 The National Broadcasting Company presents Joel McCrae in Tales of the Texas Rangers From Hollywood another authentic re-enactment of a case transcribed from the files of the Texas Rangers Rangers starring Joel McCrae is Ranger Jayce 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 Come these stories based on fact This is our fictitious for obvious reasons. Case for tonight wild crop It is 7 30 p.m. The Saturday night in October 1947 In the fields near Boroughville, West Texas two men stand in the darkness beneath the cluster of button willows What'd you say we light up way later? I only want to take a few grand later I said stick that button. I just back in your pocket. All right, whitey You don't have to get tough about it. Then don't make me tell you things twice What time is it? How do I know? You got my watch along with everything else you act right tonight. I may give it back to you You sure Jenin's comes this way, of course. I'm sure Path through here is the shortest way from the ranch to my house. What time was your sister expecting them? Between 7 30 and 8 that's when he always comes. We'll make him a little late tonight We'll make him nice and pretty for her You can't keep away from her, but maybe I can I had a lot of good. It's gonna do you what do you mean by that crack She don't like you know it like me well enough for Jenin's drifted in here What's so hot about a stinkin cow poke? Don't ask me asses you getting smart bud I'm just telling you well, maybe you better stop telling me unless you want to give up smoking. I Get it someplace else from who you not only don't know where to get the stuff you wouldn't have the money to buy it I Could do without it. Yeah A lot of him smokers say that you need marijuana, and I need your sister and don't forget it. You Somebody's coming Yeah Jennings must be he's the only one comes this way a record Other hands go the other way to town the ranch pickup. Remember what I told you just do like I said Hey, what are the things you're putting on your hands brass knuckles You said you was just a little fight. That's all but you could kill a guy with him things. Let me worry about that But I tell you quiet you'll hear you get him off that horse Jennings, oh boy Who's that me bud? Yeah? Why right here? I want to talk to you Look like you've been waiting here for me. I have Where you think you're going jenny's that's kind of silly question in it, but I'm gonna call on your sister. I don't think so and you're thinking ain't what it should be Why don't you grow up? I told you to stay away from her. I just wait for her to tell me that Now I'm gonna tell you something You ever can lay a hand on her for seeing me like I got a hunch you did once I'm gonna have you top them cotton from here to Houston. You want to start something But if you weren't married brother, I'd kick your teeth. Oh Kid, why don't you grow up your sister's a big girl? I'm gonna get married soon You and me gonna be in the same family whether we like it or not. I love I'm not gonna hurt it You're doing right you ain't cuz you ain't even gonna see her anymore starting right now Thank you gonna stop me, but here's your chance to stop trying Me He cut my mouth wine and help me pick them up and stand me get that The sheriff We started this let's Finish Body of Pete Jennings was discovered the following day when other ranch hands started a search for him after finding his horse grazing while fully settled The sheriff was summoned and he in turn requested the immediate aid of a Texas Ranger Ranger Jase Pearson was assigned Bodies in them button will is right ahead Jase a couple of my deputies are there with it Did you tell him not to tromp around they're experienced man good When'd you say the ranch hands saw Jennings last last night had his chuck with them then rode out Night riding what for oh he wasn't working He was on his way to see a girl been going steady with Mary Adams. He always go carton on a horse Well, he didn't have no car besides the ranch road to the Adam's places. No bargain Reckon it was the easiest way for him to get there. I see Those your man. Yeah, I staked him around the grove keep people out Place was kind of crowded this morning when the JP was here. It's like they shoot everybody off Howdy fellas Right in through here Jase. There's a little path. I see it Right there we are Not very pleasant to look at no When we first come out here this morning, I thought maybe it was an accident Maybe his horse to him or he hit a branch or something now one look around here kills that idea I know dead leaves on the ground. No rocks. Nothing. He could have hit that hard whatever his face met up with was plenty hard Flesh laid open to the bones. John knows smashed Any of the other ranch hands ride this way last night? Nope. Are you sure about that? I checked all But one of them rode into town on the pickup. I know where they all were I'll show you the statements later. You said one hand stayed. Yeah, but he never left the bunker You make sure of that. I didn't have to chase. He's in bed with a broken leg He's been there two weeks. Yes, we can count him out then Any money on the body? No, but this outfit pays once a month on the 15th. That's two days off Cowpokes all figured to be broke be a big surprise if they weren't The whole fight must have taken place right around here in a circle about 10 feet Why leaves are all ground apart other patches haven't been disturbed much and wait a second Another spot over here Not much here not like the other spot a couple of leaves are stained here Might be blood pretty far from the body Jace leaves over there stained a lot more. Yeah, I know You find any signs of pony tracks around the Grove too many Most of the ranch hands were around here this morning when the body was found They were all mounted and I brought my boys in to I guess that would wipe out any tracks that might have been around We'll have a look to make sure couldn't be helped Jace. Oh, I know that sure if I wasn't being critical Where they're gonna go for the body at the funeral home in burrowville medical examiners waiting for us to bring the body in I don't have somebody move it in on a buck board. I sent for one. Good. I want to get a couple of jars for my saddle bag jar Yeah, I Want to take samples of those stained leaves around the body and in that other spot Well, why from both places so takes at least two men to make a fight sheriff No rule says that one of them has to do all the bleeding. I Packed the samples of bloody leaves and got them off to the Austin lab by plane the medical examiners autopsy on Jennings body Showed that Jennings had been beaten to death with an object or objects of metallic hardness The sheriff and I left the examination room and we came around the side of the funeral home We looked through the glass window Two people were in the waiting room a man and a woman the woman was crying Who are they through the window there Mary Adams and her brother bud She the one you said Pete Jennings was on his way to see when he got killed. Yeah, you want to talk to her I'd be able to give us a motive for the killing. We need one badly. She looks pretty broken up I know but this can't wait Murders like this cool off too quickly unless you stay right on them. I can't fight that come on Howdy, bud Mary oh howdy sure This here's Ranger Pearson Jason Mary Adams and her brother bud. Howdy. Howdy ma'am. I'd like to ask you a few questions Look, I know you got a job to do Ranger, but do you have to talk to her now? You think I would if it wasn't necessary Well, you see the shape she's in Pete Jennings isn't in very good shape either, but Mary may give us the help We need to get the man who killed it. She can tell you what you won't know later. Oh, it's it's all right But I I might as well talk to them now. Thank you, ma'am When can I see him? Why do I have to wait here? Well, it'll be a while yet, Mary The doctor had to look him over first. Maybe you better just talk to us and then go on No, I I want to stay here What do you want to know? Pete Jennings have any trouble with anybody you know about ma'am. I mean was there bad blood between him and anybody? He's Well, no, he was a quiet fella. He ever in any trouble with the law anything like that No, you mean not that he ever told you about don't you start that again, but just a minute ma'am What do you mean by that bud? Nothing, then why'd you say it? Okay, I told you it was nothing. He just never liked Pete. That's all Please dad now. I can't you leave him alone. I had nothing against him. I just didn't want him hanging around you That's all maybe you'd better explain excuse me sheriff Maybe this isn't the time to talk to miss Adams after all we'll wait until later All right, if you say so Jay, sorry to bother you ma'am come on sheriff Now what was the idea that Jay's thought you wanted to talk to her I think I'd rather talk to her brother, but yeah, he seems to know something that she can't or won't tell us You might talk more freely if she isn't around to argue with him. He's looking up now He sees us out here signal him to come out. All right He got it He's coming now. Let's walk down the way so she can't see us You signal me to come out. Yeah Wanted to get your way from your sister keep from upsetting her any further. I appreciate that What were you gonna say in there about Pete Jennings? Oh, I don't know He's dead do seem right to talk about him must have been some reason you objected to him seeing Mary Would you want your sister taken up with a strange cowpoke that just drifted in from nowhere cowpokes are always drifting That doesn't mean there's anything wrong with him. Why'd he tell me there's a cowpoke? You didn't beat when Mary used to go out with him. I know why he's okay You never heard him getting in any trouble. Did you well know why you keep suggesting that Jennings had been in trouble Oh, all I know is he sure could have been you got a reason for thinking so Way acted you always seem scared about what how should I know? That's all a few times. He asked me if I'd ever seen a tall dark fill around town stranger You ever ask anybody else about that? I don't know that all there was to it. Why'd he ask you especially? I don't know. I tell you I guess it was because Well, I work on and off at the paint store near the continental trailways depot Maybe he figured that I'd notice people getting off the buses. You think he was afraid somebody was after him. Is that it? You figured out That's why I never wanted him around Mary. There was something wrong ever tell him how you felt Yeah, Tony, what'd he say? Told me to mind my own business. Well, did you what much else I could do was it I can marry his own up thick-owned bows You and Jennings ever have a fight. Of course not. Where were you last night between seven and eight o'clock? me I see I was at Wattie's place. I thought you said this fellow whitey was a cowpoke. He got a place of his own Yeah, Jay, he stopped punching cattle about a year ago bought a small place way out by Rocky Mason land out there isn't worth much Still he must have saved his money. No, he just hit it lucky once gambling Look, I told you all I knew I better get back to my sister. All right go ahead You boys take a set of fingerprints from Jennings body sheriff. Yeah, why I want to shoot a copy of Austin there at my office You think Jennings might have had a record might have whether he had one or not We'll have to check back on him as far as we can looking for what the tall dark man that bud says Jennings was so worried about In just a moment we will continue with tales of the Texas Rangers Starring Joel McCrae as Ranger Jayce Pearson It is absolutely imperative that our armed forces have an adequate reserve of blood plasma at all times The only answer to this crisis is you the American people who have never failed in such an emergency The Department of Defense urges every one of us to contribute blood plasma Blood cannot be manufactured or cultivated. It must be given by human beings to save a life Make an appointment right away to donate a point of your blood then know in your heart that you have saved a life We continue now with tales of the Texas Rangers and tonight's case Wild crop an authentic story from the files of the Texas Rangers I spent the next day drifting around the countryside asking questions about Jennings Anybody who'd known him had the same answer a nice quiet fella Got a few other interesting bits of information too before I got back to the sheriff's office at about sundown Sheriff Anything come in for me. Yeah about an hour ago. Just after you called me from the Saunders ranch I called back, but they said you'd left. What do you got the reports from Austin? I wrote everything down here You were right about that blood good thing you took a couple of samples from that ground out there Yeah, one type a that matches the medical examiner's typing on Jennings The other sample was typo too bad. He wasn't the other way around typo was very common The other report doesn't help much fingerprint check Jennings didn't have a record Didn't seem to be running from anything either Report says he wrote the friends on his last job place where he worked before he came here and asked him to Pass his address around and have people write to him here Sure left himself wide open to be followed by that tall dark man. There wasn't any tall dark man You sound pretty sure I was sure before I ever read this report You know old man Crandall runs the newsstand in the bus depot. Yeah He was one of the people I saw today Jennings used to buy his tobacco there Crandall liked him They were pretty friendly Crandall was right there to see every bus that came in Jennings ever asked him about a stranger No never asked anybody else I could find either never asked anybody but bud Adams Funny he should ask the one person who didn't like him. Yeah mighty funny Do your knowledge sheriff has bud Adams ever been in a hospital round here? I don't know Jason Must have been in one in the army though come home with a medical discharge fine. That'll do Hello operator. I want a long distance, please get me texas ranger headquarters cam abry austin Yes, sir one moment, please. What are you after chase a check of buds army record? I want to get his blood type Austin dug up the answer in an hour bud Adams was blood typo It fit it wasn't enough to grab him But it wasn't enough to take us out to the Adams place for a few more questions Mary Adams was there more composed than she'd been at the funeral parlor And somebody else was there too whitey Talmadge. We were introduced glad to meet you ranger Thanks your brother around miss Adams. He went out to the shed and back a while ago I don't know what's keeping him so long. Oh, he said he had something to fix I reckon you want to talk to these people mary. I Would just stop by to tell you how sorry I am about the way things turned out for you Thanks, whitey. Don't rush off on our account whitey buds the one we want to see sure stay put You can go through the house and out the back fine. Come on. Oh, uh Whitey mr. Talmadge. Yeah Understand you used to be a cowboy. Yeah You ever ride in the rodeo up at abalone Abalone no kind of thought I saw you up there once fellow named whitey rode for a ranch from this section Looks something like you wasn't me Understand you got your own place now. Yeah, I bet it beats riding for somebody else. It sure does Bud told us about it today Oh Must have taken you about 10 years to save that much money on a cowpoke salary Yeah, it was rough going Yeah, I get talking about spreads and I forget what I came here for come on sheriff You flushed something there Jason. Maybe not bud said whitey bodies placed with gambling money And we're lawmen. Maybe whitey didn't want to admit that to us Then what'd you rope him for if he used to go with a girl he's moving back into the picture mighty fast Here's your courage, shed I'm sure dark in here and light a match Nobody here No, but there was less than a minute ago. Is that a back door? Yeah, figure he ducked out there. Maybe we can catch him No Don't let him think we want to chase him better drop that match and light another one What are you sniffing at Still a little smoke in here. So old bud was smoking a cigarette. Yeah No jacket on the hook here Wonder if it's his it is. I've seen him wearing it recently On and off good. That's the match I want to take this with me. What for the send through to the lab at austin Whoa, what are you gonna have him look for? Man's cigarettes generally leave a few crumbs in the seams of his pockets I'm kind of curious about the brand that bud smokes Must be the cheapest brand from the smell of the smoke in here That's why I was smelling if I'm right sheriff. It's not cheap. It's expensive in more ways than one That smoke smells like marijuana I shipped the jacket through to austin on the night plane and we had a telephone report shortly before dawn Tobacco grains in bud's pocket showed traces of cannabis sativa The hemp leaf from which marijuana is made You look like you struggle and chase I did that was it marijuana No doubt about it man who smokes that stuff could turn killer in a minute We better pick bud up on what charge possession of narcotics not enough for that What could say other people wore the jacket you mean we got to sit here and let a hop head get away with murder No, we're going to the source find out where he got this stuff Well, there's none of it growing around here. He must be getting it from across the border I don't think so Where do you figure this spread whitey talmage bought up near rocky mesa? Was there a house on the land? No, we had to build himself a place Freckin his shacks the only one up there. Sure. It's the only one land There's dirt cheap because it's no good for grazing no good for cattle and you can't raise a crop on it Only thing that had grown up there is a weed and that's what marijuana is a weed I should have wondered why a cop could buy land up there. What are we waiting for? Come on I'm towing a double horse trailer on my car. You can load your pony in with charcoal The drive is close to rocky maces we can get and the ponies can take us up to whitey spread Walk through your pony steps jacis this rough country. Which way is the place? I don't know. We'll have to comb for it ride around the mace. It's near the base someplace Must be over there where off to the right see the smoke coming up Whitey must be home if he's got a fire going we ought to be just in time for breakfast And he won't feel much like feeding us Hey cut over this way like better footing for the pony right get up Get over there sheriff what jace that's no cooking fire. Look look at all that smoke What do you make of that? Why do you got scared? I think his crop's going up in smoke before we can get to it Come on pound leather up That rain in sheriff What is it fresh tracks here look Two horses came this far and then turned back toward the mace Now why look in the direction we came from and you will see why Roads in clear view from this point Our car shows right down the slope between those rocks Bud must have come back here with whitey last night They were riding down this morning and spotted us might have seen us taking the horses out of the trailer Come on. Let's see if we can save anything from that fire. Get up chargy up boy. Come on Took him a little time to ride back and fire that stuff jacis. It can't be far off There can be a million miles off if we can't get some evidence to pin on them. They Hey, there they are now where over to the right past the smoke on the pony see him Yeah, but what do we do now you had for the fire if you can get a clump of that stuff It isn't completely burned. Grab it then come after me. Well, where are you going after them? Come on chargy They saw me coming and they split up. I had to make a fast decision I had a feeling they were both in on the murder of jennings, but all we had on them was a marijuana charge I cut after bud. He was my best bet for one reason Growers like whitey talmage might not smoke this stuff But I knew bud did and the ones who smoke it are the shakiest. I caught him just before he reached the road Better rain in bud rain in boy. I'll stop you with a bullet And stop that pony That's better get off with your hands over your head I ain't got a gun. Just keep them up anyhow. Oh whoo charky now stand still where I dig out your cigarette I ain't got any I tell you I ain't got any no What are these? You ought to smoke the kind they sell in stores. These look kind of homemade The the whitest whitey would have burned them like everything else is burning back there But you couldn't resist sneaking a few could you why'd you chase me? Why don't you go after him? I'll tell you why because there was somebody else's blood on the ground besides jennings Type old blood your type. No you killed him bud. No Give me them cigarettes. I gotta have sure you gotta have them, but you couldn't buy them Could you not enough money? The kind of a deal did you make did whitey promise you a lifetime supply for killing jennings so he could have your sister I didn't I didn't do it. I didn't I suppose you didn't smoke this stuff either. Let me alone Why don't you let me alone? I should have seen it in your eyes the first time I saw you whitey's gonna be free He's burned everything we had on him. He'll be all right But you're going to jail for possession bud and whether we can picture or not You're going to stand trial for murdering jennings your blood was found on that ground too your blood Whitey killed him not me whitey killed him Don't lie. You hit him with something hard. What was it? It was whitey. He had brass knuckles I didn't he was just going to beat him beat on his face. All right bud You hear that sheriff? I sure did Everything was burned up out there jason. I grabbed a lot of food. That's all right. We won't need the marijuana charge Hold him. I'll meet you later where we left the car. You going after whitey? Yeah, he cuts off over the mason when they split Don't worry sheriff. I'll make sure he never gets there It was up to the horses and I had the best I raked charcoal all the way once I picked up the trail a clear trail in the mixture of alkali and sand In less than an hour. I had a dust cloud to follow Then I saw whitey and his pony through the haze the pony stumbled almost fell whitey went off He ran for a clump of mesquite and dropped behind it Oh boy Whitey If you're smart you'll surrender Quiet Maybe you found little evidence back there and maybe you didn't take your money. Let's call it even you're forgetting another little charge whitey You killed a man Why so quiet don't you want to make a deal on that one? Am I bud spilled it all brass knuckles aren't going to do you any good now Isn't a deal I'll tell you as soon as I deliver you to the warden at huntsville or the county morgue Now take your pick whitey because i'm coming for you I'll take this Looks like you picked yourself a low card mister With whitey talmage dead but adams enter the plea of guilty of murder in the second degree On july 8 1948 he was sentenced to the texas state penitentiary at huntsville for a term of 50 years Next week joe mccray and another authentic re-enactment of a case from the files of the texas rangers Starring in the universal international technicolor production cattle drive the cast included tony barrett sam edwards Barney phillips parley bair and michael and barrett Technical advisor was captain mt. Lone wolf gonzalez of the texas rangers This story was transcribed and adapted by joel mercott and the program was produced and directed by statie keith Hal gibney speaking It's the silver jubilee on nbc Next here the big show with guest stars including fred alan maxine sullivan jack pearl yule brunner Gertrude burg portland hopper and your charming hostess to lula bankhead Then enjoy mirth and music with phil harris and alice fe Later theater guild on the air features clad at colbert and gregory rathoff in 20th century Yes, for the best in radio programming stay tuned to nbc The nbc radio network is now entering its second quarter century as a great entertainment medium Next it's the big show all this and to lula too on nbc