ATF biography of Eliot Ness, Prohibition agent

The ATF page “Eliot Ness, a Legacy ATF Agent” (last updated July 1, 2024, per its footer) says Ness entered federal service in 1926 and was, in 1930, a special agent in charge of the Bureau of Prohibition’s Investigative Division in Chicago. It says that by 1926 three of Treasury’s six law enforcement arms, the Prohibition Unit, the Coast Guard and Customs, were working together, sharing information and conducting joint operations. It says Ness’s team was ordered to disrupt Capone’s operations and gather evidence of prohibition violations, while Elmer Irey and Frank Wilson of the Internal Revenue Service investigated Capone’s finances for tax evasion.

The page is promotional in tone, and this archive does not copy its evaluative wording. Its claims about the effect of Ness’s team on the Capone case need support from court records; the Capone tax-trial files are filed in the Capone section. The page is a source for what the agency says about its own history, not a record of what Ness did.