Before the Civil War Jean Le Bec was a young musician with a special talent for the violin. His family were too poor to pay for his musical studies so he was sponsored by a rich southern family. The daughter was called Mary. When her family lost everthing in the war, Mary's father entrusted her well-being to Jean. Mary had relatives in San Francisco so they decided to go there and they were going to get there via the wagon train. Jean didn't tell Mary that he was having trouble raising the cash for the journey. While the train was forming at St. Joseph, Missouri, as a last resort to raise the money, Jean used his precious violin as a stake in a card game, which he won but was accused of cheating. The allegation was false but it cost him his violin to get out alive. When Mary realised what he had done she went to the saloon to try to buy the fiddle back, but things went badly wrong and Jean ended up by killing the son of the man who practically owned the town. Flint McCullough witnessed (thetvdb.com)