Kefauver Committee, testimony of Morris Dalitz and Samuel Tucker (28 February 1951)

This is the testimony of Morris Dalitz, “Detroit, Mich.,” accompanied by an attorney, and of Samuel Tucker of the Desert Inn, taken by the Special Committee at the Federal Building in Los Angeles on Wednesday, February 28, 1951 and printed at pages 907 to 935 of Part 10. Dalitz’s testimony is listed at pages 907 to 928. The quotations below come from the Internet Archive’s uncorrected OCR text and have not been compared with the page images.

Dalitz agreed that he was known as Moe Dalitz or Morris Dalitz and had also been known as “Moe Davis,” saying the names were similar and “Davis became sort of a nickname.” Asked who held the Desert Inn, he said: “Three of us, Mr. Kleinman, Mr. Tucker, and myself have 13 percent each, which would be 39 percent. Mr. McGinty and Mr. Cornelius Jones have approximately 20 percent.” The chairman suggested that Wilbur Clark held most of the rest, and Dalitz answered “The greatest part of it.” Asked whether he was an officer, he said “I am an officer of the corporation, Senator.” Asked whether his income tax was under investigation, he said it “has been constantly under surveillance,” and that no charge or indictment was pending to his knowledge.

Committee staff read into the record a summary prepared by Virgil Peterson of the Chicago Crime Commission about Dalitz and associates in Cleveland. It is the commission’s summary of what it had gathered, read by staff, and it is not a finding of the committee or of any court. Dalitz disputed parts of it and, on a question about an interest in a club some years before, answered “I stand on my constitutional rights.” This archive does not repeat the summary’s allegations.

Tucker’s testimony describes how the Cleveland group came into the Desert Inn project in late 1948.