Night of the Executioner

A lot of name guest stars appear in this Big Valley story about a carefully crafted plot to assassinate US Representative Harlan Warde. It seems as though town kingpin David Sheiner is mad about a bill that Warde is introducing setting aside a lot of open range for preservation. Then as now special interests are against that.

The only problem is that Lee Majors is passing through town and sees and hears certain things that might just gum up the works. Like the real paid assassin Dennis Hopper riding away from the scene when he should be locked up in jail. Majors and Hopper have some history before Majors arrived at the Barkley ranch.

Sheiner is really one malevolent and unscrupulous human being. But I like best of all Peter Whitney as his handpicked and most corrupt sheriff. Whitney's constant laughing will make your skin crawl.

This is a good one.

This episode was well written and well performed. It is one of those episodes that you will remember long after watching. A show that is worth seeing more times than once.

While Heath is traveling through a strange town, the town is in celebration mode as Congressman Oakley is set to visit. With the motel full, Heath spend the night outside of town. The next morning Heath sees a known outlaw named Jimmy Sweetwater (Dennis Hopper)just as the congressman is assassinated.

Later Heath runs into Sheriff Kincade and a town leader named Gabe Simmons. When Heath tells them he saw Sweetwater they advise that it could not be Sweetwater because he is locked up in the jail.

As Heath comes back into town he visits the jail. True enough Sweetwater is in jail. Plus Gabe Simmons advises that they have a confession from the town drunk about the murder.

As Heath does more investigation it becomes apparent that Simmons and the Sheriff are becoming upset. So now they accuse Heath of paying the drunk to kill the Congressman. Heath is locked up in a cell next to Sweetwater.

Simmons comes up with a scheme to kill Heath. He gets Sweetwater to fake an escape and take Heath with him. When outside they will shoot Heath and claim he was fleeing during an escape. But when the trap is played out, something goes terrible wrong for some of the players.

This is a show that is worth watching. A surprising gem.