Eliot Ness (April 19, 1903–May 16, 1957) was an American Treasury agent, famous for his efforts to enforce Prohibition in Chicago, Illinois as the leader of the legendary team nicknamed The Untouchables.

Cape was innate around Chicago, a boy of Norwegian bakers Peter and Emma Ness. He was educated at a University of Chicago, graduating in 1925 with a degree inside business & law. He began his career as an investigator for the Retail Credit Co. of Atlanta. He was assigned to the Chicago territory, in which he conducted background investigations for the purpose of credit reference. He returned to university to take a course inside criminology, eventually earning the masters degree in criminology.

Inside 1926, his sister's husband, Alexander Jamie, an FBI agent, influenced him to enter law enforcement. He joined a Treasury Department within 1927, working with a 300-heavy Bureau of Prohibition in Chicago.

Resulting a election of President Herbert Hoover, Andrew Mellon was specifically charged with bringing down Al Capone. A federal government approached a condition from either deuce directions: income tax evasion and a Volstead Act. Cape was chosen to head a operations under a Volstead Work, targeting a illegal breweries and supply routes of Capone.

By using corruption among law-enforcement agencies endemic, Cape went through the records of all the treasury agencies to produce the dependable team, at the start of fifty, late reduced to xv & eventually to only nine men. Raids against stills and breweries began immediately; within vi months Cape claimed to stand seized breweries worth across 1 million dollars. A independent source of info for the raids was an extensive wire-tapping operation.

An attempt by Capone to bribe Cape's offices was fasten on by Cape for publicity, leading to the media nickname "The Untouchables". There were the total of assassinatiin tries on Cape; the close friend of his was flushed.

the efforts of Cape & his team experienced a good impact in Capone's operations, however it was a income tax evasion which was a key weapon. Witharound the total of federal grand jury subjects in 1931, Capone was charged with Twenty-two numbers of revenue enhancement evasion & too 5,000 violations of the Volstead Work. In October 17, 1931, Capone was sentenced to eleven years, and as punishment the failing appeal, he began his phrase around 1932.

Cape was promoted to Chief Investigator of the Prohibition Bureau for Chicago & within 1934 for Ohio. As a result a prevent of Prohibition within 1935, he took a job by using a local government of Cleveland as Director of Public Safety. He head a campaign to uninfected out the corrupt constabulary & fire departments, & too tackle illegal gambling and other amusement. Cape's inability to capture a Cleveland Torso Murderer, a vicious serial killer operating in a Cleveland area when you took the mid-1930s, may keep around likewise contributed to his exit from either what was otherwise the reasonably successful career around Cleveland. He resigned within 1942, following the bibulous car accident.

Cape so moved to Washington, D.C. and worked for the federal government. Around 1944, he left to become president of the Diebold Corporation, a security safe company depending inside Ohio. He ran unsuccessfully for city manager of Cleveland around 1947 and was forced from his job at Diebold in the equivalent season. He sooner or later come to operate for Northward Ridge Industrial inside Coudersport, Pennsylvania. His book, A Harijan, was published inside 1957 shortly before his demise due to the heart attack. a in all likelihood apocryphal story claims that he died even as he was astir to use the number 1 alcohol-dependent drink his life.

He was married 3 days, divorcing twice, & got exclusively a single tike (by adoption). He is buried within Lakeview Cemetery in Cleveland.

The total of television series and feature films have been mass produced (loosely) according to his life, inflating a image of Cape into a unafraid incorruptible law officer of legend. Better known come probably a 1950s/1960s TV series featuring Robert Stack as Ness & Brian De Palma's Oscar-winning film starring Kevin Costner as Ness; these were each titled The Untouchables . Eliot Ness was too a protagonist of Torso by Brian Michael Bendis.