Rayner - A Bright and Guilty Place

Richard Rayner is the author of eight previous books, including The Blue Suit, Drakes Fortune, and The Associates: Four Capitalists Who Created California. His work appears in The New Yorker, the Los Angeles Times, and other publications. He lives with his family in Los Angeles.

Los Angelesa bright and guilty place.

Orson Welles

For Paivi and Harry and Charlie

Constable & Robinson Ltd
3 The Lanchesters
162 Fulham Palace Road
London W6 9ER
www.constablerobinson.com

First published in the US by Doubleday, 2009
This edition published in the UK by Constable,
an imprint of Constable & Robinson Ltd, 2010

Copyright Richard Rayner, 2009, 2010

The right of Richard Rayner to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

A copy of the British Library Cataloguing in
Publication data is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-84901-205-8

Printed and bound in the EU

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

So many people lent a hand during the writing of A Bright and Guilty Place that its tough to know where to begin. My particular thanks go to Skip and Kathy White, the children of Leslie White, for their help and encouragement.

Vicki Steele and Simon Elliott and everybody else at UCLA Special Collections were unfailingly diligent and generous. Likewise Fernando Sauceda and Carolyn Cole at the magnificent Los Angeles Public Librarys photo collection. Charles Johnson, historian, perched in his timbered aerie in the lovely building that formerly housed the Ventura County Museum, was brilliant. Archivist J. C. Johnson was my guide to the Leslie T. White Collection in the Howard Gottlieb Center at Boston University. John Wilkman, in the process of completing a documentary film about the St. Francis Dam disaster, gave me invaluable pointers. Russell Johnson, lecturer at the University of Otago in New Zealand, graciously let me see his research on Clara Bow. Thanks to Michael Parrish for sharing his insights and knowledge concerning the L.A. County District Attorneys office, where Sandy Gibbons, in the press office, always returned my calls and helped me find the Dave Clark trial documents. My friends at the Santa Monica Library Used Book Store helped me track down many books of local history.

This subject has haunted me for years. During that time Ive had useful, inspiring, suggestive conversations with many friends and colleagues: David Ulin, Nick Owchar, D. J. Waldie, Carolyn See, Ric Burns, Paul Greengrass, Cressida Leyshon, Dave Smith, Jonas Goodman, Dan Conaway, Norman Klein, Tom Curwen, Bruce Hentshall, Judith Freeman, Peter Loewenberg, Tom Tomlinson, Matthew Snyder, Pete Micelli, Taylor Hackford, and Pico Iyer. Thanks to all.

Bill Thomas commissioned the book at Doubleday. Kris Puopolo edited it and made it about a hundred times better. Her careful readings and suggestions were always on the money and inspirational. Many thanks also to editor Kate Henderson and to Stephanie Bowen. My agent, Jeff Posternak at the Wylie Agency, was as always a sounding board, a support, and a great friend.

Leslie White: An eager and bespectacled young photographer turned investigator whose experiences in Los Angeles later inspire his career as a pulp-fiction writer.

Dave Clark: A suave war hero and crusading prosecutor, drawn into the darkness of the rackets.

Nancy Clark: A petite blonde, daughter of a famed New York judge and Dave Clarks volatile yet adoring wife.

Albert Marco, aka Marco Albori: A plug-ugly gangster brought down by Clark.

Gene Coughlin: A top reporter for many L.A. papers, notably the tabloid Illustrated Daily News, who comes to know Clark only too well.

Buron Fitts: A decorated WWI marine and longtime District Attorney for Los Angeles, he becomes an immensely controversial and influential figure in the citys history.

Asa Ace Keyes: Fittss predecessor as D.A., indicted for bribery.

Lucien Wheeler: A graduate of Notre Dame, secret service bodyguard to presidents, FBI bureau chief, and private eyea man of power and subtlety, carving a high-profile career in law enforcement.

Blayney Matthews: An investigator for Buron Fitts and another former FBI man, he was also Whites colleague and pal.

C. C. Julian: A breezy oil speculator and Ponzi-scheme operator whose company, Julian Petroleum (the Julian Pete), seizes the imagination of L.A.and much of the citys cash.

Jake Berman, aka Jack Bennett: A slick and handsome con artist, milking millions from the house of cards that Julian built.

E. L. Doheny: An aging oil magnatethe richest man in L.A. in the 1920s, and one of the richest in Americaembroiled in the nationwide scandal known as Teapot Dome.

Ned Doheny, Jr.: His only son, found dead with a bullet in his brain one night in 1929.

Hugh Plunkett: Neds personal secretary, chauffeur, friend, and possibly more; he is also found shot through the head.

Charlie Crawford, aka The Gray Wolf: A one-time saloon keeper who runs the Los Angeles System, the discreet yet all-powerful and money-spinning network of graft and racketeering; he meets his end with a slug from a Colt pistol.

Kent Parrot: A USC football hero, law school graduate, and political force; he is also Crawfords enabler who has the mayor in his pocket.

Morris Lavine: A famed newsman for the Los Angeles Examiner with a finger in too many corrupt pies; he later becomes a top attorney.

Erle Stanley Gardner: An attorney in Ventura County who works at his law firm all day and writes 4,000 words of fiction every night; he becomes a close friend of Leslie Whites.

Raymond Chandler: The future noir laureate of L.A., who worked through the 1920s as an oil executive; he sees and remembers it all.

Dashiell Hammett: The former Pinkerton detective and leading light of hardboiled writing; he plays an unwitting part in the demise of a Hollywood star.

The Reverend Robert Fighting Bob Shuler: A radio evangelist whose down-home appeal and attacks on Hollywood depravity make him a political player.

The Reverend Gustav Briegleb: Shulers onetime lieutenant and later his rival; friend to Charlie Crawford.

Motley Flint: A banker to Hollywood and brother to a U.S. senator; gunned down in court.

Clara Bow: The biggest movie star of her era, a reckless redheaded bombshell who beds Gary Cooper, John Gilbert, John Wayne, et al., et al.

Daisy DeVoe: Clara Bows tough and smart-mouthed assistant, herself no slouch in the vixen department.

Herbert Spencer: Another reporter working all the angles; also killed by a bullet.

Guy McAfee: Nicknamed Slats and Beanpole due to his height; onetime LAPD vice cop turned racketeer; plotting to seize control of The System.

June Taylor: Albert Marcos trusted confidante and a knockout brothel keeper; instrumental in Clarks downfall.

W. I. Gilbert: A canny defense attorney and friend to the stars, celebrated for his courtroom stunts.

Joseph Ford: A veteran prosecutor and founder of the law school at Loyola Marymount University.

Lincoln Steffens: Author of The Shame of the Cities,