Hearings Before the Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, United States Senate

Date: 1951

Historical Summary

The MORNING of March 13, 1951, may well mark a turning point in the history of the democratic process. In ancient Greece Athenian citizens personally attended the Assembly just as New Englanders still participate in the town meeting, but the size of our nation and the dimensions of modern governmental activity have made it necessary for the people to delegate more and more of their authority to their representatives. This absence of direct participation has also been accompanied by a decline of civic consciousness.

Alert to the potentialities of TV for arousing the American people, the Senate’s Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, headed by Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee and sparkplugged by their brilliant chief counsel, Rudolph Halley, brought their most dramatic hearings to millions of American homes. On March 13, 1951, business in department stores was at a standstill. Husbands returned from work to find their evening meal unprepared, beds unmade, and their homes in complete disarray. Their wives had spent the day glued to the television set.

The cast of characters that exercised so strange a fascination upon millions of Americans was headed by a star performer, Frank Costello, known also as Castiglia, Severio, and possibly by several other names as well. Giving his present occupation as "real estate," Costello was careful to bring along his mouthpiece, George Wolf, a member of the bar. A shy, sensitive character, Costello refused to pose for the TV cameras. All of the witness that could be seen on the TV screens was a pair of hands. Halley’s probing brought out the fact that Costello had been in the liquor business, was a slot-machine czar, and had been an operator of night clubs. Above and beyond his versatile "business" interests, he wielded some strange extra-legal power, according to reputation, that made people seek him out and force money upon him for negligible services. Even Bill O’Dwyer, New York’s ex-mayor, found it expedient to pay a visit to Costello’s home during the war to check on his connections with airplane contracts. One of the softest assignments that Frankie ever accepted was brought to light by the questioning of Counsel Halley.

Key Quote

Senator Kefauver puts Frankie Costello on T-V spot

Government Printing Office Washington 1951

A Nation Eyewitnesses Sees Kefauver Investigation

[1951]

MR. HALLEY. You had an income in 1949 from George M. Levy, $15,000. Would you mind telling the committee again what that was for?

MR. COSTELLO. Mr. Levy engaged me—you want me to go in details about what I told you the last time, Mr. Halley?

MR. HALLEY. Would you mind? I would appreciate it.

MR. COSTELLO. You do?

MR. HALLEY. The committee has been very interested in that transaction.

MR. COSTELLO. I met Mr. Levy, and Mr. Levy told me that he was having difficulty at the race track, at the Roosevelt Raceway. He thought that he might lose his franchise, his interest; bookmakers were there, and the racing commission told him that if he didn’t clean it up, he might jeopardize his license. He asked me to help him.

I says, "What way can I help you?"

He says, "Can you suggest something?"

I says, "Well, haven’t you got a detective agency there?"

He says, "I have."

I says, "Well, if they can’t help you, how can I help you?"

He says, "Well, it seems that there’s a tot of complaints. I personally don’t think there’s any more bookmakers there than any other track, but there’s a lot of complaints."

I says, "Nothing I can do for you, George."

So he said, "Maybe you can think of something."

I says, "Well, what I can do, George, I can spread the propaganda around that they’re hurting you there and you’re a nice fellow, and I can tell them that if there’s an arrest made, it’s going to be very severe. I don’t know how much good it’s going to do you, but I’ll talk about it."

He says, "I wish you would," and I did.

MR. HALLEY. Where did you talk about it, Mr. Costello?

MR. COSTELLO. Oh, I talked about it from the second day that he spoke to me about it.

MR. HALLEY. Where did you talk about it?

MR. COSTELLO. Oh, in Moore’s Restaurant, Gallagher’s Restaurant, a hotel, a saloon, as you would call it, any place, or a night club, whenever I had the chance, just in general.

MR. HALLEY. To whom did you talk about it that you might have thought had any connection with bookmaking at a race track?

MR. COSTELLO. Anybody who was around at the time.

MR. HALLEY. When Mr. Levy first came to you, did you tell him that you had no connection whatsoever with bookmakers?

MR. COSTELLO. Positively. He always knew that.

MR. HALLEY. Did you ask him why he came to you?

MR. COSTELLO. Well, I don’t know why he come to me, but he came to me anyway.

MR. HALLEY. Why do you think he came to you?

MR. COSTELLO. Well, he come to me—he thought maybe I would have a solution of some kind, a suggestion, and I told him I had none.

MR. HALLEY. But instead, your suggestion was that you would go and pass the word around?

MR. COSTELLO. That’s right, for no monetary reason at all; as a friend.

MR. HALLEY. Do you think that your passing the word around would have such an influence on bookmakers?

BERLIN, 1945

HANDS ACROSS THE SCREENThe hands of Frank Costello play with his glasses during a television showing of the Senate Crime Investigation hearing at Federal Court. The TV cameramen, requested not to show Costello’s face, had to concentrate on his bands as he testified at the hearing.

MR. COSTELLO. I didn’t think so, and I still don’t think so.

MR. HALLEY. Did you think that your services were worth a total of $60,000 over 4 years?

MR. COSTELLO. Which is $15,000 a year. No, I didn’t think so.

MR. HALLEY. During the first year when he came to you, I believe it was during the racing meet in August, is that right, or possibly earlier in 1946—

MR. COSTELLO. Well, I wouldn’t remember just the time.

MR. HALLEY. But it was the summer of 1946?

MR. COSTELLO. Well, it was prior to the opening of the meet, the middle, or something, I wouldn’t know, I wouldn’t remember.

MR. HALLEY. Well, it certainly must have been the first year in which you went to work for him.

MR. COSTELLO. In 1946.

MR. HALLEY. You are sure of that?

MR. COSTELLO. Yes; I believe it was 1946.

MR. HALLEY. Looking at your own records, what is the first year for which you were paid?

MR. COSTELLO. I believe it was 1946.

MR. WOLF. 1946.

MR. HALLEY. 1946 is right?

MR. COSTELLO. Well, it was 1946.

MR. HALLEY. What did you do in 1946 to earn $15,000?

MR. COSTELLO. Practically nothing.

MR. HALLEY. Well, just what did you do, unless it was absolutely nothing?

MR. COSTELLO. Outside of just talking about it, that bookmakers are going to hurt this man’s license and they cannot make enough money there to hurt a man or to take a chance on account of the severe penalty they would get if they got arrested.

MR. HALLEY. And in what places did you say that?

MR. COSTELLO. Oh, I told you before.

MR. HALLEY. Dinty Moore’s?

MR. COSTELLO. Yes; any place.

MR. HALLEY. Gallagher’s?

MR. COSTELLO. Yes. Wherever I had an occasion that they would talk, you know, in general.

MR. HALLEY. What other places, Mr. Costello, did you spread the gospel, in what other restaurant?

MR. COSTELLO. In other words, do you want me to tell you how many restaurants I go to?

MR. HALLEY. I want you to tell the committee in how many restaurants you went to people—

MR. COSTELLO. Half a dozen restaurants.

MR. HALLEY. And said it would be a bad thing to make book at the Roosevelt Raceway?

MR. COSTELLO. Maybe a half a dozen restaurants. Criselle’s, anywhere, the Waldorf, or—

MR. HALLEY. When yon go to the Waldorf there are bookmakers there?

MR. COSTELLO. The Colony, anywhere where I had dinner or lunch, or something.

MR. HALLEY. How many bookmakers have you had dinner or lunch with, at the Colony?

MR. COSTELLO. I didn’t say I had dinner with bookmakers and I didn’t say I spoke to bookmakers.

MR. HALLEY. Well, how would you expect bookmakers to stop operating at a track?

MR. COSTELLO. I didn’t expect nothing, and I didn’t expect no money for it.

MR. HALLEY. You accepted money for it?

MR. COSTELLO. That was the second year.

MR. HALLEY. And what did you do in the second year that made your services more valuable?

MR. COSTELLO. Nothing. I did the same thing I did the first year, and I don’t think I did a damn thing.

MR. HALLEY. That is the answer; you didn’t do anything?

MR. COSTELLO. I don’t think I did.

SENATOR TOBEY. That was an unearned increment?

MR. COSTELLO. I beg your pardon?

SENATOR TOBEY. That was an unearned increment, wasn’t it?

MR. COSTELLO. Well, now, the man thought I did a great job, and I don’t know why he did. I personally don’t think I did, and he insisted upon me taking this money.

SENATOR O’CONOR. Is there any further explanation you can give, because it is quite important here. You were engaged at the rate of $15,000 a year, a member of the bar and an official of the Raceway engaged you and then, after receiving the complaints from the chairman of the commission, as if by magic the complaint vanishes and there is no further complaint. Can you give any explanation of what further you did or what Mr. Levy said you were to do or sought from you information as to what you did?

MR. COSTELLO. Well, I don’t know. I’m under the impression there was no such a thing as bookmakers there of any amount to be frightened.

SENATOR O’CONOR. Did you report that to Mr. Levy in the first year? You continued on for 4 years and, according to Mr. Levy, you would have continued on still further had it not been for the fact that the internal revenue raised a question about it.

MR. COSTELLO. No; the second year Levy said, "I don’t know what you did, but your propaganda must have done some good because I got no more complaints," and he said, "I want to reimburse you for it."

I said, "There’s no reimbursement. What I did for you I would do for any friend of mine. You are my friend," but he insisted, and so I said, "Well, if you insist, fix it yourself," and he did.

MR. HALLEY. Well, you said you told him what you did for him you would do for any friend, and what this committee is trying to find out is what you meant when you said, "What I did for you"; what did you do for him?

MR. COSTELLO. Whatever he thought I did. I’m telling you what I did.

MR. HALLEY. You thought you did nothing?

MR. COSTELLO. Well, I didn’t think it was helpful, frankly speaking. It might have been, to a certain extent.

MR. HALLEY. What do you mean, it might have been to a certain extent?

MR. COSTELLO. Well, maybe somebody around must have taken the advice and says, "Well, you can’t make no money there, and, well, I don’t suppose you want to get pinched and get a severe sentence in Nassau County," and so on and so forth. I don’t know, just through my propaganda.

MR. HALLEY. Why, that is absurd, Mr. Costello.

MR. COSTELLO. Well, I don’t know what’s absurd. It’s just no other answer I can give you.

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Chicago: Hearings Before the Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, United States Senate in History in the First Person: Eyewitnesses of Great Events: They Saw It Happen, ed. Louis Leo Snyder and Richard B. Morris (Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole Co., 1951), Original Sources, accessed November 21, 2024, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=M25VE7683EF441E.

MLA: . Hearings Before the Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, United States Senate, in History in the First Person: Eyewitnesses of Great Events: They Saw It Happen, edited by Louis Leo Snyder and Richard B. Morris, Harrisburg, Pa., Stackpole Co., 1951, Original Sources. 21 Nov. 2024. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=M25VE7683EF441E.

Harvard: , Hearings Before the Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, United States Senate. cited in 1951, History in the First Person: Eyewitnesses of Great Events: They Saw It Happen, ed. , Stackpole Co., Harrisburg, Pa.. Original Sources, retrieved 21 November 2024, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=M25VE7683EF441E.