Excellent coverage of Ness and how his TV series persona ( and worse, the film version of The Untouchables) are an exercise in myth making and fail to capture the man with all his assets and flaws. Ness has much to commend him on many fronts as he was honest and obsessively dedicated to the mission of dismantling gangster operations. After he moved from Chicago to Cleveland as Public Safety Director, he took on the enormous task of rooting out corruption in the Cleveland police ranks and battling the underworld empire there. In the process he made Cleveland a forerunner in using modern law enforcement techniques such as use of patrol cars instead of the foot beat, and establishing profiling suspect systems based on polygraphs, fingerprints, and crime patterns.
Unfortunately, his commitment to his job made his personal life a shambles, leading to neglect of his wife and a divorce. Contrary to his squeaky clean image, Ness was a heavy drinker and womanizer, which would ultimately contribute to his undoing. ( )

Eliot Ness is a fascinating man, best known for his role in leading The Untouchables while chasing Al Capone. Here, Douglas Perry introduces us to the real man behind all the hype. If you've read The Untouchables or seen the movie, you might be surprised to learn how much of Ness's memoir was overblown hype. In fact, Eliot Ness never approved the final manuscript, which he had not actually written, because he died before the book was finished.

I was impressed with the breadth of content here. Aside from the Capone years, we learn about Ness's career as Safety Director in Cleveland, his obsession with corruption, his battle maintaining his reputation, and his transition into business that seemed to be his final downfall. Despite all the good Ness did, he died broke and in relative obscurity.

Perry shows us the human side of the legend, which I find far more interesting than the glamorous view designed to sell books and movies. We're also given a look at what the world was like during this tumultuous period in history, when mafia men were openly running some cities.

The writing itself lacks a bit of personality, coming off a little dry with its 'just the facts' format. But the writing is also clear and precise, and the timeline easy to follow. Definitely a book I'd recommend to anyone interested in Eliot Ness and/or this period of history. ( )