Remembering Victor Riesel, Crusader Blinded By Acid

by Joel Hendon⁽¹⁷⁰⁾ Red Star

Victor Riesel (pronounced re-zell) was born into a Jewish family in lower Manhattan in 1914 until his family moved to the Bronx when he was 13. Nathan Riesel, Victor's father, was a union activist and often took his son with him to meetings. He spent 12 years attending college night classes studying personnel and industrial relations. Here is a brief account of his work history:

By day, Riesel worked at various times in a hat factory, a lace plant, and a steel mill. He had his introduction to journalism as director of undergraduate publications and as an editor, columnist, and book and drama critic.

Later, he worked in mines and mills in Pittsburgh, Detroit, Cleveland and Youngstown, Ohio, and reported what he saw for labor publications. He became a correspondent for several foreign papers. He became managing editor of The New Leader magazine, then joined The New York Post in 1941 and began his column in 1942. (Wikip[edia)

By 1956, his column was published in 193 newspapers. Although he was raised in an activist union home, he became much more conservative in his views as he watched so very much infiltration of thugs and criminals into organized labor positions and learned of their illegal activities, his column was largely devoted to this corruption.

At 2:00 A.M. on April 5, 1956, Riesel completed a late night broadcast assailing the leadership of a Long Island local of the International Union of Operating Engineers. He, with his secretary and a friend, then went to Lindy's restaurant in downtown Manhattan for a snack. As they left at about 3:00 A.M., when a young man stepped out of the shadows and threw sulphuric acid into his eyes and calmly walked away.

During the ensuing investigation, it was learned the act was perpetrated by members of the Lucchese crime family and consequently determined that Abe Telvi was the one who was actually accused of throwing the acid into Riesel's face. He, himself, was found dead in July 1956 with a bullet in his head.

Riesel was told that he would never see again, but the continued his career and his crusade against organized crime. He passed away on Wednesday, January 4, 1995 from a heart attack at the age of 81.

I can recall reading of the acid incident when it happened and thought of how dreadful a thing it was and just how sorry a person would be to commit such a crime. Now, especially in researching the details of this occurrence, I read of numerous incidents of people throwing acid on others. I found one beautiful Iranian lady whose former suitor threw acid on her, disfiguring her face and blinding her. In Iran the victim of a crime has a choice of accepting money as partial recompense for a crime or they may request the perpetrator receive the same punishment he inflicted. And "eye for an eye" discipline. She chose that he receive this punishment. http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/02/19/acid.attack.victim/

There is also current news that acid was thrown into a crowded shopping district of Hong Kong just this past Saturday, the second such incident within the past 5 months. Thirty people, some children, were injured in this recent attack, but none were life threatening. We never know.

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Article submitted Monday, May 18, 2009 & read 256 times.

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