◆ SpookStack

TENURE OF ATTORNEY GENERAL ROBERT KENNEDY, 1961-1964 Overall Bureau policy on microphone surveillances which developed from the authority granted in Attorney General Herbert Brownell's memorandum of May 20, 1954, was still being followed on January 21, 1961, when Robert F. Kennedy was sworn in as Attorney General. Crusader Against Organized Crime For a number of years prior to January 21, 1961, Mr. Kennedy had built a public image as a staunch crusader against organized crime. He had served as counsel for the Senate Committee which investigated labor racketeering. He ook, “The Enemy Within" ( he warned, “If we do not on a national scale attack organized criminals with weapons and techniques as effective as their own, they will destroy us." (Exhibit 49) In November, 1960, Mr. Kennedy appeared on the television program, "Meet the Press." (Exhibit 50) During this program, he said that something must be done about organized crime, and mentioned the meeting of the Nation's top hoodlums at Apalachin, New York. Mr. Kennedy, in discussing what would be done with organized crime if John F. Kennedy were elected President, noted that Federal agencies did not at that time have intelligence coverage in the organized crime field as was maintained in the field of communism, and said that the situation would be changed. en