• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Adventure Mom

An Adventure, Travel and Lifestyle blog designed to encourage you to try something new.

  • Home
  • About & Contact
    • Affiliate Disclosure
    • Privacy Policy
  • Travel
    • Fall Travel
    • Art
    • Family Adventures
    • Holiday Travel
    • Tours you can take
    • On A Date Adventures
    • Food Adventures
      • Food/Drink Tours
      • Recipes
      • Restaurants
      • Fitness Fun
  • Bucketlist
    • Winter Activites
    • Outdoor Adventure
    • Adventures with Water
    • Amusement/ Theme Parks
    • Extreme Adventures
    • Adventures with Animals
      • Animal Encounters
  • Adventures of the Heart
    • Inspirational People & Places
  • Cincinnati//Northern Kentucky Area
  • Featured
  • Popular Posts
  • Health

Learn about the city that was Vegas before Vegas on the Newport Gangster Tour

October 21, 2013 By Nedra McDaniel 1 Comment

Share this post:

Twitter Facebook Pinterest LinkedIn Email

gangster tour

I grew up in Northern Kentucky but I had no idea that the city of Newport had a lot of gangster activity back in the day.  The Newport Gangster Tour has been on my list for quite a while and I was really excited to learn more about Newport’s shady past.

Newport Gangster Tour Newport Kentucky

The award winning tour begins at the former site of a casino located at The Syndicate in Newport, Kentucky.

Newport Gangster Tour Newport Kentucky

Our tour began with a presentation that shared several stories given by our tour guides that included characters of interest and photos of Newport over the years.

Newport Gangster Tour Newport Kentucky

Our guides were great storytellers who also really got into character as well.

Newport Gangster Tour Newport Kentucky

The city of Newport was formerly know as the “Sin City of the South.”  There were tales of illegal casinos, crime, bootleggers, scandals and crime rings.

Newport Gangster Tour Newport Kentucky

Newport Gangster Tour Newport Kentucky

After our guides laid the foundation for what Newport used to be like, we took to the streets to learn about nearby buildings that had a lot of history.

Newport Gangster Tour Newport Kentucky

There used to be 34 adult entertainment clubs within a 2 mile radius in Newport.

Newport Gangster Tour Newport Kentucky

During the tour, you will hear about horrendous crimes that took place in broad daylight with witnesses present.

Newport Gangster Tour Newport Kentucky

There was a lot of corruption with the police as well during that time.  Several officers developed the “Newport Eye” when they would come in contact with large amounts of money. Symptoms included temporary blindness and total loss of memory which worked out well for the criminals.

Newport Gangster Tour Newport Kentucky

Our tour talked about a murder outside of this building. If you go on the Ultimate Gangster Tour, you will also go inside the Gambling Museum which is someone’s personal collection of gambling memorabilia.

Newport Gangster Tour Newport Kentucky

The tour talks about attempts over the years to clean up the city and the multiple uses of several of the buildings.  I would recommend a tour audience of a teenager and up for the tour because of the nature of the crimes and activities that are shared about on the tour.

Newport Gangster Tour Newport Kentucky

During our tour, we witnessed a deer running in a panic down Monmouth Street. That is definitely something you don’t see everyday!

Newport Gangster Tour Newport Kentucky

We learned that so many people were employed by casino’s in Newport that 33% of the population moved to Las Vegas to start new endeavors when they shut down gambling.

After spending time in Vegas, the former Newport residents started missing their Cincinnati style chili. Cincinnati style chili is a big part of the local food culture here. After receiving so many requests from the former Newport residents that moved to Vegas, Dixie Chili began canning and shipping their chili to Las Vegas where you can still purchase it today at several grocers.

Newport Gangster Tour Newport Kentucky

The York Street Cafe also used to also have a lot of activity. The 2nd floor held a tasting bar from Wiedemann’s Brewery which was formally the largest and oldest brewery in Kentucky. There is also a speakeasy door located on the 3rd floor. (They also have great food and were voted best place for a first date.)

Newport Gangster Tour Newport Kentucky

The tour takes you to former casino sites and shares stories of legendary entertainers who walked the same streets.

Newport Gangster Tour Newport Kentucky

The tour also points out the location of the former Wiedemann’s Brewery which took up 5 acres in Newport!

Newport Gangster Tour Newport Kentucky

This bakery was formerly the Yorkshire which at one time had 150 phone lines at its peak for questionable business transactions that were brought down by the feds.

Newport Gangster Tour Newport Kentucky

The tour ends where it started, in the “Gold Room” at The Syndicate with a few final stories.  You can also share the love by tipping the guides at the end of the tour. They definitely earned our tip!

Newport Gangster Tour Newport Kentucky

The Newport Gangster Tour lasts around 2.5 hours and is a great tour for tourists and locals alike.  What makes this tour great is the combination of storytelling in front of the actual buildings.

The tour guides have also shared about how locals who lived in the area during that time have also given interesting information afterwards about different buildings or notorious criminals.

Newport Gangster Tour Newport Kentucky

 

*Admission for the Gangster Tour is $20.

If you want an even more intense Gangster Tour experience, you can sign up for the Ultimate Gangster Tour for $30, which is a special extended tour where you hear even more stories and get to go inside a few buildings.

American Legacy Tours offers a variety of tours in the Cincinnati area. I have also taken their Haunted Covington Tour and the Spirit of Christmas Tour.

 

You can purchase your tours online here. 

 

 

The Newport Gangster Tour by American Legacy Tours begins at Gangsters Dueling Piano Bar 18 East Fifth Street Newport KY 41071

 

 

 

Disclosure: I was given complimentary admissions for review purposes. All opinions are my own.

Share this post:

Twitter Facebook Pinterest LinkedIn Email

Filed Under: Adventures With Friends, Cincinnati/ Northern Kentucky Tours, Cincy/NKY Area, On A Date Adventures, Tours you can take Tagged With: beer, brewery, cincinnati ohio, crime, gangster, kentucky, Newport, Newport Gangster Tour, Newport Kentucky, prohibition, tourism, tourist attraction, travel, walking tour, York Street Cafe

Previous Post: « What’s New At The Covington Library
Next Post: Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium »

Reader Interactions

Trackbacks

  1. 10 Tours to Take Around Cincinnati - Adventure Mom says:
    May 31, 2017 at 11:23 am

    […]  Newport Gangster Tour recalls the history of the area while you walk the streets that were once heavily populated with criminal activity. Learn about notorious criminals who once roamed the streets in this Kentucky city that was part of changing the modern gaming industry. […]

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Search

Meet Nedra

myNKY
myNKY

[footer_backtotop]

Copyright © 2021 · Proudly Hosted By Mom Webs Hosting · Log in