Today in motorcycle history, April 2, 1955

  


  

  Chief Dan Mathews and his Highway Patrol are called to the Town and Country Diner to quell a gang of unruly bikers.  Gang?  Unruly?  Hmm.....

  Cafe owner Bernie Sills loathes all motorcyclists because of injuries to his wife and damages to his diner during a renegade biker attack months earlier.  When he threatens non-violent cyclists Joe Keeley and Nick West with a shotgun, he gets a well deserved punch in the face.  A frightened Mrs. Sills calls the Highway Patrol.  The responding motorcycle cop, Officer Jack Anders, is killed in an accident involving a truck while pursuing Keeley and West.  When Dan Mathews and his side-kick Officer Dorsey investigate, Sills tries to blame the bikers for Officer Anders' death.  He exaggerates their behavior in his statements, but he is careful not to mention that he had provoked them by brandishing the shotgun. 

  When Keeley and West are located, Mathews and Dorsey hear a very different story concerning the incident.  Hmm...bullshit, thinks pro-biker Chief Mathews and then he learns of the shotgun threat for the first time.  He decides to test Sills' veracity by watching from a distance while an unshaven undercover motorcycle cop wearing a black leather jacket visits the café.  Sills' sneaks outside, kicks his bike over and attempts to knock it unconscious with his shotgun, the big man that he is.  The Chief and Officer Dorsey move in for the arrest.  Sills' actions leave no doubt as to who was telling the truth, he is dragged away and sent to Alcatraz for the death of Officer Jack Anders.



  Episode is worth watching just to see a 25 year-old Clint Eastwood on a panhead bobber.