Establishing An Image : Mickey Cohen
In response to the situation, the power of Cohen can be seen by the number of policemen that quickly retired, while others were suspended. A grand jury indicted Mickey and his goons on charges of conspiracy to commit assault with a deadly weapon and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Bond was set at a total of $300,000 and Mickey put up all of his tangible assets as collateral to provide bail for himself and his men. He followed this with a grand gesture that was pure Cohen. He lifted the attachment on the widow's house, returned it to her and presented her with a hefty cash gratuity. Los Angeles newspapers were once again singing his praises. Cohen loved and played the role, he knew the image of a Hollywood Robin Hood would go a long way in gaining and maintaining the support of the people in LA. The complexity of Cohen is illustrated by his decision that he, in his later years, hired someone to help him to comprehend literature, to help him to read better, to understand words better. He had this desire to know, he had a need to know, to know and to understand. He dressed the part of the Hollywood gangster, but came a cross as one of the alright stand-up guys found throughout the city of LA. An image that presented flash and at the same time that common touch that endeared him to the people of LA.
Harvey Kitel, who played the role of Mickey Cohen in the motion picture, "Bugsy", did a great deal of research on Cohen to ground his portrayal on a sense of reality. In an interview Kitel provided some insight into Cohen personality by providing the following information.
"Well, he was a very forceful figure, a very independent guy. The account in BUGSY is pretty much exactly what it was; he was an independent, who hooked up with Ben Siegel because he was asked to do so by . . . I forget, Lucky Luciano or one of those powerful bosses, but he was very much an independent person. He ran the show in L.A. He was a Jewish guy who had Mob guys working for him. And he was a married man and he stayed married for a long, long time, and he was a hardworking thug, you know - came from a poor family, no father, a mother who worked. He found
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