 The National Broadcasting Company presents Joel McRae in Tales of the Texas Rangers Tonight transcribed from Hollywood another authentic re-enactment of a case from the files of the Texas Rangers Tales of the Texas Rangers starring Joel McRae as Ranger Jase Pearson Texas more than 260,000 square miles and 50 men who make up the most famous and oldest law enforcement body in North America Tales of the Texas Rangers come these stories based on fact Only names, dates, and places are fictitious for obvious reasons The events themselves are a matter of record Case for tonight, blind justice It is 5.45 a.m. March 6, 1940 Pete Salverson, owner of a roadside cafe in West Texas, is opening for business As he sweeps up in the kitchen, he hears a sound outside the back door Looks like you got here too early to root for anything on that garbage can, though Now, Marebsie, yours look like you could use some grub fast Hey, hey, hey, hey, no, no, no, none of that face licking You just come on inside and I'll fix you Come on, come on Let's see, how about this? That is bone and a couple of hunks of stew meat, huh? You are beat up and hungry What's this contraption you got strapped on you? Pete, you open yet? Oh, howdy, Sheriff How's the coffee situation? Well, ain't brewed yet, but I can fix you some up in a minute Had an early customer here Yeah, but he hasn't got any money I'm a cash customer Now, where'd you get him? Oh, he's rootin' in the garbage cans out back Whatcha doin' up and around so early? I just came back from Huntsville Delivered a prisoner up there yesterday Hey, that would be a pretty good-looking dog If he was taken care of, who was him? Oh, no, never seen him before Never did see a leash like the one he's wearing What a kind of funny contraption Look at him Hey, let's see that What's the matter, Sheriff? Well, this ain't a leash, it's a harness You see, dogs are seeing eye dogs One of them dogs is trained to lead blind people Sure is He must've run off from his master then Well, these dogs don't run off, Pete I had a missing persons bulletin on a blind man three days ago This might be his dog Or a guy that's missing must be around here, then, huh? Well, if he is, something must've happened to him This dog never would've left him Say, you got change for dollar in the register Oh, sure thing I'm gonna hit that phone and get a ranger down here to help Wherever that dog's master is I got a hunch we'd better find him quick Less than one hour after the Sheriff's appeal for help Texas Ranger Jase Pearson joined him at Pete Salverson's roadside cafe There he is, Ranger No mistake in that harness, if you ever seen one before It's a C&I dog, all right You say you found him outside this morning, Salverson? Yeah, half-starved, like you can see Been a good three or four days since he's eating from the looks of him Easy, boy, come here Nobody's gonna hurt you Oh, I'm sorry, fella It's really sore, isn't it? He's had a bad time, Sheriff Got a pretty hard clip on the head, must've been knocked out Since then, he's traveled through some rough country The late Jiggy has got him all sliced up Foot pads are sore from walking Yeah, but ever since Pete fed him He's been yelling to get out of here Reckon he'll be able to lead us back to the master You'll have a better chance of a veterinarian work him over first Four-minute the Wolverine Rancher's a vet Won't take him out there Meanwhile, you better get yourself a horse I'll leave my horse trailer here until I get back You can load your mount in with my horse Charcoal It's a double trailer What makes you think we'll need horses? In a country this dog came through isn't the kind we'll be able to get through in a car He came too far for us to follow on foot Lost dog sometimes head for home, Jace Missin Persons Bulletin came from Ozone Dog may be headed for there Only way we'll find out is to follow him If he heads any other way, it'll be back toward the man he's been trained to take care of I'm figuring that'll be in a southerly direction from here How do you know that? All barren country that way, full of late Jiggy If he came such a long way from any other direction he'd have run into a town or a ranch and been found before this Reckon I'll buy that, that makes sense Get your horse, I'll meet you back here and we'll drive as far south as we can cross country and then turn this dog loose and follow him I got the dog patched up at the Wolverine Ranch picked up the sheriff and his horse and headed south into the Badlands We switched from car to our horses and turned the dog loose He circled around for a moment, got his bearings and then despite the soreness of his body started into a limping run He's heading south, all right, Jace Must be going to his master Beats me why he went all the way to Peach Place though He had to go someplace for help but the only thought he gave to himself was to stop him long enough to be fed before he headed back here How far do you reckon we'll have to go? Well, we came 14 miles by car before the dirt road petered out He came a lot farther than that Might have taken him a couple of days We'll have to stop him at night if he keeps going that long and tie him off We better make sure we can catch him poor dark so he don't get away from us altogether Chances are he'll wait for us After all, where the help he came after I treated his collar with some phosphorus paint Hey, what ever made you think of that? Trick my father taught me a long time ago He had an old hound dog, great hunter got a throat injury and couldn't sound off blowing collar made up for it Well, like they say, we live and learn Hey, look Look where the dog's cutting up in the foothills Yeah That's ambush canyon that way, isn't it? Sure is Say, no wonder that dog's a beat up I wouldn't tackle this country in an army tank if I didn't have to I wonder if that blind fella will be alive when we find him I don't think so, Sheriff If he was alive, I don't think the dog would ever have left him Come on, Charkey What kept that dog going, I'll never know We hit stretches where we had to lead the horses on foot It was toward sundown of the second day when the dog caved in He made a feeble attempt to inch along on his stomach and then just rolled over on his side panting He's done for, Jase Can't even take water I better No, Sheriff Put your gun away But, Jase, he couldn't move another inch if he wanted to I'll carry him with me on charcoal Man, it'd be mighty lucky if he could find a human being that'd go this far for him He'd never have let us this far back if you hadn't had the vet work on him What do we do now? Keep on going, I guess If his master is in here, he must have left some trail We'll keep cutting through till we find Marx Jase, how would a blind man get into this country and why? I don't know But if he wasn't here, the dog wouldn't have been here either We better move on till we find a good spot to make camp These horses need some attention on the night of rest, too Meantime, maybe I can do a little doctrine on the dog Won't do any good, Jase All you'll need's a pack shovel Just stop breathing He's dead The next morning, we started trail cutting Working steadily to the south toward the international border The Rio Grande The country's getting a mite better now, Jase But we're only about a half a mile from the river If anybody else had been in here recently we'd have seen some sign of a trail Nobody could come through here without leaving some kind of tracks And the dog didn't have this way for nothing, Sheriff He must have... hey, hold it a second What is it? Look at this Dog hair caught in this thorn brush Must have been a few days ago when the dog headed out Look at the color German shepherd all right We're still in the right trail then But why no human tracks? The dog came out of here on foot But this may not be the way he and his master got in here originally What other way is there? On the river, in a raft or a flat bottom boat? Well, how could a blind man navigate the river? He didn't have to be alone, Sheriff That dog was beaten on the head, remember? It isn't likely his master did that, is it? No, I see what you mean, but... Wait a minute, look up ahead there Right into the ridge, about a quarter of a mile Yeah, it looks like part of the rock in the earth Have been scooped out Must have been a little landslide Not on a rock facing as solid as that looks What do you suppose it is then? Let's find out It took us more than an hour to reach the base of the ridge And find the answer It wasn't a landslide There were a couple of dynamite caps on the ground The fresh earth had been blown out Two men, all right, Jace Signs of tracks held tight in this fresh earth Dog tracks go right along with the one set That was the blind man Another mark running in with those tracks, though A little round hole in the ground every few steps Blind man must have had a cane, too Move around the wide circle and cut back to this spot Wait, Jace What's that thing over there by the brush? Long white piece or something White cane, come on A head of its stain, Jace, looks like blood It is A dog must have been clubbed with that Blood stains didn't come from the dog, Sheriff What he had on his head didn't bleed Let's be through this brush Blood trail on the ground through here, Jace Yeah That pass just ahead seems to be pressed down in one spot Let's make for it Man's body, all right Face down Better roll him over and see if it's a blind man It's him, all right Tell by his right hand, callous ridge there From holding on to that dog harness I took the white cane and the dynamite caps And rode along the shore of the river to the nearest town Called Austin to fly a lab man down And arranged for a boat to pick up the sheriff and the body I was in the local constable's office 24 hours later When the body was brought into town The body's over with the undertaker, Jace Good Constable told me you were in here looking over reports from your lab man Yeah No lead on the dynamite caps, but we learned plenty from the cane Two sets of prints, one unidentified Must have been the blind man's What about the other set? The man who left the other set had a criminal record The name was James Waterman He was found in Huntsville six years ago Waterman? See, I remember that name You ought to remember it He pulled 10 years for armed robbery $40,000 payroll stick up back in 24 Money never was recovered I wonder why he killed that blind man And why was he blasting in the face of that rock ridge Something we'll ask him when we get him Oh, was the lab man at the funeral home when you brought the body in? Yeah, he's going over it now Want to get some grub while you're waiting for him to finish? Yeah You take prints off the body to compare the ones The man who left it from the cane He'll have identification established by the time we get through Good, let's go I'll be glad to eat something I haven't had to cook myself Funny thing We started off so fast after that dog turned up the other day I never did check that missing persons bulletin For the blind man's name The name was Joseph Wilson Lived in a rooming house in Ozona Operated a newsstand Landlady reported him missing When she didn't see him or the dog for two days There is a cafe across the street We took our time A statewide pickup was out for James Waterman And it seemed just a matter of pinning him down But when we got finished and walked over to the funeral home The case wasn't so simple Our lab man Marty Ferris Was just finishing a phone conversation No, I said there's no doubt about it Yeah, check on it Pearson just walked in, I'll tell him Bye Howdy, Jayce Marty Ferris, Sheriff Ritchie We met when this sheriff came in with the body We got trouble, this thing is blown wide open All right, what's the matter? That's the prince, and take a look at him Here's a copy of the unidentified set I sent on to Austin The man who made them has no record Well, why should he have a record? Aren't they the blind man's prince? No, they aren't, Jayce The prince on the body matched the known prince pulled from the cane The dead man is James Waterman What? It's it, Sheriff Yeah, look at the prince, see for yourself Marty, could you have made a mistake? I just checked with Austin on the phone by classification number Waterman must have been blinded sometime after he left Huntsville He took the name of Wilson as an alias Now all we've got is a set of unidentified prince That might match anybody in the state Sheriff, our killer isn't going to be easy to find You are listening to tales of the Texas Rangers Starring Joel McCrae as Ranger Jayce Pearson We continue now with tonight's case Blind Justice, an authentic story from the files of the Texas Rangers Whoever the blind man's companion had been There had to be a starting point for their journey along the river A place where they'd picked up a boat or a raft Sheriff and I worked our way along the river above the town Questioning the occasional Mexicans who managed somehow to make a living Where no living was to be made And in one spot, less than a mile from the road, we found something Can see it clearly now, Jayce Yeah, impression of a flat bottom boat on that mud flat Had to be dragged quite a ways to the water Not many days ago either Oh boy Mud around where the boat was is cake dry Spot where the boat was setting still looks damn Uh huh, boat must have been there without being used for quite some time River's been way down for more than a year A little smoke coming up from behind those trees Must be a Mexican hut Whoever's there might own the boat Let's ask him Yeah, come on Taco's cooking, smell him? Yeah, smell something else too Chicken frying There's a place and you can see it now Pretty high class for river hut Looking back, chicken coop Kinda new too Coop wire, I mean Hasn't been up very long Yeah, a woman out in front of the place She sees us Buenos dias, senor Buenos dias, senor Whoa, whoa, Charlie Whoa, boy Maybe you can help us out, senor We'd like some information about a boat that was out on that mud flat Until a few days ago I never see a boat there, senor You never saw one there What made that impression on the mud then? I called my husband He speak better English If you want the money, you don't let me sleep I know something about that boat, all right, Jayce Yeah Here, come You want something, senora? They want to know something There's a mark left by a boat down in that mud flat When was the boat there last? What happened to it? It was maybe a week ago The boat disappeared in the night One morning she's gone, that's all I know Who took it? We don't know Just like that, huh? Sí, sí, just gone Don't try to feed us a story like that, you Just a second, Sheriff Where do you work, Danielle? What do you do for a living? Well, I do anything for whoever give me the work But for a long time, nobody give me any You must have saved a lot of money Have eaten fried chicken and tacos Where'd you get those chickens? I raised them, senor Without hens and a rooster? Anything in that coop old enough to sit a nest And that coop wire is new Well, what I mean to say, I was just starting to raise them Where'd you get the money to buy that coop wire and the chicks? You better talk up This is part of a murder investigation Murder? A blind man was murdered down river He got there by boat Senora, I got nothing to do with murder I just sell the boat Why didn't you say so before? Well, because the boat was not mine You sold it just the same Say, say, look, I tell you the truth The boat is there for two years Ever since we come here I never know who owns it And then one day the men come Two men? One of them blind? Say, say, he got a dog and a white stick The other man with him, he said to me I give you $50 for the boat Well, I don't say that the boat is mine I just let him give me $50 What the man look like? The one who could see Oh, he's big, just like you With the light hair Very wavy Eyes blue He said that when they come back I can have the boat back for nothing And he give me more money If I don't tell nobody I say you give me more now But he said he don't have no more Until he come back That's the whole truth And you're just like Daniel tell you All right If it isn't the truth, we'll find out Come on, Sheriff, let's go All right You two stay right around here In case we want to see you again We'll be here Up, boy Hey Heading back for the town? Yeah Marty may have some more information And I think we just got a lead from Daniel On why Waterman and the other man went down river Well, if you did, you got something I missed I promised Daniel more money when they came back The money Waterman got in that stick up 16 years ago Never was recovered, remember? Oh, I get it That's why they dynamited into that rock ridge Waterman must have hidden that money until it cooled off That's right But before he ever got back to it He was caught and sent to Huntsville for ten years Why didn't he go further soon as he got out six years ago? That's one of the things we still don't know Maybe Marty'll have the answers when we get back to town Marty had the answers all right Reports from Austin that had come in while we were on the river I made notes on everything, Jase, if you can read my writing Thanks A check back shows that Waterman lost his sight three days after he left Huntsville six years ago It's hard to run down because he didn't have to report to anybody He'd served his full term, no parole I see, happened in a highway accident, huh? Yeah, he caught a lift on a gasoline truck, went over an embankment and caught fire The driver was killed, Waterman blinded Near Sonora, that means Waterman was headed this way from the pin He was going straight for that money, Sheriff But losing his sight stopped him But why did it take him six years to move for it again? To find somebody to help him And a man with a load of stolen money hidden away doesn't trust many people He finally trusted somebody And got killed for it I'm going to take a ride to Ozona It's out of your county, Sheriff, but it's your case You want to come along? You bet I want to come along Let's go In Ozona, we went to the rooming house where Waterman had lived under the name of Joseph Wilson, a landlady he showed us to his room It hadn't been rented to anybody else and his things were still there A few books in braille, clothing and extra harness for the dog Everything is just like he left it Just like it was when the police come after I called them I haven't touched a thing No money, nothing valuable was left here, only what you see It's all right, ma'am, don't be upset Nobody accused you of taking anything I just want you to know there was nothing to take He never had nothing Always a couple of weeks behind in his rent Not that I minded, I had nothing but sympathy for the poor man Even fed his dog for him or never would have been fed Look, something you just said is important to me Now, if he owes you money, there's nobody to pay it So you're just going to lose it The truth can't hurt you one way or the other Did he really owe you a rent money? Yes, why else would I say it? Every once in a while he'd catch up He'd got some kind of benefit checks from someplace once in a while What's your angle there, G? I'm just figuring, Sheriff Daniel got $50 for that boat he sold There must have been more expenses getting from here down there Somebody had to finance it There's traveling company in Liverpool Yeah, it's a cinch it was somebody Waterman met And got to know right here in Ozona Ma'am, did Mr. Waterman... Mr. Wilson, have any visitors here? Any friends? I never saw a soul Some fellow called him a few times, though And he was home sick and couldn't work at the newsstand You know who it was? No, he never gave me his name Mr. Wilson just said it was somebody new from the stand The same fellow each time? As far as I could tell from the voice I see, thanks Come on, Sheriff Was that all you want here? Yeah, thanks We located the place where Waterman had had his newsstand A main intersection near a bank, a restaurant, an office building And a medical and professional building Somebody else was running the stand now We staked out in my car across the street Looking for somebody fitting the description Daniel gave us? That's right Man who called whenever Waterman was sick Might have been a regular customer That could be quite a few customers Fitting that description, Jay He'll tag the ones who come close See if the newsie or anybody around has any information on him Somebody might have noticed the man we're looking for Hanging around the stand from time to time If he knew Waterman well enough to call his room and house He knew him well enough to stop for a talk You're right, of course But this kind of waiting wears me out It's the dullest part of the job, Sheriff But sometimes it's the part that pays off For two days we watched the corner Occasionally we followed a man who fitted the description Supplied by Daniel But each time we checked the subject turned out to be somebody Who hadn't been out of town Then just before the end of our second day of watching I nudged the Sheriff What is it, Jayce? Over there No, past the newsstand Just going into the medical and professional building Oh, yeah He looks like he might be the boy all right His hair is really light and curly Which most of the others haven't been Let's see where he went Oh, wait a minute He's still in the lobby There by the elevator Let's wait until he's picked up There's the elevator now Well, there it goes He's the only passenger Come on Watch the floor marker See where the elevator stops Third floor, Jayce Let's take a look at the building directory on the wall Third floor, two doctors A dentist, an attorney, and a coropathist Go up to that floor Try them all You want me to grab him? No If you spot him in a waiting room Just sit down like you're waiting to After he leaves, find out anything you can about him I'll wait back in the car And tag him after he comes out How do we get together again? After I find out where he lives I'll come back and pick you up on the corner I waited for the man with the light curly hair He came out of the building in 20 minutes I started my car away from the curb slowly Keeping him in sight He turned the corner and got into a car of his own Drove to an apartment building I noted the address And went back and met the sheriff I hope you didn't lose him, Jayce I think he's the one we want Why? What'd you get? He was in to see a doctor Had a dressing on his arm changed Doc said he's a regular patient Who's been away on vacation Been out of town, huh? Yeah, but that isn't all It's what he's being treated for That ought to make you sit up Dog bite Dog bite? I thought that shipper Might have gotten to the killer Just once before he was knocked out Let's go visit him I know the apartment building he lives in You get his name from the doc? J.B. Rowland works on the local newspaper Reporter? No, has charge of distribution and circulation Also takes care of the morgue Back issue files That'd put him in touch with Waterman On the circulation end And is taking care of the back issues Might fit too That might have told him who Waterman really was Hey, that's right Fishing through some old back issues He might have read about the robbery And Waterman's conviction Maybe seen a picture of Waterman And recognized it That'd make him get friendly He'd know the money was never recovered And that Waterman didn't have it on hand Or he wouldn't be running a news stand And living like he did You think he told Waterman what he knew And finally talked him into a deal? Or do you think maybe forced him into it? When we see him, we'll ask him There's the door, Jase Apartment 2B Gonna knock? Yeah Special delivery I'm not dressed You better slip it on the door You got a sign for it Or you got a pencil All right, Rowland Open it all the way I'll open it I'll open your skull Watch him, Jase You're not taking me Give me that gun Same arm Waterman's dog chewed on, huh? I don't know what you're talking about No, just the same You went right for a gun Brand new gun at that Like you were expecting you might have trouble Come on, get up Why'd you kill him? You want all the money instead of a split? Money Money Yeah, where's the money? What did you do with it? What did I do with it? I worked on him for months Until he trusted me Then we went down to the river But we couldn't find the place Couldn't remember all the landmarks Couldn't see him after 16 years He couldn't remember He couldn't remember I went crazy I planned on it so much I went crazy then If I had the money, I could have gotten away Without the money, I had to come back here So they wouldn't be looking for me All right, Rowland Go get some clothes on Looks like that 40,000 has really gone for keeps, Jase Yeah Buried in a rock ridge somewhere near the Rio Grande That's money that never bought anybody anything I feel sorry for that dog, Jase, Breaking his heart and dying like he did Funny thing about a dog A dog never passes judgment He just sticks right to the finish Whether you're good or bad Worth it or not I'll help Rowland get a jacket on Then we can take him in For the murder of James Waterman Alias Joseph Wilson J.B. Rowland was convicted and sentenced To Huntsville Benitentiary For a period of 99 years Next week, Joel McCrae In another authentic re-enactment Of a case from the files of The Texas Rangers Joel McCrae is currently seen Starring in the Universal International Technicolor production, Frenchy Tonight's cast included Tony Barrett Peggy Weber Herb Bygren Ed Bigley Earl King Tom Holland And Tom McKee This story was transcribed and adapted By Joel Murcott And the program was produced And directed by Stacey Keats Hal Gibney speaking Three times mean good times on NBC Tomorrow night, NBC will present Parallel 38, a dramatization Of the work of the Red Cross During the current crisis With Raymond Massey in the starring role Brigadier General David Sarnoff Will explain the needs of the Red Cross During the 1951 fund campaign So listen tomorrow to Parallel 38 And let your heart guide your hand When you give to the Red Cross The telephone hour welcomes UC Birling tomorrow on NBC