The Hatchet

Western film star Joel McCrea portrayed Ranger Jace Pearson in NBC's Tales of the Texas Rangers, covering "more than 260,000 square miles" of modern-day frontier with "50 men who make up the most famous and oldest law enforcement body in North America". Their job was to solve major crimes, using old-fashioned tracking techniques and psychological analysis. Tales of the Texas Rangers was broadcast from 1950 through 1952, and was later revived on television.

This episode originally aired on February 11, 1951.