 The National Broadcasting Company presents Joe McCrae in Tales of the Texas Rangers From Hollywood another authentic re-enactment of a case transcribed from the files of the Texas Rangers Texas more than 260,000 square miles and 50 men who make up the most famous and oldest law enforcement body in North America Texas Rangers come these stories based on facts Names, dates and places are fictitious for obvious reasons. The events themselves are a matter of record. Case for tonight, wheelchair killing. It is 840 p.m. May 1st several years ago. Colby, Texas near the edge of the Great Piney Woods is unusually crowded as several hundred young men from a nearby CCC camp have converged on the town to spend their monthly allowance. In the office of Sheriff Pete Saunders, the sheriff and his deputy are standing by in case any emergency should arise. I don't know why I'm so gruggish, Sheriff. Not even 9 o'clock. After that tired reg, I don't think they need for your stay any later. I can handle things. Why don't you go home? With all them young bloods in town? Oh, they seem to be all right. No sign of any fuss. I walked down Main Street a while ago. They were behaving. Yeah, just the same camp as new. It's the first payday they've had around here. A man can get pretty high with 30 bucks in his pocket. They don't get the whole 30 reg. They only get five of it. Government makes them send the rest home. Oh, I didn't know that. Sure, it's the whole idea. Where do I get this? Sheriff Saunders. Sheriff Saunders speaking. You'd better go to the old house on Long Hill. You'd better go there right away. Old man Swain's place? Got a phone. And that call must have come from someplace else. Here, see if you can trace it. Then pick up Macker and Carl and follow me out to Swain's. I'll get the dark on the way. The plane, a victim of rheumatoid arthritis, was found dead in his dilapidated home, seated in his wheelchair. An inquest was called and an autopsy ordered. He had not died from natural causes. The sheriff called for the help of a Texas Ranger and Ranger Jase Pearson was assigned, joining the sheriff at the funeral home. The body's in here, Jase. Uh-huh. He's a pretty old man. Pressing 80. Crippled up bad the last 20 years or so. Hadn't been for that phone call. I'd have figured his heart just gave out. I guess the doc would have, too. Good thing you asked for a coroner's inquest. Let me see the autopsy report. He died about eight last night. A ruptured spleen concussion. Doc says he was beaten to death. Funny. No marks on the body. No. All the damage was inside. Whatever he was hit with, it didn't leave any marks on him. Length of rubber hose, maybe. Something like that wouldn't leave a mark. You find anything like that? There's much chance to look, Jase. Maybe my deputies have run across something. Oh, I left three of them out at Swains last night. Why three of them? I may need more of that when he gets around that the old man is dead. Place will be loaded with vultures. What do you mean? Well, it's kind of a funny thing, Jase. The old man was kind of peculiar. Living off by himself in that big old house, not even a cleaning woman to help him. Started some crazy talk a long time back. Rumor got around that he had a lot of money stashed away at his place. You think there was anything to it? Nope. Because I know what he was living on. Got a check for $70 every month from some insurance company. I knew it. Yeah. Too bad everybody didn't know that. He probably killed by somebody trying to force him to tell where he hit the money people think he had. That could be a motive. On the other hand... There would be other reasons for killing him that we didn't know about. I doubt it, Sheriff. When a man comes into a place to kill with nothing else on his mind, he does it fast. This beating took time. Come on, I want to look at Swains' place. The Sheriff was right about the vultures. If his deputies hadn't been on guard, the house would have been a shambles. One of the deputies came inside with us. At the old man's wheelchair? Yeah. It hadn't been moved. That's where we found him sitting. My lab crew will be coming in from Austin. They can dust the chair for prints while they're going over the place. What's this on the floor? Where are you standing there? I don't know. That little crunchy when I walked across it before, like somebody spilled some sugar. It's not sugar. It's more like white beach sand. Little beach sand around this country, Jay. It's the same as what it looks like. Lab boys can tell whether it is or not. Right near the old man's chair, too. He gets around much. Outside, I mean. Best of my knowledge, he'd never wheel himself further than the front port to get the sun. How'd he get his food in? Reg can tell you that. He used to sit on the porch and flagged down a passing car or truck. Asking to pick up things for him at the market. I stopped by often to get him things. Had a red plant on a shirt he'd wave. Spotted easy from the road. Let's look through the rest of the place. And wait a minute. What is it, Jay? A few more grains of sand on the floor here. More, but right on into the kitchen. Let's go out back. There's nothing here, Jayce. Just a stump field all the way back to them hills. Somebody's been out here, though. Look. Part of a shoe mark on the ground. Barely see the outline. The toe dug in deepest. Man must've been running. Only one thing wrong about the whole setup, Jayce. That phone call I got was from a girl. It doesn't register as the kind of a killing that'd be done by a woman. Besides a murder, it doesn't usually call in a report. Too bad you couldn't find out who made it. Well, at least we know it came from a payphone in the lobby of the Colby house. Deskirk didn't notice anybody, though. I see. Let's spread out a little. See if we can cut across any more tracks like this one. Reg, you move off to my right about five paces. Right, Jayce. I'll fan out on this side. Good. Let's move. I'm getting some light tracks over here, but the ground's too hard. And I'm very clear. You must be on the right trail. It doesn't go all the way this way. I'm going to plant shoes. Put it. Find something, Reg? What is it? Man's sock. It's more than just a sock. Not at the middle and heavy at the toe. It's full of sand. That's where those greens of sand come from. Kill them to throw that away while it was running, Jayce. Here's a murder weapon, Sheriff. Now all we gotta do is find the person who used it. We found Swain's house petered out past the stump field, and we lost all trace a mile into the thick foliage of the piney woods. I sent the sock full of sand through to the Austin lab for examination. Meanwhile, a lab crew met me at the Colby funeral home and went over Swain's body. That sock must have been the weapon all right, Jayce. Look, just combed a few grains of the sand out of the old man's hair. A little more embedded in the scalp. The impact of the blows must have forced some of it through the sock weave. Must have. That's why you found traces of it on the floor. How are you making out there? Don't know much yet, Sheriff. You can check with the other lab men out at Swain's. Yeah. Usual jumble of smeared prints. That may be a report from Austin. I'll get it. Yeah, speaking. I've had rigged checking on that sand, Jayce. No firm in the area handles that grain. That's funny. Isn't likely the killer came from far off. Why not? Talk about the old man's having money stashed away as sort of a local rumor. I'll tell him. Andy and Austin were the report from that sock. They're an army camp around here, any place? No, I... That sock is Army Issue. Oh, yeah, man. There's a new CCC camp up in the Piney Woods, Jayce. About nine miles from here. Hey, they're civilian, but they get their clothes from Army Issue. Camps are run by Army officers. More than a hundred men up there. Yeah, and a good chance that one of them is the boy we're looking for. That rumor about Swain having money has been around for a long time. If somebody from the town was going to do them in, they'd have done it before this. Come on, Sheriff. Let's drive up to that camp. Good. It would be better if we could borrow a truck from someplace. Quiet truck. Old Lager's Road is the only one to the camp. High center. It's kind of rough on a passenger car. Especially one towing a horse trailer like yours. Well, I got charcoal in my trailer. Can't we cut straight through the woods on horses? That's a good idea. Save us time in a couple of miles. You got a horse at your place? Yeah, it's on the way. All right, I'll drive you out. We got the sheriff's horse. I unloaded charcoal from the trailer and we headed into the piney woods. As we drew near to the camp, we caught glimpses of men working in squads of four or five and finally ran across one man alone and mounted. Follow on horseback ahead there, Jayce. Can you see him? Yeah, it looks like a straw boss. Moving into a clearing now. He must be one of them fellas from the agriculture college. I understand they got four of them supervised. Have to have somebody who knows the woods. Most of the other camp boys are from the big cities. Yeah. You fellas looking for the camp? Yeah, that's right. It's about three quarters of a mile off that way. You'll see the tents when you get over that ride. Who are you? My name's Joe Roberts, section leader. My name's Pearson, this is Sheriff Saunders. Howdy, Sheriff. You out here about something connected with that murder in town? How'd you know about that? It wasn't around town until this morning and you're quite a ways off. That's when the truck brought him out from town this morning. The major was in town all night? Yeah, he doesn't live at the camp. It just comes out days. No place out here for his wife and daughter. Wife and daughter? Anybody out here have women folk in town? No, why? Just curious. You know where the major and his family are living in town? Well sure, at the hotel. Colby House. That's where that phone call came from, Jayce. Yeah, I know. You can say that again. Come on. In just a moment we will continue with tales of the Texas Rangers starring Joel McCray as Ranger Jayce Pearson. It's the Silver Jubilee on NBC. Every Friday evening there's another stirring adventure series for Western fans on the station. Yes, every Friday NBC brings you the King of the Cowboys, Roy Rogers, with the Queen of the West, Day 11's. Make your date for thrilling listening with the Roy Rogers show every Friday evening at this same spot on your dial. There's action and adventure in Paradise Valley when Roy Rogers rides the airwaves and there's also a song or two by these wonderful Western entertainers, Roy and Dale. Be sure to hear them Friday. We continue now with tales of the Texas Rangers and today's case, Wheelchair Killing, an authentic story from the files of the Texas Rangers. Major Beck was regular Army. In his early 50s, overage and rank a gray, embittered man. His office was a field tent at the head of the company's street. So, you think that old man was killed by somebody from this camp? We've got a reason to think so. Because of a sock. Socks like that have been general issues since 1917. I don't like any accusations against my command, especially accusations based on such flimsy evidence. There's something else beside the sock, Major. I notice your company's street between the tents is paved with gravel. Well, what about it? Is that gravel bedded in beach sand? You can see it around the borders, can't you? Sure, we can see it. It's the same kind of sand we found in that sock that Swain was beaten with. There's no beach sand anyplace else in this area, Major. Where'd this come from? How do I know? The vans cadre of engineers set the camp up. I suppose the sand was trucked in with other materials. All right. Everything you've found points to this camp. I should have expected something like this. What do you mean by that? What can you expect from sidewalk bums? Bums don't work, Major. And the crews we pass seem to be working pretty hard. I have to spend my time with them, you don't. What time do your men come in from the woods? Four o'clock. All the clothing they have issued through your own supply? Yes, all listed in time, boy. Good. I couldn't have lost much in a month. At four o'clock, I'd like you to call for an inspection of equipment. See if we can find somebody who's missing a sock. All sorts of equipment was missing. Shirts, extra shoes, miskits. But there was only one man who couldn't account for a pair of socks. All right, Rendezo, in the tent. All right, all right. Look, Major, what kind of crime is it to lose a sock? There's a shortage on him or something? The ranger and sheriff will tell you. I thought your ranger guys was just something they made up for the movies. We've been around since long before there were any movies, Rendezo. Okay, so you're a cowboy detective. So find out who stole my socks. Don't be funny, young fellow. Miss, I ain't trying to be funny. But what are you all jumping on me, huh? I wash my socks, I hang them up to dry, and one of these do-drops puts his hooks on them. Does that make you a federal case? Rendezo, a sock belonging to somebody in this camp was used to kill an old man. It was filled with sand from the company's street and used as a blackjack. Hey, you mean that's how they knocked off that old nickel pinch on a log hill? Oh, you know about that. Oh, Cap knows about it. What are you looking at me? The guy that picked some age up told us about it when he brought the truck back. Oh, you know about that? Oh, Cap knows about it. What are you looking at me? The guy that picked some age up told us about it when he brought the truck back this morning. Were you in town last night? It was all in town last night. We got paid yesterday to make you let us go in on the trucks. What time did you come back to camp? When everybody else come back. Trucks picked all of us up again at midnight. Same place they thought was out of Main Street, but a corner near that hotel. A Kobe house? That's the only one, innit? What did you do while you were in town? Up to nine o'clock. I was having a hamburger and that place next to the bus depot. I was there from eight to ten. You must be a slow eater. I was trying to pick up the blind behind a counter. She keeps giving me a smile with all her teeth bit. I asked her what time she gets off, she tells me ten o'clock. So what happens? Five minutes to ten, she got a boyfriend, comes to me to a guy eight foot tall. You know the girl he's talking about, Sheriff? Yeah, Lucille Mason. Must have been her husband better. Her husband? How do you like that? Could she have been the one who made the phone call you got, Sheriff? Not a chance. The girl that called was a lot younger. I don't think you have any right to hold this man, except for killing anybody, Major, until we've checked on a lot of things. All right, Randazzo, you can go. But don't leave this camp except with your work crew. Leave this camp, he says. From now on, ain't even gonna leave my tent. I should have never left Brooklyn. Major, that goes for everybody out here. Don't let them use the trucks. Keep men camp. You better stay here to make sure. My wife and daughter are in town. Well, I can't stop you from going home. But if you do, the sheriff will have to send deputies out here to keep the men confined to the camp area. I don't want civil authorities here. I'll stay. Thanks. Come on, Sheriff. Let's get back to town. You know, Jace, I kind of got an idea. So have I. A girl's voice, young, not from around here? The Major's daughter staying at the Colby house. I think he knows more than he's telling. That's kind of funny. No, he's all right. Probably a pretty good man. He hates his men. Because they're not what he's used to. But give him credit for one thing. He doesn't want any of him involved in this. If he had the authority to do it, he'd probably take that Randazzo and hang him to the highest tree. But when he thought we might take the man in, he went to bat for him. Yeah, I see what you mean. Hey, is that fellow Roberts we met riding in? The section leader. Yeah, given our horse's water, good for him. Your horse is a kind of thirsty. Yeah, thanks for taking care of him, Roberts. That's all right. Say hi to make up with Randazzo. He seems to be all right. Most of them are. Major Beck doesn't like him, though. He had some young army officers around so he could sort of hand pick a son-in-law. This girl's pretty. She associate with any of the fellows here? Well, when the camp first opened, the fellow named O'Brien, a good-looking kid, better education than most of the others, he used to drive the major back and forth from town. Then, all of a sudden, he got somebody else. Put O'Brien on miss-hole details, took him off trucks all together. You know if O'Brien was seeing the girl? Nobody could have met her pretty often that first two weeks picking up the major. Well, the truck drivers get into town almost every day hauling supplies and things. Well, thanks a lot, Roberts. Horses look like they had enough sheriff. Yeah. Come on, boys. So long, Roberts. So long. Come on, boys. Well, Jay, what's our next move? Ride out of here to my car and then drive back to town. We're gonna do Major Beck a favor. What kind of a favor? Just tell his daughter he won't be in town tonight. Let's see if you can recognize her voice. At the Colby House, we got a break. The major's wife wasn't in, but the daughter answered when we knocked at the door of her room. Is that your mother? Sounds like a voice, Jay. Good. I got a message from your father, miss. Well, just a minute. That's the voice, all right. What's the matter, miss? Sheriff and I can't look bad enough to make you go pale like that. I thought when you said you had a message, it would be somebody my father sent from camp. What did he want you to tell me? Just that he won't be in town tonight. You, mind if we come in, miss? We'd like to talk to you. Well, I have a lot to do. You only want to know where you were between, say, 7 and 9 o'clock last night. We know that you were in the phone booth in the lobby at 840 because that's where you called my office from. Please, please don't talk in the hall. Come in. Were you out at Old Man Swain's house last night? Yes. Yes, I walked out there just before 8 o'clock. What for? Somebody named O'Brien? We didn't have anything to do with it. Johnny liked the old man. How'd you and your boyfriend come to pick Swain's place for your meetings? Because my father or somebody might have seen us if we met in town. How'd this Johnny get to know a crippled old man who never left his house? When he was driving one of the cab trucks, Mr. Swain waved to him from the porch one day. Johnny saw he was in a wheelchair and he stopped to see what was wrong. The old man wanted some things from town. After that, they got to be friends. That fits, Sheriff. Your deputy said Swain would flag down a car or a truck when he needed anything. All right, Miss, now what about that meeting last night? Johnny got a lift from camp on the last truck in. After the early trucks came in, I started to walk out to Swain like I always did so that Johnny could catch up to me on the way. On the road out of town where nobody would see us walking together. Did you, before you reached Swain's? Yes. And then when we got there and went in, we saw that the old man was slumped over in his chair. He raised his head just once and said something about not wanting to be hit again. And then he almost fell, but Johnny set him back in the chair. And then we couldn't get him to move again and we got frightened and since there was no phone, we came back to town. You both left the house together by the front door. And then when we got back near town, we split up. I came back here to the hotel and called from the lobby. We weren't even sure he was dead until we heard it was murder. I reckon you're going to have to come along with us. We'll send somebody out to get O'Brien. Now, just a minute, Sheriff. Miss, where does Johnny O'Brien come from? His home. Did he boil his life? Yes. Oh, now my father's going to find out we're married. Yes, we were married last week. Your father's going to find out, all right, but not from us, from you. I think you better tell him. Come on, Sheriff. We're just going to leave her? For now, come on. Jay, sir, I know she sounded like she was telling the truth. She was telling the truth. You know anything to back that up? A few things. Whoever killed the old man bolted out the back door. One person running. Yes. They found the old man conscious, still alive. So she says, man, it fits. If the old man had died after the beating, with no disturbance, the killer had spent some time looking for hidden money. He didn't move things, left dust rings. He didn't because he had to run. That brings us back to the fellow with the missing socks, Randazzo. Yeah, he's not the one either. We're going back to the camp and talk to the men who drove those trucks in last night. We want the man who came into town on a truck and went back on foot. What we need is a missing passenger on the return trip. If there was a missing passenger, we followed somebody's trail all the way across log hill into the Piney Woods. Wherever it was kept going, they wouldn't have gone that deep if they were going to cut back to the road. Okay. If just somebody who's been scared off like that would head for the camps through the town, sure gives us a big bunch of suspects, though. No, it doesn't, Sheriff. What chance would a man from the city streets have if he tried to make his way to a camp nine miles deep in the Piney Woods? Especially on foot and at night, with no path to follow. Take somebody who'd spend his life in open country. Only men who fill that bill are the camp section leaders. Yeah, and the truck drivers will be able to account for them. Out of the camp, the section leaders are bosses and nobody forgets seeing a boss. It was 2 a.m. when we reached the camp and walked the major. He led us to the truck driver's tent. One of the drivers had the answer we were looking for. He'd hauled section leader Roberts on Saturday night, but Roberts hadn't ridden back with him. We left the tent. Roberts sleeps in the last tent at the end of this line. Alone? Yes. There's a section leader. He has a private tent. Hold it a minute. Where does Rendezo sleep? The fellow was missing the sock. Let me see that tent right there. It's waking him up first. We want Rendezo for Jayce. He's clear. Let's go with something. We haven't got enough to make a case against Roberts' stick. What's your ploy? Tell you as soon as I get Rendezo out here. You know which bed he's in, major? It's the first bed to the right as you go in the tent. Wait till I get him. Rendezo. Rendezo. Get up and come outside. Don't wake anybody. I can't come out without my pants. All right, slip into them. All right. I've got mine being pinched. No. We'll be able to make an arrest in a minute for your help. You mean you know the rat that put his hooks on that sock? That's right. You slayed me. I feed him a mouth full of knuckles. Never mind that. Just do as I say. You ready? Yeah. Listen carefully. Here's what you do. I gave Rendezo the plan and we went over with him to Roberts' tent ready to jump in if the plan worked. This is the tent. All right, Rendezo. We'll be right out here. You just leave that crumb to me. I hope he plays it right, Jay. Hey, Roberts. Wake up, you crumb. Who is it? Who's in here? It's me, Rendezo. What are you doing in here? I come to talk with you. At this time of the night, get out of here. Get back to your tent. Listen to me, you do drop. What do you mean, you crumb? That sock was stolen from me. Keep your voice down. Why would I take anything from you? That's what I wanted when I saw you. That's why I didn't say no. Then I found out all right. You'll crumb if I couldn't have told him where I was when the old man was knocked over. I don't know what you're talking about. Don't worry. Don't keep quiet. Don't keep real quiet. All it's gonna cost you is a hundred bucks. I haven't got a hundred bucks. Rendezo, you open your mouth about me, and I'll beat your brains out of you. Get out of my throat. Yeah, come on. All right, Roberts, let him go. Grab him, Ranger. He killed that old man. He just told me. We heard what he told you. Try these cuffs for size. He's lying about those socks. You better shut up until you get a lawyer. You all right, Rendezo? Yeah, sure. A lot of platinum if you hadn't come in. Any objection? What objection can I have? He's not military personnel. You're the law here. Thanks. I didn't mean to hurt you, old fool. If it only told me where the money was, I'd never... There wasn't any money, Roberts. The old man never had a dime. But everybody said that he was... You can save your story for your cellmates at Huntsville, Roberts. Get your clothes on. Let's go. Arlen Roberts made a full confession to the brutal murder of aged in Cripple, Finley, Swain. He was sentenced to Huntsville Penitentiary for the rest of his life. Next week, Joel McCray and another authentic re-enactment of a case from the files of the Texas Rangers. McCray is currently seen starring in the Universal International Technicolor production, Cattle Drive. The cast included Tony Barrett, Bill Johnstone, Tom Tully, Mike Barrett, Frank Gerstle and Tom McKee. Technical advisor was Captain M.T. Lone Wolf Gonzalez of the Texas Rangers. This story was transcribed and adapted by Joel Mercott. And the program was produced and directed by Stacey Keith. Hell, give me speaking. It's the Silver Jubilee on NBC. Today, here are the big show broadcast from Paris. Featuring such stars as Fred Allen, Josephine Baker and your unpredictable hostess, Tallulah Bankhead. Then joining the fun with Phil Harris and Alice Bay as they bring you a half hour of mirth and music. Later, Theatre Guild on the Air presents Casanova Brown, with Diana Lin, Dan Daly and Kenny Delmar. Next, it's the big show. All this and Tallulah too, on NBC.