Chicago, May 5, 1932. Following seven months of legal maneuvering, Al Capone was en route to a federal prison, where he would serve an eleven-year sentence for income tax evasion. Eliot Ness and his Untouchables had dedicated eighteen month…

January 16, 1935. Oklawaha, Florida. Eliot Ness, accompanied by Bill Youngfellow and Martin Flaherty, were closing in on Ma Barker, who was barricaded in a house with two of her sons, Lloyd and Fred. Ness reported they were wanted for a lit…

Chicago is cleaved in two by gang territory. The north side answers to the Bertsche mob, while the south is controlled by the Viale brothers, Augie and Vito. Madison Street marks the dividing line. At the news office, Jake Lingle reports a …

March 2, 1932. Gangster Joe Carroll, an associate of George "Bugs" Moran, abducted nine-year-old Larry Halloran, Jr., son of Lawrence Halloran, president of the United Truckers Union. Coincidentally, at that very instant, Eliot Ness and his…

Chicago, summer of 1933. The city’s criminal element was diversifying, expanding beyond bootlegging into numbers running, prostitution, gambling, and narcotics. Among the most prosperous of these men was "Big" Jim Harrington. At this moment…

February 1931. The list of horses entered in the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs was finalized. The parsimonious Dutch Schultz, Bronx beer magnate, placed a wager with the Syndicate: one hundred thousand dollars on Enchantment to win the …

Drawn across the border, Eliot Ness seeks a witness whose testimony could break his case. But the promise proves a snare; upon arrival, Ness discovers the defendant he's pursuing intends not justice, but his demise.

New York City, April 19, 1931. Each two days, over twenty-five million pounds of fruits and vegetables arrive in the city, fueling a multi-million dollar enterprise now under the gaze of organized crime. Eliot Ness and his Untouchables have…

The autumn of 1933 saw a surge in truck hijackings across Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, the work of a notorious group known as the Tri-State Gang. Tonight, in Richmond, Virginia, they are pilfering a truckload of radios. As is their…

March 1935 found Dutch Schultz, one of New York City's most formidable gangsters, at the height of his power. He and his organization were implicated in over a hundred murders, controlling a vast empire of illicit enterprises: bootlegging, …

Chicago, October 1932. The Great Depression had sunk the city into a chasm of unemployment and want. For some, the lottery and punch-boards offered the faintest glimmer of escape, a temporary reprieve from their hardship. The criminal eleme…

The night of August 3, 1933, at the Louisburg Federal Prison in Pennsylvania. Frank Halloway, having served two years of a life sentence for his role in the robbery of a Federal Reserve shipment, was making his escape, scaling the prison wa…

Thirty miles west of Chicago lies Calum City, a town of ten thousand souls. Judge Leon Zabo is seeking the mayoralty, promising to restore order. His campaign headquarters hums with activity, overseen by his captivating daughter, Rosetta Za…

Chicago, March 31, 1933. Giuseppe "Joe" Bucco was at home when his wife’s cousin, Barbara Vittorini, arrived. She declared that her husband, Arturo, had been missing for three days and accused Bucco of his murder. Bucco directed his associa…

The year was 1934. The Depression had lingered for over four years, and Al Capone was a prisoner in Alcatraz. Many of his criminal enterprises had cultivated respectable facades, exemplified by Midwest Enterprises, Inc., headed by Luigi Ren…

Spring of 1931 found St. Louis once again embroiled in the brutal realities of gang warfare. Tim Harrington, a figure long established as the city’s unchallenged leader, faced a forceful challenge to his authority from Joe Courtney, a risin…

February 1932 in Chicago. A pall of criminality had settled over the city, creeping from the shadowed streets of Cicero to the glittering salons of the Gold Coast. Paul Curtiz, a lawyer of dubious repute, found himself a guest at a lavish p…

Moraine was known as Little Egypt, not for its dancers, but as the epicenter of organized crime in downstate Illinois. It was election night, 1931, and the newly elected Mayor Marcus Stone addressed the city from the radio. His words were s…

Before May of 1934, robbing state banks remained largely outside the purview of federal law. Bank robbers faced only local police forces, often hampered by understaffing, inefficiency, or corruption. This environment fostered a series of au…

Chicago, November 9th, 1932. The election of FDR looms, and the end of Prohibition feels imminent. Yet, that same night, Ness and his team raid another of Capone’s clandestine distilleries. Agent Youngfellow inquires of Eliot, “Will we soon…

Nitti is deeply incensed. Mayor Cermak’s strengthened law enforcement has severely disrupted his operations. In the Montmartre club, Nitti retrieves a newspaper displaying a prominent photograph of Cermak on the front page. He then affixes …

March 31, 1934. The ban on alcohol is lifted. Al Capone, even from within the confines of Alcatraz, maintains his influence. His latest lucrative venture, euphemistically termed "white slavery," traffics in prostitution. The day-to-day oper…

September 1932. The Federal Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas, situated 430 miles west-southwest of Chicago, held among the nation's most dangerous men. Among them was Nick Segal, a man who had committed six murders, yet was convicted onl…

Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York City. The evening of June 8, 1933, witnessed Max Baer's victory over Max Schmeling, a knockout delivered in the tenth round of their fifteen-round championship bout. The gate receipts totaled $240,000, …

Chicago, 1931. Eliot Ness and his team had dismantled Al Capone’s bootlegging operation, systematically destroying his breweries and clandestine bars. Yet, thousands of gallons of liquor continued to flow into the city from an external sour…

New York City. Saturday, September 23, 1933. Milo Sullivan, the city's foremost rackets boss, presided over "Crime, Inc." A meeting was convened with five other figures who commanded the criminal underworld: Augie Epstein, whose interests s…

Chicago, [year?]. The jury had deliberated for twelve hours on the case Ness had poured himself into, striving for a conviction against the powerful mobster Johnny Fortunato. Now, the newspaper declared Fortunato acquitted, the chief witnes…

The year was 1934. Prohibition, a failed experiment that had governed the nation from January 17, 1920, to April 7, 1933, was now a distant memory. The criminal syndicate, seeking fresh avenues for profit, was expanding its reach. Frank Nit…