Gunsmoke
Jaekel
Season 16, Episode 19 · Aired 1971-02-01
Synopsis
Carl Jaekel and Beth Wilson were a couple a decade ago, when his temper caused him to kill a man who had insulted her. After eight years in prison, he foils an escape attempt by killing two other prisoners, and is granted a pardon. What the warden doesn't know is that Jaekel has gone completely psychotic and engineered the escape attempt himself, killing his partners in an attempt to look heroic when they were found out. What Jaekel doesn't know is that Beth, who wrote sympathetic letters to him throughout his imprisonment, is actually deathly afraid of him. Without telling him, she found a kindly gentleman whom she married, and now is the mother of a young daughter. Beth keeps up the charade for a while when Jaekel gets out, but he's bound to find out eventually -- and he does, kidnapping Beth's daughter in an effort to force her into repudiating her husband and taking up with him again.
In the series
This episode is part of Gunsmoke (1955–1975) on CBS.
The long-running western that turned Dodge City into a weekly moral court.
Key cast
- James Arness as Marshal Matt Dillon
- Amanda Blake as Miss Kitty Russell
- Milburn Stone as Doc Adams
- Dennis Weaver as Chester Goode
- Ken Curtis as Festus Haggen