The Big Story

Man Who Wanted What He Couldn't Have

English · True Crime, Radio

This episode of The Big Story recounts the murder of Jack Stallings, a recently discharged Navy serviceman who was on his way to marry his girlfriend, Joann West. The story follows reporter Cluster Nilsson’s efforts to pursue the case with police after Stallings’s body was found in an irrigation canal.

The account traces the search for Elisco Mares, Jr., who shot Stallings and took his car, and his arrest when he tried to sell it in Ogden. It also describes Mares’s conviction, subsequent appeals, and failed prison escape attempt before his execution by firing squad in September 1951.

The Big Story was a dramatic radio series built around newspaper reporting and the journalists who uncovered major crimes and other newsworthy events. Its episodes bring the work of reporters into the foreground, presenting investigations as tense, fact-based stories shaped by persistence, police cooperation, and the pursuit of a lead.

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.