July 27, 2025 • 29 mins
Chronicles the cases of a law enforcement officer in the American West, blending traditional Western themes with modern investigative techniques. The stories are based on real cases.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The National Broadcasting Company presents Joel McCrae in Tales.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Of the Texas Rangers.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Tonight Transcribe from Hollywood, another authentic reenactment of a case
from the files of the Texas Rangers. Tales of the
Texas Rangers, starring Joel McCrae as Ranger Jase Pearson, Texas
more than two hundred and sixty thousand.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Square miles and fifty men who make up.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
The most famous and oldest law enforcement party in North America.
Now from the files of the Texas Rangers come these
(00:55):
stories based.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
On fact only.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Names, dates, and papers are bigtitious for obvious reasons.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
They amoungst themselves, are a matter of record. Case for
Tonight Death my Adoption.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
It is nine forty five pm on a Saturday night,
September nineteen thirty seven. The business district of Central City,
Texas is dark except for the office of Harry Cashman's
used Carla Cashman is pacing the small office in agitation.
A man in a leather windbreaker crosses the lots, slipping
between the cars for sale, and knocks the door. Well,
(01:46):
how day, mister Cashman. Glad to see you waited for me,
all right?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Split it out.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
What do you want this time? I'm kind of showing
on folding money. Ohs might be a pound hit me
out again. You know what this is, don't you, Striker
lord call it a shakedown. I gave you one hundred
dollars two weeks ago and another hundred the month before,
so I need more.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
You're not getting more, not from me. Why it's too bad?
I'm sorry feel that way, mister Cashman. I kind of
thought you're a nice guy.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Kind of guy i'd like to see raise my baby
as long as I can't raise myself.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Oh you leave the baby out of this now.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
You can't expect me to forget about her, mister Cashman.
After all, she's more flesh and blood. She belongs to
me and my wife legally my adoptions. But you keep
forgetting one important thing. I never signed no papers letting
you adopt. Your wife said you were dead.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
She thought I was dead, But my being here proves
I ain't.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
And if we ever have to take this in to court,
mister Cashman, I'm baby Anne's natural father. I got my rights,
you know, all right? How much reckon Hendred, it'll see
me through again.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
I'll give you five hundred. That's better. Just a minute.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
I'll give you five hundred if you sign a paper
waving all rights to baby. Am I ain't signing nothing.
I like god arrangement, just the way it tests. It's
working out fine if you think. Go ahead, mister cash man.
Nancy may be business, and i'd like to see you
do a good business for the baby's sake.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
You understand.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
Hello, Harry, why aren't your home?
Speaker 5 (03:18):
It's almost ten o'clock.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Oh, I'll be home in a little while. Hazel. Uh,
something came up.
Speaker 5 (03:24):
You sound worried? There is anything wrong?
Speaker 2 (03:26):
No, no, no, no, of course not.
Speaker 5 (03:27):
The baby wanted to wait up for you. I let
her stay up till late thirty, but by then she
just kept rubbing her eyes and her nose and saying
where's my daddy? Till she couldn't hold her little head up.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Why, I'm sorry, Hazel. Uh, give her a kiss for me.
I'll be hoping a little while, Harry.
Speaker 5 (03:45):
Are you sure there's nothing wrong? You sound like you're
upset about something.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Oh it's it's nothing. I'm just tired. I'll see you
in half an hour.
Speaker 5 (03:53):
Well, all right, dear, goodbye.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Good bye, Honey. That's your wife. Yes, never did meet her.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Maybe we'll all get together have a little talk.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Striker.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
If you try that, it's the last talk you'll ever have.
What are you trying to do? Your baby's got a home,
a good home, and we love her. We've been married
fifteen years, never had a child of our own, and
now we've got her and she's ours. If we ever
lost her, we'd have nothing to live for.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Haven't you got a heart?
Speaker 3 (04:26):
I can see I made a big mistake, mister cashman.
I should have started saying you a lot sooner and
a lot often. Oh you mean by that that from
now on, I'll be around every Saturday night to pick
up my hundred dollars and I'll take tonight's payment right now?
Why to leave pool, mister cashman. I'm younger and lots
stronger you, and I don't get yourself hurt.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
How about my money?
Speaker 3 (04:47):
All right, Striker, there's a hundred and instead of the
last Joe getting. I'll get out of my sight and
don't ever come back, cause if you do, I'll go
to the police. I'll spend ever it all i've got
fighting you. I'll prove what you are, I'll prove you're
not fit to have custody of iron. Mister cash man,
I do believe you mean I swear before Heaven. I mean,
(05:08):
so this is your pardon gift to me that much
considering the size of the role you build it off.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
All right, all right, I leave you alone. I'll take
my payment and for right now, take that roll out again,
toss on the desk. I see now it's a gun.
Huh you say it. I know how to use it.
Oh could Anne have a father like you? She couldn't have.
Not you. You've never proved you are her father.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
You're getting real bright tonight, mister cashman. I get the
money up on a desk.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
I am not gonna give you another.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Time, striker. All I'm gonna give you is what you
to throw you that I'm gonna call a fool.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
You ain't calling anything rot.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Maybe I'm stronger than you think, Heaven, you ain't stroking. Yeah,
give me that money. Maybe you should have been fighting
your way. You see, you're still only one who knows
about man. You ain't never going to tell anyone else.
Thanks for the final payment. At eleven o'clock, after three
(06:16):
more calls to her husband's used car lot, Hazel Cashman
was disturbed by the busy signal and her husband's failure
to come home. A phone company check showed the line
was not in use. Hazel Cashman called the police. They
found Harry Cashman's body and requested aid in The Texas
Rangers ranger Jace Pearson was a sign He arrived at
the lot shortly after two am.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Called the information I can give you. Man.
Speaker 6 (06:49):
Oh, howd a ranger? You must be jas Pearson?
Speaker 2 (06:53):
That's right, you would charge here?
Speaker 6 (06:55):
Yeah, Dan Simmons, cheaper police fellas. I'll talk to you later.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
You've already lifted some fingerprints. How do you know? Dusky
powder on the glass top here?
Speaker 6 (07:09):
Yeah, the crew just left a prints aren't going to
be much good though. I'm afraid too many people coming
in and out of a place, like they're signing papers
on that desk.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
What's that over there? Chief? What? Oh, that's the.
Speaker 6 (07:21):
Yellow spot on the carpet. Yeah, I noticed that before.
Seems to be a piece of chalk that was stepped on,
a few little pieces not quite ground in.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
I don't see a blackboard or anything around here. Any
of the for sale signs on the cars marked with chalk?
Speaker 6 (07:35):
No, No, they're all marked with cardboard cutouts.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
The floor is pretty clean, otherwise waste paper baskets empty.
This place was swept out after the day's business. The
chalk got ground into the rug last night after the
place was cleaned. Yeah, I can see that now. The
phone hanging off the hook like that. When you got here,
Ashman struggled with whoever killed him must have been trying
to make a call.
Speaker 6 (07:58):
I don't know, Jayson, body is just where we found it,
good eight feet from the phone.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
He might have staggered over there and fell, but the
fight started right here by the desk, and the phone.
Speaker 6 (08:07):
Got some reason for being so sure then the desk
was moved.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
A little in the fight. Chief, look at the carpet
deep worn spot where the desk usually rested. Carpets bunched
up around the bay, showing the desk was pushed, not lifted,
and moved for any reason. Right, I can't see that
it helps us any though. Give us this little picture
of the action, that's all. I'm going to get some
of this yellow chalk in an envelope. You're going to
(08:30):
send that to your lab at Austin. That's right. They
can analyze it, maybe come up with something.
Speaker 6 (08:35):
It's with a shot doesn't seem too much. Anything else
to help us, though. Robbery motor for murderers usually the toughest.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
One to crack, and Cashman make a habit of carrying
a lot of money. Yeah, I had to in this business.
Speaker 6 (08:47):
People selling cars in a hurry kneed a fast dollar,
and he usually had a couple of thousand on him.
All we fought in his pocket was eighty six cents
and change.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
You finished it. Yeah, I like to put a man
at work on that filing cabinet, get a record of
all sale.
Speaker 6 (09:03):
We've already checked that every car Cashman has accounted for me.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Nothing's been stolen from the lot, and I wasn't thinking
of a stolen car. I just want a list of
recent customers. Somebody might have bought an automobile he wasn't
happy with and come back to get.
Speaker 6 (09:16):
Even It could be, but I'm afraid that's a blind
alley too. Ranger Cashman gave a mighty good guarantee on
everything he sold, and he stood behind it one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Just the same, let's check it. I want to examine
every reason he might have been killed one hundred percent.
I sent the ground yellow chalk through to Austin. There
was nothing that could be done that night, But the
next morning, Chief Simmons and I went to see Hazel Cashman,
a dead man's wife.
Speaker 6 (09:47):
We don't like to ask your questions at a time
like this, Missus Cashman, but.
Speaker 7 (09:50):
I understand, and I want to help.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
You if I can.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Probably isn't much you can tell us, but any little
thing might help. Your husband ever have trouble with anybody? No,
aside from the money he carried, do you know of
any reason why anybody might have been out to get him?
Speaker 7 (10:05):
No, there was never anybody who didn't like Harry.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
What am I gonna tell the baby? How am I
ever going to make.
Speaker 7 (10:12):
Her understand that her daddy won't ever come home?
Speaker 2 (10:16):
A kid?
Speaker 4 (10:18):
Would you answer that phone me?
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Please?
Speaker 4 (10:21):
I don't want to talk to anybody more.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
I'm sure, ma'am. Maybe for us?
Speaker 6 (10:24):
Anyhow how to leave this number at headquarters?
Speaker 5 (10:28):
Hello?
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Yes, and I'm speaking. Go ahead, I'll write it down.
Speaker 4 (10:32):
We were going on a picnic today.
Speaker 7 (10:36):
Last night. I made the sandwiches and everything we were
gonna leave right after church.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
I knew that something was wrong when he didn't come home.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
I knew take it ma'am. All week long, Harriet.
Speaker 7 (10:49):
Was teaching Man how to say picnic. She was just
learning to pronounce it.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
No, you've got to get a grip, ma'am, for your
baby's sake.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
Yes, yes, I know.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
All right.
Speaker 6 (11:01):
Thanks, we'll be in soon. I better get back to headquarters, Jason,
unless you have something else to ask Missus Cashman.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Now you shouldn't be alone, though, ma'am, especially when your
baby wakes up.
Speaker 7 (11:13):
I called a neighbor just before you can't.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
She'll be here in a few minutes.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
That's good. Goodbye, ma'am, and thank you. Goodbye, Missus Cashman.
Speaker 7 (11:21):
Goodbye.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
Signed out?
Speaker 7 (11:23):
Who killed my husband? He never hid anybody never.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
We'll do our best, man. That's the rush back to headquarters. Simmons.
Speaker 6 (11:32):
One of my boys pulled in a suspect, Jason well
Fellow who worked for Cashman, a cleaning man named Moo Smith.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
What have they got on him?
Speaker 6 (11:39):
Well, he cleaned the office last night, buddy thirty or
nine o'clock. Kashman usually closed before then on Saturday nights,
but Smith admits Cashman was still there when he cleaned up.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Well, he's not trying to hide anything there, No, no,
but there's something else.
Speaker 6 (11:52):
Moon Smith was on the town last night, threw a
big party and threw a lot of money around. Still
had a few hundred on him when he was picked up,
and my man checked on that. Jase Smith is usually
dirt poor.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
I see he's gonna be worth talking to. You can
say that again.
Speaker 6 (12:08):
I'd have told you inside the house, but I didn't
want to say anything in front of Missus Cashman.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
I was best. How old is a baby just two
years old? Jace? Why you look kind of funny? Old
are the Cashman's Why?
Speaker 6 (12:20):
I'd say Harry was about fifty five. Guess Missus Cashman
must be in her forties. Oh, I see what you mean.
The baby's an adopted child.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
I thought they were a little bit old to have
a child of that age. Yeah, they never had any
of their wrong.
Speaker 6 (12:34):
A couple years ago they took in a poor girl
who'd lost her husband.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Anne was her child.
Speaker 6 (12:39):
Cashman's took to the kid right off. Then the mother
got sick, and when she knew she was dying, she
agreed to let the Cashmans adopt the baby.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
No kid ever got a better break. Believe me, I
gather they were pretty crazy about her.
Speaker 6 (12:50):
Flandy crazy. Why if that kid even sneezed Harry Cashman
to be ready to chot her a plane and fly
at a Mayo clinic. They wrapped their lives around him,
just like she was the wrong. When you feel that
way about a kid, it is you're own. Loving them
is what makes them belong to you. And you can
say that again, Say any messages from my headquarters in
that phone call you took, Oh, Jas, I forgot, I
(13:11):
was too hot about my man picking up Moore Smith.
Your lab phoned in a report on that chalk any lean, Well,
I don't know one of the circumstances, but it wasn't
an ordinary piece of chalk. Analysis showed that it's a
special type of surveyors used.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
For market surveyors. Isn't likely that a janitor would be
carrying the kind of chalk used by surveyors.
Speaker 6 (13:29):
Or it might have come from any place. Jas customer
might have dropped it.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
It was dropped and stepped on after the office had
been cleaned. Maybe our case against mo Smith isn't going
to be as strong as it looks.
Speaker 8 (13:51):
You are listening to Tales of the Texas Rangers starring
Joel McCrae as Ranger Jace Pearson. We continue now with
Night's case, death by Adoption, an authentic story from the
files of the Texas Rangers.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
At the city jail, Mose Smith was being held in
an anty room. The day was cool, but beads of
sweat stood out on his forehead. If he was innocent,
he didn't look at it. I began to forget about
the surveyor's chalk hold on, Mose. Where were you last night?
I was at a party, mister Simmons at my own house.
And where were you Before the party?
Speaker 9 (14:30):
I was working for mister Harry Cashman at the used
call out. Everybody knows the work there. What time did
the party start?
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Mose?
Speaker 9 (14:38):
After ten o'clock, sir? And later we left my house
and won a few other places.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Were you paying all the bills? Well? Well, is that right?
Or isn't it? That's right, sir? I don't remember much
about it.
Speaker 9 (14:50):
Next thing I knew was this morning and the policeman
woke me.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Up and brought me down here. What time was it
when you left the car lot last night? Or worked
almost nine o'clock, sir? Cleaning up like I always do?
Was mister Cashman all right? When you left the line, No, sir,
he wasn't.
Speaker 9 (15:06):
Mister Harry was always mighty nice to me. But somebody
called him on the telephone. He didn't say much to
whoever it was. Then he slammed the phone down real mad,
and he hollered me to her up and finished. He
never done that before, sir. Then when I got done
and was ready to leave, he told me he's.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Sorry, yelled at me like that. What'd you do? Then?
Speaker 9 (15:26):
I did some shopping for the party, got some food,
a couple of drugs.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Of sweet lucy. Where'd you get the money? S phill it?
Speaker 6 (15:33):
Mos, cashman was robbed and you had almost three hundred dollars.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
On you this morning when you were picked up. It
is my own money, so honest. You never got that
kind of money working on a used car line. Three
days ago you were broke. You borrowed two dollars from
your landlady. You better count for that money, mos. Where'd
you get it? You know? From the numbers? Numbers? You
mean you've been gambling on the numbers record, yes.
Speaker 9 (15:54):
Sir, and used to did my number hit four twenty four?
I got my five hundred dollars. That's how come I
got money.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
You will expect us to swallow that and we'll paige
you off. Mos. I don't know. I don't know who
he was. You trying to tell us you gambled on
numbers without knowing who you gave your bets to.
Speaker 9 (16:10):
Please, if I tell you who it is, mister Simmons
is gonna wrest them and everybody will know how told.
Speaker 6 (16:16):
And if I don't find out, you're gonna stand trial
for murder. Everybody will know that too.
Speaker 9 (16:20):
Oh, nosir, Please, I never hurt mister harrit Oh. I
got the money from Jonas, one of the ten boys
at the Bullet Alle.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Jonahs been booking numbers on the side and Alsa he
just worked for somebody for a little cut. Alright, Mos,
We'll check on your story and it better be true.
I told the truth everywhere.
Speaker 6 (16:42):
He sounded on the level chase. If he is, I'll
be able to smash a hole in the numbers record.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Yeah you can do that all right, but we'll still
be shy on murderer and staked out the bowling alley
where Jonas worked as a pin setter. Mose Smith had
told the truth, all right. The pin boy confirmed it
when he was arrested for possession of slips made out
(17:08):
by Betters playing the numbers. We were back to a
single clue again, the yellow chalk. We've checked.
Speaker 6 (17:15):
The only surveying crew in the city Chase. Every man
working on it had an alibi.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
All surveyors ain't in the city, and killer could have
come from any place in the county.
Speaker 6 (17:23):
No road building projects underway, and only other surveying crew
we've been able to trace is the mapping crew.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Down on the Big Bend. Not gonna be easy to
get to. I'll get to him, whoever, this car won't
take me the horse and the trailer i'm towing. Will
you leave him right away, as soon as I can
drop you at your headquarters. I drove to the Big
Bend to where the roads ran out, and I had
(17:51):
to cut cross country to reach the mapping crew. I
unloaded charcoal from the trailer. The crew was deep in
wild country, almost a full day's ride before I reached.
All Right, Chucky, easy boy, easy, anybody here over this wood?
Come on, Chucky? How'd the rancher Howdy saw the marks
(18:13):
of a camp here, but it looked deserted.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
It is. We moved in another couple of miles I
just come back with the burst the hall, the last
of our stuff on the new camp. I was just
trying a pack on this last one.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
You the crew for him? Yeah, all right, on away
with you, keep you from getting lonesome. I had to
have you.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
I got company, though. One of my men just went
on the head a few minutes ago.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
We'll catch up to him on the way. You want
me to take one of those lead ropes. All they're
good bars. They won't give me no trouble. All right,
let's go up church. Oh boy, come on, you long
edge cavengers. You've had enough grazing. You must be covering
a lot of ground in here, oh plenty.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
Now, I was sprawling country like this, ranches lose sight
of the boundaries when the landing fenced off. Hey you
uh after somebody in here?
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Maybe? How long you fella's been working through here? Oh
been almost two months?
Speaker 5 (19:05):
Now?
Speaker 2 (19:05):
You never pull out to go into town.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Well we got horses, of course, but it's a long
ride to a road and transportation anyplace and size. I
just decided to grow me some whiskers and stay HUNTI
the jobs done.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Any of your men right out?
Speaker 3 (19:19):
Oh yeah, you of the and go out weekends to
Central City or someplace like that for Saturday night. Then
they gotta turn around and spend all day Sunday coming back.
Family men usually staying, just keep on working, pile up
over time.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
How many men you got working? Ill got eleven? Any
of them away last weekend? Yeah? Four of them? You
know where they went? No? Hey, I reckon Bill Striker
can't tell you though? Who's he? A fellow with? Other?
Speaker 3 (19:46):
Burroughs aw there is just topping that rise about the
quart of mile head.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
He one of the ones who left camp. Yeah, they
all went off together. Let's catch up to them. Okay,
come on, get up, Burl Charcoal. We rode after the
man named Bill Striker. On the way, I saw the
surveyors Marx I'd been following for miles, both markers nailed
to trees, yellow chalk marks on rocks. Within a few
(20:12):
minutes we caught up to him.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Well, yeah, Ranger, I was a wait for the weekend,
Like Tracey, I told you, I mean three other fellas.
Where'd you go in Central City? Only Prace Worth going?
We'd get to him time. What did you do up there?
But just pull around all of us together? We were
only there for Saturday night. You must have done something special,
something you remember.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
I saw one of the boars mentioned the dance strocker.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Well, well yeah, yes, right, squad dancer Alimo Ballroom.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
You'll spend the whole evening there. Yeah, Like I said,
we were all together all evening. Four stags that a
dance drift around hard to keep an eye on each
other all evening.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
He yeah, I reckon. We could lose sight of each
other for a minute or two.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
You fellas take time out to do any shopping. But
what can we buy it? We could bring back here,
And I thought maybe one of your might be saving
some money, maybe enough to make a deal on a
used car.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
We rode bus both ways after our horses got us
from here.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Atlanta's jouncing. It's too bad. If you've been shopping around
to used car lot, you might have been able to
help me. You might have gotten a look at a
man who killed a dealer named Cashman in Central City
on Saturday night.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
Kill. Hey, ranger, you got a reason for being here? Hey,
you'd think one of my crew killed that man.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
I'll know better when we see the other three who
went to town with Striker. Here. Let's get onto the camp.
It didn't help. They all told the same story. There
were gaps times during the evening when they drifted away
from each other, but they couldn't pin it down any
specific time on the clock. I didn't have anything to
(21:47):
take them in on singleir together. They knew it and
I knew it. I camped with them overnight and headed
back to Central City Police headquarters. Oh, I think God,
no good.
Speaker 6 (21:59):
Chief don't turned up anything new either, Just a chance
armed robbery, Jase.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
That's what it must have been. My feelings still bucket
that Simmons Most told us that Cashman was upset about
a phone call, stayed at the lot long after he
should have gone home. It must have been a reason,
like what like somebody who wanted to see him telling
him to wait there?
Speaker 6 (22:17):
Yeah, Most said the call made Cashman mad. Why'd they
wait for somebody who was.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Mad at Maybe because they had some kind of a
club they could use to make him wait, whether he
liked it or not.
Speaker 6 (22:27):
You are still digging for something deeper than an arm
robbery motive, then that's right. Nobody's given us anything to
back up any other motive.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
I know, But a man doesn't make a telephone appointment
to be robbed and murdered. He makes it for something else.
I'm going out to see missus Cashman again. When you
called your husband last Saturday night, it was almost ten.
You said, what makes you think he was upset?
Speaker 7 (22:55):
When you married a man fifteen years I just know
that's all.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
But he said there was nothing wrong, anything like that
ever happened before his not coming home I mean acting upset.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
Yes, it did twice before.
Speaker 7 (23:09):
Once was almost two months ago, then a couple of
weeks ago.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Those other times, you remember what day they happened on.
I mean, can you remember if it was always on
a Saturday?
Speaker 7 (23:18):
Yes, always all three times. But I don't know why.
I don't know what was bothering now.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
How do he react?
Speaker 7 (23:26):
He was nervous, irritable, surprised me the first time. Harry
had never been that way with anybody. He snapped me
the hard girl apologized later. But the only one he
didn't snap at was the baby. He just seemed to
want to hold her in his lap, just sit there
and rock back and forth holding it. And then during
(23:47):
the night he kept getting up, going to a crib
to look at it.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
I see, ma'am, did your husband ever say he was
worried about somebody trying to take little Anne away from you.
Speaker 7 (23:58):
Why no, who'd take her from us? Both her parents
were dead. Her mother agreed to the adoption before.
Speaker 5 (24:04):
She passed on.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
You ever know the baby's father? Ever see him? No?
Speaker 7 (24:08):
He died before Anne was born, killed in an accident.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
You're sure of that?
Speaker 7 (24:11):
Well, that's what Anne's mother told her. She couldn't have lied.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
You got a copy of the baby's birth certificate.
Speaker 7 (24:16):
Yes, right in this drawer, with a copy of the
adoption papers.
Speaker 4 (24:20):
We got from the court.
Speaker 7 (24:22):
Here's the code order and the paper signed by Anne's mother,
Dorothy Striker.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Striker was the father's name, Bill or William Striker?
Speaker 4 (24:31):
Why no?
Speaker 7 (24:34):
Here it is on the birth certificate. His name was
Arthur Striker. Came from Fort Worth Ranger.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
What is it? I think I know who killed your
husband now, and I'm beginning to figure why you'll hear
from me, ma'am. I headed for the Big Bend, making
a radio check with kt XA, asking the station to
contact the four Worth Police on possible relationship between Arthur
(25:02):
and WILLIAMS. Striker. The answer fit they'd been brothers, but
William Striker had a criminal record, It was late afternoon
when I mounted Charcoal for the ride into the surveying camp.
I reached it at about three am, dismounted and slipped into
the office tent. Tracy, what rush quiet, it's me Pearson boy.
(25:25):
You scared me? Sh why'd you come back?
Speaker 10 (25:29):
Not all your boys were square dancing at Central City
where a strike you're.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
Sleeping, Oh, Striker, that's right, I'm back there where the
horses are hobbled.
Speaker 10 (25:38):
We had better be careful, Ranger, he's got a gun.
Good A test can give me the final proof I need.
If it's the same gun that killed Cashman, I'll.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Come with you.
Speaker 10 (25:47):
If he wakes up before I get to him, you
hit the ground and stay there no matter what happens.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Oh, warrife. I'm a surveyor, not a hero. Well under
that tree, Rancher's moon got it all in shadows.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
He's not here. Somebody's trying to get away with one
of the horses.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Come on, Oh, you must have seen you out in
the moonlight crossing to the towns.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Get it's not horse, Riker. You're in the light now.
I can see you too. It's something you won't say.
O range on't no hit drop starting. Be careful, it
might be a trick. Are you other man?
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Stay down?
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Don't know it's no trick.
Speaker 5 (26:27):
Ranger.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Oh, he's hit more than once and bad. Better get
whatever first aid stuff you have it you try and
patch him up. You're gonna need some work too. I'll
be all right. You man can get up now. Need
a couple of you to make a letter. You needed
to take him in an easy Ranger. Oh, I got you.
(26:51):
Oh man, I'll have to make two letters. You need
one yourself.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
William Striker lived long enough to confess his masquerade as
the father of his dead brother's child and the murder
of Harry Cashman. He was pronounced dead shortly after arrival
at the nearest emergency hospital. Jace Pearson had three bullets
removed from his body. They matched the bullet taken from
the body of Harry Cashman.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
Six weeks later.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
Jace Pearson reported back to his company, Ready again for
Judy with the Texas Rangers, and.
Speaker 8 (27:44):
Now here again is the star of our show Joel
McCrae as a story.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
About one of the first Texas Ranger captains who's outward
appearances seemed to be little more than a boy. One
of the rangers in his command, a big, raw bone,
muscular fellow noted for his complete lack of fear, was
asked by a townsman, how come a big fellow like
you takes orders from him? Why he ain't even got
enough of beard? The needs shaven. A ranger looked at
the townsmen. Maybe he hasn't got much of a beard,
(28:11):
the ranger admitted. But when we go out after a
gang of bandits with him out number and as three
or four to one, I never yet heard the captain
say go get him boys. He always says, come on, man,
follow me. Good night, folks, See you again next week,
Next week.
Speaker 8 (28:30):
Joel McCrae and another authentic reenactment of the case from
the files of not Texas Ranger. Joel McCrae is currently
seen starring in the Universal International Technicolor production Frenchy. Tonight's
cast included Tony Barrett, Joe Kerns, Tom McKee, Roy Glenn,
(28:53):
and Barbara Luddy. This story was transcribed and adapted by
Joel Murcott, and the program was produced and directed by
Stacy keep Hell Giveney speaking.
Speaker 11 (29:13):
Three Chimes Mean Good Times on NBC. Coming up next
on NBC it's genial accordion. Playing Master of Ceremonies, Phil
Baker back at his old Sunday night stand, asking America's
favorite question.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
What's that why? The sixty four dollars question?
Speaker 11 (29:28):
Of course, The chimes are your invitation every Sunday to
all the fun and prizes and excitement of everybody's favorite
quiz game, the sixty four dollars Question.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
Tomorrow hear the Railroad Hour.
Speaker 11 (29:40):
Right now, it's the sixty four dollars Question on NBC
The National Broadcasting Company presents Joel McCrae in Tales.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Of the Texas Rangers.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Tonight Transcribe from Hollywood, another authentic reenactment of a case
from the files of the Texas Rangers. Tales of the
Texas Rangers, starring Joel McCrae as Ranger Jase Pearson, Texas
more than two hundred and sixty thousand.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Square miles and fifty men who make up.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
The most famous and oldest law enforcement party in North America.
Now from the files of the Texas Rangers come these
(00:55):
stories based.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
On fact only.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Names, dates, and papers are bigtitious for obvious reasons.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
They amoungst themselves, are a matter of record. Case for
Tonight Death my Adoption.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
It is nine forty five pm on a Saturday night,
September nineteen thirty seven. The business district of Central City,
Texas is dark except for the office of Harry Cashman's
used Carla Cashman is pacing the small office in agitation.
A man in a leather windbreaker crosses the lots, slipping
between the cars for sale, and knocks the door. Well,
(01:46):
how day, mister Cashman. Glad to see you waited for me,
all right?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Split it out.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
What do you want this time? I'm kind of showing
on folding money. Ohs might be a pound hit me
out again. You know what this is, don't you, Striker
lord call it a shakedown. I gave you one hundred
dollars two weeks ago and another hundred the month before,
so I need more.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
You're not getting more, not from me. Why it's too bad?
I'm sorry feel that way, mister Cashman. I kind of
thought you're a nice guy.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Kind of guy i'd like to see raise my baby
as long as I can't raise myself.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Oh you leave the baby out of this now.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
You can't expect me to forget about her, mister Cashman.
After all, she's more flesh and blood. She belongs to
me and my wife legally my adoptions. But you keep
forgetting one important thing. I never signed no papers letting
you adopt. Your wife said you were dead.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
She thought I was dead, But my being here proves
I ain't.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
And if we ever have to take this in to court,
mister Cashman, I'm baby Anne's natural father. I got my rights,
you know, all right? How much reckon Hendred, it'll see
me through again.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
I'll give you five hundred. That's better. Just a minute.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
I'll give you five hundred if you sign a paper
waving all rights to baby. Am I ain't signing nothing.
I like god arrangement, just the way it tests. It's
working out fine if you think. Go ahead, mister cash man.
Nancy may be business, and i'd like to see you
do a good business for the baby's sake.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
You understand.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
Hello, Harry, why aren't your home?
Speaker 5 (03:18):
It's almost ten o'clock.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Oh, I'll be home in a little while. Hazel. Uh,
something came up.
Speaker 5 (03:24):
You sound worried? There is anything wrong?
Speaker 2 (03:26):
No, no, no, no, of course not.
Speaker 5 (03:27):
The baby wanted to wait up for you. I let
her stay up till late thirty, but by then she
just kept rubbing her eyes and her nose and saying
where's my daddy? Till she couldn't hold her little head up.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Why, I'm sorry, Hazel. Uh, give her a kiss for me.
I'll be hoping a little while, Harry.
Speaker 5 (03:45):
Are you sure there's nothing wrong? You sound like you're
upset about something.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Oh it's it's nothing. I'm just tired. I'll see you
in half an hour.
Speaker 5 (03:53):
Well, all right, dear, goodbye.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Good bye, Honey. That's your wife. Yes, never did meet her.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Maybe we'll all get together have a little talk.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Striker.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
If you try that, it's the last talk you'll ever have.
What are you trying to do? Your baby's got a home,
a good home, and we love her. We've been married
fifteen years, never had a child of our own, and
now we've got her and she's ours. If we ever
lost her, we'd have nothing to live for.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Haven't you got a heart?
Speaker 3 (04:26):
I can see I made a big mistake, mister cashman.
I should have started saying you a lot sooner and
a lot often. Oh you mean by that that from
now on, I'll be around every Saturday night to pick
up my hundred dollars and I'll take tonight's payment right now?
Why to leave pool, mister cashman. I'm younger and lots
stronger you, and I don't get yourself hurt.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
How about my money?
Speaker 3 (04:47):
All right, Striker, there's a hundred and instead of the
last Joe getting. I'll get out of my sight and
don't ever come back, cause if you do, I'll go
to the police. I'll spend ever it all i've got
fighting you. I'll prove what you are, I'll prove you're
not fit to have custody of iron. Mister cash man,
I do believe you mean I swear before Heaven. I mean,
(05:08):
so this is your pardon gift to me that much
considering the size of the role you build it off.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
All right, all right, I leave you alone. I'll take
my payment and for right now, take that roll out again,
toss on the desk. I see now it's a gun.
Huh you say it. I know how to use it.
Oh could Anne have a father like you? She couldn't have.
Not you. You've never proved you are her father.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
You're getting real bright tonight, mister cashman. I get the
money up on a desk.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
I am not gonna give you another.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Time, striker. All I'm gonna give you is what you
to throw you that I'm gonna call a fool.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
You ain't calling anything rot.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Maybe I'm stronger than you think, Heaven, you ain't stroking. Yeah,
give me that money. Maybe you should have been fighting
your way. You see, you're still only one who knows
about man. You ain't never going to tell anyone else.
Thanks for the final payment. At eleven o'clock, after three
(06:16):
more calls to her husband's used car lot, Hazel Cashman
was disturbed by the busy signal and her husband's failure
to come home. A phone company check showed the line
was not in use. Hazel Cashman called the police. They
found Harry Cashman's body and requested aid in The Texas
Rangers ranger Jace Pearson was a sign He arrived at
the lot shortly after two am.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Called the information I can give you. Man.
Speaker 6 (06:49):
Oh, howd a ranger? You must be jas Pearson?
Speaker 2 (06:53):
That's right, you would charge here?
Speaker 6 (06:55):
Yeah, Dan Simmons, cheaper police fellas. I'll talk to you later.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
You've already lifted some fingerprints. How do you know? Dusky
powder on the glass top here?
Speaker 6 (07:09):
Yeah, the crew just left a prints aren't going to
be much good though. I'm afraid too many people coming
in and out of a place, like they're signing papers
on that desk.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
What's that over there? Chief? What? Oh, that's the.
Speaker 6 (07:21):
Yellow spot on the carpet. Yeah, I noticed that before.
Seems to be a piece of chalk that was stepped on,
a few little pieces not quite ground in.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
I don't see a blackboard or anything around here. Any
of the for sale signs on the cars marked with chalk?
Speaker 6 (07:35):
No, No, they're all marked with cardboard cutouts.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
The floor is pretty clean, otherwise waste paper baskets empty.
This place was swept out after the day's business. The
chalk got ground into the rug last night after the
place was cleaned. Yeah, I can see that now. The
phone hanging off the hook like that. When you got here,
Ashman struggled with whoever killed him must have been trying
to make a call.
Speaker 6 (07:58):
I don't know, Jayson, body is just where we found it,
good eight feet from the phone.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
He might have staggered over there and fell, but the
fight started right here by the desk, and the phone.
Speaker 6 (08:07):
Got some reason for being so sure then the desk
was moved.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
A little in the fight. Chief, look at the carpet
deep worn spot where the desk usually rested. Carpets bunched
up around the bay, showing the desk was pushed, not lifted,
and moved for any reason. Right, I can't see that
it helps us any though. Give us this little picture
of the action, that's all. I'm going to get some
of this yellow chalk in an envelope. You're going to
(08:30):
send that to your lab at Austin. That's right. They
can analyze it, maybe come up with something.
Speaker 6 (08:35):
It's with a shot doesn't seem too much. Anything else
to help us, though. Robbery motor for murderers usually the toughest.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
One to crack, and Cashman make a habit of carrying
a lot of money. Yeah, I had to in this business.
Speaker 6 (08:47):
People selling cars in a hurry kneed a fast dollar,
and he usually had a couple of thousand on him.
All we fought in his pocket was eighty six cents
and change.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
You finished it. Yeah, I like to put a man
at work on that filing cabinet, get a record of
all sale.
Speaker 6 (09:03):
We've already checked that every car Cashman has accounted for me.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Nothing's been stolen from the lot, and I wasn't thinking
of a stolen car. I just want a list of
recent customers. Somebody might have bought an automobile he wasn't
happy with and come back to get.
Speaker 6 (09:16):
Even It could be, but I'm afraid that's a blind
alley too. Ranger Cashman gave a mighty good guarantee on
everything he sold, and he stood behind it one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Just the same, let's check it. I want to examine
every reason he might have been killed one hundred percent.
I sent the ground yellow chalk through to Austin. There
was nothing that could be done that night, But the
next morning, Chief Simmons and I went to see Hazel Cashman,
a dead man's wife.
Speaker 6 (09:47):
We don't like to ask your questions at a time
like this, Missus Cashman, but.
Speaker 7 (09:50):
I understand, and I want to help.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
You if I can.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Probably isn't much you can tell us, but any little
thing might help. Your husband ever have trouble with anybody? No,
aside from the money he carried, do you know of
any reason why anybody might have been out to get him?
Speaker 7 (10:05):
No, there was never anybody who didn't like Harry.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
What am I gonna tell the baby? How am I
ever going to make.
Speaker 7 (10:12):
Her understand that her daddy won't ever come home?
Speaker 2 (10:16):
A kid?
Speaker 4 (10:18):
Would you answer that phone me?
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Please?
Speaker 4 (10:21):
I don't want to talk to anybody more.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
I'm sure, ma'am. Maybe for us?
Speaker 6 (10:24):
Anyhow how to leave this number at headquarters?
Speaker 5 (10:28):
Hello?
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Yes, and I'm speaking. Go ahead, I'll write it down.
Speaker 4 (10:32):
We were going on a picnic today.
Speaker 7 (10:36):
Last night. I made the sandwiches and everything we were
gonna leave right after church.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
I knew that something was wrong when he didn't come home.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
I knew take it ma'am. All week long, Harriet.
Speaker 7 (10:49):
Was teaching Man how to say picnic. She was just
learning to pronounce it.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
No, you've got to get a grip, ma'am, for your
baby's sake.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
Yes, yes, I know.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
All right.
Speaker 6 (11:01):
Thanks, we'll be in soon. I better get back to headquarters, Jason,
unless you have something else to ask Missus Cashman.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Now you shouldn't be alone, though, ma'am, especially when your
baby wakes up.
Speaker 7 (11:13):
I called a neighbor just before you can't.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
She'll be here in a few minutes.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
That's good. Goodbye, ma'am, and thank you. Goodbye, Missus Cashman.
Speaker 7 (11:21):
Goodbye.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
Signed out?
Speaker 7 (11:23):
Who killed my husband? He never hid anybody never.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
We'll do our best, man. That's the rush back to headquarters. Simmons.
Speaker 6 (11:32):
One of my boys pulled in a suspect, Jason well
Fellow who worked for Cashman, a cleaning man named Moo Smith.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
What have they got on him?
Speaker 6 (11:39):
Well, he cleaned the office last night, buddy thirty or
nine o'clock. Kashman usually closed before then on Saturday nights,
but Smith admits Cashman was still there when he cleaned up.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Well, he's not trying to hide anything there, No, no,
but there's something else.
Speaker 6 (11:52):
Moon Smith was on the town last night, threw a
big party and threw a lot of money around. Still
had a few hundred on him when he was picked up,
and my man checked on that. Jase Smith is usually
dirt poor.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
I see he's gonna be worth talking to. You can
say that again.
Speaker 6 (12:08):
I'd have told you inside the house, but I didn't
want to say anything in front of Missus Cashman.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
I was best. How old is a baby just two
years old? Jace? Why you look kind of funny? Old
are the Cashman's Why?
Speaker 6 (12:20):
I'd say Harry was about fifty five. Guess Missus Cashman
must be in her forties. Oh, I see what you mean.
The baby's an adopted child.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
I thought they were a little bit old to have
a child of that age. Yeah, they never had any
of their wrong.
Speaker 6 (12:34):
A couple years ago they took in a poor girl
who'd lost her husband.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Anne was her child.
Speaker 6 (12:39):
Cashman's took to the kid right off. Then the mother
got sick, and when she knew she was dying, she
agreed to let the Cashmans adopt the baby.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
No kid ever got a better break. Believe me, I
gather they were pretty crazy about her.
Speaker 6 (12:50):
Flandy crazy. Why if that kid even sneezed Harry Cashman
to be ready to chot her a plane and fly
at a Mayo clinic. They wrapped their lives around him,
just like she was the wrong. When you feel that
way about a kid, it is you're own. Loving them
is what makes them belong to you. And you can
say that again, Say any messages from my headquarters in
that phone call you took, Oh, Jas, I forgot, I
(13:11):
was too hot about my man picking up Moore Smith.
Your lab phoned in a report on that chalk any lean, Well,
I don't know one of the circumstances, but it wasn't
an ordinary piece of chalk. Analysis showed that it's a
special type of surveyors used.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
For market surveyors. Isn't likely that a janitor would be
carrying the kind of chalk used by surveyors.
Speaker 6 (13:29):
Or it might have come from any place. Jas customer
might have dropped it.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
It was dropped and stepped on after the office had
been cleaned. Maybe our case against mo Smith isn't going
to be as strong as it looks.
Speaker 8 (13:51):
You are listening to Tales of the Texas Rangers starring
Joel McCrae as Ranger Jace Pearson. We continue now with
Night's case, death by Adoption, an authentic story from the
files of the Texas Rangers.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
At the city jail, Mose Smith was being held in
an anty room. The day was cool, but beads of
sweat stood out on his forehead. If he was innocent,
he didn't look at it. I began to forget about
the surveyor's chalk hold on, Mose. Where were you last night?
I was at a party, mister Simmons at my own house.
And where were you Before the party?
Speaker 9 (14:30):
I was working for mister Harry Cashman at the used
call out. Everybody knows the work there. What time did
the party start?
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Mose?
Speaker 9 (14:38):
After ten o'clock, sir? And later we left my house
and won a few other places.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Were you paying all the bills? Well? Well, is that right?
Or isn't it? That's right, sir? I don't remember much
about it.
Speaker 9 (14:50):
Next thing I knew was this morning and the policeman
woke me.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Up and brought me down here. What time was it
when you left the car lot last night? Or worked
almost nine o'clock, sir? Cleaning up like I always do?
Was mister Cashman all right? When you left the line, No, sir,
he wasn't.
Speaker 9 (15:06):
Mister Harry was always mighty nice to me. But somebody
called him on the telephone. He didn't say much to
whoever it was. Then he slammed the phone down real mad,
and he hollered me to her up and finished. He
never done that before, sir. Then when I got done
and was ready to leave, he told me he's.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Sorry, yelled at me like that. What'd you do? Then?
Speaker 9 (15:26):
I did some shopping for the party, got some food,
a couple of drugs.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Of sweet lucy. Where'd you get the money? S phill it?
Speaker 6 (15:33):
Mos, cashman was robbed and you had almost three hundred dollars.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
On you this morning when you were picked up. It
is my own money, so honest. You never got that
kind of money working on a used car line. Three
days ago you were broke. You borrowed two dollars from
your landlady. You better count for that money, mos. Where'd
you get it? You know? From the numbers? Numbers? You
mean you've been gambling on the numbers record, yes.
Speaker 9 (15:54):
Sir, and used to did my number hit four twenty four?
I got my five hundred dollars. That's how come I
got money.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
You will expect us to swallow that and we'll paige
you off. Mos. I don't know. I don't know who
he was. You trying to tell us you gambled on
numbers without knowing who you gave your bets to.
Speaker 9 (16:10):
Please, if I tell you who it is, mister Simmons
is gonna wrest them and everybody will know how told.
Speaker 6 (16:16):
And if I don't find out, you're gonna stand trial
for murder. Everybody will know that too.
Speaker 9 (16:20):
Oh, nosir, Please, I never hurt mister harrit Oh. I
got the money from Jonas, one of the ten boys
at the Bullet Alle.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Jonahs been booking numbers on the side and Alsa he
just worked for somebody for a little cut. Alright, Mos,
We'll check on your story and it better be true.
I told the truth everywhere.
Speaker 6 (16:42):
He sounded on the level chase. If he is, I'll
be able to smash a hole in the numbers record.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Yeah you can do that all right, but we'll still
be shy on murderer and staked out the bowling alley
where Jonas worked as a pin setter. Mose Smith had
told the truth, all right. The pin boy confirmed it
when he was arrested for possession of slips made out
(17:08):
by Betters playing the numbers. We were back to a
single clue again, the yellow chalk. We've checked.
Speaker 6 (17:15):
The only surveying crew in the city Chase. Every man
working on it had an alibi.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
All surveyors ain't in the city, and killer could have
come from any place in the county.
Speaker 6 (17:23):
No road building projects underway, and only other surveying crew
we've been able to trace is the mapping crew.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Down on the Big Bend. Not gonna be easy to
get to. I'll get to him, whoever, this car won't
take me the horse and the trailer i'm towing. Will
you leave him right away, as soon as I can
drop you at your headquarters. I drove to the Big
Bend to where the roads ran out, and I had
(17:51):
to cut cross country to reach the mapping crew. I
unloaded charcoal from the trailer. The crew was deep in
wild country, almost a full day's ride before I reached.
All Right, Chucky, easy boy, easy, anybody here over this wood?
Come on, Chucky? How'd the rancher Howdy saw the marks
(18:13):
of a camp here, but it looked deserted.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
It is. We moved in another couple of miles I
just come back with the burst the hall, the last
of our stuff on the new camp. I was just
trying a pack on this last one.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
You the crew for him? Yeah, all right, on away
with you, keep you from getting lonesome. I had to
have you.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
I got company, though. One of my men just went
on the head a few minutes ago.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
We'll catch up to him on the way. You want
me to take one of those lead ropes. All they're
good bars. They won't give me no trouble. All right,
let's go up church. Oh boy, come on, you long
edge cavengers. You've had enough grazing. You must be covering
a lot of ground in here, oh plenty.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
Now, I was sprawling country like this, ranches lose sight
of the boundaries when the landing fenced off. Hey you
uh after somebody in here?
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Maybe? How long you fella's been working through here? Oh
been almost two months?
Speaker 5 (19:05):
Now?
Speaker 2 (19:05):
You never pull out to go into town.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Well we got horses, of course, but it's a long
ride to a road and transportation anyplace and size. I
just decided to grow me some whiskers and stay HUNTI
the jobs done.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Any of your men right out?
Speaker 3 (19:19):
Oh yeah, you of the and go out weekends to
Central City or someplace like that for Saturday night. Then
they gotta turn around and spend all day Sunday coming back.
Family men usually staying, just keep on working, pile up
over time.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
How many men you got working? Ill got eleven? Any
of them away last weekend? Yeah? Four of them? You
know where they went? No? Hey, I reckon Bill Striker
can't tell you though? Who's he? A fellow with? Other?
Speaker 3 (19:46):
Burroughs aw there is just topping that rise about the
quart of mile head.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
He one of the ones who left camp. Yeah, they
all went off together. Let's catch up to them. Okay,
come on, get up, Burl Charcoal. We rode after the
man named Bill Striker. On the way, I saw the
surveyors Marx I'd been following for miles, both markers nailed
to trees, yellow chalk marks on rocks. Within a few
(20:12):
minutes we caught up to him.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Well, yeah, Ranger, I was a wait for the weekend,
Like Tracey, I told you, I mean three other fellas.
Where'd you go in Central City? Only Prace Worth going?
We'd get to him time. What did you do up there?
But just pull around all of us together? We were
only there for Saturday night. You must have done something special,
something you remember.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
I saw one of the boars mentioned the dance strocker.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Well, well yeah, yes, right, squad dancer Alimo Ballroom.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
You'll spend the whole evening there. Yeah, Like I said,
we were all together all evening. Four stags that a
dance drift around hard to keep an eye on each
other all evening.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
He yeah, I reckon. We could lose sight of each
other for a minute or two.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
You fellas take time out to do any shopping. But
what can we buy it? We could bring back here,
And I thought maybe one of your might be saving
some money, maybe enough to make a deal on a
used car.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
We rode bus both ways after our horses got us
from here.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Atlanta's jouncing. It's too bad. If you've been shopping around
to used car lot, you might have been able to
help me. You might have gotten a look at a
man who killed a dealer named Cashman in Central City
on Saturday night.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
Kill. Hey, ranger, you got a reason for being here? Hey,
you'd think one of my crew killed that man.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
I'll know better when we see the other three who
went to town with Striker. Here. Let's get onto the camp.
It didn't help. They all told the same story. There
were gaps times during the evening when they drifted away
from each other, but they couldn't pin it down any
specific time on the clock. I didn't have anything to
(21:47):
take them in on singleir together. They knew it and
I knew it. I camped with them overnight and headed
back to Central City Police headquarters. Oh, I think God,
no good.
Speaker 6 (21:59):
Chief don't turned up anything new either, Just a chance
armed robbery, Jase.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
That's what it must have been. My feelings still bucket
that Simmons Most told us that Cashman was upset about
a phone call, stayed at the lot long after he
should have gone home. It must have been a reason,
like what like somebody who wanted to see him telling
him to wait there?
Speaker 6 (22:17):
Yeah, Most said the call made Cashman mad. Why'd they
wait for somebody who was.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Mad at Maybe because they had some kind of a
club they could use to make him wait, whether he
liked it or not.
Speaker 6 (22:27):
You are still digging for something deeper than an arm
robbery motive, then that's right. Nobody's given us anything to
back up any other motive.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
I know, But a man doesn't make a telephone appointment
to be robbed and murdered. He makes it for something else.
I'm going out to see missus Cashman again. When you
called your husband last Saturday night, it was almost ten.
You said, what makes you think he was upset?
Speaker 7 (22:55):
When you married a man fifteen years I just know
that's all.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
But he said there was nothing wrong, anything like that
ever happened before his not coming home I mean acting upset.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
Yes, it did twice before.
Speaker 7 (23:09):
Once was almost two months ago, then a couple of
weeks ago.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Those other times, you remember what day they happened on.
I mean, can you remember if it was always on
a Saturday?
Speaker 7 (23:18):
Yes, always all three times. But I don't know why.
I don't know what was bothering now.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
How do he react?
Speaker 7 (23:26):
He was nervous, irritable, surprised me the first time. Harry
had never been that way with anybody. He snapped me
the hard girl apologized later. But the only one he
didn't snap at was the baby. He just seemed to
want to hold her in his lap, just sit there
and rock back and forth holding it. And then during
(23:47):
the night he kept getting up, going to a crib
to look at it.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
I see, ma'am, did your husband ever say he was
worried about somebody trying to take little Anne away from you.
Speaker 7 (23:58):
Why no, who'd take her from us? Both her parents
were dead. Her mother agreed to the adoption before.
Speaker 5 (24:04):
She passed on.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
You ever know the baby's father? Ever see him? No?
Speaker 7 (24:08):
He died before Anne was born, killed in an accident.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
You're sure of that?
Speaker 7 (24:11):
Well, that's what Anne's mother told her. She couldn't have lied.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
You got a copy of the baby's birth certificate.
Speaker 7 (24:16):
Yes, right in this drawer, with a copy of the
adoption papers.
Speaker 4 (24:20):
We got from the court.
Speaker 7 (24:22):
Here's the code order and the paper signed by Anne's mother,
Dorothy Striker.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Striker was the father's name, Bill or William Striker?
Speaker 4 (24:31):
Why no?
Speaker 7 (24:34):
Here it is on the birth certificate. His name was
Arthur Striker. Came from Fort Worth Ranger.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
What is it? I think I know who killed your
husband now, and I'm beginning to figure why you'll hear
from me, ma'am. I headed for the Big Bend, making
a radio check with kt XA, asking the station to
contact the four Worth Police on possible relationship between Arthur
(25:02):
and WILLIAMS. Striker. The answer fit they'd been brothers, but
William Striker had a criminal record, It was late afternoon
when I mounted Charcoal for the ride into the surveying camp.
I reached it at about three am, dismounted and slipped into
the office tent. Tracy, what rush quiet, it's me Pearson boy.
(25:25):
You scared me? Sh why'd you come back?
Speaker 10 (25:29):
Not all your boys were square dancing at Central City
where a strike you're.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
Sleeping, Oh, Striker, that's right, I'm back there where the
horses are hobbled.
Speaker 10 (25:38):
We had better be careful, Ranger, he's got a gun.
Good A test can give me the final proof I need.
If it's the same gun that killed Cashman, I'll.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Come with you.
Speaker 10 (25:47):
If he wakes up before I get to him, you
hit the ground and stay there no matter what happens.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Oh, warrife. I'm a surveyor, not a hero. Well under
that tree, Rancher's moon got it all in shadows.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
He's not here. Somebody's trying to get away with one
of the horses.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Come on, Oh, you must have seen you out in
the moonlight crossing to the towns.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Get it's not horse, Riker. You're in the light now.
I can see you too. It's something you won't say.
O range on't no hit drop starting. Be careful, it
might be a trick. Are you other man?
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Stay down?
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Don't know it's no trick.
Speaker 5 (26:27):
Ranger.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Oh, he's hit more than once and bad. Better get
whatever first aid stuff you have it you try and
patch him up. You're gonna need some work too. I'll
be all right. You man can get up now. Need
a couple of you to make a letter. You needed
to take him in an easy Ranger. Oh, I got you.
(26:51):
Oh man, I'll have to make two letters. You need
one yourself.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
William Striker lived long enough to confess his masquerade as
the father of his dead brother's child and the murder
of Harry Cashman. He was pronounced dead shortly after arrival
at the nearest emergency hospital. Jace Pearson had three bullets
removed from his body. They matched the bullet taken from
the body of Harry Cashman.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
Six weeks later.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
Jace Pearson reported back to his company, Ready again for
Judy with the Texas Rangers, and.
Speaker 8 (27:44):
Now here again is the star of our show Joel
McCrae as a story.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
About one of the first Texas Ranger captains who's outward
appearances seemed to be little more than a boy. One
of the rangers in his command, a big, raw bone,
muscular fellow noted for his complete lack of fear, was
asked by a townsman, how come a big fellow like
you takes orders from him? Why he ain't even got
enough of beard? The needs shaven. A ranger looked at
the townsmen. Maybe he hasn't got much of a beard,
(28:11):
the ranger admitted. But when we go out after a
gang of bandits with him out number and as three
or four to one, I never yet heard the captain
say go get him boys. He always says, come on, man,
follow me. Good night, folks, See you again next week,
Next week.
Speaker 8 (28:30):
Joel McCrae and another authentic reenactment of the case from
the files of not Texas Ranger. Joel McCrae is currently
seen starring in the Universal International Technicolor production Frenchy. Tonight's
cast included Tony Barrett, Joe Kerns, Tom McKee, Roy Glenn,
(28:53):
and Barbara Luddy. This story was transcribed and adapted by
Joel Murcott, and the program was produced and directed by
Stacy keep Hell Giveney speaking.
Speaker 11 (29:13):
Three Chimes Mean Good Times on NBC. Coming up next
on NBC it's genial accordion. Playing Master of Ceremonies, Phil
Baker back at his old Sunday night stand, asking America's
favorite question.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
What's that why? The sixty four dollars question?
Speaker 11 (29:28):
Of course, The chimes are your invitation every Sunday to
all the fun and prizes and excitement of everybody's favorite
quiz game, the sixty four dollars Question.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
Tomorrow hear the Railroad Hour.
Speaker 11 (29:40):
Right now, it's the sixty four dollars Question on NBC
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