Lightnin' Bill Carson 1936

A sheriff's deputy is murdered and "Lightning" Bill Carson arrives in town to investigate. He learns from an old pal, Tom Rand, that Rand's brother, The Pecos Kid, has been framed for the killing. Before Carson can prove his innocence, the corrupt sheriff and a lynch mob hang the boy. It is not long before Carson is back in town to track down the mysterious killer.

Tim McCoy was a superstar of cowboy films In the '20s and '30s, appearing in scores of early Westerns for M.G.M. and smaller studios. He was an expert horseman, roper and a sharpshooter, renowned for his fast draw. After serving as an officer in World War II he returned to Hollywood to star in The Rough Riders series with Buck Jones and Raymond Hatton. Lightnin' Bill Carson is the first of a series of eight films in which he portrayed the tough, straight-shooting lawman.

The first of nine Bill Carson Westerns produced by Sigmund Neufeld and starring the stalwart Tim McCoy, LIGHTNIN' BILL CARSON was the only entry released by Puritan Pictures. Lightnin' Bill is the marshal of Blue Gap, TX, who resigns to chase down "Breed" Hawkins (John Merton) and the "Pecos" Kid (Rex Lease), a couple of outlaws he earlier ran out of town. During a stagecoach robbery, Pecos witnesses Hawkins murder a deputy (Edmund Cobb) and flees to the house of his brother, "Silent" Tom Rand (Harry Worth). Bill discovers the body of Bates the deputy, and follows the trail to the Rand house where he arrests Pecos. Learning that the killer is really Hawkins, Bill fails to save Pecos from being hanged by the sheriff (Jack Rockwell). Avenging his brother's death, Rand kills both the sheriff and his posse, leaving a playing card on each corpse. Tom has saved the highest card for Bill, but confronted with the lawman, he realizes that vengeance is the sole responsibility of God and secretly empties his own gun before meeting Bill in a final shootout. McCoy made four additional non-Carson Westerns for Puritan before bringing his act to Neufeld's Victory Pictures and resuming the Bill Carson series.