Sam Farkas (May 15, 1917August 13, 2006) was a

bookmaker A bookmaker, bookie, or turf accountant is an organization or a person that accepts and pays off bets on sporting and other events at agreed-upon odds. History The first bookmaker, Ogden, stood at Newmarket in 1795. Range of events Bookma ...

and

bodyguard A bodyguard (or close protection officer/operative) is a type of security guard, government law enforcement officer, or servicemember who protects a person or a group of people — usually witnesses, high-ranking public officials or officers, w ...

, best known for his criminal affiliation with

Mickey Cohen Meyer Harris "Mickey" Cohen (September 4, 1913 – July 29, 1976) was an American gangster, boxer and entrepreneur based in Los Angeles during the mid-20th century. Early life Mickey Cohen was born on September 4, 1913, in New York City to Je ...

. A mobster of 20th-century

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, Farkas was indicted by a U.S. federal government organized-crime task force on multiple criminal charges in 1974.

Biography

Farkas was described as Cohen's bodyguard in 1950 when he, Cohen, and one Dominic "Highpockets" Faranacci attended the funeral of Cohen's murdered lawyer, Sam Rummel. In 1951, Farkas was one of the "gangland figures" connected to the brothel of Hollywood madam Barrie Benson. A man named Joe DiStefano, reportedly visiting from New York, tried to shoot Farkas in 1952. In 1959, Farkas married Cohen's ex-wife, La Vonne Cohen. At some point in the 1960s, Farkas and his wife lived in the Baldwin Hills neighborhood, and his next-door neighbor later recalled that "he always wore a sport coat to hide the gun I occasionally glimpsed in the holster just under his left arm". The couple moved out of the building after it was machine-gunned by men in black cars. In 1974 Farkas was indicted by the U.S. government on multiple charges including extortion and loans sharking. Farkas was described by the

Los Angeles Police Department The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the municipal police department of Los Angeles, California. With 9,974 police officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the third-large ...

as a "major bookmaker". Farkas died in

Los Angeles County, California Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the List of the most populous counties in the United States, most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, ...

, in 2006."United States Social Security Death Index," database, ''FamilySearch'' (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JGN7-HZ2 : 12 January 2021), Sam Farkas, 13 Aug 2006; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, ''Death Master File'', database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).

References

1917 births 2006 deaths Bookmakers Businesspeople from Los Angeles {{US-bio-stub