AUTHOR’S NOTE

Most of the characters in this fact-based story appear under their real names; several—notably, Fred Rubinski, Didi Davis, Delbert Potts and Rudy Johnson—are fictional but have real-life counterparts. Research sources included numerous true-crime magazine articles and the following books: Death in Paradise (1998), Tony Blanche and Brad Schreiber; Headline Happy (1950), Florabel Muir; Hoodlums—Los Angeles (1959), Ted Prager and Larry Craft; The Last Mafioso (1981), Ovid DeMaris; Mickey Cohen: In My Own Words (1975), as told to John Peer Nugent; Mickey Cohen: Mobster (1973); Sins of the City (1999), Jim Heimann; Thicker’n Thieves (1951), Charles Stoker; and Why I Quit Syndicated Crime (1951), Jim Vaus as told to D.C. Haskin.