He was a prisoner of the Nazis and a prisoner of the federal government. In between, he was the colorful and dedicated mayor of Newport.
Johnny “TV” Peluso died Friday at the age of 92.
In November last year, he recalled his time in the custody of the Nazis when he was a young soldier in World War II as the community honored him on Veterans Day. He recalled the end of the Battle of the Bulge, one of the last large fights of World War II. Peluso and twenty-five other men found themselves behind enemy lines and surrounded by German forces. They holed up in a house and fought back against three thousand enemy fights for six hours. But then a German tank started to blow up every house on the block, stopping where Peluso and his fellow countrymen were hiding.
One of them needed to speak to a German commander. Peluso volunteered and was made aware of how dire the situation was. When he returned to his men, he explained that they would have a chance to survive if they went with the Germans. One fellow soldier from Tennessee, against Peluso’s wishes, said that he would instead make a run for it out the back door. “They cut him right in two,” Peluso remembered.
Johnny Peluso was punched in the face with the back end of a rifle, breaking his jaw and costing him some teeth, and he was then hauled off to a prisoner camp. When Adolf Hitler determined that all American prisoners would be gassed, Peluso was boarded on a train headed for Dachau, a concentration camp. The men in the first cars of the train were killed. When American forces intervened, Peluso was saved.
“I can still smell the bodies today,” Peluso remembered amid a gasp from the crowd.
When the war ended, Peluso returned home, opened a TV repair shop (which led to a nickname that would stick for the rest of his life), and would ultimately enter politics. He was mayor of Newport in its waning “Sin City” days of the 1960s and 1970s, leaving office in 1982 and going to federal prison for lying to a grand jury and applying pressure to city officials for the misuse of public funds.
TV Peluso served four years in prison.
During his time in office, Peluso was known for his charitable acts, such as giving shoes and food to needy children.
He reentered the public eye during occasional election cycles when he would emerge as a candidate for various offices.
The Peluso name lives on in Newport. TV Peluso’s son, Frank Peluso, is a city commissioner, and his nephew, Jerry Peluso, is mayor.
In November, Peluso offered these words to the crowd: “If you see a veteran somewhere, I want you to do one thing for me: Go up to him and thank him for his service.”
Peluso’s wife, Margaret Holloran Peluso, and his daughter, Antoinette Peluso Kunkel, preceded him in death. In addition to Frank, TV Peluso is also survived by his son John, five grandchildren, and three great grandchildren.
Visitation is Tuesday, February 3, from 9 a.m. to noon at Dobbling, Muehlenkamp-Erschell Funeral Home (835 York Street, Newport), with a mass following at 12:30 p.m. at Holy Spirit Church (825 Washington Ave., Newport).
The Peluso family is asking, instead of flowers, for donations to be made to Antoinette’s scholarship fund at Newport Independent Schools. Those can be sent to “Antoinette Peluso Kunkel Scholarship Fund” c/o Newport Independent Schools, 8th & Columbia St., Newport, KY 41071.
-Staff report
Photos via Kenton County Public Library
