William A. Worton

William A. Worton
Born April 11, 1897(1897-04-11)
Died July 25, 1973(1973-07-25) (aged 76)
Allegiance United States of America
Service/branch United States Marines Corps
Commands held Chief of Staff of the III Amphibious Corps
Battles/wars World War I
World War II
William A. Worton
Los Angeles Police Department
Service branch United States
Years of service 1949-50
Rank Chief of Police 1949-50

William A. Worton (January 4, 1897 – July 25, 1973), a former Marine Corps General, served as interim Los Angeles Police Department police chief from June 1949 to 1950.

Worton attended Harvard and Boston University Law School before entering the Marine Corps during World War I. He saw combat service in France where he was seriously wounded. After the War, Worton remained in the Marine Corps, spending twelve years on Marine assignments in China in the 1920s and 1930s, including two years as an undercover Intelligence officer, conducting the first American espionage operations against Japan using agents recruited on the Chinese mainland.

Contents

US Naval espionage service before World War II

In 1935, having already served in China for ten years as a Marine officer, Worton was assigned to the Far East Section of the Office of Naval Intelligence. Given a "cover story" as "a disgruntled officer leaving the Corps to establish a business in the International Settlement in Shanghai", he returned to China once again, and began to recruit agents who agreed to travel to Japan to secretly collect information for the US Navy. One of these may have been the French Jesuit Priest and philosopher, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.

Working with closely with Chiang Kai-Shek's secret police chief, Dai Li, Worton performed his assignment ably until he returned to Washington in June 1936.[1]

WWII Service

As a Brigadier General, Worton served with the III Amphibious Corps (IIIAC) during the Battle of Okinawa, being elevated to chief of staff of IIIAC on June 30, 1945[2]. IIIAC was tasked with assaulting the Tokyo Plain during Operation Downfall, the planned Invasion of Japan. When the war ended after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, IIIAC subsequently was tasked as part of the American forces designated to occupy northern China to accept the surrender of the Japanese forces in the region. As part of that mission, Worton was with an advance party to Shanghai, China. In northern China, IIIAC battled with Chinese puppet troops aligned with Japan (many of whom later switched allegiance to Chiang Kai-Shek) and with Communist guerrillas and regulars.[3]

Los Angeles Police Chief

Worton was appointed the 42nd chief of the L.A.P.D. on June 30, 1949 by Los Angeles Mayor Fletcher Bowron after the resignation of Chief Clemence B. Horrall in the wake of the Brenda Allen scanal. Horrall's assistant chief, Joe Reed, also eventually resigned after Worton took office, as he too was ensnared by the police corruption scandal.

Worton was tasked by Mayor Bowron with the job of cleaning up the department. A little more than a year later, Worton resigned on August 9, 1950 and was replaced by his chief of Internal Affairs, William H. Parker, whom he had groomed for the office.

See also

References

  1. ^ Dennis L. Noble, A US Naval Intelligence Mission to China in the 1930s, Studies in Intelligence, Volume 50, Number 2, 2006 (US Central Intelligence Agency, Center for the Study of Intelligence)
  2. ^ "A. Assasult and Occupation of Okinawa Gunto". Marine Task Organization and Command List1. HyperWar: USMC Operations in WWII. http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USMC/V/USMC-V-L.html. 
  3. ^ Shaw, Henry. "The United States Marines in North China". http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/usmchist/nochina.txt. Retrieved 14 August 2011. 
Police appointments
Preceded by
Clemence B. Horrall
Chief of LAPD
1949–1950
Succeeded by
William H. Parker