When the company relocated from Cleveland to Coudersport, Pa., Ness moved with his third wife, artist Elisabeth Andersen Seaver, and adopted son, Robert, into a modest home there and he seemed to be making an attempt at a normal life, but he soon returned to his heavy drinking. Eliot Ness took his badge incredibly seriously, and no further proof was needed than the fact that he always carried his Prohibition Bureau rule book in his jacket pocket, and that he spent his free time searching for speakeasies. Rank: chief investigator. Eliot Ness was an American Prohibition-era law enforcement agent. Ness was married to Edna Stahle from 1929 to 1938, illustrator Evaline Michelow (1911–1986) from 1939 to 1945, and artist Elisabeth Andersen Seaver (1906–1977) from 1946 until his death in 1957. Children: Robert Ness. When The Untouchables became a weekly television series in 1959, the producers couldn’t just have Ness battling Capone each week, especially since he was defeated in the movie. At Factinate, we’re dedicated to getting things right. He unsuccessfully ran for Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio in 1947 as a … Please submit feedback to [email protected]. She was his third wife. Ness’s business partner and drinking buddy was friends with Oscar Fraley, a journalist for the United Press International, and introduced him to Ness. In 1947 they adopted a baby boy, Robert. One of Ness’s friends, who was an informant, got shot in the face four times. Ness was married to Edna Staley (1900-1988) from 1929 to 1938; children’s author and illustrator Evaline Ness (1911-1986) from 1939 to 1945; and artist Elisabeth Andersen Seaver (1906-1977) from 1946 until his death. He was married three times and divorced twice. At the time of his death, Ness’s name had become so forgotten that The New York Times didn’t even publish an obituary. His ashes were scattered in one of the small ponds on the grounds of Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland. He taught Ness how to drive and how to shoot, and the importance of honesty above all else. In 1928, Eliot Ness was transferred from the treasury department to the Justice Department to work with the Prohibition Bureau, which was responsible for cleaning up bootlegging, and by proxy, putting an end to a lucrative business for Chicago’s gangsters, and especially Al Capone. He ended up suffering a humiliating loss of 2-1 to the incumbent. Our credibility is the turbo-charged engine of our success. Want to tell us to write facts on a topic? Universally Hated. They claimed that his reputation is seriously inflated, and he doesn’t really deserve the honor. After Eliot’s wife Elisabeth’s death in 1977, his son Robert’s widow held onto the ashes of all three Nesses. Not believing that the book would in any way become a success, he gave up all rights to the book and Fraley went ahead and published it even without Ness’s approval. From Breaking Bad to The Simpsons, Ness has been the subject of several pop culture references over the years, with one of the best being a 1963 Warner Brothers animated short film where Bugs Bunny plays Elegant Mess, leader of the Unmentionables. Ness may not have had movie-star good looks, but his efforts to take down Capone earned him celebrity status. He was famous for his roles to bring down Al Capone and push Prohibition laws in Chicago, Illinois. We’re always looking for your input! Sadly, the truncated life of such a majestic property was not that unusual in Cleveland Heights, or anywhere for that matter. What is the traditional purpose of the dragon dance during celebrations of Chinese New Year? He primarily conducted background checks and credit verification for people applying for insurance. In 1947, Ness poured all of his savings into what ended up being a failed campaign to become mayor of Cleveland. No clan is left untouched, and even families that seem happy and normal on…. After graduating from the University of Chicago with a degree in economics, Eliot Ness got a job as an investigator for the Retail Credit Company. Cleveland was the second-worst American city for traffic-related deaths and injuries with a staggering 250 deaths per year. Luckily for Ness, he himself was never injured, which makes untouchable a fitting nickname in a different way. Occupation: law officer. Stack, who earned an Emmy for the role, described Ness as “just a guy facing death without heroics.”. While some historians have claimed they never met, according to the May 4, 1932 issue of The Chicago Tribune, Ness was one of the agents to accompany Capone to the train to prison, and they have a photo to back it up. Mother of Robert Eliot Ness. When she's not reading or writing, she enjoys spending time with her long-time partner and her dog. Works by Evaline and Elisabeth … From petty paybacks to insane acts of karma, these bitter people somehow found the most ingenious ways…. The following year, the federal government officially recognized the Bureau, which should have been great for Ness—except for the fact that they raised the minimum age for an agent from 24 to 25. Spouse: Elisabeth Andersen Seaver (m. 1946–1957), Evaline McAndrew (m. 1939–1945), Edna Staley (m. 1929–1938) Children: Robert Ness. A casualty of Ness’s work was his personal life. Catherine of Aragon was King Henry VIII’s first wife and longest-lasting Queen of England. He also had an adopted son, Robert (1946–1976). He caused a scandal with the numerous affairs that led to his divorce from his first wife Edna, and after the divorce, he started drinking heavily and spent a lot of time in night clubs. With 34 agents under his direction, he started investigating dishonest cops. Ness byla vdaná za Ednu Stahle v letech 1929 až 1938, ilustrátorku Evaline Michelow (1911–1986) v letech 1939 až 1945 a umělkyni Elisabeth Andersen Seaver (1906–1977) v letech 1946 až do své smrti v roce 1957. We want our readers to trust us. Charles Schwartz, the reporter who coined the name, took it from a news story about Mahatma Gandhi’s efforts to free the people at the lowest level of India’s social class system, also called the untouchables. For the most part, the Untouchables truly were untouchable, but in 1932, Ness learned that one of his agents, Barney Cloonan, was hiding a dark secret. Madame de Pompadour was the alluring chief mistress of King Louis XV, but few people know her dark history—or the chilling secret shared by her and Louis. - 2017 . For all of the integrity that Ness brought to his work, his personal life was a different story. I knew that she was going to take it badly, but I had no idea about the insane lengths she would go to just to get revenge and mess with my life. He was always in the news, and he could be counted on to present a polished image and offer reporters a good quote for their stories. Wife of Hugh Davis Seaver Elisabeth Andersen Seaver (m. 1946) Eliot Ness (April 19, 1903 – May 16, 1957) was an American Prohibition agent. Ness, who was a 20-year-old student at the time, lived with his parents, way down at the other end of the street. From a young age, Eliot Ness wanted to be just like his brother-in-law Alexander Jamie, whom he greatly admired. All Rights Reserved. He had his car stolen three separate times, his office phone line was tapped, his parents watched, and three assassination attempts were made on Ness as well—but that wasn’t the worst part. He was educated at the University of Chicago, graduating in 1925 with a degree in economics and a member of Sigma Alph… He had a reputation of being a genuine law-and-order guy, he was reliable, honest, and most importantly, had zero tolerance for lawlessness and corruption. When Eliot Ness joined the Prohibition Bureau, he was 23 years old and he did quite well carving out a name for himself there. They moved in 1928. Please enable JavaScript in your browser's settings to use this part of Geni. Ness’s first task as Public Safety Director in 1935 was to clean up the totally corrupt police department. By 1930, Chicago had become one of the most crime-ridden cities in the US and attorney Frank J. Loesch of the Chicago Crime Commission appealed to the newly elected President Herbert Hoover to do something about Al Capone. As a youth, he worked in his father’s bakery and kept a paper route, demonstrating that he definitely wasn’t afraid of a little hard work! Soon after, he moved back to Cleveland where he unsuccessfully ran for mayor in 1947. Although Ness and the Untouchables didn’t personally bring him down, they did shut down 19 distilleries and breweries worth about $1,000,000 and seized 20 stills. He also had an adopted son, Robert (1946–1976). - 2017. Ness, only being 24 at the time, was driven to desperate lengths: he changed his birth year from 1903 to 1902 so that he could meet the minimum age requirement and remain in the bureau. On May 16, 1957 at age 54 Ness died from a massive heart attack, this a month before "The Untouchables" was published. The marriage ended with his death of a heart attack in 1957. He also had an adopted son Robert (1946–1976). Eliot Ness was born on April 19, 1903, in Chicago, Illinois. The Untouchables book was such a success that Desilu Productions (Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz’s production company) optioned the story for a two-part special starring Robert Stack as Ness. With funding from an anonymous group of businessmen known as the “Secret Six,” he worked to form his own version of the Untouchables in Cleveland. In Cleveland, a popular story about Eliot Ness claims that the bullet holes in the bar of the Great Lakes Brewing Co.’s brewpub were caused either by bullets meant for him or fired by him. It may not have been that exciting, but at least he had lots of time to complete a master’s degree in Criminology. Personal Life & Legacy Ness was married thrice. Al Capone was used to paying people off to stay ahead of and above the law so it never occurred to him that Ness and his team couldn’t be bought. When Fraley sent Ness a galley copy of the book, Ness just couldn’t bring himself to agree to what he’d written. Elizabeth Seaver - Indian Chief and Family by Elizabeth Seaver (1899-1970, American), ceramic offered by 2220 Antiques on InCollect He dropped dead of a heart attack at age 54, leaving behind an estate that was an estimated $8,000 in debt. Being that Eliot Ness was still a relatively green agent and not even 30, he probably seemed an odd choice to lead such an important task force. Capone offered Ness and his agents a weekly sum of $2,000 to look the other way, but they refused the bribe—despite the fact that it would have been almost as much as they made in a year. Their results were astonishing. He found his initial group of men by searching personnel files and asking his brother-in-law for his recommendations. His home paper The Chicago Tribune did mention it, but got his age wrong. Spouse: Edna Staley (1929-1938), Evaline Michelow (1939 to 1945), Elisabeth Andersen Seaver (1946-1957) Children: Robert Ness; Ness was born in the “Crime Capital of the World,” Chicago, IL, the youngest of five children. Edna Stahle ( m. 1929; div. As part of his efforts to clean up the police department, Ness implemented several new procedures for the department to make sure that his new officers would be well-equipped to do their jobs. Ouch! Not a bad way to spend his time. On January 31, 1946, Ness married the former Elisabeth Anderson Seaver. Trivia. Office Held: Director of Safety, Cleveland, Ohio. As an adult, his tastes shifted to Shakespeare and the classics, and he was said to have spent evenings lying on his floor reading and listening to opera. Death Ness was married to Edna Staley from 1929 to 1938, illustrator Evaline Michelow (1911–1986) from 1939 to 1945, and artist Elisabeth Andersen Seaver (1906–1977) from 1946 until his death in 1957. Later in life, he attended the University of Chicago where he earned his Bachelor's Degree studying law, business and economics. No wonder he was considered a goody-goody. His posthumous memoir The Untouchables led to multiple TV and film portrayals, solidifying Ness’s reputation as an incorruptible crime fighter. The short would probably never get past the censors today, but it was a pretty hilarious spoof of Ness and the gangster underworld of Chicago. No suspect was ever named or brought to trial, but Ness still tried to claim credit for solving the murders. From those 50 names, he selected his first group of 10. The verse rapped by Dr. Dre refers to California as the “Wild Wild West” and as a “state that’s untouchable like Eliot Ness.”. It turned out Ness’s star had faded more than he believed, and his underestimation of the power of organized labor also helped lose him the campaign. Elisabeth Andersen Seaver, Evaline McAndrew, Edna Staley: Children: Robert Ness: Parents: Emma Ness, Peter Ness: Nominations: Academy Award for Best Original Music Score, Academy Award for Best Production Design, Academy Award for Best Costume Design, Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score, César Award for Best Foreign Film, BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, BAFTA … “We have no place for traitors in the police department.” Cleveland’s “Boy Wonder” turns over evidence to Cuyahoga County prosecutor Frank T. Cullitan. A popular misconception about Ness is that he was an actual FBI agent, but in truth, while he did work for Director J. Edgar Hoover for about a month before the Bureau of Prohibition was disbanded, his application to become an agent was turned down because of his strong relationship with the press and a disagreement over salary. Eliot Ness was born in Chicago in 1903 to Norwegian immigrants Peter Ness, a baker, and Emma King Ness, the daughter of a British engineer and Norwegian dressmaker. Who knows what Ness would have done without his brother-in-law’s influence. He had an adopted son named Robert. He even started receiving fan mail at the Prohibition Bureau Offices in Chicago, which certainly helped stoke his ego. Although Catherine's successor Queen Anne Boleyn suffered an infamously dark fate, Aragon's own life was somehow even more tragic. The strip debuted in 1931 during Capone’s trial and incorporated many of the real-life techniques such as wiretapping and lie detector tests that Ness helped pioneer. Catherine of Aragon is now infamous as King Henry VIII’s rejected queen—but few people know her even darker history. Elisabeth had once been a very popular artist at the Cowan Pottery Studios which had closed in 1933 during the Depression. His investigations led to 15 officers being brought to trial and another 200 crooked police being forced to resign. From this, he caught the bug and joined the Chicago Branch of the US Treasury Department in 1927. They were so broke that his widow couldn’t’ afford to have him buried, and had to have the body cremated and returned to her and her son in Cleveland. It must have worked because within 18 months, crime in the city dropped 25% and arrests and convictions increased by 20%. With tear gas wafting through the air, strikers at the Fisher Body plant hurl stones at police. With his career in law enforcement basically over, Ness and his second wife, illustrator Evaline Michelow, moved to Washington DC, where he took a job working for a federal agency that aimed to end prostitution and reduce the amount of STIs in the US military. His parents, both of whom were Norwegian immigrants, operated a bakery. Please let us know if a fact we’ve published is inaccurate (or even if you just suspect it’s inaccurate) by reaching out to us at [email protected]. While Eliot Ness was busy making headlines in Chicago for his crime-fighting efforts, cartoonist Chester Gould took inspiration from the newspaper stories about Ness and the Untouchables and created the popular comic strip detective Dick Tracy. To create enough material for a weekly show, they had to invent other bad guys for Ness to fight, and his repertoire expanded to other gangsters and a German diplomat trying to spread Nazism and drugs in the United States. Ness collapsed and died at his home in Coudersport, Pennsylvania, of a heart attack on May 16, 1957; he was 54. As a child, Ness was known to be a better dresser than most of the other children in his school, earning him the nickname “elegant mess.”. Your suggestions can be as general or specific as you like, from “Life” to “Compact Cars and Trucks” to “A Subspecies of Capybara Called Hydrochoerus Isthmius.” We’ll get our writers on it because we want to create articles on the topics you’re interested in. Ex-wife of Eliot Ness In a 1995 song titled California Love Ness is given a nod by the writer/rapper Tupac. Despite his young age and inexperience, he had some important qualities. Madame de Pompadour didn't just share King Louis XV's bed, she also shared his power. Ness had an adopted son named Robert. Contrary to the film/television versions of Eliot Ness, he was not a big fan of guns in real life. He was married to Edna Staley from 1929 to 1938, then to illustrator Evaline Michelow from 1939 to 1945, and finally to artist Elisabeth Andersen Seaver from 1946 until his death in 1957. In December 1935, a 33-year-old Ness was sworn in as the youngest safety director in the city’s history. Spouse: Edna Staley (1929-1938), Evaline Michelow (1939 to 1945), Elisabeth Andersen Seaver (1946-1957) Children: Robert Ness; Ness was born in the “Crime Capital of the World,” Chicago, IL, the youngest of five children. The festival has included a parade, Roaring 20s activities, a talent show, historical tours, and for the first time in 2019, a reunion of descendants of the untouchable agents who served with Ness. © Copyright 2021 by Factinate.com. During his tenure as Safety director of Cleveland, the city was being terrorized by a brutal murderer known as the Torso Killer. Edna Staley, Evaline Ness, Elisabeth Andersen Seaver. It wasn’t until 1998, just over 30 years after Ness’s death that he, his wife Elisabeth, and his son Robert were brought physically together and given a formal funeral ceremony and their ashes scattered on Wade Lake in Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland. He also had an adopted son Robert (1946–1976). Nobody knows for sure whether Ness would even have frequented a place like that, but the legend led the tavern to name an amber lager after him. He was the leader of a famous team of law enforcement agents from Chicago, nicknamed The Untouchables. He adopted one son, Robert, with his third wife Elisabeth Andersen Seaver. Ness’s first task after being selected as the leader of the group that came to be known as the “Untouchables” was to find men who would be honest and incorruptible to battle organized crime and Al Capone. Recommended Cities. Eventually, he had to resort to taking odd jobs to support himself. This remarkable ceramic sculpture, probably the best work of Elisabeth Andersen Seaver, one of the famous Cleveland School ceramicists -- depicts an Indian chief with full feather headdress, with his wife and child, all in snowy-white dress. The nickname “The Untouchables” comes from an unlikely source. His third and final marriage was to Elisabeth Andersen Seaver in 1946. It was successful enough that later that year Stack reprised his role for an ABC TV series, and it became the second-most popular show on TV next to Gunsmoke. Factinate is a fact website that is dedicated to finding and sharing fun facts about science, history, animals, films, people, and much more. However, despite our best efforts, we sometimes miss the mark. Pictures never lie, right? Below are 50 untouchable facts about the famous agent. One person who wasn’t at all happy with the glorification of Ness’s story was FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, who didn’t appreciate Ness being treated like a celebrity and overshadowing the bureau. Eliot Ness was good friends with his brother-in-law Alexander Jamie, who was married to older sister Clara. The headline of the Plain Dealer, Cleveland’s local paper, read “Facts First, Then Talk, Says Ness” and reported that he intended to be “as conservative as possible” until he’d educated himself fully on the goings-on of the police and fire departments. Department of Painting and Sculpture: Artists Records in The Museum of Modern Art Archives The Museum of Modern Art Archives 11 West 53 Street Overall, they dumped thousands of gallons of beer and alcohol, putting a huge dent in his operations and his income. Prohibition wasn’t exactly popular in the US, and possibly the only thing more … Related posts: Who was the U.S. President when Queen Elizabeth II ascended to the throne? Long before Eliot Ness took up the task of bringing down Al Capone, he and Capone lived on the same street for about five years—unbeknownst to both. When the war ended, Ness returned to Cleveland, now married to his third wife, Elisabeth Andersen Seaver, a sculptor. Prohibition wasn’t exactly popular in the US, and possibly the only thing more unpopular were the prohibition agents. The paper also predicted that he’d create a “tremendous explosion with after-effects to last for years,” which he totally did. Thanks for your help! Ness was married to Edna Stahle from 1929 to 1938, illustrator Evaline Michelow (1911–1986) from 1939 to 1945, and artist Elisabeth Andersen Seaver (1906–1977) from 1946 until his death in 1957. Elizabeth Secor Anderson (born 5 December 1959) is an American philosopher. Apr 9 1906 - Spink, South Dakota, United States, Albert Andersson, Helga Maria Elisabet Andersson, Helga Irene Andersson, Astrid Maria Andersson, Apr 9 1906 - Redfield, Spink County, South Dakota, USA, Nov 4 1977 - Orange County, California, USA, Apr 4 1906 - Spink, South Dakota, United States, Nov 4 1977 - Orange, California, United States, Redfield, Spink County, South Dakota, USA, Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio, United States of America. In fact, he was often known to wear just his holster and not carry a gun while at work. Some questionable actions in his investigations along with his drinking and womanizing seriously damaged his reputation, and he was eventually forced to resign his position when facts of an attempted cover-up of a hit-and-run car accident came to light. Death Other relatives: Alexander Jamie (brother-in-law) Career. : 124–125, 201. In January 2014, two American senators from Illinois and Ohio suggested renaming the headquarters of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Washington, DC the “Eliot Ness ATF building.” If you go with the mythical version of Ness that most people are familiar with, it seems like a great idea, but Chicago’s lead historian, as well as a couple of Ness biographers, dissed the idea. He established traffic court, created a process for immediately testing suspected drunk drivers with immediate arrests if they were found to be drunk, and implemented harsh penalties for any officers found adjusting tickets. View this item and discover similar for sale at 1stDibs - The only example we have ever seen, this large and boldly glazed sculpture of two soccer or football players depicts the moment when they are fighting In 1923, Capone bought a Chicago two-flat (equivalent to a duplex) for his family on Prairie Avenue on Chicago’s South Side. Let’s just…, The Truth Always Comes Out: Dark Family Secrets Exposed, Entrancing Facts About Madame de Pompadour, France's Most Powerful Mistress, These People Got Revenge In The Most Ingenious Ways, Daring Facts About The Most Dangerous Places In The World, 32 Cold-Blooded Facts About Unsolved Murders, 42 Scandalous Facts About Catherine de Medici, The Deadly Queen Mother Of France. Funnily enough, one of Ness’s greatest achievements during his time in Cleveland was getting the traffic problem under control. He thought gun-toting gangsters were chickens and would only wear a gun if he absolutely had to. Elisabeth Andersen, new art school graduate, poses for Cleveland’s top art photographer. Jamie was an officer in the Prohibition Bureau, and Ness was often invited along on surveillance missions. Thanks for your time! Ness was married to Edna Staley (1900–1988) from 1929 to 1938, illustrator Evaline Ness (1911–1986) from 1939 to 1945, and artist Elisabeth Andersen Seaver (1906–1977) from 1946 until his death in 1957. Our editors are instructed to fact check thoroughly, including finding at least three references for each fact. 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Ness was married to Edna Stahle from 1929 to 1938, illustrator Evaline Michelow (1911–1986) from 1939 to 1945, and artist Elisabeth Andersen Seaver (1906–1977) from 1946 until his death in 1957. 1945) Elisabeth Andersen Seaver ( m. 1946) Expand. My mom never told me how her best friend died. Amazingly, Ness’s legend helped turn public enemy #1 into a national hero, and he became the man who saved Chicago from the evil Al Capone. The finished memoir was mostly fictional and read like a classic detective novel, but it sold seven million copies and made Ness a household name and an American icon. Ness was married to Edna Staley (1900–1988) from 1929 to 1938, illustrator Evaline Ness (1911–1986) from 1939 to 1945, and artist Elisabeth Andersen Seaver (1906–1977) from 1946 until his death in 1957. When we do, we depend on our loyal, helpful readers to point out how we can do better. Years later, I was using her phone when I made an utterly chilling discovery. There's something about the family structure that encourages secrets. Please reach out to us to let us know what you’re interested in reading. He also had an adopted son, Robert (1946–1976). He remained married to Seaver until his death, and she also ended outliving their son, who died from leukemia in 1976. Vida pessoal. Beginning in 2018, the town of Coudersport, Pennsylvania launched a three-day festival celebrating the life of Eliot Ness, who lived there for the last two years of his life. Husbands hiding things from wives, mothers from children, and generation from generation. Elisabeth Lee Ness (Andersen) Also Known As: "Elisabeth Andersen Seaver" Birthdate: April 04, 1906: Birthplace: Redfield, Spink County, South Dakota, USA: Death: November 04, 1977 (71) Orange County, California, USA (Cancer) Place of Burial: Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio, United States of America : Immediate Family: Wife of Hugh Davis Seaver Ex-wife of Eliot Ness and Eliot Ness Mother … He also had an adopted son Robert (1946-1976). Not surprisingly, Ness’s parents didn’t exactly imagine law enforcement as a career path for their son and had always expected him to go into business. In Office: 1935–1942. His otherwise remarkably successful career in Cleveland withered gradually. I tried to get my ex-wife served with divorce papers. Aren’t federal agents supposed to be honest? For Sale on 1stDibs - This delicate and mysterious figure, shown with her hand held up to her hair, was sculpted by Gaetano Cecere for Albert Einstein, in appreciation for his He wanted each officer fingerprinted and their character investigated, and he tested their personalities and their physical abilities. Hundreds of people turned up, as well as members of the international media, finally honoring what Ness did for the city during his tenure there. That’s getting the job done! Rachel Seigel is an avid reader and book enthusiast with over 15 years of experience writing. He also had an adopted son, Robert (1946–1976). Cloonan had, in fact, accepted bribes from Capone. By 1957, following numerous legal squabbles, only Ms. Schumacher and a few other people - notably Elisabeth Andersen Seaver Ness, the widow of famed lawman Eliot Ness - were allowed to stay. He also insisted on a 2-year-probation for all new officers, which gave them time to prove themselves capable and worthy of the job. When he was a kid, Ness loved to read and would often delve into the adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Ness’s father was too busy working to spend much time with him and Jamie was like a father to him. Not wanting to tarnish the carefully cultivated reputation of his team, he decided to let it slide and not risk the bribe becoming public. Eliot was married three times, Edna Staley from 1929 to 1938, Evaline Ness from 1939 to 1945, and Elisabeth Andersen Seaver from 1946 until his death in 1957. Find Eliot Ness online. He was best known for leading a special Chicago task force known as “The Untouchables,” whose mission was to bring down the infamous gangster Al Capone. Sounds like a slight exaggeration. And that’s why they became known as the Untouchables. Hardly what you’d expect for the modern-day hero. The Untouchables got their nickname as a result of their fearlessness and incorruptibleness. The best revenge might be living well, but that doesn't mean we can always turn the other cheek. He created a police training academy with a revised and more difficult civil service test. Phelps encouraged Ness to tell Fraley some stories about his time as a prohibition agent, and Fraley quickly jumped on it, even offering to ghostwrite it for Ness.