When I lived and worked as a newspaper reporter on the Hereford Brand, a daily newspaper in Hereford, Texas, the publisher Speedy Nieman entertained me with a story about The Texas Rangers.
Speedy was a lanky lanconic Texan, a chain smoker, with a perfect Texas drawl. He told about a riot in a small Texas town in the late 1800s. The mayor frantically sent a telegram to the government requesting Texas Rangers to quell the uprising.
To his astonishment, only one Texas Ranger showed up. When the mayor sputtered his disbelief, the Ranger smiled and said, 'You got only one riot and I reckon one Texas Ranger can take care of it.'
Leon Audie Murphy never rode a horse for the Texas Rangers. But as Audie Murphy, the most decorated American combat soldier in history, published a book about his life, 'To Hell And Back,' there were few people who doubted he had the stuff to succeed as a Texas Ranger.
Audie was the seventh of 12 children born to a couple of sharecroppers on a farm in Hunt County, Texas on June 20, 1925.
His dad abandoned the family when Audie was a child and his mother died shortly after he turned 16.
Audie was very close to hiss mother. He reflected to a magazine interviewer, 'She had the most beautiful hair. It reached nearly to the floor My mother never talked much, but when she died, she took something of me with her."
After the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, Audie tried to join the military. Because of his size and age, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps rejected him. One of his sisters helped him falsify some documentation and he was able to enlist in the Army.
Audie had learned to shoot on his family farm and was a marksman when he took his basic training. He was shipped to France and at the age of 19 he won the Medal of Honor for single handedly holding off a company of German soldiers for an hour at the Colmar Pocket in France.
Wounded and out of ammunition, after that incredible feat he led a successful counter attack. He also saw action at the invasion of Sicily, the Battle of Anzio, in Southern France, and he was one of the American soldiers who helped liberate Rome.
In one battle, the Germans were holed up in a farmhouse. A U.S. tank destroyer had been knocked out of commission and was burning. Audie ran to the destroyer and began firing the .50 caliber machine gun. Although suffering from a leg wound, he killed or wounded 50 enemy soldiers. He refused to stop fighting until he was satisfied the situation was under control.
Because of all his war decorations, Murphy was featured on the cover of Life Magazine. Actor-producer James Cagney read his story and was impressed. He contacted Murphy and invited him to come to Hollywood.
Cagney used his considerable influence to help Murphy get a movie contract. Audie appeared in many westerns as well as war films. He also had roles in several television series and starred in a successful Western TV series, 'Whispering Smith.'
The brutal war had taken its toll on Audie and he suffered from what today is known as post traumatic stress syndrome. He slept with a loaded .45 caliber automatic beneath his pillow. He had nightmares and became addicted to prescription drugs until he kicked the habit cold-turkey.
He also became a gambler and spent a lot of his spare time in gambling casinos in Las Vegas and Reno where he played blackjack, poker and dice. A friend said, 'Audie would bet on anything. Money didn't seem to mean much to him."
Audie used some of his movie earnings to buy a ranch in California where he bred and raised quarter horses. Although he suffered financial problems in his later years, he refused to make any TV commercials promoting cigarettes or alcohol. He knew he was a role model and didn't want to lead young people astray.
I was fortunate enough to meet Audie in 1969 while working as a reporter for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner. He had been charged with assaulting a Burbank dog trainer and I covered his trial in Los Angeles District Court. The jury found Audie not guilty and then asked for his autograph.
He died on May 28, 1971 when a charter plane containing himself and two businessmen crashed in a mountainous section of Virginia during a heavy rainstorm. He was just 46 years old. He was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.
