Record #: R2014-6   
Type: Resolution Status: Adopted
Intro date: 1/15/2014 Current Controlling Legislative Body: Committee on Public Safety
Final action: 3/5/2014
Title: Call for rejection of proposal to name Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives headquarters in Washington D.C. in honor of Elliot Ness
Sponsors: Burke, Edward M., Balcer, James
Attachments: 1. R2014-6.pdf
Public Safety Committee
 
RESOLUTION
 
 
WHEREAS, United States Senators Mark Kirk and Dick Durbin have proposed naming the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives headquarters in Washington, D.C. in honor of Chicago native and Prohibition-era crime fighter Eliot Ness, the leader of the legendary Untouchables; and
 
WHEREAS, The Chicago City Council has been informed of this proposal by Alderman Edward M. Burke; and
 
WHEREAS, Eliot Ness served as the Chief Investigator of the Prohibition Bureau for Chicago in 1934 and became famous for his efforts to enforce prohibition in Chicago; and
 
WHEREAS, Jonathan Eig, author of Get Capone: The Secret Plot that Captured America's Most Wanted Gangster, has voiced opposition to the proposal, saying that Ness fell short of his legendary reputation; and
 
WHEREAS, Jonathan Eig argues that Eliot Ness did not, deserve the credit for putting mobster Al Capone behind bars and in fact played no role in the prosecution of Al Capone; and
 
WHEREAS, Eliot Ness reportedly suffered from bouts of heavy drinking and had a checkered career after leaving the federal government; and
 
WHEREAS, During the 1930s, Eliot Ness served as the Public Safety Director of Cleveland and was compelled to resign after a late-night drunken driving incident and a high-profile failure to solve a series of bloody murders; and
 
WHEREAS, In 1947 Eliot Ness ran unsuccessfully for Mayor of Cleveland; and
 
WHEREAS, Eliot Ness suffered from a number of setbacks in his personal life and made a number of forays into the corporate world which failed; now, therefore
 
BE IT RESOLVED, That we, the Mayor and the members of the Chicago City Council, assembled this fifteenth day of January, 2014, do hereby call upon federal officials to reject the proposal of naming the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives headquarters in Washington, D.C. in honor of Elliot Ness; and
 
 
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.