Victor Riesel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Riesel

FROM WIKIPEDIA

Victor Riesel (1914 – January 4, 1995) was an American newspaper journalist, who specialized in news related to labor unions.

Riesel was born into a Jewish family and reared on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. When he was 13, his family moved to the Bronx. Riesel's father, Nathan, was a union activist, held the No. 1 card in a small union of skilled workers, and frequently took his son to meetings. Victor graduated from Morris High School at the age of 15. He spent the years from 1928 to 1940 at City College of New York, where he attended night classes, specializing in personnel and industrial relations.

By day, Riesel worked at various times in a hat factory, a lace plant, and a steel mill. He had his introduction to journalism as director of undergraduate publications and as an editor, columnist, and book and drama critic.

Later, he worked in mines and mills in Pittsburgh, Detroit, Cleveland, and Youngstown, Ohio, and reported what he saw for labor publications. He became a correspondent for several foreign papers. He became managing editor of The New Leader magazine, and then joined The New York Post in 1941. He started his nationally syndicated column, which went on to appear in 193 newspapers, in 1942.

The most publicized aspect of his career was an April 5, 1956 attack in which sulphuric acid was thrown in his face as he was leaving Lindy's in Manhattan, following a late-night interview; the attack resulted in his permanent blindness.[1] The attack was perpetrated by Lucchese crime family members Abraham Telvi, Gondolfo Miranti, Dominick Bando, Charles Tuso, and Joseph Carlino. Telvi and Miranti were murdered during the course of the investigation that followed the attack. The Lucchese crime family's caporegime, John "Johnny Dio" Dioguardi, was indicted and convicted for labor racketeering, because the actual attackers Telvi and Miranti had been murdered. Joseph Carlino survived the incident until his death on July 17, 1995. His convicted accomplice, Charles Tuso, also survived the incident and died on August 28, 2003.

Riesel lectured, taught, and made many radio and television appearances and traveled to some 50 countries, interviewing their labor and political leaders. Riesel's politics became more conservative, and in the early 1970s he became an unofficial, but important advisor to the Nixon administration on labor matters and on Republican Party outreach to the labor community and to white working class voters, meeting with cabinet level officials. He continued to write his column, typing it himself until he retired in 1990. Before his retirement he was probably the nation’s best-known labor columnist.

According to his obituary in the January 5, 1995, New York Times, Riesel, raised in a union household, "never stopped inveighing against gangster infiltration and other corruption in labor unions that had stirred his emotions since his youth."

Notes

1. ^ Raskin, A.H. "Thug Hurls Acid on Labor Writer." New York Times. April 6, 1956; "Riesel Loses Sight

From Burns of Acid." New York Times. May 5, 1956.

2. ^ Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives. Tamiment Library. New York University.

3. ^ Van Gelder, Lawrence. "Victor Riesel, 81, Columnist Blinded by Acid Attack, Dies." New York Times.

January 5, 1995.

Victor Riesel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Page 1 of 2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Riesel 12/16/2009

Writer blinded in By Lawrence Van Gelder The New York Times Victor Riesel, the crusading syndicated labor columnist who was blinded by an acid attack in died on Wednesday at his home in New York. He was 81, The cause of death was a heart attack, according to his son, Michael. ... “The attack oii me was an attack on the entire free press Victor RieselVictor Riesel was born and reared on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. ... In addition to his wife, the former Evelyn Lobelson, and his son Michael of Manhattan, Riesel is survived by a daughter, Susan Riesel Hurwitz of Arcadia, Calif., and four grandchildren.