Letters From Grandpa #581

• LETTERS FROM GRANDPA
• 581

Dearest grandchild,

Today’s letter has been condensed from the book Loving God by Chuck Colson. Myer Harris Cohen, known by friends and enemies as "Mickey" was at one time the number one gangster in Los Angeles. Born in poverty in New York he became a New Jersey punk and strong-arm man. Later he moved to Los Angeles and became a self-styled gangster in the tradition of Al Capone whom he admired.

Cohen was tough to the core. Contracts had been repeatedly put out on his life. His home had been bombed, and his car machine-gunned. By 1949 Cohen was the top man in the L.A. underworld handling a million dollars a day from illegal gambling and crime. He had a luxurious home, a glamorous wife, and an iron grip on Los Angeles. Prominent police officers and other powerful individuals were on his payroll.

One night in 1949 Cohen received a phone call from one of his employees named Jim Vaus. Jim was an electronics wizard who was one of the original wire-tappers. He had even worked for the police before establishing contact with the underworld. Since Vaus seemed urgent he was invited to Cohen's home. Here Vaus explained that he had attended a Billy Graham Crusade in L.A. and had become a Christian. Consequently he was canceling all commitments to the crime syndicate.

Mickey was willing to allow Vaus to back out from his employment, but other underworld figures were not so understanding. When Jim told some of his contacts in St. Louis about this decision they assured him that they would be coming for him. When the musclemen arrived Vaus assumed he would be crippled or killed, but 45 minutes later, after hearing his testimony, they left and never bothered him again.

Jim Vaus was so repentant for his crimes that he even sold his house and car to pay back some of the money he had stolen. Cohen, who was a Jew, thought all gentiles were "Christians" and had little or no concept of conversion. Intrigued, however, by what happened to Jim Vaus, he went to a special meeting of select individuals like Stuart and Suzy Hamblen, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, etc., to hear Graham preach. That night Mickey Cohen raised his hand to receive a free copy of the Gospel of John. When the I.R.S. finally caught up with Cohen, however, he was sentenced to five years in jail. He was released in October of 1955 and returned to L.A. a broken man.

Before going to prison Vaus had introduced Cohen to a leading layman in the Los Angeles area named W.E. Jones. Jones was delivered by Christ from a life of addiction to alcohol and gambling and was well qualified to witness to Mickey Cohen. Ultimately Cohen even repeated the penitent's prayer and flew to New York to see Billy Graham who was then in a crusade in Madison Square Garden.

Later Cohen would say, "Jones, you never told me that I had to give up my career. You never told me that I had to give up my friends. There are Christian movie stars, Christian athletes, Christian businessmen. So what's the matter with being a Christian gangster? . . . If I have to give up all that, if that's Christianity, count me out."

Cohen lived out his final years quietly and died of cancer on July 29, 1976. He was alone when he left this world. His wife had divorced him ... there were no body guards or dancing girls there . . . not even newspaper reporters clamoring to cover the story.

Charles Colson in reflecting upon Cohen's life used him as an example to underscore the need for repentance. When Cohen inquired about the possibility of becoming a "Christian Gangster" he was echoing the sentiments of millions who lack the audacity to state their case so bluntly. C.S. Lewis referred to such people as "hyphenated Christians."

In reality Jesus must be the Lord of all or He will not be Lord at all. We cannot scrape God off the crumbs of our life like He was a mongrel dog on the back porch. Jesus is the Creator of all things and will someday summon us to His coronation when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Please never make the mistake of trying to be a “hyphenated Christian” or a "Christian Gangster. "

I love you,

Grandpa Boyce