Hollywood Gangsters

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 225, 21 September 1940, Page 4 (Supplement)

Hollywood Gangsters

By Guy K. Austin

STARTLING stories of terrorism in Hollywood studios, of blackmail and gang beatings, acre receiving the attention of the t Federal Bureau of Investigation. 1 Police throughout , the country 5 have come to regard Hollywood as a haven for fugitives from jus- t tice and for public enemies. 8 Racketeers have gained control of the employment of extras, and are terror- * ising guild members into paying tribute - for their hire. t Matters came, to- a hea)d recently with 8 the arrest of Irving Cohen,- alias Jack e Gordon, alias "Big" Gangi, who was 8 accused of membership- in the New York c "National Murder Ring," and who at the 4 time, of his arrest was playing in Warner * Brothers' "Sea Hawk." 1 Another case in point wa« that of Johnnie Fisher, a New York hoodlum, 1 who was arrested some time ago on sue- < picion of the murder of Humie Miller, 1 who, at the time of his death, operated <

the extra racket, and who, when he was killed, was appropriately, playing in "A Slight Case of Murder." Fisher, who was also acting in costume ' when he was arrested, was absolved of the murder and ordered to leave Hollywood/; but he is back now, bodyguarding a prominent studio official. The racket principally operates through the blackmailing of directors «who are in a position to hire a large number of extras. A favourite method is to plant a girl with a director in compromising circumstances, and the girl later threatens suit, or actually brings suit for breach of promise and seduction, whether true or false. The gangster responsible then promises the director that he will make the girl drop the suit, which she does, thus putting the director under the greatest obligation to the gangster. The direc-

tor promises to hire the gangster's "pals," and from these *• collected a tribute of a percentage of their pay. Another method is to arrange 'for a director to receive anonymous threats of murder or violence, and then to have the threats called off when he is near crazy and falls a willing victim into the gangster's hands. With employment of extras now thousands under normal, the racket is in full blast, and honest extras axe beaten if they refuse to pay for their • jobs. This is cleverly done by the mob leaders waiting until a picture calks for a screen fight in a crowd, and then picking on the non-payers for a real beating. Recently one extra "fell" from the rigging of the Sea Hawk and was badly injured. Dewey Traub had his jaw fractured by hoodlum extras in one of the mob scenes in "The Hunchback of-Notre Dame," Pete Rasch was cruelly beaten up in *?>odge City" fights, Jerry Frank received similar treatment while playing in "Gunga Din," and Wally Voger, an extra for -15 years, was terribly beaten during a fight in a Western film.