Perry - Eliot Ness: the rise and fall of an American hero

PENGUIN BOOKS

ELIOT NESS

Douglas Perry is the author of The Girls of Murder City: Fame, Lust, and the Beautiful Killers Who Inspired Chicago, which The Wall Street Journal hailed as a sexy, swaggering historical tale. He is an award-winning writer and editor whose work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, The Oregonian, the Faster Times, Tennis, and many other publications. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

Praise for Eliot Ness

Perry paints a riveting portrait of the real man behind the Untouchables icon.... Its a tragic true story more engrossing than the myth.

Parade

[A] new and invaluable biography... [Perry] does justice to his subject, a complicated and self-destructive human being, but one who was also admired by many. He is a tragic rather than heroic figure, and Perry nails him with style and compassion.

Chicago Tribune

Perry takes plenty of detours beyond Nesss work history, exploring fascinating topics like an infamous Cleveland serial killer case, the evolution of law-enforcement tactics, and the ever-present enticements wooing less-than-holy Chicago-area cops. But he doesnt need to wander afield when it comes to the dangerous missions by the Untouchables squad in Chicago: The action scenes are positively cinematic.... Smart, authoritative, and bristling with challenges to the status quo: Eliot Ness has more than a little in common with its remarkable subject.

The Christian Science Monitor

[Perry] hauntingly depicts the grimness of the Depression years.... Ness lived in interesting times, and the manner in which he cleaned up Clevelands corrupt culture was brave and remarkable. As Perry keenly notes, his successes seemed to give him a high that was nothing short of addictive.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer

With a shrewd mix of drama, insight, and objectivity, Perry artfully chronicles the life of the leader of the Untouchables squad and illuminates his subjects complicated worldview, passions, and faults.

Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Perry has spun a riveting tale.

The Washington Post

Dont believe what youve seen in the movies. The true story of Eliot Ness is better than the Hollywood version, and Douglas Perry tells it brilliantly, with hard-nosed reporting and graceful prose. This book is so good even Al Capone would have enjoyed it, though perhaps grudgingly.

Jonathan Eig, author of Get Capone: The Secret Plot That Captured Americas Most Wanted Gangster

Douglas Perry is telling three stories here, those of Eliot Ness, of criminal empires, and of America, each done with equal grace and skill. His superb research is matched by his understanding of Ness as a microcosm of these larger tales, and he re-creates a man and a slice of American history with marvelous results. A truly remarkable book.

Michael Koryta, New York Times bestselling author of The Prophet

Theres so much more to the complex life and career of Eliot Ness than the Untouchables and Al Capone, and now we finally have the whole fascinating story. Douglas Perry proves that well-researched truth always trumps one-dimensional mythology, especially when presented by a gifted storyteller. Eliot Ness is that rarityan authentic page-turner.

Jeff Guinn, author of Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson

Finally, you can forget the overdramatized accounts and Hollywood-hyped film portrayals of the past and read Douglas Perrys masterfully researched and honest tale of the crime-fighting life and personal struggles of the famed Eliot Ness. This is storytelling at its finest.

Carlton Stowers, two-time Edgar Award winner

Over timethanks in great part to Hollywood, television, and even comic booksNesss remarkable crime-fighting career has been reduced to his famous struggle against mobster Al Capone. At last here is Ness in his first, second, and final acts. A true account of his life that makes for a better story than Hollywood could have ever concocted.

James McGrath Morris, author of The Rose Man of Sing Sing

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First published in the United States of America by Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2014

Published in Penguin Books 2015

Copyright 2014 by Douglas Perry

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Photograph credits

1: ATF promotional pamphlet; 2: Courtesy of Cleveland Public Library; 3: Authors collection

Insert credits

Images 1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 20, 21, 22: Authors collection; 2, 12, 13, 14, 19: Cleveland State University, Special Collections; 3, 4: University of Chicago, Special Collections Research Center; 5: Courtesy Scott Sroka; 15, 17, 18, 24, 25: Cleveland Public Library; 16: Ohio Historical Society; 23: The Cleveland Museum of ArtIngalls Library

THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS HAS CATALOGED THE HARDCOVER EDITION AS FOLLOWS:

Perry, Douglas, 1968

Eliot Ness : the rise and fall of the man behind the Untouchables / Douglas Perry.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-698-15145-1

1. Ness, Eliot. 2. DetectivesUnited StatesBiography. 3. United States. Federal Bureau of Investigation I. Title.

HV7911.N45P47 2013

363.25092dc23

[B] 2013018406

Cover design: Ben Wiseman

Cover images: Eliot Ness, The Plain Dealer/Landov; Al Capone, Popperfoto/Getty Images; car, Chicago History Museum/Getty Images

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For my mother