According to a few records found at Ancestry.com, and believed identical, Chaffetz was born around 1910 in Massachusetts. The 1940 Census showed him living in Chicago with wife Rhoda and son, John. His employment was shown as "Special Agent, U. S. Govt."

Chaffetz is widely known as a rookie FBI agent during the 1934 Chicago era, assigned under SAC Purvis and was one of Chicago FBI's fingerprint experts. In addition to being involved in the hunt for Dillinger, it was Chaffetz (and possibly one other) who took the fingerprints of Dillinger at the morgue after the Biograph shooting making a positive identification of the gangster.

Available information reveals that sometime around 1940, Chaffetz served as Assistant Special Agent In Charge of the Philadelphia, FBI Office.

We have no photo of Chaffetz at this time. Bureau records reveal he died in Hillsboro, Fla. in either 1986 or '87 (FOIA dead list).

Maxwell Chaffetz