by John Buntin
The interruption of the: Special Crime Study Commission report, March 7, 1949, 16-25.
Mickey accepted the fact: In fact, by the late 1940s, Anthony Milano, under-boss of the Mayfield Street gang during Mickey’s Cleveland days and brother to Cleveland mob boss Frank Milano, lived virtually around the corner from Mickey, in an imposing private residence off Sunset Boulevard. Ostensibly, Milano was now the president of an eastern bank (a six-year-sentence stint in the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth evidently posing no obstacles to a career in finance). In practice, the LAPD noted that he was in contact with Mickey on an almost daily basis. Special Crime Study Commission report, January 31, 1950, 29-30.
Ovid Demaris’s book The Last Mafioso, which presents Jimmy Fratianno’s perspective on the period, suggests that Mickey was genuinely surprised by efforts to rub him out. Not everyone agrees. Rob Wagner’s Red Ink, White Lies argues that Cohen rejected Syndicate demands to share his underworld profits, thus triggering an entirely predictable gang war (229).
The trouble started: Cohen, In My Own Words, 95-100. There are multiple accounts of exactly what happened with the photographs. See also Jennings, “The Private Life of a Hood,” conclusion, October 11, 1958, 114.
Rist and his associates: “Bowron Asks Grand Jury Action in Police Scandal, Two Officers Suspended; Cohen Posts $100,000 Bail,” Los Angeles Times, March 23, 1949, 1.
In the world of: Mickey’s experiences in Cleveland contributed greatly to his multicultural precociousness. In the early thirties, the Cleveland underworld had been divided between two essentially cooperative groups, the Italian May-field Road gang, run by “Big Al” Polizzi, and the Jewish Cleveland Syndicate, whose leaders included Louis Rothkopf, Moe Dalitz, and Morris Kleinman. These two groups worked together closely in what was known as the Combination. Interestingly, during his days in Cleveland, Mickey had worked primarily with the Italian gangsters, particularly Mayfield Road gang underboss Tony Milano. Demaris, The Last Mafioso, 8-9.
Far from responding gratefully: Demaris, The Last Mafioso, 24.
Chapter Fourteen: The Evangelist
“He has the making …”: “Jigs and Judgments,” Time, July 23, 1951.
“A few nights”: Vaus, Why I Quit… Syndicated Crime, 71-72.
By November 1949, everyone: “Heaven, Hell & Judgment Day,” Time, March 20, 1950.
Suddenly, Vaus found himself: Los Angeles Times, November 8, 1949; Vaus, Why I Quit… Syndicated Crime, 71-76.
It was with some: Life, January 16, 1950; “Portrait of a Punk,” Cosmopolitan.
It is difficult to know how much financial pain Mickey was really feeling. In an article written several months after Vaus’s visit with Cohen, one of the most astute observers of the Southern California scene, lawyer/journalist Carey McWilliams, estimated that Mickey was receiving payoffs in the amount of $427,000 a year. Given the fact that the state public utility commission had effectively choked off the wire service that was once the most profitable part of Mickey’s portfolio, that number seems high. Columnist Florabel Muir, who was close to Mickey and had excellent sources in the underworld, believed that Cohen was under real financial pressure. Of course, Mickey had other activities—extortion, slot machines, perhaps narcotics—which undoubtedly helped offset at least some of the pain.
“Mickey lifted his hand”: See Cohen, In My Own Words, 106-107, for an account of the meeting. Sensitive to charges that he had considered betraying his faith, Cohen plays down the conversion angle. Compare Cohen’s account with Graham’s, “The New Evangelist,” Time cover story, October 25, 1954.
At 4:15 a.m. on February: Lewis, Hollywood’s Celebrity Gangster, 137; Demaris, The Last Mafioso, 40.
Police later estimated that: Leppard, “Mr. Lucky Thrives on Borrowed Time,” Los Angeles Herald-Express, December 3, 1959.
During the fall of: Woods, “The Progressives and the Police,” 411-12.
These were powerful backers: Author interview with Daryl Gates, December 10, 2004.
The race was now: Webb, The Badge, 250-52.
On August 2: “Parker Appointed New Police Chief Head, Patrol Division Head Promoted in Climax to Hot Battle Over Worton’s Successor,” Los Angeles Times, August 3, 1950, 1. See also Woods, “The Progressives and the Police,” 418. In describing Parker as the LAPD’s fortieth police chief, I discount Dr. Alexander Hope, who headed the volunteer Los Angeles Rangers (Sjoquist, History of the Los Angeles Police Department, 36). I also count previous chiefs who served more than one term, such as James E. Davis, only once.
Mayor Bowron was notably: Los Angeles Times, August 3, 1950. Later that day, Bowron issued a more positive statement on the Parker appointment.
“I know I’m supposedly …”: “Los Angeles Police Chief: William Henry Parker 3d,” New York Times, August 114, 1965, 8.
Chapter Fifteen: “Whiskey Bill”
“There is a sinister …”: Kefauver Committee report, quoted in Turking and Feder, Murder, Inc., 426.
It had been a: Mickey would later deny being held overnight. “That was always newspaper bullshit,” he claimed. “They’d say to me, ‘How long ya going to be in town?’ I’d say, ‘I’m leaving at such and such a time on Wednesday.’ So they’d give the story to the newspapers that, ‘We ordered him to leave town by Wednesday’” (In My Own Words, 147). This is probably boasting.
A freshman senator from: Russo, The Outfit, 259.
At some point in: Moore, The Kefauver Committee and the Politics of Crime, 1950-52, 49. See also Russo, The Outfit, 251-52.
The killing itself was: “Truman Speeds War on Crime; Mickey Cohen Pay-off Charged, Racketeers’ Tax Returns to Be Eyed,” Los Angeles Times, June 2, 1951, 1.
“Lookit, nobody notified me …”: Cohen, In My Own Words, 148; Russo, The Outfit, 255.
“I ain’t never muscled …”: “I Ain’t Never …,” Time, November 27, 1950.
Other Mob bosses had: Dragna’s legitimate businesses included a 538-acre vineyard near Puente and a Panama-flagged frigate that shuttled bananas between Long Beach and Panama. Special Crime Study Commission report, January 31, 1950, 25-26. For Mickey’s legitimate holdings, see “Portrait of a Punk,” Cosmopolitan. The Kefauver Commission was particularly well informed about Mickey because its chief investigator, Harold Robinson, had come from Warren Olney’s special crime study commission. Warren Olney, “Law Enforcement and Judicial Administration,” 297.
Anyone who bothered to: Calculations come from the Final Report of the Special Crime Study Commission, November 15, 1950, 37.
This should have led: Final Report of the Special Crime Study Commission, November 15, 1950, 39.
Mickey cracked his first: “MAD GUNMAN CAPTURED, Mickey Cohen Tells Inside Story of L.A., Bland Gangster Spars with Counsel in Quiz; Sheriff Also Testifies,” Los Angeles Times, November 18, 1950, 1.
The audience chuckled: Cohen, In My Own Words, 148.
During Parker’s first month: Webb, The Badge, 253.
Parker argued that if: The idea for an interagency intelligence agency was not new. In the fall of 1947, District Attorney William Simpson, Sheriff Eugene Biscailuz, and Police Chief C. B. Horrall had announced the creation of a similar entity. “Police Network in 20 Cities to Keep Constant Tab on Mobs,” Los Angeles Daily News, November 11, 1947. However, Parker revived the idea and gave it a concerted push that previously had been lacking.
“This plan goes deeper …”: Webb, The Badge, 253.
The assembled group was: “Parker Declares City Is White Spot of Nation,” Los Angeles Times, August 9, 1950.
“[W]e have become a …”: Parker, “Religion and Morality,” in Parker on Police, 18.
The idea of an: “Worton Shifts 33 in Police Shake-Up: Top Flight Officer Named Intelligence Aide to Chief in Reorganization Move,” Los Angeles Times, August 4, 1949. Earlier in his career, Worton himself had been a special intelligence officer in the Navy’s Office of Naval Intelligence. “Worton ‘Man of the Year’ in the Los Angeles Mirror Mailbag Vote,” Dec
ember 30, 1949.
Parker shared Worton’s enthusiasm: Chief Parker, for one, seems to have suspected this. Kefauver, Crime in America, 241.
The intelligence division didn’t: Lieberman, “Crusaders in the Underworld: The LAPD Takes On Organized Crime,” Los Angeles Times, October 26, 2008.
“When Johnny saw the …”: Otash, Investigation Hollywood, 184.
“We’re selfish about it…”: “Novice Chief Brings New Confidence San Francisco Call-Bulletin, May 10, 1955.
As Kefauver attempted to: Because Guarantee Finance operated as a “fifty-fifty book,” with management and participating bookies sharing expenses, the cost of juice was almost certainly twice that figure—$216,000. Kefauver, Crime in America, 240.
Later that evening, at: Scene of the Crime, 126-27.
Mickey was hustled off: Cohen, In My Own Words, 150-51.
But solving the case: The LAPD was right. However, the two Tonys were killed not because the police were closing in on them for the Rummell shooting—they had no involvement in that—but rather because the two men had recently heisted a big bookmaking operation in Las Vegas. Demaris, The Last Mafioso, 51-54.
“The Weasel” had an: Stump, “L.A.’s Chief Parker—America’s Most Hated Cop,” Cavalier Magazine, July 1958. See also Demaris, The Last Mafioso, 56-60, for Fratianno’s account of the interrogation.
Parker moved quickly to: Woods, “The Progressives and the Police,” 425-26.
“Well, get out,” Parker: Gates, Chief, Chapters One and Two. Gates’s characterizations of Parker are often ungenerous, as when Gates describes Parker as “a stern, cantankerous man with a reputation as a bully” (25). Throughout the earlier pages of his memoir, Gates presents himself as an independent-minded rebel, eager to break free of Parker’s tutelage. Yet in the version of Gates’s memoirs annotated by Helen Parker (available for perusal at the William H. Parker Police Foundation) a very different and in some ways more plausible picture of the young Gates emerges as an officer whom Parker had to push out into the field. There is probably at least some truth to this alternative account.
Fortunately, Daryl Gates was: Helen Parker would later deny claims that Parker was a heavy drinker, insisting that her husband simply enjoyed a cocktail or two at the end of the day. This claim can be set aside. Gates’s testimony on this point is compelling and corroborated by others, such as Deputy Chief Harold Sullivan.
As the Kefauver hearings: Gates, Chief, 37. Other federal law enforcement agencies had likewise missed opportunities to go after the little gangster. The Bureau of Narcotics had identified Cohen’s close associate, Joe Sica, as the principal supplier of heroin in Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley, but had failed to place him as a member of Cohen’s inner circle. More curious still was the conduct of the FBI. While the bureau developed a large file on Cohen activities, it showed no inclination to develop a case it could take to prosecutors. This was entirely in keeping with the FBI’s long-standing lack of interest in prosecuting organized crime, which director J. Edgar Hoover insisted was primarily local and thus a matter for local law enforcement to address.
When Cohen himself appeared: “Cohen Deals Going Before Jury Today, Federal Inquirers Expected to Hear of Borrowings,” Los Angeles Times, February 9, 1951, A1.
Cohen had long maintained: Lewis, Hollywood’s Celebrity Gangster, 169. He ultimately sold it to the Texas Stock Car Racing Association instead. “Mickey Cohen Cashes In on His Glaring Notoriety,” New York Times, April 3, 1951, 28.
It was no use: Lewis, Hollywood’s Celebrity Gangster, 169.
The trial began on: Cohen manuscript, Ben Hecht Papers, Newberry Library, n.p.
The prosecution’s strategy: “Cohen Profits Told as Tax Case Opens, Federal Prosecutor Attacks Gangster’s Story of Loans,” Los Angeles Times, June 5, 1951, 2; Cohen manuscript, Ben Hecht Papers, Newberry Library, n.p.
Perhaps the hardest to: Cohen manuscript, Ben Hecht Papers, Newberry Library, n.p.
At the end of: Lewis, Hollywood’s Celebrity Gangster, 172-75; Cohen manuscript, Ben Hecht Papers, Newberry Library, n.p.
The smoking gun: Jennings, “The Private Life of a Hood,” conclusion, October 11, 1958, 116.
Mickey interjected. “Right now, …”: Cohen would later claim that Sack-man had set him up. The supposed rationale for the double-cross had to do with the problems Sackman himself was experiencing with the revenue bureau in connection with the Guarantee Finance Company. By offering the bureau Cohen, Mickey believed that Sackman was trying to save himself. This theory may be true. During the sentencing, Judge Harris would go so far as to state that Cohen “had talked himself into this case” by giving the revenue bureau a false statement when he could simply have remained silent. “Mickey Cohen Gets 5 Years, $10,000 Fine,” Los Angeles Times, July 10, 1951, 1; Hill, “5-Year Term Given to Mickey Cohen; Judge Finds Gambler ‘Not So Bad,’” New York Times, July 10, 1951, 1.
A request: The description that follows comes from Cohen manuscript, Hecht Papers, Newberry Library.
“I am praying that…”: “Jigs & Judgments,” Time, July 23, 1951.
One day in early: “Mickey Shifted to New Jail to End ‘Privileges,’ Crowding at County Bastille the Official Cause,” Hollywood Citizen-News, February 8,1952.
Cohen was placed in: “Cohen ‘Safe’ in U.S. Cell, Moved to Federal Pen, Brutality By Police Told,” Los Angeles Herald-Express, February 14, 1952.
“Mickey, my God, why: Cohen manuscript, Ben Hecht Papers, Newberry Library.
Although their client was: Lewis, Hollywood’s Celebrity Gangster, 124.
“Mickey is in”: Hecht, “Mickey Notes,” 9, Hecht Papers, Newberry Library.
Chapter Sixteen: Dragnet
The trouble arrived on: See Edward Escobar’s definitive article, “Bloody Christmas and the Irony of Police Professionalism: The Los Angeles Police Department, Mexican Americans, and Police Reform in the 1950s,” 171. This incident also inspired the opening scenes of the James Ellroy book (later movie) L.A. Confidential.
From the perspective of: Said the arresting officer later, “Sure I hit him. He was kicking at me with his feet. I only used necessary force to subdue him.” “Parker Clams Up on Jury Quiz,” Los Angeles Daily News, March 27, 1952; Escobar, “Bloody Christmas and the Irony of Police Professionalism,” 187.
Christmas was a special: Author interview with Harold Sullivan, July 26, 2007. The department would later insist, implausibly, that officers at Central station were consuming only ice cream, pie and cake, and coffee that evening. “‘Cops So Drunk They Fought Each Other to Beat Us,’” Los Angeles Herald-Express, March 19, 1952.
The prisoners were taken: “6 on Trial Tell More Police Brutalities,” Los Angeles Daily News, March 6, 1952. See also “Wild Party by 100 Police Described, Youth Tells of Beatings at Police Yule Party,” Los Angeles Examiner, March 19, 1952; “‘Cops So Drunk They Fought Each Other to Beat Us,’” Los Angeles Herald-Express, March 19, 1952; “Bare Yule Police Brutality Transcript,” Los-Angeles Daily News, May 13, 1952.
Two months after the: Escobar, “Bloody Christmas,” 185. “East side” was a phrase originally used to describe the area east of Main Street.
Parker’s initial response to: “Chief Shrugs at Claim of Cop Brutality, Police Brutality Gets Brush-off by Chief Parker,” Los Angeles Mirror, February 27, 1952; “Chief Parker Hits Brutality Stories,” Los Angeles Times, February 28, 1952. In Parker’s defense, it should be noted that the particular cause of the chief’s complaint—an allegation by a Latino doctor that a police officer had fired on him—did indeed prove to be unsubstantiated.
The liberal Daily News: Los Angeles Times, March 6, 1952.
Local Democrats unanimously passed: “PARKER FORCED TO ACT ON BRUTALITY, Cop Brutality Quiz Demanded by L.A. Judge,” Los Angeles Mirror, March 13, 1952; “F.B.I. Probing L.A. Police Brutality,” Los Angeles Times, March 14, 1952.
Belatedly, Parker recognized the: See “Florabel Muir Reporting,” Los Ange
les Mirror, March 14, 1953, for a column on the chief’s change of heart.
But Parker’s story had: “Florabel Muir Reporting,” Los Angeles Mirror, March 20, 1952.
“Boys Tell Police Beating,”: March 19, 1952; “An Inadequate Answer,” Los Angeles Examiner editorial, May 2, 1952, describes the initial Internal Affairs’ report, which found no evidence of abuse.
Meanwhile, more reports of: “Move for Action on L.A. Police Brutality Charges,” Los Angeles Daily News, February 26, 1952; “Parker Clams Up on Jury Quiz,” Los Angeles Daily News, March 27, 1952.
Parker’s job was in: “Police Brutality Probe Is Overdue,” Los Angeles Mirror, March 14, 1952; Webb, The Badge, 174-75.
The first threat to: “Grand Jury to Attack Police Trials System,” Los Angeles Examiner, September 7, 1949; “Law for Policemen Took,” Los Angeles Examiner, editorial, November 14, 1949.
Of course, Chief Parker: See the March 28, 1953, untitled Daily News editorial for a rebuttal of these charges.
Pat Novak took the: Hayde, My Name’s Friday, 13. See also Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pat_nuyak&equals$fur-hire.
Jack Webb had grown: Unless otherwise noted, the biographical information that follows comes from Michael Hayde, My Name’s Friday. The chronology of events that led to this job offer is not entirely clear. Owen McClaine, the casting agent for He Walked by Night, claims to have heard Webb’s “private eye plays”—presumably, Pat Novak—and then offered him the job. But Jack Webb did not start playing the lead role in Pat Novak until 1949, when the program went national on ABC—one year after he appeared in He Walked by Night.
“I doubt it, Marty,”: Hayde, My Name’s Friday, 18-19.
Joe Friday (as played: See Raymond Chandler’s essay “The Simple Art of Murder” for more on the noir hero.
The radio program’s success: “Real Thriller,” Time, May 15, 1950.
Soon after the tribute: A July 17, 1958, memo from the FBI’s L.A. SAC to Hoover described Parker as a “Traffic Officer” prior to his appointment to the position of chief of police “with whom office had practically no contact.”