The Gunrunner Who Tried to Save China: Two Gun Cohen
01:00:59 Share

Hi, I'm Kristen Bell. Carvana makes car buying easy. Isn't that right, hon? Dax? Dax? Sorry, did you know about this seven-day money-back guarantee? A week to evaluate seat comfiness, you say? A week of terrain tests? Yeah, I can test the brake pad resistance at variable speeds. Make sure all the kids' stuff fits nicely? Make sure our stuff fits nicely. Oh, the... Right. Still need to buy the car. Getting ahead of ourselves here. Buy your car with Carvana today.

If you work in quality control at a candy factory, you know strict safety regulations come with the job. It's why you partner with Grainger. Grainger helps you find the high quality and compliant products your business needs to inspect, detect, and help correct issues. And the sweetest part is, everyone gets a product that's as safe to eat as it is delicious. Call 1-800-GRAINGER, clickgrainger.com, or just stop by. Grainger, for the ones who get it done.

Christmas Day, Hong Kong, 1941. World War II is fully raging. Pearl Harbor's just been hit. And bombs are falling from the sky all over the British colony as the Japanese war machine is in full swing. Morris Two-Gun Cohen is sitting in his room at the Hong Kong hotel, awaiting his fate. It's not a great situation to be in because the Japanese are not big fans of the infamous gunrunner.

He's been able to stay one step ahead of them for some time, slipping out of Chinese cities like Shanghai, Nanking, and Canton just before they marauded through them. But this time, his time is up. The only question now is are they going to kill him right away or torture him for information for a while first? Hong Kong had been a bit like Casablanca. Well, the movie Casablanca.

With war on its doorstep, it was full of spies and adventurers and soldiers of fortune, gun runners like Cohen, and also lots and lots of partying and boozing. Something Cohen was an expert in. If Hong Kong was Casablanca, Cohen would definitely have been Rick. But the similarities kind of end a little bit there.

At 200 pounds and standing only 5'8", the former boxer, who was literally prize fighting in underground boxing matches when he was just 9 years old, is an imposing force. He's also legendary for his capacity to drink booze and throw those parties. Oh, and gamble. In fact, you could butterfly effect how exactly he ended up here by tracing it back to him hanging out in illegal Chinese gambling parlors in Canada.

But yeah, how the hell did a poor Polish-born Jew who grew up in the slums of London and then made a name for himself in the underworlds of Western Canada end up here? And how did he end up as the pistol-packing bodyguard to a guy who many consider the father of modern China? And then a massive arms trafficker who helped deliver all sorts of weapons to the Chinese soldiers now battling the imperial Japanese war machine.

In fact, Cohen had battled the Soviets, the Japanese, various Chinese warlords, communists, mercenaries, and more with guns and with diplomacy. Wrote Daniel Levy in his biography of Tugan, quote, China between the wars was the wild east. It was the last great frontier, filled with adventurers and fortune seekers. Cohen seemed made for such a land. This is the Underworld Podcast. Underworld Podcast

Welcome back to the Underworld Podcast, an audio and now visual experience that takes you into the harrowing worlds of international organized crime, past, present, and future. Brought to you by two journalists, myself, Danny Gold, and my esteemed co-host, rogue adventurer from the slums of London, Sean Williams. Welcome back to the Underworld Podcast, an audio and now visual experience that takes you into the harrowing worlds of international organized crime, past, present, and future.

Technically, he's not officially a gunrunner just yet, but if this video thing does not pan out profit-wise, we're gonna get there. And, uh, yeah. Spotify, right now we're doing video for them. Definitely want to make sure you guys know that. I am coming to you from Spotify Studios in New York. Sean is coming to you from his son's bedroom in New Zealand.

Is it weird that I'm wearing the shirt of the podcast? You know, check it out, guys. I've been wearing one of those for ages. Is that like wearing the shirt of the band that you're going to see type of deal? You know, fashion companies, this is an incredible opportunity. We're experimenting. You know, we've got sunglasses on too, as you can tell. Yeah. So you can't sort of just see our eyes zooming in down on the screen the entire time.

Hit us up, Dita. I want those $900 Mike McDaniel's Miami cocaine sunglasses for sure. It's a great opportunity. Yeah, Purcell's good too. I'll have them. You can actually see my son's toys if you zoom in on the back. And his second birthday balloon. So that's really cool, isn't it?

Happy birthday to him. If you at home want the shirt, underworldpod.com for merch, for bonus episodes and ad-free stuff, patreon.com. You can also sign up right here on Spotify or on iTunes for fashion advice or anything else, the underworldpodcast at gmail.com.

Let's talk 2Gun Cohen, which is just a sweet nickname. 2Gun works for anyone, right? You could be 2Gun Williams, 2Gun Golds. It's just, it's pretty sick. Honestly, it's worth carrying 2Guns around, legal or not, just so you can get that nickname. I mean, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that 2Guns Gold sounds a lot better than 2Guns Williams. That's pretty lame. But my son does say that his name is Willie Wimps, so maybe that works better, 2Guns Willie Wimps. I don't know.

That actually that sounds great. You should call him that in the future. Make sure he's like little fourth grade or four-year-old pre-k teachers know that's his name. Call my son too guys. We have social media for teachers now. So I will let them know straight after this. Just DM. Let them know.

Now, there's a lot of legendary lore and rumors about Tugan. Some he even started himself. But Daniel S. Levy wrote the definitive biography of him. He kind of clears a lot of that up. It's the main source for this episode. He does a really good job of interweaving lots of historical stuff too. I learned a lot about Western Canada and China pre-World War II. Our story begins where most stories do in Yeltsin, Ukraine in 1881, which I believe is now known as

Kropotvinsky Ukraine. Yeah, come on then. You got it right. I mean, that was pretty good. That was pretty good. Do you think so? We can like speed that bit up, right? We can speed it up so it actually sounds like you're saying the words right.

I didn't do the accent, but yeah. Anyway, so that village, which I'm not going to pronounce again, is where pogroms against Jews kick off in the wake of the assassination of Tsar Alexander II by a Polish student that was part of a revolutionary group who, of course, wasn't Jewish. Pogroms soon broke out all over the region, fed by rumors and lies. All manners of Russian society join in with your requisite looting, murdering, fevered mobs, attacking these poor Jewish communities.

The Cohen family lived in one such community nearby in what's now Poland. I believe then it was in the pale of the settlement, which is where Russia restricted its Jewish population to live in a buffer zone. The Coens, much like the other Jews there, were tailors, hat makers, shoemakers, small artisans. They have a son named Morris in 1887. And the violence continues sporadically and the father decides it's time to just get the hell out.

So he fled to England hoping to make it to the US just like Fievel. Do kids still watch American Tail? Fucking love Fievel, dude. I mean, I looked it up. It did 85 million at the box office in 1986, which is no joke for like a cartoon, you know? Yeah. I mean, I vaguely remember. Was it like a chipmunk or a mouse or something? And he had a really cool team. Show some respect. And first he goes to America and then he goes west.

There was a sequel. The sequel was awesome too. I think there might have even been a trilogy, but I don't remember. It's like the third godfather. No one talks about it. Mr. Cohen gets to England, London to be precise, but he's got no money, so he can't go any further, and he settles in the Jewish slums there, which were teeming with Russian and Polish Jews kind of fleeing the violence against their communities. The family and young Morris, they settle in the East End, St. George's, which I assume is where Alfie Solomons is from? Yeah, I think so. I think St. George's is like a pastoralist

like a parish so I think it's I think we're more talking about like step near Milan which is where all the hipsters live now so ironically now it's still full of bagel stores but actually they're made by sort of hipsters from Melbourne and Sydney which is uh that's the natural progression of breakfast foods eventually they're all just made by hipsters from from from Australia

At the time it had the highest birth rate and the highest death rate in the city. This is in the 1890s. So yeah, not a great place. And from the descriptions, it sounds a lot like the Lower East Side sort of tenement days and the Bowery back in the day of the gangs in New York just sort of really crowded misery, lots of crime, violence and poverty. Morris grows up somewhat religious, but he's poor and he's mischievous like any kid in the slums.

By the time he's in kindergarten, he's already hustling. And by nine, he gets into boxing. People just grew fast back then, you know? He's doing prize fights for money at that age after a backer sees him beat an older boy in a street fight. So he's hanging out with that crowd, you know, the underground boxing crowd, which is not the most reputable of people to hang out with. And soon he picks up the art of burglary and pickpocketing.

eventually he's caught and he's sent to a sort of reformatory school and if you're thinking this is exactly like the Sean Williams origin story except he's not Jewish you would be a hundred percent right except Cohen doesn't then move to Berlin and get really into doing collusion at basement raves and wearing incredibly tight leather pants yeah why though why not the option just wasn't there at that time but I think if it was he probably would have gone your route as well you know all right I like him yeah

he's in this this special sort of religious reformatory school for the jewish street kids and he learns a lot of skills a lot of outdoor stuff agricultural stuff building stuff and he also gets into some trouble there here and there before graduating at this point he's not really sure what to do with himself but his parents decide the best course of action is to send him to a two-decade-old farming community in the northwest territories in canada now known as saskatchewan to

Due to the agricultural training he had in the school, they're just like, yeah, you know, we don't really, we don't know how to raise you. We're going to send you to, I don't even know what Canada was like then. But we're about to fly back. This is not a flight either, right? You've got to get like a wagon and a ship and all kinds of stuff? No, I left that part out, but he took a ship across the Atlantic, I think to Montreal. And then there's like a week's train ride, that sort of situation. You know, this is like, I mean, Canada now in the Northwest is not super developed. But back then, you know, nothing.

Not a lot. It's Frontierstown, you know? It still had the air of pioneers in the new world. It was wild and underdeveloped and seen as a good place to send the troublesome and adventurous, which is what Cohen is, was.

It's a pretty empty, desolate place of small towns, homesteaders, you're real pioneer types. This is in the mid 1900s, like 1906. But there's great land for growing food, but it's also really hard. It's a tough life, long freezing winters. You're also dealing with like bears and wolves,

living in huts and cabins, and it's wild this 18-year-old kid from the streets of London ends up here just like that. But he really takes, Cohen really takes to the farm life. He soon befriends a cowboy on one of the farms he's working on, who notices he has this sort of city hustling knowledge. He decides he's going to teach him the cowboy way of hustling in terms of like dice, cars, pistols, all the fun stuff.

Cohen becomes adept at all three. He learns a variety of tricks and moves from this guy. And eventually, he lands a job as a carnival barker with a traveling circus. And the carnies help him perfect the art of the con, right? He's learning all sorts of trade secrets from everyone. London thieves, cowboys, and now carnies. It's the best education in crime a guy could ask for.

Oh, man. First of all, what's a barker? Is that like a ringleader kind of guy? I think it's the guy who stands out front and is like, come in, see the bearded lady and the wolfman and the wolf beardman. I don't know. You know what I'm saying? Like that sort of thing. Okay. Kind of what we do. Like the guy who lures you into the... Like Ringling, you know, the guy who lures you into the carnival. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, like he would do...

insanely well on social media. Can you imagine like inner city London farming back to the back to the land kind of guy circus cowboy magician? Yeah, great influencer. This guy would clean up. Yeah. Speaking of influencers, those shades look fantastic on you. You should be a sunglasses influencer. So much. Oh, man. As the carnival barker, he also adopts the PT Barnum way of life, you know, flim flams, schemes and the idea that a sucker is born every minute.

He hustles all the local yokels and rubes and games of craps and pickpockets them. He only does this for a short while, though, and then ends up in Winnipeg, a bustling town at the time, known as the Chicago of the North. It handles more grain than anywhere in the world and has a large immigrant population. It kind of feels like London to him, filled with bars, pool halls, and crime.

He gets involved in it all, including helping to run a brothel, but gets knocked and ends up serving six months in jail before leaving for another prairie town, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He's still only 22 years old and already lived quite a life. So Saskatoon, it has a Chinese immigrant population there. They had come to Canada for the gold rush, leaving San Francisco and sailing north in the mid-19th century.

China at the time has 430 million people, almost all of whom are extremely poor, and the country is very unstable. There's upheaval, and there's warlords, and it's extremely violent. Millions of Chinese people die in the Taiping Rebellion from 1850 to 1864, where a messianic figure leads an uprising against the Manchurians, an ethnic group from the north.

The Manchu people, who had driven down from northern China to take over and rule the southern areas like Canton after overthrowing the previous dynasty, are seen as these barbarian-like outsiders by the southerners.

So many young men from the South, you know, Cantonese, they end up fleeing for places like Western Canada. When the gold rush ends, they need jobs, and many are brought to British Columbia to build the railroad. You had similar racism against them like you did in the U.S. There's also Chinese exclusion-type acts aimed at preventing more Chinese people from coming to British Columbia, just like in the U.S. Yeah, that sounds like pretty rough times for the Chinese. I'm glad they're going to have it so good for the next hundred years. Oh, it gets, yeah, you know.

So the Chinese there, they live on the fringe. They're working in restaurants and doing laundry. I mean, you guys have seen Deadwood. You know what I'm talking about. They form their Chinatowns. They have their civic society tongs with the triad influence, all that. The triads, before they become major organized crime groups, are hell-bent on overthrowing China's current ruling dynasty. The ones these guys had fled, the Manchurians ruling the South, I think...

Were they the Qing or did they overthrow the Qing? I think they overthrew the Qing, but that is slightly above my pay grade. Yeah, we'll get to the Chinese history aspects a little more in depth. We've done some big episodes on the triad history. So I'm not going to go through all that. But you guys know who they are. They're very massive organized crime gangs that are all over the world now. But this China stuff, the reason I'm going into it is it's going to play a big part.

And despite Sean constantly saying that our listeners want to hear me do in Asian accent, I refuse to do it. I'm not going to do it for this episode. So Sean, please, please just stop asking. You really have to. I am going to show you the DMs at some point. I'm getting thousands. It's all I get. I don't get any messages from friends or family now. It's just that. But yeah, these guys, they run a ton of gambling operations. One of the guys who ran some of the gambling parlors, the bigger ones, is named Ma Sam. This is like 1910, that area.

Cohen becomes a regular there. He's playing poker for big pots and he loves the gambling houses. He bonds with the Chinese men there who like him, you know, they're outsiders far from home. They don't really have families there or anything like that. He gambles, he robs, he even picks up speaking Cantonese and he hangs out and eats with them, which is a big deal because most other Canadians treat them like crap. They won't even associate with them.

One night, he arrives at one of the gambling houses mid-robbery when a guy has a gun pointed at Ma Sam. Cohen's able to get close enough to the guy to knock him out and stop the robbery. And after this, he's basically a local legend in the Chinese community. They take him in as one of their own, and he really gets educated. You know, they teach him who they hate. That's what getting educated by immigrants means.

So these guys are all southern Chinese, Cantonese, and they all hate the ruling Manchus from the north, which I've just talked about. And the number one way to tell that you're getting in with a different race or ethnic or religious group of people, it's when they teach you what 97% similar group they are super racist against and hate as well. That's a little piece of advice for you guys. Yeah, I can testify from that in New Zealand. Really terrible place. Isn't this what the Japanese exploited later on, like before or during the war, whatever you want to say, like...

the Manchurians and they used them to make the puppet state Manchukuo and that kind of stuff. This is like the birth of the Yakuza, I think. I remember us doing an episode back like five years ago on how the Japanese organized criminals did all that in Manchukuo. This is like all kind of interwoven, right?

I don't know exactly, but Manchurian candidate, right? It's like that sort of thing. Someone propped up like that. Yeah. I think they definitely exploited the, and they also, of course, exploited the conflict between that we're going to get into between the communist and the nationalist in China. Yeah. Famously, Denzel Washington was a Manchurian candidate. Yeah. Was an operative in the war.

They also teach him how they're working towards a revolution, fundraising for it in the West, which is not uncommon, right? Sort of like how you had Irish in New York fundraising for the IRA and all that. One of these revolutionaries is Dr. Sun Yat-sen.

Soon had previously tried to gather men from Hong Kong and Hawaii to overthrow the current rulers in Canton. Again, not to repeat myself too much, but Canton, southern area of China near Hong Kong, big manufacturing, agriculture, trade center, and they hate the northern Manchus who are ruling over them now. Cohen's new best friend, Ma Sam, is all about Soon, who is in exile right now trying to get the revolution started again. Yeah, the Soon of Sam.

Cohen's sympathetic, but he's mostly focused on his pickpocket gang that he had started. Soon enough, though, the cops catch on to him and he gets sentenced to a year of hard labor. Coincidentally, his buddy Ma Sam gets busted in a gambling raid he's doing a year at the same time. They both reconnect when they get out.

Meanwhile, soon the revolutionary leader, he's torn Canada, giving rousing speeches. And soon enough, the revolution does actually start in China, not because of soon, but he's able to take advantage of the situation. In 1912, he gets himself elected president after the emperor abdicates his throne, and China becomes a republic. However, he soon steps down and allows a general to take over. Chinese people, though, all over Canada celebrate the revolution.

Ma takes Cohen around to introduce him to the other community leaders who support the revolution, even get some membership in a tongue dedicated to the revolution and to soon. And look, I have a confession here I'm going to make, Sean, for you and for our audience. I thought this was going to be fairly simple, badass, entertaining story about a swashbuckling gunrunner with a dope nickname based off this one book, Simple, Easy, Fun Stuff.

Who doesn't love tales of international arms dealers and weapons traffickers? But things get very complicated. He's super entwined with the battles fought over China for the first half of the 20th century. The nationalists, the communists, back and forth, various warlords, this rebellion, that rebellion. I'm just not super well versed in it and didn't really have time to dive super deep into Chinese history. And it's, you know, so much of this. So I'm going to try to cover it without like...

covering it you know yeah yeah i'm a journalist i know that works but i mean i'm happy about my knowledge of 19th century china topped up on the show i mean it i pretty much get all of my chinese history from this podcast now so i only know about organized crime and nothing else what i'm trying to say is if you want the nuances like read read books on it you know you guys read books yeah read books yeah read books but also like arranging weapon shipments

It's not that exciting when it comes down to it. Most things in life, like most things in life, it's just logistics, you know? Excel spreadsheets and phone calls. But we didn't have time to prep another episode, and sometimes you've got to just push through. Yeah, also, we don't do spreadsheets. We'll plan anything. No, no.

Now, moving on, Cohen relocates to Edmonton, which is an oil boom town, and does what all criminals end up doing, which is getting into real estate. He makes some money, but he always makes time for gambling because you have to. Gambling rules. I have a parlay going right now. When Sean does his episode, I'll probably be looking at it on my phone. He also, of course, gets involved with the local Chinese community. He advocates for them, and the Tong he's in morphs into the Chinese Nationalist Party. Meanwhile, in China, that general who took over

He, of course, turns authoritarian. He bans that nationalist party and soon is forced to flee to Japan. So soon starts planning another revolution. He needs Chinese expats to help him fight. So training camps are set up all over Canada. Cohen, who had received a little military training at reformatory school, he pitches in to help out. He's also making inroads in Canadian political circles at the time. And his real estate stuff, it's going well, it's taking off. He returns to London for a little bit, a conquering hero, bearing gifts and money for his whole family.

But in 1913, Canada starts going through a recession. A lot of his business dries up and he gets arrested a bunch for some minor scams and schemes and gambling. With Canada then entering a depression and World War I kicking off, Cohen joins the Canadian military and ends up a sergeant. He's eventually sent to Belgium and he goes through the horrors of World War I trench warfare, which, you know, as they always do, sound deeply unpleasant.

He eventually becomes a corporal, helping to construct railways and ends up managing some of the Chinese laborers there since he's the only white guy who knows how to speak with them and treat them fair. After his time in the military, he returns to Edmonton, where he goes back to real estate, gambling, and getting arrested. He stays involved though with the Chinese Nationalist League and follows Sun Yat-sen's movement closely.

Over time, he becomes a power broker among Chinese voters, leveraging his influence in the community. And as anti-Chinese sentiment grows, he takes on more of an advocacy role, speaking out on their behalf and pushing back against discrimination.

China, meanwhile, is in complete chaos. They try to restore the emperor. This general dies. That general dies. It's warlords and fiefdoms and chaos. Sun Yat-sen is still trying to make his revolution happen, but suffering setbacks. In 1922, Cohen says, screw it. Canada is way too full of Canadians. You know, actually, I like Canadians, man. I got family there. Montreal rules. Let's bridge the divide. I don't know, man. This is podcasting. You got to pick one over the other. You just got to choose.

Now, I don't know, I'm down with the Chinese and the Canadians, dude. Anyway, Cohen goes to China seeking fortune and adventure, much like an influencer in 2025 who wants to make videos about skyscrapers and sort of laser light drone shows of dragons. He ends up being soon in Shanghai, where he's nursing his wounds and soon likes the cut of his jib, which is, you know, bruiser, cowboy, hustler, soldier.

He appoints him as his bodyguard, and this isn't like some celeb gig, right? Sun is powerful. He has a fanatical following of people, many who think he was sent to divinely rescue and revolutionize China. And on the flip side, there's also many, many powerful people who want him dead and are willing to do something about it.

Generals, warlords, people like that, you know, people who pull triggers and can get other people to pull triggers. Also, the communists are making inroads in China, setting up the Chinese Communist Party, cozying up to Sen, who is gathering up allies and preparing to strike from Hong Kong. Cohen at that point is in the inner circle. Yeah, this is genuinely crazy. I have no idea about any of this. And honestly, this is like...

This is why we've been able to do this for so long without a moment running out of ideas. I mean, when we started this show, I had no clue how closely linked all the organized criminal groups were to all the biggest political movements of the recent modern history. And it's like so much left out of the documentaries and the big books, you know, like it's crazy how this stuff has flown under the radar until us.

Until we came along. Until we did it. Just changed the game from our bedrooms. Those allies that Sun has, which includes some other generals and other warlords, they end up taking over southern China, Canton province, and Sun arrives triumphant in the city in 1923. By the way, I'm almost positive, like I said, I'm going to get some of this stuff wrong. So definitely, definitely look it up and let us know if I do. We'll correct it in the next episode.

So Suen sets up shop in Canton and so does Chugun. Yeah, Canton, by the way, that's modern day Guangzhou, Shenzhen, by the way, Canton. I think it's just the Latinized version or the one the British gave it. So it's like 130 mil people live there now. One of the world's great economic powerhouses, probably where half the stuff in our studios actually comes from as well. Yeah, massive, massive city. Shenzhen is the manufacturing city, right? Yeah, definitely. The number one. It's crazy. Yeah.

he starts training a bunch of bodyguards in boxing and shooting meanwhile china is fractured divided into fiefdoms ruled by various warlords sunyatsen really only controls the city of canton though he's allied with some of the other warlords and even that whole though is tenuous he doesn't have much and has to hire some mercenaries who are always passing through some of them former bandits carousing their way through town armed i sort of picture like um i don't know you ever been like a chaotic irregular war zone there's always just like

soldiers or normal dress people passing through on the backs of pickups and stuff like that holding rifles and it just it feels like things could pop off at any moment even if everyone's on the same side it's just you know the more chaotic the situation like in the central african republic or northern syria back in the day those dudes even on the same side can be a lot and and dangerous miss it though don't you yeah definitely

Yeah, I do. Sun has no choice but to hire some of them. His soldiers fight, but they're undisciplined and unreliable, even with Cohen's training. The city is just anarchic. It's teeming with spies and assassins. Military executions are becoming common. So are attempts on Sun Yat-sen. One day, Cohen takes a bullet to his left arm in one of them. He gets treated right away and recovers quickly, but the injury makes him think, what if he had been shot in his right arm instead?

What if he couldn't fire his gun? So he starts training with his left hand, determined to be just as deadly with either.

He begins carrying a second Smith & Wesson .45, and that's when people start calling him "Two-Gun Cohen." I mean, just when I thought this story couldn't get any better, it's got his own baked-in montage saying, "This is sick." Yeah, it is, it is. I mean, you could see him recovering. I picture the 80s movie version, you know, where they play this sort of like, "Sacrifice" Miami Vice music? Yeah, push it to the limit. Yeah. No, no, not that, like, the sadder ones, where it's like him recovering in the hospital and then he starts training.

You know, with his left arm. Yeah, I mean, this is this should be a movie. I think it is a movie, right? I think I think they made a movie that that was loosely based on it. But um, it needs like a 10 part miniseries on Netflix. We should be involved our Spotify if they started that we should be involved with. And then after he starts training,

2Gun does what anyone should do when they're in a wild foreign chaotic land and they're immensely connected to the powerful types with a reputation as a badass. He parties and he parties hard. He drinks all the time. He carouses in fancy hotels. You like that word by the way? Yeah, I was gonna say there's two shouts for carouses. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. He's he women, you know, the good life, he would slip into Hong Kong, which was the British occupied, then British occupied and had a serious party scene. And he was a big boy, remember, like 200 pounds, and apparently spent a lot of his money on food at the street stalls, which anyone who has been to Asia can tell you is very relatable.

He's also getting famous. Like, he's making the news in Canada where the authorities are actually suspicious of him. Dude was many previous arrests. They level accusations that he's trafficking drugs for the Chinese. I mean, I assume gotta be opium, right? But this is like the day of opium dens, which the old school ones, you know, which, um...

What I wouldn't give, you know, they just sound like great places to hang out lots of pillows, that mattresses on the floor, just like a real lounge, you're really lounge, like really having a good time. I've been to the sort of modern backpacker ones that were in Laos back in like the mid 2000s. But um, definitely wasn't the same. I don't even know if they're there anymore.

For one, there were way too many loud 19-year-old Australian backpackers and British ones, so it kind of ruined the vibe. Oh, sorry we ruined the vibe for you. I'm sure you were just like the intellectual moseying around. I mean, I've done it in Myanmar with Chinese gangsters. Honestly, I think...

I don't know, man. I think I'd rather go with the Aussies on that front. Yeah, no, you're right. I'm just giving it a hard time. They're the most fun. We love Australians. Where was I? Yeah, the best. I love the British too. Where was I? We love everyone. Cohen's in China. Soon is having problems because he has to keep paying off his warlord semi-allies. He's increasing taxes, pissing people off. The Soviets are sending their commie advisors. He's clashing with the West and British over money, trade, arms, embargoes, their lack of support.

He does start to get government bureaucracy in order a little bit, but the whole situation is just super precarious. It's always teetering on the edge. The trade unions are getting uppity. The communists are asserting themselves. Sun is getting sicker, too. He's old. And soon he dies in 1925. South China is rudderless, leaderless, and so is Tugan.

The nationalists who are known as the Kuomintang or the GMD, I think, what were we talking about? Kuomintang? Kuomintang. I think it's the same thing, right? Kuomintang. Yeah. Right, yeah, yeah. But different, everything in China seems to have like four names, you know, like the Western name, the Northern name, the Southern name, but yeah, the KMT or the GMD.

We're soon kind of came from and who Cohen worked with by then they had an alliance with the communists and question Sean Do you think that alliance works out? I know this one. I know this one. I don't think it did did it No, it does not know it did not last long point. There's just chaos all over Cohen still has his high-level connections though, but he kind of loses his footing Meanwhile, the nationalists are starting to rally a bit though. There's tension with the Soviet communist advisors They they had been sent to you know, help them out. So

By 1926, the nationalists have 15 different armies. I guess I would assume more malicious than armies. Yeah. And are heading north to take on Beijing with 260,000 troops. And they call this the Northern Expedition. Beijing at the time was controlled by a different government of different warlords. Are you confused? Because I am as well. Okay. So Southern Nationalists allied with communists fighting different northern warlords. Got it.

The KMT has two emerging factions, though, the real nationalists and the ones who side with the communists. Cohen is working both sides, hustling. He ends up working for the central bank running security. Soon, though, the nationalists split off and head north, conquering Shanghai and Nanking and even clash with some British and American gunboats.

The nationalists then link up with the Green Gang, who are the most powerful criminal organization in China and probably deserve their own episode. How powerful are they at that point? I think they had 15,000 members. I've seen some say they had 150,000 members, which is insane.

They had come from a secret society of salt smugglers and boatmen working on China's rivers who became pirates, smugglers, and organized criminals who dominate prostitution rackets, opium rackets, extortion, gambling, the usual, all based out of Shanghai. And their boss basically ran the entire city. Oh, man. They did not like the communists. Well, amazing subject. Yeah. Yeah, I just ordered a book on them. So hopefully we'll do an episode on them a little later down the line.

Linking up with the Nationalists, they begin a purge of the Communists. And it's a massacre all over, eventually leading to serious clashes between Communists and Nationalists in the South. So this is 1927, 1928. All of China is a mess. Hot take. Massive sizzling take. China in the 1920s is a mess. Yeah, I feel like I'm repeating that a lot, but it's because it is. It is.

Different regions have different governments. There's purges. The Soviets are getting kicked out. People are fleeing. Labor movements are rising up and getting put down and peasants are getting killed. This general's over there. That general's over here. Chiang Kai-shek, who would eventually lead the Nationalists, emerges, then loses power, then he gains it back. Things are so out of whack that some Western media even start reporting that Tugun is the real leader of China.

Then there's a rumor he's been executed and another he's leading the fight against the Soviets. But all of it is exaggerated. Two Guns is trying to figure it out like anyone else, basically aligning himself with whosoever star is rising in southern China and Canton. He soon gets involved in wheeling, dealing, procurement, all that fun stuff. Yeah, so just at this point to recap, so he's like incredibly powerful, right? And whoever's trying to take China is kind of trying to hitch their horse to his wagon because he can provide the money and guns, right? Or is it...

Sort of the other way around because like the idea that this migrant gangster is pulling the strings of what like the largest civil war in human history is Just insane. No, he's yeah, he's not he's not incredibly powerful I mean he he's connected to powerful people and he has some capabilities, but it's more like He's in good with the powerful people. They like him. He's got a skill set that they can use Yeah, he's aligning with different ones on but he's definitely not pulling the strings. He gets brought in sometimes to help

serve as a and you'll see that the next 15 20 years to help serve as like a go-between to help negotiate some stuff and I think a lot of what it is to that he plays up his role a lot too right now that's what I mean by the legend in the lore but he does do some insanely gnarly stuff and he really is like in the inner circle of the most powerful people meanwhile

The communists are far from finished, especially with Stalin ordering the CCP, the Chinese Communist Party, to keep fighting and staging uprisings. At one point, they even seize control of Canton, where Cohen is, and the city descends into chaos as they maraud through it, murdering and destroying. Then the nationalists retake it, and the cycle repeats. It's basically just everyone massacring everyone else whenever they get the chance, and that's pretty much actually most of history.

like prior to 1950 across the world. And then you get a nice little break in Western Europe and North America for a bit. But yeah, brutal executions when the nationalists retake the city.

It's in shambles. There's bodies all over the streets. Cohen finds a ton of evidence of Soviet backing and planning that initial takeover of the city at the Russian consulate. And that's how 1927 ends in Canton. Then, you know, after that, then there's, of course, the nationalists start with the infighting. Cohen's bank he's working at is destroyed. And, you know, he's kind of lost again.

But eventually the government of southern China, the nationalist government, gets a proper foothold, even though it's more like a confederation of regional warlords. And this is when Cohen gets involved seriously with the arms trafficking or arms dealing. It's hard to tell, but the man, he moves weight. So Hong Kong, which Cohen has been going to directly south of Canton, just across the water, has been a hotspot for weapons to move through for years.

It's where all the various warlords and generals get their supplies. Wrote the China Weekly Review at the time, quote, arms smuggling facilities in China have been so perfected that business is transacted in arms almost in the same convenient way as other commodities.

Cohen starts working for one of these guys, a general, and gives himself the nickname Mr. 5%. And almost overnight, he turns himself into an international arms dealer. Meanwhile, I can't even get a job in Anduril's communications department. What can you do? Some people have all the luck. Yeah, maybe you're Mr. 3.5%. Cohen's making moves for a man named General Lee.

Not just thousands of guns, but heavy weapons and patrol boats, which are desperately needed because that whole area in South China, the coast and the rivers, is plagued by pirates. There's a serious pirate problem just 60 miles northeast of Hong Kong in an infamous pirate stronghold called BSBS.

Pirates would also pose as passengers on passenger ships, then hijack them and sail them to the pirate bay. They robbed commercial ships for goods, they held people for ransoms, it was big business. Cohen arranges the sale of some of those patrol boats and claims he actively participates in putting a stop to the pirates' free run of the place. But the gravy train does not last long, as Chiang Kai-shek decides to consolidate power and go after some of the more powerful military men ostensibly on his side, including Cohen's boss.

so two gun has no choice but to go work for a different warlord he wasn't exactly a fan of the new guy he didn't see him as someone who compared to soon guy wasn't a true revolutionary just a guy with a whole bunch of corrupt and greedy and violent men underneath him so cohen tries to avoid the guy during this tumultuous period he established himself himself as a fixture of sorts he helps get missionaries out of trouble he's helping western firms with business ideas he even helps countries like england handle issues with their citizens

All as he's helping move weapons through Hong Kong. And he establishes a rep as a guy who just gets things done. He does make some enemies though, some of whom accuse him of being a Soviet sympathizer. One time, a drunken nationalist military officer and his American partner show up at his hotel room. They attack him and accuse him of being a spy. Cohen promptly slaps the shit out of them and they don't bother him anymore.

things in china are still that's in the book yeah he slaps the chef yeah it i think my phrasing might be different than how it was described in the book things in china are just as hectic as ever you've got rival warlords bickering at each other there's the internal national sort of fighting the whole south of china is trying to rearm like crazy cohen is as busy as ever

he's getting tommy guns from the states machine guns from denmark anti-aircraft from britain planes from italy rifle and ammunition from just all over the place eek planes from italy be careful with those some um although actually i just thought like the the world's first war plane was italian i think they dropped bombs on the ethiopians so well done italy yeah i mean that would have been around the same time period right yeah they're the only european force to ever get beaten by an african uh force ever

And then they lost the war. Ethiopians, man. And then they descended into turmoil and then they did nothing. Well done. Says an American Navy lieutenant in the 1930s, quote, the guy was a gun runner. When you say gun runner, that doesn't mean anything disrespectful. After all, the Chinese needed guns. He was well-versed in ways to do things. He was an ideal man for them.

So he's in Hong Kong. He's at the best hotels. He's dining and drinking with all the high officials. He knew everything. He knows everyone. He knows what's happening, who to talk to, how to arrange it. He's doing million-dollar deals for rifles, which, according to inflation, is just a ton, a lot more money now. I don't know. What's our guess? I'm not going to look it up. $37 million? $24 million? Yeah, not bad. Not bad. Yeah. Yeah. I'll go with that. He's helping out the South so much, he gets made an honorary brigadier general.

but things are getting even uglier in china the soviets and communists are rising up in the countryside they're not finished and the japanese are making moves on the north cohen is helping out his general even with training trying to get them everything they need so much so the press in england starts comparing him to lawrence of arabia he's also throwing big parties and banquets all in hong kong and entertaining the british and i think american navy sailors as well who love him for it like he shows up on their ships and just kind of like hangs out with them and gets drunk with them

he's kind of like a tertiary character i think in like a james bond movie maybe he'd be like hanging at the casino or a guy in a graham green novel but like living living a life

He's also doing a lot of partying in Shanghai. Said a friend he took under his wing, quote, it was a society of glitter and glamour. Suddenly I was hobnobbing with cabinet ministers, highest government officials, and directors of banks. My invitation into this new circle started with a whirl of parties that took my breath away. The parties were either given or attended by Cohen and his close Chinese associates. Shanghai was apparently a gigantic party city in the 1930s.

Tons of cabarets and casinos and nightclubs, 100,000 prostitutes, maybe a little bit of like a Babylon Berlin thing going on because there's a whole lot of intrigue and everyone knows war is coming. Chiang Kai-shek is antagonizing everyone, but getting ready to take the fight to the communists and he heads north with an army of 500,000 and forces them out.

And they retreat in what's known as the Long March, 6,000 miles across China's harsh terrain, 80,000 start. And when they finish, there's only 10,000 left, which, you know, should be the end of the CCP, right? Yeah, I mean, you would think so, but they bounce back. They are, have, and will bounce back. Sorry, that's an Alan Poggi reference. I won't do any more. I promise. Yes.

Then Chiang Kai-shek turns his focus south on some of the generals who hadn't pledged loyalty to his government, who had been training, stockpiling weapons, and getting ready to battle with him. Cohen has been appointed a major general at this point. This is like 1935, 1936. But alas, the big internal war isn't to be because Chiang Kai-shek ends up bribing most of the other generals to join his side, including the general that controls the Air Force, who abruptly switched sides with the entire Air Force with him.

The generals collapse and flee to Hong Kong. Cohen is once again out on his own, but in no time he aligns with yet another general. China just has an endless supply.

And then he's partying again in Britain-controlled Hong Kong. It's glamorous. Celebs, gambling, card games, galas, throwing parties with caviar and champagne and famous illusionists who were a big thing then. He's also talking to intelligence agents from Britain, the U.S., etc., who are trying to figure out what the hell is going on in China. And Cohn is the guy with his ear to the ground. Yes, the magicians who swing it for me. That sounds amazing.

I mean, Hong Kong's still pretty cool now. I mean, I don't know. I haven't been there since, what, 2021 or whenever it was, but it was pretty crazy when I was there. Yeah, I wish I'd gone before it passed over, you know? Yeah. Would have been awesome. I had some friends who were based there. But yeah, magicians back then must have been incredible, dude. I mean, you must have thought really they were like...

Some even magicians now, you know, David Blaine does some street stuff. I'm like blowing away Yeah, what's the sweet spot with magicians? Cuz it's got to be like pre-internet where people figure out what you do But like post we're gonna burn you at the stake. So there must be like a sweet spot in the middle somewhere I think the 1920s was a pretty sweet. Yeah, or 1930s. Yeah, that's good. Like Houdini. That was like Houdini era, right? I assume I don't really know. Yeah, I guess so. Yeah, I

Houdini could have been around in like 1820 or 1960. I have no idea. It's all the same to me. I have no idea. Okay, so now Chiang Kai-shek has pacified the South, but the communists are somehow back and the Japanese are really on the move up north. Remember, this is 1936, so you can kind of see what's coming. Chiang Kai-shek then actually aligns with the communists because the Japanese pose a much bigger threat.

China, with a super sort of fractious united front, is preparing as the Chinese invade and kick off the Sino-Japanese War in the summer of 1937, which is kind of like the kickoff of World War II as well. Cohen's in Shanghai when the fighting starts, and he slips out to Nanking. It's a bloodbath. Chinese planes even mistakenly bomb the international settlement, killing 1,800 people in one day.

Shanghai becomes a decimated city quickly. There's widespread devastation. The Japanese just light it up and says, Cohen, quote, if China had as much arms as she has sympathy, the world war would be over. Yes, pretty interesting. I don't know a lot about this, but even at this stage of the allied nations, like have a lot of sympathy for China over Imperial Japan, or did they just not care until it started to hit Europe? All of this turmoil? I don't know. Like,

I mean, it's hard to say the war started in Manchuria because I think you just mentioned it like a lot of people think it did but I don't really know how Europe and the US were viewing China at the time. They think it was a big issue. You know, I've only gathered a lot of information on that from this book that I read.

I think there was some sympathy, but it wasn't at the forefront. I think there was much more of a focus on Europe, which was really bubbling up at that point, you know? - Yeah. - So I think that was a grave concern. But yeah, I'm sure there was some sympathy. I also assume there probably wasn't a ton of interest in like the general public. But again, that's an assumption that would just be, you know, probably seen as somewhere really far away. But definitely much more sympathetic to the Chinese. I mean, I hope our viewers know this. Definitely much more sympathetic to the Chinese at that point than the Japanese.

Cohen makes it to Nanking. But yeah, I mean, you know what happens there. The Japanese lay siege to it. And then the can you say this word and not get demonetized? Or do you have to say something different? But yeah, the of Nanking 200,000 killed people roped together and sat on fire. Thousands of sexual assaults.

Yes, good. Yeah, the Nationalists retreat the Japanese are advancing like crazy Cohen slips out to Canton He's helping Shepherd journalists around he's working as a fixer. He's trying to get the word out to the states into the West and

When the Japanese start bombing, he's doing that old school OSINT thing with British intelligence where he's gathering tail fins and bombing fragments to study. He's also prepping Canton for the upcoming battle, setting up fortifications, sandbags, machine gun outposts all over, all while trying to get them as many weapons as possible. His boss, though, who's, you know, one of these generals, thinks the Japanese war machine is just too powerful.

And they all flee once again, along with the rest of Free China's government to Chongqing. Chongqing? How do you say that? Yeah. Chongqing? Isn't that Chongqing now? Could be. I don't know. I think that might be like the old version of it. And now it's like Chongqing. Maybe I'm wrong. I don't know. Yeah. The cities, they fall like dominoes. And the Japanese then move on to bomb the crap out of the next one.

Cohen's in Hong Kong at this point, 1939. He's working the phones and all his contacts to get as much gasoline and as many weapons as possible to China for his people. The Japanese know who he is and they're gunning for him. He's an honorary general at this point and he bides his time in Hong Kong. Again, the drinking, the entertaining, playing poker. It's one of those wartime, we might all die, so let's party situations and people are having a good time.

still under British control, who the Japanese are not currently at war with. And Cone is well-liked and seen as a charming rogue with an unsavory past. So again, you know, the Casablanca vibes. Yeah, I mean, what movie bar would you most like to drink in? Because you can't find much better than Sam's, right? Those suits and all the Moroccan stuff. I don't know. That's pretty damn cool. Mos Eisley would have been cool back in the day, I guess. Back in the day? Is it set in like the 3000s?

I mean, wanted to, yeah, that. I feel like the Paddy's Pub is pretty, from It's Always Sunny is pretty famous at this point. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm trying to think of other really great movie bars, but... The bar from Cheers just always seemed pretty sad to me. I don't know, I didn't really get the vibe of the show. Well, the thing is that when you're there, everyone knows your name, so it's not actually sad. Great, but there's like five people in there, so...

Family. Friends who became family. It does. Yeah, there's a lot of people drinking at like five o'clock when they get off work on like a Monday, which is not the best environment, I would say. But sometimes you need that, you know? But if you make it an every week thing, it's not so good. Where were we? Okay, right. Soon enough, World War II. Yeah, World War II, full on. Cohen is running around Asian countries with big Chinese communities like Malaysia, the Philippines, trying to raise money to fight the Japanese. The Brits are meanwhile fortifying Hong Kong.

The parting is also hitting overdrive. This is late 1941. So of course, the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor and start doing bombing runs right around then on Hong Kong. They overrun the initial British forces quickly and they're trying to get the British to surrender, but they refuse. The city is a madhouse. Spies are being executed. Fifth columnists are rising up. British soldiers are running around. Indian soldiers are running around. Cohen's boys are trying to take out the traitors amongst them. Says Cohen, quote, "...they were in their element."

They went around popping hand grenades through the traders' windows while they were at supper. There's shortages, there's looting, the British can barely keep on. They surrender on Christmas Day and Cohen sits in his hotel room, the Hong Kong Hotel, awaiting to be picked up, his fate, you know, wondering if the Japanese would simply kill him or just torture him, and that's where we have the cult open.

the japanese take over hong kong they occupy it looting and war crimes commence torture executions interrogations cohen gets picked up and interrogated and surprisingly let go and he kind of figures it's a setup so he tells all his friends to kind of stay away because you know he knows the the japanese want to see who he's talking to after a few weeks all the foreigners including cohen are rounded up and put into internment camps

Some of the British are just tortured and executed. And the camps are horrific conditions. There's mostly Brits there, some Americans, some Dutch. They're basically left to fend for themselves. The Japanese provide very little, almost nothing.

Rumors spread, some press reports that on direct orders from Adolf Hitler, the Japanese had executed Cohen. He has some brutal interrogations by the Japanese secret police, held in basement cells for days, there's even mock executions involving samurai swords. Yeah, I mean, when terminally online people say it's terrible these days, I mean, it really was quite a bit worse in the 1940s, wasn't it? Dude, from like 1910 to 1950. Yeah.

the amount of people just like massacre what's the total death toll from world war one like 45 million or something like this no it's more it's like it's like 80 to 100 million if you include both them and then there were all the sort of tertiary wars that were fought and then after 45 all over the world you know all over the world right you had like fascists or nazi leftovers fighting communism i mean europe oh god what's that book called i think um

Continent of Darkness, something like that. It's about the post-World War II fighting. I mentioned on the show before, post-World War II fighting, like 1945, 1945.

to like 1950 all over Europe. A Continent in Darkness or Heart of, incredible book, but just like, yeah, just the brutality involved. So yeah, in those camps, prisoners starve, some lose 60 pounds, something like 90% of the people suffer from malnutrition disease. Cohen becomes known for watching over the women and the children in the camp, trying to make sure they had enough food. And he's in his late 50s then, he's kind of weak, but he keeps people's spirits up with his optimism. You know, he tells stories, he's still entertaining,

In September of 1943, he's involved in a prisoner exchange, then he ends up having to sail all the way around the world before he ends up back in Canada finally. He's received as a hero by the Chinese community and the Jewish community. The press is all there. He briefs the Canadians with all the intel he can on the war. Later, he tries to get back to his old ways of anti-Japanese activity, but the Canadians and the British kind of tell him they had no use for him, that he was considered too dangerous because of his criminal record.

He meets a good woman in Montreal, falls in love and gets married, does some speaking tours, but he really can't get anything moving business-wise. Oh, man. I'd help him out. Imagine it now. Straight shooting with 2GunCoin, sponsored by Squarespace. He would absolutely murder it on the podcast circuit. You know, you get him on any of those business shows or any other show, like, come on. Most of those guys are like, oh, yeah, I, uh...

I started a direct sales company, and now I wear my suits too tight. But here's how you – whatever. I'm just saying. That guy would be an actual interesting guest on the podcast.

Shocking. Where were we? World War II, right. Japan surrenders in 1945. Cohen's back in China in 1946, just in time for the Chinese Civil War, which Mao and the communists win, of course, versus Chiang Kai-shek and the nationalists. Cohen's in and out. He kind of serves as a go-between at times. At one point later on, he actually refuses to take sides in China versus Taiwan because he says he has too many friends on either side.

I think that's in the 50s. He eventually softens quite a bit on the CCP, though he's confident the nationalists are going to retake the mainland. And then in 1954, this autobiography comes out and he gets a whole load of fame. Some fame, I would say. He eventually passes away in 1970 in the UK. And apparently there is a 1983 movie starring Kevin Costner called The Gunrunner that's based on his life. But I think...

I think we need a remake. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah. I think podcasts are going to do better than that. Just saying. I think, yeah, I think his story is, you know, there's some stuff a lot about his back and forth in his later days, but we've kind of hit the limit here and I didn't want to go back and forth with it. But just a fascinating, fascinating guy and a fascinating life. Incredible.

Yeah, like a real adventurer type. You know what I'm saying? All the way back to the Canada days. But yeah, remember guys, underworldpod.com, patreon.com, sessionworldpodcast. Let us know which one of our sunglasses you guys like more. And again, if you work for, what did you name? You said Persol? Yeah, Persol for me. But I mean, you know, as long as it's like square face round specs, you know, that's like, that's the rule. Look up the Dita Mike McDaniels, who's the coach of the Dolphins. Okay. One

ones that he was wearing this just incredible and I look I was like I want these I looked him up and they're $900 ouch okay which would be worth it if you're our advertiser I'll tell people buy them and then um Moscow dude the old the old I've got a pair of Moscow's they're incredible yeah great they last forever like a little out of my little out of my price range we can just keep going this is what other podcasts are we could just keep going for 10 minutes anyway thank you guys for listening hope you enjoyed this yeah until next week

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪