by John Buntin
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 Apologize,” 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, Februar
y 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.
Prosecutors tried to put: Lieberman, “Noir Justice Catches Up with Mickey Cohen,” Los Angeles Times, November 1, 2008.
The Whalen shooting quickly: Blake, “First Such Convention in City Brings With It Host of New Problems,” Los Angeles Times, May 30, 1960.
The convention began under: “Kennedy’s ‘Pad’ in L.A.—Dirty Shirts and Disorder,” San Francisco Call-Bulletin, July 15, 1960.
From the start, Parker: “Noise, Cheers, Applause, Songs—and 3 Candidates,” Kansas City Times, April 11, 1960; “Big Squeeze Boosts Police for Kennedy,” Los Angeles Mirror, July 11, 1960.
The LAPD also proved: Fleming, “Stevenson Supporters Try to Invade Arena, Extra Police Rushed to Entrance as Chanting Crowd of 600 Mills About,” Los Angeles Times, July 14, 1960.
By all accounts, the: See, for instance, “The Bright Badge of the L.A.P.D.,” Los Angeles Times editorial, August 9, 1960, B4.
“Eating out of the …”: Russo, The Outfit, 407.
Parker was delighted.: “Parker Hails Kennedy as Crime Foe,” Los Angeles Times, December 17, 1960, 12; “Chief Parker May Head US Crime Probers,” Los Angeles Herald-Express, December 22, 1960.
To the sixty-six: Thomas, Robert Kennedy: His Life, 114.
“I have a high: “Chief Parker May Head US Crime Probers,” Los Angeles Herald-Express, December 22, 1960; White, “Parker Takes Swipe at FBI,” Los Angeles Mirror, December 22, 1960.
Ethel was a prankster: Thomas, Robert Kennedy: His Life, 117.
To Mickey Cohen, the: More specifically, prosecutors charged Cohen with evading roughly $30,000 in taxes between 1956 and 1958 and also with avoiding another $347,000 in taxes (plus interest and penalties) between 1945 and 1950, in addition to several other infringements of the law. See Korman, “Convict Cohen a Second Time Tax Offender: Guilty of Beating U.S. out of $400,000,” Chicago Tribune, July 1, 1961, 3. Cohen’s previous tax conviction had been for avoiding $130,000 in taxes between 1946 and 1948. The decision to charge Cohen with concealing even more income in the immediate postwar years reflected new discoveries about Cohen’s gambling income from that era.
“There’s no question about…”: Cohen, In My Own Words, 195-96.
The first investor appeared: “Cohen’s Story Contract Presented at His Trial,” Los Angeles Times, May 19, 1961, 30; “$9,000 Advance for Cohen, Screenplay Told,” Los Angeles Times, May 20, 1961, 11; Korman, “2 FILM COMICS ADD SPICE TO COHEN’S TRIAL: Jerry Lewis, Skelton on Witness Stand,” Chicago Daily Tribune, May 25, 1961, A7; “Ben Hecht Sees Cohen as Top Book Material,” Los Angeles Times, May 18, 1961, B2.
The next witness after: “Candy Barr Tells About Being Cohen’s ‘Sweetie:’ Jailed Stripper Testifies How Ex-Hoodlum Helped Her Flee U.S. to Mexico Hide-way,” Los Angeles Times, June 3, 1961, 12.
The answer was yes: Caen, “Another World: Search for the Prize Topper,” Los Angeles Times, June 15, 1960, B5; “US. Rests Cohen Income Tax Case,” Los Angeles Times, June 17, 1961, 9.
“I feel it’s now …”: “Cohen Defense Claims He Was Losing Money,” Los Angeles Times, June 24, 1961, 11.
Mickey responded by instructing: Cohen, In My Own Words, 205.
Reporters noted that he: “Mickey Cohen Jaunty Again—in Volkswagen,” Los Angeles Times, October 20, 1961, 26.
Then, two weeks later: “Mickey Cohen, 4 Others Indicted in Murder Plot, All Accused in Dec. 2, 1959 Slaying of Jack Whalen in Sherman Oaks Cafe,” Los Angeles Times, November 1, 1961, 2.
Chapter Twenty-five: The Muslim Cult
“‘Civil disobedience’… simply means …”: Manion, “Anarchy Imminent,” May 30, 1965.
Police lieutenant Tom Bradley: Indeed, Bradley’s promotion and appointment to Wilshire Division was widely seen as a promotion in the black community. Lomax, “Bradley Makes ‘Loot,’ Just in Time for the Vote on the Police Pay Raise,” Los Angeles Tribune, October 31, 1958.
Poulson, meanwhile, struggled with: Los Angeles has nonpartisan primaries. Any candidate who wins more than 50 percent of the vote in the primary automatically wins election to the office in question. If no candidate wins an outright majority, then the two top vote-getters meet for a rematch in the general election. The top vote-getter in that election then claims the contested office.
In his public appearances: See “All Elections Promises Kept, Yorty Asserts. But Black Leaders Flat Contradict His Claim That He Never Promised to Fire Chief Parker,” Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, July 9, 1962.
In fact, Yorty did: Ainsworth, Maverick Mayor, 129, 132-33.
The next day, newspapers: Los Angeles Times, June 9, 1961. See “Two Cited Under Lynch Law After Park Riot,” Los Angeles Times, June 2, 1961, for an account of the case. See also “This Is not Alabama,” Los Angeles Times editorial, June 1, 1960.
“I have confidence in…”: Gottlieb and Wolt, Thinking Big, 364-65; “Yorty, Parker Clash: Chief Denies Charge of Ballot ‘Gestapo,’” Los Angeles Examiner, June 9, 1961.
Rumor had it that: The rumor seems to have started with councilman Carl Rundberg, who after the mayor and police chief’s meeting, expressed a desire to know “what Parker had on Yorty.” Parker denied the allegation, but Rundberg rejoined that he personally had heard Parker play back recordings of negative remarks made by Yorty about the police. See Hollywood Citizen-News, February 18, 1963.
Daryl Gates would later categorically deny that Parker collected dirt on Yorty and other politicians. Perhaps this is true (although Yorty’s allegations seem similar to those leveled by Norris Poulson in 1952). What is striking, though, is that most observers at the time believed he did and feared the chief accordingly. Author interview with Daryl Gates, December 10, 2004.
The officers had heard: “Six Muslim Suspects Held in Row at Market,” Los Angeles Times, September 3, 1961; Branch, Pillar of Fire, 4-15.
Malcolm X’s efforts put: Branch, Pillar of Fire, 11. See Los Angeles Sentinel, May 17, 1962, for a slightly different account.
In early June, a: Woods, “The Progressives and the Police,” 476.
“The Negro community here …”: “Parker Assails Bishop’s View of Negro Policy,” Los Angeles Times, January 18, 1963, A1.
“This city can’t be …”: Woods, “The Progressives and the Police,” 475-76.
Chapter Twenty-six: The Gas Chamber
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“Don’t worry”: Cohen, In My Own Words, 214.
Cohen’s indictment arose from: Reid, Mickey Cohen, 69; “Officers Out to Get Cohen, LoCigno Says,” Los Angeles Times, March 22, 1962, A2.
Although he was willing: “Under Table, Didn’t See Slayer, Cohen Says,” Los Angeles Times, March 29, 1962, 30.
Cohen’s attorneys did not: “Cohen’s Defense Closes Murder Trial Argument,” Los Angeles Times, April 5, 1962, 34.
“This is a crazy town…”: Coates, “A Cool Customer in a Hot Spot,” Los Angeles Times, April 15, 1962, B7.
“Although much testimony of…”: “Mickey Cohen Murder Charges Dismissed,” Los Angeles Times, March 19, 1962, 2. LoCigno’s earlier conviction had been vacated by an appeals court. However, he did not go free. Later that fall, he was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to one to ten years’ imprisonment. “Lo Cigno Rules Guilty of Manslaughter,” Los Angeles Times, November 15, 1962, B8.
Cohen had dodged the: Lewis, Hollywood’s Celebrity Gangster, 278-79, 280-81.
“Don’t worry about me,”: Cohen, In My Own Words, 214.
In October, Cohen was: “Mickey Cohen Sues U.S.,” New York Times, February 18, 1964, 22; Lewis, Hollywood’s Celebrity Gangster, 284-86.
“Violence in Los Angeles …”: “An Analysis of the McCone Commission Report,” California Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights, January 1966, LAPD official records box 84638, CRC.
“I doubt that Los …”: “Police Chief William H. Parker Speaks,” a compilation of Parker statements prepared by the Community Relations Conference of Southern California, 2400 South Western Avenue, Los Angeles, California, available in Parker’s FBI file, 62-96042-109.
