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Want to Stop Violence? Start in Hollywood

By on 1.21.13 @ 6:08AM

The disgraceful movie treatment of Paul Lieberman’s Gangster Squad.

Paul Lieberman is a feature writer who spent 24 years covering a variety of beats at the Los Angeles Times. He has won a fistful of awards plus a Nieman Fellowship and was on two reporting teams that were awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

Back in 1992 the paper had just run a story about how the Intelligence unit of the Los Angeles Police Department was digging up dirt on various celebrities and politicians around town while monitoring organized crime. The piece said the practice started back in the 1950s. A few days later, Lieberman received a call from a dissenting reader. “A quavering old man’s voice on the other end said to me, ‘You’ve got it wrong. That goes back to right after World War II and the Gangster Squad.’ ‘How do you know?’ I asked him. ‘Because I was there.’”

So began a 15-year reportorial odyssey in which Lieberman reconstructed the saga of the LAPD’s “Gangster Squad,” which started as an eight-man unit in 1946 and eventually expanded to more than 50 members before being folded into the tamer Intelligence Division after the U.S. Supreme Court placed restrictions on searches and seizures. The Squad’s mission was to investigate, harass, and otherwise make life difficult for the mobsters who were starting to filter into Los Angeles from other parts of the country. Chief among them was Mickey Cohen, a 5-foot-5-inch former flyweight boxer who wore a Star of David on his trunks and was threatening to bring Chicago-style crime to the West Coast’s “Garden of Eden.”

Gangster Squad, which just opened with Sean Penn as Mickey, is supposedly based on Lieberman’s fifteen-year labor. “Inspired by a True Story” is what it says in the opening titles, but at the end of the final crawl there’s another notice saying, “The characters depicted in this film are fictional and any resemblance to any real persons… etc.” The latter comes much closer to the truth.

The fellow on the other end of the line that day was John O’Mara, a World War II code-breaker who had reclaimed his job with the LAPD in 1946. One day O’Mara and 18 other officers were called into a room and told they were candidates for an elite squad that would pursue and harass gangsters, working pretty much on their own, in secret and without badges. After some sorting out, eight took the assignment. “They were given two old unmarked police cars with rusted-out floorboards,” says Lieberman, whose seven-part series finally ran in 2008, followed by a book, Gangster Squad, just published by St. Martin’s Press. “Whenever they drove through a puddle, they had to hold their feet up to avoid getting splashed.”

O’Mara was one of two quarterbacks. The other was Willie Burns, a gunnery officer from World War I who had participated in the “Bum Blockade,” when Los Angeles tried to prevent hoboes from migrating to California during the Depression. Jerry Thomas had a photographic memory and could come out of a bar after a two-hour undercover operation and recite the entire conversation. Con Keeler was an electronics genius who could manufacture bugs out of hearing-aid parts and telephone diaphragms and relay the signal to a garage listening post. “For ten years he refused to talk to me,” says Lieberman. “Then one day he opened up and never stopped after that.”

Finally, there was Jumbo Kennard who, the son of a Texas constable, had worked as a roughneck in the Oklahoma oil fields. At six-foot-four, he could pick people up by placing his giant hands over their heads. “It was basically a few smart guys plus a lot of muscle,” says Lieberman. Later came Sgt. Jerry Wooters, a roguish vice cop and ladies’ man, portrayed in the movie by Ryan Gosling. Seeing the war coming, Wooters had signed up to shoot instructional films for a reserve unit at a movie studio, confident he would spend the war on a Hollywood lot. But he made the mistake of arresting a judge’s nephew and, in the manner of that era, was immediately reassigned to taking reconnaissance photos out the door of a bomber over the Pacific. Twice he was shot down but rescued by American ships before meeting the Japanese and certain death.

If they were a colorful crew, so was their main adversary, Cohen. A poor boy from Brooklyn, he had started fighting at age 6 to defend his newsboy’s turf. At 19 he made his way across the country, fighting professionally, until finally meeting the Capone crowd in Chicago. They signed him on as a foot soldier but his big break came when Meyer Lansky sent him to L.A. to help Bugsy Siegel set up gambling operations. But Lansky soon became suspicious that Siegel was squandering his money on the lavish Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas and had Siegel rubbed out. One story has it that Cohen was so enraged he charged into the Roosevelt Hotel where he thought the assassins were hiding and fired a few shots into the ceiling, demanding their appearance. Nobody responded and when the cops arrived a few minutes later he fled. That was his most flagrant act of public violence.

Not that Cohen shrunk from confrontation. When fellow bookie Maxie Shaman stormed into the paint store that fronted for a horse betting operation, Cohen put a bullet in him. He told the cops it was self-defense and was never prosecuted. In Los Angeles and other cities of that era, the rule was, “It’s alright as long as they only kill each other.” The gangsters could shoot it out among themselves but if the bodies started turning up on the street, the law cracked down.

Through the late 1940s and 1950s, the Gangster Squad harassed and intimidated various hoods, trying to keep things at a minimum. One favorite tactic was to take a newcomer from Chicago or Rhode Island into the hills overlooking LA, put him on his knees and stick a gun in his ear. “Do you feel a sneeze coming on?” O’Mara would ask his charge. “A… real… loud… sneeze.” Then he would tell him to get out of town. “It was the most colorful piece of genuine dialogue that survived into the final script,” says Lieberman. But Josh Brolin, playing O’Mara, didn’t like the line and so it was dropped. So much for being inspired by true stories.

By the mid-1950s, Cohen was aspiring to a respectable notoriety. He allowed Life magazine to do a feature on his home and pet dogs and Mike Wallace had Cohen as one of the first guests on his new TV show. But the squad had laid a trap. O’Mara had gotten one of Mickey’s guards to sneak seven guns out of the house on the pretense that they needed cleaning and test firing. Then he etched initials underneath the butt plates so they could be tied to Mickey. Almost ten years later, two of those guns turned up when Jack “Enforcer” Whalen was gunned down in a public restaurant. Everyone at the table exonerated Mickey and one of his henchman confessed to the shooting, but the etched guns were found nearby and Cohen was tried for conspiracy. Sitting in a barber’s chair awaiting the sequestered jury’s verdict, he famously remarked, “What a great country. They lock up the jury and let me go free.” The jury hung.

Over the years, the Squad became so familiar with the mobsters that they liked to play pranks on them. “One of their favorites was to find an Illinois license plate, stick it on an old unmarked car and have a pair of Squad members drive into the neighborhood of Cohen’s storefront,” says Lieberman. “They would park a block away with their hats pulled down over their faces and wait for Cohen’s foot soldiers to start checking them out. Then they would pull out and roar past the store, waving their Tommy guns. It was just to mess with Cohen’s head.”

The spying and harassing continued until the 1950s, when one of Wooters’ warrantless buggings was challenged in the California Supreme Court. Anticipating the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1961 Mapp vs. Ohio, the California judges threw out the evidence as illegally tainted. It was the beginning of the end. “They knew their days were over,” says Lieberman. “O’Mara said that dogging criminals wasn’t fun anymore.”

An interesting piece of American noir from another era, right? Now let’s see what happens in the movie,

On the big screen, the tight-knit group that roughed up suspects and conducted illegal searches has been transformed into another gang that rampages across Los Angeles busting into gambling parlors with Tommy guns and shooting indiscriminately at patrons. In one scene they burst from behind the stage at a nightclub where a Carmen Miranda look-alike is singing a Latin number. Another scene had the bad guys luring the cops into Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, where they fired at them through the movie screen. That scene got yanked after James Eagan Holmes did almost the same thing in Aurora six weeks before the film’s first scheduled opening in September. The premier was postponed until last week.

Page: 1 2  

About the Author

William Tucker is news editor for RealClearEnergy.org.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (26) |

Ron M.| 1.21.13 @ 8:19AM

The solution is simple, don't go to movies and turn off your TV( tossed out mine). Hollywood will fade away and the loud mouthed lackwits on the screen will stop being in the public eye.

Brother John| 1.21.13 @ 8:49AM

This is but more scapegoating. Individuals with at least a moderately satisfying or active life don't have any interest in taking out people en masse, especially as a result of watching a film. Even those persons with the right screws loose just looking for inspiration would eventually find it elsewhere. Blaming films and video games and the like is to solve the wrong problem.

Again, I say: if you want to see school shootings stop, get rid of public schools. Most of these perpetrators were or had been stuck in public schools with no apparent hope of escape and were miserable and bitter as a result. Return freedom of association to parents and kids and watch academic achievement increase and violence decrease almost overnight.

TLP| 1.21.13 @ 9:56AM

I agree with Ron, and I almost agree with his Brother - John.

Don't go to the Movies. I don't go to the Movies, unless it's a Cartoon Movie (2 kids) Science Fiction, Comic Book Movies, or Fantasy: ala Lord of the Rings/Avitar.

My Boycott List of Leftist Pukes, that I will NEVER help out with my hard earned money, is as long as Michelle's @ss is wide.

That means it's Long.

As far as The Public Schools are concerned?

The Schools are fine. It's The Teachers that Suck.

Get rid of the Dept. of Education Indoctrination, and Bust the Union.

I graduated High School in 1975, from Public School.

And, I'm the Smertest Guy here. The Smartest Giy here. The Smarnest Guy here.

You know what I mean!

Occam's Tool| 1.22.13 @ 3:12AM

My American History teacher in high school was a NATO tank commander in the 1950s with a Master's in US History. An excellent teacher, and I enjoyed the class greatly.

Now, it's all about "write an essay about why Obama's election was so great for you." Blechh.

Asshole inaugurated today. 3 years 364 days 21 hours and some minutes left.

Brother John| 1.22.13 @ 9:00AM

I agree that many teachers suck - I've known guys who became social studies teachers because they wanted to coach wrestling - but anything short of the abolition of the compulsory public education system is going to be a partial solution.

Once the entire system goes private, you may send your kid anywhere, not just where you're told because you happen to live a certain place. You can move your kid at will. You can withdraw the kid if you like. You can do something about any problem that comes up, if it comes to that.

But no government is interested in having an actually educated populace - just one that will keep the wheels turning long enough.

WRTolkas| 1.21.13 @ 10:55AM

I must be doing the right thing. I saw the video and I couldn't recognize 95% of those people. All I recognized was the many faces of hypocrisy.

Albert Constantine Jr.| 1.21.13 @ 11:04AM

I saw the video (and more importantly, the enhanced video), and recognized many of the scenes and actors. I did see a message similar to what you detected (i.e. Listen to us now, when we say this; not when we take your money to show you that).

Pecos Pete| 1.21.13 @ 10:57AM

It is all intertwined ... NEA, violent movies, abortion, single parents (is bastard still a PC approved word?), loss of religion, loss of patriotism, love of free stuff, etc.

Hardcard| 1.21.13 @ 11:20AM

That's sean penn weilding that chicago chopper, that's how these leftist scum get part$$ from the moguls, they shit on this country and preach the communist manefesto to the 47%, talentless trash get the parts and the cash ie morgan freeman,alex baldwin,leonardo dicaprio, jaime foxx, tom hanks,ed asner, bill maher, matt damon to name a few. When they run out of money or favor with the moguls and they think they are losing the limelight they start throwing the bullshit and they get rewarded, a part, a commercial, another world tour. We are the marks to keep the cash flowing to our enemies.

7-08| 1.21.13 @ 2:35PM

Absurd: Most of the violence and resultant incarceration which “fine tunes” the perpetrators is due to drugs and the minority (read black) unable to acquire meaningful employment. The lack of a nuclear family, the lure of “easy money,” and no available role models facilitate this.

cicero| 1.21.13 @ 2:36PM

The blood, gore, exploding cars, explicit sex are all just a poor substitute for talent, imagination, and good writing. It is all meant to appeal to the adolescent mind, and those who don't know any better.

Purp| 1.21.13 @ 4:00PM

How Foolish. Hollywood isn't to blame, and neither are video games.
We don't have a Bomb epidemic in this country - and yet I'd wager there are more explosions in movies and games than gun violence anyday.

Why is that? Guns are easy to get, easy to use. Any idiot can wield a gun. Period.
Responsible Gun owners aren't the problem, but accepting limitations on automatic weapons and size of gun clips is akin to accepting speed limits and traffic laws on driving of a car and is necessary for our country - it's for public safety reasons.

Just like we have Free Speech - but you cannot yell "FIRE" in a crowded theater for fun - it's illegal, because it's for public safety reasons.

Any other argument is supporting the mfg'ers of guns - that is all.

Albert Constantine Jr.| 1.21.13 @ 5:49PM

Once again, Purp, you get it wrong. One can shout “Fire” in a crowded theater for fun, or any other motivation, as long as there is a fire. It is falsely shouting fire in its absence which is generally prohibited by most state legislatures.

Like almost every other thing you post, what you fail to include is the critical element.

CJW| 1.21.13 @ 6:08PM

There is a simple explanation for his comments, Albert. He is stupid, the Village Idiot.


"We don't have a Bomb epidemic in this country - and yet I'd wager there are more explosions in movies and games than gun violence anyday."


Since purpie has much time, he can count the number of bombs that explode in movies and the number of gunshots. Purpie's logic is that if the number of exploding bombs exceed the number of gunshots then the violent movies and video games do not cause or contribute to violence.

purpie, what is an automatic weapon? What is gun violence?

Pecos Pete| 1.21.13 @ 6:23PM

CJW: Violet thinks any gun is an automatic. But, he won't be able to explain why one gun is automatic and another isn't.

markenoff| 1.21.13 @ 7:54PM

How nice of Purp to spout 3 pieces of liberal ignorance in one post for me to rebut. Coincidentally, my liberal brother and his wife have both spouted 2 of them in the last couple of days so it makes it easy to rebut, just cut and paste from my replies to their emails. First the "guns are easy to get" approach. Prior to the 1968 Gun Control Act guns were EASIER to get then today. No background check and no FFL requirement for dealers. You could walk in and buy a gun at a hardware store. You could mail order a rifle even if you had recieved a dishonarable discharge from the military and had tried to defect to the Soviet Union (see Lee Harvey Oswald).

You imply that since "Guns are easy to get" that is a cause of the gun violence that exists today. However, cause effect relationships require a correlation between the cause and the effect, usually a temporal one (ie; the cause proceeds the effect). However since access to guns was EASIER prior to 1968 there is no correlation between the increased rate of gun violence today and the supposed "easy access to guns". In fact, if you look at the places where guns are hardest for law abiding people to get (Chicago, NYC, DC) they have the highest rates of gun violence. No correlation, no cause effect.

markenoff| 1.21.13 @ 8:00PM

Second, I agree to"accepting limitations on automatic weapons" . In fact, I would require anyone wishing to purchase and automatic weapon to be register it with the BATF, obtain approval from the BATF, obtain a signature from the Chief Law Enforcement Officer (CLEO) who is the county sheriff or city or town chief of police (not necessarily permission), pass an extensive background check to include submitting a photograph and fingerprints, fully register the firearm, receive ATF written permission before moving the firearm across state lines, and pay a tax.
Oh wait, we already require all those things and have since 1934. OK Purp, cross that off your wish list, it's done.

markenoff| 1.21.13 @ 8:14PM

You know, I've never seen a (stripper) "clip" that held more than 10 rounds. But Purp, being the classic ignorant liberal, does n0t know the difference between a "clip", which is a strip of metal holding several rounds together at their base (the non-pointy end Purp) that the manufacturer packages them on in order to facilitate loading them into a magazine, and a magazine which is the actual ammunition holding container that is inserted into the magazine well of the weapon in order for rounds to be chambered in the weapon in succession.

markenoff| 1.21.13 @ 8:14PM

Asuming that Purp is actually talking about magazines holding more than 10 rounds let me enlighten him. A "high capacity" magazine (which gun grabbing fascists disguised as Democrat politicians consider any with the capacity of 10 or more rounds) is a necessity if you have a smallish woman who has trouble controlling a large caliber weapon like a .45 or 9mm who might use a personal defense weapon chambered in .380. The round on a .380 is much smaller than a 9mm or .45 so it will almost certainly take more than one round to bring down an attacker of any size especially if that attacker is on drugs (see Rodney King). Even though the woman in GA defending herself and her two children from the career criminal who tracked her and her children through their house to the crawlspace where they were hiding shot him 5 times with a .38 he was still able to drive away. Multiply the number of attackers by 2 or 3, add in the stress factor and a potential low light situation and it might require in excess of 10 rounds for a woman to adequately defend herself from rapists and murderers who travel in packs. Apparently Purp has been watching too many of these movies where the hero never has to reload and every shot is to the heart or the head.

And I need my 30 round 9mm magazines for my Beretta and my 26 round .45 magazines for my Glock for the zombie, I mean Obama voter, apocalypse.

nathan| 1.21.13 @ 10:04PM

Once again, and I thought I explained this to you so pay attention sir. The gun used at Newtown was not an "automatic". It was a SEMI-AUTOMATIC which fires one bullet with one pull of the trigger. The fact that a gun looks like a military weapon does not MAKE IT A MILITARY weapon. NO REPEAT NO army in the world uses the gun that Adam used at that school. NONE.

Magazine size has minimal impact on the death toll. With drop free magazines most anyone, you included could reload any gun in under 2 seconds. When you analyze rates of fire for any shooting including San Ysidro where like 3-400? rounds were fired, the rates of fire never exceed 1 per second if that. It's usually about one every 2 seconds. Translation? With that rate of fire five round clips wouldn't make a difference and would not have impacted the death toll at Newtown. And by the way guns are far more heavily regulated than cars and drivers. We are now talking about an "assault" ban. Would you support a car equivalent? Gun dealers are way more tightly regulated than car dealers. I could go on but drivers would be outraged if cars were regulated like guns. How about a background check every time you bought a car? And the deaths from drunk driving and the gun murders are the same numbers. Care to support prohibition sir? Didn't think so.

Occam's Tool| 1.22.13 @ 3:15AM

Concur with nathan's comments on this one. The problem is the non-medication of the violently psychotic, not guns. One can mass murder with knives.

spike59| 1.22.13 @ 6:03AM

" accepting limitations on automatic weapons "
---------------------------------------------------
ahem...purpie...? automatic weapons are already illegal, you moron

gray man| 1.22.13 @ 8:35PM

"but accepting limitations on automatic weapons and size of gun clips is akin to accepting speed limits and traffic laws on driving of a car and is necessary for our country - it's for public safety reasons.
Just like we have Free Speech - but you cannot yell "FIRE" in a crowded theater for fun - it's illegal, because it's for public safety reasons.
Any other argument is supporting the mfg'ers of guns - that is all."
Total nonsense.
Responsible gun owners are not shooting up theaters.
More crimes are prevented by responsible gun owners, by far, then anyone else including all the law enforcement in this country put together.
You cannot yell fire if there is no fire - there being no fire is the point . There are already limitations on automatic weapons, no automatic weapons were used in any civilian killings in this country.
No clips were used either. They are magazines.
Apparently any idiot can make a comment, but the facts don't back up your asinine statements.

hrgfue | 1.21.13 @ 10:10PM

2013 Happy New Year,NFL,NBA

spike59| 1.22.13 @ 6:08AM

Those on the Left (especially those who screech about how "Faux Noise" is making the 'great unwashed' think wrong) insist over and over that what people, kids especially, see on the idiot box, hear on their iPod, see at the Bijou, or play on their XBox have NO effect whatsoever on behavior...of course, the entire adverti$ing indu$try (not to mention Al Gorezeera, PBS, etc) would beg to differ...

spike59| 1.22.13 @ 6:17AM

I'm not calling for government censorship...i'm asking for people, especially parents, to think about the choices they make...the filth put out by our 'entertainment industry' is just another symptom of what drives most of our society's most pressing problems; the erosion of the stable family and a lack of values-there seems to be a prevailing attitude that 'there is no right or wrong; it's all a matter of perception.' i've actually been told that by someone i had thought to have more sense than to believe that twaddle

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