Following the popularity of the series and requests from readers for more, reporter Wes Hills dug into his notebooks and conducted new interviews for a follow-up series revealing more details about how police corruption shaped the city’s history.
These stories are compiled in a new series we’re calling Gem City Confessions.
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For this edition of Vintage Dayton, we look at the project that includes a former Dayton police chief, deputy director and others talking about crimes they and others committed in uniform. And you’ll hear from those alive today about how that dark period in the city’s past impacts current events.
More on Dayton crime history
• Gem City Gamble: Dayton’s police corruption, gangsters and the downfall of Pete Rose
• Bill Stepp: Meet Dayton’s drag-racing gangster who slipped past case after case for decades
Did you know?
Here are a few great Dayton history facts we’ve learned from our stories:
• In 1969, Arthur Beerman had suffered a heart attack and received mountains of cards from well-wishers. He returned their generosity by starting what became one of Dayton’s most enduring holiday traditions, lasting 40 years.
• Phil Donahue recalled in a 1987 interview that the live audience, call-in show format happened by accident. At the first show, which was intended to be just Donahue and a guest alone in a studio, an audience mistakenly showed up for a canceled variety show.
• One of the worst blizzards on record stormed through Dayton and up the eastern coast of the country right after Thanksgiving in 1950.
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Thank you for reading.