Evening star., 1952-11-30
McGranery Tells FB|
To Probe Paroles Of
.3Capone Ganqsters
By the Associated Press

ordered the FBI yesterday to find
out once and for all whether
bribes influenced the granting of
paroles to three members of the
old Capone gang.
Mr.. McGranery said that for
five years the release from prison
of Paul (the waiter) Ricca, Louis
Little New York; Campagna and
Charles CHERRY Nose) Gioe has
been a matter of various charges,
including rumors of bribery"
Announcing in a formal state
ment his orders to FBI Director j.
Edgar Hoover to launch a new and
big scale inquiry, Mr.. McGranery
added:
This Attorney General (be-
Ilieves) the whole matter should be
fully investigated even at this
late date" Mr.. McGranery will
leave his post when the Republi-
can administration takes Office
January 20.
The three gangsters, serving 10
year sentences on charges of ex-
torting more than ST million from
the motion picture industry, were
released by the United States pa
Irole board in 1947, about month
after they became eligible for pa
roles.
One ParOlee Dead.
Philip Louis D'Andrea, convicted
with them, was paroled at the
same time. He now is dead.
The Justice Department dis
missed still-pending mail fraud
indictment against the four
Shortly before the paroles. on
grounds that it duplicated the in
|dictment on which they had been
convicted.
The whole case, including dis
missal of the mail fraud charge,
came under scrutiny in 1948 of a
House Expenditures subcommittee
which demanded that the mob
|sters be put back behind bars. The
subcommittee said it found no
evidence of bribery, but that "big
money"-from a source unknown
had been spent to win the quar-
tets release.
The Government failed in a
years-long series of moves to send
the men back to prison as the sub
committee had directed.
One high Government official,
declining to be named, told a re-
porter that one result of the in
quiry might be a fresh order re-
voking the gangsters' paroles, in
an effort to provide a new basis
Tor court fight to imprison them.
To Work in Secrecy.
The FBI, taking over the case.
emphasized it would follow its
usual policy of tight secrecy con-
Icerning its work.
The names Of two lawyers for
the gangsters figured in the House
inquiry. The subcommittee termed
the lawyers-Paul Dillon of st.
Louis and Maury Hughes of Dali
Ilas-"personal" friends of Presi-
dent Truman and Supreme Court
Justice Tom c. Clark, then At
torney General, adding that the
lawyers were 'in a position to
exert influence with those in au-
thority.'
The subcommittee said it found
no evidence that Mr.. Truman had
any knowledge Of the matter"
Mr.. Dillon said at st. Louis yes
terday that he had no comment
about the McGranery order.
Mr.. Hughes denied in Dallas
that he had any part in the parole
proceedings. His role. he said, was
that Of counsel for the four in
obtaining dismissal of "some
charges" against them-the mail
fraud indictment.
House Records Quoted.
The House subcommittee S
records quote Mr.. Hughes as hav-
ing sworn as one of it's witnesses
that Il knew six months ahead of
time that this (the mail fraud in
dictment) would be dismissed"
The record quoted him as testi-
flying that one Justice Department
source of that information was
Peyton Ford, who later became
Deputy Attorney General but then
held the title of Assistant to the
Attorney General. Mr.. Ford has
left the agency and is practicing
law here.
The subcommittee also aired in
its 1948 report testimony by Boris
Kostelanetz, hired as a special as
sistant attorney general to prose-
cute Capone gangsters, that he
had recommended dismissal of the