Caldwell was steaming. He looked at Wild, then Ness. 'You bastards are behind this, aren't you?'
'Behind what?' Ness asked. 'Oh, I've met a couple of these chaps before. Like Joe McFarlin over there. We met at Jack Whitehall's funeral. Had a nice chat. Joe and Jack were buddies, did you know that?'
Caldwell said nothing to that; he knew better.
But McFate didn't.
'So you're not going to do your job,' McFate said. 'You're going to let these trespassers get away with it.'
'Some people get away with murder,' Ness said coldly.
Caldwell touched McFate's arm, hoping to silence him, but his normally taciturn partner continued: 'Then you're not going to make an arrest?'
'Oh, I'm going to make an arrest,' Ness said. 'Two arrests. That's why I'm here. Albert-cuffs, please?'
Curry stepped forward and withdrew two shining pairs of handcuffs from his topcoat pocket.
'Hands behind you, boys,' Ness said.
'You're arresting us?' McFate said.
'Grand jury indicted you both this afternoon. Five counts of blackmail and extortion.'
Caldwell and McFate exchanged alarmed glances.
Then McFate summoned a sneer and said, 'It won't hold up. You got nothing.'
'Nothing,' Ness said, 'except ninety-seven witnesses who have testified to more than one hundred instances of blackmail, extortion, and general conspiracy aimed at Cleveland's business community… of course, my investigation isn't through yet. I may turn something up yet, you never know. Snap 'em on, Detective Curry.'
Curry snapped on the cuffs behind the backs of the two Jims.
'Sorry, boys,' Curry said. 'We don't have the budget for a brass band and silk top hats for you.'
As the two were being walked toward the EN-1 sedan, reporter Wild was asking a few questions.
'What's your purpose here today, Mr. McFarlin?'
'Overthrowing a dictatorship,' McFarlin said, smiling tightly, arms folded over a massive chest. 'We've tried for several months to get a regular election, but we've been blocked by Caldwell, McFate, and their attorney. We expect to keep up our sit-in at least until tomorrow, when we'll hold an election, junk the former constitution, and draft a new one along democratic lines.'
'How about you, Mr. Ness? Anything to say to the press before you haul those two away?'
Ness, about to get into the sedan, turned and said, 'Ask Mr. McFarlin and some of his compatriots what they think of my efforts in the area of labor. This investigation began with complaints from businessmen. But since then, since the grand jury convened, my office has been flooded with calls and letters from rank-and-file union members. They've told us how union business agents like Caldwell and McFate sit in their offices and instead of sending legitimate union members on jobs, send patronage punks who don't do the work well, discrediting the name of union labor, thumbing their noses at employers, who don't dare fire the loafers because if they do, the job will get shut down by a strike. That sounds like a crime to me-which is where I come in.'
'Eliot Ness, friend of labor,' Wild said archly.
'No,' Ness said. 'Enemy of lice like them.'
And he nodded toward the glowering Caldwell and morose McFate as Curry pushed them bodily into the backseat of the sedan.
THREE
CHAPTER 20
City of Cleveland
Office of the Mayor
March 12, 1938
Director Eliot Ness,
Department of Public Safety,
City Hall
Re: Caldwell and McFate Case
Dear Eliot:
Confirming and developing my oral statement immediately following my receipt of the news of the conviction of Caldwell and McFate, this letter is to express to you my official and personal appreciation of the exceptional public service which you rendered in this case.
This case and the long investigation leading up to it has dealt with one of the worst conditions in Cleveland. It has been a major purpose of this administration to put an end to extortion and related forms of racketeering in Cleveland. From the first day that you joined us, you have in a quiet and modest way led the attack on this evil. The conviction of Caldwell and McFate marks a major victory in the battle, and I believe marks the turning point in our campaign to drive out the rackets.
This particular case presented every kind of difficulty, culminating in the hard fought trial itself. I am deeply grateful to you for the competent, patient, and long, continued hard work that you did in connection with it. I know that not only Cleveland but the nation is indebted to you for the result attained.
This has been by no means an attack on organized labor as such, as the service which you have rendered has been a service for the benefit of industry, labor, and the public at large.
I hope that you enjoy your well-earned vacation and will return to your duties here, ready to continue the drive with your usual vigor and with increased assurance of success.
With warmest personal regards,
Harold H. Burton
Mayor
After reading it for a third time, Eliot Ness, seated at his rolltop desk in his office, folded the letter and returned it to its envelope. He buzzed Wanda, who entered promptly, steno pad in hand.
'No dictation,' Ness said, with a gentle smile. 'Just another souvenir. Paste this in the scrapbook, will you?'
Wanda smiled tightly and took the letter. 'We may need a separate volume for '38, Mr. Ness. The wires and clippings are starting to pour in from all over the country.'
'Start a new volume, then,' Ness said. 'We want to give McFate and Caldwell their due.'
'Yes sir,' she said, and exited.
He blew out some air, and leaned back in the swivel chair. He was pleased with the response, locally and nationally, to the conviction of the 'boys.' The public statements of approval from union circles was perhaps the most gratifying-from the UAW president in Detroit to the national AFL rep. Even his old adversary George Owens of SWOC had been complimentary: 'We are in back of Ness one hundred percent. The labor movement must be kept clean to survive.'
Of course, Owens had used the occasion to nudge Ness publicly about investigating industry, as well, who 'have sent their stool pigeons, thugs, finks, spies, and agents to disrupt the labor movement.' And he had a point.
But Ness did not feel smug, or even proud. He did not feel much of anything except exhausted, and a weekend in a cabin near Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, with Ev MacMillan, should be just what the doctor ordered. He was taking an evening train to Chicago, and intended to put unions, rackets, and Cleveland out of his mind for the next week.
