For the mob, a bad day for business

July 9, 1974: A federal grand jury indicted a dozen suspects in a major crackdown on organized crime, The Times reported. Attorney Richard P. Crane Jr., who led the effort, said his team uncovered “a scheme to extort ‘protection’ money from a Woodland Hills restaurant through threats of labor trouble and stink bombs.”

Suspects also set up a phony bookmaking operation to get a would-be partner’s money. And “one local bookmaker was ‘sweated’ in a steam bath until he agreed to come up with $300 a week in protection money from his gambling venture,” the newspaper reported.

One government attorney said the authorities’ crackdown “puts the Mafia out of business” in Los Angeles.

A little more than a year later, however, Police Chief Edward M. Davis declared in a private memo to the City Council that the Mafia still had a foothold and added: “Los Angeles offers the hope of being one of the rottenest cities in the world.”