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. Max says in New York, they aren't losing so much-- they have Nate Selko the Trouble Shooter to make sure money goes to all the right places: police, judges, the legislature. Nate Selko walks into the room, to offer his services to the Chicago boss. Later, in a private room at a restaurant, Selko tries to bribe Ness, with a Swiss bank account with $500,000 in it (the deposit in the bank book is dated Feb. 26).* Selko says it would