Sept. 1, 1951: Kefauver’s TV mob hearings
In March 1951, a dapper man sat before the Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce and attempted to explain to a handful of U.S. senators why exactly he could not estimate his personal net worth.
His name was Frank Costello—reputed head of the Luciano crime family—and, from that moment on, he became the face of American organized crime.
The committee, which had been investigating a loose organization of gangsters in American cities for more than a year, was scheduled to dissolve that month. But under the guidance of Tennessee Sen. Estes Kefauver, the hearings had become a national television sensation; the committee was extended for another six months.
As a Yale-educated lawyer, Kefauver had staunchly supported President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s administration during five terms as a U.S. congressman. When he entered the upper chamber in 1949, he brought presidential ambitions and a plan.
After World War II, influential publications published lengthy exposés on the corrupt influence of criminal organizations across American cities. And when several mayors requested federal intervention, Kefauver seized the issue, and in January 1950 introduced a resolution authorizing Congress to investigate.
The resolution came with controversy. Many of the cities Kefauver proposed to investigate were controlled by Democrats, and it took the tiebreaking vote of Vice President Alben Barkley in May 1950 for the resolution to pass.
For Kefauver, television became key. He had already decided to hold hearings in some of the cities most affected by organized crime, but when news feeds on local television in New Orleans generated a vigorous national response, he decided to open up the hearings in New York City and other key cities to live television cameras.
Over the course of 15 months, the “Kefauver Committee” road show visited 13 venues outside the nation’s capital; interviewed more than 600 witnesses; and produced thousands of pages of important sworn testimony and colorful anecdotes from gangsters, politicians, investigators and journalists.
The investigation ventured into crimes like prostitution and narcotics, but its focus turned on the widespread influence of illegal gambling. The committee’s periodic reports—and its final report—cited questionable relationships between gangsters who profited from nearly every form of gambling and the politicians—including many Democrats—who allegedly protected or condoned them. They named names: former New York City mayor William O’Dwyer, Florida Gov. Fuller Warren and Missouri Gov. Forrest Smith.
By the time of Costello’s testimony, a TV audience of more than 30 million heard from a broad and often colorful roster of rogues: the powerful New York mobster Joe Adonis; Al Capone bagman Jake “Greasy Thumb” Guzik; and Virginia Hill, the former mistress of gangster Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel. Hill was reputed to have deep operational knowledge of a national criminal organization. But before the committee, she vamped, unresponsively, in a black hat and a mink stole. Her testimony ended in applause, whereupon she kicked one reporter, slapped another and expressed the hope that an “atom bomb” would hit the entire gathering.
But it was Costello who came to personify Kefauver’s quest: An Italian-born immigrant with a criminal past whose corporate mannerisms camouflaged a laundry list of silent partnerships, access to cash and friends implicated in lucrative schemes of extortion, gambling and bribery from coast to coast.
When Costello objected to the live cameras during his testimony, they focused on his fidgeting hands, but newsreel cameramen kept rolling. His answers became increasingly evasive as the committee asked about his finances; he ultimately refused to answer any questions at all. Costello was later sentenced to 18 months in prison, one of more than 40 witnesses referred for prosecution for contempt or perjury.
The committee was dissolved Sept. 1, 1951, leaving a minimal legislative legacy. Having become one of the most admired men in America, Kefauver ran for president in 1952, winning 11 of 15 primaries and ending President Harry Truman’s reelection bid.
But nominations were decided at conventions, and his perceived assault on fellow Democrats had done him damage. Electors at the Democratic National Convention chose Adlai Stevenson instead.
Kefauver ran in 1956, this time as Stevenson’s running mate. They lost to the incumbents, Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon.
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