# Senate Report 124: proceedings against Phil Kastel (1951)

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/items/kefauver-kastel-contempt-1951/

Senate Report No. 124, 82d Congress, on the Kefauver Committee's contempt proceedings against Phil Kastel after its New Orleans hearings of January 25 and 26, 1951. The subpoena called for the records of the Beverly Club in Jefferson Parish, where it was served.

The printed caption is "Proceedings against Phil Kastel for contempt of the Senate." It is Senate Report No. 124, 82d Congress, 1st Session, ordered to be printed February 21 (legislative day, January 29), 1951, to accompany S. Res. 82. The text was read from the Serial Set PDF on govinfo.

The subpoena directed Kastel to appear on January 25, 1951, in room 245, Main Post Office Building, New Orleans, and to bring records of "the Beverly Club or the Beverly Country Club, Inc., Jefferson Parish" and of the Crescent Music Co. The return of service states that it was served on Kastel "at the Beverly Club, Jefferson Parish, La., at 3:10 o'clock p. m., on the 17th day of January 1951."

Annex I prints excerpts of his testimony on January 25 and 26. He answered some questions and refused others on the ground that the answers might tend to incriminate him. Asked about the Beverly Country Club, he said he believed it was started in 1945, that he had leased it, and, asked who the parties in interest were: "Myself, Mr. Costello." Asked who else, he named "Carlos Marcello," "Mr. Rickerfor," and "Dudley Geigerman." Committee counsel also asked him about Frank Costello and about prohibition-era dealings; several of those questions he declined to answer. The Chairman stated in the transcript that the Louisiana Mint Co. "followed the Pelican Novelty Co., operated from December 1942 to up in 1948, and each of them seem to be at 2601 Chartres Street in New Orleans, La." That address is the Chairman's statement, not Kastel's testimony.

On January 29, 1951 the committee resolved to ask the Senate to direct the United States attorney for the eastern district of Louisiana to proceed against him. The report records the committee's questions and his answers. It does not make findings about the club's business, and this page does not either.

## Sources

- GovInfo, United States Congressional Serial Set: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/SERIALSET-11486_00_00-125-0124-0000/pdf/SERIALSET-11486_00_00-125-0124-0000.pdf