Range Defenders

In this entry in the long-running series of westerns, the Three Mesquiteers transform their ranch into a prison farm to provide a model for prison reform. They are opposed by a local contractor who wants to build a standard prison.

In Kansas Terrors, Stoney and his saddle pal Rusty take a job delivering horses to a flyspeck Caribbean island. Here they join forces with Rico to topple the regime of a despotic commandante.

The story opens as Stony returns to his home town, only to discover that his sheriff father has been murdered by person or persons unknown. The new sheriff (Henry Brandon) resents the arrival of the Mesquiteers, going so far as to frame Tucson on a murder charge.

Yet another fast-paced western featuring the "Three Mesqueteers," pulp writer William Colt McDonald's trio of sagebrush heroes, Lone Star Raiders finds Stony Brooke (Robert Livingston), Tucson Smith (Bob Steele) and Lullaby Joslin (Rufe Davis) defending elderly rancher "Granny" Phelps (Sarah Padden) from greedy neighbor Henry Martin (George Douglas).

The all-purpose title Westward Ho was applied in 1942 to this "Three Mesquiteers" western. This time, the Mesquiteers are Tucson Smith, Stony Brooke and Lullaby Joslin, here played respectively by Bob Steele, Tom Tyler and Rufe Davis. Our heroes converge on a small town to solve a series of mysterious bank robberies.

Fugitive Nazis threaten to take over the Wyoming range in this Three Mesqueteers outing, which also warns about the danger of blithely assuming that every German-American is a fifth columnist. Which is exactly what rancher Clem Parker (Hal Price) does when learning that a couple of escaped Axis war criminals may be heading towards the local valley.

In this western, the Three Mesquiteers team up with a Texas Ranger to round up the outlaws who forced the ranger's younger brother into becoming a criminal.

Three cowboys buy a ranch but have to fight off gunmen to keep it.

Harris and Rigby own a circus. Rigby is a counterfeiter and frames his partner. The Mesquiteers learn Rigby is the culprit and get a confession from one of his men only to lose the case when the man is murdered in jail. The Mesquiteers try again and send Lullaby to try and win some of the fake bills in a card game.

It is 1853 and settlers are pouring into California which means trouble for the old Spanish landowners. The El Dorado Mine Co. wants the land of Don Ortega for the minerals and is using the settlers and his friend Don Carlos to take the land over. But Tucson is on the side of Roberto and see's that something is not right with all the trouble they have been having. But the situation turns ugly for Don Ortega when Roberto is set up for a murder he did not commit.

It's "The Three Mesquiteers" again. Gaucho escapes from Braden's gang only to be shot by them. The Mesquiteers drive away the outlaws and take his money on to his mother. But Isabella thinks Tucson is her long lost son and they don't have the heart to tell her he is dead.

The Cherokee Strip is off limits to the Rangers, so that is where badman Lemar operates from. When the Rangers capture his brother and the jury sentences him to hang, Lemar starts killing the jurists. Then the scoundrels kidnap the Captain's daughter Doris... Written by Tony Fontana

Stony Brooke, Rusty Joslin and Rico, known as The Three Mesquiteers, return to Oklahoma at the close of the Spanish-American War, and are concerned that some of their wounded buddies have no prospects for a satisfactory future. When the government offers preferred homesteads in the newly-opened Oklahoma territory to war veterans, they send word for their pals to join them there. Once there, the veterans meet a hostile reception as the cattlemen resent the influx of "nesters" and are determined to drive them out. Mace Liscomb and his brother Orv plan not only to drive out the homesteaders, but to also double cross the cattlemen and gain exclusive titles to the range lands for themselves. Stony and his pals eventually show the honest cattlemen that there is room for the settlers and that both are fighting a common enemy. Written by Les Adams

Commissioner Tredwell is the law of the land and he gets whatever he wants with the help of hired guns and lackey lawyer Conners. The only one who publicly stands up to Tredwell is Beecham of the Clarion. Beecham has his paper burned to the ground and when he starts a petition to make Wyoming a state, taking the power away from Tredwell, he is killed. But when Kansas Kate comes in to visit her son Conners, she sees what is going on and she takes over the paper and keeps the pressure on Tredwill. With this Conners has mixed emotions, but the boys do everything they can to protect Kate and the paper. Written by Tony Fontana

Stony Brooke, Rusty Joslin and Rico, the Three Mesquiteers, are returning from Mexico and are stopped at the border by Army officials, who are attempting to apprehend smugglers who are buying cheap silver in Mexico and smuggling it into the States, where they can take advantage of a silver stabilizing measure and sell it at a high price.

A champion rodeo rider returns home to track down a legendary wild horse called "Cyclone."

After a payroll robbery the Mesquiteers catch up with the gang. But the members escape, the gang leader is killed, and they end up with only the leaders young son who is quickly sent to a work farm. They adopt the boy hoping to learn where the money is. Just as their kindness is about to pay off a gang member takes the boy away forcing him to retrieve the money. - Written by Maurice VanAuken

David Ross organizes the ranchers into a vigilante group to rid the town of outlaws. The plan succeeds but the trouble starts when some of the men form a new vigilante group and posing as the original one plunder for loot.

When Professor Marsh disappears while searching for the lost city of Lukachukai, his daughter enlists the help of the Three Mesquiteers.

The Three Mesquiteers convince a group of settlers to exchange their present property for some which, unbeknownst to our goodguys, is going to be worthless. They are captured before they can warn the ranchers.