You're Right! ABC was attempting to capitalize on the success of 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' with this Western adventure series featuring two amiable outlaws trying to go straight. 'Alias Smith and Jones' premiered on January 21, 1970, starring Pete Duel as Hannibal "Joshua Smith" Heyes and Ben Murphy as Kid "Thaddeus Jones" Curry. Heyes was a silvery-tongued safecracker and card sharp, while Jones was a dead-eye gunslinger, who, in spite of all the banks and trains he robbed, never shot anyone. Desiring to lead upstanding lives, Heyes and Curry are promised a pardon from the governor if they can stay out of trouble for one year. In the meantime, however, they would remain wanted. 'Alias Smith and Jones' wasn't able to displace NBC's 'The Flip Wilson Show' from the Thursday 8:00 time slot. On December 31, 1971, Pete Duel filmed at the studio all day before returning home with his girlfriend to watch the episode of 'ASJ' being broadcast on television that night. According to his girlfriend, after watching the episode, they both went into the bedroom, where Duel told her he would see her later and returned to the living room. A few minutes later she heard a gunshot and found Duel lying underneath his Christmas tree with a wound to the head and a gun in his hand. The 31 year-old actor died later that night. Cast members and co-workers insist Duel seemed perfectly fine and healthy on the soundstage that day and couldn't imagine why he would commit suicide. Duel, however, did state in an interview with the LA Times shortly before his death that he was struggling a bit with the stress and creative compromises of doing a weekly television show.