In his heyday as a federal agent and member of the so-called Untouchables Prohibition-era crime-busting team, Albert H. Wolff smashed up bootlegging rings and spilled illegal speakeasy whiskey all over the Midwest.

Ironically, the real-life sidekick to Eliot Ness thought Prohibition was a bad idea. After he retired from law enforcement and booze was legal, he went into the cocktail lounge business in Chicago. Mr. Wolff, 95, the last surviving member of Ness' "Untouchables" team, died Saturday in the Cincinnati nursing home where he had lived for the last eight years.

"He was a Chicagoan through and through," said his daughter, Gloria Annenberg. "He loved the city and its characters. He used to take my husband (Bernard) to a turkish bathhouse on Division Street and point out all the cops, prosecutors and criminals that hung out in the place, good guys talking to the bad guys in the steam room."

Mr. Wolff was born in Chicago in 1903. His father, an immigrant doctor to the Maxwell Street immigrant society, died when he was 9 years old.

Completing high school by correspondence, he became a Cook County bailiff's assistant while studying accounting at Northwestern University in the early 1920s. He soon earned a lifelong nickname, "Wallpaper" Wolff. As the bailiff's assistant, he was known for stripping down offices of bankrupt firms, taking "everything but the wallpaper."

Mr. Wolff went on to work for the Chicago Park District police, as an investigator for the forerunner of the Chicago Crime Commission, and the federal Prohibition Department, raiding stills all over the country. His reputation for honesty and thoroughness landed him the job as an undercover agent for Ness when the Justice Department formed the Untouchables.

Mr. Wolff many years later expressed doubts that all of the Untouchables were incorruptible. He once told an interviewer of raids that were botched, apparently by leaks from the Untouchables' office, including one on an illegal brewery at 62nd Street and Cottage Grove Avenue.

The Untouchables became widely known in news accounts, however, as they hounded the era's most famous criminal gangs, including Chicago crime boss Al Capone. Mr. Wolff never met Capone, however, until after the dying Capone was released from prison.

"So you're Wallpaper Wolff," Mr. Wolff recounted Capone saying. "I heard nice things about you. You won't frame anyone. I wish I had men like you."

Besides the Untouchables, Mr. Wolff also had stints as an investigator with the Internal Revenue Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Heartbroken when his wife of 60 years, Hannah, died in 1985, his spirit was raised considerably when filming of the 1987 movie version of "The Untouchables" began in Chicago, his daughter said. Though he didn't like the television series, when actor Kevin Costner, playing the role of Ness in the movie, asked Mr. Wolff for technical advice, he was happy to oblige.

The film made Mr. Wolff a minor celebrity, with national magazines and network news shows arriving at his doorstep to do interviews.

Besides his daughter, he is survived by two sons, Howard and Robert, seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Visitation will be at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday in Piser Chapel, 9200 N. Skokie Blvd., Skokie. The service will be held there at 11 a.m.

Record	Events	Title	Source Website	Type	Created
Hancock Center.jpg			Forces War Records	Image	Aug 23, 2015
2916_128251283209.jpg			Forces War Records	Image	Dec 23, 2015
Illinois.gif			Forces War Records	Image	Feb 24, 2015
Illinois.jpg			Forces War Records	Image	Feb 15, 2015
cvFlag Color.jpg			Forces War Records	Image	May 12, 2014
Albert H Wolff	Birth, Custom, Death, People	US, Social Security Death Index	Forces War Records	Index Record	Sept 4, 2008
Eliot Ness			Forces War Records	Memorial	Apr 20, 2014

Albert H Wolff

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