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 expose 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 fascinating and sordid details of an
important period in the history of what by the end of the century
had become a great American city. It is a story of Portland's
repeated and often failed efforts to flush out organized crime and
municipal corruption-a familiar story for many
mid-twentieth-century American cities that were attempting to clean
up their police departments and municipal governments. "Dark Rose"
also helps explain the heritage of Portland reform politics and the
creation of what is today one of the country's most progressive
cities.
""Dark Rose" takes readers inside a seamy and significant
episode in Portland's history, complete with snitches, secret
tapes, and a Congressional spotlight on the city's corruption that
made it a national object lesson for municipal reform." -William
Lang, Portland State University
"An absorbing account of a time when criminals, politicians, and
labor leaders ran an open city of corruption, gambling, and
prostitution, until a newspaper did its job. The book is gripping
for the names you won't recognize, and the names you will." -David
Sarasohn, "The Oregonian"
Robert C. Donnelly is assistant professor of history at Gonzaga
University."
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