Ness for Mayor 22. The Ness Legend 24.

In Ness s book The Untouchables , he estimates that Capone had at least twenty breweries in operation. Initially Ness selected about fifty men, which he quickly whittled down to fifteen.

Some have claimed that Ness was an egomaniac who excessively craved attention and that his crusade against Capone was the surest way to get that attention.

• Ness was always a man of very strong ideals.
• Eliot Ness was in many ways a frontier sheriff, who craved action more than publicity.
• One of their first skirmishes in the war was Ness s plan to close down eighteen stills located in Chicago Heights in one night.

Given the poor reputation of the average Prohibition agent, Ness s agents made sure that none of the men in these raiding parties ever had a chance to get to a telephone.

Ness had chosen as his target the Cozy Corners Saloon, the brain center of the Chicago Heights operation as well as a supply center for many major Midwestern cities. Now with that successful raid to boost their confidence, Ness and his men took aim at Capone s major operation the breweries.

Ness planned the raid for ten fifteen in the evening. Ness broke the door lock with an ax and Chapman pried the lock off with a crowbar.

Ness shot the lock several times and finally it gave.