Biography
Mickey Cohen — gangster (la kingpin) with roots in the Russian Empire
Mickey Cohen (born Meyer Harris Cohen) was an American organised crime figure and the dominant mob boss of Los Angeles from the late 1940s through the 1950s. Born in Brooklyn to parents who had emigrated from Kyiv (Russian Empire), he became a boxer before rising through the bootlegging and gambling rackets to rule LA's underworld.
Russian Connection
Tracing the roots — Kyiv
Born in Brooklyn in 1913, the youngest of six children of Max Cohen and Fanny Skovron — Jewish immigrants from Kyiv — Cohen moved to Los Angeles as a child and entered the criminal world through boxing.
Family Tree
Subject
Mickey Cohen🇺🇸 USA
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Parents
Max Cohen
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Origin
Kyiv🇷🇺 Russian Empire
Historical context
Russian Empire · c. 1721–1917
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Kyiv. At the time, this region lay within the Russian Empire, which spanned from Poland to the Pacific.
Map: Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA)
Key Achievements
A career defined by ambition
01
Dominant mob boss of Los Angeles (late 1940s-1950s)
02
Survived multiple assassination attempts by rival gangsters
03
Convicted of tax evasion (1951, 1961) — the government's preferred weapon against mobsters
04
Managed by the Capone organization — connected to national crime syndicate
05
Subject of multiple films, books, and documentaries
Sources