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McClellan*Mobster4WASHINGTON (AP)-Sen. John L. McClellan, D-Ark., said Tuesday he has questioned mobsterJoseph Valachi at Ft. Monmouth,♦N.J., and found him “generally willing to talk.”Valachi is to be a star witness at hearings planned to start sometime toward mid-September before McClellan’s Senate subcommittee.The public Hearings originally had been planned for early September, but it was understood the start may be postponed to permit checking on information Valachi is providing on gangland operations.Turns InformerValachi, enraged when he became convinced that his former New^York crime syndicate bosses were planning to kill him, has become an informer for the Justice Department, FBI, Narcotics Bureau and the subcommittee.McClellan confirmed reports that he was one of a group flown to Ft. Monmouth on Sunday under extraordinary precautions so elaborate the Army closed the Monmouth landing field to civilian traffic for a period. Closing of the field and its use by a then-unidentified plane led to reports that Valachi was being transferred to a new hiding place.It was reported, that plans are being worked out to bring Valachi to Washington sometime in advance of the hearing. McClellan refused to discuss this. He said merely that he plans to question Valachi in more detail but that it would be up to the Justice Department to determine where.Over Two HoursMcClellan said he talked withValachi for more than two hours.“He can become a most valuable witness in our hearings. There are many potential leadsin his testimony,” he said.McClellan declined to give details. It was learned from others, however, that he regarded the meeting with Valachi more in the nature of a preliminary session which gave both him and the mobster a chance to appraise each other.Accompanying McClellan on the trip were two staff aides, Jerome S. Adlerman, counsel to the subcommittee, and Laverne Duffy, assistant counsel; and William B. Hundley, chief of the organized crime section of the Justice Department’s criminal division.The New York Daily news, which first reported McClellan’s meeting with Valachi, said the mobster was still under maximum security guard at Ft. Monmouth.Amelia Earhart and her navigator. Fred J. Noonan, disappeared on July 2. 1937, while en route to Howland Island from Lae, New Guinea.
Newspaper Details
Wichita Falls Times
Wichita Falls, Texas, US
Wed, Aug 21, 1963
Page 6
Full Page
Clipped by
Madison H.
NA, 25 May 2023
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