The Lawless Years

Barney Ruditsky is a New York City police officer in the Roaring 20s who fights organized crime. The show was loosely based on the real life Rudisky who was a New York police officer during the period.

1959 HD NR United States English

James Gregory Robert Karnes

Crime Drama

organized crime new york city police detective 1920s

S1E1 - The Nick Joseph Story 1959-04-16

Detective Ruditsky relates the story of Nick Joseph, a small-time hood from Manhattans Lower East Side, who rises from petty theft to become an ace contract killer for the syndicates notorious Murder, Inc.

S1E2 - The Immigrant 1959-04-23

An immigrant woman tries to get Ruditsky to set her son on the straight and narrow. It seems as though hes been hanging around with a gang of hoodlums. Ruditsky gives it his best effort but it could be a tough sell.

S1E3 - The Jane Cooper Story 1959-04-30

Jane Cooper, recently paroled from prison, proves that she hasnt 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.

S1E4 - The Story Of Cutie Jaffe 1959-05-07

Cutie Jaffe, a small-time hood with big time ambitions, begins knocking over some of his brother-in-laws bootlegging trucks. Will Cutie rise in the underworld hierarchy or is he headed for a hard fall?

S1E5 - The Dutch Schultz Story 1959-05-14

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.

S1E6 - The Lion And The Mouse 1959-05-21

Small time racketeer Eddie Safronek plots revenge against the hoods who beat him up and left him for dead.

S1E7 - No Fare 1959-05-28

The underworld bribes police detective Harry Kramer in order to get him to withhold information in a case.

S1E8 - The Payoff 1959-06-11

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.

S1E9 - The Marie Walters Story 1959-06-18

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.

S1E10 - The Maxey Gorman Story 1959-06-25

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.

S1E11 - The Muddy Kasoff Story 1959-07-02

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.

S1E12 - Framed 1959-07-16

When Ruditsky cant be bribed by a waterfront crime gang they attempt to frame him by making it look like hes on the take.

S1E13 - Four the Hard Way 1959-07-23

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.

S1E14 - The Tony Morelli Story 1959-07-30

S1E15 - The Ray Baker Story 1959-08-06

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.

S1E16 - The Story of Lucky Silva 1959-08-13

ucky Silva is a small-time hood who by a combination of circumstance, ambition, and drive rises quickly to a position of prominence in New Yorks Mafia.

S1E17 - The Morrison Story 1959-08-20

A judge is murdered right before a state crime commission is scheduled to take a look into his activities.

S1E18 - The Poison Ivy Story 1959-08-27

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.

S2E1 - The Al Brown Story 1959-10-01

When a young hoodlum named Al Brown destroys a blind mans shop it puts Ruditsky on his trail. But it will be under another name in another city that Brown becomes notorious.

S2E2 - The Big Greeny Story 1959-10-08

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.

S2E3 - The Art Harris Story 1959-10-15

Ruditsky goes after Art Harris, a racketeer whos muscled his way into the political scene in order to protect his organized crime interests.

S2E4 - The Billy Boy 'Rockabye' Creel Story 1959-11-05

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 Konigs killers do.

S2E5 - The Big Man 1959-11-12

Gangster Louis Otto was once a childhood friend of Ruditskys. Now hes wanted for the murder of an underling.

S2E6 - The Joe Angelo Story 1959-11-19

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 mans crippled son is the only witness to his fathers killing.

S2E7 - The Billy Grimes Story 1959-12-03

Shortly after busting up a numbers racket, Ruditsky finds himself the target of a person or persons unknown.

S2E8 - The Sonny Rosen Story 1959-12-17

The Mob kidnaps the son of a millionaire and holds him for a ransom of $100,000. Or did they?

S2E9 - The Pantera Story

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