Eliot Ness' ashes now untouchable

CLEVELAND (AP) With bagpipes playing in the background, the remains
of former Gman Eliot Ness were driven Wednesday in a black 1938 Buick
to their final resting place a quiet cemetery lagoon.

Ness' ashes, kept by his son and his son's widow for 40 years, were laid
to rest with full police honors.

The famous prohibition agent who raided Chicago speakeasies and smashed
Al Capone's liquor operations during Prohibition died broke in 1957,
having spent some of his later years working for the Cleveland Police
Department.

``He was a good man who did a lot for Cleveland, and the fact that his
ashes had not properly been put to rest after 40 years it just seems
appropriate that they should be,'' said Rebecca McFarland, vice
president of the Cleveland Police Historical Society.

Hundreds of people arrived at the Lake View Cemetery for the tribute to
the lawman whose adventures were lionized in ``The Untouchables'' TV
series and movie.

While Ness became famous for battling gangsters for the feds, he had a
powerful influence as a crime fighter in Cleveland as well.

But he was not the ramrodstraight action hero portrayed on television
by Robert Stack and in a 1987 movie by Kevin Costner.

He was a cerebral fellow who rarely carried a firearm and, later in
life, drank too much, biographer Paul Heimel said.

His reputation suffered one frigid night in 1942 when he got in a car
accident on an icy road after a night of carousing. Ness fled the scene
and was forced to resign when news got out.

He died of a heart attack at age 54.