Season 4, Episode 8 – Original Airdate: (October 29, 1960)
<= 124 – “The Tender Gun == The Poker Fiend” – 126 =>
Directed by Richard Boone, Written by Harry Julian Fink.
ROBERT BLAKE as Jessie May Turnbow
(A Place for Abel Hix, 1962) as Lauro
(The Fatalist, 1960) as Smollet
WILLIAM TALMAN as George Jondill
(Long Way Home, 1961) as Sheriff
HARI RHODES as Ansel James
RAYFORD BARNES as Sim Lenzer
(Face of a Shadow, 1963) as Canning
(The Trap, 1962) as Roy Bissell
(The Revenger, 1961) as Jelly
(Long Way Home, 1961) as Deputy Sheriff
(Something to Live For, 1958) as Harleigh Preston
(The Road to Wickenburg, 1958) as Sol Goodfellow
JOHN MILFORD as Abraham Sinclair
(Long Way Home, 1961) as Hutton
BARNEY PHILLIPS as Joseph Ergo
(The Night the Town Died, 1960) as Warren
(The Prophet, 1960) as Major Leonard Ferber
(The Monster of Moon Ridge, 1959) as Dan Bella
You say you didn’t kill those seven men. They whipped your father with barbed wire
and then they shot him like a sick steer. After that, why didn’t you kill them, Jessie May?
INT. HOTEL CARLTON – PALADIN’S HOTEL SUITE – DAY
HEY GIRL
Mr. Paladin, I’m thinking that it is time you got married.
As your great Benjamin Franklin once said, that a single man has not nearly…
PALADIN
“October 7, 1876. Kill Jessie May. During the War of the Rebellion, a terrible hurt was done Jessie May Turnbow. Not yet ten years old, he saw his father whipped then shot for an act of espionage against the Union. Seven of the 12 men who tried Turnbow have been wantonly murdered by this boy in a grotesque act of revenge. Yesterday, it was John Reilly, Dowler-farmer, businessman, churchgoer. Who tomorrow? But Joseph Ergo, one of the 12, refuses to raise his hand against the boy. We join with Abraham Sinclair in his hunt for the murderer. We say, kill Jessie May.”
HEY GIRL
And it is time, Mr. Paladin, you got married.
PALADIN
Married?
EXT. ON THE TRAIL – DAY
SIM LENZER
Hold it, Mister. That’s far enough, now.
PALADIN
It’s been a long trip, I’d like to step down and rest.
SIM LENZER
What do you want here?
PALADIN
I want to talk to Joe Ergo.
SIM LENZER
All right. Over there. Follow me.
JOSEPH ERGO
Paladin?
PALADIN
That’s right.
JOSEPH ERGO
I’m Ergo. This is Abe Sinclair.
PALADIN
Sinclair. Mr. Ergo, you change your mind?
JOSEPH ERGO
See, even a stranger can smell the hate in you, Abe.
I’m keeping bad company.
ABE SINCLAIR
Hate. I’m just near scared to death of that boy. That’s the truth.
SIM LENZER
It can be killed, Abe.
ABE SINCLAIR
I can remember him when he was a toddler.
PALADIN
And you killed his father?
ABE SINCLAIR
We was all there.
PALADIN
Well, how many times have
you tried to kill the boy?
ABE SINCLAIR
I’ve gone after him six times.
PALADIN
Mr. Ergo, you didn’t answer me.
JOSEPH ERGO
I changed my mind. I want him dead.
PALADIN
Why?
JOSEPH ERGO
He killed a girl over at Sandee, about 200 miles from here.
SIM LENZER
And that ain’t all he did he…
ABE SINCLAIR
That’s loose talk, Sim!
SIM LENZER
Loose talk.
ABE SINCLAIR
Give the devil his due. He just shot her.
JOSEPH ERGO
She was about 17 years old. An ignorant mountain girl. She was married to one of the 12.
I guess Purdy wasn’t home when the boy came for him, so he shot his wife instead.
He’s got some kind of automatic shotgun. He made it himself.
I went over for a look. The shanty was blown to pieces.
PALADIN
Well, I was gonna ask how all this got started.
I… don’t suppose that matters much anymore.
JOSEPH ERGO
Not this side of purgatory.
[Wild screams in the distance]
JOSEPH ERGO
This reminds me of what we did to his father.
Oh, he was always a good boy, I always liked him.
PALADIN
Stay down here.
JOSEPH ERGO
Jessie May! Jessie May Turnbow! This is Joe Ergo! Let me talk to you!
SIM LENZER
Oh…He’s reloading!
PALADIN
Automatic shotgun?
[]
EXT. ON THE TRAIL
PALADIN
That’s a good gun. A little rough on the outside but it shoots straight.
ANSEL JAMES
Yes, sir. Yours, too.
GEORGE JONDILL
Have you ate?
PALADIN
I’ve been eating my own cooking for the last ten days.
GEORGE JONDILL
Why don’t you climb down and rest yourself?
All we have is beefsteak but we got plenty of that.
INT. CAMP TENT
GEORGE JONDILL
Ansel?
ANSEL JAMES
Mmm, no, thanks. No more.
GEORGE JONDILL
Mister?
PALADIN
No. Jondill, you can cook.
GEORGE JONDILL
Why, Mister, you can stay here as long as you want.
Ansel, you never sweet talk me like that.
ANSEL JAMES
No, sir, but, uh, it ain’t ’cause I don’t appreciate your effort, Mr. Jondill.
PALADIN
Ansel?
PALADIN
Anybody else pass through here this week besides me?
GEORGE JONDILL
No.
PALADIN
I lost him at the Matawan River.
GEORGE JONDILL
That’s a bad place.
PALADIN
He killed three men last week. Seven before that, and a woman.
GEORGE JONDILL
Ansel.
ANSEL JAMES
A kind of saddle tramp over at Territory ford, three, four days ago.
He didn’t want to talk. I didn’t bother him.
PALADIN
How old?
ANSEL JAMES
Maybe 40.
PALADIN
No one else?
ANSEL JAMES
Hmm, no, sir.
GEORGE JONDILL
I ain’t seen no one. Of course, I…don’t get around as much as I used to.
PALADIN
Bronc rider?
GEORGE JONDILL
Was. Too many broncs.
ANSEL JAMES
How long you been hunting this man?
PALADIN
200 miles, ten days.
ANSEL JAMES
What’s he look like?
PALADIN
I don’t know. I’ve never seen him. Young.
ANSEL JAMES
Somebody’s coming.
PALADIN
Well, this is where I lost his trail…
JESSIE MAY TURNBOW
Hey! Hello in there! I hope there ain’t some trigger-happy fool gonna shoot me.
ANSEL JAMES
That’s one of our own. Come on in, if you’re sober.
Where’s your horse?
JESSIE MAY TURNBOW
He broke his leg, you old stove-up fool!
140
00:10:34,933 –> 00:10:36,534
I ain’t surprised;
I expected it.
141
00:10:36,601 –> 00:10:38,135
Did you get the supplies?
142
00:10:38,203 –> 00:10:40,171
Sure did.
143
00:10:40,239 –> 00:10:41,605
I didn’t lose that pack horse and he’s loaded down under the gills.
145
00:10:43,442 –> 00:10:45,676
Whew!
Let’s have some light.
146
00:10:45,743 –> 00:10:48,045
How are you?
ANSEL JAMES
Paladin, meet Jessie Turnbow.
PALADIN
Jessie May Turnbow?
JESSIE MAY TURNBOW
That’s right. How’d you know?
ANSEL JAMES
A bounty hunter, for sure.
PALADIN
Mr. James, you keep your hand away from that gun, you won’t get hurt.
GEORGE JONDILL
But you got the wrong man.
ANSEL JAMES
Don’t make no matter to him. To him, Mr. Turnbow’s just dead pork, anyway.
PALADIN
Now, you just stand easy.
GEORGE JONDILL
Paladin…you got the wrong man!
PALADIN
Do I?
JESSIE MAY TURNBOW
He’s sure right, Mister. I don’t know what you want.
PALADIN
Your father executed as a traitor in Wyoming, 10, 12 years ago?
JESSIE MAY TURNBOW
That’s right. They whipped him with barbed wire. And then they shot him in the head like he was a steer with a broke leg. Mr. Sinclair said, “He don’t deserve it, Turnbow, “but here’s your coup de grace.” You know what a coup de grace is, Mister? It was five years before I found out.
PALADIN
What do you want me to do, son? Mourn him? I’ll mourn the ten men you murdered. I’ll mourn that woman you shotgunned.
JESSIE MAY TURNBOW
Mister, I didn’t do none of those things.
PALADIN
Turn around. Come on.
JESSIE MAY TURNBOW
You got chains, too?
PALADIN
That’s right. They’re in my saddle bag, Mr. James. Get ’em and put ’em on him. Go on!
GEORGE JONDILL
Yeah, but you can’t go nowhere. Everything’s all running over. You can’t get up to the mountains and all the rest of the territory around here’s flooded.
ANSEL JAMES
You gonna take him back for trial, mister? I mean, really take him back for trial?
PALADIN
I am.
ANSEL JAMES
A fair one?
PALADIN
I won’t say that. I can’t guarantee it. I don’t believe it! Now put ’em on him!
We’ll stay outside tonight, out in that lean-to, and it’ll save temptation. Come on!
ANSEL JAMES
I hate chains on a man. I hate chains worse than death.
GEORGE JONDILL
Mister…did you find what you was looking for?
PALADIN
No.
GEORGE JONDILL
Mister…Oh, here, I brung you these blankets.
PALADIN
Thank you.
GEORGE JONDILL
He’s a good boy, mister. I knowed him three years.
That boy never treated me with nothing but respect, and I like him.
Mister…Well, Ansel and me decided, you try to take the boy, and we’re gonna kill ya.
PALADIN
Now where’s that gun?
JESSIE MAY TURNBOW
He took it away from me inside, remember? I was wearing it on my hip.
PALADIN
You built it yourself?
JESSIE MAY TURNBOW
That was a Peacemaker, mister.
PALADIN
I mean the shotgun.
JESSIE MAY TURNBOW
You’re loony as a coot, mister, I’m tellin’ ya.
PALADIN
You want to tell me about your father?
JESSIE MAY TURNBOW
I wasn’t but ten years old, and what’d I know?
PALADIN
A good man?
JESSIE MAY TURNBOW
Yes, sir. My pa was the king of the world. I never did have no ma. She died in my bornin’.
But my pa was the king of the world. He spoon-fed me when I was sick…tanned my hide
when I was bad. He read the Bible to me every night. Taught me how to ride and rope.
And how not to be afraid to fight. You asked me about my pa, mister, I’ll tell ya.
Boy, he was just the king of the whole world.
PALADIN
Was he a traitor?
JESSIE MAY TURNBOW
He was a Southerner. I wasn’t but ten years old.
I guess he did whatever they said he did.
PALADIN
Jessie, it’s fine thing to be able to build a gun like that.
I don’t know many men that could do it.
JESSIE MAY TURNBOW
Like what?
PALADIN
Like an automatic shotgun that could tear a house to pieces.
You’ve done that, haven’t you, Jessie?
JESSIE MAY TURNBOW
Boy, mister, now I’m tellin’ you, you’re loony.
PALADIN
Well, Jessie, if those men did to your father what you say they did, then why haven’t you killed them?
JESSIE MAY TURNBOW
I don’t never want to see nobody killed again.
There’s a whole lot of places I’d rather be Like sittin’ under an old oak tree
PALADIN
Boy, you’ve changed your tune.
Waitin’ for a pretty girl to come after me…
PALADIN
Not! That was close, Mr. James. That was very close.
ANSEL JAMES
Can I talk to you? Over there, where the boy won’t hear.
JESSIE MAY TURNBOW
Hey, Jondill, where the devil’s my breakfast? You gonna let me hang without having something nourishing in my gut?
ANSEL JAMES
Mr. Jondill ain’t here right now, Jessie. No, sir, he ain’t here right now at all.
PALADIN
Where?
ANSEL JAMES
You asked me where Mr. Jondill was, Mister. I’ll tell you. He’s over in those trees, with a rifle lined on your belly. I drop this hat, and he’ll kill ya. You see, he ain’t only a cook, he’s a good shot with a rifle, too.
PALADIN
You got a firm hold on that hat?
ANSEL JAMES
Well, my fingers are getting a mite tired. So suppose you just shuck that gun out with your left hand.
PALADIN
Well, there must be something good about him to get that strong a hold on two men like you.
ANSEL JAMES
Shuck the gun out, mister, or I’ll drop the hat.
And so help me, if Mr. Jondill doesn’t kill you, I will.
ANSEL JAMES
Now the key.
JESSIE MAY TURNBOW
Ah! Hey, thanks, you old fool.
ANSEL JAMES
You take care of yourself now, you hear?
JESSIE MAY TURNBOW
Yeah.
ANSEL JAMES
Your horse is over there behind the tent.
JESSIE MAY TURNBOW
I’ll see you again, Ansel. And Mr. Jondill, too, you tell him, hear?
ANSEL JAMES
All right.
PALADIN
Boy! I will be coming after you.
JESSIE MAY TURNBOW
Yeah.
M
Go, go, go, go, go.
PALADIN
All right, Jondill, you can come out from behind the tent now.
ANSEL JAMES
Well, if you knew, why’d you let him go?
PALADIN
Well, if he’s the one, he won’t just keep running.
He’ll be out there someplace, and with that fancy shotgun of his, I think.
Besides…I didn’t want to kill either one of you.
ANSEL JAMES
I guess you could have done it, too.
Maybe I was wrong.
[]
PALADIN
Get down. Get down! Git!
ANSEL JAMES
Oh, Lord! Soon as I heard that whistling…I knowed it was him.
He told me his…his pa used to…used to sing that tune.
How he loved his pa.
Paladin 