Kill the Irishman

(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING ON CAR STEREO)

(HORN HONKING)

(MUSIC BREAKING)

(COUGHING)

That all you got?

It's gonna take more than

a few firecrackers to kill Danny Greene.

(PEOPLE CHATTERING)

The Cadillac, it was Danny Greene's.

Put a 24-hour tail on him.

JOE:
The Irish have this expression,

"He's a man you don't meet every day."

That was Danny, all right.

(ROCK AND ROLL MUSIC PLAYING)

We both grew up on the east side,

in Collinwood.

Danny was an orphan.

He was raised by his grandfather

in a dump on Waterloo Road.

He was a good athlete.

Made All-Metro in basketball and baseball.

School held no interest.

Danny was already marching

to a different tune.

Back then everything in Cleveland

was controlled by the Mafia,

which had been run since the '40s

by one man. John Scalish.

Every day after school, it was Danny

and his friend Billy McComber

against this one group of Sicilian kids.

(BOYS GRUNTING)

I don't know why they hated Danny so much.

You know what they say, "Kids will be kids."

As for me, I joined Cleveland P.D. At age 18.

After 12 years, I made detective,

investigating organised crime

on the Lake Erie shore.

MERKE:
All right, listen up, men.

Grainbarten.

GRAINBARTEN:
Here.

- Nungester, William.

- WILLIAM:
Here!

- Harlet, Roger.

- ROGER:
Here!

- Heuler, Leo.

- HEULER:
Here.

Walton, William. Greene, Daniel.

Sneperger, Arthur. Walter, George.

McComber, William.

(PEOPLE CHATTERING)

BILLY:
Oh, great. It's only 91.

Wait till noon.

(MACHINERY WHIRRING)

(FOGHORN BLOWING)

ART:
What is that?

It's one of those container ships

out of New Orleans.

They're gonna put us all out of business.

- And who told you that? Danny?

- Yeah.

Where's he learn that sh*t?

He reads.

ART:
I read.

Comics don't count, Art.

(ALARM BLARING)

DANNY:
You got him?

BILLY:
Yeah, ready?

(ALARM CONTINUES BLARING)

Turn that thing off!

What's this all about?

(PANTING) You know the rules.

Temperature hits 110, we're done.

I got a contract to unload these barges

by close of day, and I will fulfil that contract.

Someone's gonna die in there.

Who? Him?

Ah!

Looks fine to me. In the pink.

If you wanna continue working in this union,

quit your belly-achin'

and get back up there.

Come on, Danny.

Ice him down.

You know, Danny, we at the national chapter

don't support Brooke.

He doesn't care about the rank and file,

and that's a problem.

(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING)

You ever think about running against him?

(SCOFFS) Union president?

I don't know, Mr Gilroy.

The guys look up to you. I've seen it.

I didn't even finish high school.

(LAUGHS) So what?

You read the entire Library of Congress.

Think about it.

Here you are, boys.

- I'm Art.

- I'm Billy.

Hi, Art. Hi, Billy.

Uh... Who's your friend?

No, no, don't bother. He doesn't like girls.

What you got there?

Oh.

A little light reading, huh?

Yeah.

- My family's from Kildare.

- Nice.

Mmm.

Your friends said that you don't like girls.

They're being ironic.

Gotcha.

You know where you say

the opposite for laughs?

Well, I think that you are

the ugliest man on Lake Erie

and I'd rather kiss Richard Nixon.

Got that?

Why don't you read that?

(SLOW MUSIC PLAYING)

(CHUCKLES)

I never do this. Really.

What makes me so special?

'Cause you're different than all those idiots.

Danny. I'm in trouble.

I'm in really big trouble.

Go.

ART:
It's in there.

Wait here.

(MUSIC PLAYING ON RADIO)

I'm a friend of Art Sneperger's.

Oh, yeah?

Well, Sneperger's got no friends here.

Come over here.

Well, it looks like your friend owes us

a lot of money.

He can't pay.

You came here to John Nardi's casino

to tell him that your friend can't pay?

You know who he is?

Everyone in Cleveland knows

who John Nardi is.

I got a proposition.

You believe this f***in' guy?

Well, let's hear what he's gotta say.

- I took care of it.

- What?

I want one thing in return.

You gotta promise me

you'll never gamble again.

- Yeah.

- Can you do that, Art?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Jesus, Danny!

- Promise me!

- I promise.

Get outta here.

Okay.

Good call, Danny.

This place is like Sears and Roebuck.

MAN:
We got one more.

I think there's four more rotisseraries.

(HORN BLOWING)

Mr Greene. A word with you, please.

What can I do?

Tell me, what can I do for you?

Resign.

That's out of the question.

Then I'll run against you.

Runnin' ploughs on a grain ship's one thing.

Running a union is quite another.

Think you're moving up? New career?

I don't think so.

I think you're gonna tell Mr Gilroy

you're not interested.

And then you're gonna pay me half

of what you been making

with your wop friends in the container yard.

Oh, I didn't know about that either?

I got no moral issues with it, mind you.

I just want my cut.

But next time,

the Cleveland P.D.

Will pay a visit to your house.

Oh, they're my friends, too.

And then it's over.

You won't work in any union anywhere.

You won't exist.

I'll come to your house

and drink all your beer.

I'll visit your girlfriend in the back bedroom.

And you, sir, will take it.

Because you have to.

Be in the machine shop at midnight.

I'll send my man to pick up the cash.

Now get the f*** out of my office.

(RAIN PATTERING)

A gun?

You Polack prick.

What do you do

if a Polack throws a hand grenade at you?

Take the pin out and throw it back.

You hear how the Polish firing squad died?

Stood in a circle.

Come on, Joe, let's dance.

(DANNY EXHALES)

Joe Buka!

Joe's not here.

I'll give you three seconds...

To do what?

Huh?

To do what?

Go ahead, yank it.

Get out.

(PANTING)

MAN:
To the new president!

(ALL CHEERING)

This place is a dump.

Clean up the freight yard.

And replace those signs.

I'm sick to death of looking at them.

- Repaint these goddamn stairs.

- What colour do you want?

Green.

Styner, Barley. Holt, Richard.

Harlet, Roger.

Pitsford, Harold.

Stockbarge. Manscoter, Harold.

Mr MacLeish. Danny Greene.

I know who you are.

You're the tool that sent me this.

Four thousand to unload each vessel?

Are you out of your f***ing mind?

The price is 2,000.

We have a contract

and you're going to honour it.

Or I'm gonna lock out your union.

Is that clear, you f***ing potato eater?

Potato eater.

Seeing as how the potato

was the only source of nutrition

in Ireland for 300 years

and half the population,

including my ancestors,

died in the great famine,

I'd say that term is insensitive.

Speaking of culinary tastes,

Mr MacLeish, you're Scottish, aren't you?

Let's talk about haggis.

Haggis is seasoned lard

stuffed into a sheep's colon.

So I may be a potato-eater, Mr MacLeish,

but I don't eat fat out of a sheep's a**hole.

(SCOFFS)

What do you think of the new carpet?

JOE:
After all these years I had lost track

of Danny Greene.

You can imagine my surprise

when I heard a guy by the same name

had been elected president

of the Longshoreman's Union.

This is John Scalish.

And I wondered if it was the same guy

from my neighbourhood.

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