In Scarface and the Untouchable...Max Allan Collins and A. Brad Schwartz go into great detail to present the day-to-day realities that made this law-versus-lawless conflict so colorful, violent and headline-grabbing ... The scholarship displayed in Scarface and the Untouchable is extraordinary, probing deeply into the activities, interrelationships and mindsets of the many principal characters. Publicity-seeking Capone is especially well-drawn. The graft-ridden but vibrant city of Chicago achieves character status as well.
It is more than a bit dispiriting to start reading a book that begins with an introduction trashing previous attempts to tell the story it is about to present.
But that is precisely what Scarface and the Untouchable: Al Capone, Eliot Ness, and the Battle for Chicago does ... What I did not expect was to enjoy and admire this book as much as I did ... I took the book at face value and was rewarded with many things I had not known as well as with a narrative that reads with force and style ... All will appreciate the compelling way in which it is told ... [but] Their taking shots at other writers smacks of an insecurity that is both unnecessary and unseemly ... This is a very good book. But one with a very bad/sad introduction.
The authors’ intent is to take two men who have been mythologized over decades, strip away the fictions that have been piled on them, and leave us with a clearer sense of the true Ness and Capone. And they succeed admirably. Collins brings all his skills as a novelist to the story, painting in bold strokes a picture of Prohibition-era Chicago, a city almost entirely under the control of Capone’s criminal organization. His writing is about as far from a history text as you can imagine ... Careful research combined with vivid pulp style.
When the subject is this fascinating and the telling so expertly done, it’s hard to resist ... The story’s been told before, and those conversant with the subject won’t find much revelatory material. But Collins (a prolific crime-fiction writer) and Schwartz (a historian) tell it well, wisely focusing on two wildly different personalities: the outgoing, sometimes strangely generous and frequently ruthless Capone and the relentless, righteous Ness. Considering its 550 pages of text, plus extensive notes and bibliography, reading the book is a major commitment. But for anyone interested in this eternally interesting historical period, it’s essential.
Scarface and the Untouchable is bulky because it is thorough and detailed—almost devotionally so. It’s sure to become a valuable resource for historians of Prohibition-era America, amateur and professional alike. At the same time, it’s an undertaking by enthusiasts for enthusiasts and not an easy read, owing largely to its sheer density of reportage—often week-by-week, sometimes day-to-day—as the interlocking halves of its saga take shape. Make no mistake, Collins and Schwartz certainly produce vivid stretches of narrative, notably as they chronicle the lawless milieu of Prohibition-era Chicago and the blasé corruptibility of civic authority as the nation slides into the Depression. They reveal, in compelling detail, how Ness championed the merits of scientific criminology ... And this reader was captivated by the many scenes where the Ness team, axes in hand, smashes thousands upon thousands of kegs of illegal brew, but never come close to directly implicating the smiling, ebullient Capone in its production and sale.
Drawing on a trove of sources, including Ness’s scrapbooks, the authors look at the parallel arcs of these men in the 1920s and 1930s as Capone gained notoriety and status as Chicago’s greatest public enemy while Ness climbed the ranks of law enforcement to head a squad devoted to bringing Capone to justice ... Collins and Schwartz present a balanced view of the role of Ness in capturing Capone, which accounts such as Jonathan Eig’s Get Capone (2010) and Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s documentary Prohibition (2011) have largely dismissed. The result is an informed and valuable addition to the numerous books about Capone and Ness.
A gritty dual biography reveals the underworld of crime and corruption in 1920s and ’30s America ... The authors recount how Capone (the model for gangsters played by Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney) and Ness (model for Dick Tracy) took firm hold in popular culture. A fast-paced tale related with novelistic drama.
