Death After Dusk (2024) Movie Script

1
Summer, 1899.
Buck Creek.
A town about 50 miles east of Dallas.
A town that never caught up with the times.
Even in 1899, it was past its expiration date.
Something flowed through Buck Creek.
On this particular night, it was a girl named Anna.
The weather was like a returning friend
in the streets of Buck Creek.
This building sang due to the wind blowing
through the cracks that laid in the foundations.
Everyone was going to bed.
All the stores had closed up for the night,
except the cantina.
Anna, the sheriff's daughter, wanted to drink
and she wanted to see her sister.
- Hey Sarah, how's it going? - It's all right.
You want a drink?
I'm about to close up for the night.
- Sure.
- What do you want?
- I'll take a whiskey.
Just don't tell my dad.
Anna and Sarah weren't
the sweet kind of sisters.
Anna didn't like Buck Creek
and wanted to move to Paris.
- Thank you.
Her favorite location to read about.
Sarah held that against her.
Sarah was given a job as barkeep.
The cantina belonged to the sheriff.
But if you ask anyone in town,
they'd tell you it was Sarah's bar.
- Now, don't let my appearance ruin the fun folks.
- Are you trying to rob me?
- No, ma'am. I am not.
All I have is a scar on the sun of my face,
that looks pretty nasty.
This mask is for your protection, not mine.
- Leave your gun up here with me and you can stay.
- Now, ma'am, I don't even have one.
- Fine. What do you want to drink?
- Give me one moment.
Hello ma'am,
- Can I help you?
- Now would you grant me the pleasure
of sitting down here with you?
- Well, why would you wanna do that?
- My mother would haunt me the rest
of my days if I didn't introduce myself
to a girl as pretty as you.
- Is that right? - Well, yes it is.
- Well sit down then stranger.
- Well, I think this calls for a little celebration
between me and my new friend here.
Barkeep, two whiskeys.
- I can't have any.
- Yeah, why is that?
- 'Cause if my dad found out you'd be in big trouble.
- Well, okay.
All right. All right. All right.
- You still want one? - I'm fine. Fine.
- That's okay. So where are you from anyway?
- Actually came here from El Paso.
- It's a ways away. I've never been to El Paso.
I've only been to Dallas.
- Did you hear about the murder on Goldman's farm?
- I did actually. Terrible stuff.
- Yeah, they wouldn't drink with me either.
- Please leave me alone, Mr.
- Anna.
Anna.
I'm coming in darling.
No. No.
No. No, no Anna.
No! No Anna!
No! No! No!
- We startle you sir.
- Can I help you two?
- Do you mind telling us your name?
- Davis Grout. What the hell is this?
- Well, got the first name right.
- You know who we are?
- Yeah. I've heard of you two.
Taken down a couple gangs down near the border.
A couple fellas told me y'all
might come looking for me.
Short and Skinny.
- Short and Skinny.
I don't think you're that short.
- I don't think you're that skinny.
Thank you.
Those are dumb names.
How about you stand up?
- Whoa, whoa, whoa now. Look, look, I'm not running.
You can tie me up. Do whatever you gotta do.
I'm coming quietly.
- We aren't taking men in alive right now.
- No, we are not.
- Hold on. Well why is that?
- Well, on count of a while back,
a bounty hid a pistol in his boot.
Shot me in the shoulder.
- So I'm gonna dive against the circumstances.
- Well the circumstance here being
that regardless if I got shot by a bounty,
who hid a pistol in his boot or not.
When you all went on your little killing spree
in Denton, you stabbed the hangman.
- No hangman to cheat.
Go ahead and fill your hand
and let's get this over with.
- You want me to shoot you?
- Well, the way I see it,
ain't right to shoot a man that's unarmed.
So how about you fill your hand.
You take a shot at us. We take a shot at you.
You might hit me. You could kill me.
Whatever, world moves on.
But Short, just so happens
to be the fastest man I've ever met.
He will kill you.
- What if I'm faster than him?
- You're not.
- You know, I heard they had a place around here.
We can actually get your picture taken.
- That's interesting.
Maybe we should do it.
- Maybe.
- Hey, chewing is allowed boys but spitting ain't.
- I ain't even chewing in the first place.
Denton's nice.
I like it here.
- Yes, it's not too bad. I guess.
What do you think about maybe settling down,
having a bit of a life?
- Yeah.
I don't know man.
- Hey, you two, Short and Skinny?
I guess so.
- This here for you.
- Haven't even taken a sip
yet and you're trying to charge?
- That's from Sheriff Buck Creek.
- Great.
- Sir, I just make the drinks.
- What do you think that is?
- Nothing good. It's never good.
- Yeah, I guess never really thought about it like that.
- You think we're bad people?
- Who's to be the judge of that, Davis Grout?
- Depends on what you believe.
- Don't, 'cause I know what this is.
I know exactly what you're doing,
'cause you've done it before
and you're gonna do it again.
You've been reading that Bible.
- I mean the story's in there,
the people in there,
whether they did right or
wrong, your story lives forever.
So does their legacy.
- So you think if you just quit bounty hunting
and become a preacher and move
to some small town somewhere
and maybe you get a page in the next Bible.
- I'd like to be remembered for a good deed.
- I would too,
but I don't think I have a good deed to be remembered by.
- I'll remember you. - Oh yeah.
- For being a good friend.
- If I go out, we're going out together.
You don't get caught up in legacy though.
You don't wanna get caught up in it too early.
Gotta wait a little while.
You focus on it now it's not gonna turn out the way
you want it to.
- You seem real sure about that.
- Well, I know who we are and I know what we do.
I know tomorrow's not promised and when I go,
ain't nobody gonna be there to miss me except you.
Time moves on.
You'll be gone too one day and,
everything just keeps on going.
- I'm not sure I like that.
- Realize what you're doing to me here.
You do it every time we complete a bounty.
You get all religious,
you start questioning mortality and all that.
We're not doing this again.
You're not bringing me down again.
What they need to do is they just need to write a Short
and Skinny book and put
in all our adventures in there
and then all your little problems here would go away.
- I hate those names.
- Well, I guess they're sticking.
Let's see.
- We're not staying in Denton, are we?
Well that depends.
Is one weekend worth $10,000 to you?
Barkeep.
Wanted dead or alive.
$10,000 reward for the capture
or a positive proof of death of the Buck Creek Killer.
If you are receiving this letter,
you are being invited to our small town of Buck Creek
to rid it of this killer.
He has killed one woman
and has been tormenting my town for some time now.
I've sent the town's people away for this weekend only.
Our town needs coming.
You can stay at our inn and drink at our saloon
free of charge.
Just help me catch this killer.
Short and Skinny
were bounty hunters like no other.
They had a very successful
and short-lived career that
ended when Skinny got married.
Short, Skinny and Molly lived close by in Austin
for about a year before tragedy struck.
Skinny went back to him to bounty hunting
as a way to cope with the loss.
Short being his best friend decided to join him.
They have been back in the bounty hunting game
for about a year now.
Some will say that they're even
better than they were before.
- Whoa.
- I guess this is it. - I guess so.
- All right.
- You gotta be kidding me.
- This house looks empty.
- It's a crummy little town. We shown out $10,000.
- Are you sure we can trust that?
- No, I'm not.
- Hey, are you all with the sheriff?
- We are not.
- All right.
- Hey barkeep. You're a woman.
Can I get a drink?
- Mhmm.
- I'm gonna go see about the sheriff.
- All right.
Thank you.
- Come in.
- You the sheriff.
That's what it says don it?
How can I help you?
- I'm the bounty hunter you hired.
- The bounty hunter.
You're gonna have to be a little bit more specific.
I didn't hire just one.
- Short.
- Well, yeah you are.
Oh. Oh, you are Short.
Well, where's Skinny? - He's here too.
- Tell you what, grab Skinny rest of the guys.
I want y'all to hang out over
at the saloon for just a little bit.
I got some things to get situated.
I'll be over there and I'll get you straight.
- The rest?
All right. Raise your hands if you're a bounty hunter.
- Hey, one of y'all the sheriff?
- You must be Brass Parker.
- Yes I am.
- Well welcome sir.
I'm the sheriff you're looking for.
And it looks like we got about eight, nine,
if we count Sarah here.
I think we can get started if y'all ready.
I wanna thank you all for coming gentlemen, ma'am.
Sarah.
The Buck Creek Killer. I'll tell you what I know.
The long and the short of it is
he's been terrorized in my town for the last two weeks.
Never seen his face.
In fact, the only people
that may have caught a glimpse
of him claim he is got some type of bag
or sac over his coward face.
- Eight bounty hunters for one man.
Now I'm gonna ask the question
that everybody else in here's thinking.
Why can't you do the job?
- Well, fella, I've tried, tried hard,
tried every trick I know in the book hadn't worked yet.
That don't mean I don't want 'em gone though.
I want 'em gone more than anybody. This is my town.
Buck Creek is my city.
Now eight bounty hunters,
I'm hoping that's overkill. Hoping that is.
- Hi sir.
I'm G.K.
and just like yourself, I'm a marshal of the law.
Now I've been asking you others
why does he want you so bad?
You do something to him?
- Well G.K. it's nice to see another law man.
Lemme tell you what I don't know.
I don't know why he is after me.
I don't know why he is terrorizing my town,
but I can tell you it needs to stop.
And I can tell you whichever one of you
puts him in the ground is gonna get $10,000.
And if you help put 'em in the ground,
you can share the $10,000.
And better yet, if you can bring him to me alive,
you'll get $25,000.
Now this is gonna be a difficult task.
Some of you may not be up to it. That's fine.
If you're not the one to bring 'em in, enjoy the food,
enjoy the drink, enjoy your stay here at Buck Creek.
But remember, I need him outta here
before the beginning of next week,
before my townspeople return.
- When does he usually strike?
- Well, as I said before, he's a coward.
Bastard only comes at nighttime
when his victims don't see him coming.
Now we've searched the perimeter,
taken a posse around the town looking for a camp.
Any sign of him at all and thus far nothing.
But you best believe he's out there somewhere.
Well, we look to be of the same understanding.
Just so you know, we've got two ends in the town.
I don't care how you split up and how you sleep.
Some of you want to bunk
over at Dugan's Place, feel free.
If you need your extra privacy.
- Sounds good.
- If you need me, I'm gonna be in my office.
But again, I just wanna thank you all for coming.
Best of luck to you. Happy hunting.
- Sheriff is a little strange.
- The whole situation is a little strange.
- What y'all talking about?
- Just about how we're gonna, you know, catch this guy.
- I tracked 15 men across three states.
You all ain't gonna have to do a thing.
Name is Brass Parker.
- Yeah, I guess if we're gonna try to fix this thing,
we need to kind of see what everyone's good at, right.
- Yeah. My name's Brass Parker and I'm good at tracking.
- Nice to meet you Brass Parker.
I'm Skinny. I'm good at shooting.
- I'm Short. I'm better at shooting.
What kind of rifle is that?
- Ah, this here's my Winchester. He is quite bold.
What y'all use?
- Well I got two colts. He carries one.
- I too have a side arm,
however, have not had the opportunity to use it yet.
- That's interesting.
- It's stupid.
Now be honest with me.
When have you ever been in a position
to shoot three guys at once?
- Someone designed it this way for a reason dammit.
- Hey hey hey, let's settle down. Settle down guys.
It's okay I'm gonna talk to them.
Hey fellas. So what's your deal?
- I'm a Marshall from McKinney.
I heard there was some money to be made here.
My name's G.K. Shotgun.
- So I'm guessing you got. Yep.
All right. Simple enough.
Can I ask why a shotgun?
- Because when I shoot a man, I want him to stay dead.
- Well I meant your name,
but I think that answers that too.
How about you?
- I'm Billy Box. - Hi Billy.
- I really just use a repeater.
I mostly go after escape prisoners
and most of the time they're running away from me.
- All right Billy.
Well I hope I'm never at the end of your repeater.
Well hey partner.
I'm just introducing myself to everyone here.
We'll work together on this.
Me and my partner are called Short and Skinny.
So that's Short, I'm Skinny. It's nice to meet you.
- I'm Jed. I keep to myself, mostly.
- Well I can respect that Jed.
You don't mind me asking what weapon do you use?
- Stealthy, quiet.
They never see me coming.
They're usually sitting by a campfire
and then they're on their way to heaven.
- Okay, well I like the cut of your jib Jed.
It's good to have you here.
Ma'am.
All right.
- You sneaking up on me?
- I'm just trying to see what you're all about miss.
- Name's Blink, bounty hunter.
- Hi Blink. I'm Skinny. That's my partner, Short.
And I never seen no woman bounty hunter before.
But it's nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you too, Skinny.
I've heard of you two.
Make a funny pair.
Bet y'all have some stories.
- Yeah, we do but I won't bore you with him right now.
It's good to meet you.
If you need anything just let me know.
Hey fella. So we ain't met yet.
So I'd like to introduce myself.
That's Short, I'm Skinny. It's real nice to meet you.
Short, we got a problem.
- You don't recognize me, do you?
- It's kind of hard to tell right now.
- I do. Houston.
You're sore 'cause we're better than you.
- You sons of bitches stole my bounty.
- No, your sore 'cause we're better than you.
Plus we didn't know it was yours.
- We're gonna get this one too old man.
So let's go ahead and leave.
- You ever seen one of these?
- Not from this angle.
- Semi-automatic.
So for every shot you far out of those colts,
this fires two at the same time.
- I like that.
- Well, you might be able to afford one
if you didn't spend all your money dressing
like a stuck pig.
- Well, Mad Dog, if you wanna let the irons talk, I can,
but I'm not too sure you'll like the outcome.
- You still owe me a thousand dollars.
- Well guys, I think the most fair
and civil way for us to do this is for us
to take him in alive and split that $25,000, eight ways.
- Nine ways. Don't forget Sarah.
- Nine ways.
- Where you going Parker?
- I ain't gonna sit around here and partake
in this useless conversation.
There's a killer out there somewhere.
I'm going hunting.
You're all welcome to join me.
- What are you trying to do give me a heart attack?
- Let's see, that would mean one less hunter in the mix.
So yes I was.
Put the gun down. Here.
I came up here to tell you there's
no sight of the Buck Creek Killer.
I think he's aware of our visit. He's waiting to strike.
Y'all gonna kill him?
- Depends.
- I don't think we should.
Sheriff is offering more if we take him in alive.
- Need to meet the guy first.
- I've got it out for those two.
When they pull something dirty,
it'd be good to have someone who's got my back.
- I don't play sides. They play dirty with me.
Same hatred towards them as you do.
Certainly a young man's game.
You know what?
Wisdom.
Wisdom is what matters most out here.
- Yeah, but there's something about taking a man's life
when he is pushing you real hard,
when he is asking for it.
- That's where I'm gonna have
to disagree with you Mad Dog.
You know it feels good wiping evil off this earth.
It never feels good taking another man's life.
- Well guess that just makes us
different killers then huh?
- You know I'm gonna go check out the north side of town.
I ain't seen nobody up that way yet.
You are welcome to come along if you want.
- Hey, I say we team up
split the bounty three ways.
- Well what about the others?
- Wait till they sleep.
They're bound to at some point.
Then we do the hunting. Have 'em caught by dawn.
- Are we talking about taking 'em in dead or alive?
- I say we take 'em in dead.
That type of evil don't change
- But we get more money for take him in alive though.
- Who the hell are you again?
- Well, unlike the rest of y'all,
I'm a marshal and I got people relying on me.
I just came to McKinney a few weeks ago.
I feel like I need to prove myself to those folks.
When people start talking
about the Buck Creek Killer,
they're worried he might come our way.
I'm here to make sure that don't happen.
- That sounds like the perfect
setup for the Buck Creek Killer.
Some drifter is new to town.
Doesn't act like a marshall, but claims he's one.
I don't trust you Shotgun.
- Go to McKinney, go to the outskirts of town.
You'll see a house on the hill with the red door. Open it.
You know what you'll find? My wife, my newborn son.
I'm not some drifter. I'm here to do a job.
- So what you wanna become a sheriff eventually?
That your goal? - Yeah, eventually.
- 'Cause the sheriff of this town,
his daughter's in that graveyard over there.
- Then stick by me.
Over my dead body,
I'm not letting that killer get anyone I care about.
- What makes you so sure? - Killer uses a knife, right?
Well I use a shotgun.
- I'm gonna go start a fire.
- Go start a fire.
- I can't see shit out here.
- You gotta feel it.
- You'd really think he'd be at this fog.
- Torturing this town for the past two weeks.
He has to be.
- Can you get us back from here?
- Don't know yet. Figure it out.
- You say that, you're so calm.
We're gonna get lost out here.
- No we're not. - Why not?
- Check that out.
He's marked the trail for us without even knowing it.
Going right back through
there. So we're getting close.
Some clothes and part of a tent here.
- That's good. We found some clues.
Okay, so we know he's been staying out this far.
- It's not good. - Why not?
- So where the hell's our killer?
Let's go!
Come on! Come on!
- You okay?
Were y'all tracking the killer?
- It was tracking us.
- So was it a ghost Mad Dog?
- I do know we found a bag out there.
It had tent and clothes in it.
But no killer?
- No killer.
- What if it was a ghost then?
- It ain't no ghost Shotgun.
- Think about it. Think about it.
Ghost starts to haunt the town,
starts getting all of us one by one.
- Do you want it to be a ghost?
- Can we stop talking about the ghost please.
- You scared of ghost Billy?
- I ain't scared. It's just nonsense talk.
- You ain't scared Skinny?
- I ain't scared.
I think me and Short could take on a few ghouls.
- You'll believe in ghoul Skinny?
- Sure do. A couple sitting
around this campfire right now.
You think we can take on a few ghouls, right Short?
- Sure do.
- You two a couple of Mary's?
- Well I have respect for him.
He has respect for me.
I could see how it might look
like that from where you're sitting Mad Dog.
No wife, no friends to speak of.
Just some lonely old bounty hunter.
- And no one breathing down my neck.
No one to save it either.
- I've been doing this longer than y'all have been alive.
Haven't needed one yet.
- Yeah, most bounty hunters don't make it that long.
What does that say about you?
Are you really that good
or are you just a coward?
- Say that again. You'll find out.
- 20-odd years bounty hunting,
you're still here for $10,000,
- Not just here for the 10,000.
- Y'all got wives, right?
- Well I always say that he's fast and short
and I'm slow and skinny.
So I ain't had too much luck with the ladies.
But I got someone, somewhere waiting for me.
Waiting for me to walk back in with that $10,000.
You're gonna be waiting a little longer.
- Yeah, maybe.
How many months have you been away from her?
- About a year.
12 months is a long time.
- Yeah, it is.
Things you do for money.
- That's the job, isn't it?
Damning our souls for a couple of bucks.
Sounds like you don't want that 10,000 Short.
- Oh, I do. It's not gonna be 10,000 though.
I'm taking 'em in alive. That's 25,000.
- How'd you get into all this Billy?
- My brother was my first bounty.
Thought he'd only be locked up for a couple years.
I really needed the money. We both did.
Tried to escape though he was in prison.
They hung them.
I'm gonna take all the money I get from this
and try to give it to my ma.
We live in a farm not too far from here.
I'm just trying to make our life easier.
I feel horrible about the whole thing.
- Stand up! We're gonna duel.
Hey he said he felt bad about it.
- That's his brother. You don't do that to your family.
You don't need to kill him over it.
- Why are you defending him so bad?
You wanna duel instead?
I don't wanna kill anyone in this town
except who I was hired to.
Ain't you man of the law?
He's just drunk Blink.
- What makes you so sure you'd win?
You're drunk and you're
using a shotgun with no sight.
We walk more than 30 paces. You'll be as blind as bat.
- Who'd you kill?
- What's that supposed to mean?
- I mean, why are you defending him so damn much?
Who'd you kill? Why are you even here?
Never heard no bitch bounty hunter before.
- That's none of your damn business.
- Brother, dad, maybe a husband?
- You wanna fight me Jed?
- I wanna fight you G.K.
Yeah, why not?
You're supposed to be the voice of reason
and you're just over here antagonize him.
You wanna intimidate the kid, the girl, wanna duel.
How about you try me?
- All right, I'm ready.
- Hit me.
- Dammit.
- How about next time keeping your damn mouth shut
or I won't aim so high.
You're lucky I'm drunk.
- God, I feel like I'm in a damn circus.
- Feel threatened Mad Dog?
- Hardly.
But I still don't know why you two keep standing
up these creatures who can't fight their own battles.
- I can fight my own battles if you really want me to.
- Yes ma'am. I bet you can.
I retract my statement,
and on that note, I'm gonna go try
to get a couple hours of sleep.
- Seems like everyone's going to bed.
Thanks for that Short.
- No problem.
- We should probably get a
few hours of sleep ourselves.
You did a great job though.
- Everyone else is gonna try
and get a couple hours of sleep.
You're gonna sleep Brass?
- No I am not.
This thing is a nocturnal animal.
I'll sleep when it sleeps.
- That'll do.
- Hello, this is Jonathan.
Hi Jonathan. This is Stanley Stewart.
I believe you talked to my assistant.
- Yes I did.
Well I read the synopsis
of the book you sent us.
It's very interesting.
So is this fiction or non-fiction?
- What difference does it make?
Well it looks like you're
using real people that actually existed.
If we do decide to pick up your book,
this is going to be very important on how we market it.
- I really don't care about how you market it.
I just want to get the story out there.
Well, before we proceed, I need an answer.
Is it fiction or nonfiction?
- Fiction.
Well I'll give it a read
and I'll call you back when we decide.
It was nice talking to you, Jonathan, goodbye.
- What happened? Who did this?
Skinny check.
He's gone.
We're gonna have to take him to the next town.
- Can't. He killed the horses.
- Did you find anything else?
- Some stranger laying in the street all cut up
and got him too.
- They really killed all the horses?
- Yeah.
All of 'em.
- What the hell happened here?
The killer finally
made his appearance tonight.
Snuck into Billy's room and
made quick work of his throat
and snuck back out like a ravenous coyote.
Bogs didn't deserve a death like this. Nobody does.
Not Anna not Billy and not the horses.
Is this God's way of punishing us?
Stuck in hell with the devil.
- Who the hell is that?
- Has anybody woken up the barkeep yet?
- You can't pour yourself a drink?
- Little lady, there's a killer on the loose.
So it'd be nice if everybody was in here.
- Then you go wake her up.
- You sure you didn't hear anything
or see anything in those woods?
- If I had, you would've heard a shot from outside.
Skinny, how far did you chase those tracks?
- I chased them about halfway there
before I realize they're going the wrong direction.
Hit the stables first.
- But you never actually saw where the killer went?
- No, I didn't.
- Brass, I'll just go ahead and tell you. I trust you.
I think us three should stick together.
- You know we are among the wickedest
men in the entire state.
I figure between all of us here in town,
taking more than half a hundred lives together.
Maybe you shouldn't be trusting me.
- Stuck here, no horses, no way to leave.
Now he's killing us in our sleep.
You ain't a little bit scared?
- Even though I walked
through the valley, the shadow of death.
I will fear no evil for thou art is with me.
- I like that.
- Yeah. Yeah. That's your Bible stuff. That's good.
That's good.
And if God's sleeping with me,
two more prayers on my hip.
- I'm going to check something at the inn.
I'll see you boys later.
- Hello everyone.
- Now Sarah, I don't know why he went and woke you up.
- Got my back Jed?
- Yeah, why not?
- Everyone seems to be partnering up
but with one gone we got an odd number.
- What's that's supposed to mean?
- It means someone's gonna end up alone
and it's not gonna be me.
- Blink, I got you a coffee.
- Thanks.
You didn't poison this did you?
- I did not. You can trust me.
- You sure about that?
- Yeah. You said you're fast with your gun.
I bet you real fa I believe you.
That's a great quality to have out here.
Just like Short.
But also I think maybe you have bad luck, just like me.
- You might be onto something.
This one time on my second bounty,
I got stuck in a town full of killers.
- Second bounty. That's tough.
- What bad luck are you talking about?
I ain't seen any yet.
You were lying about some
girl waiting for you, weren't you?
- I wouldn't call it lying. She's waiting for me.
Just not here on earth.
What happened?
- I don't really know. I wasn't there.
Found her shot dead, place been robbed.
You ever find out who did it?
- A couple people in town
said it was the Rogers brothers
gang but me and Short looked for them for months.
Trail went cold.
- I know the Rogers brothers gang.
The reason why you can't find them
was 'cause they changed their name.
Robinson Gang.
- How you know this?
- Talked to the sheriff about a bounty
on one of their members last week.
Someone gave 'em up.
Everyone's out looking for 'em.
They run a town down near the border.
They got a mayor. Sheriff, marshall, probably more.
- We've been getting our
information from a third party,
having to do a bounty more in weeks.
I'd much rather be there right now.
- If you want, after all this is over,
I can lead you and Short into the direction
where the sheriff was pointing me.
- I'd like that.
Three of us rolling in town.
We straighten that place out.
- I think these men deserve to be brought to justice.
You know what they say about let revenge
take over your heart.
- You know what's the exchange though?
A heart full of sorrow so much that it kills you.
I mean I should have been there with her when she died.
I should have been right there next to her.
I feel like ever since then I've just been
living on borrowed time.
My husband.
- What?
- My first bounty was, my husband.
- I think we had opposite views on our partners.
But for the rest of the time we're here
you can trust me.
- Does that mean I can trust Short too?
- You can trust me, Short, maybe Brass.
Can't trust him. Can't trust him.
And you really can't trust him.
- What the hell are you saying about me Skinny?
- Let's talking about
who's probably gonna get picked off next.
- Well Mr. Dandy. Wanna say that again?
- I didn't say you're gonna die Mad Dog.
Just that you're probably gonna die.
- Aren't you a pretty little thing.
Got your new bonnet.
I bet you're so popular at
all the lady socials.
- You wanna pick that up?
- What if I don't?
- You sure Mad Dog.
- I'm ready to go Skinny.
- I don't get paid if I kill you. Not worth the bullets.
- Stand against the damn wall!
- Brass what's this about?
- Did I stutter!
All y'all get up and stand against the wall.
- Now wait a damn minute. Who made you boss?
- That's what I says boy!
Get your against the wall.
You too barkeep.
Any you make any movements, try anything at all.
I will cut you in half right here, right now.
You'll spill yourself all over Sarah's floor.
You probably wouldn't like that would you Sarah?
No sir, I wouldn't.
- So why the hell aren't you on the wall?
- Hell's all this about Brass?
- I'm glad you asked Blink.
You know I went back down to the inn
to see where those footsteps were from Skinny.
The ones leading from the inn down to the stable.
The thought occurred to me, he could have done it.
Gone down to those stables,
stabbed all those horses to death.
You see, he was the first one there.
He was the one that chased our killer.
He also discovered the body of our stranger,
whoever the hell he may be.
What I'm most thankful for tonight is the rain,
because rain makes mud
and mud makes footprints.
So I saw those footprints that Skinny left
as he walked down to the stable.
But you see he wasn't tracking the killer.
He was following his gut.
But I, I decided to track the killer.
Now I saw those footsteps where he landed outside
of Billy's room, but instead of heading up the street,
he turned around, went back inside.
So either our killer right now is hiding in the inn
with our dearly departed friend,
or more likely
it is one of you.
So I'm gonna need an explanation from each of you.
- We were asleep at that time Brass.
- I hate to say it, but he is right Brass.
It's hard to give you an explanation for that.
Is that right Short?
All right then.
Ain't none of y'all gonna leave that wall till one
of you confesses to your sin?
- Sounds like a good idea Brass.
- Oh, shut up.
- We are not gonna talk about the fact
that G.K. threatened Billy's life last night.
- Yeah, that's a good point.
You got something to say about that G.K.?
- There was no secret. I don't like the guy.
That's 'cause he killed his brother.
And if I wanted to kill him,
it'd be in the street in a dual,
not in the bed like a coward.
- I'm telling you right now Brass,
it's either G.K. Jed or Mad Dog.
- Now hold on a damn minute.
You said to yourself,
you saw a series of footprints down there.
Why couldn't he have just circle around?
- Yeah, that's true.
Well, we slept in the same room last night,
so I know it wasn't him.
I bet you did.
- All right, Brass just tie me up.
- Skinny. I'm pretty sure you're not the killer.
So why the hell would you wanna be tied up son?
- It's the best way to prove my innocence here.
And I know that the killer's
gonna strike again probably
within the hour, if not within the night.
Once that happens, I'll be clear
for the rest of the time we're here.
- I don't know about this.
- Take a vote.
See what everyone else thinks.
I'm the one that found the body.
I'm the one that had found the horses.
I found the footsteps. Go ahead, ask him.
- You sure you know what you're doing?
- Yeah.
- Just make sure you're fine with this.
- Short, just make sure you keep an eye on the place.
You know I will.
- We'll see you soon, Skinny. Hopefully.
- What do you mean hopefully?
- The sheriff has so much money,
but he can't fix the damn steps.
- Hey, hey, what if I start digging the hole
and you clean up the body?
We can get it done twice as fast.
- I wanna dig the hole then.
- Hey, where y'all going?
- Thought we should let the sheriff know
what's happening in this town.
- That's a good idea. We'll come too.
- Y'all go ahead.
I'm going to go check those prints again.
- All right.
- We are gonna have to wait
till the townspeople return.
- We're a little more preoccupied
with catching the killer.
- Catching the killer?
Do you have a plan to do that?
- Brass, you all right?
- No Short. I ain't all right.
- I killed one of y'all tonight.
I ain't afraid to take another.
- I don't know him, but I know you and you're worth $10,000.
And if Brass happens to be in between me and $10,000,
well, sorry Brass. Nothing personal.
- Hey, gimme a second. Let's work through this.
- Thank you Short. I'll remember this.
- What do you want?
- I only want one thing.
That being the sheriff.
You're walking around killing
the people of his town.
What'd he do to you?
- A long time ago, he killed my mom and pa.
Not just them. My sisters as well.
I simply don't wanna ruin him.
I want to take away his
livelihood then I want to kill him.
- What do you want us to do about that?
- Do y'all kill women and children?
Then you'll do what's right.
Help me out tonight
and then we could be rid of this problem altogether.
- But you forgot you're missing something.
We're in it for the money.
- All y'all bounty hunters are all the same.
All care about the money.
You know my daddy had a lot of money.
The sheriff knew that before
he killed him in cold blood.
The sheriff has more than $25,000
in that bank vault of his.
You help me out tonight then it's all yours.
- Feel free to take this personally,
but you're bat shit crazy and full of crap.
- This is y'all's only warning.
Killing more of bounty owners
will simply bring me more joy.
All y'all are crooked, have been from the very start.
I'll bring you all down.
- Are you sure about that?
- I got Billy didn't I?
Pretty easy too.
- You know I was thinking about taking you in alive,
but now I'm starting to have a change of heart.
If you get the upper hand on one of us,
you better fuckin' take it.
- Yeah, yeah. We'll see.
- Thank you Short.
Thank you Blink.
Not you Mad Dog.
- You think he was telling the truth?
- We need to find out.
- Don't worry about doing what's right Short.
What's gonna get you paid?
I've seen too many young men go to early graves
worried about morals.
- Well, I guess that's why you've made it so far.
We have not crossed that line.
We have not killed women and children.
- Speak for yourself.
- I wonder if the sheriff remembers Giles?
- What's that?
- It's the knife that killed Billy.
- And who the hell is Giles?
- I think we just met him.
Who's Giles?
- I was afraid.
I was afraid that might be just who this is.
- What did you do to him?
- Well, he thinks that I did
something to his family a long,
long time ago.
Something I did not do.
- Well he's pretty convinced you did.
Well what'd he tell you?
- Well he warned us that
he'll kill every single one of us
unless we leave town or help him kill you.
- What'd you tell him?
- I'll tell you what I told him.
I go where the money is.
That boy's out there running around in overhauls.
I'm with you sheriff.
- Good man. What about the rest of you?
- The way I see it, he killed one of us tonight.
That's my only interest right now.
- Well then two of you.
I'll pay two of you,
$400 each just for tonight,
if you'll set outside that door right there
till morning time.
- I'll do it.
One more.
- I'll get the 400 regardless if I find the killer?
- Sure will.
- Well gotta make some money in this town.
- Can you not push me?
- No one's pushing you, you little shit.
- I'll be pushing you boy.
Mind your damn matters!
- Hey, reckon it's time we untie Skinny.
- Not just yet.
- Why not?
- I got a plan, but you can't tell Skinny.
- Ain't one for keeping secrets.
- The way I see it we got a killer on the loose.
Why wouldn't he go for the
guy that's tied up in the church?
- So you want to use Skinny as our bait.
- For now.
Anyone else die yet?
- Not yet. Close, but not yet.
But hey, the night's young.
- Whiskeys?
- Sure thing.
- I'll have one.
- I don't know how y'all do it.
- Do what?
- Walk around killing folks. No remorse.
- Hey, you gotta make a living somehow.
I just happen to be really good at it.
- Is it worth it?
- I don't know. Let's see.
You're over there serving me drinks.
So I guess so.
- I got a question.
Why don't you leave town with the rest of them?
Daddy make you stay?
- No, he wanted me to leave. I told him I wanted to stay.
I wanna catch the guy. Same as y'all.
- Okay, how are you gonna catch him in here?
- I mean he came in here once before.
That's how he got my sister.
- I'm sorry to hear that.
- Don't be too sorry.
She was asking for it.
Always felt like she was too
good for this town out here.
Doesn't mean he shouldn't die though.
Sarah you were a lot more cold hearted than I thought.
Well I'm still here,
'cause my dad can't trust someone else.
I wish I was out there with y'all.
- Feel free to go ahead and take my place.
- How about another glass?
- Great idea. Cheers to that.
And Ms. Sarah, please make my evening and tell me,
you can play that right over there.
- Oh yes I can.
- Hallelujah. Play me tune.
- Amen.
- You know that's not very ladylike.
Okay, so you talked to the killer?
- I did.
- Any idea how we're gonna get him?
- We wait for him to come to us again.
Once he gets close enough, they always do.
We take him down.
It was my husband.
- What?
- You were wondering who I killed? I killed my husband.
- Why?
- He was robbing people.
Saw his name on a poster in town one day.
He hated me.
Hurt me.
Why not?
It's free money.
I tell everyone how I pulled him
out in the street for a dual.
He looked at me, looked at him,
and he closed his to blink.
He never opened them again.
- Is this true?
- I'll tell you the truth, only you.
No one else ever heard it before.
Shot to the head is way too quick for my husband.
I walked up behind him while
he was sleeping in the chair,
tied his hands behind his back.
When he woke up, he was angry.
Of course I waited. He counted.
Every word he called me equal to one stab each.
After three minutes of him cussing and hollering,
he'd called me 37 name.
So I took my blade
and I made him regret every single word.
I sat there and stared at his body
for a while after I killed him.
I didn't really care about the money anymore.
Just glad a sick soul left this earth.
- You're really messed up lady.
- I'm better at this than you.
More brutal than you.
- Brutal.
What the hell are you talking about?
- That.
- You have no, have no idea what you're talking about.
- And before we do anything rash,
let's just talk about this.
That money's really yours then let me help you.
We can finish this tonight.
- How can I trust you after what you just told me?
- I got a vengeful spirit too. Don't you see?
I just want justice to come
down on those who deserve it.
Sounds like this guy deserves it.
- What about your bounty hunter friends?
What are you gonna tell them?
- There ain't no friends in this business.
The whole game we're playing here tonight
is to figure out who can catch you first.
Let me help you.
- Put a plug in front of your hammer.
- Well, gotta make some money in this town.
I'm sorry.
- You know I've seen the killer.
- You have?
- Oh yeah. Look just like you G.K.
- You better be careful.
Don't accuse someone on something like that.
There are trained killers around.
- Hey are you worried that
you're sitting with your back
to the door, killer might sneak in and get you?
I ain't worried.
- Because you're the killer.
- I ain't the killer!
And you better shut your damn mouth.
- Now boy, that better not be what I think it is.
- Oh I think it is, what you think it is.
- Hey, don't play that way.
Jokes are jokes. This is serious.
- Y'all guys are crazy.
- But now I gotta go to the outhouse.
We'll go then.
- Can have my gun?
- Hell no. Not until you sober up.
- Come on!
Where you guys at?
Supposed to be looking over the damn sheriff.
What is that you?
- G.K. is the killer! G.K. is the killer!
G.K. is the killer!
- What are you talking about boy?
- Son of a bitch!
- We should just shoot 'em both.
- That's not right.
- Then G.K. has got the bag on his head.
- He put it on me.
- Either way, one of them is the killer.
I say we shoot 'em both.
Feel sorry about the other one later.
- I'll take those odds.
- Shut up!
- Y'all got five seconds.
- It was G.K.! He was the killer!
- All right, G.K. state your case to God.
- He killed Blink.
I stumbled upon a body in the dark.
Next thing you know he's trying to kill me.
- Hey buddy get your ass in there.
Time to wake up.
- Let's go. Come on!
Get out. Get out!
One of them is the damn killer
- Oh, come on. You couldn't un-time me first.
- All right. All right. Calm down, calm down.
- You ain't the damn law anymore.
- All right. This is a place of worship.
Choose your next words wisely.
Jesus does not take too kindly to liars.
- Jed put the noose on my neck trying to kill me.
Force the mask on me.
- You know that's bullshit.
That's bullshit!
You're our killer!
- What'd they do?
They get Sarah, Mad Dog.
Please tell me they got Mad Dog.
- No such luck asshole
- Blink.
One of them got Blink by the sheriff's office.
- Blink.
Blink.
Hey, hey.
- Why is he so upset? He doesn't even know her.
- Skinny thinks he made a friend.
- That's pathetic.
- Look, there's nothing wrong with caring
about another person's life.
- There is in this business.
I know y'all joke about my age, but the good die young
and I intend to die very, very old.
- Well maybe if you play your
cards right, you can do both.
- I don't know. Can you get outta lion's den?
- I carry remorse for every life I've taken.
But don't think for a second I won't shoot you dead.
- What my here.
- We've had to let bounties go before.
There's nothing to it.
Jed!
- I don't think Skinny's feeling that right now.
Don't do it Skinny.
- Down.
Blink told me Jed did it.
- What in the hell is going on here?
- Things got emotional Sheriff.
- Well, I'd say so. But Skinny got the kill.
- Well he ain't dead.
- Can y'all let me go now?
- Boy, why you tied up?
- What'd it look like? Mistaken identity.
- I'm still not too convinced Shotgun.
- No, no, no, no. That's Giles there. I'm sure of it.
- The wrong man. He's right here!
- All right then Sheriff. Time for you to pay up.
- Pay up?
Well, who am I paying? I guess Skinny huh?
I helped facilitate him.
- He tried to be my ass. I deserve that money!
- I shot him.
- Hey, I made sure they didn't kill him.
- Well hold up. Hold up.
Now, who actually brought
him to the building, the church?
Somebody had to bring him from in here. Who was it?
- Short, why aren't you saying anything?
You don't want this money?
- No, not really.
- Well I do Sheriff. It was my partner Short.
- You got anything to say?
- You gotta let me go. Let me go!
He took away my family.
You gotta lemme go man. You gotta let me go!
- Tell you what guys, let's get out here.
Talk amongst yourselves,
figure out what you want to do.
We'll get it straight in the morning.
- You serious, sheriff?
- Yeah. Yeah.
Look, he's not going anywhere.
Sun will be up in a couple hours anyway.
We got time to figure it out. Let's get some rest.
- You're making a mistake.
- You should have killed him.
- We should have.
We got too many dagone pacifist,
bounty hunters around here.
- Mad Dog, if I put a photo
of your mother on the bounty board, would you go for it?
- For how much?
- Boy I'm beginning to believe you are a devoid of a soul.
What's going on man?
- What do you mean?
- You know exactly what I mean.
Jonathan, why the hell did
you not take credit for that?
You caught him and you're
gonna stand there in silence
and make me look like a fool trying to defend you.
- It's blood money.
- It's blood money.
That's the whole thing that we do, okay.
And Blink and Billy, they just died for that money.
Don't you think that counts for something
that everyone here knows what they're doing
and they know the risk, including us?
- I don't want to do this anymore.
- I'm sorry.
We're gonna figure out something, okay.
I'm sorry I brought you here.
I'm sorry all this happened.
Once we get out of this and go back to Denton
or wherever you, wherever you wanna go,
and we can get you set up in a new line of work.
We done with all this.
But for now tonight,
everybody else isn't feeling as merciful as you are.
We still gotta make it through the night.
- So what are we gonna do?
- Well, we can't let Mad Dog get that money.
You know, that's not right.
Especially if we're going to move somewhere
and set up a new place.
We got some money, but
we're gonna need a little bit more
before that happens.
- I don't think the sheriff's right either.
What'd he do?
- When we were over there by the woods,
the killer held Brass right there at gunpoint
and didn't kill him.
And he said that the sheriff killed his whole family,
siblings and all right there in front of him.
And all that money that he's trying to pay all of us off
with was his family's that the sheriff took.
- You believe him?
- I don't know.
I mean supposedly there's a lot more money.
So where would he have got it all from?
- That makes sense.
Price tag on that bounty is
a little too big for this town.
Do we do anything about it?
- I mean, the only way we
could do anything about it's if we
got everyone together and
actually confront that sheriff.
- How'd she get alone with him, Blink?
- Blink said she was gonna guard
the sheriff's station with Jed.
- She had information on the gang that killed Molly.
- What information?
- Just about how there's some town out there
that's not really on a map,
that people don't really know where it's at.
That the Robinson gang dissolved into this town
and don't go by that anymore.
And they got marshals and sheriffs
and all these other folks,
they're all their own place.
And they got judges like
none of those people ever locked up for anything.
They're just getting away with it.
- I don't think you or we should go after that.
- Yeah, I wasn't gonna ask you to come with me
- Ben look at me. I've seen what this does to you.
You wake up in the middle of the night with.
I've seen the horrible things you've done to people
for this kind of information.
This is not something to take lightly.
- I just think maybe this has gone on a little too long.
I know who I am and I know what I'm angry about.
These men, they took something innocent
from the world, Jonathan.
We should let 'em get away with it?
- But do you really think what we're doing here is right?
Look around us. Everything we're doing is this right?
- I wanna be able to move on. I wanna be done with this.
I don't want to feel these feelings.
But as much as I try to forget
those men are still out there.
I don't think I can move on.
I think I'm stuck where she left me.
And I'm sorry about that. I'm
so sorry about that Jonathan.
But I'm gonna have to do this.
You know this is a conversation
we can have at another time.
Look, I just need you to check
your guns and watch my back.
That's all I need from you tonight.
And we're gonna make it through this
like we do every single time.
We're gonna get that money and we're
gonna get the hell out of here.
Now you wanna go ahead and go talk to them
and see about maybe confronting the sheriff?
- I can do that.
- All right. You go ahead.
Short didn't know which bothered him more.
Was it the weight of what happened here tonight
or the weight of what was going to happen
if he let Skinny go by himself to get revenge.
The echoes of Giles scream
kept playing in Short's mind.
Short looks to the moon.
He could feel it looking back at him.
What was it trying to say?
Short took a moment for himself.
His first in a long time.
He would regret it.
- Come on man.
- Remember what I told you Skinny?
I can fire two shots to your one.
- So you did this Mad Dog?
- I didn't kill him. So that means one of y'all did.
So we're gonna take a walk over the saloon.
We're gonna talk this out.
- Hey Sarah. - Hey, what is happening?
- We gotta catch the killer.
Thought y'all already caught the killer.
- Well now we gotta find
the killer that killed the killer.
- Sarah, how about a drink?
Sure.
- All right. We're gonna find out where everybody was.
Skinny, we're gonna start with you.
- Me and Short, were having a talk in the general store
and then I left to go find the latrine.
- Brass.
- I was out investigating.
Into what?
- I wanted to see how he killed my horse.
- G.K., you were with me. Come on up here.
No one else move a muscle.
We gonna find out which one of you righteous sons
of bitches killed Jed.
I don't much care, but no one takes my bounty.
- Why would we do that?
We already have 'em captured.
- I don't know. Maybe somebody's extra angry.
Maybe they want a name for themselves. I don't care.
- Well, only one of us got beat up by him.
- I pull this trigger and you won't have a face.
- You really think Mad Dog's
gonna let you in on that money.
- G.K. I'll split it with you
if you help me find out who did it.
- Deal.
- Now, it goes for the rest of you.
I just want this to end.
I don't care how many ways I gotta split it,
but we're gonna find out who did it.
So Short, you've been awful quiet back there.
You took him to the church,
you doubled back and finished the job.
- He was worth more alive.
- You as fast as they say?
- You wanna find out?
- All right. Personally, I think it's Skinny or Short.
They'll both split the money anyway.
So I say we kill 'em.
- Fine by me.
- Man Dog come on. You know that ain't right.
- Yeah, I know Brass.
But we got till morning to make a decision.
Lemme see if I can persuade you.
See, about a month ago I was riding through Bandera.
Just happy to take a look at the bounty board,
and who did I see on there?
My two little friends sitting
right there, Short and Skinny.
Now it wasn't a big bounty.
$500, that'll put some money in your pocket.
- It means you were never here
for the killer in the first place then.
- Well, if I could get all three,
that'd even be a better deal.
So,
Skinny,
I'm gonna ask you if you killed him.
You're gonna say yes.
If you don't and you say no, I'm gonna kill you.
If you don't say anything, well...
G.K.
- Shit.
- Drop it Mad Dog.
- Put it down G.K.
- Put your damn guns on the bar.
You two sit your asses down.
Let's go!
I'm gonna need all y'all's guns.
Y'all too Short and Skinny.
Come on, bring 'em on up. Put 'em on the bar.
- You serious?
- Yep. Guns up on the bar. Let's go.
Afraid so, we're gonna do this, right.
So with how fast we went from the shooting to all
of us being together.
I doubt any of you had a chance to reload.
So we're gonna go down the line one by one one.
Skinny, I'm gonna start with you.
- Was the one I shot Jed with.
- All right. That checks out.
You are not gonna let me come up there with you?
- I would Skinny,
but your act over there at the church
was a little too emotional
for me to trust you right now.
And now onto Short.
You fired your weapon last night did you not?
- I shot G.K.s hat off, but I reloaded.
- All right.
- Why y'alls have purse on y'alls head?
- We pissed off the governor of Bandera.
It was over a card game.
Guns were pulled, but we got out.
- Here you go.
- Now onto Mr. Shotgun.
G.K. what does that stand for?
- It mind your business grandpa.
- It's in the shotgun, it is my business.
- I reloaded once after me and Short
were shooting at each other.
- I shot at you. I don't know what you shot at.
- All right, let's take a look.
Well, Mad Dog, why don't we just shoot you right now?
- I didn't do anything wrong.
You just had your gun trained on us.
You tried to get me to conspire with you
when all along you had ulterior motives.
- Y'all about to kill an innocent man.
Y'all are smarter than this.
How about we just forget the whole thing
and forget about that bounty from Bandera.
- Oh no. Let's not forget about it. I was getting excited.
- How we doing Sarah?
- Tired, a little scared. You about to die Mad Dog?
- No, Sarah, we get all this figured out though.
I'm gonna need a drink.
- You got it?
- All right then.
Last one, just for the hell of it.
I don't remember you firing a shot Mad Dog.
- I fired a round when I tripped in the woods.
I was with you.
G.K. you believe me right?
- When did you say you fired your gun?
- When I was in the woods with Brass.
Hey, you can't blame me because he can't remember.
- I don't know.
When that shot went off, you weren't here. You just left.
- I just left for a second.
Remember you told me about you killing
that lady when you were with the Rogers gang?
I stepped out. I wasn't out long enough
and I came back, right back in
and not long enough to kill someone.
Come on, don't listen to him.
- You were with the Rogers gang?
- Am I the one being questioned here now?
- Yes he was Skinny. He told me.
- Okay. Okay. Maybe I was. They've disbanded.
It's been over a year now.
- Did you ever rob a woman in Florence?
- What?
- Gimme my guns.
- Don't do this Skinny.
- I'm not gonna answer that.
- Gimme my guns.
- The hell's going on? - Come grab 'em.
- Did you ever rob a woman in Florence?
- Didn't kill anyone. Brass stop aiming that gun at me.
- Yeah, maybe I did.
- G.K. - Got it.
- You good? - Yeah I'm good.
How about you?
- Let's see. G.K. got me.
- Where'd you go boys?
- I'm gonna try and circle around back.
Are you good for me to go?
- Yeah, I'm good.
You just, just make sure you get 'em.
- There you are. You little shit.
I know you're behind one of these.
I know it's you Short,
because Skinny wouldn't be
able to keep his damn mouth shut.
Let's make this quick.
Put you both down easy.
Should we go out there?
Gotta wait for his call.
Skinny!
- Come on!
Brass.
You're lucky.
- Brass Please.
Please Brass.
- I don't want to kill you.
You're a woman and you're just a damn kid.
- Damn you G.K.
Short! Skinny!
- End of the line Brass.
I should have expected nothing less from you.
It is the way of cowards to kill braver men.
Before you pull that damn trigger.
Listen to this.
When you kill a man like this up close,
you remember his face,
his name, and why you did it.
Are you prepared for that G.K.?
- I can remember your face Brass.
- Sheriff.
- Sheriff. Sheriff.
- Hey don't shoot. You stay inside. Lock the door.
Don't let anyone come in.
- Okay.
Shit.
My name is Brass Parker, son of Jedidiah Parker.
Didn't always live by the law, but dammit I lived right.
I was killed in the field on the warm night in 1899,
by the cowardly G.K. Shotgun.
- All right. Well I'm gonna leave you to bleed now.
- Hold, hold up. Don't go. Come here.
Just stay, stay with me to I'm gone. Come on.
It's only gonna be a minute. Just sit down.
Sit down, come on.
You know when I was a boy, it was just me and my pa.
He taught me everything I know.
I wasn't there when he passed
and that was the biggest regret of my life.
But I see my father now as I get ready
to leave this earth,
I think you'd be happy to know that
although I didn't kill my killer,
I did hurt him.
- You didn't hurt me Brass Parker.
- Well, I guess I forgot to do that part.
- You son of a bitch.
- I can't believe it.
I don't even know what to do with him.
- Me neither.
- You better look at me Mad Dog.
Yeah. If you were in our position,
you'd kill us right here, right now.
Now I'm gonna try not to kill you.
But I should shoot you
for chasing us here alone.
$500 and now you got a pop knee. Was it really worth?
I'm gonna give you to the count of 10
to tell me you killed Jed.
I didn't kill Jed.
- One, two, three, four.
- I didn't kill Jed.
- Five, six, seven, eight, eight.
- Wait, I didn't kill Jed.
But I might know who did.
Don't play games right now.
- I brought some guys with me.
- What do you mean?
- I brought some men with me to help take you two.
The dead guy we found.
He's one of the 'em named Thomas.
- Damit Thomas, I ain't gonna save your ass
if you go out there.
- Boris, I'm sick of waiting.
I feel like a child in here
and I'm not gonna take this anymore.
And nothing out there is nothing I can't handle.
- Okay, well, where's the rest of them?
How many are there? How many are there?
- I don't remember.
- Mad Dog.
- Mad Dog's not here right now.
Best you lead this town.
- Y'all kill Mad Dog?
- No, but I will not hesitate to kill you.
How many of you are there?
- Four. Mrs. Mad Dog's here too.
- Mad Dog has a Mrs?
- Baby?
- He's knocked out cold right now, ma'am.
Sorry about that.
- Oh, you sons of bitches.
- Oh! You can't be calling us that.
You don't even know us, ma'am.
- You came here for us.
- Yeah, you came here to kill us
and now we're sons of bitches.
- Y'all are Short and skinny?
- Yeah.
- So it's just you two?
- Yeah.
- Y'all ain't scared.
- No. We killed more than four people before.
Y'all don't have to do that though.
Y'all can leave right now and
nothing bad's gonna happen.
Does this mean y'all really took
the whole trip all the way from Bandera?
- Yep.
- So you probably got your mind made up then, huh?
- Yep.
- We have a one time deal.
Leave now and you can keep your life.
- Not happening.
- All right.
Then I guess we'll try to make quick work of you.
- Son of a bitch.
- What the hell happened to you?
- What the hell happened to you?
- Where's Short and Skinny?
- I hope they're dead.
- I just saw some gunshots over there at the saloon.
- Help me up.
- You ain't leaving, are you?
- What?
Too many men here worth too much money.
I'm not leaving, you leaving?
- Hell no.
- You sure you don't wanna try and sneak away?
Nearest town is a pretty good ways away.
But I mean, it's not impossible.
- Back door is right there, isn't it?
- No. I can't leave.
Sorry but as long as he's here
until I know he's dead, I'm not leaving.
It's deeper than money.
But you can go.
Now I'm sorry about this, but you should go.
I ain't asking you to stay.
- You don't have to ask.
You're my friend.
You have business at the gates of hell,
I'd be right there with you.
- Molly.
You think she's thinking about me?
- Wherever she is, I'm sure she's dreaming of you.
- Yeah.
Well, let's see what God decides.
- About what?
- Whether we die as gunslingers,
or we survive and we move on to something else.
- Let's go see.
- Look what I found in the bar.
- What are we supposed to do with those?
- We blow 'em up.
If they don't die,
at least it scrambles the brains a little bit.
Come on.
You can take one. Come on take one, take one.
Shit, hey I see something moving.
Any second now.
- There's goes Skinny.
- Whoo! I think I killed Skinny. I think I got him.
- Short, best you come on out now.
Let's go! Come on!
I'm gonna move up.
- I'm going around.
- It's a long time coming.
For what it's worth, I'm sorry.
- Are you really?
Yes yes I'm sorry.
- Then you tell that to God.
- Why are you laughing?
I finally got to save your ass.
We knew this wasn't gonna last forever.
We knew that when we started.
We were good at it right?
- The best. The best.
- Yeah.
- I'm out of ammo.
- Well,
I'm not.
You bury 'em deep.
- I will. I will.
- I just can't wait.
- For what?
- See her again.
- Again?
Again.
Mad Dog!
- What do you want?
- Stand up.
- You can leave now Short,
but you don't touch a damn thing.
Let me collect the money that's left
here and I won't kill you.
- Why would I do that?
- I know you're angry about Skinny.
I also know each kill weighs heavy on you.
You kill my woman and I killed your friend.
We can leave here equally wounded.
Hey, I know it's the last chapter of my book,
but probably it's the first of yours.
How do you want your story to go?
- You might hit me. You could kill me.
Whatever, world moves on.
But Short, just so happens
to be the fastest man I've ever met.
He will kill you.
- I say, you either fill your hand
or I shoot you where you are.
Either way, this will be the end
of your chapter in your book.
- Remember what I said before.
This is faster.
- So there's nothing to be afraid of then.
- Right. - Right.
- Short, before we do this,
I want you to know, I didn't kill Jed.
- I don't care. You killed Skinny.
- Yeah.
- Sheriff.
Now why would you do that?
- Well, Skinny told me, don't trust anybody.
Skinny's dead.
- Come in.
- What's going on out there?
It sounds like you've shot my town to hell
and back. Where is everybody?
- Everyone else is dead.
- Even Sarah?
- I believe so.
When Kyle Memphis would later publish his
book in 1943, titled "A Texas Cowboy,"
a book about different tales in the old west.
He tackled the Buck Creek Killer.
He did some research into Sarah's journals.
It was revealed that she knew
of Giles from a very early age.
They were friends, possible lovers.
On page 227 of her journal, she writes about
how she'll be coming to a great fortune soon.
It was also revealed
that her handwriting matched the writing
of the letter left by the killer.
There's no evidence that
Giles could read or even write.
Sarah wrote the letter.
The sheriff's least favorite
daughter was almost his killer.
- When are the townspeople come back?
- Not for a couple days at least.
- Well, I think I'm gonna walk to the next town.
- Probably take you all day to do that.
- I don't mind.
- I'll just get your money.
You could be on your way.
Sound okay?
- That's fine.
- It's $10,000.
You earned it.
Should be enough to have a good life at least,
at least for a little bit for a bounty hunter.
- Did you really do all those
things that Jed said you did?
- You know when you're young
and you got a gun on your hip,
sometimes things happen
that you don't plan for 'em. They just do.
But I will say,
felt good.
In fact, I don't know that I've ever felt as good
as when I put a bullet in that son of a bitch's head.
I slept like a baby last night.
- You killed Jed?
- Well, yeah. I mean, why not?
I thought that was kind of my part of the deal here.
You guys caught him
and you know, we're obviously discussing how
to split the money, but I mean, I brought you here.
You did your job.
I felt it was kind of my duty to do it.
Maybe you would call it my last bounty.
You know what I mean Short?
- Gimme the rest of the money.
Well why Short?
They died because of you.
Billy, Blink, Brass, G.K., Mad Dog, Skinny.
- Well, hold up now.
I thought we had a deal.
Okay. Okay.
You know, here, take it all.
Now what's that for?
- That's for you to give
everyone a proper burial except
for maybe Mad Dog, and I'm gonna come back
and check and make sure you did it.
- It'll be done. I'll first thing.
Hell get on it now. I'll get on it now.
- No, you won't.
- God! God my leg.
- Just wrap it up. You'll be fine.
- You're not gonna kill me.
- No, I am not.
- Hello.
Hey, Jonathan.
A lot of exciting stuff has happened.
So I finished the book.
- How'd you like it?
Did I like it? I loved it.
It's a heartbreaking story.
I already sent it to a guy at the Washington Post
and he says he can see it being a bestseller.
Do you have any type of management?
You're gonna have a ton of
people wanting to interview you
and ask you questions about this book.
- No questions, no interviews.
I really don't care how you market it.
I don't wanna be involved.
I looked into a few things, Jonathan.
I had my assistant go out to Buck Creek.
There's a tombstone for all the characters
in your book except for Short.
Now, I don't wanna accuse you of anything
but Jonathan, I think you're lying to me.
I don't think this book is fiction at all.
I think it's nonfiction.
I think this is the final story
of the notorious bounty hunters, Short and Skinny,
and I think I'm speaking a Short right now.
- I'm not him.
Then how did you get this story John?
- Just camp fire tales. That's all.
You know, if we market this as nonfiction
and you have to come out and admit you're him,
you could make hundreds of
thousands of dollars off this.
- I'm 91-years-old.
I married the woman of my dreams.
I lived the life that I wanted to live.
There's nothing money can buy me now.
Off the record then.
However you came across the story, why tell it now?
- I just want the ghost to go away.
I'm walking past midnight
waiting for the sun to come up.
I see.
- You can make it nonfiction. Just don't put my name on it.
Okay. Okay. I can work with that.
We can figure out something there.
Thank you for sending this my way.
I'll get the story out there.
- Okay. Thanks for listening.
Just one more thing before you go.
Just tell me you are him, right?
- Brass?
What can I do for you, buddy?
How bad are you hurt?
- Shut up. Come sit down boy.
Come on now.
- It's a nice day.
Didn't want to die.
- You wanna know who killed Jed?
- I do not care.
- The sheriff gave me a lot of money.
I can get you some help. Get someone to fix you up.
- There's no time for that.
- This belongs to you.
- What can I do with this now?
- It's your half.
- Did they kill Skinny?
- Yeah, they did.
- Small fortune here, Short,
live whatever life you want with this money.
Peace, faith.
Take that money.
Go buy yourself a soul.
- No, I'm afraid not.
Short and the Skinny both died
on a warm summer night in 1899.
They died as gunslingers.
As I walked out on the streets of Laredo
As I walk out on Loredo one day
I spot a young cowboy wrapped in white linen
Wrapped in white linen as cold as a clay
I can see by your outfit that you are a cowboy
These words, he did say, as I boldly walk by
Come and sit down beside me and hear my sad stories
I'm shot in the breast and I know I must die
Get six jolly cowboys
- Died tonight as gunslingers or we survived.
Go on to something else.
Throw bunches of roses - I guess let's go see.
All over my problems
Roses today, but fly as they fall
Then the drum slowly play the five holy
Play the dead march as you carry me along
Take me to the green valley
Play the beside over me
I'm a young cowboy and I know I've done wrong
Then go write a letter to my gray-hair mother
And tell her the cowboy that she loved is gone
But please not one word of a man who had killed me
Don't mention his name and his name will pass on
We beat the drum slowly, play the fife lowly
Play the dead march as we carried him along
Down in the green valley
Play beside over him
He was a young a cowboy
And he said he'd been wrong
If you miss the train I'm on
You will know that I am gone
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles
A hundred miles
A hundred miles
A hundred miles
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles
Not a shirt on my back
Not a penny to my name
Lord I can't go alone this way
This way, this way
This way, this way
Lord I can't go alone this way
If you miss the train I'm on
You will know that I am gone
You can hear the whistle blow
A hundred miles
Oh God! God my leg.