Star Witness

The thug of the week is Luigi Rendaldo (Marc Lawrence). Naturally Ness wants to jail the guy but Renaldo is a smart crook and getting a conviction isn't possible unless he gets a break. This break comes in the form of William Norbert (Jim Backus). Norbert was an accountant with Renaldo but left because he wanted out of organized crime. Oddly, Renaldo has no intention of stopping him or killing him...yet. But when a few of Renaldo's underlings take it upon themselves to beat up Norbert to 'teach him a lesson', Ness visits Norbert in the hospital. Still Norbert has no intention of talking...but when Renaldo finds out about the Ness visit he decides that Norbert must die...and this pushes Norbert to finally agree to testify. But this also means that Ness and his men must protect Norbert until the trial...and Renaldo and his thugs are determined to kill him.

This is a good episode of "The Untouchables" with a nice plot and plenty of excitement. Backus was also very good playing an ordinary sort of guy...and this one is well worth seeing.