They Told Me You Were Dead: Have Gun, Will Travel (March 27, 1960)

“They Told Me You Were Dead” is an episode of Have Gun, Will Travel, the old-time radio show, first broadcast March 27, 1960. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Paladin receives word that Ellen Stonham, a woman he loved and believed dead for twelve years, is alive and needs his help in Dakota territory. He travels to a remote schoolhouse to find her now married to Mr. Carson with a son who has been taken by Indians. Paladin agrees to rescue the boy despite the complications and dangers involved.

San Francisco in 1875 and Dakota territory near Fort Rinaldi, including a schoolhouse and reservation lands

Characters: Paladin, Ellen Stonham/Mrs. Carson, Mr. Baxter, Mr. Carson, Red Cloud, Jimmy (Ellen's son)

Listen for: Paladin's reunion with Ellen after twelve years and his discovery of her marriage and missing son; the tension between his past love and present circumstances

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.