The F.B.I.

- Season 2

(1966)

A gang of kidnappers preys on middle-class families. Based in Reno, they identify men who have won money gambling, then kidnap their children. Junior, one of the kidnappers, convinces his brother Casey to spare the life of one kidnap victim. Casey reluctantly does so but tells the boy other members of his family will die if they alert authorities. The FBI receives an anonymous phone call after the boy is returned but the boy's father refuses to cooperate. After Erskine and Rhodes start work on the case, another man's son is kidnapped after the man has won $7,500 ...

Convicted murderer Larry Drake is freed during a brazen escape that results in the deaths of three law-enforcement officers. One of them was a good friend of Inspector Lewis Erskine, who was the godfather to the man's oldest son. Steve Drake, the killer's brother, has organized the escape and another brother, Eddie, was a participant. But Larry, in love with Steve's wife, has his own plans.

Bishop John Atwood, a peace activist, is coming to the U.S. to deliver a speech. He has been targeted for assassination by Anton Christopher, who has never been photographed. The FBI is alerted to the plot by a Manilla police officer, who has been fatally shot by Christopher but lives long enough to tell the FBI what he knows. What neither the FBI nor the bishop knows is that one of the bishop's closest friends is part of the plot.

The FBI is called in to investigate a case of sabotage at a tungsten mine in New Mexico. The bureau is concerned because the metal is vital for U.S. defense and aerospace efforts. But the sabotage has nothing to do with the Cold War. Rather, it is the work of Tom Rule, whose son was killed at the mine and whose grandson wants to work there. Rule, believing the mine will soon close down anyway, wants to prevent his grandson from following the same path he did. What he doesn't know, and one reason the FBI is involved, is that a large deposit of tungsten is near the mine...

Erskine and Rhodes are investigating Johnny Albin, a "juicer," who makes loans to desperate businessmen and then uses his leverage to take control of their companies for La Cosa Nostra boss Mark Vincent. Erskine hopes to use Albin to get to Vincent, who controls a savings-and-loan and other legitimate business fronts. One of Albin's businessmen victims is hesitant to help the FBI for fear his wife and daughter will be killed or injured.

A chemist, facing escalating medical bills because his daughter may lose her leg, steals flasks he thinks contains a new lotion. In reality, he has taken a powerful bacteria that will wipe out all forms of life within a certain area. A spy, Jago, wants to sell the bacteria to a country hostile to the United States. Erskine and Rhodes are dispatched to track down the missing flasks which have the potential to wipe out millions of lives.

Thieves steal an experimental form of nitrogylcerin, which is especially volatile. A guard is killed in the robbery and one of the thieves is also killed because he can't take the stress. The thieves recruit Carl Munger, an experienced truck driver who has hauled nitrogylcerin before. Munger is about to become a father and is nearly broke. Rhodes, posing as an out-of-work truck driver, wins Munger's trust and joins him in hauling the explosive chemical. All Erskine can do is follow behind and hope his partner will survive the ordeal.

Frank Schroeder is hitchhiking and is picked up by a motorist in the Southwest. Schroeder kills the motorist in cold blood. Now, the FBI has launched a manhunt for Schroeder and puts him on the agency's Ten Most Wanted list. The criminal hooks up with a young Mexican woman. He is now in San Antonio, where there are rumors that a reclusive woman has a fortune in diamonds hidden in her home. Erskine and Rhodes try to trace Schroeder's bloody trail, which will result in the death a pawn broker. Can the FBI bring the criminal to justice before it's too late for others?

Karl Schindler, a former Nazi officer who ran a concentration camp during World War II, is now a Communist spy. Otto Mann, a Nazi hunter, nearly arrests Schindler on a cruise ship headed to New York. Mann is a friend of Erskine and wants to assist the FBI. But Mann's wife died at Schindler's concentration camp. Erskine is uncertain whether Mann will attempt to gain personal revenge; the FBI man wants to capture Schindler alive for his knowledge of U.S.-based agents.

A prisoner at a federal prison in Colorado is killed. Dying, he tells the warden that a break-out is about to be attempted. Because the prison houses some of the worst criminals in U.S. custody, the FBI is called into the case. Erskine goes undercover as a prisoner and is the new cell mate of Fritz Moline, a cunning criminal suspected of organizing the escape. But Moline, after planning the escape for five years, may kill Erskine first.

Erkine and Rhodes lead an FBI hunt for Lawrence Underwood, a Communist spy who has stolen secrets from an atomic laboratory in Idaho. Underwood, in the course of the theft, caused an accident involving atomic materials and is now contaminated with radiation. Underwood is in a remote part of Idaho, with Erkine on his trail, unaware of Underwood's condition.

A company aircraft of Colton Industries, a Detroit-based defense contractor, explodes in mid-air. The incident kills one of the parters of the company, who was headed to Washington. He was killed because he was going to blow the whistle about defective aircraft components that Colton Industries was shipping to Vietnam. As Erkine and Rhodes investigate, Assistant Director Arthur Ward takes an interest in the case because he's a friend of Mrs. Colton. The title of the episode is explained by Ward, who likens the story of the camel forcing its way into a tent to the way ...

Istvan Sladek, an agent for a Communist Eastern European nation who is operating in the U.S., has obtained a coded list of opposition leaders in his country. But in getting the list, he fatally shot the editor of a newspaper for Slavic Americans. Erkine and Rhodes lead the FBI's hunt for Sladek. At the same time, Sladek knows agents of his country will liquidate him the moment Sladek gives up the list. Complicating all of this is the fact Sladek, during the preceding six months, fell in love with a woman who immigrated from his country. The woman is torn whether to ...

Jennerson, the captain of a freight ship, loses his vessel when it hits what appears to be an old mine. The event is viewed as a tragic accident, which cost the life of one of Jennerson's crew. But the FBI, led by Erskine and Rhodes, is following up indications the incident was deliberately staged. Indeed, the mine, stolen from elsewhere, was newer than a World War II mine. Jennerson and an accomplice are after $40,000 in insurance money. What Jennerson doesn't know is that his wife is having an affair with the accomplice. At the same time, the sunken ship's cargo ...

A former convict recognizes another ex-con, known as the "Iceman," arriving at a Los Angeles apartment building. The former convict drives to a telephone booth at a nearby drive-in and attempts to call the FBI. The Iceman intercepts him and stabs him with an icepick in the chest. The Iceman flees, but the convict survives long enough to get another man to call the Bureau. Dying, the former convict provides the FBI with information about the Iceman. It turns out the killer is part of a gang of bank robbers led by Scott Martin. The gang has already killed two people, ...

Hanna Crandall, a witness in a trial against an intelligence operative of a Communist nation, panics. She hurriedly disguises herself and buys a train ticket from New York to Quebec. She's not aware that assassins in the employ of that country are on the train with her. Hanna also befriends a male passenger, who realizes something is wrong but has trouble reaching out to Hanna. Erskine and Rhodes figure out she's on the train and manage to get aboard. Now the FBI agents must protect her before the killers can complete their mission.

The FBI, investigating the theft of plans for a new cobalt bomb, comes across a Communist spy ring. One of its members is Juliet Sinclair, who runs an Asian orphanage and also an operative for Red China. She is flying to Los Angeles to take a girl from the orphanage to a couple, the Kenyons. The girl, however, the night before the trip, discovers Juliet Sinclair's secret. What the girl doesn't know is the Kenyons are part of the same spy ring. Erskine and Rhodes must not only recover the missing information but also are in a race to prevent the girl from being ...

Lt. Frank Harris, a tough plainclothes police officer, questions Joseph Spooner, a junkie informant, to try to break a case. After Harris drops Spooner off, he is beaten and killed by two hoods. Harris was the last person to see Spooner alive and the junkie's death sets off protests about police brutality. Erskine and Rhodes are called in to investigate before a volatile situation turns explosive.

The Gray Passenger is when death visits a ship. Exactly that has occurred when a former president of a South American country has been murdered on a ship sailing off the Carolina coast en route to South America. The political situation in that nation is explosive, spurring the FBI to send agents Erskine and Rhodes to investigate. Erskine is the lead investigator while Rhodes poses as a sailor. The FBI men face many dangers. The murder is part of a plot that involves piracy and political intrigue.

The Caldwell family is part of a Communist Cell in the San Francisco Bay area. The cell plans to blow up a U.S. ship sailing from Oakland to take war supplies to Vietnam. Erskine and Rhodes lead the FBI's investigation, which begins when Lester Milton is found murdered. Milton is a former Communist who renounced the party. John Caldwell, patriarch of the Caldwell family, is really Milton's brother. Milton was spotted by Communist operative Conrad Letterman, who is the mastermind behind the scheme to blow up the ship. The FBI races to apprehend Letterman, not knowing ...

A sophisticated hijacking operation steals specific shipments of vital products and arranges for them to be sold behind the Iron Curtain. Manning Fryes, an executive with knowledge of the shipments, is having an affair with a woman close to the hijacking ring. Erskine and Rhodes lead the FBI's probe. Fryes is under pressure to cooperate one last time, in this instance involving a shipment of $7 million in gold.

A three-person team of Eastern Bloc operatives led by Major Damian Sava arrives at a U.S. beach. They are discovered by a U.S. sailor. The sailor is killed so the spies can proceed with their mission. The sailor's death brings the FBI into the investigation, with Erskine and Rhodes leading the probe. The target of the spies is Anton Dieter; the spies intend to kidnap Dieter so he can be exchanged for a Soviet bloc operative captured by the FBI, who is now in the Atlanta federal prison.

George Bellamy, married just three months, has gotten another woman pregnant. That woman's brother meets Bellamy in a cabin in a national forest in the middle of a fire alert area. A fight breaks out. Bellamy accidentally kills the man. Bellamy, desperate, starts a fire he knows will set off a broader blaze to cover up the crime. As it becomes evident this was no accidental fire, the FBI is called in to investigate. as Erskine and Rhodes piece things together, Bellamy finds himself in deeper and deeper, especially after his pregnant girlfriend dies in the hospital.

A painting worth $500,000 is stolen from a Washington museum. A former U.S. government official is seriously injured trying to stop the theft. The thief flies to Los Angeles, intending to sell it to a collector the thief has done business with before. The thief, though, gets more than he bargained for when he meets a woman who falls for him. Erskine and Rhodes don't have much to work with. The FBI men begin to put pressure on the collector. Meanwhile, the thief concludes he'll need to kill the woman to ensure her silence.

Leo Roland, one of the chiefs of the Cosa Nostra, invokes the Fifth Amendments repeatedly when called before a federal grand jury in New York concerning a fraudulent bankruptcy. But his attorney, Carl Munroe, has learned the U.S. has turned up a witness that could get the mafia leader indicted. Roland, following a meeting of the Cosa Nostra's council, orders a hit on the witness, which is carried out by Paul Clementi, nephew of Ed Clementi, the other primary Cosa Nostra leader. Ed Clementi is unaware his nephew is Cupid, so named because he shoots his victims twice in...

As Part II opens, Leo Roland is desperate. His close La Cosa Nostra associate, Ed Clementi, has been subpoenaed by the U.S. Clementi is desperate to get out of the rackets but Roland reminds Clementi of the oath he swore to La Cosa Nostra - the La Cosa Nostra comes before family and all else. Roland is prepared to order a hit on anybody Clementi knows who could be a potential witness. Meanwhile, Clementi's nephew, Paul, the hit man known to the authorities as "Cupid," has committed a potential fatal blunder. The FBI has recovered one of his teeth that was knocked ...

The son of a prominent New England industrialist has been kidnapped. Erskine's investigation is complicated when the father receives two ransom notes. One is genuine, the other a "satellite," an extortion demand by someone not actually involved in the kidnapping. Erskine believes the second ransom note is the real article; its phrasing points to a younger person. But the FBI must cover both ransom drops. Meanwhile, the real kidnapper grows more volatile, endangering the life of the kidnap victim.

Operating on a tip, Erskine and Rhodes arrest Charles Burnett and Allen Cole just before they were going to commit murder and kidnapping. The tipster was Burnett's former wife, for whom he still has feelings. The ex-wife flees before the duo can be tried for conspiracy to commit kidnapping. Now, the FBI agents and the conspirators are in a race to get to the ex-wife first. She has fled to the Florida Keys, where she was raised, just as a hurricane is closing in. Erskine and a wounded Rhodes are with the ex-wife as Burnett closes in.

Avila, a rancher, is being threatened by an extortionist, who wants $200,000 or else he'll spread the virus for hoof-and-mouth disease throughout Avila's herd. The extortionist is being driven by jealousy, hate and bigotry. Erskine and Rhodes seek the extortionist's identity. Avila doesn't realize the threat is closer than he thinks.