Victor Riesel

Victor Riesel was an investigative reporter and labor reform advocate whose public work became inseparable from the 1956 acid attack that blinded him. In the book’s account, the assault did not silence his campaign: his continued appearances made the violence against labor reformers visible to a national audience and helped spur Senate hearings on racketeering in the labor movement.

Identity and Investigative Work

In May 1956, Riesel worked for the New York Journal American and hosted a daily radio show. He used the program to feature Teamsters opposed to James R. Hoffa, as part of a broader crusade against criminal elements in labor unions. The book’s acknowledgments later place Riesel among investigative writers whose reporting, undertaken at risk of physical harm, helped uncover and preserve the history of James R. Hoffa, his era, and his disappearance.

The Acid Attack

On the night of a broadcast, Riesel left Lindy’s restaurant on Broadway near Times Square. A man approached him on the sidewalk and threw acid in his face. The acid blinded Riesel. The book identifies the attack as an effort ordered by Hoffa ally and labor racketeer John Dioguardi, also known as Johnny Dio.

John Dioguardi was charged with ordering the crime, but the case collapsed after the acid thrower was found dead and other witnesses refused to cooperate. The sequence linked violence against a reforming journalist to the wider intimidation surrounding union racketeering: the prosecution lost its witnesses, while Riesel bore the lasting physical consequence of the attack.

Public Consequences

Riesel’s blindness did not end his advocacy. He appeared on television wearing dark glasses and continued urging labor reform. The book presents the image of the blinded reporter speaking publicly as a source of national outrage, and connects that response to the United States Senate’s decision to hold live televised hearings on racketeers’ influence in the labor movement.

Those hearings became known as the McClellan Committee hearings, after their presiding senator, John L. McClellan. The committee included John F. Kennedy, and its chief counsel and principal interrogator was Bobby Kennedy. Bobby Kennedy’s aggressive work there helped make him James R. Hoffa’s mortal enemy. Riesel did not merely report on the struggle over labor reform; the attack on him helped bring that struggle before a national audience and into a prominent congressional investigation.

Place in the Book’s Historical Account

Riesel appears as both a reporter documenting corruption and a victim of the coercion used to resist reform. The book’s account ties his case to a chain of consequences: an attack intended to punish union criticism, a prosecution weakened by the death of the assailant and the silence of witnesses, and a public response that elevated labor racketeering into a televised Senate inquiry. His continued appearances after being blinded sharpen that contrast: the violence damaged his sight, but did not erase his public voice.