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

In early June, a: Woods, “The Progressives and the Police,” 476.

“The Negro community here …”: “Parker Assails Bishop’s View of Negro Policy,” Los Angeles Times, January 18, 1963, A1.

“This city can’t be …”: Woods, “The Progressives and the Police,” 475-76.

Chapter Twenty-six: The Gas Chamber

“Don’t worry”: Cohen, In My Own Words, 214.

Cohen’s indictment arose from: Reid, Mickey Cohen, 69; “Officers Out to Get Cohen, LoCigno Says,” Los Angeles Times, March 22, 1962, A2.

Although he was willing: “Under Table, Didn’t See Slayer, Cohen Says,” Los Angeles Times, March 29, 1962, 30.

Cohen’s attorneys did not: “Cohen’s Defense Closes Murder Trial Argument,” Los Angeles Times, April 5, 1962, 34.

“This is a crazy town…”: Coates, “A Cool Customer in a Hot Spot,” Los Angeles Times, April 15, 1962, B7.

“Although much testimony of…”: “Mickey Cohen Murder Charges Dismissed,” Los Angeles Times, March 19, 1962, 2. LoCigno’s earlier conviction had been vacated by an appeals court. However, he did not go free. Later that fall, he was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to one to ten years’ imprisonment. “Lo Cigno Rules Guilty of Manslaughter,” Los Angeles Times, November 15, 1962, B8.

Cohen had dodged the: Lewis, Hollywood’s Celebrity Gangster, 278-79, 280-81.

“Don’t worry about me,”: Cohen, In My Own Words, 214.

In October, Cohen was: “Mickey Cohen Sues U.S.,” New York Times, February 18, 1964, 22; Lewis, Hollywood’s Celebrity Gangster, 284-86.

“Violence in Los Angeles …”: “An Analysis of the McCone Commission Report,” California Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights, January 1966, LAPD official records box 84638, CRC.

“I doubt that Los …”: “Police Chief William H. Parker Speaks,” a compilation of Parker statements prepared by the Community Relations Conference of Southern California, 2400 South Western Avenue, Los Angeles, California, available in Parker’s FBI file, 62-96042-109.

Chapter Twenty-seven: Watts

“This community has done …”: Woods, “The Progressives and the Police,” 475-76.

Minikus told Marquette that: My account of the beginning of the riots comes from Robert Conot’s Rivers of Blood, Years of Darkness (6-29) and from the Governor’s Commission on the Los Angeles Riots report (the so-called McCone Commission), issued December 5, 1965, reprinted in Robert Fogelson, ed., Mass Violence in America (10-23). Frye would later challenge this account, claiming that the Highway Patrol officer had been preparing to release him until other officers arrived with a nastier attitude. See Horne, The Fire Next Time, 54.

It was a sweltering: Conot, Rivers of Blood, Years of Darkness, 6.

Gates had enjoyed a: Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, June 2, 1965, CRC scrapbook.

What he saw was: Gates, Chief, 90.

The police had regrouped: In fact, thanks to the strike at Harvey Aluminum, L.A. County sheriff Peter Pritchess had also placed a sizable number of deputy sheriffs on alert near the area—roughly two hundred. Nothing prevented Deputy Chief Murdock from calling them in as assistance. Yet no calls were made that night to the sheriff’s department. Conot, Rivers of Blood, Years of Darkness, 50, 65.

This characterization of the early morning comes from the McCone Commission report, cited above. Gates, Chief, 90-91, portrays events of the first morning in a less positive light.

Chief Parker did not: “‘Pseudoleaders Who Can’t Lead,’ Blamed by Parker,” Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, August 15, 1965; “Los Angeles Police Chief William H. Parker 3d,” New York Times, August 14, 1965.

Around midnight, the comedian: Gregory, Call On My Soul, 111.

They didn’t. By 4: Gates, Chief, 99.

At 9:45 a.m., Parker: Parker would later claim that Colonel Quick, the National Guard liaison present at the 9:45 LAPD staff meeting, had received the request and promised the chief to submit it immediately. Colonel Quick, in contrast, would recall a more general conversation, one that did not include a direct and specific request for the Guard.

At 11 a.m., Governor Brown’s: Anderson did order the Guard to marshal forces at local armories at 5 p.m. Friday afternoon, in the event a call-up was necessary. Anderson would tell the McCone Commission that he had been advised that a five o’clock call out was the earliest time feasible for a guard deployment. Unaware of the location of the Third Brigade, the lieutenant governor thus felt that he had the afternoon to investigate and deliberate.

To Parker, it was: Gottlieb and Wolt, Thinking Big, 378.