SYNOPSIS:

Synopsis for “Shotgun Sally” By Jeremy Hunter In 1865-69 Charley Hammond, along with his brothers Edgar and Harvey Hammond ran a band of outlaws known as The Hammond-Hill Gang. Following one final train robbery the brothers left Luther Hill, Chester McBride, Leroy Torres, Roy Deetz and Elmer Browler,( the other half of The Hammond Hill Gang) to die penniless in the Texas desert. The year is now 1890 and Luther Hill and The Hill Gang are in search of retribution. The Hill Gang discovers Edgar and Harvey Hammond running a Caravan Freak Show in Memphis, Tennessee. The brother’s, who now go by the names of Quinn and Donny Compton, are dumbfounded as the gang approaches. Harvey is quick to go for his gun which is shot right out of his hand by Luther. Luther dismounts from his horse and approaches the brothers; he is quick in pointing out that Charley is missing. Harvey gives a little lip and is shot in the knee cap. Luther then approaches Edgar and asks where Charley is, Edgar doesn’t say a word, as Luther takes a seat he removes his derringer from its holster and fires a second shot killing the injured Hammond brother. Luther then bargains with Edgar and tells him that if he were to tell him where Charley was that he will let him go, of course, he’s lying, and after Edgar tells him Luther makes it clear he has no intention in letting him leave alive. Edgar goes for his gun but is blown apart by Chester’s shotgun. Luther lets the freak show performers go before blowing open the Caravan’s safe, finding it empty, the gang heads to Baldwyn, Mississippi to find Charley. In Baldwyn, Charley, who now goes by the name of Steven Towns, teaches his daughter, Sally Towns, quick draw on a few pickle jars in the woods. Sally is a perfect shot. Just as a test Charley points out a crow in the trees and bets that he can shoot the crow blindfolded before Sally can even remove the gun from its holster. Sally takes the bet, and just like he said he kills the crow before Sally even grabs her gun. Charley then points out to Sally that you should only ever need a second to visualize you’re opponent before firing. Later on the two go hunting in the woods, Sally aims a Winchester at a buck while her father talks her through the shot. He tells her to aim for the heart and to always take her enemies pain into consideration. With what her father just told her she misses the shot purposely which in a way makes her father disappointed in her. They arrive at the farm, Marianna Towns; Sally’s pregnant mother makes it clear to her that her place is in the kitchen and not in the field hunting. Sally shrugs off what her mother just told and continues into town to purchase some groceries. Sally arrives in town and rides right past that Hill Gang who head to the local tavern. Sally picks up the necessities at the local Farmer’s Market as Luther and the rest of his gang intimidate the local bartender into telling them where Charley is. The bartender doesn’t know who their talking about as he’s held at gunpoint, he’s never heard the name Charley Hammond before but the name Steven Town which Leroy mentions, (the name of Charley’s deceased son) he’s heard that many times. The gang lets the bartender go unharmed and heads to his farm which is just out of town. After picking up groceries Sally goes for a swim at a small pond, this is just before dark and just before The Hill Gang arrives at her farm. It starts to rain. There’s a knock at the door, Charley goes to answer while Mariana rests in the master bedroom. BANG!!! A shotgun blast blows a hole in the door. Luther and the other men enter just as Charley, who is unarmed on the floor backs up. The ghosts of Charley’s past look to him, as they do Marianna makes her presence known with a large two barrel shotgun, she is almost immediately shot and killed by Chester, the shots are heard outside as Sally arrives home. Sally heads to the barn with her Winchester in hand just as Chester is forced outside by Luther. Sally knows something is wrong; she listens for a while before making another move. As Chester stands on the front patio Sally fires off the weapon, Chester is hit in the chest; he falls to the ground in pain. As he yells to Luther he is hit again, this time in the head. Luther walks to the door to see what just happened; once he’s in Sally’s sights she pulls the trigger… BANG!!! Sally misses; she fires twice more as Luther drags himself, she misses both times. Luther heads back to the table where Charley is held down by Elmer and Roy. With an axe in hand he orders Charley to tell him where the money is, Charley doesn’t, with one strike of the axe Charley’s left hand is cut off. Luther then orders him to tell otherwise he will rape and murder Charley’s daughter (who Edgar mentioned before he was killed)… …Roy and Elmer dig up a metal safe within Charley’s dirt basement; Luther heads downstairs to help them drag it up. Leroy, who was once good friends with Charley apologizes for what he did, Charley accepts his apology. As the conversation continues Charley suggests that Leroy that he kill Luther just as the safe is dragged upstairs by the three and opened. All the money is removed and placed in four separate saddlebags. Luther explains to the others that going out the front door will more than likely result in them being killed so he suggests they go out the back, meet up in the trees, get on their horses and split up only to meet a week later in Mexico. Charley, who sits at the table laughs and tells Luther that they ain’t gonna make it. Luther looks to him, says a few words and just as he turns his back Charley lifts the axe off of the ground with his right hand, just as he’s about to strike down upon him Luther quick draws and fires two Charley’s chest. Charley falls to the ground and is left for dead. The Hill Gang leave the house and ride off on horseback. Sally listens to the sound of horses galloping from within the trees, she is about to leave the barn and head for the house when galloping is heard from behind. Luther, to her unknowing chucks a Molotov cocktail into the back of the barn which immediately starts a couple bails on fire and eventually engulfs the rest of the barn in flames. Luther, while Sally struggles to find a way out heads toward the front of the house with another Molotov in hand which he is about to chuck until Sally fires off a bullet from the barn into his right arm forcing him to drop the Cocktail, instead of turning back to fire upon Sally, Luther rides off. Sally is forced to jump from the upper level of the barn to the ground, she then heads toward the house. Inside Sally discovers her father on the ground with a large puddle of blood building beneath him, he is about to die and Sally knows it. Sally kneels beside him and looks to him, she asks who did this, and he points to the safe, right then and there Sally vows vengeance. Charley dies with his last word being “Mexico”, the place she must go. The following morning Sally lays both her parents to rest. Within a hidden compartment of the safe she discovers old wanted posters of The Hammond-Hill Gang, each man has a large bounty on his head. She loads up the horse before heading into town with the dead body of Chester dragging behind. Sally arrives at the Sheriff’s Office where Sheriff Dal Vernon is quick to examine the body. He argues that Chester isn’t the same man as the one in the wanted poster who has a price of two thousand dollars on his head. Sally explains to the Sheriff that this man helped in killing her family, the Sheriff orders Sally into the office to wait as he calls up the Marshall who arrives soon after. Marshall Tom Broderick takes a seat across from Sally, the two exchange words, and he apologizes for her loss but ultimately asks why Sally’s father was in possession of these wanted posters in the first place. Sally doesn’t have an answer, she doesn’t know why. Tom then goes about explaining that a couple weeks prior two brothers, Quinn and Donny Compton who ran a Caravan Freak Show were discovered dead in the Memphis, Tennessee forest. Tom then explains that the brothers were later identified as Edgar and Harvey Hammond and that he can almost guarantee that if they dug up the dead body of her father that he would be discovered to be Charley Hammond, the last Hammond brother. Sally is unclear why he is telling her this but later discovers that Tom wanted to test her and make sure she was going after them for the right reason. The Marshall pays the bounty and Sally is off to Mexico. Luther is in a brothel with a beautiful redhead named Mandy Frankfort, seated in a chair he impatiently waits as she removes a bullet from his arm. He lets out a yell as she removes the bullet followed by another as his arm is sewn up. Later on, they lay in bed, Luther explains jokingly how he could use a girl like her around, as the two continue talking they seem to hit things off until Luther admits to her that he has robbed and killed people. She gives him a worried look before quickly heading to the door, Luther, caught in a psychotic rage chucks a large whiskey bottle at her head which sends her to the ground before he strangles her to death. He looks to her dead body and blames what happened on her. He kisses her gently before lifting her and rocking her back and forth in his arms. Meanwhile… in the desert Sally bumps into an old black couple by the names of Nigel and Hattie Brown, a wheel has somehow fallen off their Caravan and they need help getting it back on. Sally agrees to help, after dismounting from her horse she turns her back to Nigel who pulls back the hammer of his derringer and holds it to her. He orders her to empty out her pockets and give him and his wife everything she owns. Instead Sally tricks the couple and is able to aim a derringer at each of them, they lower their weapons. The couple apologizes and asks if they could make it up to her, if they could treat her to supper, Sally takes the offer. That night Sally tells the couple that she’s going after the gang who killed her family; the couple explains that vengeance comes with a price. Nigel shares a story of how when he and his wife were slaves they were whipped repeatedly by the plantation owner (Peter McGrady) but ultimately got him back after the Civil War and whipped him to death. Nigel then goes on to say that killing this man didn’t take away the scars they had because of him and that in the end his death didn’t change a thing. Sally ignores the story, it doesn’t change the way she felt at all. The next morning Sally awakens to find herself laying in the desert without a horse, penniless and with all of her belongings missing. The old couple have robbed her blind. Sally is forced to walk into town. After a few hours of walking she finds herself in Houston, Texas. She is quick to discover the old couples Caravan parked outside a local tavern. She heads toward the tavern in a rage. Leroy and Elmer have both arrived to a small bar in Mexico. Leroy feels bad about what happened to Charley and feels they should kill Luther before he has the chance to kill them, Elmer seems a little hesitant about the idea but plays along. Sally heads inside the tavern, approaches the owner and asks if an old black couple had checked in. As she talks the couple tries to sneak out the door but Sally notices and chases them outside. Hattie has just gotten inside the caravan, Nigel sits on the ash seat, they are about to leave when Sally throws Nigel to the ground and throws a couple right hooks into his face. This causes a commotion, several of the towns citizens gather around including Sheriff Don Matthews. The Sheriff pulls Sally off of Nigel and asks what’s wrong. Sally accuses them of stealing; the couple fesses up to the Sheriff but makes it sound as though this was all a part of the three planning a trip to Mexico. The Sheriff believes they’re story; Sally calms down and joins the couple on the trip. On the way to Mexico, Hattie looks to Sally and apologizes for what they did; she then asks if Sally wants to team up considering that she now knows there’s a bounty on the heads of the men who killed her family. Sally doesn’t know if she can trust a word that comes out of her mouth so she tells her when they get to Mexico she will tell them then. Meanwhile… a couple of hillbilly brothers, Cletis and Virgil Huckleberry sit on top of a large hill, one has a broken pair of binoculars in hand, and the other just watches on. Down below is a small camp, sitting alone in front of a small fire is Roy Deetz, the wanted outlaw, the brothers talk about killing him but they forgot their guns. Once he’s asleep they head down the hill with a rock, Roy pulls a gun on them. Just when we think it’s the end for them Cletis chucks a rock which was held behind his back into the forehead of Roy which knocks him unconscious. As they look for rope to tie him up with they discover the money. A few minutes later Nigel passes by the camp and stops after noticing the bodies of Cletis and Virgil lying dead in the dirt. Nigel looks to Roy who bleeds from the wound in his forehead. Nigel questions what happened, Roy tells him to get lost, but Nigel doesn’t. Roy aims his gun at him, pulls him off the horse, puts his head next to the dead body of Cletis and tells him if he doesn’t get on his horse and ride off in five seconds that that will be him. Nigel doesn’t listen, Roy counts down. Five…four…three…two… the caravan door kicks open and out comes Sally with a two barrel shotgun in hand. She aims the gun at Roy, fires…BANG!!! He flies back ten feet and hits the ground, he’s alive but barely. Sally approaches him, he reaches for his gun but she kicks it away. After realizing who this man is Sally aims the gun at his head and pulls the trigger… BANG!!! Roy Deetz is dead. Meanwhile… Luther meets Leroy and Elmer in a Mexican graveyard. Luther makes it clear to Leroy that he knows what was said and he knows what he was planning. Luther kills Leroy and throws his body in an unmarked grave. The next morning Nigel, Sally and Hattie arrive in Mexico. They arrive at the Sheriff’s department and Sally asks the Sheriff if she can hang the dead body of Roy from the outpost to lure in the other outlaws while she sits atop a nearby cathedral and waits to fire upon them. He agrees and Sally says goodbye to the old couple. She lets them keep the money they discovered in Roy’s belongings, before Nigel leaves he takes the hat off of Roy’s dead corpse and keeps it for himself. After removing the body off the caravan the couple leave. Down a dirt trail Nigel and Hattie ride side by side on the ash seat, Hattie notices Roy’s hat and asks him where he got it, she tells him to never mind. Riding down the same trail coming their way are Luther and Elmer. As they pass by Elmer notices the hat which he brings to Luther’s attention. Luther stops and turns around, he gets off his horse, removes his derringer and orders the couple off the caravan; they reluctantly do as he said, and for whatever reason neither is armed. Luther forces them to kneel in the dirt, he asks Nigel where he got the hat, Nigel doesn’t answer… BANG!!! Nigel is shot in the right thigh and falls upon the ground, both he and Hattie react frantically. Luther forces him to answer; Nigel explains in pain that the hat belonged to an outlaw that they killed. Luther is about to shoot Nigel in the head when… Hattie explains that it wasn’t them who killed the outlaw but was a girl who is after the ones who killed her family, Sally Towns. Luther becomes worried; this is the same girl who shot him earlier on. Nigel notices the look, as he bleeds on the ground he laughs and tells the two that they better start running. This causes Luther to go into a psychotic rage; he then removes a bullwhip from his saddle and approaches Nigel who attempts to crawl in the opposite direction. As Luther whips Nigel he tells a story of his father who he was a plantation owner and how he walked in on his wife and a black slave having sex. As he tells the story he whips Nigel the same way his father whipped this slave. After ten whips Luther attaches Nigel’s legs to the whip and then drags him over to Elmer’s saddle. Elmer ties the whip to the saddle and rides off; Hattie is in hysterics as Nigel is dragged to his death. Luther then removes his derringer once again, aims it at Hattie and pulls the trigger only to fire off a blank. Luther then looks to Hattie as tears roll down her cheeks and tells her to go get Sally, Hattie runs off. Sally sits in the cathedral aiming her Winchester down below. Hattie runs frantically into town from within the desert. Sally runs down to see what’s wrong. She reaches her; Hattie looks Sally with tears streaming down her cheeks and tells her that they killed, Nigel. Sally asks who. Hattie tells her that it was two of the men who killed her family. Sally is caught up in a rage as she orders Hattie to tell her where they are now. Luther and Elmer wait, Luther is about to tell his friend to leave, when… a figure on a horse appears off in the distance. Elmer instinctively fires two bullets from his Winchester into it. Luther tells him to hold his fire, the body doesn’t fall off and the person doesn’t appear to be injured. The horse continues toward them until they both realize Roy`s dead body was sitting on the horse, attached to his chest is a note which Luther removes. The note reads; Dawn… at the Graveyard. In one final standoff Luther, Elmer and Sally meet face to face, they exchange a few words and Luther tells her that he’s the one she want’s, not Elmer and that if she kills him she’s killing an innocent man. Sally asks about a friend of hers who he dragged off by the back of his horse only a few hours prior. Suddenly, a bullet fires off from within the tombstones, Elmer is hit off his horse. Before Luther has the chance to go for his gun Sally quick draws, fires and hits the gun out of his hand. Two more bullets fire off within the mess of tombstones, one hits Luther in the collarbone, the other in the thigh, and he falls off his horse. Sally dismounts from her horse and approaches Luther who crawls for his gun, she kicks it away. Sally looks to him, says a few more words before Hattie appears from within the tombstones with a bull whip in hand, she approaches him. Luther is immediately filled with fear as she begins retelling the same story he told Nigel before killing him. Hattie whips Luther a few times; he cries out in pain, she then mentions the name of Peter McGrady and how he was her and her husband’s former Plantation owner and only lasted 16 lashings before he died and she was wondering how many he could last. Hattie whips him ten more times before Sally tells her to quit, Luther gives Sally a merciful look which doesn’t last long as Sally takes the whip, ties his legs together with the end and attaches it to his saddle. She then removes her derringer and fires off a bullet into the air, the horse rides off dragging Luther behind. Sally and Hattie lay Nigel to rest, Sally gives Hattie all the money they on Luther and Elmer and tells her to live a good life for both her and Nigel. They hug before parting ways, with the dead body of Elmer attached to the back of the horse and the men who killed her family dead she rides off into the sunset. The End