Mickey Cohen: The Life and Crimes of L.A.'s Notorious Mobster is a seductive, premium-octane blend of true crime and Hollywood lore that spins around a wildly eccentric mob boss. When Bugsy Siegel was executed, ruthless Mickey Cohen, a former pro boxer and cunning provocateur, took over criminal activity in L.A., a move sanctioned by Meyer Lansky and Frank Costello. Attaining immense power and dominance, from the late 1940s until 1976 the semi-literate Angeleno became an above-the-fold newspaper name, accumulating a remarkable count of more than 1,000 front-pages in Los Angeles papers alone, and hundreds of articles in national and international periodicals.

Cohen's story and the history of mid-century L.A. are inextricably intertwined, and author Tere Tereba delivers tales full of high life, high drama, and highly placed politicians, among them RFK and Richard Nixon, as well as revelations about countless icons, including Shirley Temple, Lana Turner, Frank Sinatra, and the Reverend Billy Graham. Meticulously researched, this rich tapestry presents a panoramic look at the Los Angeles underworld and immerses the reader into a dark, decadent, and dangerous side of Hollywood that has not been fully revealed until now.

"Mickey 'The Hood with Nine Lives' Cohen finally gets his due. With great style and boatloads of new information, Tere Tereba has crafted a page-turner about the greatest gangster L.A. has ever seen. Celebs, gamblers, politicians – for decades they all bowed to Cohen's vise-grip on Southern California. Few lived on the edge as long as Cohen, and fewer still earned a biography this entertaining. As Mickey himself might say, 'Buy it if you know what's good for you.'"

– Pulitzer Prize­nominee Gus Russo, author of The Outfit and Supermob

"An arresting, high-speed account of Hollywood's homegrown superstar of crime – dangerous, outrageous, bulletproof Mickey Cohen, the man the mob could not kill. Tere Tereba writes a white-hot true crime classic." 

– Lee Server, author of Ava Gardner: Love Is Nothing

"Mickey Cohen got a lot of good breaks in his wild ride of a life, and here comes another: Tere Tereba gives the gangster the biography he has long deserved – Tereba captures it poignantly." 

– Jonathan Eig, author of Get Capone