by John Buntin
He was receptive: Muir, Headline Happy, 160-64, discusses Siegel’s post-Prohibition quasilegitmacy (and stock market troubles). See also Lacey, Little Man, 68, 79-80.
Siegel’s lifestyle reflected his: Jennings, We Only Kill Each Other, 27, 30.
“Caution, fathered by the …”: Muir, Headline Happy, 161.
Los Angeles offered the: Muir, Headline Happy, 157-62. Siegel himself sometimes put the date of his arrival in Los Angeles one year later, in 1935. “Siegel Denies Buchalter Aid: Film Colony Figure Testifies on Removal Fight,” Los Angeles Times, May 27, 1941, A1.
“If I had kept…”: Jennings, We Only Kill Each Other, 36-38; Muir, Headline Happy, 162-65.
Bugsy’s pals back East: See Hecht, “Mickey Notes,” 1, Hecht Papers, New-berry Library; Cohen, In My Own Words, 41.
One who declined to: A 2 percent take would have generated a healthy $200,000 a year in bookie action—not bad for the Great Depression. Hecht, “Mickey Notes,” 4-5, Hecht Papers, Newberry Library.
Cohen had outstayed his: In his autobiography, Cohen claims that he didn’t take a dive (30). In his earlier conversations with Ben Hecht, however, he admitted that he did. Cohen manuscript, 19, Hecht Papers, Newberry Library.
Mickey was living like: Taxi companies routinely employed violence to secure the best stands. Payoffs to police were also common. In Los Angeles, independent cabbies’ frustration with the dominant Yellow Cab company (which was widely believed to have struck a deal with the police) boiled over into full-scale riots on more than one occasion in the 1930s. Cohen manuscript, 21-23, Hecht Papers, Newberry Library.
“I says”: Hecht manuscript, 82-84 Hecht Papers, Newberry Library; Cohen, In My Own Words, 36-37.
The next day Mickey: This account draws heavily on Ben Hecht’s account and is strikingly different from the blustering story Mickey tells in his autobiography. Hecht Papers, Newberry Library.
(Years later, columnist Florabel…): Cohen, In My Own Words, 45.
Cohen hit Neales’s joints: Notes in the Ben Hecht Papers suggest that Siegel paid the sheriff’s department $125,000 on at least one occasion. Hecht, “Mickey Notes,” 4, Hecht Papers, Newberry Library. In the early 1950s, the California Commission on Organized Crime discovered links between Sheriff Biscailuz and Irving Glasser, a notorious bondsman closely associated with Siegel and Cohen. Woods, “The Progressives and the Police,” 402.
Soon after: Cohen manuscript, n.p., Hecht Papers, Newberry Library.
“Ya know, I’m going …”: Cohen, In My Own Words, 41.
“It was a bad …”: Unpublished manuscript, Hecht Papers, Newberry Library.
During his first: Hecht manuscript, 9-10, Hecht Papers, Newberry Library.
This attitude angered Mickey: Cohen, In My Own Words, 41.
Chapter Eight: Dynamite
“We’ve got to get”: Richardson, For the Life of Me, 224.
In a city awash: McWilliams, Southern California, 170.
Clinton had always been: “Penny Money At Cafe: Clinton ‘Caveteria’ Caters to Customers of Lean Purse,” Los Angeles Times, October 14, 1932, A8. See also Starr, The Dream Endures, 165-66.
Clinton’s introduction to politics: Ford, Honest Politics My Theme, 86-87, 90.
The county grand jury: Woods, “The Progressives and the Police,” 339, 351.
Clinton turned to Judge: The case was one of statutory rape; the victim was actually a prostitute supplied by a madam who specialized in underage girls. In the lead-up to Fitts’s decision not to prosecute, one of the developer’s employees arranged to purchase property from the DA’s parents for a strikingly generous price. Fitts’s investigators then prevented the girl in question from testifying by holding her in isolation in a downtown hotel. Richardson, For the Life of Me, 176.
The report was scathing: Woods, “The Progressives and the Police,” 35657; Starr, The Dream Endures, 168-69; Parrish, For the People, 127.
The counterreaction was: McDougal, Privileged Son, 44; Starr, The Dream Endures, 169. For more evidence of Fitts’s thuggery, see Richardson’s account of when a Fitts investigator jabbed a gun in his belly, For the Life of Me, 177.
Clinton came under pressure: Starr, The Dream Endures, 169; Woods, “The Progressives and the Police,” 355.
The Shaws weren’t: Woods, “The Progressives and the Police,” 261, 357. See Richardson, For the Life of Me, 220, for a more positive assessment of Raymond.
Then Raymond himself got: Sitton, Los Angeles Transformed, 16-17. Gerald Woods speculated that Raymond was targeted for a hit out of fear that he might testify to the Combination’s connections with the Shaw machine in the upcoming trial of Shaw campaign assistant (and former Police Commission member) Harry Munson (357-58). Tom Sitton finds evidence that Raymond also approached the Combination with a shakedown request.
On the morning of: Underwood, Newspaperwoman, 175.
“They told me they …”: Richardson, For the Life of Me, 221-22.
The next morning, Raymond’s: See Weinstock, My L.A., 56-57, for an account of the connections between Raymond, Clinton, and the Combination; Sit-ton, Los Angeles Transformed, 17-18.
Chief Davis’s career: Domanick, To Protect and to Serve, 77-78.
In April 1938, the: Underwood, Newspaperwoman, 176-78.
Davis parried that everyone: “Davis Defends Police Spying at Bombing Trial, Bitter Clashes Mark Chief’s Day on Stand,” Los Angeles Times, April 27, 1941, 1. See also Domanick, To Protect and to Serve, 76; Woods, “The Progressives and the Police,” 361; and “The Case of Earl Kynette,” Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, July 8, 1966.
One year earlier, Mayor: See Sitton, Los Angeles Transformed, 18-23, for the definitive account of the race.
In theory, thanks to: Sitton, Los Angeles Transformed, 32.
Despite his closeness to: “Chief Shifts 28 Officers in New Shake-Up of Police,” Los Angeles Times, March 9, 1939, 2.
A few days later: Gambling ships first appeared off the coast as early as 1923, but it was Tony Cornero who had the audacity to reconceive of them as floating casinos. He would die of a heart attack eighteen years later at a craps table in Las Vegas, just months before he, Milton “Farmer” Page, and other Combination figures finished building the world’s largest casino, The Stardust. At Cornero’s request, a band played “The Wabash Cannonball” at his funeral. Richardson, For the Life of Me, 227.
There was just one: “Chief Shifts 28 Officers in New Shake-Up of Police,” Los Angeles Times, March 9, 1939, 2.
Mayor Bowron was exultant.: Richardson, For the Life of Me, 219-28; Woods, “The Progressives and the Police,” 367.
Yet the triumph of: Los Angeles’s city charter sharply curtailed the power of the mayor. City departments operated under the control of general managers who enjoyed civil-service protection and who answered to independent boards of commissioners. Mayors enjoyed only the right to nominate commissioners (who then had to be approved by the city council), though mayors frequently sought to expand their authority by demanding written resignations in advance. Woods, “The Progressives and the Police,” 370.
In theory, promotion in: Author interview with Harold Sullivan, July 26, 2007.
The acting chief of: Woods, “The Progressives and the Police,” 371.
One hundred seventy-one: See William H. Parker Police Foundation archives for this and other Civil Service board notices.
From the first, Bill: Letter of recommendation from Inspector E. B. Caldwell, Parker Foundation archives; “Police Due for Shake-up Tomorrow, Chief Announces: New Divisions Will Be Organized and Shifts Made of Many Uniformed Officers in Sweeping Program,” Los Angeles Times, November 30, 1939. See also Sjoquist, History of the Los Angeles Police Department, 84.
Demoralized by his de facto: Letter from Caldwell to HQ Los Angeles Officer Procurement District, February 23, 1939, William H. Parker Police Foundation archives.
Chapter Nine: Getting Away with Murder (Inc.)
“Men who have lived”: Muir, Headl
ine Happy, 161.
District Attorney Buron Fitts: Central Avenue played an important and unique role in Los Angeles politics. During the 1920s, its large and fast-growing African American population emerged as one of the only reliable voting blocks in the city. A handful of political bosses controlled many of these votes and were sometimes able to demand considerable freedom for illicit activities, a situation that greatly frustrated African American progressives like Charlotta Bass Hayes, publisher of the California Eagle. Parrish, For the People, 127; Woods, “The Progressives and the Police,” 347.
“You never heard of…”: Jennings, We Only Kill Each Other, 60.
Bugsy Siegel was one: Jennings, We Only Kill Each Other, 27.
The next day the: Muir, Headline Happy, 167-69; Richardson, For the Life of Me, 4-5.
Mickey and Bugsy: Cohen, In My Own Words, 58.
“I found Benny a …”: Later (much later) Cohen would circulate stories of how he’d stood up to “the Bug” at their first meeting (while generally omitting the story of what happened to him as a result). Cohen, In My Own Words, 38. Cohen’s comments to Ben Hecht in the mid-1950s make it clear that even at his craziest, Mickey knew how powerful Siegel was. Hecht Papers, Newberry Library.
It was an arrangement: Cohen, In My Own Words, 36.
Only after the countess: Jennings, We Only Kill Each Other, 74-78, provides a somewhat fanciful account of this episode.
The evening before Thanksgiving: “Widow of Victim Heard at Murder Trial of Siegel: Heard Shots Killing Mate,” Los Angeles Times, January 27, 1942, A1; “Siegel and Carbo Identified as Murder Aides, Tannenbaum Tells Killing,” Los Angeles Times, January 28, 1942, A1.
Abe “Kid Twist” Reles: Turkus and Feder, Murder, Inc., 52.
In January 1940, two: Nash, World Encyclopedia of Organized Crime, 331.
It took twelve days: Turkus and Feder, Murder, Inc., 67.
Reles wasn’t prosecutors’ only: “Murder Plot Story Filed: Testimony Transcript in Siegel Case Gives Gang,” Los Angeles Times, August 31, 1940, A1.
The raiding party—three: Jennings, We Only Kill Each Other, 47-48.
Bugsy’s bed was still: “Siegel’s Attic Capture Told, Witnesses at Death Trial Describe Hunt in Suspect’s Mansion,” Los Angeles Times, January 31, 1942, A1. See also Jennings, We Only Kill Each Other, 100-101; Muir, Happy Holidays, 176-77.
Dockweiler was in a: Dean Jennings argues that O’Dwyer was on the take (We Only Kill Each Other, 121). Jerry Giesler argued that prosecutors in L.A. were on the take (The Jerry Giesler Story, 237-38).
Back in New York: “Plunge Fatal to Gangster, State Witness Against Buchalter and Others Attempts to Escape,” Los Angeles Times, November 13, 1941, 2.
What had happened to: “Abe Reles Killed Trying to Escape, Sheet Rope Fails After He Lowers Himself from 6th to 5th Floor, Motive Puzzles Police,” New York Times, November 13, 1941, 29. Jennings, We Only Kill Each Other, 128-29, makes the case for defenestration.
Without Reles, the prosecution’s: Giesler, The Jerry Giesler Story, 239-40.
But Robinson: For an assessment of his gang and an account of the meeting, see Hecht notes, Ben Hecht Papers, Newberry Library, Chicago.
“The poor bookmakers”: Ben Hecht Papers, Newberry Library, Chicago.
“Dragna was inactive at: Cohen would later claim that he had been attuned to the danger of a resentful Dragna all along (In My Own Words, 63). This is the wisdom of hindsight.
Sica did. Then he: Cohen, In My Own Words, 62.
Utley took it bravely: “Report Hints Cohen Had Part in Slayings,” Los Angeles Times, June 16, 1959; “Mad Gunman Captured, Mickey Cohen Tells Inside Story of L.A.,” Los Angeles Times, November 18, 1950, 1.
Jack Dragna was less: Cohen, In My Own Words, 63-64.
Chapter Ten: L.A. Noir
“If you’re going to …”: Wilkerson III, The Man Who Invented Las Vegas, 12.
Bugsy Siegel wasn’t: For more on Hohmann, see Sjoquist, History of the Los Angeles Police Department, 84; and Woods, “The Progressives and the Police,” 380.
Hohmann had been: Woods, “The Progressives and the Police,” 381.
As chief, Hohmann had: “Special Police Groups Press Fight on Crime, Cities Combat Increased Felonies with Crack Units; in Los Angeles It’s ‘Metro,’” Los Angeles Times, February, 23, 1964.
Bill Parker was demoralized: Woods, “The Progressives and the Police,” 420.
JAPS OPEN WAR ON: AP headline immediately following Pearl Harbor.
The situation was actually: The guns at Fort MacArthur, which was supposed to protect the U.S. naval station at San Pedro/Long Beach, would have been useless against a carrier-based aerial attack. Verge, Paradise Transformed, 33-34, 22.
“Why, the Japanese bombed …”: Verge, Paradise Transformed, 22; author interview with Harold Sullivan, July 26, 2007. Concerns about Japanese fishing vessels reflected well-founded worries about Japanese espionage. Since at least 1939, the Japanese military had used Mexican-based fishing vessels to monitor the Pacific fleet based at Long Beach. That same year, Japanese agents had recruited a Nisei former sailor as an intelligence agent and managed to steal important code books. Verge, Paradise Transformed, 10.
The efficiency of the operation was no coincidence. One official involved in the raid told the Times, “Although we had our plans set, the Japanese attack caught us a bit early.” “Japanese Aliens’ Roundup Starts: F.B.I. Hunting Down 300 Subversives and Plans to Hold 3000 Today,” Los Angeles Times, December 8, 1941, 1; “Round Up of Japanese Aliens in Southland Now Totals 500: Officers, Working with F.B.I., Continue Hunt; Asiatic, Who Had Pledged Loyalty, Found with Guns,” Los Angeles Times, December 9, 1941, 4; “Little Tokyo Banks and Concerns Shut, Even Saloons Padlocked; Extra Police on Duty to Prevent Riots,” Los Angeles Times, December 9, 1941, 4.
For once, Bill Parker: Verge, Paradise Transformed, 23-24.
Parker’s thoughts turned to: Captain Robert L. Dennis to HQ, Los Angeles Officer Procurement District, February 23, 1943, William H. Parker Police Foundation archives.
However, Hohmann continued, these: Arthur Hohmman to HQ Los Angeles Officer Procurement District, February 19, 1943, William H. Parker Police Foundation archives. The conclusion of Hohmann’s letter also suggests that Hohmann may have personally blocked Parker’s earlier attempts to enlist in the military, which if true would be another interesting twist in what was clearly a complex relationship.
His mood improved considerably: Col. Jesse Miller, Director, Military Government Division, to First Lt. William Parker, May 11, 1943, William H. Parker Police Foundation archives. For Parker’s impressions of New England, see his June 30, 1943, letter to Helen, William H. Parker Police Foundation archives.
It was, Mickey thought: Cohen, In My Own Words, 65.
In Algeria, Parker was: Brig. Gen. J. K. Dunlop, Regional Allied Commissioner, letter of reference, January 15, 1944, William H. Parker Police Foundation archives.
There was, however, one: Letter to Helen Parker, March 12, 1945, William H. Parker Police Foundation archives.
For Mickey Cohen, the: The $500,000 estimates came from Carey McWilliams, Jennings, We Only Kill Each Other, and puts his take at $120,000 a year.
Mickey had his own: Cohen would later estimate that his was one of approximately two hundred major bookmaking commission offices nationwide at the time. Cohen manuscript, Ben Hecht Papers, Newberry Library.
Things were going so: The de jure owner of the stock farm was actually a former LAPD officer, Jack Dineen. California Special Crime Study Commission report, January 31, 1950, 32.
Meyer and Bugsy had: Lacey, Little Big Man, 79-81.
In 1931, the state: Russo, The Outfit, 292.
Wilkerson was the publisher: Weller, Dancing at Ciro’s, 88-89.
So Wilkerson decided to: Wilkerson III, The Man Who Invented Las Vegas, 49. For a judicious account of Bugsy Siegel’s much smaller role in the creation of Las Vegas, see Johnson, “Siegel, Bugsy.” See also M
uir, Headline Happy, 193-94.
The invasion of Normandy: Related in letter to Helen, September 9, 1944, William H. Parker Police Foundation archives.
Lt. Parker Wins Purple: “Lt. Parker Wins Purple Heat,” Los Angeles Times, August 6, 1944, 2.
For Parker, one brush: Verge, Paradise Transformed, 113-14.
I respectfully submit that: “Memorandum for the Adjutant General, Subject: Relief from Active Duty,” undated, William H. Parker Police Foundation archives.
“So now I come: Bill Parker to Helen, October 8, 1944, William H. Parker Police Foundation archives.
That Helen’s initial response: In her address book, William H. Parker Police Foundation archives.
Parker’s retreat was swift: Parker letter to Helen, December 10, 1944, William H. Parker Police Foundation archives.
On February 24, 1945: The tiffs, of course, continued. Within a matter of weeks, Bill was writing somewhat carping letters complaining of the quality of Helen’s letters. Almost none of Helen’s letters have survived, making it difficult to evaluate this claim.
Parker’s first assignment in: Parker letter to Helen, May 26, 1945, William H. Parker Police Foundation archives.
“All my life I…”: Parker letter to Helen, undated but from Frankfurt, William H. Parker Police Foundation archives.
In fact, the LAPD: C. B. Horrall to Capt. W H. Parker, June 26, 1945, William H. Parker Police Foundation archives. Parker’s July 19, 1945, letter to Helen contains details of Parker’s deliberations with Colonel Wilson, William H. Parker Police Foundation archives.
The Los Angeles business: McDougal, Privileged Son, 2, 176.
Parker also tended to: “W. H. Parker Heads Fire Police League,” Los Angeles Examiner, January 7, 1949.
