Wild West Chronicles Season 3, Episode 5: The Gold Rush Detectives

Bat Masterson to the Rescue

In 1880, Bat Masterson's old friend, Ben Thompson, asks him to help save his brother from the gallows. Ben's brother, Billy, has evidently shot off a man's thumb in a gunfight and is wounded himself. While Billy claims self-defense, an overzealous sheriff is eager to see him hang. Though he is no longer a lawman, and he lacks any kind of legal authority, Bat agrees to travel to Nebraska to talk to the sheriff. When his common-sense appeal fails to impress the sheriff, Bat hatches an elaborate plan to help Billy escape, which only succeeds when Buffalo Bill shows up to lend a hand. Years later, when Bat's editor balks at printing the tale, Bat tries to explain the difficulties of dispensing justice in the Old West.

Billy the Kid: Birth of an Outlaw

Teenaged fugitive William Bonney is given a second chance when a kindhearted ranch owner, John Tunstall, offers him a job. Within days, Tunstall becomes a close friend and something of a father figure to young Bonney. But when his new employer is killed in cold blood, Bonney reverts to his criminal ways and vows to seek vengeance. Enraged and once again alone, Bonney faces off with the men who gunned down Tunstall and the bullets begin to fly. Years later, gunfighter-turned-newspaperman Bat Masterson enters the campaign headquarters of congressional candidate Robert Widenmann, who also worked for Tunstall, to find out how a young William Bonney was transformed into the notorious Billy the Kid.

Bass Reeves Tracks Belle Starr

As U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves attempts to arrest Belle Starr and her outlaw husband, Belle asks for 24 hours to find someone to care for her young daughter, Pearl. When the Starr family decides to flee instead, the Marshal must track them down.

Burton Mossman Crosses the Line

After failing to capture the ruthless murderer Augustine Chacon on U.S. soil, Arizona Ranger Burton Mossman relinquishes his badge to cross the border. In Mexico, he goes undercover as a horse thief to join Chacon's gang and spring his trap.

Sister Blandina and the Killer

Calamity Jane Saves the Day

When a deadly smallpox outbreak spreads, Calamity Jane works to save the lives of the infected citizens who once treated her with such contempt.

The Many Faces of Charles Siringo

The Many Faces of Charles Siringo

The Trials of Temple Houston

The Discoveries of George McJunkin

Al Jennings and the Legend of Dick West

Annie Oakley & Buffalo Bill's Wild West Showdown

The Four Dead in Five Seconds Gunfight

After two Mexican vaqueros cross the border in search of their stolen cattle, they are gunned down by the rustlers. When El Paso's newly appointed marshal arrests local ranch hands for the murders, he sparks one of the West's most infamous gunfights.