The Daily Alaska empire., 1951-03-19
0'DWYER HAS NEW VERSION
 RELIES DEATH

NEW YORK, March 19. - R- Former Mayor William O'Dwyer sold the Senate Crime Committee soday thet he visited gambler Frank Costello in 1922
 q saw Costello definitely at his home - possibly twice." O'Dwyer said.
 O'Dwyer said he was in the Army tt the time.
 The former mayor said he went so Costello's home to talk to him ibout Air Force contracts. O'Dwyer vas serving the Army in an in- lestigatipg capacity.
 O'Dwyer said other visitors in the Costello home at the time included rving Sherman, Bert Stand, Judge 5avarese and Congressman Mike Kennedy"
 ODwyer, now ambassador to Mexico, said he didn't expect to ee the men there.
 T had approximately one-halt lour of conversatoin with Costello" :" he former mayor said.
 Underworld Leader
 O'Dwyers story of his visit to Costello came after the former mayor reeled off list of names of i've underworld leaders he said he .egarded as "big" figures in Ameri- ,an crime. This was in response committee questions concerning l "big six crime directorate.
 The former mayor said his in- vestigation into Murder, Inc, while le was Brooklyn District Attorney eyealed to him that a nationwide grirne syndicate with no single eader conducted it's own court ses- sions and passed death sentences.
 Earlier, Sen. Charles w. Tobey (R-NH) today told former Mayor William O'Dwyer that his version of the death of key Murder, Inc" witness varied from other .estimony before the Senate Crime Committee.
 O'Dwyer said the witness, Abe Reles, was trying to escape when ne was killed in plunge out a sixth-floor window of Coney Is- land hotel in 1941.
 Tobey informed O'Dwyer that Sank $. Balls, a former Seventh Deputy Police Commissioner, told the committee that Reles was try ing to lower himself to fifth-floor window to play joke on his police guards.
 How could anyone tell what was in Reles' mind?" asked O'Dwyer
 Millions Attend Via TV
 The national television audience for today's hearing was estimated at 15.O00,OO0 to 20,000,000 persons by WPIx, the New York News Sta tion which is originating the tele- casts for itself as well as other stations.
 The audience in the Greater New York area was estimated at 4,500,O0O to 5,OO00O0. The hearings are being telecast in 19 cities.
 AS ODwyer testified beads of per- spiration dotted his forehead under the warm television and moving pictures lights.
 He halted occasionally to wipe his brow.
 At times his voice broke slightly, but recovered when he took drinks of water from glass.
 O'Dwyer was Brooklyn District Attorney at the time of Reles' death. He is now ambassador to Mexico.
 Testimony Contradicts.
 Tobey quoted Balls as saying that Reles intended to enter the fifth floor window and then go upstairs and tell his guards 'peek-a-boo.'
 Your testimony contravenes that of MT. Balls, whose testimony was that he was not trying to escape Tobey added.
 The Reles case came into the picture after Sen. Estes Kefauver tD-Tenn interrupted ,O'Dwyer in long story of petty crime condi- tions he had observed as police man. magistrate and mayor.
 O'Dwyer had told of slum condi- tions and of pinball and mint machines that he said encouraged children to gamble and steal.
 Kefauver broke in to suggest that the former mayor "get down to details of organized crime in this section"