# Kefauver Part 4-A: testimony of H. E. Vermillion, Western Union, on money orders to C. J. Rich & Co. (30 September 1950), pp. 614-630

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/items/kefauver-p4a-vermillion-testimony-1950-09-30/

Western Union's St. Louis-area superintendent described how bettors in distant cities wired money to C. J. Rich & Co. in East St. Louis, whose manager collected the money orders up to three times a day.

H. E. Vermillion, Western Union's superintendent for the St. Louis area since 1948, testified in St. Louis on 30 September 1950, questioned by committee counsel Burling (Part 4-A, pp. 614-630; pp. 614-616 were read). He said money orders "came in addressed to C. J. Rich & Co. at East St. Louis, Ill.," and were picked up by the firm's own manager at Western Union's East St. Louis office, "sometimes as much as three times a day."

Working through counsel's example of a bettor in Chattanooga, he explained that a customer would go into a Western Union office and "wire C. J. Rich & Co. $100," sometimes less the charges. At the end of each day Western Union totalled the individual money orders and made one draft for the whole amount on the First National Bank in St. Louis. The bet itself, he said, was a transaction between the firm and the sender, in which Western Union had no part.

Vermillion testified to the telegraph company's procedure. The testimony of the firm's principal (pp. 630-641) and Exhibit 45, a Western Union communication about the firm, were not read for this page.

## Sources

- U.S. Senate Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, printed hearings, Part 4-A: Missouri, via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/investigationofo04aunit
- Full text of the volume (Internet Archive, OCR): https://archive.org/download/investigationofo04aunit/investigationofo04aunit_djvu.txt