“Gambling, Gangsters and Girls”

"Newport Gangsters Tour" Tour Guides Dressed as gangsters from the era

Gambling in Newport came in many forms, from casinos to horse tracks and from country clubs offering slot machines and bingo to the infamous “bust out joints”. To understand just how many of these gambling places there were around the Sin City, the stories of the main players in the dangerous game of gambling must be recapitulated.

The Cleveland Syndicate

Turfway Park in Florence, KY. Founded by the Cleveland Four

Some of the first forms massive gambling that came to Newport were from gangsters from the Cleveland Syndicate that became known as the “Cleveland Four”. The members of the Cleveland Four were Moe Dalitz, Morris Kleinman, Louis Rothkopf and Sam Tucker (Sin City Revisited). They took over one of the already existing race track by assassinating the owner. Following that heinous they changed the track’s name to River Downs which continues to function to present day. After a while the syndicate expanded their business by acquiring a dog track in Florence, KY – a neighboring city of Newport – and turned it into a horse track and then again renaming it “Turfway Park” which is now owned by Keeneland.

The Cleveland Syndicate also started monopolizing the gambling houses, brothels and clubs all around the city, some of their more prominent clubs were the Yorkshire Club and the Flamingo Club which was located at 633 York Street.

The above is from a government document - An Investigation of Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, in 1951. The hearings were also know as the Kefauver Hearings.

The Yorkshire Club, one of the main assets that the Cleveland Syndicate owned.

 Peter Schmidt

Another key player in Newport’s history of sin was Peter Schmidt. Schmidt was one of George Remus’s chief henchmen and amassed a large amount of money which he used to buy a hotel in Newport once he got out of jail for his stint with Remus. He named the hotel “Glenn Hotel” after his son and he also maintained an illegal distillery in the basement of his hotel. Eventually, federal agents discovered his distillery and shut it down. His actions landed Schmidt in jail for a second time.

Glenn's Rendezvous, opened by Peter Schmidt in name of his son.

After serving his 5 year sentence, Peter Schmidt, opened up a casino in his hotel which he named Glenn Rendezvous. When the Cleveland Syndicate started their campaign for control of all vice in the city, they offered Schmidt a deal for the deed of his establishment. Schmidt refused and instead opened a bigger, better and more exclusive club/casino named the Beverly Hills Club which was burned down by the syndicate when again he decided to refuse the mafia’s offer.

Buck Brady and his Audacity

A much smaller gambling entrepreneur was a man by the name of Buck Brady, he opened his own club which he named The Primrose which was where the common folk would go gamble, drink and pass the time. After a while, the Cleveland Four felt that Brady’s locale was cutting into the profits of their own clubs. In retaliation, the syndicate harassed the owner of the Primrose; tired of the incessant harassment, Brady took matters into his own hands and attempted to assassinate one of the syndicate’s muscle heads.

The Primrose Club, owned by Buck Brady

Brady’s efforts were futile and the syndicate “…gave Brady an offer he could not refuse. He lost his casino when the Syndicate offered him his life for the deed to the establishment” (cincyfocus.com). After acquiring the Primrose, the mafia remodeled it and renamed it “The Latin Quarter” and became a hot spot in the entertainment business in Newport.

Jimmy Brink and the Syndicate

In contrast to Schmidt and Brady, a man by the name of Jimmy Brink actually accepted the offer made to him by the Cleveland Syndicate. Brink opened a club, named the “Lookout House,” that contained a restaurant and a well equipped casino. The club itself also had a great view of the Cincinnati skyline. After the syndicate gained the control of the Beverly Hills Club thy decided to go for Brink’s establishment. Brink was quick to accept the mafia’s offer which included 125 thousand dollars, 10 percent ownership over the Lookout House and the Beverly Hills Club and was also the general manager for the Lookout House (Sin City Revisited). “Since the Lookout House was located in Covington which is in the neighboring Kenton County the Cleveland mafia had control of two major clubs in two counties that shared the same Grand Jury. What does this mean? Well, since the Grand Jury is needed for every indictment, the syndicate could keep at least one of their major cash sources safe from the law because they either had to be in Kenton County or Campbell County” says Mr. Gels (Mr. Jerome Gels is the man in the middle of the first picture on this page) on the syndicate’s activities with Brink’s club.

Bust-Out Joints

A new form of gambling place were the wicked bust out joints, which were smaller and greedier gambling establishments that would not let a costumer out until he or she was “bust” by using rigged games or games with nearly impossible odds of victory for the costumers. Bust-out joints owners would use all kinds of heinous acts to bust his/her costumers. One of the more prominent bust out joints was actually owned by a marshal, he would rig his games to take the costumer’s money. As well as cheating in the games he would also record the conversations they had with the prostitutes while they were “working”, he would later blackmail his costumers and extort them by threatening to show the tape to their spouses or to just show it in public.

Prostitution

Prostitution spread around Newport very fast and in a very large scale. It started with the brothels being established along one way streets that led out and into the city of Newport. The brothels that started spawning along Monmouth Street were called “Day Houses” which were opened during the day to attract the costumers that are on their way to work in Cincinnati. In contrast, brothels opened along York Street, which is a one-way street that leads to Newport from Cincinnati, said brothels were targeting the workers that wanted a “quickie” on their way back from working long hours, these brothels were called “Night Houses”.

The Latin Quarter Girls entertaining their costumers before a night of sin.

Many other “gentlemen clubs” were opened at casinos and clubs along the city. These were usually bigger and more organized than the Day and Night houses along York and Monmouth Street. Some of the more notorious brothels were the Hi-De-Ho Club and the Latin Quarter where vice was done (Wicked Newport: Kentucky’s Sin City). Many of the bust out joints also offered prostitution services for their customers. Prostitution was so bad in Newport and so open the public that there were over 9 brothels within a block of the police headquarters.