Wide Country (TV Series)

Our Ernie Kills People (1962)

Earl Holliman: Mitch Guthrie

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Quotes 

• Mitch Guthrie : You belong in a cage, you know that?

  Ernie Stannard : Why, cowboy, they don't put us juveniles behind bars. We juveniles aren't responsible for our actions. After all, there's no such thing as bad boys, only bad parents. Aren't you up on the latest jive, cowboy? I'm not bad, just maladjusted because my daddy gave me a complex when I was four years old and I was born into a world I never made. That's a kooky remark, isn't it? How can anyone make a world before they were born into it?

• Mitch Guthrie : Boys of sixteen can hurt and maim and kill. And when they do they gotta be taken off the streets and kept off the streets because if they're not you ain't got cities no more, you got jungles!

• Mitch Guthrie : What's with this Ernie, anyway? Is he nuts or somethin'?

  Detective Sgt. Van Anda : Do you mean is he insane?

  Mitch Guthrie : Well, no, that's not quite what I meant.

  Detective Sgt. Van Anda : Why not? Why, because he doesn't rant and rave or foam at the mouth? Look, Mitch, in every society there are a certain number of people born who are pathological criminals. I'd say less than one percent. Something is missing in their minds. A thing called conscience that teaches us to distinguish right from wrong.

• Andy Guthrie : What are they gonna do with that kid, Mitch? What can they do?

  Mitch Guthrie : I don't know. But I do know this: That's somethin' everybody's gonna have to face up to one of these days.

  Andy Guthrie : Catch 'em early, put 'em away, and treat them before they kill somebody, I guess. That kind of law is so hard to get passed.

  Mitch Guthrie : Andy, nothing's harder than going to an innocent victim's funeral.