Eliot Ness

Birth Name:

Eliot Ness

Birth Date:

April 19, 1903

Birth Place:

Chicago, Illinois

Death Date:

May 16, 1957

Place of Death:

105 E. Third Street, Coudersport, Pennsylvania

Age:

Cause of Death:

Heart attack

Cemetery Name:

Lake View Cemetery

Claim to Fame:

Crime and their Victims

Associates:

Al Capone

Influenced by the career of his brother-in-law, Eliot Ness began his own law enforcement career in 1927, with the United States Treasury Department. In 1929, he transferred to the Justice Department and was assigned to the Prohibition Bureau. Ness was chosen to head a newly formed task force for the Bureau and was allowed to select his own men. The special squad, dubbed the "Untouchables" by the Chicago news media, attacked the bootleg empire of gang lord Alphonse "Scarface" Capone and helped cripple him financially. Eliot Ness and his elite team of law enforcement officers was immortalized in Hollywood legend, first as the television show "The Untouchables" and later by a movie of the same title.

And the rest of the story …

Eliot Ness died in his home in Coudersport from a heart attack. His estate showed over $8000 in debt. Ness never knew how popular his story would become and that Desilu Productions would buy the rights to air the TV series that starred Robert Stack in the lead role. His widow, Elisabeth, could only afford to have Eliot cremated and brought back to Cleveland. A memorial service was held for him at the Church of the Covenant on Euclid Avenue. His ashes were kept by his son, Robert who was only ten years old when Eliot died.

Elisabeth died in 1977 after suffering from cancer of the throat for several years. She had lived in San Juan Capistrano, CA with a cousin when she passed away. Robert Ness passed away a year sooner, August 31, 1976, of leukemia. He was only 29 years old and left a widow. Both Elisabeth and Robert’s ashes, as well as those of Eliot Ness, were kept by Robert’s widow until 1998 when they were united in a formal funeral ceremony. The ashes of all three Ness family members were dispersed on Wade Lake in Lake View Cemetery

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

Lake View Cemetery

12316 Euclid Avenue

Cleveland, Ohio, 44106

USA

North America

Map:

Grave Location:

Eliot Family Cenotaph

Grave Location Description

From the intersection of Chapel Road and Lake Road (the Wade Chapel) continue up the hill on Lake Road and stop at the next intersection. The Eliot Family Cenotaph is located under the trees along the edge of the swampy lake.

Note the lake overlooking Wade Chapel is Wade Lake where the Ness family ashes were released.