Half-pint Outlaw: Wild Bill Hickok (May 8, 1953)

Wild Bill Hickok, old-time radio on Stupid Potato

“Half-pint Outlaw” is an episode of Wild Bill Hickok, the old-time radio show, first broadcast May 8, 1953. Listen free on Stupid Potato: no sign-up, no app.

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What happens

Marshal Wild Bill Hickok and his deputy Jingles are sent by Judge Graham to arrest a young outlaw named Frank Jensen, who has defied a court order and fired on deputies at his ranch. They find the desperate fugitive is a boy who has been left to run the 2J ranch in Mesquite Valley after his father's death. Frank refuses to surrender, and Bill tries to win his trust. The marshals learn that the judge plans to sell the ranch, and they begin to question whose interests that serves. Guy Madison stars as Wild Bill and Andy Devine as Jingles in this 1953 episode, first broadcast May 8, 1953.

Mesquite Valley and the county seat, in the American West

Characters: Wild Bill Hickok, Jingles, Judge Graham, Frank Jensen, Silas James, Sheriff

Listen for: Bill's conversation with Frank on the porch, where the boy explains his situation

Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.