Outlaws
Thirty A Month

Rance Hollister:  Steve Forrest
Sam Yadkin:  Robert Culp
Billy Hooten:  Warren Oates
Brazos:  Garry Walberg
Written by Carey Wilber

In this pilot episode, trail box Rance Hollister has saved for ten years to buy two sections of land south of Guthrie.  At trail's end, he collects his wages, quits his job, and heads to the bank to get the $4,000 he has saved, only to discover that the bank clerk has absconded with the bank's monies.  The shock of losing everything he has worked for sends him over the edge.

Hollister's trail hands are Sam, Billy, and Brazos, and Brazos brags about once riding with the Dalton Gang.  He says the only way to ever get ahead in the world is to either marry the boss's daughter or turn to the outlaw trail.   Billy then makes mention that he would rather not be born with nothing, never get nothing, and die like nothing.  In their first encounter in jail, Deputy Heck Martin bails them out, but Heck does not have the $30, at which point Will Foreman burst out laughing because now Frank Caine is really bailing out the outlaws, which is something Frank Caine would never do.

When Rance decides to recover his stolen money, Brazos and Billy willingly throw in with him.  They think of it as a game.  Sam, on the other hand, only wants to see his friends come out all right, and he reluctantly agrees to go along.

Things don't go well for Rance and his gang.  Their first attempt at robbing a train only nets them $120, and they leave a man dead in the process...the only man who knew the combination to the safe, which they were never able to open.

When Will Foreman and Heck Martin arrive on the scene, they look upon the train robbery as being done by amateurs.  Shortly afterwards, they discover that Rance Hollister was one of the robbers, and everything suddenly begins to make sense to the two marshals.

The next robbery get Billy shot.  Gravely wounded, he is taken to the back room of a saloon, where the bullet is removed.  Billy is still in no condition to travel when Rance announces they must leave.  As they head to the land Rance had hoped to purchase, they are ambushed.  Brazos dies.  It is now just the three of them, and Billy is failing fast.  When Will and Heck catch up to them, Rance is wounded in the exchange of gunfire.  By the time Will and Heck manage to subdue the outlaws, both Billy and Rance are dead.  Sam makes mention that they robbed a train for wages...thirty dollars a month.

It is never explicitly explained, but this episode (and those which come after in Season One) give the impression that Heck Martin is the nephew of Will Foreman.   Heck is always saying either "Uncle Will" or "Uncle Willy," and it is not only a term of endearment, it appears to be a family relationship.

Oh, you may be fast on the trigger
Oh, you may be lightning on the draw
Come sooner or later you figure
To tangle with the law
You're playing in a losing game
In the end, it will always be the same.

Outlaws! Runnin' from the hang rope.
Outlaws! Runnin' from the gun.
Outlaws! Ridin' through the night trails
Hidin' from the sun.
But there's no use hidin' when the law starts ridin'
And there's no use runnin' when the law starts gunnin'
For the Outlaws!

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