Man in the Middle - Recap

In November of 1933, the slot machines made their triumphant return to Chicago. Nearly two years before, in January of 1932, Eliot Ness had smashed the slot machine racket then run by Augie Viale. Now former Capone lieutenant Joe Bowmar is running things. One night Bowmar sends Moose Tobin and three other hoods over to a gambling joint owned by William "Porker" Davis. Tobin tells Davis that Bowmar wants to teach him a lesson so the hoods bust up the joint and begins tossing slot machines out the window. They also toss one of Porker's employees out the window for good measure. Now Eliot Ness and the Untouchables are after the slot machines again.

Porker goes in for a meeting with Bowmar and is given an offer he cannot refuse. They are now 50/50 partners and Bowmar warns Porker not to rig the machines so that they take more than 30% or the customers will stop playing. Porker has no choice but to agree and he takes 40 slot machines from Bowmar. That night he's back in business.

Benji Liemer works as a collector for Bowmar. He's also an old enemy of Davis who once burned him out of the nightclub business. Collecting the take from Porker's place he plants a bag of lead weights (to make it appear the machines are being rigged) in Davis' desk drawer. Then he tells Bowmar about the weights. That night, Porker gets another visit from Moose Tobin who finds the weights in his desk. As Moose prepares to rough up Davis, Porker pulls a gun and shoots him dead. He then goes on the lam.

Ness is searching for Porker. He visits Liemer and Bowmar but both say they don't know his location. Liemer is lying. He's going to meet Porker at his mother's apartment. Upon arrival, Porker gives Liemer five grand and begs him to fix things with Bowmar. Liemer fixes things all right. He tells Bowmar Porker's location. It's good night, sweet prince time for Mr. Davis.

With one enemy out of the way, Benji now concentrates on his other enemy. It's none other than his own boss, Joe Bowmar. It seems as though Bowmar was also involved in burning out Liemer from the nightclub business. He begins phoning in anonymous tips to the Untouchables. Nine of Bowmar's joints get raided. Bowmar knows there's a leak somewhere.

Benji Liemer's wife, Julie, is an aspiring singer with the intelligence quotient of a fence post. Not only is Julie dumb, she's mean and manipulative too. After failing to get a singing job in Bowmar's nightclub she says she could have blabbed to Ness because he knows all about the slot machines. This leads Bowmar to rightly deduce that her husband is the one who's been providing the anonymous tips.

In the meanwhile, Liemer has gone underground. Ness hauls Julie downtown to his office but later lets her go. Then he has his men tall her. Shortly afterwards, she gets a call from Benji and then pulls a dumb stunt. She goes to Bowmar and begs him to spare her husband's life. This does no good because Bowmar and his hoods tail Julie to her husband's location. They shoot and kill Benji Liemer but Ness, Hobson, and Rico arrive on the scene before they can make their getaway. Three hoods surrender to Hobson and Rico but Ness and Bowmar begin duking it out in the hallway. Bowmar ends up doing a swan dive off the third floor railing.

There was one consolation: Benji Liemer's life insurance police paid out $2,500 and that's exactly how much his coffin cost. It exceede the cost of Joe Bowmar's coffin by $500.

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