01x37 - Bounty Hunter

[bunniefuu]

[knife thuds]

♪ Jim Bowie, Jim Bowie

♪ He was a bold adventurin' man ♪

♪ Jim Bowie, Jim Bowie

♪ Battled for right with a powerful hand ♪

♪ His blade was tempered and so was he ♪

♪ Indestructible steel was he

♪ Jim Bowie, Jim Bowie

♪ He was a fighter, a fearless and mighty adventurin' man ♪

- [Jim] In the 1830s, New Orleans was a hiding place

for fugitives from all over the land,

murderers, thieves, swindlers, rascals of every sort.

And on the heels of the fugitives came the bounty hunters.

A breed of men as dangerous and ruthless

as those they sought.

Their goal, the rewards on the heads of the wanted men.

- I need your advice, Jim.

- [Jim] Huh?

- I can't keep it from you any longer.

I, I've been leading a double life,

and I've got to confess.

- What's going on here?

- This man is Teeters Hill.

He's got a bounty on his head.

I've been after him for years.

- What're you talking about?

This is Justinian Tebbs, the Louisiana Courier.

Let him go.

[fists thudding] [men grunting]

[chorus humming]

- You all right, Justy?

- Well, I think something's broken, Jim.

- I'll get you to the doctor.

[chorus humming]

Tebbs was hurt and I was bewildered.

My friend with a price on his head?

But from his own lips I heard him say

he was leading a double life.

The next morning, the story began to unfold.

[chorus humming]

- Oh, Justy.

[chorus humming]

Listen, I'm gonna get you out of this.

- You are?

- I don't care what you've done in the past.

I mean, a friend is no friend at all

if you can't be of service in time of need.

- [clears throat] That really touches my heart, Jim.

- There's a ship sailing for France tonight at midnight.

- No, I ah, I can't do it, Jim.

- Why not?

- [Justinian] Well, you see,

I've got a lot of debts scattered around

and ah, I ah, I can't leave owing money.

- I'll pay your debts for you.

- Yeah, I bet you will [laughs].

[snorts] Ouch, ooh [laughing]

- Have you lost your mind?

- Jim, those bounty hunters last night,

they weren't after me.

They were after Teeters Hill.

- I know, Justy, I know.

I know all about it.

You're Teeters Hill.

- I know Teeters Hill and I'm a dead ringer for him, Jim.

Look, I, I, I've bought him clothes.

I've given him money to eat on.

- Look, I'm just a country boy from Opelousas.

I don't catch on very fast.

- Jim, do you realize that one man out of three

in this country can't read or write?

- What's that gotta do with Teeters Hill?

- Well, did you ever stop to think what happens to a man

who can't write when he's got a problem

that demands a written letter?

What does he do?

- I don't know.

I guess he goes to a public letter writer.

- Exactly, and he pours out his soul.

That's my double life, Jim.

For weeks, I've had a little office

in which I write letters for such men.

- Why?

- In 1818, he was a dragoon with Andy Jackson at Pensacola.

He was mistakenly identified by a drunken servant

as a marauder who had shot and k*lled a householder

during the looting of a Spanish house.

He was sentenced to death, but he escaped,

and he's been on the run ever since, a hunted man.

- So, you're a, he's a deserter as well as a m*rder*r.

- Well yes, he's a deserter, but, but a m*rder*r.

That poor devil.

Of all the cases that have come through my office,

his is the one that tugs most at the heart,

and now I'm not even gonna show up tonight.

Lord knows what he'll do.

- So, you're supposed to write a letter

for Teeters Hill tonight.

Is that right?

- At eight o'clock.

If they'd only leave him alone, Jim.

He's had a half a dozen fresh starts.

Everything going great, then those bounty hunters.

- Where is this office of yours, Justy?

- Number 30 Rue Le Dreux.

Jim, Jim, you could write that letter.

Please, Jim, oh [gasps].

The key's in the drawer.

- I don't write a very neat hand.

- Well, it's neat enough,

and Jim, I swear he's innocent.

I'd bet my last dollar on it.

- Well, I suppose I could put down what he has to say.

- Yeah, and, and warn him, Jim, warn him.

Tell him, tell him what happened to me last night.

Tell him he's gotta get out of New Orleans.

If only to save me from further mayhem.

- All right, I'll do it.

[chorus humming]

- Bowie ain't here, let's go.

- Wait a minute.

They say he comes in here at least once a day.

- But listen--

- Gentlemen, listen, there were no eyewitnesses,

but rumor has it that it took Jim Bowie all of 30 seconds

to lay the bounty hunters flat.

[patrons laughing]

- Evening, gentlemen.

- Ah, Mr. Bowie, I was just reading

the gentlemen of your heroics.

It must've been quite a fracas.

- [chuckles] Newspaper talk, Pierre.

Mr. Tebbs and I just ran afoul

of a couple of those dirty, lowdown.

Well, dog my cat, here they are,

the two of them just as good as new.

- Where are you hiding Teeters Hill Mr. Bowie?

- Well, you're persistent, aren't you?

- I asked you, Bowie, where's Teeters Hill?

- Well, I can tell you where Justinian Tebbs is,

but I won't,

and if I knew where Teeters Hill was,

which I don't,

I don't think I'd tell you that either.

- Has it ever occur to you

that Tebbs and Hill might be one in the same person?

- Look, I've known Justinian Tebbs

ever since he got out of Princeton.

Now, why don't the two of you just run along?

- You don't think that criminals

should be brought to justice?

- Yes, I do, by sheriffs and regularly appointed marshals.

Outta be a law about it.

Might keep fellas like you

from making the kind of mistake you made last night.

- Teeters Hill is in this town and we're gonna get him.

- Why don't you go to the police?

- Because in New Orleans,

they're more stupid than their citizens.

- Oh, yeah, yeah, we're a pretty ignorant lot down here,

but we don't go around tracking down human beings

for the few miserable dollars that may be on their heads.

Why you!

- Hold it, Jim, hold it.

- Wait a minute.

I'll take care of you later.

- You just say where and when any time, day or night.

- Gentlemen, gentlemen, please, not at La Croix De Sud.

- Come on, Press, let's get outta here.

- You're as stubborn as an army mule.

Why in tarnation didn't you tell him who you are?

- Well, did he introduce himself to me last night?

Now, you stay here, watch him,

and follow him when he comes out.

I'm going back to the inn.

I've gotta write a report for the 8:30 stage.

[chorus humming]

[knocking on door]

- Ah, Mr. Hill?

- [Teeters] Who are you?

- My name's Bowie.

I'm a friend of Justinian Tebbs.

He's in hospital right now.

He asked me to meet you here and write your letter for you.

Well now, look at this.

Man, it's amazing.

- How do I know you're a friend of Tebbs?

- Huh, oh, well ah, read what it says in today's paper.

Oh, I was forgetting, if you could read or write,

you wouldn't be here, would you?

- What does it say in there?

- Well, it says how Tebbs got hurt.

Ah, two bounty hunters who were after you, jumped on him.

We ran them off.

- That's too bad.

- Oh, he'll be all right.

He ah, thinks you'd better get outta town.

- Yeah.

- Well, let's get started.

The mail stage leaves in half an hour.

Ah, what do you wanna say?

- Maybe nothing, I never seen you before in my life.

Why should I trust you?

- All right, there's a public letter writer on Canal Street.

- Yeah, I know about him.

He makes copies everything he writes for the police.

- Well, make up your mind.

Either I write your letter or we both go our own ways.

- All right.

- Who's it to?

- My mother, Mr. Bowie, Marsha Hill,

care of the postmaster, Memphis.

Dearest Mother, you better not

write me in New Orleans again.

I'm moving on right away to Texas.

I'll let you know where.

I remember what you told me when I was a little boy,

that I'd be lucky if I found

one true friend in my whole lifetime.

Well, I have found him in New Orleans.

His name is Justinian Tebbs.

You got all that?

- Almost.

- And tell her I'm still trying

to clear my name, that's all.

I didn't mean to be ungrateful, Mr. Bowie.

I just have to be very careful.

- That's all right.

Anything else I can do for you?

- Well, you wouldn't happen to know

where I can buy a good horse, would you?

- I'll give ya a note to a friend of mine, Johnnie Rico.

He runs the Five Sons Stables on Avenue Dupre.

Yeah, I can understand how you gotta be careful.

For all you know, I could say they'd sh**t you on sight.

- I trust you, Mr. Bowie.

It was slow in coming, but.

- Well, if you're gonna make that stage.

- I'll go, how much do I owe you?

- It's on the house.

- Well, I, um.

- Something on your mind, Mr. Hill?

- Mr. Tebbs didn't send anything for me, did he?

- Was he suppose to?

- Oh, it's all right.

Probably would've been a long time

before I could've paid it back.

Well, forget it.

Thanks for everything.

- Hold on, how much was he ah, supposed to send you?

- Oh, it was a lot of money, Mr. Bowie, $500.00.

I understand with him being in the hospital and all.

Was suppose to get me started again in the cattle business.

- I could ah, I could let you have it.

- Mr. Bowie, I don't know when I could pay it back to you.

- When you can, or not at all.

- I don't do things that way, Mr. Bowie.

I'll send it back care of Mr. Tebbs.

That was ah, the Five Sons Stables, Avenue Dupre.

- That's right, ask for Johnnie Rico.

Hey, get going here, go on!

[fists thudding] [men grunting]

[glass crashing]

[fists thudding] [men grunting]

Now's your chance, Hill, go on, get going.

I want these men arrested on the charge of housebreaking,

unlawful entry, disturbing the peace.

- This man is seriously in trouble, Mr. Bowie.

- Well, get him outta here.

Get him to a hospital.

Money crazy, blood thirsty bounty hunters.

- Now, just a minute.

- You keep out of this.

The last 24 hours, I heard enough outta you bounty hunters.

The Captain ain't no bounty hunter.

He's with the United States Army.

- Army?

- His credentials seem to be in order, monsieur.

- Of course they are and I'm Sergeant Harper,

Captain Purdom's command.

- But Teeters Hill is an innocent man.

- Innocent, he's got five murders to his record,

besides being a deserter.

Now, here's something I want you to understand!

The Captain shouldn't have been masquerading the way he was,

but he's my friend and if he dies,

you're gonna answer to me!

- You're name please, monsieur?

- Bowie, Jim Bowie.

Justy.

- Oh, Jim, Jim, did, did you seem him,

Teeters, Teeters Hill?

- And this ain't Teeters Hill?

- Of course not.

How could you think such a thing?

Why this is Mr. Justinian Tebbs, the Louisiana Courier.

Why he's been right here on this bed

ever since I brought him here last night.

- Well, I'll be, never seen anything like that before.

- Who's this?

- Oh ah, Mr. Tebbs, Sergeant Harper, United States Army.

- United States Army?

- The man who hit you last night is his commanding officer.

He's in another room down the hall, unconscious.

- How, how'd he get here?

- I put him there with my fists.

I was helping your friend, Hill, on his way to Texas,

which probably means he's heading for New York.

Sergeant, will you please tell Mr. Tebbs

what kind of a man he's been writin' letters for?

- The Army records say he k*lled three men and two women,

and that's since his first m*rder in Pensacola in 1818

when he was just a big country kid.

- No.

- And here's something for your book, Justy.

Teeters Hill can read and write better than you can.

- Well, well then why, why did he come to me

to write his letters for him?

- All part of the buildup to get himself $500.00,

which he got from me.

- What, what're we gonna do?

- Well, I'll tell ya.

Only because you're such a fine judge of character.

I got the police watching

the stage depot and all the wharfs.

- The police, ha!

- Don't worry, I sent Teeters Hill

to the Five Sons Livery Stable to buy himself a horse.

Of course, he won't go there.

I got Johnnie Rico and his five sons and his six grandsons

watching every livery stable.

So, if tries to get out of town, we'll catch him.

If he stays put, we'll smoke him out.

- I guess this is all my fault, isn't it?

- Well, I guess we could both eat a little crow.

After all, I'm the one that gave him the $500.00, aren't I?

[speaking in foreign language]

- Mr. Bowie, the man you're after is buying a horse.

- He is, where?

- At old Paddy McGurk's Livery Stable.

- Come on!

[chorus humming]

- Take the town mare.

She'll carry a man your weight all day and half the night.

- Look, old man, I said I'm taking that stallion.

Why am I arguing with you?

Don't intend to pay for him anyway.

- What's that you say?

Get out, any horse you ride out of here

will be over my dead body.

- All right.

[g*n firing]

- You stay there, Luigi.

[horse whinnying loudly]

[fists thudding] [men grunting]

[chorus humming]

- Sergeant, I give you Teeters Hill.

[chorus humming]

- Bowie, there's a lot of money on the head of Teeters Hill.

By rights it belongs to you.

- Well, Paddy McGurk deserves a fine funeral.

Johnnie Rico's grandson oughta have a mite.

The rest you can give to his family if he.

- I've been through a lot of soldiering with this man,

and it doesn't seem right to lose him now

after all these years.

I told him not to come into New Orleans

like the rest of those God darned bounty hunters.

Just had to lead to trouble.

I'd like to see how you'd make out with him

if things was equal.

Afraid that time will never come.

- [chuckles] That's where you're wrong, Press.

- Well, now.

- Pardon the intrusion, gentlemen [chuckles].

I ah, I thought you might like to watch me eat my breakfast.

I don't know if you're gonna appreciate this, Captain,

but I'm sure Mr. Bowie will.

- [Harper] What is that?

- That gentlemen is good old-fashioned Louisiana crow.

[chorus humming]

- [Announcer] And here's the star of our show, Scott Forbes.

- Hello, everyone, hope you enjoyed tonight's show,

and will be with us again next week

for another exciting adventure in the life of Jim Bowie.

♪ Jim Bowie, Jim Bowie

♪ He was a fighter, a fearless, and mighty adventurin' man ♪