James Edgar Davis (February 8, 1889 – June 20, 1949) was an American police officer who served as the
chief
Chief may refer to:
Title or rank
Military and law enforcement
* Chief master sergeant, the ninth, and highest, enlisted rank in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force
* Chief of police, the head of a police department
* Chief of the boa ...
of the
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-large ...
(LAPD) from 1926 to 1929, and from 1933 to 1939. During his first term as LAPD chief, Davis emphasized firearms training. Under Davis, the LAPD developed its lasting reputation as an organization that relied on brute force to enforce public order. It also became publicly entangled in
corruption
Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...
. Members of the LAPD were revealed to have undertaken a campaign of brutal harassment, including the bombings of political reformers who had incurred the wrath of the department and the civic administration.
Under Chief Davis, civil service reforms were implemented in the City Charter via the ballot initiative process, which insulated the police department from political influence.
Career
First term
James E. Davis made a name for himself as the head of the vice squad during
Prohibition
Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...
. When Chief Davis created a "gun squad" staffed with 50 policemen, he publicly announced "the gun-toting element and the
rum smugglers are going to learn that murder and gun-toting are most inimical to their best interest." Davis declared that the LAPD "would "hold court on gunmen in the Los Angeles streets; I want them brought in dead, not alive and will reprimand any officer who shows the least mercy to a criminal." For his efforts, he won the moniker "Two-Gun Davis."
The primary "targets" of Davis' department were purveyors of vice, radicals, and vagrants.
Davis was a proponent of the use of radio in police work. In 1929, he ordered his staff to investigate the use of radio for dispatching officers. However, it was up to his successor,
Roy E. Steckel, to put the radio in L.A.P.D. vehicles.
Second term
After being succeeded by and succeeding Police Chief Roy E. Steckel, Davis served as chief from 1933 to 1939. In his second-go-round as chief, Davis developed a reputation as a reformer. Under Chief Steckel, departmental regulations forbidding the solicitation of rewards or the acceptance of gratuities by policemen had lapsed; Davis reimplemented the restrictions. He also fired 245 police officers for misconduct in the first four years of his second term.
However, in reality, Two-Gun Davis was to serve one of the most corrupt mayors in Los Angeles history,
Frank L. Shaw
Frank L. Shaw (February 1, 1877 – January 24, 1958) was the first mayor of a major American city to be recalled from office, in 1938. He was also a member of the Los Angeles City Council and then the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. His ...
, who had been elected despite the opposition of the
Chandler Family
The Chandler Family is a fictional family from the American soap opera '' All My Children''. The Chandler family is one of the most powerful and wealthiest families in the show's history. Rising up from poverty in Pigeon Hollow, West Virginia, the ...
, conservatives who owned the powerful ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' newspaper. (The 1910
L.A. Times building bombing had been carried out by a union member, upset with the anti-union stance of publisher
Harrison Gray Otis, whose son-in-law Harry Chandler would take over as publisher of the ''Times'' in 1917. The bombing killed 21 newspaper employees and injured 100.)
To curry favor with the Chandlers, Shaw appointed Davis chief. Chandler was fiercely anti-labor, and Davis, as chief, could provide police muscle to discourage unionization.
Davis formed a "
Red Squad
In the United States, Red Squads were police intelligence units that specialized in infiltrating, conducting counter-measures and gathering intelligence on political and social groups during the 20th century. Dating as far back as the Haymarket R ...
" in order to "investigate and control radical activities, strikes, and riots." According to the Official LAPD website, one Police Commissioner declared his support for Davis' Red Squad, saying, "The more the police beat them up and wreck their headquarters, the better.
Communists
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a so ...
have no
Constitution
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed.
When ...
al
rights
Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical the ...
and I won't listen to anyone who defends them."
Mayor Shaw appointed his campaign manager, James "Sunny Jimmy" Bolger, to serve as Davis' secretary, in order to keep a tight rein on the Chief.
Under Chief Davis, the LAPD would become mired in corruption, becoming active agents in the promotion of vice.
Police academy
Starting in 1933, Davis began transforming the pistol range and related facilities of the Los Angeles Police Revolver and Athletic Club (LAPRAAC) in
Elysian Park
Elysian Park is one of the largest parks in Los Angeles at 600 acres (240 ha). Most of Elysian Park falls in the neighborhood of the same name, but a small portion of the park falls in Echo Park.
The park was created by city ordinance on April 5, ...
into a true training facility for recruits. Police recruits had begun training in an armory located in Elysian Park in 1924. The LAPRAAC had been founded as a private club in 1925 by LAPD officers to practice their marksmanship. In 1932, their range was used during the
1932 Summer Olympics
The 1932 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the X Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1932) were an international multi-sport event held from July 30 to August 14, 1932 in Los Angeles, California, United States. The Games were held duri ...
for shooting events. In recognition, the
Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental Sports governing body, sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an associ ...
donated the dormitory used as the
Olympic Village
An Olympic Village is an accommodation center built for the Olympic Games, usually within an Olympic Park or elsewhere in a host city. Olympic Villages are built to house all participating athletes, as well as officials and athletic trainers. Afte ...
, and the dormitory building was dismantled and reassembled at the site of the range in Elysian Fields. The building would eventually house the restaurant for the new training facility that would become the LAPD's Police Academy. From 1935 to 1995, all recruits were trained at the Elysian Field site, when the new Recruit Training Center was opened in Westchester. The Elysian Park facilities, the legacy of Chief Davis, are to be used for in-service training.
The rules and regulations for the new Police Academy were drafted by L.A.P.D Lieutenant
William H. Parker, who would go on to become Chief of Police in 1950.
Parker also drafted
civil service
The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...
reforms enacted into the City's charter that were designed to protect the chief and police personnel from political interference. Charter Amendment 14-A, which was passed by the electorate in April 1937, changed City Charter Section 1999 so that the Chief of Police could not be removed without a hearing before the L.A. Board of Civil Service Commissioners.
East Coast Crime Syndicate
During Davis' second term as chief, New York mobster
Bugsy Siegel
Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel (February 28, 1906 – June 20, 1947) was an American mobster who was a driving force behind the development of the Las Vegas Strip. Siegel was not only influential within the Jewish Mob, but along with his childhood frie ...
arrived in Los Angeles with a mandate from his partners in the
National Crime Syndicate
The National Crime Syndicate was the name given by the press to the multi-ethnic, loosely connected, American confederation of several criminal organizations. It mostly consisted of and was led by the closely interconnected Italian-American Mafia ...
to put Southern California vice rackets under top-down control. To serve as Siegel's enforcer,
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 Je ...
was moved into Los Angeles from Chicago. Siegel quietly and quickly seized control of vice operations in the region, which put him at odds with
local racketeers, especially
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 Californ ...
and
Guy McAfee
Guy McAfee (1888–1960) was an American law enforcement officer and businessman. Born in Kansas and orphaned in early childhood, he became a firefighter in Los Angeles, California and later served as the head of the vice squad of the Los Angeles P ...
. As a result of the reform election of 1938, McAfee and others who had operated the "Combination" moved their operations to Las Vegas, clearing the field for Siegel and his East Coast partners. After Siegel's assassination in June 1947, Cohen was anointed head of the national syndicate's operations in the Southwest – a move that sparked a gang war in Los Angeles.
Corruption continued to flourish in Los Angeles. Davis' successor, Chief
Clemence B. Horrall
Clemence Brooks Horrall (September 24, 1895 – October 4, 1960) was Los Angeles Police Department chief of police from June 16, 1941, when he succeeded Arthur C. Hohmann to serve as the 41st chief of the L.A.P.D., to June 28, 1949, when he resign ...
, retired on June 28, 1949, amid the LAPD Vice Scandals, which erupted after LAPD whistleblower Sgt.
Charles Stoker alleged that Hollywood madam
Brenda Allen
Brenda Allen (aka Marie Mitchell) was a madam based in Los Angeles, California, whose arrest in 1948 triggered a scandal that led to the attempted reform of the Los Angeles Police Department (L.A.P.D.). Allen received police protection due to h ...
had paid into a protection racket operated by senior LAPD Vice officers who reported directly to the Chief.
Controversy
During his first stint as Police Chief, Davis was involved in the scandal surrounding the
Wineville Chicken Coop Murders.
For several months in 1936, during the height of the devastation from the "
Dust Bowl
The Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s. The phenomenon was caused by a combination of both natural factors (severe drought) an ...
", Chief Davis sent LAPD to the California-Arizona border in an attempt to stop the flow of migrants. These migrants were commonly referred to as "
Okie
An Okie is a person identified with the state of Oklahoma. This connection may be residential, ethnic, historical or cultural. For most Okies, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being Oklahoman. ...
s", named for the early migrants who fled Oklahoma after the state was ravaged by the Dust Bowl.
In the 1930s, he supported
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
's policies against Jews.
Corruption
In 1937, restaurateur
Clifford Clinton
Clifford E. Clinton (August 3, 1900 – November 20, 1969) was a California restaurateur who founded Meals for Millions, one of two parent organizations of Freedom from Hunger, in 1946.
In 1905, Clifford Clinton traveled to China (for the firs ...
, a reform-minded businessman who ran a chain of cafeteria-style restaurants, got himself appointed to the
Los Angeles County
Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, with 9,861,224 residents estimated as of 2022. It is the ...
grand jury. Clinton proved to be a
gadfly
Gadfly most commonly refers to:
* Horse-fly or Botfly
* Gadfly (philosophy and social science), a person who upsets the status quo
Gadfly may also refer to:
Entertainment
* ''The Gadfly'', an 1897 novel by Ethel Lilian Voynich
** ''The Gadfly'' ...
who demanded an investigation of vice in Los Angeles, and was turned down by the grand jury foreman. Angered, he went to Mayor Shaw, who endorsed an independent committee, CIVIC (Citizens Independent Vice Investigating Committee) over the objections of Chief Davis. A corrupt politician who eventually was recalled from office in 1938, Mayor Shaw soon regretted his decision. CIVIC and its citizen volunteers discovered that vice was rampant in Los Angeles. The profits from 600 brothels, 1,800 bookmaking operations, 23,000 slot machines and prostitution were being used to finance political elections, and the LAPD was working hand-in-hand with the underworld. The grand jury rejected CIVIC's report, and after seeking the advice of Superior Court Judge
Fletcher Bowron
Fletcher Bowron (August 13, 1887 – September 11, 1968) was an American lawyer, judge, and politician. He was the 35th mayor of Los Angeles, California, from September 26, 1938, until June 30, 1953. He was at the time the city's longest-serving ...
(who had overseen a grand jury that nearly brought down L.A. District Attorney
Buron Fitts
Buron Rogers Fitts (March 22, 1895 – March 29, 1973) was the 29th lieutenant governor of California, from 1927 to 1928, and Los Angeles County district attorney thereafter until 1940.
Early life
Born in Belcherville, Texas, Fitts received h ...
for corruption), CIVIC issued a minority report that was only published after Judge Bowron's intervention.
A notary public, who testified before the grand jury that the foreman was a corrupt ally of Mayor Shaw, was beaten by police in his own home in the presence of Fitts and the grand jury foreman. Clinton was harassed by city officials, who boosted his taxes and denied him a license to open up a new cafeterias, while the ''Los Angeles Times'' attacked him and his restaurant chain. Then his home was bombed, most likely by members of the LAPD secret Intelligence Squad, and the backlash enveloped Mayor Shaw and Chief Davis. The Intelligence Squad wiretapped Clinton's home, as well as the home of Judge Bowron and other members of the reform movement.
A second bombing brought down Mayor Shaw. Investigator Harry Raymond, a former policeman who worked as a private investigator and was digging up dirt on the Shaw administration, survived a car bombing on January 14, 1938. The bomb was planted by LAPD Captain Earl Kynette, who headed a secret intelligence unit that had Raymond under surveillance. The LAPD and the ''Los Angeles Times'', which was in league with D.A. Fitts, said the bombing was a publicity stunt staged by Clinton and Raymond, but witnesses testified that the police had had Clinton's house under surveillance. Seven members of the intelligence squad refused to testify before the grand jury, pledging their right not to incriminate themselves. Captain Kynette later was convicted of the bombing.
District Attorney Fitts and Chief Davis began a desultory investigation that led the director of the L.A.
Chamber of Commerce
A chamber of commerce, or board of trade, is a form of business network. For example, a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to ad ...
to send a letter to U.S. Senator
Hiram Johnson
Hiram Warren Johnson (September 2, 1866August 6, 1945) was an American attorney and politician who served as the Governor of California, 23rd governor of California from 1911 to 1917. Johnson achieved national prominence in the early 20th century ...
, which called Fitts a psychopath. The public outcry led to Mayor Shaw being recalled by voters in 1938 and the election of Judge Bowron as mayor.
Davis was called as a witness at the trial of Captain Kynette. It was revealed that the LAPD had been operating a vast intelligence operation targeting not only reformers but politicians, judges, and even a federal agent investigating corruption in San Francisco. Chief Davis did poorly on the stand and he was forced from office by Mayor Bowron, who went on to sack many of the senior officers of the LAPD.
Later life and death
Davis died on June 20, 1949, in a
Helena, Montana
Helena (; ) is the capital city of Montana, United States, and the county seat of Lewis and Clark County.
Helena was founded as a gold camp during the Montana gold rush, and established on October 30, 1864. Due to the gold rush, Helena would ...
, hospital from the effects of a stroke suffered while visiting a nearby ranch.
[Obituary. Great Falls Tribune, Great Falls, Montana, 21 Jun 1949, Page 4]
In popular culture
* In the 2008 film ''
Changeling
A changeling, also historically referred to as an auf or oaf, is a human-like creature found in folklore throughout Europe. A changeling was believed to be a fairy that had been left in place of a human (typically a child) stolen by other fairi ...
'', based on these events, Davis was played by
Colm Feore
Colm Joseph Feore (; born August 22, 1958) is a Canadian actor. A 15-year veteran of the Stratford Festival, he is known for his Gemini-winning turn as Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in the CBC miniseries '' Trudeau'' (2002), his portrayal of G ...
.
* In
James Ellroy's 2014 novel ''
Perfidia
"Perfidia" (Spanish for " perfidy", meaning ''faithlessness'', ''treachery'' or ''betrayal'') is a 1939 Spanish-language song written by Mexican composer and arranger Alberto Domínguez (1906–1975). The song is sung from the perspectiv ...
'', Ellroy provides a fictionalized version of James E. Davis in a supporting role. This version of Davis also appears in ''Perfidias sequel
''This Storm''.
* A sepia photograph of James E. Davis is used in the opening title sequence to the
Southland Southland may refer to:
Places Canada
* Dunbar–Southlands, Vancouver, British Columbia
New Zealand
* Southland Region, a region of New Zealand
* Southland County, a former New Zealand county
* Southland District, part of the wider Southland Reg ...
television series.
See also
*
List of Los Angeles Police Department Chiefs of Police
The Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department is the head of the LAPD.
List of police chiefs
See also
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Los Angeles Police Department Chiefs Of Police
Police
Law enforcement workers from California
...
External links
*
References
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, James E.
1889 births
1949 deaths
Chiefs of the Los Angeles Police Department