Luther Boardman is the new owner of the Laramie Free Press, and he is in love with the outlaw persona. Feeling the outlaws are the real story in the wild west, he begins a smear campaign against Dan. He accuses him of police brutality because Dan knocked out a man who was rowdy and drunk and threatening to shoot people in the Bird Cage, even though Boardman wasn't in the saloon at the time. He soon has the drunk convinced he needs a public apology from Dan.