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.  Ness shoots and kills the sniper.  When the sniper is identified as Marco Robles, it is obvious who wants Smiley dead: N.Y. Syndicate overlord Joe Kulak. Joe Kulak is ruthless; on the phone he says, ""Robles got what he deserved.  If the cops wouldn't have got him, I would have got him.  Sorry -- no tears.""  So now Kulak turns The Contract over to his Enforcer: Ray Quist.  (a Contract means: kill the guy who's been fingered, or get rubbed out yourself.)  Smiley was just a schlep, an errand boy, in the Organization; but what he knows could put Kulak in the electri