Eliot Ness (42 page)

“When I approached them
 . . . ”:
“Jury Will Sift Labor Rackets in Cleveland, O.,” CT, Nov. 18, 1937.

On December 1, 1937, McGee stood
:
“Ness Bluffs, M’Gee Tells Federation,” CPD, Dec. 2, 1937.

Workers had violently struck
:
“Ness Sets Steel ‘Peace Areas,’” CP, July 27, 1937; “40 Hurt in New Strike Riot,” CT, July 27, 1937; “One Dead, 40 Hurt in Strike Battles at Cleveland Mill,”
New York Times
, July 27, 1937; “Police Bring Peace to Steel Area,” CPD, July 28, 1937; see also “The Little Steel Strike of 1937,” by Donald Gene Sofchalk, PhD dissertation, 1961, Ohio State University.

When asked about the charge
:
Condon, “The Last American Hero.”

Campbell and McGee came to trial
:
“Convict Labor Racketeers of Extortion Plot,” CT, Mar. 9, 1938; “Four Union Chiefs Indicted in Racket,”
New York Times
, Dec. 21, 1937.

Vernon Stouffer dominated
:
“Fail to Keep Ness Out of Racket Trial,” CPD, Feb. 18, 1938.

Cutting off requests for bail
:
“M’Gee-Campbell Parade Ends in Pen,” CPD, Mar. 9, 1938; “Claims Chicago Money Donated to Bribe Juror,” CT, Mar. 10, 1938.

“I was one of the spectators
 . . . ”:
ENP, reel 2.

“Campbell and McGee asked for it”
:
“M’Gee-Campbell Parade Ends in Pen,” CPD, Mar. 9, 1938.

Newsweek
wrote that Eliot had
:
“Crime in Cleveland: The Law Finally Catches Up With Labor Racketeers,”
Newsweek
, Mar. 21, 1938.

Cosmopolitan
, then a literary
:
“Eliot Ness: The Cosmopolite of the Month,”
Cosmopolitan
, Aug. 1940; ENP, reel 2.

Reader’s Digest
noted that Eliot
:
“Cleveland Versus the Crooks,”
Reader’s Digest
, Feb. 1939, 51.

Chapter 26: The Doctor

The story of Ness and his team zeroing in on Dr. Sweeney as a suspect and interrogating him is derived from
:
AI, James Jessen Badal, June 12, 2011; Alder,
Lie Detectors
, 82, 109;
In the Wake of the Butcher
, Badal, 128; 214, 218–20; David Cowles oral history, Sept. 6, 1983, CPHS; AI, Arnold Sagalyn, May 22, 2011; Sagalyn,
A
Promise Fulfilled
, 50.

Even though the campaign season
:
Badal,
In the Wake of the Butcher
, 93.

Eliot figured that he and his Unknowns
:
AI, James Jessen Badal, June 12, 2011.

One example
:
in September 1935:
Badal,
In the Wake of the Butcher
, 36.

“We played on him for a long time”
:
Cowles refused to use Sweeney’s name when discussing the interrogation, but there was no mistaking who he was talking about. AI, James Jessen Badal, June 12, 2011; David Cowles oral history, Sept. 6, 1983, CPHS.

After releasing Dr. Sweeney back
:
AI, Maxine Huntington, Sept. 5, 2011; Pinellas County, Fl., Divorce Index, vol. 139, no. 5771, 1939; “Eliot Ness’ First Wife Quietly Dies,”
St. Petersburg Times
, Nov. 19, 1994.

He even considered stepping down
:
Jedick, “Eliot Ness.”

“The director says he’ll do this
 . . . ”:
“Ness Fires Word Barrage at Young,” “Ness to Reassign All Police in City,” CPD, Sept. 20, 1938.

He’d been seen at a nightclub
:
“Remembering Eliot Ness,” CPD, Feb. 21, 2000; AI, Arnold Sagalyn, June 9, 2011.

“Don’t let ’em get your goat”
:
Caption for photo of Ness and Chamberlin, CPD, Sept. 26, 1938.

He hadn’t been removed
:
“Ness and Young Hurl Charges,” CP, Sept. 19, 1938.

“We have sort of agreed
 . . . ”:
“Nesses Separated, Divorce Is Planned,” CP, Sept. 20, 1938; Condon, “The Last American Hero.”

word began to leak out
:
“Capone Reported as Mentally Ill,” CPD, Feb. 9, 1938.

“I was looking for a big fellow”
:
“A Bad End for a Good Guy,” CPD, Sept. 7, 1997.

Eliot began showing up
:
“Behind-the-Scenes Campaigner,” CN, Sept. 18, 1947; CIA Scrapbook, vol. 14, p. 98, Cleveland Institute of Art; AI, Joe Kisvardai, June 24, 2011.

One night he took Betty Seaver
:
Undated fundraising pamphlet, Cleveland Museum of Art, Elisabeth Seaver file.

“Women were attracted to him”
:
Porter,
Cleveland
, 102.

He would tell a secretary or
:
Bergreen,
Capone: The Man and the Era
, 598.

“Few people really knew him”
:
“An Image Retouched,” CPD, June 16, 1966.

“He was handsome and charming
 . . . ”:
“A Bad End for a Good Guy,” CPD, Sept. 7, 1997.

One woman confided to a friend
:
Porter,
Cleveland
, 102.

He never called for a date
:
AI, Rebecca McFarland, May 19, 2011.

Chapter 27: An Unwelcome Surprise

When Eliot Ness left her
:
Something About the Author: Autobiography Series
, vol. 1, 226; AI, Steve Resnick, June 5, 2011.

Her father, Albert Michelow
:
Something About the Author: Autobiography Series
, vol. 1, 223–31.

Newsweek
magazine had accidentally
:
“Benes for Ness,”
Newsweek
, Mar. 28, 1938.

Day after day an investigator fell in behind
:
AI, Arnold Sagalyn, May 22, 2011; Sagalyn,
A
Promise Fulfilled
, 50–51.

One rookie investigator
:
AI, Arnold Sagalyn, May 22, 2011.

Police soon found more remains
:
Badal,
In the Wake of the Butcher
, 135–36, 142.

The corpse may have been stolen
:
AI, James Jessen Badal, June 12, 2011.

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.