Chicago. October 1, 1932.* In 32 hours, Judge McGinnis will consider evidence against racketeer Theodore Newberry-- owner of gambling parlors, speakeasies and houses of prostitution. Ness and his men had been working on the case for a year. The key witness in the case against Newberry is a timid City Hall clerk named Julius Embry. That night, Newberry's hitman Jerry Fanning goes to Embry's house to shoot him-- he fires at a shadow in the window. But police guarding the place fire back, chasing Fanning away. Fanning then goes to Newberry's place to report his failure-- Newberry takes the bad news graciously: he belts Fanning, giving him a black eye. Newberry is holding a party, and one of the guests is a corrupt Commissioner. Ness has Embry moved to a hotel room for safe keeping. However, the corrupt Commissioner sends a couple of City Hall crooks (Whelan & Dottweiler), pretending to be agents (and having a document signed by the Commissioner) to the hotel, and they tell the guard they have orders to put Embry into protective custody. The hoods knock the guard unconscious, and put the snatch on Embry. The next day, D.A. Beecher Asbury has to ask the judge for a postponement because Embry has vanished. That night, Ness is sitting alone at a table in the Savoy restaurant. A Mr. LaMarr strikes up a conversation with him. Then LaMarr hands Ness an envelope with $20,000 in it. Before a surprised Ness can react, a photographer takes a picture of the "transaction." Ness has been framed! The photo winds up on the front page of the newspapers the next day, along with the headline: "What was in that envelope, Mr. Ness?" To make matters worse, the kidnapped Embry has been taken out of the country-- down to Chihuahua, Mexico. Newberry decides to rub out Ness and Embry at the same time. Newberry has Fanning pose as a cab driver, and give Ness and Agent Martin Flaherty a sob story-- Fanning tells them he's ratting on Newberry because he "added a new girl to his collection," his "kid sister, who's only 17." And Fanning shows them his black eye as proof. Assuming they took the bait, Fanning tells them that Embry is in Mexico, and Newberry has sent Fred Metcalf to kill him. Later, in Ness' office (room 208 of the Federal Building), Ness tells Youngfellow, "That Fanning gave quite a performance, right down to the black eye." Ness almost cracks a smile as he quips, "You should have heard that bit about his kid sister." So Ness will take the train to Mexico, where he has no jurisdiction, and no police backup; Ness doesn't want to involve his own men in this, so he calls Washington, DC, for Agent Nick Del Gado-- who knows the language, the country and the customs. Ness and Nick get on a train the night of October 5. The next night, just before they get to El Paso, Texas, they barge in on Fred Metcalf, in his train compartment. At gunpoint, they shake Metcalf down for information: he was to meet Guzman in Chihuahua. Nick drops Metcalf off with the local police in El Paso, and will meet up with Ness later. Ness continues down to Chihuahua to meet Guzman-- Ness will impersonate Metcalf. In Chihuahua, Mexico, Guzman tells Ness that to find Embry, he will have to take a bus 450 kilometers southwest to the seaport town of Tupelo Bompo, and meet Maximiliano Charcas. But Guzman knows he is really Ness, and has his servant hold a knife to Ness' back; Ness however has a gun under the table pointed at Guzman, so Ness wins. Later, Nick meets up with Ness; Nick decides to impersonate Metcalf from now on. They take a bumpy, 10-hour bus ride, 270 miles south to Tupelo Bompo (which, since it's all filmed on a Desilu studio lot, looks just like Chihuahua). That night, at the Hotel, Nick meets his contact Charcas; but Charcas sucker-punches Nick, and hauls his unconscious body out the back door, right under Ness' nose. Charcas takes Nick to Fanning, who already has Embry captive. Meanwhile, Ness pumps the Hotel clerk for information on where to find Charcas; the clerk tells him Pasquale, a drunk at the Cantina, might know where Charcas is. When Pasquale babbles drunkenly, Ness sticks Pasquale's head into a horse trough, and then drags him off to someone who can speak English: the town Padre. The priest translates that Ness should find Charcas' girlfriend Lucita-- but when Ness does, Lucita hasn't seen Charcas either (so the whole thing was a wild goose chase). Meanwhile, time is running out for Nick and Embry: it's now midnight, and Charcas and Fanning are going to take them out on one of Newberry's rumrunning boats-- a "one-way ride." On the boat, Nick sees a Gas Drain (which is clearly labeled in big, white painted letters-- in English yet!), and furtively opens it, dumping all the engine's gas into the water. So Charcas has to go to a gas station in town; Ness sees Charcas riding on his donkey cart, and pummels him. Ness then goes to Fanning's hideout and gets the drop on him. Ness says to Nick, "The investigation reconvenes on Monday." Ness brings Embry back to Chicago, just in time to testify. Walter Winchell: "On October 14, 1932**, the grand jury heard the evidence against Theodore Newberry, and handed up a true bill. Largely due to the testimony of Julius Embry, the witness provided by the Untouchables, Newberry was indicted and ordered to stand trial-- and subsequently found guilty of all charges." (synopsis by: kdh) --------------------------------- *[October 1, 1932 was a Saturday; odd that court would be in session. And "32 hours later" would be Sunday afternoon.] **[which was a Friday, not a Monday.] [note: fine character actor Joseph Ruskin, best known for playing dour-faced villains like "Happy" Levinsky and Louis "Lepke" Buchalter in "The Untouchables," is uncredited in the episode. This was one of his first TV appearances.]
Elenco: Robert Stack , Steve London , Paul Picerni , Nicholas Georgiade , Abel Fernandez .