Original subtitles

(theme music plays)

♪♪

(car door closes)

♪♪

(ship's horn blows)

WINCHELL: In Chicago,

the second-largest city in the United States,

a week rarely went by without the delivery

of at least one unclaimed body

to the city morgue.

Until an I.D. tag could be affixed

to the big toe, an unidentified body

became a matter for the Bureau of Missing Persons.

(phone ringing)

I'll get it.

Lieutenant Stewart.

When?

Benson!

That's all?

Okay, thanks.

What have you got, Lieutenant?

New John Doe, floater, picked up in the lake this morning.

Very little clothing left,

and what there is has no legible marks on it.

We're loaded today.

Is it okay if I ask detectives to run a make

on the fingerprints and see what they can come up with?

Aren't any available.

-Detectives? -Fingerprints.

-Oh. -Better get started on a prelim.

Lieutenant?

Hm, something wrong?

No.

Well, come on, come on.

Oh, it's just that it's Jimmy's birthday,

and I was supposed to pick up the cake.

Well, why didn't you say so?

I'd be very happy to pick up the cake for you.

Aggie, you're all heart.

(laughs) All right.

Only it's going to cost you

a generous slice of that cake.

It'll be on your desk in the morning!

He's been in the water a long time.

All yours, Lieutenant.

ANNOUNCER:

"Search For A Dead Man"

Starring Robert Stack as Eliot Ness.

Co-starring Sheree North,

Tom Reese,

and Edward Asner.

With special guest star, Barbara Stanwyck.

And narrated by Walter Winchell.

How long has he been dead?

Can you tell?

The rate of decomposition varies

with the water temperature and other factors.

In this case, it's so far advanced,

I'd say from three to four weeks.

Mm-hmm, that would make it sometime around the end of June.

Yes.

Now, the deceased was a well-developed,

well-nourished white male.

Body length of five feet, 11 inches.

Estimated weight of 180 pounds.

Colored hair and eyes?

(scoffs) Not clearly identifiable.

Can you estimate his age?

Ah, now here we get some help from the skull.

Different sections close at different times.

The top, the baby's soft spot,

closes about age one.

But some of the sutures,

these lines, take a lifetime.

Now, the sphenofrontals close at age 35,

the parietals don't close fully before 67.

I'd say this man was just about 50 years old when he died.

Mm-hmm.

And the cause of death?

Undetermined.

We don't even know if he's alive when he went into the water.

We'd need a chloride test of the bloodstream to be sure.

In this case, that just isn't possible.

I see.

There's no evidence of a gunshot wound or skull fracture.

On the other hand, he did have a heart condition.

Oh?

-You can tell that? -Oh, yes.

The elastic tissue's held up almost as well as the bones.

We found coronary artery disease,

indicated very clearly.

Of course, there's no way we can determine

whether he had an actual heart attack.

Mm-hmm. Well, then it's an open question

whether the man jumped in the lake, fell in,

-or was pushed. -Wide open, Lieutenant.

And no one's gonna come up with the answer

unless you can find out who he was.

Well, that's what I'm here for.

I'll put it through routine.

Thank you.

Okay, good luck.

Hi, Eliot.

Aggie.

-What brings you down here? -A floater.

-And you? -I.D. on Joe Fuselli.

We picked him up in an alley about an hour ago.

There was a man long overdue.

I wish he could've waited around a little longer.

Rumors are they're bringing down a booze shipment from Canada.

Fuselli wasn't cut in.

That made him want to talk to me.

Oh, is that why he's here, because he talked to you?

Yeah, Jake Portuguese makes the rules.

Fuselli broke one of them.

See you, Aggie.

WINCHELL: The routine of giving John Doe an identity

began with a check of the files to see if a man answering

his general description had been reported missing.

But out of unsolved missing person cases

filed with the Chicago police,

Lieutenant Stewart and members of her staff could find

no set of circumstances to match their latest John Doe.

Routine also required that a chart

of the unknown person's teeth be sent to all dentists,

in the hope that some dentist would recognize his patient.

But this was often a fruitless, time-consuming task

because the number of accurate dental records

was a very small fraction

of the three million patients in the city of Chicago.

In the days that followed, the Bureau of Missing Persons

could find no clue to identity of the man

pulled out of the waters of Lake Michigan.

Unclaimed, the body remained on ice in the Chicago morgue.

-Hi, June. -Mornin'.

Good morning, Lieutenant.

Oh, uh, he lost his mommy in the park.

Juvenile's on their way over to take him home.

Are you a policeman, too?

Well, I try to be.

Do you have a gun and everything?

Mm-hmm.

Did you ever shoot anybody?

No, not yet.

Oh.

-Oh, Lieutenant? -Yes?

It's been ten days.

What's ten days?

The floater.

You know, with the coronary arteries.

Oh.

Okay, bury him.

Well, I guess it's true, Lieutenant.

Hello.

-Walt Rimer, Evening Standard. -What's true?

Read your John Doe notice in this morning's edition,

so I decided to check it.

Do you always talk in circles, Mr. Rimer?

I heard there's a cop on the force who can't bear the thought

of some John Doe being buried in potter's field

without a single mourner at the funeral.

So, she goes herself.

Could be a nice story in there.

No story in me.

I'm here in case somebody shows up who can identify the body.

Just routine.

And if nobody shows?

Oh, there are a dozen John Doe's buried in the field, Mr. Rimer.

I still think it's sentiment.

Will you do as much for me someday?

Won't be necessary.

Funerals of newspaper men are always very well attended.

By whom?

A small army of broken-hearted saloon keepers.

(motorcycle approaches)

Well.

Looks like your John Doe did have a friend.

Well, if he had a friend, he had a name.

Who sent the flowers?

Don't ask me, lady.

All I do is deliver them.

Well, you must have a card or a slip with a name on it.

No, all I have is a ticket with the grave number on it, 6927.

There's a story for you, Mr. Rimer.

Not for me, there isn't.

Did you see the name on that motorcycle?

Yes.

The shop belongs to what's left of the O'Banion gang.

Uh-huh, well, remember that funeral we were talking about?

Uh-huh.

I'm not anxious to rush it.

WINCHELL: Funerals became the specialty of the shop

at 734 North State Street,

after the place was purchased

by the notorious hijacker, Dion O'Banion.

Here, among his own lilies, O'Banion had been slaughtered

by the Johnny Torrio interest five years before.

Control then passed to Gerald Feeney,

an O'Banion henchman,

who had made his peace with the syndicate

and retained the flower shop as a front.

I don't remember.

Well, would you look it up, please?

It's important.

Lady, I'm very busy.

A cop.

Don't run for your lawyer, I'm not looking for booze.

-What are you looking for? -A name, Feeney, that's all.

A name to put on a man's grave.

Why is that so important?

Because a man's name is the only thing

he can take with him when he dies.

It was a woman that sent the wreath,

and that's all I can tell you.

You never saw her before?

I never saw her at all.

Oh, come on, somebody, deal.

She come around here sometime last night

and put the money through the slot in the door in an envelope

with a grave number on it.

How did you know it was a woman?

She called me on the phone before she came by,

asked me make up a funeral wreath for $100.

I told her this is a class shop.

We can't take an order like that for less than $200.

So, she starts crying the blues,

and I'm a good-natured slob,

so I settle for $175.

You're breaking my heart, but I don't believe a word of it.

I knew it.

I could smell that lousy order was gonna bring

a lousy cop down on my neck.

All right, I got the evidence.

-(register dings) -Right here.

With a grave number on it, just like I said.

Do you really have a $200 minimum for wreaths?

Are you kidding?

Lady, this is the place where Johnny Torrio spent ten grand

for flowers for Tito Gramercy's funeral,

and he didn't even kill him.

Wonder why she didn't pick a cheaper florist.

Because, you know, flowers from O'Banion's.

That means a lot to a guy.

Yeah, especially if that guy happens to be a bootlegger.

Lieutenant, I don't know nothing.

And if I did, I'd figure somebody

must want him to stay missing.

Wh-Why don't you figure the same way?

What do you want to stick your neck out for, huh?

Just to put a name on a grave?

I'll take this with me.

Hey, that's my money.

You think you're walking out of...

I'll mail you a receipt.

Didn't your mother teach you to open doors for ladies?

WINCHELL: In the case of the unidentified floater,

there were 21 clues:

14 ten dollar bills and seven fives.

Did you ever take a real good look at money?

Never had it in my hands that long.

See this?

-Looks like red ink. -Mm-mm. It's a teller's mark.

On this one, it's dark and blurred.

On this one, it's sharp; it looks fresh.

Think we'll go along with this one.

You see, a bank teller's responsible

for banding his cash in batches of, say, oh, 100 bills.

When he doesn't have enough for a full batch,

he'll write the number that he does have on the top bill.

Saves counting all over again.

Now, here the count was 65.

Every teller marks his bills in his own personal way.

If we could find that teller... he could lead us to the woman

who drew out $175 on or about the 19th of the month.

A lot of banks in Chicago.

Yes, but the money's all we have to go on.

I think we'll Photostat this bill.

Then in our spare time, we can all take a shot at tracing it.

Spare time?

With the backlog we got?

I'm still looking for that old guy

who went to the ballgame last week and never came home.

I've been in and out of that ballpark

more times this past week than Hack Wilson.

Oh? How many hits did he get yesterday?

He went three for five.

You know, I, um...

I think they'll call the game today.

Why don't you be leadoff man for the department?

WINCHELL: There were a lot of banks in Chicago.

275, to be exact.

And there were a lot of tellers in each bank.

While officers of Missing Persons

were conducting their search for a bank teller,

Eliot Ness had gotten a break in his search for a lead

that might tip off the time and place

of the largest booze shipment

ever moved across the Canadian border,

a shipment rumored to be worth more than one million dollars--

a telephone call from a man bent on revenge,

Mike Fuselli, the brother of the bullet-riddled man

identified by Eliot Ness at the city morgue.

He took the federal agents

to The Pink Lion, a speakeasy on Chicago's South Side.

The lifeline was alcohol.

The booze barons of Chicago

were sorely in need of a transfusion.

They're all here.

Morelli, Propkof...

Vincent, Teigert.

WINCHELL: The underworld

turned to the one man they could trust,

the one big enough to bring in a million dollars' worth

of alcohol in a single shipment.

That man was Jake Portuguese.

Let's go.

(lively music playing)

Federal officers. Everybody stay where you are.

(people gasping, screaming)

(indistinct shouts)

Look out!

Hold it!

(indistinct chatter)

Lock it up. Lock it up.

Who is he, Mr. Ness?

Joe Fuselli's kid brother.

The second man who tried to help me.

See that this gets back to Juvenile.

-All right. -I found him.

Who did you find?

30 banks and two pair of shoes later,

a bank teller who recognizes his mark on a ten dollar bill.

-See what a little perseverance can do? -Mm-hmm.

-Did you get a name? -Three of them.

They all withdrew sums of $175

from their bank accounts on the 19th.

The first, Mrs. Carmady.

She's a plain, everyday housewife.

Four kids, her husband's a construction engineer.

Next, Miss Everhart is a schoolteacher, teaches biology.

The third, Claire Simmons,

she's kind of a mystery woman.

-Miss Simmons? -Yes.

I'd like to talk to you.

Well, what about?

May I come in?

What is it you want to talk to me about?

Flowers.

-What do you mean, flowers? -On the 19th of last month,

you withdrew $175 from your bank account.

What has that got to do with flowers?

The money was used to buy a funeral wreath

for a man Missing Persons was unable to identify

and buried in potter's field.

(laughs) Lots of people buy flowers.

You think I'm the only one?

Well, Miss Simmons, we traced the money to you.

Why flowers from O'Banion's?

Why was O'Banion's so important to you?

I don't know anybody buried in potter's field,

so why should I buy flowers for somebody I don't know?

Why should I buy flowers from...

Miss Simmons, what do you do for a living?

-I'm a dancer. -Where do you work?

Right now, you mean?

Mm-hmm, right now.

Well, I haven't worked lately

because a lot of the clubs have been closed.

How long has that been since you've worked?

I'm an American citizen, I haven't done anything wrong,

so why pick on me?!

How long?

Not in the last... two, three years.

Then would you tell me where you get the $500

you deposit to your bank account the first of every month?

How do you know that?

Very simple-- we asked at your bank.

Well, I don't have to answer that question.

Then answer me this.

If you didn't spend it for flowers,

what did you do with the money you withdrew?

-I loaned it to a guy. -Who?

He's just a guy.

Well, maybe he knows somebody buried in potter's field.

I told you before, I don't know anything about that!

What's this guy's full name?

Sonny Dale.

His address?

I don't know where he's staying.

Sonny's a fighter, and you know how fighters are--

they move around from hotel to training camp...

Please... will you leave me alone?

All right, Miss Simmons.

But I may have some more questions for you later.

(door opens)

(door closes)

Is this the 14th Street Gym?

Does Sonny Dale still work out there?

Well, this is important, real important.

Do you know where I can reach him?

Oh.

Thanks.

WINCHELL: Handsome Rudy Portuguese

didn't look very much like his brother.

Tough, ruthless, a killer in his own right,

he had walked in the shadow of big brother Jake

since the day he was born,

and he served as collection man for Jake's rackets empire.

(phone rings)

Yes?

I think you ought to know a lady cop was here asking questions.

Why are the cops nosing around you?

I don't know why.

Honest, I don't know why.

There must be a reason. Now, come on, tell me.

Now, tell me.

All right. I bought some flowers.

-You did what? -Flowers for his grave.

You tell the cops who they're for?

No, I didn't tell her anything.

But she said she was coming back with more questions.

So let her come back with more questions.

You're not gonna be there.

CLAIRE: All right.

-But if I go away... -Now, you do what I tell you.

Now, you're gonna leave town for a couple of days.

Now, you pack some things.

I'll be by your place to pick you up.

9:00.

Yeah, yeah, 9:00.

You looking for somebody?

Yeah, Sonny Dale?

Came in a little while ago.

He's up there.

Thanks.

Sonny?

Yeah.

Police officers. We'd like to talk to you.

You're from the commissioner's office, huh?

No, no, not from the commissioner's.

And we're not here to talk about your license or your fights.

Then what do you want?

What did you do with the money Claire Simmons gave you?

What money? What are you talking about?

Did Claire Simmons give you $175?

-Did she say that? -Now, we'll ask the questions, Sonny.

What are you cops after her for?

What's she done? What's happened to her?

Nothing's happened to her.

All we want from you is the answer to one simple question.

I don't have to answer any questions.

I don't know any Claire Simmons.

I don't know nothing.

Okay, Sonny, workout's over.

You're coming downtown.

Leave me alone, copper.

You're under arrest.

Stay away from me!

Get out of my way, lady.

The officer said you're under arrest.

You're in big trouble now, Sonny.

You don't want to go hitting no more cops.

But didn't your son send you his address

when he wrote to you in the old country, Mr. Giovanni?

(speaking Italian)

No... (speaking Italian)

Mario Giovanni, Chicago, Stati Uniti d'America.

Mario Giovanni, Chicago, U.S.A.

Chicago's a pretty big place, Mr. Giovanni.

But we'll see what we can do?

(speaks Italian)

Chicago é molto grande.

Vedremo cosa...

Hi. (continues speaking Italian)

Morning, June.

-Any messages? -Morning, Lieutenant.

Yes, right there.

Oh, weren't you running a check on a Claire Simmons?

Yes, why?

This just came in from Traffic.

Oh.

-Has Harrison came in yet? -No, not yet.

Uh, he called and said he had to stop by his dentist.

Something about a loose tooth.

If anything comes up, I'll be back in a couple of hours.

All right, Lieutenant.

If you'd like me to stick around, Lieutenant...

It won't be necessary, thank you.

Okay.

(paper rustling)

You recognize this?

It says, "To, Claire. Love, Sonny."

Where'd you get that?

It was picked up in the street last night by a police officer.

Claire is dead.

Dead?

You're lying.

Yesterday I went to see Claire Simmons.

I asked her some questions.

She lied to me.

Because I questioned her, and because she lied, she's dead.

According to the police officer's report,

it was a hit-and-run accident.

But I don't believe it was an accident,

and I don't think you do, either.

Now, I want the truth about that money.

Sure, I lied.

I did it for her.

I thought I was helping her.

I told her from the first to stay away from that guy.

I told her he was no good, he was poison, he was trouble!

Used to be Claire and me.

That picture you got...

I gave it to her... long time ago.

When I was going good.

Claire, she... she used to say to me,

"Sonny, quit before they make hamburger out of you."”

Quit?

I couldn't quit.

What would I do?

Sell shoes, work on the docks?

I used to make, sometimes, two grand a night.

All the time, she kept saying,

"Sonny, quit, while you still got a chance,

while you still got a face.”

I kept hearing her tell me that,

I got so tired, we busted up.

A couple years later...

I got that big fight.

It was wrote up in all the papers.

"Sonny Dale Fights Willy Marco in The Garden Tonight.”

He cut me up in little pieces.

I was in the hospital three weeks.

Maybe Claire was right.

Maybe.

So I come back, I go to see her.

Only now, she's got some new guy.

I don't know who, at first.

Oh, but when I get back to my hotel room, I find out who.

There are two guys waiting for me,

and they say to me,

"Sonny, if you don't want to get yourself killed,

"you stay away from Claire Simmons.

The big guy, he don't like it."

I figure, why start anything?

If that's the way Claire wants it, okay.

I bumped into her a couple times after that.

But she was scared.

It was like she was too scared even to say, "Hello, Sonny.

How are you? How are things going?"

She was scared of him.

Now he's killed her.

Sonny, if you had told us the truth yesterday,

this might not have happened.

It's too late to help Claire,

but you can help me, and yourself,

by telling me that man's name.

I don't care anymore.

I don't care if they kill me.

His name is Jake Portuguese.

WINCHELL: On the last day of October, the trucks rolled.

The word had come from Jake Portuguese

that the path had been greased.

The first shipment from a million-dollar stockpile

of alcohol moved toward a booze-parched Chicago.

AGATHA: And so, you see, Eliot,

we're both working on the same case.

Is there any way we can tie Portuguese in

with the death of the woman, Claire Simmons, or your floater?

Nothing I'd care to take into a court of law.

There's no evidence of murder in either case.

I've been looking for an excuse to roust Portuguese.

Maybe this is it.

Let's go.

Try around back, huh?

Anybody here?

Check upstairs.

Aggie,

meet Jake Portuguese.

(chuckles) Nice looking fella.

ROSSI: Nothing upstairs, Eliot.

Bed's turned down, but nobody's slept in it.

We found a car out in the garage, Eliot.

Somehow the right front headlight got broken.

NESS: Somehow, like hit-and-run?

HOBSON: Like hit-and-run.

NESS: That's something that'll hold up in court.

This glass matches, we got Jake Portuguese on a hit-and-run.

Let's find him, pick him up.

AGATHA: I don't think you will find him, Eliot.

But I think I found the name that goes with my John Doe

buried in potter's field.

Jake Portuguese.

I hate to shoot holes in that, Aggie,

but we hit a meeting just three days ago,

attended by Jake Portuguese.

We missed him by seconds.

We didn't actually see him there, Lee.

These are nitroglycerin tablets, dynamite pills.

The prescription is made out to Jake Portuguese.

According to the coroner, my John Doe had a heart condition.

That's a long shot guess, Aggie.

Can you prove it?

One of the first things we did in your investigation

was circulate a chart of John Doe's dental work.

We didn't have a name then, but we do know.

I can find Portuguese's dentist

and let you know one way or the other within an hour,

but somehow, I...

well, I-I have the feeling it's just a formality.

It's worth a try.

WINCHELL: That night, the last case of the Canadian alcohol

was stored safely in a Chicago warehouse.

The Jake Portuguese shipment was delivered by Arnie Retzik,

the Canadian liaison who masterminded the convoy

-across the Canadian border. -(knock on door)

Retzik kept a rendezvous with Rudy Portuguese,

who was acting as collection man for his brother Jake.

You can tell Jake it's all here,

every last drop.

I saw it.

When's the payoff?

Tomorrow night, 10:00.

Jake should be a very happy man.

A million dollars, split down the middle.

You're nice, maybe he'll let you count his half, huh?

Tell Jake I'll be in the usual place.

Tell him nothing.

You got a new partner, Arnie.

What are you talking about?

Jake.

He's not around.

(chuckles) He's dead.

What are you trying to pull?

I get wires from his regular.

From me, Arnie.

You get wires from me.

I had to show you that I...

You see, Jake never gave me a chance.

I set it up just the way he would've done.

You know something, I believe you.

But like Jake used to say,

you're just the messenger boy, Rudy.

You think I want to split this money with you?

You get what drops out of my pockets.

Tomorrow night, you don't work.

I sit in on the payoff.

Look, Arnie, I-l went to a lot of trouble. I even...

You be a nice boy, Rudy.

Maybe I'll give you a couple of grand.

That'll buy you a lot of perfume

for those cheap dames you run around with, huh?

RUDY: Arnie?

Eliot. I'm sorry I'm late.

It took almost two hours, but the case is closed.

My John Doe and Jake Portuguese are one in the same.

Nice going, Aggie.

Oh, you do me a favor?

Leave it unsolved.

Keep it out of the papers for me, will you?

I don't know. One day, maybe two.

Right, Aggie. Thanks.

Who's the one man who stands to gain by Jake's death?

The only man who could have kept it a secret this long?

Brother Rudy. I'll pick him up.

No, Lee.

You find him, you follow him.

I don't get it, Eliot.

You just said it yourself.

Rudy's the one man who stands to gain by Jake's death.

The only man who could have kept it a secret.

That's right, but why'd he keep it a secret?

'Cause he sees a chance to cash in on it big.

You follow him, Lee.

I want a 24-hour blanket on Mr. Rudy Portuguese.

Where is that gonna take us?

Maybe to a million-dollar booze shipment.

WINCHELL: It didn't take long

for the Untouchables to find Rudy Portuguese.

It was common knowledge in the underworld

that he had a penchant for several of the chorus girls

at a Cicero burlesque house.

♪♪

(coins clink, bell dings)

(phone ringing)

Hello. Ness.

Eliot, I followed him to a warehouse

at the corner of Sixth and Beacon.

How soon can you get here?

Right now.

(knocking)

Where's Jake?

Like I've been telling you-- Canada.

A million dollars, and Jake ain't here.

It stinks, Rudy.

He's got loose ends up there.

You don't move that much booze without loose ends.

I don't like it, Jake not being here.

Vincent, you want I should tell Jake you don't like it?

Let's have it.

First, uh... I got to see.

Sure.

Upstairs.

It's not that I don't trust you guys.

It's just that I got to look out for Jake's interest.

It's good stuff.

Real good stuff.

You tell Jake, when you see him, he done his usual good job.

We appreciate it.

Yeah, I'll tell him you boys are back in business.

Now, I want to see what I got.

(tires squeak)

(gunfire)

(gunfire continues)

(bullet ricocheting)

(gunfire continues, liquor pouring)

(gunfire)

Hold it!

Watch that chopper.

(gunfire)

(gunfire continues)

Drop those guns and come out!

You're covered!

Come on, now.

Come on, move along! Come out of there!

All right, go.

Rudy, hold it!

How bad, Ness?

What happened to Jake, Rudy?

Argument over money.

It was always over money.

He had a bad ticker.

Nobody knew it, but he had a bad ticker.

He was yelling at me.

All of a sudden...

it hit him.

He dropped... on the floor, dead.

So, you dumped him in the lake, huh?

RUDY: Yeah, Ness.

What will I get for that?

90 days for contaminating Lake Michigan?

You don't have 90 days, Rudy.

You don't have 90 minutes.

A million dollars, and I don't have any time.

You ever feel money, Ness?

It's soft.

It's got a special kind of feeling.

Years, I seen it go through my hands,

and it always went to him.

I was his brother.

And I was just something for him to wipe his feet on.

You used his car to kill the woman, Claire Simmons.

(sighs)

Stupid dame.

I told her,

"Keep your mouth shut, and I'll make you rich.

"J-Just... Just keep your mouth shut

"until the deal is set,

until the payoff.”

That's all I asked.

And she had to go and send flowers, Ness.

Flowers.

For him.

Well, we got four of the big shots, Eliot.

All alive.

And one dead millionaire.

WINCHELL: The body of Jake Portuguese was moved uptown

from the unmarked grave in potter's field.

The underworld paid its respects

with flowers from O'Banion's.

It was a classic affair in the grand tradition.

Except that... there was nobody left to mourn.