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A Federal Viewpoint on Combating Organized Crime By HERBERT J. MILLER, JR.94 THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY NUMEROUS exposes, investigations, Organized crime has not merely and reports over the past several amassed a great deal of wealth. It has years have disclosed the parasitic also blossomed forth from its meager grip which organized crime holds on early nineteenth-century beginnings many spheres of our society. Its in- into a full-blown formidable corporate fluence in the fields of politics and empire-"a well organized national government has been subjected to the cartel, with international ties." It has scrutiny of congressional committees, developed into a smoothly operating which have also considered its impact mechanism with components such as on labor and industry as well as on executives, fiscal departments, legal sports and entertainment.' Legislative departments, public-relations advisers, interest, particularly when accompanied and laborers all working together to by the nationwide publicity of congres- the detriment of the law-abiding public. sional investigations, has sparked the The effect of this great accumulation publication of serious studies of vari- of wealth and of this successful organ- ous aspects of organized crime.= Per- izational structure has been to insulate haps the most dramatic proof of the the principal figures-the nation's lead- power wielded by organized crime in ing racketeers-from effective prosecu the United States is the estimate of its tion for criminal acts performed at annual cost to the public, computed at their ultimate direction. They are $22 billion by J. Edgar Hoover, Di- rarely, if ever, at the scene of criminal rector of the Federal Bureau of Investi- activity. Instead, they leave the day- gation. This astounding total is the to-day operations of their unlawful equivalent of a contribution of $128 gambling, prostitution, narcotics, extor- from every man, woman, and child in tion, or fraud ventures to the immediate the United States." direction of assistants who stand lower I Hearings before Permanent Subcommittee in the hierarchy. In addition, their on Investigations of the Senate Committee on financial resources enable them to use Government Operations, 87th Cong., 1st Sess. more scientific and sophisticated de- (1961) ; Hearings before Subcommittee No. 5 of the House Judiciary Committee on Legisla- vices in executing their illegal schemes. tion Relating to Organized Crime, 87th Cong., This added ingenuity results in the Ist Sess. (1961) ; Hearings before the Senate increased complexity of the unlawful Judiciary Committee on the Attorney Gen- transactions in which they engage, eral's Program to Curb Organized Crime and multiplying severalfold the difficulties Racketeering, 87th Cong., Ist Sess. (1961) ; Hearings before the Senate Select Committee faced by investigators and prosecutors on Improper Activities in the Labor or who attempt to trace the revenues of Management Field, 85th Cong., Ist & 2nd illegal ventures. Difficulties of proof Sess. (1957-58) ; Hearings before the Senate are compounded because the criminal Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, 81st Cong., Ist & 2nd organization is usually able by induce- Sess. (1950-51). ment or intimidation to deter witnesses " TYLER, ORGANIZED CRIME IN AMERICA from giving testimony. And with the (1962) ; Cook, A TWO-DOLLAR BET MEANS accumulation of wealth has come power MURDER (1961) ; RECKLESS, THE CRIME over some local public officials, with PROBLEM 180-206 (3rd ed., 1961); Atlantic Monthly, November 1960, p. 50; Harper's, whose connivance the leading racketeers November 1960, p. 33. See also CHICAGO CRIME COMMISSION ANN. REP. (1961); ABA House Judiciary Committee on Legislation COMMISSION ON ORGANIZED CRIME AND LAW Relating to Organized Crime, 87th Cong., Ist ENFORCEMENT (1952). Sess. (1961). Statement of Attorney General Kennedy, "See TYLER, op. cit. supra, note 2 at 87-225. Hearings before Subcommittee No. 5 of the 5/d, at 3.A FEDERAL VIEWPOINT 95 have become dominant and influential order to deal effectively with crimes of figures in their local communities. violence perpetrated by armed gang- sters who roamed across state lines, ENFORCEMENT RESPONSIBILITIES such as John Dillinger and "Baby The main burden of meeting the Face" Nelson, and by members of the challenge presented by organized crime then-existing criminal syndicates in still rests on the law-enforcement agen- Chicago and New York City, the At- cies of our fifty states and their local torney General's Conference on Crime communities. One recent commentator was convened in December 1934. At has observed that there are about the outset of this conference, Attorney 40,000 separate and distinct police General Homer S. Cummings referred agencies in the United States. Not- to the "increasing demand for the withstanding the resulting lack of co- extension of Federal power and an ap- ordination and frequent disunity or parent assumption that therein lies the conflict, these agencies, under our fed- remedy," but went on to say, "unfortu eral system, must necessarily continue nately, it is not a problem which can to assume the primary responsibility for be so easily solved." According to enforcement of the criminal law. Some Attorney General Cummings:" states and cities have responded to the challenge of organized crime effect Just how far the work of the Federal tively, but many law-enforcement agen- Department should go and just what the cies, handicapped by poorly trained form of interrelation between the agencies representing the state and Federal Govern- personnel, inadequate equipment, juris- ments should be, is, of course, one of the dictional limitations, or political restric crucial questions which faces us in this tions have not measured up to the Conference. Implicit in this phase of the assignment. matter there are constitutional questions Although the constitutional basis for and considerations of policy. Of this we federal criminal legislation under the may be sure, there is an urgent demand commerce clause and other provisions for an adequate solution; and an increasing of the Constitution has been clear for necessity for the intimate and friendly many years," the federal government cooperation of all official agencies in has always been reluctant to assert and determining the best method of approach extend its power in this traditional area and in developing the most effective means of states' rights. When it appeared in of administration of which we are capable. the early 1930's that federal interven- The attention focused by this Con- tion was desirable and necessary in ference on the problems created by interstate gangsters resulted in the pas- " Donnelly, Police Authority and Practices, $39 Annals 90, 91 (1962). The Chicago sage in many states of certain uniform Crime Commission has noted that there are statutes dealing with particular prob- 350 municipal, county, and state police lems of interstate crime control which forces employing personnel totaling several had theretofore remained in the limbo thousand within a fifty-mile radius of Chi- of no man's land. Uniform acts deal- cago. Peterson, Rackets in America, 49 J. OF CRIM. LAW 583, 588 (1959). ing with interstate rendition of wit- The sending of lottery tickets through nesses and interstate extradition of the mails was prohibited as early as 1890 (26 accused persons were enacted upon the Stat. 465, 18 U.S.C. 1302), and legislation recommendation of the Interstate Com- forbidding the transportation of lottery tickets in interstate commerce was enacted in 1895 " ATTY. GEN. CONFERENCE ON CRIME PRO- (March 2, 1895, c. 191, 28 Stat. 963). See CEEDINGS 4 (1934). Champion v. Ames, 188 U.S. 321 (1902). 0 Ibid.96 THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY mission on Crime.10 In addition, in The conference ultimately proposed order to provide the sanction of federal two federal bills, and only one of these law where it was most needed, the the so-called Slot Machine Act 13-. Seventy-third Congress enacted a group became law. But both the conference of significant statutes directed at the and the hearings of the Senate Investi- particular crimes of violence which gating Committee headed by Senator were then of major concern. The Estes Kefauver did much to arouse statutes enacted at this time, some at the public to the dangers of organized the request of the Department of Jus- crime. The disclosures during the tice, included a bank-robbery law, a hearings of the Kefauver Committee law directed at extortion or threats warranted the Committee's conclusion sent in interstate commerce, the Fugi- "that the tentacles of organized crime tive Felon Act, and an amendment to reach into virtually every community the kidnapping law.11 throughout the country." " And the Despite this interstate crime-control more recent hearings held in 1958 and program of the mid-Thirties, the sta- 1959 by the Senate Select Committee tistical reports of the Federal Bureau on Improper Activities in the Labor or of Investigation documented a notice- Management Field, known as the Mc- able increase in crime during the Clellan Committee, disclosed a con- 1940's. To focus public attention on certed effort by members of the crimi- the challenge to effective law enforce- nal syndicate to achieve legitimacy ment presented by syndicated criminal through association and control of activity, Attorney General J. Howard labor unions and business firms. The McGrath called a conference which McClellan Committee found the grow- met in Washington on February 15, ing power of the underworld and its 1950, under the designation of the infiltration of business and labor to be Attorney General's Conference on Or- a critical national problem demanding ganized Crime. At the outset of this immediate attention.15 conference, Attorney General McGrath It was and is the consensus of the again expressed the reluctance of the major federal, state, and local agencies federal government to become involved which have studied the problem that in local law enforcement.12 the chief source of revenue for organ- 10 9 Uniform Laws Annotated 91 (wit- ized crime is illegal gambling." Al- nesses) ; 9 Uniform Laws Annotated 263 though estimates of the revenue ob- (extradition). tained through illegal gambling vary, it " For a contemporaneous discussion of is generally agreed that the total sum these statutes, see Symposium, Extending Federal Powers over Crime, I LAW & rule." Conditions which breed contempt for CONTEMP. PROB. 399-508 (1934). law can become only worse if we allow 12 In opening the Conference, the then At- ourselves to be lured away from sound torney General remarked: principle by the temptation to pass off State "Let it be stated at once on behalf of the and municipal responsibilities to the Federal Federal agencies that it will not be the Government." purpose of the Federal Government to usurp ATTY. GEN. CONFERENCE ON ORGANIZED CRIME the functions of the State and local police, 7 (1950). nor to conduct activities that extend beyond 13 64 Stat. 1134, 15 U.S.C. 1171. constitutional limitations or the usages of 14 SEN. REP. No. 725, 82nd Cong., Ist Sess., our people. We must never lose sight of 2 (1951). the fundamental principle that local responsi- 15 SEN. REP. No. 1139, 86th Cong., 2nd bility, fully realized, makes for sound govern- Sess., Part III, 509 (1960). ment and healthy law enforcement. That is 16 SEN. REP. No. 1310, 87th Cong., 2nd the true meaning of "States rights' and "home Sess. 2 (1962).A FEDERAL VIEWPOINT 97 amounts to billions of dollars annually. The experience of the past three dec- Most of these dollars flow into the ades has proved that society cannot coffers of organized crime, where they fight a major war against the unified are used to finance other illegal activi- ranks of organized crime with isolated ties such as narcotics, prostitution, squadrons of unco-ordinated troops. It bootleg liquor, and various forms of has also shown that organized crime racketeering enterprises such as extor- can survive public exposure by con- tion, shakedowns, and usury. Gam- gressional committees and state legis- bling profits are also used in financing latures, by public and private crime legitimate businesses, both as a front commissions, by grand juries and for criminal rackets and as a genuine prosecutors, and by crusading journal- investment for illegally obtained funds ists, because the public's interest in the which are, of course, not reported on menace of organized crime is sporadic tax returns. The accumulated wealth and fluctuating. As Senator Kefauver is also used to corrupt law enforcement prophetically observed in 1952, "We and other public officials in order to have learned by sad experience in this secure their co-operation. country, that investigations do not Hoping to strike at the source of exorcise organized crime. It almost much of the power wielded by organ- seems as if the contrary were true; ized crime, Congress in 1951 enacted forced to lie fallow for a time, organized the Wagering Stamp Tax Act, which crime sprouts new and more profitable provides that bookmakers must pur- forms." 19 chase $50 wagering stamps from the These three decades of experience federal government and pay a 10 per have further proved that, in the face cent excise tax each year on gross bets of modern techniques of organized received."? It was anticipated that crime, local law enforcement, no matter this federal statute would not only how capable it be, needs federal help produce revenue but also would assist in dealing with criminal syndicates, in identifying gamblers for prosecu especially those whose operations cross tion by state and local officials. Un- state lines. President Kennedy gave fortunately, these high expectations explicit recognition to this need in his have not been completely realized. first Annual Message to the Congress Recently, while testifying before the on the State of the Union on January Senate Permanent Subcommittee on 30, 1961 when he stated:" "Organized Investigations on August 23, 1961, . . . crimes cost the taxpayers millions Mortimer M. Caplin, Commissioner of of dollars each year, making it essential Internal Revenue, revealed that book- that we have improved enforcement makers are escaping the payment of and new legislative safeguards." billions of dollars of taxes required to be paid under this law.!' CURRENT FEDERAL EFFORTS Drawing heavily on the lessons 17 65 Stat. 529, as amended, 26 U.S.C. learned from the failures of the past 4401-4411. 16 Hearings Before Senate Permanent Sub- SEN. REP. No. 1310, 87th Cong., 2nd Sess. committee on Investigations of Committee on 32 (1962). Government Operations, 87th Cong., Ist Sess. 19 Introduction, ABA COMMISSION ON OR- 98 (1961). It had been estimated that GANIZED CRIME, ORGANIZED CRIME AND LAW $400,000,000 in taxes would be collected under ENFORCEMENT, XXIV-xxV (1952). this Act. H. R. REP. No. 586, 82nd Cong., 20 PUBLIC PAPERS OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE Ist Sess. 54 (1951). However, the largest UNITED STATES, JOHN F. KENNEDY, No. 11 annual collection was $9,502,000 in 1953. (1961).98 THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY thirty years and reflecting the increased of their trade. The Wagering Para- public awareness of the problems, the phernalia Act makes it a felony know- federal government is today engaged ingly to send betting records or material in a full-scale, long-term campaign to for bookmaking, pools on sporting combat the growing American under- events, and numbers rackets in inter- world. This renewed law-enforcement state commerce or in the mail. effort has been marked by new anti- In addition to illegal gambling, the gambling and antiracketeering legisla- "travel" act is aimed at the huge tion, increased manpower, and close profits in the traffic in liquor, narcotics, co-ordination among federal investi- and prostitution, as well as the use of gative agencies. The aim of the pro- these funds to corrupt local officials gram may be simply stated: to and for their use in racketeering in the identify, prosecute, and convict persons labor-management field. The primary actively engaged in organized crime. purpose of the "travel" act is to enable Antigambling legislation the federal government to take effective action against the racketeer who con- In order to strike at the illegal-gam- ducts an unlawful business but lives bling enterprises which produce sub- far from the scene in comfort and stantial revenue for the underworld, the safety. Because the kingpins involved Eighty-seventh Congress in 1961 con- in illegal-gambling, liquor, narcotics, tributed several new weapons to the and prostitution enterprises are often federal government's law-enforcement able to conduct their ventures by re- arsenal. The most significant of these mote control and make only occasional are statutes prohibiting travel in inter- supervisory visits to the scene of opera- state commerce to aid racketeering tion, they may readily elude local law- enterprises, the interstate use of wire- enforcement agencies. Consequently, communications facilities for betting, the bill proposed by the Department of and the interstate transportation of Justice, and supported by local law- wagering paraphernalia." The wire- enforcement officials, focused on the communication statute, which in vari- interstate travel of such individuals ous forms had failed of passage during or their agents rather than on their the past fifty years," is designed pri- specific illegal practices. marily to deny bookmakers and their As enacted, the statute makes crimi- reinsurers, the lay-off bettors, the use nal only a course of conduct in which of the telephone-an indispensable tool three elements are present: (1) inter- state travel or use of any facility in #1 75 Stat. 498, 18 U.S.C. 1952 (interstate and foreign travel or transportation in aid of interstate commerce, (2) with an intent racketeering enterprises) ; 75 Stat. 492, 18 to engage in conduct which furthers U.S.C. 1953 (interstate transportation of an unlawful activity as defined in the wagering paraphernalia); 75 Stat. 491, 18 statute, (3) followed by the commis- U.S.C. 1084 (transmission of wagering in- sion or attempt to commit one of the formation). 21 On the occasion of signing these three enumerated acts which constitute the bills into law on September 13, 1961, the furtherance of an unlawful activity. President remarked: "These pieces of legisla- "Unlawful activity" is defined as: tion are the culmination, in these three areas, of years of effort by the Federal Government (1) any business enterprise involving gam- and by the Congress to place more effective bling, liquor on which the Federal excise tools in the hands of local, state and national tax has not been paid, narcotics, or pros- police." N. Y. Times, Sept. 14, 1961, p. 16, titution offenses in violation of the laws of col. 4. the State in which they are committed orA FEDERAL VIEWPOINT 90 of the United States, or (2) extortion or five cases went to trial during this bribery in violation of the laws of the period; convictions resulted in twenty State in which committed or of the United States. cases involving fifty-five persons. Sig nificantly, the federal courts have thus Although it is the illegally motivated far indicated a greater willingness to crossing of a state boundary which sup- mete out jail sentences than has been plies the necessary federal interest, the the experience in cases involving viola- criminal act is not completed until the tions of the Wagering Tax Act. Al- person who has crossed the state line though the constitutionality and many or used the interstate facility commits legal issues concerning the application some overt act in furtherance of the of these statutes await authoritative illegal venture." court decision, the statutes have already The new antigambling legislation demonstrated their usefulness as tools passed in 1961 has already proved its for prosecuting illegal ventures which utility, primarily against active gam- might otherwise be beyond the reach bling operators and regional figures of law-enforcement agencies." rather than against dominant racket- eers. Not the least of the new legisla- Other available statutes tion's effects is the expansion it has Though many racketeers have be- occasioned in the investigative juris- come educated by skilled tax counsel diction of the Federal Bureau of In- to the more obvious means whereby vestigation. When there is reason to income-tax evasion is detected, the suspect that interstate travel, trans- income-tax laws are still a prime en- portation, or communication is involved forcement weapon in many current in an otherwise local gambling opera- racketeer investigations. In 1962 two tion or other racketeering enterprises, of the nation's biggest underworld the formidable investigative resources figures, Michael Coppola, of New York of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Miami, and Frank Wortman, South may now be put to work. Illinois rackets boss, were convicted on Between September 13, 1961 and income-tax evasion charges and sen- April 1, 1963, prosecution was author- tenced to prison terms. In addition, ized in fifty-seven separate investiga- the tax laws may be used to bring tions. Of this total, indictments have federal law enforcement to bear on cor- been returned in forty-one cases in- rupt local officials. One recent example volving 163 defendants. These indict- involved the mayor of Gary, Indiana, ments cover a number of different situa- George Chacharis, who pleaded guilty tions ranging from the operations of in mid-trial, on December 12, 1962, to gambling casinos to large-scale numbers charges of evading federal income tax operations, open horse-room bookmak- on his bribe receipts, terminating nearly ing, large-scale dice games, widespread five years of effort by agents of the handbook operations, and extortion. A Internal Revenue Service which began single numbers operation, one of the on February 4, 1958. largest to be uncovered, involved total Illegal traffic in narcotics has sub- receipts of $20,000 per day. Twenty- jected several leading racketeers to the 23 See the author's more extensive dis- 2 It should be noted that the Eighty- cussion of this statute in The Travel Act: A Seventh Congress also enacted legislation New Statutory Approach to Organized Crime strengthening the Slot Machine Act of 1951, in the United States, DUQUESNE L. REV. See Gambling Device Act of 1962, P. L.. forthcoming (1963). No. 87-840. 76 Stat. 1075 (Oct. 18, 1962).100 THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY substantial penalty provisions of the otherwise, usually within ninety days, federal narcotics statutes. Although and then disappearing and defaulting the mandatory sentencing provisions of on the "loan" taken from the defrauded these laws have often been criticized creditors. by federal judges and other com- Generally applicable federal statutes mentators, these laws have been ap- like those prohibiting perjury, obstruc propriately invoked with full force tion of justice, contempt, and false against some principal figures in the statements to federal agencies have also national hierarchy of organized crime played major roles in the federal effort whose activities have come to the at- against organized crime. The first tention of the Bureau of Narcotics. three statutes are necessary adjuncts Last June, for example, in the Southern to the effective use of grand-jury in- District of New York, sentences ranging vestigations by federal prosecutors. from fifteen years to five years were The false-statements statute requires imposed on five ringleaders of a mari- that racketeers, like all other persons juana importing company. In July in dealing with the federal government, the same district, sentences ranging disclose all material facts truthfully from forty years to twelve years, and when obligated to do so. Thus, one aggregating 276 years, were imposed leading New York racketeer was re- upon thirteen of the nation's most cently indicted for submitting false flagrant narcotics violators." statements in connection with the pur- As racketeers infiltrate labor unions chase of a house insured by the Vet- and legitimate businesses, a wide va- erans Administration. A minor figure riety of other federal criminal statutes in the Midwest has been similarly in- may come into play. The bribery pro- dicted for falsely stating on a radio- visions of the Taft-Hartley Act and telephone application to the Federal the extortion provisions of the Hobbs Communications Commission that he Anti-Racketeering Act, for example, had never been convicted of a felony. have frequently been invoked against racketeer activities. In specialized Criminal investigations cases, the antitrust laws may also be applied to deter the natural monopo- Regardless of the statutory violation listic instincts of organized criminal involved, the success of any federal ef- activity. A recent indictment against a fort against organized crime depends on leading midwestern racketeer under the the skill and painstaking effort of the bankruptcy-fraud statutes was based federal investigative agencies. Each of upon a relatively new type of organized the principal federal agencies, the Fed- criminal activity. In this and similar eral Bureau of Investigation, Internal cases, the racketeer and his associates Revenue Service, and Bureau of Nar- set out to obtain a maximum return on cotics, operates autonomously within a minimum investment by means of a its own defined jurisdiction and utilizes merchandising swindle run through a those techniques which its experience front man. The basic plan involves suggests to be most effective. In some obtaining merchandise, usually furni- situations, agents have been able to ture or jewelry, on credit, disposing of operate as undercover men with con- the merchandise quickly by sale or siderable success. Much investigative 25 See United States v. Agueci, 310 F. 2d effort is expended in developing in- 817 (2d Cir. 1962), cert. denied 31 U.S.L. formants who possess current infor- WEEK 3318 (April 1, 1963). mation regarding the activities of theA FEDERAL VIEWPOINT 101 principal targets and in seeking cor- under the jurisdiction of the Treasury roboration of this information. Department. As a result of this dif- The investigative process is often a fusion of responsibility, there have long and tedious one, and a substantial been occasions in the past when infor- period of time may elapse between the mation discovered by one of these initiation of an investigation and a agencies has not come to the attention conviction. In the typical tax investi- of others which might utilize the gation involving a leading racketeer or information more effectively. In other public official, for example, extensive instances, two or more investigative audits of the tax affairs of countless agencies have been inquiring as to relatives, friends, associates, and busi- the activity of a single individual or ness entities connected with the target investigating a racketeering situation of the investigation must be conducted. without combining their information or Banks and brokerage firms must be talents to avoid duplication. A signifi- circularized for accounts of the subject. cant stride toward the elimination of Real-estate records and licensing agen- duplicate effort was achieved with the cies must be checked. Department centralization of available intelligence stores, specialty shops, and insurance data in one section of the Criminal companies must be canvassed for leads Division. to the subject's financial status. In addition, numerous third parties must Organized Crime and Racketeering be questioned, and it is here that Section the investigation can flounder. Hostile witnesses evade service of process, inter- The Organized Crime and Racket- pose legal objections to its validity, eering Section of the Justice Depart- evade questions, and commit outright ment's Criminal Division has been perjury in an effort to protect the sub- charged by the Attorney General with ject involved. Frequently, this hostil- the primary responsibility for directing ity is engendered by a very real fear and co-ordinating all federal investi- of reprisal from the underworld. Con- gative and prosecuting resources avail versely, the fear of a perjury prosecu able for the campaign against organized tion or a contempt action has impelled crime. During the past two years, the many such persons to produce the legal personnel of the Section has been testimony which is vitally needed to fill gradually expanded from a staff of out the mosaic of a successful tax or eighteen to its present strength of sixty other prosecution. attorneys. In addition, each United It is not widely understood that States Attorney is charged with giving within the federal government alone special attention to racketeering prob- there are more than twenty-five investi- lems in his district, and special organ- gative agencies with jurisdiction which ized-crime units have been established may reach certain phases of organized in United States Attorneys' offices in criminal activity. Included among these such key metropolitan areas as New are the Federal Bureau of Investiga- York, Chicago, Miami, and Los Angeles. tion and the Immigration and Natural- To remedy certain past deficiencies, ization Service, both within the Depart- the Organized Crime and Racketeering ment of Justice, and the Alcohol and Section has now been designated as the Tobacco Tax Division, Internal Revenue repository of all available federal intel- Service, Bureau of Narcotics, Bureau ligence data on organized-crime activi- of Customs, and the Secret Service, all ties. Today, a special Intelligence Unit102 THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY of the Section is devoting all of its partment of Justice work closely in the efforts to the filing, cataloguing, and field with the agencies in order to digesting of all information concerning evaluate available evidence, suggest ad- designated criminal figures as these ditional investigation, avoid duplication data are fed to it from all the federal of investigative effort, foster inter- agencies. Based upon available intel- agency co-operation, and anticipate ligence data, priorities are established. legal pitfalls. Once the work of the Principal effort is directed at develop- agency has neared its conclusion, the ing significant criminal violations by attorney who is intimately familiar leading racketeers, many of whom have with the investigation is best equipped been dominant figures for some twenty- to continue the investigative effort, if five or thirty years. Where these ef- necessary, by means of a federal grand forts are not particularly productive, jury. emphasis is frequently directed to sub- New approaches have been devel- ordinate figures within the hierarchy, oped by a fresh survey of existing fed- in the hope that these may eventually eral statutes. For example, scattered develop the additional evidence neces- throughout the United States Code are sary to prosecute the dominant figures some thirty-five immunity provisions successfully, as well as to curtail the which guarantee a witness in proceed- illegal enterprises conducted by the ings before certain agencies an absolute subordinates. immunity from prosecution in return Under the current federal approach, for testimony which might otherwise the attorneys of the Department of be incriminating. Failure to testify after Justice are frequently active partici- the grant of such immunity may result pants during the early stages of investi- in contempt actions and prison sen- gations. It has been noted that "one tences. Immunity provisions have been of the most complex questions in rela- used with great success against con- tion to the functioning of the prose- victed narcotics peddlers in obtaining cutor's office is exactly what role a information from them about active prosecutor must play in connection narcotics rings with which they have with making criminal investigations." 25 been associated. The immunity pro- The flexible relationship which cur- visions of the Interstate Commerce Act rently prevails between the federal and the Labor-Management Reporting prosecutor and the federal investigator and Disclosure Act of 1959 have also reflects to some extent the thinking of been utilized in obtaining evidence those who believe that closer co-opera- leading to the indictment and convic- tion between these parties is essential tion of several union officials on labor to a solution of the problems presented racketeering charges. A recent decision by organized crime. However, no ef- by the United States Court of Appeals fort is currently being made on the for the Third Circuit, which affirmed federal level to establish a "rackets the contempt conviction of a recalci- squad" composed of both lawyers and trant witness who had been granted investigators such as exists in some immunity under the Federal Com- local offices." Attorneys from the De- munications Act by a Delaware Federal Grand Jury investigating alleged viola- 26 Ploscowe and Spiero, The Prosecuting tions of the new law prohibiting the Attorney's Office and the Control of Organised Crime, ABA COMMISSION REP. 217, 246 interstate transmission by wire of (1952). wagering information, may be a major 17 Id. at 249-250. break-through in the battle to seal offA FEDERAL VIEWPOINT 103 the channels of interstate commerce to Report in 1952, appear to be equally large-scale gambling operations.2$ valid today." Enactment of new fed- eral statutes and efforts at law enforce- CONCLUSION ment on the federal level are only por- It is clear that the current federal effort tions of the total effort which must be directed against organized crime is only made by governments at all levels. The beginning. Although the last two years major task of evaluating and improving have yielded impressive results in some state and local efforts in this field is areas, it would be unrealistic to assume worthy of the renewed attention of all that substantial inroads into organized persons interested in effective criminal- crime can be made in the span of a law enforcement. few years. New legislation, such as Basic to the whole problem, of amendments to the Wagering Tax Act course, is the need for increased public and a wire-tap act with necessary pre- awareness of the threat of organized cautions, may be desirable. Additional crime and support for effective law- manpower may be necessary. Constant enforcement measures. It may be true, and flexible evaluation of current tech- as Walter Lippmann and others have niques by investigative agencies and observed, that public opinion will not federal prosecutors certainly appears be aroused so long as the most offensive essential in order to ensure the most activities of organized crime personally efficient and effective approach. touch only isolated persons and so long At the state level, as well, it is evi- as organized crime continues to cater dent that re-evaluation may well be to certain basic human needs." But long overdue. As Senator Kefauver recent federal experience fails to sup- and others have pointed out:"> port this thesis. On the contrary, the [The roots of organized crime] lie deep Department of Justice has found that in the every day administration and func- effective federal law-enforcement activ- tioning of the criminal law in the self- ity can often awaken the public so as governing units of our country; our cities, to spur state and local officials to carry towns, counties, and states. No matter out responsibilities which are ultimately how organized crime may proliferate theirs. Such was the case recently in through the interstate facilities and opera- the Newport, Kentucky area. Opti- tions, in the last analysis it lives by viola- tion of local and state laws, by the ability mistically viewed, therefore, the federal to flout local enforcement of criminal effort against organized crime is not justice, and to form corrupt, profitable merely a stopgap remedy for ineffective alliances with local public servants, civic local law enforcement but can serve as employees, municipal or state officials. a catalyst in activating local officials and encouraging them to do their share The criticisms of many local prose- in eliminating this menace to our na- cutors' offices and of state law enforce- tional institutions. ment generally, which were made in the American Bar Association Commission 30 Ploscowe and Spiero, supra, note 27; Olney, Federal, State and Local Cooperation 25 Marcus v. United States, 310 F. 2d 143 in Law Enforcement, ABA COMMISSION REP. (3rd Cir. 1962), cert. denied 31 U. S. 3298 271 (1952). (March 18, 1963). 31 Lippmann, The Underworld as Servant, 29 Introduction, ABA COMMISSION ON OR- in TYLER, ORGANIZED CRIME IN AMERICA 58 CANIZED CRIME, Organized Crime and Law (1962) ; Tyler, The Matrix of Organized Enforcement, xvil (1952). Crime, id. at 41, 48 (1962)