He is moved around until he is sent to Ute City, Wade County, Oklahoma,[a] to investigate murders of Native Americans who had oil-rich mineral land and rights.

The FBI forensics laboratory ties the doctored wills and life insurance policies of the murder victims to banker Dwight McCutcheon[b] with the typewriter that he used.

On June 17, 1933, three FBI agents were escorting Frank "Jelly" Nash from a train to a car outside the Union Station in Kansas City when they were ambushed and killed.

[4][5][6][7] After receiving a tip, Hardesty and his friend, Sam Crandall, head to Spider Lake, Wisconsin, on April 22, 1934, but barking dogs alert the gangsters and they scatter.

Hardesty recounts his involvement in the capture and deaths of numerous mobsters of the day, including John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson and Machine Gun Kelly.

Because she fears for his life and cannot persuade Chip to leave the bureau, Lucy decides to spend some time apart, and takes the children for an extended stay with her parents.

With the U.S. entry into World War II, "enemy aliens" (Americans of Japanese, German and Italian descent) are rounded up by the FBI and sent to internment camps, to prevent possible espionage and collaboration with Axis powers.

One of those aspiring new agents is the deceased Sam's son, George, who is worried that he will never live up to his father's reputation; a romance buds between him and Hardesty's oldest daughter.

Hoover had LeRoy re-shoot several scenes he didn't think portrayed the FBI in an appropriate light, and played a pivotal role in the casting for the film.

[11] In the case of the New York City clothes cleaner, it was, in actuality, a nickel, not a half-dollar, and took four years to unfold, not the short matter of days in the film.