Richardson Calls For Wiretapping

Legalized wire-tapping is necessary for Massachusetts to cut down its rate of organized crime, Elliot L. Richardson '41, state attorney-general, said last night.

Speaking to a meager audience at Kirkland House, Richardson called for the state legislature to give law-enforcement officers greater liberties in their work.

"There are a large number of people making hundreds of millions of dollars each year in illegal activity," he said. The cause of this situation, he said, is a lack of knowledge of "anything but the general structure of organized crime in the state."

Richardson also discussed the shortage of adequately-trained parole and probation officers, saying that this lets the criminals back into society to commit more crimes.

He listed gambling, narcotics, loan-sharking, and prostitution "to a diminishing degree" as the major areas of organized crime in Massachusetts.