The prodigal son returns to his small-town roots just in time to miss his father's funeral. He inherits half the bank, but he wants responsibility to run it, which has been left to his responsible brother. However, destitute, having blown the substantial amount of money his father gave him when he went to Philadelphia, he is forced to take a position as bank teller and work his way up. Not patient enough for this, however, and needing money to pay off his gambling debts to the local gangster, he gets the vault's combination and starts stealing money, framing the kindly assistant manager, who has been training him, for the crime. He then becomes assistant manager, but when his brother discovers the crime, he murders him with the Dead Man's Gun. Along the way, despising his father's religious instruction, Baldwin strives to get pleasure by breaking all of the seven deadly sins, but will they come back to haunt him via the Dead Man's Gun?

Kendall Cross (as Sister Elizabeth) and Susan Hogan (as Sister Katherine) are two criminals making their way west dressed as nuns, robbing bad men on their way to a gold town. When they reach their destination they realize that the town is under the thumb of an evil tyrant. Soon they devise a plan to break into his bank through the wall of his saloon, enlisting the help of the impoverished townfolk to force him to close the saloon on Sundays so they can perform this deed. But should they really steal the money and skip town, or help the poor people there? And can Sister Katherine come to terms with her questionable past? They can indeed, but only with the help of the Dead Man's Gun.

When a wife and mother is murdered, and the local law can not find the killer, her widower calls in expert help in the form of John Eastman (Michael Dorn), a talented Pinkerton investigator. Eastman has troubles during his investigation, primarily because of racism in a small white town, but he will not be turned away. Using the Dead Man's Gun, he solves the evil crime, and justice is doled out to the surprising culprit.

Phineas Newman (Winkler) is a hangman by trade. Ostracized by the rest of society for his work, he takes pride in it, and strives to be the best executioner money can by. He explains to his assistant that he does his job because, as a child, he saw his uncle hung by unprofessionals, and believes that even a condemned man shouldn't suffer. He also becomes fascinated with a gun he picks up from his latest hanging client, the Dead Man's Gun, of course. When he arrives for his next job at another town, he learns that the town, including the mother of the raped and murdered girl, refuses to believe that their Reverend has committed the crime. He goes about his duties of preparation, not caring to hear anything about the crime, and refusing to give mercy to the pleading, condemned Reverend. That night, depressed after being refused service by the town's low-life whore, he tries to kill himself, and realizes that the Dead Man's Gun and he both have the power to choose when to take life

Blood is thicker than water as two brothers wrestle with each other over what they should do when one of them falls under the spell of The Dead Man's Gun, after finding it on a body. Will his brother be able to save him, and himself, from the fate that awaits them?

A photographer, seeking fame and fortune, discovers that action follows the Dead Man's Gun and decides to follow it to reap the benefits. But after winning aclaim for capturing an amazing picture of the execution of 14-year old outlaw ""Little Boy Dawkins"", he goes further and crosses the line ... but it's a mistake getting directly involved with the Dead Man's Gun.

without acknowledgement to Edgar Allen Poe's ""The Facts In The Case of M. Valdemar"", this bizarre tale is of a womanizing hypnotist who falls for the wife of a dying millionare. She persuades the hypnotist to use his talent to ease her husband's suffering. But as hubby sinks deeper and deeper into death, the hypnotist sees an opportunity to achieve fame by keeping conssciousness and motor nerves alive in a corpse, at the same time arresting decay, and creating an immortal dead man! Only after the wife finds out that she can't inherit anything as long as her husband is still considered alive, and the hypnotist finds out he can't remove the hypnotic state do things start to literally fall apart! The twist ending is particularly gruesome and ironically fitting

A meek store owner seeks adventure in his life, and, after finding the Dead Man's Gun, aspires to become a bountie hunter, even though his friend the shootist tells him to get rid of the evil weapon. He, of course, does not listen, and just when he thinks he's bagged his first outlaw, he falls prey to the Dead Man's Gun.

John Ritter is ""The Great Mcdonacle"" in the opening episode of the three-part pilot, a shifty trick-shooter who relies on ""smoke & mirrors"" and a little buckshot to provide a decent show, but once he gets his hands on the Dead Man's Gun he realizes he no longer needs any illusions, he's suddenly a crack shot! And when shootists come gunning for him, he has no problem dealing with them, until the Dead Man's Gun has its way!

Aaron Freemont (Meat Loaf) is a lonely and awkward man, but when his mail order bride finally arrives in town he grows much happier with her, and falls in love. But when he comes across the Dead Man's Gun, will he be able to defeat the evil that comes along with it, save his new wife, and convince her to love him in return?

An English couple flee to America after being caught stealing from their employers, and soon find a new victim in a scatterbrained old Colonel, who enjoys shooting at squirrels with the Dead Man's Gun. They worry that their employer may not have enough money to make the difficult task of caring for him worth-while until they spot him one night, planting money in his garden. They soon become convinced that the locations of all of his hidden treasure chests are hidden in his hidden book, but to get it from his bedside table they have to get the key from around his neck. The butler urges his wife, who the Colonel has become quite fond of, to give him what he wants so that they can get the key, but it isn't as easy as it would seem. In the end, the tables are turned around again and again, and they all get the fate they deserve at the hands of the Dead Man's Gun.

When a no-good gambler comes across the Dead Man's Gun, he convinces himself that he just can't lose. But we all know that when you deal with the Dead Man's Gun, you're in for a surprise. In the biggest game of his life, the tables get turned on our gambling friend.

Joe Wheeler is a dead man ... or is he? Either he's dead, or he's back and looking for revenge against his enemies. The lines tend to get skewed when you're dealing with the Dead Man's Gun!

When his cavalry platoon is ambushed by Indians with red bandanas in a corn field, Lt. Matthew Ryan cowardly hides and watches them, including the man who saved his own life, Sgt. O'Connor, get slaughtered. After the bloodbath he picks up the Dead Man's Gun from O'Connors corpse, and heads back to the fort. Asked about what happened, he obviously lies, claiming that he heroically fought the Indians but everyone else was slaughtered despite his actions. He is believed, but when one of the troops believed dead returns to the fort and tries to tell the truth about Lt. Ryan, the commanding officer believes that the soldier himself is the one who ran off and is trying to cover his own behind. Lt. Ryan simply agrees, and watches in silence as the innocent man is hanged. He believes his ordeal is over, but the commander has one more job for him before they move out - to return to the battle site and bury the other men. He reluctantly agrees, and when they arrive and enter the field he s

Joe Dean Bonner (Brian Austin Green) is a professional killer who cares for nothing but himself. After his latest killing, he rides into a strange town populated by only one man, who he obtains the Dead Man's gun from. Soon, Bonner is on trial for his past deeds, with a jury of those he has butchered, and not even the Dead Man's gun can help him against the supernatural. After visits from his dead, disappointed father, a pastor, and the love of his life, who committed suicide after he impregnated then abandoned her, Bonner seems to repent, but is he sincere? The Dead Man's Gun knows! And so do I, he's not sincere at all, so he gets hung.

When a Regulator comes across the Dead Man's Gun, he believes he is set for life ... until other Regulators come after HIM!

Patrick Duffy is a Womanizer. When the husband of one of his flings tracks him down, and dies after being thrown off his horse during the chase, the Womanizer loots his wallet, and picks up The Dead Man's Gun. Can he mend his ways, or will he fall prey to the gun's evil powers?

Years after the town hooligan and three of his men murder a young woman's husband simply for beating them at poker, she returns with the Dead Man's Gun, seeking revenge. She leaves an Ace at each dead man's side, and soon a showdown is set up with the hooligan and his son. After being injured she enlists the help of the town's shopkeeper, a victim of the town's gang's treachery for years, and his young daughter. The hooligan waits for her to show up to ambush her, but she cleverly kidnaps his son instead and forces him to come to her, at her old ranch, where her husband had been murdered so long ago. Here he finds his son in an unexpected predicament, and she forces him to face his deepest, darkest fears. Then she goes back to town to marry the shopkeeper and to be the littler girl's mother.

Chef Emil (Jay Thomas) gets the cash for his dream of setting up his own high class French restaurant by poisoning his employers, and also inherits the Dead Man's Gun. An ill-tempered man, he treats the people of the town terribly, but is forgiven because of his great food, and the hungry Sheriff is content to simply look the other way. Anyone who disagrees with Emil's cooking is killed by him. The town's other home-cooking restaurant, an Irish mother/son operation, suffers for lack of business at the hands of Chez Emil, with Emil humiliating the man every chance he gets. Soon, the restaurant goes under, and he young man is forced to work for Emil himself. Emil soon covets the man's girlfriend, and drugs her. Luckily, the man discovers Emil's plan and saves the girl, just in time to be shot by Emil who claims he was attacked without provocation. Emil gets his just desserts, though, thanks to the Dead Man's Gun! (He is poisoned and used for meat.)

When a Highwayman comes across the Dead Man's Gun, his job becomes a lot more difficult than he ever could have imagined. His Highway now leads directly into the fires of hell.

C. Thomas Howell is a habberdasher and phrenologist; a city boy who leaps at whatever the latest big-city fad is. He hires a new assistant, who has just witnessed an outlaw being bucked off his horse into quicksand and could not save him, only the Dead Man's Gun, which he carried. The Phrenologist uses the boy to try to win the heart of a beautiful young lady, whose affections he is competing for with a local rancher. She is having great difficulty choosing between them. Meanwhile, the outlaws bank-robbing partners are hot on his (and the stolen money's) trail, and, after being placed under arrest, notice the Phrenologist carrying their old partner's gun. The boy overhears their discussion, and leads the Phrenologist to the swamp where the money must be, while the outlaws escape. They take the phrenologist and the rancher hostage, but are saved by the clever boy, who turns out to be Thomas Edison; the woman uses trickery to discover which man she should give her hand to.

An outlaw (William Forsythe) retrieves the Dead Man's Gun by murdering its latest owners for a mysterious, eccentric, incredibly rich man, known only as Mr. Smith. Upon delivery of the gun, the outlaw is treated to several stories about its eerie past (in the form of flashbacks to previous episodes including The Hangman, The Bounty Hunter, The Photographer, Bad Boys, and The Great Mcdonacle), and cannot leave because of the posse outside. He grows more and more uncomfortable, and feels that, because of the danger of the weapon, he deserves more money for it. His greed is his undoing, as Mr. Smith reveals himself to be the original owner of the cursed weapon, and the outlaw receives his just reward.

When the Reverend Jeremiah Early (Tim Matheson) comes to town he plans on taking them for all the money he can and splitting, until he spots a beautiful woman. With the help of the Dead Man's Gun he does way with her man so he can have her for himself, framing his good-natured, religious, retarded assistant for the murder. In the meantime, he discovers that, while in possession of the Dead Man's Gun, he can suddenly perform real miracles and actually heal the people who come to him. But will his other assistant turn back from his evil ways and reveal the Reverend for what he really is before it's too late for the town? Of course he will, with the Dead Man's Gun.

The town push-over, a school teacher, turns his life around when he discovers the Dead Man's Gun on a killed outlaw. He no longer puts up with the bullying of his peers, but ends up becoming a bully himself. Can he turn his life back around, though, when the outlaw's partners turn up, looking for the powerful Dead Man's Gun? And can he win the love of the school marm, whom he secretly adores?

A German collector of antiquities (Michael York) travels to the American west in search of goods to trade for, with the hopes of taking his riches back to Germany. He finds the Dead Man's Gun on a dead body while scavenging for goods, and hires a Mexican to help him on his way. He soon visits an American professor with similar interests, and seeks to trade for part of his valuable collection, i.e. a map rumoured to lead to a dead tribe's treasure cave, but just as a deal is reached, the American backs out, having realized the kind of man von Hubert is after butchering a rare buffalo for its pelt. Furious, von Hubert arranges for a goodbye ride with the professor, ostensibly to leave on good terms, but he instead murders the professor and shoots himself, blaming the deed on the renegade in the area, thus winning the professor's collection and his beautiful wife as well. Soon, however, the wife realizes where von Hubert's love lies, and sabotages him by taking the bullets out of hi

When a bizarre slashing murder takes place in a small western town, an English inspector soon turns up asking questions about the crime. It is soon divulged that he is hot on the trail of Jack the Ripper, and thinks the killer is in the town. Could the murderer be the town's doctor? Or the scarred, malevolent blacksmith? Or even the town's shady Sheriff or the brothel's madam, who the inspector finds himself getting close with? The murders continue until the Ripper is finally flushed out, and brought down by the Dead Man's Gun.