DELETED SCENES 3

Here's a big one--three and a half pages of Sheriff Lou Dillon checking up on Ross Thompson. This he does by telephoning a Chicago number he'd seen in McCoy's black book, which he'd found when checking out his hotel room after his murder. This was changed to Lou finding who he believed to be the real killer, in that same little book. The decision to cut this scene was mostly based on not wanting to introduce yet another character at this late point in the story. Also, it seemed like a ridiculous long-shot that he could somehow find out if Ross was indeed the killer by calling up this number in Chicago. The Chicago thug that's on the other end of the line would have ended up coming all the way down to Big Spring to punish Ross for leaving town and cheating the Syndicate out of their money. Not believable either, too much trouble for a gambling loss. So, I just opted to cut this whole scenario out in the end.