As Conrad Black and three others face charges of fraud and racketeering charges in a federal court in Chicago, many people think back to another high-profile case in the Windy City, the trial of gangster Al Capone.

Then they invoke the name of Eliot Ness.

Al Capone, centre, in the custody of U.S. marshals, leaves a courtroom in Chicago on Oct. 24, 1931, during his tax evasion trial. (Associated Press)

Another man, a one-time Buffalo real estate agent turned federal agent named Frank J. Wilson, is not mentioned. Yet it was Wilson, not Ness, who "got" Capone.

At the time, the United States did not have a national police force. Ness was part of a team of agents from various departments that targeted the Chicago crime boss under Prohibition laws in the early 1930s. Ness had a knack for publicity, often inviting the press along on his raids to smash Capone's distilling, brewing and alcohol importing operations.

Ness wrote an autobiography published in 1957 called The Untouchables, which became a best seller and then a popular television series starring Robert Stack. As television often does, the Ness played by Stack was really a composite character and the actual adventures in the series — and in the 1987 movie — gave Ness the credit for work done by others.

The true story is a lot less exciting than the shoot 'em up on both the small and big screens. But as with many large crime investigations, it involves following the money trail.

Capone vulnerable

Shortly after Herbert Hoover was inaugurated as president in 1929, he ordered his secretary of the treasury, Andrew Mellon, to prosecute Capone under federal laws since the local Chicago and Illinois law enforcement agencies seemed unable — or unwilling — to prosecute the gangster. There were two areas of U.S. federal law where Capone was vulnerable: bootlegging and income tax evasion.

Ness was chosen to lead the attack on the bootlegging. He worked for the Prohibition branch of the Treasury Department, an agency that was notoriously corrupt. So one part of the popular story is true: Ness did put together a team of young agents who were "untouchable" when it came to bribes. However, the real job of taking down the crime boss went to a small, elite unit in the Internal Revenue enforcement branch.

Al Capone sits with his attorneys Michael Ahern, left, and Albert Fink in federal court in Chicago on Oct. 7, 1931, during his tax evasion trial. (Associated Press)

In 1927, the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled in the case of a smalltime bootlegger that everyone was obligated to pay income tax, even on income obtained illegally.

Elmer Irey, chief of the Internal Revenue Service, the government's income tax agency, ordered Frank J. Wilson to follow the money trail. While Wilson pored over Capone's books, the IRS agent in charge in Chicago, Arthur Madden, got the job of proving where the gangsters got their income and documenting their lavish lifestyle.

Lesser targets

After a couple of successful prosecutions against lesser targets, including Capone's brother Ralph, the feds turned their sights on the big man himself. Wilson's task was to prove that Capone had an income greater than $5,000, at that time the income cutoff for paying taxes. Wilson was able to document a significantly higher total.

In June, 1929, Capone was indicted on charges that in the years 1925 to 1929 he had income of $1,038,655.84 and owed the U.S. government $219,260.12 in unpaid income tax and $164,445.09 in penalties. He faced a possible maximum sentence of 34 years.

U.S. Attorney George E. Q. Johnson chose four aggressive assistants to prosecute, while the gangster was defended by a top Chicago lawyer, Michael J. Ahern.

Of the 24 counts brought in two indictments, the jury found Capone guilty on just five charges: income tax evasion in 1925, 1926 and 1927, and failing to file a return in 1928 and 1929.

Capone was sentenced to 11 years in prison, fined $50,000 and ordered to pay the costs of the trial, $30,000. Released from California's Alcatraz prison for medical reasons in 1939, he died in Florida in 1947.

Canadian connection

There is a Canadian connection to the story. Other members of the IRS team were looking into the bootlegging activities of Sam Bronfman and his brothers in Montreal.

"The success of the Bronfmans in defrauding the American government is well known… their conviction would constitute a moral and psychological triumph, similar to the conviction of Capone and would stiffen the forces of enforcement of law and order throughout the United States," an IRS memo said at the time.

After a trial judge in Canada dismissed a criminal case against the Bronfmans for defrauding the tax system, the IRS filed a civil case against the Montrealers and other Canadian distillers seeking $100 million US in damages. In May 1936, the Bronfmans and the others settled, paying the U.S. treasury $3 million US.

Frank J. Wilson stayed in law enforcement and eventually became chief of the U.S. Secret Service, whose responsibilities include protecting the president. Ness became director of public safety in Cleveland and was initially successful but lost that job after his police force failed to track down a serial killer.

He later worked in private industry, first for a safe company and then for an industrial plant. He died in 1957 before The Untouchables rolled off the presses.

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