Gangster Squad: Covert Cops, the Mob, and the Battle for Los Angeles

Paul Lieberman

Macmillan, Aug 7, 2012 - History - 560 pages

"Read this man's book." --James Ellroy
A harrowing, edge-of-your-seat narrative of murder and secrets, revenge and heroism in the City of Angels—the real events behind the blockbuster Warner Brothers film starring Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone.

GANGSTER SQUAD chronicles the true story of the secretive police unit that waged an anything-goes war to drive Mickey Cohen and other hoodlums from Los Angeles after WWII. In 1946, the LAPD launched the Gangster Squad with eight men who met covertly on street corners and slept with Tommy guns under their beds. But for two cops, all that mattered was nailing the strutting gangster Mickey Cohen. Sgt. Jack O'Mara was a square-jawed church usher, Sgt. Jerry Wooters a cynical maverick. About all they had in common was their obsession. So O'Mara set a trap to prove Mickey was a killer. And Wooters formed an alliance with Mickey's budding rival, Jack "The Enforcer" Whalen. Two cops -- two hoodlums. Their fates collided in the closing days of the 1950s, when late one night "The Enforcer" confronted Mickey and his crew. The aftermath would shake both LA's mob and police department, and signal the end of a defining era in the city's history.

Warner Brothers developed the film Gangster Squad based on the research award-winning journalist Paul Lieberman conducted for this book, which reveals the unbelievable true stories behind the film. He spent more than a decade tracking down and interviewing surviving members of the real police unit as well as families and associates of the mobsters they pursued. Gangster Squad is a tour-de-force narrative reminiscent of LA Confidential.

Contents

• A Violin Case Under the Bed: 1
• THE WHALENS MOVE WEST TO THE CITY OF ANGELS: 7
• The Dusty Road Con: 9
• The City Where Evil Comes from Without: 16
• Young Jack Whalen Takes a Plane Ride: 27
• THE GANGSTER SQUADS SERGEANT JACK OMARA SETS HIS TRAP FOR MICKEY: 43
• Orientation in an Alley: 45
• OMaras Mulholland Drive Sneeze: 68
• Mickey Moves Up Bugsy Moves Six Feet Down: 77
• The Fake DriveBy: 86
• OMara Meets the Whalens: 96
• A Bug in Mickeys TV: 102
• A s Year in the Gutter: 116
• The Funeral Wreath: 143
• Florabel to the Rescue: 153
• Fiftyeight Rubouts and a Wedding: 165
• The Bedbug: 176
• Mickeys Turn: 191
• The Trap: 206
• SERGEANT JERRY WOOTERS AND THE DEADLY NIGHT AT RONDELLIS 2192209: 219
• Jerry Meets Jack: 221
• How Jack Whalen Became The Enforcer: 225
• The 1 Career: 242
• A Lecture from the Court: 256
• A Favor for Mr Dragnet: 275
• Mickey Gets Out: 290
• Its Hard: 301
• Bad Words: 311
• Expensive Words: 317
• Jack Whalen Tries The Scamus: 335
• More Money for Mickey: 348
• Coins and a Cucumber: 362
• A Ring for the Stripper: 373
• Bend Your Knees and Roll: 381
• Dont Fuck with That Little Jew: 392
• A Phone Call at the Jail: 399
• The Deadly Night in the Valley: 405
• Im the Man 11: 430
• JUSTICE: 433
• Freddie Loses It: 435
• Mickey Takes the Stand: 444
• OMaras Turn: 460
• Jethro Gives Chase: 476
• Mickeys Boast: 480
• Déjà Vu: 490
• The Lead Pipe: 498
• The Visit: 508
• A Song by Sinatra: 511
• Freddies Last Laugh: 518
• The Eulogy: 523
• Machine Gun Shootouts on the Big Screen: 531
• Acknowledgments: 547

About the author

PAUL LIEBERMAN spent 24 years as a writer and editor at the Los Angeles Times and before that was projects editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He has won dozens of journalism honors, including the Robert F. Kennedy Awards Grand Prize, a George Polk Award, Gerald Loeb Award and American Society of Newspaper Editors Award. He also shared in two team Pulitzer Prizes at the L.A. Times, as a writer on its coverage of the Los Angeles Riots and an editor of its reporting on the Northridge Earthquake. A native New Yorker, Lieberman is a graduate of Williams College and was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard, where he studied law and social history. He lives in Westchester County with his wife, Heidi, a school administrator.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Gangster Squad: Covert Cops, the Mob, and the Battle for Los Angeles
• Author: Paul Lieberman
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Macmillan, 2012
• ISBN: 1250020115, 9781250020116
• Length: 560 pages
• Subjects: History / United States / 20th Century; History / United States / State & Local / West (AK, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NV, UT, WY); Political Science / Law Enforcement; Social Science / Criminology; True Crime / General; True Crime / Historical; True Crime / Organized Crime