robbery records, and White sensed that a major felony was in the making and proceeded on that assumption. He tailed Haskins, Mackey and Goff to a market at 1683 S. Berendo. The three robbed the market, and White attempted to arrest them outside. The three refused to relinquish their weapons. White shot and killed Goff and severely wounded Mackey. Haskins surrendered. Mackey later died of his wounds and Haskins pleaded guilty to armed robbery with priors and was given a life sentence.
In summary, Officer White has taken the high ground and has been instrumental in making the Surveillance Detail's first year a resounding success. I will be returning to my regular Homicide duties effective 3/15/53 and would like Officer White to join my squad as a regular Homicide detective. In my opinion, he has the makings of a fme case man.
Respectfully,
Dudley L. Smith, Badge 410,
Lieutenant, Homicide Division
LAPD Annual Fitness Report,
marked «Confidential», dated 1/6/53,
filed by Capt. Russell Millard,
copies to Personnel and
Administration Divisions:
1/6/53
ANNUAL FITNESS REPORT
DUTY DATES: 4/13/52-12/31/52
SUBJECT: Vincennes, John, Badge 2302
GRADE: Detective Sergeant (Civil Serv. Rate 5)
DIVISION: Detective Bureau (Administrative Vice)
COMMANDING OFFICER: Capt. Russell A. Millard, Badge 5009
Gentlemen:
An overall 'D +' fitness rating for Sergeant Vincennes, along with some comments.
A. Since he doesn't drink, Vincennes is excellent at liquor violation operations.
B. Vincennes oversteps his bounds where narcotics are concerned, insisting on making possession arrests when dope is found collaterally at Ad Vice crime scenes.
C. He has not fulfilled my fears that he would neglect his Ad Vice duties to offer assistance to his Bureau mentor, Lt. Dudley Smith. This is to Vincennes ' credit.
D. Vincennes is not terribly resented for his testimony in the Christmas assaults matter, because he lost his much coveted Narco assignment and because none of the officers he specifically informed on went to jail.
E. Vincennes is continually pressing me to return him to Narco. I will not sign his transfer papers until he makes a major case at Ad Vice-this is a long-standing Ad Vice transfer stipulation. Vincennes has had Deputy D.A. Ellis Loew exert pressure on me to transfer him, and I have refused. I will continue to refuse, even if Loew is elected D.A.
F. There are rumors that Vincennes leaks interdepartmental information to the «Hush-Hush» scandal rag. I have warned him: never leak word of our work or I will have your hide.
G. In conclusion, Vincennes has proven himself a barely adequate Ad Vice officer. His attendance is good, his reports are well written (and, I suspect, padded). He is too well known to operate bookmakers and adequate at working prostitution sweeps. He has not neglected his duties to fulfill his TV show commitments, which is to his credit. Ad Vice has a probable pornography crackdown coming up within the next few months and Vincennes has a chance to prove his mettle (and earn his major case transfer requirement) on that. Again, an overall 'D +' rating.
Respectfully,
Russell A. Millard, Badge 5009,
Commanding Officer,
Administrative Vice
LAPD Annual Fitness Report,
marked Confidental, dated 1/1 1/5 3,
filed by Lt. Arnold Reddin,
Commander, Hollywood Division Detective
Squad, copies to Personnel and
Administration Divisions:
1/11/53
ANNUAL FITNESS REPORT
DUTY DATES: 3/1/52-12/31/52
SUBJECT: Exley, Edmund J., Badge 1104
GRADE: Detective Sergeant (Civil Serv. Rate 5)
DIVISION: Detective (Hollywood Squad)
COMMANDING OFFICER: Lt. Arnold D. Reddin, Badge 556
Gentlemen:
On Sergeant Exley:
This man has obvious gifts as a detective. He is thorough, intelligent, seems to have no personal life and works very long hours. He is only thirty years old and in his nine months as a detective he has amassed a brilliant arrest record, with a 95 percent conviction rate on the cases (mostly minor felony property crimes) he has made. He is a thorough and succinct report writer.
Exley works poorly with partners and well by himself, so I have let him conduct interviews alone. He is a peerless interrogator and to my mind has gotten many miraculous confessions (without physical force). All well and good, and my overall fitness grade on Exley is a solid 'A.'
But he is roundly hated by his fellow officers, the result of his serving as an informant in the Christmas shake-up, and he is despised for receiving a Bureau assignment out of it. (It seems to be common knowledge that Exley made the Detective Bureau as a result of his informing.) Also, Exley does not like to employ force with suspects, and most of the men consider him a coward.
Exley has passed the lieutenant's exam with very high marks and an opening is probably coming up for him. I think he is both too young and too inexperienced to be a detective lieutenant and that such a promotion would create great resentment. I think he would be a roundly hated supervisor.
Respectfully,
Lt. Arnold D. Reddin, Badge 556
EXTRACT: L.A. «Daily News», February 9:
IT'S OFFICIAL: CONSTRUCTION
KING EXLEY TO LINK SOUTHLAND
WITH SUPERHIGHWAYS
Today, the Tri-County Highway Commission announced that Preston Exley, ex-San Francisco paperboy and L.A. cop, would be the man to build the freeway system that will link Hollywood to downtown L.A., downtown to San Pedro, Pomona to San Bernardino and the South Bay to the San Fernando Valley.
'Details will be forthcoming,' Exley told the News by phone. 'I'll be holding a televised press conference tomorrow, and representatives of the State Legislature and the Tn-County Commission will be there with me.'
February 1953 issue, «Hush-Hush» Magazine:
L.A. D.A. TAKES TIME OFF FROM
CAMPAIGN-RELAXING WITH COPPER
CUTIE!!!
by Sidney Hudgens
Bill McPherson, the district attorney for the City of Los Angeles, likes them long and leggy, zesty and chesty-and dark and dusky. From Harlem's Sugar Hill to L.A. 's Darktown, the 57-year-old married man with three teenaged daughters is known as a sugar daddy who likes to tss around that long slush-fund green-in dark hot spots where the drinks are tall, the jazz is cool, reefer smoke hangs humid and black-white romance bebops to the jungle throb of a wailing tenor sax.
Can you dig it, hepcat? McPherson, engaged in a reelection campaign, the fight of his political life against ace crimebuster Ellis Loew, needs time to relax. Does he go to the pool at the staid Jonathan Club? No. Does he take the family to Mike Lyman's or the Pacific Dining Car? No. Where «does» he go? To the Darktown Strutter's Ball.
It's all shakin' south of Jefferson, hepcat. It's a different world down there. Get your hair marcelled, get yourself a purple sharkskin suit and trip the dark fantastic. D.A. Bill McPherson does-every
