Hung Jury

For a few days last week, Gambler Frank Costello, 60, sat glumly in a Manhattan courtroom and faced the prospect of a prison term. Charged with contempt of Congress for walking out on the Kefauver crime committee last March, he based his defense on the contentions that i) television hearings are unconstitutional (rejected by Federal Judge Sylvester J. Ryan), and 2) his doctors had warned him of danger to his chronic sore throat (an arrested cancer) if he testified. The doctors were put on the stand. Both said they had told Costello he could testify.

The jury deliberated for 23 hours, then sent word that it was hopelessly deadlocked: one member was standing steadfastly for acquittal. Frank Costello (who peeled off bills for passing panhandlers when he went to lunch) could relax until retrial of the case, some time in the spring.

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