Unknowns

After Eliot Ness' success in Chicago, he later took a job as Safety Director of Cleveland, Ohio. Although most of his job was all about keeping the citizens safe by installing new securities as well as utilities such as traffic lights and such, Ness still wanted to fight crime like he used to. After word came out to him that the Cleveland Police Department was corrupt, he immediately jumped into action and created a new task force to combat this threat. Unlike the Untouchables, the group consisted more of legitimate police officers who had more liberty and control over the cases than their counterpart. Their primary goal was to put a stop to Moe Dalitz's operation in the area. They raided facilities and gangster headquarters throughout and cleaned up the corruption in the city. He also installed another wire-tapping operation that he did back in Chicago.

However, their greatest call to arms came when a series of several grisly murders that occurred in the Cleveland area from 1935 to 1938. The serial killer was dubbed the "Torso Killer " or the "Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run." Although Ness had little knowledge about serial killers, he was nonetheless, forced to put a stop to him. He later took control the CPD's homicide division which he merged with his task force. In the graphic novel Torso, the crime author Brian Michael Bendis, wrote that Ness personally nicknamed them "The Unknowns" as a confidential and off-publicity group. There has been no documents that suggested that the group was named as such, but the name has been irresistible for historians and pop culturists to differentiate them from the Untouchables.

The initial homicide division was originally led by Detective Peter Myrlo, Sam Simon, coroner Samuel Gerber, and numerous other policemen. Their job was to lead in the investigation to find the killer while also keeping Cleveland free of organized crime. They conducted undercover work in the slums and run in order to get information or maybe capture the killer in the act. Ness even ordered them to burn down the Kingsbury Run, the place where the killer takes his victims, but it's destruction was met with negative feedback from the citizens. In the end however, they failed to capture the Torso Killer, but they nonetheless successfully put a stop to the killings after the destruction of the Kingsbury Run, as well as putting a stop to the corruption in Celeveland.