Maggie O'Bannion: Have Gun, Will Travel (April 5, 1959)

“Maggie O'Bannion” is an episode of Have Gun, Will Travel, the old-time radio show, first broadcast April 5, 1959. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

Listen to Have Gun, Will Travel free, live around the clock: every episode, in the order it first aired. No sign-up.

What happens

Paladin is hired by a gentleman in San Francisco to investigate why three of his ranch riders have gone missing on the open range. His investigation leads him to the remote O'Bannion ranch near the Brazos River, where he meets the ranch's owner, the refined Miss Margaret O'Bannion, and her foreman Cyrus who has just departed on a cattle drive. Stripped of his weapons and hired as kitchen help, Paladin must uncover the truth about the missing men while working undercover on the ranch.

The O'Bannion ranch near the Brazos River in Texas, 1875, and San Francisco's Carlton Hotel

Characters: Paladin, Miss Margaret O'Bannion, Cookie, Cyrus, Webster, Jake

Listen for: The contrast between Miss Margaret's refined, educated manner and the rough ranch hands; Paladin's clever deduction about his identity from a callus on his thumb; the mysterious disappearance of three ranch riders and the foreman's sudden cattle drive

Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.