Around Dodge City and in the territory on west, there's just one way to handle the killers and the spoilers,
and that's with a US 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 chancy job, and it makes a man watchful and a little lonely.
There he is, Matt.
That's Harry Pope at the bar there.
Little short fellow?
Oh, yeah.
Where did you tell me he was from, Kitty?
Boston, or near there.
He's a long way from home.
Well, he told me his wife died and he wanted to move someplace else.
So he came out here about four months ago and built himself a little sod hut out on the prairie.
Planted some corn, and he's trying to raise a few pigs, that's all.
Uh-huh.
You say he's scared to death, huh?
Yeah, that's what he told me.
Well, maybe it's all in his head.
Come on, Matt, walk over with me, huh?
Okay.
Hello, Miss Kitty.
This is Marshal Dillon, Harry Pope.
How are you, Mr. Pope?
Well, nobody ever called me Mr., Marshal.
Oh, all right.
Kitty here tells me that you've been kind of worried lately.
Well, it's the Indians, Marshal.
They come scratching around at night and they hoop and holler some, too.
Oh, tell me, do they do this every night?
No, sir, but maybe once a week they do.
Uh-huh.
What makes you think they're Indians?
Well, I can hear them, that's why.
I've got a good stout door or they'd have been in on me long ago.
Look, Harry, if what you've been hearing was Indians, you'd have been done for a long time ago.
Indians just don't scratch around at night and they don't come whooping and hollering, either.
Now, you've probably heard talk about Indians and you're scared of them.
It's probably your imagination that's done the rest of it.
Oh, sure, they're Indians, all right.
They're right there. I can hear them talking.
Then why don't you shoot them?
Well, I don't have a gun.
Then maybe you better get one.
Man needs a gun out here.
But if I kill any of them, don't you think they'll go after the whole tribe?
Uh, no, Harry, I don't think they will.
Well, all right, Marshall, I'll try it.
Now get me a gun today.
The
Yeah.
See, I nearly forgot, Matt.
Chester said not to wait for him.
He'd have supper later.
Now, what's he doing, Doc?
He's talking.
Talking?
To a girl, Matt.
Pretty girl, too.
And he was doing all the talking when I left.
She just stood there, shaking her head.
Smart girl.
Oh, I don't know, Matt.
Marshall Dillon?
Oh, hello, honeyman.
You know Doc Adams here, Ned Honeyman.
How are you, Doc?
Watch your step.
Yeah.
Marshall, you know that new fella, Harry Pope?
Pope? Yeah, I met him a couple of days ago.
Why?
He killed Joe Carter last night.
He what?
Carter's worked for me a long time.
He was one of the best friends I ever had.
We buried him this morning.
What, did they have a fight?
Pope shot him in cold blood, that's all.
Out near that hut of his.
Blasted Easterner.
I'm looking forward to seeing him hung.
Were you there, honeyman?
No, Earl Brandt was there.
He brought Joe's body back to the ranch.
Brandt works for you, too, doesn't he?
Yeah, but not as long as Joe.
Now tell me what happened.
I did.
Pope murdered Joe Carter.
They were riding by that dirty little sodbusters hut last night,
and he come out and shot Joe and killed him.
Maybe it was a mistake, honeyman.
You don't kill men by mistake, Marshall.
Now are you going to arrest him?
Well, I'll, uh...
I'll ride out there first thing in the morning.
Another visit with Joe and Daphne Forsyte.
Joe?
Joe?
Joe, stop reading that paper and talk to me.
I'm listening, go ahead.
Well, I was talking to Mrs. Snyder today.
You know, she's the one whose boy had 31% less cavities.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
She had 31% less cavities?
Uh-huh.
Well, she thinks that we should buy bigger savings bonds.
Uh-huh.
She says that when people can afford it, it makes more sense.
Oh, she says there are a lot of different denominations.
They start at $25, but then there are a 50, a 100, 200, and even $500 bonds.
Is that so?
And then with the ones we've already bought through the payroll savings plan,
we'd have quite a nest egg.
Uh-huh.
Are you listening to me?
Uh-huh.
Did you know that the total accumulated compounded semi-annual interest
of the Series E savings bond will amount to 93 and a third percent
of the original purchasing price?
Uh-huh.
I thought so.
Joe, what did I say?
Uh, you said that United States savings bonds are a safe, easy way of investing.
I did?
That they help guard our country's freedom.
And?
They're the best investment in America's future.
I said something else, too.
Oh, yeah.
You said that the total accumulated compounded semi-annual interest
of the Series E savings bond will amount to 93 and one third percent
of the original purchase price.
Well, now, how did you do that?
Husband's trade secret.
Hello, Marshal.
Harry.
Well, Marshal, them Indians was back again all right.
Not for last.
But I came outside and shot at them like you said, and they rode off.
I just hope the whole tribe don't come after me now.
Uh, Harry, how many Indians were there?
Just two.
That's all I saw, anyway.
You say you shot at them.
Did you hit them?
I couldn't tell.
It was too dark.
I tried to, though.
Tell me what happened, huh?
Well, sir, I heard him just like before,
but this time they put a couple of shots in my hut there.
I opened the door a little and I heard one riding off right over that way.
I took a couple of shots at him,
and then the other one started shooting at me from somewhere.
So I ducked inside again and waited, but they didn't come back.
They weren't Indians.
You always keep saying that, Marshal, but I know better.
There were two men who worked for Ned Honeyman, one of them, Joe Carter.
You killed.
Earl Brandt was the other man.
He took Carter's body back to the Honeyman ranch.
Oh, my.
I'm afraid you made a bad mistake, Harry.
Oh, but how... how did you know about this, Marshal?
Ned Honeyman told me.
Well, he could be lying.
No, Honeyman has his faults, but lying isn't one of them.
Harry, has there been any trouble between you and these men?
Oh, no, sir, I hardly know them.
Oh, they've written by a few times, that's all,
but I wouldn't have shot at them if I'd known who they was.
Except it... it couldn't have been.
They were shooting at my hut first.
Eh, it just don't make no sense at all.
You gonna arrest me, Marshal?
Look, Harry, the Indians that you've been hearing around your place don't exist.
Indians just don't act that way.
But I believe that you think you've been hearing them.
Now, maybe it's getting worse with you, and...
so the other night you heard those men writing by and you just started shooting.
You think I'm crazy, don't you?
Well, I don't think you intentionally murdered Carter, if that's any help.
Then you... you ain't going to arrest me?
No, I'm not. Not now.
I'm gonna talk to Branton Honeyman.
Well, in the meantime, don't get scared and try to run, Harry.
Because you wouldn't get very far.
All right, Marshal.
Morning, Marshal.
This here is Earl Brand I brought with me.
Marshal?
I figured you'd want Brand's report for the trial.
Me and Carter was good friends.
I aim to see that Yankee sodbuster hung.
All right, Brand, tell me about it.
There's nothing to it, Marshal.
Me and Carter was riding past his place and he come out and started shooting at us.
He killed Carter.
I took a couple of shots at him and drove him back inside that hut of his.
And I packed Carter onto the ranch.
Would you swear to that in court?
Why shouldn't I, Marshal? That little murderer been telling you something else?
Yeah. He thought he was shooting at Indians.
Indians? Why, that miserable dog...
You weren't there, Honeyman. How do you know what happened?
Brand told me what happened. Who else would have shot Carter?
Brand, why do you think Pope shot at you?
Well, I... I don't know, Marshal. He's crazy, I guess.
Is that all?
That's enough, isn't it? He killed Joe Carter. What difference does it make?
The difference between murder and something else.
Well, bring him in here and ask him. I'll beat the truth out of him if he lies.
He isn't here.
What?
I didn't arrest him.
Why not, Marshal?
He said he thought they were Indians and I believe it.
Marshal, no man can kill a friend of mine and claim he thought he was shooting Indians.
Now, if the law won't see justice done, we will.
I'm warning you, Honeyman. You try to kill Pope and I'll arrest you.
And if you do kill him, you'll hang for it.
We're wasting time.
My guess is you and Carter have been hounding that man,
making him think there have been Indians after him. Why?
Are you trying to drive him out of the country?
Your talk gets crazier all the time, Marshal.
For the last time, Marshal.
You gonna do anything about Carter's murder?
It wasn't murder, Honeyman. Don't you see that?
He's dead and Pope shot him. That's all I know.
That's all I need to know.
Come on, Brent.
Another visit with Joe and Daphne Forsythe.
Hey, Honey, I'm home. Daphne.
Drop dead.
Oh, what's the matter, Honey?
That afternoon I rode out to see Pope.
It was a bad situation and I had a lot of thinking about it.
There was only one solution I could figure out and I wasn't sure that that would work.
I found Pope Wheaton a few miserable rows of corn that he planted out in front of his hut.
Well, you told me a lot, Marshal, but I don't understand it all.
Look, Harry, I don't know why they did it,
but Carter and Brent were the Indians that you thought you heard.
I know.
You what?
Well, I figured that you know what Indians are like and that you wasn't lying to me,
so it must have been Carter and Brent.
Oh.
Look, Harry, Honeymoon and Brent want you arrested.
They're threatening to take it into their own hands.
I see.
Listen, you're not going to like this, but, well, it would be better if you left here.
Now, it isn't your fault, but you've got enemies now and you'd be a whole lot safer somewhere else.
No. No, I won't leave.
Let them come. I'll fight it out with them.
That doesn't mean more bloodshed.
Like you said, Marshal, I ain't done nothing wrong.
The man's got a right to defend himself.
I know.
But you won't have any peace here.
I won't leave, Marshal.
All right, Harry.
About thinking over anyway, huh?
I have.
I...I'm sorry about this.
Thank you, Marshal.
So long.
Goodbye.
Hope went back to weeding his corn and I rode off past his little hut and around the narrow bluff he'd built it against.
I'd gone maybe a half a mile beyond when I heard two rifle shots behind me.
I turned and raced back to the bottom edge of the bluff where I dismounted and walked up to where I could see around it.
Just then I heard a horse coming along the trail and I stepped back and waited.
Whoever it was had passed within a few feet of me.
Brian, hold it!
Don't shoot.
Just keep your hands up.
Now throw one leg over and slide off slow.
How long you been here, Marshal?
Turn around.
All right, you can put your hands down now.
I might as well tell you, Marshal.
I just shot that Yankee sodbuster.
Now that's something to be real proud of, Brent.
He killed a friend of mine.
Hope meant no harm to either one of you.
What were you trying to do to him, you and Carter?
We were just having a little fun.
Fun?
Well, we'd have a drink or two and ride over now and then, give him a few war hoops.
He'd just sit in his hut and shake.
One night I sneaked up to the door and I could even hear him crying inside.
He was sure scared that time.
Well, that must have been a lot of fun.
Not as much as next day when we'd ride back and hear all about how the engines was after him.
Yeah.
He'd be all right if he hadn't gone and bought himself a gun.
I advised him to.
You did?
I'm sorry if I spoiled your fun, Brent.
Carter's dead because of you.
Does Honeyman know about this?
I told him I was going to get Pope, he's all.
And he agreed?
Well, he just said he sure hoped somebody'd get him.
All right, Brent, let's go bury him.
I ain't gonna bury him.
Let him rot.
Brent, you will bury him or I'll bury both of you.
Now, you take your choice.
Sure.
It was too late to try to teach Brent anything, but Ned Honeyman was a different matter.
I wanted to be sure he understood what really happened,
otherwise he'd spread the word against me and against the law,
and there were a lot of men who'd be glad to listen to him.
We buried Pope near his little hut and rode on in a dodge.
I kept off Front Street and rode up to the jail from the rear.
Chester told me Honeyman was up at the long branch.
So after Brent was locked up, I went on to the saloon.
Hello, Honeyman.
What do you want, Marshal?
I've been talking to Brent. He's told me the whole story.
Where is he anyway?
He told me that he and Carter had been having fun, as they called it, with the Pope,
making him think they were Indians.
I don't believe it.
But even if they had, is that reason enough to kill a man?
Pope was acting in self-defense. He wouldn't have shot Carter otherwise.
It was a mistake, but Carter brought it on himself.
I don't believe it.
Honeyman, do you want law in this country, or don't you?
Maybe that depends on who's representing it.
That doesn't matter. The law's the same.
The law says you can't kill a man and go free, doesn't it?
It says you can't murder a man.
Who decides which it is, Marshal? You or me?
Well, I'd like you to decide this time, Honeyman.
All right, Marshal.
Go arrest Pope and get him hung.
That's how I decided.
Pope's dead. You wanted him killed. He's been killed.
What do you mean?
You said this morning you'd take justice into your hands, didn't you?
Well, yes, but...
He was outweeding that little patch of corn I hear as he planted,
and he took two rifle bullets in the back.
Who did it?
Are you satisfied, Honeyman? Is that how you wanted it?
Well, I...
All Pope had was a sod hut and a few pigs.
He didn't know what this country was all about.
He might have learned, but your friends got him so scared
that he'd sit in his hut and cry.
But Marshal...
One night he loaded his gun and went outside to fight.
It took a lot of courage, Honeyman, for a man like Pope, but he did it.
And today I told him that he'd better leave his place,
that you and Brandt had threatened him and had given him trouble.
What'd he say?
He said he wouldn't go. He said he'd stay and fight.
He didn't get a chance to fight.
What's a man like Pope know about protecting himself?
Brandt...
Shot in the back twice.
And all Pope had in his hands was a hoe.
Marshal, I...
I don't know what to say.
Brandt's in jail.
I'll see him tried for murder, and he'll be hung.
I guess I'm as guilty as he is.
You could have stopped it, but you encouraged it.
You wanted justice, Don Honeyman, and fast.
By, I didn't understand...
You didn't take time, too. The law was too slow for you.
Well, the law's new out here, Honeyman,
and sometimes I think the only time people want it
is when it seems to act the way they'd act themselves
if there weren't any law.
But it won't work that way.
According to the law, you're right or you're wrong,
you're guilty or you're not guilty.
Well, people out here are having a hard time accepting that,
but there won't be much law till they do.
And men like Pope will go on dying,
no matter how many Brandts get hung for it.
Marshal, I'm not very proud of what happened.
Would it help the law if I get up in court
and take my share of the blame for this?
I don't know, Honeyman, but it might.
Then I'll do it.
Good.
Good night, Marshal.
Good night, Honeyman.
Gunsmoke.
Produced and directed by Norman MacDonald,
stars William Conrad as Matt Dillon, U.S. Marshal.
The music was composed and conducted by Rex Corey.
Sound patterns were composed by Ray Kemper and Bill James.
Featured in the cast were Parley Bear as Chester,
Howard McNear as Doc, and Georgia Ellis as Kitty.
George Wolfe speaking.
Join us again next week for another story
of the Western frontier of America in the 1870s on Gunsmoke.
This is the United States Armed Forces Radio and Television Service.
And as I'm standing here in your ways I'd love for the night