Roy Cohn | |
|---|---|
 Cohn in 1964 | |
| Special Assistant to theUnited States Attorney General | |
| In office September 3, 1952 – January 20, 1953 | |
| President | Harry S. Truman |
| Attorney General | James P. McGranery |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Roy Marcus Cohn (1927-02-20)February 20, 1927 New York, New York, U.S. |
| Died | August 2, 1986(1986-08-02) (aged 59) Bethesda, Maryland, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Complications due toHIV/AIDS |
| Political party | Democratic[1] |
| Parent |
|
| Relatives | Joshua Lionel Cowen (maternal great-uncle) |
| Alma mater | Columbia University (BA,LLB) |
| Occupation | |
| Known for | Prosecution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (1951) Chief Counsel to United States SenatorJoseph McCarthy fromWisconsin (1951–1954) Attorney toDonald Trump (1973–1986) |
Roy Marcus Cohn (/koʊn/KOHN; February 20, 1927 – August 2, 1986) was an American lawyer and prosecutor. He first gained fame as a prosecutor ofJulius and Ethel Rosenberg in their trials (1952–53) and as SenatorJoseph McCarthy's chief counsel during theArmy–McCarthy hearings in 1954. Cohn had been assistingMcCarthy's investigations of suspectedcommunists. In the 1970s and during the 1980s, he became a prominent legal and politicalfixer in New York City.[2][3] He represented and mentoredDonald Trump during Trump's earlybusiness career.[4]
Cohn was born inthe Bronx in New York City and educated atColumbia University. He rose to prominence as aU.S. Department of Justice prosecutor at the espionage trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, where he successfully prosecuted the Rosenbergs, which led to their conviction and execution in 1953. After his time as prosecuting chief counsel during the McCarthy trials, his reputation deteriorated during the late 1950s to late 1970s as he settled in New York City and became a private lawyer to many clients, including real estate magnates, political operatives, Catholic clergy and organized crime.
In 1986, Cohn wasdisbarred by theAppellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court for unethical conduct after attempting to defraud a dying client by forcing him to sign a will amendment leaving his fortune to Cohn.[5] Cohn died five weeks later fromAIDS-related complications, having vehemently denied that he wasHIV-positive.[6] Cohn has been the subject of many media portrayals before and since his death.
Born to an affluentJewish family inthe Bronx, New York City, Cohn was the only child of Dora (née Marcus)[7] and JusticeAlbert C. Cohn; Cohn's father was anassistant district attorney of Bronx County at the time, and was later appointed as a judge of the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court.[8][1] His maternal great-uncle wasJoshua Lionel Cowen, the founder and long-time owner of theLionel Corporation, a manufacturer of toy trains.[9] A botched pediatric surgery to modify the appearance of his nose left Cohn with a prominent scar.[10]
Cohn and his mother were close; they lived together until her death in 1967 and she was constantly attentive to his grades, appearance and relationships.[11] When Cohn's father insisted that his son be sent to a summer camp, his mother rented a house near the camp and her presence cast a pall over his experience. In personal interactions, Cohn showed tenderness which was absent from his public persona, but he was vain and deeply insecure.[11]
Cohn's maternal grandfather Joseph S. Marcus founded theBank of United States in 1913. The bank failed in 1931 during theGreat Depression, and its then-president Bernie Marcus, Cohn's uncle, was convicted of fraud. Bernie Marcus was imprisoned atSing Sing, and the young Cohn frequently visited him there.[12]
After attendingFieldston School and theHorace Mann School and completing studies atColumbia University in 1946, Cohn graduated fromColumbia Law School at the age of 20.[13][14][15]
After graduating from law school, Cohn worked as a clerk for the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York for two years. In May 1948, at age 21, he was old enough to beadmitted to the New York bar.[16] He became anassistant U.S. attorney later that month.[17][18] That same year, Cohn also became a board member of theAmerican Jewish League Against Communism.[19]
As an Assistant U.S. Attorney, Cohn helped to secure convictions in a number of well-publicized trials of accusedSovietmoles. One of the first began in December 1950 with the prosecution ofWilliam Remington, a formerCommerce Department employee and member of theWar Production Board who had been charged withespionage following the defection of formerKGBhandlerElizabeth Bentley.[20] Although an indictment for espionage could not be secured, Remington had denied his long-time membership in theCommunist Party USA under oath on two separate occasions and was later convicted ofperjury in two separate trials.[20]
While working inIrving H. Saypol's office for the Southern District of New York, Cohn assisted with the prosecutor's case against 11 senior members of the American Communist Party for advocating for the violent overthrow of theU.S. Federal Government, under theSmith Act.[21]
Cohn played a prominent role in the 1951 espionage trial ofJulius and Ethel Rosenberg. Cohn'sdirect examination of Ethel's brother,David Greenglass, produced testimony that was central to the Rosenbergs' conviction and subsequent execution. Greenglass testified that he had assisted the espionage activities of his brother-in-law by acting as a courier of classified documents that had been stolen from theManhattan Project byKlaus Fuchs.
Greenglass would later change his story and allege that he committedperjury at the trial in order "to protect himself and his wife, Ruth, and that he was encouraged by the prosecution to do so."[22] Cohn always took great pride in the Rosenberg verdict and claimed to have played an even greater part than his public role. He said in his autobiography that his own influence had led to both Chief Prosecutor Saypol and JudgeIrving Kaufman being appointed to the case. Cohn further said that Kaufman imposed the death penalty based on his personal recommendation.[23] Cohn denied, however, participation in any illegalex parte discussions.[24][25]
Consensus among historians is that Julius Rosenberg was guilty of being a highly valuedNKVDspymaster against the United States, but that his trial was marred byprosecutorial misconduct—mainly by Cohn—and that the Rosenbergs should not have been executed.[26][27] Distilling this consensus,Harvard Law School professorAlan Dershowitz wrote that the Rosenbergs were "guilty—and framed."[28]
The Rosenberg trial brought the 24-year-old Cohn to the attention ofFederal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) directorJ. Edgar Hoover. With support from Hoover andCardinal Spellman, Hearst columnistGeorge Sokolsky convincedJoseph McCarthy to hire Cohn as his chief counsel, choosing him overRobert F. Kennedy.[29][30] Cohn assisted McCarthy with his work for theSenatePermanent Subcommittee on Investigations, becoming known for his aggressive questioning of suspected Communists. Cohn preferred not to hold hearings in open forums, which went well with McCarthy's preference for holding "executive sessions" and "off-the-record" sessions away from the Capitol to minimize public scrutiny and to question witnesses with relative impunity.[31] Cohn was given free rein in pursuit of many investigations, with McCarthy joining in only for the more publicized sessions.[32]
Cohn played a major role in McCarthy's anti-Communist hearings.[33] During theLavender Scare, Cohn and McCarthy alleged thatSoviet Blocintelligence services hadblackmailed multiple U.S. Federal Government employees into committing espionage in return for not exposing theirclosetedhomosexuality.[33] In response, PresidentDwight Eisenhower signedExecutive Order 10450 on April 27, 1953, to ban homosexuals, whom he considered anational security risk, from being employed by the federal government. According to David L. Marcus, Cohn's cousin, many Federal employees in Washington, D.C., who were exposed as homosexuals by Cohn and McCarthy committedsuicide. As time went on, it became well known that Cohn was himself gay, although he always denied it.[34] McCarthy and Cohn were responsible for the firing of many gay men from government employment, and strong-armed opponents into silence using rumors of their homosexuality.[35] Former U.S. SenatorAlan K. Simpson wrote: "The so-called 'Red Scare' has been the main focus of most historians of that period of time. A lesser-known element…and one that harmed far more people was the witch-hunt McCarthy and others conducted against homosexuals."[36]
Sokolsky introducedG. David Schine, an anti-Communist propagandist, to Cohn, who invited him to join McCarthy's staff as an unpaid consultant.[30] When Schine was drafted into theUS Army in 1953, Cohn made extensive efforts to procure special treatment for him, even threatening to "wreck the Army" if his demands were not met.[37] That conflict, along with McCarthy's claims that there were Communists in the Defense Department, led to theArmy–McCarthy hearings of 1954, during which the Army charged Cohn and McCarthy with using improper pressure on Schine's behalf, and McCarthy and Cohn countercharged that the Army was holding Schine "hostage" in an attempt to squelch McCarthy's investigations into Communists in the Army. The Army-McCarthy hearings ultimately contributed to McCarthy's censure by the Senate later that year. After resigning from McCarthy's staff, Cohn returned to New York and entered private practice as an attorney.[38]
After resigning from McCarthy's staff, Cohn had a 30-year career as an attorney in New York City. His clients includedDonald Trump;[39]New York Yankees baseball club ownerGeorge Steinbrenner;[4]Aristotle Onassis;[40]Mafia figuresTony Salerno,Carmine Galante,John Gotti[41] andMario Gigante;Studio 54 ownersSteve Rubell andIan Schrager; theRoman Catholic Archdiocese of New York; Texas financier and philanthropistShearn Moody Jr.;[42] and business owner Richard Dupont. Dupont, then 48, was convicted of aggravated harassment and attemptedgrand larceny for his attempts at coercing further representation by Cohn for a bogus claim to property ownership in a case against the actual owner of 644 Greenwich Street, Manhattan, where Dupont had operated Big Gym, and from where he had been evicted in January 1979.[43] Cohn's other clients included retired Harvard Law School professorAlan Dershowitz, who has referenced Cohn as "the quintessentialfixer".[44]
In the 1960s,Robert Morgenthau as U.S. Attorney for theSouthern District indicted Cohn three times in six years on various charges. He was acquitted on all charges.[1]
In September 1963, Cohn and attorney Murray Gottesman were indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice, alleging that they had obstructed a federal investigation into allegations that Samuel S. Garfield and others defrauded United Dye and Chemical Corporation out of $5 million.[45][46] On July 17, 1964, Cohn and Gottesman were acquitted on all charges.[47] In January 1969, he was again indicted for conspiracy, extortion and blackmail. According to the indictment Cohn blackmailed some of the shareholders of Fifth Avenue Coach Lines into selling their shares which led B.S.F. Company taking control of bus routes of the Fifth Avenue Coach Lines.[48] JudgeInzer Bass Wyatt dismissed the blackmail charge against Cohn.[49] Cohn was acquitted.[50]
In 1979, Cohn became a member of theWestern Goals Foundation; he served on the board of directors withEdward Teller.[51] Although he was registered as a Democrat, Cohn supported most of theRepublican presidents of his time and Republicans in major offices across New York.[1] He maintained close ties inconservative political circles, serving as an informal advisor toRichard Nixon andRonald Reagan.[52] While aligning himself with Republicans he simultaneously forged close ties to Democrats including New York mayorEd Koch,[51] New York secretary of stateCarmine DeSapio,[40] and Brooklynparty bossMeade Esposito.[53]
In 1972, he helped Nixon discredit the candidacy ofGeorge McGovern's Vice Presidential running mateThomas Eagleton by leaking Eagleton's medical records to the press. Eagleton's medical record unveiled that he had been treated for depression.[54][55]
During the years of debate over the passage of New York's first gay rights bill, Cohn would align himself with the Archdiocese of New York and express his conviction that "homosexual teachers are a grave threat to our children".[56][57][58]
Cohn worked on the 1980 Reagan campaign, where he befriendedRoger Stone.[59] Cohn aided Roger Stone inRonald Reagan's presidential campaign in 1979–1980, helping Stone arrange forJohn B. Anderson to get the nomination of theLiberal Party of New York, a move that would help split the opposition to Reagan in the state. Stone said Cohn gave him a suitcase that Stone avoided opening and, as instructed by Cohn, he dropped it off at the office of a lawyer influential in Liberal Party circles. Reagancarried the state with 46% of the vote to Carter's 44%, with Anderson taking over 7% of the vote. Speaking after thestatute of limitations for bribery had expired, Stone said, "I paid his law firm. Legal fees. I don't know what he did for the money, but whatever it was, the Liberal Party reached its right conclusion out of a matter of principle."[60]
Rupert Murdoch was a client, and Cohn repeatedly pressured PresidentRonald Reagan to further Murdoch's interests. He is credited with introducing Trump and Murdoch, in the mid-1970s, marking the beginning of what was to be a long association between the two.[61]
In 1971,Donald Trump first undertook large construction projects in Manhattan.[62] In 1973, theJustice Department accused Trump of violating theFair Housing Act in 39 of his properties.[63] The government alleged that Trump's corporation quoted different rental terms and conditions and made false "no vacancy" statements to Black applicants for apartments it managed in Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island.[64] Representing Trump, Cohn filed a countersuit against the government for $100 million, asserting that the charges were "irresponsible and baseless".[63][65] The countersuit was unsuccessful.[66] Trump settled the charges out of court in 1975, saying he was satisfied that the agreement did not "compel the Trump organization to accept persons on welfare as tenants unless as qualified as any other tenant."[63] The corporation was required to send a bi-weekly list of vacancies to theNew York Urban League, a civil rights group, and give the league priority for certain locations.[64] In 1978, the Trump Organization was again in court for violating terms of the 1975 settlement; Cohn called the new charges "nothing more than a rehash of complaints by a couple of planted malcontents." Trump denied the charges.[64][66][67]
While representing Trump, Cohn also represented mobsterAnthony Salerno, who along with other mobsters controlled the concrete unions in New York. Cohn is alleged to have introduced Salerno to Trump, which later led to Salerno's aiding Trump in the construction ofTrump Tower by providing concrete at reduced prices.[68]
In his 1987 bookThe Art of the Deal Trump wrote about "all the hundreds of 'respectable' guys who made careers out of boasting about their uncompromising integrity but have absolutely no loyalty …. What I liked most about Roy Cohn was that he would do just the opposite."[69]
Cohn was the grand-nephew ofJoshua Lionel Cowen, founder of theLionel model train company. By 1959, Cowen and his son Lawrence had become involved in a family dispute over control of the company. In October 1959, Cohn and a group of investors stepped in and gained control of the company, having bought 200,000 of the firm's 700,000 shares, which were purchased by his syndicate from the Cowens and on the open market over a three-month period prior to the takeover.[70] Under Cohn's three-and-a-half-year leadership, Lionel was plagued by declining sales, quality-control problems and huge financial losses. In 1963, Cohn was forced to resign from the company after losing aproxy fight.[71]
In 1986, a five-judge panel of theAppellate Division of the New York State Supreme Courtdisbarred Cohn for unethical and unprofessional conduct, including misappropriation of clients' funds, lying on a bar application, and falsifying a change to a will. The last charge arose from an incident in 1975, when Cohn entered the hospital room of the dying and unconsciousLewis Rosenstiel, forced a pen into his hand, and lifted it to a document appointing himself and Cathy Frank, Rosenstiel's granddaughter, executors. The resulting marks were determined in court to be indecipherable and in no way a valid signature.[5] Despite the disbarment, many famous people showed up as character witnesses, includingBarbara Walters,Firing Line hostWilliam F. Buckley Jr., and Donald Trump.[72]
In 1984, Cohn was diagnosed withAIDS and attempted to keep his condition secret while receiving experimental drug treatment.[73] He participated in clinical trials ofAZT, a drug initially synthesized to treat cancer but later developed as the first anti-HIV agent for AIDS patients. He insisted until his dying day that he was ill withliver cancer.[74] He died on August 2, 1986, at a hospital at theNational Institutes of Health campus inBethesda, Maryland to complications from AIDS, at the age of 59.[6] After his death, theIRS seized almost everything he had including his house, cars, bank accounts, and other personal property and assets.[75] According to Roger Stone, Cohn's "absolute goal was to die completely broke and owing millions to theIRS. He succeeded in that."[76] One of the things that the IRS did not seize was a pair of knockoff diamond cuff links, given to him by his client and friend Donald Trump.[77]
Cohn is buried inUnion Field Cemetery inQueens, New York. His tombstone describes him as a lawyer and a patriot.[1][78] HisAIDS Memorial Quilt panel is white with the words "Roy Cohn. Bully. Coward. Victim" written on it, with "Roy Cohn" in black letters, "victim" in blue, "bully" in red and "coward" in yellow.[79]
Cohn datedBarbara Walters in college and remained friends with her.[40]SI Newhouse, heir to theCondé Nast publishing empire, was Cohn's classmate at Horace Mann, and they remained lifelong friends. Cohn describedGeneroso Pope as "a second father".[80] Cohn exchanged Christmas gifts with FBI directorJ. Edgar Hoover;[40] they attended parties with their mutual friend,Lewis Rosenstiel, founder of liquor companySchenley Industries.[81] Cohn referred to Donald Trump as his best friend. Cohn told journalists that Trump phoned him 15 to 20 times a day[12] and according to Christine Seymour, his long-timeswitchboard operator, Trump was the last person to speak to Cohn on the phone before he died in 1986.[82]
Cohn had many influential social contacts.[83] According to Seymour, he had frequent phone calls withNancy Reagan, and formerCIA directorWilliam Casey "called Roy almost daily during [Reagan's] 1st election."[82] Both Casey and Cohn were reportedly close withCraig J. Spence, an influential Republican lobbyist.[84] He was a friend of Republican strategist Roger Stone whom he worked with on the Reagan Campaign and reportedly hosted a birthday party for Stone.[85] Cohn metAlan Dershowitz when they worked together on theClaus von Bülow case and praised Dershowitz's support for Israel.[86] Cohn was also friends withEstée Lauder,[1]William F. Buckley Jr.,[87] andNew York City mayorAbraham Beame.[40][88]
When Cohn recruitedG. David Schine as chief consultant to the McCarthy staff, speculation arose that Schine and Cohn had asexual relationship.[89][90] Schine's chauffeur later volunteered to testify that he had seen the two "engaged in homosexual acts" in the back of his limousine,[91] though there was no evidence that Schine ever had any romantic feelings for Cohn. During this period, Schine dated the actressPiper Laurie,[92] and he eventually marriedHillevi Rombin, a formerMiss Universe, with whom he had six children.[93][94] During the Army–McCarthy hearings, Cohn denied having any "special interest" in Schine or being bound to him "closer than to the ordinary friend".[90]Joseph Welch, the Army's attorney in the hearings, made an apparent reference to Cohn's homosexuality. After asking a witness, at McCarthy's request, if a photo entered as evidence "came from a pixie", Welch defined "pixie" as "a close relative of a fairy".Pixie was the brand-name of a popular inexpensive amateur camera of the era; while "fairy" is a derogatory term for a homosexual man. The people at the hearing recognized the implication, and found it amusing; Cohn later called the remark "malicious", "wicked", and "indecent".[90]
The young Cohn also attached himself to several older powerful men who, in return, provided Cohn with assistance. One of them may have been New York'sCardinal Francis Spellman, whose own allegedhomosexuality has been a subject of controversy in theCatholic Church.[95] Although Cohn always denied his homosexuality in public, he had a few known boyfriends over the course of his life, including his assistant Russell Eldridge, who died fromAIDS in 1984, and Peter Fraser, Cohn's partner for the last two years of his life, who was 30 years his junior.[89][96] Speculation about Cohn's sexuality intensified following his death from AIDS in 1986.[1] In a 2008 article published inThe New Yorker,Jeffrey Toobin quotes Cohn associateRoger Stone: "Roy was not gay. He wasa man who liked having sex with men. Gays were weak, effeminate. He always seemed to have these young blond boys around. It just wasn't discussed. He was interested in power and access."[76]
Some of Cohn's former clients, includingBill Bonanno, son ofJoseph Bonanno, credit him with having compromising photographs of former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. Because Hoover knew the pictures existed, Cohn told Bonanno, Hoover feared being blackmailed.[97][98] Other organized crime figures have corroborated these allegations.[99]
In 1978,Ken Auletta wrote in anEsquire profile of Cohn: "He fights his cases as if they were his own. It is war. If he feels his adversary has been unfair, it is war to the death. No white flags. No Mr. Nice Guy. Prospective clients who want to kill their husband, torture a business partner, break the government's legs, hire Roy Cohn. He is a legal executioner—the toughest, meanest, loyalest, vilest, and one of the most brilliant lawyers in America."[40]
In aNew York Times column aboutMatt Tyrnauer's filmWhere's My Roy Cohn?,Maureen Dowd wrote, "Roy Cohn understood the political value of wrapping himself in the flag. He made good copy. He knew how to manipulate the press and dictate stories to the New York tabloids. He surrounded himself with gorgeous women. There was always something of a nefarious nature going on. He was like a caged animal who would go after you the minute the cage door was opened."[100]
Several people have asserted that Cohn had considerable influence on thepresidency of Donald Trump.Ivy Meeropol, director ofBully, Coward, Victim: The Story of Roy Cohn, said "Cohn really paved the way for Trump and set him up with the right people, introduced him toPaul Manafort and Roger Stone—the people who helped him get to the White House."[101][102]
Vanity Fair'sMarie Brenner wrote in an article about Cohn'smentorship of Trump: "Cohn—possessed of a keen intellect, unlike Trump—could keep a jury spellbound. When he was indicted forbribery, in 1969, his lawyer suffered a heart attack near the end of the trial. Cohn deftly stepped in and did a seven-hourclosing argument—never once referring to a notepad.... When Cohn spoke, he would fix you with a hypnotic stare. His eyes were the palest blue, all the more startling because they appeared to protrude from the sides of his head. WhileAl Pacino's version of Cohn (inMike Nichols's2003 HBO adaptation ofTony Kushner'sAngels in America) captured Cohn's intensity, it failed to convey his child-like yearning to be liked."[12]
Cohn inspired several fictional portrayals after his death. Probably the best known is in Tony Kushner'sAngels in America (1991), which portrays Cohn as a closeted, power-hungry hypocrite haunted by the ghost ofEthel Rosenberg as he denies dying ofAIDS. In the initialBroadway production, the role was played byRon Leibman; in theHBOminiseries (2003), Cohn is played byAl Pacino; and in the 2010Off-Broadway revival by theSignature Theatre Company in Manhattan, the role was reprised byFrank Wood.[103]Nathan Lane played Cohn in the 2017Royal National Theatre production and the 2018 Broadway production.[104][105] Cohn is also a character in Kushner'sone-act play,G. David Schine in Hell (1996). That play may have been inspired in part by theNational Lampoon comic strip "Roy Cohn in Hell" (February 1987), which depicts Cohn joining Hoover and Senator McCarthy in the underworld. In the early 1990s, Cohn was one of two subjects ofRon Vawter's one-man showRoy Cohn/Jack Smith; his part was written byGary Indiana.[106]
Cohn had been played numerous times on both film and television. Cinematic portrayals include the following:
| Year | Actor | Project | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1977 | George Wyner | Tail Gunner Joe | NBC television film | [107] |
| 1985 | Joe Pantoliano | Robert Kennedy and His Times | CBS miniseries | [108] |
| 1992 | James Woods | Citizen Cohn | HBO television film | [109] |
| 2003 | Al Pacino | Angels in America | HBO miniseries | [110] |
| 2023 | Will Brill | Fellow Travelers | Showtime miniseries | [111][112][113] |
| 2024 | Jeremy Strong | The Apprentice | Film | [114] |
Cohn was the subject of two 2019 documentaries:Bully, Coward, Victim: The Story of Roy Cohn, directed byIvy Meeropol (a documentary filmmaker and granddaughter of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg)[115] andMatt Tyrnauer'sWhere's My Roy Cohn?[116] David Moreland appears as Cohn inThe X-Files episode "Travelers" (1998). Roland Blum, played byMichael Sheen, is a dishonest lawyer inspired by Cohn, who appears in "The One Inspired by Roy Cohn", Season 3, Episode 2 ofThe Good Fight.[117] Cohn is name checked in theBilly Joel song "We Didn't Start the Fire".[118]The Apprentice is a 2024independentbiographicaldrama film that examines Trump's career as areal estate businessman in New York City in the 1970s and 1980s, including his relationship with Roy Cohn portraying himself as Trump's attorney and mentor; the film was nominated for twoAcademy Awards, including forJeremy Strong's portrayal of Cohn.[119][120] The film explores their friendship while Cohn is shown leading an actively gay lifestyle in New York City while forming a closer business relationship with Trump.[121]
One hospital attendant testified in a Florida court that Cohn 'tried to take (Rosenstiel's) hand for him to sign' thecodicil to his will. The lawyer eventually emerged with a document bearing what the New York judges described as 'a number of "squiggly" lines which in no way resemble any letters of the alphabet.'
By the time he was 20, Cohn, an alumnus of the Fieldston School in …
Cohn's position as Joseph McCarthy's chief counsel was a job Joseph P. Kennedy had wanted for his son Bobby.
Roy Cohn had threatened to "wreck the Army" in an attempt to get special treatment for one Private G. David Schine.
He was interested in power and access. He told me his absolute goal was to die completely broke and owing millions to the I.R.S. He succeeded in that.
I thought it was entirely possible Roy had romantic or sexual yearnings for David, who was a handsome six-foot-four Adonis, but the speculation that they were a homosexual couple was silly to me. Everything I knew about David from our relationship of over three years told me any sexual feelings Cohn might have had were not reciprocated.
But so far as Mr. Schine is concerned, there has never been the slightest evidence that he was anything but a good-looking kid who was having a helluva good time in a helluva good cause. In any event, the rumors were sizzling away...
Tall, rich, and suave, the Harvard-educated (and heterosexual) Schine contrasted starkly with the short, physically undistinguished, and caustic Cohn.
