On Crime
Mortimer served as a first lieutenant in the Signal Corps from 1942 to 1943, then returned to New York City and began a collaboration with Jack Lait that produced several bestselling crime books. Following that success, Mortimer began lecturing on crime and communism, and at one point attempted to tie popular singer Frank Sinatra to the Mafia and the Communist Party. The two men had a confrontation in Hollywood on April 9, 1947 outside Ciro's restaurant, resulting in the arrest of Sinatra the following day on a battery complaint, after Mortimer accused Sinatra of throwing a punch.
Read more about this topic: Lee Mortimer
Famous quotes containing the word crime:
“Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of temperance. It is a species of intemperance within itself, for it goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man’s appetite by legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A Prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“[T]here is only one sound argument for democracy, and that is the argument that it is a crime for any man to hold himself out as better than other men, and, above all, a most heinous offense for him to prove it.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)