Chapter Forty-OneLOS ANGELES HALL OF JUSTICE, JUDGE DORAN’S COURTROOM, EIGHTH FLOOR,
January 13, 1931
“All rise. Department One of the Superior Court of California is now in session. The People vs. DeVoe, Judge William C. Doran presiding.”
The courtroom couldn’t hold everyone who wanted in. The scandalmongers fought tooth and nail for seats and they spilled out into the hallway.
Judge Doran was in his late forties, unsmiling, prematurely balding, and his squinty eyes made him look like he needed glasses.
The prosecutor was a guy named Dave Clark. I’d heard of him before—he was a crusading district attorney out to clean up the city. As far as I was concerned, he needed to start at his boss’s office. The papers loved him. They called him “Debonair Dave.”
Clark moved like a soldier—taut
