Episode 81 Legendary US Marshal Bass Reeves

Southern Mysteries Podcast

Shannon Ballard

True Crime, Society & Culture, History

4.8 • 918 Ratings

🗓️ 8 February 2021

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Bass Reeves was born into slavery, escaped to freedom during the Civil War and became a legendary marshal. Was Bass Reeves the inspiration behind the cowboy hero The Lone Ranger? See photos and sources for this episode in the show notes at southernmysteries.com Support The ShowWant more Southern Mysteries? Hear the Southern Mysteries show archive and immediately access exclusive content when you become a patron of the show. Join now at patreon.com/southernmysteries ConnectWebsiteTwitterFacebook Music Theme Song “Dark & Troubled” by Panthernburn. Special thanks to Phillip St Ours for permission for use ***Additional Music: Green Green Garden and Morning Mandolin by Chris Haugen; Plantation by Audionautix; There’s Probably No Time by Chris Zabriske; Dhaka, Somber Ballad and Clean Soul by Kevin MacLeod; Eight by Ross Gentry. Courtesy of Headway Recordings in Asheville, North Carolina. Lazy Day and Shadowlands by Purple Planet Music https://www.purple-planet.com/ Licensed under Creative Commons.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Lone Ranger has been a part of American culture since the 1930s.
0:11.3	In 1933, listeners of WXYZ radio in Detroit, Michigan, were introduced to the masked
0:18.7	Texas Ranger who fought outlaws alongside his native friend Tanto.
0:25.0	George Trendel was the owner of WX YZ
0:28.0	and he wanted a cowboy hero series
0:31.0	and turned the idea over to writer Fran Stryker who developed the Lone Ranger into a
0:35.8	radio hit. Soon there were Lone Ranger books and comics and in 1949 the Lone Ranger TV show.
0:44.8	The origin of the Lone Ranger remained shrouded in mystery because we've never known his full name.
0:51.8	Neither Franz Striker nor George Trendel ever revealed that to the public.
0:56.7	Many believe the man who inspired the masked cowboy legend was a black man, a celebrity marshal whose life and law enforcement
1:06.0	career sound like the stuff you'd only see in a fictional TV show or movie.
1:11.4	But his life, his story is very real and it is truly
1:18.0	legendary. Welcome to Southern Mysteries, exploring history and mysteries of the American South.
1:26.0	I'm your host, Shannon Ballard, and this is the story of U.S. Marshall, Bass Reeves.
1:38.8	Bass Reeves was born on a plantation
1:41.0	near Van Buren, Arkansas, owned by a state legislator, William Reeves.
1:45.8	His parents were enslaved, which meant for the moment he was born in July, 1838,
1:52.1	Bass was enslaved. In 1846, when Bass was eight years old, William Reeves relocated
2:00.2	his household to Paris, Texas. For generations, there was that stereotype of slaves in the South as being content.
2:10.0	Some folks like to look back on that era in history and consider white owners of black men, women, and children.
2:17.0	It's just nice people who treated those they enslaved with such kindness.
2:22.0	No one would want to escape life on the plantation.
	...

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