June 1968: 'Bob Kennedy Dies; Funeral is Saturday'

BY RICK ROBINSON | LINK nky GUEST AUTHOR

Rick Robinson is a local author who is writing a book based on life in Northern Kentucky in 1968 and what we can learn now. LINK will publish excerpts from the book regularly in the LINK Reader, as well as on linknky.com

“Bob Kennedy Dies; Funeral is Saturday.”

The front-page headline of The Kentucky Post and Times-Star was simple and to the point. On June 6, following his victory in the California Democratic primary for president, U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, D-N.Y., was shot while walking through the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. He died 25 hours later. He was 42 years old.

Kennedy entered the Democratic Party’s contest for the presidential nomination shortly after President Lyndon Johnson’s dismal performance in the New Hampshire primary. Within two weeks of Kennedy’s entry into the race, President Johnson dropped out and his endorsed candidate, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, jumped in. U.S. Sen. Eugene McCarthy, D-Minn., won early primary victories, but the Kennedy camp believed a victory in California would set up a one-on-one floor fight with Humphrey at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. As Kennedy finished his victory speech to campaign supporters, the anti-war candidate flashed a peace sign and declared, “Now, it’s on to Chicago, and let’s win there.”

Days later, people across the nation mourned Kennedy’s shocking death. Locally, flags across Northern Kentucky were ordered to fly at half-staff. Church services were held. Meetings were canceled. And resolutions of sympathy and respect were passed by governing bodies. Humphrey canceled his presidential campaign trip to Cincinnati.

Covington lawyer Patrick Flannery, the coordinator of Northern Kentucky Citizens for Kennedy, had attended the funeral of President John F. Kennedy, which he called “an unbelievable tragedy.” He added, “It’s hard to believe that two Kennedys were shot down when they were doing so much good.” Kentucky Gov. Louie Nunn said the assassination of Sen. Kennedy was “tragic beyond words and thoughts” and noted the collapse of law, order and morality in the country. U.S. Rep. Gene Snyder, R-Ky, attacked recent court decisions he believed were giving too many rights to those committing violent acts.

Gun control was on the minds of many. Florence Mayor C.M. Ewing said, “It’s getting so a man can’t seek public office. I don’t have the answer to the recent acts of violence. I don’t think gun legislation will solve the problem.” Mayor Leo Brun of Elsmere expressed the opposite position. “Something has to be done about violence in our country. Legislation must be passed,” Brun said. Crescent Springs Mayor Jack Jensen urged citizens to write to their representatives in Washington in support of gun legislation.

Not mentioned in any of the news stories about Robert Kennedy’s death were his very close ties to Northern Kentucky – in particular, his involvement with fighting organized crime in Newport.

In 1957, Robert Kennedy gained national recognition when he became chief counsel to the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management, known by some as the “Rackets Committee.” Committee Chairman Sen. John

McClellan, D-Ark., gave his young counsel broad authority over the special panel. The committee is best remembered for its inquiry into organized crime’s influence over the Teamsters Union and for its president, Jimmy Hoffa. However, Kennedy’s work also introduced him to crime syndicates operating openly in Northern Kentucky.

Kennedy left his position with the Rackets Committee to assist his brother, Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kennedy, in his campaign for president of the United States. This is where Robert Kennedy met a reporter for The Courier-Journal named Hank Messick, who had been covering the anti-crime reform movement taking place in Campbell County. Messick was invited to a private press briefing in Cincinnati with Robert Kennedy about the Kennedy campaign for president. The other reporters present focused on Kennedy’s Catholic faith and the impact, if any, it would have on his governance. Messick was there to address Newport.

In his book “Syndicate Wife” (The Macmillan Co., 1968), Messick recalled the encounter:

“When the religious issue was exhausted, there was a pause. The author (Messick) fired some questions of his own – about Newport and organized crime. Kennedy seemed startled about the abrupt change in subject, then pleased. He sank back in the couch. A little color waned his face.

Instead of worrying so much about religion, the next Attorney General of the United States declared, the public and the press should give thought to certain other matters of which organized crime was one of the most important.

“How can an Administration handle Khrushchev and Castro when it can’t handle Hoffa,” he asked.

Yes, he was familiar with crime conditions in Newport. If his brother was elected President, there would be effective action taken against syndicate hoods in Newport.”

This action happened a year later. John F. Kennedy had won the election for president and had appointed his brother Robert Kennedy to head up the Justice Department as attorney general. In Newport, the reformers were backing a local football hero, George Ratterman, for Campbell County Sheriff. Shortly after Ratterman announced his candidacy, he met with a local mobster, was slipped a “Mickey Finn” and woke up as on-the-take police broke into a Newport brothel bedroom to find Ratterman in bed with a stripper stage-named April Flowers. The scandal, resulting trials

Continues on page 8 and aftermath are legendary in Northern Kentucky (as well as national) political lore.

With some encouragement from a Cincinnati attorney who knew the Kennedys, Robert Kennedy and the Justice Department quickly became involved, sending special federal prosecutors into Newport to follow the Ratterman trial and to bring charges against multiple individuals for violating Ratterman’s civil rights.

Lawyer Ronald Goldfarb was recruited by Robert Kennedy to work at the Justice Department focusing on the prosecution of organized crime. In Goldfarb’s brilliant account of the U.S. Justice Department’s involvement in the Ratterman case, titled “Perfect Villains, Imperfect Heroes” (Capital Books, 1995), he described how Robert Kennedy had testified before Congress about how large the stakes were in Newport. The attorney general estimated $30 million was wagered annually in Newport. Numbers and horse-racing bets alone were around $6 million. And the take from gambling operations did not include the revenues crime figures were receiving from the city’s numerous brothels. Elected officials and police were most certainly on the take. “Of all the wide-open, corrupt cities in the country,” Goldfarb wrote, “Newport competed to be the worst.”

According to Goldfarb’s account, Robert Kennedy was initially concerned about getting involved in the election of a local county sheriff. “Kennedy knew Newport, as a center of crime and corruption, was ripe for our group’s attention, but he was understandably chary about taking sides in a local case he knew little about.” Goldfarb convinced Kennedy it was worth the risk. Perhaps over these concerns, Kennedy kept a close eye on the case, personally signing off on various actions of Goldfarb and his team. And according to Messick,

Kennedy often personally leaked files to him about portions of the case.

On the day Ratterman went on trial, Robert Kennedy described to a Senate Committee how Newport was a prime example of organized crime using gambling to control and eventually destroy a community and requested more resources for the Justice Department to fight organized crime.

After Ratterman beat the charges against him and won the election for Campbell County Sheriff, Kennedy personally signed off on bringing charges against those responsible for the set-up.

By the end of the year, Kennedy declared in the Justice Department’s annual report, “Wagering has virtually ceased at a major gambling center, Newport, Kentucky.”

The impact of Robert F. Kennedy on Northern Kentucky would be felt long after his sad and untimely death.

“I was driving the wrong way on 12th Street in Covington – going home. It was so real. Anyway, I drove up 11th Street to Joyce Avenue so casually. That was the funny thing because I know I could set a world’s speed record if I was REALLY doing it. I got so excited right before I got to the house, I woke up. SOME DAY I’ll be making it for sure and for real.”

Administration by providing overvalued home appraisals to lenders.

“My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; but be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.”

Ted Kennedy’s eulogy for his brother Robert Kennedy

As the region mourned, the Vietnam War continued. Lance Cpl. Thomas Lee Loschiavo of Winston Park became the 65th Northern Kentuckian killed in Vietnam when a rocket attack hit his unit near Quang Tri. Marine Pvc. Bradley Bowling of Demossville was also killed in combat. Bowling had written letters to his brother describing how bad the action had been but asked the details not be shared with his mother. Bowling had been in Vietnam for less than three months.

Northern Kentuckians also read about the dream of Marine Cpl. Larry Wiedemann of Newport. The Kentucky Post and TimesStar described a letter Wiedemann sent home to his mother.

Stories from the Post and Times-Star in June 1968 reflect a changing racial landscape in Northern Kentucky – some reflecting change for the better, while others cause pause. “Whites Accepting Fair Housing Law” was a story describing how Kentucky’s Commission on Human Rights reported little open hostility to enforcement of the state’s newly adopted open-housing law. Another story heralded the first marriage license issued in Kenton County to a mixed-race couple (it was issued on the heels of a state attorney general’s opinion concluding the state statute forbidding such would be declared unconstitutional by courts).

Yet, while progress was seemingly being made in civil rights, all three county courthouses were closed in observance of Confederate Memorial Day.

In June 1968, the Post and Times-Star focused on four separate series of articles that proved their worth to the region. First, it featured stories about the identity of a deceased young woman found in a camping tent. The identity of “Tent Girl” was an ongoing storyline that would continue for the remainder of the year. Additionally, the newspaper uncovered a fraudulent scheme whereby local real estate investors were scamming the Federal Housing

Next, there was a great deal of coverage regarding the horrendous conditions at state juvenile detention centers. Ken Harper remembers having just sat down to lunch at a restaurant when the waitress approached to tell him Gov. Nunn called looking for him. “Louie was waiting for me when I got back to the Capital,” Harper recalled. “The two of us and a reporter went straight to Kentucky Village. On the way, Louie explained he had heard rumors about the conditions there. He was furious at what he saw.” The visit and press attention resulted in the reform of juvenile facilities across Kentucky.

Finally, and most interestingly, there was a series of articles by reporter Sigman Byrd, who was traveling across Kentucky to write about the pulse of the state. Near the end of the month, Byrd reported the dour mood across the commonwealth. “There was much pessimism among the people I met,” wrote Byrd. “Sometimes it bordered on hopelessness.”

“Kentuckians, like most Americans, have lost faith in the people who govern; in the elected officials and the appointed bureaucrats,” Byrd continued. “They are fed up –up to here – with professional politicians.”

Rick Robinson’s award-winning books can be found at area bookstores and are available on Amazon. In a new book to be released later this year, he will be viewing Northern Kentucky through the lens of 1968. If you wish to contact Robinson with a story or thoughts about 1968, you may do so at neverleavefish@gmail.com. Photo credits compliments of Kenton County Library Faces and Places. Unless otherwise noted, all stories and quotes from 1968 are from articles that appeared in The Kentucky Post and Times-Star.