- A man joins the police force to learn police procedures with the intention of getting away with crimes.
- Dennis Nordell joins the police force with a long-range goal - use the knowledge he gains to pursue a career of undetected crime. Camouflaged by his uniform and badge, he pulls off a number of seemingly foolproof crimes, but is eventually trapped by an overlooked bit of evidence too small to be seen.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>
- A young man graduates from the police academy at the top of his class. He then teams up with some local thieves and uses his knowledge of police procedures to commit several warehouse burglaries. The police are baffled at first. But when a police officer is murdered during one of the burglaries, they start to gather the evidence they need to solve the crimes.—David Glagovsky <dglagovsky@verizon.net>
- Inspector Dana (Richard Gaines), teaching a class at the police academy, shows the exhibits of the police crime museum to his rookies. Among the displays is the police revolver used by midwestern criminal Dennis Nordell (Tom Trout). He was, at first, a police academy student who trained in both physical fitness for the job as well as classroom subjects such as fingerprinting, ballistics and crime detection. At graduation, Nordell was ranked number one in his whole class. After graduation, Nordell reviews a plan with his partner Frankie (Tony Caruso). Nordell says it is flawed, the kind of job that got another criminal Shorty Malone sent up the river. Nordell insists he sets up jobs based on his education at the police academy. He knows the beats the officers walk giving him the timing necessary to access the warehouse he intends to rob and not be seen. He makes a wax impression of a lock from which he could create a key. He then reviews a diligently constructed plan with his gang. They set off a burglar alarm at a decoy warehouse several blocks away to distract the beat cop in the area. Then they break into a liquor distribution warehouse at nearly the same time. The beat cop never hears the alarm because he is too close to the decoy warehouse where the alarm is first sounded. Suddenly the gang pulls a string of successful warehouse robberies. 27 warehouses are looted within four months. The police are baffled at first. They know it's the same gang but they leave no clues at the crime scene. The police respond by changing the ring in times of beat officers each day. Nordell and his gang continued to operate because Nordell is aware of the times each night. On November 6th, Officer McGuinnes (Robert Emmett O'Connor), a beat cop, makes a different decision than to follow the fake burglar alarm. As he walks down the street, he hears a noise inside another warehouse. He leaves but looks back to see Dennis Nordell checking if the street was clear. A truck leaves the warehouse facility and the beat cop chases Nordell. Nordell shoots his gun from behind an outdoor stair case and kills the veteran patrolman. The bullet slug recovered indicates that a member of the force killed officer McGuinnes. The Internal Affairs department requires all officers submit their guns for a ballistic test believing the guilty officer will lose their gun before allowing it to be tested. The tests reveal nothing. Nordell tells his partner that he wasn't using his service revolver that evening. The tests do reveal bits of wax. The locks from the warehouses that were robbed are collected to be studied for wax. The newspaper reveals new clues have been found in the murder investigation. Nordell remains unconcerned. Nordell is picked up while on duty and brought to Inspector Dana's office. He tells Nordell that he won't be needing his uniform anymore. The inspector assigns Nordell to the homicide unit. Nordell reviews the McGuiness' case with notes on the wax that was removed from the warehouse locks. Nordell removes some of the evidence and sends it down the incinerator chute. Nordell discusses with Frankie a need for the gun he used to frame someone else for killing McGuiness. To accomplish this Nordell shuffled through a lot of prospects within the police files. He found his fall guy, Calvin 'Whitey' Foster (Arthur Space) and uses his knowledge of fingerprints and chemistry to set the stage for his pigeon. Nordell then brings in a gun he said he found in the "suspects" quarters. He claims that the suspect claimed it was a plant, but his fingerprints were on the gun. Whitey is brought in and Nordell serves him with the evidence of his fingerprints. Whitey reveals that the first two fingers on his right hand are missing, lost in a previous accident. Dana then reveals they found wax in the murder's room with his prints all over it. Dana had replaced the wax in the evidence room with a different sample when he transferred Nordell to homicide. The inspector replaces the gun as he finishes his story for the class of rookies. One of the rookies asked what the significance of an empty box in the display is. Dana takes a magnifying glass to reveal a grain of wax that sent Nordell away to the electric chair. Dana said that nothing would change the outcome claiming that no criminal is clever enough to destroy the life of order and decency desired by society. It is the officer of the law that must use their hard work and self-sacrifice to be the guardian of that order.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content