The F.B.I.

- Season 5

(1969)

A U.S. diplomat commits suicide rather than continue to be blackmailed by an Eastern Bloc country. The diplomat's death brings the FBI into the case. The bureau has intelligence that the target of the spy ring is a State Department position paper detailing the U.S. response to a variety of scenarios in the Middle East. Erskine goes undercover and recruits a former woman spy for East Germany to help him. But the case is fraught with uncertainty, including whether Erskine's cover will hold up.

An FBI agent is killed while attempting to arrest a fugitive, Collins, in St. Louis. Erskine and Colby oversee a bureau manhunt. Collins has teamed up with another criminal, Wilson. It was Wilson who killed the FBI agent. The bloodthirsty Wilson will not let Collins and his girlfriend separate from him. For Collins and his girlfriend, the choices are few.

Erskine and Colby are on the trail of swindler Robert Charles Pollard. One man is dead, a banker who had embezzled after being taken in by one of Pollard's schemes. Now, Pollard is targeting a bank run by Kate, a former flame. Pressure increases on Pollard after a confederate dies from a fall while fleeing from the law. The question is whether the bureau can catch up to Pollard before he completes another swindle.

Terry Shelton fakes being kidnapped to extort money from his rich oilman father, Gar. What Terry doesn't know is his girlfriend plans to have him kidnapped for real. She's really involved with criminal Harvey George Windsor. Gar Shelton, headstrong and independent, decides to get his son back without help from Erskine and the FBI. Instead of freeing Terry, the father is captured also. Now, Erskine and Colby must rescue two hostages before time runs out.

Steven Harber, in debt with a pregnant wife, is also on the jury for the federal trial of a Cosa Nostra leader in San Diego. Harber takes a $5,000 bribe while at work at a filling station, with the promise of another $5,000 after the trial. But a co-worker witnesses the bribe take place. After the trial ends with the jury deadlocked, the co-worker puts the squeeze on Harber. Harber already feels guilty. Harber himself calls the U.S. Attorney hinting about jury tampering. Erskine and Colby enter the case, determined to find if a bribe took place. Before the case is ...

A man is convicted of murder but is adamant of his innocence. His brother, who is already strapped for money financing the convicted man's legal bills, tries an outrageous bluff. The brother plans to blackmail the star witness of the trial. The idea is to convince authorities the witness was the real killer. The witness, an owner of a shipyard, has his own ideas. He hires a hit man. Erskine and Colby are drawn into the case when the wife of the witness reports an extortion letter to the FBI. The question is whether the agents can solve the case before anyone else ...

Hazlett, a member of the Cosa Nostra and under a death sentence by the criminal organization, is desperate. He hijacks an older plane headed to Jacksonville, Florida. The FBI, led by Erskine and Colby, races to find Hazlett's daughter, who is likely being sought by the Cosa Nostra to use as a lever against her father. Onboard the flight, Hazlett shoots a passenger trying to stop the hijacking. Meanwhile, a Cosa Nostra hitman is sent to kill Hazlett, no matter what.

A surfer is killed on the Southern California coast after stumbling onto a meeting of Soviet spies. The killing plunges the FBI, led by Erskine and Colby, into a complex case involving a top-secret government project. Before the bureau can resolve the case, a web of intrigue, adultery and another murder will be spun.

An armed robbery in Newark goes bad: one of the gang has been killed and a policeman serious wounded. The participants in the robbery scatter. The leader heads to Seattle, where his brother is an executive at a successful shipping business. The executive agrees to give his brother one last chance, unaware of the Newark robbery. Erskine and Colby are on the trail of the gang members. The question is whether they can complete the chase before the gang's leader masterminds yet another robbery -- this one involving his brother's own business.

Nate Phelps, a former professional football player, has robbed a bank in Bakersfield, California, and killed a man. Phelps' accomplice is caught but Phelps remains at large and heads to Los Angeles, where he grew up. Erskine and Colby, already on the West Coast, take charge of the investigation. Phelps tries to flee out of the country but finds himself at odds not only with the law but with criminals who seek the $50,000 Phelps has taken from the bank.

A young woman is killed on U.S. government property. The M.O. is identical to an earlier crime -- except a man was arrested and convicted of that crime. Erskine and Colby investigate whether the wrong man -- the "scapegoat" of the title -- was convicted in the earlier death.

A salesman for a major jewelry firm suffers a heart attack after his briefcase is stolen along with the $180,000 worth of uncut gems it contains. He is the fourth salesman for the firm to be robbed in recent months. Erskine begins to suspect that an inside man in the firm is telling the robbers who to hit, and he finds that a health club is the common link between the victims and the thieves.

A two-person confidence team preys on well-to-do elderly people. Irene Galloway is a nurse, whose sunny manner brings people out of their shell, making them willing to confide in her. Carl S. Beaumont then conducts a robbery, knowing precisely what items to seek and where to find them. Erskine and Colby are on the case after Beaumont has taken a rare-coin collection. Now, Irene has been hired as a nurse for Mrs. Whitker, who has a large amount of cash that Beaumont wants.

An escaped federal prisoner abducts his son from the boy's foster parents. The boy has acute leukemia and will die within a month's time without proper medical attention. The escaped prisoner is an accomplished check forger but can be dangerous when cornered. Erskine and Colby follow a trail from New York state to New York City to Chicago and finally to Texas.

When an Eastern Bloc operative turns up dead near Portland, Oregon, Erskine and Colby are put on the trail of an espionage ring. The FBI agents will crisscross the country in search of its agents. An antique doll is being used to store film copies of a top secret defense project. The question is whether the bureau can act fast enough before the secret information is shipped abroad.

The Cosa Nostra has devised a scheme to gain leverage on stock brokers, who will then steal shares of companies. In turn, the shares will be laundered by using them as collateral to obtain loans at major banks. Erskine and Colby will lead an investigation that will take them to Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Victor Kiley, a wanted fugitive, barely escapes after lawmen attempt to take him and an accomplice into custody. Kiley abducts a woman and her 16-year-old son as he tries to stay one step ahead of law enforcement, led by the FBI. Erskine leads the FBI's manhunt for Kiley, aware the wanted man has forced the woman and her son to accompany him. Erskine gambles with his own life to ensure the wanted man is taken into custody.

The bureau investigates the shooting of a ranch foreman in a border town. The main suspect is the sheriff that the agents have to work with. The sheriff was feuding with the powerful ranch owner whom the foreman worked for, as he was investigating him for transporting illegal aliens across the border.

An aging thief, assisted by younger accomplices, steals a 31-karat, legendary diamond. The plan goes awry almost immediately when one of the accomplices wounds himself with a pistol belonging to the jewel's owner. The remaining thieves don't trust each other. Erskine and Colby oversee a multi-state manhunt, trying to cut off any way the thieves can either fence, cut or ransom the large diamond. Before the case concludes, much treachery will unfold.

A spy ring is under investigation in the U.S. Matt Bernhardt is a member of the ring and when he is apprehended his nephew is wounded. Erskine goes undercover as the nephew and his investigation leads him to West Berlin and a plot to get the ring leader's wife out of the east sector.

In Detroit, ambitious Scott Rogers is about to set up an illegal casino backed by the Cosa Nostra. But Rogers wants more -- he is seeking to be admitted as a Cosa Nostra member. Rogers bribes syndicate member Martin Rawl $50,000 to sponsor him. At the same time, a former business partner of Rogers threatens to go to the authorities. The ex-business partner is shot. Erskine and Colby lead the FBI's investigation into the matter. The bureau intercepts a shipment of gambling equipment. Now, Cosa Nostra family leader Nolan Crist decides to cut Rogers off from further ...

Mary Ann Lowe is a teenage girl en route to a summer job as a camp counselor when she is kidnapped by a trio of kidnappers. They hold her in an isolated cabin in the mountains while contacting her parents for ransom money. She is the daughter of a wealthy Washington DC business man who also happens to be a good friend of Arthur Ward. While tracing Mary Ann's schedule suspicion falls on the hair salon and the woman who does her hair.

Two half-brothers fight for control of a Cosa Nostra family. The conflict is coming to a head as the Cosa Nostra Commission has scheduled a meeting in Chicago. A woman in love with one of the half-brothers is seized as leverage. The case is so important to the FBI that Assistant Director Arthur Ward joins Inspector Lewis Erskine and Special Agent Tom Colby as a bureau team of agents converges on O'Hare Airport. For the FBI team, the question is whether the Cosa Nostra members can be arrested without causing harm to the public.

A successful fence wants to leave his criminal life behind but is pressured after a major heist. Tom Colby is sent undercover but his life is in jeopardy when the gang suspect he's a lawman. Lewis Erskine also goes undercover despite the risks and an injury to Colby.

Four kidnappers by mistake abduct the sister of their intended victim. Erskine and Colby try to make sense of the botched crime. Erskine will risk his own life, taking the place of the kidnapped woman's husband who has been instructed to deliver the ransom. Meanwhile, one of the kidnappers is unstable and intends to take charge of the group.

Walker Graham Carr escapes from a mental hospital. He has been convicted of the murder of his wife but he is convinced she's still alive. Erskine and Colby lead the FBI's manhunt for Carr. Carr's uncertain mental condition complicates the bureau's search.