The United States Senate conducted hearings in 1951 by Senator Estes Kefauver’s Crime Investigating Committee. The Kefauver Committee held hearings in 14 major cities, such as Miami, New Orleans, Kansas City, Las Vegas, and Chicago over a 15-month period. More than 600 witnesses testified. The hearings delved into the suspected problem of organized crime. The viewing public was so interested, the televised hearings captured 100 percent of the viewing audience (an estimated 30 million people). Schools dismissed students to watch the hearings. Blood banks ran low on donations, prompting one Brooklyn Center to install a television and tune in to the hearings, and donations shot up 100 percent. “Never before had the attention of the nation been riveted so completely on a single matter,” explained Life magazine. “The Senate investigation into interstate crime,” it concluded, “was almost the sole subject of national conversation.” Of public fascination with the hearings, Jack Gould, reporter for the New York Times, wrote: “Housewives have left the housework undone and husbands have slipped away from their jobs to watch. The city has been under a hypnotic spell, absorbed, fascinated, angered and amused. It has been a rare community experience.” (Jack Gould, “The Crime Hearings: Television Provides Both a Lively Show and a Notable Public Service,” New York Times, 18 March 1951, Sec. 2, p. 13.)
Television viewers were riveted, in part, by the cast of characters called to testify before the committee. Particularly dramatic was testimony by Frank Costello. Crime commissions across the nation had identified Costello as a key figure in the nation’s largest gambling syndicates. Testifying before the committee in New York, Costello, with his well-coiffed hair and tailored suits, came to personify the American gangster in public imagination. When his legal counsel objected to the television cameras, cameramen instead directed their devices at Costello’s hands. During an intense period of questioning by Rudolph Halley, Costello’s hands “twisted and clenched,” according to one account, “revealing [his] inner fears and confusion.” Costello mumbled incoherent answers, became belligerent, refused to answer questions, and twice left the witness table without being dismissed. Americans were fascinated by the spectacle of a mob boss under duress. The committee later cited Costello for contempt, and he served jail time.
In addition to Costello, the committee interrogated a veritable who’s who of the criminal underworld. Among the more notorious figures who appeared before the committee were Tony “Joe Batters” Accardo, Louis “Little New York” Campagna, Mickey Cohen, Willie Moretti, Jake “Greasy Thumb” Guzik, Meyer Lansky, Paul “The Waiter” Ricca. Virginia Hill, former girlfriend of criminal mastermind Bugsy Siegel, testified to having had no knowledge of criminal activities while in the company of notorious mobsters. Antagonized by the press, Hill kicked and slapped aggressive journalists on her way out of the hearing room, actions caught on live television. Former New York City mayor William O’Dwyer testified to allegations of corruption during his tenure. Then serving as ambassador to Mexico, O’Dwyer’s answers lacked specificity, leading the public to conclude that he was being intentionally evasive. The committee initiated perjury action against him. His reputation shattered, O’Dwyer resigned his diplomatic post.
The hearings transformed television overnight “from everybody’s whipping boy” to a public benefactor, wrote the editors of Broadcasting magazine after the hearings. “It’s camera eye opened the public’s.” Print journalists took notice. “I was in New York at that time, and I admit you couldn’t get any work out of anybody, your wife or your secretary or anybody else,” marveled John Crosby, the New York Herald-Tribune’s radio-TV columnist, in 1951. “They sat glued to that machine.” The melodramatic hearings had brought the shadowy world of organized crime to life. “The last week has demonstrated with awesome vividness what television can do to enlighten, to educate and to drive home a lesson,” wrote New York Times television critic Jack Gould. John W. Bloomer, managing editor of the Columbus (Ga.) Ledger, said the Kefauver hearings “got a reaction that stunned even the most enthusiastic of the television drum beaters. TV suddenly came of age as a medium for dissemination of news.”
The Committee uncovered extensive evidence that people of all nationalities, ethnicities, and even religions operated locally controlled, loosely organized crime syndicates at the local level. The Committee’s work led to several significant outcomes. Among the most notable was an admission by J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, that a national organized crime syndicate did exist and that the FBI had done little about it. Legislative proposals and state ballot referenda legalizing gambling went down to defeat over the next few years due to revelations of organized crime’s involvement in the gambling industry, and more than 70 “crime commissions” were established at the state and local level to build on the Kefauver Committee’s work. The Kefauver Committee was the first to suggest that civil law be expanded and used to combat organized crime. Congress responded to the call, and in 1970 passed the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) as a direct response to the committee’s recommendation.
“Crazy Joey” –Bob Dylan (1976) https://youtu.be/M1IynayqBg4 Joey Gallo and his two brothers, Larry and Albert, were part of the New York City Fifties/Sixties era mafia, which included five crime families. The original bosses of the Five Families were Charles Luciano, Tommaso Gagliano, Joseph Profaci, Salvatore Maranzano and Vincent Mangano. In 1963, the current bosses of the Five Families were Tommy Lucchese, Vito Genovese, Joseph Colombo, Carlo Gambino, and Joe Bonanno. These have since been the names most commonly used to refer to the New York Five Families, despite years of overturn and changing bosses in each. The Gallos were part of the Profaci family.
Dylan wrote several songs about criminals. (See his sympathetic song “Hurricane” about the professional boxer, Ruben “Hurricane” Carter, who was convicted of and jailed for murder.) He tended to view their histories more positively than the general media. “Romanticized” probably describes Dylan’s portrayal. In “Crazy Joey”, Dylan paints a picture of Joey Gallo as alienated antihero. The Gallo, who is portrayed in this song, is probably largely fictitious. As an example, Dylan fails to mention that in 1957 Joey Gallo probably assassinated Albert Anastasio, leader of the Anastasio family gang. But, Dylan does accurately portray aspects of a mobsters’ life. “Crazy Joe” Gallo was the victim of one of New York City’s most famous reputed mob executions. Gallo spent the night of April 6th, 1972 celebrating his 43rd birthday. He watched comic Don Rickles perform at the Copacabana nightclub, then went to Umberto’s Clam House in Little Italy in the early hours of the morning on April 7th. He was accompanied by his sister, his wife, her daughter, and a bodyguard, when men entered the restaurant and shot Gallo to death. Gallo’s execution was thought to be pay back for his arranged hit on mob boss Joe Columbo. (Dylan Dallies with Mafia Chi: Joey Gallo was no Hero, an article that discusses the inaccuracies in Dylan’s song https://www.villagevoice.com/2020/03/08/dylan-dallies-with-mafia-chic-joey-gallo-was-no-hero/); https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/a30061890/joseph-crazy-joe-gallo-the-irishman-true-story/.
Born in Red Hook, Brooklyn, in the year of who knows when
Opened up his eyes to the tune of an accordion
Always on the outside of whatever side there was
When they asked him why it had to be that way, well, he answered, just becauseLarry was the oldest, Joey was next to last
They called Joe Crazy, the baby they called Kid Blast
Some say they lived off gambling and runnin’ numbers too
It always seemed they got caught between the mob and the men in blueJoey, Joey
King of the streets, child of clay
Joey, Joey
What made them want to come and blow you awayThere was talk they killed their rivals, but the truth was far from that
No one ever knew for sure where they were really at
When they tried to strangle Larry, Joey almost got hit the roof
He went out that night to seek revenge, thinkin’ he was bulletproofThen, the war broke out at the break of dawn, it emptied out the streets
Joey and his brothers suffered terrible defeats
Till they ventured out behind the lines and took five prisoners
They stashed them away in a basement, called them amateursThe hostages were tremblin’ when they heard a man exclaim
Let’s blow this place to kingdom come, let Con Edison take the blame
But Joey stepped up, he raised his hand, said, we’re not those kind of men
It’s peace and quiet that we need to go back to work againJoey, Joey
Born in Red Hook, Brooklyn, in the year of who knows when
Opened up his eyes to the tune of an accordion
Always on the outside of whatever side there was
When they asked him why it had to be that way, well, he answered, just becauseLarry was the oldest, Joey was next to last
They called Joe Crazy, the baby they called Kid Blast
Some say they lived off gambling and runnin’ numbers too
It always seemed they got caught between the mob and the men in blueJoey, Joey
King of the streets, child of clay
Joey, Joey
What made them want to come and blow you awayThere was talk they killed their rivals, but the truth was far from that
No one ever knew for sure where they were really at
When they tried to strangle Larry, Joey almost got hit the roof
He went out that night to seek revenge, thinkin’ he was bulletproofThen, the war broke out at the break of dawn, it emptied out the streets
Joey and his brothers suffered terrible defeats
Till they ventured out behind the lines and took five prisoners
They stashed them away in a basement, called them amateursThe hostages were tremblin’ when they heard a man exclaim
Let’s blow this place to kingdom come, let Con Edison take the blame
But Joey stepped up, he raised his hand, said, we’re not those kind of men
It’s peace and quiet that we need to go back to work againJoey, Joey
King of the streets, child of clay
Joey, Joey
What made them want to come and blow you awayThe police department hounded him, they called him Mr. Smith
They got him on conspiracy, they were never sure who with
What time is it? said the judge to Joey when they met
Five to ten, said Joey, the judge says, that’s exactly what you getHe did ten years in Attica, reading Nietzsche and Wilhelm Reich
They threw him in the hole one time for tryin’ to stop a strike
His closest friends were black men ’cause they seemed to understand
What it’s like to be in society with a shackle on your handThey let him out in ’71 he’d lost a little weight
But he dressed like Jimmy Cagney and I swear he did look great
He tried to find the way back into the life he left behind
To the boss he said, I have returned and now I want what’s mineJoey, Joey
King of the streets, child of clay
Joey, Joey
What made them want to come and blow you awayIt was true that in his later years he would not carry a gun
I’m around too many children, he’d say, they should never know of one
Yet he walked right into the clubhouse of his lifelong deadly foe
Emptied out the register, said, tell ’em it was Crazy JoeOne day they blew him down in a clam bar in New York
He could see it comin’ through the door as he lifted up his fork
He pushed the table over to protect his family
Then he staggered out into the streets of Little ItalyJoey, Joey
King of the streets, child of clay
Joey, Joey
What made them want to come and blow you awaySister Jacqueline and Carmela and mother Mary all did weep
I heard his best friend Frankie say, he ain’t dead, he’s just asleep
Then I saw the old man’s limousine head back towards the grave
I guess he had to say one last goodbye to the son that he could not saveThe sun turned cold over President Street and the town of Brooklyn mourned
They said a mass in the old church near the house where he was born
And someday if God’s in heaven overlookin’ His preserve
I know the men that shot him down will get what they deserveJoey, Joey
King of the streets, child of clay
Joey, Joey
What made them want to come and blow you away