The Untouchables’ Is a Killer Thriller, but It Really Messes Up the Lore for Kevin Costner’s Eliot Ness

True crime media has sensationalized the lives and misdeeds of a great number of terrible people, from organized crime bosses to outright serial killers, but one of the most famous figures to rise in stature thanks to Hollywood’s obsession with crime fought on the other side of the law. Eliot Ness was a lawman and eventual head of Chicago’s Prohibition Bureau, at the same time and place as famed criminal Al Capone’s reign over the city’s criminal enterprises.

Since his passing in 1957, Ness has become codified as a neo-Western icon of law enforcement, morality, and heroism, largely thanks to the posthumous release of his memoir, as well as a television series and, eventually, a film by Brian De Palma, which took the name of this book: The Untouchables. The 1987 film saw Ness being portrayed by Kevin Costner, a movie star whose persona fit perfectly with the image that had been crafted of this legendary crime fighter. But how accurate are these fictionalized portrayals of Ness, and especially his role in bringing down Al Capone?