The Dublin Lad

Joe is a member of the jury which convicts Terrence O'Toole of murder. O'Toole is sentenced to hang. But despite his own vote, Joe is plagued by doubts about the man's guilt.

So what does he do? After his advice with his father, expressing his doubts, he starts investigating and visits the dead man's widow after having questioned the dead man's son over his gambling problem and then visits the condemned man, who professes his innocence.

That line of innocence becomes shaky when O'Toole escapes from jail and is on the run and heads to the widow's place - he knew her from Dublin and had left her standing in a wedding dress. He professes his love for her. It's not too long before Little Joe arrives, telling O'Toole that he's innocent, and that the dead man's son did the ghastly deed... he's got the proof!

And it ends with a humdinger of a twist! Quite an involving story with a little mystery. Little Joe plays Sherlock and thinks he's hit the pay dirt in shovelling the truth.

This episode of Bonanza finds Little Joe on a jury deciding whether Liam Sullivan over from Ireland lives or dies. Sullivan is accused of robbing and murdering a rancher and the rancher's son Tim McIntire saw him do it. In addition Sullivan has some history in the old country with the widow and McIntire's stepmother Margaret Field.

Michael Landon obviously took very seriously those standard judicial instructions about reasonable doubts. But what is the standard of reasonability? Most of us don't do what Michael Landon did, backtrack and do your own investigation. Then again Sullivan's life is on the line.

All I'll say is that in the end all doubts are removed and all questions answered in this fine Bonanza story.

Never seen this episode...Seems it is a near carbon copy of one a few seasons earlier where Hoss is the hold out in almost the same situation...About when the show fell apart

Little Joe is on a jury that is hearing a case that involves murder. From all the testimony it appears that Irishman Terrence O'Toole has murdered Fred Demmer during a robbery. Joe has a problem convicting the man since he will be sending O'Toole to the gallows. But he goes along with the others and a guilty verdict is reached by the jury.

Afterwards, Joe feel bad about his decision and starts looking for someone else that may have wanted O'Toole to hang. A very easy person is the dead man son, Jeb Demmer. He has been gambling since the trial and Joe has a problem about where all the money is coming. Joe sees Jeb throw away an item that turns out to be his dead father's wallet. Now Joe believes that O'Toole is innocent.

Sounds like a regular type western until we find out that the dead man's wife, Molly, use to know O'Toole in Ireland. We learn that they had a very close relationship many years ago. Now it is not as clear as we first thought.

A very different and interesting end to the story. Without the ending this would have been a average show that has been played out in many other shows. But hold-on and watch the ending where most stories never seem to venture. Good watch.