In a corrupt Alabama town, the law can do little to stop the criminal activities of Rhett Tanner, particularly in the wide-open "red-light district" area. Most of the police do not even try, being on Tanner's payroll.
War hero Danny Haley fleeces out-of-town dupes in a rigged poker game. He and his pals see Arthur Winant as an easy mark, but they've reckoned without Winant's homicidal brother, who wants revenge after Arthur commits suicide.
A telephone repairman in Los Angeles uses his knowledge of electronics to help a bookie set up a betting operation. After the bookie is murdered, the greedy technician takes over his business. He ruthlessly climbs his way to the top of the local crime syndicate, but then gangsters from a big East Coast mob show up wanting a piece of his action.
(Cogan’s Trade) Jackie Cogan’ın yasa ve düzenin yeraltı versiyonundaki kariyerinin hikayesini anlatıyor. Cogan bir infazcıdır ve çetenin koyduğu kurallara uyulmadığı zaman, devreye girmektedir. Higgins’in 1974 yılında en çok satanlar listesine girmiş kitabında, çetenin koruması altındaki bir poker oyununda bir soygun gerçekleşince, hemen Cogan çağrılır. Acımasız bir işadamı havasına, insanların zaaflarını sezme yeteneğine ve soğukkanlı bir duruşa sahip Cogan, gerilimli olaylar patlak verirken, güvenilir bir dikkatle her şeyi eski haline dönüştürmeye çalışır...
A newspaper publisher, wanting to prove a point about the insufficiency of circumstantial evidence, talks his possible son-in-law Tom into a hoax in an attempt to expose ineptitude of the city's hard-line district attorney. The plan is to have Tom plant clues leading to his arrest for killing a female nightclub dancer. Once Tom is found guilty, he is to reveal the setup and humiliate the DA.