''Big Bill'' Parker
The Cop Who Beat
Mickey Cohen

Regardless of how difficult the truth may seem, it cannot be ignored that between the years 1950 and 1966, criminals residing in the city of Los Angeles felt extremely ill-at-ease and entirely unsafe. This was due, in no small part, to the fact that the police chief of that city was a fellow by the name of William “Big Bill” Parker (1905 – 1966), a tireless officer who would not suffer hucksters, mobsters, thugs and dope heads with anywhere near the same level of patience enjoyed by today’s senior officers of the LAPD.

The count has been lost in the mists of time as to whether he frustrated more Mafiosi than civil libertarians or whether it was the other way around, but this six-page article makes mention of the numerous controversial methods that the Chief deployed in his efforts to “protect and serve”:

“Smashing in doors, covering L.A. from above by helicopter and from below with skin divers, Parker takes on his his critics singly or in batches.”

“I’m convinced that a widespread plot exists to destroy police authority in the name of ‘liberalism’ and break down the wall that protects society from the hoodlum.”

Click here to read a news piece about a Hollywood blackmail scam that Micky Cohen had going in 1949.

Click here to read an article about one of New York’s greatest mayors: Fiorello LaGuardia.