No-Nonsense Anti-Organized Crime Crusader Robert Kennedy Has No Enthusiasm For Pardoning a Convicted Figure

Robert Kennedy first gained national prominence as chief counsel of the Senate Permanent Investigations Subcommittee where he investigated mob racketeering, particularly as involving Teamster Union executives. His brother John appointed him Attorney General in 1961, and during his three year tenure as head of the Justice Department Kennedy focused on organized crime. Convictions against organized crime figures rose by 800%.

Robert J. Kaltenborn was investigated as an organized crime participant, and in a plea bargain in 1949 pled no contest to an income tax evasion charge, which is tantamount to a conviction. He went to prison for some months, and then in 1950 testified in Washington before the Senate Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce. Ten years later Kaltenborn sought the intervention of Nevada Senator Howard Cannon to assist in obtaining a presidential pardon, and Cannon contacted the Attorney General.

Typed Letter Signed, on his Office of the Attorney General letterhead, Washington, circa December 1, 1961, to Senator Cannon, responding rather coldly to this request to aid someone prosecuted for organized crime connections. “I have your letter of November 28, 1961, in behalf of Mr. Robert J. Kaltenborn. Mr. Kaltenborn’s petition for pardon is being processed in due course. The reports thus far received have had attention and when the record is complete the file will be subjected to further review and appropriate action taken. You will be informed promptly when the decision is reached in this case.” We obtained this letter directly from the Cannon family, and it has never before been offered for sale.

We can find no mention of Kaltenborn having received a pardon, so it seems Kennedy turned down the request. This is less surprising than the chilly manner in which he wrote Senator Cannon, a Democrat and supporter of the President.