Editing Eliot Ness (section)

=== 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>