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The Two Faces of Mickey Cohen

© Ron Lombard

The Two Faces of Mickey Cohen

While the one face of Cohen suggested the Robin Hood image, he was still a gangster that required the threat of violence to maintain his power. The other face, which he attempted to hide from the public was not as attractive. He was not above taking advantage of others to maintain that power. Cohen was deeply involved in the Hollywood scene. Of course, being a gangster, Cohen's relationship to Hollywood was not a wholesome one. For instance, one of Cohen's specialties was blackmailing celebrities, such as obtaining compromising photographs of them to use as leverage. That aspect of gangster activities is well known. FBI director J. Edgar Hoover was a transvestite, and the Mafia had the goods on Hoover. Because of their blackmail, Hoover publicly denied the existence of organized crime, and the FBI rarely tried prosecuting them. Another connection to the JFK assassination was Robert Kennedy's prosecution of organized crime when he was Attorney General. He was breaking the "rules." If Mickey felt actions were required to maintain the status quo in the relationship between government and organized crime he was more than willing to take an active role in such activities.

Some examples of Cohen' s relationship with Hollywood center around his relationship with Lana Turner and Sean Connery. One of Cohen's successes in Hollywood revolved around Lana Turner. Johnny Stompanato was a good-looking, aspiring Italian gangster, the kind that filled Los Angeles in those days: gangster wannabees. The LA hookers said that the Italian Stallion Stompanato was the best bedroom performer in LA, and Cohen arranged for him to meet Turner. The romance flourished. Cohen paid for a deluxe motel suite for the lovers to stay at. The bed was wired for sound. Cohen got a recording of Stompanato and Turner going at it. Cohen had two thousand copies pressed of Turner's squeals of ecstasy. It became a hit at Hollywood parties. Some said that it was one of Turner's finest performances. It made Cohen a lot of money, as he sold the record for fifty dollars a copy. Turner's daughter eventually murdered Stompanato, creating one of Hollywood's bigger scandals. That recording became the "must have" item after Stompanato's death, and Cohen pressed thousands more records, making big money. This is not the face of Robin Hood that Cohen wanted people to see. In relation to the same case Cohen appeared to have an adverse relationship with Sean Connery. While Connery was n "Another Time, Another Place" with Lana Turner, her lover small-time hood Johnny Stompanato, stormed into the studio after hearing rumors that Lana was cheating on him with Sean. He waved a gun in Connery's face, warning him to stay clear of Turner. Connery floored the punk with a righthook! But "James Bond" didn't stick around after Lana's daughter Cheryl stabbed Stompanato to death -in a killing a jury found to be justifiable He was warned that gangster Mickey Cohen Stompanato's boss was out to get him. "Apparently Cohen didn't believe that Cheryl had killed him" Connery said later., Cohen thought the killing had been engineered in some other way. The prospect of facing the possible wrath of Cohen was not a situation that Connery felt would be in the best interest of his health. Robert Mitchum may have also been touched by the reach of Cohen. Research has been utilized to have found the submerged connection between the starlets, Mitchum's ex-money manager, a fraud named Paul Behrmann, and an elaborate shake-down machine run by the LA Vice Squad for a LA hood, Mickey Cohen.