 of the Texas Rangers, starring Joel McRae as Ranger Jase Pearson. Another authentic re-enactment of a case transcribed from the files of the Texas Rangers. The places in the following story are fictitious for obvious reasons. The events themselves are a matter of record. NBC will bring you five special feature programs prior to the Republican Convention. These special shows will consist of first convention preview on June 28. This program will inaugurate NBC's advanced coverage. George Hicks, well-known radio news commentator and war correspondent, will be your host and bring you interviews with Republican delegates from various sections of the country. Then on Tuesday, July 1, we bring you Convention City, a complete report on the preparations being made in Chicago to receive the thousands of people who will descend on the city in July for the conventions. Jim Hurlbut will serve as narrator and will offer you interviews with the people whose job it will be to house, entertain, and feed the convention delegates. And on Thursday, July 3, here a headquarters report featuring NBC newsmen W.W. Chaplin, Merrill Muller, Richard Harkness and Bob Letts. Consult your local newspaper for broadcast time and join us for complete convention coverage on NBC. And now back to tales of the Texas Rangers. From the files of the Texas Rangers, the case called Knockout. It is 10 o'clock on a Saturday night in July 1946. Outside the Rand Hotel in Jackson, Texas, 50 miles from Houston, the sheriff stands talking to some cattle ranches who are in town for a convention. He is about to leave the group and walk toward his car and the front door of the hotel bursts open. Jeff! Jeff! Over here! Jeff, in the hotel, hurry! Oh, excuse me, Bill. See you later, yeah. What's the matter? Upstairs on the second floor. Some kind of trouble. Well, come on. Show me where it is. Mrs. B, she just called. Sounded scared to death. Said there was an awful fight going on in the next room. Right up these stairs here. Do you have men up there yet? No, no. I remember seeing you in the lobby a few minutes ago. Hope you'd still be around. You're sure she said there was a fight? Oh, yeah. That's what you said. We'll find out what it's all about. Excuse me, ma'am. It's okay. She sure come around that corner past. Which way do we go? Oh, right down here. Mrs. B's room is in the middle of the hall. Don't seem to be any noise up here now. It's a desk clerk, ma'am. Oh. Oh, you brought the sheriff? Well, I'm so glad. I understand you think you heard some fighting going on up here. Somebody's been killed. I know somebody's been killed. Uh, which room was it, ma'am? That one right there. Want me to come with you, Sheriff? No, you better stay here with Mrs. B. Just in case there is some trouble. Who is it? It's the sheriff. Open up. I'm busy. Can you come back in a little while? Open up. I want to talk to you now. Okay, okay. Just a minute. Come on. Come on. Hurry up in there. Okay. It's all trouble, Sheriff. I heard there was a fight going on in this room. Fight? It must be some mistake. I'd like to come in and take a look around. Well, what for, Sheriff? There's nothing wrong here. Do you mind standing aside? Well, sure. Sure. That's the way you feel about it. Come on in. See, there's nothing wrong in here. Who's that in the bathroom? My father. He's taken a bath. Uh, what's that white powder on the floor next to the table there? Where? Oh, oh, that. Some of my father's medicine he spilled it a while ago. I was just getting ready to clean it up when you knocked. Well, everything looks all right, I guess. You mind moving aside a second? Aside from what, Sheriff? You... Come on, Mr. Move. Well, sure. I just didn't know what you meant. How'd that chairlady get broken? Chairlady? Oh, I tripped over. It almost broke my neck when I fell. Matter of fact, that's probably what made people think there was a fight in here. I'm a big man. And when I fall, I really go down hard. I think I'd like to have a word with your father. Well, like I told you, he's taken a bath. Why don't you come back later? I'll talk to him now. Mr. Oh, Mr. The old man's a little harder hearing with a water runner. Yeah, well, he'll hear this. Mr. I want to talk to you, Mr. I'll just have to go in. No, you don't. Why? Give me back that gun. Yeah, I'll give it back. Sheriff recovered quickly. On the bathroom floor, he found the body of an elderly man. The dead man was identified by the clerk as George Wilton, a rancher. Wilton had been the only guest registered in that room. After requesting the clerk to phone with the Texas Rangers, the sheriff left to see if he could pick up the trail of the assailant. Twenty minutes later, Rangers Jase Pearson and Clay Morgan climbed the stairs to the second floor of the hotel. Looks like the room down here to the right, Jase. Uh-huh. If I was standing in front of the door, I must be the desk clerk. Yeah, it's your garden force. He's not letting that crowd get anywhere near. All right, folks, all right, folks. Excuse us here, please. Thank you. Excuse us. Please stand aside here. Where's the body? It's in the bathroom, Ranger. Anything been touched? Oh, no, sir. No. Sheriff left special orders not to disturb anything until you got here. I didn't even turn the water off. The water? Yes, sir. Running in the bathtub. I had to pull a plug out, though, so it wouldn't run over on the floor. Did you get a look at the man who ran away? I sure wish I had. I only saw his back. Sheriff got a good look at it, no. Too good a look was the way he put it. I never saw a man as mad as the Sheriff was when he'd come to. Uh-huh. We'll take a look inside now. We may want to ask you a few more questions later. Yes, sir. I expect you want to talk to Mrs. Biel, too. She's the lady who first heard the fighting. Is she around? In a room right next door. Get her if you want. Fine. We'll be out in a few minutes. The bathroom door's a little joy. I don't expect you to get any prints off the door now, but you better kick it open your foot anyhow. Yeah. I just... Mm-hmm. Roll for her. I sure took some knock on the head. The way he's lying, I got an idea. He was dragged in here from the other room. Take a look through his pockets, Clay. I'll see if there's some way to shut this water off. Yeah. Might be a cut-off valve back at the tub. And there is. Find anything? No, pockets are clean. Looks like it might have been robbery. Get a lab crew up here to go over the place for prints. Don't think they'll find too much, Jayce. How do you mean? Do you see the glass with the towel stuffed in it? Full of dust. You notice how everything's wiped clean in here? Like somebody tried to get rid of any possible prints? He tried, all right. These other glasses, for instance, you can see they've been used recently, but there's not a print on them. As far as I can figure, there's only one place in here our friend forgot. What is that? Over here. Take a look at that water faucet in the tub. Yeah. A good, clear print. See, if you're right about the old man being dragged in here after he was dead, the chance this print belongs to the guy who did it. Let's see if there's anything outside in the room. The killer must have been pretty big to be able to slug the sheriff easy as he did. Don't reckon the old fella had much of a chance either. It's like he put up a fight, though. A broken chair-legged. Hey, wait a minute. You're looking at that white powder on the floor? Yeah. Could be one other thing the killer didn't have time to clean up. More like crystals and powder. Any idea what it is, Jayce? Not yet, but it shouldn't take the lab long to find out. In the meantime, we better have a talk with the woman who heard the fighting in here. Uh-huh. Lucky the sheriff got a look at the killer. At least he'll be able to make an identification if that print in the bathroom doesn't give us a lead. Could be our man won't even have a record. If he doesn't, we won't get much from the print or the mug file. Oh, here they are, Mrs. Bill. I'm Mrs. Bill Ranger. The desk like said you wanted to talk to me. Yes, ma'am. We're interested in anything you can remember about this. Yes. Well, I was lying in bed trying to sleep. I knew I wouldn't sleep because my asthma was bothering me, but I thought I'd try anyhow. What time was this, ma'am? Time? Oh, well, I'm not exactly sure, but it couldn't have been more than 30 minutes after I took my brown pills, so I'd say it was about my insanity. Uh, it was just a couple of minutes to 10 when you called me, Mrs. Bill. I know that, young man. What I wanted to tell the rangers started long before that. Let's see, where was I? You were lying in bed, ma'am. Oh, yes. Well, I heard the door open in the next room. I didn't want to listen, but you know how thin these walls are, and when those people come into the room, they made so much noise. How many were there? Well, there was an old man. I understand he was the one who died, and there was a younger man. He had a really deep voice, but the one I heard clearest was the girl. Girl? That's right. She had the most piercing voice I ever heard, and the way she was laughing, I could tell she had no breathing. Could you hear what they were saying? Well, I think that's your phone, Mrs. Bill. Oh, dear, just when I was getting in. Well, I'll take it for you. Oh, that would be nice of you, young man. You tell whoever it is that I'm very busy. Ma'am, ma'am, you were saying you could hear the people in the next room were talking? Yes. Yes, I could. They'd all been drinking, and then they started to tell the most awful story, simply awful. I want to put my hands over my ears. Yes, ma'am. Well, the old man was just fascinated by this hussy. Well, I'm sorry, rangers, but that's the only word I know to describe her. He laughed at everything she said, and the thing she said. Uh-huh. Well, all of a sudden, the old man stopped laughing and got real angry. He started shouting at the girl, told her she'd put something in his drink, then, before I knew it, the most awful fight started, just awful. And the next thing I knew, someone banged against the wall, and I was almost thrown out of bed. Did you hear anything else? Yes. After that, they were whispering in there, but it was so low, I just couldn't hear what they were saying. Oh, that was your hate photos, ranger. They want you to get in touch with a sheriff by radio soon as he can. Thanks. And thank you, Mrs. Biel. Oh, but I have some more to tell you about when the sheriff was up there, when he came in with... We won't have to trouble you about that, ma'am. The sheriff will file it in his report. Oh. Come on, Clay. Yeah. Funny the way people enjoy getting mixed up in something like this, scared to death and still get a kick out of it. Yeah. She did help us, though. At least we can be pretty sure now about our killer's racket. Confidence game? Uh-huh. That man was probably lonely and got a little careless about showing how much money he had in his pocket. Yeah, sure sounds like the old story. I've got to hunch those crystals we found on the floor. It turned out to be knock-out drops. The girl must have skipped before the sheriff got there. Yeah, she could have gone out to set up their getaway. Well, I sure hope either that print in the bathroom pays off or the sheriff can make some kind of identification. Yeah. And if we don't get any lead tonight, we'll have the sheriff drive over to Austin with us in the morning and go through the mug file. Hey, Jason, wonder what the sheriff wants us to call him for? Find out right now. Get that code sheet out of the glove compartment. See what his call number is, will you? Sure, Jay. Let's see. Oh, here it is, 692. Thanks. Unit 10 to unit 692. Unit 10 to 692. This unit requests assistance in apprehending the Jackson. Unable to make search until more help arrives. 10-4, unit 10 will join 692 immediately. Unit 10, clear. That must be the sheriff up ahead, Jayce. There's we and his spotlight across that cornfield. Yeah. Looks like a barbed wire fence at the back. If our man's in there, he'll have a tough time getting out that way. I doubt if he'd get out either then without the sheriff seeing him. I've been trying to cover the field with my spotlight here in case he pops up. You sure it was him you saw? No, couldn't be any mistake about it. I'd been out cruising around looking for him. I was just heading back to town when I saw this fellow walking toward me up the road. Recognized him, soon as I put the light on him, then he ran into the field. Hey, mind getting the flashlights clay? We'll go in after him. Keep that spot running across the back fence, sheriff. Clay and I'll try and flush him out. Okay, but I'd sure like to go in after this one myself. I got a personal score to settle with him. How's that bump on your head? Oh, I'll be all right. I could kick myself where I let him get my gun and slug me. Don't worry about it. Let's just hope we can pick him up now. Here's your flash, Jayce. Thanks. Any idea where he went in, sheriff? There's I can figure it's about 30 feet up the road. Keep as far away from your spotlight as you can. If he thinks he's being cornered, he might take a shot at you. Yeah, that'd be something, wouldn't it? With my own gun. Lucky I had my rifle in the car. If he makes a break across that fence, I'm going to make Swiss cheese out of him. Let's go, Clay. You better be careful with our lights, too. Yeah. Well, we know this baby. He's desperate enough to try anything. This could be where he went in. Mm-hmm. Corn stalks have been over all right. Watch yourself. We don't know how far in he might be. Yeah. It seems like he's starting to veer into the right. Mm-hmm. Told that motel over there. Looks like it stops just ahead. Well, it doesn't stop, Jase. He must have started crawling along the furrows here. It could have been when the sheriff first threw his spot on the field. He shouldn't be too far away. He was making a beeline for that motel. Hold on a second. You hear anything? No. Yeah, let me lift my light. Jase, there he goes. Come on. Hold it, Joe. He's yelling at somebody. See if we can stop him. He's heading right for those motel cabins. Hold your fire, Clay. We're gaining on him. Yeah, but he's going around the corner of that cabin. You reckon we better split up? Uh-huh. You take the left and up. Hey, there's a car taking off, Jase. No lights. Must be him. Back too far away, missed. Let's get back to our car. See if we can catch him. By the time we'd reached, our car, he was out of sight. We took off after him, leaving the sheriff to make inquires at the motel office. We radioed for blockades to be set up throughout the area. For the rest of the night, we made an extensive search without finding a trace of our man. At dawn, we reached the highway patrol roadblock. We turned around and headed back toward Jackson, covering all side roads along the way. I don't know, Jase. It's a scene she couldn't have gotten through that roadblock. No, but he might have made it through before the block was set up. I've been thinking. That was a pretty fast getaway he made last night. Too fast for him to have stolen a car from the motel. It was probably his own car. I remember he was yelling to somebody while he was running across the field. Could have been the girl he works with. Maybe the motel is where they'd been staying. Maybe. If we don't spot him in another half hour, I reckon we'd better go pick up the sheriff. See if he can make an identification from the mug files. Yeah, I wonder if he found out anything at that motel office. Unit 10 to KTXA. Go ahead, KTXA. 10-4. No other traffic. Unit 10 clear. No other traffic. KTXA. All right, huh? Hey, Jase, didn't you once have something to do with the guy with that name? I sent Gus up on his last trip. Any idea where he might be hanging out now? No, but I'm pretty sure where we can get a lead on Millie Vinson. Well, who's she? My partner. And except when they're in jail, they're never very far away from each other. Hang on, Clay. We're heading for Houston. In just a moment, we will continue with tales of the Texas Rangers, starring Joel McCray as Ranger Jase Pearson. Only a madman or a fool would intentionally set fire to one of our forests or woodlands. Yet 90% of our forest fires are started by people. Most of these man-caused fires are due to plain carelessness, a campfire left smoldering, a heated match thrown from a car window, a cigarette not extinguished. In less troubled times, the waste due to forest fires would be tragic. In these dangerous times, it can be disastrous. Forest fires destroy natural resources we need to keep our country strong. They impede the production and transportation of critical defense supplies, interfere with military training, and may destroy military installations. Join in the fight against carelessness. Crush out cigarettes, cigar, and pipe ashes. Break matches in two after using. Find out the law before using a fire. One moment of carelessness can destroy national beauty and wealth that can never be replaced. Forest fires are a shameful waste because they can be prevented. Remember, only you can prevent forest fires. And now, back to tales of the Texas Rangers. We continue now with tales of the Texas Rangers, and our authentic story, Knock Out. It was a little before 10 that morning when we arrived in Houston. We parked the car a few doors away from the house where Millie Vincent's mother lived and walked toward it. It was a corner house in a poor neighborhood. Not the fanciest place in the world is it, Jayce? Millie's mother never went in for trimming. Hey, Jayce, through the side window, girls sitting at the table. You know, we're lucky. It's Millie herself. What's the devil she doing with her foot up on the table? I don't know. Let's get around to the front. Think Gus is around somewhere? It's hard to say. And in fact, I'm a little surprised to see Millie. Maybe she wasn't in on that job last night. We don't know that sooner enough. We want to talk to you, Millie. I've done enough talking to you. Where's Gus? Get out of my light. I can't see what I'm doing. Where's Gus, Millie? Don't you ever get tired. How do I know where Gus is? I haven't seen him for three months. Well, we look around anyhow. As soon as you can. This? I've known you'd ever warrant. Okay, go ahead. Look. Reagan, you better walk around with us. Did you see I'm doing my toenails? They'll wait. Come on. Okay. Is this the bathroom? It ain't the dining room. There's nothing there. How about that room? Mars room. Door's open. You can see there's nobody in it. What about this one over here? It's your room, Millie. Yeah, and you ain't going in. Excuse me, Miss. I said you ain't going in. Now look. You stay away from that door. Come on. See why you didn't want us in here. What are you doing with all those clothes on the bed, Millie? You getting ready to go somewhere? I'm airing my dresses. You always keep a couple of suitcases handy when you air dresses? Okay, so maybe I'm going away. Where? It's my business. Hey, anybody got a cigarette? Yeah. Match? There you go. Where were you last night, Millie? Right here. You sure you weren't over in Jackson with Gus? I told you I haven't seen Gus for three months. We think you and he might have been up to your own knockout tricks. Only this time your friend Gus killed a man. I was right here all last night. Where's your mother? What do you want with her? Was she home last night too? Sure. And we'll see if her story is the same as yours. She's out. Won't be home for five or six hours. Sounds like you expected her when we walked in. We'll just stick around till she gets here. I told you she won't be back. Sounds like somebody coming now. I'll get the door. Just let us do the talking, Millie. The grocery's for you. Next time you... You back her again? We want to ask you a few questions, Mrs. Vinson. Tell him I was here last night. Tell him, Ma. I said we'd do the talking. Mrs. Vinson, where was Millie last night? Right here. Were you with her? Why, sure. Of course I was. Think I'd go running around nights? How about yesterday afternoon? I was here. So was Millie. I suppose Gus was here too. Why, sure he was here too. Ma... What's the matter? You dumb... Gus wasn't here. Well, how am I supposed to know? You ought to tell me who's supposed to be here and who ain't. You stupid... All right, Millie. Get your shoes on. You're going with me. Clay stayed at the house in case Gus showed up. I took Millie back with me to Jackson. It was just past noon when we walked down the quarter to the sheriff's office. Come on, Millie. Pick up your feet. You won't set a big hurry. Go on in. Sheriff? That you, Jayce? Yeah. I think I got one of the pigeons from last night. I'll be right in. You can sit down if you want. Thanks. You could make it easier for everybody if you'd tell us where Gus is. Tell you? I got nothing to say to you. Howdy, Jayce. Well, who's this? Millie Vinson. She used to work with Gus Howard. We think she worked with him last night. That's a lousy lie. I've seen her someplace before, Jayce. You're crazy. You've never seen me. She spent a couple of terms up at the woman's prison. There wasn't there, sir. I just can't think where it was. Millie doesn't seem to want to tell us where her partner is. How do I know where he is? He's never worked without you before. Well, he does now. It's not likely. You'd never let Gus work with another woman. And I don't think you did last night. I was home last night. I can prove it. You mean by your mother? After that slip she made. I get mixed up every now and then. She'll be all right in court. If you ever get me to court. You'll be there. Because last night you and Gus went with an old man to his hotel room. When he caught you slipping knockout drops into his drink, there was a big fight. Gus killed him. That's a lot of... Hey, wait a minute. Now I know where I've seen you. It wasn't the hotel last night. I bumped into you when I was coming up the stairs. You're crazy. You were coming down in the second floor, probably, from the room where Gus had just killed the old man. How are you going to prove that? There was a hotel clerk with me. He'll remember you, too. Suppose I wasn't the hotel. That don't mean I was in on any killing. It's no use, Millie. We know you and Gus always work together. And we know Gus was in that hotel room. How do you know? From his fingerprints. That ain't true. Gus wiped... You were going to say Gus wiped off all the fingerprints. He did, Millie. All but one. He found it on the water faucet in the bathroom. You mean you picked me up because Gus left his prints in that room? Uh-huh. That bonehead. He had some sense you'd never have got me. That's what you said last time you got caught. Doesn't work that way, Millie. Last time was his fault, too. He hadn't made me stop in that cafe for a beer. You'd never have found us. And he calls me stupid. Where's Gus now? Every time I get caught, it's on account of him. He's always playing. It's a smart. He's got the brains. He says I got the looks. Him and his brain. Where is he? Now he want me to sit still and take the rap for him. Well, I ain't going to do it. If I get caught, he goes up along with me. Is he in Houston? No. You want to find that bum Gus. You got to get to Dallas. Where? Airport. He drove the car up this morning. And I was going to take a plane up medium. When? At nine tomorrow morning. We was going to take the 10 o'clock plane for LA. Oh, that knucklehead. All right, Sheriff. Lock Millie up, and we'll go get Gus. I can hardly wait to see the look on his face when he gets brought in here. I can hardly wait. I called headquarters and requested the Ranger plane to pick us up in Jackson. We flew to Dallas and spent the night checking hotels and restaurants in the hope of picking Gus up. We didn't find him. We decided he had either spent the night with friends or in his car. A little after nine the next morning, we walked through the air terminal. I sure hope that girl wasn't lying to us, Jase. I reckon she was a little too sore at Gus to lie. You know, all the same. I'd hate to think of him slipping through our fingers. I don't see him inside here. He could be out at the gate. See him anywhere? No, but... Jase. Over there on the gate, too. Uh-huh. He looks impatient, pacing back and forth. We work over to him as quietly as we can if he... Yeah, he sees us, Jase. He's starting to rush. Hold it, Gus. Hold it! Around the building. Come on. Easy past this corner. Well, I don't see him anywhere, Jase. There he goes. Out toward the front of the terminal. He's heading for that taxi. I think we can get him. Grab him! Get out of there, Gus. No good cops. I'll... Give me that gun. Give it to me. I'll kill it. Drop it. Thanks for getting it back, Jase. I never should have let him get it in the first place. Who told you I was gonna be here, Millie? Put out your hands, Gus. There's dizzy dame. Every time I get caught, it's on account of her. Funny. She thinks the same thing about you. Hadn't been for a being so clumsy with those knockout drops, I wouldn't have been caught. Never should have taken that dizzy dame for a partner in the first place. Don't worry about it, Gus. I've got an idea the judge is gonna dissolve that partnership of yours anyhow. For good. In just a moment, we will tell you the results of the case you have just heard. An important part of our job here at NBC is to inform and bring news to our millions of radio listeners. We do this by offering you news and commentary programs throughout every broadcast day. And now, we invite you to listen more than ever to the special programs we are preparing to send your way over NBC. We invite you to follow the campaign of the next president on NBC. Here, for example, are some of the programs you will soon be hearing. On Saturday, June 28, NBC will present a convention preview. George Hicks will serve as your narrator on this program, and he will interview Republican delegates from various sections of the country. Then on Tuesday, July 1, we present Convention City, direct from Chicago, with Jim Hurlbut, interviewing all the many people responsible for feeding and lodging the thousands of delegates to the conventions who will converge on Chicago in July. Consult your local newspaper for broadcast time. And join us here on NBC for a complete report on the conventions. And now, back to tales of the Texas Rangers. And now, here are the results of the case you have just heard. Millie Vinson and Gus Howard were tried and convicted for the murder of George Wilton. Millie Vinson received a 45-year sentence in a women's prison at Goree. Gus Howard was sentenced to Huntsville Penitentiary for the rest of his life. This week, Joel McCray and another authentic re-enactment of a case from the files of The Texas Rangers. McCray is currently seen starring in San Francisco's story, a Warner Brothers release. The cast included Tony Barrett, Barley Bear, Virginia Gregg, Gerald Moore, Herb Ellis, and Jeanette Nolan. Technical advisor was Captain M.T. Lone Wolf Gonzalez of the Texas Rangers. This story was transcribed and adapted by Charles E. Israel, and the program was produced and directed by Stacey Keach. Hell, give me speaking. Thursdays, enjoy The Best of Groucho on NBC.