Eliot Ness, the man best known for using the tax code to take down Al Capone, was born on this day in 1903. At the tender age of twenty-six, Ness was tabbed to serve as a special agent for the Prohibition office that the U.S. Department of Justice had set up in his hometown of Chicago. Ness was charged with an especially tough assignment: investigating and impeding the efforts of underworld kingpin, Al Capone. Working alongside other agents who matched his dedication and scrupulousness (hence the team's pop culture tag as the "Untouchables"), Ness led the charge against gin joints, speakeasies and other illegal institutions that flaunted the dry code of Prohibition. 
    Along the way, the Treasury agents eventually scrounged up the information that led to Capone's conviction for tax evasion. A Chicago native, Ness was tabbed as a special agent for the city. In the years following his career-making capture of Capone, Ness held a handful of government posts, including a stint at the helm of the alcohol-tax division of the U.S. Treasury. Ness headed into the private sector before passing away in 1957.