John Factor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John "Jake the Barber" Factor was a Prohibition-era gangster. He was the brother of prominant businessman Max Factor, Sr, the founder of Max Factor.
Contents |
[edit] Early years
Born Iakov Factrowitz, the son of a rabbi, he and his family left England, returning to Łódź, Poland not long after his birth. The family emigrated to the United States in 1904, settling in St. Louis, Missouri. Even though he was poorly educated, Factor had a sharp mind and by the early 1920s was becoming known as a successful confidence man. In 1930, he joined with mobster Arnold Rothstein to pull off what was then considered the largest swindle in European history.
[edit] Jake Factor's "kidnapping"
In 1933, Factor was on the run from England, where he had been sentenced to a total of twenty-four years. Factor worked a deal with Al Capone to fake a kidnapping and blame it on Roger "Tough" Touhy. Touhy was convicted on false evidence and sentenced to 99 years in prison. The kidnapping had been set up to eliminate Touhy from competition in Chicago.
Touhy, Factor's wrongly accused kidnapper, escaped from prison in 1942, but was soon recaptured. He was finally found innocent of all charges and released on November 25, 1959. Touhy was shot to death while visiting his sister on December 17. He was probably murdered on the orders of Murray "The Hump" Humphreys, whom he had humiliated many years earlier, and who was acting on behalf of Jake Factor. Touhy had written a book about his false imprisonment, The Stolen Years.
[edit] Later years
At the time of Roger Touhy's death, Jake the Barber, now well involved with mob interests in California and Las Vegas, was in Chicago, enjoying a steak at The Singapore, a Mob-controlled restaurant on Rush Street. He later became the front man for Chicago at The Stardust Casino, after its creator, Los Angeles gambler and crime figure Tony Cornero, died in 1955, shortly before the casino was finished construction. On December 3rd 1962, the extradition case back to England was given a Presidential Pardon by John F. Kennedy. In exchange Jake gave $25,000 in cash to fund the Bay of Pigs fiasco. He sold the Stardust Casino for $14 million and claimed bankruptcy.
The IRS looked into Factor's financial records and found that Jake did not pay taxes from 1935 to 1939. He was also found to have the lump sum of $479,093.27 to his name. When the government asked Jake how he got the money, he said could not remember. Later, Jake tried to bail out Teamsters Union boss Jimmy Hoffa of his financial Florida real estate problems. He was also involved in a questionable stock transaction with Murray "The Hump" Humphreys.
Jake spent the last twenty years of his life as a benefactor to California's black ghettos. He spent millions of dollars building churches, gyms, parks and low-cost housing in poverty stricken black ghettos. When Jake Factor died, three U.S. Senators, the mayor of Los Angeles and several hundred poor African-Americans attended his funeral.
[edit] Further reading
- McDougal, Dennis. The Last Mogul: Lew Wasserman, MCA, and the Hidden History of Hollywood. New York: Da Capo Press, 2001. ISBN 0-306-81050-6
- Merriner, James L. Grafters and Goo Goos: Corruption and Reform in Chicago, 1833-2003. Southern Illinois Univ. Press, 2004. ISBN 0-8093-2571-3
- Moldea, Dan E. Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA, and the Mob. New York: Penguin Books, 1987. ISBN 0-14-010478-X
- Pietrusza, David. Rothstein: The Life, Times, and Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2003. ISBN 0-7867-1250-3
