The gangster's money allowed him to buy protection and services from politicians, Chicago policeman, and even government agents. Determining those associated with Capone proved a difficult task, leading to mistrust of the highest government officials. District Attorney George Emmerson Q. Johnson headed the task of finding honest men to bring Capone down. Impressed by Ness's outspokenness, Johnson called him to interview in his office. Immediately following the discussion, Johnson assigned Ness to lead the operation.
Ness had to choose no more than 12 men to form this special squad. Ness's plan was to injure Capone where it hurt most: his wallet. If the squad could severely damage the mobster's sources of income, Capone would lose the power to buy protection and services.
The assignment was to destroy the breweries affiliated with Capone and gather evidence associating Capone and his followers with breaking federal laws. By October , Ness had selected nine agents to carry out these awesome tasks. This special unit began locating and shutting down breweries in the Chicago area affiliated with Capone.
Through surveillance, anonymous tips and wire-tapping, they were able to discover many of the moneymaking businesses in which Capone was involved.
Outraged, Ness ordered the man out and immediately called the press into his office. That day in , Ness announced that neither he nor any of his men could be bought by Capone, and their mission was unstoppable. The next day, a Chicago Tribune reporter referred to the special squad as "The Untouchables," a name that eventually became the title of a s TV crime drama about Ness, as well as a popular feature film that starred Kevin Costner.
Seeing the press as an ally, Ness made a habit of calling the media for each raid his crew made on Capone's breweries. Although critics argued that such publicity would harm the squad's efforts, Ness proved them wrong because they could operate under "The Untouchables" without recognition.
Capone, however, fought back and enhanced security measures around his businesses, making it difficult for Ness's men to invade them. Capone assigned men to recognize the 10 agents and others to follow them.
The squad's phones were even tapped, and the pressure was mounting. Ness even caught sight of one of Capone's men watching his parents' home. For some time the squad was unsuccessful in their mission. Capone's rage intensified and caused a friend of Ness's to be brutally murdered.
In response, Ness made a personal phone call to Capone, telling him to look out his window at 11 o'clock, at which time Ness paraded all of Capone's vehicles seized from the raids which were on their way to be auctioned off. Attorney, George E. Johnson's two-pronged investigative attack on Capone.
One effort, led by the Bureau of Prohibition Investigative Division's newly appointed Special Agent in Charge SAC Eliot Ness and his team of agents, who were ordered to disrupt Capone's operations and gather evidence of prohibition violations.
The other, led by lawmen Elmer Irey and Frank Wilson of the Internal Revenue Service, investigated Capone's finances for evidence of money laundering and tax evasion. Agent Ness' team of specially trained agents damaged the Capone organization's ability to carry out its illegal activities and ultimately led to the indictment of Capone on over 5, prohibition violations under the Volstead Act. That indictment was handed down 1 week after his indictment for tax evasion. Prohibition was extremely unpopular, and there was an enormous risk that jurors would be sympathetic toward a bootlegging defendant.
On the other hand, no honest taxpayer liked a cheat; U. Attorney Johnson took the tax case to trial and secured a conviction on those charges. After the verdict, not wanting to risk the gangster's release on appeal, the Federal government re-indicted Capone on additional prohibition violations as a security measure. His team of uncorrectable agents, later given the moniker "the Untouchables" not only wreaked havoc on gangster Al Capone's criminal empire, but also went on to successfully apprehend many of Chicago's notorious gangsters and bootleggers.
In September , Agent Ness transferred from Chicago to Cincinnati as a senior investigator and soon after was promoted to assistant investigator in charge of the Cincinnati Office. The newly organized ATU faced grave problems across the nation. The country was ill-prepared to re-establish the legal liquor industry as criminal syndicates continued to illegally produce and distribute distilled spirits.
Organized crime escalated as gangs battled viciously for control of underground distilleries and distribution networks. That character is largely a myth. Eliot Ness broke onto the 's Chicago scene to put Al Capone, the most famous of the crime bosses of his time, out of business.
Although many assume Eliot Ness worked with the FBI, he was actually an agent with the Prohibition Bureau of the Treasury Department during a time when violent struggles between bootlegging gangs and hijackings of booze-laden trucks and ships were frequent occurrences. He worked briefly in Washington, DC, before becoming the chairman of the Diebold Incorporated, a safe manufacturer in Canton, Ohio, in In , he unsuccessfully ran for the Cleveland mayoral seat.
This same year, the Diebold Corporation released Ness from the company. He then took a position with North Ridge Industrial, in Pennsylvania. Ness died from a heart attack on May 16,
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