Bad Choice of Friends
- At the time she vanished in 1980, Karen Koppel was causing headaches for Ben Stein – a mob associate and felon whose Chicago janitorial company had grown fat through local government contracts.
Stein, who was in his 60s and married to someone else, wanted to break off what apparently was a romantic relationship with the much younger Koppel. However, Koppel wasn’t happy. She was making wild accusations about Stein, and demanded a large financial settlement to let things drop, Chicago police records indicate.
Stein asked a long-time friend – then-Chicago cop Richard "Rick" Simon, who moonlighted for Stein’s firm – to help amicably resolve things, according to police records and interviews.
Posts
