Case file: #92-5843-A
John V. Albin: Interstate Transportation in Aid of Racketeering – Murder.
Original air date: 23 October 1966
This episode was not rerun
Inspector Lew Erskine and Agent Jim Rhodes seek a witness who will help them unmask a usury racket of the infamous “La Cosa Nostra.” The F.B.I. is involved in investigations of organized crime.
- Scene showing the initiation of Robert Duvall into the La Cosa Nostra as the then officially nonexistent American Mafia was called by the Bureau. The “La” is redundant since “Cosa Nostra” simply means “our thing.”
- Ironically, Mr. Duvall would star as Tom Hagen, the legal counsel to the Corleone family in The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather, Part 2 (1974). Mr. Duvall went on to a major movie career. In 1966, though, he was a steadily working actor who made a lot of guest appearances in TV shows and movies. That year, he appeared in one of the earliest TV movies, Fame Is The Name Of The Game, which starred Anthony Franciosa and Jill St. John. He is fluent in Spanish (and is probably so in Italian). Mr. Duvall, a descendant of Confederate general Robert E. Lee, is still alive at age 88, as of August 2019.
- In reality, the FBI campaign against organized crime really shifted into high gear after 1980. Note that the gangsters do not have Italian surnames; that was discouraged in 1966. In real life, hundreds of gangsters went to prison, starting in the Reagan administration.
Credits:
Directed by: Paul Wendkos
Written by: Norman Jolley
Performer | Role
- Robert Duvall | John V. Albin
- Lin McCarthy | Albert Towner
- David Sheiner | Emil Justin
- Will Kuluva | Mark Vincent
- Mary LaRoche | Lyn Towner
- Garry Walberg | Sam Colton
- Booth Colman | Martin Davis
- Richard Karlan | George Colton
- Debi Storm | Kathy Towner
- Dort Clark | Harry
- Nelson Leigh | Judge
- Anne Carroll | Secretary
- Robert Ivers | 1st Special Agent
- Greg Mullavey | 2nd Special Agent
- John Mayo | Document Examiner
- Charles McDaniel | Serology Technician
- Warren Parker | Hotel Manager