Rawhide - "the Incident of the Murder Steer" (1960)

In this episode of Rawhide, regarded by fans of the classic Clint Eastwood western as one of the best of the entire series, a series of murders occur after four strangers join the cattle drive. At the scene of each murder a steer appears with the word "MURDER" branded on it.

Franciscus plays the principal guest star role of Andy Nye, one of the strangers from the town of Talbot who join the drive. Nye and the other Talbot men seem to have something to hide, and all are suspected of the murders, but Nye most of all. The mystery deepens and more of the Talbot men are killed, leading most of the trail riders to believe that the murderer is Nye, but trail boss Gil Favor ( ), isn't so sure. Eventually Favor's men form a lynch mob, ready to execute Nye - but in fact Favor has planned the entire "necktie party" and manipulated his men into participating in it as a ruse to expose the real killer.

An interesting side note - This story is actually based on an old Texas legend recorded in "Longhorns" by the famous historian, folklorist, and fiction writer J. Frank Dobie:

The most famous example in Texas and the whole West was the maverick branded MURDER. In 1890, most of the trans-Pecos country was still unfenced, and in the timbered and brushed roughs plenty of Longhorn blood still ran wild. On January 28 of that year, the small cattle owners operating around the Leoncita waterholes in northern Brewster County held a round-up... Fine Gilleland represented two of the large interests. Henry Harrison Powe was one of the 'little men'. In the round-up was a brindle yearling bull, not following any cow. Powe was informed that the bull belonged to one of his cows, so he cut it out. Gilleland claimed that unless he could produce the cow, it didn't belong to him and took it back to the main herd. Powe cut it out of the herd again, was stopped, and then borrowing a six-shooter from a friend, cut it out again. Gilleland met him, tried to rope the bull, and when Powe shot at the bull (and missed), Gilleland shot Powe and killed. Powe's son informed the rangers of the killing. While he was gone, the yearling that had been the source of contention was branded MURDER on one side and Jan 28 90 on the other. Gilleland was killed by two rangers. What happened to the Murder Maverick was unknown, but stories grew up about the 'ghost steer'.