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.
Hey, Mr. Dillon.
Hello, Chester.
How is things up at Slina, Mr. Dillon?
Real peaceful. Town constable is all they need. I'm not going to recommend the government spend any money up there.
Tell me about Dodge, Chester. Anything been happening here this past week?
Nothing much. One fella kindly got killed last night, but outside of that, it's been dull as winter.
Oh, who got killed?
Oh, I don't know, some wandering cowboy.
Who killed him?
A man called Pate, you tell me. He had a self-defense mission, done pure and simple.
Did you see it?
Well, no, sir.
Well, who did?
Well, I believe the only man who's seen the whole thing was that gambler, Ben Sissel.
Sissel?
He's new here the last few days. Been playing cards right at the Long Branch.
You don't seem to know a whole lot about it, do you, Chester?
No, sir, I don't, but I was just starting to find out when I seen you riding up the street.
Uh-huh.
Where were you last night, Chester?
I wouldn't be no gentleman to tell, Mr. John.
He he he he.
All right, I hope you had a good time.
Yes, sir, I had a fine time. Just fine.
All right, you can put my horse up if you want. I'm going to go with the Long Branch.
Yes, sir, I'll come along when I'm through.
I'll wait for you there.
Hello, Matt. When did you get back?
I just rode in, Kitty.
What's it on?
Thank you.
Out the steps.
Yeah, pretty good.
Tell me something, Kitty. Were you here all last night?
Oh, you're thinking of a killing we had. Yeah, I was here.
Well, did you see it?
Most of it. I was standing there at the bar, and Pate and Ben Sissel and the cowboy were at a table in the back.
Chester heard that it was self-defense.
Well, a cowboy drew first, Matt, but I don't know that you'd call it self-defense.
Oh, why not?
He wasn't after Pate. He was after Ben Sissel.
What?
Yeah, he wasn't even looking at Pate, Matt. He was looking at Sissel.
Even so, when he started to draw, it was Pate that killed him.
Did Pate cause that self-defense?
Well, he claimed that he thought the cowboy was drawing on him.
Besides, he said the cowboy knew Sissel wasn't even on him.
Wasn't he?
He never was.
I see. Tell me, Kitty, is this Pate always around when Ben Sissel's dealing?
He sure is, Matt, always.
And he's pretty handy with a gun, is he?
Too handy for an ordinary man, Matt.
Yeah, I thought so. Ben Sissel's another crooked gambler using a hired gunman to protect him when he's caught.
I don't know how you can prove it.
Where would I find Ben Sissel now, Kitty, you know?
Yeah, standing at the bar over there on the long black coat.
Oh? Oh, good. I'll see you later.
Sure.
Ben Sissel? That's me. My name's Dylan Sissel. I'm the U.S. Marshal here.
Oh, I thought you were out of town.
I was.
Well, what do you want, Marshal?
Where you from, Sissel?
Oh, all over, Marshal. You know how gamblers are.
Yeah, I know. Where'd you gamble last?
I, uh, back east. Why?
How long's Pate been working for you?
Working for me?
What are you trying to say, Marshal?
I'll make it real simple. The way you operate has already led to one killing here, and I'm not going to have any more.
I didn't kill anybody, Marshal. There are plenty of witnesses to that.
Where's Pate, Sissel?
I don't know where he is. Why should I?
I want to talk to him, and I want you with me when I do.
You're getting kind of pushy, Marshal.
I can get a lot worse. I suppose we go outside and wait for a friend who's come on here to meet me, and then we'll go talk to Pate.
Shall we get moving?
Today ends the country's 100th anniversary observance of National Boys Club Week.
This great organization dedicated to juvenile decency looks back on a century of progress in building the nation's youth into better citizens,
in replacing hopelessness with guidance and accomplishment wherever boys clubs serve.
But looking ahead is more important to today's youth and tomorrow's.
New boys clubs must be built to serve whole new areas of the country.
As former President Hoover, chairman of the Boys Clubs of America for 25 years, has said,
the boys clubs are the greatest cure for delinquency in our country today.
175 individual clubs serve over 600,000 youth in 383 communities.
These groups work actively to promote religion in the home, brotherhood throughout the community, community beautification, and many more valuable programs.
A word of gratitude now from the CBS Radio Network and all its affiliated stations to the Boys Clubs of America, entering their second century of service to youth.
Eight rooms up here, Marshal.
I don't know if he's in.
If he isn't, you start thinking of some place he might be.
Sure.
Sure.
I wouldn't blame you for not being here, Mr. Dillon. This is the worst hotel in Dodge.
This the room?
This is it.
All right, knock on the door. Tell him you want to talk to him.
Okay. But you're going to wish I hadn't.
Knock.
Who's that?
It's Ben Sissel.
Hello Sissel. Who's these two?
This is Marshal Dillon, Pate.
Marshal Dillon? What's he doing here?
We'll come inside and tell you, Pate.
Now wait a minute, Marshal.
Get out of the door.
Now you look, Marshal, if you come here over that cowboy last night, it's no use.
Everybody saw it, knows I killed him in self-defense.
Of course he did. There's plenty of witnesses to that.
You're smart, Sissel, but you're a coward.
That's why you need a hired gun to help you when you're caught dealing crooked.
You'd better watch what you're seeing.
Why?
I don't carry a gun, Marshal, but Pate does.
He happens to be a good friend of mine.
Sure, but right now Pate's gun belt is hanging on that chair over there. You see it?
Blasted fool.
Shut up!
Now, Marshal, I ain't afraid of you, but you're armed and I'm not.
Chester.
Yes, sir?
Go get his gun belt.
Yes, sir.
That's pretty brave of you, Marshal, arresting an unarmed man.
I'm not arresting you, Pate. I wish I could.
And what are you doing?
Chester, unbuckle that belt and hand it to him.
Here you are.
All right. Put it on, Pate.
Put it on?
That's right.
Okay.
All right, you got your gun on now.
Yeah.
Get out of Dodge.
What?
I said get out of Dodge right now.
I ain't done nothing, Marshal. I got no quarrel with you.
What kind of gunman are you, Pate?
You afraid of him?
The kind of gunman that can be hired isn't the kind that's going to take any real chances, Sissel.
I said I got no quarrel with you. I don't like this. You let me out of here.
Out of Dodge, Pate.
Sure, it's no good town anyway.
The door is open.
The Marshal's right, Sissel. This job don't pay enough.
I guess you win, Marshal.
You won't find any gunman here who'll hire out to you now, Sissel, so you might as well learn to deal straight.
I always do, Marshal.
Yeah.
Come on, Chester. Let's get out of here.
Yes, sir.
Maybe you should have run Sissel out of Dodge, too.
I'd rather he stayed, Chester. Maybe next time I can arrest him and see him hung like he deserves.
It didn't take Pate any longer to leave Dodge than to find his horse and get mounted.
And for the next week, there was no trouble from Ben Sissel.
He went on dealing cards, and although everybody was watching him pretty close, nobody found any reason to complain about him.
He didn't win much money, but I began to think maybe he decided that being honest had some value anyway.
Doc and I were talking about him in my office one noon.
Yeah, a man like Ben Sissel doesn't change, Matt. He's a crook, and he'll always be one. He's worse than a crook.
He's practically a murderer.
He's also a coward, Doc. That's why I think maybe I got him stopped.
Well, the way I got him fixed now, in order to stay free, he's got to stay honest.
Yeah.
That must be a hard choice for a man like that.
Mr. Dillon, hold on.
Hello, Chester.
Mr. Dillon, I just seen the doggone thing out on the street there.
Yeah, what was that?
Well, sir, who would you say is the last man in Dodge you'd ever expect to start carrying a six-gun?
I am.
Yeah, no, no, besides of you, Doc.
I can't think of anybody except Doc who doesn't carry a gun now, Chester.
Well, what about Cooter Smith?
Cooter Smith?
If I hadn't have saw him, I wouldn't believe it neither.
Well, what's he doing with the gun?
Just leaning on a post down the street there.
He shouldn't be allowed to wear a gun, a man like him.
No. Chester, go bring him in here. I want to talk to him.
All right, sir. I'll get him.
Things are getting mighty bad around here when even Cooter Smith decides to arm himself, man.
Ah, Cooter's pretty harmless, though.
Well, you never know. A man like that could be harmless one day and dangerous the next.
What's the matter with Cooter anyway, Doc?
I don't know for sure. I did examine him once, and it looked to me like he got kicked in the head by a horse at one time.
He won't say so for some reason, but maybe he doesn't even remember.
Whatever it was, it sure made him half simple.
I've seen men worse off than that.
Here he is, Mr. Young.
Hello, Cooter. Come on in.
Hello, Cooter.
Hello, Doc. Why, you come here like Chester said, Marshall.
Good. I wanted to talk to you, Cooter.
Well, you never told me you'd come here before.
You never wore a gun before, Cooter.
Oh, that. Well, that's for my job, Marshall.
Your job?
What job or work I got.
What kind of a job is it?
Well, I don't rightly know yet, Marshall.
Well, can you tell me what you do know then? Like who hired you?
Well, the fellow that gave me this gun, he hired me for an awful lot of money, he said.
And who was that?
Ben something.
Ben Siffle?
Yeah, that's him. He's going to pay me for wearing this gun.
He is? Did he tell you why?
This afternoon.
What?
Well, that's when he's going to tell me everything I got to do.
He's going to talk to me some more this afternoon.
He sure talks a lot, that fellow.
Yeah.
Okay, Cooter, you can go on now.
But I hope you don't let Siffle talk you into any trouble.
Aw, it ain't that, Marshall.
Why don't you don't try to make a fool out of me?
Sometimes people do. I don't like that.
Yeah, sure, Cooter.
I think I'll go talk to him now and make sure.
Goodbye.
Bye, Cooter.
Well, what in the world do you make of that?
I think maybe Siffle's crazier than Cooter is, Chester.
I'm going to be at the Long Branch tonight to make sure.
When humorous Sam Lovenson switched careers,
the teaching profession lost one of its most amusing schoolmasters to show business.
Tomorrow and all next week, Smile on Sam serves as guest host of the CBS Radio Network's Arthur Godfrey Time,
a duty he's been known to carry off in high style before.
He'll be introducing you to some fine guest entertainers, too.
Be listening for Sam and his friends tomorrow and throughout the week on Arthur Godfrey Time.
Just as every weekday, tomorrow the CBS Radio Network will shuttle from shore to shore
to bring you top stars of the broadcast entertainment world.
Beginning in New York with Arthur Godfrey Time,
the network then takes you to Hollywood for Art Linkletter's House Party,
then back to Manhattan for the Gary Moore Radio Show,
again a return trip to the coast for the Bing Crosby Rosemary Clooney Show.
There are stops in between, of course, for CBS News from everywhere.
Be listening for them all tomorrow and each Monday through Friday
right where you've got your dial set now at the Star's Address.
...
Evening, Kitty.
Hello, Matt. What are you doing around here so early tonight?
I'm looking for Ben Sissle.
Over there. Is there trouble, Matt?
Yeah, maybe.
Hello, Marshall.
Sissle.
Cooder Smith tells me you were talking to him this morning.
Yeah, I was.
He'll be here in a minute. You can talk to him some more if I...
Oh, I don't know, Marshall. Maybe it won't be so fine.
Oh.
Cooder's not as easygoing as most people seem to think.
He isn't.
No?
For example, you tie a gun on him, it kind of changes his whole character.
Makes him mean, Marshall. You'd be surprised how mean.
Yeah, I guess I would.
You don't believe me, huh? I'll show you.
Cooder? Hey, Cooder!
Go ahead, Cooder. I told him. Go ahead now.
Marshall, I'm sorry.
Go ahead now.
Marshall?
Yeah, Cooder?
I'm gonna draw on you, Marshall. I'm gonna shoot you.
What?
I'm gonna kill you.
Now look, Cooder, you know better than that.
Is this what you've been putting into his head, Sissle?
Don't you look at him, Marshall. You look at me.
Don't you look at him. You just look at me.
So that's it, huh?
Okay, Cooder, go ahead. Draw.
I am. I'm going to.
You look out, Marshall. I sure am.
No, you're not, Cooder. You haven't got a chance.
Now watch this!
Now, Cooder, there, you see? You're too slow.
I got my gun out and you haven't even touched yours.
No. I haven't touched mine.
Your gun's pointing at me.
Ben? Ben?
He's not gonna help you, Cooder.
Yes, he is. He is, too.
It's him that's gonna shoot you. It's him.
You think so?
Ben? Ben, he's gonna kill me.
Ben, you gotta shoot him.
I can't stand that. I can't.
You poor devil.
Now, Sissle, you ought to be real proud.
I didn't do nothing, Marshall.
I wasn't going to shoot you.
I don't even carry a gun, you know that.
Yeah, sure, but Cooder didn't know it.
You told him to make me start with my gun,
and then you'd shoot me from the side where I couldn't see you.
You told him he'd be safe.
That ain't so, Marshall.
What you planned was to make me kill him.
It wouldn't look so good for me to kill a man like Cooder.
Nobody would stand for that. They'd laugh me right out of town.
That's what you were figuring on, wasn't it?
I had nothing to do with it, Marshall.
I wasn't figuring on nothing.
You're not as smart as I thought you were.
Well, you're leaving town, Sissle.
I'm going to give you one hour, and I hope you take longer.
But what you made me do to Cooder is going to be a real pleasure to drag you out of town.
I'm going to give you a minute.
Sissle leave yet, Mr. Dillon?
He's still saddling up in the stable over there, Chester.
I'm going to give him about one more minute.
What did Doc say about Cooder?
Oh, Cooder's fine.
Doc gave him some powders and stuff. He's real calm now.
Where is he?
I don't know. He left Doc's quite a little bit ago.
You explained to him what Sissle was trying to do, huh?
Oh, yes, sir. I made it real plain, like you told me.
You think he understands now?
He understands everything, Mr. Dillon.
You know, it's funny, but like Doc said, getting scared so bad he fainted
seems to help Cooder think straighter, at least about what happened.
He ain't nearer to fuzzy as usual.
Ah, good.
Now, Sissle's time is up. I'm going in that stable now and run him out.
He won't give you no advice.
No, he won't, but I kind of wish he would.
You could have run him out a long time ago.
I wanted to catch him, Chester. I wanted to bring him to trial.
That's inside the stable.
Yeah, come on.
Look at him. He's done it.
It's Cooder. He's killed Ben Sissle.
All right, drop the gun, Cooder.
All right. I dropped it.
I ain't going to shoot no more, Marshall.
Shot him right in the head, Mr. Dillon.
He lied to me.
He made a fool out of me.
Why did you have to kill him, Cooder? I was running him out of dodge.
Don't you shoot me, Marshall. I wasn't going to shoot you.
Honestly, I wasn't. I like you.
Sissle told me I wasn't doing anything bad.
I wasn't going to shoot you. Sissle was going to shoot you. I like you.
All right, all right, Cooder. I know that. Now just calm down. I'm not going to hurt you.
You're pointing that gun at me.
No, I... Gun's back in my hole, Cooder. Look at it. See?
I am looking at it. And I can't stand it. No, I...
Cooder. Cooder!
Well, ain't you going after him?
God, that'd scare him even worse. It's bad enough now.
But he killed a man. He murdered him.
He won't run far, Chester. I'll find him when his trial comes up.
I've done enough to Cooder for one day.
Well, it ain't your fault, Mr. Dillner.
No. That doesn't make me feel any better about it.
Here with a personal message about cancer is Arthur Godfrey.
Thank you. Cancer is a subject I know something about, but for the grace of the good Lord and some wonderful, courageous doctors, I'm here to talk to you about it right now.
I want to do everything I can to help save other people.
Let me pass on to you the best advice the American Cancer Society has to offer, and that is to see your doctor at least once a year for a health checkup.
It could mean the difference between cure and tragedy, and we almost do even more than that.
We've got to help our scientists conquer this thing. Dig deep, my friend. Remember, this is cancer we're fighting. We've all got to give that much more.
Thank you, Arthur Godfrey. Remember, when an American Cancer Society volunteer, your neighbor, calls on you, give generously.
Gunsmoke, produced and directed in Hollywood by Norman McDonald, stars William Conrad as Matt Dillon, U.S. Marshal.
The story was specially written for Gunsmoke by John Messon. Featured in the cast were Frank Catey, Barney Phillips, and Vic Perrin.
Parley Bear is Chester, Howard McNear is Doc, and Georgia Ellis is Kitty.
This is George Walsh inviting you to join us again next week when CBS Radio presents another story on Gunsmoke.
The last are on Arthur Godfrey every weekday on the CBS Radio Network.