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.
"True-crime story of rape and racism in postwar Los Angeles. The
narrative has all the elements of a classic film noir and then
some: a handsome detective who falls for a beautiful crime victim
who narrowly escapes the clutches of a monstrous rapist; the
innocent man, railroaded into jail for a capital crime he didn't
commit by the prejudiced police of a corrupt city; a surprise
ending with a stakeout and shootout that brings about justice in
the end. But this being a story based on real life, the epilogue is
not so tidy, least of all for the railroaded suspect, an
African-American ex-cop who'd been forced out of the department for
dating a white woman. In the summer of 1956, Los Angeles was in the
thrall of a serial rapist who trolled lovers' lanes in tonier
districts with a toy sheriff's badge and a flashlight. He would
interrupt young lovers, flash his badge and threaten to arrest the
couple for vice crimes. Then he would deposit the young man a few
blocks away and return for his prey. On his trail was the talented
detective Danny Galindo, a Mexican-American war hero and friend of
Dragnet's Jack Webb, who would feed him the occasional story line.
(Give it to Galindo, a catchphrase on the show, was Webb's way of
tipping his hat to his LAPD pal.) Galindo worked on some of the
city's most notorious crimes, from the Black Dahlia to the Manson
Family murders, but he was particularly proud of this case in which
he freed an innocent man and found true love. Engel (Gene
Roddenberry: The Myth and the Man Behind Star Trek, 1994, etc.)
gets in the head of the rapist, which may be taking liberties with
the facts, but it makes for a riveting, novelistic read. Disturbing
social history in the form of a fast-paced thriller." --Kirkus "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 true Los 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 L.A.
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
"Engel, a former New York Times and L.A. Times reporter (What Would
Martin Say?), has expanded the concept of the wrong man in his
blistering true crime book of a serial rapist's reign of terror in
the Jim Crow Los Angeles of the mid-late 1950s. In the author's
gritty account of a tormented Willie Roscoe Fields, a war-weary
veteran once sentenced for attempted rape, he gives a snappy,
hard-edged feel to this black man's terrifying sexual rampage
against women snatched from cars in the city's lovers' lanes. The
insightful narrative puts the brutal, senseless incidents at the
core of the book in context with snippets of historical events of
racism, betrayal, and police corruption. When Todd Roark, a black
LAPD cop, is pulled in for the rapes in retaliation for dating a
white woman, only one officer believes in his innocence and sets a
clever trap to snare the real criminal. In a crowded field of fine
true crime authors, Engel makes sure that all of the dots are
connected and justice has its say." --Publishers Weekly "When we
think of Los Angeles in the fifties, things like Dragnet, the Brown
Derby, Alfred Hitchcock, and movie stars lounging around
sun-drenched pools immediately jump to mind. Rarely do crosses
burned into lawns, segregated diners, racially motivated beatings,
and gruesome murders interrupt this vision of Hollywood's Golden
Age. In Engel's book, L.A. '56, he takes us into the depths of one
of America's most segregated cities on the hunt for a serial rapist
and shows us this darker side of LA. This true story centers on
Detective Danny Galindo, an officer dedicated to freeing his friend
and former colleague, who Galindo believes is falsely accused of
raping several women. His friend, ex-LAPD officer Todd Roark, has
recently been fired from the force for the heinous act of fathering
a child with a white woman. With the most tenuous evidence, Roark
is imprisoned and the case is considered closed by all involved.
Latino officer Galindo takes it upon himself to accomplish a nearly
impossible task; convince a predominantly white police force that
Roark is innocent, while trying to catch the real rapist who
continues to stalk women parked in lover's lanes with their
sweethearts around the city.
Engle takes us on a thrilling hunt, chasing a monster through the
streets of LA. Walking alongside the fascinating Galindo and,
alternatively, the twisted stalker hunting his prey in the darkness
keeps the tension level high throughout the entire book.
Interspersed between these men are articles from newspapers of the
day illustrating how radically segregated the city was and how
dangerous it could be to break those lines. The author does an
excellent job of showing the shining city that tempted so many to
its sunny streets, as well as, the darkness that lay just beneath
its surface. A book that will appeal to true crime fans, as well as
those who love a great noir tale, L.A. '56 is a one not to be
missed."" --Bryan VanMeter, CrimeSpree Magazine "Engle takes us on
a thrilling hunt, chasing a monster through the streets of LA.
Walking alongside the fascinating Galindo and, alternatively, the
twisted stalker hunting his prey in the darkness keeps the tension
level high throughout the entire book. Interspersed between these
men are articles from newspapers of the day illustrating how
radically segregated the city was and how dangerous it could be to
break those lines. The author does an excellent job of showing the
shining city that tempted so many to its sunny streets, as well as,
the darkness that lay just beneath its surface. A book that will
appeal to true crime fans, as well as those who love a great noir
tale, L.A. '56 is a one not to be missed." --Bryan VanMeter,
CrimeSpree Magazine "Engel uses a wrongful conviction case to
illuminate the racism and corruption rampant in the LAPD before the
first reforms. In 1956, Willie Roscoe Fields, who went AWOL during
WWII and had been AWOL from the job scene pretty much ever since,
found a skill he used over and over again, impersonating a cop in
lovers' lanes, separating couples, and raping the young woman
involved, usually white, as he pretended to drive her to the
station house. The LAPD pinned the crimes on a black former cop,
who had been ostracized for dating a white woman. A Latino
detective was the only cop to sense or care that the wrong man had
been convicted and sent to prison. His pursuit of justice serves as
the backbone of the book. This is both an examination of an
especially distressing racist rush to judgment and an intriguing
portrait of L.A. and the LAPD in the '50s. As such, it should
interest James Ellroy fans." --Booklist
Ask a Question About this Product More... |