It's Jake Guzik.
Set your watch by the Capones.
Twenty, right on time. Here you go.
The vig comes to...
Twenty-five, yeah. Yeah. You break a saw?
Enoch "Nucky" Thompson, former treasurer of Atlantic City.
His brother Eli, Nucky's number two, also the former sheriff until he went to jail.
Michael "Mickey Doyle" née Cusick, runs Thompson's liquor operations.
At least partly.
Laszio "Lolly" Steinman is in charge of the racing wire and other gambling.
Nucky? Mickey? Lolly?
Where's Flopsy and Mopsy?
These men are murderers, gentlemen.
Yes, sir.
This details one local operation.
A criminal enterprise with ties to others throughout the country.
You're proposing there's a nationwide conspiracy?
It's all right here, Edgar.
These cities are almost wholly run by criminal overlords,
each with ties to one another.
Waxey Gordon in Philadelphia. King Solomon in Boston.
John Torrio in Chicago.
Within the last month,
Nucky Thompson was visited by Arnold Rothstein
and Joe Masseria, down from New York City.
Our op in Chicago places Torrio in Atlantic City on November 6, last.
- Our op? - Agent, sir.
So? Criminals have friends like everyone else.
Until you can prove conspiracy, you have nothing.
You want proof? I'll get it.
How do you propose to do that?
I'll find the weakest link in Thompson's chain and I'll break it.
I'll take a ham sandwich and a beer.
Get me more Mecca for my neck.
I'm still peeling from the sunburn.
I will have Tom do it as soon as he returns.
Are your legs broken?
I have business to attend to.
Three deposits before the banks close.
Right. Right.
Where's Tom?
He's on his way back with Mr. Rothstein from the train station.
Make sure you...
Make sure Tom gets milk and cake. Whatever Rothstein needs.
I want him receptive to this offer.
I thought you were in a hurry.
The deposits while you were in Tampa.
For you to confirm the dates and balances.
You have my every confidence.
Wait.
From the Chelsea branch, take out $10,000 and meet the Broadway Limited at 5:20.
- And then? - Hop aboard. See the world.
Don't they have jokes in Germany?
Put a white carnation in your right lapel.
White, not red.
A man will approach you.
Ask if you have a package for Mr. Brown.
Give him the cash and only him.
5:20, Mr. Brown.
Can you handle this?
I will protect it with my life.
Don't be so dramatic. It's only money.
Mr. White.
Miss Maitland.
Enjoying the show so far?
Your man there can play.
Last I checked, there was a singer up there with him.
Got no complaints.
No compliments' either.
You just go on singing to the folks need to hear you.
I've been waiting to talk to you.
It's my mama. She's sick.
Sorry to hear that.
May be pertussis or consumption.
Can't say, but she asking for me.
- You got somebody to make your collects? - My boy is up on it.
Be back from Baltimore in two days. If it's all right with you.
You got family to tend to, go and tend to them.
Eat that, Wyatt Earp.
Set me up again, Mueller.
Five-spot says it takes you both barrels.
Oh, I'll take your money.
I bagged four Filthy-pines, summer of aught-one.
Oh, that so?
Ah, fuck! I'm shot!
Did you... Did you...
- The fuck? - "I bagged four Filthy-pines", he says.
I can't see. I'm blind.
Oh, I'm gonna piss myself. Mueller, help him up there.
- Jesus Christ, Deano. - It's a little dirt. It was just a gag.
I could have lost a fucking eye.
I said it was a gag. You want me getting sore?
No. Sure, yeah. What you said.
I missed it? God damn it.
Delivery clown St. Luke's. One of the Capones.
- Al or Frank? - That bloater makes their collections.
- Bad ticker. - Shame.
Like to make a nice wreath for one of them guineas.
I'm gonna maybe go lay down in the truck.
Hey, get that beer over to Schultzie's first.
George, toss some daisies together. The day-olds. Hoof 'em up to the hospital.
Honestly, I'd prefer to avoid the Capones.
Last time I got this.
They don't soak in, you know.
- I'm awake. - You actually have to read them.
Thank your mother.
"Tess of the De-erber"?
Beats me.
200 bucks a semester, beats me?
Your mother said you've been walking around with your bottom lip on the floor.
What gives?
- Nothing. - Bull.
- Grades? - They're okay.
- One letter home, I find out. - They're okay.
Good at chemistry.
What, then? A girl?
I'm just not happy there, okay?
Happy?
You're there to get an education. You think I'm happy?
It's just these kids are a bunch of stuck-up jerks.
You're a Thompson.
Who are they?
Philadelphia mostly. New York.
Met one other kid from Atlantic City and he dropped out.
Yeah, well, you're the only boy from Atlantic City
anybody needs to know.
Remember that.
You're there to make something of yourself.
For your mother.
I'm trying, okay?
Try harder.
I don't want to hear this nonsense again.
You got broad shoulders.
Remember why you're there and do what you have to do.
They call this food?
- I'm hungry. - You're always fucking hungry.
This shit will kill you soon as a bullet.
Just some ricotta and white sauce to settle your stomach, huh?
Thanks, fellas.
Next time, tell that lazy bastard to come down the street to pay you, huh?
I'll be out in a week.
I only missed three pickups.
You get your strength back.
I'm gonna slip one of these nurses a fin.
Get you a nice little sponge bath.
Make it a couple of nurses.
There's a lot of Jake to sponge down.
When was the last time we did a pickup?
Me and you?
Brooklyn.
Frankie Yale, back when we was Five Points.
That guy with the wooden teeth.
I still got fucking splinters.
So how about it, huh? You and me.
We finish Jake's collections.
Sure. Why not?
Oh!
Who sent for the undertaker?
Hello. These are the flowers you ordered.
What? This is the shit he sends?
I got weeds under my porch nicer than these.
See that? They don't even stand up.
Mr. O'Banion meant no disrespect.
The man's sick. How else is he supposed to take it, huh?
If you'd prefer some begonias...
See? This is what your soft-soap gets us with O'Banion.
How's the melon?
I suppose it could have been worse.
Yeah, you're right. Could have been me.
So, Deano, he misses us?
You know Mr. O'Banion. Always jocular.
I heard he opened two new speaks down on the Gold Coast.
Hmm.
Well, I'm sure Mr. Guzik needs his rest.
Hey, where you going? We're talking.
Mr. O'Banion is waiting.
He can wait.
Huh?
See? Watch.
Fourteen thousand acres, 70 bucks per.
It's my understanding that Florida real estate is played out.
Except we're not buying land, we're buying opportunity.
Think Frisco in '48.
Gold, Nucky?
Better. We've got water on three sides half a mile from the Atlantic Coast rail line.
A trawler can reach The Bahamas in 22 hours.
- Havana in 28. - Rum.
The best in the world, straight from the islands.
McCoy and his boats take it straight up the coast to port in Atlantic City.
- Or New York. - And reload with our whiskey.
A spirit in tragically short supply down there.
- Competition? - None of any consequence.
As long as we act now, plant our flag.
Time those hayseeds figure out what we're working, we'll be in clover.
And our friends a bit closer to home?
Masseria won't go past Brooklyn.
What I require is a partner with a level head.
Not to mention a half million dollars.
I'm assuming at least as much risk, which I generally choose to avoid.
Who to believe, the Nucky who told me only weeks ago
he was satisfied with what he had,
or the Nucky who stands before me now?
Circumstances change, Arnold.
People change.
Do they?
Last year took a toll on both of us.
You can wallow in the past or you can come aboard
and do historically what we've been pretty good at,
making money.
A pity you left office.
How soon do you need a decision?
Take the evening.
I'll mull it downstairs over poker.
I trust you'll join me?
- Later on, perhaps. - Good.
I find you don't really know a man until you play cards with him.
Don't we know each other, Arnold?
One would have thought so.
Sure you want to trust him?
You know anyone else with that kind of money?
Beautiful office.
I myself find it rather ostentatious.
It belongs to Mr. Garvey, who at the moment is fighting deportation.
What he do?
He founded this organization.
Am I to assume by your presence, Mr. Purnsley,
that you are a Negro in need of improvement?
You are far from home.
From your broad features, Senegambia or Loango.
That there green is from the powder I sell for you.
We agreed I would see you in Atlantic City.
- Well, I thought I'd just... - ignore my explicit instruction?
- No' sir. I just... - You are standing in the offices
of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, Mr. Purnsley.
This is not that.
This is something else.
- Mr. Narcisse... - Doctor.
I just wanted to let you know, Doctor, that I could...
It's a shame you wasted your trip, Mr. Purnsley.
- But listen. - Miss Walker will show you out.
Should take out an ad, why don't you?
That's for me.
Oh, for Christ...
You got a package for Mr. Brown?
You new? 'Cause it's usually a different guy.
I have been integral to Mr. Thompson's organization
for quite some time.
Good day to you.
Whoa, whoa, hold on.
Is there a place besides this shithole outside the station I could eat?
What type of fare?
Steak, some spuds.
The Knife & Fork does an excellent chop.
Where is that? I got a train back at 9:30.
- Atlantic Avenue where it crosses... - Ah, you take me.
I am not a chauffeur, sir.
No offense. I'll get a hack. What's it called?
Knives & Forks?
I eat here again, I'm gonna get the trots.
Come.
I will take you in my Packard.
All aboard!
It's okay.
Is that all that's left? There's supposed to be 20 kids.
We'll cut it.
Just so you know, I was zozzled last time.
Or else I would never have let them do that.
Wasn't for my pop, what he'd do to me, Henry'd be short some teeth.
Probably just have his dad buy him new ones.
Yeah.
He's gonna be there, you know, tonight, drinking your booze again.
If we cut these three and make six,
you think that's enough to get everybody tight?
Sure.
That one for us?
This is for my old pal Henry.
My buddy.
You did good back there.
Thank you, but I really should be going.
Buzz again.
Give it a minute.
All right. Hold your horses.
My wife, she's making lapskaus. It's a type of stew.
- Yeah? - Yeah.
Jerry Flentje, he home?
He's always home. What, you want him? Ring his buzzer.
Miss, we've come a long way to see our pal.
And a good surprise is nothing without the surprise of the thing, am I right?
- You a friend of his? - Yeah, we go way back.
I don't see him much anymore since these two bums got married.
We know Jerry lives here, just not what apartment.
2-D.
I'm 1-C in case he ain't home and you want to leave a note.
What do you want?
- I can't. - Don't be scared.
Who the fuck let them in?
Nice job.
This Tampa thing goes, you think you can run things here?
You'd move?
McCoy's a good man, but he can't build a city from the ground up.
This is home, Nuck.
You got family.
You've got family.
You are family, too, of course.
June, the kids.
But it's not the same.
Whatever you need, I'll take care of it.
Thank you.
If Rothstein kicks in, you take the money, meet McCoy down in Tampa.
Sure.
I just...
Willie's away at school.
- There are some growing pains. - Four days, tops.
- If it wasn't so much cash' I'd send Eddie. - No, I got it.
Might as well see what all the fuss is about.
Sorry 10 interrupt.
Rothstein?
Got himself a game going.
- What'd he buy in for? - 100 grand.
- So he's up? - That ain't why I came.
He requesting the pleasure of your company.
- Castor oil? - It's not strong enough.
How about milk of magnesia?
When we broke it down in class, I got the squirts just smelling it.
I like your thinkin', Lincoln. We'll make our own.
What was in it? Two compounds? Linoleic acid?
I think.
Magnesium hydroxide.
We'll whip up a batch, spike Henry's booze,
- Then stand back. - Way back.
- Kaboom. - Couldn't happen to a sweller feller.
I believe you left some lamb unscathed.
You know, most joints like this, they skimp on the seasonings.
Come to Chicago. Take you to the Blackhawk.
Prime rib the size of a manhole cover.
And you'd like it, Chicago.
A lot of krauts.
How long you work for Nucky?
Eleven years this past November.
You ain't just no bagman, then.
I am Mr. Thompson's chargé d'affaires.
I'm kind of like an equal partner in what we got going on back in Chicago.
I met your brother Albert.
Alphonse. Good kid.
A little colicky as a baby.
Gonna make me drink alone?
Perhaps a touch.
I missed out on the goin'-ons last summer.
I heard it got messy. Lucky you had friends, huh?
All parties involved seem to have benefited.
I ain't sore I missed it. I got a kid.
Some of us were not so lucky.
Really? Caught some lead?
Not as bad as some.
Me, I usually handle the more executive angle of things.
I run a bottling plant,
I make sure that the books look legit for the operation.
Appearances are as important as reality, Mr. Capone.
So what about you? Got a family?
Ah, two sons.
Both of them grown in Germany.
One of them is the assistant to the burgermeister.
A chef?
And the other is a dental surgeon.
But nothing like America, huh?
With the boys growing into fine young men,
my wife passed on...
I'm sorry to hear it.
...I felt I could make a new life here.
Like me moving to Chicago.
Ah.
Fate has a way of setting things in order.
To new lives, Mr. Capone.
- Call me Bottles. - Edward.
Come on, let's dance!
Cheers!
Here you go, Bucket.
Isn't he ever gonna put that down?
Let's go over and distract him. You chat him up, I'll pour it in.
Just give it to me. Come on.
Not too much or he'll be able to taste it.
Three fingers or so. Oops.
- What? - Want me to clear out?
Hey, enjoying the party?
It's okay.
You look nice.
Find someone else to flirt with.
Why not you?
I mean someone you haven't suckered yet.
You think I was part of that?
No, you're a babe in the woods.
Have it your way.
Is that what you wanted?
Thompson. Good stuff you brought.
We aim to please.
Raise, 1,000.
Surely things aren't that bad, Nucky.
I keep it that way by rarely playing.
This is a game of skill.
I suppose an intermediate position is better than none at all.
Oh, sure, if action is your only goal.
Why else would I have asked you to play?
"You can't really know a man..."?
Come on, you gonna raise or not?
You fancy yourself a sportsman, Arnold.
What would you do here?
I would play against me like you mean it.
Says the big Ike been losing all night.
How about you keep your observations to yourself?
Are you in this game?
'Cause that's my money on the felt.
The gentleman's bought a right to an opinion, Meyer.
Meyer. Arnold. Arnold. Meyer.
Isch gabibble dibble dabble.
Raising 5,000.
And now you've got my attention.
Doctor.
Speak to you?
Meet me after the salon.
You have until 127th Street, Mr. Purnsley.
First off, regards coming to your place of business, I apologize.
Industriousness is a rarely acknowledged virtue of the Negro,
so I accept and acknowledge.
Your Mr. White,
his time is past and his place uncertain.
Got the club. Whole North Side, too.
A plantation run by Nordics,
who throw you scraps enough to keep you from starving,
but not enough to make your belly full.
That's why I come. You tell me what you need down there.
I don't need some skylark nigger, Mr. Purnsley.
That ain't me, sir. Never was.
All of this, touched by the black hand of the creator.
In Harlem, we should give no more tribute to a Nucky Thompson
or any Nordic than we would a bottle fly.
Your North Side may as well be Mississippi.
If you had the right man running things down there...
Where you Afro fools going?
The downfall of the Libyan, Mr. Purnsley, is what we used to call a duppy in the islands.
A duppy is a vampire
who sucks the blood from his people, lays them low.
This duppy gadabout as if he in a briar patch,
waiting for master to ring the dinner bell.
Our people flourish when they are able to be the angels of their better natures.
This duppy, this nigger,
is what will happen unless there are Libyans
prepared to instruct him in the uplift of the race.
She is fine. That's yours?
Nigger, you lost your goddamn mind.
Fuck!
- Who, Mueller? - Hand to God. Ask him.
It's true. It's called aquavit.
- What's it taste like? - Like shit.
Like shit.
Good for you, skimming from that Irish fuck.
Tell you what,
you keep busting heads for us while we square this election,
we'll give you the...
- What is it? - Aquavit.
Yeah, right.
You get the Cicero action on it. Much as you can make.
- But Mr. O'Banion is... - Cicero is where the action is gonna be.
Pick a winner, Mueller.
Fuck me.
Ain't that one of O'Banion's speaks?
Mueller.
- I, uh... - Yeah, it is.
They use the bread trucks for booze.
And if you're stupid enough to leave your shipment
- right out on the street... - You're practically begging us.
It may just be a bread truck.
I may be kinda hungry.
Yeah, I could eat.
You follow in the car.
- Mr. Capone, please. I... - Come on, get in.
Get in!
Live a little, huh?
Wa-hoo!
Whoo!
It's to you, sir.
Do you recall our first encounter, Mr. Thompson?
You needed supplies for a wedding.
- Is that what I said? Something like that.
What the hell are we doing here?
You were a type I'd recognized.
What type is that?
Small-town glad-hander peering over the fence,
eager to stick his finger in a new piece of pie.
I don't like pie.
Well, I have learned something new about you.
Everything you want from me tonight is on the table.
That's more exciting to you than it is to me.
Why does that make me sad?
Jesus Christ.
You need to send for a priest?
Maybe not in your case.
Do you have any idea who you're talking to?
Yeah, someone who's taking a long time to lose.
And back off from my shoulder.
Meyer, it's all an aspect of the contest.
May I impose upon the house's good nature?
How much?
$200,000.
There are other games, Arnold.
No, there's only the game you're in now.
Give Mr. Rothstein a marker for 200,000.
All in.
Call.
Flush, queen high.
I figured you for a straight.
Then you figured me wrong again.
Nice getting to know you, Arnold.
I swear he gets fatter by the day.
Because you're getting him ready for the slaughter.
From strudel chef to company president.
What's the matter? - You have missed your train.
Trains are like whores, you miss one, you can hop on the next.
- Another round? - Yeah.
So, how is work with you?
- I have no complaints. - Since when?
All we've been hearing is how you despise shining his shoes.
That is no longer required of me.
Because of the injury?
Because I have received a promotion.
Oh!
What are your new duties?
You will not tell us?
A gangster with a Tommy gun.
What are they singing about?
It's about the Rhine, to be young, and a pretty girl.
- A happy song, a very happy song. - Sounds good to me.
You check the other door?
- Come on, come on. - You put enough in?
I thought I did.
Oh!
Oh! Oh! Oh!
It's occupied, Hank.
I got to go!
Hold up. Hey, everyone.
Who thinks Henry should show us the Charleston again?
- Yeah! - Come on, really cut it up.
- Let me go, Thompson. - What's the marten?
I gotta...
Oh!
- What the hell? - Oh, my God!
Oh, jeez.
Oh, my God.
Some air?
You know, most kids are out of diapers by college.
Disgusting.
Will someone let me in the john, please?
Who's in the bathroom?
Take the wheel.
Come on.
Oh, fuck.
Come on, take a snoot. Clear your head.
I'm quite alert already. Thank you.
Beats my wife's coffee, I'll tell you that much.
So, O'Banion, he been treating you right?
He's a joker. A prankster in a violent sort of way.
Takes things too far, huh?
There's a time for levity.
I do have a sense of humor.
He pays me well, but he doesn't treat me with respect.
You could work for me.
In Cicero?
Election's coming up.
We get that sewed up, things are bound to get busier.
And you'd clear it with Mr...
- What the fuck was that? - Hello?
Let me out! Let me out!
It's not funny! Let me out!
Hello?
You know whose truck this is?
Who the fuck are you?
Sorry. Jesus. Sorry, fellas. I didn't know it was...
All right, all right. Relax.
You can take it.
I, uh... I can walk.
It's my fault anyway. I fell asleep' you know?
- Mueller? - No. I...
It's okay. It's okay. I didn't see nothing.
It's fine. Take it easy.
Tell you what. We'll give you 10.
What?
- Okay. Jesus, Jesus. - Nine, eight, seven...
What do you want me to do?
Makes no difference to us he tells O'Banion about this.
- Three... - Fuck. Fuck.
Two...
It's jammed.
Whoo!
One.
Willie. Willie, wake up.
- What's wrong? - You better come.
- Hey, guys, what's all the commotion? - Oh, my God.
He kept going to the bathroom all night. I heard him.
Why don't we close his eyes or something?
Call.
- Jacks, a pair. - Fresh deck, please.
Maybe we should call it a night.
- it's early yet. - It's nearly dawn.
They're eating dinner in China.
I said fresh deck.
I just opened this one, sir.
I don't like the feel of it.
You have some other engagement? Don't look at him.
Look at me.
I'm the player.
A.R.
Wouldn't it be best people don't see you like this?
Okey-coakley, Meyer.
Gentlemen.
I've relished the action.
Thanks for the pocket change, Goldstein.
Rothstein.
Time to settle up.
- Mr. Thompson, I realize... - He's good for up to a million.
Thank you, but, no.
I'm asking you don't extend him any more credit.
Is he not good for it?
Of course he is,
but everyone hits a rough patch now and again.
Is that what it is?
He's a great man, A.R., but he doesn't like to lose.
Nobody likes to,
but we all have lo learn how.
The Tampa deal, I'm taking it off the table.
- If it's a matter of money... - It's not.
I can't rely on a man so blinded by his obsession with winning.
Tell him I'll find a new partner.
Would the terms of your proposal be the same?
- For who? - For me.
Without Rothstein?
Mr. Rothstein is not my boss.
We share some business dealings...
Tell me something about yourself.
I'm a businessman.
Charlie and I have partnered in several high-level endeavors.
No, about yourself.
What kind of man you are.
When I was a boy,
my father moved us from Russia to the Lower East Side.
He was weak, my father.
Never stood up.
One day on my way to school, I got stopped by a gang of older boys.
The leader said he wanted my lunch money.
I told him go fuck himself.
He laughed. Said he'd beat it out of me.
So I spit in his face.
He did beat me.
They all did.
And they took my money.
Next day, same thing.
Again, I spit in his face, again we fought.
But the third day' the kid asked me to join his gang.
He was Charlie Luciano.
That's how we teamed up.
Last year we made more money than the President of the United States.
And I think you'll find us to be responsible partners
both here or in Florida
should you feel the need for eyes on your investment.
$500,000.
Done.
- In 48 hours. - Done.
The money doesn't show,
this conversation didn't happen and it won't ever happen again.
So the election, you'll help out for the day?
We understand some voters are still a little confused.
Nice place.
Stick with us.
We'll move you into something with indoor plumbing.
See you in a few hours.
You know, you never really know a man until you play cards with him.
Allow me to introduce myself.
Eddie.
Eddie!
Do you need something?
No. Just...
I'm fine.
What is it?
Whoa, whoa. I'm gonna...
I'm gonna learn it for the next time.
Perhaps you should just hum it.
Bottles.
Edward. I'll be seeing you.
No wooden nickels, huh?
- Mr. Kessler. - Yes?
We're with the Bureau of Investigation.
- Gentlemen, I assure you... - Lower your voice.
I have done nothing wrong.
Nucky Thompson's wet nurse out all night, up to who knows what?
If you will allow me lo explain...
- Come with us, please. - But I have done...
One foot in front of the other.
Don't make a scene.