WITNESSES UNDER GUARD
U.S. Attorney Noonan responded to Mr. Diskant’s statement. “I appreciate his support, but I do not want partisan political comments to cloud the issue. That issue is boxing and the best way to sever its links to organized crime. The U.S.
Attorney’s Office does not seek to supersede the authority of the LAPD or to in any way ridicule or undermine it.”
Meanwhile, the boxing probe continues. Witnesses Ruiz and Johnson are in protective custody at a downtown hotel, guarded by Federal agents and officers on loan from the Los Angeles Police Department: Lieutenant David Klein and Sergeant George Stemmons, Jr.
“Hollywood Cavalcade” Feature, _Hush-Hush_ Magazine, 10/28/58: MISANTHROPIC MICKEY SLIPS, SLIDES,
AND NOSEDIVES SINCE PAROLE
Dig it, hepcats: Meyer Harris Cohen, the marvelous, benevolent, malevolent Mickster, has been out of Federal custody since September, ’57. He did 3 to 5
for income tax evasion; his ragtag band dispersed, and the former mob kingpin’s life since then has been one long series of skidmarks across the City of the Fallen Angels, the town he used to rule with bullets, bribes and bullspit bonhomie. Dig, children, and smell the burning rubber of those skids: off the record, on the Q.T and _very_ Hush-Hush.
April, ’58: former Cohen henchman Johnny Stompanato is shanked by Lana Turner’s daughter, a slinky 14 year old who should have been trying on prom gowns instead of skulking outside Mommy’s bedroom with a knife in her hand. Too bad, Mickster: Johnny was your chief strongarm circa ’49–’51, maybe _he_ could have helped curtail your post prison tailspin. And tsk, tsk: you _really shouldn’t_ have sold Lana’s sin-sational love letters to Johnny–we heard you raided the “Stomp Man’s” Benedict Canyon love shack while Johnny was still in the meat wagon on his way to Slab City.
More sin-tillating scoop on the Mickster:
Under the watchful eye of his parole officer, Mickey has since made attempts to straighten up and skid right. He bought an ice cream parlor that soon became a criminal haven and went bust when parents kept their children away in droves; he financed his own niteclub act, somnambulistic shtick at the Club Largo. Snore City: bum bits on Ike’s golf game, gags about Lana T. and Johnny S., the Side 2
Ellroy – White Jazz
emphasis on “Oscar,” the Stomp Man’s Academy Award size appendage.
And–Desperation City–the Mickster salaamed for Jesus during Billy Graham’s Crusade at the L.A. Coliseum!!!! The chutzpah of Mickey renouncing his Jewish heritage as a P.R. ploy!!!! For shame, Mickster, for shame!!!!! And now the scenario darkens.
Item:
Federal agents are soon to scold Mickey for infringing on the contracts of local prizefight palookas.
Item:
Four of Mickey’s goons–Carmine Ramandelli, Nathan Palevsky, Morris Jahelka and Antoine “The Fish” Guerif–have mysteriously disappeared, presumably snuffed by person or persons unknown, and (very strangely, hepcats) Mickey is keeping his (usually on overdrive) yap shut about it.
Rumors are climbing the underworld grapevine: two surviving Cohen gunmen (Chick Vecchio and his brother Salvatore “Touch” Vecchio, a failed actor rumored to be _trËs_ lavender) are planning nefarious activities outside of Mickey’s aegis.
Get in on the ground floor, Mickster–we’ve heard that your sole source of income is Southside vending and slot machines: cigarettes, rubbers, french ticklers and one-armed bandits stuffed into smoky back rooms in Darktown jazz clubs. For shame again, Mickey! Shvartze exploitation! Penny ante and beneath you, you the man who once ruled the L.A. rackets with a paralyzingly pugnacious panache!
Get the picture, kats and kittens? Mickey Cohen is Skidsville, U.S.A., and he needs moolah, gelt, the old cashola. Which explains our most riotous rumor revelation, raffishly revealed for the frenetically foremost first time!
Digsville:
Meyer Harris Cohen is now in the movie biz!!
Move over C. B. DeMille: the fabulous, benevolent, malevolent Mickster is now sub-rosa financing a horror cheapie currently shooting in Griffith Park! He’s saved his negro exploited nickels and is now partners with Variety International Pictures in the making of _Attack of the Atomic Vampire_. It’s sensational, it’s non-union, it’s a turkey of epic proportions!
Further Digsville:
Ever anxious to parsimoniously pinch pennies, Mickey has cast lavender loverboy Touch Vecchio in a key role–and the Touchster is hot, hot, hotsville with the star of the movie: limpwristed lothario Rock Rockwell. Off-camera homo hijinx!