In collaboration with the U.S. Capitol Historical Society and The Mob Museum, the National Museum of Organized Crime & Law Enforcement, we are thrilled to release a new Portrait in Oversight describing how 1963 congressional hearings featuring a member of the American Mafia, Joseph Valachi, led to enactment of tough new anti-racketeering laws, stronger U.S. drug addiction recovery efforts, and a new witness protection program.
“The Valachi hearings opened the public’s eyes to the inner workings of the American Mafia, detailing the five crime families operating in New York, their recruitment of gangsters, brutal crimes, and code of silence,” said Jim Townsend, director of the Levin Center. “The hearings also inspired The Godfather and a new genre of films and novels on organized crime in America. The new Portrait in Oversight commemorates the bipartisan congressional work that exposed the criminal cartels and sparked the reforms that followed, reminding Congress and the public of what is possible.”
Complementing the new Portrait in Oversight is a new Levin Center podcast with an organized crime expert, Geoff Schumacher. Find out more about the key role played by the Valachi hearings in the ongoing fight against organized crime by tuning in to the Levin Center’s Oversight Matters Podcast.
This portrait is the latest in a series of profiles developed by the Levin Center of notable congressional investigations and key figures in the history of congressional oversight from 1792 to the modern era.
