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THE KEFAUVER COMMITTEE AND ORGANIZED CRIME

Crime Buster from Tennessee

The Kefauver committee, which has been called "probably the most important probe of organized crime" in U.S. history, revealed to Americans the activities of criminal operations earning millions of dollars yearly and of the corrupt public officials who allowed such operations to flourish. It was formed as the Senate Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, but it came to be called the Kefauver committee after Sen. Estes Kefauver. The energetic Tennessee Democrat, looking to make a name for himself in his first term in the Senate, sponsored the resolution which created the committee and was its chairman. In order for the resolution to pass, Kefauver had to overcome stiff opposition from elder senators who distrusted their junior colleague's ambitions.

Murder in Kansas City

The murder of two gangsters on 6 April 1950 in a Democratic clubhouse in Kansas City, Missouri, brought the issue of organized crime back into the headlines. For the Republicans the incident provided an opportunity to make an embarrassing connection between the Democrats and corruption in President Harry S Truman's home state; and Democrats, rather than appear afraid of an investigation of big-city political machines, agreed that federal action against the "National Crime Syndicate" was necessary. After some squabbling between the two parties, the membership of the committee—Kefauver, two fellow Democrats, and two Republicans—was settled. Public hearings began in Miami, Florida, on 26 May 1950.

"Taking the Fifth."

Over the next ten months the committee traveled the country from Miami to Saint Louis, New York, Cleveland, Chicago, and Los Angeles, among other cities. They listened to hundreds of hours of testimony from police experts, corrupt public officials, and underworld notables. So many of the crime figures questioned tried to invoke their constitutional right against self-incrimination guaranteed in the Fifth Amendment that "taking the Fifth" became part of the national vocabulary. Others tried to avoid appearing Before the committee altogether: "Kefauveritis" was the name given to the variety of mysterious ailments that suddenly afflicted gangsters on the day they were scheduled to testify.

Star Witnesses

Probably the most dramatic hearings in the Kefauver investigation were those held in New York City. Frank Costello, considered the head of the New York-Miami syndicate, testified only on the condition that his face not be shown on television, so the cameras focused on his hands for the duration of his appearance. As an attempt to protect his identity the ploy was unsuccessful: by the time the committee was through with him, Costello was a ruined man. His testimony had made him an unwelcome presence among both his legitimate and underworld associates. The other star of the New York hearings was Virginia Hill, whom the press had labeled the "Queen of the Mob" although she never actually wielded any authority in the underworld. Rather, she was infamous for her series of gangland husbands and lovers. After her testimony, perhaps upset by her un-chivalrous treatment in the newspapers, Hill lashed out at a crowd of reporters, slapping one and screaming, "I hope an atom bomb falls on all of you!"

The Syndicates Revealed

On the basis of information they received, the committee developed a picture of organized crime in 1950s America. It was dominated by two syndicates, one operating in New York and the other based in Chicago; both also had operations in Florida. The committee claimed—but was never completely able to substantiate—that both of these syndicates were coordinated and controlled by the Mafia, presided over by Charles "Lucky" Luciano. (Most of the gangsters who testified, perhaps fearing reprisals, denied ever having even heard the word Mafia before.) The syndicates made most of their money from gambling, and they operated relatively free from legal harassment by bribing or intimidating elected officials and law-enforcement personnel.

Making Sense

As the committee's hearings drew to a close early in 1951, critics and supporters alike tried to make sense of the issues that had been raised. Many of the mobsters questioned had been unsure of their rights: the hearings were not criminal trials, yet those testifying were often accused of criminal activities. They were allowed not to incriminate themselves, but they had no opportunity to cross-examine other hearing witnesses who incriminated them. These issues were compounded by the presence of the television cameras, which convicted many of the witnesses in the eyes of the public, even though none of them had been formally indicted.

A Confused Atmosphere

Witnesses claimed that they had difficulty testifying under the hot, bright television lights. The committee, however, seemed reluctant to limit use of the cameras, leading critics to charge that media coverage was more important to committee members than justice. Kefauver inadvertently encouraged such a view by seemingly rushing his book, Crime in America (1951), and a series of articles he wrote for the Saturday Evening Post into print before the final report of the hearings had appeared.

A Service to the Nation

Kefauver asserted, though, that the committee had on balance done the nation a service. Many of the methods and faces of organized crime had been exposed to the public for the first time. Privately funded crime committees were formed around the country to address criminal activity at the local level. The Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service stepped up efforts to prosecute mobsters on racketeering and tax evasion charges. And voters rejected candidates with links to the underworld. Still, for all the public interest generated by the hearings, concrete results are harder to measure; as William Howard Moore wrote in The Kefauver Committee and the Politics of Crime (1974), "So inadequate are crime statistics and definitions … no one can document whether organized crime and corruption declined or increased during the 1950s."