ULYCES27/03/2015 at 5:51 p.m.

When the Mafia was blackmailing Hollywood

Neal Gabler, journalist

Assassinated in 1955, Willie Bioff was in the 30s, the king of Hollywood, where he shook even stars and studio bosses. This pro extortion, Al Capone agent, has drawn millions and lived in Nawab.

Jackie lion mascot for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, or MGM, filmed in 1928 (Wikimedia Commons)

On 4 November 1955, William Nelson, stocky little retired 55 years playing the stock market, left his home in suburban Phoenix. He said goodbye to his wife slipped into his pickup Ford 1953 and started the engine. The explosion ejected the roof was so powerful that it tore the door and the roof of the garage nearby, and shook the windows on almost a kilometer.

With its pentagonal glasses with metal frames and thick jowls, Nelson looked like a limp rag. In the words of his neighbors, he had lived among them without ever making waves. A quiet man and cleared. But the sheriff of Maricopa County, LC Boles and his deputy Ralph Edmundson charge of the investigation, however Report identified the murder of "revenge" and claimed to have collected evidence leading them to Los Angeles, Chicago and New York .

MAKING OF

The entirety of this true story signed Neal Gabler, unprecedented in French, is available on the website of our partner ULYCES , a digital publishing company that publishes true stories each day (you can buy them individually or subscribe )."When the mob was blackmailing Hollywood" is a story translated from English by Gwendal Padovan, according to the article "When the Mob Ruled Hollywood," appeared in Playboy in June 2011. Discover ULYCES on other reports on criminal investigations, such as "The forger of Galilee , "" The Mystery of Flight thirteen master paintings "or" Poaching in Ireland ."Rue89

Why is that? Well because Nelson was anything but a retiree who played the stock market, and that there was nothing soft rag. His name was not even William Nelson. The real name of the man whose members were scattered throughout the property was Willie Bioff (rightly pronounced "buy off" ["to bribe"]).

In the 30s, he was the undisputed king of Hollywood, the man who shook everyone in the industry, the lower the machinist's biggest stars, to the owners of studios themselves.One day when Bioff arrived at the gates of the studio MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) and a guard failed to recognize him, he telephoned the Vice President of MGM, Eddie Mannix, and ordered him to get say boors who he was. Mannix was executed on the spot.

When Bioff built himself a new house at the height of his Hollywood Monarch stature, he told a senior executive of Columbia, Leo Spitz, it was expected that the studio pays for the interior . This was the case. And when he told the heads of studios that he decided to expand his power, he was amused by their reaction: "They jumped like startled cats. It seems that I was their bogeyman. »

The Al Capone agent

Is that it was, and more. In the eyes of Hollywood moguls, mostly from Eastern Europe Jewish immigrants who promoted the American dream vehemently in their films, lest their adopted country rejects as illegal migrants, hillbilly , himself a Jew of Eastern Europe, represented the American nightmare. He was arrogant, irreverent, ostentatious, boastful, swaggering and proud to claim his illiteracy. An eccentric straight out of a fairy Damon Runyon with proletarians in the background, but in his case, with blood on his hands. Lots of blood.

If Willie Bioff was the king of Hollywood is that it was Al Capone agent on site.And he was the officer on site Capone because he had discovered how to suck money out of studios, million dollar fluctuated tycoons to the mafia, Bioff taking its part every time. If he had time, he said later, he would have held 50% of the shares of the studios. The fact is that he did not run it directly, for a time at least.

Juvenile career

Bioff had lied a lot. Lied about his identity long before becoming William Nelson, he was among other Bloffsky Morris, Morris Bioff, William Berg, Harry or Henry Martin, or Mr. Bronson. Lied about his age. He was born in 1886 or in 1899, or any year between. Lied about his birthplace. He stated that he had arrived in the United States at the age of five with his Russian Jewish parents. Or that he was born in Chicago, where he grew up. Lie or not, it was said that his mother had died when he was eight. He left school after the CE2, and six years later, his father put him in the street he is doing.

It would, according to some, become juvenile pimp by charging 10 cents for boys fondle girls he was paying for treats. One day, when a girl refused, the young Willie would have retorted, "That should be worth 10 cents of you in the face acid. "Among other things, he became a petty criminal, stealing hams fromSwift & Co ., he ate kosher despite his education ("empty stomach has no religion," he would say to a reporter) . Adolescence barely over, he ran a brothel in Chicago where, according to police, one of her daughters have done up to thirteen passes in one day for $ 29. In this period of his life, he discreetly comment: "I went door-to-door deliveries and other things. And met many people. »

Among the people he met there was Jerry Leahy, the agent of the Teamsters union in Chicago, who served Bioff driver while Leahy was making stops and "was collecting" - the term used to perform the tour of bribes paid to avoid conflicts with the union.

Two very different partners

It was soon Bioff himself who collected, forcing kosher chicken traders to get their employees in the ranks. It was at that time, in 1932, he met a trade unionist named George E. Browne, who was in charge of recruiting non-Jewish merchants chicken. From this meeting was born the association that would shake Hollywood.

The two new partners could not be different from one another. Bioff was colorful, Browne was any. Its most recognizable feature was starting to drink beer out of bed, to stop once back in bed at night (when asked to confirm whether Browne drank well as 100 bottles of beer a day, Bioff launched mischievously: "Wait, maybe it was not 100 but 101. Or maybe 70").

But if Browne progressed in life, staggering, it was nevertheless a man of relative importance in Chicago, when he crossed paths with Bioff. The organization of the chicken market was a sideline of his profession of agent for the local branch of IATSE, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, the union that represented all the technicians of theater and cinema , machinists projectionists. Browne always claimed to have worked in the strictest legality before meeting Bioff. According to him, it was Bioff who had masterminded the plan that would link them to the Capone gang.

"Contribution" at the soup kitchen

As Bioff confided later, he began working as Browne's personal representative for the union in 1932 or 1933. At the time, 250 of the 400 members were unemployed. The antenna then initiated a soup kitchen. Maybe it was a selfless act for Browne, but Bioff saw a disguised philanthropic opportunity. He had made a major discovery: that controlled projectionists controlled Hollywood. And IATSE controlled the projectionists. So he brought Barney Balaban, mogul Chicago theaters at the hospital room where Browne was recovering from an illness, and asked him to contribute to the soup instead of restoring wage cuts projectionists.

In reality, Bioff threatened to force him to comply. In case of refusal, he would suffer a staff strike that cost him his rooms. Balaban poured them $ 20 000 - 300 of which landed on the same night in the pockets of Bioff and Browne, who celebrated the event by getting drunk and playing for money at Club 100. Bioff later admitted having bought a few cans for the soup with 20,000 dollars.

Extortion

The club was managed by Nick Cirella, alias Nick Dean, alias Nickelodeon, one of the infantry Capone. Circella came to ask how these small players have been able to raise so much money. Bioff and Browne, unable to remain silent, to Circella boasted of how they had extorted the loot to Balaban. The next day, Frank Rio, one of the lieutenants Capone, organized a meeting with Browne. It forced him to get into his car and insisted to receive 50% of everything that he and Bioff would derive from Balaban.

Thus began their first extortion plan. Bioff quickly met one of the leaders of the Balaban & Katz chain cinemas, and insisted they add a second projectionist in each cabin. The caller yelled that this would be expensive and would mean the bankruptcy of the company. What Bioff retorted: "Two men, if not ... If grandma is dying, she will die. "But there was an alternative, he added. It was called "bribes". Balaban chose the alternative. Soon, Bioff Browne and combed over 100 000 dollars to farmers Chicago, prompting Frank Rio and Frank Nitti, Capone's successor after he was sent to jail for tax fraud, to organize a new appointment, the Once in a hotel downtown. Mafia now demanded Bioff Browne and two thirds of the recipe. Otherwise ... Clamp-in-cheek, Browne later said not to have wanted to know what "else" could mean.

Election pressure

Greed mafia was however not satisfied. In 1932, Browne presented himself as a candidate for the presidency of the IATSE and lost. Now that Nitti knew how he could reap through the movie industry just by intimidating the operators of one city, he decided to ignore the verdict. Nitti arranged a meeting with Harry Hochstein, a henchman of the Mafia, in Riverside, Illinois, and developed its strategy. Nitti wanted to know what stations had opposed Browne in 1932. Browne mentioned the New York, New Jersey, Cleveland and St. Louis. Nitti replied that there would be no problem. It would ensure that these antennas follow him through his "contacts".

In June 1934, IATSE met in Louisville for its national convention. Very leads George E. Browne there again presented his candidacy. To assist a delegation of mobsters arrived from Chicago and ordered to keep the newspapers away.Just before the vote, half a dozen men with white canes entered the great hall, the accessory blind people obviously serving as a warning to all who would oppose the appointment of Browne. He won the election. When members of an antenna complained of rigging Bioff, which, following the Browne's election, was immediately appointed personal representative of the President, made sure a bunch of dock workers put their a beating.

A climb lined with corpses

But everyone was not willing to accept the rise of Browne. Thus began the era of the long knives. When Tommy Maloy, head of the antenna 110 of the cinematographers' union in Chicago, showed its reluctance to cede power to the newcomers, he was strafed driving his car on the road along Lake Michigan (in recounting the incident an FBI agent, Capone insinuated with a nod understood that Maloy had been in a car accident).

When a man named Clyde Ostenberg threatened to create a rival union to give weight to the projectionists, Bioff, according the bodyguard of Ostenberg, assured to drop. Ostenberg was later shot. Like the union leader Louie Alterie.When Bioff suspected double play a henchman of the union, Fred "Bugs" Blacker (so nicknamed because he scattered bedbugs in recalcitrant cinemas) he had him killed. Proof of the incorrigible character Bioff: when a rival union circulated leaflets denouncing his crimes, he hired their head of communications.

At the end of 1935, stripped of their rivals, Browne and Bioff fully controlled IATSE. It was no longer a matter of time before the IATSE not control Hollywood.

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