Gunsmoke

- Season 4

(1958)

Matt is suspended by the War Department, after Red Samples comes to Dodge with his gang and an alleged witness, claiming Matt shot an unarmed man in cold blood.

Matt doubts the veracity of Long Branch hostess Holly Fanshaw's claim that she saw trail drover Fly Hoyt murder young Dave Thorp. His suspicions increase further when Hoyt voluntarily returns to Dodge in order to clear his name.

Matt believes white smugglers supplied the guns that a band of Pawnee used to attack local ranchers.

Two murders result when an unscrupulous Eastern businessman named Ivy hires a psychotic killer to help him establish undisputed control of Dodge City's freight shipment business.

A rich landowner seizes the chance to get a little more acreage when he discovers that a homesteader has failed to file the paperwork to make his quarter section his own.

Matt and Chester, out of water while riding back to Dodge, come upon a man with two fine horses who is not very trusting. When they meet him later in Dodge, he is much different: friendly and spending money freely.

A stagecoach on which Matt and Chester are riding is robbed and another passenger is murdered. Matt utilizes a ruse to incriminate the thieves when a "cowboy" appears and offers to show him where one of the thieves may be buried.

Matt refuses to arrest his friend Ben Tiple without more evidence, when the man he has been feuding with is found shot in the back.

When a stranger leading some immigrants planning on settling outside of Dodge wants Matt to give him a badge to avert trouble, Matt gets suspicious and rides out to their camp to see what is really up.

After mild-mannered Hank Blenis is "lynched" by the two men who stole his horse, self-righteous Charlie Drain decides to take the law into his own hands and is led tragically astray by the culprits.

Two gamblers find Matt incorruptible and attempt to intimidate him by hiring gunman Toque Morlan. The two are ironically unaware that Morlan was Matt's close friend until a long-ago attack by a mob left Morlan scarred and harboring a bitter grudge against lawmen.

White men pretending to be Indians attack greenhorn Harry Pope at night, and he kills one of them. Now the dead man's friends want revenge.

When Doc arrives too late to save his patient, her husband, a good friend of Matt's, blames Doc for her death.

Financially desperate Jack Fitch robs a stagecoach and abducts passenger Laura Church, unaware that she is "engaged" to an unscrupulous businessman who threatened to ruin her father if he did not agree to the marriage.

Claustrophobic plainsman Poney Thompson is arrested for murdering a man who maliciously shot his dog, but an ironic fate awaits him after he breaks free from Chester's custody.

Matt's attempt to find a man who shot at him from ambush leads him and Chester into the middle of a murderous feud between two bitter and isolated mountain families.

Over the objections of his sometime partner Rod Allison, treacherous Jim Box murders aging rancher Jesse Wheat, then attempts to steal cattle from Wheat's young widow.

Chester's Uncle Wesley comes to Dodge and thinks Chester is the marshal, and Matt goes along with the gag, playing the deputy.

A man's house is burned and his livestock killed, but he refuses to identify the perpetrators to the marshal.

An old friend of Doc's, a nurse, is visiting and he hopes she will stay around Dodge. In the meantime Matt is worried that an ex-con is gunning for him even though he thought he was innocent five years ago.

Trail boss Dolph Quince sends for his friend Matt to help escort his cattle herd into Dodge because he is having trouble with Jayhawkers (Kansas renegades), and he hopes to ease the animosity his men have towards all Kansans.

A family friend of Kitty's visits from New Orleans and is shocked to find her a saloonkeeper. Still, the young man is determined to defend the lady's honor, a stance that could get him killed in rowdy Dodge.

Young Billy flees Dodge in fear after being suspected of shooting dead an older saloon girl whose sexual advances he had been resisting.

Doc takes hard the death of a homesteader under his care; then a flashy new medicine man comes to town and takes away many of his patients.

Rivalry for the affections of a former saloon gal leads to a frame-up for murder.

A coward gambler, who's too cheap to hire a gunman, wants Matt dead for a beating he got from him years ago, so he starts some talk around Dodge about the big reputation any person could gain, if they simply killed Matt.

Matt suspects a conspiracy when a man is murdered, Al Clovis flees on a train even though he has a perfect alibi, and the bank is robbed.

Men start killing each other over saloon girl Dolly Varden, who seems to bring gamblers luck just by standing next to them when they're playing cards.

After years of captivity, a white woman and her half-Indian daughter are set free by the Indians, but they are shunned in Dodge.

A gunfight in the Long Branch forces Matt to arrest a drunk. Letting him go since it was a fair fight, he suspects him of selling guns to the Indians, and goes after him even though he may run into those Indians.

Matt and Dodge City's businessmen employ an unusual tactic to save ambush victim Lee Prentice from being taken to corrupt Baker City to face certain hanging on a trumped-up murder charge.

Matt becomes suspicious when Jerry Cass's plans to marry saloon hostess Bella Grant are complicated by Bella's sudden insistence that Jerry leave his recently-inherited ranch for six months.

Marshal Dillon has to stop a ruthless, cold-blooded, greedy, buffalo hunter who is in the habit of brutally killing his hired help to avoid paying them their wages.

Matt tries to help Andy Hill, a young gunman who is apparently trying very hard to go straight, by getting him a job riding shotgun on the stagecoach.

Gunman Kin Creed arrives in Dodge determined to enhance his reputation by outdrawing Matt in a gunfight. He goes to great lengths to force Matt into a confrontation and is able to wound him, but it proves to be a pyrrhic victory.

Print Asper is suspected of attempted murder when he forces a crooked lawyer, at gunpoint, to return the ranch he stole from him, and the lawyer still ends up getting shot later by someone.

Dodge City's businessmen learn a hard lesson when they reject Matt's advice and hire a meek constable to handle a gang of rowdy but free-spending trail cowboys.

Seriously injured Matt faces a moral dilemma when Blue Horse saves his life and prevents the escape of a prisoner. The Marshal knows that Blue Horse is being sought by the Cavalry as a fugitive from a reservation, and he is well aware that he is duty-bound to assist their search in any way possible.

Matt seeks the help of wise Chief Long Robe to track down gunrunners who are supplying renegade Cheyenne braves with rifles used to murder prairie-dwelling families. Long Robe provides Matt with the needed information, but warns him that the death of even a single brave could lead to a violent uprising.