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. There's a big party being given for Felcher at Flora's nightclub; she hands Felcher a ribbon which is attached to a 6-foot-tall paper heart that has the words ""Pops, We Love You"" written on it-- Felcher pulls the ribbon, and on the other end, red-haired dancer Rusty Heller jumps out of the heart, she's dressed up like a kitty cat and wearing fishnet stockings. Meow! Just then, Ness and his men raid the place, they're looking for a hood named Augie Kleiner; they don't go away empty-handed, they find and arrest him. Archie Grayson doesn't go away empty-handed either, he starts an affair with Rusty Heller. Rusty and Grayson become a team. At the Club Mademoiselle, Rusty is using her feminin

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. Although he's married, Jack Diamond carries on openly with lovely canary Dawn Dolan, who sings at the Hotsey Totsey Club, a nightclub Jack owns; his philandering is in the newspapers all the time. The mob hates all the publicity he is drawing to himself-- and therefore might draw to them. When Jack gets his picture taken for the newspapers once too often, there's another rubout attempt on Jack; again, he survives, but the 19-year-old parking valet standing next to him gets hit by the shotgun blasts.

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. Gus Marco is pulling a big job tonight; one of his honest taxi drivers, Mario Bousso (Nicky's father), is going to drive one of the trucks because he needs the money for his 2 kids. Gus' cousin Mike Marconi will be riding with Mario. Gus Marco had schmeared the lone federal guard of a government warehouse; for $2,500 he was assisting in the heist. 2 of Marco's trucks pull into the warehouse. They siphon off thousands of gallons of pure alcohol, worth half a million dollars; they refill the government barrels with water. But Ness and his men raid the place. There is a hug

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. Next day, John Carvell, U.S. Attorney for the southern district of New York, sends for Ness and his men. Ness and Lee Hobson drop in at Waxey's live theatre, where beautiful showgirl Flo Ingalls is doing her act in a sequined one-piece swimsuit. Later, Ness and Hobson go to Waxey's office to arrest him, but Flo (still in costume) provides his alibi, saying she was with Waxey all last night. April 18, in a private office at the swank Nest nightclub, there is a council of war: ""Bugs"" Donovan is convinced the N.Y. Syndicate is b

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. One of Charlie's pushers is a park worker known as Ragpicker; right now he's selling some heroin to 19-year-old Carol Royce. Later, Ness visits Carol in the hospital, where she is dying of an overdose; she identifies the Ragpicker, who works at the Williams Street Park. Carol dies. Ness tells the reporters to print the story. At a nightclub, Sticks is playing the drums. Charlie Sebastino is coming on to the beautiful nightclub singer. Ness and Rico and Lee Hobson barge in; Charlie's boy Puffy Oselle says to his boss, ""Sorry, I couldn't stop him."" Ness has a search warrant to look for the Ragpicker, but he's not there. Frank and J

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.* Ness and his men investigate one such robbery: a clue is a note with a list of items to be stolen (morphine, cocaine, etc.)-- numbered with Roman Numerals, written by an educated man.  That man is Victor Bardo, one-time narcotics czar of all eastern Asia; he was imported by the Syndicate in 1931.  His headquarters are some offices behind a legit front: an arcade.  Crooked Dr. Hallet has just told him about a couple of nursing homes they can knock off.  However Dino Patrone (age 46), a contact man for narcotics in Europe, has fallen out of favor with Bardo-- he tells his hitman Willie Dasher to rub Patrone out when he gets back.  Nes

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's leader is Eddie Fletcher, bank robber and murderer, who always wears gloves so he never leaves any fingerprints. Next on their list of gangsters to be kidnapped is Ian Tornek, who owns a novelty shop along with his brother-in-law Eric Vajda, who arrived from Europe 7 months ago. But Eliot Ness and his Untouchables also have their eye on Tornek: he's a Capone henchman, who makes a weekly pickup of narcotics every Thursday at 5:00 p.m. at the Railway Express Agency. So Ness and Lee Hobson and Enrico Rossi fly to Detroit. Fletcher's boys snatch Tornek just before his weekly pickup; they phone his wife Martha and de

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. Riding along in the lead truck of the convoy is Whitey Barrows-- ostensibly he's running the whiskey in for his boss, Lou ""The Rooster"" Scalese, but he's actually double-crossing him, Whitey tipped Corbin. Corbin's boys stop the trucks. Whitey tells Corbin they make a good team, and Scalese will blame the feds for the heist. But Corbin doesn't trust double-crossers-- he lines Whitey up with the 4 truck drivers, and then Corbin's boys mow them down with choppers. Corbin and his boys drive the convoy into town via a different route, bypa

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. Stores that don't comply are wrecked, or have a hand grenade lobbed through the front window; milk companies get their milk trucks machine-gunned. Fay's partners in crime are Carl D. Arnold and nervous Fred Stegler. And so Eliot Ness and his Untouchables go on assignment to New York. When Wayne Owens, who owns a small but successful milk company, won't cooperate, Larry Fay and his hitman Frankie toss him into an elevator shaft-- from 10 stories up. Ness is on the case. Larry owns a swanky nightclub, the El Fay, and the entertainer is Sally Kansas, the toast of New York. Ness talks to Sally; she has no hard f

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. Hans grabs 2 suitcases, then Otto takes a can of gasoline and torches the trailer; they escape in a speeding car before Ness can catch them. It is a minor setback for Ness, who had spent the last 7 months investigating and making raids, and was finally ready to move in on Otto Frick-- whose 37 traveling enterprises were just a cover for his nationwide dope ring. Ness continues with roundups and raids in the following weeks. Suspecting that Frick might be getting his drugs from legitimate manufacturers, Ness and his men

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. With his previous record as an ex-con, who had done 5 years for robbery, he was found guilty and sentenced to life in the State Pen. Since crimes involving the U.S. Postal Service are a federal offense, Eliot Ness and his Untouchables are on the case. Ness thinks Karpeles is innocent; the thought that the real killer is on the loose bothers Ness, so he visits Karpeles in prison. Karpeles tells Ness he was nailed on a bum rap. Karpeles had 3 witnesses who testified he was at Mendy's bar that night; his daughter works there. Ness thinks it's

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."" Chicago, October 17, 1931. The 11-day trial of Al Capone ended, with the judge fining him $56,000 and sentencing him to 11 years in the Federal penitentiaries. On May 3, 1932, Capone is taken from Cook County jail to the Dearborn Station, to take a train to Atlanta. Nitti and his boys are there, as are Ness and his men. There is also a large crowd; to many of them, Al Capone, who had donated a few million dollars (peanuts to him) to support public charities like soup kitchens, he is sort of a hero. One well-wisher yells to Capone (referring to the

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. Ness and his men fly to Salt Lake City, Utah, and get there 3:00 p.m.; they head straight to the Lone Eagle Flying Service. One of Nitti's boys, Victor Seth Gordon, carrying 300 grand in a suitcase, has just hired Fred Noonan to put his plane ""on hold"" until the 22nd, and then fly a client to Mexico; oddly enough, Seth Gordon never told Noonan to keep his mouth shut-- when Ness and Lee Hobson pose as potential customers, Noonan tells them all about the trip to Mexico, what the guy who hired him (""Mr. Green"") looks like

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. As collector for Capone, Nitti has a meet with Mayer Wartel. Nitti snaps, ""Candy stores take in more!"" When Wartel says you can't operate speaks without booze, Nitti tells him, ""I don't want to hear no excuses. Excuses ain't money-- only money is money!"" Nitti makes it clear that Wartel's problem with Positan is his business, and he better take care of it and soon. Wartel sends ""Happy"" (so nicknamed because he never smiles) Levinsky and 10 of his boys armed with tommy guns to the Kayope Hotel where

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.  Kulak goes to the Westside Athletic Club, a front for crime boss Arnie Seeger.  In his office, Seegar talks to Kulak and lays out his plans for the whole country: gambling, whiskey, houses (of prostitution), dope.  Seegar figures to assign territories: Bouchard in New Orleans, Nicholson in K.C., Danny Kurtz (his lieutenant, sitting right next to him) for Pittsburgh... Kulak interrupts him, saying he already has Malone for Pittsburgh.  Kurtz loses his temper over being cut out; (so Seeger decides to have Kurtz rubbed out that night).  Seegar desperately wants Kulak to attend his upcoming m

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. Ness and his men are on the case. Jamaica Ginger is made by cheap labor in Santo Domingo, then smuggled into the U.S. in New Orleans, and then shipped to K.C. Rafael Torrez has a meet with Jerry LaCarver and his 5 hoods, they come over to Torrez's ranch where he trains racehorses. Torrez says the 2 hijacked trucks are just a small part of the stuff he's got; he's willing to cut LaCarver in for 10%. But when LaCarver wants to go 50/50, the meet is a

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. August 16, 1931.  That night, at a street festival, Giovanni gets a hold of some bad whiskey at Raineri's bakery, and is sped to a hospital in an ambulance.  Ciamino wants to find out who is responsible; he says to Raineri, ""You tell me where Giovanni got the bad stuff, I buy all your sfogliatelle.""*  Uncooperative Raineri says, ""I don't make sfogliatelle.""  (even though we see a sign in his bakery: Special Today: Sfogliatelle.)  When Ciamino finds out it was Stefano-- and twi

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. Ness is told by a ship's official that Ferrar has drowned-- but the eyewitness was not reliable, it was his sidekick Inky Beggs, who has just left for New York. Actually, Inky is being taken for a ride by 2 hoods to deliver him to The Underground Court in Manhattan. Inky tells his story to Judge Foley and the other members of the court. He tells them truthfully that Ferrar jumped into the water with a million bucks in his money belt; but he lies about Ferrar drowning. Judge Foley lets Inky go, but has him tailed. Inky

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: only Frank Nitti ""the Enforcer"" had the guts to remain in the Windy City, as did Nick Moses. With the gang bosses assembling again, Ness can't leave Chicago. Ness says, ""It looks like you'll be going to Washington without me,"" and he shakes District Attorney Asbury's hand, ""bring us back a law, Beecher."" At the Club Montmartre, Nitti presides over a meet. Overlord Vinnie is grousing that Nick Moses muscled in on his territory while he was in Miami; Nick counters that Vinnie ran out, so his district was up for grabs. Nitti tells them to settle this ""peaceful."

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. Eliot Ness and his Untouchables, along with top Federal agents from all over the country, attend an important meeting in Washington, DC.  The Speaker says that since the beginning of Prohibition, all alcohol produced under government license has had one of various denaturants added to it: pyridine, methanol, etc.  But the Underworld has always found a way to renature the alcohol. The Speaker is happy to announce that the government chemists in his Department have finally come up with a denaturant for which there is no Antidot

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. They drive away. The mastermind behind this is George Dallas' ambitious wife, Lily Dallas; she pushed the small-time hood into committing ever more dangerous crimes-- with bigger takes and bigger risks. Lily is only recently out of prison, where she served 5 years for armed robbery-- Lily masterminded bank jobs which netted over $1-million, long since spent. Lily had a good teacher: Jack ""Legs"" Diamond. Ness and his men are on the case. They find the abandoned getaway car; the crooks

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. On being told the stuff is coming in the next day, Nitti flies back to Chicago, leaving Konitz in New Orleans to get the narcotics. The next day, Ness and his men arrive in New Orleans. That night, Bouchard tells Konitz that he is sending his ""two best men,"" Gil Haller and Hugger Davis, to pick up the heroin: a 3-pound shipment, worth several million dollars. But when they pick up the heroin, Gil shoots Hugger and steals the stuff. Then Gil goes back to Konitz and Bouchard with a phony story that he and Hugger were ""attacked by 5 or 6 guys"" w

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. After Mantley's speech, and the small crowd has left, a speeding car goes by, and a chopper riddles Mantley full of bullets. Ness and his men are on the case. Henry Weiser is meeting with his boss Bryan O'Malley; it was Weiser who had Mantley rubbed out.  O'Malley's murder trial (for the contract killing of Rocky Marlos) is in 4 days, and Ness will help the prosecutors; there are 2 witnesses who could get him convicted: George Davas and Stan Willinski, former associates of Weiser.  O'Malley thinks they can scare Davas into not testifying, by getting to his girlfriend Julie Duvall.

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. Joey McGrath is an up-and-coming young fighter, 23 KOs in 25 fights, and the sports writers have him tagged as the next light-Heavyweight Champ. However, tonight, Joey is having such a bad boxing match that his manager, Barney Jarreau, smells a ""fix."" When Joey is being pummeled by ""Rocky"" Pearson in the 9th round, Barney throws in the towel. Joey collapses. After Joey dies, Barney confronts gangster Acropolis, who was up to something. Fights fall under the jurisdiction of the State Athletic Commission, but when the coroner finds morphine in the dead boxer's body, it becomes a j

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. When Ness gets back to Chicago, the Untouchables go through a large list of forgers. They determine that the top man is Hans Dreiser, doing 20-to-life in Leavenworth Prison in Kansas. One night, there's an explosion in the high-voltage power transformer next to Leavenworth Prison. During the brief power blackout, Dreiser escapes over the 20-foot-high wall with a rope; 2 of Mr. Moon's men are in a waiting car. Next day, Ness is in Leavenworth County, and talking to the Power Company managers. Benny Joplin had been the inspector for the transformer, it turns out he'

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. On Getty, Ness finds some raw opium wrapped in a sheet of paper in an envelope. Later at Ness' office, the other hood is identified as Cliff Anders, who used to work for Phil Melnick, the one-time ""king of opium."" And so Eliot Ness and his Untouchables head to New York (on a train, not a plane as they usually do). Their only lead is the expensive bond paper that the opium was wrapped in; it was manu

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. Dutch Schultz, speaking for the Syndicate, tells Frank Mercouris: ""no more rough stuff."" Meanwhile, Ness is talking to Capt. Joe McGonigle; Ness wants him to testify in front of the grand jury. Ness tells him he knows how the mob operates: a fee to tie up a boat at the city dock, a fee to buy ice, a fee to unload; and the wholesalers are being charged protection money, too. Ness tells McGonigle tha

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 5 voting members are: Murray Brigger (boss of the Southwest), Lou Hyndorf (East Coast), Huey Barker (Midwest), Pat Polofski (Detroit), and Cy Brenner (New Orleans). Nero Rankin goes to his office. There is a secret vote. Huey Barker, Murray Brigger and another vote ""No."" Lou Hyndorf votes ""Yes"" and says ""because there's no one else""; one other member votes with him. 2 for, 3 against; Huey says, ""He don't make it."" But then Murray Brigger changes his vot

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. Right now, the 8 overlords running the Syndicate are deadlocked over how to run things-- on one side are Frank ""The Enforcer"" Nitti, Brenner, Urcel and another lieutenant; on the other are Jake ""Greasy Thumb"" Guzik, Levinsky, Grecko and another lieutenant. A gang war is raging. Nitti's plenty sore. He slams his fist on the table and growls, ""6 breweries in 2 weeks, at 100 grand each!"" Guzik says he's not worried; booze is going out because Prohibition will be repealed soon. Nitti says at $60-million a year, booze is in. Guzik says that they should increase their narcotics racket: no breweries, no warehouses, no trucks-- only sma

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). Edmund Wald is secretly making champagne bottles; he also has a man in Indiana making a brew of spiced cider and sugar cane that can pass for champagne. Wald can get all the bogus champagne he needs for $2 a quart-bottle, and then he wants to sell it for $10 a bottle. Wald needs Viton for a capital investment: $100,000 to buy the bogus champagne, and $100,000 to have a bottle-corking machine smuggled in from Europe. Viton says they can steal the corking machine from the Industrial Museum; and Edmund will have to go to

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. Nick roughs him up, and Louis' only excuse is, ""Who would have thought that Locks would lose a decision to Max Baer?""* Nick tells Louis to replace the dough, and fast-- or else! Nick demands the 200 grand in one month, and the usual gangster interest of 25% per month; but Nick wants the 50 grand interest payable in 48 hours. Louis tries to beg and borrow the 50 Gs; his sister Stella offers to come up with half of the

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. So Kester decides to eliminate the competition, he destroys 200 cases of the good 90-proof stuff that Bogar has stashed in an old church. Next day, in retaliation, Bogar phones Ness and is about to blow the whistle on Kester: his booze, houses and dope operations. But Bogar is rubbed out by Kester before he can finish talking; luckily, Lee Hobson managed to have the c