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Gang Busters is a 30 minute television series, hosted by Chester Morris, that aired on NBC from March 20 to Oct. 23, 1952. The series dramatized FBI cases.
1952
Disguised a Western Union messenger, Willie Sutton (Jay Novello) tricks the janitor at a jewelry store on Broadway to open the door before the start of business. Sutton and an accomplice pull guns and prevent the janitor from warning the store manager when he arrives to open the store, and them force the manager to open the safe. The thieves make off with $130,000 in jewels, leaving a total of six hostages behind. Gang Buster detectives O'Reilly (Ray Walker) and Burlin (Eddie Marr) notice that a month earlier an attempted bank robbery began at the same time of day as the jewelry store job, using the same disguise and the same modus operandi. Employees of the bank identified pictures of Willie "The Actor" Sutton and escaped convict Marcus G. Bassett (Marc Krah) as leaders of the bank robbery gang. The Gang Busters know the name of Bassett's girlfriend and decide to try and get to Sutton through Bassett. While planning another bank robbery, Sutton sees Basset having an argument with his girlfriend Helen (Betty Lou Gerson), and wants to know what's wrong. When Bassett tells Sutton that he can't take her any more, Willie unsympathetically tells him that he better "look after" Helen instead of worrying about the bank job. Feeling threatened, Bassett recalls that Sutton had another partner in crime who was murdered over a girl, and does not want to end up lying in the street himself. Following the argument with Bassett, Helen turns out to be more than willing to give him up when the detectives arrive at her place, even telling them that both of the escapees carry poison vials so that they will never be taken alive and sent back to prison. The detectives miss Barrett but locate Sutton's naive girlfriend Violet Fairchild (Peggy Stewart) and follow her to a restaurant where she meets the unsuspecting Sutton. The Gang Busters surprise him, confiscate his poison, and haul him off to jail. Bassett is apprehended a few days later.
Three vicious hoods on a crime rampage take over a church mission as their headquarters, figuring the cops would never look for them there.
Police pursue John Dillinger and his henchman, Homer Van Meter across the Midwest. On the run, Van Meter digs up loot hidden in glass jars, but is double-crossed by one of his underlings.
John Dillinger, a notorious 1930s bank robber, escapes from the state penitentiary using a wooden gun, but makes a critical error when he crosses the state line in a stolen car. That act violated a U.S. law, causing the FBI to take up the hunt. Although Dillinger manages to escape from several traps set by the G-men, he's finally cornered by agents leaving a Chicago movie theater with "The Lady in Red".
1952
Detectives set out to track down a gang of international jewel thieves who have just stolen more than a million dollars worth of valuables from an estate in New York.
Charles Mendoro, an erstwhile family man, and his partner use poison gas to rob currency exchanges in Chicago.
FBI special agents are called in to capture the notorious bank robber and kidnapper Alvin Karpis, the machine gun blasting thug who provides the muscle for the infamous Karpis-Barker gang. Federal heat forces Karpis from hideout to hideout but Karpis always stays one step of the FBI. The G-men play their trump card and, knowing that the gangster loves fishing, manage to track their quarry to popular pier.
Federal agents set off on the trail of a family of bank robbers who have stolen more than $50,000 from an Oregon bank.
A Canadian-born cat burglar tries to maintain his blissful domestic life while stealing guests jewelry at parties on both coasts and selling them to unwitting gem merchants in other major cities. Police begin to close in when one of the merchants recognizes the man from a wanted poster he accidentally saw while applying for a gun license.
Police in Buffalo, NY, mount a search for a ring of deadly jewel thieves believed to be hiding across the border in Canada.
A masked phantom and his gang commit a series of payroll robberies, and the police can't seem to find a trace of them.
The story of bank robber/forger John Richard Bayless who was nabbed after being recognized on an airplane by an alert flight attendant.
A policewoman is sent undercover to infiltrate and break up a gang led by a nasty blonde damsel.
A Depression Era gang devises a plot to take out life insurance policies on derelicts then kill them and collect the proceeds. Unfortunately, one of their intended victims proves hard to kill.
Herbert Noble starts an illegal casino despite his wife's objections that it will attract criminal elements. He survives many attempts on his life made as a result of his failure to pay protection money to the syndicate for his gambling enterprises.
Connecticut State Police are desperate to apprehend the Scissors Gang who have committed over 50 robberies all across the Nutmeg State.
Chester Morris
Host
