Joseph Wambaugh

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Joseph Wambaugh speaking at the 2010 LA Times Festival of Books

Joseph Aloysius Wambaugh, Jr. (born January 22, 1937 in East Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania ) is an American author of crime fiction and so-called factual novels .

Life

After completing his military service with the US Marines and studying at Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga , California , which he completed after passing the intermediate examination, the son of a policeman switched to the police himself in 1960. Wambaugh's books are based on his own experiences during his time at the Los Angeles Police Department, where he made it from patrol officer to detective sergeant in 14 years and also completed and successfully graduated from California State University in Los Angeles.

His first novel The New Centurions (1970, German night patrol ) then describes very excitingly and precisely the path of young police officers through the police school, their first missions up to the riots in Watts near Los Angeles in 1965 that were triggered by a police arrest some dead and thousands injured. Both his expertise and his exciting writing style made the book, which was filmed a short time later, a worldwide success.

Wambaugh was to write a book on MacDonald's case at Jeffrey MacDonald's request , which after years of negotiations never came about.

In The Blue Knight (1972, dt. The tired bull ), his second novel, is about the last three days of service of a police officer who has left the path of the regulations in the course of his service and keeps his district "on its way" under control until he finally fails. This book was also made into a film and even served as the basis for a series. In 1973 he published then with The Onion Field (dt. Death The Onion Field ) a historical novel that describes the true story of a policeman who escaped an assassination attempt in which a colleague dies, and compared with the psychological consequences afterwards and during the long-term process the culprit fights.

Wambaugh's description of the interior views, but also his increasing popularity led to his being on leave from the police service and resigned entirely in 1975. During this time he also worked on the TV series Police Story , which told very authentic stories from everyday police life in loose succession. It is considered the forerunner of the award-winning series Hill Street Police Station ( Hill Street Blues ). In general, the work of Joseph Wambaugh has significantly shaped both the police novels and the film world and has given the simplified police image of the time before a great depth and realism.

In the 1980s and 1990s he published other novels in which he took the direction of black humor à la Joseph Heller , but also other so-called factual novels with descriptions of actual police cases.

1992 there was a prolonged, bitter controversy Wambaugh historical novel Echoes In The Darkness ( The Susan Reinert-case ) from the year 1987, in which it came to the murder of teacher Susan Reinert near Philadelphia. Wambaugh was accused of paying money for information to the prosecution before a charge was even made. The ruling in the Reinert case was later overturned by the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court .

Wambaugh's later factual novel The Blooding (1989, Eng . Just a Drop of Blood ) is considered to be the first literary work to focus on the new forensic method of genetic fingerprinting . This involved a double murder in Leicester , England, in which the perpetrator was convicted for the first time in 1987 using the genetic fingerprint.

Wambaugh achieved greater attention in Germany with his novel The Secrets Of Harry Bright (dt. The Rolls-Royce-Tote ), for which he was awarded the German Krimipreis (International 1) in 1988 . In 2004 the Mystery Writers of America honored him for his life's work with the Grand Master Award , the highest and most prestigious award for crime writers in the USA.

bibliography

Novels

  • 1970 The New Centurions ( Nachtstreife , German by Sepp Leeb; Heyne Munich 1985; ISBN 3-453-05794-5 )
  • 1972 The Blue Knight ( The tired bull , German by Sepp Leeb, Heyne Munich 1983; ISBN 3-453-01754-4 )
  • 1975 The Choirboys ( Die Chorknaben , German by Sepp Leeb, Heyne Munich 1984; ISBN 3-453-01868-0 )
  • 1978 The Black Marble ( A good police officer , German by Sepp Leeb, Heyne Munich 1982; ISBN 3-453-01637-8 )
  • 1981 The Glitter Dome ( The Hollywood Murder , German by Inge and Friedhelm Werremeier, Heyne Munich 1985; ISBN 3-7770-0246-1 )
  • 1983 The Delta Star ( Der Delta-Stern , German by Inge and Friedhelm Werremeier, Hestia Bayreuth 1984; ISBN 3-4530-0739-5 )
  • 1985 The Secrets of Harry Bright ( The Rolls-Royce-Tote , German by Nikolaus Stingl, Zsolnay Vienna 1987; ISBN 3-7770-0342-5 )
  • 1990 The Golden Orange ( A Californian dream , German by Dietlind Kaiser, Hestia Bayreuth 1991; ISBN 3-8945-7001-6 )
  • 1992 Fugitive Nights ( Escape into the night , German by Dietlind Kaiser; C. Bertelsmann Munich 1993; ISBN 3-442-42816-5 )
  • 1993 Finnegan's Week
  • 1996 Floaters ( Wasserpatrouille , German by Bernhard Schmid; Ullstein Berlin 1997; ISBN 3-550-08234-7 )
  • 2006 Hollywood Station (German by Michael Kubiak, Bastei Lübbe Bergisch Gladbach 2008; ISBN 978-3-404-15836-2 )
  • 2008 Hollywood Crows ( Sunset Boulevard , German by Rainer Schumacher; Bastei Lübbe Bergisch Gladbach 2009; ISBN 978-3-404-15977-2 )

so-called factual novels

  • 1973 The Onion Field ( Death in Onion Field , German by Sepp Leeb, Heyne Munich 1984; ISBN 3-4530-1972-5 )
  • 1984 Lines and Shadows ( The San Diego Mission , German by Friedhelm Werremeier, Heyne Munich 1988; ISBN 3-453-02516-4 )
  • 1987 Echoes In The Darkness ( Der Susan-Reinert-Fall , German by Nikolaus Stingl, Hestia Bayreuth 1991; ISBN 3-453-04826-1 )
  • 1989 The Blooding ( Just a drop of blood , German by Dietlind Kaiser; Heyne Munich 1992; ISBN 3-453-05693-0 )
  • 2002 Fire Lover

Film adaptations

  • 1972 The New Centurions ( Los Angeles East Police Station , directed by Richard Fleischer )
  • 1975 The Blue Knight ( Street Cop , directed by Robert Butler)
  • 1977 The Choirboys ( Die Chorknaben , directed by Robert Aldrich )
  • 1979 The Onion Field ( Murder in the Onion Field , Director: Harold Becker )
  • 1980 The Black Marble ( Nieten unter sich , directed by Harold Becker)
  • 1987 Echoes in the Darkness ( shadows in the darkness , TV film, directed by Glenn Jordan)
  • 1993 Fugitive Nights: Danger in the Desert (Movie made for TV, directed by Gary Nelson)

Scripts

  • 1973 The Police Story (with E. Jack Neumann; TV film, director: William A. Graham)
  • 1977 The Choirboys (with Christopher Knopf)
  • 1979 The Onion Field
  • 1980 The Black Marble
  • 1987 Echoes in the Darkness
  • 1993 Fugitive Nights: Danger in the Desert

Web links

Individual proof

  1. ↑ Joe McGinnis: Fatal Vision, German: The murderer's innocence . S. 519 .
personal data
SURNAME Wambaugh, Joseph
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wambaugh, Joseph Aloysius Junior (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American author of crime novels and so-called factual novels
DATE OF BIRTH January 22, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH East Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania