Philip Cohen

Philip "Little Farvel" Cohen alias Jack Kofsky (1906 or 1907 – September 15, 1949 ) was a figure from organized crime in New York in the 1930s, now considered a member of the so called Kosher Nostra. According to the authorities, Cohen, a former rackets collector, was a member of the criminal organization Murder, Inc., led by Louis Buchalter and, like the gang leader and other members of the organization, was involved in international drug trafficking.

International drug trafficking According to the findings of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN), the international drug trade intended for the USA in the 1920s and 1930s was largely controlled by Jacob Katzenberg, who was based in New York City. This supplied a large number of criminal gangs, including the organization around Louis Buchalter, to which Philip Cohen also belonged, with opium, which was initially obtained from Europe and later directly from China and then sold on nationally in the USA. The many murders carried out by Cohen's organization, which the press dubbed Murder, Inc., were largely based on enabling and covering up crimes of the criminal organization and the National Crime Syndicate, such as the drug trafficking organized by Katzenberg. This was actively supported by Murder, Inc. and can be seen as one of the main sources of income for the criminal organization in addition to the infiltration of unions and related industries - such as in particular the clothing industry in the Garment District (Manhattan).

Philip Cohen and his accomplice Emanuel Weiss were heavily involved in the criminal organization's drug deals. The FBN first became aware of the group's machinations in 1935 when the remains of an opium processing plant were discovered by authorities after an explosion in a residential building on Seymour Avenue in New York City. In 1937, the FBN believed it had secured evidence of a violation of the US Narcotics Act by Cohen and Weiss when they managed to find Jacob Gottlieb at Rouses Point in New York State with a suitcase full of heroin. When he was arrested, he told the authorities that he had smuggled drugs from France through Canada to the USA for Cohen and Weiss and that the two were his clients. Shortly afterwards, while still in custody, Gottlieb committed suicide by hanging himself in his cell for fear of retaliation by Murder, Inc. against him or his family.

After several months of manhunt, New York police officers managed to arrest Cohen in a Brooklyn apartment during a nightly house search on November 30, 1940, and found the wanted man exhausted and under the influence of drugs. There was no sign of his accomplice Weiss. In February 1941, Philip Cohen and the three remaining defendants were sentenced to three to ten years in prison. Cohen was sentenced to ten years. The authorities ruled out robbery and rather classified the act as a classic underworld-style execution; the perpetrators had no interest in various valuables that Cohen was carrying. Police officers later found Cohen's car with traces of blood on the passenger seat. Allegedly, Cohen was murdered in a manner similar to that of several Murder, Inc. victims who were shot dead by a perpetrator sitting behind them during a final drive. However, prosecutor Burton Turkus, who served in the Joseph Rosen murder case, contradicted claims in the press that Cohen may have been murdered in retaliation for the conviction and execution of Louis Buchalter, Emanuel Weiss and Louis Capone to avoid the electric chair himself. In fact, Cohen never cooperated with the authorities, said Turkus. In typical underworld fashion, the accused kept silent about any offers made by the public prosecutor. The day Cohen was released from the dock for lack of evidence, he turned to Buchalter in the courtroom and assured him that he had not cooperated nor would cooperate.