L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City

Ethel was a prankster: Thomas, Robert Kennedy: His Life, 117.

To Mickey Cohen, the: More specifically, prosecutors charged Cohen with evading roughly $30,000 in taxes between 1956 and 1958 and also with avoiding another $347,000 in taxes (plus interest and penalties) between 1945 and 1950, in addition to several other infringements of the law. See Korman, “Convict Cohen a Second Time Tax Offender: Guilty of Beating U.S. out of $400,000,” Chicago Tribune, July 1, 1961, 3. Cohen’s previous tax conviction had been for avoiding $130,000 in taxes between 1946 and 1948. The decision to charge Cohen with concealing even more income in the immediate postwar years reflected new discoveries about Cohen’s gambling income from that era.

“There’s no question about…”: Cohen, In My Own Words, 195-96.

The first investor appeared: “Cohen’s Story Contract Presented at His Trial,” Los Angeles Times, May 19, 1961, 30; “$9,000 Advance for Cohen, Screenplay Told,” Los Angeles Times, May 20, 1961, 11; Korman, “2 FILM COMICS ADD SPICE TO COHEN’S TRIAL: Jerry Lewis, Skelton on Witness Stand,” Chicago Daily Tribune, May 25, 1961, A7; “Ben Hecht Sees Cohen as Top Book Material,” Los Angeles Times, May 18, 1961, B2.

The next witness after: “Candy Barr Tells About Being Cohen’s ‘Sweetie:’ Jailed Stripper Testifies How Ex-Hoodlum Helped Her Flee U.S. to Mexico Hide-way,” Los Angeles Times, June 3, 1961, 12.

The answer was yes: Caen, “Another World: Search for the Prize Topper,” Los Angeles Times, June 15, 1960, B5; “US. Rests Cohen Income Tax Case,” Los Angeles Times, June 17, 1961, 9.

“I feel it’s now …”: “Cohen Defense Claims He Was Losing Money,” Los Angeles Times, June 24, 1961, 11.

Mickey responded by instructing: Cohen, In My Own Words, 205.

Reporters noted that he: “Mickey Cohen Jaunty Again—in Volkswagen,” Los Angeles Times, October 20, 1961, 26.

Then, two weeks later: “Mickey Cohen, 4 Others Indicted in Murder Plot, All Accused in Dec. 2, 1959 Slaying of Jack Whalen in Sherman Oaks Cafe,” Los Angeles Times, November 1, 1961, 2.

Chapter Twenty-five: The Muslim Cult

“‘Civil disobedience’… simply means …”: Manion, “Anarchy Imminent,” May 30, 1965.

Police lieutenant Tom Bradley: Indeed, Bradley’s promotion and appointment to Wilshire Division was widely seen as a promotion in the black community. Lomax, “Bradley Makes ‘Loot,’ Just in Time for the Vote on the Police Pay Raise,” Los Angeles Tribune, October 31, 1958.

Poulson, meanwhile, struggled with: Los Angeles has nonpartisan primaries. Any candidate who wins more than 50 percent of the vote in the primary automatically wins election to the office in question. If no candidate wins an outright majority, then the two top vote-getters meet for a rematch in the general election. The top vote-getter in that election then claims the contested office.

In his public appearances: See “All Elections Promises Kept, Yorty Asserts. But Black Leaders Flat Contradict His Claim That He Never Promised to Fire Chief Parker,” Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, July 9, 1962.

In fact, Yorty did: Ainsworth, Maverick Mayor, 129, 132-33.

The next day, newspapers: Los Angeles Times, June 9, 1961. See “Two Cited Under Lynch Law After Park Riot,” Los Angeles Times, June 2, 1961, for an account of the case. See also “This Is not Alabama,” Los Angeles Times editorial, June 1, 1960.

“I have confidence in…”: Gottlieb and Wolt, Thinking Big, 364-65; “Yorty, Parker Clash: Chief Denies Charge of Ballot ‘Gestapo,’” Los Angeles Examiner, June 9, 1961.

Rumor had it that: The rumor seems to have started with councilman Carl Rundberg, who after the mayor and police chief’s meeting, expressed a desire to know “what Parker had on Yorty.” Parker denied the allegation, but Rundberg rejoined that he personally had heard Parker play back recordings of negative remarks made by Yorty about the police. See Hollywood Citizen-News, February 18, 1963.

Daryl Gates would later categorically deny that Parker collected dirt on Yorty and other politicians. Perhaps this is true (although Yorty’s allegations seem similar to those leveled by Norris Poulson in 1952). What is striking, though, is that most observers at the time believed he did and feared the chief accordingly. Author interview with Daryl Gates, December 10, 2004.

The officers had heard: “Six Muslim Suspects Held in Row at Market,” Los Angeles Times, September 3, 1961; Branch, Pillar of Fire, 4-15.

Malcolm X’s efforts put: Branch, Pillar of Fire, 11. See Los Angeles Sentinel, May 17, 1962, for a slightly different account.