NARRATOR: Incredibly, this young
lieutenant, with a fifth grade education, would, during
the span of his short life, win 33 military awards,
citations, and decorations, 12 of which were for valor. He would go on to become a
major motion picture star, and play the lead
in over 40 pictures, write a selling autobiography
of his war experiences, entitled "To Hell And Back", and then,
extraordinarily, play himself in the highly successful
film based on the book. He wrote poetry and 17
country Western songs, raised champion Quarter Horses,
and yet, unknown to most, suffered the effects of
Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome all of his adult life. Tragically, he would die in
the crash of a chartered plane in 1971, at the age of 46. He would be remembered by
most as a great American hero. [music playing] In mythology and
legend, a hero is a man often of divine ancestry, who
is endowed with great courage and strength, celebrated
for his bold exploits, and favored by the gods. In reality, Audie Murphy was
endowed with great courage and strength, celebrated
for his bold exploits, and indeed for a long time,
seen to be favored by the gods. But as to the
possibility of divine ancestry, Hunt County, Texas. Bleak, desolate, and lonely. This was not the land of
black gold or vast ranches. This was the land of
cotton, Texas style. Row upon row of white
clumps of cotton. Into this impoverished
society, in a sharecropper's dilapidated little box of
a house, on June 20, 1924, Audie Leon Murphy was born. This future titan of battle
did not spring full blown from the forehead
of an Olympian god. Audie's father,
Emmett Pat Murphy, was a short heavyset man
with little education, who could hardly read or write. Audie was the seventh
child, and third son born to Emmett and
Josie Bell Murphy. Years later as a grown man,
his anger is still in evidence, Audie said. MAN (VOICEOVER):
"Every time my old man couldn't beat the kids he had,
he got himself another one." NARRATOR: 12 children were born. Nine of them would
survive to adulthood. Audie loved his mother deeply,
but his older sister Corrine became his surrogate mom. As the family grew, survival
became the key issue for the Murphy's. Emmett seemed to try,
but just couldn't fulfill his responsibilities
as a parent. Fortunately, even
as a little boy, Audie had developed rather
amazing hunting skills. He got a little old .22. I don't know where, but
he was really good at it. He can kill a
rabbit on the run-- well that's-- that's how we
lived, and that's how we ate. He would go out and
kill squirrels, rabbits. And I guess we could say we're
alive today because of him. He was my hero, even
then, before he ever did anything great. He's great to me then [music playing] NARRATOR: The year was
1933, and already events were beginning to unfold that
would shape Audie Murphy's destiny forever. The country was in the throes
of the Great Depression, and President Franklin
Delano Roosevelt was carving out his New Deal
for the people of the United States. Emmett Murphy, never one to
look a gift horse in the mouth, went to work for the WPA, and
moved his family to Celeste. Some called it
Heaven, Texas style. The house Emmett chose for his
family was anything but heaven. It was a shack. It had electricity. Bare light bulbs
and sockets, which hung by wire from the ceiling. No plumbing, no radios, no
books to read, no playthings for the children, but
nearby there was a school. Two years older than most in
his class, Audie, at nine, began the first grade,
and attended school from 1933 to 1937,
when he was forced to quit, and go to
work full time to help his family survive. That was back in
Depression days, and I mean, things was rough. I mean, the money just
wasn't floating around. And every little
dime we can make we had to have it,
because we had to live. He was very energetic. I mean, he worked real hard. Picked cotton, pulled
corn, you name it, or whatever needed to be done. NARRATOR: On the other
side of the world, another leader was
uniting his country, and war clouds were once again
beginning to loom over Europe. [speaking german] NARRATOR: Even in the little
out-of-the-way towns of Hunt County, Texas, talk about the
possibility of war was heard. Audie had two
uncles, both of whom had served overseas in
the First World War. Charles Killian and
William Killian. Audie often worked in the
cotton field with them. There was no work so tiring, as
picking one's way up and down the endless rows of cotton,
under a blazing Texas sun that never seemed to set, and
Audie worked hard every day of his young life. The tales of combat
that the uncles told helped to relieve the tedium,
and set Audie to daydream about the time when he
himself might become a soldier and cover himself in glory. No one could know then, that
this poor tenant farmer's son would one day,
years in the future, return to this evil
site in Nuremberg, perhaps not fully appreciating
that he had helped to cause the demise of Hitler's
promised 1,000-Year Reich, by performing such
wondrous deeds in battle, that they seemed
almost mythological. Once again, in the
short span of 21 years, Europe will become a
bloody battleground. England and France honor
their non-aggression agreement with Poland, and
declare war on Germany. Audie Murphy, the hero-to-be,
is just 16 years old, the United States
is not yet at war, and events of a
more personal nature are about to occur
to the Murphy family. Mr. Murphy, for
whatever the reason, was gone a number of occasions. And finally, in about November
of 1940, he left for good. When my dad left, it
was a cold icy night. And I saw him when he got up. He put on all the clothes he
could, and walked out the door. And that's the last
time I saw him. NARRATOR: The war raged on
through 1940, into 1941, and Audie struggled to help with
the family in any way he could. He assumed a kind of
parental responsibility, with his brothers and
sisters, but it wasn't enough. They were now living with
Audie's oldest sister Corrine in Farmersville. And on May 23, 1941, Audie's
beloved mother Josie Bell died, just five days before
her 50th birthday Later, Audie would say, MAN (VOICEOVER): "When she
died, the first thing I can remember was wanting
to do something for her. I still feel guilty
that I never could." She died, it made him mad. So he wanted to join the army. And I think that's
one thing that drove him to be like he was. He just-- oh, it just tore
him up because she died. And he wanted to live so bad, so
he could do something for her. And I think that's one thing
that motivated him to fight like he did. [explosions] Well, the time that the
Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, December 7, I
believe Audie Murphy and Monroe Hackney were actually
on a double date at a movie theater. And after they returned
from the movie theater, they learned of
course, of the bombing. Well immediately,
all the young men, or a number of the young
men, chose to join. Well, that included
Audie Murphy as well. Well, at that time Audrey was
only about 17 and 1/2 years old, plus he was plagued
with that baby face. And immediately the recruiters
recognized that he's too young. He tries Marines. They virtually laugh him out. He has visions of
joining the paratroopers. Well, that never works out. So finally, he is-- just simply run off, in
essence, and he doesn't join. NARRATOR: But the army said,
come back when you're 18, son, and he did. On July 9, 10 days
after his 18th birthday, carrying a letter from
his sister Corrine that said he was old
enough, Audie Murphy left Farmersville and
hitchhiked to Greenville, took a bus for Dallas,
passed his physical, and swore an oath to
serve his country. He was in the army. Audie took to
soldiering very quickly. He excelled at bayonet training,
and received the highest rating, even though
he was hardly bigger than the weapon he was holding. Shooting from a sitting
position, he was very good, but like a gunslinger
out of the Old West, he was better on the move. Training finally finished. On February the 8th, 1943, Audie
left with a convoy of troop ships and escort destroyers,
bound for North Africa. MAN (VOICEOVER): "We were
on the Hawaiian skipper, a big, old troop ship,
and real high seas. There was about 7,000 guys
thrown up for about 11 days, including Murph." [music playing] NARRATOR: Audie was assigned
to Company B, the 15th Infantry Regiment 3rd Division. The 15th regiment was known
as the "Can-Do Regiment." And so Murphy became a part of-- I don't know if
it's ironic or what, but one of the best fighting
men to ever come long is placed in one of the
best fighting regiments NARRATOR: Audie arrived too late
to see any action in Africa, but his division would continue
months of strenuous training to prepare them for
the battles to come, under the brilliant and stern
leadership of General Lucian Truscott. When the 3rd left for
the invasion of Sicily, they were in prime
physical condition. Audie Murphy waded to the
shores of Sicily, scared and seasick, around 5:00
AM, on July the 10th, 1943. He witnesses his first
experience with death. A fellow member of B Company is
blown to bits before his eyes. He hid his emotions
from the others, and seemed to be
removed, indifferent. Sometimes he covered up, and
he didn't show his emotions. But we all know that he did have
emotions, like the rest of us. After all, he was human. And maybe-- maybe all of us felt
that way to some degree, that, don't get too close,
you might lose him. NARRATOR: A short time later,
during the battle, two unnerved Italian cavalry officers
attempted to escape on their great white horses. Audie dropped to the kneeling
position, fired his M1 rifle twice. The officers fell
to the ground, dead. Later, Audie wrote
of that experience MAN (VOICEOVER): "Now I
have shed my first blood. I feel no qualms, no
pride, no remorse. There's only a weary
indifference that will follow me throughout the war." NARRATOR: Indifferent
or not, Audie continued to grow as a soldier. These early
experiences in Sicily were shaping him to become one
of the great combat infantry leaders. [explosions] The 3rd hit the beaches of
Salerno, the longest and most detested campaign
of World War Two. It lasted from September
of 1943 until June of 1944. Murph had earned the respect
of his comrades in B Company, and had begun to advance
through the ranks. He was now Corporal
Audie L. Murphy. He had survived his first
campaign without a scratch, but said, MAN (VOICEOVER): "The
Sicilian campaign has taken some of the
vinegar out of my spirits. I have seen war as it actually
is, and I do not like it." [music playing] NARRATOR: But Audie continued
to be the excellent soldier, as the 3rd Division continued
its slow advance through Italy. Winter came without
warning, more formidable than the enemy itself. The men survived in little
holes they had hacked out of the rock and frozen earth. It was almost as if he had
been created for combat. His instinctive
reaction to every sound, his ability to slip
up on an objective, came from his youthful
hunting days in Texas. And his understanding
of terrain, and his deadliness with weapons,
were among his great assets. He would look at
the terrain features and try to figure out where the
enemy might be dug in or hiding behind boots in a
sunken road, in a ditch, in the village street
fighting situation. Audie had a peculiar walk. It wasn't-- it was a
slight bent-over walk. And it reminds me of someone
slipping up on an object, slipping up on game,
whatever that game might be. Being quiet and concerned
about what he was after. It was sort of a
crouch of his own. That might have saved
his life a lot of times. NARRATOR: For the
next two years, Audie Murphy was in combat
virtually all of the time, in Italy, southern France,
Alsace, and Germany. He would be wounded three
times, and each time he would return to the front,
his fighting spirit intact. Legendary acts of heroism
have been immortalized by writers and poets
since the Olympian tales of ancient Greece. Was Audie Murphy mythological? Were his acts beyond
reason and understanding? Was he a favorite of the gods? MAN (VOICEOVER): "He
was just a fugitive from the law of averages." Bill Malden, World
War II cartoonist [music playing] NARRATOR: Years later, when he
and his friend and mentor, Spec McClure, visited a gravesite
on a beach in southern France, he told Spec that every
time he moved into combat, it felt as if someone
had stuck their cold hand into his intestines, and
twisted them into knots. But he always managed
to conquer his fear. One of Audie's
first engagements, which eventually resulted
in his receiving a medal, was when he and
several individuals attempted, and did successfully,
destroy a German tank. And from that action, he would
receive his first Bronze Star, with V for valor. He was to receive a second
Bronze Star for overall conduct and action, not only in Anzio,
but in the Salerno fighting as well. NARRATOR: On January 22,
1944, under the dim light of a crescent moon began the
Allied amphibious assault on Anzio, just 35 miles from
the capital city of Rome itself. As the invasion began and
met with little resistance, Audie Murphy was in
a Naples hospital with a temperature
of 105 degrees. He said he lacked the guts
to be thought of as a coward, and refused to go
to sickbay at first, but was ordered to do so, and
he missed the landing at Anzio. On the fourth day, 18,000
vehicles and 70,000 men were packed on the beach,
when the Germans struck. [gunfire] There was almost total
destruction and death on the beach of what was
now dubbed "Bloody Anzio." When Audie Murphy arrived with
other men who had been released from the hospital, he learned
that his close friend Joe Sieja had been killed, literally
vaporized by a German artillery burst. MAN (VOICEOVER): "That death
awaits, there's no debate. No triumph will we reap. The crosses grow on Anzio,
where Hell is six feet deep." Audie Murphy, "To
Hell and Back." NARRATOR: Audie was deeply
affected by Joe Sieja's death, and years later, he would be
one of two people to whom Audie would dedicate his book
"To Hell and Back." the other was Lattie Tipton. Audie wrote, "If there
be any glory in war, let it rest on men like these." They were quite
close, Lattie and Audie. And where you saw one,
you saw the other, in amphibious training,
in combat, whatever. They were very close together NARRATOR: In June
of 1944, Rome fell. The 3rd division had at last
reached the capital, which Murphy, along with most, thought
was of little military value. The Germans had
retreated with their army and supplies intact, meaning
that the war in Italy would not be short. Audie Murphy, who by
now had been promoted to the rank of sergeant,
wrote to a friend in Texas. MAN (VOICEOVER): "It
isn't so bad here now. I have had two passes to
Rome, but was disgusted with the place. It's nothing like I expected. I wonder if Paris will
be a disappointment too. Hope I get to go to France,
since I came this far I may as well see them all." NARRATOR: Sergeant Murphy's
wish would soon be granted. Once again, he and his
close friend Lattie Tipton, and the rest of
the 15th Regiment, would take part in an
amphibious landing. Yellow Beach, just
south of St. Tropez, France, was their
jump off point. They met with little
enemy resistance, and quickly advanced inland to
the beginning of a pine forest. Murphy thought it looked
like the perfect place for the Germans to
have machine gun nests. He was right. [gunfire] MICHAEL WEST: Audie
took over a machine gun from a machine gun
crew that refused to move it forward and fire. He took that machine gun and
literally moved forward up the hillside at Ramatuelle and
opened fire on the Germans. Well, in the process of doing
this, his very close friend Lattie Tipton, joins him. And they move up the hill
together and in the process, they kill several Germans and
capture several machine gun positions. Lattie felt like the action
was probably over with. The Germans had had it. And so he would move up
and secure any prisoners. Well, when he did that,
he was immediately struck by machine gunfire. NARRATOR: He fell back
into Audie's arms, said, Murph, and died. At that point for the
first time, Audie lost it. They simply reacted on
adrenaline and gut reactions of attacking. Aggressive action, he took it. He picks up grenades, he
finishes off the Germans, he grabs a German
machine gun, he continues to fire on the Germans
that are still on the hill, and in the process, he
secures the position virtually single-handed. That was one of the few
times that he openly admitted to ever crying. Once was at his mother's
death, another time was at the death
of Lattie Tipton. Audie was suffering
tremendously because of Lattie Tipton's death. He felt a great loss, and
I'm sure he felt, who can I find that would replace him? And I'm sure he felt about
Lattie Tipton's family, back in the States. And all of this had
an effect on him NARRATOR: After
Lattie's death, Audie received the Distinguished
Service Cross, second only to the Medal of Honor. He continued to care for his
men, and lead with great skill, but he did not
wish to know them. Let them fall face
down if they must die. Do not roll them over so that
I can see their faces, he said. In a period of five months
after Lattie's death, Audie reluctantly accepted
a battlefield commission to second lieutenant,
and along with the DSC, won the Silver Star twice, and
would be wounded three times. The final serious
wound came shortly after he had received
his commission. Audie remembered a fellow
soldier had once joked. MAN (VOICEOVER): "Hey, Murph,
if you take a commission I hope you get your ass shot off." [music playing] Murphy had been
hit in the hip, and the medics had gotten
a litter up there, walking up there to that ridge top. It was a heavily forested ridge. The [inaudible] had stopped. They got him on the stretcher. And he had two prisoners. One of them was a little short
Kraut and the other was taller, and I think the tolerance
with the artillery observer. And he had both of them
walk in front of him. He wasn't bleeding very bad. And he was prodding
him prisoners along and he'd make them carrying
the radio with him. And I said, Murphy I
hope you can stay back. Good luck to you. And you know, he got
a grin that gets you, you know, grin and a happy
grin, a baby face grin. And I really didn't expect to
see him again back in combat. NARRATOR: Technical
Sergeant Albert Pyles thoughts, while caring,
were not to be fulfilled. Lieutenant Murphy
would return to combat for one final heroic act,
for which he would win the Congressional Medal
of Honor and the respect and love of the United States
of America, for at a time. But time is a fleeting thing Audie's wound had been
unattended in the field and had developed gangrene. Nine inches of dead flesh
was cut from his right hip. Ironically, this
disability would keep him from entering West Point to earn
his rank in the regular Army. He fell deeply in
love with his nurse but she managed to resist the
handsome young lieutenant. She had coaxed too many
others back to health, only to find that they were
later killed in combat. And returned to combat is
exactly what Lieutenant Audie Leon Murphy did. January 26, 1945 was to be his
day of destiny in the Colmar pocket of France. Now commanding B Company,
Lieutenant Murphy ordered his men to fall back. It was not really a
company, only about 30 or so was still alive. He remained online to direct
artillery fire down on the six advancing German tanks and the
250 infantry foot soldiers. He was connected by field
phone with Lieutenant Walter Weispfenning, the US
artillery forward observer. MAN (VOICEOVER): "Then
I saw Lieutenant Murphy do the bravest thing that I have
ever seen any man do in combat. Standing alone on top of
a burning tank destroyer, he raked the approaching enemy
force with machine gun fire. Twice the tank destroyer
was hit by artillery fire and Lieutenant Murphy was
enveloped in clouds of smoke and spurts of flame. Fighting alone against
overwhelming odds, he smashed a powerful
assault, enabling his regiment to hold ground that was won
at a heavy cost of blood." NARRATOR: For this incredible
act of bravery, which caused the German
counterattack to fail, Audie Murphy received
a Legion Of Merit, and the highest honor
the United States could bestow, the
Congressional Medal of Honor. He was promoted to
first lieutenant, and in July of
1945 was sent home a national hero, with
his beaming face adorning the cover of Life magazine. After the celebrations, and
the parades, and the speeches, Audie returned to Farmersville
to ponder his future. But now it was time for
someone to do something for Audie Murphy. Unbelievably, a telegram arrived
from movie star James Cagney, inviting Audie to Hollywood,
all expenses paid. What the admiring readers of
Life Magazine could not know, Cagney included, was that
Audie was already suffering from symptoms of combat fatigue,
Post-traumatic Stress Syndrome. This would haunt him for
the rest of his life. Cagney was concerned when
he saw how thin and worn the young hero was. Cagney put him in
the guest house and just let him do
what he wanted to do. Working in the garden,
that sort of thing, so that he began to fill out a
bit and lost that awful green look. Toward the end of 1945, Cagney
who had an independent film company, asked him to sign
a contract for $150 a week, providing he went to
school and allowed himself to be instructed in
acting techniques. Audie Texas accent was so
thick that Cagney could hardly understand him at first. So Audie joined the Actor's Lab. There he worked on
Sense Memory Exercises, managed to tame his
accent somewhat, and lost his hunting
stance kind of movement. During his time with Cagney,
he was loaned to Paramount, and played a bit part as a
West Point cadet in a picture called Beyond Glory, which
starred Alan Ladd and Donna Reed. He had exactly eight
words to speak. Seven more than I
could handle, he said with a smile and
his customary modesty. Cagney's company was
not very productive. So in 1947 he was
forced to release Audie from his contract. Thus began a bleak period
in Hollywood for Murph. Living on his army
disability and unemployed, he lived in a gymnasium owned
by Terry hunt, an admirer. Audie would frequently
box in Terry's gym to relieve his boredom
and sense of failure. BUDD BOETTICHER: There
was a boxing ring there. And this young man, who weighed
about 145 with a baby face, was the only one who
wanted to box with me. And he would try to
lick me every day, and I'd have to belt him once
in a while to keep him in line. And it was a big difference in
our size and in our Strength So after about the 20th day of
this, he came in the steam bath with me, the first time I'd
ever seen him without his boxing trunks on. I didn't know who
the hell it was, and I looked and he
didn't have any hip. So we finished our steam
bath and I went outside, and I said to Terry,
[inaudible],, I said, who the hell is the kid
I box with every day. He said, I thought you knew. It's Audie Murphy. So that's how we met. And he had been in the war. And I fell in love with
him, he was just a great guy NARRATOR: Encouraged
by his new girlfriend, rising starlet Wanda
Hendricks, and urged on by gossip columnist Hedda
Hopper's legman, David "Spec" McClure Audie decided to
stick it out in Hollywood. McClure, a combat
veteran himself, was furious when he learned that
a Congressional Medal of Honor winner was living in a gym, and
decided he would help change things Audie. And he did. Because of Spec's connection
with Hedda Hopper, Audie landed a small part in the
film Texas Brooklyn And Heaven, and later won the lead in the
Allied Artists film "Bad Boy." Universal International
saw "Bad Boy" and thought he was
talented enough, and signed him up to play the
lead in The Kid From Texas. His career was off and running. Audie and Wanda were
married on January 8th 1949. It was doomed to fail. The fan magazines thought it
was a romance made in Heaven, but Wanda knew the Hell
that Audie suffered nightly, as he called out the names of
his dead buddies in his sleep, and continued to fight the war. He often slept with a
pistol under his pillow. Audi's career was working. Universal signed him to
a seven year contract. And with Spec McClure
ghostwriting and prodding Audie to recall his war adventures,
Audie's autobiography, To Hell And Back, was
published to great success. But his marriage to
Wanda was not working. Audie divorced Wanda
Hendricks in 1951. It was not too long after that,
that he married Pamela Archer. Young stewardess worked
out of Dallas, Texas. They were married, achieved
a degree of stability. I think much of that stability
lies with his wife Pamela. I think she gave him
that degree of stability. NARRATOR: In 1951 came one of
the masterpieces of casting of that time. The great director John Houston,
over the screaming protests of MGM executives,
selected Audie Murphy to play the leading role
of the youth in the film that would be based on Stephen
Crane's novel of the Civil War, "The Red Badge Of Courage." Houston explained
that he felt there was a thin line between
being a hero and a coward. When he encountered
Audie on the set, he said, are you excited, kid? Audie was very
quiet then replied, MAN (VOICEOVER): "Well
after the war and all, there's not too much of anything
left that really excites me." NARRATOR: Houston was disturbed
by his lack of response but was still able to get one
of Audie best performances down on film. The critics agreed. Another inspired
piece of casting was Bill Malden, the famous
World War two cartoonist, creator of Up Front. Bill played the part
of the Loud Soldier. He and Audie formed a mutual
admiration society that lasted until the end of Audie's life. The picture was not
a financial success and though the critics
were kind to Audie, he returned to what the public
thought he did best, Western. [gunshots] Cut. Print that one. NARRATOR: The movie-goers
loved Audie as a gunslinger. Jimmy made a good
fall, didn't he? He's a good boy.
Good night Audie. Goodnight Here's your call
for tomorrow, Audie. Should wind up the picture 5:30 in the morning? Thanks, Al. You wanted to be an actor [music playing] The natural thing was to
go to pictures, which he did, and he was a wonderful actor. And even the pictures
that we made together, the first one I
did at Universal, "Cimarron Kid," he
was very, very good. NARRATOR: In 1955,
Universal International decided they would make a
film of Audie's autobiography, "To Hell and Back." At first, Audie said he
would not play himself in the picture. He didn't want anyone to think
that he had come to Hollywood to cash in on the medals
he had won at great cost, and felt that the
real heroes were still there in the grounds of Europe. He suggested that Tony Curtis
would be good for the part. But reason prevailed
and incredibly, Audie Murphy played
himself in To Hell And Back and relived his
wartime experiences in front of the camera
to appreciative and filled-to-capacity audiences. to Hell And Back proved to
be the highest grossing film that Universal International
had ever made up to that time and Audie share of the take
came to about $400,000 dollars. This time, even though
money in the past had slipped through his
fingers like grains of sand, he wisely invested his
profit into real estate, and bought a horse ranch and
began to raise quarter horses. He bought an
airplane, and learned to be an excellent pilot. He loved being able to
get to his ranch, quickly. He was beginning to become
financially successful but he still was haunted by the
dreams by-- by combat. It was still with him. And as is quite often the case
with a lot of men who have been in combat, they have wagered the
greatest possession they have, and that's their lives. Anything else other than that
really doesn't mean much. Money didn't mean
that much to Murphy in terms of having
to accumulate it. And another thing he
got into was gambling. He lost large sums of money. Gambling had gotten
the best of Audie. And by the end of his life,
perhaps, he'd lost $3 million. NARRATOR: At the
moment, he seemed to be a man who had everything,
an adoring wife and two sons. The oldest, Terry, had been
named after Terry Hunt, Audie's benefactor from the boxing days. And the youngest, James
Shannon, was called Skipper. He was still grinding out a
couple of successful pictures a year for Universal,
and in 1962, he started to write lyrics for
country and Western music with Scott Turner. Shutters And Boards was a big
hit, and over 60 versions of it were recorded. And of course he remained
a great hero to most. But as F Scott Fitzgerald
wrote, show me a hero and I'll show you a tragedy. In 1960, Audie worked for John
Houston for the last time. He accepted a co-starring role
in "The Unforgiven," which starred Burt Lancaster
and Audrey Hepburn. The picture did not do well,
in spite of good reviews, in particular for Audie. And so it was back to Universal. Audi's gambler's
luck was running out. In 1962, after 14 years
of starring roles, he was released
from his contract with Universal International. He continued to make money by
working in lower budget films and by going on remote
and distant locations. He was suffering more
and more from the effects of Post-traumatic
Stress Syndrome. He said he hadn't been able
to sleep for seven years, and used a supposedly
non-addictive drug called Placidyl, which gave him
about four hours of badly needed sleep a night. He was hooked. People who saw him during
the day thought he was drunk. Truth is, Audie rarely, if
ever, drank and never smoked. He told his friend Spec McClure
that he had locked himself up in a hotel room, and for five
days and nights had fought withdrawal symptoms
from the drug. He said he'd rather have cancer
than go through it again. But he was the victor. The drug was defeated. Only, he continued to gamble. It was the only thing that
seemed to bring him to life, win or lose. By 1967, he had sold
his ranch and his plane and moved to a nice
house in North Hollywood. Pamela converted
the double garage into living quarters for
Audie, with everything a man could ask for. If he wanted to be
alone, he could. If he wanted to join the
family, he simply open a door and walk into the living room. But he spent a lot of
time just lying in bed. And he continued to
carry his .45 Automatic. I carry it for protection
and therapy, he said. "A Time For Dying," written and
directed by Budd Boetticher, was the last picture
Audie would make. Audie produced the film and
played the part of an older Jesse James. He called me one day. And he said, I'm sitting here
with my .45, the pictures in good shape, don't
worry about a thing I'm going to blow my brains out. And I had two seconds. And I said that's really great. He said, what do you mean. I said, why don't you do that. He said, what do you mean. I said, do it for every kid in
the country who thinks you're the greatest fellow
who ever lived. That'll make everybody
in the United States, go ahead and pull the trigger. He said, you son of a
bitch, and then he hung up. NARRATOR: Of course Audie
didn't pull the trigger and his appearance in A Time For
Dying was brief but excellent. We just came through there
and I got a feeling trouble's brewing. Now, the reason I spent
this time talking to you is, I think you're going to be
about as happy being a farmer as I would have been. NARRATOR: Unfortunately
the film was never released in the United States. Financially, it was a
difficult time for Audie. Audie didn't understand
how the wars of Hollywood were fought. They didn't play by the rules
and he thought most of them were a bunch of phonies. The German Army couldn't do it. It took the top of a
mountain, and a plane crash to finally kill him. But long before, that he had
been nibbled to death by ducks. Bill Malden, admirer and friend. NARRATOR: On May 28th,
1971, A Time For Dying was to become reality. A blue and white
twin engine plane, the colors of the 3rd
Division, lifted off from Atlanta, Georgia, and
headed toward Martinsville, Virginia. Aboard was America's most
decorated soldier, looking for a way back, and
businessmen, who were looking into the
possibility of investing with Audie, in a
prefabricated housing firm. The pilot, whose instrument
rating was questionable, radioed Roanoke that
he was in weather and would land in
about 20 minutes. That was the last anyone heard. That night my husband's
aunt called me and she said, Nadene, she said, have you
been watching the news? And I said, no, I hadn't
turned the television on since I got home. And she said,
well, listen honey. A plane has crashed and
they think Audie is on it. NARRATOR: On the afternoon
of Monday, May 31st, 1971, the plane was located. It had crashed on a mountaintop
some 20 miles from Roanoke, Virginia. Audie Murphy was dead. America's most decorated
soldier was gone I just-- I mean it, hurt bad
because I've lost a friend, I mean a dear friend. And I just wondered,
what in the world he was doing up there with
one of them little planes to start with. I did-- I never did
understand that. [music playing] After I found out that the
funeral would be at Arlington, I made plans to go. I felt almost like
a loss of Audie. . I had wished him well when
he was wounded in the Mortain Forest, and I felt a
loss, a personal loss. God, he got to a war, and
then killed in a plane crash, how tragic. He had a lot of
living to do yet, see? [music playing] NARRATOR: His acts of heroism
are reflected in the film To Hell And Back, in
which he played himself. A movie critic made this
startling observation of Audie's performance. For a nervous moment, one
glimpses in the figure of this child-like man, the
soul-chilling ghosts of all the men-like children
of those violent years. Who hovered among battles
like avenging cherubs, and knew all about death before
they knew very much about life. [music playing] Those tombstones are perfect,
in a perfect row anywhere you stand. It was a beautiful place. And yes, I understand
that he was there once, and said he would like
to be there, you know. And he is. [music playing] NARRATOR: Audi's
battalion commander, Colonel Kenneth B.
Potter, a witness to his Congressional Medal
of Honor action, wrote, I never knew a better soldier. Audie's acts of
bravery are legend. He never asked his men to do
something he would not or could not do himself. In combat, he was never a
follower, but a leader of men. To his buddies, Audie earned and
deserved every award given him. Hero he was, and hero
shall he remain, forever.
