Peter Whitney usually played an incredibly vicious character every time he was on Gunsmoke. Whitney was a guest six times on Gunsmoke. In "Kangaroo' (1959), his own son shoots him to death. That was the kind of father that Whitney played. Here he gets another turn as a father of two sons, and he comes up even meaner than before.
Whitney believes that his two sons have evil blood in them. What a thing for any father to say to his children? So he is always telling them that they are evil, and trying to keep them from doing anything wrong. That crazy fathering technique backfires.
One of his sons falls in love with saloon tramp Jenny Troupe, played by the gorgeous Evans Evans. She was only on Gunsmoke one time. She was later in Bonnie and Clyde (1967), and The Iceman Cometh (1972). She married famous director John Frankenheimer (The Manchurian Candidate, The Iceman Cometh, and 50 other movies).
Dan Stafford played the evil son Kyle Cooley. This was his first of two appearances on Gunsmoke. His acting career spanned from 1961-1968. His good brother Jeff, was played by Conlan Carter, who appeared on Gunsmoke five times.
Kyle has the hots for Jenny, who was carrying on with Kyle even after she got married to Neil Carr, played by Warren J. Kemmerling (seven times on Gunsmoke).
Kyle gets Jeff drunk, and takes him out to the ranch where Jenny Troupe lives with her husband. Jeff passes out in the barn, and Kyle makes a lot of noise so he can get Jenny's husband Neil out to the barn. Neil is not too bright, so he ambles out to the barn in his pajamas, and Kyle ambushes him, and leaves his brother behind to take the blame.
Why Kyle had to frame his brother in a murder makes no sense, and it is never explained. This is just another example of John Meston's writing style, where everyone in a story had to get killed or otherwise damaged. No Happy Endings was his nickname.
Eventually, Kyle starts courting Jenny, and Marshal Dillon, Chester, Miss Kitty all notice. Peter Whitney sees Kyle at the Longbranch Saloon in a hot argument with Jenny, because now that her husband got killed, she sold the ranch and kept all the money. She has no interest in Kyle anymore.
When Kyle gets home, Peter Whitney teaches his son a lesson. Like so many other times on Gunsmoke, John Meston adds insult to injury by having Peter Whitney told that Jenny Troupe confessed, and that good son Jeff was being released. Whitney then looks shocked and says "So I didn't have to hang Kyle?" Another point that made no sense. Kyle never confessed to Marshall Dillon. It was Jenny who confessed to Marshall Dillon. This whole episode does not make much logical sense.