L.A. '56 A Devil in the City of Angels

In this shocking true story, an ex-LAPD cop, Todd Roark, faces the death penalty for rape and kidnappingcrimes he didn't commitin racially tense 1956 Los Angeles Only on the surface was 1950s Los Angeles the model city depicted by Dragnet. Beneath the fictional patina, L.A. was more Raymond Chandler than Jack Webb, and in some ways as segregated as Selma, Alabama. But in 1956, rock and roll began changing America's culture, and the Montgomery bus boycott began transforming its morality, causing LAPD Chief William Parker to step up his campaign of "street justice" in black L.A. It was in this L.A. that a serial rapist terrorized the city's lovers' lanes. He was black and most of his victims were white, and the man who was falsely jailed for the crimes was a black former cop whose white colleagues were only too glad to pin the blame on him since he'd once dated a white woman. Only one copa Latino detectivepursued the truth. In doing so, he fell in love with one of the first victims, which only drove him harder to solve the crimes, even if he had to do it alone. And at last he succeeded...with the help of some Hollywood magic. This noir-esque true story is the perfect choice for fans of Eric Larson.

JOEL ENGEL is the author or co-author of more than fifteen books, including By George (the autobiography of George Foreman), The Oldest Rookie with Jim Morris (made into a movie starring Dennis Quaid), and most recently, What Would Martin Say? with Clarence B. Jones (Martin Luther King Jr.’s attorney). He is a former journalist for The New York Times and Los Angeles Times, among others.

“A gritty, vivid, snapshot of Fifties L.A. and its seamy demimonde.”—Marvin J. Wolf, bestselling author of Fallen Angels: Chronicles of L.A. Crime and Mystery

"Joel Engel’s riveting L.A. ’56: A Devil in the City of Angels has it all: a cast of fascinating real-life characters, police procedural as rough-and-tumble as a fifties film noir and a tale steeped equally with ambition, brutality and rue, as any trueLos Angeles story."—Megan Abbott, Edgar award-winning author of The End of Everything and Bury Me Deep

"Horrifying, illuminating, and totally engrossing. Joel Engel’s book tells the story of a sex-crazed criminal, an innocent man set up by a racist police force, and the brave cop who stepped forward to stop the man, and uses it to cut deeply into the dark heart of Jim Crow LA. Philip Marlowe, Easy Rawlins, meet Detective Danny Galindo. He — and this book — are the real thing.”—John Buntin, author of L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America’s Most Seductive City

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L.A. '56 A Devil in the City of Angels

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials