(Frank Costello at the Kefauver Crime Committee Hearings - taking the Fifth to new vistas)

With the Korean War grinding on and the country gearing up for the 1952 elections, the big spectacle of the year on Radio and Television was the Kefauver Crime Committee Hearings on Capitol Hill. Organized crime had become a way of life and gambling was its biggest commodity. With Mafia figures lined up to testify (or refuse to testify as was the case), the country was riveted to each new revelation and intrigued by the parade of exotic names attached to the hearings and being grilled by 1952 Vice-presidential hopeful Estes Kefauver.

The Cold War was also in full bloom, with the trial of accused spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and General MacArthur relieved of his command in Korea.

All in all, 1951 was a pretty interesting year and far from a dull one.

But then, most aren't dull in retrospect anyway.

And the same is true with this one.

don't forget . .