Oscar Fraley, the writer whose meeting with Eliot Ness over drinks spawned the novel "The Untouchables," died of complications from a hernia and stomach surgery. He was 79.
The Philadelphia native wrote 30 books, with two in the works when he died Thursday night."The Untouchables" was written after Fraley, a former United Press International writer, spent a night drinking with Ness, a federal agent and Chicago mobster Al Capone's nemesis.
"He started telling me all his Al Capone stories," Fraley said in a 1987 interview. "I said, `Why don't you write a book?' He said, `You write it."'
The book published in 1957 became the basis for the movie and television series of the same name. Other books included "Hoffa, The Real Story," two "Untouchables" sequels and golf instruction books written with Lee Trevino and Sam Snead.