Chairing the Senate Committee to Investigate Crime and Interstate Commerce, the Tennessee Democrat organized a barnstorming tour across the country, handing down subpoenas from New York to New Orleans to Detroit to Los Angeles and sweeping into local courtrooms to expose thugs, politicians and corrupt law enforcement agents. Very short. Kefauver had chaired a Senate committee probe centered on organized crime in interstate commerce - with many of its hearings televised live - from 1950 to 1951. 1 0 obj Chief counsel Halley probed Moores knowledge of the race wire situation. Dell Comics are Good Comics. Nor was Clark certain exactly who was overseeing the department heads; he thought that Kleinman and Dalitz might be in charge. Sometimes Fantasy is spelled Phantasy. She wasnt about to let some stuffy senators from Washington, D.C. rough her up the way they had Costello. Estes Kefauver - The Mob Museum [3], On January 5, 1950, Senator Estes Kefauver (D-Tennessee) introduced a resolution that would allow the Senate Committee on the Judiciary to investigate organized crime's role in interstate commerce. 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. questioned on how comic books were distributed. Today's Concerns About Drug Prices Echo The Past Dr. Harris Peck - Director of the Bureau of Mental Health Services, Children's Court, New York, N. Y. Henry Edward Schultz - General Counsel, Association of Comic Magazine Publishers, Inc., New York, N. Y. Dr. Fredric Wertham - Author of Seduction of the Innocent, Mr. William Gaines - Publisher of EC Comics, Testimony of Walt Kelly, Milton Caniff and Joseph Musial - The National Cartoonist Society, Gunner Dybwad - Executive Director of the Child Study Association of America, Mr. William Friedman - Small comic book publisher with some horror books, Dr. Laura Bender - Psychiatrist working for DC Comics, Mr. Monroe Froehlich Jr. - Business Manager of Magazine Management Co. (Marvel Comics), Mr. William Richter - News Dealers Association of Greater New York, Mr. Alex Segal - President, Stravon Publications, Testimony of Mrs. Helen Meyer and Mr. Matthew Murphy - Vice President and Editor of Dell Publications, Hon. Other accumulations of mail have been sorted by function (e.g., condolences) or by location of correspondent (eg., Tennessee county, international, et cetera. William Gaines is interviewed quite a bit for them. The Kefauver collection is currently divided into fourteen series available for research. Series XI: Personal Effects (1925-1964) This series contains a variety of information that appears to have been kept in a personal file by Kefauver, but was expanded upon after his death to include correspondence and clippings related to his death and his estate. Greenspun owned a piece of property that was included in the Desert Inns grounds, and owned 30 percent of a motel adjacent to the hotel. The Kefauver hearings confirmed the existence of a national crime syndicate and revealed lax enforcement. It is the user's responsibility to obtain permission to publish texts and facsimiles from the owners of the copyright. You will see how certain crime and horror titles got cancelled via the distributor due to these hearings. To arrive at a thorough, accurate, and over-all picture of the problem of organized crime in interstate commerce, the committee, consisting of Senator Estes Kefauver as chairman; two other Democratic members, Senators Herbert R. O'Conor and Lester C. Hunt: and two Republican members, Senators Charles W. Tobey and Alexander Wiley, has visited and Jones replied that as long as the individuals conducted themselves properly, probably no harm comes of it. But what constituted proper conduct, Halley wanted to know. Those hearings became known as the Kefauver Hearings after the committee's chairman, Senator C. Estes Kefauver of Tennessee. . Mr. Alex Segal - President, Stravon Publications. An estimated 30 million Americans tuned in to watch the live proceedings in March 1951. Among the most notable was an admission by J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, that a national organized crime syndicate did exist and that the FBI had done little about it. The official record reflects that they convened the committee in the courtroom on the second floor of the federal building at 300 Stewart Avenue as scheduled at 10 a.m. United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency An architect by trade, he came to Las Vegas in 1941 to design the Hotel Last Frontier for his uncle, R.E. When the committee returned, Halley asked one final question: Was it good policy to let people whose previous records had been bad to continue in the gambling business simply because theyd started before 1949? It's taken me 5 years to get this online. Clark retained 25 percent, and 1 percent went to newsman Herman Hank Greenspun. The hearings clearly demonstrated that some elected officials had facilitated and profited from criminal activities. He was unable to recall exactly how much he had invested in the Desert Inn, possibly a quarter-million dollars? [4][6] Many of the committee's hearings were televised live on national television to large audiences, providing many Americans with their first glimpse of organized crime's influence in the U.S.[1][5][7] Among the more notorious figures who appeared before the committee were Tony "Joe Batters" Accardo, Louis "Little New York" Campagna, Mickey Cohen, Willie Moretti, Frank Costello, Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik, Meyer Lansky, Paul "The Waiter" Ricca,[6][8] Virginia Hill (former Joe Adonis-Chicago Outfit messenger and mobster Benjamin Siegel's girlfriend), and four of Irish mob boss Enoch "Nucky" Johnson's former policemen in Atlantic City were also called forth. %PDF-1.5 He talks about the horrible comic books. ", The broadcasts made the Kefauver Committee a household name; in March 1951, 72 percent of Americans were familiar with the Kefauver Committee's work. [3] On May 3, 1950, Vice President Alben W. Barkley, sitting in his role as President of the United States Senate, cast the tie-breaking vote, and the Special Committee to Investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce was established. Dr. Fredric Wertham - Author of Seduction of the Innocent. called up were ones that are easily discredited as being "paid apologists." Not according to the official transcripts of the hearings held by the panel, best known as the Kefauver Committee. 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. 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. Cookie Policy By then the C.C.M.A. The Kefauver Hearings NCS The Kefauver Committee was named after Estes Kefauver who was the first chairman to sit in on the hearings. 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. Mr. William Gaines - Publisher of EC Comics. [3][4] A compromise resolution was substituted which established a special committee of five Senators, whose membership would be drawn from both the Judiciary and Commerce committees. Series I: Subject Matter File (1933 - 1964) contains correspondence, memoranda, reports, reference materials and other documents gathered or created during Kefauvers legislative work. Gallery Rise of the Cartels: International Drug Trafficking in the Americas Historic Courtroom Series XIX: Plaques from Senate office wall 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. This was called tie tn sales. 4 0 obj Crime commissions across the nation had identified Costello as a key figure in the nation's largest gambling syndicates. )Series V: Campaign (1936-1963) contains materials from Kefauvers many campaigns for his House and Senate seat and his unsuccessful bids for President (1952) and Vice President (1956). lists the people testifying alphabetically by their name. Gilbert King The hearings made it clear to a lot of people that there was a national Mob, and that it had a lot of power. The twenty-one lengthy volumes of Kefauver Committee hearing transcripts are available in a variety of digital formats - including PDF, EPUB, Kindle and plain text - through the Internet Archive at Archive.org (contributed by Boston Public Library). Email a Senate historian. But the Kefauver hearings were only beginning to capture the publics attention. 159 Linear Feet (318.5 (boxes 1 through folder 5 318)), Part of the Betsey B. Creekmore Special Collections and University Archives, University of Tennessee, Knoxville Repository. Americans were fascinated by the spectacle of a mob boss under duress. Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency, (Library of Congress Name Authority File), United States. Comics Code Authority | Encyclopedia.com They lost to Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon. While running for U.S. Senate in 1948, Estes Kefauvers opponent accused him of being a raccoon-like Communist puppet. Kefauver adopted this cap and embraced it as his signature look. Stacher had applied for a license to become a partner in Bill Graham and Jim McKays Bank Club.
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