![]() ![]() But it wasn't until the 1930s and beyond that prostitution became highly organized. Prostitution was also a major player in the battle between the city’s crime syndicates.Īs early as the Civil War, troops stationed in Cincinnati would cross the Ohio River into Newport to make use of a wide selection of brothels. “That morning, the newspaper rounded up a bunch of us newsboys and took us in a truck to Newport to sell a special edition: ‘Farley Boy Wiped out in Newport' – that was the headline." "The mob ran the Flamingo, so maybe they shouldn't have gone around there at 4 a.m.,” Fields said. Rip died almost immediately, but Taylor survived. 18, 1946, Rip walked into the Yorkshire Club – run by gambler Martin Berman and the Cleveland Four – and robbed a dealer of $2,500 at pistol point.įour days later, as Rip and Taylor were leaving the Flamingo Club at 633 York Street, a man in a large black car shot them both with a sawed-off shotgun. The Farley brothers - Rip and Taylor Farley – came from the hills of Eastern Kentucky to work in the bootlegging syndicate during the Prohibition. The Cleveland Four and Andrews weren’t the only sources of trouble in Newport during its heyday. Fields said the “real” story that still circulates to this day is three large men in suits showed up at the sixth-floor nurses' station and told them to “take a break.”īy the time the nurses returned to their station, the three men were gone and Andrews' crushed body was lying twisted on the pavement below. He admitted to killing another rival club owner, but was acquitted of murder when a judge ruled self-defense.Īndrews would meet his end in 1973 when he "fell" from a sixth-story window at St. Andrews was also a leading suspect in the shooting death of an employee he claimed had stolen from him. ![]() He took over the Alibi Club on Central Avenue after its owner was gunned down – a crime he was a prime suspect in. He grew up in Newport when it truly was America's Sin City.įields said Andrews was one of the more trigger-happy old-time Newport gangsters. Fields moved from Mount Adams to a house at Fifth and Isabella in Newport's west end in 1945. "You had several elements running gambling in Newport in those days – and they were always trying to kill each other," retired Kentucky Post carrier Ken Fields told the Post in a 2004 interview. Andrews' business, Sportsman's Club, grossed about $1.6 million a year – well above $7 million today. Soon they acquired Latonia Park, a dog track in Florence they turned into a horse track.īut the syndicate wasn’t alone in its conquest of Newport’s underworld.Ī man named Frank 'Screw' Andrews soon opened several businesses in the city that dealt with gambling, alcohol and everything in between.Ĭompetition between the factions became fierce. The four distributed liquor to Newport, and later purchased the Coney Island Racetrack, renaming it River Downs. Its leaders were Moe Dalitz, Morris Kleinman, Louis Rothkopf and Sam Tucker. It was during this time that Newport and the rest of Northern Kentucky were parceled out to one of the most powerful crime organizations in the country: The Cleveland Four. This melting pot of culture brought a love for beer, lotteries and sporting traditions that would pave the way for illegal indulgences.īut it was the passage of the Volstead Act in 1919 – and the subsequent outlawing of alcohol in the United States – that helped criminal entrepreneurs blossom in the city. Perched near the joining of the Ohio and Licking rivers, Newport was populated by waves of immigrants. This nationally recognized identity came from a variety of socio-economic factors. They just gambled.”Īt a time when Las Vegas was merely a crossroads in the Nevada desert, Newport became “Sin City” – a place where if you could dream it, and pay for it, you could do it. “Across the river, you still had a much stronger political machine. “You could pretty much do what you wanted – and the guys with some money really did what they wanted,” retired Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky reporter Terry Flynn said. The area we know now as home to an aquarium, an IMAX theater and a family entertainment center was a pocket of lust and crime for almost two centuries – and that way of life persisted into the 1960s, 70s and even 80s. Sitting at the edge of civilization in what was then the American West, the Northern Kentucky city developed into a lawless slip on the Ohio River – where drinking, prostitution, gambling and gunplay were the natural order. – From its beginnings as a military outpost in 1803, Newport had an aura of sin. For a series of 'Then & Now' interactive looks at Newport during its "Sin City" era, go to the bottom of the article. ![]()
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