{"id":5994,"date":"2019-10-01T09:00:11","date_gmt":"2019-10-01T13:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/?p=5994"},"modified":"2019-09-30T10:57:17","modified_gmt":"2019-09-30T14:57:17","slug":"a-great-true-cops-n-robbers-read","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/a-great-true-cops-n-robbers-read\/","title":{"rendered":"A GREAT TRUE COPS-N\u2019-ROBBERS READ"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I recently finished \u201cScarface and the Untouchable: Al Capone, Eliot Ness, and the Battle for Chicago<\/a>\u201d by Max Alan Collins and A. Brad Schwartz.\u00a0 It turned out to be a compelling read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oscar Fraley\u2019s\nbook \u201cThe Untouchables\u201d appeared in the 1950s and led to the iconic TV series\nof the same name.  Ness was seen as the\nincorruptible Federal agent who sent the legendary crime boss up the river on\nincome tax evasion charges.  Some\nnaysayers emerged to say that Ness\u2019 role was of little consequence and that he\nwas a glory hound, but exhaustive research by Collins and Schwartz seems to\nindicate that Ness did indeed deserve all the credit he was given.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This is the\nfirst work I\u2019ve seen by Schwartz. For some time I\u2019ve been a fan of the\nexcellent fiction of Collins, the designated heir to the unfinished work of\nMickey Spillane, whose Mike Hammer novels I had grown up reading.  This is my first experience with his\nnon-fiction.  I was pleasantly surprised\nat the quality of their research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It turns out\nthe two antagonists had many things in common. \nEach was remarkably young for the positions they achieved in their\ncompeting worlds.  Each seems to have\nbeen a natural leader.  Each understood\nthe value of cultivating the press to make their efforts look good in the\npublic eye. Each suffered greatly from the professional envy of their\nrespective peers. Each dealt with illnesses that would end their lives early,\ncongenital heart disease for Ness and syphilis for Capone. And each had\nlong-suffering wives who were hurt by their husbands\u2019 lifestyles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It turns out\nthey also had similar taste in guns.  It\nseems that neither cared to carry a gun all the time, and only went armed when\nthey felt they\u2019d need one.  \u201cScarface and\nthe Untouchable\u201d mentions times when each was armed with a large automatic\npistol.  During the period, this most\nlikely would have been the Colt .45 automatic of 1911, though the Colt .38\nSuper was introduced during their time, in 1929.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What the\nbook doesn\u2019t mention is that each of those disparate men seemed to favor the\nD-frame Colt .38 Special revolver.  Ness\nsaid he carried a snub-nose Colt .38, which would have been the Detective\nSpecial introduced during the 1926-27 period. \nThe one documented Capone gun I\u2019m aware of was a longer-barreled Police\nPositive, which sold for big bucks at auction a few years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each man\nalso had his issues with the criminal justice system.  The book indicates that Ness was once falsely\naccused of taking graft, and Collins and Schwartz seem to feel that while\nCapone should have been tried and convicted for multiple murders, the tax case\nagainst him was weak and very poorly defended, both at trial and on appeal, by\nhis attorneys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A great read, strongly recommended for those with an interest in the history of the American criminal justice system. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently finished \u201cScarface and the Untouchable: Al Capone, Eliot Ness, and the Battle for Chicago\u201d by Max Alan Collins and A. Brad Schwartz.\u00a0 It turned out to be a compelling read. Oscar Fraley\u2019s book \u201cThe Untouchables\u201d appeared in the 1950s and led to the iconic TV series of the same name.  Ness was seen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5995,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5994","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5994"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5997,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5994\/revisions\/5997"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}