Kefauver Part 1-A: testimony of Oswald C. Tracey on John Torrio's Florida real estate (29 December 1950)

A St. Petersburg broker testifies that he bought a Pass-a-Grille water lot for John Torrio in 1944 and sold it for him to Hugh L. Culbreath and wife in 1945; counsel shows a deed dated 8 October 1945 (Exhibit 8). Pp. 89-95.

Date

1950-12-29

Kind

hearing

Source

U.S. Senate Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, via Internet Archive

Retrieved

2026-10-12

Rights

A hearing print of the United States Senate, published by the Government Printing Office. A work of the United States Congress, public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105. The Internet Archive item marks it not in copyright.

Oswald C. Tracey, a St. Petersburg real-estate broker, testified on 29 December 1950 (pp. 89-95 of Part 1-A). He said John Torrio held a mortgage on Lido Beach property in the early 1940s and in 1944 bought a water lot at Pass-a-Grille for $10,000 through him. Tracey said he later sold the Pass-a-Grille property for Torrio to Hugh L. Culbreath and his wife for $16,000, closed in autumn 1945, and counsel showed him a photostat of a deed dated 8 October 1945 between Torrio and wife and Culbreath and wife. It is Exhibit 8 in the schedule, and a certified copy appears in the appendix.

At p. 91 counsel read into the record a newspaper clipping that described Torrio as “frequently referred to as the brains of the former Al Capone gang.” That characterization is the clipping’s, read by counsel. Tracey himself said he knew only by hearsay that Capone owned property on the St. Petersburg beach (p. 90).

The record is a Florida real-estate link between Torrio and the sheriff of Hillsborough County. It does not state that the sale was improper, and it is evidence of no other activity by Torrio.