A Bright and Guilty Place

Richard Rayner talked about his book A Bright and Guilty Place: Murder, Corruption, and L.A.'s Scandalous Coming of Age (Doubleday; June 23, 2009). In his book Richard Rayner presents a history of Los Angeles in the 1920s by examining the lives of Leslie White, a crime scene investigator, and David H. Clark, a prosecutor in the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office. The two men were involved in several of the early “trials of the century” including the St. Francis Dam disaster and the murder of Ned Doheny, son of oil baron, E.L. Doheny who was one of the richest men in the world. But David Clark eventually became a murder suspect himself. Mr. Rayner showed photographs as he talked about how he came to explore the noir character of the city. He held a conversation with David Ulin, and then responded to questions from members of the audience.

“ALOUD at Central Library” was presented Wednesday, July 8, 2009, at 7:00 p.m. PT by the Los Angeles Library Foundation in association with t close