The Purple Gang (1959) Movie Script
"Presenting:
The Honorable James Roosevelt."
"Chairman of the Committee
on Narcotics..."
"Of the California delegation in the
Congress of The United States."
Ladies and gentlemen.
I had the privilege of previewing
the picture you're about to see.
It struck me as having more
than surface meaning.
The events in this picture occurred
in the late 1920s and early 30s.
In those days of the Purple Gang.
Crime grew largely out
of illicit liquor running.
But it merged quickly into racketeering.
Kidnapping. Dope running.
Today, crime stems from dope...
Organised racketeering
and organised gambling.
It's like a disease.
Sickening whole cities.
Threatening the nation.
Outbreaks predictable.
Month by month. Year by year.
This picture graphically
illustrates this sickness.
But it cannot provide the cure.
That's up to you and to me.
To all of us.
Thank you.
"This is the Detroit river."
"A peaceful boundary between
two friendly countries."
"Except for those years of national
prohibition, the 1920s and early 30s."
"Then, the river was a battleground
for rum-runners and hijackers."
"For more than a decade
illegal liquor from Canada..."
"Crossed the river in a steady
torrent supplying half the nation."
"The estimated cost was one
billion dollars for the dry years."
"A figure greater than the total
amount spent on education..."
"In the state of Michigan
over a ten-year period."
"Scores of murders went unreported."
"And the river hid the evidence."
"New York had its Hell's Kitchen."
"Chicago had Cicero."
"In Detroit, we had both."
"It was called Hastings Street."
"Here in the slums, penny-ante
punks began to appear in gangs."
"From petty theft, they graduated
to hold-ups and shakedowns."
"Imitating the big city mobs."
I paid.
Mama. Pay them.
Give it.
Hey, let's get out of here.
Come on.
Police.
Police!
Seventh Precinct.
Alright. I'll get him.
Yep?
It's the Purples again.
Get Lieutenant Harley on it.
Lieutenant Harley is off duty.
Okay. I'll get him.
[ Telephone ]
Lieutenant Harley speaking.
How many?
Alright. I'll be right there.
What is it, Bill?
Gladys. Gladys, you're trembling.
Take it easy.
Do you have to go now? Can't you
wait and see about it in the morning?
Not this one.
This is as bad as when you
were in the detective bureau.
Aren't you in the juvenile division?
- Yeah. But this is a bit different.
It's a string of robberies with an
angle that's definitely not juvenile.
It's down on Hastings Street.
Now you go back to bed and
read your book. Don't worry.
The Purple Gang?
He named them himself, Papa did.
No. The law named them after
Jimmy Zinkowski. A Polish kid.
They couldn't say his name so
they call him 'Jimmy Purple'.
What's the difference who named them?
Bad. Bad.
Bad, officer. Bad.
It's that Purple Gang, Lieutenant.
They're robbing every store
up and down Hastings Street.
Sam's place too, Lieutenant.
Almost every store in the neighborhood.
They have gone wild.
- Where's that grandson of yours?
Lieutenant, please.
He can't have nothing to do with this.
Where is he?
Lieutenant, why don't you
go after them real bad ones?
The Purples.
I know where some of them
hide out. In the basement.
Call the station. Get a squad.
Maybe someone will identify
a few of them this time.
We've been through this mess before,
Lieutenant. Never convicted any of them.
But this isn't just another penny-ante
theft. This has another smell to it.
Where is he?
Upstairs studying in his room.
But you picked on him before.
Wait. It ain't good. Please.
Don't be frightened, son.
What's all the noise?
Can't a guy have a...
Hello, Lieutenant.
Sonny-boy, you've grown up
some since I saw you last.
Officer. Please don't
remind him of them days.
Yes. He's only a boy.
Boys will be boys.
He's a good boy now.
He's a student. He reads. Reads.
There's been a lot of robberies
lately with a phony protection angle.
Your own grandparents got hit.
I thought I'd take you in and
maybe you'd name a few names.
You can't. You can't shut him up.
Please leave him alone.
- Pop. Pop.
You got a warrant, Lieutenant?
I'm not arresting you
Honeyboy until I have to.
Right now, I ask you to cooperate.
Not until you got something on me.
Bring a warrant.
Okay, Pop.
Downstairs.
Take care of the groceries.
Come on out, Hank.
Where you going, Hank?
- Let me go. I can sneak out...
You don't have to leave.
Stay for a while. Come on.
Stay.
What, are you scared of something?
I don't like to be shut up. You know.
So?
So, I stick around, I guess?
Yeah.
He's not so smart, Hank.
After tonight, Hank.
The chips are down.
You know what we do?
We pick the best men.
And we hold them together.
You know what makes a gang
stick together no matter what?
Glue.
Yeah, wise-guy.
I'll tell you what it is.
I'll tell you what it is.
It's one guy.
One guy they can look up to.
See.
People are like sheep, Hank.
They like to follow.
Not somebody they respect.
No. There's only one thing they respect.
You know what it is?
Fear.
That's the number than makes
the world go round, Hank.
The number we play.
And do you know who they fear the most?
The guy with the most guts.
And that's me, Hank.
Me with you.
Together, we got more
guts than any of them.
Yeah.
Yeah.
- Yeah.
Let's go.
Get back, you guys.
Stay in line.
Don't make it so I have
to belt you, son.
Boys, what's the matter? You crazy?
You're at the police station.
You're under arrest.
He's just a boy.
I'm from the Welfare Department.
Book them. Book all of them.
- Yes, sir.
Alright, line up.
Wait a minute.
Some of these young men are under age.
They aren't young men, Miss.
They're hoodlums.
The law states that no juvenile can
be locked up with an adult criminal.
I know the law, Miss. I already have
a special tank prepared just for them.
Does that satisfy you?
No.
The whole system is wrong.
Those boys should not
be locked up at all.
You see, what youth needs nowadays
is a little psychological adjustment.
Three syllable words, lady.
How do you expect a policeman
to understand them?
Now look, as a welfare worker...
- We'll handle this, ma'am.
Lock them up together, Harry.
I'll have charges filed and things set
by the time court opens in the morning.
I will have to call you back.
I have someone in the office.
Excuse me.
I said, are we to return to barbarism in
the handling of your young offenders?
Take this case for instance.
Here. Pete Williams.
Sign here.
Joe Milford.
Sign here.
Is it all there?
It had better be.
Well, hurry up and sign.
Boy, if you're a juvenile I'm
in my second childhood.
You look it, copper.
- Get out.
Who sprung them?
The welfare bunch got
to the juvenile judge.
Alright. Lay off you monkeys. Lay off.
There's a meeting in the chief's office,
Lieutenant. He's expecting you.
A young man, William Joseph Willard.
Nicknamed 'Honeyboy'.
Now there's a warrant
issued for his arrest.
Without any real reason.
And surely without thought to the untold
psychological damage that may be done.
Now, he is sensitive and intelligent.
He suffers from a slight claustrophobia.
He dislikes being in
a closed room alone.
Isn't it our duty to aid him?
Not to brutalize him more.
You take this bespectacled
eyewitness last night.
A big, burly policeman manhandling boys.
Just a minute, Miss.
These are not nice little boys being
ill-treated by big bad policemen.
They're tough, you understand. They're
tough and dangerous and getting worse.
Go easy, Lieutenant.
Dr Riorden here and Miss MacNamara.
I know who they are and what they are.
I also know the gang of punks
we rounded up last night.
The Purple Gang.
And to them you don't spout
big words out of books.
They have grown up without love.
Without home life.
With no real feeling of security.
Look, Miss.
And you too, doctor. You have to
start your work in the cradle.
When kids turn criminal and start
running in gangs it's too late.
With this bunch you've just
turned loose it is way too late.
They're products of their environment.
Aren't we all products
of our environment?
You say they suffered shock in
childhood. Came from broken homes.
So do thousands of kids. Yet they manage
to grow up and make decent citizens.
Look. I tell you, chief.
The only solution now is to get tough.
I'll get every one of them set free as
fast as you arrest them in this manner.
Look, chief. It isn't just penny-ante
theft with these Purples anymore.
They're shaking down on
a phony protection racket.
Everyone we booked had money.
Each one of them could post bond.
Do you know what that means, Miss?
It means they are getting money together
for a slush fund. Bondsmen, lawyers.
It means they are big time. It means you
can't stop them with half-baked notions.
Are you finished, Lieutenant?
When you are, I have a
report to get out to the chief.
Okay. I am finished.
Look, chief. Take me off this
kiddie-cop detail, will you.
Give me anything.
Bunco, robbery, homicide.
Yeah, homicide.
That's where I'll run into
your nice little friends again.
At the end of the road.
Only then it will be murder.
They're headed for it.
Somebody is doing their thinking
for them and it isn't you.
"Someone was doing
their thinking alright."
"And I had a hunch who it was."
"Honeyboy Willard stepped into big-time
crime at its most dangerous level."
"Hijacking the liquor runners
on the Detroit waterfront."
"For their first victims, they picked a
liquor-running combine on the river."
"The Olsen brothers."
"Eddie, the eldest, was
the brains of the bunch."
"Eddie hated violence."
"Official bribery was his formula
for success in liquor running."
"Tom. The middle brother. A ladies man."
"The bookkeeper for the gang."
"Al. The youngest."
"He thrived on dangerous action."
Hold it.
You can't fight an army.
Tom. What do you reckon they are?
I don't know, but they mean business.
A bunch of punks.
Is this a hijack?
It could be.
Do you want to give me your gun?
I don't carry one.
Have you got one?
Give him your gun, Tom.
You ain't got a chance.
You couldn't sell a pint of that liquor
from here to the Rocky Mountains.
Do you know whose stuff
you're hijacking, buster?
Yeah, buster.
The Olsen brothers.
You are Eddie, right?
That's right.
Well, I am the Purple Gang.
We always start out
with the big ones first.
The Purple Gang, huh?
- Yeah.
[ Breaking bottles sound ]
What's your game?
Protection. You pay regular
and nothing will happen.
We're paying half the liquor
agents on the river front already.
This is protection, not bribery.
Okay. Call it off.
How much?
One thousand dollars every
load we catch you with.
And we'll be watching.
I'll pay you for this load now.
Ever see one this big before?
I thought not.
Now listen.
This hijacking is only going
to get you one thing.
Blasted.
You want to talk a deal?
Alright. We are spreading out.
Liquor, gambling. The works.
We can pay for your kind of talent.
If you want to talk a deal be at
the Sugar House tomorrow night.
Alone?
Bring one other if you like.
He ain't got that kind of guts, Eddie.
Shut up, Al.
Do you want to shoot me, tough guy?
Make sure you got enough
guts to be there.
Unload.
"The Sugar House."
"A modest warehouse
in the Detroit slums."
"But a very rich enterprise
for the Olsen brothers."
You're right on time.
Good.
Shut the door, Tom.
Hello, tough guys.
Let me show you a real operation.
"It may have been crude
but it was highly efficient."
"Liquor from Canada poured
into the Sugar House..."
"And then out into the United
States in an enormous flood."
"And the Olsen brothers
supplied no small part of it."
"But before it reached
the thirsting millions."
"This rich flow of Canadian whiskey..."
"Was cut with raw alcohol
made directly from sugar."
"Honeyboy and Hank Smith were being
introduced to the big time that day."
"The very big time."
"But this particular load of whiskey
left the Sugar House undiluted."
"Its destination: Chicago."
"Al Capone's private stock."
"It went to him sealed and uncut."
"Right off the boat."
"Honeyboy's imagination
needed no more prodding."
"He was ready to join
with the Olsen brothers..."
"And ride that flood of liquor towards
his wildest dreams of power."
"The deal was this."
"The Olsens to supply the
business organisation."
"Honeyboy to supply a strong-armed
gang young enough to have no caution."
"And brutal enough to do anything."
"A period of bloodshed and
violence was about to begin."
"But so far, none of it should
have concerned me in homicide."
"In the regular routine of the Bureau I
probed suicides, accidents, murders."
"And even listened to
chronic confessors."
"But I couldn't get the
Purple Gang out of my mind."
"The merger of the Olsen
brother's bootlegging empire..."
"With Honeyboy's genius for organisation
was a black day for Detroit."
"I began to dread the hour I would
inherit the Purple Gang again."
"Gambling was big business.
The stakes high, the games rough."
"Most of the money easy
come from rum-runners."
"Protection of illegal gambling places
was taken over by the Purple Gang."
"They also got in on prostitution."
"And heaven help the poor girl who
didn't pay her share to the collectors."
"Since many of them were still kids they
stole candy and victimised shopkeepers."
"Stuck up grocery stores
and rolled drunks."
"The carnival of crime extended
to newspaper circulation wars."
"Fights between rival cab companies."
"Hijacking trucks."
"Destroying produce to force
market prices higher."
"Even the farmer was
caught in the middle..."
"With organised gangs forcing
city dealers to pay for protection."
So I said. Any more and you got to go.
It's either you or me, you old bag.
Lieutenant.
You ain't even listening.
Yes, Daisy. Of course I'm listening.
Like I listened when you confessed
to killing your uncle Joe.
This time it's your aunt Maud.
The time before it was some guy you
just read about in the newspapers.
You are a chronic confessor.
- But I did.
Look. The county has a new department.
It has a doctor.
You know... a headshrinker.
Right now, it's naughty little
boys he's interested in.
But he'll just love you, Daisy.
You cops are all alike.
You never believe a lady.
Joe.
Pretty good looking, huh Joe?
Hmm.
I've seen her around here before.
I'll bet she's got a lot
of dough in that purse.
Dough?
Yeah.
Dames like that are just asking
for trouble coming down here.
We decided, by the use
of applied psychology...
And with the parents.
All we...
Mrs Kowalski. We would like to...
Mrs Kowalski.
Now look.
If it's money you're wanting.
Get a load of this rock on her finger.
Now wait a minute.
That's my engagement ring.
Please don't take it. Look, I can
get you all the money you want.
You can, huh?
Scram.
Scram!
No, no.
No!
Please, no.
[ Screaming. ]
[ Screaming! ]
[ Screaming. ]
She can identify every one of you.
Do it.
[ Gunshot! ]
"I inherited the Purple Gang again."
"This time at the homicide level."
"Criminal assault."
"Shot between the eyes."
"The gang had grown up alright."
Alright. Straighten the line, boys.
Dorsey.
Which one is Dorsey?
Okay, boys. We'll bottle you up
until you know your own names.
Take them out. All except that one.
Okay. Let's go.
Don't lay a hand on them, George.
They're juveniles.
Let them sit.
This one has grown up.
Come on.
Book him. The charge is murder.
The name is Joe Milford.
- Yes, sir.
Just a minute.
He's a juvenile.
He is past twenty.
I've got his birth date.
He'll be twenty-one by the
time he comes to trial.
And we've got his prints on the
pistol we found in the weeds.
You figure out what he did and who to
and I hope you can sleep nights, Doc.
"Joe Milford went up for life."
"But one conviction
doesn't destroy a gang."
"Liquor running increased in volume."
"And in violence."
"The Purple Gang became the
most notorious in America."
"The Olsens got what they paid for."
"Honeyboy Willard applied his rules with
great brutality as his power increased."
Tell him to come out, Hank.
I got the pay-off right here, cop.
Come on.
What are you afraid of?
He has the money.
You see him?
He's right there in the alley.
[ Gunshot! ]
I want to get out of this stinking city.
I want to breathe again.
Why should I sweat because one cop
got rubbed out? A crooked cop at that.
You can still live up
in the country, Bill.
Chief, we planned this for years.
Gladys is furnishing the cottage.
I have promised Sheriff Murrow I'd
resign here on the first of the month...
And take over the substation.
We are planting a garden.
Food on the trees. Carrots right out of
the ground. Fresh air. Green fields.
And Gladys is going to have a baby.
And I'll drive the ten miles into
town just to hand you a cigar.
Now let me go, huh.
Congratulations, Bill. Great. I know how
long you and Gladys have wanted it.
So, promote Murphy to Inspector.
Let him head up your new squad.
And if I can give the police any
help out there in the boondocks...
Just holler.
Listen to me just for a
minute before you go, Bill.
Yes. That cop was crooked alright.
You know as I do he was probably the
only foul ball we had on the force.
Yeah, I'll buy that. Then why
get so worked up about it?
Well, I am worked up
about what it means.
That Purple Gang is
walking real tall, Bill.
This town is in for a fearful
mess if they aren't spiked.
You're the only man qualified to take
the lone-hand assignment I'm offering.
Bill.
It's the city and the people who
are going to suffer in the long run.
I'm desperate.
Gladys.
I'm in here, Bill.
Hey, you can help me.
You shouldn't be reaching
above your head like that.
Come on down.
Thank you. Those are
old wives tales, Billy.
You got a lot done?
- Oh. Pretty much.
I want you to help me. I want to
push the dresser against the wall.
Alrighty.
It must go under the mirror there. Okay?
You let me handle this.
There we go.
Tell me. What did the chief say when
you told him you were quitting?
I... didn't quit.
They have had a cop
killing in town, Gladys.
Bill.
After all the things we've planned.
- Honey.
Would you tell me what's so special
about a policeman getting shot?
Ordinary citizens get murdered
and detectives go to work.
Just routine.
But when it's a policeman...
I know it seems that way but
there's something big about.
Yeah. That's right.
The whole police
department is disrupted.
You and I. Our lives.
Our plans.
They don't mean anything
at all, do they Bill.
Gladys.
A cop was shot.
Forget everything else.
Gladys, the load of buckshot
fired into that policeman...
Was aimed right at every
citizen in America.
Even the newspapers say
he was dishonest, Bill.
That's not the point.
Not the point at all.
Look, when an ordinary
citizen is shot a law is broken.
A serious law and I do as much as
anyone else to get the murderer.
But when a cop is shot that is
an attack on the law itself.
The whole structure of law.
The security of people. You and me.
Babies yet to be born.
- Bill.
Gladys, this is no ordinary killing.
A man in a uniform doesn't count
outside of his own little circle...
But blasting that uniform is ugly
vicious contempt for all law.
How long did you promise
to stay with the department?
It's a one-man assignment.
Use every facility. All the men I need.
Put a lasting crimp in that gang.
What do you say, honey?
Well, I married a policeman.
Come on, honey.
Let's get the rest of
this stuff in order.
You let me do this.
You grab that thing, huh.
- Alright.
"I took over my new job and
refreshed my memory."
"In the general file was some old
faces and some that were new."
"Honeyboy Willard.
I knew him well enough."
"Those Hastings Street
days were far behind him."
"His pal, Hank Smith."
"I was always curious about him."
"He had a decent home, a doting mother."
"No father."
"The Olsen brothers."
"Eddie and Tom. Older, the brains."
"Albert."
"Little Al. A very tough guy."
"Harry Axler."
"Bob Fletcher."
"Hoodlums out of New York."
"As I looked at these faces."
"I felt as though the job I had
taken on was a sentence for life."
"This one."
"A professional killer out
of St Louis and Chicago."
"For hire at a price."
"A cold, deadly murder machine."
"His name."
"Killer Burke."
So. I was on my way to Chicago.
When I heard about the gravy
train you boys got in Detroit and...
I figured to get onboard.
So I made a little detour.
Some detour, huh Eddie?
I thought maybe we could
do a little business.
You got a load of liquor going to Chi...
I thought maybe you need a good chopper.
Yeah, we got a load of liquor
going and all the guards we need.
A three-truck convoy and it
leaves Dearborn at midnight.
Why do you tell me that?
- To warn you.
If that's the information
you came here to get.
If anything happens to that
convoy en-route, my...
Boys will know who to look for.
Now.
What did you come here for, Killer?
You boys got me all wrong.
I'm not trying to muscle in.
I'm a big-time operator
just looking for work.
Didn't you check me?
When I phoned you yesterday
I told you to contact Big Al.
[ Telephone ]
We heard you.
This is a direct wire to Miami.
In one second Al Capone
will be on the other end.
If you're not like this with Scarface...
Well.
We got a few professionals here too.
Hello boss?
You didn't tell me this
was a zoo up here.
Yeah. Gorillas.
Is this guy level, Al?
Yeah, he's my boy.
I want you should lose
him up there for a while.
He done me a nice job.
Okay, Al.
How's everything down there?
How is the weather?
Sunny.
Yeah. It's sunny here too, Al.
Yeah. Bye-bye.
Well, boys.
Now that my references are okay.
Yeah. You're okay, Burke.
But you understand.
We can't be too careful.
Well, no harm done.
But you boys were asleep
in this town at that.
How do you mean that, Burke?
There is big business going on.
The boys are here from St Louis.
Forget it.
No outside bunch will
ever get started in Detroit.
We use our brains here.
Not just blubber and
guts like in Chicago.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, without a crystal ball I predict
there's going to be a big-time snatch.
Egan's Rats are in here.
I met them in St Louis.
Who are they after?
I didn't get no name.
They offered me a job.
It's a bit out of my line.
I'm just giving you boys the dope.
All I know is.
It's a big-time gambler.
Mr Scofield.
Yeah?
I'm the chauffeur the
car agency sent over.
I don't need you until 4am when I close.
And I only need one guy to drive a car.
Oh.
What is this, a kidnapping
in broad daylight?
It sure ain't a waltz, Mr Scofield.
You're a dead duck, my boy.
I got some powerful friends.
Come on, Pop. Let's go.
- I mustn't get excited.
I got a heart condition.
- Mr Scofield goes bye-bye.
You haven't heard the
last of Mr Scofield.
What do you mean, heart condition?
It is me, Fish.
Can you hear me?
It is Fish Scofield.
Where are you calling from Fish?
I'm out in the country, naked.
Naked.
He's naked.
What does he mean, lost his shirt?
Listen, I pay you for protection
and I get kidnapped.
It cost me fifty thousand.
Fifty grand.
And even so they dump me
out on the sticks naked.
I had to pay cash, small bills.
Three tough guys.
Come out and get me in the car.
Where are you calling from, Fish?
We'll pick you up.
Write it down. Here, hold this.
I am out at the farmhouse near the lake.
Take Route 16.
Until you get to an electric sign.
Then turn left.
"The Resignation today of
New York Mayor Jimmy Walker."
"Has ended the inquiry into
the conduct of his office."
"After proving their ability
in one kidnapping..."
"The St Louis visitors tried to muscle
in on the Olsen brothers' territory."
"Then Honeyboy and his staff
set a trap for the Egan Rats."
"Baiting it with an invitation
to join the Purple Gang."
Where are they?
You got them tied to a tree someplace?
I invited them up here.
- Here?
Why here?
Here, want a slug?
Sure. Go ahead.
- No liquor.
What? What's with that?
No liquor, no junk and no broads
when I'm running this show.
What's the play, Honeyboy? Come on.
The three lugs that snatched
Scofield are on their way up here.
His brother Eddie offered
them a piece of the gang.
A piece of the Purples?
Now if that ain't a laugh, huh?
They are from St Louis like Burke said.
They're on their way
up here to talk a deal.
They want to set up a kidnapping racket.
To kidnap one gambler a week.
In St Louis they call them...
Egan's Rats.
Too bad they didn't
bring Egan with them.
Whoever he is.
Let's go.
We'll catch them outside.
Right.
Get on the fire door, Al.
- Right.
Where are they?
Easy, Killer. They will be on time.
Why don't we meet them outdoors?
I hired this place for a clean job.
A clean getaway and no traces.
That's the way we work.
'Welcome to Egan's Rats.
Knock twice and walk in'.
Sounds alright.
These boys have a sense of humor.
- Yeah, that's true.
"The newspapers seemed to
be proud of the Purples."
"Detroit wasn't letting
Chicago have all the play."
"When I rounded up a few
of Detroit's own gang."
"And called in a few private citizens
who could identify them if they would."
"All over America, the ordinary citizen
was scared to fulfil his civic duty."
"These were dangerous times."
"However, one of the residents
of the apartment may prove..."
"To have courage enough to
speak up. So I could still hope."
[ Buzzer ]
Line-up. Inspector Harley. Line-up.
Mr Harley, I have something to tell you.
I know, Daisy. You killed the
three men at the Milaflores.
Are you kidding? It was my cousin Luke.
He didn't get in the main headlines.
He's back here among the medicine Ads.
See?
It says 'Luke Summers'.
It says 'heart attack'.
But it's me that did it.
I levelled on him.
Well, really.
Our police department.
Alright. Bring them in.
Hank Smith. Alright Hank, step forward.
Hank Smith, born in Detroit.
Product of Hastings.
Reform School conviction.
Parole, petty theft.
Store theft, a mugger.
No adult convictions.
Known hoodlum.
Could have been at the
Milaflores apartments.
Can anyone finger him?
If any one of you can identify these
men it's your civic duty to speak up.
Alright.
Al Olsen.
Step forward, Al.
Al Olsen.
Youngest of the Olsen brothers.
Known hoodlum. Liquor,
gambling, rackets, protection.
Have you ever been in
the Milaflores flats, Al?
I...
Was born there.
Thomas Allen Burke.
Step up, Burke.
Thomas Allen Burke.
Alias 'Killer Burke'.
Believed to be a hired killer.
Believed to have worked in St Louis
and Chicago. No police record.
Arrested in Chicago but not held.
You got any friends in Chicago, Killer?
Chicago?
Where is that?
Step back, Burke.
William Joseph Willard.
Step forward, Willard.
William Joseph Willard.
Alias 'Honeyboy' Willard.
Juvenile conviction. Theft.
Paroled.
Turn around and let the
audience see your profile.
Profile.
You've come a long way from Hastings
Street haven't you, Honeyboy.
Yeah, Harley.
I haven't stopped yet.
What became of your old grandparents?
They are where you should be, copper.
Dead.
Send them all out. This one I can hold.
- Yeah. You try it.
My lawyer is in your office now.
Your lawyer is tied up in court.
Judge Stone called a case of his.
I asked him to.
Honeyboy, I'm going to
hold you every hour I can.
You can't lock me up.
Put him in a cell.
Let me out of here you hear, officer.
I don't want to be in this cell.
I want to talk to Harley. Do you hear?
You get me my lawyer. You hear me?
Let me out of here.
Where is my lawyer?
I oughtn't to be here.
Let me get out of here.
Look, Harley.
Harley. Get me a lawyer, will you.
Let me get out of here.
I tell you what I'll do.
"With no evidence and not
much hope of getting any."
"All I could do was harass
the gang at every turn."
"And hope for a break."
"I took out search warrants for
the Olsen brothers' offices."
"But I knew their spies at HQ tipped
them the minute the warrant was signed."
"Their front was solid."
"And their bookkeeping ingenious."
Alright, boys.
That will do it.
Look. Rousting us like Inspector
this won't do you any good. Here.
Have a cigar.
- No thank you.
He won't even touch a cigar.
Tainted?
I don't smoke them.
The cops are all honest.
- They found out it pays.
Or they know planted
money when they see it.
How many of these is it
going to take, Harley?
And how often?
I don't smoke those things either.
Another honest cop?
A wise one, rather.
Okay, let's level.
Harley, I want to buy you.
Leave town. Take a trip.
Live like a king. Anywhere.
Eddie, I'm out to bust your rackets...
And tie up most of the Purples you've
been using for the rough stuff.
So we can't deal, huh?
- Uhuh.
There's more than one
way to roast a weenie.
You and a million like you dare not
touch a policeman you can't buy.
Your friend in Chicago
found that out long since.
Okay, Inspector.
We keep our killings among ourselves.
That makes you cops happy.
- You are wrong.
The more gang killings the stronger one
mob gets. It's the public that suffers.
The public?
- Yeah. The public.
Look, Harley. We do a public good.
Nobody wants this Volstead Act.
We supply liquor, good liquor
to over half the country.
Okay, Eddie. You keep up the bluff.
But I'm telling you I will
raid every gambling joint.
Bust every slot machine.
Clean out every house and jail
your girls, beginning right now.
There are search warrants too, Harley.
Remember the constitution of the USA.
You throw the constitution at me?
I'll get the search warrants in spite of
the bail bondsmen and crooked clerks...
You keep around the
courthouse to tip you off.
I'm out to bust you, Eddie. Wide open.
And plow the pieces under.
Only an honest cop could talk like that.
What are you going to do, Eddie?
I can run the liquor business anywhere.
In Podunk Iowa if I had to.
The organisation is set up.
Salesmen are out.
Tom has all the figures in his head.
He invented the double
bookkeeping system.
Okay, Eddie.
You take the liquor.
I'll keep the city.
Which way are you going, Al?
- Hold it, Al.
Blood is thicker than the
milk that Honeyboy drinks.
I'm going where the action is.
You're muscling in, Honeyboy huh?
To trucking?
The shipments to Chicago, Kansas City.
Even that lousy Omaha deal.
Anything that comes through the
tunnel or over the river is yours.
Keep it.
Run it from Council Bluffs
Iowa for all I care.
Do I hire your boys to
protect the trucks?
You hire nothing.
Run your own business.
We got half the prohibition
agents on the payroll now.
All you need is protection
from hijackers.
Get your big fat friend in
Chicago to set that up for you.
Wow. Aren't you feeling big.
Yeah.
Going all-out for straight shakedown.
Gambling.
I got an idea for a big one, Eddie.
A real big one.
A protection racket.
You got it, Honeyboy. It's all yours.
Tom and I will operate from out of town.
Stick around for a while if you
want to watch some changes.
No thank you.
But you watch out a certain police
inspector don't call the changes on you.
You can't buy him and
you sure can't scare him.
Kill him and you got the Feds and
every Dick in your state on your neck.
One more thing.
He's on one special assignment.
Just for the Purples.
You let me skin that cat.
Yeah. I'd like to see
you try to skin that one.
I will, Eddie.
With brains.
You say you can't touch him?
I'll tell you how you touch him.
You find his weakest spot.
His rawest nerve.
That's what you touch.
This isn't 1917 anymore.
We're in the 30s, huh Hank?
We go modern.
There's a word you probably
haven't heard, Eddie.
Psychology.
I'll spell it for you.
Where is this guy? What's keeping him?
He'll show up.
He's the best cat-burglar
in the business.
That's why we hired him.
[ Dog whimpering noises ]
What kept you?
- They kept a dog. I had to soothe it.
What's the set up?
The old lady who stays there
went over to her neighbors.
And?
The dame you want is in bed reading.
I got the window open aways and
opened both doors. They're unlocked.
The front and the back.
Let's do it.
If her husband comes home.
After all, he is a...
The minute he leaves the station there
will be a fast car here to tip us off.
Killer, take this guy
and go round the back.
He'll take that job in the
country after tonight.
I'm pregnant.
Leave her alone.
Inspector Harley.
I have sent for the priest.
Prayers can't bring her back.
I've seen that look before. You have it
in your mind to go out there and kill.
Sister, my wife laid there for 3 days.
Seeing nothing, knowing nobody.
Driven crazy by a pack of mad dogs.
And the baby. The baby she wanted so
much. What do you expect a man to do?
You have a higher obligation.
You represent the law. A force for good.
What is in your mind is evil.
The evil has already been done.
It lies in there. Go in and look at it.
It's all my fault. I swear by
god they will pay for this.
Why do you blame yourself?
Because it's my fault.
I could have quit this job. It's my
fault she's dead. They'll pay for it.
Do not place yourself above the law.
Either man's law.
Or God's law.
"But the Purple Gang gave me no peace."
"And no time to think
of personal tragedy."
"Or of revenge."
"Abruptly, the city exploded
into a new era of violence."
"Terrorism. Forcing the cleaners and
dyers to pay the gang for protection."
"It was a very shrewd racket."
"Dry cleaners and dyers are the
most vulnerable for a shakedown."
"Other merchants own their own stock."
"If it is damaged or destroyed
the loss is theirs."
"But cleaners' stock."
"Belongs to the public."
"Damage it and he's out of business."
"Facing ruin or death
if they didn't pay."
"Eventual bankruptcy if they did."
"Cleaners from all parts of the city
sent their delegates to confer."
"Each delegate represented from fifty
to 2 or 3 hundred cleaners and dyers."
"Wholesale and retail from
all parts of the state."
Like I say.
This Purple Gang.
The police, they arrest a dozen of them.
And soon, a dozen more take their place.
This has been going on for years.
It will never stop.
We can't pay and pay to keep our homes
and shops from being bombed and burned.
We either go out of
business or we fight.
That is right.
We use our protection
money to buy protection.
Not to be suckers for a racket.
Mr Orlofsky is right.
I say fight fire with fire.
So. I have brought Mr Licovetti here.
With some of his friends from New York.
Chicago.
Even the words are
scared of them Purples.
Chicago then.
I've only got a few words to say, gents.
Let the word get around.
We are all Mafia.
"But the word 'Mafia'..."
"Held no terrors for the Purples."
"With great cunning one
gang hunted out the other."
"In surprise attacks
Licovetti led the Mafia."
"Too shrewd to be trapped."
"Honeyboy Willard used his
favorite weapon in retaliation."
"The gang war raged."
"We arrested all we could legally hold."
"The big ones of course
escaped the net."
"That's always the way."
"The Purple Gang's take from all
sources exceeded one million dollars."
"This golden magnet attracted the
racketeers and the big-shots."
"It also drew to its ranks the
underworld scum of a dozen cities."
"Prostitutes."
"Vagrants."
"Hop-heads."
"As fast as we brought them in."
"Others took their places."
"Like many cities in
America then and now."
"Detroit was a sick town."
"The people were apathetic."
"Civic duty had become a comic phrase."
"So had patriotism, honor..."
"All the words that once stirred decent
men to crusade on the side of the law."
"The people of Detroit
needed a shock treatment."
"Suddenly they got it through an unusual
experiment in civic government."
"A one-man Grand Jury."
Please sit down.
I'm sorry to have kept you waiting.
Somebody said you wanted a
top-secret conference, Judge.
Something ought to be
secret around here.
The chief and I agree that
I should try to get this...
One-man Grand Jury set
up as quickly as possible.
It's certainly a weapon no-one
has ever thought of before.
We meet the State's Attorney
and the Governor this evening.
And a weapon we can use.
You see sir, on search warrants
and warrants of arrest...
We are always being beaten to the
punch by tip-offs from inside sources.
I know.
Spies everywhere.
Money corrupts strange people.
All I can say is this, Inspector.
If we put this over...
I'll rely on your word and integrity.
To sign any warrant, search or arrest...
And you'll be able to move in complete
secrecy making raids and arrests.
"The judge cut red tape to nothing."
"He relied only on the integrity
of the officer requesting..."
"Search warrants or warrants
of arrest, and signed them."
"Before the ink on the
warrants was dry..."
"Raiding squads were on their way."
"The one-man Grand Jury functioned
as a full jury never could."
"In those wild days and along 17 miles
of this nation's frontier..."
"Scores of dishonest prohibition
agents were indicted and arrested."
"The Detroit river was no
longer bridged with bribes."
"The flying squads arrested
every hoodlum they could find."
"But we never saw the heads
of either gang in any line-up."
"We kept at it around the clock."
"Using every legal device we could think
of to hold the suspect overnight."
"Unlawful assembly."
"No visible means of support."
"Held for investigation.
All the old hackneyed charges."
"Even down to a parking ticket."
"But no break came."
"Even if we found the big ones."
"We could never pin anything on them."
Another batch came in.
I put this record on top.
I thought you might want to
see him before the line-up.
'Henry Abel Smith'.
'Hank Smith'.
Where did they pick him up?
Down on Hastings Street.
Hastings Street.
They booked him for loitering.
Get him in here.
Cigarette, Hank?
Sit down, Hank.
This card says you were picked
up on a charge of loitering.
Like a common tramp.
How much of a bond is that? Ten bucks?
Alright, Hank. Let's try again.
What took you back to Hastings Street?
Looking for a place to hide?
You used to have a fine
old mother, Hank.
She's still alive.
Did you see her last night?
Yeah.
Yeah. I seen her.
She threatened to turn me in.
My own mother.
She said I was the worst
kind of snake and menace.
My own mother said I deserved to burn.
Her own son.
You know...
You're a nervous wreck.
What is it? You junking?
No, Lieutenant... Inspector.
There's not a mark on me. I'll show you.
Never mind.
Well strip me down. Examine me.
I never touch the stuff. Never.
Maybe an aspirin or something.
Maybe I'd be better off
on the junk at that.
Look, Hank.
I'll give you a way to make your mother
think you're better than Horatio Alger.
I don't get it.
In this city there are two
gangs at each other's throats.
I want the big-shots. I'll settle for a
line on one bunch or the other.
Look Inspector, don't ask
me to rat on the Purples.
I couldn't do it.
I wouldn't.
- Then give me the other ones.
The big-shots in the Mafia.
I'll settle for that.
I would have to find out.
Well, find out, Hank.
Do one decent thing.
They ship dope mostly.
Look here, Hank.
There's a small restaurant by the river.
Do you know it?
Yeah. I know it.
Any message you want to get to me.
You write on the back of your check.
The cashier will know what do with it.
She's a bright girl.
Her day was once a dick.
Is it a deal?
I just want some place to hide.
- Is it a deal, Hank?
I just want you to take the heat off me.
- Is it a deal?
Yeah. It's a deal.
But just the Mafia.
Just a simple message on
the back of your check.
You can trust the girl.
Go on home.
"The two rival gangs fought on."
"The prize? Every racket in the city."
"But the Purple Gang
more than held its own."
"The Cleaners' war never let up."
"In that the Mafia had tackled
a job it couldn't finish."
"As many as 40 explosions in 24 hours.."
"Stink bombs by the score."
"To show his contempt for the
Mafia, Honeyboy Willard..."
"Struck back viciously at the Cleaners'
president who'd hired the outside mob."
That woman saw us. Follow her.
We'll pick you up around the corner.
I saw a murder.
Come on, Daisy.
Now you are seeing them.
You used to do them.
- But I did see a murder.
Sure you did, Daisy.
I saw it.
Officer. Please.
I saw them. I'd know their faces.
Please. I must tell you.
If she looks through the mug book...
- Yeah.
She can put the
finger on all four of us.
I want to see Inspector Harley.
- It's a doctor you ought to see.
I saw it.
I would know their faces.
Nobody has any time to
bother with you, Daisy.
You're too much trouble, sister.
I saw it.
I think.
I think I saw it.
She's not going to look
through any mug book.
Follow her, Hank.
No.
What's wrong? Drive it.
No!
We got her in front. Drive.
No!
"Run down by a car."
"And shot in the head."
"Plainly, a gang killing."
"But why Daisy?"
"She never harmed anyone."
"What had she seen?"
"What did she know?"
"Why was she so important to be dragged
into this bloody jungle of crime?"
"Then Hank Smith got
courage enough to act."
Hey, what are you doing?
Stop it.
It is torn, Inspector.
The letters on it.
'BON TON FLOW'.
It could be: 'FLOWER SHOP'.
How does it feel to be
trapped in here, Hank?
You wanted to leave me alone.
I'm going to leave you alone, Hank.
All alone. For ever.
That's what it's like when
you're alone, Hank.
It's like being trapped in a closet.
Honeyboy, I swear on my mother's heart
I just tipped them about the Mafia guys.
No.
You wanted to go over
on their side, Hank.
Look. What are you talking about?
Just give me a break. Let me explain.
I don't need you.
I can do it all by myself.
All by myself, Hank.
Oh, my god. No.
No, please.
Just let me explain, Honeyboy.
"The Bon Ton flower shop was the mark."
"The squad's search
warrant called for dope."
"Heroine in a flowerpot."
"Nothing could be delivered
with a more innocent front."
"Dope in a flower stem."
"Marijuana in a tulip."
I think we got it all, Inspector.
- Good.
How long have you been
running this place.?
Did you ever hear of the Mafia?
I said, did you ever hear of the Mafia?
Mister, please. Give me protection.
I'll tell you all I know. I am...
I'm just hired to run this place.
Alright. If you'd like a quiet chat
we'll go where you'll be safe.
Come on.
"The shot came from a silencer
on a .22 calibre pistol."
"In those days you could
buy silencers by mail."
"A sniper for the Mafia."
"He'd made certain the
florist would never talk."
You know, Honeyboy.
I still think we ought to go
over to Canada for a while.
And let the Mafia take over?
They're feeling pretty big now.
They knocked off one of their
own boys in that flower shop.
I mean, the police.
We know they're rousting everybody.
We got business in Detroit, Al.
Mafia business.
Besides, what are lawyers for, huh?
There they are.
Go down and check the load, Al.
Right.
Chief. I'll be in when I finish checking
the sales slips from the flower shop.
We may have something.
Anything, Murphy?
- Yeah, maybe.
These two gangs are overdue
for a head-on collision.
I'd like to fend this one off
if possible. What you got?
Every big-shot hoodlum you ever heard of
sometime or other runs a flower shop.
A front for bookmaking, selling dope.
Pushing counterfeit. Lots of things.
Here. Take a look at those.
I think this is our best bet to find
the main guys for that Mafia bunch.
Mafias or Purples. I want the
big-shots and only the big-shots.
Five times in three days.
Flowers were delivered to an
apartment at the Collingwood Manor.
The dates on these show this shop opened
just at the time that gang war started.
It's a toss-up which to raid first.
The Collingwood or these others.
This is our best lead, Murphy.
We'll case the Collingwood
apartments and then hit it.
Put some of your best men out
there to keep an eye on the place.
Here they are.
These boys are Harry Keys and
Irving Mills. You remember them.
Yeah. Sure.
The old Sugar House gang.
Just kids then.
You got sent up over that social worker.
Yeah. We got shipped off to school.
We graduated.
You got a war on your hands.
Mafia.
That's why we hired you.
Does the name scare you?
Just put us in the way of making
a few bucks, Honeyboy.
Attaboy.
We got a little job tonight.
A place called the Collingwood Manor.
The joint has been cased.
We know the apartment.
There is three, maybe four of
the main Mafia holed up there.
Maybe we could ask
them to come over here.
And talk business like we did before.
I don't think the Mafia
would go for it, Killer.
We'll figure something out on the way.
Better get some of the good stuff, Rico.
I'll get it.
What do you hear from the Purples?
Honeyboy was keeping
to the river mostly.
They got a boat.
I'd like to torpedo him and his boat.
Take out the head of the Purples and
you write your own ticket in this town.
Alright, let's smarten up this joint
a bit. We've got company coming.
Dames?
That ain't company. That's living.
Alright. Let's get rid of some of these
flowerpots. They may start wondering.
What about that guy? Who is he?
He's just a juice-head.
Don't be so sure. He slaps his
feet down like a harness bull.
Drive by him slow and then turn around
and pull up in front of the Collingwood.
Excuse me, sir.
But could you spare a dime for a
gentleman who needs some money?
That's all? Thank you.
You're a gentleman.
Well?
What do you think?
He's just a panhandler.
Come on, let's get this
job done. Get ready.
I got a good look at the man
sitting next to the driver.
Where are you calling from?
The Collingwood Manor.
That's all I can tell you.
I just got on the case an hour ago.
Good work, Mac. We'll be right over.
We'll throw everything we
have around that block.
It's the dames. Let them in.
Yes, sir.
Up against the wall.
You leave me alone.
I got witnesses. You hear me?
This time we have witnesses.
Witnesses?
Get away from men now. You hear.
Get away from here.
Get out of here. You hear me?
Leave me alone.
Get away from me. Please leave me alone.
Get out of here. Go on.
Get away from me.
Let me out of here.
Harley.
Harley. You listen to me.
You can't blame me for what
happened to your wife.
She was crazy. She jumped
out that window. Do you hear?
Go out of here!
Get away.
Get away, get away.
Get him out of here.
What do you want?
What do you want from me, officer?
I told you, didn't I?
Leave me alone. Do you hear me?
Get away from me.
Get away from me.
Don't put me in there, I said.
Don't put me in there.
I don't want to go in here.
Let me out!
"Since the end of the Purples."
"Only the times have changed."
"The daily headlines remain the same."
"Yet any intelligent adult..."
"Could pick out any youngster
earmarked for emotional troubles."
"The signs are plain."
"But only the civic awareness
of the American public..."
"Can bring an end to
rat-pack terrorism."
..f-s..
The Honorable James Roosevelt."
"Chairman of the Committee
on Narcotics..."
"Of the California delegation in the
Congress of The United States."
Ladies and gentlemen.
I had the privilege of previewing
the picture you're about to see.
It struck me as having more
than surface meaning.
The events in this picture occurred
in the late 1920s and early 30s.
In those days of the Purple Gang.
Crime grew largely out
of illicit liquor running.
But it merged quickly into racketeering.
Kidnapping. Dope running.
Today, crime stems from dope...
Organised racketeering
and organised gambling.
It's like a disease.
Sickening whole cities.
Threatening the nation.
Outbreaks predictable.
Month by month. Year by year.
This picture graphically
illustrates this sickness.
But it cannot provide the cure.
That's up to you and to me.
To all of us.
Thank you.
"This is the Detroit river."
"A peaceful boundary between
two friendly countries."
"Except for those years of national
prohibition, the 1920s and early 30s."
"Then, the river was a battleground
for rum-runners and hijackers."
"For more than a decade
illegal liquor from Canada..."
"Crossed the river in a steady
torrent supplying half the nation."
"The estimated cost was one
billion dollars for the dry years."
"A figure greater than the total
amount spent on education..."
"In the state of Michigan
over a ten-year period."
"Scores of murders went unreported."
"And the river hid the evidence."
"New York had its Hell's Kitchen."
"Chicago had Cicero."
"In Detroit, we had both."
"It was called Hastings Street."
"Here in the slums, penny-ante
punks began to appear in gangs."
"From petty theft, they graduated
to hold-ups and shakedowns."
"Imitating the big city mobs."
I paid.
Mama. Pay them.
Give it.
Hey, let's get out of here.
Come on.
Police.
Police!
Seventh Precinct.
Alright. I'll get him.
Yep?
It's the Purples again.
Get Lieutenant Harley on it.
Lieutenant Harley is off duty.
Okay. I'll get him.
[ Telephone ]
Lieutenant Harley speaking.
How many?
Alright. I'll be right there.
What is it, Bill?
Gladys. Gladys, you're trembling.
Take it easy.
Do you have to go now? Can't you
wait and see about it in the morning?
Not this one.
This is as bad as when you
were in the detective bureau.
Aren't you in the juvenile division?
- Yeah. But this is a bit different.
It's a string of robberies with an
angle that's definitely not juvenile.
It's down on Hastings Street.
Now you go back to bed and
read your book. Don't worry.
The Purple Gang?
He named them himself, Papa did.
No. The law named them after
Jimmy Zinkowski. A Polish kid.
They couldn't say his name so
they call him 'Jimmy Purple'.
What's the difference who named them?
Bad. Bad.
Bad, officer. Bad.
It's that Purple Gang, Lieutenant.
They're robbing every store
up and down Hastings Street.
Sam's place too, Lieutenant.
Almost every store in the neighborhood.
They have gone wild.
- Where's that grandson of yours?
Lieutenant, please.
He can't have nothing to do with this.
Where is he?
Lieutenant, why don't you
go after them real bad ones?
The Purples.
I know where some of them
hide out. In the basement.
Call the station. Get a squad.
Maybe someone will identify
a few of them this time.
We've been through this mess before,
Lieutenant. Never convicted any of them.
But this isn't just another penny-ante
theft. This has another smell to it.
Where is he?
Upstairs studying in his room.
But you picked on him before.
Wait. It ain't good. Please.
Don't be frightened, son.
What's all the noise?
Can't a guy have a...
Hello, Lieutenant.
Sonny-boy, you've grown up
some since I saw you last.
Officer. Please don't
remind him of them days.
Yes. He's only a boy.
Boys will be boys.
He's a good boy now.
He's a student. He reads. Reads.
There's been a lot of robberies
lately with a phony protection angle.
Your own grandparents got hit.
I thought I'd take you in and
maybe you'd name a few names.
You can't. You can't shut him up.
Please leave him alone.
- Pop. Pop.
You got a warrant, Lieutenant?
I'm not arresting you
Honeyboy until I have to.
Right now, I ask you to cooperate.
Not until you got something on me.
Bring a warrant.
Okay, Pop.
Downstairs.
Take care of the groceries.
Come on out, Hank.
Where you going, Hank?
- Let me go. I can sneak out...
You don't have to leave.
Stay for a while. Come on.
Stay.
What, are you scared of something?
I don't like to be shut up. You know.
So?
So, I stick around, I guess?
Yeah.
He's not so smart, Hank.
After tonight, Hank.
The chips are down.
You know what we do?
We pick the best men.
And we hold them together.
You know what makes a gang
stick together no matter what?
Glue.
Yeah, wise-guy.
I'll tell you what it is.
I'll tell you what it is.
It's one guy.
One guy they can look up to.
See.
People are like sheep, Hank.
They like to follow.
Not somebody they respect.
No. There's only one thing they respect.
You know what it is?
Fear.
That's the number than makes
the world go round, Hank.
The number we play.
And do you know who they fear the most?
The guy with the most guts.
And that's me, Hank.
Me with you.
Together, we got more
guts than any of them.
Yeah.
Yeah.
- Yeah.
Let's go.
Get back, you guys.
Stay in line.
Don't make it so I have
to belt you, son.
Boys, what's the matter? You crazy?
You're at the police station.
You're under arrest.
He's just a boy.
I'm from the Welfare Department.
Book them. Book all of them.
- Yes, sir.
Alright, line up.
Wait a minute.
Some of these young men are under age.
They aren't young men, Miss.
They're hoodlums.
The law states that no juvenile can
be locked up with an adult criminal.
I know the law, Miss. I already have
a special tank prepared just for them.
Does that satisfy you?
No.
The whole system is wrong.
Those boys should not
be locked up at all.
You see, what youth needs nowadays
is a little psychological adjustment.
Three syllable words, lady.
How do you expect a policeman
to understand them?
Now look, as a welfare worker...
- We'll handle this, ma'am.
Lock them up together, Harry.
I'll have charges filed and things set
by the time court opens in the morning.
I will have to call you back.
I have someone in the office.
Excuse me.
I said, are we to return to barbarism in
the handling of your young offenders?
Take this case for instance.
Here. Pete Williams.
Sign here.
Joe Milford.
Sign here.
Is it all there?
It had better be.
Well, hurry up and sign.
Boy, if you're a juvenile I'm
in my second childhood.
You look it, copper.
- Get out.
Who sprung them?
The welfare bunch got
to the juvenile judge.
Alright. Lay off you monkeys. Lay off.
There's a meeting in the chief's office,
Lieutenant. He's expecting you.
A young man, William Joseph Willard.
Nicknamed 'Honeyboy'.
Now there's a warrant
issued for his arrest.
Without any real reason.
And surely without thought to the untold
psychological damage that may be done.
Now, he is sensitive and intelligent.
He suffers from a slight claustrophobia.
He dislikes being in
a closed room alone.
Isn't it our duty to aid him?
Not to brutalize him more.
You take this bespectacled
eyewitness last night.
A big, burly policeman manhandling boys.
Just a minute, Miss.
These are not nice little boys being
ill-treated by big bad policemen.
They're tough, you understand. They're
tough and dangerous and getting worse.
Go easy, Lieutenant.
Dr Riorden here and Miss MacNamara.
I know who they are and what they are.
I also know the gang of punks
we rounded up last night.
The Purple Gang.
And to them you don't spout
big words out of books.
They have grown up without love.
Without home life.
With no real feeling of security.
Look, Miss.
And you too, doctor. You have to
start your work in the cradle.
When kids turn criminal and start
running in gangs it's too late.
With this bunch you've just
turned loose it is way too late.
They're products of their environment.
Aren't we all products
of our environment?
You say they suffered shock in
childhood. Came from broken homes.
So do thousands of kids. Yet they manage
to grow up and make decent citizens.
Look. I tell you, chief.
The only solution now is to get tough.
I'll get every one of them set free as
fast as you arrest them in this manner.
Look, chief. It isn't just penny-ante
theft with these Purples anymore.
They're shaking down on
a phony protection racket.
Everyone we booked had money.
Each one of them could post bond.
Do you know what that means, Miss?
It means they are getting money together
for a slush fund. Bondsmen, lawyers.
It means they are big time. It means you
can't stop them with half-baked notions.
Are you finished, Lieutenant?
When you are, I have a
report to get out to the chief.
Okay. I am finished.
Look, chief. Take me off this
kiddie-cop detail, will you.
Give me anything.
Bunco, robbery, homicide.
Yeah, homicide.
That's where I'll run into
your nice little friends again.
At the end of the road.
Only then it will be murder.
They're headed for it.
Somebody is doing their thinking
for them and it isn't you.
"Someone was doing
their thinking alright."
"And I had a hunch who it was."
"Honeyboy Willard stepped into big-time
crime at its most dangerous level."
"Hijacking the liquor runners
on the Detroit waterfront."
"For their first victims, they picked a
liquor-running combine on the river."
"The Olsen brothers."
"Eddie, the eldest, was
the brains of the bunch."
"Eddie hated violence."
"Official bribery was his formula
for success in liquor running."
"Tom. The middle brother. A ladies man."
"The bookkeeper for the gang."
"Al. The youngest."
"He thrived on dangerous action."
Hold it.
You can't fight an army.
Tom. What do you reckon they are?
I don't know, but they mean business.
A bunch of punks.
Is this a hijack?
It could be.
Do you want to give me your gun?
I don't carry one.
Have you got one?
Give him your gun, Tom.
You ain't got a chance.
You couldn't sell a pint of that liquor
from here to the Rocky Mountains.
Do you know whose stuff
you're hijacking, buster?
Yeah, buster.
The Olsen brothers.
You are Eddie, right?
That's right.
Well, I am the Purple Gang.
We always start out
with the big ones first.
The Purple Gang, huh?
- Yeah.
[ Breaking bottles sound ]
What's your game?
Protection. You pay regular
and nothing will happen.
We're paying half the liquor
agents on the river front already.
This is protection, not bribery.
Okay. Call it off.
How much?
One thousand dollars every
load we catch you with.
And we'll be watching.
I'll pay you for this load now.
Ever see one this big before?
I thought not.
Now listen.
This hijacking is only going
to get you one thing.
Blasted.
You want to talk a deal?
Alright. We are spreading out.
Liquor, gambling. The works.
We can pay for your kind of talent.
If you want to talk a deal be at
the Sugar House tomorrow night.
Alone?
Bring one other if you like.
He ain't got that kind of guts, Eddie.
Shut up, Al.
Do you want to shoot me, tough guy?
Make sure you got enough
guts to be there.
Unload.
"The Sugar House."
"A modest warehouse
in the Detroit slums."
"But a very rich enterprise
for the Olsen brothers."
You're right on time.
Good.
Shut the door, Tom.
Hello, tough guys.
Let me show you a real operation.
"It may have been crude
but it was highly efficient."
"Liquor from Canada poured
into the Sugar House..."
"And then out into the United
States in an enormous flood."
"And the Olsen brothers
supplied no small part of it."
"But before it reached
the thirsting millions."
"This rich flow of Canadian whiskey..."
"Was cut with raw alcohol
made directly from sugar."
"Honeyboy and Hank Smith were being
introduced to the big time that day."
"The very big time."
"But this particular load of whiskey
left the Sugar House undiluted."
"Its destination: Chicago."
"Al Capone's private stock."
"It went to him sealed and uncut."
"Right off the boat."
"Honeyboy's imagination
needed no more prodding."
"He was ready to join
with the Olsen brothers..."
"And ride that flood of liquor towards
his wildest dreams of power."
"The deal was this."
"The Olsens to supply the
business organisation."
"Honeyboy to supply a strong-armed
gang young enough to have no caution."
"And brutal enough to do anything."
"A period of bloodshed and
violence was about to begin."
"But so far, none of it should
have concerned me in homicide."
"In the regular routine of the Bureau I
probed suicides, accidents, murders."
"And even listened to
chronic confessors."
"But I couldn't get the
Purple Gang out of my mind."
"The merger of the Olsen
brother's bootlegging empire..."
"With Honeyboy's genius for organisation
was a black day for Detroit."
"I began to dread the hour I would
inherit the Purple Gang again."
"Gambling was big business.
The stakes high, the games rough."
"Most of the money easy
come from rum-runners."
"Protection of illegal gambling places
was taken over by the Purple Gang."
"They also got in on prostitution."
"And heaven help the poor girl who
didn't pay her share to the collectors."
"Since many of them were still kids they
stole candy and victimised shopkeepers."
"Stuck up grocery stores
and rolled drunks."
"The carnival of crime extended
to newspaper circulation wars."
"Fights between rival cab companies."
"Hijacking trucks."
"Destroying produce to force
market prices higher."
"Even the farmer was
caught in the middle..."
"With organised gangs forcing
city dealers to pay for protection."
So I said. Any more and you got to go.
It's either you or me, you old bag.
Lieutenant.
You ain't even listening.
Yes, Daisy. Of course I'm listening.
Like I listened when you confessed
to killing your uncle Joe.
This time it's your aunt Maud.
The time before it was some guy you
just read about in the newspapers.
You are a chronic confessor.
- But I did.
Look. The county has a new department.
It has a doctor.
You know... a headshrinker.
Right now, it's naughty little
boys he's interested in.
But he'll just love you, Daisy.
You cops are all alike.
You never believe a lady.
Joe.
Pretty good looking, huh Joe?
Hmm.
I've seen her around here before.
I'll bet she's got a lot
of dough in that purse.
Dough?
Yeah.
Dames like that are just asking
for trouble coming down here.
We decided, by the use
of applied psychology...
And with the parents.
All we...
Mrs Kowalski. We would like to...
Mrs Kowalski.
Now look.
If it's money you're wanting.
Get a load of this rock on her finger.
Now wait a minute.
That's my engagement ring.
Please don't take it. Look, I can
get you all the money you want.
You can, huh?
Scram.
Scram!
No, no.
No!
Please, no.
[ Screaming. ]
[ Screaming! ]
[ Screaming. ]
She can identify every one of you.
Do it.
[ Gunshot! ]
"I inherited the Purple Gang again."
"This time at the homicide level."
"Criminal assault."
"Shot between the eyes."
"The gang had grown up alright."
Alright. Straighten the line, boys.
Dorsey.
Which one is Dorsey?
Okay, boys. We'll bottle you up
until you know your own names.
Take them out. All except that one.
Okay. Let's go.
Don't lay a hand on them, George.
They're juveniles.
Let them sit.
This one has grown up.
Come on.
Book him. The charge is murder.
The name is Joe Milford.
- Yes, sir.
Just a minute.
He's a juvenile.
He is past twenty.
I've got his birth date.
He'll be twenty-one by the
time he comes to trial.
And we've got his prints on the
pistol we found in the weeds.
You figure out what he did and who to
and I hope you can sleep nights, Doc.
"Joe Milford went up for life."
"But one conviction
doesn't destroy a gang."
"Liquor running increased in volume."
"And in violence."
"The Purple Gang became the
most notorious in America."
"The Olsens got what they paid for."
"Honeyboy Willard applied his rules with
great brutality as his power increased."
Tell him to come out, Hank.
I got the pay-off right here, cop.
Come on.
What are you afraid of?
He has the money.
You see him?
He's right there in the alley.
[ Gunshot! ]
I want to get out of this stinking city.
I want to breathe again.
Why should I sweat because one cop
got rubbed out? A crooked cop at that.
You can still live up
in the country, Bill.
Chief, we planned this for years.
Gladys is furnishing the cottage.
I have promised Sheriff Murrow I'd
resign here on the first of the month...
And take over the substation.
We are planting a garden.
Food on the trees. Carrots right out of
the ground. Fresh air. Green fields.
And Gladys is going to have a baby.
And I'll drive the ten miles into
town just to hand you a cigar.
Now let me go, huh.
Congratulations, Bill. Great. I know how
long you and Gladys have wanted it.
So, promote Murphy to Inspector.
Let him head up your new squad.
And if I can give the police any
help out there in the boondocks...
Just holler.
Listen to me just for a
minute before you go, Bill.
Yes. That cop was crooked alright.
You know as I do he was probably the
only foul ball we had on the force.
Yeah, I'll buy that. Then why
get so worked up about it?
Well, I am worked up
about what it means.
That Purple Gang is
walking real tall, Bill.
This town is in for a fearful
mess if they aren't spiked.
You're the only man qualified to take
the lone-hand assignment I'm offering.
Bill.
It's the city and the people who
are going to suffer in the long run.
I'm desperate.
Gladys.
I'm in here, Bill.
Hey, you can help me.
You shouldn't be reaching
above your head like that.
Come on down.
Thank you. Those are
old wives tales, Billy.
You got a lot done?
- Oh. Pretty much.
I want you to help me. I want to
push the dresser against the wall.
Alrighty.
It must go under the mirror there. Okay?
You let me handle this.
There we go.
Tell me. What did the chief say when
you told him you were quitting?
I... didn't quit.
They have had a cop
killing in town, Gladys.
Bill.
After all the things we've planned.
- Honey.
Would you tell me what's so special
about a policeman getting shot?
Ordinary citizens get murdered
and detectives go to work.
Just routine.
But when it's a policeman...
I know it seems that way but
there's something big about.
Yeah. That's right.
The whole police
department is disrupted.
You and I. Our lives.
Our plans.
They don't mean anything
at all, do they Bill.
Gladys.
A cop was shot.
Forget everything else.
Gladys, the load of buckshot
fired into that policeman...
Was aimed right at every
citizen in America.
Even the newspapers say
he was dishonest, Bill.
That's not the point.
Not the point at all.
Look, when an ordinary
citizen is shot a law is broken.
A serious law and I do as much as
anyone else to get the murderer.
But when a cop is shot that is
an attack on the law itself.
The whole structure of law.
The security of people. You and me.
Babies yet to be born.
- Bill.
Gladys, this is no ordinary killing.
A man in a uniform doesn't count
outside of his own little circle...
But blasting that uniform is ugly
vicious contempt for all law.
How long did you promise
to stay with the department?
It's a one-man assignment.
Use every facility. All the men I need.
Put a lasting crimp in that gang.
What do you say, honey?
Well, I married a policeman.
Come on, honey.
Let's get the rest of
this stuff in order.
You let me do this.
You grab that thing, huh.
- Alright.
"I took over my new job and
refreshed my memory."
"In the general file was some old
faces and some that were new."
"Honeyboy Willard.
I knew him well enough."
"Those Hastings Street
days were far behind him."
"His pal, Hank Smith."
"I was always curious about him."
"He had a decent home, a doting mother."
"No father."
"The Olsen brothers."
"Eddie and Tom. Older, the brains."
"Albert."
"Little Al. A very tough guy."
"Harry Axler."
"Bob Fletcher."
"Hoodlums out of New York."
"As I looked at these faces."
"I felt as though the job I had
taken on was a sentence for life."
"This one."
"A professional killer out
of St Louis and Chicago."
"For hire at a price."
"A cold, deadly murder machine."
"His name."
"Killer Burke."
So. I was on my way to Chicago.
When I heard about the gravy
train you boys got in Detroit and...
I figured to get onboard.
So I made a little detour.
Some detour, huh Eddie?
I thought maybe we could
do a little business.
You got a load of liquor going to Chi...
I thought maybe you need a good chopper.
Yeah, we got a load of liquor
going and all the guards we need.
A three-truck convoy and it
leaves Dearborn at midnight.
Why do you tell me that?
- To warn you.
If that's the information
you came here to get.
If anything happens to that
convoy en-route, my...
Boys will know who to look for.
Now.
What did you come here for, Killer?
You boys got me all wrong.
I'm not trying to muscle in.
I'm a big-time operator
just looking for work.
Didn't you check me?
When I phoned you yesterday
I told you to contact Big Al.
[ Telephone ]
We heard you.
This is a direct wire to Miami.
In one second Al Capone
will be on the other end.
If you're not like this with Scarface...
Well.
We got a few professionals here too.
Hello boss?
You didn't tell me this
was a zoo up here.
Yeah. Gorillas.
Is this guy level, Al?
Yeah, he's my boy.
I want you should lose
him up there for a while.
He done me a nice job.
Okay, Al.
How's everything down there?
How is the weather?
Sunny.
Yeah. It's sunny here too, Al.
Yeah. Bye-bye.
Well, boys.
Now that my references are okay.
Yeah. You're okay, Burke.
But you understand.
We can't be too careful.
Well, no harm done.
But you boys were asleep
in this town at that.
How do you mean that, Burke?
There is big business going on.
The boys are here from St Louis.
Forget it.
No outside bunch will
ever get started in Detroit.
We use our brains here.
Not just blubber and
guts like in Chicago.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, without a crystal ball I predict
there's going to be a big-time snatch.
Egan's Rats are in here.
I met them in St Louis.
Who are they after?
I didn't get no name.
They offered me a job.
It's a bit out of my line.
I'm just giving you boys the dope.
All I know is.
It's a big-time gambler.
Mr Scofield.
Yeah?
I'm the chauffeur the
car agency sent over.
I don't need you until 4am when I close.
And I only need one guy to drive a car.
Oh.
What is this, a kidnapping
in broad daylight?
It sure ain't a waltz, Mr Scofield.
You're a dead duck, my boy.
I got some powerful friends.
Come on, Pop. Let's go.
- I mustn't get excited.
I got a heart condition.
- Mr Scofield goes bye-bye.
You haven't heard the
last of Mr Scofield.
What do you mean, heart condition?
It is me, Fish.
Can you hear me?
It is Fish Scofield.
Where are you calling from Fish?
I'm out in the country, naked.
Naked.
He's naked.
What does he mean, lost his shirt?
Listen, I pay you for protection
and I get kidnapped.
It cost me fifty thousand.
Fifty grand.
And even so they dump me
out on the sticks naked.
I had to pay cash, small bills.
Three tough guys.
Come out and get me in the car.
Where are you calling from, Fish?
We'll pick you up.
Write it down. Here, hold this.
I am out at the farmhouse near the lake.
Take Route 16.
Until you get to an electric sign.
Then turn left.
"The Resignation today of
New York Mayor Jimmy Walker."
"Has ended the inquiry into
the conduct of his office."
"After proving their ability
in one kidnapping..."
"The St Louis visitors tried to muscle
in on the Olsen brothers' territory."
"Then Honeyboy and his staff
set a trap for the Egan Rats."
"Baiting it with an invitation
to join the Purple Gang."
Where are they?
You got them tied to a tree someplace?
I invited them up here.
- Here?
Why here?
Here, want a slug?
Sure. Go ahead.
- No liquor.
What? What's with that?
No liquor, no junk and no broads
when I'm running this show.
What's the play, Honeyboy? Come on.
The three lugs that snatched
Scofield are on their way up here.
His brother Eddie offered
them a piece of the gang.
A piece of the Purples?
Now if that ain't a laugh, huh?
They are from St Louis like Burke said.
They're on their way
up here to talk a deal.
They want to set up a kidnapping racket.
To kidnap one gambler a week.
In St Louis they call them...
Egan's Rats.
Too bad they didn't
bring Egan with them.
Whoever he is.
Let's go.
We'll catch them outside.
Right.
Get on the fire door, Al.
- Right.
Where are they?
Easy, Killer. They will be on time.
Why don't we meet them outdoors?
I hired this place for a clean job.
A clean getaway and no traces.
That's the way we work.
'Welcome to Egan's Rats.
Knock twice and walk in'.
Sounds alright.
These boys have a sense of humor.
- Yeah, that's true.
"The newspapers seemed to
be proud of the Purples."
"Detroit wasn't letting
Chicago have all the play."
"When I rounded up a few
of Detroit's own gang."
"And called in a few private citizens
who could identify them if they would."
"All over America, the ordinary citizen
was scared to fulfil his civic duty."
"These were dangerous times."
"However, one of the residents
of the apartment may prove..."
"To have courage enough to
speak up. So I could still hope."
[ Buzzer ]
Line-up. Inspector Harley. Line-up.
Mr Harley, I have something to tell you.
I know, Daisy. You killed the
three men at the Milaflores.
Are you kidding? It was my cousin Luke.
He didn't get in the main headlines.
He's back here among the medicine Ads.
See?
It says 'Luke Summers'.
It says 'heart attack'.
But it's me that did it.
I levelled on him.
Well, really.
Our police department.
Alright. Bring them in.
Hank Smith. Alright Hank, step forward.
Hank Smith, born in Detroit.
Product of Hastings.
Reform School conviction.
Parole, petty theft.
Store theft, a mugger.
No adult convictions.
Known hoodlum.
Could have been at the
Milaflores apartments.
Can anyone finger him?
If any one of you can identify these
men it's your civic duty to speak up.
Alright.
Al Olsen.
Step forward, Al.
Al Olsen.
Youngest of the Olsen brothers.
Known hoodlum. Liquor,
gambling, rackets, protection.
Have you ever been in
the Milaflores flats, Al?
I...
Was born there.
Thomas Allen Burke.
Step up, Burke.
Thomas Allen Burke.
Alias 'Killer Burke'.
Believed to be a hired killer.
Believed to have worked in St Louis
and Chicago. No police record.
Arrested in Chicago but not held.
You got any friends in Chicago, Killer?
Chicago?
Where is that?
Step back, Burke.
William Joseph Willard.
Step forward, Willard.
William Joseph Willard.
Alias 'Honeyboy' Willard.
Juvenile conviction. Theft.
Paroled.
Turn around and let the
audience see your profile.
Profile.
You've come a long way from Hastings
Street haven't you, Honeyboy.
Yeah, Harley.
I haven't stopped yet.
What became of your old grandparents?
They are where you should be, copper.
Dead.
Send them all out. This one I can hold.
- Yeah. You try it.
My lawyer is in your office now.
Your lawyer is tied up in court.
Judge Stone called a case of his.
I asked him to.
Honeyboy, I'm going to
hold you every hour I can.
You can't lock me up.
Put him in a cell.
Let me out of here you hear, officer.
I don't want to be in this cell.
I want to talk to Harley. Do you hear?
You get me my lawyer. You hear me?
Let me out of here.
Where is my lawyer?
I oughtn't to be here.
Let me get out of here.
Look, Harley.
Harley. Get me a lawyer, will you.
Let me get out of here.
I tell you what I'll do.
"With no evidence and not
much hope of getting any."
"All I could do was harass
the gang at every turn."
"And hope for a break."
"I took out search warrants for
the Olsen brothers' offices."
"But I knew their spies at HQ tipped
them the minute the warrant was signed."
"Their front was solid."
"And their bookkeeping ingenious."
Alright, boys.
That will do it.
Look. Rousting us like Inspector
this won't do you any good. Here.
Have a cigar.
- No thank you.
He won't even touch a cigar.
Tainted?
I don't smoke them.
The cops are all honest.
- They found out it pays.
Or they know planted
money when they see it.
How many of these is it
going to take, Harley?
And how often?
I don't smoke those things either.
Another honest cop?
A wise one, rather.
Okay, let's level.
Harley, I want to buy you.
Leave town. Take a trip.
Live like a king. Anywhere.
Eddie, I'm out to bust your rackets...
And tie up most of the Purples you've
been using for the rough stuff.
So we can't deal, huh?
- Uhuh.
There's more than one
way to roast a weenie.
You and a million like you dare not
touch a policeman you can't buy.
Your friend in Chicago
found that out long since.
Okay, Inspector.
We keep our killings among ourselves.
That makes you cops happy.
- You are wrong.
The more gang killings the stronger one
mob gets. It's the public that suffers.
The public?
- Yeah. The public.
Look, Harley. We do a public good.
Nobody wants this Volstead Act.
We supply liquor, good liquor
to over half the country.
Okay, Eddie. You keep up the bluff.
But I'm telling you I will
raid every gambling joint.
Bust every slot machine.
Clean out every house and jail
your girls, beginning right now.
There are search warrants too, Harley.
Remember the constitution of the USA.
You throw the constitution at me?
I'll get the search warrants in spite of
the bail bondsmen and crooked clerks...
You keep around the
courthouse to tip you off.
I'm out to bust you, Eddie. Wide open.
And plow the pieces under.
Only an honest cop could talk like that.
What are you going to do, Eddie?
I can run the liquor business anywhere.
In Podunk Iowa if I had to.
The organisation is set up.
Salesmen are out.
Tom has all the figures in his head.
He invented the double
bookkeeping system.
Okay, Eddie.
You take the liquor.
I'll keep the city.
Which way are you going, Al?
- Hold it, Al.
Blood is thicker than the
milk that Honeyboy drinks.
I'm going where the action is.
You're muscling in, Honeyboy huh?
To trucking?
The shipments to Chicago, Kansas City.
Even that lousy Omaha deal.
Anything that comes through the
tunnel or over the river is yours.
Keep it.
Run it from Council Bluffs
Iowa for all I care.
Do I hire your boys to
protect the trucks?
You hire nothing.
Run your own business.
We got half the prohibition
agents on the payroll now.
All you need is protection
from hijackers.
Get your big fat friend in
Chicago to set that up for you.
Wow. Aren't you feeling big.
Yeah.
Going all-out for straight shakedown.
Gambling.
I got an idea for a big one, Eddie.
A real big one.
A protection racket.
You got it, Honeyboy. It's all yours.
Tom and I will operate from out of town.
Stick around for a while if you
want to watch some changes.
No thank you.
But you watch out a certain police
inspector don't call the changes on you.
You can't buy him and
you sure can't scare him.
Kill him and you got the Feds and
every Dick in your state on your neck.
One more thing.
He's on one special assignment.
Just for the Purples.
You let me skin that cat.
Yeah. I'd like to see
you try to skin that one.
I will, Eddie.
With brains.
You say you can't touch him?
I'll tell you how you touch him.
You find his weakest spot.
His rawest nerve.
That's what you touch.
This isn't 1917 anymore.
We're in the 30s, huh Hank?
We go modern.
There's a word you probably
haven't heard, Eddie.
Psychology.
I'll spell it for you.
Where is this guy? What's keeping him?
He'll show up.
He's the best cat-burglar
in the business.
That's why we hired him.
[ Dog whimpering noises ]
What kept you?
- They kept a dog. I had to soothe it.
What's the set up?
The old lady who stays there
went over to her neighbors.
And?
The dame you want is in bed reading.
I got the window open aways and
opened both doors. They're unlocked.
The front and the back.
Let's do it.
If her husband comes home.
After all, he is a...
The minute he leaves the station there
will be a fast car here to tip us off.
Killer, take this guy
and go round the back.
He'll take that job in the
country after tonight.
I'm pregnant.
Leave her alone.
Inspector Harley.
I have sent for the priest.
Prayers can't bring her back.
I've seen that look before. You have it
in your mind to go out there and kill.
Sister, my wife laid there for 3 days.
Seeing nothing, knowing nobody.
Driven crazy by a pack of mad dogs.
And the baby. The baby she wanted so
much. What do you expect a man to do?
You have a higher obligation.
You represent the law. A force for good.
What is in your mind is evil.
The evil has already been done.
It lies in there. Go in and look at it.
It's all my fault. I swear by
god they will pay for this.
Why do you blame yourself?
Because it's my fault.
I could have quit this job. It's my
fault she's dead. They'll pay for it.
Do not place yourself above the law.
Either man's law.
Or God's law.
"But the Purple Gang gave me no peace."
"And no time to think
of personal tragedy."
"Or of revenge."
"Abruptly, the city exploded
into a new era of violence."
"Terrorism. Forcing the cleaners and
dyers to pay the gang for protection."
"It was a very shrewd racket."
"Dry cleaners and dyers are the
most vulnerable for a shakedown."
"Other merchants own their own stock."
"If it is damaged or destroyed
the loss is theirs."
"But cleaners' stock."
"Belongs to the public."
"Damage it and he's out of business."
"Facing ruin or death
if they didn't pay."
"Eventual bankruptcy if they did."
"Cleaners from all parts of the city
sent their delegates to confer."
"Each delegate represented from fifty
to 2 or 3 hundred cleaners and dyers."
"Wholesale and retail from
all parts of the state."
Like I say.
This Purple Gang.
The police, they arrest a dozen of them.
And soon, a dozen more take their place.
This has been going on for years.
It will never stop.
We can't pay and pay to keep our homes
and shops from being bombed and burned.
We either go out of
business or we fight.
That is right.
We use our protection
money to buy protection.
Not to be suckers for a racket.
Mr Orlofsky is right.
I say fight fire with fire.
So. I have brought Mr Licovetti here.
With some of his friends from New York.
Chicago.
Even the words are
scared of them Purples.
Chicago then.
I've only got a few words to say, gents.
Let the word get around.
We are all Mafia.
"But the word 'Mafia'..."
"Held no terrors for the Purples."
"With great cunning one
gang hunted out the other."
"In surprise attacks
Licovetti led the Mafia."
"Too shrewd to be trapped."
"Honeyboy Willard used his
favorite weapon in retaliation."
"The gang war raged."
"We arrested all we could legally hold."
"The big ones of course
escaped the net."
"That's always the way."
"The Purple Gang's take from all
sources exceeded one million dollars."
"This golden magnet attracted the
racketeers and the big-shots."
"It also drew to its ranks the
underworld scum of a dozen cities."
"Prostitutes."
"Vagrants."
"Hop-heads."
"As fast as we brought them in."
"Others took their places."
"Like many cities in
America then and now."
"Detroit was a sick town."
"The people were apathetic."
"Civic duty had become a comic phrase."
"So had patriotism, honor..."
"All the words that once stirred decent
men to crusade on the side of the law."
"The people of Detroit
needed a shock treatment."
"Suddenly they got it through an unusual
experiment in civic government."
"A one-man Grand Jury."
Please sit down.
I'm sorry to have kept you waiting.
Somebody said you wanted a
top-secret conference, Judge.
Something ought to be
secret around here.
The chief and I agree that
I should try to get this...
One-man Grand Jury set
up as quickly as possible.
It's certainly a weapon no-one
has ever thought of before.
We meet the State's Attorney
and the Governor this evening.
And a weapon we can use.
You see sir, on search warrants
and warrants of arrest...
We are always being beaten to the
punch by tip-offs from inside sources.
I know.
Spies everywhere.
Money corrupts strange people.
All I can say is this, Inspector.
If we put this over...
I'll rely on your word and integrity.
To sign any warrant, search or arrest...
And you'll be able to move in complete
secrecy making raids and arrests.
"The judge cut red tape to nothing."
"He relied only on the integrity
of the officer requesting..."
"Search warrants or warrants
of arrest, and signed them."
"Before the ink on the
warrants was dry..."
"Raiding squads were on their way."
"The one-man Grand Jury functioned
as a full jury never could."
"In those wild days and along 17 miles
of this nation's frontier..."
"Scores of dishonest prohibition
agents were indicted and arrested."
"The Detroit river was no
longer bridged with bribes."
"The flying squads arrested
every hoodlum they could find."
"But we never saw the heads
of either gang in any line-up."
"We kept at it around the clock."
"Using every legal device we could think
of to hold the suspect overnight."
"Unlawful assembly."
"No visible means of support."
"Held for investigation.
All the old hackneyed charges."
"Even down to a parking ticket."
"But no break came."
"Even if we found the big ones."
"We could never pin anything on them."
Another batch came in.
I put this record on top.
I thought you might want to
see him before the line-up.
'Henry Abel Smith'.
'Hank Smith'.
Where did they pick him up?
Down on Hastings Street.
Hastings Street.
They booked him for loitering.
Get him in here.
Cigarette, Hank?
Sit down, Hank.
This card says you were picked
up on a charge of loitering.
Like a common tramp.
How much of a bond is that? Ten bucks?
Alright, Hank. Let's try again.
What took you back to Hastings Street?
Looking for a place to hide?
You used to have a fine
old mother, Hank.
She's still alive.
Did you see her last night?
Yeah.
Yeah. I seen her.
She threatened to turn me in.
My own mother.
She said I was the worst
kind of snake and menace.
My own mother said I deserved to burn.
Her own son.
You know...
You're a nervous wreck.
What is it? You junking?
No, Lieutenant... Inspector.
There's not a mark on me. I'll show you.
Never mind.
Well strip me down. Examine me.
I never touch the stuff. Never.
Maybe an aspirin or something.
Maybe I'd be better off
on the junk at that.
Look, Hank.
I'll give you a way to make your mother
think you're better than Horatio Alger.
I don't get it.
In this city there are two
gangs at each other's throats.
I want the big-shots. I'll settle for a
line on one bunch or the other.
Look Inspector, don't ask
me to rat on the Purples.
I couldn't do it.
I wouldn't.
- Then give me the other ones.
The big-shots in the Mafia.
I'll settle for that.
I would have to find out.
Well, find out, Hank.
Do one decent thing.
They ship dope mostly.
Look here, Hank.
There's a small restaurant by the river.
Do you know it?
Yeah. I know it.
Any message you want to get to me.
You write on the back of your check.
The cashier will know what do with it.
She's a bright girl.
Her day was once a dick.
Is it a deal?
I just want some place to hide.
- Is it a deal, Hank?
I just want you to take the heat off me.
- Is it a deal?
Yeah. It's a deal.
But just the Mafia.
Just a simple message on
the back of your check.
You can trust the girl.
Go on home.
"The two rival gangs fought on."
"The prize? Every racket in the city."
"But the Purple Gang
more than held its own."
"The Cleaners' war never let up."
"In that the Mafia had tackled
a job it couldn't finish."
"As many as 40 explosions in 24 hours.."
"Stink bombs by the score."
"To show his contempt for the
Mafia, Honeyboy Willard..."
"Struck back viciously at the Cleaners'
president who'd hired the outside mob."
That woman saw us. Follow her.
We'll pick you up around the corner.
I saw a murder.
Come on, Daisy.
Now you are seeing them.
You used to do them.
- But I did see a murder.
Sure you did, Daisy.
I saw it.
Officer. Please.
I saw them. I'd know their faces.
Please. I must tell you.
If she looks through the mug book...
- Yeah.
She can put the
finger on all four of us.
I want to see Inspector Harley.
- It's a doctor you ought to see.
I saw it.
I would know their faces.
Nobody has any time to
bother with you, Daisy.
You're too much trouble, sister.
I saw it.
I think.
I think I saw it.
She's not going to look
through any mug book.
Follow her, Hank.
No.
What's wrong? Drive it.
No!
We got her in front. Drive.
No!
"Run down by a car."
"And shot in the head."
"Plainly, a gang killing."
"But why Daisy?"
"She never harmed anyone."
"What had she seen?"
"What did she know?"
"Why was she so important to be dragged
into this bloody jungle of crime?"
"Then Hank Smith got
courage enough to act."
Hey, what are you doing?
Stop it.
It is torn, Inspector.
The letters on it.
'BON TON FLOW'.
It could be: 'FLOWER SHOP'.
How does it feel to be
trapped in here, Hank?
You wanted to leave me alone.
I'm going to leave you alone, Hank.
All alone. For ever.
That's what it's like when
you're alone, Hank.
It's like being trapped in a closet.
Honeyboy, I swear on my mother's heart
I just tipped them about the Mafia guys.
No.
You wanted to go over
on their side, Hank.
Look. What are you talking about?
Just give me a break. Let me explain.
I don't need you.
I can do it all by myself.
All by myself, Hank.
Oh, my god. No.
No, please.
Just let me explain, Honeyboy.
"The Bon Ton flower shop was the mark."
"The squad's search
warrant called for dope."
"Heroine in a flowerpot."
"Nothing could be delivered
with a more innocent front."
"Dope in a flower stem."
"Marijuana in a tulip."
I think we got it all, Inspector.
- Good.
How long have you been
running this place.?
Did you ever hear of the Mafia?
I said, did you ever hear of the Mafia?
Mister, please. Give me protection.
I'll tell you all I know. I am...
I'm just hired to run this place.
Alright. If you'd like a quiet chat
we'll go where you'll be safe.
Come on.
"The shot came from a silencer
on a .22 calibre pistol."
"In those days you could
buy silencers by mail."
"A sniper for the Mafia."
"He'd made certain the
florist would never talk."
You know, Honeyboy.
I still think we ought to go
over to Canada for a while.
And let the Mafia take over?
They're feeling pretty big now.
They knocked off one of their
own boys in that flower shop.
I mean, the police.
We know they're rousting everybody.
We got business in Detroit, Al.
Mafia business.
Besides, what are lawyers for, huh?
There they are.
Go down and check the load, Al.
Right.
Chief. I'll be in when I finish checking
the sales slips from the flower shop.
We may have something.
Anything, Murphy?
- Yeah, maybe.
These two gangs are overdue
for a head-on collision.
I'd like to fend this one off
if possible. What you got?
Every big-shot hoodlum you ever heard of
sometime or other runs a flower shop.
A front for bookmaking, selling dope.
Pushing counterfeit. Lots of things.
Here. Take a look at those.
I think this is our best bet to find
the main guys for that Mafia bunch.
Mafias or Purples. I want the
big-shots and only the big-shots.
Five times in three days.
Flowers were delivered to an
apartment at the Collingwood Manor.
The dates on these show this shop opened
just at the time that gang war started.
It's a toss-up which to raid first.
The Collingwood or these others.
This is our best lead, Murphy.
We'll case the Collingwood
apartments and then hit it.
Put some of your best men out
there to keep an eye on the place.
Here they are.
These boys are Harry Keys and
Irving Mills. You remember them.
Yeah. Sure.
The old Sugar House gang.
Just kids then.
You got sent up over that social worker.
Yeah. We got shipped off to school.
We graduated.
You got a war on your hands.
Mafia.
That's why we hired you.
Does the name scare you?
Just put us in the way of making
a few bucks, Honeyboy.
Attaboy.
We got a little job tonight.
A place called the Collingwood Manor.
The joint has been cased.
We know the apartment.
There is three, maybe four of
the main Mafia holed up there.
Maybe we could ask
them to come over here.
And talk business like we did before.
I don't think the Mafia
would go for it, Killer.
We'll figure something out on the way.
Better get some of the good stuff, Rico.
I'll get it.
What do you hear from the Purples?
Honeyboy was keeping
to the river mostly.
They got a boat.
I'd like to torpedo him and his boat.
Take out the head of the Purples and
you write your own ticket in this town.
Alright, let's smarten up this joint
a bit. We've got company coming.
Dames?
That ain't company. That's living.
Alright. Let's get rid of some of these
flowerpots. They may start wondering.
What about that guy? Who is he?
He's just a juice-head.
Don't be so sure. He slaps his
feet down like a harness bull.
Drive by him slow and then turn around
and pull up in front of the Collingwood.
Excuse me, sir.
But could you spare a dime for a
gentleman who needs some money?
That's all? Thank you.
You're a gentleman.
Well?
What do you think?
He's just a panhandler.
Come on, let's get this
job done. Get ready.
I got a good look at the man
sitting next to the driver.
Where are you calling from?
The Collingwood Manor.
That's all I can tell you.
I just got on the case an hour ago.
Good work, Mac. We'll be right over.
We'll throw everything we
have around that block.
It's the dames. Let them in.
Yes, sir.
Up against the wall.
You leave me alone.
I got witnesses. You hear me?
This time we have witnesses.
Witnesses?
Get away from men now. You hear.
Get away from here.
Get out of here. You hear me?
Leave me alone.
Get away from me. Please leave me alone.
Get out of here. Go on.
Get away from me.
Let me out of here.
Harley.
Harley. You listen to me.
You can't blame me for what
happened to your wife.
She was crazy. She jumped
out that window. Do you hear?
Go out of here!
Get away.
Get away, get away.
Get him out of here.
What do you want?
What do you want from me, officer?
I told you, didn't I?
Leave me alone. Do you hear me?
Get away from me.
Get away from me.
Don't put me in there, I said.
Don't put me in there.
I don't want to go in here.
Let me out!
"Since the end of the Purples."
"Only the times have changed."
"The daily headlines remain the same."
"Yet any intelligent adult..."
"Could pick out any youngster
earmarked for emotional troubles."
"The signs are plain."
"But only the civic awareness
of the American public..."
"Can bring an end to
rat-pack terrorism."
..f-s..