INVESTIGATIONS: The Sharks

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"It seems," intoned Senator John Mc-Clellan sternly, "that in this dragnet procedure we have caught an assortment of man-eating sharks." It was indeed as forbidding a catch of fish as John McClellan's Senate labor rackets investigating committee has yet snared. One by one last week's school of hoods—including notorious Extortionist John (Johnny Dio) Dioguardi—appeared before the committee in the Senate caucus room and rasped out their Fifth Amendment pleas. But the evidence against them was there nonetheless. It added up to another chapter of the story of how mobsters took over segments of the nation's labor movement in the same strong-arm fashion that made Prohibition big business for the gangs.

Typical shark was squat, hoarse-voiced Max Chester (convictions for extortion, bookmaking, robbery), who walked into the offices of a Brooklyn plumbing supply manufacturer, Paul Claude, one day in 1954. Announced Max Chester: "I am going to unionize your shop." Testified fearful Paul Claude last week: "He wanted $2,000 to give me a contract that I can live with. I said, 'I haven't got $2,000.' He figured out with pencil and paper that a contract I couldn't live with would cost me $12,000. I could save myself $10,000, and I should be very grateful, he told me, that he is giving me $10,000."

Checks & Zippers. When Claude hesitated, Max Chester harassed him with threats, inquired pointedly about the health of Claude's children, reminded him that it was dangerous for children to play in the street. " 'They can get hit by a car.' It was always with the arm around my shoulder, and 'You have got to pay us off because you are mine and I own you. No matter where you are going to move, you are mine.' I was scared to death." In the end Claude paid Chester about $1,400 by cashing worthless checks for him.

Johnny Dio's man-eating sharks were everywhere, fanning out among makers of dog food, candy, zippers; they even swarmed around crucifix platers, printers, toilet-seat reconditioners, stone setters. In most instances the "organizers" operated under phony union local charters that were traceable to Dio, and ultimately to Teamster Union Big Shot Jimmy Hoffa.

Latching onto the 1,000 employees of Roto-Broil Corp. (electric broilers), one crooked local was so helpful as to allow the management (1956 gross: $10 million) to keep about $23,000 in check-off dues. In most other instances Dio-controlled "unions" were nothing beyond fronts for extortion thugs, who sent their worried victims into the arms of Equitable Research Associates, Inc. For handsome fees Equitable saw to it that employers were never bothered by Dio's union organizers. Equitable's boss: Johnny Dio.