Following a quick Wikipedia search on Tom Bell, I was surprised to see how accurate this Stories of the Century episode was. Bell was a Western outlaw and physician known as 'Outlaw Doc', and as the story mentions, he was the first bandit to organize a stagecoach robbery in the United States.
The episode here manufactures a background story for the way Dr. Thomas Hodges came by his alias. Hodges (Glen Gordon) has a falling out with a partner who steals his girlfriend Elsie Hood (Jean Dean), and winds up killing a surveyor. While chasing him down on horseback, Railroad Detective Matt Clark (Jim Davis) shoots Hodges, and when questioned about his identity, Hodges comes up with the name Tom Bell, not wishing to give away his real name or profession.
Sentenced to Angel Island Prison, Hodges/Bell organized a bloody jail break and formed a gang with one of the prisoners he escaped with. When he runs into the woman who spurned him years earlier for his lack of money, he makes a vow that 'Tom Bell and his gang are going to be rolling in money'. Targeting a stagecoach carrying one hundred thousand dollars in gold bullion, the robbery fails, and feigning her help in making a getaway, Elsie Hood actually leads him to a makeshift posse of former criminals who fear they'll be associated with this robbery attempt. So they hang him!
Needless to say, this was one of Matt Clark's easier detective cases, as most of the legwork was done by the citizen vigilantes who caught up with Bell and put him to the gallows. These events occurred in 1856, and even though the attempted Maryville stage robbery was a failure, it set the example for other outlaws to follow with greater success.
The episode here manufactures a background story for the way Dr. Thomas Hodges came by his alias. Hodges (Glen Gordon) has a falling out with a partner who steals his girlfriend Elsie Hood (Jean Dean), and winds up killing a surveyor. While chasing him down on horseback, Railroad Detective Matt Clark (Jim Davis) shoots Hodges, and when questioned about his identity, Hodges comes up with the name Tom Bell, not wishing to give away his real name or profession.
Sentenced to Angel Island Prison, Hodges/Bell organized a bloody jail break and formed a gang with one of the prisoners he escaped with. When he runs into the woman who spurned him years earlier for his lack of money, he makes a vow that 'Tom Bell and his gang are going to be rolling in money'. Targeting a stagecoach carrying one hundred thousand dollars in gold bullion, the robbery fails, and feigning her help in making a getaway, Elsie Hood actually leads him to a makeshift posse of former criminals who fear they'll be associated with this robbery attempt. So they hang him!
Needless to say, this was one of Matt Clark's easier detective cases, as most of the legwork was done by the citizen vigilantes who caught up with Bell and put him to the gallows. These events occurred in 1856, and even though the attempted Maryville stage robbery was a failure, it set the example for other outlaws to follow with greater success.
