Mob Damaged, Not Destroyed, Sessions Says

FBI Director William S. Sessions told Senate hearings on organized crime today that law enforcement efforts have seriously damaged, but not destroyed, the nation’s organized crime families.

Testifying at the most extensive Senate hearings on organized crime in nearly 25 years, Sessions said the FBI’s extensive intelligence system indicates that many organized crime enterprises “which have existed unfettered for years have been dismantled.”

Sessions told the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations that the secrecy of the criminal underworld “has been co-opted” by the cooperation of organized crime figures with the FBI.

“Most importantly, their ability to influence and intimidate the business and political community is weakened,” Sessions said.

Stringent Security

The hearings were held amid stringent security measures, with a metal detector set up outside the hearing room. Inside the room were charts listing organized crime families of today and the charts used in 1963, when convicted murderer Joseph Valachi, appearing before the same panel, introduced the phrase “La Cosa Nostra” into the national consciousness.

Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), opening the new hearings, said the crime family “soldiers” listed in the charts from the Valachi hearings “appear today among the highest-ranking powers in the (La Cosa Nostra) families.”

Sessions, the leadoff witness, told the subcommittee: “The question most often asked is whether we have eradicated (La Cosa Nostra) as a national threat. The simple answer is no. They continue to engage in a wide variety of criminal activities.”

Valachi was the star witness in the widely publicized 1963 Senate investigation of organized crime, unfolding a complex story of murder, terror, crime and vice. He described the La Cosa Nostra organization and named alleged members.

In announcing the new hearings, Nunn said, “In the wake of an impressive array of successful prosecutions, it is important that we take stock and assess just how far we have come in the war against organized crime.”