d to bribe Ness with two thousand dollars a week. At the time Eliot made a mere three thousand dollars a year, yet his integrity forbade him to take the bribe. He similarly attempted to bribe Ness' ‘Untouchables' Seager and Lahart. One of Capone's men threw an envelope of money into the agents' car as he passed. Seager and Lahart caught up to the man and threw the money back at him, such was their dedication to Ness. Eliot made sure this event was publicized, it was in this story that one newspaper coined the term ‘The Untouchables.' After this Capone no longer cared about further federal involvement and became obsessed with the idea of killing Ness. Several attempts were made from car bombs, to shootings, to running him down with a car, however Ness always escaped unscathed through what seemed to be pure luck. Capone struck those he cared about next killing Frank Basile, Ness's friend. This encouraged Ness to humiliate Capone as the gangster had never been humiliated before, Ness planned a parade. Throughout his raids Ness had confiscated over 70 trucks from breweries, these trucks needed to be moved to a larger storage facility and Eliot intended to make a show of it. He called Capone's headquarters at the Lexington Hotel and bullied his way into getting Capone himself on the line. He merely told the notorious villain to look out his window, at that exact time the trucks passed by, moving at an agonizingly slow pace. This inspired Capone to plant another car bomb aimed at Ness however once again he escaped through sheer luck. Finally Ness and his team had collected enough evidence for the federal government to make its case against Capone. However in June of 1931 Capone's lawyers struck a deal with U.S. Attorney Johnson with a deal, Capone would plead guilty to a sentence of two and a half years. Johnson agreed and recommended the sentence to Judge Wilkerson. This put Capone in rather good spirits when he entered court o...
