Crime in America

London: Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1952. BOOK: Spine, Boards Bumped; Light Shelf Rub to Boards; Edges Lightly Soiled; Heavy Yellowing Due to Age. DUST JACKET: Repaired; Lightly Creased; Heavily Chipped; Heavily Soiled (Jacket is Made with a Very Porous Paper, Which Has Absorbed a Lot of Dirt, Soiling, and Discolouration); In Archival Quality Jacket Cover. A book on the revelations--organised crime tied to political corruption--and significance of the Senate Crime Investigating Committee by its Chairman. AUTHOR: Estes Kefauver, Chairman of the Senate Crime Investigating Committee (May 10, 1950-May 1, 1951). EDITED AND WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY: Sidney Shalett. CONTENTS: Introduction I Birth of the Crime Committee II The Mafia and Lucky Luciano III The Wire Service: Public Enemy Number One IV Chicago: The Heritage of Al Capone V Greasy Thumb, The Enforcer, and Some Chicago Politicians VI Corruption of a Small Town: A Case Study VII Miami: Polluted Playground VIII Tampa: The Strange Domain of a Sheriff Called "Melon Head" IX How to Turn Brass into Gold: The Black Market and Business Infiltration Story X Kansas City: Law of the Jungle XI The St. Louis Area: Where Gambling Is Big Business XII Louisiana: Fantasia in Law Enforcement XIII The Cleveland Area: "Middletown" of Crime XIV Detroit: Where Underworld and Business World Merge XV Philadelphia: Police Tactics in the City of Brotherly Love XVI Nevada: A Case against Legalized Gambling XVII California: Where Lobbyists Grow Big and Mobsters Thrive XVIII How the Laws Are Enforced in Upstate New York XIX Costello & Co., and an Embattled Ambassador XX How the National Crime Syndicate Can Be Smashed. SYNOPSIS: The interest aroused by the recent investigations of the Senate Crime Investigating Committee in the United States may be gauged by the fact that the hour-by-hour television coverage of the eight days of public hearings in New York reached an estimated audience of between 20,000,000 and 30,000,000. Kefauver writes: "The effect was unbelievable. In New York City itself, some merchants wrote to us that their business was paralyzed; many movie houses became 'ghost' halls (some even installed television and invited the public to come in free and watch the crime hearings), and housewives did their ironing and mending in front of their TV sets. Throughout the country, the Crime Committee became more than just a group of officials following the Senate's instructions to seek out certain information. We became a national crusade, a great debating forum, an arouser of public opinion on the state of the nation's morals". The story is a startling one. Senator Kefauver alleges that "a nation-wide crime syndicate" exists in the United States--"a loosely organized by cohesive coalition of autonomous crime 'locals' which work together for mutual profit. Its activities are controlled by a foul and cynical partnership of mobsters, venal politicians and conscienceless business and professional men--including accountants and lawyers--who travel under the false mask of 'respectability'". He names the national leadership of this "syndicate"--Frank Costello, Joe Adonis, Meyer Lansky, and others--and uncovers their relations with local gangster leaders in one American city after another. Kefauver exposes that now the great days of Prohibition are over, organised gambling has replaced boot-legging as their most profitable source of income: this has become a $17,000,000,000 to $25,000,000,000 annual racket in the U.S. The most important agency of organised gambling is the gang-dominated wire service, about which Senator Kefauver writes: "The colossus of the racing news industry in the U.S. today is an organisation known as Continental Press Service which enjoys a virtual monopoly in the field. Continental Press, which operates under a carefully contrived cloak of legality, is a powerful and indispensable ally of the underworld. On the basis of voluminous testimony on the record before the Senate Crime Committee, it is my considered judgment--and the Committee said as much in its reports to the Senate--that Continental Press, while professing to be independent and law-abiding, actually is a tool of the Chicago-Capone syndicate. In my opinion, because the wire service keeps alive the illegal gambling empire which, in turn, bank-rolls a variety of other criminal activities in America, Continental Press is America's Public Enemy Number One". What is particularly alarming about Kefauver's report is the evidence that the underworld is now extending its operations into the field of "legitimate" business: the report even uncovers many tie-ups between business men and the underworld. The book also has quite a lot to say about political corruption and police graft. "Although dishonest politicians and office-holders are a small minority compared with the hundreds of thousands of devoted, honest public servants, political corruption in the United States seems to have sunk to a new low." Kansas City, for instance, was dominated by a "mobster-politician combine" when the Senate Committee opened its hearings there. In Miami the connection between the State Governor and gangster interests became headline news. In New Orleans "outright payments for protection" to the police were "most clearly established" by the Committee. Admissions were extracted by the Committee even from the "high brass" of the New York State Police that they had known about the flagrant operation of gambling establishments in their area. And so it goes on: almost every chapter adds to the evidence. The book will fascinate anyone in the least interested in the anthropology of present-day societies.. First Edition 1st Printing. Hard Cover. Very Good/Fair. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.