Record
Hearing
1963-09-25
National Criminal Justice Reference Service, scan of the printed hearings (NCJ 119303)
Testimony of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, September 25, 1963
Kennedy opened the 1963 hearings. His prepared statement says that Joseph Valachi was "an insider" who had "broken the underworld's code of silence," and that "Cosa Nostra is run by a commission."
- Date
- 1963-09-25
- Kind
- hearing
- Retrieved
- 2026-10-12
- Docket
- Organized Crime and Illicit Traffic in Narcotics: Hearings before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations, United States Senate, 88th Cong., 1st sess., pursuant to S. Res. 17, 88th Cong., Part 1
- Rights
- A work of the United States Senate, printed by the Government Printing Office. Public domain in the United States. 17 U.S.C. § 105. The NCJRS cover sheet records reproduction permission as "Public Domain / U.S. Senate."
Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy was the first witness of the hearings, on September 25, 1963. His testimony is at printed pages 5 to 42 of Part 1, which are NCJRS PDF pages 10 to 47. His prepared statement comes first, and questioning by the senators follows.
The statement explains why Valachi mattered: “This is one reason the disclosures made by Joseph Valachi are of such significance: For the first time, an insider—a knowledgeable member of the racketeering hierarchy—has broken the underworld’s code of silence.” It goes on: “Because of intelligence gathered from Joseph Valachi and from informants we know that Cosa Nostra is run by a commission and that the leaders of Cosa Nostra in most major cities are responsible to the commission.”
These are the Attorney General’s statements to the subcommittee. They are not findings of a court. The Justice Department’s typescript of the same prepared statement is filed separately from the National Archives.
