TWO EXLEY GENERATIONS SERVE THE
SOUTHLAND
The first thing that strikes you about Preston Exley and his son Edmund is that they don't talk like cops, even though Preston served with the Los Angeles Police Department for fourteen years and Ed has been with the LAPD since 1943, shortly before he went off to war and won himself the Distinguished Service Cross in the Pacific Theater. In fact, before the Exley clan emigrated to America, their family tree spawned generations of Scotland Yard detectives. So police work is in the clan's blood, but even more so is a thirst for advancement.
Item: Preston Exley took an engineering degree at USC, studying by night while he pounded a dangerous downtown beat by day.
Item: The late Thomas Exley, Preston's eldest son, achieved the highest scholastic average in the history of the LAPD Academy, and a plaque commemorating him is hung in the Academy's administration building. Tragically, Thomas was killed in the line of duty soon after his graduation. Further item: The second highest average was earned by Ed Exley himself, a summa cum laude UCLA graduate-at nineteen!-in 1941. Evidence going back generations: the Exleys don't talk like cops because they are not typical policemen.
Both men have been in the news lately. Preston, 58, has teamed up with world-renowned cartoonist/moviemaker/TV show host Raymond Dieterling to build Dream-a-Dreamland, the monumental amusement park that broke ground six months ago, with completion and opening scheduled for late April of next year. Exley Senior began his career in the construction business after he left the LAPD in 1936, taking his chief aide, Lieutenant Arthur De Spain, with him. At his spacious Hancock Park mansion, Preston Exley spoke with «Mirror» correspondent Dick St. Germain.
'I had an engineering degree and Art knew building materials,' he said. 'We had our combined life savings and borrowed from some independent investors who appreciated the wildcat mentality. We started Exley Construction and built cheap houses, then better houses, then office buildings, then the Arroyo Seco Freeway. We flourished beyond my wildest dreams. Now Dream-a-Dreamland, the gentle dreams of millions of people realized on two hundred acres. In a way, it's a hard one to top.'
Exley smiled. 'Ray Dieterling is a visionary,' he said. 'Dream-a-Dreamland will give people the chance to live the many worlds he has created through films and animation. The mountain that he's calling Paul's World is a perfect example. Paul Dieterling, Ray's son, died tragically in an avalanche back in the mid-30s. Now there will be a mountain that serves as a benevolent testimony to the boy, a mountain that brings people joy, with a percentage of the revenues earned going to children's charities. That's a hard one to top.'
But will he try to top it?
Exley smiled again. 'I'm addressing the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and the State Legislature next week,' he said. 'The subject will be the cost of Southern California mass rapid transit and the best way to link the Southland by freeway. Frankly, I want the job and I'm ready to offer the county an enticing bid.'
And then?
Exley smiled and sighed. 'And then there's all these politico fellows who've been pestering me,' he said. 'They think I'd be a natural for mayor, governor, senator or whatever, even though I keep teffing them that Fletcher Bowron, Dick Nixon and Earl Warren are friends of mine.'
But is he ruling politics out?
'I rule nothing out,' Preston Exley said. 'Setting limitations is against my nature.'
And, as our reporters discovered, his son Edmund, now a detective sergeant with the LAPD's Hollywood Division, feels the same way. Recently in the news for testifying in a trial related to the 'Bloody Christmas' police scandal, Ed Exley sees blue skies ahead- although he plans to keep police work his sole career. Speaking to our correspondent at his family's Lake Arrowhead cabin, Exley Junior said, 'I want nothing other than to be a valuable, ranking detective presented with challenging cases. My father had the Loren Atherton case'-a reference to the 1934 child murderer who claimed six victims, including child star Wee Willie Wennerholm-'and I'd like to be in a position to work cases of that importance. Being in the right place at the right time is important, and I have a deep need to solve things and create order out of chaotic situations, which I believe is a good drive for a detective to have.'
Exley was certainly in the right place at the right time in the fall of 1943, when, the sole survivor of a bayonet attack on his platoon, he single-handedly wiped out three trenches full of Japanese infantry. He was in the right place at the right time for justice when he courageously testified against fellow officers in a massive police brutality scandal. Exley says of the two incidents: 'That's the past, and right now I'm building for my future. I'm getting solid experience working Hollywood Detectives, and my father, Art De Spain and I spend evenings performing mock questionings to help me perfect my interrogation techniques. My father wants the world, but all I want is the most this police department has to offer.'
Preston Exley and Ed Exley survive Thomas, and Marguerite (nee Tibbetts) Exley, the clan's matriarch, who died of cancer six years ago. Do they feel the loss in their personal lives?
Preston said, 'God, yes, every day. They are both irreplaceable.'
On that subject, Edmund was more reflective. 'Thomas was Thomas,' he said. 'I was seventeen when he died and I don't think I ever knew him. My mother was different. I knew her, she was kind and brave and strong, and there was something sad about her. I miss her, and I think the woman I marry will probably be like her, only a bit more volatile.'
Two generations for this week's Profile-two men going places and serving the Southland while they do it.
BANNER: L.A. «Times», July 9:
LOEW ANNOUNCES D.A.'S CANDIDACY
BANNER: Society Page, L.A. «Herald-Express», September 12:
GALA LOEW/MORROW WEDDING
ATTRACTS HOLLYWOOD, LEGAL CROWDS
EXTRACT: L.A. «Times», November 7:
McPHERSON AND LOEW TOP D.A.'S
FIELD: WILL CLASH IN SPRING
ELECTION
William McPherson, seeking his fourth term as Los Angeles District Attorney, will face upstart Deputy D.A. Ellis Loew in next March's general election, the two colleagues leading an eight-man field by a wide margin.
McPherson, 56, received 38 percent of the votes cast; Loew, 41, received 36 percent. Their closest rival was Donald Chapman, the former city parks commissioner, with 14 percent. The remaining five candidates, considered long shots with little chance of winning, received a total of 12 perccnt of the votes cast between them.
McPherson, in a scheduled press conference, predicted a down-to-the-wire campaign and stressed that he is an incumbent civil servant first and a political candidate second. Locw, at home with his wife, Joan, echoed those sentiments, predicted victory next March and thanked the voters at large and the law enforcement community in particular for their support.
1953
LAPD Annual Fitness Report,
Marked «Confidential», dated
1/3/53, filed by Lt. Dudley
Smith, copies to Personnel and
Administration Divisions:
1/2/53
ANNUAL FITNESS REPORT
DUTY DATES: 4/4/52-12/31/52
SUBJECT: White, Wendell A., Badge 916
GRADE: Police Officer (Detective) (Civil Serv. Rate 4)
Division: Detective Bureau (Homicide Adjunct Surveillance Detail)
COMMANDING OFFICER: Lt. Dudley L. Smith, Badge 410.
Gentlemen:
This memorandum serves both as a fitness report on Officer White and an update on the first nine months of the Surveillance Detail's existence. Of the sixteen men working the squad, I consider White my finest officer. To date he has been attentive, thorough, and has put in long hours without complaint. He has a perfect attendance record, and has often worked two-week stretches of eighteen-hour days. White transferred to Surveillance under the cloud of last year's unfortunate Christmas mess, and Deputy Chief Green, citing the four excessive-force complaints filed against him, had some misgivings about the transfer (i.e.: that White's propensity for violence and the potentially violent nature of the assignment would prove to be a disastrous combination). This has not proven to be the case, and I unhesitatingly give Officer White straight 'A' markings in every fitness category. He has often evinced spectacular bravery. By way of example, I would like to cite several instances of White's performance above and beyond the call of duty.
1. 5/8/52. On a liquor store stakeout, Officer White (who is plagued by old football injuries) chased a fleeing armed suspect for a half mile. The suspect fired repeatedly back at Officer White, who did not return his fire for fear of hitting innocent civilians. The suspect took a woman hostage and held a gun to her head, which held off the backup officers who had caught up with Officer White. White then walked through a side alley while his partners attempted to calm the suspect down. The suspect refused to release the woman, and White shot and killed him at point-blank range. The woman was unharmed.
2. Numerous instances. One of the key duties of the Surveillance Detail is to meet paroled prison inmates upon their return to Los Angeles and try to convince them of the folly of committing violent crimes in our city. This job requires great physical presence, and Officer White has, frankly, been instrumental in scaring many hardened criminals into a docile parole. He has spent much off- duty time tailing parolees with particularly violent records, and he is responsible for the arrest of John 'Big Dog' Cassese, a twice-convicted rapist and armed robber. On 7/20/52, White, while surveilling Cassese inside a cocktail lounge, overheard him attempting to suborn a minor female into prostitution. Cassese attempted to resist arrest, and Officer White subdued him through physical means. Later, White and two other Surveillance officers (Sgt. Michael Breuning, Officer R. J. Carlisle) questioned Cassese extensively about his post-parole activities. Cassese confessed to the rape/murders of three women. (See Homicide arrest report 168-A, dated 7/22/52.) Cassese was tried, convicted and executed at San Quentin.
3. 10/18/52. Officer White, while surveilling parolee Percy Haskins, observed Haskins in a known criminal assembly with Robert Mackey and Karl Carter Goff. All three men possessed long armed-
