U.S. Launches Astronaut Alan Shepard: 'Boy What a Ride!'

May 6, 1961: Astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. was rocketed 115 miles above the Earth in a flawless suborbital flight and recovered safely 302 miles down the Atlantic Missile Range to become America's first man in space, Times space-aviation editor Marvin Miles writes.  Also on the jump: --Shepard’s 1998 obituary --W.C. Jones spends $4,500 trying to convert Mickey Cohen to Christianity.

Liz Renay Sentenced to Prison

April 11, 1961: Liz Renay (d. 2007) is sentenced to prison for violating the terms of her probation for perjury in Mickey Cohen’s tax evasion case. She later said: "I have paid a dear price for the mistake I made, and I hope the public will be forgiving. I wanted to protect Mickey. I felt I owed him that. I couldn't deliberately hurt someone who had been nice to me." Renay was charged with resorting, which was reduced to disturbing the peace. This quaint term refers to checking into any sort of business establishment, like a hotel, for prostitution.

Found on EBay -- 'Headline Happy'

Los Angeles Times file photo

A somewhat distressed copy of “Headline Happy” by Florabel Muir  has been listed on EBay. You may recall that Muir, above, has a terrific description of the Busgy Siegel crime scene and, yes, she’s the reporter who got hit in the rear during the attempted killing of Mickey Cohen at Sherry’s in 1949. Trivia note: The Times’ only mention of Muir being shot is in a Hedda Hopper column that says Muir was sporting an “Italian sunset.” Judging by the vendor’s description, this copy is not in pristine shape, but it’s difficult to find “Headline Happy” for less than $50 and the price (bidding starts at 50 cents) makes it sound interesting for those who are looking for a reading copy.  ALSO Mickey Cohen on the Daily Mirror Florabel Muir on the Daily Mirror

Segregated Businesses May Be Legal, Eisenhower Says

March 17, 1960: On the jump, more about Cheryl Crane’s transfer to El Retiro School for Girls in the San Fernando Valley … President Eisenhower says it may be legal for private businesses to bar African Americans or any other group. Eisenhower adds that he’s no lawyer … and says that "there is too much interference in our private affairs and ... personal lives already."

Dietrich Backs Von Sternberg in ‘Blue Angel’ Lawsuit

March 16, 1960: Marlene Dietrich gives a deposition in Josef von Sternberg’s suit against 20th Century Fox over its remake of “The Blue Angel.” On the jump, a murder suspect kills a hospital attendant after being declared sane … Mickey Cohen … Cheryl Crane … Mimi Boomhower … police in Orangeburg, S.C., use fire hoses on civil rights marchers … and Dodger Carl Furillo.

Paul V. Coates – Confidential File, Feb. 29, 1960

Bringing Up Beverly; by Mother Aadland     While the rest of you were idly accomplishing a variety of things over the week end, I was interviewing Mrs. Florence Aadland.     Mrs Aadland, mother of Beverly, protege of the late Errol Flynn, found her way back into the news with the disclosure that she had gone to the Sunset Strip apartment of a 32-year-old skin diver named JackDulin.  She was looking for her daughter.  Jack had inhospitably welcomed her with a load of shot from an old English pistol.     Preliminary to this, Mrs. Aadland had made an unsuccessful court attempt to retrain him from dating her 17-year-old daughter.  When I met with her she was still smarting from this setback.     She barely made it inside my office before announcing, "If the man who came up with that verdict calls himself a judge, then I'm Lana Turner."     It was following this rather intriguing commentary on the American judicial system that we got down to the subject of our two-man seminar:  The care and feeding of precocious children.

Closing Arguments in Finch Trial; Chessman’s Fate Up to Legislature

Photograph by John Malmin / Los Angeles Times July 22, 1959: Carole Tregoff waits to be questioned by investigators. Los Angeles Times file photo Feb. 19, 1960: Students on Market Street in San Francisco protest the upcoming execution of Caryl Chessman.

Feb. 27, 1960: Attorney A.L. Wirin defends Caryl Chessman and Mickey Cohen. Years ago, I interviewed Wirin’s partner, Fred Okrand, who said that defending Cohen paid for their ACLU work. Notice that The Times identifies Cohen as a “former hoodlum.”

Paul V. Coates – Confidential File, Dec. 29, 1959

Incredibly, Old Con Game Still Works           The name of the game is “pigeon drop.”           And, like pinochle, it generally requires three players.           Unlike pinochle, however, two of them must be equipped with glib tongues.  The third player -- in the parlance of those dedicated to its perpetuity -- is the pigeon.           He loses.           The game itself is so broad, so base, so obvious, that it should never work.  But records of its success date back hundreds of years.           It has become a classic among con artists.  They like it because it requires no elaborate plans or equipment, no special locale.           It can be played on a street corner.  Any street corner.           Basically, its rules are these:           First, find a pigeon.  Somebody with money (at least a few hundred bucks) and a desire for more.            The pigeon can’t be 100% morally honest or the game won’t work.  But you’d be amazed at the number of people who considered themselves pillars of their communities until they joined the growing list of victims.           The initial step is for one of the con artists to “find” a wallet or a purse loaded with money.  (This can be achieved by flashing a “Chicago bank roll” -- a $20 or $50 bill wrapped around a wad of ones.)           Frequently, the purse is “found” in the presence of the pigeon.  But whatever the circumstances, the con man always insists that the sucker is, by virtue of his presence, entitled to a share.           Here’s where the “good faith” clause comes in.  The pigeon is asked to prove that he’s a respectable citizen.  He must show that he has assets.  Cash assets.           If the victim has no large amount of money on his person, he’s asked to draw a few hundred or a few thousand dollars out of the bank, with assurance that his own money will never leave his sight.           Variations in the plot are limitless, but generally, along about this time, the second con man joins the game.  He’s a “respectable businessman.”  He’s approached by the first con man and the victim to “hold” the purse while the victim gets his “good faith” money.           Then, through an envelope switch, a quick “phone call to make” pitch, or any of a dozen other ruses, the pigeon and his money parted.           The “pigeon drop” is vicious, not so much in its execution, but in its selection of victims. Invariably, the victims are the elderly -- people whose moral standards can become easily confused.  The con artists will tell the victim, for example, that the money was found with a pair of race track tickets -- and obviously was won gambling -- and therefore it’s all right not to return it.           A few weeks ago, at 54th and Broadway,  a pair of women, one about 30, another about 55, used a similar approach on a 69-year-old housewife who had stepped out to do some shopping.           The housewife had suffered a stroke not too long ago and was, according to her husband, still easily confused.           The pair offered to let her share in $9,000 they claimed to have found, and by the time they were through with her a couple of hours later, she had drawn out her entire life savings of $7,700 and was left standing on the fourth floor of an office building at 9th and Hill Sts. Waiting for a fictitious “Mr. Adkins.”           They, of course, were long gone with her $7,700 by the time she realized what had happened.   Hard-Earned Savings Gone             “Since before World War I, we’ve been in the small restaurant business,” the victim’s husband told me yesterday.  “We worked hard all our lives -- 20 hours a day.  Now we’ve lost everything.”           Christmas, 1959, passed by their house unnoticed, he said.           “Our nerves are gone,” he told me.  “We’ve just gone haywire.  Christmas Eve we stayed up, but honestly, we were so confused we thought it was New Year’s Eve.”           The man asked me not to mention his name.           I won’t.  But I am mentioning the case, because maybe somebody else who’s a little confused might benefit from the reminder that the pigeon drop, old and unbelievable as it is, still works.

Matt Weinstock, Dec. 23, 1959

Erring Blacklisters Sorry     A week after it was disclosed, the strange case of Louis Pollock is still the big talk among Hollywood writers.     Pollock has written a dozen screenplays and 30 television plays in the past five years.  He sold only one.  But he kept banging away at his typewriter, hoping, as all writers hope, that he'd hit.  It never occurred to him that anything was wrong.     A few weeks ago an executive in the entertainment business asked him about his background.  Pollock, puzzled, wondered why he was asking the questions.  The executive told him a Louis Pollack -- with an a -- was "on the list" and his work was not acceptable.      POLLOCK CHECKED the House-Un-American Activities Committee and received a letter apologizing for any embarrassment caused him.  It was a case of mistaken identity.  A San Diego businessman named Louis Pollack was called as a witness but refused to testify before the committee there in April, 1934.      Louis Pollock's five-year writing blight is presumably over but the case has a sensitive subject -- a blacklist.  Writers have long suspected there is one.  Film and TV brass have steadfastly denied it.      Now writers are talking about an investigation of the self-appointed blacklisters. ::     WHEN Sidi Mohammed Morocco applied for citizenship in 1929 he spoke virtually no English and through the ministrations of a busy and unsympathetic clerk he was naturalized as Moe Barada.     A few days ago he appeared in Burbank Superior Court with a petition to have his true name restored, which Judge V. P. Lucas granted.  So he isn't Moe anymore. ::     HIDING PLACE Our Christmas gifts We keep on deposit For weeks in a room Called our Santa Clauset.     --RICHARD ARMOUR ::      AS REPORTED HERE, photog Emil Ouhel had difficulty unearthing the Eskimo phrase for Merry Christmas to put on a greeting card.  Best guess was Chreeseema Ek Pin.  Further research revealed the Eskimos had no Christmas as such until the Christians introduced it, so there is no actual Eskimo word for it.  However, Emil learned that the word Gha -Mai means greetings on a festive occasion and that's what's on his card.  Incidentally, when he inquired of the Juneau Chamber of Commerce about it, he was informed that Eskimos speak English now. Gha-Mai, everyone. ::     WHENEVER A suspicious-sized package arrives in most offices the procedure is usually to shake it to determine if it gurgles.  Well, a new, no-nonsense printed tab has appeared on packages this year stating "Rattle OK" . . . Mattel's Yuletide gift triumph is a two-stage missile propelled skyward by air and water pressure.  It is two-feet high and has a warhead with a concealed cap, which explodes on landing. ::     A MAN IN A downtown saloon:  "I say let the amateurs have Christmas.  They're the ones who create all the trouble and get the cops down on us professional drinkers!" . . . For Christmas a Laguna  Beach gal named Ester always gives friends angels sculpted out of soap.  One recipient remarked, "Gosh, even the angels are only 99.44% pure this season!" ::     AROUND TOWN -- Edna Singer, a dressmaker, drew license plates with the letters SEW . . . P.B. Ayers reports this sign in  a Huntington Park pet shop:  "Not responsible for livestock left here by act of God" . . . A bus stop bench on Florence Ave. advertises, "Around the corner -- rooms for men with refrigeration" . . . The spectacular 100 member Polish Ballet at the Philharmonic Auditorium is part of the cultural exchange program with that country, approved by the State Department and didn't require Nikita's OK.

Shooting Victim’s Father Accused of Seeking Revenge

Tony Reno says he was attacked by Fred Whalen, the father of shooting victim Jack “the Enforcer” Whalen.

Dec. 16, 1959: Vice President Richard Nixon holds a wide margin among Republican voters over all other GOP contenders in the 1960 presidential race, the Gallup poll finds.

LoCigno Arraigned in Whalen Killing

Darryl Kemp’s prints are found in Marjorie Hipperson’s apartment. “Yes, I’ll Leave Now!”   Dmitri Shostakovich gives some lumps to Louis Armstrong and Leonard Bernstein. Now you know what a Shamash is. A robe is $55 at Oviatt’s – that’s $401.90 USD 2008.

Dec. 12, 1959: The Yankees trade Don Larsen to the Kansas City Athletics for Roger Maris. The Yankees also get Joe DeMaestri and Kent Hadley in return for Norm Siebern, Hank Bauer and Marv Throneberry. "Maris, who began his big league career with Cleveland, batted .273 with 16 homers and 72 runs batted in last season," the AP says.

Texas a Gateway for Drugs From Mexico, Officials Say

Walter W. Williams, 117, the last living Civil War veteran, is in critical condition.   “Dear Jesus, I am writing to you instead of Santa because you are what Christmas is. I would like to say before we all forget happy birthday and thank you for the present of you.”

“Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo” by Ted W. Lawson and Robert Considine. You know the scene in “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo” where they fly under the bridge? Don’t do it.

Sam LoCigno is indicted in the killing of Jack “the Enforcer” Whalen. Engineer Bill in person at Builders Emporium in Van Nuys … and Covina! The Watts Towers are “bizarre.”

Ingmar Bergman’s “The Seventh Seal” and “Smiles of a Summer Night” are adults-only.

Former world champion featherweight, lightweight and junior welterweight Tony Canzoneri is found dead in his New York hotel room. He had been dead about two days, officials say.