The Best Episodes of The Untouchables

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8.6/10(206 votes)
#1 - The Rusty Heller Story
S2:E110/13/1960
Chicago, March 1931. Eliot Ness and his men were doing raid after raid on Capone's speakeasies and breweries; his empire was tottering. Who would take over? A big-time gangster from New York, Charlie ""Pops"" Felcher, had just arrived in Chicago, along with his crooked lawyer Archie Grayson.
Director:Walter Grauman
Writer:Leonard Kantor
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Director:Walter Grauman
Writer:Leonard Kantor
8.5/10(97 votes)
#2 - The Unhired Assassin (2)
S1:E213/3/1960
Movie: ""The Gun of Zangara"" (continued) Nitti's plenty sore! Mayor Cermak's stepped-up law enforcement has cut deeply into Nitti's operations. In the Montmartre club, Nitti takes a newspaper with a big photo of Cermak on the front page, and tacks it to the wall-- then Nitti takes out his 6-shooter and blasts 7 bullets into the photo.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
8.5/10(79 votes)
#3 - The Big Train (2)
S2:E131/12/1961
Movie: ""The Alcatraz Express"" (continued) Sunday, August 19, 1934. At 2:30 a.m., the Big Train is backed into the prison yard of the State Pen in Atlanta. 54 hardened criminals, including Al Capone and Tony Diaz, are handcuffed and loaded onto the train. On board are prison guards armed with machine-guns. Once seated, the prisoners are additionally given leg shackles and told to put them on. Then, at 5:00 a.m., the Big Train pulls out-- right on schedule.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Unknown
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8.4/10(94 votes)
#4 - The Unhired Assassin (1)
S1:E202/25/1960
Movie: ""The Gun of Zangara"" Chicago. November 9, 1932. FDR has just been elected president, and the repeal of Prohibition is inevitable. But later that night, Ness and his men smash another of Capone's breweries. Agent Youngfellow asks Eliot, ""Are we going to be out of work?"" But Ness tells him no-- after all, bootleg booze was only a part of the Capone empire: there's still narcotics, gambling, prostitution, protection rackets, etc. Capone may start muscling in on legitimate businesses; in fact, Ness is having a meeting with Mayor Anton Cermak-- they want to ""clean up this town"" before the Chicago World's Fair in the spring of 1933.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
8.4/10(90 votes)
#5 - The Masterpiece
S2:E141/19/1961
Chicago, December 1931. With Al Capone in prison, the bootlegging part of his empire was split in 2. One of Capone's lieutenants, Mayer Wartel, acquired the speakeasies; another lieutenant, Karl Positan, acquired the breweries and distilleries. In an attempt to take over the entire operation, Positan withholds his whiskey and beer; the number of speaks flourishing drops to an all-time Prohibition low. Eliot Ness and his men keep an eye on the situation. Nitti's plenty sore.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
8.4/10(103 votes)
#6 - The Jamaica Ginger Story
S2:E162/2/1961
On the night of May 25, 1931, 2 trucks are rolling into K.C., carrying $1-million worth of Jamaica Ginger rotgut, also known as ""Ginger Jake."" The trucks are owned by Rafael Torrez, gangster and race horse trainer, who has a monopoly on the Jamaica Ginger. Rival crime boss Jerry LaCarver, wanting in on the enormous profits, is ready to hijack the trucks, along with his gang of 5 hoods: the 2 notorious Roth brothers, Andy Bello (alias Louis Belmont), Richie Peters and Wally Heilman. They hijack the trucks with dynamite and shotguns.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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8.4/10(88 votes)
#7 - Mr. Moon
S2:E254/20/1961
Autumn 1934. An armored truck, loaded with the special paper used in printing U.S. currency, is headed for the Bureau of Engraving in Washington, D.C. The truck is hijacked, and the 3 armed guards are tommy-gunned. Since counterfeiting will be on a national level, it's a federal offense, and so Eliot Ness and 5 other federal agents from around the country convene in Washington, D.C., and are briefed on the situation.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
8.4/10(90 votes)
#8 - The Nick Acropolis Story
S2:E316/1/1961
Chicago, Summer 1931. Nick Acropolis is the new bookmaker in town, his territory is Illinois and the 6 surrounding states; he covers bets on horse racing, boxing matches, ball games, everything. By August, his operation is $2-million per month. And so Eliot Ness and his Untouchables are on the case; Enrico Rossi has a wiretap on one of Nick's betting parlors, run by Sully Hinds. Nick and his boys pay a visit to their bookkeeper, Louis Manzak, who is Nick's brother-in-law. Louis embezzled 200 grand of Nick's money, to make a side-bet on a boxing match, and lost.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
8.4/10(91 votes)
#9 - The Troubleshooter
S3:E110/12/1961
In the summer of 1934, a new gambling device was sweeping the nation: the punchboards. Even though they were nickel-and-dime games, it added up-- they made more money for the mob than the numbers racket. After Ness and his men smash some of the punchboard manufacturing sites, the 5 members of the syndicate running the punchboards hold a meet at a building by the freight yards: the top mobsters from Chicago (Jake ""Joe"" Petrie), Cincinnati, St. Louis, Detroit and New York (Max Riegel). Petrie says he can sum up all their problems in 2 words: Eliot Ness.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
8.3/10(137 votes)
#10 - The Noise of Death
S1:E141/14/1960
Chicago, March 31, 1933. Giuseppe ""Joe"" Bucco is at home when he gets a visit from his wife's cousin, Barbara Vittorini-- she says her husband Arturo has been missing for 3 days, and accuses Bucco of killing him. Bucco has his flunkie Abe Garfinkel take her home. Bucco knows about rub-out attempts, Guzik's boys once shot him 4 times, but he lived; Bucco swears to his wife Anna that he doesn't know where Arturo is.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
8.3/10(78 votes)
#11 - The Big Train (1)
S2:E121/5/1961
Movie: ""The Alcatraz Express"" (Disclaimer shown on screen) ""The events portrayed in this film are fictitious. The Federal Prison guards portrayed do not represent any actual persons, living or dead. ""Nothing herein is intended to reflect unfavorably on the courageous and responsible prison guards who supervised Capone during his internment in the Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta and during his transfer from Atlanta to Alcatraz.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
8.3/10(77 votes)
#12 - Element of Danger
S3:E193/22/1962
Chicago, August 29, 1934. That night, in the Haymarket district, special agent Daniel Gosden, a policeman on loan to the Untouchables, goes through a skylight and finds an opium laboratory in the top floor of a rundown tenement hotel. Just then, drug lord Victor Rait and 4 hoods (Gus, Sully, Max, and Trapp) show up, carrying crates of supplies into the place. Rait spots Gosden and gives chase; just as Gosden phones Ness for back-up, Rait blows him away with a shotgun. Then Rait blasts 6 bullets from his gun to disperse the crowd of tenants investigating the noise. Somebody phones the cops, because within minutes Eliot Ness and his men and some policemen are on the scene.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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8.3/10(58 votes)
#13 - The Chess Game
S4:E310/9/1962
By mid-June 1932, Eliot Ness and his Untouchables had uncovered and shut down every champagne-producing operation in the city. 4 months later, however, champagne appears again in the fashionable Westside nightclubs. Ness is about to raid the swankiest speak, the Silver Canary. At the club, Marty Baltin is paying Charley Mailer for the last champagne shipment: $86,000 for 350 cases (that comes out to about $245 per case of 12, about $20 a bottle).
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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8.2/10(102 votes)
#14 - One-Armed Bandits
S1:E172/4/1960
Chicago, February 1932. Crime has been spreading all over, from the dark alleys of Cicero to the social atmosphere of the Gold Coast. Crooked attorney Paul Curtiz is attending a party being hosted by gangster overlord Augie Viale, king of the southside of Chicago. At the affair, Viale is openly paying off this guests with cash-- police commissioners, judges, lawyers, and businessmen; all of them ready to hand Chicago to Viale on a silver platter.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
8.2/10(126 votes)
#15 - Underworld Bank
S1:E264/14/1960
New York City. Saturday, September 23, 1933. Top rackets boss Milo Sullivan is the head of ""Crime, Inc."" He has a meet with 5 other crime lords: Augie Epstein (gambling, Miami); Harold Bishman (political power in Louisiana); Ralph Lucci (rumrunner, Detroit Purple Gang); Dino Monteiro (slots, K.C.); and Arte Martin (numbers, prostitution, Seattle). Their profits from Prohibition had been enormous; with Prohibition ending, they were going to put their money to good use, creating the Underworld Bank.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
8.2/10(129 votes)
#16 - The Frank Nitti Story
S1:E284/28/1960
1934. Prohibition had been repealed (the Volstead Act ran from January 17, 1920 - April 7, 1933). The syndicate was looking for new sources of revenue. Frank Nitti expands his empire, and goes after small theatres-- with his extortion racket. Late one night, after theatre owner Harold Coldman had refused to pay, Nitti has his triggerman Louie Campagna throw some acid into Coldman's face, blinding him. Eliot Ness and his men are on the case-- this is only the latest in a series of muggings and beatings; even a theatre was burned down. Ness knows if he lets Nitti get away with extorting the small, independent theatre owners, in a few months Nitti will go after the big chains.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
8.2/10(124 votes)
#17 - The Purple Gang
S2:E712/1/1960
Detroit, August 1932. The notorious Purple Gang-- long synonymous with terror in beer, booze, labor and prostitution-- gets into a new racket: kidnapping. They specialize in snatching other members of the underworld, since they can't go to the police for help. So far, they've kidnapped 9 hoods (the latest mug is Rocky Garver), for a total of 100 grand.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
8.2/10(85 votes)
#18 - Death for Sale
S2:E264/27/1961
Chicago, last week of April 1933. Frank Nitti is offered a huge quantity of Chinese opium. Ever since the government had established the Bureau of Narcotics in 1930, the flow of opium from China to the USA had slowed to a trickle, and by 1932 the flow had almost ceased; now, with the end of Prohibition seeming imminent, the Syndicate is ready to deal in opium again. Late on the night of May 4, Nitti sends one of his top lieutenants, Ed Getty, to pick up some opium from Art Rele and his thug Cliff Anders. But Ness and Lee Hobson show up, too; in the shootout, only Art Rele escapes.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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8.2/10(78 votes)
#19 - Takeover
S3:E173/1/1962
Chicago, October 1932. The only ""beer"" allowed to be served during Prohibition is ""near-beer"" or ""Near-O""-- which is 0.5% alcohol, as opposed to real beer which is 4.0% alcohol. And so, a lot of legitimate beer producers wind up ""spiking"" the barrels of near-beer with pure alcohol, to get it up to strength. A northside brewer named Woody O'Mara wants to smash all his competition; he tells his girlfriend Amy Gratzner, a rather plain-looking 23-year-old secretary for rival brewer Franz Koenig, to blow the whistle on her boss.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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8.2/10(71 votes)
#20 - Arsenal
S3:E276/28/1962
January 1929. Gangster Matt Malloy walks into a sporting goods store; he can't buy an automatic pistol without a police permit, however anyone with $150 can buy a machine-gun. Later, at the Club Montmartre, half a dozen choppers are laid out on Nitti's table. The Council says that now they can move in on the Northside and Bugs Moran. Nitti picks up a chopper and says, ""You got 'em-- use 'em!"" Gang war!
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Unknown
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8.2/10(49 votes)
#21 - The Speculator
S4:E141/8/1963
1929. Eliot Ness gets another anonymous phone tip: a big meet at a warehouse on Grover Street, Nitti and all the boys will be there. At the warehouse, about 20 hoods are putting their record books into a huge trunk. Since Al Capone got nailed because of bookkeeping, from now on nobody is to keep any written records; there will only be one central file, and the bookkeeper will be Leo Stazak.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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8.1/10(197 votes)
#22 - The Empty Chair
S1:E110/15/1959
"Chicago, May 5, 1932. After 7 months of legal delays, Al Capone... was on his way to federal prison, to serve 11 years for income tax evasion."* Eliot Ness and his Untouchables had spent 18 months to get Capone behind bars-- but now who would try to take over the throne, the Empty Chair?
Director:John Peyser
Writers:David Karp, Ernest Kinoy
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Director:John Peyser
Writers:David Karp, Ernest Kinoy
8.1/10(132 votes)
#23 - The Dutch Schultz Story
S1:E1012/17/1959
March 1935. One of the toughest mobsters in New York City is Dutch Schultz. He and his mob were responsible for over 100 murders. Dutch is into every racket: liquor, narcotics, labor shakedowns, the numbers, selling protection. But "Lucky" Luciano is muscling in on his territory; to try to keep his clients from paying to Luciano, Dutch Schultz has his boys work his clients over with fists. When Joe Floris won't pay 30% protection money to Schultz, saying he is already paying 15% to Luciano, Joe Floris gets some acid in the face, blinding him. But Dutch has a gentler side, too-- his wife just had a baby
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Unknown
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8.1/10(137 votes)
#24 - The Underground Railway
S1:E1212/31/1959
The night of August 3, 1933, outside the Louisburg Federal Prison in Pennsylvania. After serving 2 years of a life sentence for his part in the holdup of a Federal Reserve bank shipment, Frank Halloway is busting out, climbing over the wall. When a fellow inmate breaks his leg from the jump from the high prison wall, ruthless Frank Halloway hops into the getaway car that was left there for him-- and runs over the hapless inmate.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
8.1/10(102 votes)
#25 - The Waxey Gordon Story
S2:E411/10/1960
New Jersey, the night of April 16, 1931. Waxey Gordon, the undisputed beer baron of New York, is muscling in on New Jersey, which is run by Frankie Dunn, ""Bugs"" Donovan and Roger Weiden. Waxey is waging a gang war to eliminate rival gangsters for control of the Jersey beer market. Waxey and his boys smash into a brewery owned and run by Frankie Dunn; they blast with their choppers until the large beer vats, Frankie and his workers are filled with holes.
Director:Unknown
Writer:Unknown
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