Joseph Wambaugh, L.A. Cop Turned Novelist and Screenwriter, Dies at 88
Joseph Wambaugh, who turned his experiences from 14 years with the Los Angeles Police Department into such gritty books as The Onion Field, The New Centurions, The Blue Knight and The Glitter Dome — all adapted for the screen — died Friday. He was 88.
Wambaugh, who also co-created the acclaimed 1970s anthology series Police Story for NBC, died at his home in Rancho Mirage of esophageal cancer, longtime family friend Janene Gant told The New York Times.
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Wambaugh, who joined the LAPD as a patrolman in 1960, made a splash with his debut novel, The New Centurions, a sweeping tale that followed three young LAPD officers during a five-year period that led to the 1965 Watts riots. Published by Little, Brown and Co. in 1971, it was a hit, remaining on The New York Times Best Seller List for 32 weeks.
In his review for the Times, Thomas Fleming wrote: “Do you like cops? Read The New Centurions. Do you hate cops? Read The New Centurions. It performs one of those essential and enduring functions the novel — and the novel alone — can perform. It takes us into the hearts and minds, into the nerves and (sometimes literally) into the guts of other human beings — and, in the hands of a good writer, it achieves a mixture of empathy and objectivity that creates genuine understanding.”
The following year, The New Centurions was adapted into a feature film starring George C. Scott and Stacy Keach. Wambaugh was still an LAPD detective then, and he liked to joke that because of his newfound fame, suspects were asking him for autographs as he was putting them in handcuffs.
His second novel, The Blue Knight, hit bookstores in 1973. Whereas his first book centered on cops just starting out, Wambaugh this time wrote about a veteran officer who was days away from retirement.
The novel masterfully drew readers into the psyche of those who wear a badge with such passages as: “I drove to Seymour’s, and when I pulled up in front I saw two guys across Fourth Street in the parking lot at the rear of the Pink Dragon. I watched for 30 seconds or so, and it looked like they were setting something up, probably a narcotics buy. Even after 20 years, I still get that thrill a cop gets at seeing things that are invisible to the square citizen.”
Another best-seller, The Blue Knight was turned into a 1973 NBC telefilm, with William Holden playing the book’s title character, Bumper Morgan. Two years later, it became a CBS series that starred George Kennedy and ran for 25 episodes.
Wambaugh chose next to delve into nonfiction, enjoying his greatest success in 1973 with The Onion Field. Based on an incident that had happened 10 years earlier, the book chronicles the harrowing story of two undercover LAPD patrol officers who are kidnapped during a routine traffic stop that goes horribly wrong. The abductors drive them north to just outside Bakersfield, California, and the book’s title location. One of the cops is executed, and the other escapes.
Wambaugh meticulously detailed the harrowing night and the aftermath and critics hailed the book, comparing The Onion Field to Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. The author’s third book spent 14 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller List and earned an Edgar Award.
“I was put on Earth to write The Onion Field. That’s how I felt about it,” Wambaugh said in 2008. “It was such an emotional experience for me. I took a six-month leave of absence from the police department to write that book. I read 40,000 pages of court transcripts; I interviewed about 63 people and wrote the book in three months.”
Wambaugh then adapted his work into the screenplay for Harold Becker’s 1979 film that starred James Woods and Franklyn Seales as the captors and John Savage and Ted Danson as the cops.
The success of The Onion Field proved to be a turning point for Wambaugh. He turned in his No. 178 badge to focus full-time on writing, retiring from the LAPD in 1974.
Joseph Aloysius Wambaugh Jr. was born on Jan. 22, 1937, in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His father was a police chief who later became a steelworker. When he was 14, the family relocated to Los Angeles.
In 1954, Wambaugh enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and then attended night school. After the service, he worked at a local steel mill and attended college part-time.
Interested in literature, he considered a career as an English teacher, but with law enforcement in his blood, Wambaugh opted to join the LAPD. But as he went through training and joined the force, he continued his studies, earning a B.A. in 1960 and then an M.A. in 1968 from Cal State L.A.
As he worked his way up to the rank of detective sergeant at the LAPD, Wambaugh spent his days off crafting short stories. These were rejected for publication, but one editor offered encouragement by suggesting that he take a stab at creating a full-length novel. His first effort was The New Centurions.
In 1973, Wambaugh joined forces with E. Jack Neuman, who had written The Blue Knight teleplay, to create the ultra-realistic Police Story, a precursor to other cop shows like Hill Street Blues and NYPD Blue. (Police Story, which won the Emmy for outstanding drama series in 1976, led to three spinoffs, including the hit Police Woman, starring Angie Dickinson.)
Wambaugh’s other successful novels included The Choirboys, which became a 1977 film directed by Robert Aldrich; The Black Marble, which he adapted into a 1980 movie directed by Becker; The Glitter Dome, the basis for a 1984 HBO movie that starred James Garner and John Lithgow; The Delta Star; and The Secret of Harry Bright.
He also turned his nonfiction work Echoes in the Darkness and novel Fugitive Nights into telefilms that aired in 1987 and 1993, respectively.
In the 1990s, Wambaugh published three works of fiction: The Golden Orange, Finnegan’s Week and Floaters. His next book, 2002’s Fire Lover: A True Story, was a change of pace for the author: The nonfiction effort focused on arson investigator John Leonard Orr, who worked for the Glendale Fire Department.
Wambaugh returned to the crime beat in 2006 with The Hollywood Station. It introduced the character of “Hollywood” Nate Weiss, an actor turned cop who’s more interested in finding fame than solving crimes. Flotsam and Jetsam, a pair of sun-bleached surfer cops/dudes, are among the book’s other colorful characters.
Breezier than his earlier work, The Hollywood Station and its four sequels gave the author a chance to poke some fun at Los Angeles’ celebrity-obsessed sensibilities. One passage:
“Wanna play pit bull polo, dude?”
“What’s that?”
“It’s something I learned when I worked Metro Mounted Platoon.”
“It’s weird thinking of you as a cowboy cop.”
“All I know about horses is they’re assholes, man. But we got the overtime there. You know my little Beemer? I wouldn’t have that if I hadn’t worked Metro. My last year in Metro I made a hundred grand plus. I don’t miss those crazy horses but I miss that OT money. And I miss wearing a Stetson. When we worked the mini-riot at the Democrats convention, a hot little lobbyist with nipples big enough to pack up and leave home said I looked like a young Clint Eastwood in that Stetson. And I didn’t carry a Beretta nine then. I carried a six-inch Colt revolver. It looked more appropriate when I was sitting on a horse.”
“A wheel gun? In this day and age?”
“The Oracle still carries a wheel gun.”
“The Oracle’s been on the job nearly 50 years. He can wear a codpiece if he wants to. And you don’t look like Clint Eastwood, bro. You look like the guy in King Kong, except you got even more of a beak and your hair is bleached.”
“My hair is sun-streaked from surfing, dude. And I’m even two inches taller in the saddle than Clint was.”
“Whatever, bro. I’m a whole foot taller on the ground than Tom Cruise. He’s about 4-foot-10.”
The Mystery Writers of America honored Wambaugh with three Edgar prizes during his career and gave him its Grand Master Award in 2004.
Survivors include his wife, Dee, whom he married in 1955, and their children, David and Jeanette. Another son, Mark, then 21, died in a car accident in 1984. David published his own memoir, 2013’s The Last Call.
Asked in 2010 where he found inspiration for his novels, Wambaugh said his characters “are pretty much composites of people I’ve met. Sometimes they’re pretty close to living people.
“My work is character-driven, and by that I mean that once I create the characters, I start narrating their story without a clear idea of where they are going. I let the characters take me there, and during the journey, I get a better idea of who they are and make changes in order to accommodate them.”
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