Inside Story With Victor Riesel – August 24, 1956 – NBC Radio – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
In his day, investigative journalists would be called Muckrakers – these days they are Whistleblowers. In either case, they were reporters who ran the very real risk of retaliation by the very people and organizations they were shedding some light on.
In Victor Riesel’s case, it was against corrupt Labor Unions, particularly those being run by Organized crime, or those heavily influenced by the mob.
Victor Riesel came from a Labor Union background. His father was a union organizer who helped establish the International Ladies Garment Workers Union in 1913.
Victor Riesel’s labor journalism career formally began in 1937 when he started writing a regular column on labor union issues.
He was hired by The New York Post in 1941. His column became nationally syndicated in 1942. He left the Post in 1948 after a change in management, and joined William Randolph Hearst’s New York Daily Mirror. Within eight years, his column was syndicated in 193 newspapers.
His investigation of Communist Party infiltration of the National Maritime Union led Representative Louis B. Heller to introduce legislation in 1951 to investigate the charges. In 1951 and 1952, Riesel provided Senator Pat McCarran with information that led to a Senate investigation into communist influence in the United Public Workers of America. In 1952, he publicly alleged before the Subcommittee on Internal Security (led at the time by Sen. McCarran) that Local 65 of the Distributive, Processing and Office Workers of America was controlled by the Communist Party. The same year, he denounced Gambino crime family member Anthony “Tough Tony” Anastasio for engaging in labor racketeering. Anastasio sued Riesel for $1 million for libel, but the suit was thrown out of court.
In 1956, Riesel began working with United States Attorney Paul Williams to rein in labor racketeering in the New York City garment and trucking industries.
On April 5, 1956, an assailant threw sulphuric acid into Riesel’s face as he was leaving Lindy’s (a famous restaurant in Manhattan). Riesel had been reporting on corruption in the International Union of Operating Engineers and its then-President, William C. DeKoning Jr. He had recently alleged that DeKoning was conspiring with Joseph S. Fay (a convicted labor racketeer and extortionist) to re-establish his father, William C. DeKoning Sr. (who had recently been freed from prison after serving a sentence for extortion) as president of the union. Although Riesel had received numerous death and other threats over the past few months, he had dismissed them as the work of “cranks.”
The attack occurred shortly after a Riesel radio broadcast. Barry Gray, radio station WMCA’s overnight talk radio host, had asked Riesel to substitute for him. Riesel invited two IUOE Local 138 leaders who were challenging the DeKonings for control of the local union to join him for the broadcast. The broadcast originated from Hutton’s Restaurant at 47th Street and Lexington Avenue shortly after midnight on April 5, and concluded at 2 AM. Afterward, Riesel and his secretary went to Lindy’s restaurant, located on Broadway between 49th Street and 50th Street. They had coffee, and departed Lindy’s at 3 AM to walk to the secretary’s automobile. Riesel removed his eyeglasses, which he did by habit when in public. A slender, black-haired man in blue and white jacket stepped out of the shadows of the entrance to the Mark Hellinger Theatre and threw a vial of sulphuric acid into Riesel’s eyes. Riesel shouted, “My gosh! My gosh!”, and clutched at his face. While the secretary and others rendered assistance and dragged Riesel into Lindy’s, the assailant walked calmly away.
The attack on Riesel had significant implications for national American labor policy. President Dwight Eisenhower (who had seen Riesel on Meet the Press) told AFL-CIO President George Meany that he was so incensed by the attack on Riesel that he intended to introduce legislation designed to root out corruption in labor unions. Clark R. Mollenhoff, editor of the Des Moines Register, was so alarmed by the attack on Riesel that he ordered extensive investigations into trade union corruption. Mollenhoff’s investigative efforts unearthed much evidence that Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa was engaged in labor racketeering. The attack also convinced Robert F. Kennedy, then chief legal counsel for the Senate Committee on Government Operations, to lead an investigation into labor racketeering. Kennedy’s investigations (as well as subsequent labor scandals) led to the establishment of the Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management. This committee’s investigations led directly to the passage of the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act, which imposed financial reporting requirements on labor unions, limited the power of trusteeships, established many member and employer rights.
Beginning shortly after the attack on Riesel, NBC Radio ran a series of broadcasts featuring Victor Riesel with Labor news of the previous week. Here is that broadcast, Inside Story featuring Victor Riesel, from August 24, 1956.
