WEBVTT - The Beverly Hills Supper Club Fire 0:00:01.440 --> 0:00:04.240 Welcome to Stuff you Should know a production of I 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:13.160 Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, 0:00:13.200 --> 0:00:15.920 and there's Chuck and Jerry's here too, And this is 0:00:16.000 --> 0:00:21.759 stuff you should know about Northern Kentucky, that's right, which 0:00:21.920 --> 0:00:27.560 was in the nineteen thirties and forties the casino capital 0:00:27.600 --> 0:00:31.600 of the United States. It was the Vegas of the 0:00:31.720 --> 0:00:36.839 United States before Vegas and fifties too. Even it's hard 0:00:36.880 --> 0:00:39.560 to believe I've never knew any of this. So much 0:00:39.560 --> 0:00:43.519 of this is very cinematic. I was just trying to 0:00:43.560 --> 0:00:45.800 work out how to tell the story in a movie 0:00:46.760 --> 0:00:50.120 without doing flash forwards and flashbacks. But that's probably how 0:00:50.159 --> 0:00:52.599 you would have to do it. So I grew up 0:00:52.640 --> 0:00:57.240 in Northern Ohio, which is not that far from Northern Kentucky, 0:00:57.880 --> 0:01:00.120 on the other end of Ohio from it, because the 0:01:00.200 --> 0:01:04.680 area we're talking about just across the river from Cincinnati. Um, 0:01:04.720 --> 0:01:07.760 And I guess I had heard of this before. It's 0:01:07.760 --> 0:01:09.479 one of those things where I can't remember if my 0:01:09.520 --> 0:01:13.240 mind is telling me that I had a memory before 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:15.520 I actually had a memory, Like I didn't really have one, 0:01:15.600 --> 0:01:18.040 I just want to think I did. It might be 0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:21.119 one of those scenarios but regardless, it is like a huge, 0:01:21.560 --> 0:01:25.200 huge piece of northern Kentucky southern Ohio history. And in fact, 0:01:25.280 --> 0:01:27.680 the more you learn about it, if you were alive 0:01:28.520 --> 0:01:32.360 and sentient, you know, in the um mid to late seventies, 0:01:32.520 --> 0:01:35.200 it was a national thing. Like it was a really 0:01:35.240 --> 0:01:38.559 big deal that this happened, this Beverly Hill supper club 0:01:38.640 --> 0:01:41.720 fire that we're going to talk about today. Yeah, it 0:01:41.880 --> 0:01:46.039 was definitely one of the worst, um sort of entertainment 0:01:46.080 --> 0:01:49.200 club fires in US history. I would have to look 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:51.520 at numbers. I mean, it's probably one of the deadliest 0:01:51.600 --> 0:01:55.440 fires in US history because a hundred and sixty five 0:01:55.520 --> 0:02:00.840 people died in horrific fashion obvious, See, dying by fire 0:02:00.920 --> 0:02:05.080 is always horrific. But this was as bad as it gets, um, 0:02:05.120 --> 0:02:06.760 and I didn't know anything about it. So a big 0:02:07.160 --> 0:02:11.200 thanks to you for uh commissioning this from Dave Rouse, 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:15.880 my friend, you did No, I didn't. I didn't commission this. 0:02:17.639 --> 0:02:21.200 I didn't either. We're gonna have to this. May be 0:02:21.960 --> 0:02:24.760 occasionally Dave will say like, hey, have you heard of 0:02:24.760 --> 0:02:26.600 this cool thing? And we'll say, oh, yeah, just that 0:02:26.600 --> 0:02:29.400 sounds great. So that may have been one of these 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:33.320 because I didn't know about this I don't think. What 0:02:33.480 --> 0:02:38.040 day is it? Uh? It is Tuesday? I think, are 0:02:38.080 --> 0:02:42.320 we Is this a job? Am I dreaming? You're like 0:02:42.360 --> 0:02:44.400 that kid David on the way home from the dentist? 0:02:45.080 --> 0:02:48.840 Is this real? All right? So let's go to Newport, 0:02:48.919 --> 0:02:51.760 Kentucky in the way back machine. We haven't pulled that 0:02:51.760 --> 0:02:54.399 thing out in a while, so let's dust it out. 0:02:54.440 --> 0:03:00.760 That's fired up through the wiring, so I'll have to 0:03:00.800 --> 0:03:03.799 hot wire it. Luckily, I'm good at that. So let's 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:06.760 get it fired up and let's go back to the 0:03:06.880 --> 0:03:16.680 nineteen twenties Prohibition era Northern kentuckt Okay, here we are, 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:21.040 Chuck and uh. It turns out that despite prohibition being 0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:26.200 in full force, UM liquors really really easy to get, 0:03:27.280 --> 0:03:31.360 especially especially because there was a loophole in the Volstad 0:03:31.360 --> 0:03:33.840 Act that said, and I know we talked about this 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:37.520 in the Prohibition episode UM that said that if you 0:03:37.760 --> 0:03:42.120 UM are making alcohol for medicinal use, you can't. You 0:03:42.160 --> 0:03:44.920 have to have a huge license. Each bottle has to 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:47.400 be bonded by the government. You can't be it's got 0:03:47.400 --> 0:03:49.360 to be a hundred proof on the nose. There is 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:53.000 a bunch of like criteria, but you could legally produce 0:03:53.480 --> 0:03:57.480 um alcohol. And there was a guy named George Remus 0:03:57.800 --> 0:04:00.720 who who was a lawyer. He also was a pharmacist 0:04:00.800 --> 0:04:02.880 by trade, but he had been defending all sorts of 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:06.520 bootleggers in Chicago and realized, man, there's a lot of 0:04:06.560 --> 0:04:09.400 money in bootlegging. So I saw that. He did a 0:04:09.400 --> 0:04:13.640 little research, found out that of the legal booze producing 0:04:13.680 --> 0:04:16.280 the United States was coming out of the Cincinnati area, 0:04:16.640 --> 0:04:19.440 and he moved over there and said, I'm going to 0:04:19.480 --> 0:04:23.119 get into organized crime. And boy did he ever. Yeah, 0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:27.240 he was living in Chicago at the time, and if 0:04:27.279 --> 0:04:30.640 you're leaving the organized crime in Chicago to go to Cincinnati, 0:04:31.320 --> 0:04:34.840 then he must have some good insider information, and indeed 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:37.280 he did. He was known after he made that move 0:04:37.320 --> 0:04:40.200 as a king of the bootleggers because he would um 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:43.160 and you know, it's a great scam. He would manufacture 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:47.640 this quote unquote medicinal whiskey and then he would have 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:51.279 a setup where his guys would steal the truck, hijack 0:04:51.360 --> 0:04:55.200 the truck, and then sell it. And this money number 0:04:55.360 --> 0:04:59.080 is staggering because it says at one point this guy 0:04:59.240 --> 0:05:04.599 was making forty million dollars a year in the nineteen twenties. Yeah, 0:05:04.640 --> 0:05:09.080 it's about nine hundred million dollars today, So I mean 0:05:09.480 --> 0:05:12.479 that's that made him probably one of the wealthiest people 0:05:12.520 --> 0:05:14.640 in the United States if he would have been able 0:05:14.680 --> 0:05:16.839 to keep the you know, that operation up, But of 0:05:16.839 --> 0:05:19.880 course he wasn't for sure. So if you were a 0:05:19.880 --> 0:05:24.080 politician or um, a police chief or even probably a 0:05:24.080 --> 0:05:27.200 local cop in the area, it made you pretty wealthy too. 0:05:27.720 --> 0:05:29.880 Because one of the reasons why he set up in 0:05:29.920 --> 0:05:34.719 northern Kentucky's, particularly in Newport, was because you could pay 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:37.000 people off a lot easier. It was a small town. 0:05:37.400 --> 0:05:39.680 You could basically make it your fiefdom. And that's what 0:05:39.760 --> 0:05:42.960 George Remis did. And you're right he Um. He got 0:05:43.000 --> 0:05:46.640 caught pretty quickly, I think, um within just a few 0:05:46.720 --> 0:05:50.840 years of setting up this organized crime syndicate. UM. And 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:53.839 I just a little aside on him. He was really interesting. 0:05:54.279 --> 0:05:57.440 He had a sellmate in jail who turned out to 0:05:57.440 --> 0:06:00.359 be an FBI agent, not an informant, and actual agent 0:06:00.400 --> 0:06:03.520 who has planted there. The agent found out about all 0:06:03.520 --> 0:06:07.120 the money that Remus had that his wife control that 0:06:07.240 --> 0:06:11.080 was in her name. The guy left the jail, quit 0:06:11.120 --> 0:06:14.799 the FBI, and started an affair with Remus's wife, Imogene, 0:06:15.480 --> 0:06:18.600 and then talked her into basically like selling off all 0:06:18.680 --> 0:06:22.200 his stuff and funnel money from her. So the FBI 0:06:22.240 --> 0:06:25.200 guy robbed and blind. Remus was so mad that when 0:06:25.200 --> 0:06:28.039 he got out of prison, he he tracked down his 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:32.160 wife and shot her in public in broad daylight. Did 0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:35.560 he get pinched for that? He got pinched. He was 0:06:35.640 --> 0:06:39.400 convicted but found not guilty and reason of insanity, was 0:06:39.480 --> 0:06:45.560 taken to UM Sanitarium right sanatorium ortarium, I can't remember 0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:49.520 um a mental hospital, and then, because he was a lawyer, 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:53.320 used the prosecutor's reasoning that he wasn't insane to get 0:06:53.400 --> 0:06:57.760 himself released from the actual UM, the mental hospital, and 0:06:57.920 --> 0:07:01.159 became a freeman very quickly. Boy, he knew all the angles, 0:07:01.240 --> 0:07:03.520 Yeah he did. And also one other thing about him 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:06.560 is that it's pretty much a certainty that Jay Gatsby 0:07:06.680 --> 0:07:09.039 from the Great Gatsby was based on George D. Remus 0:07:09.040 --> 0:07:13.560 because he had met um F Scott Fitzgerald at some point. Yeah, 0:07:13.640 --> 0:07:15.880 and probably through some pretty wild parties would be my guests. 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:20.080 But he didn't drink or smoke. Well, I don't, well 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:22.000 did Gatsby here? I could think gets to be drinks 0:07:22.000 --> 0:07:26.800 something yeah, I um, alright, so it's he's in jail. 0:07:27.560 --> 0:07:30.520 But by this time he had established such an operation 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:36.160 there in northern Kentucky that a little industry of sleeves 0:07:36.320 --> 0:07:39.400 grew up around it. Uh, kind of a red light district, 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:41.920 is how Dave put it. And this is where we 0:07:42.000 --> 0:07:44.960 get to the birth of what was then called the 0:07:45.040 --> 0:07:47.960 Beverly Hills Country Club. Uh. There was a guy named 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:50.760 Peachman who now factors in the story, who used to 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:54.360 be a driver for Remus and in seven he bought 0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:58.680 this old roadhouse outside of Newport, Newport perched upon a 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:04.160 hill and and and basically renovated it into a casino, 0:08:04.480 --> 0:08:06.640 and a really nice one. They had casinos there, but 0:08:06.720 --> 0:08:08.840 they were they were called bust out joints. They were 0:08:08.880 --> 0:08:12.400 kind of again, they were kind of sleazy places to go. 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:15.560 And the Beverly Hills Country Club was what was known 0:08:15.600 --> 0:08:18.160 as a carpet joint, and it was a it was 0:08:18.200 --> 0:08:21.160 a nice place. It was it was the blueprint for 0:08:21.240 --> 0:08:23.600 what ended up being Las Vegas. Like a nice place 0:08:23.800 --> 0:08:26.040 where you could go and you could gamble, and you 0:08:26.160 --> 0:08:30.400 get a dinner and some drink and even see a show. Yeah. 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:33.240 So the thing about that is yes, it was. The 0:08:33.559 --> 0:08:37.839 whole jam was kind of sleazy. In fact, Newport earned 0:08:37.880 --> 0:08:40.439 the nickname Since City back in the thirties. And again, 0:08:40.559 --> 0:08:44.160 Las Vegas is a glimmer in anybody's eye at this point. 0:08:44.640 --> 0:08:47.960 It's a it's a tumble wheat. No like Newport is 0:08:48.440 --> 0:08:52.240 Las Vegas and Atlantic City wrapped into one. And if 0:08:52.280 --> 0:08:54.760 you were a tourist like you were, you were totally fine. 0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:57.360 You were safe. The streets were clean, like nobody was 0:08:57.360 --> 0:09:00.559 gonna mess with you because it was so fully mob run. 0:09:00.920 --> 0:09:03.120 But it was mob run by a bunch of like 0:09:03.320 --> 0:09:07.600 different disparate people who used to work with George Remus 0:09:07.640 --> 0:09:11.640 and the Cleveland mob that led by Moe Deletes, who 0:09:11.679 --> 0:09:14.160 went on to help found Las Vegas. He was one 0:09:14.160 --> 0:09:17.680 of the original founders. He said, I want this action. 0:09:17.800 --> 0:09:20.320 This is like just off the border of Cincinnati. Were 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:22.480 in Cleveland. We're going to get in on this. And 0:09:22.520 --> 0:09:26.119 he moved in on Newport and started buying up casinos 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:31.040 around town. Delete Deletes, that's what I saw. Oh really, 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:34.240 I know. I want to say dallots, but it's not dallots. 0:09:35.440 --> 0:09:39.400 It it's delightful as what it is. If you look 0:09:39.400 --> 0:09:45.120 at uh deletes, Uh he looks exactly what you would 0:09:45.120 --> 0:09:48.080 think of mobster. Moe Deletes would look like he was 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:49.960 a big time mobster. Like he was one of the 0:09:49.960 --> 0:09:55.439 ones that was grilled by the Kaffer Committee. He was 0:09:55.480 --> 0:09:58.320 one of the ones that that helped found Las Vegas 0:09:58.400 --> 0:10:00.000 years later, right, right, Yeah, that's what I was saying. 0:10:00.520 --> 0:10:02.920 But this was years and years later. And again one 0:10:02.960 --> 0:10:05.120 of the reasons Las Vegas was found was because Mo 0:10:05.280 --> 0:10:08.280 de Letz was one of the first, like big time 0:10:08.320 --> 0:10:10.760 mob guys who showed up in Newport and took over 0:10:11.040 --> 0:10:14.720 it was. It was just the blueprint for Vegas later on. Alright, 0:10:14.720 --> 0:10:17.560 So Schmidt and again Chuck, I want to just really 0:10:17.640 --> 0:10:23.280 drive home. We're talking about northern Kentucky. M hm okay, yeah, 0:10:23.920 --> 0:10:26.360 Uh you know how I know that because we said 0:10:26.400 --> 0:10:28.640 northern Kentucky like sixty times so far I know. But 0:10:28.720 --> 0:10:32.520 it's just still boggles the mind. So Schmidt owns this 0:10:32.600 --> 0:10:35.760 Beverly Hills country club, and uh doesn't want to give 0:10:35.760 --> 0:10:38.720 it up despite mob pressure. He's like, no, this is 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:42.160 my place. I want to own it. So what looks 0:10:42.200 --> 0:10:45.160 like happened as the mom said, fine, we'll burn it down. Uh, 0:10:45.200 --> 0:10:48.200 this was not the big fire obviously that came, you know, 0:10:48.280 --> 0:10:53.840 forty years later, this was in February. Only one fatality, 0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:57.000 very sadly, h five year old girl, the niece of 0:10:57.040 --> 0:11:01.360 the club's caretaker, died. And here's the thing. They didn't 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:05.160 prove arson. But again, everyone was on the take, so 0:11:05.320 --> 0:11:07.480 it was kind of just understood that it was burned 0:11:07.520 --> 0:11:10.760 down because Schmidt wouldn't sell well. Plus also, right after 0:11:10.880 --> 0:11:13.080 the fire, Mo Deletes came and said you want to 0:11:13.120 --> 0:11:16.559 sell now? And uh that was it. Mo Deletes now 0:11:16.640 --> 0:11:20.040 own the Beverly Hills Country Club and with that he 0:11:20.160 --> 0:11:24.880 basically owned Newport in conjunction with a couple other big 0:11:24.920 --> 0:11:29.480 time heavy hitter Cleveland bosses. Yeah, with whatever they're whatever 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:32.760 Cleveland accent is. So you want to take a I 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:34.680 don't know that there is one actually know that you 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:39.760 mentioned it. It's kind of midwestern. Uh, hey, what do 0:11:39.800 --> 0:11:42.640 you say, Let's let's go down to Newport and run 0:11:42.640 --> 0:11:48.160 the plate. That's a Cleveland accent, I think by way 0:11:48.520 --> 0:11:53.600 Steve Bush and me is it's all right, We'll take 0:11:53.640 --> 0:12:24.880 that break and we'll we'll come back right after this, Okay, Chuck, 0:12:25.040 --> 0:12:28.920 So Mo Deletes and the Cleveland mob have taken over Newport. 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:32.400 And this is when it really becomes like the casino 0:12:32.520 --> 0:12:37.240 capital of America. Yeah, it's bustling. People are and this 0:12:37.320 --> 0:12:39.760 isn't like, oh I came in from Cleveland or Cincinnati. 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:42.400 People are coming in from the West coast in New 0:12:42.480 --> 0:12:46.679 York and Chicago. I think the population was about thirty thousand, 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:51.040 and uh seventy thousand people, you know, more than double 0:12:51.080 --> 0:12:53.680 that amount would come in on the weekends to hang 0:12:53.679 --> 0:12:56.880 out and see young Jerry Lewis and Frank Sinatra and 0:12:56.960 --> 0:13:00.560 Dean Martin. And it was a literal blue print again 0:13:00.559 --> 0:13:03.200 for Vegas. They were doing it all. Duke Ellington was playing, 0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:07.040 and Marilyn Monroe was there and it was just, uh, 0:13:07.240 --> 0:13:13.520 it was quite a scene. Again where in northern Kentucky 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:16.720 and the others. The other thing about it too, is 0:13:17.240 --> 0:13:20.480 there was no legalized gambling in Kentucky. This was all 0:13:20.559 --> 0:13:24.679 just flouting the law. And the reason why because everybody 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:27.640 was on the take. They just looked the other way. 0:13:27.880 --> 0:13:31.000 And it was the casino Capital of America was located 0:13:31.040 --> 0:13:34.480 in a state that didn't have legalized gambling. Yeah, so 0:13:34.480 --> 0:13:36.839 so it wasn't like this is a a back room 0:13:36.880 --> 0:13:40.680 poker game like they were literal casinos that they got 0:13:40.679 --> 0:13:43.720 away with it, and eventually, you know, of course the 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:47.040 feds are going to take note, and the American Municipal 0:13:47.080 --> 0:13:51.920 Association uh started complaining to the federal government and said, hey, 0:13:51.920 --> 0:13:54.680 we got a real organized crime problem in this country. 0:13:55.320 --> 0:13:58.720 So that Cafalbre Committee that you were talking about earlier, 0:13:59.400 --> 0:14:01.200 it was a stab bush by the Senate. These big 0:14:01.240 --> 0:14:06.360 televised hearings. They trotted out everyone, including deletes, including Frank 0:14:06.400 --> 0:14:11.720 Costello and people like that. And here's the thing, it 0:14:11.880 --> 0:14:15.720 kept going that had no effect on shutting Newport down. 0:14:16.000 --> 0:14:21.240 This was in nineteen or fifty, and throughout the fifties 0:14:21.320 --> 0:14:23.600 it was still booming. Yeah. One of the reasons why 0:14:23.680 --> 0:14:25.360 they were able to get away with this was this 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:29.320 was before even the FBI would admit that there was 0:14:29.400 --> 0:14:34.040 a national crime syndicate of organized crime. Like Up to 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:39.440 the like late fifties, the general consensus among law enforcement, 0:14:39.480 --> 0:14:42.040 at least officially, was that it was all just local 0:14:42.320 --> 0:14:45.360 hoods and thugs and you know, criminals. But there was 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:49.240 certainly no organized crime that didn't exist. Even after the 0:14:49.320 --> 0:14:53.360 ki father Um Committee like revealed like, no, these people 0:14:53.360 --> 0:14:55.200 wh are in touch with one another and they're all 0:14:55.280 --> 0:14:58.120 mobbed up like this does exist, it still didn't quite take. 0:14:58.160 --> 0:15:01.760 It wasn't until the Appalachian me of nineteen fifty seven 0:15:01.760 --> 0:15:05.000 in Appalati to New York, where they literally caught a 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:07.920 hundred mob bosses from around the country in Cuba and 0:15:07.960 --> 0:15:12.000 Italy meeting to figure out how to organize their crime better. 0:15:12.120 --> 0:15:15.000 The people, including the FBI, were finally like, okay, fine, 0:15:15.040 --> 0:15:17.600 there's organized crime. But that's one way that they were 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:20.120 able to get away with this is because they just 0:15:20.240 --> 0:15:25.040 refused to accept that this was an organized crime syndicate. Yeah, 0:15:25.040 --> 0:15:27.880 which it very much was. Uh. And it played out 0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:30.360 in Newport in ways that you would expect in the 0:15:30.440 --> 0:15:34.560 nineteen fifties. They're homicide rate and you know this, you know, 0:15:34.600 --> 0:15:39.960 pretty small place was four times the national average. Uh. 0:15:40.000 --> 0:15:42.320 There were a lot of people that just vanished. Basically. 0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:45.920 Dave introduced me to a new term called the Newport nightgown, 0:15:46.640 --> 0:15:48.560 which was when you were wrapped up in chains and 0:15:48.600 --> 0:15:51.520 thrown off a bridge. Uh. There was a reporter in 0:15:51.560 --> 0:15:55.520 fifty seven that counted three hundred sex workers per mile 0:15:56.320 --> 0:16:01.800 in Newport And eventually nineteen six one rolls around and 0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:05.240 a football player, former player from Notre dame in the 0:16:05.280 --> 0:16:09.120 Browns there in Cleveland named George Raderman ran for sheriff 0:16:09.120 --> 0:16:15.400 in Newport as a reform candidate. Okay, you know that reference? 0:16:15.960 --> 0:16:19.960 No is that from No No, No, no, No. Good 0:16:19.960 --> 0:16:24.400 guess though it was Oh brother were art dal the 0:16:24.440 --> 0:16:27.520 Coen Brothers great movie where Charles Dunning said, people want 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:31.800 that reform. Oh yeah. It was a good character. Yeah, 0:16:31.840 --> 0:16:35.320 he was a southern politician. But this is what uh 0:16:35.640 --> 0:16:39.160 Raderman ran for. Basically, I'm going to clean this place up. Uh. 0:16:39.200 --> 0:16:41.440 And it was all going fine in his campaign until 0:16:41.480 --> 0:16:45.600 he was found naked and passed out in a hotel 0:16:45.680 --> 0:16:49.120 room with a sex worker and arrested. But it kind 0:16:49.120 --> 0:16:51.240 of came back to sting the mob, didn't it. It 0:16:51.320 --> 0:16:54.880 did because they did blood tests on George Raderman, probably 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:57.520 at his insistence. He said that he was drugged, and 0:16:57.520 --> 0:16:59.760 it turned out that yes, indeed, he was drugged with 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:02.920 oral hydrate, which is the basis of a mickey a 0:17:02.960 --> 0:17:05.040 Mickey finn. If you slip someone and mickey, you give 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:07.280 him chloral hydrate in a drink. And that's what they 0:17:07.320 --> 0:17:10.479 did to George Raderman and framed him. The mob, in 0:17:10.560 --> 0:17:13.879 conjunction with the local police framed this guy who was 0:17:13.960 --> 0:17:16.359 running for sheriff. It is a trope, but this was 0:17:16.400 --> 0:17:19.399 actually happening. Drug him and throw him dead naked with 0:17:19.400 --> 0:17:22.440 his sex order and take his and call the cops. Exactly. 0:17:22.600 --> 0:17:25.320 So um with with black and white picture. It's got 0:17:25.320 --> 0:17:28.159 to be black and white photos. Right. So Raderman actually 0:17:28.240 --> 0:17:30.840 goes on to win the election. He like, he comes 0:17:30.880 --> 0:17:33.280 out of this and clears his name, wins the election, 0:17:33.720 --> 0:17:36.840 and then all of the national attention that was given 0:17:36.840 --> 0:17:41.159 to this incredibly like just like almost mythical thing that 0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:44.720 happened to him. Um. Robert Kennedy, who was new as 0:17:44.760 --> 0:17:46.960 the U. S. Attorney General, said what is going on 0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:49.919 down there? And started sending feds to Newport, and all 0:17:49.920 --> 0:17:53.000 of a sudden, the party was over. That's right, The 0:17:53.040 --> 0:17:56.280 party was very much over by this town. This was 0:17:56.400 --> 0:18:02.800 the sixties, so Vegas was it's earlier days and people 0:18:03.200 --> 0:18:05.040 skipped down. Basically, he said, all right, let's go out 0:18:05.080 --> 0:18:10.119 there in the sunshine. Uh, Newport is done. And in 0:18:10.160 --> 0:18:14.480 the mid nineteen sixties, the Beverly Hills Country Club closed, 0:18:15.520 --> 0:18:18.120 but not for good, because, as we will see, it 0:18:18.200 --> 0:18:22.400 was revived, which will ultimately lead us to our tragedy. Yeah, 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:24.359 It sounds like a break spot, but it's not because 0:18:24.400 --> 0:18:26.919 we just took one, that's right. This is also the 0:18:26.960 --> 0:18:29.960 time when the famous song Goodbye Northern Kentucky I'm going 0:18:30.000 --> 0:18:35.400 to Las Vegas was written that Inglebert Humperdink or Gordon Lightfoot. 0:18:35.560 --> 0:18:40.080 It was a duet. Okay, yeah, yeah, it was a 0:18:40.119 --> 0:18:45.600 sea shantie that's right, sung into Cleveland accent. Alright. So 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:50.919 then we will enter another character, Dick Schilling Richard Chilling Jr. 0:18:50.960 --> 0:18:54.280 He was working at these casinos when he was just 0:18:54.359 --> 0:18:58.679 a kid and eventually rose up to like management and 0:18:58.720 --> 0:19:02.640 in the late sick season sixty nine, when Newport wasn't 0:19:02.760 --> 0:19:07.120 doing great, he had the foresight to buy this abandoned property, 0:19:07.160 --> 0:19:09.879 the Beverly Hills Supper and renamed it the Beverly Hills 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:12.520 Supper Club. This time, I was like, I'm going to 0:19:12.680 --> 0:19:19.399 restore this um giant, giant facility. I mean, like, the 0:19:19.440 --> 0:19:22.240 more we looked into this, that video you sent me 0:19:22.280 --> 0:19:26.520 that kind of lays out the not the schematic, but 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:31.280 the floor plan. It's unbelievable how big this place was. 0:19:31.400 --> 0:19:35.320 Like they would have half a dozen wedding parties going 0:19:35.400 --> 0:19:38.439 on at this and the same night in addition to 0:19:38.520 --> 0:19:42.720 the thousand seat to Frank Sinatra. Yeah, in the other room, 0:19:42.840 --> 0:19:46.240 like it was nuts and it was really lavishly done. 0:19:46.280 --> 0:19:48.960 Like Dick Schilling like did a really good job bringing 0:19:49.000 --> 0:19:52.520 this thing back and put it back on the map again. 0:19:53.080 --> 0:19:56.119 The thing is is that long standing tradition of a 0:19:56.200 --> 0:20:00.720 legitimate business owner buying the place, fixing it up, and 0:20:00.960 --> 0:20:03.560 uh being unwilling to sell it to the mob, who 0:20:04.400 --> 0:20:07.280 in short order turned around and burn it down. Um, 0:20:07.400 --> 0:20:11.399 that happened again, just like a year after he revamped it, 0:20:11.520 --> 0:20:14.560 right before he was able to open, and amazingly, Dick 0:20:14.600 --> 0:20:18.400 Schilling said, no, I'm doing this, stop at mob. You're 0:20:18.400 --> 0:20:21.359 not gonna You're not gonna deter me and the mobs 0:20:21.359 --> 0:20:23.520 and fine, fine, go ahead and open and he did 0:20:23.720 --> 0:20:27.600 in and you know, in just a few years it 0:20:27.680 --> 0:20:29.720 was it was like I think they called it the 0:20:29.720 --> 0:20:36.560 show place of the nation, a supper club in northern Kentucky. Uh. 0:20:36.640 --> 0:20:38.680 And it's like, how many times can this place burn down? 0:20:39.119 --> 0:20:42.040 And I guess the answer is three at least. Yes, 0:20:43.040 --> 0:20:45.520 Uh and big thanks to we need to mention Dave 0:20:46.200 --> 0:20:48.480 used to book for this research by a man named 0:20:48.520 --> 0:20:54.359 Peter Bronson, who wrote easily I would say, the quintessential 0:20:54.920 --> 0:20:58.520 book on the Beverly Hill Supper Club Fire. Uh and 0:20:59.080 --> 0:21:03.560 Northern Kentucky Forbidden Fruit. Colon since Cities Underworld in the 0:21:03.600 --> 0:21:06.280 supper Club Inferno. And was that who it was in 0:21:06.359 --> 0:21:08.480 the video that you said to No, there's another guy 0:21:08.560 --> 0:21:11.040 named Robert Webster who was in that video. I sent tune. 0:21:11.080 --> 0:21:14.159 He wrote another definitive book on it, um called the 0:21:14.520 --> 0:21:20.680 the Beverly Hills Supper Club Fire, The Store the Untold 0:21:20.720 --> 0:21:24.919 story behind Kentucky's greatest tragedy. And it's really exhaustive too. 0:21:24.960 --> 0:21:27.520 Apparently it's got five years of research behind it as well. 0:21:28.080 --> 0:21:33.399 Colon everything that Bronson guy missed. Right, they're famously feuding 0:21:33.400 --> 0:21:35.440 with each other to this day. They keep burning down 0:21:35.440 --> 0:21:38.879 one another supper clubs. Oh no, no, no, alright, So 0:21:38.960 --> 0:21:41.760 this thing, like you said, opening seventy burned, reopened in 0:21:41.840 --> 0:21:46.439 seventy one. Chilling was not to be deterred. And uh, 0:21:46.560 --> 0:21:48.520 it was a big deal. And Frank Sinatra came back 0:21:48.560 --> 0:21:50.920 even he was like that place is open again. All right, 0:21:51.000 --> 0:21:56.240 I'm back. You can still get a flight into Cincinnati, right. Uh. 0:21:56.240 --> 0:22:00.679 Ella Fitzgerald played their Red Fox, The Righteous Brothers. It was. 0:22:00.800 --> 0:22:04.240 It was again a big deal, and such a big 0:22:04.280 --> 0:22:08.879 deal that they would routinely um over sell and overpacked 0:22:08.920 --> 0:22:12.480 that place out. So I saw, this is under dispute. 0:22:12.800 --> 0:22:18.760 So I think Robert Webster in particular, he chalked reports 0:22:18.760 --> 0:22:22.960 of that up to poor reporting, early reporting after the fire, 0:22:23.400 --> 0:22:28.480 that they routinely flaunted the building capacity, the fire marshal's 0:22:28.520 --> 0:22:32.879 capacity um number. I don't know that that's necessarily true, 0:22:32.920 --> 0:22:37.640 but it posses though. But no, but they they were. 0:22:37.720 --> 0:22:41.280 They said that there was some minor um violations, but 0:22:41.400 --> 0:22:43.960 nothing that costs anyone in their lives. So that to 0:22:44.200 --> 0:22:46.880 that tells me right there that no, they weren't doing 0:22:46.880 --> 0:22:51.240 any major violations like over capacity crowding. Okay, And it 0:22:51.320 --> 0:22:54.200 was a huge place too. It was so mind bogglingly 0:22:54.320 --> 0:22:57.600 big that I think people were like, oh, there's people there, 0:22:57.800 --> 0:23:01.720 obviously it's over capacity. Well, I mean I think they were. 0:23:01.800 --> 0:23:06.680 They said there were people in that one room, yeah, 0:23:06.600 --> 0:23:09.760 where the main stage was, which was that was a 0:23:09.760 --> 0:23:12.840 sweet looking, uh place. I mean this the decor in 0:23:12.840 --> 0:23:17.080 this place was awesome. Alright. So Memorial Day weekend is 0:23:17.080 --> 0:23:19.640 obviously going to be a big deal at a place 0:23:19.680 --> 0:23:23.199 like this, and it was certainly the case in nineteen 0:23:23.240 --> 0:23:29.240 seventy seven. John Davidson was the headliner that night. John Davidson, 0:23:29.480 --> 0:23:33.560 who would later make noise in the eighties for guys 0:23:33.600 --> 0:23:36.200 like us as a co host of a show called 0:23:36.560 --> 0:23:40.920 Real People. Isn't that right? That's incredible? Okay, Real People 0:23:40.960 --> 0:23:43.040 was the other one. Yeah, it was the downmarket version 0:23:43.200 --> 0:23:45.960 or maybe the upmarket version of Real People. I think 0:23:46.000 --> 0:23:47.919 that's incredible. It was just that was the one with 0:23:47.960 --> 0:23:56.200 Tarkenton and Kathy Rick I think, yeah. Remember she always 0:23:56.280 --> 0:23:58.879 came out wearing a beard of bees like every episode. 0:24:00.720 --> 0:24:03.280 I just remember the guy. I remember two guys. There 0:24:03.320 --> 0:24:06.680 was one guy that could catch arrows. That was Kathy Rigby. 0:24:06.920 --> 0:24:09.320 That was that would bring on people to do this 0:24:09.400 --> 0:24:13.080 kufas uh. And then the other guy. I think I 0:24:13.160 --> 0:24:15.800 even remember his name for some reason. It's funny how 0:24:15.800 --> 0:24:17.600 these things stick with you as an adult from when 0:24:17.600 --> 0:24:19.639 you were a kid. I think he was the Yogi Kudu. 0:24:20.080 --> 0:24:21.800 He was the guy that could fold himself and put 0:24:21.880 --> 0:24:24.480 him in a tiny, little clear cube. That was Kathy 0:24:24.560 --> 0:24:29.600 Rigby too. You were a very confused young man. I'm 0:24:29.640 --> 0:24:31.280 gonna have to look that up. I better. I think 0:24:31.320 --> 0:24:34.480