Fact1: former Chicago policeman has been released on parole for shooting wife 's lover in bed, Fact2: Mitchell has been offered job as night watchman at Jordon College small town, Fact3: Taking lid off hornet 's nest involves him in considerable danger as blackmails beatings attempted rape and further murders wrestle for screentime, Fact4: murdered student turns out to be daughter of Clayborne, Fact5: rustic family of thugs including Leroy overseen by Ma Barker arrive turning out to be muscle for certain corrupt members of Sheriff 's Department
Output: A former Chicago policeman, Jim Slade Lancaster, has just been released on parole from prison for shooting his wifes lover in their bed. He goes to live with friends, Quartz Cameron Mitchell and wife Judy Joan Lorring, in a small town where he has been offered a job part of his parole agreement as a night watchman at Jordon College. A coed Catherine Bach is murdered and the local sheriff, Casey Harris Yulin, tries to pin the crime on a creepy college janitor Charles Tyner who spouts Biblical revelation while hiding pornography. Slade has other ideas and pursues an unauthorized investigation of his own. Taking the lid off the hornets nest involves him in considerable danger as blackmails, beatings, attempted rape and further murders wrestle for screentime before the long andovercomplicated drama grinds to a close. The murdered student turns out to be the daughter of Senator Clayborne Morgan Woodward, who subsequently receives blackmail letters over his daughter Natalies confession to her campus psychiatric department counselor about an incestuous relationship with her father. Incriminating cassette tapes of the account have fallen into the hands of the blackmailers. Slade questions possible suspects including Natalie Claybornes estranged boyfriend King, played by Burt Lancasters son, William, who declares to Slade that the generation gap just got a little wider, and Dean Collins, the psych professor played by actual Clemson faculty member Harold N. Cooledge Jr., as well as a nerdy student whose taped psych rant was also stolen and Senator Clayborne himself. All the while, Slade is being warned off of overstepping his authority as a mere night watchman, no longer a cop, by his parole officer Linda Thorpe Susan Clark, as well as by his buddy Quartz. A brief affair between Slade and Thorpe begins. A rustic family of thugs, including Leroy Ed Lauter, overseen by a Ma Barkerish mother arrive, turning out to be muscle for certain corrupt members of the Sheriffs Department. Slade realizes that both the parole officer and Quartz are the powers behind the crime, a conclusion Slade reaches as he watches his friend hobble around the cinder track, on crutches from a broken leg. Only Quartz could have known one critical clue in the coverup of the original murder. Sheriff Casey rolls up and arrests Quartz. As they depart, Slade confronts Thorpe, who produces the stolen tapes, hidden in her freezer, knowing that the jig is up and she, too, is about to be arrested. The film concludes with the sheriff offering Slade an apology and a job, even though, as a convicted violent felon, Slade cannot hold a position with the law.