Detective Ruditsky relates the story of Nick Joseph, a small-time hood from Manhattan's Lower East Side, who rises from petty theft to become an ace contract killer for the syndicate's notorious Murder, Inc.
An immigrant woman tries to get Ruditsky to set her son on the straight and narrow. It seems as though he's been hanging around with a gang of hoodlums. Ruditsky gives it his best effort but it could be a tough sell.
Jane Cooper, recently paroled from prison, proves that she hasn't learned anything when she once again begins hanging around with underworld characters. Only this time it seems as though her mobster boyfriends keep dying off.
Cutie Jaffe, a small-time hood with big time ambitions, begins knocking over some of his brother-in-law's bootlegging trucks. Will Cutie rise in the underworld hierarchy or is he headed for a hard fall?
Dutch Schultz wants to bump off special prosecutor Thomas Dewey who has been after him. The syndicate bigwigs deny him permission to make the hit but the Dutchman proceeds with his plans anyway.
Small time racketeer Eddie Safronek plots revenge against the hoods who beat him up and left him for dead.
The underworld bribes police detective Harry Kramer in order to get him to withhold information in a case.
After a moll is found murdered, flashbacks tell her story and those of mobsters Tony Sappio and Big Ed Harper, who both loved not wisely but too well.
The body of a murdered young woman is dragged from the Harlem River and the police ascertain that she was killed because she knew too much regarding the activities of a bootlegging gang. Ruditsky then becomes puzzled when the attorney of the chief suspect insists on going to trial as quickly as possible.
Ex-convict Maxey Gorman gets a Machiavellian character named A.J. to finance his entry into the bootlegging business. The two men become partners but when the dough starts pouring in Maxie looks for a way to rid himself of A. J.
Muddy Kasoff has been renting automobiles for gangsters to use but he has been secretly tippin the cops. When the hoods discover that Muddy has been informing they have him killed. Ruditsky investigates and discovers that a cigar band might be an important clue.
When Ruditsky can't be bribed by a waterfront crime gang they attempt to frame him by making it look like he's on the take.
Ruditsky warns visiting high roller Big Ziggy to get out of town but before he can hit the road he get roped into a crooked poker game with three cardsharps.
Dick Wilson (2) as Game Boy Miles | Harry Arnie as Benny | Brad Trumbull (2) as O'Neill | Lou Herbert as Titanic Thompson | Jack Kruschen as Laughing Boy | John Vivyan as Big Ziggy
At a wild gangland party a young girl falls out of a window and is killed. When evidence shows that the girl was pushed, visiting Chicago mobster Ray Baker is arrested and charged with the crime. But Ruditsky has his doubts and thinks that the real culprit might be another mobster.
Lucky Silva is a small-time hood who by a combination of circumstance, ambition, and drive rises quickly to a position of prominence in New York's Mafia.
A judge is murdered right before a state crime commission is scheduled to take a look into his activities.
Ruditsky is temporarily assigned to duty in a Brooklyn precinct and must get the goods on a gang of hooligans who are pulling off a series of drug store robberies.
When a young hoodlum named Al Brown destroys a blind man's shop it puts Ruditsky on his trail. But it will be under another name in another city that Brown becomes notorious.
When the trail of a murdered garment factor owner leads back to the notorious Lepke Buchalter he sends the htman responsible, Big Greeny, to stay in Los Angeles under the auspices of the equally notorious Bugsy Siegal.
Ruditsky goes after Art Harris, a racketeer who's muscled his way into the political scene in order to protect his organized crime interests.
Mob boss Bobo Konig puts a bounty of $50,000 on psychotic gunman Billy Boy Creel who immediately goes underground. Ruditsky then tries to find Billy Boy before Konig's killers do.
Gangster Louis Otto was once a childhood friend of Ruditsky's. Now he's wanted for the murder of an underling.
A former union trucker who now owns a candy store is pressured by the Mob to leave New York City because he knows too much about their past labor racketeering activities. When he refuses to leave the city, the Mob bumps him off. The man's crippled son is the only witness to his father's killing.
Shortly after busting up a numbers racket, Ruditsky finds himself the target of a person or persons unknown.
The Mob kidnaps the son of a millionaire and holds him for a ransom of $100,000. Or did they?
The Prantera Story Barney Ruditsky is a New York City police in the Roaring 20s who fights organized crime.
Legs Diamond guns down three men in a nightclub. None of the others who saw the shooting will testify against him. Soon afterward, no less than five men who might have been able to talk turn up dead.
Sonny Rosen's wealthy parents receive a ransom note demanding money in exchange for his return. But as Ruditzky investigates, it begins to appear that the "kidnapping" is not what it seems.
Louy Kassoff sees his sister abducted from the streets by hoodlums. (Although not explicitly stated due to the TV code at the time, the implication is that she was sexually assaulted). He is plagued by guilt because he was unable to protect her, and as a result he casts aside his rabbinical studies and decides to join a mob. Within a year ha has taken over as its leader.
After being sent to Sing Sing for an armored car robbery in which several were killed, Louy Kassoff decides to organize the prisoners, including such future underworld figures as Dutch Schultz, Lepke Buchalter, Lucky Luciano, and Legs Diamond, by forming a "Mutual Welfare League".
After the death of his sister, Louy Kassoff decides to resign from the organization he started. But his associates, worried about what he may do next, are not so willing to let him just go.
Miles Miller is a crooked attorney who acts as middleman between jewel thieves and insurance companies trying to make a profit. Unfortunately for Miller, a policeman and an accomplice to the crime were both killed in the latest robbery in which his client was involved.
Gangster Jacob Koster, a.k.a. Kid Dropper, humiliates and scars "Little Augie" Orgen, leading to a bloody feud which gets innocent people caught in the crossfires. The district attorney puts the heat on the police department and Ruditsky in particular to put an end to it. Ruditsky gets help from an unlikely source, the Kid's own mother and brother.
In an effort to nail associates of Dutch Schultz, Ruditsky is ordered by Captain McCloskey to take a bribe from one of them. To set this up, Ruditsky gets close to Schultz' former girlfriend.
Little Augie Orgen begins a major racket 'protecting' businesses against strikes. Ruditsky believes he finally has him nailed, due to a witness who can swear against him in court. But a crafty move by Augie and his attorney gets him off. Now Augie has bigger problems, with his fellow mobsters Gurrah and Lepke.
Vince Matteo and Tommy Ryan have been raised together and are like brothers. When they are ordered by the mob to kill Vince's godfather, Vince balks, but helps Tommy with the hit. After Ruditsky puts the pressure on Vince and Vince is observed coming into his office, the mob orders Tommy to kill Vince.
To nail the leaders of a murderous mob attempting to take over the labor unions, Ruditsky puts the screws to one of the gang's top enforcers, by convincing him that he'll be the next one to be hit.
Artie Moon is a paid killer who hopes to work his way up in the underworld independent of the big time mobsters. His own wife, an old family friend of Ruditsky, is not aware of how far Artie's gone, but she begs Ruditsky to help stop him before it's too late.
Millie Grayson offers to help Ruditsky get evidence on her former boyfriend, mobster Jurgie Jorgenson. Millie is an old girlfriend of Ruditsky's as well. Ruditsky is skeptical, but learns he is not immune to misled by a woman's charms.
A hit man working for Murder, Inc. is ordered to kill a woman who witnessed a hit. Instead, he winds up falling in love with the witness.
Lepke Buchalter hires a novelty expert to find a new method of controlling labor disputes. The man soon comes up with an ingeniously odious (or rather odorous) method and sells Dutch Schultz on it as well.