Cohen contacted Mickey McBride in Cleveland and told him he would like him to come to Chicago for an important business matter. Cohen talked big. He dropped Siegel’s name at every instance that he thought necessary to add to his own prestige. He was Siegel’s partner. Siegel wanted Ragen to stay in control of the service. McBride came to Chicago.
In a meeting attended by Ragen, Sr., James Ragen, Jr., Jack Lynch, Louis Rothkopf, and Mickey Cohen, it was decided to fight the Syndicate, legally and otherwise.
Jack Lynch was connected with Mont Tennes and had fought Annenberg in the courts during the time that Annenberg was trying to take over the wire service. He knew the legal angles. He was paid off by Annenberg. The sum, according to the best sources of information, was over a half million dollars. What was revealed by Ragen now was a rather peculiar circumstance.
“On the day I settled with Lynch,” the elder Ragen said, “I paid Frank Nitti one hundred thousand dollars. I delivered the money personally to him. A thousand one-hundred dollar bills. I can’t understand why he’s trying to take over the service now, after I paid him off.”
“Nitti isn’t the whole boss,” Cohen said. “The Council of the mob has a lot to say about it. That’s the Fischettis, Tony Accardo, Paul „The Waiter“ Ricca, and a couple of others. Nitti doesn’t run the whole show.”
Ragen, Sr., turned to McBride. “Mickey, I want you in with me on the Service. I need your help. Also your connections in Cleveland. How about it?”
“I’ve got too many interests in Cleveland,” McBride said. “However, I’ll tell you what I’m willing to do. I’ll come in and you can spread it around that I’m a partner. Since I can’t be here to help you control things I suggest you make your son general manager, if he’s willing.” He turned to young Ragen. “How about it, Jimmy? You willing to take over?”
“Sure, if dad wants me to. I’ll take it over.”
“Okay. I’ll put in Tommy Kelly to help things. Kelly is my brother-in-law. A good man.”
“That’s a good setup,” Cohen said. “Siegel will approve it and do all he can to ease matters. He told me he would do that, talk to the boys in New York and ask them for their help.”
“Okay,” the elder Ragen said then. “I’ll send word to Moe Annenberg about the new setup.”
On November 15, 1939, Annenberg was officially out of the wire service business and the Ragens in, with Mickey McBride and Tommy Kelly as partners. Mickey McBride turned over his one-third of the Service to his son, Eddie, a decent young man who was a student at Notre Dame.
The mob soon got wind of the deal. Word went out to Cohen to get out of town or be carried out. He took the next train back to Los Angeles. Actually, all he did in the deal was to get McBride to take over a third of the Service. However, as things turned out, it was enough. For the time being, anyway. However, despite what Cohen thought, the mob turned against him and Siegel. Siegel, because he had Meyer Lansky behind him, and Lucky Luciano, was too big to touch. Cohen wasn’t. A half dozen attempts were made to kill him but he managed to escape each time.
Back in Los Angeles, Siegel congratulated Cohen.
“I’m going to give you a nice piece of action, Mickey,” Siegel said. “You can open up a couple of handbooks and I’ll give you my service for free. Good enough?”
Cohen smiled. “Very good, Ben. Thanks.”
With Siegel’s blessings, Cohen opened up a horse book behind a cigar store on Santa Monica Boulevard arid another a few blocks from Schwab’s famous drug store on Hollywood Boulevard. He lasted only a short time because the heat was on. Cohen turned to Siegel.
“Play it cool, Mickey. You can open up again when the heat is off. It will only last a few weeks.”
The heat was turned off and Cohen opened up again in the same two places. He had to close in short order.
On Thanksgiving Eve, Harry “Big Greenie” Greenberg, a former Murder. Inc., henchman, was knocked off and the heat was on again. It was the first gangland execution in Los Angeles and the papers howled in long editorials which focused on the racketeering going on in the city and demanded a clean-up.
There were mixed stories in the underworld as to why Greenberg was put on the spot. One story declared that Greenberg was about to talk to the cops about Murder, Inc., and his doings in it — sluggings, extortions, murders. This hardly seemed to be true because Greenberg for the past fifteen years had been close to Lepke Buchalter, Jake “Gurrah” Shapiro, Lucky Luciano, and Bugsy Siegel. He wasn’t the kind to talk to the cops.
The other story, and which seemed to be the valid one, was that he had been sent to Los Angeles to liquidate Mickey Cohen for Cohen’s part in the wire service deal in Chicago. Siegel was not asked for his okay for the hit because the mob knew that the Bug had sent Cohen to Chicago to help.
At any rate, Greenberg drove to his apartment house in Los Angeles on this night, parked his car. As he did so, a black sedan drove past and poured out a barrage of bullets. Greenberg slumped over the steering wheel. He was already dead but the slugs kept pouring into his body.
The cops picked up Bugsy Siegel, Frankie Carbo, a fight promoter, Mickey Cohen, and a couple of other Siegel hoods. Cohen had an unimpeachable alibi and was turned loose. The others stayed in jail for a time but were ultimately released. If Cohen did not have an actual part in the slaying of Greenberg, the underworld grapevine said he did know who the hitmen were and why it was done.
Now, almost three thousand miles away, the inside story of the Greenberg killing came to light. The Brooklyn crime busters had Abe “Kid Twist” Reles and Allie “Tick Tock” Tannenbaum in jail and were sweating them. Both decided to talk.
Special Prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey, who almost became President of the United States, was handling the interrogations of Tannenbaum and Reles.
“If you want any kind of breaks from us,” Dewey said to Allie Tannenbaum, “you’ll tell me everything you know. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, sir, Mr. Dewey.”
“Now then, I have a request for information about the Harry Greenberg killing in Los Angeles. My information, gathered by my staff, is to the effect that you personally were involved in the murder. What about it?”
“Will you send me to California to stand trial if I cop out?”
“No, I won’t. The Los Angeles police will try to extradite you but I’ll fight it. I will also declare that since you will testify as a state’s witness that you are to be granted immunity. Are you satisfied with that?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Okay, let’s have it, from start to finish.”
Tannenbaum’s story disclosed all the facts leading to the hit. Lepke Buchalter and Jake “Gurrah” Shapiro were on the lam, hiding out from a murder warrant. Lepke sent word that certain of the mob was to blow town. Among those ordered to do so was Greenberg.
Greenberg went to Toronto. He was broke shortly after and sent word to Mendy Weiss, who had taken over as boss of Murder, Inc., on Lepke’s orders, that he needed money. Weiss, tight-fisted, sent back word that there was no money. All the money on hand was to be used in defending Lepke and Shapiro if they were apprehended and had to stand trial.
Greenberg sent back word that he would either get the money or spill his guts. Since every member of the mob was hot, Weiss called Los Angeles and told Siegel he wanted a man to hit Greenberg. Siegel said he would send Mickey Cohen.
“Cohen knows how to track a guy down,” Siegel said. “He’ll do the job.”
“Good. Pay him five G’s. I’ll forward the money.”
Cohen went to Toronto. He traced Greenberg from hotel to hotel and from boarding house to boarding house, then learned that Greenberg had gone to Montreal. Cohen went back to Los Angeles. Siegel was furious.