Rare documents from the professional and private life of famed crime-fighter Eliot Ness–one of the federal agents who put gangster Al Capone in jail–will be auctioned later this summer by
Central Mass Auctions of Worcester, Mass.
Ness’ war in the late ’20s and early ’30s against Capone and Chicago bootlegging have spawned movies–including director Brian De Palma’s 1987 “The Untouchables” with Kevin Costner, Sean Connery and Robert De Niro–and TV shows including the hit 1960s series of the same name, starring Robert Stack.
The elite corps of federal agents Ness assembled were called “untouchable” because they could not be bribed or otherwise corrupted.
Wayne Tuiskula of Central Mass Auctions, who appraised the collection, values it at between $30,000 and $50,000. It will be sold September 27, he says, as a single unit. “We’re hoping it will go to somebody who will keep it all together and who might want to display the items in a museum.”
The two most valuable items, in Tuiskula’s opinion, are the federal credentials Ness carried while on the job, one from 1927, the other from 1932. “These are what he’d have flashed when was arresting somebody, when he was chasing down a bootlegger or a gangster. They’re one-of-a-kind items, issued by the government and signed by Ness. There are no copies of these around.”
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