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Mickey Cohen – Los Angeles Mobster boss & Hollywood Underworld champion

February 4, 2016 by admin in

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.

Vito Cascioferro – The Legendary Mobster

January 20, 2016 by admin in

Vito Cascioferro – The Legendary Mobster

He is regarded to be a prominent boss, belonging to the Sicilian Mafia. He was also called Don Vito. There are many who claim him to be a legend and ‘Boss of Bosses’. It is in 1862, January 22 that he was born to a poor family and was raised in Bisacquino, a rural town. However, Palermo is his actual birthplace. Both his parents were illiterate and his father was working in Bisacquino as armed guard. Vito had started his career as revenue collector but he started to show interest in criminal activities like kidnapping, menacing, etc.

Rise to position as a Mafia

Vito got recruited by Bernardino Verro into the Sicilian League and soon with his smart and daring acts, he went on to become its President. A kidnapping case in 1901 had made him to sail towards America, to escape being caught by the police, where he worked as fruits importer in New York for about two years.

In the USA, he comes across the Morello Mafia family that he joined, but with the threat of being arrested in 1904, he went back to Sicily. Don Vito was described to be very intelligent by Luigi Barzini, a journalist and possessed great qualities. He was loved by everyone and wore the best clothes, was quite helpful and generous in nature.

His activities in Italy

Casciferro was described as a terrible criminal by Joe Pestrosino, who was an american cop, but was killed by the former. Due to lack of evidence, Vito’s case was sent to trial. Although in his lifetime, he got arrested numerous times, but never got convicted. Some writers are of the opinion that it was Vito who had murdered Joe.  According to the then police commissioner, the murder probably was orchestrated by others under the direction of Casciferro.

Mussolini, the Fascist leader in 1926 had ordered the destruction of the Mafia in Sicily and for this, he had given the responsibility to Prefect Cesare Mori. Cascioferro along with 150 members were arrested in the process. Vito got life term in 1930, where he died due to natural cause. But some writers feel that his death may be because of severe dehydration in 1943. But historians do consider that Vito Casciferro was indeed a great Mafia leader in Mafia history, who although had a short stint in the United States, was intelligent and capable enough to steer his band to safety.