James Ellroy - L. A. Confidential

Otis John Shortell, in prison on an accumulation of grand-theft auto convictions and franldy desiring a sentence reduction as a reward for his cooperation, confessed that he was one of the men Coates, Fontaine and Jones "sold" Inez Soto to. He was with Miss Soto and the three youths between the hours of 2:30 and 5:00 on the morning of the Nite Owl killings, «during the entire murder time frame». He told the warden that he never came forward to exonerate the three for fear of rape charges being filed against him. He further stated that Coates had a large quantity of narcotics in his car and that that was the reason he never relinquished its location to the police. Shortell cited a recent conversion to Pentecostal Christianity as his reason for finally making his confession, but prison authorities were dubious. Shortell petitioned for an in-cell lie detector test to prove his veracity and was given a total of four polygraph examinations. He passed all four tests conclusively. Shortell's attorney, Morris Waxman, has sent notarized copies of the polygraph examiner's reports to the «Daily News» and the LAPD. We have advanced this article. What will the LAPD do?

We decry the injustice of shotgun justice. We decry the motives of triggerman Ed Exley. We openly challenge the Los Angeles Police Department to reopen the Nite Owl Murder Case.

EXTRACT: L.A. «Times», March 11:

NITE OWL HUE AND CRY BUILDING

A welter of unrelated events and a fire fanned by a series of articles in the Los Angeles «Daily News» are pressuring the Los Angeles Police Department to reopen the 1953 Nite Owl murder case investigation.

LAPD Chief William H. Parker called the controversy "a powder keg with a wet fuse. It's all a bunch of baloney. The testimony of a degenerate criminal and an unrelated double murder do not constitute a reason to reopen a case successfully solved five years ago. I stood by Captain Ed Exley's actions in 1953 and I stand by them now."

Chief Parker's references allude to the February 25 murders of Peter and Baxter Englekling, material witnesses to the original Nite Owl investigation, and the recent testimony of San Quentin inmate Otis John Shortell, who claimed to be with the three formerly accused killers during the time frame of the Nite Owl murders. Citing Shot-tell's in-prison lie detector tests, his attorney Morris Waxman stated, "Polygraphs don't lie. Otis is a religious man who carries a great burden of guilt for not coming forth to exonerate innocent men five years ago, and now he wants to see justice done. He has given three dead victims a lie detector validated alibi and now he wants to see the real killers punished. I will not cease publicizing this matter until the LAPD agrees to do their duty and reopen the case."

Richard Tunstell, city editor of the Los Angeles «Daily News», echoed that sentiment. "We've got our teeth sunk into something important. We're not going to let go."

BANNERS

L.A. «Daily News», March 14:

J'ACCUSE-LAPD IN NITE OWL COVER-UP

L.A. «Daily News», March 15:

OPEN LETTER TO TRIGGERMAN EXLEY

L.A. «Times», March 16:

CONVICT'S LAWYER PETITIONS

STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL

FOR NITE OWL CASE

REOPENING

L.A. «Herald-Express», March 17:

PARKER TO THE PRESS: NITE OWL

A DEAD ISSUE

L.A. «Daily News», March 19:

CITIZENS DEMAND JUSTICE-PICKETS

STALK THE LAPD

L.A. «Herald-Express», March 20:

PARKER/LOEW IN HOT SEAT

GOVERNOR KNIGHT: NITE OWL

A "POWDER KEG"

L.A. «Mirror-News», March 20:

THE WAGES OF DEATH

EXCLUSIVE PICS OF EXLEY/SOTO

LOVE NEST

L.A. «Examiner», March 20:

POLICE SWITCHBOARDS

FLOODED: CITIZENS VOICE

NITE OWL OPINIONS

L.A. «Times», March 20:

PARKER BACKS EXLEY AND HOLDS FIRM:

"NO NITE OWL REOPENING"

L.A. «Daily News», March 20:

JUSTICE MUST PREVAIL!

DEMAND POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY!

REOPEN THE NITE OWL CASE NOW!

The phone rang: odds on the press 20 to 1. Ed picked up anyway. "Yes?"

"Bill Parker, Ed."

"Sir, how are you? And thanks for that quote in the «Times»."

"I meant it, son. We're going to tough this thing out and let it pass. How's Inez taking it? The publicity, I mean."

"My father said she's staying at Ray Dieterling's place in Laguna. And we broke it off a few months ago. It just wasn't working."

"I'm sorry. Inez is a plucky girl, though. Compared to what she's been through, this thing should be cake."

Ed rubbed his eyes. "I'm not so sure it'll pass."

"I think it will. The Gaitsville Police won't cooperate on the Englekling homicides and that Negro at Quentin has nil value as a witness. His polygraph seems valid, but his attorney is a grandstanding shyster only interested in getting his client out of-"

"Sir, all that aside, I don't think the men I killed did the Nite Owl and-"

"Don't interrupt me and don't tell me you're so suicidally naive as to think reopening the case will do one whit of good. Now, I'm waiting for it to pass and the attorney general up in Sacramento is waiting for it to pass. Bad publicity, petitions for justice and the like «always» peak out and pass."

"And if it doesn't?"

Parker sighed. "If the A.G. orders a state-run special investigation, I'll file an LAPD injunction against him and preempt him with an investigation of our own. I have Ellis Loew's full support on that strategy-but it will pass."

Ed said, "I'm not so sure I want it to."

Mobster Squad duty: room 6, the Victory Motel. Bud, Mike Breuning, a Frisco boy cuffed to the hot seat-Joe Sifakis, three loanshark falls, snatched off a train at Union Station. Breuning worked the hose; Bud watched.

Fourteen hundred on the dresser-a police charity donation. A get-out-of-town pitch in high gear-dental work coming up. Bud checked his watch-4:20-Dudley was late. Sifakis screamed.

Bud walked into the bathroom. Four obscene walls: sex ditties, some dated. '53 entries-he thought Nite Owl straight off. Scary: the Nite Owl big-time news, Dud wanted to talk to him bad. He turned on the sink-cover the screams. He tested «his» Nite Owl string, found it watertight.

Nobody knew he leaked his story to «Whisper»-if the high brass knew he would have heard-and Cathcart's stiff was still under the house. Nobody knew he tipped the Gaitsville Sheriff's to the Englekling connection to the Nite Owl. Lucky breaks: the brothers dead, the spook up at Quentin-probably a legit alibi. He was clean on the evidence he suppressed in '53-if Dudley had an inkling he was holding stuff back it probably tied to his fix on the Kathy snuff. Dud was the Nite Owl supervisor, he'd want the brouhaha to pass-a reopening would make him look like a supporting player chump-second banana to hero chump Ed Exley. Parker was trying to keep a reopening kiboshed, call the odds against it 5 to 1, 5 to 1 that Exley would come out smelling-

Sifakis screamed-the door shook.

Bud doused his head in the sink. A scrawl by the mirror: Meg Greunwitz fucks good-AX-74022. Girls' names on the walls; last week the L.A. Sheriff's bagged a dead hooker, add it to his list: Lynette Ellen Kendrick, age 21, DOD 3/17/58. Beaten, ring lacerations, three-hole rape-the county cops wouldn't give him the time of-

Sifakis started babbling. The bathroom got too hot to take.

Bud walked out. Sifakis, snitch-frenzied. "… and I know things, I «hear» things. Like, dig, with the Mick out it's open season. Things was on this weird slowdown while he was inside, but these shooter teams took out these guys that was running his franchises, then these maverick guys, three triggers bang bang bang, they 86'd Mickey's men and these guys trying to crash his loanouts. Everybody used to respect Dud S. as a trucemaker, but now he don't do a damn thing. You want a prostie roust? Huh? Huh? You want a good tip on a. -