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L.A. Quartet
The L.A. Quartet is a sequence of four crime fiction novels by James Ellroy set in the late 1940s through the late 1950s in Los Angeles. They are: * (1987) '' The Black Dahlia'' * (1988) ''The Big Nowhere'' * (1990) '' L.A. Confidential'' * (1992) ''White Jazz'' Elmore Leonard wrote that "reading ''The Black Dahlia'' aloud would shatter wine glasses". Several characters from the L.A. Quartet, most notably Dudley Smith, were introduced in Ellroy's 1982 novel ''Clandestine'', which is set between 1951 and 1955 and makes reference to the Black Dahlia killing and Dudley Smith's investigation into it. The four novels, along with '' The Underworld U.S.A. Trilogy'' novels, were recently reprinted in 2019 into omnibus editions part of the Everyman's Library series. Ellroy has also started writing ''The Second L.A. Quartet'', which takes place before the events of ''The L.A. Quartet''. It includes the real life and fictional characters from ''The L.A. Quartet'' and ''The Underworld U.S. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crime Fiction
Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, often a murder. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as historical fiction or science fiction, but the boundaries are indistinct. Crime fiction has multiple subgenres, including detective fiction (such as the whodunit), courtroom drama, hard-boiled fiction, and legal thrillers. Most crime drama focuses on crime investigation and does not feature the courtroom. Suspense and mystery are key elements that are nearly ubiquitous to the genre. History The '' One Thousand and One Nights'' (''Arabian Nights'') contains the earliest known examples of crime fiction. One example of a story of this genre is the medieval Arabic tale of "The Three Apples", one of the tales narrated by Scheherazade in the ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Novel
A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes''. It is similar in shape to the Ancient Greek letter alpha, from which it derives. The uppercase version consists of the two slanting sides of a triangle, crossed in the middle by a horizontal bar. The lowercase version can be written in two forms: the double-storey a and single-storey ɑ. The latter is commonly used in handwriting and fonts based on it, especially fonts intended to be read by children, and is also found in italic type. In English grammar, " a", and its variant " an", are indefinite articles. History The earliest certain ancestor of "A" is aleph (also written 'aleph), the first letter of the Phoenician alphabet, which consisted entirely of consonants (for that reason, it is also called an abjad to distinguish it fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South Los Angeles
South Los Angeles, also known as South Central Los Angeles or simply South Central, is a region in southwestern Los Angeles County, lying mostly within the city limits of Los Angeles, south of downtown. It is "defined on Los Angeles city maps as a 16-square-mile rectangle with two prongs at the south end.” In 2003, the Los Angeles City Council renamed this area "South Los Angeles". The name South Los Angeles can also refer to a larger 51-square mile region that includes areas within the city limits of Los Angeles as well as five unincorporated areas in the southern portion of the County of Los Angeles."South L.A." Mapping L.A. website of the ''Los Angeles Times'' Geography City of Los Angeles The City of Los Angeles delineates the South Los Angeles Commun ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Line Of Duty Death
A line of duty death is a death in the fire service or the police service while on duty. United States Firefighting The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) report has tracked on-duty firefighter deaths in the United States since 1977. The average annual number of on-duty firefighter deaths from 2014 to 2018 was 65. However, in 2019, there were 48 on-duty firefighter deaths in the United States, a sharp drop and the first year that the annual total was under 50 deaths. Of the 48 on-duty deaths in 2019, 20 were career firefighters and 25 were volunteer firefighters, one was a civilian Defense Department employee, one was a state land management employee, and one was a federal land management agency employee.Rita F. Fahy, Jay T. Petrillo and Joseph L. Molis, Firefighter Fatalities in the US – 2019', National Fire Protection Association (July 2020). Sudden cardiac death has consistently constituted the largest share of on-duty firefighter deaths. Of 2019 on-duty firefighter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conspiracy (crime)
In criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to commit a crime at some time in the future. Criminal law in some countries or for some conspiracies may require that at least one overt act be undertaken in furtherance of that agreement, to constitute an offense. There is no limit on the number participating in the conspiracy and, in most countries, the plan is the crime, so there is no requirement that any steps have been taken to put the plan into effect (compare attempts which require proximity to the full offense). For the purposes of concurrence, the ''actus reus'' is a continuing one and parties may join the plot later and incur joint liability and conspiracy can be charged where the co-conspirators have been acquitted or cannot be traced. Finally, repentance by one or more parties does not affect liability (unless, in some cases, it occurs ''before'' the parties have committed overt acts) but may reduce their sentence. An unindicted co-conspirato ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bloody Christmas (1951)
Bloody Christmas was the severe beating of seven civilians by members of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) on December 25, 1951. The attacks left five Mexican American and two white young men with broken bones and ruptured organs, and were properly investigated only after lobbying from the Mexican American community. The internal inquiry by Los Angeles Chief of Police William H. Parker resulted in eight police officers being indicted for the assaults, 54 being transferred, and 39 suspended. The event was fictionalized in the 1990 novel '' L.A. Confidential'' by James Ellroy, which was made into a film of the same name in 1997. Background In 1938, reforms of the LAPD were started by Mayor Frank Shaw. Throughout the 1940s, this led to the firing of corrupt officers, the raising of entrance standards, the creation of rigorous training programs, and better pay for officers. Police autonomy was already guaranteed in Section 202 of the Los Angeles city charter since 193 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jack Dragna
Jack Ignatius Dragna (born Ignazio Dragna, ; April 18, 1891 – February 23, 1956) was an American Mafia member and Black Hander who was active in both Italy and the United States in the 20th century. He was active in bootlegging in California during the Prohibition Era in the United States. In 1931, he succeeded Joseph Ardizzone as the boss of the Los Angeles crime family after Ardizzone's mysterious disappearance and death. Both James Ragen and Earl Warren dubbed Dragna the "Capone of Los Angeles". Dragna remained the boss of the Los Angeles crime family from 1931 until his death in 1956. Biography Early life Dragna was born to Francesco Paolo Dragna and Anna Dragna in Corleone, Sicily, on April 18, 1891. On November 18, 1898, Dragna came to the United States on the S.S. ''Alsatia'' with his parents, older sister Giuseppa, and older brother Gaetano. They stayed in East Harlem, in Manhattan, with his mother's cousin Antonio Rizzotto's family, also from Corleone. It is un ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Motel
A motel, also known as a motor hotel, motor inn or motor lodge, is a hotel designed for motorists, usually having each room entered directly from the parking area for motor vehicles rather than through a central lobby. Entering dictionaries after World War II, the word ''motel'', coined as a portmanteau of "motor hotel", originates from the Milestone Mo-Tel of San Luis Obispo, California (now called the Motel Inn of San Luis Obispo), which was built in 1925. The term referred to a type of hotel consisting of a single building of connected rooms whose doors faced a parking lot and in some circumstances, a common area or a series of small cabins with common parking. Motels are often individually owned, though motel chains do exist. As large highway systems began to be developed in the 1920s, long-distance road journeys became more common, and the need for inexpensive, easily accessible overnight accommodation sites close to the main routes led to the growth of the motel conc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sheriff's Deputy
A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly translated to English as ''sherif''. Description Historically, a sheriff was a legal official with responsibility for a shire, the term being a contraction of " shire reeve" (Old English ). In British English, the political or legal office of a sheriff, term of office of a sheriff, or jurisdiction of a sheriff, is called a shrievalty in England and Wales, and a sheriffdom in Scotland. In modern times, the specific combination of legal, political and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country. * In England, Northern Ireland, or Wales, a sheriff (or high sheriff) is a ceremonial county or city official. * In Scotland, sheriffs are judges. * In the Republic of Ireland, in some counties and in the cities of Dubli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Howard Hughes
Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American business magnate, record-setting pilot, engineer, film producer, and philanthropist, known during his lifetime as one of the most influential and richest people in the world. He first became prominent as a film producer, and then as an important figure in the aviation industry. Later in life, he became known for his eccentric behavior and reclusive lifestyle—oddities that were caused in part by his worsening obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), chronic pain from a near-fatal plane crash, and increasing deafness. As a film tycoon, Hughes gained fame in Cinema of the United States, Hollywood beginning in the late 1920s, when he produced big-budget and often controversial films such as ''The Racket (1928 film), The Racket'' (1928), ''Hell's Angels (film), Hell's Angels'' (1930), and ''Scarface (1932 film), Scarface'' (1932). He later acquired the RKO Pictures film studio in 1948, recognized then as one ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mickey Cohen
Meyer Harris "Mickey" Cohen (September 4, 1913 – July 29, 1976) was an American gangster, boxer and entrepreneur based in Los Angeles during the mid-20th century. Early life Mickey Cohen was born on September 4, 1913, in New York City to Jewish parents. Cohen's parents immigrated to the USA from Kyiv. He was first raised in New York City, moving with his mother and siblings to the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles at an early age. At 8, he earned money as a newsboy, selling newspapers on the street. One of his brothers, either Louie or Harry, would drop Mickey off at his regular corner, Soto and Brooklyn Streets (now Cesar E. Chavez Avenue). In 1922, Mickey was sent to reform school for petty crimes including shoplifting and theft. Boxing career As a teenager, Cohen began boxing in illegal prizefights in Los Angeles. In 1929, the 15-year-old moved from Los Angeles to Cleveland to train as a professional boxer with the alias of 'Irish Mickey Cohen'. His first pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Los Angeles Police Department
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the municipal police department of Los Angeles, California. With 9,974 police officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the third-largest municipal police department in the United States, after the New York City Police Department and the Chicago Police Department. The LAPD has its headquarters at 100 W. 1st St., in the Civic Center district, not far from the demolished Parker Center it replaced in 2009. The organization of the department is complex, including 21 divisions (stations) grouped in four bureaus in the Office of Operations; multiple divisions within the Detective Bureau in the Office of Special Operations; and specialized units such as SWAT, K-9, mounted police, air support and the Major Crimes Division all within the Counterterrorism and Special Operations Bureau. Further offices support the chief of police in areas such as constitutional policing and profe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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