Public Defender "The Old Hunters"
30min | Crime, Drama | TV Series (1954– )
Bart Matthews defends the poor and others who cannot afford an attorney. All episodes are based on actual cases from across the country.
Creators: Mort R. Lewis, Sam Shayon
Stars: Reed Hadley, Herschel Graham, John Close
30min | Crime, Drama | TV Series (1954– )
Bart Matthews defends the poor and others who cannot afford an attorney. All episodes are based on actual cases from across the country.
Creators: Mort R. Lewis, Sam Shayon
Stars: Reed Hadley, Herschel Graham, John Close
Category
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Short filmTranscript
00:00The public defender is a public servant employed by the community and responsible for giving
00:20legal aid without cost to any person who seeks it and is financially unable to employ private
00:26counsel.
00:27It is his duty to defend those accused of crime until they are proved guilty by law.
00:34But that doesn't mean that his work is always appreciated.
00:38Sometimes it's quite the opposite.
00:41As when the public defender's office defended a man named Murphy, charged with assault with
00:45intent to commit murder.
00:47He lived near Pine Rocks, a mountain area, generally a peaceful place except for that
00:52day when the deer hunting season opened.
00:54All right, get out of here.
00:59Well, hello, Mr. Murphy.
01:02No, the hunter's not on this property.
01:05It's porches.
01:06Signs all over the place.
01:07Didn't you see them?
01:08Sure, but then what's the matter?
01:10Can't you read?
01:11Well, Mr. Murphy, these are friends of ours.
01:13They're from the city.
01:15Yeah.
01:16Woke me up this morning.
01:17Sounds like the battle of Bunker Hill.
01:21I don't trust greenhorns with guns.
01:23Last opening day, some city dude shot my cow.
01:26Well, look, we're all members of the Hunter Farmers Cooperative.
01:30We'll be responsible for any damage.
01:32Besides, we'll pay you a fee for letting us hunt.
01:34I don't want any fee.
01:36All the game on this property belongs to me.
01:39Mr. Murphy, that's a moot question.
01:41The authorities seem to think the game belongs to the public.
01:44That's why the state sends out wardens to regulate and protect wildlife.
01:48Wildlife eats my grain, don't they?
01:50Tramples my gardens, drinks my water.
01:53All the game on this property belongs to me.
01:56How come we have to buy a hunter's license, then?
01:58Oh, look, let's cool down, shall we?
02:01Look, Mr. Murphy, is it okay if we unload our guns if we cross over to Jawbone Canyon?
02:05That's not your property, is it?
02:07You can go around by the road.
02:08It's four miles around that way.
02:10Then stand on the highway and shoot into the bushes the way the rest of the greenhorns do.
02:16I don't need a license to shoot on my property, deer or trespassers.
02:24Come on, fellas, let's get out of here.
02:28Hunters, deer hunters.
02:33Hey, Bill, what gives here?
02:36I thought your stepfather picked up the bank foreclosure on this property.
02:40He did.
02:41Well, it's not Murphy's property at all.
02:43That's right.
02:44He's a hard one to convince.
02:45And that wasn't the time to try, looking down the barrel of that .30-30.
02:50Come on, let's beat away at this draw, Bill.
02:52We can circle around him.
03:15Where is he?
03:16Oh, hello, Mr. Murphy.
03:17Where's your father?
03:18He ain't in the store.
03:19My father's back at the cabin.
03:20Why?
03:26Hi, Annie.
03:27Fine help with the dishes you are.
03:30That's no excuse.
03:32I had to help Harry celebrate.
03:33He got a beautiful buck.
03:34Did you see it outside?
03:35Uh-huh.
03:36What's that?
03:37No.
03:38How's that?
03:39All right.
03:40Why wouldn't he be?
03:41He's drying your dishes, in fact.
03:43Well, I took care of something for him today that he should have done six months ago.
03:47So we're even.
03:48Bill, what are you talking about?
03:50Is something wrong?
03:51No.
03:52Just something legal.
03:53I had old man Murphy served with an eviction notice.
03:56Eviction notice?
03:57Uh-huh.
03:58Hey, Dora.
03:59How about a game of cards?
04:01All right.
04:02Where's Emily?
04:03I thought this was deer season.
04:06It's a midget deer.
04:07Meet Mr. B.J. Eubanks.
04:09Meet Mr. B.J. Eubanks, taxidermist extraordinary.
04:12No, we don't want any.
04:14We've got enough horns hanging all over the mantel already.
04:17Honey, did dad hear from old man Murphy?
04:20What?
04:21Madam, my work is admired all over the state.
04:24When people see my rattlesnakes, they jump a mile.
04:28Yes, I'm sure, Mr. Eubanks.
04:30Oh, I mean, I didn't mean to offend you.
04:33But my husband, well, he has more trophies than the Smithsonian Institute.
04:38And when I offer this beautiful gray fox for only $25,
04:41I'm sure you'll snap at the chance.
04:43Don't play with his tail, please, sir.
04:44Now, this beautiful object will be the sign of your of all eyes,
04:47if only when you take it home for him.
04:49I'll buy a bottle, doctor.
04:51Didn't know the celebration was over here.
04:53Thought it was in your cabin.
04:55I never heard such a racket.
04:56What do you mean?
04:57There's no one there but dad, and he's washing the dishes.
04:59Washing dishes?
05:01He's throwing them and yelling his head off at somebody.
05:04Murphy.
05:05Murphy, oh, no.
05:06Oh, don't worry about your dad.
05:07He's holding his own.
05:09Let go of me.
05:10Let go of me, you slimy bull cat.
05:12Go on, now.
05:13Get away from me.
05:14Get out of here.
05:15Go on.
05:16Get out of here, you dirty, filthy mule.
05:18Go on.
05:19Get out of here.
05:21Father.
05:22Father.
05:23Oh.
05:24Oh.
05:25Lundquist.
05:26I should have killed you the day you set fire to my pasture land.
05:30You stole my Angus bull.
05:32And what about that fence?
05:33That fence you tore down?
05:35Father, stop it.
05:36I told him I said.
05:37A whole quarter mile of fence.
05:39Cut it out.
05:41Two men your age, fighting like babies.
05:44What's the matter with you?
05:45It's easy, Dora.
05:46He just tripped, that's all.
05:48But come in here yelling like a banshee, and I'll show you what for.
05:52Father, please.
05:53Take your hands off me, sonny.
05:55Someday your angriness will blow up and bust you.
05:58All right, Murphy.
05:59You came over here because you're sore about that eviction notice on your land.
06:02Bill, what is all this notice he's yelling about?
06:05I used to have a fence there.
06:07Now all my calves keep getting out.
06:10And you go stealing from me.
06:12Oh, for Pete's sake.
06:13Bill, wait.
06:15Mr. Murphy, that fence was down years and years ago.
06:18Yes.
06:19No one's trying to steal your land.
06:21It just isn't yours anymore.
06:23You don't even have cattle anymore.
06:25Remember?
06:26I used to have a lot of things.
06:29And they kept stealing everything from me.
06:31Murphy.
06:33Maybe I got plans.
06:35You don't know.
06:36You and them city dudes.
06:38You don't know.
06:39Come back here, you old fool.
06:41But listen to me.
06:42I'm warning you.
06:44Anybody comes straight up there again, they better watch out.
06:47I'm warning you.
06:51He gets mixed up sometimes.
06:53I wonder if I'm getting that old, too.
06:55Oh, of course not, Dad.
06:57Forget it, Pop.
06:58I'll go down to the sheriff's office in the morning.
07:00Well, Murphy always blamed me for his hard luck.
07:04I guess I blamed him for my bad luck, too.
07:07And with good reason.
07:09Bill, how important is them notices?
07:11Pop, I'll explain it to you again.
07:14I helped you buy up that mortgage land.
07:16But there he sits right in the middle of it
07:18with private property and no hunting signs posted all over it
07:21while he ran me and my party off of that land this morning.
07:24Now, you keep on being polite to him.
07:26I ain't being soft.
07:28I hate that old goat.
07:30Well, I know how he feels.
07:32Pretty much the same as you felt a while back
07:34when you almost lost your land.
07:36But we can't subdivide that area
07:38if he's going to sit right in the middle of it
07:40pulling a 30-30 on every hunter that comes by,
07:43cutting off the water, starting a fight with everybody.
07:46You say he chased you off of our land with a 30-30?
07:50That's right.
07:51But don't you go getting hot under the collar about it.
07:53You let me handle it.
07:54All right, all right, Bill.
07:56All right, all right, Bill, you handle it.
07:59Maybe you know best.
08:05That next day, old Mr. Lundquist
08:07decided to take matters into his own hands.
08:27Ah!
08:28Ah!
08:59This is it.
09:21There you are.
09:22Afternoon, Mr. Murphy.
09:24Hello, deputy.
09:25What brings you here?
09:27Cigarette through the way a lot of parties from town by you this morning
09:33They saw you walking away from your cabin with the rifle about nine o'clock
09:37I've been having trouble with Bobcat Bobcat got into my chickens the other night. Where is your rival? Mr. Murphy none of your business
09:45Leave me alone
09:47You walk down the canyon south of here then through the woods
09:50No, it ain't true. Somebody else. So you're running away from me. So I
09:55Left the house all day
09:57And I guess this isn't your bandana
10:02Of course not I
10:05Didn't shoot Fred Lundquist
10:07Then how do you know he was shot?
10:09You haven't been out of the house
10:11You haven't got a phone
10:13Is he dead he was still alive when they took him off to the hospital
10:18Thanks. I just been sitting here and going through some of my things. I oh
10:24Well, all right, I'm through with this place anyway, let's go down to your jail
10:36The case against Murphy was circumstantial but still it was going to be a difficult case to handle
10:43Especially if Lundquist testified against him
10:46He's guilty, you know, he's guilty
10:49He's just confused. That's all
10:52He's getting old
10:53Well, he wasn't confused when he threatened to kill you. I
10:57Don't mean just this time. I mean all the other time. That's what we want you to tell about
11:02He hit me once with a cross-cut saw. I still got the mark on my legs
11:08But I never brought no charge against him. You wouldn't
11:13Couldn't very well. I hit him first with an axe handle
11:17I
11:22Sorry you've been so upset
11:25deal
11:26And all the nice people you brought up there
11:30Yeah, don't you understand?
11:33The reason we want you to testify is because he just has to be put away somewhere. It isn't just a fight anymore
11:41He tried to murder you
11:44I
11:45Guess that's just what I can't get through my head
11:49Yes, he always figured the world was right and he was wrong
11:57No
11:59Just too bad. He couldn't have been right for once in the world wrong
12:05But go on
12:07Tell him I'll testify enough to swing that crazy old word up to a telegraph pole
12:13They ought to be
12:16One to 14 years, mr. Murphy, that's the sentence that can be imposed on you
12:2214 years was about handled it for me 64 last December. Maybe that's what you'll get if you don't help me defend you
12:32So Lundquist is gonna say things against me too way I
12:36Should have run his neck years ago. What's that? None of your business only?
12:43Say
12:44Did I tell you I went out that morning to shoot a bobcat?
12:47That might be some help for you that might but I don't think so. Yeah, I
12:52Understand you're a good shot. You're blame right?
12:55I am so that if you'd been aiming at an animal instead of a man you would have hit him just as easily
13:00It would have been something to show for it. Well, I had the warden called the area
13:05You said you were in that morning. There was no sign of a bobcat dead or alive
13:13No, I guess there wouldn't be
13:15I'm afraid we'll have to do better than that. All right, then
13:19Say I'm guilty get it over with
13:22Mean that maybe I was just too stubborn to admit it and I'm not crazy either
13:28I'm sorry. I've been so much trouble a young man. I
13:32Plead guilty. I can't let you do it. Oh, why not one to 14 years. What do I care?
13:39I did it. I killed him. Now get out of here. Leave me alone
13:42Mr. Murphy the law says that if you plead guilty and Fred Lundquist should die within the next year
13:48You could be tried all over again murder in the first degree
13:52Possibly the gas chamber
13:56Not so sure I did it mr. Murphy, please give me something to go on
14:03You know so much about the law you handled it go on do the whole thing
14:08You're my defense, aren't you? I'm not saying another word
14:14The date of Murphy's trial was approaching and I still had no defense for it
14:19Mr. Ames the game warden for that district was very cooperative
14:23You find anything any evidence of Bobcat?
14:27No, and I did a lot of looking around every square foot of that Hill
14:31Why Murphy isn't a friend of yours
14:34Not so you'd notice it in the old days
14:36I hauled him in a half dozen times mostly for shooting pheasant out of season and with a rifle which made it worse
14:43Pretty good shot one of the best give me your honest opinion. Do you think that Murphy shot Lundquist?
14:48It could have been an accident
14:50Murphy's a stubborn old coot, but he's not bloodthirsty and there's one thing he's been right about all the time
14:56What's that about that area not being good for open deer shooting too close and too many people
15:03You know one day I checked
15:05237 hunters out of one road, you know how many deer they got six
15:11237 men got six deer
15:13That isn't what you came here to tell me. I found Murphy's rifle where he hit it that day
15:19He'd thrown it down an old mine shaft
15:21This gun of Murphy's had just one bullet fired
15:25Now they must have removed a bullet from Lundquist's body at the hospital
15:29Wouldn't that prove something our ballistics experts could prove whether it came from Murphy's gun or not
15:35Except the bullet went clean through a fleshy part of Lundquist's body and was never found. Oh
15:41Thanks anyway nice try
15:46Lundquist testified at the trial and when the case was given to the jury he and his son-in-law left for Pine Rocks
15:52The pheasant season had just opened and all Bill's friends were there
16:12What happened Bill the jury was still out when we left here anything on the radio no
16:17Probably some old gal holding out for not guilty
16:20Well, she'll see the light they'll send him up. All right
16:24The jury deliberated four hours. I waited it was after dark when they returned with a verdict
16:30Hear ye hear ye
16:32This court is again in session
16:35Everyone rise, please
16:36Judge Randolph had just about decided to send the jury to a hotel for the night when they announced he had arrived at a decision
16:43The verdict came was quite a surprise. It was
16:46not guilty
16:50Guilty not guilty
16:53How do you like that can't believe it if it's true it's not gonna set so well with a lot of people up here
17:00How do you like that I
17:03Just can't believe it
17:05What are we gonna do now? I don't know
17:08But I don't want to be caught in the middle
17:11All I tried to do was help your dad to make something of this place make a little money
17:16You've done a swell job of it up till now
17:19But the real work is just starting
17:23What's gonna happen when Murphy comes back I
17:27Don't know
17:29Wall is stupid things too intelligent sane people to worry about a couple of old men feuding like hillbillies
17:37Well, maybe he won't come back after what's happened. You don't know him and you don't know dad
17:44Don't you understand?
17:46Murphy's been found innocent. He's a free man with a persecution complex. They've just opened up the door to a real killing
17:54Where's that? We just came in and went to his room without a word
18:01Mr. Bolling Bell
18:04Hello, Mr. Ames evening ma'am. I want to see your father. Hurry. Oh, he's resting. He's already heard the news. Well, there's something else
18:11I've been talking to the sheriff's office. Look I have to see him right now
18:14Dad dad
18:17the sheriff's office
18:19Say that verdict wasn't very popular with your city friends either. Was it? I
18:24Know I don't blame you the man in the store getting all excited, but
18:28Maybe it is justice
18:31He's gone. I guess he went out the back way
18:34Well, I've got to stick around and wait anyway
18:36Only maybe you better know that Murphy's taken a bus from town already
18:39Sheriff's deputy left the courtroom with him just to keep an eye on things, but he lost him when the bus stopped at a service station
18:45But I wouldn't worry about it. Mr. Matthews is on his way up here
18:49You see we might have something new on this
18:53Yeah, we've got to find father I couldn't tell you in front of Ames his guns gone too Oh
19:00We got a visitor I'd like to introduce mr. Bart Matthews public defender
19:05Tell me warden when's the season open on public defenders. I'd like to oil up my gun
19:11Eric Eric, can I see you a minute? We'll show the money. You stay right here
19:17Anything we ought to know about mrs. Bowling I think father's out there
19:21He's got a gun and he's got a gun and he's got a gun and he's got a gun
19:24I'm sure he's got a gun and he's got a gun and he's got a gun
19:26Anything we ought to know about mrs. Bowling I think father's out looking for Murphy
19:40Not guilty
19:43And you called me a murderer
19:45Yes, I thought you were just a hot-headed old goat once but there you are
19:50Look at you couldn't stand it because I had good luck for a change
19:54Maybe I should have killed you in the days when you were making a few dollars
20:05All right, drop it Murphy you people don't belong here
20:13I'll take that gun belt. All right, the hunting season is over for both of you fellas. I want you to listen to mr. Matthews
20:20Mr. Lundquist, mr. Murphy didn't shoot you. He didn't even shoot at you
20:24It was a hunting accident. I
20:28I wasn't sure
20:30It was a long-range and then I found Fred. I never had to shoot an accident in my life
20:37But my eyes ain't what they used to be. Mr. Murphy. You were the only man on the field that day who couldn't have done it
20:43There was only one shot fired from your gun and mr
20:47Eubanks will testify that you hit your bobcat because he found it scanned it out and mounted it
20:52Fortunately, he found a bullet in the skull one bullet right between the eyes
21:00And our ballistics expert says that the bullet came from mr. Murphy's gun
21:05So you see when the evidence is all in the jury is usually right? I don't know how to thank you. Mr
21:11Matthews, you've certainly taught me a lesson. Yes, I've learned a lesson, too
21:16And I'm willing to pay for it. Come on. Let's all go down to the store and have a nice cold drink on me
21:22Come on, dad. I'll be along in a minute. Don't worry. Maybe I've learned a thing or two myself
21:33Those interfering city dudes spoiled everything I come back here tonight to beat your ears all right
21:39All right, and I come up here tonight to get rid of it
21:44you
21:46You mean you're not going to throw me off my place. I ain't no fool
21:50If you left here, I wouldn't have nobody to fight with that's right, and that's why I didn't shoot you I
21:59Tell you what
22:00We both got a few years left
22:03Why don't we let your kids sell off all this stuff around here, but keep this a little cabin?
22:10Just you and me then we can fight all we want to that's it and if we nobody button in is spoiling our fun
22:20I
22:29Still don't understand father was shot
22:32Do you have any idea mr.. Matthews? How many of you were out deer hunting that day?
22:37All of us here were too many
22:40Well, perhaps warden names can explain it better than I can warden
22:45Take your group here and multiply it by a hundred then think it over
22:49Do you know how far a bullet can carry
22:51Do you know what happens in these places close to town with parties and brand-new red caps shooting at sounds in the brush and trees?
22:58And anything that moves
23:01Does that answer your question?
23:04Maybe we'll never know who fired that shot
23:08Could have been one of us
23:11Out of all this there was another good result at least a few hunters were taught what every good hunter should know
23:18That indiscriminate or careless shooting can hurt more humans than animals
23:24The case you have just seen was brought to a fair and just conclusion through the efforts of a public defender
23:48You
24:18You