Mr. CASEY. No, I don't have it prepared at this time. Mr. Hogan is a former president of our New York State District Attorneys Association, and still a most honored member. He fully, completely, and capably covered the field as far as New York State was concerned. I do not intend to be repetitious in this, so in the interests of time, Senators, I have a very brief statement that I would like to make part of this record. As the president of the New York State District Attorneys Association, I wish to extend, first, my thanks to this committee for the opportunity of making known our views on this vital legislation. Speaking for district attorneys representing the interests of some 17 million people in the field of law enforcement, the importance of this legislation to the State of New York may be judged not only from our group so well represented here, but from the New York State attorney general's office, the New York State Commission of Investigation, and the police department of the city of New York, all of whom have representatives who will speak before you today. The present situation, as has been pointed out by Mr. Hogan, is intolerable. For the divulgence of evidence procured from wiretapping, law enforcement officials acting in accordance even with State law are liable for prosecution in Federal courts for faithfully performing the very duties and obligations imposed upon them by law and by their constituents. Oftentimes, wiretapping is the only means available for detecting and prosecuting crime. While we do not believe that this bill here being considered, as Mr. Hogan has pointed out, answers all our problems in this field, our association endorses it as a giant step in the right direction. Senator HART. I am sure you delight us with the brevity and sharp point of your testimony, sir. Senator Fong, do you have any questions? Senator FONG. I have no questions. (At this point Senator Scott left the committee room.) Mr. CASEY. Thank you very much. Senator HART. Thanks again. Next is Quinn Tamm, director of Field Service Division, International Association of Chiefs of Police. STATEMENT OF QUINN TAMM, DIRECTOR, FIELD SERVICE DIVISION, INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CHIEFS OF POLICE Mr. TAMM. Senator Hart, Senator Fong, I represent the International Association of Chiefs of Police, which is the largest association in the world of police administrators. Our association comprises approximately 5,200 police administrators throughout the 50 States of the United States and several foreign countries. We are particularly pleased that we have an opportunity given to us by the Senate to appear before you to express, and I can assure you very briefly, our feelings and our endorsement of Senate bill 2813. The International Association of Chiefs of Police, representing the law enforcement administrators of this country, strongly endorses controlled wiretapping as a means of combating crimes affecting the national security of the Nation in cases involving the lives of potential victims. It is only just and fair that law enforcement and law en forcement authorities-Federal, State, and local-should be granted the right to utilize every means possible to protect the security of the country and the lives of its citizens. We welcome the opportunity of endorsing strongly this pending legislation as a means of assisting us in our sworn duty to enforce the laws of this country. Senator, that is our statement. Senator HART. There is no doubt as to your view on the whole subject. I am not sure I quite buy the concept that every means possible Mr. TAMM. By that I mean Senator HART. The rules of fairness should be put in the hands of anyone, but I am sure that in the interest of brevity you didn't want to get into footnotes to that statement. Mr. TAMM. Senator, by that I mean that we, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, as law enforcement officers, are interested solely and only in the enforcement of the law within the law and we are not interested in any means of enforcing the law that is a violation of the law. And I think this is the precept of our organization. And if I gave any other impression than that, I withdraw it. Senator HART. Senator Fong? Senator FONG. No questions. Senator HART. Thank you very much, sir. Until Senator Scott of Pennsylvania has an opportunity to return to the committee, it has been suggested that we not call the president of the National Association of Citizens' Crime Commission of Philadelphia. Therefore, I shall ask that Daniel P. Sullivan, the operating director of the Crime Commission of Greater Miami, Fla., to next testify. Mr. Sullivan. STATEMENT OF DANIEL P. SULLIVAN, OPERATING DIRECTOR, CRIME COMMISSION OF GREATER MIAMI, FLA. Mr. SULLIVAN. I am the operating director of the Senator HART. Mr. Sullivan, if you have a prepared statement, if you will give it to the reporter, I am sure it will help. Mr. SULLIVAN. In introduction, I am the operating director of the Crime Commission of Greater Miami. This is a citizens crime commission. It holds no official capacity. It is supported and was organized by private citizens and business firms, patriotic and civic associations. We have about 500 members. And the purpose of the organization is to try to foster respectful law and to bring about more effective law enforcement. Greater Miami, however, possibly is in a little bit different category than many of the cities of the United States in that it is a large tourist area and among the millions of people that come there, most of them law abiding, there is a certain segment of non-law-abiding citizens who are attracted there, particularly in recent years, some of whom have settled there and who have gone into the rackets and others who have settled there and still retain control of the rackets in other cities in the east and the north. Today modern syndicated interstate gambling often entails the use of interstate communication facilities, the effect of which frequently amounts to immunity under present laws. We have a number of people, some confirmed criminals, some old-time racketeers, some new racketeers, who have settled in Greater Miami but there is one case I think is significant in point that briefly I might mention. On June 27, 1961, the U.S. grand jury at New Orleans, La., returned an indictment against an individual, Alfred Mones, and 12 other nationally known gamblers charging conspiracy to defraud the United States of excise taxes on long-distance calls from November 1952, to July 1959, a period of 7 years. It was alleged that this wholesale fraud was perpetrated by persuading telephone repairmen to secretly place long-distance calls for the defendants. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy termed these indictments the first breakthrough against organized gambling. The fact remains that it had taken years of investigation to finally obtain sufficient evidence to justify an indictment. Mones had long been known as a bookmaker. He originally came from Kingston, N.Y. In 1932 he was received at Clinton Prison, Dannemora, N.Y., under a 5-year sentence upon conviction of a firstdegree assault charge. In 1945 he was arrested by New York State police as a common gambler. In 1953 he was arrested by sheriff's deputies in Miami, Fla. Three telephones were seized along with evidence of large layoff bookmaking operations. In January 1958, information was obtained that the Southern Bell Telephone & Telegraph Co. had developed information of a bookmaking ring centered in New Orleans involving Mones and others, with connections at Buffalo, New York City, Las Vegas, Milwaukee, Chicago, Biloxi, New Orleans, Miami, and many other cities. At that time, Mones had centered his layoff operations in his residence at 3035 Royal Palm Avenue, Miami Beach, Fla. Two telephones were located at this residence. Reliable information indicated this was a large but purely a layoff operation, with no walkin customers. Toll calls from the Miami Beach telephones were traced to other cities. In turn it was found that long-distance calls were being made to the Mones telephone from the same telephones called in other cities. Mones had been investigated by the Treasury Department, but unsuccessfully, over a period of years, for violation of the gambling excise tax laws and possible income tax violation. He denied he was a bookmaker, but stated he was gambling on horses. Federal agencies were hamstrung by the fact, common today, that it is a practical impossibility to obtain sufficient evidence to justify a search warrant, where gambling is generally restricted to telephone business. The evidence developed as to long-distance calls made to reputed bookmaking establishments to other cities from Mones' telephones, and long-distance calls made from telephones in the same outof-city establishments to Mones' telephones the proof of his reputation, his admissions to gambling, were presented to the local prosecutor as well as Treasury officials. An opinion resulted that these facts were inadequate to justify a search warrant. Later in 1958 the Special Unit of the Justice Department undertook a nationwide investigation of the Mones-Gilbert-Beckley and associates gambling network. The same inhibitions, however, frustrated in great measure the success of these investigations conducted on a national scale. This group, in effect, had immunity from late 1947 up until their indictment in June 1961, an immunity which today is not too exceptional and to which the underworld is not at all entitled. We are living in a different world. Improved transportation has resulted in recent years in a mobile. type of criminal. As a result, absentee control of crime is more frequent today. Greater Miami observes this phenomenon more each year as more nationally known racketeers settle and make their homes in south Florida. Just recently, Mike Coppola, formerly of New York City, pled guilty to evasion of income taxes in Miami, and was sentenced to 1 year in the penitentiary. Coppola has lived in Greater Miami since the Scottoriglo murder in New York some 14 to 16 years ago. Throughout this long period, however, Coppola retained his interest in the lotteries in Harlem. Joe Massie, William "Black Bill" Tocco, Joe Bommarito, and the Zerrills have established their residences in Greater Miami, but they still retain their racket interests in Detroit. This list could be extended to include many other nationally known racketeers who have divorced their residences from their principal fields of illegal operations. The physical separation of the criminal from his crime headquarters generally requires the more frequent use of communication facilities for their illegal purposes. This trend toward absentee control of rackets makes extremely difficult the gathering of evidence necessary for successful prosecution. Law enforcement today is confronted with the fact that some evidence, formerly available by subpena to enforcement agencies, at times is not available today. Mechanization of communications, particularly automation in the handling of long-distance telephone calls, is eliminating records, such as records of toll calls. Today a criminal can subscribe to telephone service which can be continuously used in long-distance and interstate business, and no record at all will be made or will be kept by the communications company of such calls. This is not true as it was in the past because long-distance telephone call records were frequently used as the basis for the gathering of a great deal of important evidence used in gambling violations. In most jurisdictions, the tapping of telephone lines is illegal. In some States, as in the case of Florida, the tapping of a telephone is a criminal offense. I come here today Senator HART. I am sorry, Mr. Sullivan. You said in Florida it was what? Mr. SULLIVAN. We have no legalized telephone tapping statute. As a matter of fact, the tapping of a telephone is a criminal offense. Therefore, we have no direct personal interest in the fact as to whether or not we can tap telephones or whether law enforcement authorities in Florida can tap phones at that time or whether they cannot because we are precluded from doing it. However, in this instance we are favorable to the proposed legislation as far as authorizing the Federal Government under certain regulations and restrictions as to the use of telephone. Law enforcement must adhere to the law. This, however, has no real application to the underworld who have generally no question about tapping wires when it suits their fancy. In one instance some years ago, bookie wire service operators were found to have tapped the Associated Press main cable into Miami, as a way in which to obtain race results. The proposed law provides protection to the public against unauthorized and illegal wiretapping. The proposed law will, I believe, provide a legal method for obtaining evidence against the more influential criminal figures who cannot, under present law, frequently be reached or prosecuted. I believe that the Congress should include gambling in the crimes against which wiretapping might be authorized by the States under the safeguards provided in the proposed act. Congress, through its investigating committees, has consistently concluded and has reiterated time and again that the primary responsibility for the suppression of gambling and vice rests with local communities. If this basic responsibility resides within the several States, State legislatures should not be inhibited from authorizing the use of wiretaps where State laws only are being violated. Senator HART. Thank you very much, Mr. Sullivan. Senator Fong? Senator FONG. No questions. Senator HART. Thank you. Mr. Myles Lane, chairman, New York State Commission of Investigation. STATEMENT OF MYLES J. LANE, CHAIRMAN, NEW YORK STATE COMMISSION OF INVESTIGATION Mr. LANE. Mr. Chairman, Senator Fong, I appreciate the opportunity of appearing before the Senate to express the views of the State commission of investigation with reference to this particular bill. I am the present chairman of the New York State Commission of Investigation, and this commission is composed of four members, two Republicans and two Democrats, under the law. We have a rotating chairmanship. We rotate every 6 months, and during the present 6 months I am the chairman. Senator HART. I should extend possibly a more warm welcome, to serve to identify the political party of the present chairman of your commission. When I was U.S. attorney in Detroit, I know that Mr. Lane was a very distinguished Federal prosecutor in New York. Mr. LANE. Thank you, Senator. Among the functions, powers, and duties which the State legislature has endowed the commission with are the following: (a) The faithful execution and effective enforcement of the laws of the State, with particular reference, but not limited, to organized crime and racketeering. So you see, our function is a little bit different from that of the district attorneys, although we work very closely with them. We are primarily interested in organized crime. |