Genius on Hold Page #5

and try to get

serial numbers on the-

on the, uh, capacitors

and relays,

but my dad

had it all sealed.

He has 'em sealed.

So, they tried to x-ray it,

and they couldn't see it,

because he used to use

black crayon,

and melt it in there

in the epoxy.

So they got

really frustrated,

because they never knew

how it worked.

They couldn't x-ray it.

They couldn't break it,

because by the time

they chiseled it,

it broke all the stuff up,

so they end up with nothing

on their- I mean, nothing.

So they were frustrated,

they didn't know

who was making it.

They had no idea

who was behind this,

as far as the inventor.

FBI has a new target.

They want the bookies,

but not as much

as they want the inventor,

whoever he may be.

Take the box away,

and the bookies

become vulnerable again.

In 1950,

Senator Estes Kefauver

introduces a resolution

in Congress

to establish a committee

on an urgent matter.

The Senate Special Committee

to Investigate Crime

in Interstate Commerce

becomes known

as the Kefauver Committee.

Kefauver holds hearing

in fourteen cities,

and hears testimony

from 600 witnesses,

many of whom

are organized crime bosses.

So, Kefauver found himself

at the head of a committee

that was going to investigate

ah, unions'

labor racketeering

in interstate commerce.

Ah, that committee,

ah, to his advantage,

turned out to be

the first time

when Congressional hearings

were actually televised.

First time i-i-in

American history.

Ah, so, here we have,

ah, subpoenaed

by the committee,

uh, the leading figures

in organized crime

in the United States

brought before the-

the, uh, Kefauver Committee,

uh, people who had never

actually been seen-

Certainly not on-

on live television,

uh, people who, uh,

the public oftentimes

knew their names,

but had never

actually seen them...

Now they're being paraded

before a

congressional committee,

and that's, uh,

that's-that's on television.

Senator John Kennedy

and brother, Robert,

take part in the hearings.

Meanwhile, over a period

of a few years,

Walter Shaw

begins scaling back

building the black boxes.

He's more interested

in developing

his own inventions.

But Satterfield

is not happy.

He needs money.

He takes out an ad

in the Miami Herald...

And he says, "Call me

if you want to make

free phone calls."

And then he calls

my poor dad,

and my dad goes to meet him,

and he had said

he wasn't gonna make anymore.

He'd left, like,

five or six hundred

of these, unfinished,

in a room, and Archie

never got rid of them,

and they banged down

this door

and found

unfinished boxes,

brought the Feds in,

uh, and they had

tracked them to Florida,

through Ralph,

with this ad.

So, it all started

making sense,

and they started

following everybody.

One day...

Dad was in the back bedroom

of this lovely house...

...and I answered the door...

This guy comes to the house,

and he's...

...a guy that wants to buy

one of these boxes.

He asked

to speak to Mr. Shaw.

And...

I told Dad, and he said,

"Just send him back."

And my dad says, um...

He smelt something right away,

he says, "No."

He says,

"I don't have any."

Finally my dad

agrees to show it to him.

After ten brief minutes...

...my dad came out with...

...in the room,

with this man,

and he was handcuffed.

His hands

were behind his back.

He was very quiet.

And as he went out the door

with this gentleman...

...he said,

"Call your mother."

That's all he said.

And I watched

as he walked my dad out,

put him in the car

and drive off,

I was horrified.

Shaw, Gianunzio,

and Satterfield

are arrested.

In the press,

they call Shaw's black box

a "parasite."

The evening

of the arrest,

Walter's son, Thiel,

is locked in

the school infirmary

awaiting word

from his mother.

Fellow students

slide a newspaper

under the door

the next morning.

It says, ah, they feel

this is the brains

behind the, uh,

infamous black box

bookmakin' ring.

And it named

what the equipment did.

"Illegal equipment

busts bookmaker."

Thiel Shaw is expelled.

Upon his return home,

he confronts his father.

I had become truant in school,

and I became hard to handle.

I'd form my own street gang,

and wouldn't go to school.

When I was in the sixth grade,

I got kicked out,

and I was getting in fights,

and my mother

couldn't control me,

so she was telling

my dad this,

long distance, every night.

She says, "He's out of hand,

he's..."

"He's robbing with kids

in the neighborhood."

"They're stealing..."

It was horrible.

I rebelled against the fact

that when my dad

had came home,

that sho-short time,

it skirted the issue

of what was really...

'Cause I-I didn't

want to believe...

...that he was a bad guy.

Not only has Walter

lost his way,

but he has

lost his son, too.

I feel he knew

they were bad guys,

and-and I feel that,

uh...

He didn't want to be seen

in that light.

He didn't want to be seen

as a bad guy, too.

Walter Shaw is arrested

by Florida state police,

and subpoenaed to appear

before the Senate

permanent subcommittee

on investigations

of organized crime.

John F. Kennedy gets elected

President in 1960.

He appoints Robert Kennedy

as his Attorney General.

And that unleashes

all of the law enforcement

investigative apparatus

of the federal government

to get organized crime.

The hearings are run

by Arkansas Senator

John L. McLelland.

Senator McLelland

and Attorney General

Bobby Kennedy

confront the five

crime families.

The nation's underworld

get's the unwelcome spotlight

of publicity,

as the Senate's

investigation subcommittee

begins new hearings

on crime.

Arkansas Senator

McLelland is at the helm.

Senator McLelland

was chairman

of the permanent subcommittee

on investigations.

He chose John Kennedy

to be on that committee, also.

Uh, John Kennedy was able

to have, ah, his brother

Bobby Kennedy, uh,

as an attorney,

as-as council

to that committee.

Organized crime,

one of the biggest businesses

in America,

has many faces.

Some are well known,

like that of the gambler,

operating the roulette wheel

which is not only illegal,

but fixed.

Another is that

of the narcotics peddler,

trading on the misery

of the poor.

There are other faces,

those of racketeers

who engage in extortion,

prostitution,

corrupt labor relations,

and bootlegging.

The reason racketeering

can flourish in our society

depends, however,

on some other faces

not so well known.

There is

the racket's leader,

seeking protection

from the law.

And there is

the public official

who offers it

for a price,

daily betraying his position

of honor and trust

in his community.

The hearings illustrate

the ruthless behavior

of the mafia,

and its use of violence,

fear, and corruption

to build its business.

He didn't actually say

that he would kill me

in a restaurant,

but he said they would

find my body

off the Belt Parkway,

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