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ironroad18 t1_iu986ui wrote

Reply to comment by JohnDunstable in TIL Al Capone was only 33 when he was locked away for tax evasion and developed neurosyphilis, leading to his death at 48. Eliot Ness was 27 when he formed the Untouchables--he died in a state of financial ruin in his 50s, likely hastened by his heavy drinking in his later life by capsaicinintheeyes

I think you are confusing Ness with Melvin Purvis a bit.

Ness was a Special Agent with the Treasury Department (Bureau of Prohibition). Hoover worked for the Department of Justice, and later became head of FBI. Ness was grabbing headlines as a Prohibition Agent before the FBI had really established itself as the "chief law enforcement" agency.

Hoover did keep files on Ness, and disliked him as he saw him as a rival to the FBI. Ness apparently tried to apply to the FBI, after his time in Chicago. However, either Hoover or some of his underlings taunted Ness about salary and experience (according to Smithsonian Magazine, they offered Ness a lowball entry-level salary, despite him being a supervisory federal agent). Ness went on to do enforce prohibition in Ohio, but eventually had a string of divorces, and had a failed run for political office. He died broke and of a heart attack apparently. https://case.edu/ech/articles/n/ness-eliot

Now Melvin Purvis is a real sad story, as he did a lot of leg work for Hoover and was intensely loyal to him. However, due to jealousy of Purvis's fame for his involvement in catching or killing several high profile gangsters (to include Dillinger and Babyface Nelson), Hoover started treating Purvis like crap. He demoted Purvis, moved him at will, and often berated him in front of others. Purvis eventually resigned from the FBI and went to practice law. He died in 1960 of either a suicide or a possible accident by the FBI service weapon he was given as a parting gift when he resigned almost 30 years earlier.

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JohnDunstable t1_iu992sj wrote

This is an awesome post! Thank you for clarifying, I certainly did confound the worst parts of the stories into a single individual. And I can only imagine that dozens if not hundreds of other agents who crossed Hoover in a way or rubbed him wrong in a way that resulted in executive retaliation.

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ironroad18 t1_iu99gbj wrote

Hoover was a monster, IMHO. Yes, he helped build the FBI into the primer law enforcement agency in the US, but he did so on the backs of several loyal employees and by breaking the very laws and rules he was tasked with enforcing.

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