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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 Senators reveal, without going into too much detail, that there is a relationship between DC Owners and owners of a Estes Kefauver (1903-1963) | American Experience | PBS Alexander Wiley (R-WI), Chapter 1: Origins 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. Mr. Benjamin Freedman - Chairman of the Board, Newsdealers Association of Greater New York and America. The committee briefly recessed. that did not think comics had an effect on juvenile delinquency, but they were not invited to testify. Various private transcription companies sit in on congressional hearings and record transcripts. Senate. Lansky was washed out in this transaction. 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." The man gambles, he explained. Kefauver Committee Hearing: Committee Hears Hoover and McGrath - Senate In the aftermath of World War II, the public started hearing more about organized crime and its corrosive influence in communities across America. He doesn't like the Crime and Horror Comics, but he also doesn't want a law banning them. The materials are arranged alphabetically by 85 subjects, from Advertising to Youth. Chairman: C. Estes Kefauver 1950-1951; Herbert O'Conor 1951 Committee members: Lester Hunt (D-WY) Herbert O'Conor (D-MD) Charles Tobey (R-NH) Alexander Wiley (R-WI) Chapter 1: Origins Chapter 2: Process Chapter 3: Public Relations Chapter 4: Investigation Chapter 5: Outcome Origins He passed a law banning Crime Comics in Canada, but it didn't work. 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 . Although the last subseries is named "abroad", there are also a few international files in the other subseries. This is his story. Informs public on accelerated schedule for New York-New Jersey area hearings on organized crime. tie in sales. 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. Researchers interested in consulting the MPA collections are advised to contact the Modern Political Archives, From the Series: Get the latest History stories in your inbox? Joseph Musial worked for both King Features Syndicate and the National Cartoonist Society. Comics Code Authority | Encyclopedia.com A freshman U.S. senator from Tennessee, Estes Kefauver, seized the opportunity. The few pro-comics experts and against comic books, Comic Book Ratings, Are you a Red Dupe? Series XVII: Memorabilia Hauser soon after hopped on a plane and fled the country to evade a tax evasion charge by the Internal Revenue Service. Senator Kefauver would write the Senate Interim Report in 1955 that summarizes the hearings and offers some conclusions. Former New York City mayor William O'Dwyer testified to allegations of corruption during his tenure. Courthouse in Foley Square. Walt Kelly was a Disney Animator who create Pogo for comic books, it would soon become a very popular [3][4], Barkley, as President of the Senate, was empowered to choose the committee's members. Distributors from top to bottom all insisted there [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. "bad" comic book publisher. Afternoon Session: On live television, the cameras zoomed in on the mobsters meaty hands as he nervously fingered the eyeglasses resting on the table, or moved to dab a handkerchief to his off-screen face as he dodged question after question, making him appear all the more sinister to daytime viewers. 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. Halley queried him about how much he paid for each interest and the ownership structure of the Thunderbird. E. D. Fulton - Member of the House of Commons in Canada, Mr. Samuel Black - Vice President Atlantic Coast Independent Distributors Association. United States Senate. Only hearings from the last 30 days are accessible through this service. Draft of committee report on Infiltration of Organized Crime Into Legitimate Enterprises, Memorandum from Senator Estes Kefauver to members of the Committee, "Statement of Senator Kefauver When Introducing Crime Narcotics Bill". President's Committee on Juvenile Delinquency and Youth Crime (Copyright holder), United States. The tour began quietly in January of 1951, but by February, in a serene postwar America where house and apartment doors were not always locked, Kefauver Fever gripped the nation, and the perception of a ubiquitous underground crime wave added to the countrys anxieties over communism and nuclear confrontation during the Cold War. Senate. Television viewers were riveted, in part, by the cast of characters called to testify before the committee. so I could put them online with my webpage, I told him I would and well, better late then never! Your Privacy Rights CBS News: Crime & The Committee - The Kefauver Hearings - Anthony "Tough Tony" Anastasio, Virginia Hill, William O'Dwyer & Frank Costello Testify (1958)For . Staff Interface Though not the first congressional committee to televise its proceedings, the Kefauver Committee hearings became the most widely viewed congressional investigation to date. <> Betsey B. Creekmore Special Collections and University Archives, University of Tennessee, Knoxville. It's no The Kefauver Drug Hearings in Perspective - JSTOR In the casinos six and half months of operation, Clark had not yet been paid. [3] Debate over the substitute resolution was bitter and partisan, and the voting on the resolution extremely close. He also gives some ideas on how to censor comic books. 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. The Kefauver Hearings - The NCS - National Crime Syndicate [2], Organized crime was the subject of a large number of widely read articles in several major newspapers and magazines in 1949. 3591-4011) At the end is a slew of newspaper articles by Irving M. Kravsow, they show you how the media responded to Crime Dybwad shows us the DC Comics internal Comic Code they used during this period. The Library does not hold the copyright to most items in its collections. Usage Policy | "It has made millions of us aware of conditions that we would never have fully realized even if we had read the newspaper accounts. He distributes a number of horror comic books and some get displayed for him to explain. Next, Senator Tobey grilled Moore on the moral characteristics of his fellow gambling entrepreneurs. It's taken me 5 years to get this online. Up next was Reno Police chief Lawrence Russell Greeson, who had investigated New Jersey gambling figure Joseph Doc Stacher. While that showdown led to new legal standards for drug safety and effectiveness, cost-control measures never made it to the final bill. Mert Wertheimer of Detroit was licensed after a testimonial from the former head of the FBI from Detroit. Moore knew of Wertheimers gambling activities in other states, but insisted that shouldnt disqualify him. city and/or state is listed with the date.Series IX: Jobs, Appointments and Patronage (1949-1963) This series includes individual recommendations and appointments by Kefauver to positions within the federal government.Series X: Office Files (1939-1963) includes files from both the Chattanooga and the Nashville offices, including case work, condolences, field office files, guestbooks and correspondence with news media and other agencies. 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. 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. Series XVI: Audiovisual 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. 3221-3590) Part 10 (pp. 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. What about this one? Wiener admitted that Lansky might have owned some stock in the original Nevada Projects Corporation, but that it wasnt a large percentage. Siegel was the largest shareholder. 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. It was common knowledge in town. is just different ways of spelling stuff. was no such thing as tie in sales and the comics can be returned. He approached them again in Reno three months later, and they accepted. 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). Dr. Harris Peck - Director of the Bureau of Mental Health Services, Children's Court, New York, N. Y. He says there ARE tie in sales. Mr. Harold Chamberlain - Circulation Director of Independent News Co. Mr. Charles Appel - Owner, Angus Drug Store. Virginia Hill continues her testimony before Kefauver Committee Kefauver was elected to the House of Representatives in 1939 and re-elected four times; his support for President Franklin Roosevelts New Deal legislation made him stand out in conservative Tennessee. Terms of Use 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. 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 Kefauver hearing in Las Vegas - The Mob Museum William Gaines that the Senators didn't think was very funny. 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. ban them. 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. Hearing locations vary. Remarkably, Kefauver beat the incumbent, Harry S. Truman, in the New Hampshire primary, leading Truman to abandon his campaign for renomination. Articles: Frank Costellos Hands: Film, Television and the Kefauver Crime Hearings, by Thomas Doherty, Film History, Volume 10, No. He uses the hearings to advertise his "good" books at first. Remembering Estes Kefauver, by Theodore Brown, Jr. and Robert B. Allen, The Progressive Populist, 1996, http://www.populist.com/96.10.kefauver.html. When the five-member committee was set to expire at the end of February 1951, the public inundated Congress with letters demanding that the inquiry continue. mistake is mine, I just ask that you don't automatically assume so. The hearings were held between 1957 and 1959. Mr. J. Jerome Kaplon - Chairman Juvenile Delinquency Committee, Union County Bar Association. There were also Politicians from Canada, The Committee went west to Los Angeles, taking testimony from a handcuffed Allen Smiley, one of mobster Benjamin Bugsy Siegels former associates. 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. and Horror Comic books. "This is a public hearing and anyone has a right to be here," Kefauver told him. Modern Political Archives (Special Collections): Estes Kefauver | v3.0.1 An estimated 30 million Americans tuned in to watch the live proceedings in March 1951. "The Kefauver Hearings"1950-1951 | The Pop History Dig Series XX: Christmas greetings to Nancy Kefauver 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!. 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. The resort was completed in 1950 after he brought in Mob-connected investors from Cleveland led by Moe Dalitz. 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. When she finished, she had to fight her way past the throng of scribes, slapping one female reporter in the face and cursing the photographers. New York and New Jersey, various doctors and educators, Comic Strip artists and Fredric Wertham himself The second subseries is a variety of financial records kept by Kefauver. lists the people testifying alphabetically by their name. Yo*3ivo}+>3-= 8G>EjN@aXMD_ tcn/9PmcPVP\rn}\d:q@88q ,B&. Many Illinois Democrats lost their reelection bids in that year's midterm election, including Senate Majority Leader Scott Lucas. questioned on how comic books were distributed. The Senate responded, extending support for the investigation to September 1, 1951. Robert F. Kennedy's crusade against the Mob: Part 1 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. Charles Tobey (R-NH) The Front Page of the report, with listing of the committee members and the table of contents. Kefauver arranged a compromise. Morning Session: While that showdown led to new. 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. After estimating that the Flamingo produced $400,000 after taxes per year, Sedway was excused. Dr. Laura Bender - Psychiatrist working for DC Comics Source for information on Kefauver Investigation and Knapp Commission: West's . Clifford Jones took the stand next. Chapter 4: Investigation Estes Kefauver Papers, MPA-0144. WNYC has released the first day of the hearings, April 21, 1954. Then Clarks powers of recollection began to falter. 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. Estes Kefauver - The Mob Museum Advertising Notice Dell Comics are Good Comics. Marijuana is often When his legal counsel objected to the television cameras, cameramen instead directed their devices at Costello's hands. Crime Documents from the Estes Kefauver Collection I got these transcripts in June of 1999. 757-1109) Part 4 (pp. 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. [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). Mr. Harold Chamberlain - Circulation Director of Independent News Co. made. 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. Jones claimed to have never met him, nor had Lansky spent time at the Thunderbird. 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. Below are links I made to all the testimony, going in order as they appeared. United States Senate. Schools dismissed students to watch the hearings. Revelations of bribery and illegal gambling among the city's police force drew intense scrutiny from the mayor, leading one journalist to report that "one-fifth of the citys police captains were said to be slated for the skids." 2023 Smithsonian Magazine Courtesy of Robert Stoldal. Halley aggressively quizzed Jones on the Thunderbirds early financial problems. Some of it We have provided links to the hearing volumes and summaries of their contents below: Part 1. Housewives were glued to their sets day after day, while in barrooms and cafeterias, men gathered on their lunch breaks to witness the proceedings. Then the betting commissioner, James J. Carroll, refused to testify on television, stating that it was an invasion of privacy. In 1950 and 1951, he chaired a Senate committee charged with investigating organized crime and exposing its corruption of public institutions. Some just sat in stony silence, refusing, as one witness said, to criminate themselves. 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. Kefauver then made a bid for a Senate seat in 1948, running against E. H. Crump, the mayor of Memphis and boss of Tennessees Democratic Party. Public Relations [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. He also gets the Gaines treatment with Marvel horror covers. He advertises in comic books and somehow kids that bought stuff from him got mail advertising sex books of a sort. The argument was captured by television cameras, as Carroll simply picked up his coat and began to walk out. Hon. a special thank you to Jeff Trexler for photocopying them and mailing to me for free. 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] 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. There was a problem playing this event. for DC and Fawcett. The entire metropolitan area had become obsessed with the drama. Mr. Charles Appel - Owner, Angus Drug Store. spelled with an H in the middle. Education and Public Welfare Division. Moore revealed that since the Tax Commission had begun issuing licenses, it had refused hundreds of applications and revoked as many as 100 for reasons of character. Halley asked why William Graham and James McKay, notorious Reno racketeers, had been granted licenses despite their convictions for altering government bonds in the southern district of New York. When the committee reconvened, Henry Phillips, proprietor of the Last Frontier commission room, was sworn in. The committee members held, as an article of faith proven through witness testimony (and artfully interpreted silences), that there existed a national syndicate of criminal organizations, and that this syndicate was forcing its way into legitimate businesses. between DC Comics, American Comics Group, Prize Comics and more. 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. It is the user's responsibility to obtain permission to publish texts and facsimiles from the owners of the copyright. - Funny one page comic book commentary by stream I owe readers content. Prices of patented antibiotics held constant for nearly a decade prior to the Kefauver hearings. The Chicago investigation connected top officialsmost of whom were members of the Democratic Partywith corrupt practices. 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. The Kefauver hearings confirmed the existence of a national crime syndicate and revealed lax enforcement. Kefauver Investigation and Knapp Commission | Encyclopedia.com Privacy Statement endobj The Kefauver Hearings NCS The Kefauver Committee was named after Estes Kefauver who was the first chairman to sit in on the hearings. There were child experts 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. You will see how certain crime and horror titles got cancelled via the distributor due to these hearings. 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. Particularly dramatic was testimony by Frank Costello. Guess what? He had been arrested on numerous charges, including assault and robbery, but had no felony convictions. Investigating gambling, according to one scholar, "meant that Kefauver and his colleagues first focused on urban areas, the strongholds of both gangsters and Democrats." "Stenographic transcript of hearings before the Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce. Phillips was excused and Jones returned with details about the Thunderbirds race wire service. An architect by trade, he came to Las Vegas in 1941 to design the Hotel Last Frontier for his uncle, R.E. % The hearings clearly demonstrated that some elected officials had facilitated and profited from criminal activities. 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. Series XVIII: Miscellaneous office materials United States. He calls them trash and wants a law to www.senate.gov. Then serving as ambassador to Mexico, O'Dwyer's answers lacked specificity, leading the public to conclude that he was being intentionally evasive. After Crump accused Kefauver of being a raccoon-like communist sympathizer, Kefauver calmly donned a coonskin cap for his next speech and said, I may be a pet coon, but Im not Boss Crumps pet coon.. All but two of these subseries hold material created or gathered in the course of Kefauvers work with various Senate, Joint, Select and House committees. Oh, and there are NO tie in sales. Moore admitted there were a few more shady characters than in other lines of business, and that, while it would be a desirable thing to purge some individuals from the industry, he had never given any thought to how it could be done, despite his license-issuing role on the Tax Commission.