The Region - News from Aug. 21, 1986

A former Hollywood restaurateur convicted of soliciting the murder of a federal witness linked to a ticket-scalping case was taken to prison after a judge refused to continue his bail during appeal. H. Daniel Whitman, 55, was convicted July 18 on four charges of conspiracy to murder, conspiracy to deprive a witness of his civil rights, tampering with a witness and retaliation against a witness. U.S. District Judge Francis Whelan sentenced Whitman to two eight-year terms. Whitman, former owner of Cyrano’s restaurant on the Sunset Strip, was found guilty of trying to arrange the murder of Raymond Cohen, the key witness in a ticket-scalping case involving composer Dominic Frontiere. The man Whitman tried to hire for the job was a government informant and the murder was not committed.