Scareheads

Shady Blake Grandon is running against Mayor Carter and his reform campaign. Reporter Dick Tanner, a Carter supporter, is offered money by gangster Lake, one of Grandon's backers, to switch sides. Dick, however, refuses and a short time later, pays a call to Carter in order to interview his daughter Ruth, who has just returned from college. Dick arrives in time to hear gangster Butch Morgan offer Carter some valuable information. Carter turns Morgan away, and later he and Dick speculate about who is backing Grandon's campaign. During their interview, Dick and Ruth fall in love and later become engaged. In order to stop Dick's investigation into Grandon's past, May, one of Lake's molls, proposes to frame Dick's younger brother Ned for Morgan's murder, thereby preventing Morgan from revealing what he knows about Grandon, while at the same time involving Carter in a scandal. That night, on the way home from the newspaper, Dick learns of police plans to raid the Red Mill nightclub, where Ned has taken May, and hurries over there to warn his brother. At the nightclub, May tells Ned that Morgan insulted her. Ned runs after Morgan to force him to apologize and finds Morgan murdered. Dick arrives just ahead of the police and helps Ned escape, but he is spotted by a witness. The following evening at a birthday party for Dick's mother, his policeman friend, King Bailey, arrests him for Morgan's murder. Dick goes to trial and is found guilty of murder. On the way to prison, Dick begs King to allow him to find the real murderer, and King leaves Dick alone long enough for him to escape. Dick forces Blackie, one of Lake's men, to admit to Lake's part in the frame-up. Learning that Lake is meeting Grandon before his final campaign speech over Lake's radio station, Dick heads there in hopes of forcing a confession out of Lake. Before he leaves, he asks Ned to make sure that King listens to the broadcast. At the station, Dick turns on the microphone so that Lake's and Grandon's private conversation, which reveals their crimes, is broadcast over the air. His name cleared, Dick returns to Ruth and accepts a raise from his editor.