Part 4 (1/2)

9.

Getting Away with Murder (inc.).

”Men who have lived by the gun do not throw off the habit overnight.”-Florabel Muir.

DISTRICT ATTORNEY Buron Fitts was in a tricky position. Angelenos were in a reforming mood-and Buron Fitts was the ant.i.thesis of reform. In 1936, Fitts had won reelection after essentially purchasing 12,000 votes along Central Avenue. (The Hollywood Citizen-News Hollywood Citizen-News later reported that the underworld had spent $2 million-more than $30 million in today's dollars-to fund Fitts's campaign.) Knowing of his vulnerability on issues of corruption, when the Raymond bombing scandal broke, Fitts had acted with uncharacteristic vigor, ultimately convicting Joe Shaw on sixty-three counts of selling city jobs and promotions. Still, with a tough reelection campaign approaching, Fitts needed to do more. So in 1939, Fitts sent his chief investigator, Johnny Klein, to Manhattan. New York City district attorney Tom Dewey had made a name for himself by prosecuting gangsters. Klein's brief was to learn what he could about eastern gangsters who might be trying to infiltrate the City of Angels. later reported that the underworld had spent $2 million-more than $30 million in today's dollars-to fund Fitts's campaign.) Knowing of his vulnerability on issues of corruption, when the Raymond bombing scandal broke, Fitts had acted with uncharacteristic vigor, ultimately convicting Joe Shaw on sixty-three counts of selling city jobs and promotions. Still, with a tough reelection campaign approaching, Fitts needed to do more. So in 1939, Fitts sent his chief investigator, Johnny Klein, to Manhattan. New York City district attorney Tom Dewey had made a name for himself by prosecuting gangsters. Klein's brief was to learn what he could about eastern gangsters who might be trying to infiltrate the City of Angels.

A former Hollywood fur salesman, Klein was not known as the savviest of investigators. When he arrived at NYPD headquarters on Centre Street to examine the department's gangster files, one of the detectives decided to have a little fun with him. He pulled forth a mug shot of Benjamin Siegel-taken in Dade County, Florida, where Siegel had been arrested for speeding.

”Now there's an outstanding citizen named Bugsy Siegel,” the detective told the DA's investigator.

”Never heard of him,” Klein replied.

”You never heard of him? Why, Johnny, this guy is one of the worst killers in America, and he's living right in your backyard.” The detective continued, ”Dewey wants this guy and would give anything to lay hands on him.”

Bugsy Siegel was was one of the worst killers in America-the FBI would later credit him with carrying out or partic.i.p.ating in some thirty murders-but his whereabouts were hardly a secret. Every crime reporter in New York knew that Siegel was actually in New York at that very moment, staying at the Waldorf-Astoria (where he had lived for much of the 1920s, two floors below ”Lucky” Luciano). And it had been a long time since Bugsy Siegel was running around indiscriminately knocking people off. Nonetheless, Klein promptly telegrammed the news of this discovery back to Los Angeles. The DA's office immediately sent a raiding party to Siegel's Beverly Hills residence-along with a reporter from the one of the worst killers in America-the FBI would later credit him with carrying out or partic.i.p.ating in some thirty murders-but his whereabouts were hardly a secret. Every crime reporter in New York knew that Siegel was actually in New York at that very moment, staying at the Waldorf-Astoria (where he had lived for much of the 1920s, two floors below ”Lucky” Luciano). And it had been a long time since Bugsy Siegel was running around indiscriminately knocking people off. Nonetheless, Klein promptly telegrammed the news of this discovery back to Los Angeles. The DA's office immediately sent a raiding party to Siegel's Beverly Hills residence-along with a reporter from the Los Angeles Examiner Los Angeles Examiner, which was delighted to have another gangster to crusade against.

The next day the Examiner Examiner broke the story in typical Hearst style, portraying Siegel as a Dillinger-esque outlaw on the run. To those familiar with the Syndicate's operations, the broke the story in typical Hearst style, portraying Siegel as a Dillinger-esque outlaw on the run. To those familiar with the Syndicate's operations, the Examiner Examiner's portrayal was laughable. Still, Siegel's cover was blown. The timing couldn't have been worse. Siegel had just launched an effort to sign up L.A.'s bookies for a new racing wire, the Trans-American news service. His unmasking threatened to complicate these efforts, as well as the broader effort to organize Los Angeles along eastern lines. Furious, Siegel called the Los Angeles papers. If he was really an outlaw wanted by DA Dewey, then why was he visiting New York City, unmolested, at that very moment? Siegel's consort, the Countess di Fra.s.so, was also upset, so much so that she drove to San Simeon to make a personal appeal to William Randolph Hearst to stop the Examiner Examiner from further besmirching Siegel's name. These efforts floundered, for Siegel was, of course, a notorious gangster. With uncharacteristic delicacy of feeling, a despairing Siegel decided to resign from his beloved Hillcrest Country Club (though no one dared ask him to). He also decided to leave town for a bit. So he set off for Rome with the Countess di Fra.s.so, leaving Mickey Cohen as his surrogate. from further besmirching Siegel's name. These efforts floundered, for Siegel was, of course, a notorious gangster. With uncharacteristic delicacy of feeling, a despairing Siegel decided to resign from his beloved Hillcrest Country Club (though no one dared ask him to). He also decided to leave town for a bit. So he set off for Rome with the Countess di Fra.s.so, leaving Mickey Cohen as his surrogate.

MICKEY AND BUGSY had grown close. Cohen was still raw-not to mention sullen, closemouthed, temperamental, and dangerous-but Siegel thought he had potential. As a result, he began to try, in Mickey's words, ”to put some cla.s.s into me... trying to evolve me.” It wasn't easy. As a stickup-man, Mickey steered clear of flashy dressing (too memorable). White s.h.i.+rt, dark sungla.s.ses, that was it. Off the job, however, Mickey continued to pay his sartorial respects to Al Capone. Siegel tried to spiff him up. He introduced Mickey to cashmere. (Mickey thought it tickled.) He also introduced Mickey to a higher cla.s.s of people. For the first time in his life, Cohen ”got invited to different dinner parties and... met people with much elegance and manners.” It slowly dawned on Mickey that he'd been ”living like an animal.” He grew ashamed. Earnestly, he set out to improve himself. He hired a tutor to help him learn to speak grammatically. He purchased a leather-bound set of the world's great literature, which he proudly showed off to visitors (who noted the spines were never cracked).

When a source at the Treasury Department's Bureau of Internal Revenue (precursor agency to the Internal Revenue Service) informed Siegel that the government was starting to get interested in his young sidekick, Siegel told Mickey he had to start paying taxes. It was a tough sell. (”I had a firm belief that if the government, or anybody else, wanted any part of my money they should at least be on hand to help me steal it,” he said later, only half-jokingly.) The fact that Siegel prevailed on Cohen to get an accountant shows the authority that Bugsy exercised over his young protege. Although he would later (much later) boast of thumbing his nose at Bugsy during his early days in L.A., Mickey was actually quite awed by the suave older gangster.

”I found Benny a person with brilliant intelligence,” Cohen told the writer Ben Hecht in the mid-1950s. ”He commanded a 1,000 percent respect and got it. Also he was tough. He come out the hard way-been through it all-muscle work, heists, killings.” For someone who had dreamed of an a.s.sociation with ”the people,” working with Siegel must have seemed like a dream come true. They were not formally superior and subordinate-Mickey continued to run his own rackets and related to Bugsy more like a subcontractor on retainer than an employee-but when Siegel gave an order, Cohen jumped to. In return, Bugsy took care of Mickey, kicking him anywhere from $2,000 to $20,000 on a regular (albeit unpredictable) basis.

It was an arrangement Mickey liked. ”I didn't have no wish to be a ruler,” said Cohen in describing his mind-set upon first arriving in Los Angeles. ”In fact that was actually contrary to my nature at the time. I just wanted to be myself-Mickey.” But fate-in the form of Bugsy Siegel's itchy trigger finger-had other plans.

BUGSY AND THE COUNTESS di Fra.s.so's trip to Rome wasn't intended just to get away from the press. Both Siegel and the multimillionaire countess had a weakness for get-rich schemes. One year earlier, they had chartered a boat to look for buried treasure off the coast of Ecuador.* Now the gangster and the countess had another idea. Siegel had recently come across two chemists who claimed to have invented a new type of explosive-Atomite. Bugsy was convinced this new substance would replace dynamite and make him fabulously wealthy. With the countess's help, he hoped to sell it to the Italian military. The countess, always ready for adventure, talked to her husband, who arranged a demonstration. Now the gangster and the countess had another idea. Siegel had recently come across two chemists who claimed to have invented a new type of explosive-Atomite. Bugsy was convinced this new substance would replace dynamite and make him fabulously wealthy. With the countess's help, he hoped to sell it to the Italian military. The countess, always ready for adventure, talked to her husband, who arranged a demonstration.

For purposes of a trip to fascist Italy, di Fra.s.so decided to recast Bugsy as ”Bart”-Sir Bart, an English baronet. This was a good idea, for when the countess arrived at her husband's villa outside of Rome, she found that they had houseguests-Joseph Goebbels, n.a.z.i Germany's propaganda minister, and Hermann Goring, Luftwaffe commander and Hitler's second in command. Although Siegel evidently had no qualms about doing business with Mussolini's military, the n.a.z.i houseguests rubbed him the wrong way. One night he confronted the countess.

”Look, Dottie,” he said, ”I saw you talking to that fat b.a.s.t.a.r.d Goring. Why do you let him come into our building?”

The countess murmured something about social niceties, to which Siegel responded, ”I'm going to kill him, and that dirty Goebbels, too.... It's an easy setup the way they're walking around here.”

Only after the countess elaborated on the problems posed by the carabiniere-and the likely consequences for her husband-did Siegel give up on the idea. The Atomite demonstration fizzled, and ”Sir Bart” and Countess di Fra.s.so left for the French Riviera. There Siegel b.u.mped into his old friend the actor George Raft, who was pursuing the actress Norma Shearer. Despite Atomite's inexplicable failure, Siegel seemed to be in good spirits. Raft said he was looking forward to lingering on the Riviera. Then Siegel received a cablegram from New York and his mood suddenly changed. The next day Raft noticed he was gone. The Syndicate had a problem that required Bugsy's unique talents.

The problem was Harry ”Big Greenie” Greenberg. Greenberg was a former a.s.sociate of Siegel and Louis ”Lepke” Buchalter, the Brooklyn-based crime lord and labor racketeer. Greenberg had been arrested and deported to his native Poland, but ”Big Greenie” had no intention of going back to the old country. He jumped s.h.i.+p in France and made it back to Montreal. From there he sent a letter to a friend in New York, implying that if his old friends in Brooklyn didn't send him a big bundle of cash, he might go talk to the authorities. Instead of sending cash, Buchalter a.s.sociate Mendy Weiss sent two hitmen. ”Big Greenie” checked out of his hotel just hours before the two a.s.sa.s.sins checked in. For a time, the trail went cold. Then, in the fall of 1939, ”Big Greenie” was spotted in Hollywood. He had a new name (George Schachter), a new wife, and, given his lack of further communications, he'd evidently learned that blackmailing the Syndicate was a foolish thing to do. Nonetheless, at a meeting in New York, Siegel, Buchalter, New Jersey rackets boss Longy Zwillman, and Brooklyn crime overlord Albert Anastasia decided that ”Big Greenie” had to go. Zwillman once again sent two gunmen to California. But the gunmen didn't like the setup and returned to New York. Bugsy being Bugsy, he decided to take care of the problem himself.

The evening before Thanksgiving, on November 22, 1939, ”Big Greenie” got a call to run down to the corner drugstore to pick up a package. As he eased his old Ford convertible into a parking s.p.a.ce outside his modest house in Hollywood, triggerman Frank Carbo walked quickly out of the shadows toward the vehicle. Bugsy Siegel was waiting in a black Mercury sedan parked down the street. Al Tannenbaum was behind him, in a stolen ”crash car,” ready to stop any car that pursued them. Champ Segal was parked five blocks away, ready to drive Carbo north to San Francisco where he would take a flight back to New York. From inside the Green-berg house, Ida Greenberg heard a rapid series of shots-a backfiring car, she thought, then the sound of two cars speeding down the street. When ”Big Greenie” didn't reappear, she went outside to look for him. She found him in his blood-spattered car, dead from five bullets fired at point-blank range into his head.

So much for ”Big Greenie”-or so it seemed. Unfortunately for Bugsy, one of his old a.s.sociates back in Brooklyn was about to start talking to the DA.

Abe ”Kid Twist” Reles had a reputation as one of East Brooklyn's nastiest thugs. ”He had a round face, thick lips, a flat nose and small ears,” noted Brooklyn a.s.sistant DA Burton Turkus. ”His arms had not waited for the rest of him. They dangled to his knees, completing a generally gorilla-like figure.” He also had the nasty habit of killing victims with an ice pick, which made him one of Louis Buchalter's most feared executioners.

In January 1940, two months after Greenberg's a.s.sa.s.sination, ”Kid Twist” was picked up by the police on charges of robbery, a.s.sault, possession of narcotics, burglary, disorderly contact, and six charges related to various murders. For a guy like Reles, this should have been no big deal. After all, he'd been arrested forty-two times over the preceding sixteen years and had never done serious jail time. But as he languished in prison, Reles grew worried that several a.s.sociates who'd also been picked up were ratting him out. So Reles informed his wife that he was willing to talk. One day, Mrs. Reles walked into the Brooklyn DA's office and announced, ”My husband wants an interview with the Law.”

It took twelve days and twenty-five stenographer notebooks to complete and record his confession. Reles's testimony was stunning. In two weeks' time, he clarified forty-nine unsolved murders. That wasn't even the most startling part of his story. Previously, most police officials had a.s.sumed that Reles and his a.s.sociates were basically just a nasty crew of criminals who operated in and around Brownsville and East New York. Not so, Reles told the prosecutors. He revealed that Buchalter had actually a.s.sembled a group that functioned as a killing squad for a nationwide crime syndicate. For the first time, authorities realized, in Turkus's words, ”that there actually existed in America an organized underworld, and that it controlled lawlessness across the United States,” from Brooklyn to California. Turkus would later dub it ”Murder, Inc.” According to Reles, hundreds of people nationwide had been killed at its bequest. ”Big Greenie” was one of them.

There was more. Reles told prosecutors that Bugsy Siegel and Buchalter lieutenant Mendy Weiss had organized the hit on ”Big Greenie”-and that New York fight promoter Frank Carbo had pulled the trigger. Mickey Cohen pal Champ Segal had also been involved in the hit, Reles told authorities. He'd heard so firsthand. Reles testified that after the hit, he had overheard Siegel, Weiss, Louis Capone, and one of the original gunmen sent west to do the hit, Sholom Bernstein, discussing the rub-out. According to Reles, Bernstein had criticized the execution of the hit as something more befitting ”a Wild West cowboy” than a professional a.s.sa.s.sin. In response, Siegel had allegedly replied, ”I was there myself on that job. Do I look like a cowboy? I did that job myself.” After Bernstein left, Reles added, Siegel had proposed whacking him him-for fouling up (”d.o.g.g.i.ng”) the first hit.

Reles wasn't prosecutors' only important witness. They'd also flipped Al Tannenbaum, the other gunman Murder, Inc. had originally sent to Montreal to kill ”Big Greenie.” Tannenbaum was now prepared to testify that New Jersey mob boss Longy Zwillman had sent him to California with pistols for the Greenberg hit and that on the night of the murder he'd been the driver of the crash car.

A stronger case against Siegel would have been hard to imagine. With two witnesses who could link Siegel to the murder, prosecutors on both coasts went to work. Brooklyn a.s.sistant DA Burton Turkus flew to Los Angeles to brief Los Angeles district attorney Buron Fitts on the evidence. Fitts immediately a.s.sembled a raiding party. His plan was to nab Bugsy at his newly built dream mansion in Holmby Hills, one of L.A.'s most prestigious neighborhoods.

The raiding party-three cars strong, its members specially chosen for their marksmans.h.i.+p skills-set out for the Siegel mansion at 250 Delfern Street on the morning of August 17, 1940. They were greeted at the front door by Siegel's butler. The men informed him that they were there to see Benjamin Siegel. The butler nodded and asked them to wait. Several minutes later, he returned and opened the door of the mansion onto a lifestyle they could scarcely conceive of. At a time when the country was mired in the seemingly unending misery of the Depression, Bugsy Siegel was living like... a baronet. In the bar and lounge room, eighteen-foot carved divans flanked a deeply recessed fireplace, and a choice selection of whiskeys, cognacs, and cordials was available for guests. There were six ”vanity rooms” for the ladies. The dining room table was made of exotic inlaid woods and sat thirty-without extensions.

Bugsy's bed was still warm, but there was no sign of him. A member of the raiding party noticed a linen closet door ajar. Atop a pile of fresh sheets, investigators found footprints. The ceiling of the closet had a secret trapdoor that opened into the attic. There the raiding party found Bugsy Siegel in his pajamas, giggling. The gangster coolly informed his captors that he had fled because ”I thought it was someone else.” The police were not amused. They hauled Siegel downtown and placed him under arrest for murder. Reles and Tannenbaum were flown to Los Angeles, and on the basis of their testimony, Siegel was indicted. His request for bail was denied. Siegel would await trial at the L.A. County Jail.

MAYOR BOWRON and DA Fitts had run the remnants of the Combination out of town. Siegel's trial gave them a chance to sweep out the Syndicate as well. But almost immediately the prosecution began to experience problems-strange problems. Reporters discovered that Siegel had access to a telephone, slept in the county jail doctor's quarters, and employed another prisoner as his valet. Worst of all, he was leaving the jail virtually at will-more than eighteen times in a month and a half. The Examiner Examiner even spotted Siegel having lunch with the actress Wendy Barrie. In truth, he was not completely unattended. A deputy sheriff was on hand-as Siegel's driver. even spotted Siegel having lunch with the actress Wendy Barrie. In truth, he was not completely unattended. A deputy sheriff was on hand-as Siegel's driver.

Then dissension broke out between prosecutors in New York and Los Angeles. Brooklyn district attorney William O'Dwyer abruptly declined to allow Reles to return to Los Angeles to testify, saying that his prized witness, who was being guarded by a crew of eighteen policemen at an undisclosed location, had come down with a serious illness. Suspicions immediately arose that O'Dwyer, who was eyeing a run for mayor of New York, had struck a deal with the Syndicate. Prosecutors in L.A. had problems too. In 1940, Angelenos finally voted Buron Fitts out of office. His successor, former congressman John Dockweiler, was promptly embarra.s.sed when Siegel wrote to him to request that the prosecutor-elect refund him the $30,000 he had contributed to his campaign. The DA complied. (Mickey Cohen would later claim that Siegel had actually given Dock-weiler $100,000.) Siegel then used the funds to hire attorney Jerry Giesler to defend him.

Dockweiler was in a bind. Reles's testimony was essential to establis.h.i.+ng Siegel as the mastermind of the murder plot. Without it, the new DA saw no way to secure a conviction. But O'Dwyer wouldn't give up his prized witness. As a result, on December 11, 1940, Deputy DA Vernon Ferguson, who was prosecuting the case for Dockweiler's office, went to court and requested that the murder charges against Bugsy Siegel be dismissed. That afternoon Siegel walked out of jail, a free man.

Back in New York, though, Bugsy's release proved such an embarra.s.sment for O'Dwyer that he reversed course and agreed to let his witnesses go to Los Angeles. Dockweiler convened another jury; Al Tannenbaum flew west to testify (”under heavy guard”); and Siegel was reindicted and again arrested. The key witness, however, was Reles. Although Tannenbaum had taken part in the actual a.s.sa.s.sination itself, it was Reles who had the power to send Bugsy Siegel to the gas chamber. And it was Reles who, just before breakfast on the morning of November 12, 1941, was found dead on the roof of the building next door to the Half Moon Hotel on Coney Island, where the NYPD had him in protective custody.

What had happened to ”Kid Twist”? No one knows for certain. A torn rope made from a bedsheet suggested that Reles had plunged to his death four stories below while trying to escape, though why someone facing a death sentence from the Syndicate would want to escape into Brooklyn was unclear. Perhaps Reles had simply intended to play a joke on his police protectors by demonstrating how easily he could flee. But the physical evidence suggested another explanation. Reles's body was found more than twenty feet from the wall, suggesting that Reles had been hurled out the window-defenestrated-by a policeman on the take.

Without Reles, the case against Siegel was weak. On January 19, 1942, the trial against Siegel began. While Tannenbaum was there as a witness, California law required that charges against Siegel be corroborated by independent evidence that tied the defendant to the crime-evidence the prosecution no longer had. As a result, on February 5, 1942, Judge A. A. Scott granted Siegel attorney Jerry Giesler's request to dismiss the case on grounds that no case had been made against his client. Bugsy Siegel was once again a free man.

Siegel's lengthy entanglements with the court system meant that Mickey Cohen had to take on a large organizational task. He proved to be a surprisingly talented understudy. Mickey soon took over as Siegel's liaison to the county sheriff's office. He also took responsibility for cultivating the LAPD.

”For weeks before each Thanksgiving and Christmas, I would receive calls from captains in different precincts and would be told about and given the names and addresses of some persons in their respective districts that they considered in dire straits,” Mickey later related. ”I would then have individual baskets made up by a good friend of mine who was in the chain market business (and who would make them up for me at wholesale prices), each basket always including a large turkey, a ham and chicken, and most other necessities for a decent Thanksgiving and Christmas.” At his peak, he was sending out about three hundred baskets a year. Mickey was learning the craft of organized crime. It wasn't always turkeys and chicken.

One of Mickey's businesses was pinball and slot machines. His partner was Curly Robinson, former Clover Club owner Eddy Neales's onetime a.s.sociate. Mayor Bowron had more or less succeeded in expelling slots from the city of Los Angeles, but they were still a thriving business in the county. Cohen and Robinson were determined to profit from them. Their racket was an a.s.sociation that every distributor in the region had to join.

But Robinson was having problems. Some of its members had gotten a bit independent minded. Expecting trouble at the next meeting, Robinson asked Cohen to come to the a.s.sociation's next gathering. Mickey arrived early with three of his toughest henchmen, Hooky Rothman (Cohen's right-hand man, a killing savant), ”Little Jimmy” (”quiet-perfectionist-carried out instructions-tough with pistol-two time loser on heists and attempted murder”), and ”Big Jimmy” (”six-foot, three-inch-ex-heavyweight pug-easygoing horse bettor-done some time in Maine for a killing”). By the time the meeting got under way, there were roughly six hundred people present.

A speaker took the stage and began to talk about the need for independence. Mickey leapt onto the platform and ”busted his head open.”

”n.o.body come near me,” he later noted. The meeting hall was silent. With Mickey and his men glowering on stage, the slot machine a.s.sociation fell in line. There was no more talk of autonomy. Still, on the way out, Mickey and his goons pistol-whipped ”two or three other dissenters.”

Slots were just a minor sideline. Cohen's real focus was on gambling.

While Siegel concentrated on signing up bookies for the Trans-American news service (an enterprise that by 1945 would be paying Benny an estimated $25,000 a month), Cohen worked on opening his own gambling joints. Initially, he steered clear of the city proper, preferring more hospitable county terrain. His first major base of operations was in Bur bank, just a few blocks away from the Warner Bros. lot. Thanks to a pliable local police chief, Mickey was able to open a basic $2-a-bet bookie joint. It thrived. Back in Los Angeles, Mickey soon added a commission office that handled the kinds of big ”lay-off” bets-typically anything over $5,000-that were often spread out to bookies across the country.

Commission offices thrived on a peculiarity of horse betting. Because sanctioned tracks used a pari-mutuel betting system (whereby the odds were set by the bets placed), a big bet (say $50,000) could significantly reduce the payout. Commission offices offered high rollers an alternative, where they could place big bets without lowering their payoff. Because the people placing these bets often had inside information, they also presented bookies with information that could be highly lucrative.

With this information came new friends, including a number of local politicians. One judge was so horse-crazed that he insisted that Mickey come down to his chambers and run operations from there, so that he would have access to all of Mickey's tips.

”The poor bookmakers,” Mickey reflected, ”were really in a quandary, as they couldn't figure out where he was getting his information and were in no position to turn down his wagers for fear of invoking the wrath of the Judge.”

One afternoon as Mickey was waiting in the judge's office, he learned that the case of a small-time bookmaker was about to be heard. Mickey knew the man well; in fact, he'd robbed his establishment before. Mickey decided to peek into the courtroom and watch the proceedings. He could scarcely believe his ears when the judge handed down the sentence-thirty days in the county jail. Furious, Mickey caught the eye of the bailiff and told him that he needed to talk to the judge at once.

”The judge, thinking that I must have received word on a horse, couldn't get off the bench quick enough,” Mickey later recalled. Back in his chambers, Mickey exploded, speaking ”without my usual respect for him, although I did manage to keep myself somewhat under control.”