Max Collins - Bullet proff

"How about you, Mr. Ness? Anything to say to the press before you haul those two away?"

Ness, about to get into the sedan, turned and said, "Ask Mr. McFarlin and some of his compatriots what they think of my efforts in the area of labor. This investigation began with complaints from businessmen. But since then, since the grand jury convened, my office has been flooded with calls and letters from rank-and-file union members. They've told us how union business agents like Caldwell and McFate sit in their offices and instead of sending legitimate union members on jobs, send patronage punks who don't do the work well, discrediting the name of union labor, thumbing their noses at employers, who don't dare fire the loafers because if they do, the job will get shut down by a strike. That sounds like a crime to me-which is where I come in."

"Eliot Ness, friend of labor," Wild said archly.

"No," Ness said. "Enemy of lice like them."

And he nodded toward the glowering Caldwell and morose McFate as Curry pushed them bodily into the backseat of the sedan.

City of Cleveland

Office of the Mayor

March 12, 1938

Director Eliot Ness,

Department of Public Safety,

City Hall

Re: Caldwell and McFate Case

Dear Eliot:

Confirming and developing my oral statement immediately following my receipt of the news of the conviction of Caldwell and McFate, this letter is to express to you my official and personal appreciation of the exceptional public service which you rendered in this case.

This case and the long investigation leading up to it has dealt with one of the worst conditions in Cleveland. It has been a major purpose of this administration to put an end to extortion and related forms of racketeering in Cleveland. From the first day that you joined us, you have in a quiet and modest way led the attack on this evil. The conviction of Caldwell and McFate marks a major victory in the battle, and I believe marks the turning point in our campaign to drive out the rackets.

This particular case presented every kind of difficulty, culminating in the hard fought trial itself. I am deeply grateful to you for the competent, patient, and long, continued hard work that you did in connection with it. I know that not only Cleveland but the nation is indebted to you for the result attained.

This has been by no means an attack on organized labor as such, as the service which you have rendered has been a service for the benefit of industry, labor, and the public at large.

I hope that you enjoy your well-earned vacation and will return to your duties here, ready to continue the drive with your usual vigor and with increased assurance of success.

With warmest personal regards,

Harold H. Burton

Mayor

After reading it for a third time, Eliot Ness, seated at his rolltop desk in his office, folded the letter and returned it to its envelope. He buzzed Wanda, who entered promptly, steno pad in hand.

"No dictation," Ness said, with a gentle smile. "Just another souvenir. Paste this in the scrapbook, will you?"

Wanda smiled tightly and took the letter. "We may need a separate volume for '38, Mr. Ness. The wires and clippings are starting to pour in from all over the country."

"Start a new volume, then," Ness said. "We want to give McFate and Caldwell their due."

"Yes sir," she said, and exited.

He blew out some air, and leaned back in the swivel chair. He was pleased with the response, locally and nationally, to the conviction of the "boys." The public statements of approval from union circles was perhaps the most gratifying-from the UAW president in Detroit to the national AFL rep. Even his old adversary George Owens of SWOC had been complimentary: "We are in back of Ness one hundred percent. The labor movement must be kept clean to survive."

Of course, Owens had used the occasion to nudge Ness publicly about investigating industry, as well, who "have sent their stool pigeons, thugs, finks, spies, and agents to disrupt the labor movement." And he had a point.

But Ness did not feel smug, or even proud. He did not feel much of anything except exhausted, and a weekend in a cabin near Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, with Ev MacMillan, should be just what the doctor ordered. He was taking an evening train to Chicago, and intended to put unions, rackets, and Cleveland out of his mind for the next week.

The trial had been hard fought, as the Mayor indicated, and Ness had spared no manpower in protecting the witnesses-the local ones who were put up in hotels or guarded at home, as well as those who came in by plane and train from Milwaukee, Boston, St. Paul, Detroit, Kansas City, Buffalo, Syracuse, Chicago, and Columbus. And he had gotten the local papers to cooperate in extending his grand-jury press-photographer ban to the trial itself.

Of course, Caldwell and McFate had had a few tricks left up their sleazy sleeves. On the second day of the trial, Ness got a tip from Joe McFarlin that an attempt to fix one of the jurors was in the wind; a Nitti man had come in from Chicago with fifty thousand dollars in the kitty, to use in reaching a woman on the jury by way of her husband, who had business connections with Acme Brothers Glass.

Ness informed Prosecutor Cullitan, who dismissed the juror without disclosing he knew of the bribe-in-the-works, replacing the juror with an alternate. Judge Cortlett, hard-nosed and refreshingly honest for Cleveland, was also informed by Ness, after which His Honor sequestered the jury for the remainder of the trial.

Caldwell and McFate kept trying, though; they put together a thirty-grand defense fund. They brought in labor leaders from other cities as character witnesses. They testified coolly and even charmingly in their own behalf, both claiming never to have been in the same room before with star prosecution witness Vernon Gordon.

Midway through the trial, defense attorney Corrigan demanded that Eliot Ness be barred from the courtroom because he was "impressing" the jurors with his presence. Judge Cortlett sent the jurors out of the courtroom and quickly denied the motion.

But the jury-six men, six women, primarily labor-union men and the wives of labor-union men-were not buying anything Caldwell and McFate had to sell. The two Jims were found guilty on all five counts, and the judge, God bless his stern countenance, had denied them bail and gave them both ten-year sentences.

At this point Judge Cortlett had taken an extraordinary measure. Speaking of the many precautions safety director Ness and Prosecutor Cullitan had taken to ensure an orderly trial, the judge pointed out that efforts had been made to influence the jury, including the apparent attempt to bribe one juror through her husband, as well as "suspicious incidents" during the trial when friends and even spouses of the jurors took front-row seats in the courtroom, having to be ordered out when they tried to impress the jury members with their friendly, back-slapping attitude toward the defendants.

Because of these incidents, Judge Cortlett ordered the labor leaders sent to the pen immediately following the return of the verdict.

"They are dangerous to the community," the judge said, "and there is reason for witnesses to fear reprisal if these cunning thugs are left at large." The two Jims were in prison at Columbus within eight hours of the guilty verdict.

Wanda stuck her head into the office and said, "I'm sorry to interrupt you, Chief-but there's a woman out here to see you. She doesn't have an appointment."

"Her name?"

"Mrs. Whitehall, she says. Shall I recommend she make an appointment for after you get back?"

"No," Ness said, standing. "Send her in."

Mrs. Whitehall entered. She wore a dark brown hat and a long brown winter coat with a fur collar, apparel that was as quietly attractive as its wearer.