Testimony of Gerald Catena, South Orange, N.J., February 1951 (Kefauver Committee, Part 7, pp. 647–664)
A New Jersey witness printed as Gerald Catena, who agrees he had been "ducking the subpena," tells the Kefauver Committee he is in trucking and the awning business and then refuses to say whether he has other businesses, on the ground that the answer might incriminate him.
- Date
- 1951-02-14
- Kind
- hearing
- Retrieved
- 2026-10-12
- Docket
- Investigation of Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, Hearings before the Special Committee, 81st and 82d Cong., Part 7: New York-New Jersey, pp. 647–664
- Rights
- A work of the United States Congress, printed by the Government Printing Office. Public domain in the United States under 17 U.S.C. § 105. The scan is of a GPO printing; Internet Archive marks it not in copyright. The stored page image was taken from the Internet Archive scan; quotations follow the Archive OCR, checked against the page image.
Printed in Part 7 under the heading “Testimony of Gerald Catena, South Orange, N.J.” The date is inferred from the volume’s session index (the session of February 14, 1951 begins at page 563 and that of February 15 at page 731), not read from a heading on these pages. Counsel is Rudolph Halley. Page 647 prints the witness’s home and business addresses, so the stored image is page 648.
He says he is in trucking, with “Peoples Express,” for “About 4½ years.” Halley: “Our men spent an awful long time looking for you. Where were you for the several months that the committee tried to find you?” Catena: “I was just roaming around. In the confusion, I was a little confused.” Asked whether he was “ducking the subpena,” he answers, “Well, in a way, you would say that I was, I was just in a state of confusion,” and later agrees he “just ducked out of sight for a while.” He names an awning business, “The Cool Vent Metal,” with partners including “Mr. Dameo. Mr. Boiardo.” Asked whether he has other businesses, “which are legitimate,” he says, “I refuse to answer that question on the ground it might tend to incriminate me.” Senator Tobey urges him to help the committee; he says he “would love to help.”
Claiming the privilege is not evidence of guilt. The transcript spells the first name Gerald; the 1971 and 1972 Third Circuit opinions spell it Gerardo, and the Treasury agent Edwin Baldwin said “Gerard Catena” (testimony). The records do not themselves say that these are one person; the person page explains how this archive treats them.
