Mob FilesPublic-domain archive of American organized crime

Louis Kaufman

"The local agent of the New Jersey local" of the stagehands' union, in the Second Circuit's words. His conviction in the motion-picture extortion case, on evidence of a $15,000 payment from Warner Brothers' New Jersey subsidiary in 1936, was affirmed in 1944.

Role
"The local agent of the New Jersey local" of the union. Court opinion: United States v. Compagna (2d Cir. 1944), "three officers of the local, one of whom was Kaufman, the local agent of the New Jersey local"
Source
United States v. Compagna, 146 F.2d 524 (2d Cir. 1944)
Rights
Biography on this page is limited to what the cited federal records state.

On the record

  • 1936 — United States v. Compagna (2d Cir. 1944), in a separate part headed "Kaufman's Case," summarizes the evidence that in October 1936, after a wage contract was settled, he was handed $15,000 in cash from Warner Brothers' New Jersey subsidiary and said he did not get a cent of it because "I have to go across the river"; that in 1939 he told the company he "had had to pay to Bioff the whole $15,000"; and that he was paid a further $5,000 in 1939 and 1940.
  • 20 December 1944 — The Second Circuit affirmed his conviction. J. Bertram Wegman and Harold Simandl appeared for him.
  • 2 April 1945 — Compagna v. United States, 324 U.S. 867: certiorari denied in No. 946, the petition filed by the same counsel.

The role field quotes the Second Circuit. It is a union office, and Kaufman holds no seat on any chart in this archive. The opinion treats his case separately because “the case against Kaufman is somewhat different from that against the rest.” No record opened for this archive gives his sentence, birth or death.

Records

itemUnited States v. Compagna, 146 F.2d 524 (2d Cir. 1944)Second Circuit opinion of December 20, 1944 affirming the convictions of Compagna and six others for a conspiracy to extort money from motion-picture producers and exhibitors, 1935 to 1940.itemCompagna v. United States, 324 U.S. 867 (1945): certiorari deniedThe Supreme Court's order of 2 April 1945 denying the petitions for certiorari in the motion-picture extortion case. "Reported below: 146 F. 2d 524."