Philip Kovolick - Biography

Philip "Little Farvel" Kovolick [Kovalick] (September 2, 1908 – April 1971?) was a New York mobster and, a longtime associate of labor racketeer Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, he was a later member of Murder Inc. and was eventually convicted on narcotics charges in late 1941.

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

Accounts differ following his release as Murder, Inc: The Story of "the Syndicate" by Burton B. Turkus and Sid Feder claims that Kovolick was killed shortly after extorting bookkeepers as his body was found on a road in Valley Stream, Long Island on September 16, 1949.

However, a separate account appearing in the New York Times claims 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 John Alvin Baxter with first degree murder regarding the case.

He had previously 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.

Further reading

• Cohen, Rich. Tough Jews: Fathers, Sons, and Gangster Dreams. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998. ISBN 0684831155
• Fried, Albert. The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Gangster in America. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980. ISBN 0-23109683-6
• Turkus, Burton B. and Sid Feder. Murder, Inc: The Story of "the Syndicate". New York: Da Capo Press, 2003. ISBN 0-306-81288-6

• "Body Of Gangster Found In South.'". New York Times 30 April 1972.