Before the Oscars, Matthew McConaughey helped catch a killer

The episode featured the 1978 murder of Larry Dean Dickens, a 26-year-old Marine who was killed after confronting Edward Harold Bell. Bell had been evading capture for 14 years when the show aired its dramatization. A viewer recognized the suspect from the broadcast and alerted the authorities, leading to an arrest that ended Bell’s long flight from justice. Bell eventually died in prison in 2019.

McConaughey secured the role through a local casting call while studying at the University of Texas. Producers recall the young actor performing a robust death scene during the Texas shoot, though show co-creator Terry Dunn Meurer noted that his performance has evolved significantly since those early days. Shortly after this television appearance, McConaughey landed his breakout role as David Wooderson in Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused. That performance launched a career that would transition from romantic comedies to an Academy Award-winning dramatic trajectory, highlighted by his work in Dallas Buyers Club and True Detective.