Kefauver Committee
Final Report
Aug. 31, 1951

U.S. Senate Special Committee
to Investigate Organized Crime
in Interstate Commerce

This committee has served as a powerful searchlight, exposing widespread national and local crime conditions to public gaze. Its activities have had a tremendous effect upon the whole field of law enforcement. Everywhere throughout the country citizens, made suddenly aware of the character and ramifications of organized crime, have risen up to demand greater vigilance in stamping out crime and corruption.

In the first phase of its activities ending on May 1, 1951, the committee concentrated primarily on the large cities. Since that date it has directed its attention largely to the field of narcotics and to crime in medium-size cities.

Everywhere it has turned there has followed an enormous increase in local enforcement activity.

In many cities, large and small, visited by the committee, corrupt officials have been forced to resign, grand juries and enforcement officials have doubled their vigilance, and gangsters have gone into hiding. Even Virginia and the District of Columbia, which were not themselves the subject of investigation, have felt the repercussions of the committee's work in adjacent Maryland. In Maryland itself at least four investigations not previously under way are now being conducted largely as the result of the committee's disclosures. In New York, four new investigative bodies not in existence before the committee began, are now at work.

In the field of narcotics, the committee's searchlight has created a Nation-wide awareness of the seriousness of this great evil. As a result, investigations have been started, court procedures have been modified, remedial laws have been passed, educational programs have been undertaken and the despicable drug peddler has run for cover. The President of the United States only recently has been prompted to call for increased penalties in narcotics cases.

The committee's study of selected samples of medium-size cities was necessarily less spectacular than in the large cities, but a vitally important fact was established, namely, that the same pattern of crime conditions found in the large cities exists in Main Streets throughout America. Crime must be attacked at the local level and it is from the local level that the committee has received a flood of pleas for information, guidance, and help.

When the committee's life ends the man in the street in every local community will want to know what is to take its place.

A. CONSTANT VIGILANCE

As the result of the committee's activities there exists a great public awareness of the nature and extent of organized crime. The public now knows that the tentacles of organized crime reach into virtually every community throughout the country. It also knows that law enforcement is essentially a local matter calling for constant vigilance at the local level and a strengthening of public and private morality.

People everywhere are pleading for a means of keeping alert to crime conditions and avoiding a return to the state of public complacency and indifference under which gangsterism has thrived for so long. The demand for a permanent force that can, in some measure, replace this committee must be met.

With a view to answering this demand, the committee, in its Third Interim Report, proposed the establishment of a Federal Crime Commission, and a bill to accomplish this has been introduced. The Commission contemplated by this proposal is an independent Federal agency in the executive branch of the Government, organized and staffed independently of other Government agencies, and required to report to the Congress.

This bill is opposed by the Treasury Department and the Department of Justice, and Senator Wiley has expressed his dissent. Although the committee does not recede from the proposal, a realistic approach compels the committee to recognize that enactment of the bill cannot be accomplished in a short period of time.

In the meantime, it is highly desirable that some action be taken promptly to afford local communities a means of obtaining help in their attacks upon organized crime.

The answer seems to lie partly in the field of local, privately constituted crime commissions. Several of these have been in operation for a number of years and they have shown themselves to be highly effective. They are not investigative or policing agencies. Their function is to observe local crime conditions, to cooperate with civic, educational, and enforcement agencies where possible, and to report to the public any evidence of laxity or corruption.

A great step forward would be accomplished in the field of law enforcement if privately constituted crime commissions of this character could be established in every city in the United States where organized crime presents a serious problem, and if a central agency could established which would foster the establishment of local commissions and serve as a clearing house and coordinating agency for their information and experience.

Experience has shown that the crime commission movement cannot progress unless it has a national parent body with sufficient prestige and funds to give it drive. It is believed that if Congress fosters the establishment of such an organization, funds from private foundations or philanthropists can be obtained to give it permanent life.

This report contains a commendation for establishment of an organization of this character.

B. NARCOTICS

1. The illegal sale of narcotic drugs represents an evil of major proportions requiring for its eradication the combined efforts of law enforcement bodies, legislators, educators, and parents. It should be attacked at all levels of the Nation's social structure. If not successfully overcome in the near future, it may do lasting damage to the youth of the Nation.
2. The organized gangster syndicates will unquestionably turn to the sale of narcotic drugs when they are driven out of the presently lucrative field of gambling. As they did at the end of the prohibition era, when bootlegging no longer offered substantial profits, they will turn to another form of illegal activity. Under present conditions, narcotic drugs offer them the most profitable opening. Their protestations that they would not stoop so low are hollow in the light of the recent arrest of Waxey Gordon in New York City on a narcotics charge.
3. There has been a startling increase in the abuse of drugs by young people, many of whom are unaware of its frightful consequences. They fail to realize that they are dealing with what is, in effect, a contagious disease which brings degradation and slow death to the victim and tragedy to his family and friends.
4. There has been a tendency to shroud the subject of drug addiction in a veil of secrecy. The result is that young people learn about drugs from bad associates or from the drug peddlers in the back streets and alleys, rather than from qualified sources of information. It is for this reason that many young people have tried drugs, innocently unaware of the dangers they face.
5. Addiction is extremely difficult to cure. It is a chronic condition with a high rate of recurrence. If discovered in time, addiction may be prevented, but once it occurs the victim can overcome it only through a painful and bewildering perplexity of treatment entailing difficult physical and psychological readjustment.
6. Members of the public generally are not aware of the fact that voluntary, noncriminal patients may be treated at the United States Public Health Service Hospital at Lexington, Ky., and that patients who cannot afford to pay are treated without charge.
7. The United States Public Health Service Hospitals at Lexington, Ky., and at Fort Worth, Tex., do not have sufficient facilities for caring for all of the women patients in need of treatment. Furthermore, there is not sufficient segregation of young patients from older hardened addicts. There is considerable danger that youngsters going to these institutions for the first time are retarded in their recovery by mingling with the older addicts. If the public should become fully aware of the availability of these hospitals for voluntary patients, it is entirely possible that the demands upon them will increase materially. In that event additional Federal facilities may be required. At the State level, the facilities for treatment appear to be wholly inadequate.
8. The illegal sale of narcotic drugs pays enormous profits to the lowest form of criminal, namely, the peddler who is willing to wreck young lives to satisfy his greed. No penalty is too severe for a criminal of such character. Until recently the courts have been far too lenient toward narcotic violators. Short sentences do not deter the potential peddler and suspended sentences are a waste of judicial effort.
9. The drug representing the greatest problem is heroin, the importation and possession of which are forbidden in the United States. All of the heroin now used in this country is smuggled in from abroad, for the most part by passengers and seamen carrying it off ships on their persons. Because of the case of concealment, checking its flow through customs search is extremely difficult. Present practices and procedures for canceling the sailing papers of seamen convicted of narcotics violations are unsatisfactory.
10. The most effective means of combating the narcotics problem is through effective enforcement facilities. The Narcotics Bureau of the Treasury Department is efficient and effective as far as it is able to go, but it is pitifully undermanned considering the enormity of the task assigned to it. With sufficient personnel, the Narcotics Bureau could do more than any other force toward stamping out the illegal importation and sale of narcotic drugs. Most addicts would like to see the traffic stamped out so that it will not be available to them. At the local level, there are too few enforcement officers who have had experience in specialized fields, especially in the field of narcotics. Although the Narcotics Bureau of the Treasury Department works in close cooperation with the authorities, its manpower is not sufficient to permit it to furnish training to local agents.
11. Barbiturate drugs, such as luminal, seconol, amytol, and the other products popularly known as sleeping pills have not yet become an object of organized crime. However, in its study of narcotics the committee learned that their addiction properties when used in large quantities are as severe as those other narcotic drugs. Their sale should be the subject of strict regulation under both State and Federal law.
12. The Commission on Narcotics of the United Nations has made great strides in bringing about cooperation among the nations of the world regarding control of the production of opium and of the manufacture of drugs derived from opium. The countries in which the drugs are manufactured have been fairly successful in limiting the output to the actual medical needs of the world.

On the other hand, the countries where the opium poppy is grown have found it to be impossible, in spite of strenuous efforts, to regulate the quantities planted and cultivated by the farmers. These countries grow enough opium poppy plants to produce 40 times the amount of opium needed for legitimate medical purposes.

It is believed that, whereas in the growing countries the quantity cannot be regulated, complete prohibition against the planting of opium poppy plants could be enforced.

Except in the case of cocaine, which represents a minor problem, adequate synthetic substitutes have been developed for opiate drugs, especially for morphine, which is the principal pain-relieving product. Although the synthetics are easy to produce, it is believed that their manufacture could be regulated within reasonable limits. The medical profession would not be materially handicapped if opium poppy growing were prohibited throughout the world.

C. CRIME AND CORRUPTION

1. 1. The same pattern of organized crime found in large metropolitan areas exists in the medium-size cities with similar evidence of official sanction or protection. In some cases the protection is obtained by the payment of bribes to public officials, often on a regular basis pursuant to a carefully conceived system. In other cases, the racketeering elements make substantial contributions to political campaigns of officials who can be relied upon to tolerate their activities. Sometimes these contributions will support a whole slate of officers in more than one political party, giving the racketeers virtual control of the governing body. Democracy vanishes in a captive community because the ordinary citizen for practical purposes has nothing to say about his Government. In many cities, large and small, there is evidence of active and often controlling participation by former bootleggers, gangsters, and hoodlums in the political affairs of the community. In some cases this participation extends to other cities and even to the government of the State. Underworld characters do not engage in politics for the good of the community or the Nation. They do so for the purpose of increasing their power and wealth and gaining greater protection for their illegal activities. Organized crime has been able to flourish and grow largely because of the economic power wielded by gangsters. The ordinary, honest citizen cannot expect to be able to compete in either business or government with persons who obtain wealth and power through illegal means.
2. 2. Wiretapping is a powerful tool in the hands of law-enforcement officers. Federal agents are seriously handicapped in their regular enforcement work by the legal restrictions which presently surround this valuable instrument of investigation. If properly safeguarded by the same restrictions that are imposed by law upon searches and seizures, wiretapping does not infringe upon the right of privacy of the honest citizen. Several States, notably New York, have laws which permit the use of wiretapping pursuant to court order and subject to reasonable safeguards. These laws work satisfactorily and without objection on the part of law-abiding citizens. A similar Federal law would represent an important contribution to law enforcement.

A. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ACTION AT THE FEDERAL LEVEL

1. Establishment of National Crime Coordinating Council

In order to keep the searchlight of public vigilance turned upon crime and corruption in a manner that leaves at the local level the basic responsibility for law enforcement and at the same time affords centralized guidance and coordination, the committee proposes the establishment of a privately constituted National Crime Coordinating Council.

The Council would be a body composed of representatives of privately established local crime commissions. Its first chairman would be designated on an interim basis by the President of the United States to serve until appointment of his successor. As soon as the organization was established it would nominate five persons from whom the President would select a chairman to succeed the interim chairman. The chairman so designated would serve for a term of not more than 2 years at which time the same procedure would be followed for selection of his successor. Congress would appropriate the sum of $100,000 to be applied as a grant in aid to the Council for the purpose of permitting it to organize and begin its activities. It is not contemplated that the Congress would be called upon for any additional funds. Thereafter, the Council would be expected to obtain its funds from charitable foundations or other private sources.

Solely to provide the mechanics for establishing the Council at the initial stages, the Attorney General of the United States would have the responsibility of drafting its charter and bylaws, arranging for its organizational meetings, and otherwise sponsoring its creation. Local crime commissions now in existence would be invited to serve as its charter members and thereafter it would sponsor throughout the country other local crime commissions which would also become members or chapters of the national organization.

The functions of the Council would be as follows:

(a) To foster the establishment of privately constituted local crime commissions wherever needed throughout the country.

(b) To serve as a clearinghouse for information of interest to local crime commissions.

(c) To inquire into and study such new patterns or innovations in organized crime as may develop and to make the results of its studies available to appropriate agencies and to legislative bodies so that immediate deterrents may be devised.

(d) To sponsor meetings for the purpose of exchanging ideas and information regarding local crime conditions to which would be invited representatives of local social and civic organizations, religious groups, educational bodies, women's clubs, law enforcement agencies, and all other groups having an interest in crime conditions.

The committee believes that establishment of the proposed National Crime Coordinating Council would constitute a great contribution toward the cause of law enforcement because it would provide at the local level the civic vigilance without which the evil of complacency and indifference may soon return.

As previously pointed out, this plan differs substantially from the proposal for a Federal Crime Commission as described in the third interim report. The Federal Crime Commission would be an official agency in the executive branch of the Government; whereas the National Crime Coordinating Council would be a private agency serving the local, privately established crime commissions constituting its membership. If the bill now pending in the Senate for establishment of the Federal Crime Commission should be enacted, the official functions of the Commission would not be in conflict with the private activities of the Council, although a demarcation of responsibilities between them might be advisable to avoid duplication of effort.

2. Continuation of crime investigation

Section 7 of Senate Resolution 202 as added by Senate Resolution 129 provides that on or before September 1, 1951, this committee "shall transfer all of its files, papers, documents, and other pertinent data to the Senate Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, which committee shall under and by virtue of the authority of section 136 of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946, continue the study and surveillance of the subject matter of this resolution."

This committee hopes that the study of organized crime will continue and it is gratified that the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce has already taken cognizance of the foregoing provision. It is suggested that serious consideration be given to the problem presented by the witnesses who have evaded the committee's process.

With regard to the District of Columbia, this committee has, on several occasions, received evidence that the city of Washington may be a pivotal point for gambling operations of considerable size. There is also evidence before this committee of widespread traffic in narcotic drugs within the District. The committee therefore strongly recommends that an appropriate committee of the Senate undertake a thorough investigation of crime conditions in the District of Columbia, including the relationship of such conditions to crime in adjoining areas.

3. Coordinate information regarding narcotics

It is recommended that one of the activities of the proposed National Crime Coordinating Council be to serve as a clearinghouse for information regarding local action taken in connection with the illegal sale and use of narcotic drugs.

At the present time, aside from the information on enforcement supplied by the Bureau of Narcotics, there is no central agency to which civic, educational, religious, and enforcement agencies may turn for information regarding the subject of narcotics. Each community is approaching the matter in its own way without having the benefit of experience gained in others. Duplication and waste of effort would be reduced if coordination of activities could be brought about by use of a central clearing agency.

4. Narcotics Bureau training squad

A squad should be organized in the Narcotics Bureau of the Treasury Department having as its function the training of local enforcement officers in the specialized techniques required for narcotics law enforcement. The squad should consist of at least 10 experienced Federal narcotics agents who would furnish instruction to local enforcement agencies everywhere.

Such a program would increase greatly the number of trained narcotics agents serving throughout the country on both Federal and local levels.

5. Increase staff of Narcotics Bureau

The Appropriations Committees and the Congress are to be commended for action in increasing the appropriation of the Narcotics Bureau to provide for 30 additional agents. The studies of this committee, however, indicate that the problem presented by the importation and sale of narcotic drugs has reached such magnitude that at least 40 more agents, in addition to the 30 provided for, are urgently needed. This would cover the enforcement needs as well as the local training program described in the previous recommendation.

Enforcement is the one point in the entire narcotics problem where results of a tangible nature will be evident immediately. Given the men, the Bureau, with the help of local agencies, can do much more to erase this evil than it is able to do under present conditions.

6. Promote narcotics education

A Nation-wide educational program regarding the character and effects of narcotic drugs and the nature and results of addiction should be developed by the Federal Security Agency and made available to educational institutions, civic organizations, and enforcement authorities throughout the country. The objective of the program should be to lift the veil of secrecy from the subject and to bring it out into the open where it can be dealt with in an intelligent and effective manner. The present authority and funds of the Federal Security Agency are sufficient for this purpose.

7. Increase drug peddlers' penalties

Federal laws increasing the penalties that the courts may impose upon convicted drug peddlers should be enacted without delay.

8. Increase treatment facilities

The facilities for treating drug addicts in Federal institutions should be increased to permit accommodation of more women patients and segregation of young addicts. Public awareness of the fact that the United States Public Health Service Hospital at Lexington, Ky., is open to voluntary patients and that its services are free to those who cannot pay, may result in a substantial increase in patients. In that event the facilities of that hospital should be increased to meet the needs then found to exist.

9. Require notice to seamen's and longshoremen's unions of narcotics convictions

The Narcotics Bureau should notify the appropriate national unions of all narcotics law convictions of seamen and longshoremen in order that the unions may more easily enforce their rules calling for expulsion of such cases.

10. Cancel sailing papers of narcotics violators

The Coast Guard should be empowered and required to cancel the sailing papers of any seaman convicted of a violation of the narcotics laws, irrespective of whether the violation occurred on land or at sea.

11. Prohibit opium production throughout the world

The United States representatives at the United Nations should work toward the adoption of measures that will prohibit the growing of opium poppy plants in any country of the world.

12. Attorney General's Crime Conference

The Attorney General of the United States made a substantial contribution in the effort to combat organized crime in calling an Attorney General's Crime Conference which had its meeting in Washington in February 1950. The importance of the conference was shown by the fact that it was addressed by the President of the United States. It was attended by Federal and local enforcement officers, prosecuting attorneys and by representatives of municipal, county, State, and Federal officials.

The conference made notable achievements among which were the recommendation for enactment by the Congress of legislation preventing the use for gambling purposes of interstate communication facilities and prohibiting interstate shipment of gambling devices. The legislative committee of the conference in cooperation with the Attorney General prepared bills to effectuate these recommendations. The bill preventing interstate shipment of slot machines was passed by the Eighty-first Congress.

Extensive hearings were held by the Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee of the Senate, and the wire-service bill was unanimously reported favorably, the report being made by Senator McFarland of Arizona, now majority leader.

The committee strongly recommends that the Attorney General call annual conferences of this kind and that the legislative and other committees of the conference have more frequent sessions to study and propose legislation at both Federal and local levels to combat organized crime.

PREVIOUS RECOMMENDATIONS

In addition to the foregoing recommendations, the committee made 22 recommendations in its Third Interim Report. In order to have recommendations of the committee made available in a single place, those contained in the Third Interim Report are se forth below:

I. The Congress through a continuation of this committee should for a further limited period continue to check on organized crime in interstate commerce. The basic function of the committee should he to scrutinize the efforts made by the Federal agencies to suppress interstate criminal operations, and particularly the racket squads described in later recommendations. It will also follow up the legislative recommendations made in this report.

II. A racket squad should be organized in the Justice Department.

III. Appropriate legislation should be enacted to set up an independent Federal Crime Commission in the executive branch of the Government.

IV. The establishment of the Special Fraud Squad by the Bureau of Internal Revenue of the Treasury Department is one of the most effective and useful steps taken to collect taxes from the criminal clement.

The committee applauds the Department for this act and recommends that it be supported with necessary appropriation and that it work in close cooperation with the special racket squad if set up by the Department of Justice as is recommended by the committee. The Bureau of Internal Revenue should maintain on a current and continuing basis a list of known gangsters, racketeers, gamblers, and criminals whose income-tax returns should receive special attention by a squad of trained experts. Procedures leading to prosecution should be streamlined and speeded up.

V. The Bureau of Internal Revenue should enforce the regulations which require taxpayers to keep adequate books and records of income and expenses, against the gamblers, gangsters, and racketeers who are continually flouting them. Violation should be made a felony.

VI. Gambling casinos should be required to maintain daily records of money won and lost to be filed with the Bureau of Internal Revenue. They also should be required to maintain such additional records as shall be prescribed by the Bureau. Officials of the Bureau of Internal Revenue should have access to the premises of gambling casinos and to their books and records at all times. Where the casino is operating illegally, in addition to the aforementioned obligations, the operators of the casino should be required to keep records of all bets and wagers.

VII. The law and the regulations of the Bureau of Internal Revenue should be amended so that no wagering losses, expenses, or disbursements of any kind, including salaries, rent, protection money, etc., incurred in or as a result of illegal gambling shall be deductible for income-tax purposes.

VIII. The transmission of gambling information across State lines by telegraph, telephone, radio, television, or other means of communication or communication facility should be regulated so as to outlaw any service devoted to a substantial extent to providing information used in illegal gambling.

IX. The internal revenue laws and regulations should be amended so as to require any person who has been engaged in an illegitimate business netting in excess $2,500 a year for any of 5 years previously, to file a net-worth statement of all his assets, along with his income-tax returns.

X. The transmission of bets or wagers, or the transmission of moneys in payment of bets or wagers, across State lines by telegraph, telephone, or any other facilities of interstate communication, or the United States mails, should be prohibited.

XI. The prohibition against the transportation of slot machines in interstate commerce should be extended to include other gambling devices which are susceptible of gangster or racketeer control, such as punchboards, roulette wheels, etc.

XII. The penalties against the illegal sale, distribution, and smuggling of narcotic drugs should be substantially increased.

XIII. The immigration laws should be amended to facilitate deportation of criminal and other undesirable aliens. To this end, the committee recommends the adoption of the legislative proposal heretofore recommended by the Commissioner of Immigration and contained in section 241 of S. 716 (82d Cong.), now pending before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

XIV. The Immigration Act of February 5, 1917, should be amended to provide punishment for smuggling, concealing, or harboring aliens not entitled by law to enter or reside in the United States.

XV. The Attorney General should be authorized to revoke suspensions of deportation and to make such revocation ground for the cancellation of certificates of naturalization granted aliens who have succeeded in getting their immigration status recognized but who are later found to be ineligible for such relief.

XVI. The personnel of Federal law-enforcement agencies should be materially increased. Consideration should be given to eliminating inequities, in the salaries of law-enforcement officers, many of whom are woefully underpaid for the duties they perform and the risks they undertake.

XVII. The existing Federal law with respect to perjury should be tightened; the committee endorses H. R. 2260 (82d Cong.) and recommends its passage.

XVIII. The Attorney General of the United States should be given authority to grant immunity from prosecution to witnesses whose testimony may be essential to an inquiry conducted by a grand jury, or in the course of a trial or of a congressional investigation.

XIX. The committee favors the passages of legislation providing for constructive service by publication or otherwise upon a witness whose testimony is desired who evades personal service upon him.

XX. The committee favors passage of the legislation recommended by the Alcohol Tax Unit of the Treasury Department to prevent racketeering elements from entering the liquor industry and to eliminate any now in it. The committee also favors passage of legislation which will extend the same Federal protection to local-option States as is now extended to the wholly dry States against the illicit transportation of liquor into the dry areas.

XXI. The committee recommends that the present Federal regulation and application forms which require a listing of individual owners, partners, and holders of Alcohol Tax Unit permits, be amended, so that, in addition to the present requirements, the names of all beneficial owners be stated: also that the application forms require the disclosure of all previous arrests and convictions. A report should be filed with the Alcohol Tax Unit of every charge in such interests or in management as such occurs.

XXII. The committee recommends that the Interstate Commerce Commission be required by law to consider the moral fitness of applications for certificates of necessity and convenience as one of the standards in acting upon applications for such certificates or transfers of certificates.

A number of the committee's previous recommendations, above, called for administrative action by the Treasury Department and the Department of Justice. The committee is gratified to note that these have been put into effect, and commends both agencies for the constructive way in which they have acted upon both the letter and the spirit of its recommendations. Both the Secretary of the Treasury and the Attorney General, with their staffs, have been consistently helpful and cooperative in every phase of the committee's work.

B. SUGGESTIONS FOR ACTION BY STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

1. Revision of outmoded laws and adoption of uniform laws.--State and local prosecutors sometimes attribute their ineffectiveness in law enforcement to the inadequacy of the laws they are called upon to enforce. The committee therefore suggests that State legislatures might reexamine their criminal laws with a view to correcting any such deficiencies, especially in the fields of gambling and the other illegal activities that have been found to constitute the basis for organized crime. The committee strongly endorses efforts to develop and promulgate uniform State laws on gambling, vice, narcotics, racketeering, and related areas of criminal activity.

2. State legislative or executive investigations.--State legislatures in more cases might profitably appoint legislative committees, with broad subpena and investigative powers, for the study of organized crime within their borders, perhaps patterning the duties of such committees after those of this committee. The establishment of crime investigating commissions in the executive branches of State governments is also suggested.

3. Enact laws relating to barbiturates.--The committee suggests that special attention be directed by States to regulation of the sale of barbiturate drugs to require that they be sold on prescription only. Some States have already enacted such laws. These laws should be so drafted as to conform to corresponding Federal legislation which is now pending and uniformity among the States is highly desirable.

4. Provide treatment facilities for addicts.--The committee strongly suggests that local government, civic, educational, and religious groups promptly survey the facilities available for the detection and treatment of addiction, and that, where necessary, additional facilities be provided in order that persons, especially young people, abusing drugs may be discovered at early stages and treated promptly.

5. Conferences of local prosecutors.--State attorneys general should take the initiative wherever possible to insure better coordination among local prosecutors. In a few States attorneys general have had conferences with district and county attorneys for the exchange of views and information and to emphasize the need for close cooperation in dealing with organized criminal activities. The committee urges attorneys general of other States to adopt this practice on a regular basis.

6. Organization of State crime conferences of citizens groups.--The interest currently being shown by public-spirited citizens, educators, religious groups, and civic; organizations in the assault on organized crime should be kept alive, and fully utilized. Continuing public support of the activities of enforcement officials is of great importance. Officially sponsored crime conferences, where civic leaders can meet and exchange views with enforcement officials, might well be organized on a State-wide basis from time to time, perhaps in coordination with the activities of the National Crime Coordinating Council described in this report.

7. Use of State income tax data.--Much valuable information on the activities of organized crime is available in State income-tax returns. Special staffs could be organized to screen this material in order to provide local law-enforcement officers with many leads which are not presently available to them.

8. Utilization of Federal occupational-tax data.--Federal occupational-tax returns require disclosure of the identity and activities of liquor dealers, slot-machine operators, the possessors of gangster-type firearms and (if H. R. 4473, now pending before the Senate Finance Committee, is enacted) gamblers. These returns are available to State and local enforcement officials by a special provision of the Internal Revenue Code. They have not been widely relied upon, and the committee urges local authorities to take advantage of such information wherever it would help them in detecting violations of applicable local laws.

9. Closer relations with Federal enforcement agencies.--State and local enforcement units which deal with organized crime are invited to avail themselves fully of the research and training facilities and the accumulated data which are available in parallel Federal agencies, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Narcotics Bureau, and the Alcohol Tax Unit, and to reciprocate with assistance, and a steady flow of suggestions and information to these agencies.

10. Prohibiting political contributions by racketeers.--State legislation similar to that proposed in this report for Federal candidates prohibiting campaign contributions by racketeers might be considered to safeguard the democratic processes at the State level. Gangster participation in local campaign activities has been clearly exposed in a number of instances and remedial action therefore seems appropriate, especially in the case of candidates for offices which involve any aspect of law enforcement.

PREVIOUS SUGGESTIONS

In addition to these suggestions, the committee made seven suggestions in its Third Interim Report. In order to have all of the suggestions of the committee to local authorities available in a single place, those contained in the Third Interim Report are set forth below:

I. A committee might well be appointed in each State to make a thorough-going investigation of the problem of organized crime.

II. Grand jury investigations could well be instituted in every community in which wide-open gambling and racketeering conditions exist, so that local responsibility for such conditions can be fixed and determined.

III. It might be advantageous for each State to institute a survey of its law-enforcement agencies with a view toward bringing about greater cooperation between agencies, greater centralization of responsibility for lax enforcement of the criminal law, and greater efficiency.

IV. Organization of rackets and special purpose squads in each State with sufficient manpower and authority to make investigations and arrests in connection with organized criminal activities would be helpful. Such squads are particularly desirable on both the State and local levels, in connection with the suppression of narcotics traffic.

V. Each State would do well to analyze the provisions of its criminal law and its sentencing practices so as to make certain that deterrent sentences are imposed upon offenders engaged in criminal activities connected with organized crime.

VI. Each State should consider legislation making it possible to deprive any establishment of its license which permits gambling games or gambling operations on its premises.

VII. A citizen crime commission charged with the duty of observing the activities of local law-enforcement agencies and with the duty of observing and reporting on local crime conditions would be helpful in each large community.

This committee was created by Senate Resolution 202, Eighty-first Congress, which provided that the committee's authority was to terminate on March 31, 1951. By Senate Resolution 60, Eighty-second Congress, its life was extended to May 1, 1951, and by Senate Resolution 129, Eighty-second Congress, its life was further extended to September 1, 1951.

The members of the committee from its inception have consisted of Senator Estes Kefauver, Democrat, Tennessee; Senator Herbert R. O'Conor, Democrat, Maryland; Senator Lester C. Hunt, Democrat, Wyoming; Senator Charles W. Tobey, Republican, New Hampshire; and Senator Alexander Wiley, Republican, Wisconsin. For the period from the creation of the committee to May 1, 1951, Senator Kefauver acted as chairman, and Senator O'Conor has served as chairman since May 1, 1951.

The activities, findings, and proposals of the committee during Senator Kefauver's chairmanship are set forth in the Third Interim Report dated May 1, 1951. This final report covers the period of Senator O'Conor's chairmanship from May 1, 1951, to September 1, 1951.

As of May 1, 1951, the committee's chief counsel and all but two of the members of its legal and investigative staff had resigned, having served for the periods for which they had committed themselves. It therefore became necessary for the committee to rebuild its staff anew. In view of the brief life available for the committee's work, it was necessary to create a staff large enough to do a highly concentrated job in a short period of time, tapering off as investigative projects were completed.

Richard G. Moser was appointed chief counsel on May 14, 1951, and Downey Rice remained as associate counsel. George H. Martin remained as director of information and James M. Hepbron was drafted by Senator O'Conor to serve on a voluntary basis as administrative assistant. A new staff of lawyers was selected consisting of the following: John P. Campbell, Edgar H. Farrell, Jr., Robert E. Frisch, Lawrence C. Goddard, Rufus G. King, Jr., R. P. S. McDonnell, Robert F. Morten, Roswell B. Perkins, Norman Polski, Wallace Reidt, and Nicholas John Stathis.

In addition, three lawyers who had served previously with the committee assisted it from time to time on a per diem basis. These were Joseph L. Nellis, Alfred M. Klein, and John J. Winberry. Another former associate counsel, George Robinson, now with the Army Air Force, also provided assistance on occasions.

Investigators were selected from various sources. Col. Elmer F. Munshower, superintendent of the Maryland State Police, loaned two detectives to the committee, namely, Murray E. Jackson and Thomas S. Smith. The Now York City Police Department, through the co-operation of former commissioner (now United States judge Thomas F. Murphy and later of Commissioner George Monaghan, loaned the committee four members of that force, namely, Detectives Terence J. Harvey, Jr., Ellsworth Monahan, and Sherman Willse; and Police-woman Georgette Carroll. The Department of Public Safety of Newark, N. J., through Commissioner James B. Keenan, made the Services of Detective Michael G. Jordan available to the committee for a short period of time.

The Narcotics Bureau of the United States Treasury Department, through the courtesy of Commissioner Harry J. Anslinger, supplied the committee with the services of Charles Siragusa, who acted as chief investigator, and it also made available from time to time the services of Agent John T. Cusack.

The Alcohol Tax Unit of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, through the courtesy of Mr. Dwight Avis, loaned to the committee two investigators, namely, Jacob E. Erkilla and Michael A. Pessolano.

From the Bureau of Internal Revenue, through the cooperation of Mr. George Schoeneman, former Commissioner of Internal Revenue, the services of Raymond L. Adams, an internal-revenue conferee, were made available to the committee. Mr. Edward J. FitzGerald, public-relations expert of the United States Public Health Service, served the committee on a part-time basis through the cooperation of Surgeon General Leonard A. Scheele.

In addition, the committee employed the following independent investigators: William D. Amis, Fred V. Bruch, Joseph R. Bucher, Francis X. Mulrean, and Robert Rehman.

Mr. Wayne C. Grover of the Bureau of Archives made available the services of Paul Soules, a systems expert, who undertook the difficult assignment of placing in readily usable form the large mass of documents, reports, and correspondence which the committee had accumulated during the previous year. The Department of Justice loaned the committee Mrs. Paul Soules, who served as assistant filing clerk.

The rebuilding of the entire staff on short notice presented an organizational problem of considerable difficulty falling mainly on the shoulders of the chief counsel who was engaged simultaneously in preparing for the committee a program of investigations and hearings to be completed within the then remaining period of 3 1/2 months.

Deserved tribute is paid at this point to the extraordinarily devoted and efficient work performed by the members of the Crime Committee staff, ofttimes under the most trying conditions. In the very limited time available normal schedules were completely forgotten. No committee staff ever addressed itself more painstakingly to the duties at hand.

To the leadership of the committee's chief counsel, Richard G. Moser, must be attributed in great measure the excellent results achieved by the staff under his direction. It would not have been possible to have found a chief counsel better equipped by the standards of learning, keen insight into the vast complexity of questions involved, or a more conscientious devotion to the fulfillment of this important assignment. Mr. Moser did not seek this post but the committee records officially its unanimous conviction that his contribution to the public service has been exemplary and will have lasting beneficial results.

Mr. James M. Hepbron, who served on a voluntary basis as administrative assistant to the committee, brought to the investigation a wealth of valuable experience gained through his many years as the guiding figure of the Baltimore Criminal Justice Commission, and in the service of the United States Navy Intelligence. His mature judgment in the handling of administrative matters, and his assistance in the direction of various phases of the investigative work, were of the utmost value. He merits public commendation for his wholly satisfactory handling of vital segments of the committee's functions.

Downey Rice, associate counsel, who had been with the committee from the beginning of its activities, was an unerring source of competent advice. His investigative talents and his technique of examination of witnesses at hearings assisted immeasurably in the development of testimony of importance to this committee's program. Helpful in like manner was George H. Martin, director of information, who also served in an investigative capacity on many occasions throughout the committee's activities. The many other members of the legal staff, as well as the clerical assistants, were uniformly capable and helpful. They well merit our thorough commendation.

The committee also wishes to acknowledge the splendid cooperation accorded by August J. Bourbon, administrative assistant to Senator O'Conor, and also by Julius N. Cahn, executive assistant to Senator Wiley, of Wisconsin. Both of these gentlemen rendered invaluable assistance during the life of the committee and were of the utmost help in connection with the committee's report.

The committee likewise would be remiss in the extreme if it failed to acknowledge gratefully the very valuable and continuing assistance and advice given by Mr. J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and his assistant, Mr. Louis B. Nichols, and by Mr. Harry J. Anslinger, Commissioner of Narcotics of the Treasury Department, and his deputy, Mr. George W. Cunningham.

The committee had the benefit of their wide knowledge of crime conditions throughout the country in the planning of its program and throughout its activities, and their unfailing courtesy and helpfulness contributed vastly to the committee's accomplishments.

The committee also acknowledges the cooperation and able assistance furnished to it by Frank S. Hogan, district attorney of New York County, N. Y., and Miles F. McDonald, district attorney of Kings County, N. Y., and the members of their staffs.

The committee again records its deep appreciation for the great contributions made to its work by the distinguished group of lawyers and judges who constitute the American Bar Association Commission on Organized Crime of which Hon. Robert P. Patterson is chairman and Judge Morris Ploscowe is executive director.

The member telephone companies of the Bell System and the American Telephone & Telegraph Co. continued to display commendable willingness to further the causes and aims of the committee by frequent and sometimes costly research into their records, the utilization of which contributed in great measure toward the unraveling of the interstate ramifications of the rackets explored.

Thousands of communications have been received from public-spirited citizens offering encouragement and constructive suggestions. The committee takes this opportunity publicly to thank these correspondents and to acknowledge their interest and support:

The newsmen who have followed the committee's career also deserve a hearty word of thanks for their courtesy and patience. Their work, as a link between the committee and the American public, has contributed immeasurably to the achievements described in this report.

The committee adopted as the basic program for its new staff the following subjects:

1. Illegal narcotic drugs.

2. Crime in medium-size cities.

3. Crime in large cities.

4. Local effects of national crime investigation.

5. Introduction of corrective legislation.

The selection of places to be investigated (including cities within States represented by the five members of the committee) was a decision unanimously concurred in by the members. Similar unanimity has characterized every major decision of the committee from its inception.

A summary of the committee's objective under each of the foregoing headings is set forth below.

1. Illegal narcotic drugs.--From every corner of the country there came rumblings of an insidious evil beginning to eat its way into the fiber of the Nation's youth. Shocking stories were reaching the committee of young people, confused and unnerved, turning to the use of narcotic drugs, either as a form of pleasure or as an escape from psychological strains they could not master. It was obvious that these young people were wholly ignorant of the disastrous effects of narcotic addiction upon their lives and their families and that they failed to realize that narcotic addiction requires long hospitalization in a secured institution withdrawn from ordinary living. Unchecked addiction and its concomitant craving result in a life of degradation and crime. These young victims were the innocent prey of the lowest form of criminal known to society, the drug peddler.

It seemed clear to the committee that if its legislative program should be successful in driving organized gangster syndicates out of the field of gambling, these racketeers would ultimately turn to other forms of illegal business activity just as they had turned from bootlegging to monopolized gambling. Many a hoodlum has stated with pride that he had never stooped to the sale of drugs, but he said that only because gambling was a sufficiently profitable source of income. Deprived of gambling, he would have no difficulty in adjusting his resilient conscience to the sale of drugs. No better example of this can be found than the case of Waxey Gordon, once notorious bootlegger, then a racketeer gambler, and recently arrested for drug peddling.

The evils of monopolized gambling are great. Many a family has been driven to poverty and many a child has been unnecessarily deprived of life's opportunities because his parents, tempted by a distant hope of sudden wealth but ignorant of the enormity of the odds against them, have gambled away the family's pay envelope. But these evils are nothing compared with the sorrow and tragedy to individuals and families alike resulting from drug addiction.

Accordingly, the committee undertook an intensive study of the whole field of narcotic drugs, including the following:

(i) the types of narcotic drugs;

(ii) the laws restricting their importation, sale, and use;

(iii) the cause and nature of drug addiction;

(iv) the extent of drug use by young people;

(v) the methods of illegal importation and sale; and

(vi) the possible remedies.

The results of its study are set forth under an appropriate heading in this report.

2. Crime in medium-size cities.-The work of the committee as described in the Third Interim Report showed the existence of organized gangster syndicates exercising monopolistic control over illegal gambling operations in most of the large cities of the country. It showed that the mobs which had their beginnings in the prosperous bootlegging combines of the prohibition era had turned from the illicit liquor traffic to the equally lucrative field of illegal gambling, often operating under corrupt official sanction.

The committee decided that its work in this field would not be complete without a study of the less conspicuous but equally important field of gangster operations in medium-size cities. It had received a flood of requests from every type of community for investigation of local crime conditions. As only a small fraction of these requests could be satisfied in the short time available and in any event only those presenting interstate aspects, the committee decided to select a few medium-size cities as samples. Those selected were the resort town of Atlantic City, N. J.; the suburban towns across the river from Cincinnati, namely Newport and Covington, Ky.; the mining town of Scranton, Pa.; and the industrial city of Reading, Pa.

These cities were selected not because they are considered to be more crime ridden than other communities of their size but because they seemed to be representative samples of many other communities throughout the country and their comparative proximity to Washington made investigation more feasible in the light of the shortness of time and limited funds at the committee's disposal.

The committee's objective was to ascertain whether there exists in medium-size cities the same pattern of gambling operations as was found in the large cities.

A detailed description of the committee's activities with respect to each of these communities appears further on in this report.

3. Unfinished investigation of large cities.-At the conclusion of the committee's hearings in March, there remained a certain amount of unfinished business. In New York, Irving Sherman, a close friend of Ambassador William O'Dwyer, had eluded the committee's search. The New York story was not considered complete without his testimony. Abner Zwillman, former bootlegger and underworld character of substantial importance, who had avoided appearance before the committee in March until the last minute, had testified at that time, but because of the pressure of time the whole story had not been told. Further investigation of his background, connections, and influence was considered desirable.

In Miami, Sheriff James Sullivan, who had been removed from office as the result of the charges made against him by witnesses appearing before the committee, had been reinstated. This called for further investigation of the Florida criminal picture. Seven witnesses from Chicago and Cleveland who had been arrested pursuant to Senate warrants, had not been heard.

Baltimore, Md., hub of one of the great horse-racing centers of the world, was one large city which had not been investigated, but which seemed to require study in view of its proximity to Washington, D. C., and in view of the committee's previous emphasis on the Continental News Service which has an important distributing outlet in that city. The committee decided to include in its program not only Baltimore but also Anne Arundel County and Prince Georges County of Maryland.

A summary of the results of these projects is set forth later in this report.

4. Local effects of national crime investigation.-It is apparent from a review of the huge mass of correspondence received by the committee that the publicity given to its hearings had profound effect upon law enforcement throughout the country. Everywhere people were rising up to demand that police and prosecutors exert greater vigilance in tracking down and convicting the criminals who thrive under the protective umbrella of official corruption. There arose a national awareness of the fact that gambling, although perhaps relatively harmless when conducted on an individual basis, could become, in the hands of monopolistic gangster syndicates operating across State lines, a cause of general breakdown in law enforcement leading not only to laxity in all branches of crime prevention but also to a decline in the quality and integrity of local government government.

It was also apparent that public interest in law enforcement would continue only so long as a spotlight, such as is created by the activities of this committee, was directed at the problem. When the committee goes out of existence, there is serious danger that public complacency and indifference will take the place of the present state of vigilance. Obviously, local governments cannot be expected to turn the spotlight on themselves; the pressure must come from an outside force that is not subject to improper local influences.

In some cities the problem has been approached by establishment of crime commissions privately operated and financed. In others, existing civic organizations have attempted to place the pressure of vigilance upon public officials.

The committee felt that it should give attention to a study of this problem with a view to arriving at a solution that would be helpful from a long-range standpoint. This report sets forth a description of the Nation-wide effects of the committee's work and its studies regarding the possibility of avoiding a return to a state of public apathy toward law enforcement.

5. Enactment of corrective legislation.-The committee considered one of its major responsibilities to be the preparation and introduction of legislation in line with the proposals contained in its Third Interim Report, as well as such additional legislation as its further investigative work might indicate to be desirable. In spite of the heavy schedule of the Eighty-second Congress, the committee decided to proceed with its legislative program and to press for its enactment. Its progress in this regard is reported below.

The basic function of this committee was to study the interstate aspects of organized crime. However, its activities had the practical effect of turning a high-powered searchlight, not only on interstate crime conditions but also its byproduct, local crime conditions all over the Nation.

Through the medium of television, the citizens of the country for the first time had it driven home to them with dramatic and startling impact that top-ranking hoodlums and underworld leaders were in their midst and were not story-book characters.

Some controversy has arisen by reason of the committee's decision to permit televising of some of its hearings but it is undeniable that this modern medium of communication was a particularly potent factor in arousing the public from its apathy. The result has been an overwhelming demand for reform in the entire field of law enforcement.

Prosecutors and police have been rigorously prodded in areas where laxity in law enforcement had become an accepted thing. In other sectors where vigilance already had been exercised by prosecuting and policing agencies, still tighter measures were invoked against the law-breakers.

Underworld figures who had been regarded as immune from prosecution have found it expedient to take long vacations from their usual sinister activities. Not a few of them have been impelled to take indefinite holidays in places far removed from their usual haunts.

The public reaction to exposure of the evils to which the committee devoted its attention has been exceedingly healthy.

In its Third Interim Report the committee set forth a series of seven suggestions to State and local authorities designed to promote improvement in local law-enforcement conditions. The reaction to these suggestions has been very encouraging and the committee is tremendously heartened by the splendid display of interest on the part of State and local authorities in countless areas from coast to coast.

Although the committee has found that crime and lawlessness are not confined to the larger cities of the United States, it is an inescapable fact that the larger cities are considered to be the underworld strong-holds. It has been gratifying to the committee to note that in practically every State in the country where there is a city with a population in excess of 500,000, positive action has been taken along the lines suggested by the committee.

Privately constituted crime commissions have either been organized or revitalized in a vast number of communities and in these sections where such commissions have not been formed, similar activities are being undertaken by civic organizations having the same broad objective.

The American Bar Association Commission on Organized Crime will submit its report to the American Bar Association at its annual meeting in September. Its work and recommendations have already been of great assistance to the committee and to local groups and legislatures. Its report will be awaited with great interest. In the field of uniform laws and other efforts to combat crime particularly at the local level, this commission can continue to be of substantial assistance. The committee hopes greatly that it will be continued as a permanent commission of the American Bar Association.

Grand jury activity has attained a new vigor probably unknown heretofore on such a wide scale. Indictments are pouring forth in ever-increasing numbers as illicit enterprises and corruption receive closer scrutiny.

Formation of special racket squads has been reported on all levels, Federal, State, and local. The Bureau of Internal Revenue has swung into concentrated action with racket squads operating across the Nation and reports of commendable progress in investigations of tax evasion by gangsters and racketeers have already been noted.

Crime legislation received special attention in nearly every State legislature which held 1951 sessions. Eleven States have taken steps to tighten their narcotics laws; eight have imposed new controls on horse racing and other sports events; five have introduced new book-making laws. Ten States have revised their laws to give better control of gambling, and one, Iowa, has put into effect the Wisconsin-Minnesota type of restriction (providing for cancellation of all licenses for any public premise where gambling is allowed), which the committee specifically urged in its Third Interim Report.

Four legislatures have provided new plans for assuring better centralized control of local law enforcement; three have tightened and improved grand jury procedures. The uniform laws drafted in the 1930's to give better control over interstate activities received new impetus, and were the subject of legislative action in nine States.

North Carolina and Texas, as the forty-seventh and forty-eighth States to ratify the Interstate Probation and Parole Compact., extended that excellent measure throughout the United States. Nearly a dozen States took steps to create special legislative or executive agencies to study crime problems.

In California a study committee on organized crime has been authorized by the Governor and the legislature and is scheduled to take action within a short time. Wholesome results of grand jury investigations in southern California have been high lighted by one grand jury report in Los Angeles which named 60 persons as defendants in connection with a $7,000,000 bookmaking operation.

Suspected violations of California's State income-tax laws are being given close study and demands have been forthcoming for increased penalties for narcotics violations.

Mickey Cohen, the notorious west coast hoodlum, has been convicted of income-tax evasion and has been sentenced to 5 years in prison and fined $10,000. The committee, during its California hearings, spent considerable time in an inquiry into his activities.

As a result of the committee's spotlighting of conditions in New York State, Governor Thomas E. Dewey named a five-man crime commission that has been active for months. Saratoga, to which this committee devoted considerable attention during its New York hearings in March, is the scene of a protracted investigation which already has produced some indictments and the resignation of the sheriff.

In New York City a crime commission organized under the chairmanship of Mr. Spruelle Braden, formerly Ambassador to Argentina, also is actively functioning. The attorney general of New York, like this committee, has been making a lengthy investigation of the narcotics evil and James J. Moran, close friend of former Mayor William O'Dwyer, was compelled to resign his lifetime position as water commissioner to which O'Dwyer had appointed him, and he has been convicted of perjury in connection with his testimony before this committee. Disclosures before this committee that he had chauffeured Irving Sherman, friend of O'Dwyer and Frank Costello, from LaGuardia Airport, forced Deputy Chief Police Inspector Abraham Goldman into retirement. The police department in New York City has undergone a drastic overhauling marked by the application for retirement of 505 members of the department to avoid having to comply with a new law requiring 30 days notice of intent to retire.

In New Jersey, Joseph Doto, alias Joe Adonis, labeled by this committee as a coleader with Frank Costello of the east coast underworld, has been sent to prison, along with several of his associates. Racket squads are operating at the State level. The liquor licensing authority has the power to revoke licenses where gambling is permitted, and a padlocking law has been drafted to close such places permanently.

In New England a privately constituted crime commission with branches in several States has been organized. In Maine a 5-month secret probe financed by the Governor's office had produced 146 indictments in Cumberland County, the State's most populous areas, as of May 30, 1951. The legislature adopted a new gambling law making bookmaking, lottery, numbers, and similar offenses felonies instead of misdemeanors and providing stiffer fines and prison sentences.

In Connecticut the State police commissioner and the Governor took prompt action to prevent gamblers and racketeers driven from other States from seeking refuge in Connecticut. The Connecticut Legislature stiffened the penalties for sale of narcotics to minors, and in New Britain a big-time bookie was fined and imprisoned for 1 year.

In Delaware the legislature also took prompt action and enacted measures improving the procedure for search and seizure, increasing penalties for bookmaking and gambling, and making jail sentences mandatory for second offenses.

The legislature in Florida adopted six bills designed to deal more effectively with gambling, including more stringent regulation of the wire service. Unfortunately, one bill - which would have outlawed the printing of scratch sheets, wallboards; and other detailed horse-race information, was vetoed by the Governor.

Increased law-enforcement activity was reported by the attorney general of Illinois. In that State some 1,200 slot machines were seized and destroyed by the State police and two large bookmaking establishments -- one grossing more than $6,000,000 a year, were raided and closed. A withdrawal of utility transmission facilities forced 28 others out of business.

In East St. Louis, Ill., scene of widespread operations in the past, gambling was dealt a terrific blow. The police commissioner who had tolerated bad conditions in the past was soundly defeated when he sought reelection and a new sheriff was elected.

Police activity in Chicago against the gambling element has proceeded on a constant and sustained basis over a period of months and the Chicago Crime Commission has won a notable victory by persuading the legislature to pass a bill permitting grand juries to stay in .session for 3 months instead of 1.

Crime committees and good government commissions have been organized in several Indiana cities and slot machines that formerly were operated openly in a number of sections have been forced into storage.

In Iowa the legislature passed a law whereby any firm convicted of operating gambling slot machines, pinball machines, or punchboards, would automatically be deprived of all of its licenses to operate any type of business.

The attorney general of Kansas has made an exhaustive survey of law-enforcement machinery in the State and the legislature made an appropriation to support the peace officers school at the University of Kansas, although it killed legislation sponsored by the attorney general which would have made slot machines, punchboards, pinball, and other such machines illegal.

Citizens groups previously organized in northern Kentucky to fight organized gambling and crime continue to be active and have made their weight felt.

In Louisiana organized gambling in Jefferson Parish has ceased to exist in accordance with the promise made to this committee by the sheriff but gambling is reported to be continuing in St. Bernard Parish. Slot machines which formerly were found in practically every kind of business establishment in Louisiana continue to remain in storage. Five contempt actions grew out of the committee's hearings in New Orleans. Although the case against "Dandy Phil" Kastel, associate of Frank Costello, has been dismissed, other contempt proceedings have been more successful. John J. Fogerty, co-owner and operator of the wire service, entered a plea of nolo contendere and was given a fine while Carlos Marcello, recognized kingpin of Louisiana racketeering, has been convicted and has received a sentence of 6 months in prison and a fine of $500. The cases against Marcello's brother, Anthony, and against Joseph Poretto still remain to be tried.

The committee's investigations into conditions in Maryland drove bookmakers and other gamblers under cover, and sale of scratch sheets and other materials used by the gambling element is reported to have become almost nonexistent. A legislative committee was authorized by the legislature to sot up a committee to study crime and the State prosecutor has submitted a recommendation for a new search and seizure law. In Baltimore, the Mayor set up a special committee to combat the narcotics evil and a special narcotics squad was established in the police department. The State's attorney secured a $10,000 fund for use in narcotics cases. A Baltimore police lieutenant whose dealings with a known gambler were exposed by this committee was removed from office. There was a general intensification of law-enforcement activity throughout the city and the State.

In Michigan, the legislature restored the so-called "one-man grand jury" and there have been increased activities in narcotics law enforcements.

The attorney general of Mississippi has advised that the suggestions of the committee for action on the State level will be presented to the legislature of that State when it convenes in 1952.

Reports from Missouri indicate that crime investigations have been launched by a State senate committee and by several special grand juries. In Jasper County, a grand jury investigation led to the resignation of the prosecuting attorney and a magistrate. The State senate committee looked with favor on the suggestions of this committee for centralization of responsibility for enforcement of criminal laws and for a survey of the various State law-enforcement agencies. The Kansas City Police Department now has a racket squad whose primary duty is the enforcement of the gambling laws. In both Kansas City and St. Louis, the authorities and the crime commissions concentrated their fire on the wire service, and Pioneer News Service went out of business.

The attorney general of New Hampshire sought legislation to make prison sentences mandatory in certain types of gambling cases and backed a uniform narcotics law.

In Ohio, Governor Lausche has launched a program to strike hard at those guilty of peddling drugs to school children; and in Cincinnati, the highly favorable reaction to the exposure of organized crime has revitalized an agreement with the telephone company for removal of service where gambling operations are suspected.

Grand jury investigations have been reported in several areas in North Dakota and Oregon, and in some sections of Pennsylvania. In South Carolina, the Charleston Chamber of Commerce has decided to organize a local crime commission, and activities against organized criminal elements in Texas are worthy of considerable praise. Notable among the achievements in Texas was the conference called by the attorney general in March which was attended by district and county attorneys from all parts of the State. The legislature furnished commendable cooperation by enacting practically all of the legislation recommended by the group, which included bills outlawing possession of slot machines, punchboards, and policy games. The attorney general sought and secured injunctions against both the telegraph and telephone companies, prohibiting gambling information from being disseminated over their wires. Grand juries have been active and a crime investigating committee of the legislature has been functioning. Citizens in many parts of Texas have voluntarily begun the formation of local crime commissions.

The National Junior Chamber of Commerce at its annual meeting praised this committee for its accomplishments and adopted the study of organized crime as its major project for the ensuing year.

The committee is proud of the part it has played in helping to bring about this fine record of accomplishment on the local level, although it realizes that there still remains a great deal to be done.

B. ILLEGAL NARCOTIC DRUGS

Introduction

The illegal traffic in narcotic drugs exemplifies organized crime at its devastating worst. It represents one of the great tragedies of our times, especially when it preys upon young people who are ignorant of drug addiction not only upon themselves as individuals but also upon the family and society as a whole. .

Addiction resulting from an ignorant or depraved attempt to obtain temporary pleasure is an inexcusable tragedy. Drug addiction is a form of contagious disease with a high recurrence. Anyone who starts abusing a drug for whatever reason is immediately exposed to a serious danger of becoming addicted. Addiction occurs in a very short time and once it occurs there is no going back. The addict's whole life changes from one of usefulness and normalcy to one of suffering and degradation and in many cases, eventually to crime. One of the great contributions that could be made to the welfare of the young people of today would be to bring home to them the cold fact that narcotic drugs are to be avoided like the plague.

Against this backdrop of tragedy, the picture of the dope peddler promoting drug addiction in order to create new customers is nothing short of revolting.

A parade of witnesses representing every sector of the narcotics problem came before the committee. Physicians explained the properties of drugs, the course of addiction, the clinical processes of its treatment, and the psychological after-effects. Citizens of aroused communities described alarming local situations and told of efforts to stem the evil of narcotics abuse. Heartbroken parents described the tragedies that had befallen their children through drug addiction. Enforcement agents bared the workings of the international network through which illegal drugs move and the fabulous amounts of money involved in the traffic.

The committee traveled to the Maryland House of Correction, the Woman's Prison of Maryland near Baltimore, and to the United States Public Health Service Hospital, Lexington, Ky., to hear the story first-hand from prisoners serving time for narcotics violations and from patients under treatment for addiction. The professional nonaddict peddlers told of giving "for free" enough heroin to get new customers "hooked," i.e., dependent on drugs; and of employing addicts as "testers" to judge the quality of the merchandise at the wholesale level. Nervous teen-agers, still jittery following withdrawal of narcotics, spoke haltingly of the confusion and the futile misery of the drug habit. Some had suffered enough for a dozen lives, yet they were not old enough to vote.

From the testimony of these witnesses and from other data submitted for study, the committee formulated the observations that comprise the body of this report on the illegal narcotics market and. the extensive many-sided problems it presents.

(a) The drugs of addiction

The drugs usually abused to the point of addiction are grouped as stimulants and depressants, according to the effects they produce on the behavior of the user.

Of the stimulants, the most common and most dangerous is cocaine, derived from the leaves of the coca plant growing in South America and Java. In large doses, cocaine incites a transient reaction, followed by extreme nervous discomfort, irritability, and paranoid delusions that make the user a menace to those around him. Among the other stimulant drugs are benzedrine, dexedrine, and mescaline, a drug used by the Indians in the southwestern United States to "help them see God."

The depressants, on the other hand, relieve tension and nervous disturbance, producing a false and temporary feeling of well-being. They are used medically as pain relievers (called "analgesics") and many of them are necessary and extremely valuable for this purpose. They include opium and its derivatives such as morphine, heroin, dilaudid, codein, and metapon, to mention a few. They also include synthetic pain relievers such as demerol, methadon, and the new levo-iso-methadon. The depressants also include alcohol and marijuana. The bromides and barbiturates are classed as hypnotic drugs.

Frequently addicts take a depressant and a stimulant simultaneously, the depressant serving as an antidote for the dangerous and unpleasant effects of the stimulant. Known as a "speedball," one of these concoctions is a mixture of heroin and cocaine. The former relieves tension and anxiety; the latter furnishes the concurrent feeling of well-being and subdues fatigue. Some addicts engage in the viciously dangerous practice of spending long hours balancing the exciting effects of the cocaine with the restful euphoria of the heroin.

According to Federal law, the habit-forming drugs, those for which the Government provides addiction treatment facilities, are cocaine, coca leaves, codein, dicodid, hycodan, dilaudid, heroin, marijuana, laudanum, demerol, isonipecaine, methadon, metapon, morphine, opium, pantopon, paregoric, mescaline, and other drugs that may be designated by the President. These statutes do not encompass alcohol, the barbiturates, or the bromides.

(b) Laws relating to narcotic drugs

Recognizing the profound seriousness of the rapidly growing drug-addiction problem, Congress passed in 1914 the first comprehensive Federal narcotics law -- the Harrison Act. Under the provisions of this law, commerce in medicinal and other legitimate narcotics was legalized and controlled under the Federal taxing power. By the same mechanism, illicit traffic in opium and its derivatives and in the coca leaf and its derivatives (cocaine) was outlawed.

The Miller-Jones Act, passed in 1922, established a system of import and export permits and restricted the import of raw narcotic material to medical needs. By an amendment adopted in 1924 the dangerous and currently popular heroin was forbidden entrance to this country as was also opium for use in manufacturing heroin.

The Opium Poppy Act of 1942 insures against the growing of opium poppies in the United States.

Controls on the traffic in marijuana were imposed by the Marijuana Tax Act of August 2, 1937. It provides an occupational tax on all persons legally permitted to produce, sell or deal in marijuana. There is also a heavy transfer levy when unauthorized individuals are involved in a marijuana transaction.

On the state and municipal levels, uniform laws and ordinances help to control the traffic in narcotics within their jurisdictions. Forty-two states have enacted the Uniform Narcotic Drug Act and two others have the equivalent. The only states which do not have restrictive legislation are Kansas, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Washington. Recent enactments in Illinois and New York have stiffened the penalties for sales to minors.

(c) Cause and nature of addiction

The crux of the narcotics problem lies not in the drugs themselves but in the persons who abuse them. Addiction involves taking drugs in excessive quantities.

Some individuals by reason of their physical and psychological make-up can become addicted to drugs more easily than others. Persons easily addicted are referred to as "addiction prone." There are some individuals who are relatively immune to addiction. The difficulty is that no one knows for certain whether he is addiction prone until after he has become addicted and then it is too late.

The most a victim can expect from treatment is to be taken off the drug and furnished psychological aid to remain off it. Medicines given during treatment do no more than relieve the tortures of withdrawal. No one, however strong his psychological framework, should run the risk of ruining his life and the lives of his friends and family by using any narcotic drug except under the strictest medical control. Prescribed in proper amounts, narcotic drugs are important aid in the practice of medicine and serve the humanitarian purpose of helping to alleviate the pain of the suffering. They should not be denied those who need them merely because of their addicting qualities. Until a nonaddicting pain reliever is discovered, physicians must use narcotics. Those who divert the stream of legitimate narcotics for their own selfish gain, actually rob the sick and the injured.

Although the therapeutic use of opium traces back some 6,000 years, nonmedical addiction dates only to the latter part of the nineteenth century when the "social use" of opium for its euphoric effect became known in India and China. Many of the cure-all patent medicines so popular in the United States at the turn of the century had opium as their principal ingredient. These preparations were later banned from public sale by the Federal narcotics control legislation.

Most habitual users of narcotics have psychoneuroses and personality disorders of varying degree, ranging from those of the criminal psychopath to the immature thrill seeker who craves extraordinary excitement. Addiction prones experience difficulty adapting themselves to the ordinary pressures and tensions of living. They may be extremely dependent or unusually hostile, incapable of entering into normal human relationships. In their discomfort, they frequently suffer obscure symptoms of indeterminable origin.

The average human being has normal defenses with which to cope with life's disappointments, frustrations, and conflict. But the potential addict lacks this natural ability to battle successfully against emotional problems and the anxieties they engender. If he looks to narcotics to ease his pain, subdue his disturbance, and escape his problems, he may find in drugs the substitute for his weak defenses. The feeling that "all is well" gives him a paper crutch of power and security and he is on the way to a heavy drug habit that only a life of crime can maintain. This is the weak, irresponsible creature on whom the parasitic illicit narcotic trader feeds and grows rich.

The course of addiction is easily illustrated by the testimony of individuals who were addicted to heroin. As one 17-year-old boy described it, he was associating with boys older than who were using drugs. They urged him to try it, telling him he would get a kick out of it. They assured him he would not become "hooked" if he merely "sniffed" or "snorted" it. He tried snorting and did not like it. Later he tried again and did not mind it so much. Then the older boys explained to him that it was cheaper to take heroin in the veins because the effect was greater with a smaller quantity. So he tried "mainlining," that is, shooting the drug directly into his veins with a hypodermic needle. He tried this a few times and one morning he awoke feeling very sick. He took a shot arid felt well again. From then on lie was "hooked."

The boy had developed a physical dependency on the drug and had to keep taking it in ever increasing quantities to avoid being sick. He no longer took it for pleasure, he had to have it. He became irregular and inefficient at his job and finally had to quit. Finding drugs became a full-time job. For money, he borrowed, stole and forged Government checks. He said there was nothing he would not have done for drugs. He ended up in a Federal prison where he was taken off the drug and allowed to go through the painful suffering of withdrawal.

This is not an isolated case. The same story is told by hundreds of addicts who blame their predicament on bad company and inadequate surroundings. Without exception, they say that the addict's life is one of perpetual misery and if they had realized in advance what they were headed for, they would have avoided drugs like a dangerous disease.

(d) Use of drugs by young people

In the past 24 months, America has been jolted to its foundations by the discovery that youngsters, especially in the larger cities, are using narcotic drugs, many to the point of addiction. New York, Chicago, Baltimore, and Washington, D. C., saw big increases in the number of under-age drug users coming to the attention of the police. In a large number of cases, these young people were engaging in crime for the sole purpose of supporting their drug habit.

The United States Public Health Service Hospital at Lexington, Ky., the larger of the two Federal hospitals devoted chiefly to treating addicts, compared the year 1946 when patients below the age of 21 represented 3 percent of the patients in the hospital, with the early part of 1951 when, with a higher total patient count, the proportion of young patients had climbed to 18 percent. Nearly three-quarters of these youngsters had no record of criminality or delinquency prior to addiction. Testimony from an experienced social worker on the situation in New York City revealed that the narcotics problem cuts across all social and economic lines. A young negro addict from Chicago said, "There is no segregation in the use of dope."

The committee interviewed many of these youngsters, among them a 19-year-old boy who quit school, throwing away a full scholarship in an eastern university, because of narcotics. To support his habit, he stole Government pension checks. A midwestern college freshman said he dropped out in the middle of his first semester and shortly thereafter was arrested for stealing money from the mails, all because of dope. Another collegian revealed that he and his friends grew marijuana in a yard and dried it in the oven of their apartment before rolling it into cigarettes. Girls in their late teens with narcotic addiction lasting several years, admitted that they had resorted to prostitution rather than endure the horror of going without drugs.

While many of these boys and girls do not evidence the character and personality disorders of the veteran addict, they have proven themselves susceptible to drugs, at least enough to continue taking narcotics to the point of becoming "hooked." Representing the carefree, thrill-seeking youth, they told the committee that they started on narcotics or "junk" as they sometimes call it, out of curiosity, because their friends were doing it and because they didn't want to be considered "square" or unsophisticated.

Youngsters place great value on "belonging" in their group. They resent the rejection that would go with being labeled "chicken" by their associates in the playground, ice-cream parlor, or on the street corner. So they tend to follow the leader who unfortunately turns out to be a hoodlum or emotionally twisted "bebopper", bent on introducing them to the pseudo pleasures of smoking marijuana and shooting heroin.

Mr. James R. Dumpson, consultant on correction and delinquency of New York's welfare council, described the situation in east Harlem as follows:

Social workers dealing with gangs all report that the rate of marijuana usage is at least 50 percent with this being a very conservative figure in their estimation. These include youths 13 years of age, and you have many indications that the age of this type of addiction is lowering steadily. In fact, one minister reported that several 9-year-old boys had been approached by peddlers attempting to have them take the drug * * *.

In a social athletic club in one of the blocks with a membership of about 50 boys, at least 18 to 20 were known to be regular heroin users.

Dr. Lois Higgins, director of the crime prevention bureau in Chicago, cited statistics on the growth of the narcotic problem in her home city. In 1948, 136 out of 738 arrests were under 21. The following year, under-age persons accounted for 203 of 2,230 narcotic arrests. Of the total of 4,437 narcotic arrests in 1950, 1,107 were under 21. And for the period January 1 to late June 1951, Dr. Higgins gave a figure of 989 under-age narcotic arrests.

The path to addiction ran practically the same throughout the testimony taken from young addicts. In their own vernacular, Mr. Dumpson put it this way: "They say they go from sneaky Pete to pot to horse to banging." In ordinary language this describes the popular sequence --drinking wine, smoking "reefers" or marijuana cigarettes (sometimes starting at the age of 13 or 14) then sniffing or "snorting" heroin, finally injecting it directly into the vein.

Cutting across the thousands of words of testimony, the committee concludes that these youngsters are mildly neurotic. Addiction among our youth is a problem the seriousness of which cannot be under-estimated especially in the world's present state of instability. Many adolescents are mildly neurotic and therefore somewhat addiction prone. Under present conditions, even post adolescent young people are under unnatural strain. Boys of draft age and the friends who surround them feel great uncertainty as to what the future holds for them. Their lives are engulfed in an atmosphere of crisis.

Much was said in the testimony as to the role of the parents. The love and affection of intelligent parents does much to give a child the feeling of security that will keep him away from drugs. Where a sense of security cannot be attained, supervision of the child's activities and immediate attention to any evidence of drug use is essential.

Medical authorities believe that most of the young people who have been exposed to drugs are sufficiently intelligent to be capable of complete rehabilitation if the problem is tackled promptly. Without exception the addicts who testified stressed the belief that if they had known the horrors of drug addiction, the suffering, the personal degradation and the crime, to say nothing of the discomfort and bewildering perplexity of treatment for addiction, they never would have played with drugs. They have learned that "It can't happen to me" is a cruel hoax.

The committee believes that drug addiction should be treated as a contagious disease and that its sufferers should be treated as patients, not as criminals. It also believes that like any disease it can be attacked with greater vigor if brought out in the open and discussed in a forthright manner. If by education the young people of the Nation can be made aware of the true character of narcotic drugs and the dangers of addiction, they will become strong fighters in the campaign against the evil.

(e) Methods of illegal importation and sale

The narcotic drugs lend themselves conveniently to illicit traffic. A fortune in narcotics can be carried in one pocket. Easy to handle, transport, and conceal, drugs slip quickly through the underworld's serpentine labyrinth, making it extremely difficult for enforcement officers to track down the carriers.

Narcotics have a ready market of insatiable consumers who keep coming back for more, often several times a day. The amount an addict will use depends solely on the amount he can get. He will "shoot" all he has available.

Narcotics move in a seller's market where the customer is always wrong. Dope peddlers charge all the money in the buyer's pocket, keeping him financially, as well as physically, enslaved. Witnesses told the committee how in Baltimore the identical quality and quantity of heroin sold for three times the amount charged in Washington. Drug sellers swindle their customers, adulterating the merchandise to almost nothing, heedless of the suffering they inflict on their victims. An addict who "squeals" to the authorities is likely to get a "hot shot" (a highly concentrated or poisoned dosage) the next time he comes to the peddler for his drug. The helpless addict struggles along from day to day a captive of the greedy criminals who have him hopelessly trapped.

Most American addicts, including practically all of the younger group, use heroin, the drug banned by law from the United States since 1924. Since heroin is the drug peddled on street corners through organized crime syndicates, its traffic presents the most serious aspect of the narcotic problem. Morphine and the opiate synthetics are more commonly diverted from legitimate channels, often by forging prescriptions and stealing from drugstores. The committee heard several addicted nurses and pharmacists tell how they obtained medicinal drugs in this manner.

Heroin is a fine white powder legitimately manufactured for medical use in several countries including Italy, Turkey, and China. However, through illegal dealings, a substantial part of this legal output, after it leaves the factory, finds its way to the United States, concealed on the persons and in the luggage of crewmen and passengers coming in from abroad.

In Italy, a kilogram (a fraction over 2 pounds) of heroin sells on the illicit market for from $1,000 to $1,500. Transported overseas and landed safely in the United States, its value leaps to $6,000 to $10,000. Once inside this country, it is divided and diluted with milk sugar, traveling many miles and the price doubling each time it changes hands. As the price soars the quality dwindles, so that the final concoction as it reaches the hands of the addict in capsule form consists of not over 2 percent pure heroin. It is handled under the crudest of conditions with no attention being given to cleanliness or antisepsis and when the addict uses it, he has no idea how much poison, contamination, or germ matter he is shooting into his blood stream.

More than a million of these capsules are made from a kilo. Thus, along the route from the back door of the factory in Italy to addicts' blood, the illicit heroin pays a dividend of at least $1,000 for every dollar invested.

Some peddlers deal in 1-ounce quantities which they can buy for as little as $50 to $100 for an ounce, depending on how good their "connection" is. On American soil, this ounce is worth over $200 and by the time it is watered down and parceled out to other peddlers, it may bring as much as $5,000.

Experienced enforcement officers believe that the present influx of heroin from abroad is managed by the Mafia with Charles "Lucky" Luciano, notorious gangster, vice king, and racketeer deported convict, now resident in Italy, as the operating head. His chief lieutenant is believed to be an Italian resident named Joseph Pici and one of his principal contacts in the United States is believed to be Joseph Biondo, former small-time New York politician who visited Luciano a few months ago and is now a fugitive.

World-wide in scope, the Mafia is believed to derive the major source of its income from the distribution and smuggling of narcotics. An undercover agent of the Treasury Department's Bureau of Narcotics testified at length before the committee just after his return from an extended assignment in Italy. Asked whether Luciano is the kingpin of the Mafia, the agent responded that if "Lucky" isn't the kingpin, "he is one of the royal family," that he receives large sums of money from American gangsters and that he certainly wields influence in Mafia policy matters. To the question "Is Lucky Luciano the kingpin of the narcotics traffic in the United States?" he answered, "The United States and Italy." The agent further revealed that in Mafia circles, Luciano enjoys the honorable title "Don," a symbol of the respect and esteem the membership holds for him.

In sworn statements made by Luciano to the Italian police, he claims to be a poor man. He says he brought with him from America about $22,500 and since coming to Italy he has received from time to time other sums of money averaging a few thousands of dollars each as gifts from old friends in the United States. Since his present residence in Italy, which dates from 1947, Luciano was interested in a pastry shop in Palermo, but he claims that after 2 1/2 years the business failed and he lost 7,500,000 lire. He says he has no other commercial activities in Italy, although he plays the horses frequently. He said, "All of the money which I brought to Italy and that which I have received subsequently from my friends in America, I have spent about 500,000 lire a month, I expect, which comes from the United States and not from activities in Italy, because all of the business affairs I have tried to conduct in Italy have come to a bad end."

In Italy, Luciano is close to Nicolai Gentile, well known in New York rackets, who while under indictment for a narcotics charge, jumped bail and fled to Italy in the early 1940's. Gentile also enjoys the Mafia title of "Don". Joseph Pici, Luciano's narcotics lieutenant, is currently a codefendant with Luciano in a narcotics investigation being conducted by the Italian Government. Pici previously had lived in the United States, but was deported on a white slave conviction. Several years ago, he smuggled himself into the United States, bringing with him 15 kilos of heroin which he delivered to the Kansas City Mafia organization. Pici's current whereabouts are unknown.

Other deportees now in Italy who are believed to be associated with Luciano include Ralph Liguori and Gaetano Chiofalo, alias Charlie Young.

A narcotics agent testifying before the committee described a heroin transaction and the role played in it by the Mafia and Luciano's henchmen. He told of 28-year-old Frank Callace of the One Hundred Seventh Street mob in New York, sent to Italy in April of 1951 to pick up some heroin. Callace first contacted his uncle of the same name who had previously fled the United States because he was wanted by the FBI. The uncle and nephew, both of whom are considered members of the Mafia, met in Palermo and proceeded to Milan where they met in a hotel to talk quantity and price of heroin. They checked out of the hotel shortly after returning to Palermo. Then they received a telephone call from Pici, Luciano's lieutenant, and backtracked to Milan. The younger Callace was arrested in the Rome airport en route to Palermo with a suitcase containing three kilos of heroin. The police had been tipped off by an anonymous telephone call.

Internal circulation.-- Mystery and secrecy enshrouds the movement of illegal narcotics within the United States. The innocent looking white powder travels hundreds of miles from dockside to consumer, usually carried by hand.

Small peddlers make periodic trips to their "connections" (mostly in other localities) buying just an ounce or two at a time in order not to keep a supply on hand. One witness, a very small-time peddler, told of making evening calls on his "connection" in another city. After the money passed, the "connection" left and would not return until the following morning with the order. So, in this case, the deal included a night's lodging.

On the high level, the "big shot" of course never enters the picture visibly; except perhaps to be seen talking to his boys. He makes no deliveries and accepts no money direct from a purchaser. He merely finances the deal, reaping the lion's share of the profits. The assistants to the big shot after seeing the customer's money and assuring themselves of his intent to buy, usually go by air to the source (usually in New York) and bring back enough stock to fill the order. Seldom are large stores cached in the city from which distribution is being made.

A narcotics agent related to the committee a fascinating story of undercover work in 1950. Posing as a peddler, he helped track down several top operators of a major narcotics syndicate of which San Antonio, Detroit, Chicago, and New York were the key cities. The agent gained the confidence of a peddler named Robert Kimball, the Texas link of the chain. Following arrest for illegal sale of narcotics, Kimball expressed willingness to cooperate with the Narcotics Bureau in bringing his associates to justice. He and the agent purported to become partners.

Kimball's practice had been to import marijuana from Mexico and sell it to connections in Detroit, Chicago, and New York, who in turn supplied him with heroin for outlets in Fort Worth, Dallas, Galveston, New Orleans, San Diego, Hollywood, and San Francisco. In an effort to buy a kilo, Kimball and the agent made nearly a dozen trips to the syndicate's headquarter cities, making ounce purchases along the way. The big shipment eluded them for weeks, but meanwhile they met other eager buyers with pipelines to Cleveland, Topeka, Kansas City. In the course of their travels, they were offered an "in" to an illegal gold transaction, but the profit wasn't big enough for them to accept. Early in December, Kimball was murdered in Texas by a former night club partner. From that point, the agent carried on alone, acting as the sole Texas contact for the syndicate. Late in December in a New York hotel room, he succeeded in arresting Anthony Pisciotta of the high echelon of the syndicate as Pisciotta was making delivery of two kilos of heroin. A half dozen other members were arrested simultaneously. The "master mind" of the syndicate is still free and one of the other leaders known as "Fat Sam" escaped to Florida where he is believed to be in hiding now.

Since the time of that testimony, newspapers all over the country have been filled with stories of further major arrests connecting the illegal dope trade with organized crime, national and international.

The July 28 papers featured the breaking up of a $30,000,000 combination narcotics and counterfeiting ring. This group made and sold bogus American currency or goof money with which they bought illegal drugs. A tie-up between this group on one side and the Mafia-Luciano mob and a French underworld mob on the other, is suspected. It is believed that 50 pounds of pure heroin were smuggled into the United States each month by agents of the ring.

On August 1, 1951, narcotics agents and the New York City police closed in on Irving Wexler, more familiarly known as Waxey Gordon, former beer baron and wartime black marketeer, now turned dope dealer. The committee had known of this case but had stayed away from it to give the Narcotics Bureau a free hand. Waxey was caught with 2 pounds of heroin reportedly destined for coast-to-coast trade. It is believed that his market centered on the west coast and that he was in the process of expanding eastward. Whether his market linked with or worked in competition to the Luciano enterprises is not known to the committee.

The press painted a dramatic picture of the underworld big shot, now a fourth offender, kneeling on a sidewalk of New York, begging the arresting officer, "Please kill me, shoot me. I'm an old man and I'm through. Don't take me in for junk. * * *" Meanwhile, his minions offered the policemen $25,000 to let "I[...]" go. Gordon and his associates were held for a total of $500,000 bail.

On August 4, 1951, the story of an international combine employing couriers to carry narcotics of Italian origin on airflights from New York to Canada, broke with the arrest of five men carrying $20,000 worth of heroin. Thought to be the biggest narcotics syndicate in Canadian history, this group is allegedly linked with the international cartel headed by Luciano.

It is of interest to observe that only two or three of the characters involved in all of these dope empires, were themselves addicts.

(f) Possible remedies

The committee has come to the conclusion that illegal narcotic drugs constitute an evil of great magnitude. The problem calls for vigorous and effective action at all levels of our social and governmental system.

The problem should be attacked from many different angles with the hope that the combined effect will be to stop the spread of illegal drug use and perhaps eventually reduce it to controllable proportions. The committee suggests the following approaches:

(i) Sociological approach.--The deep-seated sense of personal insecurity which causes an individual to be addiction-prone may be the result of any one or more of a number of complex forces. Personal tragedy, unidentified childhood frustrations, family discord, poverty, loss of employment, and similar factors contribute to this. Perhaps the congenital character of the individual's nervous system is as important a factor as any. The addict seldom feels that he is to blame for his predicament and in large measure he is right. His affliction is caused by forces he cannot understand or control. He is sick and should be treated as such.

Obviously any action which has the effect of improving living conditions, strengthening the home environment and generally contributing to the security of the individual will help eliminate the causes of drug addiction.

(ii) Education.-The committee does not subscribe to the theory that public discussion of drug addiction should be avoided to protect nonaddicts from being tempted to try drugs. As in the case of venereal diseases, the attack upon which has been greatly enhanced by public knowledge, the committee believes that much will be gained by a carefully devised program of education designed to make the people of the Nation aware of the true facts regarding the excessive use of narcotic drugs.

Most of the objection to public discussion is based upon a danger which the committee believes can be avoided in a well-conceived educational program. There is no doubt that a drug user before he is actually "hooked" experiences a temporary pleasurable sensation and it is this sensation that might tempt others to try it. Improved emphasis on this sensation should be avoided and the true facts with regard to it should be brought out.

Actually, the sensation is extremely short-lived and is ordinarily followed by addiction within a period of from 10 days to 3 weeks of repeated use. Once addiction sets in, the victim cannot go back and from then on he takes the drug not for pleasure but for the sole purpose of avoiding the dread sickness caused by his physical need for the drug.

The committee believes that education should start in the schools and social organizations of the country and should be carried from there to the home. The basic responsibility for such a program rests on the shoulders of the country's educational leaders who should carry it forward at the local level.

(iii) Treatment facilities.--Medical science has not yet found a specific for the cure for drug addiction. Much has been accomplished in this direction at the United States Public Health Service Hospitals at Lexington, Ky., and Fort Worth, Tex., but the only available treatment is to take the addict gradually off the drug and thereafter, through psychiatric treatment, to attempt to help him overcome the deep-seated weaknesses that contributed to his illness.

The Lexington and Fort Worth hospitals are minimum-secured institution with modern hospital facilities to treat narcotic addiction and any other chronic or addict condition from which the patients may be suffering. Although these hospitals were established to receive Federal prisoners who are also addicted to drugs, they also admit nonprisoner addicts as voluntary patients. There are no separate accommodations for prisoner and nonprisoner patients. These hospitals are excellently managed under the supervision of Dr. Victor H. Vogel and Dr. Richard B. Holt, medical officer in charge at Lexington and Fort Worth, respectively.

Facilities for the treatment of addiction at State and community levels are extremely limited. The establishment of local clinical resources, at least for putting new drug users under immediate treatment, may preclude the tragedy of addiction in many cases.

Perhaps the greatest weakness in the field of treatment lies in the lack of facilities for following up patients after they leave the hospital.

Actual rehabilitation of the addict covers a span of years, not merely the 4 to 6 months spent in the controlled hospital environment. Supervision of the patient is necessary for a long period beyond the direct treatment phase. It is wasteful to spend millions of dollars each year caring for these addicts if they are to go back among people who are abusing drugs and thus be exposed to the temptation of starting again.

The United States Public Health Service has prepared and is hoping to undertake a program of local follow-up on a trial basis in New York or Chicago or both. The plan is to send teams of social workers and psychiatrists to those cities to maintain contact with former patients and assist them in using community facilities to help them rebuild their lives.

Local communities over the Nation can make real contributions toward insuring the rehabilitation of addicts by providing adequate mental health services where they may seek and receive understanding and intelligent advice. Too often the former addict will seek the answer to his dilemma in narcotics, lacking a secure source of counsel. One worthwhile utilization of community funds might consist of providing transportation for addicts to proper treatment centers.

(iv) Increased penalties.--Bills are now pending in Congress, two sponsored by members of this committee, proposing sharp increases in the fines and prison sentences that may be imposed for violation of the Federal narcotics laws. Efforts should be made to enact legislation along these lines.

The committee believes that casting the shadow of steep penalties over the path of the dope peddler will do much to deter him. A criminal bent upon performing an illegal act always weighs the risks against the rewards. At present the financial reward to the peddler seems to outbalance the fear of a 1- or 2-year prison term with a fair chance of having his sentence suspended.

In this connection, much can be accomplished by making judges aware of the seriousness of the crime of drug peddling. A judge passing upon an individual case is often tempted to be lenient, but if he appreciates the true relationship between the case before him and the over-all aspects of the drug evil, he will be more likely to mete out the punishment that is deserved.

(v) Increased enforcement.--Old-time addicts who have spent their lives struggling to escape from the drug habit say that the best solution to the problem is to kill the source of supply. They say that as long as the drug is available to them, they are not able to resist it.

The Narcotics Bureau of the Treasury Department has a staff of 180 skillful agents serving long hours in what is probably the most hazardous type of enforcement work. Under present conditions this number of men is discouragingly small. Mr. Harry J. Anslinger, head of the Bureau, is convinced that with twice the force he could stamp out the peddling of narcotic drugs. The committee believes he is right.

(vi) Port and border control.--The committee was impressed with the futility of attempting to stop the flow of heroin through customs search at the borders. The drug is so easy to conceal that finding it on the person of a passenger or sailor or in the many hiding places aboard ship is virtually impossible. The type of search that is required to find hidden drugs is often obnoxious to the person being searched and, even when done on a sampling basis, it gives rise to some resentment.

However, the committee feels that the present procedures of the Customs Bureau in this regard should be continued as a deterrent to drug smuggling.

It appears that one of the principal methods of smuggling heroin into the country is on the persons of sailors, especially those on ships of foreign registry. It is believed that this accounts for the present flow of drugs from abroad into the port of New York. The committee believes that customs inspection should be directed particularly at these ships and their crews, at least until the present influx has been checked.

American sailors and longshoremen for the most part belong to unions which have strict rules regarding the smuggling of drugs. A man convicted of a narcotics violation is subject to discharge from the union and the union leaders who testified before the committee said that these rules are strictly enforced. They also testified that drug smuggling is extremely repugnant to most American seamen and longshoremen and that a man known to be smuggling is likely to be forced off the job by his fellow workers.

There appears to be one step that the Coast Guard could take that would be helpful in the case of seamen. As long as a seaman has his sailing papers, it is difficult for the unions to keep him from working. If a seaman is convicted of a narcotics violation which occurred aboard ship, the Coast Guard will lift his papers. Apparently, this is not true if the violation occurred on. shore.

In view of the serious character of a narcotics violation, irrespective of whether it occurs at sea or on shore, and considering the fact that seamen are believed to be an important source of importation, the committee believes that a man convicted of this crime is not fit to hold sailing papers. It believes that the Coast Guard should extend its practice in this regard to men convicted of narcotics-law violations occurring on land.

Another step that the committee believes would help in the enforcement of union rules would be for the Narcotics Bureau to inform both the appropriate national unions and the Coast Guard of all narcotic convictions involving seamen and longshoremen. In the case of the unions, this information could .be passed along to the locals in the regular publications.

(vii) Revised court procedures.--Early in April of 1951, Chicago's chief justice of the municipal court, Edward S. Scheffler, issued an order designating a specific courtroom for the special purpose of hearing all cases in which narcotics are in any way involved. Special prosecutors were assigned to the narcotics court, the first of its kind to be created, by the State's attorney for Cook County and the corporation counsel of the city of Chicago. In addition, the Chicago Board of Health appointed a full-time psychiatrist to serve this court. There are also present a social worker and representatives of the Crime Prevention Bureau. This appears to be an experiment worth watching and studying with a view to putting similar arrangements into effect in other jurisdictions. It is a step in the direction of treating the addict, as a patient rather than a criminal.

(viii) Mexican border.--Information has reached the committee to the effect that in towns across the Mexican border where Americans may come and go without restriction, a dangerous situation has arisen involving narcotic drugs. Many youngsters are visiting these towns for the sole purpose of obtaining drugs, including marijuana and heroin, which can be purchased on the street. Restrictions on narcotic drugs under our law are of little benefit to the citizens of border communities if their children are able and perhaps encouraged to cross freely into Mexico where the drugs are readily available.

The Committee believes that the appropriate agencies of the Federal Government should study this problem with a view to finding a solution. The answer may lie in prohibiting minors to cross the border when not accompanied by their parents.

(ix) World-wide prohibition of opium poppy growing.--Opium, which is the raw material from which heroin, morphine, and similar drugs are manufactured, is produced in China, India, Iran, and Turkey. Experience has shown that neither the United Nations nor the nations themselves are able to control the amount of opium poppy plants grown. They grow about 40 times the amount required to satisfy medical needs of the world.

Most of the countries have been wholly cooperative, although there is some doubt as to the attitude of Communist China. When the United States representative on the Commission on Narcotic Drugs of the United Nations called attention to the large heroin manufacture in Communist China, the Russian delegate tried unsuccessfully to have his remarks stricken from the record.

Nevertheless, experience has shown that the manufacture of opiates, as distinguished from the growing of opium poppy plants, can be controlled within reasonable limits. Accordingly, a great step forward would be accomplished if the growing of these plants could be completely prohibited.

This, of course, is feasible only if there arc adequate synthetic substitutes for the medicinal opiates. In this connection, the committee heard the testimony of Dr. Henry K. Beecher, of Harvard University, head of the department of anaesthesia of Massachusetts General Hospital. He told the committee that methadon and levoisomethadon, newly developed products, are not only adequate substitutes, but in many ways superior to morphine as pain-relieving drugs. He said, "I shouldn't be worried at all if there were no morphine." Dr. Beecher said that adequate synthetic substitutes for codeine have not yet been developed but he considers codeine to be a minor problem compared with morphine.

The committee is satisfied that these synthetic substitutes make the manufacture of morphine entirely unnecessary and that nothing of importance would be lost to the medical profession or to the people of the world if the growing of opium poppy plants were wholly prohibited in every country.

The very existence of opium appears to be the root of one of the greatest evils known to man and the committee strongly urges the Department of State and the United States delegates to the Commission on Narcotics of the United Nations to make strenuous efforts to bring about a world-wide prohibition against the growing of the plant from which opium is extracted.

C. CRIME IN MEDIUM-SIZE CITIES

Introduction

As previously stated, the medium-size cities selected for investigation by the committee were Atlantic City, N.J.; Newport and Covington, Ky.; Scranton, Pa.; and Reading, Pa. These cities represent population centers of approximately 100,000.

The purpose of the study was to ascertain whether the pattern of crime found to exist in the large cities also prevailed in smaller communities. As it would have been impossible to investigate all medium-size cities, the committee selected these five as samples.

The committee found that the same crime pattern does exist in these cities as in the large metropolitan areas. The Accardos, the Guziks, and the Costellos who direct the big-city syndicates have their counterparts in the smaller cities. Territories may be more restricted, but the modus operandi of the small-town racketeers is virtually a carbon copy of that followed by the big-city mobs.

As in the larger cities, small-city organized gambling is controlled by former bootleggers, and the emphasis is on illegal bookmaking which is dependent upon the wire service emanating from Continental Press Service, controlled by the old Capone syndicate.

Gambler-politico-police alliances are readily discernible. The strong inferences of bribery of the police and marked overtones of large contributions by the mobs to political campaigns, all for the purpose of insuring noninterference with gambling operations, are the causes of the existing breakdown of law-enforcement machinery. Repeatedly the committee was told that candidates for