Charles Cooper

African-American Philadelphia police detective Virgil Tibbs is arrested on suspicion of murder by Bill Gillespie, the racist police chief of tiny Sparta, Mississippi. After Tibbs proves not only his own innocence but that of another man, he joins forces with Gillespie to track down the real killer. Their investigation takes them through every social level of the town, with Tibbs making enemies as well as unlikely friends as he hunts for the truth.

Cruze arrives in town and when he stands up to the three Moran brothers, he gets appointed Marshal. First the brothers kill a rancher while framing another man. But when the jailer is murdered, Cruze gets evidence the Morans did it. He tries to raise a posse to chase them down but the townsmen refuse to go. So he rides off by himself to face the three of them.

Sach learns that he has inherited a farm in rural hillbilly country, and when he and the Boys arrive there, they find themselves mixed up with a hillbilly clan named Smith who'll shoot anybody named Jones, plus a gang of bank robbers.

Johnny Mack Brown was recruited by Chet Norman, the owner of a stagecoach line, to end the heist perpetrated by a mysterious knight who plays strange notes with a hiss of money before robbing them.