Senator John Kane and Erwin Questadt.
The Kane Hearings were a series of testifications by members of the Italian Mafia against Michael Corleone, but furthermore, it was a senate investigation. These hearings occured in 1959~1960, and ultimately ended in the publicization of the Italian Mafia, Frank Pentangeli breaking the code of Omerta by revealing all about Mafia terminology, ranks, and jobs.
Background[]
Jewish mob boss Hyman Roth wanted to bring down his rivals, the Corleone crime family, who killed his old friend Moe Greene back in 1954. Roth gave the go-ahead for the Rosato Brothers to split from the Trapani crime family, and furthermore, for Carmine Rosato to nearly assassinate Corleone Capo Frank Pentangeli. He arranged for a police officer to arrive at the scene to intervene before Pentangeli died, so he was let loose into the alley, with the thought that Michael Corleone had set him up; Corleone wanted a peace meeting, and the hitman who was strangling him whispered "Michael Corleone says hello". This poisoned his mind, making him want to get revenge. Roth bribed attorney Erwin Questadt, a man who would preside over the senate committe hearing on organized crime, so that he would get the upper hand in the hearings. This plan, he thought, would crush the Corleones.
Hearings[]
Chart of the Corleone family.
The first hearings were held in October 1959, with Senator John Kane interviewing Pentangeli's soldier Willie Cicci, who gave up all of the Mafia's terminologies: he told him the hierarchy, what each rank does, and all about how soldiers like him never got their orders directly from the dons.