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Costello on the Offensive. Next day in walked well-tailored Frankie Costello himself, looking arrogantly down his commanding nose. Television cameras followed his deliberate progress to the stand; the committee members craned and nervously shuffled some papers; spectators peered and murmured under the beating lights.
Costello at once took the offensive. Through his lawyer, George Wolf, he protested the television cameras. "Mr. Costello doesn't care to submit himself as a spectacle," Wolf declared loftily. Anxious not to lose their star, the committee agreed that Costello's face should not be televised (see RADIO & TV).
Costello coolly set out to explain his deal with Lawyer Levy: "I says, 'What way can I help you?' I says, 'Well, what I can do, George? I can spread the propaganda around that they're hurting you there and you're a nice fellow, and I can tell them that if there's an arrest made, it's going to be very severe. I don't know how much good it's going to do you, but I'll talk about it.' "
Halley: "Who did you talk to about it?"
Costello: "Anybody that was around a
saloon or a bar—at Dinty Moore's or
Gallagher's. At the Waldorf, anywhere I had lunch. At the Colony." Halley: "What did you do in 1946 to earn $15,000?"
Costello: "Practically nothing ... I don't think I did a damn thing."
Costello's Income. Costello seemed never to have any difficulty getting money from associates. When he wanted $25,000, he could (and did) get it from Frank Erickson "without hesitation." He endorsed a note for $325,000 for his New Orleans partner "Dandy Phil" Kastel ("That was just accommodation," said Costello, "pure friendship") in a deal to buy into the Whiteley Distilleries, makers of King's Ransom Scotch, but insisted he had gotten "absolutely nothing" out of it.
The committee pursued him doggedly on his income. He admitted he got an $18,000-a-year salary from the Beverly Club outside New Orleans as "a good-will man." He had a sort of "little strongbox" at home, where he kept "a little cash," but couldn't remember how much. When his memory still refused to cooperate, Tobey tartly suggested that one way of finding out was to send someone up to look. Costello abruptly remembered that he had about $50,000 or so in the box, another $90,000 to $100,000 in his bank account.
Costello on the Defensive. Boss Costello was beginning to lose some of his earlier confidence. His voice rasped more hoarsely; he mopped his brow more & more often.