Editing Miller's Crossing (section)

==Plot==
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The year is 1929, Tom Reagan is the right-hand man for [[Irish mob]]ster Leo O'Bannon, a [[political boss]] who runs an unnamed U.S. city during [[Prohibition in the United States|Prohibition]]. Leo sets off a mob war when he extends protection to his girlfriend Verna's brother, a bookie named Bernie Bernbaum, who is skimming off the [[match fixing]] scheme of Leo's rival, the [[Italian-American Mafia|Italian gangster]] Johnny Caspar. The situation is further complicated by the fact that behind Leo's back, Verna is also sleeping with Tom.

Despite his own relationship with Verna, Tom presses Leo to give up her brother to Caspar. When the war heats up, with an assassination attempt on Leo, Tom tries to persuade Leo that he is foolish to protect Bernie on Verna's behalf, making the point by revealing his affair with her. Leo publicly beats Tom and cuts ties with both him and Verna.

Cast out and needing work, Tom turns to Caspar. As a loyalty test, Caspar commands Tom to kill Bernie, an awkward request given Tom's relationship with Bernie's sister. With Caspar's henchmen in tow, Tom leads Bernie to his execution in the woods at a spot called Miller's Crossing. Bernie grovels for his life and desperately begs Tom not to kill him. Tom fakes the killing by firing his gun into the ground and orders Bernie to leave town. Caspar's henchmen, who are within earshot but cannot see the two men, are fooled and neglect to check for the body before leaving with Tom.

With Leo weakened, Caspar takes his place as city boss, controlling the police and using them to destroy Leo's operations.

Within Caspar's gang, there is tension between Tom and Caspar's trusted enforcer, the brutal Eddie Dane ("the Dane"). Upon learning that his men did not actually see Tom kill Bernie, the Dane takes Tom back to Miller's Crossing to verify that Bernie's body is there. Tom expects to find no corpse and to be executed for it, but instead the group finds a decomposing body that had been shot in the face and disfigured beyond recognition by birds. The Dane and his men assume the body is that of Bernie, but it is actually that of the Dane's lover Mink, whom Bernie had secretly killed and placed as a decoy where his own body should have been. Tom is now vulnerable if the Dane or Caspar discovers the identity of the body, a fact that Bernie uses in an attempt to blackmail Tom into killing Caspar.

With Bernie supposedly dead, someone continues to cut into Caspar's match fix, and Tom and the Dane each try to convince Caspar that the other is behind it. Tom uses Mink's sudden disappearance to sow suspicion about the Dane by insinuating that Mink has gone into hiding after he and the Dane betrayed Caspar. Caspar must decide between Tom and the Dane, a dilemma he resolves by shooting the Dane in the head as Tom looks on.

Tom then thins out his rivals by engineering a surprise meeting between Bernie and Caspar, knowing that the first one to be seen by the other is likely to be killed. Shortly after the arranged time, Tom arrives to discover that Bernie has killed Caspar. Tom tricks Bernie into surrendering his gun and declares his intent to kill him in retribution for his blackmail. Bernie again begs for mercy, but Tom rejects his plea and shoots him dead.

With Caspar and the Dane dead, Leo resumes his post as the only boss in town. At Bernie's burial, Verna, now back in Leo's good graces, reacts coldly to Tom and walks back to her car. Leo notifies Tom that Verna has proposed to marry him. He offers Tom his job back but Tom turns him down and stays behind, watching Leo as he walks away.