A hardened criminal, whose personality belies his viciousness, escapes from prison, killing a guard. Dan Mathews swings into action, and as the man commits one ruthless act after another to break through the trap closing in on him, it becomes apparent that there's almost a personal conflict between the two men - that ends only when they meet face to face in the final scene.
An expensive, giant computer, one of the twentieth century wonders, which does a tremendous amount of administrative work in just hours, is ingeniously 'kidnapped' from an electronics company by two men. The firm's owner is told to get $100,000 from his bank at two o'clock the next day and wait for instructions. A helicopter chase helps Dan stop the men from collecting the ransom or getting away.
Systematic traffic checks and increased patrols begin on a high accident freeway. Hoping to determine causes and cures, Dan questions drivers who get too many citations there. One man refuses to accept Dan's safety philosophy. When his license is suspended, his wife drives him to an important business meeting. En route, her eyeglasses break and he takes over at the wheel. Encountering a traffic check, he panics and flees, resulting in a severe accident in which his wife is critically injured. He learns the hard way - and too late - what Dan had earlier tried to impress upon him.
An uninvolved man happens to be in the company of two brothers who hold up a diner and kill its owner. Fearing the police and terrified of the vengeance he may expect from the criminals, he flees. As Dan searches for him, one man winds up dead, two critically wounded, and the man who a few short hours ago was an average law-abiding citizen is harried to the point where he is willing to shoot it cut with the police - until Dan manages to show the error of his ways.
Dan Mathews and his officers assist a county sheriff in closing down a club that offers illicit gambling.
A series of fraudulent insurance claims is discovered after Dan Mathews and his officers learn that the "accidental" death of a migrant worker was actually a homicide.
Dan Mathews is determined to find out why the residents of a small town are behaving suspiciously and anxious to see him leave.
Dan Mathews and his officers race against time to find a stolen oil indicator device that contains potentially lethal radioactive pellets.
Dan Mathews has reason to suspect the worst when a courier with a criminal record disappears with $31,000 after an automobile accident.
A young man is put in the uncomfortable position of trying to cover up his father's theft of automobile accessories.
Dan Mathews personally takes on the task of protecting a former crime boss who is scheduled to testify before a grand jury.
A "transportation maintenance service" provided to trucking companies by an apparently legitimate businessman proves to be little more than a protection racket.
Dan Mathews escorts a crusading senator to the scene of his hearings after he receives information that a prominent racketeer plans to murder him.
A recovering addict gives Dan Mathews and a state narcotics agent information that helps them identify an exclusive resort as a front for the distribution of heroin.
A scheming woman takes advantage of her husband, her paramour, and a complete stranger in an attempt to flee the U. S. with $53,000 in stolen funds.
An injured felon discovered in a mountain cabin leads the Highway Patrol helicopter on a difficult chase in treacherous terrain.
Dan Mathews utilizes polygraph testing to identify the individuals who are responsible for the violent robbery of an elderly motel owner.
A highly regarded Highway Patrol officer tenders his resignation after he finds himself unable to subdue and arrest his brother (an escaped prisoner).
Three men rob a series of banks in coastal towns, then pose as fishermen in order to escape in a boat piloted by their leader.
Dan Mathews must cope with a family's effort to protect an emotionally fragile young woman who fled after striking a pedestrian with her car.
Car thieves purchase wrecked vehicles and transfer the VIN plates to stolen ones in order to escape detection.
A distraught engineer sets out on a suicide mission to destroy the chemical plant at which he was formerly employed.
When a ranger checks the woods where a plane disappeared, it results in his murder and in the discovery of a kidnapped woman.
The Highway Patrol helicopter pursues a smooth-talking but ruthless murder suspect who is trying to escape with a hostage over little-used desert roads.
Three thieves use a counterfeit armored car and stolen uniforms to steal $29,000 from a supermarket. The leader of the group becomes increasingly unpredictable and prone to violence as Dan Mathews and his men close in.
A patient parolee decides the time is finally right to attempt the recovery of $250,000 stolen in an armored car robbery.
A café owner's grudge against motorcyclists leads to the accidental death of a Highway Patrol officer.
An escapee from a mental hospital is the primary suspect in the violent death of a farmer.
An alert boy is able to give Dan Mathews information that provides a critical break in the pursuit of a recidivist thief.
A man who picks up a hitchhiker is accused of complicity in an armed robbery when coincidence and circumstantial evidence point strongly toward his guilt.
A gunman and his female hostage unwittingly wander into a designated blasting area.
Dan Mathews and his officers attempt to ensure the delivery of life-saving gas gangrene serum to a 10-year-old victim.
A Highway Patrol officer is murdered while pursuing a car stolen from a lonely bookstore owner.
Two thieves attempt to steal valuable paintings and demand ransom of $500,000. but they are forced to commit murder when the plan goes awry.
Fearing an operation, a resourceful boy with damaged eyesight manages to stay just a step ahead of the Highway Patrol's efforts to return him safely to his parents.
A botched gas station robbery results in the murder of a Highway Patrol officer and the abduction of a farmer and his wife.
A woman's ill-advised attempt to save her former fiancé from a murder conviction results in the realization that the actual killer may still be at large.
A poor prospector arouses suspicion when he suddenly begins paying off long-standing debts from a large roll of new $100 bills.
Dan Mathews and Sergeant Corey spend Christmas Eve searching for a lost six-year-old girl.
A fleeing murderer's charm enables him to enlist the unwitting aid of several law-abiding citizens in his efforts to elude the Highway Patrol.
Jerry Watts is the son of a millionaire and he's just been kidnapped and taken to an old shack high in the mountains. After a tip from a game warden brings the Highway Patrol, Jerry tries to escape to the officers, only to fall into a canyon severely injuring himself. The only way out is straight up.
A murderous fugitive hitches a ride with a newlywed couple who are pulling a travel trailer, then takes them as hostages when they learn his identity from a radio broadcast.
When two thieves who stole $50,000 are killed in an automobile accident, their other two partners scheme to recover the wreck and the stolen money.
The Highway Patrol conducts an intensive search for an endangered crime reporter who may know the identity of a murderer.
A known carrier of typhoid fever attempts to flee the area when the daughter of his employer dies from the disease.
A career felon and his mechanically-skilled younger brother stage a series of armed robberies using a supercharged roadster as their getaway car.
Hijackers feign roadside accidents, knowing that unsuspecting truck drivers will stop and attempt to help.
Two men find themselves unable to flee as planned after they use a stolen bazooka to rob a $33,000 oil field payroll.
Three felons enlist the unwilling aid of a former cell-mate to steal a $12,000 cash shipment from a farmers' combine.
A man and two women who specialize in robbing roadside motels become increasingly confident and reckless.
A man and two female accomplices steal expensive cars, forge registration cards, and sell the cars upstate before their status as stolen cars can be disseminated.
Dan Mathews and his officers must work quickly to capture a delusional and unpredictable escapee from a mental hospital.
A trio of thieves threatens to murder the wife of an armored car guard in order to force him to surrender a $25,000 payroll secured inside the vehicle.
Inside information helps thieves rob a group of recently-paid itinerant fruit pickers, but murder results when one particularly desperate victim refuses to follow their orders.
After an accidental shooting occurs on a ranch, the Highway Patrol helicopter is used to prevent a revenge killing by the supposed shooter's angry brother-in-law.
Dan Mathews and his officers must rely upon an uncommunicative amnesiac to find a seriously injured camper.
A trio of thieves will be able to abscond with $500,000 in stolen money at midnight unless Dan and Officer Garvey can prove their guilt quickly.
A Highway Patrol officer is murdered after he discovers a marijuana field while on a hunting trip.
A writer having a bad reaction to medication takes potshots at several targets, including Dan Mathews and his officers.
An apparently legitimate print shop is involved in the printing of counterfeit payroll checks used to bilk unsuspecting merchants.
The distraught daughter of a deceased gemologist accuses Officer Johnson of stealing valuable uncut jewels from her late father's car.
Two men conceal themselves in large crates on the back of a truck as part of a plan to get inside a manufacturing plant so they can steal a $27,000 payroll.
A man and two female accomplices who pose as hitchhikers rob several unsuspecting male motorists, but murder results when one victim tries to fight back.
A murderous hoodlum attempts to steal counterfeit currency plates that have been packed in nitroglycerin tubes for safekeeping.
Motorcycle-riding armed robbers elude Highway Patrol roadblocks by loading their two-wheelers into a closed truck driven by their leader.
Because of his wife's fears, Patrolman Ed Wylie resigns from the force after fellow officer Jerry March is killed in the line of duty.
Two brothers hijack a new-car carrier, planning to sell the cars to get cash to purchase a farm. When the driver dies from injuries sustained in the hijacking, they make a panic-stricken attempt to dispose of the evidence.
An escaped convict abducts his estranged wife and forces her to help him elude the Highway Patrol.
An ex-con wants to return money stolen in an armed robbery, but his erstwhile partner has other ideas.
Two convicts steal an airplane to escape from prison.
A gemologist and his accomplice steal $300,000 in rough-cut gems from a courier, then attempt to smuggle them out of the country in a dog's collar.
Two holdup men abduct a physician and compel him to extricate a bullet in a wooded area.
One member of a three-person holdup team impersonates a Highway Patrol officer in order to deceive robbery victims into thinking that they need not notify the Patrol themselves.
Treachery and murder result after a bonded bank messenger, his wife, and an accomplice steal a $20,000 payroll.
The owner of a centrally-located roadside diner is murdered so that heroin sellers can use his business as a "front" for distributing the drug to pushers.
A professional killer from Chicago comes into Dan Mathews' jurisdiction to murder the Santell brothers before they can testify against a racketeer.
The Highway Patrol helicopter is ordered into action when the botched robbery of a roadside diner results in the shooting of the proprietor and the abduction of his daughter.
Dan Mathews and a physician race against time to find an elusive little girl that was bitten on the cheek by a rabid dog.
A former nursing home employee turns to robbing luxury stores and uses a potentially lethal stolen drug to disable his victims.
A secretary with an impeccable reputation for trustworthiness and reliability colludes with her boyfriend to steal $50,000 from her employer.
A construction foreman steals $12,000 from his employer's open safe, then attempts to frame a subcontractor for the crime.
A meticulous safecracker is certain that he can pull off a lucrative jewel theft despite the Highway Patrol's constant surveillance.
An unassuming cabinetmaker is abducted at gunpoint when coincidence causes a would-be thief to mistake him for a diamond merchant.
The Highway Patrol helicopter is ordered into action to follow a murderous fugitive that has taken three hostages.
A series of apparently random potshots at moving cars turns out to be an attempt to conceal a carefully planned murder.
Lab worker Harry Wells flees and aggressively avoids people, after being accidentally exposed to dangerous radioactive material.
After a farmer witnesses the disposal of a murder victim's body, his wife unwittingly helps the perpetrators identify and locate her husband.
An apparent hunting accident becomes increasingly suspicious when it is discovered that the shooter benefited in several ways from the victim's death.
A wrongly-convicted recent parolee is determined to kill the bus driver whose mistaken testimony was responsible for his incarceration.
A delivery driver commits a series of armed robberies against individual stores that make up a small supermarket chain.
A wrongly-convicted parolee becomes coldly determined to murder the former business partner whose ruse was responsible for his conviction.
A holdup man is murdered by the woman who planned his crime and sheltered him in the basement of her roadside diner.
A handyman robs a local businessman of $11,000 in charitable donations, then attempts to frame a local beautician for the crime.
Two men commit a series of armed robberies and escape by commandeering taxicabs for use as nondescript getaway cars.
Two coldly calculating hoodlums attempt to murder their diabetic former cell-mate by depriving him of his insulin.
A country club grounds keeper who shelters notorious criminals comes under investigation after he is forced to kill one of his "clients".
An angry father pursues an orphan boy that he believes is responsible for the accidental shooting of his son.
Two women disguised as men commit a series of armed robberies, two of which result in murder.
Felon Gerald Gray, who bears a personal grudge against Dan Mathews, is released from prison and uses everyone around him in his efforts to extract revenge.
Dan Mathews uses the Highway Patrol helicopter and tear gas in an effort to flush out two wanted fugitives who have taken a woman hostage inside her own house.
A botched robbery results in the abduction of the only witness - a 10-year-old girl who can neither hear nor speak.
A woman panics and flees after striking a "pedestrian" who was actually involved in an attempt to steal $70,000 from an industrial plant's safe.
A family man is forced to commit murder when a would-be blackmailer discovers that he is actually the "Polka Dot Bandit".
A Highway Patrol officer is critically wounded after failing to properly frisk and handcuff a suspect during a routine traffic stop.
An out-of-state policewoman who has infiltrated a gambling syndicate finds herself in grave danger when her identity is discovered.
A husband and wife team rob pharmaceutical trucks after slipping the drivers pills that render them temporarily unconscious.
Two thieves target unsuspecting motorists for credit card theft, but they become targets themselves when a determined female victim manages to notify the Highway Patrol.
A mentally disturbed man murders women who seek husbands through "Lonely Hearts" clubs.
A syndicate hit man kills his own brother, then is himself murdered in a manner that makes the killing appear to be a suicide.
A woman makes diversionary false crime reports so that her husband can rob businesses while wearing a Highway Patrolman's uniform.
A prison escapee is determined to murder the judge who gave him the maximum sentence.
Dan Mathews' vacation takes an unexpected turn when he finds that his favorite fishing lodge has become a front for a heroin distribution ring.
A disgruntled truck driver abducts his estranged wife and threatens to detonate a truckload of unstable pure potassium while she remains trapped inside it.
A motorcycle accident enables two wanted felons to take a Highway Patrol officer as a hostage, but his radio's signal helps pinpoint their location.
A stolen helicopter enables a dangerous lifer to escape from a prison work detail.
Dan Mathews arrives at work feeling sick and weak from apparent food poisoning, and there is concern that a panic may break out if the mysterious cause of his illness is not found quickly.
Three farmers are stubbornly determined to risk their lives in order to collect a reward offered for the capture of a wounded fugitive.
Newlyweds Carl and Jennifer Stone find themselves pursued by the Highway Patrol and a would-be killer after they witness the murder of a diner counterman.
Desperate to avoid capture and extradition on first-degree murder charges, a wounded fugitive takes a young woman and her paraplegic mother as hostages.
With the help of her son, a woman plans and executes her husband's daring escape from police custody.
Two men steal dynamite and blasting caps for use in future crimes, unaware that any radio transmission signal could trigger the caps and set off a devastating explosion.
A racketeer's attempt to take over an illicit gambling house in a small town leads to murder.
The Highway Patrol helicopter is called into action to pursue a train carrying a bank robber and $35,000 in stolen money.
When a reclusive artist is murdered, Dan Mathews and Sergeant Williams are dubious that robbery was actually the motive for the killing.
Two men plan to cause a train wreck as part of a plot to steal $750,000 in government currency.
A man and his two accomplices use inside information to steal valuable gems from traveling jewelry salesmen.
A protection racket results in murder when a railroad yard worker refuses to continue making payments.
A desperate man confesses to a crime he did not commit in order to obtain a $5,000 reward for his family.
A con man assaults the elderly victim of a $5,000 swindle as a "warning", but his female partner becomes fearful of a murder charge when the old man dies of a heart attack immediately after the assault.
Two men rob a series of supermarkets by taking the market managers' wives as hostages.
The Highway Patrol sets a trap by transporting a crime boss to death row in hopes of enticing his henchmen to risk capture by trying to rescue him, but the henchmen may try to kill him instead.
A crusading newspaper reporter finds his life threatened when he becomes the target of a gang of ruthless extortionists.
Dan Mathews and Sergeant Williams race to find a sailor who was exposed to spinal meningitis while saving the life of an infant.
Dan Mathews and Sergeant Williams pursue two swindlers who pose as a corrupt narcotics agent and a heroin pusher in order to extort bribe money from their victims.
The Highway Patrol helicopter is used to pursue an escaped convict and rescue a prospector trapped in a cave-in caused by the escapee.
Rita Hudson accepts delivery of $35,000 worth of imported diamonds on behalf of her employer, Mr. Van Dyce. She is immediately abducted by thieves Ernest Zober and Chuck Barton.
Dan Mathews solicits assistance from his Mexican counterpart to capture three thieves who are stealing cars in the U. S. and selling them in Mexico.
A criminal attempts to avenge his younger brother's life sentence by executing a meticulously planned scheme that will make Sergeant Williams appear to be guilty of felony hit and run.
A wounded and frightened ex-con flees after accidentally killing a blackmailer.
A bitter young man whose father was killed in an automobile accident is stubbornly determined to murder the man who was driving the other car.
A small boy is the only witness to a botched burglary that results in the death of his father and serious injury to his mother.
Two men use explosions as a diversionary tactic to distract attention from the scenes of their holdups.
An "Import Company" warehouse is used as a front for storage of merchandise stolen in a series of truck hijackings.
An armed robber wearing actors' makeup is able to obtain rides in the cars of his victims, but an unplanned murder results when one man fights back.
An extortionist smuggles Mexican workers into the U.S. illegally, then threatens them with exposure (and lengthy jail sentences) if they do not give him half their wages.
Two middle-aged women are endangered when they offer a ride to a fugitive thief that committed two murders in order to steal counterfeit currency plates.
The wife of a sheriff is abducted and held as a hostage in an attempt to secure the release of a crime boss.
Dan Mathews offers himself as a hostage after a nervous gunman botches a diner robbery and critically wounds the proprietor.
Following an unplanned prison escape, convicted killers Lita Morgan and Caroline Craig leave a trail of robbery and murder in their wake.
The perpetrator of a robbery and murder attempts to dispose of the getaway car by convincing his brother to crush it beyond recognition in a large hydraulic press.
A thief abducts a gem courier and uses his identification in an attempt to steal a jewel collection worth $200,000.
Two fugitives get into the boiler room of a hospital and threaten to destroy the building by tying down the safety valve if they are not permitted to go free.
Paul Jordan is killed in broad daylight by his three accomplices in a bank robbery that resulted in the theft of $100,000.
Two men and a woman use phony police uniforms and a fake detour sign to lure potential victims into concealed areas.
Pyromaniac Judd Patterson sets a warehouse ablaze and gets away in a stolen car.
A husband and wife team rob couriers with large amounts of cash, then kill them so that there will be no witnesses.