August 15, 2025 • 29 mins
The "Tales Of The Texas Rangers Collection" brings together the most thrilling episodes from this iconic western radio series. Experience the rugged adventures and dramatic stories of the Texas Rangers as they pursue justice in the wild west. This collection is perfect for fans of westerns and those who enjoy action-packed radio dramas. Relive the golden age of radio with these timeless tales of heroism and adventure.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The National Broadcasting Company presents Joel McCrae in Tales of
the Texas Rangers Tonight Transcribe from Hollywood, another authentic reenactment
of a case from the files of the Texas Rangers,
(00:25):
Tales of the Texas Rangers, starring Joel McCrae as Ranger
Jase Pearson, Texas more than two hundred and sixty thousand
square miles and fifty men who make up the most
famous and oldest law enforcement party in North America. Now
(00:54):
from the files of the Texas Rangers come these stories based.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
On fact only.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Names, dates, and fights are fictitious for obvious reasons.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
They avounced themselves are a matter of.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Record case for Tonite dead Head Fright.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
It is shortly before midnight, August twenty seventh, nineteen thirty eight,
at the Santa Fe Freight Yards in Lubbock, Texas. A
dead head freight hauling empties back to the West Coast
from Galveston has just pulled into the yard.
Speaker 5 (01:32):
The brakeman and a railroad.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
Detective are making a routine check of the cars for
free riding hoboes.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
If I was a yard dick, I'd be snoozing in
the roundhouse. You ain't found a free rider in month?
So what I get paid? The check in night share?
You know? Boson the frates always hop off before we
pull into the yards.
Speaker 6 (01:49):
Every think one of them might fall a sleep in
the car and don't have anybody to wake him up.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Where it could be?
Speaker 6 (01:57):
Eh, fleshy lent nash Okay, hey gee, nobody now.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
The car up ahead is the last of the box cars.
I walked the flats and gondolas while we was rolling,
so I know that they're clear. Hey, hey, where's the
door rolled? Set on? Listen? I don't know now I
shouldn't be.
Speaker 6 (02:15):
And let's get her open and throw you later on here.
Nobody riding? Eh he count all right, bow on your
feet and throw that lighter right on here. Well, no
wonder it didn't move, Just an old upper bag. Yeah,
(02:37):
what's the difful bag doing on a dead head freight
in a minute?
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Eh? Hey, ain't come here? Feel is right? Feels like
a buddy?
Speaker 6 (02:47):
Hey, you get a nine pointing y'all here, And it's
a good thing we didn't pass these cars to jump
to the bag showed up tighter and to.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Cut right through the sight. Eh, what h's she jump.
Speaker 6 (03:01):
Yeah, stabbed to death and threw that light around the curve.
But what are you looking for? There's no blood in
any place. She wasn't killed on the train. Somebody must
have loaded the body on to get rid of it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Soon.
Speaker 6 (03:14):
The murder can't be pinned down any definite area. Where'd
you stop last before he pulled in here sid in
west of Sweetwater? The body must have been put on
some place between then and Galveston.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Then we better call the police.
Speaker 6 (03:29):
They can notify the Texas Rangers.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
After a brief but penetrating study of the situation, Ranger
Captain Stinson had the body.
Speaker 5 (03:43):
Removed to a Lubvick funeral parlor.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
He then requested Texas Ranger jas Pearson to take over
the case.
Speaker 7 (03:51):
Well there it is, jeez, pretty brutal job of stabbing.
Speaker 8 (03:55):
You figured it happened a good piece from here, huh?
Speaker 7 (03:57):
A couple of reasons for that. Here's a map shows
the route the freight train. Cook spots circled in red,
shows where it made stops and at what time.
Speaker 8 (04:07):
I see no stops after it left the siding outside Sweetwater, huh.
Speaker 7 (04:12):
Right, And most of the stops were made much further east.
Speaker 8 (04:17):
Well, according to the time of these stops, a body
must have been loaded on the train between Presby here
and Turner City here. Well, how do you arrive at
that train made all its night stops between these points.
Isn't likely the killer loaded the body on by daylight,
too much chance of being spotted by the train crew.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
That's a good reasoning, Jase, you may be right, he said.
Speaker 8 (04:36):
The body was sewed up in a duffel bag.
Speaker 7 (04:38):
Yeah, you better look at it before I sent it
on to the lad and I have the undertaker lock
it in this cabinet and give me the key. Yeh,
here it is regular opening at the top of the
bag is sewed up tight.
Speaker 8 (04:53):
A draw cord is missing. See good thing. The man
who found the body cut into the bag instead of
ripping out those new stitches.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Yeah, let's see what you mean. Kind of funniest stitching.
Speaker 8 (05:03):
It may have been made by somebody with a special
trade where that kind of stitching is used. Lab gets
a look at it may be able to tell us
what trade.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Well, I hope. So the bag itself won't help much.
Speaker 8 (05:13):
I'm afraid I'm probably picked up in war surplus. Could
belong to anybody. Hey, look at this the bottom of
the bag.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
It's kind of soiled.
Speaker 7 (05:22):
Whoever carted it around with a body and it must
have set it on the ground to rest.
Speaker 8 (05:26):
You sure did on reddish brown earth blood seepach made
some of it stick. Let's have a look at that
train map again. I think that earth stain kind of
narrows down our search cabin.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Oh, I'll come.
Speaker 8 (05:40):
I know the country that train passed at night. I've
been over at plenty. Only place i've seen earth that
color is right around this area and a few stream beds.
Cotton Belt runs parallel to the railroad for about forty
miles through there. Well, I've seen all I want to see.
Unless you have something else, Nope, let's go. I'll get
this bag, go off to Austin. Are he going to
(06:02):
be held here for identification?
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (06:04):
If she isn't identified, we will see if we can
run down something by her clothes.
Speaker 8 (06:08):
Any laundry marks or anything on him.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Fraid not.
Speaker 7 (06:11):
Jas homemade and home laundered. No dental work to help
us either, and a fingerprints out on the fire.
Speaker 8 (06:17):
I'd have a man check on the shoes she was wearing.
They weren't homemade, and we will try it. You've got
any ideas about what you're going to do, If it's
all right with you, I'd like to take a crack
at that cotton belt area, tow charcoal down on the
horse trailer and then ride parallel to the railroad tracks
and see what I can find.
Speaker 7 (06:34):
It's a lot of territory. How about Steve Clark riding
with you? Good deal, we get anything from the lab,
I'll let you know. I'll radio Clark and assign him
and you can pick him up on the way.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Good luck, Jase, Thanks Captain, you'll hear from me. I
met Clark.
Speaker 8 (07:00):
We drove down to the beginning of the area I
wanted to check, left the car and used our horses
for the long.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Ride along the rail bed. By noon of the next
day we covered fifteen miles. Horses are getting tired, Jason.
Speaker 8 (07:11):
I know there's a siding a little ways ahead. Freight
stopped there.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Yeah, looking at the cover coming up?
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yeah, bank's pretty steep. Watch your heart right, careful boy,
easy charcoal, easy steep. Climb out of here, jas maybe
if we're right. Hey, what are you looking at?
Speaker 7 (07:31):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (07:31):
The crowd?
Speaker 8 (07:32):
Huh yeah, same reddish brown color. We've been checking for right, don't.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
See anything else, so want to ride through a ways?
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yeah, come on, Chark boy, I don't want to be
a killed joye Jays. But we've done this in a
dozen creek beds. Yeah, but none of the others were.
Speaker 8 (07:47):
It's close to a train stop siding's only about fifty
yards further up the ooh ooh charcoal.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Oh boy oo buying something, Jase?
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Yeah, come here, what is it? Ah?
Speaker 8 (08:01):
Marks in the sand, trace of a couple of footprints.
Not enough to make a cast. Look at this other
mark around impression, Yeah, what made it? Might have been
somebody setting that Duffel bag down.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Yeah, that would have count for the jerch you found
on the bag. We'll find out.
Speaker 8 (08:16):
Get a glass jar from your saddle page, Okay, gonna
cut a cor around that mark. Yeah, lab contested for blood,
trace earth this color. We can't tell anything by sight.
And here's the job, Hanks.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
A few empty cans around here, Jas, Those marks might
have been made by a hobo.
Speaker 8 (08:32):
No, I don't think so. Then those stiffs travel light.
They don't carry Duffel bags. What's the nearest town to hear, Bullville?
About a mile further on. Well, let's get there. We
can phone for a highway patrol car and they can
drive you back and pick up our car.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Right, you're gonna check around Bullville with a fine tooth comb.
Speaker 8 (08:52):
The cotton crop around Bulville was good, too, good. Migratory
pickers were jamming the town. I had photos of the
dead girl. Tried to find somebody who might have seen her.
Speaker 9 (09:03):
No, no, ranger, never saw her around the gyin here.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Town's full of though.
Speaker 9 (09:08):
It's possible one of the pickers saw or someplace.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
You know, anybody who comes in contact with a lot
of the pickers.
Speaker 9 (09:14):
No, no train, you have to tackle damn coop a crew.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
That's what I was trying to avoid.
Speaker 9 (09:19):
Yeah, yeah, must be a couple of thousand minigators around.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
You might if I asked your man at the Wayne
platform to check with the haulers when they bring cotton
in for Jenny. Saw right with me. Thanks, Oh a ranger.
Speaker 9 (09:31):
Hover in a second, just half the steak. There is
somebody who gets to see a lot of the pickers.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Oh.
Speaker 9 (09:40):
The Mexican woman names Old Rosie drives a junkie old
truck around pedaling soda pop in the fields.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
You know where I can locate her?
Speaker 9 (09:48):
Haulers give you a lift out of the fields, and
somebody will steal out to her. Everybody knows, old Rosie.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
Somebody killed that poor GIRLA.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
That's right, Rosie.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
You ever see her, you'll find who killer.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
You're going to put him in a jail.
Speaker 8 (10:10):
That's my job, how about it. You ever seen her
around here?
Speaker 3 (10:14):
See one time where at the bus station in the town,
she was with a man.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
You know who the man was? No, Senor, why do
you hesitate? Is that the truth? Why should I tell lie? Senor?
I don't know who the man was.
Speaker 8 (10:39):
She described the man a vague, stumbling description that might
fit anybody. And while she described him, I had a
feeling she was lying, A feeling that was strengthened by
a faint odor of whiskey coming from the truck. Whatever
business Rosie was in, it wasn't limited to the sale
of soft drinks.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
I pretended the Swallower story.
Speaker 8 (10:56):
Then I got a lift back to town, where Steve
Clark was waiting with our car.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
But if in Jay's just had a cough, mauston and
they checked.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
The earth samples sent in in the jar. Yeah, blood
trace all right, same type as the victims. They got
a line on a few other things too. The shoes
on the dead girl have been traced through the manufactured
to a store in Sheffield. Wrote down the name of
the store and the address. Better get over there and
see if we can establish identity. Yeah, shees will be
waiting at the Sheffield Airport. It isn't likely that the
shoe clerk is gonna remember who he sold them to.
Speaker 8 (11:25):
Though I saw the shoes. They've been repaired recently. Whoever
fixed them might remember. Well, that's a chance any information
on that Duffel bank.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Yeah, lab ties in with a seaman. Ah, the stitches
used to show up the bag or the kind seamen
used a man to torn sail chase. She looked like
that throws you, It does a little. I was beginning
to have a sneaking suspicion about an old Mexican woman.
But she's no seaman. What made you suspect her? She
said she saw the.
Speaker 8 (11:51):
Dead girl with a man. She gave me kind of
a phony description. Not only that, but she's supposed to
be selling soft drinks to the field ends from an
old truck.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
It wreaked a liquor. Oh bootleg in huh hey, that
could mean something. What I'll report from Morriston. Mentioned liquor
stains and that Duffel bag. Actually, they just figured that
a bottle had been broken in the bag at one
time or another.
Speaker 8 (12:13):
But yeah, but it could be something else too. Yeah,
that bag might have been used for haul and moonshine.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Stop the car, Hey, Jace, what's the matter? Slide out.
I'm going to Sheffield alone. You stay here, okay, Jash.
What do you want me to work on?
Speaker 8 (12:27):
Taylor Rosie the Mexican woman While I'm gone, Check on
any special contact she makes. Whoever she sees, find out
who they are. See if you can run down any
who've worked as seamen. I burned up the road to Sheffield.
The clerk who'd sold the shoes couldn't help, but I
(12:47):
got the information I was after in a repair shop.
Speaker 5 (12:50):
My shoe shoe. I fixed these all right.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
Look here's who I sowed the broken strap, you see,
I remember because of something else it too. I never
get to pay for the job. Bushoes on Missus Watson.
She's a livery two blocks up a brown wood.
Speaker 8 (13:03):
House and Missus Watson, uh her husband around.
Speaker 5 (13:06):
No, no, no, it's a go away a month ago.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
That's why she got no money to pay for the shows,
and on Jibad she lived with her mother and a
little baby's a one year old.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Any idea where her husband went.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
Oh nos, Sometimes, she says, to go away for work
or someplace with a cotton sometimes to galvest them to
work her for the boat. He's in a sailor hunh
sail everything. Whatever he is, he is, He not send
the money. Last week is she come in? She says
she's gonna meet him and she's gonna pay me when
she's come back.
Speaker 5 (13:33):
But she's not come back. Hey, just a minute, why
ask me all this thing?
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Eh? You know how come you all got the shows?
Speaker 8 (13:42):
Because missus Watson doesn't need him anymore. She's dead.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
You are listening to Tales of the Texas Rangers, starring
Joey as Ranger Chase Pearson. We continue now with tonight's case,
dead Head Freight, an authentic story from the fields of
the Texas Rangers.
Speaker 8 (14:17):
It wasn't the kind of news you enjoy breaking to
a dead girl's mother and the girl's baby crying in
the next room.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
To help it, Annie, you see it split up about
a month ago, and then last week her husband wrote
to her from Beaulville. He said he was sorry. Wanted
my daughter Helen to come to meet. I thought she
was there with it looks like she was for a while.
You promised Helen everything in a letter, said he had
(14:46):
a lot of money from her. The baby. She was
never any good. Now the babies left to me. I'm
just too, I'm sorry, ma'am.
Speaker 8 (14:56):
Can you give me your son in law's full name
and his description?
Speaker 2 (15:00):
But Watson is his name.
Speaker 5 (15:02):
They call him Bud, her bird Bud?
Speaker 2 (15:05):
And watch about how tall? Would you say?
Speaker 8 (15:08):
You better put yourself together, ma'am. Somebody's at the door.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
I'll call out the wind and send him before. I
don't want to see anybody. What is it, ma'am? What's
the matter?
Speaker 5 (15:20):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Somebody open the door?
Speaker 8 (15:24):
I sud him open all right, ma'am, opening the door
and let him in?
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Go ahead? What took you so long? Where's Helen?
Speaker 4 (15:34):
You know where she is?
Speaker 2 (15:36):
What did you do to her?
Speaker 9 (15:37):
What did you do?
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Are you crazy? What's the matter? Let him go, ma'am
and stand back. What brings you? Get your hands up
and turn around? Kill that you got the call to
come in with your own baby?
Speaker 7 (15:49):
Crime?
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Rachel? What is his kill? Whom Helen. Where's Helen? Where
is she? Don't you know? Watson? What did you think
she'd never be identified? Helen's been murdered? Oh no, no,
you get it? Ye no, mom, No. I gave him money,
told her to come back home, and i'd meet a
(16:11):
here today who is going to take the kidden make
a fresh start. How much money did you give your wife?
Thousand dollars? That's a lot. Where'd you get it? Come on?
I was bootlegging to the pickers. How long you've been
getting away with that? Started it last season? Did old
(16:32):
Rosie sell any of this stuff for you? How did
you know about that? I didn't for sure until now.
Speaker 8 (16:39):
Come on, we're going back to your place of business
in Bowlville.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Hi, yes, Dave, and I got your message to meet
you here.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Rosies over there want to get her off the truck.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
She can talk from there. Come on, you two, Watson? Okay?
Speaker 8 (17:04):
Bud Watson murdered girl's husband and moot legg him here.
Rosie's been moving some of the stuff for him.
Speaker 6 (17:08):
Huh, Why you keep me from my works in yours?
Speaker 8 (17:13):
Your work isn't as legal as it could be.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Rosie's sit tighty You ever seen this man before. You know,
she's seen me before. I didn't ask you. How about it, Rosie?
Speaker 8 (17:23):
See all right, Rosie, Now is he the same man
you saw at the bus depot with a girl whose
picture I showed you?
Speaker 2 (17:31):
See, he's the mine at the bus depot. But that
ain't so. I was never with Helen at the bus depot.
You didn't meet her when she came down here. No,
I'll tell you. I didn't know what bus she was
coming in on, or even if she would come after
she got my letter. First I saw her. She turned
up here at the sheeck. How about when she left
to go home? She only stayed two three hours? All told?
(17:53):
Let her go back to the bus depot alone, because
well it was getting dark and you're time for the
pickers to be coming there to buy drinks. You hear that, Rosie.
That means one of you is lying, Rosie, Tell you truth, Senor.
You don't always tell the truth. Rosie.
Speaker 8 (18:09):
The first time I asked you about the man you saw,
you said he was a stranger, a man you'd never
seen before.
Speaker 6 (18:13):
You forget, Senor, I see a lot of people every
day in the fields.
Speaker 8 (18:18):
Yeah, you trying to kid me. You've been selling liquor
for this man. You couldn't mistake him for a strange I.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Do, Senor, I make mistake you wanted hell?
Speaker 2 (18:28):
If I give you hell, Rosie tell you all she knows.
That's all. Now.
Speaker 8 (18:39):
It was obvious that Rosie was lying, just as I'd
suspected her of lying the first time.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
I had to be a reason for it. He took
Bud Watson and the Bowlville jail and went back to
search his shack. I can't figure something, Jess. Why won't
Watson admit it? If he was at the bus station
with his wife, that wouldn't.
Speaker 8 (18:57):
Hurt him, It wouldn't. That's why I think he's telling
the truth. Rosie must be covering up for something, covering
up for somebody's a better guess.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
She might have done it herself. No, I don't think so.
Speaker 8 (19:07):
She's too old A cart a body across the country
to the railroad.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
And then you figure she really did see missus Watson
at the bustypo with the man.
Speaker 8 (19:14):
Huh, yeah, the man who killed her to get the
thousand dollars Bud Watson had given her.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Well, then what's Rosie's angle in line to us?
Speaker 2 (19:21):
That's an easy one. Steve shakedown. Hey, Chase, you're right,
couldn't be anything else. Why I'd be worth the cut
for her to forget seeing the man and say it
was Watson instead. Only one thing wrong with it, And
I watched her while you were gone. She didn't make
any suspicious contacts, nothing that could have been a payoff.
Speaker 8 (19:41):
She might have gotten her payoff right after I showed
her the Watson girl's picture and told her she'd been murdered.
That was before you started the tailor. Yeah, I didn't
think of that. She had time and we comb this
shack Jase, nothing here.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
What do we do now? Go back to Taylor Rosie again.
Speaker 8 (19:57):
If she squeezed hush money out of the man once,
she's like to try it again, they all do. We'll
start by watching her house when she comes in from
the fields. Tonight we staked out near Rosie's adobe hut,
but it got dark and she didn't come in from
the fields. I left Steve on watch and went out
(20:18):
to look for keeping an eye out.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
For old truck.
Speaker 8 (20:21):
I found it about five miles out, surrounded by a
group of men carrying torches.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Hey, what's going on here? Oh ranger Rosie? You bet
it come. Now. What happened? We were walking into town.
Speaker 9 (20:40):
Saw the truck here by the side of the roads,
so maybe.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
It broke down. So we started to call roll. Rosie
and one of the boys fought. Of the blood on
the ground. Blood, I'll show you over here. Must fuel.
Speaker 9 (20:51):
Rosie's a reckon because we found her over here in
the cotton roll. She's dead, ranger. Somebody cut her throat
from ear to ear.
Speaker 8 (21:06):
Old Rosie had tried to shake down a killer once
too often, with the usual payoff. I sent a rush,
called to Steve Clark to Toy's horse out and joined me.
We followed the trail, which led to a deserted picker
shack way off in a field that looked like it
hadn't been culivated for years. The shack had been occupied,
though recently occupied, but whoever had been there was gone.
(21:29):
There's a lamp there, Steve lighted.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Yeah, as clean as a whistle, Jae.
Speaker 8 (21:35):
Yeah, it's too clean. Floor has been scrub mighty hide
for a shack like this, It.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Sure has, especially for a place nobody's living. It must
have been cleaning up blood.
Speaker 8 (21:44):
Yeah, and there are two other things.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
What's that?
Speaker 8 (21:48):
Whoever was hiding here was mighty handy with a knife.
Look at the inside of the door circle drawn on
the wood, wood chipped where somebody practiced throwing a knife
at it.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Eh, good aim, all the marks right, smack inside the circle.
Now what else? Take a look at the lamp you
just lit. The cord that's hanging by. It's just an
ordinary hunkle rope.
Speaker 8 (22:07):
Except for the knot holding the lamp, a running bolan
so the light could be raised their lord towards the table.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
A running bolan is a seman's not.
Speaker 8 (22:15):
Yeah, and that cord is just about big enough to
be the drawer cord from a duffel bag. Our seamen
was here, all right.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
It couldn't have been Watson.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
Jac was safe in jail when Rosie was killed.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (22:26):
Whoever Rosie saw with missus Watson at the bus depot
must have met the girl after she left Watson after
she had the money. Yeah, married woman on her way
home to her baby. Isn't able to leave a bus
deepo with a stranger? Is she chances I was somebody
she knew Watson's been a sailor. It might have been
an old ship made of his Let's go see if
he remembers one who was henned they with a knife.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
You say somebody killed old Rosie.
Speaker 8 (22:56):
Yeah, the same man who kills your wife. I'll think
and think her. The killer was a seaman. We got
reason to think it could be an old shipmate of
yours who knew your wife.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Oh but Helen, new shipmates mine all along the Gulf.
I introduced to the lots of him. The one we
want had a habit of throwing a knife, and he
drew targets on the door. Never missed Matt Corpett. It
was Matt Corbett.
Speaker 8 (23:18):
How do you know any reason for him to be
around here?
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Yeah? He was my partner last year, boot legging here.
Business got bad and he left. I wrote two months ago,
asked and come back for this pickup, But it never
answered me. Did Rosie know him? Sure she did from
last year.
Speaker 8 (23:34):
That's it, Clark Rose. He'd seen Corpett with Missus Watson.
That's why he couldn't run with the money after.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
He'd killed her.
Speaker 8 (23:40):
He had to wait to see if the body was
found and identified.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
And when we moved in and she knew about the murder,
she really had him pinned down. And it used to
be my best friend as sleep. Never mind that. Now,
where would he run to? I don't know. He was
always Roman like me.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
You wrote to him someplace, you said you must have
an address.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Yeah, yeah, it was general delivery at Port O'Connor. There's
no bait shack there. He lived in it whenever he
had enough money to stop moving for a while. He's
got enough now what he got from your wife.
Speaker 8 (24:11):
Come on, Clark, let's get him. We headed for Port O'Connor,
made it by morning and found the abandoned bait shack.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Nobody inside. Jays can see through the window. He isn't here, and.
Speaker 8 (24:30):
He's probably traveling by freight to avoid being spotted.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
He couldn't have beaten us here. We rolled too fast.
Gonna stake it out and wait.
Speaker 8 (24:37):
Yeah, our car's out of sight where we left it.
He won't spot it. Come along the wharf. Come on,
let's go inside.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Yeah, it looked like Matt Corbett's the man will after
aw right, same trademarks here. We found that picker shack
at Boulville.
Speaker 8 (24:55):
Yeah, knife marks in a circle on the door, same
running bowl and holding lamp.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
Draw that burlap sack across the window. That'll make it
pretty dark. In here, Jason.
Speaker 8 (25:05):
You want it dark when you're throwing a surprise party, Steve, Steve,
wake up?
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Somebody coming along on the wharf. It's dark? What time?
As if that'll after midnight? Steps are coming closer hand
must be Carbett. Not going to bring anybody else this
way at this time of night. You shouldn't fail, all right?
Speaker 8 (25:32):
Yeah, but I'm getting all the way inside. And remember
he's got that knife and he's handy with it.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
I know, right, Corbett. Never mind that lamp. What did
I think that?
Speaker 5 (25:47):
Steve Handling?
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Turns down your carpet. You us thinking fast?
Speaker 8 (25:52):
My arm, my arm, just brench your shoulder, carpet. Keep
your throwing that knife for a while. Come on, get
up better light the lamp now, Steve.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
It's a good thing you jumped Jason up that and
I passing my ear look better than that wall A
good inch Rangers. I thought you were a couple of crooks.
What's she doing here?
Speaker 8 (26:22):
Just dropped into arresture for the murder of Helen Watson
and old Rosie up at Boulville.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
It'd be nice if you could prove it. I haven't
been near Bulville.
Speaker 8 (26:32):
I think we can prove you were mark she left
on the door, and a few other things.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
I'd come back right. Are you kidding?
Speaker 8 (26:39):
No, I'm serious. You should have rowed pullman, get your
shoes shined on. A pullman would have taken that reddish
brown earth off your shoes. Our lab can match that
with Boulville.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Watch off with that shoulder. That's better, Corby. Want a
cup from Jason?
Speaker 8 (26:57):
No, I think you'll come quiet, all right, Corbett, Let's move.
Speaker 4 (27:16):
Herbert Bud Watson served the required term for his bootlegging activities,
and Matt Corbett was tried and convicted of murder.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
The sentence of the.
Speaker 4 (27:24):
Court was carried out on February twentieth, nineteen thirty nine,
when at Huntsville Penitentiary, Matt Corbett died in the electric chair.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
And now here again is the star of our show.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Joel McCrae with another interesting story about the Texas Rangers.
Speaker 8 (27:50):
In the early days of Texas, major disturbances were not infrequent.
It was a lusty, brawling, growing territory, and as happens
in such a territory, there were days when the street
were not safe for the good citizens. An Easterner happening
into a Texas town at such a time, found shelter
in the house of a minister.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Everything will be all right soon, he was assured.
Speaker 8 (28:11):
Later that same afternoon, the minister, who'd been looking out
the window, said, well, friend, the streets are safe now.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
You may go about your business.
Speaker 8 (28:19):
The Easterner looked out the window, but all he saw
was a lone figure riding casually down the main street
on a horse. What makes you think it's safe for
me out there now, he asked in bewilderment. The minister
pointed to the horseman, because that feller on the horse
is a Texas Ranger, he said. Only folks that aren't
safe in this town now are the ones who started
(28:41):
the trouble, and when he finds them, they wish they'd
been peaceable. Good night, folks, see you next week.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Next week Jole mc cray and another authentic reenactment of
a case from the files of but Texas Ranger Joel
McCrae is currently seen starring in the MGM production Stars
in My Crown The Night's Past included Tony Barrett, Herbellus,
Tom Holland, Tyrant Kan, Tom McKee, and Lillian Bayer. This
(29:16):
story was transcribed and adapted by Joel Murcock, and the
program was produced and directed.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
By Stacy keats Hell. Give Me Speaking
Speaker 3 (29:33):
Three Times, Being Good Times on NBC
The National Broadcasting Company presents Joel McCrae in Tales of
the Texas Rangers Tonight Transcribe from Hollywood, another authentic reenactment
of a case from the files of the Texas Rangers,
(00:25):
Tales of the Texas Rangers, starring Joel McCrae as Ranger
Jase Pearson, Texas more than two hundred and sixty thousand
square miles and fifty men who make up the most
famous and oldest law enforcement party in North America. Now
(00:54):
from the files of the Texas Rangers come these stories based.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
On fact only.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Names, dates, and fights are fictitious for obvious reasons.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
They avounced themselves are a matter of.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Record case for Tonite dead Head Fright.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
It is shortly before midnight, August twenty seventh, nineteen thirty eight,
at the Santa Fe Freight Yards in Lubbock, Texas. A
dead head freight hauling empties back to the West Coast
from Galveston has just pulled into the yard.
Speaker 5 (01:32):
The brakeman and a railroad.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
Detective are making a routine check of the cars for
free riding hoboes.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
If I was a yard dick, I'd be snoozing in
the roundhouse. You ain't found a free rider in month?
So what I get paid? The check in night share?
You know? Boson the frates always hop off before we
pull into the yards.
Speaker 6 (01:49):
Every think one of them might fall a sleep in
the car and don't have anybody to wake him up.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Where it could be?
Speaker 6 (01:57):
Eh, fleshy lent nash Okay, hey gee, nobody now.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
The car up ahead is the last of the box cars.
I walked the flats and gondolas while we was rolling,
so I know that they're clear. Hey, hey, where's the
door rolled? Set on? Listen? I don't know now I
shouldn't be.
Speaker 6 (02:15):
And let's get her open and throw you later on here.
Nobody riding? Eh he count all right, bow on your
feet and throw that lighter right on here. Well, no
wonder it didn't move, Just an old upper bag. Yeah,
(02:37):
what's the difful bag doing on a dead head freight
in a minute?
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Eh? Hey, ain't come here? Feel is right? Feels like
a buddy?
Speaker 6 (02:47):
Hey, you get a nine pointing y'all here, And it's
a good thing we didn't pass these cars to jump
to the bag showed up tighter and to.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Cut right through the sight. Eh, what h's she jump.
Speaker 6 (03:01):
Yeah, stabbed to death and threw that light around the curve.
But what are you looking for? There's no blood in
any place. She wasn't killed on the train. Somebody must
have loaded the body on to get rid of it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Soon.
Speaker 6 (03:14):
The murder can't be pinned down any definite area. Where'd
you stop last before he pulled in here sid in
west of Sweetwater? The body must have been put on
some place between then and Galveston.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Then we better call the police.
Speaker 6 (03:29):
They can notify the Texas Rangers.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
After a brief but penetrating study of the situation, Ranger
Captain Stinson had the body.
Speaker 5 (03:43):
Removed to a Lubvick funeral parlor.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
He then requested Texas Ranger jas Pearson to take over
the case.
Speaker 7 (03:51):
Well there it is, jeez, pretty brutal job of stabbing.
Speaker 8 (03:55):
You figured it happened a good piece from here, huh?
Speaker 7 (03:57):
A couple of reasons for that. Here's a map shows
the route the freight train. Cook spots circled in red,
shows where it made stops and at what time.
Speaker 8 (04:07):
I see no stops after it left the siding outside Sweetwater, huh.
Speaker 7 (04:12):
Right, And most of the stops were made much further east.
Speaker 8 (04:17):
Well, according to the time of these stops, a body
must have been loaded on the train between Presby here
and Turner City here. Well, how do you arrive at
that train made all its night stops between these points.
Isn't likely the killer loaded the body on by daylight,
too much chance of being spotted by the train crew.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
That's a good reasoning, Jase, you may be right, he said.
Speaker 8 (04:36):
The body was sewed up in a duffel bag.
Speaker 7 (04:38):
Yeah, you better look at it before I sent it
on to the lad and I have the undertaker lock
it in this cabinet and give me the key. Yeh,
here it is regular opening at the top of the
bag is sewed up tight.
Speaker 8 (04:53):
A draw cord is missing. See good thing. The man
who found the body cut into the bag instead of
ripping out those new stitches.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Yeah, let's see what you mean. Kind of funniest stitching.
Speaker 8 (05:03):
It may have been made by somebody with a special
trade where that kind of stitching is used. Lab gets
a look at it may be able to tell us
what trade.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Well, I hope. So the bag itself won't help much.
Speaker 8 (05:13):
I'm afraid I'm probably picked up in war surplus. Could
belong to anybody. Hey, look at this the bottom of
the bag.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
It's kind of soiled.
Speaker 7 (05:22):
Whoever carted it around with a body and it must
have set it on the ground to rest.
Speaker 8 (05:26):
You sure did on reddish brown earth blood seepach made
some of it stick. Let's have a look at that
train map again. I think that earth stain kind of
narrows down our search cabin.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Oh, I'll come.
Speaker 8 (05:40):
I know the country that train passed at night. I've
been over at plenty. Only place i've seen earth that
color is right around this area and a few stream beds.
Cotton Belt runs parallel to the railroad for about forty
miles through there. Well, I've seen all I want to see.
Unless you have something else, Nope, let's go. I'll get
this bag, go off to Austin. Are he going to
(06:02):
be held here for identification?
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (06:04):
If she isn't identified, we will see if we can
run down something by her clothes.
Speaker 8 (06:08):
Any laundry marks or anything on him.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Fraid not.
Speaker 7 (06:11):
Jas homemade and home laundered. No dental work to help
us either, and a fingerprints out on the fire.
Speaker 8 (06:17):
I'd have a man check on the shoes she was wearing.
They weren't homemade, and we will try it. You've got
any ideas about what you're going to do, If it's
all right with you, I'd like to take a crack
at that cotton belt area, tow charcoal down on the
horse trailer and then ride parallel to the railroad tracks
and see what I can find.
Speaker 7 (06:34):
It's a lot of territory. How about Steve Clark riding
with you? Good deal, we get anything from the lab,
I'll let you know. I'll radio Clark and assign him
and you can pick him up on the way.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Good luck, Jase, Thanks Captain, you'll hear from me. I
met Clark.
Speaker 8 (07:00):
We drove down to the beginning of the area I
wanted to check, left the car and used our horses
for the long.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Ride along the rail bed. By noon of the next
day we covered fifteen miles. Horses are getting tired, Jason.
Speaker 8 (07:11):
I know there's a siding a little ways ahead. Freight
stopped there.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Yeah, looking at the cover coming up?
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yeah, bank's pretty steep. Watch your heart right, careful boy,
easy charcoal, easy steep. Climb out of here, jas maybe
if we're right. Hey, what are you looking at?
Speaker 7 (07:31):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (07:31):
The crowd?
Speaker 8 (07:32):
Huh yeah, same reddish brown color. We've been checking for right, don't.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
See anything else, so want to ride through a ways?
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yeah, come on, Chark boy, I don't want to be
a killed joye Jays. But we've done this in a
dozen creek beds. Yeah, but none of the others were.
Speaker 8 (07:47):
It's close to a train stop siding's only about fifty
yards further up the ooh ooh charcoal.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Oh boy oo buying something, Jase?
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Yeah, come here, what is it? Ah?
Speaker 8 (08:01):
Marks in the sand, trace of a couple of footprints.
Not enough to make a cast. Look at this other
mark around impression, Yeah, what made it? Might have been
somebody setting that Duffel bag down.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Yeah, that would have count for the jerch you found
on the bag. We'll find out.
Speaker 8 (08:16):
Get a glass jar from your saddle page, Okay, gonna
cut a cor around that mark. Yeah, lab contested for blood,
trace earth this color. We can't tell anything by sight.
And here's the job, Hanks.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
A few empty cans around here, Jas, Those marks might
have been made by a hobo.
Speaker 8 (08:32):
No, I don't think so. Then those stiffs travel light.
They don't carry Duffel bags. What's the nearest town to hear, Bullville?
About a mile further on. Well, let's get there. We
can phone for a highway patrol car and they can
drive you back and pick up our car.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Right, you're gonna check around Bullville with a fine tooth comb.
Speaker 8 (08:52):
The cotton crop around Bulville was good, too, good. Migratory
pickers were jamming the town. I had photos of the
dead girl. Tried to find somebody who might have seen her.
Speaker 9 (09:03):
No, no, ranger, never saw her around the gyin here.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Town's full of though.
Speaker 9 (09:08):
It's possible one of the pickers saw or someplace.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
You know, anybody who comes in contact with a lot
of the pickers.
Speaker 9 (09:14):
No, no train, you have to tackle damn coop a crew.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
That's what I was trying to avoid.
Speaker 9 (09:19):
Yeah, yeah, must be a couple of thousand minigators around.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
You might if I asked your man at the Wayne
platform to check with the haulers when they bring cotton
in for Jenny. Saw right with me. Thanks, Oh a ranger.
Speaker 9 (09:31):
Hover in a second, just half the steak. There is
somebody who gets to see a lot of the pickers.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Oh.
Speaker 9 (09:40):
The Mexican woman names Old Rosie drives a junkie old
truck around pedaling soda pop in the fields.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
You know where I can locate her?
Speaker 9 (09:48):
Haulers give you a lift out of the fields, and
somebody will steal out to her. Everybody knows, old Rosie.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
Somebody killed that poor GIRLA.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
That's right, Rosie.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
You ever see her, you'll find who killer.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
You're going to put him in a jail.
Speaker 8 (10:10):
That's my job, how about it. You ever seen her
around here?
Speaker 3 (10:14):
See one time where at the bus station in the town,
she was with a man.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
You know who the man was? No, Senor, why do
you hesitate? Is that the truth? Why should I tell lie? Senor?
I don't know who the man was.
Speaker 8 (10:39):
She described the man a vague, stumbling description that might
fit anybody. And while she described him, I had a
feeling she was lying, A feeling that was strengthened by
a faint odor of whiskey coming from the truck. Whatever
business Rosie was in, it wasn't limited to the sale
of soft drinks.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
I pretended the Swallower story.
Speaker 8 (10:56):
Then I got a lift back to town, where Steve
Clark was waiting with our car.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
But if in Jay's just had a cough, mauston and
they checked.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
The earth samples sent in in the jar. Yeah, blood
trace all right, same type as the victims. They got
a line on a few other things too. The shoes
on the dead girl have been traced through the manufactured
to a store in Sheffield. Wrote down the name of
the store and the address. Better get over there and
see if we can establish identity. Yeah, shees will be
waiting at the Sheffield Airport. It isn't likely that the
shoe clerk is gonna remember who he sold them to.
Speaker 8 (11:25):
Though I saw the shoes. They've been repaired recently. Whoever
fixed them might remember. Well, that's a chance any information
on that Duffel bank.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Yeah, lab ties in with a seaman. Ah, the stitches
used to show up the bag or the kind seamen
used a man to torn sail chase. She looked like
that throws you, It does a little. I was beginning
to have a sneaking suspicion about an old Mexican woman.
But she's no seaman. What made you suspect her? She
said she saw the.
Speaker 8 (11:51):
Dead girl with a man. She gave me kind of
a phony description. Not only that, but she's supposed to
be selling soft drinks to the field ends from an
old truck.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
It wreaked a liquor. Oh bootleg in huh hey, that
could mean something. What I'll report from Morriston. Mentioned liquor
stains and that Duffel bag. Actually, they just figured that
a bottle had been broken in the bag at one
time or another.
Speaker 8 (12:13):
But yeah, but it could be something else too. Yeah,
that bag might have been used for haul and moonshine.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Stop the car, Hey, Jace, what's the matter? Slide out.
I'm going to Sheffield alone. You stay here, okay, Jash.
What do you want me to work on?
Speaker 8 (12:27):
Taylor Rosie the Mexican woman While I'm gone, Check on
any special contact she makes. Whoever she sees, find out
who they are. See if you can run down any
who've worked as seamen. I burned up the road to Sheffield.
The clerk who'd sold the shoes couldn't help, but I
(12:47):
got the information I was after in a repair shop.
Speaker 5 (12:50):
My shoe shoe. I fixed these all right.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
Look here's who I sowed the broken strap, you see,
I remember because of something else it too. I never
get to pay for the job. Bushoes on Missus Watson.
She's a livery two blocks up a brown wood.
Speaker 8 (13:03):
House and Missus Watson, uh her husband around.
Speaker 5 (13:06):
No, no, no, it's a go away a month ago.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
That's why she got no money to pay for the shows,
and on Jibad she lived with her mother and a
little baby's a one year old.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Any idea where her husband went.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
Oh nos, Sometimes, she says, to go away for work
or someplace with a cotton sometimes to galvest them to
work her for the boat. He's in a sailor hunh
sail everything. Whatever he is, he is, He not send
the money. Last week is she come in? She says
she's gonna meet him and she's gonna pay me when
she's come back.
Speaker 5 (13:33):
But she's not come back. Hey, just a minute, why
ask me all this thing?
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Eh? You know how come you all got the shows?
Speaker 8 (13:42):
Because missus Watson doesn't need him anymore. She's dead.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
You are listening to Tales of the Texas Rangers, starring
Joey as Ranger Chase Pearson. We continue now with tonight's case,
dead Head Freight, an authentic story from the fields of
the Texas Rangers.
Speaker 8 (14:17):
It wasn't the kind of news you enjoy breaking to
a dead girl's mother and the girl's baby crying in
the next room.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
To help it, Annie, you see it split up about
a month ago, and then last week her husband wrote
to her from Beaulville. He said he was sorry. Wanted
my daughter Helen to come to meet. I thought she
was there with it looks like she was for a while.
You promised Helen everything in a letter, said he had
(14:46):
a lot of money from her. The baby. She was
never any good. Now the babies left to me. I'm
just too, I'm sorry, ma'am.
Speaker 8 (14:56):
Can you give me your son in law's full name
and his description?
Speaker 2 (15:00):
But Watson is his name.
Speaker 5 (15:02):
They call him Bud, her bird Bud?
Speaker 2 (15:05):
And watch about how tall? Would you say?
Speaker 8 (15:08):
You better put yourself together, ma'am. Somebody's at the door.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
I'll call out the wind and send him before. I
don't want to see anybody. What is it, ma'am? What's
the matter?
Speaker 5 (15:20):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Somebody open the door?
Speaker 8 (15:24):
I sud him open all right, ma'am, opening the door
and let him in?
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Go ahead? What took you so long? Where's Helen?
Speaker 4 (15:34):
You know where she is?
Speaker 2 (15:36):
What did you do to her?
Speaker 9 (15:37):
What did you do?
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Are you crazy? What's the matter? Let him go, ma'am
and stand back. What brings you? Get your hands up
and turn around? Kill that you got the call to
come in with your own baby?
Speaker 7 (15:49):
Crime?
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Rachel? What is his kill? Whom Helen. Where's Helen? Where
is she? Don't you know? Watson? What did you think
she'd never be identified? Helen's been murdered? Oh no, no,
you get it? Ye no, mom, No. I gave him money,
told her to come back home, and i'd meet a
(16:11):
here today who is going to take the kidden make
a fresh start. How much money did you give your wife?
Thousand dollars? That's a lot. Where'd you get it? Come on?
I was bootlegging to the pickers. How long you've been
getting away with that? Started it last season? Did old
(16:32):
Rosie sell any of this stuff for you? How did
you know about that? I didn't for sure until now.
Speaker 8 (16:39):
Come on, we're going back to your place of business
in Bowlville.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Hi, yes, Dave, and I got your message to meet
you here.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Rosies over there want to get her off the truck.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
She can talk from there. Come on, you two, Watson? Okay?
Speaker 8 (17:04):
Bud Watson murdered girl's husband and moot legg him here.
Rosie's been moving some of the stuff for him.
Speaker 6 (17:08):
Huh, Why you keep me from my works in yours?
Speaker 8 (17:13):
Your work isn't as legal as it could be.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Rosie's sit tighty You ever seen this man before. You know,
she's seen me before. I didn't ask you. How about it, Rosie?
Speaker 8 (17:23):
See all right, Rosie, Now is he the same man
you saw at the bus depot with a girl whose
picture I showed you?
Speaker 2 (17:31):
See, he's the mine at the bus depot. But that
ain't so. I was never with Helen at the bus depot.
You didn't meet her when she came down here. No,
I'll tell you. I didn't know what bus she was
coming in on, or even if she would come after
she got my letter. First I saw her. She turned
up here at the sheeck. How about when she left
to go home? She only stayed two three hours? All told?
(17:53):
Let her go back to the bus depot alone, because
well it was getting dark and you're time for the
pickers to be coming there to buy drinks. You hear that, Rosie.
That means one of you is lying, Rosie, Tell you truth, Senor.
You don't always tell the truth. Rosie.
Speaker 8 (18:09):
The first time I asked you about the man you saw,
you said he was a stranger, a man you'd never
seen before.
Speaker 6 (18:13):
You forget, Senor, I see a lot of people every
day in the fields.
Speaker 8 (18:18):
Yeah, you trying to kid me. You've been selling liquor
for this man. You couldn't mistake him for a strange I.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Do, Senor, I make mistake you wanted hell?
Speaker 2 (18:28):
If I give you hell, Rosie tell you all she knows.
That's all. Now.
Speaker 8 (18:39):
It was obvious that Rosie was lying, just as I'd
suspected her of lying the first time.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
I had to be a reason for it. He took
Bud Watson and the Bowlville jail and went back to
search his shack. I can't figure something, Jess. Why won't
Watson admit it? If he was at the bus station
with his wife, that wouldn't.
Speaker 8 (18:57):
Hurt him, It wouldn't. That's why I think he's telling
the truth. Rosie must be covering up for something, covering
up for somebody's a better guess.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
She might have done it herself. No, I don't think so.
Speaker 8 (19:07):
She's too old A cart a body across the country
to the railroad.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
And then you figure she really did see missus Watson
at the bustypo with the man.
Speaker 8 (19:14):
Huh, yeah, the man who killed her to get the
thousand dollars Bud Watson had given her.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Well, then what's Rosie's angle in line to us?
Speaker 2 (19:21):
That's an easy one. Steve shakedown. Hey, Chase, you're right,
couldn't be anything else. Why I'd be worth the cut
for her to forget seeing the man and say it
was Watson instead. Only one thing wrong with it, And
I watched her while you were gone. She didn't make
any suspicious contacts, nothing that could have been a payoff.
Speaker 8 (19:41):
She might have gotten her payoff right after I showed
her the Watson girl's picture and told her she'd been murdered.
That was before you started the tailor. Yeah, I didn't
think of that. She had time and we comb this
shack Jase, nothing here.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
What do we do now? Go back to Taylor Rosie again.
Speaker 8 (19:57):
If she squeezed hush money out of the man once,
she's like to try it again, they all do. We'll
start by watching her house when she comes in from
the fields. Tonight we staked out near Rosie's adobe hut,
but it got dark and she didn't come in from
the fields. I left Steve on watch and went out
(20:18):
to look for keeping an eye out.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
For old truck.
Speaker 8 (20:21):
I found it about five miles out, surrounded by a
group of men carrying torches.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Hey, what's going on here? Oh ranger Rosie? You bet
it come. Now. What happened? We were walking into town.
Speaker 9 (20:40):
Saw the truck here by the side of the roads,
so maybe.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
It broke down. So we started to call roll. Rosie
and one of the boys fought. Of the blood on
the ground. Blood, I'll show you over here. Must fuel.
Speaker 9 (20:51):
Rosie's a reckon because we found her over here in
the cotton roll. She's dead, ranger. Somebody cut her throat
from ear to ear.
Speaker 8 (21:06):
Old Rosie had tried to shake down a killer once
too often, with the usual payoff. I sent a rush,
called to Steve Clark to Toy's horse out and joined me.
We followed the trail, which led to a deserted picker
shack way off in a field that looked like it
hadn't been culivated for years. The shack had been occupied,
though recently occupied, but whoever had been there was gone.
(21:29):
There's a lamp there, Steve lighted.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Yeah, as clean as a whistle, Jae.
Speaker 8 (21:35):
Yeah, it's too clean. Floor has been scrub mighty hide
for a shack like this, It.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Sure has, especially for a place nobody's living. It must
have been cleaning up blood.
Speaker 8 (21:44):
Yeah, and there are two other things.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
What's that?
Speaker 8 (21:48):
Whoever was hiding here was mighty handy with a knife.
Look at the inside of the door circle drawn on
the wood, wood chipped where somebody practiced throwing a knife
at it.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Eh, good aim, all the marks right, smack inside the circle.
Now what else? Take a look at the lamp you
just lit. The cord that's hanging by. It's just an
ordinary hunkle rope.
Speaker 8 (22:07):
Except for the knot holding the lamp, a running bolan
so the light could be raised their lord towards the table.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
A running bolan is a seman's not.
Speaker 8 (22:15):
Yeah, and that cord is just about big enough to
be the drawer cord from a duffel bag. Our seamen
was here, all right.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
It couldn't have been Watson.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
Jac was safe in jail when Rosie was killed.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (22:26):
Whoever Rosie saw with missus Watson at the bus depot
must have met the girl after she left Watson after
she had the money. Yeah, married woman on her way
home to her baby. Isn't able to leave a bus
deepo with a stranger? Is she chances I was somebody
she knew Watson's been a sailor. It might have been
an old ship made of his Let's go see if
he remembers one who was henned they with a knife.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
You say somebody killed old Rosie.
Speaker 8 (22:56):
Yeah, the same man who kills your wife. I'll think
and think her. The killer was a seaman. We got
reason to think it could be an old shipmate of
yours who knew your wife.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Oh but Helen, new shipmates mine all along the Gulf.
I introduced to the lots of him. The one we
want had a habit of throwing a knife, and he
drew targets on the door. Never missed Matt Corpett. It
was Matt Corbett.
Speaker 8 (23:18):
How do you know any reason for him to be
around here?
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Yeah? He was my partner last year, boot legging here.
Business got bad and he left. I wrote two months ago,
asked and come back for this pickup, But it never
answered me. Did Rosie know him? Sure she did from
last year.
Speaker 8 (23:34):
That's it, Clark Rose. He'd seen Corpett with Missus Watson.
That's why he couldn't run with the money after.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
He'd killed her.
Speaker 8 (23:40):
He had to wait to see if the body was
found and identified.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
And when we moved in and she knew about the murder,
she really had him pinned down. And it used to
be my best friend as sleep. Never mind that. Now,
where would he run to? I don't know. He was
always Roman like me.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
You wrote to him someplace, you said you must have
an address.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Yeah, yeah, it was general delivery at Port O'Connor. There's
no bait shack there. He lived in it whenever he
had enough money to stop moving for a while. He's
got enough now what he got from your wife.
Speaker 8 (24:11):
Come on, Clark, let's get him. We headed for Port O'Connor,
made it by morning and found the abandoned bait shack.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Nobody inside. Jays can see through the window. He isn't here, and.
Speaker 8 (24:30):
He's probably traveling by freight to avoid being spotted.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
He couldn't have beaten us here. We rolled too fast.
Gonna stake it out and wait.
Speaker 8 (24:37):
Yeah, our car's out of sight where we left it.
He won't spot it. Come along the wharf. Come on,
let's go inside.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Yeah, it looked like Matt Corbett's the man will after
aw right, same trademarks here. We found that picker shack
at Boulville.
Speaker 8 (24:55):
Yeah, knife marks in a circle on the door, same
running bowl and holding lamp.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
Draw that burlap sack across the window. That'll make it
pretty dark. In here, Jason.
Speaker 8 (25:05):
You want it dark when you're throwing a surprise party, Steve, Steve,
wake up?
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Somebody coming along on the wharf. It's dark? What time?
As if that'll after midnight? Steps are coming closer hand
must be Carbett. Not going to bring anybody else this
way at this time of night. You shouldn't fail, all right?
Speaker 8 (25:32):
Yeah, but I'm getting all the way inside. And remember
he's got that knife and he's handy with it.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
I know, right, Corbett. Never mind that lamp. What did
I think that?
Speaker 5 (25:47):
Steve Handling?
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Turns down your carpet. You us thinking fast?
Speaker 8 (25:52):
My arm, my arm, just brench your shoulder, carpet. Keep
your throwing that knife for a while. Come on, get
up better light the lamp now, Steve.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
It's a good thing you jumped Jason up that and
I passing my ear look better than that wall A
good inch Rangers. I thought you were a couple of crooks.
What's she doing here?
Speaker 8 (26:22):
Just dropped into arresture for the murder of Helen Watson
and old Rosie up at Boulville.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
It'd be nice if you could prove it. I haven't
been near Bulville.
Speaker 8 (26:32):
I think we can prove you were mark she left
on the door, and a few other things.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
I'd come back right. Are you kidding?
Speaker 8 (26:39):
No, I'm serious. You should have rowed pullman, get your
shoes shined on. A pullman would have taken that reddish
brown earth off your shoes. Our lab can match that
with Boulville.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Watch off with that shoulder. That's better, Corby. Want a
cup from Jason?
Speaker 8 (26:57):
No, I think you'll come quiet, all right, Corbett, Let's move.
Speaker 4 (27:16):
Herbert Bud Watson served the required term for his bootlegging activities,
and Matt Corbett was tried and convicted of murder.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
The sentence of the.
Speaker 4 (27:24):
Court was carried out on February twentieth, nineteen thirty nine,
when at Huntsville Penitentiary, Matt Corbett died in the electric chair.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
And now here again is the star of our show.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Joel McCrae with another interesting story about the Texas Rangers.
Speaker 8 (27:50):
In the early days of Texas, major disturbances were not infrequent.
It was a lusty, brawling, growing territory, and as happens
in such a territory, there were days when the street
were not safe for the good citizens. An Easterner happening
into a Texas town at such a time, found shelter
in the house of a minister.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Everything will be all right soon, he was assured.
Speaker 8 (28:11):
Later that same afternoon, the minister, who'd been looking out
the window, said, well, friend, the streets are safe now.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
You may go about your business.
Speaker 8 (28:19):
The Easterner looked out the window, but all he saw
was a lone figure riding casually down the main street
on a horse. What makes you think it's safe for
me out there now, he asked in bewilderment. The minister
pointed to the horseman, because that feller on the horse
is a Texas Ranger, he said. Only folks that aren't
safe in this town now are the ones who started
(28:41):
the trouble, and when he finds them, they wish they'd
been peaceable. Good night, folks, see you next week.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Next week Jole mc cray and another authentic reenactment of
a case from the files of but Texas Ranger Joel
McCrae is currently seen starring in the MGM production Stars
in My Crown The Night's Past included Tony Barrett, Herbellus,
Tom Holland, Tyrant Kan, Tom McKee, and Lillian Bayer. This
(29:16):
story was transcribed and adapted by Joel Murcock, and the
program was produced and directed.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
By Stacy keats Hell. Give Me Speaking
Speaker 3 (29:33):
Three Times, Being Good Times on NBC
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