Jailbait Janet was played by Nan Peterson, who was 23 at the time this episode was released, and she had some woman miles on her. Janet did not look like a girl in her early teens. This was Nan Peterson's first and only appearance on Gunsmoke.
Janet's young brother was played by Steven Terrell, who was 31 at the time, and this was his only appearance on Gunsmoke. John Larch played the father of the gang, and he was 47 years old, and this was his fifth appearance on Gunsmoke.
Larch is not very convincing as a father, nor as the victim that he wants to be. According to Larch, a railroad spark started a fire on his crops and destroyed everything he owned. That is impossible, unless he had his crops planted right up to the tracks. Usually the land around the tracks is owned by the railroads. They are not going to lay down rail lines through crops.
The rest of the story is just as bad. Larch takes his teenage kids on a train to rob it. Why would he take the girl? It would have made more sense if she was outside holding the horses or maybe just at home reading her Bible. Larch shoots the baggage car agent, and takes off with $50,000.00. That $50,000 in 1870 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $987,320.61 in 2020, yet it had no guards.
Larch and his kids spend the rest of the episode crying "poor me" because the railroad owed them a million dollars. Into the mix is Bartlett Robinson as the evil railroad detective, making nasty insinuations about Dillon keeping the $50K and having a sexual relationship with "Jailbait Janet." This was the last of Robinson's seven appearances on Gunsmoke. He definitely stinks up Dodge with his slanders against Marshal Dillon.
One interesting note is that whenever people bad-mouth Dillon in front of Miss Kitty, she acts like she could care less. Later on, towards the end of the series, she became more defensive about Matt and his reputation.
The end of the story is as convoluted as the rest of it. Kitty begs Dillon to let Jailbait Janet stay with her. Janet takes advantage of Kitty's trust, and breaks her family out of jail. They go off to pick up the railroad money. When Dillon catches up, Larch gets what he deserves. Then Dillon cuts the kids a break.
Was it because he really wanted them to get a fresh start, or because he wanted to score some points with Miss Kitty? Either way, this is another example of Dillon selectively enforcing the law. Sometimes he arrests people who were defending themselves after being victimized, and yet Dillon has no sympathy for them. Other times he selectively enforces the law to fit his sympathy for someone. Either way, it seems like Justice is subjective.