Mickey Cohen: The Life and Crimes of L.A.’s Notorious Mobster - Softcover

Tereba, Tere

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1770410635 ISBN 13: 9781770410633

Publisher: ECW Press, 2012

Synopsis

This biography of celebrity gangster Mickey Cohen digs past the sensational headlines to deliver a remarkable story of a man who captivated, corrupted, and terrorized Los Angeles for a generation. When Bugsy Siegel was murdered, his henchman Mickey Cohen took over the criminal activity in Los Angeles. Mickey Cohen attained such power and dominance from the late 1940s until 1976 that he was a regular above-the-fold newspaper name, accumulating a remarkable count of more than 1,000 front-pages in Los Angeles papers alone, and was featured in hundreds of articles in national and international periodicals. His story and the history of mid-century L.A. are inextricably intertwined. Mickey Cohen is a seductive, premium-octane blend of true crime and Hollywood that spins around a wildly eccentric mob boss. Author Tere Tereba delivers tales of high life, high drama, and highly placed politicians, among them RFK and Richard Nixon, as well as revelations about countless icons, including Shirley Temple, Lana Turner, Frank Sinatra, and the Reverend Billy Graham. Meticulously researched, this rich tapestry presents a complete look at the Los Angeles underworld.

About this title

About the Author:

Tere Tereba is an award-winning fashion designer and journalist. She has written for Interview and Italian Vogue and her account of Jim Morrison in Paris was selected by The Doors to appear in their book, The Doors: An Illustrated History. She lives in Los Angeles.

Review:

"With great style and boatloads of new information, Tere Tereba has crafted a page-turner about the greatest gangster LA has ever seen. . . . Few lived on the edge as long as Cohen, and fewer still earned a biography this entertaining." —Gus Russo, Pulitzer Prize-nominated author, The Outfit and Supermob

"The author does a superb job of tracing the ins and outs of Hollywood's gang world in the 1940s and '50s." —Wall Street Journal (May 16, 2012)

"This is a slashing good book — a razor-sharp bio of malevolent macher Mickey the C: the confounding Kingpin of L.A. crime. Buy this book now — it'll hang you out to dry!!" —James Ellroy, author, The Black Dahlia and L.A. Confidential

"[An] absorbing and gritty account of Cohen's rise from a tough as nails pugilist from East L.A. to a seemingly untouchable gangster." —www.HollywoodOutbreak.com

"[A] gripping yarn about the life and times of the 20th-century Los Angeles underworld." —www.InterviewMagazine.com

"Tere Tereba gives up the charismatic L.A. mobster Mickey Cohen." —Vanity Fair (May 2012)

"Tereba brings the bantamweight crook back to vivid life in this biography, along with the night clubs and race tracks he frequented and the no-holds-barred L.A. in which he flourished. This is a remarkable biography." —Booklist (April 2012)

"For readers who revel in old movies, stories about gangsters in double-breasted suits, and midcentury Los Angeles. Recommended." —Library Journal (May 2012)

About this edition

• Publisher: ECW Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1770410635
• ISBN 13: 9781770410633
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336