Mickey Cohen
Mickey Cohen had a promising career as a featherweight boxer in the 1930s before he embraced a life on the fringes of society and became the most notorious mobster on the west coast. Cohen was born in 1913 in Brooklyn, New York, but his family moved to Los Angeles when he was still a young boy. He discovered he had a knack for fighting and fought in illegal, underground fights in Los Angeles before he started boxing professionally in 1930.
For three years, Cohen trained and embarked on a career as a fighter. He moved to Cleveland, and it was there that he became friendly with various organized crime figures. In 1933, Cohen quit boxing. He moved to Chicago and became associated with Al Capone, working as an enforcer and eventually running a gambling business for him. Cohen had a falling out with a fellow gangster, and in 1939 it was arranged that he would move to Los Angeles to work for Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel.
Cohen thrived as a mobster on the west coast, and, with Siegel, he helped turn Las Vegas into a gambling mecca. Like Al Capone, authorities worked for years trying to put Cohen behind bars. They eventually succeeded, and in 1951, the California-based gangster was sent to prison for tax evasion.
Cohen was paroled in 1955, but was sent away again for tax evasion in 1961. This time his destination was Alcatraz. Cohen is the only man to be bailed out of Alcatraz, but he was sent back to The Rock again in 1962 after his appeals failed. With Alcatraz due to close, Cohen was transferred to the federal prison in Atlanta. Cohen was paroled one last time in 1972. He died in Los Angeles in 1976.