Route 66/The Strengthening Angels

The Strengthening Angels
Season 1, Episode 5
Airdate	November 4, 1960
Written by	Stirling Silliphant
Directed by	Arthur Hiller
← 1x04 The Man on the Monkey Board	1x06 → Ten Drops of Water
Route 66 — Season One

Guest Stars: Harry Townes (Daniel Wylie), John Larch (Sheriff Hingle), Tom Reefe (Tommy), Suzanne Pleshette (Lotti Montana)

Plot Overview

In a small town called Hastings, a revival meeting is being held during a furiously stormy night. One of the young women in the chorus is being called on by the Reverend to offer her testimony. When she is about to speak, however, something causes her to lose her nerve. She flees into the night, leaving her small daughter behind.

Out on the highway, the woman happens across Tod and Buz motoring their way between stops and hitches a ride with them. She is glibly evasive to the pair as to her identity. When the duo announce their plans to stop at the next town, Sparrow Falls, to get something to eat; the woman begs them not to stop there. However, since the next settlement is two hours past Sparrow Falls, the boys ignore her entreaties.

While Tod and Buz are getting food from a local establishment, the young woman remains in the car. A drunk in the parking lot attempts to accost her. When he gets a good look at her face, he reacts in surprise, calling her Lotti Montana. Just then, Tod and Buz arrive and rescue her from the masher. But they don’t get far out of Sparrow Falls before a patrol car overtakes them. The sheriff of Sparrow Falls, Hingle, escorts them back into town.

It develops that nine months previously, Lotti murdered a man – a man who just happened to be Sheriff Hingle’s brother – and then fled town. She has spent the intervening time hiding out with her small daughter in nearby Hastings under a false name. Tod and Buz take an interest in Lotti’s case and want to try to help her. Lotti, however, coldly refuses their offers of help.

The sheriff, with a vested personal interest in the case, conducts a hard-line interrogation of Lotti intending to extract a confession. Hingle’s tactics include taking Lotti back to her apartment where the murder occurred and attempting to recreate the scene of the killing. Unable to just drop the matter of Lotti and leave town, Tod and Buz take the step of retaining one of Sparrow Falls’ professional attorneys, Richard Crown, to defend her. But, again, Lotti seems indifferent to their offers of aid.

Buz, disgusted with Hingle’s treatment of Lotti, challenges him to a fight. Buz is getting the better of the sheriff when Hingle’s deputy blackjacks him from behind and knocks him unconscious. Although Buz’s efforts land him in a cell, they also earn him the sheriff’s respect.

Before he is released from jail, Buz has a conversation with Lotti and learns that her small daughter may have been a witness to the events of the night Lotti was accused of murder. After he is released from his cell, Buz announces his intentions of finding Lotti’s daughter and questioning her, over Lotti’s protests.

Tod and Buz find Lotti’s small daughter still in the care of the minister of the revival church, Daniel Wylie. The child tells the two that she saw her mother with a man that night, but that there was also a second man present on the scene that her mother did not see.

Reverend Wylie travels back to Sparrow Falls with Tod and Buz. While he and Lotti are praying together in the jail, Tod and Buz try to determine the identity of the mysterious third man who accompanied Hingle’s brother the night of the murder.

Investigation soon reveals that the man is none other than Richard Crown. The attorney had indeed been accompanying Hingle’s brother to Lotti’s home on the night in question. Crown witnessed Hingle’s brother viciously assault and try to rape Lotti, and confirms that Lotti killed him in self defense. Crown had not come forward before because he did not want to sacrifice his own reputation and family life. He now tells Tod and Buz that he will defend Lotti – but that it will be his last case. With Lotti exonerated, Tod and Buz hit the road once again.

Trivia

The Show

• In the DVD release of this episode by Infinity Entertainment Group, a network ID for CBS Television appears after the 1960-63 Screen Gems "Torch Lady" closing logo at the end of the episode.