Steel City Vice
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steelcityvice.com
Steel City Vice
@steelcityvice.com
Finding and telling the stories about the Ohio River Valley's organized crime history. Curated by @davidrotenstein.bsky.social. Lucky number: 805. https://steelcityvice.com/
Pinned
Steel City Vice is now @covertnky.com.

New home base, new and expanded content and same historical themes.
Steel City Vice is now @covertnky.com.

New home base, new and expanded content and same historical themes.
November 24, 2025 at 11:03 AM
Reposted by Steel City Vice
I am proud to live in a neighborhood with a corner bar that has a history corner featuring docs/pix describing a century of vice activities that took place there. Featured: a 2001 DEA report documenting a raid there. Named, a bartender named "Linda, LNU" (last name unknown) and oxy dealer Jeff. 🗃️
November 19, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Of course there was a long-lived gambling club in Covington, Kentucky, called the Press Club. Gambling arrests began in the 1940s and continued under new ownership & a new name (New Press Club) for another 25 years!
November 12, 2025 at 7:01 PM
No matter how hard city leaders and local residents try, they can't whitewash Covington, Kentucky's, underworld history. linknky.com/culture/2025...
Covington hides some of its gambling history
Covington’s 514 Club, once a mob-run casino, loses its historic sign amid debates over preservation and city oversight.
linknky.com
November 12, 2025 at 12:34 PM
Was crooked attorney Charles Lester (played by actor Wallace Shawn) who represented mobsters on two CBS dramas based on a real-life crooked attorney Charles Lester Jr. who represented mobsters in post-Prohibition Northern Kentucky? 🗃️
November 5, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Get to know a little bit about how two Northern Kentucky cities with deep mob ties tackle their complicated histories: Newport and Covington. linknky.com/culture/2025...
Is Northern Kentucky's vice history good for business?
How Covington and Newport face their mobbed-up pasts—from bootlegging to vice—and what history means for Northern Kentucky today.
linknky.com
November 4, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Reposted by Steel City Vice
Pittsburgh's Vice Queens: Bootlegging Bubbies & Roadhouse Madams. A free program April 10, 2025, in the Penn Hills Library's True Crime Week. Registration and program info: pennhills.librarycalendar.com/event/true-c...
March 3, 2025 at 8:58 PM
Reposted by Steel City Vice
Spring is just around the corner. You know what that means? Mob history walking tours! steelcityvice.com/south-side-b...
South Side by the Numbers
South Side by the Numbers is a stroll through South Side Flats mob history. Visit the spots where the action was decades before the steel mill closed and brunch menus replaced numbers slips. Betwee…
steelcityvice.com
March 3, 2025 at 8:40 PM
A new kind of trivia game: guess the mobster by his criminal case card!
November 14, 2024 at 4:10 PM
We had a lively group of South Siders on last weekend's South Side by the Numbers walking tour. We paused in front of the former Lotus Club for a group photo. 📸 by Laura Hussey via Ashley Cortazzo.
September 30, 2024 at 11:45 AM
There's lots more than mob history to see & hear on the South Side by the Numbers walking tour.
Learn about life in the South Side during the 20th century where millions of workers had to take second & third jobs to make ends meet in buildings like this one. Tour info link in the comments.
September 10, 2024 at 10:56 PM
New fall dates announced: South Side by the Numbers organized crime walking tours. Registration links go live next week for Sept. 28, Sept. 29, and Oct. 19. Join award-winning writer and historian David Rotenstein on a trip through the South Side's vice history. steelcityvice.com/south-side-b...
South Side by the Numbers
South Side by the Numbers is a stroll through South Side Flats mob history. Visit the spots where the action was decades before the steel mill closed and brunch menus replaced numbers slips. Between 1...
steelcityvice.com
September 1, 2024 at 11:47 AM
There is a “Pittsburgh True Crime” panel at this year’s Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books May 11. There will be some familiar names and faces.

events.humanitix.com/pgh-true-crime
PGH True Crime Panel | Humanitix
Richard Gazarik, Paul Hodos, Jason Kirin will be at the Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books!
events.humanitix.com
April 6, 2024 at 12:22 PM
Spring means it's walking tour season.
March 15, 2024 at 1:17 PM
In 1933 bank robber Willie Sutton spent a little time in Braddock, Pa. What made the biggest impression on him during his brief stay? Numbers gambling, of course. wordpress.com/post/steelci...
January 9, 2024 at 12:34 PM
Historically, newspapermen were immune from getting whacked by contract killers. Historically.
December 27, 2023 at 2:29 PM
One cold winter morning a Pittsburgh preacher took on vice among his flock. He ended up making headlines around the nation. steelcityvice.com/2023/10/24/t...
The Preacher vs. the Numbers Racketeers
Rev. William R. Pankey delivered his most memorable sermon on Sunday March 8, 1937. It was a cold late winter morning, but his message was on fire. The Baptist preacher had lots to work with: gambling...
steelcityvice.com
October 24, 2023 at 11:25 AM
Did this Sept. 1939 prizefight change the course of organized crime history in Pittsburgh? Follow @yinzervice.bsky.social on Bluesky for some clues next week.
October 13, 2023 at 4:57 PM