Eliot Ness (41 page)

A bartender at a grimy dive told of
:
“Butcher’s Dozen: The Cleveland Torso Murders,”
Harper’s
, Nov. 1949.

Perhaps it was someone who reached “sexual
 . . . ”:
Cleveland Police Department report on torso murder investigation, dated Mar. 15, 1943, CPHS.

Merylo would write in an unpublished
:
Badal,
In the Wake of the Butcher
, 96.

“All is infinite Mind
: . . . ”:
Mary Baker Eddy,
Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures
(Boston: First Church of Christ, Scientist, 1994), 468.

The indictments charged that during Prohibition
:
“Harwood, Burns, 6 Others Indicted for Police Graft,” CP, Oct. 29, 1936; “Seven Police Deny Guilt in Graft Charge,” CP, Oct. 30, 1936.

Reporters rushed to Harwood’s home
:
“7 Policemen Deny Ness Had Cause to Take Them Off Duty,” “20 Policemen Hit by Ness Graft Report,” CPD, Oct. 6, 1936.

Just as with the Cadek trial, the bootleggers
:
Sources for the Harwood trial and its press coverage include: “Tell of Price Harwood Set on Protection,” CP, Dec. 9, 1936; “Relates Midnight Raid by Harwood,” “Testimony Heard in Harwood Case,” CPD, Dec. 10, 1936; “No Payoff, Cites Raid by Captain,” CPD, Dec. 11, 1936; “Captain Ends Defense with Bribe Denial,” CPD, Dec. 15, 1936; “Harwood Jury Deliberates Again Today,” CPD, Dec. 16, 1936; “Guilty Pleas Offer Hinted in Bribery,” “Victorious Safety Director; Aid Who Is Out,” CPD, Dec. 17, 1936; “The Inside of the News in Cleveland,” CPD, Dec. 20, 1936; “Says Harwood Pocketed $50,” CP, Dec. 10, 1936; “Says Harwood Encouraged Bootlegging after Repeal,” CP, Dec. 11, 1936; “Harwood Sobs as Prosecutor Denounces Him,” CP, Dec. 15, 1936; “Police Captain Convicted on Six Counts Charging He Took Graft from Bootleggers in Collinwood,” CP, Dec. 16, 1936; “Crime Buster Ness Shares Trial Spotlight,” CN, Oct. 2, 1940; Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, State of Ohio v. Michael J. Harwood, no. 46553; Heimel,
Eliot Ness: The Real Story
, 142.

Without informing his lawyer, the newly
:
“Women Used in Trap to Lure Witnesses,” CP, Oct. 12, 1937; ENP, reel 2, unlabeled news clippings.

As the jury filed out of the room
:
“Jury Finds Burns Guilty of Bribery,” “No Hard Feelings, Burns Tells Ness at Trial End,” CPD, Mar. 11, 1937.

Neil McGill prided himself
:
McGill and Perry,
Court Cases of Eliot Ness
, 27–28.

The second time around, Eliot brought
:
news clipping, CPD, May 26, 1937, ENP, reel 2.

Flynn admitted privately to a friend
:
news clipping, CPD, Dec. 17, 1936, ENP, reel 2.

When Eliot returned to the office
:
“Flynn Overruled On Police Choice,” CPD, Aug. 4, 1936.

In just a few short months in the job
:
“Three Out,” CPD, July 31, 1936; “Victorious Safety Director; Aid Who Is Out,” CPD, Dec. 17, 1936.

Reporters surrounded him
:
magazine clipping,
Investigator
, May 1988, ATF.

When he began to gear up
:
Container 383, Notes folder, HHB.

Eliot, though he had never been involved
:
“Slogan,” CPD, Oct. 14, 1937.

With Burton safely ensconced in office
:
“The Inside of the News in Cleveland,” CPD, Nov. 28, 1937.

“By now the entire department knew
 . . . ”:
Porter,
Cleveland
, 99.

Even the Ohio Supreme Court, after rejecting
:
Condon, “The Last American Hero;” “Ness’ Cases Win Weygandt Praise,” CPD, Feb. 19, 1938.

When the judge read the verdict
:
“Stotts Wins Acquittal in Bribe Trial,” CPD, May 6, 1938.

Chapter 22: Social Workers

“Please remember,” he told
:
“Calls Sum Portion of Week’s Cut,” CPD, Mar. 1, 1936; “Talk Up and Oust Gangs, Says Ness,” CPD, Feb. 5, 1937.

Eliot would rent a fleet
:
“Stotts Wins Acquittal in Bribe Trial,” CPD, May 6, 1938.

Each patrol car would be equipped
:
Unlabeled radio contract, CPHS.

Thirty-two new cars, Eliot announced
:
Ness, Eliot, “Radio-Directed Mobile Police,”
American City
, Nov. 1939.

He thought policemen should be intimately
:
Alder,
Lie Detectors
, 21.

As an experiment, he sent
:
“Cleveland Woos Its Young Gangs into Clubhouses,” CT, July 21, 1939.

“The leader is 24 years old
 . . . ”:
Container 372, folder 1937–1942, subfolder Youth, Statement for Rotary International Convention, June 22, 1938, HHB.

“They meet in a pool room
 . . . ”:
Ibid.

He cornered gang members
:
“Cleveland Woos Its Young Gangs into Clubhouses,” CT,
July 21, 1939; container 372, folder 1937–1942, subfolder Youth, Statement for Rotary International Convention, June 22, 1938, HHB.

A tough kid from the Flats
:
“Nab Filkowski, 5 Others in Break,” CPD, Dec. 8, 1936.

Eliot, the scientific policeman
:
unlabeled news clipping, CPD, Mar. 3, 1932, ENP, reel 2; container 372, folder 1937–1942, subfolder Youth, Statement for Rotary International Convention, June 22, 1938, HHB.

“He had an instinct about children
 . . . ”:
“My Husband, Eliot Ness,”
TV Guide
, May 11, 1961.

Vollmer had kept a city map
:
Alder,
Lie Detectors
, 21.

He established an accident-prevention
:
“Traffic Death Toll Slashed over America,”
Cumberland Evening Times
, Dec. 30, 1938; unlabeled news clippings and memos, ENP, reel 2.

“At the end of the month or at a designated
 . . . ”:
“Contemplated Division of Territory for Policing the City of Cleveland/Reorganization Police Department,” by Eliot Ness, 1938, CPHS; “Supplementary Order Relating to the General Duties of Patrol Car Crews/Reorganization Police Department,” 1938, CPHS.

Philip Porter wrote that
:
Porter,
Cleveland
, 95.

“He was not too opinionated
 . . . ”:
“Ness Recalled as Quiet Enforcer,” CPD, April 30, 1960.

An internal history of the
:
Untitled department history, CPHS.

Just eighteen months after
:
“Crime in Cleveland: The Law Finally Catches Up With Labor Racketeers,”
Newsweek
, Mar. 21, 1938.

Chapter 23: The Virtues of Courage

On a piercing June day in 1937
:
Something About the Author: Autobiography Series
, vol. 1, 226.

“She wasn’t beautiful
 . . . ”:
AI, Ann Durell, June 2, 2011.

Evaline had bought a train ticket
:
Something About the Author: Autobiography Series
, vol. 1, 226–27; AI, Ann Durell, June 2, 2011.

She had long suspected
:
AI, Maxine Huntington, Sept. 5, 2011.

The job communicated something
:
AI, Arnold Sagalyn, June 9, 2011.

Eliot’s dedication to his work
:
unlabeled news clipping, CP, Dec. 12, 1935, ENP, reel 2.

On good nights, he would stretch out
:
Tucker,
Eliot Ness and the Untouchables
, 13.

When Matowitz assigned Eliot a bodyguard
:
Jedick, “Eliot Ness.”

Eliot’s obsessive commitment
:
“Ness Goes to Chicago,” CPD, Nov. 8, 1937; unlabeled news clippings, ENP, reel 2, news clippings.

“WHEREAS, it is at a mother’s knee
 . . . ”:
ENP, reel 2.

Chapter 24: Gun, Blackjack, and Brass Knuckles

“In the old days, it was nothing
 . . . ”:
“The Inside of the News in Cleveland,” CPD, Jan. 31, 1937.

he had turned his staff’s attention
:
David Cowles oral history, Sept. 6, 1983, CPHS; “Obtain Extortion Confession,” CPD, Jan. 19, 1938; McGill and Perry,
Court Cases of Eliot Ness
, 49–51; AI, Arnold Sagalyn, May 22, 2011.

“We had never heard of
 . . . ”:
“Herman Pirchner,” CPD, Dec. 4, 1983.

George Mulvanity, still over at
:
AI, Francis Mulvanity, July 7, 2011.

The gangster Angelo Lonardo
:
Lonardo.

The most basic policy game
:
McGill and Perry,
Court Cases of Eliot Ness
, 30.

Policy and clearing house had started
:
“Grand Jury Acts Today on ‘Policy,’” “Hill Mob Bullets Won Policy War,” CPD, April 26, 1939; “Indict 23 of Mayfield Mob in Policy Extortion Racket,” “Policy Conquered with Guns, Force,” “Records of Mayfield Mob Indicted in Policy Probe,” CP, April 26, 1939.

Jacob Collins, a thirty-one-year-old
:
“Testimony Links Sciria to Policy,” CPD, Nov. 3, 1938.

The
Press
labeled them
:
“Indict 23 of Mayfield Mob in Policy Extortion Racket,” “Angelo Sciria Beat Killing ‘Rap,’” CP, April 26, 1939.

“Killings were followed by retaliatory
 . . . ”:
McGill and Perry,
Court Cases of Eliot Ness
, 20.

The “thick-necked, thick-fingered
 . . . ”:
“Policy Conquered with Guns, Force,” “Angelo Sciria Beat Killing ‘Rap,’” CP, April 26, 1939.

The men conducting the initiation
:
Lonardo.

By the early 1930s, in fact
:
Ibid.

“It is debatable whether gambling
 . . . ”:
Condon,
Cleveland
, 236; “Choke Crime by Its Purse, Ness Urges,” CPD, Jan. 23, 1936.

“Two hundred thousand dollars
 . . . ”:
“Calls Sum Portion of Week’s Cut,” CPD, Mar. 1, 1936.

“The mild, unorganized and personal
 . . . ”:
“Dice at Clubs Are Loaded, Ness Says,” CPD, Oct. 4, 1940.

“He got information from informers”
:
“Ness Recalled as Quiet Enforcer,” CPD, April 30, 1960.

In one interview session
:
“Admits Mistaking Lawyer for Birns,” CPD, Aug. 6, 1942; “State Ready to Bring Gang History Up to Recent Days,” CPD, Dec. 8, 1949.

Birns cultivated a pleasant, roguish
:
news clipping, CN, Feb. 12, 1937, ENP, reel 2.

Eliot decided to harass Birns
:
“Shondor Birns, in Jail, Sings Blues,” CPD, Feb. 11, 1937.

On January 6, 1938, police took over
:
“Policy Raid Stops 5 Big-time Games,” CPD, Jan. 7, 1938.

“Cleveland situation very critical”
:
Ibid.

“To the Editor of the
Press
 . . . ”:
“To the Editor of the
Press
,” CP, May 23, 1937, ENP, reel 2.

He snipped Pony Boy’s letter
:
Ibid.

Chapter 25: Against Racketeers

Back in September 1936
:
“Cullitan Pledges Study of ‘Racket,’” CPD, Sept. 3, 1936.

Eliot had met Campbell
:
“Testifies of Added ‘Gift’ to Campbell,” CPD, Feb. 19, 1938.

“Being union officials gives
 . . . ”:
McGill and Perry,
Court Cases of Eliot Ness
, 32–33.

He believed Campbell, McDonnell
:
“Convict Labor Racketeers of Extortion Plot,” CT, Mar. 9, 1938.

Over several months, the safety director and
:
“Jury Will Sift Labor Rackets in Cleveland, O.,” CT, Nov. 18, 1937.

“These people had us just where
 . . . ”:
“Fight to Stop Labor Rackets in Cleveland,” CT, Nov. 24, 1937.

A critic once described Arthur
:
Grann, 15.

Campbell snarled, “Go to hell
 . . . ”:
“Four Union Chiefs Indicted in Racket,”
New York Times
, Dec. 21, 1937.