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Quick Facts
- NAME: Mickey Cohen
- OCCUPATION: Boxer, Murderer, Organized Crime Boss
- BIRTH DATE: September 04, 1913
- DEATH DATE: July 29, 1976
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Brownsville, New York
- PLACE OF DEATH: Los Angeles, California
- AKA: Mickey Cohen
- Full Name: Meyer Harris Cohen
- AKA: Meyer Cohen
Best Known For
Mickey Cohen became the West Coast racket boss in 1947, after his mentor and predecessor, Bugsy Siegel, was assassinated.
Videos see all videos
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Mickey Cohen - Preview (2:17)
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The Gambinos - Mini Bio (2:08)
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Al Capone - Taking Him Out (4:57)
The Gambinos - Mini Bio
The Gambino crime family ruled new york city streets for decades. They were three of the most powerful mafia dons of the 20th centuries.
Al Capone - Taking Him Out
Al Capone was a famous outlaw and leader of the Mob in Chicago. It took Eliot Ness and the secret six of Chicago to take down Al Capone on tax evasion.
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Play NowMickey Cohen. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 01:18, May 18, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/mickey-cohen-329432.
Mickey Cohen. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/mickey-cohen-329432 [Accessed 18 May 2013].
"Mickey Cohen." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 18 2013, 01:18 http://www.biography.com/people/mickey-cohen-329432.
"Mickey Cohen," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/mickey-cohen-329432 [accessed May 18, 2013].
"Mickey Cohen," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/mickey-cohen-329432 (accessed May 18, 2013).
Mickey Cohen [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 18] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/mickey-cohen-329432.
Mickey Cohen, http://www.biography.com/people/mickey-cohen-329432 (last visited May 18, 2013).
Mickey Cohen. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/mickey-cohen-329432. Accessed May 18, 2013.
When Stompanato ultimately turned up dead in Turner's bedroom, yet another firestorm involving Mickey Cohen erupted. Authorities concluded that Turner's teenage daughter killed Stompanato in defense of her mother, and the case was closed. But Cohen vocally claimed that this was not the truth and smeared Turner by releasing her love letters to Stompanato to the press.
With his great enemy U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy deeply involved in the case,
Cohen was tried and convicted a second time for tax evasion, in 1961. Sentenced to 15 years, he outdid the previous record for white-collar crime, held by his idol and role model, Al Capone. Like Scarface he served his first months in Alcatraz, before he became the first and only prisoner ever bailed out of the infamous prison—his bond signed by a sitting U.S. Supreme Court Justice. After appeals to the Supreme Court failed, he was transferred to a federal prison in Atlanta, Georgia, and Alcatraz was closed. In 1963, in the Atlanta facility, Mickey Cohen suffered a vicious attack that left him partially paralyzed.
Final Years
Cohen was released from prison in 1972, and he traveled the country, visiting friends such as New Orleans mob boss Carlos Marcello, meeting members of the press and appearing frequently on television. In 1974, he made headlines, again, when he became tangentially involved in the infamous kidnapping of newspaper heiress, Patty Hearst. Mickey Cohen died in his sleep from complications of stomach cancer on July 29, 1976, in Los Angeles. He was 62.
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