Bret Maverick's birth date

The birth date carved on Bret Maverick's grave marker seems reasonable but for a few of references in other episodes. As recently as just a few months prior to the events in "The Day They Hanged Bret Maverick," Bret's neck was on the line for another framed capital crime in Medicine Bow, Wyoming Territory. His attorney, Luke Abigor, asked him for the date of his birth and Bret told him, matter-of-factly, May 11.[3] At that time, Bret had no reason to lie about the date, and had every reason to be taken seriously. Comparing the situations between these two stories makes the May date much more credible.[2

The year 1847 must also be inaccurate. In "Pappy," Brother Bart describes Bret to Pappy himself as being thirty years old. In that same episode, Dan Jamison recalled that Bret and Bart had left home eight years earlier.[4] We learned "Trail West to Fury" that the brothers had left home in 1862 to fight in the Civil War.[5]

These three references would have made Bret thirty years old in 1870, establishing his birth date as May 11, 1840.[2]

Once Bret realized telling the truth held no benefit for him in Hallelujah, he undoubtedly invented a fictitious birth date, just as he had told Sheriff Chick Tucker he weighed only ninety-eight pounds.[2]

Bret Maverick's hat

When Cliff Sharp sneaked into Bret Maverick's hotel room in Elbow Bend, New Mexico Territory to plant evidence framing Bret for the Wells Fargo robbery, he exchanged his light-colored planter's hat for Bret's black Stetson. But after Bret's mock hanging, he emerged from his coffin with another black Stetson.[1] If Sharp still had his hat, where did it come from? Perhaps Coroner Oliver Poole gave it to him as more formal headgear in which to be buried.[2]

Bret Maverick's means of travel

Bret Maverick escaped from Hallelujah on Sheriff Chick Tucker's horse, but when he rode back into Hallelujah the next day, dressed as his own twin, he was on a different horse.[1] If all of Bret's money and other possessions had been confiscated by the Hallelujah town council, where did he get another horse?

Undoubtedly, it was his own horse, still stabled at the livery in Elbow Bend. Bret must have returned there and reclaimed his horse without being recognized. But what happened to Tucker's horse? Escaping from Tucker was one thing, but stealing his horse would have been quite another. Bret probably stabled the sheriff's mount at the Elbow Bend livery for safe-keeping until he could resolve his own situation.[2] At any rate, Bret could not ride into Hallelujah, disguised or not, riding the sheriff's horse for fear of it being easily recognized.

Afterwards, Bret rode off to intercept the southbound stage at the Dry Springs Way Station to travel with Molly Sharp to Santa Fe by stage.[1] But with all his possessions having been confiscated, how could Bret pay for his stage passage, not to mention his meals and hotel accommodations along the trail? He must have sold his horse at Dry Springs for a decent amount, enough to see him through until he returned to Hallelujah to claim his $1,000 bill and Wells Fargo reward.[2]

Some things in "The Day They Hanged Bret Maverick" are wild as the wind in Oregon, such as: