THIEM. The original ledger was turned over to the attorney general of the State of Illinois-his Chicago office. He is usually up there on Tuesdays-why don't you call him there he is up there on Tuesdays and spends 1 or 2 days at Springfield. ANGLAND. Did you discuss with Mr. Hodge anything having to do with a TV station in Springfield? THIEM. No; I have never. It was a minor thing at the time, but I am quite sure he was tied in somehow. The Cohen family had connections; Rupert Cohen and Herman Cohen. Herman runs a very popular resort-restaurant called "The Bell"-a tavern out near the Pillsbury Mills. He got hold of a warehouse that Hodges rented at a * * * price and the nephew, perhaps Rupert Cohen's son, was vice president of the WMAY radio station and they, in turn, organized a company to get a franchise from the Communications Commission to have a TV station here. Hodge was very close there, but I don't know if anything was proved. Oliver J. Keller, an applicant for WTAX, looked into that and he gave me some information on it, but it seemed of minor importance. He has quite a lot of material on this. The Bell is where Hodges entertained quite a bit-State officials, legislators, ran up liquor and food bills. He hired Herman Cohen to arrange a dinner for the National Association of Home Builders and ran up a bill for $5,400. He later paid his brother $4,200. He rented a quonset hut to store records and surplus property. Son of Rupert Cohen-Daily News Office. Keller and associates are not political people, he was manager-editor of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, and he started Station WTAX. None of his friends are in politics, he may be Republican, but I'm not sure. George W. Bunn, C. W. Campbell, and C. H. Lanphier are from old families of Springfield, Ill. Lanphier family had Illinois Watch Co. and later sold it, then used building to start Sangamon. Bunn started a bank, Springfield Marine Bank, and has interests in Sangamon. They all are just substantial business people. Sangamo, Allis Chalmers, Pillsbury Mills, John Hobbs Corp., Stewart WarnerWeaver-tests automobiles for alinement, etc.-are some of the large companies up here. There was an investigation by the Illinois Budget Commission, Al J. Jenner, Jr., and a Randall, a young lawyer, were first to get the ledger out of the Southmore Trust & Savings Bank and all of this has been turned over to the attorney general in Chicago. Robert Sprecher, special assistant to the attorney general, was hired to prosecute-to reclaim money. Then there's Grenville Beardsley, and Castle, you can rely on what he tells you. ANGLAND. Did the U.S. Attorney ever get into this matter? THIEM. No, they did in Chicago, of course, and he was given a Federal sentence. They tried to beat the State case-Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation liability-the U.S. District Attorney brought suit on behalf of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. His sentence, where he is now serving down at Menard, is a 10 to 15 year's sentence. ANGLAND. Mr. Thiem, would you please keep this call confidential? THIEM. Yes, sir, and if I can be of any assistance in any way, please call me again at my residence if I can give you any additional information. The call was terminated at 2:13 p.m., April 29, 1958. Mr. LISHMAN. May I interject something out of order at this point and just inform the committee that we have a photostatic copy of the so-called Brown Envelope account, and at the appropriate time we will refer to this account and show certain payments that were made by Mr. Long under circumstances which would indicate they had something to do with the granting of the channel. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Lishman, let me get this matter cleared in my own mind. I mean with reference to the station. The station referred to in Springfield, Ill., which is involved here, was the channel 2 that was allocated to Springfield? Mr. ANGLAND. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. And there was only one VHF allocation at Springfield. Or were there more? Mr. ANGLAND. One. The CHAIRMAN. And this was the one involved? Mr. ANGLAND. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. This then is the station that in a later consideration by the Commission was involved in the deintermixture problem in Springfield and was moved to St. Louis, Mo.? Mr. ANGLAND. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. In that decision? Mr. ANGLAND. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. Is that right? Mr. ANGLAND. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. I just wanted to get that straight. Mr. MOULDER. Should you add to that language VHF station? It was a VHF station? Mr. ANGLAND. Yes, sir. Mr. LISHMAN. Did you have a telephone conversation with Mr. Keller, who has already been referred to here as the head of Sangamon? Mr. ANGLAND. I had a telephone conversation with Mr. Keller. Mr. ANGLAND. This was during the month of April 1958. I don't have the exact date in front of me. Mr. Keller gave me some notes and I asked him to rewrite the notes and send me a memorandum setting out the facts with respect to channel 2 in Springfield. Mr. LISHMAN. Did Mr. Keller under date of May 19, 1958, send you a memorandum over his signature setting forth certain facts in connection with this deintermixture proceeding and the Sangamon Valley Television Corp.'s frustration? Mr. ANGLAND. He did. Mr. LISHMAN. When did you receive this memorandum? Mr. ANGLAND. Just in the last 2 or 3 days. Mr. LISHMAN. Do you have that memorandum before you? Mr. ANGLAND. I do. Mr. LISHMAN. Would you please read that memorandum into the record? Mr. ANGLAND. From Springfield, Ill., May 19, 1958. Memorandum to House Subcommittee on Legislative Oversight, requested by staff. I was instrumental in organizing the Sangamon Valley Television Corp. in October 1948, for the purpose of applying for a television channel in Springfield, Ill., and served as president of the corporation throughout the period covered in this review. On December 3, 1954, Examiner Millard French handed down initial decision recommending award of channel 2 to Sangamon Valley Television Corp. Up to that time no political pressures were apparent. Later that month I saw Representative Peter Mack, Jr., from the 21st District (which includes Sangamon County) and requested that he do nothing for or against Sangamon Valley; we were content to have the case stand on its merits. Congressman Mack said he could depend on that-neither he nor anyone on his staff would do anything. At about the same time, Carlos W. Campbell, a director of Sangamon Valley, made the same approach to Senator Everett Dirksen, and asked to be advised if the Senator or his office encountered any effort to bring political pressures to reverse the verdict. Nothing further was done by Sangamon at this time. However, a short news story appeared in the Illinois State Journal, March 6, 1955, to the effect that State Auditor Orville Hodge had been in Washington on television business"reportedly in connection with an interest in a radio-television station, though this could not be confirmed," to quote the Washington bureau of the Copley press (the Journal and Register are Copley Press papers). The same story reported that Hodge was a guest of Representative Simpson and played golf with him at the Burning Tree Club. It developed later, through newspaper investigations of the Hodge-Brown Envelope account, which figured in embezzlement of State funds, that Hodge gave a check in the amount of $1,000 for this fund to Leonard Hall, chairman of the Republican National Committee, for committee. The Associated Press reported that this check to the committee was endorsed personally by Chairman Hall. Mr. LISHMAN. Just a moment. I would like to interrupt at this point and hand you a photostatic copy of a document, and ask you to identify it so that it may be placed in the record. And I would also like to have you read it into the record and read the endorsement shown on the back of this document. Mr. ANGLAND. This is a check, unnumbered: CHICAGO, ILL., March 8, 1955. Pay to the order of Leonard W. Hall, Republican National Committee, $1,000. One thousand and no/100 dollars. Signed: ORVILLE E. HODGE, Southmore Bank & Trust Co., Chicago, Ill. The endorsement on the back is Leonard W. Hall, Chairman, pay to the order of the Riggs National Bank for deposit to the account of Republican National Committee, Treasurer C. W. Harold Brenton. Mr. LISHMAN. I would like to make sure that this photostatic copy of the check just identified is made part of the record at this point. The CHAIRMAN. It has just been read in the record by the witness. Mr. LISHMAN. I would like to have the document itself in. The CHAIRMAN. Surely. Mr. LISHMAN. Would you continue reading the May 19, 1958, memorandum received by you from Mr. Keller? Mr. ANGLAND (reading): In the spring of 1955, deintermixture was first talked about seriously and I made several contacts in company with Carlos W. Campell, not in connection with the comparative hearing case for channel 2 before the Commission, but on saving channel 2 for Springfield. We saw Representative Simpson at his automobile agency in Carlton, Ill., who said he agreed that channel 2 should be kept in Springfield. He volunteered, though the subject had not been broached by us, that this applied to retention of channel 2 only and did not include Sangamon's contest for the channel with WMAC-TV, Inc. It was clear that he had been approached by some party in behalf of the latter company. We also saw Senator Dirksen on keeping channel 2 in Springfield and I talked with Senator James Duff of Pennsylvania about it since he was a friend from the time I lived in Pittsburgh. I talked to Representative Peter Mack who agreed that channel 2 should be kept in Springfield and who volunteered to appear as a witness before the Commission. In July 1955, the comparative hearing case in which the initial decision favored Sangamon Valley was argued before the Commission. I was present with counsel and noted that few questions were asked of counsel in the course of the argument. The Broadcast Bureau supported the Examiner's decision for Sangamon Valley as the superior applicant. On the night before Thanksgiving 1955, I received a telephone call at my home from Sangamon's Washington attorneys, Hogan and Hartson, bringing bad news. I was advised that at an informal Commission meeting a preliminary vote was taken on our case and showed a majority for reversal of the examiner. I was told that one Commissioner was reported to have said that he had intended to vote for Sangamon but had learned during the lunch period than Sangamon Valley stockholders were a bunch of New Dealers; and that this Commissioner had criticized a staff assistant for not briefing him on that. We assumed that the New Deal allegation referred to the 6-percent participation in Sangamon Valley of the Ives family-Governor Stevenson's sister, her husband and son. Our Washington counsel suggested that if we could do anything to counteract this story, we should get busy at once. This was the first time anyone connected with Sangamon made any approach through political circles, and then only to clear the record of a false allegation since there were more Republicans than Democrats in the stockholder group, except for the hands-off request in December 1954. Directors or stockholders of Sangamon Valley promptly saw various individuals to repeat the report that had come to us and review with them the real affiliations of Sangamon stockholders. Among those contacted were Governor Stratton, Senator Dirksen (by phone at Knoxville, Tenn.), Representative Sid Simpson; a stockholder Donald Funk asked his cousin Gene Funk, a resident of Bloomington, to call his personal friend Representative Lesley C. Arends of the Bloomington-Danville district. It soon became clear that State Auditor Orville Hodge had intervened, and successfully, in behalf of WMAY-TV, Inc. What connection did Hodge have with WMAY-TV or its officers or directors? It was our surmise that it might have come through the Cohen family who operate the Mill Tavern. Richard Cohen was an 18 percent stockholder in WMAY-TV, Inc. and listed as a proposed director. His father, Louis Cohen, and uncle, Herman Cohen, operate the Mill Tavern. The two elder Cohens had entered into an agreement with WMAY-TV, Inc., to build its proposed studiotransmitter building and lease it back to the corporation. This was presented during the comparative hearing. Herman Cohen acquired two quonset huts on U.S. Bypass 66 at the extension of Cook Street and rented them for $26,000 for 2 years to State Auditor Hodge. The quonset huts were most unsuitable for storage of documents, among other disadvantages being outside the corporate city limits with no water and, at the time of the lease, no fire protection. The State of Illinois has entered suit to recover the sums paid under this lease. How Hodge was first persuaded to become active in behalf of WMAY-TV, Inc., is surmise as stated above. However, he admitted at various that he had been active. He admitted it to a friend, Leslie C. Johnson, general manager of WHBF and WHBF-TV, Rock Island. |