The Untouchables
The Death Tree
TV Flash files “The Death Tree” as hour 76 of 118 in the TV Flash guide — The Untouchables (1959–1963) on ABC, season 3, episode 16, aired 1962-02-15, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S03E16: listed hour 76 of 118 in the The Untouchables guide, hour 16 of 28 in season 3. It aired 1962-02-15 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “The Whitey Steele Story” (S03E15). Next is “Takeover” (S03E17).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
In the Gypsy quarter of Chicago, drunkenness is taking its toll in fights and killings. The local community elders, known as the Senate, want to bring it to an end but come into conflict with Janos Colescou, owner of much of the illicit liquor distribution in the area. He kills the head of the Senate, Victor Bartok and when the opposition continues, kills his brother Fedor. Throughout, Colescou has revived an old custom of posting his victims name on an old tree in the neighborhood.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Death Tree sit in the The Untouchables guide?
S03E16 is listed hour 76 of 118 — hour 16 of 28 in season 3, season 3 episode 16.
When did The Untouchables S03E16 air?
The Death Tree aired 1962-02-15 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Where should I start?
Start with Stack's Ness and Winchell's newsreel bark in early Chicago-raid form. The granite stare and the tommy-gun morality are the brief.
In the series
Why this series still plays
The Untouchables is Eliot Ness versus Capone's Chicago: Robert Stack's granite stare, Walter Winchell's newsreel bark, Desilu muscle, machine-gun morality in sharp suits. Watch it in 2026 as violent prestige crime that pushed 1950s network boundaries — raids as spectacle, and a national argument about blood and stereotype.
The work is a raid with newsreel grammar. ABC's *The Untouchables* (1959–1963) makes Robert Stack's granite stare into crime-drama law: 118 episodes, four seasons, Eliot Ness and an incorruptible squad, Walter Winchell's rat-a-tat narration, Desilu production gloss, machine-gun morality in sharp suits. Loosely inspired by Ness's Prohibition-era memoir. Quinn Martin's later crime empire would refine the procedural; this was the loud opening statement. Justice came in fedoras and final shootouts.
Filed against
- Robert Stack as Eliot Ness
Robert Stack’s Eliot Ness granite-stared through The Untouchables — Capone’s Chicago, Walter Winchell’s newsreel bark, machine-gun morality in sharp suits — then put on Unsolved Mysteries’ trench coat until the theme song became a…
- Nicholas Georgiade as Agent Rossi
Nicholas Georgiade’s Agent Rossi rode The Untouchables’ machine-gun morality in a sharp suit — 1950s Eliot Ness versus Capone’s Chicago, Robert Stack’s granite stare, Walter Winchell’s newsreel bark, Desilu muscle. TV Flash files him as…
- Paul Picerni as Agent Youngfellow
Paul Picerni played Agent Youngfellow on The Untouchables, 1950s Eliot Ness versus Capone’s Chicago — Robert Stack’s granite stare, Walter Winchell’s newsreel bark, Desilu muscle, machine-gun morality in sharp suits. Violent prestige…
- Bruce Gordon as Frank Nitti
Bruce Gordon played Frank Nitti on The Untouchables — Capone muscle opposite Robert Stack's granite Eliot Ness, Walter Winchell's newsreel bark, Desilu machine-gun morality in sharp suits. Violent prestige crime that pushed 1950s network…