Longtime Oceanside resident and retired newspaper reporter Paul Weeks died Tuesday at the age of 86, after a short illness.

Paul was a reporter at the Los Angeles Times, where he covered a number of major stories, including the downfall of mobster Mickey Cohen.

I recently taped an interview with Paul for my "Living Legacies" TV show that will air later this month on KOCT-TV, Channel 18, for Oceanside Cox cable viewers.

Paul was born Dec. 9, 1920, in Mott, N.D. His father, a rural mail carrier, wanted his children to have a good education so he moved them to New Mexico.

"Dad moved us to Albuquerque during the Great Depression so we'd be near a college," Paul told me. "I was a high school stringer for the Albuquerque Tribune, and I covered my own high school graduation."

Paul began at the Tribune as a copy boy. After a week, he became a sports writer, then later moved to Los Angeles where he worked for the old Daily News (not the present-day publication).

After a few years at that newspaper, Paul moved to the now-defunct Los Angeles Mirror, the evening paper of the Los Angeles Times.

"I was sent to Washington, D.C., as a one-man bureau for about a year," Paul recalled. "When I got back, the Mirror folded (1958), so I moved over to the (Los Angeles) Times."

During his years as a Los Angeles reporter, Paul became acquainted with Cohen, who started out in Los Angeles as a bodyguard to Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel. Later, Cohen became a kingpin in Southern California for the New York mob.

"I could always get an interview out of Mickey because he trusted me," Paul recalled. "He told me I was one of the few honest reporters he knew, who wouldn't take a bribe, and he liked that."

In the early 1950s, when Cohen was indicted on income tax evasion, news reporters, including Paul, were camped outside the mobster's Los Angeles home, waiting for him to emerge.

"Mickey opened the front door, called over and asked me to come inside," he said.

Cohen told Paul he wanted him to go with him to turn himself in at the county jail in downtown Los Angeles.

"Mickey loved to show off," Paul recalled. "He was at the wheel of his Cadillac, his wife at his side, and me in the back seat as we drove down Hollywood Boulevard. Mickey waved to everyone as he drove to jail."

Paul retired in 1988, and moved to Oceanside.

Services are pending.

HAT DAY - I'm off to the races next Wednesday. For the last 13 years, yours truly has been a judge for the annual opening day hat contest for the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club's horse racing season.

Grand prize for this year's hat winner will be two round-trip Virgin Airlines' tickets to London, presented by Virgin Vines Wines.

- Notes for Tom Morrow can be sent to tmorrow@nctimes.com or quotetaker@msn.com.