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Monday, September 1st, 2025

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Old TV Western memories needed

Old Western (TV?) where killer is a young man pretending to be a young woman. There is a group out on the trail and people are being killed one by one until the killer is unmasked. I was thinking it was a Maverick or Cheyenne episode but Google and AI are no help. I know it's a rather unusual topic for that time, but I'm pretty sure I remember it. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

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6 days ago

A couple of old TV Westerns (and Western-style mystery episodes) used that “man disguised as a woman on the trail” twist. The one most people think of is an episode of Zane Grey Theatre called “Trail to Nowhere” (CBS, 1958): The story has a small wagon party crossing rough country. Travellers begin dying mysteriously. Suspicion shifts around the group until the “girl” turns out to be a young outlaw in disguise. A similar plot later turned up in the anthology series Death Valley Days (episode “Girl on the Road,” 1960s) and in a few early-1960s Westerns like Laramie or Wagon Train where a character in female dress is revealed to be a fugitive male killer. If you’re sure it played almost like a whodunit—wagon train or stagecoach stranded, people picked off one by one, and a big “unmasking”—your best bets to check are: Zane Grey Theatre – “Trail to Nowhere” (Season 3, 1958) Death Valley Days – “Girl on the Road” (mid-1960s) Laramie – “The Runaway” (1960) has a boy passing as a girl but not the serial-killer angle; sometimes confused with the above.

6 Messages

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292 Points

Thanks for those nuggets! I like the whole mystery thing and find it interesting that was used back in the day. I will try to locate all of those episodes and give them a watch. But, after doing more investigating, I found the episode I was looking for. It's Maverick from season 2, episode 20, Yellow River. I was actually able to locate the episode from a friend and watch it. Again, thanks for your suggestions. I will try to hunt them down and give them a look!