August 11, 2025 • 30 mins
Chronicles the cases of a law enforcement officer in the American West, blending traditional Western themes with modern investigative techniques. The stories are based on real cases.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The National Broadcasting Company presents.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Joel McCrae in Tales.
Speaker 3 (00:05):
Of the Texas.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Rangers to Night Transcribe from Hollywood, another authentic reenactment of
a case from the Piles of the Texas Rangers, Tales
of the Texas Rangers, starring Joel McCrae as Ranger Jace Pearson,
(00:29):
Texas more.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Than two hundred and sixty.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Thousand square miles and fifty men who make up the
most famous and oldest law enforcement party in North America.
(00:54):
Now from the Piles of the Texas Rangers come these
stories based.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
On fact only names, dates, and play.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
It's our fictitious more obvious reasons they announced themselves are
a matter of records.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Case Fortnite, Soft Touch.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
There's eleven am on a Sunday in August nineteen forty nine,
a blue sedan comes to a stop in front of
a ranch house thirty miles in the town of.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
Salt Flats, Texas.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
My kids, this Gramdmar's house.
Speaker 6 (01:37):
But now let me sleep. We started so early and
they're tired.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Well, we can't leave them in the car.
Speaker 6 (01:43):
If we wake them up now, they'll never understand aps.
Speaker 7 (01:45):
We'll bring them in a few more Okay, getting up
at four am was kind of early even for them.
Huh hey, look pause painted the windmill.
Speaker 6 (01:58):
Oh, Phil, I love this. I wish we didn't live
so far away. Yeah, we don't get here off a lot.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Hey, wonder where the folks are.
Speaker 7 (02:08):
They usually stand in the middle of the road waiting
for us when they know we're bringing the kids for
a visit.
Speaker 6 (02:12):
And the door's open. Your mother's probably in the kitchen
cooking enough food for a dozen.
Speaker 7 (02:17):
Yeah, don't smell anything cooking.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Ha ha, y'arehu?
Speaker 6 (02:24):
Maybe they're still a church bell.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
No, they're always back by ten o'clock.
Speaker 7 (02:27):
The garage door was closed too, always leaves it open
when he's got the car.
Speaker 6 (02:31):
At Oh, then they must be in back someplace.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Yeah, am ah, where are you?
Speaker 6 (02:37):
I've never known your mother to be any place but
in the kitchen though.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Yeah, but she doesn't hear so well anymore.
Speaker 7 (02:44):
Let's take a look. Ah hm, nobody here, Judy, Bill, Bill.
Speaker 6 (02:54):
What's that spilled on the floor at the door of
the penetry.
Speaker 7 (02:57):
Huh hey, Judy, it looks like blood.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Oh good law, Oh.
Speaker 6 (03:16):
Honey, away, come away.
Speaker 8 (03:28):
The brutal murder of the rancher and his wife was reported.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Texas Ranger Jace Pearson was notified by a short wave radio.
He reached the ranch house less than one hour after
the body has been discovered.
Speaker 8 (03:41):
I'm sorry to have to ask questions at a time
like this, mister Ross.
Speaker 7 (03:45):
All right, My my kids are sleeping the car, though,
But if my wife takes him into.
Speaker 5 (03:52):
Town, please, honey, I'll be all right.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
I don't want the kids to come in here. I
even know.
Speaker 8 (03:59):
About this might be best, ma'am.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
I meet you at the hotel later, all.
Speaker 8 (04:05):
Right, honey, better tell me anything you know, mister Ross.
Speaker 7 (04:09):
Yeah, Well, we drove out from Fort Worth this morning.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
That's my home now. I'm a commercial artist. This is
the first time we've been here in five months.
Speaker 9 (04:22):
I love Sheriff, Ahi Ranger. Your wife told us to
come right in.
Speaker 5 (04:26):
Bill. Sure, I'm sorry.
Speaker 9 (04:29):
It might have known something was wrong when I didn't
see your folks at services this morning.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
They never did, miss you.
Speaker 8 (04:36):
Better go on with what you were telling me, mister Ross.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Nothing else. Two tail, Judy noticed the blood in.
Speaker 7 (04:43):
The kitchen by the pantry door.
Speaker 8 (04:46):
Okay, better take a look at him, Sheriff. Just one
thing more, mister Ross, your parents have any enemies you
know of no Jed.
Speaker 9 (04:55):
Martha Ross never made an enemy in their whole lives.
Ranger say you don't. You don't want me to go
in there with you?
Speaker 8 (05:01):
Do you? It won't be necessary.
Speaker 5 (05:03):
Just take it easy, Kitchens there. They took a pretty
cruel beaten Ranger.
Speaker 8 (05:14):
Yeah, I was sign of a weapon, though he helped
me move the old man's body a little bit. Uh hm,
A lot of heavy welds, but beaten to death and
then put in here. But comes mostly from hemorrhaging, though
not so much from cuts.
Speaker 5 (05:34):
It's thick.
Speaker 9 (05:35):
A weapon would have cut him up more than that.
Plus it was wrapped in something.
Speaker 8 (05:39):
Only one other thing I can think of, bare fists. Hey,
what's this?
Speaker 5 (05:45):
Let me see?
Speaker 8 (05:48):
Well, just a little hook of paper, Yeah, crumpled to
piece of a larger sheet. Rest of it must have
been torn away. It feels like a good grade of
letterhead paper. Anything to you if you find the rest
of the paper this came from. No, but if we don't,
it could mean plenty like what and the way this
is crumpled might have been part of something the old
(06:09):
man was hanging on to and somebody tried to get
it away from him. I'm going to send this into
our lab at Austin.
Speaker 9 (06:15):
Looks like this happened sometime last night.
Speaker 8 (06:18):
That's something we'll know when we get an autopsy report.
We called to have the bodies and the piece of
paper picked up. Then we checked around the outside of
the house. The gravel road wouldn't hold a car track,
but behind the house we found marks where a horse
(06:40):
had been tied. I got charcoal out of the trailer
and the sheriff got a horse from the ranch barn.
Speaker 5 (06:47):
You went right towards the southeast.
Speaker 9 (06:49):
Porter ross has two hundred acres and cotton down there.
Speaker 8 (06:53):
Yeah, I see it.
Speaker 9 (06:55):
Might have ridden over yesterday on one of his own horses.
Speaker 8 (06:58):
Oh horse that mad. This trail wasn't one of rosses
only were found has a spread of wool. Look see
the marks bar across the frog in the right fore foot.
Speaker 9 (07:11):
Wondered why you were checking the shoes on the horses
back there in the barn.
Speaker 8 (07:15):
And that's why one is the adjoining place other side
of the cotton.
Speaker 10 (07:22):
Big Chuck Whittaker, Well, let's get moving. I want to
have a talk with this Big Chuck Whittaker.
Speaker 8 (07:29):
Come on, Chuck pit boy.
Speaker 10 (07:41):
Yeah, I was over there yesterday afternoon. But I didn't
kill nobody.
Speaker 8 (07:45):
Well, that's very interesting, mister Whittaker, because we didn't tell
you anything about anybody being killed.
Speaker 11 (07:50):
I know you didn't.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
Range you.
Speaker 10 (07:52):
My phone happens to be on the same party line
as a Ross Ranch. I heard his son Bill call
when he found him this morning. You make a habit
of listening in. I had a call to make. I
picked up the phone I heard. Couldn't help it you
through asking questions. I'd like to go back to mend
this horner.
Speaker 8 (08:09):
That can wait, Chuck, you're not exactly broken up about
losing your neighbors Range, and I got troubles enough more.
Why did you go to Ross's yesterday? What time were
you there? In the evening?
Speaker 10 (08:20):
Just for some down Ross was fixing to have some
crop dust and done again. I wanted to talk to
him about it, about doing the job for him.
Speaker 9 (08:29):
No, Ranger, the crop dustin plane comes down from salt flats.
Speaker 8 (08:32):
I'll go ahead, Whitaker.
Speaker 10 (08:33):
And then last time Ross dusted the spray carried over
on my place some of my cattle water down near
that cort and.
Speaker 8 (08:40):
Made him sick. And Ross say you'd watch out for it. Yeah,
And that was all that was.
Speaker 10 (08:45):
Wrong, And I'll come home all right, Whitaker, come on, sheriff, all.
Speaker 5 (08:50):
Right, Chuck, gusey for.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Help.
Speaker 5 (08:55):
Hey, wait a minute.
Speaker 11 (08:58):
Ahead, Chuck.
Speaker 10 (09:01):
When I left Ross's place just for dog, car drove
up Z.
Speaker 8 (09:05):
I came around the house. Who was in it? Man?
Speaker 5 (09:07):
That's all I know.
Speaker 8 (09:08):
You didn't see his face. No.
Speaker 10 (09:10):
The only thing that makes me think of it was
something to notice car wasn't from around here, a doi.
You know they had one of them fancy frames around
the license place, and you know the things mean that
the name of the town stamped on it.
Speaker 8 (09:24):
Did you notice the stamp? Yeah, car was from San Anton,
Santa Anton. Thanks, let's go, Sheriff, get.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Up charge.
Speaker 5 (09:36):
Good thing in order, said Car remembered. It might be
a big help.
Speaker 8 (09:40):
Yeah, might be a big lie too. That man's heart.
Speaker 9 (09:43):
He just acts hard ranger, kind of sour since his
wife ran off with one of his cow heads.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
A few years back.
Speaker 5 (09:50):
But he don't need no harm.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Maybe not.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
He makes a bad impression.
Speaker 9 (09:56):
He's able to send more flowers the Ross funeral the
most anybody around.
Speaker 8 (10:00):
I've known killers to do that before too. We checked
other ranchers in the area, but we didn't get any
information until next morning at the sheriff's office.
Speaker 5 (10:16):
Heard anything from your headquarters yet.
Speaker 8 (10:17):
No wait for him to call me now. And what's
that the autopsy report?
Speaker 9 (10:21):
Yeah, medical examiner seems to agree with your idea. Death
might have been caused by a beating with fish.
Speaker 8 (10:29):
Pretty thorough job of beating you read this. Yeah, old
woman died of a broken neck, struck right at the
base of the brain. Rabbit punch.
Speaker 9 (10:40):
Yeah, old man, ross hemorrhage to death, like you.
Speaker 8 (10:43):
Said, broken jaw, broken nose, ribs smashed in under the heart,
vessels ruptured from being beaten on the kidneys and in
the solar plexus.
Speaker 5 (10:52):
I'd like to get my hands on anybody who'd do that.
Speaker 8 (10:56):
If you did get your hands on him, you'd have
your hands full. Whoever did it was big and he
could hit plenty hard and adjust the right spots.
Speaker 9 (11:04):
You still got Chuck Whittaker on your mind.
Speaker 8 (11:07):
Only because he fits the bill in a few ways.
Speaker 5 (11:09):
Never hurt nobody before.
Speaker 8 (11:11):
Nah, but he's a bitter man that kind.
Speaker 5 (11:13):
Can excuse me.
Speaker 9 (11:17):
All, Yes, he's here, Yeah for you jays. Captain Stintson
calling long distance things.
Speaker 8 (11:26):
Hello, cap Hello, J's just going to report.
Speaker 11 (11:29):
On the scrap of people. You see here.
Speaker 12 (11:31):
Special type the paper stock indicates the original sheet was
a letterhead printed in the Government Printed Office in Washington.
Speaker 8 (11:38):
No which bureau, No, But try and find out if
any department there has had any correspondence with Jed Ross recently.
Speaker 11 (11:45):
That's what we're doing. But don't expect anything in a hurry.
Speaker 8 (11:49):
I won't by j By cap'n.
Speaker 9 (11:52):
You'll find out where the paper come from.
Speaker 8 (11:54):
Yeah, some government office in Washington. You've been checking on
that car from San Anton?
Speaker 9 (12:01):
Yeah, nobody I found sad.
Speaker 5 (12:04):
How about you?
Speaker 8 (12:06):
Nobody? Seems like the only one did see it was
Chuck Whittaker.
Speaker 9 (12:10):
I hate to admit it, Jess, but it's beginning to
look that way.
Speaker 8 (12:14):
Let's get our horses. I want to see Whittaker again.
Speaker 9 (12:27):
When you've known a man all your life, you hate
to think he's a murderer. The other hand, you hate
to see a neighbor get killed too.
Speaker 8 (12:34):
Whittaker's telling the truth. He's got nothing to worry about.
Speaker 9 (12:37):
Feel mighty sorry for young Bill Ross. He was all
busted up at the funeral parlor.
Speaker 10 (12:43):
Tough for him to take it alan, but he made
his wife and kids go back to Fort Worth. He's
the only child, Bill, Yeah, the only one living, that is.
I had a sister job nice a girl. You ever
see what happened to her.
Speaker 9 (12:57):
She was a navy nurse, got killed Solomon Island during
the war.
Speaker 5 (13:02):
Ross is sure had the sheriff.
Speaker 8 (13:04):
Trouble, all right, and the trouble somebody ought to pay for.
Speaker 9 (13:08):
Hey, look there's what a canal on a pony coming
tortoise just rode out of the gully.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
Yeah, get up, John, Oh.
Speaker 11 (13:20):
Oh oh, you're.
Speaker 10 (13:24):
Coming back to see me. That's right, Whittaker. You think
I've been lying to you, don't you?
Speaker 11 (13:29):
Range you?
Speaker 5 (13:29):
I take it easy, Chuck.
Speaker 8 (13:30):
Get one thing straight, Whittaker. I got nothing against you
or any man, not personally. But I do intend to
find the man who killed your neighbors, and.
Speaker 10 (13:38):
Then you can stop looking around my place. Sheriff, I
rode out to meet you cause your office called.
Speaker 8 (13:44):
You both wanted back in town.
Speaker 10 (13:46):
Why, Because I ain't blind, I ain't lying. One of
the Sheriff's deputies has found somebody else who saw that
car from San Anton.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
You are listening to Tales of the Texas Rangers starring
Joel McCrae as Ranger Chase Pearson, and now we continue
with tonight's case, soft Touch.
Speaker 8 (14:26):
We went back to town and from there to a
roadside cafe about fifteen miles out the state highway.
Speaker 13 (14:31):
Yeah, I sure did see the car, Like I told
the deputy, it had that thing a jig on the
license plate.
Speaker 6 (14:37):
Noticed it when I give him some gas.
Speaker 8 (14:39):
Are you sure it was on Saturday?
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Uh?
Speaker 13 (14:41):
I sure it was about five o'clock, I'd say.
Speaker 8 (14:44):
I guess there's not much traffic from San Anton comes
through here, does it?
Speaker 9 (14:47):
Share all, we're off the main US highways. Anybody coming
down here on the state road they have to have
some business right here.
Speaker 8 (14:53):
So place you remember the man in the car, No,
I sure do.
Speaker 13 (14:56):
After i'd give him the gas, he come in for
some coffee.
Speaker 8 (15:00):
Can you describe him?
Speaker 11 (15:01):
Oh?
Speaker 13 (15:01):
Well, three days ago, but he's better than six feet
maybe two hundred pounds. Then of course there was his face.
Speaker 5 (15:08):
What was wrong with it?
Speaker 13 (15:10):
Well, Sheriff, His face looked like he tried the bulldog
to steer on a rocky ground and lost it.
Speaker 8 (15:15):
Sure was scarder he bleeding any place?
Speaker 6 (15:17):
Oh no, Ranger, I didn't mean fresh scard reckon.
Speaker 9 (15:21):
He looked that way for a long time, and when
he left here, you drive on toward salt flights.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
He sure did.
Speaker 13 (15:27):
Wasn't nobody else in here when he's stopping her when
he left?
Speaker 3 (15:30):
So I didn't have.
Speaker 6 (15:31):
Nothing much to do, and I was a watch him
when he drove off.
Speaker 8 (15:34):
He was going in the direction of the Ross ranch.
All right?
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Yeah? But who was he?
Speaker 8 (15:38):
That's what I'm gonna find out if I can. Bill
Ross said he's a commercial artist, didn't he?
Speaker 5 (15:46):
Yeah?
Speaker 8 (15:46):
Why because I want to bring him out here, get
a detailed description of that face and see if Ross
can draw something that comes close to it. We sent
for Bill Ross, but before he joined us at the
Sheriff's off there's something else turned up, a long distance
(16:07):
call from capt'n Stinson.
Speaker 11 (16:09):
We found out what that letter from Washington might have been. JS.
Speaker 8 (16:12):
Good, cap'n let's have it.
Speaker 12 (16:14):
Well, it might have been from the Veterans Administration answer
to a letter Jed Ross wrote asking if they had
any record of the United States Marine named.
Speaker 8 (16:21):
Herbert wolfh What else?
Speaker 11 (16:23):
Well?
Speaker 12 (16:24):
For some reason, Ross wanted to know if there really
had been a Herbert Walsh in the court, and especially
if he'd been wounded, didn't hospitalized in the Solomon Islands.
If the piece of paper you sent in might have
come from the answer the vet's administration sent to Ross.
Speaker 8 (16:37):
What was the answer?
Speaker 11 (16:39):
There's no record of the Herbert wolfsh Jesse. Does it
fit anything?
Speaker 8 (16:43):
I don't know, Cavin, but the Ross has lost a
daughter in the Solomons, a navy nurse. Bill Ross, just
came in with the sheriff. I'll get on it, Bye bye, Jess. Ross.
Does the name Herbert Walsh ring a bell with you?
Speaker 14 (16:58):
Why?
Speaker 7 (17:00):
Yes, yes, Ranger does My father told me about him
in a letter two months ago. You know who he is? No,
I never saw him. Folks wrote that he stopped by
the ranch and told him My sister had taken care
of him in the Solomon's before she got killed.
Speaker 8 (17:13):
Is that all No?
Speaker 7 (17:14):
According to my father's letter, Walsh gave my folks the
idea that well, that he and my sister had been
very close.
Speaker 8 (17:21):
Had your sister ever mentioned him in letters to your
folks when she was overseas?
Speaker 3 (17:24):
They couldn't remember.
Speaker 7 (17:25):
But we were awful fond of my kid's sister, Ranger.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
Anybody who'd known her would have found an open door.
Speaker 8 (17:31):
With my folks. Somebody had found one, all right?
Speaker 11 (17:34):
Two?
Speaker 8 (17:34):
Open? What do you mean there isn't any Herbert was,
but my Paul gave him some money. When did he
write to you about that?
Speaker 3 (17:41):
No?
Speaker 7 (17:42):
But I've just been going over my father's affairs in
the past two months.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
He loaned Wall several hundred dollars. I have the canceled checks.
Speaker 8 (17:49):
Where are the checks at the.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Lawyer's office on the corner.
Speaker 8 (17:52):
I want to see where those checks were cashed.
Speaker 9 (17:55):
Come on, jeeh, did you figure this watch is a
phony working in the old war? Buddy?
Speaker 8 (18:00):
Of course he is, but with a new angle. A
dead girl.
Speaker 11 (18:04):
What do you mean?
Speaker 8 (18:05):
I mean the families of servicemen and women open their
hearts too easily, the strangers they think might have been
close to somebody they loved.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
You mean Walsh killed my family.
Speaker 8 (18:14):
Your father must have suspected him. He wrote to Washington
and found out Walsh had never been in the Solomon's
or the Marines. When Walsh came the last time, your
father called his hand with the letter he'd gotten from
the VA.
Speaker 5 (18:25):
Here's a building where the lawyer is.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
Here the Czech stranger, four of them, total of six hundred.
Speaker 8 (18:38):
Dollars endorsed by Walsh cashed for him by merchants in
san and tone.
Speaker 9 (18:44):
That car came from San Anton. Jason, that short fits it.
Speaker 8 (18:48):
Sure does. Let's get out to that cafe and get
that sketch drawn up. No, no, it it weren't quite
like that.
Speaker 6 (19:06):
Around the eyes.
Speaker 13 (19:07):
There was uh marks around the eyebrows.
Speaker 8 (19:11):
Uh, she means scar tissue.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
M see your eyes deeper set then? Mm like this?
Speaker 13 (19:19):
So ah sure were Uh the nose didn't come out
so far. Had the a kind of a damp in
the middle.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Mmkay, yeah like that.
Speaker 6 (19:33):
Hey, that's fine, it's real good.
Speaker 8 (19:36):
If somebody knew the man, would they recognize him from them?
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Say?
Speaker 13 (19:39):
Sure, Wood, that's almost a spitting image.
Speaker 8 (19:42):
I'd say, thanks a lot, ma'am.
Speaker 6 (19:43):
You sure welcome.
Speaker 8 (19:45):
I'll take that bill. Thanks again.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Uh huh, come back, Well, he ain't.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
The prettiest fella I ever saw.
Speaker 7 (19:53):
I don't know my folks said that too, But Walsh
told him he'd been in a jack prison camp and
treated back Us was lying.
Speaker 8 (20:01):
If waltsh is his real name.
Speaker 5 (20:03):
Wester Gott beat up someplace.
Speaker 8 (20:05):
Jason, Yeah, and I've got a hunch I know where.
What do you think in a prize ring? The man
who kills. Your cooks was a professional fighter.
Speaker 5 (20:14):
You figure that just because of his face.
Speaker 8 (20:16):
And one other thing. Don't forget that autopsy report, sheriff.
Speaker 9 (20:20):
That's right, well you we remarked right then that the
fellow who threw those punches knew what he was doing.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
I should like to get my hands on him. Two
old people getting them through my kid's sister.
Speaker 8 (20:31):
I don't think about your own revenge. I'll take care
of that.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Yeah, but no lock can bring them back to life.
Speaker 8 (20:38):
I'll drop you the office. Bill you in the sheriff.
I'll be in touch with you later. Where are you going,
jas out of your territory? San Antono? Why come on
christ for I want to fan Vata, come on, roll
(20:59):
with it.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
I's that let me see it, ranger.
Speaker 8 (21:04):
I want seen that face before.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
Sure, well, fend some time, but I used to train here,
all right, heavyweight fight a man?
Speaker 5 (21:11):
Hey, Pop, come here, coming right.
Speaker 4 (21:14):
Papa's world's oldest fire fan knows every fighter in his
record for the past fifty years.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Maybe he can tell you something.
Speaker 14 (21:21):
You know, what can I do for you?
Speaker 8 (21:23):
You know man who looks like this, Yeah, I seen
him boy.
Speaker 10 (21:26):
His name Walsh, Walsh, nothing and Jeddie Pooler. I never
did him out anything, had a punch like a bullocks
with no change, wide open for.
Speaker 14 (21:35):
A left hook.
Speaker 10 (21:35):
Had thirty one fights in the eyed up mine pop
Hoola hoole range. You don't care about all life.
Speaker 8 (21:40):
The main thing I want to know is when did
you see him last?
Speaker 14 (21:43):
Oh, six seven years ago?
Speaker 8 (21:45):
That long ago, A.
Speaker 10 (21:46):
Long enough to shoot me. Paula never should have been
allowed in the ring. He wasn't the kind of fighter
that loved the sport.
Speaker 8 (21:52):
He liked to hit.
Speaker 14 (21:53):
Him into ruin him next one.
Speaker 8 (21:54):
And you have no idea where I might find it, well,
not me. Well, thank you for your health.
Speaker 11 (22:00):
Now you're welcome.
Speaker 14 (22:01):
Strangers.
Speaker 10 (22:01):
I show a lot of help, right, hey, hey, hey,
wait a minute, Wait a minute, ranger, Yeah, I just remembered.
Speaker 14 (22:09):
It was a girl Pola used to hang out with.
Speaker 8 (22:11):
Name was.
Speaker 10 (22:13):
Dolly, Dolly Richards. She might know where he is.
Speaker 8 (22:17):
You know where I might find her where.
Speaker 10 (22:19):
She used to work in the box office the Empire Theater.
Speaker 14 (22:22):
That's all I know.
Speaker 8 (22:23):
Thanks, I'll try.
Speaker 14 (22:25):
You were ranning to arrest Eddie Poler.
Speaker 8 (22:27):
That's my plan, all right, whiet.
Speaker 10 (22:29):
Well, don't surprise me. None to understand, but let me
give you some advice. Go ahead, watch yourself in the
pinches if you find him, ranger, he's stuck with.
Speaker 14 (22:38):
Nine miles on paved road.
Speaker 10 (22:39):
He's bad medicine and he won't be fighting by the
rule books if he knows you want him.
Speaker 8 (22:44):
Thanks Pop, I'll be careful.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
Yeah, being careful ain't enough.
Speaker 14 (22:47):
Get off first. Remember he's a sucker for a left hook.
Speaker 10 (22:51):
If he gets a chance to hit you good, he
won't stop till he kills you.
Speaker 8 (23:02):
I checked the Empire Theater for Pola's girl, Dolly Richards,
but she hadn't been seen for years. I put through
a call to headquarters asking him to check auto registration
for one in Pola's name. It was late afternoon when
Captain Stinson got back to me by phone.
Speaker 11 (23:17):
The car he was using must have been stolen. JS,
there's nothing registered in that name.
Speaker 8 (23:21):
You checking for a criminal record on him?
Speaker 12 (23:23):
Yeah, but there's nothing in this state. We're checking with
other states, though I just said, teletypes off.
Speaker 8 (23:29):
I'll have to wait a while then.
Speaker 11 (23:30):
Nothing names you can do jas so long.
Speaker 8 (23:33):
Hey, I wait a minute, Captain, what I take one
more crack at the license bureau in Austin. See if
they have a car registered to Dolly Richards.
Speaker 12 (23:43):
Dolly Richards, who she jas full of the girlfriend she was.
Speaker 8 (23:48):
Let's hope the torch is still burning. I didn't move
from the phone until the Captain called back. This time
he had something.
Speaker 12 (24:02):
Here is geez, car registered to Donny Richards, Texas license
T four nine seven five three. Our address is RFD
number four on Farm Highway seventy three.
Speaker 11 (24:14):
It's a turnoff north of Tilden.
Speaker 8 (24:16):
That doesn't sound right to me, Captain, car I want
had san and tone marked on the license plate frame.
Speaker 11 (24:21):
That's still all.
Speaker 5 (24:22):
Right, Geez.
Speaker 12 (24:23):
Johnna Richards bought the car six months ago from a
san Antone dealer.
Speaker 11 (24:27):
Frame might have been on there.
Speaker 8 (24:29):
That's better any out of state record on Pola?
Speaker 3 (24:32):
Not yet?
Speaker 11 (24:33):
You want to wait another hour or so?
Speaker 8 (24:35):
No, you can give me word by short wave. I'm
heading toward Tilden, KTXA Unit ten, Unit ten Go ahead
kt X A report.
Speaker 15 (24:54):
On subject Eddie Pola served three years Leavenworth impersonating Army
office and using mails to the fraud, one year Oklahoma
State Penitentiary for fraud, one year Louisiana.
Speaker 8 (25:07):
Assault ten four Unit ten Claire Katy exy Austin. He
took the turn off north of Tilden, headed for the
sprawling country Ribbon By Farm Highway seventy three. It was
midnight when my headlights picked out the mailbox and the
named d Richard. I left the car and I rode
(25:28):
and slipped up to the house.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
It was dark.
Speaker 13 (25:31):
I knocked, all right, all right, don't blow your top.
Speaker 6 (25:40):
Got a tired kitty.
Speaker 8 (25:42):
Oh isn't home? Euh, Paula.
Speaker 6 (25:45):
I don't know anybody with that name.
Speaker 8 (25:47):
You can save the static lady. Where was he last
Saturday night?
Speaker 6 (25:50):
Hey, I was right here with me during.
Speaker 8 (25:52):
The late afternoon and evening.
Speaker 5 (25:54):
You heard her right here, kitty.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
I didn't know you was in.
Speaker 6 (25:57):
He knocked, and I thought you forgot your kids.
Speaker 8 (26:00):
Shut up, like we said, Ranger, I was here last Saturday.
I know somebody who says you weren't described you well
enough for this to be drawn. Good likeness, tool.
Speaker 11 (26:13):
I was here.
Speaker 8 (26:15):
What are you gonna prove with a drawing. I'm not
gonna prove anything with a drawing, but I'm gonna have
an eyewitness prove that you were near Salt Flat Saturday
when Jed and Martha Ross were murdered.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Shut up, Dolly.
Speaker 8 (26:27):
Forget to tell her about that part of it. And Paula,
maybe you forgot to tell her about the checks to
Herbert Walsh, the Marine, the VA never heard of. Where's
that letter you ripped out of the old man's hand?
Speaker 14 (26:38):
All right, Ranger, I'll show you.
Speaker 8 (26:41):
Come in, eh, it's over here, old boyet sent antone.
Jim told me you were open for a left hook, Polo,
I don't try that again. Get on your feet and
turn around, you too, man? Why mean so I can
(27:04):
cuff you together?
Speaker 6 (27:05):
What are you taking me, Paula.
Speaker 8 (27:07):
For harboring a murderer? To give you a chance to
decide whether you want to stick to your story or
tell the truth? All right, move, Dolly.
Speaker 4 (27:30):
Richards turned state's evidence against steady Pula. Paula was tried, convicted,
and sentenced to death in the electric chair.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Now Here again is the star of our show, Joel McCrae.
Speaker 8 (27:53):
Many years ago, a group of Texas Rangers had a
showdown battle with a notorious band of killers. Several days later,
the range assigned to the case staggered back to their headquarters,
showing the marks of combat, many of them badly wounded.
The captain of the company, too impatient to wait for
a written report, went to the barracks where the men
were cleaning up and tending to their wounds. What happened,
(28:14):
the captain asked. There was silence for a moment as
the rangers looked up at him. Finally one of them said,
another much, cap, We had a little shooting match and
they lost. Good night, folks, See you again, same time next.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Week, Next week Joel McCrae and another authentic reenactment of
the case from the files of not Texas Rangers. Joel
McCrae is currently seen starring in the Universal International Technicolor
(28:51):
Productions Saddle Tramp. Tonight's cast included Tony Barrett, Paul Preeze,
Mike Berrett, Tom Tully, Bill Johnstone, Byron Kane, and Virginia Great.
This story was transcribed and adapted by Joel Murcott, and
the program was produced and directed by Stacy Keach.
Speaker 16 (29:08):
This is Hal give Me speaking, three Chimes being good
Times on NBC. The Chimes are really excited about a
big show. In fact, it's the Big Show an hour
(29:30):
and a half every Sunday with Tallula Bankhead as FEMC
and starring Jimmy Durretty, Fred Allen, Jack, Carson Graucho, Marx,
Jose Ferrer, Meredith Wilson and many many more. All this
and Tallula too, No wonder, it's the Big Show. The
premiere date is Sunday, November fifth, just one.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Week from today.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
Phil Harris reminding you that next it's Theater Guild on
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company presents.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Joel McCrae in Tales.
Speaker 3 (00:05):
Of the Texas.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Rangers to Night Transcribe from Hollywood, another authentic reenactment of
a case from the Piles of the Texas Rangers, Tales
of the Texas Rangers, starring Joel McCrae as Ranger Jace Pearson,
(00:29):
Texas more.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Than two hundred and sixty.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Thousand square miles and fifty men who make up the
most famous and oldest law enforcement party in North America.
(00:54):
Now from the Piles of the Texas Rangers come these
stories based.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
On fact only names, dates, and play.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
It's our fictitious more obvious reasons they announced themselves are
a matter of records.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Case Fortnite, Soft Touch.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
There's eleven am on a Sunday in August nineteen forty nine,
a blue sedan comes to a stop in front of
a ranch house thirty miles in the town of.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
Salt Flats, Texas.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
My kids, this Gramdmar's house.
Speaker 6 (01:37):
But now let me sleep. We started so early and
they're tired.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Well, we can't leave them in the car.
Speaker 6 (01:43):
If we wake them up now, they'll never understand aps.
Speaker 7 (01:45):
We'll bring them in a few more Okay, getting up
at four am was kind of early even for them.
Huh hey, look pause painted the windmill.
Speaker 6 (01:58):
Oh, Phil, I love this. I wish we didn't live
so far away. Yeah, we don't get here off a lot.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Hey, wonder where the folks are.
Speaker 7 (02:08):
They usually stand in the middle of the road waiting
for us when they know we're bringing the kids for
a visit.
Speaker 6 (02:12):
And the door's open. Your mother's probably in the kitchen
cooking enough food for a dozen.
Speaker 7 (02:17):
Yeah, don't smell anything cooking.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Ha ha, y'arehu?
Speaker 6 (02:24):
Maybe they're still a church bell.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
No, they're always back by ten o'clock.
Speaker 7 (02:27):
The garage door was closed too, always leaves it open
when he's got the car.
Speaker 6 (02:31):
At Oh, then they must be in back someplace.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Yeah, am ah, where are you?
Speaker 6 (02:37):
I've never known your mother to be any place but
in the kitchen though.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Yeah, but she doesn't hear so well anymore.
Speaker 7 (02:44):
Let's take a look. Ah hm, nobody here, Judy, Bill, Bill.
Speaker 6 (02:54):
What's that spilled on the floor at the door of
the penetry.
Speaker 7 (02:57):
Huh hey, Judy, it looks like blood.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Oh good law, Oh.
Speaker 6 (03:16):
Honey, away, come away.
Speaker 8 (03:28):
The brutal murder of the rancher and his wife was reported.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Texas Ranger Jace Pearson was notified by a short wave radio.
He reached the ranch house less than one hour after
the body has been discovered.
Speaker 8 (03:41):
I'm sorry to have to ask questions at a time
like this, mister Ross.
Speaker 7 (03:45):
All right, My my kids are sleeping the car, though,
But if my wife takes him into.
Speaker 5 (03:52):
Town, please, honey, I'll be all right.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
I don't want the kids to come in here. I
even know.
Speaker 8 (03:59):
About this might be best, ma'am.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
I meet you at the hotel later, all.
Speaker 8 (04:05):
Right, honey, better tell me anything you know, mister Ross.
Speaker 7 (04:09):
Yeah, Well, we drove out from Fort Worth this morning.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
That's my home now. I'm a commercial artist. This is
the first time we've been here in five months.
Speaker 9 (04:22):
I love Sheriff, Ahi Ranger. Your wife told us to
come right in.
Speaker 5 (04:26):
Bill. Sure, I'm sorry.
Speaker 9 (04:29):
It might have known something was wrong when I didn't
see your folks at services this morning.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
They never did, miss you.
Speaker 8 (04:36):
Better go on with what you were telling me, mister Ross.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Nothing else. Two tail, Judy noticed the blood in.
Speaker 7 (04:43):
The kitchen by the pantry door.
Speaker 8 (04:46):
Okay, better take a look at him, Sheriff. Just one
thing more, mister Ross, your parents have any enemies you
know of no Jed.
Speaker 9 (04:55):
Martha Ross never made an enemy in their whole lives.
Ranger say you don't. You don't want me to go
in there with you?
Speaker 8 (05:01):
Do you? It won't be necessary.
Speaker 5 (05:03):
Just take it easy, Kitchens there. They took a pretty
cruel beaten Ranger.
Speaker 8 (05:14):
Yeah, I was sign of a weapon, though he helped
me move the old man's body a little bit. Uh hm,
A lot of heavy welds, but beaten to death and
then put in here. But comes mostly from hemorrhaging, though
not so much from cuts.
Speaker 5 (05:34):
It's thick.
Speaker 9 (05:35):
A weapon would have cut him up more than that.
Plus it was wrapped in something.
Speaker 8 (05:39):
Only one other thing I can think of, bare fists. Hey,
what's this?
Speaker 5 (05:45):
Let me see?
Speaker 8 (05:48):
Well, just a little hook of paper, Yeah, crumpled to
piece of a larger sheet. Rest of it must have
been torn away. It feels like a good grade of
letterhead paper. Anything to you if you find the rest
of the paper this came from. No, but if we don't,
it could mean plenty like what and the way this
is crumpled might have been part of something the old
(06:09):
man was hanging on to and somebody tried to get
it away from him. I'm going to send this into
our lab at Austin.
Speaker 9 (06:15):
Looks like this happened sometime last night.
Speaker 8 (06:18):
That's something we'll know when we get an autopsy report.
We called to have the bodies and the piece of
paper picked up. Then we checked around the outside of
the house. The gravel road wouldn't hold a car track,
but behind the house we found marks where a horse
(06:40):
had been tied. I got charcoal out of the trailer
and the sheriff got a horse from the ranch barn.
Speaker 5 (06:47):
You went right towards the southeast.
Speaker 9 (06:49):
Porter ross has two hundred acres and cotton down there.
Speaker 8 (06:53):
Yeah, I see it.
Speaker 9 (06:55):
Might have ridden over yesterday on one of his own horses.
Speaker 8 (06:58):
Oh horse that mad. This trail wasn't one of rosses
only were found has a spread of wool. Look see
the marks bar across the frog in the right fore foot.
Speaker 9 (07:11):
Wondered why you were checking the shoes on the horses
back there in the barn.
Speaker 8 (07:15):
And that's why one is the adjoining place other side
of the cotton.
Speaker 10 (07:22):
Big Chuck Whittaker, Well, let's get moving. I want to
have a talk with this Big Chuck Whittaker.
Speaker 8 (07:29):
Come on, Chuck pit boy.
Speaker 10 (07:41):
Yeah, I was over there yesterday afternoon. But I didn't
kill nobody.
Speaker 8 (07:45):
Well, that's very interesting, mister Whittaker, because we didn't tell
you anything about anybody being killed.
Speaker 11 (07:50):
I know you didn't.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
Range you.
Speaker 10 (07:52):
My phone happens to be on the same party line
as a Ross Ranch. I heard his son Bill call
when he found him this morning. You make a habit
of listening in. I had a call to make. I
picked up the phone I heard. Couldn't help it you
through asking questions. I'd like to go back to mend
this horner.
Speaker 8 (08:09):
That can wait, Chuck, you're not exactly broken up about
losing your neighbors Range, and I got troubles enough more.
Why did you go to Ross's yesterday? What time were
you there? In the evening?
Speaker 10 (08:20):
Just for some down Ross was fixing to have some
crop dust and done again. I wanted to talk to
him about it, about doing the job for him.
Speaker 9 (08:29):
No, Ranger, the crop dustin plane comes down from salt flats.
Speaker 8 (08:32):
I'll go ahead, Whitaker.
Speaker 10 (08:33):
And then last time Ross dusted the spray carried over
on my place some of my cattle water down near
that cort and.
Speaker 8 (08:40):
Made him sick. And Ross say you'd watch out for it. Yeah,
And that was all that was.
Speaker 10 (08:45):
Wrong, And I'll come home all right, Whitaker, come on, sheriff, all.
Speaker 5 (08:50):
Right, Chuck, gusey for.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Help.
Speaker 5 (08:55):
Hey, wait a minute.
Speaker 11 (08:58):
Ahead, Chuck.
Speaker 10 (09:01):
When I left Ross's place just for dog, car drove
up Z.
Speaker 8 (09:05):
I came around the house. Who was in it? Man?
Speaker 5 (09:07):
That's all I know.
Speaker 8 (09:08):
You didn't see his face. No.
Speaker 10 (09:10):
The only thing that makes me think of it was
something to notice car wasn't from around here, a doi.
You know they had one of them fancy frames around
the license place, and you know the things mean that
the name of the town stamped on it.
Speaker 8 (09:24):
Did you notice the stamp? Yeah, car was from San Anton,
Santa Anton. Thanks, let's go, Sheriff, get.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Up charge.
Speaker 5 (09:36):
Good thing in order, said Car remembered. It might be
a big help.
Speaker 8 (09:40):
Yeah, might be a big lie too. That man's heart.
Speaker 9 (09:43):
He just acts hard ranger, kind of sour since his
wife ran off with one of his cow heads.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
A few years back.
Speaker 5 (09:50):
But he don't need no harm.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Maybe not.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
He makes a bad impression.
Speaker 9 (09:56):
He's able to send more flowers the Ross funeral the
most anybody around.
Speaker 8 (10:00):
I've known killers to do that before too. We checked
other ranchers in the area, but we didn't get any
information until next morning at the sheriff's office.
Speaker 5 (10:16):
Heard anything from your headquarters yet.
Speaker 8 (10:17):
No wait for him to call me now. And what's
that the autopsy report?
Speaker 9 (10:21):
Yeah, medical examiner seems to agree with your idea. Death
might have been caused by a beating with fish.
Speaker 8 (10:29):
Pretty thorough job of beating you read this. Yeah, old
woman died of a broken neck, struck right at the
base of the brain. Rabbit punch.
Speaker 9 (10:40):
Yeah, old man, ross hemorrhage to death, like you.
Speaker 8 (10:43):
Said, broken jaw, broken nose, ribs smashed in under the heart,
vessels ruptured from being beaten on the kidneys and in
the solar plexus.
Speaker 5 (10:52):
I'd like to get my hands on anybody who'd do that.
Speaker 8 (10:56):
If you did get your hands on him, you'd have
your hands full. Whoever did it was big and he
could hit plenty hard and adjust the right spots.
Speaker 9 (11:04):
You still got Chuck Whittaker on your mind.
Speaker 8 (11:07):
Only because he fits the bill in a few ways.
Speaker 5 (11:09):
Never hurt nobody before.
Speaker 8 (11:11):
Nah, but he's a bitter man that kind.
Speaker 5 (11:13):
Can excuse me.
Speaker 9 (11:17):
All, Yes, he's here, Yeah for you jays. Captain Stintson
calling long distance things.
Speaker 8 (11:26):
Hello, cap Hello, J's just going to report.
Speaker 11 (11:29):
On the scrap of people. You see here.
Speaker 12 (11:31):
Special type the paper stock indicates the original sheet was
a letterhead printed in the Government Printed Office in Washington.
Speaker 8 (11:38):
No which bureau, No, But try and find out if
any department there has had any correspondence with Jed Ross recently.
Speaker 11 (11:45):
That's what we're doing. But don't expect anything in a hurry.
Speaker 8 (11:49):
I won't by j By cap'n.
Speaker 9 (11:52):
You'll find out where the paper come from.
Speaker 8 (11:54):
Yeah, some government office in Washington. You've been checking on
that car from San Anton?
Speaker 9 (12:01):
Yeah, nobody I found sad.
Speaker 5 (12:04):
How about you?
Speaker 8 (12:06):
Nobody? Seems like the only one did see it was
Chuck Whittaker.
Speaker 9 (12:10):
I hate to admit it, Jess, but it's beginning to
look that way.
Speaker 8 (12:14):
Let's get our horses. I want to see Whittaker again.
Speaker 9 (12:27):
When you've known a man all your life, you hate
to think he's a murderer. The other hand, you hate
to see a neighbor get killed too.
Speaker 8 (12:34):
Whittaker's telling the truth. He's got nothing to worry about.
Speaker 9 (12:37):
Feel mighty sorry for young Bill Ross. He was all
busted up at the funeral parlor.
Speaker 10 (12:43):
Tough for him to take it alan, but he made
his wife and kids go back to Fort Worth. He's
the only child, Bill, Yeah, the only one living, that is.
I had a sister job nice a girl. You ever
see what happened to her.
Speaker 9 (12:57):
She was a navy nurse, got killed Solomon Island during
the war.
Speaker 5 (13:02):
Ross is sure had the sheriff.
Speaker 8 (13:04):
Trouble, all right, and the trouble somebody ought to pay for.
Speaker 9 (13:08):
Hey, look there's what a canal on a pony coming
tortoise just rode out of the gully.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
Yeah, get up, John, Oh.
Speaker 11 (13:20):
Oh oh, you're.
Speaker 10 (13:24):
Coming back to see me. That's right, Whittaker. You think
I've been lying to you, don't you?
Speaker 11 (13:29):
Range you?
Speaker 5 (13:29):
I take it easy, Chuck.
Speaker 8 (13:30):
Get one thing straight, Whittaker. I got nothing against you
or any man, not personally. But I do intend to
find the man who killed your neighbors, and.
Speaker 10 (13:38):
Then you can stop looking around my place. Sheriff, I
rode out to meet you cause your office called.
Speaker 8 (13:44):
You both wanted back in town.
Speaker 10 (13:46):
Why, Because I ain't blind, I ain't lying. One of
the Sheriff's deputies has found somebody else who saw that
car from San Anton.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
You are listening to Tales of the Texas Rangers starring
Joel McCrae as Ranger Chase Pearson, and now we continue
with tonight's case, soft Touch.
Speaker 8 (14:26):
We went back to town and from there to a
roadside cafe about fifteen miles out the state highway.
Speaker 13 (14:31):
Yeah, I sure did see the car, Like I told
the deputy, it had that thing a jig on the
license plate.
Speaker 6 (14:37):
Noticed it when I give him some gas.
Speaker 8 (14:39):
Are you sure it was on Saturday?
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Uh?
Speaker 13 (14:41):
I sure it was about five o'clock, I'd say.
Speaker 8 (14:44):
I guess there's not much traffic from San Anton comes
through here, does it?
Speaker 9 (14:47):
Share all, we're off the main US highways. Anybody coming
down here on the state road they have to have
some business right here.
Speaker 8 (14:53):
So place you remember the man in the car, No,
I sure do.
Speaker 13 (14:56):
After i'd give him the gas, he come in for
some coffee.
Speaker 8 (15:00):
Can you describe him?
Speaker 11 (15:01):
Oh?
Speaker 13 (15:01):
Well, three days ago, but he's better than six feet
maybe two hundred pounds. Then of course there was his face.
Speaker 5 (15:08):
What was wrong with it?
Speaker 13 (15:10):
Well, Sheriff, His face looked like he tried the bulldog
to steer on a rocky ground and lost it.
Speaker 8 (15:15):
Sure was scarder he bleeding any place?
Speaker 6 (15:17):
Oh no, Ranger, I didn't mean fresh scard reckon.
Speaker 9 (15:21):
He looked that way for a long time, and when
he left here, you drive on toward salt flights.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
He sure did.
Speaker 13 (15:27):
Wasn't nobody else in here when he's stopping her when
he left?
Speaker 3 (15:30):
So I didn't have.
Speaker 6 (15:31):
Nothing much to do, and I was a watch him
when he drove off.
Speaker 8 (15:34):
He was going in the direction of the Ross ranch.
All right?
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Yeah? But who was he?
Speaker 8 (15:38):
That's what I'm gonna find out if I can. Bill
Ross said he's a commercial artist, didn't he?
Speaker 5 (15:46):
Yeah?
Speaker 8 (15:46):
Why because I want to bring him out here, get
a detailed description of that face and see if Ross
can draw something that comes close to it. We sent
for Bill Ross, but before he joined us at the
Sheriff's off there's something else turned up, a long distance
(16:07):
call from capt'n Stinson.
Speaker 11 (16:09):
We found out what that letter from Washington might have been. JS.
Speaker 8 (16:12):
Good, cap'n let's have it.
Speaker 12 (16:14):
Well, it might have been from the Veterans Administration answer
to a letter Jed Ross wrote asking if they had
any record of the United States Marine named.
Speaker 8 (16:21):
Herbert wolfh What else?
Speaker 11 (16:23):
Well?
Speaker 12 (16:24):
For some reason, Ross wanted to know if there really
had been a Herbert Walsh in the court, and especially
if he'd been wounded, didn't hospitalized in the Solomon Islands.
If the piece of paper you sent in might have
come from the answer the vet's administration sent to Ross.
Speaker 8 (16:37):
What was the answer?
Speaker 11 (16:39):
There's no record of the Herbert wolfsh Jesse. Does it
fit anything?
Speaker 8 (16:43):
I don't know, Cavin, but the Ross has lost a
daughter in the Solomons, a navy nurse. Bill Ross, just
came in with the sheriff. I'll get on it, Bye bye, Jess. Ross.
Does the name Herbert Walsh ring a bell with you?
Speaker 14 (16:58):
Why?
Speaker 7 (17:00):
Yes, yes, Ranger does My father told me about him
in a letter two months ago. You know who he is? No,
I never saw him. Folks wrote that he stopped by
the ranch and told him My sister had taken care
of him in the Solomon's before she got killed.
Speaker 8 (17:13):
Is that all No?
Speaker 7 (17:14):
According to my father's letter, Walsh gave my folks the
idea that well, that he and my sister had been
very close.
Speaker 8 (17:21):
Had your sister ever mentioned him in letters to your
folks when she was overseas?
Speaker 3 (17:24):
They couldn't remember.
Speaker 7 (17:25):
But we were awful fond of my kid's sister, Ranger.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
Anybody who'd known her would have found an open door.
Speaker 8 (17:31):
With my folks. Somebody had found one, all right?
Speaker 11 (17:34):
Two?
Speaker 8 (17:34):
Open? What do you mean there isn't any Herbert was,
but my Paul gave him some money. When did he
write to you about that?
Speaker 3 (17:41):
No?
Speaker 7 (17:42):
But I've just been going over my father's affairs in
the past two months.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
He loaned Wall several hundred dollars. I have the canceled checks.
Speaker 8 (17:49):
Where are the checks at the.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Lawyer's office on the corner.
Speaker 8 (17:52):
I want to see where those checks were cashed.
Speaker 9 (17:55):
Come on, jeeh, did you figure this watch is a
phony working in the old war? Buddy?
Speaker 8 (18:00):
Of course he is, but with a new angle. A
dead girl.
Speaker 11 (18:04):
What do you mean?
Speaker 8 (18:05):
I mean the families of servicemen and women open their
hearts too easily, the strangers they think might have been
close to somebody they loved.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
You mean Walsh killed my family.
Speaker 8 (18:14):
Your father must have suspected him. He wrote to Washington
and found out Walsh had never been in the Solomon's
or the Marines. When Walsh came the last time, your
father called his hand with the letter he'd gotten from
the VA.
Speaker 5 (18:25):
Here's a building where the lawyer is.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
Here the Czech stranger, four of them, total of six hundred.
Speaker 8 (18:38):
Dollars endorsed by Walsh cashed for him by merchants in
san and tone.
Speaker 9 (18:44):
That car came from San Anton. Jason, that short fits it.
Speaker 8 (18:48):
Sure does. Let's get out to that cafe and get
that sketch drawn up. No, no, it it weren't quite
like that.
Speaker 6 (19:06):
Around the eyes.
Speaker 13 (19:07):
There was uh marks around the eyebrows.
Speaker 8 (19:11):
Uh, she means scar tissue.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
M see your eyes deeper set then? Mm like this?
Speaker 13 (19:19):
So ah sure were Uh the nose didn't come out
so far. Had the a kind of a damp in
the middle.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Mmkay, yeah like that.
Speaker 6 (19:33):
Hey, that's fine, it's real good.
Speaker 8 (19:36):
If somebody knew the man, would they recognize him from them?
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Say?
Speaker 13 (19:39):
Sure, Wood, that's almost a spitting image.
Speaker 8 (19:42):
I'd say, thanks a lot, ma'am.
Speaker 6 (19:43):
You sure welcome.
Speaker 8 (19:45):
I'll take that bill. Thanks again.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Uh huh, come back, Well, he ain't.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
The prettiest fella I ever saw.
Speaker 7 (19:53):
I don't know my folks said that too, But Walsh
told him he'd been in a jack prison camp and
treated back Us was lying.
Speaker 8 (20:01):
If waltsh is his real name.
Speaker 5 (20:03):
Wester Gott beat up someplace.
Speaker 8 (20:05):
Jason, Yeah, and I've got a hunch I know where.
What do you think in a prize ring? The man
who kills. Your cooks was a professional fighter.
Speaker 5 (20:14):
You figure that just because of his face.
Speaker 8 (20:16):
And one other thing. Don't forget that autopsy report, sheriff.
Speaker 9 (20:20):
That's right, well you we remarked right then that the
fellow who threw those punches knew what he was doing.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
I should like to get my hands on him. Two
old people getting them through my kid's sister.
Speaker 8 (20:31):
I don't think about your own revenge. I'll take care
of that.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Yeah, but no lock can bring them back to life.
Speaker 8 (20:38):
I'll drop you the office. Bill you in the sheriff.
I'll be in touch with you later. Where are you going,
jas out of your territory? San Antono? Why come on
christ for I want to fan Vata, come on, roll
(20:59):
with it.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
I's that let me see it, ranger.
Speaker 8 (21:04):
I want seen that face before.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
Sure, well, fend some time, but I used to train here,
all right, heavyweight fight a man?
Speaker 5 (21:11):
Hey, Pop, come here, coming right.
Speaker 4 (21:14):
Papa's world's oldest fire fan knows every fighter in his
record for the past fifty years.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Maybe he can tell you something.
Speaker 14 (21:21):
You know, what can I do for you?
Speaker 8 (21:23):
You know man who looks like this, Yeah, I seen
him boy.
Speaker 10 (21:26):
His name Walsh, Walsh, nothing and Jeddie Pooler. I never
did him out anything, had a punch like a bullocks
with no change, wide open for.
Speaker 14 (21:35):
A left hook.
Speaker 10 (21:35):
Had thirty one fights in the eyed up mine pop
Hoola hoole range. You don't care about all life.
Speaker 8 (21:40):
The main thing I want to know is when did
you see him last?
Speaker 14 (21:43):
Oh, six seven years ago?
Speaker 8 (21:45):
That long ago, A.
Speaker 10 (21:46):
Long enough to shoot me. Paula never should have been
allowed in the ring. He wasn't the kind of fighter
that loved the sport.
Speaker 8 (21:52):
He liked to hit.
Speaker 14 (21:53):
Him into ruin him next one.
Speaker 8 (21:54):
And you have no idea where I might find it, well,
not me. Well, thank you for your health.
Speaker 11 (22:00):
Now you're welcome.
Speaker 14 (22:01):
Strangers.
Speaker 10 (22:01):
I show a lot of help, right, hey, hey, hey,
wait a minute, Wait a minute, ranger, Yeah, I just remembered.
Speaker 14 (22:09):
It was a girl Pola used to hang out with.
Speaker 8 (22:11):
Name was.
Speaker 10 (22:13):
Dolly, Dolly Richards. She might know where he is.
Speaker 8 (22:17):
You know where I might find her where.
Speaker 10 (22:19):
She used to work in the box office the Empire Theater.
Speaker 14 (22:22):
That's all I know.
Speaker 8 (22:23):
Thanks, I'll try.
Speaker 14 (22:25):
You were ranning to arrest Eddie Poler.
Speaker 8 (22:27):
That's my plan, all right, whiet.
Speaker 10 (22:29):
Well, don't surprise me. None to understand, but let me
give you some advice. Go ahead, watch yourself in the
pinches if you find him, ranger, he's stuck with.
Speaker 14 (22:38):
Nine miles on paved road.
Speaker 10 (22:39):
He's bad medicine and he won't be fighting by the
rule books if he knows you want him.
Speaker 8 (22:44):
Thanks Pop, I'll be careful.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
Yeah, being careful ain't enough.
Speaker 14 (22:47):
Get off first. Remember he's a sucker for a left hook.
Speaker 10 (22:51):
If he gets a chance to hit you good, he
won't stop till he kills you.
Speaker 8 (23:02):
I checked the Empire Theater for Pola's girl, Dolly Richards,
but she hadn't been seen for years. I put through
a call to headquarters asking him to check auto registration
for one in Pola's name. It was late afternoon when
Captain Stinson got back to me by phone.
Speaker 11 (23:17):
The car he was using must have been stolen. JS,
there's nothing registered in that name.
Speaker 8 (23:21):
You checking for a criminal record on him?
Speaker 12 (23:23):
Yeah, but there's nothing in this state. We're checking with
other states, though I just said, teletypes off.
Speaker 8 (23:29):
I'll have to wait a while then.
Speaker 11 (23:30):
Nothing names you can do jas so long.
Speaker 8 (23:33):
Hey, I wait a minute, Captain, what I take one
more crack at the license bureau in Austin. See if
they have a car registered to Dolly Richards.
Speaker 12 (23:43):
Dolly Richards, who she jas full of the girlfriend she was.
Speaker 8 (23:48):
Let's hope the torch is still burning. I didn't move
from the phone until the Captain called back. This time
he had something.
Speaker 12 (24:02):
Here is geez, car registered to Donny Richards, Texas license
T four nine seven five three. Our address is RFD
number four on Farm Highway seventy three.
Speaker 11 (24:14):
It's a turnoff north of Tilden.
Speaker 8 (24:16):
That doesn't sound right to me, Captain, car I want
had san and tone marked on the license plate frame.
Speaker 11 (24:21):
That's still all.
Speaker 5 (24:22):
Right, Geez.
Speaker 12 (24:23):
Johnna Richards bought the car six months ago from a
san Antone dealer.
Speaker 11 (24:27):
Frame might have been on there.
Speaker 8 (24:29):
That's better any out of state record on Pola?
Speaker 3 (24:32):
Not yet?
Speaker 11 (24:33):
You want to wait another hour or so?
Speaker 8 (24:35):
No, you can give me word by short wave. I'm
heading toward Tilden, KTXA Unit ten, Unit ten Go ahead
kt X A report.
Speaker 15 (24:54):
On subject Eddie Pola served three years Leavenworth impersonating Army
office and using mails to the fraud, one year Oklahoma
State Penitentiary for fraud, one year Louisiana.
Speaker 8 (25:07):
Assault ten four Unit ten Claire Katy exy Austin. He
took the turn off north of Tilden, headed for the
sprawling country Ribbon By Farm Highway seventy three. It was
midnight when my headlights picked out the mailbox and the
named d Richard. I left the car and I rode
(25:28):
and slipped up to the house.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
It was dark.
Speaker 13 (25:31):
I knocked, all right, all right, don't blow your top.
Speaker 6 (25:40):
Got a tired kitty.
Speaker 8 (25:42):
Oh isn't home? Euh, Paula.
Speaker 6 (25:45):
I don't know anybody with that name.
Speaker 8 (25:47):
You can save the static lady. Where was he last
Saturday night?
Speaker 6 (25:50):
Hey, I was right here with me during.
Speaker 8 (25:52):
The late afternoon and evening.
Speaker 5 (25:54):
You heard her right here, kitty.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
I didn't know you was in.
Speaker 6 (25:57):
He knocked, and I thought you forgot your kids.
Speaker 8 (26:00):
Shut up, like we said, Ranger, I was here last Saturday.
I know somebody who says you weren't described you well
enough for this to be drawn. Good likeness, tool.
Speaker 11 (26:13):
I was here.
Speaker 8 (26:15):
What are you gonna prove with a drawing. I'm not
gonna prove anything with a drawing, but I'm gonna have
an eyewitness prove that you were near Salt Flat Saturday
when Jed and Martha Ross were murdered.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Shut up, Dolly.
Speaker 8 (26:27):
Forget to tell her about that part of it. And Paula,
maybe you forgot to tell her about the checks to
Herbert Walsh, the Marine, the VA never heard of. Where's
that letter you ripped out of the old man's hand?
Speaker 14 (26:38):
All right, Ranger, I'll show you.
Speaker 8 (26:41):
Come in, eh, it's over here, old boyet sent antone.
Jim told me you were open for a left hook, Polo,
I don't try that again. Get on your feet and
turn around, you too, man? Why mean so I can
(27:04):
cuff you together?
Speaker 6 (27:05):
What are you taking me, Paula.
Speaker 8 (27:07):
For harboring a murderer? To give you a chance to
decide whether you want to stick to your story or
tell the truth? All right, move, Dolly.
Speaker 4 (27:30):
Richards turned state's evidence against steady Pula. Paula was tried, convicted,
and sentenced to death in the electric chair.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Now Here again is the star of our show, Joel McCrae.
Speaker 8 (27:53):
Many years ago, a group of Texas Rangers had a
showdown battle with a notorious band of killers. Several days later,
the range assigned to the case staggered back to their headquarters,
showing the marks of combat, many of them badly wounded.
The captain of the company, too impatient to wait for
a written report, went to the barracks where the men
were cleaning up and tending to their wounds. What happened,
(28:14):
the captain asked. There was silence for a moment as
the rangers looked up at him. Finally one of them said,
another much, cap, We had a little shooting match and
they lost. Good night, folks, See you again, same time next.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Week, Next week Joel McCrae and another authentic reenactment of
the case from the files of not Texas Rangers. Joel
McCrae is currently seen starring in the Universal International Technicolor
(28:51):
Productions Saddle Tramp. Tonight's cast included Tony Barrett, Paul Preeze,
Mike Berrett, Tom Tully, Bill Johnstone, Byron Kane, and Virginia Great.
This story was transcribed and adapted by Joel Murcott, and
the program was produced and directed by Stacy Keach.
Speaker 16 (29:08):
This is Hal give Me speaking, three Chimes being good
Times on NBC. The Chimes are really excited about a
big show. In fact, it's the Big Show an hour
(29:30):
and a half every Sunday with Tallula Bankhead as FEMC
and starring Jimmy Durretty, Fred Allen, Jack, Carson Graucho, Marx,
Jose Ferrer, Meredith Wilson and many many more. All this
and Tallula too, No wonder, it's the Big Show. The
premiere date is Sunday, November fifth, just one.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Week from today.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
Phil Harris reminding you that next it's Theater Guild on
NBC
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