LAPD’s not so secret Hollywood connections

LAPDAuthors.com, a website dedicated to listing Los Angeles Police Department police officers who have written books added four listings of officers who have unusual insights into Hollywood.

Jim Dougherty’s book is described as “the sensitive and touching story of the four-year marriage of Jim Dougherty and Norma Jeane Baker before her Hollywood transformation to Marilyn Monroe. This is a very unusual book about Norma Jeane, because it isn't just another book about Marilyn Monroe. It's a completely different, and very sensitive, view of a young girl married at 16 who is very much in love with her husband, Jim Dougherty, a long-time, veteran Los Angeles Police Officer and firearms instructor.

Fred Otash was a legendary LAPD officer in the 1940s. A clash with the brass motivated him to resigned and ultimately become one of the most notorious Hollywood Private Investigators. He tells all in “Investigation Hollywood.” In the book, Lana Turner’s Bedroom, Gaby Wood wrote, “…..suggested to Lana that she call the most celebrated criminal lawyer in Los Angeles, Jerry Giesler. Giesler was nicknamed 'the magnificent mouthpiece'; he had got Errol Flynn cleared of two rape charges and Bugsy Siegel cleared of murder. He arrived with a private eye, Fred Otash, who was a former vice cop and fed stories to Confidential magazine on the side. By now the house was surrounded—by medics, policemen and neighbors in bathrobes.” Fred was everywhere and into everything.

John O’Grady, a Los Angeles area top private investigator was with the Los Angeles Police Department for over 20 years. For 12 of those years he was in charge of the Hollywood Narcotics Detail. Additionally, he spent eight years teaching police science, was a member of the International Narcotics Enforcement Officers Association, California State Narcotics Association and a nationally recognized polygraph expert. In his book, “O’Grady: The life and Times of Hollywood’s No. 1 Private Eye,” he gives the reader names, dates and details of investigations in the 1960s and 1970s.

Detective Leon Smith, a thirty-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department and a lifelong movie buff guides the reader on a nostalgic journey to famous Hollywood movie and television locations. His investigations reveal exact addresses of these historical sites; and, feature his present-day photographs compared with production stills showing how the locations appeared in the original film. His first book, “Famous Hollywood Locations,” contains descriptions and photographs of 382 sites involving 289 films and 105 television series.” He followed up with a second book that does not repeat any locations; “Hollywood Goes on Location.”

LAPD Authors.com lists 47 Los Angeles police officers and their books in five categories. The sister-site at www.police-writers.com lists 229 state and local police officers and their over 600 books.