Gang Busters

[first lines]

Lt. Fenton:
I'm Special Agent Fenton, your host for Gang Busters. In a moment, I'm going to tell you the story of the world's most deadly fisherman - Alvin Karpis.

Lt. Fenton:
Alvin Karpis had three loves - fishing, a girl and, more than anything else, Karpis loved a machine gun. His story begins in a state penitentiary in Kansas. There he met Fred Barker. Fred invited him to meet his mother. Alvin Karpis and Ma Barker were a perfect match. Their meeting began an era of crime unmatched in fantastic violence.

Fred Barker:
What's the saxophone for, Al? You takin' up music?

Alvin Karpis:
In a way - this kind of music's going to be our ticket to a better life. Meet "Baby".

[Karpis pulls a machine gun from his saxophone case]

Fred Barker:
Wow! What a saxophone!

Ma Barker:
Make way for a music lover. Al, can you really shoot this thing?

Alvin Karpis:
I can make it talk, Ma. It'll tell any cop that gets in my way he made a bad mistake.

Lt. Fenton:
[narrating] Bank after bank was robbed - Ma the brains, Ma the teacher, Karpis the willing pupil.

Lt. Fenton:
[narrating] But even as the FBI went into action, Karpis and the Barkers were planning a sensational return to the field of bank robbery with the help of the nation's most murderous talent - Baby Face Nelson, Homer Van Meter and John Dillinger.

Lt. Victor:
We've got his picture in every post office, thousands of telegraph poles and practically every newspaper.

Lt. Fenton:
Well, keep it up, Vic. I want Karpis to be better known than Santa Claus.

Lt. Victor:
Just a couple of fishing magazines. Not much help landing the big one we're after.

FBI Agent:
Did you find any tackle?

Lt. Victor:
No.

FBI Agent:
Look, Vic, it's winter. Where would you go to fish?

Lt. Victor:
Florida, the Gulf, California...

FBI Agent:
Yeah. That's a lot of territory.

Lt. Victor:
Might have been worse. He mighta liked to hunt polar bears.

Alvin Karpis:
Do I detect a hole in the welcome mat?

Dr. Guelife:
You look fine, Al, just fine.

Alvin Karpis:
You're a liar by the clock. I look like the devil and you'd lot rather see him than me.

Alvin Karpis:
Now let's get things straight. I know you read the paper. You know, I'm hot - plenty hot.

Dr. Guelife:
But Al, this is federal heat!

Alvin Karpis:
Cops are cops! I'm sick and tired of everybody goin' green and startin' to shake when you talk about G-men. Feds - what are they, some sort of special creature? Sure they got the heat on me, but they haven't got me!

[first lines]

Special Agent Lt. Clifton:
Hello, I'm your Gang Busters host, Special Agent Clifton of the FBI. Our story is about a man who was one of the most ruthless killers in our history. In a moment, I'll tell you about John Dillinger, who could bluff his way out of jail with a block of wood but was stopped by a lady in red.

Special Agent Lt. Clifton:
There is no way to exaggerate the viciousness of John Dillinger. He killed as you might slap a mosquito. He combined this with animal cunning and utter lack of nerve to become the most infamous criminal in America. He became Public Enemy Number One.

Mildred Jaunce:
John Dillinger, the personification of the male animal - all appetite and no taste.

Mildred Jaunce:
Let's not be childish, John. I like you because I like your money and because you fascinate me a little, like a deadly snake always coiled to strike.

John Dillinger:
A snake? You know, that's wonderful! I swear that you'll be the death of me.

Mildred Jaunce:
If you ever flex your muscle at me again, John, it will be the death of you.

Mildred Jaunce:
I don't have much use for the human race, but I don't expect you to exterminate it.

John Dillinger:
What's for chow?

Guard:
Stew.

John Dillinger:
Again? You know, it's that cook that ought to be hung.

[Dillinger locks the jail guards in his cell and gives them his "pistol"]

John Dillinger:
Here's a souvenir from John Dillinger.

Guard:
[disgusted] Wood.

Special Agent Lt. Clifton:
[narrating] The FBI opened an SMV file on John Dillinger and everyone in the Bureau knew that the file would close only when Dillinger was dead.

Arthur Troser:
Kickin' me around, shovin' me in my own place of business, slappin' me... I'd like to pin his ears back. Who does he think he is anyway - John Dillinger?

Connie:
I imagine so... that's his name.

Arthur Troser:
Dillinger! Then you're...?

Homer Van Meter:
Homer Van Meter.

Arthur Troser:
And...?

Homer Van Meter:
Baby Face Nelson.

Arthur Troser:
Please, may I write a letter before you kill me?

Homer Van Meter:
Kill you? What do you think we are, homicidal maniacs? We never kill anyone except in the line of duty, Arthur.

Special Agent Lt. Clifton:
[narrating] The word was received. Agents put down their pencils and picked up their guns. Hurry - no time to call home. At home, the agents' wives start to worry. Some of them start to pray; it's all they can do. Their husbands don't belong to them now. They're G-men, cops - and a cop killer is on the loose.

John Dillinger:
What's bitin' you, Homer?

Homer Van Meter:
[indicates newspaper] This. You've got FBI heat on you, John. You're getting too popular - that's makes us all too popular. So, if you don't mind, I'm cutting out of here tomorrow.

Special Agent Lt. Clifton:
[narrating] Too late - the FBI was there. The trap was closing.

Special Agent Lt. Clifton:
[narrating] A dog barked and a mad dog was loose again. But where do you go when you're Public Enemy Number One? Where do you get help? Buy it? No - even the underworld hideouts were not open to Dillinger. Friends? Yes, that was the answer. But Dillinger's friends were getting fewer by the day. Hamilton had died at Little Bohemia. Now Van Meter was dead. Dillinger thought of other friends - Nelson, Tommy Carroll, Pierpont, Makley, Youngblood - they'd help him... only they were dead, too.

Special Agent Lt. Clifton:
[narrating] The last resort - change the face, the fingerprints - make yourself a new person, one the cops don't know about. But Dillinger was wrong - we did know. Mildred Jaunce had come to the FBI. She came to talk; she stayed to help.

Mildred Jaunce:
You want me to put the finger on John Dillinger for you. I don't know... I like living.

Special Agent Lt. Clifton:
Everybody does - including people Dillinger will kill if we don't get him first. You say he has a new face. We don't know that face - you do.

Special Agent Lt. Clifton:
Dillinger was dead. End of a tough guy, end of Public Enemy Number One.

Special Agent Lt. Clifton:
And the only person to claim Dillinger's body was his gentle father. His were the only prayers along that last lonely country road. The road that led to end of John Dillinger's ruthless criminal career... and the graveyard.

Lieutenant Tyler:
In just a minute, I'm going to tell you about Homer Van Meter, a man of many talents - all bad.

[while getting a shoeshine, Homer shoots Tony]

Homer Van Meter:
You better call a cop - there's been a murder.

Lieutenant Clifton:
Scratch one public enemy.

Lieutenant Tyler:
Yeah, there's Homer Van Meter. A few seconds ago he was a live killer feared by dozens of states... now he's so much garbage.

[first lines]

Commissioner Timothy J. O'Connor:
I'm Timothy J. O'Connor, commissioner of the Chicago Police Department. There was a time when my busy teeming city was known as "The Crime Center of the World". Happily, this is no longer so. One of the reasons for this change will be dramatized tonight - a report on a blonde tigress. In just a moment, I'll tell you more about the woman with the strange green eyes.

Commissioner Timothy J. O'Connor:
My police of Chicago and the police of the western suburbs were bothered by a gang of three - two men and a woman - were starting an epidemic of hold-ups. Eleanor Jarman was tough and brutal - the leader of a gang ready for any kind of hold-up, but specializing in small businesses. William Kennedy, a small-time operator with a big mouth and muscles to match was one of her partners. He usually worked close with her on her jobs. And the last of the ill-sorted threesome was a pug by the name of Leo Minecci. This ex-prize fighter had absorbed too many punches. He was dangerous.

Commissioner Timothy J. O'Connor:
[narrating] The shooting of the proprietor was brutally unnecessary and unprovoked, but that was the modus operandi of the Blonde Tigress.

Youth:
I'm training myself.

Detective Brinken:
Training yourself?

Youth:
Yes, sir. I want to be a cop!

Detective Brinken:
That's an ambition I question at times.

Officer Jone Perlie:
I know this Tommy-boy type. He's in the "in love with himself" class.

Detective Brinken:
And a penny ante guy who hangs on the coattails of real mobsters.

Detective Brinken:
Now look, Jone, if Batara takes you to the hideout, you'll be mingling with three killers. This Jarman woman hates other women and she loves brutality. If they even think they smell the law...

Officer Jone Perlie:
I'm going in with my eyes wide open.

Detective Brinken:
And we want you to come out the same way.

Commissioner Timothy J. O'Connor:
Batara was a man of his word when it came to wine, women and song - especially when it cme at someone else's expense.

Tom Batara:
Brother, would you two make a pair.

Officer Jone Perlie:
Me and who?

Tom Batara:
You're like her - warm on the outside; freezing on the inside.

Officer Jone Perlie:
Why don't you get off the string, Batara? Show her you're a man! Take it from me - when I know I can control them, I don't want them... and women are women the world over.

[handing Jone the compact with her message written on the mirror]

Detective Brinken:
Souvenir - to be filed under the heading of, ah, close calls in the line of duty.

[last lines]

Commissioner Timothy J. O'Connor:
Yes, Eleanor Jarmen, the Blonde Tigress, escaped from prison and is still at large. If you have any information concerning this woman, please notify the Chicago Police Department, the Illinois State Reformatory or Gang Busters at once. Next week, another case from authentic police records - until then, on behalf of the police, we invite you to join us.

[first lines]

Special Agent Dave Sheldon:
I'm Special Agent Dave Sheldon of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. I'm ging to be your host on this Gang Busters case. this is a necklace of 412 diamonds - value $64,000. It's only a small part of a haul made over seven years by one of the most daring jewel thieves of all time - Arthur Bennett Burl, alias The Lone Wolf. In just a minute I'll tell you all about him.

Arthur Bennett Burl:
[speaking on phone] Of course, I'll call you when I get back.

[hangs up phone]

Arthur Bennett Burl:
[to himself] Women are such suckers.

Narrator:
From October 14 to November 16, Special Agents Sheldon and Randall practically lived in fashionable night clubs and restaurants. In their pocket was a mug picture of Arthur Bennett Burl, The Lone Wolf, but it was taken seven years before at McNeil Island. Mug pictures, like passport pictures, leave much to the imagination.

Special Agent Randell:
The prints on her glass are very clear.

Special Agent Dave Sheldon:
No finger prints on his at all - just smudges.

Special Agent Randell:
You sure?

Special Agent Dave Sheldon:
Must have burned his finger tips with acid.

Special Agent Randell:
Mm-hmm... just like Dillinger.

[FBI agents Sheldon and Randall have arrested Burl]

Arthur Bennett Burl:
Well, my wife... The first time a dame ever let me down. I guess I must be slippin'.

Special Agent Dave Sheldon:
[to audience] And Burl continued to slip - right into a federal penitentiary for life. He's still wanted in seven states and it would take a statistician to count up the number of years stacked against him.

[first lines]

Lt. Winters:
Good evening. I'm Lieutenant John Winters, your host on this Gang Buster episode. It's the most unusual story about Gerard Graham Dennis. He was a Canadian by birth and he began his career as a house breaker and jewel thief when he was 16 years old in Montreal and Toronto. In just a moment, we'll tell you more about it.

[first lines]

Officer Jerry Cameron:
I am Patrolman Jerry Cameron of the Bronx Division of the New York Police Department - your host on this Gang Busters story. The patrolman on his beat, serving to the best of his ability, becomes a part of the section of the humanity he protects. He's aware of the heartbeat, the birthdays, the joys and the tragedies - and it's tragedy that stalks this story. It's the manner of death of Kathy Raywall and Mike Molloy I'll unfold - and especially Mike Malloy's. I think of him as "Durable Mike Malloy". This old character never suspected anyone was trying to murder him.

Officer Jerry Cameron:
Mike knew the unwashed glasses were left on tables until morning, so with the right timing, Mike could mix on of his very own specials. He merely poured the last drops from each glass - whether or not it was whiskey, beer, gin or wine - into one container. Mike even had a name for this eye-opener, calling it Malloy's Little Wonder. Sure, he said, he always wondered a little what was in it. Not that Mike cared. He'd drink anything he could get.

Red Marino:
Scram, bum! I got a drain in the sink; I don't need you.

Frank Pasqua:
Give me an eye-opener, Red.

Red Marino:
What? Are you nuts? You got a funeral to do today... I hope.

Frank Pasqua:
I haven't been called - yet. Give me the bottle. Anyway, you're the bereaved party, Red - I just bury 'em. Want something to take the edge off your grief?

Officer Jerry Cameron:
Have you checked on her boyfriends?

Lt. Tom Kelly:
We checked 'em out; all of 'em have alibis. One of them is a businessman in the neighborhood... owns a bar on Third Avenue.

Officer Jerry Cameron:
Red Marino... that crumb.

Lt. Tom Kelly:
You can't lock a man up for being a crumb - haven't got the space.

[first lines]

Cap't Tom Stevens:
I'm Captain Tom Sturgiss of the Buffalo, New York, police department and this is, a murder weapon, cost our city thousands of dollars in time and manpower spent before it was recovered. In just a minute, I'll tell you how it figured in the O'Dell-Griffin Case.

[repeatedly pistol-whipping a jewelry store employee]

Frank Griffin:
You wanted a break - all right, you got it!

Cap't Tom Stevens:
[narrating] All efforts to identify them from mug shots were futile. If the gang was a local outfit, we hadn't spelled them yet.

Sgt. Ed Williams:
Maybe they're from Canada.

Cap't Tom Stevens:
Maybe. But both the Canadian and American customs have been mighty tough these past few weeks. Sooner or later, they'd catch them smuggling those guns across.

Sgt. Ed Williams:
Finger man on this side - spots the jobs, furnishes the firearms.

Cap't Tom Stevens:
Could be, but our police percentage of unsolved murders is less than three percent. A record like that doesn't attract outside hoodlums.

Cap't Tom Stevens:
[narrating] The call was from a character we knew as Rudy. His background was as dim as the view we took on some of his activities.

Cap't Tom Stevens:
Who gave you the gun, Rudy?

Rudy:
Frank Griffin.

Cap't Tom Stevens:
He used it to club Barossa, but Barossa didn't die. It stands to reason that if they ditched this, they'd also ditch the murder gun. You'd better jog your brains, Rudy, and come up with some fresh memory!

Cap't Tom Stevens:
I'm going to take you down to the spot so you can show me where you tossed that gun. You'd better hit it right on the head or I'm liable to do the same to you.

Cap't Tom Stevens:
You better get your money changed.

Sgt. Ed Williams:
We going to Canada? Maybe I can get a bike there for my kid!

Cap't Tom Stevens:
Or a slug.

Captain William McAllister:
Now, if you gentlemen will come with me, I think we can find the men you want.

Cap't Tom Stevens:
Do you know where they live?

Captain William McAllister:
No, but I believe the old saying the spice of life - in this case, her name is Ginger.

[Captain Sturgiss hits the bulleye with his dart]

Ginger:
Not bad. Accidental?

Cap't Tom Stevens:
Nine out of ten.

Ginger:
Show me some time.

Cap't Tom Stevens:
It's no secret - to throw straight you just gotta think straight. Want a game?

Ginger:
Ladies aren't allowed.

Cap't Tom Stevens:
Oh?

Ginger:
Billy just lets me practice when there aren't costumers around.

Cap't Tom Stevens:
How about buying you another beer?

Ginger:
Ladies aren't allowed to drink in a bar.

Cap't Tom Stevens:
Get the lady a beer, Ed.

Sgt. Ed Williams:
Sure - just for practice.

Cap't Tom Stevens:
It's a mighty good-looking ring.

Sgt. Ed Williams:
Two carat diamond with 15 chips - right, Ginger?

Ginger:
I don't know anything about...

Cap't Tom Stevens:
That ring belongs to a clerk in a jewelry store, Ginger. The owner of the store is dead.

Ginger:
Dead?

Cap't Tom Stevens:
Murdered.

Ginger:
I don't know anything about it. Really, I don't know anything about it. I don't want to get mixed up in a murder!

Cap't Tom Stevens:
You are mixed up in it, Ginger.

[after returning the ring to Captain Sturgiss, Ginger throws a bulls-eye]

Cap't Tom Stevens:
See what happens when you think straight.

O'Dell:
What's the matter? What's this all about? What do you want of me?

Cap't Tom Stevens:
Well, it's not for overtime parking.

Cap't Tom Stevens:
Why so glum?

Sgt. Ed Williams:
Bad news.

Cap't Tom Stevens:
For what?

Sgt. Ed Williams:
The kid.

Cap't Tom Stevens:
What happened?

Sgt. Ed Williams:
I asked Captain McAllister where I could find an English bike.

Cap't Tom Stevens:
What did he say?

Sgt. Ed Williams:
Didn't know. People in Canada make their own.

Cap't Tom Stevens:
Tough.

Sgt. Ed Williams:
There's more.

Cap't Tom Stevens:
Yeah?

Sgt. Ed Williams:
He wants me to find one for him.

Roy Jaxon:
I guess when you're looking down the barrel of a shotgun, everything else looks out of focus.

Robert Quirley Sr.:
Did you ever rob a bank before, girly?

Edith Newton:
No.

Robert Quirley Sr.:
Well you can start right now - fill it up!

Juanita:
Well, how do you like it?

William Harlan Crain:
Not bad, not bad at all. Dutch curtains, valances, carpets, indirect lighting... where'd you get the dough?

Juanita:
Well, in five years I haven't had a date, I haven't gone anywhere. I've sold and made everything.

William Harlan Crain:
Yeah?

Juanita:
And a month ago I rented it - for you.

William Harlan Crain:
I should have sunk her where I dropped the gun.

[unknown to Crain, Juanita has taken a lethal dose of sleeping pills]

Juanita:
You want to kiss me good-bye before you go?

William Harlan Crain:
Hey, ain't none of that stuff! Time's too short.

Juanita:
Oh.

William Harlan Crain:
I'll be seein' you, Juantia.

Juanita:
Time's too short...

[first lines]

Detective Sert:
I'm Detective Sert, Homicide Division, New York City Police Department, your host for this presentation of Gang Busters. This is one of the most fiendish devices ever created in the history of the criminal investigations of the New York City Police Department. In a moment, I'll tell you more about it and the tragedy it caused.

Detective Sert:
Many criminals have planned the perfect crim and ended up conflicts; others have planned the perfect murder and ended up like Al Rocco.

[first lines]

Capt. Armstrong:
I'm Captain Charles F. Armstrong, your host for this episode of Gang Busters. This case is unusual because of the novel means we used to identify and found the criminals. In just a moment, I'll tell you more about it.

Capt. Armstrong:
These glasses play an important part in our case as you will see. A group of hold-up artists plagued cafes in Manhattan and the Bronx before branching out and before their ultimate capture, made members of my department sore of foot and strained of eye from plodding and scanning the faint trail.

Capt. Armstrong:
[narrating] Police heard the same story from victims many times, but before the pattern became too familiar, the gang switched operations to a new set of victims. It was a long tab they began building in their concentration on liquor stores.

Morlie:
C'mon, Specs, let's get out of here!

Byron:
I can't find my glasses.

Morlie:
You want a cop for a seeing eye dog? Come on!

Capt. Armstrong:
Kelly, you'll be in civvies, of course, and you'll be in charge of checking the rentals, clear?

Sgt. Kelly:
Right, sir.

Capt. Armstrong:
Me, I'm going to see what a pair of glasses can tell us, if anything. There were no fingerprints... maybe there's such a thing as eyeprints.

Capt. Armstrong:
Doctor, I've got an urgent healthy need in glasses.

Dr. Amard:
You want a pair of private eye glasses, eh?

Capt. Armstrong:
Not even a pair of FBI glasses.

Dr. Amard:
Starting with the lens and filling the eyes to them. That's a provocative switch.

[examining the glasses found at the crime scene]

Dr. Amard:
This style is definitely masculine. These are what is commonly referred to as horn-rim. They're dark. It's normal to suggest that dark rims go with dark complexions and hair - certainly not blonds and gray-haired people. This frame I would say represents a conservative person, but not too conservative. It's a good serviceable frame, but not out of style.

[referring to a police sketch of one of gang members]

Capt. Armstrong:
We've got a picture, all right. What we need is an identification.

[Kelly's investigation of all possible leads has led to a dead end]

Sgt. Kelly:
First the cars and now the glasses. Where do we go from here, Captain?

Capt. Armstrong:
Ahead. We keep pluggin'.

[hands Morlie a pair of glasses]

Capt. Armstrong:
Try these on.

Morlie:
I don't need extra eyes. I can tell you're a cop a mile away on a foggy day.

Cathy:
Please, you've got to help me. I didn't mean to do it.

Capt. Armstrong:
Forced into it by evil companions? They all are!

Capt. Armstrong:
[narrating] Of all the millions of persons who need and wear glasses, the search was narrowed down to one. A pair of lost spectacles was going back to roost on the right face.

[Byron is using a magnifying glass to read the newspaper]

Byron:
I hope you got some new specs for me to try. This thing is a nuisance.

[Armstrong hands Byron his glasses]

Byron:
Oh, nice - they're fine! Where'd you find them?

Capt. Armstrong:
In the alley behind the liquor store.

Byron:
These aren't mine. I quit wearing cheaters a year ago. They're a nuisance.

Capt. Armstrong:
Yeah, we know, and besides that they spoil your good looks.

[Byron smashes the glasses on the floor]

Byron:
Now where's your evidence?

Capt. Armstrong:
Down at headquarters. Those were copies and it's a good thing they are because where you're going reading is one of the few recreations.