CAMPBELL RECORDER
97
Your Community Recorder newspaper serving all of Campbell County
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2020 | BECAUSE COMMUNITY MATTERS | PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK ###
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YO U ’ L L B E Delighted
Book explores underworld connections to Supper Club fi re Jeff Suess Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK
Sweet Tooth Candies in Newport. FILE PHOTO
You might recognize the new owners of Sweet Tooth Candy & Ice Cream Madeline Mitchell Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK
After 48 years of making and selling treats out of their Newport shop, Bob and Norma Schneider are retiring and selling Sweet Tooth Candy & Ice Cream to the owners of Pompilios Italian Restaurant. The candy store will stay open in its historic location at 125 West 11th Street, according to a news release. The Schneiders started exploring retirement options last September. “I’d like to do it for the rest of my life, but there comes a time where you have to take a step back,” Bob Schneider told The Enquirer at the time. When word got out about their desire to retire, Pompilios owners and lifelong Newport residents Joe Bristow and Larry Geiger decided to purchase the local shop. “We would both go and get Sweet Tooth’s famous ice balls in the summer, caramel apples in the fall and ValenSee SWEET, Page 2A
No one who was around in May 1977 will likely forget the tragic Beverly Hills Supper Club fi re. The blaze that destroyed the popular Southgate, Kentucky, nightspot and claimed the lives of 165 people continues to fascinate and haunt people, especially with so much mystery about what caused the fi re. “I have always thought it was a very fascinating story, probably the biggest story in Cincinnati history because of the number of people who died. And it may be the biggest cold case in the region since it basically remains unsolved,” said Peter Bronson, author of the new book, “Forbidden Fruit: Sin City’s Underworld and the Supper Club Inferno.” Bronson, a former Enquirer editorial page editor and columnist, started researching the 1977 fi re, then kept digging, tracing the roots to mob activity in Newport, Kentucky, in the 1930s and the fi rst time the Beverly Hills Club burned in 1936. “That just led me to the amazing history of Newport,” Bronson said. “The mob ruled Newport for decades. It was much more pervasive and insidious than I believed or thought.” The book lays out that gambling, mobsters, prostitution and crooked offi cials were rampant in Newport, nicknamed “Sin City,” with the Beverly Hills Club one of the most notorious casinos run by the Cleveland Syndicate. In 1961, former NFL quarterback George Ratterman ran for Campbell County sheriff , promising to clean up the vice and corruption. Then Ratterman was given knockout drops and put into a compromising position with a stripper, but the frame-up fell apart in court and Ratterman was elected. The Ratterman case caught the attention of U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, brother of President John F. Kennedy. “The Kennedys declared war on the See BOOK, Page 2A
Sweet Tooth Candies owner Bob Schneider brings out fresh peanut butter fudge to the storefront in Newport. MARTY WHITACRE FOR THE COMMUNITY RECORDER
NKY lawmakers’ plans to fund improvements to Brent Spence Bridge Julia Fair Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK
Northern Kentucky lawmakers have historically been vehemently opposed to the use of tolls to pay for the $2.5 billion project that would alleviate congestion on the Brent Spence Bridge. The fi ery crash that closed the 56year-old bridge reignited the conversation about how to fund that project. The Enquirer surveyed the state lawmakers who represent Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties to ask: How do you plan to fund the Brent Spence Bridge upgrades?
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Only four of the region’s 13 lawmakers responded, two Democrats and two Republicans. One gave a specifi c answer about how Kentucky could raise money for the project. The Enquirer asked: h Given the recent incident on the Brent Spence Bridge, would you support a toll to fund the new bridge to be built next to the existing bridge? Please explain why or why not. h If you don’t support tolls, and with the federal government $27 trillion in debt, how would you propose the project be funded?
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Kenton County Rep. Buddy Wheatley: Wheatley said he would support a toll on thru-traffi c, which would include, for example, freight drivers and vacationers. It would not include tolls on Northern Kentucky residents who use the bridge to go to work in Cincinnati. “For the Brent Spence Bridge, given the greater impact to the state and region, tolling might cover a small percentage of funding, with some resiSee BRIDGE , Page 4A
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Cover for "Forbidden Fruit: Sin City's Underworld and the Supper Club Inferno" by Peter Bronson (2020), about the Beverly Hills Supper Club fi re. ENQUIRER FILE
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