BORDER PATROL (1959) – Based on actual case files of the United States Border Patrol, this half-hour series ran for 39 episodes and starred Richard Webb of Captain Midnight fame. Webb played Don Jagger, Deputy Chief of the Border Patrol, yet oddly he took part in individual cases. Why not just make him an agent or officer? I guess the creative team felt Deputy Chief sounded cooler.
Don Jagger’s law enforcement activities provided a degree of novelty compared to traditional cop or spy shows of the time period. Episodes ranged from Dragnet style procedural tales to Darren McGavin’s more colorful Mike Hammer investigations.
STANDOUT EPISODES:
AN EVERGLADES STORY – Don Jagger goes undercover to infiltrate a gang of illegal immigrants who are part of a network of gun smugglers and kidnappers. Ben Johnson and William Smith guest star.
PASSPORT TO THE DEEP SIX – U.S. gangsters exploit and abuse people entering America illegally. Don Jagger takes them down.
A BUNDLE OF DOPE – Our main character busts up a drug smuggling ring operating along the U.S.-Mexico border. Susan Whitney guest stars.
POLITICAL KILLER – Jagger runs the manhunt for an international assassin who has entered the country illegally on a mission to assassinate an elected official. With Arthur Batanides.
CARGO UNKNOWN – Our hero endeavors to shut down a ring that robs armories then smuggles the weapons across the Canadian border. Guest starring Judd Holdren from Commando Cody.
ILLICIT LOTTERY – A racket involving stolen and counterfeit lottery tickets between the U.S. and the Bahamas. Frances Robinson appears.
THE PLAGUE TRAIL – Werner Klemperer himself portrays an illegal immigrant being hunted by Don Jagger because he is carrying typhoid fever.
THE LOG MEN – Jagger goes undercover to take down a ring using lumber transport to smuggle illegal immigrants across the Canadian border into the U.S. With Peter Mamakos.
LOVE, DEATH AND DIAMONDS – A beautiful woman (Doreen Lang) tips off Jagger and company to a massive diamond-smuggling outfit operating on America’s West Coast. Also with Eleanor Berry.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN STORY – Illegal immigrants are used as forced labor to covertly run a mine in an abandoned ghost town. Ross Elliott guest stars.
THE PIOUS PATSY – NOT a Perry Mason episode. Don Jagger busts up a narcotics ring that uses American tourists returning to the U.S. as unaware drug mules who take the fall if arrested. Guest starring Dan Tobin and Robert F. Simon.
THE KWAN-YIN CASE – Murder and a priceless piece of jade lead Jagger and his agents to an infamous international smuggler. With Kam Tong.
DEATH IN THE DESERT – Don Jagger investigates a ruthless network smuggling illegal immigrants across the Arizona-Mexico border. The criminals plan to eliminate our hero.
NIGHT TARGET – A seeming charter boat service operating out of New Orleans is actually part of a ring that smuggles illegal immigrants into the U.S. Sarita Vara guest stars.
CASE OF THE COCKEYED PARAKEET – A comic relief episode about Jagger and his agents shutting down criminals smuggling diseased tropical birds into the U.S.
THE VEGETABLE MAN – Human smugglers sneak illegal immigrants into the country, then exercise blackmail over them by threatening to inform on them to immigration agents.
THE DEAD MAN’S FLOAT – Jagger goes undercover as a criminal on the run in order to infiltrate a human smuggling network.
CRIME WAVE AT CORAL GABLES – Criminals use resort workers on temporary visas from Canada to steal from guests.
A LAPSE OF TIME – The Border Patrol gets involved in the case of a man out to murder the human trafficker who callously caused the death of one of the man’s illegal immigrant relatives while getting him into the U.S.
LEARN TO FLY – Russell Johnson guest stars in this tale of a pilot who uses his training flights to smuggle drugs across the border into the U.S.
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