"The Crime" opens with a gunshot, a dead horse, and a mystery. Yuma finds the horse but no one around, the saddlebag full of trinkets and a photograph of a woman names Sofina McIllney, her home in the Arizona town of Mexican Hat, only ten miles from the border. Johnny finds the house in ruins, and also Sheriff Amos Cannon (Walter Sande), who initially regards the rebel with suspicion, until his deputy, Clyde Vollmer (Richard Devon), shows up with the accused thief, a young Mexican boy named Solado (Paul Clarke, later seen in "The Liberators"), who has spent the past year with Sofina. With no sign of her anywhere Vollmer is ready to string up the boy, but the sheriff holds him off for a while, relating the story of how Sofina's father killed her Mexican lover before turning the gun on himself, after which she became a total recluse. The aging but still courageous Cannon not only strips the hotheaded Vollmer of his badge, he also clears up the mystery with Yuma's aid. Walter Sande was a longtime veteran of all genres, the younger Richard Devon just right as a conniving back stabber (George Becwar appears in the second of his seven episodes).
Review of The Crime
