Burning Wagon

Originally Aired: November 30, 1958 Gunsmoke #347, "Burning Wagon," Matt Dillon and Chester ride upon a burning wagon on the prairie outside Dodge City, its cartridges exploding in the heat. Searching the area, they discover a dead man shot in the back and scattered belongings that suggest a woman was traveling with him. Following the creek, they find her alive but gravely wounded with a gunshot to the head, muttering deliriously about "my boy." Doc Adams treats her, but she remains in a confused mental state, unable to provide answers about what happened. Back in Dodge, Matt spots a horse tied outside the Long Branch with a new army carbine just like the one found at the fire scene. The saddle bears the initials J.R., belonging to Joe Ramsay, a whiskey-soaked drifter who claims he simply found the weapon lying on the prairie. Matt arrests him for murder, but when the woman unexpectedly appears at the jail insisting on speaking with the marshal, she makes a shocking declaration about Ramsay's guilt that turns the investigation in an unexpected direction.