High Pressure Killers: Wild Bill Hickok (April 21, 1954)

“High Pressure Killers” is an episode of Wild Bill Hickok, the old-time radio show, first broadcast April 21, 1954. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

Play Wild Bill Hickok free: the episodes out so far, or subscribe in any podcast app.

What happens

Mark Latham, a respected farmer in the Broadfritel Valley, asks United States Marshal Wild Bill Hickok and his deputy Jingles for help against Durkin and Parker, two hydraulic miners whose water jets are washing gravel and rock over the valley's farmland. Durkin has already shot a farmer, and the miners resist any attempt to reason with them. Bill and Jingles ride out to investigate the dam that supplies the mining water, and the trouble between the farmers and the miners grows more dangerous.

The Broadfritel Valley, a farming community threatened by hydraulic gold mining in the hills above it, in the American West.

Characters: Wild Bill Hickok, Jingles, Mark Latham, Durkin, Parker, Barker

Listen for: Kellogg's movie naming contest for boys and girls under 21, with prizes including a trip to Hollywood and a Motorola TV set.

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.