The source material here was a book attributed to Federal Bureau of Investigation Director J. Edgar Hoover entitled Persons in Hiding.

[1] The events are loosely based on the kidnapping of Edward Bremer by the Barker-Karpis gang, which Hoover believed to have been led by Ma Barker.

[2] Infamous Ma Webster rules her clan of mobsters – mainly consisting of her three more or less criminally inclined sons – with an iron hand and without mercy.

Ma and her sons Eddie, Charlie and Tom team up with George on Christmas Eve itself to rob the Centre City bank.

Bert urges his mother and his brothers to get out of town to prevent them from being arrested for previous crimes the police and the FBI have found evidence of.

Since Ma and the gang are well aware that the cash they have received had been tagged by the FBI, and that the serial numbers of the bills are probably registered, they meet up with a shady character called Pan to make an exchange for unmarked ones.

When Tom's trial comes up, Bert represents him, and convinces him to plead guilty and agree to return on his own free will to the city where they committed the kidnapping.