Joseph Wambaugh Jr.

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Joseph Aloysius Wambaugh, Jr. (born January 22, 1937) is a best-selling American writer known for his fictional and non-fictional accounts of police service in the United States.

Many of his first books were set in Los Angeles, California, and the immediate regions, and featured Los Angeles police officers as protagonists.

He has been nominated for 4 Edgar Awards (winning three), and the Mystery Writers of America has named him a Grand Master.

Early life

Wambaugh, the son of a police officer, was born in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At the age of 17 (an element he works with in several of his books) and married at 18. Wambaugh is of Irish and German descent.

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Police career

In 1960, Wambaugh earned a bachelor of arts degree from Chaffey College and joined the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). He served in the ranks from patrolman to detective sergeant for 14 years, rising through the ranks. He earned both bachelor of arts and Master of Arts degrees at California State University in Los Angeles.

Writing career

Wambaugh's focus on police work resulted in the release of his first book, The New Centurions, in 1971, to critical acclaim and widespread success, though Wambaugh was still a detective. Later, he hinted that criminals would request his autograph.

Wambaugh was prolific and popular in the 1970s, and he's now writing full time. He mixed writing books (The Blue Knight, The Choirboys, and The Black Marble) with nonfiction accounts of crime and detection (true crime): The Onion Field. His later books included The Glitter Dome (a television-movie adaptation starring James Garner and John Lithgow), The Delta Star (a TV-movie version starring James Garner and John Lithgow), and Lines and Shadows.

Wambaugh, who had created a heroic fictional storyline, gave his flawed police characters a gritty texture. Beginning with the Choirboys, Wambaugh modified his approach and began to use humour and bizarre incidents to highlight the inherent danger in modern urban police work. Many characters are described as merely unflattering nicknames rather than given names, while other characters are given frivolous names in order to paint an immediate word picture for the reader. Wambaugh became adamantly critical of the LAPD's command system and those who work within it, and later, the city government as well. For example, the person in The Black Marble, Digby Bates, is presumably a thinly veiled lampoon of Chief Daryl Gates.

Beginning with The Black Marble in 1977, Wambaugh dedicated at least half of a story to satirical accounts of the "rich and popular" lifestyle in Southern California. The Black Marble parodied dog demonstrates and the "old" Pasadena's fading life, but not entirely sympathetically. The Glitter Dome investigated the pornographic film industry, The Delta Star delves into the Nobel Prize's politics and scientific curiosity, and Harry Bright's Unconstitutional savaged the Palm Springs lifestyle of wealthy people with second homes, addictions to opioids, and limiting country clubs. The Secrets...was also a gruesome reminder of how fathers coped with the death of a child. Wambaugh expanded the scope of his observations with The Golden Orange in Orange County; Finnegan's Week, held in San Diego; and Floaters, set in San Diego within the America's Cup yacht racing events. He was an excellent observer of locales where he lived as a young celebrity himself.

Wambaugh's nonfiction book Echoes in the Shadow, based on Susan Reinert's assassination of a teacher in the Upper Merion School District in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, ignited controversy in 1992. Critics alleged that the author paid prosecutors in the trial of principal Jay C. Smith to funnel information to him before an arrest was made. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned Smith's conviction on the grounds that the investigation may have concealed the presence of sand that may have backed Smith's claim. John J. Holtz, the Pennsylvania State Police chief, later admitted to receiving $50,000 from author Wambaugh. Smith sued the police for colluing to falsely convict him, but the court found that, despite his freedom, evidence of his guilt remained overwhelming. William Bradfield, Smith's suspected co-conspirator, was released unconcerned with his murder conviction. Bradfield died in jail.

The Blooding, one of Wambaugh's most popular nonfiction books, tells the tale behind an early pioneer case in which DNA fingerprinting aided in the discovery and arrest of Colin Pitchfork.

Wambaugh's second Edgar Award for Best Crime Fact Book in 2003 was awarded to him by Fire Lover: A True Story. He received an MWA Grand Master Award in 2004.

In the 2000s, Wambaugh began teaching screenwriting courses as a guest lecturer for the University of California's theater department.

With the release of Hollywood Station in 2006, Wambaugh returned to fantasy in 2006. It was his first book since Floaters (1996), and it was the first to depict LAPD's cops and detectives of the Delta Star (1983). After the Rampart controversy, Hollywood Station was highly critical of the conditions exacerbated by the federal consent decree under which the LAPD had to function. He reconstructed it in 2008 with Hollywood Crows, a sequel that starred Hollywood Division Community Relations Officers ("Crows") that starred many of the same characters. Initially, Hollywood Moon in 2009, Hollywood Hills in 2010, and Harbor Nocturne in 2012, both in successive calendar years and involving officers of Hollywood Station's midwatch (5:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m.), was followed by Hollywood Boulevard in 2009, Hollywood Hills in 2010, and Harbor Nocturne in 2012.

"Hollywood Nate" Weiss, a cop with aspirations of movie fame; "Flotsam" and "Jetsam," two cops who are keen surfers and often speak in a thick surfer dialect; and "Compassionate Charlie" Gilford, a lazy night-watch detective who appears in all five books of the series; and "Compassionate Charlie" Gilford, a sardonic Greek chorus who appears as a sardonic Greek chorus

The incidents in which multiple police characters are involved are based in part on anecdotes obtained by working police officers, which are based in part on anecdotes collected by Wambaugh.

During the 1970s and 1980s, many of his books were turned into feature films or television movies. In 1972, George C. Scott appeared in The New Centurions, a dramatic film starring George C. Scott. The Blue Knight, a book based on William Holden's late-life and last days as a result of his nearing retirement and remaining work days. It was also adapted as a short-lived television series starring George Kennedy. Wambaugh appeared briefly in the pilot as a desk sergeant. Both film and television representations (such as Hill Street Blues) from the mid-1970s to today were largely influential, with Wambaugh's realistic approach to police drama.

Wambaugh appeared on and developed the NBC series Police Story, which ran from 1973 to 1978. The anthology exhibition covered a variety of aspects of police work (patrol, detective, undercover, etc.) Several stories and characters in the Los AngelesPD were allegedly inspired by off-the-record interviews with actual police officers. The show's characters also dealt with issues that were not normally seen or associated with traditional television cop shows, such as alcohol use, adultery, and brutality. In the second season episode "Incident in the Kill Zone," Wambaugh appeared in his second brief acting role. During the 1988-1989 season, the program received a brief revival on ABC.

Wambaugh was also involved in the production of The Onion Field (1979) and The Black Marble (1980), both directed by Harold Becker. He received an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America in 1981 for his screenplay for the second film. A few years ago, the Choirboys film version had received a poor critical and audience reception. Both three films featured performances by James Woods, a young up-and-coming actor.

The Glitter Dome, a 1984 film starring James Garner, John Lithgow, and Margot Kidder, was a HBO film.

Fugitive Nights was turned into a 1993 feature film of the same name.

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