Bill Russo's video: The Lawless Years: The Nick Joseph Story - with Vic Morrow - Season 1 E 1

The Roaring 20s (the ones from the 1900s, not the 2000s) come to life again in “The Lawless Years”. Gravel voiced James Gregory (Detective Frank Luger in the 1975 to 82 Barney Miller series) stars as the real life NYPD cop Barney Ruditsky. Ruditsky was a celebrity cop involved in dozens of high-profile cases and was credited with breaking up ‘Murder Incorporated’. After he left the force, Ruditsky went to Hollywood and worked on many projects including The Lawless Years, to which he was a technical advisor. The series never really got off the ground and lasted just 48 episodes – it predated “The Untouchables” by six months. In this, the premiere episode, a host of familiar faces fill out the cast, most notably Vic Morrow, who plays the title character. Morrow (and two child actors) died in the 1982 tragic helicopter accident during the filming of Twilight Zone, the movie. The lawless years ran on NBC TV from 1959 to 1961.