Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1951-07-26
Crime in America
Probers Find fragrant Case
Of Black Market Operations

s~sH~
lon, on receiving half of the money
in the cash box. But when he
asked Giglio about it, Lubben tes-
titled, CYCLIC coldly told him, You
know We had OPA trouble"
Il said" Lubben continued, 81
don't know anything about it, but
certainly you had not $4,000
worth"
In that office that day were
Frank LivorSi. John Ormonte and
IA couple of other people. I looked
around there, and Giglio said,
You are not going to get my
money"
So Lubben, letting discretion be
the better part of valor, walked
out. The final snapper was that he
never got his income tax paid by
his ex-partnerS, either.
Becomes Evasive.
William CYCLIC was evaSive. But
step by step Counsel Rudolph Hal
ley led him through an absorbing
recital of his career.
His Tavern Fruit Juice Co. en-
gagged in a sharp operation. The
year before, CYCLIC explained,
were being encour-
aged by OPA to make as much
Jelly as they could: In 1914 fats
and oils and butter were in short
supply and OPA requested of all
Jelly manufacturers to manufac-
ture more spreads, more bread
spreads"
Tavern manufactured jellies
from sugar it received under OPA
allotment but, again in Giglio's
own words, "all of our imitation
Favored jellieS were sold to a very
limited number of customers, only
the top customers in the country -
These customers, it developed,
were large cookie manufacturers,
short on sugar themselves, who
were buying Tavern's products as
bakers jelly" and paying, as
H alley charged, premium
price"
At the time he testified, CYCLIC
CHS own corporation in bank
ruptcy and under investigation by
the Internal Revenue Bureau had
found a new position as general
manager, he said, of a phar-
firm.
All throughout our investiga-
tons, the committee discovered
evidence of infiltration of legiti-
mate business fields by crime
sters and their associates. We saw
lit in Chicago, where Joe Fusco,
once labeled a public enemy" by
the Chicago Crime Commission
became one of the city's largest
wholesale liquor dealers. We saw
it in Miami, where hoodlums took
over hotels. The committee found
more than 10 separate types of
businesses into which countless
hoodlumS had infiltrated.
This pattern is familiar and
often vicious one. It begins with
the hoodlum finding himself with
more money than he knows what
to do with, accrued, of course,
from his illegal ventures.
Confessed Rum Runner.
A good example is Newark gang
ster Abner 0ongie) Swillman,
confessed rum runner and strong
arm man of the prohibition era,
named by former District Attorney
William O'Dwyer of Brooklyn as
one of the old leaders of THE
Combination" which ran Murder,
Inc"
Swillman wound up the pro-
hibition era with a fortune. Now
he is a participant in a tobacco
machine company, a
truck sales and parts agency, a
trading company that buys and
sells auto equipment and used
machinery, another company that
deals in scrap iron, and a COM
pany that places and operates
some 700 washing machines in
apartment buildings.
He also has investments held for
him in the names of other persons.
He declined to give us information
about these because sometimes
my name kills a deal"
None of us on the committee