San Francisco hires Paladin to protect a Chinese detective.

The Hatchet Man

Richard Boone

Andrew V. McLaglen

Shimon Wincelberg

Fight at Adobe Wells

The Misguided Father

Two of the three men who brought in and helped to hang an outlaw have been killed by an assassin. The third man, Paladin, is staying at a hotel where one of the guests is the killer.

First, Catch a Tiger

Kovak is reserving the entire hotel in Laredo, Texas for Sam Tuttle, a famous unbeatable gunfighter. After Paladin is forced to kill Kovak, Tuttle must challenge Paladin in order to keep his reputation in tact.

Episode in Laredo

Paladin is hired to deliver three mail-order brides to Bend-In-The-River.

Les Girls

Paladin stops to ask a stranger for directions and is invited to share his campsite. Later, when a posse arrives, the man announces that Paladin is the murderer they have been looking for.

The Posse

Ainslee is a well-dressed, middle-aged gentleman and a reluctant gunfighter. He hires Paladin for a very strange task.

Shot by Request

Mexican rancher Don Luis Ortega hires Paladin to escort his daughter across the border into the United States. However a peon from her father's ranch is determined to stop them and take her for himself.

Pancho

Paladin is hired by the owner of ""The Frenchman's"" restaurant to take a plate glass window to the town of Panamint, a wild gold-mining town.

Fragile

Retired and wealthy General Crommer is dying. He asks Padadin, who holds an old grudge against him, to do him a favor. He asks him to take a message of forgiveness to another man who hates Crommer. A favor which might get Paladin killed.

The Unforgiven

A young man convicted of murder is scheduled for execution, and Paladin attempts to intervene before it's too late.

The Black Handkerchief

Paladin is drawn into a dispute between a male farmer and a female cattle rancher, with a fortune in buried treasure at stake.

The Golden Toad

Ellsworth believes he has had an old tiger curse put on him and that a tiger is coming to kill him. He hires Paladin to protect him from the tiger.

Tiger

An old friend of Paladin's requests his help after a family member is killed in an Indian raid.

Champagne Safari

The town of Santa Maria, New Mexico is in need of a new town marshal, and one man, Charley Red Dog, is out to get the job. However, he may not survive unless Paladin lends a hand.

Charley Red Dog

While in Oregon, Paladin makes a new friend, Monk, who he helps get out of a group of unruly herders.

The Naked Gun

When his five-year prison term for crimes committed during the Civil War is up, Ben Harvey is eager to return to his hometown of Gila. Harvey hires Paladin to keep him protected on the way to Gila.

One Came Back

The Army asks Paladin to find an Army colonel who disappeared with his Apache wife. There are rumors of an Army officer working with the Apaches and inciting them to war. Paladin is asked to find and stop him at all costs.

The Prophet

Cynthia Palmer hires Paladin to clean up the town of Cedar Wells and get a gang out. She also wants him to send her schoolteacher nephew named Laredo back east. Paladin decides he can restore Laredo's self-respect and get rid of the gang at the same time.

Day of the Badman

Ike Brennan hires Paladin to escort him through Indian country in order to exchange goods for his wife who is being held hostage by the Indians.

The Pledge

Jenny Lake goes to Paladin for help to ward off Wilson, a suitor who is pursuing her. But when Jenny disappears, Paladin must follow a trail to find her.

Jenny

Paladin is hired to help an Indian chief whose son is awaiting execution by the U.S. Army. The chief wants Paladin to bring his body back following the execution to ensure he has a proper burial. However, once Paladin makes contact with the chief's son, he begins to wonder if he's actually guilty.

Return to Fort Benjamin

Aaron Bell is on the warpath to bring his brother's lynchers to justice. Paladin is hired to protect a town from Bell.

The Night the Town Died

Richard Boone as Paladin is on the road with 4 others when a man in the distance yells to them and then falls off a ledge in an 'impossible to get to space.'  John Hoyt plays a doctor who begins to assume the man is dead, but really, everyone is unsure, and worried.  The entire episode concerns the issue of mercy killing.  Richard Rust plays a young man named Corey who is deathly afraid of heights but who tries to get down to the man to make certain.  At one point, they even feel perhaps they should shoot the man just in case he's alive.  This episode shows exactly why the show is called a psychological drama western.  It is very intense and intellectual, with superb acting.  The other two characters are a man who hides his fear by constantly laughing and a man who cannot stop saying he cannot take risks because he has a family.

The Ledge

Paladin is accused of stealing a painting in the small town of Bonanza.

The Lady on the Wall

An old friend of Paladin is shot and killed in Paladin's hotel room. After returning the body for burial, Paladin sets out to find the killer.

Paladin is hired to escort Jonathan Guilder through Indian country.

Allison Windrom hires Paladin to stop her father and Graham Beckley from dueling.

The Gladiators

Tamsen Sommers is advertising for a husband, which presents a problem since she already has one. The husband hires Paladin to protect him from the men competing for the right to marry her.

Love of a Bad Woman

A Hawaiian prince is killed in Paladin's hotel room and Paladin must find out why the prince was targeted.

An International Affair

After she attempts to shoot Rudy Rossback and fails, Eve McIntosh offers Paladin $1,000 to kill him. After Paladin turns her down she hires another  gunman.

Lady with a Gun

Doggie Kramer wins a gunfight, as the whole town he had been bullying watches, but ends up wounded. He needs Paladin to help him get out of town before the townspeople take their revenge.

Never Help the Devil

Paladin is taking Blandings back to stand trial and stops at a ferry crossing. They are captured and held along with three others. Someone is coming and they are being held until he arrives. Each thinks it's their worst enemy coming to kill them and all they can do is wait.

Ambush

Ben Huttner is a fugitive wanted for manslaughter. He is also the illegitimate son of a very wealthy man and stands to inherit his five million dollar estate, but he must first come back and stand trial. Paladin is hired to find him and either bring him back to stand trial or get him to sign a paper giving up his inheritance.

Black Sheep

A man who left Paladin to die in his place writes to Paladin and asks for his  help.

Full Circle

Adam Mirakian is wanted for a murder he claims his twin brother Sam committed. He hires Paladin to find his brother and clear his name. The only person who can tell them apart is Adam's wife, Beth.

The Twins

Billy Banjo, a friend of Paladin, asks Paladin to help with a fair election.

The Campaign of Billy Banjo

Paladin is hired to find Colonel Celine in order to get him to sign an important document.

Ransom

Paladin is hired by Morgan Gibbs to bring in his son, who is wanted for murder. There is a $500 dead or alive bounty on him and Morgan offers to pay Paladin $5000 to bring him in alive. When Paladin brings him in draped over his horse, Paladin is put on trial for killing him.

The Trial

Mrs. Kilmer is dying and asks Paladin to find her missing son, Martin Kilmer. Edwards, a detective, managed to trace Martin as far as Harper City, where Edwards was then killed. Fred Harper, a half crazy man who runs Harper City, doesn't want Paladin to succeed.

The Search

Have Gun – Will Travel is an American Western television series that aired on CBS from 1957 through 1963. It was rated number three or number four in the Nielsen ratings every year of its first four seasons. It was one of the few television shows to spawn a successful radio version. The radio series debuted November 23, 1958.

The television show is presently shown on the Encore-Western channel.

Have Gun – Will Travel was created by Sam Rolfe and Herb Meadow and produced by Frank Pierson, Don Ingalls, Robert Sparks, and Julian Claman. There were 225 episodes of the TV series, 24 written by Gene Roddenberry. Other contributors included Bruce Geller, Harry Julian Fink, Don Brinkley and Irving Wallace. Andrew McLaglen directed 101 episodes and 19 were directed by series star Richard Boone.

The Hatchet Man

Seasons6

Season 3 Episodes39

Cast1

Crew2

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Episode Summary