Eliot Ness

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Eliot Ness
Ness, c. 1933
Born(1903-04-19)April 19, 1903
Chicago, Illinois. U.S.
DiedMay 16, 1957(1957-05-16) (aged 54)
Coudersport, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Alma materUniversity of Chicago
Spouses
Edna Stahle
​
​
(m. 1929; div. 1938)​
​
​
(m. 1939; div. 1945)​
Elisabeth Andersen Seaver
​
​
(m. 1946)​
Police career
DepartmentBureau of Prohibition
Cleveland Division of Police
Service yearsBOP: 1926–1935
CDP: 1935–1942
RankChief Investigator of the Prohibition Bureau for Chicago in 1934
Director for Public Safety for Cleveland, Ohio
Signature

Eliot Ness (April 19, 1903 – May 16, 1957) was an American Prohibition agent known for his efforts to bring down Al Capone while enforcing Prohibition in Chicago. He was leader of a team of law enforcement agents nicknamed The Untouchables, handpicked for their incorruptibility. The release of his memoir The Untouchables, months after his death, launched several screen portrayals establishing a posthumous fame for Ness as an incorruptible crime fighter.

Early life

Eliot Ness was born on April 19, 1903, in the

Retail Credit Company of Atlanta assigned to the Chicago territory, where he conducted background investigations for the purpose of credit information. In 1929, he returned to the university to take a graduate course in criminology taught by August Vollmer, a noted police reformer and chief of the Berkeley Police Department. Vollmer's ideas about professionalizing law enforcement would influence Ness throughout his career.[1]: 29–43, 64–67, 202–204 [2]

Career

1926–1931

Oath of office of Ness as a Prohibition agent, dated 1926

Ness's brother-in-law,

U.S. Treasury Department in 1926, working with the 1,000-strong Bureau of Prohibition in Chicago.[1]: 67–71, 96–105 [3]

In March 1930, attorney

Justice Department) to lead this small squad.[1]
: 170–172, 239–241, 247–250, 265–269, 311–314 

Ness in 1931

With corruption of Chicago's law enforcement agents endemic, Ness went through the records of all

stills and breweries began in March 1931. Within six months, Ness's agents had destroyed bootlegging operations worth an estimated $500,000 (almost $9.9 million in 2022) and representing an additional $2 million ($39.5 million in 2022) in lost income for Capone; their raids would ultimately cost Capone in excess of $9 million ($178 million in 2022) in lost revenue. The main source of information for the raids was an extensive wiretapping
operation.

In 1931, a member of Al Capone's gang promised Ness that he would receive $2,000 every week ($36,684.27 in 2022) if he ignored their bootlegging activities. Ness refused the bribe. Failed attempts by members of the Chicago Outfit to bribe or intimidate Ness and his agents inspired Charles Schwarz of the Chicago Daily News to begin calling them "untouchables". George Johnson adopted the nickname and promoted it to the press, establishing it as the squad's unofficial title.[1]: 317–331, 349–365, 419–421, 493 

The efforts of Ness and his team inflicted major financial damage on Capone's operations and led to his indictment on 5,000 violations of the Volstead Act in June 1931. Federal judge

James H. Wilkerson prevented that indictment from coming to trial, instead pursuing the tax evasion case built by George Johnson and Frank Wilson.[4][1]: 385–421, 493–496 [5] On October 17, 1931, Capone was convicted on three of 22 counts of tax evasion.[6] He was sentenced to eleven years in prison and, following a failed appeal, began his sentence in 1932. On May 3, 1932, Ness was among the federal agents who took Capone from the Cook County Jail to Dearborn Station, where he boarded the Dixie Flyer to the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary—the only time the two men are known to have met in person.[1]: 423–461, 496–501 [7][8]

1932–1957

In 1932, Ness was promoted to Chief Investigator of the Prohibition Bureau for Chicago. Following the end of Prohibition in 1933, he was assigned as an alcohol tax agent in the "Moonshine Mountains" of southern Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and in 1934 he was transferred to

Harold H. Burton hired Ness as the city's Safety Director, which put him in charge of both the police and fire departments. Ness soon began a reform program inspired by the ideas of August Vollmer, which focused on professionalizing and modernizing the police, stopping juvenile delinquency, and improving traffic safety. He declared war on the mob, and his primary targets included "Big" Angelo Lonardo, "Little" Angelo Scirrca, Moe Dalitz, John Angerola, George Angersola, and Charles Pollizi.[1]
: 493, 529–530 

Ness was also Safety Director at the time of the murders known as the

polygraph test. At one point in time, two bodies of the victims of the serial killer were placed within view of his office window.[10][11]

In 1938, Ness and his wife Edna divorced. His otherwise successful career in Cleveland withered gradually. He especially fell out of favor after he had the city's large shantytowns evacuated and burned during the Cleveland Torso Murders. Cleveland critics targeted his divorce, his high-profile social drinking, and his conduct in a car accident one night when he was driving drunk. Although there were no victims in the accident, Ness, fearful that he might lose his job, tried to get the accident covered up. Later, his involvement in the accident was revealed by a local newspaper and calls for his resignation increased; however, Burton's successor as mayor, Frank Lausche, kept Ness on.[12]

In 1939, Ness married illustrator

Diebold Corporation, a security company based in Ohio.[13]

Ad from Ness' 1947 campaign for Mayor of Cleveland

After his second divorce and third marriage, he ran unsuccessfully for Mayor of Cleveland in 1947,[14] after which he left Diebold in 1951.[13] In the aftermath, Ness was forced into taking odd jobs to earn a living, including bookstore clerk and wholesaler of electronics parts and frozen hamburger patties.[15]: 255–256  By 1956, he came to work for a startup company called Guaranty Paper Corporation, which claimed to have a new method of watermarking legal and official documents to prevent counterfeiting. Ness was offered the job because of his expertise in law enforcement and moved from Cleveland to Coudersport, Pennsylvania, where much of the investment capital for the company was located. Now drinking more heavily, Ness spent his free time in a local bar, telling stories of his law enforcement career. Guaranty Paper began to fall apart when it became clear that one of Ness's business partners had misrepresented the nature of their supposedly proprietary watermarking process, leaving Ness in serious financial jeopardy.[16]

In later years, Ness struggled financially; he was nearly penniless at the time of his death, with his role in bringing down Al Capone having been largely forgotten.[1]: 359–360, 531–532 [17]

Personal life

Ness was married to Edna Stahle (1900–1988) from 1929 to 1938, illustrator Evaline Michelow (1911–1986) from 1939 to 1945, and artist Elisabeth Andersen Seaver (1906–1977) from 1946 until his death in 1957. He also had an adopted son, Robert (1946–1976).[1]: 124–125, 201 [18]

Death

Ness's cenotaph located at Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio

Shortly after his approval of the final galleys for

The Untouchables, on whose writing he and Oscar Fraley had been collaborating as a means, on Ness' part, of earning money in his later years, Ness collapsed and died of a heart attack at his home in Coudersport, Pennsylvania, on May 16, 1957. He was 54 years of age.[14] His body was cremated, and his ashes were scattered in one of the small ponds on the grounds of Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland.[18] An admirer later donated a plot near the pond and erected a cenotaph in his honor there.[19]

Ness was survived by his widow, Elisabeth Andersen Seaver, and adopted son, Robert.[18]

Legacy

Archive

The Western Reserve Historical Society houses additional Ness papers, including a scrapbook (1928–1936), copies of newspaper clippings (1935–1950), a typewritten manuscript detailing Ness's career in Chicago, and miscellaneous papers, including a report on the Fidelity Check Corporation and Guaranty Paper, of which Ness was president.[20]

Art, entertainment, and media

Numerous media works have been developed based on Eliot Ness's life and the legend surrounding his work in Chicago. The first of these resulted in Ness's last years in collaboration with

Cleveland, Ohio.[14]

Actor Robert Stack portraying Ness in the series The Untouchables (1959)

The book was adapted in multiple media and inspired many additional works. The best-known adaptations include the 1959 TV series

TV-movie, The Return of Eliot Ness, in which Stack returned to the role; a second, short-lived 1993 TV series titled The Untouchables, which starred Tom Amandes as Ness and William Forsythe as Capone; stage plays such as Peter Ullian's In the Shadow of the Terminal Tower; and comic books such as Torso. Ness was portrayed by actor Jim True-Frost in the fifth-season episode "The Good Listener" of the HBO television series Boardwalk Empire
.

Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run. Bullet Proof (1989) pitted Ness against labor racketeers intent on taking over Cleveland's food service industry. Ness is mentioned in many hip hop and rap tracks ("California Love", for example). Murder by the Numbers (1993) depicted Ness's investigation of the numbers racket in Cleveland. All of these novels, while fictionalized, were closely based on actual cases investigated by Ness and the Cleveland Police. Collins also wrote a one-man stage play, Eliot Ness – An Untouchable Life, which was nominated for an Edgar Award. Collins wrote Ness into his graphic novel Road to Perdition.[22]

In 2018, Collins collaborated with historian A. Brad Schwartz on a nonfiction dual biography of Ness and Capone entitled Scarface and the Untouchable: Al Capone, Eliot Ness, and the Battle for Chicago.[23] Collins and Schwartz are currently writing a second volume about Ness's years in Cleveland, entitled The Untouchable and the Butcher.[24]

In The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Frederick Weller portrayed a young Elliot Ness in the eleventh episode The Mystery of the Blues. In the episode, he is portrayed as the roommate of Indiana Jones at the University of Chicago.

In a Video game called The Untouchables was released in 1989 by Ocean Software on ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, MSX, Atari ST, Amiga, DOS, NES, and SNES.

Beer

Cleveland-based Great Lakes Brewing Company, which claims several connections to Ness (including the brewery owners' mother having worked as his stenographer), named an amber lager "Eliot Ness"[25] and included several subtle nods to his career in the beer description and label art.[26][27]

Proposed building naming

Ness's credentials as agent

On January 10, 2014, Illinois U.S. Senators Dick Durbin and Mark Kirk and Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown proposed naming the headquarters of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Washington, D.C., after Ness.[28][1]: 545–547  If approved, it would have been called the Eliot Ness ATF Building. Brown said in a statement: "Eliot Ness is perhaps best known as the man who helped to bring Al Capone to justice. But Eliot Ness was more than just a Chicago U.S. prohibition agent. He fought for law and justice in Ohio, and fought for peace and freedom in World War II. He was a public servant and an American hero who deserves to be remembered."[29]

Chicago Aldermen Edward M. Burke (14th Ward) and James Balcer (11th Ward) introduced a resolution in the Chicago City Council to oppose the renaming. In a news release, Burke said: "Eliot Ness had a checkered career after leaving the federal government. I simply do not think his image matches the actual reality of his legacy."[30]

Illustration of Ness

The authors of two separate Ness biographies later disputed the accuracy of Burke's claims, suggesting he mischaracterized Ness's career.[1]: 545–547 [31] "If Hollywood has given Eliot Ness too much credit for getting Capone," Max Allan Collins wrote in an article for HuffPost, "he has received too little credit anywhere else for helping professionalize law enforcement in the mid-20th Century."[32]

Although the Senate resolution was never adopted, the main atrium in the ATF headquarters building was later renamed for Eliot Ness and features a historical exhibit about the Untouchables.[1]: 547–548 

Festival and museum

Coudersport, Pennsylvania, the town where Ness spent his final months and died, has held an annual "Eliot Ness Festival" every third weekend in July since 2018. Past events have included a public reunion of people descended from the original Untouchables, a dramatization of Al Capone's trial, film screenings, author talks, and antique car shows.[33][34]

In 2019, an "Eliot Ness Museum" inspired by the annual festival opened in downtown Coudersport, featuring several antique cars and exhibits describing Ness's life and career.[35][36]

References

  1. ^
    OCLC 1042077150
    .
  2. OCLC 36707473
    .
  3. ^ Biography of Eliot Ness (Essortment) Archived August 16, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  4. OCLC 733344446
    .
  5. OCLC 732862550
    .
  6. ^ "Al Capone – American criminal". Encyclopedia Britannica. January 13, 2024.
  7. ^ "Eliot Ness biography – birthday, trivia – American Law Officer – Who2". Retrieved November 27, 2018.
  8. ^ ""Eliot Ness 1902–1957" The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.gov web site". Archived from the original on November 29, 2010. Retrieved March 31, 2010.
  9. ^ Bovsun, Mara (June 30, 2013). "Pile of bones: Eliot Ness hunted Cleveland serial killer, but mystery remains". New York Daily News. Retrieved November 27, 2018.
  10. ^ "Torso Murders – Cleveland Police Museum". Archived from the original on November 28, 2018. Retrieved November 27, 2018.
  11. ^ "Haunted History – Season 1 Episode 6 The Torso Murders"
  12. ^ "Eliot Ness". Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. July 21, 1997. Retrieved May 8, 2012.
  13. ^ a b "A Man of Steel Leads a Company of Iron". Diebold, Inc. 2009. Archived from the original on May 8, 2012. Retrieved May 8, 2013.
  14. ^ a b c McFarland, Marilyn; Stone, Mark Wade (January 2012). "Eliot Ness". Cleveland Police Museum/Cleveland Police Historical Society. Archived from the original on August 28, 2016. Retrieved November 24, 2021.
  15. OCLC 1033582735
    .
  16. ^ a b Pearl, Matthew (December 27, 2017). "Behind The Untouchables: The Making of the Memoir That Reclaimed a Prohibition-Era Legend". Vanity Fair. Retrieved June 10, 2023.
  17. ^ a b "Whatever happened to Eliot Ness after the trial of Al Capone?". Ask Yahoo!.
  18. ^
    ISBN 978-1-59851-025-6
    .
  19. ISBN 978-0-87338-689-0
    .
  20. ^ "Oscar Fraley, 79, 'Untouchables' author obituary". The New York Times. January 9, 1994. Retrieved April 14, 2008.
  21. ^ New York: Pocket Books, trade paperback printing, 2002: pp.194ff
  22. ^ "Scarface and the Untouchable – Max Allan Collins – Hardcover". Retrieved November 27, 2018.
  23. ^ "A Conversation With Max Allan Collins On Graphic Novel "The Night I Died"". MysteryTribune. Retrieved October 9, 2019.
  24. ^ Wendel, Kim. "Battle over "Untouchables" Eliot Ness estate involves NE Ohio". WKYC. Retrieved January 3, 2016.[permanent dead link]
  25. ^ Great Lakes Brewing Company Fact Sheet. "Eliot Ness Amber Lager" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on September 19, 2015. Retrieved January 3, 2016.
  26. ^ Bona, Mark. "Great Lakes Brewing Co. unveils new labels". Cleveland Plain Dealer. Retrieved January 3, 2016.
  27. ^ Skiba, Katherine. "'Untouchable' idea – building named for Eliot Ness". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on January 16, 2014. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
  28. ^ "Sens. Brown, Kirk, And Durbin Introduce Bipartisan Resolution To Honor Famed Prohibition Agent, Eliot Ness" (Press release). Washington, DC: Office of Senator Sherrod Brown. January 10, 2014. Retrieved October 9, 2019.
  29. ^ "Pair of aldermen oppose effort to rename ATF HQ after Eliot Ness". Chicago Tribune. January 15, 2014. Archived from the original on January 18, 2014. Retrieved June 11, 2019.
  30. ^ Perry, Douglas (January 24, 2014). "The truth about Eliot Ness". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved October 9, 2019.
  31. ^ Collins, Max Allan (January 23, 2014). "They should name a building for him". HuffPost.
  32. ^ Collins, Max Allan; Schwartz, A. Brad (July 12, 2018). "The Untouchable Eliot Ness Is Getting His Own Fest". Chicago Review of Books. Retrieved October 9, 2019.
  33. ^ Bogdan, Ruth (July 18, 2018). "Eliot Ness Fest to feature trial re-enactment, Untouchables reunion". Olean Times Herald. Retrieved October 9, 2019.
  34. ^ Holtz, Christine (September 2, 2019). "Antique Car and Truck Museum in Coudersport celebrates career of Eliot Ness". Bradford Era. Retrieved October 9, 2019.
  35. ^ "Antique Car and Truck Museum in Coudersport celebrates career of Eliot Ness". Endeavor News. October 5, 2019. Retrieved October 9, 2019.

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Eliot Ness.
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