 Texas Rangers starring Joel McRae is Ranger Jase Pearson. Another authentic re-enactment of a case transcribed in the files of the Texas Rangers. This is in the following story are fictitious for obvious reasons. The events themselves are a matter of record. Today's a new year will be upon us. And with it come top New Year's Day football games on this NBC station. Both the Cotton Bowl and the Rose Bowl games will be broadcast by NBC this New Year's Day. First from Dallas, Texas you'll hear the wide open passing game of the Kentucky Wildcats and the Texas Christian Horned Frogs. Then later in the day, the West will meet the East when the Indians from Stanford meet the Fighting Alliance of Illinois in the world famous Rose Bowl. Tuesday's broadcast from the Rose Bowl in Pasadena will mark the 26th year this football classic has been aired coast to coast. As usual on NBC, you'll hear every thrilling play expertly called as the Stanford Indians led by their coach of the year Chuck Taylor clash with Ray Elliott's men from Illinois. Make your New Year's Day more enjoyable by listening to both the Cotton Bowl and the Rose Bowl football games on this station of the NBC radio network. Now from the files of the Texas Rangers, the case called Killer's Crop. It is 1035 PM, April 16, 1947. A black coupe is driving west on a deserted highway 20 miles from San Antonio, Texas. Inside the coupe, the girl glances nervously at the driver. Meeker? Yeah? What's this all about? What do you mean, Kitty? You know what I mean. Why couldn't you just pay me back there in front of my Roman house like usual? Why bring me way out here in the sticks? Like I told you, Kitty, the boss says we've got to be real careful these days. This is far enough. Come on, let's walk a little. I'd rather go back home. Now, Kitty, don't tell me you're not interested in the money anymore? What's the matter, Kitty? Well, nothing. I'm just tired. Sure, that's all it is. Wouldn't be you've gotten cold feet or anything like that, would it? Cold feet? Well, of course not. It's just that I. That may be why you went to see that doctor the other day. Doctor? Oh, you didn't think the boss and I knew about that, huh? Listen, Meeker. The doctor's going to take care of your cold feet, is he? Well, maybe the police are. I haven't been to the police. No, not yet. Where were you fixing to go when I came by this evening? Just to a movie. Sure, sure. That's why you had all those crop dusting auto blanks we told you to burn. I just forgot to burn them. Yeah? You weren't by any chance figuring on turning them over to the police for evidence, were you? No. Too bad, Kitty. Too bad. Used to be a good mule. Meeker, you got it wrong. Have I? So all of a sudden, you're too good for that outfit, huh? You want out, maybe? Ah. All right. All right. I'm sick of a whole rotten filthy mess. Look at me. Look at the wreck that's just made out of me, and I've been helping make wrecks out of other people. Well, I'm through. I'm getting out. My, my, my. Isn't she an angel all of a sudden? No, not by a long shot. But maybe someday with help, I can get over it. You want to tell that to the boss? You think I'm afraid to say it to him, huh? OK, take me to him. You know something? I already did. What? Standing right there in the bushes behind you. Ah! Two days later, a young boy accidentally discovered the girl's body in the bottom of a dry wash near the highway. The sheriff was notified and requested help from the Texas Rangers. Ranger Jase Pearson was assigned. Nothing's been moved, Jase. Good. Here we are. Yeah. Shot from close range, looks like. Uh-huh. Pretty young, isn't she? Sure. Any identification on her? First, she'd been emptied. But is she the ring on her finger? Yeah. Class ring. According to it, she graduated from Randsford High School four years ago. Well, she'd be able to get an identification from the school records then. What is it, Jase? Sheriff. Take a look here. On her left forearm, near the crook of the elbow. Tiny scars, quite a few of them, Jase. What does that spell to you, Sheriff? Narcotics addict. Things like this make me sick of my stomach. So young. 21, 22. Look at her. Look where it led her. Same place it leads all of them sooner or later. Yeah. Only with her, it came a little faster. Somebody was supplying her with the stuff, Jase. I know. That's why I'm taking a special interest in this case, Sheriff. Somewhere along the line, we've got to dig that rat, whoever he is, out of his hole. From the Ransford High School records, we identified the dead girl as Kitty Barrows, 22 years old. She had listed as her next of kin and uncle, S.B. Cullen, who owned a ranch near Ransford. Cullen was sent for. In the meantime, we learned that Kitty had lived at a rooming house in San Antonio. We called on her landlady there, Mrs. Wormser. Kitty dead. Ranger, I just had a fear it might be something like that. She'd been gone overnight before. But this time, when it got to be two days, I just began to get a fear. Yeah. Mrs. Wormser, where did Kitty work? Work? Well, I'm not sure she did. Oh? At least I don't know what kind of a job you could hold down, being out all hours and sleeping all morning like she used to. I see. Always was a mystery to me where she got her money. But I'm one who believes in mine and my own business. But she did seem to have quite a little money? Sheriff, these days, to dress the way she did and drive that flashy yellow convertible around, you don't do that or nothing. Yellow convertible? Yes. She'll park that back. Well, we want to take a look at that. You say she went out at night frequently, Mrs. Wormser? Well, there were several boys that dates with her. Never saw any of them more than once. And then there was one that was with her several times. You know her name? No. Can you describe him? Well, I'd say it was in his late 20s, maybe 30, about your height, Sheriff. Anything else? No. Symphony always wore leather jacket. I'm afraid that's not very much to go on, ma'am. Well, it's about the best I can do. I always believe in mine and mine. Yeah, I know. Say, come to think of it, there was something else. Something about his face. What do you mean? Well, his skin seemed like it was stretched kind of tight across his cheeks. So when he smiled, it stretched even tighter, made the smile look kind of painful like it hurt him too. I see. Well, thank you very much, Mrs. Wormser. If there's anything else, we'll contact you again. Sure, Ranger. Sure hope you'll catch whoever did it. So do we, ma'am. Apparently, Kitty was a little on the wild side, had quite a few casual dates. A thing like that could be tough to run down. At least we've got to lead on one of her dates. A fellow in another jacket who looks like it hurts him to smile. Pronounce facial characteristic like that can be a big help in making identification. Yeah, but even so, that's not too much to go on. I know. Sheriff, one of two things. Either Kitty was killed by one of those casual dates, in which case it will be tough, or else her killing stems from something else. The narcotics angle? Yeah, she was an addict. She didn't have a job, yet she wore flashy clothes and drove a convertible. Where was she getting her money? I can think of one place, from peddling narcotics or run them. I'll have the lab give her car a good going over. If she was using it to transport narcotics, they'll be able to tell us. When the sheriff and I returned to his office, SB Cullen, the man whom Kitty had listed in high school as her next of kin, was waiting for us. I got over here from the ranch as soon as I could, Ranger. Thanks, Mr. Cullen. Sure, too bad. Yeah. According to the registration blank Kitty made out, her last year at Ransford High School, you're her next of kin. Uncle, she put down. Well, matter of fact, that's not true. What do you mean? Well, I wasn't really any kin to a sheriff. She used to call me Uncle Stan, but that was just sort of a nickname. Nickname? Yaw. You see, her mother died when she was just a baby. Her dad brought her up. He worked for me on the ranch, and the two of them lived there in one of the houses. Well, he died somewhere before her last year in high school. Her father? Yaw. She didn't have nobody to turn to, so I took her in the big house with me and kind of looked after her all that year. And I'm going to tell you, I had a time, too. I'll get it, Jason. What do you mean about having a time, Mr. Cullen? Well, I don't like to say this, but Kitty was a little bit wild. Soon as she turned 21, she moved out on me, said she was her own boss. Where'd she go? I heard she was working as a car hop in Lubbock for a while. She showed up at the ranch once or twice and hit me for a little money. Then I sort of lost track of him. Mr. Cullen, did you know that Kitty was addicted to narcotics? What? That's right. No, I sure didn't. Why, that's terrible. It sure is. You know one contributing cause for young people drifting into that is lack of supervision at home. Ranger, maybe I wasn't taking the police with parents very good, but I was sure trying. It just seemed like she wouldn't let me in. Then when she turned 21, what could I do? Yeah. Jason? Yes, sir. That'll be all, Mr. Cullen. All right. Oh, uh, Sir Ranger, I was just wondering I'd like to arrange for Kitty to have a decent burial. I know it's not much. Yeah, it can be arranged. Thanks, Winky, thanks. What is it, Sheriff? Your boss just telephoned. Captain Stinson? Yeah, I said the lab reports had been sent to his office. Good, I'll get up there right away and see if they've turned up any leads for us. Here are the reports, Jason. Looks like your hunch the girl was transporting narcotics in her car was a good one. Yeah, microscopic particles found in the trunk. That's right. They found something else, too, in the tread of the tires. Quite a bit of insecticide. Insecticide? The kind they use for spraying crops. I wonder where. Oh, wait. What's this? A little scrap of Mexican newspaper. They found it in one corner of the auto truck. It's got a lot of the powder on it. Could have been used to wrap the stuff. As you can see, there's a little of the paper's name shown at the top. Just four letters, E-N-D-O. Either part of the paper's name of the town where it's published. Mexico. I wonder if that's where the stuff came from. It's a chance, although you know how thorough the border patrol had been. Yeah, you got anything else, Captain? One thing more, something that hits me kind of hard. What is it? We located a doctor who told us Kitty had planned to enter a sanatorium for treatment. What? Say, that could peg the reason for her murder. If she was running the stuff and decided to take treatments for her own addiction, that means she was probably trying to pull herself out of the mess. Whoever she was working for could have found out about it. Could have been afraid she'd turned them in. So they killed her to shut her mouth. It's a rotten business, Chase. And as far as I'm concerned, this is the most important case we've got. I feel the same way, Captain. We find who Kitty was working for, and we've got her killer. And right now, looks like the trail leads into Mexico. In a moment, we will continue with tales of the Texas Rangers starring Joel McCrae as Ranger Jase Pearson. Our National Safety Council reports that last year more than 35,000 persons were killed in traffic accidents with more than a million injured. Almost without exception, these fatalities and injuries were the result of carelessness, violation of traffic rules, or that drinking took away the driver's skill and judgment. Of those who lost their lives, 9,000 were pedestrians. The Safety Council is waging a constant campaign to develop in every driver and pedestrian the personal responsibility of knowing and obeying all traffic laws. Remember, traffic accidents don't always happen to someone else. They can happen to us, to you or to me. Every driver is urged to obey all traffic signs and signals, never to drive after drinking, and never to drive on the wrong side of the road, to be always alert at grade crossings. The slogan of the Safety Council is, drive safely for life. The life you save may be your own. We continue now with tales of the Texas Rangers and our authentic story, Killer's Crop. Captain Stinson contacted the Mexican police. They assigned one of their agents to work with us, Ernesto Gomez, an old friend of mine. We met in the captain's office. It would seem as though a new channel for smuggling narcotics is in existence, Jason. That's the way it looks to us, Ernesto. The border patrol's got a pretty tight clamp on all the old ones. Here's a case of it reaching as far north as San Antonio. You fellows have any recent leads on operations in Mexico? Sure, Captain Stinson. We make it a point to keep track of recognized traffickers in narcotics down there. Which of them are in jail, which have served their sentences, and where they are? You'll probably do the same thing. Yeah. A year ago, one of them completed his prison sentence. Chui Flores. He had been convicted as a grower. Grower? Yes, yes. He raised puppies and extracted the raw powder. After he was released from prison, he dropped out of sight. Only yesterday, I received a report that he had been seen recently in a town 100 miles or so below the border. That's Mendoza at the foot of the San Jacinto Range. He was buying provisions and claimed to be mining in the mountains. Wait a minute. What's the name of that town again? Mendoza. That's it. What do you mean? In the trunk of the dead girl's car, we found a scrap of newspaper, which apparently had been used to wrap the stuff in. We could only make out four letters of the name, E-N-D-O. That's part of Mendoza. There's our tie-in, Captain. Sure looks like it, Jayce. It would then appear that Flores is up to his old craze, Jayce. Yeah. Ernesto, I think we better take a little trip in the Ranger plane over the San Jacinto Range. See if we can find out where those tricks of his are. Some rugged country down there, Ernesto. Yeah, yeah. Those mountains are quite wild. You know, once I trail a fugitive through them for four days on foot without a sign of another human being. Well, we've crisscrossed this range pretty thoroughly. I'll have our pilot alder course. Yeah, Jayce. Yeah? Look. Yeah. A little pocket down there just below the ridge. See? Pale patch of orange. That's poppies. People flying straight ahead, Buck. I don't want anyone down there to know we're interested. I reckon that could be your Chewy Flores, Ernesto. Yeah, there's a real good chance of it, Jayce. Got the spot fixed in your mind? Yeah, got it. OK, that's all we need to see from here. Now we'll go back and pack in for a closer look. The Ranger plane landed at Mendota. There we outfitted and started back into the San Jacinto Range on horseback. Portable radio transmitter was included in our equipment. Several hours ride up through the bleak foothills brought us close to the area we've spotted from the plane. The pocket should be just over that ridge ahead of us, Jayce. Yeah. Well, we better leave the horses here. Ooh, who chocked them? Tie them in this clump of scrub. See? They should be sufficiently hidden here, I think. OK, let's go. We'll work our way up the top of the ridge here. Bueno, there's plenty of cover along the top. Yeah. OK, we better keep down and take advantage of this brush. Yes, sir. Is this good, Jayce? Yeah. Well, there it is, all right. See, right below us, the patch of poppies. A little hut there at the edge of the clearing. Look, a man near the door. Just let me get my binoculars on him. Chewy Flores. Your hunch about him was right, looks like. Well, Chewy Flores at this end and maybe the dead girl at the other. See, the question is, who is the tie up between them? We're going to roost right here until somebody shows up to pick up some of that stuff. You know, lying here among these rocks in the sun, I'm beginning to feel slightly like a lizard. Yeah, could I? Two days and no sign of anybody down there below, except Chewy Flores. Jayce, this could go on for a long time. Yeah, I know, but it's a cinch. Flores isn't growing those poppies down there for his own amusement. Even so, it may be that the. Hold it. Ernesto, listen. That's an airplane, eh? See, there it is. It's heading this way. It's starting to circle now. Well, Jayce, we already seen that there's not enough room down there for a plane to land. I don't think it has to land, Ernesto. Look down there in the clearing. Flores has hoisted a couple of poles out of the brush. Eh, and a rope stretched between them. A package dangling from the center of the rope. That's a flying pickle. Yeah, yeah, he's starting his dive. We have to fly very close to the ground. Now he's flattening out, see? There's a hook dangling from the plane. It's making a pass at it now. Looked it. See? He's a very skillful pilot, eh? Get down. He's climbing out this way. Did you make out that number on the underside of his wing? I could get only the first part of it, NC45 something, eh? Yeah, with what I noticed, I think that's enough. What do you notice, Jayce? Looks like a crop dusting plane to me, Ernesto. You mean the kind which sprays the crops in the fields? Yeah, that explains why he's so good at low flying. It also could explain the insecticide in the tire tread, a kitty's convertible. Yeah, yeah. Flores here, the pilot in the middle, the dead girl at the other end. You think that the pilot is the boss of the operation? I don't know. To get an answer to that, first, we got to find the pilot. On our portable radio transmitter, we requested the ranger plane to attempt to intercept and follow the crop duster. Then we moved in, and Ernesto placed Flores under arrest. By the time I reached the border and called Captain Stinson, he had some information for me. Tag him all the way to his airport. He's the plane at the airport now. Thanks a lot, Captain. I'll get over there right now. We've got enough headquarters here behind this shed for the time being. See that little hanger off there by itself? Yeah, meeker crop dusting service. Captain Stinson said it was a one-man outfit. Meeker's a pilot. Is he in that hanger now? Yeah, working on his plane. Boys in the control tower told me he mentioned a faulty fuel pump for them when it came in. You mean he's been right there with his plane ever since he landed? Well, to them he has. That puts us in luck, Jase. If he's the boy that picked up that package, blew the border, then it should be somewhere in that plane or hanger. Yeah, I... Hey, man coming out of the hanger. Must be meeker. Heading for the coffee shop looks like. Sheriff, you get a good look at him. I sure did, Jase. Skin stretched tight across his face. He can't miss it. That's the guy Kitty's land lady told us about. The one she saw Kitty with several times. Yeah. Well, it's all beginning to slide into place, Jase. It sure looks that way. Come on, we need that package for evidence. And now's a good time to get it. While Meeker was in the coffee shop, the sheriff and I searched the plane in the small office in the corner of the hanger. We were unable to find a package. I don't get it, Jase. We know Meeker picked it up below the border on the fly. Well, maybe that's just the way he unloaded, Sheriff, on the fly. What do you mean? Look, Meeker'd be taking a big chance coming into land with that package aboard, always facing the chance there'd be a tip on him and a search. Yeah, but wait. You figured he'd dropped it somewhere before he landed. Could be. But where? It seems to me it'd be just as risky dropping it in the same place each time as it would landing here with it. But suppose it's a different place each time. Different place? I don't... Hey, wait a minute. Meeker's a crop duster. Sure. And what do we see in his office there? Crop dust and orders. Right. Let's take a look at those orders again. On the top of the spindle was an order for that day to dust a cotton field 20 miles east. We rushed to that cotton field, hoping to find a package before it was picked up. It's more walking than I've done for quite a spell. Yeah, well, we've already walked our way around two-thirds of the field. But we've been sticking to the edges, Jayce. For all we know, that package you picked up in Mexico could have been dropped plum in the middle of the field. Maybe, but I doubt it, Sheriff. I think they'd want to keep it as close to the roads as possible so their runner could drive up close and pick it up, instead of walking right through the field. Well, sounds logical, but I... Sheriff, look over there. The package. The package. Just about 20 feet in from the road. Sure, that accounts for the insecticide in the tread of Kitty's tires. She'd drive up alongside whichever field Meeker had sprayed that day and hunt around till she found the package, just in from the edge. Mm-hmm. Well, what now, Jayce? Now we wait around, find out who's taken Kitty's place. We can seal the car behind a pump house at one corner of the field and staked out in a clump of bushes nearby. Shortly after dark, a car came down the road. Stopping, Jayce? Yeah. I figured they wouldn't let that package sit in the field very long. Somebody getting out. Crossing in front of the headlights. It's Meeker. Sure is. Jayce, why wouldn't Meeker drop the package from his plane and come back up? I don't know. Neither do I. He's got the package, all right? Getting back in the car. Okay, we'll give him a leave, then tail him with our lights low. See where he takes that package. Look, Jayce, he swung off the road, turned off his lights. Yeah, must have turned in up there past those trees. Okay, we'll leave the car here. Looks like a ranch where he turned in. Yeah. Go back there beside the house in part. Here's the turn in. Wait a minute. The mailbox here. And a moonlight to make out the name. Yeah. S.B. Cullen. What? Well, that's a fellow we had in for questioning. The one that had been looking after Kitty. Yeah. And he was so anxious to give Kitty a decent burial. Give you one instead, Ranger. I thought I saw you driving up. Just hold it, both of you. We've got the drop on us, Sheriff. All right. We'll give you one instead, Ranger. I thought I saw you driving up. Just hold it, both of you. We've got the drop on us, Sheriff. I sure have, Ranger. Meeker! What? Ranger and the sheriff. Sure. You were real smart, Meeker. You let them street here. I let... It wouldn't have happened if you hadn't called me and told me to pick the stuff up. I told you I didn't have any choice. Couldn't line up a runner I could trust. Yeah. You killed the one you had, didn't you? Kitty. Shut up. What's the matter? She wanted out and you wouldn't let her. I said shut up. So you're the boss of the operation, Cullen. You're the rat who first dragged Kitty down into dirt and then killed her when she tried to pull herself out of it. That's one too many, Ranger. Now you try to pull yourself out of this! Hey! Ow! You okay, Jayce? Yeah. As for you, Meeker, just stand there real still. Mom, I had the drop on you. Get you. Yeah, I guess you've never seen a spring holster before. You don't have to draw. Spring holster? Yeah. But you'll never have one, Cullen. That's where you're going. They're going to have the drop on you from now on. In just a moment, we will tell you the results of the case you have just heard. Here's another last-minute reminder to make your plans now to enjoy both the Cotton Bowl and Rose Bowl football games Tuesday on this station. In Dallas, Texas, at the famed Cotton Bowl, the wild cats of Kentucky, led by their all-American quarterback, Vito Parillo, will meet the wide-open passing attack of Dutch Myers' Texas Christian horned frogs. And, as usual, NBC will switch to Pasadena, California at the conclusion of the Kentucky-Texas Christian grid battle to bring you the color of the tournament of roses and the exciting Stanford, Illinois football game. The Rose Bowl will be playing host to coach of the year Chuck Taylor's Stanford Indians and Ray Elliott's Fighting Eli and I from Champaign, Illinois. Arrange a football party at your home and enjoy a full day of the country's finest grid clashes. Broadcast direct to you by NBC from both the Cotton Bowl and the Rose Bowl Tuesday, New Year's Day. On this station of the NBC Radio Network, here are the results of the case you have just heard. William Meeker and S.B. Cullen were indicted and tried for the brutal murder of Kitty Barrows. For his part in the crime, Meeker was given a life sentence. On the morning of November 3, 1948, at Huntsville Penitentiary, Cullen was put to death in the electric chair. Crayon another authentic re-enactment of the case from the files of the Texas Rangers. The cast included Tony Barrett, Virginia Greg, Herb Ellis, Ken Christie, Bill Johnstone, and Byron Kane. Technical advisor was Captain M.T. Lone Wolf Gonzalez of the Texas Rangers. This story was transcribed and adapted by Bob Reif, and the program is produced and directed by Stacey Keats. This is Hal Gibney speaking. Next it's The Big Show. All this and Tallulah too. On NBC.