Editing Eliot Ness (section)

== Career ==

=== 1926–1931 ===
[[File:Oath of Office for Eliot Ness - NARA - 597835.gif|thumb|upright|left|[[Oath of office]] of Ness as a Prohibition agent, dated 1926]]
Ness's brother-in-law, [[Alexander Jamie]], an agent of the [[Bureau of Investigation]] (which became the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] in 1935), influenced Ness to enter law enforcement. Ness joined the [[U.S. Treasury Department]] in 1926, working with the 1,000-strong [[Bureau of Prohibition]] in Chicago.<ref name="Collins & Schwartz" />{{Rp|67-71, 96-105}}<ref>[http://www.essortment.com/all/eliotnessuntou_rnjc.htm ''Biography of Eliot Ness'' (Essortment)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100816125249/http://www.essortment.com/all/eliotnessuntou_rnjc.htm |date=August 16, 2010 }}</ref>

In March 1930, attorney [[Frank J. Loesch]] of the [[Chicago Crime Commission]] asked [[President of the United States|President]] [[Herbert Hoover]] to take down [[Al Capone]]. Agents of the [[Internal Revenue Service|Bureau of Internal Revenue]], working under [[Elmer Irey]] and Special Agent [[Frank J. Wilson]] of the [[IRS Criminal Investigation Division|Intelligence Unit]], were already investigating Capone and his associates for [[income tax]] [[Tax avoidance and tax evasion|evasion]]. In late 1930, [[U.S. Attorney General|Attorney General]] [[William D. Mitchell]], seeking a faster end to the case, implemented a plan devised by President Hoover for sending a small team of Prohibition agents, working under a special [[United States attorney]], to target the illegal [[brewery|breweries]] and supply routes of Capone while gathering evidence of conspiracy to violate the National Prohibition Act (informally known as the [[Volstead Act]]). U.S. attorney [[George E.Q. Johnson]], the Chicago prosecutor directly in charge of both the [[Prohibition in the United States|Prohibition]] and income tax investigations of Capone, chose the 27-year-old Ness (now assigned to the [[U.S. Department of Justice|Justice Department]]) to lead this small squad.<ref name="Collins & Schwartz" />{{Rp|170-172, 239-241, 247-250, 265-269, 311-314}}

[[File:Eliot Ness in 1931.jpg|thumb|upright|Ness in 1931]]
With corruption of Chicago's law enforcement agents endemic, Ness went through the records of all [[Bureau of Prohibition|Prohibition]] agents to create a reliable team (initially of six, eventually growing to about ten) later known as "[[Untouchables (law enforcement)|The Untouchables]]." Raids against illegal [[distillation|stills]] and [[brewery|breweries]] began in March 1931. Within six months, Ness's agents had destroyed [[Rum-running|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 [[Rum-running|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.<ref name="Collins & Schwartz" />{{Rp|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.<ref name="scarfacecrusaders">{{cite book |last=Hoffman |first=Dennis Earl |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/733344446?oclcNum=733344446 |title=Scarface Al and the Crime Crusaders: Chicago's Private War Against Capone |publisher=Southern Illinois University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-8093-3004-1 |edition=Pbk |location=Chicago |pages=159–164 |language=English |oclc=733344446}}</ref><ref name="Collins & Schwartz" />{{Rp|385-421, 493-496}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Okrent |first=Daniel |url=https://archive.org/details/lastcal_okr_2010_00_9047 |title=Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition |publisher=Scribner |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-7432-7704-4 |edition=1st Scribner trade paperback |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/lastcal_okr_2010_00_9047/page/136 136], 345 |oclc=732862550 |author-link=Daniel Okrent |url-access=registration}}</ref> On October 17, 1931, Capone was convicted on three of 22 counts of tax evasion.<ref name="brit">{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Al-Capone|title=Al Capone – American criminal|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|date=January 13, 2024 }}</ref> 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 (train)|Dixie Flyer]] to the [[United States Penitentiary, Atlanta|Atlanta Federal Penitentiary]]—the only time the two men are known to have met in person.<ref name="Collins & Schwartz" />{{Rp|423-461, 496-501}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.who2.com/eliotness.html|title=Eliot Ness biography – birthday, trivia – American Law Officer – Who2|access-date=November 27, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ttb.gov/student_research/eliot_ness.shtml |title="Eliot Ness 1902–1957" The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.gov web site |access-date=March 31, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101129040607/http://ttb.gov/student_research/eliot_ness.shtml |archive-date=November 29, 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

=== 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 [[Cleveland, Ohio]]. In December 1935, [[Mayor of Cleveland|Cleveland mayor]] [[Harold Hitz Burton|Harold H. Burton]] hired Ness as the city's Safety Director, which put him in charge of both the [[Cleveland Division of Police|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 in the United States|juvenile delinquency]], and improving [[Road traffic safety|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.<ref name="Collins & Schwartz" />{{Rp|493, 529-530}}

Ness was also Safety Director at the time of the murders known as the [[Cleveland Torso Murderer|Cleveland Torso Murders]], occurring in the Cleveland area from 1935 to 1938; though he had oversight of the police department, he was only peripherally involved in the investigation.<ref name="Run">{{cite news |last=Bovsun |first=Mara |date=June 30, 2013 |title=Pile of bones: Eliot Ness hunted Cleveland serial killer, but mystery remains |website=[[New York Daily News]] |url=http://www.nydailynews.com/news/justice-story/ness-hunted-cleveland-killer-mystery-remains-article-1.1386136 |access-date=November 27, 2018}}</ref> Ness interrogated one of the prime suspects of the murders, Dr. Francis E. Sweeney, using a [[polygraph test]]. At one point, two bodies of the victims of the serial killer were placed within view of Ness's office window.<ref name="Real Ness1">{{cite web|url=http://www.clevelandpolicemuseum.org/collections/torso-murders/|title=Torso Murders – Cleveland Police Museum|access-date=November 27, 2018|archive-date=November 28, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181128181825/https://www.clevelandpolicemuseum.org/collections/torso-murders/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>"Haunted History'' – Season 1 Episode 6 ''The Torso Murders"</ref>

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 [[Shanty town|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.<ref name="ech">{{cite encyclopedia
|url = http://ech.case.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=NE
|title = Eliot Ness
|access-date = May 8, 2012
|date = July 21, 1997
|encyclopedia = Encyclopedia of Cleveland History}}</ref>

In 1939, Ness married illustrator [[Evaline Ness|Evaline Michelow]]. In 1942, the Nesses moved to [[Washington, D.C.]], where he worked for the federal government. He directed the battle against [[prostitution]] in communities surrounding military bases, where [[venereal disease]] was a serious medical issue. Later he made a number of forays into the corporate world, all of which failed owing to his lack of business acumen. In 1944, he left to become chairman of the [[Diebold Corporation]], a security company based in Ohio.<ref name="Diebold.com">{{cite web
|url = http://www.diebold.com/150/featurestories_1944.htm
|title = A Man of Steel Leads a Company of Iron
|access-date = May 8, 2013
|year = 2009
|work = Diebold, Inc.
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120508024112/http://www.diebold.com/150/featurestories_1944.htm
|archive-date = May 8, 2012
|url-status = dead
}}</ref>

[[File:1947 campaign sign on building at 36th Street and Cedar Avenue, Cleveland. - NARA - 550133.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Ad from Ness' 1947 campaign for [[Mayor of Cleveland]]]]
After his second divorce and third marriage, he ran unsuccessfully for [[Mayor of Cleveland]] [[1947 Cleveland mayoral election|in 1947]],<ref name="McFarland">{{cite web
|url = http://www.clevelandpolicemuseum.org/collections/eliotness.html
|title = Eliot Ness
|access-date = November 24, 2021
|last1 = McFarland
|first1 = Marilyn
|last2 = Stone
|first2 = Mark Wade
|date = January 2012
|work = Cleveland Police Museum/Cleveland Police Historical Society
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160828173435/http://clevelandpolicemuseum.org/collections/eliotness.html
|archive-date = August 28, 2016
|url-status = dead
}}</ref> after which he left Diebold in 1951.<ref name="Diebold.com" /> 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.<ref name="Heimel">{{cite book |last1=Heimel |first1=Paul |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4QWCvgEACAAJ&q=eliot+ness+the+real+story |title=Eliot Ness: The Real Story |date=2000 |publisher=Cumberland House |isbn=1-58182-139-5 |edition=2nd |location=Nashville |oclc=1033582735}}</ref>{{Rp|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.<ref name="Pearl VF">{{Cite magazine |last=Pearl |first=Matthew |date=2017-12-27 |title=Behind The Untouchables: The Making of the Memoir That Reclaimed a Prohibition-Era Legend |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/12/the-untouchables-the-making-of-the-memoir-prohibition-era-legend |access-date=2023-06-10 |magazine=Vanity Fair |language=en-US}}</ref>

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.<ref name="Collins & Schwartz" />{{Rp|359-360, 531-532}}<ref name="ask.yahoo.com">{{cite web|url=http://ask.yahoo.com/20051020.html |title=Whatever happened to Eliot Ness after the trial of Al Capone?|website=Ask Yahoo!}}</ref>