Among his lies is a made-up story that he paid off Chicago cop Mike Torello. federal prosecutor Harry Breitel ( Ray Sharkey) to provide information about the mob in exchange for immunity. Meanwhile, Holman, who escaped custody only to be hunted down again, has made a deal with U.S. Torello finally manages to get a solid murder indictment against Luca. In typical fashion Luca solves the problem by massacring Ganz and his thugs. When a crime war threatens to break out with Ganz's organization, Weisbord and Bartoli order Luca to clean up his mess. However, this backfires when Torello gets wind of it and catches Frank Holman in the act, which results in the book falling into the hands of MCU. He is told to negotiate a deal, but instead instigates the theft of Ganz's gambling book. Luca tells Weisbord and Bartoli of his plan to take over the Las Vegas bookmaking operation of Noah Ganz ( Raymond Serra). He assigns one of his men, Max Goldman ( Andrew Clay), to be a middleman between himself and Luca.
Luca impresses Weisbord with his desire to leave the streets and move up in the management ranks of organized crime. Through his connection to Chicago crime boss Phil Bartoli ( Jon Polito), Luca catches the attention of national crime figure Manny Weisbord ( Joseph Wiseman), a character inspired by the legendary gangster Meyer Lansky. Initially Luca is an independent thief and killer whose crew, which includes Pauli Taglia (John Santucci) and Frank Holman ( Ted Levine), specializes in robberies, burglaries and home invasions. Joey Indelli ( Bill Campbell).Īt the center of Torello's crosshairs is rising young mobster Ray Luca ( Anthony Denison).
At the beginning of the series Torello is the head of the Major Crimes Unit (MCU), a squad of hard-boiled cops that includes Detective Sgt. The first season follows Chicago Police Detective Lieutenant Mike Torello ( Dennis Farina) and his pursuit of organized crime from Chicago to Las Vegas, circa 1963–64.
An A-bomb explodes, presumably obliterating Luca and Taglia, leaving viewers wondering whether they were dead or alive. The first season ended with Ray Luca and Pauli Taglia on the lam, hiding from Torello in a Nevada desert shack, which is located in an atomic bomb test area. The show attracted both acclaim and controversy for its serialized format, in which a continuing storyline was told over an entire season, rather than being episodic, as was the case with most shows at the time (including Miami Vice). Torello, his friend Ted Kehoe, and Luca had grown up in Chicago's " The Patch" (Smith Park) neighborhood, also called "Little Italy" or "Little Sicily" and the haunt of the Forty-Two Gang. As Luca started with street crime in Chicago, was " made" in the Chicago Outfit and then sent to Las Vegas to monitor their casinos, Torello pursued Luca as head of a special Organized Crime Strike Force. Mike Torello ( Dennis Farina) and mobster Ray Luca ( Anthony Denison)-with an obsessive drive to destroy each other. Set in the early 1960s, the series depicted two men-Lt. It moved around several timeslots before being cancelled after two seasons. NBC then moved the show to Tuesdays at 9pm opposite ABC's Moonlighting. The show premiered with a two-hour pilot-a film which had been exhibited theatrically-and was watched by over 30 million viewers. Mike Torello)Ĭrime Story is an American crime drama television series, created by Chuck Adamson and Gustave Reininger, that aired on NBC, where it ran for two seasons from September 18, 1986, to May 10, 1988. Anthony Denison (left, as Ray Luca) and Dennis Farina (as Lt.