by John Buntin
When Cohen flew: Author inteview with Al Ramrus, March 18, 2008, provides most of the account that follows. See also Wallace and Gates, Close Encounters, 48-53. Wallace recalled another companion named Arlene—presumably the nightclub dancer Arlene Stevens—and places Mickey in the Hampshire House. Wallace, Between You and Me, 160-67.
“I have a police chief”: Wallace and Gates, Close Encounters, 50; Wallace, Between You and Me, 161-63.
“Well, Mickey, you’re a …”: “Important Story,” Time, June 3, 1957; “Parker Seeks Grand Jury Action Over Cohen Blast,” Los Angeles Times, May 21, 1957, B1.
Mickey Cohen wasn’t: See Harnisch, “Cohen Talks,” for an interesting discussion of the controversy about whether to air the episode on the West Coast and an explanation of kinescope technology. Harnish, Daily Mirror blog (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedailymirror/2007/05/cohen-talks.html).
The Mike Wallace Interview: Wallace and Gates, Close Encounters, 50-51; Wallace, Between You and Me, 163-64.
Cohen was enraged by: “A.B.C.-TV Retracts Remarks by Cohen,” New York Times, May 27, 1957, 44.
Cohen, meanwhile, was dealing: “Cohen Attends Graham Rally in New York,” Los Angeles Times, May 22, 1957, 10. See also Jennings, “The Private Life of a Hood,” conclusion, October 11, 1958. Brad Lewis, Hollywood’s Celebrity Gangster, says Cohen was paid $15,000 to attend the rally (206). There are no further records of direct encounters between the two men, although evidently Graham’s father-in-law, Dr. Nelson Bell, himself a distinguished preacher, stayed in touch.
“They can’t get away …”: “Cohen Booked for Not Signing Traffic Ticket,” Los Angeles Times, May 26, 1957, 1; “Mickey Cohen’s Traffic Trial Off to Salty Start, Policemen Who Made Arrest Testify That Defendant Delayed Autos at Intersection,” Los Angeles Times, July 11, 1957, 5.
Los Angeles-area: “Cohen Found Guilty, Gets $11 Traffic Fine,” Los Angeles Times, November 12, 1957, 5; “Cohen Jailed for Failure to Register,” Los Angeles Mirror, September 26, 1957, accessed October 12, 2008, via Larry Harnisch’s Daily Mirror blog (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedailymirror/mickey_cohen/index.html); “Jury Acquits Mickey Cohen on Disturbing Peace Charge, Ex-Convict Ruling May Affect Case,” Los Angeles Times, December 17, 1957, 2.
“I didn’t know a…”: Lewis, Hollywood’s Celebrity Gangster, 208. The profitability of the greenhouse business is somewhat unclear. For a positive assessment of its cash flow, see Salazar, “Violence Marks Cohen’s History,” Los Angeles Times, July 2, 1961.
Henceforth, Mickey would focus: “Chicago Attorney Glad to Stake Mickey Cohen, Admits $22,500 Loan; Says Ex-Gambler Stands to Make Fortune on Life Story,” Los Angeles Times, June 9, 1958, 19.
Back in New York: Ramrus interview, March 18, 2008; Wallace and Gates, Close Encounters, 52-53.
For the most part: Wallace and Gates, Close Encounters, 52.
“That is a big …”: Fox, Blood and Power, 325-26.
The very next day: Fox, Blood and Power, 326. For a different account of the gangsters’ response to the police raid, see Hilty, Robert Kennedy, Brother Protector, 124.
It was clear that: Ben Hecht Papers, Newberry Library.
Back in Washington, Robert: Thomas, Robert Kennedy: His Life, 82.
One year earlier the: Russo, The Outfit, 317.
“The results of the …”: Kennedy, The Enemy Within, 229.
Chapter Twenty-one: The Electrician
“[W]hat’s the meaning in …”: Cohen, In My Own Words, 193-95.
By late 1958, Mickey: Otash, Investigation Hollywood!, 179-86.
Cohen had the temperament: Gabler, An Empire of Their Own, 152.
But in 1958, Cohn: “A Star Is Made,” Time, July 29, 1957.
There’s another more plausible: There are many versions of this episode in Davis’s life. See Fishgall, Gonna Do Great Things, 114, for the most convincing.
Whatever version: Jennings, “Private Life of a Hood,” part two, September 27, 1958, 117.
In this, he was: Cohen, In My Own Words, 187.
The day after Stompanato’s: See, for instance, “Lana’s Romance with Stompanato Cools: Star Asks to Be Left Alone,” Chicago Daily Tribune, April 10, 1958, 8.
Renay was a sometime: Renay, My Face for the World to See, 129-32.
Meanwhile, Cohen and Hecht: “$200,000 Tax Writeoff Offer to Cohen Told,” Los Angeles Times, June 8, 1961, 29.
On the whole, though: “Lawmen Blast High Court Order to Identify Informants in Arrests: Ruling Termed Crippling in Drive on Dope,” Los Angeles Mirror-News, October 2,1958; “Poulson Cuts Police Budget by $6 Million, Commissioner Promptly Warns Mayor that City Faces Criminal Invastion,” Los Angeles Times, May 1, 1959.
“It won’t be long,”: Woods, “The Progressives and Police,” 446.
“Anything she says is …”: “Mickey Cohen Proud of Actress in Murder Quiz, Admits Liz Renay, Questioned in Anastasia Case, Loaned Him $10,000 He’s Repaying,” Los Angeles Times, February 27, 1958, C12.
“Her red hair was …”: “Girl Friend of Mickey Cohen Quizzed Again, Won’t Tell Treasury Agent About Gifts from Bodyguard of Slain Anastasia,” Los Angeles Times, September 10, 1958, B1.
The next day, Cohen: Lewis, Hollywood’s Celebrity Gangster, 244. See also http://www.boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=166332&cat=boxer, accessed10/25/2008.
To celebrate the thumb: Cohen, In My Own Words, 193-97.
Chapter Twenty-two: Chocolate City
“We are all members …”: Webb, The Badge, 244.
The polite word was: To his credit, Parker recognized that this was a problem soon after he became chief and set to work on curbing this unfortunate tendency. “Ex-Sergeant Strange Praises Chief Parker, Remembers Sincerity,” Los Angeles Times, November 20, 1996, C12.
As the 1920s progressed: Bass and Donovan, “The Los Angeles Police Department,” 155.
As a policeman, Parker: During Chief Davis’s tenure as chief, Parker might also have dealt with Lt. Homer Garrott, an African American lieutenant whom Davis made an acting captain. Lomax, “Bradley Makes ‘Loot’ Just in Time for the Vote on the Police Pay Raise,” Los Angeles Tribune, October 31, 1958.
The primary draw: Parson, Making a Better World, xi.
Los Angeles even: Escobar, Race, Police, and the Making of a Political Identity, 186-203. PBS’s American Experience documentary The Zoot Suit Riots also provides an excellent account of the era (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/zoot/index.html; accessed 2/21/2008).
“I feel that when …”: David Williams to Herb Schurter, April 1, 1959; Parker to Williams, April 13, 1959; Williams to Parker, April 21, 1959, LAPD records, CRC.
Williams wrote back to: Woods, “The Progressives and the Police,” 471. See also Williams’s July 9, 1959, letter to Councilman John Holland, Council File No. 89512, CRC.
The spat soon went: “Parker Hits Influx of Parolees to L.A.: Tells City Council of Huge Rise in Crime,” Los Angeles Herald-Express, March 13, 1959.
The black press: Memorandum to the City Council from the Police Commission, “Subject: Council File No. 89512,” August 6, 1959, CRC. See also FBI September 4, 1959, report, captioned “Top Hoodlum Program,” Parker FBI file.
One of Parker’s first: This approach dates back to at least the early 1920s, when August Vollmer had pioneered the use of crime maps as a guide to deploy his elite “crime crushers” unit during his year as chief of police in Los Angeles. Today’s LAPD uses the computer-mapping tool COMPSTAT in a strikingly similar fashion.
The LAPD deployed: Civil Rights Congress, “Is the Police Department Above the Law?” pamphlet, Southern California Library, Los Angeles.
Anyone who’d spent: See Wambaugh, The Blue Knight, for an excellent (if fictitious) description of the mind of a beat cop in the 1960s.
“Any so-called …”: “Police Investigation Points Up Brutality In Minority Community,” California Eagle, June 30, 1949.
Strange may (or may not): It is worth noting that Strange, like Pa
rker, was a devout Roman Catholic, a fact that undoubtedly elevated her in Parker’s estimation. Nor did Sergeant Strange’s promotion put her in a position to command white officers. She worked in community relations, in effect as a liaison to the black community. “Ex-Sergeant Strange Praises Chief Parker, Remembers Sincerity,” Los Angeles Times, November 20, 1996, C12.
This represented a failure: “Responses to Questions of the Los Angeles City Council Concerning a Juvenile Gang Attack on a Citizen in Downtown Los Angeles Which Resulted in His Death, Given by Los Angeles Chief of Police W H Parker on December 8, 1953,” Los Angeles Police Department files, CRC.
“The local juvenile gang …”: January 29, 1954, Parker letter to Don Thompson, 1953 county grand jury foreman, in response to a letter from him asking about rat packs, Escobar collection.
In 1955, Tom Bradley: See Lomax, “Bradley Makes ‘Loot’ Just in Time for the Vote on the Police Pay Raise,” Los Angeles Tribune, October 31, 1958, for a glowing account of Bradley’s early career.
Bradley got the kind: In an August 18, 1955, letter to Seattle police chief H. J. Lawrence, Parker described Bradley’s work in the following terms: “In our Public Information Division, we have a Community Relations unit which is staffed by a Negro sergeant and a Mexican officer. The outstanding job that these men have done in dealing with the minority elements of the community has created respect and confidence in this Department. Some of their most valuable contributions have been working with the minority press to prevent the publication of unsubstantiated reports which tended to arouse animosities in the community. They have also developed a close personal liaison with influential leaders in the minority communities. A copy of their job outline is also enclosed.” Los Angeles Police department files, Escobar collection.
“Parker told me the …”: Gates, Chief, 66.
Parker was also buffeted: Woods, “The Progressives and the Police,” 441. According to Bradley’s authorized biography, Bradley was out fishing when Parker called, and wife Ethel answered the phone. Characteristically, the sphinxlike Bradley had not informed her that he had taken the exam for lieutenant. (He had also neglected to tell her he was joining the police department or, later, taking the bar exam.) Ethel decided to turn the tables on Bradley this time. She ordered a lieutenant’s uniform and let Bradley discover it when he opened his closet. Bradley was so excited that he forgot about the fish in the car. Ethel found them there the next morning. (Payne and Ratzan, Tom Bradley, the Impossible Dream, 53.)
This homey anecdote may be untrue. Press accounts from the time state that it was acting chief Richard Simon who promoted Bradley to lieutenant while Parker was away on a fishing trip. (See Lomax, “Bradley Makes ‘Loot’ Just in Time for the Vote on the Police Pay Raise,” Los Angeles Tribune, October 31, 1958.) It is possible that Bradley, who was always attuned to the need to reassure white voters of his crime-fighting credentials, changed the story for his biographer in an attempt to claim support from Parker where none had existed. Bradley’s strikingly respectful treatment of Parker in his biography lends further credence to this interpretation.
Mr. Bradley spoke first: Lomax, “Bradley Makes ‘Loot,’ Just in Time for the Vote on the Police Pay Raise,” Los Angeles Tribune, October 31, 1958, reports Bradley’s move to Wilshire as a new position befitting Bradley’s promotion.
“We don’t tell him,”: “Police Board Member Flays Parker, Quits,” Los Angeles Times, June 16, 1959; Woods, “The Progressives and Police,” 465-66.
Chapter Twenty-three: Disneyland
“[Have] gangsters taken over…”: “The Elemental Force,” Time, September 28, 1959.
Earlier that year, President: “Parker Plans Security for Khrushchev Visit,” Los Angeles Times, September 7, 1959; “Keep Cool with Mr. K, Chief Parker Tells L.A.,” Los Angeles Mirror-News, September 7, 1959, 1.
Khrushchev was greeted at: In fact, LAPD officers had escorted dignitaries to Disneyland before, including former President Harry Truman. See “Parker Rejects Mr. K. Gripe, Russ Police OKd Ban on Disneyland Tour,” Los Angeles Herald-Express, September 21, 1959, A6.
“We have come to …”: “The Elemental Force,” Time, September 28, 1959.
Instead of going to: Sherman, “Mr. K Hurls Hot Retort at Poulson,” Los Angeles Times, September 20, 1959, 1.
Chief Parker was offended: “Parker Rejects Mr. K. Gripe, Russ Police OKd Ban on Disneyland Tour,” Los Angeles Herald-Express, September 21, 1959, A6.
The commission’s interest in: Sherman, “L.A. Negroes Only Part of Over-All Minority Problem: Concentration of Race Here Is Fifth Largest in United States,” Los Angeles Times, January 24, 1961, 2.
The commission’s staff was: “Brutal Tactics Told at Hearing,” Los Angeles Mirror, January 26, 1960.
By the time Chief: Of course, this hardly explained the crime surge, as Los Angeles had been severely underpoliced even before 1950 (and, according to the police complaints dating back to the 1930s, besieged with criminal vagabonds).
Parker insisted that there: “Parker Angrily Denies Racial Discrimination: Presents Charts of City Districts, Tells of Undesirables Shipped into Los Angeles,” Los Angeles Times, January 27, 1960, B2. See also Becker, “Police Brutality on Coast Denied: Los Angeles Chief Answers Charges of Anti-Negro Tactics by His Force,” New York Times, January 27, 1960, 18. Parker’s testimony provoked the following sarcastic letter from Beavers:
Dear Mr. Parker:
Reference is made to your statement to the Civil Rights Commission, as published in the newspapers.
Your expressions to the effect that opportunities for promotion within the Police Department are based upon qualifications without regard to race, color or creed, encourages the hope that certain discriminatory practices in existence as of July 10, 1959, have been eliminated. It is common knowledge that there are several Negro officers whose educational backgrounds, characters and years of service fully qualify them for assignment to various divisions in the Police Department in which no Negroes were serving seven months ago.
We note your denial of racial bias did not include an explanation as to why no Negro officers are assigned to the following seven divisions: central Detective Bureau—Homicide—Robbery—Forgery—Auto Theft—Burglary—Narcotics—Administrative Vice and Internal Affairs.
Your supplying this additional explanation or giving information as to steps being taken to more fully utilize the talents and skills of this group of officers in these various divisions of your organization will be deeply appreciated.
Very truly yours,
George Beavers
Parker was becoming more: Fumed Parker, “They [the police] were being blamed for all the ills of humanity; they were constantly being bombarded, and I have been nothing but harassed by these elements since I was chief of police. I have been sued repeatedly. I have a suit pending now in the Federal court under the Federal Civil Rights Act.”
Sitting in the audience: In response to a question from Commissioner Johnson about integration in the department, Parker insisted, in effect, that the department already was integrated—but in a very sly fashion. “Officers may be assigned together and sometimes they are, but not as a matter of discrimination, no …” the Chief replied. Consciously mingling partners would be nothing more than “reverse discrimination.” Parker attempted a similar move when asked to name the highest-ranking black officers in the department. Parker pointed to Lt Roscoe Washington and said the only thing holding him back was his performance on the written exam—this despite the fact that black officers routinely received low oral evaluations. By insisting the problem was a written exam—no bias there!—Parker was, with lawyerly skill, deflecting attention away from the problem of orals scores.
Never slow to respond: “Racial Bias Accusations False, Says Chief Parker. Explains Police Problem,” Los Angeles Mirror-News, January 27, 1960, A.
It didn’t. Forced to: “Council Hears Parker’s Recording on ‘Wild Tribes,’ Chief Denies Slur, Refuses to Apologiz
e,” Los Angeles Times, February 3, 1960. See also “Demagoguery Loses a Round,” Los Angeles Times, February 5, 1960.
Chapter Twenty-four: Showgirls
“Girls very often like …”: Hecht manuscript, 39 Hecht Papers, Newberry Library.
The rules were strict: “Lid Off L.A.!” Coates, Los Angeles Mirror-News, February 15, 1952.
Candy Barr was striptease: Shteir, Striptease, 297.
Ordinary women were a: Lewis, Hollywood’s Celebrity Gangster, xii-xiii.
By the spring of: Ryan, “Dot-dot-dot—It’s Just Like Downtown,” Los Angeles Times, April 20, 1959, B5.
Renay had long been: “Liz Renay Indicted on Perjury Charges: Mickey Cohen’s Actress Friend Accused of Lying About Raising $5,500 in Loans,” Los Angeles Times, March 13, 1959, 4.
Inwardly, Mickey grieved: Hulse, “Mickey Cohen to Wed Striptease Dancer, 22,” Los Angeles Times, October 2, 1959, 4.
On December 2, 1959: “Cohen Suspect in Slaying, Restaurant’s Guests Flee After Shooting,” Los Angeles Mirror-News, December 3, 1959; Cohen, “Cohen’s Own Story of Cafe Shooting,” Los Angeles Herald, December 3, 1959. For more background on Whalen, see also Lieberman, “Cop Befriends a Crook,” Los Angeles Times, October 29, 2008.
“A man walked in …”: Korman, “Hoodlum Shot to Death, Victim Ripe for Killing, Police Report,” Chicago Daily Tribune, December 4, 1950, 14.
“Obviously, he is,”: “Shooting Takes Place Six Feet from Mickey,” Los Angeles Mirror-News, December 3, 1958.
The police then got: “Mickey Cohen Jailed in Murder of Bookie,” Los Angeles Times, December 4, 1959, 1.
Six days later: “Slayer of Bookmaker Surrenders to Police,” Los Angeles Times, December 9, 1959, 1.
Brown called in Chief: “Witnesses Deny They Saw Whalen Shooting,” Los Angeles Times, March 11, 1960, B32. See also Lieberman, “Noir Justice Catches Up with Mickey Cohen,” Los Angeles Times, November 1, 2008; “Admits Slaying Bookie, Claims It Was ‘Self Defense,’” Los Angeles Examiner, December 9, 1959.
