Host Dave Mazza speaks with Robert C. Donnelly, assistant professor of history at Gonzaga University, and author of "Dark Rose: Organized Crime and Corruption in Portland."
In April 1956, Portland Oregonian investigative reporters Wallace Turner and William Lambert exposed organized crime rackets and rampant corruption within the city's law enforcement institutions. The biggest scandal involved Teamsters officials and the city's lucrative prostitution, gambling, and bootlegging operations. Turner and Lambert blew the cover on the Teamsters scheme to take over alcohol sales and distribution and profit from these fringe enterprises. The Rose City was seething with vice and intrigue.
The exposé and other reports of racketeering from around the country incited a national investigation into crime networks and union officials headed by the McClellan Committee, or officially, the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor or Management Field. The Commission discovered evidence in Portland that helped prove Teamsters President Dave Beck's embezzlement of union funds and union Vice President Jimmy Hoffa's connection to the mob.
Dark Rose reveals the sordid details of an important period in the history of Portland.
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