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For other people with similar names, see Edward Reid (disambiguation).

Ed Reid, (c. 1915 – 1977) was an American author and investigative journalist who exposed organized crime in New York City and Las Vegas.

Early life

Reid was born in Manhattan and grew up in Brooklyn. Reid started as a reporter in 1935 and used his writing to fight corruption.

Career

An eight-part series starting in 1949 exposed the activities of bookmaker Harry Gross and corrupt members of the New York City Police Department. This exposé led to an investigation by Brooklyn District Attorney Miles McDonald, and resulted in the eventual resignation of Mayor of New York City William O’Dwyer.[1][2] His article in True Magazine I Broke the Brooklyn Graft Scandal was the basis for the 1958 movie The Case Against Brooklyn.[3]

In the 1950s and early 1960s, Reid worked at the Las Vegas Sun. His investigative reporting exposed the hidden ownership interest of mobsters Jake and Meyer Lansky in the Thunderbird Hotel.[4] On one occasion in March 1954 Reid was beaten by two men in Las Vegas when he was investigating criminal infiltration there.[5] Reid, with Ovid Demaris, co-authored The Green Felt Jungle, a New York Times Best Seller for 23 weeks in 1964, that exposed greed and depravity in Las Vegas.[6] The book connected then Senator Barry Goldwater to labor racketeer Willy Bioff. Goldwater threatened a libel suit against the publisher.[7] Reid and Demaris were invited to join a panel on David Susskind‘s show “Open End” for a discussion of organized crime.[8] Reid was dismissed from the Las Vegas Sun by publisher Hank Greenspun after he wrote The Green Felt Jungle.[9]

In 1970 he published The Grim Reapers: The Anatomy of Organized Crime in America, hiring Ed Becker as a researcher to aid his work.[10] He came to know Becker through their mutual friend Hank Greenspun, the publisher of the Las Vegas Sun.[11] The book was the first to publicize Becker’s allegation that in Louisiana, September 1962, New Orleans crime boss Carlos Marcello, in an outburst as they were drinking whiskey, stated his intention to Becker that he would lay the blame on a “nut” in an assassination plot against President John F. Kennedy.[12][13] The FBI found out about the book and its contents in 1967. FBI agent George Bland subsequently paid Reid a visit, describing Becker as a “liar and a cheat”. The FBI were unsuccessful in convincing Reid to drop the allegation from his book, although he did remove mention of Becker having reported the incident to the FBI.[14][15]

Recognition

In October 1950 Reid received the first ever annual By-Line Award of the Newspaper Reporters Association of New York City for excellence in local reporting. It was presented to him by president of the association Alfred Clark at the Roosevelt Hotel. A series of articles he penned on gambling in Brooklyn earned him the award.[16] Reid reporting for the Brooklyn Eagle earned the outlet the public service 1951 Pulitzer Prize.[17]

Family

Reid was married to Natalie (Borokhovich) Reid and had two children.

Works

References

  1. ^ Crime at Mid-Century by Nicholas Pileggi New York Magazine December 30, 1974 [1]
  2. ^ The Epic of New York City: A Narrative History By Edward Ellis 1990 [2]
  3. ^ Ed Reid – IMDB
  4. ^ Vegas and the Mob By Al W Moe p.104
  5. ^ “REPORTER IS ATTACKED; Ed Reid, Doing a Gangster Story, Beaten in Las Vegas”. The New York Times. 22 March 1954.
  6. ^ “The Book That Tried to End Las Vegas”. 4 September 2013.
  7. ^ Times, Charles Mohr; Special To The New York (1964-05-16). “GOLDWATER PLANS TO SUE OVER BOOK”. The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-07-27.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. ^ “‘OPEN END’ LISTS CRIME DISCUSSION”. The New York Times. 1964-02-24. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-07-27.
  9. ^ Where I Stand — Brian Greenspun: LV book is true fiction Las Vegas Sun March 2, 2001
  10. ^ “Murdering the Mayor of Paradise”. NPR. 1 November 2018.
  11. ^ Russo, Gus (2006). Supermob: How Sidney Korshak and His Criminal Associates Became America’s Hidden Power Brokers. Bloomsbury USA. p. 312.
  12. ^ Summer, Anthony (1993). Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover. G.P. Putnam’s Sons. p. 327.
  13. ^ Goldfarb, Ronald L. (1995). Perfect Villains, Imperfect Heroes: Robert F. Kennedy’s War Against Organized Crime. Random House. pp. 286–7.
  14. ^ Summer, Anthony (1993). Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover. G.P. Putnam’s Sons. p. 328.
  15. ^ Gentry, Curt (1991). J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets. W.W. Norton & Company. p. 497.
  16. ^ “EAGLE REPORTER HONORED; Ed Reid Gets the By-Line Award for Articles on Gambling”. The New York Times. 29 October 1950.
  17. ^ “8 May 1951, Page 1 – The Brooklyn Daily Eagle at Newspapers.com”.