by John Buntin
The group mentioned that: Author interview with Harold Sullivan, July 26, 2007.
In the spring of 1947: “Parker’s the One in ’51, Los Angeles Police Post 381, American Legion, Unanimously Presents William H. ‘Bill’ Parker for the Office of COMMANDER of THE AMERICAN LEGION, DEPARTMENT of CALIFORNIA, for the Year 1951-52,” August 1950 (Number Three), William H. Parker Police Foundation archives. See also “Police Post Gets Membership Drive Trophy,” L.A. Fire and Police Protective League News, 1947, William H. Parker Police Foundation archives.
Chapter Eleven: The Sporting Life
“[T]o be honest with …”: Cohen, In My Own Words, 81.
First, there were: Cohen, In My Own Words, 51-52.
So much for “the: See Lewis, Hollywood’s Celebrity Gangster, 57, for an account of the killing. The January 1950 study of the state of California’s Special Crime Study Commission report said that the LAPD suspected “Hooky” Rothman and Joseph “Scotty” Ellenberg of being the gunmen, although they never found evidence to arrest and prosecute them (13). Mob figure Jimmy Fratianno identified Rothman as the triggerman (Demaris, The Last Mafioso, 25). The excrement anecdote comes from Anderson, Beverly Hills Is My Beat, 137.
When Mickey swung by: The shooting occurred on May 15, 1945. See Cohen, In My Own Words, 71-73. Lewis, Hollywood’s Celebrity Gangster, offers very different accounts (53-54).
Still, it was a: The date of these dice games is uncertain. Later news accounts suggest they may have occurred in the late forties. See “Cohen Admits Big Gambling Take in Hotel Dice Games,” Chicago Tribune, 3. Intriguingly, this article also notes that from 1947 onward, the Ambassador was owned by J. Myer Schine, whose son, David Schine, emerged in the 1950s as an intimate of Senator McCarthy’s chief investigator, Roy Cohn. Cohn, a bitter opponent of Robert Kennedy, would later become a prominent organized crime defense lawyer.
“I’d like to see …”: Hecht, A Child of the Century, 610-11.
Tell “em they’re a…”: Hecht, A Child of the Century, 612.
Wilkerson was right.: Muir, Headline Happy, 190-91; Russo, The Outfit, 295.
At issue was the: May, “The History of the Race Wire Service.”
Bugsy knew the boys: Anderson, Beverly Hills Is My Beat, 144-45; Cohen, In My Own Words, 79; Jennings, We Only Kill Each Other, 198-210.
After talking to Cohen: Jennings, We Only Kill Each Other, 208-9.
“The people in the …”: Cohen, In My Own Words, 81.
“The LAPD had already: “Capt. Jack Donahoe of Police Retires, Handled Many Famous Cases,” Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, March 8, 1962, B1.
“One of the finest…”: Cohen manuscript, Ben Hecht Papers, Newberry Library, 8.
In the fall of: Cohen manuscript, Ben Hecht Papers, Newberry Library, 8-9; Lewis, Hollywood’s Celebrity Gangster, 38.
What they heard was: For more on Howser’s checkered career, see Warren Olney, “Law Enforcement and Judicial Administration in the Earl Warren Era,” Earl Warren Oral History Project, University of California, 1981; “Hidden Microphones Hear Cohen Secrets, Police Device Records Intimate Talks in Home,” Los Angeles Times, August 16, 1949, 1.
Chapter Twelve: The Double Agent
“The heart is deceitful”: Jeremiah 17:9, King James Bible.
Vaus first started: Vaus, Why I Quit… Syndicated Crime, 18-21.
“Come back tomorrow night…”: Vaus, Why I Quit… Syndicated Crime, 18-20. See also Stoker, Thicker’N Thieves, 82-86.
Prostitution in Hollywood has: Rasmussen, “History of Hollywood Madams Is Long, Lurid,” Los Angeles Times, November 30, 1997, B3.
Charles Stoker had first: Vaus, Why I Quit… Syndicated Crime, 23; Stoker, Thicker ’n Thieves, 81.
When Stoker got back: Stoker, Thicker’N Thieves, 85-87.
Allen unleashed a stream: Stoker, Thicker’N Thieves, 91.
Stoker had no: Stoker, Thicker’N Thieves, 94-95.
Two facts: Vaus, Why I Quit… Syndicated Crime, 30-34, 36-46, 52.
Vaus had never been: Vaus, Why I Quit… Syndicated Crime, 37.
“No cop had a”: Vaus, Why I Quit… Syndicated Crime, 39.
Vaus had told Cohen: Stoker, Thicker’N Thieves, 94.
In August 1947, Parker: Stoker provides the sole account of this meeting (142-43). Given the questions that would later emerge about his motivations and veracity, it should be treated with caution.
Stoker felt uneasy about: Stoker, Thicker’N Thieves, 222-23.
Soon after Stoker’s: Stoker, Thicker’N Thieves, 181-85, 187-90.
So Stoker agreed to: Stoker’s account of this meeting (186-88) and indeed this period is intensely controversial. Parker himself would later completely disavow Stoker’s account of events, even claiming by late 1949 that Sgt. Elmer Jackson’s involvement with Brenda Allen was in fact a frame-up. Yet certain parts of Stoker’s account ring true. First, the evidence against Sergeant Jackson (though not the chief himself) seems strong. Second, the picture of Parker Stoker presents has notable similarities to that presented by Fred Otash, another maverick LAPD officer, in his book, Investigation Hollywood!. Other figures who knew Parker well likewise believe that he was prepared to use the kinds of extreme tactics described by Stoker to become chief.
On May 31, 1949: Woods, “The Progressives and the Police,” 407.
There was also the: “CONVICT DESCRIBES KILLING BY L.A. COP: Slaying of ‘Peewee’ Lewis Described at San Quentin,” Los Angeles Daily News, June 7, 1949.
The revelations streamed forth: Woods, “The Progressives and the Police,” 407.
Just when a narrative: Audre Davis’s later arrest certainly doesn’t bolster her credibility. Nonetheless, historian Gerald Woods insists that prosecutors had developed “a strong circumstantial case against [Stoker].” The county grand jury thought otherwise; it declined to convict Stoker. See also, “Policewoman Implicates Sgt. Stoker in Burglary Love for Vice Squad Man Admitted by Audrey [sic] Davis,” Los Angeles Times, July 3, 1949.
At first, Mayor Bowron: “Police Commission Commends Horrall: Full Confidence in Chief and Staff Expressed in Written Statement,” Los Angeles Times, March 24, 1947. One month later, on July 27, Chief Horrall, Asst. Chief Joe Reed, and Capt. Cecil Wisdom were indicted for perjury. Sergeant Jackson and Lieutenant Wellpott were also indicted on perjury and for accepting bribes. However, none of the men were ultimately convicted. In retrospect, the case against Chief Horrall, who was known for his strikingly hands-off management style, seems weakest. He was almost surely innocent. As for Sergeant Jackson and his associates, the most accurate verdict would be “not proven.” Woods, “The Progressive and the Police,” 408.
Faced with a public: See Benis Frank, interviewer, “Oral History Transcript: General William Worton,” 307.
Chapter Thirteen: Internal Affairs
“I’ll be damned if…”: See Benis Frank, interviewer, “Oral History Transcript: General William Worton,” 310.
Like other departments, the: Chief Davis eventually handed over a list of 7,800 people who’d received badges. It included such luminaries as Shirley Temple (a Davis favorite), King Vidor, Louis B. Mayer, and Bela Lugosi. Larry Harnisch, “Mayor Investigates Honorary L.A.P.D. Badges,” October 28, 1938, Daily Mirror blog, accessed October 28, 2008.
The primary purpose of: See Benis Frank, interviewer, “Oral History Transcript: General William Worton,” 309.
To Sgt. Charles Stoker: Stoker, Thicker’N Thieves, 222; “New Police Chief on Job, to tell Program in Week,” Los Angeles Times, July 1, 1949, 1; Daryl Gates, Chief, 15.
It was, thought Gates: Author interview with Daryl Gates, December 10, 2004.
That Bill Parker was: “Chief Names Staff Inspector in Top Level Police Changes: Parker Given Number Two Post,” Los Angeles Times, July 15, 1949, 1.
For decades, vice and: “Police Shift Offices Due to City Hall Jam,” Los Angeles Times, August 19, 1949, 2.
General Worton and his: Woods, “The Progressives and the Police,
” 40910; “Ex-Marine Tightened Up Los Angeles Police,” Chicago Sun-Times, March 12, 1952.
General Worton was also: “Novice Chief Brings New Confidence …,” San Francisco Call-Bulletin, May 10, 1995.
“He would be”: Author interview with Bob Rock, December 10, 2004, Los Angeles, CA.
Parker moved decisively too: “Police Officer Keyes Resigns Under Attack,” Los Angeles Times, July 26, 1942.
“Well then go fuck …”: “‘Innocent’ in Cussing, Says Mickey Cohen,” Los Angeles Mirror, August 31, 1949.
Within weeks, his name: Server, Baby, I Don’t Care, 166, 203-204. See also “Americana,” Time, January 31, 1949. Mitchum’s conviction on drug possession charges was overturned in 1951, which suggests that the accusations against Mickey may well have been true.
With Mickey on the: Warren was backed up by five high-powered commissioners: former U.S. ambassador to Russia Adm. William H. Standley; former Union Pacific president William M. Jeffers; mining magnate Harvey Mudd; Gen. Kenyon Joyce, onetime deputy president of the Allied Control Commission for Italy; and Gerald H. Hagar, Oakland, past president of the Star Bar. “Warren Picks First of Crime Commissions: Jeffers and Mudd Among Those Named Under New State Law,” Los Angeles Times, October 22, 1947.
“Bookmaking has nothing to …”: Fox, Blood and Power, 288.
This system was: California Special Crime Study Commission report, January 31, 1950.
Olney realized that there: Special Crime Study Commission report, March 17, 1949, 72, 79-80.
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 th
e 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,” December 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.
