The "Happy" Hood

Although he was born in New York City back in 1908, during his lifetime Harold (Happy) Meltzer was a diverse and very well-traveled Jewish hoodlum who eventually relocated out to Los Angeles, California.

By the time he was 12 years old, Meltzer had started what would eventually grow to become a lengthy police record. Starting with his arrest as a juvenile for disorderly conduct, from 1920 forward, he was picked up for larceny, assault, homicide, possession of a dangerous weapon, assault with intent to murder, illegal gambling, escape from custody, bookmaking, conspiracy, violating federal narcotics laws, and international customs law violations.

Harold Meltzer

Over the years local and federal law enforcement authorities tied him to top organized crime figures on both coasts such as Meyer Lansky , Mickey Cohen, John (Big John) Ormento, Gaetano (Tom) Dragna, his son, Louis Tom Dragna, and Max Cossman, among many other hoods.

One internal federal report described Harold Meltzer as, “An international drug trafficker closely allied with top Mafia racketeers. Meltzer is known to smuggle large quantities of narcotics into the United States from Mexico and Cuba for wholesale redistribution to California and New York. He is also the head of a large bookmaking and prostitution syndicate active in Southern California, and is a known associate of major labor-union racketeers.”

Over the years, federal drug agents tracking Happy’s movements say he often traveled domestically to Las Vegas, Nevada; Laredo, Texas; Baltimore, Maryland; Miami, Florida; Enid, Oklahoma; New York City, New York; and Boston, Massachusetts, as well as internationally to such exotic destinations as Hong Kong, Japan, Hawaii, The Philippines, Cuba, Mexico, and Canada.

Side Note: One of our Button Guys subscribers provided us with some very interesting additional information we printed below, which reveals that during his lifetime, Harold Meltzer also doubled as a top-echelon FBI informant.

He states, “He betrayed Mickey Cohen to eventually begin a long relationship with the LA Family. He was LA 4711 C-TE. The FBI exposed him in their own documents related to the Pan card clubs in LA that Carmine Tramunti was also involved in. Informant LA-4711/Meltzer was officially developed by the bureau in 1967. However, the CIA targeted him as a prospective asset as early as 1960.”

“In addition to this, I also know living people who knew Meltzer. At this time in LA, you had members Louie Piscopo, and Frank Bompensiero also both acting as Top Echelon Informants, as well associates Nick Simponis and Harold Meltzer."