Original subtitles

You do swear by almighty God, the searcher of all hearts,

that the evidence you give shall be the truth,

the whole truth,

and nothing but the truth,

as you shall answer to god on the last great day?

In the matter of the United States versus Ruth Cole,

the defendant stands accused of unlawfully, feloniously,

and of malice aforethought shooting into Sidney Snow

two mortal wounds of which he died,

contrary to the law, peace,

and dignity of the Wyoming territory.

Having heard these charges, what say you?

Guilty.

Miss Cole...

In my hand,

a written statement by head of railroad police,

Cullen Bohannon.

He says you aided and protected an officer of the law

from an armed felon.

This would not only prove you innocent,

but mean you saved a life, if not several.

Now, this court asks a second time.

What say you?

I say I am gum!!-

Ruth, don't do this.

- Ruth. - Order, sir.

Miss Cole, it is unclear to me whether you're of fit mind

to defend yourself.

L'ma move for a continuance to afford Miss Cole time

to acquire proper counsel.

I murdered that man, Governor.

Not out of fear nor aiding the law,

but for no purpose other than to end the man's life

who took my son's.

I am guilty. I have pled so.

You, Ruth Elizabeth Cole,

are guilty of murder

and shall be hanged by the neck until you are dead tomorrow.

May god have mercy on your soul.

Have the gallows constructed in the town square.

A public execution?

Transparency, Judge.

Followed by a strict adherence to the law.

A death warrant should be drawn up.

Do it.

No mistakes.

You got nothing to gain by this.

I gave Miss Cole every opportunity to acquit herself.

Her refusal to do so means that justice must be served.

Hanging a grieving mother, that don't serve nobody.

Neither does allowing a confessed murderer to walk free.

No one is above the law, not even a church lady.

Then pardon her. You got that power as governor.

I do.

But a pardon must be affirmatively accepted

by the guilty party to be recognized by the courts.

And the woman in that courtroom

did not appear interested in clemency.

I get her to accept a pardon, you'll sign it?

With pleasure.

The law requires the noose go on tomorrow.

All right, keep your guilty plea.

Take your stand.

Then you'll accept a pardon from the governor.

The governor hasn't pardoned me.

He'll give you one. He told me so hisself.

I never asked for that.

"Hanged by the neck until dead."

Did you hear him in there?

Pardons are for cowards like Sidney Snow.

Taking a pardon...

that ain't a coward's choice.

Dying is.

Either way, the choice is mine.

And my choice is no.

My father was a judge.

After a bad ruling...

well, he'd sneak out and take my mother dancing.

Do you waltz?

I haven't come to dance, John.

Come on.

It's simple.

A waltz requires a man to lead.

I've never excelled in that arena.

I've come for comment on the kangaroo court

you authorized on your arrival

and your acquisition of McGinnes' casino thereafter.

Ancient history, Miss Ellison.

I prefer to call it context.

This is the story I won't like?

It starts and ends with a federally approved hanging.

I extended Miss Cole the pardon.

And if she should refuse, that would be her decision.

Mr. Snow's appointment to marshal...

I suppose that was her decision as well

and his subsequent burning of her church.

We are all complicit, John.

Men with power and money are guilty,

while a woman with no currency except her own convictions

is set to hang.

Burn this city down...

you'll have no friends left but the ashes.

Exactly as much as Ruth Cole.

You'll cast her as some saint?

I'm still deciding on the devil.

Come on, ain't got time to waste.

Train leaves in five minutes.

Train?

New York.

Mary, my first wife, still got folks in the city.

I sent them a telegram.

They said you could stay with them

till you get back on your feet.

- I'm not going to New York. - Yes, you are.

Putting you on that train. You're putting this behind you.

I won't be a fugitive from the law.

No one will come after you.

Can disappear.

That'll be that. You can start fresh.

The only life I have is here.

Yeah, I thought that once in Mississippi.

Train ride changed all that.

I intend to stay and accept the consequences for what I've done.

You'll stay, and you'll die.

For what... teach everybody some lesson about right and wrong?

It's not your responsibility to save me, Mr. Bohannon.

You're getting on that train.

- I've made my decision. - Yeah?

Well, I just unmade it.

What? No, no.

Let me go.

- Come on, you're leaving. - No.

No!

I was ready to leave!

After Sean died,

I was ready to go back to Omaha with Ezra.

You asked me to stay.

And I stayed for you.

This time, I stay for me.

Bohannon!

Bohannon.

Delaney is quite capable of putting the final pieces

in place if you need to be somewhere else.

I'm right where I need to be.

Son of a bitch.

When we lost my only son to cholera,

I was away working.

Do you know where I was and what I was doing?

No.

Neither do I.

There ain't nothing I can do for Ruth.

The thing to do is be with her.

Church lady's not gonna hang.

The casino you can keep.

But if you think you can prevent me from enforcing the law

through intimidation, you haven't been paying attention.

If Ruth Cole sees an early grave...

you best be digging too.

She refused my pardon offer.

There's nothing else I can do.

You'll find a way.

I'm sure of it.

Step aside.

Why don't you go get a drink, Dutch?

I couldn't sleep.

Me neither.

Would you do anything different...

if you could go back?

I would be a better husband...

better father.

I would be more patient with Ezra.

They don't get more patient than you.

Boy didn't make it easy on you...

Setting fires...

Rustling horses...

Kicking frogs.

What I would give for a church full of frogs.

I'd let the both of you go to Omaha.

I don't blame you.

I would kill Sidney Snow.

So would I.

After the war...

I found myself walking the streets of D.C.

What were you doing in D.C.?

There was this crowd outside a federal building...

political rally, I thought.

Some senator speaking on national unity.

Come to realize it wasn't a rally.

It was a execution.

They march this poor bastard out and...

read him his rights.

I swear, it felt no different than...

you and me talking right now... Civilized, even.

But his...

His neck didn't snap right, and...

we spent...

ten minutes...

just watching him choke.

I know what you're doing.

Piss run down his leg at five minutes in.

The shit come at eight.

The worst part was the popping sound his neck made.

It was... like a firecracker on the fourth of July.

And there I am,

in the nation's capital,

watching this...

savage...

act.

They call it civilized.

There wasn't no civility to it.

You won't scare me out of this.

There ain't no worse way to leave this world, Ruth.

Burning alive is worse.

I hated the sight of you...

when you came back to Cheyenne.

The three of you.

I got myself wound up so tight that day.

I stormed out of the church

and trudged through the mud and the rain.

And I saw your tent,

and I was ready to say it all.

But what you don't see

when the anger grabs hold over you are puddles...

Giant ones in the street.

One wrong step, my feet slipped,

and I fell hard into the mud.

What I thought was mud,

but then I smelled it.

It was...

Well...

- horse... - Shit?

It's not funny.

What'd you do?

What else could I do? I walked back through town.

Covered in...

No walk has felt so long in my life.

When I got back, Ezra was there.

You know what he said to me?

"You smell like shit."

Well...

What did you tell him?

I told him, "Don't say 'shit,"'

and went and washed myself off.

That was God...

answering my prayers.

He was telling me I already had a family of my own...

Ezra and me.

Still, I don't know...

why it took you so long to come see me.

I didn't want you to explain.

I just wanted to see you.

I never thought

you'd show up at the church that night.

I'll always show up, Ruth.

Come on out here...

Just to the window.

Come look.

This town needs their preacher.

I'm nobody's preacher anymore.

The hammering stopped.

They finished.

Yeah.

It's almost dawn.

Yeah.

Do you love me?

Of course I do.

But do you love me?

I can't lose you, Ruth.

I love you.

I was a coward.

I should've told you how I felt.

I should've taken you and made you mine.

The three of us could've been a family.

Do you love her?

It's all right. You can say.

I don't know.

You always know.

Deep down.

I think I might.

Go to her.

Tell Naomi.

I don't know if she'd have me.

The brave choice is always family.

Come on, get up.

Cullen.

Cullen.

Mr. Bohannon, please step out of the cell.

Just...

Just give us a minute.

The law requires the death warrant

be read aloud the morning of the execution...

By the officer on duty.

You asked for this role, Mr. Bohannon.

I didn't ask for this.

Badge on your chest says different.

Miss Cole

will accept her pardon now.

Is that right, Miss Cole?

No, Mr. Campbell.

I won't be party to this.

Cullen.

Cullen!

Say you'll be there.

Please.

13 coils.

Hemp, from St. Louis...

It's the only kind I trust.

Your hair, ma'am.

It's the oil.

Sees the knot don't catch.

March you out five minutes before,

exactly five minutes before.

There will be a crowd.

You don't got to worry. I'll be there.

13 steps up to the platform

where I'll tie your hands and your feet first.

Noose comes next.

The hood is last.

Will it hurt?

Daddy never hung nobody before

who come back to have it done over.

You don't got to worry.

I'll be there.

There's $50 in an account in the Cheyenne bank

and a pile of clothes at the laundry.

See that they're donated to the Council Bluffs Mission.

Wallace comes in to talk on Tuesdays.

Someone should look in on him.

Tomorrow's Tuesday.

A pittance and some laundry.

You're forgetting about a city full of people

who you've touched.

You have my word they won't forget you.

You're writing an article about me?

Don't.

It won't be remembered, and neither will we.

It's time.

Is there anything... you need?

Anything at all?

Have you seen Mr. Bohannon?

I haven't.

- But I can find him. - No.

Thank you.

And forgive those who trespass against us...

Looser, please.

No, ma'am.

Wait!

Any last words?

All aboard!

Train to Council Bluffs and all points east!

All aboard!

Final call!

We're ready to escort Miss Cole's body

to the Council Bluffs Mission.

Buried her this morning.

She's with her son.

God hasn't given up on this place yet!

This wasn't God's doing.

"The railroad may be America's dream,

"but what's left behind in Governor Campbell's Cheyenne...

is a nightmare."

This is how you see Cheyenne?

I told you you weren't going to like it.

I thought we shared a vision

for what this city could be.

The only vision that I have is a...

poor girl swinging from a rope.

What befell Miss Cole was a tragedy,

but printing this won't bring her back.

The governor controls a great many things.

The press is not one of them.

I'm not asking you as governor.

I've always been a terrible dance partner.

By this time next week,

you'll be back covering America's dream,

having authored nothing substantial

but the end of a relationship.

This is far more important, John.

In your nightmare...

I'm a monster?

Enjoy your ashes.

Everybody back out of the way!

The pressure's too high.

All right. All right.

All right,

y'all quit your yapping and get back to work!

Heard the man! Back to work!

I'm afraid the champagne and cigars

will have to wait until we've taken the summit.

Send for 300 workers from Omaha to lay track

and two trainloads of lumber from Chicago.

And...

throw up a wire to General Grant.

Tell him we'll summit before month's end.

Well, what is it, Bohannon?

I quit.