Country United States Name Clemence Horrall | ||
Born September 24, 1895 ( 1895-09-24 ) Department Los Angeles Police Department Rank Chief of Police 1941–49 Died October 4, 1960, Los Angeles, California, United States | ||
Organizations founded Gangster Squad | ||
Clemence Brooks Horrall (September 24, 1895 – October 4, 1960) was Los Angeles Police Department Chief of Police from June 16, 1941, when he succeeded Arthur C. Hohmann to serve as the 41st Chief of the L.A.P.D., to June 28, 1949, when he resigned under pressure during a grand jury investigation of police corruption. Clemence Brooks Horrall was born in Washington, Indiana and graduated from Washington State University. Horrall had become chief when Hohmann, under pressure from Los Angeles Mayor Fletcher Bowron, voluntarily took a demotion to deputy chief after he had become ensnared in a police corruption trial that had embarrassed the mayor.
During his tenure as chief many significant events occurred that would shape Los Angeles during the decade of the 1940s, when the population of the city proper surged from 1.5 million to nearly 2 million people. Events such as World War II, Japanese-American relocation and internment (see Japanese American internment), the Zoot Suit Riots of 1943 and the Black Dahlia homicide roiled the city, as did the Brenda Allen vice scandal of 1948–49 that led to Chief Horrall's resignation after it was found that officers involved with the Hollywood madam perjured themselves under oath during grand jury testimony, as did Horrall himself. He resigned in 1949.
Clemence Horrall died in 1960 from a heart attack and was buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park, by Hollywood Hills.