The Turning Point (1952) Movie Script
- Hurry up, boys, there he is.
Let's clear the way, clear the way.
Clear the way, clear the way.
- What do you have to say, Mr. Conroy?
- I've said all I can say
to the boys at the airport.
We haven't had a chance to get set up yet.
- All we've got is the governor's hand out.
- You've extraordinary powers
to break up the syndicate of crime.
- Does that mean Neil Eichelberger?
- Well, if it turns
out to be Eichelberger,
we'll take care of that.
Anyway, they've got me in to
see if I can clean things up.
- But what specifically
are you after, Mr. Conroy?
- Everything illegal,
bookies, slot machines,
graft, corruption.
- And you think the Eichelberger syndicate
controls all this?
- If it does, we'll find it out.
When we find it out, we'll break it up.
- Do you think the situation is serious
enough to call for such measures?
- Well, for some reason or other,
the pendulum seems to have
swung back again.
And as your newspapers have
repeatedly pointed out,
this city has become
infested with crime again.
It'll be our job to wipe it out.
Oh, please don't ask me how.
Thanks.
- May we have a picture, please?
- Yeah, sure, help yourself.
- Shaking hands with Mr. Fogel.
- Yeah, certainly.
- Thank you.
- Thanks a lot, fellas.
I'm gonna need your help.
I know you'll go along with me.
I'll give you everything
I can as soon as I can.
- There's nothing more now, believe me.
Thanks a lot.
- Thank you, Mr. Conroy.
- What do you think? Boyish charm?
- Are you kidding me? He'll need more men.
- We'll find out, when we do
we'll break it up, just like that.
- Oh, brother.
- You'll want to get organised.
Shall we make it 12:30
in the Mayor's office?
- Fine. Thank you very much.
- Good luck, Mr. Conroy.
- You know the department
is squarely behind you.
- Thank you very much, Captain.
- Thank you, gentlemen,
thank you, thank you.
Mandy, oh.
- Hello, Johnny.
- I was wondering about you.
- Oh, Johnny, please.
- Oh, dignity beginning at noon.
- We've been here since six.
Order will come later.
Oh, one thing I want for myself, a car
with a siren and a red light.
- You don't think it
might be misunderstood.
- Okay, we'll skip the light.
- Hi.
- Jerry.
How are you, kid?
- I was looking for you in that crowd.
- I let you get the bugs out
of your system.
Congratulations.
- Thanks.
This is great, Jerry.
Oh, uh, Jerry McKibbon, Ms. Way cross.
- How do you do?
- Hello.
- Amanda's helping me out.
Combination of girl Friday
and spiritual advisor.
- Oh, Johnny.
- Also picnics on weekends.
- Amanda Way cross?
- Yes, why?
- I just wanna get the names
of the brain trust right.
- Oh?
- Oh, you got into a crime wave
should make quite a story
on the society page.
- Jerry's a reporter.
- I was beginning to suspect.
- Congratulations anyway.
- Thank you.
- Jerry and I grew up together
down in Caroline Street.
- It's nice you both have
such important friends.
- Yes, isn't it?
- Uh, Johnny, they're
all kinds of messages,
none of them less than cosmic,
and your mother called.
- I promised I'd have breakfast with her.
Come on with me Jerry, we can talk.
- I'll ride along, but they'll wanna have
their dear boy to themselves.
- No, they'll want to see you,
it's been years.
- If anyone calls?
- Tell him he just went
out to get tattooed.
- I suppose that's as good as anything.
And please call the
house, say I'm on my way.
What's your angle, Jerry?
- I'm supposed to do some
colour stuff on you, Johnny.
Do you feel like a colourful character?
- Not exactly.
- How's it been with you?
- Oh, scraping by.
I've read some of your stuff,
very tough, very bright.
- There's a trick to it.
I propose the problems, but
never suggest the solutions.
- What are the problems?
- Vice, graft, corruption, war.
None of it's simple.
We're weak human beings
and the human equation
smears everything up.
- All too sound.
- You're the boy for the solutions.
- So it seems.
- Why don't you help us out?
- How?
- Take a leave of absence,
come on in with us.
- As a press secretary or a guy
to point out Eichelberger to you?
- Write your own ticket.
- I'll point him up for
nothing, wish you luck
and you can take it from there.
- You don't go along with us?
- I go along with you fine.
You give me a gun, a ready-made pardon
and I'll shoot the guy for you.
I don't go for the paper
hat and the tinsel.
Do you know what it would
mean to a man, Johnny,
to break the Eichelberger syndicate?
- DA's office, the Governor's
chair, seat in the Senate.
- That's right.
- I don't want any of it.
- Why not?
- No political ambitions.
- Clean hands, pure heart,
and no political future, huh?
- That's me.
- You're a sucker, Johnny.
Eichelberger's sitting on
top of a $200 million empire.
Have you got any idea what
he'd do to protect that?
- Well, roughly.
- Let me ask another.
You really know why you're in this?
- There's a job to be done.
They tagged me.
I was around.
- You were.
You're a man who wants to do good
and they want a man to do good.
Sure, you always wanted to do good.
I don't say that's wrong.
I say that's the way you are.
You've been discovered.
You made quite a splash at the University,
telling the other do-gooders the theory
of how the law should be.
You're made-to-order for them.
So, they suck you in with your
clean hands and pure heart.
- Happy little amateur?
- A kid standing in the sun
with books under his arm.
And if a flagpole falls on
you, it's just an accident.
- You don't think I'm up to the job.
- I think you give it one fine
whirl and I'll be cheering.
- It's all nice and cosy.
Same old story.
Election's a year-off and the
Governor's trying to stir up
some free advertising for himself.
- Oh, you sure you don't want
something else, Johnny?
- No, thanks, Mom.
You're beginning to sound like Jerry, Pop.
- What's Jerry's saying?
- He thinks I'm a sucker, a fall guy.
- Could be, but you're old
enough to know your own mind.
- Are you working with him on this, Jerry?
- No, I'm painting a picture
of a special prosecutor's home life.
- I was afraid of that.
- Well, Jerry couldn't write
anything we wouldn't like.
Why, he's just like my own boy.
- I'm not so sure.
- The important thing is, Johnny,
how you feel about all this.
- Well, Pop, I think it's great.
I've always hoped that someday
we'd work out a way to be closer.
So far, our jobs haven't allowed it.
Now, we'll be together.
What could be better than that, huh?
- Well, Johnny, I know,
but I don't just see how you mean.
- Well, haven't you heard
from the department yet?
- Heard what?
- By special request of the Governor,
you're my chief investigator.
- No, son.
No, I won't have it, I...
- Why not, Pop?
It's already been discussed.
- Well, then you can undiscuss it.
I'm a cop, Johnny.
Just a hard-working, hoodlum-pinching cop
and I want to stay that way.
At least until they pension me off.
I'll leave the brain work for you.
You've got the education for it,
but leave me where I'm comfortable, huh?
- Oh, Pop, it's not as simple as that.
I can get all the bright young men I want,
but what I need most is
a cop, an honest cop,
one who knows this town.
Pop, it's already been decided.
- Well, we'll talk about it later.
- Gosh, I thought he'd jump at it.
- Thanks for breakfast, Mrs. Conroy.
I'll see you later.
- Yeah.
- Be seeing you, Mike.
- Oh, come back anytime, Johnny.
Don't stay away so long.
- Uh, he'll see you in a minute.
- We'll have the answers
tomorrow, all right, son?
- Hello, Harrigan.
Mr. Eichelberger.
- Yeah?
- McKibbon from The Chronicle.
- Well?
- I thought you'd like to make a statement.
- About what?
- Conroy.
- Sure, you can quote.
I am happy that such an investigation
has been started, since it can
only clear me of all charges
level led against me by the gentlemen
of the press of this city.
- Thank you.
- Anytime.
- You're a friend of the Conroys.
- How do you mean?
- You know them.
- No.
- Harrigan's a friend of Matt Conroy's.
We all grew up in the same neighbourhood.
- Uh, yes, years ago.
One of the finest men I ever knew.
- I thought you kept that friendship up?
- You guys get the idea
of the diploma you get
when you graduate from journalism school
makes you different from anybody else.
Don't believe it.
- That's a lot of money for
a whisky salesman to make,
even for a man that does sell whiskey.
- It's all on the income tax report.
- Of course it is.
- Now, let's' talk about
the Manzinates case.
- Never heard of it.
- I'll refresh your memory.
1948, Peter Manzinates
was a produce dealer
who refused to pay to the organisation.
He took a trip to Canada
and he never came back.
- Maybe that guy liked to travel.
- Keep your attention here.
March 1948, you took a leave of absence
from the police force.
You were gone three weeks.
- A vacation.
- Did you like Canada?
- I've never been to Canada.
- You and Jimmy Chop went to Canada.
You took Manzinates to
Canada and you murdered him.
- I said I've never been to Canada.
I don't know Manzinates and
I never heard of Jimmy Chop.
- Manzinates left town the same
time as you and Jimmy Chop.
- It's a big town, people come, people go.
- March 27th, you resigned
from the police force.
On the same day, you went
to work for Eichelberger.
- The second day, the
first day, we talked terms.
- Selling whiskey?
- I didn't sell whiskey then.
- What did you do?
- Odd jobs.
- Killing people?
Odd jobs like that?
- You are cute, too.
- The fact is that you were shaking down
a lot of small-time bookmakers.
Eichelberger got you off.
He did you a favour and you did him one.
You arranged the Manzinates killing.
- I never heard so much junk in my life.
- You are a cop, Silbray,
and you sold out.
- Baloney.
- And if it's the last thing
I'd do, I'm going to nail you.
All right.
Let's see if Jimmy Chop
has a better memory.
You can go, my friend, but not for long.
I'd rather nail one crooked
cop than a hundred hooligans.
Get out.
We just got to find that Manzinates.
- Shall I pour it?
- No, no, just leave it.
I don't know when Mr. Conroy will be back.
- And is there anything else, Miss?
- No, thank you.
I have your story, do you mind?
- I don't mind anything.
- There's plenty of hot coffee there.
I must say, you write very well.
- Thank you.
- You don't think very much of us, do you?
- I think a whole bunch of
you are clever-as-all get-out.
And I thought I said so in a
style that was all but heroic.
- It's the style I mean,
it, uh, has a twist to it.
- Such as?
- Such as, uh...
"If the pulp mills of America can continue
supplying enough paper
to this efficient staff,
something must come to light."
The detached cynical
observer faintly amused
by the follies of other humans.
- Well, that's all
there, I agree with you.
I'm one fine writer.
- And it carries over into
your personal attitude.
McKibbon, you're heavy with it.
- Get a firm hold on yourself.
- Thanks, I will.
- As a matter of fact, not
all people are happiest
being exhibitionists.
- But I am, I suppose.
- I didn't say that.
- Your trick of entrance again.
- Forgive me for not rising.
- Proof of my exhibitionism,
I imagine...
is for a girl whose experience
with crime has been limited
to a parking ticket.
- And you're quite a girl.
- To stick her nose into a
professional clean-up campaign.
- Why should I--
- Walk barefooted through the pigsty.
It had crossed my mind.
- Do you want me to tell you?
- Not particularly.
- You prefer your own explanation.
- Frankly, it doesn't make any difference
one way or another.
You're a handsome dame who
does what she wants to do
so why worry about why?
- Well, I think we're in business.
We've located Mrs.
Manzinates through a nephew
of hers out on Oakmont.
She's here, living at 446 Palm Street
under the name of Mrs. Stephen Nover.
- Oh, off the record, Jerry,
this is not for publication.
- Naturally.
- Johnny, the first real break.
- If she'll talk.
- Better keep her on ice.
- Matt will, huh, Pop?
- Yeah, sure, son.
Break off everything else in the morning.
Matt will have her in at 10:00.
- Leave everything to me, Johnny.
I'll have her here bright and early.
We've waited a long time for this.
See you in the morning.
- Right.
- Mandy, what do you
say we chuck all this?
Go out and have a real dinner somewhere?
I'll even blow to a bottle of wine.
- Amanda prefers the
simpler things in life.
- That's what you think.
Come on with us, Jerry.
- No, thanks, I got to work.
I'll see you later.
- Paging Mr. Baldwin.
Paging Mr. Baldwin.
Calling Mr. Baldwin.
Paging Mr. Baldwin.
Calling Mr. Baldwin.
- But, Johnny, we've had leaks before.
I can't help questioning the wisdom of...
- Question what, me?
I forgot my copy.
I don't blame you.
If I were the professor,
I'd question me, you,
the DA, the whole kit and kaboodle.
I'd screen everybody.
- You know they've been screened.
- I'd screen them again.
I'd get to know them intimately
back to the time they were born.
I'd question my own mother.
It's open, come in.
To what do I owe the hon our?
- I wanna talk to you.
- Fine.
No dinner with wine?
- I'm not going.
What about your hurry to get to work?
- I had to do my flower arrangements.
Have a seat.
- Thanks.
Wasn't what you said when you left,
wasn't that meant to be provocative?
- If you're gonna say
something, get down to it.
- What did you mean when you
said you'd question everyone?
- Just that.
Would you please sit down
so I can throw myself at your feet?
- As you say, let's get down to it.
- Good.
- I, uh, came here to ask you exactly
what it is you've been holding
behind your eyes these past weeks.
- I wish some of you ivory tower people
would stop trying to be so smart.
I wish you'd put your socks on
and go home and sit by your fireplaces
and read mystery stories where everything
turns out nice and tidy in the end.
If you must know, I think you're a square.
And Johnny's a square.
You're standing in a coal
chute and don't know it.
- And you're a whale of
a tough guy, McKibbon.
- I am.
- A real know-it-all guy.
You know all about the viciousness.
You're at home in the slime.
You put your finger on all the
bodies that have been buried,
but you won't tell.
Oh, no.
That's too amateurish, that
would destroy your pose.
We're the dilettantes and
you're the tough professional.
As one exhibitionist to another,
why don't you cut it out?
- Come on.
446, where in is hidden
Mrs. Stephen Nover,
alias Mrs. Manzinates.
- You understand, Mrs. Manzinates,
we'll have men there.
You won't know who they
are, but they'll be there.
I'm gonna know everything you
say, everything you tell them.
- I'm not afraid.
- Of course not.
You're an old woman, Mrs. Manzinates.
What should you be afraid of?
- It is true.
- You have a nephew, Peter,
who works in a gas station in Oakmont.
He's a fine boy, Peter.
You're very fond of him.
That's also true, isn't
it, Mrs. Manzinates?
All we want is peace, that's all.
Just peace, Mrs. Manzinates.
You put peace on your face tomorrow
and everything will be all right.
All right.
- That was Ackerman, all right.
- Jerry, what do you think?
- She's all right.
They were just selling insurance.
- Jerry, what are you doing out here?
- I wanna see you.
- All right, come on in.
What's the trouble?
- Is your wife asleep?
- Yeah, sit down.
- I checked on 446 Palm Street,
there wasn't a cop there.
- Well, I didn't think it necessary.
- Ackerman was there though
with a couple of his goons
teaching the facts of
life to Mrs. Manzinates.
- What?
- Don't act surprised.
Why shouldn't they be?
You called Harrigan right
after you left us at the hotel.
- Jerry, you're crazy.
- I know you're working
with Eichelberger, Matt,
specifically Harrigan.
- Are you drunk?
- I've known it for three weeks.
I've tried to figure
out what to do about it.
I've come to the conclusion
it's your problem.
- Jerry, this is nothing to joke about.
- Look, Matt, I grew up with Johnny.
I know how he feels about your
little tin god on a mantelpiece.
It's always been that way.
Partly the reason he's in this today.
I don't think you wanna
see him torn to pieces
any more than I do.
- Everybody's filling you with pap.
- I don't wanna see you in jail...
any more than I'd like to see
you found in an alley,
staring up at a curbstone
only not seeing it.
Those are the only alternatives
I've been able to come up with.
Now you figure out one.
- I won't have any more such talk.
- I'm gonna print the story about
what happened at Manzinates today,
only for Johnny's sake I'm
gonna leave you out of it.
I'm gonna give you a chance.
- It's a lie.
- But if you don't want him to find out
that his father's been crossing him
every day of the calendar,
you better start figuring
a way to get yourself clear.
- Get out.
- I'll give you 24 hours.
- Get this one thing through your heads.
We need each other in this thing.
Maybe you'll need me more than I need you.
But this is the last time
I go running around just
because somebody on this
outfit blows a cork,
you hear that, Iman?
Anything I got to turn over to you,
I'll report just like I've been doing.
- Knock it off.
How do you explain this?
- McKibbon was there
yesterday when we got the word
on the Manzinates woman.
He was asked to respect the confidence.
- By who?
- By John.
- And you let it go at that?
- What was I to do, arrest him?
- You're a newspaper man.
And he high-tails it down to Pond Street
and sits on the curb.
And you didn't think it important
enough to tell us, Matt.
Why was that?
- He's always kept his word before.
- You sap, you wooden-headed sap.
- Take it easy, Matt!
- Wait outside for us.
- He's all right, take my word for it.
- What kind of logic is that?
A business like this depending on someone
you think you can trust.
- Hasn't he told us everything so far?
- Small stuff, stuff you put in the window
to get the suckers inside.
When it comes to a showdown,
he'll pull a switch so fast,
our necks will get twisted watching him.
- All right, that's
enough from both of you.
We built a great outfit, almost foolproof,
but we've got the same
weak links any business has.
People, if we've got one or 500 people,
we got that many weak links,
starting right here.
I want it known around.
I want it circulated
in their bloodstreams.
Everybody's under glass from here on out.
This Conroy kid is
tougher than we thought.
He's got angles and it
looks like staying power.
We'll match him.
Money, brains, time, anything
else, tell our men that.
Lay it on the line.
Tell them they're going to be under glass.
I want a system set up.
I want them to know there's a system.
I want fear working for us and
we'll begin with Matt Conroy.
- How can anyone have
known where she was?
- Take it just as an example
of what you'll be up against
all the way down the line,
with all this money
flowing from the bookies.
- That wasn't money, it was intimidation.
- One or the other.
- The fact remains, it proves
there is a working pipeline.
- Oh, no, no shop Johnny, skip it please.
This is why I wanted to get you
out of your office for a minute or two.
Come along, you haven't met everyone.
- Excuse me.
- Give him time.
He's young as a politician.
So gentlemen, what do
you think of him, hmm?
- Hello, Jerry.
- Hi.
You need all these
witnesses to draw me out?
- You probably know everyone, don't you?
- Almost too well.
Nice hideout you've
got here, Ms. Way cross.
- Thank you.
- With a bird's eye view
of our very corrupt city.
- May I get you a drink?
- Jerry, excuse me.
Hello, Johnny.
- This was a fine stunt.
- I gather Mrs. Manzinates did arrive
at the hearing perfectly briefed.
- That's not the point.
How did you know what was
going on down at Palm Street?
- A shot in the dark.
- I guess you realise
what this does to us.
- I printed a simple story
that happened to be true.
I thought it might help put pressure on.
Anything wrong with that?
- If you can't see it--
- Tell me.
- It's a no good tramp
newspaperman's trick.
Break any confidence for a
little run-of-the-mill story.
I thought something better of you.
Okay, professor.
- Jerry.
- Hello, Matt.
- I'd like to speak to
you a minute, Jerry.
- I'm sorry, Jerry.
- Oh, forget it.
- Can I fix you something?
- Oh, you're very sweet.
Rustle me up a ham sandwich.
- Jerry, I'm in a spot.
- I think I mentioned something
about that last night.
- Yeah, I'm sorry I lost my temper.
Suppose I admit what you said last night.
- Yeah?
- And level with you.
- Yeah?
- Will you go along?
- That depends.
- Well, we both heard the same kind
of stories hundreds of times.
Unless you've been through it yourself,
it's hard to understand.
- Try me.
- Jerry, the way they got it
worked out, a cop is supposed
to be something more than human.
He's supposed to work harder than anybody,
be more honest than anybody.
Pay for his own bullets
when he shoots a crook.
Naturally, he's not supposed to want money
or things for his family.
He's altogether too high
principled for that.
Well, it works out fine for
a while and then somehow
or other, you get to be 40.
You find yourself looking in the windows
at the things other people
look at, then you start
wanting things because by this time,
you've got a kid growing up
and you want some of the things for him.
And then you find you're in debt.
Then suddenly, you find some
easy money in your pocket
and then you find they own you.
So, now they've got me in the nutcracker.
- How do you get out, Matt?
- You've got to help me, Jerry.
- If I believe you.
- I have never asked
anything from anybody before.
There's only one thing you can do.
Deal behind Eichelberger's back.
Sell Johnny on the idea you've got a plant
and feed him phoney information.
- And try hard to stay alive.
- There's that too.
Or you can tell Johnny.
- No, I can't do that, I...
- Matt, how do you make me
believe you're on the level?
- Eichelberger had me up this morning.
There's a folder on the DA's
files they're worried about.
1934, Lowincast.
He blabbed about a lot out of things
that didn't make much sense then.
They would now if anybody
wanted to put them together.
The old days, that's what
they're worried about.
They want me to get that folder for them.
Now how do I duck that and stay alive?
- I think that's fine.
I think it's just great.
When do they want it?
- Tonight.
- Get it and give it to him.
Only first have it Photostatted.
- I may be tailed.
- You ought to know how to handle that.
- Good night.
- Bye. Thanks.
- Bye.
- See you soon.
- Now, thanks, Jerry,
I'll see you about it.
- All right, Matt.
Would you mind if I eat as I run?
- Where are you going?
- Say, is your car downstairs?
- In the garage.
- Lend me your keys?
- No.
- Operator, this is Ms.
Waycross's apartment.
Would you order a cab right away?
Thank you, see you later.
- Hello, operator.
This is Ms. Way cross,
please cancel that cab.
Johnny.
I've got to run out, the
others won't mind I hope.
- Mandy.
- Yes?
- Do you mind telling
me what you're doing?
- I don't think it's just curiosity.
I think it's business, I don't know.
- All right.
I'm awfully doggone in love with you.
- You're sweet, Johnny.
Explain it to your politicos, will you?
- Sure.
- I cancel led the cab, come
on, get in, I'll drive you.
- Move over.
- Thanks, Stew.
You're lucky these days.
- How about it, bud?
- There's no trick to Photostatting.
It's against the rules.
- There are no rules for this committee.
- Wait here, I'll be right back.
- Yeah, yeah, he was just here.
And I'm holding them
in my hands right now.
- Make the Photostat and let him have it.
No, let him have it.
It don't mean a thing, not a thing.
Right.
- I guess I'm not supposed to ask
who you've been following and why.
- No.
- But I suppose it was all right.
- What?
- Whatever it is I'm
not supposed to ask you.
- It was quite all right.
- Relax a little, McKibbon.
- Perhaps we both should.
- Jerry, I know what you think of me.
I guess I knew that day you
met me and looked at me.
I got into this because of
Johnny, because he was in it,
and because I have so much
respect and admiration for him
and I thought I might help in some way.
And I wanted to be doing
something with some use.
Can't you understand that?
- Yeah, sure.
- I still wanna help,
but you've made it so
it isn't easy anymore.
And Jerry, I'm beginning to be afraid.
- It's going to be all right.
- Is it?
- You relax a little.
- I'm hungry.
We have time before we go
looking for the next body.
- Okay.
- So there you have it, the life and times
of one Amanda Way cross.
- Not very inspirational.
- I'd say very dull.
- This novel you wrote, what was it about?
- About three chapters.
- I mean content.
- About young love in Mississippi.
- Ooh, remind me not to read it.
- You bet I will.
- There's one point in your
life story that escapes me.
- Yes.
- I mean Johnny.
- I know.
Well?
- I went up to State U to interview him
for one of my final reviews.
- And strangely enough, he
didn't turn against you.
- No.
- He fell in love with you.
- I suppose so.
- Was it immediate?
- Instant.
- You have that kind of effect.
- What a nice thing to say.
- You ought to know it by now.
- It's getting late.
- Does it matter?
- It's supposed to.
- May I help you clean up?
- No, thanks.
I'll leave it for Ellen.
- Do you want me to go?
- Yes.
- Mandy, you're not much good
as a cloak-and-dagger woman.
We've been yapping all night
and what have you found out from me?
- I found out enough.
- We both have, something
we didn't wanna know.
Do you want me to go now?
- Yes.
- Why out here?
- You wanted to be careful, didn't you?
You could be going home to lunch.
- It would have been simpler to mail it.
- Neil's waiting for you.
- Why?
- Something about John.
- Where?
- In the oil station up the street.
- Holdup, holdup, holdup!
- Police officer, drop that gun.
- Police, police, police!
Police, police!
- Well, there's nothing
to be done for him.
- Guess somebody better call the police.
- He'll never knew what hit him.
- Neither of them knew what happened.
- Hello?
- Jerry?
- Yeah.
- Oh, we just a got a flash,
a shooting out on 34th and Skyler.
Matt Conroy killed.
- Oh, no.
- Some guy robbing a market,
get out there, will you?
- Yeah, yeah.
Where'd you say it was, then?
- 34th and Skyler.
- Yeah, okay.
- A fine guy like that and
some little two-bit thief.
I almost wished Matt hadn't got him.
I wish we could have had
him for a small while,
just a short while.
- Are you satisfied with it, Clint?
- I can't find much wrong.
20 witnesses, they're all telling.
- Big sister act, huh?
- Yeah, the usual thing.
- He was the unlikeliest
man in town to get killed,
wasn't he, Clint?
- In a manner of speaking.
- A hood wouldn't put a finger on him.
- No.
- He had a badge on his vest
and a paper in his pocket,
and the paper said nobody could touch him.
- What's eating you?
Don't you think the department
takes care of its own?
- You got a good question there.
Let's both think of an answer to it.
Accordingly killed in the line of duty.
No connection has been
established between his death
and his official position
with the crime commission.
Now you'll have to excuse me.
Will you come with me?
- John.
Johnny, I'm so sorry.
- Matt Conroy and I grew up
in the same neighbourhood
and I'll miss him.
He was a fine man.
His widow should be proud
of the way he served his community.
- As I said to Mr. Martin, I said,
"That was just like Matt Conroy."
Brave as a tiger, that's what he was.
Brave as a tiger.
- Thank you very much, Mrs. Martin.
You're very kind.
- Mary, is there anything
I can do for you?
- And to think
that such a brave man
should be killed by such hoodlums.
- Jerry.
- Yeah?
- I think I should know.
- What?
- I think it's important to all of us.
- Know what?
- About Matt.
- What about Matt?
He stepped in front of a bullet
and now he's waiting to be buried.
What else?
- Jerry, don't close me out.
I've never felt so lost.
- Last night, everything seemed so simple.
Mandy?
- Yes.
- You don't believe it was accidental?
- No.
- Why not?
- What did you and Matt
talk about at my place?
Why did you follow him downtown?
- Years ago, it seems he took some money.
I gathered it was to put
Johnny through college.
They were using him.
And upon my excellent advice,
he tried to double cross them.
- Oh, Jerry.
- What do I do now, call the cops?
And what do I tell
Johnny about his father?
That he was a crook?
And how can I tell him about us now?
- Mandy, would you, would
you come in a minute
and help mother?
- Station WRRG again
takes you to the offices
of the Crime Commission where John Conroy
and his staff continue
their relentless questioning
of witnesses alleged to be connected
with the so-called syndicate
Conroy is out to break.
- Mr. Eichelberger, we'd
like to ask you about some
of the statements you
made to our investigators
if you don't mind.
- Not at all.
I'm glad to talk about anything.
On my part, Mr. Conroy, I'll
be happy to get on the record
and clean up some of the things
they've been printing about me.
I've got a statement
here I'd like to read.
- Uh, you can put it
in the record later.
- All right.
- You're in the trucking
business, Mr. Eichelberger?
- That's right, have
been for years.
Run a lot of trucks.
- And how would you estimate
your income for that business?
- Well, it's all on the
tax records, Mr. Conroy.
I couldn't say offhand.
- Well, would you
say about $100,0007?
- Yes, I guess so, a little more or less.
And, uh, do you have
other sources of income?
- That's right.
- Could you tell us what they are?
- Well, they're varied.
I own a few pieces of other businesses
and I lend a good deal
of money here and there,
charge interest.
- You lend money to bookies?
- Oh, that I couldn't say.
I lend money to people I know.
What they do with it, I don't always know.
- Uh, they could be bookies,
some of these people?
- They could at that,
Mr. West, some of them.
I wouldn't know.
- And the control of all
this money, Mr. Eichelberger,
wouldn't you say that gives
you control of these bookies?
- No, I wouldn't.
That's what they like to say
about me, czar of the bookies.
That's nonsense, it isn't true.
I lend money just like a bank does.
- Did it ever occur to you,
Mr. Eichelberger,
did you ever suspect for a moment
that this money was being
used for illegal purposes?
- I worried about it for years.
Anybody who has as many friends
as I have is bound to know a few
and in these times, you...
come to realise that
you could be sitting on a powder keg
and not knowing it.
You see, a lot of people
helped me get started,
helped me a lot, so, uh, how
can I always act like a bank?
- You would get
notes for these loans
as you call them, Mr. Eichelberger?
Sometimes, yes.
- They would be
given to you directly?
- Well, one way or another.
- And if stock was the security,
it would be registered to you?
- Sometimes, yes.
- I'm assuming that you are a
good businessman, Mr. Eichelberger.
- Well, that I'll go along with.
- And that you'd see that these
loans to these friends of yours
would be handled in a business-like way.
- If you watch your
pocketbook, you'll learn that.
- Did you occasionally
buy these stocks?
- Well, uh, I guess,
you could call it that.
Sometimes I buy them and hold them.
Sometimes I wouldn't.
Sometimes I just put them in the safe.
- And on the occasions
when you did buy them,
you used some sort of clearing-house
for these security
transactions, I suppose?
- Yeah, that's right.
- Isn't it a fact, Mr. Eichelberger,
that you own a company
for just that purpose?
- No, that's not true, I don't own it.
I have some shares in
a securities company.
- What company is that?
- Well, I'd like to
consult with my lawyer.
- Go ahead.
- One... Arco Securities.
I've done some business
with them, among others.
- And the cash transactions,
you kept a record of those?
- Mr. Conroy, you make it sound
like I was loaning millions.
- As a matter of fact,
you were, weren't you?
That is if we accept
for a moment the premise
that they were all loans?
- No, I wasn't, and that's what comes
of all this sensationalism,
the kind of stuff the
papers have been printing.
A guy makes a two dollar
bet, he's a big gambler.
I lend a few bucks and I'm a czar.
- You wish to say that
there is not a large,
thoroughly organised syndicate
centred in this city?
- I don't know about it being organised.
But as long as gambling
is illegal and profitable,
it'll always be there.
Tell me, Mr. Conroy,
how many people in this room
do you believe never
made a two dollar bet?
- Station WRRG returning
you to the Harrison Hotel,
headquarters of the Conroy Committee.
John Conroy continues his questioning
of Ms. Lillian Smith, former
lady friend of Roy Ackerman.
- And that's when you
came back from Florida?
- Yeah, right about that time, I guess.
- And you gave a series
of parties here in the city?
- I didn't give any parties.
Some fellas gave party.
If I give parties, they
got to pay for them.
Why should I do that when
the parties are for fellas?
- Did Roy Ackerman come
to any of these parties?
- That schmo, I wouldn't
even have him around.
- How much money did you have
when you came back from Florida?
- I don't know, 15,000,
20,000, more or less.
How should I know?
- Five or six thousand dollars
wouldn't make any difference to you?
- I don't know much about money.
I just use it for spending.
- Where did you get the money?
- From fellas, where else?
That's a silly question.
- This meeting will recess until 2:00 p.m.
- WRRG now brings
you the third day
of the Conroy Committee investigations.
John Conroy has for the past hour
been attempting to
break down the testimony
of another alleged member of
the Eichelberger syndicate.
- That was in June 1935.
What was your salary at that time?
- Uh, I think it was 80 bucks a week.
- Who paid it to you?
-Um...
Arco.
- Arco what?
- Arco Securities Company.
- Did Arco employ you?
- I don't know, I made a deal with Roy.
- Roy Ackerman?
- Yeah, yeah, that's right.
- But you said you were paid
by the Arco Securities Company?
- I said I got my checks from Arco.
- Were you ever arrested and questioned?
- Um, maybe I was.
I don't remember.
- You don't remember
being arrested for murder?
- Uh, the cops can get in the
habit of hauling a guy in.
- And you gave bond for $25,000?
- Huh, if you say I, I did.
- Didn't you?
- Okay, okay, I did.
- Where did you get the money?
- What, for the bond?
Uh, I sold some stock.
- $25,000 worth of stock on an $80 salary?
- Well, uh, oh, well, see, I had--
- Let me remind you
that you are under oath.
To whom did you sell the stocks?
- Uh, well, uh, I think, uh...
It was a long time ago.
Maybe it was Arco.
- Uh, look, I don't know from nothing.
- He's got a hit on them.
It isn't a case of finding a buried body.
It's a case of mathematical law.
A thousand of stray pieces of information,
he connects them right,
he can spell out the whole story.
Well, whether he knows it or not,
he's got it all right here.
- I wouldn't have believed it.
- Arco, almost every other page, Arco.
Where did the money come from? Arco.
What was the holding company? Arco.
- But it had to be, Neil,
for the income tax record.
- 20 years it worked for the federals.
Now comes along the professor
with a bee in his pants.
- And gets lucky.
- It isn't luck, it's hard work.
He's building step by step,
setting a trap.
Then he'll subpoena Arco's books
and spring it.
Tonight, tomorrow morning, the next day.
- What's wrong with our just
losing the books?
- It wouldn't stand, it would amount to
the same as a confession.
There's no way to do it small.
The whole building will have to go.
- Go?
- Even the fire department
gave us a couple of notices
that the gas furnace was dangerous.
- But there are apartments above the place,
a dozen people live there.
- You can wake them up and carry them out.
You'll be a hero.
- Neil, you can't.
- You wouldn't believe we'd do it?
- No.
- That's what makes it good.
- I don't think a jury
would believe it either.
- All right, hurry it up.
Get the ledgers out of there.
Get those files.
I'm gonna check the current.
I'll be right back.
- Hank?
- Yeah.
- How is it?
- Coming.
But make sure all the windows are closed.
- Okay.
- Make it snappy.
Hurry it up.
- All set.
- All right, let's use the back door.
- What's that, listen.
- She loves the way he says good night.
- Just a kid.
All right, all right, why
don't we get on with it?
- Get going.
- Hank?
- Yeah.
- We're going.
- Okay.
- Are you sure there
won't be anything left?
I know my business.
- Yeah, but...
- The rock this place is gonna get,
there won't be anything
big enough to put together.
- Okay.
Okay, turn it on.
- Why doesn't it go?
- Shut up, it'll go.
- Quite a coincidence, isn't it?
- Johnny, I'll dig on this for the
rest of my life if necessary.
- Anybody get out alive?
- One or two are still fighting.
- But won't be by morning.
- It's more or less the official opinion.
Did you go out there?
- Yeah.
- Maybe you can get it
across to your readers
these aren't just a lot of
gangsters killing each other,
that the people of this
fine Midwestern city
are in danger of their
lives in their own beds.
It ought to make quite a story.
- The story's here.
- Yeah.
I should have listened to you months ago.
You suggested I wasn't
the man for the job.
- I've changed my mind.
- We both have.
I wonder how long it'll take me
to get the smell of that
burned flesh out of my nose.
- You can't blame yourself.
- Can't I?
You warned me, Fogel, the police.
What was it you said about me, Jerry?
I was a kid standing in the hot sun
with a dream on my face.
- That's past, Johnny.
- Take a look at those
files, evidence, testimony,
thousands of pages of them.
And to what purpose?
They can't even be used for wallpaper.
To get anywhere now, to unify a case
against Eichelberger
would take a major piece
of criminal evidence.
- According to the police,
they'll have a lead on
the explosion in 48 hours.
- What's your own opinion?
- Before they can get anything
that will tie Eichelberger to it,
if they ever do,
your commission will be dead
and buried, you know that.
- Yeah.
- Well, so what?
Shall we strike off a medal
commemorating Mr. Eichelberger?
- How many more people
do you want me to kill?
- I dug up a story, a murder story.
And if we play it right and have any luck,
we can panic them into
making a sucker move.
- What murder?
- If we can get one man close
enough to go into the chair,
the whole cup will spill over.
- What murder?
- I'm gonna knock you to
your knees again, Johnny.
- You'll have to get me on my feet first.
- Matt's murder.
That wasn't a thief shooting
his way out of a store.
It was a planned execution
all the way down the line
to the double cross with
the little guy they used.
- Why?
What would be their motive?
- Matt was working with them.
He told me so himself.
He was trying to shake loose.
- No.
I don't believe it.
- Of course not.
Check it yourself.
Take a look at his income
tax returns from 1939 on.
- Johnny.
- Yes, Mom.
- Oh, what is this?
You've been down here two hours.
- Nothing, Mom.
Just some papers of Dad's I wanted to see.
- Well, would you like
something, a glass of milk?
No thanks, Mom.
I've got to get back downtown.
- Oh, is there something wrong?
- Nothing more than usual.
Good night, Mom.
I can't stop you from printing it, Jerry.
- All you had to do was ask.
- My father was a crooked cop.
You can decide how much good
it will do to publicise that
and what it will do to my mother.
But before you decide, you
must know that I'm quitting.
I'm getting out.
- Johnny.
- That means the whole
investigation collapses.
- They can appoint someone else.
- Will they?
You know they won't.
They'll dig into the record
and find out that all this time
and all this money produced
absolutely nothing,
that the sacred investigation
was a complete flop.
And from then on, they'll
play political hopscotch.
A committee will be
appointed to investigate
the investigation.
And in due time, they'll return
with a comprehensive report
that will be promptly filed and forgotten.
And in the meantime,
the people will wind up
right where they were, at
the mercy of the hoodlums.
- Is it important to you?
- Yes, it is.
- You're the boy in the sun now, huh?
- Maybe I am, Johnny.
But something occurs to me,
even allowing for the
apathy of the people,
and their lack of integrity,
and their occasional
lack of intelligence,
and that's the fact they all
want desperately to believe in
a certain majesty of the law.
And for people like us, like you and me,
the greatest crime in law is
the lack of faith in the law.
And that's when we join
hands with the hoodlums.
If they can convince us of the uselessness
of knocking out crime,
the difficulty, the fact
that personal sacrifices may be too great,
then we might as well hand over the city
and the state and the nation too
to the Neil Eichelbergers
and let them run it for us.
- That's a very late point of view
coming from you, but a timely one,
I suppose, in terms of a newspaper story,
but I don't think I need a
speech about hon our and integrity
from either one of you.
- I understood what you
meant about Jerry and me.
I'm sorry I couldn't have told you.
- It's not important.
- I can't apologise and
ask your forgiveness.
I can only ask you to try
and understand and believe
that we tried very hard
not to have it happen.
But Johnny, don't let this
influence your decision.
If you walk out now, you'll
regret it all your life.
Isn't it a tragic thing if people all over
this nation can be told
that a man like Eichelberger
can tear a man like you
apart with his dirty fingers?
What are we coming to, Johnny,
that a man like that can
do this to all of us?
- Hello?
- This is Conroy.
- Hello, Johnny.
- I'm holding a press conference
in my office at 10:00.
I'm giving them the facts about my father.
- You gonna stick with the job?
- Yes, I'm calling you now
so you can have whatever
lead this will give you.
- Johnny, what about your mother?
- I think you pointed out that sometimes
a few people have to
pay an exorbitant price
to help the law.
- I want to talk to Mr, Mr. McKibbon.
- Hello?
- Mr. McKibbon?
- Yes, who's this?
- Well, you don't know me, Mr. McKibbon.
I just read your story.
- Well, that's nice,
but who is this?
- My name's Carmelina...
- Carmelina who?
- It doesn't matter.
It's about Monty LaRue.
- Where are you, Carmelina?
- Was that honestly how he was killed?
- Yes, it was, I can prove it to you.
Where are you?
Hello, Carmelina.
- Hello.
- I'm glad you called.
You're not sorry you did, are you?
- Was that how he was killed?
Yes, exactly the way I wrote the story.
- They just shot him like
that after we did it for him?
- They planned to double cross
him, he didn't have chance.
Were you his wife?
- Yes, but I didn't
want him to get into it.
- Of course not.
- I couldn't stop him.
He was crazy.
I don't know what got into him.
He was crazy to be a big guy.
- I know.
- They told him they'd make him a big guy.
- Who told him, Carmelina?
- They.
- Were you there when they made the deal?
- In the next room.
- But you heard them?
- Yes.
- Did you see Monty's body, Carmelina?
There was a hole smashed
right through his head.
You'd like to have them
pay for that, wouldn't you?
- Yeah, that's what I want.
- Who was there, Carmelina?
- A fella named Roy.
- Roy Ackerman?
- Yeah, and a fellow named Herm.
- What was his last name?
What's the matter?
- It's them.
- Keep your head down.
How did they know you were here?
- I don't know.
I live in the next block.
- Have they seen you?
- Yes.
- Are they coming?
- No.
- When they start this way,
I want you to get up
and walk toward that door.
Walk, do you understand?
- They'll kill me.
They'll kill us, I shouldn't have called.
- I want you to walk toward that door.
Do you hear me?
- They're coming.
- Go ahead.
- Hey, lady.
- Carmelina?
Carmelina.
Carmelina!
Carmelina.
- And arrange for a spot
break on every station
at hourly intervals.
Good.
Now, here it is.
Carmelina, give yourself up to the police.
As long as you are at large,
you are in danger of your life.
The police are your only protection.
You got it?
Good.
- Carmelina LaRue, described as female,
27 years, five foot,
six inches, 116 pounds.
Large dark eyes, black
hair, olive complexion.
- Don't worry, Roy, we'll find her.
We'll find her or the cops will.
- I said stop worrying.
What's the matter with you, Roy?
- I'll tell you what's the matter.
That dame is the only person in the world
with a finger that can point...
That can point straight at me.
- She ran, didn't she?
She knows better than to talk.
- She talked to McKibbon.
- And you know it wouldn't stand in court.
- Who will be sitting in court, Neil?
Waiting to see if it would stand or not.
I'll tell you who.
Me,
And I'll tell you something else.
This guy McKibbon is the only guy
who can identify the LaRue dame.
Anybody else they bring in
is just a frightened dame,
but he knows her.
Neil, the day he shoved his nose in,
our luck started going bad.
You go ahead and worry about the court.
I'm gonna change our luck.
- You'll do nothing of the kind.
The first and only blunder we made
was in knocking off Matt Conroy.
- You didn't think so at the time.
- I do now.
Now get this, Roy.
This is a positive order.
Lay off McKibbon.
We'll find her and we'll wash it up.
- I want Detroit, Logan 60126.
- Hello?
Who wants him?
This is Harry, Roy.
- What's all that noise?
- Just playing some
old records I just got in.
Hey, turn that thing off!
Now, Roy.
- Look, you still got that guy Red around?
- Red?
Are you kidding?
He's right here.
- I'd like to borrow him.
- Okay.
When do you want him?
- Now.
Put him on a plane right away.
- You're my pal.
You're my pal, Jerry, but I hear nothing.
- Keep working, Bink.
Find Ackerman and don't
let him out of your sight.
Let me know if he even coughs.
- Okay, it's a deal.
- Come on, girls, step up.
Way over to the end.
Hands down.
- All right now, girls, keep your heads up
and your hands by your sides.
Hey, you with the white blouse, wake up.
Keep your head up there.
Jerry, any of these?
- No.
- All right, Mac, keep sweeping.
He says it's none of these,
but don't pick up the same gals all night.
That's all.
- Oh, Jerry.
- Yeah.
- You better stay here.
- Why?
- We don't wanna lose you, sweetheart.
- You're the only one who
can identify the girl.
They know that as well as we do.
- I'm touched with your concern.
- You stay here.
- Listen, Clint, there's
a girl out there somewhere
scared to death, with every
hoodlum in town looking for her.
- We'll get her.
- Yeah, you've done fine so far.
- I suppose you'll know
just where to look.
- Maybe not, but I started with her.
The least I can do is stay on my feet.
- Take a couple of men with you.
- You got a couple of men left,
let them look on their own.
- McKibbon, your paper on the phone.
- Hello?
- Jerry, I got a call for
the board, Sammy Lester.
Do you know him?
- Lester?
No.
- He says he used to manage Monty.
- Monty LaRue?
- He says he knows the girl
and they have a tip for you.
He won't talk to anybody but you.
- Okay, put him on, Ed.
- Hold it.
- Hello.
- Yeah, this is McKibbon.
- Where are you?
- In a drugstore on Canal Street.
- Yeah.
Maybe I can give you something.
- Sure, what do you got?
- Well, not on the phone.
- Where are you?
- At the fights.
Listen, I'll leave a ticket
at the box office for you.
Come alone.
I'll take the next seat
as soon as I can get away.
I got a boy in a bout here.
- How do I know you, Sammy?
How do I know what this is?
- You're not worried, are you, pal?
In the middle of the stadium,
how safe can you get?
Now look, I don't want any trouble.
- Okay, Sammy.
- Take care of her, honey.
Mr. Conroy, Mr. Conroy, she's here.
She's here.
- You're gonna be all right.
You're fine now.
You're safe, do you hear?
We're going to take care of you.
It's all right.
It's all right, you're gonna be fine.
You're safe now.
- I'm John Conroy.
There's nothing to be afraid of now.
You are Carmelina?
- Yes.
- Here, drink this.
- This testimony and the mass
of other stuff, you've got them.
- I think, sir.
- In any court in the land.
- And they'll break none.
- No question.
- All right, let's pick 'em up.
Everyone on the list,
Eichelberger, Ackerman, all of them.
Let's go get 'em, boys.
Mike, stay here, will you?
- What about Jerry?
- Still haven't got him.
- Well, stick with it. I'd...
I'd like him to be in on this.
- Hello, Ed, yes.
At the fights? He couldn't be.
- Where?
- At the fights.
- Why the fights?
- Yes.
Yes.
They said he got a tip about Carmelina.
- I don't like it.
Tell him to hold on.
- Hold it, Ed.
- Have you still got a detail downstairs?
- Yes, still standing by.
- Get it and get over to the arena quick.
- Yes, sir.
Take charge.
- This is Dave Fogel, how
about that information?
- McKibbon.
- That's him.
Get him in your mind, Red.
There's no chance for a mistake.
- I could pick him out in a million.
- Are you satisfied with the set up?
- You know me.
I can find a guy across this whole joint.
Let me work it out.
- Great shot from up here.
- Yeah.
- I've been trying to find you.
I've seen Ackerman here.
He fingered you when you come in,
some out of town guy.
He's gonna put the gun on you.
Get out of here,
but don't get in the clear.
- Two, three, four, five,
six, seven, eight, nine, out.
- Jerry!
Jerry!
Jerry.
- There's a gun on me.
Get away and keep in the crowd.
- Get the doctor, please.
- Get the doctor.
- Right.
- Come on.
- If they get this guy...
- Jerry, Jerry...
- They can get Ackerman.
- They will, and we've got Carmelina.
Don't talk, Jerry.
Oh, darling.
- I'll admit, I never
thought I'd see that.
Let's go.
- There was a shooting at
the arena at the fights.
One of Ackerman's gunmen
got Jerry McKibbon.
- Let's get moving.
Come on!
- Where is he?
- Downstairs.
- What happened?
- Where's the hospital?
Sometimes someone has to
pay an exorbitant price
to uphold the majesty of the law.
He said so himself.
Let's clear the way, clear the way.
Clear the way, clear the way.
- What do you have to say, Mr. Conroy?
- I've said all I can say
to the boys at the airport.
We haven't had a chance to get set up yet.
- All we've got is the governor's hand out.
- You've extraordinary powers
to break up the syndicate of crime.
- Does that mean Neil Eichelberger?
- Well, if it turns
out to be Eichelberger,
we'll take care of that.
Anyway, they've got me in to
see if I can clean things up.
- But what specifically
are you after, Mr. Conroy?
- Everything illegal,
bookies, slot machines,
graft, corruption.
- And you think the Eichelberger syndicate
controls all this?
- If it does, we'll find it out.
When we find it out, we'll break it up.
- Do you think the situation is serious
enough to call for such measures?
- Well, for some reason or other,
the pendulum seems to have
swung back again.
And as your newspapers have
repeatedly pointed out,
this city has become
infested with crime again.
It'll be our job to wipe it out.
Oh, please don't ask me how.
Thanks.
- May we have a picture, please?
- Yeah, sure, help yourself.
- Shaking hands with Mr. Fogel.
- Yeah, certainly.
- Thank you.
- Thanks a lot, fellas.
I'm gonna need your help.
I know you'll go along with me.
I'll give you everything
I can as soon as I can.
- There's nothing more now, believe me.
Thanks a lot.
- Thank you, Mr. Conroy.
- What do you think? Boyish charm?
- Are you kidding me? He'll need more men.
- We'll find out, when we do
we'll break it up, just like that.
- Oh, brother.
- You'll want to get organised.
Shall we make it 12:30
in the Mayor's office?
- Fine. Thank you very much.
- Good luck, Mr. Conroy.
- You know the department
is squarely behind you.
- Thank you very much, Captain.
- Thank you, gentlemen,
thank you, thank you.
Mandy, oh.
- Hello, Johnny.
- I was wondering about you.
- Oh, Johnny, please.
- Oh, dignity beginning at noon.
- We've been here since six.
Order will come later.
Oh, one thing I want for myself, a car
with a siren and a red light.
- You don't think it
might be misunderstood.
- Okay, we'll skip the light.
- Hi.
- Jerry.
How are you, kid?
- I was looking for you in that crowd.
- I let you get the bugs out
of your system.
Congratulations.
- Thanks.
This is great, Jerry.
Oh, uh, Jerry McKibbon, Ms. Way cross.
- How do you do?
- Hello.
- Amanda's helping me out.
Combination of girl Friday
and spiritual advisor.
- Oh, Johnny.
- Also picnics on weekends.
- Amanda Way cross?
- Yes, why?
- I just wanna get the names
of the brain trust right.
- Oh?
- Oh, you got into a crime wave
should make quite a story
on the society page.
- Jerry's a reporter.
- I was beginning to suspect.
- Congratulations anyway.
- Thank you.
- Jerry and I grew up together
down in Caroline Street.
- It's nice you both have
such important friends.
- Yes, isn't it?
- Uh, Johnny, they're
all kinds of messages,
none of them less than cosmic,
and your mother called.
- I promised I'd have breakfast with her.
Come on with me Jerry, we can talk.
- I'll ride along, but they'll wanna have
their dear boy to themselves.
- No, they'll want to see you,
it's been years.
- If anyone calls?
- Tell him he just went
out to get tattooed.
- I suppose that's as good as anything.
And please call the
house, say I'm on my way.
What's your angle, Jerry?
- I'm supposed to do some
colour stuff on you, Johnny.
Do you feel like a colourful character?
- Not exactly.
- How's it been with you?
- Oh, scraping by.
I've read some of your stuff,
very tough, very bright.
- There's a trick to it.
I propose the problems, but
never suggest the solutions.
- What are the problems?
- Vice, graft, corruption, war.
None of it's simple.
We're weak human beings
and the human equation
smears everything up.
- All too sound.
- You're the boy for the solutions.
- So it seems.
- Why don't you help us out?
- How?
- Take a leave of absence,
come on in with us.
- As a press secretary or a guy
to point out Eichelberger to you?
- Write your own ticket.
- I'll point him up for
nothing, wish you luck
and you can take it from there.
- You don't go along with us?
- I go along with you fine.
You give me a gun, a ready-made pardon
and I'll shoot the guy for you.
I don't go for the paper
hat and the tinsel.
Do you know what it would
mean to a man, Johnny,
to break the Eichelberger syndicate?
- DA's office, the Governor's
chair, seat in the Senate.
- That's right.
- I don't want any of it.
- Why not?
- No political ambitions.
- Clean hands, pure heart,
and no political future, huh?
- That's me.
- You're a sucker, Johnny.
Eichelberger's sitting on
top of a $200 million empire.
Have you got any idea what
he'd do to protect that?
- Well, roughly.
- Let me ask another.
You really know why you're in this?
- There's a job to be done.
They tagged me.
I was around.
- You were.
You're a man who wants to do good
and they want a man to do good.
Sure, you always wanted to do good.
I don't say that's wrong.
I say that's the way you are.
You've been discovered.
You made quite a splash at the University,
telling the other do-gooders the theory
of how the law should be.
You're made-to-order for them.
So, they suck you in with your
clean hands and pure heart.
- Happy little amateur?
- A kid standing in the sun
with books under his arm.
And if a flagpole falls on
you, it's just an accident.
- You don't think I'm up to the job.
- I think you give it one fine
whirl and I'll be cheering.
- It's all nice and cosy.
Same old story.
Election's a year-off and the
Governor's trying to stir up
some free advertising for himself.
- Oh, you sure you don't want
something else, Johnny?
- No, thanks, Mom.
You're beginning to sound like Jerry, Pop.
- What's Jerry's saying?
- He thinks I'm a sucker, a fall guy.
- Could be, but you're old
enough to know your own mind.
- Are you working with him on this, Jerry?
- No, I'm painting a picture
of a special prosecutor's home life.
- I was afraid of that.
- Well, Jerry couldn't write
anything we wouldn't like.
Why, he's just like my own boy.
- I'm not so sure.
- The important thing is, Johnny,
how you feel about all this.
- Well, Pop, I think it's great.
I've always hoped that someday
we'd work out a way to be closer.
So far, our jobs haven't allowed it.
Now, we'll be together.
What could be better than that, huh?
- Well, Johnny, I know,
but I don't just see how you mean.
- Well, haven't you heard
from the department yet?
- Heard what?
- By special request of the Governor,
you're my chief investigator.
- No, son.
No, I won't have it, I...
- Why not, Pop?
It's already been discussed.
- Well, then you can undiscuss it.
I'm a cop, Johnny.
Just a hard-working, hoodlum-pinching cop
and I want to stay that way.
At least until they pension me off.
I'll leave the brain work for you.
You've got the education for it,
but leave me where I'm comfortable, huh?
- Oh, Pop, it's not as simple as that.
I can get all the bright young men I want,
but what I need most is
a cop, an honest cop,
one who knows this town.
Pop, it's already been decided.
- Well, we'll talk about it later.
- Gosh, I thought he'd jump at it.
- Thanks for breakfast, Mrs. Conroy.
I'll see you later.
- Yeah.
- Be seeing you, Mike.
- Oh, come back anytime, Johnny.
Don't stay away so long.
- Uh, he'll see you in a minute.
- We'll have the answers
tomorrow, all right, son?
- Hello, Harrigan.
Mr. Eichelberger.
- Yeah?
- McKibbon from The Chronicle.
- Well?
- I thought you'd like to make a statement.
- About what?
- Conroy.
- Sure, you can quote.
I am happy that such an investigation
has been started, since it can
only clear me of all charges
level led against me by the gentlemen
of the press of this city.
- Thank you.
- Anytime.
- You're a friend of the Conroys.
- How do you mean?
- You know them.
- No.
- Harrigan's a friend of Matt Conroy's.
We all grew up in the same neighbourhood.
- Uh, yes, years ago.
One of the finest men I ever knew.
- I thought you kept that friendship up?
- You guys get the idea
of the diploma you get
when you graduate from journalism school
makes you different from anybody else.
Don't believe it.
- That's a lot of money for
a whisky salesman to make,
even for a man that does sell whiskey.
- It's all on the income tax report.
- Of course it is.
- Now, let's' talk about
the Manzinates case.
- Never heard of it.
- I'll refresh your memory.
1948, Peter Manzinates
was a produce dealer
who refused to pay to the organisation.
He took a trip to Canada
and he never came back.
- Maybe that guy liked to travel.
- Keep your attention here.
March 1948, you took a leave of absence
from the police force.
You were gone three weeks.
- A vacation.
- Did you like Canada?
- I've never been to Canada.
- You and Jimmy Chop went to Canada.
You took Manzinates to
Canada and you murdered him.
- I said I've never been to Canada.
I don't know Manzinates and
I never heard of Jimmy Chop.
- Manzinates left town the same
time as you and Jimmy Chop.
- It's a big town, people come, people go.
- March 27th, you resigned
from the police force.
On the same day, you went
to work for Eichelberger.
- The second day, the
first day, we talked terms.
- Selling whiskey?
- I didn't sell whiskey then.
- What did you do?
- Odd jobs.
- Killing people?
Odd jobs like that?
- You are cute, too.
- The fact is that you were shaking down
a lot of small-time bookmakers.
Eichelberger got you off.
He did you a favour and you did him one.
You arranged the Manzinates killing.
- I never heard so much junk in my life.
- You are a cop, Silbray,
and you sold out.
- Baloney.
- And if it's the last thing
I'd do, I'm going to nail you.
All right.
Let's see if Jimmy Chop
has a better memory.
You can go, my friend, but not for long.
I'd rather nail one crooked
cop than a hundred hooligans.
Get out.
We just got to find that Manzinates.
- Shall I pour it?
- No, no, just leave it.
I don't know when Mr. Conroy will be back.
- And is there anything else, Miss?
- No, thank you.
I have your story, do you mind?
- I don't mind anything.
- There's plenty of hot coffee there.
I must say, you write very well.
- Thank you.
- You don't think very much of us, do you?
- I think a whole bunch of
you are clever-as-all get-out.
And I thought I said so in a
style that was all but heroic.
- It's the style I mean,
it, uh, has a twist to it.
- Such as?
- Such as, uh...
"If the pulp mills of America can continue
supplying enough paper
to this efficient staff,
something must come to light."
The detached cynical
observer faintly amused
by the follies of other humans.
- Well, that's all
there, I agree with you.
I'm one fine writer.
- And it carries over into
your personal attitude.
McKibbon, you're heavy with it.
- Get a firm hold on yourself.
- Thanks, I will.
- As a matter of fact, not
all people are happiest
being exhibitionists.
- But I am, I suppose.
- I didn't say that.
- Your trick of entrance again.
- Forgive me for not rising.
- Proof of my exhibitionism,
I imagine...
is for a girl whose experience
with crime has been limited
to a parking ticket.
- And you're quite a girl.
- To stick her nose into a
professional clean-up campaign.
- Why should I--
- Walk barefooted through the pigsty.
It had crossed my mind.
- Do you want me to tell you?
- Not particularly.
- You prefer your own explanation.
- Frankly, it doesn't make any difference
one way or another.
You're a handsome dame who
does what she wants to do
so why worry about why?
- Well, I think we're in business.
We've located Mrs.
Manzinates through a nephew
of hers out on Oakmont.
She's here, living at 446 Palm Street
under the name of Mrs. Stephen Nover.
- Oh, off the record, Jerry,
this is not for publication.
- Naturally.
- Johnny, the first real break.
- If she'll talk.
- Better keep her on ice.
- Matt will, huh, Pop?
- Yeah, sure, son.
Break off everything else in the morning.
Matt will have her in at 10:00.
- Leave everything to me, Johnny.
I'll have her here bright and early.
We've waited a long time for this.
See you in the morning.
- Right.
- Mandy, what do you
say we chuck all this?
Go out and have a real dinner somewhere?
I'll even blow to a bottle of wine.
- Amanda prefers the
simpler things in life.
- That's what you think.
Come on with us, Jerry.
- No, thanks, I got to work.
I'll see you later.
- Paging Mr. Baldwin.
Paging Mr. Baldwin.
Calling Mr. Baldwin.
Paging Mr. Baldwin.
Calling Mr. Baldwin.
- But, Johnny, we've had leaks before.
I can't help questioning the wisdom of...
- Question what, me?
I forgot my copy.
I don't blame you.
If I were the professor,
I'd question me, you,
the DA, the whole kit and kaboodle.
I'd screen everybody.
- You know they've been screened.
- I'd screen them again.
I'd get to know them intimately
back to the time they were born.
I'd question my own mother.
It's open, come in.
To what do I owe the hon our?
- I wanna talk to you.
- Fine.
No dinner with wine?
- I'm not going.
What about your hurry to get to work?
- I had to do my flower arrangements.
Have a seat.
- Thanks.
Wasn't what you said when you left,
wasn't that meant to be provocative?
- If you're gonna say
something, get down to it.
- What did you mean when you
said you'd question everyone?
- Just that.
Would you please sit down
so I can throw myself at your feet?
- As you say, let's get down to it.
- Good.
- I, uh, came here to ask you exactly
what it is you've been holding
behind your eyes these past weeks.
- I wish some of you ivory tower people
would stop trying to be so smart.
I wish you'd put your socks on
and go home and sit by your fireplaces
and read mystery stories where everything
turns out nice and tidy in the end.
If you must know, I think you're a square.
And Johnny's a square.
You're standing in a coal
chute and don't know it.
- And you're a whale of
a tough guy, McKibbon.
- I am.
- A real know-it-all guy.
You know all about the viciousness.
You're at home in the slime.
You put your finger on all the
bodies that have been buried,
but you won't tell.
Oh, no.
That's too amateurish, that
would destroy your pose.
We're the dilettantes and
you're the tough professional.
As one exhibitionist to another,
why don't you cut it out?
- Come on.
446, where in is hidden
Mrs. Stephen Nover,
alias Mrs. Manzinates.
- You understand, Mrs. Manzinates,
we'll have men there.
You won't know who they
are, but they'll be there.
I'm gonna know everything you
say, everything you tell them.
- I'm not afraid.
- Of course not.
You're an old woman, Mrs. Manzinates.
What should you be afraid of?
- It is true.
- You have a nephew, Peter,
who works in a gas station in Oakmont.
He's a fine boy, Peter.
You're very fond of him.
That's also true, isn't
it, Mrs. Manzinates?
All we want is peace, that's all.
Just peace, Mrs. Manzinates.
You put peace on your face tomorrow
and everything will be all right.
All right.
- That was Ackerman, all right.
- Jerry, what do you think?
- She's all right.
They were just selling insurance.
- Jerry, what are you doing out here?
- I wanna see you.
- All right, come on in.
What's the trouble?
- Is your wife asleep?
- Yeah, sit down.
- I checked on 446 Palm Street,
there wasn't a cop there.
- Well, I didn't think it necessary.
- Ackerman was there though
with a couple of his goons
teaching the facts of
life to Mrs. Manzinates.
- What?
- Don't act surprised.
Why shouldn't they be?
You called Harrigan right
after you left us at the hotel.
- Jerry, you're crazy.
- I know you're working
with Eichelberger, Matt,
specifically Harrigan.
- Are you drunk?
- I've known it for three weeks.
I've tried to figure
out what to do about it.
I've come to the conclusion
it's your problem.
- Jerry, this is nothing to joke about.
- Look, Matt, I grew up with Johnny.
I know how he feels about your
little tin god on a mantelpiece.
It's always been that way.
Partly the reason he's in this today.
I don't think you wanna
see him torn to pieces
any more than I do.
- Everybody's filling you with pap.
- I don't wanna see you in jail...
any more than I'd like to see
you found in an alley,
staring up at a curbstone
only not seeing it.
Those are the only alternatives
I've been able to come up with.
Now you figure out one.
- I won't have any more such talk.
- I'm gonna print the story about
what happened at Manzinates today,
only for Johnny's sake I'm
gonna leave you out of it.
I'm gonna give you a chance.
- It's a lie.
- But if you don't want him to find out
that his father's been crossing him
every day of the calendar,
you better start figuring
a way to get yourself clear.
- Get out.
- I'll give you 24 hours.
- Get this one thing through your heads.
We need each other in this thing.
Maybe you'll need me more than I need you.
But this is the last time
I go running around just
because somebody on this
outfit blows a cork,
you hear that, Iman?
Anything I got to turn over to you,
I'll report just like I've been doing.
- Knock it off.
How do you explain this?
- McKibbon was there
yesterday when we got the word
on the Manzinates woman.
He was asked to respect the confidence.
- By who?
- By John.
- And you let it go at that?
- What was I to do, arrest him?
- You're a newspaper man.
And he high-tails it down to Pond Street
and sits on the curb.
And you didn't think it important
enough to tell us, Matt.
Why was that?
- He's always kept his word before.
- You sap, you wooden-headed sap.
- Take it easy, Matt!
- Wait outside for us.
- He's all right, take my word for it.
- What kind of logic is that?
A business like this depending on someone
you think you can trust.
- Hasn't he told us everything so far?
- Small stuff, stuff you put in the window
to get the suckers inside.
When it comes to a showdown,
he'll pull a switch so fast,
our necks will get twisted watching him.
- All right, that's
enough from both of you.
We built a great outfit, almost foolproof,
but we've got the same
weak links any business has.
People, if we've got one or 500 people,
we got that many weak links,
starting right here.
I want it known around.
I want it circulated
in their bloodstreams.
Everybody's under glass from here on out.
This Conroy kid is
tougher than we thought.
He's got angles and it
looks like staying power.
We'll match him.
Money, brains, time, anything
else, tell our men that.
Lay it on the line.
Tell them they're going to be under glass.
I want a system set up.
I want them to know there's a system.
I want fear working for us and
we'll begin with Matt Conroy.
- How can anyone have
known where she was?
- Take it just as an example
of what you'll be up against
all the way down the line,
with all this money
flowing from the bookies.
- That wasn't money, it was intimidation.
- One or the other.
- The fact remains, it proves
there is a working pipeline.
- Oh, no, no shop Johnny, skip it please.
This is why I wanted to get you
out of your office for a minute or two.
Come along, you haven't met everyone.
- Excuse me.
- Give him time.
He's young as a politician.
So gentlemen, what do
you think of him, hmm?
- Hello, Jerry.
- Hi.
You need all these
witnesses to draw me out?
- You probably know everyone, don't you?
- Almost too well.
Nice hideout you've
got here, Ms. Way cross.
- Thank you.
- With a bird's eye view
of our very corrupt city.
- May I get you a drink?
- Jerry, excuse me.
Hello, Johnny.
- This was a fine stunt.
- I gather Mrs. Manzinates did arrive
at the hearing perfectly briefed.
- That's not the point.
How did you know what was
going on down at Palm Street?
- A shot in the dark.
- I guess you realise
what this does to us.
- I printed a simple story
that happened to be true.
I thought it might help put pressure on.
Anything wrong with that?
- If you can't see it--
- Tell me.
- It's a no good tramp
newspaperman's trick.
Break any confidence for a
little run-of-the-mill story.
I thought something better of you.
Okay, professor.
- Jerry.
- Hello, Matt.
- I'd like to speak to
you a minute, Jerry.
- I'm sorry, Jerry.
- Oh, forget it.
- Can I fix you something?
- Oh, you're very sweet.
Rustle me up a ham sandwich.
- Jerry, I'm in a spot.
- I think I mentioned something
about that last night.
- Yeah, I'm sorry I lost my temper.
Suppose I admit what you said last night.
- Yeah?
- And level with you.
- Yeah?
- Will you go along?
- That depends.
- Well, we both heard the same kind
of stories hundreds of times.
Unless you've been through it yourself,
it's hard to understand.
- Try me.
- Jerry, the way they got it
worked out, a cop is supposed
to be something more than human.
He's supposed to work harder than anybody,
be more honest than anybody.
Pay for his own bullets
when he shoots a crook.
Naturally, he's not supposed to want money
or things for his family.
He's altogether too high
principled for that.
Well, it works out fine for
a while and then somehow
or other, you get to be 40.
You find yourself looking in the windows
at the things other people
look at, then you start
wanting things because by this time,
you've got a kid growing up
and you want some of the things for him.
And then you find you're in debt.
Then suddenly, you find some
easy money in your pocket
and then you find they own you.
So, now they've got me in the nutcracker.
- How do you get out, Matt?
- You've got to help me, Jerry.
- If I believe you.
- I have never asked
anything from anybody before.
There's only one thing you can do.
Deal behind Eichelberger's back.
Sell Johnny on the idea you've got a plant
and feed him phoney information.
- And try hard to stay alive.
- There's that too.
Or you can tell Johnny.
- No, I can't do that, I...
- Matt, how do you make me
believe you're on the level?
- Eichelberger had me up this morning.
There's a folder on the DA's
files they're worried about.
1934, Lowincast.
He blabbed about a lot out of things
that didn't make much sense then.
They would now if anybody
wanted to put them together.
The old days, that's what
they're worried about.
They want me to get that folder for them.
Now how do I duck that and stay alive?
- I think that's fine.
I think it's just great.
When do they want it?
- Tonight.
- Get it and give it to him.
Only first have it Photostatted.
- I may be tailed.
- You ought to know how to handle that.
- Good night.
- Bye. Thanks.
- Bye.
- See you soon.
- Now, thanks, Jerry,
I'll see you about it.
- All right, Matt.
Would you mind if I eat as I run?
- Where are you going?
- Say, is your car downstairs?
- In the garage.
- Lend me your keys?
- No.
- Operator, this is Ms.
Waycross's apartment.
Would you order a cab right away?
Thank you, see you later.
- Hello, operator.
This is Ms. Way cross,
please cancel that cab.
Johnny.
I've got to run out, the
others won't mind I hope.
- Mandy.
- Yes?
- Do you mind telling
me what you're doing?
- I don't think it's just curiosity.
I think it's business, I don't know.
- All right.
I'm awfully doggone in love with you.
- You're sweet, Johnny.
Explain it to your politicos, will you?
- Sure.
- I cancel led the cab, come
on, get in, I'll drive you.
- Move over.
- Thanks, Stew.
You're lucky these days.
- How about it, bud?
- There's no trick to Photostatting.
It's against the rules.
- There are no rules for this committee.
- Wait here, I'll be right back.
- Yeah, yeah, he was just here.
And I'm holding them
in my hands right now.
- Make the Photostat and let him have it.
No, let him have it.
It don't mean a thing, not a thing.
Right.
- I guess I'm not supposed to ask
who you've been following and why.
- No.
- But I suppose it was all right.
- What?
- Whatever it is I'm
not supposed to ask you.
- It was quite all right.
- Relax a little, McKibbon.
- Perhaps we both should.
- Jerry, I know what you think of me.
I guess I knew that day you
met me and looked at me.
I got into this because of
Johnny, because he was in it,
and because I have so much
respect and admiration for him
and I thought I might help in some way.
And I wanted to be doing
something with some use.
Can't you understand that?
- Yeah, sure.
- I still wanna help,
but you've made it so
it isn't easy anymore.
And Jerry, I'm beginning to be afraid.
- It's going to be all right.
- Is it?
- You relax a little.
- I'm hungry.
We have time before we go
looking for the next body.
- Okay.
- So there you have it, the life and times
of one Amanda Way cross.
- Not very inspirational.
- I'd say very dull.
- This novel you wrote, what was it about?
- About three chapters.
- I mean content.
- About young love in Mississippi.
- Ooh, remind me not to read it.
- You bet I will.
- There's one point in your
life story that escapes me.
- Yes.
- I mean Johnny.
- I know.
Well?
- I went up to State U to interview him
for one of my final reviews.
- And strangely enough, he
didn't turn against you.
- No.
- He fell in love with you.
- I suppose so.
- Was it immediate?
- Instant.
- You have that kind of effect.
- What a nice thing to say.
- You ought to know it by now.
- It's getting late.
- Does it matter?
- It's supposed to.
- May I help you clean up?
- No, thanks.
I'll leave it for Ellen.
- Do you want me to go?
- Yes.
- Mandy, you're not much good
as a cloak-and-dagger woman.
We've been yapping all night
and what have you found out from me?
- I found out enough.
- We both have, something
we didn't wanna know.
Do you want me to go now?
- Yes.
- Why out here?
- You wanted to be careful, didn't you?
You could be going home to lunch.
- It would have been simpler to mail it.
- Neil's waiting for you.
- Why?
- Something about John.
- Where?
- In the oil station up the street.
- Holdup, holdup, holdup!
- Police officer, drop that gun.
- Police, police, police!
Police, police!
- Well, there's nothing
to be done for him.
- Guess somebody better call the police.
- He'll never knew what hit him.
- Neither of them knew what happened.
- Hello?
- Jerry?
- Yeah.
- Oh, we just a got a flash,
a shooting out on 34th and Skyler.
Matt Conroy killed.
- Oh, no.
- Some guy robbing a market,
get out there, will you?
- Yeah, yeah.
Where'd you say it was, then?
- 34th and Skyler.
- Yeah, okay.
- A fine guy like that and
some little two-bit thief.
I almost wished Matt hadn't got him.
I wish we could have had
him for a small while,
just a short while.
- Are you satisfied with it, Clint?
- I can't find much wrong.
20 witnesses, they're all telling.
- Big sister act, huh?
- Yeah, the usual thing.
- He was the unlikeliest
man in town to get killed,
wasn't he, Clint?
- In a manner of speaking.
- A hood wouldn't put a finger on him.
- No.
- He had a badge on his vest
and a paper in his pocket,
and the paper said nobody could touch him.
- What's eating you?
Don't you think the department
takes care of its own?
- You got a good question there.
Let's both think of an answer to it.
Accordingly killed in the line of duty.
No connection has been
established between his death
and his official position
with the crime commission.
Now you'll have to excuse me.
Will you come with me?
- John.
Johnny, I'm so sorry.
- Matt Conroy and I grew up
in the same neighbourhood
and I'll miss him.
He was a fine man.
His widow should be proud
of the way he served his community.
- As I said to Mr. Martin, I said,
"That was just like Matt Conroy."
Brave as a tiger, that's what he was.
Brave as a tiger.
- Thank you very much, Mrs. Martin.
You're very kind.
- Mary, is there anything
I can do for you?
- And to think
that such a brave man
should be killed by such hoodlums.
- Jerry.
- Yeah?
- I think I should know.
- What?
- I think it's important to all of us.
- Know what?
- About Matt.
- What about Matt?
He stepped in front of a bullet
and now he's waiting to be buried.
What else?
- Jerry, don't close me out.
I've never felt so lost.
- Last night, everything seemed so simple.
Mandy?
- Yes.
- You don't believe it was accidental?
- No.
- Why not?
- What did you and Matt
talk about at my place?
Why did you follow him downtown?
- Years ago, it seems he took some money.
I gathered it was to put
Johnny through college.
They were using him.
And upon my excellent advice,
he tried to double cross them.
- Oh, Jerry.
- What do I do now, call the cops?
And what do I tell
Johnny about his father?
That he was a crook?
And how can I tell him about us now?
- Mandy, would you, would
you come in a minute
and help mother?
- Station WRRG again
takes you to the offices
of the Crime Commission where John Conroy
and his staff continue
their relentless questioning
of witnesses alleged to be connected
with the so-called syndicate
Conroy is out to break.
- Mr. Eichelberger, we'd
like to ask you about some
of the statements you
made to our investigators
if you don't mind.
- Not at all.
I'm glad to talk about anything.
On my part, Mr. Conroy, I'll
be happy to get on the record
and clean up some of the things
they've been printing about me.
I've got a statement
here I'd like to read.
- Uh, you can put it
in the record later.
- All right.
- You're in the trucking
business, Mr. Eichelberger?
- That's right, have
been for years.
Run a lot of trucks.
- And how would you estimate
your income for that business?
- Well, it's all on the
tax records, Mr. Conroy.
I couldn't say offhand.
- Well, would you
say about $100,0007?
- Yes, I guess so, a little more or less.
And, uh, do you have
other sources of income?
- That's right.
- Could you tell us what they are?
- Well, they're varied.
I own a few pieces of other businesses
and I lend a good deal
of money here and there,
charge interest.
- You lend money to bookies?
- Oh, that I couldn't say.
I lend money to people I know.
What they do with it, I don't always know.
- Uh, they could be bookies,
some of these people?
- They could at that,
Mr. West, some of them.
I wouldn't know.
- And the control of all
this money, Mr. Eichelberger,
wouldn't you say that gives
you control of these bookies?
- No, I wouldn't.
That's what they like to say
about me, czar of the bookies.
That's nonsense, it isn't true.
I lend money just like a bank does.
- Did it ever occur to you,
Mr. Eichelberger,
did you ever suspect for a moment
that this money was being
used for illegal purposes?
- I worried about it for years.
Anybody who has as many friends
as I have is bound to know a few
and in these times, you...
come to realise that
you could be sitting on a powder keg
and not knowing it.
You see, a lot of people
helped me get started,
helped me a lot, so, uh, how
can I always act like a bank?
- You would get
notes for these loans
as you call them, Mr. Eichelberger?
Sometimes, yes.
- They would be
given to you directly?
- Well, one way or another.
- And if stock was the security,
it would be registered to you?
- Sometimes, yes.
- I'm assuming that you are a
good businessman, Mr. Eichelberger.
- Well, that I'll go along with.
- And that you'd see that these
loans to these friends of yours
would be handled in a business-like way.
- If you watch your
pocketbook, you'll learn that.
- Did you occasionally
buy these stocks?
- Well, uh, I guess,
you could call it that.
Sometimes I buy them and hold them.
Sometimes I wouldn't.
Sometimes I just put them in the safe.
- And on the occasions
when you did buy them,
you used some sort of clearing-house
for these security
transactions, I suppose?
- Yeah, that's right.
- Isn't it a fact, Mr. Eichelberger,
that you own a company
for just that purpose?
- No, that's not true, I don't own it.
I have some shares in
a securities company.
- What company is that?
- Well, I'd like to
consult with my lawyer.
- Go ahead.
- One... Arco Securities.
I've done some business
with them, among others.
- And the cash transactions,
you kept a record of those?
- Mr. Conroy, you make it sound
like I was loaning millions.
- As a matter of fact,
you were, weren't you?
That is if we accept
for a moment the premise
that they were all loans?
- No, I wasn't, and that's what comes
of all this sensationalism,
the kind of stuff the
papers have been printing.
A guy makes a two dollar
bet, he's a big gambler.
I lend a few bucks and I'm a czar.
- You wish to say that
there is not a large,
thoroughly organised syndicate
centred in this city?
- I don't know about it being organised.
But as long as gambling
is illegal and profitable,
it'll always be there.
Tell me, Mr. Conroy,
how many people in this room
do you believe never
made a two dollar bet?
- Station WRRG returning
you to the Harrison Hotel,
headquarters of the Conroy Committee.
John Conroy continues his questioning
of Ms. Lillian Smith, former
lady friend of Roy Ackerman.
- And that's when you
came back from Florida?
- Yeah, right about that time, I guess.
- And you gave a series
of parties here in the city?
- I didn't give any parties.
Some fellas gave party.
If I give parties, they
got to pay for them.
Why should I do that when
the parties are for fellas?
- Did Roy Ackerman come
to any of these parties?
- That schmo, I wouldn't
even have him around.
- How much money did you have
when you came back from Florida?
- I don't know, 15,000,
20,000, more or less.
How should I know?
- Five or six thousand dollars
wouldn't make any difference to you?
- I don't know much about money.
I just use it for spending.
- Where did you get the money?
- From fellas, where else?
That's a silly question.
- This meeting will recess until 2:00 p.m.
- WRRG now brings
you the third day
of the Conroy Committee investigations.
John Conroy has for the past hour
been attempting to
break down the testimony
of another alleged member of
the Eichelberger syndicate.
- That was in June 1935.
What was your salary at that time?
- Uh, I think it was 80 bucks a week.
- Who paid it to you?
-Um...
Arco.
- Arco what?
- Arco Securities Company.
- Did Arco employ you?
- I don't know, I made a deal with Roy.
- Roy Ackerman?
- Yeah, yeah, that's right.
- But you said you were paid
by the Arco Securities Company?
- I said I got my checks from Arco.
- Were you ever arrested and questioned?
- Um, maybe I was.
I don't remember.
- You don't remember
being arrested for murder?
- Uh, the cops can get in the
habit of hauling a guy in.
- And you gave bond for $25,000?
- Huh, if you say I, I did.
- Didn't you?
- Okay, okay, I did.
- Where did you get the money?
- What, for the bond?
Uh, I sold some stock.
- $25,000 worth of stock on an $80 salary?
- Well, uh, oh, well, see, I had--
- Let me remind you
that you are under oath.
To whom did you sell the stocks?
- Uh, well, uh, I think, uh...
It was a long time ago.
Maybe it was Arco.
- Uh, look, I don't know from nothing.
- He's got a hit on them.
It isn't a case of finding a buried body.
It's a case of mathematical law.
A thousand of stray pieces of information,
he connects them right,
he can spell out the whole story.
Well, whether he knows it or not,
he's got it all right here.
- I wouldn't have believed it.
- Arco, almost every other page, Arco.
Where did the money come from? Arco.
What was the holding company? Arco.
- But it had to be, Neil,
for the income tax record.
- 20 years it worked for the federals.
Now comes along the professor
with a bee in his pants.
- And gets lucky.
- It isn't luck, it's hard work.
He's building step by step,
setting a trap.
Then he'll subpoena Arco's books
and spring it.
Tonight, tomorrow morning, the next day.
- What's wrong with our just
losing the books?
- It wouldn't stand, it would amount to
the same as a confession.
There's no way to do it small.
The whole building will have to go.
- Go?
- Even the fire department
gave us a couple of notices
that the gas furnace was dangerous.
- But there are apartments above the place,
a dozen people live there.
- You can wake them up and carry them out.
You'll be a hero.
- Neil, you can't.
- You wouldn't believe we'd do it?
- No.
- That's what makes it good.
- I don't think a jury
would believe it either.
- All right, hurry it up.
Get the ledgers out of there.
Get those files.
I'm gonna check the current.
I'll be right back.
- Hank?
- Yeah.
- How is it?
- Coming.
But make sure all the windows are closed.
- Okay.
- Make it snappy.
Hurry it up.
- All set.
- All right, let's use the back door.
- What's that, listen.
- She loves the way he says good night.
- Just a kid.
All right, all right, why
don't we get on with it?
- Get going.
- Hank?
- Yeah.
- We're going.
- Okay.
- Are you sure there
won't be anything left?
I know my business.
- Yeah, but...
- The rock this place is gonna get,
there won't be anything
big enough to put together.
- Okay.
Okay, turn it on.
- Why doesn't it go?
- Shut up, it'll go.
- Quite a coincidence, isn't it?
- Johnny, I'll dig on this for the
rest of my life if necessary.
- Anybody get out alive?
- One or two are still fighting.
- But won't be by morning.
- It's more or less the official opinion.
Did you go out there?
- Yeah.
- Maybe you can get it
across to your readers
these aren't just a lot of
gangsters killing each other,
that the people of this
fine Midwestern city
are in danger of their
lives in their own beds.
It ought to make quite a story.
- The story's here.
- Yeah.
I should have listened to you months ago.
You suggested I wasn't
the man for the job.
- I've changed my mind.
- We both have.
I wonder how long it'll take me
to get the smell of that
burned flesh out of my nose.
- You can't blame yourself.
- Can't I?
You warned me, Fogel, the police.
What was it you said about me, Jerry?
I was a kid standing in the hot sun
with a dream on my face.
- That's past, Johnny.
- Take a look at those
files, evidence, testimony,
thousands of pages of them.
And to what purpose?
They can't even be used for wallpaper.
To get anywhere now, to unify a case
against Eichelberger
would take a major piece
of criminal evidence.
- According to the police,
they'll have a lead on
the explosion in 48 hours.
- What's your own opinion?
- Before they can get anything
that will tie Eichelberger to it,
if they ever do,
your commission will be dead
and buried, you know that.
- Yeah.
- Well, so what?
Shall we strike off a medal
commemorating Mr. Eichelberger?
- How many more people
do you want me to kill?
- I dug up a story, a murder story.
And if we play it right and have any luck,
we can panic them into
making a sucker move.
- What murder?
- If we can get one man close
enough to go into the chair,
the whole cup will spill over.
- What murder?
- I'm gonna knock you to
your knees again, Johnny.
- You'll have to get me on my feet first.
- Matt's murder.
That wasn't a thief shooting
his way out of a store.
It was a planned execution
all the way down the line
to the double cross with
the little guy they used.
- Why?
What would be their motive?
- Matt was working with them.
He told me so himself.
He was trying to shake loose.
- No.
I don't believe it.
- Of course not.
Check it yourself.
Take a look at his income
tax returns from 1939 on.
- Johnny.
- Yes, Mom.
- Oh, what is this?
You've been down here two hours.
- Nothing, Mom.
Just some papers of Dad's I wanted to see.
- Well, would you like
something, a glass of milk?
No thanks, Mom.
I've got to get back downtown.
- Oh, is there something wrong?
- Nothing more than usual.
Good night, Mom.
I can't stop you from printing it, Jerry.
- All you had to do was ask.
- My father was a crooked cop.
You can decide how much good
it will do to publicise that
and what it will do to my mother.
But before you decide, you
must know that I'm quitting.
I'm getting out.
- Johnny.
- That means the whole
investigation collapses.
- They can appoint someone else.
- Will they?
You know they won't.
They'll dig into the record
and find out that all this time
and all this money produced
absolutely nothing,
that the sacred investigation
was a complete flop.
And from then on, they'll
play political hopscotch.
A committee will be
appointed to investigate
the investigation.
And in due time, they'll return
with a comprehensive report
that will be promptly filed and forgotten.
And in the meantime,
the people will wind up
right where they were, at
the mercy of the hoodlums.
- Is it important to you?
- Yes, it is.
- You're the boy in the sun now, huh?
- Maybe I am, Johnny.
But something occurs to me,
even allowing for the
apathy of the people,
and their lack of integrity,
and their occasional
lack of intelligence,
and that's the fact they all
want desperately to believe in
a certain majesty of the law.
And for people like us, like you and me,
the greatest crime in law is
the lack of faith in the law.
And that's when we join
hands with the hoodlums.
If they can convince us of the uselessness
of knocking out crime,
the difficulty, the fact
that personal sacrifices may be too great,
then we might as well hand over the city
and the state and the nation too
to the Neil Eichelbergers
and let them run it for us.
- That's a very late point of view
coming from you, but a timely one,
I suppose, in terms of a newspaper story,
but I don't think I need a
speech about hon our and integrity
from either one of you.
- I understood what you
meant about Jerry and me.
I'm sorry I couldn't have told you.
- It's not important.
- I can't apologise and
ask your forgiveness.
I can only ask you to try
and understand and believe
that we tried very hard
not to have it happen.
But Johnny, don't let this
influence your decision.
If you walk out now, you'll
regret it all your life.
Isn't it a tragic thing if people all over
this nation can be told
that a man like Eichelberger
can tear a man like you
apart with his dirty fingers?
What are we coming to, Johnny,
that a man like that can
do this to all of us?
- Hello?
- This is Conroy.
- Hello, Johnny.
- I'm holding a press conference
in my office at 10:00.
I'm giving them the facts about my father.
- You gonna stick with the job?
- Yes, I'm calling you now
so you can have whatever
lead this will give you.
- Johnny, what about your mother?
- I think you pointed out that sometimes
a few people have to
pay an exorbitant price
to help the law.
- I want to talk to Mr, Mr. McKibbon.
- Hello?
- Mr. McKibbon?
- Yes, who's this?
- Well, you don't know me, Mr. McKibbon.
I just read your story.
- Well, that's nice,
but who is this?
- My name's Carmelina...
- Carmelina who?
- It doesn't matter.
It's about Monty LaRue.
- Where are you, Carmelina?
- Was that honestly how he was killed?
- Yes, it was, I can prove it to you.
Where are you?
Hello, Carmelina.
- Hello.
- I'm glad you called.
You're not sorry you did, are you?
- Was that how he was killed?
Yes, exactly the way I wrote the story.
- They just shot him like
that after we did it for him?
- They planned to double cross
him, he didn't have chance.
Were you his wife?
- Yes, but I didn't
want him to get into it.
- Of course not.
- I couldn't stop him.
He was crazy.
I don't know what got into him.
He was crazy to be a big guy.
- I know.
- They told him they'd make him a big guy.
- Who told him, Carmelina?
- They.
- Were you there when they made the deal?
- In the next room.
- But you heard them?
- Yes.
- Did you see Monty's body, Carmelina?
There was a hole smashed
right through his head.
You'd like to have them
pay for that, wouldn't you?
- Yeah, that's what I want.
- Who was there, Carmelina?
- A fella named Roy.
- Roy Ackerman?
- Yeah, and a fellow named Herm.
- What was his last name?
What's the matter?
- It's them.
- Keep your head down.
How did they know you were here?
- I don't know.
I live in the next block.
- Have they seen you?
- Yes.
- Are they coming?
- No.
- When they start this way,
I want you to get up
and walk toward that door.
Walk, do you understand?
- They'll kill me.
They'll kill us, I shouldn't have called.
- I want you to walk toward that door.
Do you hear me?
- They're coming.
- Go ahead.
- Hey, lady.
- Carmelina?
Carmelina.
Carmelina!
Carmelina.
- And arrange for a spot
break on every station
at hourly intervals.
Good.
Now, here it is.
Carmelina, give yourself up to the police.
As long as you are at large,
you are in danger of your life.
The police are your only protection.
You got it?
Good.
- Carmelina LaRue, described as female,
27 years, five foot,
six inches, 116 pounds.
Large dark eyes, black
hair, olive complexion.
- Don't worry, Roy, we'll find her.
We'll find her or the cops will.
- I said stop worrying.
What's the matter with you, Roy?
- I'll tell you what's the matter.
That dame is the only person in the world
with a finger that can point...
That can point straight at me.
- She ran, didn't she?
She knows better than to talk.
- She talked to McKibbon.
- And you know it wouldn't stand in court.
- Who will be sitting in court, Neil?
Waiting to see if it would stand or not.
I'll tell you who.
Me,
And I'll tell you something else.
This guy McKibbon is the only guy
who can identify the LaRue dame.
Anybody else they bring in
is just a frightened dame,
but he knows her.
Neil, the day he shoved his nose in,
our luck started going bad.
You go ahead and worry about the court.
I'm gonna change our luck.
- You'll do nothing of the kind.
The first and only blunder we made
was in knocking off Matt Conroy.
- You didn't think so at the time.
- I do now.
Now get this, Roy.
This is a positive order.
Lay off McKibbon.
We'll find her and we'll wash it up.
- I want Detroit, Logan 60126.
- Hello?
Who wants him?
This is Harry, Roy.
- What's all that noise?
- Just playing some
old records I just got in.
Hey, turn that thing off!
Now, Roy.
- Look, you still got that guy Red around?
- Red?
Are you kidding?
He's right here.
- I'd like to borrow him.
- Okay.
When do you want him?
- Now.
Put him on a plane right away.
- You're my pal.
You're my pal, Jerry, but I hear nothing.
- Keep working, Bink.
Find Ackerman and don't
let him out of your sight.
Let me know if he even coughs.
- Okay, it's a deal.
- Come on, girls, step up.
Way over to the end.
Hands down.
- All right now, girls, keep your heads up
and your hands by your sides.
Hey, you with the white blouse, wake up.
Keep your head up there.
Jerry, any of these?
- No.
- All right, Mac, keep sweeping.
He says it's none of these,
but don't pick up the same gals all night.
That's all.
- Oh, Jerry.
- Yeah.
- You better stay here.
- Why?
- We don't wanna lose you, sweetheart.
- You're the only one who
can identify the girl.
They know that as well as we do.
- I'm touched with your concern.
- You stay here.
- Listen, Clint, there's
a girl out there somewhere
scared to death, with every
hoodlum in town looking for her.
- We'll get her.
- Yeah, you've done fine so far.
- I suppose you'll know
just where to look.
- Maybe not, but I started with her.
The least I can do is stay on my feet.
- Take a couple of men with you.
- You got a couple of men left,
let them look on their own.
- McKibbon, your paper on the phone.
- Hello?
- Jerry, I got a call for
the board, Sammy Lester.
Do you know him?
- Lester?
No.
- He says he used to manage Monty.
- Monty LaRue?
- He says he knows the girl
and they have a tip for you.
He won't talk to anybody but you.
- Okay, put him on, Ed.
- Hold it.
- Hello.
- Yeah, this is McKibbon.
- Where are you?
- In a drugstore on Canal Street.
- Yeah.
Maybe I can give you something.
- Sure, what do you got?
- Well, not on the phone.
- Where are you?
- At the fights.
Listen, I'll leave a ticket
at the box office for you.
Come alone.
I'll take the next seat
as soon as I can get away.
I got a boy in a bout here.
- How do I know you, Sammy?
How do I know what this is?
- You're not worried, are you, pal?
In the middle of the stadium,
how safe can you get?
Now look, I don't want any trouble.
- Okay, Sammy.
- Take care of her, honey.
Mr. Conroy, Mr. Conroy, she's here.
She's here.
- You're gonna be all right.
You're fine now.
You're safe, do you hear?
We're going to take care of you.
It's all right.
It's all right, you're gonna be fine.
You're safe now.
- I'm John Conroy.
There's nothing to be afraid of now.
You are Carmelina?
- Yes.
- Here, drink this.
- This testimony and the mass
of other stuff, you've got them.
- I think, sir.
- In any court in the land.
- And they'll break none.
- No question.
- All right, let's pick 'em up.
Everyone on the list,
Eichelberger, Ackerman, all of them.
Let's go get 'em, boys.
Mike, stay here, will you?
- What about Jerry?
- Still haven't got him.
- Well, stick with it. I'd...
I'd like him to be in on this.
- Hello, Ed, yes.
At the fights? He couldn't be.
- Where?
- At the fights.
- Why the fights?
- Yes.
Yes.
They said he got a tip about Carmelina.
- I don't like it.
Tell him to hold on.
- Hold it, Ed.
- Have you still got a detail downstairs?
- Yes, still standing by.
- Get it and get over to the arena quick.
- Yes, sir.
Take charge.
- This is Dave Fogel, how
about that information?
- McKibbon.
- That's him.
Get him in your mind, Red.
There's no chance for a mistake.
- I could pick him out in a million.
- Are you satisfied with the set up?
- You know me.
I can find a guy across this whole joint.
Let me work it out.
- Great shot from up here.
- Yeah.
- I've been trying to find you.
I've seen Ackerman here.
He fingered you when you come in,
some out of town guy.
He's gonna put the gun on you.
Get out of here,
but don't get in the clear.
- Two, three, four, five,
six, seven, eight, nine, out.
- Jerry!
Jerry!
Jerry.
- There's a gun on me.
Get away and keep in the crowd.
- Get the doctor, please.
- Get the doctor.
- Right.
- Come on.
- If they get this guy...
- Jerry, Jerry...
- They can get Ackerman.
- They will, and we've got Carmelina.
Don't talk, Jerry.
Oh, darling.
- I'll admit, I never
thought I'd see that.
Let's go.
- There was a shooting at
the arena at the fights.
One of Ackerman's gunmen
got Jerry McKibbon.
- Let's get moving.
Come on!
- Where is he?
- Downstairs.
- What happened?
- Where's the hospital?
Sometimes someone has to
pay an exorbitant price
to uphold the majesty of the law.
He said so himself.