Bad Company: Drugs, Hollywood and the Cotton Club Murder [Hardcover]

Steve Wick (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1990

Seductive Laney Jacobs introduced legendary producer Bob Evans (Chinatown and The Godfather) to entrepreneur Roy Radin with the expectation of becoming a partner on a big movie deal. But when Radin disagreed, he was murdered. Includes new update covering Jacobs' conviction. LG Selection. Photographs. Movie rights optioned by ITC and Norman Wright. HC: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This story of the meeting and tangled business relationship of three unlikely partners, written by a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for (New York) Newsday , is a superficial effort. In an apparent rush to publish, Wick tells a tale of murder before the case has been resolved. Implicated in the bizarre tale are Karen "Laney" Jacobs, a Florida drug dealer; Roy Radin, a Long Island, N.Y., entrepreneur who had made a dubious name as a packager of vaudeville shows featuring performers whose careers were distinctly on a downhill slide; and Robert Evans, producer of the movies The Godfather and Chinatown . Jacobs introduced Evans and Radin in the hope of co-producing a film with them, The Cotton Club . But as the negotiations proceeded, she saw herself frozen out of the project, and Radin was slain in L.A. in 1983. According to Wick, Jacobs not only arranged this death but also, later, that of her husband. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In this book, New York Newsday reporter Wick examines the events surrounding the 1983 murder of movie producer Roy Radin. Both Radin and the woman accused of masterminding his death, a former Miami drug trafficker named Karen DeLayne Jacobs, were trying to break into the movie business and competed for the financing of Robert Evans's The Cotton Club . The resulting clash between the two, as outlined by Wick, is a disturbing tale of amoral actions encompassing lust, greed, drugs, and murder--a microcosm of the American dream at its worst. Wick runs into some stylistic difficulties in his narrative as he flip-flops between objective reporting and macabre storytelling, making his book, while often intriguing, read like a B movie. But just like that genre, this book should attract its segment of fans. Previewed in Prepub Alert with the subtitle A True Tale of Drugs and Death in Hollywood , LJ 3/1/90.
- John Turner, New York
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 270 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt; 1st edition (June 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 015110445X
• ISBN-13: 978-0151104451
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,521,690 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Steve Wick was born in Camden, N.J., in 1951 and grew up in nearby Haddonfield. He has been a journalist at Newsday on Long Island for more than 30 years. He has shared in two of Newsday's Pulitzer Prizes for Local Reporting and has won numerous other journalism awards. He has published three non-fiction books: Bad Company: Drugs, Hollywood and the Cotton Club Murder; Heaven and Earth: The Last Farmers of the North Fork; and The Long Night: William L. Shirer and The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. He lives on eastern Long Island.
To contact Steve Wick: [e-mail]

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A CASE OF VERY POOR JUDGMENT, December 21, 2003

By 

Loren D. Morrison "amateur_reviewer" (Los Angeles County, U.S.A.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bad Company (Paperback)

First a little background information about the main players in this tale of cocaine, murder, egos, and Showbiz "wannabes" and "ustawuzes."

For starters there was Roy Radin, a modern day, but old fashioned, vaudeville entrepeneur. Radin got very rich producing vaudeville type productions that traveled a circuit of medium sized midwestern cities and towns as fund raisers for such organizations as police benevolent societies. The sponsoring societies did make money, but Radin usually made more. His shows and audiences were the sort that usually gave more applause and greater laughter to the trained dog act than to well-known entertainer, Joey Bishop.

Oh, yes, Radin was also a binge eater and user of cocaine. These little habits often consumed a big part of his income.

The second major player in this drama was Karen "Laney" Jacobs, later Laney Greenberger. It is a matter of public record, from her later pre-trial hearings, that Laney was a major cocaine distributor who did business with some very vicious people, and who ended up on trial herself for a very vicious murder.

A third player, key to our story, was Robert Evans, a Hollywood movie producer who had produced some very successful movies but who, during the period covered by this book, was somewhat down on his luck.

Additional players were various drug traffickers, dealers, gangsters, and hit men, as well as Laney's last husband, Larry Greenberger, who either was a retired businessman or a major player in the drug trade, depending on whose testimony one chooses to believe.

It would seem that both Radin and Laney (then Greenberger) wanted to get into the legitimate movie producing business. To facilitate this desire, Laney introduced Radin to Robert Evans who had the rights to produce the movie "Cotton Club," but who was unable, at that time, to get financing through normal channels. Radin, through use of his own money, and money from other sources, could provide this much needed financial backing.

Laney's idea, when she made the introduction, was to form a production company consisting of Evans, Radin, and herself. This is the point where Radin made his very serious error in judgment. He decided to cut Laney out of the deal and to only pay her a $50,000 finder's fee. Laney didn't take kindly to this snub. Being a principal in the procuction company that made this film would have made her "someone" in Hollywood, and potentially could have been very profitable to the tune of millions.

She didn't take this sort of thing lightly. One evening, she set up a dinner meeting with Radin to "discuss" their differences. He was last seen alive getting into her limousine. A month later his badly decomposed body was discovered, It had multiple bullet holes in the head.

Her last husband was also guilty of using poor judgment, which evidently caused Laney to become angry with him. One day, with Laney upstairs in their large estate home in Florida, He managed to commit suicide in a most unusual manner. With a large caliber gun in his right hand, he somehow shot himself in the left temple with powder marks that indicated that, in addition to this unusual way of shooting himself on the wrong side of the head, he had managed to do it from six to eight feet away. Very long arms? He also managed to hold onto the gun, with his finger still on the trigger, even though the recoil should have caused him to drop it. A most amazing form of suicide.

Since Laney was charged with Radin's murder and expedited to California, the investigation of this most unusual suicide was never completed.

This all goes to show that, when dealing with a no-nonsense, tough as nails, female drug dealer, one really should try to use some degree of discretion.

8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Also check out the book entitled "Bad Company", January 8, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Bad Company: Drugs, Hollywood and the Cotton Club Murder (Hardcover)

This other book goes into this crime further and the association with the Manson Family. I remember reading this book a few years ago and it sent chills up my spine...why? well, because I used to date Bill Mentzer (the "hit man" profiled in this book. It's truly amazing that he could have actually been the person that I read about and I was, well, shocked to say the least. I thought he made all of his money being a body guard for the rich and famous and had no idea that the trips he took me on were his alibi's...scary stuff when I look back. I also learned from the book that he was cheating on me with Lannie what's her name. Well, at least it had a good ending and he ended up in prison where he 'ought to be after he got his 7 minutes of fame featured on "America's Most Wanted. I stopped taking his collect calls and letters since I saw the show and read the book.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good book overall despite its bland ending., October 3, 2004

By 

Ashley Nicole Rivera "Nick" (Quezon City, Philippines) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bad Company (Paperback)

"Bad Company" is a good example of a book that ties the creative with the factual. Steve Wick did a wonderful job in developing the story without making it too heavy for the gray cells. He was able to successfully give insights into the lives of both the living and the dead giving ample space for both the protagonist (Roy Radin) and the antagonist (Laney Jacobs) as well as the people around them.

After reading the book, I see Laney Jacobs/Laney Greenberger as a woman who used an aura air sophistication and good taste to mask her ruthlessness. She was a woman who wouldn't let anything or anybody stand in the way of achieving her goals and dreams. Laney Jacobs/Laney Greenberger was a person who only thought of herself.

The only problem that I had with the book is that the last 2 chapters gave me an impression that the last parts were hastily done. I believe Steve Wick could have given the said sections "more meat" instead of making it look like a summary of whatever happened after Laney Jacob's/Laney Greenberger's arrest.