![]() It is his pleasure to break laws and hold society in contempt. All other human matters change, grow complex and undecipherable-what is good, what is noble, what is pious, what is progressive. They represent a certain sanity in a lunacy-whirling world -the sanity of the criminal. Looking on what I know about this rambunctious law-breaker and headbreaker, I find myself diverted, relaxed, even pleased by Mickey Cohen and his fie-fo-fum activities. I feel I know him as well as I know Macbeth or the blonde Borgia. In addition to facts, I have a knowledge of this disorderly man that may be a deep one. How he preyed on society as a stick-up man and crooked gambler, how he corrupted its guardians and strutted for a long time in the nation’s headlines. How he shot, slugged, gouged and swindled his way from rags to riches. I am full of hair-raising information told me by an ex-underworld king-pin named Mickey Cohen. It is published here by permission of his widow, Rose Hecht. ![]() Late author and screenwriter Ben Hecht wrote this account as part of an unfinished biography of Mickey Cohen in 1958-9. ![]()
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