Kefauver Part 5: testimony of Anthony J. Accardo, alias Joe Batters (5 January 1951), pp. 1318-1341

Accardo refused nearly every question, including whether he was known as Joe Batters or knew Capone, Nitti or Ricca. Chief counsel Rudolph Halley put on the record statements about the 'mantle of the Capone gang' and checks endorsed by Accardo; those are counsel's statements.

Date

1951-01-05

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.

Anthony J. Accardo appeared with counsel George F. Callaghan on 5 January 1951 (Part 5, pp. 1318-1341). He refused to answer nearly every question, including whether he had been known as Joe Batters and whether he knew Al Capone, Frank Nitti or Paul Ricca.

Chief counsel Rudolph Halley made statements on the record (p. 1320) that the “mantle of the Capone gang” passed to Nitti and then to Accardo and Ricca, and that Accardo and Harry Russell were bookmaking partners. At pp. 1324-1325 he described two checks of $5,000 each, dated February 2 and 9, 1950, drawn by the S & G Service, endorsed “Anthony J. Accardo,” and deposited to a Florida boat works. Accardo declined to identify the endorsement.

Everything about Accardo’s role on these pages is counsel’s statement, not testimony and not a committee finding. The witness answered none of it. The Senate’s contempt report on his refusals is filed separately. Quotations follow the Internet Archive’s OCR of the printed volume. Page numbers are the printed running heads and can be off by one near a page break.