Joseph Wambaugh
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Joseph Aloysius Wambaugh, Jr. (born January 22, 1937, in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is an American writer known for his fictional and non-fictional accounts of police work in the United States. The son of a police officer, Wambaugh joined the U.S. Marines at age seventeen (an element he works into several of his novels), and married at eighteen. He received an Associate's degree from Chaffey College, joined the Los Angeles Police Department in 1960 (eventually serving fourteen years) and rose through the ranks from patrolman to detective sergeant, and attended California State University, Los Angeles, in his off-duty time, receiving bachelor of arts and Master of Arts degrees.
Wambaugh's unique perspective on the realities of police work led to his first novel, The New Centurions, which was published early in 1971 to critical acclaim and popular success. (The success of the early books happened while Wambaugh was still working in the detective division. He reportedly remarked "I would have guys in handcuffs asking me for autographs.") Soon turning to writing full-time, Wambaugh was prolific and popular starting in the 1970s, mixing novels (The Blue Knight, The Choirboys, The Black Marble) with nonfiction accounts of crime and detection a.k.a. "true crime" (The Onion Field). Later books included The Glitter Dome (a TV-movie adaptation starred James Garner and John Lithgow), The Delta Star, and Lines and Shadows.
In contrast to conventionally heroic fictional policemen, Wambaugh brought a gritty texture to his flawed police characters. Many of his books were made into feature films or TV-movies during the 70s and 80s. The Blue Knight, a novel following the approaching retirement and last working days of aging veteran beat cop "Bumper" Morgan, was made into an Emmy-winning 1973 TV miniseries starring William Holden and later a short-lived TV series starring George Kennedy. His realistic approach to police drama was highly influential in both film and television depictions (such as Hill Street Blues) from the mid-70s onward.
Wambaugh was also involved with creating/developing the NBC series Police Story, which ran from 1973 to 1977. The anthology show covered the different aspects of police work (patrol, detective, undercover, etc.) in the LAPD with story ideas and characters supposedly inspired by off-the-record talks with actual police officers. At times the show's characters also dealt with problems not usually seen or associated with typical TV cop shows, such as alcohol abuse, adultery, and brutality. The show also had a brief revival on ABC during the 1988-1989 season.
Wambaugh was also involved in the production of the acclaimed film versions of The Onion Field (1979) and The Black Marble (1980), both directed by Harold Becker. In 1981, he won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for his screenplay for the latter film. This was after The Choirboys film adaptation had met with very poor critical and audience reception a few years earlier. (Trivia note: all three films featured performances by then young up-and-coming actor James Woods.)
In 1992, Wambaugh suffered some controversy with his nonfiction book Echoes In The Darkness, regarding the murder of Susan Reinert, a teacher in Upper Merion School District outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was alleged that the author paid prosecutors in the trial of principal Jay C. Smith to funnel information to him before an arrest was even made. [1] Smith's conviction was overturned by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on the grounds that the prosecution hid the existence of sand that could have supported Smith's case. Smith later sued but lost after a federal appeals court concluded that despite his release evidence of his guilt remained overwhelming.
Wambaugh's most famous and recent nonfiction book is The Blooding, which tells the story behind how an early landmark case involving DNA fingerprinting helped solve two murders in the English Midlands, resulting in the arrest and conviction of Colin Pitchfork.
In 2003, Fire Lover: A True Story brought Wambaugh his second Edgar Award, for Best Crime Fact book, and in 2004 he was the recipient of an MWA Grand Master Award. He returned to fiction with Hollywood Station (2006), his first book depicting life in the LAPD since The Delta Star (1983).
In the 2000s, Wambaugh also began teaching screenwriting courses as a guest lecturer for the theater department at the University of California San Diego.
[edit] Books by Joseph Wambaugh
- The New Centurions (1971, fiction)
- The Blue Knight (1972, fiction)
- The Onion Field (1973, nonfiction)
- The Choirboys (1975, fiction)
- The Black Marble (1978, fiction)
- The Glitter Dome (1981, fiction)
- The Delta Star (1983, fiction)
- Lines and Shadows (1984, nonfiction)
- The Secrets of Harry Bright (1985, fiction)
- Echoes in the Darkness (1987, nonfiction)
- The Blooding: The True Story of the Narborough Village Murders (1989, nonfiction)
- The Golden Orange (1990, fiction)
- Fugitive Nights (1992, fiction)
- Finnegan's Week (1994, fiction)
- Floaters (1996, fiction)
- Fire Lover: A True Story (2002, nonfiction)
- Hollywood Station (2006, fiction)
[edit] Sources
- Marling, William. Hard-Boiled Fiction. Case Western Reserve University. Marling page
- WAMBAUGH, Joseph International Who's Who. accessed September 1, 2006.
