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.”
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p; 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.
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