Gunsmoke: Old West Stories

Originally Aired: December 25, 1960 Gunsmoke #455, "Minnie," a rough-edged woman named Minnie Higgins arrives in Dodge City with a bullet wound through her arm. When Doc Adams treats her injury, she claims it's from falling off a horse, but Matt Dillon immediately suspects a gunshot. Despite Minnie's insistence she'll leave town at dawn, she quickly changes her plans and sets her sights on Doc Ada...

Originally Aired: December 18, 1960 Gunsmoke #454, "Heros Departure," begins with Chester excitedly telling Marshal Dillon about meeting Jonathan Wood, a war hero who's become the toast of Dodge City. Wood claims he single-handedly saved his company during the Battle of the Hogback by manning a Gatling gun while his comrades retreated. Everyone in town, from Moss at the livery to Doc Adams, is eag...

Originally Aired: December 11, 1960 Gunsmoke #453, "The Cook," Sandy King has found an unusual way to pay off his week-long tab at Hank Green's Del Monico restaurant in Dodge City. After Hank complains about feeding him on credit, Sandy offers to replace the establishment's drunken cook, and his culinary skills quickly transform the struggling eatery into the most popular spot in town. Matt Dillon...

Originally Aired: December 4, 1960 Gunsmoke #452, "Kitty's Good Neighboring," finds Kitty Russell stepping in to nurse an ailing neighbor, Nettie Morbin, who lives alone on an isolated prairie homestead while her husband Luke is away. Doc Adams asks for Kitty's help when he can't move Nettie to town, and Kitty willingly rides out to care for her friend. After several days of nursing, Luke unexpect...

Originally Aired: November 27, 1960 Gunsmoke #451, "Dirt," finds Marshal Matt Dillon caught between family pride and deadly threats as rancher Nate Sybertz prepares to marry Polly Troyman. When Polly's hot-headed brother Henry confronts Sybertz in the Long Branch Saloon, Matt intervenes just before gunplay erupts. The proud but impoverished Troyman family, still clinging to their former Virginia g...

Originally Aired: November 20, 1960 Gunsmoke #450, "The Professor," Matt Dillon and Chester encounter an unlikely figure on the prairie: Otis Milford, a scholarly easterner who has lost his horse while robbing an Indian grave in the name of science. Milford claims to be writing a book about Western culture and Indian tribes, and he's armed with a Pawnee bow and arrow he's testing for research purp...

Originally Aired: November 13, 1960 Gunsmoke #449, "The Big Con," In this tense episode, a frantic gambler named Hook rushes into the Dodge City bank at opening time with an unusual request. With Marshal Matt Dillon and Chester looking on, Hook asks banker Mr. Pap for an immediate loan of twenty thousand dollars, using his poker hand as collateral. He claims to be in the middle of a high-stakes ga...

Originally Aired: November 6, 1960 Gunsmoke #448, "Jedros Woman," Matt Dillon and Chester discover a badly beaten and starving woman near their campsite after someone steals their pot of cooking beans. Following the tracks through the brush, they find her collapsed with the bean pot nearby, too weak to have eaten the food she desperately took. The woman is covered in bruises and barely clinging to...

Originally Aired: October 30, 1960 Gunsmoke #447, "Never Pester Chester," finds Chester and Marshal Matt Dillon sweltering in the summer heat when Doc Adams arrives with news of two rowdy cowboys harassing the ladies of Dodge City. Too hot to deal with the troublemakers himself, Matt sends Chester down to handle it. The deputy's reasonable approach backfires when the two Texans, Stobo and Trevit,...

Originally Aired: October 23, 1960 Gunsmoke #446, "Newsmaam," a headstrong female journalist causes considerable consternation when she arrives in Dodge City. Phoebe Appleby has attached herself to trail boss Finn's cattle drive all the way from the Cimarron, refusing to leave despite his repeated demands. When Finn drags the stubborn woman to Matt Dillon's office demanding she be locked up for di...

Originally Aired: October 16, 1960 Gunsmoke #445, "Crack-Up," Matt Dillon returns from a week in Abilene to find trouble brewing in Dodge City. While getting a haircut at Peters' barbershop, a stranger pulls a gun and demands immediate service, ordering the unarmed Marshal out of the chair. Dillon refuses to back down, calling the gunman's bluff and forcing him to leave. Chester later identifies t...

Originally Aired: October 9, 1960 Gunsmoke #444, "Born to Hang," finds Matt Dillon racing against time to prevent a double murder. Joe Digger, a drifter, barely survives a lynching when ranchers Glick and Pate string him up for horse theft based on nothing more than finding their horses near his camp. Robert, the third rancher, refuses to participate in the hanging and secretly cuts Digger down af...

Originally Aired: October 2, 1960 Gunsmoke #443, "The Big Itch," brings Marshal Matt Dillon into a troubling mystery when Samantha Church arrives in his office seeking help. Her husband George left their ranch two days earlier to pay off their bank note with money from their first big cattle sale, but he never made it to the bank and hasn't been seen since. The only lead is that rancher Hobie Pric...

Originally Aired: September 25, 1960 Gunsmoke #442, "Doc Judge," finds Doc Adams in a dangerous case of mistaken identity. When a bitter ex-convict named Bryce Hart arrives in Dodge City, he immediately confronts Doc at Delmonico's restaurant, insisting that Doc is actually Judge Kennebre from Wyoming—the man who sentenced him to seven years in prison. Despite Doc and Chester's protests that he's...

Originally Aired: September 18, 1960 Gunsmoke #441, "Two Mothers," begins at a graveside service for a young man killed in a brawl. Marshal Dillon tries to offer condolences to the victim's mother, Miss Lorenda Henshaw, while another woman, Hattie Meisner, desperately attempts to speak with her. Lorenda refuses to talk, and for good reason: it was Hattie's son Jake who pulled the trigger. Though t...

Originally Aired: September 11, 1960 Gunsmoke #440, "About Chester," finds Marshal Matt Dillon and Chester searching for Doc Adams, who has been missing for four days. When Emmett Bowers arrives in Dodge looking for Doc—who never showed up to examine his son's broken arm—Matt and Chester split up to cover more ground, checking ranches along the trail to the Clooney place. Chester takes the route p...

Originally Aired: September 4, 1960 Gunsmoke #439, "The Peace Officer," Matt Dillon rides to the rough town of Tascosa at the request of a citizens committee desperate to rid themselves of their corrupt sheriff, Clegg Rollins. Once hired to clean up the wild camp, Rollins has now taken over the town for himself, terrorizing decent citizens with his gang of thugs. Within minutes of arriving, Matt t...

Originally Aired: August 28, 1960 Gunsmoke #438, "Tumbleweed," finds Marshal Matt Dillon facing an unusual problem when simple-minded drifter Boog Wilson refuses to leave jail after serving his sentence. Boot, who gets himself arrested just to have a roof over his head and friends in Matt and Chester, explains that people always run him off, just like his father did when he was young. He considers...

Originally Aired: August 21, 1960 Gunsmoke #437, "Dangerous Bath," Marshal Matt Dillon and Chester face an embarrassing predicament when two outlaws catch them bathing in a creek during a long ride across the prairie. The thieves, Ollie and young Harve, steal their horses, guns, and boots, leaving the lawmen stranded and defenseless. After a painful day and night of walking barefoot across the har...

Originally Aired: August 14, 1960 Gunsmoke #436, "The Noose," Marshal Matt Dillon and Chester encounter a strange little man named Cloyd hanging a noose from a tree outside Dodge City. Cloyd calmly explains he's testing the rope for a hanging - one he plans to carry out himself. He's been following a man across the country, waiting to hear him confess to a killing before stringing him up. Matt war...

Originally Aired: August 7, 1960 Gunsmoke #435, "Old Fool," Hannibal Bass catches young Dunk Hedgepath trying to steal a pig from his farm and nearly shoots him. Hannibal's wife Della insists he take the boy home instead, where Hannibal meets Dunk's widowed mother, Elsie. The encounter sets off an unexpected chain of events when the lonely widow Hedgepath lavishes praise on Hannibal, calling him a...

Originally Aired: July 31, 1960 Gunsmoke #434, "Stage Smash," Marshal Matt Dillon returns to Dodge with prisoner Cleary Small, only to be confronted by the man's brother, North Small, a smooth-talking gambler who attempts to cut a deal for Cleary's release. When Dillon refuses his proposition, North cryptically warns that every man has his price and promises to find the marshal's. The tension esca...

Originally Aired: July 24, 1960 Gunsmoke #433, "The Imposter," begins with a weary Chester struggling to keep up with Marshal Matt Dillon on a simple trip to the telegraph office. When they stop to help Sarah Curtin load her wagon, they encounter her husband Rob, who seems strangely uninvolved. The encounter takes on new significance when Matt receives a confusing telegram from Sheriff Ab Stringer...

Originally Aired: July 17, 1960 Gunsmoke #432, "Busted-Up Guns," Matt Dillon and Chester head north to the Sioux reservation for a friendly visit with Indian Agent Whip and his wife Gladys, expecting a peaceful hunting trip and warm welcome. Instead, they're met on the trail by Big Feather and his braves, who conduct a suspicious search of their gear and cryptically direct all questions to the whi...

Originally Aired: July 10, 1960 Gunsmoke #431, "Reluctant Violence," presents a thought-provoking conflict when an elderly pacifist named Homer Lidley arrives in Dodge City on a dangerous mission. Homer travels from town to town advocating for citizens to voluntarily give up their guns, believing that mankind must abandon violence or face destruction. His passionate street preaching quickly provok...