{{short description|Los Angeles underworld figure (1902–1962)}} {{use mdy dates|date=June 2024|cs1-dates=ly}} {{use American English|date=June 2024}} {{Infobox person | name = Jimmy Utley | image = File:Jimmy Utley being taken to jail, 1954.jpg | alt = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software --> | caption = Jimmy Utley being taken to jail, Christmas Day 1954<br>{{small|(''Los Angeles Times'' photo collection via UCLA Digital)}} | birth_name = <!-- only use if different from name --> | birth_date = {{birth date|1902|12|04}} | birth_place = Connecticut | death_date = {{death date|1962|10|19|1902|12|04}} | death_place = Folsom Prison, California, U.S. | nationality = <!-- use only when necessary per WP:INFONAT --> | other_names = | occupation = | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = | children = }}
'''James Francis Utley''' (December 4, 1902{{snd}}October 19, 1962) also known as '''Jimmy "the Eel"''', '''James Baxter''', and '''James Bradley''', was an underworld figure of mid-20th-century southern California in the United States, known for running bingo games and an illegal-abortion ring.
== Career == In 1942, Mickey Cohen and a couple of goons pistolwhipped Utley for conversing with L.A. cop E. D. "Roughhouse" Brown in front of Lucey's Restaurant. Utley denied having any knowledge of who had beaten him when questioned by other cops. Los Angeles boss Jack Dragna later took Cohen to task for this action.{{sfnp|Buntin|2010|pages=93}} At one point Mickey Cohen (wrongly) suspected Jimmy Utley was responsible for shooting of Neddie Herbert.{{sfnp|Bash|Niotta|2021|page=210}}
During the administration of Los Angeles mayor Fletcher Bowron, Utley got together with four associates in a hotel room in 1949 to see if the anti-gaming mayor could not possibly be recalled. The other attendees of this meeting included Max Kleiger, a bookie; Bob Gans, who had run slot machines in town since the 1910s; Curley Robinson, who ran slots and pinball machines since Gans' alleged retirement in 1938; and Sam Rummel, Mickey Cohen's lawyer.{{sfnp|Buntin|2010|pages=162–163}}
According to a 1950 California state report on organized crime, "Utley is not a gang leader in the ordinary sense of the word; he is the proprietor of a number of gambling enterprises, the financial backer of many others, and is associated with a group known as 'The Five,' which is presently seeking to exert underworld control through political activity. It will be remembered that Utley was the victim years ago of a pistol whipping at the hands of [Mickey] Cohen and one of his fellow hoodlums in a Los Angeles restaurant. His career since 1939 has been relatively obscure. Before that, he had acquired a record of 11 arrests in the years from 1928 to 1939 for robbery, pimping, extortion, and violations of the narcotics laws, although he was never convicted. Among Utley's enterprises is the promotion of 'bingo' games, a form of lottery in which his investments extended as far north as San Mateo County in the San Francisco area. The latter project failed, however, when the district attorney's office of that county successfully prosecuted the operators of the game and prevented it from reopening. During the same period of time, similar action in Los Angeles resulted in the closing of his bingo games there."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Third progress report of the Special Crime Study Commission on Organized Crime |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/osu.32437121670554?urlappend=%3Bseq=41 |access-date=2024-06-05 |website=HathiTrust |page=33 | hdl=2027/osu.32437121670554?urlappend=%3Bseq=41 |language=en}}</ref>
At one point in his career, Utley told police that he had "acted as go-between" between Charlie Cradick, who ran "pin-games" in the city, and Clifford Clinton, who ran a municipal anti-corruption crusade called CIVIC. Supposedly, "Cradick traded information for immunity from CIVIC's prodding".<ref>{{Cite news |date=1972-04-09 |title=One Hundred Points When Lit [part 1] |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-one-hundred-points/148779005/ |access-date=2024-06-06 |work=The Los Angeles Times |pages=439}}</ref>
Circa 1953, the Los Angeles ''Illustrated Daily News'' claimed Jimmy "Early Foot" Utley was one of several underworld figures who frequented Culver City's Toddle House{{Mdash}}said to be a center of prostitution{{Mdash}}and that at one time Utley had been a "dope peddler".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Strange |first=Jack |date=1953-08-07 |title=Police pay fight points Culver City rackets |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-news-police-pay-fight-points-culve/148900990/ |access-date=2024-06-09 |work=Daily News |pages=3}}</ref>
Utley went to prison in 1956 when he was convicted of running a business offering illegal operations (a common euphemism for abortion) that reportedly grossed {{USD|500000|1956}} annually.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1956-12-18 |title=Utley and Arons Found Guilty of Illegal Surgery |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-utley-and-arons-fo/148728247/ |access-date=2024-06-05 |work=The Los Angeles Times |pages=2}}</ref> He was sentenced to 10 years in Folsom prison,<ref>{{Cite news |date=1960-06-07 |title=Utley Also Must Serve U.S. Term |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-utley-also-must-se/148728793/ |access-date=2024-06-05 |work=The Los Angeles Times |pages=40}}</ref> and died there of a heart attack in 1962.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1962-11-01 |title=Prisoner Dies |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-sacramento-union-prisoner-dies/148723174/ |access-date=2024-06-05 |work=The Sacramento Union |pages=21}}</ref>
== References == {{reflist}}
=== Sources === {{refbegin|indent=yes}} * {{cite book |title=Los Angeles Underworld |series=Images of America |first1=Avi |last1=Bash |first2=J. Michael |last2=Niotta |year=2021 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |location=Charleston, South Carolina |isbn=978-1-43967-209-9 |oclc=1243543276 |lccn=2020947165 }} * {{cite book |last=Buntin |first=John |year=2010 |title=L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City |publisher=Crown |isbn=9780307352088 }} {{refend}}
== External links == * {{Cite web |last=jhgraham |date=2022-05-27 |title=Jimmy Utley: LA's Utterly Underrated Criminal |url=https://jhgraham.com/2022/05/26/jimmy-utley-las-utterly-underrated-criminal/ |website=J. H. GRAHAM: Author of the Avery Shepard Detective Mystery Series |language=en}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Utley, James Francis}} Category:1902 births Category:1962 deaths Category:Businesspeople from Los Angeles Category:Inmates of Folsom State Prison Category:20th-century American people Category:Organized crime in Los Angeles