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 the U.S. Marshal and the smell of gun smoke.
Gun Smoke, presented by Army in Europe Magazine, a monthly feature magazine for the use of a soldier and surveyor.
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, the United States Marshal, the first man they look for and the last they want to meet.
It's a chance a job, but it makes a man watchful and a little lonely.
Go bring his horse over here, Benson. Chiller, Jake. And wait until we get him up on his horse before you tie that rope too wild, there'd be too much slack otherwise.
We couldn't hang you very good with your feet touching the ground, could we, Tillman? No, Jake, you couldn't.
We've been neighbors a long time, Tillman. If I could figure some way to make it easy for you, I'd do it. That's all right.
You get to hang and I could put a bullet in you. I'd be beholden to you. Okay, I'll do it then.
And would you drive by and tell my wife on your way home, Jake? Sure. I figured I'd do it anyway.
You know, I always liked you, Tillman. It's gotten too bad about this. Sure.
You're mighty calm for a man with a noose around his neck. You man got your mind made up.
Well, we can't have no men stealing horses around here. None of us feel safe less than we caught them and hung them.
I reckon that feels the same way, Jake. Well, of course you would. You'd hang me just as fast if I'd done it.
I would. Only difference is I'd want to be awful sure it was you that done it.
Oh, I'm sure. Heck, we caught you red-handed, didn't we?
I told you a hundred times I found them horses running wild. I was driving them back to you.
No, Tillman, you was headed in the other direction.
They got away from me. I was trying to turn them back.
Excepting that we don't believe you. None of us do.
Well, ask Jennings. He saw me rounding them up for you.
Jennings ain't here. Well, why don't you find him?
You can't take the time. You delay a hanging, the first thing you know, the man's got loose.
You could just encourage horse, Stephen. Well, like I said, you got your minds made up.
We've got to protect ourselves, Tillman.
Here's his horse, Jake.
Get him out of Tillman. Sure.
Okay, DeValk, take up the slack and tie it off around the creek front.
Sure.
Look out there, Jake. Someone's coming.
Yeah, sure they are. Let's get this done. We might have trouble.
He's a long way off yet. We got time.
You want to slap his horse, Benson?
No, you do it, Jake.
Okay.
So long, Tillman.
Alive.
See ya.
Hello, Jake.
Hello, Mrs. Tillman.
Come inside.
No, thanks, ma'am. I'll stay out here.
Good to see you.
My husband ain't here, Jake. He's out on the prairie, same place.
Yeah, I know.
The slave's around, though. You want to see him?
No. No, I wanted to see you.
Me? What about?
About your husband, Mrs. Tillman.
Something's happened to him.
Well, it was like this, ma'am. You know, me and DeVall and Benson's been losing some horses lately.
I heard.
But Tillman ain't somehow. And when we caught him driving a bunch of mine this afternoon, we figured it was him who's been stealing them.
I don't believe it. My husband's an honest man.
My husband's an honest man.
Oh, I know that. Now, Jennings saw him rounding them up where he found them running wild on the prairie.
I guess whoever had stolen them got scared and left them there.
Where is my husband, Jake?
That's what I want to explain to you, ma'am. Jennings come and told us about it. But he got there too late.
Too late?
We'd already hung him.
Hung him?
Yes, ma'am.
Claib? Claib? Come out here.
What is it, ma'am?
Well, hello there, Jake. Hello, Claib.
Tell him what you've done, Jake.
Done?
Claib, we hung your old man this afternoon.
You what?
We hung him for stealing horses.
They found out he didn't do it. After.
Yeah. I guess the joke's on us, all right.
Ma? Ma, wait a minute. Ma?
She's kind of upset, Claib. You better go with her.
Somebody ought to kill you, Jake.
No, don't talk like that. I said we were sorry.
Well, I gotta go get home. It's getting kind of late, and my missus will have supper on. So long.
Come on, now. Cheer. Huh?
All right. Yeah, sure. Kidding.
You're still bothered by the Tillman hanging, aren't you?
He was lynched. Kidding.
Oh, lynched. But you'll never find out he did it now. That was nearly three weeks ago.
I got a pretty good idea who did it. Just can't be sure.
Huh? Who?
Probably some of the ranchers out there who've been losing their horses. Benson and DeVall, and Jake Kaiser in particular.
Benson? I already got shot the other night, right in his own house.
Yeah, I did. Just about a week ago.
Maybe his conscience was bothering him, then.
What do you mean?
Well, maybe the other two children that keep him from talking.
Yeah, maybe.
Anyway, he had it coming to him.
Still murder, kidding.
You feel worse about Tillman, don't you?
You know, there's nothing I hate more than a lynching.
No one told him, I guess, as he was completely innocent.
What about Mrs. Tillman and the boy? Do they have any idea?
Well, if they have, they didn't tell me.
Well, you've done all you can, then.
Might as well be in St. Louis.
Oh. I'd like to be in St. Louis, Matt.
Why don't you go, then?
I don't know. I guess I'm afraid of the dark.
What are you talking about?
Never mind that.
Matt!
Now, how about Doc?
Doc! Hello, Kitty.
Sit down, Doc.
Oh, thank you. Thank you, man.
Tillman, that fella Duvall.
What about him?
He's been shot, man. Shot dead.
What?
That's right. His hired hand brought him in.
When did this happen?
In early tonight, he said.
You know, there's a funny thing about that, man.
Duvall was shot through the window of his house with a.50 caliber rifle.
I dug the bullet out.
Just like Benson, huh?
Yes. I thought it was kind of an interesting result.
That makes Jake Kaiser the only one left, man.
You think Jake did it?
I don't know, Doc.
He's been sitting right over there in the car, James, since noon.
Huh? Are you sure of that?
Well, he was gone for an hour, but he was there when I left, and he was there when I got back.
Well, he couldn't have done it in an hour, man.
Look, man, he's leaving.
I'll be back.
Uh, Jake.
Oh, hello, Marshal.
Uh, let's sit down a minute. Now, Jake, I want to talk to you.
Sure, Marshal.
What's it about? Here's the table.
I'm kind of late getting out of home.
Jake, the ball was shot tonight.
He was?
Yeah. Killed the same way Benson was.
Same way, huh?
You know anything about it?
I'm beginning to, Marshal.
It's that Tillman boy Clay Minorities.
Why would he do it, Jake?
Why? He's crazy. That's why.
Marshal, I'll tell you.
Clay just took it into his head that we hung this old man.
How do you know he has?
Well, I saw him right here in town this morning.
And he was here last Saturday, too, come to think of it.
You talk to him?
Sure.
And he keeps saying that we've done it.
Why?
Now, don't you believe anything he says, nor Mrs. Tillman either, that they're both liars, Marshal.
I've known them a long time to be liars.
Little Clay threatened the insect.
Sure he did?
You go arrest him, Marshal.
There's not much evidence.
I just told you, I know.
You mean you ain't going to arrest him?
No. Not yet.
He ain't going to shoot me.
I'm going to go kill him on the way home.
Right tonight.
Jake, you're talking to a U.S. Marshal.
All right, you do something about it.
I will, but you're getting the ideas of shoot me, mother. Get out of here.
If you'll arrest him, I will.
And don't you forget what liars they are out there.
You leave that to me, Jake.
You're here?
Sure. But not for long, Marshal.
Not for very dang long.
Jake Kaiser was a senseless kind of a man, and I knew he'd probably go kill young Claib Tillman the first time it happened to occur to him again.
I feel like I couldn't arrest Claib for two murders just on Jake's word that Claib had threatened him.
He needed a lot more evidence than that, and the only way of getting it, I could think of, was from Claib himself.
So the next morning, Jester and I rode out to the Tillman place.
It was only about 15 miles from town, but we got there early.
Hello, Marshal. Jesse.
Morning, Mr. Tillman.
Hello, ma'am.
Morning, sir.
Thank you.
Sit down.
I don't want to bother you, ma'am.
No bother.
I was looking for Claib. I'd like to talk to him.
He's out back. He'll be here in a minute.
Good.
Miss Tillman, Duvall was killed last night.
All right.
Well, don't you care?
Several people have been murdered around here lately, Marshal, including my husband.
You think Benson and Duvall were in on that?
I didn't say they were.
What about Jake Kaiser?
You're prying, Marshal. That's a trouble with the law. It's always prying.
What do you want Claib for?
I thought he might tell me what he knows. You won't.
We don't know nothing. And Claib ain't shot nobody. He was in God yesterday.
Yeah, I know he was.
I wouldn't put it past Jake to have shot Duvall himself.
I thought of that too. You have any idea why he might have?
No. Well, here's Claib now.
Oh, we got visitors.
Hello, Claib.
Marshal?
Yes, sir.
Hi, Claib. You been hunting this morning?
No.
Put that rifle back where it belongs, son.
Okay, ma'am.
I was shooting hawks with it yesterday. Left it in the barn.
You should have brought it in last night, son.
Sure, but, well, it was dark when I got back, ma'am. I didn't see it out there.
I should have brought it in myself.
What are you doing here, Marshal?
Duvall was murdered last night, Claib.
He was?
Yeah, shot. Same as Benson.
Well, what do you know?
Jake Kaiser thinks you did it.
He does, huh?
He also said that you threatened to kill him next.
He may be out of...
Claib, don't talk like that.
You know, there's a law against murder.
They murdered my father. Where was the law then?
I'd have him in jail right now if I knew who they were.
Too bad you weren't there, Marshal.
I could still arrest Jake.
We don't know nothing about Jake, do we, son?
No. No, we don't know nothing.
Okay. Okay.
But you'll hang for murder if you kill him, Claib.
Come on, Chester.
I just seen him, Mr. Dune. Walking right up Front Street.
Hello, Chester.
Claib. It's Saddy, and he's back in town, just like you said he'd be.
Well, I wasn't too sure.
Jake might have killed him during the week.
It must have slipped his mind somehow.
Well, I know what you're thinking.
Claib's gonna ride past Jake's place on his way home, ain't he?
Now, my man's been killed each Saturday the last two weeks.
It could happen again.
You must talk to him.
Get our horses, Chester. We'll ride out to Jake's.
Now? Hadn't we ordered father Claib when he...
No, it's Jake. I want to keep an eye on him.
Well, my man, I don't understand.
Just get the horses, Chester.
Yes, sir.
And be sure there's a rope on my saddle.
We gonna hang somebody?
No. Now, get going.
Yes, sir.
Oh, Jake's just sitting in the house here, plumb and confused.
Shhh.
Somebody's coming.
Why, I wish he was alone tonight.
No, it's better dark.
Just out of the way of my rope.
You and a ropey?
Quiet now.
All right, just do it.
All right, grab the rifle.
I got it.
No. Let me go.
I landed the woman.
Yeah, I know.
All right, stand up now, Mrs. Tillman.
You shouldn't have stopped me, Marshal.
You won't do any good.
Two murders are enough, are they?
I was saving Jake for the last.
I wanted him to sweat, and I'll kill him yet.
Who's out there?
It's Marshal Dullum, Jake.
Now, put that gun down.
What's going on here?
What?
It's Mrs. Tillman.
She wants to kill you, Jake.
A woman?
Yeah, that's a sharp stick.
I think I'd do it.
Sure would.
Why?
You killed Benson and Duvall.
And I'll kill you if I have to use a knife, Jake Kaiser.
A woman?
Going around killing people?
Well, that's terrible.
You hung my husband.
One of the best men that ever lived.
I told you it was a mistake.
I said we were sorry.
That's what I've been waiting to hear.
Jake, no!
All right, get us gone, Chester.
Yes, sir.
I got it.
Mrs. Tillman, you're both under arrest.
Well, as long as Jake hangs to you.
I'll hang.
But you'll probably go to jail.
What's Cleve think?
He knew about this when he found the rifle in your barn last week.
But I guess he figured there was no way to stop you.
You found our only way, Marshal.
I guess maybe I should have told you everything from the first.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's too late now.
I'm sorry.
Don't you feel bad about it, Marshal?
I don't mind.
I don't really mind at all.
You want to know something, Mrs. Tillman?
That's the worst part of it.
All right, come on.
Let's get back to Dutch.