The Idealism Test

Charged with the task of Prohibition enforcement efforts in Chicago, Agent Ness had a twofold goal in creating the elite squad of honest men known as The Untouchables. The first was to cause serious damage to the organized crime of Chicago bootleggers; Capone's organization employed over 1000 people in Chicago, from accountants to hired guns. By 1931, losses to the Capone organization were grievous; however the death knell for Capone was sounded when Capone went to jail for an income tax evasion charge that was handled entirely outside of the Untouchables. There are few doubts that Ness was a patriot, a great crimebuster, and an idealist. However, his support of a largely unenforcable law and his simultaneous comfort with the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, showed that he was, unless the times handed him one, an idealist without a coherent cause. Whether you interpret it as an appeal to the realities of law enforcement, or to the changing situation in America, Ness is a rich example of how law enforcement legacies can be made.