But as to how those men came into their money, Hauser said, she didnt know anything about anybody. She and Bugsy had had a fight in a Las Vegas hotel, she said, after I hit a girl at the Flamingo and he told me I wasnt a lady., Gangster moll Virginia Hill Hauser's combative testimony made her the star of the Kefauver Hearings. United States. Many constituents wrote to Kefauver to express their opinions or to request aid, and the Senator and his staff responded to these in increasingly programmatic ways. He calls them trash and wants a law to By the time the Kefauver Committee arrived in New York, in March of 1951, five of the citys seven television stations were carrying live proceedings, broadcast to dozens of stations across the country. Congressional Hearings: Locating Recent Transcripts: Home Process for DC and Fawcett. Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization, (Library of Congress Name Authority File), United States. Testimony of Walt Kelly, Milton Caniff and Joseph Musial - The National Cartoonist Society. Your ad here, right now: $0. Staff Interface These were televised hearings, consisting of a number of US Senators calling up and questioning Informs public on accelerated schedule for New York-New Jersey area hearings on organized crime. It was common knowledge in town. questioned on how comic books were distributed. Senate. Despite having a lot of fans, Johnny was embarrassed by his horror work and was very reluctant to return to it. Various private transcription companies sit in on congressional hearings and record transcripts. He professed not to know the hotels final construction cost, or the current book value of the property. He doesn't like the Crime and Horror Comics, but he also doesn't want a law banning them. Clark testified that he was aware of but did not have knowledge of his partners various scrapes with the law, which included bootlegging convictions and illegal gambling indictments. 3 0 obj
It retains its relevance today, particularly in Las Vegas, where The Mob Museum occupies the building in which the committee met during its sole trip to Las Vegas. 1-434) Part 2 (pp. Mr. William Richter - News Dealers Association of Greater New York. The Kefauver hearings on organized crime proved a fascinating and engrossing revelation to many Americans introducing for the first time to many viewers terms such as "the Mafia" and the details of how criminal organizations worked. You will see how certain crime and horror titles got cancelled via the distributor due to these hearings. [1] The Kefauver Committee was the first to suggest that civil law be expanded and used to combat organized crime. Afternoon Session: Hearing locations vary. Kefauver Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com Feedback or questions? Jones was certain that neither Jack nor Meyer Lansky had ever directly or indirectly loaned any money to the Thunderbird. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journals A.E. [9], Many of the Kefauver Committee's hearings were aimed at proving that a Sicilian-Italian organization based on strong family ties centrally controlled a vast organized crime conspiracy in the United States, but the committee never came close to justifying such a claim. He approached them again in Reno three months later, and they accepted. 1955 hearings transcripts: U.S. Congress, Senate, Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency, Juvenile Delinquency (Obscene and Pornographic Materials): hearings before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee To Investigate Juvenile Delinquency Pursuant to Senate Resolution 62, Investigation of Juvenile Delinquency in the A series of hearings held by a special U.S. Senate committee in 1950 and 1951 changed that perception. Chief counsel Halley probed Moores knowledge of the race wire situation. Senator Kefauver would write the Senate Interim Report in 1955 that summarizes the hearings and offers some conclusions. Investigation After doing all the things called wrong, there she was on top of the world, with a beautiful home in Miami Beach and a handsome husband and baby!. Inquire with Special Collections about contents and access. They also talk about comics being distributed internationally and any censorship involved. Many Illinois Democrats lost their reelection bids in that year's midterm election, including Senate Majority Leader Scott Lucas. Kefauver had a plane to catch. Business and political leaders demanded action. The television broadcasts educated a broad audience about the complicated issues of interstate crime. Halley asked Jones if he knew Meyer Lansky. Some of the correspondence in this collection is arranged chronologically; some is alphabetically arranged, or in some combination. The two sides went back and forth on this issue. I dont expect to be made an object of ridicule as long as television is on.. Congress. Prices of patented antibiotics held constant for nearly a decade prior to the Kefauver hearings. Senate. In 1956, Estes Kefauver was the running mate for presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson. Press releases, speeches, article drafts, and government publications penned by politician Estes Kefauver and colleagues on the organized crime and juvenile delinquency commissions are included in this collection. There are 47 Campaign subseries. PDF Kefauver Committee Final Report Aug. 31, 1951 - Stop Predatory Gambling While that showdown led to new legal standards for drug safety and effectiveness, cost-control measures never made it to the final bill. Crime Documents from the Estes Kefauver Collection Talk About Dj Vu: Senators Set To Re-Enact Drug Price Hearing Of 60 Afternoon Session: Warren accused Kefauver of being an "ambition-crazed Caesar who is trying desperately and futilely" to be a presidential candidate. This is his story. Estes Kefauver Papers, 1925 - 1967 (MPA.0144) Personal and political files of the senator, who was well-known in the 1950s for his popular televised hearings on organized crime as well as his presidential and vice-presidential campaigns in 1952 and 1956, respectively.Newspaper clippings, eulogies and condolences after Senator Kefauver's death make up the portion of the collection dated . In a defiant tone and her nasal voice, Hauser regaled the Committee with remarkable stories of friendships with fellas who gave her gifts and money. Series I: Subject Matter File (1933 - 1964) contains correspondence, memoranda, reports, reference materials and other documents gathered or created during Kefauvers legislative work. Criminals "as suave and well-mannered as their investigators," observed one journalist, "were treated with the courtesy customarily reserved for law-abiding citizens." KEFAUVER INVESTIGATION AND KNAPP COMMISSIONThe pervasive reach of organized crime in the United States has made it a target of investigations and legal action since the nineteenth century. As Clark began explaining how the fellows from Cleveland had come into his project, Halley interrupted him, demanding that he try to be a bit more businesslike in explaining these series of transactions. Clark did his best, describing how he had approached the group which included Sam Tucker, Moe Dalitz, Morris Kleinman and Thomas McGinty for their help in finishing the Desert Inn. The morning session features Richard Clendenon, Dr. Harris Pack, Henry Edward Schultz and Senator Estes Kefauver, whose witch hunt against comics, aided by Dr. Fredric Wertham's sensational book, Seduction of the Innocent, set the medium back 50 years. He denied having ever had a business relationship with any of them or knowing any specifics of their business. Milton Caniff was a very influential artist. Phillips, likely sensitive to the difficulties that accepting bets across state lines might bring him, said he hadnt been doing much of anything since taking over the commission room. I think we had better put the press off no longer, the senator said. After seeing Hausers appearance at the hearings, the columnist Walter Winchell contemplated the seemingly timeless paradox of reality television when he wrote, When the chic Virginia Hill unfolded her amazing life story, many a young girl must have wondered: who really knows best? On November 15, 1950, Kefauver and his colleagues arrived in Las Vegas. Sometimes only the [11], Senator Kefauver served as the committee's first chair. between DC Comics, American Comics Group, Prize Comics and more. Morning Session: Hearings to Recall Earlier Investigations in Same Setting: McCarthy and Kefauver, by John Chadwick, The Lewiston Daily Sun, May 13, 1973. "Never before had the attention of the nation been riveted so completely on a single matter," explained Life magazine. Costello was a tough act to follow, but Kefauver found the star of the show in Virginia Hill Hauseran Alabama-born former waitress and moll to the late Bugsy Siegel. Nor had he ever heard the name of Costello associate Phil Kastel. Hon. Questions about Senate History? so I could put them online with my webpage, I told him I would and well, better late then never! Schools dismissed students to watch the hearings. Though not the first congressional committee to televise its proceedings, the Kefauver Committee hearings became the most widely viewed congressional investigation to date. Historic Congressional Committee Hearings and Reports various people in the comic book industry. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, (Library of Congress Name Authority File), United States. The articles also cover the hearings. The Senate responded, extending support for the investigation to September 1, 1951. Superman, Tarzan, Crime and Horror books, etc.. The Committees recommendations on how to clean up organized crime were largely ignored, and the crime syndicates went back to business as usual, often with the same shadowy characters from the hearings still in control. that did not think comics had an effect on juvenile delinquency, but they were not invited to testify. Researchers interested in consulting the MPA collections are advised to contact the Modern Political Archives, From the Series: Although the titles of the subseries may not indicate it, most of these are arranged in chronological order by campaign, although some materials are arranged by type (e.g., Scrapbooks).Series VI: Contacts (undated) consists of address books and card files, each arranged alphabetically by state, district, or county.Series VII: Published hearings, reports, and Congressional Records (1945-1963) contains hearings from Judiciary Committee, Joint Committee on Atomic Energy,House Committee on Veterans Affairs, amongst other government and Congressional publications.Series VIII: Travel (1948-1963) This series contains correspondence, invitations, itineraries, event programs, and like items relating to Kefauver's travels both nationally and abroad. The committee had already been conducting hearings for five months, and they were tired. The argument was captured by television cameras, as Carroll simply picked up his coat and began to walk out. ban crime and horror comics and they treat them with the highest amount of respect possible. He invokes the 5th Amendment and asks for immunity. The bulk of the materials in this collection may be constituent mail. Those hearings became known as the Kefauver Hearings after the committee's chairman, Senator C. Estes Kefauver of Tennessee. By then the C.C.M.A. Although the last subseries is named "abroad", there are also a few international files in the other subseries. Kefauvers Las Vegas hearings, then, helped provide a cocoon of monopoly for the Nevada casino industry to grow unchallenged for the next 25 years, which likely benefited the state as a whole. Congress. The American Mafia - Kefauver Report #1 - Aug. 18, 1950 Kennedy, Kefauver, And Castro: A Historical Lesson On The Politics Of Investigating gambling, according to one scholar, "meant that Kefauver and his colleagues first focused on urban areas, the strongholds of both gangsters and Democrats." New York and New Jersey, various doctors and educators, Comic Strip artists and Fredric Wertham himself Not according to the official transcripts of the hearings held by the panel, best known as the Kefauver Committee. Testifying before the committee in New York, Costello, with his well-coiffed hair and tailored suits, came to personify the American gangster in public imagination. When the Committee arrived in Detroit two weeks later, two local stations interrupted their regularly scheduled programming to cover two days of hearings featuring, as the Daily Boston Globe put it, a parade of hoodlums of every description the records of their dealings with murderers, dope peddlers, gamblers. It was estimated that 9 out of 10 televisions had been tuned in. Gilbert King The committee traced one bookmaking syndicates political connections all the way to Florida governor Fuller Warren, a Democrat. and against comic books, Comic Book Ratings, Are you a Red Dupe? Senators reveal, without going into too much detail, that there is a relationship between DC Owners and owners of a David G. Schwartz is the author of several works of history about Las Vegas, including At the Sands: The Casino That Shaped Classic Las Vegas, Brought the Rat Pack Together, and Went Out with a Bang; Grandissimo: The First Emperor of Las Vegas; Suburban Xanadu: The Casino Resort on the Las Vegas Strip and Beyond; and Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling. Some of them were thoroughly grilled and William Gaines in particular had a bad Colorful criminals, sweating and tapping their fingers nervously, seemed to step off the set of Hollywood gangster movies, speaking in broken English, under oath, about their activities. As Jones tried to answer, Kefauver interrupted him mid-sentence. A psychiatrist that deals with Juvenile Delinquents that is "in the middle of the road." . 757-1109) Part 4 (pp. Particularly dramatic was testimony by Frank Costello. We present the text of the three interim reports, the fourth and final committee report and the Virgil Peterson testimony - dealing with organized crime history - to the committee. The Kefauver hearing in Las Vegas - The Mob Museum The subseries are arranged in rough alphabetical order by title of committee subject. Series XXI: Posthumous material, The Modern Political Archives are housed at the Howard H. Baker Center for Public Policy. 2581-3219) Part 9 (pp. gone through it four times with a fine tooth comb to try and weed out all the mistakes the OCR program Never mind that newsreel cameras captured Costellos entire face and body as he spokethe highlights of which were shown on newscasts later that evening. Series XII: Speeches and News Releases (1939-1963) This series is arranged chronologically and described according to subject of speech or news releases and location given. The committee's legislative achievements were modest, at best. [4], The Kefauver Committee held hearings in 14 major cities across the United States. stream
He admitted to knowing George Sadlo, an El Paso gambler who frequently visited the Thunderbird and was an intimate of Jack Lanskys but insisted that both men just liked to gamble at the casino. This guy is already in prison for publishing and mailing obscene stuff. He hates Horror/Crime Comics, Bill Gaines and the comic Panic in particular. In December 1951 Americans selected Chairman Kefauver as one of 10 most admired men, joining a list of notables including Pope Pius XII, Albert Einstein, and Douglas MacArthur. Terms of Use The Kefauver Commission Hearings In May of 1950, the U.S. Senate established a five-member Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce. Mr. Richard Cledenen - Executive Director, US Senate Subcommittee To Investigate Juvenile Delinquency. Is this cover in good taste? | Send Feedback or Report a Problem, Betsey B. Creekmore Special Collections and University Archives, University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He knew Hank Greenspun, but not under his birth name of Herman. Gilbert King is a contributing writer in history for Smithsonian.com. Council on Law Enforcement (Creator), Economic Club of Detroit (Copyright holder), Hudson Guild (New York, N.Y.) (Copyright holder), Kefauver, Estes, 1903-1963 (Copyright holder), Library of Congress. The Museum is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with a mission to advance the public understanding of organized crime's history and impact on American society. Guess what? Clifford Jones took the stand next. see 1950's US Government Transcribers were bad at spelling too. Content Responsibility | There were child experts [3] In particular, many cities and states were concerned with the way organized crime had infiltrated interstate commerce, and how it threatened to hold the American economy hostage through labor racketeering. Chapter 2: Process | READ MORE. All materials in the first subseries are filed alphabetically according to folder topic. Halley queried him about how much he paid for each interest and the ownership structure of the Thunderbird. Senate Resolution 202 provided the Special Committee on Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, commonly known as the Kefauver Committee, with $150,000 to study interstate crime. Building upon the earlier work of state crime commissions, Kefauver directed committee staff to examine what he called "the life blood of organized crime": interstate gambling. Mr. Samuel Black - Vice President Atlantic Coast Independent Distributors Association. Charles Tobey (R-NH) was already established and toned down comics were coming out with the CCA stamp on them. In Chicago, the committee heard testimony from gangsters who confessed to using legitimate business interests to curry favor with local law enforcement.