Around Dodge City and in the territory on West, there is just one way to handle the killers and the spoilers, and that's with a U.S. Marshal and the smell of gun smoke.
Gun smoke starring William Conrad, the story of the violence that moved West with young America, and the story of a man who moved with it.
I'm that man, Matt Dillon, United States Marshal, the first man they look for and the last they want to meet. It's a chancey job, and it makes a man watchful and a little lonely.
There's light in her window, Mr. Dillon. She's at home, all right.
Waiting up there here, I guess.
I was kindly hoping she wouldn't be.
Putting it off wouldn't help, any.
It's a bad business, though, anyway. Look at it.
That's not all right. Let's leave the horses here.
Jim Morney got himself a good piece of land out here.
Put in a lot of hard work on it, too.
Yeah.
That you, Jim?
No, ma'am. I'm afraid it's not, ma'am.
I'll show you.
Have you found him?
Yes, I'm long about dark.
Come in, Marshal. Cheers.
Thank you.
Been out since early this morning, Marshal. It might be you'd relish some coffee.
Oh, thanks, ma'am, but we got it right on in the dodge.
First thing Jim always wants when he's been out in the weather all day is a good hot cup of coffee.
I hardly say two words before he gets it.
He was dead, I reckon.
Yes, ma'am.
I know that he wasn't just hurt, or he'd have got back home one way or another.
Jim was like that.
For three days and nights, my mouth kept saying he's alive someplace, but my insides no different.
I know right along he was dead. Jim and me was that close.
I'm sorry about this morning.
Where was he, Marshal?
About three miles north of here, a little gully that branches off a big wash.
He was most likely riding the gullies around a load when his horse threw him.
Other way I figured his foot hung in a stirrup.
He got dragged.
We came out of the horse right afternoon after that we knew what to look for.
I figured he died real fast this morning.
I'm glad to say.
Doc figured the same thing.
Been lightning all evening way off there in the west.
Spring rains about due, I reckon.
Yes, and that's building up to him.
He laying out there in the night somewhere, Marshal?
A doc took him into Dodge, ma'am. We had a buckboard brought.
Doc's sending a woman up from town to stay with you for a while.
That won't be needed.
It ain't that hard.
Lord knows I got a herd growing inside of me by the minute, but I'll learn to make room for it and live with it.
Well, ma'am.
You know it's been strong, Jim and me.
First folks, he called it, with their feet in the ground like the roof, drawing strength out of the land.
The Marshall Jim didn't die by no accident.
He was done for in cold blood.
What do you mean by that?
A neighbor fellow over there west covets our land, Burl Alban.
I reckon he covets me, too, the way he acted.
Took to calling me Harry a while back instead of Mrs. Morney.
Jim took a fist to him over that.
But Jim was dragged and then kicked to death by his horse this morning.
I know different, Marshall.
Jim and me were that close.
The Lord ought to strike Burl Alban with lightning for what he'd done.
Or maybe he will, if I helped some.
What are you going to do?
I don't rightly know, Marshall.
Not before I think on it.
I've got to lay down and think and listen a long time, maybe.
And finally I'll know.
Jim and me were that close.
...
Oh, for heaven's sakes, Matt, have you gone clean out of your mind?
I need to think so, Doc.
Well, that's the biggest piece of poppycock I've ever heard of.
It sounds different, though, when you hear her say it.
I don't care who says it.
Matt, you saw Jim Morney's body, same as I did, and all the marks on it.
What did it look like to you?
Like he'd been dragging his horse and kicked into death.
And that's exactly what happened to him.
Then she'd go over the body again like I asked you to this morning.
Oh, man, that'd done nothing else all day but to go over it.
Only I sure figured you must have some better reason for asking
than just the wild ravings of a widow that's half out of her mind with grief.
Harriet Morney's not the kind to go out of her mind or even half out of it, Doc.
I don't know about that.
Those strong ones fool you sometimes, Matt.
They break up inside instead of on the surface.
Yeah, maybe.
Not that Burrow Halbin isn't capable of murder, in my opinion.
He's sneaky at a catamount.
But come on, Matt, he sure couldn't teach a man's horse to throw him
and then to kick him to death.
No, I guess not.
Yes, not. My golly, you're still half convinced.
No, but she's so sure, Doc. It's not just a matter of suspicion.
She knows, and the way she says it gets you to wonder if maybe she could be right.
Maybe Burrow Halbin has had his eye on the Morney farm,
but so have a lot of other people more than likely.
It's mighty good land, you know.
And then, too, last fall, Halbin got out of line with Mrs. Morney,
and Jim had to knock some sense into it.
Yeah, I heard about it.
But it doesn't change the fact that Jim Morney was kicked to death by his horse.
It's plain fact against a widow woman's family.
All right, Doc, all right. I won't argue with you.
Well, that's good, that's good. Then go to good night's sleep and forget it.
I said I wouldn't argue with you about it. I didn't say I'd forget it.
[♪music playing and children laughing in the background.
I guess about any place that seems cozy like tonight, Chester.
I'm sure people just like chickens, ain't they? Comes up a shower and they go scootin' underneath the house,
shakin' their tail feathers.
How funny often seem to have scooted in here.
Sam and Kitty will make more out of this rain than the farmers.
Yeah, they're good times for me.
What is it, Mr. Dillon?
Burrow Halbin's standing over there at the farm.
I've been wanting to talk to him.
What about?
Jim Morney's death.
Oh, I thought you forgot all about that. He's been too weak now.
I can walk through any harm, Chester. I'll be back in a minute.
Just go to dog walk and get pretty.
Matt, you've been so busy, I didn't even know you were here.
I just came in a minute ago. How are you, Kitty?
Oh, I haven't had time to stop and find out.
I haven't been such a mob in here since the Santa Fe Finny, building the railroad.
It's a good business, though.
Yeah.
I've got to see a fellow over there at the bar, Kitty, so we'll have a drink.
Sure, Matt. I'll join you later.
All right.
Evening, Burrow.
Oh, Marshal.
Well, let me buy you a drink.
I already got one, thanks.
How are things going?
No complaints, Marshal.
Has the rain ought to do you some good, huh?
Some.
Coming a mite early, though.
Uh-huh.
I understand that you've been trying to buy up the Morny place, Burrow.
I made a fair offer. Didn't get nowhere, though.
Danny, a fool woman, thinks she can run that farm alone. She's got another thing to come.
She thinks that's what she were counting on, man.
About Morny getting killed.
Uh, yeah. I know what she thinks, all right.
What she's been saying.
It doesn't go along very well with her husband, does it, Burrow?
I didn't get along with him at all.
But the fact remains, Marshal.
He was throwed, dragged, kicked to death by his own horse.
Yeah. A Les Marnay doesn't put much stock in facts.
You're going to have to take that woman away one of these days.
Mr. Villain. Mr. Villain, could I see him alone?
Excuse me. Yeah, sure, sure.
Now, what is it, Chester?
The Hopkins boy just rode in with Mr. Dunne.
This morning, Sandy. What for?
She wants you to come out there tonight, right away.
What?
She told the Hopkins boy to say she's found our crowd to make the lightning strike.
All right, then we'll go right away.
I declare by us anywhere, I just think, start to melt and run.
You're never satisfied, Chester. Two months from now it'll be the dust.
If there's a week in between, though, it'll be nice.
I'll watch for it.
Oh, she really has lost her mind.
I don't know, Chester.
Come in.
All right, Chester.
You have done this morning.
Marshal, Chester.
How are you, ma'am?
Pull up chairs and steps. Go say it.
Thank you, ma'am.
I'm already sorry to have to bring you out in this, but when happenings choose their own time, the body can't alter them.
That wasn't a bad ride, man. The storms let up a lot.
Didn't it rain this afternoon, though?
It was a real cloudburst for a while.
Come down in buckets out here. The big wash out there was running banks full for an hour or was up.
That was quite a rain.
Stumps and tree limbs, brush, I don't know what all come washing down.
Kept snagging up and jamming their back of the corral.
I had to go tripping out every 20 minutes and work it loose so the water wouldn't back up and flood the barn.
That's a lot of work for a woman running a place like this alone.
For some woman, maybe.
But I'm strong, like I told you. One of the Earth's folks.
There's still a limit.
Marshal, I was made to go out there to that wash today.
That's why the storm was and the branches snagging up.
I don't understand.
Well, Jim was Earth's folks, too.
Ten days ago, I'd given back to the Earth.
After the ceremony that day, I stood up there on Boothill and I talked to Jim.
I asked for him and the Earth to get together to give me a sign, to let me know what to do.
Well, today has happened.
This morning the Hawkins boys said something about lightning striking.
It ain't struck yet, Marshal, but it's ready to.
I want to show you something I pulled out of that brisk wood in the wash this afternoon.
It was buried, shallow-like, up on one of the gullies.
I maybe just throw it into a thicket left.
Anyhow, the rain fetched it down to me.
There's just a limb off a mulberry tree.
That's not a limb. That's a club.
Look at the other end of it, Chester.
My gracious sake.
Yeah.
I figure he might have roped Jim off his horse or maybe he caught him on foot.
Anyway, it looks like that's what he used.
So he beat him to death with a club.
But a horseshoe nailed on the end of it.
Mr. Dillon?
Come on in, Chester. Shut the door.
He's coming, Mr. Dillon, right down the street there.
Yeah, I know. I saw him from the window.
I can't figure what he's been doing. He rode into town a half hour ago.
He's had a couple of drinks, I guess. He doesn't know why I sent for him. He's worried.
You gonna leave that club laying right on the table, in plain sight?
Yeah. Pull the chairs up around the table, will you?
All right.
But it's curious to me, if he sees that club, get him in the sink, you'll figure out some lie.
It may be, but I'm betting the other way.
All right, sit down over there, Chester. And don't say anything.
And don't pay any attention to that club, huh?
Sure.
Good morning, Marshal.
Oh, come on in, bro.
Yeah.
Well, we sure did have ourselves a fine rain yesterday.
Yeah. Sit down, bro.
Sit down?
Yeah. Sit down.
Well, yeah, sure.
What were you saying about the rain?
The rain? Oh, just, uh, the fine rain, so...
What do you want to see me about, doctor?
You'll know, bro. Chester didn't say nothing except you wanted to see me.
Well, that's not so much to say as hear you, I guess.
Hear me?
Hear me what?
Hear you tell me how you killed Jim Morning.
Jim Morning?
Oh, Christ.
How you beat him to death with a club and made it look like he was thrown and kicked by his horse.
You lie. That woman's lying on me.
This club lying on you, too, buddy.
That ain't the club I took to chew off after.
After you used it. Maybe you just thought you're that burl you dreamed of, murderers not always in his right mind.
No, you ain't gonna do this to me.
You're under arrest for murder.
No, I'll kill you for it.
Don't be a fool. Don't try it, Burl.
You want me to kill you?
No!
He was a fool, Chester. No jury would have convicted him on that kind of evidence.
Seems to me you was kind of a fool not to have done like he claimed.
Ripped that horseshoe off the club after he used it.
He wasn't just claiming he did rip it off.
But there it is right down the table.
Sure, the club Miss Morney made.
Miss Morney?
With a stretchin' chance too far, Chester, to figure that thing would turn up right at her doorstep.
She's not a very good liar, either, not if you watch her eyes.
But why would she do a thing like that?
She was hoping for just what happened, that Burl would be thrown off balance enough to give himself away.
But how could she know that's how he done it?
A woman's intuition or some pretty good guesswork.
Or maybe the Earth, told her, Chester.
The Earth?
Better go find Doc and get him over here. He's gonna have to make out a coroner's report.
I'll be right back.
Gun Smoke, produced and directed by Norman MacDonald, stars William Conrad as Matt Dillon, U.S. Marshal.
Featured in the cast were Marley Bear as Chester, Howard McNear as Doc, and Georgia Ellis as Kitty.
George Waltz speaks.
Join us again next week for another specially transcribed story on Gun Smoke.
Thank you.