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<\/a>, the book,\u00a0Supermob: How Sidney Korshak and His Criminal Associates Became America’s Hidden Power Brokers<\/a>, charges in part that during the 1970s, Brown took campaign contributions from mob figures and, in return, granted them political favors.<\/p>\nRusso has written several books on organized crime, including\u00a0The Outfit<\/a>: The Role of Chicago\u2019s Underworld in the Shaping of Modern America,\u00a0Live By The Sword: The Secret War Against Castro and the Death ofJFK<\/a>, and\u00a0Gangsters and Goodfellas: Wiseguys, Witness Protection, and Life on the Run<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ace Smith, a campaign consultant for the Brown campaign, called the allegations \u201cwacky and nutty\u201d and \u201claughably idiotic.\u201d When the Daily Planet offered to fax the Brown campaign copies of the passages from Russo\u2019s book that make reference to Brown, Smith said, \u201cI don\u2019t need to see any passages from the book to make a comment. This is like talking about Bigfoot or the Loch Ness monster. These allegations have about as much credibility as Al Capone\u2019s vault.\u201d<\/p>\n In his book, Russo repeats allegations that Brown ran for governor in 1974 with the help of several figures with alleged organized crime ties, including the powerful Hollywood attorney Sidney Korshak, whom the Bloomsbury book describes as \u201cthe underworld\u2019s primary link to the corporate upperworld\u201d and \u201caccording to the FBI, [the] player behind countless 20th century power mergers, political deals, and organized crime chicaneries.\u201d<\/p>\n Korshak, who died in 1996 and is described by Russo as a \u201cpal\u201d of Brown\u2019s father, Governor Pat Brown, has a thick online file on the Federal Bureau of Investigation\u2019s website that alleges extensive ties to organized crime. Russo writes that a 1978 report on California\u2019s Organized Crime Control Commission issued by then-California Attorney General Evelle Younger called Korshak \u201cthe key link between organized crime and big business \u2026 A U.S. Justice Department official has described Korshak as a \u2018senior advisor\u2019 to organized crime groups\u201d in several states, including California.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen Brown enlisted electronics mogul Richard Silberman \u2026 as his chief fund-raiser [for the 1974 campaign],\u201d Russo writes in Supermob, \u201cit quickly became apparent that the same Chicago money that had transformed California in the forties would continue to play a key role in the seventies. (Silberman would be convicted in a 1991 FBI drug-ring money-laundering scheme.) Thus, with a brilliant media campaign, massive contributions from the likes of Lew Wasserman, Jake \u2018the Barber\u2019 Factor, and later Sidney Korshak, Brown defeated [Republican State Controller Houston] Flournoy by 175,000 votes.\u201d<\/p>\n In return, Russo alleges in his book that Brown gave favors back to alleged mob figures, including appointing the brother-in-law of Teamsters union leader and Korshak associate Edward Hanley as one of the directors of the California Agricultural Association, which Russo says \u201cnamed the concessionaires at all the state\u2019s racetracks and county fairs.\u201d<\/p>\n Russo alleges that profits from these concessions were later \u201cskimmed\u201d off and sent to reported mob figures. In addition, Russo alleges that Brown once tried to close down the Hollywood Park racetrack as a favor to Korshak, who Russo says \u201cwas \u2026 trying to pave the way for an organized crime takeover of the facility.\u201d<\/p>\n The racetrack allegations were so widely reported in California at the time that they later became the subject of a series of Doonesbury cartoons by Gary Trudeau. In one Doonesbury strip reprinted in Supermob, Trudeau depicts a reporter talking on the telephone to a Brown associate only named \u201cGray,\u201d a reference to then-Jerry Brown Chief of Staff Gray Davis. \u201cLet me get this straight, Gray\u2014who exactly did Jerry solicit the contribution from?\u201d the reporter asks. \u201cA guy named Sidney Korshak,\u201d \u2018Gray\u2019 answers. \u201cHe\u2019s the local low-life, an alumnus from the Capone mob.\u201d<\/p>\n Brown was quoted in Time Magazine in July of 1979 that he thought the Doonesbury cartoons were \u201cfalse and libelous, but I\u2019m flattered by the attention.\u201d<\/p>\n When Gray Davis ran for governor in 1998, the San Francisco Chronicle made reference to the old allegations, with political reporter Robert Gunnison writing that \u201cBrown \u2026 appointed [Davis] to the California Horse Racing Board in 1979. It was a particularly volatile time for the panel. Critics said he was appointed to help Service Employees International Union clerks during a strike at Golden Gate Fields. The union\u2019s lawyer, Sidney Korshak, was alleged by the state attorney general to be an organized crime figure.\u201d<\/p>\n Russo alleges that Korshak\u2019s influence on California governors was not limited to Brown and his father, but also included Ronald Reagan. Russo also alleges that Korshak sought to help Brown achieve higher office past the California governship, writing that \u201cKorshak\u2019s Service Employees Union \u2026 dispatched workers and cars\u201d to New Hamphsire in 1979 \u201cto assist Brown\u2019s effort\u201d in the primary against Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter.<\/p>\n Some of Russo\u2019s information concerning the allegations of the Brown-organized crime connection came from the Berkeley Daily Planet reporter Richard Brenneman, who wrote news articles on the issue in the 1970s while a reporter with the Santa Monica Evening Outlook. Brenneman is listed in the book as a source.<\/p>\n Thanks to\u00a0J. Douglas Allen-Tayler<\/a><\/p>\n