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The Untouchables were special agents, also known as "dry agents," of the U.S. Bureau of Prohibition led by Eliot Ness, who, from 1930 to 1932, worked to end Al Capone's illegal activities by aggressively enforcing Prohibition laws against his organization.
- Prohibition
- The Bureau of Prohibition
- The Real Untouchables
- Who Was The Real Elliot Ness?
- The Tax Strategy
- The End of Capone & Ness
Prohibition lasted from 1920 to 1933 in the United States. The outlawing of liquor gave leverage, power, and wealthto organized criminals like Capone, who during the period more or less controlled all of Chicago. De Palma’s film begins with a reporter asking Capone why he does simply declare himself the mayor. In January 1919, the 18th Amendment to...
Throughout the 1920s, members of the Prohibition Unit, often with assistance from local law enforcement, went to work cracking down on bootleggers. The Mob Museum notes that some of these agents earned national fame, and some were covered in movie theater newsreels. In 1930, the Prohibition Unit moved from the U.S. Treasury Department to the Justic...
One of the stars of the Bureau was Special Agent Eliot Ness. At just 26-years old, he was appointed the new investigative chief of the Bureau’s Chicago office. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Ness’s age was precisely why the Bureau was interested in hiring men like him. Their youth meant they were “extremely dedicated and unbribable.” And...
Like his forbearers, Ness, too, was fond of the press, as De Palma shows in the film. Historian Alex von Tunzelmann notes in an essay for The Guardian that Ness “was a self-publicist of the first order.” But, as von Tunzelmann continues, that was pretty much one of the only accurate depictions of the real Ness in the film. In 2014, Neel Tucker wrot...
Ness was a highly influential law enforcement official, often credited with helping to modernize investigative work. And he did severe damage to Capone’s operation in Chicago. The truth, however, becomes murky when discussing just how much credit Ness deserves. In the film, Ness is at the center of the action: working with the attorneys, coming up ...
The Post notes that despite Ness’ earlier claim about Capone calling for his death, “by all accounts, the pair never saw one another in person until his court appearance.” Capone spent much of his sentence in Alcatraz. While at the famous penitentiary in San Francisco, he suffered from syphilis and mental deterioration. He received parole due to hi...
Eliot Ness (April 19, 1903 – May 16, 1957) was an American Prohibition agent known for his efforts to bring down Al Capone while enforcing Prohibition in Chicago. He was leader of a team of law enforcement agents nicknamed The Untouchables, handpicked for their incorruptibility.
In 1957, a former federal law-enforcement agent published The Untouchables, which became one of the century's most famous crime stories. The rat-a-tat tommy-gun tale of its author, Eliot Ness,...
May 16, 2017 · On May 16, 1957, 54 year old ex-lawman Eliot Ness, he of future television and movie fame as leader of the “Untouchables,” died nearly broke.
- Major Dan
- 7 min
The Untouchables premiered on June 2, 1987, in New York City, and went into general release on June 3, 1987, in the United States. The film grossed $106.2 million worldwide and received generally positive reviews from critics.
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Dec 27, 2017 · In 1959, CBS aired a two-part Untouchables special, starring iron-jawed Robert Stack as Ness, and it made such a ratings splash that it was repackaged for movie theaters as The Scarface Mob.
