Texas Rangers - Uncertain Death

Hales of the Texas Rangers, starring Joel McRae, is Ranger Jace Pearson.

Another authentic reenactment of a case transcribed from the files of the Texas Rangers.

Names, dates and places in the following story are fictitious for obvious reasons.

The events themselves are a matter of record.

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And now here's today's adventure with the Tales of the Texas Rangers.

And now from the files of the Texas Rangers the case called Uncertain Death.

It is shortly past 10 o'clock on the Wednesday night in July 1936.

Six miles outside the town of Cambridge in East Central Texas.

Two elderly men approach the shore of a lake.

Come on, come on, Ali, we've got to hurry.

I'm walking this passage in.

I'm frogging in a runaway.

That ain't the point, you know it.

Frogs for bass fishing got to be caught and put in a beat buck of 12 hours for the coming of youth.

Oh, that superstition George Warner ain't going to help a man going way over the other side of the lake needed.

There's plenty of frogs right here.

Now you know these frogs ain't good for bass.

Only frogs and bass will be caught in the other side with the tools here.

Oh, I'm superstition, it's nothing but...

Ali.

Eh?

You shine a light over there.

Ain't that the game wardens call?

Ain't you ever looking at the light?

Just two.

What are you doing out here this time of night?

Let's go see it.

Ain't that it ain't she going to poke her nose and other people's business?

Hey, if nobody in it.

And it ain't the game wardens' car.

There's two.

The wait-a-man.

Shine the light down toward the shore.

What do you want?

Ain't that you see?

Car belongs to that young couple sitting on the back.

Sorry we disturbed you folks.

That's okay.

Didn't mean to be shining a light on you.

We thought she was a game warden.

Yeah, sure.

How about that, Ali?

Young couple sparkling in the summer night.

What's your mind when we was young and used to bring our girls out here?

Well, here's the boat.

You get in first and I'll show both.

Yeah.

I know you.

Hey, there.

You start rolling.

We'll be five minutes before you come complaining about it.

We'll head for that patch of weeds till the cold.

Best frogs in the lake.

Come there nights.

I still haven't seen no sense going all the way over there to the other side.

You'll see.

We'll catch some of the big mouth baths tomorrow.

Oh, I see hope we get something like big mouth baths.

We're good.

What's that?

Sounds like them young people having some kind of squabble.

You better come back.

That's shooting.

We better get in the shore.

If we go in there, he's having a shoot.

Come on up here alongside of me.

You better help, bro.

All right, but I still think you'll quit thinking and roll.

Yeah, he's leaving, George.

He's driving away.

Keep rolling.

Reckon, he killed that girl.

We don't even know what's him doing to shoot.

Jean was the one yelling at her to come back.

Wasn't he here?

Come on, Ali.

Pull on that all.

When the two men reached shore, they looked briefly around the area where they had seen the car.

They found no one there and no indication of violence.

Nevertheless, they decided to report the incident to the sheriff.

After investigating the scene of the alleged shooting, the sheriff requested assistance from the Texas Rangers.

Ranger, Jace Pearson, was assigned and arrived at the lake just after dawn.

The sheriff let him to all the spot at the edge of the water.

When I wanted to show you, he was over here, Jace.

First, I thought them two old fellows must have been hearing things, though.

I was still around, Sheriff.

Over there with the crowd.

Funny how excitement draws people like bees around a jam jar.

You want to talk to George and only?

Yeah, in a few minutes.

There you are.

When I found this, I was pretty sure there really was a shoot in here.

Yeah.

In blood, all right.

George and Ali think it was a girl that was shot.

Why?

They heard the man yelling for her to come back and then there was three or four shots.

You think she could have got up and crawled away after she was hit?

No, that's not likely.

Tracks indicate she was dragged, probably back the car.

The two men witnesses recognize either of the people?

No, it was too dark.

The only thing they remembered was a car, a black four-door sedan.

Well, I reckon we just have to wait for a missing person's report.

If the girl really was killed, I...

What's the matter?

Come on, hand me that branch, Sheriff.

I think I see something in the water.

Sure.

Thanks.

You can make out what it is.

I think it's...

Yeah.

It is.

Woman's handbag.

Shoulder straps broken.

Could it happen once you fell?

Uh-huh.

Oh, lipstick.

Compact.

Hmm.

Traverse license.

Water didn't smear the type too much, did it?

No.

Name is Lucy Regan.

Lucy Regan?

Well, that's a kid who got in teacher here in town, a real sweet kid.

Nobody'd want to hurt a girl like that.

We're not sure it's the girl who was hurt.

Let's go find out.

We drove back to town and went to Lucy Regan's rooming house.

She wasn't there.

Her landlady said she'd left at seven the night before and had not returned.

She was fairly sure Lucy'd been out with Ken Bowman, a young cowhand from a nearby ranch.

Sheriff and I went out to the ranch arriving there about ten that morning.

We learned that Bowman was with a crew setting up new fence posts about four miles from the ranch house.

We took horses and started looking for them.

There they are now.

Down at the bottom of the slope.

Uh-huh.

What's all the construction work over there for the next hill, Sheriff?

That's a new county road.

We've been waiting for it quite a spell.

You'll be glad when you get to finish.

Looks like they're cutting through part of this ranch.

Just a corner.

Reckon, that's why they're setting up new fence posts.

Which one of you fellows is Ken Bowman?

You're all over here.

Oh, good job.

Oh boy, hold on.

Hey, what's the matter?

Ranger and I'd like to talk to you.

Well, sure.

Anything wrong?

I want to ask you some questions about Lucy Regan.

What about it?

Are you out with her last night?

Yeah.

Why?

Her landlady says she hasn't been back to the house since she left with you.

That ain't true, I've brought her back myself.

What time was this?

Early, about nine o'clock.

She said she had a headache.

She was lying, no?

What do you mean?

I had taken her out five, six times in the past few months.

She always makes some kind of excuse to get back early.

What's the matter?

Didn't you two get along?

We'll get along all right.

Except once she starts acting like a school teacher.

Telling me how I should talk.

When your brother or a home did you take her up to the house?

No.

She got out of the car in front of the house.

Said she didn't want me to come in.

She probably had another date waiting for her inside.

Last time I'm taking her out.

Where'd you go after you took Lucy home?

No play special.

Evening was already around.

I'd drove around a while and I'd come back to the ranch.

Did you go out to the lake?

Huh.

I'd been near the lake in weeks.

Look, Ranger, why are you asking all these questions?

We're afraid Lucy might have been murdered.

Murdered?

Just cause she don't show up one morning?

She goes over to the library and bang him a lot.

Maybe that's why she's gone.

See some of them college fellows.

Maybe so, but you were the last person she was seen with.

Look, Ranger, like I say, I took the girl out five or six times.

I hardly even know her.

Why don't you pick on someone else?

What color's your car, woman?

My car.

Oh, it is black.

What's that got to be?

Four doors to the end.

Yeah.

Why?

Where is it now?

Back to the ranch, huh?

Suppose you stop work for a while.

We'd like to see your car.

Well, that is much of a car.

A couple of spades, good as I can buy.

Fine, if I look inside.

Go ahead.

How'd you get the blood on the back seat?

Blood.

Well, I don't see no blood.

Looks like you're trying to wash it off.

How'd it get there?

Oh, yeah, yeah.

I remember that.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

I remember that.

About a month ago, I went out shooting rabbits.

I got a couple and put them on back seat.

Funny you didn't put something under them before you set them in the car.

I did.

Got them in the burlap sack.

Blood must have soaked through.

You sleeping one of the bunk houses over there?

That's right.

You'd like to take a look at your bunk.

You look what's this all about.

Some girl goes out of town without telling nobody.

It's right away you come picking on me.

This goes out of town with a couple of times.

Including last night.

Sure, including last night.

That's what I know.

You want to show us your bunk now?

All right.

You're welcome.

Look at anything you want.

Thanks.

Don't you really think something happened to Lucy?

Why don't you go talk some of them college boys you're on as well?

We'll check on them later.

Where's your bunk?

Right here.

First one.

Let me see what's in that suitcase under the bunk.

Okay.

Well, I'll go ahead and look.

Is she your pistol?

Yeah.

You cleaned her recently, haven't you?

It's morning.

I like a clean gun.

I was the last time you used it.

I don't know. Maybe a month ago.

It's time I shot rabbit.

Any special reason for cleaning at this morning?

No.

She just thought it needed cleaning.

You're trying awful hard to prove I had something to do with Lucy's murder, aren't you, right?

We're not sure she's dead.

But if she is, you're sure you're going to try putting on me, aren't you?

We'll all get along better if you take that chip off your shoulder, Bowman.

I ain't got a chip on my shoulder.

I just don't want to be pushed around.

Keep telling you how hard they're no Lucy rigging.

It's soup hanging over here.

Is it yours?

Yeah.

You worried last night?

Sure.

It's all a suit I got.

Did you know there was blood on the edge of the sleeve?

What?

Is that rabbit blood, too, Bowman?

What?

I don't know.

Blood's blood, ain't it?

Not after it gets to our lab, they can tell in the hurry if it's animal or human blood.

I want to take this suit in the back seat of your car along.

Sure.

Take him.

Frame it right down the line.

I bet you if I wasn't a cowhand, it had a lot of money you wouldn't treat me this way.

Now you look here, man.

Just for you, Sheriff.

Bowman.

I'm going to lay the cards right on the table.

Lucy Regan's disappeared.

From information we have, I'd say it's a good bet she's dead.

I didn't kill her.

Maybe not.

But you were with her last night.

Car like yours was seen at the place where we think Lucy was shot.

And there's blood in your car and on your suit.

I know all this looks bad, but I didn't kill Lucy.

I didn't kill her.

What'd I have to do to prove it to you?

I know a good way to begin.

Wow.

We got a machine at Austin called a polygraph.

Better known as a lie detector.

You can't force you to take the test.

But if you do, it could help to put you in the clear.

Well, I'm not afraid of your lie detector.

I'm telling the truth.

You want me to take this test?

I'm sure I like it, too.

Well, all right.

Just wait till I tell the boss I have to go to Austin.

And I'm ready.

If any test, you want to give me.

Now, when I start the machine again, I'm going to ask you some more questions.

You just answer, yes or no.

All right.

You live near Cambridge, Texas?

Yeah.

You know Lucy Regan?

Yeah.

You eat breakfast this morning?

Yeah.

You own a black four-door sedan?

Yeah.

Do you shoot Lucy Regan?

No.

Did you come to Austin in the plane?

Yeah.

You out at Brand Lake last night?

No.

You know who shot Lucy Regan?

No.

All right.

And I think that'll be all.

What's it say?

Well, you have to ask a reindeer about that.

If he wants to tell you, it's up to him.

I've got to write to know what it says.

Come on.

Let's go in the next room.

I don't see why you won't tell me what it says.

It's my test, isn't it?

I've got to write to know.

All through.

All through.

He won't tell me what it says, right?

You'll know soon enough.

Sheriff, take Bowman into that office across the hall.

I'll be along in a minute.

Sure.

Come on, Bowman.

I'll look you said it and have to take this test.

Now you won't tell me.

How about it?

Well, I ask him all the questions.

Look at the graph.

Now here's where I ask him if he shot Lucy William.

And here, if it was out the late last night.

I don't know what you got on him, Jase, but according to this,

that boy's live.

In just a moment, we will continue with tales of the Texas Rangers

starring Joel McCray as Ranger Jase Pearson.

An investment in boys is an investment in America's future.

The confident trained and respected citizen of tomorrow

is the restless, untrained and eager youth of today.

By pointing his footsteps in the right direction,

and guiding him along the straight road of healthy living,

I wholeheartedly sponsoring and supporting boys clubs

we can build good citizens with strong healthy bodies.

Boys who are honest and have a respect for property

and individual rights, and we can gradually erase

the social stigma of juvenile delinquency.

Boys clubs are sponsored in each community

by non-sectarian, nonprofit organizations

of public-spirited adults who operate the clubs

for the benefit of the boy members.

Actually, the need today is for more boys clubs.

Let's all pitch in and help build the citizens of tomorrow.

Let's provide recreation and companionship.

Let's sow our seeds on good ground.

Give them root so that they spring and grow up to full maturity.

And now, back to the Texas Rangers.

We continue now with tales of the Texas Rangers

and our authentic story on certain death.

We kept Ken Bowman at headquarters

while the lab tested his suit and the backseat of his car.

A little after four that afternoon,

the lab called and said the blood on both the upholstery

and the sleep of his suit was human blood.

Bowman hardly batted an eye when we told him the news.

There's one thing to show.

You as somebody else is sure trying to frame me.

You know better than that.

What about the lab?

It takes a moment.

That shows you weren't telling the truth.

Oh, it's a lot of hog water.

You sure can't make me believe that thing never messes up.

There was human blood in your car and on your sleeve.

Where did it come from?

I don't know.

Maybe I cut myself.

You sure it wasn't Lucy's blood?

You sure you didn't shoot her?

Keep on asking that, Ranger.

I keep telling you.

I wasn't the only one who went out with her.

Now I want to go back to Cambridge.

As soon as the pilot calls and says the plane's ready.

You had no right bringing me here in the first place.

You didn't have to come along.

I told you that.

Now while we're waiting, I suppose you answer a few more questions.

But I told you everything I know.

How many times are you going to make it?

Probably the pilot.

You want me to get it, Jay?

Uh-huh.

Why did you lie to us about the blood in your car?

I didn't lie.

Why do you keep on asking?

It was human blood.

How did you get there?

You got no one else to pick on.

That's why I keep asking questions.

That was a lab, Jay.

What did they say?

Said they found different kinds of dust and sorrow particles in Bowman's suit.

They'll do a detailed analysis if you want it.

That depends on you, Bowman.

What do you mean?

Why does it depend on me?

Because we think you buried Lucy Regan's body somewhere.

And when you did, you got soil particles on your clothes.

Why?

How can you prove from there?

I get leaders to where Lucy's body is buried.

Oh, how?

The lab has samples of soil from every part of Texas.

Thousands of samples.

They'll compare them with the particles found in your suit.

They take time.

But we're not going to stop until we find that body.

Now how about it, Bowman?

All right.

I save you the trouble.

I killed her.

I shot her last night.

Where was this?

At the lake.

We had a fight.

She was running away. I shot her.

And I put a body in the car.

Where'd you bury her?

I didn't bury her.

I drove down to the lake narrow as you.

You know, she had one of the bridges.

I waited about it down with rocks and threw off the bridge.

Can you show us where it is?

Yeah.

I can show you.

Sheriff, will you go across the hall and tell him we want two witnesses?

We're ready to take down Ken Bowman's confession.

Bowman repeated in front of two witnesses

and a stenographer, what he'd already told us.

I requested headquarters to supply us with a diver

to help locate Lucy Regan's body in the lake.

We returned to Cambridge arriving after midnight.

By five the next morning we'd set up a diving raft.

The daylight, the diver was lowered into the water

at the spot Bowman indicated.

I stayed on the raft to the telephone.

What's taking him so long? Why can't he find it?

How about a joke? See anything?

Out of the air at least.

How long as far as I go?

You sure this is a place you threw the body, Bowman?

Of course, I'm sure.

Where you say, jeez?

All to the second joke.

Bowman, where'd you get the rocks to wait down the body?

A...

A wrecking was small over there.

You carried them all the way over here?

I don't know. Ranger was dark.

Maybe...

Yeah, that's right.

I remember. I was down the other end of the bridge.

Stand by to come up, Joe.

We're going to try another spot.

I've come with a whole area, jeez.

What a thing.

Hold on.

Bowman, we've been looking around this bridge for seven hours.

Are you sure you put Lucy's body in the water here?

Oh, Ranger, I thought I did.

I don't know.

Wait a minute. There's another bridge.

A mile further down. Maybe I made a mistake.

Maybe that's the one you made.

Yeah. Yeah, maybe it is.

Be dark soon, jeez.

Looks like we'll have to give it up for today.

What it must be here, Ranger.

I remember everything.

Yes, I do.

I was right on the corner of that bridge.

Can you hear me, jeez?

Go ahead.

There's nothing in this area.

If we're going on, we'll have to get some rights.

Stand by to come up, Joe.

That's all for today.

Sheriff, put Bowman in the boat.

We're going back to the tire.

How long can that diver stay with us, jeez?

As long as we need him, I'll call headquarters

and say we want him for at least tomorrow.

I sure hope we find that body.

Yes, yeah.

You've got to find Lucy's body to keep me in jail, don't you?

We'll find it tomorrow, or the next day.

We're going to keep looking till we do find it.

Ah.

Well, it's too bad you have to look for it without me, ain't it?

What?

Tomorrow you'll be looking for Lucy's body

and I'm going back to the ranch.

Are you crazy?

No.

But you are if you try to hold it.

You're not forgetting you signed a confession, are you Bowman?

Confession?

What confession?

No, I'll look here.

You signed a confession in front of two witnesses

that you killed Lucy Regan.

Well, sure I did, because you made me.

You made me say I can't lose it, but I didn't kill it.

You're going back on your confession.

Is that what you're trying to say, Bowman?

Wait a minute.

I heard this boy with my own ears.

He said he shot Lucy Regan and threw her body in the lake.

Did I?

One bite.

And there was a bite.

I don't even know what you're talking about.

I put Bowman back in his cell, J.

Yeah, we let him stay there tonight anyhow.

Yeah, and he don't want to stay there at all.

He started hung like a coyote.

When I told him now we were holding him for obstructing justice.

In a some wild goose chase, he let us on the day.

About there.

First, he says he did kill her.

Let us look for the body.

He knows it ain't where we're looking, then says he didn't kill her.

We're going to let him get away with that.

Not if I can help him.

I've got to find Lucy Regan's body.

Yeah, if we don't, that confession he has ain't worth a thing.

Why do you figure he did it?

Somehow, I feel he's stolen for time.

He must have some reason for one to go off on a false lead.

But why?

I just don't get it.

It's got to be something he did with the body.

Something that made him feel he'd be safe after a couple of days' time.

And it beats me.

Wait a minute.

You remember when it was he confessed?

Well, it was just after I took that call from the lab.

Yeah, before that, nothing faced him.

The lie detector, the blood didn't even bother him.

But as soon as I started talking about soil particles, he folded up.

What's that sound like to you, Sheriff?

It could be.

He didn't want the lab to go any further with that analysis.

Uh-huh.

And it's up to us to find out why.

I'm going to call Austin, have manalize every grain of soil they found in that boy's suit.

I found the lab.

They said they'd analyze the soil particles and give us an answer as quickly as possible.

We waited the whole night.

At seven in the next morning, we went across the street to a restaurant to get some breakfast.

The left word to have a call transfer there.

Ten minutes later, it came through.

I spoke to the lab technician and walked back to the table where the sheriff was sitting.

Anything interesting, Sheriff?

Maybe.

Is there any granite around here, Sheriff?

Nieresty, parisage, marble falls, a couple hundred miles away.

Why?

I found granite dust in the weave of Bowman's coat and some on the inside lining.

Well, they do use granite for some of the construction work around here.

Like that road they're building out there near the ranch where Bowman worked.

Yeah.

They use crushed granite gravel on the road bed.

That could be how Bowman got it on his suit.

Wait a minute, though.

Why'd he wear his good suit around a construction job?

He wouldn't.

I see, I had some special reason for being there.

Well, I don't fully.

We know Bowman's been in a spot where he could watch the progress of that road for weeks.

We also know there were some reason why he stole us for a couple of days.

Geez.

You think he buried that girl's body in the road bed?

That's the only thing that makes sense so far.

But why would he dig up the gravel?

Be much easier to bury her in the part of the road where they hadn't put gravel yet.

That's just what I think he did.

Pick the section of the road that was about to be graveled and started as digging.

Then he could have left that coat of his on a pile of gravel nearby while he was working on likely.

So that's why he was stolen.

Thickard, we'd never find a body once that section was paved.

Who's in charge of that construction job, Sheriff?

The Field Engineer.

Come on.

Let's go find him.

When we spoke to the Field Engineer out at the job, we got our first break.

He told us that since Wednesday night when Lucy Regan had disappeared, a mile road had been graveled.

But a machinery breakdown, late Thursday, had prevented that section from being paved.

He also informed us that a man answering Bowman's description

had approached him early Thursday morning and asked a number of questions about the paving schedule.

We were fairly sure now that we were on the right track.

We had to know the exact location of the body and only Bowman had that answer.

Our problem was to get him to talk.

We worked out a plan and then drove back to town.

When we picked up Bowman, he thought we were taking him home.

He said nothing until we moved onto the stretch and newly paved highway.

I said the way to the ranch house.

Nobody said it was.

I thought you'd take me home.

What are you taking me?

You'll find out.

There's a new highway.

Ain't finished yet.

It don't lead nowhere.

It could lead further than you think.

What are you talking about, Randy?

Look, I won't get out.

Start the call in here.

In a minute, Bowman.

Almost at the end of the paved section.

At the end?

You're crazy.

He goes further than this.

You can see those men up there, Bowman.

A man don't go no further than that.

But that's just where they were Thursday morning.

They had a machinery breakdown.

I haven't been able to do any more paving till now.

What's the matter, Bowman?

I won't get out of here.

I want to get out of here.

You're getting out.

Come on.

Are you taking me?

Just over here in the beginning of the gravel section.

Part you thought would already be paved.

What are you talking about?

Look at it, Bowman.

A mile-a-road covered with fresh gravel.

Somewhere under that mile of gravel, Lucy Regan is buried.

You're crazy.

You buried her there.

We're going to find her body and give her a decent burial.

See those men over there, Bowman?

Crazy.

They're waiting till we give the word to start digging.

If they have to, they'll dig up that whole mile of road.

You can save us a lot of trouble by telling us exactly where you buried it.

All right.

Crazy.

All right.

I killed it.

I killed it.

Show us where you buried your body.

I want to bury it.

She's the only girl I ever want to bury.

I told her how crazy I was about it.

She laughed at me.

She laughed at me.

Where's the body, Bowman?

Under there.

Under there.

Where?

Point out the spot.

There's a couple of big mistakes.

I don't want you to take me out of here.

Please take me out of here, right?

All right, man.

And start working by that stake over there.

Please take me out of here.

I confess that I confess.

You confess twice.

This time we're going to make sure your confession holds up.

In just a moment we will tell you the results of the case you have just heard.

Later today you will find more great entertainment all lined up for you on this NBC station.

Next it's the Big Show for the star-studded guest list and your unpredictable hostess to

Lula Bankhead and Meredith Wilson will be on hand to direct the Big Show Orchestra

and chorus. And be sure to hear the hilarious Phil Harris and Alice Fey show featuring

the comedianics of Frankie Remlé, Julius Abruzio and Brother William. There's

Martha Music with Phil and Alice in their delightful program. And remember too the theater

guild on the air will bring you another entertaining dramatization of an exciting play co-starring

two of your favorite Broadway stars. Yes, Sunday is fun day on NBC because of the

many fine shows sent your way to add to your listening pleasure. Later tonight you'll

want to hear Jack Parr on the $64 question. As Jack asks the questions and gives away

the money. So remember for fine entertainment all the rest of the day stay tuned to this

station of the NBC Radio Network. And I'll back to the conclusion of Tales of the Texas Rangers.

And now here are the results of the case you have just heard.

Lucy Regan's body was discovered at the place Bowman had indicated a ballistic check of three bullets

found in her body prove they came from Ken Bowman's gun. Bowman convicted of murder was sentenced to

life imprisonment at Huntsville. Next week Joel McCray and another authentic reenactment of a case

from the files of the Texas Rangers. Joel McCray will soon be seen in San Francisco story

a Warner Brothers release. The cast included Tony Barrett, Harry Lang, Howard McNeer, Ken

Christy, and Ernie Newton. Technical advisor was Captain Empty, lone wolf, and solace 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 get me speaking. Next enjoy 90 minutes of comedy,

drama and music on the big show on NBC.