Kings in Check

On opposite coasts of the U.S. last week, the law bowled over two kingpins of the labor rackets:

P: In Tacoma, Wash., pudgy Dave Beck, 64, onetime president of the Teamsters, was convicted of income tax evasion involving $240,000 owed the Federal Government. A jury of eight men and four women deliberated 23 hours, 59 minutes, finally found Beck guilty on six separate counts, were praised by Judge George H. Boldt "on behalf of myself and 170,000,000 odd of my fellow citizens for a service splendidly performed." During a 59-day trial, prosecutors charged that Beck cheated the Bureau of Internal Revenue by pocketing Teamster expense funds when other people paid his bills. Beck, already appealing a 15-year Washington state sentence for embezzling union funds, could get a maximum sentence of 30 years on the federal conviction. P: In Mineola, L.I., Vincent Squillante, tiny (5 ft. 1 in.) protege of assassinated Albert Anastasia (TIME, Nov. 4, 1957), was sentenced to 7 1/2 to 15 years in prison for running a garbage extortion racket. With him the court sentenced his brother Nunzio Squillante (two to five years) and one Bernard Adelstein, business agent of Teamster Local 813 (five to ten years). Vincent Squillante's specialty was persuading Long Island businessmen to agree to have their garbage collected by a company operated by brother Nunzio Squillante. If they refused, they were threatened by thugs, picketed by Teamsters Union pickets. Once they signed, collection rates were doubled.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.