The Real Untouchables

Three real-life heroes, who battled organized crime between the two world wars, are the subject of this three-part documentary, complete with interviews and reenactments. Part one looks at Eliot Ness, the incorruptible Prohibition agent who worked to bring down Al Capone but remained obscure until Ness's memoir became the basis for a popular TV series, which inflated his role in bringing down the Chicago mobster. Part two examines Melvin Purvis, the FBI agent whose tireless efforts to capture John Dillinger ended in front of the Biograph theater in Chicago. Acclaim for Purvis faded as the jealous J. Edgar Hoover did what he could to erase the agent from public memory. Part three chronicles the career of Thomas Dewey, best known now as the Presidential candidate who lost to the dark horse, Harry Truman. But Dewey's great accomplishment was as the New York district attorney who brought down the Sicilian mobster, Lucky Luciano, by successfully prosecuting him for heading a prostitution racket. Whether Luciano really ran that racket is another story.