Current laws hamper investigation
Mafia uses fear tactics
(Editor's note: This is the last in a series of two articles concerning the history of the Mafia and its involvement in legitimate business. The first article appeared in yesterday's Kansan.)
By THOMAS CORPORA UPI Staff Writer
Ralph Salerno, a retired New York City Detective who is an expert on the Mafia, said in 1965 that organized crime was
Art instructor resigns; conflicting ideas voiced
“in nearly everything from kiddie ride parks to pension funds. You can't overestimate the areas they're moving into.”
Conflicting viewpoints unfolded yesterday concerning an art instructor's resignation from the drawing and painting department.
According to the American Association of University Professors regulation, a department or school must notify an instructor by March 5 of each school year that his contract will not be renewed.
However, this is not the point in question, reports John C. Beckley, lithographic instructor. Peter Thompson, acting chairman of the drawing and painting department, gave no reasons why Beckley's contract was not renewed for next year.
"They gave me no reason why my contract was not renewed." Beckley said. "At that same meeting with Mr. Thompson, he asked me to hand in my resignation, but I wanted to submit a formal typewritten resignation to the department rather than scribble it out on a piece of paper on the spur of the moment."
"I believe the reason behind non-renewal of my contract is department politics."
Beckley said he came here last September with the understanding that he would receive an assistant professorship.
Mar. 27
1969 KANSAN 3
Thompson would not give reasons for the committee action. Thompson said that Beckley's competence was not in question and that he would be very happy to give written recommendations to Beckley for his next job.
The experts estimate organized crime's annual take at between $40 and $50 billion—about half the present yearly budget of the Defense Department.
Thompson said: "Really, I'm just a messenger boy for the committee which decides renewals of contract. When an individual finds that an institution is not compatible with his goals he decides to leave and nothing is said. Unfortunately, when the school feels that an instructor doesn't have the same goals as the school, a big hassle occurs. It is just a matter of conflicting goals."
John S. McKay, associate dean of visual arts, indicated yesterday that he did not know about Beckley's non-renewal contract but believed Beckley had simply handed in his resignation to the department committee.
"If the committee would not renew Beckley's contract, the most probable reason for such action is curriculum change. This committee is responsible for total curriculum and at the moment we are in need of some highly-qualified teachers for freshman courses," McKay said. "The committee may have decided that specialization in a particular field wasn't needed as badly as freshman instructors."
Earlier this month, the New York State Investigation Commission held seven days of hearings on the influence of organized crime on legitimate business.
Despite the fear of the businessmen-victims who testified, and those who refused to testify but made private statements to commission investigators, they made two things abundantly clear: the Mafia is deeply involved in a wide variety of legitimate businesses, and Mafia methods, despite talk of "new image" Mafioso, remain as brutal as ever.
Maurice Minuto, head of the Nylo-Thane Plastics Corp. of Farmingdale, N.Y., testified that a group of hoodlums took him captive and threatened him and his family if he didn't pay $25,000—methods not much different from those employed in the late 1800s at the Hillsville mines.
Minuto paid and then went to John (Gentleman John) Masiello, a loan shark and member of the Genovese family, to help him get a loan to repay his company that money and to "get the Long Island hoodlums off my back."
When Masiello was finished with Minuto, the plastics manufacturer had paid out nearly $1.8 million in cash and his company's stocks.
Past investigations have revealed Mafia interest in bowling alleys, the real estate industry, food packaging, Wall Street brokerage houses, the construction industry, banking.
union welfare funds, trucking companies and vending machine firms.
Recently, the New York Police Department ordered saturation coverage for Manhattan's garment district because of so many hijackings. The number of hijackings in this one industry indicates the hijackers have "legitimate" outlets for the merchandise they steal.
Wall Street brokers have recently expressed fear that the large number of new employees brought in to help ease the paper jam in the industry may have opened an avenue of infiltration to the Mafia.
Thefts of stocks and bonds have gone up alarmingly in recent years, again, implying an organization to move the stolen property.
To most law enforcement officials on all levels, the Mafia has had the success it has for two reason: fear and U.S. law.
Throughout its history both here and in Italy, the supreme Mafia code was silence. Break this law and death was—and is—almost automatic Genovese had put the "kiss of death" on Valachi's cheeks because he thought Valacini had talked.
Benjamin Maksik, a Brooklyn restaurateur who owned the Town and Country Club until it went bankrupt last year, told the New York Investigation Commission how a man named Joseph Gulmi, also known as Joe Miller, moved in on his business
for about two years, Maksik paid $1,500 a month to a firm of "labor consultants" controlled by the Mafia family of Carlo Gambino.
Maksik got labor peace, but when he closed his club, which he called the world's largest, last year, he was buying his meat, liquor, fuel and linen from companies controlled by various Mafiosi.
Fear allowed this to happen, not better prices.
The second element for success is U.S. law that protects gangsters from self-incrimination and restrain enforcement agencies from using wiretaps to gather evidence.
During the hearings, all the Mafia witnesses called, including such infamous men as "labor fixer" John (Johnny Dio) Dioguardi, and Thomas (Tommy Ryan) Eboli, reputed to be Genovese's successor, pleaded the Fifth Amendment repeatedly.
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