You Can't Pick the Number The Untouchables : Season 1 Episode 11

Chicago, October 1932. The depths of the Great Depression, marked by unemployment and poverty. The only chance some people felt they had to rise out of poverty, if only for a short time, was to win the lottery or at the punch-boards. The mob saw this as an opportunity, by coming up with a numbers game. People picked a number from 0-999; their odds of winning were 1-in-a-1,000-- the payoff was 600-to-1. The thousands of losers, pouring money into the mob, were never mentioned. Right now, mobster Phil Morrisey is pulling up in his fancy car, and making a big show for the crowd by giving today's winnings to a Mrs. Pollock-- for her investment of 25 cents, she is now getting $150, a fortune by Depression standards. And all those watching are determined to bet again, convinced they will all be winners someday. Phil Morrisey has also attracted the attention of Eliot Ness and Agent Flaherty. Ness tells Phil that $400,000 out of every million collected goes to the Syndicate-- for corr