- A sheriff and his posse shoot it out with a gang of robbers headed by Bad Jake Kennedy. The surviving robber, Buckshot John, won't tell where the gang's loot is hidden and gets 30 years in prison. Halfway through his sentence he "gets religion" and in order to save his soul, decides to tell where the gang has hidden its stash of gold. However, a phony clairvoyant, The Great Gilmore, finds out about John's intentions and tricks him into revealing where the gold is. When John finds out what happened, he decides to break out of prison and take care of matters himself.—frankfob2@yahoo.com
- The career of Bad Jake Kennedy's gang comes to an end in the town of Clayton, after months of robbing banks and express companies of thousands of dollars. The pursuit by the sheriff and posse ends in a corral, where the gang, cornered, fights till only four are left. Of these, "Buckshot John" Moran is wounded, and carried by Doc Pattee to his own office. The others are locked in the jail, from which they are dragged by the indignant populace and duly hanged. Too late the citizens realize that they have destroyed all means of locating the cache where the gang's rich loot is hidden. Only Buckshot John is left, and he emphatically declares he does not know where it is. At intervals during the first fifteen years of his thirty-year sentence in the State's Prison at Canon City, every means is taken to make him tell, but he stoutly reiterates his denial. One of the methods is "religion," which, though it fails, proves the means of opening a new life to the sullen and embittered convict. In the truest sense, this former desperado "gets religion." He prays for a message, and, putting his finger haphazard on a page of the Bible, reads the words: "A clean heart." From that time on his one thought is "to go clean when my time comes," and he prays for a way to restore the securely hidden money to its rightful owners. Meantime, in Denver, "Dr. J. Buchanan Gilmore" has risen by devious, shady paths from being a vendor of snake oil and a fake clairvoyant to an unassailed position as leader of the cult of the hour, "Purified Thought." The interest of a high official puts the stamp of approval on his career, and he is quick to take advantage of it, bringing the fact to the attention of a reporter sent to cover a story. This reporter is "Jimmy Dacey," much in love with the statesman's daughter, Ruth, a state of affairs viewed with disfavor by her father, who much prefers the rich and polished Dr. Gilmore as a suitor for his daughter. Affairs look very badly for Jimmy as Gilmore's half-hypnotic influence over Ruth becomes stronger. Sent to try once more to get a confession from Buckshot John, with the usual fruitless result, Jimmy gives him a newspaper, and is greatly surprised at the convict's statement that his only reading matter is his Bible. Buckshot reads of Gilmore's marvelous psychic powers and of a private exhibition in which messages were received from the dead. It seems like an answer to prayer, and he sends a note to Gilmore begging help. A convict must have had newspaper notices, and in the office of Jimmy's paper Gilmore drains the files clean of everything that had ever been printed about Moran and the Bad Jake Kennedy gang, and goes to Canon City with a well-filled notebook. Gilmore, pretending to go into a trance, preys on Buckshot John's mind and emotions, with voices, messages and mysterious sounds, till the broken and half-hysterical convict tells the location of the cache, and begs Gilmore himself to get the money and restore it to its rightful owners. Hiding his wild exultation at thus getting possession of the fortune, Gilmore suavely reassures Buckshot, and returns home to make preparations to steal the money. A casual glimpse of Gilmore in the file room was added fuel to the flame of Jimmy's jealous suspicions of him, and when the latter says goodbye to Ruth on the plea of a sudden trip to San Francisco, and is seen taking a local train toward Canon City, Jimmy camps on his trail, goes to the prison and learns from Buckshot that Gilmore had been there several days before and had told him wonderful things. Jimmy quickly disabuses poor Buckshot of that illusion, suspecting that he and Gilmore were planning to divide the hidden treasure between them. Buckshot stolidly denies that he told Gilmore his secret, but after Jimmy's departure nearly breaks down as he realizes that his prayers have been in vain and that now he can never make reparation. One chance remains: to catch Gilmore at the cache, so, sacrificing all his good-conduct credits, Buckshot makes his get-away. He catches up with Gilmore, who is laden with the stolen money, forces its return, and makes his way to Denver, where he gives the money to a committee of clergymen, then happily awaits the coming of the police to take him back to prison. "I couldn't get an honest man, so I had to do it myself," he naively tells Jimmy. How Jimmy traces Gilmore's part in the transaction and uses his knowledge to force Ruth's father to consent to her marriage to himself, and to do a great service to Buckshot John, completes this story.—Moving Picture World synopsis
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