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The Untouchables (1959) :: The Night They Shot Santa Claus (04x01)
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Episode Information |
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| Title: | The Night They Shot Santa Claus |
| Episode #: | 04x01 |
| Original Airdate: | Tuesday September 25th, 1962 |
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Christmas Eve, 1930. The nation is locked in a grinding depression but at the Sackman Orphan Home, Hap Levinson is taking time out to play Santa Claus for the kiddies. He brings them toys and ice cream and Mr. Hodges, the orphanage administrator, thanks him for coming. Then he steps outside and turns and waives goodbye to Gary and Charlie, two orphan brothers. All of a sudden, a car pulls up and a machine gun begins blasting. Hap Levinson, the man in the Santa Claus suit, lies dead on the sidewalk. Quite a shock for the kiddies.
Eliot Ness was a friend of Levinson for nearly ten years so he arrives on the scene. Though Levinson managed the Criss Cross nightclub for racketeer Mike Volney, he and Ness had a truce. If Ness came in through the kitchen it was neutral ground. If he came in through the front door it was official business. The reason for the shooting quickly leads back to Volney. About a month ago, he had shot a hood named Augie in his club. Two of the witnesses were now dead and a third, Jimmy Canada, is on the lam. Hap had sworn to Ness that he wasn't in the club that night but now it appears that he was.
The only clue is a small, wrapped present Ness finds on Hap's corpse. It's made out to Renee. He then calls in the rest of the Untouchables. Hobson, Rico, Youngfellow, and Rossman all come trudging into the Federal Building on Christmas Eve. Ness interviews Bertha Levinson, Hap's widow, at her home. She says her husband was an angel. Volney's gangland rival, Brikka, is brought in. He has an alibi for the shooting but reveals that Renee is the name of Hap's mistress.
Ness then goes to the Criss Cross Club. Volney is in hiding and has been since the shooting. Ness questions some of the dancing girls but none of them know Renee. As he's leaving the club, Ness is approached by Sophie, the wardrobe mistress. She reveals that Renee is Renee Grayson, who used to dance at the club and later became Hap's mistress.
Now that he knows her name it isn't too difficult for Ness to track Renee Grayson down. She tells Ness nothing but her apartment is a mess. After Ness departs she opens the present. It's a cameo necklace. Renee screams in frustration. It seems as though she's a junkie and was expecting drugs. Desperate for a fix, Renee calls Volney's lieutenant, Art Tenney, at the Criss Cross Club.
Then there's a break in the case. Jimmy Canada turns himself into the Cook County Jail for protective custody. When Ness arrives, Jimmy is there and tells his story. The shooting happened because of a silly two buck bet over baseball after a night of drinking and poker. Jimmy, a bartender, and Hap had both witnessed the shooting along with two others. Now Jimmy is the only one left alive. All he wants now is to live to see Christmas. Ness says if he develops amnesia he'll be back out on the street in a matter of hours.
Ness then gets a call from Sophie, the wardrobe mistress at the Criss Cross Club. It seems as though Volney has ordered Art Tenney to kill Renee Grayson. Ness and Hobson rush to her apartment to warn her. They barely beat Tenney there and he pumps four slugs through the door of the apartment. Renee gets wounded and Tenney successfully escapes.
Renee now tells her story to Ness. She's a junkie. Hap was a junkie too. He'd been supplying her with drugs but now that the supply ended she tried to get some from Volney. She'd called Tenney and told him that Hap had spilled things to her and she was going to the cops unless she got some drugs. Thus, the hitman at the apartment. Renee got that instead of the drugs.
Still at Renee's apartment, Hobson takes a phone call. Jimmy Canada just hung himself in a cell shortly after midnight. He saw Christmas and then he took his own life because he was a marked man either way. Mike Volney now climbs out of his rathole. He attends a party in his honor at the Criss Cross Club. Eliot Ness crashes the party and takes Volney into custody explaining that Volney killed Hap because he knew he was a junkie and all the cops had to do to make him talk would be to ice him for a few hours. Volney shoots back at Ness that Hap was using him. He used their supposed friendship to his advantage with every cop in Chicago. Ness slaps the crap out of Volney and leads him away.
In March of 1931, Volney stood trial for the murder of Augie and was found not guilty. On May 11, 1931, he stood trial for the murder of Hap Levinson. He was found not guilty of that one too. Eliot Ness had learned a hard lesson in this one--there's no neutral ground in the war against organized crime.
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