Series XVII: Memorabilia horror comics were being sold. and against comic books, Comic Book Ratings, Are you a Red Dupe? Hearings Part 1 (or Part 1) (pp. Kefauver Committee Hearing: Committee Hears Hoover and McGrath - Senate The American Mafia - Kefauver Report #2 - Feb. 28, 1951 Stores and offices across the country piped in day-long radio broadcasts. Afternoon Session: The Committee ultimately produced an 11,000-page report and exposed millions of Americans to organized crime for the first time. <> Up next was Reno Police chief Lawrence Russell Greeson, who had investigated New Jersey gambling figure Joseph Doc Stacher. Next up was Moe Sedway, who, unprompted, poured out a list of his physical ailments: three major coronary thrombosis, an ulcer, an upper intestinal abscess, and a six-week bout of diarrhea. Robert F. Kennedy's crusade against the Mob: Part 1 Senator Kefauver gives short remarks on Chinese Nationalists in the Korean War, modifying the draft to include men as young as 18, and the end of his own crime investigation., Senator Estes Kefauver's weekly reports were "made available to Tennessee . Senator Estes Kefauver (Democrat-Tennessee), held the seventh of 27 hearings in 14 cities in Las Vegas. The American Mafia - Kefauver Report #1 - Aug. 18, 1950 was already established and toned down comics were coming out with the CCA stamp on them. Senator Kefauver would write the Senate Interim Report in 1955 that summarizes the hearings and offers some conclusions. Chapter 3: Public Relations This guy is already in prison for publishing and mailing obscene stuff. Kefauver had a plane to catch. Despite having a lot of fans, Johnny was embarrassed by his horror work and was very reluctant to return to it. During his final months in office, a bitter Lucas tried unsuccessfully to prematurely end the committee's investigation. The committee traced one bookmaking syndicates political connections all the way to Florida governor Fuller Warren, a Democrat. 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. Short and sweet testimony. Inquire with Special Collections about contents and access. Charles Tobey (R-NH) Halley then asked if Jones could ask Weiner to testify, to which Jones agreed. Then the senators bring up his mail order business. Mother or Virginia Hill? [15] Other notable examples of expos films inspired by the hearings include Hoodlum Empire (1952) and The Turning Point (1952). Testimony of Mrs. Helen Meyer and Mr. Matthew Murphy - Vice President and Editor of Dell Publications. Afternoon Session: Mr. William Richter - News Dealers Association of Greater New York. The University of Tennessee Libraries allows the reproduction of materials from its digital collections, in compliance with United States copyright law. Besides, it was an eye opening experience for me to They ask about the editorial board but don't get very far. between DC Comics, American Comics Group, Prize Comics and more. 3 0 obj The committee had already been conducting hearings for five months, and they were tired. It's no As a result, many people today see comic books as kids stuff despite the industry expanding to mature United States. Some of them were thoroughly grilled and William Gaines in particular had a bad You will see how certain crime and horror titles got cancelled via the distributor due to these hearings. various people in the comic book industry. The television broadcast of the committee's hearings attracted huge public interest and educated a broad audience about the issues of municipal corruption and organized crime. The unofficial record is a bit messier. readers content. [citation needed] Kefauver became a nationally recognized figure,[5] and the committee enabled him to run for President of the United States in 1952 and 1956 (his runs failed, but he became his party's vice presidential nominee in 1956). The Kefauver hearings exposed Americans to many figures in organized crime, including Frank Costello and Bugsy Siegels former girlfriend, Virginia Hill. The hearings on the West Coast drew the largest audiences recorded in daytime television. The committee's summary, which implicated the governor in illicit gambling activities, proved to be Warren's political downfall. Mr. William A. Eichhorn - Vice President of American News Co. Mr. J. Jerome Kaplon - Chairman Juvenile Delinquency Committee, Union County Bar Association, Ads by Project Wonderful! These series include:Series XV: Framed objects Special Committee on Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce - Senate [3][4], Barkley, as President of the Senate, was empowered to choose the committee's members. Crime Documents from the Estes Kefauver Collection The United States Senate Special Committee to Investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce became known as the Kefauver Committee, with Estes Kefauver serving as chair and championing a crackdown on organized crime. Senator Kefauver Wows Em on TV, by John Crosby, New York Herald Tribune, March 5, 1951. After Moore explained that the Commission had just denied a license to Joseph Doc Stacher because of his associates in New Jersey, Kefauver thanked and excused Moore. Betsey B. Creekmore Special Collections and University Archives, University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His book Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America won the Pulitzer Prize in 2013. Schools dismissed students to watch the hearings. "bad" comic book publisher. Terms of Use While that showdown led to new legal . Three years before the Army-McCarthy hearings and 22 years before Watergate, the Kefauver Committee hearings in the winter of 1951 brought a parade of gamblers, hoodlums, crooked sheriffs and organized-crime figures out from the shadows to sit and testify before the white-hot lights and television cameras. Mr. William Friedman - Small comic book publisher with some horror books. Then Kefauver headed north to San Francisco, uncovering a vast pattern of illegal payouts from lobbyists to state legislators. Estes Kefauver - The Mob Museum Marijuana is often Similarly, he denied that Frank Costello had any interest in the Thunderbird, again claiming that to his knowledge Costello had never set foot in Las Vegas. I owe His reputation shattered, O'Dwyer resigned his diplomatic post. There ARE tie in sales. Wearing a mink cape, silk gloves, and a large hat, and with the presence of a movie star, Hauser strutted into the U.S. You will notice that a few child experts are called up to testify. The second subseries is a variety of financial records kept by Kefauver. In Kansas City, the committee confronted, in Kefauver's words, a "place that was struggling out from under the rule of the law of the jungle." In addition to his duties at the Last Frontier, Moore served as a member of the Nevada Tax Commission, the administrative body that oversaw the collection of taxes from Nevada businesses, including casinos. [4][5] More than 600 witnesses testified. Sedway had attended but not graduated from high school and, after a few years in the garment industry, had become a full-time gambler, dabbled in trucking, and owned a Chinese restaurant in New York. [3] Many cities and states called for federal help in dealing with organized crime, yet federal law provided few tools for the U.S. government to do so. Nor did he know whether Siegel had the race wire in Los Angeles or not. In addition to Costello, the committee interrogated a veritable who's who of the criminal underworld. He returned to Tennessee to practice law, taking an interest in finance and taxation, married a Scottish woman, Nancy Pigott, and started a family that would include four children. Mr. Alex Segal - President, Stravon Publications. Under terms of the agreement, the Cleveland group would fund the project to completion and provide its bankroll, receiving 74 percent of the casinos stock. Virginia Hill continues her testimony before Kefauver Committee Mr. William A. Eichhorn - Vice President of American News Co. The Senate responded, extending support for the investigation to September 1, 1951. The Kefauver hearing in Las Vegas - The Mob Museum Criminals "as suave and well-mannered as their investigators," observed one journalist, "were treated with the courtesy customarily reserved for law-abiding citizens." The television broadcasts educated a broad audience about the complicated issues of interstate crime. [10] The committee's final report, issued on April 17, 1951, included 22 recommendations for the federal government and seven recommendations for state and local authorities. Senator Estes Kefauvers role in the hearings led to a boost in popularity and national attention, including this Time magazine cover. Is this cover in good taste? 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. Send us corrections Comments 0. I've included the pictures too! Today's Concerns About Drug Prices Echo The Past He approached them again in Reno three months later, and they accepted. ", The broadcasts made the Kefauver Committee a household name; in March 1951, 72 percent of Americans were familiar with the Kefauver Committee's work. Associated Press, Wilbur Clark poses in front of a sign on the Desert Inn construction site. Costello Defies Senators, Walks Out of Hearing Here; Faces Arrest on Contempt, by James A. Hagerty, New York Times, March 16, 1951. Sedway then talked about his partnerships with Siegel in the Golden Nugget and Frontier Club race books, but, when pressed about Siegels outside interests, objected that Siegel wasnt the talkative type. the CCA Stamp. 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. Congress. Although Kefauver won the majority of Democratic primaries, he lost the nomination to Adlai Stevenson, who then lost the general election to General Dwight D. Eisenhower. "Never before had the attention of the nation been riveted so completely on a single matter," explained Life magazine. I did try to go into business, he remarked, but there is nobody to do business with. He refused to admit that he accepted lay-off bets from out-of-state bookies. - Funny one page comic book commentary by Many Illinois Democrats lost their reelection bids in that year's midterm election, including Senate Majority Leader Scott Lucas. Very short. While that showdown led to new. A fictionalized version of the Senate hearings is a central plot device in the 1974 film The Godfather Part II, featuring testimony by Michael Corleone, now the head of his eponymous crime family, and disgruntled Family caporegime Frank Pentangeli. By bringing public opinion to bear on the problems of interstate crime, the investigation helped local and state law enforcement and elected officials to aggressively pursue criminal syndicates. Hearings on 'sky-high' drug prices show how little has - CNN Your ad here, right now: $0 Though he was unsuccessful in his bid for the presidency, in 1956 Democrats selected Kefauver as their vice presidential candidate. Cahlan, Kefauver kept the rest of the committee and witnesses waiting until 11, then held a press conference before starting the hearings a half-hour later. He uses the hearings to advertise his "good" books at first. The committee launched its investigation in Miami on May 28, 1950, and found evidence of gambling everywhere, from restaurants to cigar stands. This starts with some letters from a couple of organizations that did not testify but were asked for their opinions. 2581-3219) Part 9 (pp. James A. Fitzpatrick, Chairman, New York State Joint Legislative Committee To Study The Publication Of Comics, Mr. Benjamin Freedman - Chairman of the Board, Newsdealers Association of Greater New York and America. One reporter, Clark Mollenhoff, reminded RFK that probing organized crime made a name for Senator Kefauver, who had just defeated Jack in the vice presidential race. Clark first put the proposition to the group in Las Vegas; they rebuffed him. He professed not to know the hotels final construction cost, or the current book value of the property. Information provided by the Senate Historical Office. for DC and Fawcett. . All of it came courtesy of a deliberate-speaking, endlessly polite Southern senator in horn-rimmed glasses named Estes T. Kefauver. [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. He was aware, though, that Siegel had had an interest in the Golden Nuggets race book. The United States Senate Special Committee to Investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce traveled across the country in 1950 and 1951, holding hearings in many cities to expose organized crime. Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, (Library of Congress Name Authority File), United States. 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. 1111-1508) Part 5 (pp. The two sides went back and forth on this issue. Henry Edward Schultz - General Counsel, Association of Comic Magazine Publishers, Inc., New York, N. Y. 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. Weve had several witnesses who seemed much less timid and experienced I refuse to permit the arrangements for this hearing to be dictated by a witness.. Americans had seen nothing like it beforenot in their own living rooms. We have put the press off here for a long while, and Mr. Jones is going to bring his partner back. With that the committee adjourned, Kefauver held a press conference and went to lunch before returning. Region/Country. 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. In Chicago, the committee heard testimony from gangsters who confessed to using legitimate business interests to curry favor with local law enforcement. 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. United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency Some of them are actual spelling mistakes, I kept them in there In the Senate, Estes Kefauver (D-TN) chaired the Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly (part of the Senate Judiciary Committee) and had recently led a lengthy series of hearings on . The man gambles, he explained. Lansky was washed out in this transaction. Herbert O'Conor (D-MD) The Front Page of the report, with listing of the committee members and the table of contents, Mr. Richard Cledenen - Executive Director, US Senate Subcommittee To Investigate Juvenile Delinquency. 1509-1734) Part 6 (pp. Clark started building the Desert Inn in 1947 but ran out of funds. He calls them trash and wants a law to Clifford Jones took the stand next. Clark said he did not know the total cost to build the Desert Inn, but was 100 percent certain he had never approached any of a list of alleged underworld kingpins whom Halley mentioned: Frank Costello, Phil Kastel, Meyer Lansky, Jack Lansky, Jack Dragna, Mike Accone and Ben Siegel. Public Relations Usage Policy | That led to the days final witness, builder and automobile parts store owner Robert J. Kaltenborn, who had pled no contest to tax evasion and served four months in federal prison. Committee on Juvenile Crime (Creator), District of Columbia. Estes Kefauver Papers, MPA-0144. a special thank you to Jeff Trexler for photocopying them and mailing to me for free. ban them. Kefauver Hearings 1950-51 Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce was the focus of the U.S. Senate's "Kefauver Committee" in 1950-51. Terry and the Pirates, then Steve Canyon. [11], Senator Kefauver served as the committee's first chair. see 1950's US Government Transcribers were bad at spelling too. Mr. Richard Cledenen - Executive Director, US Senate Subcommittee To Investigate Juvenile Delinquency. The Kefauver Hearings - The NCS - National Crime Syndicate In January of the next year, the Kefauver Committee took to the road, crisscrossing the country to ferret out likely targets who could be exposed. Legislative Reference Service. Congress. Morning Session: By then the C.C.M.A. The resort was completed in 1950 after he brought in Mob-connected investors from Cleveland led by Moe Dalitz. Despite the potential political cost to his party, Kefauver pledged to lead a "no stones unturned, no holds barred, right down the middle of the road, let the chips fall where they may" inquiry. surprise that the hearings worked in getting the comic book industry to adopt a self censoring code. was already established and toned down comics were coming out with the CCA stamp on them. It's taken me 5 years to get this online. Historic Congressional Committee Hearings and Reports But the Kefauver hearings were only beginning to capture the publics attention. 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? 3, 1998. | v3.0.1 [11] Congress responded to the call, and in 1970 passed the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act as a direct response to the committee's recommendation. Senator Estes Kefauver took the stage against organized crime, at the head of a special committee. and Horror Comic books. Ads by Project Wonderful! That is no sign he shouldnt have a license in a state where it is legal. This was a basic policy of the Tax Commission. The Kefauver Drug Hearings in Perspective - JSTOR [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. As far as I know, Jones contended, he has never been in the city of Las Vegas. When confronted by Halley with rumors that Lansky was reputed to live at the Thunderbird Hotel a great deal of the time, Jones admitted that a man named Jack Lansky had been a guest at the hotel. The table of contents "The Senate investigation into interstate crime," it concluded, "was almost the sole subject of national conversation.". Explains why the first Comic Book Code didn't stick. Halley aggressively quizzed Jones on the Thunderbirds early financial problems. His interest in the Flamingo and a small share of the Frontier Club turf book were his only Nevada assets. Phillips was excused and Jones returned with details about the Thunderbirds race wire service. Comics Code Authority | Encyclopedia.com Executive session." What Moe Dalitz didn't say to Kefauver - The Mob Museum Halley questioned Jones on his partner Louis Wieners role as attorney for Dr. Maurice Siegel, executor of his brother Ben Siegels estate. on Comic Books. [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. Kefauver excused Greeson and moved on to the next witness, Wilbur Clark. President's Committee on Juvenile Delinquency and Youth Crime (Copyright holder), United States. Hon. 3591-4011) They also talk about comics being distributed internationally and any censorship involved. The general manager at WWJ-TV, where the stations switchboard was jammed with appreciative callers, said the hearings were the most terrific television show Detroit has ever seen.. 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. Outcome "Stenographic transcript of hearings before the Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce. The bars and taverns in St. Louis did more business than they did when the World Series was broadcast three months earlier. 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. After a dispute with Rosen, Adler sold his 49 percent share of Flamingo Hotel (in a transaction brokered by Wiener and Jones) and departed for Northern Nevada. Robert F. Kennedy was chief counsel of the Committee. Mr. Benjamin Freedman - Chairman of the Board, Newsdealers Association of Greater New York and America. made. Hearings led by Sen. Estes Kefauver in 1959 and 1960 were the first significant congressional inquiry into rising drug costs and drug-company profits. Other states considering legalized gambling (including California) demurred, and states with some tolerance of various legal gambling schemes closed those loopholes. Dell Comics are Good Comics. The hearings made Estes Kefauver so popular that he decided to seek the Democratic Partys presidential nomination in 1952. You'll notice that Fulton's contribution to the hearings is labeled as a Statement and not a Testimony. Investigating gambling, according to one scholar, "meant that Kefauver and his colleagues first focused on urban areas, the strongholds of both gangsters and Democrats." Various private transcription companies sit in on congressional hearings and record transcripts. Your Privacy Rights [16], United States Senate Special Committee to Investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce, Senate Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, "Records of Senate Select and Special Committees, 1789-1988," In, "Special Committee on Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce (The Kefauver Committee)", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=United_States_Senate_Special_Committee_to_Investigate_Crime_in_Interstate_Commerce&oldid=1116422779, This page was last edited on 16 October 2022, at 13:54. NexisUni has some of these transcripts. 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. Two of the most noteworthy attacks were the Kefauver investigation in the 1950s and the Knapp Commission hearings in the 1970s. Other accumulations of mail have been sorted by function (e.g., condolences) or by location of correspondent (eg., Tennessee county, international, et cetera. stream "Stenographic transcript of hearings before the Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce. He says there ARE tie in sales. Included is a link to the famous grotesque zombie baseball page. More important were the non-legislative results of the investigation. Kefauver Committee Hearing: Committee Hears Hoover and McGrath in Capital. . Intro to the Hearings, Descriptions of Crime and Horror Comic Book stories. I hope the atom bomb falls on every one of you, she shouted as she left the building. Kefauver definition, U.S. political leader: U.S. senator 1949-63. 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. Gilbert King is a contributing writer in history for Smithsonian.com. Congressional Hearings: Locating Recent Transcripts: Home Halley asked Jones if he knew Meyer Lansky. 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. If I wasnt interested in a business, he didnt discuss that business with me. After Tobey went on an extended diatribe that culminated with him calling Sedway and his partners a cancer spot on the body politic, the senator returned the floor to Halley, who continued questioning Sedway in less judgmental terms about his current businesses and his knowledge of the business of Lansky, Sadlo, Costello, Dragna and Hymie Levin, about which he claimed to know nothing. Milton Caniff was a very influential artist. xYmo6 f +Pp\%}p558v~d(I\@Nw"+|N^ I~x Q$)XI(;|.eGCz-( Zz%&1VY#FQcDXJw In 1950 and 1951, he chaired a Senate committee charged with investigating organized crime and exposing its corruption of public institutions. He was unable to recall exactly how much he had invested in the Desert Inn, possibly a quarter-million dollars? Griffith, and operated the casino, which opened as the second major property on the Strip in 1942, after his uncles death. 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. [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. I refer, of course, to the 1954 Senate Subcommittee hearing on Juvenile Delinquency, where Senator Estes Kefauver (D-TN), used the spectacle of televised hearings to lambast the entire industry. First-term senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee drafted a resolution to create a special committee to investigate the issue. [1] Legislative proposals and state ballot referendums legalizing gambling went down to defeat over the next few years due to revelations of organized crime's involvement in the gambling industry, and more than 70 "crime commissions" were established at the state and local level to build on the Kefauver Committee's work. Estes Kefauver (1903-1963) | American Experience | PBS Distributors from top to bottom all insisted there % For eight straight days, mobsters were dragged before the committee. United States. The Kefauver Committee and Organized Crime - YouTube Crime Attracts 1,000,000 TV Fans, by John Crosby, Daily Boston Globe, March 4, 1951. [3] Kefauver relinquished the committee chair on April 30, 1951, and Senator O'Conor assumed the chairmanship until the committee folded on September 1, 1951.[3]. The Kefauver hearings confirmed the existence of a national crime syndicate and revealed lax enforcement. This group of politicians really respect Fulton. Series XVI: Audiovisual Senators reveal, without going into too much detail, that there is a relationship between DC Owners and owners of a 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.