The Cold Days of Summer - Episode 6
Drew explains to his audience that Odessa is not Mayberry and the city experiences the work of a murderer.
In our last episode, Episode 5, Drew revisits the scene of A matter of Color and a harsh spring storm provides a moment for Drew's dad to teach a lesson.
This is not Mayberry
"Gosh darn."
"Golly gee."
"Gee whillikers."
These are words not often heard in Odessa, Texas. Why? Well, the easiest way to put it is this is not Mayberry.
Last night, April 1, 1968, the final episode of The Andy Griffith Show aired on channel 11, KOSA, the Odessa CBS television affiliate. Set in Mayberry, North Carolina, it is the story of life away from the madding crowds, where simple, honest, good folks live, where the greatest worry of any school boy is the upcoming little league baseball game on Saturday. In Mayberry, there is little crime, no murders, no rapes, no assaults. Sure, sometimes folks from the big city wander in with their nee'r do well ways, but they are dealt with professionally and quickly by Sheriff Andy Taylor.
Things are different in Odessa.
The language is different. Here, swearing is as natural as breathing for many adults and more than a few kids.
The nightly entertainment is different. Head out towards Andrews or Midland and the bars and liquor stores cluster near the county line, providing those from dry, safer cities a place to spend their money in the sinful town of Odessa.
The climate is different. Perched on the edge of a dessert with the nearest lake a two hour drive away, heading over to the fishing hole after school just isn't doable. Mayberry looks like it had a pleasant climate on television, never too cold, too hot, too wet or too dry. In Odessa, the winters cut right through you while the summer is like living inside an oven. Add in the wind and, despite nearly 300 days a year of sunshine, some of those days it is hardly worth walking outside.
The air is different. Actually, I don't know that for a fact as there is no way to tell through television what the air in Mayberry is like but I'm willing to guess there are no days when the carbon black from the local plants coats the cars, people and houses nearby. I'm willing to guess there are no days when the sky is brown as a dust storm blows in. I'm willing to guess there are no days when the sweet smell of natural gas drifts through any and all closed doors and windows.
Odessa is a blue collar town and proud of it. Midland is white collar and proud of it. Andrews is a family town and proud of it. I could go on, but I think you get the picture. No matter where you are from or what you are proud of, when it is time to raise hell it seems like everyone comes to Odessa. That means money for Odessa, but it also means crime, violence and death.
I watched the last episode of The Andy Griffith Show last night and wondered what it would be like to live in a town like Mayberry. I also wondered what kind of shell shock people from Mayberry experience when they head for the bright lights of Raleigh and other big cities.
That's one thing about living in Odessa, if and when I leave here, I don't think I will be too surprised by what I see on the outside. There might be more of it, might be different versions of it, but I've pretty much seen it all here. I'm just hoping that on the outside there's a little less harsh beauty to the world. The sharp edges of Odessa tend to scar a person.
A murderer walks among us: Linda Cougot and Dorothy Smith
I enjoyed Friday nights growing up. That's the night Weird Theater was on. First there was the late news at 10:00, then at 10:30 “The Old Pro” was on, fifteen minutes of gardening lore, then at 10:45, Weird Theater. Early on, my Dad and Mom would stay up to watch Weird Theater with me, I guess they were concerned I would have nightmares if I watched alone. But once they saw I didn't have nightmares they left me alone on Friday nights.
Sometimes the movies were classic Universal pictures from the thirties through the fifties, sometimes it was a cheap horror film, but no matter what it was, it was always good for a laugh. About my favorite series was “The Creature of the Black Lagoon.” “The Creature Walks Among Us” was the most intriguing of the three Creature films. In it, the Creature, a water breathing creature, is surgically adapted to breath air so it can walk on land. Something about that film always disturbed me, the idea of this primitive creature walking among man.
There's something about fear that makes me feel alive. I always liked a good fright, and sometimes I got that from Weird Theater. But then the sun would rise Saturday morning and everything would be back to normal. Made me sometimes wish for a little fear in the real world. Sometimes wishes do come true, but in this case, we all got a little more than I bargained for. I was just looking for a quick shiver. Instead, starting in October 1968, west Texas got a healthy dose of real fear. Before it was all said and done, the women in west Texas learned that fear and death was right close at hand and could strike at any moment.
It all started quietly in late October 1968. Not on the front page of the Odessa American, but a little deeper in the paper, a grim story was just beginning. Linda Cougot had disappeared on Saturday, October 19, 1968, leaving behind her six year old son, her car and a pile of unfinished laundry. On Tuesday, an all points “foul play is feared” bulletin was issued by the police department. Linda was last seen around 8:00 pm Saturday night wearing a black and white striped blouse and black shorts. She left her son with a friend while she went to a nearby laundromat. Her car, with the key in the ignition, was found at the laundromat, her laundry was inside. There was no sign of a struggle. She worked as a barmaid at the Bowler Bar and at first there wasn't much excitement. People sometimes walk away for a few hours, maybe even a day or two and no one notices or even really cares. But then the walk away stretched into a week and people started wondering what had happened to Linda Cougot.
The Odessa Police reported that on Wednesday they had received an anonymous call saying Linda's body could be found in a pasture west of Odessa, near Moss and 42nd street. The police searched the area but found nothing. Linda Cougot was still missing.
The lead story in the local section of the Odessa American on Sunday, October 27, 1968 read “No Trace of Missing Barmaid Uncovered.” It was a long article, but the net of it was no one knew where Linda Cougot was. Earlier that week at the Bowler Bar, Joyce Crump, a fellow employee and friend of Linda answered the phone. She reported hearing screaming on the phone and she asked if it was Linda on the phone. A female spoke and said it was Linda and to please help. Then more screaming and the phone went dead. According to the reporter Joyce Crump was convinced the female on the phone was Linda.
“Missing Woman Still Puzzles Odessa Police” appeared in the Odessa American on November 5, 1968. Time had passed, and clues were starting to fade away. No one knew where Linda Cougot was, no one knew if she was still alive or had simply ran away. No one knew. Truth is, other than her friends and family, I wonder if anyone really cared.
On that same day the questions were quickly answered concerning what happened to Anne Smith, a local motel owner. She was found shot to death in her motel apartment in Monahans, thirty miles down the road from Odessa. Anne was found lying in a pool of her own blood, dead from a bullet wound in her head. Her hands had been tied up with a length of television cable. Police suspected that this was a robbery that turned bad. Again, a little concern, but not a lot, life in the oil patch is sometimes hard and violent and murder isn't that uncommon of a thing. Let's put it this way, the murder didn't really hit home to anyone other than the friends and family of Ann Smith.
And still, Linda Cougot was missing, like she had dropped off the face of the earth. People started to forget she was even missing.
Not long before Christmas 1968 everyone remembered Linda when the mummified remains of a woman's body was found northwest of Odessa in a field by a quail hunter. A nylon stocking was twisted around her throat and another bound her hands behind her back.
Three days later the body was identified. A wedding ring taken from the corpse was identified as Linda Cougot's wedding ring by her family. While the cause of death was not known, the police believed it was clearly a murder. Fingerprints were found and the investigation continued. The woman was wearing a checked blouse, and black shorts, similar to the clothes that Linda Cougot was seen wearing when she disappeared. The doctor who examined the body could not determine if she had been criminally assaulted due to the state of the remains, but deputies on the scene said her panties had been removed and found on the scene.
A murderer walks among us.
In Episode 7 of The Cold Days of Summer a new family moves to East 11th Street in Odessa and Drew laments about the quality of television in west Texas in the 1960’s.