Tom Dewey and the Herlands investigation

[Pat Speer]

Many here, including myself, suspect that the confluence of the U.S. military, the CIA, and organized crime was a factor in Kennedy's death. This confluence first came to the surface in WW2 when the U.S. Navy asked organized crime for help in fighting potential saboteurs on the New York docks. Later, in reward for this cooperation, and at the Navy's request, New York Governor Tom Dewey, who'd put Lucky Luciano in prison to begin with, commuted Lucky Luciano's sentence.

In 1953, rumors began circulating that Dewey had been paid for this act. To cover himself, Dewey arranged for William Herlands, the New York director of investigations, to create a report detailing exactly what Luciano had done to endear himself with the Navy, and how the Navy had requested Dewey to allow his release. Unfortunately for Dewey, he was unable release this 2600 page report to the public and clear himself, as the Chief of Naval Operations, Carl Espe, told Herlands that the release of the report might "jeopardize operations of a similar nature" in the future and cause "a rash of thriller stories."

Has anyone read the Herlands Report? Does anyone know what the Navy was hiding?

[Robert Howard]

Many here, including myself, suspect that the confluence of the U.S. military, the CIA, and organized crime was a factor in Kennedy's death. This confluence first came to the surface in WW2 when the U.S. Navy asked organized crime for help in fighting potential saboteurs on the New York docks. Later, in reward for this cooperation, and at the Navy's request, New York Governor Tom Dewey, who'd put Lucky Luciano in prison to begin with, commuted Lucky Luciano's sentence.

In 1953, rumors began circulating that Dewey had been paid for this act. To cover himself, Dewey arranged for William Herlands, the New York director of investigations, to create a report detailing exactly what Luciano had done to endear himself with the Navy, and how the Navy had requested Dewey to allow his release. Unfortunately for Dewey, he was unable release this 2600 page report to the public and clear himself, as the Chief of Naval Operations, Carl Espe, told Herlands that the release of the report might "jeopardize operations of a similar nature" in the future and cause "a rash of thriller stories."

Has anyone read the Herlands Report? Does anyone know what the Navy was hiding?

Maybe this will help...

Campbell, Rodney. (1977). The Luciano Project: The secret wartime collaboration of the mafia and the U.S. Navy. New York: McGraw-Hill.—Based on the 1954 files of the New York State Commissioner of Investigations Herlands.

Perhaps more importantly maybe some of the material below can give you some "google scholar" material.

Herlands Investigation of Organized Crime, 1954 and Kefauver Committee Hearings, 1950-1951

Williams Herlands, Dewey's director of investigations for the State of New York was instructed in 1954 to establish the facts regarding the pardon of Lucky Luciano for services to U.S. Naval Intelligence during World War II. This section contains transcripts of testimony by witnesses, background files on Luciano, photostats of material from the Kefauver Committee Hearings on Organized Crime, and the text of the Herlands Report.

[Greg Parker]

Many here, including myself, suspect that the confluence of the U.S. military, the CIA, and organized crime was a factor in Kennedy's death. This confluence first came to the surface in WW2 when the U.S. Navy asked organized crime for help in fighting potential saboteurs on the New York docks. Later, in reward for this cooperation, and at the Navy's request, New York Governor Tom Dewey, who'd put Lucky Luciano in prison to begin with, commuted Lucky Luciano's sentence.

In 1953, rumors began circulating that Dewey had been paid for this act. To cover himself, Dewey arranged for William Herlands, the New York director of investigations, to create a report detailing exactly what Luciano had done to endear himself with the Navy, and how the Navy had requested Dewey to allow his release. Unfortunately for Dewey, he was unable release this 2600 page report to the public and clear himself, as the Chief of Naval Operations, Carl Espe, told Herlands that the release of the report might "jeopardize operations of a similar nature" in the future and cause "a rash of thriller stories."

Has anyone read the Herlands Report? Does anyone know what the Navy was hiding?

Maybe this will help...

Campbell, Rodney. (1977). The Luciano Project: The secret wartime collaboration of the mafia and the U.S. Navy. New York: McGraw-Hill.—Based on the 1954 files of the New York State Commissioner of Investigations Herlands.

Perhaps more importantly maybe some of the material below can give you some "google scholar" material.

Herlands Investigation of Organized Crime, 1954 and Kefauver Committee Hearings, 1950-1951

Williams Herlands, Dewey's director of investigations for the State of New York was instructed in 1954 to establish the facts regarding the pardon of Lucky Luciano for services to U.S. Naval Intelligence during World War II. This section contains transcripts of testimony by witnesses, background files on Luciano, photostats of material from the Kefauver Committee Hearings on Organized Crime, and the text of the Herlands Report.

Herlands' investigation uncovered hundreds of hours of taped conversations between Navy spies and Mafia leaders. He later subpoenaed some of those leaders, members of the Manhattan DA's office, and ONI agents, including Jack McFall, Paul Alfieri and Tony Marzullo.

ONI had agreed to cooperate only if no classified information was to be requested, Navy Security Officers could sit in on all interviews with former agents, and that the final report would never be released to the public.

In fact, it only saw the light of day 20 years after Dewey's death when Rodney Campbell was going through the former Governor's papers, having being chosen to edit them. His book, The Luciano Project followed.

It is possible ONI was actually behind the smears against Dewey in retaliations for his past criticisms of the intelligence community.

As to what ONI was hiding; (1) that it was behind Luciano's release and; (2) that it was, at least in part, responsible for the flood of drugs entering Black neighbourhoods. Somewhat tangentially, by the time Oswald was playing at being a truant in NYC, the main cause of truancy had in fact been identified as drugs.

Edited January 4, 2007 by Greg Parker