The Streets of San Francisco (1972) s02e09 Episode Script

- Hey, what's with the guard? - Why not? You seen what the price of gold is these days? Not this gold.
So it's radioactive.
It's still valuable.
Well, I'm gonna tell you one thing, Fisher: I wouldn't touch that gold if I had a lead wallet.
Thanks.
Makes you nervous, I'll drive.
You got yourself a deal.
Just do me one favor, okay? You gotta drive real slow.
Just going back to Transportation.
I know.
That's two and a half miles.
I'll take it real slow.
What's the problem, officer? I sure wasn't speeding.
No, but you're dragging sparks.
Maybe you got a busted exhaust pipe.
You better take a look.
Come on.
Get out.
You guys gotta be crazy.
Inside.
Vic, you hit him too hard.
Sure, Charlie, sure.
Get his legs.
Come on! Go! Come on, Charlie, get a move on.
What, is something wrong? We're behind schedule? No, nothing's wrong.
I'm just hungry.
Oh, hallelujah.
About time.
- You all right? - Oh, my head.
We're near a highway.
I can hear it.
We'll catch a ride.
- Okay? - Okay.
You all right, Fisher? You all right? Fisher, you all right? Fisher? Fisher? You all right? You all right, Fisher? Fisher? Could you give us a hand over here, please? You know, Penny, I'm sorry to say you're holding out on us.
I am not.
Look, if there was word one on the street about who roughed up Vera, I would lay it on you, man.
Honest.
Nope, I had you pegged wrong.
Mike, I swear, I just don't know.
Besides, the papers said that Reeves was in charge of assault investigations.
Well, I'm just trying to help out a friend.
Thought you might do the same.
Well, it was a good try.
Yeah.
Nothing ventured Hey, what are you doing? - We had the right of way, buddy boy.
- He was going too fast.
Radioactive material.
Maybe it's a hot truck.
You're bad.
You are bad this morning.
Really bad.
Is an ambulance on the way, sergeant? Okay.
Okay.
Right.
There were three of them - involved in the hijacking.
- Blood.
The truck carries radioactive material, belongs to California Northern University and is so labeled.
It's direction is unknown.
Subject vehicle was hijacked from the Cal Northern campus at 0710 hours.
Inspectors 81 to headquarters.
Possible hijacked vehicle observed going east on Marina at Buchanan.
We're in pursuit.
Oh, a half a million dollars, man.
Hey, Lew, there's your hamburger franchise.
Cheeseburger.
Not until Eddie lays his hands on it.
- And I'm ready as soon as it's safe.
- Hey.
Muscles.
Give me a hand, will you? Come on.
- Oh, man.
- Hey, Lew.
You bring your truss? - Would you--? - Come on, man.
Hey, wait a minute.
To my right, bring it in here.
All right, Eddie, all yours.
Well, any of you guys ever been in a foundry? - No.
- No.
Well, we own one now, I'm telling you.
Yeah, but wait a second, what's all this stuff costing us? Oh, don't worry about it.
It's all coming out of your share.
- Vic, you got the planchet? - Oh, yeah, yeah.
A what? It's a planchet.
It's a slug.
They stamp a coin on it.
You know what kind of coin? Twenty-four-karat gold, baby.
Yep.
You know how many of these he has to make? Five thousand.
Five thousand, everyone.
Twenty-four karats.
I don't understand.
You guys are-- You're with City Homicide.
What does that have to do with hijacking a truck? Well, the felony occurred in Marin County and your partner died here as a direct result, so that makes the hijackers murderers.
That puts them in our laps.
Does this look like him? I don't know, you know.
Wearing these glasses and the hats and all, - I can't say for sure.
- Joe, concentrate on the third guy.
The guy that drove off with the truck.
Oh, lieutenant, that guy's just a blur.
I mean, it all happened so fast.
Tall or short? I remember he was tall.
He was over 6 feet anyway.
The color of his hair, light or dark? He was wearing a hat just like mine.
How old was he? Well, he's old, somewhere, you know, around 40.
Listen, I'd really like to help you tag these guys, but the first two looked like just ordinary campus cops.
And the other guy, he could have been working for us.
Vic, what do you say? When do I start, huh? How about 11:00 tomorrow morning? The gold will be safe then.
Tomorrow morning? That's pretty quick, isn't it? What's going on here? We went through this, didn't we? Yeah, but I don't know much about this stuff.
Hey, now, wait a minute, look, we all heard this.
I heard it.
Charlie heard it.
Lew heard it.
We were playing cards.
Les Slauson said it.
He said that this gold is safe.
After 2.
7 days, you can handle it for half a day.
And it's already been in the car for two days and it's cooled off, so there's no risk.
I just hope you guys are right about the time.
This radioactive jazz, we never had nothing like this out in the foundry at Quentin.
You know what's involved here? It's $500,000.
Five hundred thousand.
Thanks a lot.
We'll keep in touch.
- John, thanks.
- Okay.
Here comes Olsen.
Along with the guys from the nuclear science lab.
Been keeping up on your physics? Are you kidding? I barely got past that guy who dropped the apple.
Lieutenant Stone and Inspector Keller, this is Professor William Mason of California Northern University and this is his aide, Les Slauson.
Hi.
You fellas got here pretty fast.
Well, we can move pretty fast when there's an emergency.
- Emergency? - Mike, can we use your office? Sure.
Come in.
- Take my chair.
- Oh, thank you.
Professor Mason, why don't you spell it out for them the way you and Slauson did for me just now? Well, our university operates a research and training reactor in collaboration with the government and recently, we've been experimenting with gold as part of the reactor shield.
After a while, the gold becomes radioactive, so we steam-clean the reactor, replace the filters, and then ship that hot gold to a federal installation.
That's where you dump it.
Oh, not at all.
We-- After a cooling period of two months, we can use it again.
Does that mean the gold is dangerous for two months? Only to prolonged exposure.
It's peak toxicity period makes a rapid drop in 2.
7 days.
After that, limited exposure-- Say as much as, oh, four or five hours.
- Is relatively safe.
Gentlemen, I'm afraid it's much more serious than that.
That was not a routine shipment.
The gold that was stolen was mixed with uranium.
Now, this requires a highly sophisticated centrifuge to separate it so that it can be recycled.
And that's where it was headed.
Wait a minute now.
Uranium.
That stays active for years, doesn't it? Try centuries.
That's right.
In its present stage, it could be thousands of years.
By any chance, would the hijackers know what they got? I'm sure they realize that they're dealing with radioactive material.
I'm also sure they don't know how lethal.
Then we better keep it quiet.
Rudy, can we put clamps on the press? Because if they know what they've got and can't use, they're gonna dump it and they're not gonna tell us where.
- Will the government cooperate? - Oh, yes.
I'll give them a call.
Of course, they've already been on it.
They asked me to come here and explain the situation to you.
Well, you know, our PIO has already released the story.
Only as far as that the gold is radioactive.
- He didn't indicate how deadly.
- Right.
But we've got to believe that they think the worst of the radioactivity is over within-- - What did you say? - Two-point-seven days.
And if they're aware of the normal cooling period at our school, which is approximately 48 hours, that would be tomorrow morning.
Well, that doesn't give us much time, does it? Charlie.
Charlie, come on.
It's just another Wednesday-night poker game.
Vic, it's not another poker game.
It's the Wednesday we stole over half a million dollars in government gold.
Now, listen.
Nothing's different.
Nothing has changed.
Tomorrow, I go to work.
You sell a tract house.
Lew sells some hamburgers.
Nobody suspects.
Nothing's different.
Come on, you get a couple of beers.
You'll feel better.
Come on.
Come on.
When the saints come marching in Gordy, you never have mustard.
I don't like that.
I knew I forgot mustard.
You're right.
- Hi, Vic, Charlie.
- Hey, Gordy.
My horoscope says I'm gonna win tonight, so watch out, boys.
- We eating? - You weren't supposed to be here - till I marked the cards.
- Yeah.
- Hey, where's Eddie? - He can't make it.
Called in, wants a swing shift tomorrow.
- Why's that? - He went out on some big shot's boat.
- He's gonna go fishing.
- I wish I had a boss like you.
- Hey, this looks great.
- I'm so hungry, I could eat a horse.
- With the price of beef, you will.
- Well, not tonight.
I brought the hamburger from my own place.
All beef.
Well, maybe a little soybean.
- Lew, you make a good hamburger.
- Well, what do you know? You only been to my place once.
Expect him to bring real-estate clients to hamburger stands? Not even yours, Lew.
So who's gonna be the fifth? You got Les? - Yeah.
- He brings a little class to this game.
That's right.
Meanwhile, everybody eat up.
I got some lemon pie, my mother's recipe.
I got some pickles.
I got-- Lemon pie and pickles.
Must think we're pregnant or something.
- Hi, Les.
Come right in.
- Hey, Les.
- Look, Les came through.
- Don't be shy, eat.
Hey, Les, what do you say? - How are you doing? - Cheer up, man.
There's a mushroom cloud behind every silver lining.
Sorry, fellas.
I had a rough day today.
What's the matter, Les? Somebody press the wrong button? I tried to warn them.
L-- I bet I wrote 20 memos about our lack of security.
What happened? Somebody steal some atoms for a bomb or something? Vic, you remember a month or so ago I was telling you about all that gold we shipped out? The gold? Yeah.
Sounds familiar.
Hey, wait a minute.
Didn't I hear about that on the 6:00 news? Something about a truck hijacked right on the campus? Well, that was only part of it.
I bet those hijackers think they've got gold they can sell.
You mean, they don't? No, this-- This was a different shipment.
This shipment was mixed with uranium.
Sure death for thousands of years.
Yeah, but, well, you have to touch it first, right, Les? Well, it was safe enough the way we shipped it, but if it ever gets out of those lead containers You mean, just like that or do you get sick or something? What? No, you hang on for a week or so.
Gordy, I could really do with a stiff drink.
Could I have some bourbon? Your choice of labels, sire.
Come with me to the wine cellar.
- Come on.
- Dealer takes one.
- Fellas, I'll be right back.
- Okay.
- You blew it, Vic.
- We gotta dump that stuff.
And you gotta get to Eddie and warn him.
- And there goes Annie.
- Shut up about your child bride.
- You just-- - Take it easy.
Take it easy now.
We'll move that stuff.
In a couple of months, we'll move it.
Are you kidding? That stuff is hot.
Now, look, I'm telling you to take it easy now.
Remember this is just another Wednesday-night poker game, huh? You gotta warn Eddie.
I'll get to him in the morning before he even gets near that stuff.
Now, just take it easy.
Okay, who opens? Hey, muscles, you open, huh? Okay.
How many cards? Something wrong? Yeah.
I lost 80 bucks in the card game last night.
Eighty bucks, come on, man.
A couple of weeks, that'll just be the ante, right? Yeah, right.
You ready to start working on the project when you're finished? Yeah, of course.
Eleven o'clock sharp.
Yeah, yeah.
Mike? Yeah, pretty sloppy.
Up close, yeah.
But who would ever expect a university police car to be a phony, huh? Okay.
Check everything out.
The kind of paint they used, the kind of wiring they used.
What about the cast? Looks like maybe a light car, like a sports car.
What have you got on the uniforms used? Checking every costume house on the West Coast.
They could have rented them from anywhere.
Could have stolen them too.
Could have made them.
I'll keep on it.
- You don't read the papers? - That guy you hit.
- He died.
- Heart attack.
Heart attack? That's not where I hit him.
The charge is murder, Vic.
Murder.
Oh, come on.
That's crazy.
He died as the-- He died as the direct result of a felony.
The law calls that murder.
Annie.
If she thinks I had anything to do with a murder I got a wife and a sick kid.
The whole thing is blowing up in our faces.
Hijackers and murderers, that's what the police are looking for.
Eddie jumped the gun this morning.
- He what? - Can't be.
Before I could get to him, he started casting the planchets.
Holy cow.
God, he's as good as dead, then.
He'll cast every slug before he dies.
You didn't stop him? What do you mean, stop him? What did you just say? He's dead already, isn't he? What do you wanna do? You wanna blow this? Is that what you wanna do? But what about Eddie? Must be something we can do for him.
Tell me, what? I'll do it.
Tell me.
What is it? That stuff is worse than poison.
Vic, we can't handle it either.
Yeah, but Eddie can.
You know? He's gonna put them in the lead canisters.
Then he'll put them in the crates we made.
They'll be harmless in there.
They're completely harmless.
Are you--? Are you saying we're gonna go ahead and ship that gold? Is that what you're saying? Charlie, we're talking about a half a million dollars, only now it's split three ways.
- Forget it.
- Easy, Charlie, easy.
You're talking about killing people.
What kind of people are you talking about? You're talking about the people that buy slugs, make them into counterfeit coins, right? And sell them to foreign collectors that put them under glass.
- You're talking about counterfeiters.
- No.
Whoever touches that stuff, whoever spends any time, can end up as dead as Eddie.
And that can end up meaning hundreds of thousands of people.
Hey, Vic, Charlie has a point.
Charlie has a point, huh? Okay.
I got a point too, and you better be aware of it.
Right now all three of us, we're guilty of murder.
You can't compare an accident to mass murder.
Now, look, we started to pull off a job and we pulled it off, we pulled it off big.
And no mass-murder tag is gonna make me cop out on this, you got that? I'm not gonna change anything.
Hey, Vic, I'm sorry, man.
Annie, you know how much I dig that chick, but not caring about killing all those people Oh, Lew, don't give me all that hearts and flowers.
They die whether you're in or out.
Charlie's gonna blow the whistle on you and that is the end of it.
Lew, are you kidding? Charlie's gonna blow the whistle? Do you wanna know what he owes in hospital bills? Over 20,000.
If he talks, he's gonna be up on trial for murder.
- He's not gonna make any waves.
- Vic.
Hey, Lew, I'm talking about 500,000.
And just for you and me, it's a quarter of a million apiece.
How many hamburger stands you think you could have with that? How many franchises? I'll tell you something.
I mean, I'm gonna level with you, really.
You're gonna need that kind of money to hold on to Annie.
You know that, don't you? - These are your blood tests, Eddie.
- Yeah.
And there's something very wrong here.
Eddie? Have you ever been exposed to radiation? They lied to me.
Well, who? Who? Am I gonna die? Am I gonna die? I think we better go talk to somebody at the hospital right away.
Eddie? Eddie.
Eddie? Thanks.
So, like I said, we traced the owner of the car.
He said it was taken from this lot.
Yeah, well, like, I wouldn't know.
I mean, like, I'm not stuck here all day, you know? Son.
This picture mean anything to you? Looks like a dude who gave me a ticket once.
Yeah, looks just like him.
Cost me 16 bucks.
And I'm a real careful driver.
Real careful.
Always have been.
Inspectors 81.
Inspectors 81.
Will you respond, please? Inspectors 81.
Inspectors 81.
Will you respond, please? Inspectors 81 to headquarters.
This is Stone.
Lieutenant, a Dr.
Halpert just phoned in a severe case of radiation poisoning.
Give me what you've got.
Edward Whitney, male, Caucasian, 46, widower.
Lives at 816 Junipero Lane.
That's my 10-20.
You lousy, rotten scum.
Eddie, what's the matter with you? What are you doing? You knew.
You knew and you let me do it.
Why, Vic? Why? - What are you talking about? - I'm dying! Oh, don't tell me you didn't know.
You had this thing wired from the beginning.
You knew that stuff was dangerous.
You let me work it anyway.
Why, Vic? Why? Eddie, I swear.
I swear, I didn't know.
Shut up.
Eddie.
Eddie, listen to me.
Listen to me.
You gotta believe me.
I didn't know.
I mean-- Maybe-- Eddie, maybe-- Maybe the doctor is wrong, Eddie.
Maybe the doctor is wrong.
You killed me, Vic.
In fact, you know what? I'm dead already.
Did you know that? I'm standing here talking to you and I'm dead already.
Eddie! Okay, Vic.
Okay.
You're king of the hill.
The whole lousy mountain.
Eddie, you only talked to one doctor.
- Right? And there are others, right? - Yeah.
There are others.
You didn't talk to anybody else, did you? No.
Did--? It's no good.
I'm dying.
And you can bet I'm gonna talk.
Because I'm not gonna let anybody else go through what I'm going through.
Unless you wanna use that.
It's your choice, Vic.
Old buddy.
Go on.
What do you want from me, Eddie? What do you want from me? What did you say, a scintillation counter? That's a new one on me.
Basically, it's a Geiger counter.
We've got both in there.
And that truck is working like a beacon.
They wouldn't have left it unless they already moved the gold.
Say, do we know who manages this property? Not yet.
No.
Professor Mason, the locks on the rear doors of the truck were jimmied.
This is Lieutenant Stone.
Anything you can avoid touching in there, we'd appreciate.
What's your reading? Barely 20.
If the gold's here, it's under shield.
What about the lead containers? Did you find the containers? Not yet.
There is some smelting equipment.
It's hotter over here.
Not lethal right now, but it was not too long ago.
- Did you find any molds? - Not any.
But you don't smelt without a mold.
Means they've already changed the gold.
But into what? - Could be jewelry, sculpting, anything.
- It doesn't matter.
Whatever shape they dump on the market, buddy boy, - that's where the big money is.
- Well, what if it's jewelry? They got enough gold there to make into thousands of items.
This is Lieutenant Stone again.
I wanna bring my crew in there.
Any danger? Just a few minutes, lieutenant.
Just to be sure.
- Mike? - Yeah.
These nails.
They're not galvanized.
With the salt air, they should be rusty unless they were new.
- Yeah, fresh sawdust too.
- Yep.
Packing cases? - Camouflage or both.
- Yep.
Curly.
Check this sawdust, find out the kind of wood, will you? Have Sekulovich make a full rundown of those nails and this hammer too.
Well, buddy boy, this whole package is slipping away from us.
We don't know how it's wrapped.
We don't know what shape it's in, what size.
- We know nothing.
Yeah.
- Mike.
I just got a call.
A body was fished out of the bay with the skull caved in.
Well, does it tie? Medical examiner said it was so full of radiation, he would've been dead in a couple of days anyway - of acute anemia.
- Yeah.
Thanks a lot.
Well? I don't know, lieutenant, l-- I couldn't definitely identify this as one of the three men I saw.
The medical examiner's report indicates there was a severe arthritic deformity in the man's right foot.
- Enough for a limp? - A bad limp, yeah.
Well, I'll say that definitely rules out this man.
The three I saw were moving real good.
No limp.
Yeah, Stone.
Yeah.
San Quentin? The foundry? That tells us how he fits.
Yeah, go ahead, shoot.
Take this down, Steve.
Real-estate office.
Ellsworth and Hogan.
Did you say "downtown"? Downtown.
Thanks.
He knew how to melt the gold, but he never would have touched it if he knew it was hot.
Well, how do you figure it, then? He found out later? Started screaming, someone nailed him? Something like that.
Hey, Lew.
How's it going? I must have been out of my mind to let you hide that stuff in here, man.
Now, wait a minute.
It's not just me.
It's you, Annie, right? Vic.
Straight, all right? I been thinking.
Maybe you better go it alone, huh? There's no deal tonight.
Fence got nervous.
He read the papers.
Okay.
Then let it be at that, okay? Vic, let's chalk it up to experience.
What kind of service is this? Can I get a cup of coffee? Black.
I made a backup arrangement.
The only thing is he's-- He's only gonna give us 300,000.
- I'm supposed to meet him in an hour.
- Three hundred thousand.
I know it's 200,000 less, but it's still 150,000 apiece.
It kind of feels like setting loose the bubonic plague, man.
One hundred and fifty thousand tax-free, Lew.
Tax-free.
I'll be back at 5.
You take it easy, Lew.
Why don't we use Mr.
Hogan's office? Please.
Have a seat.
Yes, I was handling the sale of that building, inspector, but you know how it is with those barns at the waterfront.
The city engineers had condemned it.
It was due for demolition.
When was that? It was to be Monday, but I imagine, you finding that truck there, that you'll be keeping it for evidence.
Who else had the keys? Everyone who worked there.
I could imagine somebody keeping a spare key for himself.
Before the building was condemned, did you show it to any other buyers? Yes, I did.
Quite a few.
Oh, thank you.
Did any of the men happen to look like this man here? Oh, no.
No.
Everyone there was a good deal older.
You ever seen him before? No.
No.
- You're sure? - Positive.
Okay, thank you very much.
Eddie, dead? It just doesn't seem possible.
He worked for me for 11 years.
He was a friend.
A good friend.
Do you know about his prison record? Of course I knew.
But he stayed out of trouble since then.
Well, we have reason to believe that Mr.
Eddie Whitney was involved in a major crime.
It's unthinkable.
So is dying of radiation poisoning.
That's right.
That's what he would have died of unless somebody had bashed his head in for him first.
- What? - We believe he was in on a robbery involving half a million dollars in radioactive gold.
I heard about that.
But Eddie? Well, he had at least three associates.
One of them looked like that.
I'm afraid I can't help you.
Would you happen to know if he has a friend, around 40 years old, dark complexion, I'd say his height was about, oh, 6'4"or 6'5"? Mr.
Sondheim, we're working against the clock and there's lives at stake, so if you have any information at all, you should give us a call.
All right? Lew, come on.
Lay it easy.
Easy.
Did it--? Is it broken? You're crazy.
Get that away from me.
You'll kill us both.
Just the prototype, huh? Why don't you stick to hamburgers? Tell Annie not to worry.
It's in the bank.
Her account.
Now, what's all this hysterical garbage on the phone? Don't you jump on me, man.
Jump on you? I don't even know what it's about.
I figured you guys were friends.
I mean, how am I gonna tell the cops that my best friends are a gang hijacking gold? The whole crazy thing cooked right up here in my own apartment.
Gordy, get ahold of yourself.
- It was Vic.
- Who was Vic? I don't know what you're talking about.
The picture-- They had a picture of him.
The hijacking of that radioactive gold on the truck, Les.
That's what I'm talking about.
You, I'm talking about.
The mastermind.
That's what you are, isn't it? They described Lew to me too.
Who did? The police.
- Oh, no.
- It had to start with you.
You and your fancy job at the university.
All the time, I thought you were making small talk about your job.
But right under my nose, you were planning the hijacking.
Is Charlie in on it too? Charlie? Good old Charlie, the family man? Is he a crook too? And a killer? And Eddie.
Poor Eddie.
You got to him.
After all these years of going straight.
- You got to him.
- Operator.
This is an emergency, get me the police.
- He talked me into it.
- Who? So help me, he talked me into it.
I tried to get out, I really tried.
My wife, she's only 23 years old, it's crazy.
I know.
But the gold, that was not my idea.
Vic Tolliman is not at home.
Now, where is he? Yeah.
Vic, that's him.
He planned the whole thing.
My buddy, the hotshot creep.
Take it easy now.
Take it easy.
- Does he have the gold? - Yeah, he got it all.
Where? He's on his way, a fence.
I don't know his name.
Vic didn't tell me his name.
Easy does it now.
What's he driving? A panel truck, '71 Ford.
- Color, license? - Green.
What license? It's my truck.
On the side, it says Lew's Clown Alley.
Lew's Clown Alley.
He's not crying for himself.
I don't want you to think that about Charlie.
Do you have a son, officer? Lloyd, read him his rights.
One hundred forty-eight.
One hundred forty-nine.
One hundred fifty thousand dollars.
This deal was 300,000.
When I'm certain the gold is safe, you'll get the rest.
Just wait a minute.
No, we wait two months.
Both of us.
Until the gold is completely cooled.
Bob, take the other side.
Art, watch the front.
Get an ambulance.
Come on.
Get these people back.
Gives your spine a ripple, doesn't it? It sure does.
Kind of makes you think.
Say, you know that case we were helping Reeves with - before all this exploded? - Yeah.
We probably never will nail that clown now, will we? - I don't think so.
No.
- No.
Maybe it doesn't matter if you lose some of the little ones.
As long as you win some of the big ones? - That's right.
- Can I quote you on that? Oh, sure.