Jack Slade

With a violent orphaned boyhood in Texas behind him, ex-cavalry trooper Jack Slade/Joseph A. Slade, using a revolver given him by his foster father, Tom Carter, quickly builds a reputation as a "legal' gunman throughout the west. As district manager for the Overland Stage Line out of Julesburg, Colorado in 1859, his killing continues. His bride, Virginia Dale, and his boss Dan Traver, watch helplessly as Slade goes his violent way. The men he is after are outlaws, chief among them the drunken Jules Reni whom Slade had replaced as the district manager for the stage line, and who has joined the gang of the Prentice boys...Rube, Tad and Ned. The Prentice gang holds up a stagecoach, and Slade, Traver and others go after them and track the outlaws to a cabin and fire it during a gunfight, in which Slade accidentally kills Old Tom, who has been working as a cook for Reni and the gang. After this, Slade turns really bad, drinking heavily and not listening to Virginia's pleas. Traver is forced to fire Slade. He is drinking in a saloon when Reni and another gunman come in and Slade is trapped. Just as Reni gets set to let Slade have it, Virginia bursts in and kills Reni's partner with a small derringer. Slade's gun accidentally cuts down an innocent stranger as he guns down Reni. Wounded, Slade bids Virginia farewell and rides out of town. The aroused citizens demand that Slade be lynched, but Traver prevails upon them to let him follow Slade and bring him back for fair trial.