Notable Cleveland stop for famous 20th century lawmen

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - Eliot Ness made his reputation in Chicago in 1931.

“He was famous for taking down Al Capone when he was a treasury agent so he was a Fed and that really made him a very public figure,” said Thomas Kelly, author of “Cleveland 200″

“They got the books from one of his henchmen and they said, ‘We want to get him for murder but we can take him down from these books, we can get him for income tax evasion,’” continued Kelly.

Ness gained a reputation for his inability to be bribed, earning him and his team the nickname The Untouchables.

He was recruited to the City of Cleveland in 1937.

“Cleveland went after Ness to be in charge of everything, the Safety Director of Cleveland and he turned, and Cleveland was riddled with corruption,” said Kelly.

“He was a great Safety Director,” he continued. “He rebuilt the police force, made it a real police force, he ended all the corruption, he was great for Cleveland. He chased all the bootleggers.”

Ness declared war on the mob, orchestrated a big bust outside the city in Mayfield, and brought a professionalism to the police force, plainly marking police cars and adding lights and sirens.

But, most notably, he was unable to solve the Torso Murders, committed by a serial killer known as The Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run. The butcher killed and dismembered at least a dozen people between 1935 and 1938, crimes unsolved to his day.

Ness left Cleveland in 1944, returned to run the Diebold Company, and then took a shot a elected office in 1947.

“He did run for mayor and he was shocked when he lost,” Kelly recounts. “He had some problems late, turns out even Eliot Ness was tempted by demon rum, and got into an accident and his career kinda faded at the end but he had a great run and he did really good things for Cleveland.”

The man known as a straight-laced bootleg buster became a high profile social drinker, even got in a car accident while drunk, and died at the age of 54 in Pennsylvania before he became a legend.

“It’s the ‘Untouchables’ that made him super famous,” muses Kelly. “It’s too bad he didn’t live to see it.”

Portrayed by actor Robert Stack in “The Untouchables” television series which ran from 1959 to 1963 and Kevin Costner in the 1987 movie, Ness’ legend lives.

“He was a real lawman,” Kelly said. “He enforced the law and expected everybody else to enforce the law. He was really kind of a Boy Scout.”

“He talked like a Boy Scout. Like, hey, we gotta do the right thing, we gotta do the right thing for America and for Cleveland and we gotta obey the law..”

Ness is buried at Lakeview Cemetery on Cleveland’s east side.