August 3, 2025 • 30 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
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Wheaties presents Joel McCrae and Tales of the Texas Rangers.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
On stage tonight, transcribed from Hollywood.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Another in the Wheaties Big Parade of exciting half hour
presentations Tales of the Texas Rangers, starring Joel McCrae as
Ranger Pearson, Texas more than two hundred and sixty thousand
(00:32):
square miles and fifty men who make up the most
famous and oldest law enforcement body in North America. Now
(00:53):
from the files of the Texas Rangers come these stories
based on fact only. Names, dates and places are big,
pitious or obvious reading may events themselves are a matter
of record.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Heyse for tonight the White Elephant.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
It is January sixteenth, nineteen fifteen, the time six twenty
eight pm. A freight train just outside of the West
Texas town gained speed and rolls through the gathering dust.
Inside a gondola ca A hobo crouches in the corners.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
The braakman comes toward m all right, Paul, this is
where you get up. Now, listen, pow, just let me
get to the next town. I just just say said,
this is where you get up. But we're moving now.
You get on while we was moving. You can get up.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Now, come on, rasta tapia he now listen, don't don't,
don't do it.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
I tear it on you.
Speaker 5 (01:55):
Heave me like.
Speaker 6 (01:58):
You want to get up, suck me.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Tales of the Texas Rangers will continue in just a moment.
Speaker 7 (02:29):
You take a nice ripe, plump kernel of wheat and
you roll it out flats, and you toast it a little,
and what have you got?
Speaker 4 (02:36):
A wheaty?
Speaker 7 (02:37):
Do that over and over and over again. Do that
enough times, and pretty soon you have a whole bowl
full of wheaties and you can sit down to breakfast.
Of course, you and I know not many people go
to all that work to get their breakfast wheaties. They
just tip up that big wheaties box and let those
crisp little flakes tumble into the bowl.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
And you know what, when you do that.
Speaker 7 (03:00):
You get the very same hundred percent whole wheat goodness
and energy if you'd get if you rolled out your
own wheaty's flakes, Colonel by colonel, And the best tip
I can give you is to tip the wheaty's into
your own bowl first thing in the morning, and see
how wheaty's at seven can help.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
At eleven. At two fifty five a m.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Of the morning following the freight train incident, a rancher
named Banker noticed a small.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
Coupe parked on the shoulder of the road.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
It bore Oklahoma license plates. Banker turned his spotlight on
the car, so a man slum down on the driver's seat.
A half hour later, Sheriff Calwell, notified by Banker, began
investigation of the murder and called in the Texas Rangers.
Ranger Jase Pearson was assigned to the case, and a
few hours later Pearson, Banker, and Sheriff Corwell stood at
(03:57):
the scene.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
Kierson listened to Banker.
Speaker 8 (04:00):
It was just about three this morning when I saw it, Ranger, how.
Speaker 5 (04:04):
Come you were driving along this road that light.
Speaker 8 (04:06):
I've been to a rancher's meeting in our mirrors. I
was going to spend the night there and change my mind.
Speaker 5 (04:11):
Huh did you take this road when you left? Four
our mirrors?
Speaker 4 (04:14):
Yes, sir?
Speaker 8 (04:15):
What time yesterday morning? About seven seven thirty?
Speaker 9 (04:20):
And then this car came here sometime between seven thirty
yesterday morning and three this morning.
Speaker 7 (04:25):
Hey guess so you never saw the dead man before. Huh,
what's the first time I laid eyes on him.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
All right, mister banker, you can go.
Speaker 10 (04:33):
Hey, you need me, I'll be.
Speaker 5 (04:35):
Hold identification on the body at all. Huh, Sheriff.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Nothing in the pockets picked clean.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
As a whistle.
Speaker 5 (04:44):
Anybody else been around the car?
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Hope? Deputy kept his eyes on it.
Speaker 9 (04:48):
Cars facing west going west when it was stopped. Tire
tracks on the shoulder tail, that m blood.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
On the seat, yep, thirty eight bullet on it. Thirty
eight might be a police special.
Speaker 5 (04:58):
Banker got one bank but just ask him for now.
You see, I.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
You see something? Look air, Sheriff. Huh.
Speaker 9 (05:11):
Set of tracks leading up to the car. Ordinary shoes,
not boots. El marks are too broad for boots. Yeah,
it looks like it. Look at this one sole print
with a hole in it. Now, look the prints lead
from that way north up to the car. A little
scuffle and the prince turned back north. In other words, Sheriff,
somebody walked up to the car, stood there, then turned
(05:33):
and went back north. On hear something else, Greece. Looks
like grease smeared on the car door, same side footprints
are on grease.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
Might be from the car. It's too stiff and heavy.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
For that. What about it coming from a freight train, Jason,
Why well, there's tracks about a mile off here. Frates
use a side and to pull on when passengers got
to pass.
Speaker 7 (05:53):
And maybe it all ties in the sheriff a shoe
with a hole in it, grease frate siding.
Speaker 9 (05:59):
Yeah, might be worth going after. Where do we start here?
At the car first? I'm gonna check it over inch
by inch. Meantime you get hold of a freight schedule,
I'll meet you at your office. When I checked the
(06:20):
car inside and out, I found him a few things
that were interesting and a little puzzling. I sent a
sample of grease to the laboratory for analysis and took
plaster cast of the footprints. Then went on to Sheriff
Caldwell's office. He had the information I'd requested.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Here it is Jay's schedule of freights went through yesterday.
Speaker 5 (06:36):
How many three of them? You can check those all?
Speaker 4 (06:39):
Right?
Speaker 5 (06:39):
Of course we might be sending the dogs up the
wrong tree.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Looks like a hobo to me.
Speaker 9 (06:43):
Yeah, let me see the dead man's fingerprints.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Sure?
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Here are.
Speaker 7 (06:48):
These matched with some of the prints in the car?
See posed delta? How about those others you got picked.
Speaker 9 (06:54):
These up on the door that had the grease on it,
smear it all over, A couple clear enough to use
only Holy what Jace, you know there wasn't a single
print on the steering wheel.
Speaker 5 (07:05):
Seems like the dead man's prints ought to be on it.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
Gloves.
Speaker 5 (07:08):
I didn't find any gloves on him, nor in the car.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
By the way, I got a call out if any
hobo picked up or seen on those trains.
Speaker 5 (07:16):
Good now.
Speaker 9 (07:17):
I found these tucked under the sun rise in front
of the driver's seat gas Lein re seats made out
to Carl Thompson.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Oh, that'll save a lot of checking forward.
Speaker 5 (07:27):
The dead man's prints anyway, that's steering will bothers me?
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Excuse me, Jason Sheriff holdo.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
Oh yeah, good hold them.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
We'll be there as soon as we can make it
something else. Jase Braakman, in one of those frights we've
been checking, has a story some hobo slugged him and
jumped Okay, let's go.
Speaker 9 (07:59):
The brakeman took us to the approximate spot that hobo
jumped off the freight. Sheriff Caldwell and I picked up
the trail and followed it by horse. We hoped to
apprehend the suspect before he could reach a town and
lose himself and us. After six hours, we stopped.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
What's the matter, Jace, tracks are different.
Speaker 5 (08:21):
Come here and take a look.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Different.
Speaker 9 (08:25):
Yeah, look, the right prints a little deeper favoring his
left a little hurt himself.
Speaker 10 (08:30):
Huh.
Speaker 5 (08:30):
Mister twisted his.
Speaker 9 (08:31):
Leg when he took the jump off the freight kept
getting worse. Sat down here, smoked a cigarette. Here's the butt.
He ain't gonna make such a good time with a
bum leg. We've been traveling at the study trot. Uh huh, Okay,
let's get going. The suspect's trail showed increased favoring of
(09:02):
his left leg. His progress became slower more and more
often he stopped to rest, and the trail became fresher
and fresher. Evidence in a deserted shack showed suspect that
rested there for quite a while.
Speaker 7 (09:13):
We picked up the trail again. We're getting close, Sheriff.
How do you know notice something? Just now, take a
look at these.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Prints, same as the ones we've been following.
Speaker 7 (09:29):
Not quite hole in the right shoes, not that I'm
talking about this and hill he crushed.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Well, what about it.
Speaker 9 (09:34):
Quite a few of the prints had an hills in him,
crushed and rebuilt, so as started working on a new hill.
When the old one's been tramped down. This one's so
fresh they haven't had time to rebuild.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Hey, that's right, he can't be far off, So we
better leave the horses tied up here, sheriff, and start
moving on foot.
Speaker 5 (10:04):
At eight fifteen that evening we found the man we
were hunting.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
He was asleep.
Speaker 7 (10:09):
He gave us no trouble, and he denied anything and
everything about the crimes. We took him back and I
kept questioning him, but he stuck to his story.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
I never was there, I didn't do it.
Speaker 5 (10:18):
Never own a gun thirty eight Police Special.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
Two a hundred times, I never owned no kind of good.
Speaker 5 (10:23):
How'd you take all that skin off your arm?
Speaker 4 (10:24):
I don't know, fair.
Speaker 7 (10:25):
Maybe you got that while you were running away, when
you jumped off the freight after you slugged the brakeman.
Speaker 5 (10:30):
No no grease on your jacket. How did it get there?
Speaker 4 (10:34):
Maybe? Maybe off in the freight.
Speaker 7 (10:35):
Sure that car we showed you, the one you said
you never seen before, that's the truth, is it?
Speaker 5 (10:40):
Hold up your right foot? Hold it up, hole on
the right shoe.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Eh, what else?
Speaker 9 (10:47):
Here's a plastic cast cast at the print of the
scene of the murder.
Speaker 5 (10:50):
Take a good look.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
But I wasn't there, I said.
Speaker 5 (10:54):
You ever hear a fingerprints you?
Speaker 9 (10:56):
Here are yours, and here's a set found at the crimes.
Speaker 5 (10:58):
They match. Still say you weren't there.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
I didn't kill nobody.
Speaker 5 (11:03):
Let me see your hands when you washed him last.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
I don't know, maybe a couple of days ago.
Speaker 5 (11:08):
You know, we can tell if you fired a gun.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
I never had no gun.
Speaker 5 (11:11):
Did you rob the man in the car?
Speaker 4 (11:13):
No?
Speaker 5 (11:13):
No, look at me. You were there, weren't you? We
can prove it way all right?
Speaker 4 (11:20):
I was there, but I didn't kill him.
Speaker 5 (11:22):
Why did you lie?
Speaker 4 (11:23):
Well? I was scared.
Speaker 5 (11:24):
If you're innocent, you don't have to be still cringe.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
I got a couple of raps, bag raps.
Speaker 5 (11:29):
Not all sure? Sure we can check that too, All right, right,
I got.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
A couple of rap pinch and stuff. Nothing big.
Speaker 5 (11:35):
Now, look tell me exactly what you did.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Well coming off afraid, I was walking across when I
seen the car.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
Figured it was funny, something funny? Why car park like?
Then I walked over seeing the fell in there was
dead I beat it, hopped the frae not all. You
know what else? Now?
Speaker 9 (11:54):
Did you get in the car? Did you touch the
body or take anything?
Speaker 4 (11:58):
I swear finch, I didn't. Did you watch the.
Speaker 5 (12:00):
Steering wheel and then wipe it off?
Speaker 4 (12:03):
No?
Speaker 2 (12:04):
No, look, I tell you, hey, yeah, shreff, come marror,
Were you sure you stay? Fot?
Speaker 4 (12:11):
I got no place to go.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Here's all the dope and the murdered man. Thompson come
in just now, oh.
Speaker 9 (12:20):
Thompson, resident Tult's, Oklahoma traveling salesman for Prince Extract Company.
This check double all he's with the gasoline receipts.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
What about him the hobo?
Speaker 4 (12:32):
Yep?
Speaker 9 (12:34):
I think the only crime he committed was failure to
report what he saw. His fingerprints were all over the
outside of the one door of that car and none inside.
Seems to me if he thought of cleaning up the inside,
he'd have done the same outside.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Yeah, looks like it.
Speaker 7 (12:47):
We're giving the paraffin test anyway, and see if he's
fired a gun lately, and if he didn't start all
over and start with that clean steering wheel.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
In just a moment.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
We continue with tales of the Texas Rangers, starring Joel
McCrae as ranger Chase Pearson.
Speaker 7 (13:18):
I guess nobody gets much of a taste treat out
of taking their calcium and iron and phosphorus or their
vitamins straight. But you simply have to have all those
things to keep feeling good. And you should have them
first thing in the morning, too, because morning's the time
you do most of your big day's work. That's when
you really need the energy. You see, morning is the
(13:41):
time when you really Wait.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
A minute, Frank, why don't you just tell them this,
See how wheates at seven can help at eleven.
Speaker 7 (13:50):
Ah, you took the words right out of my mouth.
Of course, wheaty's at seven because wheaties have all those
vitamins and minerals. That's how wheaties give you the zip
if it takes to feel eager and ready for anything
all morning long, whether you drive a truck or flow
a field, or if you're just playing busy with a
multitude of household duties. And wheaties do you another big favorite.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
Wheedies wrap all those.
Speaker 7 (14:15):
Vitamins up in a wonderful, sunny, toasty nut like flavor
that fairly hollers gimme some more wheedies are crisp, they're munchy,
you know. Fun that you on taste is good going down,
as they make you feel when they get there. So
do this, will you, Not for me, but for yourself.
Hurry on down to the wheaties tomorrow morning and just
(14:37):
see for yourself how wheaties at seven can help. At eleven,
the result of the parafine test was negative, and we
held the hobo pending further investigation.
Speaker 9 (14:58):
I reported back to my captain Stintson at the company headquarters.
I told him I was pretty sure that the hobo
story checked out.
Speaker 11 (15:05):
Yeah, it looks like it, But somebody killed Thompson, killed.
Speaker 9 (15:08):
Him and then drove him in his own car to
where that rancher spotted it.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
There wasn't anything on Thompson, huh.
Speaker 9 (15:13):
No money, no papers, only these gasleen charge account receipts.
Somebody went to an awful lot of trouble to clean him,
but they overlooked these mm.
Speaker 5 (15:22):
Hm on top. This looks like a plane case of
murder with robbery as the motive.
Speaker 9 (15:26):
But if that was it, why go to all the
risk of being spotted in a car with Oklahoma plates?
Speaker 5 (15:31):
Why not just kill him and leave him.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
I don't know jas what you're thinking.
Speaker 9 (15:36):
Well, Thompson was a traveling salesman, traveled a lot in
a few days. Now, suppose the killer realized that with
Thompson far enough away from the scene of the crime,
we'd have a pretty tough time finding out just where
the murder was committed.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
Yeah, that could be.
Speaker 9 (15:50):
But why well, maybe the killer couldn't leave the spot,
so he did the next best thing, took Thompson's body away.
Speaker 7 (15:58):
And maybe it wasn't chess roh or what else. I
don't know yet, but I got some more checking to do.
Speaker 9 (16:06):
It will take maybe a couple of hours, and then
I might have some answers.
Speaker 11 (16:25):
Well, a couple hours on the nose, jase you get
anything new.
Speaker 5 (16:29):
It's more dope on Thompson, captain.
Speaker 9 (16:32):
He never carried much money, never was known to have
picked up a hitchhiker, And I got a pretty good
idea where he was killed. These gasoline receipts tell a
fair story. Yeah, how well, This one, for example, dated
the fifteenth day before he was killed, made out in Bannon.
He got sixteen gallons of gas there.
Speaker 4 (16:50):
Oh, did you ever think somebody else might have been
using his credit card.
Speaker 9 (16:53):
Yeah, but Thompson traveled that route pretty often. Chances are
he was well known at the service stations.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
Yeah, that's right, Okay, go on.
Speaker 9 (17:01):
I ran a mileage test on his car. Got about
seventeen miles a gallon. Now his tank holds sixteen.
Speaker 7 (17:08):
I did a little figure in just about enough gas
was used to get him.
Speaker 5 (17:12):
From Bannon to where his body was found.
Speaker 11 (17:14):
But he could have been killed anywhere between Bannon and
where he was found dead.
Speaker 9 (17:18):
Sure I know that, but it still looks like my
next stop is Bannon.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Honey, Ranger, Hody, how many whatever? She'll take a sure thing?
You the owner here?
Speaker 7 (17:49):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (17:50):
How long?
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Oh?
Speaker 10 (17:51):
A couple of years?
Speaker 5 (17:52):
You work alone nights?
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Yeah, take a look at this, will you one of
my receipts credit cards?
Speaker 5 (18:00):
You know this Carl Thompson?
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (18:02):
See him ever? Oh, four or five months? When'd you
see Thompson last?
Speaker 4 (18:06):
The evening he bought that gas? Why anything wrong?
Speaker 10 (18:09):
Ranger?
Speaker 5 (18:09):
Was Thompson along that evening?
Speaker 4 (18:11):
Ah?
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Yeah, I never remember him ever having anybody along.
Speaker 5 (18:15):
What else do you remember about that evening?
Speaker 7 (18:17):
Oh, one of the worst sleet storms we ever had
hit leg it'd be tough for him to drive.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
Then, oh, sure, hey. He was asking about some place
to stay.
Speaker 5 (18:26):
He never stayed in Bannon before.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
I don't know leastways. He didn't know much about the places.
I told him to try the hotel. He said it
was full up. He said the motels were jam packed.
Allows he now where he went? I said he was
going to try and find a place along the highway.
Why anything wrong, funny, here's for the gas. I might
come back and ask you some more questions.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
Thanks.
Speaker 9 (19:00):
I began a check of every possible place Thompson might
have stayed that night, but I drew one blank after another.
Speaker 5 (19:06):
Then I got a lead at a motel on the
outskirts of Bannon.
Speaker 10 (19:09):
Sure ranger, I remember that night.
Speaker 4 (19:11):
Sleep was an inch thick. We was full up.
Speaker 5 (19:13):
Here, but I sent him to a place down the highway.
Speaker 11 (19:15):
The Star Motel been closed up for sale for quieter spot,
but I heard it was opened up again.
Speaker 9 (19:34):
I went to the Star Motel. It was closed tight.
Every cabin was locked, the windows boarded. There wasn't a
soul around. I was just about to leave when I
noticed something. The electricity must have been on somewhere in
the place, because the little wheel under the.
Speaker 5 (19:49):
Dials of the meter was spinning.
Speaker 9 (19:51):
There was enough to send me back into town to
ask a few more questions.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Now, let me see, Ranger, stormare toes. Hey, yeah, sure,
here's what we want right here?
Speaker 9 (20:06):
Uh huh? Are these all electricity bills?
Speaker 4 (20:09):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (20:09):
Sure, let me see.
Speaker 9 (20:11):
After three months ago, the bills were just for meter installation,
minimum service charge.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
That's right, Ranger.
Speaker 9 (20:17):
For the last three months four seventy five, three eighty nine,
five sixty.
Speaker 5 (20:25):
Kind of funny, isn't it.
Speaker 9 (20:27):
The place is closed, but for the last three months
the bills have averaged over four dollars a month.
Speaker 5 (20:31):
Didn't that seem.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
Peculiar to you?
Speaker 9 (20:33):
Well, Ranger, we just sure, sure I know. Now, can
you give me the name of the person to whom
these bills were sent?
Speaker 4 (20:39):
Get it for you right away?
Speaker 10 (20:49):
Why, yes, Ranger, mister Colson's here. I believe he's on
the phone right now.
Speaker 5 (20:53):
But if you come in, thank.
Speaker 9 (20:55):
You, ma'am you missus Calson, Yes, I hope I'm not
bothering you any Miss Calson, not.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
A tam will Ranger. My husband is here.
Speaker 10 (21:07):
Oh yeah, yeah, I see, I think that'd be rare.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Heah, sure, tell you what I'll coomehol a little later,
I'll bring the client with me.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
Sure, thanks for calling. Good bye, and this is Range
up here.
Speaker 9 (21:23):
Oh hello, Sorry to margin like this, mister Calson, But
I got a few questions questions.
Speaker 5 (21:28):
Sure, what about you own the Star Hotel, don't you?
Speaker 7 (21:31):
Yes, I do Star Motel, that white Elephant, White Elephant.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
I haven't trying to get rid of it for two years?
Speaker 5 (21:40):
Why?
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Well, like basically said, it ain't been worth the who
since the new highway went in two years ago.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
Half the traffic that.
Speaker 5 (21:47):
Used to pass it it hasn't been used for two years.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Well, I guess I didn't mean exactly What did you mean?
I tried to keep it going for a year after
the highway went through, but couldn't rent enough rooms.
Speaker 10 (22:00):
Wasn't worth trying to save? You got the keys to it, keys?
Speaker 5 (22:04):
Sure is something wrong, ranger might be ma'am. Can you
take me through the motel, mister Calson anytime?
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Right now?
Speaker 4 (22:11):
Suit?
Speaker 2 (22:11):
You couldn't be better. Let's go. I ain't been out
here for close on three or four weeks.
Speaker 5 (22:28):
Did you go through the cabins?
Speaker 4 (22:29):
Then?
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Just take a look. See kids sometimes full round. That's
why I bought it up. The windows gonna take a
look at the office. Yeah, go ahead, mister Calson, Sure
nothing in here, ranger, Nope.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
It's not.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Anythinking particularly you're looking for.
Speaker 5 (22:57):
Yeah, you have this floor washed lately.
Speaker 10 (23:00):
Oh heck no, ain't no use paying for something like that.
Speaker 5 (23:03):
It's been washed recently.
Speaker 4 (23:05):
Uh why how do you know?
Speaker 7 (23:08):
Scrubbing wood with hot water always raises the grain, and
hot water isn't as good as cold to wash out bloodstains.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
But blood range?
Speaker 10 (23:18):
Oh yeah, go on?
Speaker 4 (23:22):
What the devil is his?
Speaker 10 (23:24):
Who?
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Way? Fellas?
Speaker 9 (23:26):
My guess there's a couple of men I want from murder.
Mister calson.
Speaker 4 (23:31):
Telephone? Why everything?
Speaker 10 (23:32):
Okay, yeah, fust that guy?
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Me?
Speaker 4 (23:34):
Why I never carry a gun man? We just make sure. Yeah,
he's clean.
Speaker 10 (23:40):
Now strip the range's gun belt.
Speaker 7 (23:42):
Wait a minute, you got the drop on me. Maybe
i'd have to be a fool to draw.
Speaker 9 (23:47):
But if you don't want me to be a fool,
don't touch these guns. You try and take them off
me and I'll go down use them and I might
get lucky.
Speaker 8 (23:56):
Alright, lock, let them alone. He's too smartest start anything.
Go get the panel truck out and start loading us
stuff fast.
Speaker 4 (24:04):
But what about them?
Speaker 8 (24:05):
We can lock them in, fix their cars so they
can't get out of here for a while after we leave.
If they try to come out while we're still here,
we'll bless whatever door of window they try to come through.
Speaker 10 (24:16):
Get that ranger, I get it, Okay, I'll be outside.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
Chuck.
Speaker 5 (24:21):
So your name's Chuck?
Speaker 4 (24:23):
Huh? What is any What are you and that other
feller doing in my place?
Speaker 5 (24:26):
Go ahead, Chuck, tell him.
Speaker 10 (24:28):
Some other time.
Speaker 8 (24:29):
Friend, Now you too, listen because I ain't gonna say
this twice. Try to bust out before you hear us.
Drive off and you'll get it good.
Speaker 10 (24:39):
I'll stay you.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
But they got us locked in.
Speaker 5 (24:45):
Yeah, don't for hear that window?
Speaker 4 (24:49):
Good?
Speaker 5 (24:49):
What he said a little crack in the morning. I'm
just taking a look.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
What did he doing?
Speaker 12 (24:54):
Come here and take a look for yourself. Well, I
should have watched the place more. I never knew anyone
who's using it, and use plenty. But what they're taking
out hers all kinds of stuff. It's beginning to make sense.
Speaker 9 (25:06):
Closed down motel made a nice storage bin for stolen
unsmuggled goods until I could run into the markets.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Oh they'll get away.
Speaker 4 (25:13):
You you said there was a murder.
Speaker 5 (25:15):
Take it easy, mister Calson. We'll get them.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
They'll be across the border in a half an hour
before we could even reach a phone.
Speaker 7 (25:21):
Maybe you better take a chance and get shot down
in cold blood.
Speaker 5 (25:25):
No, but we'll get them, all right. Know why, mister Calson?
Why because you will help. I pinned Calson with a quick.
Speaker 7 (25:40):
Headlock and then got one arm up fine him an
applied pressure so I could keep him still while I
had a free hand. I reached into his jacket and
found what I was looking for under his shoulder. Then
I pushed there.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
You crazy? He almost brow arms off.
Speaker 5 (25:53):
Calson.
Speaker 9 (25:54):
Do you think I saw this gun bulging under your
coat and they deliberately missed it when they frished you, You.
Speaker 5 (25:59):
Played a real almost I don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 9 (26:02):
This gun and the electric bills you paid him, paid
bills that were being run up in a place that
was supposed to be shut down, seemed kind of funny.
You never complained of the power company, So what you
got a phone call and your friends out there they
tipped you because they saw me nosing around here earlier.
Speaker 5 (26:16):
Right, Oh, okay, okay, take a.
Speaker 4 (26:19):
Look out there.
Speaker 5 (26:20):
They're almost finished.
Speaker 9 (26:22):
In a couple of minutes, they'll be gone, and half
an hour they'll be over the border.
Speaker 5 (26:25):
How about you. You want to stick back here and
face a murder charge.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
There's nothing you can prove.
Speaker 9 (26:30):
There's plenty we can prove, Calson, and you're holding the bag.
You'll have a tough time explaining those electric bills and
then missing your gun.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
I didn't kill that man, did this?
Speaker 5 (26:39):
Chuck do it?
Speaker 4 (26:40):
Yeah? Yeah, that sales won't come in. The show was
going on. Chuck killed him then drove him away.
Speaker 7 (26:45):
All right, I'll listen real careful to me. I'm gonna
fire this gun of yours. Then you hammer on the
door and holler for him.
Speaker 5 (26:51):
Get it.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
What do you wanted?
Speaker 5 (26:53):
Just to listen when they come up, tell him you
had to kill me. Tell him to open the door. Then,
mister Calson stepped back and out of the way fast.
They'll be gone in a minute. Take up your mind,
all right, go ahead.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
I'll do it.
Speaker 5 (27:07):
Any funny tricks and you get it first. Now ready,
turn that door.
Speaker 4 (27:13):
And holler truck rock to me a fast over the door.
Speaker 10 (27:17):
Now when it's open, step back, what's over the door?
Speaker 4 (27:21):
I had to kill him? He was making a break
for it. You get just knocked him up right? Oh hey,
what's the big idea are you?
Speaker 9 (27:36):
We've come back for him later, calson. Meantime, lets you
and me get back to town. I got you a
deal for this white elephant motel. You can trade it
for a jail cell.
Speaker 5 (28:07):
And now here is the wheaties man.
Speaker 4 (28:10):
Frank Martin, all right.
Speaker 7 (28:11):
Sound effects man wring the alarm clock.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Yeah, I used to grow in too.
Speaker 7 (28:18):
When I heard that sound one morning, I said to myself,
Now look, Martin, you gotta get up.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Why fight it?
Speaker 7 (28:24):
Think about something pleasant? And right away I thought wheaties.
That's about the pleasantest thinking a man can do. Why
when you figure you can sit down to a bowl
of good, crisp wheaties and then feel like tackling the world.
When you know a bowl of wheaties and milk and
fruit can help you work good? Because you feel good?
(28:45):
Why it almost makes you want to shake hands with
your alarm clock. And when you hear it, come morning,
roll out happy, reach for the big orange and blue
box and see how wheaties at seven can help.
Speaker 4 (28:57):
At eleven.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Next week, Joel McCrae and another authentic reenactment of the
case from the piles of not Texas Rangers. Joel McCrae
will soon be seen starring in the Universal International Technicolor
(29:22):
production Saddle Tramp to Night's cast included Tony Barrett, Paul McVay,
Lou Cookman, Jeff Corey, Robert Bruce, Byron Kine, and Jeanette Nolan.
This story was transcribed and adapted by Russell Hughes. The
program was produced and directed by Stacy Keith. This is
Hal give Me Speaking, and.
Speaker 7 (29:48):
This is the Wheedies Man Frank Martin inviting you to
listen Monday night to Frank Lovejoy and night.
Speaker 4 (29:54):
Beat on the Wheaties Big Parade. See you.
Speaker 5 (29:57):
Then listen tomorrow for the Summer Symphony. Now it's Basin
Street Time on NBC
Wheaties presents Joel McCrae and Tales of the Texas Rangers.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
On stage tonight, transcribed from Hollywood.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Another in the Wheaties Big Parade of exciting half hour
presentations Tales of the Texas Rangers, starring Joel McCrae as
Ranger Pearson, Texas more than two hundred and sixty thousand
(00:32):
square miles and fifty men who make up the most
famous and oldest law enforcement body in North America. Now
(00:53):
from the files of the Texas Rangers come these stories
based on fact only. Names, dates and places are big,
pitious or obvious reading may events themselves are a matter
of record.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Heyse for tonight the White Elephant.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
It is January sixteenth, nineteen fifteen, the time six twenty
eight pm. A freight train just outside of the West
Texas town gained speed and rolls through the gathering dust.
Inside a gondola ca A hobo crouches in the corners.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
The braakman comes toward m all right, Paul, this is
where you get up. Now, listen, pow, just let me
get to the next town. I just just say said,
this is where you get up. But we're moving now.
You get on while we was moving. You can get up.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Now, come on, rasta tapia he now listen, don't don't,
don't do it.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
I tear it on you.
Speaker 5 (01:55):
Heave me like.
Speaker 6 (01:58):
You want to get up, suck me.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Tales of the Texas Rangers will continue in just a moment.
Speaker 7 (02:29):
You take a nice ripe, plump kernel of wheat and
you roll it out flats, and you toast it a little,
and what have you got?
Speaker 4 (02:36):
A wheaty?
Speaker 7 (02:37):
Do that over and over and over again. Do that
enough times, and pretty soon you have a whole bowl
full of wheaties and you can sit down to breakfast.
Of course, you and I know not many people go
to all that work to get their breakfast wheaties. They
just tip up that big wheaties box and let those
crisp little flakes tumble into the bowl.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
And you know what, when you do that.
Speaker 7 (03:00):
You get the very same hundred percent whole wheat goodness
and energy if you'd get if you rolled out your
own wheaty's flakes, Colonel by colonel, And the best tip
I can give you is to tip the wheaty's into
your own bowl first thing in the morning, and see
how wheaty's at seven can help.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
At eleven. At two fifty five a m.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Of the morning following the freight train incident, a rancher
named Banker noticed a small.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
Coupe parked on the shoulder of the road.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
It bore Oklahoma license plates. Banker turned his spotlight on
the car, so a man slum down on the driver's seat.
A half hour later, Sheriff Calwell, notified by Banker, began
investigation of the murder and called in the Texas Rangers.
Ranger Jase Pearson was assigned to the case, and a
few hours later Pearson, Banker, and Sheriff Corwell stood at
(03:57):
the scene.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
Kierson listened to Banker.
Speaker 8 (04:00):
It was just about three this morning when I saw it, Ranger, how.
Speaker 5 (04:04):
Come you were driving along this road that light.
Speaker 8 (04:06):
I've been to a rancher's meeting in our mirrors. I
was going to spend the night there and change my mind.
Speaker 5 (04:11):
Huh did you take this road when you left? Four
our mirrors?
Speaker 4 (04:14):
Yes, sir?
Speaker 8 (04:15):
What time yesterday morning? About seven seven thirty?
Speaker 9 (04:20):
And then this car came here sometime between seven thirty
yesterday morning and three this morning.
Speaker 7 (04:25):
Hey guess so you never saw the dead man before. Huh,
what's the first time I laid eyes on him.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
All right, mister banker, you can go.
Speaker 10 (04:33):
Hey, you need me, I'll be.
Speaker 5 (04:35):
Hold identification on the body at all. Huh, Sheriff.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Nothing in the pockets picked clean.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
As a whistle.
Speaker 5 (04:44):
Anybody else been around the car?
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Hope? Deputy kept his eyes on it.
Speaker 9 (04:48):
Cars facing west going west when it was stopped. Tire
tracks on the shoulder tail, that m blood.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
On the seat, yep, thirty eight bullet on it. Thirty
eight might be a police special.
Speaker 5 (04:58):
Banker got one bank but just ask him for now.
You see, I.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
You see something? Look air, Sheriff. Huh.
Speaker 9 (05:11):
Set of tracks leading up to the car. Ordinary shoes,
not boots. El marks are too broad for boots. Yeah,
it looks like it. Look at this one sole print
with a hole in it. Now, look the prints lead
from that way north up to the car. A little
scuffle and the prince turned back north. In other words, Sheriff,
somebody walked up to the car, stood there, then turned
(05:33):
and went back north. On hear something else, Greece. Looks
like grease smeared on the car door, same side footprints
are on grease.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
Might be from the car. It's too stiff and heavy.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
For that. What about it coming from a freight train, Jason,
Why well, there's tracks about a mile off here. Frates
use a side and to pull on when passengers got
to pass.
Speaker 7 (05:53):
And maybe it all ties in the sheriff a shoe
with a hole in it, grease frate siding.
Speaker 9 (05:59):
Yeah, might be worth going after. Where do we start here?
At the car first? I'm gonna check it over inch
by inch. Meantime you get hold of a freight schedule,
I'll meet you at your office. When I checked the
(06:20):
car inside and out, I found him a few things
that were interesting and a little puzzling. I sent a
sample of grease to the laboratory for analysis and took
plaster cast of the footprints. Then went on to Sheriff
Caldwell's office. He had the information I'd requested.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Here it is Jay's schedule of freights went through yesterday.
Speaker 5 (06:36):
How many three of them? You can check those all?
Speaker 4 (06:39):
Right?
Speaker 5 (06:39):
Of course we might be sending the dogs up the
wrong tree.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Looks like a hobo to me.
Speaker 9 (06:43):
Yeah, let me see the dead man's fingerprints.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Sure?
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Here are.
Speaker 7 (06:48):
These matched with some of the prints in the car?
See posed delta? How about those others you got picked.
Speaker 9 (06:54):
These up on the door that had the grease on it,
smear it all over, A couple clear enough to use
only Holy what Jace, you know there wasn't a single
print on the steering wheel.
Speaker 5 (07:05):
Seems like the dead man's prints ought to be on it.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
Gloves.
Speaker 5 (07:08):
I didn't find any gloves on him, nor in the car.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
By the way, I got a call out if any
hobo picked up or seen on those trains.
Speaker 5 (07:16):
Good now.
Speaker 9 (07:17):
I found these tucked under the sun rise in front
of the driver's seat gas Lein re seats made out
to Carl Thompson.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Oh, that'll save a lot of checking forward.
Speaker 5 (07:27):
The dead man's prints anyway, that's steering will bothers me?
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Excuse me, Jason Sheriff holdo.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
Oh yeah, good hold them.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
We'll be there as soon as we can make it
something else. Jase Braakman, in one of those frights we've
been checking, has a story some hobo slugged him and
jumped Okay, let's go.
Speaker 9 (07:59):
The brakeman took us to the approximate spot that hobo
jumped off the freight. Sheriff Caldwell and I picked up
the trail and followed it by horse. We hoped to
apprehend the suspect before he could reach a town and
lose himself and us. After six hours, we stopped.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
What's the matter, Jace, tracks are different.
Speaker 5 (08:21):
Come here and take a look.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Different.
Speaker 9 (08:25):
Yeah, look, the right prints a little deeper favoring his
left a little hurt himself.
Speaker 10 (08:30):
Huh.
Speaker 5 (08:30):
Mister twisted his.
Speaker 9 (08:31):
Leg when he took the jump off the freight kept
getting worse. Sat down here, smoked a cigarette. Here's the butt.
He ain't gonna make such a good time with a
bum leg. We've been traveling at the study trot. Uh huh, Okay,
let's get going. The suspect's trail showed increased favoring of
(09:02):
his left leg. His progress became slower more and more
often he stopped to rest, and the trail became fresher
and fresher. Evidence in a deserted shack showed suspect that
rested there for quite a while.
Speaker 7 (09:13):
We picked up the trail again. We're getting close, Sheriff.
How do you know notice something? Just now, take a
look at these.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Prints, same as the ones we've been following.
Speaker 7 (09:29):
Not quite hole in the right shoes, not that I'm
talking about this and hill he crushed.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Well, what about it.
Speaker 9 (09:34):
Quite a few of the prints had an hills in him,
crushed and rebuilt, so as started working on a new hill.
When the old one's been tramped down. This one's so
fresh they haven't had time to rebuild.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Hey, that's right, he can't be far off, So we
better leave the horses tied up here, sheriff, and start
moving on foot.
Speaker 5 (10:04):
At eight fifteen that evening we found the man we
were hunting.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
He was asleep.
Speaker 7 (10:09):
He gave us no trouble, and he denied anything and
everything about the crimes. We took him back and I
kept questioning him, but he stuck to his story.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
I never was there, I didn't do it.
Speaker 5 (10:18):
Never own a gun thirty eight Police Special.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
Two a hundred times, I never owned no kind of good.
Speaker 5 (10:23):
How'd you take all that skin off your arm?
Speaker 4 (10:24):
I don't know, fair.
Speaker 7 (10:25):
Maybe you got that while you were running away, when
you jumped off the freight after you slugged the brakeman.
Speaker 5 (10:30):
No no grease on your jacket. How did it get there?
Speaker 4 (10:34):
Maybe? Maybe off in the freight.
Speaker 7 (10:35):
Sure that car we showed you, the one you said
you never seen before, that's the truth, is it?
Speaker 5 (10:40):
Hold up your right foot? Hold it up, hole on
the right shoe.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Eh, what else?
Speaker 9 (10:47):
Here's a plastic cast cast at the print of the
scene of the murder.
Speaker 5 (10:50):
Take a good look.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
But I wasn't there, I said.
Speaker 5 (10:54):
You ever hear a fingerprints you?
Speaker 9 (10:56):
Here are yours, and here's a set found at the crimes.
Speaker 5 (10:58):
They match. Still say you weren't there.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
I didn't kill nobody.
Speaker 5 (11:03):
Let me see your hands when you washed him last.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
I don't know, maybe a couple of days ago.
Speaker 5 (11:08):
You know, we can tell if you fired a gun.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
I never had no gun.
Speaker 5 (11:11):
Did you rob the man in the car?
Speaker 4 (11:13):
No?
Speaker 5 (11:13):
No, look at me. You were there, weren't you? We
can prove it way all right?
Speaker 4 (11:20):
I was there, but I didn't kill him.
Speaker 5 (11:22):
Why did you lie?
Speaker 4 (11:23):
Well? I was scared.
Speaker 5 (11:24):
If you're innocent, you don't have to be still cringe.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
I got a couple of raps, bag raps.
Speaker 5 (11:29):
Not all sure? Sure we can check that too, All right, right,
I got.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
A couple of rap pinch and stuff. Nothing big.
Speaker 5 (11:35):
Now, look tell me exactly what you did.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Well coming off afraid, I was walking across when I
seen the car.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
Figured it was funny, something funny? Why car park like?
Then I walked over seeing the fell in there was
dead I beat it, hopped the frae not all. You
know what else? Now?
Speaker 9 (11:54):
Did you get in the car? Did you touch the
body or take anything?
Speaker 4 (11:58):
I swear finch, I didn't. Did you watch the.
Speaker 5 (12:00):
Steering wheel and then wipe it off?
Speaker 4 (12:03):
No?
Speaker 2 (12:04):
No, look, I tell you, hey, yeah, shreff, come marror,
Were you sure you stay? Fot?
Speaker 4 (12:11):
I got no place to go.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Here's all the dope and the murdered man. Thompson come
in just now, oh.
Speaker 9 (12:20):
Thompson, resident Tult's, Oklahoma traveling salesman for Prince Extract Company.
This check double all he's with the gasoline receipts.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
What about him the hobo?
Speaker 4 (12:32):
Yep?
Speaker 9 (12:34):
I think the only crime he committed was failure to
report what he saw. His fingerprints were all over the
outside of the one door of that car and none inside.
Seems to me if he thought of cleaning up the inside,
he'd have done the same outside.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Yeah, looks like it.
Speaker 7 (12:47):
We're giving the paraffin test anyway, and see if he's
fired a gun lately, and if he didn't start all
over and start with that clean steering wheel.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
In just a moment.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
We continue with tales of the Texas Rangers, starring Joel
McCrae as ranger Chase Pearson.
Speaker 7 (13:18):
I guess nobody gets much of a taste treat out
of taking their calcium and iron and phosphorus or their
vitamins straight. But you simply have to have all those
things to keep feeling good. And you should have them
first thing in the morning, too, because morning's the time
you do most of your big day's work. That's when
you really need the energy. You see, morning is the
(13:41):
time when you really Wait.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
A minute, Frank, why don't you just tell them this,
See how wheates at seven can help at eleven.
Speaker 7 (13:50):
Ah, you took the words right out of my mouth.
Of course, wheaty's at seven because wheaties have all those
vitamins and minerals. That's how wheaties give you the zip
if it takes to feel eager and ready for anything
all morning long, whether you drive a truck or flow
a field, or if you're just playing busy with a
multitude of household duties. And wheaties do you another big favorite.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
Wheedies wrap all those.
Speaker 7 (14:15):
Vitamins up in a wonderful, sunny, toasty nut like flavor
that fairly hollers gimme some more wheedies are crisp, they're munchy,
you know. Fun that you on taste is good going down,
as they make you feel when they get there. So
do this, will you, Not for me, but for yourself.
Hurry on down to the wheaties tomorrow morning and just
(14:37):
see for yourself how wheaties at seven can help. At eleven,
the result of the parafine test was negative, and we
held the hobo pending further investigation.
Speaker 9 (14:58):
I reported back to my captain Stintson at the company headquarters.
I told him I was pretty sure that the hobo
story checked out.
Speaker 11 (15:05):
Yeah, it looks like it, But somebody killed Thompson, killed.
Speaker 9 (15:08):
Him and then drove him in his own car to
where that rancher spotted it.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
There wasn't anything on Thompson, huh.
Speaker 9 (15:13):
No money, no papers, only these gasleen charge account receipts.
Somebody went to an awful lot of trouble to clean him,
but they overlooked these mm.
Speaker 5 (15:22):
Hm on top. This looks like a plane case of
murder with robbery as the motive.
Speaker 9 (15:26):
But if that was it, why go to all the
risk of being spotted in a car with Oklahoma plates?
Speaker 5 (15:31):
Why not just kill him and leave him.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
I don't know jas what you're thinking.
Speaker 9 (15:36):
Well, Thompson was a traveling salesman, traveled a lot in
a few days. Now, suppose the killer realized that with
Thompson far enough away from the scene of the crime,
we'd have a pretty tough time finding out just where
the murder was committed.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
Yeah, that could be.
Speaker 9 (15:50):
But why well, maybe the killer couldn't leave the spot,
so he did the next best thing, took Thompson's body away.
Speaker 7 (15:58):
And maybe it wasn't chess roh or what else. I
don't know yet, but I got some more checking to do.
Speaker 9 (16:06):
It will take maybe a couple of hours, and then
I might have some answers.
Speaker 11 (16:25):
Well, a couple hours on the nose, jase you get
anything new.
Speaker 5 (16:29):
It's more dope on Thompson, captain.
Speaker 9 (16:32):
He never carried much money, never was known to have
picked up a hitchhiker, And I got a pretty good
idea where he was killed. These gasoline receipts tell a
fair story. Yeah, how well, This one, for example, dated
the fifteenth day before he was killed, made out in Bannon.
He got sixteen gallons of gas there.
Speaker 4 (16:50):
Oh, did you ever think somebody else might have been
using his credit card.
Speaker 9 (16:53):
Yeah, but Thompson traveled that route pretty often. Chances are
he was well known at the service stations.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
Yeah, that's right, Okay, go on.
Speaker 9 (17:01):
I ran a mileage test on his car. Got about
seventeen miles a gallon. Now his tank holds sixteen.
Speaker 7 (17:08):
I did a little figure in just about enough gas
was used to get him.
Speaker 5 (17:12):
From Bannon to where his body was found.
Speaker 11 (17:14):
But he could have been killed anywhere between Bannon and
where he was found dead.
Speaker 9 (17:18):
Sure I know that, but it still looks like my
next stop is Bannon.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Honey, Ranger, Hody, how many whatever? She'll take a sure thing?
You the owner here?
Speaker 7 (17:49):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (17:50):
How long?
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Oh?
Speaker 10 (17:51):
A couple of years?
Speaker 5 (17:52):
You work alone nights?
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Yeah, take a look at this, will you one of
my receipts credit cards?
Speaker 5 (18:00):
You know this Carl Thompson?
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (18:02):
See him ever? Oh, four or five months? When'd you
see Thompson last?
Speaker 4 (18:06):
The evening he bought that gas? Why anything wrong?
Speaker 10 (18:09):
Ranger?
Speaker 5 (18:09):
Was Thompson along that evening?
Speaker 4 (18:11):
Ah?
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Yeah, I never remember him ever having anybody along.
Speaker 5 (18:15):
What else do you remember about that evening?
Speaker 7 (18:17):
Oh, one of the worst sleet storms we ever had
hit leg it'd be tough for him to drive.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
Then, oh, sure, hey. He was asking about some place
to stay.
Speaker 5 (18:26):
He never stayed in Bannon before.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
I don't know leastways. He didn't know much about the places.
I told him to try the hotel. He said it
was full up. He said the motels were jam packed.
Allows he now where he went? I said he was
going to try and find a place along the highway.
Why anything wrong, funny, here's for the gas. I might
come back and ask you some more questions.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
Thanks.
Speaker 9 (19:00):
I began a check of every possible place Thompson might
have stayed that night, but I drew one blank after another.
Speaker 5 (19:06):
Then I got a lead at a motel on the
outskirts of Bannon.
Speaker 10 (19:09):
Sure ranger, I remember that night.
Speaker 4 (19:11):
Sleep was an inch thick. We was full up.
Speaker 5 (19:13):
Here, but I sent him to a place down the highway.
Speaker 11 (19:15):
The Star Motel been closed up for sale for quieter spot,
but I heard it was opened up again.
Speaker 9 (19:34):
I went to the Star Motel. It was closed tight.
Every cabin was locked, the windows boarded. There wasn't a
soul around. I was just about to leave when I
noticed something. The electricity must have been on somewhere in
the place, because the little wheel under the.
Speaker 5 (19:49):
Dials of the meter was spinning.
Speaker 9 (19:51):
There was enough to send me back into town to
ask a few more questions.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Now, let me see, Ranger, stormare toes. Hey, yeah, sure,
here's what we want right here?
Speaker 9 (20:06):
Uh huh? Are these all electricity bills?
Speaker 4 (20:09):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (20:09):
Sure, let me see.
Speaker 9 (20:11):
After three months ago, the bills were just for meter installation,
minimum service charge.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
That's right, Ranger.
Speaker 9 (20:17):
For the last three months four seventy five, three eighty nine,
five sixty.
Speaker 5 (20:25):
Kind of funny, isn't it.
Speaker 9 (20:27):
The place is closed, but for the last three months
the bills have averaged over four dollars a month.
Speaker 5 (20:31):
Didn't that seem.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
Peculiar to you?
Speaker 9 (20:33):
Well, Ranger, we just sure, sure I know. Now, can
you give me the name of the person to whom
these bills were sent?
Speaker 4 (20:39):
Get it for you right away?
Speaker 10 (20:49):
Why, yes, Ranger, mister Colson's here. I believe he's on
the phone right now.
Speaker 5 (20:53):
But if you come in, thank.
Speaker 9 (20:55):
You, ma'am you missus Calson, Yes, I hope I'm not
bothering you any Miss Calson, not.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
A tam will Ranger. My husband is here.
Speaker 10 (21:07):
Oh yeah, yeah, I see, I think that'd be rare.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Heah, sure, tell you what I'll coomehol a little later,
I'll bring the client with me.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
Sure, thanks for calling. Good bye, and this is Range
up here.
Speaker 9 (21:23):
Oh hello, Sorry to margin like this, mister Calson, But
I got a few questions questions.
Speaker 5 (21:28):
Sure, what about you own the Star Hotel, don't you?
Speaker 7 (21:31):
Yes, I do Star Motel, that white Elephant, White Elephant.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
I haven't trying to get rid of it for two years?
Speaker 5 (21:40):
Why?
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Well, like basically said, it ain't been worth the who
since the new highway went in two years ago.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
Half the traffic that.
Speaker 5 (21:47):
Used to pass it it hasn't been used for two years.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Well, I guess I didn't mean exactly What did you mean?
I tried to keep it going for a year after
the highway went through, but couldn't rent enough rooms.
Speaker 10 (22:00):
Wasn't worth trying to save? You got the keys to it, keys?
Speaker 5 (22:04):
Sure is something wrong, ranger might be ma'am. Can you
take me through the motel, mister Calson anytime?
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Right now?
Speaker 4 (22:11):
Suit?
Speaker 2 (22:11):
You couldn't be better. Let's go. I ain't been out
here for close on three or four weeks.
Speaker 5 (22:28):
Did you go through the cabins?
Speaker 4 (22:29):
Then?
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Just take a look. See kids sometimes full round. That's
why I bought it up. The windows gonna take a
look at the office. Yeah, go ahead, mister Calson, Sure
nothing in here, ranger, Nope.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
It's not.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Anythinking particularly you're looking for.
Speaker 5 (22:57):
Yeah, you have this floor washed lately.
Speaker 10 (23:00):
Oh heck no, ain't no use paying for something like that.
Speaker 5 (23:03):
It's been washed recently.
Speaker 4 (23:05):
Uh why how do you know?
Speaker 7 (23:08):
Scrubbing wood with hot water always raises the grain, and
hot water isn't as good as cold to wash out bloodstains.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
But blood range?
Speaker 10 (23:18):
Oh yeah, go on?
Speaker 4 (23:22):
What the devil is his?
Speaker 10 (23:24):
Who?
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Way? Fellas?
Speaker 9 (23:26):
My guess there's a couple of men I want from murder.
Mister calson.
Speaker 4 (23:31):
Telephone? Why everything?
Speaker 10 (23:32):
Okay, yeah, fust that guy?
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Me?
Speaker 4 (23:34):
Why I never carry a gun man? We just make sure. Yeah,
he's clean.
Speaker 10 (23:40):
Now strip the range's gun belt.
Speaker 7 (23:42):
Wait a minute, you got the drop on me. Maybe
i'd have to be a fool to draw.
Speaker 9 (23:47):
But if you don't want me to be a fool,
don't touch these guns. You try and take them off
me and I'll go down use them and I might
get lucky.
Speaker 8 (23:56):
Alright, lock, let them alone. He's too smartest start anything.
Go get the panel truck out and start loading us
stuff fast.
Speaker 4 (24:04):
But what about them?
Speaker 8 (24:05):
We can lock them in, fix their cars so they
can't get out of here for a while after we leave.
If they try to come out while we're still here,
we'll bless whatever door of window they try to come through.
Speaker 10 (24:16):
Get that ranger, I get it, Okay, I'll be outside.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
Chuck.
Speaker 5 (24:21):
So your name's Chuck?
Speaker 4 (24:23):
Huh? What is any What are you and that other
feller doing in my place?
Speaker 5 (24:26):
Go ahead, Chuck, tell him.
Speaker 10 (24:28):
Some other time.
Speaker 8 (24:29):
Friend, Now you too, listen because I ain't gonna say
this twice. Try to bust out before you hear us.
Drive off and you'll get it good.
Speaker 10 (24:39):
I'll stay you.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
But they got us locked in.
Speaker 5 (24:45):
Yeah, don't for hear that window?
Speaker 4 (24:49):
Good?
Speaker 5 (24:49):
What he said a little crack in the morning. I'm
just taking a look.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
What did he doing?
Speaker 12 (24:54):
Come here and take a look for yourself. Well, I
should have watched the place more. I never knew anyone
who's using it, and use plenty. But what they're taking
out hers all kinds of stuff. It's beginning to make sense.
Speaker 9 (25:06):
Closed down motel made a nice storage bin for stolen
unsmuggled goods until I could run into the markets.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Oh they'll get away.
Speaker 4 (25:13):
You you said there was a murder.
Speaker 5 (25:15):
Take it easy, mister Calson. We'll get them.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
They'll be across the border in a half an hour
before we could even reach a phone.
Speaker 7 (25:21):
Maybe you better take a chance and get shot down
in cold blood.
Speaker 5 (25:25):
No, but we'll get them, all right. Know why, mister Calson?
Why because you will help. I pinned Calson with a quick.
Speaker 7 (25:40):
Headlock and then got one arm up fine him an
applied pressure so I could keep him still while I
had a free hand. I reached into his jacket and
found what I was looking for under his shoulder. Then
I pushed there.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
You crazy? He almost brow arms off.
Speaker 5 (25:53):
Calson.
Speaker 9 (25:54):
Do you think I saw this gun bulging under your
coat and they deliberately missed it when they frished you, You.
Speaker 5 (25:59):
Played a real almost I don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 9 (26:02):
This gun and the electric bills you paid him, paid
bills that were being run up in a place that
was supposed to be shut down, seemed kind of funny.
You never complained of the power company, So what you
got a phone call and your friends out there they
tipped you because they saw me nosing around here earlier.
Speaker 5 (26:16):
Right, Oh, okay, okay, take a.
Speaker 4 (26:19):
Look out there.
Speaker 5 (26:20):
They're almost finished.
Speaker 9 (26:22):
In a couple of minutes, they'll be gone, and half
an hour they'll be over the border.
Speaker 5 (26:25):
How about you. You want to stick back here and
face a murder charge.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
There's nothing you can prove.
Speaker 9 (26:30):
There's plenty we can prove, Calson, and you're holding the bag.
You'll have a tough time explaining those electric bills and
then missing your gun.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
I didn't kill that man, did this?
Speaker 5 (26:39):
Chuck do it?
Speaker 4 (26:40):
Yeah? Yeah, that sales won't come in. The show was
going on. Chuck killed him then drove him away.
Speaker 7 (26:45):
All right, I'll listen real careful to me. I'm gonna
fire this gun of yours. Then you hammer on the
door and holler for him.
Speaker 5 (26:51):
Get it.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
What do you wanted?
Speaker 5 (26:53):
Just to listen when they come up, tell him you
had to kill me. Tell him to open the door. Then,
mister Calson stepped back and out of the way fast.
They'll be gone in a minute. Take up your mind,
all right, go ahead.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
I'll do it.
Speaker 5 (27:07):
Any funny tricks and you get it first. Now ready,
turn that door.
Speaker 4 (27:13):
And holler truck rock to me a fast over the door.
Speaker 10 (27:17):
Now when it's open, step back, what's over the door?
Speaker 4 (27:21):
I had to kill him? He was making a break
for it. You get just knocked him up right? Oh hey,
what's the big idea are you?
Speaker 9 (27:36):
We've come back for him later, calson. Meantime, lets you
and me get back to town. I got you a
deal for this white elephant motel. You can trade it
for a jail cell.
Speaker 5 (28:07):
And now here is the wheaties man.
Speaker 4 (28:10):
Frank Martin, all right.
Speaker 7 (28:11):
Sound effects man wring the alarm clock.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Yeah, I used to grow in too.
Speaker 7 (28:18):
When I heard that sound one morning, I said to myself,
Now look, Martin, you gotta get up.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Why fight it?
Speaker 7 (28:24):
Think about something pleasant? And right away I thought wheaties.
That's about the pleasantest thinking a man can do. Why
when you figure you can sit down to a bowl
of good, crisp wheaties and then feel like tackling the world.
When you know a bowl of wheaties and milk and
fruit can help you work good? Because you feel good?
(28:45):
Why it almost makes you want to shake hands with
your alarm clock. And when you hear it, come morning,
roll out happy, reach for the big orange and blue
box and see how wheaties at seven can help.
Speaker 4 (28:57):
At eleven.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Next week, Joel McCrae and another authentic reenactment of the
case from the piles of not Texas Rangers. Joel McCrae
will soon be seen starring in the Universal International Technicolor
(29:22):
production Saddle Tramp to Night's cast included Tony Barrett, Paul McVay,
Lou Cookman, Jeff Corey, Robert Bruce, Byron Kine, and Jeanette Nolan.
This story was transcribed and adapted by Russell Hughes. The
program was produced and directed by Stacy Keith. This is
Hal give Me Speaking, and.
Speaker 7 (29:48):
This is the Wheedies Man Frank Martin inviting you to
listen Monday night to Frank Lovejoy and night.
Speaker 4 (29:54):
Beat on the Wheaties Big Parade. See you.
Speaker 5 (29:57):
Then listen tomorrow for the Summer Symphony. Now it's Basin
Street Time on NBC
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