Before Vegas there was the original Sin City

[Run To State]

The Beverly Hills Supper Club Fire - The Untold Story...

 

By Robert Webster

 

Downloaded that book a month or so ago. Hope I get the chance to read it soon.

[Jim Schue]

The Beverly Hills Supper Club Fire - The Untold Story...

 

By Robert Webster

 

How easy is it to find a copy of that book — a physical copy, that is — outside of NoKy? I'd like to read that. I don't do online books, however. I just have issues with the online format, for obvious reasons.

[Run To State]

How easy is it to find a copy of that book — a physical copy, that is — outside of NoKy? I'd like to read that. I don't do online books, however. I just have issues with the online format, for obvious reasons.

What are you willing to pay?

 

The Beverly Hills Supper Club: The Untold Story Behind Kentucky's Worst Tragedy by Robert Webster | 9780615622200 | Hardcover | Barnes & Noble

[ggclfan]

That seems WAY overpriced. I would think it would be in paperback by now. Not sure though.

[Run To State]

That seems WAY overpriced. I would think it would be in paperback by now. Not sure though.

They're very hard to find.

[Beechwoodfan]

I probably watch too much TV, but I find it hard to believe the BH Supper Club was a mob hit. The mob wasn't much by 1977, and a mob would not intentionally kill hundreds of innocent people.

 

I visited Beverly Hills several times in those days. The rooms were overcrowded and it was a confusing place to get around. By report it had cheap wiring and the management chain locked exit doors. A horrible combination for tragedy.

[Bluegrasscard]

Posted this before:

 

newportgambling

 

A few years ago was playing blackjack at church fall festival and the dealer clearly was not just an average volunteer with his speed and accuracy running the table. When I asked if he was professional dealer at Indiana Casinos he just said - "I do some private games in Newport." So there must still be some 'action' up there.

[Jim Schue]

Posted this before:

 

newportgambling

 

A few years ago was playing blackjack at church fall festival and the dealer clearly was not just an average volunteer with his speed and accuracy running the table. When I asked if he was professional dealer at Indiana Casinos he just said - "I do some private games in Newport." So there must still be some 'action' up there.

 

I was totally sure you were getting set to tell me he was a dealer in the '50s. :lol: Would've been even better if he had a Sinatra or Bob Hope story.

[KentuckyJoe]

I grew up on the hill in south Newport and had a sweet old couple as neighbors. Their phone was so loud and would always ring and my dad would laugh. As I got older I asked my dad about it and he told me our neighbor was an old mob guy and still takes bets from his buddies thats why his phone was always ringing. The guy was great would give me $50 to cut his grass. So I know the old mob guys were doing lots of gambling together in the 80s and 90s.

[Jim Schue]

My grandma and grandpa told stories of leaving my dad and his 4 siblings with her youngest sister to head from Madison, Indiana to Newport to go to the shows and casinos.

 

They were generally the guest of my very Italian "Uncle Frank" (who wasn't really my uncle) and his wife, who we all loved to death and always had a spare fiver or 10 to stuff in your pocket. When I was but a wee lad, Uncle Frank and grandpa would take me (oldest grandkid) and the family to Churchill, taught me how to read the program and place bets — had to stand on my tippy-toes to hand the money to the teller in those days. Both were also very high up in the KofC in Madison, which had a ridiculous number of hidden doors and passageways, and still had a stray slot machine or three up into the '80s.

 

Uncle Frank allegedly had ties to the New Albany outfit (Steak and Shake supposedly started as a front biz for those guys, it's been rumored). Frank's wife, Ethel, was Jewish, and they allegedly also had ties to Meyer Lansky. There was word of a guy who turned up shot dead in the alley behind Uncle Frank's store in Madison one time. Grandpa didn't really have many details about that, though.

 

I don't know how true any of it is, but I don't suppose my grandfather would really have much reason to lie. Even if he did stretch the truth, the stories are fascinating.

 

Grandpa somehow put five kids through Catholic school on an farm machinery parts store salary at the local IH dealership, while grandma was a bookkeeper and heavily involved in the Democratic party machinery in Jefferson Co., Ind.

 

I miss them all terribly.

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

I had a teacher who grew up in Newport. As a kid, he lived across the street from a gentleman with known connections to the Cleveland Four. In the mid-1950s, he was paid $10 a week to cut the guy's grass - absolutely unheard of at that time. Said the front and back yards combined couldn't have had much more than 250 square feet of grass, but the guy paid him $10 a week, all the same. As a 12 year old, he woke up to gunshots one night in the alley next to his house and then watched as the ambulance arrived and eventually carted off his neighbor's dead body.

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

Frank "Screw" Andrews was a liquor store owner, and later owned the Sportsman's Club, the Alibi Club, and Coconut Grove in Newport. He was known around town for being a very rough and violent guy. He had a son who was a year behind my dad at Cov Cath who everyone called "Little Screw" behind his back.

 

Screw Andrews' death was particularly interesting. He was in St. Luke's Hospital suffering heart problems, and on the evening of December 17, 1973 two men walked onto the ward and told the nurses it was time for them to all take a break. The nurses obliged, and upon returning, they found that Screw had "accidentally" fallen to his death from his 4th floor window. The men were never identified, and the death was officially ruled "accidental".

 

For those familiar with the area, Screw had lived in a giant ranch house on the piece of land that's now occupied by the First Baptist Church on Alexandria Pike in Cold Spring at Murnan Road. The people who bought the house from Screw's widow reported that it had two safe rooms in it - one on the first floor and one in the basement - and that the house had a security system in it that would have rivaled the one at the Campbell County Jail.

[Bluegrasscard]

I was totally sure you were getting set to tell me he was a dealer in the '50s. :lol: Would've been even better if he had a Sinatra or Bob Hope story.

 

No, that is what caught me off guard. He was relatively young and I would have never have connected him to the old times. But he seemed to want to ensure I knew he was not 'just' a casino dealer as I implied noticing his skill. Some of the old timers must have passed down some of the trade skills of the industry to the kids.

[ggclfan]

I probably watch too much TV, but I find it hard to believe the BH Supper Club was a mob hit. The mob wasn't much by 1977, and a mob would not intentionally kill hundreds of innocent people.

 

I visited Beverly Hills several times in those days. The rooms were overcrowded and it was a confusing place to get around. By report it had cheap wiring and the management chain locked exit doors. A horrible combination for tragedy.

 

I read the book and am TOTALLY convinced. The guy did A TON of research and there are too many things that reek of mob hit. His premise is that the timer on the switch to start the fire was set 12 hours off...the mob did not want to kill a bunch of people but did want to burn it down. There are way too many things to get into on this thread but I suggest you read the book and see if you still think the way you do. Two other things he mentioned that make a ton of sense. Why was the building ordered to be torn down literally less than 48 hours after the fire? Makes no sense if you want a real investigation as to the cause. Second, he exposes Stan Chesley for the total creep that he is - and proven to be years later...

[Beechwoodfan]

I read the book and am TOTALLY convinced. The guy did A TON of research and there are too many things that reek of mob hit. His premise is that the timer on the switch to start the fire was set 12 hours off...the mob did not want to kill a bunch of people but did want to burn it down. There are way too many things to get into on this thread but I suggest you read the book and see if you still think the way you do. Two other things he mentioned that make a ton of sense. Why was the building ordered to be torn down literally less than 48 hours after the fire? Makes no sense if you want a real investigation as to the cause. Second, he exposes Stan Chesley for the total creep that he is - and proven to be years later...

 

Good points. I think I will read it.