Testimony of Sgt. Edgar D. Crosswell, N.Y. State Police, on the Apalachin raid (McClellan Committee, Part 32, pp. 12213-12216)

The New York State Police sergeant who led the stop at Joseph Barbara's property describes arriving at 12:40, men running, the roadblock, and the number picked up: "Sixty-two, but that included two characters of Barbara's, so there were 60."

Date

1958-06-30

Kind

hearing

Source

Internet Archive, scan of the printed hearings (Boston Public Library copy)

Retrieved

2026-10-12

Docket

Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor or Management Field, 85th Cong., 2d sess., Part 32, pp. 12213-12216

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. Text quoted here is from the Archive's OCR of the print.

Sgt. Edgar D. Crosswell, N.Y. State Police, was the first witness in Part 32. The transcript spells his name “Crosswell”; the Second Circuit’s opinion spells it “Croswell.” Counsel Robert F. Kennedy and Senators McClellan, Ives and Mundt question him, and he describes a sketch of Barbara’s buildings used as a hearing exhibit. The exhibit photographs and charts are not reproduced in the print.

On arriving (p. 12213): “So my partner and the two agents and I drove down to the plant and there was nothing around there, and we drove up to Barbara’s residence and that is when the stuff hit the fan. We drove in, and everybody started running in all directions.” Describing the scene against the sketch (p. 12214): “There is a town road leading along this side which does not show on this photograph. We came up that and turned into the driveway and there were 4 or 5 cars here and men ran from the barbecue pit around to this corner of the house, or this corner of the garage, and then into the house, and some of them came from the house and ran down this way, and we backed out and started on down the road here.”

On the count (p. 12214): “Senator Mundt. How many did you pick up altogether? Mr. Crosswell. Sixty-two, but that included two characters of Barbara’s, so there were 60.” On the time (p. 12216): “We pulled in the yard at 12:40. … He could not have gotten in there after 12:40.” The Second Circuit also gives 12:40. This archive does not quote a roadblock time from this volume, because the Archive’s OCR of p. 12216 is doubtful on that figure.

The witness’s 60 differs from the 58 men stopped in the Second Circuit’s account and from the “at least 61” in the FBI’s monograph. Each is given with its source and none is reconciled here.