Jailbait Janet

Originally Aired: June 28, 1959 Gunsmoke #377, "Jailbait Janet," Matt Dillon and Chester investigate a brazen train robbery where three masked bandits made off with fifty thousand dollars in gold and left the baggage clerk mortally wounded. The trail leads them to what appears to be a simple homesteading family traveling by covered wagon—Dan Everly, his son Jerry, and daughter Janet. When Matt discovers their saddle horses and a third person hiding in the brush, the truth emerges: this desperate father and his two children are the train robbers. Everly claims he had a right to the money after the railroad burned his wheat field and refused to honor his claim, but his justification rings hollow when the baggage clerk dies from his wounds. With the Everly family in custody but refusing to reveal where they buried the stolen gold, Matt faces a dilemma. Railroad agent J.L. Crocker demands immediate results and grows suspicious of Matt's decision to let the eighteen-year-old Janet stay in Kitty's care rather than lock her up in the men's jail. As Janet settles into her temporary arrangement at the Long Branch, the pressure mounts on Matt to recover the missing money and deliver justice for a crime that pits a father's desperation against the law.