Junk Man - Recap

In 1931 on the South Side of Chicago one of the nastiest mobsters is Victor Salazar who uses a junkyard as his front. Eliot Ness and the Untouchables have turned their big guns on Salazar. They keep intercepting his booze convoys so his underboss, Barney Howe, pushes him into narcotics saying that this will put Chicago in his hip pocket. Later, they geta call from a man named Kierson who's carrying a briefcase containing information about the time and route of a $2 million dollar shipment of morphine crystals to a medical research center. Kierson says he will meet Salazar and Howe on a street corner in ten minutes. He never makes it because a hood named Steve Ballard guns him down and takes the briefcase.

When Kierson doesn't show, Salazar calls in his enfocers and tells them to find him Ironically, one of these enforcers is none other than Steve Ballard, who pumped Kierson full of lead in the first place. It seems that Ballard hates his boss because Salazar slashed his face once for not doing what he was told. Another of Salazar's enforcers, Fred Santos, is in on the deal with Ballard.

A few nights later, Ballard and Santos--armed with tear gas cannisters, gas masks, and choppers--steal the morphine shipment at the train station. As they're making their escape Santos is shot and killed by a security guard so Ballard has the entire shipment for himself. He makes his way back into Chicago and calls in renegade chemist Martin Pegler to turn the crystal morphine into a more usable form.

Since Santos is one of Salazar's boys, Ness and the Untouchables show up at his junkyard office. Ness suspects that Salazar was responsible for the hijacked shipment of morphine and starts crowding him and underboss Barney Howe really hard. So hard that Howe takes a swing at him and is taken downtown on the charge of assaulting a federal officer. But once downtown, Howe reveals that it was all a ruse. He's actually an undercover narcotics officer named Barney Retzik.

After getting confirmation of his story, Ness listens to what Retzik has to say. He wants Ness and his men to ease up on the pressure on Salazar for a while in order to allow Salazar to get his hands on the morphine shipment. Once that happens, Ness can pounce and arrest him for possession with intent to distribute. Ness balks at first but eventually agrees to go along with Retzik's idea.

Meanwhile, Max Frivol, a restauranteur who's one of the big narcotics distributors in the city, has a meeting with three other major distributors: Monette, Leopold, and Meyerhoff. They agree to raise the cash to buy the hijacked morphine. In the meanwhile, chemist Pegler finishes his work. He has converted the morphine into candy which now contains 10% heroin. Ballard pays Pegler off with a bullet. He plans on leaving town with his junkie girlfriend, Rosie, a singer in Frivol's restaurant, once he gets his payoff.

In order to find the shipment, Salazar has his goons rough up some junkies. One of them puts him onto Max Frivol who told him earlier that some stuff would be coming in real soon. Salazar has Frivol brought in and worked over. He eventually cracks and tells Salazar that he, Monette, Leopold, and Meyerhoff are meeting that night to buy the hijacked narcotics. Salazar has Frivol bumped off and then tells Retzik/Howe that he'll be at the meeting tonight to get all the double-crossers.

Retzik, who had earlier figured out that Ballard was the one who stole the shipment and cut himself in on the deal, arrives at the meeting. Then Monette and the others arrive and make the payoff but as their departing they run into Salazar and his strongarm squad. All hell breaks loose especially when Ness and the Untouchables, alerted by Retzik, arrive on the scene too. Ballard, rightly guessing that Retzik is responsible for the doublecross, shoots at him but misses. Retzik returns fire. He doesn't miss. Farewell Steve Ballard. Farewell Victor Salazar as well. He gets gunned down by Ness on the street along with about four or five others. The rest surrender.

Barney Retzik had done his job well. Thanks to him Ness had finally smashed the criminal empire of Victor Salazar. Retzik received a commendation for his efforts but he also saw to it that Steve Ballard's girlfriend, Rosie, was committed to a hospital where she could receive treatment for her addiction.

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