US Marshal Sam Bass, the first black marshal, was living an easy life. He'd retired from riding the trails and chasing outlaws, and was comfortable with just being Judge Isaac Parker's right hand. While at the saloon one evening, he met up with a traveling whiskey salesman, who offered to sell him two guns.

When Bass saw the old Colt .45, its bluing gone and the nick in the barrel, he knew it was the exact same gun he'd been told was evil by a voodoo queen some years back. All of a sudden, Sam found himself being visited in his dreams by the same voodoo woman, telling him to take the gun and give it to a Texas Ranger by the name of Beacher Tolbert. Sam decided that once he'd fulfilled that mission, he'd move on to New Orleans and settle down.