The Boss: Have Gun, Will Travel (January 31, 1960)

“The Boss” is an episode of Have Gun, Will Travel, the old-time radio show, first broadcast January 31, 1960. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Paladin is hired by the wealthy rancher Ira Stokes to kill a man named Carl Nielsen for $3,000, but Paladin refuses the job. Arriving in the town of Alder Bend, Colorado, Paladin witnesses Stokes's brutal dominance over people and animals alike, and discovers that Nielsen is a local attorney standing up to Stokes's tyranny.

Alder Bend, Colorado, 1875. The Stokes ranch and the main street of town.

Characters: Paladin, Ira Stokes, Carl Nielsen, Leah Stokes, Hey Boy

Listen for: Paladin's refusal to become a hired killer despite mounting financial incentives, and his sympathy for the one man in town who refuses to bow to Stokes's domination.

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.