Law and Order

So I absolutely love true crime story and history. Combine the two and I am in heaven. That's why I suggest you read Gangster Squad: Covert Cops, the Mob, and the Battle for Los Angeles by Paul Lieberman. I discovered this book after seeing the movie which was beyond amazing. 

Mickey Cohen was one of the most powerful mobsters in Los Angeles in the 1940s and 50s. I became interested in the Los Angeles mobster scene after seeing L.A. Confidential and Devil in a Blue Dress when I was about ten years old. Cohen was the head of the West Coast Outfit after seeing the potential there. Because he was Jewish he was considered an outsider by the mostly Italian crime families in Chicago and New York. No one had ventured far enough west so Cohen claimed it as his own. Combine a drive to succeed with being a murderous sociopath you have a man who was able to take over a city.

Because Cohen was so powerful he was able to take over an entire city and have most of the law enforcement on his payroll. The cops, chief, and majority of judges were receiving kick backs from the mobster and turned a blind eye to his racketeering, money laundering, prostitution houses, illegal casinos, and murders. The Gangster Squad was an off the record team formed to take down Cohen. They did not follow the rules and stepped way outside of their jurisdiction to stop the most notorious gangster in the west. 

This story explores the personal lives of the men who spent a large part of their careers trying to bring down a single man who destroyed an entire city. Its not a happy story, but it is incredibly interesting. The author is able to step into the personal lives of these real people and how their work which at the time they could not be acknowledged for changed police work and showed that there were still people dedicated to justice. 

It is much more detailed than the movie which takes a lot of artistic licenses so read the book...and always pay your taxes because you know....that's one thing you can always definitely go to jail for.