Tag: boss

Mickey Cohen – Los Angeles Mobster boss & Hollywood Underworld champion

Mickey Cohen is a Jewish gangster, who had once run the Hollywood underworld. He was well known for his tabloid exploits and violent temper and among the West Coast’s premier gangsters. He had worked along with several high profile Mafia members like Al Capone and Benjamin ‘Busy’ Siegel.

His early life

Cohen was born in Brooklyn’s Jewish neighborhood on 4th September 1913. When he was just a year old, his father died and was raised by his orthodox Ukrainian Jew mother. For several years, they resided in Brownsville neighborhood and later moved on to the city of Los Angeles.

Cohen began his criminal activities starting with petty crime at an early age in the neighborhood of Boyle Heights. During Prohibition, his brothers had run drug store, and it is from them he learnt to prepare bootleg liquor. He robbed the Columbia Theatre box office at the age of 9, using a cudgel, to end up in reform school. By the age of 10, he had been to the reform school twice.

He was considered by his friends to be a tough guy, who preferred to spend much of the time inside the boxing ring taking part in illegal prizefights. At the age of 15, he moved to Cleveland to become a boxer and fought numerous times between 1930 – 1933 as featherweight, having mixed record. He bit the opponent’s ear in one such fight.

His life as a Mafia

It was in Cleveland that he began to make ties with the Mafia and got hired along with Lou Rothkopf, a Cleveland associate of Moe Dalitz, its gang leader. Later, he moved on to New York to work with mafia gangs like Owney Madden and Tommy Dioguardi.

He got hired by the Outfit gang that was run by Al Capone as he moved to Chicago during the Prohibition period. He became an enforcer for Outfit and also ran a gambling center, working along with Mattie, Capone’s brother.

In 1937, he was compelled to leave the city after a dispute took place with another gambler. Since not much was there to be done in Cleveland, he went to Los Angeles for working with Bugsy Siegel. Both had wrestled power of the West Coast, working for the East Coast bosses.

There were many things common between Cohen and Siegel, with both having violent mean streaks, and Jewish climbers, with Brooklyn background. After Bugsy’s death, Cohen became the operation head in Los Angeles for the mafia family and made a place for himself as Hollywood celebrity.

1920’s Chicago Outfit Boss – Giovanni Torrio

During the 1920’s, the Chicago version of the Mafia family was known as the Outfit that operated under the leadership of Giovanni Torrio also popularly called as ‘Papa Johnny’. This criminal family ran prostitution racked and illegal liquor empire. In American organized crime’s history, the Outfit’s feud with the American-Irish bootleggers has been stated to be the worst kind of violence witnessed during this period, which paved way for the leadership of Al Capone. Torrio, in his later life had assisted in creating the Commission, which is known to be still in place in the United States, governing the mob.

Early life

With regards to the birth place of Torrio, no one is sure, with some experts suggesting it to be on 20th January, 1882 and somewhere in South Italy. At the small age of 2, his father died, after which, he was taken to New York City by his mother.

He grew in the slum neighborhood on Manhattan’s Lower East Side that was populated by immigrants. After his mother’s second marriage to a grocery store owner, his stepfather had hired him to work as a porter. The store was considered to be Torrio’s crime introduction and served as illegal liquor front.

Life as a mafia

Giovanni’s joined a gang of boys called James Street Gang of whose leader, he became very soon. This gang was allied to Lower Manhattan’s notorious 4 Points Gang.

With the money saved, Torrio had a billiards hall opened up in Brooklyn for his boys to hang out and to plan crimes. Through this parlor several young criminals were raised, which included the famous Al Capone.

Paulo Vaccarelli or Paul Kelly, as he was known and boss of Five Points Gang, was impressed with the business success of Torrio and made him his lieutenant. From a street thug, Torrio converted into a well dressed businessman vested with legitimate interests, thereby earning the name ‘the Fox’.

His members were involved in several rackets, like opium trafficking and prostitution. But gambling, especially the numbers game was their big money earner. Also, he had few legitimate businesses which included Coney Island tavern called Harvard Inn and billiards hall. Later on, he joined his uncle and led the mafia enterprise called ‘The Chicago Outfit’.

On 16th April 1957, he suffered a major attack when at the barber’s place and died several hours later. Due to his becoming obscure, his death was not take notice of by the press.