Eliot Ness was born April 19, 1903, the youngest child of Peter and Emma Ness, Norwegian immigrants who owned several bakeries in Chicago. Ness graduated from the University of Chicago in 1925 with degrees in business administration and political science. His uncle, Alexander Jamie, helped Ness get a job in the Treasury Department's Prohibition Enforcement Unit where he achieved a high number of arrests.
In 1929, Jamie was promoted to Chief Investigator of the Department of Justice's Prohobition Bureau and was tasked with developing a special investigative unit targeted against Al Capone's bootlegging operation. Jamie recommended Ness to head the new squad.
The Capone Squad Becomes "The Untouchables"
In 1929, Ness became the leader fo the Capone Squad, nicknamed "The Untouchable" because of their immunity to corruption. The squad had three main goasl: to find and destroy Capone's breweries and distilleries, to disrupt Capone's income sources, and to gather evidence on tax law and prohibition violations. In a very short time the squad became very successful.
As The Untouchables kept Capone's attention, the Treasury Department gathered enough evidence to receive indictments against Capone on 22 counts of income tax evasion. During Grand Jury testimony, Ness presented over 5000 counts of Prohibition offenses providing Capone with $200 million over a ten-year period. In October 1931, Capone was found guilty on three tax evasion counts and sentenced to 11 years in prison and an $80,000 fine. Shortly after Capone left for prison, the Chicago Tribune started a comic strip based on Ness called "Dick Tracy."
The End of Prohibition and a New Life in Cleveland
In 1933, with the end of Prohibition, the Capone Squad disbanded and Ness was transferred to the Bureau of Internal Revenue's Cincinnati district to search for illicit stills in the backwoods of the Midwest. His success did not diminish. He was soon busting an average of one still per day.
In November 1935, Harold Burton was elected May of Cleveland on a reform ticket, promising to end corruption in the city's police force and win the war against organized crime. He chose Ness as Cleveland's Public Safety Director, responsible for both the police and fire departments.
When Ness stepped into his new job, Cleveland was overrun with gambling, prostitution, labor racketeering, narcotics and plenty of corrupt cops. Ness served almost seven years, bringing prosperity and safety to Cleveland. He received awards from the Ohio Supreme Court for his work.
Ness also implemented reforms that were forerunners of many services taken for granted today. He developed the Emergency Patrol, a group of 12 trucks manned by police with first aid training. He also established a central communications center to take all emergency calls.
Ness established a juvenile crime unit and helped obtain city funds for gyms, bowling alleys, and playgrounds in gang areas. He worked directly with the Works Program Administration to secure youth employment opportunities for Cleveland's inner city. His effort resulted in an 80% drop in juvenile crime.
Despite his successes, Ness was not able to remain a hero in Clevelend. The city was terrorized by at least twelve murders attributed to a serial killer known as the Mad Butcher. The murders ceased suddenly and the case was never solved. This failure led to a decline in popularity for Ness. His divorce from his first wife, Edna Staley, was also unpopular with Cleveland's Catholic majority.
Difficult Times Left Ness Bruised But Not Broken
In March 1942, Ness and his second wife, Evaline, were involved in a car crash with another car on icy roads. Ness left the scene and did not report the accident. When his license plate was identified by the second driver, Ness told police he only left the scene after checking on the other driver. No charges were filed, but his career in law enforcement was over. Ness resigned as Cleveland Public Safety Director on April 30, 1942.
After leaving Cleveland, Ness worked as the National Director of the Federal Social Protection Program, a war-time effort promoting abstinence and safe sex among military personnel. Ness traveled extensively, speaking at military bases in the U.S. and Canada. He forged alliances with local law enforcement to curtail prostitution around the bases. For his success, Ness was awarded the Navy's Meritorious Service Citation in 1943.
After the war, Ness ran for the Mayor's office in Cleveland, but lost by an embarrassing margin. He held several positions in business, but was largely unsuccessful. Now on his third marriage and with an adopted son, Ness was having trouble providing for his family. Luckily, he was introduced to a writer, Oscar Fraley, who was interested in writing a book about Ness in his Chicago days. The book idea was picked up by a publisher but Ness did not live to see its success.
A Sudden Death and An Enduring Legacy
Eliot Ness died of a massive heart attack on May 16, 1957 at age 54, just six months before The Untouchables was published. Fraley's book ultimately spawned a television series and a feature film. Highly fictionalized, these violent entertainment vehicles, along with the "Dick Tracy" cartoon strip,have established an image of Ness as a machine-gun toting, heavy-handed G-man. In reality, Ness only fired his gun once in the line of duty - to destroy a padlock on a brewery door.
Sources:
Heimel, Paul W. Eliot Ness: The Real Story. Nashville: Cumberland House, 2000.
Nickel, Steven. Torso: The Story of Eliot Ness and the Search for a Psychopathis Killer. Winston-Salem: John F. Blair, 1989.
Eliot Ness
|
