Record
Hearing
1963-09-27
National Criminal Justice Reference Service, scan of the printed hearings (NCJ 119303)
Testimony of Joseph Valachi, September 27, 1963
Valachi's first public day before the Senate subcommittee. He gave his birth date and sentences, said he joined "Cosa Nostra" in 1930, and set out its ranks.
- Date
- 1963-09-27
- 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."
The proceedings of September 27, 1963 begin at printed page 77 of Part 1, which is NCJRS PDF page 82. Under questioning by Chairman John L. McClellan, Valachi said he was born “In New York City,” on September 22, 1903, and that his parents were born in Italy, near Naples. Asked about his sentences, he answered: “Fifteen, twenty, and life.” He identified the first as a narcotics conspiracy sentence (printed page 78).
He said he became a member of the organization “In 1930” and that it was called “Cosa Nostra.” He explained: “That is “Our Thing” and “Our Family” in English.” Asked about its ranks, he said: “They used to have the boss of all bosses.” He described “the individual bosses of the individual families,” an underboss, “what we call a caporegima which is a lieutenant,” and soldiers. He said that “On the outside they call them button men.” He said that, in place of a boss of all bosses, there was now a commission (printed pages 80 and 81, NCJRS PDF pages 85 and 86). Asked by Senator Karl E. Mundt how many soldiers belonged to his part of it, he answered: “I was with Vito Genovese, that is the family, or our borgata, in Italian” (printed page 81).
These are his sworn answers to the subcommittee. They are not findings. The same day continued with his account of the Atlanta penitentiary in 1962, filed as its own record. This page quotes the printed transcript. It does not use the 1968 book “The Valachi Papers.”
