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 th
e 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,” CP
D, 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.
Eliot Ness Page 38