Kefauver and Korshak

Today is the 61st anniversary of the death of Sen. Estes Kefauver. "So what?" you say?

Well, Kefauver was a mover and shaker in DC back in the day. He headed a famous committee looking into organized crime in America - "The Kefauver Committee": https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_Special_ Committee_to_Investigate_Crime_in_Interstate_Commerce

But Kefauver had a dirty little secret: he was an alcoholic and philanderer. The mobsters he was investigating knew this - and they had powerful, well connected friends. One of these was a very dangerous man named Sidney Korshak: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Korshak

Although few today remember him, in his day Korshak was one of the most powerful people in America. He was the guy who had the dirt on pretty much everyone of note in the US, and he knew how to use it.

The FBI called him "the most powerful lawyer in the world."

Korshak was an interesting person. Highly intelligent, he seemed more like a professor than a mob fixer. And people liked him. When not in lawyer mode he was quite affable and had many friends. He cherished his family. Yet he was ruthless when dealing with his client's opponents. As Kefauver found out.

It's said that Korshak arranged a private meeting with Kefauver. When they sat down, Korshak pushed a manila envelope over the table to Kefauver, who opened it... and learned his dirty little secrets weren't so secret after all.

Korshak gave him a minute to look at the documents, then asked him: "Senator, how far do you want to go with this?" Then he stood up, said goodbye, and left.

Kefauver took the hint and the "Kefauver Committee" quickly fizzled out.

Korshak understood power, and its proper application.

He is worthy of much more attention than that brief Wikipedia article gives him. For many years he was one of the most powerful people in the country, but he exercised his power discreetly, from well offstage. And though today his name is largely unremembered, people whose names we DO remember definitely knew who Korshak was, and they were scared of him.

His successors have built upon his successes. Bribery, blackmail, actresses, actors, perversions, two way mirrors, photographs, videos, bugs, dossiers.... This is the firmament upon which the modern political world is built. Government by blackmail.

And Korshak was one of its chief architects.

Fitz