July 21, 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 (00:04):
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.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Joel McCrae as Ranger Jase.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Pearson, Texas more than two hundred and sixty thousand square
miles and fifty men who make up the most famous
and oldest law enforcement party in North America. Now from
(00:52):
the files of the Texas Rangers come these.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Stories based on fact only.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Names, dates, and places are fictitious for obvious reasons, as
themselves are a matter of record.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
Case fortnighte paid in full.
Speaker 5 (01:17):
It is seven pm August eighteenth, nineteen forty one. Nick Hubbard,
the West Texas farmer, is seated at the dinner table
with his wife men, but Hubbard is not eating. Instead,
his attention is riveted on an advertisement in the newspaper
before him.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Will you stop staring at that thing and ate your supper?
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Nick, hungry?
Speaker 6 (01:36):
It had your nose buried in him new car ads.
Ever since you got the check for the cotton Cross.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
That's a lot of good.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
It's doing you.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
We can't buy one.
Speaker 7 (01:43):
We couldn if and I didn't have to pay that
Mexican for working on sheares you.
Speaker 6 (01:46):
Could have made the crap yourself if you wasn't so late.
Speaker 7 (01:48):
You want to shut a rat to fetch your punch
them off?
Speaker 6 (01:51):
Didn't mean nothing, Nick, I.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Shut your trap and keep a shut them. A hundred
dollars for my cotton, and I got to give half
of it to that Max. Nothing he can do about it, Nick,
You tell me what I can do.
Speaker 7 (02:05):
I took him and his family end and I fed him,
let him live in a.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Shack on my land.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Seems to be asked enough any man to do for him.
Speaker 7 (02:13):
He worse that soap moraless didn't chop enough cotton I
make anyone night shirt.
Speaker 6 (02:18):
How can you see that, Nick, You got eleven hundred
dollars out of his crop. Even half of that's more
than you made before doing the work yourself. He knows
you got to check, Nick. He can't start him much longer.
Spend three days now, and he's coming back again tonight.
I reckon that's him.
Speaker 7 (02:35):
Now, Nick, coming right up on the front porch where
he owned the place you're busy where your dishes are
handled him, moralice, what do you want send your hubbard.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
I come for my money for the cotton.
Speaker 7 (03:01):
I chose you to bring it to you when it come.
I ain't got at yet. I can't give you what
I got the place.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
I don't like to bother you, but my wife she's sick.
We're going to have another baby. Look, I got troubles
on my own. Morales, Senor, have it. I know you
got the money. I ask the cotton buyer. He tell
me that everybody has paid you checking up on me.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
You're sticken wetback.
Speaker 5 (03:24):
I am not a wet bag, Saor. I do not
sneak across the border. I am a good citizen of
this country, good.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Citizens, alright, come on it.
Speaker 7 (03:35):
A look. Tell you what I'll do, and it's better
than you deserve. Yeah, there's fifty dollars. We'll call a
square and you and your broat and get off my
land by morning.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
No signor, no, you don't give Jose Morales fifty dollars.
I want my money, Senor, all my money.
Speaker 7 (03:52):
You better pick that fifty up Morales, because that's all
you're gonna get.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Senor, you do not give me the money tomorrow I
go to a lawyer. The lawyer, you gotta cloth.
Speaker 7 (04:02):
You please let me go, and you're gonna check that
sissy and sign a paper right now? What is it
you're saying that this man me and Morales just made
a deal. Where's a pencil and some paper in.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
The treaking chef.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
I'd come up sign any papers.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
You come back here, moralice. You ain't going far, Nick, No, no,
not ye, you're crazy. Cut back, come back here, you're
stinking what back?
Speaker 2 (04:28):
No?
Speaker 5 (04:28):
No, all right.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
The pruss ain't gonna cor you.
Speaker 6 (04:34):
What you do.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
I'm shopping.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
He's dead, Nick, What are you gonna do? Shops shop?
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Let me let me think.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
I gotta get him off the place.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Kept me lifting.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
I gotta get him off the place. I can't, Nick,
I can't touch him.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
My shot, Jeffy, I say it.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
I keep him out shut forever from now. I keep
him out shut raw, shut it like how shut is.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
The body of Jose Morales was discovered two days later
by a field hand. It had been dumped in a
thicket in rugged country near a path used as a
shortcut to tom The sheriff was summoned, and he in
turn asked for the help of a Texas ranger.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Ranger Jace Pearson was assigned.
Speaker 7 (05:34):
Good thing you would tune your horse trilogyse the riff
go on foot path looks like it gets plenty of
use though. Yeah, field Lands use it for a short
cut to town when they walk in the mounted. Yes,
they figured three miles of this has been than eight
mounds a highway.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Bodies.
Speaker 7 (05:48):
Just to behead, I rode down a ways to meet you,
and I heard your horse.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
You said something about somebody reporting Morales missing before the
body was discovered.
Speaker 7 (05:56):
That's right. His wife mean to my office yesterday he
said he hadn't been home all now means he might
have been killed the night before last.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
It seems that way. Oh here we are, Oh boy o,
Cherky ride in that thicket.
Speaker 7 (06:12):
Shotgun, Yeah, got it behind the head and threw his back,
heavy charge, twelve gags.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Promptly he just like he was found. Yeah, I wasn't
killed here, then I'd killed here? Why not? We're at
the head of the body. That means he'd have been
walking this way through the thicket when he was shot,
and he'd fall forward on his face toward us. M
that's right, all right. Now look at the thicket. Behind
his feet direction you would have been coming from. What
(06:38):
about it hasn't been disturbed. He couldn't walk through that
thicket without breaking some of it down. Besides, he wouldn't
be walking off the path. And I see what you mean.
Speaker 7 (06:48):
He must have been on the path when he was shot,
then never gunned him, carried the body over this way
and jumped him into the thicket.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
I have a look at that path around here. You know,
blood from his wound. He should have left the mark someplace,
a stain on the ground.
Speaker 7 (07:02):
Yeah, nothing here, No sin of blood, no sand of
the earth being skiffed over to hide it.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Now, we're not going to find anything not around here.
He'd been dumped when that wound was fresh, we'd have
found something by now. He was brought in here after
all the bleeding had stopped because somebody didn't want the
body found where he was killed. That means we've got
to find out where. It's not going to be easy.
It never is. There's one good thing about it. Once
we do find the place, it isn't going to be
(07:28):
far from the killer. The body wouldn't have been moved.
There's nothing else for us to see here. Lab Man's
flying in from Austin. Might find something when the medical
examiner does an autopsy. I'll have to stay here.
Speaker 7 (07:40):
Wow, man who directed you here bringing pack and wants
to take the body into town.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
No sense in both of us staying. I'll get started.
You know where Morales lived?
Speaker 7 (07:49):
Yeah, shack near the cotton fields on the north room
and Ni Hubbod's.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Farm, Thanks Sheriff. Ah, don't suppose you know if Morales
was having trouble with anybody, not.
Speaker 6 (07:58):
That I know of.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Jase his family might know something, though, Uh, maybe the Hubbards.
I'll see him both each in town when I'm finished. Okay, Jays,
get around the church a boy's I got back to
my car, loaded charcoal into the horse trailer and drove
(08:21):
to the Hubbard farm. Hubbard wasn't there, but his wife
was out back scrubbing clothes. She was trembling and kept
wetting her lips as she spoke to me, and I
could see that she'd been crying.
Speaker 6 (08:31):
Yes, we we heard about it, maybe an now ago.
Somebody called on the party line to tell.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
My husband, where's your husband now, missus Hubbard.
Speaker 6 (08:41):
He drove out to the Marioless shack to tell missus
Miriley see is maybe there wasn't somebody could do for
her and the kids.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
M Morales worked chairs for.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Us, you know, so the sheriff told me.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
I I don't know what what his woman will do?
Speaker 4 (08:57):
Now?
Speaker 2 (08:59):
How far is the shack Morales lived in?
Speaker 6 (09:01):
Look over my U place goes back quite a ways.
Landing too good, we got a lot of it.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Morales ever come here to your house?
Speaker 3 (09:10):
I mean only when he had some business with Nick,
my husband.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
When was the last time?
Speaker 6 (09:18):
I don't not, you know, Ranger, like I said, he'd
come to see Nick.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
You'd probably be around when he came, though, When was
the last time you saw him?
Speaker 6 (09:27):
I can't say for sure. I'm too upset to think.
Oh there comes Nick. Now there's his car coming across
the hills.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Yeah, maybe he'll know something I like to know if
Morales was here the night before alive?
Speaker 6 (09:39):
Nick know for sure he'll tell you, honey, ranger.
Speaker 7 (09:45):
Howdy, so your car here's I was coming across mighty
slick looking here?
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Which my old busty shade.
Speaker 6 (09:55):
N The ranger wants to know some things about Morales?
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Well I could figure that for myself. Man, What else
would he want to know about?
Speaker 7 (10:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (10:04):
I just left his widow.
Speaker 7 (10:05):
This seems hit her kind of hard. Sure, if you're
sorry for arming them kids, I know, of course, men
and me will do anything we can to help him.
I told her they could stay on the shack man,
and he wasn't fiction to charge him, no rent or nothing.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Poor woman, I mean, your wife can't help how she feels,
mister Tarburd's just a couple of things. I want to know.
When'd you see Morales last? Your wife couldn't remember?
Speaker 7 (10:31):
Yeah, you sure are broken up, and you ought to
remember Morales is here night before last.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
I wasn't sure, Nick, night before last? Huh what time?
Why if we finished supper eight o'clock? Maybe the same
night he was killed. But you mean he's been dead
that long judging by the appearance of the body. Yes,
we'll know for sure when the medical examiner gets finished
with him. But why are you so surprised? Well, I
mean he was only found a little while ago. He's
been missing since the night before last. Though his wife
(10:58):
reported that to the sheriff's office yesterday. You knew that,
didn't you? Well?
Speaker 7 (11:01):
Sure I knew it, But well I figured he was
off on a tube celebrating with a roll of money?
Speaker 2 (11:06):
What a roll of money?
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Money I paid him for working shares on the cotton?
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Is that one you paid him when he was here
night before last?
Speaker 7 (11:13):
Sure? I handed him five hundred and fifty dollars. That's
why I'm surprised.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Men didn't remember him stopping by. Why you remember, men?
Speaker 2 (11:21):
You was there when I handed him the cash, and
he made his ex on that.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
Receipt, I rode out. I wasn't sure the nights we had.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Five hundred and fifty dollars cash on him, And now
I can see a reason for his being murdered. Wait
a minute, wait, what's the matter?
Speaker 7 (11:35):
What something missus Morales told me just a while ago
when I was over there about a field hand who
dropped in the night Morales disappeared. He wanted to bar
some money. Waited around for him, but when he didn't come,
Fella said he'd walked down toward my place here and
see if he couldn't meet Morales on the way.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
She mentioned the field hand's name.
Speaker 7 (11:53):
Can't remember, Shorty, I think, Shorty something anybody show up
here that night looking for Morales?
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Oh not while he was here, not after you left?
Wasn't nobody? Was?
Speaker 7 (12:03):
I mean you must have met Morales away from here, then, Ranger.
Maybe the man you're after sure looks.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Mighty possible, Horbart, I'm gonna see miss Morales and find
out who that man was. You want to point out
the way? Who better than that?
Speaker 7 (12:16):
Ranger?
Speaker 2 (12:17):
All right?
Speaker 8 (12:17):
Out with you?
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Fine, let's go to buy my summern buy men back,
lady by.
Speaker 7 (12:25):
Sure is a food car you got here, Ranger. I
won't get me a new car soon? Sure too, hum,
don't you?
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 8 (12:38):
Am?
Speaker 2 (12:38):
I head? And right?
Speaker 7 (12:39):
Oh yeah, stay across the field and follow that fence line.
Sure is a shame about Morales, But I reckon, you
ain't gonna have much work once this woman tells you
who that fellow was, the shorty that looks like you
had a motive. All right, it sounds like the killer
to me. I hope you get him, Ranger. Morales is
(12:59):
a mighty fian Mexican mightified. Hen't see anybody get away
with killing him? Man, This is a fine cary, Yeah,
listen to her.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Fair.
Speaker 4 (13:25):
In just a moment, we will continue with Tales of
the Texas Rangers, starring Joel McCrae as Ranger Jas Pearson.
But first, here is an important announcement.
Speaker 9 (13:37):
Next Sunday, over most of these same NBC stations, you
will hear Tales of the Texas Rangers at a new
and earlier time. Yes, Beginning next Sunday, listen one hour
and a half earlier for this program. This new earlier
time will bring you Tales of the Texas Rangers immediately
following the Phil Harris Alice fay Shaw at right before
(13:57):
theater Guild on the air. Remember next Sunday, tune in
one hour and a half earlier for Tales of the
Texas Rangers.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
We continue now with Tales of the Texas Rangers, starring
Joel McCrae and Tonight's case paid in full, an authentic
story from the files of the Texas Rangers.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
The Mariela's shack was threadbare, but scrubbed clean. Like the
two wide eyed kids who clung to their mother's skirts.
There was heartbreak in her eyes. She kept it smothered
for the sake of her children until she sent them
outside so we could talk. Goo good playing the back
pick up high cross of our dag.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
I I try not to cry when they are near me.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Take it easy, missus Miles. What is easy? Life is hard?
For me, for them, and now they have no father
to help you.
Speaker 7 (14:54):
No, now everything's gonna be all right. I told you
you can stay on here red free in area.
Speaker 8 (15:00):
We didn't want to stay here. We were going to
move away and get a little place of our own.
For there's no baby that's going to come. As soon
as your kep will say his money. Why do you
make him wait so long? Well for three days everything
he asked for his share, and you keep saying you
don't give a check yet, but you did.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
What is this, Hubbard?
Speaker 7 (15:20):
Well, it's just a little misunderstanding, Ranger, I can explain it.
I didn't want to give Oose the money? What to
give it to missus Morales here? I asked him to
bring her down to the house and collect it. Why
Why for her sake and the sake of the kids.
You know how some sharecroppers I might've taken all that
door and blown it in on a tequila.
Speaker 8 (15:39):
Being I wouldn't have spend our money that way.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
He was a good husband.
Speaker 7 (15:43):
Well, I got no way of being sure that. I
was just trying to look out for you and your youngsters.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Is that a crime? No? Why you were being so considerate?
You could have driven out here with the money instead
of expecting this woman to walk to your place to
get it. Missus Morales, Mister Hubbard's says, you told him
about somebody coming here to borrow money from your husband
the night he didn't come home.
Speaker 8 (16:04):
See a man who worked with use someplace once before,
two years ago.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
They call him, Surely, Surely Davis.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
You tell him your husband had gone down to Hubbard's place.
Speaker 8 (16:15):
Then he said he would not wait anymore, he would
walk down and try.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
To meet Jose. Then he went away. That's all you see.
It's just like I told you.
Speaker 7 (16:23):
Ranger probably met Jose, talked to me to go into
town when he found out he had the money. Then
he murdered him when he got him off in that
short cut trail.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
My poor husband.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Don't you worry.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
He'll get that shorty fellow.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
We haven't got him yet, Hubbard. A couple of things
don't fit, Missus Morales. Did Shorty Davis have a shotgun
with him when he came by.
Speaker 7 (16:42):
No, probably had the whole thing planning in advance. Ranger
had the gun stashed away on the shortcut.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Doesn't add up? Or were not because Morales wasn't killed
on the short cut. He was killed someplace else and
taken out there. How do you know that, because there'd
be certain signs at the scene of the murder that
warn't around where the body was found. Me, like blood
in the ground, things like that. Yeah, things like that.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
So Shorty must have killed him somebody else.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Somebody did. We'll pick Shorty up and see what he's
got to say. Goodbye, Miss morales H. Come on, Hulbard,
I'll drive you home. When I got back the Sheriff's office,
it was late afternoon and the medical examiner in our
lab man had finished. The sheriff had a complete report.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Hoping to speak to you at Poogler Oh on a fortunately,
fay my disk.
Speaker 7 (17:32):
Jason not to pool. Thanks Sheriff, you were joler. Anything
special in this lab report? Yeah, a few things.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Yeah, let me show you. Look here. Shot followed a
downward path, indicating that the gun was fired from above
and behind the victim. Pattern of shot spread a number
of pellets striking target from normal number of pellets in
regulation twelve gage shell further indicates that shot came from
approximately twenty yards behind victim with a gun muzzle at
(17:59):
high level. It's pretty interesting. Isn't it jas plenty interesting?
Speaker 7 (18:02):
Menest Morales must have been shot by somebody who was
standing on something above the ground level, or maybe somebody mounted.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
That's the way it shapes up. You know anything about
a field hand named Shorty Davis. You've been around here
for quite some time. You know where to find him.
Speaker 7 (18:15):
It doesn't leave any place regular just grubs around could
hurt the next and before the cotton season and never
had a chance putt any money by.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
I reckon, he's mighty hid up. What do you want him?
Tell you why we're looking. Let's find him. We combed
the town until midnight, but there was no sign of
Shorty Davis. I called my headquarters and with the sheriff'
supplying a description, put out a statewide pickup. But just
(18:44):
after dawn when it paid off, Shorty Davis was picked
up at a highway patrol less than fifty miles away.
They brought him back to us. All right, Shorty, sit
down a way.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
Mister chiff before doesn't men bring me back here? I
ain't done nothing.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
If you haven't you been taking back to where you
were picked up. Meanwhile, where where you're going?
Speaker 7 (19:03):
Just heading for l passer to see my folks, mister
Ranger and uh sudden decision, shorty.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
He's been hanging around here for months.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
I couldn't go before, Sir, I was waiting to get
me some money.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Do you mean you've got money now? Why?
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Yes, sir?
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Where'd you get a chority?
Speaker 7 (19:17):
What?
Speaker 3 (19:17):
What from a accident?
Speaker 10 (19:18):
You remember the accident A had, Sir, Well, when mister
Hoxy Wilson hit me with his automobile.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
With the lawyer man Mr Corby, he got me some
settlement money for getting hit.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
He's at the truth so they won't take on to
find out if position I.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
Wouldn't lie to your tallis you could ask mister Hoxsy.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Wilson you better call him in check sherriff. Huh they sure, well,
I've ready a house Wilson's place.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
Yeah, Oxe was Mr Ranger. Where did the sheriff think
I got the money?
Speaker 2 (19:45):
You'll find out a later, shorty. How much have you got? Well? Uh?
Speaker 3 (19:49):
I had a hundred dollars, just spend a.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Couple for eating, Yes, didy, Oh, I see when'd you
leave town?
Speaker 3 (19:55):
Yes?
Speaker 10 (19:55):
Did the morning wow a time early right after the
bank open and Mr Hoxtt got me in money.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Then you didn't know that Jose Morales was found dead
yesterday morning. Dad murdered. It was murdered the night you
stopped by his shack to see him.
Speaker 11 (20:08):
I never did see him that night, but you did
stop by the shack, yes, sir, But he wasn't home.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
His wife tell you that, sir, he's going about the
Money's okajs Sir, I ain't tell you no stories. I'm
telling you the truth.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Just keep on telling. Go ahead, James, I've been missing
with one here. Missus Morales told you where her husband was,
didn't she? She said he we at Hubbard farm, That's all.
And didn't you leave the shack saying you'd go down
to the farm and meet him.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Yes, sir, I wanted to get to Linda some money
from hose.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
He knew me.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
We worked together once. He loaned me before. Now all
this paid him back.
Speaker 7 (20:40):
We ain't asking about your credit rating, shorty, But do
you want to know it's what happened after you met Morale.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
I never did meet him. Wasn't nobody at mister Hubbard's place?
Speaker 2 (20:48):
The Hubbards weren't there, No, Sir.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
I knocked hard on the back door and there wasn't
nobody there at all.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Now you've been mighty sure of what you were saying, Shorty.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
I am sure, mister Cheff, that old house was just
playing empty. They wasn't that.
Speaker 10 (21:01):
I thought maybe he'd come back, or maybe he hadn't
been there yet. So I went over in the field
and sought me down on the stump and waited, and
then mister Hubbard and his wife they drove up real slow, had.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
A couple of horses hitched to the back of the car.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Horses.
Speaker 10 (21:15):
Yes, sir, what kind of store are you trying to invent?
I ain't inventing nothing, mister Shud, that's gospel.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Didn't I Hubbard seeing it?
Speaker 11 (21:21):
No, sir, Like I said, I was in the field
sitting by a stop. Didn't you let him know you
were there?
Speaker 3 (21:27):
No, sir, it was Morales I come to meet and
he wasn't with him.
Speaker 10 (21:31):
I didn't want mister Hubbard raising the first with me
and asksed me what I was doing around his property
to night.
Speaker 7 (21:36):
No, sir, that man, he mean, jeez, Hubbert wouldn't be
throwing horses around at night without a reason.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
And the reason I can think of is for packing
something to a place he couldn't get to in his car.
You mean like packing Morale's body up that short cut train.
That's right, but glad to kill him because Hubbard was
lying about paying Morales and sharing that cotton crop. He
acted mighty funny when it came out he'd stalled about
paying Charlie. Yes, I want you to repeat your story
and we'll type it. Yes, take your statement, Steve. Yes.
(22:08):
After that, Sheriff, we're going out and have a good
look at Hubbard's farm. A darn good look. I n
uh excuse me a minute, oh speaking, how did it happen?
I see how unmeaning are What do you ever called? Sheriff?
What's the matter? That was doctor Parker?
Speaker 7 (22:31):
Missus Morales coming into the funeral parlor to see her husband.
She fainted and fell Jez, she lost her baby.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
We headed for Robert's farm, but we parked off the
road about a half mile away and cut across the
fields on foot, hoping we could check around outside the
house without being spotted. We were in the cover of
some trees and we saw missus Hubbard come from the
back of the house carrying a washtub.
Speaker 7 (23:00):
What the table's she doing with that? Wolfhtub jas No,
don't let her see you. Hey, she's dumping it by
the brush. Yeah, why didn't she dump it in back?
This soul woman carry a laundry tub around to the
front of the house to dump it. But she was
grown something.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
A lot more than one tub full has been dumped
in that spot. Look at that ground that's soaked. Come
on going there to see us. I want to find
out what she's doing. Hubbard isn't around the garage shed
is open, and the car isn't there. Just a man,
Liz Hubbard.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Oh, it's using in the sherif it's.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
A funny place. You picked the empty laundry.
Speaker 6 (23:34):
Tub, man will The ground seemed kind of dry.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
It was dry all around here except for this one
spot by the brush. White. A lot of water's been
dumped here, much more than you had in that tub.
Take a look around, sheriff, whoa what are you looking for?
Maybe a couple of blood stains dried into the ground.
Speaker 7 (23:54):
If there was anything here, Jason, we're too late. Now
runs an inch thick. It's the base of this brush.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Yeah, I know there's one thing that's still here. Take
a look, Sheriff, What is it? Leaves on this brush?
Holes ripped through some of the leaves, just the way
they'd be if a shotgun charge came through.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
Some bugs.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Bugs never made these holes, ma'am, Sheriff, look at the
porch of the house. How far away you said? Was? Well,
maybe eighteen twenty yards? Put me hey. The lab report
said the shot was fired from approximately twenty yards with
a muzzle level above the victim, and that porch is
the only elevated spot it could have come from. Hubbard
must have fired from there. So Nick didn't kill MORALESY
(24:37):
didn't he did? And you know it. I asked you
when you'd seen Morales last. You kept stalling your answer
until your husband came.
Speaker 7 (24:43):
He's committed too murders if the truth is no men,
because missus Morale is just lost to beebe she was carrying.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Oh no, no, Nick is your husband? Men? But lying
for somebody like him ain't right before Earth or Heaven.
And you know it.
Speaker 8 (24:55):
I told him not to do it.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
I begged him to pay.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Morales, but he was greeting he.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
Took a shot gun.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Where's the gun, ma'am?
Speaker 3 (25:04):
I can't go on with this no more.
Speaker 6 (25:09):
Oh, last night with dumping water up there by the
brush where Myra Alice failed.
Speaker 10 (25:13):
Something you said yesterday about none staying scary scared me too.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
That's why I knocked the laundry water out there. I
couldn't stop thinking about it. There's the gun there in
the corner.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Maybe I ain't a fit wife.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Maybe I shouldn't have told you, But I feel better
about it now.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
I feel better.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
I'm not Maybe i'll sleep again if I live to
be old enough.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Where's your husband now, Missushubban?
Speaker 8 (25:41):
I no, no, he left this morning before sun up
to drive to Center City, said he'd be back before noon.
Speaker 7 (25:48):
I guess we'll just sit and weak then, if you
don't mind, Wait a minute, sheriff car coming up to drive.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Now, take a look after those curtains. I ain't Nick's car.
That one's spanking mood.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
That's Nick in it though, So that's what he went
just in the city fall.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
She's right, sheriff man really loves new cars. And stand back,
nor let him come in.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Hey man, come give your eyes a treat?
Speaker 2 (26:19):
How they I've read? Yeah? How do he share it? Ranger?
And why are you looking at me like that?
Speaker 3 (26:28):
I told him Nick, I told him everything I told him.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
I get cheated.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Moralesaw, you shot him in the bag.
Speaker 8 (26:35):
For you.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Don't I'll try that again. I get up.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Missus Morales lost to babies.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Nick, Ain't you a proud of that?
Speaker 3 (26:48):
But you was buying your new card. She was losing day.
Don't say anymore.
Speaker 6 (26:53):
Please, man, you got a new card, didn't you.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Nick?
Speaker 3 (27:00):
You know where you're gonna drive in it?
Speaker 8 (27:01):
Don't you?
Speaker 5 (27:02):
Nick?
Speaker 2 (27:03):
You're no way take care of my sheriff. I'll take him,
all right, jeez, come on, Nick, let's go at his trial.
Speaker 5 (27:26):
Nick Howard broke down and confessed to the murder of
Jose Morales. He was sentenced to Huntsville Penitentiary for the
rest of his life.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
Next week, Joel McCray and another authentic reenactment of a
case from the files of the Texas Rangers. Joel McCray
is currently seen starring in the Universal International Tech Color
(28:00):
production Frenchsheet. Tonight's cast included Tony Barrett, Virginia, Greg Whitfield,
Connor Ed Begley, and Justair Harston. This story was transcribed
and adapted by Joel Murcott, and the program was produced
and directed by Stacy Keats.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Hal Gidney Speaking.
Speaker 9 (28:26):
Three Times Mean Good Times on NBC Remember Next Sunday
over most of these same NBC stations, listen one hour
and a half earlier for tales of the Texas Rangers, and.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
And you join the very best simanio. Be sure that
you done write see invite.
Speaker 7 (28:47):
The very best Stimmanio Morning, Noon and Night is from
this station Morning, Noon and Night MBC.
Speaker 9 (28:57):
Phil Baker invites you to join the sixty four dollars
question next on in BC
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Oh HM
The National Broadcasting Company presents Joel McCrae in Tales.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
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.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Joel McCrae as Ranger Jase.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Pearson, Texas more than two hundred and sixty thousand square
miles and fifty men who make up the most famous
and oldest law enforcement party in North America. Now from
(00:52):
the files of the Texas Rangers come these.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Stories based on fact only.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Names, dates, and places are fictitious for obvious reasons, as
themselves are a matter of record.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
Case fortnighte paid in full.
Speaker 5 (01:17):
It is seven pm August eighteenth, nineteen forty one. Nick Hubbard,
the West Texas farmer, is seated at the dinner table
with his wife men, but Hubbard is not eating. Instead,
his attention is riveted on an advertisement in the newspaper
before him.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Will you stop staring at that thing and ate your supper?
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Nick, hungry?
Speaker 6 (01:36):
It had your nose buried in him new car ads.
Ever since you got the check for the cotton Cross.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
That's a lot of good.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
It's doing you.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
We can't buy one.
Speaker 7 (01:43):
We couldn if and I didn't have to pay that
Mexican for working on sheares you.
Speaker 6 (01:46):
Could have made the crap yourself if you wasn't so late.
Speaker 7 (01:48):
You want to shut a rat to fetch your punch
them off?
Speaker 6 (01:51):
Didn't mean nothing, Nick, I.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Shut your trap and keep a shut them. A hundred
dollars for my cotton, and I got to give half
of it to that Max. Nothing he can do about it, Nick,
You tell me what I can do.
Speaker 7 (02:05):
I took him and his family end and I fed him,
let him live in a.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Shack on my land.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Seems to be asked enough any man to do for him.
Speaker 7 (02:13):
He worse that soap moraless didn't chop enough cotton I
make anyone night shirt.
Speaker 6 (02:18):
How can you see that, Nick, You got eleven hundred
dollars out of his crop. Even half of that's more
than you made before doing the work yourself. He knows
you got to check, Nick. He can't start him much longer.
Spend three days now, and he's coming back again tonight.
I reckon that's him.
Speaker 7 (02:35):
Now, Nick, coming right up on the front porch where
he owned the place you're busy where your dishes are
handled him, moralice, what do you want send your hubbard.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
I come for my money for the cotton.
Speaker 7 (03:01):
I chose you to bring it to you when it come.
I ain't got at yet. I can't give you what
I got the place.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
I don't like to bother you, but my wife she's sick.
We're going to have another baby. Look, I got troubles
on my own. Morales, Senor, have it. I know you
got the money. I ask the cotton buyer. He tell
me that everybody has paid you checking up on me.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
You're sticken wetback.
Speaker 5 (03:24):
I am not a wet bag, Saor. I do not
sneak across the border. I am a good citizen of
this country, good.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Citizens, alright, come on it.
Speaker 7 (03:35):
A look. Tell you what I'll do, and it's better
than you deserve. Yeah, there's fifty dollars. We'll call a
square and you and your broat and get off my
land by morning.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
No signor, no, you don't give Jose Morales fifty dollars.
I want my money, Senor, all my money.
Speaker 7 (03:52):
You better pick that fifty up Morales, because that's all
you're gonna get.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Senor, you do not give me the money tomorrow I
go to a lawyer. The lawyer, you gotta cloth.
Speaker 7 (04:02):
You please let me go, and you're gonna check that
sissy and sign a paper right now? What is it
you're saying that this man me and Morales just made
a deal. Where's a pencil and some paper in.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
The treaking chef.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
I'd come up sign any papers.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
You come back here, moralice. You ain't going far, Nick, No, no,
not ye, you're crazy. Cut back, come back here, you're
stinking what back?
Speaker 2 (04:28):
No?
Speaker 5 (04:28):
No, all right.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
The pruss ain't gonna cor you.
Speaker 6 (04:34):
What you do.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
I'm shopping.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
He's dead, Nick, What are you gonna do? Shops shop?
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Let me let me think.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
I gotta get him off the place.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Kept me lifting.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
I gotta get him off the place. I can't, Nick,
I can't touch him.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
My shot, Jeffy, I say it.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
I keep him out shut forever from now. I keep
him out shut raw, shut it like how shut is.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
The body of Jose Morales was discovered two days later
by a field hand. It had been dumped in a
thicket in rugged country near a path used as a
shortcut to tom The sheriff was summoned, and he in
turn asked for the help of a Texas ranger.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Ranger Jace Pearson was assigned.
Speaker 7 (05:34):
Good thing you would tune your horse trilogyse the riff
go on foot path looks like it gets plenty of
use though. Yeah, field Lands use it for a short
cut to town when they walk in the mounted. Yes,
they figured three miles of this has been than eight
mounds a highway.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Bodies.
Speaker 7 (05:48):
Just to behead, I rode down a ways to meet you,
and I heard your horse.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
You said something about somebody reporting Morales missing before the
body was discovered.
Speaker 7 (05:56):
That's right. His wife mean to my office yesterday he
said he hadn't been home all now means he might
have been killed the night before last.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
It seems that way. Oh here we are, Oh boy o,
Cherky ride in that thicket.
Speaker 7 (06:12):
Shotgun, Yeah, got it behind the head and threw his back,
heavy charge, twelve gags.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Promptly he just like he was found. Yeah, I wasn't
killed here, then I'd killed here? Why not? We're at
the head of the body. That means he'd have been
walking this way through the thicket when he was shot,
and he'd fall forward on his face toward us. M
that's right, all right. Now look at the thicket. Behind
his feet direction you would have been coming from. What
(06:38):
about it hasn't been disturbed. He couldn't walk through that
thicket without breaking some of it down. Besides, he wouldn't
be walking off the path. And I see what you mean.
Speaker 7 (06:48):
He must have been on the path when he was shot,
then never gunned him, carried the body over this way
and jumped him into the thicket.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
I have a look at that path around here. You know,
blood from his wound. He should have left the mark someplace,
a stain on the ground.
Speaker 7 (07:02):
Yeah, nothing here, No sin of blood, no sand of
the earth being skiffed over to hide it.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Now, we're not going to find anything not around here.
He'd been dumped when that wound was fresh, we'd have
found something by now. He was brought in here after
all the bleeding had stopped because somebody didn't want the
body found where he was killed. That means we've got
to find out where. It's not going to be easy.
It never is. There's one good thing about it. Once
we do find the place, it isn't going to be
(07:28):
far from the killer. The body wouldn't have been moved.
There's nothing else for us to see here. Lab Man's
flying in from Austin. Might find something when the medical
examiner does an autopsy. I'll have to stay here.
Speaker 7 (07:40):
Wow, man who directed you here bringing pack and wants
to take the body into town.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
No sense in both of us staying. I'll get started.
You know where Morales lived?
Speaker 7 (07:49):
Yeah, shack near the cotton fields on the north room
and Ni Hubbod's.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Farm, Thanks Sheriff. Ah, don't suppose you know if Morales
was having trouble with anybody, not.
Speaker 6 (07:58):
That I know of.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Jase his family might know something, though, Uh, maybe the Hubbards.
I'll see him both each in town when I'm finished. Okay, Jays,
get around the church a boy's I got back to
my car, loaded charcoal into the horse trailer and drove
(08:21):
to the Hubbard farm. Hubbard wasn't there, but his wife
was out back scrubbing clothes. She was trembling and kept
wetting her lips as she spoke to me, and I
could see that she'd been crying.
Speaker 6 (08:31):
Yes, we we heard about it, maybe an now ago.
Somebody called on the party line to tell.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
My husband, where's your husband now, missus Hubbard.
Speaker 6 (08:41):
He drove out to the Marioless shack to tell missus
Miriley see is maybe there wasn't somebody could do for
her and the kids.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
M Morales worked chairs for.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Us, you know, so the sheriff told me.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
I I don't know what what his woman will do?
Speaker 4 (08:57):
Now?
Speaker 2 (08:59):
How far is the shack Morales lived in?
Speaker 6 (09:01):
Look over my U place goes back quite a ways.
Landing too good, we got a lot of it.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Morales ever come here to your house?
Speaker 3 (09:10):
I mean only when he had some business with Nick,
my husband.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
When was the last time?
Speaker 6 (09:18):
I don't not, you know, Ranger, like I said, he'd
come to see Nick.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
You'd probably be around when he came, though, When was
the last time you saw him?
Speaker 6 (09:27):
I can't say for sure. I'm too upset to think.
Oh there comes Nick. Now there's his car coming across
the hills.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Yeah, maybe he'll know something I like to know if
Morales was here the night before alive?
Speaker 6 (09:39):
Nick know for sure he'll tell you, honey, ranger.
Speaker 7 (09:45):
Howdy, so your car here's I was coming across mighty
slick looking here?
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Which my old busty shade.
Speaker 6 (09:55):
N The ranger wants to know some things about Morales?
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Well I could figure that for myself. Man, What else
would he want to know about?
Speaker 7 (10:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (10:04):
I just left his widow.
Speaker 7 (10:05):
This seems hit her kind of hard. Sure, if you're
sorry for arming them kids, I know, of course, men
and me will do anything we can to help him.
I told her they could stay on the shack man,
and he wasn't fiction to charge him, no rent or nothing.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Poor woman, I mean, your wife can't help how she feels,
mister Tarburd's just a couple of things. I want to know.
When'd you see Morales last? Your wife couldn't remember?
Speaker 7 (10:31):
Yeah, you sure are broken up, and you ought to
remember Morales is here night before last.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
I wasn't sure, Nick, night before last? Huh what time?
Why if we finished supper eight o'clock? Maybe the same
night he was killed. But you mean he's been dead
that long judging by the appearance of the body. Yes,
we'll know for sure when the medical examiner gets finished
with him. But why are you so surprised? Well, I
mean he was only found a little while ago. He's
been missing since the night before last. Though his wife
(10:58):
reported that to the sheriff's office yesterday. You knew that,
didn't you? Well?
Speaker 7 (11:01):
Sure I knew it, But well I figured he was
off on a tube celebrating with a roll of money?
Speaker 2 (11:06):
What a roll of money?
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Money I paid him for working shares on the cotton?
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Is that one you paid him when he was here
night before last?
Speaker 7 (11:13):
Sure? I handed him five hundred and fifty dollars. That's
why I'm surprised.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Men didn't remember him stopping by. Why you remember, men?
Speaker 2 (11:21):
You was there when I handed him the cash, and
he made his ex on that.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
Receipt, I rode out. I wasn't sure the nights we had.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Five hundred and fifty dollars cash on him, And now
I can see a reason for his being murdered. Wait
a minute, wait, what's the matter?
Speaker 7 (11:35):
What something missus Morales told me just a while ago
when I was over there about a field hand who
dropped in the night Morales disappeared. He wanted to bar
some money. Waited around for him, but when he didn't come,
Fella said he'd walked down toward my place here and
see if he couldn't meet Morales on the way.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
She mentioned the field hand's name.
Speaker 7 (11:53):
Can't remember, Shorty, I think, Shorty something anybody show up
here that night looking for Morales?
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Oh not while he was here, not after you left?
Wasn't nobody? Was?
Speaker 7 (12:03):
I mean you must have met Morales away from here, then, Ranger.
Maybe the man you're after sure looks.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Mighty possible, Horbart, I'm gonna see miss Morales and find
out who that man was. You want to point out
the way? Who better than that?
Speaker 7 (12:16):
Ranger?
Speaker 2 (12:17):
All right?
Speaker 8 (12:17):
Out with you?
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Fine, let's go to buy my summern buy men back,
lady by.
Speaker 7 (12:25):
Sure is a food car you got here, Ranger. I
won't get me a new car soon? Sure too, hum,
don't you?
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 8 (12:38):
Am?
Speaker 2 (12:38):
I head? And right?
Speaker 7 (12:39):
Oh yeah, stay across the field and follow that fence line.
Sure is a shame about Morales, But I reckon, you
ain't gonna have much work once this woman tells you
who that fellow was, the shorty that looks like you
had a motive. All right, it sounds like the killer
to me. I hope you get him, Ranger. Morales is
(12:59):
a mighty fian Mexican mightified. Hen't see anybody get away
with killing him? Man, This is a fine cary, Yeah,
listen to her.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Fair.
Speaker 4 (13:25):
In just a moment, we will continue with Tales of
the Texas Rangers, starring Joel McCrae as Ranger Jas Pearson.
But first, here is an important announcement.
Speaker 9 (13:37):
Next Sunday, over most of these same NBC stations, you
will hear Tales of the Texas Rangers at a new
and earlier time. Yes, Beginning next Sunday, listen one hour
and a half earlier for this program. This new earlier
time will bring you Tales of the Texas Rangers immediately
following the Phil Harris Alice fay Shaw at right before
(13:57):
theater Guild on the air. Remember next Sunday, tune in
one hour and a half earlier for Tales of the
Texas Rangers.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
We continue now with Tales of the Texas Rangers, starring
Joel McCrae and Tonight's case paid in full, an authentic
story from the files of the Texas Rangers.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
The Mariela's shack was threadbare, but scrubbed clean. Like the
two wide eyed kids who clung to their mother's skirts.
There was heartbreak in her eyes. She kept it smothered
for the sake of her children until she sent them
outside so we could talk. Goo good playing the back
pick up high cross of our dag.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
I I try not to cry when they are near me.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Take it easy, missus Miles. What is easy? Life is hard?
For me, for them, and now they have no father
to help you.
Speaker 7 (14:54):
No, now everything's gonna be all right. I told you
you can stay on here red free in area.
Speaker 8 (15:00):
We didn't want to stay here. We were going to
move away and get a little place of our own.
For there's no baby that's going to come. As soon
as your kep will say his money. Why do you
make him wait so long? Well for three days everything
he asked for his share, and you keep saying you
don't give a check yet, but you did.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
What is this, Hubbard?
Speaker 7 (15:20):
Well, it's just a little misunderstanding, Ranger, I can explain it.
I didn't want to give Oose the money? What to
give it to missus Morales here? I asked him to
bring her down to the house and collect it. Why
Why for her sake and the sake of the kids.
You know how some sharecroppers I might've taken all that
door and blown it in on a tequila.
Speaker 8 (15:39):
Being I wouldn't have spend our money that way.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
He was a good husband.
Speaker 7 (15:43):
Well, I got no way of being sure that. I
was just trying to look out for you and your youngsters.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Is that a crime? No? Why you were being so considerate?
You could have driven out here with the money instead
of expecting this woman to walk to your place to
get it. Missus Morales, Mister Hubbard's says, you told him
about somebody coming here to borrow money from your husband
the night he didn't come home.
Speaker 8 (16:04):
See a man who worked with use someplace once before,
two years ago.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
They call him, Surely, Surely Davis.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
You tell him your husband had gone down to Hubbard's place.
Speaker 8 (16:15):
Then he said he would not wait anymore, he would
walk down and try.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
To meet Jose. Then he went away. That's all you see.
It's just like I told you.
Speaker 7 (16:23):
Ranger probably met Jose, talked to me to go into
town when he found out he had the money. Then
he murdered him when he got him off in that
short cut trail.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
My poor husband.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Don't you worry.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
He'll get that shorty fellow.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
We haven't got him yet, Hubbard. A couple of things
don't fit, Missus Morales. Did Shorty Davis have a shotgun
with him when he came by.
Speaker 7 (16:42):
No, probably had the whole thing planning in advance. Ranger
had the gun stashed away on the shortcut.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Doesn't add up? Or were not because Morales wasn't killed
on the short cut. He was killed someplace else and
taken out there. How do you know that, because there'd
be certain signs at the scene of the murder that
warn't around where the body was found. Me, like blood
in the ground, things like that. Yeah, things like that.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
So Shorty must have killed him somebody else.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Somebody did. We'll pick Shorty up and see what he's
got to say. Goodbye, Miss morales H. Come on, Hulbard,
I'll drive you home. When I got back the Sheriff's office,
it was late afternoon and the medical examiner in our
lab man had finished. The sheriff had a complete report.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Hoping to speak to you at Poogler Oh on a fortunately,
fay my disk.
Speaker 7 (17:32):
Jason not to pool. Thanks Sheriff, you were joler. Anything
special in this lab report? Yeah, a few things.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Yeah, let me show you. Look here. Shot followed a
downward path, indicating that the gun was fired from above
and behind the victim. Pattern of shot spread a number
of pellets striking target from normal number of pellets in
regulation twelve gage shell further indicates that shot came from
approximately twenty yards behind victim with a gun muzzle at
(17:59):
high level. It's pretty interesting. Isn't it jas plenty interesting?
Speaker 7 (18:02):
Menest Morales must have been shot by somebody who was
standing on something above the ground level, or maybe somebody mounted.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
That's the way it shapes up. You know anything about
a field hand named Shorty Davis. You've been around here
for quite some time. You know where to find him.
Speaker 7 (18:15):
It doesn't leave any place regular just grubs around could
hurt the next and before the cotton season and never
had a chance putt any money by.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
I reckon, he's mighty hid up. What do you want him?
Tell you why we're looking. Let's find him. We combed
the town until midnight, but there was no sign of
Shorty Davis. I called my headquarters and with the sheriff'
supplying a description, put out a statewide pickup. But just
(18:44):
after dawn when it paid off, Shorty Davis was picked
up at a highway patrol less than fifty miles away.
They brought him back to us. All right, Shorty, sit
down a way.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
Mister chiff before doesn't men bring me back here? I
ain't done nothing.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
If you haven't you been taking back to where you
were picked up. Meanwhile, where where you're going?
Speaker 7 (19:03):
Just heading for l passer to see my folks, mister
Ranger and uh sudden decision, shorty.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
He's been hanging around here for months.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
I couldn't go before, Sir, I was waiting to get
me some money.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Do you mean you've got money now? Why?
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Yes, sir?
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Where'd you get a chority?
Speaker 7 (19:17):
What?
Speaker 3 (19:17):
What from a accident?
Speaker 10 (19:18):
You remember the accident A had, Sir, Well, when mister
Hoxy Wilson hit me with his automobile.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
With the lawyer man Mr Corby, he got me some
settlement money for getting hit.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
He's at the truth so they won't take on to
find out if position I.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
Wouldn't lie to your tallis you could ask mister Hoxsy.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Wilson you better call him in check sherriff. Huh they sure, well,
I've ready a house Wilson's place.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
Yeah, Oxe was Mr Ranger. Where did the sheriff think
I got the money?
Speaker 2 (19:45):
You'll find out a later, shorty. How much have you got? Well? Uh?
Speaker 3 (19:49):
I had a hundred dollars, just spend a.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Couple for eating, Yes, didy, Oh, I see when'd you
leave town?
Speaker 3 (19:55):
Yes?
Speaker 10 (19:55):
Did the morning wow a time early right after the
bank open and Mr Hoxtt got me in money.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Then you didn't know that Jose Morales was found dead
yesterday morning. Dad murdered. It was murdered the night you
stopped by his shack to see him.
Speaker 11 (20:08):
I never did see him that night, but you did
stop by the shack, yes, sir, But he wasn't home.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
His wife tell you that, sir, he's going about the
Money's okajs Sir, I ain't tell you no stories. I'm
telling you the truth.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Just keep on telling. Go ahead, James, I've been missing
with one here. Missus Morales told you where her husband was,
didn't she? She said he we at Hubbard farm, That's all.
And didn't you leave the shack saying you'd go down
to the farm and meet him.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Yes, sir, I wanted to get to Linda some money
from hose.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
He knew me.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
We worked together once. He loaned me before. Now all
this paid him back.
Speaker 7 (20:40):
We ain't asking about your credit rating, shorty, But do
you want to know it's what happened after you met Morale.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
I never did meet him. Wasn't nobody at mister Hubbard's place?
Speaker 2 (20:48):
The Hubbards weren't there, No, Sir.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
I knocked hard on the back door and there wasn't
nobody there at all.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Now you've been mighty sure of what you were saying, Shorty.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
I am sure, mister Cheff, that old house was just
playing empty. They wasn't that.
Speaker 10 (21:01):
I thought maybe he'd come back, or maybe he hadn't
been there yet. So I went over in the field
and sought me down on the stump and waited, and
then mister Hubbard and his wife they drove up real slow, had.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
A couple of horses hitched to the back of the car.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Horses.
Speaker 10 (21:15):
Yes, sir, what kind of store are you trying to invent?
I ain't inventing nothing, mister Shud, that's gospel.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Didn't I Hubbard seeing it?
Speaker 11 (21:21):
No, sir, Like I said, I was in the field
sitting by a stop. Didn't you let him know you
were there?
Speaker 3 (21:27):
No, sir, it was Morales I come to meet and
he wasn't with him.
Speaker 10 (21:31):
I didn't want mister Hubbard raising the first with me
and asksed me what I was doing around his property
to night.
Speaker 7 (21:36):
No, sir, that man, he mean, jeez, Hubbert wouldn't be
throwing horses around at night without a reason.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
And the reason I can think of is for packing
something to a place he couldn't get to in his car.
You mean like packing Morale's body up that short cut train.
That's right, but glad to kill him because Hubbard was
lying about paying Morales and sharing that cotton crop. He
acted mighty funny when it came out he'd stalled about
paying Charlie. Yes, I want you to repeat your story
and we'll type it. Yes, take your statement, Steve. Yes.
(22:08):
After that, Sheriff, we're going out and have a good
look at Hubbard's farm. A darn good look. I n
uh excuse me a minute, oh speaking, how did it happen?
I see how unmeaning are What do you ever called? Sheriff?
What's the matter? That was doctor Parker?
Speaker 7 (22:31):
Missus Morales coming into the funeral parlor to see her husband.
She fainted and fell Jez, she lost her baby.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
We headed for Robert's farm, but we parked off the
road about a half mile away and cut across the
fields on foot, hoping we could check around outside the
house without being spotted. We were in the cover of
some trees and we saw missus Hubbard come from the
back of the house carrying a washtub.
Speaker 7 (23:00):
What the table's she doing with that? Wolfhtub jas No,
don't let her see you. Hey, she's dumping it by
the brush. Yeah, why didn't she dump it in back?
This soul woman carry a laundry tub around to the
front of the house to dump it. But she was
grown something.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
A lot more than one tub full has been dumped
in that spot. Look at that ground that's soaked. Come
on going there to see us. I want to find
out what she's doing. Hubbard isn't around the garage shed
is open, and the car isn't there. Just a man,
Liz Hubbard.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Oh, it's using in the sherif it's.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
A funny place. You picked the empty laundry.
Speaker 6 (23:34):
Tub, man will The ground seemed kind of dry.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
It was dry all around here except for this one
spot by the brush. White. A lot of water's been
dumped here, much more than you had in that tub.
Take a look around, sheriff, whoa what are you looking for?
Maybe a couple of blood stains dried into the ground.
Speaker 7 (23:54):
If there was anything here, Jason, we're too late. Now
runs an inch thick. It's the base of this brush.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Yeah, I know there's one thing that's still here. Take
a look, Sheriff, What is it? Leaves on this brush?
Holes ripped through some of the leaves, just the way
they'd be if a shotgun charge came through.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
Some bugs.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Bugs never made these holes, ma'am, Sheriff, look at the
porch of the house. How far away you said? Was? Well,
maybe eighteen twenty yards? Put me hey. The lab report
said the shot was fired from approximately twenty yards with
a muzzle level above the victim, and that porch is
the only elevated spot it could have come from. Hubbard
must have fired from there. So Nick didn't kill MORALESY
(24:37):
didn't he did? And you know it. I asked you
when you'd seen Morales last. You kept stalling your answer
until your husband came.
Speaker 7 (24:43):
He's committed too murders if the truth is no men,
because missus Morale is just lost to beebe she was carrying.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Oh no, no, Nick is your husband? Men? But lying
for somebody like him ain't right before Earth or Heaven.
And you know it.
Speaker 8 (24:55):
I told him not to do it.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
I begged him to pay.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Morales, but he was greeting he.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
Took a shot gun.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Where's the gun, ma'am?
Speaker 3 (25:04):
I can't go on with this no more.
Speaker 6 (25:09):
Oh, last night with dumping water up there by the
brush where Myra Alice failed.
Speaker 10 (25:13):
Something you said yesterday about none staying scary scared me too.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
That's why I knocked the laundry water out there. I
couldn't stop thinking about it. There's the gun there in
the corner.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Maybe I ain't a fit wife.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Maybe I shouldn't have told you, But I feel better
about it now.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
I feel better.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
I'm not Maybe i'll sleep again if I live to
be old enough.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Where's your husband now, Missushubban?
Speaker 8 (25:41):
I no, no, he left this morning before sun up
to drive to Center City, said he'd be back before noon.
Speaker 7 (25:48):
I guess we'll just sit and weak then, if you
don't mind, Wait a minute, sheriff car coming up to drive.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Now, take a look after those curtains. I ain't Nick's car.
That one's spanking mood.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
That's Nick in it though, So that's what he went
just in the city fall.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
She's right, sheriff man really loves new cars. And stand back,
nor let him come in.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Hey man, come give your eyes a treat?
Speaker 2 (26:19):
How they I've read? Yeah? How do he share it? Ranger?
And why are you looking at me like that?
Speaker 3 (26:28):
I told him Nick, I told him everything I told him.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
I get cheated.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Moralesaw, you shot him in the bag.
Speaker 8 (26:35):
For you.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Don't I'll try that again. I get up.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Missus Morales lost to babies.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Nick, Ain't you a proud of that?
Speaker 3 (26:48):
But you was buying your new card. She was losing day.
Don't say anymore.
Speaker 6 (26:53):
Please, man, you got a new card, didn't you.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Nick?
Speaker 3 (27:00):
You know where you're gonna drive in it?
Speaker 8 (27:01):
Don't you?
Speaker 5 (27:02):
Nick?
Speaker 2 (27:03):
You're no way take care of my sheriff. I'll take him,
all right, jeez, come on, Nick, let's go at his trial.
Speaker 5 (27:26):
Nick Howard broke down and confessed to the murder of
Jose Morales. He was sentenced to Huntsville Penitentiary for the
rest of his life.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
Next week, Joel McCray and another authentic reenactment of a
case from the files of the Texas Rangers. Joel McCray
is currently seen starring in the Universal International Tech Color
(28:00):
production Frenchsheet. Tonight's cast included Tony Barrett, Virginia, Greg Whitfield,
Connor Ed Begley, and Justair Harston. This story was transcribed
and adapted by Joel Murcott, and the program was produced
and directed by Stacy Keats.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Hal Gidney Speaking.
Speaker 9 (28:26):
Three Times Mean Good Times on NBC Remember Next Sunday
over most of these same NBC stations, listen one hour
and a half earlier for tales of the Texas Rangers, and.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
And you join the very best simanio. Be sure that
you done write see invite.
Speaker 7 (28:47):
The very best Stimmanio Morning, Noon and Night is from
this station Morning, Noon and Night MBC.
Speaker 9 (28:57):
Phil Baker invites you to join the sixty four dollars
question next on in BC
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Oh HM
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