The Untouchables Impact The System Of Crime In Chicago

Daniel Aboumrad

Ms. Roach

Honors English 10

15 February 2023

The Untouchables

In just one raid by The Untouchables, they halted the means of production for a brewery that yielded twenty-thousand gallons of alcohol each day (Ruth). This was only one of Capone's breweries that they shut down; in total, The Untouchables cost Capone over one million dollars with their raids (Coakley). Successful raids like this defined the crime-fighting abilities of The Untouchables. In the 1920s, the “Untouchables” impacted the system of crime in Chicago by ridding the streets of notorious criminals such as Al Capone.

To comprehend the legacy of The Untouchables, it is important to first understand the cause of the crimes they were tasked with stopping. Much

After the passing of the Eighteenth Amendment, there were many questions as to how the law would be enforced. Such questions were answered by the Volstead Act, which included clarification over the enforcement of Prohibition (“Prohibition.” Encyclopædia). Originally, enforcement of Prohibition was the job of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, which was part of the Treasury Department. This was until the Volstead Act created the Bureau of Prohibition. The Bureau of Prohibition was under the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Treasury Department until it was transferred to the Justice Department ("Prohibition." Gale). These groups were tasked with arresting alcohol-smuggling criminals, including the notorious Al Capone. However, Attorney General William Mitchell did not see progress with the arrest of Capone. Growing impatient, he appointed Eliot Ness to lead a group of Prohibition agents of his own choosing (Holtz). Ness worked for a unit of the Treasury Department with the goal of capturing Al Capone by damaging his finances and destroying his distilleries (Coakley). Ness himself, in his autobiography, listed the qualities he looked for when hand-picking his team of agents; he looked for single men under thirty years old with “the mental and physical stamina to work long hours and the courage and ability to use fist or gun and special investigative techniques.” Ness chose “a good telephone man” with the ability to “tap a wire with speed and precision,” as well as “excellent drivers” to “trail the mob’s cars and trucks.” He also found it important that the agents he chose were unknown to Chicago’s gangsters. (“The Untouchables…”). With this carefully selected team, Eliot Ness led part of the Bureau of Prohibition on a mission to take down Al Capone along with the rest of Chicago’s organized crime (“Prohibition.”