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Victor Riesel (/rɪˈzɛl/;[2][3] March 26, 1913 – January 4, 1995) was an American newspaper journalist and columnist who specialized in news related to labor unions. At the height of his career, his column on labor union issues was syndicated to 356 newspapers in the United States.[4] In an incident that made national headlines for almost a year,[5] a gangster threw sulfuric acid in his face on a public street in New York City on April 5, 1956, causing his permanent blindness.[6][7]

Key Information

Background

[edit]

Victor Riesel was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City to Nathan and Sophie Riesel.[3][8][9][10][11] The family lived in a cold water flat near the elevated railroad tracks.[12] The Riesels were Jewish, and their neighbors were primarily Jewish and Italian American.[12] Victor's father, Nathan, had helped organize the Bonnaz, Singer, and Hand Embroiderers' Union, Local 66, of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union in 1913,[12][13] and held the Card No. 1 in the local union.[2][3][14] In time, Nathan Riesel was appointed a staff member of the union and elected secretary-treasurer and then president of the local union.[8][15] Victor attended elementary school at P.S. 19 (now the Judith K. Weiss School).[2][9][12]

When Victor was three years old, his father taught him to make pro-union speeches and would take his son to rallies and union meetings and have the boy recite the speeches for onlookers.[9][12][16] Attending union meetings, indoor and outdoor rallies, and standing on street corners promoting the union formed many of Victor Riesel's childhood and teenage memories.[3][14] In the 1920s and 1930s, Nathan Riesel successfully opposed Communist Party USA attempts to infiltrate activists into the local union and turning its purpose to promotion of the party (a strategy known as "boring from within").[12][17] Throughout his childhood and teenage years, he saw his father come home bleeding many times after fistfights with communist activists or gangsters.[10] This conflict left a deep impression on Victor.[14]

The family moved to the Bronx when Riesel was 13 years old.[2][3][9][12] Academically gifted, Victor Riesel graduated from Morris High School at the age of 15.[2][3][9] While in high school, Riesel began typing stories about the American labor movement and sending them to English language newspapers around the world, charging $1 for publication rights.[12] He typed the same story over and over (sometimes as many as 15 times) to make it look like an original (his goal being to sell the same story to many newspapers rather than many stories to a single newspaper), and earned a significant income from this work.[12]

He enrolled in City College of New York (CCNY) in 1928, taking classes at night in human resource management and industrial relations.[2][3][16]

Career

[edit]

Riesel worked several different jobs to support himself, and found employment in a hat factory, lace plant, steel mill, and saw mill.[2][3][4][9][16] He was appointed director of undergraduate publications at the college, working as an editor, columnist, and literature and theatre critic.[2][3][9] He earned his Bachelor of Business Administration from CCNY in 1940.[2][3][4][9][12]

During his undergraduate years at CCNY, Riesel began working as a gofer at The New Leader.[12] After graduation in 1940, he became the magazine's managing editor.[2][3][12][16]

Two additional events in Riesel's life led him to a career as a labor reporter. The first occurred on March 6, 1930, during a visit to his father's union offices. Riesel saw a man weeping on the stairs because he had no job and his family had no food to eat.[2][3][12][16] The second occurred in 1942. Nathan Riesel was now fighting organized crime influence in his union, and despaired of keeping his local out of criminal hands.[6][12][14] Nathan Riesel was severely beaten by gangsters in 1942, and ultimately died from his injuries five years later.[6][8][12][14][16]

Journalism

[edit]

Victor Riesel's labor journalism career formally began in 1937 when he started writing a regular column on labor union issues.[4][8]

He was hired by The New York Post in 1941.[2][3][4][8] His column became nationally syndicated in 1942.[4][8][16] He left the Post in 1948 after a change in management, and joined William Randolph Hearst's New York Daily Mirror.[4][8] Within eight years, his column was syndicated in 193 newspapers.[2][3][10][16]

His investigation of Communist Party infiltration of the National Maritime Union led Representative Louis B. Heller to introduce legislation in 1951 to investigate the charges.[16] In 1951 and 1952, Riesel provided Senator Pat McCarran with information that led to a Senate investigation into communist influence in the United Public Workers of America.[16] In 1952, he publicly alleged before the Subcommittee on Internal Security (led at the time by Sen. McCarran) that Local 65 of the Distributive, Processing and Office Workers of America was controlled by the Communist Party.[16] The same year, he denounced Gambino crime family member Anthony "Tough Tony" Anastasio for engaging in labor racketeering.[16] Anastasio sued Riesel for $1 million for libel, but the suit was thrown out of court.[16]

On February 6, 1953, Riesel spoke with New York University philosophy professor Sidney Hook and others on "The Threat to Academic Freedom" in the evening on WEVD radio.[18]

In 1956, Riesel began working with United States Attorney Paul Williams to rein in labor racketeering in the New York City garment and trucking industries.[6][10][16]

Acid attack

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On April 5, 1956, an assailant threw sulphuric acid into Riesel's face as he was leaving Lindy's (a famous restaurant in Manhattan). Riesel had been reporting on corruption in the International Union of Operating Engineers and its then-President, William C. DeKoning Jr.[6] He had recently alleged that DeKoning was conspiring with Joseph S. Fay (a convicted labor racketeer and extortionist) to re-establish his father, William C. DeKoning Sr. (who had recently been freed from prison after serving a sentence for extortion) as president of the union.[6][10] Although Riesel had received numerous death and other threats over the past few months, he had dismissed them as the work of "cranks."[6]

The attack occurred shortly after a Riesel radio broadcast. Barry Gray, radio station WMCA's overnight talk radio host, had asked Riesel to substitute for him.[10][16] Riesel invited two IUOE Local 138 leaders who were challenging the DeKonings for control of the local union to join him for the broadcast.[10][16] The broadcast originated from Hutton's Restaurant at 47th Street and Lexington Avenue shortly after midnight on April 5, and concluded at 2 AM.[6] Afterward, Riesel and his secretary went to Lindy's restaurant, located on Broadway between 49th Street and 50th Street.[6] They had coffee, and departed Lindy's at 3 AM to walk to the secretary's automobile.[6] Riesel removed his eyeglasses, which he did by habit when in public.[10] A slender, black-haired man wearing a blue and white jacket stepped out of the shadows of the entrance to the Mark Hellinger Theatre and threw a vial of sulphuric acid into Riesel's eyes.[6] Riesel shouted, "My gosh! My gosh!", and clutched at his face.[6][10] While the secretary and others rendered assistance and dragged Riesel into Lindy's, the assailant walked calmly away.[6][10]

The acid struck Riesel's right eye more than the left.[6] Riesel's eyes were flushed with water inside Lindy's, but patrons stopped administering aid for fear of doing further damage.[6] Riesel was taken to St. Clare's Hospital on East 71st Street, where doctors worked to save his vision.[6][10] Measures to counteract the acid were not taken until Riesel arrived at St. Clare's, 40 minutes after the attack.[6] On May 4, doctors said that Riesel had completely lost his sight (see the right photograph in the infobox, above).[7] In December 1956, Riesel described the amount of acid as a "deluge" which covered most of his cheeks, eyes, and forehead.[5][19][20] Portions of Riesel's face (see right photo, above, compared to left photo, particularly the left cheek, jaw line, and jowls; the eyebrows; and the forehead) were permanently scarred as well.[5][21] Riesel wore dark glasses for the rest of his life to hide his damaged eyes, which many people found difficult to look at.[19]

The Daily Mirror immediately offered a $10,000 reward for information identifying the assailant and leading to his conviction.[6] The Newspaper Guild of New York, New York Press Photographers Association, Overseas Press Club, New York Newspaper Reporters Association, and the Society of Silurians (an organization of veteran New York City journalists) immediately raised the reward to $15,000.[6] By week's end, donations from labor unions, radio station WMCA, and other groups had increased the reward to $41,000.[10]

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) identified Abraham Telvi as the assailant in August 1956, but Telvi had been murdered on July 28, 1956, by mobsters for demanding an additional $50,000 on top of the $500 he had already received for the crime.[22][23] On August 29, 1956, Genovese crime family underboss Johnny Dio was arrested for conspiracy in the Riesel attack, pleaded not guilty, and was released on $100,000 bond even though prosecutors later publicly linked him to the Telvi murder.[24]

Joseph Carlino, a Dio associate who had hired Telvi to attack Riesel, pleaded guilty on October 22, and prosecutors severed Dio's trial from the others.[25] Carlino later testified that Dio had ordered Genovese mob associate Gandolfo Miranti to find a hitman and identify Riesel, and that Miranti had contacted Dominick Bando to assist him in finding the hitman (Bando contacting Carlino, who sought out Telvi).[16][26] Miranti and Bando were then found guilty (Bando pleading guilty at the last moment).[27] Conspiracy charges against Dio were later dropped despite the convictions. Dio's attorney delayed the trial for nearly five months with motions.[28] When the trial finally began, Carlino and Miranti recanted their pre-trial statements and courtroom testimony, claiming they did not know who had ordered the attack on Riesel.[29] By September 1957, the government no longer sought to prosecute Dio for the attack.[30] Miranti received 8 to 16 years in prison and Bando 2 to 5 years in prison for the acid attack and another five years for contempt of court.[31] Carlino received a suspended sentence for cooperating with the prosecution,[32] and three other co-conspirators were freed after the judge in their case declared a mistrial.[33] The Daily Mirror paid one witness $5,000 in 1961 for information leading to the identification of Abraham Telvi as the assailant.[34]

The attack on Riesel had significant implications for national American labor policy. President Dwight Eisenhower (who had seen Riesel on Meet the Press) told AFL-CIO President George Meany that he was so incensed by the attack on Riesel that he intended to introduce legislation designed to root out corruption in labor unions.[5][35] Clark R. Mollenhoff, editor of the Des Moines Register, was so alarmed by the attack on Riesel that he ordered extensive investigations into trade union corruption.[36] Mollenhoff's investigative efforts unearthed much evidence that Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa was engaged in labor racketeering.[36] The attack also convinced Robert F. Kennedy, then chief legal counsel for the Senate Committee on Government Operations, to lead an investigation into labor racketeering.[36] Kennedy's investigations (as well as subsequent labor scandals) led to the establishment of the Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management.[36][37] This committee's investigations led directly to the passage of the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act, which imposed financial reporting requirements on labor unions, limited the power of trusteeships, established many member and employer rights.[37]

The acid attack vastly boosted Riesel's national popularity. He began a regular television program on WRCA-TV, and a regular weekly radio program on WEVD.[38] He continued to write his column, typing it himself while his wife read newspapers and wire service articles to him.[2]

Anti-communist views

[edit]

Riesel was a militant anti-communist. Initially, his views focused on both fascism and communism. As early as 1939, he joined John Dewey's newly formed Committee for Cultural Freedom, which was opposed to totalitarianism in all its forms.[39] In 1941, he told the Union for Democratic Action that Rep. Martin Dies Jr. was intent on establishing a national fascist police force to suppress freedom of speech in the United States.[40]

Riesel's attacks on fascism lessened after victory in World War II, and he focused almost exclusively on communism after 1950. Riesel's attacks on communism extended beyond labor unions. He attacked folk musician Vern Partlow for promoting communism and undermining American national security with his 1945 talking blues song "Atomic Talking Blues" (also known as "Talking Atom" and "Old Man Atom").[41] In 1949, he was named a director of the Committee to Defend America by Aiding Anti-Communist China, a part of the China Lobby.[42] At least one author alleges that Riesel even cooperated with the Central Intelligence Agency beginning in the early 1950s, providing information on liberal politicians and union leaders.[43] In the early 1950s, he supported a movement to stop the importation of goods from the Soviet Union into the United States, and for a time longshoremen on the East Coast refused to unload Soviet ships due to Riesel's campaign.[4] During the height of McCarthyism in the early 1950s, he also became interested in purging homosexuals from federal civil service.[44] He publicly called for a "preventive war" with the Soviet Union in 1951, and demanded that President Harry S. Truman drop the atomic bomb on Russia and China.[45] Riesel was a member of the Citizens Committee for a Free Cuba, founded in 1963.[46] He strongly criticized Malcolm X for meeting with Shirley Graham Du Bois and Julian Mayfield in the mid-1960s, and accused Malcolm X of fomenting communist conspiracies.[47] In the early 1970s, Riesel became an unofficial advisor to President Richard Nixon. He supported Nixon in his column, discussed labor union issues and outreach to working-class voters with him personally over the phone, and occasionally met with Cabinet members.[48] Even as late as 1973, Riesel was defending COINTELPRO, a series of covert and often illegal projects conducted by the FBI aimed at investigating and disrupting dissident political organizations in the U.S. suspected of disloyalty.[49]

Riesel was intimately involved in the Hollywood blacklist of the late 1940s and 1950s. He strongly criticized Samuel Fuller's 1951 Korean War film The Steel Helmet for promoting communism and portraying American soldiers as murderers.[50] He also attacked the 1954 pro-union film Salt of the Earth as communistic, and implied that the production's on-location proximity to Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Nevada Test Site was a cover for Soviet spying on the American nuclear weapons program.[51] Riesel saw it as his patriotic duty to publicize allegations of communist influence made against actors, directors, producers, and others (especially those claims made by conservative actors Adolphe Menjou and Ward Bond).[52][53] As the blacklist lifted, Riesel agreed to allow his column to become a means for blacklisted individuals to admit their offenses, denounce communism, and become active in the motion picture industry again. Along with Hedda Hopper and Walter Winchell, he would meet privately with these individuals, assess the sincerity of their penance, and then work with them to help rehabilitate their careers if he believed they were being honest with him.[53][54]

Later life

[edit]

After the Daily Mirror ceased publication in October, 1963, Riesel continued to publish his syndicated column .[4] Three men who leased coin-operated pool tables to establishments in California sued Riesel for libel in 1965, alleging that his column on racketeering in the vending industry defamed them.[55]

Riesel was elected a director of the Overseas Press Club in 1962, and the organization's president in 1966 (he served a single one-year term).[11][56]

Riesel retired his column in 1990.[2][9]

Personal life and death

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Riesel married the former Evelyn Lobelson after graduating from college.[2] The couple had a son in 1942 and a daughter in 1949.[3]

Riesel died of cardiac arrest at his apartment in Manhattan aged 81.[2] His wife, son, and daughter survived him.[2]

Publications

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References

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[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Victor Riesel

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from Grokipedia
Victor Riesel (March 26, 1913 – January 4, 1995) was an American labor journalist whose syndicated columns exposed racketeering, communist infiltration, and other corruption within U.S. labor unions. Born and raised in New York City's Lower East Side amid a milieu of militant unionists, Riesel began his career reporting on labor matters, launching a daily syndicated column in 1946 that eventually reached hundreds of newspapers. His relentless criticism of union leadership's ties to organized crime and ideological extremists positioned him as a pivotal figure in highlighting systemic abuses in organized labor during the mid-20th century. Riesel's investigations targeted specific instances of graft and mob control over union locals, contributing to heightened public and congressional scrutiny that presaged reforms like the Landrum-Griffin Act of 1959. On April 5, 1956, shortly after a radio broadcast decrying union corruption, he was ambushed outside Lindy's restaurant in Manhattan and doused with sulfuric acid by a hired assailant, resulting in permanent blindness. The attack, orchestrated by mobster Johnny Dio in retaliation for Riesel's exposés on garment industry racketeering, failed to silence him; he resumed dictating columns within weeks, maintaining his output on labor and political affairs for nearly four decades. As a self-described social democrat with staunch anti-communist views, Riesel advised politicians including the Nixon administration on labor policy and traveled globally to interview union figures, embodying a commitment to purifying the labor movement from criminal and subversive elements. His career underscored the tensions between journalistic advocacy for workers' rights and opposition to institutional corruption, often drawing ire from union officials who branded him an adversary despite his pro-labor roots.

Early Life and Background

Family Origins and Upbringing

Victor Riesel was born in 1913 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan into a Jewish family of garment workers. As the oldest child, he grew up with a sister and a half-brother in a cold-water tenement amid the neighborhood's dense immigrant working-class communities. His father, Nathan Riesel, worked in the garment trade and actively participated in early labor organizing efforts, exposing young Victor to the contentious world of union activism from an early age. Riesel later recalled frequent scenes of his father returning home injured from clashes with opponents, including militant union rivals, which instilled in him a firsthand understanding of labor conflicts. In 1926, when Riesel was 13, the family relocated from the Lower East Side to the Bronx, seeking improved living conditions while remaining rooted in New York's Jewish labor enclaves. This upbringing in environments dominated by garment industry strife and union militancy profoundly influenced his lifelong focus on labor issues, though he navigated these influences independently in his later career.

Education and Initial Influences

Riesel graduated from Morris High School in New York City at the age of 15 in 1928, demonstrating early academic aptitude amid the onset of the Great Depression. He then pursued higher education through night classes at City College of New York (CCNY), focusing on personnel management and industrial relations, while supporting himself with daytime employment in factories including hat plants and lace facilities. This dual regimen spanned from 1928 to 1940, culminating in a B.A. degree from CCNY. These formative years immersed Riesel in New York's Lower East Side Jewish working-class community and firsthand factory labor conditions, fostering his foundational awareness of industrial disputes and worker dynamics that later informed his journalistic focus on labor. The progressive intellectual environment at CCNY, known for its engagement with social reform ideas during the interwar period, provided additional exposure to debates on economic equity and unionism, though Riesel's subsequent career emphasized critiques of corruption over ideological alignment.

Journalistic Career

Entry into Labor Reporting

Riesel's interest in labor issues emerged during his time at the City College of New York, where he was exposed to progressive political ideas amid the Great Depression. After graduating in 1940, he took on roles in journalism, including work for a news service and writing for various publications, before serving as managing editor of The New Leader, a social democratic weekly focused on labor and workers' rights. This position marked his initial immersion in labor-oriented reporting, as The New Leader emphasized union activities and anti-corruption themes in organized labor. In 1941, Riesel joined the staff of the New York Post, a newspaper supportive of New Deal policies at the time, transitioning from editorial roles to dedicated labor journalism. He launched his regular labor column there in 1942, initially distributed by the Post's syndicate, which allowed him to cover union conditions, worker grievances, and emerging racketeering in industries like garments and mining. This column represented his formal entry into sustained labor reporting, drawing on firsthand observations from travels to industrial sites where he took temporary jobs to document conditions in steel mills, coal mines, and factories. The timing of his column's start coincided with personal tragedy, as in 1942 his father was crippled in an attack by racketeers linked to the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, reinforcing Riesel's commitment to exposing corruption within labor organizations. By 1946, his work had expanded into national syndication, reaching hundreds of newspapers and solidifying his role as a prominent voice on labor racketeering and union governance.

Syndicated Column and Key Exposés

Riesel launched his influential "Inside Labor" column while serving as labor editor for the New York Post in 1942, initially producing it six days a week to scrutinize union activities and leadership. By 1946, the column entered national syndication, distributed through the Hall Syndicate to the New York Daily Mirror and eventually appearing in over 200 newspapers, reaching an estimated 23 million readers at its peak in the postwar period. He maintained a rigorous schedule of five to six columns per week, focusing on internal union dynamics, wage disputes, and emerging threats from organized crime and ideological infiltrations. The column's exposés centered on documented instances of racketeering and graft within specific unions, drawing from Riesel's network of sources in labor and law enforcement. One prominent series targeted corruption on the New York waterfront, detailing how mob-linked figures extorted dues and controlled hiring through international longshoremen's locals, contributing to broader public awareness that influenced federal scrutiny. In the mid-1950s, Riesel highlighted embezzlement and ties to figures like Johnny Dio in the International Union of Operating Engineers, including allegations against president William C. DeKoning Jr. for tolerating loan-sharking and kickbacks that siphoned member funds. These revelations, amplified by Riesel's radio and television appearances, provoked retaliation from implicated parties and underscored patterns of violence to silence critics. Riesel's reporting extended to other sectors, such as early postwar critiques of financial irregularities in building trades unions, where he cited instances of padded payrolls and no-show jobs costing workers millions annually. His methodical documentation—often backed by court records and insider accounts—contrasted with less rigorous labor coverage elsewhere, prompting unions like the AFL to occasionally denounce him while federal probes, including those predating the 1957-1959 McClellan Committee hearings, echoed his findings on systemic looting. Despite accusations from union officials of sensationalism, Riesel's exposés aligned with verifiable convictions for racketeering in the sectors he covered, establishing "Inside Labor" as a primary journalistic counter to unchecked union power abuses.

Campaigns Against Union Corruption and Racketeering

Victor Riesel conducted extensive campaigns against corruption and racketeering in American labor unions through his nationally syndicated column, which by the 1950s reached nearly 350 newspapers and focused on exposing graft, kickbacks, mob infiltration, and misuse of union funds. His reporting emphasized empirical evidence of criminal control over union operations, often detailing specific schemes where organized crime figures extorted employers and siphoned member dues for personal gain or political purposes. A key target was the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE), where Riesel documented racketeering under President William C. DeKoning Jr., particularly in Local 138 on Long Island, revealing ties to gangsters who manipulated union elections and enforced extortion rackets against construction firms. In 1956, he alleged direct mob connections in this local, contributing to federal probes into how such infiltration undermined worker representation and enabled violence against dissenters. These exposés built on earlier warnings about broader patterns, such as in garment district unions, where racketeers like Johnny Dio wielded influence through threats and loan-sharking. Riesel collaborated with U.S. Attorney Paul Williams in 1956 to combat racketeering in New York City's garment, laundry, and trucking sectors, supplying investigative leads that informed a federal Special Rackets Grand Jury and highlighted how mob bosses controlled locals via no-show jobs and forced tribute payments. His work prompted allied journalists, including Clark Mollenhoff of the Des Moines Register, to launch their own probes into union finances, unearthing evidence of multimillion-dollar embezzlements and political slush funds. By privileging firsthand accounts from informants and public records over union denials, Riesel's campaigns underscored causal links between unchecked racketeering and weakened labor integrity, influencing public and congressional demands for reforms like those later pursued in the McClellan Committee hearings.

Anti-Communist Stance and Activities

Exposés on Communist Infiltration in Labor

Riesel's syndicated columns frequently highlighted communist efforts to penetrate American labor unions, drawing on his extensive contacts within the labor movement and government agencies. He portrayed these infiltrations as strategic attempts by the Communist Party USA to control key industries, sabotage production, and advance Soviet interests during the Cold War. His reporting emphasized empirical evidence from union elections, leadership affiliations, and internal documents, often attributing communist dominance to lax oversight by mainstream union officials. In early 1951, Riesel's exposé on Communist Party infiltration into the National Maritime Union (NMU) directly influenced legislative action. Representative Louis B. Heller, a Democrat from New York, cited a Riesel column in Congress while introducing a bill to investigate communist influence among merchant seamen, arguing that such penetration threatened national security by potentially disrupting shipping vital to defense. The reporting detailed communist control over NMU leadership and steering committees, which Riesel claimed enabled ideological indoctrination and strikes aligned with foreign policy objectives. Throughout 1951 and 1952, Riesel collaborated with Senator Pat McCarran to expose communist sway in the United Public Workers of America (UPWA), a CIO-affiliated union representing federal employees. He furnished McCarran with investigative materials revealing party members holding pivotal roles, including evidence of dues funneled to communist causes and advocacy for policies undermining U.S. government operations. This intelligence spurred a Senate investigation that confirmed extensive communist leadership within the UPWA, contributing to the union's eventual dissolution amid McCarthy-era scrutiny. Riesel extended his scrutiny to other sectors, testifying in 1952 before the House Committee on Un-American Activities' Subcommittee on Internal Security about Communist Party domination of Local 65 of the Distributive, Processing and Office Workers of America. He presented documentation of party-directed caucuses that manipulated elections and enforced ideological conformity, warning that such control facilitated espionage and labor unrest in warehousing and clerical trades. These revelations amplified calls for purging communist elements from CIO unions, aligning with broader efforts to oust left-wing factions prior to the AFL-CIO merger in 1955. His exposés often intertwined communist infiltration with racketeering, positing that ideological extremists exploited corrupt union structures for dual purposes of financial gain and political subversion. While critics later accused Riesel of amplifying threats to bolster conservative agendas, his accounts were grounded in verifiable instances of party membership among union officers and corroborated by subsequent congressional probes. Riesel maintained that unchecked infiltration eroded worker autonomy and national resilience, urging reforms like loyalty oaths and vigilant internal policing.

Collaboration with Anti-Communist Efforts

Riesel actively supported congressional anti-communist investigations by furnishing evidence of communist penetration in labor organizations. Between 1951 and 1952, he supplied Senator Patrick McCarran, chairman of the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, with intelligence that prompted probes into subversive influences within unions such as the United Public Workers of America and the National Maritime Union. This collaboration underscored his role in channeling journalistic findings into legislative action against perceived internal threats during the early Cold War era. In June 1956, shortly before the acid attack that blinded him, Riesel testified as the lead witness before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, then under Senator James Eastland's chairmanship, regarding subversive activities in waterfront and labor sectors. His appearance aligned with the subcommittee's mandate to expose domestic communism, building on prior exposés in his columns that highlighted infiltration tactics in industries like shipping. Riesel's anti-communist endeavors extended to a covert partnership with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), facilitated by Director J. Edgar Hoover, who valued his union-focused reporting. Hoover and other bureau officials routinely leaked classified materials to Riesel, including memos on radical groups such as the Revolutionary Union and Revolutionary Communist Party, enabling him to disseminate FBI-sourced allegations through his syndicated column reaching nearly 350 newspapers. This exchange persisted from the 1950s into the 1970s, with correspondence involving Hoover, deputy Cartha DeLoach, and successors like Clarence Kelly, amplifying bureau efforts to discredit leftist organizations amid operations like COINTELPRO. Following the 1956 assault, the FBI prioritized the case, dispatching agents to pursue leads tied to labor racketeering and potential communist retaliation.

Broader Political Engagements

Riesel's journalistic exposés on communist influence within labor unions extended into direct political advocacy and collaboration with legislative bodies. His 1950 investigation into Communist Party members holding key positions in the National Maritime Union prompted Representative Louis B. Heller to cite Riesel's column on the House floor while introducing H.R. 3135 on March 15, 1951, a bill directing the investigation of communist infiltration among American merchant seamen to safeguard national security. In 1951 and 1952, Riesel furnished Senator Patrick McCarran with detailed intelligence on communist operations within the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union (ILWU), contributing to the McCarran Committee's subsequent hearings that exposed Harry Bridges' alleged ties to Soviet-directed sabotage plans. This collaboration underscored Riesel's role in bridging media scrutiny with governmental anti-communist probes, aligning his efforts with broader Cold War imperatives to purge subversive elements from strategic industries. Riesel further engaged politically through testimony before federal panels. On June 21, 1956, despite the recent acid attack that blinded him, he appeared before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, detailing how communist agents had mapped New York City's transportation infrastructure for potential disruption and warning of ILWU leader Harry Bridges' capacity to paralyze ports in San Francisco and Hawaii absent military intervention. His appearance, corroborated by declassified documents on Bridges' convictions, highlighted Riesel's willingness to provide firsthand accounts of infiltration tactics, influencing subcommittee recommendations on labor security. These engagements positioned Riesel as a key informant in the institutional fight against domestic communism, though critics later noted his alignments often amplified conservative congressional agendas over nuanced labor reforms.

The 1956 Acid Attack

Events Leading to the Assault

In the years preceding the 1956 assault, Victor Riesel intensified his syndicated column "Inside Labor" to expose racketeering and mob infiltration in American labor unions, particularly targeting the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE). His reporting highlighted alleged corruption under IUOE president William C. DeKoning Sr. and his son William C. DeKoning Jr., accusing them of colluding with convicted extortionist Johnny Dio (Giovanni Dioguardi), a known associate of organized crime figures who controlled garment industry unions. Riesel's exposés detailed how such ties enabled extortion, loan-sharking, and control over union welfare funds, drawing from witness accounts and union financial records he obtained through investigative sources. By early 1956, Riesel's criticisms had escalated, with columns and radio broadcasts naming DeKoning Jr. as facilitating Dio's influence over IUOE locals in New York, including demands for kickbacks from contractors and members. These revelations threatened the financial empires built on such arrangements, prompting warnings to Riesel from informants about potential retaliation, though he continued undeterred. On April 4, 1956, hours before the attack, Riesel aired a WMCA radio segment explicitly condemning IUOE racketeering, reiterating Dio's role in siphoning union dues for mob-linked enterprises. The timing aligned with Riesel's preparation to testify in federal probes into labor corruption, amplifying pressure on implicated figures; sources later connected the assault directly to these IUOE-focused investigations, as Dio and associates sought to silence further disclosures ahead of congressional scrutiny. Riesel himself attributed the motive to his recent denunciations of DeKoning and Dio, stating post-attack that the broadcast "must have hit home." This pattern of threats against labor reformers underscored the era's tensions between journalistic accountability and entrenched union-mob alliances.

Immediate Aftermath and Injuries

Following the assault on April 5, 1956, outside Lindy's restaurant in New York City, Victor Riesel experienced immediate and excruciating pain from the sulfuric acid thrown into his face, neck, and chest, causing him to scream as the chemical burned his skin and eyes. His assistant, Betty Nevins, guided him back into the restaurant in agony before an ambulance transported him to St. Clare's Hospital on East 71st Street, where doctors promptly began treatment to mitigate the damage from the concentrated sulfuric acid. At the hospital, Riesel's eyes were covered with bulky bandages as medical staff worked to address the severe chemical burns, though efforts to neutralize the acid were delayed until approximately 40 minutes after the attack. The acid had inflicted profound damage, destroying tissues, corneas, and blood vessels in both eyes, leading to his hospitalization for several weeks. On May 5, 1956, four eye specialists confirmed that Riesel had permanently lost sight in both eyes, with only uncertain possible perception of light in one eye remaining. Despite the blindness and scarring from the burns to his face, neck, and upper body, Riesel's other injuries were not life-threatening, allowing for his discharge from St. Clare's Hospital on May 24, 1956, when he returned home supported by his wife Evelyn, assistants, and detectives.

Investigation, Perpetrators, and Trials

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) launched an inquiry into the April 5, 1956, acid attack on Victor Riesel immediately following the incident, focusing on his exposés of labor racketeering involving figures like garment industry union leader Johnny Dio (Giovanni Dioguardi). The probe intensified after informant testimony revealed that Abraham Telvi, a 22-year-old small-time criminal and pimp from New York's Lower East Side, had carried out the assault for a $1,000 payment, splashing sulfuric acid on Riesel's face, neck, and chest as he left Lindy's restaurant in Manhattan. Telvi's body was exhumed in August 1956 to check for acid scars consistent with witness accounts, confirming his role through FBI analysis linking him to the crime via confessions to associates and physical evidence. Telvi, however, was killed on July 28, 1956, in a gangland beating outside a Manhattan social club, widely viewed as a mob silencing to prevent testimony; he died from head trauma without naming higher-ups. Investigators traced the plot to Joseph Carlino, a Dio associate who recruited Telvi, and implicated Dio as the orchestrator motivated by Riesel's reporting on Dio's infiltration of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. On August 28, 1956, federal authorities arrested Dio, Carlino, and three others—Dominick Siano, Philip Simons, and Louis Telefus—as co-conspirators in obstructing justice by assaulting a grand jury witness. In trials, Carlino pleaded guilty on October 22, 1956, to third-degree assault for hiring Telvi, receiving a suspended one-day sentence in October 1957 after cooperating with prosecutors, who severed Dio's case to pursue separate labor racketeering charges against him. Dio's direct charges for the Riesel attack were dropped in 1957 amid evidentiary challenges, though he was convicted in December 1957 on unrelated extortion counts tied to union activities, serving prison time until 1964; suspicions of his involvement persisted without definitive conviction for the assault. Separate federal proceedings convicted associates like Domenico Bando and Gondolfo Miranti in 1957 for conspiracy to obstruct justice via the Riesel injury, with sentences upheld on appeal, highlighting the attack's intent to intimidate witnesses in McClellan Committee hearings on organized crime in labor.

Post-Attack Professional Life

Adaptation and Continued Journalism

Following the April 5, 1956, acid attack that left him permanently blind, Victor Riesel rapidly adapted to his disability and resumed his syndicated labor column "Inside Labor" without interruption, relying on support from his staff to maintain production. The New York Daily Mirror announced that the column would proceed seamlessly, underscoring Riesel's determination with the statement that attackers "may rob a man of his eyes but not of his vision." By mid-May 1956, just six weeks post-attack, Riesel held his first press conference, signaling his renewed public engagement and commitment to journalism. Riesel explicitly affirmed his intent to continue his newspaper career as a labor columnist despite the blindness, leveraging aides for operational needs while preserving his investigative focus on union corruption and organized crime ties. His work persisted in syndication across hundreds of newspapers, reaching millions of readers weekly, and emphasized exposés of racketeering and injustice in the labor movement for decades thereafter. This post-attack phase solidified Riesel's role as a enduring voice against labor abuses, undeterred by physical limitations.

Advisory Roles and Government Ties

Following the 1956 acid attack, Riesel adapted his journalistic role while expanding into informal advisory capacities on labor issues. In the early 1970s, he served as an unofficial advisor to the Nixon administration, providing insights on union matters and strategies for addressing labor corruption and anti-communist policies. Riesel's government ties extended to federal law enforcement, particularly through a decades-long collaborative relationship with the FBI, spanning the 1940s to the 1980s. He functioned as a confidential source, supplying information on labor racketeering, communist infiltration in unions, and organized crime influences, which informed FBI investigations and public reporting aligned with agency priorities. These advisory engagements reflected Riesel's evolving conservative stance and focus on reforming labor institutions amid Cold War concerns, though they drew criticism for potentially blurring journalistic independence with governmental interests.

Later Writings and Retirement

Following the failed surgical attempts to restore his vision in 1973, Riesel persisted in producing his nationally syndicated labor column, which by then reached approximately 300 newspapers, often dictating content to assistants while maintaining a focus on union corruption, racketeering, and lingering communist influences in organized labor. His writings in the 1970s and 1980s increasingly reflected a conservative shift, critiquing liberal policies within unions and government labor interventions, while advising Republican administrations on labor matters. Riesel also contributed radio scripts and occasional commentary on broader political issues, such as the erosion of anti-communist vigilance post-McCarthy era, though his output remained centered on empirical reporting from union insiders rather than speculative analysis. By the late 1980s, amid declining syndication due to changing media landscapes and Riesel's advancing age, his columns emphasized the persistence of mob ties in certain unions despite reforms like the Landrum-Griffin Act of 1959, drawing on decades of personal contacts rather than institutional sources prone to self-censorship. He retired from regular column writing in 1990 at age 77, after over five decades in journalism, citing physical limitations from his injuries and a desire to avoid diluting his legacy with less rigorous output. In retirement, Riesel largely withdrew from public life, residing in Manhattan until his death in 1995, with no major new publications or memoirs issued posthumously from his archives.

Publications

Major Books and Columns

Riesel's journalistic output primarily consisted of newspaper columns rather than standalone books, with his syndicated labor reporting reaching a wide audience through daily publications focused on union corruption, racketeering, and communist influences within organized labor. He initiated his nationally syndicated column in 1946, which expanded to appear in hundreds of newspapers over subsequent decades. The column, frequently titled "Inside Labor," ran six days a week in the New York Post and was distributed to like-minded outlets nationwide, emphasizing exposés on labor racketeering and internal union threats. A prominent example of his column-based work was the 1956 series "My War with the Mob," a six-chapter investigative report serialized in multiple U.S. newspapers starting in late June, detailing organized crime's infiltration of unions and Riesel's personal confrontations with mob elements. This series, which included calls to action against mob control in labor, was also published in the conservative magazine Human Events on September 8, 1956, spanning pages 5-8, and garnered a Pulitzer Prize nomination for its coverage of labor-mob ties. Beyond syndication, Riesel contributed articles to periodicals such as Reader's Digest, often repurposing or expanding his column material to highlight gangsterism and ideological threats in unions during the 1940s and 1950s. No major full-length books authored solely by Riesel are documented in primary records, though his columns formed the core of his influential commentary on labor issues until his retirement in 1990.

Archival Contributions

Riesel's personal and professional papers, donated to the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University, form a key archival resource spanning 13.75 linear feet and covering the period from 1929 to 1994, with the bulk of materials dating from 1940 to 1980. The collection includes diaries and autobiographical materials detailing his early life and career transitions; extensive correspondence with labor leaders, politicians such as Richard Nixon, fellow journalists, and government officials; scrapbooks of newspaper clippings from his syndicated columns; research files on union corruption, racketeering, and anti-communist activities; unpublished manuscripts; and photographs related to his travels and professional engagements. These documents contribute significantly to the study of mid-20th-century American labor history by preserving primary evidence of Riesel's investigative journalism, which targeted communist influence in unions and organized crime infiltration, as evidenced in files on topics like communism in Hollywood and specific union exposés. Correspondence highlights his advisory roles and networks, offering firsthand accounts of interactions that shaped anti-racketeering legislation and labor reforms, while clippings and research notes provide raw data on events predating and following his 1956 blinding. Scholars have utilized the papers to reconstruct Riesel's pre-attack reporting on labor from the 1930s to 1950s, including samples of columns and supportive letters from allies, underscoring their value despite the collection's modest size. The archives also document Riesel's post-assault adaptations, such as dictation-based writing processes, and his broader commentary on labor-political ties, enabling analysis of causal links between journalistic advocacy and policy outcomes like the Landrum-Griffin Act of 1959, without relying on secondary interpretations. By maintaining unfiltered records of his critiques—often at odds with mainstream union narratives—the collection counters potential institutional biases in labor historiography, privileging Riesel's empirical observations from direct sources.

Personal Life

Family and Relationships

Victor Riesel married Evelyn Lobelson in 1937 in New York. The couple had two children: a son, Michael Riesel, who resided in Manhattan, and a daughter, Susan Riesel Hurwitz, who lived in Arcadia, California. Riesel remained married to Evelyn until his death in 1995, with no public records indicating separations or additional spouses.

Health Challenges Beyond the Attack

Riesel endured permanent blindness from the sulfuric acid attack on April 5, 1956, which destroyed his corneas and optic nerves, rendering him unable to regain meaningful vision despite initial treatments and partial recovery of light perception in one eye. This condition necessitated lifelong dependence on readers and aides for professional tasks, though no secondary infections, corneal transplants, or other ocular complications are recorded in medical or biographical reports. Beyond visual impairment, Riesel faced no documented chronic illnesses or major medical conditions in the nearly four decades following the incident, enabling him to sustain a demanding career until retirement in 1990. Contemporary sources emphasize his resilience rather than additional health burdens, with accounts attributing his longevity to determination rather than extraordinary medical interventions.

Death and Legacy

Circumstances of Death

Victor Riesel died on January 4, 1995, at his apartment in Manhattan, New York City, at the age of 81. The cause of death was a heart attack, as confirmed by his son Michael Riesel. There were no indications of foul play or unusual circumstances surrounding his passing, which occurred suddenly during retirement after decades of journalism focused on labor issues. He was survived by his wife, son, and daughter.

Impact on Labor Reform and Anti-Communism

Riesel's syndicated columns in the 1940s and 1950s relentlessly targeted communist infiltration in American labor unions, framing it as a threat to workers' interests and national security during the early Cold War. He argued that Soviet-directed organizers sought to control strategic industries like longshoremen and mining, citing specific cases such as the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union under Harry Bridges, whom Riesel accused of advancing communist agendas through strikes and propaganda. In 1951 and 1952, Riesel supplied Senator Pat McCarran with evidence of communist sway in West Coast ports, contributing to a Senate subcommittee probe that substantiated claims of subversive activities and bolstered broader anti-communist purges within the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), which expelled 11 communist-led unions between 1949 and 1950. These efforts aligned with federal measures like the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, which Riesel defended as essential for requiring union officers to affirm non-communist status, thereby curbing ideological capture without broadly undermining collective bargaining. Beyond anti-communism, Riesel's exposés on intertwined racketeering—often portraying mobsters and communists as symbiotic forces exploiting union dues and members—amplified calls for structural reforms. His reporting documented embezzlement, extortion, and violence in outfits like the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union and Teamsters, pressuring ethical leaders such as United Auto Workers president Walter Reuther to advocate internal accountability. The 1956 acid attack on Riesel, widely attributed to union-linked thugs retaliating against his probes, intensified scrutiny and directly influenced the Senate's creation of the Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management (McClellan Committee) in January 1957, chaired by Senator John McClellan with Robert F. Kennedy as chief counsel. The McClellan hearings, drawing on Riesel's prior allegations of corruption in the Teamsters under Jimmy Hoffa, revealed systemic abuses including loan-sharking and featherbedding, galvanizing bipartisan support for the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (Landrum-Griffin Act) signed on September 14, 1959. This legislation mandated annual financial disclosures by unions, established a bill of rights for members to challenge officers via secret ballots and lawsuits, and imposed trusteeships on corrupt locals—reforms Riesel hailed as empowering rank-and-file workers against elite malfeasance, though critics from labor's left contended it facilitated employer interference. By retirement in 1990, Riesel's decades-long advocacy had normalized anti-communist vigilance and transparency standards in unions, reducing overt subversive elements while fostering a legacy of journalistic pressure on labor governance, evidenced by sustained declines in documented racketeering convictions post-1959.

Criticisms and Alternative Viewpoints

Critics within labor circles and among historians have portrayed Victor Riesel's journalism as disproportionately damaging to organized labor, arguing that his emphasis on union corruption, Communist infiltration, and leadership excesses amplified conservative narratives despite his professed allegiance to workers' interests. Historian Philip M. Glende describes Riesel as "labor's worst friend," noting that his syndicated columns, distributed to nearly 200 newspapers, mirrored anti-union sentiments from business and political conservatives, fostering public distrust even as overall union approval peaked in the 1950s. Glende highlights Riesel's work in outlets like the Hearst-owned New York Daily Mirror, which harbored anti-labor biases, and his relentless focus on issues like racketeering and "Reds" in unions, which critics contend selectively undermined the movement's legitimacy without balanced advocacy for workers' gains. Union leaders occasionally dismissed Riesel's reporting as exaggerated or malicious; for instance, in response to his exposés on internal disputes within the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, executive David Dubinsky's associate Alex Blake labeled Riesel a "congenital liar" in April 1956, denying allegations of rebel faction misconduct. Alternative viewpoints from the left framed his anti-Communist militancy as akin to McCarthy-era red-baiting, prioritizing ideological purity over pragmatic labor solidarity, though empirical evidence of Communist influence in specific unions lent factual basis to some claims. Declassified FBI records reveal Riesel's role as a "friendly news source" from the 1960s onward, receiving agency-supplied intelligence on radical groups like the Black Panther Party and Revolutionary Union, which he incorporated into columns alleging threats to national security—practices corroborated by the 1976 Church Committee report but criticized as compromising journalistic independence. In a May 21, 1970, column, Riesel justified "counter-violence" by New York construction workers against antiwar protesters, praising their actions as a necessary response to campus unrest and aligning with law enforcement narratives amid escalating domestic tensions. Such stances drew accusations of endorsing state-aligned suppression of dissent, contrasting with Riesel's earlier labor-focused critiques. Riesel also encountered legal pushback, including a 1965 libel lawsuit from three California businessmen who leased coin-operated pool tables, claiming his column falsely implicated them in racketeering schemes tied to organized crime. While the suit underscored tensions between his investigative tactics and subjects' defenses, outcomes favored his broader pattern of attributing verified corruption without systemic retraction demands. Defenders of Riesel counter that his work prompted tangible reforms, such as heightened scrutiny under the 1959 Landrum-Griffin Act, yet skeptics maintain the net effect eroded union bargaining power by fueling employer and governmental interventions.

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