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"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?

The Empty Chair

January 16, 1935. Oklawaha, Florida. Eliot Ness, along with Bill Youngfellow and Martin Flaherty, are closing in on Ma Barker, who is holed up in a house along with 2 of her sons, Lloyd and Fred. Ness says they are wanted for everything from bank robbery, kidnapping, to first-degree murder. Now that Ness has found where the Barkers are, he contacts half a dozen state troopers and local police for backup. From a distance, Ness yells at Ma Barker and her boys to surrender and come out with their hands up. Ma Barker goes to a closet, and inside is an arsenal of weapons-- machine guns, pistols, hand grenades, etc., enough for a small army. She fires a chopper at Ness; he jumps behind an 8-foot long wooden flower pot that gets riddled with bullets. Ma Barker throws a hand grenade that almost blows up Bill Youngfellow. Ma Barker is the most vicious outlaw they've ever faced. In a flashback, we see how it all started in Tulsa, Oklahoma years ago: Ma Barker was a church-goer, but always making excuses for her 4 boys who were committing petty crimes, which escalated into serious crimes. In 1927, while the 4 boys were looting a store, Herman got shot by a policeman. Pa Barker finally had the guts to walk out on the bunch. Ma and her 3 boys committed bank robberies, and killed a bank guard; also a kidnapping. They committed crimes in a 10-state area. In 1935, Pa Barker tipped Eliot Ness, and Ness almost caught the Barker gang in St. Paul, Minnesota. Then the Barkers kidnapped a millionaire's son and got $200,000 ransom. Arthur "Doc" Barker and his fiancée Eloise left the gang; Arthur took his share of the ransom and went to Chicago, but all the serial numbers were recorded with the police. Around the first of January, 1935, when Arthur spent a $10 bill, the grocer informed Eliot Ness, so Ness knew Arthur was in Chicago. Ma Barker stupidly sent a birthday cake to Arthur (who was using the alias Clarence Tillman), and enclosed a postcard, "Greetings from Oklawaha, Florida." Arthur even more stupidly picked it up at the post office (January 8), even though there was a "Wanted" poster with his photo on it in the post office lobby. Bill Youngfellow tailed him; Arthur was soon arrested by Ness and his men. Back to the present: January 16, 1935. Ma Barker lobs a hand grenade at Flaherty and almost blows him up. Ma Barker throws another grenade at Eliot Ness, crouching behind a large, fallen tree limb, and the explosion almost kills him. Ma Barker is the most malicious outlaw they've ever faced; she keeps firing her machine gun and screaming defiantly. Eliot Ness, trying to give them every possible chance to surrender, brings Arthur to the scene, hoping they will give up. Lloyd decides to surrender, and walks outside and throws down his chopper; his own brother Fred shoots him in the back. Lloyd manages to crawl back inside the house, and dies. Ness lets Arthur walk all the way to the house; he tells his mom they don't have a chance. Then Fred, shot up badly himself, dies. Ma Barker calls Arthur "scum" for surrendering, and points her chopper at him; nevertheless, she lets him walk back to Ness. Arthur couldn't get Ma Barker to surrender, and she finally gets shot inside the house. Thus ended the threat of the Barker gang.

Ma Barker and Her Boys

Gangs have divided Chicago in 2-- the northside is run by the Bertshce mob, the southside by the Viale brothers, Augie &amp; Vito. The line of demarcation being Madison Street. At the news office, Jake Lingle phones in a story to the front desk: gang war has erupted on the near northside, 2 hoods with machine guns smashed the liquor supply at Bertsche's Club Chapeau, in retaliation for Bertsche's mob raiding a Viale warehouse.

The Jake Lingle Killing

March 2, 1932. Gangster Joe Carroll, sidekick of George "Bugs" Moran, kidnaps 9-year-old Larry Halloran, Jr.-- the son of Lawrence Halloran, president of the United Trucker's Union. It just so happens that at this very moment, Ness and his Untouchables are trying to nail Bugs Moran-- who is now the top criminal in Chicago, since Capone is in prison. Ness leaves Agent Martin Flaherty in charge; Ness has to fly to Washington, DC, since the brass wants him to give Congress the whole story about the Capone operation.

The George Bugs Moran Story

Summer 1933, Chicago. The mobsters were branching out from liquor, going into the numbers racket, call girls, gambling and dope. One of the most successful gangsters is "Big" Jim Harrington; right now he and his gang are in back of Benny Hoff's Blue Poodle nightclub, and they smash a truckload of liquor.

Ain't We Got Fun?

February 1931. In Churchill Downs, the entries for the Kentucky Derby are closed. Tight-fisted Dutch Schultz, beer baron of the Bronx, places a bet with the Syndicate: 100-grand in the Winter-book on Enchantment to win the Kentucky Derby. Trying to get the most for his money, Dutch knows he will get much better odds now than if he waits until race day.

The Vincent Mad Dog Coll Story

Eliot Ness is lured south of the border to retrieve a witness who will help his case. Only it's a set-up...once there, the mobster on trial is planning to have Ness killed.

Mexican Stake-Out

April 19, 1931. New York City. Every 48 hours, more than 25 million pounds of fruits and vegetables stream into the city; this multi-million dollar business is the target of gangsters. Eliot Ness and his Untouchables have recently been brought to New York on special assignment to investigate the produce market racket. After senior Angelo Cestari, a produce retailer, is machine-gunned by one of Terranova's gangsters, Ness talks to his son Tony Cestari; Tony tells Ness that his father didn't deal with Terranova like the other retailers did, and now he's paid the ultimate price.

The Artichoke King

In the latter part of 1933, there was an epidemic of truck hijackings in the states of Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania; this was the work of 6 gangsters: the Tri-State Gang. Tonight, in Richmond, Virginia, they're hijacking a truckload of radios. As usual "Big" Bill Phillips, a 6'4" ox of a man, takes over the hijacked truck, transferring the load onto their truck; Artie McLeod, a cheap tinhorn gambler, puts a burlap sack over the driver's head, blinding him, and chains the driver to a tree.

The Tri-State Gang

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

The Dutch Schultz Story

Chicago, October 1932.  The depths of the Great Depression, marked by unemployment and poverty.  The only chance some people felt they had to rise out of poverty, if only for a short time, was to win the lottery or at the punch-boards.  The mob saw this as an opportunity, by coming up with a numbers game.  People picked a number from 0-999; their odds of winning were 1-in-a-1,000-- the payoff was 600-to-1.  The thousands of losers, pouring money into the mob, were never mentioned.

You Can't Pick the Number

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.

The Underground Railway

30 miles from Chicago, the (fictitious) Calum City; population: 10,000.  Judge Leon Zabo is running for mayor, to clean up the town.  Working hard in his campaign headquarters is his lovely daughter, Rosetta Zabo.  Judge Zabo tried to put an end to vice, graft and corruption; in the last 6 months, he had closed down 110 bars, clubs and gambling casinos in the notorious Barbary Coast district.

Syndicate Sanctuary

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.

The Noise of Death

1934.  The Depression was over 4 years old, and Al Capone was in Alcatraz.  Many of the rackets had seemingly legit fronts, such as Midwest Enterprises, Inc. -- the president is Luigi Renaldo, former lieutenant for Capone.  Renaldo is going to Florida on business, and leaving his 2nd-in-command in charge: his Enforcer Paolo Rienzi.  But, unbeknownst to his boss, Rienzi tells Tubby to get a couple of guys and work over their accountant,

Star Witness

Spring 1931.  Gangland warfare had broken out again with sudden violence in the streets of St. Louis.  Tim Harrington, who was long entrenched as the undisputed boss of the city, was fighting off the challenge to his leadership from Joe Courtney, an upstart hoodlum.  The elder Dink Conway calls for a sit-down between the two, at the Jockey Club.  Dink points out they are operating the old way: shootouts and dealing in cash.  He offers them organization and protection, and says the new way is to use fronts to cover your criminal activities and keep books so the Feds can't get you on income tax evasion (he knows what happened to Al Capone).

The St. Louis Story

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.

One-Armed Bandits

Little Egypt (not the Belly Dancer) was the city of Morraine, the heart of the gangster-infected area in downstate Illinois known as ""Little Egypt.""  Election night, 1931.  New mayor Marcus Stone is giving a speech on the radio-- he meant what he said about reform, and promises to rid the town of Charlie Byron (a Major in WWI) and his gang, whom he calls ""bloodsuckers"" and ""scum.""  Listening to the radio is Major Byron, who gives his gang orders to knock off both Mayor Stone and Sheriff Mooney; they both get tommy-gunned that night.

Little Egypt

Chicago.  Prior to May 1934, robbing state banks was not a federal offense.  Bandits only had local police to contend with, and they were often understaffed, inefficient or corrupt.  This led to a rash of successful, though clumsily executed, bank robberies.  In this city alone, there were 422 robberies in the last year, with 221 casualties.  On March 1934, Eliot Ness is meeting with his friend D.A. Beecher Asbury.  Ness tells him that until bank robbery becomes a federal offense, there's not much he can about it.

The Big Squeeze

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.

The Unhired Assassin (1)

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.

The Unhired Assassin (2)

March 31, 1934; Prohibition is over.  Al Capone is still running things from Alcatraz, his new money-maker is ""white slavery"" which refers to prostitution; his main operation is run by a mean gangster named Mig Torrance.  Right now, Eliot Ness is conducting his 7th raid since being assigned to closing down the houses.  While all the other hookers are escaping through a trap door, one of them, young Mary Sage, lays on a bed-- dead from a drug overdose.

The White Slavers

September 1932.  The Federal Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas, 430 miles west-southwest of Chicago, houses some of the nation's worst criminals.  One of them is Nick Segal, who murdered 6 people, but only got convicted for violation of the Volstead Act; he got sentenced to 3 years, and is eligible for parole now after serving only one year.  While unloading a truck, inmate Gus Caserta ""accidentally"" drops a 100-pound bag of potatoes on Nick, almost killing him; skinny inmate Phil Thorne sees the whole thing, he is there when it happens.  Nick only gets a broken left arm, though.  Later he gets worse news: parole denied.

Three Thousand Suspects

New York City: Yankee Stadium, the Bronx.  On the evening of June 8, 1933, Max Baer knocked out Max Schmeling in the 10th round of their scheduled 15-round championship boxing match.*  The gate was $240,000.  (Since 60,000 fans were there, that means the average ticket price was $4.00)  An hour later, one of the Granite Armored Cars, with 4 armed guards, drives off with the receipts.  Doreen Maney steps in front of the moving truck; the driver slams on his brakes, but Doreen falls down as if she's been hit.

The Doreen Maney Story

Chicago, 1931.  Eliot Ness and his men had cracked the bootleg empire of Al Capone, by smashing his breweries and speakeasies.*  But now, thousands of gallons of alcohol were coming into the city from an outside source.  Ness meets with D.A. Beecher Asbury; it doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure out where the booze is coming from, they've found 5-gallon cans with ""Brawley Mills, Brawley, New York"" stamped on them.  Chemical analysis showed the stuff is 190 proof, no doubt produced under U.S. Government permit-- but it contained no denaturant, so it is safe to drink.

Portrait of a Thief

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.

Underworld Bank

Chicago.  (year?)*  The jury had been out for 12 hours, on the case Ness had worked so hard on, trying to get a conviction for top mobster Johnny Fortunato.  Now the newspaper reads: Fortunato got off, the chief witness was a ""suicide.""  At 9 p.m., Ness decides to get some spaghetti at Socrates Eatery.  Ness' old high school buddy, Frank Barber, drops in.  They laugh and smile as they recount their glory days at Garfield High, when Barber was the star football quarterback, and Ness was his favorite receiver.

Head of Fire - Feet of Clay

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.

The Frank Nitti Story

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.

The Rusty Heller Story

New York, 1931.  While many people were unemployed and poor during the Depression, gangster-owned speakeasies and nightclubs created a new mobster aristocracy.  One top mobster is Jack ""Legs"" Diamond -- known to the Underworld as ""the Clay Pigeon"" because of the many times he'd been shot at, and survived.

The Jack Legs Diamond Story

Chicago.  By the middle of 1933, Eliot Ness and his Untouchables had almost checked the manufacture and sale of whiskey in Chicago.  But the biggest operator was still in business: Giuseppe Marconi a.k.a. Gus Marco.  He was an apparently respectable owner of a garage of taxis by day; but he trafficked in bootleg booze by night, he had a huge distillery underground in which he processed stolen industrial alcohol.

Nicky

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.

The Waxey Gordon Story

Chicago, late Spring 1932.  There is public protest about the increase in drug addiction.  Charlie Sebastino has amalgamated all the small distributors into one big empire, setting himself up as emperor.  Ness and his Untouchables had virtually shut down dope dealings, by nailing the big operators, but this network is run through small-time pushers.

The Mark of Cain

Chicago, late Summer 1932.  Eliot Ness and his men had stemmed the supply of narcotics coming into the Windy City from Asia and southern Europe.  Now the Underworld was using new ways to supply the city's 5,000 dope addicts.  The Syndicate was robbing drugstores, doctors' offices, wholesale drug houses-- any place which kept a supply of painkilling drugs.

A Seat on the Fence

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.

The Purple Gang

Chicago, September 8, 1932.  That night, a convoy of 4 trucks, which had crossed the Canadian border, are driving towards Chicago; they are hauling 1,000 cases of Canadian scotch, valued at over $100,000.  Ness and his Untouchables have set up a roadblock just outside of town.  7-8 miles up ahead of Ness there is another roadblock, set up by gangster Phil Corbin, owner of Chicago's Club Continental; he's waiting with his boys to hijack the convoy.

Kiss of Death Girl

New York, April 1931.  Gangster Larry Fay, a former student of Al Capone, has his greasy fists firmly in the milk racket: he's organized milk companies into a monopoly.  The price of milk was 10 cents a quart* (this was during the Depression when many people made 30 cents an hour); he increases the price 3 cents a quart-- with 2 cents going directly into Larry Fay's pockets.

The Larry Fay Story

The night of May 3rd, 1934.  A traveling carnival is at the Midway, 35 miles outside of Cleveland.  There are half a dozen bellydancers on stage, as the barker goes, ""Hurry, hurry, hurry,"" and a sign reads: ""One dime shows you the best hootchy koochy show in the world!""  Hans Eberhardt, twice convicted for armed robbery and dope peddling, spots Ness and his Untouchables and the local police about to pull a raid; he runs to the office trailer of carny Otto Frick.

The Otto Frick Story

May 8, 1931.  The special U.S. mail train, coming from Rock Island, is stopped by emergency flares on the tracks in Hillsdale, Illinois.  Gangsters wearing Army gas masks lob tear gas grenades into the train; they shoot a postal clerk and make off with a million dollars in negotiable securities.  3 months later, ""Tough"" Tommy Karpeles, former big-time Chicago hoodlum, is arrested for complicity in the case; his 2 accomplices were not caught.

The Tommy Karpeles Story

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.

The Big Train (1)

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.

The Big Train (2)

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.

The Masterpiece

Chicago.  November 9, 1932.  Al Capone was in prison, and Frank Nitti was running his Organization.  But other crime overlords were ready to take over; the biggest was Joe Kulak, from St. Louis.  Joe Kulak was called ""The Teacher"" because he had trained so many Underworld bigshots, and given them their start.  Eliot Ness and his men keep tabs on Kulak from the moment he arrives in the Windy City.

The Organization

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.

The Jamaica Ginger Story

Summer 1931, Chicago.  Eliot Ness and his Untouchables had smashed most of the big breweries owned by the mobsters.  But racketeers, taking advantage of the poverty and desperation of many immigrants, forced them to make a gallon of whiskey a day in small stills in their homes-- makeshift stills which could be put together for less than $3.  The absolute boss of Little Italy is Augie ""The Banker"" Ciamino, and with whiskey pouring out of 1,000 tenement stills, he was cancelling the gains that Ness had made.

Augie The Banker Ciamino

September 8, 1934.  A cruise ship from Cuba to New Jersey has caught fire.  There are over 300 passengers on board; some of the passengers and crew are jumping overboard to avoid the flames.  Ness and his men, on assignment in New Jersey, speed to get there when the ship docks; Ness has an arrest warrant for Valentine Ferrar, racketeer and founder of the Big Syndicate.  Valentine Ferrar had been in Cuba, picking up a million bucks collection money for the Syndicate.

The Underground Court

1932.  Just 3 weeks after Al Capone was convicted on the ironic charge of income tax evasion, the Justice Department in Washington, D.C. was calling its leading law enforcement agents from all over the country to fly to the nation's capital to testify and get a new Anti-Racketeering Bill passed.  Back in Chicago, 4 of Capone's bigshots who ran his bootlegging empire had skipped town, like rats deserting a sinking ship.

The Nick Moses Story

Mid-October 1932.  The nation's attention is on the election campaign between incumbent president Herbert Hoover and his opponent Franklin D. Roosevelt, who is crippled by polio.  With Prohibition still the law of the land, the government is looking for ways to denature alcohol, which legitimate manufactures need for industrial purposes (making perfumes, etc).  Should the alcohol fall into the wrong hands, if it was denatured, it would be useless to bootleggers.

The Antidote

April 11, 1932.  Millionaire building contractor Thomas B. Randall is the target of a kidnapping; he is throwing a party right now.  Intruding on his estate that night are: ex-bootlegger and now gang leader George ""Blackie"" Dallas, Pete Appleby (former torpedo for the Purple Gang), Marty Stoke (bank heist expert) and Jiggs (ex-heavyweight boxer and now strongarm man).  The gang kills a security guard, and kidnaps Randall-- and they warn his family and guests not to call the police, or he gets it.

The Lily Dallas Story

November 1932.  FDR was moving to end Prohibition, and the crime syndicate was already shifting away from booze to narcotics.  In the next few months, the narcotic supply is running low.

February 20, 1933, Frank Nitti and his lieutenant Pete Konitz fly down to New Orleans, where the Mardi Gras will be taking place.  Bouchard is busy having Sully fit his car with bulletproof glass.  Later, Nitti is demanding a drug shipment from Bouchard.

Murder Under Glass

October 11, 1932.  Chicago.  Less than one month before the elections, David Mantley, running for State's Attorney on the Reform ticket, is making speeches: he says the power behind his opponent, Jeremiah Down, is mobster Bryan O'Malley.  At the same time, across town, O'Malley is being feted at a testimonial dinner-- even though a week from now he'll have to stand trial for murder and income tax evasion.

Testimony of Evil

Ring of Terror-- Boxing ring, that is.  July 1931, the Chicago Sports Arena was like a hundred other boxing rings across America-- a place where young toughs from reform schools and rotting tenements, willing to sacrifice their blood, could try to rise above the oppression of poverty.  But the young men with the boxing gloves only got a small amount of the money; the big payoffs went to the gangsters.

Ring of Terror

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.

Mr. Moon

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.

Death for Sale

New York, 1933.  Racketeers are poking their greasy fists into every corner of the nation's business.  The Fulton fish market in New York supplies fish on the East Coast to as far west as the Mississippi; they supply 700-million pounds of fish a year, worth $200-million.  When Captain Joe McGonigle, owner of the fishing boat the Margie Mac, won't pay protection money, 2 of Frank Mercouris' hoods, Lenny Shore and Swede Kelso, drown his deck hand, and it makes the newspapers; it's only the beginning of trouble with the Syndicate moving in-- and so Eliot Ness and his men fly to New York.

Stranglehold

September 16, 1933.  Although Eliot Ness had successfully destroyed The Underground Court (episode # 46), he had not smashed its parent organization, the big Syndicate, in control of over 50% of the nation's crime.  With the death of Judge Foley, who was the chairman of the Syndicate, 5 top-ranking members are now assembling at a roadhouse on the outskirts of Chicago-- to vote on whether or not to appoint Nero Rankin as the new chairman; Nero had been designated by Foley to be his successor, in the event of his death.

The Nero Rankin Story

Chicago, April 25, 1932.  With Capone in prison doing his rap for income tax evasion, his 8 lieutenants are running things; their HQ is the Montmartre Club, in Cicero, 4 miles west of Chicago.  Capone's booze trucks are being hijacked, his speaks are tommy-gunned; Capone's breweries are being smashed, and not just by Eliot Ness, but by rival gangs.

The Seventh Vote

Chicago, the 3rd week of November 1932.  Working on an anonymous tip, Eliot Ness and his men raid a warehouse; all the crates are filled with champagne bottles, it was a shipment for the New Year's celebrations.  Ness has the landlord who owns the warehouse, Michel (french for Michael) Viton, arrested; but he's released.  Birdie, a deaf-mute, takes Viton to his boss, Edmund Wald, a bottle manufacturer (he's also the one who tipped Ness, to get rid of the competition).

The King of Champagne

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.

The Nick Acropolis Story

Chicago, April 1932.  The city is ruled by underworld czars, one of the toughest of which is Nate Kester, former henchman for the Capone mob.  To put up a pretense of legality, he owns and runs the Odeon Theatre, which specializes in Burlesque, but his real operation is bootleg booze.  Kester has his boys drag in Henry Bogar, who has a 5-6 state territory selling imported brandy.  Kester tells him that from now on he will carry his stuff-- cheap rotgut with forged ""de Bouverais"" cognac labels.  Bogar tastes the stuff, and calls it slop; he says brandy drinkers will never buy it as long as the real stuff is available.

90-Proof Dame

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.

The Troubleshooter

By the Summer of 1933, a new wave of crime has engulfed Chicago.  Due to a public outcry for action, Willard Thornton is appointed as a new commissioner to clean up the town.  At a press conference, Thornton arrogantly says his office does not publicly constitute criticism of any law enforcement agency-- while his tone of voice implies he privately does criticize them.  Eliot Ness is standing right next to him, looking more dour than usual.

Ness and his men go on a raid, they find a shipment of heroin in a hideout.

Power Play

August 28, 1933.  That night, Eliot Ness and his Untouchables, and some undercover plainclothes police, are staking out an amusement pier on the Chicago lakefront; they are tailing Alexander Raeder-- owner of the pier, and the source of the new narcotics flooding the Windy City.  Ness had received an anonymous tip that Raeder was delivering 15 pounds of heroin, half a million dollars' worth, to a syndicate contact.

Tunnel of Horrors

In the years following WWI, there was a flood of European immigrants into the USA.  In the early 1920s, the 6 Genna brothers, place of origin Sicily, were headed to Chicago.  The Genna brothers are nothing but a gang of bullies, and in a few short years they are the ruling lords of Little Italy, an Italian neighborhood in Chicago.  One night, as the 6 Gennas are beating up a street vendor, Agent Enrico Rossi whales into them.  The leader, Mike Genna, asks if he knows who they are; Rossi says, ""Yeah, the Genna brothers-- one rat with 6 heads!""  Mike Genna says that Enrico Rossi is Italian, just like them; Rossi says he's ashamed.

The Genna Brothers

In mid-June 1932, Eliot Ness, having compiled a list of Frank Nitti's breweries &amp; distilleries, began a series of raids designed to break the back of the Capone empire.  This puts the pressure on Frank Nitti, Capone's lieutenant.  Nitti calls a meet with Seth Otis and Phil Grier, who jointly own the biggest speakeasy in Chicago, the Hotsy Totsy Club.

The Matt Bass Scheme

Chicago, January 1933.  Ness and his men raid a speakeasy owned by gangster Mikhail ""Red Mike"" Probich, and run by Connie LaVerne.  At the trial, Probich is represented by his crooked lawyer Morton Halas, who grew up in poverty.  The trial drags on for 5 days.  Finally, Ness is ready to call the last prosecution witness, Connie LaVerne, who ""is 80% of their case.""  Morton Halas objects, on the grounds that a wife cannot be forced to testify against her husband.

Loophole

September 14, 1932.  At 11:30 p.m., Eliot Ness goes to the Odeon movie theatre (not the Odeon Burlesque theatre used in several episodes); he gives stoolie Marty Wilger an envelope with cash for his tips.  Those tips had led to successful raids by Ness against Nitti's speaks: booze, girls, gambling tables; also 2 warehouses and a distillery in the last week.

Nitti's plenty sore.

Jigsaw

Chicago, July 1934.  Anonymous phone calls have been tipping off Ness and his men to narcotics activities; they do a bunch of raids.  On August 4, even though sales have fallen off, Frank Nitti is ordering 15 kilos of heroin*, the biggest single shipment ever.  That night, one of Nitti's boys makes the trade: dough for the H.  He gets into a car driven by another of Nitti's boys, Manny Kravitz.

Man Killer

1933.  Violence and corruption were at an all-time high in Chicago, New York, St. Louis, Detroit, Kansas City-- virtually every city in the U.S.  The lone exception is an Eastern seaboard metropolis, referred to as City Without a Name, in which the voters had used the ballot box to vote corruption out of public office.  And Federal agent Arnold Wainwright had kept organized crime out-- but on October 22, he is blasted by machine-guns while in a coffee shop.

City Without a Name

New York, middle of 1932.  The Syndicate-- headed by Joe Kulak, Louis ""Lepke"" Buchalter and Dutch Schultz-- has the city's huge garment industry organized and under control.  Now they are setting their sights on bakeries; there are 500 independent wholesale bakers in the city.  They give Bull Hanlon the word: get the biggest independent baker, Adam Stone, to sign up and all the rest will fall in line.

Hammerlock

November 1932.  Big-time gangster Joe Palakopolous is playing a dangerous game-- he just had his hitman rub out Danny Kugan, the biggest supplier of Canadian whiskey that Frank Nitti had.  And Nitti's plenty sore.  Kugan was the only guy who could import Canadian Gold for Nitti.  The phony stuff is no good; Nitti quips that bottled rotgut is so bad, ""it peels off the labels from the inside.""  Eliot Ness and his men investigate Kugan's killing, and try to find out who will take over the operation.

Canada Run

October 1932, Chicago.  With Capone in the slammer, other bosses are biting off chunks of Capone's empire.  One boss is Frankie Gruder, head of a group that is the forerunner of Murder, Inc.; Gruder wants control of all the Canadian imports and exports.  Gruder and his boys go to a warehouse, Gruder shoots a longshoreman.  Ness and his men show up and start blasting.  There's a shoot-out.  Gruder manages to escape.

Fall Guy

1932.  Chicago is a thirsty town, consuming 86,000 gallons of booze a day; that's 32-million gallons a year.  Almost all this booze is beer and rotgut, but 1% is the finest Canadian scotch.  Nitti's boys, armed with tommy guns, shoot up a rival speak, the Blue Lion, that's serving the Canadian scotch.  Ness and his men investigate; 2 people dead, 3 critically injured.

The Gang War

Chicago, March 2, 1932.  The hottest nightspot in town is the Club Tunisian, owned by gangster Pete Kalik, who built it up from a small speak.  Ness and Lee Hobson show up, but not to see gorgeous singer Mavis Carroll-- they had gotten an anonymous phone tip earlier.  Lee Hobson is tired, he is due to take his vacation leave starting Friday.  Ness and Hobson get contacted by the club comedian Eddie Paris, he is the one who phoned them.  After his show, he meets with Ness and Hobson at the Denton Street wharf; Eddie wants Pete Kalik put away behind bars, he says Kalik is working out a big alcohol deal with the Partner, the mysterious man who had backed Torrio and Capone.

The Silent Partner

New York City.  July 23, 1934.  The Underworld, which had long made big money by covering bets on horse races, wants to get their hands on a new invention-- the racewire, which can speed the results of horse races to bookmakers everywhere.  That rainy night, Michael Barrigan and Frederic Withers (who, along with their partner Douglas Barrows, own and run the Trans-Pacific News Service) receive an urgent call from Barrows-- but Barrigan finds Barrows dead in a bookie joint (the back room of Hayes florists) when he gets there.

The Whitey Steele Story

Early November 1931.  On West Madison Street, there is a wonderfully diverse neighborhood made up of gypsies of Romanian, Hungarian and Czech descent.  The area is flooded with Capone's rotgut, being distributed by Janos Colescu.  There are many colorful characters, including the chestnut vendor with his singsong voice: ""Get your red-hot che-e-estnuts, the wind is cold.""  When the rotgut leads to a drunken knife-fight that leaves a gypsy dead, the 8-member gypsy Senate, headed by Victor Bartok, with his brother Fedor Bartok, convenes.  Eliot Ness shows up to offer his help to end the bootleg booze; they decline his help, saying they will handle matters themselves.

The Death Tree

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.

Takeover

March 3, 1932.  It's the great train robbery, on the southbound express headed for Chicago.  The Stryker brothers steal mail sacks containing 750 grand in payroll money.  During the robbery, a baggage man and Lippy Carson (an associate of the Stryker brothers, who had worked as a mail clerk) are killed, and thrown from the speeding train.  Since mail robbery is a federal offense, Eliot Ness and his Untouchables are called in.

The Stryker Brothers

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.

Element of Danger

Chicago, after the Repeal of Prohibition; (so this would be around 1934).  With booze legal, the racket czars step up their dealings in narcotics.  Ness and Lee Hobson are chasing 2 dope-pushers, one of them is Benny Rivas.  After the shootout, one hood is dead; Benny moans, ""Get me a priest.""  Ness finds heroin on him; wanting to die with a clear conscience, Benny says, ""808"" and dies.  That leads Ness to Maggie Storm's 808 Club.

The Maggie Storm Story

November 7, 1933.  Slot machines are big business; 2,000 of the one-armed bandits rake in $100,000 per week; ($50 per machine).  One night, ""Moose"" Tobin and 3 other Bomer hoods drop in on Porker Davis' upstairs gambling joint.  Tobin tells Davis that Bomer wants to teach him a lesson; the hoods chase everybody out of the joint.  Then they start throwing the slot machines out the 2nd story window; when one of Davis' employees tries to stop them, the hoods throw him out the window. 

Man in the Middle

Chicago.  Pete ""The Persuader"" Kalmisky, former bodyguard of Al Capone, accompanied by Syndicate business manager Alan Sitkin, have a meeting with Joey December, president of the debt-ridden Great Lakes Pacific Railroad.  They form a crooked alliance; Joey agrees to transport their illegal liquor on his trains, in exchange for ""20% off the top.""  After Kalmisky leaves, Sitkin talks privately with Joey.  Sitkin gives Joey $100,000 for 10,000 shares of Canada Central stock, now worth $10 a share;

Downfall

March 4, 1933.  The Windy City is getting ready for the Chicago World's Fair, also known as the ""Century of Progress"" Exposition.  The 3 wealthy Endicott brothers, who jointly owned franchises at the upcoming Fair, are all rubbed out in short order.  Restaurant owner Gus Dmytryk goes to the Licensing Committee, and it seems he will get the former Endicott franchises: 3 nightclubs at the Midway, and 5 other concessions.  It will mean big bucks, since the Chicago World's Fair is expected to draw 50-million visitors.

The Case Against Eliot Ness

May 17, 1932.  There are many free soup kitchens in Chicago, but one of them in the skid row section is really a front; upstairs, gangster Chiz Gosher, twice convicted of white slavery, has his office.  His partners in crime are the powerful, nationwide vice ring known as The Group, represented by hood Vic Cassandros.  Chiz's niece is Ginnie Littlesmith, who runs the soup kitchen, and she is not involved in the rackets.  Downstairs, Enrico Rossi is working undercover-- he's dressed in dirty old clothes, and phones Ness; Eliot tells him the raid is set for 12:45.*

But Vic is soon tipped of Ness' impending raid; Vic goes upstairs and demands the ledger books from Gosher.

The Ginnie Littlesmith Story

New York City; February 4, 1934.  3 months of intensive investigation is paying off for Ness and his Untouchables; they have ""Smiley"" Barris cornered in an upper floor of an Eastside tenement.  With the aid of local police, and some tear gas, Smiley is apprehended.  But somebody wants Smiley dead; a sniper with a high-powered rifle, on the roof of a building, shoots at Smiley-- he accidentally kills the cop beside Smiley.

The Contract

Chicago, April 16, 1934.  Prohibition is over, the main racket is now narcotics.  The New York Syndicate, the ""Big 6"" send their representative Wally Corbin to Chicago, to pick up a shipment of heroin from Louie ""The Bear"" Madikoff-- he's the top dealer in the Midwest and the chief supplier of the NY Syndicate.  Ness has already picked off 2 of Madikoff's runners.  Wally picks up 1-1/2 kilos of the junk, worth $200,000.

Pressure

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!

Arsenal

March 2, 1933.  The remote section of the northern Michigan Lake front, 180 miles northeast of Chicago.  The Chicago Syndicate, to improve the quality of their booze, is now smuggling in master brewers from Germany; the illegal immigrants had come 6,000 miles to the new country.  Tonight, 8 new immigrants are brought in.  One of them looks at the sign: ""Welcome to Chippewa Landing, Michigan""--  Bernd asks, ""Chippewa?  What does that mean?  But this is America, yes?""  Max Kerner tells him to move on.

The Monkey Wrench

December 24, 1930.  That evening, small-time mug Hap Levinson is playing Santa Claus at the Sackman Orphan Home.  Santa brings toys and ice cream to all the waifs.  He walks outside, waves good-bye, and is promptly machine-gunned to death by hoods in a speeding car.  Quite a shock for all the kiddies.

Killing Santa is not a federal crime, but Eliot Ness investigates.  Hap was a friend of Ness' for 10 years; they had sort of a truce.  If Ness was on official business, they were on opposite sides of the law; unofficially, they were pals.

The Night They Shot Santa Claus

Joe Lassiter is the greatest inside man in the bootlegging racket.  He and his sidekick, Nick Karabinos, have just arrived in Chicago by train; Lassiter traveled 1,000 miles because of a 250 grand deal: build a Ness-proof brewery.  At the closed Bell Club (which Ness took apart last week), Lassiter meets with bootleg czar Louis Tully and his associates.

The Cooker in the Sky

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).

The Chess Game

Chicago, the Summer of 1932.  There are 12-million unemployed in the U.S.; with less money to spend, the price of booze goes down.  The whiskey Syndicate is meeting; the chairman is the powerful gangster Vincent Tunis who runs the town.  His 3 lieutenants suggest they hit the speaks.  To make a point, Tunis demands a toothpick from his underling Charlie Grach; Tunis roughs him up, bloodies his nose, and points a gun at Charlie*-- demanding a toothpick.

The Economist

Chicago, December 18, 1930.  On the southside of town, Herbie Catcher is playing 8-ball for 50 cents a game, in a dilapidated pool joint.  Herbie, not being much of a pool player, gets cleaned out by Cooker.  Herbie's best friend is Josh, a nice black man who happens to be blind, who is the employee working in the pool hall.  Josh tells him, ""You'd be surprised at the things I can see, I'm an owl in the dark.""  (""Owl"" is his nickname.)  Since Herbie can't make money shooting pool, and only has a job working as a busboy, he is in the habit of getting a few bucks by giving Eliot Ness tips.

The Pea

December 12, 1929.  That night, gangster Arnie Kurtz is in a car, watching a hit he ordered.  Another car, speeding along and with a chopper blasting, guns down a pedestrian; but the victim pulls a gun and fires back, his bullet goes through the windshield.  The car crashes; the driver is dead, but the hitman escapes.  Arnie Kurtz goes to establish his alibi; at 10:35, his wife Stella drops in on her brother Benno Fisk, who owns a pawn shop.  Stella has a job for him: deliver a payment of 100 Gs to a gangster in Washington, DC, for her hubby Arnie.  Benno will be gone for 3-4 days, so Stella takes his 2 pet birds with her; Stella and Arnie are permanent guests at the swanky Lakeview Hotel.

Bird in the Hand

Chicago.  Right after the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. (February 14, 1929.)  Ness and his men are scouring Chicago, looking for Bugs Moran.  Ness says there used to be 2 gangs in town, now there's just one.  Ness figures if they get to Moran first, maybe he'll talk-- he might just be mad enough to give them the information they need.

The Eddie O'Gara Story

1929.*  Notorious gangster boss Charlie Radick is dying of leukemia; there'll be no mourning for him, the other overlords will be vying for his throne.  All Radick wants to do is see his long-lost daughter before he dies.  Ness visits Radick; Ness is afraid a gang war might break out, as rival gangs scramble to take over.  Ness says, ""Turn over your books to me; names of the people in your organization, distribution points, contacts in City Hall.""  Radick says while he was in prison, he left his daughter with a couple; 3 years ago she ran away.

Elegy

July 4, 1930.  40,000 horse racing fans fill Arlington Park.  Ness and his men have Arnold ""Spats"" Vincent under surveillance; they will close in on him as soon as he gets a piece of paper: a list with the names of officials in high places who are ready to do business with the crime cartel.  2 hoods (one tall, one short), apparently associates of Spats, approach him.  The tall hood sits next to him and whispers something to him; then he stabs Spats. 

Come and Kill Me

Chicago, 1929.  Mike Brannon's been a cop for 15 years, but now he's being suspended for hospitalizing ""one of Tony Lamberto's dope-pushing punks.""  Mike thinks Captain Bellows is corrupt for not going to bat for him.  There is a tense moment when the Captain asks for Mike's gun-- Mike points it at him.  But then, Mike turns the gun over and leaves.

A Fist of Five

Chicago, October 1932. Within minutes of the time the Globe's top reporter Carlton Edmunds was shot, Eliot Ness and his men are on the scene.  Ostensibly it appears a stray bullet in a gunfight hit Edmunds; he was just a passerby in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The Floyd Gibbons Story

June 1930.  Speak owner Louie Akers-- about to go dry and out of business because Guzik couldn't supply him with hooch for that last 3 weeks-- buys his booze from another supplier.  Akers pays Johnny $1,142 for barrels of beer and crates of whiskey, that some deliverymen just dropped off.  Just then, a couple of Guzik's boys (Sully and Mac) drive up; they start blasting at the delivery truck (which still has plenty more booze in back), just as it's pulling away.

The Best Seasons of The Untouchables

The Best Seasons of The Untouchables

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4