Eliot Ness (39 page)

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.”