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Joseph Wambaugh, cop-turned-best-selling-author, dies at 88
Joseph Wambaugh, cop-turned-best-selling-author, dies at 88
Best-selling author Joseph Wambaugh, a former LAPD officer, poses during an interview in Los Angeles in January 1992. (Reed Saxon / Associated Press)
By Steve Chawkins
Feb. 28, 2025 7:11 PM PT
Before Joseph Wambaugh came along, the unofficial bard of the Los Angeles Police Department was Jack Webb, whose unsmiling Sgt. Joe Friday peppered every episode of “Dragnet” with homilies about moral weakness and crime. ... “Marijuana is the flame, heroin is the fuse, LSD is the bomb,” Friday seethed to a suspect in a 1967 episode. “So don’t you try to equate liquor with marijuana, Mister. Not to me. … Don’t you con me with your mind-expansion slop!”
Then came Wambaugh, an LAPD veteran whose fictional cops would have had Joe Friday screaming for the California Penal Code and a bottle of disinfectant. Wambaugh’s characters were morally flexible, heroic, repugnant, compassionate, callous, deeply flawed, darkly comical — in a word, real. ... Wambaugh, whose 16 novels and five nonfiction crime narratives transformed the portrayal of cops in America, paved the way for gritty TV shows such as “Hill Street Blues” and “N.Y.P.D. Blue” and inspired a new generation of crime writers, died Friday at his home in Rancho Mirage, Calif., according to Janene Gant, a longtime family friend. He was 88. ... The cause of his death was esophageal cancer, Gant said. He had learned about his illness about 10 months ago. His wife of 69 years, Dee, was at his side, Gant said.
His bestselling novels included “The New Centurions,” “The Glitter Dome,” “The Choirboys” and “Black Marble.” The best known of his nonfiction works was “The Onion Field,” a chilling story that starts with a routine stop for an illegal U-turn and quickly leads to the execution of a Los Angeles police officer in a Kern County field.
{snip}
Born Jan 22, 1937, Joseph Aloysius Wambaugh Jr. grew up in East Pittsburgh, Pa., where his father worked in a steel mill and, for a time, was the city’s police chief. When Joseph was 14, his family came to California for a funeral and decided to stay. ... After high school in Ontario, , Wambaugh served in the Marines from 1954 to 1957 and then earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Cal State Los Angeles. He wanted to teach, but the LAPD paid better than the schools. ... As he rose through the ranks, he earned a master’s degree from Cal State. He also tucked away notes about his experiences on the street and, defying department rules, turned them into his first novel, “The New Centurions.”
{snip}
Asked how he’d like to be remembered, Wambaugh summed it up with the no-nonsense crispness of a patrolman handing out a speeding ticket. ... “Cop writer,” he said. “That should work.”
Chawkins is a former Times staff writer.
Best-selling author Joseph Wambaugh, a former LAPD officer, poses during an interview in Los Angeles in January 1992. (Reed Saxon / Associated Press)
By Steve Chawkins
Feb. 28, 2025 7:11 PM PT
Before Joseph Wambaugh came along, the unofficial bard of the Los Angeles Police Department was Jack Webb, whose unsmiling Sgt. Joe Friday peppered every episode of “Dragnet” with homilies about moral weakness and crime. ... “Marijuana is the flame, heroin is the fuse, LSD is the bomb,” Friday seethed to a suspect in a 1967 episode. “So don’t you try to equate liquor with marijuana, Mister. Not to me. … Don’t you con me with your mind-expansion slop!”
Then came Wambaugh, an LAPD veteran whose fictional cops would have had Joe Friday screaming for the California Penal Code and a bottle of disinfectant. Wambaugh’s characters were morally flexible, heroic, repugnant, compassionate, callous, deeply flawed, darkly comical — in a word, real. ... Wambaugh, whose 16 novels and five nonfiction crime narratives transformed the portrayal of cops in America, paved the way for gritty TV shows such as “Hill Street Blues” and “N.Y.P.D. Blue” and inspired a new generation of crime writers, died Friday at his home in Rancho Mirage, Calif., according to Janene Gant, a longtime family friend. He was 88. ... The cause of his death was esophageal cancer, Gant said. He had learned about his illness about 10 months ago. His wife of 69 years, Dee, was at his side, Gant said.
His bestselling novels included “The New Centurions,” “The Glitter Dome,” “The Choirboys” and “Black Marble.” The best known of his nonfiction works was “The Onion Field,” a chilling story that starts with a routine stop for an illegal U-turn and quickly leads to the execution of a Los Angeles police officer in a Kern County field.
{snip}
Born Jan 22, 1937, Joseph Aloysius Wambaugh Jr. grew up in East Pittsburgh, Pa., where his father worked in a steel mill and, for a time, was the city’s police chief. When Joseph was 14, his family came to California for a funeral and decided to stay. ... After high school in Ontario, , Wambaugh served in the Marines from 1954 to 1957 and then earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Cal State Los Angeles. He wanted to teach, but the LAPD paid better than the schools. ... As he rose through the ranks, he earned a master’s degree from Cal State. He also tucked away notes about his experiences on the street and, defying department rules, turned them into his first novel, “The New Centurions.”
{snip}
Asked how he’d like to be remembered, Wambaugh summed it up with the no-nonsense crispness of a patrolman handing out a speeding ticket. ... “Cop writer,” he said. “That should work.”
Chawkins is a former Times staff writer.
2 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
RIP Joe 
