I started rooting - you know, sticking up joints - with some older guys. By now I had gotten a taste of what the racket world really was - the glamour, the way they dressed, the way they always had a pocketful of money.

It was during this round he earned the moniker "Gangster Mickey Cohen". Davies Los Angeles City Council member 1943–51 questioned police wiretaps on Mickey Cohen. During this period Cohen was arrested for his role in the deaths of several gangsters in a card game that went wrong.