Eliot Ness In Trump’s America

In 1947, Ness returned to Cleveland and unsuccessfully ran for mayor. He never liked politics much, and his run for mayor was out of character. That’s where the painted sign in the picture came from.

Ness sank into obscurity and near poverty after this, failing at several different businesses. Like politics, business success eluded him, he was further sidelined by alcohol and heart disease. His friend, Oscar Fraley, a hustling sports writer, heard the stories Ness would tell about Chicago, Capone, and Prohibition, and begged him to write them down. Eliot scoured his memory and his scrapbooks, and he and Fraley collaborated on the proposed book. ‘The Untouchables’ was published in 1957, becoming a huge bestseller, with the hit TV series following soon after. Ness didn’t live to see it. He succumbed to heart disease on May 16, 1957, in Coudersport, Pennsylvania, far away from Chicago and Cleveland, while the book was still in galleys. He was just 52, leaving behind a wife and son.

His story though, did not end there. He lived on in a TV series in the person of Robert Stack, in the movies played by Kevin Costner, on stage, in book after book (bios, historical fiction, mysteries, graphic novels), and as an example of the kind of square-jawed boy scout that has become almost a parody.

He was a hero.

Eliot Ness is not only a hero, but he was someone to look up too; industrious, honest, hardworking, with a progressive view of policing and community that we could sorely use today. He had faults; he often refused to listen to anyone else, he was too restless, too impatient, and his judgement could be questionable at times. As he aged, and as alcohol took its effect, his judgement became even poorer. But…

But… that should not stain a bright legacy of good, or work done selflessly, or people helped and crooks caught.

Why am I writing about Eliot Ness? A man long dead, but mythologized to the status of American Folk Hero? Because…

Because we need to know that such men were real, that they lived among us, walked the streets, did their jobs with diligence, passion, and competence. We need to know that there was a time when we didn’t denigrate competence, expertise, listened to those who knew more and learned. Ness was a civil servant for his entire career, because he lived to serve, to help, and to take nothing for it but a paycheck and the occasional thanks (and a few headlines here and there). Ness believed in service, in progressive reform, in helping people and asking nothing for it. He stood tall.

In today’s America, Trump’s America, we need Eliot Ness, we need a new ‘Untouchables’ in government now more than ever.

Originally published at http://www.tompstewart.com on September 9, 2020.