Record
Hearing
1963-10-01
National Criminal Justice Reference Service, scan of the printed hearings (NCJ 119303)
Testimony of Joseph Valachi, October 1, 1963: the initiation ceremony
Valachi described the ceremony at which he said he was made a member, with Salvatore Maranzano speaking. The same day, staff presented Exhibit 8, the Masseria-Maranzano war chart.
- Date
- 1963-10-01
- 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 October 1, 1963 are at printed pages 145 to 200 of Part 1. Valachi described the ceremony at which, he testified, he was made a member, at printed pages 181 to 184 (NCJRS PDF pages 196 to 199). He testified that Salvatore Maranzano spoke at the meeting, with a gun and a knife on the table. He said: “He went on to explain that they lived by the gun and by the knife and you die by the gun and by the knife” (printed page 182). He said he repeated words in Sicilian and burned a piece of paper. He said his finger was pricked by Joe Bananas, chosen as his “godfather.”
At the hearing he said: “This is my doom. This is the promise I am breaking.”
Earlier that day Chairman McClellan introduced “charts that have been prepared by the staff after consulting with some witnesses, including the witness who is now testifying.” Staff member La Vern J. Duffy was sworn to present them. That is Exhibit 8, filed here as its own record. These are sworn statements of the witness and of staff, not findings.
