Sam Buffington starred as Luke Slaughter, a Civil War cavalryman who turned to cattle ranching in post war Arizona territory near Fort Huachuca.
Sam Buffington enacted the title role on Luke Slaughter of Tombstone, another of CBS's prestigious adult Westerns. The series was produced and directed by William N. Robson, one of radio's greatest dramatic directors was aired from February 23 through June 15, 1958. Buffington portrayed the hard-boiled cattleman with scripts overseen by Gunsmoke sound effects artist (and sometimes scriptwriter) Tom Hanley.
Each program had an authoritative opening statement: "Slaughter's my name, Luke Slaughter. Cattle's my business. It's a tough business, it's a big business. I got a big stake in it. And there's no man west of the Rio Grande big enough to take it away from me." Junius Matthews was heard as Slaughter's sidekick, Wichita.
In his first adventure, tough-as-nails westerner Luke Slaughter guarantees he will bring a cattle herd to Tombstone despite the threats of rustlers and a spy among the ranks of his cowboys. Like the other CBS radio westerns, HAVE GUN, WILL TRAVEL or FRONTIER GENTLEMAN, this one had plenty of action, the productions were well done and well-acted. LUKE SLAUGHTER was cut short, like a lot of other radio shows, by the steady pressure from TV.
This CBS western series was only a short 16 broadcasts before ending.

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