Ness estate fighting for stock
Value of 50- share Diebold certificate worth about $ 1.1M
MIAMI — A legal fight is brewing in Florida between the estate of “Untouchables” Prohibition agent Eliot Ness and an Ohio company over some long- undiscovered stock that apparently belonged to Ness and may be worth more than $ 1 million.
Ness, the famed Prohibition agent who led the “Untouchables” in their crusade against Chicago gangster Al Capone and his mob accomplices, later was the top executive at bank services company Diebold Inc.
A 50- share Diebold stock certificate, along with Ness’ old federal badges and credentials, languished for years in a box in the South Florida apartment of Winnie Higgins Knorr, Ness’ longtime personal secretary. When Knorr died several years ago in Fort Lauderdale, her belongings — including the Diebold stock — passed on to an acquaintance, Debra Hole.
Attorney John F. Bradley said it could now be worth more than $ 1.1 million because of stock splits and dividends over the years that could swell the number of shares to some 29,500. Bradley represents the Ness estate, with at least three surviving heirs, in a federal lawsuit seeking to force Diebold to pay up.
“I’m kind of picturing him as America’s first superhero. Sadly, he died with not that much,” Bradley said of Ness. “It’s just a simple debt as far as I’m concerned.”
North Canton, Ohiobased Diebold declined to comment, but in court filings the company has tried to get the lawsuit dismissed. Diebold, which started out making bank safes and vaults 150 years ago, now provides multiple financial services including ATM machines and drivethrough teller equipment. Also named in the lawsuit is Wells Fargo bank, which handles Diebold’s stock transfers.
In court documents, Diebold and Wells Fargo insist there is no record available of any stock ownership by Ness.
“The certificate is no longer valid,” their filing states.
Ness was Diebold’s chief executive officer from 1944 to 1951, after his crime- fighting successes in Chicago and a later stint as Cleveland’s safety director. His 192931 service as a Prohibition agent in Chicago was the subject of a popular book and later a television show with Robert Stack as Ness, followed by the 1987 film with Kevin Costner in the agent’s role and Robert De Niro as Capone.
The name “Untouchables” comes from his unit’s reputation for refusing to take bribes from Capone, according to media accounts of the time. Although Ness’ efforts eventually led to some 5,000 bootlegging charges against Capone, the infamous gangster was actually convicted of tax evasion. The liquor violations were eventually dropped.
Ness, who also unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Cleveland, died of a heart attack in Pennsylvania in 1957 at age 54. He left little in his estate to his third wife, Elisabeth, according to Bradley. No mention was ever made of the Diebold stock certificate and the company never reached out, he said.
“The estate had no knowledge of its ownership of the stock until recently,” Bradley said.