In My Own Words Book

In the 1940s and 50s, Mickey Cohen was one of America's most flamboyant mobsters, grabbing headlines with notorious regularity. Compiled from his own tape-recorded reminiscences, this book tells the sobering story of a kid from Brooklyn who moved to California's Boyle Heights and learned to live by his own code of ethics...which police, politicians, and celebrities were only too willing to share. Cohen tells how he eagerly gave up a boxing career to work for the men he idolized...Al and Mattie Capone, Lucky Luciano, and Bugsy Siegel. But Mickey's irascible temper made him a 'lamster' not only from the police but from his own organization. He wound up in L.A., where, following Bugsy Siegel's murder, he muscled and nerved his way to the top of the racket world, becoming a fashion plate and making friends and enemies of the biggest names in Hollywood and Washington, DC. In or out of prison, Mickey Cohen always knew how to get things done...from having a bullet-proof armored Cadillac tested on a police artillery range to having a lavish wardrobe chest smuggled into his solitary prison cell. He survived the bombing of his home, a rollercoaster romance with stripper Candy Barr, arrest by the Texas Rangers, a gangland shoot-out, and two grueling prison terms. But even after his release, he still had the connections to locate Patty Hearst...and here, for the first time, explains why he refused to carry her 'case' any further. In "Micky Cohen: In My Own Words' Cohen bluntly reveals the mechanics of armed robbery, enforcement, payoffs, and settling private scores. And he pulls no punches about his acquaintance with renowned names of show business and politics...Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr, Jackie Gleason, Ben Hecht, Judy Garland, George Raft, Richard Nixon, JFK, RFK, Billy Graham, Betty Grable, and more...Read More