Eliot Ness

 

Eliot Ness was a Prohibition agent in the United States, most known for his efforts to apprehend Al Capone and enforce Prohibition in Chicago. He was the leader of The Untouchables, a well-known Chicago-based law enforcement organization. His co-authorship of The Untouchables, a popular autobiography that was published shortly after his death, spawned multiple television and film adaptations that cemented Ness's posthumous reputation as an incorruptible crime fighter.

The Untouchables is a 1957 autobiographical memoir co-written by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley. The book follows Eliot Ness, a federal agent with the Bureau of Prohibition, as he fights crime in Chicago in the late 1920s and early 1930s with the support of a special team of agents nicknamed The Untouchables who were handpicked for their incorruptibility.

The book's main section is presented in first-person anecdotal form, as if taken directly from Ness's recollections; a foreword and afterword by Fraley provide historical context. In truth, although Ness authored a lengthy summary that Fraley used as a starting point, Fraley conducted most of the writing, made himself accessible for interviews, made his scrapbooks and other artefacts available for research purposes, and authorized the final version of the text shortly before his death.

The Untouchables, a popular television series that aired from 1959 to 1963, and the 1987 film The Untouchables were both inspired by the book.