The Loner

- Season 1

(1965)

William Colton rides into a town one month after Appomatox. Inside, there is a young man, not much more than a boy, who is talking really tough. An old man fresh out of a prison camp is there as well. The old man, Ab Nichols, fought for the Confederacy, and is offended when the young drunk, Jody Merriman, desecrates the Confederate flag. That's when Colton gets involved. As he fights for this man's honor, he remembers back to the last day of the Civil War and another young man he came face-to-face with.

Colton rides into a town where a man he met during the Civil War is now a reverend. Reverend Booker was a confederate Captain who once saved Colton's life, carrying him to safety while they fought at Shiloah. The Reverend is married, and his wife is expecting a child within the next couple of weeks. His life seems perfect. But there is a reason Colton rode in to find him. A gunfighter is looking for the Reverend so he can avenge him for a lawful killing the Reverend committed two years before. The reverend refuses to use a gun to protect himself, and this time he's ...

Colton finds a letter on a dead man that leads him to search for a girl named Angela Wheeler.

One day William Colton rode into a town where a young Quaker boy was being led into the saloon. It seems he had set one of McComb's barns on fire. Some time earlier, the Townsend's had found some virgin soil outside of town and offered to pay McComb for it. McComb refused, and the Quakers settled the land and began homesteading. McComb demanded they get off their land. He had threatened all sorts of things against them if they didn't. This particular day, he made his threats again. Townsend Sr. went to Colton's hotel room and asked him to kill McComb for them since it...

Drifting through Kansas, Colton signs on as farmhand to an embittered woman caring for her husband, a Union colonel struck mute and catatonic from PTSD.

While traveling to the Arctic Tern Ranch to attend an old childhood friend's wedding, William Coltin rescues what he believes to be a woman on a runaway horse. The fact was that Terna didn't need rescuing at all! Then when he meets his friend, Rob, he realizes it was his fiancé he was rescuing. He soon finds out that Terna is one spit fire woman, and Rob wasn't the first man she had set her eyes upon marrying. She seems to enjoy throwing herself at men, and Rob seems to try and drink his problems away.

A renegade Apachie war party attacked a wagon train and killed all twenty members. One of the members was a man named Joe Sullivan. He was moving West to meet up with his parents, and his wife and daughter were coming on the stage. The parents were sad to hear of their son's murder. Harry asked Colton to go with him to meet the stage and tell the widow. But a surprise was waiting for them there. It turns out that Joe Sullivan had married an Indian, and Harry wanted nothing to do with him. He spat out that Joe was dead, and ordered her to leave at once. Colton put Sue ...

Colton goes to visit an old friend from West Point, but discovers that Abner Wayne had died, leaving his wife and a son behind. The boy immediately takes to him, excited that Colton was in the war and went to West Point with his father. Colton learns that Mrs. Wayne has gone against guns and the war, and strictly prohibits him to talk about these things to her young son. Colton agrees to respect her wishes, but believes it's a mistake. Then when he goes into town, he runs into the hot-shot rancher who killed Abner out of lust for wife. Trouble is brewing, especially ...

Colton becomes a deputy to a bungling sheriff.

While traveling, William Colton meets an ex-Union soldier who fought in the war for three years. Before that, he had been a slave. His father had traveled out west to find a better life for them and Lamuel Stove was joining him. But when they arrived in the town, Lamuel made a horrifying discovery: his father had been lynched the night before. Lamuel was filled with grief and mourned deeply for his father. He was told that about ten men came to his father's house, dragged him to town, abused him, then lynched him. They planned on leaving his body hanging in the tree ...

Colton takes under his protective wing a timid Latvian immigrant venturing west to open a shoemaker's shop.

William Colton rides into an inn one dark, rainy night. As soon as he goes inside, he realizes something is wrong. Maria announces that she and her father no longer run the place, the man behind him does. But Billy Ford doesn't run the inn for long. He collapses with a terrible pain in his side. Colton thinks his illness is serious, and when he finds out a doctor is upstairs he goes to speak to the doctor. The doctor turns out to be a bitter surgeon who lost his hand when his horse spooked, causing a wagon accident and his hand to be severed by the wheel of a train. ...

Colton is conscripted into a sheriff's posse tracking a wily old mountain man who won't be taken without a fight.

After receiving a desperate letter for help from a man who called himself W. Hardy, William Colton rides into a town that is practically abandoned. The only men he saw were three men who looked to be wanting to kill any outsiders who came in. The only woman was a hotel clerk who assured him they had plenty of empty rooms. Soon, Colton learned that the man who wrote the letter was one of his old privates named Andrew Drake. Drake had been a coward and placed some of his articles on a dead man. Colton believed the dead man to be Drake. Drake explained that he was ready ...

Bounty hunter Colton becomes embroiled in domestic diplomacy between alleged murderer Barney Windom and his fiercely loyal son Bud, especially after the rash teenager vows to kill the notorious gunslinger coming to testify against his pa.

Trekking across an unforgiving desert, Colton is unhappy to be joined by a hapless senorita and her precious "pequeno." He's even more unhappy when a pair of desperadoes dog his trail.

A wounded Colton finds a safe harbor with a lonely prairie woman while on the lam from an outlaw gang determined to kill him for witnessing their stagecoach robbery and murder.

William Colton is deputized as a United States Federal Marshal after they receive a letter from Preacher Whatley for protection. A man by the name of Matthew Reynolds had just been released from prison, and the Reverend is afraid he is on his way to kill him. But after talking to the Reverend in person, Colton learns the real reason for the letter: Reverend Whatley wants to hire him to kill Reynolds, and he's willing to pay a thousand dollars for the job. Of course Colton turns down the generous offer so the Reverend orders one of his men to do the job. Colton sets ...

William Colton traveled to the abandoned town of Paradise after a bartender told him a man with a missing leg and two friends were on their way to kill Major Dichter. He led an attack on April 6, 1862 that killed or injured over 100 men. These three men believe he knew the attack was impossible, and were furthermore upset that he received medals and pensions because of it. They planned to hang him. Colton protested, stating they should hold a trial for this man. They agreed to let Colton be the defense.

While sleeping in his camp one night, Colton woke up to hear a man calling him "Pete." Colton called out, asking who he was. The man shot at him, and Colton had no choice but to shoot back. Unfortunately, Colton killed the soldier. He took the soldier's body into the town where the 23rd U.S. Calvary was temporarily posted. The Lieutenant began hinting at accusations. Colton promised the Lieutenant he would get to the bottom of things, and he refused to give up even after the town kicked him out. What secrets would he discover?

In an abandoned salt mine, Colton engages a dying young guitar-playing gunfighter in a final conversation while lurking outside a ruthless crook plots to get his hands on the dying man's loot.

Colton follows instructions left by the late Johnny Sharp to have the four people closest to the deceased gunman meet at the undertaker's parlor.

Colton is shot and left for dead in a stagecoach robbery, then finds a little girl riding his horse.

Colton sees a sheriff killed, then is knocked out when he examines the body, and accused of the murder himself. But he recognizes the real killer---the deputy who is now the new sheriff.

A band of reformed outlaws enlist Colton to help them fight a cattle baron.

Colton helps a sheriff hunt down the bandits who burned a town down.