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Justice says law efforts hurting crime syndicateBy MARGARET GENTRY Associated Press WriterWASHINGTON (AP) - Thenation’s crime syndicates are suffering from “internal disarray because more and more of their bosses are behind bars, says the head of the Justice De-Bv JOHN CHADWICK*Associated Press WriterWASHINGTON (AP) - Use of tax funds to finance federal election campaigns is a key part of a comprehensive reform bill put together for early action by the Senate Rules Committee.Sen. Howard Cannon, D-Nev., the committee chairman, is committed to reporting a bill to the Senate within 30 days of the start of the new congressionalsession today.A tentative draft already being circulated for comment provides for public financing, in whole or in part, for presidential and congressional elections and primaries.It also includes a bill, passed by the Senate last year but not yet acted on by the House, that would sharply limit campaign contributions and expenditures.No individual would be permitted to contribute more than $3,000 to a candidate's race, or more than $25,000 in a year to all candidates for federal offices. Cash contributions of more than $50 would be prohibited.Campaign spending for congressional and presidential candidates would be limited to 10 cents for each eligible voter in primaries and 15 cents in general elections.This would restrict presidential candidates to expenditures of about $14 million in primaries and $21 million in general elections, on the basis of the latest population figures.A bipartisan federal elections commission would be set up as an enforcement agency mde-partment’s organized crime section.But even in prison, some underworld bosses continue to influence the illegal operations they ruled on the outside and most imprisoned gangsters return to professional crime after their release, William S. Lvnchwpassed in July, but the public financing sections are a combination of various proposals.As now drafted, the bill provides that a presidential candidate would have a choice between financing his general election campaign with private contributions or tax funds.If he chose public financing, the money would come from income tax payments earmarked by individual taxpayers for presidential campaigns.The bill would increase from $1 to $2 the amount a taxpayer could check off on his return for this purpose. For a couple, the amount would be increased from $2 to $4.For presidential primaries, and for congressional primaries and elections, the bill provides for a combination of private contributions and federal grants.Once a candidate raised a specific amount from private sources - $250,000 in the case of presidential aspirants — he would be entitled to an equal amount in tax funds plus $3 in federal grants for every additional dollar he raised in private contributions of less than $250.The amount of government subsidy would be limited, however, by the ceiling on campaign expenditures provided for in the bill.Georgia had the first gold rush in America in 1828 The great gold rush to California in 1849 was the most famoussaid in an interview.“There are more of the bosses who have been reached by prosecutive efforts. The situation in some parts of the country is pretty clearly indicative that they have been hurt by prosecution, he said. “There is internal disarray in some of its structures across the country.”He singled out New' England, the Midwest, New York and to some extent the Miami area as regions where the syndicates have experienced “organizational disruption as a result of the indictment and conviction of mob bosses.“We have made fairly good inroads, if not substantial inroads,” he continued. “No organization can withstand that kind of prosecutive pressure ... and still be an effective organization. If you keep knocking off their best people ... disrupting their lives through incarceration, disrupting if not completely cutting off communications of leaders with subordinates, you are disrupting an organization.Lynch said he can do little more than guess how long it will take the syndicates to recover from the loss of leaders. Nor can he say precisely what the disruption has cost the syndicates in terms of lost revenue from illegal rackets.But even in jail, Lynch said, the syndicate policy-maker “still to some extent, can function because he can write and receive letters and talk with visitors at regular intervals.Prison, he said, rarely is effective in persuading a professional criminal to take up a legitimate business after his release.“You take the ordinary professional hood who serves his tune, keeps his mouth shut and comes out. and you’ll find he’s in a very nice position,” he said.But he added that some have turned away from crime and cooperated with prosecutors who guarantee protection from physical retaliation and provide assistance in adjusting to a law-abiding life.
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Brownwood Bulletin
Brownwood, Texas, US
Mon, Jan 21, 1974
Page 8
Full Page
Clipped by
Madison H.
NA, 25 May 2023
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