D. F. Bowler; Sent Cohen to Prison
Donald F. Bowler, the former Internal Revenue Service intelligence chief for Southern California, best known for sending mobster Mickey Cohen to prison on tax-evasion charges, is dead.
Bowler, more recently chief of the district attorney’s Bureau of Investigation for Los Angeles County, was 69 when he was found dead at his Canoga Park home early Tuesday.
A veteran prosecutor and investigator, Bowler was a member of the original federal Organized Crime Strike Force Committee when it was formed in Buffalo, N.Y., in 1966-67.
In 1960 and 1961, he directed the grand jury investigation that led to Cohen’s lengthy prison sentence for concealing about $400,000 from tax collectors.
Bowler entered IRS service after graduating from Loyola University in Los Angeles. He served 22 years and retired to become a vice president of International Intelligence Inc., a private firm, and resigned in 1976 to join the district attorney’s staff.
When he retired from the district attorney’s office in 1981 he was division chief for Southern California.
Survivors include his wife, Betty, and five children.
A funeral Mass is scheduled for Saturday at 9 a.m. at Our Lady of the Valley Catholic Church, Canoga Park. Burial will be at San Fernando Mission Cemetery, Mission Hills.
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