Eliot Ness Timeline

Ness graduated from the University of Chicago with a Ph.B. in economics at a time when law enforcement officers had little use for college. He took a graduate level police administration course taught by August Vollmer, who is best known for his methodical reorganization and modernization of the Berkley, California city police force as their first Chief of Police. Vollmer and Ness remained friends and maintained a relationship through correspondence during Ness’ federal career.

Prohibition Unit, U.S. Department of the Treasury

On August 26, 1926, Ness swore in as a Temporary Prohibition Agent with the Prohibition Unit in Chicago. From the enactment of the Volstead Act, Prohibition agents hunted down bootleggers who were growing enormously powerful and rich by smuggling liquor into the United States primarily from Canada and Europe. By the time Ness entered the service, three of Treasury’s six law enforcement arms - Prohibition Unit, Coast Guard, and Customs - were working together, sharing information, and conducting joint operations against what would be described today as a transnational organized crime threat.

Bureau of Prohibition, U.S. Department of the Treasury

Ness cut his investigative teeth on the streets of Chicago, Chicago Heights, and Cicero with more seasoned agents, such as Ted Kuhn and Dan Kooken.

Bureau of Prohibition, U.S. Department of the Treasury

Chicago belonged entirely to Al Capone. The collective force of 3,000 police and 300 prohibition agents failed to bring down Capone’s empire. The lack of prohibition convictions in a city as “wet” as Chicago only cemented the fact that Capone was buying protection from the law.

By 1929, organized crime fully controlled the liquor industry. Assassinations, bombings, firearms violence and corruption were routine; every industry paid tribute, directly or indirectly, to bootleggers and gangsters who had forged such close ties with local authorities that anonymous Prohibition enforcement squads became necessary in some cities. Chicago was one of those cities.

Bureau of Prohibition, U.S. Department of the Treasury

By the summer of 1930, Ness had risen through the ranks from Temporary Prohibition Agent, Junior Prohibition Agent, and Junior Special Agent. With the Bureau’s focus zeroing in on fighting violent crime, the Department of Treasury found it increasingly ill-equipped to carry out a mission so outside their original mission of tax compliance. For that reason the Bureau was transferred from the U.S. Department of the Treasury to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Bureau of Prohibition, U.S. Department of Justice

President Herbert Hoover declared that he wanted Capone in jail. Special Agent in Charge Alexander G. Jaime, Chief Investigator of the office’s Investigative Division in Chicago was recruited by the “Secret Six” to work the Capone investigation for the Chicago Crime Commission. Before he left the job, he recommended Ness as his replacement because “not only was Ness the most senior agent in the unit, but because of his honesty and ability”.

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.

Bureau of Prohibition, U.S. Department of Justice

Ness’ team of uncorruptable agents, later coined 'the Untouchables' by the Chicago Herald-Examiner, 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.

Seated from left are: Jim Berenton, Al Aman, Gus Simons, Ray Casserly, Walter Miller. In the rear from left are: Tom Scott, Lee Donahue, Bob Ford, Ivan Caushift, Unknown, Eliot Ness.  (Photo and names courtesy of the Aman family)

Alcoholic Beverage Unit, U.S. Department of Justice

In September 1933, Ness transferred from his beloved Chicago to Cincinnati, Ohio as a Senior Investigator and soon after was promoted to Assistant Investigator in Charge of the Alcohol Beverage Unit, Cincinnati Office. The Unit 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, and machine guns continued to be the weapon of choice. Gangsters killed each other on street corners, in social clubs and in restaurants. The massacres often resulted in the injury or death of innocent bystanders.

Alcohol Tax Unit, U.S. Department of the Treasury

When Prohibition ended with the passage of the 21st Amendment, and after three years under the Department of Justice (1930–1933), The Bureau of Prohibition would soon be reorganized, briefly as the Alcohol Beverage Unit, under the control of J. Edgar Hoover, before becoming the Alcohol Tax Unit (aka The Unit) and being transferred, again, back to the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

The Unit seized many alcohol distilleries in the first few months after its creation. With growing support from the public, the hard work of the Unit slowly began to pay off. The Unit managed to dismantle large liquor syndicates, changing the perception of Federal law enforcement, as well as the attitudes of prosecutors, juries and the courts.

Cleveland, Ohio, had a desperate need for a lawman with the talent and integrity of Eliot Ness. The country’s seventh largest city with a population of just under a million, Cleveland was infested with so much crime and corruption that it had earned a reputation as an untamed town. The public had lost faith in its police and city officials were starved for help. Ness was just 31 years old when he arrived at his new post as the Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Alcohol Tax Unit, Northern District of Ohio. With 34 agents under his command, Ness methodically tracked down, raided and destroyed a string of illicit liquor operations, earning a reputation for “taking down a still a day”. In one of their most sensational raids, they captured what was believed to be the largest distillery in northeastern Ohio. Ness and his agents seized over a $100,000 worth of equipment capable of producing a thousand gallons of bootleg liquor a day, and cheating the U.S. out of close to $30,000 a week in taxes – an astronomical sum for day.

Ness would serve as the Investigator in Charge of the Cleveland Office of the Alcohol Tax Unit until January 1, 1936, when after fighting organized criminal for 10 long years, Ness resigned from his position to become Cleveland's Public Safety Director, putting him in charge of the police and fire departments where he successfully headed a campaign to clean up corruption and modernize both public service institutions.