The Big Story

The Ugly Story of a Man

English · Radio, Drama

The Big Story brings newspaper reporting to radio, dramatizing stories drawn from the work of journalists and local newspapers. This episode follows reporter Charles Gleeson of the Willows, California, Journal, whose assignment began as what seemed like a routine report on a forest fire.

The fire broke out in the Mendocino National Forest in July 1953 and became known as the Rattlesnake Fire. A blaze deliberately set by Stanford Pattan spread rapidly, killing a forest ranger and 13 members of a missionary group who were training in the area. More than 500 firefighters worked to contain it. Gleeson’s reporting, initially gathered without even a pencil or paper, became a story carried by the United Press wire service.

The episode turns a local news assignment into a grave account of disaster, investigation, and the human consequences of arson. Its focus on a reporter’s work gives the drama the feel of a story shaped by events and eyewitness reporting, while the tragedy at the center makes for a somber, unsettling listen.

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.