Philip "The Stick" Kovolick
'Kovalick''(September 2, 1908 – April 1971?), also known as Joseph Farvel, was a New York mobster and a longtime associate of labor racketeer
Louis Buchalter
Louis Buchalter, known as Louis Lepke or Lepke Buchalter, (February 6, 1897March 4, 1944) was an American mobster and head of the Mafia hit squad Murder, Inc., during the 1930s. Buchalter was one of the premier labor racketeers in New York City ...
. He was one of the closest associates of Meyer Lansky, and assisted Meyer and his brother Jake Lansky in operating the Mob's Hallandale Florida casinos, including the plush "rug joint" the Colonial Inn.
Capture and arrest
He was arrested at a restaurant in
Little Italy, Manhattan
Little Italy (also it, Piccola Italia) is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City, known for its large Italian population. It is bounded on the west by Tribeca and Soho, on the south by Chinatown, on the east by the Bowery and Lowe ...
, and charged with "consorting with known criminals for unlawful purposes" in 1965.
Kovolick fled New York to avoid an indictment to appear before a Manhattan grand jury investigating illegal gambling, bribery and corruption. Authorities were attempting to extradite him back to New York before his disappearance, as assistant district attorney Samuel S. Yasgur filed an
affidavit
An ( ; Medieval Latin for "he has declared under oath") is a written statement voluntarily made by an ''affiant'' or '' deponent'' under an oath or affirmation which is administered by a person who is authorized to do so by law. Such a stateme ...
in Miami in February 1971.
The body of Philip Kovolick was found sealed in a steel drum at the bottom of a rock pit in
Hallandale, Florida
Hallandale Beach (formerly known simply as Hallandale) is a city in southern Broward County, Florida, United States. The city is named after Luther Halland, the son of a Swedish worker for Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast Railroad. As of the 2 ...
on April 28, 1971, after disappearing on April 7, 1971. Police charged 36-year-old John Alvin Baxter with first degree murder, and he was sentenced to death. Eventually the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.
Further reading
*Cohen, Rich. ''Tough Jews: Fathers, Sons, and Gangster Dreams''. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998.
*Fried, Albert. ''The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Gangster in America''. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980.
*Turkus, Burton B. and Sid Feder. ''Murder, Inc: The Story of "the Syndicate"''. New York: Da Capo Press, 2003.
See also
*
List of solved missing person cases
Lists of solved missing person cases include:
* List of solved missing person cases: pre-2000
* List of solved missing person cases: post-2000
See also
* List of kidnappings
* List of murder convictions without a body
* List of people who di ...
References
External links
Mug shots of Phillip Kovolick (high-resolution)from
Lloyd Sealy Library
The Lloyd George Sealy Library is the campus library at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York (CUNY). Located in Haaren Hall, the library specializes in criminal justice-related materials.
Overview
The Lloyd Sealy Li ...
Digital Collections
Prisoner's_Criminal_Record_[rap_sheet/nowiki>_of_Phillip_Kovolick.html" ;"title="ap sheet
">Prisoner's Criminal Record [rap sheet
/nowiki> of Phillip Kovolick">ap sheet">Prisoner's Criminal Record [rap sheet
/nowiki> of Phillip Kovolickfrom Lloyd Sealy Library
The Lloyd George Sealy Library is the campus library at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York (CUNY). Located in Haaren Hall, the library specializes in criminal justice-related materials.
Overview
The Lloyd Sealy Li ...
Digital Collections
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kovolick, Philip
1908 births
1970s missing person cases
1971 deaths
1971 murders in the United States
Formerly missing people
Male murder victims
Murdered Jewish American gangsters
Missing gangsters
Missing person cases in Florida
People from Hallandale Beach, Florida
People murdered in Florida
20th-century American Jews