Death for Sale

Description

Chicago, last week of April 1933. Frank Nitti is offered a huge quantity of Chinese opium. Ever since the government had established the Bureau of Narcotics in 1930, the flow of opium from China to the USA had slowed to a trickle, and by 1932 the flow had almost ceased; now, with the end of Prohibition seeming imminent, the Syndicate is ready to deal in opium again. Late on the night of May 4, Nitti sends one of his top lieutenants, Ed Getty, to pick up some opium from Art Rele and his thug Cliff Anders. But Ness and Lee Hobson show up, too; in the shootout, only Art Rele escapes. On Getty, Ness finds some raw opium wrapped in a sheet of paper in an envelope. Later at Ness' office, the other hood is identified as Cliff Anders, who used to work for Phil Melnick, the one-time ""king of opium."" And so Eliot Ness and his Untouchables head to New York (on a train, not a plane as they usually do). Their only lead is the expensive bond paper that the opium was wrapped in; it was manufac