Scarface and the Untouchable

by Max Allan Collins

  NESS CHILDHOOD: William Townes, “As Boy in Chicago, Ness Was ‘Just A Regular Guy,’ ” CP, February 23, 1937, in ENPS, Roll 1, Scrapbook 3 (“He was so,” “a good listener,” “a mind and”). “About Eliot Ness,” CN, September 22, 1947, in “Ness, Eliot” (microfiche), CPC. Story of Eliot Ness, pp. 4–5. Art Petacque, “Capone’s Lawyer and His Wife—Ness’ Schoolmate—Rip ‘The Untouchables,’ ” Star, June 30, 1987, p. 23, PCHS (“Elegant Mess”). Heimel, Eliot Ness, pp. 20–22 (20, “never had a”; 22, “like he thought”).

  ALEXANDER JAMIE: “Application for Appointment to Position of Special Agent of the Department of Justice,” August 4, 1918 (“in a precarious”); “Application for Appointment,” November 10, 1923, both in FBI-AJ. Application for Position of Federal Prohibition Agent, November 28, 1925; Edward J. Brennan to E. C. Yellowley, November 28, 1925; E. C. Yellowley to L. C. Andrews, February 26, 1926; Alexander Jamie to John T. Doyle, July 5, 1927; H. M. Dengler to J. M. Doran, September 1928 (declassified), all in Alexander Jamie OPF. Record for Alexander Jamie and Clara Ness, Cook County, Illinois, Marriages Index, 1871–1920, Provo, UT: Ancestry.Com Operations, Inc., 2011. Record for Wallace Ness Jamie, Cook County, Illinois, Birth Certificates Index, 1871–1922. 1910 U.S. Census Record for Eliot Ness. Chicago City Directory 1900, p. 953. Chicago City Directory 1910, p. 969. “The Ness Family,” p. 84. “Modern Methods in Bread Baking,” pp. 98–99. Townes, “As Boy in Chicago.”

  NESS AS PROTECTOR: GH to ABS, personal email, July 11, 2014.

  CHRISTIAN SCIENCE: Jones, “Real Eliot Ness.” Robert A. Johnson, “Early History of Sixth Church of Christ, Scientist, Chicago,” October 6, 1987, SSGHS. Peters, When Prayer Fails, pp. 89–97. Paul Vitello, “Christian Science Church Seeks Truce with Modern Medicine,” NYT, March 23, 2010.

  SCARLET FEVER: Selzer, The Heart, pp. 132–139, 197. Rusty Brown, “This Ness Family Rejects Other Mrs. Ness,” CP, April 20, 1973, in “Ness, Robert Eliot” Folder, CPC. Jedick, “Eliot Ness,” p. 55. Heimel, Eliot Ness, p. 269.

  BAKERY SUCCESS AND FAILURE: “Police Called to Dekker’s, the Baker’s, Place,” Calumet Index, May 4, 1917. “Dekker’s, the Baker,” Calumet Index, May 7, 1917. “Modern Methods in Bread Baking,” pp. 98–99 (“Every morning and,” “hustling young salesladies”). Alexander Jamie to John T. Doyle, July 5, 1927, Alexander Jamie OPF. City of Chicago Directory 1911, pp. 1003, 1519. City of Chicago Directory 1912, pp. 691, 1029, 1560. City of Chicago Directory 1913, pp. 993, 1501. Theophilus Schmid, “Business History of Roseland,” May 1, 1931, pp. 7–9, in Box 4, Folder 31, CRCC. Story of Eliot Ness, p. 5. “About Eliot Ness,” CN, September 22, 1947, in “Ness, Eliot” (microfiche), CPC. Buder, Pullman, pp. 222–223.

  The Ness bakeries disappear from Chicago city directories in 1917, and Alexander Jamie stopped working for Peter that same year, suggesting the business collapsed around that time.

  ELIOT NESS WORKING THROUGH HIGH SCHOOL: 1920 U.S. Census Record for Peter Ness. (Eliot is misidentified as a girl named “Ella,” and Emma’s age is incorrectly given as fifty.) Story of Eliot Ness, p. 5, NLEM. Townes, “As Boy in Chicago.” U.S. Civil Service Commission Temporary Appointment, Transfer, Reinstatement, Or Promotion Form, April 1942, Eliot Ness OPF. J. Edgar Hoover, Memo, November 7, 1933; W. S. Murphy, Report on Eliot Ness, November 15, 1933, p. 2; Howard P. Locke, memo to J. Edgar Hoover, November 25, 1933, all in FBI-ENA. Jedick, “Eliot Ness,” p. 55.

  JAMIE WITH PULLMAN, APL, AND BOI: “Application for Appointment to Position of Special Agent of the Department of Justice,” August 4, 1918 (“securing data as”); Edward J. Brennan, memo to William J. Burns, January 20, 1922; “Application for Appointment,” November 10, 1923, Royal N. Allen, Report on Alexander G. Jamie, September 16, 1918, all in FBI-AJ. Application for Position of Federal Prohibition Agent, November 28, 1925; Alexander Jamie to John T. Doyle, July 5, 1927; Alexander Jamie to the U.S. Civil Service Commission, July 3, 1928, all in Alexander Jamie OPF. Potter, War on Crime, p. 34. Ackerman, Young J. Edgar, pp. 6–7, 27, 65, 380. Mills, The League, pp. 7–15, 17–39, 56–57, 61–77, 79–90, 108–109, 153–175.

  NESS INSPIRED BY HOLMES AND JAMIE: Ness and Fraley, The Untouchables, p. 6. For Holmes as a crime-solving textbook, see Wagner, Science of Sherlock Holmes, passim.

  NESS GRADUATING HIGH SCHOOL, GOING TO WORK, ENROLLING AT COLLEGE: “What We Notice in Our Classmates,” The Fenger Courier, January 1920, p. 21; “June Class, 1920,” The Fenger Courier, June 1920, p. 13 (“Although he has”), both SSGHS. Currey, Chicago, p. 345. “Application for Appointment,” November 10, 1923; Royal N. Allen, Report on Alexander G. Jamie, September 16, 1918; James P. Rooney, General Estimate of A. G. Jamie, November 5, 1921, all in FBI-AJ. W. S. Murphy, Report on Eliot Ness, November 15, 1933, pp. 2, 7, in FBI-ENA. Townes, “As Boy in Chicago” (“One day”) Ness and Fraley, The Untouchables, p. 86 (“set his own”). Heimel, Eliot Ness, p. 22 (“He said he hadn’t”).

  PRAIRIE AVENUE: Pasley, Al Capone, pp. 88–89 (89, “a refuge to”). Tyre, Chicago’s Historic Prairie Avenue, pp. 7–8 (7, “the richest half-dozen”). Dahleen Glanton, “Capone Home Languishes on the Market,” CT, October 28, 2014, http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/realestate/ct-al-capone-house-sale-met-20141028-story.html (accessed June 25, 2017).

  Chapter Three

  PRAIRIE AVENUE HOUSE AND NEIGHBORHOOD: Pasley, Al Capone, pp. 88–90. Hearings Before the Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, pt. 5, pp. 1227, 1231. Kobler, Capone, pp. 103–104. Bergreen, Capone, pp. 94–95. Bair, Al Capone, pp. 42–44. GH, undated interviews with grandparents who were parishioners of St. Columbanus and knew the Capone family.

  CAPONE AT FOUR DEUCES: Schoenberg, Mr. Capone, pp. 51, 53.

  LEVEE: Kirk, Map of Chicago. Wendt and Kogan, Lords of the Levee, p. 8. Historic City, pp. 41–75. Mayer and Wade, Chicago, pp. 146, 150, 218–220, 224.

  TORRIO’S VISION: Landesco, “Organized Crime,” pp. 912–919, 923.

  CAPONE’S FAMILY BUSINESS: Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr., “How Al Capone Would Run This Country,” Liberty, October 17, 1931, p. 18 (“We had to”). St. John, This Was My World, p. 180 (“had a strong”). Kobler, Capone, pp. 103–104, 145 (“Bottles”). Bergreen, Capone, pp. 43, 98–99. Bair, Al Capone, pp. 9–10, 16–17, 20, 45–47.

  BIG BILL THOMPSON: Nels Anderson, “Democracy in Chicago,” Century, November 1927, pp. 71–78 (71, “Big Bill the Builder”; 78, “Winning the election”). Wendt and Kogan, Big Bill of Chicago, pp. 86–115 (103, “a mother”), 119–131, 163–171. Bukowski, Big Bill Thompson, pp. 5, 14–15, 19–36.

  CAPONE ANTIQUES SHOP: CT, May 10, 1924. Pasley, Al Capone, p. 19. McPhaul, Johnny Torrio, pp. 121–122.

  CAPONE’S EARLY RUN-INS WITH THE LAW: CT, January 21, 1921; August 31, 1922 (quotes). Helmer and Mattix, Public Enemies, pp. 73, 77. Binder, Al Capone’s Beer Wars, p. 122.

  TORRIO HIRES NITTO: Eghigian, After Capone, pp. 39, 73–74, 81–83.

  O’BANION AND THE NORTH SIDERS: Sullivan, Rattling the Cup, pp. 8–12 (9–10, “I didn’t know”), 15–17. Pasley, Al Capone, pp. 45–46 (45, “could twist a,” “His round Irish”; 46, “We’re big business,” “like a man”). Burns, One-Way Ride, pp. 80–86. Lyle, Dry and Lawless Years, pp. 89–91. Kobler, Capone, pp. 80–88. Schoenberg, Mr. Capone, pp. 104–107. Helmer and Mattix, Public Enemies, pp. 21–22. Keefe, Guns and Roses, pp. 59–66.

  GENNAS AND MCERLANE: James Crayhorn, “The End of Gangland’s Mad Dog,” Master Detective, September 1933, pp. 26–29, 59–63. Kobler, Capone, pp. 77–101.

  POLICE CORRUPTION AND ENFORCEMENT PROBLEMS: Landesco, “Organized Crime,” pp. 1061–1087. Pasley, Al Capone, pp. 43–47.

  1923 ELECTION: Wendt and Kogan, Big Bill of Chicago, pp. 206–233. Douglas Bukowski, “William Dever and Prohibition,” Chicago History, Summer 1978, pp. 109–118. Schmidt, Mayor Who Cleaned, pp. 65–68, 72, 76, 79–80, 83–89. Bukowski, Big Bill Thompson, pp. 133–153.

  TORRIO INTO THE SUBURBS: Lyle, Dry and Lawless Years, p. 88
(“cash register mind”). Allsop, Bootleggers, p. 65.

  FOREST VIEW: CT, May 31, 1926. James O’Donnell Bennett, “Chicago Gangland: Golden Flood Makes Czars, Befouls City,” CT, April 7, 1929 (“Caponeville”). Kobler, Capone, pp. 123–125 (125, “It looked like,” “I moved”). See also Schoenberg, Mr. Capone, p. 96.

  CICERO: CT, September 2, 1926 (“brought an automobile,” “Then Torrio made”). Pasley, Al Capone, pp. 12, 39–40, 62–63. Burns, One-Way Ride, pp. 38–40. St. John, This Was My World, pp. 165–166, 171, 173–174 (173, “Why don’t you”) (see also Bergreen, Capone, pp. 104–105). Allsop, Bootleggers, pp. 58–59. Kobler, Capone, pp. 111–112, 116. Schoenberg, Mr. Capone, pp. 95–97.

  O’DONNELL WAR: Keefe, Man Who Got Away, pp. 105–106, 127–129.

  WEST HAMMOND RAID: McPhaul, Johnny Torrio, pp. 174–180.

  CICERO ELECTION AND FRANK CAPONE’S DEATH: CT, April 1–3, 1924; April 7, 1924. Schoenberg, Mr. Capone, pp. 97–99. Bergreen, Capone, pp. 104–112. Eig, Get Capone, pp. 28–29.

  JOE HOWARD MURDER: CT, May 9–10, 1924 (May 9, “Hello, Al”). Pasley, Al Capone, pp. 25–29 (29, “I hear the,” “Who, me”). Kobler, Capone, pp. 122–123 (122, “Go back to”). Schoenberg, Mr. Capone, pp. 102–103.

  SIEBEN BREWERY: CT, May 20, 1924. Kobler, Capone, pp. 127–130. Keefe, Man Who Got Away, pp. 143–145. “Sieben’s History,” Sieben’s Brewing, 2006, http://www.siebensbrewing.com/history.htm (accessed September 15, 2017).

  O’BANION MURDER: Keefe, Guns and Roses, pp. xvi–xxi, 195–204.

  CAPONE’S DOCTOR’S OFFICE: Pasley, Al Capone, pp. 69–70. Capone, Kobler, p. 121. Eghigian, After Capone, p. 102.

  CAPONE’S CAR SHOT UP: CDN, January 12, 1925. CT, January 13, 1925. Pasley, Al Capone, p. 75 (“everything but the”). Schoenberg, Mr. Capone, pp. 123, 399. Helmer and Mattix, Public Enemies, p. 86. Keefe, Man Who Got Away, p. 167.

  CAPONE UNDER GUARD: Johnston, “Gangs Á La Mode” (“For Al’s protection”). James O’Donnell Bennett, “Chicago Gangland: Golden Flood Makes Czars, Befouls City,” CT, April 7, 1929. Burns, One-Way Ride, p. 31. Pasley, Al Capone, pp. 10, 78–79, 325 (“You fear death”). Schoenberg, Mr. Capone, p. 117. Bergreen, Capone, pp. 138–139, 172–173, 176–189. Bair, Al Capone, pp. 58–64, 85–89.

  TORRIO SHOOTING: Pasley, Al Capone, pp. 75–78. William Mangil, “Torrio the Immune,” True Detective, September 1940, pp. 52–55, 91–97. McPhaul, Johnny Torrio, pp. 213–223. Kobler, Capone, pp. 139–141. Schoenberg, Mr. Capone, pp. 123–127.

  TRANSFER OF POWER: Burns, One-Way Ride, pp. 111–112. Asbury, Gem of the Prairie, p. 354. Schoenberg, Mr. Capone, p. 127.

  Chapter Four

  CICERO: CT, November 21, 1924 (“The Free Kingdom,” “Nearly all the”). James O’Donnell Bennett, “Chicago Gangland: Death Stalks Booze Route to Affluence,” CT, February 24, 1929. Burns, One-Way Ride, pp. 38–40 (39, “If you are”). Asbury, Gem of the Prairie, pp. 334–336. Schoenberg, Mr. Capone, p. 99.

  ROBERT ST. JOHN: CHE, April 7, 1925. CT, April 7–8, 1925. James O’Donnell Bennett, “Chicago Gangland: Death Stalks Booze Route to Affluence,” CT, February 24, 1929. Pasley, Al Capone, pp. 66–67. St. John, This Was My World, pp. 167–168 (167, “had great executive,” “might have wound”; 168, “knew that [the press]”), 171, 174–175, 181–186 (185, “Here in this”), 188–196 (191, “He was rather”; 193, “I’m an all-right,” “right on the”). Kobler, Capone, pp. 151–157. Schoenberg, Mr. Capone, pp. 99–101. Robert St. John, interviewed in The Mystery of Al Capone’s Vaults video, 1:33:22, April 21, 1986, Geraldo, http://www.geraldo.com/page/al-capone-s-vault (accessed March 9, 2017) (“the biggest roll”). Robert St. John, interviewed in “The Road to Repeal,” Prohibition: Thirteen Years That Changed America, written by Marius Brill, directed by Clive Maltby (New York: A&E Television Networks, 1997), DVD (“had a scar”); “Prohibition: Robert St. John—About His Personal Contact with Al Capone,” video, 00:04:29, Onlinefootage.tv, http://www.onlinefootage.tv/stock-video-footage/7743/prohibition-robert-st-john-about-his-personal-contact-with-al-capone (accessed March 9, 2017). Douglas Martin, “Robert St. John, 100, Globe-Trotting Reporter and Author,” NYT, February 8, 2003, http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/08/us/robert-st-john-100-globe-trotting-reporter-and-author.html (accessed March 11, 2017).

  NESS IN COLLEGE: City of Chicago Directory 1923, pp. 1262, 2108; Polk’s Chicago City Directory 1923, p. 2852. Cap and Gown (University of Chicago Yearbook), 1924, p. 248; Cap and Gown (University of Chicago Yearbook), 1925, pp. 89, 210–211, UC. Willebrandt, Inside of Prohibition, p. 33. CHE, June 15, 1931 (“the monotony of”). Allen, Only Yesterday, pp. 88–122 (94, “the eat-drink”). W. S. Murphy, Report on Eliot Ness, November 15, 1933, p. 3, in FBI-ENA. Townes, “As Boy in Chicago” (“could always count”). Nell C. Henry to Harold H. Swift, October 26, 1939, in Box 156, Folder 7, Harold H. Swift Papers, UC. Story of Eliot Ness, pp. 5–6, NLEM. Ness and Fraley, The Untouchables, p. 6. Fraley, “Real Eliot Ness,” pp. 28–29. Allsop, Bootleggers, pp. 32–33. Porter, Cleveland, p. 102. Fass, Damned and the Beautiful, pp. 134–136, 139, 157–167, 172–182, 201–202, 262–276, 281–285, 292–300, 310–324. Jones, “Real Eliot Ness” (“had the girls,” “We used to,” “almost priestly”). George Condon, “The Last American Hero,” Cleveland, August 1987, p. 139 (“Eliot had a,” “He wasn’t handsome”), RM. Bergreen, Capone, pp. 345, 598. Heimel, Eliot Ness, pp. 23–24. Alder, Lie Detectors, p. 76. Okrent, Last Call, pp. 205–215, 222–225. Tucker, Eliot Ness and the Untouchables, pp. 30, 42–43. McGirr, War on Alcohol, pp. 116–117. See also Perry, Eliot Ness, pp. 11–12.

  Jonathan Eig (Get Capone, p. 237; see also Perry, Eliot Ness, p. 16) claims that Ness “was an undistinguished student, scraping by on a steady diet of Cs and C-minuses.” But Eig grades Ness like a modern student, and doesn’t take into account the “grade inflation” observed over the course of the twentieth century. According to The Atlantic, the average GPA at American colleges rose from a 2.3 (C+) in the 1930s to 3.3 or 3.0 (B+ or B) today, while academic performance has not (Aina Katsikas, “Same Performance, Better Grades,” The Atlantic, January 13, 2015, http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/01/same-performance-better-grades/384447/ [accessed January 23, 2015]).

  W. S. Murphy, a Bureau of Investigation agent who ran a background check on Ness in 1933, reported that during his first two years at the University of Chicago Ness “received an average grade of C and the last two years his average grade was raised to a B.” (W. S. Murphy, Report on Eliot Ness, November 15, 1933, p. 3, in FBI-ENA.) While not outstanding, Ness’s grades rose from average to above average during his college career—a far cry from “scraping by.”

  NESS, ALCOHOL, AND CHRISTIAN SCIENCE: Bernice W. Carter, “Enforcing Prohibition,” The Christian Science Journal, March 1921, pp. 680–682. “The Lectures,” Christian Science Sentinel, June 29, 1918, p. 873. “The Chimes Rang Out,” Christian Science Sentinel, April 20, 1918, p. 670. “Greenhorn,” American Magazine, March 1936, in ENPS, Roll 1, Scrapbook 3. Wallace Ness Jamie, “Man Cannot Die,” Christian Science Sentinel, February 10, 1945, pp. 201–203. Ness and Fraley, The Untouchables, p. 19. CPD, May 17, 1957, in ENPS, Roll 1, Folder 1. Jedick, “Eliot Ness,” p. 55. Fass, Damned and the Beautiful, pp. 310–324 (318, “In order to”). Jones, “Real Eliot Ness” (“He didn’t drink”). Okrent, Last Call, p. 222 (“girls simply won’t”). Tucker, Eliot Ness and the Untouchables, p. 13. RM to ABS, personal interview and emails, December 4, 8, and 10, 2015. McGirr, War on Alcohol, p. 10. Drew McKillips, “Honolulu T-Man Was Ness Hero,” n.p., n.d., SLS.

  NESS TRAINING TO BE LAWMAN: Agent in Charge Hamlin to J. Edgar Hoover, November 25, 1924; James P. Rooney, Evaluation of A. G. Jamie, May 20, 1924; James P. Rooney to William J. Burns, March 8, 1922; T. B. White, “Inspection of the Chicago Office,” April 28, 1925; J. Edgar Hoover to R. A. Darling, July 15, 1925; R. A. Darling to J. Edgar Hoover, July 1, 1925; J. Edgar Hoover to R. A. Darling, June 29, 1925; R. A. Darling to J. Edgar Hoover, June 25, 1925; R
oy A. Darling to J. Edgar Hoover, July 17, 1925; Roy A. Darling to J. Edgar Hoover, September 22, 1925; Arthur M. Millard to Roy O. West, September 21, 1925, all in FBI-AJ. “Personal History,” August 26, 1926, in Eliot Ness OPF. Conan Doyle, Complete Sherlock Holmes, pp. 386, 486 (“the Japanese system,” “baritsu”). W. S. Murphy, Report on Eliot Ness, November 15, 1933, pp. 3–5, in FBI-ENA (“a bright, energetic,” “regretted losing”). Havens, “Personalities in Law Enforcement,” p. 61 (“skippers”). Ness MS., p. 1, in ENPS, Roll 1, Folder 2. Ness and Fraley, The Untouchables, pp. 6–7. William Adams Flinn, “History of Retail Credit Company: A Study in the Marketing of Information About Individuals” (PhD diss., Ohio State University, 1959), pp. 236–253. Fraley, “The Real Eliot Ness,” p. 29 (“I liked it”). Fraley, 4 Against the Mob, p. 10. “Ness Called ‘Mild, Quiet’ in Real Life,” n.p., February 11, 1962, and untitled clipping, n.p., December 9, 1976, both in “Newspaper Clippings (Photocopies) Circa. 1930–1970” Folder, DMM. Jones, “The Real Eliot Ness.” Bergreen, Capone, p. 345. James D. Calder, “Eliot Ness (April 19, 1903–May 16, 1957): Gangbuster to Security Executive—A Meandering Career of Great Highs and Tragic Lows,” Journal of Applied Security Research, vol. 6, no. 2 (2011), pp. 196–197. See also Kansas City Star, April 19, 1936, in ENPS, Roll 1, Scrapbook 2, p. 68; Baltimore Sun, May 17, 1936, in ENPS, Roll 1, Scrapbook 2, p. 80.

  In a hearing before the Chicago City Council in 2014, former IRS special agent Robert Fuesel claimed that Alcohol Tax Unit agents who had served with Ness during the Untouchables days had told him that Ness “was afraid of guns and barely left the office.” But this flies in the face of firsthand testimony from those who knew Ness personally, and probably reflects institutional jealousy (discussed in later chapters) of Ness’s posthumous celebrity. Most likely, these agents mistook Ness’s dislike of firearms for fear. As Armand Bollaert recalled, Ness “had no interest in guns; he was absolutely fearless.” (John Byrne, “Chicago Aldermen: Eliot Ness Overhyped,” CT, February 28, 2014, http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2014–02–28/news/chi-chicago-aldermen-eliot-ness-overhyped-20140228_1_eliot-ness-the-untouchables-atf-hq [accessed October 24, 2015]; Jones, “The Real Eliot Ness.”)