Costello v. United States, 350 U.S. 359 (1956)

Supreme Court decision of March 5, 1956 affirming Frank Costello's income-tax conviction and holding that an indictment resting only on hearsay before the grand jury is valid.

Date: 1956-03-05
Kind: court-opinion
Source: CourtListener (Free Law Project), text of the opinion
Retrieved: 2026-10-12
Rights: Opinion of a United States court. Works of the federal judiciary are in the public domain in the United States. The text was read on CourtListener.

Supreme Court of the United States, decided March 5, 1956; Justice Black delivered the opinion of the Court. The Court granted certiorari “to consider a single question: ‘May a defendant be required to stand trial and a conviction be sustained where only hearsay evidence was presented to the grand jury which indicted him?’”

The opinion states that Costello “was indicted for wilfully attempting to evade payment of income taxes due the United States for the years 1947, 1948 and 1949.” The Court held that an indictment returned on hearsay alone is valid, and affirmed the conviction reviewed in 221 F.2d 668.

itemUnited States v. Costello, 221 F.2d 668 (2d Cir. 1955)Second Circuit opinion of April 5, 1955 affirming Frank Costello's conviction for attempting to evade income taxes for 1947, 1948 and 1949, proved on a net-worth theory.itemCostello v. United States, 365 U.S. 265 (1961)Supreme Court decision of February 20, 1961 affirming the revocation of Frank Costello's 1925 naturalization because he had concealed that his occupation was bootlegging.