Genius on Hold Page #6

which was practically

the same thing.

The first mafia witness

to testify

for the government

is Joe Valachi.

The American public

will have a first-hand account

of mafia activities,

in their living rooms,

on national television.

And the man

who welcomed Walter Shaw

into the highest level

of organized crime

in the United States

is now turning

on his own.

These hearings

always attract

a large number

of spectators.

This one is

particularly crowded,

awaiting the first

public appearance

of Joseph Valachi,

the convicted hoodlum

whose confessions to the FBI

have reportedly put a price

of $100,000 on his head

by the infuriated mafia.

Ah, Valachi himself, ah,

was a low-echelon individual,

member of the Genovese family,

what they call a-

a soldier.

Uh, he had been imprisoned

in a massive, ah,

uh...

...prosecution of members

of the Genovese family.

While he was in prison,

uh, he was told

that he was marked for death.

Uh, and one day

he sees an inmate

heading towards him

in the prison yard.

Uh, he believes that this

is the inmate, in fact,

who has been chosen

to kill him.

Valachi strikes first,

uh, kills-kills this inmate,

only, of course, to discover

he had- he had killed

the wrong-

the wrong individual.

Whatever trouble

Valachi was in before,

now he was even

in-in-in more serious trouble.

Uh, and as a result of that,

he says, you know,

"I've got a secret, too."

Valachi betrays

all the crime families:

Gaetano Gagliano,

Giuseppe Profaci,

Joseph Bonnano,

Carlos Marcello,

Sam Giancana,

Vincent Mangano,

Vito Genovese,

and Carlo Gambino.

Ah, now there is

a very, very strong feeling

that Valachi was actually

paraded before

the McLellan committee

on behalf of the Federal

Bureau of Investigation.

The Federal Bureau

of Investigation,

as we all know,

had been involved

in illegal wiretaps,

and they had done that

for decades.

Uh, so they had all this

wonderful information

about organized crime,

and they couldn't use it.

So what they did was,

they debriefed, uh, Valachi.

And how did they

debrief him?

They asked him

a lot of questions

that, in fact, disclosed

what they already knew

as a result

of these tapes.

So Valachi comes before-

before this committee,

filled with information,

in fact,

that was provided for

by the FBI, uh,

and begins to talk

about organized crime

on the highest levels,

which he couldn't possibly

have known about.

He was able to name all the

players of the major families

and who they represented

and what they were,

how it worked, consiglieres

soldiers and earners

and, you know, associates

and, uh, you know...

he really labeled it all.

He really broke it up

for Americans,

showed 'em how

it all worked.

Joe Valachi, Walter Shaw's

original crime family contact,

is now the most wanted

man in America

by five mafia crime families.

Collectively known

as La Cosa Nostra.

Valachi breaks

his sacred vow

according to the Sicilian

code of omert.

Omert, which has its roots

in the Italian word for "man,"

means literally being a man.

Now of course, a man does

not go to the authorities.

If somebody does harm to

him or his families,

he takes care of its, uh,

of it himself.

It, it means actually much

more than a code of silence.

It's the code of being a man

in the machismo sense.

Uh, how, how did you

happen to go into

the union business?

The local 19?

I respectfully decline

to answer

because I honestly believe

my answer

might tend

to incriminate me.

I "respectiful" decline to

answer the question.

Did you feel that

the working man

was having a difficult time

that you could help

and assist him?

I respectfully decline

to answer.

I refuse to answer

on the grounds

that it may tend to

incriminate me.

I respectfully decline

to answer

because I honestly believe

my answer might tend

to incriminate me.

I respectfully decline to

answer

because I honestly believe

my answer might tend

to incriminate--

Are you a racketeer

and gangster?

Walter Shaw takes his

14-year-old son, Thiel,

to the senate hearing on the

day he must testify.

Thiel catches Joe Valachi's

eye and waves.

Valachi ignores him.

He asks his father.

I ask why he wasn't coming

over to say hello,

and he says he can't.

Cause I didn't know any

different. What did I know?

I didn't know the difference

between the good guys

and the bad guys.

They were all,

all in the same room.

In what can only be described

as one of life's cruel ironies,

Young Thiel Shaw

encounters Carlo Gambino

in the senate chamber hallway

during the hearing.

Carlo Gambino, head of

the Gambino crime family,

is active in racketeering,

gambling, extortion, drugs,

prostitution,

and murder for hire.

Carlo Gambino shares

his personal point of view

with young Thiel Shaw.

He says, Thiel, he says,

remember one thing

about all these people

and these senators and

these lawyers

and these judges,

they have a license to steal

and we don't need one.

They're the bad guys,

not us.

Your dad's a good man.

It's Walter Shaw's turn

to testify.

He had halted making

the black boxes,

so he has no money

and no attorney.

Senator McClellan

questions him

and Walter Shaw

makes a fatal error.

They had all

the head officials

that worked with my father

at Bell

were there,

testifying against him.

And they had told him

he'd made this,

he had made the very first

alarm that called the police.

He had another pe--

he had another invention

he was working on.

They, they asked him

all those things,

he says, yes,

I'm an inventor.

And I've got a lot of, uh,

like the speaker phone

was brought up and

McClellen was impressed.

He says, I'm very impressed

with your knowledge

of the telephone system,

how it works.

He says, you're, you're,

you got a lot of people

saying you're this

great genius.

But um...

They asked him about the

box and my dad took the fall.

Senator McClellen

to Walter Shaw:

"I am asking you.

Is it your intention to plead

the Fifth Amendment?

Do you feel that it might

tend to incriminate you

if you answer truthfully

the question:

Are you the inventor

of such a device?

Mr Shaw:

Yes, sir, I am the inventor.

Shaw apologizes

to McClellen

and the committee.

Senator McClellen replies:

Mr. Shaw, try to go forth

and sin no more."

Father and son

return to Florida

where Walter is later

tried and sentenced

for his complicity

in illegal gambling

and for unauthorized

attachment

to Bell telephone lines.

What did I think? I thought

that, uh, my dad lied to me.

His kids looked up to me

as a hero because my dad

was this notorious thing they

painted in the newspapers

and they lived next door

to me, but it was,

it was not good.

It was terrible.

He is given one year

and a day

in Florida's Dade county

jail.

He serves 9 months.

I was with my grandmother,

his mother was still alive

then. My grandma. My nana.

And um...

and she says, well Thiel,

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