I'd like to mention José Giovanni, french ex-con turned successful
writer (4 books in the Série Noire, countless scripts) and filmmaker.
His parents were professional gamblers who ran a gambling hall in
Paris but lost a fortune during the Depression; José joined the
Résistance in 1944 and then got involved with a gang specialized in
blackmailing wartime French collaborators; was picked up after a
shootout and spent 11 years on death row; was pardoned in the late
50's and turned his prison memoirs into a succesful first novel LE
TROU. He was involved in a bunch of noirish films featuring Delon,
Ventura, Gabin, Belmondo.
On Oct 30, 2008, at 5:04 PM, Steve Novak wrote:
> Thanks Jim for this; your precious info has been saved and all the
> additions
> since give a very ull picture.
> Thanks again,
>
> Montois
>
> On 10/29/08 5:48 PM, "JIM DOHERTY" <jimdohertyjr@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> >
> >
> >
> > Re Jonathan's comment below:
> >
> > "Does anyone know of criminal writers and I can only think of one
> cop writer
> > in Joseph Wambaugh."
> >
> > I'm crushed. Crushed!
> >
> > All those responses to Jonathan's post, and no one thought to
> mention your
> > obediant servant? A police officer most of his adult life, a Spur
> winner, a
> > Dagger nominee, and a Rare Bird lo these many years, and not a
> single mention?
> >
> > Leaving myself aside, a few more cops turned crime writer.
> >
> > Leslie T. White, L.A. County D.A.'s Investigator and author of the
> > autobiography ME, DETECTIVE and the cop novels HARNESS BULL and
> HOMICIDE.
> >
> > Jess Kimbrough, retired LAPD detective lieutenant, and one of the
> highest
> > ranking black officers in that department when he retired in 1939,
> who wrote
> > DEFENDER OF THE ANGELS, a novel based on his experiences policing
> L.A. in the
> > '20's and '30's.
> >
> > Dallas Barnes, who worked Narcotics and Homicide in LAPD's
> Southwest Division
> > prior to writing novels like SEE THE WOMAN, BADGE OF HONOR, and
> YESTERDAY IS
> > DEAD, as well as scripts for TV shows like HUNTER, JOE FORRESTER,
> etc.
> >
> > John Ball, who found the police work he researched for his Virgil
> Tibbs novels
> > so fascinating that he became a reserve deputy in the L.A. County
> Sheriff's
> > Office, eventually turning those experiences into fiction in THE
> VAN and THE
> > MURDER CHILDREN.
> >
> > Gene Roddenberry, who was a sergeant in LAPD, working as Chief
> Parker's
> > perosnal secretary, and the department's liason to Jack Webb. He
> broke into
> > TV writing by turning case files into story treatments for DRAGNET
> that were
> > then fleshed out into full scripts by Webb's stable of writers.
> Later, using
> > a pseudonym, he wrote full scripts for shows like HIGHWAY PATROL.
> He'S better
> > known for STAR TREK than for his cop show scripts, OF COURSE, but
> cop shows
> > are how he broke into the industry.
> >
> > Former US Secret Service Agent Gerald Petievich wrote four novels
> about Secret
> > Service agents in Los Angeles based on his own experiences, and
> one novel
> > based on the experiences of his brother, John, as a detective in
> LAPD's
> > C.R.A.S.H. unit.
> >
> > And that's just in the Los Angeles area.
> >
> > Still sticking to California, there's Inyo County Deputy Sheriff
> Kirk
> > Mitchell, San Diego PD Detective Sergeant Jack Mullen, San
> Francisco Police
> > Officer Jerry Kenneally, San Jose Police Chief Joseph McNamara.
> Oakland Police
> > Officer Kent Anderson (though, strictly speaking, his NIGHT DOGS
> seems to be
> > based on his time in the Portland, OR, Police, prior to his
> lateral transfer
> > to OPD), and San Jose Police Investigator David Scannell.
> >
> > In Louisiana there's O'Neill de Noux and B.J. Bourg. In Texas,
> there's Anne
> > Wingate and Richard Abshire. In Florida there's Cherokee Paul
> MacDonald. In
> > Vermont there's Archer Mayor. In Tennessee there's David Hunter.
> >
> > And how about FBI Agents like Gordon Gordon, Paul Lindsey, Arthur
> Nehrbass,
> > Christopher Whitcomb, and Gus Riehl?
> >
> > The rest of the world? There's Britain's John Wainwright, Basil
> Thomson, Joan
> > Lock, Graham Ison, and Peter Walker. The Netherlands' A.C. Bantjer
> and
> > Janwillem van de Wetering. The Soviet Union's Fridrikh Neznansky.
> Finland's
> > Matti Joensuu. India's Yogesh Pratap.
> >
> > As for ex-cons, has anyone on this thread mentioned former FBI Top
> Tenner
> > Albert Nussbaum or white-collar criminal and Edgar-winner Paul
> Erdman? How
> > about Malcom Braly, who was the subject of a very recent thread?
> >
> > Finally, regarding the writer who started this thread, who was
> neither a cop
> > nor a criminal, David Goodis, if you don't think he was capable of
> writing
> > with verisimilitude, with what a famous mystery editor once called
> "technical
> > verity," check out his pioneering, and quite well-researched, police
> > procedural novel OF MISSING PERSONS. Untypical, I grat you, but
> damned good.
> >
> > Longest-winded I've been in a while. Hope you didn't mind.
> >
> > JIM DOHERTY
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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