19.
The Enemy Within.
"He is intent on being a respectable member of society as a senatorial nominee on getting elected. The odds are three to one that Mickey Cohen, if not stopped by a bullet, will wind up a Rotarian."-Ben Hecht WHEN MICKEY COHEN stepped off the ferry from McNeil Island at the little town of Steilacoom, near Tacoma, the press was waiting. Mickey didn"t seem surprised. Even after three years in prison, he accepted press attention as his due. In fact, Cohen seemed more relaxed-and more chatty-than ever before. When asked what his next plans were, Mickey indicated that he was leaning toward opening a bar and grill, "maybe in Beverly Hills or the Miracle Mile"-this despite the fact that Cohen still owed Uncle Sam $156,123. In fact, he told the a.s.sembled press, he and a few partners had already hired an architect to draw up plans. The news was instantly telegraphed to L.A., where official reaction was not long in coming.
"There is not a chance that anyone with Cohen"s record would be given a liquor license," declared Phil Davis, the Southern California liquor administrator for the state board of equalization. "I can"t say he would be very welcome in Beverly Hills," agreed Beverly Hills police chief Clinton Anderson. The Los Angeles City Council voted en ma.s.se against a liquor license for Cohen, despite the fact that the city council had no say in such matters. As for Chief Parker, he suspected that Mickey"s restaurant was nothing but a sham. When a reporter asked the chief if Parker had any plans to put Cohen under surveillance, he replied tersely, "The German army didn"t come over and tell their plans to the Allies."
When talking to the press, Cohen projected a jaunty self-confidence. But to those who knew him well, Mickey seemed changed. Despite his long history of violence, both in the ring and on the street, he appeared to have been badly shaken by his experiences in prison.
"When I was on the Island, I saw things I couldn"t believe myself. And I thought I"d seen everything," Mickey said later. One night in particular had driven home the brutality and indifference of prison authorities: The middle of the night, a fella a couple of cells down starts screamin". I call the guard and we go together to see what"s the matter with the guy. The light in his cell don"t turn on and the guard has to use a flashlight. The screamer is lying in a pool of blood two inches deep. When the guard investigates he discovers that this guy was trying to give himself some fun by sticking an electric light bulb up his behind. In the middle of his enjoyment the glove had busted....
More startling, even, than this was what happened next: After being treated at the infirmary, the man "got a black mark for destroying government property."
Cohen was determined never to return to prison again. His aversion to further incarceration was so great that Mickey was prepared to take a desperate step: He would go straight. He decided to start by doing something that for an unlettered gangster was remarkable: He would write a book. Of course, as someone who was basically illiterate, Mickey couldn"t really do this on his own. Fortunately for Cohen, Hollywood"s most famous screenwriter was about to come calling.
SEVERAL MONTHS AFTER Mickey"s return to Los Angeles, the screenwriter Ben Hecht was talking with the director Otto Preminger. Hecht was Hollywood"s most successful screenwriter, the person responsible for such films as Scarface Scarface (the first gangster movie), (the first gangster movie), The Front Page The Front Page (based on his days as a newspaperman in Chicago), (based on his days as a newspaperman in Chicago), Gone with the Wind Gone with the Wind (an uncredited rewrite), (an uncredited rewrite), His Girl Friday, Spellbound His Girl Friday, Spellbound, and Notorious Notorious. Preminger was an Austrian Jewish emigre with a deep interest in abnormal psychology and crime. (His father had been the equivalent of the U.S. attorney general during the final years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.) His breakout hit was the 1944 noir thriller Laura Laura, which told the story of a detective investigating the slaying of a beautiful young woman who had been murdered despite-or because of-her ability to make men love her. As the investigation progressed, the detective himself fell under her spell. Laura Laura"s success made Preminger one of the top directors in Hollywood. In 1955, he had begun work on another noir drama, The Man with the Golden Arm The Man with the Golden Arm. Based on the novel by Nelson Algren, the film told the story of a heroin addict (Frank Sinatra) with dreams of big band greatness. The aspiring drummer gets clean in prison, but after his release, he encounters two old temptations, heroin and Kim Novak. (He succ.u.mbs to one.) Hecht was helping Preminger with the screenplay. Although Preminger was not unfamiliar with the American underworld-he was, among other things, the lover of the world-famous striptease artist Gypsy Rose Lee-it still wasn"t his native idiom. One day, Hecht realized that he knew someone who could provide Preminger with just the right sort of color-Mickey Cohen.
It took a while to find Cohen. The haberdashery was long since closed. The Moreno manse in Brentwood had been sold. The papers had reported LaVonne"s new address in West Los Angeles-a nice apartment just off Santa Monica Boulevard near the Fox back lot (today"s Century City)-but Cohen wasn"t living there. Eventually, Hecht tracked him down at the Westwood Motor Inn, Mickey"s temporary work address. Cohen suggested that Hecht stop by his apartment for a visit.
On the appointed day, Hecht arrived at a small, nondescript apartment building. The only outward sign of Cohen"s residency within was a gleaming new Cadillac ("as luxurious and roomy as a hea.r.s.e," thought Hecht). When Hecht arrived, Mickey was in the shower. It was his third of the day.* Hecht knew this could take a while, so he looked around. The apartment was tiny-"so small it was almost impossible to walk swiftly in it without b.u.mping into the walls"-but tastefully (indeed, professionally) decorated (albeit in a "bourgeois" fashion). It was also crammed with luxury items. Hecht knew this could take a while, so he looked around. The apartment was tiny-"so small it was almost impossible to walk swiftly in it without b.u.mping into the walls"-but tastefully (indeed, professionally) decorated (albeit in a "bourgeois" fashion). It was also crammed with luxury items.
"There are thirty pressed and spotless suits crowded in the closet, all in tan shades," jotted Hecht in his notebooks. "Twenty-five Chinese, j.a.panese, and Persian robes of silk hang there and thirty-five pairs of glistening shoes stand on the floor, neatly."
Finally, Mickey himself appeared-"nude, dressed only in green socks held up by maroon garters." He seemed lost in thought, scarcely bothering to acknowledge Hecht. Instead, he put on a new Panama hat and wandered about the small room, powdering himself with talc.u.m, washing his hands, and looking for the perfect suit. Every twenty minutes or so, Mickey would dash over to the phone, place a call, and proceed to have a lengthy cryptic conversation "devoid of proper names." (Cohen was convinced-no doubt correctly-that his phones were tapped.) Two hours later, the two men left for dinner at Fred Sica"s place.
Hecht was fascinated by Cohen"s odd behavior. But Mickey soon did something that was even more surprising. He started talking. When Hecht had first met Cohen in 1947 at Hecht"s home in Oceanside, Cohen had been "a calm, staring man in a dapper pastel suit." He had conveyed an unmistakable air of menace (only slightly offset by his ice-cream-and-French-pastry-fueled pudginess). In those days, Mickey sometimes went for days without saying a word.
Not anymore. The postprison Cohen was a conversationalist, at least when the mood came over him. When Hecht brought Preminger over to meet the notorious gangster, Cohen freely recounted stories of his underworld days, explaining the intricacies of the bookie business. In the process, Mickey greatly confused the director, who mistook one of Mickey"s bookmaking phrases, "laying a horse" (which simply means wagering that a certain horse will lose), for a s.e.xual act. (After the meeting, Preminger reportedly turned to Hecht and declared, "My G.o.d! Why would you take me to meet a man who lays horses?!") Mickey had even begun work on a book about his life. When he showed it to Hecht, the Oscar-winning screenwriter was astonished. Cohen"s work in progress was actually pretty good. Never before had Hecht seen the criminal mind bared so openly and artlessly. But Cohen wasn"t just interested in reliving his glory days. His goal, he told Hecht, was nothing less than redemption.
"I"m a different man than the wild hot Jew kid who started stickin" up joints in Cleveland, who lived from heist to heist in Chicago and Los Angeles," he told Hecht.
"What changed you?" Hecht asked.
"First, common sense," Cohen replied. "Then I wanted the respect of people-not just people in the underworld." However, the deepest change was more visceral: "I lost the crazy heat in my head," he told Hecht, "even though I seen enough dirty crooked double-crosses to keep me mad for a hundred years."
Mickey a.s.sured Hecht that he was now determined to go straight. Indeed, he had already picked a new profession. He had become a florist.
Mickey insisted that he had returned to Los Angeles "stone broke." But soon after his homecoming, Cohen somehow became the proprietor of a chain of greenhouses, with headquarters at 1402 Exposition Avenue near Normandie. Exposition Avenue was a long way from Mickey"s old haunts on Sunset, but Cohen did his best to display the old razzle-dazzle, renaming the chain Michael"s Greenhouses and telling the papers that he was "chucking the rackets for tropical foliage." Among his first visitors were the officers of the LAPD intelligence squad. To its officers, Mickey confided the "real" reason he had gone into the business. Exotic flowers, he told the officers, was "a tremendous racket... out of this world."
LaVonne thought Mickey had finally gone crazy. One month after Michael"s Greenhouses came into existence, she filed for divorce. Cohen was understanding. "LaVonne had married a dashing, colorful rough-tough hoodlum and when I came home she found me quite a bit different," he piously informed the press. Cohen"s parole officers seemed to believe in Cohen"s reformation. There was just one problem: No one had much use for a gangster who had been scared straight.
"When I was a gangster like those characters in the movies, I tell you everybody admired me, including even the press," Mickey told Hecht one night. "Now look at the situation.... [S]ince I came home"-Cohen"s preferred euphemism for getting out of jail-"the general public including the newspapers have been actin" sour at me, as if they were sore at my having reformed and bein" now a law abiding citizen.
"So help me, it"s unusual. I ask myself, "Can it be that the public prefers the type of person I was to the type of citizen I am now?""
Mickey already knew the answer to that question. Of course they did.
One night after midnight, as Hecht sat at Cohen"s table at one of the nightclubs he frequented nearly every evening, Hecht realized what Cohen had become. "It is a gilgul gilgul I"m sitting with"-a soul suspended between the stages of reincarnation. "Life won"t let him in. A desperate Mickey is at the cafe table-not Mickey, the gun-flourishing heister, but a lonely knocker at the door." I"m sitting with"-a soul suspended between the stages of reincarnation. "Life won"t let him in. A desperate Mickey is at the cafe table-not Mickey, the gun-flourishing heister, but a lonely knocker at the door."
Chief Parker would have none of it. Cohen was a hoodlum through and through. If Mickey thought tropical plants were a "tremendous racket," they probably were. Parker wanted every angle covered. Make sure Cohen"s not strong-arming people into buying exotic tropical plants, Parker told the intelligence division. The chief"s suspicions proved well founded: Several restaurateurs and bar owners confidentially informed the squad that Mickey had demanded that they pay $1,000 a month to rent a plastic fern-or else. Parker made it clear that he wanted Hamilton"s men to watch every move Mickey made.
The LAPD wasn"t the only law enforcement outfit tracking Cohen. So were agents from the Treasury Department. Mickey had resolutely refused to pay the federal government any of the back taxes he owed. He justified his inaction by claiming to be broke. When questioned about his new Cadillac and his lavish wardrobe, Cohen replied blandly that he enjoyed only what his friends gave (or loaned) him. Given Cohen"s history of extortion, this seemed more than a little suspicious. So FBI headquarters instructed the Los Angeles office to put Cohen under surveillance. In short order, Cohen had a discreet complement of G-men with him on his nocturnal nightclub outings. What they witnessed confirmed the bureau"s suspicions. Cohen, they reported, was routinely dropping $200 or $300 a night and generally spending money at a rate that only the most lucrative greenhouse in the world could provide.
The LAPD intelligence division was likewise uncovering evidence that Cohen was less reformed than he was letting on to his friend Ben Hecht. One source informed the division that Mickey was attempting to strong-arm a local linen business. The LAPD also heard rumors that Cohen, along with his old pal the great lightweight boxer Art "Golden Boy" Aragon, was fixing fights. LaVonne even called off the divorce and got back together with Mickey. Everything pointed to a full-fledged return to the life of crime.
IN THE FALL OF 1956, the LAPD gained another ally in its fight against organized crime: the thirty-year-old chief counsel of the Senate subcommittee on investigations, Robert Kennedy.
By 1956, the Kennedys were one of America"s best-known families. Bobby"s maternal grandfather, John F. ("Honey Fitz") Fitzgerald, had been mayor of Boston, as well as a congressman. Father Joseph was one of the country"s most powerful businessmen, a prominent Wall Street investment banker, ex-amba.s.sador to the Court of St. James, a former movie magnate (and Gloria Swanson"s lover), and a high-end bootlegger. The oldest son, Joe Jr., whom Joe Sr. had been grooming for the presidency, had been killed during the Second World War; in 1946, the Navy had recognized his sacrifice by naming a destroyer after him. His brother Jack had stepped in and commenced on a remarkable rise to prominence. His Harvard College thesis, While England Slept While England Slept, was published and became a best-selling book. During the war, he served on a PT boat. When it was cut in half by a j.a.panese destroyer, Lieutenant Kennedy kept his head and saved most of his men, a feat of bravery that won him a Navy and Marine Corps Medal (and a front-page story in the the New York Times) New York Times). In 1946, he was elected to the House of Representatives from his grandfather"s old district (after Joe Sr. bought out the inc.u.mbent). In 1952, Jack was elected to the U.S. Senate. Earlier that year, in 1956, Jack wrote another best-selling book, Profiles in Courage Profiles in Courage.
In comparison, Bobby had struggled. An indifferent student, he bounced from school to school before landing at Milton Academy. He got into Harvard, but his grades there weren"t good enough to continue on to the business or law school, so he went to the University of Virginia law school instead. Upon graduating (in the middle of his cla.s.s), he went to work on his brother"s successful Senate campaign, where he distinguished himself with his dogged hard work. Kennedy then worked briefly for perhaps the most notorious committee in the history of the U.S. Senate-Joseph McCarthy"s Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations-before joining Arkansas senator John McClellan"s Senate Subcommittee on Investigations as its chief counsel and staff director. There Kennedy and his boss, Senator McClellan, hit upon another subject-governmental corruption. This was an issue that provoked distinct unease in urban Democrats, many of whom were indebted to munic.i.p.al machines. But Bobby brushed away such reservations. His first target would be New York City. There he discovered the world of the Irish NYPD-and the underworld.
KENNEDY"S FIRST STEP as staff director of the investigations subcommittee was to approach the Federal Bureau of Investigation for a.s.sistance. He was startled to learn that the FBI knew virtually nothing about corruption or organized crime at the city level. It simply wasn"t within the bureau"s jurisdiction, he was told. So he turned instead to the federal Bureau of Narcotics, the precursor to today"s Drug Enforcement Administration. Two agents, Angelo Zurelo and Joseph Amato, took Bobby under their wing. They explained to Kennedy that much of the crime in New York (including, contrary to popular myth, the narcotics trade) was organized and controlled by the Sicilian mafia. They also introduced Kennedy to their partners in the New York Police Department"s intelligence division, an outfit whose personnel consisted of largely Irish detectives straight out of a Damon Runyon story.
It was love at first sight.
Kennedy had long been fascinated by the experiences of his less fortunate Irish brethren. At Harvard, older brother Jack had joined an elite "final" club and generally gravitated toward what his sister Eunice would later describe as "Long Island sophisticates." Bobby sought out war veterans on the GI Bill. In the NYPD, Bobby found the ultimate tough-guy Irish inst.i.tution. Kennedy couldn"t get enough of it. Unbeknownst to his family or friends back in D.C., Kennedy was soon accompanying narcotics raiding parties on their nighttime forays. Often, the Bureau of Narcotics and the police would team up. Unrestrained by the Fourth Amendment, the local cops would kick in the door; narcotics agents would then storm in to make the arrests. Defendants" rights were essentially nil. Street justice was a common sight. One night, when Kennedy was out on a ridealong, the police burst into an apartment and found a man s.e.xually abusing a two-year-old. While Kennedy watched, the police threw the man out a window as punishment.
Kennedy also fell in with the New York press, who plied him with stories of corruption in the trade union movement. They explained the unholy alliances that often resulted, whereby unions made use of the mob"s "muscle," and the mobs tapped union treasuries for their own illicit businesses. Press and police alike were impressed by young Bobby"s s.p.u.n.k. He was a fighter, figuratively and literally. One night at a bar, after an evening of rousting with the police, a fellow drinker-a big, tough-looking fellow-recognized Kennedy (who appeared regularly in the papers) and treated him to a stream of colorful insults about his family and his father. Kennedy (five foot, ten inches and 160 pounds) calmly invited the much bigger man to step outside. When the man stood up, Kennedy spun around and smashed him square in the face, breaking the man"s nose. Everyone was impressed by Bobby"s willingness to fight dirty, but his reporter friends wondered if he was really tough enough to take on organized crime.
The Syndicate, they stressed, was truly dangerous. Just look at what had happened to the crusading labor columnist Victor Riesel in the spring of 1956. One night, just after midnight, Reisel had stepped out onto a silent 51st Street and noticed a young man strolling toward him. It was the last thing Riesel ever saw. The man hurled a vial of sulfuric acid in Riesel"s face, permanently blinding him. Rumor had it that the man behind the attack was Johnny Dio, a Lucchese family capo and a notorious labor union racketeer.
When told about Dio"s activities, Kennedy vowed to go after him, but his reporter pals pushed him to go further. Shouldn"t his committee be taking a broader look at the question of labor racketeering? Kennedy hesitated. The Senate Labor Committee might not appreciate having a young upstart intrude on their turf. Labor unions were also an important Democratic Party const.i.tuency. A high-profile investigation would undoubtedly ruffle feathers in the party. It was Washington, D.C.-based newsman Clark Mollenhoff who ultimately found the right b.u.t.ton to push. Mollenhoff told Kennedy that racketeers were moving into the Teamsters Union in the Midwest and, in effect, dared Kennedy to check it out. When Bobby hesitated, Mollenhoff went straight for the hot b.u.t.ton. What, are you scared? he taunted Kennedy. Are you afraid?
Soon thereafter, in August 1956, Kennedy announced that the Senate investigations subcommittee would expand its attention to the broader field of labor racketeering.* His first target was the nation"s biggest and most powerful union-the Teamsters. Kennedy had heard rumors that mobsters had infiltrated various locals as part of an effort to gain control of the Teamsters" $250 million pension fund. But there was a problem. His reporter friends notwithstanding, Kennedy had very little information to go on. The NYPD intelligence division had some information, but it was limited to New York. The Bureau of Narcotics had a wealth of information, but it was focused on narcotics. There was one police department, though, that had made a name for itself with its relentless war on organized crime-the Los Angeles Police Department. On November 14, 1956, Kennedy and former G-man-turned-congressional-investigator Carmine Bellino flew out to Los Angeles to meet Chief Parker and intelligence division head James Hamilton. To prevent the press from getting wind of their visit, the two men traveled in secret. Kennedy used an alias, Mr. Rodgers. It would prove to be an eventful meeting. His first target was the nation"s biggest and most powerful union-the Teamsters. Kennedy had heard rumors that mobsters had infiltrated various locals as part of an effort to gain control of the Teamsters" $250 million pension fund. But there was a problem. His reporter friends notwithstanding, Kennedy had very little information to go on. The NYPD intelligence division had some information, but it was limited to New York. The Bureau of Narcotics had a wealth of information, but it was focused on narcotics. There was one police department, though, that had made a name for itself with its relentless war on organized crime-the Los Angeles Police Department. On November 14, 1956, Kennedy and former G-man-turned-congressional-investigator Carmine Bellino flew out to Los Angeles to meet Chief Parker and intelligence division head James Hamilton. To prevent the press from getting wind of their visit, the two men traveled in secret. Kennedy used an alias, Mr. Rodgers. It would prove to be an eventful meeting.
PARKER took Kennedy"s visit seriously. He directed Hamilton and Lt. Joseph Stephens, who headed the department"s labor squad, to take the afternoon to meet with the Senate investigators. The men hit it off immediately. Kennedy and Bellino were impressed-and alarmed-by the material the LAPD had ama.s.sed. One example of the kinds of "strong arm" tactics employed by the mob in Southern California made a particularly vivid impression on Kennedy. It concerned a union organizer who"d gone to San Diego in defiance of warnings from the local mob. Soon after arriving, the man had been a.s.saulted. According to Kennedy"s later recounting of the story, he woke up the next day "covered in blood" and with "terrible pains in his stomach." With difficulty, he made it back to a hospital in Los Angeles, where doctors performed emergency surgery and, according to Kennedy, "removed from his backside a large cuc.u.mber." The man was later warned that if he ever returned to San Diego, he"d come back with a watermelon.
Urban myth or actual event? It didn"t matter. Kennedy believed it had happened. It steeled his resolve to act.
At the end of the afternoon, Hamilton walked Kennedy out to the parking lot behind "the gla.s.s house" (as the new police administration building was called). It had been a productive day. The LAPD"s wealth of information about corruption in the Teamsters reinforced Kennedy"s belief that he was on to something big. So did subsequent meetings arranged by Hamilton and Stephens, which put Kennedy and Bellino in direct contact with a variety of employers, union leaders, employees, and confidential informants. Kennedy and Bellino heard from dissident members of the longsh.o.r.emen"s union, who complained of the leadership"s radicalism and "red" sympathies. They heard from union organizers (again in San Diego) who"d been beaten up by goons after attempting to organize retail clerks and about a Los Angeles plumbers and steamfitters local that was resisting mob attempts to muscle in on building contracts. More to the point, they heard about how local Teamsters were colluding with selected employers-employers with strong mob ties-to corner the garbage removal market in Los Angeles. Hamilton concluded by suggesting that Kennedy and Bellino take their fact-finding mission to Portland, Oregon, where crusading journalists had uncovered a wealth of incriminating evidence about corruption in the Teamsters local.
Hamilton and Kennedy met as strangers but ended the day as friends. Henceforth, the LAPD intelligence division would be an important (if largely unheralded) source of intelligence to Robert Kennedy. Kennedy"s relationship with Chief Parker was different. The two men would never be friends in the way that Hamilton and Kennedy were; their personal styles were too different. But ideologically, the two men were largely in sync. In addition to sharing a faith (Roman Catholicism) and a creed (anti-communism), the two men shared a worldview: Both saw the underworld as the enemy within.
There was another similarity. Both men were battling their own internal enemies. Bobby was p.r.o.ne to depression ("Black Bobby," his older brother rather insensitively called him) and also to fits of anger that occasionally propelled him to violence. As a young man, Parker had shared this impulse to violence too. But the more dangerous demon for Los Angeles"s proud chief of police was the demon of drink. Nowhere was that demon more in evidence than at an annual event called the Mobil Economy Run.
The Mobil Economy Run (sponsored by the Mobil Oil corporation and the U.S. Auto Club) was a coast-to-coast race designed to test the fuel efficiency of automobiles under real-life driving conditions. Automakers competed fiercely for the right to proclaim their cars the most fuel efficient in their cla.s.s. But the Mobil Economy Run had another, less advertised, purpose as well. It was also a tremendous booze-fueled junket. Every year, Mobil rented a train for VIPs that ran north from Los Angeles to San Francisco, Yosemite, and Sun Valley (and thence onward east) or west to Albuquerque and then to Sun Valley and points east. Every year, Mobil invited the LAPD"s chief of police and deputy chief for traffic.
On the job, Parker was a straight arrow. He took a dim view of patrol officers receiving "gifts" from merchants on their beat (though they still did). He abhorred ticket fixing and insisted on observing the strict letter of the law. Off the job (and with a little liquor in his system), he could be quite different. The Mobil Economy Run"s VIP trains were all about liquoring up company guests. As soon as the train left L.A."s Union Station, the shades came down and the bar opened. It remained open, 24/7, for the remainder of the trip.
As if determined to avoid temptation, Parker stayed away from the Mobil Economy Run during his first year as chief. In 1952, however, he succ.u.mbed. Two years later, he went along with traffic chief Harold Sullivan. The Examiner"s Examiner"s automotive reporter, Slim Bernard, came too. Bernard was a character much beloved for his high jinx, so no one was surprised when, after a few drinks, Bernard somehow produced Salvation Army uniforms at the stop in Albuquerque and set out to recruit "soldiers" to solicit donations at the station. What was surprising was that Parker was happy to join the fun. Completely sloshed, he pounded away on a drum while his fellow revelers collected donations. It was a scene that made Parker"s traveling companion Harold Sullivan, who didn"t shy away from a few drinks on occasion himself, distinctly uncomfortable. automotive reporter, Slim Bernard, came too. Bernard was a character much beloved for his high jinx, so no one was surprised when, after a few drinks, Bernard somehow produced Salvation Army uniforms at the stop in Albuquerque and set out to recruit "soldiers" to solicit donations at the station. What was surprising was that Parker was happy to join the fun. Completely sloshed, he pounded away on a drum while his fellow revelers collected donations. It was a scene that made Parker"s traveling companion Harold Sullivan, who didn"t shy away from a few drinks on occasion himself, distinctly uncomfortable.
It got worse. By the time they reached Sun Valley, Parker (drinking all the while) was ready to lead a conga line through the hotel lobby and down the escalator. From Sullivan"s perspective, Parker"s behavior went well beyond boozy good fun. "He was drinking, and he had a problem," says Sullivan simply of Parker on that trip.
Parker himself presumably saw things in a different light. From that year forward, he was a Mobil Economy Run regular.
Fast-forward three years.
One day in the spring of 1957, the special bell on Sullivan"s desk rang to indicate that the chief wanted to talk to him immediately. Such summons were dreaded by the deputy chiefs. Parker didn"t hold regular staff meetings. By 1957, he had become quite hands off about the management of divisions that weren"t under his direct control. Sullivan sometimes went weeks without discussing traffic matters with the chief. When Sullivan or another deputy chief was summoned, it typically meant that Parker was angry about something and intended to chew him out. Nonetheless, Sullivan promptly hurried down the hall to Parker"s office. He was relieved to find the chief looking pensive.
"I"ve got a little problem," Parker told Sullivan, almost sheepishly.
"What is it?" Sullivan replied.
"Mayor Poulson wants to go on the Economy Run," Parker replied. Sullivan didn"t see the difficulty. Mobil Oil would surely be delighted to have the mayor come along for the ride.
"Just call the manager and tell him that," said Sullivan. Although he was disinclined to ask favors, Parker did. Just as Sullivan predicted, the Mobil Economy Run was more than happy to extend an invitation to Mayor Poulson At the last minute, though, Poulson bowed out and sent a press aide in his stead. The aide was astonished by how much Parker drank-and (in Sullivan"s words) by "what an a.s.shole he made of himself." In short, he reported to Poulson that Los Angeles"s lauded police chief was a common drunk of the worst sort. When Parker got back, the mayor confronted Parker about his public drinking, saying it was an embarra.s.sment to the city. Parker vowed to sober up, but the binges (which typically began after work hours at the speaking engagements that filled Parker"s evenings) continued-until his drinking habit brought him face to face with the possibility of a violent death.
The turning point came during a family trip to Tucson. Parker was there with his wife, Helen; his brother Joe; and his sister-in-law. The four of them were at a restaurant in Phoenix. Parker was "pulled as tight as a rubber band" that evening. The Mafia, he explained to Joe, was moving into Los Angeles. Parker was glum. He had a few B&Bs-Benedictine and brandies-too many to drive home. The next day, a subordinate called to say that one of the Los Angeles papers was reporting that a Mob figure had spotted Parker, drunk, in a Phoenix restaurant. Horrified, Parker never had another drink again.
* Mickey"s demands on the building"s hot water heater were a major source of contention with the management. At his old house in Brentwood, Cohen had installed a special water heater designed for a motel. Because even that proved inadequate, Mickey had his plumber install a hotel-sized hot water heater instead. Mickey"s demands on the building"s hot water heater were a major source of contention with the management. At his old house in Brentwood, Cohen had installed a special water heater designed for a motel. Because even that proved inadequate, Mickey had his plumber install a hotel-sized hot water heater instead.* There was another reason for Bobby Kennedy"s interest in crime and munic.i.p.al corruption as well, a political reason. That same August, big brother Jack made an unexpected-and ultimately unsuccessful-attempt to become Democratic presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson"s running mate. The person he lost out to was none other than Sen. Estes Kefauver, who had come to national attention via his campaign against organized crime. Bobby hoped the Kennedy family would benefit in a similar fashion from his new investigation. (Thomas, There was another reason for Bobby Kennedy"s interest in crime and munic.i.p.al corruption as well, a political reason. That same August, big brother Jack made an unexpected-and ultimately unsuccessful-attempt to become Democratic presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson"s running mate. The person he lost out to was none other than Sen. Estes Kefauver, who had come to national attention via his campaign against organized crime. Bobby hoped the Kennedy family would benefit in a similar fashion from his new investigation. (Thomas, Robert Kennedy Robert Kennedy, 73.)
20.
The Mike Wallace Interview.
"I killed no men that in the first place didn"t deserve killing."-Mickey Cohen to Mike Wallace, The Mike Wallace Interview The Mike Wallace Interview CHIEF PARKER WAS RIGHT TO BE WORRIED. Mickey Cohen was looking for a way to get rid of him. But not with a bullet. He needed something subtle, like the Brenda Allen scandal in 1949. It was a difficult a.s.signment. Los Angeles in 1957 was a very different city than it had been in 1949. Cohen was weaker, and the LAPD was immeasurably stronger. It would take an act of G.o.d to topple Chief William Parker. Fortunately, in the spring of 1957, Mickey Cohen got precisely that in the form of an invitation from the Rev. Billy Graham.
When Mickey Cohen first met Graham in 1949, Cohen was the West Coast"s most famous gangster while the handsome young preacher"s celebrity was still in its first blush. By 1957, the situation had changed. Graham had parlayed the success of his Los Angeles campaign into a nationwide movement. After his appearances in Los Angeles, Hearst papers across the country picked up the story of the lantern-jawed, jet blond man of G.o.d. Time Time magazine likewise hailed "the trumpet-lunged North Carolinian" with the "deep, cavernous voice" and made coverage of Graham"s crusades a recurring feature of the magazine. Graham barnstormed across the country, drawing huge crowds wherever he went. No venture seemed too ambitious. He went into the movies, setting up his own production company (Billy Graham Films, later World Wide Pictures) and building a small film lot just across the street from the Walt Disney studios in Burbank; the project got so big that Graham soon teamed up with MGM for help distributing the film. He also launched a radio program on ABC, magazine likewise hailed "the trumpet-lunged North Carolinian" with the "deep, cavernous voice" and made coverage of Graham"s crusades a recurring feature of the magazine. Graham barnstormed across the country, drawing huge crowds wherever he went. No venture seemed too ambitious. He went into the movies, setting up his own production company (Billy Graham Films, later World Wide Pictures) and building a small film lot just across the street from the Walt Disney studios in Burbank; the project got so big that Graham soon teamed up with MGM for help distributing the film. He also launched a radio program on ABC, The Hour of Decision The Hour of Decision. But it was in 1952 that Graham took the step that would make him a household name.
One of Graham"s closest friends was the Fort Worth oilman Sid Richardson. Richardson was a man with a cause: Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower. Richardson wanted him to run for president-and he wanted Graham to convince the general to do it. Graham took up the task a.s.signed to him by "Mr. Sid" with alacrity, firing off a letter to the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Powers in Brussels that was so impa.s.sioned that Eisenhower wrote Richardson to ask who this Graham fellow was.
Richardson responded by saying he"d send Graham over so Eisenhower could find out himself. The two men hit it off. When Eisenhower decided to run, he asked Graham to contribute Scripture verses to his speeches. Graham did so, but he also pressed Eisenhower about his own faith. The general confessed that he"d fallen away from the church. Graham gave him a Bible and recommended a congregation in Washington. After he was elected president, Dwight and Mamie joined it. Graham"s moment as a spiritual counselor to presidents had arrived.
Graham enjoyed the perquisites that came with his proximity to temporal power, golfing at Burning Tree with Ike or his vice president, Richard Nixon; visiting American troops abroad; and establishing the National Prayer Breakfast as a de rigueur event for Washington politicians. Figuring out what to do next, though, was somewhat more challenging. First, he did a series of campus campaigns at colleges and universities across the country. Then he looked overseas. In 1954 and 1955, he toured the United Kingdom and Europe. In 1956, he visited Asia. By the time 1957 arrived, he needed something new. Graham and his advisors decided to go for something big: They would launch their biggest campaign yet in the biggest city in the world-New York City.
New York City would be the ultimate challenge. It was the citadel of secularism, with more agnostics than any other American city. It was the center of the world"s media. It was a stronghold of Catholicism, with a larger Irish population than Dublin, a larger Italian population than Rome, a larger Puerto Rican population than San Juan. It was also the Jewish metropolis, home to one out of every ten of the world"s Jews. Only 7.5 percent of the population belonged to mainline Protestant denominations, and most of these nominal Protestants were far removed from Graham"s conservative, back-to-the-basics creed. From an evangelical standpoint, bringing New York City to Jesus was the ultimate challenge.
Protestant leaders in the city were generally supportive. A decision was made to launch the campaign in Madison Square Garden, starting on May 15. Graham and his advisors wanted to begin with something big-by saving someone who would turn every eye in New York (if not the country) toward the Manhattan crusade. Who better than the country"s most notorious Jewish gangster, Mickey Cohen?
Graham and Cohen had renewed their acquaintance after Cohen"s release. Cohen"s apparently sincere desire for repentance was catnip to the evangelist and his circle. Graham confidant W C. Jones began to press Mickey even more ardently to choose Christ. He and other Graham backers also offered thousands of dollars in "brotherly love gifts." Cohen was open to the idea. Being born again had certainly worked out well for his former wiretapper, Jimmy Vaus, who was now a celebrated speaker and a published author. Vaus"s memoirs had even been made into a movie, Wiretap-per Wiretap-per (1956). A Madison Square Garden conversion would certainly gratify Mickey"s undiminished desire for attention from the press. There was also, purportedly, money at stake: $15,000 to attend the Madison Square Garden crusade and another $25,000 if he converted to Christianity. That seemed like a more than fair price for Mickey"s soul. (1956). A Madison Square Garden conversion would certainly gratify Mickey"s undiminished desire for attention from the press. There was also, purportedly, money at stake: $15,000 to attend the Madison Square Garden crusade and another $25,000 if he converted to Christianity. That seemed like a more than fair price for Mickey"s soul.
In the spring of 1957, Cohen flew to Buffalo to meet with Graham and explore the possibility of attending the upcoming Madison Square Garden campaign. The New York Herald Tribune New York Herald Tribune broke the story: "Mickey Cohen and Bill Graham Pray and Read Bible Together," cried the headline. It quoted Mickey praising Graham for having "guided me in many things" and for being "my friend." The story also suggested that further communion between the two would be forthcoming. broke the story: "Mickey Cohen and Bill Graham Pray and Read Bible Together," cried the headline. It quoted Mickey praising Graham for having "guided me in many things" and for being "my friend." The story also suggested that further communion between the two would be forthcoming.
"He"s invited me [to the May crusade]," Cohen told the paper, "and I think I will be here for it." Cohen added that he was "very high on the Christian way of life."
The saga of L.A."s most notorious gangster-turned-florist accepting Jesus as his personal savior promised to be the most sensational story of the summer. It demanded the attention of a journalist who would do it justice-someone who didn"t hesitate to sit down with unsavory characters and ask the point-blank, personal questions that Americans wanted answers to. In short, Mickey Cohen seemed the perfect guest for Manhattan"s newest media star, ABC newsman Mike Wallace.
IN THE SUMMER of 1956, Mike Wallace was the anchor of the seven and eleven o"clock news reports for New York City"s Channel 5, WABD. Ted Yates, a sinewy ex-Marine from Cheyenne, Wyoming, was his producer. Wallace had been on the job for a year. Yet already he and Yates were bridling at the restrictions imposed upon them. Decades earlier George Bernard Shaw had noted that "the ablest and most highly cultivated people continually discuss religion, politics, and s.e.x" while the ma.s.ses "make it a rule that politics and religion are not to be mentioned, and take it for granted that no decent person would attempt to discuss s.e.x." Shaw"s description of Victorian England was doubly true for 1950s television, and it frustrated Wallace and Yates. The two men began to sketch out a different approach. Why not interview the people viewers most wanted to meet? Why not ask the questions viewers really wanted answers to?
That fall, Yates and Wallace managed to convince Channel 5 to replace the eleven o"clock news broadcast with an interview show. The format featured Wallace and an interesting guest-a personality from the world of politics, sports, entertainment, or religion. Yates dubbed the show Night Beat Night Beat. It was an immediate succes de scandale. New Yorkers watched, mesmerized, as Wallace confronted bristling union leaders with pointed questions about their personal lives, quizzed actresses about their s.e.x lives, and asked novelists about their views of G.o.d. Wallace courted conflict. His questions were relentless, his work ethic indefatigable. (Night Beat (Night Beat featured two guests for a half hour each, four nights a week.) The networks noticed. In early 1957, ABC offered Wallace a half-hour national slot that would air Sunday nights. The show would be called featured two guests for a half hour each, four nights a week.) The networks noticed. In early 1957, ABC offered Wallace a half-hour national slot that would air Sunday nights. The show would be called The Mike Wallace Interview The Mike Wallace Interview. ABC president Leonard Goldenson a.s.sured Wallace that he would have the same freedom he had previously enjoyed at Night Beat Night Beat. ("Mike, you will not be doing your job properly unless you make this building shake every couple of weeks," Goldenson reportedly told him.) Wallace jumped at the opportunity. In late April, Wallace and Yates released a list of Wallace"s first guests. It included the imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, the burlesque star Gypsy Rose Lee, the actor and director Orson Welles, the singer Harry Belafonte, and Mickey Cohen.
Wallace"s interviews looked spontaneous, but in fact, Wallace and his production team deliberately shaped each interview into a dramatic encounter. The responsibility for researching guests and preparing a "script" of likely questions and probable answers fell to Wallace"s researcher, Al Ramrus. Ramrus typically started by calling retired journalist Bill Lang, who maintained his own personal "morgue" of newspaper articles on a remarkable variety of subjects. Ramrus then checked out the three major newsweeklies-Time, Newsweek, and Life Life-at Hunter College and, in the case of performers, the film and theatrical division of the New York Public Library. Finally, he did a preinterview with the guest. Afterward, he drew up the "script" for Wallace. Of course, it wasn"t a real script in the sense that a program like Dragnet Dragnet was scripted. Wallace often kept the toughest questions to himself so that guests, lulled into complacency by the preinterview, would be caught off guard. Guests sometimes changed their answers. In general, though, most programs played out as Ramrus indicated they would. was scripted. Wallace often kept the toughest questions to himself so that guests, lulled into complacency by the preinterview, would be caught off guard. Guests sometimes changed their answers. In general, though, most programs played out as Ramrus indicated they would.
Cohen presented special challenges from the start. Lang"s New York-centric newspaper morgue didn"t have much on Mickey, and Ramrus didn"t have access to a West Coast newspaper morgue. While the national newsweeklies had plenty on Mickey during his "vicecapades" period and immediately afterward, they were sketchier on his recent activities. Nor did Ramrus have much success in talking with Cohen"s a.s.sociates in crime. When he reached Bugsy Siegel"s ex-mistress Virginia Hill in Switzerland, Hill told him she didn"t know the man.
Then there was the problem of dealing with Mickey himself.
When Ramrus contacted Mickey in Los Angeles, Cohen wasn"t exactly up to speed on what a media sensation Mike Wallace had become. However, at the coaxing of the Graham camp, he eventually agreed to sit down with Wallace during his trip to New York for the campaign. Cohen let Ramrus know that in doing so he was taking a big risk. New York was full of enemies. Cohen would travel under an alias-Mr. Dunn. Ramrus himself would need to meet him at the airport-in a limo-and then take him to his hotel; the luxurious Ess.e.x House would be fine. The entire operation would have to be hush-hush. With some trepidation, Ramrus agreed to these arrangements.
On the night of May 2, 1957, Cohen"s reason for caution became abundantly clear. That evening, a burly ex-boxer named Vincent "Chin" Gigante walked into the foyer of the Majestic Apartments at 115 Central Park West and followed its most famous resident, Manhattan crime boss Frank Costello (widely known in criminal and law enforcement circles as "the prime minister of the underworld") toward the elevator. As Costello was preparing to enter it, Gigante whipped out a .38 caliber pistol, yelled, "This is for you, Frank!" and shot Costello in the temple at what appeared to be point-blank range. As Costello fell to the ground, Gigante ran past the horrified doorman and leapt into a black Cadillac idling outside, which then sped away. Astonishingly, Costello lived. Startled by Gigante"s cry, he had jerked away at the last moment, and the bullet had merely grazed his scalp. But the underworld was badly shaken. So, no doubt, was Ramrus. He would now be risking his life by stepping into the free-fire zone around Mickey Cohen.
WHEN COHEN FLEW into Idlewild Airport, Ramrus and the limousine Mickey had requested were there to meet him. Ramrus was nervous. He was relying on an old photo to spot the notorious gangster. To complicate things further, Ramrus had been informed that Cohen would be traveling "incognito." What that meant Ramrus could hardly guess. Moreover, Ramrus had been warned that if and when he did identify Cohen, he was under no circ.u.mstances to greet the former gangster as "Mr. Cohen" or-heaven forbid-"Mickey." Ramrus was eager not to make that mistake. On the drive from Manhattan out to Idlewild, Ramrus repeated Mickey"s cover name over and over: "Mr. Dunn, Mr. Dunn." Worriedly, Ramrus awaited the arrival of the Los Angeles flight. Anxiously, he scanned the arriving pa.s.sengers for the disguised gangster. Finally, a short little man dressed "in a garment district kind of way"-pudgy, broken nose, balding, "a tough little face"-walked off the jetway. It was Mickey Cohen. He was accompanied also by a far tougher looking traveling companion, whom Cohen identified only as "Itchy." Nervously, Ramrus approached the traveling duo.
"Um, Mr. Dunn?" he said. "Hi. Mr. Dunn?"
Cohen gave him a look that made it clear he took Ramrus for some kind of dunderhead.
"I"m Mickey Cohen, kid," he replied, in a distinctly audible tone. With that the three of them were off to the Ess.e.x House on Central Park South. Ramrus had booked a one-room suite there for Mickey"s use. But when Cohen arrived, he took one look at the (smallish) bathroom and declared, "This ain"t gonna do." Panicky lest his odd guest depart, Ramrus rushed down to the lobby and secured a larger suite for Cohen, which met with his grumbling approval.
One task remained-conducting the preinterview. "Listen," Ramrus said, pleadingly, as Cohen and his henchman ushered him out of their room. "I need to talk to you before the interview."
"Come up later tonight, and we"ll talk," Mickey replied amiably.
Ramrus returned several hours later-to a wild party. The suite was jammed with friends of Cohen, male and female, some of whom Ramrus recognized as fixtures of the New York and New Jersey underworlds. Mickey himself seemed to have secured the attention of "a young blonde girl," though, truth be told, he seemed more interested in the pineapple cheesecake from Lindy"s, the famous s...o...b..z deli on Broadway. Ramrus could see his point. The blonde looked tasty, but the cheesecake was scrumptious. Cohen waved Ramrus over. They could do the preinterview then and there, Cohen told him. Ramrus had never attempted to interview a guest in a room full of broads, wiseguys, smoke, and cheesecake, but it was clear that there was no point arguing with Cohen. So he did his best-and ate as much of the cheesecake as he could. The next day he turned over the material he had gathered to Mike Wallace. The Cohen interview was in Wallace"s hands.
The next evening, on Sunday, May 19, Cohen presented himself at the ABC studios. The half-hour interview was broadcast live, with no delay. That left Wallace with no margin for error.
The interview started slowly. Wallace pressed Cohen about his "friendliness" with Billy Graham. Mickey was reticent-and somewhat incoherent. ("I just hope and feel the feeling is likewise between Billy and I.") Things picked up when Wallace turned to Cohen"s criminal background. When Cohen piously claimed that he"d never been involved in drugs or prost.i.tution, Wallace pressed him about the criminal activities he clearly had been involved with: Wallace: Yet, you"ve made book, you have bootlegged. Most important of all, you"ve broken one of the commandments-you"ve killed, Mickey. How can you be proud of not dealing in prost.i.tution and narcotics when you"ve killed at least one man, or how many more? How many more, Mickey? Yet, you"ve made book, you have bootlegged. Most important of all, you"ve broken one of the commandments-you"ve killed, Mickey. How can you be proud of not dealing in prost.i.tution and narcotics when you"ve killed at least one man, or how many more? How many more, Mickey?Cohen: I have killed no men that in the first place didn"t deserve killing. I have killed no men that in the first place didn"t deserve killing.Wallace: By whose standards? By whose standards?Cohen: By the standards of our way of life. By the standards of our way of life.
Wallace was pleased with how the interview was going. But when he urged Cohen to name the politicians whom Cohen had paid off, Mickey once again balked.
"That is not my way of life, Mike," Cohen replied firmly.
Then Wallace asked him about the LAPD. It was as if Wallace had touched Cohen with a hot iron. Suddenly, Mickey erupted. Police hara.s.sment was making it impossible for him to run his floral business, and Mickey made it clear whom he blamed.
"I have a police chief in Los Angeles who happens to be a s.a.d.i.s.tic degenerate," he said provocatively, before wandering to other topics. Wallace picked up on the statement and returned to the subject of the "apparently respectable" Chief Parker a few minutes later.
"Now, Mick," began Wallace, "without naming names, how far up in the bra.s.s do you have to bribe the cops to carry on a big-time bookmaking operation?"
"I"m going to give him much to bring a libel suit against me," replied the fuming florist. He then named Chief Parker. "He"s nothing but a thief that has been-a reformed thief.
"This man here is as dishonest politically as the worst thief that accepts money for payoffs," Cohen continued. "He is a known alcoholic. He"s been disgusting. He"s a known degenerate. In other words, he"s a s.a.d.i.s.tic degenerate of the worst type.... He has a man underneath him that is on an equal basis with him."
Wallace interrupted to ask the name of this underling. After being asked several times, Mickey finally answered the question. "His name," snarled Cohen, "is Captain James Hamilton, and he"s probably a lower degenerate than Parker." Cohen described the intelligence division as the head of "what I call the stupidity squad."
Caught up in the excitement of the moment, Wallace pressed Mickey to expand upon his charges against "the apparently respectable Chief William Parker": "Well, Mickey, you"re a reformed thief just as he"s a reformed thief. Isn"t it the pot calling the kettle black?"
Cohen scowled at this description before the conversation moved on to other subjects.
AFTER THE INTERVIEW was concluded, everyone agreed it had been an astonishing performance. Cohen had been raw, exciting, and revelatory. He had admitted on the air to killing people, to grossing anywhere from $200,000 to $650,000 a day through illegal bookmaking and gambling operations, to securing protection from someone "higher than the mayor of chief of police." Ramrus and the other people on set were excited about having pulled off such a dramatic interview. The feeling of euphoria didn"t last long.