Philip Kovolick

Philip "The Stick"^[1] Kovolick [Kovalick] (September 2, 1908 – April 1971?), also known as Joseph Farvel, was a New York mobster and, a longtime associate of labor racketeer Louis "Lepke" Buchalter. He was one of the closest associates of Meyer Lansky, and assisted Meyer and his brother Jake Lansky in operating the Mob's Hallandale Florida casinos, including the plush "rug joint" the Colonial Inn.

He was arrested at a restaurant in Little Italy and charged with "consorting with known criminals for unlawful purposes" in 1965.

Kovolick fled New York to avoid an indictment to appear before a Manhattan grand jury investigating illegal gambling, bribery and corruption. Authorities were attempting to extradite him back to New York before his disappearance, as assistant district attorney Samuel S. Yasgur filed an affidavit in Miami in February 1971.

The body of Philip Kovolick was found sealed in a steel drum at the bottom of a rock pit in Hallandale, Florida, after disappearing on April 7, 1971. Police would later charge 36-year-old John Alvin Baxter with first degree murder regarding the case. Baxter was sentenced to death. Eventually the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.^[2]

Further reading

• Cohen, Rich. Tough Jews: Fathers, Sons, and Gangster Dreams. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998. ISBN 0-684-83115-5
• Fried, Albert. The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Gangster in America. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980. ISBN 0-231-09683-6
• Turkus, Burton B. and Sid Feder. Murder, Inc: The Story of "the Syndicate". New York: Da Capo Press, 2003. ISBN 0-306-81288-6

References

• "Body Of Gangster Reported In South". The New York Times. April 30, 1972. p. 24. (subscription required)

External links

• Mug shots of Phillip Kovolick (high-resolution) from Lloyd Sealy Library Digital Collections
• Prisoner's Criminal Record [rap sheet] of Phillip Kovolick from Lloyd Sealy Library Digital Collections