| Eliot Ness is known as the man who got Al Capone, | | | | his task trying to catch Capone. He had been with |
| a reputation that followed him throughout his life and | | | | the Treasury Department as a prohibition agent for |
| exists today in films such as The Untouchables, | | | | two years at which time he earned a reputation for |
| books such as Torso and Chasing Eliot Ness and the | | | | being honest. While other agents routinely took bribes |
| television series The Untouchables from the early | | | | in order to look the other way, Ness felt it was his |
| 1960s. But was Ness really the man who put Capone | | | | duty to do the job he was hired to do. A job that |
| behind bars? | | | | paid less than three thousand dollars a year. |
| What many people do not know is that the main | | | | Taking on the biggest gangster in Chicago who, |
| business of Al Capone was beer. He had breweries all | | | | through the money made through his illegal activities |
| over the city of Chicago during prohibition. Although | | | | such as beer, gambling and prostitution, was able to |
| alcohol was illegal under the Volstead Act during this | | | | buy up most of the city, including the mayor Big Bill |
| time, bootleggers created what was known as | | | | Thompson, was no easy task for Ness. Knowing that |
| bathtub gin and booze was imported illegally from | | | | he could not trust anyone in Chicago to help him, he |
| Canada and other countries. Beer was brewed in | | | | hired outsiders who formed the team that became |
| breweries, many of them right in the Chicago area | | | | dubbed The Untouchables in 1930. The moniker came |
| and was a big money maker for the man they called | | | | from a reporter after Ness, who knew how to use |
| Scarface. | | | | the press to his advantage, spoke openly about |
| Eliot Ness was 27 years old when he started out in | | | | being bribed by Capone. |
