Bureau of Prohibition, U.S. Department of Justice

Promoted to Special Agent in Charge, Ness handpicked 11 agents that he felt displayed the skills, knowledge and experience he needed in his squad to investigate Capone: S. Maurice Seager, Joseph Leeson, William Gardner, Lyle Chapman, Paul Robsky, Bernard Cloonan, Thomas Friel, Michael King, Martin Lahart, Warren E. Stutzman, and Robert D. Sterling. Ness and his squad were attached to the U.S. Attorney Office under the direction of U.S. Attorney George E. Q. Johnson to investigate the Capone gang.

President Hoover’s directive set in motion Chicago’s U.S. Attorney’s two pronged investigative attack on Capone. One group was led by the Investigative Division’s newly appointed Assistant Special Agent in Charge Eliot Ness who was attached to the U.S. Attorney General Office in Chicago to investigate the Capone gang. He and his team of agents were directed to cripple Capone’s operations and gather evidence of prohibition violations. The other prong, led by lawmen Elmer Irey and Frank Wilson of the Internal Revenue Service was to investigate Capone’s finances for evidence of money laundering and tax evasion.

Ness’ team of specially trained agents damaged the Capone outfit’s ability to carry out its illegal activities and ultimately led to the indictment of Capone on over 5,000 prohibition violations under the Volstead Act. That indictment was handed down one week after his indictment for tax evasion. Prohibition was extremely unpopular, and there was an enormous risk that jurors, who probably took a drink or two themselves, would be sympathetic toward a bootlegging defendant. On the other hand, no honest taxpayer liked a cheat, so U.S. 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.