Happy 90th Birthday To The Philadelphia Daily News

My beginnings in journalism, in a sense, began with the Philadelphia Daily News.

I sold the Daily News and the Philadelphia Inquirer down at the old Navy Yard during the 1960s when I was a teenager. Many years later, I became a contributor to the Daily News, writing commentary on politics and crime.

Today is the Daily News' 90th birthday and Gar Joseph offers a history of the old tabloid newspaper.

William Scott Vare was a vote-stealer and a boodler. It seemed unlikely that his bid for a U.S. Senate seat would win the endorsement of any of Philadelphia's five daily newspapers. So he started his own.

The International News Service announced its March 31, 1925, birth this way: "The first edition of the 'Philadelphia Daily News,' a pictorial tabloid paper, made its appearance on the streets here at noon. A forty page paper was the initial offering of the Philadelphia Tabloid Publishing Company, publishers of the paper. Lee Ellmaker, who has been associated with a number of the leading dailies in the east is the publisher and manager of the company."

Vare's name was not mentioned, although it was his money - millions from the contracting business - that bankrolled the paper. Vare ran the city's Republican machine, which held most of the elected offices. That was good for business as the growing city always had a need for contractors. He also had an arrangement with Waxey Gordon and Lucky Luciano that kept them out of jail in exchange for Vare's veto power over their operations. This was also good for business.

The new tabloid was printed by the Jewish World on 5th Street near Locust — it didn’t have its own presses yet — and its mix of crime, sex, celebrities, sports, politics and big photos made it an immediate hit.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.philly.com/philly/business/homepage/20150331_The_Vare-ied_history_of_the_Daily_News.html 

Charles "Charlie Lucky" Luciano Died On This Day In 1962

As Biography.com notes, New York mobster Charles "Charlie Lucky" Luciano died on this date in 1962.

Charles "Lucky" Luciano was born Salvatore Lucania in Sicily, Italy, on November 24, 1897. Luciano split New York City into five crime families, heading the Genovese crime family himself. He also initiated The Commission, which served as a governing body for organized crime nationwide. Luciano moved to Havana and was later deported to Italy, living out his final years in Naples.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.biography.com/people/lucky-luciano-9388350

New Low for Mob: Former Goodfella Henry Hill Not Suprised By Underage Prostitution Pinch

Henry Hill, a former Lucchese organized crime associate and the subject of Nicholas Pileggi's true crime book Wiseguy, which was later made into Martin Scorsese's film Goodfellas, appeared on CNN and stated he was not surprised by the recent indictment and arrest of 14 alleged members of the Gambino crime family for running an interstate prostitution ring that included an underage girl
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"The mob is just out to make a buck," Hill told CNN.
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U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara called the use of an underage girl for prostitution a new low for the mob.
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The 23-count indictment also includes charges of murder, drug trafficking and racketeering.
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Hill (seen in the above photo and below in an earlier FBI mug shot) testified against his former criminal cohorts in 1984 and was placed for a time in the federal witness protection program.
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You can view the CNN video of Hill via the below link:
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http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/04/22/henry.hill.gambino.indictment/?hpt=C1