1636-1 Crime Behind The Front Page ••
The 20
.year War Against Miami Crime
Ty•IE'S PEXXflKAati and' boatss the which they the cars m btother.and u inessmen several of raids on members soon they theirbooks,
to ksunde- ation
fter which
fashion, undered Itself,
the
THERE'S •
ete an lineal relation- cruised the waters. had to conceal their support stand. The Capone mob was "bookmaker" title,hut which
;hip between Washington's in fear of business or other "in." in fact extended into narcot-
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3ecision to move against or- * * *;anized crime and the Crime • reprisals. cs, prostitution and. on we-
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Com mission THE RADIO stations and One of the highlights of rasion, murder. Bribery of
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of Greater newspapers presented week-/the developing- situation T II E SITUATION was law enforcers was common-
ttiami It all "►•, ly exposes of the material in showed how open were the attracting national atten- place.
started here , • Sullivan's books.At first the hood operations. Harry Rus- tion. and the late Sen. Estes Washington has remained
more than 20 •
community, long lulled into sell, a longtime member of Kefauver look an interest. steadily at the work of as •
-
s-ears ago. As •
the belief that crime was the Al Capone mob of Chita- stimulated he z long time s e m b I i n g the information
with Washing- ,, necessary to the economy, go. went to Miami Beach to friendship with Katzentine needed to bring the mobsters •
was shocked,not at the reve- m u s c 1 e into the S&G's which went back to their into court. The Joe Valachi
ton. it took a ' college days in Tennessee. confession of a few years
long time to that but at the "harm" "gravy train."
,'.`' that was being done to busi- The members decided to His crime committee came ago was one of the develop-
awaken
evelop-
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p w a k c nine ness resist; they had a consid- here as part of its national ments. It may be that the
public con- F Most of the known mem- erable strangle hold on the investigation, the hearings n a tin n a 1 indifference has
;ciente. bees of the Katzentine group city's government. However. plainly revealing the orga- been jarred as was this
It was the Peenekn on recei%ed threats in some there followed a series of nized character of the opera- area's nearly 20 years ago.
concentration •
of attention
the strangle hold of aims
here that attracted Washing- . --_ m-- me. . Cdienn
ton, brought on the Kefauver I
investigations and made for
public awareness of a situa-
tion it didn't believe could
exist. •
JAN 1 4 4)966
AS MAYOR of �i3>n1
Be e late A. rank
Katzentine. wner of radio
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KAT, had recog-
mred the power of a gam-
o.ing syndicate which operat-
ed there.It called itself S&G,
The five members said
the/ didn't know what the
initials stood tor. Because of
the facility with which they
could turn their business off
and on, and harass any com-
petition which showed up,
the words "Stop and Go"
/'ere impishly applied.
Katzentine didn't see how
egitimate business could
survive in the hoodlum at-
mosphere, which extended
into Miami where several
gambling controls also oper-
ated
Nor did he go along with
the pap• financed and pushed
by the hoods, and parroted
by their office holders, that
the area needed lax law en-
forcement to attract visitors
and to grow.
"Parents don't want to •-
raise children in the midst of
lawlessness."he said. "nor do
the big majority of our visi-
tors want to spend their
time where it exists. Invest-
ment money isn't attracted
by instability, and crime'
makes for that."
* it *
KATZENTINE called a
meeting of representatives
of newspapers and radio eta- '
tions and some leading busi-
nessmen in his law offices
(TV hadn't come into promi-
nences and the groundwork
for fighting back was laid.
Each agency, as I recall,
posted 51,000 and r'edged
re.
Dan Sullivan, a former
BI agent who had been
chief investigator for the
state racing commission,was
hired by the group, and he •
soon had assembled one of •
the most interesting "librar-
te< hereabouts.
It contained pictures of
hoodlums who came here
during the lush winter
months, the homes in which •