The afternoon of December 11th, 1946, was a cold and wet one in McKinney, Texas. A petty hoodlum named John Thomas Daniels was on the prowl for easy prey. His plan was to put out his thumb to hitchhike, then rob the Good Samaritan driver who stopped to give him a ride. A military veteran who stood 6 foot 2 and weighed 190 pounds, Daniels was big enough – even more so by 1940s post Great Depression standards – to intimidate nearly anyone. He seemed to have hit the jackpot when a car stopped to offer him a ride. The driver was just a kid, a diminutive 5 foot 6 and barely 130 pounds. Unfortunately for Daniels, as seen below, that kid was Audie Murphy, Medal of Honor recipient and America’s most decorated combat soldier of the recently concluded World War II.
A Carjacker Picks the Wrong Victim
As Murphy described what happened: “It was raining like the devil and I thought I would do the fellow a favor. I picked him up and we drove about a mile. Suddenly this guy jammed something into my ribs, slapped me across the mouth and said: ‘I’m the boss now. If you won’t talk, this .45 will. I can use this car’”.
Murphy continued: “I admitted that he was pretty much the boss at that point and we drove about four more miles. He told me to pull into a roadside gasoline station and stop. I did and he took the keys and instructed me to slide along the seat and get out on his side of the car”.
A Well-Deserved Beatdown
Murphy was a highly experienced combat veteran, who could instinctively spot the right moment to pounce. Daniels’ left hand, concealed under an old Army blouse, was jammed against Murphy’s ribs. The war hero grabbed the carjacker’s hand, and discovered that he did not actually have a firearm. So he wound back and unleashed a punch that caused the far bigger assailant to tumble from the car and onto the gas station’s concrete.
The diminutive Murphy then jumped on his assailant, and began to rain punches on him. “We fought all over the place for about 10 minutes,” Murphy said. “He was a pretty big fellow, all right. I finally got him, though”. In the meantime, the gas station owner, unaware of the details or the right and wrong of things, kept telling both men to leave his property.
The fight ended with Daniels unconscious on the ground. Finding no help from the establishment’s uncooperative owner, Murphy ran to another gas station to call the state police from a phone there. By the time he returned to the first station, the would-be carjacker had regained consciousness. He left the scene, and stumbled to the home of a Mrs. Grissom a few hundred yards away.
John Thomas Daniels was scuffling with Mrs. Grissom and demanding that she give him fresh clothes to replace his torn and bloody garments, when Murphy, now accompanied by a state patrolman, subdued him once again, and Daniels was arrested. The would-be carjacker faded into history, but the memory of Audie Murphy continues to shine on.
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Some Sources & Further Reading
Dallas Morning News, December 11th, 1946 – War Hero Handy With His Fists, Hijacker Discovers
History Halls – American Tanks of World War II: The M3 Stuart Light Tank
Simpson, Harold B. – Audie Murphy, American Soldier (1975)
