In 1930s Los Angeles, former boxer Mickey Cohen became Bugsy Siegel's enforcer, eventually earning notoriety as the city's favorite gangster. A lawman from Deadwood, Chief of Police William H. Parker was determined to bring Cohen down, but he also needed to free the LAPD from the influence of politicians and tycoons. For more than three decades, this real-life Dragnet played out all over the region, and as John Buntin recounts here, it created the Los Angeles we know today.

"Packed with Hollywood personalities, Beltway types and felons…. An entertaining and surprising diversion."—Publishers Weekly