Paladin Secured a Different Sort of Justice in ‘The Hanging of Aaron Gibbs’

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In a feature spotlighting the best pop culture has to offer, Brian examines how Paladin helped achieve a different sort of justice in Have Gun - Will Travel's "The Hanging of Aaron Gibbs."



Today, we look at how Paladin helped achieve a different sort of justice in Have Gun – Will Travel‘s “The Hanging of Aaron Gibbs.”

This is “All the Best Things,” a spotlight on the best TV episodes, movies, albums, etc.

This is a Year of Great TV Episodes, where every day this year, we’ll take a look at great TV episodes. Note that I’m not talking about “Very Special Episodes” or episodes built around gimmicks, but just “normal” episodes of TV shows that are notable only because of how good they are.

All this month, I’ll be spotlighting great Black-centric TV episodes.

As I’ve noted before, the 1960s weren’t exactly a banner decade in terms of Black-centric television, so we mostly have to settle for episodes of White-starring series that devoted an episode to Black guest stars. That’s the case with this classic episode of Have Gun – Will Travel, the long-running Western TV series starring Richard Boone as the mercenary, Paladin, who would, you know, travel the country with his gun, selling his services, but also doing a lot of good on his own dime, as well.

In 1961’s Season 5 episode, “The Hanging of Aaron Gibbs,” written by future Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, Robert E. Thompson (for They Shoot Horses Don’t They?), and directed by series star, Boone, Paladin runs into a woman (played by the wonderful singer, Odetta), whose horse has given out. He takes her on the rest of her journey, which is to visit her imprisoned husband, Aaron Gibbs (Rupert Crosse, himself a future Academy Award nominee, for The Reivers).

Aaron, you see, had fallen into with a gang in the wake of the tragic death of their young son, and the gang had used some dynamite to block off an entrance as they stole the bank receipts from a local mine. Well, they horribly miscalculated the use of the dynamite, and it instead led to a cave-in of the mine, killing a number of innocent miners.

The gang sit, ready to be hanged for their crimes, when Paladin gets the wife to see her husband before his death. Odetta and Crosse get some good scenes together. The true drama of the episode is in the wake of the hangings, where Paladin has to negotiate the release of Aaron’s body for burial, as the angry townspeople want the bodies of the gang thrown into a ditch. The law says that the bodies have to be turned over, though, so Paladin makes sure that happens.

A woman in town shows the wife a turn of kindness by giving her a shawl to cover her husband’s body with. It’s tragic, and awful, and yet there really is a sense of kindness in it all.