the way it happened. How do
you know?
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Because the sheriff wouldn't have turned his back on a
man who had just taken his gun. Besides, these powder
burns show the gun was being held right against the
shirt when it was fired.
Speaker 5 (11:52):
What do you think happened? Then?
Speaker 1 (11:55):
And the sheriff must have been in some position where
he was bent over forward, which he wouldn't be unless
but he was holding him in that position.
Speaker 5 (12:02):
Here, stand in front of me for a minute. Now,
you're back toward me. What are you gonna do?
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Slip one hand under your arms and then up behind
your head and a half nelson, and twist your other
arm behind.
Speaker 5 (12:12):
You on an arm lock, and binge over forward like this.
Speaker 7 (12:17):
The sheriff was held like I'm holding you now, and
the bullets were pumped into him.
Speaker 5 (12:23):
See what I mean?
Speaker 3 (12:24):
That's just a guess.
Speaker 5 (12:27):
It's a guess. I'm gonna back up.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
And if the sheriff was held in a half nelson
and an arm lock, it tells us something else that
there were two men in on the murder unless the
killer had three hands and used the third one to
fire the gun.
Speaker 5 (12:41):
That's pretty smart figure in ranger.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Only because it's the kind of figure and I've been
doing for a long time.
Speaker 5 (12:48):
These the photos were taking at the scene.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Yeah, the sheriff's body in the car, the car, the
body moved any before these were taken. Nope, car was
right there with the sheriff flat on his face beside it.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
And less than two feet away from it, his right
side toward the car. Yeah, the bullet that passed through
the sheriff came out on his right side.
Speaker 5 (13:09):
That means it should have hit the car, But there's
no mark. I don't see that. That helps, you say,
It helps plenty.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Then it tells us the sheriff wasn't killed out there,
He was killed someplace else and brought out there.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
You are listening to Tales of the Texas Rangers, starring
Joel mc crae as ranger Chase Pearson. Now we continue
with the night's case play for keeps an authentic story
from the files of the Texas Rangers.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
I knew the Sheriff Smith had been killed by two men,
and his body had been moved after the killing, but
it wasn't nearly enough. It was evening before I figured
out my next.
Speaker 5 (14:08):
Move, a move I didn't like to make evening, ma'am.
Remember me why HiT's Jace Pearson.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Isn't it, Yes, ma'am, been a long time, Missus Smithers, Oh.
Speaker 8 (14:26):
Come in, Chase, come in.
Speaker 9 (14:30):
I I suppose you know about Bob, Yes, ma'am, and
that's why I'm down here.
Speaker 5 (14:36):
I came by to pay my respects.
Speaker 9 (14:39):
Cunny thing. First time Bob brought you through that door.
I never reckoned you might be back someday looking for
a man who killed him.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
I wish it could have been for another reason, ma'am,
But Bob kept things working so well here. There seldom
was any reason for a Ranger to come visiting Bradshaw County.
Speaker 9 (14:58):
I know how you, fellow, just keep working along. Can
I offer you a bite to eat?
Speaker 5 (15:04):
Please? Jase happy? Real fine? Miss Smithers.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
I knew it might help her and me if she
could keep a little busy with her hands, doing woman
things in the kitchen, and I tried to eat, but
kept remembering the man who'd sat across the same table
from me five years before.
Speaker 5 (15:24):
Big, honest, stubborn and unafraid.
Speaker 8 (15:28):
Kit It's mighty nice of you to stop by, Jace.
Bob would have been happy to see us sitting here again.
Speaker 9 (15:36):
He always said, a man with a good appetite was
right with the world.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Maam, I guess Jim Dunn has already asked you, But
do you have any ideas about who might have killed Bob?
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Oh?
Speaker 9 (15:48):
No, everything went so well for a few years. All
I know is the last year so Bob was upset about.
Speaker 5 (15:57):
Gambling after anybody, in particular a man named Walton.
Speaker 9 (16:02):
Lou Walton has a big house on the South Road
out of town. Bob always says it was a gambling house,
but he could never catch Walton.
Speaker 5 (16:12):
You mean he rated the place a couple of times.
Speaker 9 (16:17):
Last time was and night he was killed.
Speaker 5 (16:21):
Dun didn't tell me about that.
Speaker 9 (16:23):
Bob was killed after he left there Walton's I mean,
Dunn said they didn't find anything. So Bob started back
the town, but he never got home.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Missus Smithers, I have to ask a favor, A favor I.
Speaker 5 (16:40):
Don't like to ask.
Speaker 9 (16:41):
I want to help Jase every way I can.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
I want your permission to have Bob's body exhumed for
further examination.
Speaker 5 (16:51):
He is it necessary.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
I'm not satisfied with the examination that was made here,
all right, Jase, I'd like to have a more thorough
examination made for headquarters. I'm sending him the clothes Bob
was wearing for lab check, and I don't want anybody
to know about it for now.
Speaker 8 (17:09):
All right, you're gonna get him unch and Chase, I'm gonna.
Speaker 5 (17:15):
Try awful hard man.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
Well, fay Ranger, I've been waiting for you, but maybe
you might have turned in for the night.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
I'm going to in a few minutes. I just came
back to pick up the clothing exhibits.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Well, I locked him wiggin and big them out.
Speaker 5 (17:43):
I want to send him out to cam Maybury for
lab tests.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
Well, all right, I'll give you a receipt for him.
Speaker 5 (17:49):
Okay, done? Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
In those reports of yours, I didn't see any mention
of a man named lou Walkin.
Speaker 5 (17:57):
Why should it be.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
I understand that Walton's a gambler and that you helped
Smithers raid his place. The knight Smithers was killed.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
I hear the exhibits there, thinking way out of line
on Walton. His alibi's air tight acrdon to who? According
to me, I was with him all night after Smithers
left the place.
Speaker 5 (18:15):
You didn't come back to town with the sheriff. No.
I stayed at Waltons.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Why because the sheriff asked me to stay there. We
didn't find anything, But the sheriff figured if I hung around,
somebody might show up a call up looking for a
game and not be able to get him some evidence,
the anything else you wanna know?
Speaker 1 (18:35):
No, I guess that lets Walton. Now, I'll take these things.
Speaker 5 (18:39):
Sure, go ahead, see them all done?
Speaker 3 (18:47):
Right?
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Some please?
Speaker 5 (18:51):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Kill two four three ohe please?
Speaker 10 (18:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Hello, well done? And get those people out and shut down.
Speaker 7 (19:04):
Why?
Speaker 5 (19:05):
What's wrong? That range is too smart?
Speaker 3 (19:07):
I try to make things look good for myself, and well,
I guess I.
Speaker 5 (19:10):
Made him look too good. How much does he know?
All he's going to know?
Speaker 3 (19:14):
You just close down and stand pat until he wears
himself out.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
The sheriff's body was dug up in the examiner's report
sent on to Austin headquarters also had the exhibits I'd
gotten from done. By late afternoon of the next day,
Captain Stintson telephoned me long.
Speaker 5 (19:38):
Distance got a complete report from the lab. Jez go ahead, Captain.
Speaker 11 (19:42):
You were right about the position of the body when
the shots were fired. AUTOMSI report shows the organs were
pierced in a manner that'd be possible only if the sheriff.
Speaker 5 (19:50):
Were bent over forward good anything else?
Speaker 11 (19:53):
Yeah, that shirt you sit up labs thinks Smithers was
killed indoors.
Speaker 5 (19:58):
Why some lint stuck the blood?
Speaker 11 (20:00):
And hell when it dried, analysis indicates it comes from
a fabric used in expensive competing wild in color.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Thanks captain, and maybe enough to wind this up. Then
you're convinced that Walton was running a gambling joint.
Speaker 5 (20:18):
Mister Colin was.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
And is I swear to nobody'd been able to prove it.
You know how suckers are. They lose their shirts and
keep their mouths shut. Think they're in on a smart thing,
and they.
Speaker 5 (20:29):
Help the racket.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Tears that cover up, and Walton must have been tipped off,
but he was being raided part of the racket. They
pay off and get tiptoe. You ever been in Walton's house? No,
you know anybody who has been there? Well, it's no sacred.
The newspaper men gamble moans.
Speaker 5 (20:45):
Good for him. My line of type man plays horses.
I know Pete be there in a minute.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
Howdy, Ranger, howdy Pete? Have you ever been in low
Walton's place? Come on, I don't stole tele arrange.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
It's well, oh yeah, I've been there once or twice.
Speaker 5 (21:03):
I only want to know one thing.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
You notice any carpeting in the house coppet?
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Oh? Sure, the house is lack a palace, woll cop
it all over the place.
Speaker 5 (21:12):
What color? Well, it's a kind of a purple, i'd say.
How about saying violent? Yeah, yeah, I guess that's what
it's called. You got something, Ranger.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Yeah, I'm gonna wake up the nearest judge and get
a search warrant for Walton. You better brush the dust
off that headline you told me about. I think you're
gonna get a chance to use it.
Speaker 6 (21:38):
I was wondering when you get around to me, Ranger,
seems like everybody who wears a badge just loves to
poke his nose into my life.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
I wouldn't worry about your nose, Walton, if you want
to be smart, watch out for your mouth.
Speaker 6 (21:51):
I didn't mean anything range you, just that a man
ought to well, or to have a little privacy.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
And you love the death cells of Huntsville. They're real private.
Speaker 5 (22:00):
Well.
Speaker 6 (22:00):
I always cooperated the constable Jim Dunn, he'll tell you that.
Speaker 5 (22:04):
I bet he would nice carpeting you got here. I
like the color.
Speaker 6 (22:10):
Yeah, yeah, let me get you a drink or something,
ranging all good stuff.
Speaker 5 (22:16):
I don't have anything but the best.
Speaker 6 (22:18):
You know the old saying the best is nothing too
good Walds.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Then a strong cleaning fluid used on a piece of
this rug, and one spot faded just a little.
Speaker 5 (22:28):
Well, I spilled some wine. I had a party one night,
the night the sheriff Smithers was here last, No, no,
before that.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Oh oh that's right. I forgot. Nobody was here the
night Smithers came.
Speaker 5 (22:41):
No, no, nobody.
Speaker 6 (22:44):
The constable he stayed, stayed most of the night after
the sheriff left.
Speaker 5 (22:49):
Yeah, so he told me, let me show you the
rest of the house upstairs.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
All thanks, I just want to look at the walls
in this room. Sure pretty, you know what, Huntsville they
don't have pretty walls like these, just cold concrete and
steel bar What.
Speaker 5 (23:06):
Do you keep talking about Huntsville.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
I'll tell you as soon as I stand up on
this chair and rip off this new piece of wallpaper.
Speaker 5 (23:13):
You have no right to.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Just looking for this small bullet hole papered over. Of course,
you know that one bullet went right through the sheriff.
Speaker 5 (23:23):
The hole was repapered because the heavy picture fell. The
nail made the whole thirty eight caliber nail. Then I
have this rug ripped up and sent to my lamb Walding.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
No cleaning fluid made will wipe out all of a
blood trace.
Speaker 5 (23:38):
Even a drop is enough to hang you. I didn't
do it. I tell you done. Shut him, it was done. Done.
Shut him. Hold your wrists out. You'll never get those Huney.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
You bet wrong this time, gambler. Now get up, I'm
taking you in. I took him through town to the
county jail, and I walked over to the Constable's office.
But Done wasn't there. I had to find him quick
before he knew I had walked. I headed back for
(24:14):
the jail, and so I turned into the street. I
saw something move in the shadows. There was another car
not far from mine. It's the Constable's car, and done
was getting into it.
Speaker 5 (24:26):
Done wait a minute, the way he clean A rat
(24:49):
punctured my tires.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
You an attend to kt x A you and attend
to kt x A.
Speaker 5 (24:57):
Kt x ay o a tent.
Speaker 7 (24:58):
Go ahead in a tent.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Unit ten convinced Constable Jim Dunne's subject sought in killing
of Sheriff Smithers, Bradshaw County, attempting get away, headed north
on State Highway nineteen from Bradshaw. Alert Highway Patrol in
all units for complete roadblock of area order no further
radio communication. Subject in Constable's marked car equipped with sharp
wave receiver.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
We'll do.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Unit ten's car Commission will attempt to commandeer another car
for pursuit.
Speaker 5 (25:25):
Unit ten ten four.
Speaker 7 (25:27):
KAT step off the wait, please please step back, Come
on sharp, Let's hope dun heard that car.
Speaker 5 (25:42):
Come on here, ye up, come on. I had to gamble.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
The last part of my call had been a plant
a plan I wanted done to here. He'd know he
couldn't get more than fifteen or twenty miles before he
was blocked unless he took some back road, and I'd
seen him take a north turn out of town toward
the wagon road. He dumped the sheriff's body on it.
It was eleven miles for him by car, two miles
across country from me. I raked charcoal all the way,
(26:17):
reached the road, and Rope dragged a couple of dead.
Speaker 5 (26:19):
Logs across him. We finished just in time.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
I heard the whine of a car coming over the
rise in the rough road as the first glimmer.
Speaker 5 (26:25):
Of the headlights stabbed the darkness.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
I tied charcoal back in the trees and dropped in
the brush to wait.
Speaker 5 (26:34):
That's the end of the road.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
Done.
Speaker 5 (26:38):
Don't try backing out.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
Now.
Speaker 7 (26:43):
You haven't got any tires. I'm giving you a chance
to surrender.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
Don you get your tang and rain you mess done.
Speaker 7 (26:54):
Now I'm coming around the car to get you. You
want to shoot it out, let's go.
Speaker 5 (27:03):
Wait a minute.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
Sorry, no shoon, no shoe, look out, I'll drop my gun.
Speaker 5 (27:12):
Persie hoad On, come here.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Neither were Smithers when you lifted his gun and killed
him with it.
Speaker 5 (27:22):
Good thing for Texas. All constables aren't like you. Come on.
Walton's waiting for you at the jail. Looks like you'll
be partners again. At Huntsville.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
The following week, the headlines of the Brideshaw Times read
Sheriff killers Court. Though Jim Dunn protested his innocence, Lou
Walton's confession and evidence submitted by the Rangers convinced the
court of Dunn's guilt. Both were sentenced to life imprisonment
at Huntsville.
Speaker 5 (28:18):
This is Joel McCrae.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
In one hundred and twenty five years since their organization
was founded, the Texas Rangers have written many new pages
into the history of law enforcement.
Speaker 5 (28:28):
With only a handful of men in a.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Vast territory, they have never failed to live up to
their slogan, first to advance, never retreat.
Speaker 5 (28:37):
That is the creed a Ranger follows.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
And they have a belief that was impressed on me
by one of their officers, a belief that often brings
them victory over tremendous odds. In the words of the
Texas Rangers, a man who is wrong can't stand.
Speaker 5 (28:51):
Up to a man who is right. And keep on coming.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
Next week we bring you another exciting case taken from
the files of the Texas Rangers.
Speaker 5 (29:00):
Hope you'll be listening. Good Night.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Next week, Joel McCrae and another authentic reenactment of a
case from the files of not Texas Rangers. Joel McCrae
is currently seen starring in the MGM production Stars in
My Crown. This story was transcribed and adapted by Joel Murcott,
(29:28):
and the program is produced and directed by Stacy Keach.
This is Hal Give Me Speaking.
Speaker 10 (29:43):
Three Chimes mean Good Times on NBC In just five weeks,
Dennis Day and Judy Canova bring back their two delightful
programs in an hour of Fun for All on Saturday nights.
This weekend, four hundred Americans have a holiday date with death.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Stay off the list, Be careful. This is NBC, the
National broadcasting Company.
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