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

by John Buntin

  Whether Parker knew about: Hayde, My Name’s Friday, 31-33. See August 2, 1963, FBI memo, Parker FBI file, for the origins of the FBI feud. See December 4, 1951, memo from SAC, Los Angeles, to Director, FBI, for Parker’s praise of Hoover.

  The episode aired on: Hayde, My Name’s Friday, 46.

  Parker’s initial response to: On July 18, 1959, the FBI’s San Francisco SAC sent a confidential memo to J. Edgar Hoover, reporting on a recent off-the-record confab Parker had held with Bay Area law enforcement officials about community relations that provides rare insight into the chief’s thoughts about the Bloody Christmas affair. According to the SAC, Parker stated that “certain of his men were undoubtedly in the wrong.” Parker further noted that “a number of his young officers were also wrong in ‘clamming up’ when his own inspectors attempted to investigate the beatings, and that had these officers not done this, the entire matter might in all probability have been settled within the department.” Also author interview with Harold Sullivan, July 26, 2007.

  Soon after his ill-received: “Parker Hints at Crackdown, Own Cleanup May Forestall Jury Action,” Hollywood Citizen-News, March 27, 1952; “Grand Jury Indicts Eight Officers in Beating Case,” Los Angeles Times, April 23, 1952; “Bloody Christmas—One Year Later,” Los Angeles Mirror editorial, December 6, 1952.

  Parker went further: Webb, The Badge, 174-75; “36 L.A. Policemen Face Discipline for Brutality,” Los Angeles Times, June 17, 1952; “Grand Jury Turns Heat on Parker, Report Hits Police Dept. Conditions,” Los Angeles Daily News, April 2, 1952; “An Inadequate Answer,” Los Angeles Examiner editorial, May 2, 1952. A July 29, 1952, memo from the L.A. SAC to Hoover asserted that Parker had not been popular in the department before the FBI’s civil rights investigation commenced but that Parker’s strong defense of the department had “earned him support since.” Nonetheless, the SAC claimed that Parker’s position “is still somewhat precarious” as “it is generally known that the Mayor is hostile to him, as are a number of the Los Angeles Police Commissioners.” The following month Mayor Bowron would categorically deny any intention of removing Parker. “Bowron Denies Parker Ouster,” Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, May 27, 1952.

  Dragnet wasn’t the only: A July 18, 1952, “confidential memo” from the FBI’s San Francisco SAC to Director Hoover reports that the L.A. business community had also printed a brochure titled “The Thin Blue Line” to distribute to members of the public. Whether the phrase was first used for the pamphlet or for the TV show is unclear.

  The purpose of: April 1, 1952, letter from Parker to the Police Commission, William H. Parker Police Foundation archives.

  “Soviet Russia believes that …”: Parker, Parker on Police, 30. See also Charles Reith, The Blind Eye of History, 209-23, for a viewpoint that profoundly influenced Parker.

  In this vital role: Woods, “The Progressives and the Police,” 430.

  Parker thought the primary: Woods, “The Progressives and the Police,” 429.

  One generation earlier, Berkeley: Parker, Parker on Police, 12.

  Hoover was determined to: See memorandum to Mr. DeLoach, December 12, 1960, for summary of bureau’s relationship with Parker, Parker FBI files.

  Chapter Seventeen: The Trojan Horse

  “You should always have…”: Poulson, The Genealogy and Life Story, 91.

  “There is nothing about …”: “Chief Parker Expected to Quit in Bowron Row,” Los Angeles Examiner, May 27, 1952; Sitton, Los Angeles Transformed, 171; Parson, Making a Better World, 112, 115.

  The charge emerged from: The residents of Chavez Ravine would later be evicted for another reason—to make way for Dodger Stadium.

  Bowron had no interest: Sitton, Los Angeles Transformed, 171.

  In December 1952: The Cadillac soon broke down, and Poulson replaced it with a fuel-efficient Rambler, much to the horror of West Coast oil and gas companies. Parson, Making a Better World, 127; Poulson, The Genealogy and Life Story, 132-34.

  “I just casually reached …”: Poulson, The Genealogy and Life Story, 144.

  “They would say that…”: Poulson, The Genealogy and Life Story, 144.

  the House Subcommittee on: “Verbal Battles by Lawyers Rock Public Housing Quiz,” Los Angeles Times, May 21, 1953. Parson, Making a Better World, 203-208, provides a complete transcript of the LAPD’s Wilkinson file.

  “I talked in circles,”: Poulson, The Genealogy and Life Story, 144-45.

  Chapter Eighteen: The Magna Carta of the Criminal

  “The voice of the …”: Webb, The Badge, 244.

  Accardo’s party proceeded to: Russo, The Outfit, 302. The Los Angeles Mirror presents a slightly different version of the incident, which features a verbal confrontation at the airport. “Chicago Hoodlum Chased by Cops, Goes to ‘Vegas,’” Mirror, January 16, 1953. See also Davidson, “The Mafia Can’t Crack Los Angeles,” Saturday Evening Post, July 31, 1965. Fittingly, Perino’s was also a famous gangster-movie restaurant, a place that featured in such films as Scarface, Bugsy, and Mulholland Drive. It was torn down in the spring of 2005 (http://franklinavenue.blogspot.com/2005/04/perinos-no-more.html, accessed July 16, 2008).

  Then there were the: Parker to Rev. John Birth, director, Catholic Youth Organization, April 28, 1953, William H. Parker Police Foundation archives. See Weeks, “Story of Chief Parker, Enemy of the Criminal,” for a disingenuous attempt to explain away the “personal” intelligence files. Los Angeles Mirror, June 17, 1957, 1.

  The potential for the: Poulson, The Genealogy and Life Story, 140. The Daily News was speaking out against a proposal that surfaced that summer to give the police chief even more power over the department. “Give Police Board, not the Chief, More Power,” Los Angeles Daily News, July 2, 1953; Los Angeles Times, May 12, 1953.

  There was a third: Coates, “Midnight Memo to the Mayor,” Los Angeles Mirror, July 20, 1953; Poulson, The Genealogy and Life Story, 140, 147.

  “Chief Parker is to …”: “Poulson Pledges War on Gangsters: Mayor-Elect Maps Plans with Parker; Shake-Up of Police Commission Indicated,” Los Angeles Times, June 17, 1953.

  Although he had concluded: Poulson, The Genealogy and Life Story, 147; “4 Named to Police Board by Poulson,” Hollywood Citizen-News, July 2,1953.

  The message Poulson intended: Woods, “The Progressives and the Police,” 151-52.

  “Until these recommendations …”: Irey, “An Open Letter to the Mayor: Ex-Official Tells LA Police Stymie,” Los Angeles Mirror, July 13, 1953; Irey, “Police Dept. ‘Split’ Bared,” Los Angeles Mirror, July 14, 1953.

  “Hardly anyone likes Parker, …”: Parker’s relationship with the press had taken a turn for the worse earlier in the year, when he shut down a poker game involving reporters and the police that had been going on since time immemorial. At the chief’s insistence, a sign was put up that read “No more card playing. By order of the Chief of Police.” Parker would later claim that he was moved to act after discovering that one unfortunate reporter had run up a $2,000 debt. The press itself seems to have viewed the crackdown case as pure vindictiveness. In a scathing story about the controversy, the Daily News complained of the chief’s “incredible inability to get along with newsmen or take criticism.” “Speaking of Snoopers,” Los Angeles Daily News, January 19, 1953.

  Poulson hoped that his: Commission members received a stipend of $20 per meeting but were otherwise unpaid. Mayor Poulson’s predecessor, Fletcher Bowron, had also wrestled with this problem, when confronted with the prospect of having the ornery, independent-minded Parker as chief. His solution had been to place William Worton on the Police Commission board. Harry Frawley, “Police Board Will Use More Power—Mayor,” Valley Times, August 8, 1950. It didn’t work. Parker’s allies on the city council ferociously resisted a few early efforts by Worton to discipline the new chief. In the summer of 1951, General Worton resigned from the Police Commission and was gone. “Newman and Worton Quit Police Board,” Los Angeles Times, July 18, 1951, 1.

  If those weren’
t constraints: In his memoirs, Poulson would later accuse Parker of deliberately undermining the mayor’s relationship with Poulson. This is probably true; however, Parker undoubtedly also benefited from an incident that occurred that very summer. Soon after Irwin joined the Police Commission, he was approached by Herbert Hallner, chief investigator for the state board, with a proposition: If Irwin would “cooperate” with a group of “citizens” attempting to win permission to open, he would be “well taken care of.” It was common knowledge that the group of citizens in question was a front for Jimmy Utley, Mickey Cohen’s sometime underworld rival. Irwin quickly informed Parker and Poulson of the approach, and with Irwin’s continuing assistance, the department arranged a successful sting operation aimed at the corrupt investigator. The incident undoubtedly heightened Irwin’s regard for the chief. See “Cal. Employe [sic] Accused as Bunco Go-Between,” Los Angeles Daily News, September 2, 1953.

  Poulson struggled in his: “Responses to Questions of the Los Angeles City Council Concerning a Juvenile Gang Attack on a Citizen in Downtown Los Angeles Which Resulted in His Death, Given by Los Angels [sic] Chief of Police W H. Parker on December 8, 1953,” Police Department files, Escobar collection, Tucson, AZ.

  But when Leask presented: Memorandum from Parker to the Board of Police Commissioners, “Subject: Progress Report—August 9, 1950, to January 1, 1953,” January 7, 1953, Escobar collection, Tucson, AZ.

  “You talk like you’re …”: “Charge 750 Police in Office Jobs, Quiz Chief,” Los Angeles Herald-Express, May 5, 1954; Williams, “Mayor and Parker in Sharp Clashes: Poulson, Police Chief and Leask Argue Heatedly at Public Hearing on City Budget,” Los Angeles Times, May 6, 1954, 1.

  It was classic Parker.: Gerald Woods put it aptly in his 1,310-page dissertation, “The Progressives and the Police”: “A most contentious man, he could not abide the same quality in others…. He brooked no criticism of himself, his politics or his subordinates…. Parker’s description of society provided a concise analysis of the chief himself. Americans, he said, were ‘emotional people, responsive to stimuli administered to us through communicative media; we are immature and subjective about problems, and there is an unwillingness for us to accept our mistakes.’ His enemies could not have said it better” (432).

  So far, the consequences: Memorandum from Parker to the Board of Police Commissioners, “Subject: Progress Report—August 9, 1950, to January 1, 1953,” January 7, 1953, Escobar collection.

  I wish it could: Parker, Parker on Police, 16.

  For decades, police departments: For instance, in the spring of 1955, Judge Aubrey Irwin dismissed a case against Hollywood playboy LeRoy B. (“Skippy”) Malouf after concluding that Malouf had been framed by the police. “‘Planted’ Fur Story Acquits Malouf in Theft,” Los Angeles Times, April 7, 1955, p. 4.

  See the depiction of police work as approved by the department in He Walked by Night.

  Of course, not every: Parker would later argue that technically wiretapping per se was not illegal under federal statutes but rather the divulging of information from a wiretap was. Parker, “Laws on Wiretapping,” letter to the Los Angeles Times, January 23, 1955.

  “[I]n a prosecution”: Irvine v. California, 347 U.S. 128 (1954); Newton, Justice for All, 338. No case was ever brought against the officers involved.

  The position of: “Chance on the High Sea,” Time, August 14, 1939; Warren, The Memoirs of Earl Warren, 255; Parker, “Responses to Questions of the Los Angeles City Council Concerning a Juvenile Gang Attack on a Citizen in Downtown Los Angeles,” December 8, 1953, Escobar collection.

  “Certainly society cannot expect…”: City News Service, “Parker Hits at Highest Court Ruling in Irvine ‘Bookie’ Case,” L.A. Journal, February 19, 1954.

  This was a sensitive: Wirin’s lawsuit was finally rejected on May 31, 1955. “Judge Rules He Cannot Stop Police Microphones, Lacks Jurisdiction on Use of Public Funds for Installation, McCoy Says,” Los Angeles Times, July 1, 1955.

  Wirin’s attempts to rein: Los Angeles Herald-Express, April 19, 1954; Los Angeles Times, April 5, 1954.

  “We would if you …”: Lieberman, “‘Dragnet’ Tales Drawn from LAPD Files Burnished the Department’s Image,” Los Angeles Times, October 30, 2008.

  “Far from being a …”: Mooring, “Chief Gives Opinion of ‘Bad Cop’ Films,” The Tidings, October 22, 1954; “Telephone Tap Defended by Chief Parker,” Los Angeles Mirror-Daily News, March 7, 1955. In 1968, Congress passed legislation (known as Title III) governing federal law enforcement’s use of electronic surveillance that adopted precisely that procedure. California, however, declined to follow suit. Until quite recently, California state law criminalized all wiretaps that did not have the consent of both parties, with an exception only for certain narcotics-related law-enforcement matters. See Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs9-wrtp.htm#wt2, accessed July 26, 2008.

  In addition to trying: “Police Warned on Secret Wire Taps, Officers Subject to Liability for Illegal Entry, Brown Says,” Los Angeles Times, September 4, 1954.

  The case of Cahan: Lieberman, “Cop Befriends Crook,” Los Angeles Times, October 29, 2008.

  Traynor served notice that: Liptak, “U.S. Is Alone in Rejecting All Evidence if Police Err,” New York Times, July 19, 2008.

  “Today one of the …”: “Hidden Mike Barred, Beverly Bookie Case Upset by High Court,” Hollywood Citizen-News, April 28, 1955.

  “The positive implication drawn: Earlier that year the Chandlers’ Mirror had bought out Manchester Boddy’s Daily News, creating the Mirror-News. For Parker’s statistics, see “Criminals Laugh at LA Police, Says Chief. Underworld Rejoices in Ruling,” Los Angeles Mirror-Daily News, May 31, 1955.

  Chapter Nineteen: The Enemy Within

  “He is intent on …”: Hecht Papers, Newberry Library, Chicago.

  “There is not a: “Mickey Can’t have L.A. Bar, Officers Rule,” Hollywood Citizen-News, October 10, 1955.

  “When I was on …”: Cohen, Hecht manuscript, 63, Hecht Papers, New-berry Library.

  Several months after: The timing of the meeting between Hecht, Preminger, and Cohen is problematic. Brad Lewis’s Hollywood’s Celebrity Gangster places the meeting in the late 1940s or 1950s, well before the 1955 film was made (71). It is nonetheless possible that Preminger was reading Nelson Algren’s book, published in 1949.

  On the appointed: Hecht manuscript, 1-3, 18-19, Hecht Papers, New-berry Library.

  Not anymore. The postprison: Hecht manuscript, 13-14, Hecht Papers, Newberry Library. See also Cohen to Hecht, March 22, 1964, Hecht Papers, Newberry Library. Cohen, In My Own Words, 64, offers a slightly different recollection.

  According to Hecht, Mickey originally brought him a 150-page typed manuscript that he said he had dictated. “Mickey Cohen Takes Manuscript to Author,” Los Angeles Times, August 4, 1957, 34. The Newberry Library contains fragments of this apparent manuscript.

  LaVonne thought Mickey: Lewis, Hollywood’s Celebrity Gangster, 193, 196.

  One night after midnight: The word gilgul means “cycle” in Hebrew and refers to a concept of reincarnation from the Kabbalistic tradition. Hecht manuscript, 16-17, 70-71, Hecht Papers, Newberry Library.

  Chief Parker would have: Lieberman, “Cop Befriends Crook,” Los Angeles Times, October 29, 2008.

  By 1956, the Kennedys: The extent of Joseph Kennedy’s involvement in bootlegging is often exaggerated. Contrary to public myth, the Kennedy family fortune was not based on illegal liquor. Joseph Kennedy’s father, P. J., had owned a series of saloons and liquor distributorships well before Prohibition, but it was Kennedy’s financial prowess (and his decision to bail out before the crash of 1929), as well as a series of savvy investments in Hollywood that increased the family’s resources so dramatically in the late 1920s and 1930s. That said, even though it was hardly necessary financially, Kennedy seems to have occasionally dabbled in bootlegging. See Fox, Blood and Power, 19-20; Thomas, Robert Kennedy: His Life, 41
.

  Kennedy had long been: Thomas, Robert Kennedy: His Life, 62-3, 71.

  Soon thereafter, in August: Thomas, Robert Kennedy: His Life, 72; Kennedy, The Enemy Within, 18-21.

  Parker took Kennedy’s visit: Thomas, Robert Kennedy: His Life, 74.

  At the end of: Kennedy, The Enemy Within, 8.

  One day in the: Author interview with Harold Sullivan, July 26, 2007.

  The turning point came: Author interview with Joe Parker, December 1213, 2004.

  Chapter Twenty: The Mike Wallace Interview

  “I killed no men …”: Mickey Cohen to Mike Wallace, May 19, 1957; Wallace and Gates, Close Encounters, 49.

  When Mickey Cohen: In 1950, Graham switched from describing his revivals as “Campaigns” to calling them “Crusades.” Graham, Just As I Am, 163.

  Richardson responded by saying: Graham, Just As I Am, 150, 162, 174-75, 190-92.

  Graham and Cohen had: See Jennings, “The Private Life of a Hood,” conclusion, October 11, 1958, for an admission from “Picked for Cohen Role in Film, Skelton Says,” Los Angeles Times, May 25, 1961, 2. W. C. Jones admitted to only about $18,000 in gifts.

  “He’s invited me …”: “Mickey Cohen Sees Billy Graham, Talks on Religion, Former Mobster Goes to N.Y. for Conference,” Los Angeles Times, April 2, 1957, B1.

  In the summer of: Adams, “Mike Wallace Puts Out Dragnet to Line Up ‘Talent’ for His New Show,” New York Times, April 21, 1957, 105; Wallace and Gates, Close Encounters, 21-24, 32-33.

  That fall: Wallace and Gates, Close Encounters, 45.

  Wallace’s interviews: Author interview with Al Ramrus, March 18, 2008; Wallace and Gates, Close Encounters, 31-32.

  When Ramrus contacted Mickey: Cohen, In My Own Words, 171. The claim that Billy Graham pushed Cohen to talk to Mike Wallace should be viewed with a certain degree of skepticism since Mickey himself is the sole source for this claim. Jennings, “Private Life of a Hood, Part III,” October 4, 1958, reports that Cohen also received $1,800 for expenses.