After everything that has been written over the years, in 2008 there are still a lot of people who associate Eliot Ness and the "Untouchables" with the FBI.  While this is inaccurate, the media sources haven't helped many outsiders in clarifying this.  In fact, the media sources are "dead wrong"  on many occasions thus adding to the confusion. 

Ness and "The Untouchables" deserve a rightful place in the history of law enforcement and in the last several years, the city of Cleveland, Ohio has honored him for his contributions to that city.  His ashes, along with those of his wife and son were spread over a small water body there.

The existing evidence in FBI files clearly reveals Ness was cooperative with local Field Offices whenever in contact with them.  There was, however, the flamboyant side of Ness and his relations with the press that many in command positions in the 30's didn't like.  Even under today's standards, most Federal and State law enforcement organizations do not want random contact with the press by Department personnel.  In today's FBI, as in most Departments, contact with the press without proper authorization is a good way to get yourself fired.

Fact is, there wasn't a lot of love for Eliot Ness from J. Edgar Hoover.  Hoover and many in the FBI thought Ness to be a publicity hound and a preliminary look at Ness's ordeals support that contention to some extent.  Ness was a Prohibition Agent under the Treasury Department.  While he did submit an application to the FBI for Agent employment, it was turned down  in part due to salary differences and his relation with the press. 

Revelations about Ness and his book with writer Oscar Fraley ("The Untouchables") portray a Prohibition Agent, racked by alcohol according to some, basically trading his story and information for drinks from Fraley long after his career was over.  As a result, the credibility of many of the facts are now questioned.  Sometimes one has to wonder that if Fraley and Ness never met, would anything about the "Untouchables" ever have been written?

Crime Library.com notes, "The creation of the Ness legend began with Eliot himself. The Untouchables, the book by Ness and writer Oscar Fraley was for the most part true, but things embarrassing to Ness were left out and the recounting of the war against Capone was hyped and exaggerated. Ness did not think it was necessary to burden his readers with two failed marriages, a number of business failures and his abrupt resignation as Cleveland's safety director after his automobile accident. In fact, he allowed his readers to think that Betty Ness was the only wife he ever had.

While these details were not horribly serious in a commercial biography, they nonetheless were the first major written deviation from the facts of his life. Subsequent creative works would go far beyond the fact bending that existed in the Ness autobiography."

In my own opinion, one problem with the early "Untouchables" program with Robert Stack is that Hollywood took the liberty of having Ness and his group handling investigative areas that neither Ness nor Treasury had any jurisdiction over.  Like the later movie, the program was entertaining; factually though it was a mess.  The most recent movie with Kevin Costner is just as bad.  For mere openers, Frank Nitti didn't die anywhere close to being thrown off a roof and if you check into it, Ness and his wife had an adopted son.     

There's no doubt that Ness and his men pursued Capone and others with much vigor and proved they couldn't be bought off.  Having said that, it does appear that much of what Ness did, or did not do, may be lost to history and upon re-evaluation, may not even be accurate according to one recent book.

While I've never really pursued it, I do personally wonder why none of Ness' other men wrote anything about the "Untouchables" in an effort to enhance what they did.     

Other than the famous Fraley book about the "Untouchables" the other and most recent writing seems to be done by Paul Heimel, a former neighbor of Ness in Pennsylvania.  "Americans love a hero," writes Paul Heimel, author of a new book on Eliot Ness. "They're fascinated by a villian. Stories pitting good against evil capitivate them. That could explain their fascination with Eliot Ness." 

So goes the introduction to Heimel's, "Eliot Ness: The Real Story." (I have not read this book as of 2008)

Although Ness had nothing to do with the FBI, as you can see by this late '50's memo, the public and others still had him associated with the Bureau.  Obviously Hoover didn't want this.  Hoover's comment is at the bottom of this memo shown below.     

 

The memo you see here reveals Hoover cautioning a friend regarding Ness.