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 sim
ply: “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.
Cha
pter 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.
Eliot Ness Page 39