Boardwalk Empire Characters: Season Four Fatalities

Boardwalk Empire Season 4 kicked off with several dead bodies in  “New York Sour.” Richard Harrow killed 3 men and we didn’t even find out why in this episode, leading to a lot of speculation that ultimately had no connection to the main characters. Agent Stan Sawicki had a new partner called Warren Knox who was supposedly learning the ropes of illegal profits. Knox had a few of his own tricks up his sleeves as Sawicki found out, while he lay dying after Elmer Borst shot him. Knox took out Elmer. Dunn Purnsley killed talent agent Dickie Pastor after being caught in flagrante delicto with Dickie’s wife, Alma.

In Episode 2, Resignation, Alma Pastor was killed by Dr. Valentin Narcisse’s henchmen, after he used her to get a piece of the Onyx Club action. The reason behind Harrow’s killing spree in the season opener came to light, after Harrow went after but did not kill a man named Dolph Liebling. Harrow was paid by Carl Billings to kill all these men, but Billings had to kill Liebling himself. Richard Harrow’s sister Emma had to shoot Samson, the family dog, to put him out of his misery when Harrow couldn’t bring himself to do it.

In Episode 3, Acres of Diamond, Nucky Thompson met up with Captain Bill McCoy in Tampa to do some bootlegging business with August Tucker. Nucky, however, didn’t cotton to August Tucker and changed his mind about entering into the deal.  That put McCoy in a real bind because he owed Tucker a lot of money. Tucker made a big mistake in coming over to McCoy’s hotel room alone to hassle him. He ended up on the receiving end of McCoy’s machete.

Carl Billings showed up at the Harrow homestead intending to kill Richard Harrow for failing to complete his assignment. Although Harrow managed to stab Carl, it wasn’t enough to prevent him from almost shooting Harrow. What prevented him from doing it was a bullet in the head from Emma’s shotgun.

There were several fatalities in Episode 4, All In, in 4 completely different locations. In Atlantic City, a man who was insulting Arnold Rothstein with anti-Semitic jokes  was beaten to death by Meyer Lansky. In Harlem, Dunn Purnsley killed a guy whose very presence on a stoop offended Dr. Valentin Narcisse.  In Chicago, Al Capone killed Stu, a driver for Dean O’Banion for falling asleep in the bread truck that he hijacked with Nelson Van Alden (whom he knows as George Mueller). In Philadelphia, at Temple University, Eli Thompson’s son, Willie, decided to fix fellow student Henry’s butt. Rich kid Henry made fun of Willie one too many times so Willie spiked his drink with a concoction designed to give Henry the trots, but what was supposed to be an embarrassing episode went horribly wrong. It killed the kid!

In Episode 5, Erlkonig, Frank Capone was killed at Western Electric. A big brawl broke out as he and Al Capone, along with  Van Alden/George Mueller, were attempting to force workers to vote their way. The police showed up and killed Frank on purpose, as Al Capone later pointed out to Johnny Torrio. In that big crowd of people, Frank was the only one.

Nucky’s long-time butler Eddie Kessler committed suicide by leaping out of a window at the Albatross Hotel, after being forced to betray Nucky by Agent Tolliver.

In Episode 7, William Wilson, Deacon Cuffy found out that Dunn Purnsley was the one pushing heroin on the Northside and was on his way to inform Chalky White. Dunn killed the Deacon in the Shiloh Baptist Church to prevent that.

In Episode 8, Old Ship of Zion, Dunn Purnsley killed Mose, one of the men helping him with his heroin business, in order to prevent Chalky White from being able to question Mose and find out Dunn’s involvement with Dr. Valentin Narcisse.

Narcisse told Daughter Maitland to keep Chalky White at her place until another visitor showed up. It was Dunn Purnsley who intended to take Chalky for a one-way ride, but that plan went awry immediately since Chalky wasn’t falling for it. The two men got into it and just when it looked like it was curtains for Chalky, Daughter Maitland killed Dunn.

In Episode 9, Marriage and Hunting, three men from the Faraday Iron Company, in Chicago, decided to give George Mueller (Van Alden) his comeuppance for burning one’s face with an iron in Season 3. Unfortunately for them, Mueller was armed with a loaded pistol since he was intending to take his boss, Dean O’Banion, out.

Two guys accompanying Frankie Yale into O’Banion’s flower shop took care of that little detail and O’Banion was shot to death after attempting to shake hands with Yale.

In Episode 10,  White Horse Pike, there was quite a bit of collateral damage in two shoot-outs. In Atlantic City, Chalky White and his men shot out the headquarters of Dr. Narcisse, killing 3 of his men, but failing to kill him. Narcisse was able to put a bullet in Chalky, although it went right through his shoulder. It was hard to tell if any of Chalky’s men died in the return fire. Two deputies were sent by Mayor Bader to escort Chalky White out of town. Chalky took Daughter Maitland with him. The deputies ended up dead on the side of the road.

In Chicago, a hit on Al Capone also missed its main target thanks to George Mueller (Van Alden) but some folks were killed. Ralph Capone was not one of them.

Agent Knox killed one of the drivers of the rum convoy out of Tampa out on White Horse Pike just because he wouldn’t get out of his way.

In Episode 11, Valentin Narcisse sent some men out to Havre de Grace, where Chalky was holed up with Daughter Maitland at the home of his former mentor, Oscar Boneau. By the time they got there, Daughter had skedaddled. Oscar Boneau was killed. His nephew, Scrapper, and another man, Levi, managed to kill some, if not all, of Narcisse’s thugs.

In the finale, Farewell Daddy Blues, Nucky set up a hit on Dr. Valentin Narcisse that failed badly, and resulted in the death of Maybelle White, Chalky White’s oldest daughter. Poor Maybelle was shot by mistake by Richard Harrow, the tragically scarred war veteran Jimmy Darmody brought to Atlantic City from Chicago in Season 1. Narcisse’s men began to shoot up the Onyx Club and one of them shot Richard Harrow and a blonde-haired lady. Harrow staggered out to the beach under the boardwalk and there he died from his injury, with a peaceful look on his face as he saw himself in his last moments returning to his family in Wisconsin.

Agent James M. Tolliver aka Agent Knox died at the hands of Eli Thompson in Eli’s home after a vicious knock-down drag-out fight. That was no murder, you know? It was either Eli or Tolliver. Whatever Eli’s sins, we’re glad it was Tolliver, who really appeared to be dead before Eli smashed the crystal vase on his head, but we’re glad Eli made sure! Ironic that Harrow and Tolliver, who were responsible for the dead bodies in the Season premiere, ended up dead in the finale.

Rest in peace to all the innocent victims of Season 4, especially Deacon Cuffy and Maybelle White.

In More Fatalities: Season 1 — Season 2 — Season 3