# Kefauver Part 1-A: testimony of Charles M. Wall, Tampa (29 December 1950)

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/items/kefauver-p1a-wall-testimony-1950-12-29/

Wall, accompanied by attorney Pat Whitaker, describes his gambling background and says he left gambling in Hillsborough County in late 1939 or 1940; counsel calls him an elder statesman of Tampa gambling. Printed pages 60-71.

Charles M. Wall testified at Tampa on 29 December 1950, accompanied by his attorney Pat Whitaker. His testimony is at printed pages 60-71 of Part 1-A. Counsel told the committee at p. 60 that Wall was under a pending Dade County gambling indictment.

Wall testified from memory. He said he was born in Florida, that his next birthday in March would be his 71st, that he first worked as a crap dealer in a gambling house called Fort Brooke, and that he was later in bolita. Counsel Downey Rice told him at p. 61 that the committee regarded him as "an elder statesman in that connection." Wall described three occasions on which he was shot at, said no one was arrested, and could not give dates (pp. 65-69). At p. 69 he said he had not been "directly or indirectly mixed up in any gambling in this county since oh, late in 1939 or 1940." Asked who the powers in the Tampa rackets were, he said he did not think there were "any powers much" in his early days.

The testimony does not name Trafficante or any family or syndicate. The dates counsel gave for the shootings differ from Wall's own recollection; see the testimony of the state's attorney, who characterizes Wall at pp. 413-415.

## Sources

- U.S. Senate Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/investigationofo01aunit
- Full text of the volume (Internet Archive, OCR): https://archive.org/download/investigationofo01aunit/investigationofo01aunit_djvu.txt