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Photo Credits
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reproduce the photos in this book:
UCLA Charles E. Young Research Library Department of Special Collections, Los Angeles Daily News Photographic Archives, Copyright © Regents of the University of California, UCLA Library.
UCLA Charles E. Young Research Library Department of Special Collections, Los Angeles Times Photographic Archives, Copyright © Regents of the University of California, UCLA Library.
The Los Angeles Public Library Photograph Collection, Copyright © Los Angeles Public Library Photograph Collection, History Department—LL4, 630 West Fifth Street, Los Angeles, CA 90071.
The Museum of Ventura County Photograph Collection, Copyright © Museum of Ventura County, 100 East Main Street, Ventura, CA 93001.
About the Author
Richard Rayner is the author of eight previous books, including The Blue Suit, Drake’s 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.
Leslie White (center), cocky and self-assured, poses with colleagues days after the St. Francis dam disaster. (Museum of Ventura County)
A mass grave for St. Francis victims. (UCLA Special Collections)
Dave Clark (second from right)—tall, tan, white-hatted, and “frigid-eyed”— strides on a downtown sidewalk with other attorneys. (UCLA Special Collections)
A major scene of the action—the Los Angeles Hall of Justice, which opened in 1925. (UCLA Special Collections)
Buron Fitts, district attorney for Los Angeles County and a formidable power player, enjoys a photo op. (UCLA Special Collections)
Oil promoter C. C. Julian—his dealings characterized the crazy 1920s boom. (Los Angeles Public Library)
A bloody Albert Marco, pictured after his arrest at the Ship Café. (UCLA Special Collections)
Oil magnate E. L. Doheny—political scandals in which he was enmeshed led to profound tragedy. (UCLA Special Collections)
A forest of Los Angeles oil derricks from 1926. (UCLA Special Collections)
Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills, the morning after the shootings. (UCLA Special Collections)
The corpses of Ned Doheny (foreground) and Hugh Plunkett. (Boston University)
Journalist and murder victim Herbert Spencer. (Los Angeles Public Library)
The Reverend “Fighting” Bob Shuler —in jail and milking the moment. (Los Angeles Public Library)
Erle Stanley Gardner—when he was still a Ventura Count
y attorney. (Museum of Ventura County)
Raymond Chandler in the 1930s, at the outset of his writing career. (Los Angeles Public Library)
Charlie Crawford, smiling benignly at one of his trials and counting on his customary acquittal. (UCLA Special Collections)
Clara Bow—dressed as demurely as possible—at a court appearance. (UCLA Special Collections)
Dave Clark with Daisy DeVoe during her arraignment. (Los Angeles Public Library)
Charlie Crawford’s bronze and silver burial casket was the costliest to be found in Los Angeles at the time. (UCLA Special Collections)
A poker game in the holding cell at the Hall of Justice—Dave Clark looks cool as usual. (UCLA Special Collections)
The brand-new Colt that killed Charlie Crawford and Herbert Spencer. (UCLA Special Collections)
Guy McAfee in Las Vegas, breaking ground for one of his clubs—he gave “The Strip” its name. (UCLA Special Collections)
The cartoon that appeared in Herbert Spencer’s magazine, The Critic of Critics, and caused a lot of trouble—the octopus Guy McAfee is pictured with his tentacles around all of Los Angeles. (UCLA Special Collections)
Dave Clark, on the stand during his first trial. (UCLA Special Collections)
Leslie White, giving evidence. (Los Angeles Public Library)
Dave Clark and his wife, Nancy, outside his cell at the Hall of Justice. (UCLA Special Collections)
DOUBLEDAY
Copyright © 2009 by Richard
Rayner All Rights Reserved
Published in the United States by Doubleday, an imprint of The Doubleday
Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.doubleday.com
DOUBLEDAY and the DD colophon are registered trademarks of
Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rayner, Richard, 1955–
A bright and guilty place : murder, corruption, and L.A.’s scandalous
coming of age / by Richard Rayner. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
1. Organized crime—California—Los Angeles—History.
2. Murder—California—Los Angeles—History. 3. Political
corruption—California—Los Angeles—History. I. Title.
HV6795.L6R39 2009
364.109794′9409042—dc22
2008043905
eISBN: 978-0-385-53011-8
v3.0
A Bright and Guilty Place Page 28