AI —Author interview
ATF—Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives historic archives
Berardi—“Prohibition: Tony Berardi: About Eliot Ness and ‘the Untouchables.’” Video interview with Tony Berardi. Produced in 1999: onlinefootage.tv/video/show/id/7684. Accessed February 28, 2011.
CN—Cleveland News
CP—Cleveland Press
CPD—Cleveland Plain Dealer
CPHS—Archives at the Cleveland Police Historical Society
CT—Chicago Tribune
ENP—Eliot Ness Papers, 1928–1960, MSS 3699; and Eliot Ness Scrapbooks, 1931–1947: Microfilm Collections, Western Reserve Historical Society
ENP/MS—Ness’s original draft summary for his memoir, The Untouchables: Eliot Ness Papers, Microfilm Collections, Western Reserve Historical Society
HHB—The Papers of Harold H. Burton, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress
Johnson—“Prohibition: George E. Q. Johnson: About Eliot Ness and ‘the Untouchables.’” Video interview with George E. Q. Johnson Jr. Produced in 1999. www.onlinefootage.tv/video/show/id/7733. Accessed February 28, 2011.
Lonardo—Statement of Angelo Lonardo before the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Governmental Affairs, United States Senate, 100th Congress, Second Session, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington: 1988
NPRC—U.S. government civilian personnel records (by name of employee): Official Personnel Folders, The National Personnel Records Center, National Archives at St. Louis
Vollmer—August Vollmer Historical Project, 1983, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley
Introduction: The Real Eliot Ness
The death scene in the Ness kitchen was recreated using the following sources: “End Comes Quickly: Eliot Ness, Resident Here Only Eight Months, Passes Away,” Potter Leader-Enterprise, May 23, 1957; “Walter Taylor Reminisces on Eliot Ness’s Last Years,” Potter Leader-Enterprise, Mar. 22, 1961; “Film Crews Tracking Eliot Ness: Famous Crime Fighter Died Unheralded—But of Natural Causes—in Potter County,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Dec. 1, 1996; Elisabeth Seaver file, unlabeled news clippings, Cleveland Museum of Art archives; ENP, unlabeled obituary clippings, reel 3.
He walked out of the kitchen: Cleveland Public Library photo collection, Eliot and Elisabeth Ness living room.
It got his age wrong: “Eliot Ness, 53, Dies; Helped Jail Capone,” CT, May 17, 1957.
Ness had taught Sagalyn how to: AI, Arnold Sagalyn, May 22, 2011.
Sagalyn sent her some money: Ibid.
But unlike Sagalyn, he didn’t owe: Something About the Author: Autobiography Series, vol. 1, (Independence, KY: Gale, 1985), 227.
“The last time I saw Eliot . . . ”: David Cowles oral history, 1983, CPHS.
The young, irrepressible top cop: “What They Are Saying,” CPD, Feb. 7, 1937.
As one of the resident experts: Peter Jedick, “Eliot Ness,” Cleveland, April 1976.
“He really captured the imagination . . . ”: George E. Condon, Cleveland: The Best Kept Secret (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1967), 243.
During a lull in the conversation: Oscar Fraley, “The Real Eliot Ness,” Coronet, July 1961.
“It was dangerous”: Ibid.
“I can hardly believe it”: Ibid.
Worried about what he considered: Roger Borroel, The Story of the Untouchables, as Told by Eliot Ness (East Chicago, IN: La Villita Publications, 2010), 1; Fraley, “The Real Eliot Ness.”
George E. Q. Johnson Jr., son of: Johnson.
“Eliot changed . . . ”: Paul W. Heimel, Eliot Ness: The Real Story (Nashville, TN: Knox Books, 1997), 81.
Thirty years after Ness’s death: “The Death of Eliot Ness Was Exaggerated,” Los Angeles Times, June 14, 1987.
Ken Burns, promoting his: “‘Prohibition’ Gives Lie to Era’s Chicago Myths,” Chicago Sun-Times, Sept. 26, 2011.
“I am going to be out . . . ”: “Ness to Fight in Front Lines,” CP, Dec. 13, 1935, ENP, reel 2.
Marion Kelly, a longtime Cleveland: Laurence Bergreen, Capone: The Man and the Era (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994), 598.
Louise Jamie, who was related: Ibid., 345.
“There is nothing about Ness’ appearance . . .”: “Crime Buster Ness Shares Trial Spotlight,” CN, Oct. 2, 1940, ENP, reel 2.
“Tell me, what kind of guy . . .”: Fraley, “The Real Eliot Ness.”
Chapter 1: Hardboiled
Edna Stahle opened her eyes: AI, Maxine Huntington, a longtime friend of Edna’s, Sept. 5, 2011.
The gangsters had figured out that: Studs Terkel, Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression (Pantheon Books, 1970), 169–70.
“So [gangsters] took these yachts and decorated them . . . ”: Ibid.
One saloon regular put it succinctly: Ibid., 187.
He’d come because he was: “Eliot Ness Colleague Marguerite Downes, 90,” CT, Dec. 23, 1986.
On the weekend, she clattered around town: AI, Maxine Huntington, Sept. 5, 2011.
“We used to double-date”: “The Real Eliot Ness,” Tucson Citizen, July 17, 1987, Scott Sroka personal collection.
“Women threw themselves at Eliot”: Condon, “The Last American Hero,” Cleveland, Aug. 1987.
This dichotomy—between the “very modest man . . .”: “The Real Eliot Ness,” Tucson Citizen, July 17, 1987, Scott Sroka personal collection.
The division oversaw: “Federal Prohibition Enforcement: A Report to the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement,” Justice Department, 1930, 168.
The Chicago Prohibition office had recently: Laurence F. Schmeckebier, “The Bureau of Prohibition: Its History, Activities and Organization” (Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 1929), 50.
In 1922, two years after the arrival: Ibid., 45.
He and Chicago’s Prohibition administrator: “Bailiff Shot By Dry Squad,” CT, Mar. 30, 1928.
The newspapers dubbed him “Hardboiled Golding”: unlabeled Chicago Tribune clipping, Oct. 12, 1927, ENP, reel 1.
“The agents swooped down on unsuspecting Chicago . . . ”: Elmer L. Irey, as told to William J. Slocum. The Tax Dodgers: The Inside of the T-Men’s War with America’s Political and Underworld Hoodlums (New York: Greenberg, 1948), 20.
In March 1928, one of Golding’s men shot: “Indict Bailiff After Drys Shoot Him,” CT, Mar. 31, 1928; “Get Warrant for Dry Agent,” CT, April 1, 1928; “Seized as Deneen Bomber,” CT, April 3, 1928.
He said the wounded man, under guard: “Bailiff Shot by Dry Squad,” CT, Mar. 30, 1928.
When the police showed up: “Bailiff Shot by Dry Squad,” CT, Mar. 30, 1928; “‘Ace’ Golding’s Police Clash Not His First,” CT, Mar. 31, 1928; and “Get Warrant for Dry Agent,” CT, April 1, 1928.
Irey recalled that the special agent: Irey, Tax Dodgers, 20.
On April 5, Caffey surrendered: “U.S. May Yield Dry Agent Who Shot Bailiff,” CT, April 5, 1928; “‘Hardboiled’ Facing Pressure,” Chicago Daily News, April 5, 1928.
“The situation here is so tense . . .”: “Seized as Deneen Bomber,” CT, April 3, 1928.
In his meeting with Willebrandt: Irey, Tax Dodgers, 20.
He believed in Golding and his hard-boiled tactics: ENP/MS.
From their initial interview, Golding pegged: NPRC, George Golding.
He was a college boy: University of Chicago Office of the Registrar, Eliot Ness student transcript.
He’d started his career at the consumer-reporting: Eliot Ness personnel file, ATF.
And he was among the few agents in the office: “Drys Bob Up at Illinois U. and Stop Speakeasies,” CT, May 26, 1927; Ness personnel file, ATF.
Golding put down that Eliot had landed: NPRC, George Golding.
He carried the Prohibition Bureau’s rule book: ATF. The historic archive at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is not like the Library of Congress. It is a large, long storage room inside a much larger warehouse in industrial Washington, DC. Inside this room are rows and rows of rickety metal shelves, on which sit unmarked or often incorrectly marked cardboard boxes. Inside the boxes are hundreds of pieces of the agency’s history. Nothing is in any discernible order. A box might have Prohibition Bureau ledgers documenting confiscated beer in Pittsburgh in 1928 along with ATU public-information pamphlets from the 1950s and the diaries of an agent from World War II. ATF staff historian Barbara Osteika allowed me to spend hours in the room going through box after box, taking notes as I went. An ATF intern, Daniel M. Huff, assisted in the search and made photocopies of whatever I wanted. Once we were done with a document, the original would go back in the cardboard box and disappear back onto the nondescript shelf, like a reenactment of the last scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
A memo from Washington the week before: Ness personnel file, ATF.
On June 5, Golding personally gave: Ibid.
Chapter 2: Mama’s Boy
“The way of the transgressor is hard . . . ”: “$4,000 Offered to Bribe Dry Agents Seized,” CT, May 3, 1928.
The narrative for the City Hall Square operation and its aftermath comes from: “Shot by U.S. Drys in Loop,” CT, Aug. 22, 1928; “Panic as Federal Agents Raid Loop Tower,” Chicago Daily News, Aug. 22, 1928; “Dry Raiders Held for Loop Shooting,” CT, Aug. 25, 1928; “Disband U.S. Dry Gunmen,” CT, Aug. 29, 1928; “Golding’s Squad ‘Dry Cleaned’ in Shakeup Order,” CT, Sept. 12, 1928; George Golding’s federal personnel folder, NPRC.
“All previous records for brutality, depravity . . .’”: “3 Killed, Dozens Hurt in 60 Day Drive by Drys,” CT, Oct. 1, 1928.
The Prohibition Bureau dismissed a handful: “Dry Advocate of Terrorism Evades Rebuke,” CT, Sept. 8, 1928.
Two weeks later, Yellowley named Jamie: NPRC, Alexander Jamie.
At one stop in 1922 a reporter asked: “The First Woman Federal Prohibition Agent,” A.I.U., December 1922, ATF.
She loved to quote “the highest authority . . .”: Ibid.
In the second half of the nineteenth century: Longview Daily News, Nov. 11, 2012.
Yet even decades later, after years of: Daniel Okrent, Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition (New York: Scribner, 2010), 36.
“The whole world is skew-jee . . . ”: Ibid., 3.
The notoriously corrupt William “Big Bill”: Jonathan Eig, Get Capone: The Secret Plot That Captured America’s Most Wanted Gangster (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010), 24–25.
A visit the following year showed: Okrent, Last Call, 141.
Trying to enforce the law, she said: Geoffrey C. Ward, Prohibition, Florentine Films, directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick.
She freely admitted that she’d “had liquor . . . ”: Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum, Papers of Herbert Hoover, Clippings File, 1928 Subjects. File: Prohibition, Articles by M. Willebrandt
“The skies were black with smoke . . . ”: Irey, Tax Dodgers, 19.
“Chicago, the world’s Fourth City . . . ”: Edward Dean Sullivan, Chicago Surrenders (New York: Vanguard, 1930), xii–xiii.
When Torrio’s forces, led by young Capone: Bergreen, Capone: The Man and the Era, 106-109.
The election, wrote another paper: Edward Dean Sullivan, Rattling the Cup on Chicago Crime (New York: Vanguard, 1929), 24.
Jamie “is lazy and takes three hours . . . ”: NPRC, Alexander Jamie.
When Eliot was in college, Jamie helped: NPRC, Alexander Jamie; “Where the Trails Cross,” 1985–90, vol. 16–20, 19:3, 99, Michelle Regan personal collection.
The dry law, the Tribune declared: “Prohibition Blamed for Booze Gangs’ Long Reign of Guns and Terror in Chicago Heights,” CT, Jan. 7, 1929.
The Outfit’s influence stretched across: Bergreen, Capone: The Man and the Era, 347.
The police believed him to be responsible: “Seized as Deneen Bomber,” CT, April 3, 1928.
Earlier in the year, gangsters had shot to death: “War Rages in Chicago Heights,” unlabeled magazine article, ENP, reel 1.
Instead of classical skyscrapers: Bessie Louise Pierce, ed., As Others See Chicago: Impressions of Visitors, 1673–1933 (University of Chicago Press, 2004), 430.
“I would not want to live there . . . ”: Ibid., 276–77.
He was a mama’s boy, the youngest: AI, Arnold Sagalyn; Heimel, Eliot Ness: The Real Story, 16–20; Ness personnel file, ATF; various pages from unknown edition of the Fenger Courier and the privately published local history “Where the Trails Cross,” Michelle Regan personal collection.
Chapter 3: The Special Agents
So he wasn’t surprised in the fall: ENP/MS.
Years later he would describe Albert: ENP/MS.
Emma disapproved of her youngest son’s: Heimel, Eliot Ness: The Real Story, 20.
“If there’s anything you taught me . . . ”: Heimel, Eliot Ness: The Real Story, 20; Kenneth Tucker, Eliot Ness and the Untouchables: The Historical Reality and the Film and Television Depictions, second edition (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2011), 13.
Peter had more than twenty bakers: NPRC, Alexander Jamie. Jamie worked at his father-in-law’s bakery before joining the FBI and detailed his work experience on his application for federal employment.
“He never had a lot to say . . . ”: Heimel, Eliot Ness: The Real Story, 16.
Kooken took charge of the conversation: ENP/MS; “War Rages in Chicago Heights,” ENP, reel 1.
Eliot couldn’t help but swell with pride: ENP/MS.
The bureau wanted to build a conspiracy case: Ibid.
Their chauffeur was Frank Basile: Homicide in Chicago 1870–1930: Interactive Database, Frank Basile entry, case number 9507, accessed May 4, 2013, homicide.northwestern.edu/database/9163/.
Basile, who spoke fluent Italian: “U.S. Joins Hunt for Murderers of Dry Informer,” CT, Dec. 13, 1928.
“They would leave their cars . . . ”: ENP/MS.
Even Basile joined in, pretending: “War Rages in Chicago Heights,” ENP, reel 1.
The men found more than a dozen: ENP/MS.
“Come and talk . . . ”: “War Rages in Chicago Heights,” ENP, reel 1.
Eliot, “the hungry one”: ENP/MS.
He and Martino “had quite . . . ”: ENP/MS; “Indicted Fugitive Burned to Death as Still Explodes,” CT, Dec. 1, 1928.
Finally, they grudgingly agreed on a weekly payment: “U.S. Shuns Concession and Spurs Gang Drive,” “‘Untouchables’ Rewarded,” Washington Evening Star, ENP, reel 1; “‘Untouchables’ Hazard Death in Campaign against Capone,” Washington Evening Star, June 18, 1931, ENP, reel 1.
“The silk-shirted Italian has just asked . . . ”: ENP/MS.
“I felt young and alone . . . ”: “TV Brings Father Back for Son of Eliot Ness,” CPD, Oct. 17, 1959.
Moving quickly, shouting over one another: Bergreen, Capone: The Man and the Era, 347. It’s not clear whether the truck-jacking was sanctioned by Jamie or was done on the QT by the ambitious young agents—or even whether it was something mistakenly attributed to the legendary Eliot Ness long after the fact.
They also began pocketing $100: “‘Untouchables’ Hazard Death in Campaign against Capone,” Washington Evening Star, June 18, 1931, ENP, reel 1.
“It was apparent,” Eliot wrote: ENP/MS.
That meant hitting the Cozy Corners: Narrative for raid on the Cozy Corners comes from Bergreen, Capone: The Man and the Era, 349, and ENP/MS.
Late that night, Eliot showed up on: “The Real Eliot Ness,” Tucson Citizen, July 17, 1987; unlabeled Santa Fe New Mexican clipping, July 23, 1987; letter from Dorothy Hauck (Marty Lahart’s widow) to Marie Sroka, Scott Sroka personal collection.
“He became deathly sick . . . ”: ENP/MS.
Martino understood what his arrest: “Indicted Fugitive Burned to Death as Still Explodes,” CT, Dec. 1, 1928.
“He apparently had not been . . . ”: ENP/MS.
Assistant District Attorney Dan Anderson: “Indicted Fugitive Burned to Death as Still Explodes,” CT, Dec. 1, 1928.
Ten days later, an unidentified man: “Gunmen Kill New Victim in Chgo. Heights,” CT, Dec. 10, 1928.
At 7 a.m. on Wednesday, December 12: Homicide in Chicago 1870–1930: Interactive Database, Frank Basile entry, case number 9507, accessed May 4, 2013, homicide.northwestern.edu/database/9163/.
They fished a calendar: “U.S. Joins Hunt for Murderers of Dry Informer,” CT, Dec. 13, 1928.
“Basile was a government witness . . . ”: Ibid.
When he saw Basile: Eliot Ness with Oscar Fraley, The Untouchables: The Real Story (New York: Pocket Books, 1987), 189.
They kept at it even after the police: Homicide in Chicago 1870–1930: Interactive Database, Frank Basile entry, case number 9507, accessed May 4, 2013, homicide.northwestern.edu/database/9163/. Nearly thirty years later, in his notes to Oscar Fraley, Eliot would simply say, “The evidence on him was positive enough to make us feel that the person who had gotten [Basile] had been brought to justice.” See ENP/MS.
At restaurants, Eliot recalled: Bergreen, Capone: The Man and the Era, 349.
He quietly, bashfully: AI, Dave Deming, Sept. 7, 2011.
Three days after Christmas: unlabeled newspaper clipping; CT, Jan. 3, 1929; ENP, reel 1; ENP/MS.
Chapter 4: Flaunting Their Badness
The narrative for the Chicago Heights operation is derived from: “Prohibition Blamed for Booze Gangs’ Long Reign of Guns and Terror in Chicago Heights,” CT, Jan. 7, 1929; “Chgo. Heights Raided by U.S.,” CT, Jan. 7, 1929; “Chicago Heights Rum Quiz Brings 81 Indictments,” CT, May 4, 1929; Eig, Get Capone, 83, 111, 236; ENP/MS; “War Rages in Chicago Heights,” ENP, reel 1.
“George E. Q. Johnson and State’s Attorney . . . ”: “Indict Suspect in Plot to Kill Two Dry Agents,” CT, Jan. 3, 1929.
He added: “There would be a lot of emotion . . . ”: “TV Brings Father Back for Son of Eliot Ness,” CPD, Oct. 17, 1959.
Chapter 5: The Capone Fans
Kids and mothers loved him: Bergreen, Capone: The Man and the Era, 15–16.
“We’re big business . . . ”: Eig, Get Capone, 81.
Another local bootlegger, Terry Druggan: Okrent, Last Call, 274.
The social worker Jane Addams: Eig, Get Capone, 81.
“Morally,” the writer Nelson Algren: Ibid., 147.
“They dream of the Forty Two’s . . . ”: Terkel, Talking to Myself, 14–15.
One night at the Paramount Club: Terkel, Hard Times, 172.
He told the Chicago Tribune’s Genevieve: Eig, Get Capone, 272.
“‘Public service’ is my motto”: Ibid., 123.
The novelist Mary Borden: Pierce, As Others See Chicago, 492.
The fifty-six-year-old Iowan’s: Johnson; ENP, reel 1.
“You’d have to be crazy, right?”: Bergreen, Capone: The Man and the Era, 15.
The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre: Ibid.
New York’s Lucky Luciano: Geoffrey C. Ward, Prohibition.
He wrote a long, defensive reply: Eig, Get Capone, 294–95.
As the Internal Revenue agents working the case: Internal Revenue Service memo dated July 8, 1931, National Archives, record group 58, 1791–1996.
President Hoover, and so Attorney General Mitchell: Eig, Get Capone, 219–21.
Chapter 6: Good-Hearted Al
Willebrandt had once said: Okrent, Last Call, 141.
The Justice Department had been encouraging Johnson: Eig, Get Capone, 239.
“As Mr. Kooken and myself are leaving . . . ”: NPRC, Alexander Jamie, letter dated Oct. 22, 1930.
He noted that the agent: Ness personnel file, ATF.
When Johnson told him: Ness and Fraley, The Untouchables, 23; ENP, reel 1.
“The success of the entire venture”: Ness and Fraley, The Untouchables, 27–28.
Good men were hard to come by: Ness personnel file, ATF.
In November and December 1930: NPRC: Lyle Chapman, William Gardner, Alexander Jamie, Martin Lahart, Joseph Leeson, Samuel Seager (W. E. Bennett, Department of Justice memo, various dates); Ness personnel file, ATF.
Eliot, via his cowriter Oscar Fraley: Ness and Fraley, The Untouchables, 27.
Twenty-five years later, in his memoir: Ibid., 19.
Johnson had worked with Marty Lahart: Bergreen, Capone: The Man and the Era, 349; ENP/MS.
Jamie instead sent him on temporary assignment: NPRC, Samuel Seager.
He was known in the bureau: ENP/MS; NPRC, Joseph Leeson.
On December 15, William Jennings Gardner: NPRC, William Gardner.
“I am exceedingly interested in the case . . . ”: Ibid.
Johnson also tapped another Detroit agent: NPRC, Joseph Leeson.
A week before receiving Nye’s letter: Time, Sept. 19, 1927.
Prohibition Bureau commissioner J. M. Doran: NPRC, William Gardner.
“Frankly, I pondered how to get out of it”: “Member of ‘Untouchables’ Who ‘Broke’ Capone Recalls Exploits,” Los Angeles Times, Oct. 4, 1962.
Six months before Johnson requested Chapman: NPRC, Lyle Chapman.
Eliot would describe him as “a barrel-chested giant . . . ”: Ness and Fraley, The Untouchables, 32.
Rounding out what would become the core group: Bureau Bulletin, June 20, 1931, ATF; Ness and Fraley, The Untouchables, 33–34; Tucker, Eliot Ness and the Untouchables, 16.
pharmacist and World War I–era baseball: “Lawrence S. Ritter,” New York Times, Feb. 17, 2004; the obituary quoted from Ritter’s The Glory of Their Times.
Gang violence had spiked again: Eig, Get Capone, 106.
Homicide detectives and a morgue truck: Frank Deford, The Best American Sports Writing: 1993 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1993), 241.
A friend remembered him frequently: “The Real Eliot Ness,” Tucson Citizen, July 17, 1987.
“The Depression was so real . . . ”: Terkel, Hard Times, 164.
“Suddenly, all the copybook maxims . . . ”: Terkel, Hard Times, 169–71.
“The bread line outside of Al Capone’s . . . ”: Pierce, As Others See Chicago, 490–93.
As she headed upstairs: Ibid.
Chapter 7: The First Step
The brewery business made for a prime target: “‘Untouchables’ Hazard Death in Campaign Against Capone,” Washington Evening Star, June 18, 1931, ENP, reel 1.
He’d even had time for a real personal life: Heimel, Eliot Ness: The Real Story, 57; AI, Michelle Regan personal collection, Aug. 6, 2012; ENP, reel 2.
they had married on August 9, 1929: Cook County (Ill.) Clerk, certificate 12466, Michelle Regan personal collection.
“We knew that regularity was necessary . . . ”: “‘Untouchables’ Hazard Death in Campaign Against Capone,” Washington Evening Star, June 18, 1931, ENP, reel 1.
“The first observation we made . . . ”: ENP/MS.
Sometimes they would follow by: “Puts Raids Up to Chief,” CPD, July 14, 1935.
“The garage was on Cicero Avenue . . . ”: ENP/MS.
On January 18, a Sunday, Gardner called: NPRC, William Gardner.
One high school friend remembered him: Heimel, Eliot Ness: The Real Story, 17.
On January 20, just six weeks after being assigned: NPRC, William Gardner.
The long, detailed memo impressed Avis: Ness personnel file, ATF.
Chapter 8: Kid Stuff
The narrative of the raid on the South Cicero Avenue brewery is constructed from: AI, Pam Sroka, June 28, 2011; Bergreen, Capone: The Man and the Era, 409–10; “Capone Brewery, Huge Beer Supply Raided in Cicero,” CT, Mar. 26, 1931; unlabeled news clippings, ENP, reel 1; ENP/MS; Fraley, “The Real Eliot Ness.”
Years later, Eliot would call his mission: Ness and Fraley, The Untouchables, 85.
The team’s agents continued tailing trucks: ENP/MS; Bergreen, Capone: The Man and the Era, 412; ENP/MS; unlabeled news clippings, ENP, reel 1.
The seizure of the two breweries: ENP, reel 1.
“We were to arrest him again . . . ”: ENP/MS.
“At 11 o clock four sedans swept . . . ”: ENP, reel 1.
He was directing the two men: Bureau Bulletin, June 20, 1931; “Hold 4 Capone Aids Seized at Raided Brewery,” CT, April 14, 1931.
Two days later, jacked up on success: “Nab Five in Raid on Capone Stills; Alky Stock Seized,” Chicago Heights Star, April 15, 1931, ENP, reel 1.
That meant Eliot would get to make: NPRC, Paul Robsky.
Almost every day in Greenville: “Last of the Untouchables,” National Star, April 20, 1974.
The squad rented a basement apartment: Sources used to reconstruct the phone-tap operation include: unlabeled news clippings, ENP, reel 1; Ness and Fraley, The Untouchables, 112–14; Ness personnel file, ATF; NPRC, Paul Robsky; Tucker, Eliot Ness and the Untouchables, 18–19. Robsky’s recollections of the event come from his 1962 memoir, Last of the Untouchables (New York: Pocket Books, 1962), 77–82. The book, cowritten with Oscar Fraley, generally is not a reliable document, though Eliot’s own memories and official Prohibition Bureau records support some of Robsky’s version of the Montmartre operation.
At last he hit one—Chapman: ENP/MS; NPRC, Paul Robsky. In Robsky’s telling in Last of the Untouchables, Lahart gets inside the Montmartre and makes a call out to “Edna” while Robsky is raking the line. Eliot’s memory, which appears to be supported by official memoranda, has the call coming into the Montmartre.
“The federal men found 140 barrels . . . ”: unlabeled Chicago Daily News clipping, ENP, reel 1.
Calloway was already under indictment: Bureau Bulletin, June, 20, 1931.
The agents ran a car off: “Dry Raiders Cost Capone Half Million in Six Weeks,” Chicago Herald and Examiner, Sept. 26, 1931, ENP, reel 1.
On his own Eliot chased: “Seize Beer Truck after Chase in Streets of Loop,” CT, May 12, 1931.
A few weeks later, the team took down: “Dry Raiders Cost Capone Half Million in Six Weeks,” Chicago Herald and Examiner, Sept. 26, 1931, ENP, reel 1.
Chemist John R. Matchett remembered: Unpublished internal ATF history, 87, ATF.
“I have never met such a hostile group . . . ”: Vollmer, “Fred E. Inbau: Scientific Crime Detection: Early Efforts in Chicago,” in “August Vollmer: Pioneer in Police Professionalism,” vol. 2, 10–11.
Years later, in another life: AI, Scott Sroka personal collection, June 25, 2011.
Agents and support staff noticed how: “Eliot Ness Tipped Off His Big Raids,” CT, Mar. 1, 1970.
Stanley Slesick, one of the Prohibition agents: Ibid.
“He and the six or seven other people . . . ”: Berardi.
“They have information that you got your job . . . ”: “U.S. Uncovers True Story of Capone’s Rise,” CT, June 14, 1931.
He knew the Mob must be approaching: NPRC, Alexander Jamie; Ness personnel file, ATF.
Leeson would later tell his second wife: AI, Pam Sroka, June 28, 2011.
“Capone’s men would pop up . . . ”: “Member of ‘Untouchables’ Who ‘Broke’ Capone Recalls Exploits,” Los Angeles Times, Oct. 4, 1962.
Chapter 9: How Close It Had Been
Gardner’s college football career: Lars Anderson, Carlisle vs. Army: Jim Thorpe, Dwight Eisenhower, Pop Warner, and the Forgotten Story of Football’s Greatest Battle (New York: Random House, 2007), 19; 158–59; Crawford, 83.
He would later describe Gardner admiringly: ENP/MS.
“You appear in the newspapers . . . ”: NPRC, William Gardner.
“His boss in Indianapolis had . . . ”: NPRC, Lyle Chapman.
“Her greatest wish was not to be known”: “Eliot Ness’ First Wife Quietly Dies,” St. Petersburg Times, Nov. 19, 1994.
He’d sometimes shudder at “how close . . . ”: Fraley, “The Real Eliot Ness.”
By late spring, saloon owners had noticed: Eig, Get Capone, 318; unlabeled newspaper clipping, CT, May 12, 1931; ENP, reel 1.
The Mob stole their cars: “U.S. Uncovers True Story of Capone’s Rise,” CT, June 14, 1931; “Member of ‘Untouchables’ Who ‘Broke’ Capone Recalls Exploits,” Los Angeles Times, Oct. 4, 1962.
“I remember twice Ness and I . . . ”: “Member of ‘Untouchables’ Who ‘Broke’ Capone Recalls Exploits,” Los Angeles Times, Oct. 4, 1962.
One night Eliot caught a junior gangster: “U.S. Uncovers True Story of Capone’s Rise,” CT, June 14, 1931; Robert J. Schoenberg, Mr. Capone (New York: Perennial, 1993), 297–98.
Chapter 10: The Untouchables
Sources for the tax and Volstead cases against Capone include: Bergreen, Capone: The Man and the Era, 430; “U.S. Uncovers True Story of Capone’s Rise,” CT, June 14, 1931; Eig, Get Capone, 318–19, 330; “U.S. Brings ‘Chief Foe’ to Bar Upon Two Charges,” unlabeled newspaper clipping, ENP, reel 1; other unlabeled news clippings and memos, ENP reel 1; ENP/MS; Frank Wilson memo dated Dec. 21, 1933, Internal Revenue Service archives.
Sources for Ness and Untouchables celebrity include::Berardi; Bergreen, Capone: The Man and the Era, 343–44; Bureau Bulletin, June 20, 1931; “8 New U.S. Heroes! They Resisted Capone’s Gold,” CPD, June 15, 1931; “Capone Allies See His Finish and Dispute for Gang Throne,” CT, June 15, 1931; Condon, Cleveland, 236; “Capone’s Power Is Destroyed by Fearless Eight,” unknown date and publication, ENP, reel 1; letters to Eliot Ness and unlabeled news clippings, ENP, reel 1; “Al’s Nemesis Boasts Ph.B.; Finds Humor in Dry Work,” Chicago Herald and Examiner, June 15, 1931; Heimel, Eliot Ness: The Real Story, 16; “Capone Dynasty Falls Under Incessant Hammering of United States Officials,” Lowell Sun, June 17, 1931; Schoenberg, Mr. Capone, 297; “‘Untouchables’ Rewarded,” Washington Evening Star, Washington, June 15, 1931.
They stormed the Lexington: ENP, reel 1.
Eliot would spot dashing Mob associate: “Capone Allies See His Finish and Dispute for Gang Throne,” CT, Nov. 15, 1931; unlabeled newspaper clipping, “Gang Playboy Meets Fate at Football Game,” ENP, reel 1.
Wrote the Tribune: “Capone Allies See His Finish and Dispute for Gang Throne,” CT, June 15, 1931.
“Out: Is Johnny there? . . . ”: ENP, reel 1.
“Well, boys, it looks like . . . ”: newspaper clippings: “Dry Raiders ‘All Wet,’” Chicago Evening American, July 17, 1931; “Dry Flips a Half Dollar; Uncovers $15,000 Rum,” Chicago Evening Post, undated; “Missing ‘Clink’ of Coin Bares Liquor Cache,” unknown publication, ENP, reel 1.
On the night of September 21, 1931: Berardi; ENP, reel 1.
In the weeks that followed, the phone company: “Al Capone’s Gang Taps Phone Wires, Federal Agents Say,” CT, Aug. 12, 1931.
the young leader of the Capone squad: Ness and Fraley, The Untouchables, 135–36.
“From the inception of the organization . . . ”: Bergreen, Capone: The Man and the Era, 411.
The Chicago Daily News wrote that Eliot Ness: unlabeled news clipping, Chicago Daily News, Sept. 23, 1931, ENP, reel 1.
The Outfit was getting hit with a double whammy: “S. Side Bars Lower Beer Price to 15c; first Cut in Dry Era,” CT, Mar. 31, 1932.
On a Sunday in July, truck drivers: “Beer Drivers’ Strike Goes Up in Foam,” CT, July 14, 1932.
Chapter 11: A Real and Lasting Impression
On October 5, 1931, Al Capone: Eig, Get Capone, 343–44.
“That’s the first [time] that Eliot Ness ever saw . . . ”: Berardi.
George Johnson had been nervous enough: Eig, Get Capone, 340–42.
Frank Wilson had broken the code: “Legendary Lawmen, Part 7: Four Who Got Capone,” CT, Jan. 15, 2012.
“Did this Robin Hood buy $8,000 worth . . . ”: Ibid.
“It was a blow to the belt . . .”: Eig, Get Capone, 369.
In June, a machine-gun volley eviscerated: “Machine Gunners Kill ‘Red’ Barker,” CT, June 17, 1932.
Six months later, another potential boss: “Capone Brother, Pals Quizzed on Newberry Death,” CT, Jan. 17, 1933.
“Did you ever think you wanted something . . . ”: Heimel, Eliot Ness: The Real Story, 11.
M. L. Harney, Chicago’s new Prohibition: NPRC, Paul Robsky.
On January 21, with Capone: “Dry Agents Arrest Five in Raid on Capone Brewery,” CT, Jan. 22, 1932; “44 Arraigned After 33 Raids by Dry Squads,” CT, May 29, 1932; unlabeled news clippings, ENP, reel 1.
“The automobile was a Ford coach . . . ”: “Even Beer Trade’s Hard Up; Deliver Now in Small Cars,” Chicago Daily News, Sept. 12, 1932, ENP, reel 1.
So he called Armand Bollaert: “The Real Eliot Ness,” Tucson Citizen, July 17, 1987.
The assignment took Eliot’s “pencil detective” to: NPRC, Lyle Chapman.
Johnson told the press that the Volstead: “New Rum Case Blasts Capone Parole Chance,” CT, Mar. 8, 1932; “U.S. Will Seek New Liquor Indictment for Capone Gang,” CT, Sept. 26, 1932; Eig, Get Capone, 377.
Back in Chicago, Chapman shut himself: NPRC, Lyle Chapman.
In February 1932, according to a personnel memo: NPRC, Bernard Cloonan.
Eliot could never take a bribe—never: AI, Arnold Sagalyn, June 9, 2011.
A month later, Eliot was promoted: Ness personnel file, ATF; “Exposed Capone; Wins Promotion,” CPD, April 25, 1932; “Capone Nemesis Promoted,” New York Times, April 25, 1932.
A few months later, the bureau also booted: NPRC, Paul Robsky, termination letter dated Aug. 9, 1933.
Every dry agent in the city: “Chicago Chiefs of Dry Bureau on Anxious Seat,” CT, Aug. 7, 1933.
“It is most peculiar that . . . ”: NPRC, Albert Wolff.
He called himself “the last . . . ”: People, July 13, 1987.
Chapter 12: It’s Just Tuesday Night
“Crowds were gathered in a few . . . ”: “Prohibition Era Ended! Loop Crowds Hail Repeal,” Chicago Herald and Examiner, Dec. 6, 1933.
Joe Leeson moved over to the Treasury Department’s: “New Agent Was One of First Assigned to Al Capone Probe,” Cincinnati Times-Star, Jan. 12, 1940, Scott Sroka personal collection; NPRC: Bernard Cloonan, William Gardner, Martin Lahart, Joseph Leeson, Paul Robsky.
The unit’s Midwest administrator: Ness personnel file, ATF.
But what he really wanted: “A Brief History of the FBI,” accessed May 4, 2013, fbi.gov/about-us/history/brief-history.
“Dear Mr. Hoover . . . ”: ENP, reel 1.
Eliot thanked Johnson: Ibid.
Even ten years later, with: Borroel, Story of the Untouchables, 70.
Chapter 13: Chasing Moonshine
In late August 1934: James Jessen Badal, In the Wake of the Butcher: Cleveland’s Torso Murders (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2001), 22–28; unlabeled news clipping: CN, Sept. 6, 1934; CPD, Sept. 5–7, 1934; CP, Sept. 5, 1934, ENP reel 2.
He and Edna had moved to Cleveland: Ness personnel file, ATF; “City’s Bootleg Output Tops Legal Liquor,” CN, Jan. 8, 1935.
Sixty-five percent of the population: “Labor: Jobless,” Time, Feb. 24, 1930.
In February 1930, some two thousand men: Ibid.
By the end of the year, a hundred thousand: Badal, In the Wake of the Butcher, 6; Philip W. Porter, Cleveland: Confused City on a Seesaw (Columbus: Ohio State University, 1976), 73–74; John Vacha, Meet Me on Lake Erie, Dearie! Cleveland’s Great Lakes Exposition, 1936–1937 (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2011), 23.
Broke, out-of-work Clevelanders: Vacha, Meet Me on Lake Erie, 1.
“Cleveland’s bootleg output today . . . ”: unlabeled news clippings, CN, Jan. 8–9, 1935, ENP, reel 2.
“He was a very great person”: “Woman ‘Graduates’ From NASA Center,” CPD, Nov. 3, 1966.
George Mulvanity, a Georgetown University: Today show interview with Mulvanity, Feb. 10, 1972.
Eliot “was a real eagle eye”: “Last of Ness Men Leaving Duty Here,” CPD, Jan. 19, 1972.
Bruner crowed to his superiors: unlabeled news clippings, CPD, Oct. 8, 1934; unlabeled clipping, CPD, Mar. 17, 1935, ENP, reel 2.
Years later Mulvavity told his son: AI, Francis Mulvanity, July 7, 2011.
Eliot had been in the building: “Feds Here Smash New $75,000 Still,” CPD, July 11, 1935; “Crashing Ohio’s Greatest Bootleg Hideout,” CPD, Jan. 19, 1936; ENP, reel 2.
Eliot’s charge as chief investigator: “Feds Here Smash New $75,000 Still,” CPD, July 11, 1935; “Crashing Ohio’s Greatest Bootleg Hideout,” CPD, Jan. 19, 1936; “George D. Mulvanity, Last Untouchable,” CPD, Oct. 16, 1976; Ness personnel file, ATF.
Months of interrogations, wiretaps: “Feds Here Smash $75,000 Still,” CPD, July 11, 1935; unlabeled notes and clippings, ENP, reel 2.
One time, after raiding a small distillery: “Gets Into a Bad Sweat,” CPD, Aug. 29, 1935.
Another time, he stopped to chat: “Raiders Nab 3 in ‘Haunted House,’” CPD, Sept. 3, 1935.
As the agents stood smoking: “Crashing Ohio’s Greatest Bootleg Hideout,” CPD, Jan. 19, 1936; ENP, reel 2.
After the agents finished up: “Crashing Ohio’s Greatest Bootleg Hideout,” CPD, Jan. 19, 1936; AI, Francis Mulvanity, July 7, 2011.
Chapter 14: Real Work
The narrative for the day Eliot became safety director and resulting press coverage comes from: “Ness Sworn In as Safety Head,” CN, Dec. 11, 1935; “Police Shakeup Seen in Chief’s Check on Men,” CN, Dec. 14, 1935; Condon, Cleveland, 231; “Police Politics Will End, Is Burton Pledge; Lake Front Action, Is Miller Promise,” CPD, Oct. 29, 1935; “Facts First, Then Talk, Says Ness,” “The Inside of the News in Cleveland,” “Ness Is Nemesis of Crooked Cops,” CPD, Dec. 12, 1935; “Ness Is Seen as City’s New Safety Chief,” CP, Dec. 7, 1935; “Eliot H. Ness Takes Oath as City Safety Director,” “Ness—Safety Director,” CP, Dec. 11, 1935; “The Cleveland Scene,” “The New Safety Director,” CP, Dec. 14, 1935; unlabeled news clippings, ENP, reel 2.
The director oversaw the police, fire: “Fight to Stop Labor Rackets in Cleveland,” CT, Nov. 24, 1937.
The second meeting between the mayor: “Keenan to Decide on City Job Today,” “Keenan’s New Opportunity,” CPD, Nov. 20, 1935.
The mayor himself admitted: “Burton Reports City On Way Up,” CPD, Dec. 13, 1935.
The new mayor, sighed a Plain Dealer: “Keenan Says No,” CPD, Nov. 21, 1935.
For the second week running, midday: “Cleveland on Way to Win Title of ‘The Dark City,’” CP, Dec. 14, 1935.
Under Mayor Harry L. Davis, whose administration: Porter, Cleveland, 87.
Just days after becoming mayor: “Job Slash Reprisals Threaten Burton,” CP, Nov. 15, 1935.
The most recent director, Martin: “Brother Sat Up for Drowned Girl,” “Lavelle Won’t Resign; Coroner Gets Stories of Drinking and Death,” “Many Lies Told, Truth Does Out,” CPD, July 2, 1935; “Puts Raids Up to Chief,” CPD, July 14, 1935.
“Ness would be just the kind of guy . . . ”: Porter, Cleveland, 97.
“He is Eliot Ness . . . ”: “Ness Leads Field for Safety Post,” “‘Untouchable’ Who Spurned Capone’s Bribes Willing to Smash Crime Here,” CP, Dec. 8, 1935, ENP, reel 2.
Colleagues with longtime experience: Arnold Sagalyn, A Promise Fulfilled: The Memoir of Arnold Sagalyn (privately published, 2010), 45.
He was now arresting people simply: “Makes First Arrest Here for Unbroken Used Liquor Bottles,” CPD, Mar. 8, 1935.
“I’ve served under five safety directors . . . ”: “Policy Raid Stops 5 Big-Time Games,” CPD, Jan. 7, 1938.
He drew “doodlegrams”: “Eliot Ness: The Cosmopolite of the Month,” Cosmopolitan, Aug. 1940, ENP, reel 2.
Vollmer background information comes from: Ken Alder, The Lie Detectors: The History of an American Obsession (New York: Free Press, 2007), xiii, 19, 66, 72; “Police: Finest of the Finest,” Time, Feb. 18, 1966; August Vollmer, The Police and Modern Society (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1936), 118.
Sitting down to his typewriter: August Vollmer Papers, box 44, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, letter dated Dec. 16, 1935.
During that first full day on the job: Newspaper clippings (CN, Dec. 14, 1935; CPD, Dec. 15, 1935), ENP, reel 2.
The next night, determined to prove: “Ness Turns Raiders on Night Tour,” CPD, Dec. 14, 1935; “Crimefighter With a Passion,” CPD, Oct. 4, 1998; “First ‘Bookie Raid’ by Ness is Fizzle,” “Ness Quits Game of Cops and Robbers,” “Police Shakeup Seen in Chief’s Check on Men,” CN, Dec. 14, 1935; unlabeled news clippings, ENP, reel 2.
A sergeant loaned him a gun: ATF.
But Eliot, undaunted, told the mayor: Porter, Cleveland, 97.
He wrote to Vollmer: August Vollmer Papers, box 24, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, letter dated Jan. 4, 1936.
Chapter 15: Tough Babies
The narrative for the Harvard raid is constructed from: Condon, Cleveland, 233–34; “Cullitan, Ness Shut Harvard Club; Gamblers Block Raiders 6 Hours,” “You Can’t Do That to Us, ‘Boys’ Cry,” “‘Let’s Go,’ Ness Says, as He Shows His G-Man Training,” “Prosecutor’s Sudden Attack Also Closes Thomas Club Layout,” “Sheriff Refuses to Raid; Ness Does It as Citizen,” CPD, Jan. 11, 1936; “Ness Roasts Sulzmann’s Denial of Aid,” CPD, Jan. 14, 1936; “Calls Sum Portion of Week’s Cut,” CPD, Mar. 1, 1936, ENP, reel 2; “Refused Aid As He Faced Guns,” CP, Jan. 11, 1936; memorandum for the director, “Re: Police Corruption in Cleveland, Ohio,” May 12, 1936, “FBI Records: The Vault,” accessed May 4, 2013, vault.fbi.gov/Eliot%20Ness; Jedick, “Eliot Ness.”
“Long before there was a Las Vegas . . . ”: Condon, “The Last American Hero.”
The police found Fergus buried: “Whatever Happened to the Gambling Palaces of the Great Depression?” CPD, Nov. 27, 1977.
The Harvard Club boasted some eighteen: “Cullitan, Ness Shut Harvard Club; Gamblers Block Raiders 6 Hours,” CPD, Jan. 11, 1936.
Forty years later, one member would recall: “Whatever Happened to the Gambling Palaces of the Great Depression?” CPD, Nov. 27, 1977.
“They may wear all the shorts . . . ”: “Ness Stamps Women’s Shorts O.K. for Street,” CN, July 10, 1936.
“Eliot Ness last night showed . . .”: “‘Let’s Go,’ Ness Says, as He Shows His G-Man Training,” CPD, Jan. 11, 1936.
“It was a highly credible thing . . . ”: unlabeled news clippings, CN, Jan. 11, 1936 and CP, Jan. 11, 1936, ENP, reel 2.
“About the time we got there . . . ”: “Crimefighter with a Passion,” CPD, Oct. 4, 1998.
Flynn “found six deputies . . . ”: Condon, Cleveland, 236; “Ness Roasts Sulzmann’s Denial of Aid,” CPD, Jan. 14, 1936.
“In any city where corruption continues . . . ”: Ibid.
He told Lieutenant Michael Blackwell: “Officer, Noted for Valor, Wins Promotion Chance,” CP, April 30, 1936; ENP, reel 2.
“The excitement generated in these raids . . . ”: Sagalyn, A Promise Fulfilled, 48–49.
The police moved out every girl: Memorandum for the director, “Re: Police Corruption in Cleveland, Ohio,” May 12, 1936, “FBI Records: The Vault,” accessed May 4, 2013, vault.fbi.gov/Eliot%20Ness.
A local manufacturer of negligees: ENP, reel 2, undated letter to Ness.
The Plain Dealer exulted that: “Harassing Gamblers,” CPD, Mar. 9, 1936; Letter to the editor, CPD, July 26, 1936.
Even the Harvard Club was up and running: “Held in Canada in $6,800 Shortage,” CPD, Aug. 26, 1936; “Marshall Out, So No Raid on Harvard Club,” CPD, Sept. 1, 1936; unlabeled news clippings, ENP, reel 2.
Chapter 16: This Guy Ness Is Crazy
Cleveland “was well on its way . . . ”: “Cleveland on Way to Win Title of ‘The Dark City,’” CP, Dec. 14, 1935.
In the early morning blackness: Badal, In the Wake of the Butcher, 49–52.
The city’s smallest paper: Badal, In the Wake of the Butcher, 52–53.
Four months before, in September 1935: Ibid., 30–32, 37.
Dudley McDowell, a security officer: Ibid., 35–39.
He declared that the traffic: “Traffic ‘Siberia’ Displeases Ness,” CPD, Dec. 14, 1935, ENP, reel 2.
He declared that when they weren’t fighting: Sagalyn, A Promise Fulfilled, 46.
“People resent change”: “Ness Hopes to Place Fire Department in No. 1 Spot With Newest Experiment,” CN, Nov. 14, 1936.
Throughout the winter and spring: Martin L. Davey Papers, box 1, folder 55, Kent State University Special Collections and Archives.
“If people have been accustomed to . . . ”: Jedick, “Eliot Ness.”
The Press ran a series of photos: “A Ness Grip Beats the Trigger!” CP, April 30, 1936, ENP, reel 2, unlabeled news clipping.
“You have a badge just like mine . . . ”: unlabeled news clipping, CN, April 4, 1936, ENP, reel 2.
At about the same time, an unshaven man: “Says He’s Ness, Held,” CPD, May 28, 1936.
Chapter 17: The Boy Wonder
The Ness, Cullitan, and McGill meeting is detailed in: Neil W. McGill and William H, Perry, Court Cases of Eliot Ness: An Exciting True Story in the Life of Eliot Ness Told by the Cleveland Prosecutor Who Worked with Him (Fullerton, CA: Sultana Press, 1971), 23–25.
The team became known around: Porter, Cleveland, 98.
Flynn told the city’s financial officers: “Flynn to Have Investigator Check Police,” CPD, Dec. 29, 1935.
“No fox hound ever hit the trail . . . ”: McGill and Perry, Court Cases of Eliot Ness, 25.
“Time meant nothing to him . . . ” : “Ness Recalled as Quiet Enforcer,” CPD, April 30, 1960.
“We have no place for traitors . . . ”: “What They Are Saying,” CPD, Feb. 7, 1937.
Then the safety director himself scored: unlabeled news clippings, ENP, reel 2.
Chapter 18: Right to the Heart of Things
When Clayton Fritchey arrived at his desk: “Cleveland Versus the Crooks,” Reader’s Digest, Feb. 1939, 48–51.
He’d grown up in Baltimore: “Clayton Fritchey, Columnist and Adviser to Democrats, Dies,” Washington Post, Jan. 24, 2001.
The lumbering cop, weighing in: “Cadek Is Cop Who Saved $109,000,” “Grand Jury Hears 9 in Police Case,” CPD, April 14, 1936.
“Clayton was the best investigative reporter . . . ”: AI, Arnold Sagalyn, June 9, 2011.
His attorney, Gerard J. Pilliod: “Cadek Stand Challenges Ness’ Power,” CPD, April 15, 1936.
Some said they had paid him: “Grand Jury Hears 9 in Police Case,” CPD, April 14, 1936.
“The gang told me to tell him . . . ”: “Lawyer Ordered Out in Cadek Quiz,” CPD, April 16, 1936.
“Two and two make four . . . ”: “Court Is Told Cadek Wished For Car; Got 2,” CPD, May 22, 1936.
Other former bootleggers told of: “6 Policemen Back Cadek On Defense,” CPD, May 26, 1936; “Cadek Silent as Bribe Case Goes to Jury,” CP, May 26, 1936.
“A good guy always gets kicked . . . ”: “Cadek Guilty of Bribery, Is Jailed,” “Cadek Guilty,” CPD, May 27, 1936; “Conviction Sours Cadek Stomach,” CPD, May 28, 1936; “Capt. Cadek Gets 2 to 20 Years in Pen,” CP, May 29, 1936.
Chapter 19: Victim No. 4
A little after midnight: Badal, In the Wake of the Butcher, 63–64; news clipping, CN, June 7, 1936, various unlabeled news clippings, ENP, reel 2; AI, Arnold Sagalyn, May 22, 2011.
Chapter 20: The Original Mystery Man
In the first sign that the economy: Vacha, Meet Me on Lake Erie, 5–6, 9–10, 75.
Scheduled to open on June 27: “Steel Drama to Flare for Expo Throngs,” CPD, June 1, 1936.
“The pressure has been so great . . . ”: Vacha, Meet Me on Lake Erie, 131–35.
At the Expo’s revival: Vacha, Meet Me on Lake Erie, 170.
“The enormous statues . . . ”: unlabeled news clipping, Cleveland Museum of Art, Elisabeth Seaver file.
Her signature work for Cowan: Mark Bassett and Victoria Naumann, Cowan Pottery and the Cleveland School (Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 1997), 117.
Her success became a source: AI, Rebecca McFarland, May 19, 2011.
Elisabeth nevertheless graduated to: “Alexander Blazy and Some of Former Students Exhibiting at Ruth Coulter’s,” CPD, Oct. 27, 1935.
Hugh didn’t like it: Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, Hugh D. Seaver v. Betty A. Seaver, no. 557135.
That’s a very attractive man: AI, Franny Taft, July 1, 2011.
Officers manning the stall: Memo dated Dec. 22, 1937, to Sgt. E. G. Frankfather, CPHS.
Eliot also prominently displayed: Badal, In the Wake of the Butcher, 66.
“Vehovec has made a mountain . . . ”: “Vehovec Snips and Harwood Snaps Him Up,” CPD, June 1, 1936.
In a report, Eliot would call: Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, State of Ohio v. Michael J. Harwood, no. 46553.
He’d later tell an associate: “Says He Saw Capt. Harwood in Bet Joint,” CPD, July 2, 1936.
“Didn’t Harwood telephone you . . . ”: “Ness Raids, then Yanks Harwood,” CPD, June 7, 1936.
“You were a damn fool . . . ”: “Says He Saw Capt. Harwood in Bet Joint,” CPD, July 2, 1936.
Early in July, Tom Clothey and: “The Inside of the News in Cleveland,” CPD, July 26, 1936.
On Monday evening, while some: “‘Misjudged,’ Says Capt. Facing Probe,” CPD, July 31, 1936; unlabeled news clippings, CPD, July 22–23, 1936, ENP, reel 2.
The safety director kept the pressure: “Charge Harwood Aided in Bootleg Competition,” CP, Oct. 7, 1936; “‘DP’ in Gambler’ Books Is Mystery,” CPD, July 24, 1936; “Police Get 56 in 2 Gambling Raids,” CPD, July 25, 1936; “Raid Like Rookies, Police Are Told,” CPD, Jan. 10, 1937.
Late in the summer, Eliot disappeared: Condon, “The Last American Hero;” “Jurors Hear Evidence of Police Graft,”CP, Oct. 8, 1936.
In August and September, Eliot quietly left: Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, no. 46553; “G-Men Capture Key Witnesses,” CP, Oct. 14–15, 1936; “Ness Air Trip Nets Witness in Burns Case,” CPD, Mar. 4, 1937.
When Eliot heard that patrolmen: “Ness Hits at Undercover Foes in 15th,” CPD, Sept. 2, 1936.
“My investigation shows that . . . ”: Ibid.
With the press cheering him on: “Bravo, Eliot Ness!” CPD, Sept. 2, 1936; Porter, Cleveland, 98.
At city hall functions, suburban: Condon, Cleveland, 237.
Chapter 21: The Sadistic Type
On the morning of September 10: Badal, In the Wake of the Butcher, 75–85; “Sixth Hacked Body Found in Kingsbury Run,” CP, Sept. 10, 1936; “Fear Hangs over Kingsbury Run Where Butcher Leaves His Dead,” CP, Sept. 11, 1936; “Clean Out Haunts of Mad Killer,” CP, Sept. 12, 1936; Martin, Butcher’s Dozen and Other Murders, 60–62.
“The killer is apparently a sex maniac . . . ”: Badal, In the Wake of the Butcher, 79.
The better reason for his reluctance: AI, James Jessen Badal, June 12, 2011.
The Plain Dealer called the killer: “Calls Torso Killer New Insane Type,” CPD, Sept. 16, 1936.
The News wrote, “Of all horrible . . . ”: Badal, In the Wake of the Butcher, 92.
The safety director was known for his soft touch: AI, James Jessen Badal, June 12, 2011; Badal, In the Wake of the Butcher, 156; unlabeled news clippings, CPHS.
He felt he was being called to account: AI, James Jessen Badal, June 12, 2011.
“You can’t bring up Eliot Ness . . . ”: Badal, In the Wake of the Butcher, 89.
In one report, he wrote: “I am of the opinion . . . ”: Cleveland Police Department report on torso murder investigation, dated Mar. 15, 1943, CPHS.
Merylo’s theories about the killer: Badal, In the Wake of the Butcher, ix.
A bartender at a grimy dive told of: “Butcher’s Dozen: The Cleveland Torso Murders,” Harper’s, Nov. 1949.
Perhaps it was someone who reached “sexual . . . ”: Cleveland Police Department report on torso murder investigation, dated Mar. 15, 1943, CPHS.
Merylo would write in an unpublished: Badal, In the Wake of the Butcher, 96.
“All is infinite Mind: . . . ”: Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures (Boston: First Church of Christ, Scientist, 1994), 468.
The indictments charged that during Prohibition: “Harwood, Burns, 6 Others Indicted for Police Graft,” CP, Oct. 29, 1936; “Seven Police Deny Guilt in Graft Charge,” CP, Oct. 30, 1936.
Reporters rushed to Harwood’s home: “7 Policemen Deny Ness Had Cause to Take Them Off Duty,” “20 Policemen Hit by Ness Graft Report,” CPD, Oct. 6, 1936.
Just as with the Cadek trial, the bootleggers: Sources for the Harwood trial and its press coverage include: “Tell of Price Harwood Set on Protection,” CP, Dec. 9, 1936; “Relates Midnight Raid by Harwood,” “Testimony Heard in Harwood Case,” CPD, Dec. 10, 1936; “No Payoff, Cites Raid by Captain,” CPD, Dec. 11, 1936; “Captain Ends Defense with Bribe Denial,” CPD, Dec. 15, 1936; “Harwood Jury Deliberates Again Today,” CPD, Dec. 16, 1936; “Guilty Pleas Offer Hinted in Bribery,” “Victorious Safety Director; Aid Who Is Out,” CPD, Dec. 17, 1936; “The Inside of the News in Cleveland,” CPD, Dec. 20, 1936; “Says Harwood Pocketed $50,” CP, Dec. 10, 1936; “Says Harwood Encouraged Bootlegging after Repeal,” CP, Dec. 11, 1936; “Harwood Sobs as Prosecutor Denounces Him,” CP, Dec. 15, 1936; “Police Captain Convicted on Six Counts Charging He Took Graft from Bootleggers in Collinwood,” CP, Dec. 16, 1936; “Crime Buster Ness Shares Trial Spotlight,” CN, Oct. 2, 1940; Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, State of Ohio v. Michael J. Harwood, no. 46553; Heimel, Eliot Ness: The Real Story, 142.
Without informing his lawyer, the newly: “Women Used in Trap to Lure Witnesses,” CP, Oct. 12, 1937; ENP, reel 2, unlabeled news clippings.
As the jury filed out of the room: “Jury Finds Burns Guilty of Bribery,” “No Hard Feelings, Burns Tells Ness at Trial End,” CPD, Mar. 11, 1937.
Neil McGill prided himself: McGill and Perry, Court Cases of Eliot Ness, 27–28.
The second time around, Eliot brought: news clipping, CPD, May 26, 1937, ENP, reel 2.
Flynn admitted privately to a friend: news clipping, CPD, Dec. 17, 1936, ENP, reel 2.
When Eliot returned to the office: “Flynn Overruled On Police Choice,” CPD, Aug. 4, 1936.
In just a few short months in the job: “Three Out,” CPD, July 31, 1936; “Victorious Safety Director; Aid Who Is Out,” CPD, Dec. 17, 1936.
Reporters surrounded him: magazine clipping, Investigator, May 1988, ATF.
When he began to gear up: Container 383, Notes folder, HHB.
Eliot, though he had never been involved: “Slogan,” CPD, Oct. 14, 1937.
With Burton safely ensconced in office: “The Inside of the News in Cleveland,” CPD, Nov. 28, 1937.
“By now the entire department knew . . . ”: Porter, Cleveland, 99.
Even the Ohio Supreme Court, after rejecting: Condon, “The Last American Hero;” “Ness’ Cases Win Weygandt Praise,” CPD, Feb. 19, 1938.
When the judge read the verdict: “Stotts Wins Acquittal in Bribe Trial,” CPD, May 6, 1938.
Chapter 22: Social Workers
“Please remember,” he told: “Calls Sum Portion of Week’s Cut,” CPD, Mar. 1, 1936; “Talk Up and Oust Gangs, Says Ness,” CPD, Feb. 5, 1937.
Eliot would rent a fleet: “Stotts Wins Acquittal in Bribe Trial,” CPD, May 6, 1938.
Each patrol car would be equipped: Unlabeled radio contract, CPHS.
Thirty-two new cars, Eliot announced: Ness, Eliot, “Radio-Directed Mobile Police,” American City, Nov. 1939.
He thought policemen should be intimately: Alder, Lie Detectors, 21.
As an experiment, he sent: “Cleveland Woos Its Young Gangs into Clubhouses,” CT, July 21, 1939.
“The leader is 24 years old . . . ”: Container 372, folder 1937–1942, subfolder Youth, Statement for Rotary International Convention, June 22, 1938, HHB.
“They meet in a pool room . . . ”: Ibid.
He cornered gang members: “Cleveland Woos Its Young Gangs into Clubhouses,” CT, July 21, 1939; container 372, folder 1937–1942, subfolder Youth, Statement for Rotary International Convention, June 22, 1938, HHB.
A tough kid from the Flats: “Nab Filkowski, 5 Others in Break,” CPD, Dec. 8, 1936.
Eliot, the scientific policeman: unlabeled news clipping, CPD, Mar. 3, 1932, ENP, reel 2; container 372, folder 1937–1942, subfolder Youth, Statement for Rotary International Convention, June 22, 1938, HHB.
“He had an instinct about children . . . ”: “My Husband, Eliot Ness,” TV Guide, May 11, 1961.
Vollmer had kept a city map: Alder, Lie Detectors, 21.
He established an accident-prevention: “Traffic Death Toll Slashed over America,” Cumberland Evening Times, Dec. 30, 1938; unlabeled news clippings and memos, ENP, reel 2.
“At the end of the month or at a designated . . . ”: “Contemplated Division of Territory for Policing the City of Cleveland/Reorganization Police Department,” by Eliot Ness, 1938, CPHS; “Supplementary Order Relating to the General Duties of Patrol Car Crews/Reorganization Police Department,” 1938, CPHS.
Philip Porter wrote that: Porter, Cleveland, 95.
“He was not too opinionated . . . ”: “Ness Recalled as Quiet Enforcer,” CPD, April 30, 1960.
An internal history of the: Untitled department history, CPHS.
Just eighteen months after: “Crime in Cleveland: The Law Finally Catches Up With Labor Racketeers,” Newsweek, Mar. 21, 1938.
Chapter 23: The Virtues of Courage
On a piercing June day in 1937: Something About the Author: Autobiography Series, vol. 1, 226.
“She wasn’t beautiful . . . ”: AI, Ann Durell, June 2, 2011.
Evaline had bought a train ticket: Something About the Author: Autobiography Series, vol. 1, 226–27; AI, Ann Durell, June 2, 2011.
She had long suspected: AI, Maxine Huntington, Sept. 5, 2011.
The job communicated something: AI, Arnold Sagalyn, June 9, 2011.
Eliot’s dedication to his work: unlabeled news clipping, CP, Dec. 12, 1935, ENP, reel 2.
On good nights, he would stretch out: Tucker, Eliot Ness and the Untouchables, 13.
When Matowitz assigned Eliot a bodyguard: Jedick, “Eliot Ness.”
Eliot’s obsessive commitment: “Ness Goes to Chicago,” CPD, Nov. 8, 1937; unlabeled news clippings, ENP, reel 2, news clippings.
“WHEREAS, it is at a mother’s knee . . . ”: ENP, reel 2.
Chapter 24: Gun, Blackjack, and Brass Knuckles
“In the old days, it was nothing . . . ”: “The Inside of the News in Cleveland,” CPD, Jan. 31, 1937.
he had turned his staff’s attention: David Cowles oral history, Sept. 6, 1983, CPHS; “Obtain Extortion Confession,” CPD, Jan. 19, 1938; McGill and Perry, Court Cases of Eliot Ness, 49–51; AI, Arnold Sagalyn, May 22, 2011.
“We had never heard of . . . ”: “Herman Pirchner,” CPD, Dec. 4, 1983.
George Mulvanity, still over at: AI, Francis Mulvanity, July 7, 2011.
The gangster Angelo Lonardo: Lonardo.
The most basic policy game: McGill and Perry, Court Cases of Eliot Ness, 30.
Policy and clearing house had started: “Grand Jury Acts Today on ‘Policy,’” “Hill Mob Bullets Won Policy War,” CPD, April 26, 1939; “Indict 23 of Mayfield Mob in Policy Extortion Racket,” “Policy Conquered with Guns, Force,” “Records of Mayfield Mob Indicted in Policy Probe,” CP, April 26, 1939.
Jacob Collins, a thirty-one-year-old: “Testimony Links Sciria to Policy,” CPD, Nov. 3, 1938.
The Press labeled them: “Indict 23 of Mayfield Mob in Policy Extortion Racket,” “Angelo Sciria Beat Killing ‘Rap,’” CP, April 26, 1939.
“Killings were followed by retaliatory . . . ”: McGill and Perry, Court Cases of Eliot Ness, 20.
The “thick-necked, thick-fingered . . . ”: “Policy Conquered with Guns, Force,” “Angelo Sciria Beat Killing ‘Rap,’” CP, April 26, 1939.
The men conducting the initiation: Lonardo.
By the early 1930s, in fact: Ibid.
“It is debatable whether gambling . . . ”: Condon, Cleveland, 236; “Choke Crime by Its Purse, Ness Urges,” CPD, Jan. 23, 1936.
“Two hundred thousand dollars . . . ”: “Calls Sum Portion of Week’s Cut,” CPD, Mar. 1, 1936.
“The mild, unorganized and personal . . . ”: “Dice at Clubs Are Loaded, Ness Says,” CPD, Oct. 4, 1940.
“He got information from informers”: “Ness Recalled as Quiet Enforcer,” CPD, April 30, 1960.
In one interview session: “Admits Mistaking Lawyer for Birns,” CPD, Aug. 6, 1942; “State Ready to Bring Gang History Up to Recent Days,” CPD, Dec. 8, 1949.
Birns cultivated a pleasant, roguish: news clipping, CN, Feb. 12, 1937, ENP, reel 2.
Eliot decided to harass Birns: “Shondor Birns, in Jail, Sings Blues,” CPD, Feb. 11, 1937.
On January 6, 1938, police took over: “Policy Raid Stops 5 Big-time Games,” CPD, Jan. 7, 1938.
“Cleveland situation very critical”: Ibid.
“To the Editor of the Press . . . ”: “To the Editor of the Press,” CP, May 23, 1937, ENP, reel 2.
He snipped Pony Boy’s letter: Ibid.
Chapter 25: Against Racketeers
Back in September 1936: “Cullitan Pledges Study of ‘Racket,’” CPD, Sept. 3, 1936.
Eliot had met Campbell: “Testifies of Added ‘Gift’ to Campbell,” CPD, Feb. 19, 1938.
“Being union officials gives . . . ”: McGill and Perry, Court Cases of Eliot Ness, 32–33.
He believed Campbell, McDonnell: “Convict Labor Racketeers of Extortion Plot,” CT, Mar. 9, 1938.
Over several months, the safety director and: “Jury Will Sift Labor Rackets in Cleveland, O.,” CT, Nov. 18, 1937.
“These people had us just where . . . ”: “Fight to Stop Labor Rackets in Cleveland,” CT, Nov. 24, 1937.
A critic once described Arthur: Grann, 15.
Campbell snarled, “Go to hell . . . ”: “Four Union Chiefs Indicted in Racket,” New York Times, Dec. 21, 1937.
“When I approached them . . . ”: “Jury Will Sift Labor Rackets in Cleveland, O.,” CT, Nov. 18, 1937.
On December 1, 1937, McGee stood: “Ness Bluffs, M’Gee Tells Federation,” CPD, Dec. 2, 1937.
Workers had violently struck: “Ness Sets Steel ‘Peace Areas,’” CP, July 27, 1937; “40 Hurt in New Strike Riot,” CT, July 27, 1937; “One Dead, 40 Hurt in Strike Battles at Cleveland Mill,” New York Times, July 27, 1937; “Police Bring Peace to Steel Area,” CPD, July 28, 1937; see also “The Little Steel Strike of 1937,” by Donald Gene Sofchalk, PhD dissertation, 1961, Ohio State University.
When asked about the charge: Condon, “The Last American Hero.”
Campbell and McGee came to trial: “Convict Labor Racketeers of Extortion Plot,” CT, Mar. 9, 1938; “Four Union Chiefs Indicted in Racket,” New York Times, Dec. 21, 1937.
Vernon Stouffer dominated: “Fail to Keep Ness Out of Racket Trial,” CPD, Feb. 18, 1938.
Cutting off requests for bail: “M’Gee-Campbell Parade Ends in Pen,” CPD, Mar. 9, 1938; “Claims Chicago Money Donated to Bribe Juror,” CT, Mar. 10, 1938.
“I was one of the spectators . . . ”: ENP, reel 2.
“Campbell and McGee asked for it”: “M’Gee-Campbell Parade Ends in Pen,” CPD, Mar. 9, 1938.
Newsweek wrote that Eliot had: “Crime in Cleveland: The Law Finally Catches Up With Labor Racketeers,” Newsweek, Mar. 21, 1938.
Cosmopolitan, then a literary: “Eliot Ness: The Cosmopolite of the Month,” Cosmopolitan, Aug. 1940; ENP, reel 2.
Reader’s Digest noted that Eliot: “Cleveland Versus the Crooks,” Reader’s Digest, Feb. 1939, 51.
Chapter 26: The Doctor
The story of Ness and his team zeroing in on Dr. Sweeney as a suspect and interrogating him is derived from: AI, James Jessen Badal, June 12, 2011; Alder, Lie Detectors, 82, 109; In the Wake of the Butcher, Badal, 128; 214, 218–20; David Cowles oral history, Sept. 6, 1983, CPHS; AI, Arnold Sagalyn, May 22, 2011; Sagalyn, A Promise Fulfilled, 50.
Even though the campaign season: Badal, In the Wake of the Butcher, 93.
Eliot figured that he and his Unknowns: AI, James Jessen Badal, June 12, 2011.
One example: in September 1935: Badal, In the Wake of the Butcher, 36.
“We played on him for a long time”: Cowles refused to use Sweeney’s name when discussing the interrogation, but there was no mistaking who he was talking about. AI, James Jessen Badal, June 12, 2011; David Cowles oral history, Sept. 6, 1983, CPHS.
After releasing Dr. Sweeney back: AI, Maxine Huntington, Sept. 5, 2011; Pinellas County, Fl., Divorce Index, vol. 139, no. 5771, 1939; “Eliot Ness’ First Wife Quietly Dies,” St. Petersburg Times, Nov. 19, 1994.
He even considered stepping down: Jedick, “Eliot Ness.”
“The director says he’ll do this . . . ”: “Ness Fires Word Barrage at Young,” “Ness to Reassign All Police in City,” CPD, Sept. 20, 1938.
He’d been seen at a nightclub: “Remembering Eliot Ness,” CPD, Feb. 21, 2000; AI, Arnold Sagalyn, June 9, 2011.
“Don’t let ’em get your goat”: Caption for photo of Ness and Chamberlin, CPD, Sept. 26, 1938.
He hadn’t been removed: “Ness and Young Hurl Charges,” CP, Sept. 19, 1938.
“We have sort of agreed . . . ”: “Nesses Separated, Divorce Is Planned,” CP, Sept. 20, 1938; Condon, “The Last American Hero.”
word began to leak out: “Capone Reported as Mentally Ill,” CPD, Feb. 9, 1938.
“I was looking for a big fellow”: “A Bad End for a Good Guy,” CPD, Sept. 7, 1997.
Eliot began showing up: “Behind-the-Scenes Campaigner,” CN, Sept. 18, 1947; CIA Scrapbook, vol. 14, p. 98, Cleveland Institute of Art; AI, Joe Kisvardai, June 24, 2011.
One night he took Betty Seaver: Undated fundraising pamphlet, Cleveland Museum of Art, Elisabeth Seaver file.
“Women were attracted to him”: Porter, Cleveland, 102.
He would tell a secretary or: Bergreen, Capone: The Man and the Era, 598.
“Few people really knew him”: “An Image Retouched,” CPD, June 16, 1966.
“He was handsome and charming . . . ”: “A Bad End for a Good Guy,” CPD, Sept. 7, 1997.
One woman confided to a friend: Porter, Cleveland, 102.
He never called for a date: AI, Rebecca McFarland, May 19, 2011.
Chapter 27: An Unwelcome Surprise
When Eliot Ness left her: Something About the Author: Autobiography Series, vol. 1, 226; AI, Steve Resnick, June 5, 2011.
Her father, Albert Michelow: Something About the Author: Autobiography Series, vol. 1, 223–31.
Newsweek magazine had accidentally: “Benes for Ness,” Newsweek, Mar. 28, 1938.
Day after day an investigator fell in behind: AI, Arnold Sagalyn, May 22, 2011; Sagalyn, A Promise Fulfilled, 50–51.
One rookie investigator: AI, Arnold Sagalyn, May 22, 2011.
Police soon found more remains: Badal, In the Wake of the Butcher, 135–36, 142.
The corpse may have been stolen: AI, James Jessen Badal, June 12, 2011.
Two days later, in the dead of night: Badal, In the Wake of the Butcher, 146–48; “Torso Killer Hunt Centers Near Market,” “Derelicts Worry as City Plans to Burn Shantytown,” CP, Aug. 8, 1938; unlabeled news clipping, CPHS; news clipping, CN, Aug. 19, 1938, ENP, reel 2; Steven Nickel, Torso: Eliot Ness and the Hunt for the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run: A True Story (New York: Avon, 1990), 142–43.
The killer needed Kingsbury Run’s: unlabeled CN news clippings, ENP, reel 2; “Butcher’s Dozen: The Cleveland Torso Murders,” Harper’s, Nov. 1949.
The paper, slapping him for: Nickel, Torso, 145.
On Monday, August 22, Eliot: ENP, reel 2, unlabeled news clippings; Nickel, Torso, 148.
With the Kingsbury Run shantytowns destroyed: AI, James Jessen Badal, June 12, 2011.
Chapter 28: Full of Love
A low-boil dissatisfaction roiled: AI, Ann Durell, June 2, 2011; AI, Marni Greenberg, June 7, 2011; AI, Steve Resnick, June 5, 2011.
She struggled to keep her composure: Jedick, “Eliot Ness.”
“Cleveland wasn’t New York . . . ”: Something About the Author: Autobiography Series, vol. 1, 227. Also: “Crime Buster Ness Shares Trial Spotlight,” CN, Oct. 2, 1940.
“Eliot was a gay, convivial soul . . . ”: Porter, Cleveland, 102.
“That may have been the best . . . ”: Jedick, “Eliot Ness.”
When the Terrace Room’s bandleader: “Robberts and White Make Alpine’s New Show Lively, Ernie Taylor Clicks Again,” CPD, July 7, 1940.
Eliot would run into men: Ted Schwarz. Cleveland Curiosities: Eliot Ness & His Blundering Raid, a Busker’s Promise, the Richest Heiress Who Never Lived, and More (Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2010), 9–11.
Now and again, one of the tough boys: AI, Joe Kisvardai, relating stories Edris Eckhardt had told him, June 24, 2011.
“He never really talked much . . . ”: Jedick, “Eliot Ness.”
They both selected “single”: ATF.
Two weeks later, when word finally: news clippings, University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center, Harold Swift Papers, box 156, folder 7.
On July 31, the nationwide strike had turned: “Gas and Clubs Fell 100 in Auto Strike,” Daily Mirror, ENP, reel 2; “46 Hurt as Pickets of Auto Union Fight Cleveland Police,” New York Times, Aug. 1, 1939.
In a report to the guard’s adjutant general: Ohio Historical Society, FEIN 314389673.
Cleveland’s newspapers reported: “Eliot Ness Weds Fashion Artist,” CN, Oct. 26, 1939.
One Greenup booster boasted: ENP, reel 2.
“I’m lucky in my profession . . . ”: unlabeled newspaper clipping, University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center, Harold Swift Papers, box 156, folder 7.
“Evaline may have already been . . . ”: Condon, “The Last American Hero,” 139.
One said “Evaline liked being . . . ”: Heimel, Eliot Ness: The Real Story, 165.
Ann Durell, who became her editor: Letter from Durell to Beulah Campbell, April 22, 1965, box 24, folder 2, Lloyd Alexander Papers, 1941–95, Free Library of Philadelphia, Children’s Literature Research Collection.
Years later, she described her relationship: AI, Steve Resnick, June 5, 2011.
“She was an interesting, generous . . . ”: AI, Marni Greenberg, June 7, 2011.
He bought her a new car: Jedick, “Eliot Ness.”
Since they were right on the water: news clipping, CPD, July 7, 1940; ENP, reel 2; “Galley Gossip,” CPD, Sept. 29, 1940.
He bought her a Mary Cassatt art: AI, Marni Greenberg, June 7, 2011.
The Plain Dealer listed “Sunning” among: “Powerful Oils Section Rivals May Show’s Best in 27 Years,” CPD, May 6, 1942.
“I floundered, all sense . . . ”: Something About the Author: Autobiography Series, vol. 1, 227.
“Eliot was a very social person . . . ”: Sagalyn, A Promise Fulfilled, 54–55, 58–59.
“He was a party man . . . ”: “A Bad End for a Good Guy,” CPD, Sept. 7, 1997.
She ended up with nasty burns: “Burned Cooking Dinner,” CPD, May 22, 1941.
He had reached the final, inevitable stage: AI, Marni Greenberg, June 7, 2011; AI, Arnold Sagalyn, June 9, 2011; Bergreen, Capone: The Man and the Era, 599; undated memo, ENP, reel 2.
“Eliot had pulled that stunt . . . ”: Heimel, Eliot Ness: The Real Story, 157.
“When the party was nearing . . . ”: Bergreen, Capone: The Man and the Era, 598.
And there was always the thrill: AI, Rebecca McFarland, May 19, 2011; AI, Steve Resnick, June 5, 2011; AI, Franny Taft, July 1, 2011; Heimel, Eliot Ness: The Real Story, 160.
Making it worse, Eliot often took: AI, Dave Deming, Sept. 7, 2011; AI, Rebecca McFarland, May 19, 2011; “A Bad End for a Good Guy,” CPD, Sept. 7, 1997.
Chapter 29: Clearing House
Captain Michael Blackwell picked: “City Line Ends Policy Chase,” CP, Sept. 17, 1940.
The Mob had to be especially: “Demand 3 on Force Resign in Police Probe of Rackets,” CPD, Mar. 24, 1948.
One of Blackwell’s raids: McGill and Perry, Court Cases of Eliot Ness, 31.
He made several copies: “Grand Jury Acts Today on ‘Policy,’” CPD, April 26, 1939.
“There’ll be killings, if those . . . ”: “Seek Torso Slayer’s Workshop,” CN, Aug. 18, 1938; ENP, reel 2.
On Wednesday, April, 26: “Indict 23 of Mayfield Mob in Policy Extortion Racket,” “Policy Conquered with Guns, Force,” CP, April 26, 1939; “Grand Jury Acts Today on ‘Policy,’” “Hill Mob Bullets Won Policy War,” CPD, April 26, 1939.
The police arrested six of the: “Indict 23 Ohioans in Numbers Game,” “Hoge Expected to Surrender Today,” CPD, April 29, 1939.
He hadn’t gone far when Patrolman: “Prucha, Nemesis of Car Thieves, End 39-Year Career,” CPD, Feb. 4, 1962.
“No member of the Bureau . . . ”: “The Participation of Boys,” Phi Delta Kappan, 339, ENP, reel 2.
Eliot and a professor at Cuyahoga: CPHS.
More significant still, the crime-prevention: “The Participation of Boys,” Phi Delta Kappan, 338–39, ENP, reel 2.
Next Eliot helped start up: Container 372, folder 1937–1942, subfolder Youth, Statement for Rotary International Convention, June 22, 1938, HHB.
A bar owner, Anthony Zappone: : “Demand 3 on Force Resign in Police Probe of Rackets,” CPD, Mar. 24, 1948.
When detectives brought Lonardo: “Nine Still Evade Racket Roundup,” CPD, June 10, 1939.
“Why doesn’t the Press go . . . ”: ENP, reel 2.
Late in 1940, Michael Harwood: “Harwood to Leave Prison Farm Today,” CPD, Nov. 1, 1940.
He arrested Howell Wright: Supreme Court of Ohio: State of Ohio v. Howell Wright, no. 28,227.
“She’s real sharp . . . ”: AI, Marni Greenberg, June 7, 2011; “Ness Asks Jury Marijuana Probe,” CN, May 18, 1939; “12 in Marijuana Ring Sentenced,” CPD, July 6, 1939; McGill and Perry, Court Cases of Eliot Ness, 49, 51.
“During our questioning . . . ”: AI, James Jessen Badal, June 12, 2011; Badal, In the Wake of the Butcher, 231.
Eliot told his investigators: AI, Arnold Sagalyn, June 9, 2011.
“Eliot would tell Frank . . . ”: Jedick, “Eliot Ness.”
Jack Kennon, a longtime Cleveland reporter: news clipping, CPD, Feb. 4, 1941, ENP, reel 2.
Chapter 30: L’Affaire Ness
The car accident and its aftermath are constructed from: Condon, “The Last American Hero;” “Ness Incident Is Now Closed, Lausche Says,” CN, Mar. 9, 1942; “Asks ‘Why’ in Ness Cover-Up,” CP, Mar. 6, 1942; “‘I Had a Few Drinks’—Ness,” CP, Mar. 7, 1942; “Report on Ness Crash Written 60 Hours Late,” CPD, Mar. 6, 1942; “Mayor Gets Story of Ness’ Accident,” CPD, Mar. 8, 1942; unlabeled news clippings, ENP, reel 2, Jedick, “Eliot Ness.”
Six days later, Eliot attempted to: “Ness Asks Triple in Fire Program,” CPD, Mar. 12, 1942.
Prostitution was “just as deep . . . ”: “Probe Police Link in ‘Jitterbug’ Vice,” CPD, April 9, 1942.
With Evaline working long: “Behind-the-Scenes Campaigner,” CN, Sept. 18, 1947.
He had always liked to drive: Fenger Courier, 1920.
When, after a few weeks: undated letter, ENP, reel 2; Jedick, “Eliot Ness.”
Chapter 31: This Is War
He’d been issued a national draft order: “2850 and 441 Top Draft List Here,” CPD, Mar. 18, 1942.
Federal spending for military: William H. Chafe, The Unfinished Journey: America Since World War II, Second Edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), 7.
Still, the government sought out: Ness personnel file, ATF.
The service branches would reject: Eliot Ness, “The National Program of Social Protection,” Public Welfare: The Journal of the American Public Welfare Association, April 1943.
Congress underlined the seriousness: Allan M. Brandt, No Magic Bullet: A Social History of Venereal Disease in the United States Since 1880 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), 166.
He listed Lausche and Burton: Ness personnel file, ATF.
Public Administration Service’s executive director: Ibid.
In her nationally syndicated: unlabeled news clipping, ENP, reel 3, news clippings.
Nearly two weeks later, on April 23: “Celebrezze Leading in Open Safety Job Race,” CPD, April 24, 1942.
“Taking Mr. Ness’s record as whole . . . ”: Condon, “The Last American Hero.”
Under the header “Six Eventful Years”: “Six Eventful Years,” CPD, April 25, 1942.
“Cleveland is a different place than . . . ”: Heimel, Eliot Ness: The Real Story, 169–70.
“Dear Eliot: Now that you are leaving . . . ”: ENP, reel 3.
“Eliot was a great man to work . . . ”: “Veteran Mediator Here Found a Smile the Best Persuasion,” CPD, July 19, 1970.
“Eliot was a wonderful guy . . . ”: AI, Arnold Sagalyn, May 22, 2011.
On July 3, kicking off a series of trials: “10 in Policy Ring, Guilty, to Appeal,” CPD, July 4, 1942; Cuyhoga County Common Pleas Court, State of Ohio v. Angelo Scerria et al., no. 49836.
Williams, who hadn’t seen Birns: “Admits Mistaking Lawyer For Birns,” CPD, Aug. 6, 1942; “Birns Acquitted on Policy Charge,” CPD, Aug. 7, 1942; “State Ready to Bring Gang History Up to Recent Days,” CPD, Dec. 8, 1949; McGill and Perry, Court Cases of Eliot Ness, 42–43.
Birns continued to ply: “Shondor Birns Is Bomb Victim,” CPD, Mar. 30, 1975.
Chapter 32: Girls, Girls, Girls
Evaline was miserable: Something About the Author: Autobiography Series, vol. 1, 229.
“I don’t think he could stand criticism . . . ”: Jedick, “Eliot Ness.”
She needed to scream: AI, Marni Greenberg, June 7, 2011; AI, Steve Resnick, June 5, 2011.
He hired Arnold Sagalyn: Sagalyn, A Promise Fulfilled, 70–71.
“As he had done in Cleveland . . . ”: Ibid.
He was determined that the effort: Ness, “Venereal Disease Control in Defense,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, March 1942.
“Many of them have come from broken . . . ”: Ness personnel file, ATF; Ness, “National Program of Social Protection.”
“Eliot liked that job”: Jedick, “Eliot Ness.”
Washington had become a modern-day: David Brinkley, Washington Goes to War (New York: Ballantine Books, 1996), 107–9, 119.
“I would have said ‘War . . . ’”: Something About the Author: Autobiography Series, vol. 1, 227.
“The uniform,” wrote Vogue: “Civilian Defense: The Ladies!” Time, Jan. 26, 1942.
She couldn’t help herself: AI, Steve Resnick, June 5, 2011.
“Go to art school”: Evaline’s return to art school and artistic awakening are derived from AI, Marni Greenberg, June 7, 2011; “Evaline Ness: the Caldecott Medalist for 1967,” American Artist, June 1967; Evaline Ness official records, Corcoran College of Art and Design, Office of the Registrar; “Evaline Ness’s Centenary,” April 21, 2011, Free Library of Philadelphia blog, libwww.freelibrary.org/blog/index.cfm?postid=1311; Something About the Author: Autobiography Series, vol. 1, 227–28.
Evaline was “extremely attracted . . . ”: AI with longtime friend of Evaline Ness who asked not to be named.
A friend from Cleveland: ENP, reel 3, undated letter, signed “Bruce,” ENP, reel 3.
Evaline got up one morning: AI, Marni Greenberg, June 7, 2011; AI, Steve Resnick, June 5, 2011.
In October 1945, nearly: Condon, Cleveland, 242; “Ness Papers in Divorce Invisible,” CPD, Oct. 19, 1945.
Worse, he was forced to testify: undated news clipping, Eliot Ness file, Cleveland State University Special Collections.
Reporters rushed to the county clerk’s: Condon, Cleveland, 242.
“The mystery of Eliot Ness’s missing . . . ”: “Ness Papers in Divorce Invisible,” CPD, Oct. 19, 1945.
They recalled that Eliot always: Heimel, Eliot Ness: The Real Story, 165; AI, Arnold Sagalyn, June 9, 2011.
Of course, there had been hints: AI, Steve Resnick, June 5, 2011.
Marjorie Mutersbaugh remembered: AI, Rebecca McFarland, May 19, 2011.
And then there was the leggy: Bergreen, Capone: The Man and the Era, 600.
One night, Eliot invited: “A Bad End for a Good Guy,” CPD, Sept. 7, 1997.
“His social habits, which included . . . ”: Condon, Cleveland, 239.
In 1973, Neil McGill, at ninety: Letter from McGill to Edward Winter dated May 8, 1973, Personal Correspondence folder, Edward and Thelma Frazier Winter Papers, manuscript collection no. 4503, WRHS.
“Where could he go . . . ”: AI, Arnold Sagalyn, June 9, 2011.
He would later boast: 1947 mayoral campaign flyer, ENP, reel 3.
His friend Marion Kelly recalled: Condon, “The Last American Hero.”
“The entire female population . . . ”: Betsy Israel, Bachelor Girl: 100 Years of Breaking the Rules: A Social History of Living Single (Perennial, 2003), 165.
“Reich shared the moralist’s . . . ”: Kathleen Tynan, The Life of Kenneth Tynan (New York: William Morrow & Co., 1987), 414.
A snapshot from this period: ENP, reel 3.
Chapter 33: Starting Over
She found herself drawn to: “TV Brings Father Back for Son of Eliot Ness,” CPD, Oct. 17, 1959; “My Husband, Eliot Ness,” TV Guide, May 11, 1961.
Marjorie Mutersbaugh called them: AI, Rebecca McFarland, May 19, 2011.
Hugh and Betty’s divorce became: AI, Rebecca McFarland, May 19, 2011; AI, Franny Taft, July 1, 2011; Cuyhoga County Common Pleas Court, Hugh D. Seaver v. Betty A. Seaver: no. 557135; undated letter to Edris Eckhardt, Joe Kisvardai personal collection.
In 1924, he prevailed upon J. A. Derome: Elisabeth Andersen’s official student file, Cleveland Institute of Art.
Her winning piece for the 1932: library.clevelandart.org/search/search_mayshow.php.
Betty considered herself lucky: Edris Eckhardt interview, Nov. 1972, Joe Kisvardai personal collection.
Chapter 34: Ness Is Necessary
Ness Caravan narrative derived from: “Inside of the News in Cleveland,” CPD, Nov. 26, 1947; news clipping, CPD, Oct. 29, 1947, ENP, reel 3.
The thirty-two-year-old Higgins: Undated letters from personal collection of Winifred Higgins. The collection was purchased by the National Law Enforcement Museum in Washington, DC, in Aug. 2012.
The narrative for the 1947 Cleveland mayoral campaign draws from: AI, James Jessen Badal, June 12, 2011; AI, Rebecca McFarland, May 19, 2011; AI, Arnold Sagalyn, June 9, 2011; Bergreen, Capone: The Man and the Era, 603; Condon, Cleveland, 243; “Inside of the News in Cleveland,” CPD, July 30, 1947; “Ness Will Liven Race for Mayor,” “There Will Be a Contest,” CPD, July 31, 1947; “Porter on Eliot Ness,” CPD, Aug. 2, 1947; “Ness Files in Race For Mayor, Pledges ‘Rebirth’ for City,” CN, Aug. 8, 1947; “Burke Rips Finkle; Police for Me, Ness Says; Pucel Hits Big Money,” CPD, Sept. 23, 1947; “Inside of the News in Cleveland,” CPD, Sept. 24, 1947; “Fire Department Slips, Ness Says,” “Sample Vote Shows Burke Leading Foes,” CPD, Sept. 24, 1947; “Burke and Ness Collide on City’s Housekeeping; Pucel in Price Fight,” CPD, Sept. 26, 1947; “Ness Hits ‘Confusion’; Pucel Drives On with Taft Issue; Burke Sums Up,” CPD, Sept. 27, 1947; “Burke, Ness Named in Cleveland,” New York Times, Oct. 1, 1947; “Burke and Ness Are Nominated,” CPD, Oct. 1, 1947; “Porter on the Elections,” CPD, Oct. 2, 1947; ”The Inside of the News in Cleveland,” Oct. 5, 1947; “Ripon Clubmen Offer Ness Bushels of Tips for Victory,” CPD, Oct. 9, 1947; “Tactics of Desperation,” CPD, Oct. 20, 1947; “Porter on Silly Statements,” CPD, Oct. 27, 1947; “Ness’ 34 City Halls,” CPD, Oct. 28, 1947; “‘False Issues’ Blasted by Burke; Safety Jobs Rigged, Ness Charges,” “Inside of the News in Cleveland,” CPD, Oct. 29, 1947; “Burke Wins by Record Majority,” CPD, Nov. 5, 1947; “Cleveland Returns Democratic Mayor,” New York Times, Nov. 5, 1947; “Inside of the News in Cleveland,” CPD, Nov. 26, 1947; Heimel, Eliot Ness: The Real Story, 185; “Selling Ness to Cleveland,” Newsweek, Oct. 13, 1947; Porter, Cleveland, 104–6.
Chapter 35: Eliot-Am-Big-U-ous Ness
Narrative of Ness’s last years in Coudersport constructed from: AI, Franny Taft, July 1, 2011; Condon, “The Last American Hero;” Fraley, “The Real Eliot Ness;” “A Bad End for a Good Guy,” CPD, Sept. 7, 1997; Pennsylvania Department of Banking and Securities investigation report on North Ridge Industrial, ENP, reel 3; Heimel, Eliot Ness: The Real Story, 83, 188–93, 198–202; Jedick, “Eliot Ness;” “Film Crews Tracking Eliot Ness: Famous Crime Fighter Died Unheralded—But of Natural Causes—in Potter County,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Dec. 1, 1996; Potter Leader-Enterprise, Nov. 24, 1971.
In 1951, the Diebold board: undated letters, ENP, reel 3; “There Goes Eliot Ness,” Fortune, Jan. 1946; “Executive Changes,” New York Times, April 14, 1951.
He had to scrabble for work: AI, Rebecca McFarland, May 19, 2011; Condon, Cleveland, 243; Heimel, Eliot Ness: The Real Story, 192–93; Jedick, “Eliot Ness.”
Betty would say that: “TV Brings Father Back for Son of Eliot Ness,” CPD, Oct. 17, 1959.
Cobo didn’t want: Bergreen, Capone: The Man and the Era, 603; ENP reel 3.
Francis Sweeney found out: postcards from Sweeney, ENP, reel 3.
Detective Merylo, however, had reached: Cleveland Police Department report on torso murder investigation, dated Mar. 15, 1943, CPHS.
In 1939 Cuyahoga County sheriff: Badal, In the Wake of the Butcher, 184–93.
Epilogue: Literary Life
Narrative of Ness’s collaboration with Fraley and Ness’s last days are constructed from: AI, Rebecca McFarland, May 19, 2011; Borroel, Story of the Untouchables,11; Fraley, “The Real Eliot Ness;” “TV Brings Father Back for Son of Eliot Ness,” CPD, Oct. 17, 1959; various unlabeled documents, ENP, reel 3; Heimel, Eliot Ness: The Real Story, 202; Jedick, “Eliot Ness;” “The Man Who Booked Eliot Ness,” Miami Herald, June 19, 1987; “Film Crews Tracking Eliot Ness: Famous Crime Fighter Died Unheralded—But of Natural Causes—in Potter County,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Dec. 1, 1996; “We’re Still Touched by the Untouchable,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Sept. 11, 1997; “Walter Taylor Reminisces on Eliot Ness’s Last Years,” Potter Leader-Enterprise, Mar. 22, 1961; “As I Knew Eliot Ness,” Potter Leader-Enterprise, Nov. 24, 1971; “My Husband, Eliot Ness,” TV Guide, May 11, 1961.
When she died, in 1986: AI, Steve Resnick, June 5, 2011.
Career wrap-ups of Untouchables derived from: AI, Barbara Osteika, who interviewed Gardner family members; Benjey, 131; “Member of ‘Untouchables’ Who ‘Broke’ Capone Recalls Exploits,” Los Angeles Times, Oct. 4, 1962; NPRC, Paul Robsky, Bernard V. Cloonan, William Gardner, Martin Lahart, Joseph Leeson, Paul Robsky, and Samuel Seager; various news clippings, Scott Sroka personal collection.
Former Cleveland political insider John Patrick Butler: “Ness Recalled as Quiet Enforcer,” CPD, April 30, 1960.