Razzle Dazzle

by Hank Messick

In Sin City, Newport, Kentucky, in the mid-twenthieth century, across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, Ohio, organized crime--the syndicate--established itself as the purveyor of gambling & prostituion. Since the prohibtion era Newport had been the night life center for the greater Cincinnati area, and by the 1950s it was run by the eastern mafia syndicate based in Cleveland. In the late 1950s Newport citizens began their attempt to clean up Newport to make way for future economic and social development. Into this battle between vice and reform, stepped Hank Messick, an investigative journalist for the Louisville Courier-Journal . Over the next few years, Messick reported in one sensational story after another, the inner workings of the syndicate and its ultimate downfall. Razzle Dazzle is his personal account of those tumultuous and dangerous years.

252 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1995

About the author

Henry “Hank” Messick was born on August 8, 1922 in Happy Valley, NC, and died on November 6, 1999 in Cocoa, FL. He received a master's degree from the University of Iowa and taught journalism at Colorado A & M College, and then became a reporter for the weekly The Waynesville Mountaineer in North Carolina. Messick authored 19 books primarily about organized crime and law enforcement. His first book The Silent Syndicate was released in 1967. Messick’s investigative reporting incurred the wrath of powerful enemies, and he often was alternatively threatened and offered bribes to stop writing. In efforts to silence Messick he even was indicted on a phony charge and assaulted by a dirty cop. In later years the writer suffered from autoimmune disease Sjogren's syndrome, and after losing his sight to the illness dictated from memory his last book Razzle Dazzle which was released in 1995.

Reviews

[Eric Edwards · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book a bit of a struggle to read given the old timey newspeak but also the frequent reference to people who weren’t well defined. Also uneven pacing. This book felt like it needed an editor. Normally would be a 2.5 but I live in the area where this took place so it gets some extra for talking about places I know but also a solid description of how insidious corruption can be when the whole gang is in on it.

[Linda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very confusing-too many characters with inadequate backgrounds plus lots of info on gambling which the reader must be knowledgeable about.