Rose City Vice Expanded Edition

Explore the dark underbelly of Portland, Oregon — a city built not just on roses, but rackets, corruption, and buried secrets. In Rose City Vice: Expanded Edition, veteran journalist Phil Stanford pulls back the curtain on a Northwest city once teeming with graft, organized crime, and political scandal. From the post–Civil War frontier swindles to the infamous Portland Vice Scandal of 1956–57—which led to Senate hearings and national headlines—this gripping nonfiction narrative details a shocking history of prostitution, drugs, murder, and coverups in the City of Roses. This expanded edition includes Stanford’s explosive true crime short story “Wheeler Dealer,” a chilling tale of murder, betrayal, and conspiracy within Portland’s tight-knit criminal underworld. First published in Stanford's popular Substack, “Wheeler Dealer” has been praised for its meticulous detail and narrative power—blurring the line between investigative journalism and noir storytelling. By the 1970s, as Portland’s reputation slid from clean-cut to corrupt, Rose City Vice reveals a police narcotics squad gone rogue, a city council high on cocaine, and a mayor embroiled in a disturbing underage scandal—all as the local vice squad watched from the shadows. Stanford’s insider knowledge and razor-sharp prose make this one of the most compelling true crime accounts of citywide moral collapse ever written. Perfect for fans of David Simon, James Ellroy, and classic noir journalism, this is Portland as you’ve never seen it—raw, dirty, and unforgettable.