L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City

With a measure of: The arrest of councilman Carl Jacobson was a variant on a common police racket known as the badger game, an extortion racket made possible by the fact that extramarital sex was actually illegal in Los Angeles. The setup was simple: Working with an unmarried female accomplice, the police arranged an assignation, usually at a downtown hotel, and then burst in to make an arrest—unless, that is, they received a payoff. In this instance, however, Councilman Jacob-son boldly refused to go with the usual script. Insisting that he had been framed, he demanded a trial and was acquitted. He later sued Crawford, vice lord Albert Marco, Callie Grimes (the would-be temptress), and five police officers. However, they, too, were acquitted, leaving the question of exactly what happened in Ms. Grimes’s bedroom hopelessly unsettled. “Crawford Career Hectic,” Los Angeles Times, May 21, 1931, 2. See also Woods, “The Progressives and the Police,” 252-55.

Parker tried to focus: Starr, Material Dreams, 70.

Freed of his wife: Fogelson, Big City Police, 82, 103. Author interview with Joseph Parker, Houston, Texas, December 12-13, 2004.

On April 24, 1926: Fogelson, Big City Police, 102; letter from the Board of Civil Service Commissioners, September 28, 1926, William H. Parker Police Foundation Archives. Note that Police Commission minutes misrecord his name as “William H. Park.”

Chapter Four: The Bad Old Good Old Days

“[A] smart lawyer can …”: White, Me, Detective, 188; Sjoquist, History of the Los Angeles Police Department, 37.

“The name of this city …”: Fogelson, Fragmented Metropolis, 26, quoting the diary of the Rev. James L. Woods, November 24, 1854 (at the Huntington Library).

“While there are undoubtedly …”: “Committee of Safety Makes Its Report,” Los Angeles Herald, November 8, 1900; Fogelson, Big City Police, 9.

In their defense: Woods, “The Progressives and the Police,” 24.

The activities of plainclothes: Fogelson, Big City Police, 51.

In 1902, the LAPD’s: Kooistra, “Angeles for Sale,” 25. Reverend Kendall’s Queen of the Red-Lights, which is based on Pearl Morton, is an excellent introduction to the genre.

The decision to prohibit: Woods, “The Progressives and the Police,” 49.

There were moments when: Kooistra, “Angeles for Sale,” 71.

One night soon after: For one of Parker’s several accounts of this episode, see Dean Jennings, “Portrait of a Police Chief,” 84. In the 1930s, Arlington was the reputed bagman for the Combination’s gambling interests.

Today the police beat: New York City was something of an exception. There the profusion of publications put reporters in a more supplicatory position. Muir, Headline Happy, 41.

Infuriated at the idea: Jacoby, “Highlights in the Life of the Chief of Police,” Eight Ball, March 1966, William H. Parker Police Foundation archives.

“‘Come along, sister, and…’”: Quoted in Starr, Material Dreams, 170-71. That same year, the old police station/stockade was torn down and the new Lincoln Heights Jail was built in its place. Ted Thackrey, “Memories—Lincoln Heights Jail Closing,” Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, June 27, 1965.

Cops sometimes acted violently: White, Me, Detective, 188; Woods, “The Progressives and the Police,” 225.

The existence of “the third degree” was a hotly debated topic at the time. Police chiefs denied its existence. Critics insisted that it was routinely used. To some extent, both sides were talking past each other. Police chiefs defined the “third degree” as torture, critics as coercive pressure. The analogy to current-day interrogation tactics for suspected terrorists is very close. See also Wickersham Commission, 146-47; and Hopkins, Lawless Law Enforcement.

Remarkably, the LAPD was: Carte and Carte, Police Reform in the United States, 60. See also Hopkins, Lawless Law Enforcement.

Parker told the man: “Why Hoodlums Hate Bill Parker,” Readers Digest, March 1960, 239, condensed from National Civic Review (September 1959).

“Open the door so …”: Stump, “LA’s Chief Parker.”

Later that year: Wedding announcement, Los Angeles Times, May 1, 1928, 24.

The Great Depression intervened: Starr, The Dream Endures, 165.

“Statements from Bill kept …”: Letter from Helen, William H. Parker Police Foundation archive.

Chapter Five: “Jewboy”