In 1942, Mickey Cohen and a couple of goons pistolwhipped Utley for conversing with L.A. cop E. D. "Roughhouse" Brown in front of Lucey's Restaurant.

[3] According to a 1950 California state report on organized crime, "Utley is not a gang leader in the ordinary sense of the word; he is the proprietor of a number of gambling enterprises, the financial backer of many others, and is associated with a group known as 'The Five,' which is presently seeking to exert underworld control through political activity.

It will be remembered that Utley was the victim years ago of a pistol whipping at the hands of [Mickey] Cohen and one of his fellow hoodlums in a Los Angeles restaurant.

The latter project failed, however, when the district attorney's office of that county successfully prosecuted the operators of the game and prevented it from reopening.

[6] Utley went to prison in 1956 when he was convicted of running a business offering illegal operations (a common euphemism for abortion) that reportedly grossed US$500,000 (equivalent to $5,603,427 in 2023) annually.