Original title
26 Men
Released
10/15/1957
Origin country
US
Genre
Crime, Western
Status
Ended
Number of seasons
2
Number of episodes
78
26 Men is a syndicated American western television series about the Arizona Rangers, an elite group commissioned in 1901 by the legislature of the Arizona Territory and limited, for financial reasons, to twenty-six active members. Russell Hayden was the producer of the series and the co-composer of the theme song. The series aired between October 15, 1957 and June 30, 1959, for a total of 78 episodes.
The newspaper editor of Wilcox asks the Rangers for help, and two of them are dispatched to the town. However, when they get there they find the editor has been lynched and is hanging from a tree.
A gang of desperadoes cuts a swath of murder and robbery across the whole Arizona Territory, laughing at the Rangers attempts to bring them to heel. Since the gang uses every trick in the book to cover their tracks, Rynning hires an Apache tracker to find the outlaws.
A member of the notorious Wild Bunch bandit gang escapes from Ranger Clint Travis' custody, resulting in his being fired. Furious, Travis sets out to take on the whole gang and salvage his career and reputation.
Clint Travis goes undercover as a gun smuggler to stop Mexican revolutionary Juan Morales' plans to topple the Mexican government.
The Rangers set out to stop a smuggling ring that's bringing Chinese immigrants across the Colorado River.
A gang of convicts has escaped from prison, but Capt. Rynning's can't get any more men to help capture them.
When Clint Travis is falsely accused of Murder. Rynning sends him into Galioro Mountains to prove his innocence by finding the cattle rustlers who actually committed the crime.
Travis goes after escaped con Cain Devers, a bank robber and counterfeiter who is using his counterfeit plates as part of a plot to destroy his father and younger brother.
A Ranger suddenly resigns without explanation. Rynning tries to discover what's behind it and finds that the man is hiding a secret that he won't take a chance on anyone finding out about.
The wife of a preacher who recently established a mission for Apaches living near Galeyville receives a suspicious telegram and fears her husband has been murdered. Travis learns that a lynch mob hung two Indians accused of being horse thieves and the minister who tried to prevent the hanging. He also discovers that, in a moment of cowardice, the town sheriff failed to prevent the hangings.
Travis poses as an outlaw in what seems to be a very peaceful valley to try to find the reason behind the disappearance of a U.S. Marshal.
An Apache inherits a small ranch and his white neighbors don't care for the idea of having an Indian for a neighbor.
Rynning and Travis investigate when a number of women are murdered in a small Arizona town. Since the circumstances surrounding each murder are identical, the rangers fear that they are trying to capture a psychopathic misogynist. When Travis finds a footprint with a distinctive heel mark near the body, the lawmen search the surrounding area for the owner of such a boot.
In order to prevent the hanging of their gang members a family of outlaws kidnaps the daughter of the commander of an army post instructing him to release his prisoner or the young woman will meet the same fate. When the army carries out the execution anyway, Rynning, Travis and two undercover Army officers must free the girl before word of the gang members death leaks out.
Ranger Joe Pierce captures a pair of outlaws and turns them over to a sheriff for safe keeping. Sheriff Brennan recognizes that one of the outlaws is a dead ringer for the son of a wealthy rancher who went missing in action while serving in the military and uses the chance for to earn some quick cash so he can woo a pretty saloon girl.
Unemployed miners threaten to burn down the Bisbee bank unless they can withdraw money from their accounts. Unfortunately, the local office doesn't have enough money to meet their demands, so they must pull cash from other locations to survive. Travis is ordered to guard the shipment and must deal with corrupt businessmen and crooks with itchy trigger fingers to get the money through on time.
The careless activities of a former Ranger (Walter Kelly) have Mexico and Arizona on the brink of war.
The Rangers try to capture a ruthless cattle baron and his gang.
An Arizona Ranger is shot in the arm while attempting to thwart a hold-up. He convinces the doctor not to inform Captain Rynning of the seriousness of his injury until he can at least try to regain his shooting form. His fiancée fears that he will be no match for the outlaws who are hijacking gold shipments near his station.
While trying to enforce the embargo placed on Mexican cattle, an Arizona ranger is shot and left for dead by a trio of cowboys. One of the cowmen takes pity on the wounded lawman and takes him to a nearby ranch for medical assistance. Rynning is determined to bring the shooter to justice and break up the cross-border cattle trade to an end.
After a shipment of gold guarded by the Arizona Rangers is stolen, the U.S. Marshals assigned to the region accuse Ranger Ben Thorpe of complicity in the theft.
Rynning and Travis assist the Mexican Rurales hunt down the remnants of an army of bandits who sought to overthrow the government. During the chase, one of the outlaws is killed by the border patrol and incorrectly identified as the movement's commander, Romero. Meanwhile, the erstwhile leader assumes the identity of a poor peon and goes in search of the loot from a train robbery hidden nearly ten years earlier.
Kevin Hardy, a rancher who is about to be released from prison gets a visit from his crippled brother, Arron, who goads him into taking revenge against the former sheriff who arrested him for manslaughter. Meanwhile Arron has hired an outlaw to kill his brother and frame the ex-lawman for the crime.
Clint Travis works his way into the heart of a gang of bank robbers.
During an election campaign for the office of Sheriff of Globe, Arizona, a crooked drifter plots to embarrass the incumbent by bringing in an "escaped" prisoner he took from Ranger Clint Travis' custody the day before the election. To make his election more likely, his gang robs the town's express office and shooting the Sheriff's leading advocate while Harding is out of town helping the Rangers locate their escaped prisoner.
After a rancher is convicted of robbery based upon flimsy circumstantial evidence, his young brother in law appeals to Captain Rynning to find the real criminals.
The Rangers try to convince a group of settlers illegally homesteading on the Apache reservation to leave before violence occurs.
Tom Rynning learns that Bart Evans' will includes a clause that requires Betty Evans to give $10,000 to the man the rancher hired to killer the Ranger captain - and his daughter is willing to pay the bounty.
Arizona's territorial governor orders Rynning to investigate reports of abuses by prison guards of convicts working on chain gangs.
Captain Rynning and several of his Rangers join a posse to smoke out the remnants of Luke Baxter's gang. The outlaws momentarily give the posse the slip and double back to take refuge in a mission school run for the reservation's Indian children and hold the priests and the youngsters as hostages.
A reformed gunman is forced to take up arms after he finds a Ranger murdered.
Ranger Andrew Shoreham requests a leave of absence after receiving a plea from his wife to return to his home and help her move. When his request is denied, Shoreham resigns, but Rynning has a change of heart and orders the ranger to Kelso to drive out the outlaws who have taken over the town.
Rynning and Travis are urged to come to Bisbee when trouble arises when women demand the right to vote.
Captain Rynning sends Travis to Duncan, Arizona to investigate reports that legendary lawman Ben Salem has thrown in with the crooked town boss to keep the residents under his thrall. Travis can't believe the reports since he lived with Salem in his salad days, but soon learns that the his former idol was crippled by a gunshot and was forced to find work as a hired gun.
The attorney general and the local businessman ask that Andy Shoreham be forced to resign from Rangers because of the wild days in his youth. Rynning backs the young ranger, but when he's knocked off the stagecoach he's supposed to be guarding and the stage disappears along with the silver shipment it contained, calls for his dismissal are renewed.
Bud Larch, a short man constantly being teased about his height, turns robber and killer to prove he's as tough as anyone in Arizona.
While escorting an Apache Indian to prison, Travis stops by a remote railroad station for food and water and learns that Bert Alvord and his partner have just held up the train. While awaiting reinforcement, Alvord returns to the station and abducts the station master's granddaughter in order to obtain food and water.
Rynning and Travis investigate the hijacking of a valuable freight wagon and are aided by the youngest member of the outlaw gang who has second thoughts about a criminal career.
When four murderers break out of Yuma Prison, Rynning mobilizes his entire force to capture the escapees.
A preacher with a past is blackmailed into helping a murderer escape from jail.
A green ranger, accused of cowardice by his fellow lawmen, must lead his compatriots in a desperate attack on an Apache camp to rescue a young captive.
A miner (Harry Shannon) informs the Rangers that a wanted killer is in hiding---but he won't say where.
The wary Rangers allow an outlaw to lead them to a den of thieves.
When an Apache inadvertently kills an elderly chief, the Rangers set out to defend him against his Apache accusers.
A meek, hen-pecked bank teller is accused of complicity in a bank hold-up when he is the only employee in the bank when an outlaw gang robs the Bisbee bank. The teller is so taken with the attention and publicity his case is garnering that he refuses to admit that he had nothing to do with the crime. Rynning is convinced of the man's innocence and grants the gang's leader a 24-hour immunity to testify at the man's trial.
The people of Durando are caught in a power duel between their marshal and their sheriff.
A rancher recently released from a mental hospital avenges himself upon the men who committed him.
When two of his sons return from Cuban POW camps after the Spanish-American War, a rancher decides it's time to reopen a feud between his kin and a rancher who purchased most of his land when he failed to pay his real estate taxes.
With only hours left before a hanging, Rynning desperately seeks evidence that might stay the accused's execution. Meanwhile the real murderers threaten the life of the witness whose perjured testimony sent the wrong man to the gallows.
A poker game in Nogales, Arizona turns sour when one of the participants is accused of crooked dealing. After the accused shoots the accuser and makes off with all the cash, the manhunt for the perpetrator quickly leads to an arrest - the real killer's identical twin brother. The rangers desperately search for murderer before a lynch mob hangs an innocent man.
A young man joins the Arizona Rangers and dedicates himself to becoming a quick draw artist. Rynning learns that the new lawman forged his letter of introduction and is only interested in avenging himself upon the man who killed his outlaw father - Clint Travis.
When a wealthy land owner accused of murder can't bribe the circuit judge, he turns to witness intimidation to escape conviction. The judge requests Capt. Rynning to protect those called to testify.
When teacher after teach is run out of a small gold mining town, Rynning is order to investigate. His first day in the schoolhouse involves some two-fisted lessons.
A murderous escaped prisoner returns to his ranch and finds his wife has departed. He forces one of her old friends to find her while he holds the friend's wife as a hostage.
A young man, recently found not guilty of being a thief, is framed for the murder of his girlfriend by a romantic rival.
A card shark agrees to help Rynning and Travis break up a gang of sheep rustlers.
Ralph Kincaid, a wealthy rancher, catches his son, Juro, stealing money from his desk so he can pay his gambling debts and brutally beats him. The next day, the father is found murdered and the evidence seems to point to his son as the killer. During the trial, Captain Rynning discovers incontrovertible that the young man was incarcerated in another town at the time of the murder after suffering from a blackout. The ranger thinks the explanation is too pat, though, and searches for Juro's murderous accomplice.
A convict breaks out of Yuma prison and offers to help Captain Rynning round up the rest of his outlaw gang.
Rynning must make a difficult decision when he learns that the woman he rescued is wanted for murder.
Three wild brothers who were driven out of town years ago return to warn the citizens of an impending attack by a gang of outlaws, but their warning isn't believed when one of their bullets ricochet's off a church bell and kills a man.
A man whose wife was killed during an Indian raid is incensed when his brother takes an Apache woman to be his wife and encourages other Indians to settle in the town of which he is one of the founders. The man takes his racial prejudice so far as to hire a gang of gunslingers to drive the Indians from the town and his brother's wife along with them.
An outlaw's girlfriend convinces her sister, a nun, to lend her a habit so she can travel to Nogales to be with him.
Rynning runs into unexpected trouble while investigating a murder.
The territorial governor orders Rhynning to clean up prize fighting in Arizona. The Ranger captain focuses his attention on Barker, a promoter who offer $500 to anyone who can stay in the ring for four rounds with his champion. The problem is that, while suckers throw their money away betting on the challenger, there's nothing illegal about the promoter's activities.
The economic recession afflicting Arizona after the Spanish-American War hits the young veterans returning to civilian life the hardest. A young veteran, his sister and three friends try to make a go of farming by squatting on land claimed by other homesteaders resulting in bloodshed. The sister decides to become a dance hall girl to raise enough money for the group to eat with only to find out that the hall's owner is interested in more than her ability to dance the Can-Can.
An ex-convict, declared legally dead by his wife when he went to prison under an assumed name, returns to Yuma to kill her new husband, a former partner-in-crime who has reformed.
A young lawyer returns home to litigate water rights controlled by a crooked businessman and learns his senior partner has been bribing witnesses to aid the company he is representing.
Ben Haddock, a recently hired trail boss, is fired by Red Emerson for dating his daughter. The two men have an argument over the money owed to the foreman resulting in the Ben shooting Red and taking the money he feels he is owed. Travis rides out to arrest Haddock but is stung by a scorpion and cowhand flees leaving the ranger to die.
While Travis tries to convince a representative from Washington that Arizona no longer subscribes to gun law, Rynning tries to prevent an ex-convict from exacting revenge upon a Yuma businessman whose perjured testimony sent him to prison.
A decorated Indian war hero becomes involved with a quack who's selling phony cure-alls after he finds his own tribe will have nothing to do with him.
A crusading editor learns that funds for mine safety equipment have been embezzled.
Two saloon girls witness a prominent business man murder his partner. After giving evidence at the coroner's hearing, an agent for the accused tries to bribe them to leave town. When they refuse, the agent hires a gunman to kidnap the women so they can't testify at the trial.
Rynning offers Vin Carter, Tucson's tough and honest marshal, a position in the Rangers, but Vin turns him down because of his sour relationship with the town's business community. When Carter's fiancée is seriously injured and desperately needs an operation, Vin begins to reconsider his stance on integrity.
Rynning orders Frank Seldom to meet a stagecoach heading from New Mexico to Wilcox, Arizona to ensure its cargo of six lovely mail-order brides arrive unscathed. Seldom has his hands full fending off marauding Apache Indians, crooked stagecoach drivers and an outlaw gang who intends to kidnap the women and sell them to white slavers in Mexico.
When a gang of American outlaws takes over a Mexican border town, Colonel Kesterlitzky aka 'El Tigre' of the Mexican Rurales requests the assistance of Captain Rynning to recapture the town.
One of Kelton's riders reports that his son has been abducted by a group of Apaches led by Cochise himself. Rynning quickly organizes a posse to pursue the renegades, but their rescue mission is dogged by misfortune and, eventually, murder. The rangers begin to suspect that a member of their posse is in cahoots with the abductors, who may not be Indians after all.
Rynning and his rangers try to outwit a beautiful, clever outlaw.
A young boy must choose between respect for the law and loyalty to his two outlaw uncles.
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