Tonight, 50 years ago, CBS aired S05E03, "You Don't Have To Kill To Get Rich, But It Helps."
The episode boils down to an uber organization, named Veritex, that seems to be literally plugged into everything in the world. What they're really after are rich, powerful men arriving in Hawaii preferably alone. They're also plugged into local prostitutes who put themselves with these men and pictures are taken. The blackmail game begins.
Their latest victim is Wallace H. Schuster (Bill Edwards) from Dallas, Texas. Schuster falls for the bait and pays up. Upon returning to Dallas, Schuster contacts his buddy, private investigator Sam Tolliver (William Shatner) who can't figure out his Texas accent.(Thanks to Karen Rhodes for pointing this out in her book!)
Tolliver sets up everything to arrive in Hawaii on business. He puts himself as bait but when he's contacted by Larry Toba (Tom Fujiwara), the frontman for Veritex, Tolliver turns the tables. He wants in on the scam and butts heads with the lead con, William Speer (Ric Marlow). Speer goes along with Tolliver, who's under an assumed name of course, to a point.
Tolliver soon goes shopping for a local hitman but it's actually Ben who meets him. This is due to Five-O figuring out Veritex is really up to and tapping phone lines to the hilt.
The pair go to Speer's beach house but the tables are soon turned again because Speer's servant recognizes Ben as being with Five-O and Speer has a pair of thugs ready to kill Tolliver's family in Texas. Speer takes his hostages out after contacting McGarrett via Ben's radio to go to his launch and later his yacht. However, they are stopped when Five-O surrounds them. Everyone is arrested, including Tolliver, in the end.
Mr. Mike does a much better job in his review: https://www.fiveohomepage.com/5-0log5.htm#99
This episode makes my head spin. Move, counter-move, more counter-move - it's enough to make one crazy. I think it would have helped if the scam wasn't so convoluted. I get the technology we have today didn't necessarily exist in 1972 but good grief, it was overkill in this show. Veritex had links to satellites that even today are not likely. There would have to be a lot of blackmail money coming in just to cover the overhead for the satellite time!
There's also the way Five-O becomes involved in this case - a pair of suicides linked to the same prostitute. She's found dead in the channel tied down to concrete blocks. The pics of her that was used in the blackmail are very racy for the time as we see her bare back in one shot. However, this allows the team to figure out how the photos were taken. McGarrett and crew realize they have bigger fish to catch in a hurry because more men could become victims in short order.
This isn't one of my favorites but I do enjoy watching Shatner because I can't help but laugh. When the girls approach the men, the whole thing seems a little forced to me. But I could rewatch this episode because the Five-O team pulls it off.
Happy 50th, "You Don't Have To Kill To Get Rich, But It Helps."!!!
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