Schools dismissed students to watch the hearings. testified. The Kefauver hearings exposed Americans to many figures in organized crime, including Frank Costello and Bugsy Siegels former girlfriend, Virginia Hill. 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. 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 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. 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. 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. Halley then asked if Jones could ask Weiner to testify, to which Jones agreed. [13][14] The first one of these was The Captive City (1952), which had the blessing of senator Kefauver himself: Director Robert Wise took a print of the film to D.C. to show the senator, who not only endorsed it but even appears in the prologue and epilogue, cautioning audiences about the evils of organized crime. 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. The Commerce and Judiciary Committees battled to control the investigation, and following a protracted debate, Vice President Alben Barkley cast the tie-breaking vote to establish a special committee. In 1950 and 1951, he chaired a Senate committee charged with investigating organized crime and exposing its corruption of public institutions. In Chicago, the committee heard testimony from gangsters who confessed to using legitimate business interests to curry favor with local law enforcement. There were Kefauver block parties, and attendance on Broadway wilted. Oh, and there are NO tie in sales. Crime commissions across the nation had identified Costello as a key figure in the nation's largest gambling syndicates. By then the C.C.M.A. Estes Kefauver Papers, MPA-0144. An estimated 30 million people in the United States tuned in to watch the live proceedings in March 1951 and at the time 72 percent of the population were familiar with the committee's work. As Jones tried to answer, Kefauver interrupted him mid-sentence. The Kefauver collection is currently divided into fourteen series available for research. Hearings to Recall Earlier Investigations in Same Setting: McCarthy and Kefauver, by John Chadwick, The Lewiston Daily Sun, May 13, 1973. Series XXI: Posthumous material, The Modern Political Archives are housed at the Howard H. Baker Center for Public Policy. 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. Terms of Use While that showdown led to new legal . Mr. William Friedman - Small comic book publisher with some horror books. We have provided links to the hearing volumes and summaries of their contents below: Part 1. was already established and toned down comics were coming out with the CCA stamp on them. [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. Some of the more substantially covered subjects include the TVA (see Power as well as Tennessee Valley Authority), Civil Rights, Labor and Monopoly.Series II: Estes Kefauver Bills (1939-1963) consists of information about, and drafts and copies of, bills introduced or co-sponsored Senator Kefauver or of interest to him. He was afraid of retaliation for testifying, but Kefauver cut him off with a bland reassurance that they probably wouldnt leave him twisting in the wind (we will do our best anyway) before adjourning the committee and convening the final press conference of the day. Content Responsibility | Many times during these televised hearings they showed or described comic book covers or specific story panels, I managed to find the pictures in question in some of these instances and put them up within the testimony. 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. "bad" comic book publisher. 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. Senator Estes Kefauvers role in the hearings led to a boost in popularity and national attention, including this Time magazine cover. These dramatic hearings also made certain that television would play a large role in future Senate investigations. Housewives were glued to their sets day after day, while in barrooms and cafeterias, men gathered on their lunch breaks to witness the proceedings. Mr. Richard Cledenen - Executive Director, US Senate Subcommittee To Investigate Juvenile Delinquency. Intro to the Hearings, Descriptions of Crime and Horror Comic Book stories. First-term senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee drafted a resolution to create a special committee to investigate the issue. Kefauver favored the creation of a Federal Crime Commission, which the FBI and Department of Justice ardently opposed. They also give some absolutely stunning numbers on how well their comics sell and bash Wertham in the process. The unofficial record is a bit messier. The second sentence "If you hadn't have drunk it, I wouldn't have bootlegged it" is not mentioned anywhere in the record of Dalitz's testimony. Draft of Senator Kefauver's personal statement on moving on from Crime committee. On November 14, the senators making the Western jaunt Kefauver, Charles Tobey of New Hampshire and Alexander Wiley of Wisconsin joined their investigators in Los Angeles. Chapter 3: Public Relations He gives a very negative almost panel by panel review of Panic #1. The Kefauver Committee held hearings in 14 cities across the country, including one in the courtroom of this building. Senate. The Hearings were only supposed to be for two days, but a third day came about because of the issue of [6][10] Rather, the committee uncovered extensive evidence that people of all nationalities, ethnicities, and religions operated locally controlled, loosely organized crime syndicates at the local level. Only hearings from the last 30 days are accessible through this service. Clark started building the Desert Inn in 1947 but ran out of funds. 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. [4] Among its recommendations were: The creation of a "racket squad" within the United States Department of Justice; the establishment of a permanent Crime Commission at the federal level; the expansion of the jurisdiction of the Judiciary Committee to include interstate organized crime; federal studies into the sociology of crime; a ban on betting via radio, television, telegraph, and telephone; the establishment of state and local crime commissions; and a request that the Justice Department investigate and prosecute 33 named individuals as suspected leaders of organized crime in the United States. Hearings before a Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, United States Senate, Eighty-first Congress, second session, pursuant to S. Res. Clark started by sharing that he was a member of the corporation that owned Wilbur Clarks Desert Inn and an employee of the casino. He is the associate vice provost for faculty affairs at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. WNYC has released the first day of the hearings, April 21, 1954. Then the senators bring up his mail order business. The Kefauver hearings, as they beca. He also gets the Gaines treatment with Marvel horror covers. Outraged Over Video at Hearing, Carroll, Bet Expert, Defies Senators, by William M. Blair, New York Times, February 25, 1951. various people in the comic book industry. Courthouse in Foley Square. The committee launched its investigation in Miami on May 28, 1950, and found evidence of gambling everywhere, from restaurants to cigar stands. An architect by trade, he came to Las Vegas in 1941 to design the Hotel Last Frontier for his uncle, R.E. 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. The Kefauver Hearings NCS The Kefauver Committee was named after Estes Kefauver who was the first chairman to sit in on the hearings. 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. This is a 300+ page document and I used an OCR program to get it on my computer. "Never before had the attention of the nation been riveted so completely on a single matter," explained Life magazine. Sometimes only the "This is a public hearing and anyone has a right to be here," Kefauver told him. That is all, Halley responded, dismissing Jones and turning to Wiener. Volume 15. , 1950, Oct. 7, I, Box: 76. This man is trying to ban Crime and Horror Comics in New Jersey. Associated Press, Wilbur Clark poses in front of a sign on the Desert Inn construction site. I owe a close reading of the transcripts of both events reveals several strikingly similar exchanges about comics and their place in American society . At the end is a slew of newspaper articles by Irving M. Kravsow, they show you how the media responded to Crime Executive session." Researchers interested in consulting the MPA collections are advised to contact the Modern Political Archives, From the Series: Afternoon Session: But in fact, the Kefauver hearings had little impact in the cities the Committee visited: He and his men swept in and then just as quickly swept out, leaving behind titillating news coverage and an unforgettable television experience. E. D. Fulton - Member of the House of Commons in Canada, Mr. Samuel Black - Vice President Atlantic Coast Independent Distributors Association. The committee briefly recessed. Halley questioned Jones on his partner Louis Wieners role as attorney for Dr. Maurice Siegel, executor of his brother Ben Siegels estate. The materials are arranged alphabetically by 85 subjects, from Advertising to Youth. Mother or Virginia Hill? The Adlai Stevenson-Kefauver ticket lost the election to incumbents Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon. Slain Bugsy Siegels Girl Friend Steals Senate Crime Inquiry Show, by Emanuel Perlmutter, New York Times, March 16, 1951. He narrowly lost and was the vice presidential candidate alongside Adlai Stevenson. [4][5] More than 600 witnesses testified. Remarkably, Kefauver beat the incumbent, Harry S. Truman, in the New Hampshire primary, leading Truman to abandon his campaign for renomination. The committee's legislative achievements were modest, at best. Clark first put the proposition to the group in Las Vegas; they rebuffed him. Unlike other witnesses, Sedway admitted to having known Ben Siegel, Meyer Lansky, Jack Lansky, Little Augie Casanno, Frank Costello, Joe Adonis, Nate Rutkin, Frank Erickson, Longie Zwillman, Charles Lucky Luciano, Charlie Fischetti, Rocco Fischetti, Jack Dragna, Gene Normile, Jake Guzik, and the principals in the Cleveland group. 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. 1991-2578) Part 8 (pp. The Kefauver hearings were televised, bringing organized crime into the living rooms of many Americans for the first time. This committee became known to the public as the Kefauver Hearings, as freshman Tennessee senator Estes Kefauver, a Democrat, chaired it. Charles Tobey (R-NH) Many of the high profile casino. The Senate responded, extending support for the investigation to September 1, 1951. A series of hearings held by a special U.S. Senate committee in 1950 and 1951 changed that perception. The committee's summary, which implicated the governor in illicit gambling activities, proved to be Warren's political downfall. He says there ARE tie in sales. In addition to Costello, the committee interrogated a veritable who's who of the criminal underworld. ban crime and horror comics and they treat them with the highest amount of respect possible. After estimating that the Flamingo produced $400,000 after taxes per year, Sedway was excused. He was unable to recall exactly how much he had invested in the Desert Inn, possibly a quarter-million dollars? Greeson had no opinion on the ramifications of Renos wide-open gambling on surrounding states and did not know of any operators currently in Reno with outside interests. He professed not to know the hotels final construction cost, or the current book value of the property. Volume 15. , 1950, Oct. 7, I, Box: 76. Series XVII: Memorabilia News releases do not always include a release location. Mr. Samuel Black - Vice President Atlantic Coast Independent Distributors Association. showing and was forced out traditional comic book industry as a result. Hearings led by Sen. Estes Kefauver in 1959 and 1960 were the first significant congressional inquiry into rising drug costs and drug-company profits. One of them that provides access to selected transcripts is Federal News Service. Americans had seen nothing like it beforenot in their own living rooms. Email Address . This is his story. In the aftermath of World War II, the public started hearing more about organized crime and its corrosive influence in communities across America. His book Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America won the Pulitzer Prize in 2013. Christian Life Commission (Publisher), United States. The hearings were held between 1957 and 1959. 757-1109) Part 4 (pp. With his new cap (which he was later depicted wearing in a portrait on the cover of Time), Kefauver was elected to the U.S. Senate and assumed office at a time when newspapers were beginning to report on extensive political corruption and government ties to organized crime. William Gaines that the Senators didn't think was very funny. He hates Horror/Crime Comics, Bill Gaines and the comic Panic in particular. gone through it four times with a fine tooth comb to try and weed out all the mistakes the OCR program Senator Estes Kefauver took the stage against organized crime, at the head of a special committee. 1-434) Part 2 (pp. 1735-1990) Part 7 (pp. These series include:Series XV: Framed objects I just got out of bed and am loaded with drugs, he told Kefauver. Kefauver had a plane to catch. 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. Dr. Laura Bender - Psychiatrist working for DC Comics While examining this issue they Courtesy of The Mob Museum Archive, The U.S. Post Office and Courthouse is featured in this postcard from the late 1940s, not long before the Kefauver Committee held a hearing on the second floor. He knew that Sam Tucker, Allard Roen and Cornelius Jones were overseeing the Cleveland groups interest at the Desert Inn but was unsure about his own role in the operation, despite the fact that his name was on the marquee out front. 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. In 1949 the American Municipal Association, representing more than 10,000 cities nationwide, petitioned the federal government to combat the growing influence of organized crime. 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 . Series XIII: Clippings (1930-1967) contains clipped news stories about or of interest to Kefauver and is arranged chronologically.Series XIV: Photographs (1946-1963) contains photographs arranged into five subseries: Awards, Family, Political, Portraits, Tennessee, Visits and Trips, Miscellaneous, and Oversized Group Photographs.Several series related to this collection are undergoing processing and may not be available to the public. [3][4] Several local "crime commissions" in major cities and states had also uncovered extensive corruption of the political process by organized crime. Not according to the official transcripts of the hearings held by the panel, best known as the Kefauver Committee. 3 0 obj These were televised hearings, consisting of a number of US Senators calling up and questioning He invokes the 5th Amendment and asks for immunity. Chapter 4: Investigation % 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. Those hearings became known as the Kefauver Hearings after the committee's chairman, Senator C. Estes Kefauver of Tennessee. - Funny one page comic book commentary by Halley aggressively quizzed Jones on the Thunderbirds early financial problems. Jones was the lieutenant governor of Nevada, a partner in the law firm of Jones, Wiener, Jones, and Zenoff, and a part owner of the Thunderbird Hotel, Golden Nugget and Pioneer Club. 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. Walt Kelly was a Disney Animator who create Pogo for comic books, it would soon become a very popular endobj 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. Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver ran to be the Democratic nominee for president. The hearings made Estes Kefauver so popular that he decided to seek the Democratic Partys presidential nomination in 1952. 2 0 obj That said, it's not impossible the Senate. 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? The committee's second chairman, Herbert O'Conor (who took over after an exhausted Kefauver stepped down as chairman), sponsored legislation aimed at controlling illegal drugs by expanding appropriations for the Narcotics Bureau, the committees sole legislative accomplishment. Origins The few pro-comics experts Born in 1903, Estes Kefauver studied at the University of Tennessee and at Yale University where he received his law degree in 1927. The second subseries is a variety of financial records kept by Kefauver. Education and Public Welfare Division. Mr. Harold Chamberlain - Circulation Director of Independent News Co. Mr. Charles Appel - Owner, Angus Drug Store. Called to testify, Wertham continued his attack on comic books, concluding "I think Hitler was a beginner compared to the comic book industry." There were child experts 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. Television, Kefauver said calmly with a smile, is a recognized medium of public information along with radio and newspapers. Lansky was washed out in this transaction. Series XVI: Audiovisual 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. The argument was captured by television cameras, as Carroll simply picked up his coat and began to walk out. Hon. Virginia Hill, former girlfriend of criminal mastermind Bugsy Siegel, testified to having had no knowledge of criminal activities while in the company of notorious mobsters. He doesn't like the Crime and Horror Comics, but he also doesn't want a law banning them. I think we had better put the press off no longer, the senator said.
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