Reform Over Newport

Just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati glow the red lights of Newport, Ky. (pop. 30,000), a venerable sin center and hardly a place where a reformer is likely to succeed. But last week a reformer was elected sheriff of Campbell County, which includes Newport. He is George Ratterman. 35, former Notre Dame and Cleveland Browns quarterback, now a television commentator for American Football League games.

Ratterman campaigned on a promise to clean out Newport—and the city's vice lords set out to double-team him. They framed him by giving him knockout drops, then arranging to have him arrested in bed with a stripper named April Flowers. The courts cleared Ratterman, who is the father of eight children, and a grand jury later indicted Newport's Police Chief Upshere White on a charge of having conspired to railroad Ratterman.

Ratterman's election was won not in Newport itself but by a flood of votes from the rest of the county. That made him even more determined to reform Newport. Said he: "I will call on the Governor, the Federal Government and even the United Nations, if necessary, to enforce law and order.'' A couple of beefy football squads might help too.