Little-Known Facts: Before McCloud, There Was Tex Larimee

“I’m on my way to New York, and I’m here to tell you right now that if any of these greenhorns tries to pull anything on Tex Larimee, they’ll have to talk it over with Judge Colt first.” —Tex Larimee, “The Slickers” (1936)

So begins “The Slickers,” the story at the heart of this edition of our Little-Known Facts series, where we uncover fascinating moments from L. Ron Hubbard’s fiction that reveal unexpected connections to popular culture and the history of storytelling.

How a 1936 Sheriff Rode into New York Decades Before Television’s Most Famous Western Lawman

For millions of television viewers, Sam McCloud was the unforgettable Western lawman who brought frontier instincts to the streets of New York City. Riding into Manhattan in cowboy boots and a Stetson, the New Mexico deputy marshal solved crimes with common sense, quiet confidence, and the experience of a man who had spent his life on the frontier.

But more than three decades before television audiences first met Sam McCloud, readers had already met another Western sheriff under remarkably similar circumstances.

His Name Was Tex Larimee

Readers first encountered Tex in the September 1936 issue of Detective Fiction Weekly, in L. Ron Hubbard’s short story “The Slickers.” Sheriff of Cactus County, Arizona, Tex boards a train bound for New York after receiving an urgent message from his old friend John Temple, a wealthy copper magnate who fears for his life.

Within hours of stepping off the train at Pennsylvania Station, Tex has been robbed of his wallet, his sheriff’s badge, and his beloved Colt .45. He’s dismissed by skeptical policemen, locked in the back room of a run-down bar, and by the time he finally reaches John Temple’s hotel room, he finds his friend lying dead in a pool of blood. Before the day is over, Tex himself is under arrest for murder.

It sounds like the opening of a television crime drama.

Except it wasn’t written for television.

It was published in 1936.

Throughout the story, Tex rarely seems flustered. Faced with one bewildering situation after another, his understated response is often the same:

“Beats hell…”

It perfectly captures his calm determination—and his refusal to let New York get the better of him.

Faced with a city that underestimates him at every turn, he relies not on gadgets or modern police methods, but on sharp observation, experience, and the common sense that made him sheriff in the first place.

Does This Combination Sound Familiar?

In 1970, NBC introduced television audiences to McCloud, starring Dennis Weaver as Sam McCloud, a deputy marshal from Taos, New Mexico, assigned to the New York City Police Department.

McCloud was, like Tex Larimee, a Western lawman dropped into the noise, pressure, and procedure of New York City. He was underestimated by urban detectives, questioned by superiors, and often viewed as a relic from another world. Yet time and again, his frontier instincts allowed him to see what others missed.

The resemblance is striking: a Western lawman in New York, surrounded by city police who do not quite know what to make of him, solving crimes through practical experience rather than big-city procedure.

But before McCloud, there was another important stop on the trail.

The Movie in Between: Coogan’s Bluff

Two years before McCloud premiered, Clint Eastwood starred in Coogan’s Bluff, directed by Don Siegel. Eastwood played Walt Coogan, an Arizona deputy sheriff sent to New York City to extradite a fugitive.

Again, the premise turns on the collision between Western directness and urban law enforcement. Coogan is impatient with bureaucracy, skeptical of New York procedure, and determined to handle things his own way.

Film and television history generally traces McCloud back to Coogan’s Bluff. That connection is well established. The earlier appearance of Tex Larimee in “The Slickers” simply extends the timeline in an interesting way.

The Timeline

1936: In “The Slickers” Sheriff Tex Larimee travels from Arizona to New York and becomes caught in murder, robbery, and an elaborate frame-up.

1968: In Coogan’s Bluff Arizona deputy sheriff Walt Coogan arrives in New York to return a fugitive.

1970:  In the McCloud TV series Deputy Marshal Sam McCloud brings Western instincts to the New York City Police Department.

(There is no documented evidence that the creators of Coogan’s Bluff or McCloud were aware of Hubbard’s 1936 story, and no such claim is made here.)

More than three decades before television audiences watched a Western lawman navigate the streets of New York, readers were already following Sheriff Tex Larimee through those same urban canyons.

Whether coincidence, parallel thinking, or simply a timeless premise, it is a remarkable piece of storytelling history.