kefauver stepped down in may of 1951. so almost a complete year from when the committee began in may of 1950. chief kefauver thought that the committee had done its job and was willing to essentially wrap up operations at that point. but the other members wanted to continue. they believed that there was more work to do, and maybe also as as you kind of suggested, maybe they did not want to necessarily get rid of the public platform that they had developed over that previous year. and so there was a an interim report that came out in may of 1951 that that summarized key favors, general contributions and conclusions, and then an additional report came out in september of 1951, and that's when the committee formally ended its it's operations. well, as we mentioned, millions of americans watched these live hearings on tv and the interest really spiked when the committee went to new york city. here's some newsreel coverage of that. in a setting reminiscent of a hollywood production, the senate crime committee headed by senator

and i think in that sense, the kefauver committee is very successful and holds up well against other investigations of the period. i'll also add that the committee is very successful in my mind, in that it did all of this work in a sober minded, fair, as much as fair as they could, way. that contrasted greatly with the ongoing investiga tions in the 1950s into communist subversion and led by joseph mccarthy, which are often held out as the the polar opposite of of a committee with the chairman who stepped over bounds unfairly accused people. the kefauver committee, i think, built a reputation for being a very fair minded and sincere and well-organized organization. and i think, you know, in terms of its legacy, i do think it's, you know, if you're going to talk about federal action related to the mafia, the mob, organized crime into the sixties and seventies, you have to start with this committee, even if it didn't immediately have successes. i think it's really a jumping off point for the public attention moving forward into the late 19, into the 1960s and 1970s. are the records of