We at _Hush-Hush_ tap the inside pulse of the City of the Fallen Angels, and we _have_ investigated the Sidster’s death on our own. We have gotten nowhere, and we ask the Los Angeles Police Department the following questions:
Sid’s pad was ransacked. What happened to the ultra on the QT, ultra secret and ultra _Hush-Hush_ files the Sidster was supposed to be keeping–sinuendo even too scalding for us to publish?
Why didn’t D.A. Ellis Loew, elected largely on the strength of a _Hush-Hush_ article exposing the peccadillos of his incumbent opponent, give us a backscratch in return and use his legal juice to force the LAPD to track down the Sidster’s slayer?
Celebrity cop John “Jack” Vincennes, the famous dope scourge “Big V,” was a close friend of Sid’s and was responsible for many of his crusading exposés on the menace of narcotics. Why didn’t Jack (heavily connected to Ellis Loew–we won’t utter the word “bagman,” but feel free to _think_ it) investigate the killing on his own, out of paiship for his beloved buddy the Sidster?
Unanswerable questions for now–unless _you_, the reading public, take up the cry. Look for updates in future issues–and remember, dear reader, you heard it first here: off the record, on the QT and _very_ Hush-Hush.
_Hush-Hush_ magazine, December 1955 issue:
JUSTICE WATCH: BEWARE THE
LOEW/VINCENNES COMBINE!!!!
We’ve pussyfooted long enough, dear reader. In our May issue we marked the second anniversary of the fiendish murder of ace _Hush-Hush_ scribe Sid Hudgens. We lamented the fact that his killing remains unsolved, gently prodded the Los Angeles Police Department, D.A. Ellis Loew and his brother-in-law by marriage LAPD Sergeant Jack Vincennes to do something about it, asked a few pertinent questions and got no response. Seven months have passed without justice being done, so here’s some more questions:
Where _are_ Sid Hudgens’ _ultra_ sin-tillating and sinsational secret files–the files too hot for even scalding _Hush-Hush_ to handle?
Did D.A. Loew quash the Hudgens murder investigation because the crusading Sidster recently published an exposé on _Badge of Honor_ producer/director Max Pelts and his bent for teenage girls, and Pelts was a (five figure!!!) contributor to Loew’s 1953 D.A.’s campaign fund?
Has Loew ignored our pleas for justice because he’s too busy gearing up for his spring 1957 reelection campaign? Is Jack “We won’t use the word ‘Bagman”‘ Vincennes again shaking down Hollywoodites for contributions for brother-in-law Ellis and thus unable to investigate the Sidster’s death?
More on the Big-time Big V:
Is Vincennes, dope-buster supreme, on the sauce and feuding with his much younger rich-girl wife, who persuaded him to leave his beloved Narco Division, but now frets over his working the hazardous LAPD Surveillance Detail????
Fuel for thought, dear reader–and a gentle prodding for belated justice. The search for justice for Sid Hudgens continues. Remember, dear reader: you heard it first here, off the record, on the QT and _very_ Hush-Hush.
1956
“Crimewatch” feature, _Hush-Hush_ Magazine, October 1956 issue:
GANGLAND DROUGHT AS COHEN
PAROLE APPROACHES: WILL FEAST
FOLLOW FAMINE WITH THE
MICKSTER REDUX?
You, dear reader, probably haven’t noticed, since you’re a law-abiding citizen who relies on _Hush-Hush_ to keep you abreast of the dark and sin-sational side of life. This publication has been accused of being sin-ical, but we’re also sin-cere in our desire to inform you of the perils of crime, organized and otherwise, which is why this periodical periodically offers a “Crimewatch” feature. This month we offer a palpably percolating potpourri centering on malicious L.A. mob activity or the lack of it, our focus the currently incarcerated Meyer Harris Cohen, 43, also known as the misanthropic Mickster, the inimitable Mickey C.
The Mick has been reposing at McNeil Island Federal pen since November of 1951, and he should be paroled sometime next year, certainly by the end of 1957. You all know Mickey by reputation: he’s the dapper little gent who ruled the L.A. rackets circa ’45 to ’51, until Uncle Sammy popped him for income tax evasion. He’s a headline grabber, he’s a big mocher, face it: he’s a mensch. And he’s up at McNeil, freezing his toches in the admittedly plush cell, his pet bulldog Mickey Cohen, Jr., keeping his tootsies warm, his money man Davey Goldman, also convicted of tax beefs, warming a cell down the hail. L.A. gangland activity has been–enjoying? _enduring?_–a strange lull since Mickey packed his PJs for Puget Sound, and we at _Hush-Hush_, privy to many unnamable insider sources, have a theory as to what’s been shaking. Listen close, dear reader: this is off the record, on the QT and _very_ Hush-Hush.