Item description for The Untouchables Collectors Edition Tri State Gang/Dutch Schultz Story VHS Video

“In the latter part of 1933, an epidemic of hijacking broke out in the states of Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. The similarity of the holdups identified them as the work of the Tri-State Gang. This time it was a factory shipment of radios. The routine was always the same: Big Bill Phillips, a cheap, hulking six-foot-four ox of a man, handled the truck. Artie McLeod, a cheap tin horn gambler, handled the burlap hood with style and efficiency. The oldest of the gang was Georgie Kaufman, a battered ex-pug who once fought Benny Leonard in Madison Square Garden. The fence was James Jonathan Harris, sometimes called Gentlemen Jim. A quiet-spoken Englishman from the moors of Yorkshire. He was a suspicious and ever-watchful man. Bobby May, second in command, three-time loser, an ex-con, San Quentin. The leader of the gang was Wally Lagenza, a pale, cold, blond beast untouched by any civilizing influences. The doctors at Dannemora once described him as a vicious, antisocial animal, dangerous, ruthless and depraved. Eliot Ness and his men had been assigned by Washington to investigate the activities of the Tri-State Gang. That same night, they drove down to Richmond, Virginia, where they met with Sheriff Wilson of Richmond County.

Ness picks up the trail after one of the Tri-State Gang’s victims survives, but loses it and one of his own men when a stakeout erupts into violence. After Big Bill Phillips dies in the gun battle with federal agents, Lagenza orders the murder of Lizzie Dauphine, Big Bill’s girlfriend, to protect the identities of the gang members. Feeling the heat from federal agents, Lagenza graduates into kidnapping and ransom and unwittingly enters a trap sprung by Ness.

“And that was the end of the Tri-State Gang, not with a bang, but a whimper. Artie McLeod was tried on seven different counts and got life. Wally Lagenza was tried for murder in Virginia and died in the electric chair at Richmond, on February 2nd, 1935. And oh yes, Lizze Dauphine went back home to Quebec.”

“The underworld has always lived by one law, the law of the jungle. The strong clawed their way to power, the weak died in a hail of machine gun bullets. In March of 1935, one of the toughest mobsters in New York City, the man who dominated the underworld at the moment, was Arthur Flegenheimer, better known as Dutch Schultz. During his career, Dutch Schultz and his mob were suspected of having committed over 100 murders. He controlled every racket in New York. He had branched out into liquor, narcotics, later shakedowns, the numbers racket. ”

Eliot Ness plans to go after mobster Dutch Schultz (Lawrence Dobkin), in the same manner he got Capone: income tax evasion. Planting agent Flaherty in Schultz’s numbers operation, the Untouchables soon secure enough evidence to bring him to trial. A change of venue moves the proceedings upstate, where Schultz attempts to buy the town with his money and charm. When that fails, Schultz evades justice by blackmailing one of the jurors.

Returning to New York, Schultz finds his organization under siege from a newly elected city administration bent on reform, and another more deadly enemy: The Charles Lucky Luciano mob. Caught in the crossfire is Floria’s Candy Store, where several of Schultz’s men are ambushed. Still believing he can buy anyone, Schultz tries to strike a deal with Luciano (Robert Carricart), now virtually in control of the New York rackets and prepared to remove Schultz by force. To that end, Luciano buys the loyalty of Schultz’s right-hand man, Lulu, who willingly turns on his old master.

“The law of the jungle: The weak died in a hail of machine gun bullets, the strong stepped up and seized power. And Eliot Ness had it all to do over again. Arthur Flegenheimer, alias Dutch Schultz, died at exactly 8:35. The next day, all over New York City, the number 835-got the heaviest play in the numbers racket. It was a loser, too.”

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