ETO TESTIMONY TO OPEN CRIME PANEL
HEARINGS
By Ronald Koziol.
April 22, 1985
Former gambling kingpin Ken Eto, survivor of a
gangland assassination attempt, is expected to set the stage Monday as
the first witness when the President`s Commission on Organized Crime convenes in Chicago
for a three-day inquiry into labor racketeering.
James Harmon, commission executive director, would not disclose
names of witnesses Sunday. But he said "persons who have been inside the mob"
will be among the 25 people testifying.
Another 35 underworld figures and labor officials who also were
subpoenaed are considered hostile witnesses who are expected to exercise
their 5th Amendment right against incriminating themselves.
Eto, according to sources, will tell of his association with
Vincent Solano, head of Local 1 of the International Laborers Union, who also was
subpoenaed. Solano has been identified in testimony before the Senate Permanent
Investigation Subcommittee as a boss of Chicago`s underworld. Laborers Union activities in
Chicago and New York and the union`s connections to organized crime will be explored in
detail during the hearing, Harmon said.
The hearing will also focus on alleged mismanagement
of union welfare funds, secret wiretaps in which mobsters discussed payoffs by union
bosses and a list of underworld figures who "own" certain unions. "There
will be things that have never been brought out before," Harmon said
during a news conference Sunday. He said conditions are so bad in New York City that a
building cannot be constructed without dealing with mob- controlled unions.
In an earlier statement, U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Irving
Kaufman of New York, chairman of the 19-member panel, said manipulation of union benefit
funds is a classic example of how corruption can undermine the health and future of
working men and women. Harmon acknowledged that law enforcement officials
have been unable to control labor racketeering, but he said the commission is hopeful it
can make legislative recommendations that can combat the problem.
The commission, created by President Reagan in July, 1982, goes
out of existence next March.
Harmon said a small percentage of the nation`s labor unions are
controlled by organized crime. A detailed staff study of all of these unions will be made
public at a later date, he said.
Security at the Dirksen Federal Building is expected to be the
most extensive in recent years. Visitors to the 25th-floor ceremonial courtroom where the
hearings will be held will have to go through metal detectors and searches.
Copyright 1998, The Tribune Company.