false 6367573 1 <p>A captivating chronicle of how the City of Angels lost its soul</p><p>Los Angeles was the fastest growing city in the world, mad with oil fever, get-rich-quick schemes, celebrity scandals, and religious fervor. It was also rife with organized crime, with a mayor in the pocket of the syndicates and a DA taking bribes to throw trials. In <i>A Bright and Guilty Place</i>, Richard Rayner narrates the entwined lives of two men, Dave Clark and Leslie White, who were caught up in the crimes, murders, and swindles of the day. Over a few transformative years, as the boom times shaded into the Depression, the adventures of Clark and White would inspire pulp fiction and replace L.A.’s reckless optimism with a new cynicism. Together, theirs is the tale of how the city of sunshine got noir. <br><br>When <i>A Bright and Guilty Place</i> begins, Leslie White is a naïve young photographer who lands a job as a crime-scene investigator in the L.A. district attorney’s office. There he meets Dave Clark, a young, movie-star handsome lawyer and a rising star prosecutor with big ambitions. The cases they tried were some of the first “trials of the century,” starring dark-hearted oil barons, sexually perverse starlets, and hookers with hearts of gold. Los Angeles was in the grip of organized crime, and White was dismayed to see that only the innocent paid while the powerful walked free. But Clark was entranced by L.A.’s dangerous lures and lived the high life, marrying a beautiful woman, wearing custom-made suits, yachting with the rich and powerful, and jaunting off to Mexico for gambling and girls. In a shocking twist, when Charlie Crawford, the Al Capone of L.A., was found dead, the chief suspect was none other than golden boy Dave Clark. <br><br><i>A Bright and Guilty Place </i>is narrative nonfiction at its most gripping. Key to the tale are the story of the theft of water from the Owens River Valley that let L.A grow; the Teapot Dome scandal that brought shame to President Harding; and the emergence of crime writers like Raymond Chandler and James M. Cain, who helped mythologize L.A. In Rayner’s hands, the ballad of Dave Clark is the story of the coming of age of a great American city.</p> 6555013 23 6 2009 A Bright and Guilty Place: Murder, Corruption, and L.A.'s Scandalous Coming of Age total:27|5:2|4:14|3:10|2:1|1:0| 27 98 115 12 4 1 false false Sat Jul 25 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 27 08:50:14 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 27 12:12:40 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Aug 14 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 13 11:39:24 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 14 08:35:54 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 true false Mon Aug 10 23:31:58 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 10 23:35:56 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Jul 05 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 26 15:24:59 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 07 16:22:45 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Aug 25 21:16:16 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 25 21:21:11 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Oct 26 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 27 12:08:38 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 27 12:10:13 -0700 2009 2 0 false false Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 06 17:06:52 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 06 17:15:16 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Mon Aug 03 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 12 16:54:44 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 12 16:55:35 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Sat Jul 25 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 25 12:38:50 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 25 09:01:58 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Oct 31 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 25 07:59:31 -0700 2009 Mon Nov 02 18:03:58 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Jul 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 26 10:32:52 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 24 11:59:53 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Mon Aug 17 12:02:24 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 14 14:29:09 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Nov 06 13:09:23 -0800 2009 Fri Nov 06 13:09:58 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Sat Oct 17 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Nov 03 22:40:35 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 03 22:44:16 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sat Oct 31 15:45:46 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 31 15:45:46 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Mon Oct 05 10:29:46 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 05 10:29:46 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Oct 01 05:55:48 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 01 05:55:48 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Tue Sep 29 20:42:30 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 29 20:42:30 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Sep 29 12:37:25 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 29 12:37:25 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Sep 23 11:10:03 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 23 11:10:03 -0700 2009